The seventeenth "cheder" in the heichal of Hayom Yom.
Monday, 6 Tevet 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Vayigash, sheini, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, 6th of the month, from chapter 35 through chapter 38 inclusive.
Tanya, we are in chapter 5, from the words "v'chein b'chol" until the word "shenivreis".
In the shiur we learned the previous day, on 5 Tevet, we learned that the deed is the main thing, and we said that when Moshiach comes he will enable us to understand the great virtue of the deed, of temimus. Today's saying adds to that in the same matter, and even goes further: not only that "all study brings to deed", but that even when one studies the deepest, most abstract and loftiest matters - the aim is that they can be brought down to the feeling of the heart and to actual deed.
The source of this topic is a letter that the Rebbe Rayatz wrote on 4 Tevet of the year 5691. There was a chassid in Vilna whose name was Reb Menachem Mendel Levin, who heard that year, 5691, a maamar of chassidus from the Rebbe Rayatz. That year, on Shabbos Teshuvah, the Rebbe Rayatz said a maamar, dibur hamaschil "Dirshu Havayah b'himatzo", which discussed very deep matters, and the chassid did not understand several points in it. He therefore sent a letter to the Rebbe Rayatz and wrote that he was finding it difficult to understand the matters discussed in the maamar "Dirshu" of that year.
The Rebbe Rayatz writes at length in the letter and leads him to the point that every matter one studies must lead us to a "u'v'chein" - that is, what comes out of it in actual practice, as one says "u'v'chein", in avodas Hashem; that everything must have an expression in the feeling of the heart and in deed. And then he opens and brings the verse that David HaMelech said in his testament to his son Shlomo, in Divrei Hayamim: "And you, Shlomo my son, know the God of your father and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing soul, for Hashem searches all hearts", and the verse has a continuation. The Rebbe Rayatz brings the essence of the verse and explains, as we will now read inside the saying.
The Rebbe takes a particular passage from the letter: "It is written: know the God of your father and serve Him with a whole heart" - as mentioned, the words of David HaMelech to his son Shlomo. The Rebbe Rayatz says in his letter: "For every matter, knowledge and comprehension" - everything that a Jew knows and every subject that he grasps, "even in the deepest matters", even if he is studying very deep and abstract concepts - "must come into avodah", it must descend into avodas Hashem. And what does it mean that it must descend into avodah? "That is: effecting something in the refinement and purification of the middos" - it must have an actual effect in the refinement and purification of the middos.
"And an inner bond, which is called in the language of chassidus 'avodah'" - that is, even the study and understanding of something deep and abstract must express itself in the refinement of the middos and in their purification and in an inner bond; it must bring about that a Jew works on his middos, purifies them, and connects himself to the Holy One, blessed be He.
Further on in the letter the Rebbe Rayatz adds another sentence, which was not brought here by the Rebbe. He says: "Every single matter, even if it is wondrous and abstract, must necessarily shine its light in avodah", and he says a sentence in Yiddish whose translation is - that a particular matter should be expressed and felt in a particular matter of avodas Hashem. That is, everything must come down below. And in the letter itself he speaks about the levels of "memale kol almin" and "sovev kol almin", explains how they are in their root and how they are in the root of their root before the tzimtzum - very lofty matters - and he explains what "yedias hachiyuv" is and what "yedias hashlilah" is, and how everything must ultimately come down and not remain an abstract study of a lofty matter, but must descend into a matter of avodas Hashem.
In yesterday's shiur we spoke about how one sees, by way of a hint, how the Rebbe follows the order of the Rambam's halachos from their very beginning; we saw how yesterday's saying is connected to the heading that opens Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah in the Rambam's Sefer HaMada. Today's shiur too fits very well with the first halachos in Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah. For what is the subject discussed at length in the first halachos there? Details in the knowledge of Elokus and in its comprehension. The Rambam speaks there of all kinds of levels - what a Jew should contemplate and know, and how this knowledge brings him down to ahavas Hashem; this is the entire process that the Rambam presents at the beginning of his sefer. So this saying corresponds to the first halachos at the opening of the Rambam's Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah.