The fiftieth "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Shabbos, 10 Shevat 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Bo, sheviei, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, the 10th of the month, from chapter 55 through chapter 59.
Tanya, on this day we begin learning from chapter 19, from the first word of the chapter, "Uletosefes", until the passage ending with the words "belev klal".
The daily teaching is divided into two parts. In the first part the Rebbe brings a note and a correction to the "Torah Or" that the Rebbe Rashab noted in his copy of the sefer "Torah Or". We have already had in "Hayom Yom" quite a number of times where the Rebbe copies the Rebbe Rashab's corrections to the "Likkutei Torah" or to the weekly "Torah Or"; and this week, parshas Bo, the Rebbe copies the Rebbe Rashab's correction to the last passage of the maamar in parshas Bo. Let us look at the wording of the teaching and say a few words about the content of the matter.
And so the Rebbe writes: "Torah Or, d"h Lemaan Tihyeh" - this is the maamar that begins with the words "Lemaan tihyeh", the last maamar of the weekly "Torah Or" - "the section beginning Amnam". The maamar "Lemaan tihyeh" has three parts, and the middle part begins with the word "Amnam". At the end of the section beginning "Amnam" - writes the Rebbe - "it is written: lo yishbos yomam mil'ros", as it is printed in the sefer. And what is the correction? "It should read": "lo yishbos yomam valailah mil'rtzos".
Let us give a little background about the content of the maamar. This is a very short maamar in which the Alter Rebbe speaks about a Jew's love for the Holy One, blessed be He. He says that there are two kinds of love: a love called "ahavah k'mayim" (love like water), and a love called "ahavah k'eish" (love like fire). "Ahavah k'mayim" - he explains - is like the love of a son for a father, which is constant and unchanging, both from the son toward the father and from the father toward the son. "Ahavah k'eish" is when a Jew contemplates how the Holy One, blessed be He, constricts Himself and lowers His divine light to give life to created beings - as it were, the Holy One, blessed be He, makes a change from the norm, that the Ein Sof should be within a limited place - and this contemplation is meant to arouse in a person as well a will and a desire to nullify himself beyond his ordinary order.
On this basis the Alter Rebbe explains the verse "vehagisa bo yomam valailah" (you shall meditate in it day and night). In the wording of the maamar it is written "lo yishbos yomam mil'ros lirtzono yisbarach" - that he should not cease a single day from seeing the will of the Holy One, blessed be He. The Rebbe Rashab's correction is that it should read "lo yishbos yomam valailah", based on the verse "vehagisa bo yomam valailah"; and what is "lo yishbos yomam valailah"? "Mil'rtzos" - that he should constantly want to do what the Holy One, blessed be He, tells him and desires that the Jew do. This is the Rebbe Rashab's correction to the maamar, and this is the first passage of the daily teaching.
Now let us look at the second part of the teaching. This day, Yud Shevat, as we already mentioned in the teaching of the previous day (9 Shevat), is the yahrtzeit of Rebbetzin Rivkah - the wife of the Rebbe Maharash - who passed away on 10 Shevat in the year 5674. Here the Rebbe Rayatz brings a story about her, and the whole idea is taken from a letter he wrote to someone: "My grandmother" - my grandmother - the Rebbetzin "Marat Rivkah, may her soul rest in Eden".
And so he relates: "When she was about eighteen years old - in the year 5611", when she was eighteen [and elsewhere it is detailed further, that this was three years after her wedding] - "she became ill". She was very ill, in such a state that "the doctor ordered that she eat immediately upon rising from her sleep" - the doctor ordered her, for the sake of her health, that every morning she should eat immediately upon rising from her sleep, and not delay eating until a later time.
What happened? She was a woman of very great fear of Heaven, and she wanted very much to be careful not to eat before davening. "However, she did not want to taste anything before davening". On the one hand she did not want to eat anything before davening, and on the other hand the doctor told her to get up in the morning and eat immediately. What did she do? She said she would fulfill both matters: she would eat early in the morning, but not immediately upon rising from her sleep; rather she would daven first and then eat. "And she would daven early in the morning" - she got up even earlier, davened very early, "and after davening she would eat breakfast". And so she ate early, but not immediately upon rising. And in fact, it is possible that this caused a decline in her health, since she also slept less because of it, and she was in a health condition that was not simple at all, truly in danger.
"When her father in law learned of this" - she was of course married to the Rebbe Maharash, and her father in law is his father, "the Rebbe, the "Tzemach Tzedek"" - he learned what she was doing, that she was not listening to the doctor and was getting up even earlier so as not to eat before davening. But before we read his words, let us first bring the halachah. In the Shulchan Aruch it says in the halachah regarding eating before davening: if a person eats before davening for medical needs, there is no problem with this at all; and if he eats simply because he is hungry and thirsty - this is forbidden. And even a person who is not ill - let us read the wording of the halachah: "if he cannot focus his mind in his davening until he is able to drink" - a person who knows that he cannot concentrate unless he puts something into his mouth, may eat and drink something before davening in order to settle himself, and this does not depend on whether he is ill or not, but only in order to focus his mind in davening. And even though the halachah concludes that nowadays we do not concentrate so much in davening - nevertheless, if he wants to eat and drink in order to concentrate, he is permitted to do so.
From the standpoint of halachah, then, a person is permitted to taste something before davening. But Rebbetzin Rivkah thought to be more stringent with herself than usual, and although it is permitted - to be more strict. Let us see what the "Tzemach Tzedek" said to her. He "said to her: a Jew must be healthy and strong", and he added: "It says regarding the mitzvos 'vechai bahem' - and its meaning is: vechai bahem, one must infuse vitality into the mitzvos"; that is, the mitzvah must be done with all the vitality and force and strength of the Jew who performs it.
"In order for it to be possible to infuse vitality into the mitzvos, one must be strong and be in a state of joy". When a Jew is strong and joyful, he has the ability to fulfill the mitzvos and to put vitality into them, and everything is done properly.
After telling her a general directive, he focused it on her specifically and concluded: "You must not spend your mornings on an empty stomach" - that is, do not remain with an empty stomach, rather daven when you are not hungry. "Better to eat in order to daven, than to daven in order to eat" - a saying that the Rebbe repeated in many contexts. Simply put: a person who delays eating until after davening, his entire davening is "I will daven so that I can already eat"; whereas a person who eats before davening, his entire eating is in order to daven.
The Rebbe, in speaking about this saying in various contexts, greatly expanded its meaning - not only to the specific point of eating before davening. The Rebbe said that the concept of "tefillah" can include all of one's avodas Hashem, all of one's fulfillment of Torah and mitzvos and all of our spiritual avodah; whereas "food" can include all of our work in worldly matters - not only food, but the job, the money, the business dealings and all of life. The question is what is primary and what is secondary, what revolves around what, and what am I doing for the sake of what.
Is the main thing for a person the physical, the food and the money and so on, and he says "I will daven so that I will succeed"; or the opposite - the main thing for him is Torah and mitzvos, and he says "I have to work and earn a living so that I will have the ability to learn Torah and fulfill mitzvos". The question is for the sake of what. The Rebbe explained that the intent of the Rebbe Maharash, that it is better to eat in order to daven, is that all your work in worldly matters should be a preparation and an introduction and something secondary for the sake of davening, and not the opposite, that the davening should be for the sake of the food. The question is what is primary in your life and what is secondary, and from this the Rebbe drew out a directive in a Jew's outlook on all matters of his life.
And then the "Tzemach Tzedek" concludes and gives the blessing: "And a blessing for length of days" - he blessed his daughter in law, Rebbetzin Rivkah, with length of days, and she lived until the age of eighty. There is here in parentheses: "She was born in the year 5593 and passed away Yud Shevat 5674" - eighty years. And in the memoirs of the Rebbe Rayatz it is told that she knew in advance when she would pass away: when she came close to her eightieth year, she said that she would live until the age of eighty. She was asked how she knew, and she said: when Grandfather - the Alter Rebbe - blesses someone with length of days, his blessing is ninety to one hundred years; and when my father in law the "Tzemach Tzedek" blesses with length of days, it is until the age of seventy to eighty years. He blessed her with length of days, and she took the maximum of his blessing - eighty years - and knew that she would pass away at the age of eighty, and so it was.
The Rebbe concludes the teaching and says: "This statement was told by my father [the Rebbe Rashab] to someone in yechidus" - the Rebbe Rashab told a Jew who came in to yechidus this entire story, "and he added" and said to him: "This must be done with joy" - that a Jew must fulfill this directive with joy, both in its simple sense, to eat so that he will have strength to daven, and also in general, in determining what is primary and what is secondary in his life.
And we see in many of the Rebbe's letters, where he writes explicitly to Jews that a person should not harm himself, and should drink before davening and eat something, even mezonos before davening. There are very explicit letters on this foundation - that this is the proper order for a Jew, and not only for weak people.