The thirtieth "cheder" in the heichal of Hayom Yom.
Sunday, 19 Tevet 5703.
Shiurim: on this day we begin a new Chumash - Chumash Shemos. Sunday, the first parshah with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, the 19th of the month, from chapter 90 through chapter 96 inclusive.
Tanya, on this day we begin chapter 12, which starts with the word "vehabeinoni", and we finish on page 32 with the words "all his days". The daily teaching is a short one.
One of the purposes of the sefer Hayom Yom is to instill the takanah of the Frierdiker Rebbe regarding the study of the three daily shiurim - Chumash, Tehillim and Tanya. The takanah of Tanya is given to us every single day, since the sefer Tanya was first divided up by the Hayom Yom; so that every day on which the daily Tanya shiur appears in the heading - that is the daily instilling of the Tanya shiur. In addition, there are teachings over the course of the year that reinforce the daily Chumash shiur and the daily Tehillim shiur as well, and our daily teaching comes to reinforce the daily study of the Chumash shiur with Rashi.
The source of what the Rebbe brings in the daily teaching is a sichah that the Frierdiker Rebbe said exactly one year earlier, on Shabbos parshas Shemos 5702. The Frierdiker Rebbe opened the farbrengen and said that the customs practiced in Lubavitch are not merely those customs founded upon halachah or upon hiddur mitzvah - although there are such customs too - but rather, in the special customs practiced in Lubavitch there is a spiritual matter that touches the soul. These customs, when one keeps them, place the home on a strong foundation of avodas Hashem and have an effect on all the members of the household.
He then brings that there are customs there which belong to the chassidim as a whole, which everyone must keep, and there are personal customs of our Rebbeim themselves. After this introduction he brings the teaching: within the teaching itself there is a part that applies to everyone, and further on he says that within this very matter there is also something unique to our Rebbeim.
It appears that for many years, ever since the Alter Rebbe, this practice was kept by select individuals - not a custom widely spread among all the chassidim, but rather passed down from generation to generation among those chassidim who knew of it. And what is it? "Among Chabad chassidim there has been received from generation to generation the takanah of the Alter Rebbe, to study every day a parshah of Chumash with Rashi's commentary from the weekly sidra" - a takanah that began back with the Alter Rebbe, to study every day the portion in Chumash with Rashi's commentary from the weekly parshah. This takanah already began with the Alter Rebbe, and the Frierdiker Rebbe gave it very great force and publicity.
In that same sichah the Frierdiker Rebbe adds that by our Rebbeim there was also a practice that they would study, besides Rashi's commentary, an additional commentary, and each year they would add a different commentary - one time Ibn Ezra, one time the Ramban, and one time Ohr HaChaim. He explains that the purpose of studying the additional commentary is to bond with the neshamah of that commentator, and this helps one to learn things correctly. There are very interesting expressions there, but this is a personal practice of our Rebbeim; whereas the practice for all chassidim, which everyone must keep, is the custom of studying Rashi's commentary.
The idea of studying Rashi's commentary every day is in fact written in the Shulchan Aruch as well. In the halachos dealing with "shnayim mikra ve'echad targum" that one is to say each week, it is written that a G-d fearing person should study each week not only the parshah with the targum, but should add Rashi's commentary as well.
The Frierdiker Rebbe brings this halachah and says at the conclusion of the teaching, in the final sentence, in an interesting way: this is a custom that not only the chassidim keep, rather "so too did our Rebbeim, the nesi'im of Chabad chassidim, conduct themselves". And once the Rebbeim conducted themselves this way, there is in halachah the concept of "maaseh rav" - that something the rav himself does receives halachic force on another level; and here we are speaking of a custom that our Rebbeim themselves kept, and therefore it certainly and most certainly obligates every single chassid.
Over the years there were many wondrous expressions that the Rebbe spoke at farbrengens, as to how much this custom affects one's life. The Rebbe even explained that the intent is not merely to study and recite the words of the daily portion with Rashi, but mainly to draw from it the lesson - as in the well known saying "to live with the times", to live with the weekly parshah, and to see each day how one lives with the matter of the parshah.
There is an interesting expression that the Rebbe wrote in Elul 5710 to a certain Jew, which appears in Igros Kodesh volume 3. The Rebbe writes to him (in the original in Yiddish, and in translation): "It is my hope that he and the members of his household will be fitting vessels to receive the Rebbe's blessings materially and spiritually". And then the interesting conclusion: "Among the ways to prepare the vessels is to keep the shiurim that the Rebbe granted" - and the first thing he lists there: "each day a parshah of Chumash with Rashi's commentary" from the weekly parshah. That is to say, this is a vessel through which one receives the Rebbe's blessings; and of course, there are also the other shiurim - Tehillim and Tanya.
In another interesting letter, a Jew once wrote to the Rebbe that he specifically is careful to study Chumash every day, and he wanted to exempt himself from the rest of the shiurim, saying "I do not manage with Tehillim and Tanya". To this the Rebbe wrote him: what do you think, for whose benefit were the shiurim that the Rebbe established set? They are for your benefit, and they bring you the greatest good in life; and if you wish to release yourself from the obligation of the daily shiurim, know that you are releasing yourself as well from the good things they bring you.
One cannot be without the other. If you wish to receive all the abundance and good that these shiurim bring, you must live them and be careful with them - that no day should pass without studying the daily shiur with Rashi's commentary. This is the message that the Rebbe wishes to convey in the daily teaching.