"Cheder" three hundred sixty-three in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Thursday, 27 Cheshvan 5704.
Shiurim: Chumash, Toldos, Chamishi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, 27 of the month, one says from chapter 108 through chapter 112 inclusive.
Tanya, on this day we continue with Kuntres Acharon - the second section in Kuntres Acharon. It begins on page 306 with the words "Ayein Eitz Chaim", and ends on page 154 with the words "apayim kanoda".
The daily quote is from a letter that the Rebbe Rayatz wrote on this date, 27 Cheshvan - but in an earlier year, in 5697. The letter is relatively long, and it is addressed to a chassid who lived at that time in Petach Tikvah, Reb Yehuda Shmotkin. The letter deals with many subjects - almost every paragraph in it is a different topic - and indeed in the sefer Hayom Yom there are quite a few sayings whose source is this letter: for example on 21 Shevat, on 22 Elul and on 24 Tishrei - all of them dates whose sayings were taken from this letter. And now this is the last saying taken from that same letter.
At the conclusion of that letter the Rebbe Rayatz writes to that Jew how careful one must be not to shame another person and not to "stab him with one's fingernails"; and also at farbrengens, when one wishes to rebuke someone, it must be done in the proper manner - as we already had a saying on this matter in Hayom Yom.
And then the Rebbe Rayatz concludes the letter and brings a story that the chassid Reb Tzadok Nachumkin related, who was from the city of Homil, that he heard something from the tzaddik Reb Aizik of Homil. And here the saying appears - what he heard from Reb Aizik of Homil. The words are written in Yiddish, and we will translate them.
And so he says: "Reb Aizik HaLevi of Homil related: When I came to Liozna" - when Reb Aizik came to the Alter Rebbe, since Liozna was his place of residence - "I found among the elder chassidim those who had been chassidim of the Rav HaMaggid and of the Rav HaKadosh Reb Menachem Mendel of Horodok" - they were still chassidim of the Maggid and of Reb Menachem Mendel of Horodok - "and it was habitual on their lips", they were accustomed to say this sentence.
And what did they say? He quotes: "Love a Jew - and Hashem yisbarech will love you; do good to a Jew - and Hashem yisbarech will do good to you; bring a Jew close - and Hashem yisbarech will bring you close". And not merely to love, but to cherish and to love with an inner love. That is the saying.
At the conclusion of the letter the Rebbe Rayatz adds that Reb Aizik said that the chassidim lived with this thing for decades - while they were chassidim of the Maggid and chassidim of Reb Menachem Mendel of Horodok - until the Alter Rebbe came and told them that all of this is the body of chassidus, and into it he breathed a soul within them, he brought into them comprehension and understanding, and he set them in a corner of light. The very same approach, only that it should be with a soul. This is the addition that the Alter Rebbe added to the saying.