The thirty-ninth "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Tuesday, 28 Teves 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Va'eira, Shlishi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, the 28th of the month, from chapter 135 through chapter 139 inclusive.
Tanya, on this day we conclude chapter 14, from the words "uvazeh yuvan" until the end of the chapter, with the words "tehi tzaddik".
Today's teaching is very short, so we will give the background to it. Originally the teaching appears in the diary notes that the Rebbe wrote of things he heard from his father-in-law, the Rebbe Rayatz, in the month of Sivan 5691. And what is the background? It is told that in the time of the third Rebbe, the Rebbe Tzemach Tzedek, there were many troubles, informings and harassment on the part of the "maskilim". The maskilim wanted to uproot entirely the approach of simple faith in the Torah of Israel and the pure chinuch in which Jewish children are raised to Torah and authentic Yiddishkeit, claiming that the children were not learning "core studies" and the like. It disturbed them greatly that the leadership and influence of the Rebbe Tzemach Tzedek were great and powerful over all the Jewish communities and over all circles, and therefore they acted against him with great force.
There is a fascinating description there. There is a kuntres called "HaTzemach Tzedek U'Tnuas HaHaskalah", containing several dozen pages that describe in great detail the entire course of events and how it unfolded - how the maskilim secretly sent spies to penetrate right into the stronghold of the Rebbe's own chassidim's homes and to monitor their learning. It is interesting that it appears there that one of the maskilim who was sent was present at a farbrengen of the Rebbe Tzemach Tzedek and heard two maamarim of chassidus, and he was so stunned by the depth of the matters that when he returned to his fellow maskilim he said that our haskalah compared to his intellect is like complete foolishness. He was very impressed by the depth of the matters, but this disturbed them greatly and led to harsh informing.
The government in Russia, influenced by the informing and by the maskilim's dealings with the ministers of the crown and the like, actually attempted to interfere in the chinuch of Jewish children and in the content being taught. The Rebbe Tzemach Tzedek stood with great mesirus nefesh throughout that entire period, and in the end the decree was annulled, baruch Hashem.
From this whole story - one of the special, powerful and difficult stories of the period of the Tzemach Tzedek's nesius - the Rebbe brings, over the course of the Hayom Yom calendar, three teachings scattered in different places: the present teaching on 28 Teves, which is the first in the calendar; and later on, several months afterward, in the teaching of 8 Elul; and also in the teaching of 23 Marcheshvan. On these three days the Rebbe brings different aspects connected to the event of the Tzemach Tzedek's battle against the Haskalah movement. In the teaching of 8 Elul, which we will learn be'ezras Hashem, it explains by what merit he ultimately succeeded; and in the teaching of 23 Cheshvan it tells how many times he was arrested - for in the midst of the matter he traveled to Petersburg, and there were discussions and debates, and he was arrested several times by the government.
In any case, the Rebbe Tzemach Tzedek wrote a work, and the present teaching revolves around it. Let us read its wording: "In the sefer of inquiry (Derech Emunah) by the Tzemach Tzedek, which was confiscated". There is a sefer of the Tzemach Tzedek to which the Rebbe gave the name "Sefer HaChakirah", except that the printer in the first edition gave it a different name - "Derech Emunah". In practice both names remained: "Derech Emunah", which the publisher gave, and also "Sefer HaChakirah", which the Rebbe called it.
About this sefer the Rebbe writes "many hagahos are missing" - that is, the sefer is not fully complete, and many hagahos are missing from it. And what is the content of the sefer, and why did the Rebbe Tzemach Tzedek compose it? It appears here: "The Rav, the Tzemach Tzedek, composed it in connection with his journeys to Petersburg". Following his journey to Petersburg, the Tzemach Tzedek had to engage in many debates and discussions surrounding faith in Hashem and so on, and to answer a number of questions on these matters, and therefore he composed an entire sefer that includes the treatment of the whole subject.
The truth is that the sefer as we have it contains not only what was said at that conference in Petersburg. The conference was in the year 5603, and the Rebbe added to the sefer over time more and more - he expanded the sefer with additional topics, details and chapters - until it is far larger than what it originally contained. And although chassidim are accustomed and educated that the approach to Elokus should be with simple faith, whereas in the sefer there are all sorts of explanations and proofs regarding Divine providence and the creation of the world by the Creator and so on - as the Rebbe writes in the foreword to the sefer, "it was a necessity and a directive of the hour": there was an absolute need to give logical explanations, because those maskilim and their false views wanted to take everything through intellect and understanding.
And what is the connection to 28 Teves? We will speak about this, especially in light of what we mentioned, that the Rebbe scattered the topics connected to this event in several places in Hayom Yom. Why specifically on 28 Teves did he insert it? On this there is no clear explanation, but by way of possibility it seems one can find the connection to 28 Teves in two things. First, we are in parashas Va'eira, Tuesday. When one looks in the Chumash, on Tuesday of parashas Va'eira, there is the verse "and I will multiply My signs and My wonders... and the Egyptians shall know that I am Hashem" - that the Holy One, blessed be He, performs acts so that even the nations, even the Egyptians, will recognize the presence of the Creator. And this is essentially the content of the matter here: the sefer was intended so that even those who do not believe, the maskilim who wish to uproot every matter of faith in Hashem, should know that I am Hashem. That is one connection.
Another interesting connection is bound up with the date 28 Teves. There is a sefer called "Megillas Ta'anis", and although its name is "Megillas Ta'anis" (Scroll of Fasting), it is not a scroll of fast days, but rather of dates of days on which joyous events occurred and therefore it is forbidden to fast on them. It contains listings of dates throughout the year with historical events that occurred on them. And when one looks at this day, 28 Teves - what happened on it?
In Megillas Ta'anis it is told that at the time when the Tzedukim existed - those who do not believe in the Oral Torah and do not believe with simple faith in Elokus - the Tzedukim penetrated into the composition of the Sanhedrin and sat within it, and not a single worthy Jewish talmid chacham sat there, until it became a Sanhedrin of Tzedukim. The only one who sat there was Shimon ben Shatach, the only Tanna among them. People would come to ask questions as one comes to the Sanhedrin, and the Tzedukim did not know how to bring proofs from the Torah for their words, since they do not believe in the Oral Torah - and when the proof is built on the Oral Torah, they did not know how to bring evidence.
It is told there that Shimon ben Shatach intervened and said: whoever can bring a proof from the Torah is entitled to sit in the Sanhedrin, and whoever cannot has no business sitting here. Once a question came up on the spot, and no one knew, and they were all silent. One of the elders of the Tzedukim came and began to argue that he would indeed manage with it, and he said to Shimon ben Shatach: give me a day, I will go home and tomorrow I will bring an answer. Yannai the king was also sitting there. They gave him time and he went; he sat by himself and found no source at all, and since he saw that he had no source he was ashamed to return to the Sanhedrin, and an empty place remained.
Said Shimon ben Shatach: there is no possibility that the Sanhedrin be fewer than seventy-one, and one did not come - I will bring in another in his place. He took one of the God-fearing Jewish students and brought him in his place. And so every day he would ask a question, and drag out another who went home and did not return, and bring in a Jewish student in his place - until he succeeded in removing them all, and it became a Sanhedrin of God-fearing sages. And on that day when the Sanhedrin of the Tzedukim departed and in their place came the Sanhedrin of the Jews - that was 28 Teves, and it became a yom tov for the Jewish people, and therefore it is forbidden to fast on it.
And this is essentially the content of the teaching of 28 Teves: that the Tzemach Tzedek composed his work in order to answer the Tzedukim of his time - the maskilim - and to answer all their questions and to prove to them how they are not correct. This is perhaps the connection between the teaching and specifically this date of 28 Teves.