Likkutei Amarim Chapter 19 · 5785

00:00 Speaker 1 I actually had a story connected with this. I don’t know if you heard—about a week ago, last Tuesday, I think, the police caught someone counterfeiting mezuzos.

00:18 Speaker 2 Okay.

00:19 Speaker 1 It barely circulated on WhatsApp. It went around a little, very little.

00:23 Speaker 2 Were the people caught?

00:25 Speaker 1 No, no, not at all. I don’t know. They hushed it up. There were one or two messages, and then it went quiet. It wasn’t publicized, but it happened. And in the picture they sent, they’d photographed a printer—an ordinary Canon printer, a home printer—a computer, and a sofer’s desk with ink and everything. It said he’d counterfeited mezuzos by printing them. Now, if you’re printing mezuzos, why do you have on the desk... It looked fake to me. So I looked into it, and it turned out that it really had happened. The police caught him. It took me another two days to reach the source—the person who discovered it. I spoke to him, the rabbi who turns out to be a friend of mine, the head of the Yad Rafael Institute, Rabbi Shimon Dalawi. Anyway, he told me that yes, they’d caught them. How did they catch them? They saw mezuzos that were identical to one another. So how had the sofer done it? What was his method? I said to him, “But you can’t print them. When you see a printed mezuzah, you can immediately tell it’s printed, that it isn’t ink. It’s not the same.” He said, “No. The person who printed the mezuzos is a 51-year-old charedi Jew with a long black beard, from somewhere in the Shomron. He printed the mezuzos and then went over the printing with ink. He’s a certified sofer.”

02:04 Speaker 2 He went over the print.

02:05 Speaker 1 Over the print. He didn’t have to go over every little crown and detail; he went over the main lines. It really looks like ink. It looks good, looks beautiful, and it takes him half the time to write one. He doesn’t make mistakes, and anyway, he managed to sell several thousand of them.

02:21 Speaker 2 Thousands? Wow.

02:23 Speaker 1 Apparently he... Yes, apparently it takes him—I’d guess it takes him, say, a third as long as a regular mezuzah. He triples his output and makes money. Huh? He probably writes a mezuzah in about forty minutes.

02:35 Speaker 2 How long does it take to write a mezuzah?

02:38 Speaker 1 Probably a very short time. You spot it immediately. Anyway, that’s the background story.

02:43 Speaker 2 Right after the thousands.

02:45 Speaker 1 Once he starts selling, then... Why were we telling this story? Because afterward, a software company claimed that its software had discovered it. That’s a lie. It isn’t true. And when our programmer was told that another program detects it and his doesn’t—he’s Moroccan, and that really got to him. He sat down with the software and dropped everything. His children are on bein hazmanim break now too. He dropped everything, spent two days on it, and built the first software in the world that detects counterfeit mezuzos, because the other one doesn’t. To test it, he took a collection of images I’d given him when we started building the software six years ago, five years ago, something like that. Eight years ago. I’d given them to him for testing, for his work. I’d prepared a collection of two thousand mezuzos for him, each from a different sofer or something like that—a whole mix of mezuzos, so he’d have examples to work with.

03:57 Speaker 2 You have to publicize what you’re doing.

03:58 Speaker 1 He took the... I do publicize it. It’s on the internet; I publicize it everywhere, as much as I can. Soon there’ll be nationwide and worldwide publicity. We’re working on that now. Anyway, after he finished developing the mezuzah test, he said, “Let’s run it on our collection, the mezuzos we started working with—those poor two thousand mezuzos we photographed who knows when.” He ran it on all two thousand. Now, for every mezuzah in the collection, the software gives it a percentage score: what’s the chance it’s counterfeit? That’s how it works. All the mezuzos scored 0.1 percent. In other words, a one-in-a-thousand chance of being counterfeit. Not a high chance, and indeed they weren’t counterfeit. But...

04:51 Speaker 3 Can the number come out lower? Are there lower probabilities, or is that...

04:54 Speaker 1 No, it doesn’t know.

04:55 Speaker 3 The software doesn’t?

04:57 Speaker 1 But out of all the mezuzos, six received a score of seventy-three.

05:04 Speaker 3 Wow.

05:06 Speaker 1 I told him, “Send them over. Let’s see.”

05:08 Speaker 3 Wow.

05:09 Speaker 1 He sends me the mezuzos. I’ll show you the pictures. It takes a very, very long time to realize these aren’t the same photograph of several mezuzos. They look completely identical. Now, I don’t know—one mezuzah might have been photographed at one person’s place, another at someone else’s, and another in a different year altogether. But in a second, the software identified six completely identical mezuzos among the two thousand.

05:42 Speaker 3 Oh, identical to one another?

05:43 Speaker 1 Identical. What does identical mean? They were printed. How else could they be identical? They never would be. Even if a sofer wrote a million mezuzos in his lifetime, not one would be identical to another—not even close. And now what we’re going to do is build this feature into our software. From now on, whenever anyone checks a mezuzah with our software, if someone anywhere in the world has ever checked a mezuzah that looks the same...

06:15 Speaker 3 With the same software.

06:16 Speaker 1 With our software.

06:18 Speaker 4 Not with the same software.

06:20 Speaker 1 With our software, yes.

06:21 Speaker 3 Yes, because... Yes, thank you.

06:24 Speaker 1 Only with our software, obviously. It has to be in our database. But already we have hundreds of people using the software all over the world. It’s unbelievable. We have people in... We have several customers in Monroe.

06:39 Speaker 3 That’s Chabad, private Chabad.

06:41 Speaker 1 In Monroe, they’re Satmar people, Satmar. Some of them don’t even speak Hebrew, only Yiddish. How do we communicate with them? Don’t ask.

06:51 Speaker 3 But that...

06:54 Speaker 1 No English, nothing. Only Yiddish.

06:57 Speaker 3 The holy tongue.

06:57 Speaker 1 Lashon Hakodesh. We have people in Meah Shearim. We really do have people all over the world.

07:02 Speaker 3 The sofrim are different, but they understand sofrim; they don’t study so much.

07:07 Speaker 1 Anyway, what was this whole story about? It was all because of what you said. There was an argument over whether those six mezuzos really were counterfeit or not. Why? Because they aren’t identical. If they were printed, why aren’t they exactly identical? The argument went back and forth.

07:27 Speaker 3 There are all kinds of people who print them, right? They print them.

07:31 Speaker 1 Exactly, exactly the same thing.

07:32 Speaker 3 Impressive.

07:33 Speaker 1 So I said to one of the people arguing with me, “Listen, I’m not saying they’re—In my opinion, they aren’t counterfeit.” He says to me, “How can a person write exactly the same thing every time? Every time, exactly, exactly, exactly the same? How is that possible?” I told him, “Listen, have you ever heard of Rabbi Yoel Kahn? You watch Rabbi Yoel Kahn teach a class on a particular maamar. A year later, you watch him again: he reaches the same word and laughs. He reaches the next word and remembers a story. He tells the same story in the same words, in the same tone.”

08:13 Speaker 3 Maybe it’s a recording from last year.

08:15 Speaker 1 The same thing. And it isn’t that he plans it.

08:19 Speaker 3 Ilana, check whether it was a recording from last year.

08:23 Speaker 1 It isn’t that he plans it. He simply lives the maamar so deeply that each time it’s new to him. And it really does remind him of that story just then; it really does make him laugh just then.

08:38 Speaker 3 Who was it?

08:38 Speaker 1 [unclear]

08:40 Speaker 3 Until twelve. Baruch Atah. Okay.

08:42 Speaker 1 Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe. Blessed is Hashem. Okay, it says in Tanya that before Rava began teaching his students, he would say something humorous, and the rabbis would laugh. Then he could begin the lesson.

09:02 Speaker 3 That was a good laugh.

09:04 Speaker 1 So we’re up to chapter 19. Chapter 19 continues chapter 18. If you remember, we discussed how the main avodah of a beinoni—the complete avodah of a beinoni—is to contemplate the greatness of Hashem and thereby arouse love and awe. Then he fulfills all the mitzvos with love and awe of Hashem. That’s chapters 16 and 17. But that works only for someone whose mind is up to it. Someone whose understanding is limited can’t arouse those feelings. He contemplates, but his heart isn’t stirred. So the Alter Rebbe says there’s a solution. What’s the solution? Are you with me? We’ve started. There’s a solution—what is it? Instead of generating love, use the love you already have. And we asked: How can that be? How can someone be born with a love for something?

10:19 Speaker 3 As an inheritance.

10:20 Speaker 1 What?

10:20 Speaker 3 As an inheritance.

10:22 Speaker 1 Were you at the previous class? Huh?

10:24 Speaker 3 No.

10:25 Speaker 1 Very good.

10:27 Speaker 3 I wasn’t here last week.

10:27 Speaker 1 You weren’t here last week. So that’s exactly the question: What does it mean to inherit love? How can love be passed down? To begin with, even if a person passes on a trait of kindness to his children, it doesn’t pass to all of them. One gets more of it, another less. How can love be inherited across hundreds, thousands of generations, by absolutely everyone—children, women, everyone? No, that isn’t realistic. The Alter Rebbe asks an even further question. Say a person is kind and passes on traits of kindness to his children. A kind person finds it easy to love, because that’s his nature. But what does he find easy to love? Something he thinks about. If he thinks about someone who is his friend, he’ll love him. Why? Because he’s a kind person. If he thinks about Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he’ll begin to love Him, because he’s a kind person. But why would he have love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu when he isn’t thinking about Him? Only the trait is passed on, not the love itself. Love can’t be inherited. It doesn’t make sense. Yes, that’s what he’s asking. So to understand how this can be, we first need to ask: How can a person love something—Hakadosh Boruch Hu—without thinking about Him, without contemplating Him? How can there be such a thing? Second, if I have this love, why don’t I feel it? How do I reveal it? How do I use it? And if I already have it and can reveal it, why do I need to contemplate and make an effort at all? What’s the difference between generating love and revealing it? These are all things we need to understand. So the Alter Rebbe says that to understand all

12:15 Speaker 1 these things, we first need to establish four points, which he explains in chapters 18 and 19. What are the four points? First, we need to understand what inheritance means. Then, he says, we need to understand its source—where it comes from. And we need to understand its nature: what its object is, what this love is about. There’s love for a melody, love for wisdom, love for sports, love for all kinds of things. Love for food. What does this particular love want? What is its nature? And the third—fourth, and perhaps most important—point: How can this love contain fear within it? If you’re talking about love that is born of the intellect, emotions born of the intellect, then when you contemplate something good, you love it; when you contemplate something bad, you hate it and fear it. But what we received from Avraham was only love, not fear. So how can we serve Hashem with love alone, without fear? We have to say that this love is a kind of love that is also fear.

13:41 Speaker 5 Like a child who loves his mother, but also has a sense of fear toward her.

13:45 Speaker 1 But those are two things.

13:46 Speaker 5 They aren’t one thing.

13:47 Speaker 1 No?

13:48 Speaker 5 Loving your parents and also being afraid of them.

13:50 Speaker 1 Those are two things. He both loves and fears.

13:52 Speaker 6 The parents are afraid.

13:53 Speaker 5 In my house, they’re afraid.

13:55 Speaker 1 Fine. A person can have both, but they’re two—

14:00 Speaker 5 On the one hand. On the one hand.

14:01 Speaker 1 A person can both love Hakadosh Boruch Hu and fear Him. But those are two things, not one.

14:07 Speaker 5 Right.

14:08 Speaker 1 Here we’re saying that we received only love from Avraham. Nowhere does it say that we received fear from Avraham. We received only love from him. So where does the fear come from? To address that—in chapter 18, which we learned last week, he explained what inheritance means. What does inheritance mean?

14:28 Speaker 5 It means to inherit.

14:30 Speaker 1 What does it mean that this love is inherited? How can love be inherited, as we asked before? He explained it very simply. The Avos were a merkavah. What does “merkavah” mean? Broadly speaking, they were utterly nullified to G-dliness, and their bittul was so lofty that it aroused an inner response in G-dliness above. It reached higher and higher. We gave an analogy: When a teacher teaches students, the more their eyes light up, the more the teacher feels moved to give of his inner self. Because the Avos nullified themselves so completely and connected so deeply to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, this aroused an inner response from Hakadosh Boruch Hu as well. What does it mean that something inner was aroused above? That He gave them something. Through their avodah, they drew down the inner dimension of G-dliness; through their avodah, they drew down a soul. In other words, what every Jew inherits is not love. Every Jew inherits a soul from the Avos. And what is the nature of that soul? It loves Hashem. That’s how he explained what this inheritance is. Now, what is this level of G-dliness that each person receives? He explained that its source—the source of the level of G-dliness that the Avos drew down for us—is Chochmah, Chochmah of Atzilus, within which the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, dwells. That was the previous chapter. The Avos pass on a soul to us as an inheritance, and that soul has its source in Chochmah of Atzilus, within which the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, dwells. That’s the summary of chapter 18. Chapter 19 begins with a further explanation. Why a further explanation? First of all, there are still two questions we haven’t answered. We haven’t answered how fear is also included in it, and we haven’t answered what its nature is. So to explain its nature, he first adds a further explanation. A further

16:45 Speaker 1 explanation of what? Of what he says at the end of the previous chapter: that their source is in Chochmah. Once we understand what Chochmah means, what its nature is, we’ll also understand the nature of that love. All right? So now, after that very brief introduction, chapter 19: “For further explanation.” What is this matter of Chochmah? We need to explain thoroughly the verse, “The soul of man is the lamp of Hashem.” It’s a verse. That is, the Torah compares a Jew’s soul to a lamp. What kind of analogy is that? In what way, exactly, is a lamp an analogy for the soul? Why not a bonfire? Why not, I don’t know, a waterfall? Why a lamp? The meaning is that the souls of the Jewish people, who are called “man,” are like the light of a lamp, which by its nature is always flickering upward. Why does the light of a lamp keep flickering? Can’t it stay still? Because fire naturally wants to separate from the wick. That movement of the flame is, as it were, its effort to separate from the wick and rise upward, a kind of movement toward cleaving to its source above. Where above? The soul separates from the—the soul, the wick, the light—the light of the lamp. Now it separates from the wick. Where does it cleave? What does “above” mean? Where above can it cleave? So he says it cleaves to its source above, to the general element of fire beneath the sphere of the moon, as stated in Eitz Chaim. Why Eitz Chaim says this requires a lot of examination, but... Did we ever talk about the spheres? Four spheres? We didn’t get to that?

19:02 Speaker 7 The sun, the moon.

19:03 Speaker 1 Hmm? Our Sages said there are seven heavens surrounding the earth. We won’t discuss what each of the heavens is about now. That’s not our subject. The first heaven is the sky we see, the physical one. That’s something else. The second heaven contains eight spheres—physical spheres. What is a sphere? It’s a globe, an enormous globe surrounding the entire earth. A globe with volume, not a ring. Right? A complete globe, with a star fixed at some point within that enormous globe. What?

20:10 Speaker 7 Like—

20:10 Speaker 1 The planets are fixed within the celestial spheres. What rotates is the spheres. The whole sphere rotates, but we don’t see it. It’s made of a substance we don’t... we have no interaction with it, as they say. A sort of physical-spiritual substance. But when the sphere rotates, the planet fixed in it rotates along with it. And the spheres are arranged one above the other. There are eight spheres, one above the other. The sphere closest to us has the moon fixed in it; the one above it has the sun, and so on. He lists all the pla— the seven planets, and the eighth and ninth spheres. It seems to me; never mind. All right? Beneath the sphere of the moon is our earth. Our earth has—it is made up of four elements. The spheres are not made up of elements. The spheres in which the planets are fixed are spiritual entities. They know Hakadosh Boruch Hu. They can think, they sing praises to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, they have feelings, and so on. Really almost like angels—far more than human beings. The... physical elements that—what is far more than human beings? The spheres in which the planets are fixed: their understanding is greater than that of human beings. The spheres themselves? Yes. We don’t see them or hear them. That’s what it says. Beneath the sphere of the moon, which is the closest sphere, are four physical elements. These elements don’t see or think; they are completely inanimate, completely physical, and they are arranged one above the other. The lowest element is the heavy one, earth, the element of earth. Above it is the element of water, above that the element of air, and above that the element of fire. Yes. Where is the fire? Hmm? Where is the fire? Ah. The element of fire, as he writes, is beneath the sphere of the moon. Now, if it’s fire, why don’t we see fire there? Because it’s the element of fire. It isn’t fire. The element of fire—the fire we see is

22:34 Speaker 1 physical fire. The element of fire is a spiritual element. The element of fire is dark; you can’t see it. But when you throw a stone, it falls downward. Why? It wants to return to its source and root. Fire’s source and root are up there, so it seeks to be drawn back to its root beneath the sphere of the moon. All right? That’s... Is the water the water that surrounds the earth? Yes, more or less. That’s how it was when Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world. Afterward, Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted there to be human beings, so He gathered the waters together so that dry land would appear and people would have somewhere to live. But by the nature of creation, water is above the earth. The water we see isn’t the element of water alone, either. Its main component is the element of water, but it isn’t only that element. We never see... you never see just an element on its own. A single pure element doesn’t exist in reality; they always come mixed together. That’s not relevant now. So what’s the analogy? Let’s go back to the analogy. If the flame’s wish were fulfilled, it would now leave the wick and cleave to its root beneath the sphere of the moon. What would there be down here? Darkness. Its existence would cease. Right? What would happen to it up above? Up above, too, it would have no existence of its own. So what does it actually want? It wants to cease to exist. The candle goes out. Understood? The flame naturally desires to separate from the wick and cleave to its root above, in the universal element of fire beneath the sphere of the moon, as it says in Eitz Chayim. Even though as a result it would go out and give no light at all below, and above, too, its light would be utterly nullified within its root. Its existence would be completely nullified. So why does it want that? Nevertheless, that is what it desires. Why? By its nature. That’s its nature. That’s how it was created. It was created with a nature that makes it want

25:05 Speaker 1 to nullify its own existence. And with this we can understand why our Sages said, “The soul of man is the candle of Hashem.” In what way is a soul like a candle? Just as a flame naturally wants to nullify its own existence and be absorbed into its source, its root, even though its own existence will be nullified, that is what the soul wants. The soul is compared to a light, to a candle—not because a candle naturally gives light. Just the opposite: because a flame naturally wants to be nullified. So, too, the soul of a person—and not only the soul, but also its levels of ruach and nefesh—naturally desires and longs to separate from and leave the body, and to cleave to its root and source in Hashem, the Life of all life, blessed be He. Even though it will become nothing and naught and be utterly nullified there, and there will be no... Yes, above it will be utterly nullified, and below nothing will remain of its former essence and being. Does “its former essence and being” mean up above? No. I wanted to skip this, but... they won’t let me, so we’ll explain this too. When the soul is abo—there is a difference between the flame of a candle and the light of the soul, even though this is an analogy. What’s the difference? When the candle’s flame cleaves to its source above, its existence really will be nullified, and there really won’t be anything left. But if the soul cleaves to its source above, can we say the soul will be nullified? No. You can’t say such a thing, right? It has its own candle. What? It has its own candle. So why... if it won’t be nullified, why compare it to the candle’s flame? Its former existence will be nullified. The soul as it is down here in the body is on the level of a created being. That existence will be nullified. It will be nullified within its source and root. Its existence will become G-dliness, included in G-dliness—not that the soul itself will be nullified. On the contrary, the soul’s essential... I’m talking too much, nu. Is the main part of the soul above? Huh? Is the main part of the soul above? Is the main part of the soul the soul in the body, or the soul above? The purpose is souls in bodies. No, not the purpose. Where is the main part of the soul? Above. Above, right? What’s down here

27:43 Speaker 1 below? It’s only the soul’s foot. Only a ray of the soul is in the body. The main part of the soul is above. When the soul seeks to be nullified, what does it want? It wants to be as it is above. Its existence as it is below, where it is separate from G-dliness—that will be nullified. Its former essence and being will be nullified. What does “former” mean? Because right now, while it is in the body, what does it want? It wants to be nullified like the flame, to be nullified from this, from this existence. That’s what “former” means. As though there’s an actual essence there? Yes. Okay. “And nothing will remain of its former essence and being.” Nevertheless, this is the soul’s natural desire and wish. And “nature” is a borrowed term for anything that is not based on reason and understanding. You can understand this in two ways, but first, the plain meaning here in this passage: Why do we call something “nature”? It’s its nature. What do we mean by “nature”? Something that’s a given. It isn’t based on reasoning. Why does a stone go down and not up? That’s its nature. You’ll say it’s because of gravity. Nu, and why does gravity pull downward instead of pushing upward? There’s no logical explanation for that. It’s nature. That’s how it is. Right? So the soul’s desire to nullify its own existence and be included in G-dliness is its nature. And here, too, the intention is not that this will and desire in the soul is not a matter of reason, understanding, or comprehensible intellect. Sorry. Here, too, what is meant is that this will and desire in the soul... The soul has a will because it wants this. It has such a desire. It’s not that... it’s not a kind of nature like a stone’s nature to fall, where the stone doesn’t know that this is its nature. No, the soul’s nature is to want this. It truly wants it. But this desire implanted within it is natural. It does not come from its own choice. It is not a matter of

29:43 Speaker 1 Reason and understanding, an intellect that can be grasped and understood, but rather above reason and intellect that can be grasped and understood. So up to this point, he has brought an analogy from the beginning of the chapter: Why is the soul compared to a flame? What does it help us understand about the soul? What does it add to our understanding of what the soul is? Just as a flame wants to lose its separate existence, the soul’s nature is to do the same. All right? How does that help us? How does it further explain what we discussed in the previous chapter? After all, he began by saying this was a further explanation. We need to understand why the soul is compared to a flame. What was explained in the previous chapter? That the soul’s source is chachmah. Right? And what have we explained now? That the soul’s nature is to lose its separate existence. So what are we trying to explain about chachmah? That it wants to lose its separate existence? Let’s look inside. And this nature of the soul, its desire to become absorbed in G-dliness, is the aspect of chachmah within the soul, in which the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, dwells. Now he begins to introduce a new point and says, “And this is.” What does “this is” mean? This idea—the desire to lose one’s separate existence and become absorbed in G-dliness—is a principle throughout the entire side of holiness. Not only in the neshamah, not only in the ruach and nefesh, but in everything holy. What defines it? That the aspect of chachmah shines within it. What is the aspect of chachmah? The desire to lose one’s separate existence before G-dliness. Holiness... What is the difference between kadosh and kodesh? We say that some things are kadosh, while others are kodesh. Shabbos kodesh. We call Shabbos kodesh, but a person—we say that he has been made holy. Have you ever heard someone call a righteous person kodesh? No. There’s no such thing. Something that was sanctified. Hmm? Something that is itself, and something that... No, wait. Kadosh means it is holy. Sorry. Kodesh means it is itself an expression of holiness. Kadosh means it was made holy; holiness was drawn into it,

32:27 Speaker 1 holiness was brought down upon it. Like a holy book, which is a sacred object. Holiness means separation. Kadosh means set apart. Yes. What? What can we say is truly set apart? A person? Why do we call such a person holy? He is set apart, removed from material concerns, right? But is that truly holy? He is removed from material concerns, but he is still a human being, still living in a body. He still needs to eat and drink. Yes. We say an angel is entirely... What is the one being we can say is completely, completely, completely separate, removed and holy, beyond all worldly matters? Only Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Why is Shabbos kodesh? Hmm, why is Shabbos kodesh? Because Shabbos is a revelation of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Exactly—a revelation of G-dliness. That’s precisely the point. So why do we call something part of the side of holiness? Anything in which holiness, in which chachmah, shines becomes nullified before G-dliness; it is holy. And something that does not become nullified before G-dliness, in which chachmah does not shine, belongs to the sitra achra. It wants itself; it feels its own existence. That is why chachmah is called chachmah. The letters of chachmah can be read as koach mah, “the power of mah.” What is bittul? Mah—“what”—something with no substance of its own. What is bittul? What is koach mah? Chachmah is the power to become nullified. And it is the exact opposite of kelipah and sitra achra, of the souls of the nations of the world. What characterizes those souls? We said that the nations of the world receive their vitality from the three impure kelipos. What do the three impure kelipos say? “They act for themselves.” Everything one does is for oneself. With holiness, the entire concern is: What does Hakadosh Boruch Hu want? With sitra achra, what does it want? What do I want? The exact opposite. That is why we say the kelipos cry, “Give, give,” and they say, “Feed me.” “Give, give”—

34:51 Speaker 1 that is written in the Book of Proverbs about the leech. A leech is a creature that sucks blood. It won’t give anything; it only takes everything for itself. And the same was true of the wicked Eisav, who said to Yaakov, “Feed me, please, some of this red, red stuff.” He doesn’t even want—he is so unwilling to do anything that all he wants is to receive, not to give. He isn’t even willing to make the effort to lift the spoon to his mouth. You do everything for me. That is kelipos: to be an independent entity, as explained above, the opposite of chachmah. That is why they are called dead. We said that “the wicked are called dead even in their lifetimes.” What does that have to do with death? He’s alive. Why call him dead? Think about holiness. When is a person healthy—when he feels his body, or when he doesn’t feel it? When he doesn’t feel it. The moment he begins to feel his body, apparently something is lacking in its vitality, right? Why? Because all the body’s vitality depends on the soul within it. So if the body is subordinate to the soul and does not feel its own separate existence, it is alive. If it begins to feel itself, that means it has become somewhat disconnected from the soul, and it is already beginning to move toward death. Exactly the same is true of the world as a whole. What do all the wicked, all the kelipos, want? They want not to feel G-dliness. Oh, you don’t want to feel it? You don’t want to be nullified before the source of your life? Well, what do we call that? Dead. For “chachmah gives life,” and it is written, “They die without chachmah.” And it isn’t only non-Jews who are called dead; wicked Jews and Jewish transgressors are too. A Jew who committed a sin—why did he do it? Because he felt his own separate existence and was not nullified before Hakadosh Boruch Hu. If he was not nullified before Hakadosh Boruch Hu and committed a sin, then he too is called dead. Before they faced a test of sanctifying

37:11 Speaker 1 Hashem’s name. Oops. What happened? What happened?

37:18 Speaker 8 Mishneh Torah.

37:20 Speaker 1 When a person faces a test in a matter of faith, suddenly we say: Everything we discussed, the whole explanation—erase it. Now he is nullified before G-dliness. What suddenly happened? All along, the kelipos had the upper hand over him, and he thought only about himself. He—his whole life revolved around himself. Suddenly someone says something to him. What do they tell him? Bow down to an idol. They don’t tell him to believe in it. They can’t. A non-Jew can’t tell a Jew, “Believe in an idol.” He can tell him, “Bow down, raise your head, kiss it.” What can he tell him to do?

38:04 Speaker 8 Pick up the ring.

38:05 Speaker 1 Pick up the ring. Yes, what? Perform some action. Did anyone tell you to believe? What do I care what you believe? I don’t know what you believe. Just perform some action. No. What? Out of respect? What happened here? I’ll put it this way: The aspect of chachmah in their G-dly soul, together with the spark of G-dliness from the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, that is clothed within it, are in a state of exile in their bodies, in the animal soul that comes from the kelipah in the left chamber of the heart, which reigns and rules over their bodies. Exile. That is the exile of the Shechinah. The wicked have a soul too. We said earlier that it comes as an inheritance. Everyone receives it as an inheritance. He has a soul, he has chachmah in his soul, he has love of Hashem. He has bittul before G-dliness, just like the greatest tzaddikim. Exactly the same. Why isn’t it revealed? Because it is in exile. Why is it in exile within us?

39:01 Speaker 8 Because of the animal... the animal soul. Exile.

39:03 Speaker 1 The animal soul covers the G-dly soul and doesn’t let it reveal itself. If the G-dly soul were revealed, if it were out in the open, he would not commit sins. He would love Hashem. Why can he commit sins? Because the animal soul covers the G-dly soul. So that is why a person... Why is he wicked? He is wicked because he has committed sins all his life. Why did he commit sins? Because the animal soul covered the G-dly soul. The animal soul wants things for itself, so it puts a covering over the G-dly soul, over its eyes, so it can’t see anything, and that’s that. Then it can do whatever... Then he feels his own separate existence. What suddenly happened that the G-dly soul broke through the animal soul’s covering and woke up? Why hadn’t it woken up until now?

39:54 Speaker 8 Because his mother is inferior.

39:55 Speaker 1 Huh?

39:56 Speaker 8 Because his mother is inferior.

39:57 Speaker 1 Because?

39:58 Speaker 8 His mother is inferior.

40:00 Speaker 1 Let’s see. That is why this love in the G-dly soul, whose desire and longing are to cleave to Hashem, the Life of life, blessed be He, is called a concealed love. Why isn’t it called a hidden love? Why is it called concealed? What is the difference between something hidden and something concealed?

40:19 Speaker 8 It’s as though it exists.

40:20 Speaker 1 You can’t see either one.

40:21 Speaker 8 But hidden...

40:22 Speaker 9 With one of them, maybe you know—

40:23 Speaker 8 We don’t feel it because... Concealed means it exists; there’s something there that you can sense, but it’s simply covered up.

40:28 Speaker 1 Close.

40:29 Speaker 9 Hidden means completely covered up.

40:30 Speaker 8 No, hidden means even—

40:32 Speaker 1 You can’t see either of them; you don’t know about either of them. There’s no difference.

40:35 Speaker 9 Concealed means... someone concealed it.

40:37 Speaker 8 Concealed. Yes, something concealed still takes up space. It has a place. You can’t see it, but it still sort of—

40:43 Speaker 9 Exists. You can’t see it, but it’s there.

40:45 Speaker 1 No, both of them are there.

40:46 Speaker 8 Even its substance.

40:48 Speaker 1 Well, well, well, yes, almost. Something hidden is hidden. Nobody is hiding it.

40:55 Speaker 8 And something concealed has been concealed.

40:56 Speaker 1 Someone else concealed it. Ah, okay, okay, sorry.

40:59 Speaker 8 You’re still pointing it out.

41:02 Speaker 9 Huh?

41:02 Speaker 1 No, I didn’t understand. Okay. Sorry. That’s exactly the point. Hidden. It’s hidden in itself. Why can’t we see air? Is someone hiding it? It’s something that’s invisible; you can’t see it. Why can’t we see Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Is He hiding Himself? He’s right here, openly. He’s something you can’t see. Why don’t we feel the love? Because it’s a hidden love. So if it’s hidden, why do we call it concealed?

41:31 Speaker 8 That’s why it’s a world.

41:32 Speaker 1 Because the animal soul conceals it. So there are two things here in the G-dly soul, in that soul that comes through Chochmah. There’s the way it’s hidden in itself, and there’s the way the animal soul conceals it.

41:48 Speaker 8 Why is it hidden?

41:50 Speaker 1 Hmm?

41:50 Speaker 8 Ah, that’s what...

41:50 Speaker 1 Because this is the essence of the soul, which is above being enclothed in the body, and it cannot be enclothed in the body. We’ll soon see the difference between these two aspects.

41:58 Speaker 8 No, I thought that was in the previous chapter, or am I mistaken?

42:01 Speaker 1 No, no. We’ll get to it in a moment. Ah, so it’s called concealed love because something conceals it. What conceals it? We just learned: the animal soul. For it is concealed and covered by a sackcloth garment of kelipah in the sinners of Israel, and from it, from that animal soul, there enters them—who is “them”? Us—a spirit of folly that leads to sin. As our Sages said, “A person does not sin, etc., unless a spirit of folly enters him.” What is that spirit of folly? It’s the spirit of the animal soul, which covers the G-dly soul. If the animal soul didn’t conceal it, he wouldn’t sin. But here’s the question: if the G-dly soul conceals... the animal soul conceals and covers the G-dly soul and doesn’t let it reveal itself—why? Because he’s immersed in desires, because he wants only what he wants, because he’s aware of himself, because he thinks about himself—so he commits transgressions. That covers it. Well, what suddenly happened when he was confronted with a matter of faith, a matter concerning Hashem? Suddenly it no longer covers it? What changed?

43:07 Speaker 8 He threw off the mask.

43:08 Speaker 1 Yesterday they told him to desecrate Shabbos, and he had no problem with it. Yes. Now they tell him to bow down to an idol, and he won’t do it for anything. What’s the difference? Here they tell him to commit a transgression, and there they tell him to commit a transgression. What’s the difference? Right. Why does the animal soul cover this but not that? What is it about a test of faith that the animal soul doesn’t cover? What’s going on here? Yes?

43:37 Speaker 8 Really.

43:38 Speaker 1 Hmm.

43:39 Speaker 8 His request.

43:40 Speaker 1 Let me, let me show you. Ah. This is... this is what chapter 19 is about. “But this exile of the aspect of Chochmah in the soul applies only to the aspect that spreads from it throughout the soul to give it life. But the root and essence of the aspect of Chochmah in the G-dly soul”—that, the animal soul cannot cover. Why? Because the root and essence of the G-dly soul, the Chochmah of the G-dly soul, is in the mind. Where is the animal soul?

44:20 Speaker 8 In the heart.

44:20 Speaker 1 In the heart. The animal soul, which is in the heart, cannot cover the Chochmah that’s in the mind. It can cover that aspect which descends from the mind to the heart and is present in the heart. Yes? Let’s put it in more understandable terms. A person has bittul before G-dliness, he has G-dly Chochmah, he has the Chochmah of Hakadosh Boruch Hu shining in his mind; he has bittul before G-dliness. He feels that bittul; he submits himself to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. His feeling is that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is truth and he himself is nothing. Then that feeling, that understanding, shines within him, and he reflects on it, and it shines in his heart. Then his love will be love of Hashem. Why is it love of Hashem? Because that Chochmah in the soul has reached the heart, reached his feelings. And now, in his feelings, what does that heart, whose role is to love, love? Chochmah shines in it, bittul shines in it, and he loves Hashem. Yes? But that same heart that loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu because Chochmah shines in it also has a left side, and the left side of the heart is drawn to the desires of this world. So which will win? It depends. Sometimes one, sometimes the other. That is what the animal soul can cover. It’s not Chochmah itself; it’s its extension that shines in the heart. That it can cover. But the essential point of bittul in the mind—the animal soul doesn’t reach there. It cannot cover it. So as long as we’re talking to a person about worldly things, about desires, then we’re here, where only the extension of Chochmah shines and is present. Here the animal soul can cover it. He can be a wicked person. But when we speak to a person about faith, faith isn’t in the heart. Faith is in the mind, in Chochmah, in the mind in the head. The animal soul isn’t there. When we speak to him about faith, it awakens—there’s nothing that

46:36 Speaker 1 covers it. It doesn’t cover it, so it awakens. Understood? So why isn’t it there all the time? If it’s there and nothing covers it, how can a person commit transgressions at all? Nothing covers it. He says, in line three: “It is merely in a state of sleep in the wicked.” Nothing covers the very essence of the G-dly soul, but it’s...

47:07 Speaker 8 Dormant.

47:08 Speaker 1 Dormant, asleep. It cannot reveal itself right now.

47:11 Speaker 8 Especially not in people who don’t know anything.

47:13 Speaker 1 Right. “And it does not perform its function in them,” in the wicked, as long as their minds are occupied with worldly pleasures and desires, it sleeps. “But when they face a test in a matter of faith”—faith is above reason, and it touches the soul at the level of the Chochmah within it, where nothing covers it—then that aspect of Chochmah awakens from its sleep. And when it awakens from its sleep, it performs its function. How? Through the power of Hashem enclothed within it. And we already saw that the power of Hashem enclothed in Chochmah is the very essence and being of Hashem. That is an immensely powerful force, and because it is so powerful, a person can give up his life. Nothing else matters to him anymore; even his life doesn’t matter to him. You aren’t asking, so I’ll ask the question, because it’s a very important question.

48:07 Speaker 8 Yes.

48:08 Speaker 1 What’s the difference? Non-Jews also give up their lives. Hmm?

48:12 Speaker 8 But when... you face the tenth test so that... ah, what’s it called? So they can, like...

48:19 Speaker 1 Right.

48:19 Speaker 8 A Jew gives up his soul.

48:20 Speaker 1 Wait, let’s make sure everyone understands the question. Okay? Come on, yes? Non-Jews also give up their lives. Why does he attribute this specifically to the Chochmah in the G-dly soul that we inherited from the Patriarchs? What’s the difference? These are two completely different things. When will a non-Jew give up his life?

48:37 Speaker 8 Pride.

48:38 Speaker 1 For an ideal. Yes? Something important to him—say, I don’t know, the success of his country, or an idea he... It matters so much to him that it’s what he lives for. If there’s no idea, if there’s no ideal, what does he need life for? So when he goes to die for that thing, what is he dying for? For himself. To magnify his ego. When a Jew gives up his life, it’s exactly the opposite. He gives up his life not to magnify his own existence, but to nullify his own existence, because he submits it to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. It’s exactly the opposite. Oh, I remembered a story.

49:24 Speaker 8 Sivan’le?

49:26 Speaker 1 Hmm?

49:27 Speaker 8 No, go ahead.

49:30 Speaker 1 Um... “And therefore, through the power of Hashem, he can withstand a test of faith in Hashem without any reason, knowledge, or understanding accessible to him; overcome the kelipos and the desires of this world, whether permitted or forbidden, to which he has become accustomed; be repulsed by them; choose Hashem as his portion and his lot; and give up his life for the sanctification of His name. Even though the kelipos prevailed over him all his life and he could not overcome them, as the Zohar says, ‘The wicked are in the power of their hearts,’” as we learned in chapter 17. Fine, so he’s wicked and in the power of his heart. Yes, but when we’re talking about faith, that’s something else. Faith is not in the power of the heart. “Nevertheless, when he faces a test concerning faith in the one Hashem, whose foundation is in the holy mountains”—it is the aspect of Chochmah in the G-dly soul, in which the light of the blessed Ein Sof is enclothed—“then all the kelipos are null and utterly nullified, as though they had never existed, before Hashem, as it is written.” Very interesting: he brings four verses here. How many times have we seen in Tanya—

50:28 Speaker 8 There was another time.

50:30 Speaker 1 Similar, for the same reason. How many times does the Alter Rebbe bring four different verses for the same point? Look. There are a few similar places. “As it is written, ‘All the nations are as nothing before Him.’” That’s the first verse. “And it is written, ‘For behold, Your enemies, Hashem, for behold, Your enemies shall perish; they shall be scattered.’ And it is written, ‘They shall perish like wax melting before fire.’ And it is written”—a fourth verse—“‘Mountains melted like wax.’” There’s an explanation from the Rebbe’s father that... What?

51:05 Speaker 8 It’s a progression, though. A progression through the verses.

51:08 Speaker 1 I don’t know if it’s a progression; there isn’t much explanation of that. But the Rebbe’s father explains that these correspond to all four kelipos: the three impure kelipos and kelipas nogah. That’s why the first three verses say they will perish, disappear, cease to exist. The last verse only says they will melt. That refers to kelipas nogah.

51:27 Speaker 8 In other words,

51:29 Speaker 1 Yes, yes. And it subdues them, exactly, yes. So that means the light of Hashem is so powerful that it melts away all four kelipos. “And behold”—we said that wherever it says “and behold,” it introduces a new point. Okay? One last point—do you have the strength?

51:48 Speaker 8 Outside.

51:49 Speaker 1 A little more, another five minutes or so?

51:51 Speaker 8 Yes, yes.

51:52 Speaker 1 “And behold, the light of Hashem, the Infinite One…” So what is revealed when a person faces a test of faith? The chochmah in the G-dly soul is revealed, and when it is, a Jew begins keeping mitzvos. He stops being a rasha and starts being, uh, a tzaddik or a beinoni—I don’t know. Okay? “And behold, the light of Hashem, the Infinite One, blessed be He, which is clothed in the soul’s chochmah, has such great and mighty power to drive away and repel the sitra achra and the kelipos that they cannot touch even its garments of thought, speech, or action.” How great is “such great”? So great that they cannot touch even its garments of thought, speech, or action. That’s what we discussed earlier. We hinted at it, and the Alter Rebbe says it here. What do I mean? What was the story we just read in the kinos, with the ring? What was that woman’s name? I forgot. Was it Yehudis?

52:45 Speaker 10 Chana. Chana.

52:47 Speaker 1 Was that the story of Chana?

52:49 Speaker 10 It was Chana and her seven children.

52:50 Speaker 1 Okay. What does he say to the youngest child? Pick up the ring. Yes. If the king had ordered him to change his beliefs, I would understand that his faith had now awakened and was doing its work. But the king didn’t ask him to change his faith; he asked him to perform a physical act. Why did his faith awaken? The king wasn’t speaking to the child against his faith. He was saying: Do something. He even gave him, how do you say, a way out. Yes, we’ll throw you a candy and you can bend down, as it were. Yes, just perform the act. He didn’t tell him not to believe. On the contrary, he told him he could go on believing. Just pretend. Right?

53:38 Speaker 10 And don’t even worry that you’ll be drawn to it, just…

53:40 Speaker 1 So why? When does that chochmah in the soul awaken? It awakens when someone challenges his faith. Here, nobody challenged his faith. They spoke to him about what he would actually do—an action. Why did it awaken? The Alter Rebbe says that the light of Hashem, the Infinite One, blessed be He, in the soul’s chochmah is so powerful that the kelipos cannot touch even its garments. He cannot bear even a trace of idol worship touching the soul’s garments.

54:12 Speaker 10 A wide radius.

54:13 Speaker 1 Huh?

54:13 Speaker 10 It has a wide radius of influence.

54:15 Speaker 1 All the way out. “That is, to withstand a test and give up his life rather than perform even a mere act contrary to faith in Hashem’s oneness, such as bowing to an idol, even though he does not believe in it at all in his heart. And likewise, rather than speak falsely, G-d forbid, about Hashem’s oneness.” Rather than say that he doesn’t believe. No, they’ll tell him: Just say you don’t believe. No, he cannot say something false. Why can’t he? Because the chochmah in his soul has awakened. “Even though his mouth and heart are not in accord, while his heart remains whole in its faith in Hashem. This is called fear included within love.” What does “fear included within love” mean?

54:59 Speaker 10 Fear that he…

55:00 Speaker 1 Fear that is included in love. Why is it fear?

55:04 Speaker 10 Because I love it so much, I can’t disconnect from it. I can’t.

55:06 Speaker 1 Because he loves Hashem so much, he is afraid of becoming disconnected from Him. So the fear of disconnection isn’t something separate; it’s the very same thing. They are truly one, not two different things. Ordinarily, love of Hashem and fear of Hashem are two different things. You have love of Hashem and you have fear—two different things. Here the fear is part of the love. Why? Because of the nature of that hidden love: “It is the natural love in the G-dly soul of every Jew, which by its nature desires and wishes to cleave to its root and source, the light of the Infinite One, blessed be He. Because of this love and desire, it naturally fears and dreads touching even the outermost edge of the impurity of idol worship.” What does “the outermost edge of the impurity of idol worship” mean? Not idol worship itself, just its outermost edge, just the act. “For it is contrary to faith in Hashem’s oneness, even in the soul’s external garments, which are speech or action, without any belief in the heart at all.” Now, how does this help us? So we’ve finished explaining chapters 18 and 19. We’ve finished explaining—the Rebbe has finished explaining—what hidden love is. We now know what hidden love is, how it is an inheritance, and how everyone has a holy soul that cannot disconnect from G-dliness. Well, how does that help us become beinonim?

56:27 Speaker 10 I’ll use it.

56:29 Speaker 1 Huh?

56:30 Speaker 10 Well, I’ll use it and awaken it.

56:31 Speaker 1 But it awakens—excellent, but it awakens only when I face a test of faith. I don’t face that kind of test every day.

56:40 Speaker 10 So I’ll awaken it myself. I’ll, I’ll do the…

56:42 Speaker 1 How? It awakens only when I face a test of faith. That’s what we discussed, isn’t it?

56:50 Speaker 10 We said that it’s hidden, that it…

56:52 Speaker 1 What’s hidden is what extends from it. When does the love itself awaken? It actually takes effect only when a Jew’s faith is challenged. Otherwise, it remains as it is. Nothing else will awaken it. So how does it help me keep all the Torah and mitzvos? You see the difficulty? It’s a good question. Now that we understand what this hidden love is, we need to understand how to reach it. Yes? So we’ll take the long and short path. The long path, I’ll tell you right now, takes five chapters—five of the longest and most difficult chapters in Tanya. The short path is that the answer, in the end, is that I just have to remember that I’m a Jew. That’s what awakens it. But to understand that, we have to go through all five chapters. We’ll begin, with Hashem’s help, next time.