The eighteenth "cheder" in the heichal of Hayom Yom.
Tuesday, 7 Teves 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Vayigash, Shlishi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, the 7th of the month, from chapter 39 through chapter 43 inclusive.
Tanya, we are in the last part of chapter 6, from the words "ולכן נקרא" until the end of chapter 6, which concludes with the words "סוף פרק ו'".
Before us is a short teaching of a few lines, whose source is in points that the Rebbe heard from his father-in-law, the Rebbe Rayatz, in the summer of 5695, as the Rebbe recorded in his diary. The Rebbe wrote down all sorts of things that he heard from the Rebbe Rayatz, and among those things he heard these lines.
Before we read it, let us preface with what is known regarding the list of punishments that the soul and the body undergo after a hundred and twenty. The punishments are not, chas veshalom, a matter of revenge; rather, they are an order of purification and cleansing - to remove the kelipos and the evil that became attached to the body or to the soul; for the body and the soul must be entirely pure and clean after a hundred and twenty. And it is understood that this depends very much on the person himself - how many kelipos became attached to his body and to his soul in the course of his life - and accordingly will be the cleansing process that he will have to undergo.
Two of the punishments mentioned are also brought in Tanya in chapter 7: there is a concept called "chibut hakever", and there is a concept called "kaf hakela". And in brief, the general difference between them: "chibut hakever" is a term for the purification and cleansing that the body undergoes, and "kaf hakela" is the purification and cleansing that the soul undergoes.
Let us begin with the explanation of the words, starting with the first - "chibut hakever". The word "chibut" is from the expression "lachbot" (to beat), as one beats garments with a beater in order to get the dust out of them, as was once the practice. There is a verse in the Torah in parshas Teitzei, regarding bringing down the olives from the tree: "When you beat your olive tree, do not go over the boughs again", and "lachbot" means to strike (and likewise with the aravos, where it is written in the siddur "chovtim osah", to beat means to strike). And "hakever" - after the body enters the grave. At this stage there is a concept called "chibut hakever": angels beat and strike the body, and the purpose of this is to separate from the body the kelipos that became attached to it, just as one beats a garment to get the dust out of it. This is chibut hakever, which pertains to the body.
And from what is the kelipah in the body created, such that it needs to be beaten? As is explained in Tanya: when a person eats food, it becomes blood and flesh of his flesh; and if he ate the food for the sake of desire, kelipos became attached to the cells of his body. If it was a forbidden food - certainly these are the three impure kelipos; and if he ate for the sake of desire, even if it was a permitted food, this too becomes the three kelipos. And Tanya says that even when a person does teshuvah, an impression remains in the body, and that impression must be removed - this removal is accomplished through the action of the angels after the person departs from this world, and it is called "chibut hakever": to remove from the body the kelipos that became attached to it.
And what is "kaf hakela"? This is the cleansing of the soul, and not of the body. A person in this world took pleasure in all sorts of matters, thoughts and desires that gave him soul-pleasure, and all sorts of not-good matters and kelipos became attached to his soul. Therefore his soul too must be cleansed and all the pleasures that it had in those not-good matters, at the time it took pleasure in them in this world, must be removed from it. The cleansing of the soul is called by the name "kaf hakela".
The concept "kaf hakela" appears, for example, in the book of Shmuel, in the verse: "And the soul of your enemies He will sling out from within the hollow of the sling". What is a kaf hakela? Something like a spoon at the end of a stick, into which one places a ball or whatever one wants to throw, and one holds the stick and throws - like a sling in colloquial language. And what is the matter here? It is written in the sefarim, in a vivid expression, that the angels stand from one end of the world to the other and throw the neshamah from one to another, like throwing with a sling.
And what is the idea behind this throwing and its meaning? On this there are discussions and length in chassidus - the Rebbe explained it in the year 5716. The point is that after the neshamah ascends to Gan Eden, it already grasps the comprehensions of holiness and Elokus that are in Gan Eden; and then it is thrown back to the pleasure it had in this world, and from this it experiences enormous pain - it is in Gan Eden and suddenly it is thrown into the pleasures of this world, and it senses in them an enormous foolishness. This enormous pain uproots the pleasure that it had in the past during its days in the world, and then it is thrown back to Gan Eden. And how many times must this back and forth be done? Until all the pleasures it had are completely uprooted. And there are various levels in this, according to the pleasure that he had, as explained in the sefarim.
In the teaching that we will now read, the Rebbe brings what he heard from the Rebbe Rayatz: there are things a person can do in his lifetime - actions that will bring about the cleansing of the body or the refinement of the soul while he is still alive - and thereby he will spare the body and the soul those punishments that come after a hundred and twenty, and will spare himself chibut hakever or kaf hakela. How does one do this? Let us read the wording of the teaching.
The teaching says: "The measure for being spared from chibut hakever - that for a sixth part of the twenty-four hours one should say the letters of Torah - Tehillim etc.". What is the measure, what is the thing one must do in order to be spared from chibut hakever? "A sixth part of the twenty-four hours" - the day is twenty-four hours, and a sixth of it is four hours. That is, when a person says with his mouth the letters of Torah - Tehillim, Mishnayos, Tanya and the like - for at least four hours of the day, this cleanses his body and spares him chibut hakever.
It is written in the writings of the Baal Shem Tov that a person who is buried on Friday after midday merits to be spared from chibut hakever - the Aibershter grants him this, since that is a time when one is spared from it. But a person cannot plan this, and therefore the advice here is that he should say the letters of Torah for four hours a day.
"To merit refinement of the soul, to be spared from kaf hakela". One can note that specifically regarding kaf hakela the expression "refinement of the soul" is used, whereas regarding chibut hakever it is not - and this is understood according to what we explained, that chibut hakever pertains to the body while kaf hakela pertains to the soul. Therefore regarding kaf hakela it says "to merit refinement of the soul": that if a person's soul will be refined, he will automatically be spared from kaf hakela.
This action is similar to what we spoke about in "to be spared from chibut hakever", but in a somewhat different form. Regarding chibut hakever it said that he should say letters for four hours; and here the wording is different - through reviewing all day, as much as he is able. [In the original, in the Rebbe's diary, there is another word here - "as much free time as he has" - and here the word "free time" was omitted.] And the wording: "It is through reviewing all day - as much as he is able - Mishnayos, Tanya, Tehillim by heart".
It is not spelled out here why "by heart", but seemingly, when a person says only "letters", not by heart and without understanding, it is mainly the body that says it; but when he says it "by heart", there is in this also a participation of the soul, since he must remember by heart - it is not merely the saying of words, but the soul and its faculties are partners in the matter. Therefore, when he reviews by heart as much as he is able during the day, this brings about refinement of the soul; whereas when he says the letters themselves, not by heart - the very saying of the words brings about refinement of the body. And thus both matters are resolved.
Let us continue with what we spoke about - that the teachings have a correspondence with the progression in the sefarim of the Rambam. In the previous teachings we spoke about Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah, the first ones in Sefer HaMada of the Rambam; and now we advance to the next halachos - Hilchos Deos. There the Rambam speaks about the illness of the soul and how one heals it: just as there is illness of the body, there is illness of the soul and bad middos, and he gives various pieces of advice on how a person should cleanse his soul. And this is exactly the same content written here - how a person should work on the refinement of his soul and merit the things he needs to merit. And up to here is the daily shiur.