Likkutei Amarim Chapter 9 · 5781

00:00 Speaker 1 All right, today, with Hashem’s help, we’ll study chapter 9. Chapter 9 is an easy chapter to understand. In the previous chapters, chapters 1 through 8, we spoke about the two souls that every Jew has. Surely everyone remembers that, right? The Alter Rebbe described them very vividly. The Hebrew word for “form” is related to the word for “picture.” The G-dly soul is something holy, interested only in Hakadosh Boruch Hu, only in G-dliness, Torah, mitzvos, love of Hashem, fear of Hashem, and holy character traits. Talk to the G-dly soul about this world, and it isn’t interested. It doesn’t understand what you’re talking to it about. It’s not into it. The animal soul is exactly the opposite. Its concern is to give life to the body, to give life to the body. It loves the body, loves this world, and is drawn to this world. Its thought, speech, action, character traits, emotions, and intellect—everything about it is immersed in this world. Try to talk to the animal soul about Torah, mitzvos, or G-dliness, and it’s not there. It doesn’t speak that language. Hakadosh Boruch Hu put both these souls inside each of us. How do they manage together in there? They’re complete opposites. That’s what chapter 9 discusses. Chapter 9: “Now the dwelling place of the animal soul, which comes from kelipas nogah, in every Jew”—where is that animal soul in the body? “It is in the heart, in the left chamber, which is filled with blood.” Our Sages said that the heart has two chambers. In practice it has four chambers, but there are two main ones. I don’t know exactly how that works physically. In any case, our Sages said the heart has two chambers. The left chamber is filled with blood. What does “filled with blood” mean? The whole

02:11 Speaker 1 body is filled with blood. Is there anywhere in the body that isn’t filled with blood? It’s all filled with blood. Rather, there are two kinds of blood in the body. There is the blood of the organs, the blood that gives life to all the organs, which the heart pumps and circulates throughout the body. It carries air, oxygen, and nutrients from place to place and removes waste, and so on. And there is blood contained within the heart, a revi’is of blood on which the soul’s life depends. After all, the soul is spiritual and the body is physical. How can something spiritual connect with something physical? When we want to join two things, two sides of a sweater, we need a button, a zipper, something that joins them, something that lets them hold together. But if one is made of, I don’t know, air, and the other is made of earth, they can’t hold on to each other. All the more so with the animal soul, which is spiritual, and the body, which is physical. How—how does that work? Where do they connect? So our Sages said there is a revi’is of blood. Blood is more refined than the rest of the body, and within the blood itself there is a special kind of blood, a small quantity, that revi’is, in which the animal soul is enclothed. That revi’is of blood remains permanently in the heart; it doesn’t leave. That is why it says the left chamber of the heart is filled with blood. This isn’t blood that comes and goes; it stays there, and the animal soul is enclothed in it. By becoming enclothed in that blood in the heart’s left chamber, the soul connects to the rest of the blood and then to the rest of the body, and its vitality spreads throughout the body. So the dwelling place of the animal soul is in the heart, in the left chamber, which is filled with blood. “And it is written, ‘For the blood is the soul.’” The soul is enclothed in the blood. The blood clothes the soul. So they

04:29 Speaker 1 become one thing; they unite. And because the animal soul’s place is in the heart, “all desires, boasting, anger, and the like are in the heart.” We said in chapter 1 that the animal soul has bad character traits arising from its four bad elements. Remember? Right? So if it’s in the heart, and its nature is bad character traits, where are those traits? Wherever the soul is—in the heart. “And from the heart they spread throughout the body. They also rise to the brain in the head, to think and reflect on them and devise ways to pursue them, just as blood originates in the heart and spreads from the heart to all the organs, and also rises to the brain in the head.” So what happens physically also happens spiritually. The animal soul is primarily about desires, bad character traits, anger, pride. These are all things of emotion, of the heart. Now a person feels he’s much better than everyone else, but he also needs everyone else to know it. Just feeling that way isn’t enough for him. So he starts thinking about how to make everyone know he’s better than everyone else. That means the feeling in his heart has spread and reached his head, and now his head is thinking and reflecting on it. So the animal soul is in the heart, and from there its influence spreads to the head. From there it reaches the organs of action, which go and carry it out. The rest of the body does what the heart and head tell it to do. That’s the animal soul. Where is the G-dly soul? If the animal soul has a particular place, then the G-dly soul must have one too. What is the G-dly soul’s place? “But the dwelling place of the G-dly soul is in the brain in the head.” We’ve spoken several times about how the G-dly soul is primarily intellect. Remember we talked about things like that? We did. Yes, the animal soul is all emotion and desire. The brain only serves it. But the G-dly

06:45 Speaker 1 soul is primarily intellect: understanding and uniting with G-dliness through comprehension and grasp. What does it say about Gan Eden? That the righteous sit there with crowns on their heads and enjoy the radiance of the Shechinah. Right? That’s what it says. What is the radiance of the Shechinah? It is the light of Hashem. What is the light of Hashem? Understanding and comprehending G-dliness. What the G-dly soul enjoys in Gan Eden, its entire pleasure, comes from understanding and comprehending G-dliness. It has emotions too, but the G-dly soul’s primary concern is intellect. Since its concern is intellect, where does it dwell? In the brain in the head. So it’s very orderly. The animal soul is in the heart, the G-dly soul in the brain. At first glance, “love truth and peace”—they don’t interfere with each other, and everything is fine. So we understand how they can live together. After all, we asked at the beginning how two such opposites can be in the same body. At first glance, what’s the problem? One is in the heart and the other in the intellect. There they are, in the same body. So he continues about the G-dly soul: “But the dwelling place of the G-dly soul is in the brain in the head, and from there it spreads to all the organs,” just like the animal soul, “and also in the heart, in the right chamber, which has no blood. As it is written, ‘The heart of the wise man is to his right.’” When we discussed the animal soul being in the heart, we specified that it is in the heart’s left chamber. The right chamber is empty. What does “empty” mean? Blood goes in and out, in and out, but it doesn’t have blood in it permanently; it isn’t filled with blood. That is where the G-dly soul dwells. And here, seemingly... not just seemingly, we need to emphasize something here, because it will be—the Alter Rebbe does hint at it, but it is emphasized throughout the rest of the chapter. So let’s point it out. Look at the lines; count them from the top. One, two, three, four, five. The fifth line begins with the word “they.” Do you see the

08:59 Speaker 1 fifth line? Keep a finger there, and let’s go down further. One, two, three, another four lines. The word that begins—the line that begins—“in the head.” Yes. So in the first line, the one beginning “they,” it says that the soul, the animal soul, is in the heart and rises to the brain. Do you see? It doesn’t rise in the brain; it rises to the brain. But in the second line, which speaks about the G-dly soul, it is in the head, and from there spreads to all the organs and also in the heart—not to the heart. What’s the difference between “to” and “in”?

09:41 Speaker 2 That it’s there too.

09:41 Speaker 1 That it’s there too. The animal soul is in the heart; it isn’t anywhere else. Its influence spreads and rises, even reaching the brain. Is the soul itself in the brain? No. It’s only in the heart. The G-dly soul is in the brain in the head, but when it spreads through the body and reaches the heart, it doesn’t merely reach the heart; it is in the heart.

10:08 Speaker 2 Is that connected to what they say about Eden?

10:10 Speaker 1 We learned in chapter 3 about the structure of the G-dly soul: it has three intellectual faculties and seven emotional attributes. Right? So you keep telling me it has only intellectual faculties, only intellectual faculties—but it has emotional attributes too. We learned in chapter 3 that they’re part of its structure. Yes, that’s right, it has emotional attributes. But its emotional attributes aren’t there all the time. When a Jew contemplates the greatness of Hashem, contemplates G-dliness, that’s when the emotions are born. Where are they born? In the heart. The G-dly soul dwells in the mind. When he contemplates G-dliness, emotions suddenly arise in the heart that weren’t there before. But when they do awaken—when a holy feeling of love and fear of Hashem awakens in a Jew—it is there. It doesn’t merely influence the heart; it is in the heart. Why are we emphasizing this? We’ll see later. So it is also in the heart, in the right chamber, which has no blood, as it says, “The wise man’s heart is to his right.” And there is love of Hashem, like leaping flames, blazing in the hearts of those who use their minds to understand and contemplate matters that arouse love. He contemplates in his mind matters that arouse love, and love is born in his heart like leaping flames. And that same contemplation in the mind gives rise not only to love like leaping flames, but also to heartfelt joy in the splendor of Hashem and the majesty of His glory. So the attribute of splendor is aroused too, as is the attribute of majesty, when the wise person’s eyes, which are in his head—in his faculties of chochmah and binah—gaze upon the glory of the King and the splendor of His greatness, which is beyond all searching, without end or limit, as explained elsewhere. And likewise, the other holy emotions in the heart come from Chabad, the intellectual faculties. So that’s what we’ve explained so far. The animal soul is concerned with desires and dwells in the heart. It merely influences all the limbs, including the brain in the head. The G-dly soul dwells in the intellectual faculties in the head. But when a holy emotion, a holy feeling, awakens, it

12:36 Speaker 1 awakens in the heart, and it really is a feeling belonging to the G-dly soul itself, not something that merely influences the heart from the outside. I said we’d see later what that means. So, seemingly, let’s finish the first part of chapter 9. Seemingly, we’ve answered the question: How can two souls that are complete opposites be in the same body? What’s the problem? One is in the heart, on the left side; the other is in the brain, in a chamber far away. And even when its feelings awaken, they awaken in the right chamber. So they don’t contradict each other. They’re opposites, but each is in a different place. So what’s the problem? The Alter Rebbe says that this way of looking at it is incorrect. Why? “But it is written, ‘One nation shall grow stronger than the other.’” Who was that originally said about, [unclear]?

13:43 Speaker 3 Esav and Yaakov.

13:44 Speaker 1 Esav and Yaakov. When one rises, the other falls. So the G-dly soul and the animal soul are Esav and Yaakov within us. Why? If each has its own place, why should they interfere with each other? Because the body is called a small city, and a city can have only one master. It can’t—how does the familiar saying go? “With too many captains, the ship will sink.” If a ship has two captains, it won’t arrive safely anywhere. The body is a small place, a small city, and there’s room for only one master. “Like two kings who wage war over one city, each of the two kings wishing to capture it and rule over it—that is, to direct its inhabitants according to his will, so that they obey everything he decrees for them.” The animal soul does dwell in the heart, yes, but it isn’t content to remain in the heart. It wants to rule the small city. Its residence, its palace, is in the heart. But a king without citizens, without a country, without a city, without servants—he doesn’t feel like a king. It wants to give life to the whole body. It wants the entire body to act according to its desires. It wants to direct the whole body, and the moment it moves out from the heart, it immediately encounters someone else there, someone who wants the opposite. That’s when the problem begins. “So the two souls, the G-dly soul and the vital animal soul from kelipah, wage war with each other over the body and all its limbs.” As for the G-dly soul—from here to the end of the chapter, he explains what the G-dly soul wants. He doesn’t explain what the animal soul wants. Why?

16:10 Speaker 3 That’s not our subject.

16:10 Speaker 1 Hmm?

16:11 Speaker 3 That’s not our subject. We’re too animalistic.

16:14 Speaker 1 No.

16:14 Speaker 3 What does it want?

16:16 Speaker 1 The Alter Rebbe doesn’t explain what the animal soul wants. He explains what the G-dly soul wants. Why doesn’t he explain what the animal soul wants? There’s a very long discussion from here on. We’ll see—it’s very interesting. This section is very beautiful. But let’s think: Why doesn’t he explain what the animal soul wants?

16:32 Speaker 3 It’s obvious to us. We feel it day by day, minute by minute.

16:35 Speaker 1 It doesn’t need explaining.

16:36 Speaker 3 The animal soul.

16:38 Speaker 1 What the animal soul wants doesn’t need explaining. Everyone feels it for themselves and knows exactly what the animal soul wants. What the G-dly soul wants—that needs explaining. So he explains it. When we see what the G-dly soul wants, it will become clearer to us that what the animal soul wants, what we want, isn’t quite the same thing. Let’s see. “The G-dly soul desires and wishes that it alone should rule over and direct it”—the body, yes—“and that all the limbs should obey it and be nullified to it, utterly nullified to it and a vehicle for it, and that they should be garments for its ten faculties and its three garments mentioned above.” He’ll spell this out shortly: all ten of its faculties and all three of its garments should be clothed in the limbs of the body. And it’s not only that the soul’s faculties should be nullified to the essence of the soul—not only thought, speech, and action. The faculty of thought should be clothed in the brain, so that the physical brain, the flesh itself, thinks thoughts of Torah. And the physical mouth—not only that the faculty of speech should be occupied with holy matters—the physical mouth should speak words of holiness. And likewise with physical action. “And no stranger should pass among them, G-d forbid.” In other words, the G-dly soul wants “the three faculties of the brain in the head to be filled with the Chabad of the G-dly soul, which is the wisdom and understanding of Hashem, to contemplate His greatness, which is beyond all searching and without end.” The “three faculties of the brain in the head” refers to the physical structure of the human brain. There are three chambers in the skull, called the right brain, the left brain, and the rear brain—the three faculties of the brain in the head. So the G-dly soul wants all three physical parts of the brain in the head to be filled with chochmah, binah, and daas, “and through daas to give rise from them to awe in his mind, fear of Hashem in his heart, and love of Hashem like a fire burning in his heart with leaping flames, so that his soul longs and yearns, with desire and longing, to cleave to Him, the blessed Ein Sof,

19:31 Speaker 1 with all his heart, soul, and might.” Now, there’s something here we need to pay attention to. What order does the Alter Rebbe give here? Usually I don’t like getting into details like this, but it’s simply so beautiful. It would be a shame to miss it. Through contemplation in the mind, he says, what awakens first? Awe in his mind. When a person contemplates the greatness of Hashem, what’s the first thing that should awaken in him?

19:59 Speaker 3 Love.

20:00 Speaker 1 We’ve always talked about love, right? That’s how it’s writ—yes. What? Why does the Alter Rebbe start here with awe, and then fear in his heart? Well, we can give a tangible example. When a person stands before a great tzaddik—he’s actually standing there, before the Rebbe, right beside him—the first thing that comes over him is awe and fear. The very knowledge that he’s standing beside a tzaddik inspires awe in his mind. That awe in his mind then gives rise to a certain fear in his heart as well, but that’s only temporary. Ultimately, he knows this is a tzaddik. He knows it’s only for his good, and he knows the tzaddik loves him. So after that first moment of awe and fear comes love. And this isn’t just in a physical encounter between two people; it’s the same when contemplating Hashem. Even when a person contemplates Hashem’s greatness in a way that arouses love, the first feeling is awe. Once he continues contemplating a little longer, love arises from that very same contemplation—but love comes second. That’s what he’s saying: first awe, then fear, and immediately, from that same contemplation, love of Hashem as well. What kind of love of Hashem? A love of Hashem “like a blazing fire, like tongues of flame,” so that his soul yearns and pines with longing and desire to cleave to Him, to the blessed Ein Sof. He contemplated Hashem’s greatness; he understood His greatness. He grasps that this is something wondrous, something great, something immense, and he wants to draw close to Hashem. What does love “like tongues of fire” mean? A person desperately wants something he doesn’t have. He understands how immense and wondrous it is, and he understands how much he lacks it. So that is what’s called “tongues of fire”—meaning a longing

22:13 Speaker 1 so intense, from the depths of the heart, in the right chamber, that its interior should be “lined with love, filled and overflowing.” So it’s lined with love, filled with love, and overflowing with love. What do those three expressions mean? “Lined” means?

22:33 Speaker 4 Half.

22:35 Speaker 1 It comes from the word

22:37 Speaker 4 Floor.

22:37 Speaker 1 Floor. One tile beside another, across the whole floor. But does that really fill everything? A floor is only at the bottom. Yes, it’s completely covered—there are no gaps, no cracks—but only on the floor. It doesn’t fill the whole room, the whole space; it’s only on the floor. The G-dly soul isn’t satisfied with the right chamber being lined with love. It wants it to be filled with love too, for love to fill it all the way to the top. And even that isn’t enough. It wants it to overflow with love. What does “overflow” mean?

23:12 Speaker 4 It fills it.

23:12 Speaker 1 It’s already spilling out. Spilling out where? Into the animal soul. It isn’t satisfied with its own territory. Just as the animal soul wants sole control over the entire body, the G-dly soul isn’t satisfied with its own territory. There’s a little city here, and it wants the entire city—not just the intellect and emotions, the garments, and the emotions in the heart. It wants the left side too. “Until it spreads into the left chamber as well, to subdue the sitra achra, the element of evil water within it”—the desire that comes from kelipas nogah—“to change it and transform it from pleasures of this world into love of Hashem.” This is what our Sages said about the verse, as it says, “with all your heart.” Our Sages said: “With both your inclinations.” What does “with both your inclinations” mean? That you must love Hashem with both inclinations. I understand loving Hashem with the good inclination. And I understand that the evil inclination must be nullified, rejected, overcome. But what does it mean to love Hashem with the evil inclination? If it’s the evil inclination, how can it love Hashem? So the commandment “You shall love ... with all your heart”—“with both your inclinations”—means precisely that the G-dly soul’s love should fill the right chamber and overflow from it into the left chamber, where the evil inclination, the animal soul, resides, and transform it into a good inclination. Now, a person whose G-dly soul has spilled over to the other side and has not merely subdued the animal soul but transformed it into good no longer has an evil inclination. He has only—he has two good inclinations, one of this kind and one of that kind. Two kinds of inclination, but no evil inclination. Here we’re no longer talking about a beinoni. We’re talking about a tzaddik. We said in chapter 10 that a tzaddik—we haven’t reached

25:47 Speaker 1 chapter 10 yet, sorry. A tzaddik means someone who has no evil inclination—we said that at the beginning, in chapter 1, but we haven’t explained the concept yet. Chapter 10 explains it. A tzaddik is someone who has no evil inclination. What the G-dly soul wants is to reach the very heart, the stronghold, of the animal soul, and not merely conquer it but take it captive and turn it into a good inclination. Why does the Alter Rebbe bring this up here? After all, we’re talking about a book for beinonim, and we said that being a beinoni is within everyone’s reach, whereas transforming the animal soul into good is not within everyone’s reach. Why does the Alter Rebbe bring it up here? The reason is very simple. We’re not yet discussing what the beinoni needs to do. We’re discussing what the G-dly soul wants. What does the G-dly soul want? It wants to be a tzaddik. The G-dly soul of every Jew longs to reach the animal soul’s dwelling place and transform it into good. That’s what it wants. It won’t settle for less. Whether it actually succeeds later on, and to what extent, we’ll see in the coming chapters. But what does it want? This is what it wants. “That is to say.” What does “that is to say” mean? It means the Alter Rebbe is about to explain something here, right? “That is to say”—I now want to explain something to you. In other words, there’s something here you haven’t understood.