The two hundred and seventeenth "room" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Friday, 29 Sivan 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Korach, Shishi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, for the 29th of the month, we say from chapter 140 up to and including chapter 144.
Tanya, on this day we conclude chapter 7 in Shaar Yichud Vehaemunah. The shiur begins on page 168 with the word "vehacheshbon", and ends at the conclusion of the chapter with the words "haotiyot atzman".
The daily teaching appears at the end of a long letter written by the Rebbe Rayatz on 8 Tammuz 5699. In fact, already a few days ago, when we learned the teaching of 20 Sivan, we saw a part of that same epistle - a long epistle that the Rebbe Rayatz wrote to one of the chassidim, in which he explains to him at length the two manners of chochmah and binah. There, it discusses the preparation for yechidus, and how each person has their own distinct essence and nature, as we mentioned regarding the two chassidim. God willing we will reach additional teachings from that same letter on 8 Tammuz and on 1 Kislev - a long letter from which several teachings in Hayom Yom were taken.
At the climax of the letter, the Rebbe Rayatz says that in order for a person to be uplifted, there must also be purification of the body - that the body should be clean of any blemish, of any trace of a blemish, and that all matters of materiality and gashmiyus should be shed from it; and to the same degree, one must also reveal the depth of the light of the nefesh. These are the two things required for a person to be uplifted.
Who brings this about in a person? He explains there that this is the difference between the study of Mussar and the teachings of Chassidus: The discipline of Mussar primarily teaches a person how to remove the coarseness of the body from themselves, whereas the teachings of Chassidus primarily discuss with them how they can reveal the light of the nefesh and be uplifted. These are the two approaches.
Further on, the Rebbe Rayatz notes that so too in any subject a person learns - they can learn it from its intellectual perspective, or they can learn it while feeling the Godly aspect within it; these are two approaches to everything. As an example, he brings what is said in prayer, "Who in His goodness renews each day, continuously, the work of creation": One can contemplate this solely from the perspective of the wisdom within it; but one who sees and feels the Godliness within it - as the teachings of Chassidus affect a person - the matter awakens them to pay attention to hashgachah pratis. The fact that the Holy One, blessed be He, "renews each day, continuously, the work of creation" means that truly everything is supervised, and that whatever happens - the Holy One, blessed be He, is watching over you all the time, and guiding you, and even when you do not notice, how much He saves you from all sorts of matters. This is when a person feels the concept of hashgachah pratis.
And in conclusion - which is the daily teaching - he says: "The avodah of a person according to the teachings of Chassidus", what should it be? "To accustom oneself to see the matter of hashgachah pratis" - that a person should become accustomed to seeing the point that the Holy One, blessed be He, is constantly watching over every single detail. "How in His blessed goodness He renews the world and the creations at every moment with His hashgachah pratis" - He renews in His goodness and creates them anew every day, and therefore He also watches with hashgachah pratis over every single detail in creation.
And then he adds an interesting ending: "For this and only this is the reality of the creations, their vitality and their existence" - the "this" refers to the constant Godly supervision and the constant Godly life-force that exists in every creation: the creation exists because there is a Godly power that brings it into being at every moment, and it lives from the Godly power that gives it life at every moment. This is the inner point of hashgachah pratis.
For the completeness of the matter, it is worthwhile to look in the "Additions to Likkutei Sichos", volume 8, where there is an entire kuntres of the Rebbe on the subject of hashgachah pratis from all its angles - how they viewed the subject of hashgachah pratis - such an important point.
And in conclusion, the connection between the teaching and the arrangement of Rambam's Yad Chazakah: The teachings of the previous days were in Rambam's Sefer Taharah, and here is a teaching that alludes to the final halachos of Sefer Taharah - Hilchos Mikvaot. In Hilchos Mikvaot, the Rambam discusses, among the halachos, the fish in the sea: a person who wants to immerse in the eye of a fish - if they have a giant fish, and in its eye there is such a quantity of liquid that one can immerse in it. From a halachic standpoint, the matter is possible; and the concept, as explained in the inner dimension of Torah, is that the creations in the sea, in contrast to the creations on dry land, are completely nullified to the water - even though there is a creation here, its vitality is the water, and it is nullified to the water. By contrast, with creations on dry land, the matter is the opposite: they live from Godliness, but the vitality is not felt within them, and they appear as an existence unto themselves.
The entire content of the teaching here is that a person should contemplate that the vitality of the creations in the world is Godliness - it is their vitality and existence, and apart from it they have nothing. And in which creations do we see this conclusion in the strongest and most tangible way - that the vitality and existence of the creations is Godliness alone? We see this, as an analogy, in the creations in the water, in fish and the like. This is the essence of the matter that appears in Hilchos Mikvaot, where one of the halachos expresses this idea, especially as it is elucidated by the teachings of Chassidus. It is a somewhat distant allusion to the matter, but nevertheless in a magnificent way.