Likkutei Amarim Chapter 31 · 5785

00:00 Speaker 1 We’re learning chapter 31. We’ll start in the middle, because we began last week. Just to remind you of the general picture: in this chapter we move from sadness to joy, from defense to offense, from how not to be sad to how to be joyful. At first, from chapters 26, 27, 28, and 29, it was all about how not to fall into sadness, with advice on breaking down the animal soul. Then we said: Wait—if a person reflects at such length on how bad he is, how repulsive and loathsome he is, in relation to himself, to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, to others, and so on and so forth, he’ll fall into sadness. The Alter Rebbe says—this was in chapters 29 and 31—and begins our chapter by saying that even if a person reflects on how bad he is and how far he is from Hashem in order to break his sense of self—sometimes there’s no choice; it’s necessary—he’ll fall into sadness. And if he falls into sadness, he can’t serve Hashem, because serving Hashem has to be done with joy. If a person isn’t joyful, he can’t overcome his yetzer. So a person might worry: Why are you advising me to reflect and become sad, when sadness is the very opposite of everything holiness is about? The Alter Rebbe begins our chapter: “And even if, when he spends a long time deeply reflecting on the above matters, for an hour or two... he comes to great sadness, he should not be concerned.” Why shouldn’t he be concerned? Hold on—you’ve given me something that’s the opposite of the whole point. Being sad is the opposite of the whole point. Why shouldn’t he be concerned? So he said a few things. First, to break the sitra achra, you need something of its own kind, something like it. When you want to break the animal soul, you can’t do it with something that doesn’t speak to it. The animal soul understands this world; it understands food

02:02 Speaker 1 that tastes good, things that feel pleasant. That’s what it understands. If you come to the animal soul and tell it, “You’re wrong because you don’t believe in Hakadosh Boruch Hu”—well, those are just spiritual words. It’s like stopping someone on the street, an ordinary person who doesn’t observe mitzvos, and telling him, “You’re wrong. You don’t put on tefillin.” “What do you want from me?” It simply doesn’t speak to him. Right? To break the animal soul, you have to speak its language. Otherwise, we haven’t accomplished anything. So he brings a parable from the Gemara. The Gemara says: “From the forest itself comes the handle for the axe that cuts it down.” When you go to chop down a forest, you take the wood for the axe handle from that very forest. You can’t chop down trees—I don’t mean you can’t make an iron axe.

03:03 Speaker 2 Why can’t the handle be made of iron too?

03:05 Speaker 1 Why can’t the handle be made of iron? It’s stronger than wood. It would never break or fly off; you could weld it on firmly. Why can’t you make...

03:13 Speaker 2 Yes.

03:13 Speaker 1 Huh?

03:16 Speaker 2 If he thinks.

03:19 Speaker 1 Have you ever noticed that all these tools have wooden handles?

03:22 Speaker 2 Yes, I never understood that.

03:23 Speaker 1 Huh?

03:26 Speaker 2 So that it would be...

03:27 Speaker 7 I didn’t catch that.

03:30 Speaker 1 The secret is very simple. Anyone who tries even once to strike the ground with an axe or a hoe that has an iron handle will simply break his hand.

03:43 Speaker 2 Oh, because it’s...

03:44 Speaker 1 It’s rigid. If a person strikes something and the handle is rigid, the impact travels straight into his hand. One or two blows and his hand breaks, no question about it. That’s why all these tools have wooden handles: the wood absorbs the impact.

03:59 Speaker 2 Yes.

04:00 Speaker 7 It transfers it.

04:01 Speaker 1 It’s a simple reason, a technical reason. But our Sages used it as a parable. When you go to cut down a forest, you need to take the handle from the forest itself. The Alter Rebbe says the same thing. True, sadness belongs to the kelipos. What’s the forest? The forest is the animal soul. What’s the handle used to cut down the forest? Sadness. A person reflects on matters that bring him to sadness in order to break the animal soul. True, sadness itself really is a kelipah. Sadness comes from the sitra achra. To break the animal soul, which comes from the sitra achra, you have to take something that itself comes from the sitra achra. Otherwise you can’t break it; otherwise it doesn’t understand what you’re talking about.

05:03 Speaker 8 Oh, Barbara.

05:03 Speaker 9 I’m not quite sure. No, I feel like I’m not doing so well today.

05:07 Speaker 8 No, no, wait, there’s...

05:16 Speaker 1 That’s understood.

05:17 Speaker 8 There’s an order to this, and we need part of that order.

05:20 Speaker 1 In order to break, to crush, the animal soul. So we said in chapter 6 that it comes from kelipas nogah—kelipas nogah and an impure kelipah. The animal soul, our vitality, comes from the kelipos, from kelipas nogah. What prevents a person from being moved by Hashem’s greatness, by Hashem’s holiness? A person is caught up in desires, caught up in all kinds of wants, in all kinds of worldly matters. He wants money, he wants honor, he wants food, he wants and wants and wants. He is full of wants. The animal soul’s wants and desires simply cover things over and prevent what he understands in his mind from penetrating his heart. They stand in the way and conceal it. This is called timtum halev, a blocked heart. That blockage comes from the animal soul, whose essential nature is self-importance, pride, and coarseness, and it conceals. For the light of the G-dly soul in the mind to penetrate the heart, you need to break that kelipah. Where does that kelipah get its vitality? From kelipas nogah. How do we break it? Our Sages said that to break something, you need to take something of the same kind and character. What do we have? What tool do we have that is of the same kind and character, that also comes from the kelipos, but can be used to break the kelipos? The Alter Rebbe says: sadness.

07:00 Speaker 8 What is it—sadness?

07:02 Speaker 1 That’s the whole content of chapters 29, 30, and 31: that a person brings himself to sadness. Sadness about what? He isn’t sad for some random reason. He’s sad because he’s far from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. In other words, he understands how far away he is. Yes, sadness because he’s coarse, because he’s repulsive, because he’s capable of desiring forbidden things, because of all the things listed there. So when a person brings himself to sadness—about what? About being far, far from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The Alter Rebbe says: True, it’s a kelipah, but it’s the good within the kelipah. Remember how we said that kelipas nogah contains a mixture of good and evil? So when a person brings himself to sadness, sadness really is a kelipah. But this kind of sadness is the good within the kelipah, and because it’s the good within the kelipah, it can break the evil within the kelipah. All right, that’s what he said. We discussed this at great length. I didn’t think we needed to go over it again. That’s the beginning of the chapter. After that he said...

08:09 Speaker 9 Oh, we started this week’s chapter.

08:11 Speaker 8 That’s it.

08:21 Speaker 1 This is only the first stage. In the first stage, when a person reflects on how far he is from Hashem, he becomes sad. But if his reflection is genuine, what happens right after he becomes sad? It hurts him. “How can I be so far from Hashem? What can I do?” The moment that feeling awakens in him, he has moved into a different state. Before, he was sad; now he feels bitterness. You asked about this, right?

08:52 Speaker 10 Yes.

08:53 Speaker 1 What’s the difference between sadness and bitterness? Sadness may be the good within nogah, but nogah is a kelipah, and this is the good of the kelipah. Bitterness is no longer a kelipah; bitterness is already holiness.

09:05 Speaker 10 Holiness?

09:06 Speaker 1 Bitterness is holiness. The difference between sadness and bitterness is the difference between holiness and kelipah.

09:12 Speaker 10 But not bitterness the way we usually think of it, I think. It’s not that kind of bitterness. Right, it’s not complaining bitterly? It’s bitterness.

09:19 Speaker 9 Complaining bitterly.

09:20 Speaker 10 That’s different. No. What’s the difference between sadness and bitterness?

09:26 Speaker 1 The difference is that sadness is a state of depression, sinking down, not doing anything.

09:34 Speaker 10 A lack of energy.

09:34 Speaker 1 A lack of energy. Exactly—in the plain language of our generation. Bitterness is a state of vitality. It hurts him; he wants to do something, wants to get out of it. He can’t stay there. That’s bitterness; it’s movement, it’s life. Sadness is...

09:50 Speaker 9 It’s not a complaint. Not just a mood...

09:53 Speaker 10 Not complaining bitterly.

09:53 Speaker 1 No. Bitterness means it’s bitter for him; his situation is bitter. He wants to escape, he wants to get out.

10:00 Speaker 9 To change it.

10:01 Speaker 1 Yes.

10:02 Speaker 9 He wants something, not...

10:02 Speaker 1 Complaining bitterly isn’t bitterness.

10:05 Speaker 10 No.

10:08 Speaker 1 Maybe in Hebrew they come from the same root.

10:09 Speaker 9 We’ll see what to do with the word “bitterness.”

10:12 Speaker 1 Not that kind of bitterness. So wait, what does this mean? How do you get from sadness to bitterness? We said sadness is a kelipah. Bitterness is holy gevurah; it already comes from the side of holiness. How do you get from sadness to bitterness? Why is it such an automatic transition? Let’s see—it’s actually simple. If the sadness is as it should be, if his reflection is as it should be, it will happen automatically. What do we mean by reflecting on those matters we’ve already written about? We’ve discussed them so much.

10:47 Speaker 9 No.

10:47 Speaker 10 We need to understand it.

10:50 Speaker 1 Okay, fine. There are two approaches, two kinds of contemplation that can bring a person to sadness. In one, he thinks about himself: How bad things are for me, how much I’m suffering, how unfortunate I am, how much I deserve, and so on. In the second, the focus isn’t me; it’s Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What should I be? Where do I want to be, and where am I in practice? How far am I from where I should be and want to be? The focus of that kind of contemplation isn’t me. The focus is Hakadosh Boruch Hu—how far away I am. Yes, it will also bring him to sadness, because he’s thinking about how far away he is. But the focus isn’t himself; it’s Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So the contemplation he discussed at such length in the previous two chapters really will bring him to sadness. But because its focus isn’t a person’s sense of self, but Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the moment he truly understands, internalizes, and feels how far away he is, it will automatically hurt him. And once it hurts, it’s no longer sadness; it’s bitterness. Okay?

12:29 Speaker 10 I see that he does use the expression “to be moved and become embittered” here, which is exactly what we said doesn’t sound good in Hebrew.

12:36 Speaker 1 Yes.

12:36 Speaker 10 But maybe the point is that bitterness can be made sweet. It’s like a taste that you can turn into a sweeter taste, whereas sadness can’t be turned into anything else. It will always remain sadness. Could be.

12:53 Speaker 1 We spoke a little about the two ways of turning bitterness into sweetness, but let’s leave that. We discussed it at the end of the previous chapter; why talk about it again? We need to read on page 40, from the third line: “And through this”—through this contemplation at an appropriate time, and so on—“he will be freed from sadness over worldly matters, and afterward he will come to true joy.” In other words, after the stage of sadness comes the stage of bitterness. And after the stage of bitterness—actually, the very fact that he becomes embittered over his situation—his bitterness itself frees him from sadness over worldly matters. In the previous class, we told a story about someone who went in to the Tzemach Tzedek, a certain chossid. He began telling him what he lacked, how he was losing money in business, how he had problems. So the Rebbe listened and listened, and then began saying to him, “You’re talking to me about your debts, but what about what you owe?” He began giving him a stern talking-to until the chossid started to cry. He cried, completely forgot everything he had come in about, went back to his town, and did complete teshuvah. His situation improved too. So through this he will be freed from sadness over worldly matters. There are two things here. First, the moment a person understands his true situation, when his bitterness begins to be—when what pains him starts to be how far he is from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the things of this world worry him less. They no longer trouble him. And the very fact that worldly things no longer trouble him and he is immersed in G-dliness means he has already done the work. There’s no longer any reason to put him through the test. So Hakadosh Boruch Hu removes all the concealments that come with worldly matters. Simply, the fact that a person becomes embittered

15:12 Speaker 1 and, on a spiritual level, stops thinking about the bad things means that, as a natural consequence, Hakadosh Boruch Hu removes those bad things from him. But this isn’t some special remedy. Why does Hakadosh Boruch Hu give a person all kinds of difficulties in this world? To test him, right? So if he’s passed the test, there’s no point in continuing it. Why should he simply have no money? Why should he simply be unhealthy? He’s passed the test, right? So those difficulties are removed. That’s what the Alter Rebbe says: “Through this he will be freed from sadness over worldly matters”—Hakadosh Boruch Hu will remove all the concealments. “And afterward,” after the bitterness, “he will come to true joy.” That’s the next stage. Bitterness is holy gevurah, and from bitterness he’ll reach joy. How do you get from bitterness to joy? After all, he’s far from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Yes? What—what are you asking?

16:13 Speaker 10 …

16:14 Speaker 1 Yes. After all, he has committed aveiros. He’s in a state where he contemplates the greatness of Hashem and feels nothing. His heart doesn’t budge; he has no love of Hashem. He tries to learn, but he can’t grasp it. So what advice is he given? Negate yourself until you feel you’re nothing at all, and then you’ll become embittered and afterward you’ll be happy. Happy about what? What suddenly changed? The Alter Rebbe says that, unlike bitterness, joy isn’t something that comes on its own. It comes through contemplation—contemplation after bitterness. “He should take this to heart, to comfort himself doubly after the foregoing words of truth, saying 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 my own self—the body and the vital soul within it. Nevertheless, within me is an actual part of Hashem, present even in the lowliest of the low, which is the G-dly soul.” As he said in chapter 2, which we learned I don’t know how long ago—we’re at chapter 31 now—in chapter 2 he says that even the lowliest of the low, the sinners of Israel, have an actual part of G-d above, a G-dly soul. He says: How repulsive and loathsome I am. That’s true; everything I thought is true. But besides all the terrible things within me, I also have a G-dly soul. I don’t feel it. I don’t know where it is. It doesn’t show itself in anything I do. I can’t contemplate; I can’t think. I feel that my mind and heart are blocked. But our Sages said I have a G-dly soul, and I believe that. “And within the G-dly soul is a spark of actual G-dliness, clothed in it to give it life. It’s just that she”—my G-dly soul—“is in a state of exile. On the contrary, the more utterly distant from Hashem I am, the more repulsive and loathsome, the greater the exile of the G-dly soul within me,

18:38 Speaker 1 and the greater her exile, the greater the compassion for her—very great compassion. Therefore”—so what should I do?—“I will direct all my purpose and desire toward taking her out of this exile and bringing her back to her Father’s house, as in her youth, before she was clothed in my body.” The Alter Rebbe says that once a person has become embittered and it hurts him, what does he do? What does he do now? Now, after it truly hurts, you need to contemplate it. If it truly hurts you, you need to think about this: You have a G-dly soul. If your situation is so bad, think about your G-dly soul—how unfortunate she is. And since she’s in such a difficult situation, what must you do? Take her out of exile. How do you take her out of exile? By devoting yourself to Torah and mitzvos. When can this be genuine for a person? If it really hurt him that he was so far away, then the plight of his G-dly soul will really hurt him too. But if he merely reads in Tanya that he has a repulsive body and a poor G-dly soul that he needs to have compassion for, then the compassion will be no more real than the pain. So, for the joy to be genuine, the pain has to be genuine. That’s why he went on at such length in chapters 29 and 30. To have true joy in Hashem, to rejoice in Hashem—only someone who understands how far away he is can rejoice in the soul’s joy at coming out of exile. And now I’m going to bring her back. I’ll return her to her Father’s house, as in her youth, so the G-dly soul will become revealed again, as she was before she was clothed in my body. What does it mean, the soul before it was clothed in a body? Where was the soul before it was clothed in a body?

21:06 Speaker 11 Above.

21:07 Speaker 1 Above, in the higher worlds, in Atzilus, among the souls. The exact address doesn’t matter right now. But yes, it was somewhere above. The Alter Rebbe says that when a person contemplates the terrible exile of the G-dly soul, what is my task? To take her out of exile. “And she was included in His blessed light and utterly united with Him. And even now, this remains so.” Now my task—what am I going to do now? I’m going to make her included in and united with Him again. How? How can I take out the soul? I don’t even know that she exists within me. How can I do it? “By directing all my purpose toward Torah and mitzvos.” What does it mean to direct all my purpose toward “clothing in them”? What does “in them” mean? In what?

22:03 Speaker 11 In Torah and mitzvos.

22:04 Speaker 1 In Torah and mitzvos. I’ll clothe all ten of her faculties in Torah and mitzvos, as explained above. When a person says this, there are two details here, right? First, “I will direct all my purpose,” and then I’ll also clothe all ten of her faculties. What’s the difference between the two? A person says, “Now I’m going to go all the way with this.” What does he mean? Who is this “I”?

22:34 Speaker 11 Someone within me.

22:37 Speaker 1 I mean, even before we get to the animal soul. We’re talking about a person, an ordinary person. Right? Someone has a task, and now he wants to, I don’t know, arrange a party, put together some kind of evening event. It’s on his mind right now; he’s completely caught up in it. Right? He throws his whole self into it. What does “his whole self” mean? A person has ten powers of the soul: chochmah, binah, daas, chesed, gevurah, tiferes, and so on. Right? But if this is some practical undertaking, which powers will mainly be at work? I don’t know. His power of binah will be at work, his chesed, his power of action. What about hod? What about gevurah? Usually, when a person says, “I’m throwing myself into this,” he doesn’t make a special effort to involve every power of his soul. His goal is the task, not the soul. When a person undertakes an activity or takes on a mission, which powers does he bring to it? The ones the mission requires. He doesn’t need the others right now, correct? The Alter Rebbe says, “That’s not what I mean.” Here, the task itself is not the goal. The soul is the goal—the powers you engage. It isn’t enough to throw yourself into Torah and mitzvos in a general way. Every single one of the powers of your soul needs to be there. What is your goal now? To take the G-dly soul, which is in exile, and redeem it. If you use only your chochmah, or only your binah, or only your chesed, or a few of your powers, the rest will not leave exile. To bring the G-dly soul out of exile, you need to use all ten of its powers.

24:47 Speaker 12 Like what?

24:48 Speaker 1 Hmm?

24:48 Speaker 12 Like what?

24:49 Speaker 1 In a moment. First of all, quite simply, all ten powers—chochmah, binah, daas, chesed, gevurah, tiferes, all the powers—must be involved in Torah and mitzvos. When he learns Torah, he needs to think about it and make sure that he is truly engaging all his powers in it. And especially in the mitzvah of tefillah. What makes the mitzvah of tefillah different from all the other mitzvos of the Torah? What is the goal now? We’re going to bring the G-dly soul out of exile, right? How do we bring it out? By throwing ourselves into Torah and mitzvos, and especially into the mitzvah of tefillah. Why? What makes it different? The mitzvah of tefillah—or where did they learn this in the Rambam? Hilchos Edus, I don’t know. Every mitzvah... What are mitzvos? Mitzvos are Hashem’s will, right? Why do we fulfill the mitzvos? Because Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted us to. Mitzvos are Hashem’s will. Every mitzvah has two aspects. There is one aspect in which all the mitzvos are equal: they are all Hashem’s will. This mitzvah is Hashem’s will, and so is that one, and that one too. In that respect they’re all the same. Right? But every mitzvah also has its own particular content—what it does. This mitzvah fulfills Hashem’s will regarding Shabbos. That one fulfills Hashem’s will regarding kashrus. Another fulfills His will in another area. Right? What’s the difference between these two aspects? When it comes to fulfilling Hashem’s will, there is no difference between mitzvos. They are all the same. A person now needs to bring his soul out of exile. It doesn’t matter which mitzvah he does; every mitzvah is Hashem’s will. But in all the other mitzvos, Hashem’s will is clothed in something: He wants this to be a certain way, and that to be a certain way. What is the particular content of the mitzvah of tefillah? What does Hashem want in it? A person is praying now. Hakadosh Boruch

27:26 Speaker 1 Hu wanted us to pray. What did He want it for?

27:28 Speaker 12 To ask, to speak, to give thanks, to learn.

27:32 Speaker 1 So that the soul can leave exile. The content of tefillah is to pray.

27:37 Speaker 12 To draw close to Hashem.

27:38 Speaker 1 To pray, to draw close to Hashem.

27:40 Speaker 12 To Hashem.

27:41 Speaker 1 The word tefillah is related to tafal, as in joining pieces of earthenware—connecting them, bonding them together. The entire content of the mitzvah of tefillah is leaving exile, the soul’s departure from exile. So tefillah brings us out of exile not only in the general sense that every mitzvah does; its own particular purpose is to bring the soul out of exile. That is why the Alter Rebbe says: What is your goal now? Your soul is in exile because of this and that; you’re sitting there embittered, and you want to bring it out. How do you do that? Yes, you need to throw yourself into all the mitzvos in this way. But think especially about the mitzvah of tefillah. Tefillah is where we leave exile. It is where you think about Hakadosh Boruch Hu, connect with Him, and come out. “To cry out to Hashem in her distress over her exile in the loathsome body, to bring her out of confinement and cleave to Him, blessed be He. And this is the meaning of teshuvah and good deeds.” Whenever the Gemara speaks of teshuvah, it always appears together with good deeds. Why do they always come together? “Deeds” refers to the performance of mitzvos. When are the deeds of the mitzvos good?

29:04 Speaker 13 When they come together with teshuvah.

29:05 Speaker 1 When they come together with teshuvah. When a person fulfills mitzvos with a yearning to return to Hashem, with an inner cry, then the deeds are good.

29:19 Speaker 13 Right.

29:19 Speaker 1 “For he does them in order to return the part of Hashem to its source and to the Root of all worlds.” That is when... “And this is 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, during Torah study and worship. As our Sages said, a person should spend all his days in teshuvah.” Clearly, when our Sages said that a person should spend all his days in teshuvah, they didn’t mean that he should commit sins every day so that he can repent afterward. Right. Hmm? Yes?

29:52 Speaker 13 Mm-hmm.

29:52 Speaker 1 Our Sages said a person should spend all his days in teshuvah. What does that mean? That he should commit sins every day so that he can repent afterward?

29:59 Speaker 13 Always on a diet.

30:01 Speaker 1 Huh?

30:01 Speaker 13 Like those people who are always on a diet. Yes, obviously that’s not what it means. Just as an example.

30:10 Speaker 1 Yes. So what is teshuvah? What does it mean to spend all one’s days in teshuvah? Repenting for what? He committed a sin, repented, was granted forgiveness, and moved on. That’s it. What does “all his days in teshuvah” mean?

30:20 Speaker 13 It’s a constant movement. To draw closer to Him. To strive toward Hashem.

30:24 Speaker 1 There are two kinds of teshuvah. One is teshuvah that takes a person away from evil—teshuvah in its plain sense, repentance for sins. When our Sages said “all his days in teshuvah,” they weren’t speaking about that kind. They meant drawing closer, leaving materiality, leaving desires, leaving the animal soul, and returning to Hashem. That kind of teshuvah is always relevant, because as long as a person is clothed in a physical body, his animal soul conceals his G-dly soul. So he needs to return. He needs to come back. “And there is no greater joy than leaving exile and captivity”—leaving exile and captivity. “Like a king’s son who was held captive, grinding grain in prison and wallowing in filth, and went free to the home of his father the king.” Anyone can imagine, G-d forbid, being taken captive by some non-Jews and forced to do hard labor for them. It’s a terrible situation, right? He’s left lying in filth and isn’t allowed to wash, and so on and so on. Then one day, suddenly, he’s released. That is tremendous joy. A person can just imagine how happy he would be—and all the more so if he were a king’s son who had fallen into such a state. But a person needs to think about this, simply contemplate it: when I fulfill a mitzvah—any mitzvah, and especially the mitzvah of tefillah—this is how my G-dly soul feels right now. The Alter Rebbe spoke at great length in the earlier chapters about the G-dly soul. What does it want? It wants G-dliness. It wants Torah, it wants mitzvos, it wants to be clothed in Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And where was it put? Inside a physical body, inside the animal soul, bound up in a sack of flesh and bones. It was forced—what does it mean that it grinds grain, that it works for the animal soul? When the animal soul has a craving to eat, what is the G-dly soul doing then? Is it just sitting there? It is clothed in the animal soul. When the animal soul now wants

32:37 Speaker 1 It has a desire to eat, and now the G-dly soul also has a desire to eat. It suffers from this. It is forced to do and want things that go against its whole nature. And the moment a person throws himself into Torah and mitzvos, particularly into davening, it comes out of prison. So a person first needs to contemplate how far he is from G-dliness, and then contemplate how, through observing Torah and mitzvos, particularly through davening, he is now bringing joy to his G-dly soul. Even though he does not feel that joy, it is very easy to imagine the joy he is bringing to the G-dly soul. And here the Rebbe begins a new point. Page eighty, second line. “And although the body remains in its repulsiveness and loathsomeness,” the Alter Rebbe asks a simple question: What good does it do for the G-dly soul to leave its prison? Why is that good? Do I feel it? No. Has my body changed? No. Do I have fewer desires than before? No. So what is the great joy about? Yes.

33:59 Speaker 14 The animal soul leaves the prison?

34:01 Speaker 1 The G-dly soul.

34:02 Speaker 14 Oh.

34:02 Speaker 1 Sorry.

34:03 Speaker 14 Okay.

34:04 Speaker 1 “And although the body and the animal soul that gives it life remain in their repulsiveness and loathsomeness.” When the king’s son leaves the captivity of the non-Jew who imprisoned him, has anything happened to that non-Jew? Has he changed? Nothing at all. “As it says in the Zohar, it is called mishcha de’chivya.” What does chivya mean in Hebrew?

34:31 Speaker 14 Snake.

34:31 Speaker 1 Chivya means snake, right. What is mishcha de’chivya?

34:36 Speaker 14 The snake’s skin.

34:37 Speaker 1 The skin of the snake. Yes. Who is the snake?

34:42 Speaker 14 Who is it?

34:43 Speaker 1 The snake is the three completely impure kelipos.

34:46 Speaker 14 The sitra achra.

34:47 Speaker 1 Huh?

34:48 Speaker 14 The sitra achra.

34:49 Speaker 1 Sitra achra is also a general term; all of it is sitra achra. There is the snake itself, and there is the snake’s skin. The skin is something around it, right? The snake itself is the three completely impure kelipos. The snake’s skin is kelipas nogah. And our body and the animal soul that gives it life, says the Zohar, are mishcha de’chivya: they come from kelipas nogah, the snake’s skin. Why? Why is it called that? “For the nature and essence of the animal soul have not been transformed into good, to be incorporated into holiness.” The G-dly soul has now left its prison, is leaving its prison and cleaving to G-dliness, to holiness. “And it has returned to its Father’s embrace as in its youth.” And what about the animal soul? Has the person become a tzaddik? Does he begin to desire holiness? Nothing has changed. Nevertheless, even though that is true, the joy is seemingly only the G-dly soul’s. The animal soul remains as it was; the body remains in its repulsiveness and loathsomeness. Nevertheless, his soul should be precious enough in his eyes that he rejoices in its joy more than he concerns himself with the lowly body, so as not to mix up and disturb the soul’s joy with the body’s sadness. I think today this is already an approach in psychology. When a person sinks too deeply into depression, they tell him: Don’t think about it, don’t think about it. Think about the good things. What, if he stops thinking about the bad things, they no longer exist? Don’t think about them. The very fact that you are no longer thinking about them... Leave it; occupy yourself with good, be immersed in good. The Alter Rebbe says: True, when the G-dly soul leaves the body’s prison, it has not affected anything. It has not changed the animal soul. But what matters most? The animal soul or the G-dly soul? Leave that aside and keep going. How do you say it in Yiddish? Gey vayter. Keep going; don’t stop, don’t look back. Now, this state is the state of the Exodus from Egypt, of which it says, “For the people fled.” The Alter Rebbe asks a wonderful question, one asked by all the Torah commentators

37:30 Speaker 1 without exception, and no one has an answer. There are many answers, but none like this one. “At first glance, this is puzzling: Why did it happen this way? If they had told Pharaoh to release them forever, would he not have been forced to release them?” Moshe Rabbeinu comes to Pharaoh and says, “We will go a three-day journey into the wilderness.” Right? Did Moshe Rabbeinu not know that they were leaving and not coming back? Did he not know that the giving of the Torah would only be fifty days later? Why does he tell Pharaoh, “We will go a three-day journey into the wilderness”? Why does he lie to Pharaoh? If he had said to Pharaoh, “Let us out now, and if you don’t, we will destroy Egypt. And in another fifty days we have a great celebration—we’re receiving the Torah,” would Pharaoh not have released them? Did he have any other option? Why? Why does Moshe lie to Pharaoh? “Moshe is true and his Torah is true.” Moshe cannot lie. This is a question that all the commentators... I looked; it is hard to find a commentator who does not ask the question. There are very, very many interesting answers. But after all the explanations, it remains: How could Moshe Rabbeinu have lied—and to whom? To Pharaoh? What for? What was going on there? It is one of the difficult questions in the plain meaning of the text. So the Alter Rebbe gives an answer according to the inner dimension of Torah, but it is simple and wonderful. He says: “Rather, it was because the evil in the souls of the Jewish people was still in full force.” Now the G-dly soul—the Jewish people—are leaving Egypt, but the evil within them was still in full force in the left chamber of the heart, “for their impurity did not cease until the giving of the Torah.” We will not go back over all the explanations we discussed in the past. But then why did they leave? If the evil was still in full force, why did they leave? Seemingly, there should have been a sequence. After all, Hakadosh Boruch Hu—in any case, when they left Egypt, they experienced a miraculous shortening of the journey.

39:50 Speaker 1 You know that when they left Egypt, their first stop was Sukkos; they went from Raamses to Sukkos. The distance from Raamses to Sukkos is 120 kilometers, and they did it in one hour—the entire people, with all their accompanying belongings. Could Hakadosh Boruch Hu not have used that same miraculous shortening of the journey to bring them all the way to Mount Sinai and give them the Torah immediately, right then and there?

40:20 Speaker 3 They weren’t ready.

40:22 Speaker 1 Because their aim and desire at that moment—no one was thinking about the giving of the Torah. Their aim and desire was to take their G-dly soul out of the exile of the sitra achra. They are leaving now. Right now, they are not thinking about what was or what will be. It is bitter here, it is terrible here; they cannot stay another moment. They leave, they go. They flee. Their aim and desire was to take their G-dly soul out of the exile of the sitra achra, which is the impurity of Egypt, and to cleave to Him, blessed be He, as it is written: “Hashem, my strength and my stronghold, 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. The Rebbe brings three different verses here. The Rebbe’s father explains this according to Kabbalah; that is not relevant right now. And... and so on. Therefore... So what is the answer to the question? What did we ask? Why did Moshe Rabbeinu have to—why did the Exodus from Egypt have to happen by means of this kind of trickery? Why didn’t he tell them outright? The Alter Rebbe says it is simple: Everything in the physical world is an outgrowth of the way it exists in the spiritual world. Spiritually, the Jewish people were now leaving Egypt, fleeing the yetzer hara, so the physical departure from Egypt also had to take the form of fleeing. If Pharaoh had released them, the physical reality would not have matched the spiritual reality. It could not have been otherwise. Because they fled spiritually, that unfolded into a physical departure that took the form of fleeing.

42:13 Speaker 3 Yes.

42:14 Speaker 1 And indeed, for the same reason, it says that in the future, when Hashem removes the spirit of impurity from the earth, “You will not go in flight.” Since in the time to come there will no longer be evil—the evil will already have been rectified—there will be no need to flee from evil. So it says, “You will not go in flight, for Hashem goes before you.” But that is not enough. So what have we said? We have gone through several stages here. After sadness comes bitterness, and after bitterness, which has the vitality of gevurah within holiness, if a person contemplates that through Torah and mitzvos he is now bringing his soul out of exile, that very knowledge and contemplation—that right now, through davening, Torah and mitzvos, his soul is leaving exile—will itself bring him to joy. Right? And the greater the sadness and bitterness, the greater the joy will be. The Rebbe says that is not enough. Why not? After all, it is a soul in a body. The body needs attention too, right? So the chapter continues: “And for this form of teshuvah to be with even greater intensity and strength, from the depths of the heart.” The same teshuvah, the soul’s emergence from its sheath, the sheath of the animal soul, but with greater intensity and strength. “And the soul’s joy, too, will have added light and gladness.” When? “When he takes to heart knowledge and understanding with which to console himself for his sadness and grief, saying, as above: ‘It is indeed true, etc., but I did not make myself.’” After a person has brought himself to the point where he wants to leave and throws himself into Torah and mitzvos, he has to think about something else: Why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu do this? Why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu place me within an animal soul? What does He gain? What is His purpose? What does Hakadosh Boruch Hu want in the world? He wants a dwelling for Himself in the lower realms. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants there to be Jews who observe mitzvos,

44:47 Speaker 1 Right? Give them, give them the... A person raises goats and wants milk? Give them greens and they’ll give you milk. Why make it difficult? Why put such a coarse animal soul in me, one that conceals and obscures, so that I have to struggle and try, with all kinds of difficulties? Why? Why did You do that? Fine. You want me to feel bitter and then break free, and yes, I’ll fight, I’ll go all the way for You, and I’ll even be happy. But why does it have to be this way? The Alter Rebbe says: “When he brings his mind and understanding to bear upon his heart, to console it from its sadness and grief, saying, as above: It is indeed true, etc., but I did not make myself.” The one who made me this way is Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And if Hakadosh Boruch Hu did it, apparently there is something for us to gain. “Why did Hashem do this? To bring down a part of His light, which fills all worlds and encompasses all worlds, and before which all is considered as nothing, and clothe it in the skin of the serpent, within kelipas nogah, within the animal soul, within a putrid drop. This descent is only for the sake of an ascent.” What ascent? “To raise up to Hashem the entire vital, animal soul that comes from kelipas nogah, together with all its garments—its thought, speech and action.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu put my G-dly soul inside the animal soul so that I would actually have an effect on it. So what we said earlier isn’t right. What did we say earlier? That when a person feels bitter, he should rejoice in the joy of the G-dly soul. Why should you care what happens with the animal soul? Rejoice in the joy of the one who needs to rejoice. You haven’t refined the animal soul? You haven’t refined it. So what? What does that have to do with you? It gets in the way. Now I’m getting out. Now I’m going free. The Alter Rebbe says that isn’t the ultimate purpose. It’s enough to make you happy, but it isn’t the ultimate purpose. The ultimate purpose is to fulfill Hashem’s will, and Hashem’s will is that you refine it. And when you refine

47:08 Speaker 1 your animal soul—not only its garments, but the soul itself—and raise it to holiness, you fulfill Hashem’s will. And when you fulfill Hashem’s will, He is revealed down here. What does it mean for Him to be revealed down here? As the Rebbe always repeats from Midrash Tanchuma, Hakadosh Boruch Hu desired—Hashem desired to have a dwelling place in the lower realms. What does “a dwelling place in the lower realms” mean? Where are these lower realms?

47:43 Speaker 4 In this world.

47:44 Speaker 1 This world. But even in this world there are higher and lower levels. What does “lower realms” mean? The lowest you can get. So only when the animal soul observes Torah and mitzvos and fulfills them, and the physical body fulfills Torah and mitzvos, and the animal soul changes and begins to desire G-dliness—then it rises to holiness. And when it rises to holiness, the G-dly soul that brought this about has—how do you say it, what’s the expression? Not “achieved its goal.” Well, fulfilled the purpose for which it was created. And when the G-dly soul fulfills the purpose for which it was created, it unites with Hashem’s very Essence and Being. That’s what he says here: “Why did Hashem do this? To bring down a part of His light, which fills and encompasses...” “This descent is only for the sake of an ascent: to raise up to Hashem the entire vital, animal soul that comes from kelipas nogah, together with all its garments—its thought, speech and action.” How? “By clothing them in the action, speech and thought of Torah.” First of all, through action, speech and thought. How do we usually say it—

49:11 Speaker 5 Why “action, speech and thought”? I mean, what is—

49:12 Speaker 1 Very good. Usually we say the three garments of the soul: thought, speech and action. Why? How does the soul become clothed in the body? First there is the soul itself, intellect and emotion. Then it is clothed in thought. Then thought is expressed in speech, and after that it descends into action as well. That’s why that’s the order. Whenever we speak about the soul’s garments, they are first thought, then speech, and finally action. Why does he start from the bottom here?

49:42 Speaker 5 Because, uh, we’re talking about the animal soul.

49:44 Speaker 1 Because the ultimate purpose is to refine the animal soul. Where are the lower realms? What is its lowest level? First of all, action. That’s why the main thing is the actual performance of mitzvos. Afterward, you raise its higher garment to holiness too—speech, and then its thought as well. “As will be explained at length below concerning this ascent, and how it is the ultimate purpose of the world’s creation.” That’s from chapter 35 through chapter 37, three chapters that discuss the ultimate purpose of the world’s creation, which depends specifically on working with the animal soul. We’ll get there, with Hashem’s help. So: “This I shall do, and this shall be my aim all the days of my life: to include in them the life of my spirit.” What does “in them” refer to? Again, Torah and mitzvos.

50:43 Speaker 5 Oh.

50:43 Speaker 1 What does “include in them” mean?

50:46 Speaker 5 Fulfill them? Put all of it into them.

50:51 Speaker 1 Include.

50:51 Speaker 5 As though all of it is full—

50:53 Speaker 1 Include. To include the life of my spirit and soul within Torah and mitzvos.

51:03 Speaker 5 It’s the same idea we discussed earlier.

51:05 Speaker 1 What?

51:05 Speaker 5 The same idea we discussed earlier. No, no.

51:08 Speaker 1 Yes, but earlier we were talking about getting out of prison, while here we’re talking about refining—about going down into the animal soul. As it says, “To You, Hashem, I lift up my soul”—that is, to bind my thought and speech to His thought and speech. “And these are the actual bodies of the halachos set out before us.” The Alter Rebbe doesn’t just say “halachos.” The body of the halachah as it is set out. Don’t think I’m talking to you about the reasoning behind the halachos or the reasons for the mitzvos. I mean the body of the halachah as it is written here below.

51:50 Speaker 5 Because it relates to action—is that the point?

51:53 Speaker 1 Exactly. “And likewise, action.” So when we speak about Torah, we’re not talking about its lofty subjects, but about the joy of the soul as it leaves the body, leaves its prison—primarily by engaging in the simple, lower aspects of Torah: halachos, the halachos set out before us. And likewise in action, in the actual performance of mitzvos. “That is why the Torah is called ‘restoring the soul.’” What does the verse say? “The Torah of Hashem is perfect, restoring the soul; the precepts of Hashem are upright, gladdening the heart.” Meaning, it restores the soul to its source and root. Of this it says, “The precepts of Hashem are upright, gladdening the heart.” So the Torah is called “restoring the soul.” Why “restoring the soul”? Because it restores the soul to its source and root, to unite with G-dliness. How? You understand, when you say, “The Torah of Hashem...” What do people understand “the Torah of Hashem restores the soul” to mean? The plain meaning of the verse.

52:54 Speaker 6 It sort of revitalizes you.

52:55 Speaker 1 What does “restoring the soul” mean?

52:57 Speaker 6 That—

52:57 Speaker 1 That when a person studies the secrets of the Torah, its lofty subjects, he fills up with vitality, joy and delight. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. “The Torah of Hashem restores the soul” means: study the halachos and throw yourself into them, understanding and recognizing that by doing so you release the G-dly soul from prison and raise the animal soul to holiness. That’s why the very next phrase is “The precepts of Hashem are upright, gladdening the heart,” with the emphasis on mitzvos—practical mitzvos. So in this chapter the Alter Rebbe began moving from advice on how not to be sad to how to be happy. In the next chapter there’s an interruption, and then we begin—

53:40 Speaker 6 But where is the happiness here?

53:42 Speaker 1 Huh?

53:43 Speaker 6 We haven’t really gotten to the happiness itself.

53:45 Speaker 1 We already spoke about the happiness in the middle of the chapter.

53:47 Speaker 6 Yes.

53:47 Speaker 1 He spoke about two aspects of happiness. First, after the bitterness, there’s the happiness of knowing that his soul is leaving prison. Then there’s an even greater happiness in the fact that it doesn’t just leave prison; it also refines the animal soul and—

54:07 Speaker 6 Which is the goal.

54:08 Speaker 1 Brings this whole world, the soul, himself, to perfection. For now it’s only something we know. In the future to come, we’ll feel it too. But in the coming chapters we’ll see several more aspects and stages of this. There’s just an interruption in the middle. What is the interruption?

54:27 Speaker 6 To explain what the World to Come is.

54:29 Speaker 1 Chapter 32.

54:31 Speaker 6 Oh. What is it?

54:34 Speaker 1 Chapter 32 was not part of the Tanya.

54:36 Speaker 6 Oh.

54:38 Speaker 1 Chapter 32 wasn’t in the first published edition of the Tanya. It was added later.

54:44 Speaker 6 Why specifically there?

54:45 Speaker 1 Huh?

54:45 Speaker 6 Why specifically there?

54:46 Speaker 1 We’ll see next week.

54:47 Speaker 6 I said seventeen. I think the guys are keeping an eye on me.