Room two hundred twenty-eight in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Tuesday, 10 Tammuz 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Balak, third portion, with the commentary of Rashi.
Tehillim, on the 10th of the month, one recites from chapter 55 through chapter 59 inclusive.
Tanya: on this day we conclude chapter 12 in Shaar HaYichud VeHaEmunah — which is the conclusion of the entire Shaar HaYichud VeHaEmunah. The lesson begins on page 178 with the words "ki hen derech mashal" until the end of the chapter with the words "choli kan"l".
The daily saying is a letter that the Rebbe Rayatz wrote on that day, 10 Tammuz, three years earlier (10 Tammuz 5700). The content of the letter is that the Rebbe arouses one of the chassidim to help and assist in a great matter on behalf of a certain Jew, and he brings there that the Baal Shem Tov says that for ahavat Yisrael one must give over one's soul and help him, etc. And within these words appears the content of the daily saying.
And this is what he writes there: "Our Rebbe, the Alter Rebbe, at the beginning of his leadership, said a Torah teaching." One of the Torah teachings that the Alter Rebbe said at the beginning of his leadership was "on the verse 'MeHashem mitzadei gever konanu'" — the Holy One, blessed be He, leads a person to the destination he is to reach; the steps that a person takes are planned and established by Hashem. For what purpose does a person arrive at a particular place? Why does the Holy One, blessed be He, send a person to arrive specifically here or there?
Here is what he says: "When a Jew finds himself in a place, this is with the intent that he perform a mitzvah." If you have arrived at a certain place, the Holy One, blessed be He, sent you there with a purpose and with an intent — to perform a mitzvah there. Which mitzvah? "Whether a mitzvah between man and the Omnipresent" — such as tefillin, tzedakah, prayer, and the like — "or a mitzvah between man and his fellow" — to help someone with a certain matter.
And then he adds a great and special quality that a Jew possesses upon arriving at a place. For who sent him there? The Holy One, blessed be He, in order to fulfill a mitzvah there. One must know that many times there are difficulties in carrying it out, and therefore a Jew must know how to regard himself when he arrives at a certain place. And thus he says: "A Jew is an emissary from Above. An emissary, wherever he is, is the power of the sender" — an emissary of the Holy One, blessed be He. The meaning of "emissary" is that he represents the sender; and in effect it is not you who are here at the moment, but rather you are the "long arm" of the sender, and in this case the sender is the Holy One, blessed be He. And just as before the Holy One, blessed be He, there is no one who can prevent the matter from being carried out, so too a Jew must know that he is now the emissary of the Holy One, blessed be He, and nothing is supposed to interfere with its execution. The emissary, in every place and in every situation in which he finds himself, is the power of the sender — and in this case, a Jew is the emissary of the Holy One, blessed be He.
At the conclusion of the teaching he adds: "the superiority of souls over angels — that in souls this is according to the Torah." For behold, there are additional created beings who are the emissaries of the Holy One, blessed be He — the angels, since "malach" (angel) derives from the word "shaliach" (emissary). And yet there is an advantage in the mission of the Jew, greater than in the mission of the angel. Why? What is the additional superiority found in souls, in the Jew who carries out a mission of the Holy One, blessed be He, over an angel who carries out a mission of the Holy One, blessed be He? The soul carries out a mission that is written in the Torah, and according to the Torah the Jew knows what he must do; and the Torah is the purpose of all creation. But the angel has no Torah to fulfill, and does not carry out a mission of Torah, and therefore his mission does not have that powerful and inner objective which the mission of the Jew — who acts according to the Torah — possesses. This is the superiority of the mission of the Jew — a superiority that even the angel does not have.
The content of the saying, of the section of acquisitions and the halachot corresponding to the daily saying, is immediately recognizable from their heading: these are the halachot of sheluchin ve'shutafin (agents and partners). All the halachot deal with the laws of an agent — how a person becomes an agent or a partner — and this is essentially the content of the saying, that a Jew is the emissary of the Holy One, blessed be He, in every place where he finds himself and in every matter he must carry out.