The ninety-seventh "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Thursday, 27 Adar I, 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Vayakhel, chamishi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, 27th of the month, from chapter 108 through and including chapter 134.
Tanya, we are still in chapter 32. The daily shiur begins with the words "aval mi" and concludes on page 82 with the words "ahavas rei'im".
The daily teaching is taken from a letter written by the Rebbe Rayatz to the well-known chassid Reb Avraham Paris, on 14 Elul 5694. In the letter the Rebbe Rayatz quotes a lengthy teaching of the Rebbe Rashab, and out of that long letter the Rebbe took only a short passage, which is the daily teaching. Let us first look at the source - at the Rebbe Rayatz's letter, as it was written in its full length - and afterwards at the daily teaching, and let us note a certain change the Rebbe made in the teaching as compared with the original letter as it was written by the Rebbe Rayatz.
The Rebbe Rayatz addresses Reb Avraham Paris and says to him: You wrote to me about your private matters in ruchniyus, and I wish to tell you something. Surely you remember, or have heard, what my father, my master and teacher [the Rebbe Rashab] said to the Temimim, and here comes the quotation.
And this is what the Rebbe Rashab said: "Temimim, truth is the middle path." Truth is a straight line from beginning to end. "Emes" consists of three letters, like a straight line drawn from the very beginning to the very end: the alef of "emes" is "I am first", the tav of "emes" is "I am last", and the mem of "emes" is "and besides Me there is no G-d". And what is "besides Me"? The world - all six thousand years of the world's existence, for everything came into being through the power of the name Elokim, through the power of Hashem's name.
If so, all the created beings - the emanated, the created, the formed and the made - must know that at the two extremes stand "I am first" and "I am last", and they themselves are in the middle between them, "and besides Me there is no G-d". Truth is the middle path. And then the Rebbe Rashab turns and says to the Temimim: Listen and internalize - this is something that must be internalized in a very inward way - truth is the middle path.
And further on in the letter, which appears also in the daily teaching, he says: Leaning to the right - where a person is stringent with himself and finds in himself shortcomings or transgressions that are not according to the truth; or leaning to the left - to be lenient with himself, to cover over his shortcomings and to be lax in matters of avodah out of self-love. These two paths, these two extremes, are falsehood; truth is the middle path. And the Rebbe Rashab concludes: Temimim, remember, truth is the middle path, and I will guarantee that whoever goes in the middle path in the daily service of Hashem - whether he is a yoshev ohel or a businessman - I will guarantee him that he will succeed. That is the complete statement, as the Rebbe Rashab said it.
Generally we understand "the middle path" - which the Rambam in Hilchos De'os calls "the intermediate way" - as meaning that in his emotions a person should not be too much of a spendthrift nor too much of a miser, but should go in the middle way. But here the Rebbe Rashab is speaking about a different point: "the middle path" means that a person should have a correct self-assessment and self-recognition in his own private service of Hashem, without exaggerating in either direction in his self-evaluation.
Now let us read the wording as it appears in the daily teaching, and explain it. "My father, my master and teacher [the Rashab] said: Truth is the middle path. Leaning to the right - to be stringent with oneself and to find shortcomings in one's own personality or matters of transgressions".
This requires examination: why is this called "leaning to the right"? Usually leaning to the right means being lenient, and here it says that leaning to the right is to be stringent. Rather, the meaning is as follows: right and left are like the two extremes - either a person who wants to be the most perfect, one hundred percent and in the maximal way; or, from the side of the left which is gevurah, a minimalist person who asks, "what minimum can I get by with?". "Leaning to the right" means that he wants to be the most perfect, and because he wants to be the most perfect and the most one hundred percent in order - he looks at himself and says: here I am not in order, here I did not complete it, here I have a shortcoming, here I have a transgression. This stems from his wanting to be "the very best".
And therefore he continues and says "which are not according to the truth" - this is not according to the truth. Who says they are true? You are giving yourself grades - "failing, insufficient" - but it is not correct. And in the other direction he says "leaning to the left - to be lenient with oneself, to cover over personal shortcomings or to be lax in matters of 'avodah' because of self-love". "Leaning to the left" means that a person makes do with the minimum; he has shortcomings or things that are not in order, and he says, "it's not so terrible, the main thing is that in general I did it and got through".
And here there is a very significant change that the Rebbe made compared with the original letter of the Rebbe Rashab. There it is written in this sentence "to be lax in matters of transgression", and the Rebbe changed it - removing a letter and changing a letter - to the wording "in matters of avodah". That is to say, not only is a person lenient with himself regarding transgressions, as is written in the letter, but he is lenient with himself even in the service of Hashem, which is a far more inward matter. In this too a person wants to make do with the minimum, and says: there is no need to be particular and stringent about every single point in the service of Hashem; and because he loves himself, he wants, as it were, to pamper himself and make do with the minimum.
And therefore the Rebbe Rashab says that "both are erring paths" - both of these directions are paths of falsehood, and they are not correct paths. The correct path is that a person should assess himself truthfully. And as appears also in the Hayom Yom teaching, that a person must know his own virtues and his own shortcomings. This is a demand that recurs in the service of Hashem in the way of chassidus - that you be truthful with yourself and know what you are suited for and what you are not suited for: consequently, do not demand of yourself something you are not suited for, for you will become frustrated, "why am I not standing there"; and on the other hand, do not lower yourself from something that you can indeed reach. This is the inner self-recognition, about which the Rebbe Rashab said the words we read earlier.