Likkutei Amarim Chapter 2 · 5781

00:00 Speaker 1 Last time we studied chapter 1. We also studied the introduction to Tanya. Today we’ll study chapter 2. Chapter 1 is still, in a certain sense, part of Tanya’s introduction. In chapter 1, the Alter Rebbe says—as those who remember will recall—that every Jew has two souls, two nefashos. This was the Alter Rebbe’s innovation. It was already written in other books, but the one who made it known and explained it was the Alter Rebbe: every Jew has two souls, one from the side of kelipah and one from the side of holiness. He briefly explained what the soul that comes from kelipah is. The practical explanation in Tanya, the study of Tanya, really begins with our chapter, chapter 2. In chapter 2, the Alter Rebbe lays down the most fundamental principle of Chassidus, the foundation on which everything stands. And not only Chassidus—in a certain sense, all of Judaism rests on what chapter 2 explains. Chapter 2 explains it to us, tells us, proclaims it, shouts it. I don’t know what word to use. Chapter 2 says: Rebbe. Chapter 2 says that everything a Jew has—and more than that, everything that exists in the world—life, not only spiritual life but physical life too, and the entire existence of the world, depends on his connection to the Rebbe. The Rebbe is the whole world. That is what chapter 2 is about. Before we go into the chapter itself, we won’t go very deep; we’ll just read through it and explain it a little. I want to add something I’ve said several times already, but it’s important to me to stress it. I’m sure we’ll stress it again later. People tend to treat Tanya as some kind of profound book, a book of Kabbalah, a book that explains deep matters. That’s not what it is. The Alter Rebbe wrote

02:04 Speaker 1 Tanya as a practical guide, an instruction manual. You want to be a Jew as you should? Look at what it says, learn it, and do it. But learning what it says isn’t enough. Someone who learns it, and even knows it well, will know Chassidus. He won’t be a chossid. To be a chossid, you have to practice, and practicing takes work. Something just came to mind. One of the things I’ve been involved with in recent years, as part of my work checking tefillin and mezuzos: a few years ago, they developed the software so that now you can check mezuzos by photographing them, not only by scanning them with a scanner, but with a camera too. Later they added another feature to the software that lets it work with a certain type of camera, more sophisticated cameras. In short, I’ve kept up with this field since it began, and when they started bringing in the newer cameras, I said, “Good, I want one, because I’ll get sharper, nicer pictures.” Then I suddenly realized that having a camera is one thing, but you don’t know which one to get. There are a thousand kinds of cameras and a thousand kinds of lenses. Once, you bought a camera, zoomed in, and took a picture. Today it has become very, very complicated. So I gave myself an assignment. For several weeks I sat and studied the subject, and I became an expert in photography. Now—not just today; it’s been a year or more—people contact me every day, regularly, on WhatsApp, by email, and by phone, asking which camera to get, what the differences are between the models, and which lens is best.

03:49 Speaker 2 Which camera?

03:52 Speaker 1 It depends on the person and what they need, and so on. Today I helped someone with a lens. He sent me a picture of a lens and asked whether it would suit him. I asked what he does, what kind of work he does. I explained that it wouldn’t suit him, and why. In short, it’s a whole world—a big world. Now, after all that, I really do understand photography. Why? Because I studied it and worked with it. But put a camera in my hand and tell me to take pictures—do I know how to set it? I don’t. Send me to photograph a wedding, and apart from the shutter button, I don’t know what any of the buttons do. I understand how the camera works. I know how to set it up through a computer, but I don’t know how to take pictures. I really don’t know how to take pictures. Knowing the subject doesn’t make a person a photographer. It hasn’t become part of him. To be a photographer, you have to go and take pictures, put the camera in your hands and use it. It doesn’t help to have it up on the wall and click a mouse at your computer. That doesn’t make you a photographer. Chassidus is the same. Studying Tanya isn’t enough. Tanya is not a theoretical book; Tanya is a practical book. After learning and understanding, you have to practice, and without practice it doesn’t work. You’ll know Chassidus, but you won’t be chassidim. To be a chossid, you have to practice. And the first thing, the first foundation the Alter Rebbe establishes in serving Hashem, is connection to the Rebbe. That’s our chapter. Let’s look inside. Chapter 2: “The second soul in a Jew is truly a part of G-d above, as it is written, ‘And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.’” Now, it really is a tremendous innovation to say that a part of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is inside me. Can Hakadosh Boruch Hu be divided

05:57 Speaker 1 into parts, with one part of Him inside... Where do we see this? I don’t feel Hakadosh Boruch Hu inside me. But there is a verse. The verse says, “And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” How do we learn from this verse that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is inside me, that I am truly a part of G-d above? The Zohar says, as quoted here: “One who breathes out, breathes from within himself.” The Zohar explains the verse this way: when a person blows, he forcefully expels something from deep within himself, from his innermost being—the innermost life-force within him. So the Zohar explains the verse. How? With a simple physical example. A person can talk for hours and not get tired. People don’t get tired from talking. But when you try to inflate a swimming pool or a balloon, after three breaths you’re exhausted; you can’t go on. Why? The Zohar explains: when a person blows, he forcefully expels the innermost life-force within him. It isn’t just air coming out; his life-force comes out with it. Blowing isn’t like speaking. A person can speak, and what comes from the soul through speech is only a radiance, something peripheral. Just as the sun can give off light and heat endlessly without getting tired or losing weight, a person can speak endlessly. It doesn’t affect the soul, and the soul loses nothing. But when a person blows, something of his life-force comes out in that breath, something from deep within him, from the essence of his soul, and that’s why he gets tired. The Zohar says: this is what “And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” means. With the other creatures, it says that Hakadosh Boruch Hu created them through speech: “And Hashem said,” “And Hashem said.” Of man it says, “Let us make man,” and “He breathed into his nostrils.” “Let us make” is an expression of making, and “He breathed” is an expression of blowing. And then—

08:05 Speaker 6 With non-Jews too?

08:06 Speaker 1 Hmm?

08:07 Speaker 6 With non-Jews too?

08:10 Speaker 1 With non-Jews too.

08:10 Speaker 6 Why?

08:11 Speaker 1 Hmm?

08:11 Speaker 6 Why did He breathe into non-Jews?

08:14 Speaker 1 I’m talking about Adam Harishon: “And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” Everyone else descended from Adam Harishon afterward.

08:21 Speaker 6 But in principle, non-Jews don’t have something of the—

08:23 Speaker 1 They don’t have a neshamah. It’s something entirely different, as we’ll see later. We saw a little of this in the previous chapter, and we’ll see later too, that the difference is beyond comparison. It’s something entirely different. But the very essence of a human being, of the speaking species, means there is something G-dly here. It isn’t something external. The essence of G-dliness is here. That is how the Zohar explains the verse. So from the verse we have proof that, for every Jew at least, it is clear: the second soul in a Jew is truly a part of G-d above. “So, by way of analogy, the souls of Israel arose in thought, as it is written, ‘Israel is My firstborn son,’ and ‘You are children of Hashem your G-d.’” So...

09:16 Speaker 6 We’re winking. You gave the neighbor the class.

09:23 Speaker 1 A person has many faculties. There are lower faculties that belong to the realm of action, like moving your hands, and the senses of touch, taste, and smell. There are higher faculties that are relatively more inward, like sight and hearing. They are more inward than action, but still external. Then there are faculties that are more inward still. The highest faculty in a person is thought. And thought itself has many levels. There’s a kind of thought that’s just a passing notion, something that goes through your head; there’s deeper thought, and then there’s the root of thought, and higher still. There are many levels to it. It says of the Jewish people that they “arose in thought.” Just as in a person, thought is the highest part, so, as it were, the thought of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the highest aspect of G-dliness. “They arose in thought” means that the root of Jewish souls comes from the very highest place. They arose in Divine thought. What does that mean? He explains: Just as a child comes from the father’s brain, so, as it were, the soul of every Jew comes from His thought and wisdom, blessed be He. When someone has a child, where does the child come from? From the mother. But before that, there is... It’s like planting a seed in the ground. True, it’s the soil that makes it grow, but what grows is the seed. So it is in the physical sense, too. True, the mother gives birth, but where does the initial drop come from? It comes from the father. And where in the father does it come from? Before the drop became physical, it was spiritual, as is explained. Where was it spiritual? It came from the father’s brain. And where in the father’s brain? From its very highest place. So, too, the soul of every Jew comes from the very highest place in the Father’s brain. The Father is Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Where do we see that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is our Father?

11:55 Speaker 1 There’s a verse: “You are children, you are children to Hashem your G-d.” So the Torah calls every Jew a child. Why does the Torah call us children? Because just as a child comes from the father’s brain, every Jew comes from His thought and wisdom, blessed be He. Ultimately, it’s true that down here you don’t see G-dliness; you see a sack of flesh and bones. But where does it come from? It comes from His wisdom and thought, blessed be He. And what is the nature of His thought and wisdom? Here he brings the Rambam: His thought and wisdom are such that “He is wise, but not with a knowable wisdom”; rather, He and His wisdom are one. And as the Rambam wrote, “He is the knowledge, He is the knower,” and so on. Are you familiar with that saying? “He is the knowledge, He is the knower, and He is the known.” Have you ever heard it? Have you heard it or not? Hm? What does it mean?

13:05 Speaker 7 Not everything is settled yet.

13:07 Speaker 1 Yes, right. Knowledge... Whenever I learn something, before that I didn’t know it. Now I’ve learned it; now I know it. Right? So there’s me, the one learning, the knower. I am the knower. Then there’s the known. Before, I didn’t know what is known; now I know it. So there’s me, and there’s the external thing I now know: the thought, the subject, the idea, the thing. Right? So there are two things here: me and the thing. Now, my ability to know and understand that thing doesn’t come on its own. A chicken, for example, can’t understand what five times five is. It can’t. Why? Because it has no intellect. Right? An inanimate object can’t understand. It has no thought, no will, no soul capable of thinking. That means that to know something, you need three different things: me, the thing, and the faculty with which I learn—the power of thought, the power of understanding. These are called the knower, the knowledge, and the known. The Rambam says that with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, they are one.

14:29 Speaker 7 No.

14:30 Speaker 1 How can they be one? If there are many different created beings here, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu knows all of them, then you have to say... Let’s start from the bottom and work upward. If there are many created beings in the world, who created them all? Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Right? How did He create them? He created them with the power of creation. So there’s Hakadosh Boruch Hu, who created the beings; there are the created beings; and there’s the power with which He created them. Those are three different things, right? You can’t say, I don’t know, that these French fries are G-dliness. They’re French fries. They’re not Hakadosh Boruch Hu. They can’t create, and they have no life force or anything else. The Rambam says that with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, it isn’t like that: He is the knowledge, He is the knower, and He is the known. With Him, everything is one. Simple oneness doesn’t consist of separate things. The human mind can’t understand such a thing. What does it mean? How can you say that I and the other thing that I... If it’s another thing, then it’s no longer me. If I know it, then it’s no longer another thing. How can you say that three things are one? It’s not something the intellect can grasp. But the Rambam says that, through his profound understanding, he came to understand that with Hakadosh Boruch Hu they are one. That’s the Rambam. From this we understand that if, with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, everything is one, and the Jewish people arose in thought, and He and His thought are one, then we must say that the Jewish soul is one with G-dliness—it is He Himself. So I have the thought of Hakadosh Boruch Hu within me. That means I have Hakadosh Boruch Hu

16:27 Speaker 1 Himself within me, because with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, He and His thought are the same thing; they are one. All right, that’s the reasoning. Are we okay so far? Good. There’s a note here; we’ll read it quickly. First I’ll explain a little about what this note discusses. Not all the Torah sages agreed with the Rambam. There was one of the great Torah sages, from more or less his time, who—

16:51 Speaker 8 Most only agreed after his death.

16:53 Speaker 1 Hm?

16:54 Speaker 8 Most only agreed after his death.

16:55 Speaker 1 You’re talking about the controversy over his halachic writings. That’s a separate matter. We’re going to talk about what he wrote in his philosophical works.

17:05 Speaker 8 No, he wrote something that they burned his books over.

17:10 Speaker 1 The Rambam had a contemporary who was about sixty years older than he was. His name was Rabbi Avraham ben David, the Raavad, and he wrote a book. When the Rambam wrote the Mishneh Torah, he was very young, in his twenties, and he wrote most of the book while he was on a ship, on a journey. The Raavad was the leading Torah sage of the generation, a well-known Jew. When the Rambam wrote his book without any commentaries or explanations of how he arrived at each ruling, the Raavad came out against him in very, very sharp terms. The opposition to the Rambam went so far that the Rambam’s books were burned. That controversy continued for about two hundred years, until the Beis Yosef, who composed the Shulchan Aruch, came along. Before he composed the Beis Yosef, he had written another book called Kesef Mishneh. Kesef Mishneh was the first major work of Rabbi Yosef Karo, the author of the Shulchan Aruch. The whole Kesef Mishneh sets out to answer all the questions raised about the Rambam. He simply goes through the Rambam from beginning to end, and wherever a question was raised, he answers it and explains the Rambam’s position. On the basis of the Kesef Mishneh he built the Beis Yosef, and then on the basis of the Beis Yosef he built the Shulchan Aruch. So the opposition to the Rambam—

18:41 Speaker 8 The Shulchan Aruch is based on the Rambam, so that too—

18:42 Speaker 1 The Shulchan Aruch is based on the Rambam, definitely. It’s pretty rare to find laws in the Shulchan Aruch that don’t follow the Rambam. But none of that is connected to what we’re discussing here. What we’re discussing isn’t about halachah; it’s about the Rambam’s approach to philosophical inquiry, the Moreh Nevuchim and so on. That approach is also reflected in Hilchos Dei’os. The Maharal of Prague disagreed with the Rambam. He said: How can you, the Rambam, say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the knowledge, the knower and the known? Hakadosh Boruch Hu is infinite, unlimited, without end. He has no boundaries whatsoever. And you say that He is the knowledge, the knower and the known. What, does He have an intellect? Is He limited by some boundary of intellect or emotion? Does He have anything of that sort? Hakadosh Boruch Hu has no body and no bodily form, and all this talk about His being the knowledge, the knower and the known is... The Maharal of Prague disagreed with him very sharply. Here, in this note, the Alter Rebbe answers the objection to the Rambam. He explains that what the Rambam wrote is indeed correct according to the teachings of the Arizal, even though the Maharal of Prague is, seemingly, right and is speaking of a much higher level. Let’s read it quickly inside, in the small print. “And the sages of Kabbalah agreed with him”—they agreed with the Rambam. Who are the sages of Kabbalah? The Arizal, as is written in the Pardes of the Ramak. And according to the teachings of the Arizal as well, the statement holds true through the mystery of the Ein Sof’s light becoming vested, by means of many tzimtzumim, in the vessels of Chabad of Atzilus. It isn’t for nothing that the Rebbe mentions both the teachings of the Arizal and those of the Ramak here. Well, there’s so much to say about every word—so many stories

20:39 Speaker 1 about every word. The Arizal lived in Tzfas, right? He was younger than the Beis Yosef. The Arizal, the Beis Yosef and the Ramak—Reb Moshe Cordovero—all lived in Tzfas at the same time. The Beis Yosef was about eighty years older than they were. The Ramak was somewhat younger, and the Arizal was very young, sixty or seventy years younger than they were. I don’t remember the exact age difference. The Arizal arrived in Tzfas when the other two were already older. When the Arizal arrived in Tzfas, the Beis Yosef studied with him for a short period, about a year. That’s how it worked out. In any case, when the Arizal—

21:30 Speaker 9 He was in Tzfas for only two years, wasn’t he?

21:30 Speaker 1 He was in Tzfas for two years, and in practice he was head of the yeshivah for less than—about a year, even less. The one who had been head of the yeshivah in Tzfas was the Ramak, Moshe Cordovero, not the Beis Yosef. I’m not certain. And the Ramak taught Kabbalah. The Beis Yosef didn’t know Kabbalah. He didn’t. Not at the level we’re talking about, right? When the Arizal began teaching Kabbalah after the passing of the Ramak, it became clear very quickly that the Arizal’s Kabbalah was entirely different from the Kabbalah of his teacher, the Ramak. They were really two extremes. You could say they actually disagreed. There are a few letters in Igros Kodesh, just a handful, in which the Rebbe resolves this and explains that although, on the face of it, they appear to be two completely different and contradictory approaches, they do not contradict each other. The Rebbe reconciles several points between them. But here the Alter Rebbe cites both of them, the Ramak and the Arizal, to emphasize that although people had disagreed so strongly with the Rambam for generations, for hundreds of years, according to Kabbalah the Rambam’s words are correct—not only according to the teachings of the Arizal, but also according to those of the Ramak. In other words, according to every approach in Kabbalah, the Rambam’s words are correct. How do they explain that? What do they explain? Kabbalah has to explain how, although the Rambam seemingly limits Hakadosh Boruch Hu by describing Him in intellectual terms—as the knowledge, the knower and the known—that doesn’t contradict His being infinite. How does Kabbalah explain it? It says: “The statement holds true”—the Rambam’s words are correct—“through the mystery of the Ein Sof’s light becoming vested, by means of many tzimtzumim, in the vessels of Chabad of Atzilus.” I’ll just read it, and then we’ll explain it briefly. “But not above Atzilus, as stated elsewhere, for the Ein

23:36 Speaker 1 Sof is exalted and elevated infinitely above the essence and level of Chabad, to the point that the essence and level of Chabad are considered like physical action in relation to Him, may He be blessed, as it is written, ‘You made them all with wisdom.’” So the explanation is simple. As regards the essence of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the Maharal of Prague is right. He is not limited by anything, certainly not by intellect. But when Hakadosh Boruch Hu contracted Himself and descended to create the world, He placed Himself within a framework, within an intellectual limitation. Then we say of Him that He is the knowledge, the knower and the known. In any case, all of this was—the Alter Rebbe himself put it in small print at the side. It’s a parenthetical point. For our purposes, we’ll now continue with the chapter itself. Is this too heavy? Too deep?

24:29 Speaker 9 No.

24:32 Speaker 1 We’ll skip over the—let’s sum up all that discussion, all those many words. What we’ve said so far is simple. Every Jew has a literal part of G-d above in his soul. And the Rebbe has established this from an explicit verse, from the Zohar, from the Rambam’s words, from Kabbalah, and from the approaches of both the Arizal and the Ramak. So this is what we have so far: Every Jew—whether you understand it or not—has a part of Hakadosh Boruch Hu within him. A literal part of G-d above. That’s where we’ve reached. He continues below, a few lines from the bottom of the page, on the right-hand side: “This is beyond a person’s ability to understand fully.” True, you can’t understand it. So what? If you can’t understand it, does that mean it doesn’t exist? Know that this is the reality. The Torah says so. “As it is written, ‘Can you fathom G-d?’ And it is written, ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts,’ and so on.” There’s a reason two verses are needed here as proof. “And although”—there’s a question. How can you tell me such a thing? If all souls are literally a part of G-d above, how can there be differences between one person and another? Every Jew has a soul within him, literally a part of G-d. How can they differ? So here the Rebbe begins to explain how there can be differences from soul to soul, from Jew to Jew. “And although there are tens of thousands of different levels among souls, one higher than another without end.” He gives an example: “Such as the immense superiority of the souls of the Patriarchs and Moshe Rabbeinu, peace be upon them, over the souls of these generations of ours, the heels of Moshiach, which are truly like heels in comparison with the brain and the head.” First of all, you can see with your own eyes that there’s an enormous difference between the earlier and later generations. You can’t compare the generation of Moshe Rabbeinu, the generation of knowledge, with

26:40 Speaker 1 our generation. Not even with the previous generation. When we arrived in Afula about thirty years ago, people were still telling us—we used to stay with families in one of the moshavim—they were still telling us about a few elderly women there who had come from abroad, from Persia and Iraq, you know, who would observe a week-long fast. What is a week-long—

27:11 Speaker 9 What is a week-long fast?

27:11 Speaker 1 A week-long fast? You don’t eat for a week.

27:14 Speaker 9 Why did it end?

27:15 Speaker 1 Hm? The fast lasts from one Shabbos to the next. This week, I’m not eating.

27:21 Speaker 9 Was there no food, or what?

27:22 Speaker 1 No. They did it out of piety.

27:26 Speaker 9 Yes.

27:26 Speaker 1 In our moshavim here, there’s no such thing today.

27:29 Speaker 9 No.

27:30 Speaker 1 You don’t see such a thing, not among women and not among men. It doesn’t exist. Where do you find a Jew like that today? Today, even finding someone who has studied the entire Torah—what does “studied the entire Torah” mean? He finished Shas. What does “finished Shas” mean? He learned and learned and learned, and... let’s say he really studied it and really understood it. Ask him what it says here, what it says there. What? All right, Hashem will help, yes. In earlier generations, there were quite a few Jews who had... There’s a halachah in the Shulchan Aruch—there are laws governing every mitzvah, a prescribed way to fulfill it, right? How do you fulfill the mitzvah of sukkah? It needs walls of a particular kind, particular height and width, a certain kind of covering and shade, and so on. There’s a halachah governing how to fulfill the mitzvah. Every mitzvah has its laws governing how you fulfill it. Shabbos: this is permitted, that is forbidden, and so on. How do you fulfill the mitzvah of Torah study? There’s a halachah. It’s in the Gemara, in the early halachic authorities, all the way through to the Shulchan Aruch as halachah. The mitzvah of Torah study, too, means that every Jew is obligated to know the Torah. At what point have I studied enough for it to be called “I’ve studied the entire Torah,” that I’ve fulfilled the mitzvah? So the halachah says that when you know Tanach by heart and—

28:50 Speaker 10 By heart in depth, or by heart?

28:51 Speaker 1 By heart, by heart. And Shas, the six orders of the Mishnah—then you know Torah. Then you’ve studied the Torah, because you know both the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. The minimum, the minimum—

29:06 Speaker 10 Why?

29:07 Speaker 1 The minimum that—Shulchan Aruch isn’t telling us what level we’re supposed to reach. Shulchan Aruch is telling us that below this, it’s no longer kosher; it’s no longer Jewish. The minimum that halachah sets for a Jew is to know the Tanach and the entire Shas by heart. That’s halachah, in Shulchan Aruch, in Hilchos Talmud Torah. Who can do that today? There’s no such thing.

29:32 Speaker 10 What are you saying?

29:34 Speaker 1 No, no, it isn’t possible today. It isn’t possible. Maybe there are a few individuals here and there, one or two, who can. When—the Mishnah says, in Pirkei Avos, and everyone studies Pirkei Avos, right? What does Pirkei Avos say? “At five, one begins Scripture; at ten, Mishnah.” What happened? Why doesn’t he need to keep studying Scripture? He started at five; by ten he already knows Scripture. Now he studies Mishnah. Fifteen—he spends five years studying Mishnah and finishes the entire Shas. Now he can start studying Gemara. He already knows it. He has to review so he won’t forget, but that’s the basic progression. Who today is capable of that? This is talking about the later generations, the very latest generations.

30:15 Speaker 10 It existed once; now it doesn’t.

30:17 Speaker 1 Their souls weren’t like ours. That’s what the Rebbe says here. What’s the wording? “Higher than the higher without end, like the vast superiority of the souls of the Patriarchs and Moshe Rabbeinu, peace be upon them, over the souls of these generations of ours, the generations of the heels of Moshiach.” So the Alter Rebbe said this some 250 years ago. Yes, things haven’t gotten any higher today. So that’s one point. And second, our generation is literally like the heels compared with the brain and the head. The heel—our Sages said, why did they specifically call it a heel? Our Sages said that the heel is the angel of death within a person. It says, “He placed the world in their hearts.” Our Sages said that everything in the great world exists in the small world. Actually, that’s not from our Sages; it’s from the sages of Kabbalah. Everything that exists in the world also exists in a person. Where is the angel of death in a person? Is there such a thing as the angel of death? Where is it in a person? The heel. The heel is the angel of death within a person, our Sages said. Why? Your heel—you can’t move it; there’s no muscle there. It’s so coarse, it’s down below, and it’s thick. That’s the angel of death, right? So our generation is the heel of the person. If all the generations together are called one collective person, then our generation is the generation of the heel: souls on the level of the heel, on the level of the angel of death. And it’s not only a matter of one generation compared with another. “Therefore, in every generation there are leaders of the thousands of Israel whose souls are like the head and brain in relation to the souls of the masses and the unlearned.” It isn’t only a difference between generations. Within every generation, there are differences. There are Jews whom you see understanding quickly, feeling quickly, connected to G-dliness. You can only envy them. You want to be like that too, but you’re not. You’re you; it doesn’t work. I try, and it doesn’t. It’s not the same. Right, says the Alter Rebbe.

32:21 Speaker 1 In every generation there are higher souls and lower souls.

32:25 Speaker 10 In the time of the Geulah, we’ll all have the same level of knowledge.

32:30 Speaker 1 Knowledge.

32:31 Speaker 10 Knowledge.

32:32 Speaker 1 Yes, there will be some basic level.

32:35 Speaker 10 No. Because if we meet them and they’re on a level above us, then it’s as if we won’t be able to have a conversation with them, apart from small talk.

32:46 Speaker 1 There’s a letter from the Rebbe about this, a well-known letter. The Rebbe addresses the Rambam’s final halachah about when Moshiach comes: “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of Hashem as the waters cover the sea.” The Rebbe explains that in the future, knowledge of Hashem will be like the waters covering the sea: from above, everything is covered. There’s no place without water. But when you dive into the sea, there are places with mountains beneath the water, so there’s only a little water above them. In other places there’s a valley or a deep hollow on the seabed, so there’s a great deal of water. So too, someone who was like a high mountain during his lifetime, someone full of pride—he’s a mountain. He too will be covered with knowledge of Hashem, but, well, less of it. And someone who kept close to the dust during his lifetime will have a little more knowledge of Hashem in the future. Everyone will have knowledge, but how much, and in what way, won’t be the same for everyone.

33:52 Speaker 10 …

33:52 Speaker 1 …

33:53 Speaker 10 I don’t know. So when Moshiach comes, there will still be a difference, as I understand it.

33:56 Speaker 1 There will be a difference. Knowledge of Hashem, knowing G-dliness, will be there for everyone. But how much and how—in what way and to what extent—there will be great differences. And in every generation, too, we see differences between souls. And he says more than that: “And likewise, souls in relation to souls.” Until now he was speaking about the difference between one soul and another. The Alter Rebbe says something more: there isn’t only a difference between one neshamah and another; there’s a difference between one nefesh and another as well. We’ll explain why in a moment, because every soul includes nefesh, ruach, and neshamah. So up to this point, the Rebbe has explained what we can see with our own eyes. We see that there are differences among Jews. So how can you tell me they all have the same soul, “an actual part of G-d above”? That’s what he explained. Yes, every Jew has a soul that comes from the same place. An actual part of G-d above is present in everyone, but in each person it comes through differently: it may be more revealed, more coarse, or more refined. What’s more, every soul has three aspects. This is the first time he’s said that here, and we’ll deal with it shortly. Every Jewish soul, even though its root is one, has three aspects: nefesh, ruach, and neshamah. I’m sure everyone has heard those terms many times. What’s the difference? Do you know? Between nefesh, ruach, and neshamah? Right, right. Exactly. Nefesh is the lower spiritual part of the soul, which attends to—connects with the body, with action; it moves the hands and feet. Ruach is the more refined spiritual part of the soul, expressed mainly in a person’s feelings and character traits. And neshamah is the higher spiritual part, expressed mainly in thought, in the brain, in the intellect. Nefesh, ruach, and neshamah correspond to brain, heart, and liver; to intellect, emotion, and action, broadly speaking, within

36:29 Speaker 1 the soul. And he teaches us here that every person’s soul includes all three aspects, and each of those three aspects differs from one person to another. So let’s sum up before moving on—this is one stage. What have we covered so far? Every Jew has a soul. Every person’s soul is a part of G-d, but there are major differences, and those differences appear in the neshamah aspect, the ruach aspect, and the nefesh aspect. He hasn’t yet explained exactly how; that will be explained further on. How can it be that, on the one hand, everyone has a G-dly soul, while on the other hand, there are differences? So he—this is where he starts explaining how that can be. Until now, he has only stated the reality; here he starts explaining how it happens. Because... “Every soul comprises nefesh, ruach, and neshamah. Nevertheless, the root of every nefesh, ruach, and neshamah, from the highest of all levels down to the lowest of all levels, clothed in the bodies of the unlearned and the most insignificant, is drawn from the supreme brain, which is the supernal Chochmah, as it were.” Here he begins the analogy, the explanation: “Like the son who is drawn from the father’s brain.” We spoke about this analogy earlier, right? Every Jew is called a child of Hakadosh Boruch Hu because Hakadosh Boruch Hu is like a father. Here he develops the analogy, and through it we’ll understand the differences between souls. Just as a son is drawn from his father’s brain, “even his toenails came into being from that very drop.” A person has higher parts: the brain, the heart, the liver—internal organs. There are external organs, and there are also nails. Nails seem almost inanimate, so much so that you can cut them and it doesn’t hurt. It’s as though they’re no longer connected to the body. Nevertheless, they grow. If they

38:41 Speaker 1 grow, then there’s some movement of life there, right? If they were inanimate, they wouldn’t grow. They look inanimate, but you can see that something is growing. Where do the nails get their life from? They look inanimate. They don’t look like part of the body, but clearly they receive their vitality from the blood, and from one part to another, all the way up. Ultimately, where does that vitality come from? Where does life begin? The soul enters the head first, and from there it spreads to all the limbs. So even the nails, which seem inanimate and disconnected from the body—even while they remain nails, they’re receiving their vitality right now, at this very moment, from the brain in the head.

39:39 Speaker 11 So I’m saying, how can you compare the souls of the Jewish people to nails? After all, as they say, if you detach nails from the body, they’re no longer connected to it.

39:50 Speaker 1 There is such a thing too, but that belongs more to Igeres Hateshuvah.

39:55 Speaker 11 But you can’t become detached from the body.

39:56 Speaker 1 Huh?

39:57 Speaker 11 You can’t become detached from the body. A Jew doesn’t... Today that isn’t right? Today that isn’t right?

40:08 Speaker 1 What is a sin?

40:10 Speaker 11 Not become detached. Become somewhat detached, but it isn’t an inner severance.

40:13 Speaker 1 What is a sin? The meaning of the word—

40:16 Speaker 11 It passed from one side to the other, to the other side.

40:18 Speaker 1 It passed from—

40:19 Speaker 11 Not “the other side.”

40:20 Speaker 1 From side to side. What does kareis mean? Cut off, severed.

40:27 Speaker 11 And that means that when a person commits a transgression, he is like fingernails.

40:32 Speaker 1 It means he is like fingernails that have been clipped.

40:36 Speaker 11 But when he does teshuvah—

40:37 Speaker 1 The novel point is—

40:38 Speaker 11 But when he does teshuvah—

40:39 Speaker 1 The novel point that the Alter Rebbe writes—and it is explained in a little more detail in one of the Rebbe Maharash’s maamarim, in one of just two or three places in Chassidus that quote the Alter Rebbe on this—is that when a person does teshuvah, it is as though there were a medical treatment that could reconnect the head to the body.

41:05 Speaker 11 What does that mean?

41:05 Speaker 1 When you take a sword and separate the head from the body, it has been cut off. Then the person is no longer alive.

41:13 Speaker 11 And then you would have to come up with something entirely new.

41:15 Speaker 1 And with the punishment of kareis, that is what it means; that is the reality. The reality is that the transgression is a sword that separated the head from the body. He has been separated; he is dead, not alive, not connected—completely cut off. And the novel point, says the Alter Rebbe, is: What does teshuvah do? It is like taking a person whose head has been cut off and reconnecting it. If such a treatment existed, teshuvah would be like taking a severed head and reattaching it to the body. There is something about this from the Rebbe—I think from the Rebbe Maharash—and the Rebbe Maharash elaborates a little on this saying of the Alter Rebbe. He says—and it is also in the printed Likkutei Torah—that “if such a treatment existed” does not mean that it cannot exist, only that science today does not know of such a thing. The fact that science has not yet discovered this treatment does not mean it does not exist. Science has not discovered it yet. At any rate, that is the meaning of kareis. That is the meaning of a transgression. That is what “disconnected” means: at that moment, he is disconnected. You could say that because he has a G-dly soul, afterward he reconnects for this reason or that reason. Those are explanations found in Igeres Hateshuvah. That is true, but in the plain meaning of things, when a Jew commits a transgression—not only one punishable by kareis, but even the lightest transgression; it explains there, even a transgression of a rabbinic law—while committing it, he is disconnected from G-dliness, completely disconnected. But all of this is a digression, an answer to the question. It is not connected to the Tanya here; it is from Igeres Hateshuvah. Here, he is explaining how there can be differences among souls. How can that be? Well, we see in the physical body that fingernails, although they are inanimate, receive their vitality from the brain in the head. He says the same—

43:25 Speaker 1 thing applies to souls. How does it happen in the physical body? Then we will understand how it happens spiritually. So he continues: “Because that drop from the father’s brain descended and became material, and so on, and spent nine months in the mother’s womb, descending from level to level until it changed and fingernails were formed from it. Nevertheless, it remains bound and united in a wondrous and powerful unity with its original essence and substance, when it was a drop from the father’s brain. Moreover, even now, in the son, the fingernails’ nourishment and vitality are drawn from the brain in the head.” When a son is born, he is no longer part of his father. The father may even say one thing and the son the opposite. That sometimes happens. The son is not part of the father. But ultimately, where does all the son’s vitality come from? From the brain in the head.

44:37 Speaker 12 So in practice, he is subject to his father, as it were.

44:39 Speaker 1 What?

44:40 Speaker 12 The son is subject to his father.

44:42 Speaker 1 If he submits himself, yes. Some sons do not submit to their fathers. It is not inevitable; it is not something that happens naturally. But although the son is, so to speak, separate from the father, ultimately the son’s essence is of the same kind as the father’s. All the son’s life comes from the brain in the head. The brain in the son’s head is the same kind, the same essence, as the brain in the father’s head. It is not something different. Even after it descended, separated and became detached, it is still the same kind. And even after, within the son himself, it descended further and further until it became fingernails.

45:29 Speaker 12 How does it show that it is the same essence? There are children who have no connection with their father at all.

45:34 Speaker 1 How does it show that it is the same essence?

45:36 Speaker 12 Yes.

45:36 Speaker 1 Because it is a human brain, from the father, not the brain of a frog.

45:40 Speaker 12 But the son could become wicked while the father is, like...

45:46 Speaker 1 What we want to learn in this chapter is that every Jew has a soul that is a part of G-dliness—that the essence of a Jew’s soul is G-dliness, not something different. It is not something that became detached and has now turned into something else. Its essence is still G-dliness. The son, yes, is separate. He is a different person. He has his own thoughts and desires. He seems completely different. But look at it broadly: it is the same essence. It is not something else; he is someone else. It is not something else—it is the very same kind. Hakadosh Boruch Hu created a G-dly soul. He created a soul; it was born. Before, it did not exist, and now it is a separate entity. After becoming a separate entity, it descended, and it gives life even to the lowest souls of the lowest Jews. But what gives life to that lowly Jew? That very soul. And what is its essence? Its essence is G-dliness. Its essence is the son’s brain, and the essence of the son’s brain is like the father’s brain. It is not something different; it is truly the same kind. To us, it looks as though he is disconnected, as though he is different. But look at who he is: he is of that same essence. He, too, is a human being. He, too, has a G-dly soul. He, too, has an actual part of G-d within him, just as each and every one of us does. That is what he wants to say. He brings a proof for it: “As stated in the Gemara, in Tractate Niddah, there: ‘The white substance, from which come the sinews, bones and fingernails.’” In other words, the sinews, bones and fingernails—the inanimate parts of the body, the bones and fingernails—come from the white substance, which is from the brain in the head. And as is written not only in the Gemara but also in the Kabbalistic works, in Eitz Chaim, the writings of the Arizal, in Shaar Hachashmal, concerning the mystery of Adam Harishon’s garments in Gan Eden, which were fingernails deriving from the aspect of the brain of Binah. So that is the analogy. “And precisely so, as it were, in the analogue, in the source—

47:49 Speaker 1 of the nefesh, ruach and neshamah of the Jewish people as a whole above: as it descended from level to level through the chain of the worlds of Atzilus, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, from His wisdom, may He be blessed—as it is written, ‘You made them all with wisdom’—from it came into being the nefesh, ruach and neshamah of the unlearned and those of low stature. Nevertheless, they remain bound and united in a wondrous and powerful unity with their original essence and substance, which is an extension of supernal wisdom.” Up to here. So here the Alter Rebbe finishes the first subject of the chapter. What was that first subject? To show and prove, from verses, works of halachah, Kabbalistic works, all kinds of sources and angles—and also to explain—that every single Jew, whoever he may be, even the lowest of the low, has a nefesh within him that also contains ruach and even neshamah. And that neshamah is an actual part of G-d above, found—

48:55 Speaker 13 We said that.

48:55 Speaker 1 What?

48:58 Speaker 13 Didn’t we say that we had said it?

48:58 Speaker 1 We said it is like thought, speech and action. All right, I do not want to get into that now. We will talk about it at greater length when we reach, G-d willing—if we do reach it, G-d willing—chapter 4. That is where it discusses the garments of the soul, and we will explain it more there and spend time on this subject. For now, he mentioned briefly that there is nefesh, ruach and neshamah, and they are all included within one another. And although there are many, many kinds and many, many levels, and each level includes another level, and so on, ultimately the source of them all is an actual part of G-d above. And it is not only their source: even as the soul exists in practice, the “fingernail” among the Jewish people receives its vitality, even now, directly from the essence of a soul that is an actual part of G-d above, present within him and giving him life. That, in brief, was the point. Why does it matter to me? Fine, now I know. Before, I did not know, and now I have learned something wonderful—a truly wonderful idea. There is an actual part of G-d above within me. That is very uplifting. What do I do with it? From here to the end of the chapter begins the more practical part. What do I do with it? “For the nourishment and vitality of the nefesh, ruach and neshamah of the unlearned come from the nefesh, ruach and neshamah of the tzaddikim and sages, the heads of the Jewish people in their generation.” That is the key sentence. What did we say in the analogy? The fingernail is alive—of course it is alive, and it grows. Where does it get its vitality? From the blood, right. But where does the blood get it? The blood receives it from the heart, and where does the heart get it? Ultimately, it comes from the soul’s essence. True, I do not see that in practice. I look at a fingernail, and I do not see the soul’s essence shining in it. But I need to think about it. I need to contemplate it.

51:00 Speaker 1 In this. But if I think about it and trace it back, I’ll see that ultimately the life—the vitality in it—comes from its source and root. That source and root is the essence of the soul found in every person, the source of vitality. What does that mean in the analogy? What does it mean in the analogy? If I’m a fingernail—

51:24 Speaker 13 The, the—like, the ordinary people?

51:29 Speaker 1 I’m a fingernail. I’m one of the ordinary people, certainly.

51:32 Speaker 13 The fingernail represents the ordinary people, doesn’t it?

51:33 Speaker 1 Yes, I’m one of the ordinary people. Didn’t you say so? What am I, the chief kohen of the exile? If only I were one of the ordinary people. We’re simple Jews. Tanya speaks to simple Jews. Tanya doesn’t speak to tzaddikim. So who is it? Where do we get our vitality from? From the head? Who is the head in the analogy?

51:56 Speaker 13 The head.

51:56 Speaker 1 So he said at the beginning of the chapter that in every generation there are the heads of the thousands of Israel. And ultimately, where do those heads get their vitality? In every generation there is a Rebbe, the nasi. Nasi is an acronym for “a spark of Yaakov Avinu.” He is the root of life for everyone in the generation. And this helps us understand what our Sages said about the verse “and to cleave to Him.” We’ll get to the wedding in a moment. Our Sages said that anyone who cleaves to Torah scholars is regarded by Scripture as though he cleaved to the Shechinah itself. So what does it mean to cleave to Torah scholars? Why doesn’t it say “learns from Torah scholars”? What’s the difference between cleaving and learning? It says there’s a mitzvah to pour water over your rabbi’s hands. Right? What does that mean? It means learning from him. Wash his hands for him. When he comes to eat, you’re his student—go wash his hands for him. Hold the washing cup and pour water over his hands. What, can’t he wash them himself? Cleaving to Torah scholars isn’t learning. It’s cleaving—being attached to him, connecting with him, wanting to be near him, wanting to see him, putting up a picture of him at home. Cleave to Torah scholars. And our Sages said that anyone who cleaves to Torah scholars is regarded as though he cleaved to the Shechinah. It doesn’t say that about someone who learns from Torah scholars. It says no such thing. Only about someone who cleaves to them. A person can study the Rebbe’s Torah and know Likkutei Sichos inside out, but he isn’t a chossid; he isn’t attached to the Rebbe. To cleave means to cleave—to connect with him, to feel a deep emotional love for him, to want to be with him, to see him, to draw close to him, to connect with him. The Rebbe is distributing dollars? You run. The Rebbe is delivering a sicha? You run. Ah, he doesn’t understand

54:33 Speaker 1 a word of Yiddish. Fine—the Rebbe is speaking. Do I have to understand, too? Seeing him is enough. That’s cleaving. And our Sages said that someone who cleaves to Torah scholars is regarded by Scripture as though he cleaved to the Shechinah itself. Why? He hasn’t learned anything; nothing has entered him inwardly. It’s just this kind of outward service. Why do you put a picture of the Rebbe everywhere? Is he a close relative of yours? What? It looks superficial, doesn’t it? Because by cleaving to Torah scholars, the nefesh, ruach and neshamah of ordinary people become bound and united with their original essence and root in supernal Chochmah—and He, blessed be He, and His wisdom are one; He is the Knower, and so on. The Rebbe, the nasi of the generation, is openly one with G-dliness. And when I cleave to him and receive my vitality from him directly and inwardly, then I cleave to the Shechinah itself. That’s what our Sages said. So naturally, a question occurs to everyone. After all, there are opponents. Ever heard of such a thing? Some people don’t recognize the Rebbe as the nasi of the generation, certainly not as the nasi of the Jewish people. To them he’s just another Torah scholar, someone they should respect at most. Sometimes not even that. So if the fingernail receives its vitality because it’s attached to the brain in the head, what about that Torah scholar who doesn’t accept the Rebbe and deliberately acts against him? How does he receive—how is he alive? Where does his life come from? If all Jews’ life comes from the brain in the head, from the Rebbe, how do all those Jews who oppose the Rebbe live?

56:31 Speaker 3 But in practice, Chabad gives it back to them.

56:33 Speaker 1 What?

56:34 Speaker 3 Chabad gives it back to them by the same method.

56:36 Speaker 1 What do you mean?

56:37 Speaker 3 When you want to know what to do, you ask the rabbi.

56:40 Speaker 1 Ah, fine, but, but, but in practice—

56:44 Speaker 3 Problems.

56:44 Speaker 1 But in practice, where does it come from? How are they alive? How? How does he learn? If he receives his life from the Rebbe and he doesn’t want to, he cuts himself off from the Rebbe. So how is he alive?

56:56 Speaker 3 You can know that I’m doing something against it.

56:59 Speaker 1 Hmm?

56:59 Speaker 3 You can also knowingly act against G-d’s will.

57:01 Speaker 1 So that’s what he answers in the text: “The sinners and rebels against the Torah scholars draw the sustenance of their nefesh, ruach and neshamah from the back, so to speak, of the nefesh, ruach and neshamah of the Torah scholars.” Yes, that doesn’t sound good. Ah, no—“the back” is the Alter Rebbe’s expression. It’s not quite how people speak today. The example I like to give—I once heard it from Rabbi Dovid Kras[?], a"h—is a police officer who stops someone on the street and gives him a fine. Right? Why? I don’t know. He committed some traffic violation, so the officer gave him a fine. He can’t just refuse to pay; there’s a law. So he pays. He gives the officer money. How does he hand over the money? With a beaming face? “Here, take it.” That’s called giving from “the back.” He gives, but not willingly. He gives because he was forced to, so to speak. That’s what “the back” means: giving not out of willingness and love, but out of necessity. What does it mean that the sinners and rebels against the Torah scholars—

58:22 Speaker 3 What’s the difference in what they receive?

58:23 Speaker 1 What?

58:23 Speaker 3 As long as they receive it, what does it matter how? The person is alive, after all.

58:28 Speaker 1 There’s a big difference—

58:29 Speaker 3 It doesn’t matter whether I handed over the ticket with a smile or not. I handed over the ticket.

58:35 Speaker 1 There’s a big difference between the food served at the king’s table and what the dogs roaming around underfoot get—the bones tossed to them afterward. True, they also live off the king’s table.

58:51 Speaker 3 But that’s what they need. It doesn’t matter.

58:52 Speaker 1 Yes, but they’re dogs.

58:53 Speaker 3 They won’t understand what... Precisely because they’re dogs, they won’t understand it.

58:57 Speaker 4 [unclear]

58:58 Speaker 5 They receive vitality. Otherwise they wouldn’t be alive.

59:00 Speaker 3 That was the question, but I don’t understand what the difference is.

59:03 Speaker 1 They’re given—given it because they’re needed.

59:06 Speaker 3 Dogs—whether you bring it to them or not, they’ll eat the bones.

59:09 Speaker 5 The question itself [speaker 4].

59:10 Speaker 1 In the analogy, why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu create kelipos, the sitra achra, all kinds of things—creatures like demons and spirits, all kinds of harmful beings and impure kelipos? Why are they needed?

59:24 Speaker 3 To stop them.

59:25 Speaker 1 Wait, He could have—ah, if I were creating the world, no, I’d make it a better world. Why did He make all those things? What for? So the explanation is simply that there shouldn’t be nahama d’kisufa, as it’s called—bread of poverty, bread of shame.

59:44 Speaker 3 What’s the difference?

59:45 Speaker 1 It’s our nature: when someone receives something without working for it—“Here, take it. Take a gift”—it feels uncomfortable. It feels uncomfortable.

1:00:00 Speaker 3 Not only is it uncomfortable, it’s worth less, too.

1:00:03 Speaker 4 Okay, but today—

1:00:04 Speaker 3 Something you overcome.

1:00:06 Speaker 4 Right, of course, but...

1:00:07 Speaker 3 A trip to the Rebbe that you were given—you won a plane ticket. Compare that with a trip to the Rebbe that you saved up a thousand dollars for. How does each one feel?

1:00:14 Speaker 4 Of course, but there’s also something about receiving a gift, isn’t there?

1:00:16 Speaker 3 It’s nice and all, but it’s just a fleeting feeling.

1:00:18 Speaker 1 There’s a well-known story, a parable I think from the Rebbe Rashab, if I’m not mistaken, or from the Rebbe Maharash. Once a wealthy Russian man wanted to try an experiment, so he called in a peasant and said, “I’ll pay you a wage.” An incredible wage, really something. I don’t know how much it was worth in rubles. He offered him this wage. “Do you want the job?” “For that kind of wage, I’ll do whatever you want.” “What’s the work?” He showed him a room, his large sitting room, and said, “I want you to reap the wheat here with a sickle.” The peasant looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. What wheat? What was he talking about? This was the middle of the landowner’s sitting room. He said, “Yes,” and took out the sickle. “Reap wheat.” “And you’re paying me for this?” “I am.” “That much?” “Well, is this nobleman crazy? Fine by me. I’m getting paid by the hour. What’s the problem?” He took the sickle and started reaping wheat. He reaped for an hour or two. In the end, he threw down the sickle and said, “I don’t need this. I’m going home.” “What happened? You don’t want the job? I’m paying you well.” “I can’t see any results from the work. I don’t feel like I’m doing anything. All right, I’m getting paid, but I don’t feel like I’m doing anything. It isn’t worth it. I don’t want a job like this.” I think this parable is brought from the Rebbe Maharash or the Rebbe Rashab. A person is built... A person’s spiritual makeup is such that he can’t accept something for free. It makes him uncomfortable; he’s ashamed of it. It isn’t good. To receive the reward in Gan Eden, you have to work. If they say—if they give us Gan Eden without work, it isn’t the same. We don’t want it. So Hakadosh Boruch Hu created kelipos to put a person to the test, so he would have work to do, so it would be hard for him, and then he would have...

1:02:25 Speaker 1 It would be hard, and then he would make an effort. But if the kelipos were only imaginary, then fighting an illusion would be worth nothing. What would it be worth that I overcame an illusion? So something has to be created that truly is a kelipah, that truly is the sitra achra, that truly opposes G-dliness. So Hakadosh Boruch Hu created a kind of being that really, truly—

1:02:46 Speaker 3 As much as He created... We need to know that the salvations are [unclear], and then they will see that everything...

1:02:50 Speaker 1 So that’s another point. And then... One moment. But ultimately, Hakadosh Boruch Hu doesn’t want the kelipos themselves. He needs them only so that a person will overcome them, right? He doesn’t want them in themselves. Once the work of birurim is finished and a person completes the task of refining the world, the kelipos will cease to exist. “I will remove the spirit of impurity from the earth.” So even now, when He gives them vitality, it isn’t because He wants them. It’s only for that purpose, just a drop, an aspect of achorayim. It’s an aspect... He needs them for a person’s work. They are needed too. So the vitality given to the kelipos is incomparably small, something very limited, and it isn’t of good quality either. It isn’t a life of quality. It’s enough to keep them in existence. It isn’t like the aspect of panim. So a Jew who rebels against Torah scholars also receives life; he lives too.

1:03:56 Speaker 3 You can’t say that his essence... He’s also a Jew, he also... You can’t say that his essence is different from someone else’s.

1:04:02 Speaker 1 And the conclusion—right, his essence is precisely what makes it so painful, what makes him such an object of compassion. He has that same G-dly soul, and where does that G-dly soul receive its vitality? From whom? Imagine someone who, poor thing, is ill and needs to breathe, but can only breathe through a little tube they put in him. Of course he’s alive; he’s getting air, certainly. Fine. Through... He’s cut himself off from the source of life. So he’s ill, he’s in a pitiful state. But he’s alive too. Right.

1:04:35 Speaker 3 You know, in practice, the non-Jews also believe that G-d, so to speak, loves them and... Say, Christians do believe that G-d is with their brothers. Every, every... What does that have to do with this now? Every religion believes that it’s G-d’s chosen one.

1:04:53 Speaker 1 Right.

1:04:54 Speaker 3 So I’m not really asking this because I think it isn’t true, but in practice, how can we prove to them that we really are the people of life? How can we prove it? Prove it to ourselves. You don’t have to look too deeply into Chassidus. Every Chassidic group is sure that its way is the right one.

1:05:07 Speaker 1 The Kuzari, chapter one.

1:05:12 Speaker 3 That doesn’t follow.

1:05:14 Speaker 1 Look there.

1:05:15 Speaker 3 Which book?

1:05:16 Speaker 1 The Rambam’s Kuzari, chapter one. Also in Rabbi Dessler’s writings, right at the beginning, chapters one, two and three.

1:05:23 Speaker 3 Okay.

1:05:24 Speaker 1 And it’s explained in Chassidus in many places too, but that’s not connected to this.

1:05:28 Speaker 3 No, it is connected. But all right, it’s worth looking into Chassidus. Every Chassidic group is sure that its way leads to G-d.

1:05:32 Speaker 1 No, I don’t want to bring more subjects into the middle of this. We’ve gone far enough afield already. All right, so up to here we had... Every Jew’s soul, his life, receives life from the leader of the generation. Even the simplest Jews. And what happens to those who rebel against Torah scholars? They do too. How? There’s nowhere else, no other source of vitality, so they receive it through the aspect of achorayim. But they too receive their life from the leader of the generation. Let’s continue, after the square brackets: “As for what is written in the Zohar and the Zohar Chadash, that the main thing depends specifically on sanctifying oneself at the time of marital intimacy, unlike the children of the unlearned, etc., this means that there is no nefesh, ruach or neshamah that does not have a garment from the soul of the essence of its father and mother.” So the Zohar asks there—no, no, it doesn’t ask. The Zohar says that the vitality of the soul doesn’t depend at all on whether a person is attached or not attached, on how he behaves. No, it depends on his father and mother. If, at the time they were together, his father and mother sanctified themselves and acted with holiness and purity, then he has a holy soul; and if not, then not. What are you talking about? What difference does it make whether he is attached to Torah scholars or not? His soul depends on... It doesn’t depend on him at all. The Rebbe says no. What the Zohar writes there is speaking about the garment, the garment of the soul, not the soul itself. What’s the difference between the garment of the soul and the soul itself? It’s just like the difference between a person’s body and his clothing. There is a difference between a person’s body and his clothing. His body is he himself, while his clothing is his garments. They aren’t him. Obviously, to go outside, to live and act in the world, a person doesn’t go without clothes. That wouldn’t be appropriate.

1:07:49 Speaker 1 The soul can’t act in the world without a body. The body is the soul’s garment. The soul is spiritual; the body is physical. Just as a person’s body and his clothes are not comparable, so too a person’s soul and body are not comparable at all. The body is the soul’s garment. The Zohar says: a person’s body, the soul’s garment, depends on his father and mother. Right? But the soul itself doesn’t depend on them; that’s unrelated. Why should I care whether my garment is holy or not? So he continues. All the mitzvos a person performs are performed with the body, and if the body isn’t holy, then... Take the mitzvah of Torah study, for example: you engage in it with your mind. And if the mind isn’t clear and sharp, then it’s difficult to fulfill that mitzvah, and the same applies to all the other mitzvos. The more refined, clean and sanctified the body is, the easier it is for a person to keep all the mitzvos, and the less his body gets in his way. His animal soul gets in his way less, as we’ll see later. There is such a thing as a lazy body. A person is born with a lazy body. What can he do? He has no energy, no desire. He knows it’s good, but he doesn’t feel like doing it. That’s a problem of laziness that comes from the body. A person with a holy body won’t be lazy; he’ll be energetic. And the same goes for all the other undesirable character traits that come from the body. So when a person sanctifies himself when he is together with his wife, the child’s soul will receive a holy body, and it will be easier for him to keep mitzvos. But if they don’t, their son will have a body, a lowly, coarse garment, that wants the physical things of the world and doesn’t want G-dliness. And all the mitzvos he performs, everything is based on

1:10:02 Speaker 1 Through that garment, and so on. And he adds something more: even the blessings a person is given from Heaven all come through this garment. If he sanctifies himself, he will draw down a holy garment for his son’s soul. Even a great soul needs its father’s sanctification, and so on. But as for the soul itself, sometimes the soul of an immeasurably lofty person comes to be the son of a lowly, despicable person, and so on, as the Arizal wrote. All this is in Likkutei Torah, Parshas Vayeira, and in Taamei Hamitzvos, Parshas Bereishis. I don’t want to go into this at length; it isn’t the main point of the chapter. The main point is what we discussed earlier: every Jew has a soul. Nefesh, ruach, neshamah—broadly speaking, they’re all one matter. And every Jew’s soul is literally a part of G-d above. Actual G-dliness is present within each person’s body. Because of the body, there can be all kinds of less-than-good things; but as far as the soul is concerned, everyone—even the lowest of Jews, even the most wayward—has literally a part of G-d above. My soul is the source of my spiritual vitality, and from it my physical life flows. With it I fulfill the mitzvos, and through it I receive blessings—material things, children, health, livelihood, my entire life. Where does that soul receive its vitality? From the Rebbe. That’s chapter 2 of Tanya. The first thing a Jew needs to learn, to know, is that there is a Rebbe in the world. And we say this in a blessing. The Rebbe has a customary blessing for a wedding—it appears in the letters, I think. In the blessing of “Mazel tov, mazel tov,” the Rebbe would say, “May it be Hashem’s will that they establish their home on the foundations of Torah and mitzvos.” You’ve heard that wording, right? What are “the foundations of Torah and mitzvos”? Why not just say, “Establish their home on Torah and mitzvos”? What does it mean to establish their home on the foundation of Torah and mitzvos? What is the foundation of Torah and mitzvos? Not Torah and mitzvos themselves—their foundation. What is that foundation? It’s chapter 2 of Tanya, the beginning of Chassidus. “May they establish their home on a bond with the Rebbe.” That’s what it means. The chapter 2 we learned today is part of the first group of chapters in Tanya, chapters 1 through 12. In this part of Tanya, the Alter Rebbe explains who we are and what we should aspire to. Even before we start talking about how to become a complete Jew, we first need to know who we are and what we should aspire to. So we’ve already seen a chapter like that here. A Jew’s very essence is literally a part of G-d above.

1:12:33 Speaker 1 What is the foundation of Torah and mitzvos? Not Torah and mitzvos themselves—their foundation. What is that foundation? It’s chapter 2 of Tanya, the beginning of Chassidus. “May they establish their home on a bond with the Rebbe.” That’s what it means. The chapter 2 we learned today is part of the first group of chapters in Tanya, chapters 1 through 12. In this part of Tanya, the Alter Rebbe explains who we are and what we should aspire to. Even before we start talking about how to become a complete Jew, we first need to know who we are and what we should aspire to. So we’ve already seen a chapter like that here. A Jew’s very essence is literally a part of G-d above.