"Cheder" three hundred eighty-one in the palace of day-to-day life.
Monday, the 16th of Kislev, 5704.
Lessons: Chumash, Vayeishev, second [aliyah] with the commentary of Rashi.
Psalms, on the 16th of the month, we recite from chapter 79 until chapter 82 inclusive.
It is taught, on this day we continue in the Kuntres Acharon. We study the entire seventh section, which begins on page 161 with the word "and tzedakah," until the conclusion of the section on page 322, with the words "the Ein Sof, blessed be He."
The quotation in the daily saying is taken from a note — a letter — that the Rebbe Rayatz wrote in the summer of 5699. A very interesting letter. In the heading it is written that it was to one of his sons-in-law, and it appears that this is a letter to the Rebbe. The heading of the letter is "The History of the Chozrim" — the history of the concept of "chozrim" (those who repeat the Rebbe's teachings). In the letter, the Rebbe Rayatz elaborates over thirty-two chapters to tell about the chozrim who existed in the time of the Alter Rebbe, the Mitteler Rebbe, and the Tzemach Tzedek. This note was afterward printed as a booklet of its own titled "Divrei Yemei HaChozrim" (The History of the Chozrim).
In the passage with which the Rebbe Rayatz opens the account — one passage before that quoted in the saying — he states that the Alter Rebbe, "our first father," who built the system of Chabad, established it, with the greatness of his holy talents, upon strong foundations, and truly took care to perfect and develop Chabad upon the foundations that he laid.
What are the foundations? This is the saying that he brings here: "A primary foundation in the Chabad approach is". We know that there is a mind and there is a heart, and each of them has its own qualities. "that the mind rules over the heart by its nature" — the Holy One, blessed be He, created man in such a way that the mind, by its nature, is able to rule over the heart.
And what is the Jew's service? "He should subjugate the heart to the service of the Almighty" — that a person should master the heart, so that his emotions be subjugated to the service of God. And how does he accomplish this? How does the mind master the heart? Within the mind there is chochmah, binah, and da'at, and a person uses all three of them, as he specifies: "Through intellectual grasp, understanding, and deep contemplation of da'at concerning the greatness of the Creator of the world, blessed be He" — "intellectual grasp" alludes to chochmah, "understanding" to binah, and "deep contemplation of da'at" to the third part, da'at — in order to contemplate the greatness of the Creator of the world; and this contemplation within the mind will surely subjugate the heart to the service of God.
Another passage from the notes was read. Immediately afterward, the Rebbe Rayatz says that in order to attain such a level of avoda, studying Chassidus alone is not enough; rather, one requires special guidance — expert mentors who work according to the directives of mashpi'im with a broad grasp of the teachings of Chassidus. In this way a person, through his study, will be able to accomplish what is required.
For this purpose, the Alter Rebbe established five ranks of functionaries at various levels: "chozer" (reviewer) — which is the subject of the entire pamphlet — "maniach," "ma'atik," "mashpia," and "madrich." He then begins to detail each of them: what the role of the "chozer" is and what its significance is, and so on. The main topic of the discussion concerns the chozrim. And all of this comes to assist one who wishes to work according to the Chabad method in the correct way, for he must know the roles and the sequence of matters. It is very worthwhile to study the record itself — fascinating things.
To conclude, we are at the final halachot of the Rambam in Sefer Shoftim, in Hilchot Melachim. The Rambam writes in the opening chapters of Hilchot Melachim that the heart of the king is the heart of all Israel. And here, in this saying, we see what one must do with the heart of Israel: that the mind should rule over the heart, in order to subjugate the heart to the service of Hashem, may He be blessed.