Likkutei Amarim Chapter 22 · 5785

00:00 Speaker 1 Yes, um, chapter 22 is... Let me remind you where we’re up to. The Alter Rebbe began in chapter 18 a sequence of eight chapters explaining the short path in serving Hashem. Before that, he discussed the long path, through contemplation—using the mind to influence the heart. Then he said that not everyone can do that: “Not every mind can bear this.” There is a simpler way to serve Hashem, a short path that belongs to everyone, and it is the main way the beinonim serve Hashem. He began explaining this path in chapter 18, and it continues through chapter 25. That’s this group of chapters. The idea behind serving Hashem this way is that a person doesn’t need to generate a love of Hashem—love and fear of Hashem—but only to awaken the love he already has. As an introduction, in the first chapters he explained how great this love of Hashem is, what its source is, that it is the essence of the soul, that it is an ahavah rabbah, a great love, and so on. And it awakens—how can a person reveal it? When he is placed in a situation that calls for mesirus nefesh. When a person faces a test of faith and is backed against the wall, it awakens.

01:24 Speaker 2 You see it with the hostages. It’s just—it’s incredible, it’s...

01:28 Speaker 1 Really.

01:28 Speaker 2 Powerful.

01:29 Speaker 1 Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

01:30 Speaker 2 People who had never even experienced, like...

01:32 Speaker 1 Yes.

01:32 Speaker 2 Learning Torah and all that.

01:36 Speaker 1 Yes. That has been true in every generation. Yes. So then the Alter Rebbe—that just raises a question. Okay, you’ve shown us that this love exists, and that when a person is backed against the wall, it really awakens. But we want—we’re talking about a way of serving Hashem that belongs to everyone. A person isn’t backed against the wall with a test of faith every day. What we’re talking about here is: How do we make that immense love, that ahavah rabbah, that hidden love, part of my simple, everyday experience? So for that, he says, we first need to understand the first two commandments in the Torah: “I am Hashem your G-d” and “You shall have no other gods.” Why? Because all the positive mitzvos in the Torah are details of “I am Hashem your G-d,” and all the prohibitions are details of “You shall have no other gods before Me.” So if we understand the—if we understand the... Sorry, not like that. Not like that. Here’s how it goes: What is idolatry? What happens when a person faces a test of faith—when he’s put to the test of converting to another religion, a test involving idolatry? What is that test of idolatry? It concerns those two commandments, “I am” and “You shall have no other gods.” In other words, if we show that the entire Torah is included in, connected with, or consists of details within these two commandments, then a person will be able to say to himself about every mitzvah, “Oh, here’s ‘You shall have no other gods.’ This too is ‘You shall have no other gods.’ And this too.” Every mitzvah is “I am Hashem your G-d.” So when a person looks at every mitzvah, every detail of his life—now it’s a test of faith. If a person is aware that every single detail of his life is

03:46 Speaker 1 a test of faith, then that hidden love will awaken every moment. He’ll live with it. How do we show that all the positive mitzvos and prohibitions are details of “I am” and “You shall have no other gods”? First we need to explain what “I am” and “You shall have no other gods” mean. All right? What is “I am”? “I am Hashem your G-d”—that is, the oneness of Hashem. He explains that in chapters 20 and 21. What is “You shall have no other gods”? He explains that in our chapter, chapter 22. Later on, he’ll connect it to the mitzvos. First he explains what “I am” and “You shall have no other gods” mean. Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe, by Whose word everything came to be.

04:26 Speaker 2 Amen, amen. Do you need more water, or do you have enough?

04:32 Speaker 1 I do.

04:33 Speaker 2 Yes, go get yourself some. Go ahead.

04:35 Speaker 1 I do.

04:41 Speaker 2 Did Ilana tell you about the hashgachah pratis with the Shabbos kits? Friday nights?

04:44 Speaker 1 No.

04:45 Speaker 2 She didn’t tell you?

04:46 Speaker 1 No.

04:47 Speaker 2 Two years ago, there was a woman named Agam who... There was a soldier who was either murdered or killed in the war, and she wanted to—she brought some stickers of the soldier to put on the kits

05:00 Speaker 1 and sent them, and Ilana received a quantity of them, I remember.

05:03 Speaker 2 Right, and then, like...

05:05 Speaker 1 Yes.

05:05 Speaker 2 I handed them out two years ago.

05:07 Speaker 1 Yes.

05:07 Speaker 2 Then Agam called me this week. I wrote the story to Ilana. She says to me, “Listen, you won’t believe this story. Suddenly, some guy from Simchas Torah meets some rabbis, and they tell her, ‘Come to a Torah class.’ She said, okay, maybe yes, maybe no. And her mother wasn’t feeling well and all that, so they had already planned not to go to the Torah class. Then they called her: ‘Come! There are no—there aren’t any girls here. Come.’ She says, ‘I happened to be wearing a shirt with that soldier’s picture on it.’ So she went to the Torah class, and then she says, ‘Well, afterward I was sitting here and there, and I went to the kibbutz. And there, on a table at the kibbutz, was the Shabbos-candle-lighting kit I had handed out two years ago, at Idan Arba’im and so on. It was right there.’” And then she—and then, G-d willing, we’ll ask someone from Idan Arba’im whom I gave one to. Then she told me that when she saw the Shabbos-candle-lighting kit—

06:04 Speaker 1 Yes.

06:05 Speaker 2 She said she had just been in Eilat, and right next to her, on the post, was that picture of the young man, that soldier. So you’re thinking, what? Something from two years ago, and now she sees that very Shabbos-candle-lighting kit with the soldier’s picture. And at first I’d wondered whether it was appropriate to hand them out or not. Agam called this week and said, “I have to tell you this.” It’s just—it’s hard to take in, this hashgachah pratis, how they...

06:40 Speaker 1 So in the previous two chapters, 20 and 21, we needed to learn and understand the meaning of “I am Hashem your G-d”—that is, what the oneness of Hashem means. What does it mean to explain Hashem’s oneness? It isn’t what people commonly say—not that they’re wrong, but it isn’t simply what people think: that there is no other deity, no other god besides Hashem. Rather, Hashem’s oneness means “there is nothing else besides Him.” There is nothing else at all. The entire existence of the world is Him, is included in Him, and is utterly nullified to Him. There is nothing else. He explained this at length in chapters 20 and 21. Now that we know what Hashem’s oneness means—do you remember? Hmm?

07:21 Speaker 2 I—I was in Eilat?

07:23 Speaker 1 Hmm?

07:23 Speaker 2 That was over a month ago.

07:24 Speaker 1 Do you remember or don’t you?

07:25 Speaker 2 There was a class on the third, a month ago, and that was the last class.

07:27 Speaker 1 I’m going to go over the point anyway.

07:29 Speaker 2 3 Elul? The last class was on 3 Elul, yes. The third wasn’t a month ago; it was two months ago. Oh, right. Well, that’s not—but you’re right, yes.

07:37 Speaker 1 I’ll review it briefly, in a few minutes, to explain the point. It’s not... You’ll remember; the point isn’t complicated. If we want to say that there is no existence besides Hashem, what are we really saying? That Hashem is the only true existence. In other words, all the existence we see isn’t really what it seems. In truth, it’s all Him. We need to negate the independent existence of the world, right? How will we show that Hashem is one? By showing that what we see as existence has no independent existence. Yes? Now, existence has three defining aspects. First, every created being, everything we see in the world, whether physical or spiritual, has some content, some purpose. This is a chair to sit on; it’s made of certain materials, it has a purpose, and it has a certain existence. What is it? Right? So if we show that its entire existence isn’t really its own, then it isn’t an independent thing—it’s Hashem. Yes. How do we show that? The analogy we gave, which we’ve discussed several times, is a person standing in front of a mirror, and the image in the mirror. All right, there is an image there; there is an image. The entire existence of that image comes from the person standing there. It isn’t a thing in its own right. Its whole content is that someone is projecting it, someone is producing it. Since Hakadosh Boruch Hu creates the world in such a way that the creative power is constantly present within what it creates, there is indeed an existence here, but it isn’t independent. Its entire existence is only an expression of Him. That still isn’t enough to say, “There is nothing else besides Him.” It only tells us that this existence is nullified to Him. Yes, but ultimately, since He created it, before He created it, even this...

09:46 Speaker 1 That wouldn’t be right. So He created it. If Hakadosh Boruch Hu created it, that means it was important to Him to create it. If it weren’t important, He wouldn’t have created it, right? So you might say, okay, it isn’t such a separate existence, but it has importance. Yes, but if it has importance, that means something besides Hashem’s Essence is important. Then He is no longer alone; there’s something else that matters. So we also have to rule out the idea that the world has importance. Yes. What does he say? He says that for this reason the Torah calls the power that creates the world “speech.” The world was created through the Ten Utterances, through speech. Why? Because we see that speech is insignificant compared with the power of speech. The power of speech is infinite; the soul that speaks can also speak endlessly, while any given utterance is limited.

10:42 Speaker 4 Yes, but you told me—it was a joke—that it’s limited to a certain number of words.

10:47 Speaker 1 Yes. We talked about that. Yes. So all the more so if it’s just one word, or just… What?

10:53 Speaker 4 No, there’s a quota, a limit to how much you can talk with him. So I’m saying, I remember the analogy of the mirror. Everyone is saying something. Yes.

11:06 Speaker 1 So if speech as a whole is insignificant compared with the power of speech, then certainly one sentence is insignificant. Certainly one word is insignificant. Certainly one letter is truly nothing at all compared with the power of speech. And it says that Hakadosh Boruch Hu created all the higher worlds with a yud and all the lower worlds with a hei. So all the worlds are nothing compared with the hei, and the hei is nothing compared with everything above it. That’s really… would you call that important? It’s zero; it’s nothing. And more than that, the power of speech itself is nothing compared with thought. And thought is nothing. It’s a garment, an expression, an action; it’s nothing compared with the essence of the soul. Yes, that means that when we say Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world through speech—why do we say that? To illustrate just how utterly insignificant it is. It’s only an analogy. Because the truth is that speech—a word, a single letter—compared with the essence of the soul is nothing compared with nothing. Four levels. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is exalted tens of thousands of such levels above speech. It’s just that we don’t—we have no… The Torah gives us an analogy of only four levels. But the truth is that the distance is incomparably greater. So, consequently, it’s not only that the world is not an independent existence; it also has no importance. Yes. Still, we cannot say that with Hakadosh Boruch Hu there is truly “nothing else besides Him.” Even though the world has no independent existence and no importance, we cannot say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is alone—not yet. Why? Because, ultimately, how did He create the world? Through speech. What defines speech? That it separates; it goes outside. If a person’s speech remained inside him, the other person wouldn’t know a thing.

13:08 Speaker 1 The whole nature of speech is that it separates. So you might say, okay, it has no independent existence and no importance. But it is separate; it is separate. So there is something else, and He is no longer alone. Right? All right? So he says that there is another analogy involving speech for this too. A different analogy—these are chapters 21 and 22, two analogies involving speech. The first chapter brings the first analogy. The second chapter brings up the other point. He says there is a difference between… What does he explain? In the chapter we studied last time, he explained that there is a difference between human speech and the speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Human speech really does separate. The speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu does not separate. Suppose, so to speak, a person’s speech remained contained within his mind and thought, before he had even dreamed of saying it. Yes? Then what it is like when Hakadosh Boruch Hu actually speaks is like our speech while it is still in its source and root, before it has even begun. So the world is not an independent existence, it has no importance, and it is not separate. Consequently, “there is nothing else besides Him.” That was chapters 20 and 21. And if Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the truth, the only being, the only existence there is—“there is nothing else besides Him”—then that is the meaning of the mitzvah, “I am Hashem your G-d”: to understand and believe that there is nothing else besides Him. Why do we need to believe? We understood it; it can be understood. Why do we need to believe? This is called the mitzvah of belief in G-dliness. Why is belief necessary?

14:48 Speaker 5 You can’t really believe it completely.

14:50 Speaker 1 You don’t feel it. After all, I experience the world, and… When it’s explained to me, as a Jew, I’m capable of believing it. But go and explain this to some scientist or some computer. “Excuse me, what are you telling me here? [unclear]. These are just speculations, just nice ideas without… You can’t prove them in any way.”

15:10 Speaker 5 [unclear]

15:11 Speaker 1 Huh?

15:11 Speaker 5 Belief, and that’s it, I mean…

15:14 Speaker 1 Yes.

15:14 Speaker 5 [unclear]

15:15 Speaker 1 So the wording is “to know,” “to believe.” We need to bring belief into conscious understanding. What are we to know? What we can know. But that doesn’t mean I can actually experience it. The more a person believes, the more he internalizes it. Yes, but however much he internalizes it, thinks about it and contemplates it, it still remains—what is it?—it still remains a matter of belief. So chapters 20 and 21 are about “I am Hashem your G-d.” The mitzvah… We understand why this mitzvah is… We understand that those two chapters explain that the meaning of “I am Hashem your G-d” is belief in Hashem. What does belief in Hashem mean? Believing that there is nothing else besides Him. That’s chapters 20 and 21. What do we need now? To explain the other side. What is denial? If believing in Hashem, “I am Hashem,” means believing that there is nothing else besides Him, what is denial? Someone who does not believe it. Right? So chapter 22 explains that point, the other side: what “You shall have no other gods” means. It’s a short, easy chapter. Well, after an introduction like that, we can start learning. But this is… I’ve said more than once that the introductions are more important than the lessons themselves. In the end, what stays with a person over time is the framework. People forget the details, but the…

16:54 Speaker 6 Wait, why is chapter 22 about denial? Is that what it is?

17:00 Speaker 1 Chapter 22 is about denial. Only—what I said before is right, but there’s a qualification. Yes. “It is only that the Torah speaks in human language, and in the Torah the speech of the blessed Omnipresent is called ‘speech,’ just like human speech.” What did we say in the previous chapter? Why… What was the answer to the question of why the world is not separate? That the speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu remains contained in its source. Right?

17:38 Speaker 6 Right.

17:42 Speaker 1 What was the overall point of chapter 21, which we’ve just explained?

17:46 Speaker 6 Speech.

17:46 Speaker 1 Why do we say the world is not separate from Hakadosh Boruch Hu? If Hakadosh Boruch Hu created it through speech, why isn’t it separate? Because the speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu does not separate. That was the answer, in brief. Sorry. What is speech? Through speech… Did you understand the question, Chani?

18:10 Speaker 6 One second.

18:12 Speaker 1 I’ll go over it again, because this is the point the entire chapter rests on. What did we explain in the previous chapter? Why isn’t the world separate? It was created through speech. But you say “speech,” and speech separates. What’s the answer? The speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu does not separate. Right? So then he asks: Why do you call it speech? What did we explain in the previous chapter? That speech has two aspects. One is that it reveals something to another person, and the other is that it separates from the speaker—when we’re talking about human speech. How does it reveal something to another person? By separating; that is how it reveals. The speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu also reveals, but it does not have to separate. It can remain contained in its source and still reveal. Yes? Now the question comes up here, in the qualification at the beginning of the chapter. Sorry. If the Torah called it speech, speech has two aspects, not just one. Speech doesn’t only reveal; it also separates. If the Torah called Hashem’s word “speech,” that means that although we said in the previous chapter that it remains contained in its source, it nevertheless also separates. If it did not separate at all—if it only revealed and did not separate in any way—the Torah would not have called it speech. Right? “It is only that the Torah speaks in human language, and in the Torah the speech of the blessed Omnipresent is called ‘speech,’ just like human speech.” Just as human speech not only reveals but also separates, the very fact that the Torah calls the speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu “speech” means that His speech also separates, even though we said that it remains contained in its source. How can that be? There are a few other very interesting fine points here, but…

20:15 Speaker 1 Partly to keep the flow, though it’s simply hard for me to stop myself. But to keep the flow of the explanation and of the chapter, we’ll leave it for another time. I very, very strongly recommend studying Tanya with Chassidus Mevueres in general. It really opens things up.

20:35 Speaker 7 What’s here?

20:37 Speaker 1 No, no, no. No, the black ones, the black ones.

20:43 Speaker 7 Oh, Kretz’s[?]?

20:44 Speaker 1 Kretz’s[?]. And... something has just come out; it arrived in Israel for the first time this week. But they’ve been working on it for years... The Rebbe started working on it. Tanya Shalem. Have you heard of Tanya Shalem?

20:58 Speaker 7 No.

20:58 Speaker 1 Huh? The Rebbe began compiling notes for it when he was still young, collecting all our Rebbeim’s explanations of Tanya scattered throughout the writings of Chassidus and the maamarim, along with source references. The Rebbe started it. Then, about ten years ago or something, some people at Kehot took the... someone took it on, someone provided the funding, and they started working on it, and—

21:29 Speaker 7 It’s the Rebbe’s, meaning the Rebbe gave—

21:31 Speaker 1 The Rebbe himself started it.

21:32 Speaker 7 Didn’t they bring artificial intelligence into this?

21:34 Speaker 1 The Rebbe, the Rebbe very much wanted this.

21:38 Speaker 7 And didn’t they bring artificial intelligence into studying Tanya and Chassidus?

21:41 Speaker 1 Artificial intelligence—I’ll say more about that after the class.

21:47 Speaker 7 Oh, okay.

21:48 Speaker 1 They took what the Rebbe had already written and used it as a foundation, then expanded it. That is, they brought in everything the Rebbe had referenced—all the passages, the quotations, and so on. After that, they went through, they simply combed through all the published writings of Chassidus for years, and I think the unpublished ones too. Wherever they found a letter, a sicha, or a maamar that addressed or explained something in Tanya, they gathered it all. And for about ten years, I think, a booklet would come out every week or two on another few lines of Tanya. It went up on a website where you could download and print it throughout that whole period. Now, they finished it about a year or a year and a half ago. They completed the project, finished all 53 chapters, and then started talking about publishing it. It took time to print, and eventually, around Nissan of last year, early last year, they announced that they were going to publish the book and that it would be available by preorder. Anyone who wanted it could pay in advance and receive it when it was printed. They said they were allocating twenty thousand copies for Israel, and I think it cost 150 or 160 shekels. I rushed to buy one. By the time I got to the website to sign up, it was already three days after the announcement, and only the last thousand were left.

23:26 Speaker 7 Wow.

23:28 Speaker 1 So within three days, the whole lot had sold in advance, before they had even begun to dream of printing the book. Just like that. And now, this week, someone sent me a photo showing that the first copies had arrived in Israel. It’s two volumes, called Tanya Shalem. I imagine most of it is explanations from the Rebbe, but it includes material from all our Rebbeim, arranged by chapter, following the Tanya, line by line...

23:57 Speaker 7 Rabbi, on a different note, we’ve started giving a class here... just for women here in the community in the afternoons, using Peninei HaTanya. Is that a good thing to use for the classes?

24:11 Speaker 1 Who gives the class?

24:13 Speaker 7 I do. No, I just mean, for the women here in the community who aren’t chassidim, I wanted to know whether he’s a good rabbi to use... whether there’s something else.

24:24 Speaker 1 One of the very best. He’s very original; he has lots of original ideas of his own that aren’t written in explanations elsewhere. But what’s especially distinctive about him is his style. He writes... his whole explanation of Tanya has the style of a farbrengen. It’s... One time I happened to... one time... Want to hear a story?

24:55 Speaker 7 Stories are my thing... yes.

24:59 Speaker 1 My father, a”h, passed away in 5766, in Tammuz 5766. From 5754 until then, I hadn’t dared travel to the Rebbe. I couldn’t bear to see the Rebbe as he looked then; I wasn’t capable of it. And afterward, it was completely out of the question. Even when Dovid Kras started traveling again after about ten years or more, I didn’t go. But when my father passed away, Chaim Sholom, may he be well, pressed me relentlessly. He wouldn’t let up. “Your father has passed away. There’s no way you’re not going to say Kaddish at the Rebbe’s.”

25:39 Speaker 7 Mm-hmm.

25:39 Speaker 1 He kept at me like that for about two months. In the end, I bought a ticket and went. I had sons there in the group at the time, and, in short, it was a dream. After fifteen, sixteen years of not having been at the Rebbe’s, everything had changed. Physically, everything there had changed. They’d built the plaza, built upstairs, built downstairs. There were many more people than before. Suddenly, out on the street there was music, a stage with music. None of those things had been there. It was... Anyway, among other things, I had some very memorable experiences. One of my experiences on that trip was that one day, they’d put up notices everywhere, every inch of space. I don’t know if you’re familiar with them—you probably are. Little notices saying there’s a lecture today here or there. So one of them said, “Rabbi Ginzburg: Everything you wanted to ask and everything you wanted to know—or didn’t know.” Something along those lines. Rabbi Ginzburg will explain what Radla is, and what this is, and what that is.

26:44 Speaker 7 Did you know him?

26:45 Speaker 1 Huh?

26:46 Speaker 7 Rabbi Ginzburg.

26:46 Speaker 1 Only his name.

26:49 Speaker 7 What date was that, 5766?

26:51 Speaker 1 He sat in the large zal. He said...

26:53 Speaker 7 No, the date, the date.

26:54 Speaker 1 The date? During... Chol Hamoed Sukkos. One evening during Chol Hamoed Sukkos. They gave him the microphone. Of course, at the back there was another microphone where they were doing something else. Half of 770... Anyway, 770 was packed, and it was lively. He started with a smile and said, “Well, I can’t explain everything written on the notice. I’ll start at the bottom.” He began explaining what the World of Asiyah is, the World of Yetzirah, Beriah. He reached... climbed all the way up to Atzilus, and so on. I was there for about an hour and a half. That was the first time someone gave me a framework. The first time... I’d already been studying Chassidus; I’d already been in Chabad for several years by then. Since when, let’s say? From 5745 to 5765—that was already twenty years. For me, it was all new. The way he presented it... After the class, I went over to him. It was the first time I spoke with him, and we had a nice conversation. I asked him where I could learn these things, where they were written. He told me, “Not to learn them, but you can look in the books I’ve written.” At that point, the first four volumes had come out.

28:07 Speaker 7 Wow.

28:09 Speaker 1 And that was it. Then we became friends. Afterward, we met many more times at weddings and elsewhere.

28:15 Speaker 7 Doesn’t Rabbi Goldberg also give a series of Tanya classes?

28:17 Speaker 1 Rabbi Goldberg has always given Tanya classes, but not... not in this style, and not... not on this level either.

28:25 Speaker 7 Right.

28:29 Speaker 1 And that hour-and-a-half lecture really gave me the foundation for studying Chassidus. He has this broad approach; he sees the whole picture. Today it’s all written down, all printed. Back then there was nothing. Whatever I learned in maamarim, whatever I understood, I had to connect it all myself. There weren’t books like these with summaries and explanations. None of those things existed. Peninei HaTanya wasn’t out yet.

28:59 Speaker 7 I think Rabbi Yekusiel Green was one of the first to... offer an explanation of Tanya, wasn’t he?

29:07 Speaker 1 Personally, I was never able to connect with Rabbi Green’s explanation.

29:14 Speaker 7 Oh. No, it’s just that there are a lot. Today there are, like, a lot.

29:19 Speaker 1 A great many. I never liked his.

29:22 Speaker 7 Mm-hmm.

29:23 Speaker 1 And when you look at his explanations, look inside. You’ll see that wherever there’s an explanation, Chassidus Mevueres, Peninei HaTanya, and Rabbi Yoel Kahn all explain one thing, while he explains something else. He has a very particular understanding of his own, um...

29:46 Speaker 7 What?

29:46 Speaker 1 So that’s regarding [unclear]—the story, the maamar mentioned in [unclear]. Good. I have a few more stories about him. Now, if the Torah calls Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s speech “speech,” that means it doesn’t merely reveal; we have to say that although it is all-encompassing, it also has an element of detail. Where do we find detail in Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s speech? Let’s read inside. “For this is indeed the way the flow of life-force descends to the lower realms: through many great contractions of various kinds, from which many beings of various kinds are created.” In other words, because Hakadosh Boruch Hu contracted the Divine life-force and drew it down in all kinds of ways and forms, all kinds of different beings were created from it. Each kind of contraction produced a different kind of being. There are beings associated with chesed, beings associated with gevurah, and so on. And he adds: “And the contractions and the concealment of the supernal countenance became so exceedingly intense that even impure things, kelipos, and the sitra achra could come into existence and be created.” In other words, there are two kinds of contractions. There are contractions like the ones he discussed earlier—many great contractions of various kinds, from which created beings came into existence. Besides those, there is another kind of contraction: not only are they many and great, they become exceedingly intense. From these, impure kelipos and the sitra achra are created. What’s the difference? There is a contraction whose purpose is to reveal, and there is a contraction whose purpose is to conceal. When a teacher wants to explain something to a student, he conceals, he contracts the concept so the student can understand it. Right? But when someone creates a password for an online account, it’s so that someone else can’t get in, so that someone else won’t understand. So the life-force and sustenance of the kelipos and sitra achra come after all the many, varied contractions have become even

32:07 Speaker 1 more intense. Hakadosh Boruch Hu added another kind of contraction, which not only diminishes with the aim of revealing, but conceals with the aim of hiding. “Until even impure things, kelipos, and the sitra achra could come into existence and be created, and receive their life and sustenance from the word of Hashem and the breath of His mouth, blessed be He, through concealment of the countenance and a descent through levels.” They do, of course, receive their life-force from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, but in a manner of concealment of the countenance. “And therefore they are called”—there’s an emendation by the Rebbe here; it should say “they are called”—the kelipos and sitra achra are therefore called “other gods.” Where are the kelipos and sitra achra called “other gods”? Have you ever come across that? I imagine not. Neither had I. In works of Kabbalah, when they speak about spiritual kelipos, they often call them “other gods.” Now, when an ordinary person reads that, he might just read on. But why call something spiritual “other gods”? What are “other gods” in the plain sense? An idol. Right? What are “other gods”? An idol worshipped as a god. Right? Why is an idol called “other gods”?

33:37 Speaker 8 Because they identify them that way.

33:38 Speaker 1 Because someone said that his god is not Hakadosh Boruch Hu; it’s someone else. Right? So you can call an idol “other gods.” You understand why it’s called “other gods”? It’s another god. Right? But the kelipos—first of all, no one calls them gods, and no one thinks they’re gods. So why call them “other gods”? What reason is there to call them that? What is it about them? Yes? Is the question clear? So the Rebbe says: Why are they called “other gods”? Because they receive their life-force through contractions that have become exceedingly intense. What’s the connection? “Because the sustenance and life-force of those kelipos and the sitra achra do not come from the aspect of...” Could I see one of your pages?

34:31 Speaker 8 Yes.

34:31 Speaker 1 Some of the pages here came out of the printer a bit better.

34:38 Speaker 8 What condition is it in?

34:38 Speaker 1 This will have to do until I buy a new printer.

34:40 Speaker 8 No, it’s good. They’re good.

34:43 Speaker 1 What?

34:43 Speaker 8 They’re good.

34:44 Speaker 1 On yours. On mine I can’t see a thing. Here.

34:48 Speaker 8 Listen to today’s Tanya.

34:50 Speaker 1 What?

34:51 Speaker 8 About the flow of life-force.

34:53 Speaker 1 What’s today’s Tanya? I haven’t learned it yet today. I don’t remember. “And David established there,” no? No, no. Yes, “And David established there.” No. Today is the 25th.

35:03 Speaker 8 Look in...

35:07 Speaker 1 No, it’s here, come on. Today’s Tanya.

35:13 Speaker 8 Today’s is yesterday’s.

35:14 Speaker 1 The power of idol worship, yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes—yesterday’s, more precisely. Yes. Exactly. That is precisely the content of yesterday’s Tanya, of 1 Cheshvan. Right. I’d completely forgotten. I hadn’t thought of that. Good. What is achorayim, the “back”? They receive their life-force from the back. What does that mean? “Achorayim means that when a person gives something to his enemy unwillingly, he throws it to him over his shoulder, because he turns his face away from him out of hatred.”

35:56 Speaker 8 With that kind of contempt.

35:57 Speaker 1 What?

35:57 Speaker 8 With that kind of contempt.

35:59 Speaker 1 It’s more than contempt. When someone gives something to another person, it can happen in three ways. Sometimes a person gives a gift to someone he loves—his son, his son-in-law, someone close to him at a wedding, and so on. Right? When he gives the gift, he looks at him and kisses him, with a beaming face. That’s how he gives it. Then there’s someone who gives—he might even give a larger sum—but without a beaming face. For example, someone buying a car gives the seller an amount that might be more than he spends on a wedding. A large sum. Does he hug the seller and kiss him? Not exactly. Right? Why? Is he angry with the seller? No. Does he hate him? No. So what’s going on? He gives him money because he needs the car. Why does he need the car? He needs to get places; he needs to be comfortable and able to go wherever he wants. Right? He doesn’t need the car itself; he needs what the car will do for him. Right? So when someone gives because he wants the thing itself, he does it with a beaming face. If he gives for the sake of something beyond it, he gives without a beaming face, because it isn’t the thing itself he wants; he wants its result. Right? But there’s a third situation. A person gives—perhaps an even larger sum—and not only does he give it without a beaming face, he throws it to the other person over his shoulder. When? When he’s forced to. When someone has to pay a fine.

37:49 Speaker 9 A loan?

37:51 Speaker 1 No, not a loan. Ultimately, with a loan he wanted it, but not with a fine. A fine—he’s accused of something, whether he’s guilty or not, and now he has to pay a fine, an enormous sum. Will he refuse to pay? He has to pay; he’ll pay. How will he give it? The way he pays when buying a car? No. Now, why is this called “over his shoulder”? For precisely this reason. The face expresses a person’s inner self. When someone’s heart turns toward another person, his face turns toward him too. If it comes from within, he’ll smile as well. If it’s only external, he won’t smile. If it’s from the back—he doesn’t want to do it and is acting under compulsion—he’ll throw it to him. He won’t look at him; he can’t look him in the face at all. Right? And in what way does Hakadosh Boruch Hu give life to the kelipos? Not from His inner will, not even from His external will, but under compulsion. He has to give them life; He has no choice. “For he turns his face away out of hatred. So too Above: the aspect of the face and the innermost dimension of the Supernal Will is His true desire, with which Hashem desires to bestow life upon all who are close to Him, from the side of holiness.” To whom does Hakadosh Boruch Hu want to give life? To Jews who observe mitzvos. “But the sitra achra and impurity are an abomination to Hashem, which He hates. And since He hates it, He does not bestow life upon it from the innermost dimension of His will and His true desire, as though He desired it, G-d forbid; nor even from the external dimension of His will, but rather like one who throws something over his shoulder to his enemy, unwillingly.” And if it’s unwilling, who forces Him to give to them? We said you give to an enemy only when you have no choice, when you’re forced. Who forces Hakadosh Boruch Hu to give life to the sitra

39:55 Speaker 1 achra? Right? So the Alter Rebbe gives two reasons here why Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so to speak, has no choice and must give it to them—why He is compelled. He says: First, “only in order to punish the wicked.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu has to punish the wicked? He has no choice? A very interesting reason.

40:18 Speaker 9 Right, you force them—it’s as if...

40:22 Speaker 1 You create wicked people, and then You have to punish them, so to speak. And the second reason is to give a good reward to the righteous who subdue the sitra achra. So the second reason is a little easier to understand. If Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave the righteous a reward without any work, it would be “bread of shame.” They wouldn’t enjoy it. It wouldn’t be good. True good is good that comes through work, when a person feels that he accomplished something. So for the righteous to be able to work, for them to have a choice, wicked people have to be created. Right?

40:57 Speaker 9 Free choice, right?

40:58 Speaker 1 For there to be free choice, wicked people have to be created. Hakadosh Boruch Hu doesn’t want to create the wicked. He wants to give a good reward to the righteous. For Him to give the righteous a reward—not just a reward, but a good reward that they’ll enjoy—it has to come through work. How can there be work if there’s no one opposing them? There’s no choice; He has to create the wicked. Right? So that’s one reason Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so to speak, has no choice: to give a good reward to the righteous. But what’s the first reason? Who forces Him to punish the wicked? This is explained by the Rashag. The Rashag, Reb Shmuel Gronem Esterman, is the foundation of all Chabad Chassidus.

41:47 Speaker 9 Are there several Rashags?

41:52 Speaker 1 Ah, there were several, yes. You’re right, there’s also the Rebbe’s Rashag, but that’s not who I mean here... The Rashag, Reb Shmuel Gronem Esterman, was the mashpia—an older married man whom the Rebbe Rashab chose to be the first mashpia of Tomchei Temimim.

42:14 Speaker 9 Wow.

42:14 Speaker 1 And essentially, all the explanations of Chassidus throughout the generations are based either on what he wrote or on what his students wrote. The Rashag is really the source of Chassidus as we know it...

42:32 Speaker 9 Why, though? Because he passed it on in the yeshiva?

42:35 Speaker 1 He taught the... He was the mashpia at Tomchei Temimim, the first mashpia, for a very, very long time—almost, I think, perhaps the entire period of Tomchei Temimim. All the great... all the students who learned from him went on to become mashpi’im, leading mashpi’im, and they then taught others, and their students taught their students. He’s the source. There’s a book of his, Biurei HaTanya.

42:57 Speaker 9 Wow.

43:00 Speaker 1 Very interesting, by the way.

43:03 Speaker 9 Rebbe.

43:03 Speaker 1 Huh?

43:10 Speaker 9 Rebbe, Rebbe.

43:11 Speaker 1 Um...

43:11 Speaker 9 Did he teach Tanya classes?

43:12 Speaker 1 What?

43:12 Speaker 9 Did he teach Tanya classes?

43:13 Speaker 1 No. He was a mashpia in the yeshiva. In the yeshiva they mainly studied the Rebbe Rashab’s maamarim. The Rebbe Rashab said maamarim for the students, beginning in 5666—no, not 5666, in 5657. At first the Rebbe said... the Rebbe Rashab said... The Rebbe explains this, shows it, divides it into periods. The Rebbe shows that at first the maamarim were easier, and then they became deeper and deeper. Then comes Hemshech 5666, which is very deep and very long, and then, later on, Hemshech 5672. The Rebbe Rashab worked on that subject from 5672 until his histalkus in 5680.

43:59 Speaker 9 Was it until ’76?

44:00 Speaker 1 ’72. It began in ’72.

44:02 Speaker 9 But didn’t it go on until ’76 or so?

44:04 Speaker 1 Ah, I think so. In print it goes until ’76, and after that there’s something written that wasn’t printed. I don’t remember the details. I do remember that the Rebbe Rashab continued working on it afterward as well. So in the yeshiva they mainly studied the Rebbe Rashab’s maamarim. He also taught Tanya; there was a Tanya class. They gathered material from the students, gathered sayings, and it’s a book of short explanations like that. It isn’t a systematic explanation of every word. In each chapter he explains a point or two, sometimes at greater length and sometimes more briefly. So there he explains that one of the reasons—our Sages give several reasons why Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world; there are all kinds of reasons. One of them is to reveal the fullness of His powers, the powers of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So to speak, they aren’t complete if they exist only in potential, if they aren’t revealed. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted to create a world so His powers could be revealed in it.

45:13 Speaker 9 As if so that people could understand whether He’s wise or not wise.

45:16 Speaker 1 Not so people could understand. He wants to be revealed.

45:19 Speaker 9 No, but if there’s this conception of Hakadosh Boruch Hu as, like, saying that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is limited and unlimited. He’s this and that.

45:27 Speaker 1 Yes.

45:27 Speaker 9 So, like, that’s why He also created the wicked, so both aspects would be there.

45:31 Speaker 1 No. It’s simply that one of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s attributes is the attribute of netzach, victory. Victory means overcoming someone. Someone has to be created for the attribute of netzach to be revealed—to punish the wicked. That’s how he explains it. Very interesting. And this is called the “back” aspect of the supreme will, blessed be He. He doesn’t want them—not even with the external aspect of His will. He only, so to speak, has to give them life. So that’s the first reason the sitra achra is called the “back” aspect. Right? They’re called “other gods” because they receive from the “back” aspect. Okay? Now let’s begin to develop the second point. “And the supreme will in its ‘face’ aspect is the source of life that gives life to all the worlds”—not only to the Jewish people. Right? The will in its “face” aspect is for the Jewish people. For the Jewish people to exist, they need—what do you call it?—a supportive environment. So this world has to be created. To create this world, the world of Asiyah has to be created. To... yes, ultimately all the worlds are created to provide a place where the Jewish people can keep the mitzvos.

46:46 Speaker 9 Exactly. That’s what it says in Bereishis.

46:49 Speaker 1 Yes, the Rebbe returns to this; it’s mentioned in several places. “For it does not...” So the supreme will, the inner aspect of the supreme will, does not rest on the sitra achra at all, as we discussed earlier. And not only the inner aspect of the supreme will: even the “back” aspect of the supreme will is not actually invested within it, but surrounds it from above. Here’s the idea: when a teacher teaches a student, or a father gives a gift to his son, that is, as we said, the “face” aspect. Right? A gift, giving in a “face-to-face” way. He wants to give, he shows favor, and the son or student receives it inwardly. Right? It comes from the giver’s inner self. When the giver imparts something of his inner self, the recipient takes it in inwardly too. But if the giver’s influence comes from his external aspect, how does the recipient receive it? Only externally as well. Right? That makes sense from what we see in the world. That’s how it works. The inner is received inwardly; the external, externally. So where is the inner aspect of Hakadosh Boruch Hu revealed? Where is it invested? Within the Jewish people. Right? The “back” aspect, which is... the outermost external aspect—how is that received, how does it give life to the sitra achra? Only in an outermost, external way as well. What does “outermost, external” mean? Encompassing. What does “encompassing” mean?

48:36 Speaker 10 Well?

48:36 Speaker 1 That it doesn’t feel it.

48:38 Speaker 10 They seem to live well anyway.

48:40 Speaker 1 Huh?

48:40 Speaker 10 They seem to live better.

48:42 Speaker 1 No, the question isn’t whether they live well or not. The question is whether they feel G-dliness. A Jew feels G-dliness; the kelipos and sitra achra don’t. Why don’t they feel G-dliness?

48:58 Speaker 10 External.

48:58 Speaker 1 Because they receive externally, because He gives to them in an external way, so they also receive... What does “external” mean? It’s encompassing, encompassing. They don’t feel it... A person doesn’t feel an encompassing influence. The kelipos also don’t feel the encompassing influence that gives them life. “And therefore it is a place of death and impurity,” Hashem protect us. If life-force—where do they get life-force from? Life-force comes only... There’s no life-force elsewhere. They don’t receive inner life-force. What do they receive? The external aspect. How do they receive that external aspect? They don’t really receive that either; it, too, only encompasses them. So what do they have? The entire existence of the kelipos and sitra achra is death. It’s what? The opposite of life. Why? “For the tiny bit of light and life-force that it draws and receives within itself from the ‘back’ aspect of the holiness above is actually in a state of exile within it, in the secret of the exile of the Shechinah mentioned above.” Sorry, what did we say? How does He give them life? Through the “back” aspect, in an encompassing way. Right? So what is this tiny bit that it receives “within itself”? Within itself isn’t the “back” aspect; it isn’t encompassing—it’s internal. Right?

50:12 Speaker 10 Right.

50:12 Speaker 1 Ultimately, for something to exist, something has to give it life. An encompassing influence doesn’t give life. It brings something into existence, but it doesn’t give it life. It makes a thing exist. What sort of thing? An inanimate thing. For it to live, something has to be invested within it. So the Rebbe says: True, from that encompassing influence, there’s a tiny bit that the sitra achra does receive within itself. But first, it’s a tiny bit. A tiny bit of what? Of something that was only the “back” aspect to begin with—the back of the back. And even that tiny bit, in what way is it invested within it? In a way... It says in...

51:00 Speaker 10 Exile.

51:01 Speaker 1 Huh?

51:01 Speaker 10 In a state of exile.

51:02 Speaker 1 Exile. Elsewhere it says that it grows dim, that it... it itself turns dark.

51:08 Speaker 10 …

51:08 Speaker 1 The spark itself no longer knows that it is, that it is G-dliness.

51:14 Speaker 10 That’s the makeup of the nations.

51:16 Speaker 1 Hmm? Of the kelipos and the sitra achra. And that is why they are called “other gods.” Now that’s another reason. The first reason the kelipos are called “other gods”... At the beginning we asked, what’s the connection? “Other gods” means an idol. Why? Because someone else made it; it isn’t G-d. What was the first reason? Yes? That they receive from the aspect of the “back.” What’s the second reason? “Therefore they are called ‘other gods,’ for they are actual idol worship and a denial of the oneness of the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu.” The second reason is much stronger. Why are the kelipos called “other gods”? What does “other gods” mean? Idol worship, right? What are kelipos? Idol worship is a denial of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Right?

52:04 Speaker 10 Well?

52:04 Speaker 1 If they feel absolutely nothing at all, then their entire existence is one of denial. So they really are “other gods.” There are two reasons here, then, two explanations for why kelipos are called “other gods” in the Kabbalah texts. One is that they receive from the aspect of the “back,” and the second is that they themselves are idol worship. Yes? Why do we need two reasons?

52:38 Speaker 11 Two.

52:39 Speaker 1 After all, everything in the world, every created being—both the kelipos and the realm of holiness—has the encompassing light that gives it life, and the... the encompassing light that brings it into being, and the life-force that gives it life. Right? We just discussed this. Yes? So the Alter Rebbe says it is called “other gods” both because of the encompassing light and because of the inner light. Why is it called “other gods” from the perspective of the encompassing light? Because it receives from the aspect of the “back.” Why is it called “other gods” from the perspective of the inner light? Because its entire being is denial. “For since the light and life-force of holiness is in a state of exile within it, it is not nullified at all before the holiness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. On the contrary, it raises itself up like an eagle to say, ‘I am, and there is none besides me.’” I, and there is no... not that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the only reality. I, and there is nothing besides me. The complete opposite of the oneness of Hashem. “As it says”—this is in the Book of Yechezkel; there are two verses: “My river is mine,” and “I made myself.” Those are two verses there. There’s one verse, “My river is mine,” and another verse... how many verses? Ah, five or six verses earlier, “I made myself.”

53:49 Speaker 11 Oh, that’s not one verse.

53:50 Speaker 1 There’s no such single verse, right. They’re two verses.

53:52 Speaker 11 It sounds like Pharaoh or something.

53:58 Speaker 1 That’s... Yechezkel says it there about Pharaoh, but they’re two different verses.

54:06 Speaker 11 Oh.

54:06 Speaker 1 He says not only “My river is mine”—not only does the river belong to me, but I also made myself. They’re two different verses. “Therefore our Sages said...” Ah. Finally we’ve arrived at it: what does this have to do with us? What has he been talking about until now? What is a kelipah? What is the sitra achra? What does it have to do with us? We want to understand the nature of the prohibition “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Because what does that mean for us? Okay, so I understand what kelipos and the sitra achra are. What does that have to do with me? “Therefore our Sages said that arrogance is equivalent to actual idol worship. For the essence and root of idol worship is regarding oneself as an entity in one’s own right, separate from the holiness of Hashem.” Not a total denial of Hashem. “As it says in the Gemara, they call Him ‘the G-d of gods.’” The kelipos, or the nations who worship idols, call Hakadosh Boruch Hu “the G-d of gods.” Yes, idol worship is denial. What is the root of that denial? Where does denying the oneness of Hashem come from? From a person’s not... from his feeling himself. If someone is nullified, he won’t deny it. Denial is only the result. Yes? The root and essence of idol worship is the sense of self. If so, what really is the difference between a believing, mitzvah-observant Jew who davens and is meticulous in his observance, but feels “I am, and there is none besides me,” and impurity and the sitra achra? What’s the difference? The difference is only one of degree. One feels himself a little separate, and the other feels himself very separate.

56:21 Speaker 11 But by feeling that way, it’s as though he also gives life to the kelipos.

56:24 Speaker 1 That’s before we even get to the result of it.

56:26 Speaker 11 Okay.

56:28 Speaker 1 The difference between an observant, believing Jew who is as careful with a minor mitzvah as with a major one, and impurity, the sitra achra, actual idol worship in its worst form, is only a difference of degree. There’s no difference. The Alter Rebbe says, “Therefore our Sages said that arrogance is equivalent to idol worship”—actual idol worship! A person who is arrogant. What does arrogant mean? He thinks very highly of himself.

56:57 Speaker 11 Meaning, more or less, irritable, or...

57:00 Speaker 1 What?

57:02 Speaker 11 Anger comes from a sense of self.

57:04 Speaker 1 Anger also comes from a sense of self. Yes.

57:06 Speaker 11 I feel that I’m my own person, and they’re attacking me—

57:09 Speaker 1 All the character traits of the animal soul—we spoke about this once—stem from... where do they begin? They begin with a person feeling himself to be separate. There’s an independent existence. The moment a person isn’t nullified, it’s the same thing from there on. The same thing. At the level of the essence, at the level of the root, he’s there. More here, less there. It’s the same thing. There’s no difference. Frightening?

57:44 Speaker 11 Right.

57:44 Speaker 1 “For the essence and root of idol worship is regarding oneself as an entity in one’s own right, separate from the holiness of Hashem, and not a total denial of Hashem, as it says in the Gemara that they call Him ‘the G-d of gods.’” Rather, they too agree that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the great G-d, the principal one. Right, they submit to Him because He truly is... But they also regard themselves as an entity in their own right. That is the main point. “And by doing so, they separate themselves from the holiness of Hashem.” How? By feeling that they too are something. So if a person feels that he too is something, what’s the difference? He does so a little less, and the other does so a little more. That’s all. “Since they are not nullified to Him, blessed be He—for the supernal holiness rests only upon that which is nullified to Him, blessed be He, as stated above—they are therefore called ‘mountains of separation’” in the holy Zohar. “And this is a denial of His true oneness.” True oneness—what we discussed in the previous two chapters: “Everything before Him is considered as nothing,” and the entire existence of the world is truly nullified to Him, blessed be He, and to His will, which constantly gives them all life and brings them into being from nothing. So if a person doesn’t feel that, the very fact that he doesn’t feel it is denial, or like idol worship. So in these three chapters, 20 through 22, the Alter Rebbe explained very clearly the two commandments, “I am Hashem” and “You shall have no other gods.” He based it all on the analogy of speech, on various aspects of speech—how it is expressed, how it becomes separate, and when it does and doesn’t. Now we already understand what “I am Hashem” and “You shall have no other gods” are about: faith in the oneness of Hashem, and not only faith but, so to speak, nullification to G-dliness, as opposed to someone who is not nullified to G-dliness. Why—why did we say we needed to explain this? Because all these points go back to the beginning. Now

59:58 Speaker 1 it’s clearer, much clearer. To awaken the hidden love, you need to put it to the test in a matter of faith. Ah, when is a test of faith aroused? Only when someone is backed against the wall on a matter of faith. Now that we understand what it means to believe—belief means believing that there is nothing besides Him. Yes? So if we can show that this very point, nullification to G-dliness, that the entire existence of the world is only G-dliness, is present in every mitzvah, and that the sense of self is present in every transgression, then whenever a person faces a mitzvah or a transgression and thinks about this, his hidden love will awaken on its own. He doesn’t need to do anything. He doesn’t need to contemplate in order to reveal it. Just remembering that this particular prohibition is idol worship, that it separates me from Hashem—or that by doing this positive mitzvah I am nullified to Hashem—just remembering that is enough for him not to transgress. Nothing more is needed. The love will awaken; it won’t let him do it. So only one very simple thing remains: to show how all the positive mitzvos are details of “I am Hashem,” and how all the prohibitions... That’s what the Alter Rebbe does in the next two chapters.

1:01:35 Speaker 3 It’s recorded. I want...