The thirty-first "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Monday, 29 Tevet 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Shemos, Monday, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, the 20th of the month, from chapter 97 through chapter 103.
Tanya, we are at the beginning of chapter 12. In yesterday's shiur chapter 12 began, from the word "achar" until page 32, the word "v'taanugav".
The daily teaching is short, and it contains a saying of the Mitteler Rebbe - the Rebbe calls it "the Torah teaching of the Mitteler Rebbe". Let us read the first sentence in the heading: "The Mitteler Rebbe answered someone in yechidus". The Mitteler Rebbe replied to a chassid who came in to him for yechidus regarding his question.
When one reads this sentence it appears to be a one-time remark, something he once answered to someone who came in to him for yechidus. But when one looks into the matter, into the accounts and the sichos of the Rebbe Rayatz and also of the Rebbe, one understands that this was not a one-time statement to a particular chassid, but rather a method by which the Mitteler Rebbe guided the chassidim long before he was appointed Rebbe. Thirteen years before he was appointed Rebbe, when he was a young man of about sixteen, his father the Alter Rebbe appointed him to be the guide of the younger chassidim, and he would guide the young men already during the lifetime of the Alter Rebbe.
He guided them in this direction: that every chassid needs to have a good friend. What is a "good friend"? Someone with whom a person can speak about matters of refining his character traits - how he can correct them, what he can improve, and so on. The Rebbe once explained this in a sicha, and said that when one has a good friend, on the one hand he is not you. For regarding oneself, "love covers all offenses" - a person does not see his own problems, and in his own eyes he is perfect; but the friend, even though he loves him very much, can notice and discern the cracks in him, and since he is a good friend, he will know how to point it out with wisdom and delicacy and tell him how to correct the matter.
The Rebbe concluded and said that if in the time of the Mitteler Rebbe this was necessary - that each person have a friend who can assist him in his spiritual matters - then as the generations have passed and the darkness in the world has intensified, certainly and most certainly it is exceedingly necessary in our time that a person have a good friend who can give him good advice and the like.
It is known that the Rebbe spoke about this matter over the years and aroused people about it in very strong terms - regarding the concept the Mishnah states, "make for yourself a rav", that everyone should have a rav who will give him guidance and direction. The Rebbe said that this corresponds to that same guidance which the Mitteler Rebbe gave, but with an addition: that this refers to someone who is not only a friend but who also has the advantage of "make for yourself a rav". The Rebbe said that a rav has an advantage - he knows the wisdom of Torah better than you, and he has more life experience than you, and therefore he can give you good advice and encourage you in avodas Hashem - something that perhaps a friend cannot give you. It emerges that "make for yourself a rav" is an upgrade of the matter, of how necessary it is for a person to have another friend.
The Rebbe spoke about this even at gatherings with young children, and told the children that each of them should speak with another Jew - with a friend, with his counselor, with the teacher who teaches him: look for someone with whom you can speak about your personal matters, and this will help you.
Why is this so important, to speak with someone else - a friend, and all the more so a rav and the like? For this comes the sentence here, what the Mitteler Rebbe answered that young man who came in to him for yechidus - and this too is a statement he had said even earlier, only that the Rebbe specifically quotes the statement he said to a particular person in yechidus. The Mitteler Rebbe said to him thus: "When one person converses with another about matters of avodas Hashem, and they study together" - they study the matter together, they search together for the solution and arrive at advice.
What is the advantage? Why can't you do it alone, and why do you need another's help? The Rebbe said an interesting phrase: "This is a situation of two "nefesh Elokis" against one "nefesh hativis"". When two people speak together, it turns out that there are two nefashos Elokiyos coming together to overcome one natural soul, one nefesh habehamis. The explanation of the matter: every person has a nefesh habehamis and a nefesh Elokis, and he has a war. But a war of one against one - sometimes this one wins and sometimes that one wins, as it is written "and one nation shall prevail over the other", sometimes this one prevails and sometimes that one. But when it is two against one - as the Rebbe said in a sicha to children, that even children know that when there is a fight of two against one, it is clear that the two will defeat the one - so too here it is two against one.
Why is this "two against one"? There are two explanations in this. One explanation the Rebbe Rayatz once gave, and the Rebbe says the same explanation but in halachic formulation. The Rebbe Rayatz said that with every person the nefesh habehamis has his own personal nuances - your type of craving, exactly what you are looking for - and it is not exactly what the other person is looking for. Therefore, when a person stands facing his problem, facing his craving, and speaks with the friend, the friend's nefesh habehamis is not on the side of his nefesh habehamis, because in this point it has no interest; perhaps it has interests of its own, but regarding the specific problem he is speaking about, the friend's nefesh habehamis is not with him. So who comes to help him? His nefesh Elokis, which wants to overcome the nefesh habehamis, and in this matter the friend's nefesh Elokis also wants to help him. It turns out that there are two against one here.
The Rebbe added to this and stated it in a halachic style, since this matter also appears in halacha in many matters and situations. The language of halacha, whose source is in the Gemara: "a person does not sin when it is not for his own benefit" - meaning, a person does not commit a sin if he has no interest and no gain in the matter; a person does not sin for someone else. The nefesh habehamis does not need the other person and does not come to cause another nefesh habehamis to sin; it will do so only when some benefit comes out of it for itself, but for the sake of the other it will not do so. The nefesh Elokis, by contrast, its entire matter is to help another without self-interest.
Consequently, when two people speak, the other's nefesh habehamis will not come to help his nefesh habehamis, because it has no interest in that - each nefesh habehamis is for itself; but the other's nefesh Elokis does have an interest in helping him. So again it turns out that there are two against one here - and for each of them it is two against one. Therefore it is always good to speak with someone else, and then one always arrives at the good result, at the great and good victory. And this is the great benefit - both in a friend, and, as the Rebbe said and as we mentioned earlier, in "make for yourself a rav", for there is no doubt that this brings very great success.