The twenty-seventh "cheder" in the heichal of Hayom Yom.
Thursday, 16 Teves, 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Vayechi, chamishi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, 16th of the month, from chapter 79 through chapter 82 inclusive.
Tanya, we are still in the middle of chapter 10, from the words "tzaddik she'eino gamur", page 30 and onward.
Here we have a short teaching that the Tzemach Tzedek said to a chassid whom the Rebbe Rayatz refers to briefly as "Reb Hendel". His full name was Reb Chanoch Hendel Kugel, an exceedingly lofty Jew, whose qualities the Rebbe Rayatz praises most extraordinarily. He was in Lubavitch, a baal midos tovos without equal, and it is hard to describe his ahavas Yisrael. In one place the Rebbe Rayatz brings an interesting expression: that the description "a good heart" or "a baal midos tovos" is not considered a description at all in relation to him - his stature was so great that in saying these things you have still said nothing about him. He was a person on a very high level.
The opening of the teaching: "The Tzemach Tzedek said to Reb Hendel during yechidus" - Reb Hendel was in yechidus with the Tzemach Tzedek, and the Tzemach Tzedek said to him the following statement.
By way of introduction: it is explained in Tanya and in other places that in avodas Hashem there are two situations. There is a situation in which the neshamah is revealed and shining - and that is an excellent state, in which avodas Hashem goes wonderfully. And there is a situation in which the neshamah does not shine in a revealed way. Why does it not shine? As it is written in Tanya in chapter 29, there is a situation in which the body is coarse and material, and then "mevatshin leih" - one must crush the body so that the neshamah will shine.
In the teaching that the Tzemach Tzedek said to the chassid in yechidus, he gives him the advice - both what will bring about the revelation of the neshamah, and what will bring about the refinement of the body. It is interesting that in the place where the Rebbe Rayatz brings this quotation, he prefaces it with an interesting introduction and gives a parable: when one tans a hide, one places it in a pot with various substances and with water, and boils it in order to soften it. There is a situation, says the Rebbe as a parable, in which a Jew has a "thick hide": he is placed inside the pot, and inside there are good substances - Torah and mitzvos, DaCh and chassidus - and nevertheless the hide does not soften. And who is at fault that this is not happening - the hide or the broth? Sometimes, he says there, one needs good advice, to see how one softens the hide and how one reveals the neshamah. Upon this the Rebbe immediately brings the teaching, which contains advice on how to bring it about that the hide should soften after all.
And so he says: "Zohar uplifts the soul" - the Zohar has a special power, that saying the letters of the Zohar uplifts the soul, meaning that it brings about the revelation of the neshamah. It is worth quoting on this matter from another sefer: the Chida, in his sefer "Moreh B'Etzba", writes about the virtue of studying Zohar more than all the other parts of Torah. He says that with the Zohar, even if a person does not understand what he is saying, and at times even errs in the reading, it is a great tikkun for the neshamah. And the reason for this: in the other parts of Torah, which are clothed in stories and in explanations that are understood, a person concentrates more on the plain meaning that he understands and less on the holiness of the letters; but in the Zohar, even the ordinary reader understands that these are the secrets of Torah that are above his understanding and grasp, and consequently his connection is directly to the holiness of the letters of the Zohar, and this affects the neshamah with great power. And this is what the Tzemach Tzedek says to Reb Hendel, that the Zohar uplifts the soul.
It is further interesting that there is a letter the Rebbe wrote in 5711 to a Jew who was seeking a path of tikkun and teshuvah, in which the Rebbe writes to him "that he should set a fixed shiur in saying the letters of Tehillim and Zohar" - the very saying of the letters is what will bring him tikkun and teshuvah.
The next phrase in the teaching: "Midrash arouses the heart". This part too comes mainly for the avodah of revealing the neshamah. For the Midrash, as brought in Tanya and in the Gemara, is the part of Torah about which it is said, "One who wishes to know the One who spoke and the world came into being - let him learn Aggadah", and the Midrash connects the Jew to knowing the Holy One, blessed be He. There is an expression that most of the secrets of Torah are hidden in the Midrash - as the Alter Rebbe brings in Tanya regarding the "Ein Yaakov", in which many of the Midrashim are found - and this arouses the heart and the neshamah. And there is a letter that the Rebbe wrote on Chai Kislev 5729 about the matter of studying Midrash, in which there is an expression that this part of Torah is needed most and most of all that it be studied, for it is the Midrash that arouses the heart.
And then comes the final phrase: "and Tehillim with tears scours the vessel" - meaning the body. This is similar to what was mentioned in Tanya, the concept of "mevatshin leih", to bring about the refinement of a person's body. And what brings about a person's refinement? Tehillim with weeping, quite simply. And from where do the tears come and what is their nature? The tears come from a broken heart, that a person is broken over his situation to the point that it brings him to weeping, and the tears are what soften and refine the body.
But for the completeness of the matter, let us mention something from a maamar of chassidus that the Rebbe said on Shabbos Beshalach, 7 Kislev 5746 - the well known maamar "Margela B'pumei D'Rava". In the maamar the Rebbe says that in our generation the avodah of teshuvah out of bitterness is not applicable; rather, it must be out of joy. Regarding the saying of Tehillim, even though it is written that it should be with a broken heart, the Rebbe says that the well known teaching of our Rebbeim, the Nesi'im, is: "Think good and it will be good" - the good thought brings the good. If so, there is no need at all for a matter of bitterness, saying Tehillim with weeping "in the bitterness of his soul" and giving tzedakah; today in our generation the avodah must be in a different way - a good thought will bring the good, and so our Rebbeim, the Nesi'im, promised.
And the Rebbe brings further on (and I am quoting a later passage), that in our generation, after all the troubles and sufferings we have gone through - and sufferings scour and uplift and refine - the generation is already refined, and the Jewish people are in a lofty and good state. Today we belong to teshuvah ila'ah, and everything must be out of joy and not out of bitterness; we accomplish the same result, but in an entirely different way. It is interesting to illuminate with this the point we read in today's teaching.