The first "room" in the chamber of daily life.
Shabbat, the 19th of Kislev, 5703 (1943).
In that year when the Rebbe published the "Hayom Yom," the 19th of Kislev fell on Shabbos, and this fact relates to the first customs that the Rebbe brings at the beginning of the entry for this day. The Rebbe opens: "The haftarah is Chazon Ovadiah."
Since some have the custom on this Shabbat, Shabbat of parashat Vayishlach, to recite the haftarah that opens with the words "ve'ami teluim" ("and My people are hung up") in the book of Hoshea — according to our custom the haftarah "ve'ami teluim" was already recited on the previous Shabbat, Shabbat Vayetze, and therefore on this Shabbat, Shabbat Vayishlach, we recite the haftarah "Chazon Ovadiah," which is the entire book of Ovadiah, a short book.
The second custom that the Rebbe brings: "We do not say Av HaRachamim and Tzidkatcha." "Av HaRachamim," as is known, is recited every Shabbat before the Musaf prayer, and it is a kind of memorial for the souls of the departed. It is written in the Midrash and in other places that this is a prayer for the departed, for since there is no Gehinnom on Shabbat — that they should not return to it at the conclusion of Shabbat. On a day when Tachanun is not recited, "Av HaRachamim" is not said, and since the 19th of Kislev is a day on which Tachanun is not recited, and it falls on Shabbat, the Rebbe says that on this day "Av HaRachamim" is not recited.
The same applies to "Tzidkatcha" — the three verses recited on Shabbat at the conclusion of the Mincha prayer, before "Aleinu Leshabe'ach." These three verses appear in the Shulchan Aruch, since it was at Shabbat Mincha that three tzaddikim of the world passed away — Yosef the Righteous, Moshe Rabbeinu, and King David — and in remembrance of this we recite the acceptance of Divine judgment (tzidduk hadin) in the three verses of "Tzidkatcha" from the Book of Tehillim, each verse corresponding to one of these three great ones. But on a day when Tachanun is not recited, "Tzidkatcha" is not said, and therefore on Yud-Tet Kislev it is not recited.
To complete the matter, it is interesting that for the same reason we do not recite the text "Yismechu" in the Shabbat afternoon Amidah — whereas we do recite it on Friday night and Shabbat morning; on Shabbat afternoon we do not recite it, for the same reason that this is the time of the passing of three great ones of the world. [Regarding Moshe Rabbeinu, there is a discussion whether his passing was indeed on Shabbat, or whether his passing was on Friday and only his burial was on Shabbat.] In any case, this is the reason why we do not recite "Tzidkatcha."
Lessons: Chumash, Vayishlach, seventh aliyah with Rashi's commentary, until the conclusion of the parsha.
Psalms, from chapter 90 through chapter 96.
Tanya: We begin the Tanya from "The book Likkutei Amarim, called by the name" until "and it is brief, etc.," and we likewise recite the two approbations — the approbation of the Rav of Anipoli and the approbation of Rav Yehuda Leib HaKohen.
Another custom that the Rebbe brings: "The chazzan does not wrap himself in a tallit — neither for Mincha nor for Maariv, not on Shabbat and Yom Tov, and not on Rosh Hashanah." The common custom is that the chazzan wraps himself in a tallit out of honor for the congregation, even during the Mincha and Maariv prayers, but the Lubavitch custom is not so. Rather, we follow the Kabbalah, in which it is written that there is even a danger in wrapping oneself in a tallit at night. The only time that one wraps oneself in a tallit for Maariv in Lubavitch is on the night of Yom Kippur alone; and even at the conclusion of Yom Kippur, when one still remains wrapped in the tallit, one lowers it from off one's head. And as the Rebbe wrote to an emissary whose community members pressured him to wear a tallit for Mincha and Maariv as well — that at the very least he should see to it that during Maariv the tallit not be on his head but only on his shoulders, since according to Kabbalah there is an aspect of danger in this. This is what the Rebbe says here, that in our custom one never wraps oneself in a tallit for Mincha and Maariv.
The Rebbe says an additional thing: "The hilula of the Maggid of Mezritch — Gimmel of Vayeishev 5533, and his resting place of honor is in Anipoli". The Maggid was the teacher of the Alter Rebbe, and there is a saying that the Maggid called the Alter Rebbe just before his passing and said to him: "Today, the nineteenth of Kislev, is our hilula day, the wedding day of us both". This was not understood until twenty-six years later: on that day was the passing of the Maggid, and twenty-six years later — on the same day of the month, the same day of the week and in the same parsha, Gimmel of Vayeishev — was the day of the Alter Rebbe's redemption from his imprisonment, and then it was understood what his teacher had told him, that this is the hilula day of them both.
In the saying too we see that the Rebbe emphasizes that for both of them it was on the same day. Regarding the Maggid, he writes that it was on Tuesday (day three), Parashat Vayeishev, in the year 5533. And in the following passage, when he speaks about the Alter Rebbe being liberated from his first imprisonment on the 19th of Kislev, he likewise writes "Tuesday, Vayeishev, 5559, toward evening" — emphasizing that it was on the same date of the month (the 19th of Kislev), on the same day of the week (Tuesday), and in the same parashah (Parashat Vayeishev).
This emphasizes a point we saw in the introduction, in the letter we read in the previous lesson — that the continuity and continuation of the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid carries on with our Rebbeim, with the Alter Rebbe. In the previous passage there was an emphasis, "and it is one and the same as the teaching of the Baal Shem Tov," that the teaching of the Baal Shem Tov continues with the Alter Rebbe; and here too we see that the Maggid said that the day of his passing, and the continuation of that day, is the day of the Alter Rebbe's redemption — for it was then that the dissemination of the teachings of Chabad began in a far broader manner.
The three emphasized points are: the 19th of Kislev, the third day of the week, and a third emphasis that this is the day of the hilula (yahrzeit) of both of them. In one of his discourses (in the year 5725), the Rebbe brings that it is known there are three fundamental things: olam (world/space), shana (year/time), nefesh (soul); and these three points emphasize that the comparison between them applies in all three. The fact that it occurs on the third day of the week — the division of the days of the week is according to the days of building, the days of the creation of the world, corresponding to "olam"; the 19th of Kislev — the division of the days of the month is according to the division of the year, corresponding to "shana"; and the hilula — corresponding to "nefesh," that which happens with the tzaddik. In these three perspectives — olam, shana, nefesh — there is a very strong connection between the Maggid and the Alter Rebbe.
In the following passage, the Rebbe cites a letter that the Alter Rebbe himself wrote after his release from imprisonment, to the tzaddik Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, in which he described to him the day of his redemption. These are his words: "From a letter of our Alter Rebbe: But such a thing must be made known" ["beram" means "truth"] — I wish to make known and relate to you — "that the day which G-d made for us, the day of the nineteenth of Kislev, the third day [of the week], on which 'that it was good' was doubled, the day of the great hilula of our holy teacher, may his soul rest in Eden." Once again we see in the Alter Rebbe's letter how he emphasizes the connection between himself and the Maggid, in all its details.
And then he describes in the letter: "And when I was reading in the Book of Tehillim the verse 'He has redeemed my soul in peace'" — the Alter Rebbe recited Tehillim on that day, and when he reached this verse in chapter 55 — "before I began the verse that follows it, I went out in peace from the God of peace." For this is the day on which his soul was redeemed in peace. There is a very extensive discussion on this in the Rebbe's farbrengens on Yud-Tes Kislev, where he emphasizes and explains the meaning of the words "He has redeemed my soul in peace"; one must see each matter in its place, but this is the essential point.
After a separating line between the sections comes the maxim relating to this day, the 19th of Kislev. The Rebbe first writes that this is a "day of farbrengen and of making good resolutions." Here too there is an interesting hint: the four Hebrew words "yom hitva'adut vekabbalat hachlatot" (day of farbrengen and making resolutions) are the initial letters of the Name Havayah. This is a day on which chassidim hold a farbrengen and make good resolutions.
In which area, primarily, are good decisions made? The Rebbe mentions two things here: first, "in setting fixed times for Torah study — both the revealed [nigleh] and Chassidus [divrei Elokim chaim, the living words of G-d] — in public," to establish a set time for study in a group, both in the revealed Torah and in the inner dimension of Torah. Another thing — "strengthening the ways of the Chassidim through love of friends." "The ways of the Chassidim" refers to the Chassid's obligation to influence his entire surroundings: everyone who comes into contact with him, to convey to him and share with him the wondrous things and precious diamonds that the teachings of Chassidus bring. At a farbrengen, this matter is strengthened and awakened — conducting oneself in the ways of the Chassidim.
The Rebbe writes an additional matter: "It is customary to arrange the division of Shas." Since every single year one must complete the entire Shas, a division is made among all the communities, "according to the order explained in the Igeret HaKodesh, the discourse beginning "Hocheiach tochiach"." At the end of the Tanya, the Alter Rebbe states that all communities should make a division of Shas, and if there is a community that does not have enough people to divide the entire Shas among them — they should join with another community; and the main thing is that every year on the 19th of Kislev they should carry out the division of Shas for the study of the entire community. It further appears there in the Igeret HaKodesh that everyone who takes part in the division of Shas should recite each week chapter 119 in Tehillim.
Regarding the division of the Shas, the Rebbe says: "In Lubavitch — from the year 5663 (1902) onward — they would arrange the division of the Shas on the 24th of Teves." What happened in the year 5663? As we read in the previous passage, in the letter of the Rebbe Rashab about the wondrous matter of the 19th of Kislev — a letter that was sent in the year 5662 — the first time that chassidim were able to celebrate the 19th of Kislev with an understanding of its meaning was in the following year, 5663. And from 5663 onward, the celebration of the farbrengens of the 19th of Kislev began with such intensity, that there remained no free time on that day to also arrange the division of the Shas, and therefore they postponed the division from the 19th of Kislev to the 24th of Teves.
Why on the 24th of Teves? "The yahrzeit of the Alter Rebbe." In one of the talks the Rebbe says that the yahrzeit of the Alter Rebbe is a kind of day of redemption: just as there is redemption from the gentiles who put a person in prison, there is redemption from the body — which is also a kind of prison for the soul — and therefore the yahrzeit is a kind of redemption from the body. This is why the distribution of the Shas was moved from the 19th of Kislev to the 24th of Teves, "due to the lack of time on the 19th of Kislev." The Rebbe asked his father-in-law, the Rebbe Rayatz, why it was actually moved, and this was the answer he gave him: due to the lack of time, that there simply was no time, and therefore it was moved to the 24th of Teves.
However, this practice — of transferring it from the 19th of Kislev to the 24th of Teves — lasted only fifty years, from 5663 until 5713. In the year 5713, the Rebbe restored the crown to its former glory: on the 29th of Kislev 5713, the Rebbe established that from then on the distribution would return to the 19th of Kislev. And indeed, from 5713 onward, the distribution of Shas is connected to the 19th of Kislev, as was the custom from ancient times, that this should be the day on which the distribution of Shas takes place. This concludes the first passage, the first chamber in the wondrous palace of Hayom Yom.