The fifty-ninth "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Monday, 19 Shevat 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Yisro, sheini, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, 19th of the month, from chapter 90 through chapter 96 inclusive.
Tanya, chapter 23, from the words "ולכן נקראים" until page 56b, which concludes with the words "כגוף לנשמה".
The content of the daily teaching is taken from a maamar of chassidus that the Rebbe Rayatz said when he arrived in the United States for the first time, in the year 5689. He arrived in the month of Elul, on 12 Elul, and on Shabbos parshas Ki Savo he said his first maamar, whose dibur hamaschil is "Hashkifah mime'on kodshecha min hashamayim uvarech es amcha es Yisrael".
In the maamar the Rebbe Rayatz brings a question written in Sefer Ha'ikarim: since the mitzvos are limited - every mitzvah is limited in time, in place and in form - seemingly the reward for them should also be a limited reward. He then brings at length examples of mitzvos and where they are limited. First he brings mitzvos whose limitation is evident, such as tefillin which is limited in time, tzitzis which is limited in time, the festivals which are limited in time, mikveh, and the like.
Afterwards he says that even mitzvos which are an obligation of the mind or an obligation of the heart, they too are limited mitzvos. He first explains what a mitzvah of the mind is, and then a mitzvah of the heart, and at length he explains why each one is limited in its form. And when he speaks about the mitzvos of the mind, there appears the content from which the quotation of the daily teaching is taken.
This content is openly connected to parshas Yisro, which is the parshah of mattan Torah. The first of the Ten Commandments is "Anochi Havayah Elokecha", and here, regarding the mitzvos of the mind, the Rebbe Rayatz speaks about this mitzvah whose content is in the verse "Anochi Havayah Elokecha".
Let us look at the quotation that the Rebbe brings from the maamar: "the first positive commandment". What is the first of the mitzvos? Not first in terms of the order in which they are written in the Torah - for the first mitzvah in Sefer Bereishis is "pru urvu" - but rather first in terms of its loftiness, and that at mattan Torah the Holy One, blessed be He, brought it to the Jewish people as the very first thing.
And in the language of the Rambam, who opens his sefer, Sefer Yad HaChazakah, with this mitzvah: "to know that there is a First Existent, who brings into existence everything that exists". The first mitzvah is that a person should know that there is a Creator of the world, who brought into being and created everything. "And the knowledge of this matter is a positive commandment" - this is the language of the Rambam at the beginning of his sefer, that it is a positive commandment upon a person to have this knowledge, that the Holy One, blessed be He, brings into existence everything that exists. And where is the source of this mitzvah? "As it is written, Anochi Havayah Elokecha", which is the beginning of the Ten Commandments in parshas Yisro.
The Rebbe Rayatz says in the maamar that this mitzvah "is the mitzvah of the mind and the intellect": that a person should activate his mind and his intellect to contemplate and to learn and to understand and to know that there is One who brings into existence everything that exists, who is the Holy One, blessed be He. "For although every single Jew believes in Hashem with simple faith" - every Jew is a believer, even a person who has not learned and does not know, since he was born a Jew; every Jew believes in the Holy One, blessed be He, with simple faith, "and his heart is wholehearted with Hashem" - the heart of every Jew is whole and complete with G-dliness.
Later in the maamar, in the passages that the Rebbe skips over here in the teaching, the Rebbe Rayatz says that one sees regarding a Jew that even when he transgresses, G-d forbid, a positive commandment or a prohibition, his point of Yiddishkeit is always whole, and it is only a ruach shtus (spirit of folly) that confuses him. He brings there an example of a sick person who is forbidden to eat a certain food, and at times he cannot restrain himself and out of light-headedness he eats, even though he knows that the matter may harm him - because there is in him a ruach shtus; so too a ruach shtus can confuse a person's faith. But every Jew, even if the ruach shtus covers over it, believes with simple faith.
Nevertheless, what is the obligation? If every Jew believes on his own, what is the obligation of "Anochi Havayah Elokecha"? "It is the obligation of the mind and the intellect to bring this faith into knowledge and comprehension" - the obligation of the Jew is that he not leave the faith as a vague and distant faith, but rather that he have in it knowledge and comprehension, that he internalize it and contemplate it and understand it well. "And this is" the precision in the language of the Rambam, "to know that there is a First Existent", with the emphasis on the word "to know" - not only to believe that there is a First Existent, but also to know; "that he should know specifically with comprehension and understanding", that he should know the matter in a way that it is understood in an inner way.
And then he concludes with two verses. The one, "and as it is written, know the G-d of your father and serve Him with a whole heart", which is written in Divrei Hayamim; and the second, "and it is written, and you shall know this day, etc.", which is written in Sefer Devarim. With this the teaching concludes.
An interesting point of precision that the Rebbe makes in a note on that maamar should be added here. The order of the verses in Tanach is that first comes the verse "and you shall know this day" which is in the Chumash, and afterwards the verse "know the G-d of your father" which is in Divrei Hayamim. If so, why does the Rebbe Rayatz in the maamar place first the later verse, "know the G-d of your father", and only after it bring the earlier verse, "and you shall know this day"?
The question is strengthened not only from contemplating these two verses in the maamar; for if we look in Tanya, in Kuntres Acharon, page 136b, the Alter Rebbe seemingly speaks about the very same matter - that there is a great and lofty mitzvah to know G-dliness - and he too brings both verses, "and you shall know this day" and "know the G-d of your father". Except that the Alter Rebbe in Tanya places first the verse "and you shall know this day", and after it "know the G-d of your father". Why, then, does the Rebbe Rayatz in his maamar bring the very same idea in the reverse order - first "know the G-d of your father" and after it "and you shall know this day"?
The Rebbe gives a simple answer: it depends on the subject under discussion. If we look carefully at the words of the Alter Rebbe in Tanya - what the mitzvah is there - we see, one line earlier, "knowledge of the existence that comes from the hishtalshelus is a great and lofty mitzvah". There the discussion is not about the very knowledge that there is a Creator of the world, who brings into existence everything that exists, but rather about knowledge of the order of hishtalshelus. In contrast, in the maamar of the Rebbe Rayatz, what is being discussed? He brings the Rambam, whose mitzvah is "to know that there is a First Existent".
And this is the difference: if the discussion is about the mitzvah to know the entire order of hishtalshelus - which verse speaks about the order of hishtalshelus more openly? "And you shall know this day and take it to your heart that Havayah is the G-d" - a verse that speaks about the order of hishtalshelus; therefore the Alter Rebbe opens with it, and after it brings "know the G-d of your father". But in the maamar of the Rebbe Rayatz the discussion is not about the mitzvah to know the order of hishtalshelus, but rather about the mitzvah to know in general that there is a Creator of the world; and for this matter, where is it clearer? In the verse "know the G-d of your father" - which he brings first, and after it he adds also "and you shall know this day".
It emerges that the matter is precise: even when the Rebbe brings verses in a maamar, it is not a mere collection of verses, but rather even the order of the verses - what he will bring first and what after it - is very precise; and the matter stands out very clearly in the difference between the manner in which they are brought in Tanya and the manner in which they are brought here in the maamar.