The twenty-ninth "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Shabbos, 18 Teves 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Vayechi, shevi'i, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, the 18th of the month, we say two chapters - chapter 88 and chapter 89.
Tanya, on this day we begin chapter 11, from the words "vezeh le'umas" until the word "sharya".
In opening the daily teaching, the Rebbe first brings two practices that contain something novel, and afterwards comes the daily teaching itself. The first sentence: "The one who receives the aliyah to the Torah also says 'chazak chazak venischazek'". When a book of the Torah is completed, there is a custom that the baal korei turns to the one who was called up and says "chazak chazak venischazek", and the entire congregation repeats after him. The question is what the law is regarding the one who himself received the aliyah, who recited the first blessing before the reading and must now recite the final blessing at the conclusion of the aliyah - does he too say the words "chazak chazak venischazek"?
What is the problem here? The question is whether this is considered an interruption between the conclusion of the words of the reading that he heard and the blessing he is about to recite. The congregation says it and strengthens him with "chazak chazak venischazek", but may he also say it or not?
There are opinions in halachah that state explicitly - such as Rabbi Chaim Naeh in his sefer "Ketzos HaShulchan" and others - that the one who received the aliyah should not say it. Why? Because it is an interruption, and furthermore, it is not fitting that he bless himself; the congregation blesses him and says to him "chazak chazak venischazek", but how is it fitting that he say it to himself, and it is not connected to the matter. Therefore he should not say it, since it constitutes an interruption. So rules Rabbi Chaim Naeh and other poskim.
However, the Rebbe brings here the custom that the one who received the aliyah does say "chazak chazak venischazek", and in several places the Rebbe explains at length why he can indeed make this statement. Seemingly those who argue that there is a kind of interruption here are correct, but the Rebbe brings that one cannot say this is an interruption - since the statement belongs to the conclusion of the reading, for at the conclusion of the reading they strengthen him for having completed the book; and there is a halachah that words connected to the matter at hand do not constitute an interruption.
The Rebbe brings an example from the Shulchan Aruch in the laws of blessings over food: a person who washed his hands and said "hamotzi lechem min ha'aretz" may not interrupt with speech before he tastes the bread; but if he wishes to say something connected to the meal - for example "bring salt", or even more so "give food to the animal" (and as is known, the animal must eat before the person, as the verse says "and I will give grass for your cattle" and only afterwards "and you shall eat and be satisfied") - then even if he says this it is not considered an interruption. It emerges that a statement connected to the matter does not constitute an interruption; and so too in our case, this statement does not constitute an interruption.
The Rebbe adds another precise point: had this blessing been intended for the one who received the aliyah alone, it should have said "chazak chazak vesischazek"; but since we say "chazak chazak venischazek", it means that the one called up says it also toward the congregation and blesses them as well, and therefore there is no problem at all with his saying this wording like the rest of the congregation. This is regarding the first custom.
Afterwards there is a note about an additional custom. Since we are in the lesson of Shabbos, there are places where the custom is on Shabbos to say the psalm "Vihi noam" after the conclusion of the maariv prayer. The Rebbe brings here that "when saying 'Vihi noam' on Motzaei Shabbos Kodesh, the verse 'orech yamim' etc. is repeated" - we say "Vihi noam" and "Yosheiv beseser" and continue to the end, and upon reaching the final verse "orech yamim etc." we repeat it: "orech yamim asbi'eihu ve'ar'eihu bishu'asi", meaning we say it twice on Motzaei Shabbos.
Why do we say it twice? This is written in the Shulchan Aruch, in siman 295. The Alter Rebbe says: why do we say this psalm? "Because it is a psalm of blessing, with which Moshe blessed Israel when they completed the work of the Mishkan" - there is a special blessing here, and at the beginning of a new week we open with a blessing. It is further written in the Shulchan Aruch: "and the custom is to repeat the verse 'orech yamim'". What is the reason? Says the Alter Rebbe, that through this "the Name that emerges from it is completed"; there is a Name here that is completed through the repetition of the verse, and the Alter Rebbe leaves it unexplained and does not spell out what is meant.
But one who examines the Magen Avraham - and it is likewise brought in the Machatzis HaShekel - finds an explanation of which Name is being spoken of, and he explains two things. The first: in the word "bishu'asi" there are two yuds, since "yeshu'asi" begins with a yud and ends with a yud; and when the verse is repeated, it turns out that there are four yuds, alluding to the Name of Hashem in the milui (spelling out) of yuds - for there are several ways of spelling out the Name of Hashem, and one of them is the milui of yuds. That is one allusion.
The second allusion is about the same matter - the Name of Hashem in the milui of yuds - but he arrives at it in a different way, not because of the repetition of the word "bishu'asi": if we count the number of words in the entire psalm, from "Yosheiv beseser" until the end, including the repetition of the final verse "orech yamim", we arrive at one hundred and thirty words. And one hundred and thirty words are themselves the gematria of the Name of Hashem in the milui of yuds, in a manner where all the letters are counted in a particular way.
Let us bring an example from the first letter alone, and from it the rest will be understood. The first letter of the Name in its milui consists of three letters: yud, vav, daled, which comes to a gematria of 46. How? We count the first letter alone - yud (10); the first and second letters - yud vav (16); and the three letters together - yud vav daled (20); in total 10 plus 16 plus 20, and we get 46. And so we add the hei, the vav, and the final hei, and together we arrive at 130. It emerges that the number 130 is the gematria of the sequence of the Name of Hashem in the milui of yuds. And this is the Alter Rebbe's intent when he writes briefly that through this the Name is completed - so that even one who is not familiar with the entire kabbalistic order will know that the Name is completed.
And if there is such a great virtue here in completing the Name of Hashem, then seemingly on Shabbos morning, at shacharis, when we also say the psalm "Yosheiv beseser", we should also repeat the verse "orech yamim" in order to reach this completeness of the Name of Hashem in the milui of yuds. Regarding this the Rebbe brings in the custom that indeed on Motzaei Shabbos we repeat it, "but not in the shacharis prayer"; on Shabbos morning, when this psalm is said, it is not repeated - because the segulah, the protection and the safeguarding that are needed on Motzaei Shabbos are not relevant to Shabbos morning. These are the two customs with which the Rebbe opens.
Now the Rebbe brings a teaching whose source is a letter of the Rebbe Rayatz. The Rebbe writes: "When the Tzemach Tzedek was a child and studied the verse 'And Yaakov lived in the land of Mitzrayim seventeen years'". The Tzemach Tzedek studied the verse with his melamed - and although we are at the conclusion of parshas Vayechi, this is a general statement about the parshah - "And Yaakov lived in the land of Mitzrayim seventeen years", "his teacher rendered [explained] it to him according to the commentary of the Baal HaTurim".
What does the Baal HaTurim say? He says several things about the word "vayechi", and we will bring the last two. In the final explanation he says: what is "and Yaakov lived in the land of Mitzrayim"? For these were the last seventeen years of his life. Says the Baal HaTurim: until he went down to Mitzrayim Yaakov was in distress, for he said of himself "for I will go down to my son mourning to the grave", and he did not know what had become of Yosef; but once he went down to Mitzrayim and found Yosef there, he became "alive" and received new life specifically in Mitzrayim. That is one explanation.
And an earlier explanation also alludes to this: the word "vayechi" has the gematria of the number of good years that Yaakov had in his entire life - the seventeen years from when Yosef was born until he was sold, plus his final seventeen years in Mitzrayim. Here too we see that the final seventeen years in Mitzrayim were good; according to the second explanation of the Baal HaTurim they were the very best, even better than in Eretz Yisrael, and according to the other explanation he has seventeen and seventeen.
In any case, the melamed taught this to the Tzemach Tzedek as a child and told him that the final seventeen years that Yaakov was in Mitzrayim were the best years of his life. And this is the wording of what follows: "Yaakov Avinu lived the very best seventeen years in Mitzrayim" - specifically in Mitzrayim; so the melamed explained to the child, to the Tzemach Tzedek.
"When he came home from cheder, he asked his grandfather: "Is it possible that for Yaakov Avinu, the choicest of the Avos, the finest years of his life should be the seventeen years he dwelled in the land of Mitzrayim - the nakedness of the land?"" - in such a lowly, degraded, coarse place, there specifically he would live the best, Yaakov Avinu the choicest of the Avos?
"And the Alter Rebbe answered him" - with what did he answer him? He brought him interesting allusions from the wording of the verse. It is written that before Yaakov went down to Mitzrayim he made a preparation, as it says: "It is written 'And he sent Yehudah before him to Yosef, lehoros before him to Goshen'". Yaakov sent Yehudah ahead of everyone to Yosef. What is "lehoros before him"? "And it is stated in the Midrash - brought in Rashi - Rabbi Nechemyah said: to establish for him a house of study"; "lehoros" from the language of hora'ah and Torah - Yehudah went down to establish a house of study in Mitzrayim, "so that there would be Torah there and that the tribes would be immersed in Torah".
Here we will pause. What is the great virtue in learning Torah specifically in Mitzrayim? After all, in Eretz Yisrael too they learned Torah. There is a letter in which the Rebbe explains this, and he adds that the emphasis is specifically on "Yehudah". Yehudah symbolizes, in avodas Hashem, a Jew who has pleasure in kabbalas ol - Yehudah from the language of hoda'ah and kabbalas ol, except that he has pleasure from kabbalas ol. When the Holy One, blessed be He, wants Torah specifically in Mitzrayim - even though there can be Torah in Eretz Yisrael as well, and that is also good - why specifically Torah in Mitzrayim? Rather, even when it is not understood in the intellect, but with kabbalas ol one understands that this is the will of the Holy One, blessed be He, and nevertheless there is pleasure in it - the pleasure of the Master. And therefore it was specifically Yehudah who accomplished this.
And this is the conclusion of the teaching: "'lehoros before him Goshnah'" - simply, Goshen is the name of a place, but he writes "through the study of Torah one draws close to the Holy One, blessed be He, in such a way that even in Mitzrayim he is in the aspect of "vayechi" - with vitality", Goshnah from the language of drawing close (lageshes) to the Holy One, blessed be He.
The Rebbe repeated this teaching many times over the years, and explains it in several places in Likkutei Sichos, and the central directive that the Rebbe derives is that a Jew should contemplate this teaching and understand that "Mitzrayim" [the Egyptians and the constraints] are not supposed to diminish the strength of his bond with the Holy One, blessed be He; on the contrary, he can transform the matter, so that specifically the "constraints" become the very best life, better than all the rest of a Jew's life. This is the daily teaching.