The two hundred fifty-fifth "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Monday, 8 Menachem Av, 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Va'etchanan, Sheni, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, on the eighth day of the month, one recites from chapter 44 through chapter 48 inclusive.
Tanya: On this day we continue with the first letter of the Igros HaKodesh section of Tanya. The daily portion is on page 204, beginning with the words "Ach mi" and ending with "mitzuy hanefesh".
The daily saying is divided into two parts: the first relates to a practice connected with prayer, and the second is a teaching, as we will see. In the first part, the Rebbe addresses the matter of the six remembrances. It is well known that the Shulchan Aruch states that there are remembrances that a person must recall each day. In the Shulchan Aruch of the Alter Rebbe it is specified that during the recitation of the second blessing of the Shema of Shacharis, there are certain places in the recitation of that blessing where one should have in mind and think, with each word, of one of the six remembrances mentioned at the conclusion of the prayers.
It is interesting to note that when discussing the six remembrances — in the writings of the Arizal, for example, he counts only four: the exodus from Egypt, the giving of the Torah, remembering the deed of Amalek, and remembering the deed of Miriam. The Magen Avraham, in place of the exodus from Egypt, mentions Shabbat, and adds in the name of the Sifri also the deed of the golden calf. It is told of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev that during his lifetime he printed a kuntres on the subject of the remembrances, and added there — besides those we have mentioned — also remembering the descent of the manna and Eretz Yisrael. In the Siddur of the Yaavetz he adds two more, so that together they are ten remembrances: the miracle by which the Holy One, blessed be He, saved us from Bilaam and Balak, and the remembrance of Jerusalem. But the Alter Rebbe mentions here only six.
The siddur of the Shela"h is apparently the first siddur to mention that one should explicitly recite the Zechiros after the Shacharis prayer. And indeed the Alter Rebbe, in the siddur he arranged, included the six Zechiros to be recited at the conclusion of the prayer.
Let us read the wording in the teaching: "The six remembrances are recited every day, also on Shabbos, Yom Tov, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur." It is a mitzvah and a Torah obligation to recall them, and there is no difference in this regard between a weekday and the festivals, Shabbos, and so on. In Sefer HaMinhagim there is mentioned the Rebbe's directive that on Shabbos one should recite the six remembrances after concluding the passage that is added on Shabbos concerning the lechem hapanim at the end of the Mussaf prayer — the passage beginning "Velakachta soles" — and after concluding it one recites the six remembrances.
Let us continue with the daily teaching, which is a saying of the Rebbe Maharash. Its source is a letter that the Rebbe Rayatz wrote on 6 Iyar 5702 to one of the students, in which he opens and writes to him: "One must be exceedingly careful not to cause distress or shame to anyone, and especially to a proper Jewish woman, for this is a matter of the soul that has no forgiveness." The Rebbe Rayatz strongly arouses that one must be careful not to cause distress.
Then comes the daily teaching. Let us read the wording (originally in Yiddish, and in translation): "From the sayings of my revered grandfather, my teacher and master [the Maharash]" — the reference is to the Rebbe Maharash, grandfather of the Rebbe Rayatz. And this is what the Rebbe Maharash said: "What use is there in the practice of Chassidus and fear of Heaven — when the essential thing, ahavas Yisrael, is missing" — what use is it that a person conducts himself in the way of Chassidus or in the way of fear of Heaven, if he lacks the essential thing, which is ahavas Yisrael? And when that is missing, what use is any of it?
"and, in addition to this, causing pain to another" — the matter is many times more severe, and all the more so if one causes, G-d forbid, pain to another, for then he certainly and definitely lacks the most fundamental of fundamentals demanded of a Jew who conducts himself in the way of Chassidus and in the way of fear of Heaven.