Likkutei Amarim Chapter 34 (Part 1) – Introduction to the Chapter · 5785

00:00 Speaker 1 Okay, today we’re going to study chapter 34 of Tanya. Are you familiar with Tanya? Have you studied it before?

00:06 Speaker 2 Yes, yes.

00:07 Speaker 3 They taught us a little.

00:08 Speaker 2 They also gave us the book.

00:11 Speaker 3 Do you know Hadas and Ruth?

00:14 Speaker 1 Which Hadas and Ruth?

00:15 Speaker 3 From Beis Maasim Tovim.

00:17 Speaker 2 Oh, Beis Maasim Tovim.

00:18 Speaker 3 Yes, yes. We’re going to see her now. Her father passed away, if you heard.

00:23 Speaker 1 No, I don’t know who that is.

00:24 Speaker 3 Oh, you don’t know...

00:25 Speaker 1 I don’t know who Hadas is.

00:25 Speaker 3 Hadas is Yisroel Kohn’s wife.

00:28 Speaker 1 Oh, okay.

00:30 Speaker 3 Oh, I thought you knew all the...

00:32 Speaker 1 Hadas, I... I don’t know the women. I know Yisroel Kohn; I know her husband.

00:39 Speaker 3 So every Sunday we have, uh...

00:43 Speaker 1 So she teaches?

00:44 Speaker 3 Ruth, uh, does...

00:46 Speaker 2 Ruti Natanov, right?

00:47 Speaker 3 Yes.

00:47 Speaker 1 Oh, Ruti Natanov has been teaching Tanya for years.

00:50 Speaker 3 She comes.

00:51 Speaker 2 Rabbi Schneur Zalman, right?

00:53 Speaker 1 Yes.

00:54 Speaker 3 She teaches us, and then they bought us a book and told us, “Whenever you can, read whatever you can.” I read one line and couldn’t manage. It’s like...

01:02 Speaker 1 So, anyway, let me say...

01:03 Speaker 3 It kind of limits you... No, with the book, when you read it, it’s like you don’t know what you’re reading, right? It’s new to me. When I read Tehillim, I can just keep reading the whole thing, and it feels like something. But this doesn’t let you read it all. It tells you, no, just two lines. Why is that?

01:24 Speaker 1 Because here you have to understand it, not just say it. With Tehillim, the main thing is to say it; here, the main thing is to understand it.

01:29 Speaker 3 Oh, so I guess it’s about understanding what...

01:35 Speaker 2 The main thing is that you read it. That’s already a start toward understanding.

01:37 Speaker 3 Yes.

01:38 Speaker 1 Okay, then I’ll say a few words about Tanya before we go into it, just because... Tanya was written by the Alter Rebbe, the founder of Chabad Chassidus, about 250 years ago. Tanya is the first and last book—well, not the last—the first book that guides a person in serving Hashem. Until about two hundred... until the Alter Rebbe wrote Tanya, there wasn’t a single book in Judaism that guided a person in serving Hashem. There were books on specific subjects, explaining how to observe the mitzvos, how to study Torah, how to refine one’s character traits.

02:21 Speaker 2 Wasn’t the holy Baal Shem Tov before him?

02:22 Speaker 1 The holy Baal Shem Tov was before him, but he didn’t write a book. And even after Tanya, Tanya is essentially the only book that presents a complete approach to serving Hashem. How should every person—a beinoni, as I call it, an ordinary person, neither a tzaddik nor a rasha—serve Hashem? The foundation of the whole explanation is that serving Hashem isn’t what people usually think it is. People everywhere—even religious Jews, even chareidim, even chassidim—what do they understand serving Hashem to mean? Studying Torah, observing mitzvos, and davening.

03:12 Speaker 2 Yes.

03:13 Speaker 1 Right?

03:14 Speaker 2 Mm-hm.

03:14 Speaker 1 The Alter Rebbe bases Tanya on the idea that those things aren’t actually what serving Hashem means. Studying Torah, davening, and observing mitzvos—that isn’t what’s called serving Hashem. Serving Hashem is something else entirely.

03:31 Speaker 2 It’s faith.

03:32 Speaker 3 So it’s as if everything...

03:33 Speaker 1 No.

03:34 Speaker 2 Serving Hashem means work? Work?

03:37 Speaker 1 Faith isn’t the work of serving Hashem. You might say that, but it isn’t. Why not? Because what do we call faith? Faith is about something we can’t understand. My mind can’t grasp it, so I believe.

03:53 Speaker 3 Something we haven’t seen, either.

03:55 Speaker 1 We haven’t seen it, so we believe. Why do I believe? I believe in something I haven’t seen.

03:59 Speaker 2 Where the mind reaches its limit.

04:00 Speaker 1 Where the mind reaches its limit, faith begins.

04:02 Speaker 2 That’s the hardest part.

04:03 Speaker 1 True, that saying is right. But then what does it mean? What do I have to work with? How can I work with something that isn’t within me?

04:13 Speaker 2 Yes.

04:15 Speaker 1 There’s nothing to work on with faith. A Jew is born with faith and has it, so what can you do? What can you do with it? Nothing at all. So faith isn’t work.

04:26 Speaker 2 You have to live your faith. People always speak about faith as the foundation and the essence of serving Hashem.

04:33 Speaker 1 What you’re saying is true, but faith itself isn’t work. You have to do work to reveal your faith. That’s part of serving Hashem.

04:44 Speaker 2 Working on your character traits?

04:45 Speaker 1 But the work itself isn’t faith.

04:47 Speaker 2 When you say “work,” do you mean working on your character traits?

04:50 Speaker 1 Not only that.

04:51 Speaker 2 Davening is work.

04:53 Speaker 1 We’ll get to that shortly.

04:53 Speaker 2 Keeping Shabbos—that’s work.

04:56 Speaker 1 First of all, before... I don’t want to... We’re in the middle of the book, yes. The first thing to know when approaching Tanya is that we have to set aside a certain preconceived idea: “Serving Hashem means I observe all the mitzvos, don’t commit any aveiros, and that means I’m serving Hashem.” No. Serving Hashem is something inward. “And you shall love—love Hashem your G-d with all your heart and with all your soul.” The heart and soul aren’t hands. With your hand, you give tzedakah, right? With your feet, say, you go to do a mitzvah. You observe mitzvos with the body. Serving Hashem is “You shall love Hashem your G-d with all your heart”—that’s with the heart and the soul. Work with the heart and soul isn’t physical work.

05:49 Speaker 2 Beautiful.

05:49 Speaker 1 All right? But of course, a person can’t serve Hashem with heart and soul and not observe mitzvos. There has to be some practical expression of it.

05:59 Speaker 2 Mm-hm.

06:00 Speaker 1 The practical observance of mitzvos is an expression of serving Hashem; it’s a result of serving Hashem. And Tanya guides every one of us in how to serve Hashem. I won’t go into all the details, because we’d never finish, right? I just want to give some general background about what we’re discussing.

06:23 Speaker 2 So the work is something inward?

06:25 Speaker 1 The work is... it’s an inward matter, yes. I don’t want to go on too long. We’ll get into it, and perhaps mention it again later. There’s another point that’s important for a general understanding; perhaps we’ll mention it as we go along. No, no, we’re not going to talk about the Baal Shem Tov now, okay?

06:43 Speaker 2 But he founded Chassidus, didn’t he?

06:45 Speaker 1 Not only did he found Chassidus; the teachings of Chabad Chassidus are the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov. But that’s another subject that needs explaining. Not now. You can’t learn the whole Torah standing on one foot. At some point, with Hashem’s help, perhaps in one of the classes we’ll talk about it. There are several places in Tanya where the Baal Shem Tov is mentioned; perhaps we’ll discuss it there. I simply wanted to give a general introduction to Tanya before we begin studying. So, as I said, the foundation of Tanya is serving Hashem, meaning inward work in the heart and soul. We need to understand what the heart is and what the soul is. We’ve already understood a little. We’ll spend more time on it and explain further. Tanya itself has—when the Alter Rebbe wrote Tanya, he wrote two parts. After a short time, two or three years, he added another part, a third part. And after his passing, many years after his passing, his sons and grandsons... In the end, the Tanya we have today has five parts. But the two parts that form the basis of Tanya, the foundation of serving Hashem, are the first and second parts.

08:02 Speaker 2 Where can you get the book?

08:04 Speaker 1 At the Chabad House.

08:07 Speaker 2 [unclear]

08:08 Speaker 1 I’ll check if we have it. I’ll check.

08:10 Speaker 2 Where?

08:11 Speaker 1 Also, with Hashem’s help... [unclear]. We talked about printing Tanya. We talked about printing Tanya—perhaps we’ll print it here, perhaps we’ll put copies of Tanya out on this table. We’ll see. We’re in the middle of discussions and looking into it right now.

08:23 Speaker 2 Wow. Yes, with Hashem’s help, we want to distribute it.

08:27 Speaker 1 So what’s written in the first, second, and third parts? Let’s leave aside the last two parts and look at what the Alter Rebbe himself wrote. Let’s start at the end. He calls the third part of Tanya Igeres Hateshuvah. What’s an igeres? It’s a letter. To study, a person studies a book. Who do you send a letter to?

08:50 Speaker 2 A friend.

08:51 Speaker 1 A friend who’s far away. If they’re nearby, you speak to them; you don’t need to send a letter.

08:55 Speaker 2 Right.

08:55 Speaker 1 Yes. So to a Jew who has reached distant places, the Alter Rebbe sends a letter, Igeres Hateshuvah, showing him how to come back. That’s the third part. So it’s already clear from that that the third part is less directly concerned with serving Hashem. The third part of Tanya is more for someone who has committed some aveirah and now, before beginning to serve Hashem, first needs to do teshuvah. So there it is for you: do teshuvah, and then come back to me. That’s the general idea. Now, the first two parts of Tanya—I’m going from the end to the beginning. The second part, not the first, lays the foundation of faith. The second part of Tanya lays the foundation of faith.

09:48 Speaker 2 The third part is Igeres Hateshuvah.

09:50 Speaker 1 The third part is Igeres Hateshuvah. The second part is the foundation of faith. It’s called Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah. We’ll get to chapter 34 in a moment too. I’m trying to keep this short. There’s a reason I’m going from the end to the beginning. What does “the foundation of faith” mean? In halachah, the Rambam and other authorities write that the first commandment we were given is: “I am Hashem your G-d.” If a Jew doesn’t—if a person doesn’t believe there is a G-d—

10:26 Speaker 2 Then he can’t go any further.

10:28 Speaker 1 You can’t go on to the next mitzvah; there’s no one who commanded it. Yes, the foundation of faith is to believe that G-d exists.

10:36 Speaker 2 Right.

10:39 Speaker 1 What is true faith? There, in twelve very, very, very deep chapters, the Alter Rebbe explains the Baal Shem Tov’s approach. Who was I talking about? I was talking about the Baal Shem Tov. Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, the second part of Tanya, discusses the foundation of Jewish faith, the foundation of Judaism. That entire second part is based on the approach of the—he simply quotes the Baal Shem Tov in the first chapter and then explains it. What does the Baal Shem Tov say? The Baal Shem Tov introduced a remarkable new idea into Judaism, an idea that made the whole world turn against him. You know that in the Baal Shem Tov’s time there were the misnagdim, the opponents of Chassidus. Have you heard about that?

11:29 Speaker 2 Yes.

11:29 Speaker 1 It was a very difficult period of more than—

11:32 Speaker 2 He was also in prison.

11:33 Speaker 1 More than a hundred years of fierce opposition to Chassidus.

11:37 Speaker 2 Oh, yes.

11:38 Speaker 1 It reached the point of persecution, and there was even murder, and there was... It was a very—The Jewish people were torn apart by the fight against the Baal Shem Tov. Until—only in—

11:50 Speaker 2 Why was there a fight against him?

11:51 Speaker 1 I’ll explain in a moment.

11:54 Speaker 2 They didn’t believe in Chassidus.

11:55 Speaker 1 I’ll explain in a moment.

12:00 Speaker 2 Good.

12:01 Speaker 1 That conflict only calmed down in the time of the Alter Rebbe’s grandson, the Tzemach Tzedek. He also established ties with the leading misnagdim—personal ties and connections in Torah learning—and did a great deal of public work to make the approach of Chassidus known. Then things calmed down; the dispute ended. But from the Baal Shem Tov until the Tzemach Tzedek, there were about a hundred years of very, very bitter disputes and quarrels. In any case, what did the Baal Shem Tov introduce that made the whole world turn against him? There were several things. One of the most fundamental is something people ask about to this day: What is the first thing a Jew must believe? Hashem is one.

12:57 Speaker 4 Right. There is nothing besides Him.

12:59 Speaker 1 There is nothing besides Him; Hashem is one. That’s it.

13:01 Speaker 4 Ah.

13:02 Speaker 1 Right? Ask a child, ask someone on the street: What is the first thing a Jew must believe? Everyone, every child, knows. Yes. What does “there is nothing besides Him” mean?

13:16 Speaker 4 That there is nothing besides Him.

13:17 Speaker 5 One and only.

13:19 Speaker 1 What? What does “there is nothing else” mean?

13:20 Speaker 4 There is nothing else.

13:20 Speaker 5 One and only.

13:22 Speaker 1 What else is there not?

13:23 Speaker 4 There is no other existence.

13:24 Speaker 5 There is no one else like Him.

13:25 Speaker 4 In the world.

13:25 Speaker 1 There is no other G-d.

13:26 Speaker 5 One and only.

13:27 Speaker 1 There is only one G-d. There aren’t two rulers of the world; there is one.

13:31 Speaker 4 Right.

13:31 Speaker 1 That’s the simple meaning. That’s what everyone understands.

13:33 Speaker 4 There is only one Creator, only one Creator of the world.

13:36 Speaker 1 But the Baal Shem Tov said something else. The Baal Shem Tov explained that “there is nothing besides Him” means what you said. Where did you hear that?

13:44 Speaker 4 What did she say? What was it?

13:45 Speaker 1 That there is no existence besides Him.

13:47 Speaker 4 Ah, okay.

13:48 Speaker 5 Ah, existence.

13:50 Speaker 4 That’s more precise.

13:51 Speaker 1 It’s not more precise; it’s a different interpretation.

13:54 Speaker 4 He also says that thought creates reality.

13:56 Speaker 1 What?

13:57 Speaker 4 The holy Baal Shem Tov also says that thought creates reality.

14:00 Speaker 1 Yes. What’s the difference—

14:07 Speaker 5 A lot of people say thought creates reality.

14:10 Speaker 1 Yes, the question is what they understand those words to mean.

14:12 Speaker 5 The spiritual aspects.

14:13 Speaker 1 The question is what they understand those words to mean. When we say “there is nothing besides Him,” and we mean it as the Baal Shem Tov does, there is no other existence whatsoever besides Him. That means I don’t exist. Am I an existence?

14:27 Speaker 4 Yes.

14:28 Speaker 1 Is this table an existence?

14:29 Speaker 4 Yes. We can see it.

14:30 Speaker 1 Is the world an existence?

14:32 Speaker 4 Right.

14:32 Speaker 1 The Baal Shem Tov says no.

14:34 Speaker 4 No.

14:35 Speaker 1 There is nothing besides Him.

14:36 Speaker 4 In the world.

14:37 Speaker 1 If there is nothing besides Him, then there is nothing besides Him. There is no existence whatsoever apart from Hashem. Nothing at all. No world, no existence, nothing whatsoever. Only Hakadosh Boruch Hu exists. Can any of us grasp that?

14:54 Speaker 4 That’s deep.

14:55 Speaker 1 Can any of us feel—What the Baal Shem Tov says is the opposite of everything our awareness—

15:04 Speaker 4 He created the world, created the...

15:05 Speaker 1 It’s the opposite of what we feel. And without any further—without needing reasons. A person doesn’t need a reason to prove that he exists.

15:17 Speaker 5 To believe.

15:18 Speaker 1 A person doesn’t need to believe he exists. He knows he exists.

15:21 Speaker 5 I feel it all day long.

15:22 Speaker 4 The very fact that he believes means it exists.

15:24 Speaker 1 It has nothing to do with believing. Let me say it again.

15:27 Speaker 5 I feel that I exist.

15:28 Speaker 1 Again, again, again. Sorry, sorry. No, no, no, no, no, no, not like that. Not like that. Try to concentrate. I know these are deep ideas, but we want to get to chapter 34.

15:40 Speaker 4 I just wanted to get into it.

15:41 Speaker 1 We want to get to chapter 34. One second.

15:48 Speaker 4 I asked Rabbi Eyal Amrami.

15:50 Speaker 1 Ah, good. Yes, he also learns a lot of Tanya.

15:53 Speaker 4 Yes.

15:58 Speaker 1 Nowadays, people talk a lot about—what do they call it? There are courses like that, with a personal coach.

16:06 Speaker 4 NLP?

16:06 Speaker 1 Right?

16:07 Speaker 4 A mentor.

16:08 Speaker 1 A coach, a coach, a personal coach. I don’t know, out in the world, not specifically in Judaism. People often say—

16:15 Speaker 4 A mentor?

16:16 Speaker 1 A mentor, they call it. How do they put it? You need to be strong, to feel good about yourself. To succeed in the world, you need self-confidence. That’s what they call it, right?

16:29 Speaker 4 Yes, yes.

16:32 Speaker 1 What’s the basis of that? There is an “I.” The “I” isn’t strong enough, but no one needs to prove to me that I exist. I feel that I exist. I don’t need anyone to explain it to me.

16:45 Speaker 4 That’s what I said: I feel it.

16:47 Speaker 1 And no one needs to prove to me that the world exists. On the contrary, if someone comes along and says, “No, there is no world”—well, there are places for people who say there is no world. He’s crazy. What do you mean there’s no world? I can see it—everyone can see it with their own eyes. You say there isn’t one? There’s a special place for you, right?

17:10 Speaker 4 Certainly.

17:10 Speaker 1 What did the Baal Shem Tov mean when he said “there is nothing besides Him,” that there is no world? It’s the opposite of everything our feelings and intellect tell us. That’s the first thing.

17:22 Speaker 4 Right.

17:24 Speaker 1 Second, the Torah says, “In the beginning, G-d created the heavens and the earth.” What? Is what the Torah says not true?

17:34 Speaker 4 It is true.

17:34 Speaker 1 How can you say “there is nothing besides Him”? You’re saying that what the Torah says isn’t—that He didn’t create, as it were.

17:39 Speaker 4 Yes.

17:39 Speaker 1 What?

17:40 Speaker 4 It does contradict what you’re saying. I mean, that’s how—

17:44 Speaker 1 The Baal Shem Tov’s approach, which the author of Tanya explains in its second part, is that the foundation of faith, the foundation of all of Chassidus—and, in fact, the foundation of all Judaism, its most essential point—is that there is nothing besides Him. There is no existence whatsoever besides Him. To understand how that fits with what I see, what I feel, and what is written in the Torah, you have to study the book in depth.

18:16 Speaker 4 Right.

18:17 Speaker 1 This is the foundation of Judaism. The foundation of faith is to understand that there is nothing besides Him. That’s the second part of Tanya.

18:24 Speaker 4 People say it all the time, but no one knows—

18:26 Speaker 1 Yes, but when someone says “there is nothing besides Him,” the question is what they mean by it.

18:31 Speaker 4 Ah, there are several—

18:32 Speaker 1 Most people who say “there is nothing besides Him” mean that there is no other G-d besides Him, not that there is no other existence. What, no other existence? What about me—am I not an existence?

18:40 Speaker 4 Ah.

18:42 Speaker 1 Most people who say it don’t mean what the Baal Shem Tov means.

18:45 Speaker 4 Then they shouldn’t just say it.

18:50 Speaker 1 This is a democratic country. Everyone says what they want.

18:55 Speaker 4 I understand.

18:55 Speaker 1 All right, so that was the third part and the—The third part, Igeres Hateshuvah, is really far from us. We don’t commit sins. The second part is the foundation of faith. Once a Jew has true faith, knows what faith really means, and truly believes in Hakadosh Boruch Hu as a Jew should—

19:15 Speaker 4 Before Hashem, may He be blessed.

19:17 Speaker 1 That needs to be studied there at length; these are deep matters. Then we come to the first part of Tanya. Okay, you have the foundations. Now let’s see how to put them into practice. How do you bring your Judaism into the world in practice?

19:37 Speaker 4 In practice.

19:37 Speaker 1 All right? That’s the first part of Tanya: it explains serving Hashem. How do we put the faith explained in the second part into practice, as explained in the first part? All right? The first part, which we’re discussing now—we’re up to chapter 34—is itself divided into two halves: through chapter 34, and from chapter 35 to the end. We’re at the last chapter of the first half.

20:10 Speaker 4 Yes.

20:10 Speaker 1 What’s the difference between the two—the two parts of Tanya? In the first part, he opens with the verse, “For this matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.” And everyone asks: Are all 613 mitzvos really very close to me? I never— I mean, the verse says, the Torah says, “It is not in heaven”—no, no, how does it go? “It is not across the sea,” and “It is not in heaven,” “for this matter is close to you.” The Torah says—Hakadosh Boruch Hu writes explicitly in the Written Torah—that the entire Torah is very close to everyone. How? How? Do you know a single person in the world who can testify that the entire Torah is very close to them? Forget very close—even close.

21:23 Speaker 4 No. Uh.

21:25 Speaker 1 Right? The Alter Rebbe says: I’m now going to explain several fundamentals, several things a person needs to understand and internalize. And you’ll see that when you think about and contemplate the things I explain here, it will be easy and very close for you to observe the entire Torah and its mitzvos. He explains that from chapter 1 through the chapter we’re up to. In our chapter, the explanation ends. What have we covered so far? Now, to sum up—we’re getting close; we’ll start the lesson in a moment. He says this: First of all, if a person wants to work with his soul, with his inner self, he needs to know what it consists of, what it’s made of, what’s there, how to approach it and how to speak to it. Right? So he explains that every Jew has two souls.

22:38 Speaker 4 An animal soul and a... soul.

22:40 Speaker 1 Yes. He bases this on a verse and brings it from the Arizal and so on, from Kabbalah. Every Jew has two souls. It’s not that I, as a Jew, am one person with a good inclination and an evil inclination. No. I have one holy soul and one unholy soul. The holy soul is a complete person. It has an intellect, it has feelings, it can speak, it can act, it can think. A whole soul that is entirely holy.

23:25 Speaker 4 Is there something here?

23:25 Speaker 1 No, I don’t know. The second soul I have is an unholy soul. That unholy soul also has an intellect and thinks. It has feelings and things it loves and wants, and it can speak and think and act. Two matching souls. What’s the difference between them? The G-dly soul is literally a part of G-d above. It wants Torah, mitzvos, contemplation of Hashem’s greatness, davening, closeness to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Show it money, gold, ice cream—I don’t know, any of this world’s desires—and it doesn’t even know what that is. It doesn’t understand what you want from it. It means nothing to it; it doesn’t know what it is. All it knows is Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Anything that isn’t G-dliness, it simply doesn’t understand what you want from it. It’s like—let me think of an example. Take—

24:35 Speaker 6 Like a Torah class. My soul needs a class. You see that the words of the living G-d, so—

24:42 Speaker 7 Our food there is the...

24:45 Speaker 6 It’s Torah.

24:45 Speaker 1 Torah.

24:45 Speaker 6 Seasoned with Torah.

24:49 Speaker 7 The soul loves anything to do with Torah.

24:53 Speaker 6 It connects with it.

24:54 Speaker 7 Yes.

24:54 Speaker 6 G-dliness.

24:55 Speaker 7 It seeks it out.

24:56 Speaker 6 Right.

24:57 Speaker 7 It thirsts for it.

24:58 Speaker 6 It looks for meaning.

25:00 Speaker 7 Yes.

25:00 Speaker 6 Now you say...

25:02 Speaker 7 What do you want to eat?

25:02 Speaker 6 Like when you’re listening to a Torah class and then suddenly—

25:05 Speaker 1 Take an intellectual. You know what? Not a religious person. Let’s take some eminent professor, a learned doctor or researcher, whatever, who has spent his whole life trying to understand things, engaged in ideas and studying. Right. Now imagine he’s a kindergarten teacher today. He walks into the classroom; he’s the teacher today. What will he do there? What will he do there?

25:40 Speaker 6 What does he have to do with that place?

25:41 Speaker 1 He doesn’t belong there. He doesn’t understand what they want from him. He simply doesn’t understand. It’s not his world.

25:49 Speaker 7 He’s not in his territory.

25:50 Speaker 1 Not in his territory, not in his field. No, he isn’t there. You put the G-dly soul into a body, and it doesn’t know what’s going on. It suffers. It simply suffers terribly. It says it’s like... Well, I don’t need to use any more frightening words. It suffers greatly. The animal soul—why is it called “animal”? It has various names. “Vital soul.” It’s called the vital soul because it gives life to the body. The G-dly soul can’t give life to a body; it’s above the body.

26:27 Speaker 6 Very physical desires.

26:29 Speaker 1 It sees ice cream, it sees something spicy, tasty, warm, pleasant, a swimming pool, whatever. That’s—that’s... It gives life to the body; it enjoys... It takes pleasure in living in the body. That’s its pleasure.

26:43 Speaker 7 Can I say something? It seems to me that sometimes the animal soul takes control of the G-dly soul, and the G-dly soul takes control of the animal soul.

26:49 Speaker 1 That’s not correct.

26:51 Speaker 7 Because they both can’t...

26:52 Speaker 1 That’s not correct. That’s not correct, and we’ll get to it in a moment.

26:57 Speaker 7 Ruti, what are you saying?

26:59 Speaker 6 That’s what it seems to me.

27:01 Speaker 1 The animal soul is exactly the opposite: just as the G-dly soul doesn’t understand this world, when you bring a person in and tell him, “Now open a sefer,” the animal soul is just waiting for it to be over.

27:18 Speaker 6 It doesn’t speak to it.

27:19 Speaker 1 It doesn’t speak to it. It wants... Come on, sit down, there’s food, let’s talk and chat. There are different kinds of animal souls that take shape in different ways. There are four kinds. We saw that in the various forms of desire. That’s what interests it: desires. So it thinks about them, talks about them, craves them. That’s what it is. Talk to it about G-dliness, and it isn’t interested. What’s the problem? The problem is that they don’t complement each other. The problem is that they’re in a constant war. Why? The G-dly soul can’t stand the animal soul. It hates it. It wants to take control of the whole body so that the body will do only mitzvos. And the animal soul hates the G-dly soul for exactly the same reason and tries to take control of the whole body so that the body will do what it wants. There’s only one body. And the two souls are constantly at war within a person. We explained this; he discussed it at length. What happens when one soul wins, what happens when the other soul wins. But everyone can feel this war in themselves, at least a little. Many times we want to do something, and we need to get up in the morning. “I’ll sleep another moment,” though I know I shouldn’t. I know I need to get up; I have things to do. “Yes, fine, but let me roll around in bed a little longer.” There’s a kind of war there. And everyone has it in their own matters: there’s still some food left on the plate, and you feel you have to eat that too. Come on, you’re not hungry anymore, right? Leave it. There are wars like that.

29:08 Speaker 8 During Shemoneh Esrei—

29:10 Speaker 1 That’s during davening... It happens every moment. Both souls are in the body, and they fight nonstop. All the time, the G-dly soul wants to do what needs to be done, and the animal soul wants to do whatever it feels like, whatever is good and pleasant for it. The G-dly soul says, “You need to,” and the animal soul says, “Why should I care what I need to do? This feels good to me. Leave me alone. I’m not interested in what I need to do.”

29:38 Speaker 8 Right.

29:39 Speaker 1 Okay? The Alter Rebbe explained this war over fourteen chapters. Fourteen chapters, each with depth to it. We’ve already learned them all. With Hashem’s help, we can learn them again sometime, but we’ve gone through them. After the Alter Rebbe explained all that—first of all, we’re talking about how to serve Hashem, how to bring emunah into daily life, right? First you need to know yourself. So know that you have a G-dly soul and an animal soul; the G-dly soul has certain faculties, the animal soul has certain faculties, and they fight each other, and what happens, and... Once we understand what’s going on inside, now we need to start working. What do we do? How do we bring the G-dly soul to victory over the animal soul? He explained that there are two ways to do it. Within those two ways themselves, there are several explanations. One way is to contemplate Hashem’s greatness. When a person contemplates, internalizes, truly understands—not just says, “Yes, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is very great,” and... After studying what needs to be studied in the sefarim, about what exists in the higher worlds and the angels, and truly understanding what Hashem’s greatness means—has anyone here ever been somewhere like Niagara Falls, or someplace like that? I don’t know, some amazing place. Everyone has been somewhere.

31:13 Speaker 8 Waterfalls.

31:14 Speaker 1 I don’t know, waterfalls or some breathtaking view. That’s what they call it, “breathtaking,” right?

31:20 Speaker 8 A view of water.

31:21 Speaker 1 When a person sees—when a person... This is only an analogy. When a person sees something immense...

31:29 Speaker 8 Gets ready, or gets ready. What? What are you saying?

31:34 Speaker 1 When a person sees something enormous, something grand, this is what happens: it takes your breath away, right? What does “takes your breath away” mean? Why does it take your breath away? You’re so overwhelmed that you can’t breathe, right? What happened? You saw it and understood it with your mind. Why are you suddenly moved in your heart? Hakadosh Boruch Hu created a person with the head above the heart, the brain above the heart. That’s how it is physically because, spiritually, the mind rules over the heart. How does that show itself? When the mind understands something well.

32:12 Speaker 8 Before the heart understands it.

32:15 Speaker 1 Wh-when the mind understands, it affects the heart.

32:19 Speaker 8 Melech.

32:21 Speaker 1 So when a person reflects on his friend, even though that friend did this and that to him and he feels he needs to get back at him and take revenge, right? But a Jew begins to reflect on his good qualities, and then he can bring himself to love the other person despite what he did. Why? Because the mind rules over the heart. In exactly the same way, if a person reflects on the greatness of Hashem until he understands it, that will cause him to love Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What should he reflect on? At first, the Alter Rebbe explains that the first way is to reflect on Hashem’s greatness. He explains this at length, with many details. When a person reflects on Hashem’s greatness, it gives rise to love of Hashem in his heart, and a person who loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu won’t do anything against Him.

33:10 Speaker 8 Right.

33:10 Speaker 1 So how is the matter close to you? Just reflect on Hashem’s greatness. Then you’ll love Hashem. And if you love Hashem, you won’t commit aveiros. Ah, simple logic.

33:25 Speaker 8 But you’ll be careful.

33:26 Speaker 1 Simple logic, right? That’s the first approach. But then he goes on to say that although it’s close to everyone, it isn’t very close. Why isn’t it very close? Well, not everyone has time to reflect. Not everyone knows what to reflect on.

33:45 Speaker 8 You got it.

33:46 Speaker 1 And a person—

33:47 Speaker 8 You got it.

33:48 Speaker 1 Yes.

33:49 Speaker 8 Ah.

33:50 Speaker 1 It works. And even if he knows what to reflect on and has time to reflect, his intellectual abilities may be such that... what can you do? He can’t reflect on it.

34:04 Speaker 8 Yes.

34:05 Speaker 1 He may be able to understand it. There are many things we understand. Someone explains it, you explained it to me, I understood—but it doesn’t sink in. It doesn’t settle in my mind. I understood it, but it didn’t really go in.

34:18 Speaker 8 Mm-hmm.

34:18 Speaker 1 And to reflect—to take some concept in G-dliness and hold it in your mind for an hour, two hours, three hours, close your eyes and reflect on it, think about it—that’s not something every mind can bear. Not everyone can do it, even if they understand and know. So the Alter Rebbe says that although this way of observing all the commandments is close to everyone, it isn’t very close. What about those whose understanding is limited? That’s the question he asks. Yes. So there’s another—he says there’s another way. One way, you might say, is for those who can go further. Clearly, if someone can reflect on Hashem’s greatness and awaken love of Hashem, that’s certainly what he should do; that’s the best way. For someone who can’t, there’s also a way—a shorter route.

35:05 Speaker 8 Mm-hmm.

35:06 Speaker 1 Right? What? Listen, you’re a Jew. What’s the difference between a Jew and a non-Jew? At the beginning of Tanya—we’re up to chapter 34 now—at the beginning of Tanya, in chapter 2, he said that every Jew has a G-dly soul. He explained what a G-dly soul is. Everyone has a G-dly soul. What does it mean that you have a soul that a non-Jew doesn’t have? A non-Jew also has an animal soul. Not exactly like a Jew’s, but something very similar. What is the G-dly soul that a Jew has? He says it’s the point of faith, that same point within everyone. We’ve spoken about this several times; we mentioned it here around the table when there were—may it not happen to us, to you, or to any Jew—those who were taken captive in Gaza. There were many displays of mesirus nefesh there.

36:05 Speaker 8 Wow.

36:07 Speaker 1 And those Jews there were actually prepared to die for Kiddush, or a siddur, or something like that. Some of those Jews hadn’t received a Jewish education. Some didn’t even know what to ask their captors for; they knew nothing. How can a person who doesn’t know what Yiddishkeit is, who never learned about Yiddishkeit, who just doesn’t know—who grew up in an environment where no one knows, and received the kind of education... You know what education in schools is like. What happened that suddenly such a longing for Hakadosh Boruch Hu awoke in him that he was ready to die? Where does it come from? So it’s explained that every Jew has a G-dly soul, and when he’s pushed up against the wall, it comes out. And when it comes out, the animal soul can’t do anything. It gets knocked out; nothing else matters to him, to put it in our words. The Alter Rebbe says: You have a soul like that too. Everyone does. It’s just that in everyday life, we don’t feel that burning faith, right? The Alter Rebbe says: True, you don’t feel it, but you can reveal it at any moment. He then devotes eight chapters to explaining how to reveal that faith so it shines within you constantly, without interruption. He says this is already very close. Why is it very close? Because here you don’t need to reflect on something, to bring something down from above, to invent a love of Hashem you don’t have. You only need to reveal what you already have. It’s there; just bring it out. How? That’s explained there, and so on. Okay? But even after explaining that “the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it,” and explaining what serving Hashem means—inner work through which love of Hashem can lead to observing all the Torah and mitzvos and not committing any aveiros—

38:36 Speaker 1 After finishing that whole explanation, he says there’s an asterisk. When does all this apply—all the explanation, the reflection, the inner work? When? When a person is joyful and energetic. A person who’s depressed can’t fight the yetzer hara.

39:01 Speaker 8 Yes.

39:01 Speaker 1 When a person is downcast, any thought can bring him down. Even the smallest desire will draw him in; he has no strength to resist. To succeed in serving Hashem as explained in the first twenty-five chapters, a person needs to be joyful. Ah, but how can I be joyful? I have problems with my livelihood, problems with my health, thoughts and worries that trouble me. I’ve also committed aveiros, and in the middle of Shemoneh Esrei, all kinds of ideas enter my head, and there’s pressure from here and pressure from there. How can I be joyful? Right? The Alter Rebbe says: Don’t worry. He devotes several chapters—26, 27, 28, 29; I don’t remember, some five or six chapters, six chapters—to analyzing every situation that can bring a person to sadness. Every situation. It’s very interesting how, in just a few chapters, he gathers all the situations that can bring a person to sadness and gives a solution for each one. You’re sad? Wait, think about what’s making you sad. If it’s this, look in that chapter. If it’s that, look here; if it’s something else, look there. In a few chapters, he covers it all. But even that isn’t enough. Because even a person who’s joyful... All right, I’ll skip the... There are another three chapters whose content we’ll skip—four chapters. Then, after he explains how not to be sad, devoting several chapters to it—we won’t go into the details there—we begin... All right, not being sad isn’t enough. You need to be joyful.

41:07 Speaker 9 Yes, right.

41:09 Speaker 1 All right, I’ve come out of it; I’m not sad anymore. But I need to be joyful, right? Then he begins to give a series of ways to be joyful, and those are the chapters we’re dealing with now: 31, 33, 34. Okay?

41:26 Speaker 9 Yes.

41:26 Speaker 1 So we’re now dealing with the final chapter of the first section.

41:31 Speaker 9 Of the—

41:32 Speaker 1 It talks about ways to be joyful. Why be joyful? So that we can serve Hashem in the way explained in the earlier chapters. All right, how are we doing for time? Is the class over?

41:45 Speaker 9 The class is over.

41:45 Speaker 1 Huh?

41:46 Speaker 9 The class is over.

41:47 Speaker 1 It’s over? All right, then in this class we learned the introduction to chapter 34.

41:56 Speaker 9 Yes. That was an incredible explanation. What?