The thirty-eighth "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Monday, 27 Tevet, 5703.
Lessons: Chumash, Va'eira, Sheni, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, on the 27th of the month, one recites from chapter 108 up to and including chapter 134.
Tanya, we are in the middle of chapter 14, before the words "mah she'ein kein," and it concludes with the word "tzaddikim, etc."
The daily teaching is brief, and its source is a letter written by the Rebbe Rayatz on 7 Marcheshvan 5691. The letter was written to a chassid named Besprov, whom the Rebbe Rayatz addresses with special titles — "gever tarshishim" — a chassid of a certain lineage. This chassid had written to the Rebbe Rayatz about a medical problem his son had; the son was apparently in a poor state of health, and this troubled him greatly.
The Rebbe Rayatz opens the letter and blesses him for the health of his son. Afterwards he asks him for further details about the situation — although in two or three lines he had written to him that he understood what was being discussed, he prefers that he elaborate more. Following this, the Rebbe Rayatz encourages him not to content himself with sighing over the situation, but rather to set aside a time for Torah study, to strengthen his soul with it and to provide nourishment for the soul.
He then concludes with a saying — the daily teaching — which the Rebbe took from that same letter. There it is cited in the name of "our great Rebbe," while here the Rebbe records it in the name of the Alter Rebbe, to whom it refers: "The Alter Rebbe said."
The teaching is originally in Yiddish, and in translation: "The physicality of a Jew is spirituality". And what is the explanation that a Jew's physicality is spirituality? "The Holy One, blessed be He, gives us physicality, and it is up to us to make spirituality out of it". The Holy One, blessed be He, gives us physicality, and our task is to take the physicality and transform it into spirituality — to use it according to the will of Hashem, and through it to strengthen the spiritual life, and so forth.
It is noteworthy that in this saying the Alter Rebbe relates to the materiality that each and every person possesses. Everyone looks at his own materiality and says: "I have materiality; I am a Jew, and my materiality is in essence spirituality. And how does it become spirituality? By my transforming it into spirituality" — that is, I must do something toward this end.
There is a parallel saying, appearing in many places and in well-known chassidic letters, that resembles this one, yet one can perceive in it an additional interesting emphasis — for it speaks about the physical needs of another. This teaching states that the physicality of your fellow is your spirituality: for the other person there must be, or there is, physicality, but for you the physicality of your fellow is your spirituality — you need not wait until he transforms it into spirituality; rather, the physicality of a Jew is, for you, spirituality.
Thus the Rebbe writes in one of his letters to a Jew who had written to him about his material situation: The Rebbe tells him, "Continue to detail for me your material circumstances; it is very important that you specify them" — why? Because another person's physicality is spirituality. And the Rebbe adds: "and especially the physicality of a Jew, which is holy." This connects to the saying, and constitutes an additional perspective on how to view the matter.
The teaching continues: "Sometimes this is not the case" — as the Rebbe Rayatz refers to that Jew whose situation was not good. The meaning is that sometimes a person's situation is not good, and what is then required of him? How is he to draw forth spirituality from the physical? After all, he has problems, he lacks material means and is in want; he has no vessels and nothing with which to act.
Concerning this, the saying states: "One must offer to the Holy One, blessed be He, even a poor man's meal-offering." A Jew must give to the Holy One, blessed be He, even a poor man's minchah — an offering small in quantity, a little flour, a handful, and the like. Yet the wording of our Sages regarding the poor man's meal-offering is well known: "Whether one does much or one does little, provided that he directs his heart toward Heaven." If the Holy One, blessed be He, sees that you are giving — even though it is little, it is nonetheless a minchah, and it accomplishes its effect.
And the conclusion: "then He gives in full measure" — the Holy One, blessed be He, gives in return abundantly and fills the vessels. That is to say, you must give; and when you give — even if it seems to you that you do not have much and that it is beyond your ability — the little that you can, the "minchat he'ani" (the offering of the poor man) that is within your power to give, this is the vessel that will bring about your having "full," an immense abundance. And this itself is the encouragement that the Rebbe gives to that Jew: act and accomplish, and you will see that the very deed will draw down to you great bounty.
This idea is already stated in the Mishnah in Pirkei Avot, in the words: "Everything that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in His world, He created solely for His honor" — that everything in the world must express the honor of Hashem. And there is a well-known teaching of Chazal that the Rebbe repeated many times, that gold was not created in the world and the world was not deserving of gold — so why was it created? Only for the sake of the Beit HaMikdash. The idea that all of physicality is meant to become spirituality is a great foundation in the outlook and worldview of a Jew in every matter, and it finds expression in this saying.
We will encounter this same idea again in Hayom Yom in several sayings that express it in a slightly different style, but this, in any case, is the essence of this teaching.
Let us conclude with a connection and allusion to the works of the Rambam, as we have seen in the preceding days. Two days ago we began Sefer Zemanim with the allusion to Hilchot Milah, and yesterday, in the previous lesson, to Hilchot Tefillah. What remains are all the intermediate halachot in Sefer Zemanim — Hilchot Tefillin, Sefer Torah, Tzitzit, and Berachot — and all these halachot in sequence express the idea of the teaching. For these halachot speak precisely about the point that when you take a physical thing, whether it be a Sefer Torah, tzitzit, tefillin, or a berachah that you recite over physical food — you take something physical and make of it something spiritual, a mitzvah, a Divine thing. This is a saying that folds within itself an idea summarizing the entire sequence of halachot of Sefer Zemanim in the Rambam, in the section that expresses this sequence.