A taste of the Daily Tanya

  B”H Crowned by Divine Will - Unplugged Av 4  5785 - Adopted from todays Tanya, Iggeret HaKodesh 1 Who gives strength to the core of who we are? The part that carries everything. Holds us up. Keeps us from collapsing. It’s not luck. It’s not muscle. It’s the Torah Sheba’al Peh, the Oral Torah. The living wisdom of G‑d. A wisdom that doesn’t just speak. It moves . But wisdom? That’s just the surface. Go deeper and you find the source. The Divine Will. Pure desire. Beyond thought. Beyond limits. This Will, it wraps around you. Like a shield. Like a crown. Lifting you above everything you thought you knew. That’s why our sages said: Study halachot. Every day. Because this isn’t just learning. It’s girding your soul . Strengthening your foundation. So you can move, act, and love . It wakes up the arms of the soul, The awe. The love. The reach for G‑d. Born from deep understanding… or from simple, raw faith. Morning prayer ? That’s your best shot. That sacred window when compass...

  B"H Crowned by Divine Will Av 4  5785 - Adopted from todays Tanya, Iggeret HaKodesh 1 Who gives strength to the core of our being, the part of us that carries, stabilizes, and holds everything upright? It is found in our engagement and embodiment of the living wisdom of the Torah Sheba’al Peh, i.e. the Oral Torah.   For in these teachings lives the revelation of the Divine Will. Wisdom itself is only an emanation. But beyond wisdom is the source, the Divine Desire itself, the pure Will, transcending intellect and limitation.  This Will wraps around us, a shield and a crown, elevating us beyond the structures of thought, the way a crown rests above the head. This is why our sages taught: “Whoever studies halachot (Torah laws) every day…”,  for it is this engagement with Torah that girds the ‘loins’ of the soul, the part that moves and supports everything else.  This study gives the soul the resilience and vitality to awaken its “arms”, its capacity for awe...

  B”H Awakening to Being Chosen Av 3  5785 - Adopted from todays Tanya, Iggeret HaKodesh 1 – the intro: The sons of the Alter Rebbe knew it. When they added Iggeret Hakodesh and Kuntres Acharon to the Tanya, they weren’t binding pages. They were passing on power . Every word was written by his hand, pulsing with purpose, living transmissions meant to wake the soul and turn life into service. The first letter? A custom still alive today: communities dividing the Talmud so the entire thing is finished, together, each year. The cycle renews on Yud‑Tes Kislev, the day the Alter Rebbe himself was freed from prison.  Freedom and renewal, locked together. Here’s the teaching:  When we study as one, we all share the whole. One body. One soul. One completion. Torah study isn’t just knowledge. It opens the heart. Sparks awe. Ignites love. That letter came in three phases, three years, each one heavier with purpose as the Alter Rebbe’s mission unfolded. Faith. Devotion. Willing...

  B”H Awakening to Being Chosen Av 3  5785 - Adopted from todays Tanya, Iggeret HaKodesh 1 Introduction to this section of the Tanya: There are moments when words do more than inform us; they open gateways. The sons of the Alter Rebbe understood this. In their sacred approbation to the Tanya , they revealed that what we now know as Iggeret Hakodesh (The Holy Epistle) and Kuntres Acharon (Later Pamphlet) were born not out of intellectual exercise, but out of intimate connection, each word written by the Alter Rebbe’s own hand, each phrase pulsing with the energy of his soul’s purpose. These were not simply letters. They are living transmissions, invitations to align with the path of the soul, to embody the deeds that transform life itself into service. So they bound these letters together with the Tanya, because they are one continuous unfolding,  a single energetic stream designed to orient us back to our essence. The very first letter centers on an ancient custom that...

 B"H The Hidden Mercy in our Pain Av 2 5785 - Adopted from todays Tanya, Igeres Hateshuva 12 There is a reason joy can exist, even in the suffering of the body. It is because, hidden within that suffering, is a profound gift to the soul. Pain is mercy disguised as fire. It cleanses the soul here, in this life, so it will not have to be scoured in the deep, unrelenting cleansing in the next world. In our times, when our bodies and minds are not strong enough to endure the intense fasts and disciplines once prescribed for spiritual repair, suffering takes on an even greater purpose. Pain is a release valve for the soul, a way for it to rise unburdened. The sages knew this. The Ramban OBM  wrote that even the endless years of Job’s suffering could not compare to even a single hour of soul-pain in the world beyond. Why? Because the physical fire of this world is but a faint shadow, one sixtieth, of the fire that purifies souls. And yet, this world was built on lovingkindness. Whic...

  B”H Turning Shame Into Joy: The Hidden Power of Remembering for Shabbat Av 1 5785 - Adopted from todays Tanya, Igeres Hateshuva 11  The verse says, “My sin is always before me.” Many read this and assume it means we’re meant to live crushed under the weight of our mistakes, drenched in shame and regret. But that’s not the invitation at all. Because in the very same breath, the verse tells us: “Let me hear gladness and joy…” and “Uphold me with a spirit of magnanimity.” This is not the language of punishment, it’s the language of healing. True Teshuvah, true turning of the soul, isn’t sorrow for sorrow’s sake. It’s a return so deep that joy bursts forth from it, like sunlight breaking through a storm. The Hebrew says negdi , “before me, but at a distance.” It’s like standing at the edge of something you’ve experienced, no longer in it but still able to see it. The memory of our mistakes isn’t there to drown us; it’s there to soften us, to dissolve pride, to keep us humble a...