Likkutei Amarim Chapter 17 · 5785

00:03 Speaker 1 Okay, we’re going to learn chapter 17. As you can see right at the beginning, chapter 17 is a summary of the point of everything we’ve learned in Tanya from the beginning until now. It opens with it straightaway. Chapter 17: “And with this we can understand what is written: ‘For the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.’” Where is that written? It’s written in a verse, but it’s also written in Tanya, on the title page. On the title page, the Alter Rebbe says that the whole book is founded on explaining the verse “For the matter is very close to you ... to do it.” Now he says that after we’ve learned sixteen chapters, we can understand the verse. What was the question there? Why would you need sixteen chapters to understand one verse?

01:05 Speaker 2 How is it close to us?

01:06 Speaker 1 Yes. What’s the question? Why does it need such a long explanation? When we were there at the beginning, we saw that this verse has two interpretations. According to one interpretation, “in your mouth and in your heart, to do it” refers to thought, speech, and action. “In your heart” refers to thought, and “in your mouth” and “to do it” refer to speech and action. So according to that interpretation, what is very close to every person? It’s very close to everyone to fulfill the mitzvos in practice, through action. If that were the problem—fulfilling all the mitzvos—you really wouldn’t need so many chapters for that. If a person wants to fulfill the mitzvos, just do them. Why do you need so much explanation? The point is that there’s a deeper, inner interpretation, and that’s what needed explaining. According to the deeper interpretation, “in your heart” doesn’t refer to thought, but to the heart itself, to heartfelt emotion: it’s very close to every person to fulfill the Torah and mitzvos with the heart, with feelings of love and fear. And about that, the Alter Rebbe asks: How can the Torah say that it’s very close to everyone to awaken love and fear in their heart? A person can control their actions. If they want to do something, they do it; if they don’t want to, they don’t. If they want to speak, they speak; if they don’t, they don’t. If they don’t want to think about something, they start thinking about something else. A person can control their actions, but they can’t control their heart. If they love, they love. If they don’t love, they

02:57 Speaker 1 don’t love. What can you do? According to this interpretation, how can the Torah say that it’s very close to everyone to fulfill the Torah with love? That needs explaining. I understand how it’s very close to fulfill the mitzvos in practice. But how can you fulfill them with love—“in your heart”? That’s the question. That’s the main question. And for this, the Alter Rebbe explained sixteen chapters. That was the explanation. What did he explain? The explanation concluded in the previous chapter: there are many levels of love. A burning love, a love like flames of fire, a love that a person actually feels—that really isn’t close to everyone. That really—

03:50 Speaker 2 That’s amazing.

03:55 Speaker 1 Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe, through Whose word all things came into being.

03:59 Speaker 2 Blessed are You, Hashem. How are you?

04:04 Speaker 3 Boruch Hashem.

04:07 Speaker 1 Maybe we’ll start from the other direction. Maybe we’ll start from the other direction. What did the Alter Rebbe say in the previous chapter, the last chapter after all the preparation? What did he discuss there? That it’s very easy for every person to awaken a love he called “a love hidden in the recesses of the heart.” What is a love hidden in the recesses of the heart? He explained this at length over several chapters. What is it? It’s not that the person actually feels love. He doesn’t feel drawn to Hashem; he isn’t burning with love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. No, that’s not it. What is it, then? He understands. He has thought about and contemplated the greatness of Hashem. He understands that it’s right for a Jew to observe mitzvos. It doesn’t fit so easily into his life; it isn’t so convenient for him.

05:03 Speaker 2 It’s—

05:03 Speaker 1 Hm? No, it isn’t for lack of any other choice. Having no choice is like paying a fine: “I have to do it.” No. His heart agrees. He wants to, but not with great enthusiasm or vitality. He understands that this is what he should do. He understands something more, too: he understands that he should love Hashem, and in practice he doesn’t, but he wants to love Hashem. That’s called a love hidden in the recesses of the heart. The main part of this love is in the mind, in his understanding. He understands and reaches a conclusion, and his heart agrees with it. So there is some feeling of love here, of agreement, of wanting—but it isn’t a burning emotion, an emotion he actually feels. That is what the Alter Rebbe called a love hidden in the recesses of the heart. The Alter Rebbe says that once we understand that there is such a thing—a love that isn’t full-fledged love, but a love that leads to fulfilling the mitzvos—we can understand the verse. “With this.” What does “with this” mean? With what we’ve explained: a person can awaken love in their heart. They may not be able to awaken a true, burning love, but they can awaken a love hidden in the recesses of the heart. That is very close and easy for every person, and this love leads them to fulfill the mitzvos. Everyone can do that. “And with this we can understand what is written: ‘For the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.’” At first glance, “in your heart” goes against our experience. A person doesn’t feel that truly loving Hashem is close to them; it goes against their experience. The Alter Rebbe adds in parentheses: “And the Torah is eternal.” In other words, someone could come along and say that Moshe Rabbeinu said this to his generation, not to ours. No—the Torah is eternal. If it’s written in the Torah, it applies to us too. It is not very close to transform one’s heart from the desires of this world to truly loving Hashem. He says that someone might not only have said—

07:05 Speaker 1 Someone could have said, “All right, it feels very hard to me, but if the Torah says it’s close, then it’s close.” Right? The Alter Rebbe says no. The Torah, too, says it isn’t so close. Where does the Torah say that? In the Gemara. The Gemara says explicitly: “Is fear a small thing?” The Gemara itself says that fear is difficult. So how can the Torah say elsewhere that it’s very close? It isn’t just my feeling; the Torah says it’s difficult. And he says: All the more so love. Why all the more so? Why is it harder to awaken love than fear?

07:52 Speaker 2 Technically.

07:53 Speaker 1 Technically it’s harder, true, but why?

07:55 Speaker 2 Emotionally, but it’s easier.

07:57 Speaker 1 Hm?

07:58 Speaker 2 But it’s easier. Maybe I understand it differently. No, let’s ask Uri in a moment. No? We’ll ask Uri in a moment.

08:11 Speaker 1 It’s true that fear begins more in the mind. It also reaches the heart as fear. But again, it’s much easier for a person to be afraid than to love. When something frightening is there, the person doesn’t have to do anything; they’re immediately afraid. Love is a process. It takes time. Why? For a very simple reason: when a person is afraid, the fear is caused by something outside them. It isn’t coming from them. They’re afraid of that person or that thing. When a person loves, they themselves have to love. Put more simply, when I want to love someone, or need to, or actually do love them, something in me has changed. Before, I didn’t love them; now I do. Something changed in me. When I’m afraid, nothing in me has changed. There’s something outside me that frightens me. Changing myself is much harder than responding to something outside me. Yes. Is the difference clear? So the Alter Rebbe says: It’s not just that loving Hashem doesn’t seem close to me. The Gemara says that even fear is difficult. If the Gemara says even fear is difficult, then love is certainly difficult.

09:31 Speaker 2 Fear is difficult in general.

09:33 Speaker 1 Hm?

09:33 Speaker 2 Fear is difficult? It isn’t difficult. I mean, I’m afraid of something dangerous. In any case, here it’s fear.

09:40 Speaker 1 He’s talking about fear of Hashem.

09:42 Speaker 2 Fear of Hashem. Respect. Hashem. But what’s difficult about that? No.

09:46 Speaker 1 No, that’s not what we’re talking about; that’s clear. We’re talking about “the matter is close to you”—observing the mitzvos out of love and fear. That’s something a person can see with their own eyes, or at least understand.

09:58 Speaker 2 Fear of punishment. Meaning, if you think about each thing, about what punishment you would receive for it when you’re held accountable.

10:03 Speaker 1 Then that isn’t fear of Hashem; it’s fear of punishment. And in Chassidus, that isn’t considered fear at all. It isn’t a level of fear. The person isn’t afraid of Hakadosh Boruch Hu at all; they’re afraid for themselves.

10:18 Speaker 2 I don’t think so.

10:27 Speaker 1 Yes. When we get, with Hashem’s help, to chapters 41 and 42 of Tanya, there are two chapters there about “the beginning of divine service, its essence and its root.” You all know that quotation. Over the course of those two long chapters, the Alter Rebbe presents five levels, or five aspects, of fear of Hashem—and he is not talking about fear of punishment. So if it isn’t just difficult for us, but even the Gemara says it’s difficult, and if fear is difficult, then love is certainly difficult. The Alter Rebbe says even more than that, citing what our Sages said beyond what the Gemara says: “The righteous have their hearts in their control.” That’s from the Midrash. If the righteous have their hearts in their control, then someone who isn’t righteous doesn’t. The Gemara also says that, earlier on—that’s where it starts: “The wicked are in the control of their hearts, and the righteous have their hearts in their control.” So what does it mean for a tzaddik to have his heart in his control? When he wants to love Hashem, he loves Him; when he doesn’t want to, it’s up to him. Who can do that? Who has his heart in his control? A tzaddik. Someone who isn’t a tzaddik does not have his heart in his control. If his heart isn’t in his control, it’s not just difficult—he can’t do it. It’s not in his control. So the Alter Rebbe brings three stages here. First, it seems difficult to me. Not only does it seem difficult to me; the Gemara says it’s difficult even with regard to fear, and all the more so with regard to love. And the Midrash says it’s simply impossible. Yet after all that, the Torah says, “The matter is very close to you.” How does that work? How do those things fit together? “To do it.” That is to say, the love leads only to the performance of the mitzvos. Usually, when we say thought, speech and action, what order do we put them in? First thought, then speech, then action. Right? In that order, or the reverse: action, speech and thought. Why does the verse say... We’ve never asked that question

12:44 Speaker 1 before, but now is the time to ask it. Why does the verse say, “In your mouth and in your heart, to do it”? What sort of order is that? First speech, then thought, then action. What’s the order here?

12:58 Speaker 4 Tair.

12:59 Speaker 1 Hmm? Have you ever thought about that question? Has it ever occurred to you? What a strange order! “In your mouth and in your heart”—what? It doesn’t go from top to bottom, or from...

13:18 Speaker 4 In your mouth, and actions, and speech.

13:18 Speaker 1 The Alter Rebbe says that “to do it” isn’t another thing a person has to do at all. “To do it” describes “in your heart.” What kind of “in your heart”? The kind that is very close to you and leads to the performance of mitzvos. He isn’t talking here about thought, speech and action. It is very close to every person to keep the mitzvos with his mouth and heart. What kind of heart are we talking about? A heart that brings him to the observance of mitzvos. Not a heart on fire, not a heart pounding, not a heart overflowing with love of Hashem. What does it mean to have a heart that, on the one hand, really is a heart—there really is feeling, love and fear—but on the other hand isn’t on fire and only leads to, ah, the observance of mitzvos? It’s the hidden love we’re talking about, which we discussed in the previous chapter. “The love leads only to the performance of the mitzvos, for it is a desire of the heart concealed in its depths.” That’s what we discussed... “Although this love is not openly revealed in his heart like flames of fire”—no, his heart isn’t burning. But it’s enough to bring a person to observe the mitzvos. That is very close to everyone. “And this matter is very close”—and not only very close, but easy too. Something can be very close and still be difficult. The Alter Rebbe says it’s not only close; it’s also easy. For whom? “For every person who has a brain in his head.” We’ll see that the Alter Rebbe doesn’t stress this, but he hints that there is someone who doesn’t have a brain in his head. That’s a serious problem.

15:18 Speaker 4 A serious problem.

15:19 Speaker 1 It’s a serious problem. And that person who doesn’t have a brain in his head—we’ll begin dealing with him in chapter 18. For now, though, we’re talking about someone who does have a brain in his head. About ordinary, normal beinonim—intermediate Jews. For now, let’s go on pretending that we have brains in our heads.

15:41 Speaker 4 You’re twins.

15:49 Speaker 1 In any case, what does it mean for such a person to have a brain in his head? Simply, it means someone who can think. If he can think, he can contemplate the greatness of Hashem. Study, understand these ideas, focus your mind, think about them. Love will awaken in you. True, not that kind of love, but in your heart you’ll want to. What is love concealed in the depths of the heart? What does it mean that the heart agrees? Every one of us, quite simply—everyone sitting here at the table, and also those sitting... I once heard Rabbi Yoel Kahn ask: What is a beinoni? A beinoni is a religious Jew. Every religious person is a beinoni. That’s what I heard. Perhaps it was for the purposes of this [unclear]; he explains it at great length. He says: What is a religious person? A religious person is someone who wants to keep mitzvos.

16:37 Speaker 5 In his heart.

16:38 Speaker 1 No.

16:39 Speaker 5 I’m religious in my heart.

16:40 Speaker 1 No, no. I’m talking about someone who actually keeps mitzvos. Why is he there? Is someone forcing him? He understands that it’s important, that it’s what matters most. Look, he has kabbolas ol, so he doesn’t do everything with some tremendous, wonderful enthusiasm. He doesn’t run out to do mivtzoim in the street, but he does have a feeling: he wants to keep mitzvos. He comes to shul for a minyan even though it’s hard for him and puts him under pressure. He has to sleep a little less, and it interferes with his work, but he does it. He doesn’t do it because someone forces him; he does it because he wants to. That is called love concealed in the depths of the heart. Every person can awaken that kind of love in himself if he has a brain in his head. He contemplates how important it is to keep mitzvos, and contemplates the greatness of Hashem. He’ll want to keep mitzvos. It won’t be some extraordinary love. It’s called a love that the heart agrees to. It’s in the heart; it’s a feeling. He wants to—he genuinely wants to. Yes. It’s easy, easy, very close; it’s easy for anyone with a brain in his head. Why? Because his mind is in his control. A person’s heart, as we said before, is not in his control, but he can think about whatever he wants. Think about what you need to think about, and you’ll consequently have love of Hashem. Not a burning love, no, but love concealed in the depths of the heart, yes. “And he can contemplate it as much as he wishes. When he contemplates the greatness of the blessed Ein Sof, he will at least give rise in his mind to a love for Hashem, to cleave to Him through His mitzvos and His Torah.” Someone might come along and say: Fine, so this is called serving Hashem? Is this why we studied so much, such difficult, profound things—to reach the conclusion that if I

18:37 Speaker 1 contemplate the greatness of Hashem, I’ll be able to be religious? Is that the pinnacle? Is that what you were working toward? What is this? Yes, this is no small thing. This is a person’s entire purpose. This is why the world was created. The world wasn’t created so that—the purpose of a person isn’t to reach the point of, as chassidim put it, “grabbing angels by the tail.” A person wasn’t created with the task of attaining love of Hashem. Hakadosh Boruch Hu didn’t put us here for that. Hakadosh Boruch Hu put us here in the world of action so that we would act. He gave us the Torah, practical mitzvos in a practical world, because that is what He wants us to do. That is the purpose of creation. “Today, to do them,” it is written. “Today” is specifically the world of action; “tomorrow,” and so on—tomorrow, to receive their reward. Love and fear—love and fear are already a matter of receiving reward.

19:40 Speaker 5 So that’s fine. There’s an easy kind of love and fear; they have a purpose. The point isn’t to have a great deal of them.

19:48 Speaker 1 Yes, but in terms of the purpose for which a person was created, love and fear are a means of reaching that purpose. So if you can reach the purpose, the goal, with love and fear that aren’t so great, that shouldn’t bother you.

20:11 Speaker 5 I don’t understand.

20:11 Speaker 1 Who?

20:11 Speaker 5 It sounds like something is in the heart.

20:13 Speaker 1 What’s that?

20:14 Speaker 5 It wasn’t about the point; that can’t be. We’re only, uh...

20:19 Speaker 1 Certainly not. From chapter—chapter 35 to the end of Tanya, it’s all about how to awaken feeling. But for that, we first need to understand why feeling needs to be awakened. I’ll explain: love and fear of Hashem also have a purpose in their own right, but that isn’t the main goal. Even where he explains the great value of love and fear, and how without them one “cannot soar aloft,” at length and with many, many details and explanations, they’re still called gadfin—wings. He brings a comparison from the Gemara, from the laws of shechitah. If a bird’s wings have been removed, it’s kosher. If someone finds a chicken whose wings have been torn off, he can still slaughter it, and it will be kosher. Why? Because the wings aren’t the essence of the bird. Nothing has happened to that. If he finds a bird without—I don’t know—without the junction of the tendons, then it’s treif. But without wings... And the mind, by its nature and from birth, rules over the left chamber of the heart. Not just over the heart: the mind also controls what comes out of his mouth—what to say, what to speak about, what not to speak about—and all the limbs, which are the instruments of action. So, since a person has a mind in his head, he can attain the kind of love and fear that will bring him to observe the mitzvos, to actually fulfill them in thought, speech, and action. Unless he is truly a rasha. What does “truly a rasha” mean? There’s someone who is simply a rasha, and someone who is truly a rasha. Who did we say is “like a rasha”? That’s an instruction in Pirkei Avos, and it comes up right away in chapter 1 of Tanya: “Even if the whole world tells you that you are a tzaddik, be in your own eyes like a rasha.” You have to regard yourself as though you were a rasha. What

22:36 Speaker 1 did we explain about that? The Alter Rebbe himself explained what “like a rasha” means: a beinoni. Don’t think you’re a rasha. Think that you’re like a rasha. What is someone who is like a rasha? He isn’t a tzaddik; he has a yetzer hara. He isn’t a rasha; he doesn’t commit aveiros. But he’s like a rasha: he has a yetzer hara. So there’s someone who is only like a rasha—that’s a beinoni. And there’s someone who isn’t merely like a rasha; with his whole heart, he really is a rasha. For someone who is truly a rasha, it’s different. What does “different” mean? There, the mind does not rule over the heart. Everything we said about a person having a mind in his head, and the mind naturally ruling over the heart—who are we talking about? A beinoni. But someone who is truly a rasha can try to exercise control. We’re not even talking about his heart. He can’t control his speech to keep forbidden things from coming out of his mouth. He can’t. When he faces an aveirah, even if he puts up a fight, he won’t succeed; he can’t win. That is what “truly a rasha” means: he has deteriorated, fallen to such a level that not only is his heart beyond his control, but his mind no longer rules over his heart, his mouth, or his other limbs. As our Sages said, the resha’im are under the control of their hearts, and their hearts are not under their control. In any case, this also explains something else, by the way. It says there—we said earlier—that tzaddikim have their hearts under their control and are not under the control of their hearts. And resha’im are under the control of their hearts, and their hearts are not under their control. What about a beinoni? Can a beinoni be a tzaddik? A tzaddik has his heart under his control. He doesn’t—his heart is under his control.

24:54 Speaker 6 Although—

24:55 Speaker 1 A beinoni, then, you could say he’s under the control of his heart. He can control the heart. Where does that fit in here?

25:08 Speaker 6 As long as the mind rules.

25:13 Speaker 1 He’s in the middle. Yes, the mind does rule over the heart, but to what extent? Its control over the heart is only enough to awaken the hidden love, only to awaken love in the depths of his heart. Not to actually transform the heart. But the resha’im are under the control of their hearts. Why? Why did that happen to them? It’s a punishment for the magnitude and severity of their sins. It’s not a natural thing; it’s a spiritual matter. It’s not that because he committed sins, something—I don’t know—changed in his character or psychological makeup. No. In terms of his psychological makeup, even for a rasha, the mind rules over the heart. But Hakadosh Boruch Hu placed some kind of barrier there that the mind cannot cross, as a punishment. And when the Torah says, “The matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it,” the Torah was not speaking of the dead—those who, even in their lifetimes, are called dead. So that verse really isn’t speaking about someone who is truly a rasha. Hmm?

26:24 Speaker 6 Because a rasha—

26:25 Speaker 1 Because a rasha is considered... Yes, a rasha is considered like someone dead, and his heart is not under his control, and his mind does not rule over his heart. So for him, it isn’t close. Because resha’im really cannot begin serving Hashem without first doing teshuvah for the past. That itself is a problem. How can he do teshuvah if his mind doesn’t rule over his heart? Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Yes. If his mind doesn’t rule over his heart, he can’t do teshuvah. If he can’t do teshuvah, he can’t begin serving Hashem. Where does he start?

27:18 Speaker 6 Hashem can help.

27:19 Speaker 1 Hashem will help.

27:23 Speaker 6 Yes, yes.

27:24 Speaker 1 You have to understand, sometimes we get too caught up in the words on the page.

27:31 Speaker 6 In the text.

27:32 Speaker 1 In the text. Yes. In real life, it doesn’t work that way. Even a person who—what is a rasha? A rasha is simply someone who doesn’t keep mitzvos. He isn’t religious, doesn’t keep mitzvos, isn’t a baal—whether because of his upbringing or because he himself left the path, he doesn’t keep mitzvos. Can’t he have an awakening to teshuvah? Can’t he suddenly reflect and think, feel some kind of awakening, and then return in teshuvah? Of course he can.

28:03 Speaker 6 It happens. Exactly, it does happen.

28:06 Speaker 1 Of course it happens. What the Alter Rebbe says—that his mind is not under his control, that their hearts are not under their control, and so on—is speaking about the ordinary course of things. As a temporary occurrence, in a single moment, a person can certainly change at any moment. Ultimately, everyone has free choice, and by nature the mind still rules over the heart. There’s also the idea of pushing one’s way in. Generally, in the ordinary course of things, if he wants to start serving Hashem now—every day, every morning before davening, taking a Chassidus sefer to learn, contemplating for ten minutes, learning and thinking about Chassidus—it won’t work for him. He won’t manage it; it can’t work. But if, as a one-time thing—not as part of an established practice throughout his life—he decides to take in the situation he’s in, wants to do teshuvah, and feels pain over his situation; if he arouses compassion for himself and understands the pit, the mud he’s stuck in, and it hurts him—that pain that awakens in him will break through that kelipah. It will break it, and things will change. Then he’ll be able to begin serving Hashem. Hmm? So what is the order in serving Hashem? First of all, you have to return and do teshuvah. So why did the Alter Rebbe put Igeres Hateshuvah at the end? How does the order in Tanya work? At the beginning there are the ways of serving Hashem. How should one serve Hashem? Then comes, uh, the foundation of serving Hashem, which is faith—Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah. Before that there’s a long introduction, which is the foundation of all service of Hashem. And then at the end, at the very, very end—how do you begin with teshuvah? There has to be some... Hmm? Why is it really that way?

30:04 Speaker 6 So it isn’t in the order of the subjects, as we know. And then...

30:11 Speaker 1 And there are several places where the Rebbe addresses this in different contexts. The Rebbe says that the Alter Rebbe called the first and second parts of Tanya Likkutei Amarim and Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah. He called the third part Igeres Hateshuvah. He should have called it Shaar Hateshuvah, or Derech Hateshuvah. What is an igeres—a letter? Why a letter?

30:40 Speaker 6 At the beginning.

30:42 Speaker 1 Who are you speaking to in a letter? Someone who is here doesn’t need you to send him a letter. You send a letter to someone who... someone who has gone far away. Most people, most Jews you deal with—if someone has already come and is sitting and learning Tanya, you need to speak with him about teshuvah too. So eventually, speak with him about that as well. Most people are ordinary people, beinonim, people who have kabbolas ol, who want to serve Hashem and just want to know how to do it properly. So first explain that. You don’t really need to speak to a Jew about faith either. Every Jew—Jews are believers, the children of believers—has a natural faith, a hidden love. That’s important, it’s a great thing, and it’s hidden; that’s the Baal Shem Tov’s approach. Right, fine, we’ll explain that later too. First we talk about the practical side. Most people just need someone to explain how to... Jews generally have the foundation already. You certainly don’t need to speak to most Jews about teshuvah, or even about the fundamentals of faith. Jews are believers, faithful and devoted. You speak with them about how to serve Hashem. There are other matters; we’ll explain them later. Good. Now, um—ah, in truth, the wicked cannot begin to serve Hashem without first doing teshuvah for the past, to break the kelipos that form a separating screen and an iron partition between them and their Father in Heaven. This is done by breaking the heart and feeling bitterness of soul over one’s sins, as the Zohar says on the verse, “The sacrifices of G-d are a broken spirit; a broken heart,” and so on: through a broken heart, the spirit of impurity of the sitra achra is broken. It’s there in Parshas Pinchas, page 240, and Parshas Vayikra. The Alter Rebbe explains this in Igeres Hateshuvah, chapters 4, 5, and 6—three chapters at great length. The main point the Rebbe explains there is that every Jew has a neshamah, and each person’s neshamah is connected to its root and source. Even while it is inside the body here, it is still connected to its source and root. He goes into this at great length there. And when a Jew commits a sin, he brings his neshamah down into the kelipos. And since his neshamah is connected to Hashem’s Name, to the hei of Hashem’s Name above, in the higher sefiros, all the way to the World of Atzilus, to the Shechinah, when he does—

32:44 Speaker 1 Each one is connected to its root and source. Even while it is here with us, inside the body, it is still connected to its source and root. He goes into this at great length there. And when a Jew commits a sin, he brings his soul down into the kelipos. And since his soul is connected to Hashem’s Name—to the hei of Hashem’s Name—above in the higher sefiros, all the way to the World of Atzilus, to the Shechinah, then when he commits—

33:19 Speaker 7 We could call a ceasefire too. Sushka, it’s drying out from the air conditioner; it’s a shame. Tell me, can I charge the...

33:30 Speaker 1 I’ll start the coffee so it’ll be without sugar.

33:33 Speaker 7 Ah. Why is it a little more behind Guli?

33:42 Speaker 1 So when a person enters the kelipos with his neshamah, his neshamah—and Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the Shechinah—goes there with him. What does the Shechinah do inside the kelipos? It gives them life. All the life that the kelipos, the sitra achra, have in the world comes from the sins we commit. So when a person understands this and feels pain over the fact that his actions cause what is called the exile of the Shechinah, and he breaks his spirit, breaks his heart—what does it mean to break his heart? What is his “heart”? It’s the arrogance within him that brought him there. Right? He breaks that arrogance within himself, he breaks the sitra achra, and then the Shechinah returns to its place, to its place. That kelipah, that arrogance whose existence he himself caused, that kelipah he created—he himself breaks it. That is what teshuvah is about. It’s explained at great length. And after he has done teshuvah and the Shechinah emerges from exile, so that it can shine openly within him, then he can have love and awe if he works on himself. Before that, it’s covered over and he cannot. He continues in the next passage: “And this teshuvah being discussed here, in which a person breaks his heart, is teshuvah tata’ah, lower teshuvah: raising the lower hei, lifting it from its fall into the external forces—which is the meaning of the exile of the Shechinah—as our Sages said: ‘When they were exiled to Edom, the Shechinah went with them.’” When the Jewish people were exiled to Edom, the Shechinah went with them. On the simple level, the Gemara is speaking about the Jewish people being exiled to Edom. But here the Rebbe alludes to the inner meaning of the statement: a person may act like Edom. Acting like Edom means committing sins, and then he brings his neshamah into the exile of Edom. That is, when a person acts like Edom, he brings down and draws there an aspect and spark of G-dliness that gives life to his nefesh, ruach, and neshamah, which are clothed within him, into his animal soul, into the kelipah in his heart, in the left chamber, which rules over him at that moment.

36:02 Speaker 1 It rules over his “small city,” and his nefesh, ruach, and neshamah are held captive in exile by it. A Jew’s life comes from the divine soul. A Jew cannot live from the kelipos. That’s how Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world. Every created being in the world has a source of life, a place from which it receives its life. One receives it from the impure kelipos and from kelipas nogah; one from here, another from there. A Jew receives his life from holiness. He cannot receive it from anywhere else. How can a divine soul give life to a physical body? After all, the physical body receives its life from kelipas nogah, as we learned earlier in chapter 6. How do the two connect? Hakadosh Boruch Hu made a kind of—do you know what a wick is? How do you make a wick? Why is it called a wick? Because you twist it. Right? What does it mean to twist? Like this, right? You take two threads and twist them together. Hakadosh Boruch Hu took a strand of the animal soul and a strand of the divine soul, twisted them together, and put them together into the body. The divine soul gives life to the animal soul, and the animal soul operates the body. When the divine soul wants to perform a mitzvah, the divine soul doesn’t have—for this purpose it’s like what they call a driver in electronics, right? An adapter. For one thing to operate another, you need something in between that is familiar with both. The animal soul—on one hand it is spiritual, so the divine soul can connect with it, but on the other hand it understands the affairs of this world well and can also operate the body. So when the divine soul wants to give tzedakah, it can only do so through the animal soul. It can’t operate the body by itself. On the other hand, the animal soul is—it isn’t just a conduit. It isn’t simply some kind of pipe; it’s a very, um...

38:29 Speaker 1 It has its own personality, its own nature, its own desires, its own inclinations, its own love and awe, and the divine soul has to work, to work through... And sometimes the animal soul prevails, prevails, and then it does what it wants. But when it does what it wants, the divine soul is there inside it too. After all, the animal soul receives its life from the divine soul. The divine soul is in there. So when a person does something wrong, he draws into Edom that spark of G-dliness that gives life to his nefesh, ruach, and neshamah, because they are connected. They are “clothed within him, in the animal soul, in the kelipah in his heart, in the left chamber, which rules over him while he is wicked.” As long as he is wicked—we said in chapter, um, chapter 9, right? Nine. Chapter 11. Chapter 11. Well, what is a wicked person? Someone over whom the animal soul rules. It has defeated the divine soul and rules over his “small city,” while his nefesh, ruach, and neshamah are held captive in exile by it. What does it mean for a person to be in exile? A person in exile isn’t free; he isn’t at home. Someone else makes the rules. And what happens when it is broken? Huh? Is everyone missing it, or just me? Huh? How did I manage to print it like that? I didn’t check what I printed.

40:18 Speaker 8 And what’s this here?

40:21 Speaker 1 I didn’t accidentally print the wrong page. Ah, I know what I did. I cut off the wrong side of the page. Fine, bring that over, answer it. I’ll read the last lines there. “And when his heart is broken within him, the spirit of impurity and the sitra achra are broken, and then all the workers of evil scatter.” Then it—what is “it”? His divine soul—“rises from its fall and also stands firm.” What does it mean that it rises and also stands firm? It rises, rises from its fall. What does “also stands firm” mean?

41:27 Speaker 8 It also makes its presence felt.

41:28 Speaker 1 Huh? It already makes its presence felt. Yes. There in Igeres Hateshuvah, it says—um, the Alter Rebbe writes at length that there are two levels of teshuvah. There is a level called teshuvah tata’ah, and a level called teshuvah ila’ah. It explains there that you cannot reach teshuvah ila’ah without first doing teshuvah tata’ah. What does that mean?

41:50 Speaker 8 In the recent Tanya lessons.

41:51 Speaker 1 What?

41:52 Speaker 8 In Tanya lately, no?

41:54 Speaker 1 I can’t hear.

41:56 Speaker 8 It was in Tanya over the last two weeks.

41:58 Speaker 1 Yes, just last week, or even this week. Yes, in the last few days. Right. So what do these holy terms mean, lower teshuvah and higher teshuvah? There is teshuvah that restores things to the way they were. Before, the flow of G-dly vitality reached the right place, and the G-dly soul was the one in control of the person. Now the Shechinah is in exile, the G-dly soul is in exile under the power of kelipah and the sitra achra, and his heart is not under his control, and so on. So first he has to break the impurity and the sitra achra. Only when he breaks it does the G-dly soul rise from its fall and return to its former state. Once things have returned to their former state—what does that mean? Now his mind rules his heart. Now, when he contemplates Hashem’s greatness, love of Hashem will awaken in him. When that love can awaken in him, the G-dly soul has not only risen; it also stands firm. In other words, love of Hashem can awaken in him. Ah, how does he put it there? “And the spirit shall return to G-d Who gave it”—before He breathed it into the body. That is, one must restore the G-dly soul to the state it was in before he sinned, and one must restore it to a state of attachment to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, as it was before it entered the body.

43:33 Speaker 8 Spirit. There’s a very, very important word there.

43:36 Speaker 1 In other words, how was it attached to Hakadosh Boruch Hu before He breathed it into the body? What did the G-dly soul feel before Hakadosh Boruch Hu placed it in the body? It had love and awe. It felt Hakadosh Boruch Hu.

43:53 Speaker 8 Part of the...

43:55 Speaker 1 And why did it love Him? Because it felt Him. After a person does lower teshuvah and breaks the barrier separating them, he can rise so high that, at least during davening, the G-dly soul will not only rise but stand firm: he will feel a connection to Hashem and have genuine love of Hashem.

44:16 Speaker 8 Yes.

44:17 Speaker 1 So up to this point, it all seems straightforward. If we had studied the Tanya only up to here, if the Tanya ended here, would we be missing anything? We wouldn’t be missing anything, right?

44:34 Speaker 8 We wouldn’t know how to reach love, there’s...

44:38 Speaker 1 If the Alter Rebbe ended here, would we be missing anything? No. Why? Because the Rebbe asked: What does it mean that it is very close to us to serve Hashem with love? He explained that he’s talking about a kind of love that you, too, can awaken. Ah, you’ve reached a state where you can’t awaken love? There’s a reason: you were a rasha. Do teshuvah, and you’ll be able to serve Hashem. You’ll be able to do what we spoke about earlier—the two great principles of serving Hashem. You’ll have love and awe during davening; it will burn within you, and afterward its impression will affect you, so that throughout the day you can avoid transgressions and do mitzvos. You have a brain in your head. What’s missing? Is anything missing here? Seemingly, nothing. But the Alter Rebbe doesn’t end the Tanya here. On the contrary, the real avodah of the Tanya begins only in the next chapter. Why?

45:43 Speaker 8 It comes to teshuvah.

45:45 Speaker 1 No, no, no, teshuvah is still a long way off. It’s because, as I said earlier, when we think we have a brain in our heads, we’re fooling ourselves a little. Why? Because every one of us knows—everyone has tried at least once or twice, or several times, to contemplate Hashem’s greatness. And to say it did anything, that it stirred something in my heart—well... More than that, everyone knows what it’s like when you start learning Chassidus. Just understanding what it says—I’m not even talking about contemplating it afterward, only understanding what it says. How many people today can say, “Yes, I’ve learned it and I understand”? Not many. Understand it well enough that, before davening, I can close the book for ten minutes and think about Chassidus without looking at the words. Take some idea and think it through. Our level of understanding is so low that we don’t even have anything to contemplate. Now, it’s not because we don’t want to. Every one of us puts many, many hours into learning, but the ideas don’t come together. We go on living with all sorts of questions, and everything is confused. One time things are presented this way, another time that way, and another time with the opposite explanation. Now go and think about it, go and contemplate it. About what? How? Who? What? Where do you start? So the Alter Rebbe says: Right, that’s because your understanding is limited. Everything explained up to this point worked for someone who has a brain in his head, but some people have limited understanding. And this didn’t begin in our generation. Apparently, there were already people with limited understanding in the Alter Rebbe’s generation, and apparently they were the majority even then, because most of the Tanya, from chapter 18 to the end, speaks specifically to those whose understanding is limited. So a person might think, “Well, I’m done for,” as they say. But the Alter Rebbe—

48:09 Speaker 1 No. You too, even if you can’t manage to learn and understand, don’t know what to contemplate at all, and can’t seem to manage anything—you too can serve Hashem. On the contrary, he says later, when we reach chapter 27, that your service of Hashem has a far greater quality than what we’ve been discussing in the last few chapters.

48:37 Speaker 9 The roshei yeshivah will understand that from this.

48:39 Speaker 1 Huh?

48:39 Speaker 9 I don’t think the roshei yeshivah understand that. They skirt the crux of it.

48:44 Speaker 1 So next week we’ll begin the second part of the Tanya.

48:49 Speaker 9 They don’t skirt it. You’re saying they skirt the crux of it.