"Room" three hundred seventy-eight in the palace of daily life.
Friday, the 13th of Kislev, 5704 (1943).
Lessons: Chumash, Vayishlach, sixth aliyah, with the commentary of Rashi.
Tehillim, on the 13th of the month, we recite from chapter 69 up to and including chapter 71.
Tanya: on this day we study the fifth section in Kuntres Acharon, beginning on page 318 with the words "ulehavin pratei," until the conclusion of the section on page 160, with the word "diz'eir anpin."
The daily saying comes from a talk delivered by the Rebbe Rayatz on Simchas Torah in the year 5701. There he addresses a statement that some make, that what Chassidus innovated is that it changes the essence of a person — a common turn of phrase that people say, "Chassidus changed my essence." On this the Rebbe Rayatz writes: this is not correct; Chassidus does not change the essence, but rather reveals the essence.
Let us examine the wording. "My master, my father, my teacher and my rabbi said" — the Rebbe Rayatz says this in the name of his father, the Rebbe Rashab — "Chassidus changes the reality and reveals the essence." It changes the reality, your life, but it does not create for you a different essence — this is your true essence; only the outer wrappings need to change, but the essence itself remains the same thing.
And what is the essence of a Jew, which Chassidus merely reveals? He says: "And the essence of the Jewish person cannot be evaluated or estimated" — the essence of a Jew is something unlimited, which cannot be estimated and cannot be evaluated, for it is infinite, "because he is part of the Essence." A Jew is a part of the very Essence of the Creator, and since it is clear to us that the Essence of the Creator is unlimited, undefined, infinite, and immeasurable — this is the power of a Jew.
"One who grasps part of it is as though he grasps all of it" — there is the well-known expression that the essence is indivisible; the essence is something intrinsic, and every point connected to the essence contains within it the entire essence of that essence. Consequently, a Jew, who is a part of the very Essence of the Creator, is an entity that cannot be measured. "And just as the essence has no measure, so too the part has no measure" — so too a Jew, who is a part of the Essence, has no measure.
He brings an example from the kanaf (corner of the garment). The verse says, "And they shall place upon the fringe of the corner a thread of techeiles." The Gemara asks about this: What is "the corner"? The corner is the lower part of the garment, its edge, upon which the threads of the tzitzis are attached. And the Gemara says: "According to the manner of the corner — of the same kind as the corner," meaning, the same material and the same type from which the corner of the garment is made — if it is made of wool, the threads shall be of wool; and if it is made of silk, the threads shall be of silk. The kind that issues from the corner must be identical to the corner.
Why does he specifically bring this example? As explained in many places, the garment of the tzitzis symbolizes a very lofty encompassing light, which is why it is a garment that envelops the person; and the threads — out of the great light emerged constricted threads, which are, by way of analogy, like the very Essence of the Creator and the soul of the Jew. It emerges that the soul of the Jew is like the threads of the tzitzis, yet nevertheless "the corner — of the same kind as the corner," it is literally the very same thing, part of the Essence: the essence of a Jew is like the very Essence of the Creator.
"This is nothing other than that the Essence created a soul so that it should be a created being" — and what, in sum, happened here? Indeed, a great novelty occurred here — the Essence of the Creator created a soul, and it would seemingly appear as though a new and separate entity was created here; but in truth it is of that very same essence of His, and it did not change.
And what does Chassidus come to accomplish in the world? "Chassidus reveals the essence" — it comes to reveal who you are, that the essence of a Jew is an immense essence. And the Rebbe Rayatz elaborates there, in that very talk, that sometimes according to the revealed [Torah] one does not see this, for according to the revealed [Torah] there are all sorts of halachic categories in which one says "this Jew's testimony cannot be accepted, he is disqualified from bearing witness; this Jew is forbidden to answer Amen" [and the like]. There are all sorts of situations where, according to the revealed [Torah], partitions are set up and one says that this Jew does not belong and is distant.
But from the perspective of the inner dimension and essence of the matter, even such a Jew — who appears to you as an entirely distant entity, devoid of any connection to the community — his essence is a divine essence, and Chassidus comes to reveal this.
This idea is connected to what we have begun anew with the study of Rambam, and one can see the connection: we are now in the final book, the Book of Judges, in the third group of laws — we learned the Laws of the Sanhedrin and the Laws of Testimony, and now the Laws of Rebels. All these laws come to describe one who rebels against the ruling of the court, that is, acts against it, and what punishment he must receive. It is as if these laws take a group of Jews and say to them, "You do not belong, you are outside the matter and outside the boundary." It is true that according to the revealed dimension of Torah there are situations in which one must treat someone in one way or another, but know that the inner essence is part of the very essence itself, which "cannot be evaluated and cannot be estimated."