Likkutei Amarim Chapter 21 · 5785

00:00 Speaker 1 Okay, let’s learn chapter 21. Chapter 21 continues the chapter we learned two weeks ago, chapter 20. For anyone who doesn’t remember, just a quick reminder: In these chapters, the Alter Rebbe explains how each of us can serve Hashem with a hidden love. He says that each of us has a love hidden in our heart. This love comes from the soul, and every Jew has a soul. We inherited our souls from our holy forefathers, so everyone has this love, and everyone can use it to serve Hashem. Why do we need to use this love at all? Because earlier, in the previous chapters, he explained that the main way to serve Hashem is to awaken our feelings: to contemplate Hashem’s greatness, awaken our feelings, and then serve Hashem with love and awe. That is the main avodah of the beinoni, of each of us, and it really is within everyone’s reach. Why is it within everyone’s reach? Everyone can contemplate; if they contemplate, their heart will be stirred, and then they will serve Hashem with love and awe. Everyone has a mind and can contemplate His greatness. So why isn’t that enough? Because although it is within everyone’s reach, it isn’t very close within everyone’s reach. Not everyone has time to contemplate. You need to learn a lot for that. Not everyone has a sensitive heart. So there is another approach, another way of serving Hashem, that is not merely close to everyone but very close. How is it very close? You don’t need to bring a love into being through contemplation. You only need to awaken the love you already have. It is already there. You don’t need to bring it into being, to produce a new love. You only need to reveal what is already within you. So that is much

01:53 Speaker 1 easier. That is why it is very close, not merely close. How do we awaken—how do we reach this love? How do we arouse it? He explained in chapters 18 and 19 that whenever a Jew faces a test of faith in Hashem, this love awakens. This love of Hashem is the soul’s feeling of cleaving to, or being connected with, G-dliness. The moment a Jew feels that he is being separated from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, this love awakens and begins to cry out and move him. Nothing can stand against it. No obstacle, no delay, no interference. Once this love awakens, it pushes everything aside. So once you know how to awaken it and reveal it, no desire in the world will be able to tempt you to transgress—to commit sins. It sounds terribly simple.

03:08 Speaker 2 Enough, little one, here.

03:12 Speaker 6 [unclear]

03:14 Speaker 2 It’s already finished, the little girl.

03:16 Speaker 1 Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe, through Whose word everything came to be.

03:23 Speaker 6 A redhead, yes, we spoke about that too. Yes, we saw him standing tall here with the little girl.

03:33 Speaker 2 Come here, come here.

03:38 Speaker 6 There’s some here. Would you like a little coffee?

03:42 Speaker 2 Excuse me, someone you arranged a Zoom with asked yesterday—she wanted us to do a Zoom.

03:51 Speaker 1 Oh, Ilana wanted that.

03:53 Speaker 2 Oh, so we won’t do it now.

03:55 Speaker 1 No, but she has visitors right now.

03:58 Speaker 2 So we won’t start—there really were people who asked me yesterday, so I said there would be a Zoom, so I said that—

04:04 Speaker 1 It’s very hard for me to speak in front of a camera. I can’t concentrate.

04:09 Speaker 6 But you don’t have to see yourself.

04:12 Speaker 1 Huh?

04:13 Speaker 6 Even if they film the...

04:14 Speaker 2 No, that’s on the account. I’ll tell you now what there is to put there.

04:17 Speaker 1 I know myself. It won’t work, come on.

04:20 Speaker 2 Whoever wants to can watch.

04:28 Speaker 6 Just

04:28 Speaker 1 It took me time even to get used to recordings.

04:32 Speaker 6 Okay, carry on in a moment.

04:33 Speaker 2 Do they sell it afterward?

04:35 Speaker 1 What?

04:35 Speaker 2 Do they sell it afterward?

04:36 Speaker 1 If they edit it? No, I can give you access to the files, and if you want, you can edit them.

04:40 Speaker 2 Oh.

04:43 Speaker 6 Or you can [unclear] the whole class and everyone.

04:45 Speaker 2 Not an option.

04:48 Speaker 6 What matters to her is that she can hear it properly.

04:50 Speaker 2 I’ll publicize my studio—what do you want?

04:53 Speaker 6 So she won’t hear it.

04:55 Speaker 1 Four years ago, when we started, there were a few times when I began editing, but after three classes I gave it up. It takes time. Okay, so we said that we want to serve Hashem. The Alter Rebbe says it is not just close, but very close. How is it very close? Because a person doesn’t need to bring a love into being or produce one, only to reveal the love he already has. But what’s the problem? This love is not so easy to reveal. When is it revealed? What did he explain over those two long chapters, 18 and 19? When does it awaken? It awakens when something touches it. Only when someone says to a Jew, “You are now going to stop being a Jew”—that is when it awakens. Nothing else causes this love to come out and reveal itself. Well, how many times in a person’s life is he “fortunate,” in quotation marks, to be backed up against a wall and forced by non-Jews to abandon his religion? That doesn’t happen every day. So what good does it do me? What good is it to have such a love if it never reveals itself? Here the Alter Rebbe comes and says: Yes, you should know that you can awaken and reveal this love, even though it is so deeply hidden, and even though the only thing that reveals it is a test of faith in Hashem. You can reach a point where every mitzvah—both positive commandments and prohibitions—awakens and reveals this love. How? How can that be? He said that, in fact, each of the 613 mitzvos is a particular aspect of the prohibition of idolatry—both positive commandments and prohibitions. All the mitzvos are particular aspects of the prohibition of idolatry. That means that if a Jew, G-d forbid, neglects some positive commandment,

07:06 Speaker 1 no matter which mitzvah, even a mitzvah instituted by the Sages... The Sages ordained that before eating a meal, you must wash your hands. Now suppose he is somewhere away from home, out in a field, on a trip or something, and it is hard for him to wash his hands. He needs water; he would have to go a long way. There’s no water here, right? So he’ll tell himself, “Fine, I’ll be lax about it—or not exactly lax. I can’t do it now, and I’m hungry and have nothing else to eat. I’ll eat this bread. I don’t know. I won’t wash my hands. After all, it’s only a mitzvah instituted by the Sages,” right?

07:42 Speaker 6 But that’s allowed, isn’t it? If he has no way to wash.

07:46 Speaker 1 There are various solutions. But if a Jew knew, felt, understood and felt that even something like this—if I eat bread now without washing my hands, it’s the same thing as idolatry. It is literally idolatry. I am separating myself from Hakadosh Boruch Hu now in exactly the same way as if someone told me to convert to Christianity, G-d forbid. It’s the same thing; there’s no difference. Then obviously I wouldn’t do it. Right?

08:21 Speaker 2 Come on, you’d have to be on a very high level.

08:23 Speaker 1 Now how does that work? Clearly, I believe; I’m a believing Jew. The Alter Rebbe says that every sin is an aspect of idolatry. I believe him, but believing him won’t make me actually feel that way when I face a test like that. It won’t affect me, because it’s only a belief. I don’t really understand it. Right? Yes. So the Alter Rebbe says: Come, I can explain it to you. It’s not... It can be understood. You can truly understand intellectually how each and every mitzvah is actually a matter of idolatry. How? What is the explanation? To understand it, we first need to understand what faith is in the first place. After all, what is idolatry? It is a denial of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, right?

09:09 Speaker 2 Yes.

09:09 Speaker 1 Right? So let’s understand what faith in Hashem means, and what denying Hashem means. Once we understand what faith and denial really are, we’ll understand why every mitzvah really involves faith or denial. What is the explanation? Before we explain how every positive commandment is an expression of faith and every prohibition is an expression of denial, we first need to understand what faith and denial are. Okay? In these two chapters, 20 and 21, he explains what faith in Hashem is. Then, in the next chapter, he will explain what denial is. So he’ll begin by explaining what faith in Hashem is. Ordinarily, if you ask a Jew who hasn’t learned Chassidus, what does he say? How does he understand it? “I cover my eyes and say, ‘Hear, O Israel: Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One.’ I have in mind that Hashem is one.” What does he mean by that?

10:13 Speaker 2 That there is only one G-d.

10:15 Speaker 1 That there is only one G-d. There is no other. There are no other gods. Right? Ask any Jew—or even a non-Jew—what “Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One” means. What will he tell you? He’ll say there is only one Hakadosh Boruch Hu, not two. The nations have, I don’t know, idol worshippers have many idols, while we have only one. That’s how everyone explains it, right? The Rebbe says that’s utter nonsense. Complete nonsense. Would anyone imagine that there’s one Hakadosh Boruch Hu in heaven and another one living in the water beneath the ocean? As if...

11:05 Speaker 2 Right, would anyone think that, and all the...

11:07 Speaker 1 That’s not something we need to rule out. It’s not something we need to delve into. It’s not... Hashem is One, so Hashem is One. Obviously there’s only one and not two. No, that’s not the point. The belief that Hashem is One means believing that He alone exists and there is nothing besides Him.

11:29 Speaker 2 What does that mean?

11:30 Speaker 1 It means that although the world appears to me to be a reality, the truth is that Hakadosh Boruch Hu alone exists in His world. Just as the world had no existence before it was created, so too, even now, after it was created, the world has no existence. That’s what it means. Hashem is One: there is Hashem, and besides Him there is nothing at all. That’s what this belief means. And it’s very hard to understand. What do you mean there is no world, that only Hashem exists? First of all, I feel that I do exist. Do we feel that or not? Yes. And I live in an entire world, and I have all kinds of desires, and I have to make an effort, and things hurt me, and I see other people. What does it mean that Hashem is One? It goes against reason and against what we feel. So the Alter Rebbe comes to explain what “Hashem is One” means in chapters 20 and 21. What did he explain in the chapter we learned previously? Actually, let’s start this way. The world is not a reality. What does that mean? Since Hakadosh Boruch Hu... The entire world was created through the word of Hashem, through speech, and at every moment it is the word of Hashem that brings the world into being, gives it life, and sustains it. If Hakadosh Boruch Hu were to stop saying that word for even one moment—stop speaking, stop uttering the statements that create the world—there would be no world. We gave the example of a person standing in front of a mirror. Do you remember the analogy? A person stands in front of a mirror, and the image in the mirror exists only as his reflection. So you can’t say that the reflection is a reality in its own right. It’s real, but it’s not something independent. The entire existence of the world depends on the word of Hashem. So since the existence of the world depends on Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s speech,

13:53 Speaker 1 you can’t say that the world’s existence is a true reality, because it doesn’t exist on its own. It is constantly being brought into being. If that were to stop, it would cease to exist. So in its own right it has no existence, correct? The world, in its own right, has no existence. That’s a simple explanation. Do you follow so far? Then he... That’s what the Rebbe says in Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah. Then he adds, in the chapter we learned last week: All right, we say the world has no existence. After all, someone could say it has no existence of its own. True, it’s only an image, only a reflection. It has no independent existence. Fine, but it does exist. Hakadosh Boruch Hu created it, after all. If Hakadosh Boruch Hu created it, then He took action, made an effort, engaged with it. So it must have some importance to Him. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants it. Even if it doesn’t truly exist in its own right, it has importance. So in the previous chapter, the Rebbe went to great lengths to explain that it has no importance either. All the worlds were created with the letters yud and hei: all the hidden worlds were created with the letter yud, and this world was created with the letter hei. The entire existence of all the worlds was created with two letters. What are two letters? In a person, what is a single utterance compared to the entirety of the speaking soul, the soul’s whole power of speech? The entire power of speech is nothing compared to thought, and thought is nothing compared to the emotions. The emotions are nothing compared to intellect, and intellect is nothing compared to the essence of the soul. So what are all the worlds, which amount to just one word, one utterance, two letters? What are they compared to the essence of the soul? Nothing at all. They have no importance whatsoever. Yes. So not only does the world have no independent existence, it also

15:46 Speaker 1 has no importance whatsoever. Since the world’s entire existence is nothing at all, just as the world was nothing before it was created, so too it is nothing after it was created. Because even after it was created, it still has neither independent existence nor importance. So Hashem alone exists; Hashem is One. All right?

16:05 Speaker 7 It’s hard. You’re saying, like... you see something happening, and then you say, like, come on, let it all be nullified.

16:16 Speaker 1 Not that it should become nullified; it is nullified. The true reality is that everything we see is false. Everything we feel is false. The true reality is that Hashem is One, and there is no change between before the world was created and after it was created. Everything we feel—that the world is real, separate, and existent; that I want things and I think; that some people annoy me, others help me, and others make me happy—it’s all false. There is only Hashem; there is nothing besides Him. Just as He was alone before the world was created, He is still alone afterward. We’ve already learned all that. The Alter Rebbe says: It’s not enough. The explanation isn’t enough. Why not? What’s missing? Because ultimately, after all we’ve said about the world being nothing and not having an existence of its own, how was it created? The Torah gives an analogy: the world was created through speech. Right? What is speech? When do we perceive speech? When a person speaks, when it goes out, when it becomes separate from him. As long as he hasn’t opened his mouth and it hasn’t come out, it isn’t called speech. It may be thought, but it isn’t speech. The very definition of speech is something that goes out. If the Torah calls the G-dly power that creates the world “speech”—it isn’t literal speech; Hakadosh Boruch Hu has no mouth—why call it speech? Because it goes out and creates the worlds. Right? Well, then. If the G-dly power that creates the world is something that goes out from Him, He is no longer alone. He is no longer One. You can say the world isn’t a true reality, isn’t a separate reality, and has no importance at all. But it went out. It went out. So

18:23 Speaker 1 Hashem is no longer alone, and He is no longer One. Right? That’s why we need chapter 21: to explain that not only does the world have no independent existence, and not only does it have no importance, it isn’t separate either. All right? Can I add one more thing, or is that already too much?

18:52 Speaker 7 That too.

18:53 Speaker 1 All right. I thought I’d say it at the end of the class, but by then you’ll be tired and won’t be able to take anything else in. So let’s say it now. Maybe we’ll come back to the point at the end. If the Alter Rebbe has an explanation that he can make understandable to our minds, then it seems we can indeed understand that the world isn’t separate from G-dliness at all. So why do we need the earlier explanation that it has no importance? You have such a profound explanation, showing that not only does the world have no independent existence, it isn’t separate at all. It is one with G-dliness, like a drop of water in the ocean. Can you say there’s a drop of water here? It’s part of the sea. It isn’t separate, it has no existence of its own, it hasn’t gone out; it’s part of the sea. Right? If you have that explanation, why do you need the explanation that the world has no importance? And why the analogy of speech? Why do you need that whole analogy? You have a much deeper, much stronger explanation of how Hashem is One. Why do we need the whole explanation we learned last time?

19:58 Speaker 7 So when we get to chapter 22, you’ll also say what...

20:00 Speaker 1 No, no. Chapter 22 is a different matter. There it’s about denial of G-d. Here it’s about believing that Hashem is One. Believing in—what does belief in Hashem mean? Believing that Hashem is One. In what sense is He One? The same One as before the world was created: “You are the same since the world was created.” So the explanation is simple. Well, not simple; it’s a little deep, but it’s a point we need to understand. Can something have importance even though it doesn’t exist? Let’s put it as a question first. Can that be?

20:45 Speaker 8 Seemingly not.

20:46 Speaker 1 Apparently not. It’s not—if it doesn’t exist, what significance can it have, right? So let’s put it this way, with an analogy. Let’s picture something. On the first day, a person has nothing and hasn’t made any vessel. So there’s no vessel. None. On the second day, he takes some material, some metal or clay, and makes a vessel. Now there is a vessel. On the third day, he takes a stick and breaks it, crushes it, and grinds up the pieces of clay—or melts down the metal—and there’s no vessel. Once again, no vessel. What’s the situation on the third day? Is it like the first day or not?

21:38 Speaker 8 Like the first day.

21:40 Speaker 1 On the first day there was no vessel, and now there’s no vessel either. And there’s no vessel in exactly the same way that there was nothing before; now, too, there’s nothing. Right? Apparently. But on a deeper level, it’s not the same. Why not? On the first day, there was nothing to talk about. What shape does the vessel have? What are you—what is there to talk about? Right? Now, on the third day, the vessel doesn’t exist. Why doesn’t it exist? Is it simply because it doesn’t exist? No, it doesn’t exist because someone did something to make it cease to exist. But you can talk about it. There was a vessel here; it had a size, a shape, and a color, and people used it for this and that, right? There’s something to talk about. In reality, there’s nothing here, but there is some content here. Right? So it’s not the same. So if the Alter Rebbe had explained only the explanation in chapter 21—that the world is not merely nullified in its existence, but is included within His Essence—we could have said: Okay, it’s included within His Essence, but it has some significance. To Hakadosh Boruch Hu, this thing called a world has some significance even though it has no existence of its own. So we say no. First, we explain that it has no existence at all, because it isn’t a separate existence. Its entire existence comes from the fact that it is being created. Then we say that not only does it have no existence of its own, it also has no significance. Then we say that not only does it have no significance, it is also included within His Essence. There is nothing separate here; nothing has gone out. Or, if we sum it up briefly, to rule out the idea that the world is separate from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, we need to explain three—

23:32 Speaker 1 three points. First, that it has no existence of its own. Second, that it has no significance. And third, that it is not separate. All right? And each of these could stand on its own. That is, something could have no significance and not be separate, yet still have an existence of its own. Something could have no existence of its own and not be separate, yet still have significance. And something could have neither existence nor significance, yet still be separate. So we have to explain all three points. After the Alter Rebbe explained the first two points in chapter 20 of Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, here in chapter 21 he explains the third: that the entire world is included within His blessed Essence. That ties up the point that Hashem is One and His Name is One, as in, “You are He before the world was created; You are He after the world was created.” All right? That’s so we understand what the chapter is about. Now let’s look inside. I think the text itself will be easier to understand than the introductory explanation—

24:41 Speaker 9 The explanation gives the background.

24:44 Speaker 1 Yes, it gives us a framework for understanding what we’re dealing with. When you read the text itself, it’s hard to grasp the overall line of thought. Chapter 21: “The ways of Hakadosh Boruch Hu are not like the ways of flesh and blood.” True, the Torah says “the eyes of Hashem,” right? “The hand of Hashem,” right? All kinds of expressions. But clearly, when we say “the eyes of Hashem,” His eyes aren’t like ours. When we say “The right hand of Hashem is exalted,” we don’t mean that Hakadosh Boruch Hu has some right hand that He raises upward. The ways of Hakadosh Boruch Hu are not like ours; they’re different. And what about speech? What was our question? How can you say that the world—that speech—added nothing to the existence of Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Speech goes outward, doesn’t it? How can you say it added nothing? Speech goes outward. So he says: True, but the speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not like ours. When a person wants to reveal something to someone else through speech, it goes outward. He can’t reveal something to another person without speech—without speaking. The revelation happens when the speech goes out from him. But with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, it isn’t like that. Although it is speech, it doesn’t go outward. What does it mean that it doesn’t go outward? “For when a person speaks, the breath of speech in his mouth is perceptible and appears to be a thing unto itself, separate from its source, which is the ten faculties of the soul itself. But the speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not separate from Him, G-d forbid.” Absolutely remarkable! Think about it. Try to imagine a person speaking and his words being revealed to someone else, but without his speaking, without the speech going out from him. That is speech unlike the speech of flesh and blood. For us—

26:58 Speaker 1 No, such a thing isn’t possible, right?

27:03 Speaker 9 Thought.

27:03 Speaker 1 But thought isn’t speech. We’re talking about speech here. “And there is no”—yes. Why? Because nothing exists outside of Him. Why doesn’t the speech go out from Him? Very simple: it has nowhere to go. Nothing exists outside of Him. “There is no place devoid of Him.” There is no place at all. Atar is Aramaic for “place.” Leis atar—there is no place devoid of Him. Where could it go? And therefore “His blessed speech is not like our speech, G-d forbid.” So when we speak to reveal something to another person, the speech really does go out from us. The speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu does not go out from Him. The Alter Rebbe adds here in parentheses: Just as His thought is not like our thought. As it is written, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts.” What’s the difference between the thought of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and ours? His thought creates worlds. Our thought does nothing. You thought something, right? That didn’t do anything. So just as His thought is not like ours, His speech is not like ours either. But the Rebbe adds another verse: “As it is written”—and another verse is written. We’ve spoken many times about how, in Tanya at least, whenever the Alter Rebbe adds another verse, he wants to convey something further. He is pinpointing another aspect. “And it is written, ‘So are My ways higher than your ways.’” What does that add? When we say, “My thoughts are not your thoughts,” that means you have your kind of thoughts and I have Mine—a different kind. But when we say, “My ways are higher than your ways,” it isn’t just that My speech or My thoughts are unlike yours; they are more exalted than yours. You have no way whatsoever of grasping what they are. It’s not merely different, but incomparably higher. There’s more to learn about this, but... So now a difficult question arises. If the speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is—

29:26 Speaker 1 not like ours—and different in an extreme way: first of all, it doesn’t go outward, and not only does it not go outward, it creates worlds—then why call it speech at all? What is speech? When we say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu speaks, that’s an analogy, right? What is “the word of Hashem”? Why do we say “the right hand of Hashem”? It’s an analogy for various things. Right? Do you understand what I’m asking? Whenever the Torah describes Hakadosh Boruch Hu using a term drawn from “From my flesh I perceive G-d”—from some limb or human characteristic—it wants to teach us that, because I know how it works in me, I can gain some understanding, some sense of how it is with Him. Right? That’s why we use an analogy. So if we say that the G-dly power that creates the world is called speech, the analogy must be that His speech resembles mine in some way. In what way does it resemble it? If it doesn’t go outward and it creates a world, then why call it speech? Find another analogy. I don’t know—why is it speech at all? Why does the Torah call it speech? So the Alter Rebbe says that speech has two aspects. What have we discussed until now? What is the defining feature of speech? That it goes outward. The Alter Rebbe says speech has two features, two things that define it. One is that it goes outward, and the other is that speech reveals to someone else what I’m thinking. So speech has two characteristics: it goes outward and it reveals. Two things, right? What does “My ways are higher than your ways,” “My thoughts are not your thoughts” mean? In a person, every faculty has an advantage and a limitation. Every single one. A person is limited; all his faculties

31:26 Speaker 1 Limited. His intellect is limited, his emotions are limited, his body is limited, his life is limited—everything is limited. Whatever advantage a person has in something, that very thing also has a drawback. There is no perfection in this world. With Hakadosh Boruch Hu, there is only perfection, without any drawback. Our Sages said that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is called “the perfection of all.” He has no deficiency, only the advantages of everything. And so it is with speech. The speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu has the advantage of speech without its drawback. Speech reveals—that is an advantage, and divine speech has it. But for our speech to reveal something to someone else, it has to leave us. That is a drawback. Why is it a drawback? Because if it doesn’t go out, it won’t be revealed. That is a limitation of speech, right? Hakadosh Boruch Hu has no limitations. His speech can reveal without going out. So it is called speech. The word of Hashem is called speech not because it goes out, but because it reveals. It really doesn’t go out. Absolutely astounding. How can that be? What does it mean to reveal if it doesn’t go out? Its purpose is to reveal. “His speech, blessed be He, is called ‘speech’ only by way of analogy: just as a person’s speech reveals to listeners what was hidden and concealed in his thought, so too, above, with the blessed Ein Sof, the emergence of light and vitality from Him, blessed be He, from concealment into revelation, to create worlds and give them life, is called ‘speech.’” The divine power is revealed not because it goes outside—it doesn’t go outside—but because it becomes revealed. And what are those ten utterances? The divine power. “They are the ten utterances through which the world was created.” The Rebbe adds—

33:32 Speaker 1 The Rebbe adds a note that needs a little explanation: “And likewise all the rest of the Torah, Nevi’im, and Kesuvim that the prophets perceived in their prophetic vision.” There is a note from the Rebbe here. What exactly does the Alter Rebbe mean by this? All right, the point is clear, right? So what has he explained from the beginning of the chapter? We wanted to explain what he is coming to explain. He is explaining that divine speech—which we thought meant that the world was created through speech in the sense that divine power goes outside of G-dliness and becomes separate—is not separate. Because His speech is not like our speech. So what does it mean? If the speech remains with Him, what does it mean that it reveals? First he explains what it means for the speech to be united with Him. Let’s look further inside: “His speech and thought, as it were, are united with Him in absolute unity.” Let’s break that down so it’s easier to understand. When you say that one thing is attached to another, has it become one thing with it, or not?

35:02 Speaker 10 No.

35:04 Speaker 1 According to halachah, yes. Two things stuck together become one thing, but inwardly there are still two things, with a layer of glue separating them. They’re attached, connected: you move one and the other moves too. But they’re two things, right? Within that, there are various degrees of joining and unity, each higher than the last. The highest way two things come together is unity. What does unity mean? It doesn’t just mean “together”; it means “one.” There is only one thing here, not two. Right? For example, there is the example we gave earlier, the example brought in Chassidus at this point: if you take a drop of water and throw it into the ocean, does it have any existence of its own?

35:58 Speaker 10 No.

35:59 Speaker 1 It loses its separate existence completely. It no longer exists. Did that drop add to the amount of water in the ocean, or not?

36:11 Speaker 10 No.

36:12 Speaker 1 Well, it did add something. It added one drop. True, it is nullified—not one part in sixty, not one in a million, not one in a billion. I don’t know what the ratio is, and nobody can sense it. There’s no way to sense it or measure it, even with today’s most precise scientific instruments. You can’t measure such a tiny amount. But clearly it added something. It added a drop. Yes. But it has no existence of its own. This is called unity. Yet it isn’t true unity. Why isn’t it true unity? Because it added something. Before, the sea contained a certain amount of water, minus one drop; now it contains that amount plus one drop. Something was added. So there is unity: there is no separate existence here besides the sea. It isn’t a sea with a drop inside it. No, there is only a sea. But it isn’t true unity. Why? Because something has been combined with it. Before the drop was added, the sea was one size; afterward, it was a different size. It’s no longer the same size. So that isn’t true unity. And here the Alter Rebbe says that the divine power that brings the world into being is united with Him, with His very essence, in true unity. Meaning that even after He speaks and reveals, it remains united with Him and adds nothing at all. What analogy is there for that? How? The Alter Rebbe brings an analogy for this too. How can we understand such a thing? He says: When is unity not true unity? When something is added—when we are dealing with two things of the same kind, water and water, the water of the sea and the water of the drop. When you add this water to that water, it really is

38:13 Speaker 1 nullified, but it adds a little; something changes. Right? But when you speak of an effect being nullified in relation to its cause, there you have true unity. Let’s explain a little. The Alter Rebbe brings this inside, but first let’s understand what he’s talking about. The simplest example given everywhere for cause and effect is intellect and emotion. Right? You contemplate something, and an emotion is born. Since cause and effect—intellect and emotion—are both faculties of the soul, they are close to one another. So when you contemplate a subject and an emotion is stirred within you, you can feel the contemplation in that emotion; they are connected.

39:10 Speaker 10 But isn’t it explained elsewhere that intellect and emotion—

39:13 Speaker 1 It’s like a chain. How is it like a chain? The upper part of the lower link reaches above the lower part of the upper link. They are connected, one within the other. That’s it, as is explained through various analogies, at length. We’ve spoken about it more than once too. Now, the emotion born from intellect—if it was born from intellect, where did it come from? It came from intellect. That is its source. It was born from it, right? So that is its source. What did the emotion look like before it became an emotion, before it was born, while it was still included in its source? When the emotion was included in its source, in the intellect, was there an emotion there? Can there be emotion in intellect? Intellect doesn’t know what emotion is. Intellect isn’t concerned with feelings. It deals with what is correct or incorrect, true or false. It understands. There is no emotion there. So clearly, before the emotion was born, while it was included in its source, its existence was included in the existence of the intellect in such a way that it wasn’t an emotion at all. It didn’t exist. It was included in its source and root, and in its source and root there can’t be something that isn’t intellect. So when the emotion was in its source and root, it simply wasn’t there. There was no emotion there. It had no existence, no significance—nothing. There was only intellect, nothing else. So where is the nullification greater: that of a drop of water in relation to the sea, or that of emotion in relation to intellect? The nullification of—

41:11 Speaker 11 Emotion in relation to—

41:12 Speaker 1 Emotion in relation to intellect—

41:14 Speaker 11 Because it didn’t add anything.

41:15 Speaker 1 It didn’t add anything. There was nothing here besides intellect.

41:17 Speaker 11 But when it came out, it did become something.

41:19 Speaker 1 When it came out, yes. But we’re saying that the speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not like our speech: it remains included in its source. It reveals, but it doesn’t go out. So if it doesn’t go out, it is like an effect included in its cause. When it is included in its cause, it has no existence; it is nothing. There is nothing else here—there is nothing besides Him. Now, the further the effect is from its cause... What did we say earlier? If the thing nullified within its source is close to it, it adds something. If it is distant, it adds nothing, right? And the more distant it is, the more completely it is nothing when it is within its source. Simple logic. Right? Now. Yes?

42:13 Speaker 11 That’s a little difficult.

42:16 Speaker 1 We said that when it’s close, it’s of the same kind. It really becomes completely nullified. But it still adds something. If it’s a cause and an effect, it’s nullified in a way that it adds nothing. Why doesn’t it add anything? Because it’s distant. Because emotion isn’t intellect. And that’s when there’s only one level. But when Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world, it’s cause and effect, then another cause, and it keeps unfolding and unfolding. When you have a chain, you can say that the second link is connected to the first, but not the third link. It no longer has any idea what’s in the first.

42:45 Speaker 11 But that was also...

42:47 Speaker 1 And the lowest one. If it’s cause and effect, cause and effect, through thousands upon thousands upon thousands of levels, then what does the very lowest level look like in its first, first, first source and root—in His Essence and Being? Zero... Nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Truly nothing. The Rebbe says this is called true unity. When the word of Hashem is included in the essence of the infinite light in such a way that it is truly nothing and zero. And therefore, just as Hakadosh Boruch Hu was alone before He created the worlds—all the worlds were created through speech, and speech is, after all...—so even now, nothing has changed. All right? Let’s look at it inside now. “For His speech and thought, so to speak, are united with Him in absolute unity.” What does “absolute unity” mean? “By way of analogy, like a person’s speech and thought while they are still within the potential of his wisdom and intellect, or within the desire and longing in his heart, before it rises from the heart to the mind to be contemplated in the form of letters.” At that point, when speech was still included in the faculties of the soul, “the letters of this thought and speech were drawn from this desire and longing” in potential within the heart. So they existed in potential within the heart, “and were united there in absolute unity with their source—the wisdom and intellect in the mind, and the desire and longing in the heart.” That’s the analogy we discussed. “And so, by way of analogy, the speech and thought of Hakadosh Boruch Hu are united”—these are the powers with which He creates the world, His speech and thought—“so they are united in absolute unity with His Essence and Being, blessed be He, even after His speech has come into actuality in the creation of the worlds.” Now, I can’t understand what it means for there to be speech that reveals, and yet remains included in its source and root. If it’s included in its source and root, what does it mean that it reveals? I have no... We can’t understand it. We have nothing like that, right? But the Alter Rebbe says that with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, just as “My thoughts are not your thoughts,” His speech is not like our speech.

45:08 Speaker 1 What does it mean that it’s not like our speech? Our speech goes out, while His speech, although it reveals, does not go out. And “does not go out” means that it remains united in absolute unity. So the conclusion is that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the same after the world was created as He was before it was created. There is no difference. The world’s existence... The creation of the world added nothing to Him. “Just as it was united with Him before the creation of the worlds, and there is no change whatsoever before Him, blessed be He.” Well, that raises a difficult question. Is everything imaginary, then? If reality is... What have we explained up to this point? From Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, chapter 20 and chapter 21, our chapter. What have we explained so far? That there is no difference and no change for Him between before the world was created and after the world was created. So it’s all false, as though it’s all imaginary. In fact, there is no world; it’s all just a metaphor, an illusion. Can you say such a thing?

46:15 Speaker 12 To say there are no hostages.

46:17 Speaker 1 There are no hostages, no wars, nobody is hungry, and children aren’t born. It’s all just imaginary. The world doesn’t really exist at all. That’s the conclusion, right? Fine, suppose we said the world doesn’t exist, that it’s all our imagination. All right, so I’m imagining things. Then there is no such reality. We don’t exist either. Fine. But I still have a problem: there is Torah. You can’t say the Torah is imaginary. And the Torah says we have to take the things of this world and do all sorts of things with them, all sorts of mitzvos. If the Torah commands me to take, I don’t know, an apple and make a blessing over it, that means there’s an apple. And if the Torah commands me to make a blessing, that means there’s a person here making that blessing.

47:09 Speaker 12 Right.

47:10 Speaker 1 Right? I also— And not only do I feel it. Even if I feel perfectly well, you could say that’s imaginary. But the Torah says this is what we must do. If the Torah says it, and Torah is truth, that means there really is a reality. So excuse me, how do these fit together? On the one hand, we explained at great, great, great length, and in a very understandable way, that there is no reality, nothing exists, there is no world. Only Hakadosh Boruch Hu exists, alone before creation, and afterward there is no... only He exists. On the other hand, we have a Torah that says yes, the world does exist. How do they fit together? All right? The Alter Rebbe says: Where, then, does it exist? There is one place where there is a change: for the created beings. The created beings receive their life from His speech, blessed be He, once it has come into actuality in the creation of the worlds. Hakadosh Boruch Hu speaks, and that speech creates worlds; then this speech becomes enclothed in the created beings to give them life. How does Divine speech, how does the Divine power give life to created beings? Through a progression of cause and effect and a descent through levels. And what does a descent through levels mean? It means there are many different tzimtzumim, until the created beings can receive their life and existence from Him without being nullified out of existence. In what way does the word of Hashem give life to the worlds through tzimtzumim, concealments and veils? How does that help us resolve the contradiction?

48:56 Speaker 13 It’s not just cause and effect; it’s also a matter of—

48:59 Speaker 1 Cause and effect means concealment and veiling.

49:02 Speaker 13 No. Why? There’s a parsa.

49:04 Speaker 1 Huh? There are all kinds—many different kinds. There’s a parsa, there’s cause and effect, there are all sorts of different tzimtzumim. But in general, every tzimtzum is a concealment, a veiling. It may be one kind of tzimtzum or another, but it’s all concealment. From whom does it conceal?

49:23 Speaker 13 From whom?

49:24 Speaker 1 When we say that the world—that we, that the world was created through concealment, through many different tzimtzumim and veils and concealments—who is it hidden from? Is it hidden from Hakadosh Boruch Hu?

49:36 Speaker 13 From us.

49:36 Speaker 1 It’s hidden from us.

49:40 Speaker 13 We...

49:41 Speaker 1 So is our feeling that there is a world real or not real? It is real. Hakadosh Boruch Hu really has hidden it from us. It really is hidden from us. The truth is that there is nothing besides Him. That is the truth; there is no other truth. What we perceive is completely false. We perceive the world as an independent reality, and that is false. But the fact that we perceive it that way is true. All right?

50:15 Speaker 13 They might hospitalize us. It sounds awful.

50:20 Speaker 1 Again. The fact that the world—there was no change even after—there was no change. Our feeling that there has been a change and that we do perceive a reality—that perception is false. But the fact that we perceive this falsehood is true. It really is concealed from us. We really do perceive it that way. What we perceive isn’t correct, but we really do perceive it that way. It’s not imaginary. It really is concealed from us. A little hard to understand, right? So Chassidus gives an analogy for this too. A very simple analogy, which we’ve also discussed a number of times. When a teacher wants to explain something to ordinary people and they can’t grasp it, what does he do? He gives them an analogy. Right? What’s an analogy? He wants to explain some deep spiritual idea, but they can’t grasp it. He talks about whether it conceals or doesn’t conceal, and they don’t understand. So he says, “Listen, listen. You know this kind of thing from the world: there’s some person, some animal, some wolf, I don’t know what—and there you can see the same thing.” When a teacher gives a student an analogy, let’s take that very example. A teacher gives a student an analogy, right? The teacher wants to explain something to the student. What does he want to explain? Some G-dly concept. What does he say? What words does he use? “There was a king and a queen, and...” He tells him a story. Right? The teacher clothes his idea in the story. What does the student hear? Only the story. Right? If the student is wise, perhaps he’ll manage to understand from the story what the teacher meant. Right? If he’s less wise, he’ll hear a nice story. Right? Yes or no?

52:35 Speaker 3 Yes, of course.

52:37 Speaker 1 Does the story get in the teacher’s way?

52:41 Speaker 3 No.

52:41 Speaker 1 When the teacher tells the story, the parable is transparent to him. Within the parable, he sees only the point it conveys. The parable is just a kind of garment, an outer wrapping, that lets him present the idea to the student. But the teacher doesn’t focus on the story at all. For the student, it’s exactly the opposite. The parable conceals the content from him. The student sees only the parable; he doesn’t see what’s inside it. Right? So a parable gives us an example of this. The very same thing that reveals something to the teacher conceals it from the student. So that’s what we’re saying. What is Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s speech? It is the Divine life-force. And how does He give life to the world? Through tzimtzumim, contractions. What are tzimtzumim? They’re like parables, so to speak. Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives life to the world; the life-force descends to us through one spiritual parable after another, one contraction after another, one concealment after another. Right? Parable upon parable. We receive our life-force through those parables, those contractions, so for us, only the parable is apparent. But for Him, all the parables and all the contractions are nothing; they conceal nothing from Him. Right? So on the one hand, the true reality is clearly the Divine life-force, and there is nothing besides Him. Our sense that the world exists separately, and that I think on my own, feel on my own, and decide on my own, is false. But the fact that I feel that way is real. Hakadosh Boruch Hu really does conceal Himself from me. Okay? Let’s look at it inside: “And all the contractions are a form of hiding the face, concealing and obscuring the light and life-force drawn from His speech, so that it should not be revealed in such a great degree of revelation

54:46 Speaker 1 that the lower beings would be unable to receive it. Therefore, it also appears to them”—to the lower beings—“that the light and life-force of the speech of the Omnipresent, blessed be He, which is clothed within them, is something separate from His essence and being.” To the lower beings it appears separate. Why? Because it’s concealed from them. “That it merely extends from Him, like a person’s speech from his soul.” To us, it seems like speech that goes outward, that really does go outward. “But in relation to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, no contraction, concealment, or obscuring hides or obscures anything from Him, and darkness is like light, as it is written: ‘Even darkness does not obscure anything from You,’ etc.” Ah. “For the contractions and garments are not something separate from Him, but are like the grasshopper whose garment is part of its very self.” Kamtza in Aramaic means what? What’s a kamtza? A kamtza is a grasshopper.

55:36 Speaker 3 What’s a grasshopper?

55:37 Speaker 1 A grasshopper, a locust, something like that.

55:39 Speaker 3 Kamtza is already kamtza. That’s my name.

55:42 Speaker 1 In Yiddish they apparently called it a grasshopper. I don’t know, maybe that was the usual name then. Kamtza is some kind of creature; I don’t know exactly which one, but something like that. What is this kamtza, this grasshopper? It has some sort of skin—or not skin, a kind of shell, right? Grasshoppers have that. What does it mean that its garment is part of its very self? On the one hand, it’s a shell. It’s not like our skin; it’s sort of part of its flesh. I don’t know exactly what kind of creature it is. With us, the skin is part of the flesh; it’s thicker. But with grasshoppers it’s a shell, something that seems external, like an outer garment—their skin, their shell. So even though the skin seems external, it’s part of the creature itself. It grows together with it; it isn’t something separate from it. For the kamtza, the garment doesn’t conceal it; it is the creature itself. So he says that, so to speak, the same is true of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Right? Why do the contractions conceal things from us? Because for us—

56:55 Speaker 4 Chaim.

56:56 Speaker 1 Because for us, they’re a barrier. Why aren’t the contractions a barrier for Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Because they’re part of Him. The contractions, too, are Him. Who contracts? Who conceals? Who obscures? He does. Not someone else. Right? So they conceal things from me because He conceals them from me. But it’s not as though Hakadosh Boruch Hu takes something else and uses it to conceal things from me. The very One who gives life also conceals. It’s the same One. So clearly, for Him, the concealment doesn’t conceal anything. It conceals only from me. “Like the grasshopper whose garment is part of its very self.” As it is written, “For Havayah is Elokim.” What does “Havayah is Elokim” have to do with this? Elokim is the attribute of judgment, severity, contraction. The name Havayah, related to the word for bringing into being, is the attribute of revelation and kindness. Right? What does “Havayah is Elokim” mean? What you think of as Elokim—as contraction, obscuring, concealment—that too is Havayah. It’s the same One, not someone else. There is nothing besides Him. And therefore, before Him, even the contractions and all the worlds are literally of no account. So, now that we’ve finished learning chapter 21, it wasn’t terribly hard, was it? It was okay.

58:20 Speaker 4 Better than last week.

58:22 Speaker 1 Better than last week.

58:23 Speaker 4 Last week was hard.

58:26 Speaker 1 So it follows that “You are the same You.” Remember what we discussed at the beginning of last week? “You” and “He”—revelation and concealment. “You are the same You” as You were before the world was created; that remains true after the world was created. And therefore Hakadosh Boruch Hu is one and alone. So in these two chapters, the Alter Rebbe finished explaining what emunah means. What does emunah mean? Let’s go back to where we started. For me to reach a point where, in fulfilling every mitzvah, I see how it relates to idolatry—why do I need that? Because we said that only matters of emunah and idolatry awaken the hidden love. I want every mitzvah I encounter during the day to awaken and reveal in me that same hidden love. When does that love reveal itself? When my emunah is put to the test. So I need to see how every mitzvah is an aspect of emunah. And to understand how every mitzvah is an aspect of emunah, I first need to understand what emunah is. That’s what the Alter Rebbe has now explained. Emunah doesn’t mean believing that there is just one Hakadosh Boruch Hu, not two or three, G-d forbid. Emunah means believing that Hashem is one and alone: just as nothing existed besides Him before the world was created, nothing exists besides Him after the world was created. How can that be? That’s what we’ve explained. But something still needs explaining: where do I see this in every mitzvah? Right? What did we say? The whole explanation is meant to show that we need to see this idea in every mitzvah. Chapter 23 will address that. It will be explained later.

1:00:22 Speaker 1 But before explaining how this idea of Hashem’s oneness—His absolute unity—is expressed, and where we see it in each and every mitzvah, we first need to explain the other side. If this is what’s called emunah, then emunah isn’t what we thought it was until now. It’s something entirely different. Believing that Hashem is one and there is nothing besides Him—that is called emunah. So what is denial of that belief? The next chapter explains it.

1:00:46 Speaker 5 To be continued. So, someone who doesn’t believe in G-d? Right? No.