Likkutei Amarim Chapter 39 · 5781

00:00 Speaker 1 No, just check where your hand is. I’m checking it. I’m doing it without pressing, but, you know.

00:08 Speaker 2 How are you doing it?

00:08 Speaker 1 Sitting here like this isn’t it. No, no, no. I was sitting, but I mean, your hand isn’t used to it. But don’t pay attention to that either. You know, it’s very [unclear]. No, I can’t get it.

00:26 Speaker 13 Like this?

00:26 Speaker 1 No. Like this. If you go up, with this hand down.

00:31 Speaker 13 Shira, that’s your strong hand.

00:32 Speaker 1 You sort of brought it over and put it in slowly. That was only the beginning.

00:38 Speaker 13 It sticks to it in all sorts of places.

00:40 Speaker 1 Take your left hand, take this. See? It’s already better. You’re taking your right hand. No.

00:50 Speaker 13 No, no.

00:51 Speaker 2 All right, we’ll begin. Good evening.

00:53 Speaker 1 That’s it.

00:59 Speaker 2 We’re returning to chapter 39. We began looking at the importance of action in chapters 35, 36, and 37, and then we began looking at the importance of intention in action. We started that in the previous chapter. This chapter continues the previous one, and there’s one more chapter after it. In the previous chapter we saw that, for all the extraordinary importance of action—that action is the main thing, and if a person performs an act, does a mitzvah, even without intending anything at all, he has fulfilled the mitzvah and drawn down the divine light. We can take the example given there of eating matzah on Seder night.

01:57 Speaker 13 Yes, the person who’s sitting there—he can’t eat [unclear], and [unclear], so you can’t put the matzah in his mouth.

02:03 Speaker 2 Yes, one of the [unclear]—yes, more or less. We’re talking about Jews. He doesn’t want to eat matzah. Why doesn’t he want to? Because he’s decided to leave that path, and he doesn’t want to eat matzah. Pesach eve arrives, and they force him to eat matzah. Some non-Jew, or I don’t know who. In some situation, they force him to eat matzah. Well, he’s eaten matzah now, and his good inclination awakens. Now he wants to—he wants to make a blessing and eat matzah for the sake of Heaven. What kind of eating was that earlier? But now that he’s awakened, he can no longer make the blessing: he’s already fulfilled the mitzvah. Hey, what he did before was under compulsion! He didn’t want to, and he shouted that he didn’t want to. But that’s it, the mitzvah is done; he fulfilled it. So a mitzvah without any intention, even if it’s done with the opposite intention, is still a mitzvah. The light of G-dliness is drawn into the world, and the physical object becomes sanctified even without intention. So why do we need intention? The previous chapter explained that despite the great quality of mitzvos, which refine the physical, and of avodas habirurim, which refines the sparks and brings the Geulah, at the end of the day, action without intention is a dead act. It’s like a body without a soul: just as a body with no soul isn’t alive, so too, if the act of a mitzvah has no soul, it isn’t alive. In that connection, he ended the chapter by saying that intention has two general levels. What is intention? Intention is when a person performs a mitzvah or studies Torah with feeling. Intention doesn’t mean just having something in mind. It’s not—intention doesn’t mean that. It doesn’t mean that right now he has some, I don’t know, some special understanding, some ideas he’s floating around in, or whatever. Intention means

04:16 Speaker 2 the thing itself: genuine feeling. The plain meaning of intention is that he truly means it. What does it mean that he truly means it? That he feels what he’s doing. He does it out of love and awe. Why does he study Torah? Because he loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Why does he perform mitzvos? Because he loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Why is he careful not to commit transgressions? Because he stands in awe of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. In other words, not because he has to, not because it’s forbidden. He loves and he stands in awe. That’s what intention means: the inner motivation for his observance of mitzvos, for his Torah study and mitzvah observance, isn’t some compulsion he imposes on himself. Rather, he does it with genuine intention. He does it of his own accord, because it truly matters to him personally. That’s what intention means. But in the previous chapter he explained that within intention itself there are two kinds, two levels in practice. There’s an intention that, in its essential character, resembles an animal, and there’s an intention that resembles a human being, a creature of intellect. What does that mean? When a person serves Hashem with intention, with a feeling of natural love and awe, he has a divine soul and serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu with the love and awe of that divine soul. He hasn’t created anything new here; he hasn’t brought anything into being. He serves Hashem by revealing what he already has. So it’s like the love and awe of an animal. An animal doesn’t act according to intellect; it acts according to what its feelings dictate. It has intelligence, but its intelligence doesn’t dictate what it does in life. So too with this Jew: when his inner motivation is the soul’s natural feeling, he is, so to speak, like an animal.

06:32 Speaker 2 And another Jew—what kind of love and awe does he have? His love and awe don’t come from awakening his natural feelings, but from bringing into being a feeling that wasn’t there before, something entirely different. He contemplated Hashem’s greatness, and contemplated it so deeply that the understanding, the contemplation, the wonder of G-dliness took hold of him. Suddenly he grasped what it was all about, and when he grasped it, he suddenly understood that it demanded something of him. Not only that it demanded something of him: he understood that it was true, and that truth seeped into him until his heart awakened. When we’re speaking about that kind of feeling, a feeling awakened through contemplation, it has no connection to the divine soul’s natural feelings. It’s not a feeling that was always there and has only now been revealed. It’s a feeling that has now been born, a feeling born through contemplation. A person who serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu with such a feeling is like an ani—like a human being. Those are the two levels of intention he explained at the end of the previous chapter. There’s a tremendous advantage... a great difference and a tremendous advantage. He also said a few more words there about a person—we’re already speaking about someone who is a beinoni, a Jew who serves Hashem and does not commit transgressions, who performs all the mitzvos and does so out of love and awe. Even here there’s a great difference: what kind of love and awe does he have? Are his love and awe intellectual, born of intellectual contemplation, or are they natural love and awe, the love and awe of the soul itself? And then Zalmonov[?] asked us, right? He asked a good question: But how can that be? Why do you say it’s so low, that it’s like an animal’s, when after all we’re talking about the love of the soul itself? Well, there are

09:02 Speaker 2 a number of points to that. In general, it’s only an influence from the encompassing level, and it isn’t actually revealed, and so on. When it truly is revealed, it really is an abundant love. We’ll speak about that more later. But that’s what we discussed at the end of the previous chapter. The summary of chapter 38 is that intention means genuinely performing mitzvos out of inner feeling, and that within this itself there are two levels. Really, there are two levels of mitzvah observance: intellectual truth and emotional truth. All right, that’s more or less it. Continuing from there, he begins chapter 39: “And for this reason.” For what reason? Because it’s possible to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu with natural love, a love that isn’t born of intellect, but is simply one’s nature. “And for this reason, too, the angels are called chayos and beheimos”—living creatures and animals. After all, there are the holy chayos. Yes. There are angels called animals. There are angels called birds. There’s the face of an eagle, the face of a lion, the face of an ox. How do you come to call an angel by the name of an animal—and even by the name of a non-kosher animal?

10:40 Speaker 16 It could be that...

10:43 Speaker 2 What?

10:44 Speaker 16 They took the tribes as non-kosher animals.

10:47 Speaker 2 What?

10:48 Speaker 16 Actually, it’s much more common that they chose non-kosher animals than...

10:52 Speaker 2 That’s not what we’re discussing right now. Right now the question is why...

10:55 Speaker 16 An animal, sorry.

10:56 Speaker 2 Why does the Torah call angels chayos? What is there about an angel that resembles an animal?

11:05 Speaker 16 Maybe because the chayos are the letters, or the letters.

11:08 Speaker 2 So he says, “And for this reason.” For what reason? Because of what we said in the previous chapter. Therefore, “the angels are called chayos and beheimos, as it is written: ‘The face of a lion on the right and the face of an ox on the left,’ and so on.” There isn’t an actual lion there; that’s what the angel is called. Why is it called a lion? “The face of an ox on the left,” and so on. Why? “Because they do not have free choice, and their fear and love are natural to them, as stated in the Ra’aya Mehemna in Parshas Pinchas.” All right, I’ll clarify this before the questions start. Let’s get things in order. When we talk about choice in general, there are three levels of choice. There are three different things, all called choice, and it depends on what we’re discussing in each case. Each type of created being has a different kind of choice. Choice in its truest sense is when you put two completely equal things in front of someone and say, “Choose.”

12:22 Speaker 16 Not just completely equal.

12:24 Speaker 2 Hmm?

12:24 Speaker 16 Not just completely equal.

12:26 Speaker 2 Choice in its truest sense is when you put two completely equal things in front of someone. That’s called choice. Why is it only choice then? Because if the two things aren’t equal, what’s so remarkable about my choosing one? I choose it because I have a reason. I choose it because of the thing, not because of myself. Because it’s better, it smells better, it has a nicer color, or it has some other advantage. Once the choice comes from the thing being chosen, because the thing being chosen has some advantage, the choice is no longer mine. I have a reason to choose it. That’s no longer free... that’s no longer... that’s no longer free choice. The choice is no longer free; it’s a choice that’s, so to speak, compelled. I have a reason to choose this one, so why would I choose the other?

13:18 Speaker 16 Between one-shekel coins?

13:21 Speaker 2 For example.

13:22 Speaker 16 So that’s called free choice?

13:23 Speaker 2 For example.

13:25 Speaker 16 Okay.

13:28 Speaker 2 I have a story about this, but I don’t want to go on too long. I’ll tell it anyway, although... I don’t know. This happened in my own family. My son is a teacher. Are you listening? My son Mendy is a teacher in Beit Shemesh. He once told me that he wanted to teach the children what choice means. They didn’t understand. So he said, “You know what? Let’s play a game. Who volunteers to go outside? I won’t tell you what for, but I promise you’ll come out ahead.” Well, that’s no small risk, but a volunteer came forward. He went outside. Once he was outside, my son told the children, “Here’s the game. In one hand I’ll put a shekel, and in the other I’ll also put a shekel—or five shekels, I don’t remember. A shekel, right? The same thing in both hands, right? Then I’ll call the child back in and tell him, ‘Look, I have five shekels in this hand, and I also have five shekels in this hand. Do you believe me? You know what? Choose. Whichever hand you choose, it’s yours.’” Right? Okay. The child agonized over it for about half an hour, then chose. He opened the hand: five shekels. My son opened the other hand for him: five shekels there too. Here, take it. He chose this one, right? Take it. “But I chose that one.” “What difference does it make? They’re the same.” “No, but Rabbi, I chose that one.” An argument started, and it just went on and on. The child wouldn’t give in. Why wouldn’t he give in? He had chosen. The choice didn’t come from the object; it came from within himself. He chose. That’s called choice. The example gives you a sense of it. That’s free choice.

15:40 Speaker 16 So the quality of the...

15:41 Speaker 2 This kind of choice exists only in human beings—and not in every human being, only in a Jew who has a G-dly soul. Why? Because only for Hakadosh Boruch Hu are all things absolutely equal. For whom else are all things equal? Only a Jew with a G-dly soul can have something approaching genuinely free choice. That’s one kind of choice, and the primary kind. There is another kind of choice: choosing between good and evil. Right? When is choosing between good and evil relevant? When there is good and there is evil. Right? A dog, for instance, doesn’t have a choice between good and evil; it doesn’t have a G-dly soul and an animal soul. Right? An angel doesn’t have a choice between good and evil; it doesn’t have an animal soul...

16:50 Speaker 17 Why doesn’t a non-Jew have a choice between good and evil?

16:54 Speaker 2 An angel lacks that choice for the opposite reason: it has only good, no evil, so it has no choice. But all descendants of Adam, ever since he ate from the Tree of Knowledge, have good and evil mixed within them. True, not everyone has a G-dly soul; only Jews do. But everyone has some degree of choice between good and evil. We see that a non-Jew, too, can act with justice and integrity or in the opposite way, and has a choice. Still, there’s also choice among beings that have only one kind of soul, like angels or, to make a distinction, dogs. Right? Put a plate of dog food in front of a dog and another plate with some other food—I don’t know what—and it hesitates over which to choose. That’s a lower kind of choice, but it’s also choice. It isn’t free, and it isn’t even between good and evil. But it’s still choice. So much for that...

18:04 Speaker 17 What is a Jew’s free choice?

18:06 Speaker 2 That’s the general background on choice for our purposes. We’ve settled that point. Why are angels called chayos and beheimos? Because, like animals, they don’t have choice. What does it mean that they don’t have choice? Since they don’t have two souls, only one, they have no choice between good and evil, and certainly no free choice. It’s the same with angels, though for the opposite reason; that’s why they’re called chayos. He continues in line five: “Their fear and love are natural to them, as stated in the Ra’aya Mehemna”—that’s in Parshas Pinchas. “Therefore, the level of the tzaddikim is higher than theirs,” higher than the angels. “For the dwelling place of the souls of the tzaddikim is in the World of Beriah, while the dwelling place of the angels is in the World of Yetzirah.” As we said in the previous chapter, when a person’s service of Hashem is natural, where is he? In the World of Yetzirah, the world of middos, the world of emotion. That’s where the angels are. Someone whose service of Hashem is intellectual, who arouses love and fear through contemplation—where is he? In the World of Beriah. So the service of the tzaddikim is higher than the service of the angels. And the difference between them—what’s the difference between the World of Beriah and the World of Yetzirah? “For in the World of Yetzirah there shine...” Yes?

19:54 Speaker 17 Nothing.

19:54 Speaker 2 Why did I skip the parentheses? We’re short on time; it continues. The difference between them is: “For in the World of Yetzirah, only the middos of Hakadosh Boruch Hu shine—His love, dread, fear, and so on. As stated in the Tikkunim and Etz Chayim, ‘The six sefiros nest in Yetzirah.’” I think we mentioned this in the previous class, or perhaps several times already: in general, the World of Atzilus is divided into four levels—Chochmah, Binah, middos, and Malchus. Right? We’ve talked about it several times. Chochmah, Binah, middos, Malchus.

20:41 Speaker 18 Who said yes? I can make it through the class.

20:43 Speaker 2 Hmm?

20:44 Speaker 18 Who said yes? I can make it through the class.

20:46 Speaker 2 All right, this is a basic point that comes up many times. Chochmah and Binah—

20:52 Speaker 18 Isn’t there Daas in the World of Atzilus?

20:54 Speaker 2 Hmm?

20:55 Speaker 18 Isn’t there Daas in the World of Atzilus?

20:58 Speaker 2 There is, but it isn’t relevant right now.

21:02 Speaker 18 Okay.

21:02 Speaker 2 Chochmah and Binah are yud and hei. Middos and Malchus are vav and hei. Yud-hei-vav-hei corresponds to Chochmah, Binah, middos, and Malchus. All right? In particular, these four are called the four partzufim of Atzilus. Atzilus has four partzufim. What are they? Chochmah, Binah, middos, and Malchus. In general, each of the four partzufim of Atzilus shines throughout an entire world. So the Chochmah of Atzilus, in general, shines throughout the World of Atzilus. Chochmah is about bittul. What is Atzilus? Bittul to G-dliness. That’s the general character of the World of Atzilus: bittul to G-dliness. Right? So Chochmah shines in particular as Chochmah, and in general throughout the World of Atzilus. Let’s go down one level. Binah. What is Binah? Understanding, intellect, right? Which is the world of intellect? The World of Beriah. Right? So in general, the Binah of Atzilus, the partzuf of Binah—the upper hei, the first hei of Hashem’s Name—shines throughout the World of Beriah. The entire World of Beriah is an expression of Binah, of G-dly intellect. One level lower. Next come the middos. Chochmah, Binah, middos. Emotion, right? Where does G-dly emotion shine in general? In the World of Yetzirah. The World of Yetzirah is the world of emotion, the world of angels, the world of fervor, the world of mitzvos. What is its source and root? The G-dly middos. So that partzuf of the six middos in the World of Atzilus shines, in general, throughout the World of Yetzirah. And Malchus—what is Malchus about? The lowest level. Malchus is kabbolas ol. Right? What is Malchus? It receives from all the others. It has—there’s also the saying about Malchus, “It has nothing of its own.” It has nothing of its own. It only receives; it does what it is told. It has nothing of its own; it receives from everyone. Malchus is about kabbolas ol. Which is the world of kabbolas ol? The World of Asiyah. Right?

23:40 Speaker 18 Even though in it there’s the least... in it there’s the least of it.

23:43 Speaker 2 What?

23:43 Speaker 18 She’s saying that in it there’s the least kabbolas ol.

23:45 Speaker 2 That...?

23:46 Speaker 18 In it there’s the least kabbolas ol.

23:48 Speaker 2 There needs to be kabbolas ol in it. In the spiritual world of Asiyah, there is kabbolas ol. All right, after learning a chapter of Kabbalah, we have a few maamarim, a few little asides. So what is he saying here? “Six sefiros”—the six middos, the six sefiros of Atzilus—where do they dwell, where is their place in general? In Yetzirah. Right? That’s what we discussed. And that is why this is always the service of the angels: day and night they never rest from standing in awe and fear. Where are the angels? The vast majority of them. The angels, in general, belong in the world of Yetzirah. Why in Yetzirah? Because Yetzirah is the world of spirit, the world of emotion, the world of arousal, the world of middos—the expression of the six middos of Atzilus. So it follows that all the created beings there—what do they do all day?

24:56 Speaker 19 They chirp to Him.

24:58 Speaker 2 They’re in a state of—how does he put it here? “Always, day and night they never rest”—they stand in awe and fear and love of G-dliness. “This refers to the entire camp of Gavriel, which is from the left; and the service of the camp of Michael is love, etc.” So all of that is in the world of Yetzirah. “But in the world of Beriah, His wisdom...” We said: who is in the world of Beriah? In Beriah, it’s not angels who are there. Who is there? The tzaddikim. Yes, because their service is intellectual, not emotional. “But in the world of Beriah, the wisdom, understanding, and knowledge of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, shine there. They are the source of the middos and their root, as it says in the Tikkunim: ‘The supernal mother dwells in the three sefiros of the throne,’” which is the world of Beriah. All right, you want to understand that too.

25:57 Speaker 19 We’re going to need a rope.

26:01 Speaker 2 The supernal mother and—

26:03 Speaker 19 Binah.

26:04 Speaker 2 Binah. Right. The first hei is the upper one, because there is an upper hei, a first hei, and a lower hei, a second hei: Binah and the lower hei in Hashem’s name. The upper hei and the lower hei. So the upper hei is this—it is Binah, the supernal mother. Binah contains within it—in a certain sense, Binah is the whole idea of intellect. Chochmah is only its source and root. Daas is only how one connects Chochmah to Binah, or Binah to the middos. It is only an external faculty. So the whole idea of intellect is Binah. Binah contains all three faculties within it. So the supernal mother, within which the three sefiros of Chochmah, Binah, and Daas of Atzilus dwell—where is she found? The Zohar says, in—

27:07 Speaker 19 The throne.

27:08 Speaker 2 The throne. What is the throne?

27:10 Speaker 19 What is the throne? Atzilus.

27:12 Speaker 2 Everyone has an armchair at home, don’t they?

27:15 Speaker 19 Ah.

27:16 Speaker 2 Hm? A sofa, an armchair, a chair, an easy chair. What does a chair do? What is a chair for?

27:23 Speaker 19 To give him a place to come.

27:23 Speaker 2 To sit on, right? Why not stand?

27:27 Speaker 19 Why?

27:27 Speaker 2 What’s the difference between a person sitting and a person standing?

27:29 Speaker 19 When he sits, he’s composed; he’s comfortable.

27:32 Speaker 2 When a person sits down, he becomes about half a meter shorter. Yes. One of the functions of a chair is to bring a person down from above to below. The world of the throne, the world of Beriah. It brings down the Divine intellect, brings down the Divine Binah, which includes Chochmah, Binah, and Daas. It brings it down so that created beings, too, can understand G-dliness. That is the world of Beriah, and therefore it is the dwelling place of the souls of the tzaddikim, who serve Hashem with awe and love drawn from Binah and Daas in the greatness of the Ein Sof, blessed be He. Since the tzaddikim are the ones who serve Hashem with intellectual love and awe, where does their service belong? In the place where Divine intellect descends to a place where—descends in a way that a created being can grasp it. Where is that? In the world of Beriah. “This love is called re’usa deliba, as mentioned above.” In a moment, we’ll also understand—we’ll sum it up and understand why he went into this whole subject of the angels’ service and the tzaddikim’s service. It’s—

28:47 Speaker 20 The angels.

28:48 Speaker 2 Yes. The Rebbe discusses this, yes. “This love is called re’usa deliba, etc., as mentioned above, and from re’usa deliba a garment is made for the soul in the world of Beriah, which is the upper Gan Eden, as explained below. And as it says in the Zohar, Vayakhel.” But—“as it says in the Zohar, Vayakhel.” So up to this point, the Rebbe has explained the difference between souls and angels. In short, the main point he explained—there were many, many details—the main point is that angels are characterized by a natural service of Hashem, and therefore their place is in Yetzirah. Tzaddikim are characterized by an intellectual service of Hashem, love and awe awakened through intellect, and therefore their place is in Beriah. But—“but,” line five—which souls of tzaddikim are we talking about? Specifically the neshamah itself. After all, every tzaddik has ne—nefesh, ruach, and neshamah. Not every level of a tzaddik’s nefesh, ruach, and neshamah reaches the world of Beriah. Only the tzaddik’s neshamah—the neshamah itself. Why? Because the tzaddik’s neshamah, the neshamah itself, is a level of mochin degadlus of the Ein Sof, blessed be He. “But the level of ruach of the tzaddikim, and likewise all the other souls of the Jewish people who served Hashem with the awe and love hidden in the heart of the Jewish people as a whole, do not ascend there,” to Beriah, except—ordinarily, when can any Jew, or the lower levels of ruach and nefesh in a tzaddik, reach the world of Beriah? Only on Shabbos and Rosh Chodesh.

30:33 Speaker 20 On Yom Tov too?

30:36 Speaker 2 On its own—and on Yom Tov too. “Through the pillar from the lower Gan Eden to the upper Gan Eden,” which is the world of Beriah, called the upper Gan Eden, “to delight in Hashem and enjoy the radiance of the Shechinah.” All right, he’s brought in quite a few Kabbalistic concepts here, one after another. I don’t—I don’t think we’ll explain all of them, because no one will remember any of it afterward anyway. What is he trying to say here? The main new concept in these lines is mochin degadlus. That’s the—

31:28 Speaker 20 What does that mean?

31:29 Speaker 2 That’s the point. In general, with a person—have we ever discussed mochin degadlus as opposed to mochin dekatnus?

31:40 Speaker 20 Could your mind be the mind of the Baal Shem Tov?

31:43 Speaker 2 I don’t remember if we discussed it. Let’s put it briefly. Um, let’s—first of all, in general, we see—everyone sees in themselves, in their children, and in their parents—that emotions correspond to intellect. In other words, when a person’s intellect is limited, like a child’s, then his emotions are too. He gets excited about little things, he loves little things, he gets upset over little things. You’re laughing at that, yes? But along the same lines, when someone is a little more advanced than we are, you see that he...

32:20 Speaker 20 There are too many of those.

32:21 Speaker 2 Hm?

32:22 Speaker 20 There are too many of those in this world.

32:25 Speaker 2 Fine. Each person according to their level and their situation. But we can plainly see that emotion is connected to intellect.

32:33 Speaker 20 The more intellect there is—

32:34 Speaker 2 The more—

32:34 Speaker 20 The less emotion; the less there is—

32:36 Speaker 2 No, not less. The opposite. The more the intellect is—

32:41 Speaker 20 Developed.

32:42 Speaker 2 Developed, broader, greater, the more the emotion is drawn to greater things. Small things no longer interest the person.

32:50 Speaker 20 But there’s less outward expression of it too.

32:56 Speaker 2 An adult doesn’t love less than a child.

33:01 Speaker 20 But he expresses it less.

33:04 Speaker 2 It’s more inward.

33:05 Speaker 20 For example, like, it comes out less.

33:08 Speaker 2 I don’t know if it’s less. I don’t know, I don’t know how to—emotion only develops. It doesn’t get smaller; it grows. The nature of emotion is like a plant. It grows. That’s what it does: it grows. It doesn’t get smaller. It expresses itself in different ways. That’s the first principle. Emotion and intellect develop together. In general, in a person’s life there is a stage when the intellect, and therefore the emotions, are still small: mochin dekatnus. He’s a child. Leave him alone; he’s a child. Yes. What, are you going to put him in prison? What? He’s a child. What, are you going to punish him? Punish him for what? He doesn’t understand what he’s doing. Yes, he understands, but that’s not—it’s not the same. You can’t punish him. He’s a child. Then there is mochin degadlus. And within each of these there are several stages. For a young child, Chazal explain that there is a stage called mochin de’ibur, mochin deyenikah, and mochin degadlus—the mochin degadlus of a young child. After that comes mochin degadlus. A person has reached the age of twelve, the age of thirteen, has even had his bar mitzvah, and there are several stages within that too. What is the essential difference between mochin dekatnus and mochin degadlus? The essential difference is: what is primary here? Is emotion primary, or is intellect primary? For a child, emotion is primary. He’s rather like an animal. He goes toward what feels good to him, what is pleasant to him; wherever he feels drawn, that’s where he goes. And he uses his intellect only to work out how to get the things he wants. Intellect serves emotion. The higher and more developed the mind becomes, the more that situation gradually changes, and there are explanations of how it changes. It’s very beautiful. Those explanations are very deep, and very long too. But the complete form of it is mochin degadlus. At the stage of mochin degadlus in its plain sense, emotion changes and becomes intellect. Emotion rises to the level of

35:32 Speaker 2 Intellect. It already stops behaving like emotion, and maybe that’s what you mean—that it’s calmer, because intellect is by nature cool. But that means that... the difference between tzaddikim and everyone else who isn’t a tzaddik is that, for the rest of the Jewish people—including even the tzaddikim themselves, as far as their nefesh and ruach are concerned—it is mochin d’katnus, a limited level of understanding. The main thing there is emotion. The main thing is natural love. Only with tzaddikim, and even then only with the neshamah of a tzaddik, is there mochin d’gadlus, an expanded level of understanding. It reaches the world of Beriah. That is more or less what he added in those lines. He also added that the very fact that we speak of an upper Gan Eden and a lower Gan Eden means that, once I say one is above the other, yes, one is higher and one is lower, but there is a relationship between them. Higher in relation to what? To the other one. That one is lower, so there is a relationship between them. If there is a relationship, there is a connection. Otherwise, what relationship would there be? Right? And if there is a connection, it is possible to pass from one to the other: to ascend from the lower Gan Eden to the upper one, and to descend from the upper one to the lower one. About this, Kabbalah says that between the lower Gan Eden and the upper one there is a pillar, like a pillar connecting the roof to the ceiling. But unlike a pillar in a house, this pillar is hollow, and through it souls ascend from the lower Gan Eden to the upper Gan Eden. When? Only at an auspicious time.

37:29 Speaker 21 What is this pillar?

37:30 Speaker 2 What is this pillar? This pillar is bittul, self-nullification. That’s why it is called hollow: it nullifies itself. Now we’re talking about souls in Gan Eden. When a time of special revelation of G-dliness arrives—Shabbos, Rosh Chodesh, a festival—the souls in Gan Eden nullify their own existence far more than usual. Then they merit... that bittul makes them, as it were, into a kind of hollow space, so that they can ascend through this pillar until the auspicious time ends, when they have to descend back to their place.

38:08 Speaker 21 The souls here.

38:08 Speaker 2 Huh?

38:09 Speaker 21 The souls here. Or are they not, are they not—

38:13 Speaker 2 Those are the ones we’re talking about.

38:13 Speaker 21 You said in Gan Eden.

38:15 Speaker 2 Huh?

38:15 Speaker 21 What does “the souls in Gan Eden” mean?

38:17 Speaker 2 That’s what we’re talking about. In a moment.

38:18 Speaker 21 All the souls in Gan Eden.

38:19 Speaker 2 In a moment, in a moment, in a moment. That’s what we’re talking about. All right, so that was the content of the lines we read about the great lights and what was written here. Um, line...

38:38 Speaker 21 I don’t know.

38:39 Speaker 2 I don’t know.

38:39 Speaker 21 Eleven.

38:40 Speaker 2 Eleven, exactly. “For a created intellect has no enjoyment or pleasure except in what it comprehends, understands, knows, and grasps with its intellect and understanding of what it can understand and grasp of the light of the blessed Ein Sof, through His wisdom and understanding that shine there in the world of Beriah.” What gives intellect pleasure? Understanding. If it doesn’t understand, it doesn’t enjoy it. In the world of Yetzirah, emotion enjoys itself; the intellect is a little bored there. For the intellect to enjoy G-dliness, it has to reach a place where Divine intellect is revealed. Where is that? For that, it has to reach Beriah. It doesn’t happen in Yetzirah. And about this he asks: “What it can understand and grasp of the light of the blessed Ein Sof, through His wisdom and understanding that shine there in the world of Beriah.” Seemingly, how do these souls merit ascending higher than the angels? After all, a person served Hashem with natural love and awe. What’s the connection?

39:47 Speaker 21 They also serve naturally.

39:47 Speaker 2 What?

39:47 Speaker 21 They also serve naturally.

39:49 Speaker 2 The angels?

39:50 Speaker 21 Yes.

39:50 Speaker 2 Right. So, as in Yetzirah. By what merit does a person suddenly get to ascend above the angels to the world of Beriah?

39:58 Speaker 21 No one says to the angels—

40:00 Speaker 2 “Although they served with natural love and awe alone, like the angels. This is because, through their love and awe—the Jews’ love and awe—the sitra achra clothed in their bodies was subdued, both in ‘turning away from evil,’ by overcoming and breaking their desires with Hashem’s help, and in ‘doing good,’ as explained above. They had free choice between evil and good, and they chose good, subduing the sitra achra so that the glory of Hakadosh Boruch Hu would be elevated, etc., like the superiority of light, etc., as explained above.” So because they worked hard to reach this world of Yetzirah—it didn’t come easily to them as it does to the angels, for whom it comes naturally, with nothing opposing them—the souls that reach there, having faced opposition in making their choice, can ascend above the angels at an auspicious time. Their regular place is indeed in the world of Yetzirah, because that was the nature of their service, but because they worked hard, at an auspicious time they can ascend higher than the angels. “Now, all this concerns the dwelling place of the souls.” What have we been talking about until now? Where do the souls stand? The souls of the tzaddikim, the souls of other people, the souls of the angels. That’s what we’ve been talking about, right? Where do the souls stand? But what about the Torah itself and the mitzvos themselves? Where are they at that time? Okay, if a soul worked hard and fulfilled a mitzvah with natural or intellectual love and awe—whichever it was—it ascended. But where is the Torah itself? What, did it stay down there? Certainly not. So what happens? “But their Torah and their service are actually incorporated into the ten sefiros, which are G-dliness, and the light of the Ein Sof is united with them in absolute unity.” We tend to think of the world of Beriah as some kind of—I don’t know—a sphere or an expanse, a sort of mist where Beriah is, right? Something like that. For one person it’s darkness; for another it’s light. Some kind of mist where you don’t quite know what’s there, and... they call

42:21 Speaker 2 it Beriah, and there’s Divine light there. There are middos there, there’s intellect there, and that’s more or less the whole picture. No. A world is a world, a whole world. Just as in our world there are the sun, the moon, the earth, the heavens, the four elements, created beings, above and below, birds and animals—I don’t know what else. It’s the same there. More than that: just as in our world there is the physical substance of the world and there is the Divine life-force that gives the world life, in the world of Yetzirah too there is, so to speak, the body of that world and the Divine life-force that gives it life. And the same is true in the world of Beriah, and higher and higher. And about this he says: when souls ascend, where do they ascend? To the world of Yetzirah. But their Torah and their service don’t merely ascend to the world of Yetzirah. They ascend and connect with the G-dliness of the world of Yetzirah, with the sefiros of the world of Yetzirah, with the soul that gives life to the world of Yetzirah. Higher and higher. Yes?

43:47 Speaker 22 That’s right, the physical aspect of the world of Yetzirah, and even beyond that.

43:49 Speaker 2 Yes. It’s the world... it’s the... the G-dliness that gives life to the world of Yetzirah. But that’s G-dliness, that’s a soul; it’s something else entirely. It isn’t a created being. So let’s look at it inside the text. Line twelve. “The souls, by contrast, are not...” Sorry, before that. That is, perhaps line seven. “Each dwelling place of the souls is the place where they stand. But their Torah and their service are actually incorporated into the ten sefiros, which are G-dliness, and the light of the blessed Ein Sof is clothed within them in absolute unity. That is, into the ten sefiros of Beriah through intellectual love and awe, and into the ten sefiros of Yetzirah through natural love and awe. Within them are clothed the ten sefiros of Atzilus, which are united with them absolutely. And the ten sefiros of Atzilus are absolutely united with their Emanator, the blessed Ein Sof.” Their Emanator, the blessed Ein Sof. “The souls, by contrast, are not incorporated into G-dliness and the ten sefiros. Rather, they stand in the chambers and dwelling places of Beriah and Yetzirah and enjoy the radiance of the Shechinah, which is the light of the blessed Ein Sof united with the ten sefiros of Beriah and Yetzirah. And this is the very radiance of their Torah and their service.” What is this trying... what is it telling us? Through a Jew’s service down here... This is the summary now; the next words summarize the whole chapter from the beginning until here. It also answers why the Rebbe suddenly starts discussing angels. Why should I care about angels? What’s so interesting about angels? When a Jew performs his service here, observes and fulfills mitzvos, and studies Torah with love and awe, his soul ascends to the higher worlds. And the Torah or the mitzvah itself doesn’t just ascend to the higher worlds: it ascends and unites with the G-dliness within them. The G-dliness in Yetzirah is one with the G-dliness in Beriah; within it shines the G-dliness of Atzilus; and within that shines the light of the blessed Ein Sof. The Torah and mitzvos I fulfill down here become united in complete unity, at the very least, with G-dliness. Why? Because the reward of a mitzvah is the mitzvah

46:31 Speaker 2 itself. So now we can begin to understand. This is where the explanation of why we’ve said all these things will really begin.

46:41 Speaker 3 Because now I’m more—

46:43 Speaker 2 We asked in the previous chapter: You explained to me that the intention is the soul. But just as Hakadosh Boruch Hu commanded us to perform the mitzvah, He commanded us to do it with love and fear. So why do you call one the body and the other the soul? Both are G-dly lights. Both are Hashem’s will. Right? What’s the difference? So we’ll explain that now. To understand what intention is, we need to understand that its reward tells us what it is. The reward for a mitzvah isn’t payment; it’s a result of the mitzvah. If the reward for performing a mitzvah is that we enjoy the radiance of G-dly light, what does that tell us about the intention itself? It is the G-dly light itself. Right? So that whole discussion we had earlier—where the angels stand, where the souls stand, where the worlds stand—what was it meant to explain, demonstrate and show us? That the intention with which I perform a mitzvah in love and fear—my love and fear, which I can barely feel, if I feel them at all—is actual G-dliness. And not just G-dliness, but G-dliness that becomes completely united with the light of Ein Sof. Now he’s going to explain this a little. We’ll skip the small print here.

48:27 Speaker 3 This little section here is an explanation.

48:29 Speaker 2 Huh?

48:30 Speaker 3 The little section is an explanation.

48:31 Speaker 2 It’s a bit more of a discussion than an explanation.

48:35 Speaker 3 Really.

48:36 Speaker 2 What time is it now?

48:39 Speaker 3 Six.

48:39 Speaker 2 Hmm?

48:41 Speaker 3 A quarter to five.

48:41 Speaker 2 A quarter to five. We’re also going to skip the next section, contrary to our usual practice. There are three sections here now: “The World of Atzilus” is one section, then “And for This Tzimtzum,” and after that “The Root of His Soul.” Yes?

48:58 Speaker 3 Yes.

48:58 Speaker 2 These three sections are one long digression. It’s as though the Alter Rebbe put them in parentheses. We’ve been talking about Jews whose avodah is in the worlds of Yetzirah and Beriah. What about Atzilus? Where did it disappear to in this whole discussion? So in these three sections the Alter Rebbe explains—I’ll just give you the gist briefly—that the great tzaddikim whose avodah is on the level of a chariot, since all their avodah is one of bittul to G-dliness, their reward too, when their souls ascend on high, is in a place of bittul to G-dliness. What place is that? The world of Atzilus.

49:55 Speaker 3 Just an unrelated question.

49:56 Speaker 2 Hmm?

49:57 Speaker 3 Completely unrelated.

49:59 Speaker 4 Usually, on Shabbos, they finish a whole chapter. Right?

50:04 Speaker 2 In a leap year.

50:06 Speaker 4 Why did he divide it here? Because it’s a digression? As in, it isn’t a whole chapter.

50:12 Speaker 3 That was on Shabbos.

50:13 Speaker 4 No.

50:14 Speaker 2 This year it’s Wednesday.

50:15 Speaker 4 That was on Shabbos in a leap year.

50:17 Speaker 2 This year it’s Wednesday.

50:19 Speaker 4 Right.

50:20 Speaker 2 Ah.

50:22 Speaker 3 It isn’t actually a whole chapter; they just study a longer section.

50:26 Speaker 2 But often—

50:27 Speaker 3 It’s a whole chapter.

50:28 Speaker 2 Often it’s a whole section.

50:29 Speaker 3 A whole chapter, chapter two in its entirety. It isn’t split into parts. It’s the entire section. All in all, it’s longer than the other days. Look at what we had on Wednesday when it fell on Shabbos—it really is long. And then, when we started from Tuesday, it got shorter.

50:43 Speaker 2 Let’s put it this way: I’ve heard that question many times, but to this day I haven’t seen an explanation.

50:48 Speaker 3 What question?

50:50 Speaker 4 Which chapters—

50:51 Speaker 2 About the relationship between the daily division and why it’s long here and short there, why he made a break here and there, changed it here and didn’t change it there.

51:01 Speaker 3 The long one is a chapter—

51:02 Speaker 2 In some places it’s very clear; the explanation practically jumps out at you. But in other places, I simply don’t know.

51:10 Speaker 4 I thought it was just because you said it was a digression. It didn’t bother me.

51:14 Speaker 2 It’s a digression in the sense that it doesn’t relate to us. It’s about tzaddikim. You’re asking me what tzaddikim are? The avodah of tzaddikim is that of a chariot. Not only is it above natural love, it’s also above intellectual love. Their love is on the level of the bittul of a chariot; they have no will of their own at all. They don’t need to contemplate in order to arouse love and fear. They are love and fear. So this is about a different kind of person. That’s what he explains in those three sections. We’ll continue on line fourteen, at the bottom of page 54. “Behold, the reward of a mitzvah is the mitzvah itself”—meaning that its reward tells us its nature and level. “We have no dealings with the hidden matters pertaining to great tzaddikim”—that was what the previous three sections dealt with—“who are on the level of a chariot, only with what has been revealed to us.” We’re mainly discussing what relates to us, “which every person should pursue, to know with certainty the nature and level of serving Hashem with fear and love revealed in his heart.” What are we dealing with in this chapter? Knowing with certainty the nature and level of serving Hashem with fear and love revealed in the heart, which are drawn from understanding, avodah—

56:15 Speaker 5 It will have an effect on the heart. So in the heart—it doesn’t penetrate the heart. But what does happen? He reaches an intellectual conclusion, a decision, that this is how he should behave. Now it isn’t just intellectual agreement and a decision. His heart doesn’t object to it; his heart agrees. In other words, a person might say, “I know this is what I should do, but in my heart I really don’t want it.” That can happen, right? I understand that this is what I should do, but my heart is screaming, “Leave me alone.” That isn’t what we’re talking about. “A hidden love in the recesses of his heart” means that it’s in his heart: in his mind he has already understood and decided, and his heart already agrees. There’s already the beginning of a revealed love here. You can’t call it love—it isn’t an emotion. But yes, it is love. This is called “a hidden love in his mind and in the recesses of his heart.” It begins in the mind and is in the heart, somewhat concealed there. That’s what we’re talking about. So when we speak of this kind of love, if even that is absent, it means he hasn’t contemplated at all. He performs the mitzvah out of habit. It isn’t that he thought about it and understood that he needs to love Hakadosh Boruch Hu. No. He does it because everyone does. Then “this avodah remains below, in the world of separation, called the external aspect of the worlds, and it has no power to ascend and be included in His unity, which is the ten holy sefiros. As it is written in Tikkunim: ‘Without fear and love, it cannot soar upward, nor can it ascend and stand before Hashem.’” We need to pay attention here. As we said at the beginning of the class, and at length in the first three chapters—that is, chapters 35 through 37—when a Jew performs a mitzvah, it draws down G-dliness. Completely. He can’t then make the bracha a second time. We discussed that at length. And it accomplishes the avodah of birurim—

58:29 Speaker 5 and sanctifies the world. Remember? We spoke about that at length, right? What is he saying here?

58:32 Speaker 6 It draws down, but it doesn’t ascend.

58:34 Speaker 5 What are you saying here? If you don’t have intention—at least you intended something. Nothing. “It cannot soar upward.”

58:43 Speaker 6 It doesn’t ascend.

58:43 Speaker 5 That makes sense to me, yes.

58:44 Speaker 6 It continues to draw down below, yes, but it itself doesn’t ascend.

58:47 Speaker 5 Yes. So that’s the answer. He’ll say it explicitly in the next chapter. That’s the point.

58:52 Speaker 7 But, but I have a question.

58:53 Speaker 5 Yes.

58:55 Speaker 7 Doesn’t the Rebbe usually, like—

58:58 Speaker 5 By the way, what it means that it “doesn’t ascend” itself requires a great deal of explanation, but that’s another matter.

59:05 Speaker 7 I’m asking whether the Rebbe gives them some other kind of avodah, not the avodah of Tanya?

59:10 Speaker 5 I didn’t understand.

59:12 Speaker 7 I feel—I don’t know—that the avodah of Tanya is almost impossible. It seems to me that the Rebbe looks at it a little differently, doesn’t he? For example, we were talking here about doing something not for its own sake, about action without love and fear.

59:32 Speaker 5 Yes.

59:33 Speaker 7 That without intention, it’s basically not... But the Rebbe says that action is the main thing. And also—sorry to interrupt—the Rebbe says that doing something not for its own sake leads to doing it for its own sake. So it seems like a slightly different goal. As though—

59:47 Speaker 5 So, two things. If I’ve understood you correctly—and if I start talking nonsense, stop me halfway through. If I’ve understood you correctly: First of all, I deliberately teach primarily from the explanations printed around the text here, which were reviewed by the Rebbe. That’s the basis for what I say aloud. What I add here and there that isn’t written here comes mainly from Rabbi Yoel Kahn’s explanations in Chassidus Mevueres. Both are based on—well, Esterman, what was his name? Esterman, who was the first mashpia in Lubavitch. In fact, all the explanations of Chabad Chassidus given by the mashpi’im of our generation come from what they heard from him. So the explanations I give—I haven’t invented anything. It’s possible that I haven’t understood or don’t remember something, here and there, but it’s all based on written material that follows the Rebbe’s approach. Now, what you’re saying about action being the main thing—

1:01:08 Speaker 8 No, and also the idea that doing something not for its own sake leads to doing it for its own sake.

1:01:10 Speaker 5 First of all, the idea that action is the main thing was discussed at great length over three chapters. Chapters 35, 36, and 37 explained at length that action is the main thing, that through action we reach the purpose of creation and refine the world, and that Moshiach comes through action—and through subduing the yetzer hara. That was discussed at tremendous length. Action is the main thing; it is the foundation of everything.

1:01:39 Speaker 8 But if action without intention doesn’t count, then intention is the main thing.

1:01:45 Speaker 5 So after explaining at length the importance and the virtue of action, he now comes to explain that, ultimately—as it also says in Hayom Yom, from the Rebbe, by the way—action without intention is like a body without a soul. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants an illuminated dwelling place. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants action, but He wants the action to shine. That is part of the Divine intent. So in these three chapters, the emphasis really is on intention, because that is what these chapters are about. If action is so important, why is intention required of us at all? Here he brings out and elevates the idea of intention. That is what these chapters are about.

1:02:39 Speaker 8 With intention, as the Rabbi said, with the hidden love—is it simply a matter of remembering before doing something to say, “I’m doing this because…”? Like, remembering why I’m doing it? How does that work?

1:02:50 Speaker 5 Chapter 25. We learned it once.

1:02:53 Speaker 8 I wasn’t here the whole time, so... All right, wait, I’ll try.

1:03:01 Speaker 9 I have a question about that. If without intention it doesn’t rise Above, then you said it doesn’t count, right?

1:03:06 Speaker 5 Yes.

1:03:07 Speaker 9 But didn’t he write somewhere that it rises Above anyway—maybe not to Beriah, maybe to Yetzirah?

1:03:12 Speaker 5 No, no, no.

1:03:12 Speaker 9 Around chapter 17, chapter 17.

1:03:14 Speaker 5 No, no, no.

1:03:16 Speaker 9 He didn’t say that?

1:03:17 Speaker 5 No, no. I don’t know what you mean, but there’s no such thing. Without intention, it doesn’t rise Above. Action draws down; intention raises up. We need to—again, as I told you, we need to understand what it means for intention to raise something up. That is a subject in its own right.

1:03:38 Speaker 9 Intention means love and awe.

1:03:39 Speaker 5 Hmm?

1:03:39 Speaker 9 Intention means love and awe.

1:03:40 Speaker 5 Yes, that’s what I emphasized at the beginning of the class. When the Tanya speaks about intention, it means love and awe, not some lofty thoughts. All right, do we have a few more seconds to talk about another chapter? Yes or no? So all of that was about someone who acts without any particular intention—not for the sake of Heaven. Not because—no, that’s not it. “Now, even if he is not engaged in it truly for an ulterior motive, G-d forbid, but rather, as it is written, ‘Their awe of Me has become a commandment of men learned by rote’—meaning, out of the habit formed in him from childhood, when his father and teacher accustomed him and taught him to fear Hashem and serve Him—and he is not truly engaged in it for its own sake. For truly doing so for its own sake is impossible without at least awakening the natural love and awe, bringing them out from concealment in the heart into awareness in the mind and the hidden recesses of the heart. For just as a person does nothing for another to fulfill his wishes unless he loves or fears him, so it is impossible to be truly engaged in serving Hashem for His sake, solely to fulfill His will, without any recollection or awakening of love and awe of Him in one’s mind, thoughts, or hidden recesses of the heart.” You can’t truly do something you don’t really believe in. It’s simple. “And love alone is not called service without at least the lower level of awe, which is hidden in the heart of every Jew, as explained below.” In the next chapter: love without awe, or awe without love, won’t do. To fly, you need two wings. You can’t fly with one wing. So all of that applies when someone simply acts without intention, neither for the sake of Heaven nor expressly for an ulterior motive. But then there is someone who really is engaged in it for an ulterior motive. Why is he learning Torah now? Because he wants something out of it. He learns Torah for his own honor. Why does he learn Torah? He wants people to call him a Torah scholar. He wants them to honor him. That’s the point.

1:05:37 Speaker 5 I know a lot of people like that. He learns every day—that’s why he learns.

1:05:45 Speaker 10 It matters to him that people know he learns.

1:05:47 Speaker 5 Huh?

1:05:47 Speaker 10 It matters that people know he learns.

1:05:52 Speaker 5 And similarly, it could be for all sorts of other things. Yes, but he wants them to give him honor, to appreciate him. “Then that ulterior motive, which comes from kelipas nogah, becomes clothed in his Torah study, and the Torah is, for the time being, in a state of exile within the kelipah, until he does teshuvah, which brings healing to the world; when he returns to Hashem, his Torah returns with him.”

1:06:14 Speaker 11 They teach this to all the Litvaks too, don’t they? They teach them that you’re supposed to learn for its own sake and not for your own honor, right?

1:06:25 Speaker 10 For them, honor is the whole point.

1:06:29 Speaker 11 That’s what you asked.

1:06:30 Speaker 5 There, there—

1:06:31 Speaker 11 A great one.

1:06:32 Speaker 5 There, “for its own sake” has a different meaning.

1:06:34 Speaker 11 What?

1:06:34 Speaker 5 In his wife’s name.

1:06:40 Speaker 11 No, but seriously now, I mean, if—

1:06:45 Speaker 12 No, in the analytical discussions they teach them that too.

1:06:47 Speaker 5 That’s even worse.

1:06:48 Speaker 10 No, not in the analytical discussions.

1:06:50 Speaker 11 So maybe we’re saying one thing and they—

1:06:53 Speaker 10 They have a lot to aspire to in that regard. No, not out of—

1:06:55 Speaker 11 But she has more [unclear]. I mean, when they’re young, maybe we can sort of hide somewhere, overcome it.

1:07:09 Speaker 5 Let’s do a few more—just a few more lines.

1:07:11 Speaker 10 Anyone who learns the Tanya and reaches these chapters, I hope—

1:07:17 Speaker 11 But I don’t understand. There’s only one Torah.

1:07:19 Speaker 10 It has seventy faces.

1:07:20 Speaker 5 Wait, just a few more lines, okay? Let’s finish a little more.

1:07:24 Speaker 12 It says that here throughout the chapter, doesn’t it?

1:07:26 Speaker 5 What?

1:07:27 Speaker 12 I said that at the beginning.

1:07:29 Speaker 5 Yes, yes. “And therefore our Sages said, ‘A person should always engage in it,’ etc., because ‘from doing it not for its own sake, he will come to do it for its own sake.’ For he will certainly eventually do teshuvah, in this lifetime or another, since ‘no one banished from Him will remain banished.’” Ultimately, every Jew will do teshuvah. Every Jew has a G-dly soul, and that G-dly soul is calling to him inside. At some point it will awaken. He has no choice; at some point he will do teshuvah. So first of all, learn Torah. Why? Even if you’re learning it not for its own sake, and that’s not for its own sake and it’s kelipah, it’s kelipas nogah. It’s not the three impure kelipos. After all, he is learning Torah, though it becomes clothed in kelipah.

1:08:04 Speaker 11 It can descend into the three impure kelipos.

1:08:06 Speaker 5 What?

1:08:06 Speaker 10 Torah study can descend into the three impure kelipos.

1:08:08 Speaker 11 Does the Rabbi say that?

1:08:10 Speaker 5 Ah, that’s what it says in Shulchan Aruch. Shulchan Aruch, [unclear].

1:08:17 Speaker 11 The Rabbi also says something like that, that it also...

1:08:19 Speaker 5 It’s mentioned in several places. We don’t emphasize it, but it is mentioned in several places. In any case, ordinary Torah study, even Torah study that is truly not for its own sake, is kelipas nogah. So learn Torah. Why? Because ultimately, you will certainly do teshuvah. The Torah says you will do teshuvah. And when you do teshuvah, what you learned will also come out of the kelipos. In the end, it won’t be lost. In this lifetime or another, since “no one banished from Him will remain banished.” “But when he acts without any particular intention—neither for its own sake nor truly for an ulterior motive—it does not depend on teshuvah. Rather, as soon as he returns and learns that subject for its own sake, what he previously learned without any particular intention also joins with this study and rises Above, since no kelipas nogah has yet become clothed in it. And therefore, ‘A person should always engage in it,’ etc. The same applies to prayer without intention, as stated in the Zohar.” With the... Maybe we’ll start more generally; it’s easier to understand that way. A shechitah knife: if someone takes an ordinary kitchen knife, sharpens it a little, and goes to slaughter an animal, then without even checking the knife, halachah says the animal is treif. Why is it treif? Maybe he sharpened it properly? Oh, come on. If you haven’t learned how to prepare a knife and haven’t practiced it—and it takes a lot of practice—it takes many, many hours of training in sharpening a knife, hundreds and hundreds of hours of practice.

1:10:09 Speaker 11 Isn’t that what you do when learning shechitah—sharpen the knife?

1:10:13 Speaker 5 No. After finishing the study of the laws, you start practicing how to prepare a knife. Learning to prepare a knife takes hundreds, even thousands, of hours of practice before you manage to prepare your first one. You have to prepare the knife. That means sharpening it by hand on a whetstone, because apparently they still haven’t invented a machine that can bring a knife to that level. Its edge has to be like what they call a razor’s edge. In other words, when you come to a thick piece of meat, it cuts through it like water. Just like that, without, without... That’s the standard required. And there mustn’t be a single nick anywhere along the knife that you can feel with your fingernail, or even your finger. If you run your finger gently along it, this way or that way, on any of the four sides, and feel even the slightest thing, the knife is invalid. Now, if someone takes a kitchen knife that wasn’t made for this, that doesn’t have the special metal, and some random whetstone from the attic, and tries to sharpen it, there’s no chance it will come out kosher. Because he hasn’t learned, he doesn’t know how, and he doesn’t have the right tools. If that’s true in the physical realm, how much more so, many times over, in the spiritual realm. Someone who not only hasn’t studied or contemplated these things, but doesn’t even know such subjects exist in Torah—what can you expect of him? I mean, what’s so surprising? Is it surprising that he doesn’t know?

1:12:05 Speaker 11 No, but as we said, you can’t expect it of him.

1:12:08 Speaker 5 Right.

1:12:09 Speaker 11 But yes, we don’t expect it.

1:12:11 Speaker 5 The demand is on us. That we... [unclear].

1:12:16 Speaker 11 No, but all those years, for that matter, even before the Baal Shem Tov, even before Chabad Chassidus—so what? All those... Not shechitah; people performed shechitah. It’s not that everyone who just...

1:12:25 Speaker 5 We weren’t talking about shechitah now.

1:12:27 Speaker 11 Shechitah was just an analogy. So what, people studied Torah, and this was unheard of? And who studied Torah?

1:12:39 Speaker 5 You have to distinguish between the period before the revelation of Chassidus and the period after it. Which one are you asking about?

1:12:47 Speaker 11 Before the revelation of Chassidus. There were still so many people then. I mean, there were still differences between those who studied Torah, and those who didn’t study anything at all.

1:12:57 Speaker 5 Before the revelation of Chassidus, it was a different matter.

1:13:01 Speaker 11 So you’re saying they were excused until then.

1:13:03 Speaker 5 No, it isn’t a matter of being excused. There was no need for it.

1:13:06 Speaker 11 Ah, okay. So now, then...

1:13:08 Speaker 5 Why was there no need for it?

1:13:10 Speaker 11 What do you mean, no need? Because they simply weren’t tzaddikim then.

1:13:12 Speaker 5 What?

1:13:13 Speaker 11 I mean it. There simply weren’t, weren’t any tzaddikim at all. We’re on a much higher level than they were. We study Chabad Chassidus. That goes way back, yes.

1:13:25 Speaker 5 When we get to Igeres Hakodesh, there’s a letter there from that Rebbe. Yes, from...

1:13:29 Speaker 11 Where is that mentioned again?

1:13:31 Speaker 5 There’s a letter there...

1:13:32 Speaker 11 Generations. There’s, uh, I just read a boring story. All right, it spoke about the generations of Rabbi... Rabbi Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov’s student. He wouldn’t eat at the Baal Shem Tov’s home on Pesach because he said that the Baal Shem Tov...

1:13:43 Speaker 5 Have you ever heard the verse, the, uh, verse? It’s a verse. The kingdom of the House of David.

1:13:50 Speaker 11 What?

1:13:51 Speaker 5 A verse about the kingdom. David’s kingdom is called the kingdom of the House of David.

1:13:55 Speaker 11 Okay.

1:13:57 Speaker 5 But there are places in the teachings of our Sages, in the Gemara, where it isn’t called the House of David; it’s called the sukkah of David. In some places it’s called the fallen sukkah of David.

1:14:09 Speaker 11 The fallen one. Yes, that’s the...

1:14:11 Speaker 5 There are places like that too. So what’s the difference? The difference is that the Jewish people count by the moon and are compared to the moon. The other nations count by the sun, as the Gemara says. And the Jewish people count by the moon and are compared to the moon. In what way are the Jewish people like the moon? There are several things. One is that on the fifteenth of the month, the moon is at its fullest. Right? The fifteenth...

1:14:42 Speaker 11 Yes.

1:14:43 Speaker 5 A full moon. How does that relate to the Jewish people? Because in the fifteenth generation of the Jewish people, there were David and Shlomo, who built the Beis Hamikdash. The entire Jewish people were in their land; they had already been here for four hundred years. A kingdom that ruled over the whole world, not through force, but because all the nations of the world respected them. There was a revelation of G-dliness; prophets were everywhere. Now Hakadosh Boruch Hu revealed Himself, and they built the Beis Hamikdash. People from all the nations of the world came to offer sacrifices at the Beis Hamikdash and see the service there. Anyone approaching could see from kilometers away the miracle of the column of smoke rising straight up, with none of the winds in Jerusalem disturbing it. They went inside and saw one miracle after another, with their own eyes. Every Jew living in the Land—and there were millions here—would go to the Beis Hamikdash three times a year. Two weeks to get there, two weeks to get back. In short, he was practically at the Beis Hamikdash all year. And the Jewish people lived. We have to remember that prophets lived in that period. Apart from the prophets whose prophecies were needed for future generations and were written in the Torah, hundreds and thousands of prophets walked around here. The spiritual level was one of revealed G-dliness. It wasn’t merely that no one doubted Hakadosh Boruch Hu existed. They felt and saw Him; they lived with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That’s called a house: G-dliness stood firm. That’s called the House of David. Later, because of the sins of the Jewish people, there was a fall, and the nations conquered the land, and so on. But some remnant of the House of David remained. So much so that even during the exile, there was a nasi from the House of David, from the tribe of Yehudah.

1:16:58 Speaker 14 [unclear][?], as I would put it.

1:17:00 Speaker 5 Yes, I don’t remember the details anymore. And that’s called the sukkah of David. It’s no longer the House of David. And it isn’t merely that David’s kingdom had declined. The whole essence of David—of the revelation of G-dliness in the world—was no longer a house. It was diminished. There weren’t so many prophets; there were troubles and conquests, and there was no Beis Hamikdash. It wasn’t the same anymore. Later, the exile of the Jewish people became a complete exile, and then it was called the fallen sukkah of David. And the Alter Rebbe writes: “It continues to fall from generation to generation.”

1:17:34 Speaker 14 Oy, oy, oy.

1:17:37 Speaker 5 So as long as there was some revelation of G-dliness... The holy Baal Shem Tov—after the Baal Shem Tov passed away, he had instructed that his son, Rabbi Tzvi, take his place. After a year, he appeared to him in a dream and told him, “The holy fellowship has gone over to Rabbi Dov Ber.” The next day, at the Shavuos festive meal, Rabbi Tzvi told them...

1:18:12 Speaker 14 There really was politics.

1:18:14 Speaker 5 So Rabbi Tzvi got up and told them at the farbrengen, “Last night my father appeared to me and said that the holy fellowship had gone over to Dov Ber.” He rose from his place, took off his special garments, his rabbinic robe, and they exchanged places. Rabbi Dov Ber put on the garments, and Rabbi Tzvi sat with the rest of the people. That’s how they changed over. So...

1:18:39 Speaker 14 So he actually [unclear]?

1:18:41 Speaker 5 One of the stories connected with this is that the Baal Shem Tov later appeared to the Maggid. The Baal Shem Tov told the Maggid, “I never imagined that just one year after my passing there would be such darkness in the world, such a decline in the world.”

1:19:06 Speaker 14 Oy. Who did he say that to?

1:19:13 Speaker 5 To the Maggid. So, even then, there was still... We were talking about a revelation of G-dliness.

1:19:23 Speaker 14 In today’s generation?

1:19:24 Speaker 5 We were talking... But that was the very end of it. Later, when it was no longer there, something was needed to give the Jew life. The Baal Shem Tov arose and established an approach, an understanding that G-dliness could be brought down through the intellect. Through the Maggid and the Alter Rebbe, that expanded and became a complete system: not just intellect, but even the intellect of people who aren’t tzaddikim—beinonim, ordinary people—could grasp G-dliness. That hadn’t existed before. Why not? How could it? G-dliness isn’t something you can understand; it doesn’t belong to the intellect. As we’ve understood now, it’s G-dliness, it’s above the intellect, it’s Atzilus. There had been no need for this. The Alter Rebbe performed a miracle. He took the very essence of G-dliness and brought it down so that we could sit here and understand it. That isn’t something natural.

1:20:32 Speaker 15 No, that really struck me. I mean, why should we be given the privilege of understanding such things?

1:20:38 Speaker 5 For two reasons. On one hand, because the need arose; on the other, because the light of Moshiach had begun to shine. It’s preparation for the Geulah.

1:20:49 Speaker 15 So because we’ll reach a time when we’ll live with this, and [unclear], then it’s as if we’ll have less time to make the effort? I mean, is there a balance, or are we...

1:21:00 Speaker 5 We have to prepare the world.

1:21:10 Speaker 15 Yes. Bye, teacher.