Likkutei Amarim Chapter 34 · 5781

00:35 Speaker 1 I almost brought a new student with me today, but at the last minute my student wasn’t feeling well. Every week she says she really wants to come, and at the very last second something happens... Just five minutes ago she decided she couldn’t make it. She has aches, and something hurts here—no, that’s not... Well, today it’s also... Okay, it’s a short, easy chapter too. What, her? For me? No. I’ve never had any desire at all to travel to... yes, to the resting places of our Rebbeim. What? Chani said two more girls are supposed to arrive, so we should wait for them.

04:18 Speaker 2 No, really.

04:18 Speaker 1 I don’t mind.

04:22 Speaker 2 I really am going.

04:31 Speaker 1 All right, okay, let’s begin. Today we’re learning chapter 34. In this chapter, the Alter Rebbe closes at least two major circles in our study of Tanya. First, there’s the particular thread he began in chapter 26. At the end of chapter 25, he finished explaining what a beinoni’s service of Hashem is: there are two general ways of arousing feeling in the service of Hashem. One is to arouse feeling through contemplation, and the other is to arouse it by awakening the hidden love. After explaining that the service of Hashem for a Jew—for a beinoni, for anyone, for an ordinary person—is to make it easier for him, or bring him to a point where it is easy for him, to observe mitzvos and not commit transgressions, by loving Hashem and fearing Hashem. If he loves Hashem and fears Hashem, he will keep all the mitzvos. That’s where he finished chapter 25. Then he began to say that for one’s service of Hashem to succeed, a person needs to be joyful. If he is sluggish and weighed down, he can’t overcome his yetzer hara. It’s difficult. So he needs to be joyful at all times. Then he began explaining... To overcome the yetzer hara, you need to be joyful. How can you be joyful? Starting in chapter 26, he began explaining how to be joyful, and he finishes that in our chapter. How many chapters is that? Twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three, thirty-four. Nine chapters. At first he devoted several chapters to advice on how not to become sad—different things that can cause sadness, and how not to fall into it. The last piece of advice in that section, about how not to fall into sadness, concerned timtum halev, a blocked heart. Sometimes a person is sad because he contemplates, and it doesn’t... it doesn’t

08:11 Speaker 1 affect his heart. He says, “I contemplated, I thought, I put in effort, but I don’t feel anything, any feeling in my heart. So what do I do?” He says the reason is timtum halev. He then devotes two chapters to how a person should humble and break himself, and understand just how poor his state is. Through this, the spirit of impurity and the sitra achra will be broken. Once he feels a deep bitterness, once his low spiritual state matters to him and pains him, that will awaken an enormous desire to observe Torah and mitzvos, and it will bring him a twofold joy. First, he’ll feel joy in doing a mitzvah. If it pained him so much that he was far from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and now, after contemplating, he knows—it’s clear to him now, it’s become obvious to him through his contemplation—that by observing mitzvos he draws close to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, then it will bring him tremendous joy, like the joy of a king’s son who was in captivity and is now being freed. Besides his joy at leaving captivity and drawing close to G-dliness through observing Torah and mitzvos, it will bring him another joy: knowing that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is happy. Everything Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world for was to make a dwelling for Him in the lower realms. And here I am, fulfilling mitzvos and making a dwelling for Hakadosh Boruch Hu in the lower realms. I’m fulfilling His will. Surely that brings Hakadosh Boruch Hu joy. So he’ll rejoice in Hashem’s joy, not only in his own. That’s what chapter 31 discusses: genuine bitterness is precisely what brings a person to genuine joy. Then he continued with another way to reach genuine joy. Here it’s no longer about how not to fall into sadness—about something that causes sadness and how he can get out of it. No. How can a person be joyful, simply joyful, regardless of anything else? How can he be joyful all the time? By... this is what we saw in the previous class: by contemplating that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is everywhere. Hashem is one and His name is one. You are the first and You are the last. You are the same since the world was created as You were before the world was created, without any change. When a person contemplates this, thinks about it deeply, until he feels that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is truly with him at every moment—how can he be sad? Of course he’ll be happy. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with him every moment. He also explained some of the details there: that this joy is doubled and redoubled, and that there are several kinds of joy in it. The very fact that a person knows—and contemplates until he takes it in, until he feels—that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with him brings him the greatest joy. That’s what we’ve covered so far. What does the Alter Rebbe explain in our chapter? He says this: When a person contemplates that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with him... What good timing! You’ve arrived at exactly the main point of the introduction. Really. We haven’t started reading the text yet. So what is he coming to explain here? A person who contemplates Hashem’s oneness, as we learned in the previous chapter, knows that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with him, and that makes him very happy. When is he happy? When he’s thinking about it. When he stops thinking, he has to go to work, go to school, to his studies. He lives in a world. He can’t sit all day thinking about Hakadosh Boruch Hu, about Hashem’s oneness and unity. There’s a world; somehow he has to live in it. So he’ll be

10:18 Speaker 1 Something causes a person sadness, and he can get out of it. No. How can a person be happy—happy in the plain sense—regardless of anything else? How can he be happy all the time? By doing what we saw in the previous class: contemplating that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is everywhere. Hashem is one and His name is one. “You are the first and You are the last.” You are the same since the world was created as You were before the world was created, without any change. When a person reflects on this—thinks about it, contemplates it deeply, until he feels that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is truly with him at every moment—how can he be sad? Of course he’ll be happy. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with him every single moment. And there, too, he explained it in more detail: this is a joy doubled and redoubled, and there are many kinds of joy in it. The very fact that a person knows this, contemplates it until he takes it in, until he feels that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with him—that brings him the greatest joy. That’s where we got up to. What does he explain now? What does the Rebbe come to explain in our chapter? Here’s what he says: When a person contemplates the fact that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with him... Oh, good. You arrived at exactly the main point of the introduction. Exactly. We haven’t even started reading the text yet. So what is he coming to explain here? A person who contemplates Hashem’s unity, as we learned in the previous chapter, knows that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with him, and he’s very happy about it. When is he happy? When he’s thinking about it. But when he stops thinking, he has to go to work, he has to go to school, to his studies. He lives in a world. He can’t sit all day thinking about Hakadosh Boruch Hu, about the oneness and unity of Hashem. He... there’s a world; somehow he has to live here. So he’ll be

12:45 Speaker 1 very happy with Hashem’s joy, as Hashem rejoices in His dwelling in the lower realms. But when will he be happy? When he thinks about it, when he contemplates it. What about the rest of the day? We want a person to be joyful all day, not only while he’s contemplating. It’s true that if he contemplates properly, an impression of it will generally remain and affect him throughout the day. But when will he feel the great joy in his heart? When he contemplates. He can’t contemplate all day. How can I have that same tremendous joy—that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is actually with me at every moment—when I’m a simple Jewish person living in this world, with a yetzer hara that keeps bringing me all its concerns and throwing obstacles in my way? Despite that, how can I feel Hashem’s oneness and unity, that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with me all day? That’s the subject of chapter 34. How do we take those wonderful insights from chapter 33 and bring them into my everyday life? So let’s begin inside the text. Chapter 34: “Now it is well known that the Patriarchs are the chariot.” What does it mean that they are the chariot? “Throughout their lives, they never ceased, even for a single hour, to bind their minds and souls to the Master of worlds in the state of bittul discussed above”—in the previous chapter. With the Patriarchs, what might happen to me only when I contemplate Hashem’s oneness—believing in it and feeling it—was constant. The Patriarchs are the chariot. What does “chariot” mean? They didn’t just contemplate it. They felt Hashem’s unity: that Hakadosh Boruch Hu fills the world, that He is the world’s true reality, and that He is with me. They felt it all... How does the wording go? “Throughout their lives, they never ceased, even for a single hour, to bind their minds and souls to the Master of worlds.” What does that mean in plain terms? How is that possible? Didn’t they live? Didn’t they

15:30 Speaker 1 Did they eat? Didn’t they go to work? How did they make a living? Raise children? What does that mean? How could they be in such a state of bittul every single moment? How could such a thing be possible? The answer is: “The Patriarchs themselves are the merkavah.” What does that mean? What kind of answer is that? We’ve spoken before, more than once, about how there are many levels of bittul, of a person setting himself aside before someone else. The lowest level is the way a servant submits to a king, to his master. The servant has his own wishes, feelings, and sensations, but he has to do what he’s told, because if he doesn’t, he’ll be whipped. He has no choice. So he submits to his master’s will. What does he submit? His power of action. He feels that if he had the chance, he’d take to his heels and run away. He doesn’t want to do it, but he submits. There’s a higher level of bittul, that of the great ministers. These are people with understanding; they grasp what the king wants, and they submit to him willingly, not because they’re forced to. They recognize the king’s greatness—if he’s a true king, right?—and they willingly submit to him, with love. And there are still other levels of bittul... We won’t list all the levels now. There are levels upon levels, higher and higher. One of the highest levels of one person’s bittul before another is called bittul in the manner of a merkavah, a vehicle. What does that mean? A merkavah is a carriage. To whom does a carriage submit? To the rider, the person who takes it where he wants to go. What does it mean for the carriage to submit? What does it have to submit? It has no mind, no feelings, no thoughts. A person steers it,

17:52 Speaker 1 so it goes. Where? That’s exactly the point. Bittul like a merkavah means that a person feels like a carriage, like an inanimate object. He has no existence of his own. He submits to Hakadosh Boruch Hu the way a carriage submits to its rider. He doesn’t feel himself to be an independent existence. He has no wishes of his own, no intellect, no understanding, nothing. His entire existence—what is it all about? Doing what the rider wants. And about this they said... Even among those called a merkavah, there are several levels. The tribes, the sons of Yaakov, were called the lower merkavah, and above that is the merkavah of the angels. It’s mentioned in the Book of Yechezkel; we read about it in the Torah, in the Book of Yeshayahu. Higher and higher still, the supreme merkavah is the Patriarchs. Of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov it is said, “The Patriarchs themselves are the merkavah.” In other words, the pinnacle of bittul, its ultimate expression, is the Patriarchs—Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. What does that ultimate bittul mean? That throughout their lives, every single moment, their entire existence was devoted to submitting to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. There was nothing else. They had no other desire, no other thought, no other feeling. Their entire existence in this world was: “I am here only to serve You.” So clearly, as we said in the previous chapter, when does a person have true joy? When he is close to Hashem and knows that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is close to him. So if the Patriarchs felt Hashem’s oneness to such a degree that there is nothing else—there is none besides Him—at every moment, clearly their joy was immense. Can I be like that? That’s not possible, right? So that’s the question. If I were one of the three Patriarchs, then you, Alter Rebbe, could come to me with the demand: “Listen, there’s chapter 33, the oneness of Hashem.” But I’m not one of the Patriarchs. The most I can manage is when I’m

20:19 Speaker 1 contemplating it. What about the rest of the day? He continues: And after them, after the Patriarchs, came all the prophets, each according to the level of his soul and his understanding. Each of the prophets grasped more or less, and was in a state of bittul—and consequently of joy—according to the level of his prophecy. And the level of Moshe Rabbeinu, peace be upon him, surpasses them all, greater than that of all the prophets. They said of Moshe that the Shechinah spoke from his throat. This is an extraordinary thing, brought up in Chassidus many times. It says in the Torah, “And I will give grass in your field for your cattle.” Who gives it? Hakadosh Boruch Hu, right? So Moshe Rabbeinu should have written that Hakadosh Boruch Hu told me, or told me to tell you, that He would give grass in your fields. No. Moshe Rabbeinu says, “And I will give grass.” I will give it. What do you mean, “I will give it”? You’re giving it? Hakadosh Boruch Hu told you He would give it. Why are you saying it in the first person? Because Moshe Rabbeinu’s bittul to Hakadosh Boruch Hu was such that the Shechinah spoke from his throat. Moshe’s throat was the throat of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Moshe Rabbeinu was Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He submitted to Hakadosh Boruch Hu to such a degree that it was more than a carriage submitting to its rider. What does “more” mean? How can there be more? When we say a carriage submits to its rider, ultimately there’s a carriage and there’s a rider. One is an inanimate object and the other is a person. When we say the Shechinah spoke from his throat, he himself was Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Regarding Moshe Rabbeinu, the straightforward meaning of “the Shechinah spoke from Moshe’s throat” is that Moshe Rabbeinu submitted to G-dliness in such a way, so completely, with such bittul, that he and Hakadosh Boruch Hu became one. And when Hakadosh Boruch Hu says, “And I will give grass,” Moshe says, “And I will give grass.” When Moshe says, “And I will give grass,” it is Hakadosh Boruch

22:36 Speaker 1 Hu speaking; these are not two separate things. Well, that can be true of Moshe Rabbeinu, of the Patriarchs. What about me? The Rebbe says: Yes, all of the Jewish people also experienced such a revelation. Where? At Mount Sinai, all of Israel merited something akin to Moshe Rabbeinu’s revelation. Hakadosh Boruch Hu then revealed His very Essence and Being, just as He revealed Himself to Moshe. He revealed Himself to Moshe together with everyone else. Everyone saw it together. “I am Hashem your G-d.” All of them together. They all saw the sounds. But there was still a difference between Moshe and the others. What was it? Only that they could not bear it. As our Sages said, with every utterance their souls took flight. There is a long discussion about whether Moshe Rabbeinu’s soul took flight or not, but regarding all of Israel there is no debate. Their souls took flight. Why did their souls take flight? Why didn’t Moshe Rabbeinu’s soul take flight when he became one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu and submitted to Him? He could receive the revelation, and the others couldn’t. There is a difference. There are two differences between the Patriarchs, the prophets, and Moshe Rabbeinu, on the one hand, and ordinary people like us on the other. One difference is in intellect. He has a soaring intellect, and when he contemplates something, he understands it quickly and sharply, all the way through. He understands its depth and its breadth; he understands it all. And when he contemplates and thinks about something, what he is contemplating becomes almost visible to him, as though he can see it. We don’t have that. That’s one difference. The second difference is in the root of the soul. Their souls were lofty souls, souls of Atzilus. Our souls are, as it says there at the beginning of Tanya, souls from Malchus of Malchus of Asiyah—lowly souls. So there are these two things. Moshe Rabbeinu, the Patriarchs, and the prophets can contemplate because they have the intellect for it. And when they contemplate and understand, there is

25:07 Speaker 1 somewhere for that understanding to be received. They have souls capable of receiving the revelation that comes through that understanding. First of all, we cannot understand, because we don’t have the intellect for it. But the fact that we cannot understand is a gift. Why is it a gift? Because if we had the intellect and could understand, our souls would not be able to bear it. They would take flight from our bodies. Their souls took flight, and they simply died. They could not bear it. The soul, as it exists within the limits of a body, could not bear such a revelation. So in light of all this, the question becomes even stronger.

25:51 Speaker 5 So how was it possible for them?

25:58 Speaker 1 In a little while, next week, we’ll begin chapter 35. But the hints to it are already in the next line. So if, in order to be joyful—which is such a great foundation in serving Hashem, perhaps the foundation of all foundations—I need to believe and contemplate something that is beyond me, both because of my intellect and because of my soul; and even the Jewish people with Moshe Rabbeinu in the desert couldn’t bear it—then what are you asking of me? That is why it says that “with every utterance, their souls flew out,” and so on: this is the nullification of existence we discussed above. So what’s the solution? “Immediately He told them to make Him a Mishkan, with a Holy of Holies in it for His Shechinah to dwell, which is the revelation of His blessed unity, as will be explained below.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu said: Yes, that’s right, I know you can’t do it. You don’t have to, either. It’s enough for there to be one place in the world where the Shechinah can be revealed without limitation. Divinity is revealed there in its fullness, and that will already affect the whole world. Make a sanctuary with three rooms. Inside it, at the very innermost point, will be the Holy of Holies. The Ark will be there, and there the Shechinah will be revealed. From there, it will shine throughout the world. That is enough to make Him a dwelling place in the lower realms. It’s a wonderful solution, but something is missing. What’s the problem? What happens when the Beis Hamikdash is destroyed? As long as the Mishkan and the Beis Hamikdash stood—that was a thousand years, more than a thousand years, about twelve hundred years—there was a revelation of the Shechinah in the world. After the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, what do we do now? First there were the Patriarchs, then the prophets, then this, then there was the Beis Hamikdash. Well, what now? So the Rebbe continues: “Since the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, Hakadosh Boruch Hu has no dwelling place or abode in His world

28:30 Speaker 1 for His blessed unity to reside.” Where can His blessed unity dwell and reside? “Except in the four cubits of halachah.” Why? Because those four cubits of halachah are “His blessed will and wisdom, clothed in the halachos set out before us,” as we learned in chapter... Huh? Five, yes. Very good. No, really, very good. I’m sure that if I asked that question in a Chabad shul in Afula, ninety-five percent of the people wouldn’t know how to answer. I tried something like that today; not even one person knew. No, a different question. I’ll tell you—do you want to hear a story?

29:32 Speaker 6 Yes.

29:32 Speaker 1 I won’t tell you the answer, but... Someone posted—there’s a Chabad Afula group there—and someone asked a riddle. It’s known that whatever Hakadosh Boruch Hu commands His children to do, He does Himself. I remember the wording: Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself performs the mitzvos He commands the Jewish people. He doesn’t just demand things of us. What I do, you should do too. There’s a Midrash like that. So how does Hakadosh Boruch Hu perform the mitzvah of... well, what example did he give there? What? No, honoring one’s father and... that’s another question. Yes, people ask that too. That wasn’t what he asked there. Well? No—faith, faith in Hashem. There’s a mitzvah to believe in Hashem, one of the 613 mitzvos, right? So He also has to fulfill that mitzvah. How does He fulfill it? Good question, huh? So what was the answer? That Hakadosh Boruch Hu believes in a Jew. A Jew does teshuvah and promises Hakadosh Boruch Hu that he’ll improve, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu believes in him. Very nice; I like that. So I asked them a question in return. A question like this: How does Hakadosh Boruch Hu fulfill the mitzvah of mesirus nefesh for the sanctification of Hashem’s name? That’s also a mitzvah in the Torah. There is such a mitzvah. A mitzvah, huh? [unclear] Well, where do you fulfill that mitzvah? Let’s see you fulfill it.

31:16 Speaker 6 That we don’t always

31:17 Speaker 1 So the answer is in chapter 49 of Tanya. Yes. It begins in chapter 46 and keeps climbing and climbing; it’s in chapter 49. I hope we get there. Good. Huh? You’ll remember to ask. Good. So where were we? We understood what the unity is. We understood what brings joy. We understood why it isn’t within our reach: we don’t have the intellect or the soul for it. What was the solution? To make a Mishkan, to make a place where the Shechinah can dwell. But the place was destroyed—what now? There’s a spiritual place. What is that spiritual place? Halachah. Why? Because what is halachah? Every halachah says: Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants me to do this. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants me to do that. Yes. In other words, every single halachah in the Shulchan Aruch is the will and wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So when I study halachah, my mind is the Mishkan in which the will and wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu dwell—openly, in complete revelation, with no concealment at all. Right? That’s what follows. So what does it say? “Therefore, after a person has deeply contemplated the nullification mentioned above...” First, for him to really feel the... Maybe we should explain it before reading it inside. Properly speaking, we should explain it at the end, but I don’t want us to read words without knowing what they mean. Most people—almost everyone, I’d say—don’t feel any sort of... I don’t know, lights and flashes of lightning when they study Torah, or thunder either. They don’t feel it. More than that, I’ve often seen people sit in a Torah class and fall asleep because it’s boring, because it doesn’t interest them, because they don’t feel it has anything to do with them. And even when I study on my own, if I’m a little

34:03 Speaker 1 tired, or if the subjects don’t touch my heart, I don’t feel any wonderful joy at the revelation of His will and wisdom, at the fact that Hashem is one and that I’m now becoming an abode for Him to dwell in. I don’t feel it. Why? In truth, every halachah, every word of Torah, is His will and wisdom. That’s the truth. And when I study, it dwells in my mind. So right now my mind is the Holy of Holies of the Beis Hamikdash, where Divinity shines in complete revelation, without any concealment. Why don’t I feel it? You don’t feel it because you don’t contemplate it. It’s very simple. “Therefore, after a person has deeply contemplated the nullification mentioned above to the extent of his ability, he should take this to heart.” After you’ve studied chapter 33, right? You’ve contemplated it, understood it, and you know what Hashem’s unity is and why you need to contemplate it. Now you come to study Torah. Why do you come to study Torah? You come to study Torah because you’ve understood that Hashem is one, and the only way you can bring His presence into the world is through Torah study. That’s why you study. I don’t study Torah because I have to, or because we’re coming up to... Which holiday is next now?

35:52 Speaker 7 Tu Bishvat.

35:52 Speaker 1 Tu Bishvat. All right, Shabbos comes before that. I’m not studying the laws of Shabbos now so that I won’t inadvertently commit a transgression on Shabbos. No. I’m studying the laws of Shabbos because I want to bring His light into my mind. That’s why I study. If you study for that reason, then it really will shine, you really will feel it, and you’ll have joy in Divinity. So “he should take this to heart: Because my intellect and the root of my soul are too limited”—those are the two things we discussed, both my intellect and the root of my soul—“to contain His blessed unity, to be a chariot and dwelling place for it in the truest sense.” True, when I contemplate Hashem’s unity, it will bring me joy, but it will bring me joy only while I’m contemplating it. That isn’t unity in the truest sense. In the truest sense, it changes me; I become one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That, I can’t do. “For my thought cannot grasp or comprehend Him at all—not with any comprehension whatsoever, nor with even a trace of the comprehension of the Patriarchs and the prophets.” I know that’s beyond my capacity. “Therefore I will make Him a dwelling place and an abode: by engaging in Torah study as my time allows, with set times by day and by night, as prescribed for each person in the laws of Torah study.” Yes, the laws of Torah study in the Shulchan Aruch define how much time each person needs to set aside each day for Torah study—the minimum required of each person according to his occupation, and so on. “And as our Sages said: Even one chapter in the morning, etc. Through this, his heart will rejoice and exult, and he will give thanks for his portion with joy and gladness of heart, for he has merited to host the Divine Presence twice each day.” Listen, this is a great thing. What we spoke about in the previous chapter was unity and true faith and so on, but that’s only in...

38:07 Speaker 1 Only as if. He understands that Hashem is there, he understands that Hashem is with him, and he is happy. That is a great joy, a real joy, but it does not quite connect with him. When a person learns Torah, though, it is real. Hakadosh Boruch Hu really is with him. How does it say it there in chapter 5? He “joins and unites with Hakadosh Boruch Hu in a wondrous union, the like of which, or anything comparable to it, is not found in the physical world at all: to become truly one and united from every side and angle.” There is nothing like it. It is real. It is no longer just in his mind. He learns Torah, and he actually unites with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So when he contemplates this, his joy will be great and immense, according to the time and opportunity he has, to the extent Hashem has granted him. Now, there is something here we need to notice. There is a colon at the end of the passage, right? In Tanya, I do not know whether there are even one or two other places with a colon. The Alter Rebbe does not use commas at all in Tanya. Periods—I do not know, once every few chapters there might be a period or a colon. I do not know if there is another place. At the top of the page, in the first line, at the end of the line, it says, “This he should take to heart.” Right? So the colon marks the end of that “This he should take to heart.” What is the Alter Rebbe telling us with that colon? That this whole passage we have just learned is something a person needs to take to heart, to think about and decide. It all falls under “This he should take to heart.” What is it? Since my intellect is limited and my soul is limited, I need to learn Torah. And since I decide to learn Torah, I become a host to the Divine Presence. I become—I become a Holy of Holies, and therefore I should have great and immense joy that at least twice a day, I am a Holy of Holies for Hashem.

40:26 Speaker 1 This is all in the person’s thoughts and his decision. Right? A colon. A colon, a new subject. A new subject, but on the other hand, he continues speaking about the same subject, so there is a colon to separate them. The person keeps thinking. He continues taking it to heart in his thoughts. “And if Hashem grants him more”—that means he keeps thinking. First I decided to learn Torah at least twice a day, and then I will have great joy because I connect with G-dliness. But ultimately, even if I learn Torah a few times, I connect with G-dliness during the two times a day that I learn, in the morning and in the evening. And the rest of the day? What about the rest of the day? Right, seemingly. So he keeps thinking: “And if Hashem grants him more, then one with clean hands will increase his strength.” He keeps thinking that, yes, for now I can only see myself doing this twice a day, but I am deciding right now that if Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives me a little more opportunity, I am going for it. I will add a few more minutes of learning. It is all in his thoughts. And since that is his decision, a good thought and so on—Hakadosh Boruch Hu joins it to action. If a person decides that he wants to add to his Torah learning in order to unite with G-dliness, so that his mind, his head and his feelings will be a dwelling place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, a good thought—Hakadosh Boruch Hu... You cannot keep adding without end. There is a time when you have to live in the world. We are talking about a beinoni, not a prophet, not a... We are talking about an ordinary person. So even throughout the rest of the day, when he really can no longer learn Torah and is engaged in business, for example, he will be a dwelling place for Him. How? Not through Torah. There is another way: by giving tzedakah from what he has earned. Why? Why specifically tzedakah? What is special about tzedakah? Why? So that he fulfills the mitzvos of terumos and maasros? By connecting with Hakadosh Boruch Hu through saying a brachah over food, or through some other mitzvah, I do not know. Why specifically giving tzedakah? Specifically? So he immediately explains why specifically the mitzvah of tzedakah: because it is one of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s attributes. The other mitzvos are not His attributes. They are His will, not His attributes. When Hakadosh Boruch Hu commands me, say, to put on tefillin—is the tefillin Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Tefillin are animal hide; they are holy and so on. Tefillin are not Hakadosh Boruch Hu. When I put on tefillin, I fulfill His will. So there is the will, and there is the mitzvah. They are two separate things. The mitzvah is not Him. His will is that I fulfill a mitzvah, but I am not the mitzvah. The mitzvah is not—it is not Him. They are separate things. With tzedakah it is not like that. With tzedakah, our Sages said that tzedakah is one of His attributes. When I give tzedakah, the tzedakah I give is Him.

44:53 Speaker 1 He recites a blessing over food, or does some other mitzvah—I don’t know. Why specifically give tzedakah? Why that one? So he immediately explains why it is specifically the mitzvah of tzedakah: because it is one of the attributes of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The other mitzvos are not His attributes. They are His will, not His attributes. When Hakadosh Boruch Hu commands me to, say, put on tefillin—is the tefillin Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Tefillin are made of animal hide; they are holy and so on. But tefillin are not Hakadosh Boruch Hu. When I put on tefillin, I fulfill His will. So there is His will, and there is the mitzvah. They are two separate things. The mitzvah is not Him. He wants me to fulfill a mitzvah, but the mitzvah is not Him. They are separate things. With tzedakah, it’s different. Our Sages said that tzedakah is one of His attributes. When I give tzedakah, the tzedakah I give is Him.

46:03 Speaker 8 It seems from Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah that His attributes are Him Himself.

46:09 Speaker 1 Are a person’s attributes the person himself, or are they only a part of the person?

46:19 Speaker 8 No. Chapter 3 of Tanya says that the attributes are the person himself. It is true that there is also such a thing as the essence of the soul, but Tanya is not talking about the essence of the soul. Who is the person? The person is his intellect and his emotions. Right? That is what it says throughout Tanya, and not only in Tanya. There are places, a number of places in Chassidus, where it is explained—and this is not so directly connected to Tanya—that even the soul’s faculties, which are the person’s essential being, are not the essence itself, but only an extension of the essence. Still, they are an extension of the essence. They are not something separate; they are part of him himself. But that is not the subject we are dealing with now. Generally speaking, the attributes are the nature of the thing. When we talk about a person, what is that person like? Is he righteous, wicked, wise, kindhearted? Right? So what are we talking about? We are not talking about the essence of the soul. We are talking about his attributes, about him. That is him. And tzedakah is one of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s attributes. So just as when a person learns Torah, the Torah is His wisdom, so too, when he gives tzedakah, tzedakah is His attribute. He can therefore become a dwelling place for Him, unite with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, not only through learning Torah but also through giving tzedakah. So he can do that throughout the day, not just while sitting in front of a sefer. Wait, wait, wait.

46:23 Speaker 1 No. Chapter 3 of Tanya says that a person’s attributes are the person himself. True, there is also something called the essence of the soul, but that is not what Tanya is discussing there. Who is the person? The person is his intellect and his feelings. Right? That is what it says throughout Tanya, and not only in Tanya. There are a few places in Chassidus that explain—this isn’t so relevant to Tanya—that even the soul’s faculties, which are a person’s essential character, are not the essence itself, but only an extension of the essence. Still, they are an extension of the essence. They are not something separate; they are part of the person himself. But that is not our subject right now. Generally speaking, the attributes are what a thing is. When we talk about a person, what is that person like? Is he righteous? Is he wicked? Is he wise? Is he kindhearted? Right? What are we talking about? Not the essence of his soul. We are talking about his attributes—about him. That is who he is. And tzedakah is one of the attributes of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So just as when a person studies Torah, the Torah is His wisdom, when he gives tzedakah, tzedakah is His attribute. He can therefore become a dwelling place for Him, becoming united with Hakadosh Boruch Hu not only through Torah study but also through giving tzedakah. And that he can do throughout the day, not only when he is sitting in front of a book. Wait, wait, wait.

48:02 Speaker 8 He is not occupied with tzedakah all day. He also cannot give everything he earns to tzedakah. So again, we have not yet reached the whole day. “And although he gives only a fifth”—even if he gives a great deal of tzedakah, one may not give more than a fifth. Well, all right, true, but “the fifth elevates with it all the other four parts to Hashem, to become a dwelling place for Him. As is known from our Sages’ teaching that the mitzvah of tzedakah is equal to all the sacrifices. And with the sacrifices, all living creatures were elevated to Hashem through one animal, and all vegetation through one tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, and so on.” So tzedakah is like the sacrifices. In the Beis Hamikdash, they would offer the daily sacrifices in the morning. That is, “Offer one lamb in the morning, and offer the second lamb in the afternoon.” Two lambs a day. And those two lambs offered each day elevate to holiness all the physical things belonging to the entire Jewish people throughout the world. That is what it says in many places. The same is true of tzedakah. Tzedakah is the idea of the sacrifices on the level of the individual. True, I give only a tenth, or only a fifth, or only a tenth—I do not know, whatever each person gives. What I give elevates all the rest to holiness. So true, I am not occupied with tzedakah all day, but the fact that I give tzedakah elevates to holiness everything I was occupied with throughout the day. So once again, I am connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu all day.

48:04 Speaker 1 He isn’t occupied with tzedakah all day. Nor can he give everything he earns to tzedakah. So again, we haven’t yet accounted for the whole day. “And although he gives only a fifth”—even if he gives a lot of tzedakah, he is not permitted to give more than a fifth. Fine, that’s true. But “the fifth raises the other four parts along with it to Hashem, to become a dwelling place for Him, blessed be He. As is known from the statement of our Sages that the mitzvah of tzedakah is equal to all the offerings. With the offerings, all animal life was elevated to Hashem through one animal, and all plant life through one tenth-measure of fine flour mixed with oil, etc.” So tzedakah is like the offerings. In the Beis Hamikdash, they would always offer the daily offerings in the morning—meaning, one lamb in the morning and the second lamb toward evening. Two lambs a day. And those two lambs offered each day elevated all the physical possessions of the entire Jewish people, throughout the whole world, to holiness. That is written in many places. The same is true of tzedakah. Tzedakah is like the offerings on the individual level. True, I give only a tenth, or only a fifth, or whatever amount each person gives. What I give elevates everything else to holiness. So it’s true that I’m not occupied with tzedakah all day, but the tzedakah I give elevates everything I was occupied with throughout the day. So, once again, I am connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu all day.

49:39 Speaker 9 …

49:43 Speaker 1 So a person wants to feel Hashem with him, not just that in the end, everything...

49:44 Speaker 9 So a person wants to feel Hashem with him, not just at the end of it all.

49:52 Speaker 1 So he adds something else. Besides that, when a person davens or learns Torah, everything he ate and drank and enjoyed from the other four parts for the health of his body now rises too, as it says later. So first of all, we have... A person gives tzedakah. There are three stages here. Yes. He learns Torah, and now he... But before that, he contemplates Hashem’s unity and oneness. That has an effect on his whole day, but especially while he is contemplating it. Beyond that, when he learns Torah, he actually unites with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so of course he should be happy. But he can’t sit and learn all day, can he? True, but during the rest of the day he can give tzedakah. But he can’t give tzedakah all day, can he? True, but if he earns a hundred shekels, the twenty shekels he gives—the fifth—elevates all the rest. But that elevates the rest only in the sense that it is counted as though he had given it; it doesn’t actually elevate it. In practice, he used the other four parts for the health of his body. He didn’t use them for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He used only the fifth for that. So what happens to all the rest in practice? He says that, in practice, when a person davens, he has to be alive in order to daven. And to live, he has to eat. So while he is davening and learning Torah, the other four parts that he didn’t give to tzedakah rise too, in practice. All the rest as well... Yes, yes, yes, yes. That’s one of the reasons, one of the main reasons. There’s another reason. So what have we had so far in this chapter? There’s this little passage at the end, which sums up everything, the whole Tanya, everything we’ve had from the beginning. We’ll look at that in a moment too. But what

52:04 Speaker 1 we’ve had in the last two chapters, 33 and 34, is that a person can not only avoid falling into sadness; he can be tremendously happy all the time simply from knowing that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with him. How is Hakadosh Boruch Hu with him? Contemplate, learn Torah, give tzedakah, daven. And if you do all of that with the awareness, reached through contemplation, that Hashem is everywhere and is with you through your fulfillment of Torah and mitzvos, you’ll be tremendously happy. Nothing in the world will disturb you. That’s what we had. The Rebbe adds a note at the end: “Now, with regard to all the particular kinds of joy of the soul mentioned above... none of them prevents a person from being lowly and despicable in his own eyes, with a broken heart and a humble spirit, at the very moment of his joy.” We said at the beginning of this discussion, in chapters 29 through 31, that to reach true joy, a person first needs to feel how distant he is, to feel how repulsive he is, how loathsome. The more he feels how far away he is, the more he will want and strive to come close, and the truer and greater his joy will be. That’s fairly understandable. What is the Alter Rebbe saying now? So what was—sorry. What had we understood? That these are two separate things. There’s the time he needs to devote to contemplating his lowly state.

54:00 Speaker 10 To depression.

54:00 Speaker 1 Not to depression. That’s from the beginning of chapter 31: “And even if this makes him sad, he should not be concerned.” Why shouldn’t he be concerned? “Because this in particular will bring him to true joy.” That’s at the beginning of chapter 31. So these are two separate things: there’s the time when he contemplates his lowly state, and there’s the time when he contemplates Hashem’s unity and that Hashem is with him. The first has to come before the second, right? What does the Alter Rebbe say here? That none of these forms of joy of the soul contradicts this, and he can be—what’s the wording?—“at the very moment of his joy.” At the very moment when he is tremendously happy that his soul has left its prison, that he is fulfilling Hashem’s will, that Hashem is with him, and so on, he can also feel tremendous bitterness over how loathsome and repulsive he is, and so on. At the very same moment. That’s what it says, right? How can a person be at the height of bitterness and at the height of joy at the same time? He explains: “For his being lowly in his own eyes, etc., is on account of the body and the animal soul, while his joy is on account of the G-dly soul and the spark of G-dliness clothed in it to give it life, as explained above.” Chapter 30. So there are two different reasons. He’s sad about one thing and happy about another; they can coexist. He brings a proof: “And similarly, it says in the Zohar”—we find a proof of this in the Zohar—“Weeping is lodged in my heart on one side, and joy is lodged in my heart on the other.” There’s a story there in the Zohar about Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, Rashbi, teaching his son Rabbi Elazar the secrets of the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash. And while he was teaching him, Rabbi Elazar began to cry. Rashbi asks Rabbi Elazar why he’s crying, and he gives this answer: On the one hand, until then he hadn’t known that the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash was something

56:37 Speaker 1 so terrible, so he began to cry. On the other hand, they were tears of joy at hearing such wonderful secrets. He hadn’t known there were such wonderful things in the world. How can both happen at once? Because they have two different causes: sorrow over the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash and joy at the revelation of the Torah’s secrets. The Rebbe says this can be true of every single person. I want to sum up, but first one more word, one small point to add here about these feelings existing together. With Hashem’s help, when we get further on—after Likkutei Amarim, the Book of Beinonim, ends, there’s Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, and then Igeres Hateshuvah. At the end of Igeres Hateshuvah, it discusses this subject again, and there it says they cannot coexist. The same Alter Rebbe wrote that, and he wrote it at the same time. He wrote both about the beinoni. So I don’t know if... Let’s put the point very briefly. We learned in Tanya, chapter 17, that at the very beginning, when he started explaining what serving Hashem means, he first explained what a person is and what a beinoni, a tzaddik and a rasha are—what is expected of us. Then he explained the principles of serving Hashem and how to serve Him: what contemplation is and how to awaken love and fear in order to succeed in fulfilling mitzvos. When he began speaking about how to serve Hashem, he first said: Listen, everyone, everything I’m about to tell you rests on the mind ruling the heart. Why is every person capable of it? Do you remember this? We talked about it. Why can everyone serve Hashem? Because, by nature, everyone’s mind rules their heart. A person is born with his head above and his body

58:51 Speaker 1 below, unlike an animal. An animal is on one level. A person is made so that his head—his intellect—can supervise his heart, can command it: stop that now; look over here now. The mind rules the heart. That means he controls his feelings. Then there’s a note there: When does this apply? When he hasn’t committed a sin. If a person has sinned—not even sins in the plural; one sin is enough—then he’s already a rasha. And our Sages said of resha’im that they are under the control of their hearts, and their hearts are not under their control. With a rasha, the mind does not rule the... With a rasha... This is written in Tanya, chapter 17. One second. That’s a fair question. In order to serve Hashem, to be able even to begin serving Hashem—before we talk about how to serve Hashem—a person first has to do teshuvah. Because as long as he hasn’t done teshuvah, his mind doesn’t rule his heart. He can’t do it. His heart desires something, and he can’t stop himself. How is he going to stop himself with his mind? If he committed a sin, he crossed over to the other side; his mind became bound down below, and that’s it. Now his heart goes where it pleases and compels him to do whatever it wants. That’s written there at the beginning. So before a person can begin serving Hashem, he first has to do teshuvah. We’ll address your question too, if you remind me. And there are two kinds of teshuvah. I don’t mean higher teshuvah and lower teshuvah; that’s another matter. With ordinary teshuvah, when a person... What is teshuvah? Teshuvah means: I committed a sin, it hurts me, I regret it. I’m sorry, Hakadosh Boruch Hu; I didn’t mean to. Right? What is teshuvah? What does teshuvah involve?

1:01:09 Speaker 11 Regret.

1:01:09 Speaker 1 Regret. What is regret? He’s sorry; it hurts him in his heart. Right? That’s the plain, plain, plain, plain meaning of teshuvah. He’s sorry; it really hurts him. If it really hurts him, if he’s truly sorry, he won’t do it again. Right? But there are two ways this can happen. One is: I thought about it, remembered that I committed a sin, and it really hurts me. Right, I won’t do it again. The moment a person does teshuvah, the moment a person does teshuvah, Hakadosh Boruch Hu forgives him and won’t bring up a single thing on the Day of Judgment. It’s erased. A thought of teshuvah and [unclear]... It’s written in a thousand places. A person has to believe with complete faith that the moment he feels regret—even a thought, just a thought... What’s the wording? “Perhaps he had a thought of teshuvah.” Yes: if a completely wicked man betroths a woman on condition that he is completely righteous, she is betrothed. Why? Perhaps he had a thought of teshuvah. A thought of teshuvah turns a person from completely wicked to completely righteous in a single moment, and at that moment all the sins he committed in his life are erased.

1:02:29 Speaker 11 So does a thought of teshuvah make him a new creation?

1:02:34 Speaker 1 He’s a beinoni. He’s no longer wicked. He can already serve Hashem.

1:02:40 Speaker 11 And then if he commits a sin, if he commits a sin...

1:02:44 Speaker 1 One second, we’ll get to that. All right? So that’s true of any teshuvah. That’s another point—it’s a shortcut.

1:03:00 Speaker 11 But if it’s a shortcut...

1:03:04 Speaker 1 A thought of teshuvah. Come on, come on, we’re working toward a point. A thought of teshuvah: a person feels regret, and all the sins he committed are erased. But here’s the thing: and this is the essence of... What is a beinoni? A beinoni is a person who has never committed a sin in his life. So either he never actually committed a sin, or he did teshuvah and his sins were erased, so he has never committed a sin in his life. That’s the plain meaning. All right? Within that, there are two ways, two levels of teshuvah. Was it really just a passing thought, or did he put effort into it?

1:03:47 Speaker 11 No, no, no, no.

1:03:47 Speaker 1 No, no, no, no. I said I’m not talking about teshuvah ila’ah, not teshuvah ila’ah, not [unclear], not any of that. No. I’m talking about it in the simplest sense. In the simplest sense: he put effort into it. It wasn’t just a thought and that was it. He set aside time for himself—Krias Shema before bed, the eve of Rosh Chodesh. I don’t know, maybe once on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, on Yom Kippur, once every ten years. I don’t know. He set aside time for himself. During that time he reflects on what he damaged and distorted through his sins, and suddenly he realizes that it’s not just “I sinned against Hakadosh...” I sinned against Hakadosh Boruch Hu. It genuinely hurts him. And when it genuinely hurts, the regret is on a completely different level. Deep, genuine regret has the effect that he won’t just be a beinoni who constantly has to guard himself against falling back and becoming wicked. Rather, he’ll be a beinoni who has not transgressed and will not transgress.

1:04:51 Speaker 12 And the definition of a beinoni who hasn’t—it doesn’t necessarily have to do with...

1:04:59 Speaker 1 His present state.

1:05:00 Speaker 12 Well, but...

1:05:01 Speaker 1 Not that sin has no relevance to him; that he hasn’t actually transgressed. Not that it has no relevance to him. A beinoni, by virtue of being a beinoni, is susceptible to sin. He has an animal soul—he hasn’t nullified it. A tzaddik is not susceptible to sin.

1:05:15 Speaker 12 No, Rabbi, but there is a definition of a beinoni as someone who has not committed a sin and will not commit one.

1:05:23 Speaker 1 Yes.

1:05:23 Speaker 12 Rabbi, who won’t...

1:05:29 Speaker 3 You have no reason to worry that he’ll ever commit a sin.

1:05:32 Speaker 1 What?

1:05:32 Speaker 3 That you have no reason to worry that he’ll ever commit a sin.

1:05:35 Speaker 12 That at that particular moment he genuinely has no connection to...

1:05:38 Speaker 1 Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. At that moment.

1:05:41 Speaker 12 That’s talking about...

1:05:42 Speaker 1 But how long will that last, and what will happen when he actually faces a choice? That depends. If his teshuvah was deep, then yes, that really is how things are. And if not, then right now, at the moment he’s thinking about it, it’s out of the question for him. But afterward—afterward is another matter. He still has an animal soul. So that’s how the difference between what’s written here and what’s written there is explained. A person who did that kind of teshuvah, who only had a thought of it in his heart, is a beinoni. He has never committed a sin in his life; he can serve Hashem; everything is fine. But when we’re talking about the two opposite movements in the soul, bitterness and joy, they can’t come together. For a beinoni who did teshuvah properly, though, those two movements can indeed be present in the soul together. All of that was a digression about... Why did I say at the beginning of the class that we’re closing two circles here? Because with these words the Alter Rebbe finished explaining how to serve Hashem. What is a beinoni? A beinoni is a Jew who observes the mitzvos and does not commit sins. How? I explained it to you. What’s the general method? The work of the heart. Engage your heart so that it loves Hashem, and then you naturally won’t commit sins. Oh, it’s hard for you? Be joyful. You can’t do it through contemplation? Awaken the hidden love. All the details we’ve seen. So here, essentially, we’ve come full circle on how to be a beinoni. Actually, those aren’t quite the right words, but time is getting on, so we won’t discuss that now. Here it’s the work of the heart. The work of the heart: the mind rules the heart, and I’m a beinoni, a Jew who serves Hashem fully. What’s missing? Why doesn’t he stop the Tanya here? What is he explaining from here to the end? He’s finished explaining how to serve Hashem too, seemingly. From here on begins the

1:08:08 Speaker 1 interesting part. Until now, he has explained how to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He hasn’t yet explained why. Why do I need to be a beinoni? Why do I need to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu? What does it accomplish? For whom? What’s the point? What do they want from me? What’s the ultimate purpose? What’s the goal? What are we striving toward? Well, you have a mitzvah to serve Hashem, and this is how you do it. Fine, and...? What comes next? From here on, starting with the next chapter, the Alter Rebbe begins to explain the purpose of the world’s creation: to make a dwelling for Hakadosh Boruch Hu in the lower realms. He explains this over three chapters. No, no. It was mentioned in passing, as a way to bring joy to the soul. Starting with the next chapter, he begins to explain that the purpose of the world’s creation is to make a dwelling for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Then he’ll say that when a person lives in a dwelling, in a home, he doesn’t like it to be dark. He makes sure there’s light. It’s not enough, not enough for there to be a dwelling. The dwelling has to be illuminated.

1:09:37 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

1:09:38 Speaker 1 How do we make the dwelling? We make the dwelling through everything we’ve discussed: through action. I engage my heart in order to perform the actions, Torah and mitzvos. But how do we perform those actions so that they’re illuminated? That’s the second part. So the first part is called the work of the heart: we speak to the heart for the sake of action. The second part is the work of action: how to make the action shine with the feelings of the heart. So... Yechi.