The twenty-second "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Shabbos, 11 Teves, 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Vayigash, sheivi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, 11th of the month, from chapter 61 through and including chapter 65.
Tanya, on this day we begin learning chapter 8 from its beginning, from the words "be'od zos" until the words "she'ask'u bahen".
The daily teaching, whose source was written in Yiddish, is taken from a sichah that the Rebbe Rayatz said on Acharon shel Pesach 5702, while he was in the United States, in Brooklyn. When the Rebbe Rayatz arrived in the United States he aroused very strongly, with a most powerful push, that Jews should review words of Torah wherever they go - in thought and in speech. He spoke about this with great force, that it is an obligation to warm the air of the street and to purify it, and he said: "Everyone can learn at least two or three mishnayos a week" - which is not a lot - "and review them by heart in order to purify the air of the street." And as a continuation of this statement comes the teaching before us.
The teaching says as follows, translated from Yiddish: "A person's life depends on the air around him. Without air it is impossible, and according to the type of air one breathes - so is one's life." The air has a great influence on life.
I will add that during that same period the Rebbe wrote a very interesting letter on the subject, to explain and strengthen this matter of learning by heart and reviewing letters. The letter, printed in the Rebbe's Igros Kodesh, explains at length that a person's life depends generally on two components: eating and drinking, and breathing. And breathing has a more important value than eating and drinking, since eating and drinking are only at certain times of the day, whereas a person must breathe all the time.
The Rebbe brings various sources, that just as with eating and drinking we see that if the food is not kosher it has a great effect on the person - to the point that it can bring him, may it not happen to us, even to matters of heresy - and likewise the quality of the food affects him also in simple physical terms; if so, if with food, which is not as necessary as air since it is only occasionally, and nevertheless its kashrus affects the one who eats it - all the more so with air, which is needed far more than food, which a person breathes all the time and brings inside himself. With air too there exists the concept that the air needs to be pure and clean; and the air becomes clean and pure through saying words of Torah within it.
When a person reviews words of Torah in his surroundings and brings them out of his mouth - for the words a person brings out of his mouth are drawn into the air, and the air carries them wherever they go - this causes the air to be pure. And this is what the Rebbe Rayatz said, that according to the air in which one finds oneself - such is one's life. And he specifies: "When one lives in an air of Torah and mitzvos - that is a healthy life; when one lives in an air of heresy - that is an unhealthy life with a constant tendency to fall ill with contagious diseases" - spiritual illnesses.
And what is the first general remedy that will purify the air? "The first basic general remedy for this is to purify the air"; the first thing is that one must always clean the air. "The task of purifying the air rests upon those who are learned and those who know Torah" - upon them lies the duty to purify the air.
[An interesting thing: the Rebbe placed this teaching in the year 5703. A few months later, the Rebbe Rayatz said with an interesting expression, sharing with people matters that are not visible to the physical eye: when he arrived in the United States he was full of despair from the spiritual situation, and now he says that thank G-d, after three years, to a certain degree the stale air has, with G-d's help, dissipated. The students of Yeshivas "Tomchei Temimim", he said, succeeded in a good and successful hour in opening windows of Torah to the street, and for fifty amos in every direction the air became clear and pure. These words were said about half a year after the Rebbe placed this teaching into "Hayom Yom", and in them he testifies that the air in the world had become cleaner].
Let us continue reading: how does one purify the air? "The purification of the air is through the letters of Torah". And the Rebbe Rayatz specifies how to do this - "when one is in a store, walking in the street, riding on a train - and one says letters of Torah, one thereby purifies the air", he purifies the spiritual air through the words he brings out of his mouth. "Every one of those who are learned and know Torah should remember something by heart: Chumash, Tehillim, Mishnayos, Tanya - so that at every opportunity and in every place he will be able to think and say the holy letters of the Torah".
There is a precise point here, and apparently a correct one: the Rebbe Rayatz concludes that everyone should be able "to think and say". And seemingly what does he want - that we should think or that we should say? After all, we said that the purification comes through speech, so why then does he distinguish here between "to think" and "to say"? Apparently the matter depends on the difference between Torah shebiksav and Torah shebe'al peh. For the Rebbe specifies Chumash and Tehillim - which are Torah shebiksav - and Mishnayos and Tanya - which are Torah shebe'al peh. And the halachah says that one may not say Torah shebiksav by heart, but rather must read it only from the text; whereas Torah shebe'al peh may be learned by heart. Therefore Chumash and Tehillim, which are Torah shebiksav, a person must learn and know them well until he can think in his head verses of Torah and verses of Tehillim; whereas Mishnayos and Tanya, which are Torah shebe'al peh, these one must also actually say.
And by the way, this appears explicitly in a letter: someone asked the Rebbe about a well known maamar of the Alter Rebbe in Likkutei Torah, parshas Kedoshim - a short maamar called "Vehadarta Pnei Zakein" - in which it is written that everyone must engrave in the memory of his mind the five books of the Torah. The questioner asked: it is written that one may not learn Torah shebiksav by heart, so what did the Alter Rebbe mean? The Rebbe noted that the intent is not that he should say it by heart, but rather to engrave it in the memory of his mind - that he should learn it well until he knows how to think about it. Torah shebiksav one must think, whereas Torah shebe'al peh one must actually say, with speech of the mouth, and through this purify all the air and all the surroundings, the entire world, that it should be a completely pure world.