"Cheder" three hundred sixty-four in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Friday, 28 Cheshvan 5704.
Shiurim: Chumash, Toldos, Shishi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, the 28th of the month, we say chapters 135 through 139 inclusive.
Tanya, on this day we begin the fifth section of Tanya, Kuntres Acharon. Today's shiur is the first part of the third passage, on page 154, beginning with the words "Lehavin mah shekasuv", and ending on page 308 with the word "Pekudei" that appears in parentheses.
The source of today's saying is in two maamarim delivered by the Rebbe Rayatz, and the Rebbe took the main point and summarized it. One is the dibbur hamaschil "Al Ken Yomru Hamoshlim" from the year 5696, and the second is the dibbur hamaschil "Hateh Hashem Elokai Aznecha" from the year 5694. First we will read the idea in a general way, and afterwards we will add.
The heading deals with the subject of hashgachah pratis, and draws our attention to the fact that within hashgachah pratis there are several levels in understanding the depth of the matter. The first layer, the simple level: the Holy One, blessed be He, knows, sees and supervises everything that happens. This is the simplest level in understanding hashgachah pratis.
Then Torah and chassidus come and add a deeper layer: not only does He see and know and supervise, but the hashgachah itself is the very life force of the created being. Were it not for the hashgachah, it would have no vitality at all and would not exist at all. This is far beyond an external supervisor - He gives it life.
And in the third layer - and this is the emphasis of the saying - not only does He see and supervise, and not only does He give it life, but every small movement that the individual creation makes - and it makes no difference whether we are speaking of a leaf or of the wing of a mosquito - completes the ultimate purpose and intent of the entire creation. That is, that very movement of the wind that blows the leaf from here to there, so and so many turns, is needed, and that is what brings it about that the entire plan of creation should be complete; and if this detail is missing, something is missing in the plan of creation. This is beyond our capacity to absorb, how far these things reach. This is the point of the saying.
Let us look at the wording: "The matter of hashgachah pratis is that not only are all the individual movements of the creatures of every kind under hashgachah pratis" - this is the first layer; "and it is this that is the very life force of the created being and its existence" - this is its vitality, the second layer; "but moreover, an individual movement of a created being has a general relationship to the overall intent of creation" - it completes the entire plan - "for through the combination and unification of all the individual actions . . . the supernal intent in the mystery of the entire creation is completed". It is astonishing to see how every slightest movement has a plan, and is part of the whole picture.
And here there is also a conclusion - what a Jew should contemplate and how it applies to him. And so it says: "And let a person contemplate: if the movement of a blade of grass" - when a small blade of grass moves in the wind to the right and to the left, or a branch on a tree moves and drops a few leaves down, who even pays attention to it - if such a movement of a blade of grass "comes about through hashgachah pratis and is relevant to the completion of the intent of creation", then if this is so with all created beings, with plants and with animals, "the species of mankind in general, and Yisrael, the nation close to Him, in particular - how much more so" - when we are speaking of the highest species in creation, mankind, and particularly a Jew, how much more so does every small movement that a Jew makes have an effect and relevance to the whole of creation. This is the insight that is meant to arouse us.
When one examines the maamarim themselves from which the saying was taken, there is a great length there from the Rebbe Rayatz, who literally describes details of created beings, of various plants and various branches, in order to draw us into the entire description and to understand how far hashgachah pratis reaches - that something a person sees, he must understand that the Holy One, blessed be He, is speaking to him right now.
Regarding this hashgachah pratis he brought an interesting example from a story that he once told at length, about the chassid Reb Yekusiel Liepler. It is told that in one of the years he arrived in Lubavitch to the Tzemach Tzedek for Pesach unexpectedly. It was the custom then that the Rebbe would provide all the needs of the festival for all the chassidim who came, and he arrived before Pesach. There are two versions: according to one it was on the night of bedikas chametz, and according to the second it was on the morning before Pesach. In any case, he was busy in the middle of bedikas chametz, absorbed in the inner and practical avodah, and suddenly a messenger arrived on behalf of the Rebbe and brought him a crate, saying that this was from the Rebbe. And what was in the crate? All the needs of the festival - the wine, the matzos, the charoses, the maror, everything that belongs to the Seder night. Since he received it, he said: "The Rebbe sent me this now, apparently it is meant to help me in my avodas Hashem right now". He sat down and ate the crate...
The next day, on Seder night, he had nothing. And he came with a complaint as to why they had not brought him anything... until the messenger had to remind him, and he said "Ah... it really helped me a great deal". The Rebbe brought this as an example of how a chassid takes everything as hashgachah pratis: they brought him something - so it is relevant to his avodas Hashem here and now.