The thirty-sixth "room" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Shabbos, 25 Teves, 5703.
This Shabbos is Shabbos Mevorchim of the month of Shevat. There is a line here that recurs on every Shabbos Mevorchim throughout all of Hayom Yom, and so the Rebbe repeats and mentions anew on each Shabbos Mevorchim: "Mevorchim Rosh Chodesh Shevat" - on that Shabbos we bless the coming month, Shevat. "Recital of the entire Tehillim early in the morning" - the custom to say the entire Tehillim on every Shabbos Mevorchim, early in the morning before Shacharis. "A day of farbrengen" - the directive of the Rebbe Rayatz that Shabbos Mevorchim be a day of farbrengen.
In the next passage the Rebbe refers to the haftorah that is read on Shabbos Parshas Shemos. It is known that there are several customs regarding the haftorah of Parshas Shemos: among Sefardim the custom is to read "Divrei Yirmiyahu", among Teimanim "Vayehi devar Hashem" from the book of Yechezkel, and among Ashkenazim "Haba'im yashresh". Since there are several customs, the Rebbe notes which haftorah is read on this day - "The haftorah Haba'im yashresh", and this is our custom.
Shiurim: Chumash, Shemos, shevii, with the commentary of Rashi.
Tehillim, the 25th of the month, chapter 119 - from the beginning of the chapter, "Ashrei", until the end of the letter lamed, which concludes with the words "rechavah mitzvasecha me'od".
Tanya, we are in the second part of chapter 13, from the words "Ach me'achar" until the words "keneged kulam".
The saying itself is brought here "from the talks of my father, my teacher and Rebbe", meaning that the Rebbe Rayatz describes and relates the talks that his father said. The source of the saying is in a letter that the Rebbe Rayatz wrote on Isru Chag of Pesach 5699, where he brings what his father, the Rebbe Rashab, said to the assembled on Shabbos Parshas Va'eschanan 5672.
In this interesting letter the Rebbe Rayatz describes the whole order of events: how his father said a maamar of chassidus before Kabbolas Shabbos - part of the well known hemshech "Im bechukosai" - and afterwards, at the Shabbos meal, he elaborated at length on various points from that maamar, and also told various stories at that meal. The Rebbe Rayatz describes that the stories were so numerous that by the end of the Shabbos meal day had already broken - that is, the meal continued all night long.
At the conclusion of the stories a very sharp expression is brought there, that the way of the teachings of chassidus touches primarily upon avodas Hashem - that chassidus must find expression in avodas Hashem. And those who think that chassidus is merely intellectual attainment, an intellectual study that has no bearing on avodas Hashem - they live in error, and it is a pity on their body and their soul. He even says there that it would have been better had they not studied chassidus at all, since it does not benefit them and they even desecrate chassidus thereby - very sharp expressions.
Afterwards the Rebbe Rashab says the saying that appears in the daily quotation. Let us look at its source, in Yiddish, and at its translation: "Yetzias Mitzrayim - the going out from constraints and limitations". The content of the matter: the concept of "yetzias Mitzrayim" means to go out from the limitations, from the constraints and boundaries. "And chassidus is" also a kind of yetzias Mitzrayim, for it gives a Jew the strength "to go out from the constraints and limitations of the world".
"But there is a difference" - he explains that there is a difference between the general yetzias Mitzrayim, in which the Jewish people went out of Egypt, and yetzias Mitzrayim in the sense of the teachings of chassidus. The general "yetzias Mitzrayim" "is in a mode of breaking and abandoning" - an avodah whose essence is to break and to abandon, as it was in actuality at yetzias Mitzrayim: the verse says "vayenatzlu es Mitzrayim" - they drew out all the sparks from Egypt and left it, Egypt was struck with plagues, and the Torah says to the Jewish people "you shall not see them again forever". Accordingly, the general yetzias Mitzrayim is a matter of breaking and abandoning, and "therefore they fled from Egypt".
Whereas "the yetzias Mitzrayim of chassidus" - that chassidus too acts to bring a person out of the constraints and limitations - is of a different sort: "it is refinement and rectification". It is not to break and abandon, but on the contrary - to refine and to rectify. On the one hand "a going out from the constraints and boundaries of the world", but within the world itself - meaning that you do not leave the world, and you do not cease working and involving yourself in its affairs. On the contrary, as he says further on, the world is a world that the Holy One, blessed be He, created, and it has a purpose and a goal, and one must be in it and live in it - only that one must live in it not in error, and one's perception of the world must be that the world does not contradict Torah and mitzvos. This is called going out from the constraints and limitations.
And as he explains: "to remove the constraint and limitation and to sense the truth, that the world is good in its truth, because this is His blessed will. And this comes about through the avodah of chassidus" - to be within the world, and in this way to be in a state of going out from the constraint and limitation of the world - while being within it, to live without its constraints and limitations, so that the world does not disturb us. To remove the constraint and limitation - meaning the perception of the world as though it conceals and disturbs and limits matters of Torah and mitzvos - and on the contrary, to recognize and to live within the truth. And what is the truth? That the world itself is truly good. And why is it good? "Dehavah ra'ava kamei yisbarech" - because it is the will of the Holy One, blessed be He, that there be a world, and if this is His will, it is clear that it is good. Accordingly, what is required? To go out from the constraints and limitations, from the incorrect perception of the world. And when a Jew serves Hashem in the way of chassidus, he can go out from the constraints and limitations of the world, and at the same time live within it.
This saying is a continuation of the content of the saying we read yesterday, on 24 Teves - even though they were not said on the same occasion. Yesterday the saying was that the Alter Rebbe wanted that through chassidus everything be illuminated, even that which is not good; for in Egypt, as mentioned, they drew out the sparks and left, but they did not rectify, whereas the yetzias Mitzrayim of chassidus is a matter of rectification. And the connection of the saying to Parshas Shemos is very striking, since Moshe Rabbeinu asks Pharaoh "send out My people", and the matter of yetzias Mitzrayim is the theme of Parshas Shemos.
In yesterday's lesson we began to see the connection of the allusion to the books of the Rambam found in Hayom Yom: we saw that the second book in Rambam had begun, Sefer Ahavah. And today there is an allusion here to the first halachos of Sefer Ahavah - Hilchos Krias Shema - for in Krias Shema, as is known, there is the passage of yetzias Mitzrayim. And the entire daily saying explains the matter of yetzias Mitzrayim, corresponding to Hilchos Krias Shema in Sefer Ahavah, the second book of the Rambam.