The fifty-fourth "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Wednesday, 14 Shevat 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Beshalach, revi'i, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, the 14th of the month, from chapter 72 through and including chapter 76.
Tanya, on this day we begin learning chapter 21, from the first word of the chapter, "V'hinei", and we conclude on page 52 with the word "nevuasam".
Before the teaching, the Rebbe notes something to pay attention to: we are at 14 Shevat, which is the eve of Rosh Hashanah of the trees, which falls on 15 Shevat. Already on the eve of Rosh Hashanah of the trees, "at Minchah, Tachanun is not said". On 14 Shevat, at the Minchah prayer, which is already toward the 15th, Tachanun is not said.
The next passage is very interesting, and it is a quotation from a long letter that the Rebbe Rayatz wrote in Cheshvan 5699. Another teaching from that same letter will appear in about ten days. The letter describes a bond and a communication that are not in the familiar, routine sense between a Rebbe and a chassid from both sides, but rather the bond of the neshamah, of the soul, the inner bond, which finds expression in several ways.
Before we read the teaching, let us quote from the letter an elaboration on the matter. The letter relates a story, without going into all its details: once there was a halachic discussion on a certain topic that the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek was learning with his sons, and one of his sons was very impressed by the genius and sharpness of his father, the Tzemach Tzedek. In his simplicity he said to him: "Now one sees the great power of the chassidim who are truly connected and bless you wholeheartedly" - that is, he attributed his father's genius and sharpness to the power of the chassidim who bless him.
The Tzemach Tzedek responded and said to him: "Certainly! The love of the chassidim and the blessings of the chassidim pierce the heavens". He then mentioned the name of one of the chassidim, Reb Moshe Eliyahu, who lived in Vitebsk. He was not a great scholar, but rather quite average in his knowledge, yet his hiskashrus to the Rebbe was very strong. And the Tzemach Tzedek said: "The 'Harachaman' that Reb Moshe Eliyahu says with such great love bears good fruit Above, and comes down as actual good below".
What is "Harachaman"? The Rebbe brings in the margin of the page that, as is known, there are chassidim who have the custom of saying in Birkas Hamazon "Harachaman hu yevarech es adoneinu moreinu v'rabbeinu"; and there are those who have the custom of saying at the conclusion of Shemoneh Esreh the verses corresponding to the letters of the Rebbe's name, and likewise to say the chapter of Tehillim corresponding to the Rebbe's years. It is to these expressions and customs that the Tzemach Tzedek refers with "Harachaman". These things that a chassid does for the Rebbe out of love - the Tzemach Tzedek says that they bear great fruit Above.
Here the Rebbe Rayatz elaborates in the letter on the words of the Tzemach Tzedek regarding the love between the chassid and the Rebbe. The Rebbe Rayatz explains that love has a very lofty Divine root, and for that reason it also descended into the kelipos, to such a low place. One sees that one of the greatest things in the world of kelipos that brings a person down is matters connected with love; and therefore all the stories and books that one is forbidden to read, which defile the soul, are all founded upon the concept of love - and this is because in its Divine root the matter is very lofty.
And so too among the chassidim - the spirit of life that binds them together, that binds chassidim to one another, and chassidim with the Rebbe and the Rebbe with the chassidim, is entirely love [and the teaching that I am saying now will appear on 26 Shevat], for love is a very lofty thing.
The Rebbe Rayatz continues in the letter and says that one sees tangibly that a faithful friend - even if he is far away, thousands of parsa'os distant from you - this does not interrupt; and one who is loved, the beloved, is never alone. There is no partition in love, and distance of place does not apply to it; and the moment a person truly loves and thinks about the one he loves, through this he gives him strength and strengthens him. And he says: "Our holy Rebbeim, with their gaze of love, pulled the chassid out of spiritual mud and placed him in a different standing and situation". That is, the gaze of love does not act only as "turn away from evil", to pull him out of the mud, but places him within the great power of "do good".
This is the subject of the letter, up to the passage in which comes the teaching that we will now read, which is exactly the continuation. The teaching is written in Yiddish, and in translation: "With our holy forebears and Rebbeim, aside from the matter of arousing mercy upon those connected to them" - in addition to their arousing mercy upon the chassidim connected to them.
There is an avodah that the Rebbe does within himself toward those connected to him: he mentions the names of those connected, says their names. And more than that - it was "an avodah of mentioning those connected within himself, and of contemplating the matter of their love and their hiskashrus, like water reflecting a face". The Rebbe contemplates and immerses himself in the love and the hiskashrus of the chassidim, and this is "like water reflecting a face to a face" - mutual, acting in both directions.
What is the wondrous thing in this? The very fact that the Rebbe thinks about you, says your name and contemplates you - "this arouses the inner powers of the one about whom one contemplates". And this, the Rebbe Rayatz continues, is "as we see tangibly, that when one gazes intently at a person, he is compelled to return the gaze, for an inner gaze arouses the essence of the soul - and so too with the power of thought".
When a person looks at another with an inner gaze - that is, thinks about him and contemplates his love for him and the like - this arouses the very essence of the soul of that person who is being thought about; just as with the gaze of the eyes one affects another, so too when one thinks about him. And so the Rebbe continues in the letter, that even though they are far apart in place they are not alone, and this acts with great force one upon the other. This is the point of the letter and of the daily teaching.
Let us add something interesting: years later, in 5721, at the farbrengen of 11 Shevat - which fell on Shabbos Parshas Beshalach - the Rebbe elaborated on this teaching, and said that this is one of the stories that the Rebbe Rayatz told about the conduct of the Rebbeim, that they arouse the love, and this brings about hiskashrus. And the Rebbe said: if they told us this, then it is relevant to us - it is an instruction to us. What is the instruction in this matter for us?
The Rebbe says something interesting: sometimes it happens that suddenly a person feels such an inner arousal, that he wants to be connected to the Rebbe; one must know where this comes from. How did it suddenly awaken? Apparently the Rebbe thought about him just now, thought about the fact that he is connected to him, and this aroused within him the feeling of hiskashrus, "like water reflecting a face to a face".
And the Rebbe says: "Tzaddikim resemble their Creator" - just as by the Holy One, blessed be He, it is written "every day a heavenly voice goes forth from Mount Chorev and proclaims", and this arouses within a Jew his bond with the Holy One, blessed be He, so too with the Rebbe.
And the Rebbe continues with a further point, a strong one and relevant in practice: "What difference does it make to us at all where this comes from?" - why do we need to be told that if you are aroused in the middle with such a feeling, know that apparently someone thought about you just now; and if you do not know this, what difference does that information make?
The Rebbe says: one must know that it is written in chassidus that any arousal that comes to you from Above, without personal investment, is liable to flee very quickly; such an arousal has no grip - as in the teaching of the Alter Rebbe on "a man emits seed first" and "a woman emits seed first". Therefore, says the Rebbe, when a chassid sees that suddenly such a feeling is aroused within him, he is liable to think to himself "apparently I am such a chassid, apparently I am in order, for suddenly such a feeling of hiskashrus is aroused within me"; but one must know that if such a feeling is aroused, it is not from the person himself, but rather because the Rebbe thought about him just now and this aroused him.
And therefore, if one wants it to have a grip - one must seize the arousal, do something with it, bring it into the daily order; and then it will have a grip and a different meaning than the way it came.
And the Rebbe concludes there that all of this is when the Rebbe is with us here below in a physical body - certainly he acts in this way; but how much more so after the soul of the tzaddik is after the histalkus, when the matter is far stronger and far closer to you. He is not in some distant place where he does not think about the chassidim, rather he is literally with them, and consequently his thoughts act upon them. Therefore, every time a feeling is aroused within us, we must know that someone has just now thought about us - and to seize this and bring it into practical life. This is the practical message of the wondrous teaching that we learned today.