Chasidut · Breslov
Likutei Halakhot, Orach Chaim, Laws of Morning Conduct 5:9/ליקוטי הלכות·
אוְעַל־כֵּן נוֹהֲגִין זֹאת בְּכָל שָׁנָה בַּיּוֹם שֶׁמֵּת בּוֹ אָבִיו אוֹ אִמּוֹ, כִּי תְּקוּפוֹת הַשָּׁנָה שֶׁמְּסַבֵּב הַשֵּׁם־יִתְבָּרַךְ וּמַקִּיף הַגַּלְגַּלִּים בְּכָל שָׁנָה הוּא בְּחִינַת תְּקוּפוֹת הַיָּמִים, כִּי כְּמוֹ שֶׁבְּכָל יוֹם יֵשׁ יוֹם וְלַיְלָה עֶרֶב וּבֹקֶר, כְּמוֹ־כֵן בִּכְלָלִיּוּת הַשָּׁנָה יֵשׁ קַיִץ וָחֹרֶף, שֶׁהֵם בִּבְחִינַת יוֹם וָלַיְלָה. כִּי בַּחֹרֶף – הַלֵּילוֹת אֲרֻכִּים, וְנֶחֱשָׁב לְגַבֵּי קַיִץ לִבְחִינַת לַיְלָה, וְהַקַּיִץ – שֶׁבּוֹ הַיָּמִים אֲרֻכִּים, הוּא בִּבְחִינַת יוֹם לְגַבֵּי הַחֹרֶף. וּכְמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב (תהלים עד, טז): ״לְךָ יוֹם אַף לְךָ לַיְלָה וְכוּ׳, אַתָּה הִצַּבְתָּ גְּבֻלוֹת אָרֶץ, קַיִץ וָחרֶֹף אַתָּה יְצַרְתָּם״.
1TIME CYCLESReb Noson explains why the tikkun that the son effects for his parent’s soul takes place precisely once a year. Like the diurnal cycle, the annual cycle is a recurring sequence of darkness and light, exile and redemption, symbolic of the soul’s renewal of daat on the yahrtzeit.And so we do this year after year, reciting the Kaddish and fasting on the day one’s father or mother passed away. The reason the soul requires a yearly tikkun is that tekufot ha-shanah, the annual cycle—i.e. the year-long revolutions made by the celestial bodies at HaShem’s direction83 34:22, which states that the festival of Sukkot is at tekufat ha-shanah, the cycle of the year. Rashi explains that this means at the “return” of the year, the point at which the next year begins.—parallels tekufot ha‑yamim, the diurnal cycle—i.e. the day-long circuit of the celestial bodies across the sky at His command.84,” the cycles of days, appears in I Samuel 1:20 (albeit in a different context); see also LM II, 7:6. Tehillim 19:7 states regarding the daily motion of the sun, “Its origin is at one end of the heavens, and tekufato (its cycle or circuit) takes it to the [opposite] end.” Over the course of each day, as a result of the diurnal rotation of Earth on its axis, the sun and the stars appear to cross the sky from east to west. Thus just as each 24‑hour period has a daytime and a nighttime, an evening and a morning, so too the composite of the year has a summer and a winter. These seasons parallel day and night. For in winter the nights are long and so, relative to summer, the winter is identified with night. Correspondingly, the summer, whose days are long, is identified with day relative to winter. This is also the meaning of what is written in Tehillim, “The day is Yours, the night is also Yours … You are the One Who fixed [all] the boundaries of the earth; You are the One Who created summer and winter.”
בוְכָל סִבּוּב הַשָּׁנָה הוּא בִּבְחִינַת סִבּוּב הַיּוֹם וְהַלַּיְלָה עֶרֶב וָבֹקֶר, שֶׁהוּא בְּחִינַת חֶשְׁכַת הַגָּלוּת שֶׁדּוֹמֶה לְלַיְלָה, וְאוֹר הַגְּאֻלָּה שֶׁהוּא בְּחִינַת בֹּקֶר, בְּחִינַת כְּלָלִיּוּת הָעוֹלָם הַזֶּה שֶׁנִּקְרָא לַיְלָה, כְּנֶגֶד חִדּוּשׁ הָעוֹלָם שֶׁהוּא בְּחִינַת עוֹלָם הַבָּא, שֶׁהוּא בְּחִינַת אוֹר יוֹם, כַּמּוּבָן לַמַּשְׂכִּיל, שֶׁכָּל הַנַּ״ל הֵם בִּבְחִינָה אַחַת.
2Thus each annual cycle mirrors the cycle of day and night, evening and morning. As for the diurnal cycle itself, it represents the darkness of exile, which is comparable to night, and the light of redemption, which is comparable to morning. The diurnal cycle also represents the totality of this world, which is governed by nature and so is called “night”; in contrast to chiddush ha-olam, which corresponds to the World to Come, a wondrous existence paralleling the light of day. The intelligent person understands that all these—day and night, summer and winter, exile and redemption, this world and the next—are essentially one and the same concept.
גוְעַל־כֵּן כְּשֶׁמְּסַבֵּב שָׁנָה עַל נֶפֶשׁ הַמֵּת – צְרִיכִין הַבָּנִים לַעֲסֹק בְּתִקּוּנוֹ בִּגְמַר הַשָּׁנָָה, שֶׁהוּא בְּחִינַת סִבּוּב לַיְלָה וָיוֹם, שֶׁבָּהֶם נַעֲשָׂה בְּחִינַת תִּקּוּן שֶׁל חִדּוּשׁ הָעוֹלָם, שֶׁהוּא בְּחִינַת אוֹר יוֹם שֶׁבָּא אַחַר חֶשְׁכַּת לַיְלָה, עַל־יְדֵי שֶׁהִתְחַזְּקוּ בֶּאֱמוּנָה בְּכָל תֹּקֶף הַחֹשֶׁךְ שֶׁל הַלַּיְלָה, שֶׁהוּא בְּחִינַת הַגָּלוּת, בְּחִינַת הָעוֹלָם הַזֶּה, שֶׁזֶּה הַמֵּת שֶׁהָיָה בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה, וְעַכְשָׁיו הוּא צָרִיךְ לַעֲלוֹת לִמְקוֹמוֹ לְכָל הַבְּחִינוֹת הַנַּ״ל שֶׁהֵם בְּחִינַת אוֹר כַּנַּ״ל, וְעַל־כֵּן אָז עוֹסְקִין הַבָּנִים בְּתִקּוּנוֹ עַל־יְדֵי הַקַּדִּישׁ וְכוּ׳ וְכַנַּ״ל.
3Therefore once a period of a year cycles over the soul of the deceased, the sons must again apply themselves to the soul’s tikkun at the year’s completion. This yearly cycle of the soul parallels the cycle of night and day, through which a dimension of the rectification of emunah in chiddush ha-olam is implemented. This is the idea that the light of day that shines in the morning always appears after the darkness of night by dint of our having bolstered ourselves with emunah throughout the darkest darkness of the night,85 which is synonymous with exile and this world. For this deceased person had been in this world of darkness, and now he must ascend to his station in order to attain all the aforementioned concepts— clarifying the imagination, achieving emunah in chiddush ha-olam, and hearing the new song of the future—which are comparable to light. Thus the sons engage once again in the soul’s tikkun by reciting the Kaddish, and so on.
דגַּם בְּכָל שָׁנָה וְשָׁנָה יֵשׁ רֹאשׁ־הַשָּׁנָה, שֶׁאָז עִקַּר כָּל הַתִּקּוּנִים, וְכַמְבֹאָר הֵיטֵב בְּהַתּוֹרָה הַנַּ״ל, כִּי מֵרֹאשׁ־הַשָּׁנָה נִמְשָׁכִין הַתִּקּוּנִים הַנַּ״ל עַל כָּל הַשָּׁנָה כֻּלָּהּ, וְעַל־כֵּן בְּכָל הַתְחָלַת שָׁנָה שֶׁל נֶפֶשׁ הַמֵּת, שֶׁהוּא בְּיוֹם הַיָארצַייט, צְרִיכִין לַעֲסֹק בַּתִּקּוּנִים הַנַּ״ל וְכַנַּ״ל.
4Reb Noson provides another reason why the soul’s tikkun must be renewed each year.Moreover, each and every year has a Rosh HaShanah, which, as clarified amply in the Rebbe’s lesson, is the main time for all the tikkunim,86 implemented on Rosh HaShanah through the prayer of din—namely the extraction of the life-force of the Sitra Achra, revealing daat, chiddush ha-olam, etc. since these rectificationsextend from Rosh HaShanah across the entire year. Therefore at each beginning of the year for the soul of the deceased—on the day of the yahrtzeit, which is its Rosh HaShanah—the sons must devote themselves to the soul’s rectification, and by doing so renew the above tikkunim for yet another year.