The three hundred fifty-seventh "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Friday, 21 Cheshvan 5704.
Shiurim: Chumash, Chayei Sarah, shishi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, the 21st of the month, we say two chapters: chapter 104 and chapter 105.
Tanya, on this day we continue Iggeres 29. The daily shiur is from page 150, beginning with the words "vezehu shekasuv", and concluding on page 300 with the words "ba'arichus ayein sham".
The short daily saying is taken from a very interesting and unique reshimah written by the Rebbe Rayatz in the winter of 5698. This reshimah has thirty chapters, and it was even published as a booklet of its own, called "Kuntres Toras HaChassidus", in which the Rebbe Rayatz wrote about the essence of Toras HaChassidus, about avodas Hashem and about avodas hatefillah - that is the subject of the booklet.
At the beginning of the letter the Rebbe Rayatz explains that Toras HaChassidus is, on the one hand, a deep intellectual inquiry into Elokus, yet it explains every profound concept in a way that will be understood even by the young. In addition to this, it does not suffice with explaining matters intellectually and in depth, but it also arouses a person's emotions of the heart, so that he will have an excitement of the very kind of emotion that the understanding leads to and demands of him. With this he opens the reshimah.
In the fourth chapter the Rebbe Rayatz tells of a farbrengen held by the "early chassidim", in his words, at the time of the bar mitzvah of the Mitteler Rebbe, the son of the Alter Rebbe. On that occasion the early chassidim farbrenged and spoke, and one of the topics they discussed was how the world would look at the coming of Moshiach and at the resurrection of the dead.
One of the chassidim stood up and said: "The Rebbe" - meaning the Alter Rebbe - "the Rebbe revives the dead." And he explained: what is a "dead" thing? Something that is cold and is not moved by anything; and accordingly there is nothing more "dead" than the mind, which is cold and unmoved. But if a person manages to understand a G-dly concept, and this understanding causes him to be moved - that is literally the resurrection of the dead; and this is what the Alter Rebbe does with Toras HaChassidus.
And how is the connection actually made between the mind, between the comprehension of the mind, and the heart? On this he says that it comes about through avodas hatefillah. And before the end of the chapter he tells of an exchange between the Alter Rebbe and his son, the Mitteler Rebbe. On Sukkos of the year 5560 the Alter Rebbe asked the Mitteler Rebbe: "With what did you daven on Rosh Hashanah?" - meaning: what was the concept and the hisbonenus with which you were occupied during the Rosh Hashanah prayers?
The Mitteler Rebbe answered his father: "On Rosh Hashanah I davened with what is written, 'and every stature shall bow before You', and I contemplated that the lofty G-dly level called 'Adam Kadmon', the partzuf of Adam Kadmon, also bows to Hashem" - that was my hisbonenus.
After answering this, the Mitteler Rebbe asked his father, the Alter Rebbe: "And you, father, with what did you daven on Rosh Hashanah? What was your hisbonenus?" The Alter Rebbe answered him: "I davened with the shtender" [the prayer stand] - that is, I contemplated that this physicality comes into being from the very Essence of the Creator; I contemplated how every thing in the world is an expression of the Etzem. That was the Alter Rebbe's answer.
The Rebbe Rayatz brings the story in order to show that the content of tefillah is to connect the deep ideas to emotion - each one on his own level, in what he contemplates and where it leads him.
And as a summation of the subject, the very last words of that chapter are the daily saying. After all the length comes the saying, and it sums up: "Avodas hatefillah is what brings the comprehension of the mind into the feeling of the heart" - avodas hatefillah is the bridge that brings down what a person comprehends in his mind into the feeling of the heart.
But it is not enough for the matter to remain in the heart, for there is a purpose to this. And what is the purpose? "And both of them together" - both the comprehension of the mind and the feeling of the heart - must find expression "in the actual avodah of the mitzvos, with yiras Shamayim and the acquisition of good middos". Everything must ultimately be expressed on the ground, in life, in actual deed; and then the bridge works properly and the flow is correct - from the mind there is such a resurrection of the dead that it descends into the heart, and from the heart the matter descends also into actual conduct, as he brings here: in the actual performance of the mitzvos, with yiras Shamayim and with the acquisition of good middos.