The forty-first "cheder" in the Hayom Yom heichal.
Thursday, 1 Shevat, Rosh Chodesh, 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Vayeira, chamishi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, the 1st of the month, we say the first section, from chapter 1 through chapter 9 inclusive.
Tanya, we are in chapter 15, which we began the previous day, and we continue from the words "u'v'beinoni" until the word "mirgiluso" on page 21.
The daily saying: we already learned earlier, in the saying of 22 Kislev, that the Rebbe pointed out the Rebbe Rayatz's directive regarding saying the daily portion of Tehillim. The daily Tehillim shiur is a takanah that the Rebbe Rayatz initiated in 5687, the year of his imprisonment, and from then on he said very wondrous things about it - how great is the power of this saying of Tehillim.
The daily saying is taken from a letter of the Rebbe Rayatz, which he wrote in the month of Sivan 5693 - six years after this takanah was set in motion. For the completeness of the matter, let us look at the original letter from which the saying is taken. The letter as a whole was sent to a Jew by the name of Rabbi Magidson, who was a shlucha derabbanan and traveled from place to place - to sow spirituality and to gather physicality. The Rebbe Rayatz writes him guidance, how to speak with the chassidim he would meet and what to accomplish with them.
In the first part of the letter the Rebbe Rayatz writes to him how much one must arouse the chassidim to learn chassidus, and how much this brings about nachas ruach Above. There is also an interesting point there - which is not connected to the saying, but for the completeness of the matter - that one must open the eyes of the chassidim: many times they "cry out," that is, they write a pidyon nefesh and ask for matters of parnassah, health and children, and they see that they are not answered and do not receive what they asked for. Says the Rebbe Rayatz, that the reason for this is that the chassid forgets his task and his obligation - that he should have fixed shiurim in chassidus; for when a chassid learns chassidus he arouses nachas ruach by our Rebbeim, our nesi'im, and this acts to draw down abundance.
In the second part of the letter the Rebbe Rayatz tells him: when you travel from place to place, investigate and see what became of the takanah that was instituted six years earlier regarding the daily saying of Tehillim - that in every minyan they should say the daily Tehillim portion after davening, and one who davens alone should also say the daily portion; this obligation rests upon every chassid and upon each and every one.
The Rebbe Rayatz adds there an interesting saying in the name of the Tzemach Tzedek: halachah says that a kos shel berachah - when one comes to bentch and holds the cup of blessing - must be lifted at least a tefach. The Tzemach Tzedek took this halachah and drew from it an interesting message: David HaMelech too has a cup, as it says "kos yeshu'os esa," and what is David HaMelech's cup? Sefer Tehillim. Just as the physical cup of blessing must be raised a tefach, so too David HaMelech's cup raises all of us a tefach and elevates us - if we take upon ourselves the saying of Tehillim.
And in this passage comes the saying. The Rebbe Rayatz writes that "the saying of Tehillim mentioned each day after davening" - this custom "there is in this no difference at all between shuls of anash, may they live, or those who daven nusach Ashkenaz or nusach Poland, may they live," meaning that this belongs to everyone "and out of ahavas Yisrael ... and particularly because of the greatness of the matter of saying Tehillim in public and its inner intent, which affects the entire Jewish people literally in physicality, in children, life and sustenance, and in spirituality." That is, the Rebbe Rayatz says that he sees that this takanah draws down abundance to each and every one in children, life and sustenance; a person who needs a berachah for parnassah, for health and for children in simple physicality - Tehillim is a vessel and a channel for drawing down all the abundance. And likewise in spirituality - a person who wants to have yiras Shamayim, recognition, understanding and a connection to matters of Yiddishkeit. And therefore "we must endeavor with every kind of effort that it be established in every shul - of whatever nusach it may be" - one simply must make the effort in this.
In that same letter the Rebbe Rayatz elaborates that saying a great deal of Tehillim illuminates, warms and purifies the air. He says that when one works with another Jew and sometimes sees that one is not succeeding - why? Because the air is murky; but when the air is clean, it is easier to illuminate the world and to accomplish. And how does one clean the air? Through saying the letters of Tehillim.
For the completeness of the matter it is worth seeing an interesting passage that the Rebbe once said at a farbrengen on Shabbos Bereishis 5717. The Rebbe told a short story there: the Rebbe Rayatz, on Rosh Hashanah of the year 5695, told the chassidim what happened with the Tzemach Tzedek on Rosh Hashanah 5603. That is, the Rebbe Rayatz wanted to accomplish something, and as it were compared it with the story about the Tzemach Tzedek that took place on that same day, and through the story he indeed accomplished it.
And so he related: our Rebbeim, our nesi'im, had the practice that on the night of Rosh Hashanah nothing at all is spoken at the meal, not even words of Torah - for every moment of these days is very lofty. But the Tzemach Tzedek related in 5603 that when he was a young child, his grandfather the Alter Rebbe did something unusual on the night of Rosh Hashanah 5569: he called his son the Mitteler Rebbe and his grandson the Tzemach Tzedek, and began to speak about himself and said: "In the course of this past year I made such and such a number of baalei teshuvah, such and such a number of Jews who serve Hashem, and such and such a number of tzaddikim" - and he even gave the number. "If so," he said, as if turning to the Holy One blessed be He, "reward is due to me; and the reward due to me - I demand that so-and-so son of so-and-so should have parnassah b'harchavah, and that so-and-so son of so-and-so should have health of body." And he turned to his son and his grandson standing at his side and said: "You are two witnesses, and by two witnesses a matter is established; you are witnesses that the reward is due to me, and I demand that it be such and such."
All this the Tzemach Tzedek related in 5603, and this the Rebbe Rayatz related in 5695. They asked the Rebbe Rayatz: when the Tzemach Tzedek related this in 5603, did he wish through the story to accomplish the same thing in his own time as well? It was evident that this was indeed the purpose. But the Rebbe Rayatz did not leave it to conjecture; rather he himself - in 5695, at the time he told the story - said as follows: the custom of saying Tehillim had already been instituted eight years earlier, and if for eight years everyone says Tehillim after the minyan, then several million letters of Torah have been added to the world; therefore he asks that the Holy One blessed be He give in return such and such wealth to the Jewish people, in the merit of his having brought several million words of Torah into the world.
And the Rebbe Rayatz said that the worth of the letters of Torah in the time of exile is greater. An example of this - like Avraham Avinu, who, when he gave food to people in the desert and they did not want to bentch, told them an exorbitant sum to pay, saying that in the desert it is more expensive than in the city; so too the saying of the letters of Tehillim in exile is worth more than in good times. And therefore he demands of the Holy One blessed be He that He give great abundance.
All this the Rebbe related in 5717 - what the Rebbe Rayatz related in the name of the Tzemach Tzedek, who related it in the name of the Alter Rebbe. And then the Rebbe said in 5717: this whole story took place in 5695, thirty-five years earlier; and I do not know whether the reward that was due for those millions of letters that the Rebbe Rayatz spoke about has already been paid in full to the Jewish people. But even if it has already been paid, since then until today many more letters of Torah have been added, and therefore one can demand more. And therefore the Rebbe demands that people should have in physicality, b'harchavah, with zara chaya v'kayama, with health of body and with parnassah. "And the witnesses," says the Rebbe, "all those present at the farbrengen, you are witnesses," that the Holy One blessed be He must give to each and every one with great expansiveness. These are powerful expressions, with which our Rebbeim demanded how great the reward must be for saying Tehillim, and how much this will bring, with Hashem's help, great abundance to each and every one. Amen.