The thirty-sixth "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Shabbos, 25 Teves, 5703.
This Shabbos is Shabbos Mevorchim of the month of Shevat. There is a line here that recurs on every Shabbos Mevorchim throughout all of Hayom Yom, and so the Rebbe repeats and mentions anew on each Shabbos Mevorchim: "Mevorchim Rosh Chodesh Shevat" - on that Shabbos we bless the coming month, Shevat. "Recital of the entire Tehillim early in the morning" - the custom on every Shabbos Mevorchim to say the whole Tehillim early in the morning, before Shacharis. "A day of farbrengen" - the takanah of the Rebbe Rayatz that Shabbos Mevorchim be a day of farbrengen.
In the next passage the Rebbe refers to the haftorah recited on Shabbos Parshas Shemos. It is known that there are several customs regarding the haftorah of Parshas Shemos: Sephardim read "Divrei Yirmiyahu", Temanim read "Vayehi devar Hashem" from Sefer Yechezkel, and Ashkenazim read "Haba'im yashresh". Since there are several customs, the Rebbe notes which haftorah is said on this day - "The haftorah Haba'im yashresh", and this is our custom.
Shiurim: Chumash, Shemos, sheviʼi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, the 25th of the month, chapter 119 - from the beginning of the chapter, "Ashrei", until the end of the letter lamed, which concludes with the words "rechavah mitzvascha me'od".
Tanya, we are in the second part of chapter 13, from the words "Ach me'achar" until the words "keneged kulam".
The saying itself is brought here "from the sichos of my father, my teacher and Rebbe", meaning that the Rebbe Rayatz describes and relates sichos that his father said. The source of the saying is a letter that the Rebbe Rayatz wrote on Isru Chag of Pesach 5699, where he brings what his father, the Rebbe Rashab, said to the congregation on Shabbos Parshas Va'eschanan 5672.
In this fascinating letter the Rebbe Rayatz describes the whole order of events: how before Kabbalas Shabbos his father said a maamar of chassidus - part of the well-known hemshech "Im Bechukosai" - and afterwards, at the Shabbos meal, he elaborated at length on various points of that maamar, and also told various stories at that meal. The Rebbe Rayatz describes that the stories were so numerous that by the end of the Shabbos meal the day had already dawned - that is, the meal lasted all night.
At the conclusion of the stories a very sharp expression is brought there, that the way of Toras haChassidus touches primarily on avodas Hashem - that chassidus must find expression in avodas Hashem. And those who think that chassidus is merely intellectual grasp, an intellectual study that has no bearing on avodas Hashem - they live in error, and one must pity their body and their soul. He even says there that it would be better had they not learned chassidus at all, for it does not help them and they even desecrate chassidus thereby - very sharp expressions.
Afterwards the Rebbe Rashab says the saying that appears in the daily quote. Let us look at its source, in Yiddish, and at its translation: "Yetzias Mitzrayim - the going out from the constraints and limitations". The content of the matter: the concept of "yetzias Mitzrayim" means going out from the restrictions, from the constraints and limitations. Chassidus is the going out from the understood constraints and limitations; it too is a kind of yetzias Mitzrayim, for it gives a Jew the strength to go out from the constraints and limitations of the world.
But he explains that there is a difference between the general yetzias Mitzrayim, in which the Jewish people went out of Egypt, and yetzias Mitzrayim in the sense of Toras haChassidus. The general yetzias Mitzrayim is a matter of "breaking and leaving" - an avodah whose theme is to break and to leave, as it actually was at yetzias Mitzrayim: the verse says "vayenatzlu es Mitzrayim" - they extracted all the sparks from Egypt and left it, Egypt was struck with plagues, and the Torah tells the Jewish people "you shall not see them again forever". Thus the general yetzias Mitzrayim is a matter of breaking and leaving, and therefore the Jewish people left Egypt.
Whereas the yetzias Mitzrayim of chassidus - that chassidus too works to bring a person out of the constraints and limitations - is of a different sort: "birurim and tikkun". It is not to break and to leave, but on the contrary - to refine and to rectify. On the one hand to go out from the constraints and limitations of the world, but within the world itself - meaning that you do not leave the world, and you do not stop working and dealing with its affairs. 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 in it and live in it - only that one must live in it not in error, and one's perception of the world must be that the world does not contradict Torah and mitzvos. That is called going out from the constraints and limitations.
And as he explains: to be within the world, and in this way to be in a state of going out from the constraint and limitation of the world - while being within it, to live without its constraints and limitations, so that the world does not disturb us. To remove the constraint and limitation - meaning the perception of the world as though it conceals and disturbs and limits matters of Torah and mitzvos - and on the contrary, to recognize and to live in truth. And what is the truth? That the world itself is truly good. And why is it good? "Dehavah ra'ava kameih yisbarech" - 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. So what is required? To go out from the constraints and limitations, from the incorrect perception of the world. And when a Jew serves Hashem in the way of chassidus, he can go out from the constraints and limitations of the world, and at the same time live within it.
This saying is a continuation of the content of the saying we read yesterday, on 24 Teves - even though they were not said on the same occasion. Yesterday the saying was that the Alter Rebbe wanted that through chassidus everything be illuminated, even that which is not good; for in Egypt, as mentioned, they took out the sparks and left, but did not rectify, whereas the yetzias Mitzrayim of chassidus is a matter of rectification. And the connection of the saying to Parshas Shemos is very evident, for Moshe Rabbeinu asks Pharaoh "Send out My people", and the subject of yetzias Mitzrayim is the theme of Parshas Shemos.
In yesterday's lesson we began to see the connection of the allusion to the books of the Rambam in Hayom Yom: we saw that the second book in Rambam began, Sefer Ahavah. And today there is an allusion here to the first halachos of Sefer Ahavah - Hilchos Krias Shema - for in Krias Shema, as is known, there is the passage of yetzias Mitzrayim. And the entire daily saying explains the matter of yetzias Mitzrayim, corresponding to Hilchos Krias Shema in Sefer Ahavah, the second book of the Rambam.