Likkutei Amarim Chapter 16 (Part 1) · 5785

00:00 Speaker 1 One of the stories that Gur--

00:02 Speaker 2 Afterward, Yaela—Yaela wants you to read it to her and send it to her.

00:06 Speaker 1 Yesterday there was a farbrengen. Anyway, it’s connected. Rabbi Gurevitch from Migdal HaEmek came. There are Jews with warm hearts, Jews with real feeling. He tells a story about the Rebbe—he lives inside it. The story of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s imprisonment is the one written in the booklet that everyone reads. He was choking back tears. He described how the Frierdiker Rebbe was beaten, and he couldn’t go on. He was crying, with tears in his eyes, choking up. That kind of Jew. He told several stories about his father. Here’s just one; all the stories were remarkable.

00:44 Speaker 2 Do you know Malki?

00:47 Speaker 3 No.

00:47 Speaker 2 No.

00:47 Speaker 1 No.

00:47 Speaker 2 The Tzarfati family. Everyone at the institutions there knows them.

00:53 Speaker 1 His mother, Gurevitch’s mother, is the sister of Mulé Azimov’s mother. They’re family. He said that when his father was still a young man, nineteen years old, the GPU arrested him for spreading Yiddishkeit. It was close to Pesach, and he wouldn’t eat. The guards noticed. What did they think it meant—a hunger strike? As if he could decide when to die. “We decide whether you live or die. That’s not in your hands.” They brought him in for interrogation, and the interrogator asked, “Why aren’t you eating?” He answered, “It’s Pesach. On Pesach we don’t eat chametz.” They had arrested him to stop him spreading Yiddishkeit, and here he was, inside their prison, still... The interrogator got angry. “Bring soup,” he said, and put it in front of his mouth. Of course, he refused to eat it. So the interrogator called two guards. One held his arms behind his back; the other pinched his nose shut. The interrogator held the spoon at his mouth, ready to put it in the moment he opened it. He held his breath, but at some point it was no longer voluntary. He moved like this, and the spoonful of soup spilled onto the interrogator’s face. That certainly didn’t help; the interrogator became twice as angry. “Is that so? No problem.” He called a guard with a whip, one with leather straps. They pressed him against the wall, took off his shirt, and began whipping him, saying they would continue until he agreed to eat. After several lashes, the pain made him lose consciousness. He fell, and they carried him out to a room. After that, they didn’t try to force him anymore.

03:06 Speaker 1 Until the afternoon of the last day of Pesach, he ate only things he was one hundred percent certain could not contain chametz. There was hardly anything to eat in that prison anyway. And he said he didn’t even drink water. Why not? Once before, he had seen them bring water for the prisoners to drink, and there were a few grains floating in the bucket. He thought, “Wait—if they put grains in that bucket, perhaps the bucket they’ve now brought my water in had wheat in it earlier too.” So he didn’t drink. Eight days. For eight days, not only did he not eat; he didn’t drink water.

03:50 Speaker 2 [unclear]

03:51 Speaker 1 Years later he got out, and how he got out is a long story. Once he went to a doctor—

03:58 Speaker 2 He managed to survive eight days?

03:59 Speaker 1 He went to a doctor once, and the doctor reacted as if he were telling tall tales. “Impossible. A person can’t go eight days without drinking water and remain alive. Who are you telling stories to?” But he said that’s what happened. And afterward, Gurevitch himself said that he remembers his father, who passed away not long ago. He lived to ninety-two, and until his last day there were thick, large, bluish scars from the lashes all across his back. Until his last day.

04:35 Speaker 4 Wow.

04:35 Speaker 1 He told several stories about his father’s mesirus nefesh. Every story was more astonishing than the last. Wow. All right, tonight we’re learning chapter 16. Chapter 16 begins, “This is a great principle in the service of Hashem for beinonim.” Until now, we’ve learned who a beinoni is, what a beinoni is, and what is required of a beinoni. What each of us needs to take in is that before we approach serving Hashem, we need to know that this is relevant to every one of us. It isn’t something up in the heavens, [unclear]. Don’t think it will be easy; it’s hard work. And know that the work is part of the point. That is, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not only interested in the result. He is no less interested in your effort than in the result. It isn’t only about your keeping the mitzvos and not committing aveiros. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants you to toil; He wants you to make an effort. That’s part of it. Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave you a yetzer hara and an animal soul because He takes pleasure in your effort. Later, the Alter Rebbe will go into this at greater length in chapter 27 and speak extensively about its virtue. But here the point is simply: don’t be discouraged because it’s hard work. Hard work is part of who you are. Part of your role in the world is to work hard. It’s not... Once we know that each of us can be a beinoni—and what is a beinoni? Someone who never commits an aveirah, and, more than that, for whom committing an aveirah is unthinkable—how do we get there? That brings us to chapter 16. Chapter 16 begins, “This is a great principle in the service of Hashem for a beinoni.” What is this great principle in a person’s service?

06:32 Speaker 1 How does a person actually serve Hashem? The main thing is to govern and control the nature of the left chamber of the heart. You surely remember that in the previous chapter, when we spoke about the beinoni, we discussed “one who serves Him” and “one who does not serve Him.” Right? We said that just as there are two levels of tzaddik and two levels of rasha, there are also two levels of beinoni: one who serves Him and one who does not serve Him. Neither commits aveiros. The difference is that one of them... Do you remember, or not? Am I just talking to myself?

07:08 Speaker 4 No, not everyone was here. They weren’t here the whole time last week.

07:21 Speaker 1 A beinoni is a person who doesn’t commit aveiros, broadly speaking.

07:26 Speaker 4 What?

07:27 Speaker 1 What? If the whole point of a beinoni is that he doesn’t commit aveiros, how can there be two levels? He doesn’t commit aveiros, and that’s that. So he’s a beinoni. How can there be two levels here? The Alter Rebbe said there are two kinds of people who don’t commit aveiros. There’s a person who never commits aveiros because the yetzer hara doesn’t pull him toward them. His animal soul draws him toward study and intellectual pursuits. He’s cool by nature; his heart doesn’t burn with desires. So he doesn’t face a great difficulty. He knows he needs to keep the mitzvos, and that’s enough for him. He doesn’t commit aveiros, he does mitzvos, and there’s no battle. “One who serves Him” is someone whose heart does burn. Everything about this world before his eyes draws him in and excites him, and it’s hard for him to resist—yet he stands up to his yetzer hara. He works; that’s what it means to serve, to make an effort. That’s the difference between “one who serves Him” and “one who does not serve Him.” And there, as we emphasized in the previous chapter, when the Alter Rebbe speaks of a beinoni who does not serve Hashem, he uses the words “governs his nature.” For one who does serve Hashem, he says “controls his nature.” What’s the difference between governing the yetzer hara and controlling it? Someone who governs gives orders: “I’m in charge now. You don’t speak.” The yetzer hara pulls at him, and he holds himself back by force. He merely governs it. Someone who controls changes himself. He changes his habits. He cannot change—an ordinary person cannot suddenly start loving Hashem, become someone else, become a tzaddik. He can’t. But he

09:09 Speaker 1 Yes, a person can control it. “Control” means changing his habits. In other words, he trains himself to say Modeh Ani every morning when he gets up. That isn’t a natural impulse for a person, is it? The moment he opens his eyes. Yes. So a person can control his natural soul, meaning he can give it different traits. Until now he was used to doing things one way; now he gets used to doing them differently. He can train himself to study Torah. At first it’s very hard, but he sets aside half an hour every day, and he knows: every day, half an hour, that’s it. It may be very hard for him to daven, to keep his eyes on the words throughout davening and think about what each word means. But he makes an effort another day, and another day, and another day, until it gets easier. That’s called controlling it. He doesn’t merely rule over his inclination; he controls it. He has changed it a little. So the Rebbe said that someone who only rules over his inclination is called one who does not serve Hashem. Someone who controls his inclination is called one who serves Hashem, because he changes his habitual nature. So he says: The great principle in serving Hashem is not only to rule, but also to control the nature in the left chamber of the heart. How? Through the light of Hashem that shines upon the G-dly soul in his mind and—sorry, there’s a note from the Rebbe here. “Through the light of Hashem that shines upon the G-dly soul in the mind,” and then there’s a comma, “and to control the heart.” There are two things here. For a beinoni, the mind naturally rules over the heart by virtue of how he was created. But for most of us ordinary people, it’s very hard for me just to make a decision in my mind and have my heart awaken with love of Hashem. That’s hard. But there is help. Hakadosh Boruch Hu helps, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu shines the light of Hashem. We said

11:10 Speaker 1 that this happens especially at a favorable time, during davening, in the morning. So through both of these things—the light of Hashem shining, and a person exercising control, with the mind ruling over the heart—everyone can rule over the heart and even control it. What is the contemplation involved in this great principle? How does he control the heart? By contemplating, by contemplating in his mind. What does he contemplate? The greatness of the blessed Ein Sof. He contemplates until his understanding gives rise to a spirit of daas, a spirit of daas. Where did we discuss the role of daas? Do you remember? At the beginning—at the beginning of chapter 3? Hmm?

12:04 Speaker 5 Chapter 3.

12:05 Speaker 1 Chapter 3. After he discussed—at the beginning, who is the G-dly soul? That was chapter 2. Then in chapter 3 he says it has three mothers and seven doubles, and that chochmah and binah give rise to the emotions. Right? So at the beginning of the chapter he says that through contemplation with chochmah and binah, feeling is born, the emotions are born. That’s at the beginning of the chapter. And at the end of the chapter he says: Wait, what about daas? We said chochmah and binah give rise to the emotions. Why do we need daas? Remember we asked that? Why do we need daas? Daas is the—the essential thing. What does “essential” mean? If a person only contemplates, thinks about how Hakadosh Boruch Hu creates everything from nothing, how Hakadosh Boruch Hu fills the worlds and encompasses the worlds, contemplates the greatness of Hashem—if he only thinks, and the feelings awaken solely as a result of that contemplation, the love and awe will be momentary. The feeling will be momentary. How does this work for us? How does it work for us? Simply put, these aren’t just holy words. It works this way for us too. If I think about something—something I hadn’t thought about, something that wasn’t in my mind, that I hadn’t encountered or ever considered—and now some issue comes up and I think about it, the moment I think about it, it arouses a feeling in me. It’s simple. If it’s something good, a feeling of closeness, of warmth toward it, will awaken in me. If it’s something bad, the opposite. How long will that feeling last? As long as I’m thinking about it, the feeling will be there. The moment I stop thinking about it, it will cease. Right? That’s called falsehood. It is love and awe, but it’s a love and awe that are false. It’s a stream that dries up; it stops flowing. It isn’t lasting, it

14:13 Speaker 1 isn’t constant, it isn’t fixed.

14:15 Speaker 5 It’s momentary.

14:15 Speaker 1 It’s momentary. What does “momentary” mean? It depends on something. How is it—“love that depends on a thing.” It depends on contemplation. As long as he contemplates, it’s there; when he stops, it disappears. It’s gone. For something to be real, rooted, fixed in a person’s heart, it depends on daas. Daas is the intellectual faculty through which a person connects the matter to himself: this concerns me. If he doesn’t just think about something, but thinks about what it means to him, contemplates it deeply, and connects himself to it, then even after he stops thinking about it, it will stay with him. Somehow the feeling will remain with him in the background all the time. So there, in chapter 3, the Alter Rebbe says that daas is the “key that encompasses the six,” the key to the six emotional attributes. True, it is chochmah and binah, contemplation, that give rise to the emotions. But for them to become fixed in the heart, you need daas. That’s what he’s saying here. How does a beinoni, how do we, control the heart? By contemplating the greatness of the blessed Ein Sof in the mind, so that understanding gives rise to a spirit. What kind of spirit? A spirit of daas. Once we contemplate G-dliness, the greatness of Hashem, so that it becomes fixed in our hearts, a person goes through the whole day with a certain fear of Heaven. He feels that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is here, everywhere. Ordinarily, when a person walks down the street, when a person goes about his day, why would he feel that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with him?

15:50 Speaker 5 So that’s why there’s that part the rabbi says before davening, the sicha that—chassidim say it throughout davening.

15:57 Speaker 1 That’s the whole point: to fix in one’s feelings the sense that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present. Someone is watching me; I’m not alone in the world. How does a person come to feel that way all the time, to go around this world feeling that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present, when he can’t see Him, smell Him, hear Him—nothing? How does he reach such a feeling? By contemplating with deep daas. The feeling simply becomes fixed in his heart. And that is the great principle for beinonim. Contemplate the greatness of the Ein Sof until you have daas of G-dliness, until you are connected to G-dliness. What does it mean to be connected to G-dliness? That you feel it. Daas is feeling connected to G-dliness. “And fear of Hashem in his mind.” We’ve seen several places where the Alter Rebbe associates fear of Hashem with the mind and dread of Hashem with the heart. Do you remember that wording? We got caught up on it a few times, right? Because we said that fear is more connected with the mind, something like that. A person understands that something bad is going to happen, so he has fear in his mind. Dread is when he sees the thing, the danger, right before his eyes, and then his heart starts pounding. Right? So he says that a person must contemplate until he has fear of Hashem in his mind. Why doesn’t he say until he has dread of Hashem in his heart? He doesn’t write that. To turn away from evil and do good, you don’t need dread in your heart. You don’t need it.

17:28 Speaker 6 You’re not supposed to be afraid

17:30 Speaker 1 To be afraid of Hashem.

17:31 Speaker 6 Yes, of course, that’s what I meant.

17:33 Speaker 1 Of course, the perfection of serving Hashem is when a person truly feels awe and dread in his heart. The Alter Rebbe tells us: To be a beinoni, to turn away from evil and do good, what is required of you? What is required is a love of Hashem sufficient to keep you, because of that love and that fear, from committing transgressions. That’s all. You aren’t required to have dread in your heart. Contemplate until you become connected and feel fear of Hashem all the time. That’s all. And this is possible for everyone. It’s possible for us. That is what’s required. It’s a great principle: daas and fear of Hashem in his mind will be enough for him to turn away from evil, whether prohibited by Torah law or rabbinic law—even a minor rabbinic prohibition, G-d forbid. He won’t commit transgressions, because he is connected to G-dliness and feels that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present. And the same contemplation that produces a spirit of daas and fear of Hashem in his mind does not only lead him to turn away from evil; it also brings love of Hashem into his heart. Where in his heart? In the right chamber. Remember? We discussed in chapter 9, when we spoke about the beinoni, about a beinoni approaching the level of a tzaddik, that when a person contemplates so deeply that his heart awakens, it flows from the right chamber of the heart and takes control of the left side too. But it is enough for it to awaken in the right chamber of his heart. He’ll have love of Hashem in the right chamber of his heart, and he’ll want to do mitzvos. True, his heart is still drawn to desires as well. But the very fact that he has fear of Hashem in his mind and love in the right chamber of his heart—even though it doesn’t spill over, and he hasn’t changed the yetzer hara, the animal soul—is enough for him not to commit transgressions and to fulfill all the mitzvos. Nothing more is needed. And this is within everyone’s power. It’s a great principle. What sort of love is in the right chamber of his heart? “With yearning and desire to cleave to Him.” Yearning. There are several expressions. One word

19:51 Speaker 1 Let’s say. “Cheshek,” in Lashon Hakodesh—at least in Chassidus—is the name for the love that comes from the yechidah of the soul, from the essence of the soul. That’s something that generally doesn’t reveal itself. The essence of our soul wants G-dliness very much; it longs for G-dliness. We don’t feel it. It’s something very inward, very deep. “Chafetz” means I already take pleasure in it; it’s what I desire. “Ratzon” means I want something, but I want it for a reason, not because I truly desire it. These are three levels. In other words, cheshek, chafetz, and ratzon are three levels. A person may want something. Why does he want it? Because he understands that he should. He doesn’t truly desire it. Then there’s a person who wants something—why? Because he just wants it. That’s already called chafetz. It’s the inner dimension of ratzon, and cheshek is even more inward. In other words, this contemplation by the beinoni—when a person contemplates the greatness of Hashem—is enough to awaken in our hearts cheshek and chafetz, so that we truly want to fulfill mitzvos. We’ll want it with an inner desire, so that our pleasure and our joy will be in fulfilling mitzvos. Why fulfill mitzvos? To cleave to Him by fulfilling the mitzvos of the Torah and the Rabbis, and through Torah study, which is equal to them all. That’s the first principle. So the first principle runs from the beginning of chapter 16 up to here. After learning who the beinoni is, what is the great principle in serving Hashem for beinonim? To contemplate the greatness of Hashem until he has love and awe. What kind of love and awe are we talking about? Not someone with a love, I don’t know, blazing in his heart, but a love in his mind and in the right chamber of his heart. That’s enough. “Furthermore, one must know a great principle.” In other words, we have another principle here, right? A second principle, and about this second principle he says, “Furthermore.” When you say “furthermore,” it means more—

22:07 Speaker 1 It means the second principle is more important than the first. What is this “furthermore”? What principle could be more important than contemplating the greatness of Hashem? “One must know.” You need to know it. This is a principle you simply need to know. There isn’t some particular avodah to do here. It’s something you need to know and internalize. “One must know a great principle in the avodah of beinonim: Even if his intellect and the power of his understanding cannot give birth to love of Hashem openly in his heart.” What were we talking about before? He contemplates the greatness of Hashem until love of Hashem is born in his heart. True, not a love that spills over into the left side, but love is awakened in his heart. He feels love of Hashem. That was the idea, right? Now a person comes to the Alter Rebbe and says, “Listen, I contemplate. I made an effort, I worked hard, I really tried. Love of Hashem wasn’t awakened in me. It didn’t happen. I tried.” This isn’t someone lazy. We’re talking about someone who really learns Chassidus, thinks about these things—and doesn’t just think about them but contemplates them, at the appropriate time, during Shacharis, at an opportune time. He contemplates, and he isn’t contemplating just so that he’ll feel love. He contemplates the greatness of Hashem. And when he does—if he contemplates the greatness of Hashem at the right time, from his intellectual mind to his heart—love should have been awakened. It wasn’t. The Alter Rebbe says, “Don’t worry. Even if it wasn’t awakened, if you can testify that you tried, that you made an effort, then even if love wasn’t awakened in your heart, your avodah is still complete.” It’s not just half an avodah. It isn’t, as they say to children, a consolation prize: “You didn’t succeed? All right, at least you tried.” That’s not what he’s saying. You didn’t succeed, and still, your avodah is as pleasing before Hashem as that of someone who did succeed. No less.

24:33 Speaker 7 Yes.

24:34 Speaker 1 Hmm?

24:35 Speaker 7 That’s the story from yesterday, where he got a certificate for his effort.

24:39 Speaker 1 Right, and from here until the end of the chapter, the Alter Rebbe explains why. After all, he didn’t succeed in awakening love of Hashem. Why is his avodah complete? That will explain what the Alter Rebbe said, and also how this is “furthermore.” “One must know a great principle.” Why “furthermore”? Because most people in our generations—and apparently already in the Alter Rebbe’s generation, when there were tzaddikim, and even ordinary people were tzaddikim compared to us—even then, for a person to actually feel love of Hashem, to truly love Hakadosh Boruch Hu, even just in the right chamber of his heart, was apparently quite rare. So the Alter Rebbe says: Don’t think that if you don’t succeed, something is lacking in your avodah. Your avodah is whole, complete. Why? That needs an explanation. That’s what chapter 16 is for. Let’s look inside.

25:41 Speaker 7 All of that was—

25:43 Speaker 1 What?

25:45 Speaker 7 [unclear]

25:49 Speaker 1 “Furthermore, one must know a great principle in the avodah of beinonim: Even if his intellect and the power of his understanding cannot give birth to love of Hashem openly in his heart, so that his heart burns like flames of fire with a yearning, desire, and longing felt in the heart to cleave to Him”—and he can’t manage it. What does he have? “Only the love hidden in his mind and the concealed depths of his heart.” What does “love hidden in his mind and the concealed depths of his heart” mean?

26:17 Speaker 7 An inner love that isn’t voluntary.

26:22 Speaker 1 Where is love found?

26:26 Speaker 7 In the heart.

26:26 Speaker 1 In the heart. Can you love with your mind?

26:29 Speaker 7 No.

26:30 Speaker 1 Love with your mind?

26:31 Speaker 7 In thought.

26:32 Speaker 1 What does that mean? That isn’t love. He understands that he should love. He decides that he should... What does that have to do with love? What does “love hidden in his mind” mean? First of all, the Alter Rebbe says it here—we’ll read the words inside in a moment. He immediately says “that is,” explaining himself. But there’s another place, another maamar of the Alter Rebbe, where he explains the idea, and there he says, “As it says in Tanya.” So from there—

27:02 Speaker 7 How did you get to that maamar? I mean, how—how did you come across it?

27:10 Speaker 1 To—

27:10 Speaker 7 No, how did you suddenly know about that maamar on hidden love? I mean, what pointed you to it? How does it come up in a maamar?

27:17 Speaker 1 Chassidus Mevueres brings it. You listen to the Yalkut classes. He simply gives the idea without saying that it’s—

27:25 Speaker 7 No, I’m asking because here we have “hidden love,” but he didn’t get to that maamar, and then suddenly, there it is.

27:31 Speaker 1 Right. And in fact, almost everyone I know doesn’t really understand those words. Who goes and opens the Alter Rebbe’s short maamarim? It’s a series like that. A book like that.

27:44 Speaker 7 Who studies that particular maamar?

27:47 Speaker 1 Also, even when people do study the books of the Alter Rebbe’s maamarim, what do they study? They go in the order of the weekly parsha. For someone to open the book of the Alter Rebbe’s short maamarim, which is just a collection of various topics that aren’t tied to... and learn from there—most people generally don’t get to it. But there are people who learn and do get there.

28:12 Speaker 7 Beautiful.

28:12 Speaker 1 And there are people like that in our generation, boruch Hashem.

28:15 Speaker 7 It’s a segulah.

28:16 Speaker 1 In our generation, it’s no longer so—Personally, I know, I think, more than five people today whose names nobody knows, and their names are impressive. Nobody... There are simply WhatsApp groups for in-depth Torah study. You see people who are thoroughly immersed in Chassidus. You see that they simply know it—they know it. They just learn. They sit and learn and learn and learn, and they simply know, know, know what’s written and where everything is written. There are more than one or two. Today there are, boruch Hashem. The books are printed today, and there are people like that. I could name a few. In any case, there the Alter Rebbe explains it like this: What is love that burns in the heart? He gives the example of a hungry person—hungry, meaning truly hungry, someone who hasn’t eaten for a while, right? He hasn’t eaten for many hours, or a day or two. He’s hungry, really hungry. It takes hold of him. He can’t think about anything else. It burns within him all the time. He looks for something to eat. His stomach hurts, his head hurts; his whole body cries out that it wants to eat. Right? Now imagine that kind of love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. A person’s entire body burns and aches; he wants to cleave to Hashem. That’s what love with yearning and longing, a soul that yearns and an inner desire means. “His heart burns with love like flames of fire”—his whole being is on fire. He can’t help it. He searches for it. It takes hold of his entire being, and his whole reality is focused only on how to draw closer to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That’s called burning love. Well, how many of us can reach that? It’s wonderful, but how many of us can reach it? That’s the great principle, the first great principle: to contemplate until there is burning love in his heart. Well. What is—

30:31 Speaker 1 Someone like that, whose love is hidden in his mind and the recesses of his heart? There the Alter Rebbe gives an example of a person who goes to work. He’s lazy—the Alter Rebbe writes in the maamar that he’s a lazy person, lazy. He doesn’t like working or exerting himself, but he understands that if he doesn’t go to work, he won’t have a livelihood. Not like today, with banks and... assistance and all that, I don’t know. He understands that he has to work. Right.

30:57 Speaker 7 He has to work.

30:58 Speaker 1 You understand that he has to. So he goes to work. While he’s working, can you say he’s all fired up and doing the work enthusiastically? Well, he understands that he has to, and he does it because... yes. There’s a person like that. Why does he want to do it? Not because he feels like doing it. He does it because he understands he has no choice.

31:28 Speaker 7 He has to.

31:29 Speaker 1 For example, an example people always give: someone who has to pay a fine. We’re not talking about a fine he thinks is unjustified. Someone pays a fine because it is justified. He knows he’s at fault. He knows he has to pay the fine. So how does he pay it? He has no choice, so he pays. Right? He pays because he understands that he has to, but does his heart want to pay? His heart doesn’t want to. With someone who does something he doesn’t want to do, the mind hasn’t reached the heart at all. On the level of the mind, his mind compels him to act. The heart doesn’t come into it. But a person who goes to work because he understands that he needs money—that’s somewhere in between. On the one hand, there’s already some agreement on the part of the heart, some degree of desire. It isn’t a burning desire, but there is some agreement. The heart feels that yes, it’s right; this is what he should do. So the Alter Rebbe calls this a love hidden in the recesses of his mind and heart. In other words, in his mind there’s already an understanding and a decision that he has to do it. But it doesn’t stay only in the mind; it also descends into the recesses of his heart. Within the heart itself, though, it remains concealed. It isn’t an openly felt love. It’s a quiet, calm, hidden kind of love. All right? That’s what “a love hidden in his mind and the recesses of his heart” means. He contemplated the greatness of Hashem. He understood that he wants this, and he goes to daven and fulfills the mitzvos. He really does want it. He understands that it’s necessary. He does it because it’s good. He doesn’t have a burning love, but he isn’t doing it just because he has to. There are people like that too. There’s no

33:33 Speaker 1 shortage of them. Do you know people like that? Why does he keep mitzvos? He was born into a Chareidi home, and what can he do? His parents say he has to, and that’s what everyone does. His heart is somewhere else entirely. There are people like that. But here we’re talking about someone who contemplates. We may not have a love of Hashem that we actually feel, but we do understand and we do want it. That’s called—

34:01 Speaker 8 There was that Litvish woman, Chava, who came a week and a half ago. No, it was on Shabbos. Yes. She was saying that they kept Torah and mitzvos, but it was somehow separate from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Where she was, they weren’t allowed to ask questions. Then she suddenly came to Chabad, and suddenly you’re allowed to ask questions. It was suddenly a different approach to Chassidus.

34:25 Speaker 1 That’s exactly it. For them, observing mitzvos comes from... In a person like that, observing mitzvos comes only from the mind. The heart isn’t involved at all.

34:35 Speaker 8 Yes, like a robot.

34:37 Speaker 1 But when a person contemplates the greatness of Hashem, then at the very least—even if it doesn’t kindle an actual love in him—it does bring the heart to some degree of agreement, so that he truly wants it. That’s already the heart; that’s already a feeling. The heart no longer resists it. Contemplation can accomplish that in anyone. So the first great principle—well, “not every mind can bear this”—doesn’t apply to everyone. But the second point does apply, to every one of us. That’s why the Alter Rebbe says, “Moreover, one must know a great principle.” Even if you contemplated and didn’t manage to awaken a love you can feel in your heart, you do have an inner desire. You truly want to keep mitzvos. Keeping mitzvos matters to you. It isn’t just because you’re forced to. You should know that your avodah is complete; you’re lacking nothing. You’re no less than someone who does feel love. Why no less? So far he’s only explained what it is. He hasn’t explained why it’s no less. Now he tells us what it is—in the Alter Rebbe’s words, after all my long explanation and chatter: What does “hidden in his mind and the recesses of his heart” mean? “That is, the heart understands, through the spirit of wisdom and understanding in his mind, the greatness of the blessed Ein Sof.” There’s a connection between the mind and the heart; the heart already agrees. “For everything before Him is truly considered as nothing, and therefore it is fitting that the soul of every living being should yearn for Him”—he contemplated until he understood that it truly is fitting for the soul of every living being to cleave to Him—“to cleave to Him and be absorbed in His light.” Wait, wait, wait. There’s an important note here. Don’t turn the page yet. I’ll tell you why. Why is it that some people contemplate and an actual love of

36:37 Speaker 1 Hashem awakens in them, while for others it doesn’t? For most of us it doesn’t. Why are there such differences? That’s the question, isn’t it? He answers that question in the note. Look at the small print: “The reason for this”—why, despite contemplating, love doesn’t awaken in him—“is that his intellectual faculties and his nefesh, ruach, and neshamah are in a state of gestation and concealment within his understanding, rather than birth and revelation, as is known to those familiar with the mystical wisdom.” We learned in chapter 2, when we talked about the soul, that every soul comprises nefesh, ruach, and neshamah, and that some souls have a higher source while others have a lower source. Remember we talked about that? Yes. Where does the soul come from? There’s a person whose soul has its source in the middos, in the sefiros above. If his soul comes from the sefiros, from the middos, then he can awaken middos. But if his soul is on the level of gestation, where the middos are still in a state of gestation in the sefiros above, then down here too they’ll remain in that state. He doesn’t have them revealed. His middos aren’t revealed. It depends on the source of his soul. So—

37:58 Speaker 9 Love does awaken in him, but not always at a level that affects him afterward.

38:01 Speaker 1 What?

38:02 Speaker 9 There are different levels of love, including whether it affects him after davening or doesn’t affect him after davening, right? The ultimate goal of the love is for it to keep him from committing transgressions.

38:14 Speaker 1 Right.

38:16 Speaker 9 So the different levels of love also include a love that affects him after davening, or a love that—

38:25 Speaker 1 Both kinds of love. Both kinds—the one where love awakens and the one where it doesn’t—leave an inner impression on a person. We’ve said several times that the great innovation of the Alter Rebbe, the innovation of Tanya, is written on Tanya’s title page: “For the matter is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart.” To explain thoroughly how it is very near. Look, when we speak of serving Hashem “in your heart,” that means the avodah is that I love Hashem in my heart. How is that near? We need to understand and clarify thoroughly how it is very near. How is loving Hashem within my reach? The Alter Rebbe didn’t come in Tanya just to explain how a person can reach a state where he won’t commit transgressions. That isn’t the point. How can I reach a state where I love Hashem? That’s the point.

39:26 Speaker 9 Is faith in Hashem enough?

39:29 Speaker 1 No, definitely not.

39:33 Speaker 9 So it’s both faith and actions.

39:34 Speaker 1 Faith is definitely not enough. I always tell this story: I had an aunt, may her memory be a blessing, Aunt Ora. She worked at Yedioth Ahronoth; she had a regular column in Tel Aviv.

39:47 Speaker 9 Did you know her? Oh, no.

39:50 Speaker 1 She used to write regularly in Yedioth Ahronoth, columns that weren’t exactly in the spirit of Judaism. And from time to time she would send letters to the Lubavitcher Rebbe asking for a brachah.

40:06 Speaker 9 Really? That’s what she did?

40:08 Speaker 1 Yes.

40:08 Speaker 9 Really?

40:09 Speaker 1 Yes, more than once. And she would receive an answer; the Rebbe would answer her. This is what the Gemara calls, “A thief at the mouth of a tunnel calls upon the Merciful One.” A thief about to steal enters a dangerous place and prays to Hakadosh Boruch Hu to help him. That’s what the Gemara says. Either way, how does it make sense? If you believe, why are you stealing? And if you don’t believe, why are you praying? What’s going on here? Faith is something that does not penetrate a person’s inner faculties. It doesn’t penetrate the mind or the emotions. It doesn’t affect behavior. A person can believe in Hakadosh Boruch Hu with tremendous fervor and not keep the mitzvos. The two aren’t connected. Faith is an encompassing force. It doesn’t—it doesn’t affect the person. And that is precisely what Tanya comes to explain: how can a person awaken genuine love for Hashem in his heart? It says not only that it really is close, not only close—it is very close. It is very close for everyone. How? How can I love Hakadosh Boruch Hu in my heart? So after explaining what a beinoni is, the Alter Rebbe says: Yes, yes, simply contemplate Hashem’s greatness at the appropriate time, and love for Hashem will awaken within you. That’s the answer to the question on the title page of Tanya. Ah, but love for Hashem didn’t awaken within me. Then you should know that even if all you awaken is a love of that sort—an agreement, a general desire to serve Hashem—that is already enough. Why is it enough? Because you can’t do more. And why can’t you do more? Because—because that is the root of your soul. All right, that was up to...

41:49 Speaker 9 You won’t finish.

41:50 Speaker 1 What?

41:51 Speaker 9 No, no, you won’t get through this whole chapter.

41:55 Speaker 1 All right, then. Do you want to go a little further or not? What would you like?

41:57 Speaker 9 Until—until some point where...

42:00 Speaker 1 Tell me, until what time? Huh?

42:04 Speaker 9 I want to go until the hour is up.

42:08 Speaker 1 Well, we learned something important.

42:10 Speaker 9 Right.