The sixty-fifth "room" in the heichal of Hayom Yom.
Sunday, 25 Shevat 5703.
Shiurim: Parshas Mishpatim, first parshah with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, the 25th of the month: one says the half of chapter 119, from the beginning of the mizmor - from the first verse that begins with "Ashrei" - until the end of the verses that end with the letter lamed, at the words "rechavah mitzvascha me'od".
Tanya, today we begin to learn chapter 25, from the beginning of the chapter, from the word "Vezehu", until page 62, concluding with the words "ve'achar kach".
Before us is a very short saying. Its source is in a sichah of the Rebbe Rayatz from the year 5697. This sichah is also well known from the collection of letters printed at the end of the Tehillim - where the letters dealing with the great value of saying Tehillim appear - and this short sichah is printed there as well. We will read the saying and give some interesting background that appears in the sichah around it.
The Rebbe Rayatz said this teaching on Simchas Torah, before Shabbos Bereishis, and he opened the sichah by saying that tomorrow is Shabbos Bereishis, and therefore everyone must complete the Chumash with Rashi of Chitas in Parshas Bereishis. Afterwards he speaks in general about strengthening the matter of saying the daily shiur, in Tehillim and in Chumash, and says: "To learn each day a portion of Chumash with Rashi's commentary" - to learn each day a section of the Chumash with Rashi's commentary. And in parentheses he specifies: "Sunday until sheni, Monday until shlishi etc.", meaning that on Sunday one learns the first section until sheni, on Monday the second section until shlishi and so on, and thus one continues to learn each day the daily shiur in Chumash.
In addition to this, "saying Tehillim every day" according to the division of the days of the month, where each day has its own chapters of Tehillim. A third thing - "and the entire Tehillim on Shabbos Mevarchim", that when Shabbos Mevarchim arrives one completes and says the entire book of Tehillim. Here he arouses that keeping this practice, both of the Chumash and of the Tehillim, "about this one must be very particular" - one must guard it firmly and be very careful to follow it. And he concludes by saying that this matter is very consequential - for one who is particular to say it himself, "it concerns him, his children and his grandchildren", the matter concerns his children and his grandchildren; meaning that the power of saying the letters of Torah is very strong.
First it should be noted: it is known that the daily shiurim consist of three things - Chumash, Tehillim and Tanya, as every day in Hayom Yom opens with the shiurim of Chumash, Tehillim and Tanya. But here, in the passage in which the Rebbe Rayatz arouses, only Chumash and Tehillim are mentioned, and Tanya is not mentioned. The reason is very simple: this sichah was said in the year 5697, and at that time the concept of dividing the Tanya according to the day did not yet exist. The division of Tanya over the days of the year came about six years later, in 5703, with the appearance of the sefer Hayom Yom, in which the Rebbe divided the Tanya into a daily shiur for the course of the year - and the sefer Hayom Yom is the sefer in which the daily shiur in Tanya was in fact revealed. For this reason, in this sichah whose source is six years earlier, the daily shiur of Tanya is not mentioned.
There is an interesting point here, and it is worthwhile to complete from that same sichah a very interesting story that shows how important the letters of Torah are. We will tell the story as the Rebbe Rayatz tells it: once, in the days of the Baal Shem Tov, a decree of destruction was issued against a Jewish settlement. The Baal Shem Tov called two of his chassidim and colleagues, the hidden tzaddikim, who were a sort of beis din for him - one was called Reb Mordechai and the second Reb Kehos - whom he would gather into a beis din in order to seek ways to nullify the decree.
It is told that the Baal Shem Tov made an aliyas neshamah to see in the worlds what could be done to nullify the decree, and he saw that the decree had been issued and could not be reversed, and it was impossible to rectify it. Further in the story - and even though there is a physical description here, the intent is to a spiritual concept - the Baal Shem Tov returned through the upper heichalos, and in one heichal he saw a very great light. He looked into whose heichal this was, and it turned out that it was the heichal of a simple villager, who each day says the entire book of Tehillim five times, and the letters of the Tehillim that he says are the letters shining above in that heichal.
The Baal Shem Tov traveled to that villager and said to him: "If you knew that with your Olam Haba you could save Jews, would you do it?" That Jew, a simple man who did not even know what he had in his hands, answered: "If I have Olam Haba - I give it all away." And then the decree was nullified.
The continuation is very interesting: one of those present who heard that there was a Jew in the time of the Baal Shem Tov who said the entire book of Tehillim five times each day, asked the Rebbe Rayatz: "How is it possible to manage to say the entire book of Tehillim five times each day?" The Rebbe answered: that Jew said Tehillim all the time - he was a woodchopper in the forest, and in everything he did he said Tehillim. Moreover, since he was a simple man, it is possible that he said Tehillim even in places where one may not say words of Torah; but since he was a simple man who did not know halachah, and his intention was good - he accomplished with his Tehillim what he accomplished.
And to strengthen this matter, that the Holy One, blessed be He, accepts words of Torah that a Jew says with sincerity, even in situations that are perhaps not fitting, the Rebbe Rayatz brings here a wondrous story that is written in the Midrash on Shir HaShirim: once Rabbi Akiva heard a Jew saying "Shema Yisrael", and instead of concluding "Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad" - he concluded with the word "acher". Rabbi Akiva came to that Jew and told him that he was not saying it correctly, and that this is the opposite of the intent. When the Jew understood that he was not saying it properly, he stopped saying "acher", but he did not say "echad" either, since no one had taught him, being a simple man - and in effect he stopped saying it altogether. By this he caused the removal of the delight that there was Above from that simple man's saying, whose intention was good.
From all of this we see - and this is what I wish to conclude with - that the letters of Torah have such a great quality, whatever the situation may be. And this is the daily teaching, that one must be careful every day to say the letters of Torah of the daily Tehillim and of the daily Chumash.
And in conclusion, as we see how the sayings have a connection to the order of the Rambam in Mishneh Torah: according to the days we are now in Sefer Nashim of the Rambam, in Hilchos Ishus, as we saw in the previous days. One can say that this teaching hints at the connection to the laws of ishus in the Rambam, for the purpose of the laws of ishus and the purpose of marriage is that with Hashem's help there be children and there be a continuation of the generations. And this is the daily teaching, in which the Rebbe gives us something that concerns him, his children and his grandchildren - which is in fact the inner purpose of all the laws of ishus, hinted at in the daily teaching from the Rambam.