The three hundred and seventy-fourth "room" in the palace of Day-by-Day.
Monday, 9th of Kislev, 5704 (1943).
Lessons: Chumash, Vayishlach, second reading, with Rashi's commentary.
Psalms, on the 9th of the month, we recite from chapter 49 until chapter 54 inclusive.
Tanya, we continue in Kuntres Acharon. We are still in the fourth section of Kuntres Acharon, in the ninth part, and the daily lesson is on the same page, 158, from the words "achot" and ending with the words "mah nivra."
In this saying, the Rebbe refers first of all to the significance of this day, the 9th of Kislev, in the history of our Rebbeim, our leaders. And thus he says: On this day falls the "birthday of the Mitteler Rebbe — 5534" — in the year 5534 the Mitteler Rebbe was born — "and the day of his passing — in the year 5588." The Mitteler Rebbe was born and passed away on the same day, as the Gemara states that the Holy One, blessed be He, completes the years of the righteous from day to day; with the Mitteler Rebbe this was seen in a physical manner, that he passed away on the very day on which he was born, in a different year — 5588. "And his resting place of honor is in Nezhin" — the resting place of the Mitteler Rebbe is in the city of Nezhin.
Now the Rebbe turns to another event that occurred on this day, the ninth of Kislev, many years before the passing of the Mitteler Rebbe. Let us preface: the following passage is actually the continuation of an earlier saying that appeared in "Hayom Yom" on the sixth of Adar Sheni, and its content is taken from a talk that the Rebbe Rayatz delivered on the thirteenth of Shevat, 5703.
What was written in the saying of the 6th of Adar Sheni? There it was brought that the Tzemach Tzedek was born on the eve of Rosh Hashanah of the year 5549, and the following day was Rosh Hashanah of the year 5550, on which the Alter Rebbe delivered a special chassidus discourse — which was in fact the content of the first three chapters of the Tanya. That is, the Alter Rebbe began saying the Tanya publicly on Rosh Hashanah of 5550. And when did he finish saying the Tanya? This is the daily saying, which is in fact a completion of the saying of the 6th of Adar Sheni.
And so it is written here: "the 9th of Kislev, 5554" — after a bit more than three years — "the Alter Rebbe delivered a discourse, which is part of chapter 53 of the book of the Beinonim (Tanya)." What was the discourse that the Alter Rebbe delivered then, on the 9th of Kislev? It was in fact the first part of chapter 53, the final chapter of the Tanya, "which speaks about the First Temple" whose content discusses the revelation of the Shechina that was present in the First Temple. This was on the 9th of Kislev, 5554.
"The next day he said Chassidus once again" — the next day, on the 10th of Kislev, he said Chassidus again. What was the maamar of the 10th of Kislev? "The conclusion of the aforementioned chapter" — he completed chapter 53 "until the end," until the conclusion of the Tanya. That is to say, the Alter Rebbe began saying the Tanya on Rosh Hashanah of 5550, and finished saying it on the 10th of Kislev of the year 5554.
"For the discourses from Rosh Hashanah 5550 until the tenth of Kislev 5554 — in which were included collected counsels from the preceding years" — all the chapters of the Tanya that the Alter Rebbe delivered during that period are in fact a collection of things he told the chassidim in private audience (yechidus). When did he tell them to the chassidim in yechidus? Ten years earlier, from 5540 until 5550. During those ten years chassidim would enter into yechidus, and the Alter Rebbe would give them various pieces of advice; and all the counsels that he gave to the chassidim in yechidus during those years — he afterward stated and wrote down in the book of Tanya, from Rosh Hashanah until the tenth of Kislev in those years. "From them were arranged the fifty-three chapters of the Book of the Beinonim."
As the Rebbe Rayatz relates, every Shabbat and festival from Rosh Hashanah 5550, the maamarim that the Alter Rebbe delivered were a chapter, half a chapter, or a third of a chapter from the Tanya; and thus, consistently, over the course of three years and more, he completed the entire Tanya. This is the content of the daily saying.
And we see in this matter: the Alter Rebbe began this on the 9th of Kislev, which is the birthday of his son, the Mitteler Rebbe, who was born in 5534 (1774); and the Alter Rebbe, twenty years later, in 5554 (1794), on that same day said the final chapter of the Tanya. And also the next day, on the 10th of Kislev — which at that time did not yet have anything special about it, as would be revealed later with the redemption of the Mitteler Rebbe — we already see that the Alter Rebbe saw in it an auspicious day, and on it he completed the book of Tanya, on the 10th of Kislev.