Likkutei Amarim Chapter 31 · 5781

00:02 Speaker 1 Since we’re here for a class, let’s say that the learning should bring healing.

00:09 Speaker 2 Amen.

00:09 Speaker 1 A blessing for those who are ill.

00:11 Speaker 2 Amen. Amen.

00:11 Speaker 1 …

00:11 Speaker 2 Amen. Good evening. Sorry I’m late.

00:17 Speaker 1 I want to do the drawing at the end of the class. So I’ll do one for the Rebbe and the rabbi—

00:23 Speaker 3 For the Alter Rebbe?

00:24 Speaker 1 For the Alter Rebbe, for the Alter Rebbe.

00:28 Speaker 2 What’s this slip of paper?

00:29 Speaker 1 We’ll include everyone who took part in the class—

00:46 Speaker 2 So I’m going to be in the drawing?

00:57 Speaker 1 No, just pull out a slip and we’ll see who wins.

00:59 Speaker 2 Oh, all right.

01:00 Speaker 1 Give me the rabbi’s; the rabbi hasn’t done it.

01:07 Speaker 2 All right, good evening. We’re learning chapter 31. In the previous chapters, we learned how to serve Hashem: how each person can reach a state of completeness in thought, speech, and action, avoid transgressions, and not neglect mitzvos. That’s by awakening, at every moment—the person can think about mesirus nefesh, about the idea of giving up one’s life for Hashem. I have, in my heart and in my soul, a point like that within me. Each of us has it: I would be prepared to give up my life to sanctify Hashem’s name. And if, throughout the day, whenever a transgression or something improper presents itself, I think, “If I were faced with a test of mesirus nefesh, I would certainly stand firm—so am I going to fail this test?” The very knowledge that I could give up my life is enough to keep a person from transgressing. That’s what the Alter Rebbe said in chapter 25; that was the discussion from the beginning of Tanya through chapter 25. Then the Alter Rebbe said that although everyone can serve Hashem in thought, speech, and action, through contemplation and mesirus nefesh, and remain connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu all day without interruption, in practice we see that when we come to serve Hashem, it’s hard. I don’t always succeed. Sometimes I really want to, but it’s very hard to keep myself focused all day, to keep thinking and never stop being attached. I live in this world; I’m human. How can you expect me to be attached all day without a break? There are other things to deal with, and it’s hard. A person finds it difficult, so sometimes he lets himself off, and sometimes he doesn’t succeed. The Alter Rebbe explains why a person can sometimes fall nonetheless, even though he—

03:22 Speaker 2 knows what he has to do, but in practice can’t withstand the test. There are two general reasons. If a person is in a state of laziness, sadness, or heaviness, then the yetzer overcomes him. So the first thing is that a person needs to be joyful. If he’s joyful, he can always find within himself the strength for mesirus nefesh and to overcome the yetzer. So first of all, he needs to be joyful. How can I be joyful? After all, all kinds of things can make a person sad. So he gave a series of ways a person can always overcome sadness, whatever its cause. Some people are sad because of material troubles. Others become sad over transgressions they committed. Some don’t actually commit transgressions, but it troubles them that they’re so coarse that they have thoughts of transgression. Someone else has intrusive thoughts during davening, and so on. So the Alter Rebbe explained, for every kind of thought and everything that might lead a person to sadness, how to get out of it and not fall into sadness. That’s chapters 26 through 28, three chapters. Then he said: There’s another issue that can interfere with a person’s service of Hashem. A person might not be sad at all. He learned chapters 26 through 28 well and is never sad. He also has understanding; he knows how to contemplate Hashem’s greatness. He has learned, he has knowledge, he tries, and he makes an effort. But after all the good advice, all the contemplation, and all the effort he puts in, a love of Hashem still doesn’t burn in his heart. True, he’s joyful, he’s together—

05:28 Speaker 2 with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he thinks about Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and he contemplates Hashem’s greatness during davening or before davening. But in practice, it says that the mind rules the heart. If I contemplate Hashem’s greatness, that should awaken love in me, just as it does with physical things. If I think about something tasty, I immediately want to eat it; the thought immediately stirs my heart. Why isn’t it like that with holy things? When I think about something good, why doesn’t it awaken a longing in me to draw close to Hakadosh Boruch Hu? What’s the difference? Why does it work with physical things but not spiritual ones? The Alter Rebbe explains—oh, thank you very much for the coffee. So the Rebbe explains in chapters 29 and 30, which we learned over the past few weeks, that there’s a kind of spiritual ailment called timtum halev, a dullness of the heart. A person’s heart is coarse. His heart is coarse, and the contemplation doesn’t penetrate it. So what do you do? What do you do with a big, wet log that you throw onto a fire and it doesn’t catch? Why not? Because it’s one big lump. The fire can’t take hold of it. So what do you do? The holy Zohar says: When you have a large piece of wood that you can’t set alight, beat it, break it into thin splinters. Throw those into the fire, and the splinters will catch in an instant. The Alter Rebbe says it’s the same with the soul, with our animal soul. If you have such a large, coarse animal soul that, even after you’ve become joyful and contemplated Hashem’s greatness, it still doesn’t catch fire with love of Hashem, then beat it down. Beat down your animal soul, break it, crush it, and then it too will catch fire with love of Hashem, and you won’t have a problem. That was chapters 29 and 30. We still have two problems left to solve. After all—

07:45 Speaker 2 at the beginning of this discussion, in chapter 26, the Alter Rebbe said that we need to be joyful. All the advice we’ve been given has two shortcomings. All the advice about not falling into sadness is advice on how not to fall into sadness. It isn’t advice on how to be joyful. It’s only the “turn away from evil” side of joy: how not to be sad. But it’s not enough not to be sad; we need to be joyful. We haven’t talked about that. And second, not only have we not explained how not to be sad, but at first glance, the last two chapters we learned—those who were here—the very contemplation in which a person beats himself down can itself bring on sadness. When a person starts thinking about how bad and wicked he is, how repulsive and loathsome, how he is among the most lowly, how coarse he is, how his animal soul overpowers him, and how he has bad dreams—all the details he discussed there in chapter 30, and before that in chapter 29. Then, in chapter 30, he went on to say that everyone is better than me, even the most lowly people, those sitting on the railings at street corners. Not only am I no better than they are, I’m their equal. And not only am I their equal, I’m worse than they are. They stand firm in their tests, while I don’t stand firm in mine. If a person thinks about all these things, how will he be joyful? How will he be joyful? What? I didn’t understand.

09:50 Speaker 4 There are suggestions.

09:55 Speaker 2 In the earlier chapters—yes, in the first three chapters, 26 through 28. It’s true that he talks about how a person needs to be joyful, but the point there is how not to be sad. He isn’t talking about contemplation that brings joy; he’s talking about contemplation of how not to be sad. The opposite of not being sad is being joyful, but that isn’t contemplation of joy itself. That’s what we see in those chapters. So to resolve the two problems we still have—how to be joyful, and how not to fall into sadness as a result of the very contemplation we discussed in the last two chapters—we have chapter 31. Chapter 31 begins: “Now, even if, when he spends a great deal of time delving deeply into the above matters”—the matters discussed in the previous two chapters, that he must humble himself for an hour or two, become lowly in spirit and brokenhearted—“he then comes to great sadness,” the opposite of everything we’ve been saying, “he need not be concerned.” It’s not a problem. “Although sadness comes from kelipas nogah and not from holiness, for of holiness it is written, ‘Strength and joy are in His place.’” Sadness has no place in holiness. Sadness comes from the kelipos. There can be sadness from the completely impure kelipos, and there can be sadness from kelipas nogah, but sadness does not come from holiness. “And the Shechinah rests only amid joy.” So how can you tell me to contemplate my lowliness, my shortcomings, the fact that I’m not good—which brings me to sadness—and at the same time tell me to be joyful? “And likewise for a matter of halachah,” and so on, a person needs to be joyful. So why, nevertheless, should we contemplate these things, even though they bring sadness? “If the sadness concerns heavenly matters, it comes from the good within nogah. Therefore the Arizal wrote that even worry over sins is appropriate only at the time of confession, and not during prayer or Torah study, which must be conducted

12:29 Speaker 2 with joy that comes specifically from holiness.” So what’s the difference between the sadness we’re discussing here and ordinary sadness? Ordinary sadness comes from the three impure kelipos. When a person—oh—when a person is sad because he lacks something materially, in his health, livelihood, or children, or he’s sad because he committed sins—ordinary sadness, that feeling of being downcast, comes from the lower side of nogah, from the lower levels of kelipas nogah. But when a person’s sadness comes from contemplating his own state, that is sadness over heavenly matters. It’s sadness from the good within nogah. What are the good and the bad within nogah? We won’t go into the whole long explanation now, but we will say one thing about it. We’ve spoken many times about how everything in the world comprises ten sefiros, ten aspects. Right? Are you with me? Yes.

14:07 Speaker 5 Chabad, Chagas, Nehim.

14:08 Speaker 2 What?

14:08 Speaker 5 Chabad, Chagas, Nehim.

14:09 Speaker 2 Chabad, Chagas, Nehim, right. Everything in the world comprises all ten aspects. In a person, for example, there’s the head, which is his Chabad; there’s the body, which is his Chagas—chesed, gevurah, tiferes. The emotions are the body, the person’s center. And then there are netzach, hod, yesod, and malchus, the lower parts, the legs. Clearly the head is primary, and the body is primary too, but the legs are already something entirely external; they merely serve the person, so to speak. Similarly, kelipas nogah has its Chabad, the inner dimension of nogah, the essential part of kelipas nogah, and it has its lower parts. When a person is sad because he lacks something spiritually, that is called sadness that comes from the good parts of nogah, the higher parts of nogah, from the chochmah, binah, and daas of nogah. And when a person is simply sad about material matters, that sadness comes from the lower levels. So what is the Alter Rebbe telling us? Listen, I’m not telling you to be sad—you mustn’t be sad about the lower things in nogah. But if you’re sad only about the higher matters in kelipas nogah, it’s not so terrible. What does “not so terrible” mean? Ultimately, if I’m sad and that sadness comes from the kelipos, what good is there in it? It’s a kelipah that conceals the revelation of G-dliness. What difference does it make whether I’m sad because of this or because of that? The bottom line is that I’m sad, tired, and dejected. I have no strength; I can’t overcome the yetzer hara. What difference does it make why I’m sad?

16:22 Speaker 5 If you know why you’re sad, that gives you the strength to overcome it.

16:27 Speaker 2 That’s the next stage. Right. So he continues immediately after the parentheses: “Nevertheless,” although sadness that comes from holy matters is still sadness, “this is the way to subdue the sitra achra: with something of its own kind and likeness. As our Sages said, ‘From the forest itself comes the handle for the axe that fells it,’ and ‘He was struck by one like himself.’” When you want to chop down trees... You chop trees with an axe, and where do you get the handle for the axe? From the trees of the forest.

17:08 Speaker 5 Wait, how do you chop an axe?

17:09 Speaker 2 What?

17:10 Speaker 5 How do you chop an axe?

17:12 Speaker 2 They took some stick, I don’t know, cut it with their teeth. That’s one of the explanations of the ten things created at twilight, one of which—yes—is the explanation of “tongs are made with tongs.” Why is that only according to “some say”? The tongs made with tongs are mentioned only under “some say.” It doesn’t say they were created at the beginning. Some say that tongs, too, were created at twilight. Still, you can make tongs without wood. Not that... All right, that isn’t relevant now. So just as you need wood from the forest to cut down the forest, what are we trying to cut down through all that contemplation? The animal soul. So we have to use a tool from the animal soul itself. If the animal soul’s way is to bring a person down into sadness, then I need to take something similar to it—some kind of sadness. Only something resembling the animal soul can cut it down. And about this it says, “In all sadness there will be gain.” And what is the gain? What benefit comes from sadness? It is the joy that comes after the sadness, as will be explained below. In other words, a really big crowd gathered here—but the crowd is for next year.

18:55 Speaker 5 Next year, you’re on for the class.

19:06 Speaker 2 So the Alter Rebbe is pointing out that when we say, “In all sadness there will be gain,” what do you hear? That some benefit will come from any sadness. Sadness itself is unacceptable. Sadness itself isn’t good. What does “In all sadness there will be gain” mean? Some benefit can come from sadness—not that sadness itself is beneficial. Sadness in itself really does get in the way. When a person is in a state of sadness, he truly cannot overcome the yetzer hara. So what kind of sadness can later bring some benefit? “But in truth,” he continues, “a broken heart and bitterness of soul over its distance from the light of Hashem’s countenance and its being clothed in the sitra achra are not called ‘sadness’ at all in the Holy Tongue. For sadness means that one’s heart is as unfeeling as a stone, with no vitality in it. But bitterness and a broken heart are just the opposite: there is vitality in his heart, enabling him to be moved and to feel bitter. It is simply vitality from the attribute of holy gevurah, while joy comes from the attribute of chesed, for the heart includes both.” We’ve learned several times already that the G-dly soul, which is entirely holy, has its aspect of chesed and its aspect of gevurah. The chesed aspect of the G-dly soul is love of Hashem, and its gevurah aspect is to stand firm and become angry at anything that interferes with love of Hashem. Both are found in the heart. So it’s true that ordinarily a person needs to be joyful. Ordinarily, prayer should be joyful, study should be joyful, and a person should be in good spirits. If he is constantly grumbling and angry, then certainly he won’t be able to understand what he’s studying, he won’t be able to pray, and he won’t be able to overcome the yetzer. But sometimes, when a person sees within himself that the animal soul is gaining strength over him, that his contemplation isn’t penetrating his heart, that he isn’t managing to defeat the yetzer, that he’s sinking into dejection, despair, laziness, sadness, and all

21:38 Speaker 2 These negative character traits—this is the time to use the other side of the G-dly soul, its aspect of gevurah. As he continues on line twenty-one: “At times one must arouse the aspect of holy gevurah.” True, a person needs to be joyful. As we said at the beginning of chapter 26, to overcome the yetzer hara, one needs to be joyful. But sometimes there is no choice; one also has to use the other side of the soul to sweeten the judgments. The judgments here are the animal soul and the yetzer hara. When the yetzer hara, G-d forbid, has control over a person, one needs to use the soul’s gevurah, not its kindness, “for judgments are sweetened only at their source.” As we said earlier, you take the handle for the axe from the forest in order to chop down the forest. You want to overcome the animal soul now. If you’re just—look, right now a Jew is with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He doesn’t need to deal with axes. He’s learning Chassidus; he’s preparing for davening; he’s contemplating the G-dly life-force that gives life to the worlds. No axes are needed here. He is with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, thinking about Hakadosh Boruch Hu, marveling at the beauty of the Torah. He isn’t fighting anyone. Right now he is building up the fire of the G-dly soul. But sometimes he reaches a point where he sees that he can’t manage it. He can’t contemplate; he can’t connect. Thoughts distract him. All kinds of images, musings, and pictures pull him toward places he doesn’t want to be, and he knows: I don’t want to be there. I don’t want to think about that. These images going through my head right now aren’t right for me. I don’t want them here. I want to be with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. I know these things are not

23:50 Speaker 2 good, and he can’t get rid of them. He tries, but he can’t. So this is the time to use the gevurah side of the G-dly soul, “for judgments are sweetened only at their source.” Just as these negative things come from the side of judgments, from the side of gevurah, how do we overcome them? With the gevurah of the G-dly soul. And that is why our Sages said, “A person should always rouse his good inclination against his evil inclination.” “Always” doesn’t mean that you have to keep doing this constantly, keep thinking about it. It means whenever you need to: when you feel you need it, you have it available, so use it. That is, whenever he sees within himself that he needs it. Right now he feels he’s having difficulty in his avodas Hashem. He has difficulty contemplating, difficulty being joyful, difficulty bringing what he understands into the feelings of his heart. Things are holding him back, disturbing him, distracting him. Right now he’s struggling. He sees that his soul needs this now. So this is the time. But there is also something called an opportune time—a time especially suited to overcoming the animal soul, which wants to bring us down with its thoughts of sadness and dejection. So generally, when should I use the gevurah of the G-dly soul? When I see that I have a problem of one kind or another right now. But there is a particularly suitable time, when this contemplation will be more effective. There is a time when, if I contemplate the lowliness of my soul, if I contemplate everything in chapters 29 and 30—if I think about it now, it will take hold. It will sink in; it will take hold within me. When? “An especially suitable time for most people is when he is sad

26:08 Speaker 2 anyway over worldly matters.” He’s sad now. Why? Why is he sad? Because he wasn’t entirely immersed in holiness all day, or all of yesterday, and something happened to him. Someone said something to him, gave him a look, threw out a remark, insulted him or hurt him. He lost a little money. I don’t know—something unpleasant happened that caused him distress. Or it happens for no reason at all. Sometimes a person just wakes up in the morning—or not even in the morning; suddenly, in the middle of the day, a sadness comes over him for no reason, a dejection, a low mood. “Then it is an opportune time to turn his sadness toward the self-reckoning mentioned above, and to fulfill our Sages’ teaching: ‘A person should always rouse his good inclination against his evil inclination.’ In this way he will be rid of the sadness caused by worldly matters.” Now, I don’t know if you noticed: at the beginning of the chapter we spoke about sadness that comes over a person in general, and suddenly we’re talking about sadness caused by worldly matters. Worldly matters? We already finished discussing the sadness caused by physical things somewhere back there. We spoke about it in chapter 26. What is it doing here? The Alter Rebbe actually mentions sadness over worldly matters here only to make this point: it presents an opportune time. You should know that Hakadosh Boruch Hu has now brought you down through some physical matter—an ordinary, worldly matter that caused you distress—so that you feel a little dejected. And when you feel a little dejected, the gevurah of the G-dly soul can take hold. Each of us knows what happens when a person is in a state of tremendous joy. There’s a wedding, some celebration, a child has been born—I don’t know, some great joy. Someone comes along

28:33 Speaker 2 and says something sad, but it doesn’t register with him just then. He doesn’t hear it now; he’s happy. And the reverse is also true. When a person is sad, try telling him, “Come on, think of something and start feeling happy.” It’s very hard. It’s very hard for a person to turn his heart around so that one moment he’s sad, and the next he starts thinking and becomes happy—or the other way around. That’s not how a person works. When someone is in a particular emotional state, it’s very hard to turn it in the opposite direction. So the Alter Rebbe says: If I want to overcome the yetzer hara, if I want to truly contemplate how harmful it is, how repulsive and loathsome I am, and so on, as he discussed in the previous chapters—if I want to believe it and feel it, there’s no point contemplating those chapters when you’re in high spirits. You had a successful day. You got a lot done, did well on a test, won a ticket to the Alter Rebbe—I don’t know what. You had a good day. Then the time comes for Krias Shema before bed. Go make an accounting of yourself: “We have sinned, we have betrayed.” What kind of “we have sinned”? What kind of “we have betrayed”? You’re happy right now. You don’t genuinely feel that you’ve sinned or betrayed. But if you’re already feeling dejected for some other reason, if you’re sad because something happened to you materially, and you now use that moment, that emotional state, to contemplate a real cause for sadness—something that truly calls for sadness—it will take hold now. And that is the way to get rid of the sadness and turn it into bitterness. Exactly. He says that right away. “And in this way,” on line eight, “he will be rid of the sadness caused by worldly matters, and afterward he will come to joy.”

31:05 Speaker 2 True—that is, how did joy get into the picture? Until now, all of a sudden, we’ve only been talking about... huh? Only about sadness. How did joy get here? “Afterward he will come to true joy.” What does “that is” mean? “He should take this to heart and comfort himself doubly.” Not just comfort, but double comfort. Here I’ve spent two and a half weeks learning that I’m no good, that I’m terrible, that I never have holy thoughts or holy dreams, that I’m called a rasha, and that the next person is better than I am—and now there’s another half a chapter of it. For two and a half weeks it’s been drilled into my head that I’m awful, that I’m terrible, that I have no chance. Yet this very contemplation, if you engage in it at the right time, can bring a person to true joy. And what kind of joy? Double joy, not just ordinary joy. “After the above words of truth, he should say to his heart: It is indeed true, without a doubt, that I am utterly distant from Hashem, repulsive and loathsome, and so on. But all this is only me”—the body and the vital soul within it. Do you remember? We learned at the beginning of chapter 29 that for an ordinary person like us, a beinoni, the animal soul is dominant. For tzaddikim, the G-dly soul truly is dominant. For us, the G-dly soul is what matters. But who am I? What do I live with day to day? I live with the animal soul. For me, the animal soul is dominant. For me, the body is dominant. And all the negative things we’ve discussed over the past two weeks—what are they about? The animal soul. What is the animal soul, anyway? It was formed and created for sixty years, or, with strength, seventy, so that here in this world it could help the G-dly soul function, connect it to the physical world, and afterward it ceases to exist. A person’s true self is the G-dly soul within him. So my animal soul is

33:34 Speaker 2 such and such. What can I do? Did I create myself? “Nevertheless, within me there is an actual part of Hashem, present even in the lowliest of the low.” And if even the lowliest of the low has an actual part of G-d Above, then it’s present in me too. It is a G-dly soul, with an actual spark of G-dliness enclothed in it to give it life. It’s just that it is in a state of exile. So yes, I really don’t feel the G-dly soul inside me. What I do feel is that I’m lacking something materially, and I feel good. Right? Each of us feels good. Who feels a material lack? Does the G-dly soul care if there’s a little less money in the bank? That’s the animal soul’s problem, not the G-dly soul’s. And all the other things that pain and bother an ordinary person are matters of the animal soul. And there is a spark of G-dliness even in the lowliest of the low: a G-dly soul, with an actual spark of G-dliness enclothed in it, in the animal soul, to give it life. It’s just that the G-dly soul is in exile within the animal soul. We don’t feel it. On the contrary, the more utterly distant from Hashem, repulsive and loathsome I am, the greater the exile of the G-dly soul within me, and the greater the compassion for it, for the G-dly soul. So what’s the conclusion? “I will devote all my effort and desire to taking it out and raising it from this exile, to return it to its Father’s house as in its youth, before it was enclothed in my body, when it was included in His blessed light and utterly united with Him.” So what’s the conclusion of all this contemplation? That the body is this and that and no good. Right. If the body is no good, what must we do? Take the G-dly soul out of there. How do we take the G-dly soul out of the animal soul’s exile? I’ll attach myself to Torah and mitzvos. I’ll invest more in learning. I’ll put more effort into davening and mitzvos. And it’s not only that the G-dly soul will be freed from the animal soul after 120 years, when I leave the body.

36:11 Speaker 2 That’s not what it means. Rather, this can happen now too, while I’m still in the body. True, I have a body, I have an animal soul, and I don’t feel the G-dly soul all that much. But “even now, my G-dly soul will be included in Him and united with Him when I devote all my effort to Torah and mitzvos, to clothe all ten of its faculties in them, as explained above—and particularly the mitzvah of prayer, to cry out to Hashem in its distress over its exile in my loathsome body, to take it out of confinement and attach it to Him, blessed be He. This is the aspect of teshuvah and good deeds that one performs in order to return Hashem’s portion to its Source and the Root of all worlds.” That’s very particular wording... Usually we don’t think about it. What are “teshuvah and good deeds”? What’s the connection between teshuvah and good deeds? Good deeds are mitzvos, aren’t they? Right? Teshuvah is... teshuvah takes place in the soul. A person thinks and contemplates, draws closer to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and awakens a desire within himself. Those are all inner qualities of thought and feeling, while good deeds are actions. What’s the connection between teshuvah and good deeds? Why do they go together? So here he says that taking the soul out of the body’s imprisonment is accomplished through teshuvah and good deeds. He’s not talking simply about performing mitzvos, about actions. He’s talking about deeds that are good—deeds that come from feeling, mitzvos performed with a feeling for why I’m doing them now. Because I’ve contemplated how distant I am from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and I want to take my soul out of the body’s imprisonment. How will I do that? By performing mitzvos. So as much as I can, I’ll do it with feeling and understanding. And what I’m unable to understand or feel, at least I’ll do the action with the intention of drawing closer to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So even if in practice I

38:30 Speaker 2 don’t feel it, why am I actually performing the mitzvos now? I’m performing a mitzvah because I want to draw closer to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So the intention is there inside. If I don’t feel it, fine—I don’t feel it. What can I do? That’s not my fault. I’m not the one who put up the barrier. But if I perform a mitzvah now with the intention of drawing closer to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the intention is there. The mitzvah rises upward. So when he does the good deeds, the mitzvos, in order to return Hashem’s portion—his soul—to its Source and the Root of all worlds, those are called good deeds. “And this will be his service all his days, with great joy: the joy of the soul as it leaves the loathsome body and returns to its Father’s house as in its youth, at the time of Torah study and avodah.” A person needs to think—simply think—that every moment I think about Hakadosh Boruch Hu, daven, learn Torah, or perform mitzvos in order to draw closer to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, I really am coming out of the animal soul. Even though I don’t feel it right now, it has its effect. My animal soul is being nullified right now; it’s being broken down. If I don’t see it, then I don’t see it. What can I do about not seeing it? It’s not my fault that I don’t see it. In fact, when a person performs a mitzvah, learns Torah, or davens with the intention of drawing closer to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, at that moment his animal soul is nullified. “And there is no greater joy than leaving exile and captivity, like a king’s son who was held captive, grinding in prison and covered in filth, and then went free to his father the king’s home. And although the body remains repulsive and loathsome, as it says in the Zohar, it is called mishcha d’chivya—the serpent’s skin.” The body—I haven’t felt any change. My body still conceals and obscures. It

40:46 Speaker 2 It bothers me exactly as it did before. I don’t feel any difference. It is called the serpent’s skin—the body, the animal soul—because the essence of the animal soul has not been transformed into good and incorporated into holiness. After all, as we’ve discussed several times, I’m a beinoni. The fact that I’ve now decided to serve Hashem and draw close to Him—fine, but that hasn’t turned the animal soul upside down. Before, the G-dly soul was in exile; now I’ve put the animal soul in exile. But to say the animal soul has been transformed? It hasn’t. I don’t have the power to change it. That isn’t in my hands. And even though the animal soul is still there, still interfering, still putting all kinds of thoughts into my head—thoughts and imaginings that aren’t good—nevertheless, his soul should be precious in his eyes, so that he rejoices in the joy of the G-dly soul more than the body... I’m missing a page here. No: more than the lowly body, so as not to mix up and confuse the soul’s joy with the body’s sadness. And this joy is an aspect of the Exodus from Egypt. What’s going on here? For it says of the Exodus from Egypt, “For the people fled.” At first glance, this is puzzling. Why did it happen that way? Why did the Jewish people have to flee Egypt? If they had told Pharaoh to set them free forever, wouldn’t he have had to let them go? Why did they have to use a ruse? “We’re going for three days”—that’s what they asked his permission for. And once he agreed to three days, they went for three days, and now they would escape from him. This was after Pharaoh had suffered the ten plagues, and all of Egypt was pressing the Jewish people to leave. If they had told him, “We’re leaving and we’re not coming back,” could he have said anything? Why did they have to flee from him like that? Rather, it was because the evil within the souls of the Jewish people was still in full force in the left chamber of the heart, for

43:20 Speaker 2 their impurity did not cease until the Giving of the Torah. When it says, “For the people fled,” the inner meaning is that they fled from their own yetzer hara. They fled from the Egypt inside their hearts. They left Egypt physically, but spiritually they were still enslaved to Egypt. That is exactly the work of each and every one of us. When a person resolves that he is now leaving Egypt, that he is now serving Hashem, praying, learning Torah and observing mitzvos, and he tries to do it with all his strength and enthusiasm, and tries not to—then spiritually he has already left Egypt. Physically, the animal soul is still there. His G-dly soul has already left; the animal soul has not yet been nullified. It still exists. So now that he has left Egypt, he is fleeing from his yetzer hara. Their sole aim and desire was to bring their G-dly soul out of the exile of the sitra achra, the impurity of Egypt, and cleave to Him, may He be blessed, as it is written: “Hashem is my strength and my stronghold, and my refuge on the day of trouble,” and so on; “my stronghold and my refuge,” and so on; “He is a refuge for me,” and so on. Therefore, in the future, when Hashem removes the spirit of impurity from the earth, it is written, “You shall not go in flight, for Hashem goes before you,” and so on. So up to this point, we haven’t—when we began learning about joy, after the Alter Rebbe said that this sadness can actually bring a person to joy, meaning it can bring him “double strength.” It can bring him double joy: precisely this bitterness will bring him double joy. Where is the double joy? One joy I understand: I’m now leaving Egypt, like the joy of a king’s son who was in exile and captivity and has returned to his father’s home, like the Jewish people who were in exile in Egypt for four hundred years and are now leaving Egypt. So too, the moment I decide to leave my animal soul behind, disregard it and cleave to holiness, I am leaving Egypt, and that is an immense joy.

45:47 Speaker 2 Right, but why double joy? From here until the end of the chapter, the Alter Rebbe explains why the joy is doubled. “And to experience this aspect of return”—the return of the Exodus from Egypt—“with greater intensity and strength, from the depths of the heart, and so that the soul’s joy will also gain more light and gladness.” The joy will be both deeper and greater. “When he takes to heart knowledge and understanding to console himself in his sadness.” Sadness about what? Do you still remember what we’ve been talking about? The sadness we discussed over the last few chapters: that he has this kind of animal soul and finds himself in this situation... Yes, he is sad because he has thoughts and imaginings that aren’t good, and he has stumbled into sins. So: “knowledge and understanding to console himself in his sadness and grief, saying, as above: True, and so on.” Yes, that’s what I’m like, but I didn’t make myself this way. Someone created me this way.

47:12 Speaker 6 [unclear]

47:14 Speaker 2 Huh?

47:14 Speaker 6 [unclear]

47:15 Speaker 2 No. And if Hakadosh Boruch Hu created me this way, He must have had some purpose in it. Hakadosh Boruch Hu isn’t someone who wants to punish, who wants to—there are cruel people who enjoy seeing someone else suffer. Hakadosh Boruch Hu isn’t like that. He isn’t waiting around the corner to catch us. He isn’t looking to see us suffer. He didn’t give us an animal soul to torment us, to watch us try to overcome it and fail. No, of course not. There is a purpose to it, an end. Why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu do such a thing? Why did He place my G-dly soul in this kind of mud, when He knows I can’t get out of it? Why did He do that? Hmm?

48:05 Speaker 6 What do you mean?

48:06 Speaker 2 I can get out, yes, but in the manner of “the people fled.” Not transform it into holiness. It continues. Even when I leave Egypt, it continues to interfere. I don’t become a tzaddik. Some people merit that, fine. “Why did Hashem do this? To bring down a portion of His blessed light, which fills all worlds and encompasses all worlds, before which everything is considered as nothing, and clothe it in the serpent’s skin and in kelipas nogah.” Why did He do it? “This descent is only for the sake of an ascent: to elevate to Hashem the entire vital animal soul from kelipas nogah and all its garments.” What we’ve discussed until now is: Is the animal soul bothering you? Ignore it. True, it’s a mass of sitra achra, a barrier of darkness. But I’m not there. I’m with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Hey, is someone interfering? Put him aside. Ignore him as much as you can. Think about Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Throw yourself into davening. “Come into the ark”—enter into the words of Torah. Do a mitzvah with joy and enthusiasm. Don’t let yourself fall into sadness. Be with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. You have an animal soul—what can I do? Crush it, beat it down, humble it, and flee from it. Has anything happened to the animal soul? It has remained as it was; it hasn’t changed. I left that place, but the animal soul stayed there. What does the Alter Rebbe say? Why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu do this to me? Because when I leave the animal soul with mesirus nefesh, with all my strength, I don’t just leave it; this does affect it. And not only can it affect my animal soul, but on the contrary: the whole reason Hakadosh Boruch Hu planted the G-dly soul in a physical body, within an animal soul, is that Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants me to sanctify the animal soul. That is the whole reason. And if Hakadosh Boruch Hu

50:33 Speaker 2 wants that from me, He must have given me the strength to do it. Our Sages said that Hakadosh Boruch Hu does not make unreasonable demands of His creations. Hakadosh Boruch Hu does not put a person through a test he cannot withstand. He gives each person the test suited to him. If Hakadosh Boruch Hu placed my soul in such a loathsome, repulsive body, I must have the strength to refine that body. “From kelipas nogah, together with all its garments of thought, speech and action.” What does “its thought, speech and action” mean? Whose are they? “Its” means mine. The animal soul’s thoughts that aren’t good are the imaginings and images that pass through my mind. The animal soul’s speech that isn’t good is the lashon hara and gossip of the animal soul... Whose is it? Mine. And if my G-dly soul has the power to transform the animal soul, to burn it up and transform it into holiness, then when my G-dly soul leaves Egypt, it can do more than simply leave the animal soul behind to wallow in its own mud. I can seize it, take it with me and set it aflame with the fire of holiness. How? “By clothing them in the thought, speech and action of Torah, as will be explained below concerning...”

52:17 Speaker 6 Thought, speech and action. Thought, speech and action.

52:27 Speaker 2 I have an idea, but I don’t want to say something without being sure. Interesting.

52:34 Speaker 6 Huh? Taking it from the lofty to the coarse.

52:40 Speaker 2 Simply put, when a person talks about learning Torah, Torah study involves thought—the understanding—speech, and action. When a person learns Torah, first there’s the action. Then he makes more of an effort, so he also speaks, and afterward there’s the understanding. That seems to be the order, but I’m not sure. I don’t know. We’d have to check. It’s actually interesting. There are a lot of ways to understand fine points like these. And as will be explained later regarding the work of elevation and refinement, and how it is the purpose of the world’s creation—we’ll get to that, with Hashem’s help, before too long, in chapters 36 and 37. That’s where the discussion of the purpose of the world’s creation begins. So we’ll see; there he began talking about the work of action. We’ll look at it there. So this is already a double joy. In other words, when... specifically contemplation... If a person simply reflects on all the advice given in the previous chapters about how not to fall into sadness, he won’t be sad. But when he breaks his own sense of self and takes to heart just how poor his state is, how low he has fallen, and that awakens in him a tremendous desire and yearning to get out of his situation, then there is a double joy here. First of all, a desire and yearning to get out of his situation awakens in him, which he didn’t have before. Before a person reflects on his lowliness... There’s someone... Say a person happens to walk into a Tanya class. Let’s imagine two situations. The first situation: a person happens to walk into a Chassidus class, and it’s exactly the kind of class he connects with. They’re talking about something that touches his heart, he finds it interesting, he understands it well, and he gets excited. It really brings him genuine joy, a joy of holiness. He leaves after sitting in the class for half an hour,

55:36 Speaker 2 an hour, an hour and a half, and he comes out tremendously inspired. How long will that inspiration stay with him after he goes outside? Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. But suppose a person begins to break his own sense of self because he’s realized something. He learns Chassidus and reflects on it, and reaches the conclusion: What I understand, I don’t feel. I don’t truly have a hold on all these holy things I’m learning. I’m not there. They’re holy, beautiful, interesting, good, important, righteous things—all well and good. I find them very interesting, but I don’t feel them. Then he does teshuvah, he takes stock of himself, and he waits for a fitting moment when he’s feeling down anyway because of worldly matters. He uses that time to start thinking: Wait, why is it that when I think about G-dliness, I have no love of Hashem? It’s because my heart is blocked, unresponsive. It’s because I’m coarse. It’s because I’m arrogant. It’s because I think I’m better than the other person. It’s because I attach importance to myself, because I’m proud, because, because, because. He keeps thinking about everything written in the previous two chapters, until he understands very, very clearly exactly why his contemplation doesn’t reach his heart. And as a direct result, a tremendous yearning to get out of that state arises in him, right? Yes or no? Wow. This person didn’t just happen upon a place where something lofty, beautiful, and interesting was illuminated for him from Above. He went down into... he understood his own state, and that awakened in him a yearning to get beyond himself. That yearning wasn’t there before. If he now comes and learns, it will affect him in an entirely different way than if it had just come to him from Above. So that’s the first thing. And second, the Alter

58:14 Speaker 2 Rebbe says: On the contrary, you should know that the genuine yearning you now have to get out of your situation isn’t just a yearning, isn’t just a wish. It’s not that I’m learning Torah because I understand it’s important, so I very much want to, but in practice I don’t feel it. In practice, the very yearning to get out of your situation changes the situation. The very fact that you want to overcome the animal soul is itself what burns it away. And if so, how do I do that? He concludes on line three: “And this will be my entire aim all the days of my life: to include within them the life of my spirit and soul,” as it is written, “To You, Hashem, I lift up my soul”—that is, to bind my thought and speech to His thought and speech, blessed be He. And these are the bodies of the halachos set out before us: simply to attach oneself to learning, and not only to learning, but also to performing mitzvos. That is why the Torah is called “restoring the soul”—meaning, restoring it to its source and root. About this it says, “The precepts of Hashem are upright, gladdening the heart.” What joy is there in observing mitzvos? I know plenty of Jews who observe mitzvos, and it doesn’t bring them any joy. But if a person observes the mitzvos after reflecting and first breaking his own sense of self, then observing the mitzvos itself will bring him joy. So that’s the beginning. First of all, after we spoke at length about ways not to fall into sadness and how to break the animal soul, the Alter Rebbe began giving advice on how to be joyful. The first piece of advice for being joyful is interesting: it’s precisely this. Reflecting on the lowliness of the body can bring you double and redoubled joy. Which chapter continues this discussion? Chapter 33. The discussion of joy continues in chapter 33. Between chapter 31 and chapter 33, there’s chapter 32. We’ll speak about chapter 32 next week, with Hashem’s help, a little more at length at the beginning of

1:00:42 Speaker 2 the class, I hope.

1:00:44 Speaker 7 Yes. So I’m committing to chapter 33 next week, with Hashem’s help.

1:00:49 Speaker 2 Yes. Just—one second. Chapter 32—we’ll talk about it. I want to make the basic point. Next week we’ll discuss it at greater length, with Hashem’s help. Chapter 32 isn’t part of the Tanya. In the first edition of the Tanya, printed in 5557, chapter 32 wasn’t there. It was added later.

1:01:20 Speaker 7 Why didn’t you put it in the middle?

1:01:23 Speaker 2 And so the continuation of chapter 31 is chapter 33, not chapter 32 in between. First of all, as a general rule, remember that the advice on joy is in chapters 31 and 33, and its conclusion is in chapter 34. Chapter 32 was inserted in the middle. It isn’t part of this subject at all. And next week, with Hashem’s help, we’ll discuss why it was put there, for what reason, what connection it has, and why it does relate to the subject of joy. Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe, by Whose word all things come into being.

1:01:57 Speaker 7 Amen. The rabbi didn’t want to get involved in the raffle, so he has a little something. There’s a very small item here, and the raffle here is for the flight, and there are more raffles for everyone.

1:02:12 Speaker 8 Wow!

1:02:12 Speaker 7 There’s another raffle for all the girls, but I have more raffles there. The rabbi will draw a slip.

1:02:19 Speaker 2 Am I allowed to look?

1:02:21 Speaker 7 Wait, who’s going to win?

1:02:22 Speaker 8 Yes, yes, you can. Wow! Thank you, thank you.

1:02:27 Speaker 7 One second, I’ll bring the raffle slips to the table and draw again.

1:02:32 Speaker 2 Chana Reuven.

1:02:34 Speaker 8 Wow!

1:02:37 Speaker 2 Chana Reuven.

1:02:45 Speaker 8 Wow!

1:02:46 Speaker 7 Who’s Chana?

1:02:46 Speaker 9 She didn’t come.

1:02:46 Speaker 8 Wow!

1:02:47 Speaker 7 Shira, you can bring it.

1:02:50 Speaker 9 Now these are raffles for all the—

1:02:51 Speaker 7 You can. Do you want me to give it to you? It’s for all the girls.

1:02:56 Speaker 2 Am I free to go?

1:02:58 Speaker 7 Thank you very much. That’s everything I wrote down, so we’re all set.

1:03:14 Speaker 2 Thank you. Thank you very much.

1:03:19 Speaker 7 Thank you very much.