"Cheder" number three hundred thirty-seven in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Shabbos, 1 Cheshvan, Shabbos Rosh Chodesh, 5704.
Let us consider the name of the month. In many places in the Torah the month is called "Marcheshvan," yet in the book "Hayom Yom" the Rebbe refers to the month as "Cheshvan," without the added prefix "mar."
One of the chassidim who devoted much time to studying the "Hayom Yom" and delving into it, Rabbi Zeligson, once asked the Rebbe years ago: Why does the Rebbe in "Hayom Yom" refer to the month by the name "Cheshvan" and not "Marcheshvan"? The Rebbe replied that the simple reason is that the name "Cheshvan" is more commonly used by people. The Rebbe added that perhaps the reason it is more commonly used is that when people see the word "mar," it evokes for them a connotation of bitterness — even though that is not its meaning, for "mar" is derived from the word for "drop," as in "kemar midli" [-a drop from a bucket]. But since it evokes a connotation of bitterness, perhaps that is why people use it less, and therefore the Rebbe retained the name of the month as "Cheshvan."
Chumash: Noach, Sheviʼi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, on the first of the month, one recites from chapter 1 through chapter 9 inclusive.
Tanya: On this day we continue Iggeret 25. The daily portion is on page 280, from the words "vehinei zeh le'umat zeh," concluding with the word "hama'alot."
Here we have a directive for conduct connected to the Torah reading of that day, followed by a teaching. On Shabbat morning, after the Shacharit prayer, the entire weekly portion is read from the Torah — in our case, the whole of Parashat Noach. But at Minchah on Shabbat, as well as on Monday and Thursday of the following week, we already read the beginning of the next portion, Parashat Lech-Lecha.
Here the Rebbe addresses the question of what is read at Minchah in Parashas Lech-Lecha. There are the aliyos of Kohen, Levi, and Yisrael, and regarding the aliyah of Yisrael there are differing customs as to which verse the third aliyah begins from: some begin it from verse 10, with the words "vayehi ra'av ba'aretz," while others have the custom to begin it from verse 7, with the words "vayeira Hashem el Avram." And this is what the Rebbe says here: "At Minchah, and likewise on Monday and Thursday, may they come upon us for good, one reads for Yisrael from the verse 'vayeira Hashem el Avram etc.'" — that is, in the third aliyah, in which Yisrael goes up, one reads from the verse "vayeira Hashem el Avram."
The following passage is a teaching, a quote from a letter written by the Rebbe Rayatz on 25 Nissan 5698. Continuing what was discussed earlier about the order of the reading in parashas Lech-Lecha, the Rebbe brings a saying on the theme of parashas Lech-Lecha.
In a letter, the Rebbe Rayatz recounts that his father, the Rebbe Rashab, once asked a Jewish melamed who had come to him for yechidus whether he had a set time for studying Chassidus with the people of the place where he lived on weekdays, and not only on Shabbos. The melamed replied that the balebatim of the place did not have much desire to learn on a weekday, and therefore they studied a shiur only on Shabbos.
Regarding this, the Rebbe Rashab told him that you did not come to the village merely to be a melamed; for if your entire livelihood were as a melamed, the Holy One, blessed be He, would have arranged children for you in your place of residence, and there you would teach. So why did the Holy One, blessed be He, send you to another town? True, you occupy yourself there also as a melamed, but there is an additional purpose for your having come specifically there. The verse says "Mei-Hashem mitzadei gaver" (the steps of a man are directed by Hashem) — a person has a destination and a purpose for why he came to live in a particular place. And here we see what he told him.
Let us read the wording: "My revered father, may his memory be a blessing, said to someone during yechidus: From the time the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Avraham Avinu, peace be upon him, "Go forth from your land, etc."" — the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded Avraham Avinu to leave the place where he was and to travel toward the Holy One, blessed be He, "to the land that I will show you." "And it is written, "And Avram journeyed, going and traveling toward the south."" — and indeed so he did.
From that moment on, this was not merely a personal, isolated act of Avraham Avinu relocating; rather, Avraham Avinu was an all-encompassing Jew, and his act has an effect on all the generations and on the entire Jewish people. And from then on — "the mystery of the birurim was set in motion."
What is the "secret of the birurim"? In the world there is a mixture of good and evil, of waste and of something holy, and the task of a Jew is to perform the work of birurim (refinements). The concept of "birurim" is drawn from one of the categories of forbidden Shabbos labor — the melachah of borer (sorting). The essence of the melachah of borer is that there is a mixture of something that is fitting and desirable to us (called "food") and something that falls under the category of "waste" (what I do not want), and on Shabbos it is forbidden to remove the waste from the food.
Here, however, we are speaking of that same idea in the service of Hashem, where the matter is reversed: in everything in the world there is a mixture — holy sparks and refuse which is everything surrounding them — and the task of a Jew is to extract the food from the refuse, the good from the bad; this is therefore called "berurim." The secret of the berurim began with Avraham Avinu, when he began to move from his place and to travel wherever the Holy One, blessed be He, tells him, for along his way he must perform the work of berurim and gather up the sparks that are scattered everywhere.
He continues: "And by the decree of Divine providence a person travels on his journeys to the place where the sparks that need to be refined through him await their redemption" — thus did the Holy One, blessed be He, establish man's conduct. Each person has the sparks that specifically he is able to refine, except that a person does not know where his sparks are located. Therefore he must believe in Divine providence, that the Holy One, blessed be He, sends him to a particular place because there await him sparks that are his alone, and that is why he arrived there. It seems to a person that he arrived due to external reasons, but this is the true reason.
And he concludes: "the tzaddikim, who are "people of vision"" — a tzaddik sees his purpose in life and his objectives everywhere — "they see in which place their birurim await them, and they go there themselves". The tzaddik knows precisely where the portion he needs to rectify is located, and he rises and goes there himself, for he knows that he has a mission there.
However, "ama devar" — a term for the simple folk, who are outside this level of the tzaddikim ("bar" in Aramaic means "outside") — do not see the way the tzaddikim see, and yet they too are charged with the task of performing the avodah of berurim. And how are they to know where to go? "Behold, the Cause of all causes and the Reason of all reasons" — a term for the Holy One, blessed be He, who is the source of all that occurs and the reason for all outcomes — "arranges several causes and reasons that they should come to that place."
The Holy One, blessed be He, provides all sorts of reasons that make a person think it is on their account that he is traveling somewhere: physical livelihood, the desire to take a trip, the wish to see scenery, or some other reason; or it seems to him that by mistake he entered the wrong street and had a "flat tire," or that his horse ran off and he remained an extra day in a place he had not planned. All these reasons the Holy One, blessed be He, brings about so that he will come to that particular place; since that person has a certain spark that only he can rectify there, the Holy One, blessed be He, sets in motion the entire world and sends him there, "for there the task of the avodah of the birurim has been placed upon them."
And this is the reason each person arrives wherever he arrives. He simply must do what is required of him, and not miss the divine mission for which he came to that place.