The forty-sixth "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Tuesday, 6 Shevat 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, on Tuesday we complete Parshas Bo - "Bo, Shlishi", with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, the 6th of the month, from chapter 35 through chapter 38 inclusive.
Tanya, on this day we complete chapter 17, from the words "vehi bechinas" until the end of the chapter, which concludes with the words "kemo shekasuv bemakom acher".
Today's saying is a short one, whose source is in a maamar of the Rebbe Rashab in the well-known series "Hemshech Ayin Beis". From that hemshech the Rebbe brings two or three lines that the Rebbe Rashab wrote there. We will give a bit of background, and then read the text.
The Rebbe Rashab speaks about the fact that there is, as is known, Torah shebiksav and Torah shebe'al peh. Torah shebiksav is a revelation of a very lofty divine wisdom; except that this divine wisdom was contracted into the words of Torah shebiksav, and the true and wondrous depth concealed within the letters remains hidden and is not seen. Outwardly, one reads the verses of Torah shebiksav the way a child reads Chumash and understands it on a very simple level, without noticing the true depth and without seeing it.
But in Torah shebe'al peh, the great ones of Israel in the later generations manage to arrive at a revelation of what is "between the lines" - they reveal the depth hidden in the letters of Torah shebiksav, and they reveal Torah teachings. Such as, for example - although he does not bring this there - Rabbi Akiva, who derived mounds upon mounds of halachos from every single crown of a letter. That is, the great ones of Israel, even though they are in later generations, reveal in Torah shebe'al peh the true depths of Torah shebiksav, which were not revealed in the generations before them.
There he elaborates at length on this matter, and finally he brings in parentheses the words that are the quotation we are studying now. And this is what he says: "My revered father, my teacher and Rebbe, writes" - the Rebbe Rayatz says this about his father, the Rebbe Rashab, that he writes - "that he heard in the name of the Alter Rebbe", and as it is brought there further: "I heard in the name of the Rebbe", meaning in the name of the Alter Rebbe - "that all the authors up to and including the Taz and the Shach", all the authors of Torah works in Torah shebe'al peh up to the Taz and the Shach.
The Taz was Rabbi Dovid HaLevi Segal, and the Shach was Rabbi Shabtai HaKohen, and they are among the commentators on the Shulchan Aruch, and they even disagree with one another. And this is what he says: "up to the Taz and the Shach, all the authors" - and the Taz and the Shach are included in this group - "composed their works with ruach hakodesh", all their works with ruach hakodesh.
It is interesting to quote what the Rebbe brings in one of the sichos in Likkutei Sichos, where he speaks about the Rambam. As is known, the Rambam writes in his work "Mishneh Torah" all sorts of halachos connected with nature and with eating - what to eat and what not to eat, what is healthy and what is not healthy, and the like. The Rebbe elaborates on this: the Rambam wrote this in a book of halachah, and at times we see that in the nature of the world things have changed, and not necessarily is what he wrote there about what is healthy or unhealthy to eat applicable today, since the body has changed and there are different matters.
The Rebbe brings there in the sichah, in the name of the sefer "Urim VeTumim" of Rabbi Yehonasan Eibeshitz - who wrote this about the "Beis Yosef" and the "Rema", who are even earlier than the Taz and the Shach. And this is the wording of the "Urim VeTumim": "It is all in writing, from the hand of Hashem who granted understanding" - everything they write is the hand of Hashem; "the spirit of Hashem stirred within them, so that their language was directed to the halachah without the writer's intent" - that is, when the "Beis Yosef" or the "Rema" write something, even though they did not intend to write it in that precise formulation, all that they wrote, the hand of Hashem wrote it through their pen; "and the desire of Hashem prospered in their hand." So writes the "Urim VeTumim".
The Rebbe brings this in relation to the Rambam: everything he wrote in halachah - even if in reality, in the world and in the physical body, there are certain things that do not correspond, as he wrote in Hilchos De'os or in matters of medicine things that do not correspond to the physical body - it may be that in the physical body the matter has changed, but spiritually every word he wrote is true and enduring, and in spirituality it all exists. This is the same idea.
And in that same place in Likkutei Sichos the Rebbe brings that very quotation from the hemshech of the maamar of the Rebbe Rashab, who writes there in the name of the Alter Rebbe about the Taz and the Shach - who come after the "Beis Yosef" and the "Rema" - that everything they write is with ruach hakodesh. There are other places where this is stated up to the Maharsha - all the authors up to the Maharsha, including the Maharsha. In any case, the things they all bring are with ruach hakodesh.
And what is "ruach hakodesh"? Here there are another two or three lines, a continuation of the maamar of the Rebbe Rashab. He says: "And the matter of ruach hakodesh is found in the Korban HaEidah at the end of chapter 3 of Shekalim" - in the Talmud Yerushalmi in Maseches Shekalim there is a commentary of the author of "Korban HaEidah". The Mishnah in Shekalim states: "chassidus brings to ruach hakodesh".
In the sefer "Korban HaEidah" he explains the meaning of these words - what ruach hakodesh is. I will read his wording (here the Rebbe does not quote his wording): "since he acts beyond the letter of the law" - for chassidus is beyond the letter of the law - and since we are speaking of one who does things beyond the letter of the law, the Holy One, blessed be He, grants him that things happen to him that are not according to nature and not according to the ordinary order, "and they make known to him the secrets of the Torah". That is, one who merits ruach hakodesh - it means that he has revealed the mystery and the secret of the Torah.
Let us read the wording of the Rebbe Rashab as he explains this: "that this means they reveal to him the secrets of Torah" - this is the wording of "Korban HaEidah". And he explains what the secrets of Torah are - "that this is from the aspect of the concealment within chochmah". As we said earlier, in Torah shebiksav there is divine wisdom, except that one does not see in it all the concealment and all the secrets hidden in every word. To the authors who came afterward, in later generations, the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed the concealment within chochmah, the secrets hidden in each and every word, and consequently everything they say is precise and exact, and G-dliness is revealed in each and every word. This is the content of the saying: that they succeeded in reaching, by divine power, the deep root of the laws, and they knew how to say things in a wondrous way.
Let us conclude with a continuation of what we have seen on the previous days - the connection between the sayings and the order of the halachos in the Rambam. We are currently, in these days, in "Sefer Zemanim", and the sayings correspond to Sefer Zemanim. We saw in the previous sayings how the matters correspond to the laws of Shabbos or chametz and matzah, sukkah and lulav, and now the continuation is Hilchos Shekalim. Why Hilchos Shekalim? Because he brings a quotation from the end of chapter 3 of Shekalim - this is the quotation upon which he bases the matter, continuing with Hilchos Shekalim which appear in "Sefer Zemanim". One sees how truly by way of allusion the Rebbe writes the sayings according to the order in which matters progress in the Rambam's work.