The sixty-third "room" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Friday, 23 Shevat, 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Yisro, shishi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, the 23rd of the month, from chapter 108 through and including chapter 110.
Tanya, we conclude chapter 23, from the words "umizeh yuchal" until the end of the chapter with the words "kemo shekasuv lekaman".
Today's passage is a story with a message, an interesting incident that happened with the Alter Rebbe. The Rebbe heard its source from the Rebbe Rayatz in Warsaw in 5694, and recorded it in his diary from that year; and from the diary the Rebbe entered into the Hayom Yom calendar the teaching before us. Let us read the teaching - its source is written in Yiddish - and we will translate it.
"Once, as he was leaving his room, the Alter Rebbe happened to hear the Rebbetzin saying to a few women: "Mine [my husband] says"". That is, she referred to her husband the Rebbe, the Alter Rebbe, with the term "mine". The Alter Rebbe heard this word and responded to it.
But before we bring the Alter Rebbe's words, let us add why she called him "mine". In one of the sichos the Rebbe says that it is written in seforim, and it is brought in the name of the "Darkei Chaim VeShalom", that a wife does not call her husband by his name, out of respect for him. And this is said regarding an ordinary couple, but how much more so when it concerns the Alter Rebbe, a nasi in Yisrael. Therefore the Rebbetzin did not call him by his name, and even when she spoke with others she did not mention his name, but rather said "mine says", alluding to the Alter Rebbe.
The Alter Rebbe heard this and replied. [The Rebbe notes, even though it is not written explicitly here, that it is known that the Alter Rebbe would say things with a niggun, as was his way.] What did he say? - "The Rebbe said: Because of one mitzvah I am yours; through many mitzvos - we are the Almighty's!". Why is he hers? Because of the mitzvah of kiddushin, through which they are married; for when a man marries a woman he takes on obligations to his wife, as is explicit in the Torah, and therefore "he is hers". "With one mitzvah I am yours, and with several mitzvos we are the Holy One, blessed be He's."
"And he stretched out on the floor completely in dveikus" - when he finished saying this sentence, it is described that the Alter Rebbe fell upon the doorpost out of dveikus - he entered into dveikus and simply fell onto the doorpost. "When he awoke" from the dveikus "he said Tzena Ur'ena". There is a verse in Shir HaShirim, "Tzena ur'ena bnos Tzion bamelech Shlomo", and the Alter Rebbe explained ""Tzena ur'ena" - in order to go out of oneself and to see G-dliness" - "tzena" from the word meaning going out - to go out of the limitations, from the limitations of the keilim; and "ur'ena" from the word meaning seeing - to see G-dliness. "Tzena ur'ena" - in order that this state should indeed come about, that a person go out of the limitations of the keilim and merit to see G-dliness.
And who brings about the going out of oneself and the seeing of G-dliness, which is "tzena ur'ena"? The verse says "tzena ur'ena bnos Tzion" - "this is through: "bnos Tzion" - malchus arouses z'a" - bnos Tzion, that is, the women, and in this case the wife, is the one who brought about in him the state of "tzena ur'ena", for she aroused in him the statement "with several mitzvos we are the Holy One, blessed be He's", and this aroused in him a very great excitement over our connection to the Holy One, blessed be He.
[The explanation of this:] The continuation of the verse, which is not quoted here, is "bamelech Shlomo". And as is known from what is written in Midrash Shir HaShirim Rabbah, "HaMelech Shlomo" alludes to the Holy One, blessed be He - "the King to whom peace belongs". If so, who brings it about that a Jew should have "tzena" - to go out of himself, "ur'ena" - to see G-dliness, to see "bamelech Shlomo", the Holy One, blessed be He? "Bnos Tzion" - it comes as a result of the woman.
In the language of chassidus he said that malchus arouses z'a [zeir anpin]. As is known in the order of the sefiros, z'a is a term for the six middos, and malchus is the seventh attribute in the order of the sefiros. Z'a is the mashpia, and malchus is the mekabel, and in the order of the sefiros malchus is lower than z'a. But there are times when malchus arouses z'a - that is, the recipient arouses the giver; and in this case, the wife arouses her husband.
"In the time to come the verse will be fulfilled: "an eishes chayil is the crown of her husband"". This is the same idea: the woman is a recipient, but in the time to come she will be "the crown of her husband" - like a crown above her husband, bestowing upon her husband. And this point, that the woman bestows and gives, we see in relation to the Alter Rebbe. Also at the time of the well-known accusation against the Alter Rebbe - who saved him and all of the teaching of chassidus? His daughter, Rebbetzin Devorah Leah, in the well-known story that she gave up her life and passed away in his place. So there too, the one who gave life to the Alter Rebbe came specifically from his daughter, from a woman; and here too, the one who aroused in him the dveikus was specifically his wife - "bnos Tzion".
And what is the general idea that we take from here, what is the message of the teaching? It is a beautiful story, but what is the message? In the sicha the Rebbe notes that the message we must take into our lives is this: one of the paths that the Baal Shem Tov teaches is hashgachah pratis - that from everything a person sees or hears he must learn a directive in avodas Hashem. The Alter Rebbe heard from his wife the Rebbetzin only one word - "meiner", mine - and from that one word, says the Rebbe, Torah was created: the maamarim that the Alter Rebbe wrote, which appear in Likkutei Torah on Shir HaShirim "Tzena ur'ena bnos Tzion", the explanations of chassidus there, came out of the dveikus that this word aroused. There is even a niggun - the niggun of the Alter Rebbe, the "Tzena Ur'ena" movement - which also came as a result of this; and all the avodas Hashem that it brought about - all from one word.
This is the message: a person hears a word, and this word must act upon him and bring about within him the most wondrous things. The Rebbe further brought that this teaches us in avodas Hashem also the recognition that we have no comparable value relative to the Holy One, blessed be He. There is the well-known parable, which appears also in one of the teachings of Hayom Yom, of an exceedingly great sage who issues a command to a person with whom he has no comparison whatsoever: the very saying of the command, even if it is not understood, already creates a bond with him and a connection to him. So too is the relationship between a chassid and a Rebbe - there is no comparison between a chassid and a Rebbe, but the moment one obeys his directives and studies his Torah, one becomes "his", receives his strengths and becomes connected to him. This works in a most wondrous way; this is the message we see here in the teaching.
And in continuation of what we have been discussing - that we see the order according to the order of the halachos in the Rambam - we are already in the final days. We began Sefer Nashim in the order of the Rambam, we saw the introduction to Sefer Nashim and the verse at its opening. Today, the daily shiur fits with Hilchos Ishus, for the entire concept of Hilchos Ishus is "a man and a woman" - "mine", "meiner". And this is the whole idea of the teaching: the connection that the Alter Rebbe revealed between a Jew and the Holy One, blessed be He, came as a result of his wife the Rebbetzin's saying, "meiner zogt" - and this is the message of today's teaching.