Likkutei Amarim Chapter 5 · 5781

00:01 Speaker 1 Well, good evening. If you remember, last time we studied chapter 4. We said that up to the end of chapter 5, the chapter we’re on now, the Alter Rebbe explains what the G-dly soul is. Then, in chapters 6, 7, and 8, he explains what the animal soul is, and after that he begins explaining the relationship between them. So chapter 5 is the last chapter explaining what the G-dly soul is. As for what we discussed in the earlier chapters: first he explained its source, where the G-dly soul comes from. It is an inheritance from our forefathers Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. In practice, in our generation—and in every generation—each person receives his G-dly soul from the Rebbe. The Rebbe is the head of the Jewish people. The collective G-dly soul is vested in him, and he is the channel through which Divine life reaches every Jew. A Jew who is a chossid, a Jew who observes mitzvos, and also, as the Frierdiker Rebbe says, “one who is called by the name Yisroel”—even a Jew who doesn’t know he’s Jewish, but is simply called a Jew. People call him that; they say he’s Jewish. He, too, is a Jew. So there’s a story about, I think his name was Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Bobruisk, if I’m not mistaken. He was a great rabbi in Russia, the rabbi over a vast area encompassing several towns, one of the leading rabbis. He was a Chabad chossid. At the entrance to his house, as was common throughout Russia in those days, there was always mud. Right at the entrance to his ramshackle house there was this permanent puddle. Summer, winter—there was always a puddle there, and it never dried up. Once, at a farbrengen, they asked him, “Tell us, Rabbi, what’s that puddle at the entrance to your house?” He was a sharp-witted Chabad chossid, so without hesitating, he answered—answered without

02:25 Speaker 1 hesitating: “It is known that Hakadosh Boruch Hu showed Adam the First Man what would happen to all the generations of his descendants, and our Sages said that every place Adam set his eyes on became settled. A place Adam didn’t look at is a place where people do not live. The entire history of human settlement depends on where Adam looked. So when Adam looked at Bobruisk and saw the rabbi of Bobruisk, he went, ‘Ptoo! He’s a rabbi too?’ And his spit made a puddle. Since it’s Adam the First Man’s spit, it never dries up.” So every generation has its own teachers. Even a Jew who is at the very lowest level—not even the rabbi of Bobruisk, just some fellow living in Afula—receives his life directly from the Rebbe. That was chapter 2. Then, in chapter 3, he explained that the G-dly soul we’ve received and live with has ten general faculties. Three faculties of intellect—remember? Chochmah, Binah, and Daas—and seven emotional faculties: Chessed, Gevurah, Tiferes, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod. These are our intellect and emotions. We just have to remember—we mentioned this and even emphasized it strongly—that we aren’t talking about the intellect and emotions of the animal soul, but those of the G-dly soul. The intellect of the G-dly soul understands only Torah, only mitzvos, only prayer. It cannot understand other things. Its inner makeup isn’t capable of understanding other things. Show it a coin, and it doesn’t understand what it’s looking at. That is the intellect of the G-dly soul, and the same goes for its emotions. Love, for the G-dly soul, means love of Hashem. Awe means awe of Hashem. Hatred, for it, means hating the

04:38 Speaker 1 things that interfere with serving Hashem. That’s what it’s like. That’s the nature of the G-dly soul, its intellect and emotions. We discussed that in chapter 3. He said that just as, in physical matters, to arouse a feeling toward something—whatever it may be—when a person looks at something and thinks about it, a feeling for it is awakened. If he doesn’t think about it, the feeling isn’t awakened. It’s the same with the G-dly soul. If a person wants to have love and awe of Hashem, he needs to contemplate Hashem’s greatness. If he thinks, reflects, and focuses on Hakadosh Boruch Hu and His greatness, love of Hashem will awaken within him. If he doesn’t contemplate it, it won’t. All that was in chapters 2 and 3, about the soul itself. Then chapter 4, which we studied last time, spoke about the soul also having garments. What are garments? Thought, speech, and action. Thought, speech, and action are also faculties of the soul. After all, the ability to speak, to think, and to act is a spiritual power. There is some spiritual power in the soul that moves the hands and feet, some spiritual power in the soul that moves the organs of speech, and some spiritual power in the soul that does the thinking. So the faculties of thought, speech, and action are spiritual faculties. But he explained there that although they are spiritual faculties, faculties of the soul, they aren’t part of the soul itself. They are so much lower, so external, that they are like clothing in relation to a person’s body. The intellect and emotions are the body, the person himself, while the faculties of thought, speech, and action are entirely external. They’re only garments. Remember our discussion of that? Yes? And then

06:34 Speaker 1 he said, well, what do we need them for? We have intellect and emotions; why do we need these external faculties? So he said: true, these faculties are external, lower, inferior, separate. But they have an advantage. What’s their advantage? Do you remember? That was the whole point of chapter 4: although the garments are very lowly, they have a wonderful advantage. With intellect and emotions, you cannot grasp Hakadosh Boruch Hu. A person is limited; his intellect is limited, his emotions are limited. However much he contemplates, he cannot understand Hakadosh Boruch Hu. However much he loves, his ability to grasp Hakadosh Boruch Hu with his emotions is limited. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is infinite, while a person’s intellect and emotions are finite, limited. You cannot grasp Hakadosh Boruch Hu with intellect and emotions. So what can you use? Thought, speech, and action. With these, you can grasp Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That’s what he said. It’s astonishing, truly astonishing, isn’t it? A person performs a mitzvah—take any mitzvah you like. He performs it now, says the blessing, and does something with his hands. He has grasped Hakadosh Boruch Hu; he has become one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He prayed, thought, contemplated, studied—he did not grasp Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He did something physical, a mitzvah, using the soul’s external faculties. Now he has grasped Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Why? Because what are all the mitzvos? They are His will. He willed that this should be permitted, He willed that this should be obligatory, and He willed that this should be forbidden. So when a person performs a mitzvah, he is now one with

08:34 Speaker 1 that will. He is fulfilling the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He is one with—with whom? Who is that will? The will is Him. He and the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu are one. How does that happen? Through mitzvos. And how do you perform mitzvos? Through the garments. You can’t perform mitzvos purely in the spiritual realm, right? All right. So that was chapter 4. Chapter 4 was about the advantage of the soul’s garments: although they are only garments, they have a wonderful advantage. Specifically through them, and only through them, we grasp Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That was chapter 4. There he cited the phrase “No thought can grasp You at all.” Remember that phrase? We say it in Patach Eliyahu, for those who recite it on Erev Shabbos. It says that no thought can grasp Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So how can we grasp Him? Only through the mitzvos. Intellect and emotion cannot grasp Him; only through the mitzvos can we grasp Him. Last time we left it at that. But the truth is, says the Alter Rebbe—and this is what all of chapter 5 is about—why did Eliyahu HaNavi, when he wanted to explain how we connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu and become one with Him, use the word “grasp”? I grasp a physical object. How can you grasp Hakadosh Boruch Hu? What would you grasp Him with? Is Hakadosh Boruch Hu something that can be grasped? Why did Eliyahu HaNavi use the word “grasp” in reference to Hakadosh Boruch Hu? He could have said “understand”: no thought can understand Him. Fine. No thought can comprehend Him. Fine. But what does it mean that thought cannot grasp Him? Since when does thought grasp? Thought doesn’t grasp; thought understands, thought comprehends. What does “grasp” mean? So that is what

10:45 Speaker 1 Chapter 5. We’re going to read it inside now. Chapter 5: “To further explain thoroughly the expression ‘grasp’ used by Eliyahu when he said, ‘No thought can grasp You,’ etc., as mentioned in the previous chapter: Whenever the intellect understands and comprehends an idea, the intellect grasps the idea and encompasses it, while the idea is grasped, encompassed, and clothed within the intellect that has comprehended and understood it.” Have you ever seen a basketball player catch a ball with one hand? Like this. Have you ever seen that?

11:33 Speaker 2 It’s possible.

11:33 Speaker 1 A basketball player can do it; I can’t. Why? What’s the difference? Why can he and I can’t? He has a big hand. His hand is big enough to grip the ball from both sides. If his hand were flat like this, he couldn’t catch it. It’s only because it’s big enough to grip from both sides that he can catch it. You grasp something by surrounding it on its sides. That’s what grasping means. What does it mean to grasp an idea? You surround it from every direction. You understand the idea from this side. Someone explained an idea to him, he understood it well, so the idea is inside him. He understands it from here, he understands it from there. He has grasped the idea from both directions. Okay? So far, that’s simple. Right? And since he has grasped the idea, we can now say that after a person understands something, he is above the idea. He encompasses the idea, so to speak, and the idea is now clothed within him. It’s inside the person, encompassed by him. That’s one side. But then the text goes on to say the reverse: “And the intellect is also clothed in the idea while it comprehends and grasps it.” That’s exactly the opposite. When a person is working to understand something, he hasn’t understood it yet. Right now he’s just trying to understand it. So can we also say that he encompasses the idea? How could he encompass it? He doesn’t encompass it; he hasn’t grasped it. The idea is bigger than he is. He, so to speak, enters into the idea and starts searching. He looks for its boundaries. He looks for a way to define it. Right? How do we try to understand something? Wait, this fits. That doesn’t. Right? That’s the process of understanding. So while we’re still in the process of understanding, the idea is actually encompassing me. Then, after I’ve understood it, I encompass

13:47 Speaker 1 the idea, and while I’m trying to understand it, it’s the other way around: the idea encompasses me. Right? Yes or no? Good. Now, suppose I’ve already understood it, but even though I’ve understood it, I keep thinking about it, contemplating it, diving into the subject, picturing it in my mind. Ah, important, yes, thank you. By the end of the class it’ll be cold, and... So if I’ve already understood something, I now have both: I understand it and encompass it, and I’m also immersed in it. Both things are happening together. I encompass the idea, and the idea encompasses me. Right? There is no example anywhere in the world of that kind of union with something. Nothing else is like it. There are no other two things in the world that can unite the way an intellect and an idea can. Let’s give an example. When someone makes me coffee, right, they put the coffee into the water. Before that, the coffee was separate and the water was separate. Now they’ve mixed them, so they’re mixed together. Does being mixed together mean they’ve become one? No. They’re in the same place, in the same cup, thoroughly mixed. Has the coffee become water? No. Has the water become coffee? No. Boil it, and the water will evaporate while the coffee remains. They haven’t joined to become one thing. They’re just together, mixed in one place. Right? Every connection in the world is that kind of connection. The connection of the intellect is different. Before I understood something, the idea was over there and I was—we were two separate things. After I understood it... I’m the one who understands, not someone else. The idea has become me, and I have become the idea. There’s no physical example of a union like that, where two things literally become one. Only with the intellect can that happen. Now he goes on. So this is

16:18 Speaker 1 why it makes sense that Eliyahu used the word “grasp” in relation to the intellect. Because the intellect really does grasp ideas. “For example, when a person understands and comprehends a halachah in the Mishnah or Gemara thoroughly and correctly, his intellect grasps and encompasses it, and his intellect is also clothed in it at that moment.” Understood. “Now, this halachah is the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu.” So what has he united with? We said that the intellect becomes one with the idea it understands. When he learns a halachah, what is that idea? It’s Hashem’s wisdom; it’s Hashem’s will. So he has now become one—his intellect has become one with Hashem’s will and wisdom, literally one. Do you understand what that means? Yes? Now, a union like that with His very essence, with His wisdom, with His will, can happen only through the garment of thou—of—only through a garment, only through thought. The soul itself, the faculty of chochmah in the soul, the faculty of binah in the soul, the emotions in the soul—they can’t unite with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. They can receive a radiance and an illumination; they can’t unite with His very essence. To unite in the sense of becoming literally one thing—that happens only through the intellect. So this is a remarkable quality of the intellect, of Torah study, above everything else in the world. A Jew wants to unite with Hakadosh Boruch Hu; he has only one way to do it: to study Torah. The moment he learns one halachah, one letter of Torah, at that moment he is united with His will and wisdom. They become—what does “united” mean? It’s not that he connects with Him. He becomes one, literally one. He and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are one thing. The Rebbe explains this in the words of the Alter Rebbe: “It arose in His will that if Reuven were to make such-and-such a claim, for example, and Shimon such-and-such a claim, the ruling between them would be

18:50 Speaker 1 such-and-such. And even if this case never happened and never will happen, with those claims and demands coming before a court.” A halachah concerning a situation that hasn’t occurred and could never occur. There are several things in the Torah, mitzvos that deal with matters about which our Sages said they never happened and could never happen. Yes, the wayward and rebellious son, and a few others. “Nevertheless, since it arose in the will and wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu that if one person makes this claim and the other makes that claim, this is the ruling, then when a person knows and comprehends this ruling with his intellect as a halachah set out in the Mishnah, Gemara, or halachic authorities, that person comprehends, grasps, and encompasses with his intellect the will and wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu.” The very will and wisdom about which we said, “No thought can grasp Him”—or His will and wisdom. No angel can grasp His will and wisdom, not even the supernal sefiros; even the higher worlds cannot grasp His will and wisdom. But when a Jew studies Torah, he grasps His will and wisdom quite simply, because they are clothed in the halachos set out before us. How can that really be? What, are the angels so foolish? They can’t understand things we can understand? They’re souls, and—huh?

20:25 Speaker 6 An angel doesn’t have a yetzer hara.

20:27 Speaker 1 Right, but why? Well, it says in the previous chapter, chapter 4, that Hakadosh Boruch Hu contracted His will and wisdom and brought them down from level to level through the chain of worlds, through cause and effect and many contractions, until He clothed His wisdom in these halachos. Here Hakadosh Boruch Hu clothed Himself; there He didn’t. There are no halachos there. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is all-powerful. He decided to contract Himself into the halachos of the Torah. That’s what He wanted, that’s what He decided, and that’s what He did. So the only way to unite with Him is through Torah study. This is where He is found.

21:16 Speaker 6 And with mitzvos, a person doesn’t unite with Him?

21:20 Speaker 1 We’ll see later the special quality of mitzvos. Of course, one also needs—it isn’t enough just to study Torah. One needs to study Torah, observe mitzvos, and pray—the three pillars. Right now, in this chapter, the Alter Rebbe is emphasizing Torah study. Later, over the next ten chapters, he’ll address it—and we’ll soon see it too: what about mitzvos? That’s the obvious next question.

21:53 Speaker 6 Wait, what—I mean, they say that, on the face of it, it sounds strange that we’re on a much higher level than angels.

22:00 Speaker 1 Right.

22:00 Speaker 6 So why is there that saying, “If the earlier generations were like angels”? I mean, it seems... it sounds like something—

22:07 Speaker 1 That’s from the perspective of the soul. Through Torah study, we have an opportunity that angels don’t have.

22:12 Speaker 6 Okay, so are they on a much higher level than we are?

22:15 Speaker 1 They don’t have Torah.

22:19 Speaker 6 I see.

22:19 Speaker 1 Their very nature is certainly loftier. They have no yetzer hara, no animal soul, no body. They do not need to eat or drink, and all day long they do nothing but praise Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Their nature is certainly far loftier than that of a human being. But what can they unite with? Only with the light of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, with His radiance, not with His Essence and Being. That is a gift Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave the Jewish people.

22:46 Speaker 6 That doesn’t apply to Torah.

22:47 Speaker 1 Hmm?

22:47 Speaker 6 That doesn’t apply to Torah.

22:49 Speaker 1 No, then.

22:50 Speaker 6 No?

22:51 Speaker 1 No. We’ll see that here later on, too. It’s stated completely explicitly. In other words, Torah isn’t some kind of switch. I turn it on and the light comes on automatically. No. Something else is needed along the way. We’ll see in a moment.

23:12 Speaker 6 You need electricity.

23:14 Speaker 1 You need to understand what you’re doing. Yes, right. “No thought can grasp Him at all.” Certainly no thought can grasp Him. After all, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not an intellectual concept. We said that the intellect can grasp an idea. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not an idea. So how could the intellect grasp Him? The intellect cannot grasp an emotion, for example. The intellect cannot grasp a physical object. I might very much want this fork to move, but I can keep wanting it forever. A physical hand can grasp a physical object. The intellect cannot grasp a physical object; it can grasp ideas. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not physical. He is not a spiritual entity, either. He is not an idea. The intellect cannot grasp Him. “No thought”—nothing intellectual can grasp Him, except when He is clothed in the halachos set out before us. And, as we said at the beginning, the person’s intellect is clothed in them. When he is learning Torah now, he is not only grasping the Torah; he is also clothed in his Torah study. This is a wondrous union, the like of which, or even anything comparable to it, is not found anywhere in the physical world: to be truly one and united from every side and angle. There is no example of it, not even anything close. Nothing in the physical world can serve even as an analogy for it. The union of a Jew with Hakadosh Boruch Hu—becoming truly one: he and Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself become one through Torah study. There is no physical example of this, nor anything that could serve as an analogy. They become truly one. And this is an infinitely great and wondrous advantage of the mitzvah of knowing and comprehending Torah over all the practical mitzvos. For with the practical mitzvos, he does not encompass Hashem’s will. He may be encompassed by Hashem’s will,

25:39 Speaker 1 but he does not encompass Hashem’s will. When he performs a mitzvah, Hashem’s will encompasses him. He is now fulfilling Hashem’s will. His soul is bound in the bond of life—lofty, wonderful things. But does he now encompass Hashem’s will? No. He performs a mitzvah without understanding why, without feeling anything. So this is a great and wondrous advantage of the mitzvah of knowing and comprehending Torah over all the practical mitzvos, and even over mitzvos performed through speech, including the mitzvah of Torah study through speech. The mitzvah of Torah study has, broadly speaking, two levels. It says, “You shall meditate on it day and night”—that means contemplating, thinking, understanding. And there is a halachah in the Shulchan Aruch that someone who studies Torah but does not say the words aloud—

26:46 Speaker 7 “And you shall speak of them.”

26:47 Speaker 1 What?

26:47 Speaker 7 “And you shall speak of them.”

26:47 Speaker 1 “And you shall speak of them.” Someone who does not say what he is learning aloud has not fulfilled his obligation. He could understand endlessly, but if he has not said the words with his mouth, he has not fulfilled his obligation in certain respects. Why? What are these two levels? There is the physical fulfillment of the mitzvah, and there is its spiritual fulfillment. The mitzvah of Torah study through speech is like all the other mitzvos. There is no difference between performing the mitzvah of lighting Shabbos candles, or the mitzvah of sukkah or lulav, and speaking words of Torah now without understanding them. Speaking words of Torah is a physical act. Speech is physical. In this respect, Torah is the same as all the other mitzvos. But through understanding Torah, a person unites with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, as we discussed earlier. For through all the mitzvos performed through speech and action, Hakadosh Boruch Hu clothes the soul and the light of Hashem encompasses it from head to foot. So through the performance of all the mitzvos, an encompassing light is drawn over a person. But in knowing Torah, besides the intellect being clothed in Hashem’s wisdom—which also happens with the other mitzvos—Hashem’s wisdom is also within him. That happens only through knowing Torah: what his intellect comprehends and grasps and encompasses, whatever he is capable of grasping and comprehending of Torah knowledge, each person according to his intellect and his capacity for knowledge and comprehension in peshat, remez, derush and sod. It’s true that Torah has plain meaning, allusion, exposition and secret meaning. One person has a great intellect and understands the secrets of Torah; another understands less, only exposition or allusion; another understands even less and can only study Chumash with Rashi; and another even finds it difficult to study halachos. But if he learned one point in the plain meaning of Torah, he is now united with Torah. He is united with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, united with His will. In this there is no difference between the tzaddik with the greatest comprehension and the simplest Jew. The moment

28:53 Speaker 1 he is one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he is one. Right now he is one, just the same, completely united with Him. It makes no difference how much he understood. He has now understood the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself are one—so he is now one with Him. What difference does the amount make? Quantity is not relevant here. So that is where we are. Before we move on to the next section, I want to sum up and emphasize this a little. Until now, he has been explaining the difference between mitzvos—he is continuing to discuss the garments of thought, speech and action. What is the difference between the garments of speech and action, which cover essentially all the mitzvos, and the garment of thought, which is Torah study? Through the performance of all the mitzvos, Hakadosh Boruch Hu encompasses the person; through Torah study, the person encompasses Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is what we have discussed so far. This will become a little clearer. Soon we will reach the parenthetical passage, where this is more relevant. We’ll discuss the explanation there: the difference between encompassing and being encompassed. The Alter Rebbe gives a physical analogy. Before we go into the parenthetical passage, the Alter Rebbe gives a physical analogy to explain the difference between encompassing and being encompassed. Because in knowing Torah, the Torah is clothed in a person’s soul and intellect and is encompassed within them, it is therefore called the soul’s bread and food. Just as physical bread nourishes the body when a person takes it right inside himself, where it becomes blood and flesh like his own flesh, enabling him to live and endure, so it is with knowing Torah. This is something remarkable. We need to think about it. What keeps a person alive? If a person does not eat, he cannot live. We’ve already discussed this. Food keeps a person alive. “Bread” is a general term for food. Bread. A person eats bread. After he eats it, the bread is digested inside him and changes. Previously it was a plant

31:42 Speaker 1 that grew from the ground, and it changes and becomes part of a human being. Its physical substance becomes human flesh, bones, sinews and so on, while its choicest part rises to the brain. From it, blood is then formed, and from it come intellect—emotion in the heart and intellect in the brain. Our Sages said, “A child does not know how to call ‘Father’ until he tastes grain.” That is on the physical level. It means that bread does not merely sustain a person’s physical body. Bread sustains the spiritual part of a person, his intellect. Until he eats and tastes grain, his intellect—he has no intellect. He cannot say “Father.” He does not understand what a father is. What enables him to do that? The bread he ate changed and became something else entirely. Previously it was a plant; now it is part of a human being. The Alter Rebbe says that Torah calls Torah study “bread.” The Alter Rebbe says: This isn’t my analogy. Our Sages said that Torah is called bread. Why is Torah called bread? Because when a person studies Torah, exactly the same process takes place as when he eats bread. When he studies Torah, we said that the Torah enters him and unites with him. We said that before, right? What does it mean that Torah unites with him? The Torah changes and becomes part of the soul’s very being, and that is what makes the soul grow. Have you ever heard the term “a child taken captive”? What is a child taken captive? It is a child who, sadly, grew up among non-Jews, or whose parents do not observe mitzvos, and today he is already a fifty-eight-year-old Jew. Why do you call him a child taken captive? Call him an adult taken captive. Why call him a child taken captive? On the plain level, he was a child when he was taken captive, and that is why he is the way he is now. But according to the inner meaning, we can understand this much more deeply. He is called a child because he remained a child. What makes the soul grow? Someone who does not

34:28 Speaker 1 If he doesn’t eat, he remains a baby. He hasn’t learned Torah; his limbs haven’t grown; he remains a baby. His body has grown, but his soul has remained the soul of a baby. Even now, when he’s fifty-something, he’s still a baby. His soul is like—like—like he hasn’t eaten bread.

34:49 Speaker 8 What about someone who is religious but doesn’t learn Torah?

34:51 Speaker 1 What?

34:52 Speaker 8 Doesn’t learn Torah. I mean, he keeps mitzvos, but somehow he doesn’t learn Torah.

34:58 Speaker 1 There’s no other way to make the soul grow. Someone who doesn’t eat can’t live. You can’t live without bread.

35:04 Speaker 8 Women don’t learn Torah.

35:06 Speaker 9 In their view, women aren’t obligated in the mitzvah.

35:09 Speaker 8 They were told, “You need to do this mitzvah and that,” but they also don’t really have a place.

35:13 Speaker 1 No, no, no. It isn’t a question of whether someone is at fault. If a person doesn’t eat, he dies, even if it isn’t his fault. What can he do if he has nothing to eat? Someone who doesn’t learn Torah—his soul doesn’t grow. That’s what makes the limbs of the soul grow. It’s explained elsewhere, at length and in depth, why and exactly how this happens, but that’s the process. Here the Alter Rebbe brings the analogy, and it holds true all the way through. Just as bread gives life to the body, so learning Torah gives life to the soul. In plain terms, “gives life” means that the Torah he learns—we don’t understand exactly how, just as I don’t understand exactly how bread is digested and transformed. But this isn’t some mystical charm; it’s reality. The Alter Rebbe is telling us what reality is. When a person learns Torah, that learning is digested, becomes one with him, and makes his soul grow. The Torah is called the bread and nourishment of the soul. What are you referring to? I mean—

36:36 Speaker 10 Earlier he wrote here—or am I mistaken?—that it isn’t found at all in the physical world. As if there’s nothing like that in the physical world.

36:45 Speaker 1 Ah, there’s no analogy for it.

36:49 Speaker 10 That even what the intellect—

36:50 Speaker 1 Meaning that bread is a good analogy.

36:53 Speaker 10 I’m asking because I feel that this isn’t clear here.

37:00 Speaker 1 Maybe it isn’t in the physical world. I don’t know. I don’t know. Good question. We need to think about it, or perhaps look it up. In any case, that was the analogy he brings, and he explains it at length elsewhere, not here. “So it is with the knowledge and comprehension of Torah in the soul of a person who studies it well, with his intellect’s careful examination, until it is grasped in his intellect and becomes united with him, and they become one. It becomes nourishment for the soul and life within it from the Life of life, the blessed Ein Sof, Who is clothed in His wisdom and Torah within it.” When a Jew learns Torah, the light of the Ein Sof, His very Essence and Being, gives life to his soul directly, becomes one with him, and gives him life. And this is what the verse says: “And Your Torah is within my innards.” Now, the truth is that there in Divrei Hayamim, where it says, “And Your Torah is within my innards,” Rashi explains it a little differently.

37:59 Speaker 10 Only because of the... not because of us. Let’s go back over it once more.

38:05 Speaker 1 Blessed are You, Hashem, our G-d, King of the universe, by Whose word everything came to be.

38:08 Speaker 10 Amen.

38:25 Speaker 1 There are sheets here. All right, let’s start again from the beginning. Just to get back into it, a couple of words about what we discussed generally. We said that chapter five, which we’re just about to finish learning, discusses the advantage of the garment of thought over the other two garments. In the previous chapter, he discussed the advantage of the soul’s garments over the soul itself. The soul itself, with all due respect to the soul itself, cannot grasp Hakadosh Boruch Hu. It is specifically the garments that can grasp Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And in this chapter he distinguishes—although all three garments grasp Hakadosh Boruch Hu, there’s a difference in how they grasp Him. Through speech and action, the light of Hashem surrounds the soul; through learning Torah, the garment of thought, the Jew encompasses Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Then he emphasized something further: in learning Torah, not only does the intellect encompass G-dliness, but it’s like bread that one eats. He becomes one with G-dliness, and G-dliness gives him life and makes him grow. For this he brings the verse we’ve reached now: “And Your Torah is within my innards.” Rashi explains “And Your Torah is within my innards” to mean: I ate only kosher things; I didn’t commit transgressions. That’s Rashi. The Radak also explains something along those lines: “And Your Torah is within my innards” simply means that I didn’t eat non-kosher food. But the Alter Rebbe explains it according to the explanation he has given here, at a much deeper level. So what is the inner meaning of “Your Torah is within my innards”? That Torah is like bread. I learned Torah in such a way that it became one with me, to the point that Torah itself gives me life; my life comes from Torah. As we mentioned earlier, it’s also explained in several places that Torah makes a person grow, makes a person’s soul grow. And someone who doesn’t learn Torah—his soul

41:30 Speaker 1 remains the soul of a baby even after he becomes an adult. And here comes the answer to the question that you asked, I think, about when a non-Jew learns Torah. If this is such a wonderful method—I learn Torah, and just like that I’m united with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, my soul grows through it, and I...—then excellent, any non-Jew could become a Jew. So he says it doesn’t work that way. Why? As it is written in Eitz Chaim—Eitz Chaim is from the writings of the Arizal—in Gate 44, chapter 3, Eitz Chaim writes that the garments of the souls in Gan Eden are the mitzvos, while Torah is nourishment for the souls that engaged in Torah study in this world for its own sake. So Eitz Chaim adds a word we haven’t mentioned until now. When does it work? When he learns Torah lishmah—for its own sake.

42:46 Speaker 11 That’s how it’s understood.

42:47 Speaker 1 Huh?

42:48 Speaker 11 That’s how we understand it.

42:50 Speaker 1 Eitz Chaim immediately explains what Torah lishmah means. Lishmah... Who knows what it means to learn Torah lishmah?

42:58 Speaker 11 What does it mean to learn Torah lishmah?

43:01 Speaker 1 The truth is, that’s a tricky question, because there are many levels and many aspects to learning Torah lishmah. All sorts of things are called lishmah. For example, if a Jew learns Torah because he wants to know what to do—how can he know the halachah if he doesn’t learn Torah?—then he’s learning in order to know, right? So at a certain level that’s called Torah lishmah. But at a deeper level, they tell him: You’re learning in order to know. You aren’t learning for the sake of Torah; you’re learning to know what to do. That isn’t for the sake of Torah. To learn Torah for its own sake means learning because I want to know what it says. Not for some other purpose. I’m learning Torah to know what to do, right? Then you’re learning Torah for another purpose, a secondary purpose. It seems that learning Torah for its own sake means wanting to know the Torah itself, regardless of what to do. Then there’s an even higher level. They say: Is that called learning Torah lishmah? What, he learns Torah and doesn’t think about Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Then what is all your Torah worth? So there are quite a few levels. Eitz Chaim says that the level of Torah lishmah we’re talking about here is when he learns Torah in order to connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. When does Torah become one with a person? When his purpose in learning is to connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. How does he put it? Everyone knows that after this world, every person—every Jew—receives a reward in Gan Eden, right? Everyone?

45:07 Speaker 12 Not at all. All Jews have a reward, but the question is—

45:11 Speaker 1 Who has a share in Gan Eden, and who doesn’t?

45:14 Speaker 12 It depends.

45:15 Speaker 13 It depends.

45:16 Speaker 12 It depends.

45:16 Speaker 1 So, Gan Eden is the reward for learning Torah. Someone who hasn’t learned Torah has no share in Gan Eden. He could be the greatest tzaddik. Someone who hasn’t learned Torah has no share. Gan Eden is the reward for learning Torah. Period.

45:35 Speaker 12 I have a question.

45:36 Speaker 1 That’s it. Yes.

45:36 Speaker 12 How can you say that if someone doesn’t learn Torah, he has no share in Gan Eden? There’s a story about a rabbi—I think it was the Alter Rebbe or someone else—who told him... I don’t remember which rabbi; write to me at nachlas1@gmail. Anyway, he told someone, “You need to do something for me,” and then he went and checked, and... I don’t know, it had something to do with Shabbos. But the end of the story was that he told him, “One Shabbos that you keep can bring you into Gan Eden.” So how can you say that if you don’t learn Torah you can’t enter Gan Eden, when there are rabbis who say that keeping one Shabbos—that if you do something truly from your heart and soul and devote yourself to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, you can enter Gan Eden when you show your willingness to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu?

46:18 Speaker 1 We’d need to look at the story to see exactly what the tzaddik promised. First, we need to see whether he promised him Gan Eden or the World to Come. Those are two completely different things. And even if he promised him Gan Eden, gifts can be given. So the tzaddik gave him a share of his own.

46:32 Speaker 12 How does this apply to girls? Girls don’t learn Gemara and Torah, after all.

46:36 Speaker 1 They have a share in their husbands’ Torah.

46:39 Speaker 12 Right? And I think women also observe mitzvos like Shabbos and [unclear] at home. Does that count too?

46:45 Speaker 1 Literally one body.

46:47 Speaker 12 Oh. So why do you need that, then?

46:49 Speaker 13 And maybe we should look at it as if...

46:51 Speaker 12 What?

46:52 Speaker 1 It says, “By what merit do women...?” The Gemara says this about women—this isn’t Chassidus, it’s Gemara. “By what merit do women attain...” By what do women merit Gan Eden? By waiting for their husbands until they return from the synagogue—from the beis midrash. I don’t remember the exact wording.

47:13 Speaker 12 What’s the connection between Gan Eden and the World to Come?

47:15 Speaker 1 Oh, no, we’re learning a chapter of Tanya now.

47:19 Speaker 12 Come next time. Come to every class.

47:24 Speaker 1 The point is that Gan Eden is a temporary passageway to the World to Come. The World to Come is...

47:31 Speaker 12 What is the World to Come?

47:32 Speaker 13 Ascents that have no...

47:33 Speaker 1 The World to Come is here, in this physical world.

47:37 Speaker 12 Oh, okay.

47:41 Speaker 13 That’s Gan Eden.

47:42 Speaker 12 Yes, all right.

47:42 Speaker 13 But a Jew who enters, as if... as if he’s there.

47:45 Speaker 1 What?

47:45 Speaker 13 A Jew who enters, as if he’s there.

47:46 Speaker 1 Well?

47:47 Speaker 12 Well, that’s not so great.

47:49 Speaker 1 A wonderful reward, and he deserves many good things. There are plenty of good things you could give him. But the whole idea of Gan Eden is that “the righteous sit with their crowns on their heads, enjoying the radiance of the Shechinah.” They enjoy their understanding of the Torah they learned. That’s it. What understanding? What they learned here in the physical world, they have there on a spiritual level. That’s it. Is that all there is to do there? The thing is, the G-dly light in Gan Eden is so wonderful, so immense, that Torah study alone isn’t enough to receive it. It’s like switching on a huge spotlight and shining it straight into someone’s eyes: you can’t open your eyes, and you can’t see anything. So in Gan Eden, Torah study alone isn’t enough; you also need mitzvos. In some places, mitzvos are called ships.

48:34 Speaker 3 How are there mitzvos in Gan Eden? Or is that...

48:37 Speaker 1 You need the mitzvos you do in this world for Gan Eden. In some places mitzvos are called ships, in others they’re called garments, and they have a few other names too. Pillars. Broadly speaking, it’s all the same idea. To receive the reward for Torah in Gan Eden, you need some kind of garment. You need sunglasses so you can look and see something. So the mitzvos are the garments that enable you to receive the reward in Gan Eden. Why are we mentioning all this now? Because we said that mitzvos performed through speech and action are encompassing—an encompassing light—while Torah is an inner light. Torah study is internal. Right? We mentioned this earlier. Through study, a person encompasses the idea, and through mitzvos, the light of Hashem encompasses the person from all sides. What does “encompass” mean? Like clothing surrounding a person. Right? What does “internal” mean? Like bread that goes inside and gives life. Right? So just as a person needs to eat and also get dressed in order to live and move around in the world, the main vitality of Gan Eden comes from the Torah he studied in this world. But to be able to move around there in Gan Eden and receive that vitality, he needs the garments, which are made from the mitzvos. And that’s what Etz Chaim says: the garments of the souls in Gan Eden are the mitzvos. The mitzvos become garments for the soul, while Torah is nourishment for the souls that engaged in Torah study for its own sake in this world. Why “for its own sake”? The whole point of Gan Eden is to connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, for Hakadosh Boruch Hu to be revealed to me. In this world, Hakadosh Boruch Hu cannot be revealed, but in Gan Eden He is revealed. To whom? To someone who wants Him to be revealed to him. If a person isn’t seeking Hakadosh Boruch Hu, why should Hakadosh Boruch Hu seek him? It’s measure for measure. Someone who longs for the revelation of Hashem, to whom G-dliness matters, to whom spirituality matters,

51:13 Speaker 1 who wants to see Hakadosh Boruch Hu and connect with Him—to that person, Hakadosh Boruch Hu reveals Himself. When? In Gan Eden. But if he doesn’t want that, why should He reveal Himself to him? How does a person express that desire?

51:27 Speaker 3 What’s that?

51:29 Speaker 1 By studying Torah for its own sake.

51:31 Speaker 3 More.

51:32 Speaker 1 “For its own sake”: what motivates him to study Torah? He doesn’t study Torah just to know the halachos. He doesn’t study Torah just to know what it says. He studies Torah because he knows: through this, I connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. True, I don’t feel it now, but knowing that Torah study connects me with Hakadosh Boruch Hu—as explained at length earlier—is what motivates me to study. That’s called studying Torah for its own sake. That is his motivation for studying Torah, the reason and purpose behind his study. Study like that truly reveals G-dliness to him later, in Gan Eden. That is, to bind his soul to Hashem through understanding Torah, each person according to his intellect, as it says in Pri Etz Chaim. The Rebbe adds a note here, in parentheses...

52:24 Speaker 3 But, uh, as it says in Zohar, Vayakhel...

52:26 Speaker 1 What?

52:27 Speaker 3 It’s as it says in Zohar, Vayakhel.

52:29 Speaker 1 As it...

52:29 Speaker 3 It says in Zohar, Vayakhel. So how does that serve as proof here? What’s the connection?

52:34 Speaker 1 As it says in Zohar, Vayakhel, folio 210: “For its own sake.” What does “for its own sake” mean? To bind his soul to Hashem through understanding Torah. “Its own sake”—for what purpose does he study Torah? To bind his soul to Hashem. Each person according to his intellect. So, as we said earlier, it doesn’t matter how great his understanding is, or how sharp or muddled his mind is. Whatever he can understand with his mind, he connects with Hakadosh Boruch Hu just as the greatest sages and tzaddikim do. The Rebbe adds a note here in parentheses. Up to this point, what have we been discussing about the difference between Torah and mitzvos? That mitzvos are an encompassing light, while Torah is a light that enters inwardly, all the way into a person’s inner self. Right? We haven’t learned that there’s a difference in the nature of the light itself. We didn’t say there was a difference between the encompassing... It’s just that the light of—sorry, the other way around. The light of—sorry. The light of Torah. The other way around. Sorry, sorry. The light of Torah is an inner light that a person can absorb and contain within himself. The light of mitzvos is so great that he cannot understand it; it remains encompassing and becomes a garment. The Rebbe adds in parentheses: nourishment is an inner light, while garments are encompassing lights. In other words, the difference between inner and encompassing light, between Torah and mitzvos, isn’t merely the intensity of the light or the revelation—as though the light of Torah were less intense, so it can enter and become invested in a person’s mind, while the encompassing light is more exalted and cannot enter. It’s not a quantitative difference; it’s a qualitative one. Torah, the nourishment, is a kind of light that is internal, while mitzvos are a kind of light that is encompassing, that is more exalted. It’s an entirely different kind of light. And each has an advantage the other doesn’t have. The advantage of mitzvos is that their light is encompassing: it is an exalted, powerful light; it is His very Essence

54:57 Speaker 1 and Being. The drawback is that a person cannot absorb it inwardly. The advantage of Torah is exactly the opposite. It’s a smaller light, a contracted light, after all the limitations, concealments, obstacles, and windows, and everything it has passed through along the way, until it can enter a halachah written in the Torah that I can understand. On the other hand, I can become one with it. That’s why our Sages said that Torah study is equal to all the mitzvos. We said that earlier. Earlier, we said that Torah has an advantage over all the mitzvos. Right? Remember that we already said that?

55:44 Speaker 3 Yes.

55:44 Speaker 1 That only through Torah can one become one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu.

55:46 Speaker 3 Thought.

55:47 Speaker 1 To become united with it, because it is thought. He says even more than that: Torah is not only higher than all the mitzvos; it is equal to all the mitzvos combined. In other words, when we say Torah is higher than all the mitzvos, take Torah compared with any particular mitzvah. With Torah you can become united; with that mitzvah you cannot. Torah is higher than each individual mitzvah. But Torah has something more: it is not only higher; it is equal to them all. All the mitzvos are included in Torah. Torah has both the advantage of becoming united with it and the advantage found in all the mitzvos together. What does that mean? Torah is not only food for the soul; it is also a garment for the intellectual soul. As we said at the beginning of the chapter, the soul clothes itself in Torah when it studies it and delves into it. When a person studies Torah, he is now clothing himself in... I think I’ve lost you. When a person studies Torah, studies an idea, he’s learning something. Well, what are we learning? We’re learning chapter 5 of Tanya. Right now we’re diving into the chapter. Yes? We’re diving into it, and right now the chapter is bigger than us. This is our first time—well, for some it isn’t. We’re hearing this for the first time now, and we’re trying to understand this idea, trying to grasp it, as though the idea is all around us. We’re immersed in it. So if we’re immersed in it, that means it surrounds us. But earlier we said that being surrounded is the aspect of mitzvos.

57:34 Speaker 4 That too.

57:35 Speaker 1 Right. Torah also has the advantage of mitzvos: it surrounds us too.

57:41 Speaker 4 How does that fit with the idea that action is the main thing?

57:44 Speaker 1 That...?

57:45 Speaker 4 Action is the main thing.

57:45 Speaker 5 You study it aloud, through speech.

57:48 Speaker 4 But then again, they tell us speech is ultimately an action.

57:52 Speaker 5 You study in your head, but you say it with your mouth. You read it from the book—

57:56 Speaker 4 But speech isn’t action.

57:58 Speaker 1 In this chapter—

57:59 Speaker 5 Torah study is—

58:01 Speaker 1 This chapter isn’t talking about the purpose of Creation. Tanya discusses that around chapters 36 through 39, somewhere in that area. This chapter is about the soul becoming united with G-dliness. The soul doesn’t become united with G-dliness through mitzvos. It happens through Torah study. The mitzvos help, and without mitzvos it isn’t possible. But the main way a Jew becomes united with G-dliness is through Torah study. If you ask what the main thing is from Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s perspective—what does He want? Why did He create the world? He didn’t create the world so that a Jew could become united with G-dliness. He doesn’t need to create a world for that.

58:46 Speaker 5 So what for?

58:48 Speaker 1 He could leave the soul embraced by Him, or cleaving to Him, pure as it is up above, hewn from beneath the Throne of Glory. It could stay there, cleaving to Him perfectly well. That isn’t why He created the world. He created the world because He wanted a dwelling place in the lower realms. To make a dwelling place in the lower realms, you need action. That’s why action is the main thing. But that isn’t what this chapter is about. “And it is also a garment for the intellectual soul, which clothes itself in Torah when it delves into it and studies it; all the more so when one articulates it in speech, for the breath of speech becomes an encompassing light,” as it says in Pri Eitz Chaim. We see this many times. How many of you have ever tried giving a class? Well, anyone who has ever given a class, or will give one, will discover very quickly that while she’s speaking, while she’s teaching, she suddenly begins to understand things much better. When she was alone, she worked hard, struggled over it, looked in books, asked great rabbis, and still something was missing. The moment you start speaking, you suddenly start to understand. This is explained in several places in Chassidus. Why does it happen? Speech—the breath of speech—becomes an encompassing light. The source of speech is higher than the source of the soul. Incidentally, that’s why a human being is called “a speaker,” not “a thinker.” The essential quality of a human being is speech, the power of speech. So the moment speech starts working, starts revealing itself, an encompassing light is drawn down upon the soul—higher powers than it had before. What a person couldn’t understand through thought, he suddenly begins to understand when he starts speaking. This happens in everyday life. In any case, for our purposes, what did chapter 5 explain? Chapter 5 explained that specifically through the soul’s garments, which are not part of the soul itself, one can become more united with Hakadosh Boruch Hu

1:00:57 Speaker 1 than through the soul itself—that is, through intellect and emotion. A person may have love of Hashem and be catching angels by the tail, or from beneath the tail, but he can’t connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, with G-dliness, that way. Yet through Torah study in thought, speech, and action, he becomes united with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. For that, you need both Torah study and mitzvos. The mitzvos are the encompassing light: they draw it down upon him and give him the power to become united. And what actually brings about the union with Hakadosh Boruch Hu is Torah study. So up to this point, in chapters 1 through 5, we’ve learned about the G-dly soul. We said that every Jew has two souls, a G-dly soul and an animal soul. The G-dly soul is literally a part of G-d above. Its root and source are in His blessed Essence and Being. It descends into the body of every Jew, and within the body of every Jew is that literal part of G-d above. There is a spark of G-dliness there, and that spark has ten faculties, which in general are holy, G-dly intellect and emotion. The G-dly soul also has three garments—thought, speech, and action. Through these garments, the G-dly soul is connected with G-dliness not only at its source; it connects with Hakadosh Boruch Hu even while it is down here in a physical body in this world. More than that, everything that will be revealed to a person in the future—not only now, but also in Gan Eden, in the World to Come, through the Resurrection of the Dead and until the end of all generations—depends on the mitzvos he performs and the Torah he studies now, during the seventy years, or, “if with strength, eighty years,” that he is given in this world. That was the G-dly soul. The next three chapters, which we’ll begin next week, next time, with Hashem’s help, discuss the animal soul. We’ll discover that the animal soul, too, has the soul itself

1:03:09 Speaker 1 and ten faculties. It, too, has three garments, and its garments also accomplish things beyond what the soul itself does. But not in the same way as with the G-dly soul—in a completely different way.