"Room" one hundred and fifty-five in the hall of Hayom Yom.
Shabbos, 26 Nissan, 11th of the Omer, 5703.
This Shabbos is Shabbos Mevarchim, as written immediately at the beginning of the teaching: "Mevarchim Rosh Chodesh Iyar".
And what is the custom of Shabbos Mevarchim? On every Shabbos Mevarchim throughout the year, the Rebbe notes two things: "Saying the entire Tehillim early in the morning" - a custom instituted by the Rebbe Rayatz; and the second custom, which is a "day of a farbrengen".
The "haftorah" of this Shabbos, Shabbos Parshas Acharei-Mos, is "Halo chivnei Kushiyim". And what is the novelty in this? In this haftorah there is a difference between the Sephardic custom and the Ashkenazic custom: the Sephardic custom for Parshas Acharei-Mos is that the haftorah opens with the words "Vayedaber Hashem", in the book of Yechezkel, in chapter 22; whereas the Ashkenazim have the custom to read the haftorah elsewhere, in the ninth chapter of Amos, which begins with "Halo chivnei Kushiyim". Here the Rebbe notes that our custom for the haftorah follows the Ashkenazic custom, to read the haftorah in Amos with "Halo chivnei Kushiyim".
Shiurim: Chumash, Acharei, Shevi'i, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, 26th of the month, we say the second half of chapter 119 - from the letter mem, which begins with the word "Mah", until the end of the psalm, which concludes with the words "lo shachachti".
Tanya, we begin chapter 43, from the beginning of the chapter, from the word "Vehinei". The shiur concludes on page 124 with the word "lekaman".
The source of the teaching learned today is in a letter written by the Rebbe Rayatz on 7 Iyar 5692. On the previous Shabbos Mevarchim in "Hayom Yom", on 27 Adar II, Shabbos Mevarchim Nissan, the Rebbe cited another excerpt from that same letter of the Rebbe Rayatz, and now in the daily teaching he cites an additional excerpt from it - except that the current excerpt appears in the letter before the excerpt that was cited on 27 Adar II.
In that letter the Rebbe Rayatz writes to a Jew and describes to him a certain farbrengen that took place with the Rebbe Rashab, his father. The Rebbe Rayatz relates: "When I was then a child of nine years old", and describes what occurred at that farbrengen. It was a farbrengen in the presence of several elder chassidim and another two or three young scholars, and the Rebbe Rashab sat with them; this was on Parshas Acharei.
At the opening of his remarks, the Rebbe Rashab said there to those present, that everyone has a personal sanctuary, as it is stated "And they shall make Me a sanctuary and I will dwell among them" - within each and every one. And the Rebbe Rashab expressed there, that the chassidic "within" is different from the "within" that is without chassidus; and thank the Holy One, blessed be He, for giving us our great master, the Alter Rebbe, who revealed the luminary of the Torah of the Baal Shem Tov, and as a result the chassidim merited a fire that will not be extinguished forever and for all eternity - as it is stated regarding the Beis HaMikdash "A continuous fire shall burn upon the altar, it shall not be extinguished". And following this appears the teaching.
The teaching refers to the verse in Parshas Acharei-Mos, which describes the avodah of the Kohen Gadol in the Beis HaMikdash on Yom Kippur: "And he shall wash his flesh in water and put them on". The verse describes that the Kohen must immerse - "And he shall wash his flesh in water", which in the language of the Torah means immersion - "and put them on", and afterwards to wear the priestly garments.
The Rebbe Rashab explains there what the concept of these two actions is in spirituality, in avodas Hashem. What is "And he shall wash his flesh in water", and what spiritual action is expressed by this? And what is "and put them on", what is the concept of wearing the holy garments? Here he will explain what "And he shall wash" is, what "his flesh" is, what "water" is and what "the garments" are - every detail will be explained in avodas Hashem.
The teaching is originally written in Yiddish, and in translation it says in the opening: "From a sichah of my master, my father, my teacher and my Rebbe: Chassidus demands that there must be "And he shall wash his flesh in water and put them on". Meaning, the intellect of chassidus", when learning chassidus - the insights within it - "must necessarily wash the flesh, and rinse the "his flesh"".
And how does one rinse this away? This is the intellect of chassidus. The study of chassidus is like the water through which one removes it. And what are the things that have attached themselves to the flesh? The Rebbe Rashab details: "All the habits that the flesh makes habitual" all the habits that the flesh causes us - that we get used to eating in a certain way, speaking in a certain way and behaving in a certain way - all those habits that are not according to Torah and not according to chassidic conduct, those must be rinsed away and cleansed. "And then one can put on holy garments", as the verse says "And he shall wash his flesh in water and put them on"; one cannot put on the holy garments if he has not yet rinsed away the "his flesh".
And what are the holy garments? The Rebbe Rashab details: "The thought and speech of chassidus and the conduct of chassidim in hisbonenus prior to prayer - they are holy garments". In Tanya it is written that there are three garments: thought, speech and action, and they are the clothes. The chassidic conduct before prayer - this is the action; the hisbonenus in matters of chassidus and maamarim of chassidus - it contains speech in matters of chassidus and thought in concepts of chassidus. These are the three garments called "holy garments".
They are called "holy garments", because "these are garments that were given from the holy". The Alter Rebbe gave us the Torah of chassidus as a gift, through which we can fill our thoughts and words and behave with such conduct; these are holy garments that we received from the holy, ready-made. We come to what is ready-made - we have holy garments.
"But the "And he shall wash his flesh in water" - must be done independently. The garments of the soul are given from above" But to rinse the flesh, to remove the behaviors that have attached themselves to the flesh - this is not given from above; this one must do on their own. One cannot approach the garments given to us from above if we have not first worked on ourselves to rinse away what is attached to the flesh. That which the garments are to be filled with - thought, speech and action - is given as a gift from above, and one does not need to search; there are words of chassidus that you can think about, study, etc.
"But washing away the extraneous matter created from the fleshiness, and transforming the flesh into holy flesh - this is only through one's own power" But to rinse, wash and cleanse the extraneous matter created from the flesh, from the thing in which a person is immersed, and also to transform the flesh itself into holy flesh - meaning, both to remove the attached matters and to transform the flesh into something refined and holy - this you must do with your own power. No one will wash a person's flesh for him, nor will anyone remove his habits for him; this he must do on his own.
"And this is what chassidus demands, and for this our great master sacrificed his soul" - that the chassidim should be proper, that they should take action. He gave all the tools, and expects that we do the washing ourselves. The Alter Rebbe "opened the channel of mesiras nefesh for avodas Hashem in prayer", so that a person could serve Hashem in prayer; and as I said earlier, that before prayer there is the thought, speech and action of chassidus, which are holy garments - for the giving of this matter he sacrificed his soul. These are the holy garments that are received from above; but he expects the person below to do the cleaning himself.
And what is the prayer for which one must prepare? Prayer is the opportunity "to be connected to the Essence of the Ein Sof, chassidus places a chassid face to face with the Essence of the Ein Sof" - this is prayer. And to reach this, there are the garments, which are the preparation for prayer, and before that there is the "And he shall wash his flesh", which is the independent avodah. After all this order of avodah one can reach the destination and the goal.
This is a point about which the Rebbe spoke at the first farbrengen of assuming the nesius on 11 Nissan 5711. The Rebbe emphasized that there is an empowerment from above, and said about himself that he would help and give empowerment from above; but there was an expression there: "Do not think that you have chosen someone who will do the avodah for you" - the avodah must be done by everyone themselves, and there will be help and assistance. This is the very idea expressed here, on Shabbos Mevarchim of the month of Iyar, in the wondrous content of the opening.