Today we will continue with the letter, which is the introduction that the Rebbe established for the sefer HaYom Yom. The introduction is a letter written by the Rebbe Rashab. First I will give a bit of background to the letter, and then we will read it directly. In a certain year, in 5652, the Rebbe Rashab was not staying in his usual place — he was not in Lubavitch. The Rebbe Rashab had to travel on communal matters to Moscow, and the chassidim were accustomed to the Rebbe being present on Yud-Tes Kislev, the festival of the redemption, together with the chassidim in Lubavitch, but this time the Rebbe was not there. So the Rebbe Rashab wanted to give the chassidim a special empowerment, and he sent them a letter from Moscow to Lubavitch, a few days before Yud-Tes Kislev, on the sixteenth of Kislev, and in the letter he explains to them what Yud-Tes Kislev is. That is, there was a farbrengen in advance, through the letter, and the content of this letter we left for the very last — a quotation with a few omissions — and the Rebbe chose to bring this letter as the introduction.
Let us first note that this letter aroused very great excitement in its time. It was sent to all the gatherings of chassidim throughout Russia, and chassidim received it. The postal service was slow in those days, and there were places where this letter reached them only in the month of Shevat, not in Kislev. There are descriptions in the letters of the Previous Rebbe of how the letter was received, and he brings examples from several places — in Petersburg, in Vilna, in Kremenchug, in Brisk. He describes how chassidim received it two months later, and there were those who, in the month of Shevat, held three days of farbrengens just in honor of receiving this letter, and they said: now we have received it, now we will make something of it. This is a letter that aroused very great excitement, and tells us the meaning of this day of the nineteenth of Kislev.
Let us look at the wording of the letter as the Rebbe brings it. The letter is addressed to the previous Rebbe, since the Rebbe Rashab wrote it to his son. Therefore, at the opening of the letter, which the Rebbe does not quote for us, it is written "my son, may he live," this is how it begins. The letter opens, "My son, may he live, you shall gather on the 19th of Kislev." The Rebbe skipped the first words, even the letter beis from the word "when begins" the 19th of Kislev, which is the day about which he speaks. The 19th of Kislev, the festival on which "He redeemed our soul in peace." Here too there is a skipping of several words from the original letter, and he goes straight to explaining: the 19th of Kislev, the festival on which "He redeemed our soul in peace."
This phrase too contains a certain novelty, for the Rebbe, the Alter Rebbe himself, when he was released from arrest, describes in a letter he wrote that when he received the tidings of the redemption, when he was reciting chapter fifty-five in Tehillim and reached the verse "He redeemed my soul in peace," at that moment he received the tidings. But the expression was "He redeemed my soul in peace" (nafshi). Now, here, the Rebbe transforms this matter to apply to all the chassidim — "He redeemed our soul in peace" (nafsheinu), that is, all of us, all the Jewish people, all the chassidim. We are now in a state in which our soul has been redeemed through this redemption.
And the light and vitality of our soul was given to us. This day is the day on which the light and vitality of our soul was given to us. In his talks, the Rebbe emphasizes the wording that the Rebbe chose, "light and vitality," saying: Chassidus did not innovate anything new in Judaism; Chassidus is comparable to light or vitality. What is light? For example, when there is a dark room, I turn on the light — I am not adding items to the room; all the items that were there remain, I am simply illuminating the room, and now I see what is happening here. Chassidus did not add anything more; it merely illuminated what already exists. The same is true of vitality. Take a person, God forbid, who has 248 limbs and 365 sinews — he is whole, but he is not alive. When he has vitality, no additional limb is added to him; rather, all the 248 limbs and 365 sinews that were within him begin to live. This is Chassidus — this is light and vitality. These two expressions emphasize that it does not come to add something extra, but simply to illuminate what already exists.
This day is the New Year for the words of the living God. Here there is a very interesting novelty. Originally, when the Rebbe Rashab wrote the letter, there were three additional words here, and the Rebbe omitted them and changed the meaning entirely. Originally the Rebbe Rashab wrote: "And it is close to say that this day is the New Year." That is to say, the Rebbe Rashab wrote it in a style of a certain reservation—it is close to saying that the 19th of Kislev is the New Year. The Rebbe, in the letter, removes the three words "and it is close to say that," and does not even mark here that there are three dots of omission. He writes it as a continuous flow: "This day is the New Year for the words of the living God," in a clear and unequivocal manner. The 19th of Kislev is the New Year.
We can understand this also based on an interesting story that took place between the Previous Rebbe and his father, the Rebbe Rashab. Once the Previous Rebbe repeated before his father-in-law a chassidic discourse that he had heard from his father. When he returned to his father, his father said to him: Tell me what you said. Tell me how you repeated it. So he repeated for his father, word for word, what he had said. Then the Rebbe, his father, said to him: "You repeated a discourse in which, when I said a certain passage, I said it in the style of 'perhaps,' of 'possibly.' I hear that you are saying it in a definitive manner." So he said: "Father, what by you is a 'perhaps,' by me becomes a certainty." In this vein here too, the Rebbe Rashab wrote "it is close to say," and the Rebbe wrote it in a definitive manner, that this day is Rosh Hashanah according to the words of the living G-d. This is Rosh Hashanah, this is the day. The one who wrote the letter was the Rebbe Rashab, but the words "it is close to say" the Rebbe removed.
"This day is the head of the year for the words of the living God, which our holy forefathers bequeathed to us." Our holy forefathers bequeathed this day to us. The Rebbe Rashab writes "our holy forefathers," referring to the Alter Rebbe, the Mitteler Rebbe, and in truth all the Rebbes before them bequeathed to us the words of the living God. May the memory of the righteous and holy ones be for the life of the World to Come, may their souls be in Eden, may their merit protect us. And this is the very Torah of the Baal Shem Tov. That is to say, the redemption of this day, the words of the living God that our Rebbes, the Rebbes of Chabad, taught, is the Torah of the Baal Shem Tov. This is what the Baal Shem Tov revealed to the world, and it descended through our Rebbes, our leaders.
Rosh Hashanah is so central that the Rebbe Rashab adds an interesting statement. He says, "This day is the beginning of Your works." We know the phrase "This day is the beginning of Your works" from the Rosh Hashanah prayers. Yet regarding the Rosh Hashanah prayer itself we may ask: Rosh Hashanah falls on the first of Tishrei, which is the sixth day of the creation of the world. The world was created on the twenty-fifth of Elul, so seemingly "the beginning of Your works" should be said about the twenty-fifth of Elul. Nevertheless, in the prayer we say "This day is the beginning of Your works" about Rosh Hashanah. What is the explanation for this? Since the entire purpose of the creation of the world was not for the inanimate, the vegetative, and the animal that were created in the first five days, but rather the purpose is the human being, who was created on the sixth day. In a similar way, on a deeper level, the human being was already created, and people have already existed for thousands of years, but when the teaching of Chassidus arrived, that was the purpose of everything. Consequently, about the day that is the nineteenth of Kislev we say "This day is the beginning of Your works" — meaning, the world began on the day that is the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus.
This is the day on which the true intent in the creation of man upon the earth began to reach its fulfillment. It was for this that man was created in the world — so that he would have an intimate acquaintance with the inner dimension of the Torah. To draw down the revelation of the light of the inner dimension of our holy Torah into the world, which is drawn down on this day in the manner of a general drawing-down encompassing the entire year — since this is a "Rosh Hashanah" (a head of the year), and just as the head includes all the limbs, so too does this "Rosh Hashanah" include all the days of the year. On the 19th of Kislev the revelation of the inner dimension of the Torah is drawn down upon the entire year. The entire year, in which we have the ability to connect to the inner dimension of the Torah, comes from the power of the head, which is the 19th of Kislev.
And on this day we must illuminate our hearts with the aspect of inner and essential desire and will. On this day a Jew needs to arouse his inner core, his will toward G-dliness. By closing our eyes upon the point of our heart, it is possible to awaken the true, inner, heartfelt part, so that it will illuminate our soul with the light of the innermost dimension of His blessed Torah. In other words, on this day we received the power to receive the entire essence of Chassidus, and on this day a Jew simply needs to arouse his heart to connect to this.
We will conclude with the following passage, also an interesting expression connected to Rosh Hashana and the Ten Days of Repentance. On each day from Rosh Hashana until Yom Kippur we recite the psalm "Out of the depths I called to You, O Lord," and the Rebbe uses this same phrasing here too, at the Rosh Hashana of Chassidus. He says, "Out of the depths I called to You, O Lord." It is known that "depths" (maamakim) is in the plural form, and it refers both to the depth of the Jew and to the depth of the Creator, as it were. That is, the Jew has the ability to reveal the divine depth within the depth of his heart, through the depth of the Torah, which is the inner dimension of the Torah. As he elaborates: to draw down from the aspect of the depth or inner dimension of the Torah of Hashem or the mitzvos of Hashem — this is one depth, the depth of the Torah and the depth of the mitzvos. From where is this drawn? From the aspect of the inner dimension and essence of the Ein Sof light, blessed be He — this comes from the depth of the Creator, that it should illuminate within the innermost part of our soul, in the depth of our soul. This is "out of the depths" — all the depths will be joined together.
"That our entire essence" — what is "our entire essence"? It means our entire reality: the essence, the expansion, and so on. That is, our divine soul and our animal soul. "That all of us should be to Him, blessed be He, alone" — that all of us should be connected to only one purpose, to the will of God. This is what is meant by our entire essence and quiddity and expansion being connected to the matter. And in order that this find expression also in the animal soul and not only in the divine soul, he brings it down into plain words: "to banish from us every evil and disgraceful trait among the natural character traits" — meaning that we should rid ourselves of the disgraceful traits, which is the animal soul. If our entire essence and our whole reality is connected to this, it will banish from us every evil trait.
Let us also recall what we discussed in previous lessons, that the title "HaYom Yom" ("Today is a day") evokes the counting of the Omer, where too one begins with the words "Today is a day," for there the work is to refine the emotional attributes (middot). And here we truly see this emphasis, that this book and Chassidut in general come to work upon us, to banish from us every evil and unseemly trait among the natural attributes.
"For all our actions and all our concerns," all of our engagement and all of our essence, "whether in avodah," meaning also the service of God, that is, prayer and Torah and mitzvot, "and whether in matters of the world that are necessary for the sustenance of the body," the various things a person is obligated in for the sake of living—he must eat, drink, sleep—so all of a person's engagement, both in spiritual matters and in physical matters, "should be with a true intention for the sake of Heaven." This means that our entire essence and our very self is connected to the matter. "That which God desires," and so forth. "God, blessed be He, Father of mercies"—"Father of mercies" (Av HaRachamim) is also an expression said during the Ten Days of Repentance; we say "Who is like You," but on ordinary days we say "Who is like You, merciful Father" (Av HaRachaman). On the auspicious days of the Ten Days of Repentance, as well as at Shabbat Minchah, we say "Father of mercies" (Av HaRachamim), which is a higher level, and here he mentions the deeper aspect. God, blessed be He, Father of mercies, may He have mercy upon us and guide us in the good and straight path, "the upright shall behold His face."
Now here there is a matter in the way of hint, and it will be seen, God willing, when we study the continuation of the sayings in the coming months, that one of the chassidim searched — and the Rebbe also spurred him on to toil and find — how the entire book is structured, in hinted form, according to the order of the Rambam's Mishneh Torah. We will see further on that the sayings follow the order: Sefer HaMada (the Book of Knowledge), Sefer HaAhava (the Book of Love), and within this itself, according to certain estimations, in a hinted manner. That same chassid who wrote to the Rebbe that he had found part but had not found everything — the Rebbe answered him, "You have toiled and you have found." It is interesting that the Rambam opens his book with a hint to the Name Havayah: "The foundation of foundations and the pillar of wisdoms" is a hint to the Name Havayah. Here too the Rebbe opened the saying, and quoted from the letter only fragments, skipping over things, and there emerges here a hint of the Name Havayah. The words "Yud-Tet Kislev" above the first line — "Yud-Tet Kislev" — this is the yud. "The festival on which our soul was redeemed in peace" is the letter hei. "And the light and vitality of our soul was given to us" is the vav. "This very day it is the head of the year" is the final hei. There is here Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei, also in a hinted manner, not in a prominent way. Here too the Rebbe hinted to open the book with the Name Havayah. The Rebbe did not write this himself, but this is the buzz that a chassid publicized, and apparently there is some truth to it. God willing, we will continue onward, and we will also look at the sayings themselves.