Likkutei Amarim Chapter 37 (Part 1) · 5781

00:00 Speaker 1 What’s this?

00:15 Speaker 2 It’s for the mezuzahs.

00:17 Speaker 1 Oh.

00:19 Speaker 2 Put them away, put them away so they won’t… I suppose, in the streets.

00:31 Speaker 1 All right. Are we waiting or not? What’s happening?

00:42 Speaker 2 I heard something.

00:44 Speaker 1 …

00:44 Speaker 2 Two chapters today?

00:47 Speaker 1 No, it’s one chapter that’s a little long, and it also covers a lot of different topics.

00:51 Speaker 2 Chapter 37 is short.

00:54 Speaker 1 No, 47.

00:55 Speaker 2 Oh.

00:57 Speaker 1 Yes.

00:58 Speaker 2 What I was just going to say about the chapter… a rotation of ten. What’s happening? I’m starting. Good. No, no, no, we’re starting. We’re starting. We said we’d make a phone call before we began.

01:36 Speaker 1 …

01:37 Speaker 2 I notice I’m a bit at home. What about Shira next to you? Am I the only one dealing with this?

01:56 Speaker 1 Now you just take it down. All right, today we’re learning chapter 37, the last of the three chapters on the importance of action—how important it is to perform mitzvos. The earlier chapters spoke more about love and awe that lead to action, while here the question is why we actually need to observe mitzvos, why it is so important. In the previous two chapters, he explained the importance and the virtue of performing practical mitzvos: they sanctify the world, and the animal soul is incorporated into its source, into the G-dly soul. That is the entire purpose of the world’s creation. That is why Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world. He spoke about this at length—how lofty the performance of mitzvos is, and not only how lofty it is, but how important it is: it is the purpose of the world’s entire creation. Our chapter, chapter 37, is a kind of summary of the previous two chapters, but the meaning of that summary contains a new point. In this chapter, the Alter Rebbe seemingly says nothing new. He goes into detail about what he already said: that through performing practical mitzvos, the soul sanctifies the world. So here the Alter Rebbe begins to go into the details of how this sanctifies the inanimate, how it sanctifies plants, how it sanctifies animals, how it sanctifies the animal soul and the body, how this is expressed in Torah, and how it is expressed… The Alter Rebbe goes into more and more detail about how the world is sanctified through performing practical mitzvos. What lies behind this chapter—why does he explain all this at such length? It is as he says right at the beginning, and we’ll see it inside. Chapter 37: “Now, the culmination of this perfection of the days of Moshiach and the Resurrection of the Dead, which is the revelation of the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, in this

05:02 Speaker 1 physical world, depends on our deeds and our service throughout the entire period of exile.” He hadn’t said that until now. The Alter Rebbe said that this is very important, that it is a virtue, and that it elevates the world, elevates physicality. It is the purpose of the world’s creation. Here the Rebbe makes a new point: not only do the days of Moshiach and the Resurrection of the Dead come about through performing mitzvos, and not only is that the ultimate purpose, but more than that, Torah and mitzvos are what actually bring about the days of Moshiach. Now, interestingly, he calls this a reward.

05:58 Speaker 8 But he said it isn’t a reward.

05:59 Speaker 1 Right. We’ll read it inside in a moment: “For what brings about the reward of the mitzvah is the mitzvah itself.” The difference between the reward for a mitzvah and any other reward, as we explained in the previous class, is that with an ordinary reward there is no connection between the wages and the work. The wages are merely compensation for the work; they are not a result of the work. Not so with the reward for mitzvos. The reward of the mitzvah is the mitzvah itself—what the mitzvah accomplishes, what it brings about. No, thank you. What the mitzvah creates in the world is its reward. You immediately asked: But in the previous chapter we said that the principal reward comes in the seventh millennium, after the days of Moshiach, and that it is not a reward for mitzvos; it is something far beyond that, something altogether loftier. That’s right. There, when he spoke about the seventh millennium, he was speaking about the principal reward. The principal reward truly comes in the seventh millennium, and it does not depend on a person’s service or on mitzvos or on anything. But the days of Moshiach and the Resurrection of the Dead are a reward. They are not the principal reward, but they are a reward that depends on a person’s service. What kind of reward? Not a reward given as compensation, but the reward of the mitzvah itself: the mitzvos themselves bring about the days of Moshiach and the Resurrection of the Dead. Why? How? “For by performing it”—when a person performs a mitzvah—“a person draws down a revelation of the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, from above to below, to become vested in the physicality of this world, in something that was previously under the dominion of kelipas nogah and received its vitality from it.” What does Hakadosh Boruch Hu want? That He should have a dwelling in the lower realms. What does a dwelling mean? A person himself lives in his dwelling. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants to dwell in this world. How will He dwell here? How will He enter? Who will bring Him here? The mitzvos are His will, and the Torah is His wisdom. When we study His Torah, His wisdom and His will, and carry them out in this world, then He is here. Then He is

08:18 Speaker 1 here openly. So performing a physical mitzvah is what brings Hakadosh Boruch Hu down into the world and makes the world a dwelling for Him. Those very things that were previously under the dominion of kelipas nogah—all the permissible things in the world that we learned about in chapter 6, which receive their life from the kelipos and receive their vitality from them—“are all the pure and permissible things with which a practical mitzvah is performed, such as the parchment of tefillin, a mezuzah and a Sefer Torah.” There is a very nice point of precision here. He says, what do we make… what do we make tefillin, mezuzahs and a Sefer Torah from?

09:10 Speaker 9 But the tefillin themselves, the boxes themselves—

09:13 Speaker 1 Yes, the boxes too. But he’s talking here about the parchment. “Such as the parchment.” What do we make from parchment? Tefillin, mezuzahs and a Sefer Torah. So he says these are things… What is the parchment made from? Pure and permissible things. Why does he say both “pure” and “permissible”? What’s the difference? Why are those two separate things? There’s a well-known, straightforward halachah that parchment can also be made from kosher species of animals that were not slaughtered according to halachah, but were killed. In fact, most parchment in the world is made from animals killed in non-Jewish slaughterhouses, where they kill thousands and thousands of animals a day. Factories here in Israel buy the hides from them and process them into parchment, even though the animals did not undergo kosher slaughter. In other words, what do we make a mitzvah from? From things that are permissible, and even from things that are forbidden—like an animal that died without kosher slaughter, which is forbidden to eat. But since it is a kosher species, it can be used. It is still kelipas nogah, and one can make tefillin, mezuzahs and a Sefer Torah from it.

10:39 Speaker 9 Slaughter and kosher slaughter, isn’t that—

10:43 Speaker 1 If it… Certainly. So, regarding slaughter, he quotes the teaching of our Sages: “The meaning of ‘and he slaughtered’ is ‘and he drew.’” Slaughter draws the animal’s vitality out of the kelipos and elevates it to holiness.

11:01 Speaker 9 Kelipas nogah.

11:02 Speaker 1 What?

11:04 Speaker 9 Kelipas nogah.

11:07 Speaker 1 Once he eats it—when he slaughtered it for the sake of holiness—then it already becomes… It is still kelipas nogah, but on a higher level within kelipas nogah.

11:20 Speaker 9 It descended into the three impure kelipos. But there’s an animal that died without kosher slaughter—

11:21 Speaker 1 It descended into the three impure kelipos. But even though it is an animal that died without kosher slaughter, it descended, and now it is in the three impure kelipos, that is not its essence. It is a permissible kind of thing; it is an animal of a kosher species. Even after it descended, it has an aspect of impurity, an aspect of evil, but its essence is still good. It can still be drawn back out of there, because its essence is still kelipas nogah. That is the meaning of “pure and permissible.” It doesn’t have to be permissible; even if it is pure, you can make something with it… It is a kelipah. And not only is it a kelipah—even if it is something forbidden, something physical that conceals and obscures G-dliness, if its origin is pure, it can be elevated to holiness. It can be used to make parchment for a Sefer Torah.

12:09 Speaker 9 The hide itself—that’s specifically with those that—

12:12 Speaker 1 That’s another matter. The generation of the Frierdiker Rebbe?

12:15 Speaker 9 The maamar—

12:16 Speaker 1 The Frierdiker Rebbe.

12:20 Speaker 9 That there was—

12:20 Speaker 1 Moshiach’s Sefer Torah.

12:21 Speaker 9 No, that they wrote—that he wrote a maamar of Chassidus.

12:27 Speaker 1 Yes, does it also say there that the hides have to come from a slaughtered animal? Okay, I don’t remember. All right, yasher koach. So that’s one point. As our Sages say, only things that are pure and permitted for you to eat are fit for sacred use—and also things that are merely pure, even if they aren’t permitted to be eaten. They, too, are fit for sacred use. And likewise, an esrog that is not orlah. If an esrog is orlah, it is forbidden to eat or derive benefit from. It belongs to the three impure kelipos, so you can’t use it for a mitzvah, right? Because it... But if it isn’t orlah, then you can. We’ll look at the note inside in a moment. Let’s move on and come back to it afterward. Turn to the next page for a moment. “And money given to tzedakah that was not stolen.” Again, if the tzedakah money was obtained improperly, it receives its vitality from the three impure kelipos. If you perform a mitzvah with it, that is a mitzvah brought about through a transgression, and it adds even more vitality to the kelipos. Not only does it add nothing to holiness; it actually brings the person down into the kelipos. But if the money is clean and was not stolen, then when a person gives it to tzedakah, he draws down the Divine light and vitality that is revealed in those coins. Notice that the Alter Rebbe chose examples from the animal, plant, and inanimate realms. He began with the animal realm, with parchment made from an animal hide. Then he moved to an esrog that is not orlah, from the plant realm, and finally gave an example from the inanimate realm as well: copper coins. In other words, the general principle is that by performing a practical mitzvah, a Jew draws Divine vitality down below—not only into the higher forms of this world, the animal realm, but even into plants and even into inanimate matter. Yes? Let’s go back to the note for a moment. When we speak about an esrog that is not orlah, anyone paying attention to what he’s reading should immediately

14:47 Speaker 1 stop and ask: Something here doesn’t add up. Why? Because with an animal, we said that if it’s...

14:57 Speaker 9 An orlah animal.

14:59 Speaker 1 Exactly. Let me explain the question. The animal is a kosher species. Even if something forbidden was done to it and it became a neveilah, you can still use it for the mitzvah. So what’s the problem with an esrog? An esrog is a fruit that may be eaten. For the first three years it’s forbidden, but in essence it’s still an esrog; it still comes from a tree. What’s the problem with it? Why does it belong to the three impure kelipos? What’s the difference between an orlah esrog and an animal that is a neveilah? Why can you use one but not the other? Yes? Is the question clear? The note answers that. That is precisely what the note is for: to answer this question. Orlah belongs entirely to the three impure kelipos. Orlah is not like a neveilah. A neveilah belongs to kelipas nogah, whereas orlah, even though it comes from a permitted tree, comes from the three impure kelipos, which can never be elevated, as stated in Eitz Chaim. Orlah is a special case, a distinct law, and that’s why he specifically gave the example of orlah here: so we would know it isn’t the same thing. “And likewise, any mitzvah brought about through a transgression.” Here he is already alluding to the next point we saw, about money that was not stolen. If someone performs a mitzvah by giving tzedakah, you can’t say, “What difference does it make if the money was stolen? The poor person benefits. He has something to live on; he can eat, so it’s fine.” The poor person benefits, but you have committed a transgression, not performed a mitzvah. All right, we’ve finished that topic. We’re on page 61, line three or four, near the top of the page. When a person performs a practical mitzvah with physical things in the world, he takes Divine holiness—the mitzvah, Hashem’s will—and brings it into the physicality of the world. “And now, when he fulfills Hashem’s mitzvos and His will with them, the vitality within them”—within what? The parchment, the esrog, the coins—“ascends, is nullified, and becomes absorbed in the light

17:36 Speaker 1 of the blessed Ein Sof, which is His will clothed within them.” Hashem’s will and light are clothed in a mitzvah in complete revelation. Now the mitzvah joins and unites with the physical object. The physical object now shines with Hashem’s light. So all the vitality it previously received from kelipah is nullified, and the object becomes holy—an object of holiness, an object of a mitzvah. “For there is no concealment of His countenance there at all to hide His light.” Nothing conceals a mitzvah. I think we’ve mentioned this before, but let’s say it again. Why do we say that nothing conceals a mitzvah? When a person says a blessing—yes, there is a mitzvah to bless Hashem before eating, and after eating and drinking—no one can claim that he invented it. Hakadosh Boruch Hu commanded it. A person puts on tefillin; a person lights Shabbos candles; or performs any other mitzvah. He can’t say, “I just came up with this idea.” What do you mean, you came up with it? You do it because Hakadosh Boruch Hu commanded it. There is nothing here concealing that. So when a person performs a mitzvah, His will is revealed with no concealment of His countenance at all. “For there is no concealment of His countenance there at all to hide His light.” Now he moves to another stage. Okay, I understand: by performing a mitzvah, Hashem’s light descends and becomes clothed in the physicality of the world—in the plant, animal, and inanimate realms—and makes it holy. Its vitality is elevated into holiness. Fine.

19:47 Speaker 10 But wait, didn’t we say that Hashem’s light itself isn’t revealed here at all? It isn’t even a matter of concealment; it’s something—

19:58 Speaker 1 By its own nature. The world as it was created conceals Him. Our work is to reveal Him, to make a dwelling for Him in the lower realms. That’s what we’re talking about. But here’s the point: even when Hashem’s light is actually revealed—right now I’m performing a mitzvah, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu, His Essence and Being, is present; His will is shining here in my hands as I give tzedakah—well, where is it? I don’t see anything. That’s because I can’t see, not because He isn’t revealed. I don’t have the eyes to see it. When Moshiach comes, as we’ll soon see later in the chapter, we too will be able to see, and we’ll see why we’ll be able to see.

20:40 Speaker 11 So that’s actually a kind of reward?

20:42 Speaker 1 That is the reward. The reward of the days of Moshiach is that we’ll be able to see. Divinity won’t merely be revealed; it will be revealed to us, and we’ll immediately see how the mitzvos we perform bring this about. We’ll see not only the drawing down of Divinity itself, but also its reward: that it will be revealed. In any case, until now we’ve been discussing the performance of a practical mitzvah. We’re not talking here about davening or learning. A practical, physical mitzvah brings Divinity down into the world. But what about me? I want Divinity to be revealed to me, too. It’s not enough for me that it should be revealed out there in the world, in the world’s physicality. I want it to be revealed to me as well.

21:34 Speaker 11 Mitzvah.

21:36 Speaker 1 What?

21:37 Speaker 11 Mitzvah.

21:38 Speaker 1 So now the Alter Rebbe begins to spell this out. “And likewise”—not only the physicality of the world, meaning animals, plants, and people, but the person himself as well—“the power of the vital animal soul in the limbs of the person performing the mitzvah is also clothed in this action, and it rises out of kelipah and becomes absorbed in the holiness of the mitzvah, which is His will, and is nullified in the light of the blessed Ein Sof.” The precise point here is that it isn’t the animal soul that performs the mitzvah. Who performs the mitzvah? No—what does it say?

22:21 Speaker 11 The vital soul.

22:24 Speaker 1 And likewise, a power of the vital soul, not the vital soul itself. We’ve never gotten around to talking about that, and we won’t talk about it now either. But the gist of it, very briefly, is that a person has a G-dly soul and an animal soul. Each has the soul itself, its intellect and emotions, its essence—who it is, right? Its character, and so on. And then there are its garments. To express itself in a person—in the world—it clothes itself in thought, speech, and action. So there are the intellect and emotions of the G-dly soul and its garments, and the intellect and emotions of the animal soul and its garments. Beyond that, there’s an even lower, more external expression of the soul, which isn’t even a garment. It’s called a power. When a person moves his hand, it isn’t the animal soul’s entire garment of action moving the hand. There’s an individual power drawn from the overall garment of action, right? From the soul’s overall power of action, an individual power is now drawn down, clothes itself in the hand, and moves it. That’s the power of action in the hand. The power of action that clothes itself in the hand can’t clothe itself in the foot. A person can’t draw with his foot, right? He can’t run with his head. The garment of action as a whole includes all the individual powers for individual actions. Okay? When a person fulfills a mitzvah, he doesn’t fulfill it with his entire body. Some mitzvos are fulfilled with the hands. If he runs to shul, then it’s mainly his legs that are fulfilling the mitzvah. If he gives tzedakah, it’s his hand. When a person fulfills a mitzvah, his entire vital soul—its intellect and emotions, its thought, speech, and action—isn’t there with him in the mitzvah. Who is fulfilling the mitzvah? The G-dly soul. The G-dly soul is now giving the animal soul instructions: now we’re doing a mitzvah.

24:50 Speaker 1 The animal soul—what can it do? It submitted; in this case it had no choice. So it sends some sort of emissary, some power: “Fine, give him tzedakah.” But the animal soul’s entire essence isn’t there. And often, when a person gives tzedakah, he does it by rote, out of habit or upbringing. He isn’t wholly present in the mitzvah. So what is present in the mitzvah? An individual power of action. One small power. What is elevated to holiness? That power. Not the entire soul, as each of us can plainly feel within ourselves. I’ve fulfilled many mitzvos in my life, and yet my animal soul hasn’t been affected at all. It’s remained the same animal it was before. It hasn’t changed. That particular power has changed, though. So that’s something too. First of all, that individual power rises out of kelipah and is elevated to holiness. It becomes included in the holiness of the mitzvah—for the mitzvah is His blessed will—and that individual power is nullified in the light of the blessed Ein Sof. We’ll see more details about this later. Which mitzvos does this apply to? All practical mitzvos. With every practical mitzvah, at least some power is involved. Holiness and G-dliness don’t just enter the world at large; something also enters the person’s soul, even the animal soul. But when is that true? When we’re talking about practical mitzvos. When we’re talking about mitzvos whose main aspect is spiritual, what does the animal soul have to do with spirituality? When a person studies Torah, who is engaged in it? Who is present here? It’s the G-dly soul that studies Torah. To fulfill the mitzvah of tzedakah, the G-dly soul needs the animal soul. There’s no getting around it; it needs the body. So the animal soul actually carries out the mitzvah, and it too is elevated to holiness,

27:12 Speaker 1 because it fulfilled the mitzvah. But when a person studies Torah, the thought and speech involved are garments of the G-dly soul. The animal soul doesn’t participate.

27:23 Speaker 12 How can you say that here?

27:25 Speaker 1 One second. The main part of the mitzvah of Torah study is understanding. And there’s also the power of speech. The G-dly soul has three garments: thought, speech, and action in the 613 mitzvos of the Torah. That’s written there in chapter—uh, chapter 3. It has its own garments. It doesn’t need the animal soul. For spiritual things, Torah and davening, the G-dly soul doesn’t need the animal soul.

28:01 Speaker 12 How can you say that here?

28:02 Speaker 1 One second. Apparently, it manages on its own. One second; I’m clarifying the question. Okay? So seemingly, one could say that the world and the animal soul are sanctified through a mitzvah only when it’s a practical mitzvah, not through Torah study and davening, because the animal soul doesn’t participate in those. To this the Alter Rebbe gives the answer you actually mentioned. Line twelve: “And also with the mitzvos of Torah study, the recitation of Shema, davening, and the like, although they do not involve actual physical action under the dominion of kelipas nogah.” One might have said that the animal soul doesn’t participate in the mitzvah, so how could it be elevated to holiness? Nevertheless, we have an established ruling, stated in the Gemara, that “thought is not equivalent to speech.” “And one does not fulfill one’s obligation until one articulates the words with one’s lips.” That’s what it says in the laws of Torah study in the Shulchan Aruch: if a person studies Torah without articulating the words, he hasn’t fulfilled his obligation. He hasn’t fulfilled the mitzvah of Torah study. And we have an established ruling—

29:32 Speaker 13 If he studies Torah, studies Torah without saying it aloud to himself, then he doesn’t—

29:39 Speaker 1 He can’t make a blessing. Seemingly, that’s the simple meaning.

29:42 Speaker 13 No, not make a blessing. He’s studying something—

29:44 Speaker 1 You make a blessing when you fulfill a mitzvah.

29:47 Speaker 13 But you don’t make a blessing. You can’t make a blessing every time you study Torah.

29:49 Speaker 1 Huh?

29:49 Speaker 13 You don’t make a blessing when—

29:52 Speaker 1 You make the blessings in the morning, and that one blessing covers all of it, because a Jew doesn’t stop studying for a moment. “His mouth never ceased from study.” There’s more to understand about that. But broadly speaking, and in the plain sense, in the Gemara, in the halachic authorities, all the way through to an explicit ruling in the Shulchan Aruch—a ruling that isn’t disputed—this is a quotation: “We have an established ruling that thought is not equivalent to speech, and one does not fulfill one’s obligation until one articulates the words with one’s lips.” And here the Rebbe explains why. Why? Because we have an established ruling that “moving one’s lips constitutes an action.” Granted, it isn’t called a full-fledged action; it’s called a minor action. Why? Because ultimately, as you said before, to actually move the lips, the G-dly soul does need the animal soul. But when we’re talking about a practical mitzvah, it’s the animal soul that does it. The G-dly soul only gives the instruction. With a practical mitzvah, the G-dly soul says, “This is what needs to be done,” and the animal soul does it. The one carrying out a practical mitzvah is the animal soul. Not so with the mitzvah of Torah study. Who fulfills the mitzvah of Torah study? The G-dly soul. It merely clothes itself in the animal soul. The animal soul participates to some extent, because you can’t move the body without it. But in Torah study and davening, the one fulfilling the mitzvah is the G-dly soul, not the animal soul. So if it’s the G-dly soul, why do you say this brings G-dliness down into the world? The G-dly soul is doing it on its own; it isn’t using the animal soul. How does this bring G-dliness into the world? Because it does it through the animal soul. Okay? It’s a subtle distinction. For the G-dly soul cannot articulate words with physical lips, mouth, tongue, and teeth except through the soul

32:09 Speaker 1 The vital animal soul that is actually enclothed in the limbs of the body. The G-dly soul is there too, but it is not actually enclothed there. So the more forcefully a person speaks, the more faculties of the vital soul he brings into and invests in those words. The more enthusiasm and energy a person puts into learning Torah, the more he sanctifies his animal soul. More of the faculties of his animal soul are now taking part in the learning. This is what the verse means by “All my bones shall say,” and what our Sages said: If the Torah he learns is arranged throughout all 248 limbs—if his whole body takes part in learning Torah—then his Torah is retained. If not, it is not retained; he forgets it. Why? What’s the connection? Wait, excuse me. I learned Torah and understood it perfectly. Two of us learned as chavrusas. He was in it with his whole body. I sat quietly, didn’t go wild, and understood it better than he did. Why should I forget it and he not? I understood it better. Because he made a lot of noise, he understands it better? No, I understood it. I know I understood it. I explained it to him. So why do I forget and he doesn’t? No. Because he used his animal soul. His animal soul became refined and rose into holiness. In holiness there is no forgetting before Your Throne of Glory. Forgetting comes from impurity, from the sitra achra, from the kelipos, from concealment and obscurity. The learning he did before that, or whatever he learns afterward—I don’t know about those. But that particular learning, which he learned with all 248 limbs: in that specific learning, his entire animal soul took part in what concerned that subject and that idea. His animal soul rose into holiness. There’s nothing surprising about it. You learned very well and understood more, but your G-dly soul

34:33 Speaker 1 understood. It didn’t penetrate the animal soul. The light didn’t shine there. “Oh, he just made movements.” True—that’s what the animal soul knows how to do. This is what our Sages said in the Gemara: “If it is arranged throughout all 248 limbs, it is retained; if not, it is not retained. For forgetting comes from the kelipah of the body and the vital animal soul, which are from kelipas nogah, which is sometimes incorporated into holiness. That is, when one weakens their strength and brings all their strength into the holiness of Torah or prayer, then, when it is arranged throughout all 248 limbs, it is retained.” So, how do you put it—big deal? What have you explained to me? That by performing a practical mitzvah, the whole world, all physicality, rises into holiness—the animal, vegetable, and human. Through Torah study and prayer, some particular faculty of the soul is also incorporated into holiness. But what about the rest of my animal soul? What happens to it? So he continues here: “Furthermore.” There is another aspect to Torah study. This is a new point, something further.

36:01 Speaker 14 No, I mean, I’m saying that here, too, we’re already sort of at a section—

36:06 Speaker 1 I don’t know. There are several kinds of breaks within chapters, as you say. Sometimes it’s a period, sometimes a colon, sometimes a space, sometimes bold letters. I’ve tried several times to follow the pattern, but I haven’t figured it out.

36:31 Speaker 14 What I said got deleted.

36:33 Speaker 1 I don’t know; I haven’t figured it out. On the face of it, this looks like an entirely new point. I don’t know. There is a distinction, but I can’t explain it. I have plenty more questions about this that would reinforce your question, but I don’t have an answer. Nor have I seen it discussed anywhere. None of the books of explanations I’ve seen addresses the breaks, the emphasis, or the punctuation. In one or two places the Rebbe discusses colons or parentheses in particular instances, but those are really isolated cases. At least, I haven’t seen a general explanation. But broadly speaking, it’s clear that a new point begins here. Why is a new point marked this way here and differently elsewhere? I don’t know. But a new point begins here. What is it? Not only does that particular faculty of the animal soul take part. Although the mitzvah is performed by the G-dly soul, and although it reaches the animal soul through a particular faculty, it nevertheless affects the animal soul as a whole. How? “Furthermore, the faculty of the vital soul that is enclothed in the letters of speech during Torah study or prayer and the like, or in practical mitzvos, derives all its growth and vitality from the blood.” Where does it get its—Doesn’t it say, “The blood is the soul”? Which soul? Not the G-dly soul. The soul associated with the blood is the animal soul, as it says in chapter 1. And when the animal soul now performs a mitzvah—yes, only through a particular faculty, but it is now performing a practical mitzvah—where does that faculty get its vitality? From the animal soul. And where does the animal soul get its strength and vitality? From the blood. And where did the blood come from? The blood is actually kelipas nogah. It’s not merely the animal soul. The animal soul receives its vitality from kelipas nogah, but the blood, which is the source of the animal soul’s vitality,

38:47 Speaker 1 is kelipas nogah itself. What? Yes. And what is blood made from? Why is it called kelipas nogah? Because what is blood made from? “All the foods and drinks that he ate and drank.” We learned in chapter 6 that all permitted things in this world are kelipas nogah, right? If he ate and drank, and his blood was formed from that, then the blood—what a person’s blood essentially is—is kelipas nogah itself. “They were under its dominion and drew their vitality from it. Now, when he performs a mitzvah, it is transformed from evil to good and incorporated into holiness through the faculty of the vital soul that grows from it.” So yes, at the moment only a particular faculty is actually taking part in performing the mitzvah. But can that faculty—excuse me—exist and have vitality without the whole soul? It has no existence without the whole soul. It comes from the animal soul. So if that faculty is invested in the mitzvah—and a mitzvah is Hashem’s will—the faculty is incorporated into the mitzvah. Its vitality rises into holiness. Where does that faculty come from? Its entire existence and essence come from the soul as a whole. So the whole soul is drawn along with it. It isn’t actually transformed into holiness, but it takes part; it is affected. “Through the faculty of the vital soul that grows from it and is enclothed in these letters or in this act, which are the very inner aspect of His will, without any concealment of His countenance. Their vitality is also incorporated into the light of the blessed Ein Sof, which is His will; and together with their vitality, the faculty of the vital soul is also incorporated and rises. Through this, kelipas nogah as a whole—which encompasses all the vitality of this physical, material world—will also be elevated.” Oops, did you notice that we’ve suddenly jumped a level? What have we been talking about until now? Through the mitzvah, something is elevated. What is elevated? The particular thing with which we performed the mitzvah—the animal, vegetable, or human; the animal soul and its faculty. Right? Why does he suddenly say here that through this one

41:09 Speaker 1 particular faculty, what rises into holiness? What else will be elevated? Kelipas nogah as a whole. Excuse me—how did you get to kelipas nogah as a whole? Kelipas nogah as a whole is, is, is…

41:24 Speaker 15 A person is part of kelipas nogah.

41:28 Speaker 1 So from here he begins to explain how, through each Jew’s fulfillment of an individual mitzvah, all of kelipas nogah is elevated. When—how does that happen? Every sou—every soul... I already did this once today. Earlier, my mother, may she be well—she’s almost ninety—was visiting me at home. Among other things, she asked me, I don’t remember what brought it up, whether I could explain to her what kelipos are. She had heard the word “kelipos.” What are kelipos? Oh, yes. A woman at the kibbutz who studies Kabbalah had heard the term from me and wanted to understand it. In chapter 6 of Tanya, which we learned quite early on, he begins to explain what the animal soul is. It’s three chapters—7, 8, 9—where he explains the animal soul. Seven, eight... The point is that Hakadosh Boruch Hu created two kinds of beings in the world: beings that are nullified to holiness, nullified to G-dliness, and beings that are not nullified to G-dliness. Two kinds. What is the difference between them? Nothing covers the beings that are nullified to G-dliness; nothing conceals it from them, so they see and they feel. The beings that are not nullified—why aren’t they? Because there is some sort of screen, some sort of kelipah, that obscures and conceals and prevents them from seeing the G-dliness. The G-dliness reaches them, but there is a kelipah there that does not let them see or feel it. And within the kelipos themselves, he explains there in chapters 6 and 7, there are two kinds. One kind of kelipah is so thick, so coarse, so dark, that not only does it not feel G-dliness, it opposes G-dliness. It hates G-dliness. It sees a religious Jew and spits; it can’t help itself. Once, on Independence Day

44:18 Speaker 1 here in Afula, many years ago, I came out of the mikveh and was walking home. It was Independence Day, I don’t know, eight in the morning, and the streets were empty.

44:32 Speaker 3 They pass by us.

44:34 Speaker 1 Yes, it’s a sort of day off. The streets were empty and so on. I came out and was walking—I wasn’t dressed particularly religiously, no suit or hat or anything like that. You know, more or less the way I look now. An old man came toward me, saw me, and—ptoo!

44:53 Speaker 3 What did you—

44:56 Speaker 1 Huh? I don’t remember. I probably said “Happy holiday” to him, who knows? No, I’m joking. No, it didn’t bother me. I know where it comes from.

45:13 Speaker 3 Today it’s better.

45:14 Speaker 1 Huh?

45:15 Speaker 3 Today it’s more—

45:17 Speaker 1 Today nobody would spit at you, because he’d be taken straight to court. There are phones, there are cameras, all that. Today they wouldn’t dare do it so readily. But yes. So the three utterly impure kelipos, by their nature, oppose G-dliness. Within that, too, there are three levels: storm wind, great cloud, and fire—three levels within it. Kelipas nogah does not feel G-dliness, but it does not oppose it either. It looks for what is good for it, what feels pleasant. So on the one hand, you can’t call it holiness. It’s a kelipah. It doesn’t feel G-dliness, it isn’t nullified, nothing. It isn’t seeking G-dliness. On the other hand, it doesn’t oppose it either. So there, continuing on this subject, it explains that a Jew’s animal soul comes from kelipas nogah, as opposed to the soul of the nations of the world, which comes from the three utterly impure kelipos. That is the point explained there. Fine, that was all a digression. So let’s go back. How can one small, individual act of mine—when, after all, how much of the animal soul is invested in it? Some tiny little power, temporary, a one-time thing. Fine, I understand how that affects the kelipah of my animal soul. But what does it mean that this elevates all of kelipas nogah? “When every soul and Divine soul among the Jewish people, which divides individually into six hundred thousand, and each individual soul fulfills all 613 mitzvos of the Torah”—then it will work. Right. When you act—an individual person fulfills an individual mitzvah at an individual time and place—that does not elevate all of kelipas nogah. But there are six hundred thousand souls, and those six hundred thousand are only roots. Each one divides into six hundred thousand sparks, and each of those sparks also divides into I don’t

47:44 Speaker 1 know how many. Countless Jews throughout all the generations, and every Jew lives seventy years, or with strength, eighty years, and may he reach a hundred and twenty years, even a hundred and eighty-seven years.

47:57 Speaker 3 Who lived a hundred and twenty years?

47:58 Speaker 1 Huh?

47:58 Speaker 3 Who lived a hundred and twenty years?

47:59 Speaker 1 Shelach?

48:03 Speaker 3 A hundred and twenty.

48:05 Speaker 1 A hundred and eighty, not a hundred and eighty-seven. Maybe I’m mistaken.

48:09 Speaker 3 A hundred and thirty-seven.

48:11 Speaker 1 No, a hundred and thirty-seven was Yishmael. That’s good too. Rabbi David Kars[?] once said to me, “What do you think, that Yishmael was some sort of delinquent? He was a great rabbi, with all the...” What, with a suit? So when every Jew, throughout all the generations, lives many years and fulfills many mitzvos, another part, and another part, and another part, and another part of kelipas nogah is elevated. He spells it out.

48:46 Speaker 3 But wait, didn’t they do that in all the previous generations?

48:49 Speaker 1 Parts were elevated; they did.

48:50 Speaker 3 What?

48:51 Speaker 1 That’s why Moshiach needs to come. That’s why there is no explanation for why he isn’t coming, why he still hasn’t come. Every Jew fulfills the 365 prohibitions. What are the 365 prohibitions? What have we been discussing until now? That through positive mitzvos he draws down Divine light, right? That was the whole subject: positive mitzvos, Torah study, animal, vegetable, and mineral—positive mitzvos. He continues. What are prohibitions? Why do we need them? The purpose of prohibitions is to keep the 365 sinews carrying the blood of the vital soul in the body separate, so that through a transgression they do not draw sustenance and vitality from one of the three utterly impure kelipos.

49:36 Speaker 3 What does that mean? That he simply doesn’t do the mitzvah that he—

49:41 Speaker 1 That he doesn’t commit the transgression? Yes.

49:44 Speaker 3 To put it gently.

49:45 Speaker 1 Right. And about this our Sages said: “If a person sits and does not commit a transgression, it is credited to him as though he had fulfilled a mitzvah.” Because to draw down the Divine light, two things are needed. First of all—

49:57 Speaker 3 Six hundred and seven prohibitions.

49:59 Speaker 1 Mm?

50:00 Speaker 3 There are three hundred and sixty-five mitzvos—

50:02 Speaker 1 Yes, yes, yes, yes. Elsewhere this is explained on an even higher level, but here the explanation is this: To draw down the Divine light, to reveal it in the world, two things are needed. Yes, it needs to be brought down below, but first the place below has to be fit to receive it. If what is below—the world, physicality—receives its vitality from the three utterly impure kelipos, then, first, drawing Divine light down there won’t help; it won’t become holy. There’s a case involving earthenware vessels that have become impure. Are you familiar with it?

50:47 Speaker 3 Yes.

50:47 Speaker 1 No, no, no, no. Oh, yes, yes, exactly. Um...

50:57 Speaker 3 That...

50:58 Speaker 1 What’s it called? A pocket, a pocket on the underside—that’s something else. There it becomes a new—there, the reason is that it becomes a new thing. And there is indeed a major dispute about whether or not it becomes a new thing. That’s precisely the point of disagreement. The Gemara says this: There are things that impart impurity. The best-known is a dead body, but there are other things too: a sheretz, and all kinds of other things that cause impurity. When a vessel touches something impure—anything with a receptacle is considered a vessel, for example, though there are other kinds as well—whether it touches the impure thing on the outside or the inside, there are all sorts of rules. It becomes impure. How do you purify it? Put it in a mikveh and take it out. Right? That’s the general rule. Some things become impure with such a severe form of impurity that a mikveh doesn’t help. You need rainwater, you need a spring, you need water that is purer still, and so on. But ultimately, immerse it in the appropriate water and it returns to its pure state. Why is that? There are explanations, but not here. There is one exception: an earthenware vessel. If a vessel made of earthenware becomes impure, breaking it is its remedy. There’s nothing else to do. Smash it to pieces, and it will be pure. Why? It becomes bound to the three utterly impure kelipos. As I said, this isn’t the place to go into the subject at length, and there is a great deal to say about it; there are explanations. But that isn’t the point. The question is why: what makes it different? It is connected to and receives from the three—because it receives from the three utterly impure kelipos, putting holiness into it won’t help. The holiness has nowhere to enter. And it could be worse, much worse: if a person brings holiness into an impure place, not only will the impure thing not become pure, but the vitality of the holiness will give strength to the impurity. There are many examples of this.

53:28 Speaker 1 Examples. Even between one person and another: one person gets angry, and the other says something to him as if he wants to calm him down, but that very remark gets him even more worked up. He only wanted to do something good. He didn’t want to cause harm. Right? But the other person isn’t receptive right now. If he isn’t receptive, you’re just adding fuel to the fire. It doesn’t help. There are many examples like that. Good. So it isn’t enough to perform the practical mitzvos; we have to detach the physical from the three utterly unclean kelipos. How do we do that? Through the 365 prohibitions. So that they do not draw nourishment and receive vitality through that transgression from one of the three utterly unclean kelipos, from which the 365 Torah prohibitions and their rabbinic offshoots derive. And then the vital soul cannot ascend to Hashem if it has become defiled by the impurity of the three unclean kelipos, which can never be elevated, but must be utterly nullified and removed, as it says: “I will remove the spirit of impurity from the earth.” So if a Jew, G-d forbid, stumbles in a transgression—even a minor transgression that a person tramples underfoot, even one that is only rabbinic, even the slightest transgression imaginable—his animal soul is now bound to the three unclean kelipos through that channel of vitality, through the transgression. It cannot ascend to holiness. All the mitzvos he performs won’t help. What’s the solution?

55:13 Speaker 4 Repentance.

55:14 Speaker 1 To do teshuvah?

55:17 Speaker 4 But if I’ve already done teshuvah for every transgression, does that mean I’m also adding a commitment that I’ll never repeat it?

55:31 Speaker 1 We’ll get to Igeres Hateshuvah soon, in another thirty or forty chapters, and you’ll see that it’s very easy. There’s no problem with it. It’s fine.

55:44 Speaker 4 Whoever passes the test on all those chapters.

55:49 Speaker 1 The essential point is that a good intention, a real, sincere desire for a single second, is enough. For every transgression in the world. So we need the 365 prohibitions to separate ourselves from evil. And we need the 248 positive mitzvos to draw the light of the blessed Ein Sof down below, to elevate the entire vital soul in the 248 limbs of the body to Him, and to bind and unite it with Him in complete unity, to become truly one. This is what arose in His will: to have a dwelling place in the lower realms, and for them to be a chariot for Him, like the Patriarchs. So the moment a Jew observes the prohibitions and performs the positive mitzvos, his body and all its limbs become a chariot for G-dliness, like the Patriarchs. For that, you don’t have to be a tzaddik—not a complete tzaddik, or even an incomplete tzaddik. Every single one of us who, in practice, simply doesn’t commit transgressions, and in practice simply performs the mitzvos. Don’t smile at me like that. Who remembers the last time you committed a transgression here? We don’t commit that many transgressions. What we’re talking about is someone deliberately committing a transgression, you know. Not someone who, you know, slips up. None of us sits there debating whether to commit a transgression: “No, yes, I’ll commit a transgression.” That’s not us. Sometimes a person stumbles, but not deliberately; it’s inadvertent. None of us commits a transgression deliberately. It’s inadvertent. And afterward, he regrets it. You regretted it? Do teshuvah. The transgression is already gone. What’s the proof that it’s gone? Here’s the proof. We say in Shemoneh Esrei three times a day—those of us who daven. Yes.

58:07 Speaker 5 If he says Shema Yisroel?

58:10 Speaker 1 How can you recite the blessing? What about the possibility of a blessing in vain? How can you say, “Gracious One, Who abundantly forgives”? Maybe He hasn’t forgiven you? Yet you recite the blessing. Why?

58:19 Speaker 5 He forgives.

58:19 Speaker 1 Because it’s clear that He—He has certainly forgiven you. If you asked, He forgave you. It’s a mitzvah to believe that. A mitzvah. One of the 613 mitzvos. Part of the mitzvah of teshuvah is to believe that when I ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu for forgiveness, He forgives.

58:40 Speaker 5 But then, even when you commit the transgression, even if you don’t entirely want to do it, you say, “Fine, I’ll regret it and He’ll forgive me.” Isn’t that like saying, “I’ll sin and repent”?

58:51 Speaker 1 And there too, in that case of someone who says, “I’ll sin and repent,” it will also be called teshuvah. We’ll get to that, with Hashem’s help. Good. So up to this point we’ve been talking about his entire vital soul, the kelipah as a whole. How—how have you reached the kelipas nogah of the whole world? All right, there are a million Jews and they perform mitzvos. How have you managed to elevate to holiness the parrot deep in some African jungle, or the sand in the Sahara Desert? How? How have you reached the whole of kelipas nogah? You’ve reached the foods you eat. And since—he continues here on line fourteen: “Since the entire vital soul of the Jewish people as a whole will become a holy chariot for Hashem, the vitality of this world as a whole, which is kelipas nogah, will then also emerge from its impurity and filth.” Another time we’ll explain what those two terms mean. “And it will ascend to holiness, to be a chariot for Hashem when His glory is revealed, and all flesh will see together. He will appear to them in the splendor of His majestic strength, and the glory of Hashem will fill the whole earth. And the Jewish people will see eye to eye, as at the Giving of the Torah.” There are a lot of new details here. First of all, for whom was the whole world created? For the Jewish people. So if the Jewish people as a whole elevate their souls as a whole, and the world as a whole was created for the Jewish people as a whole, then the whole world also ascends to holiness. First of all. Right? It’s a simple calculation. And then what will happen? Holiness will be revealed throughout the entire world. Why? Because the Jewish people as a whole—because each individual observed the mitzvos. Then Hashem will appear in the splendor of His majestic strength. That will already be a result. It won’t be some gift we receive; rather, the days of Moshiach and the Resurrection of the Dead are a direct result of our work in performing mitzvos. As long as there are kelipos here that conceal and obscure, then even

1:01:37 Speaker 1 when I draw down and reveal G-dliness in the world, I can’t see it. But the moment the whole world ascends to holiness and there’s no longer a kelipah here to conceal it, people will see. Right. So the entire revelation of the days of Moshiach isn’t just a gift we receive for hard work. It’s the simple, direct result of performing mitzvos. “And they will see eye to eye, as at the Giving of the Torah.” As it is written: “You were shown to know that Hashem is G-d.” Do you know that expression, “eye to eye”? What does “eye to eye” mean? What does the expression mean in Hebrew? No. It’s a somewhat literary expression. Our Sages use it when two people see and understand the same thing. We saw exactly the same thing. We saw it eye to eye. Exactly the same thing. Right? It’s an expression of our Sages: “They will see eye to eye”; “they saw eye to eye.” They saw the same thing. Which two sets of eyes saw the same thing? Usually, when Hakadosh Boruch Hu looks at the world, what does He see? He sees nothingness. He sees only a revelation of G-dliness. He sees Himself. And when we look at the world, what do we see? Here below is the tangible existence, and above is what we cannot perceive. Hakadosh Boruch Hu sees the world as nothingness brought into being by true existence. Right? When I look at the world, it seems to me that the world is something created from nothing. I exist. Where was the world created from? From nothing. I don’t see Hakadosh Boruch Hu. How does Hakadosh Boruch Hu look at the world? He sees the world as nothingness created from true existence. He is the true existence, and the world is nothing. Exactly the opposite, right? So usually, what Hakadosh Boruch Hu sees as nothing is the opposite of what we see as nothing.

1:03:42 Speaker 6 What we see as nothing.

1:03:43 Speaker 1 Not ours. Okay. Right. At the giving of the Torah, they saw eye to eye. They saw the world the way Hakadosh Boruch Hu sees the world. The concealment was removed. “You were shown to know that Hashem...” — you saw with your own eyes what Hakadosh Boruch Hu sees with His. And through this, all three impure kelipos will be swallowed up and completely nullified. What have we been discussing until now? Through fulfilling the mitzvos and observing the prohibitions, kelipas nogah rises to holiness. Right? What do the three impure kelipos have to do with it? Because right now they draw their sustenance and vitality from holiness through kelipas nogah, which stands in between. And if kelipas nogah is nullified as a separate existence and rises to holiness, where will the impure kelipos get their existence and vitality? They won’t. They’ll cease to exist on their own. There will no longer be anything that conceals and obscures. So, on line five: the entire purpose of the days of Moshiach and the resurrection of the dead—which is the revelation of His glory and G-dliness, and the removal of the spirit of impurity from the earth—everything, meaning even the removal of the three impure kelipos, everything, everything, everything depends on what? On drawing His G-dliness and the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, into the vital soul of the Jewish people as a whole, into all its 248 limbs, by fulfilling all 248 positive mitzvos; and on removing the spirit of impurity from it by observing all 365 prohibitions, so that the 365 sinews do not draw sustenance from it. For the Jewish people as a whole comprise 600,000 individual souls. They encompass the vitality of the entire world, which was created for their sake—the whole world was created for them. And each individual Jew encompasses, and has belonging to him, the vitality of one six-hundred-thousandth of the world as a whole. That portion depends on his vital soul to elevate it to Hashem as the soul itself rises. This happens through what a person uses in this world for the needs of his body and vital soul in serving Hashem, such as food and drink and... What does “and the like” mean? It means more than sleep. He spells it out: a home and all the things he uses. There’s a well-known story, a well-known chassidic story, that... one of the Rebbes tells it.

1:06:27 Speaker 1 There was a righteous man, and there was a wealthy man, a non-Jew, a very wealthy man. He built himself a great palace and lived in it all his life. And... later, over the years, the palace fell into ruin and the place became desolate. All that remained of the magnificent palace was a wall by the side of the road that passed there. One day, a righteous man passed by. He was nearly fainting from the heat and thirst, and he leaned against the wall, rested in its shade, and it revived him. That’s the story. That wealthy man and his property and his life and his servants and his house, and everything they ate and drank throughout their lives, and the utensils they used, and the factories that made them, and the sheep and the flocks, and everything, everything, everything connected to all of it—when that righteous man leaned there and benefited from the shade, it all rose to holiness. That’s what it was all created for. So when a Jew eats something now, I don’t know, something like that, right? It was made in a factory, and the factory has machines, and engineers made those machines, and the iron came from who knows what country and the copper from somewhere else, and it was processed here. An enormous part of the whole world, of the physical substance of the whole world, takes part in every small holy act a Jew does. And through the mitzvos Jews have fulfilled over the generations, Hakadosh Boruch Hu arranges, through Divine providence, for each person to live seventy or eighty years—enough time for everything belonging to his soul to reach him through Divine providence. Except that the 600,000 individual souls are roots, and so on. All right, how are we doing for time? What time is it now?

1:08:51 Speaker 7 Ten minutes.

1:08:52 Speaker 1 We’ve really gone overboard now, haven’t we? No, this still needs, I don’t know, another forty-five minutes to... I know, this chapter is both long and full of ideas. I think we’ll split it in two. That seems to me—seems a bit much.

1:09:13 Speaker 7 All right, give us a little more time.

1:09:15 Speaker 1 All right. Up to here... Wait, one more passage, one more passage. One more passage. The next passage concludes this subject, and then we’ll begin the chapter’s second subject. “And each spark,” meaning each individual soul, “did not descend into this world”—even though it is a great descent and truly a form of exile. For even if a person were completely righteous, serving Hashem with fear and with great, delight-filled love, he could not attain the level of closeness to Hashem in love and fear that he had before descending into this world. As they say, not even a part of it; there is no comparison between them at all, as anyone who understands knows. Why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu bring a Jewish soul down into the world? You can’t say it was so that the person would overcome his yetzer hara and become a tzaddik. Why? If Hakadosh Boruch Hu is looking for tzaddikim, He has no shortage of them. There’s no need to make a soul suffer for that. Hakadosh Boruch Hu brought the soul into the world to sanctify the world, to make the world a dwelling place for Him. And the animal soul is part of that world. That is the purpose of the world’s creation. “Rather, its descent into this world to be clothed in a body and vital soul is solely in order to refine them and separate them from the evil of the three impure kelipos, through observing the 365 prohibitions and their offshoots; and to elevate its vital soul, together with the portion belonging to it from this world as a whole, and bind and unite them with the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, which it draws into them by fulfilling all 248 positive mitzvos through its vital soul”—the soul that carries out all the practical mitzvos, as above, as we discussed earlier. “And as it is written in Eitz Chaim, Gate 26: ‘For the soul itself needs no refinement at all and has no need to be clothed in this world,’” and so on. It descends only to draw down light to refine them, and so on. This is exactly analogous to the secret of the Shechinah’s exile to refine the sparks. We won’t explain the secret of the Shechinah’s exile, or how this is analogous to it, right now. We’ll sum up at this point. Up

1:11:24 Speaker 1 to here, from the beginning of the chapter, after we said in the previous chapters that fulfilling a mitzvah... What are we trying to explain? These chapters are trying to explain to us just how great the value of fulfilling practical mitzvos is. Right? That’s the general subject. So where did he begin? He began by saying: Listen, by fulfilling practical mitzvos, you elevate the soul to holiness, and so on. The parable of the child in the holy Zohar, and the oil; the soul; the whole world becomes included in G-dliness. Then he said that this is the purpose for which the world was created. In our chapter he adds detail and explains how, through fulfilling practical mitzvos, it isn’t just the vital soul that rises in some general way. It’s also the animals and the plants and the inanimate things, and his animal soul. And not only that: through this, the vitality of the entire world rises, and so on and so on. And through this he brings about a revelation of G-dliness, the coming of Moshiach and the resurrection of the dead. He’ll explain that. Now, after we’ve understood, at length and in such a wonderful order, why practical mitzvos matter and how great their value is—excuse me, why did our Sages say that Torah study is more important? That Torah study is equal to them all? When we study it on Shabbos, we’ll understand it there. But the question here is: if they had said that the advantage lies in Torah study... Well, it also accomplishes something, but the main thing, the main thing, the main thing—the purpose of the world’s creation—depends on practical mitzvos. What is contained in our Sages’ statement that Torah study, specifically, is greater than all the practical mitzvos together? What’s behind that? No, that’s a different statement. No, that’s another matter. So that’s the second half of the chapter. From here on, he explains the advantage of Torah study in sanctifying the world. And we’ll see that Torah study has three ways of sanctifying the world that practical mitzvos do not have, that belong specifically to Torah study. And then

1:13:52 Speaker 1 the question will come from the other direction, the other direction: Wait, if Torah study is such a lofty thing, and it’s what sanctifies the world, why did you talk to me so much about practical mitzvos? There’s an advantage to practical mitzvos and an advantage to Torah study, so we need both. And that’s how the chapter ends.