"Room" one hundred and fifty-six in the hall of Hayom Yom.
Sunday, 27 Nissan, 12th day of the Omer, 5703.
Shiurim: Sunday of Parshas Kedoshim, first aliyah with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, 27th of the month, from chapter 120 up to and including chapter 134.
Tanya: Today we conclude chapter 43. The shiur begins on page 124 with the words "Vehineh bechinas" until the end of the chapter, which concludes with the words "veyod'ei chein".
The daily teaching is brief, taken from a maamar of the Rebbe Rayatz, beginning with the words "Zochreinu Lechayim" in the year 5701. In the maamar, the Rebbe Rayatz speaks extensively about a Jew's avodas Hashem, noting that one must treat spiritual illness. He says there that just as with a physical illness - if a minor ailment is left untreated it can turn, Heaven forbid, into a severe disease, and conversely, a severe disease that is treated can be cured leaving no trace - so too in spirituality.
One must be aware that spiritual illness exists. This refers to an illness stemming from the nefesh habehamis, which confuses a person and causes them to engage in all sorts of inappropriate matters. The Rebbe Rayatz elaborates there, bringing from the words of Chazal a general term for the illness, followed by its specifics. The general term is "the illness of the yetzer hara", meaning the yetzer hara tells a person: I will accompany you in life, and even if you do permissible things, I will instruct you on how to do them. This is the overarching illness dictated by the yetzer hara.
Afterwards there is a specific illness, which he details: there is an illness of the eye, an illness of chill - coldness, and conversely, an illness of intense heat. That is, either one is cold and apathetic to matters of kedushah, or they are hot and enthusiastic about worldly matters. These are already specific symptoms, but the overall heading is "the illness of the yetzer hara".
And here, within the passage where he explains the general illness of the yetzer hara - that it drags a person to do even permissible things in the wrong way - the daily teaching is presented. The Rebbe Rayatz quotes: "Permissible things" - such as a person eating kosher food, since everyone must eat, and going to sleep, since one must sleep - things that are permissible and even necessary to do - "if one does them for their own enjoyment, they are completely evil"; if what motivates them is the pursuit of personal pleasure.
Meaning, even though they are doing a permissible thing, since their intention and motivation for doing it is to enjoy themselves, it becomes completely evil. And "as our Rebbe, whose soul is in Eden [the Alter Rebbe] wrote in Tanya chapter 7", that even a permissible thing, known as "kelipas nogah", if done for the purpose of desire, turns into the three impure kelipos.
"Because of the injunction, 'Sanctify yourself with what is permitted to you'": The Torah's directive is that a person must sanctify themselves even in permissible matters, meaning to do them for a G-dly purpose - so that they will have the strength to serve Hashem. Therefore, one must eat, sleep, work, and do whatever is necessary, and there is absolutely no problem with doing permissible things when the true thought and intention behind them is to serve Hashem. He says this in simple terms: "One must infuse holiness into permissible things".
Into every permissible thing a person does, they must infuse holiness. And what does it mean to infuse holiness? "That their ultimate purpose should be for Torah and mitzvos, yiras shamayim, and good character traits". In order to achieve these things, permissible actions are necessary, such as eating and the like as mentioned; however, if one does them so that their purpose will be for Torah and mitzvos - they are holy. This is "Sanctify yourself with what is permitted to you".
Throughout the teachings in Hayom Yom, there are quite a few teachings providing guidance on how to engage with physical and material matters. For example, we already learned on 25 Adar Sheni a teaching related to this; "He used to comfort him", with G-d's help we will reach it; and there are various teachings in Hayom Yom discussing this topic.
In conclusion, the connection to the daily study of the Rambam's Yad Hachazakah. We are in Sefer Avodah - regarding all the halachos and teachings of the recent period - and now in new halachos, Hilchos Pesulei Hamukdashin. These halachos deal with holy things; for example, an animal that was chullin and was consecrated as a korban - which actions might cause it to become disqualified.
The example he brings already in the first chapter, in the third halachah of Hilchos Pesulei Hamukdashin, is about a person handling a slaughtering knife but not intending at the time of slaughter that he is doing it for the sake of slaughtering kodashim - he is just playing with the knife, and it happened that the animal was slaughtered. For a korban, it will be disqualified. Why? Because an action without intention and without thought for the sake of holiness does not achieve its desired effect. This is the halachah written there.
And this, essentially, is also the content of the daily teaching. When you do a permissible thing - there is no problem; but if you do it pointlessly, without intention and without the purpose of fulfilling Hashem's will, then, in the words of the teaching, it is "completely evil" - just as there in Pesulei Hamukdashin: the item could have been holy, but it became disqualified because they did not have the proper intention. This is the halachah appearing in Hilchos Pesulei Hamukdashin.