The forty-second "cheder" in the Heichal of Hayom Yom.
Friday, 2 Shevat 5703.
Lessons: Chumash, Vayeira, Shishi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, 2nd of the month, from chapter 10 through chapter 17 inclusive.
Tanya, on this day we conclude chapter 15, from the words "uvazeh yuvan" until the words at the end of the chapter, "avodaso klal."
The teaching is taken from the diary of the Rebbe Rayatz, in which he tells of a certain maamar said by the Alter Rebbe. And this is what he says: "My father, my teacher and master, related" - he means his father, the Rebbe Rashab. And he quotes a story that the Rebbe Rashab told: "The drush of Va'eira etc., ushmi Havaya etc. - which speaks about the matter of ki lo yidach mimenu nidach" - "drush" is a term for a maamar of chassidus; that maamar of chassidus of the Alter Rebbe which opens with the words "Va'eira el Avraham," and the subject discussed in it is "ki lo yidach mimenu nidach" - and he adds in parentheses, "(it is not the one printed in Torah Or)." The intent is not the maamar printed in Torah Or, but a different maamar, printed today in the Sefer HaMaamarim of the Alter Rebbe on the Torah and on the parshiyos. This maamar "acquired a name" among the chassidim - "der frumer Va'eira" ["the pious, sober Va'eira"].
Let me first give a bit of the content of the maamar. Over the years the Rebbe said this maamar and repeated it twice - once in 5712 and a second time in 5726. In 5712, when the Rebbe repeated the maamar, he prefaced it with a short introduction and said that it is told about the Alter Rebbe that every time he was engaged in writing a maamar on a certain subject that aroused certain feelings within him, this affected all the chassidim: when he had a feeling of melancholy, there was melancholy among everyone; and when there was a feeling of joy, there was joy among everyone. Whatever the Alter Rebbe was living with - that is how it affected everyone. And the Rebbe brings that when the Alter Rebbe said the maamar we are speaking about, a very strong fear and yiras Shamayim fell upon all the chassidim.
What is the subject of the maamar? In brief, in points: the Alter Rebbe says there that there is a lofty goal, that a Jew must connect his soul and all the faculties of his soul, on the basis of Torah and mitzvos, to Elokus - each one according to the manner of his life. A person who has no possibility of learning all day because he works and the like - at the very least one chapter in the morning and one chapter in the evening; but every single person has to connect his faculties to Elokus. And, for example, regarding Avraham Avinu he brings there that it is written "Avraham zakein ba bayamim" - meaning that he brought all his days, all the garments of his soul and all his faculties, and connected them to Elokus. And so every person must do.
And in order to succeed in this, the Alter Rebbe says: if a person is lacking one thing, at times that very lack causes it to be considered as though he did nothing at all, for when a person is missing one garment, he is missing something essential. And what is the remedy for this? Teshuvah. And teshuvah does not only mean that a person who sinned must repent, rather it is a way of life which has the power to connect the Jew to Elokus in a complete way. And what is teshuvah? He explains there that the letters of "tashuv" are the letters of "boshes" (shame), like a person who does something foolish, and suddenly sees that people are looking at him and have caught him - how ashamed he is. And so one must think: the King is looking at you the entire time, and therefore anything that you do not do one hundred percent should fill you with tremendous shame, that the King sees you and observes you.
And he brings the following: sometimes there is a child, as it says "ki naar Yisrael va'ohaveihu" - when a person is like a youth, doing foolish things and knowing that his father accepts him despite the foolishness he does, and he does not change. But what will happen when he suddenly catches himself and says, "I am not acting properly, I have to return to the right path"? The maamar says there that when the father rebukes him and shouts at him, and then the son awakens and says, "I want to return to my father," he wants to draw close again - then a far deeper love and longing are aroused within him. And in the language of the maamar: when a person loves the Holy One, blessed be He, at the ordinary standard, this is called "memale kol almin"; but when a person is aroused in teshuvah, out of shame or distance, a far deeper love and longing are aroused within him. The entire maamar arouses those who hear it as to how much one must be in constant shame and constant yiras Shamayim, and therefore the chassidim called it "der frumer Va'eira."
Let us continue with the teaching. The Rebbe says: "and the Alter Rebbe was accustomed to repeat it once every three years" - every three years the Alter Rebbe repeated that same maamar as at the first time - "and each and every time he would say it almost in the very same words," he would repeat it word for word, every three years. Now, an ordinary person who repeats the same sentence or the same lesson another time already knows the material.
And here comes an interesting conclusion: "and the Tzemach Tzedek said" - and it is precise that specifically the Tzemach Tzedek said this, for all the chassidim who heard the maamar may have heard the same thing each time; but the Tzemach Tzedek, who heard that same maamar a second and a third time and so on, said: "each time it was a new light." That is, each time the Alter Rebbe repeated the maamar, it was a new light.
What is the simple meaning? Here comes the explanation of the Rebbe Rashab, and this is precise with the heading with which the Rebbe opened, that these words are a quotation from the words of the Rebbe Rashab. The Rebbe Rashab relates all of this, and relates that the Tzemach Tzedek said that each time it was a new light, and then he adds: "and my father responded" - meaning the father of the Rebbe Rashab, the Maharash, who said this: "the 'ohr' is always the same, but the 'maor' is each time like something new." That is, the light that has already emerged from the luminary is the same light, and it does not renew itself; but the maor, which is the source of the light, does not change, for it is something essential. And therefore, each time you feel the light that comes from the maor, it is renewed each time. Like the sun, from which light shines every day, and every day, as far as you are concerned, the sun has shone anew upon the earth - everything is new.
What the Tzemach Tzedek meant to say is that hearing the maamar of the Alter Rebbe each time was not merely hearing similar words; rather the Rebbe, who is the maor, said it, and therefore each time it was a new light going forth, an actual renewal - because the maor is always like something new, which does not grow old, since it is something essential. And this is the point of the maamar.