The three hundred and eightieth "room" in the palace of the everyday.
Sunday, the 15th of Kislev, 5704 (1943).
Lessons: Chumash, Vayeishev, first section with Rashi's commentary.
Psalms, on the 15th of the month, we say chapter 77 and chapter 78.
Tanya: On this day we continue in the Kuntres Acharon, and today we conclude its sixth section, which begins on page 230 with the words "Ach mah shehayah," until the end of the section on folio 161 with the words "ve'achor, see there."
The daily saying contains two parts: the first part is a correction to a maamar in Torah Or, and afterward comes the saying itself. As for the correction — it concerns Torah Or, in the maamar beginning with the words "Vayeishev Yaakov." In that maamar it is explained that the soul, before its descent to this world, possessed natural love and fear in great revelation; but when the soul descends to this world and clothes itself in a physical body, the love and fear it previously had become concealed within the physical heart in which the soul resides.
The correction pertains to the wording of the maamar. In the maamar it is written regarding the state of the soul here: "and it cannot see love and awe in revelation as much as at first" — that it cannot see the love and awe it had beforehand, now that it is within the body. To this comes the correction: instead of the word "see" it should be "be." That is, the soul is not only unable to see such a level, but is even unable to be on such a level. This is the point of the correction.
And this is the wording of the saying: "In "Torah Or," the discourse beginning "Vayeshev": "and it cannot see in love," it should read "and it cannot be in love."".
Now comes the saying that the Rebbe brings, whose source is a letter of the Rebbe Rayatz from the 4th of Sivan, 5700. In the letter, the Rebbe Rayatz speaks at length about the love of Israel that Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev possessed. He brings there that the Alter Rebbe said that the angel Michael could be put to shame by his advocacy on behalf of Jews compared to the advocacy of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev.
And he brings there an additional interesting point: that from the advocacy of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, the Holy One, blessed be He, created a special chamber, and anyone who advocates on behalf of a Jew and recites over him a chapter of Tehillim — both of them, the Jew who advocates and the Jew about whom it is spoken, enter this chamber of advocacy, and the Holy One, blessed be He, delivers them in all that they need. Thus he brings there in the name of the Alter Rebbe.
And he brings that Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev learned his approach of finding merit [for others] from three or four words that he heard from the Maggid in the name of the Baal Shem Tov concerning the love of Israel. And here he brings the saying.
And what is his wording? "The Alter Rebbe told his son, the Mitteler Rebbe, that "the Grandfather" [this is the appellation by which the Alter Rebbe referred to the Baal Shem Tov] says that one must have self-sacrifice for the love of a fellow Jew, even for a Jew whom one has never seen" — even for such a Jew whom we have never seen at all, one must give of oneself in the love of a fellow Jew toward him as well.
As the Rebbe once spoke about this matter, saying that when there is true love of a fellow Jew, it is not love for someone else, but rather love for your own very essence — because the other Jew is you; all the parts of the souls are the same essence and the same being. And the moment a person understands that you, and he, and so-and-so — all are one essence, then love of a fellow Jew is love for the essence of Israel, which is you, and he, and each and every one.
And in conclusion, the connection with which we began in these past days to the laws in the books of the Rambam's Yad HaChazakah: according to the order, we are now approaching the conclusion of the Laws of Mourning, and they are connected to this point, for they contain complete laws regarding the matter of a "met mitzvah" — a person whom no one recognizes and no one knows who he is, and nevertheless one must stop everything and attend to him fully. This recalls the idea that even for a Jew whom you have never seen, how much one must give of oneself for the matter of ahavas Yisrael.