The three hundred forty-fifth "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Sunday, 9 Cheshvan 5704.
Shiurim: Chumash, beginning a new parashah, Vayera, the first section with the commentary of Rashi.
Tehillim, on the ninth of the month, one recites from chapter 49 through chapter 54 inclusive.
Tanya: we continue with Iggeret 26. Today's portion begins on page 288 with the words "והנה העליונים" ("Now the higher"), and concludes on page 145 with the words "עובד גילולים" ("an idolater").
The daily teaching is a short story that the Rebbe Rayatz related on 20 Cheshvan 5693 — the birthday of his father, the Rebbe Rashab. The Rebbe heard it from the Rebbe Rayatz and recorded it in his diary, "Reshimat HaYoman," and from there he copied it into "Hayom Yom." Over the years the Rebbe spoke about this story dozens of times, and perhaps more, and each time he drew from it a lesson and emphasized a particular point within it. In the Rebbe's teachings, in "Likkutei Sichot" and in the unedited sichot, there is a great deal of discussion of this story. Let us examine the story and note some of the matters that the Rebbe explained in it over the years.
The story opens: "When my revered father, my teacher and master [the Rashab] was four or five years old" — the Rebbe Rayatz tells of his father, the Rebbe Rashab, when he was a small child of four or five. The very mention that the story took place specifically at the age of four or five — the Rebbe speaks about this: when we are dealing with a tzaddik like the Rebbe Rashab, then, as the Gemara says, from his childhood he was already born as a great man; but nevertheless one can learn from this also regarding people who are not on the level of a tzaddik — that it is possible to have an effect on a small child, even at the age of four or five, and to educate him in the proper way. To what extent will it matter to him, to the point of weeping? For as we shall see, what is related here about the Rebbe Rashab can be extended, on a certain level, to every child.
And what happened when he was four or five years old? "He came in to his grandfather, the Tzemach Tzedek, on the holy Shabbos of Parshas Vayeira and began to cry" — this occurred on Shabbos Parshas Vayeira, apparently on the Rashab's birthday or close to it. The four- or five-year-old child came in to his grandfather and began to cry. And what was he crying about? "saying: Why did Hashem appear to Avraham Avinu, yet to us He does not appear?" — he cries over the fact that the Holy One, blessed be He, appeared to Avraham Avinu, as he had learned in Parshas Vayeira, which opens with "And Hashem appeared to him," whereas to him the Holy One, blessed be He, does not appear. This is the caring concern of a child of four or five.
The Rebbe points out a precise detail: although already in parashas Lech-Lecha it is told that the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed Himself to Avraham Avinu — and the Rebbe Rashab had learned this a week earlier in "cheder," in parashas Lech-Lecha — he did not come to cry to his grandfather then, but specifically at parashas Vayeira. That is to say, it was the divine revelation in parashas Vayeira that moved him to tears, and not the one in parashas Lech-Lecha. Why? The Rebbe explains: In parashas Lech-Lecha the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed Himself to Avraham Avinu because of Avraham's greatness — and it is understandable, then, that we are speaking of a very special personality, for whom such a revelation is fitting. But in parashas Vayeira, after Avraham had performed the bris milah at the end of parashas Lech-Lecha, what was the reason for the revelation? What is written at the beginning of the parashah? To visit the sick. The Holy One, blessed be He, came to him not because of his greatness as Avraham Avinu, but because a man had performed a bris milah and was ill, and the Holy One, blessed be He, came to visit him. This aroused within the Rebbe Rashab: If so, I too want to have this revelation, that the Holy One, blessed be He, should reveal Himself to me. That is the crying.
And what was the essence of his crying — why "does it not appear" to us? What is the emphasis on the word "appears"? The Rebbe explains that the Rebbe Rashab understood that every Jew who has a bris receives a divine revelation, but not necessarily in a revealed manner. About this he cried: my desire is that it should be in a manner of "appearing," in a revealed way, that I should feel it.
And what does the grandfather, the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek, answer the child? "The Tzemach Tzedek answered him," and said to him in Yiddish: "When a righteous Jew of ninety-nine years decides that he must circumcise himself — he is worthy that Hashem should reveal Himself to him" [there are two versions of the story: according to one he said to him only "a Jew," and according to the other "a righteous Jew"]. That is to say, when a righteous Jew reaches the age of ninety-nine and decides that he must circumcise himself — he is worthy that the Holy One, blessed be He, should indeed reveal Himself to him.
In the Tzemach Tzedek's reply as well, the Rebbe points out a precise detail: first of all, we understand from the crying that every Jew, whatever his stature and level may be, is able to demand that the Holy One, blessed be He, reveal Himself to him. But from the Tzemach Tzedek's answer we understand that in order to receive a divine revelation, you must take something off of yourself — to remove the orlah, the thing that obstructs and covers over you.
There are also several other interesting subtleties here. He wept — why did Hashem appear to Avraham "Avinu" (our father)? What is the emphasis in the word "Avinu"? Because he wished to present an argument as to why this is fitting for every Jew as well: A Jew inherits what Avraham Avinu received; if he is "Avinu" (our father), then we are his heirs, and consequently, if he merited such a revelation, we too can inherit and receive this from him.
And what does the Tzemach Tzedek answer him? The Mishnah in Pirkei Avot states that a person who reaches the age of one hundred is "as if he has died and passed on and become nullified from the world." What does this mean? When a person reaches the perfection of one hundred — that is, that his ten faculties are fully rectified, ten times ten — the world no longer disturbs and conceals, and he is complete. But at the age of ninety-nine he has not yet reached the perfection of one hundred, and something is still lacking at a certain point. A righteous Jew knows that at ninety-nine he has almost reached the peak, yet he still has work to do — he knows that he must perform the brit milah, and remove something from himself.
This is what the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek says, that Avraham Avinu "resolved." What does "resolved" mean? He himself understood and knew that his avodah was not perfect and that he needed to refine himself. And this is also a message that a Jew must always know: no matter how much he has worked and no matter how much he has attained, he should not think that he is perfect — he still has what to refine and what to add. And this was the Tzemach Tzedek's answer: Why was Avraham Avinu worthy of this divine revelation? Because first of all he understood that he had to do something, and he indeed did it — he removed the veil, even the very thinnest one, that was interfering, and therefore he merited "nir'ah" (was seen), that the Holy One, blessed be He, is seen and revealed to him. This is the point in the daily teaching of 9 Cheshvan.