The thirty-sixth "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Shabbos, 25 Teves, 5703.
This Shabbat is the Shabbat on which we bless the month of Shvat. There is a line here that recurs on every Shabbat Mevarchim throughout the "Hayom Yom," and thus the Rebbe repeats and mentions anew on every Shabbat Mevarchim: "We bless Rosh Chodesh Shvat" — on that Shabbat we bless the coming month, Shvat. "Recitation of the entire Tehillim early in the morning" — the custom on every Shabbat Mevarchim to recite the entire Tehillim early in the morning, before the Shacharit prayer. "Day of farbrengen" — the enactment of the Rebbe Rayatz that there be a day of farbrengen on Shabbat Mevarchim.
In the following passage the Rebbe refers to the haftarah recited on Shabbos Parshas Shemos. It is known that there are several customs regarding the reading of the haftarah of Parshas Shemos: the Sephardim have the custom to read "Divrei Yirmiyahu," the Yemenites read "Vayehi devar Hashem" from the book of Yechezkel, and the Ashkenazim read "Haba'im yashresh." Since there are several customs, the Rebbe notes which haftarah is recited on this day — "the haftarah of Haba'im yashresh," and this is our custom.
Shiurim: Chumash, Shemot, seventh aliyah, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, 25th of the month, chapter 119 — from the beginning of the chapter, "Ashrei," until the conclusion of the letter Lamed, which ends with the words "rechavah mitzvatecha me'od."
Tanya: We are in the second part of chapter 13, from the words "Ach me'achar" until the words "keneged kulam."
The teaching itself is brought here "from the talks of my revered father, my teacher and master" [adoni avi mori v'rabi], meaning that the Rebbe Rayatz describes and recounts talks that his father delivered. The source of the saying is a letter that the Rebbe Rayatz wrote on Isru Chag of Pesach 5699, and there he brings what his father, the Rebbe Rashab, said to the assembled on Shabbos Parshas Va'eschanan 5672.
In this fascinating letter, the Rebbe Rayatz describes the entire sequence: how his father, before Kabbalas Shabbos, delivered a maamar Chassidus — part of the well-known "hemshech" "Im Bechukosai" — and afterward, at the Shabbos meal, expounded at length on various points from that maamar, and also related various stories at that same meal. The Rebbe Rayatz describes that the stories were so numerous that by the conclusion of the Shabbos meal, day had already broken — that is, the meal continued throughout the entire night.
At the conclusion of the stories, a very sharp expression is brought there — that the way of Chassidus touches primarily on avodas Hashem, that Chassidus must find expression in avodas Hashem. And those who think that Chassidus is merely intellectual comprehension, an intellectual study that does not touch upon avodas Hashem — they live in error, and it is a pity for their body and their soul. He even says there that it would have been better had they not studied Chassidus at all, since it does not benefit them and they even profane Chassidus thereby — very sharp expressions indeed.
Afterward the Rebbe Rashab says the teaching that appears in the daily quotation. Let us examine its source, in Yiddish, and its translation: "yetzias Mitzrayim — the departure from the straits and boundaries." The content of these words: the concept of "yetzias Mitzrayim" means to go out from limitations, from the straits and boundaries. Chassidus is the departure from the ordinary straits and boundaries; it too is a kind of yetzias Mitzrayim, for it gives a Jew the strength to go out from the straits and boundaries of the world.
However, he explains that there is a difference between the general Exodus from Egypt, in which the Jewish people left Egypt, and the Exodus from Egypt as understood in the teachings of Chassidus. The general Exodus is a matter of "breaking and abandoning" — an avodah whose essence is to break and to abandon, as it actually was during the Exodus: the verse states "and they emptied out Egypt" — they extracted all the sparks from Egypt and left it behind; Egypt was struck with plagues, and the Torah tells the Jewish people "you shall never see them again forever." If so, the general Exodus from Egypt is a matter of breaking and abandoning, and therefore the Jewish people left Egypt.
The Exodus from Egypt as expressed in Chassidus — for Chassidus, too, works to bring a person out of the constraints and limitations — is of a different sort: "refinement and rectification." Its way is not to break and abandon, but on the contrary — to refine and to rectify. On the one hand, to depart from the constraints and limitations of the world, yet within the world itself — meaning that you do not abandon the world, and you do not cease to work and engage in its matters. On the contrary, as he says further on, the world is a world that the Holy One, blessed be He, created, and it has a purpose and a goal, and one must be within it and live within it — only that one must live within it not in error, and that one's grasp of the world should be that the world does not contradict Torah and mitzvos. This is what it means to depart from the constraints and limitations.
And as he explains: to be within the world, and in this way to be in a state of leaving the constriction and limitation of the world — while being within it, to live without its constrictions and limitations, so that the world does not disturb us. To remove the constriction and limitation — that is, the perception of the world as though it conceals, disturbs, and limits matters of Torah and mitzvot — and, on the contrary, to recognize and to truly live. And what is the truth? That the world itself is truly good. And why is it good? "Dehava ra'ava kamei yitbarech" — because it is the will of the Holy One, blessed be He, that there be a world, and if this is His will, it is clear that it is good. If so, what is required? To leave the constrictions and limitations, the incorrect perception of the world. And when a Jew serves Hashem in the way of Chassidus, he is able to leave the constrictions and limitations of the world, and at the same time to live within it.
This teaching is a continuation of the content of the saying we read yesterday, on 24 Tevet — even though they were not said on the same occasion. Yesterday's saying was that the Alter Rebbe wanted that through Chassidus everything should be illuminated, even that which is not-good; for in Egypt, as mentioned, they extracted the sparks and departed, but did not rectify, whereas the exodus from Egypt in Chassidus is a matter of tikkun. And the connection of the saying to Parshas Shemos is very prominent, since Moshe Rabbeinu asks Pharaoh "let My people go," and the theme of the exodus from Egypt is the subject of Parshas Shemos.
In yesterday's lesson we began to see the connection of the allusion to the Rambam's books found in the "Hayom Yom": we saw that the second book of the Rambam, Sefer Ahavah, had begun. And today there is an allusion here to the first laws of Sefer Ahavah — the laws of Kriat Shema — for in Kriat Shema, as is known, there is the passage of Yetziat Mitzrayim. And the entire daily teaching explains the matter of Yetziat Mitzrayim, which corresponds to the laws of Kriat Shema in Sefer Ahavah, the second book of the Rambam.