The two-hundred-and-fifty-first "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Thursday, 4 Menachem Av, 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Devarim, Chamishi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, on the 4th of the month, one recites from chapter 23 through chapter 28 inclusive.
Tanya, on this day one studies chapter 11 in Iggeret HaTeshuvah. The daily portion begins on page 100 with the words "u'mah she'meshabchim," and ends on page 200 with the words "i miyad."
The source of the daily teaching is a sharp letter — one could say brief and sharp — that the Rebbe Rayatz wrote on 6 Tammuz 5702. The letter is addressed to a certain chassid, whom the Rebbe Rayatz had asked about the state of his son's education; and when he replied to the Rebbe, he told of his business affairs and asked for a blessing for his business and his family, but made no mention whatsoever of the state of his son's studies.
The Rebbe Rayatz writes back to him that there are people who turn the secondary into the primary and the primary into the secondary. He explains to him that guiding the child — educating him to be a yerei-shamayim and to have a good melamed — is the primary thing in life, while business is secondary. And he writes to him about the business matters: You write to me about what is secondary in life, yet the education of your son, which is the primary thing, you do not relate to it? "What a pity for a person who loses the ability to discern what is primary and what is secondary."
In continuation of this comes the wording of the saying, whose source is in Yiddish. The Rebbe Rayatz writes to him: "With the greatest exertion, it is impossible to earn one 'cent' more than what the Holy One, blessed be He, has determined - that so-and-so shall earn such and such" — beyond what the Holy One, blessed be He, has determined that a person shall earn, he cannot earn even one cent more.
"One must do all that is necessary, but one should remember that all one's labor is nothing but "secondary," while the blessing of Hashem yisbarach is the "essential" thing" — the working person must indeed do what is necessary, yet while engaged in earning a livelihood he must remember that all his labor is secondary, and the essential thing is the blessing of Hashem. Harder work will not bring him greater income; the essential thing is the Divine blessing.
If so, one must invest primarily in the essential thing — receiving the divine blessing. And how does one merit it? "It is earned by conducting oneself as befits a Jew: praying with a minyan, observing Shabbos with meticulous care, keeping kashrus under strict supervision, educating one's children with G-d-fearing teachers" — when a person conducts himself with fear of Heaven. And he specifies: praying with a minyan, observing Shabbos with meticulous care, keeping kashrus under superior supervision, and educating the children with teachers (in his Yiddish, "ehrliche Yidn") who are themselves G-d-fearing melamdim. This is what it means to invest in the essential thing, and then one merits Hashem's blessing in parnassah.
Throughout the teachings in "Hayom Yom," this point — that earning a livelihood is merely a means and not the essential matter — appears on several days: on 2 Adar Sheni and on 16 Adar Sheni; we also encountered this same idea on 27 Sivan, and here now too we find the same idea.
It is worth mentioning in this context, in relation to what the Rebbe Rayatz writes about the education of children — what is primary and what is secondary — the wording of the Gemara in tractate Beitzah: "A person's sustenance is allotted to him from Rosh Hashanah." From Rosh Hashanah, the Holy One, blessed be He, determines what a person's financial situation will be, out of which he will be able to draw for his sustenance. And the Gemara adds: except for two things, for which a person may spend as much as he needs and as much as he wishes, and they do not come out of the amount fixed for him on Rosh Hashanah. And what are these two things? "Expenses for Shabbat and Yom Tov, and the expense of his children's Torah study." That is, to send the child to study Torah with a good melamed — even though this involves some cost or another, this cost is not counted from the sum of money that the Holy One, blessed be He, fixed for him for that year. This is the primary thing, and in this a person should invest, and he will never lose anything from it.