The seventieth "cheder" in the Hayom Yom hall.
Friday, 30 Shevat, Rosh Chodesh, 5703 - the first day of Rosh Chodesh Adar.
Shiurim: Chumash, Mishpatim, Shishi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, the 30th of the month, the end of Tehillim, from chapter 145 through and including chapter 150.
Tanya, on this day chapter 25 is completed, from the word "uvazeh" and concluding with the words "sha'ah kanal."
Today's teaching is short, and its source is an interesting letter that the Rebbe Rayatz wrote to his son-in-law, the Rebbe. The letter is very long, and several teachings in "Hayom Yom" were culled from it. Let us look at one point that appears in it. In the letter the Rebbe Rayatz addresses the Rebbe, who was then one of the editors of the monthly journal published under the name "HaTamim"; as editor, the Rebbe sent his father-in-law a certain story that was to be published in the issue, and asked about its reliability and accuracy. The Rebbe Rayatz answers him in a long and very interesting letter.
One of the points in the letter is the concept of "seder" (order). The Rebbe Rayatz shows that with the Baal Shem Tov, with the Maggid and with the Alter Rebbe things were very orderly, and that order expressed itself on several levels - including in the manner of study, what the chassidim would learn. One of the points of order that he emphasizes in the teaching is that each of the chassidim had a set time for when he would come to the Rebbe, and it all ran in exemplary order.
There is an interesting expression there in the letter: when a chassid would come to Lubavitch, one would come on Rosh Hashanah, one on Sukkos, one on Pesach and one on Shavuos; and the date became bound up with the chassid's character and with his nickname. He brings an example: one chassid would say of himself "I am Rosh Hashanah," because he would come on Rosh Hashanah; and another would say "I am Simchas Torah." Each one had his own thing, and afterwards comes today's teaching. Today's teaching is somewhat longer in the original; we will read the teaching and then fill in a few points.
It is written thus: "Quite a few chassidim considered the day they came to Lubavitch as their birthday." That is, the chassid would record the date on which he arrived in Lubavitch, and regard it as his birthday.
And then the Rebbe Rayatz relates in the letter about his teacher, who was one of the great chassidim, Reb Shmuel Betzalel, whose nickname in acronym was the Rashbatz. And so he says: "My teacher the Rashbatz came for the first time to Lubavitch" - to the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek - "on the eve of Friday of parshas Mishpatim in the year 5608," meaning on Thursday night, the beginning of the Friday of parshas Mishpatim. In this way the teaching connects to the date, for this day, 30 Shevat, is the Friday of parshas Mishpatim.
In the letter there is an addition of two or three points that do not appear in today's teaching, and I will read them from the letter itself. It says there that every single year, when this night arrived - the eve of Friday of parshas Mishpatim - the Rashbatz would stay awake the whole night, with the clock lying on the table before his eyes. When two o'clock after midnight arrived he would say: "At this hour I set out for Lubavitch"; and when four thirty in the morning arrived he would say: "At this hour I stepped over the threshold of the Rebbe's shul."
The continuation appears in today's teaching: "And every single year he would stay awake that entire night and arrange to put on tefillin at the very hour that he entered to the Tzemach Tzedek for the first time" - each year he arranged that his putting on of tefillin on the Friday of parshas Mishpatim would be at the very time that he first entered to the Tzemach Tzedek in the year 5608. Thus he lived this date anew each time, as his birthday.
It is interesting to add a point: the Rebbe mentioned this teaching at a farbrengen in 5748. There the Rebbe spoke about how a chassid and a shliach must have two movements of the soul, which seemingly are opposite to one another, and he connected this to two components in the building of the Mishkan. On the one hand he must be in complete bittul, entirely nullified to the one who sent him and to the Holy One blessed be He; and on the other hand he must use his talents and his abilities in order to express what is required. These are two opposite movements - either he is nullified, or, on the contrary, he knows exactly what his strengths and talents are.
The Rebbe said that in our generation the Rebbe Rayatz made every member of the generation into shluchim to spread the wellsprings; and each one found himself a public activist bearing responsibility not only for himself but also to spread Yiddishkeit in his surroundings. And then he said that everyone must have these two movements in his life. In the first movement - bittul, bittul to the Rebbe; to study the Rebbe's teachings and to accept his directives, in complete bittul.
And as an example he brings today's teaching. He says that the chassidim knew that their birthday was the day on which they came for the first time to the Rebbe - each one in his generation who came to the Rebbe. And why a birthday? Because on the day he came to the Rebbe his previous existence was nullified and a new existence came into being; that is the birthday, since everything that was until now has ended, and now a new life has begun. Therefore, in his words, "it is like a newborn child."
In a note the Rebbe explains something interesting: when one compares the matter to a child and says "like a newborn child," one must examine whether he is less than a newborn child or more than one. The Rebbe says that in this case the chassid who comes for the first time to the Rebbe has two advantages over a child: although a newborn child is also new, the chassid who comes to the Rebbe is distinguished from him in two points.
The first point: a newborn child is not necessarily advancing on the first day - on the contrary, it may be that he is in regression; for beforehand, while in his mother's womb, he was taught the entire Torah, and the moment he is born he is like nothing, knowing nothing, and he must begin anew. It turns out that at first he is in a descent. But when a chassid comes to the Rebbe, his condition is upgraded relative to what it was before. That is the first difference.
The second difference: a child on the day he is born cannot learn Torah at all; and even when he begins to understand something, he is first taught simple things, and slowly, slowly. But a chassid who comes to the Rebbe receives from him immediately all the deep matters of pnimiyus haTorah, and not merely the alef-beis; he comes to the Rebbe and immediately receives the matters on a high level. Therefore, when one says that he is "like a newborn child," he has the advantage of the newness of a newborn child, and in addition an advantage greater than the analogy of a newborn child.