The two hundred and seventieth "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Tuesday, 23 Menachem Av, 5703.
Chumash: Re'eh, third portion, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, on the 23rd of the month, recite from chapter 108 through chapter 112 inclusive.
Tanya: On this day we begin the seventh letter in "Igeret HaKodesh," Letter 7, which starts with the word "Ashreinu." The lesson concludes on page 222 with the words "ve'alu chulin."
The daily teaching is taken from a letter written by the Rebbe Rayatz on 21 Menachem Av 5698. The letter is very long, and in it the Rebbe Rayatz brings a note — a quotation from a diary that he wrote in the year of his bar-mitzvah. The Rebbe Rayatz was born in the year 5640, and in the year 5653 he was thirteen years old, and in that year he wrote a note of various recollections from that period — from one, two, and three years earlier. Among these things there is recounted an incident that took place in the winter of 5652, which is the teaching that is now being read from it.
"In the winter of 5652, when my father, teacher, and master [Adoni Avi Mori veRabi] studied the Tanya with me" — the father of the Rebbe Rayatz, the Rebbe Rashab, studied with his son, who was then a twelve-year-old child, in the book of Tanya.
In chapter 2 of Tanya it states: "the second soul of a Jew is a veritable part of G-d above". The Rebbe Rashab explained to the Rebbe Rayatz during their study together, "he explained that the concepts in the word 'above' and in the word 'veritable' are opposites" — the two words "above" and "veritable" have opposite meanings.
Why? "Mimaal to'aro" (its title is "from above") — when we say "mimaal," the intention is to "the spiritual within the spiritual"; the word "mimaal" comes to express that this is lofty, the ultimate of spirituality, the neshamah. In contrast, "umamash to'aro" (and its title is "actual") — the word "mamash" comes to describe "the physical within the physical," from the term mamashut (tangibility), something low, the very lowest.
Seemingly there is a contradiction here: what is the second soul in a Jew — "mimaal" (from above), the epitome of spirituality, or "mamash" (literally), the epitome of physicality? How do these two descriptions reconcile with one another? "Vayvaeir" — the Rebbe Rashab explained to his son "that this is the greatness of the second soul" — that specifically this precise expression comes to convey the tremendous quality possessed by the soul that is called the "second soul."
And what is its distinction? "That although it is spirituality within spirituality, it acts within the physicality within physicality" — for even though it is spirituality within spirituality, and the source and root of the soul is exceedingly lofty and spiritual — and this is indeed the meaning of the word "from above" — it acts within the physicality within physicality. It is not detached from reality, nor does it float in the air; rather, it is found within the body in which the Holy One, blessed be He, clothed it, and it acts within the body and within physicality. That is to say, even though it is exceedingly lofty, it most certainly acts even far below as well.
Later in the letter, the Rebbe Rayatz tells about his teacher, Reb Nissan, and in a striking expression he writes: "I love my teacher and instructor with a great love." He would share his experiences with his teacher, and told him what his father had studied with him in this section of the Tanya and what he had said to him.
Rabbi Nissan said to him: I wish to remind you of things your father said in the year 5650 — two years earlier, when you were a ten-year-old child. And he took out a note, a jotting of remarks that the Rebbe Rashab had spoken at a farbrengen in 5650. There is a whole lengthy account there, and the substance of the words relevant to our matter is that further on in the note it is written that when the Tzemach Tzedek studied this portion in chapter 2 of the Tanya, he too found the meaning of the words "a part of G-d Above, literally" very difficult, and did not find an explanation.
It is written there that the Tzemach Tzedek resolved to ask his grandfather, the Alter Rebbe: What is the plain meaning? What does "mimaal mamash" (literally "from above") signify? The Alter Rebbe answered him in two words: "mimaal" — this is ratzo, the movement of the soul to lift itself and ascend upward; "mamash" — this is the opposite movement, the movement of shov. Afterward he explained the content of the matter: The Holy One, blessed be He, the Essence of the Maatzil (the One who emanates), emanated a soul from His very Essence, a part of Himself — for what purpose? So that there be ratzo and shov. This is the goal in life, that there always be both ratzo and shov.
And to conclude, it is worth noting that throughout the sichos the Rebbe points out the meaning of the word "mamash," which itself encompasses two extremes. One meaning: the word "mamash" comes to emphasize the force of the preceding statement — that when one says of the neshamah that it is "a portion of G-d Above," you should know that this is literally so; "mamash" comes to say that it is truly a portion of G-d Above, and not a description of "perhaps" or "resembling" and an analogy, but literally so. A second meaning, the opposite: "mamash" from the term mamashus (tangibility) and gashmiyus (physicality) — as the Rebbe Rashab studied together with the Rebbe Rayatz.