The 205th "room" in the hall of Hayom Yom.
Sunday, 17 Sivan 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Shlach, first parsha with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, 17th of the month, from chapter 83 up to and including chapter 87.
Tanya, we are in "Shaar Yichud Vehaemuna". On this day we begin chapter 6 from the word "vehineh" at the beginning of the chapter, and the shiur ends on page 160 with the word "bechesed".
The short daily teaching is taken from a letter written by the Rebbe Rayatz on 11 Sivan 5695. In this letter he explains at length that the main avodah required of a Jew - avodas Hashem - has the goal of making every material thing a vessel for Elokus. He brings familiar examples: taking the wool in the world and making it tzitzis; parchment, leather and straps - for tefillin. And even in the human body: his physical brain, when it understands a Godly concept and Godly intellect, becomes a vessel for Elokus; and similarly a person's heart, the flesh of the heart, when it is aroused with love of Hashem or awe of Hashem, becomes a vessel for Elokus, and so on. The entire purpose of man is to refine the world.
However, in life there are many times when the Torah instructs a person, when he sees the situation, to flee and abstain from all sorts of matters. A person should not think that abstention is the avodah and the goal. And here the teaching comes to teach us that abstaining from worldly matters, which is sometimes an obligation to do - is like a doctor who comes to cure a person sick with a contagious and infectious disease. What is the doctor's task? To cure him. But there are stages where the doctor must create various protections for himself so that he himself will not be harmed by the disease he is treating. So, what is his task - to make protections for himself or to cure the patient? Obviously the goal is to cure, but in the initial stages of treating the patient he must first of all protect himself.
The same applies to a Jew in spirituality and in avodas Hashem: there is a stage where the Jew must protect himself, simply to be careful not to assimilate and fall into worldly matters. And one must know what is the primary task and what is the secondary matter.
I will read the text of the teaching: "Not enjoying this world in the fullest sense - is only a good preparation for avodah". That is, in order for the avodah to be good, the preparation for it is: not to be immersed in worldly matters and enjoy them to the maximum; one must put a brake so as not to be immersed in worldly matters. For what is the main and ultimate purpose of avodah? "The concept of avodah is to make the material a vessel for Elokus".
The main avodah of a person is to engage positively with worldly matters and make them a vessel for Elokus - as the Rebbe spoke in countless sichos and maamarim about the task of the Jew in the world, which is to make a "dira betachtonim". [Let us take for example, when the Tanya shiurim on the radio waves began in the United States years ago, the Rebbe spoke at length that unlike those who think that putting chassidus on the radio is a decline in the honor of chassidus; on the contrary, everything that was created in the world - this wonderful tool that can transmit messages from place to place - was created to create through it a channel for Elokus. This is called refining the world for Elokus].
And as for the connection between the teaching and the Yad Hachazakah of the Rambam: we are currently in Sefer Taharah, and the previous teaching we saw was at the end of Hilchos Tumas Tzaraas. This teaching is also connected to the same topic, for at the end of Hilchos Tumas Tzaraas the Rambam speaks at length about how a person must distance himself from sitting among speakers of lashon hara and among scoffers, and how much he must distance himself from them. And regarding this the teaching comes and says: certainly one must distance oneself from this situation, but this is not the primary task for which the neshamah descends to the world. The main task and avodah, as we discussed earlier at length, is the positive - to make the material a vessel for Elokus.