The sixty-ninth "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Thursday, 29 Shevat 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Mishpatim, chamishi, with the commentary of Rashi.
Tehillim, the 29th of the month, from chapter 140 through and including chapter 144.
Tanya, we are still in chapter 25. The daily shiur is from the word "biyichud" until page 32, ending with the words "kemo shekasuv bemakom acher".
The source of today's saying is a sichah said by the Rebbe Rayatz. Let us preface a few words of background that are told in the source before the saying itself appears. It is related, what the Rebbe Rashab told regarding his father, the Rebbe Maharash: when the Maharash was of bar mitzvah age, thirteen years old, his father - the Rebbe Tzemach Tzedek - instructed him to begin studying Chumash with the commentary of the Ramban. He also instructed him to divide the study of the Ramban into three parts over three years, in which he would complete the entire Chumash with the Ramban's commentary. Afterwards, in the third year, he told him to study the commentary of the Ibn Ezra as well.
And what about Rashi? Regarding this the Rebbe Rayatz says that Rashi's commentary he always studied - meaning that the additional commentaries came in addition to Rashi. And then his father, the Rebbe Tzemach Tzedek, told him, in the name of the Alter Rebbe, the saying we are about to learn about the greatness of Rashi's commentary.
What did the Alter Rebbe say? "The Alter Rebbe once said" on a certain occasion that "Rashi's commentary on Chumash is the wine of Torah". What is the plain meaning of the expression "the wine of Torah"? There is a discussion of this in the Rebbe's sichos - as is known, from 5725 onward the Rebbe spoke about Rashi's commentary and at every farbrengen explained a verse with Rashi's commentary - and the Rebbe explains that "the wine of Torah" refers to pnimiyus haTorah, what is called "razin d'Oraisa". It is clear that Rashi says first and foremost the plain meaning, as Rashi himself testifies about his commentary, "I have come only for the plain meaning of Scripture", yet at the same time there is in Rashi's commentary "the wine of Torah", in the words of the Alter Rebbe.
The Rebbe once emphasized in one of the sichos that seemingly the interpretation of sod - which is "the wine of Torah" - and pshat are two opposite extremes: sod is the highest, and pshat is the lowest. And it is not said that in every Rashi commentary there is derush or remez, but rather that in every Rashi commentary there is sod.
The Rebbe brought the basis for this from what is written in Likkutei Torah of the Alter Rebbe. There the verse is cited, "All that is called by My name, and for My glory I created it, I formed it, indeed I made it". Seemingly there is a question here: the verse mentions the world of Beriah, the world of Yetzirah and the world of Asiyah - and what about the world of Atzilus, where is it? The Alter Rebbe explains that the world of Atzilus is hinted at in the word "af" ("indeed"), which comes to include: "I created it, I formed it" - Beriah and Yetzirah, "indeed I made it" - and the word "af" alludes to the world of Atzilus.
Seemingly there is something incomprehensible here in the order of things, for the world of Atzilus is the highest of all the worlds, and here it turns out that it is mentioned adjacent to "I made it", adjacent to Asiyah. But the Rebbe says that we see from here that specifically in Asiyah one can receive and connect to Atzilus - and so too with the four parts of the Torah's interpretations: there is the highest part, which is sod, and the lowest part, which is pshat. And where can one receive the sod of the Torah? Specifically in pshat, in "I made it". Every Rashi commentary is said in pshat, and this is the way to receive the sod - but one does not see the sod immediately. When you stand over Rashi's commentary on the Chumash, you see the pshat; do you immediately see the sod as well? No. Sod, as its name indicates, is a secret.
In another sichah the Rebbe said that this is similar to wine - for the Alter Rebbe's wording is "the wine of Torah". In a footnote in Likkutei Sichos volume 5, on the very first page, the Rebbe asks why it is called "wine", and explains: just as the wine is at first inside the grapes and concealed within them, and the longer it is concealed within the grapes the more it improves and becomes better. The Rebbe brings that this is why grapes that were not properly trodden - the wine that comes out of them is not so strong, since it did not remain in the grape for a long time.
So too in the nimshal, with the secrets of Torah hidden within Rashi's commentary - they are hidden inside, hidden within the pshat. And in order to receive them, the more you toil in the pshat - which is like the wine remaining in the grape - the more you toil in understanding the pshat, the more you have the way to receive the wine of Torah. And the Rebbe in his sichos revealed to us many times the wine of Torah that is in Rashi's commentary.
Let us continue the saying in its place. After the words that Rashi's commentary on Chumash is the wine of Torah, the Rebbe Rayatz explains what the wine of Torah accomplishes - what Rashi's commentary accomplishes by virtue of containing the wine of Torah. There is an interesting expression here: "it opens the heart and reveals essential love and fear". What does this mean? First of all, in another sichah of the Rebbe Rayatz the same idea is brought in a slightly different wording - that it reveals "inner love and fear"; and in another wording - that it reveals "inner fear of Heaven". There are various versions, and there are explanations of the differences between the versions, but here the Rebbe chose the wording "reveals essential love and fear".
What does "essential love and fear" mean? In the emotion of love and fear - love of Hashem or fear of Hashem - there is love and fear that are born as a result of something external: you contemplated a certain matter, you understood and were aroused with emotion. So too in worldly matters: a person is aroused with feeling toward a certain thing, but it is not part of his life - not something he cannot live without - rather, since he thought about it and understood that it would bring him benefit, he loves that thing; and since it is not part of him, it is not himself, the thing can also cease.
But a Jew has in the depth of his soul, in the essence of the soul, a love for the Holy One blessed be He - this is essential love and fear. And when it is revealed, your love and fear are in a powerful manner; they do not disappear, for this is something essential. And what reveals the essential love and fear of a Jew? Pnimiyus haTorah, razin d'Oraisa, which is the wine of Torah. When one studies Rashi's commentary on the Torah, one exerts oneself in the pshat and reveals the wine that is inside - this opens the heart and reveals essential love and fear. This is an enormous gift that we have through this.
Now the saying completes the words of the Alter Rebbe. After he finished speaking about Rashi's commentary on the Chumash, the Alter Rebbe says that there is also Rashi's commentary on the Gemara, which is a different manner - the same Rashi, but a different matter and a different path. And in the words of the saying: "Rashi's commentary on the Gemara opens the mind and reveals essential intellect". Rashi's commentary on the Gemara opens a person's mind and reveals essential intellect; in intellect too it is so: there is ordinary intellect, which is external intellect - either the person knows and understands, or he does not understand; but there is an intellect that is very, very deep in the essence of the soul, the part of chochmah and binah in the essence of the soul, a very deep part. Rashi's commentary on the Gemara gives you the ability to reveal the essential powers of intellect hidden in the depth of a person's soul; Rashi on the Gemara gives the way to this.
Of course one must toil and be precise in his words, but one must know that Rashi on the Torah and Rashi on the Gemara are wondrous gifts that the Holy One blessed be He brings us through Rashi's commentary.
I will conclude with a connection to the order of Rambam study. We have arrived here at the conclusion of Sefer Nashim. In Sefer Nashim we learned the allusion to Hilchos Ishus, Geirushin, Yibum v'Chalitzah and Na'arah Besulah, and we have reached its final laws - Hilchos Sotah. As we learned, if you remember the saying on Hilchos Geirushin - which spoke about the love that joins and connects chassidim - we see that this is the opposite side of divorce, the spiritual and inner side of the matter.
Here too, in Hilchos Sotah, there is an allusion to the opposite side. For the Gemara says at the beginning of Maseches Sotah: "One who sees a sotah in her disgrace should abstain from wine" - a person who sees a sotah should know that he must distance himself from wine, since wine and drinking caused this fall. And here we speak of the opposite, positive side: just as there is physical wine that leads, Heaven forbid, to a fall, know that there is also spiritual wine, positive wine, good wine to which, on the contrary, one should connect in order to reach the innermost essence of the soul, and that is "the wine of Torah" spoken of in today's saying, which corresponds to this section of Hilchos Sotah in which we find ourselves.