The three hundred forty-third "room" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Friday, 7 Cheshvan 5704.
Shiurim: Chumash, Lech Lecha, Shishi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, on the seventh of the month, from chapter 39 through chapter 43 inclusive.
Tanya, we continue with Iggeret 26. Today's lesson begins on page 286 with the word "ach," and concludes on page 288 with the words "hakol echad."
The source of the daily teaching is a diary entry that the Rebbe recorded from a bris at which he participated in the presence of the Rebbe Rayatz. At the bris the Rebbe Rayatz said a certain point, and the Rebbe recorded it in his diary, and from there copied it also to here.
It is known that there are three types of milah. In Sefer Yetzirah the concept of "milat halashon" (circumcision of the tongue) appears, and there is "milat ha'ervah" (circumcision of the flesh), and in the Torah it is stated "u'maltem et orlat levavchem" (and you shall circumcise the foreskin of your heart). These three levels of milah are divided corresponding to the three garments of the soul — action, speech, and thought: the orlah of the flesh is action, which must be circumcised literally through deed; milat halashon is speech, wherein one must guard one's speech so that it be proper; and the orlah of the heart is a matter of thought.
Here in this saying the Rebbe explains the difference between the order that preceded the giving of the Torah and the order that followed it — how Avraham Avinu's progression and connection to the Holy One, blessed be He, came about, for the bris is a kind of connection. What was the order before the giving of the Torah, and what changed afterward?
The Rebbe opens with "the order after the giving of the Torah is:" — how this applies to us today. After the giving of the Torah, what is the order of the covenant, the order of a Jew's joining and bonding with the Holy One, blessed be He? It begins first of all with action, which is the main thing; from there one advances to speech, and advances still further to thought. "The removal of the foreskin of the body" is the first thing, after it "the tongue" — speech, and finally "the heart" — following the order of "action, speech, and thought." So it is today.
However, with regard to "Avraham Avinu, who lived before the giving of the Torah," what was the order of his drawing close to the Holy One, blessed be He? "At first he recognized his Creator" — first of all, before everything else, the matter was in his heart and "in thought," that he recognized the Holy One, blessed be He, and believed in Him; this was the first stage. "Afterward he publicized His Divinity" — subsequently he did not keep it to himself, but began to tell everyone, "and he called there in the name of Hashem," and publicized His Kingship — and by this he moved on to speech. "And afterward, milah — action" — and finally, when he reached the age of ninety-nine, there was the milah, which is action.
It emerges that before mattan Torah, action was pushed to the last stage, whereas after mattan Torah it becomes clear that action is the main thing and takes precedence. That is why we see, in practice, that after mattan Torah, a newborn child — on the eighth day, while he still understands nothing, first of all a bris milah is performed on him, an act; afterward, when he grows older, his father teaches him Torah, beginning with speech; and only after that, when he grows still older, does he begin to grasp also in the soul and in thought.
When the Rebbe related this story at one of the farbrengens, he connected it to a well-known story that took place in the family of the Tzemach Tzedek, in which there was a dilemma regarding one of the grandchildren about which mohel to bring. What was the dilemma? There was one mohel who was a professional, skilled in the craft of circumcision, but was not so proficient in the hidden kavanos of the bris milah; and by contrast a second mohel, who was not so outstanding in the actual practice, but was a person of stature and proficient in all the kavanos of the bris milah.
And the Tzemach Tzedek said that in a bris milah the main thing is the deed, and the doing is the most important matter; therefore one should take a mohel who knows how to perform his craft well, and once the deed is done properly — the matter reaches on its own where it needs to reach, and even without knowledge of the kavanos it accomplishes all that is required. For after Mattan Torah the deed is the main thing, and therefore one begins specifically with the aspect of the deed.