The one hundred and thirty-fifth "room" in the hall of Hayom Yom.
Sunday, 6 Nissan 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Metzora, first parshah with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, 6th of the month, say Chapter 35 to Chapter 38 inclusive.
Tanya, we are in Chapter 40. In Chapter 40, as is known, there are four glosses. In the daily shiur we learn the second gloss, beginning on page 55 with the word "vesham," and ending on page 110 with the words "ratzon zo".
The daily teaching is a short teaching, taken from a letter written by the Rebbe Rayatz on 15 Cheshvan 5691. Already on 23 Adar I we had a teaching from this very same letter, and today we have a further continuation of it. In this letter, the Rebbe Rayatz encourages an influential Rav and Torah scholar - he calls him a "head," "the heads of the thousands of Israel" - that he must work in a very orderly manner and influence his surroundings. And when working in an orderly manner, even if sometimes one succeeds in influencing only one person, this is a great thing; and in the words of Chazal, "your friend has a friend" - you influence one person, and this passes in waves to another person as well, and ultimately influences the entire environment.
Then comes the specific teaching quoted here. The teaching itself is not quoted in its entirety - there are a few words in the middle that the Rebbe skips over - but we will read and complete a few interesting points from the original letter. The Rebbe Rayatz writes: "Experience has shown, that when one minimizes investigations". What is "minimizing investigations"? From both directions: both minimizing a person's investigations about himself - not to be full of doubts and thoughts, "when such a great avodah is placed upon me, will I succeed? How will I succeed?" - and also minimizing investigations about the person one wants to influence, whether he is suitable, and whether I will succeed in having any effect on him at all. All this engagement in investigations surrounding the matter, the Rebbe Rayatz writes, must be minimized - to be less immersed in doubts and more in what actually needs to be done.
"And one works with order and firmness" - to work in a very orderly manner, and with firmness. This firmness does not, Heaven forbid, express an unpleasant strictness, and therefore he immediately adds that this must be "according to the pleasantness of the Torah," of which it is said "its ways are ways of pleasantness." That is, you must have the pleasantness of Torah, yet with firmness - to be consistent, clear, and very decisive in what you want to do, and to do it in a pleasant manner. And he specifies "the right hand draws near and the left hand pushes away"; sometimes there must also be a matter of pushing away, but it should be with the left hand, the weaker hand, while the drawing near must be with the right hand, in a more powerful and stronger manner.
In the actual letter of the Rebbe Rayatz, he adds a few more sentences here. He says to work "without showing favoritism" - with a person with whom there might have been room to "cut corners" - rather to be consistent in what one wants. He also says there, that one must work with people in a very personal manner, literally "from mouth to ear," and to deliberate with them using soft and hard words - like "right and left" - telling them soft things, but in a very clear manner. And also not to speak with a person in general terms, assuming he will understand on his own, but rather to engage with him one on one in detailed conversation, exactly what is meant, in a very private and personal way. In the letter, the Rebbe Rayatz elaborated on this, while the Rebbe shortens all the details of the method of avodah and includes them generally in the words "the right hand draws near and the left hand pushes away".
And when one works in such a manner, "then one certainly achieves an effect" - there is no doubt that ultimately one succeeds in affecting the matter - "and especially in the fundamental matters of the principles of the religion," in the most foundational matters in Yiddishkeit, one certainly succeeds in affecting the matter in a good and complete way. This is the entire teaching.
And to complete the cycle of Rambam that we are currently in: As we already saw in the previous teaching, we had the allusion in the previous shiur in Sefer Avodah, in Hilchos Beis Habechirah, and we are moving forward. The next halachos in Sefer Avodah, after Hilchos Beis Habechirah, are Hilchos Klei Hamikdash VehAovdim Bo. In these halachos there is a whole elaboration on the difference between the Kohanim and the Leviim - how the Kohanim are appointed for the avodah and how the Leviim are, what the role of the Kohen is and what the role of the Levi is.
It is known in pnimiyus haTorah, and also written in Tanya, that one of the differences between a Kohen and a Levi is that the Kohen's concept is a movement of chessed, and the Levi's a movement of gevurah - this is from above to below and this is from below to above. In the language used here, it is like saying right and left, the two lines; Kohen and Levi are these two lines. And what is actually written in the teaching? "One works" - this word is like "Sefer Avodah," Hilchos Klei Hamikdash VehAovdim Bo. And in what manner does one work? "The right hand draws near and the left hand pushes away." This summarizes the point we are currently at in the halachos of those who work in the Mikdash, in the manner of Kohen and Levi - the two lines that ultimately lead to the goal, "the fundamental matters and the principles of the religion," which are all the avodos of the Beis Hamikdash and the revelation of G-dliness in the world. This is the idea in the allusion of the daily teaching with these halachos.