Room number three hundred forty-six in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Monday, 10 Marcheshvan, 5704.
Chumash lessons: Vayeira, Sheni, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, on the tenth of the month, one recites from chapter 55 through chapter 59 inclusive.
Tanya: On this day we complete Iggeret 26. The daily portion begins on page 145 with the words "aval betzeit," and concludes at the end of the letter with the words "be'etz chaim vedai lameivin."
The brief quotation of the daily teaching is drawn from a talk delivered by the Rebbe Rayatz on Shabbos Parshas Chayei Sarah 5703. Although this farbrengen does not appear in the volume of talks before us, it seems the Rebbe had notes from it, and he himself was present at that farbrengen. The Rebbe quotes something the Rebbe Rayatz said about the Alter Rebbe, describing the great emotion that gripped him when the discussion turned to lofty divine levels — that he not only spoke about them, but lived in them and was within them.
And how did he react when higher levels were being discussed? "The Rebbe (our teacher, the Alter Rebbe) would refer to Atzilut as "above"" — when the Alter Rebbe wished to speak about the world of Atzilut, he would not say "Atzilut," but rather "above," in order to allude to this level without uttering the word "Atzilut," due to the sheer intensity of that level; he would not articulate it even in speech.
Furthermore, he adds: When the Alter Rebbe would write down a maamar or the like in his own hand, and wished to write about the level of the world of Atzilut, out of intense emotion "the accounts of what he wrote — he was unable to write more than 'Atzi'" — only half of the word "Atzilut," alef-tzadi-yud, with the line above it that alludes to the world of Atzilut. Even in writing he was incapable of setting down anything beyond that.
This anecdote calls to mind a certain matter: in the Zohar on parashat Vayikra there is a description of the passing of Rabbi Eliezer HaGadol, and there we find a fascinating account of the Torah revelations he disclosed on the very day of his passing, in the sharp expressions he spoke to the students who came to him.
In the passages that follow, it is recounted there concerning Rabbi Akiva, who came before Rabbi Eliezer the Great, and Rabbi Eliezer taught him, literally just before his passing, three hundred halachot on the subject of nega'im, and two hundred and sixteen interpretations of the verses of Shir HaShirim. It is described there that Rabbi Akiva's eyes streamed with tears from the intensity of his emotion, and when he reached the explanation of the verse in Shir HaShirim, "Sustain me with dainties, spread apples about me, for I am lovesick," Rabbi Akiva was unable to contain the intensity of the light revealed to him at the moment of reciting the verse, and he burst into weeping and crying out, and could not utter a single word from his mouth, from the overwhelming revelation of the Shechinah that he experienced at that time. This same idea is expressed here in the story about the Alter Rebbe.
We can round this out with another story the Rebbe once told about the Alter Rebbe — a different story, but it too expresses the intensity of his emotion in lofty matters. In the prayers of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur there is a passage in which one says "Uvechen ten pachdecha Hashem Elokeinu" (And so, instill Your fear, Hashem our G-d) and so on; and the Alter Rebbe, out of the overwhelming fear of the revelation of the Shechinah, was unable to utter the word "pachdecha." He would begin "pa," "pach," and stop, and again "pach," and stop. And out of the intensity of his emotion, there is a description that he rolled on the floor, so unable was he to contain himself, and only after a very long time did he manage to complete the word "pachdecha."
That is to say, when it comes to the Alter Rebbe, it is not merely the utterance of the words; rather, in every word he says, he is present within it and is part of it. And here there is a description of his relationship to the lofty level called "the World of Atzilus" — how difficult it was for him to express in words, and even in writing, the sublime aspect of this world.