Likkutei Amarim Chapter 18 · 5785

00:02 Speaker 1 Shall we start?

00:03 Speaker 2 Yes, yes.

00:05 Speaker 1 I don’t know. I... All right, we’re learning chapter 18 today.

00:15 Speaker 2 Take the tea.

00:16 Speaker 11 Now we’ll bring out the salad. Ah, we got a little mixed up between the...

00:21 Speaker 2 Whoever arrives won’t...

00:27 Speaker 1 Chapter 18 begins with an additional explanation. If it’s an additional explanation, that means... in other words, this chapter continues and adds to what was explained in the previous chapters. What was explained there? The Alter Rebbe explained that the level of a beinoni is within everyone’s reach, and every person should strive for it. Anyone can be a beinoni at any time, at any moment; it depends only on his decision, on his will. And since the mind rules over the heart, a person... the path to the beinoni’s service of Hashem.

01:23 Speaker 2 Which chapter are we on?

01:31 Speaker 1 Eighteen.

01:36 Speaker 2 Good.

01:36 Speaker 1 There are more sheets here.

01:39 Speaker 2 This is an unpredictable class.

01:41 Speaker 1 Huh?

01:42 Speaker 2 Because it’s an unpredictable class. Sometimes there are four people, sometimes...

01:44 Speaker 1 Ah. So he explained how... What does it mean when the Torah says, “For this matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it”? The point that needed explaining was that... a person is indeed expected to serve Hashem not only in thought, speech and action, but also in his heart. “In your heart”—Hakadosh Boruch Hu asks that of us.

02:19 Speaker 2 There you are! Good thing you came, with that... wonderful cake. Hey, how’s [unclear]?

02:27 Speaker 11 What a star!

02:29 Speaker 2 Look, we planned it—we planned it exactly.

02:31 Speaker 11 A real celebration.

02:32 Speaker 2 Ah, absolutely.

02:32 Speaker 11 Second floor, third floor.

02:35 Speaker 2 Wow, mazal tov!

02:37 Speaker 11 There were celebrations, there were celebrations. If only we could speak with...

02:40 Speaker 2 Amen. Amen.

02:48 Speaker 1 Well, now we can start.

02:51 Speaker 2 Really, don’t let it overflow again.

02:53 Speaker 11 No, after Shabbos.

02:55 Speaker 2 It’ll be fine.

02:58 Speaker 1 All right, he explains. Chapter 18 adds to what was explained in the preceding chapters. He explained how... There was a question: on the title page of Tanya, he quotes the verse, “For this matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.” He asks: How can it be very close? What does “close” mean? How can a person...? First of all, on a simple level it isn’t so clear: what’s so close about observing the entire Torah and its mitzvos? Is it really that close? More than that, the... the verse says... well. More than that, the verse says that observing the Torah is very close—not just observing the Torah and mitzvos physically, in practice, but observing them in your heart. “In your mouth and in your heart”—that is very close. How is loving Hashem very close? I don’t love Hashem. I have no love for Hashem. What do you mean? How? You say the Torah says it’s very close. Where? I don’t see it. The Torah is the Torah of truth. If the Torah says it’s close, then it’s close for everyone. How can I...? Most people don’t have it; they don’t walk around with love for Hashem. Not that either. It isn’t close, it isn’t easy. So he explained at length over seventeen chapters: yes, it is very close. Why is it very close? Because what does the Torah require? What kind of love for Hashem does the Torah require of us? The Torah doesn’t require us to have a burning heart, flames of fire or anything like that. The Torah says, “For this matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.” “To do it” explains what “in your heart” means. You aren’t being asked for a burning love. You’re being asked for a love that leads to observing the mitzvos. That’s all. What does a love that leads to observing the mitzvos mean? It means a person contemplates Hashem’s greatness and concludes that he should observe mitzvos, and that it is good

04:55 Speaker 1 to observe mitzvos, and that this is the whole purpose of a person’s life. As a result of that contemplation, he wants to observe mitzvos.

05:07 Speaker 12 He understands the obligation.

05:07 Speaker 1 He understands that it’s good; he understands that this is how... his heart agrees that this is how it should be. That’s the love being asked of him. That is very close. Anyone can awaken such a love in his heart without any problem.

05:20 Speaker 12 So it’s really understanding more than love.

05:22 Speaker 1 Right. A love hidden in the recesses of the heart, in the hidden understanding of his mind and heart—that means understanding more than, more than, uh, emotion. It’s still in the intellect, mainly in understanding. He understood and agreed and decided, and he also feels something, he also wants it. It isn’t a burning love; it’s a kind of love that is mainly in the mind, really. You could call it a desire, an agreement. So that really is close to everyone. That’s how he explained it in the previous chapters. Why add anything? What needs further explanation? The Alter Rebbe says he is coming to explain just the word “very.” In other words, all the other words at the beginning—“This matter is close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it”—are understood. We’ve already explained them. But what does it mean that it is very close? When you say something is very close, you mean it’s very easy. After all, what he explained in the previous chapters was how a person arrives at love for Hashem—even an actual love for Hashem—by contemplating Hashem’s greatness, until that contemplation gives rise in his heart to some feeling, some agreement. So how can you call that very close? First, you have to learn a great deal. If you don’t learn a great deal,

06:46 Speaker 12 you won’t get close to it.

06:47 Speaker 1 You won’t have anything to contemplate. And once you’ve learned a great deal, the Alter Rebbe himself says you have to focus your mind firmly, persistently and vigorously, with strength and courage. He uses a lot of words to say that you have to... the contemplation has to be sustained, forceful and prolonged. Is that very close? It’s close. Anyone can do it; it’s possible. If you do this, that will happen—but it isn’t very close. And what if I’m the sort of person who doesn’t have the time or the opportunity, or can’t understand, or doesn’t have time to contemplate? More than that, some people don’t have the heart to feel it. Their minds can understand, but the feeling, the heart—the heart doesn’t take it in. They understand, they understand, but it doesn’t work in their hearts. To accomplish everything he explained in the previous chapters, you still have to be, at least somewhat, a person of intellect. As the Alter Rebbe himself says, you need a mind and a head. You have to be someone who understands, who thinks and learns, who devotes a lot of time and effort to contemplating it so that it truly reaches the heart. So it’s close, fine; it’s attainable, fine; it’s within everyone’s reach, fine—but it isn’t very close. What does “very” mean? Here, from chapter 18 onward, the Alter Rebbe is going to explain why it’s very close. Not just close—very close, as the verse says, “For this matter is very close to you.” That’s it. So he says the following. What’s the explanation? “One must know with certainty that even a person whose capacity to understand Hashem is limited...”

08:33 Speaker 13 Good evening.

08:33 Speaker 1 Good evening. What does it mean that his capacity to understand Hashem is limited? As we said, he doesn’t understand. He reads the books and doesn’t understand. We’re talking about learning Chassidus, the inner dimension of the Torah. He studies the Torah’s secrets and can’t grasp them; his understanding is limited. And not only that, but he also lacks the heart to understand the greatness of his G-d, blessed be He. Even if his mind understands, his heart doesn’t... doesn’t understand, doesn’t grasp it. It doesn’t sink into his heart. And from that contemplation, no fear and love are born within him—not even in his mind and understanding alone. Even that kind of love, just stirring in the hidden recesses of his heart and mind, doesn’t arise in him. Why? It’s not his fault. He wants to, he tries, but he can’t. His understanding is limited.

09:30 Speaker 13 Because he lacks intelligence, or because his soul isn’t expansive enough?

09:35 Speaker 1 It could be because he lacks intelligence. It could be because his soul, uh, isn’t suited to this. It could be that he does understand, but he lacks... he doesn’t have the ability to focus his mind. Or it could simply be that he has no time. The man works at Tnuva. He gets up, has to be at work at five in the morning after davening, and then works until eight in the evening.

10:04 Speaker 13 When you want something...

10:05 Speaker 1 And when a person works to earn a living and has many children, a large family, to support, he has no time and no energy. He comes home tired; he can’t do it, and so on. Whatever the reason may be. It’s very common for a person to want to study but be unable to. Nevertheless, the Alter Rebbe says, “the matter is close to him.” What matter is close to him? Fulfilling all of Torah and mitzvos—both the mitzvos and Torah study—with genuine love and awe. Even though he cannot contemplate. That’s already a tremendous insight. It’s not just that observing all of Torah and mitzvos is easy, or even very easy. We’re not simply talking about observing them and never stumbling into a transgression. We’re talking about fulfilling all the mitzvos with love and awe. Observing and practicing the entire Torah—all the mitzvos, and Torah study, which is equal to them all—“with your mouth and with your heart.” You might say: Fine, but I can’t awaken a genuine love of Hashem that actually burns in my heart. Even a love that stirs in my heart is difficult for me. So what is the Alter Rebbe going to discuss here? Some kind of love that isn’t even much of anything—a little bit of love, not even stirring in the hidden recesses of his heart, something faint and small? No, says the Alter Rebbe. I’m talking about love actually in his heart, from the depths of his heart. Genuine, heartfelt love. So you might say: Well, that “heartfelt love” isn’t real; it’s a kind of fantasy, guided imagery, as though I love Hashem. No, he says, “truly and sincerely, with awe and love.” And that is astonishing.

12:23 Speaker 13 Well, all right.

12:26 Speaker 1 How can a person love something without thinking about it? When does a person come to love something? He thinks about it, about how good it is, and then he begins to love it, to be drawn to it. Right? Can you love something without thinking?

12:45 Speaker 13 There’s natural love.

12:48 Speaker 1 Why?

12:49 Speaker 13 Innate.

12:50 Speaker 1 Huh?

12:51 Speaker 13 Love for a child. Love for—

12:55 Speaker 1 Love for a child is for my child.

12:56 Speaker 13 Innate.

12:59 Speaker 1 What?

12:59 Speaker 13 Right.

12:59 Speaker 1 And if the child...

12:59 Speaker 13 There’s no question of whether it’s good or not.

13:00 Speaker 1 And if, G-d forbid, my child—if someone’s child were taken away... If someone’s child were taken away from the moment he was born and brought back only when he was thirty, and the parent had never seen him, would he love him just the same?

13:17 Speaker 13 But then he would think about it.

13:18 Speaker 1 So then it depends. It depends on contemplation.

13:24 Speaker 13 But there are two kinds. We’re talking about something natural. The moment you have a child, you don’t need to contemplate and think. You love him or you don’t—and you do love him.

13:35 Speaker 1 That is, in fact, the direction he wants to explain. But still, when it comes to love for a child, ultimately, if I didn’t know he was my child, I wouldn’t love him. If, G-d forbid, someone switched my baby...

13:51 Speaker 13 I’m getting to my point.

13:54 Speaker 1 To show it, to illustrate it.

13:56 Speaker 13 You’re defining it.

13:57 Speaker 1 To illustrate that, ultimately, even this depends on knowing. If I thought another child was mine, I would love that other child.

14:07 Speaker 13 Ah.

14:07 Speaker 1 It depends on knowing.

14:08 Speaker 13 Ah, okay, I understand.

14:10 Speaker 1 Ultimately, every attraction, every love, every desire for something—I know it’s good. I know it’s mine, and that’s why. But what if I don’t know? The Alter Rebbe says that even someone whose capacity for understanding is limited, even if he doesn’t know and doesn’t contemplate, can also love Hashem—with a love from the depths of his heart. What is that? Where does it come from? What is it? Where is it in a person? Look, he does state it here. What does “very” mean in “For the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it”? The word “very” hints that a person has another kind of love. There is a love of Hashem born from contemplation, and there is a love of Hashem within a person that is not the result of contemplation. And because it isn’t the result of contemplation, it makes no difference whether his capacity for understanding is limited or broad, whether he thinks about it or doesn’t. But how can that be? How can you love something just like that, on its own? So what is he talking about? He is talking about the hidden love in the hearts of the Jewish people as a whole. Where did I get such a love? “This love is an inheritance from our forefathers.” Which is itself truly astonishing. What does it mean that I inherited this love from our forefathers? I don’t feel it. I don’t feel this love of Hashem within me, within the Jewish people as a whole. And to bring it out, to enable us to awaken and reveal this love of Hashem—it already exists, and we don’t actually need to create it, because it exists. So we don’t need a great or small capacity for understanding; we only need to awaken it, reveal it. To understand how to reveal that love, we first need to thoroughly explain its source. In other words, as we asked: Where does it come from?

16:28 Speaker 1 How can a person have love for anything—not necessarily for Hashem—without contemplation, without knowledge? So where does it come from? Where does such a thing come from? What is its source? And we need to understand its nature. What is love? Any love is an attraction; a person wants something. So every love has its own nature, its own object, something it wants. One person likes listening to quiet niggunim, niggunim of dveikus. Why? Because he’s deeply drawn to that feeling of spiritual uplift. That is the nature of his love: an attraction to that feeling of uplift. Another person specifically likes listening to lively, upbeat niggunim. He isn’t seeking a feeling of spiritual uplift; he’s seeking joy. Another person likes listening to words of wisdom. They interest him; he’s drawn to them. The object of that love is something else. There are all kinds of love. And besides what a person is drawn to, love also has a particular character. There’s a love that bursts out like flames of fire. There’s a love that is calm, like water or light, or that takes the form of dveikus or attachment. There are all kinds of ways it can be. What is the nature of this love? First of all, where does it come from? What is its source? Second, what is its nature? What is this thing? What does it want? And we need to understand how it is an inheritance for us. For that matter, what is an inheritance? It’s something a person passes on to his child, right? So a person can pass on—usually, when we talk about an inheritance, we mean money, gold, physical things, property. But it’s possible—I can understand that you can—huh?

18:34 Speaker 14 Yes, no, it’s also genes, also...

18:36 Speaker 1 Oh, so we can understand that a person also passes traits on to his children. Fine. But when a person passes a trait on to his son—say he’s a good person, a kind person, and his son will also be kind—is it certain that his son will be that way?

18:53 Speaker 14 Not necessarily.

18:53 Speaker 1 So... Some of the children may have it, and others less so. Even with inherited traits, first of all, it isn’t certain. They don’t have to appear in everyone. What does it mean that every Jew must have this love that we received from Avraham Avinu and that has come down to us until now? Why must everyone have it? Even if it comes through inheritance, that doesn’t mean it has to be there. And secondly, even if you say it does—

19:21 Speaker 14 We have to.

19:22 Speaker 1 Let’s say, okay, it’s some kind of special inherited gene, so everyone must have a capacity for love. But a capacity for love isn’t love for a particular person. I have a good friend whom I love and admire very much because he’s a wise man. And since I’m a kind person, I love this friend of mine very much: I’ve thought about his qualities, and I have a capacity for love, so I love him. Now my son has inherited all my traits, so he too is a kind person. Does that mean my son has to love the person I loved?

20:04 Speaker 14 No.

20:04 Speaker 1 He’ll love someone else.

20:07 Speaker 14 Yes.

20:09 Speaker 1 Right? Even if Avraham Avinu passed down to all his descendants, for all generations, the same love he had, he did not pass down his love for Hashem. He passed down a capacity to love. What? You can’t pass down a capacity to love a particular thing. That’s already a different matter; it doesn’t depend on a trait. I love something only after I’ve contemplated it, and then my love attaches itself to it. So how do we explain the statement that Avraham Avinu passed something down to all his descendants, to every single one of us, without exception? He says it is found in all of the Jewish people, in every single person. And what kind of love is it? A person is born with love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, a built-in love. Isn’t love something that cannot be inherited? It depends on contemplation. What does it mean that this love is our inheritance? We also need to understand how it includes fear as well. D’chilu means fear. When we spoke about this in the previous chapters, there was no question. When a person contemplates something that arouses fear of Hashem, fear is aroused. When a person contemplates something that arouses love of Hashem, love is aroused. If a person wants both love and fear of Hashem, he can contemplate things that arouse love and things that arouse fear, and he will have both. But here, whenever it speaks of what Avraham passed down to us, it always calls it the hidden love. It never speaks about fear. And if the Torah says that it is very close to every person to keep Torah and mitzvos with love and fear, but we inherited only love, where is the fear? So we have to say that the fear being discussed is included in, is part of, the attribute of love. How can fear be part of love? Fear is the opposite of love. Love is a movement of drawing close, and fear is

22:33 Speaker 1 a movement of drawing away.

22:35 Speaker 15 Like with a father and mother.

22:36 Speaker 1 Hmm?

22:37 Speaker 15 The parents.

22:38 Speaker 1 What was that?

22:38 Speaker 15 Father and mother.

22:39 Speaker 1 Yes.

22:39 Speaker 15 Love for the mother, fear of the father.

22:41 Speaker 1 So one is for the father and one is for the mother. But here we’re talking about Hakadosh Boruch Hu: there will be both love and fear, and the fear won’t be something separate. The fear will be—

22:50 Speaker 15 Together.

22:52 Speaker 1 What does that mean? It needs explaining. So, for us to be able to use that love, the one that is very close to us... At first we thought it was very easy, exceedingly easy, close to everyone. There were many expressions like that: within every person’s capacity to draw it forth. It’s in our nature that the mind rules the heart. There were many such expressions in the previous chapters: just look, just think, and immediately—yes, but that depends on thought. Here we’re talking about an entirely different love, with a different root, a different source, a different character. It seeks something else, and it doesn’t depend on contemplation at all. And yet this love, specifically, comes from the depths of the heart; it is connected to the heart’s depths, not merely to its outer dimension, as we discussed earlier with intellectual love. And this love, specifically, is very close to every person to—let’s begin learning what this love is, chapters 18 and 19. After that, we’ll also be able to learn how to reveal it, and why it is so very close. Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe, by Whose word everything came into being.

24:09 Speaker 15 Amen.

24:15 Speaker 1 So he begins like this: “The matter is...” He doesn’t explain things in the order of the questions. We’ll talk about that another time, with Hashem’s help. “The matter is that the Patriarchs are the chariot. Therefore, they merited to draw down nefesh, ruach, and neshamah for their children after them, for all time, from the ten holy sefiros of the four worlds: Atzilus, Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah.” We’ve discussed several times that “chariot” is used in the words of our Sages, particularly by the Kabbalists, as an expression for a kind of self-nullification. A chariot drawn by horses doesn’t have desires of its own. It can’t be that the rider wants to go right and the chariot suddenly wants to go left. There’s no such thing. The chariot has no independent wishes. It is utterly nullified to the rider. Just as the chariot has no will of its own, and, so to speak, wants only to go where the rider leads it, so our Sages said, “The Patriarchs are the chariot.” Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov were a chariot for G-dliness. In other words, they had no will of their own. Never in their lives did a thought or inclination cross their minds that they wanted this or that. There was no such thing for them. They wanted only what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants. That was the wondrous level of the Patriarchs. Now, when people speak about the chariot, what are they usually referring to? Usually they aren’t speaking about the Patriarchs. They usually speak about the chayos of the chariot, right? The chayos of the chariot are the great angels in the world of Beriah, whose self-nullification to G-dliness is also described as that of a chariot. Those angels—the face of a lion, the face of an ox, the face of an eagle, and the face of a man—are a chariot for G-dliness. They are called the chayos of the chariot. And about this

26:52 Speaker 1 our Sages said that there is the chariot of the Patriarchs and the chariot of the angels. They said, “The Patriarchs are the chariot.” That is, yes, the chariot of the angels also involves self-nullification; it is also a chariot, in the world of Beriah. But the true chariot is specifically that of the Patriarchs. Why is it relevant to explain this here? Why does he go into all of this? Because angels don’t pass love of Hashem down to their children. The Patriarchs did pass love of Hashem down to their descendants. Why? That is what he explains here: because they are the chariot. In general—well, it says that in every connection between a giver and a recipient, what is given depends on the recipient. The simplest way to explain this is from a Tanya class. When people sit there staring blankly at you, you can’t speak. That isn’t when you want to give, to convey the depth of the subject. What is given depends on the recipient’s desire. The stronger the recipient’s desire, the more the giver gives from his own inner depths. That’s how it is in everything. That is why our Sages said that if the man contributes first, a girl is born, and if the woman contributes first, a boy is born. When the recipient plays the primary role in what is given, it comes from a more inward and deeper place. So that’s the principle here too. There is the arousal from below of the angels, the chariot of the angels, and there is the arousal from below of the chariot of the Patriarchs. We won’t explain now the differences between them, the difference between souls and angels. But because the Patriarchs’ arousal, their desire for G-dliness, their self-nullification, was so much greater, they drew down from G-dliness a far more inward and deeper level. What does it mean that G-dliness, that Hakadosh Boruch Hu, bestowed something much more inward and deeper? Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave

29:43 Speaker 1 Himself, His innermost essence. Where did Hakadosh Boruch Hu place His innermost essence? Where? In every one of us. In every one of us. The angels’ service of Hashem doesn’t reach such an inward and deep place, so it doesn’t draw down as much. Because the Patriarchs are the chariot, they merited to draw down a soul to their descendants for all time. And where does that soul come from? From the ten holy sefiros, from the innermost dimension of G-dliness itself. For each person according to his level, or according to his deeds. There are two interpretations of this; we won’t dwell on it now. In any case, whatever the circumstances, even for the lowest of the low and the sinners of Israel, at conception there is drawn down a nefesh of the nefesh of Malchus of Asiyah. So, in general, we know there are four worlds: Atzilus, Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah. The lowest world is Asiyah. In each world there are ten sefiros, ten levels. The lowest level is Malchus, right? And within Malchus itself there is the neshamah of Malchus, the ruach of Malchus, and the nefesh of Malchus. So the lowest level within Malchus is its nefesh, and nefesh itself is also made up of nefesh, ruach, and neshamah. So the lowest level within nefesh is the nefesh of nefesh. The Alter Rebbe says that ultimately, even sinners of Israel—who are sinners of Israel? People who don’t keep mitzvos—even the lowest of the low among them, people considered lowly even among sinners of Israel: when they come together and a child is born to them, whatever the circumstances, that child has a nefesh of the nefesh of Malchus of Asiyah. There is G-dliness within him. Perhaps he doesn’t have G-dliness on some higher level, like Chochmah of Beriah, but a nefesh of the nefesh of Malchus of Asiyah is present in everyone, no matter what. Well, how does that help me? So I have a nefesh of the nefesh of Malchus of Asiyah

32:23 Speaker 1 It’s like the very edge of the edge of the edge. What does that give us? What’s the point? He says: Listen, it includes them all, even the chochmah of Asiyah. In holiness—we’ve talked about this many times—one of the differences between holiness and kelipos is that in holiness, everything includes everything else; everything is connected. In holiness, it’s all one. Hashem is one and His Name is one. There aren’t two here, there’s no multiplicity; there is one. So even when we speak about levels, every level contains all the other levels within it. When we speak about neshamah, the neshamah also contains ruach and nefesh. When we speak about ruach, the ruach also contains neshamah and nefesh. When we speak about nefesh, within the nefesh there’s also the... Remember how we spoke about this in chapter 2, that everything includes everything? I’m just reminding you briefly, without going into all the details. In general, neshamah is connected with the mind, with intellect. Ruach is connected with the middos, with emotion. Action is connected with—nefesh is connected with action, with kabbolas ol. So there’s a person whose main strength is intellect, understanding and comprehension. Yes, what matters most to him is Torah study. So what, he has no love or awe? Does that mean he has no capacity for action? He doesn’t observe mitzvos? He does that too. That’s his main strength, but it includes everything else. There’s a person whose main focus really is davening, love of Hashem, being moved by holiness. That really is his whole essence. You see someone who’s so full of life, so moved by things. So what, is he a complete fool? He can learn; he also has neshamah within him. He has kabbolas ol too. And by the same token, there’s someone who really isn’t academically inclined. Even back in first grade, you could see he wasn’t going to become a great Torah scholar. But he’s a go-getter, and he’s active in the mitzvah campaigns

34:30 Speaker 1 and helps people put on tefillin, and runs the Neshek Shabbos-candle campaign, and organizes things here and there. Fine, he’s no great intellectual, and he doesn’t really know how to daven at length either. That’s not exactly his niche, but he does things. Fine—but he includes everything else, because in holiness everything includes everything. So he says that even a person who, because of his own traits or what his parents did, was given a very, very, very, very, very low level of neshamah—it still includes them all. His neshamah also contains the higher levels. They’re there; they shine within it. And that nefesh also includes chochmah, and within the chochmah of Asiyah is vested the chochmah of Atzilus. Chochmah is vested in chochmah throughout all the worlds, and within the chochmah of Atzilus the light of the Infinite One, blessed be He, actually shines, as it is written, “Hashem, with wisdom, foun—” As it is written... Sorry. Within the chochmah of Atzilus shines the light of the Infinite One, blessed be He. So it turns out that even within the very, very, very, very lowest neshamah, ultimately the light of the Infinite One shines. True, it comes through this inclusion of levels and through this and that, but it shines within that neshamah too. What does “the light of the Infinite One” mean? “Infinite” means without limitation. What is the light of the Infinite One? It is boundless G-dliness. The essence and being of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, Who is unlimited, shines in the neshamah of every single one of us. What’s new about that? We know that Hakadosh Boruch Hu creates the entire world, that “the whole earth is full of His glory,” and “I fill the heavens and the earth.” So of course He is present in the neshamah too. What’s the great novelty? There’s a big difference. Is this lychee? May I take one?

36:31 Speaker 16 Yes.

36:31 Speaker 1 There’s a big difference. When Hakadosh Boruch Hu creates this cake, for example—okay—no one can look at it and say, “There’s Hakadosh Boruch Hu,” unless he’s lying. He doesn’t see Him. And when he eats it, he tastes the sugar and the—I don’t know what—but he doesn’t sense Hakadosh Boruch Hu. There’s no way. It isn’t revealed. That Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings it into being, gives it life and is present in it—that’s true. Someone told me about it; I believe it. But it isn’t grasped here; it isn’t felt here. And it isn’t just the cake. There is nothing physical in the world in which Hakadosh Boruch Hu can be grasped. Is there something spiritual in which Hakadosh Boruch Hu can be grasped?

37:27 Speaker 16 A Torah scroll.

37:28 Speaker 1 Hmm? A Torah scroll isn’t a physical thing?

37:30 Speaker 16 But it’s spiritual.

37:32 Speaker 1 That’s already G-dliness itself. But there’s no spiritual thing in which Hakadosh Boruch Hu can be grasped either. Our Sages said, “No thought can grasp Him at all.” No thought can grasp Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What does “no thought” mean? No thought means no thought. Anything you can point to and say, “There it is”—that can be called thought. But thought cannot grasp Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That includes the thought of the higher worlds, the thought of the higher angels—anything. Yet of a Jewish neshamah we say—and what’s new here?—that the very essence of G-dliness does shine within it in a revealed way. And which neshamah are we talking about? One that’s nefesh of nefesh of malchus of Asiyah. Because within it shines the chochmah of Asiyah, within that the chochmah of Atzilus, and within that the light of the Infinite One. Ah, so the boundless light of the Infinite One shines openly in my neshamah. Where is it? First of all, the answer is yes: know that you have such a thing inside your body. There’s a neshamah in there. I don’t know right now which level in the order of the spiritual worlds each person’s neshamah comes from. But it’s in there. Whatever the case, the boundless light of the Infinite One is within your neshamah and shines there, and you can feel it. You need to know how. But first you need to know that it’s there. How can that be? So he says, first of all, there’s a verse: “Hashem founded the earth with wisdom.” The simple meaning of the verse is that Hakadosh Boruch Hu founded and created the world, created the earth, and did so with wisdom. That’s the simple meaning. But its inner meaning is that “earth” refers to the sefirah of malchus. So what does “Hashem founded the earth with wisdom” mean? That even the level called earth, even the sefirah of malchus, contains

40:01 Speaker 1 chochmah within it—Hashem’s wisdom.

40:08 Speaker 16 I needed to give a phone number. Gladly, gladly.

40:19 Speaker 1 So Hashem is present even in the sefirah of malchus. It says, “Hashem founded the earth with wisdom.” And there’s more. As our Sages said, “You made them all with wisdom”: even physical Asiyah, all the way down to—what do you say?—our neshamahs, contains chochmah. For the Infinite One, blessed be He, is vested in the aspect of chochmah in a person’s nefesh, whoever that person may be among the Jewish people. And that aspect of chochmah, together with the light of the Infinite One, blessed be He, vested within it, spreads throughout every part of the nefesh, giving it life from its head to its feet, as it is written, “Wisdom gives life to those who possess it.” So what has he explained so far? We asked four questions, remember? To understand the hidden love, we need to understand its source and nature, and how it also contains awe. What has he said so far? So far he has essentially explained how it is an inheritance for us. What does that mean? He says: True, what the Patriarchs passed down to us was not, in fact, love. You can’t pass down love. The Patriarchs passed down a neshamah to us. How did they pass down a neshamah? How can a neshamah be passed down? Because they were the chariot. And therefore they merited it. What does “merited” mean? They refined themselves. It isn’t just that they had merit; they refined themselves until they drew down from the innermost dimension of G-dliness, and that brought about that each of us would have an actual part of G-d above.

42:02 Speaker 16 Isn’t that something Hashem put into creation?

42:06 Speaker 1 Hmm? What do you mean, part of creation?

42:11 Speaker 16 That’s how human beings were created.

42:12 Speaker 1 Hmm?

42:13 Speaker 16 A neshamah.

42:15 Speaker 1 All human beings? Jews. And why specifically Jews? Why not someone else? Hakadosh Boruch Hu chose that it should be so. True, the thought of the Jewish people preceded everything, even the Torah. And for their sake—for the thought of the Jewish people—Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world. But who said they had to descend from Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov? The Patriarchs’ service brought that about for their descendants. That’s how it is. It’s a good question, and this is what the Rebbe explains.

42:46 Speaker 16 What about Adam and Chavah?

42:48 Speaker 1 What?

42:48 Speaker 16 What about Adam and Chavah?

42:51 Speaker 1 Adam and Chavah? Who said they had a neshamah? I don’t know.

42:55 Speaker 16 No, I mean all the generations before.

42:56 Speaker 1 Well?

42:57 Speaker 16 Before Avraham. There were generations.

43:00 Speaker 17 Yes.

43:01 Speaker 16 But they had life, a nefesh. That’s an ordinary nefesh.

43:05 Speaker 1 I can’t explain right now how that relates, but...

43:09 Speaker 16 No, because it’s interesting what it means. Yes, no, it really was surprising. No, it’s from the beginning of creation, I mean...

43:17 Speaker 17 It comes from the Patriarchs, so it’s not from...

43:23 Speaker 1 I don’t know. The point is that a soul is literally a part of G-d above. What the Patriarchs merited was to draw down souls for their descendants, and the soul we have is something that loves Hashem. In other words, everyone has a natural love, as you said. Love is similar—we use the analogy of a father’s love for his son. Everyone has a natural love because each of us has a soul, and the soul, as he explained in chapter 2 and in a few words here, is a part of G-d above. Here he explained in more detail that it comes from the ten sefiros, and the ten sefiros are themselves G-dliness. And the reason the soul loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu... Come on, you try. Why does the soul love Hakadosh Boruch Hu?

44:31 Speaker 3 It depends on Him.

44:32 Speaker 1 Huh?

44:33 Speaker 3 It’s part of Him. It depends on Him. Like a person loves himself.

44:38 Speaker 1 Th... those are the words. Like a person loves himself. What’s the deepest love a person has? Love for himself. A person can’t love anything the way he loves himself. What can you do? He feels himself...

44:59 Speaker 3 That.

44:59 Speaker 1 He feels himself; he doesn’t feel other people. Only himself does a person feel with absolute certainty. Everything else in the world, a person perceives through his senses, through some kind of instrument. It might even be sight—he actually sees it with his eyes—but it still comes to him through an instrument, through something... It isn’t him; it’s something external coming into him. Understanding might be on an even higher level, but in the end, he’s understanding someone else. He’s taking something external into himself. When a person loves himself, he can’t... He doesn’t feel anything the way he feels himself. That’s why Chassidus explains that the love a person has for himself is actually the strongest, deepest love in the soul. More than that, it’s the root of all other loves. And along these lines, that’s what the G-dly soul’s love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu is like. It is itself G-dliness. It’s not just that... G-dliness isn’t its cause. He didn’t give birth to it or bring it out, or whatever. It is Him Himself. The G-dly soul loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu the way a person loves himself, because that is what it itself is. That’s why he said earlier that it is very close to a person to serve Hashem from the depths of his heart. What does “from the depths of his heart” mean? No love that a person arouses in himself through contemplation can even come close—to use our language—to the intensity of the love for Hashem that the G-dly soul has, the hidden love. The only problem is that it’s hidden: we don’t feel it. But the love the soul has is the deepest, most powerful, strongest love. It doesn’t depend on whether I contemplate or don’t contemplate—what difference does it make? It feels G-dliness, and it feels it because that is what it itself is. You just have to

47:13 Speaker 1 somehow...

47:14 Speaker 3 bring it to light, so to speak.

47:17 Speaker 1 Something covers it, so remove the covering. But it’s there. You don’t need to contemplate to have it. You don’t need to generate some love or bring it in from outside. Take the love that’s already inside. How we do that, we’ll see later, in the coming chapters. And then he continues in parentheses, as a note: “And sometimes, sinners of Israel draw down very lofty souls that had been in the depths of the kelipos, as written in Sefer Hagilgulim.” That’s it. No, no, we won’t talk about that now. It would take too much time. There’s still something to understand—one little thing. So here he explained the root, the... root of the love, and to some extent he didn’t explain its nature, mainly the root of the... No, not the root of the love. Sorry. Well, he explained how this love is an inheritance for us and where it comes from: the chochmah in the soul. Right? Its root is in the Patriarchs. How? Because they were a merkavah. And... where does it come from? What’s its root? The chochmah in the soul. But we still need to understand what we asked earlier. Earlier we asked: How can Hakadosh Boruch Hu, who is the Infinite Light, shine and be revealed down here? After all, a person is limited. His love is limited, his mind, his emotions, his body—everything is limited. His strength, his life, his time, every aspect of him is limited. What does it mean that the Infinite Light shines? Shining means... there’s light; you can see it, right? It becomes revealed. How can the Infinite Light be revealed within a limited person? That’s what he’s going to discuss now, in the rest of the chapter. “And behold, chochmah...” What did we say? That the Infinite Light shines in chochmah. Right? That’s what he was talking about earlier. Remember?

49:25 Speaker 4 Yes.

49:25 Speaker 1 Why specifically in chochmah? What is the characteristic of that faculty of the soul we call chochmah? Chochmah is the source of intellect and understanding, but it isn’t intellect or understanding. It is above binah. Binah is intellectual understanding, grasping... grasping an idea. Chochmah is above understanding and comprehension, and it is their source. It’s the source of under... of understanding, but it isn’t understanding. We’ll add a few more words in a moment. And that’s why it’s called chochmah: koach mah, “the faculty of what”—something that isn’t grasped or understood, that still can’t be comprehended.

50:24 Speaker 4 What? We’re lost here.

50:29 Speaker 1 What does that mean? What—what’s the idea? In Chassidus you have to understand everything. Even what can’t be understood, you have to understand. What does it mean to have a faculty of the soul that is the source of understanding, but isn’t... isn’t understanding? “Isn’t understanding” means you don’t understand anything there, yet even though you don’t understand anything, it’s still the source of understanding. I don’t know how many of you have ever tried to understand something deep. To take a difficult topic. Huh?

51:12 Speaker 4 Is koach mah when you’re learning something and then it suddenly clicks?

51:19 Speaker 1 Those are two stages. One second, yes. Broadly speaking, yes; more precisely, not exactly.

51:26 Speaker 4 That’s math.

51:31 Speaker 1 When a person tries to understand something... I think this week, or last week, we had an example of this. What was it? What topic was that? It’s slipped my mind. Oh, I remember. Just a simple, concrete example from the last few weeks. In Igeres Hateshuvah in Tanya, chapter 4, it says that teshuvah... Igeres Hateshuvah explains what teshuvah is. First he gives three chapters of introduction, and then in chapter 4 he finally begins to explain what teshu... what teshuvah is. Teshuvah is like... “This will be understood in light of what the Zohar says about teshuvah.” What does the Zohar say about teshuvah? That the word teshuvah can be read as tashuv hei, “the hei shall return.” Teshuvah means that the hei needs to return, or that the hei returns. Which hei? Which hei?

52:35 Speaker 5 Of Hashem’s name.

52:36 Speaker 1 The hei of Hashem’s name. But there are two of them.

52:39 Speaker 5 The second one.

52:40 Speaker 1 Huh?

52:41 Speaker 5 Higher teshuvah.

52:43 Speaker 1 The lower hei—lower teshuvah; the upper hei—higher teshuvah. That’s what the Zohar says. When the lower hei returns, it’s called lower teshuvah. When the upper hei returns, it’s called higher teshuvah. So you’ve found the name, the question and the answer. Then he explains what it means for the lower hei to return. Who made it fall, and where was it thrown? Why does it need to return? So he explains at length there, over three chapters, that through a person’s sins, the flow of G-dly vitality into the world descends into the kelipos. That flow into the world is the lower hei, Malchus, the hei of Hashem’s name. Because through his sins a person caused the exile of the Shechinah, causing the hei to give vitality to the kelipos, when he does teshuvah—and he explains how one does teshuvah, and so on—the flow from the hei returns to its source, to unite with the letters Yud, Hei and Vav. That’s lower teshuvah. What is higher teshuvah? After a person does teshuvah and his sins are forgiven, his soul returns and cleaves to G-dliness, and binah shines into the middos, and his middos are elevated. There’s a whole explanation, and so on. Well, where is the upper hei? What happens to it? Silence. He doesn’t explain. There’s no explanation. He explains what higher teshuvah is, but he doesn’t explain where the upper hei returns to, or what it has to do with any of this. He explains higher teshuvah, but not the point about the hei. That’s what he started with. So for several weeks I thought about it and asked people here and there, and...

54:31 Speaker 5 People on your level?

54:32 Speaker 1 What? No, people a little above my level. To most of the people I asked, it was very simple, but they couldn’t explain it. And I—I couldn’t understand it.

54:46 Speaker 5 They’ll tell you in Afula.

54:48 Speaker 1 Hm?

54:48 Speaker 5 In Afula.

54:50 Speaker 1 There are also two like that in Afula, at least two that I know of. There may be more, many more than two. Once, someone asked the Rebbe whether there are still thirty-six tzaddikim today, and the Rebbe said there are many more. Thirty-six is the minimum. There are many more—I don’t know how many more than thirty-six. In short, for people this was... For most people who study this, the point was very simple. They tried to explain it to me this way and that. I heard what they were saying, but it didn’t... For about two weeks, really two full weeks, I was occupied with it. I can testify that it bothered me a great deal, and in the end, suddenly, it all came down at once.

55:38 Speaker 5 As Orly says.

55:40 Speaker 1 But not as Orly says. Why not? Because after it had become clear to me, when the idea was, so to speak, illuminating for me, I thought: Good, now let’s sit down and write it. No—I couldn’t even explain it to myself. I couldn’t explain it. It was all there. The light was there; the light had already arrived, but it had not yet come down to... not even to a point that could be put into a word or two. There is a stage in understanding when you are already at ease; you can already see the thing, as though you had seen it with your own eyes. Well, explain what you saw. You can’t. After that comes what is called the “flash that flashes forth”: that is already a point that can be explained, a general idea that can be brought into binah. Then binah has a point to work with; it has the power to take that point and explain it from different angles, bringing analogies and examples, exploring it in depth and breadth. That is already the moment when you have the point. But there is a difference. The difference between that flash and the light of the intellect is the difference between something and nothing. Here there is something: just a point, true, but a point that exists. Before that, there is light. It is light; it shines, but there is nothing at all you can grasp. That is called chochmah. Chochmah means bittul: it nullifies itself, having no independent existence at all. So it does not stand in the way of anything, and the light of Hashem can be revealed. That is intellectual chochmah. Chochmah in the divine soul is the soul’s power of bittul: it does not perceive itself as an independent existence at all. It is bittul. What is it? The power of mah—“What am I?” Nothing at all. It does not stand in the way of G-dliness, and therefore G-dliness can be revealed there. That is what

57:58 Speaker 1 he says here: on the one hand, it is the source of understanding and comprehension, while on the other hand, it is not itself understanding or comprehension. It is above them, and therefore the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, is enclothed in it. “No thought can grasp Him at all.” Thought truly cannot grasp the light of Hashem, but here we are not talking about thought. We are talking about a faculty that is nothing, not one that is something. And since every single person has in their soul the faculty of chochmah, in which the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, dwells, therefore all Jews, even women and the unlearned, believe in Hashem. Where does that come from? Men, let’s say, learn a bit here and there, each in his own way. Women today all learn too, but take a woman who never learned Torah—where does her faith come from?

58:56 Speaker 6 Right.

58:56 Speaker 1 Where does it come from? She didn’t learn.

59:00 Speaker 6 From her parents’ home.

59:01 Speaker 1 Huh?

59:01 Speaker 6 From home.

59:02 Speaker 1 And if she didn’t learn it in her parents’ home? It is present in every single person.

59:06 Speaker 6 From her parents’ home.

59:10 Speaker 7 No, but there are also women who suddenly return to Torah.

59:12 Speaker 1 It is present in everyone, in every single person, quite simply, and in small children too. Why? Because faith is above knowledge and comprehension. “A simpleton believes everything,” our Sages said. Usually, when we say “a simpleton believes everything,” we don’t mean it as great praise.

59:37 Speaker 6 Right.

59:38 Speaker 1 Yes. So it depends what we are talking about. When it comes to matters of this world, being a simpleton really is not a great virtue.

59:45 Speaker 6 It’s problematic.

59:46 Speaker 1 But when we are talking about G-dliness, it is precisely in someone who is a simpleton that faith can truly be revealed.

59:56 Speaker 6 Problematic.

59:57 Speaker 1 And so our Sages said, “A simpleton believes everything”—that is Moshe Rabbeinu. The one person who was truly simple, with true bittul, in whom faith was revealed in all its glory and complete perfection, was Moshe Rabbeinu, because he truly embodied the fullest level of chochmah. “But the shrewd understands.” Understanding already belongs to shrewdness, whereas simplicity belongs to chochmah. And as far as Hakadosh Boruch Hu is concerned—since He is above intellect and knowledge, and no thought can grasp Him at all—no one, however shrewd, can grasp Hakadosh Boruch Hu with thought. So before Him, blessed be He, everyone is like a simpleton. There is no difference between the greatest sage, between King Shlomo, and someone ignorant and foolish and unlearned. There is no difference at all; they are truly equal in relation to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. As it is written, “I was brutish and did not know; I was like a beast with You, yet I am always with You.” Now, how is the verse that King David says usually understood? What does “I was brutish and did not know; I was like a beast with You” mean? Although I am brutish. What does “brutish” mean?

1:01:17 Speaker 8 Foolish.

1:01:18 Speaker 1 Foolish, not... yes. Although I am like a beast, I am still with You. That is how it is always explained, right? The Alter Rebbe explains it the other way around: it is because I am brutish and like a beast that I am always with You. If I want to approach and grasp Hakadosh Boruch Hu through wisdom and intellect, then I really am brutish. For G-dliness to shine openly within me, I need to be like a beast. I need to nullify myself. Only in someone who is simple, who is brutish, who is like a beast, who nullifies himself—only in that person can the light of Hashem be revealed. And that is why even the most frivolous and the transgressors among the Jewish people, for the most part, give up their lives to sanctify Hashem’s name. That is the explanation for mesiras nefesh, because there really is no other explanation. A Jew who has not kept mitzvos his whole life—has not kept mitzvos. They put him up against a wall, and a non-Jew starts talking to him about faith, and suddenly he awakens like a lion. Suddenly he is ready, ready to give up his life. What? For what? What happened all of a sudden? They spoke to him about faith, and his faith awakened. Faith does not depend on knowledge. It does not depend on contemplation; it does not depend on wisdom; it does not depend on whether a person keeps mitzvos or does not keep mitzvos. It does not depend on anything. The essence of his soul awakened. The essence of his soul is literally a part of G-d above, and it senses G-dliness and cannot be separated from it. Just as a person cannot... give up himself, the soul cannot give Him up. He cannot, he simply cannot, and so he cries out that he cannot. Why does this happen only “for the most part”? Because there have also been cases where people did agree, at least outwardly, to deny their faith. Why doesn’t it always awaken? Ultimately, within a person, within a Jew, there is a point even

1:03:41 Speaker 1 deeper than the soul. That point is called free choice. A person’s choice is not taken away from him. A person can choose something contrary to his nature—and not only contrary to his animal nature. He can even choose something contrary to his divine nature. But for the most part, if a person does not bring his choice into it, the nature of every Jew is to awaken when faced with a test of faith. By his very nature, he will awaken, and people endure severe torture rather than deny the one Hashem. Even if they are ignorant and unlearned and do not know Hashem’s greatness—then why do you give up your life? Yes, true, but the soul... He doesn’t even know how to say that his soul has awakened. He knows that he cannot do otherwise. And even with the little they do know, they do not contemplate it at all. A person who reaches such a point of mesiras nefesh does not make a calculation: “Ah, if I give up my life now, afterward I will have Gan Eden.” Most likely, no one makes that calculation. If he did, he would not give up his life. They do not give up their lives because of knowledge or contemplation of Hashem at all, but without any knowledge or contemplation, simply as though denying the one Hashem were utterly impossible. Why? Because he truly feels that, for him, it is impossible, without any reason, argument or answer at all. That is because the one Hashem shines in and gives life to the entire soul through His being enclothed in its faculty of chochmah, which is above the knowledge of comprehensible intellect. So with this he has explained how it is possible—how can Hakadosh Boruch Hu be grasped in chochmah when no thought can grasp Him at all? Right: the light of Hashem is not grasped by chochmah. It shines in chochmah, is enclothed in chochmah, is part of chochmah. Ah, good. So in this chapter the Rebbe explained

1:05:40 Speaker 1 Of the four questions, we explained how this love is an inheritance for us and what its root is: chochmah. Right? Now, the Rebbe did not explain here what this love is about. We said that every love has something it seeks. What is it drawn to? What does that love want? In the previous chapters, we explained that when a person contemplates the greatness of Hashem—this was in the previous chapters, right?—a feeling of love is born within him. Someone with daas, with a broad understanding and time, contemplates, and a love of Hashem is truly born within him, like flames of fire, like a blazing fire. What does he yearn for? What does he want? What is the feeling of that love? What is awakened in him at that moment? To cleave to G-dliness, right? And more than that, to become absorbed in G-dliness. Right? And to draw close to G-dliness. Right? That is what we discussed there. Here we are talking about a different love, with a different source. There, the love is rooted in binah, in understanding. Here, the love is rooted in chochmah. The difference between chochmah and binah is that binah is a sense of self, an independent existence, while chochmah is self-nullification. So if a love is rooted in binah, which involves a sense of self, what does it want? It wants to become nullified, to become absorbed, and to cleave. What does this love want? It is not what we discussed there. What does it seek? What more could it possibly seek? Yes. So that is the main subject of chapter 19, the next chapter. Yes. I mentioned as we were coming out of the elevator that she had donated it. Yael donated the Dvar Malchus to us. I found it easily before. It was thirty-three something.

1:08:17 Speaker 9 At fifty, one reaches the age of counsel. Now please explain “at fifty, one reaches the age of counsel” to us.

1:08:20 Speaker 1 Here it is.

1:08:23 Speaker 9 Please.

1:08:25 Speaker 1 “At fifty, one reaches the age of counsel.” I think the sicha about this is in Likkutei Sichos, volume 4.

1:08:29 Speaker 9 We want to awaken the choice—awaken it.

1:08:33 Speaker 1 All right, one halachah from Hilchos Beis Habechirah.

1:08:37 Speaker 9 It was hot.

1:08:39 Speaker 1 Last time we discussed a halachah from the beginning of chapter 5. This is a halachah from the beginning of chapter 4: “There was a stone in the western part of the Holy of Holies.” In general, the Beis Hamikdash was built on the western side of the Temple Mount, closer to the west than to the other sides. And within the Beis Hamikdash itself, within the courtyard, the building was closer to the western side. Within the Beis Hamikdash itself, too, the order of holiness ran from east to west. The farther west you went, the greater the holiness; and the holiest place in the Beis Hamikdash was the Holy of Holies. It was on the westernmost side. Within the Holy of Holies, which measured ten meters by ten meters, there was a stone on its western side. The Ark rested on that stone, and before it were the jar of manna and Aharon’s staff. “When Shlomo built the House”—meaning the First Beis Hamikdash—“and Shlomo knew through ruach hakodesh that it would ultimately be destroyed, he built a place in the Beis Hamikdash in which to conceal the Ark, below, in deep and winding hidden chambers. And King Yoshiyahu commanded that it be concealed in the place Shlomo had built, as it is said: ‘He said to the Levites, who taught all Israel and were holy to Hashem: Place the holy Ark in the House that Shlomo son of David, king of Israel, built. You no longer have a burden to carry on your shoulders,’” and so on. There is a long explanation of this—several interesting explanations. First of all, for all the other vessels of the Beis Hamikdash, such as the menorah, the Rambam explains in the halachos before you how to make the menorah. The tzitz—the Rambam explains how to make the tzitz; the altar, and so on. But he does not explain how to make the holy Ark. There is no explanation. He says where it was placed, but how it was made is not written.

1:11:00 Speaker 9 Carpenters know.

1:11:01 Speaker 1 Huh? So the Rebbe explains that the Ark was not actually one of the vessels of the Beis Hamikdash; it was not a vessel of service. What is a vessel of service? A vessel used to perform the service. The whole Beis Hamikdash is a means of serving. Serving what? Everything serves the Ark. The Ark is not a vessel of service; it is the purpose and ultimate point of the entire Beis Hamikdash. Based on this, the Rebbe also explains why King Shlomo, who foresaw through ruach hakodesh that the Beis Hamikdash would ultimately be destroyed, built in advance what we would today call an underground level. He built a Beis Hamikdash beneath the ground, in that same place. And King Yoshiyahu, hundreds of years later—many hundreds of years later, seven or eight hundred years later—commanded that the Ark be concealed in the place Shlomo had prepared for it. What does this tell us? Since the entire Beis Hamikdash and its vessels exist for the Ark, and the Ark is there—it has not moved. And where is it? It is not just anywhere; it is in the place built for it, in the Beis Hamikdash. They built that place for the Ark: the Holy of Holies. So it turns out that the Beis Hamikdash was not destroyed—not only spiritually, but physically as well.

1:12:35 Speaker 10 Is that what the Rebbe said, that there is no interruption?

1:12:38 Speaker 1 Huh?

1:12:38 Speaker 10 Is that what the Rebbe said, that there is no interruption—

1:12:40 Speaker 1 No interruption. The Rebbe said about us that we will not die.

1:12:48 Speaker 10 Ah.

1:12:50 Speaker 1 And from this explanation comes something remarkable: the Beis Hamikdash is there. When Hakadosh Boruch Hu returns and builds the Beis Hamikdash, what we will need to know is [unclear]. The Beis Hamikdash above is only the— With all its holiness and importance, the Beis Hamikdash was not destroyed. That is why, to this day, someone who comes to the site of the Beis Hamikdash may not enter if he is ritually impure, because it is holy, because the Ark is there, because everything is there. If we knew today where the altar stood, it would be possible to— In other words, the fact that we cannot offer sacrifices at the Beis Hamikdash today is a technical obstacle. We are ritually impure, and we do not know where the altar stood. But as far as its holiness is concerned, one could go there and offer sacrifices. “Aharon’s staff was concealed together with it”—the staff of Aharon and Moshe Rabbeinu that they used—and even the Urim VeTumim of the Second Beis Hamikdash did not give answers through ruach hakodesh, and so on. When you think about it, the Beis Hamikdash is there, built in all its glory. All that is needed is for Moshiach to come and for us to see it with our own eyes.

1:14:23 Speaker 10 Amen.