The ninety-third "room" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Sunday, 23 Adar I, 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Vayakhel, the first parsha with the commentary of Rashi.
Tehillim, the 23rd of the month, from chapter 108 through and including chapter 110.
Tanya, on this day we begin chapter 32, from the word "v'hinei". The daily shiur ends on page 41 with the words "v'ad katan". This daily shiur too is very short.
Let us begin with the background - to whom the letter was written and on what occasion. In Teves 5691, when the Rebbe Rayatz was in Poland, there was a rav in Brooklyn by the name of Rabbi Elimelech. In the America of 5691 the spiritual climate was frozen and very cold, and it was extremely difficult to succeed in accomplishing anything or moving anything; this rav felt somewhat helpless, and he sent a letter to the Rebbe Rayatz asking for guidance as to how he could succeed, in the frozen situation of America, in influencing his congregation.
The Rebbe Rayatz answers him in a letter. In its opening he writes to him that just as a person may not deceive himself and find in himself exaggerated virtues that he does not possess, so too the opposite - he must not engage excessively in searching out faults in himself, and likewise not in another. That is the introduction, and immediately afterward comes the sentence that leads into the saying; but let us first continue with the passage he writes.
Immediately afterward the Rebbe Rayatz writes to him about the great responsibility resting upon one who holds a rabbinic position. And this is what he writes: "Rabbanim and Torah scholars are called the eyes of the congregation" - from the wording of the pasuk in the book of Bamidbar, in parshas Shelach, which speaks of a korban that the Sanhedrin did not handle properly, and says "v'im me'einei ha'eidah nes'eisah"; we see that they are referred to as "the eyes of the congregation".
Likewise we find in the Gemara in Maseches Bava Basra, in the well known story where Bava ben Buta advised Herod after he had destroyed and killed many of the sages of Israel. Herod asked him what his rectification would be, and he answered him, "You extinguished the eye of the world" - and the Gemara brings the pasuk, that the sages and Tannaim are called "the eyes of the congregation"; "you extinguished the eye of the world", so what will your rectification be? That you should build the Beis HaMikdash, which is the eye of the world. In any case, we see that one of the titles of rabbanim and Torah scholars is "the eyes of the congregation".
Another title - "and the heads of the thousands of Israel". "Heads of the thousands of Israel" is familiar to us from the pasuk said about the spies, "kulam anashim rashei bnei Yisrael heimah". And it is also known that in chapter 2 of Tanya the Alter Rebbe explains the title "head" for those who are heads of the thousands of Israel. And incidentally, the Alter Rebbe also explains the title "eyes of the congregation" in chapter 42 of Tanya, and mentions there this title regarding the sages of Israel.
In any case, since rabbanim and Torah scholars are called "the eyes" and "the head", then in the analogy of a physical body they belong to the upper part. Therefore the Rebbe Rayatz concludes the saying and says: "And when the head is healthy, then the body too is healthy". That is, if the rabbanim do what is required of them, view themselves correctly and carry out their role properly - then the body too is healthy; the congregation beneath them also goes in the right direction.
Further on in the letter the Rebbe Rayatz guides the rav that he must work in an organized and firm manner, yet combined with pleasantness - firmness and pleasantness. He told him "the right hand draws close and the left hand pushes away", and not to show favoritism to anyone; and when one needs to speak with someone - to speak with him mouth to ear, meaning not publicly. And again he tells him two opposite expressions - with soft words and with harsh words: when it needs to be the right, and when it needs to be the left, and to explain to him in a way that he understands, and not merely to speak with him in a general manner, but to speak with each one in a focused and specific way - exactly what is wanted of him.
"And you should know", he tells him, that even if you succeed in influencing only one man - know that it is a great thing, for Chazal say "chavra chavra is lei". One person has friends, and when you influence him, it affects the family, and in ever widening circles it goes on and ultimately influences the entire world. And the main thing - not to be in a state of lowliness and low spirits, but to know the power that a rav has.
And then he concludes there with an interesting passage: he arouses him and says that in the United States there are many rabbanim who come from families connected to various Rebbes in Poland of all kinds. And even though they are not necessarily chassidim of that Rebbe - he strongly arouses him that all the chassidic rabbanim should band together and act in a joint association, and then it will certainly bring benefit that is doubled and tripled and very strong.
In conclusion, it is interesting to mention that one of the Rebbes had a yechidus with the Rebbe in the year 5737, and the Rebbe aroused him and told him that he had heard that in Eretz Yisrael there are dozens or hundreds of settlements that have no rav to rule for them on practical questions of halachah. The Rebbe asked him to do whatever was in his power upon his return to Eretz Yisrael - to arouse young men to occupy themselves with the study of halachah, and to go and spread out to the various moshavim in order to serve there as rabbanim, so that Jews would have practical guidance as to how to act and how to conduct themselves in each and every place.