The forty-fourth "chamber" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Sunday, 4 Shevat 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Bo, first parshah with Rashi's commentary, the portion of Sunday.
Tehillim, the 4th of the month, from chapter 23 through and including chapter 28.
Tanya, on this day we begin chapter 17, from "Uvazeh" at the beginning of the chapter, until page 23, at the words "mitzvosav v'soraso".
This week we begin parshas Bo, in which, as is known, the story of yetzias Mitzrayim is told - the central theme of the parshah. There is the well known saying that a Jew must live with the times, live with the weekly parshah; and here the Rebbe folds into a saying, in a few words, the entire matter in avodas Hashem of what the exile of Mitzrayim is and what yetzias Mitzrayim is - which is the theme of parshas Bo.
The content of these words is quoted from a maamar said by the Rebbe Rayatz, the dibur hamaschil "Karov Havayah l'chol kor'av". The maamar is printed in the Sefer HaMaamarim "Kuntreisim" of the Rebbe Rayatz, volume 2, and in it he explains the entire concept of the exile of Mitzrayim in spiritual terms, within the soul, and what yetzias Mitzrayim is.
There is a lengthy description there: when a person works, even if his work is very hard, but he is producing or making something in which he sees benefit and satisfaction - the difficulty does not bother him; on the contrary, he enjoys and takes pleasure in what he is creating. In contrast, a person who does something with no benefit at all, who is simply put to work with no meaning whatsoever - even if physically his work is not hard, from his perspective it is great toil and great torment.
There he describes that this is precisely what the Egyptians did in the literal sense: they enslaved the Jewish people with backbreaking labor, they gave them meaningless work, only in order to put them to work with no real benefit relative to what they were capable of doing. He explains this at length in physical terms, and afterward moves to the spiritual and explains what this is within the soul - what the nefesh habehamis is, and describes all its faculties, and likewise describes the nefesh haElokis (as explained at the beginning of Tanya in chapter 1) and what the exile of Mitzrayim is.
And now a portion of the maamar is quoted here: "Mitzrayim is an expression of meitzar and boundary". Mitzrayim is not merely a piece of land, but from the word meitzar - one who is in a situation where he is limited and his ways are constricted. And what is "the exile of Mitzrayim in spiritual terms"? "It is that the nefesh habehamis limits and conceals the nefesh haElokis" - the nefesh habehamis takes over - just as the Egyptians took over the Jews and constricted their ways - and limits and conceals the nefesh haElokis.
The nefesh habehamis is exactly as its name implies - animalistic; everything it understands and can absorb are human, lowly, animalistic matters. The nefesh haElokis, in contrast, is the very opposite - it is Godly, and everything it absorbs and understands are spiritual and Godly matters. But the moment the nefesh habehamis clothes itself over the nefesh haElokis - [and the reason the nefesh haElokis is in such an inner connection with the nefesh habehamis is that this is the mission on which the Holy One, blessed be He, sends the neshamah, to act upon the body; and in order to act upon the body it must clothe itself within the situation, and therefore it clothes itself within the nefesh habehamis, and through it can act upon the body] - in the meantime the nefesh habehamis limits and conceals the nefesh haElokis.
And what does this bring about? "Until the nefesh haElokis is so constricted that it becomes in a state of katnus and concealment". The two expressions "katnus" and "concealment" correspond to the two expressions "limits" and "conceals": since the nefesh habehamis limits the nefesh haElokis - it becomes small; and as long as it is limited and small, it is in katnus and in concealment.
And immediately he brings the remedy, for in parshas Bo we also learn about yetzias Mitzrayim. And what is yetzias Mitzrayim in spiritual terms? "And yetzias Mitzrayim is the removal of the meitzar and boundary" - yetzias Mitzrayim means that one removes the constriction that the nefesh habehamis created, one removes that boundary.
As is known - and so it is written in Tanya - the primary dwelling place of the nefesh haElokis is in the brain, and the primary dwelling place of the nefesh habehamis is in the left chamber of the heart. And since the nefesh haElokis is currently in the shackles of the nefesh habehamis, what primarily drives a person are his desires - what I feel like, what I want, what is pleasurable for me - which is the heart; while the brain, the logical and correct outlook, becomes completely bound in the shackles of the nefesh habehamis.
And what is yetzias Mitzrayim? That a person succeeds in revealing the neshamah - whose dwelling place is in the brain, and which understands what ought to be - and then it takes command of the heart, and now the person will do what needs to be done and not what his animal draws him toward. And in the words of the saying in that maamar: "And this means that the intellect in the brain illuminates the heart" - the Godly intellect, which understands what is right to do, illuminates the heart, and then there is also an actual expression of this; "illuminates the heart" means that it gives the emotions the correct direction, and this brings about "good middos in actual practice".
The entire matter of the nefesh habehamis is bad middos, as brought in Tanya at its beginning; but the moment the nefesh haElokis has emerged from its constrictions, it takes command of the whole system, and now the emotions are correct, since the nefesh haElokis is driving them, and consequently this will also come literally into the person's garments - in thought, in speech and in deed - that the good middos will come into actual practice. This is what is called yetzias Mitzrayim.
This entire idea follows from what we have seen until now - that from Rosh Chodesh Teves we began to see that some of the sayings are arranged according to the order of the Rambam. We passed through Sefer HaMada, then there was a break of several days, then Sefer Ahavah, again a break of several days, and in recent days we are in Sefer Zmanim. In Sefer Zmanim we spoke about the festivals mentioned in an earlier saying, which includes what is in Sefer Zmanim - Eruvin, Shabbos, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
And here there is an allusion to Hilchos Chometz U'Matzah in Sefer Zmanim. Hilchos Chometz U'Matzah are all the halachos that describe - since there was an exile of Mitzrayim and a yetzias Mitzrayim - the actions through which we mark yetzias Mitzrayim to this day. So this is a saying that fits, according to the order, with Hilchos Chometz U'Matzah, with the matter of Pesach and yetzias Mitzrayim - which is the ultimate intent, and this is the idea of the saying.