Likkutei Amarim Chapter 41 (Part 1) · 5785

00:01 Speaker 1 Okay, we’ve reached chapter 41. This is one of the most fundamental chapters in Tanya, and in Chassidus altogether. So much so that the Rebbe instructed many people to memorize the beginning of this chapter, its first few lines. Many, many people received that instruction from the Rebbe—

00:31 Speaker 2 Me too.

00:32 Speaker 1 What?

00:32 Speaker 2 Me too.

00:33 Speaker 1 You received it too.

00:34 Speaker 2 What, did you memorize it?

00:35 Speaker 1 No, I started. When he said it, I thought, wait, it should start from “the beginning of the service and its essence” there. I don’t remember it by heart, but I’ve read it many times. Many people received an instruction from the Rebbe to memorize the beginning of this chapter, and it’s no accident that the Rebbe chose this chapter. There’s a story about chassidim that I once saw; I don’t remember where right now. A story about the Alter Rebbe’s chassidim. In Chabad there were always maskilim and ovdim. Maskilim were those who studied and understood, people with great understanding of Chassidus. And there were chassidim who were simpler people, not such great scholars, but they worked on their davening. With the little they knew, they would daven for hours and hours and hours, exerting themselves in prayer. There were always maskilim and ovdim. And it’s said that among the Alter Rebbe’s chassidim, when the Alter Rebbe wrote the Tanya, the maskilim studied up to chapter 40. The ovdim finished the Tanya; they studied it all the way through. What’s behind that saying? It’s a Chassidic saying. In other words, everything we’ve studied in Tanya until now is theory. There’s a great deal about avodah—how to reach... what should you contemplate in order to arouse the hidden love? And how do you arouse an intellectually generated love? And that you have to be joyful, and the advice for serving Hashem. There’s a lot there; it’s all about avodah. But the heart of serving Hashem begins with our chapter. It begins here and rests on this chapter. From our chapter to the end of Tanya is really the core of the beinoni’s service of Hashem. So...

02:31 Speaker 2 Some people make a point of reading it before davening, too.

02:35 Speaker 1 Right, as I was saying, some people were told by the Rebbe to memorize it; some study this chapter every day, or read its beginning before davening every morning. And we’ll see why right at the beginning. Now, look: there’s a title page at the beginning. We’ll start with the title page today. It’s something I wrote, but it gives a general point about the whole chapter and explains why it’s so important. What this chapter explains is the need for lower-level awe even in the service of love. What I mean is this: the chapter’s new point is that awe is needed not only to turn away from evil. In chapter 4, at the beginning of Tanya, if you remember, the Alter Rebbe says there that love is the root of all the positive mitzvos, and awe is the root of the prohibitions. Do you remember that part? Do you remember? If not, that’s okay.

03:43 Speaker 2 I remember a little.

03:44 Speaker 1 No, that’s why we need to... It’s important to mention it here. On a simple level, what’s behind that statement? The Alter Rebbe says that love is the root of all 248 positive mitzvos. If someone loves Hashem, he’ll do what Hashem wants, right? Because he loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu, wants to fulfill His will, wants to draw close to Him, he’ll do His will. So love is the root of all 248 positive mitzvos. And someone who is in awe of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, who has awe of Hashem, will be afraid to commit transgressions. Right? So on a simple level, awe of Hashem is the root of all the prohibitions, of turning away from evil, and love of Hashem is the root of doing good. Right? What did we learn in the chapters just before this one? Someone might come along and say, “I only love Hashem,” or “I only have awe of Hashem.” That won’t work. Why? For Torah and mitzvos to ascend Above, you need both love and awe. Why? Love and awe are like wings. Just as a bird can’t fly with only one wing—it needs two wings—so for our Torah and mitzvos to ascend and become united in the higher worlds, we need both love and awe. That’s what we learned in the previous chapters. But even according to that explanation... At first it said, and explained, that love is one thing and awe is another. Then, in the recent chapters we studied, the Alter Rebbe adds that although each is something in its own right, we need both. Why do we need both? Because for a mitzvah to rise Above, there must be both love and awe. Here the Alter Rebbe adds something much deeper. It’s not just that you need both awe and love; love has to come from awe. Do you hear what

06:02 Speaker 1 I’m saying?

06:04 Speaker 7 It’s as though they’re one thing.

06:08 Speaker 1 The point the Alter Rebbe makes throughout this chapter, which all the following chapters also build on, is that love of Hashem, doing good, has to come from awe. We’ll see it right at the beginning of the chapter. Then he’ll elaborate and explain. It begins like this: “However, one must always remember the beginning of the service, and its essence and root.” What does “however” mean? It means “but.” Despite everything we’ve said before, remember that... Right? What were we saying before, that now calls for a “but”? Throughout the previous chapters, we said that the main service is love of Hashem. “There is no service like the service of love.” You have to contemplate Hashem’s greatness in order to cleave to Hashem. And only when a person loves Hashem and fulfills the mitzvos with love does the mitzvah ascend Above. It’s all about love. He also mentioned awe, that awe is necessary, but the whole explanation was about love of Hashem. What does he say here? Despite the many chapters in which we discussed at great length the need for love and how to attain it, remember that the beginning, essence and root of the service is awe. Yes. There are three words here. The Alter Rebbe doesn’t stop at... the beginning of the service, its essence and its root. When you say something is the beginning, what does “beginning” mean?

07:40 Speaker 7 The start, right?

07:40 Speaker 1 It’s the start. That is... If you say about—

07:43 Speaker 7 It’s the beginning and the end.

07:45 Speaker 1 Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. No. When you say that awe is the beginning of the service, what do you understand? The service itself is a service of love. But to be able to serve Hashem with love, you first need awe, right? That’s the beginning of the service. The Alter Rebbe adds that awe isn’t just a prerequisite, it isn’t just the start of the service; it’s also the essence of the service. The essence of the service? The essence of serving Hashem with love is awe. When we say that the foundation is the mainstay of a house, right? The whole house stands on its foundation. Without a foundation, the house would fall. Right? What do you see? You see the house. Do you see the foundation? No. What does the whole house stand on? The foundation. The foundation is the main thing. You don’t see it, but it’s the main thing. It holds everything up. It’s not merely a prerequisite to building; it holds the building up, too. Right? With a tree, people ask: what’s the main part of the tree? Trunk, branches, roots. What’s the main part of the tree?

09:03 Speaker 8 Fruit.

09:04 Speaker 1 Huh?

09:04 Speaker 8 Fruit.

09:05 Speaker 1 Usually, when you ask what the tree itself is, it’s the trunk. It’s the—

09:08 Speaker 8 No, but what’s the main part, or what’s—

09:10 Speaker 1 No, what’s the—

09:10 Speaker 8 Its purpose.

09:11 Speaker 1 It’s what... When you look at it, you say, what—

09:13 Speaker 8 No, say which part of it is important.

09:15 Speaker 1 Yes, all right.

09:16 Speaker 8 It’s the root.

09:17 Speaker 1 Yes, yes, yes. I didn’t phrase it right. That’s what I mean. The tree—

09:21 Speaker 8 The roots, the trunk.

09:23 Speaker 1 The tree is the trunk, right? Do you see the trunk? You can barely see it. You see the branches, the leaves, the fruit. When you look at a tree, the main part of the tree’s appearance is the trunk. You don’t see the trunk.

09:36 Speaker 8 People even carve things into it.

09:40 Speaker 1 So the Alter Rebbe says that awe isn’t just a prerequisite to the service; it’s also its essence. We have to understand what that means, right? He says even more than that: it’s also the root of the service. What’s the root of a tree? It’s where the tree gets its life. Right? In other words, awe is the root of love. For the service of loving Hashem to have vitality, you need awe. When there is love, there also has to be awe. And if there’s no awe, that person’s love of Hashem will be dry, without vitality.

10:19 Speaker 8 That’s like people who say, “I love Hashem, I love Hashem,” and...

10:23 Speaker 1 That’s what’s often called wishful thinking.

10:30 Speaker 8 What does that mean?

10:31 Speaker 1 Wishful thinking. It says in chapter 1 of the—chapter 3 of Tanya that someone who thinks he has love and fear but hasn’t worked at it is engaging in wishful thinking. If he hasn’t fixed his mind on it firmly and persistently—all the expressions used there. What does that mean? The Rebbe said something here that... What’s the idea? It says: “For although fear is the root of turning away from evil, and love is the root of doing good, nevertheless, it is not enough to awaken love alone in order to do good. At the very least, one must first awaken the natural fear hidden in the heart of every Jew, not to rebel against the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, as explained above, so that it is revealed in his heart, or at least in his mind.” That’s what it says. All right, perhaps we’ll come back to that. First of all, love alone isn’t enough. There has to be fear too. Right? When does the fear have to be there? At the time of the love, or at least at the beginning. What kind of fear? At least the natural fear hidden in the heart of every Jew. What does that natural fear, embedded in every Jew’s soul, say? Do not rebel against the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Do not rebel. Kabbolas ol. And that kabbolas ol has to be revealed in his heart, or at least in his mind. What does it mean for it to be revealed at least in his mind? To contemplate it in his thoughts. The Alter Rebbe is speaking about fear, but he isn’t really speaking about fear itself. When he speaks about fear here, he means kabbolas ol. There are two levels of kabbolas ol. Even before we speak about fear—fear is in the heart—there is kabbolas ol, the most basic, simplest level of fear. That means even within kabbolas ol... Is the difference between fear and kabbolas ol clear?

13:03 Speaker 9 No.

13:03 Speaker 1 Fear is a feeling: he feels afraid. Kabbolas ol means he has to do it.

13:09 Speaker 9 He accepts what he’s told.

13:10 Speaker 1 He accepts that what needs to be done must be done. He doesn’t feel any emotion. Fear is an emotion in the heart. With kabbolas ol, he has decided, he understands, and he has to do it.

13:18 Speaker 9 No, he has no choice.

13:18 Speaker 1 Yes, but it doesn’t have to be a matter of having no choice. It can be with joy, with great joy. He accepts the yoke—he understands that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is something great, and he accepts the yoke joyfully. He doesn’t have to feel constrained by it. But he isn’t doing it out of a feeling of fear of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He understands that he is a Jew, he understands what that means and how important it is, and he wants to do it. He decides and he does it. That’s kabbolas ol: he takes upon himself to do whatever... Let’s give an immediate example. There’s a law in this country, right? You have to issue a receipt; you have to give a receipt to everyone who pays you. Right? Now suppose the person doesn’t want a receipt. Do I issue one or not?

14:04 Speaker 9 You still have to issue one.

14:06 Speaker 1 Hold on. The law certainly says you have to issue one, but now I have a choice. I know he’s my friend, right? He won’t report me, and if I don’t issue a receipt, I’ll make a little more money. Will I do it or not? A person who accepts the authority of the state won’t do it, even though he knows no one will catch him. It’s forbidden, so he doesn’t do it. Right? It’s not that he loves the state or fears the state. No. He understands; he has taken it upon himself to act according to the law. There’s no particular emotion involved. Right? An emotion would be if he did it because he was afraid, or because he had great respect—or a feeling of fear or respect. But he isn’t doing it out of emotion, only out of kabbolas ol. The Alter Rebbe says that even in simple kabbolas ol there are two levels. There is kabbolas ol in the heart, and there is kabbolas ol in the mind. What’s the difference? There’s someone who... because he contemplated it, and not only contemplated it but also thought deeply about it, his kabbolas ol... We’ll soon see what he thinks deeply about. He contemplates it, thinks about it, and invests time in it until kabbolas ol becomes part of him. He doesn’t need to think about it anymore. Right? It becomes part of him. He’s used to it, he’s thought deeply about it, and he understands how important it is. Here’s an example. It’s a rather crude example, but it illustrates the point very well. I know quite a few Jews who would be shaken if you told them not to issue a receipt. “What? What do you mean, not issue a receipt? That’s just not done!” Right? It has already entered the heart. It isn’t fear, but kabbolas ol embedded within him. Then there’s someone

16:06 Speaker 1 whose kabbolas ol is in his mind. He has thought about it and understands it, so he does it, but it hasn’t really become one with him in his heart. What’s the difference when it comes to accepting the yoke of Heaven? When is it in the heart, and when is it only in the mind? If he has fixed his mind on the greatness of Hashem and contemplated it until it touched his heart, then it has touched his heart. But if his heart isn’t so receptive, his intellect isn’t so strong, his soul isn’t on such a high level, or whatever the reason may be—or he hasn’t worked that hard at it—then he may have kabbolas ol only in his mind and not in his heart. Those are the two levels. That’s what the Alter Rebbe is saying. For love of Hashem, for the service of love to be as it should, one must at least first awaken the natural fear hidden in the heart of every Jew, not to rebel against the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, as explained above. And this fear must be awakened: ideally, it should be revealed in his heart. He must think deeply about it until it is revealed in his heart. If he cannot, then it should at least be in his mind. What does it mean for it to be only in his mind and not in his heart? It means that he should at least contemplate it in his thoughts—not with deep concentration, just in thought. He should at least contemplate in his mind the greatness of the blessed Ein Sof and the kingship of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, whose kingship extends over all worlds, higher and lower. Hakadosh Boruch Hu, by His very nature, is King over all the worlds. How were all the worlds created? The very fact that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is King brings them into being from nothing. So He is King over all of them—not only over our world, but over the higher worlds too. And in what way does He

17:59 Speaker 1 reign over the worlds? How does He fill all worlds and encompass all worlds? How is He King over the worlds? Not like an ordinary king, who merely governs the people of his country. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is King in a way that He also gives life to the entire country, both by filling it and by encompassing it. We’ll talk more about that. We can’t cover it all now.

18:24 Speaker 10 Is that called “filling”?

18:25 Speaker 1 What?

18:26 Speaker 10 Is giving life called “filling”?

18:32 Speaker 1 I’ll digress for a moment and explain it in a few words, all right? We’ve learned several times that Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives life to the world and brings it into being through the Ten Utterances: the world was created through Ten Utterances. Utterances are speech. Speech is malchus; it is the name Elokim. Hakadosh Boruch Hu creates the world, bringing it into being from nothing, through the name Elokim. On the other hand, it says that the name Havayah is related to the word for “bringing into being”: He brings all the worlds into being, creating them from nothing. That is written too. So which name creates the worlds, Havayah or Elokim?

19:19 Speaker 10 They’re the same thing, aren’t they?

19:21 Speaker 1 No. The name Havayah signifies revelation, while the name Elokim signifies contraction, concealment, and hiding.

19:29 Speaker 10 The name Elokim is stated explicitly there.

19:31 Speaker 1 Hmm? The name Elokim is stated explicitly, and the name Havayah is also stated explicitly. How can it be both? And what does that mean?

19:38 Speaker 10 He made His name, He made...

19:41 Speaker 1 So, as I said, this isn’t the place to go deeply into the subject. These are topics discussed at length elsewhere. But the basic explanation is that the existence itself comes from the name Havayah. The Divine itself brings the existence itself into being. But what does He bring into being? What kind of existence? Hakadosh Boruch Hu made a heaven. “And Elokim said, ‘Let there be light,’ ‘Let there be a firmament,’ ‘Let there be’—I don’t know what—‘Let there be...’” Right? He created the animals. In what way did He create them? Which animals were created from the name Elokim? From the name Havayah?

20:25 Speaker 10 Which animals? All of them, no?

20:30 Speaker 1 No. None of them.

20:33 Speaker 10 Why not?

20:33 Speaker 1 Because throughout the account of Creation, only the name Elokim appears. The name Havayah never appears, not once. The name Elokim appears thirty-two times: “And Elokim said,” “And Elokim created.” The name Havayah never appears.

20:46 Speaker 10 So Elokim created the animals, didn’t He?

20:49 Speaker 1 So what? Then what does the name Havayah do? The explanation is this: existence itself comes from the name Havayah. A thing’s characteristics come from the name Elokim. What do I mean by its characteristics? That water is wet and the earth is hard; that an animal has a soul and something else doesn’t; that one thing is hot and another cold, one light and another heavy. All the inner and outer characteristics, everything we see, comes only from the name Elokim. What would existence look like without the name Elokim—if there were only the name Havayah, without the name Elokim?

21:26 Speaker 10 Good.

21:27 Speaker 1 No. “Good” also comes from the name Elokim. Good is a characteristic.

21:34 Speaker 10 Ein Sof?

21:36 Speaker 1 Ein Sof? So what was created? We have no idea, and there’s no way to picture, with the human imagination, what a world created through the name Havayah looks like. Simple oneness. He Himself is simple oneness, and all the beings created from Him are also simple oneness. Imagine that something was created—say, I don’t know, an elephant, right? But it has no elephant shape, no elephant color, it isn’t an animal, it has no size, no weight.

22:10 Speaker 10 It isn’t—

22:11 Speaker 1 What?

22:12 Speaker 10 That’s not an elephant.

22:17 Speaker 1 Who? What? I mean, there’s nothing you can even picture. Right? The very existence of a thing is created through the name Havayah. Its form is what’s called its life-force, memalei kol almin. Right? Okay?

22:32 Speaker 10 What is memalei?

22:32 Speaker 1 So memalei is the form, the qualities, the fact that it is a created being. But what was created? Without the name Elokim, nothing was created. Yet everything was created—we just don’t know... So what does Hakadosh Boruch Hu say? What should a person contemplate? That Hakadosh Boruch Hu is King, but not merely like a human king who just gives orders. He is a King from Whom everything receives its life-force, including the way that life-force takes shape—both its very existence and its qualities. Everything comes from Him. And although everything comes from Him, and He is King over all the worlds equally, He singles out His kingship over His people Israel. From Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s perspective, He created all the upper worlds, this lower world, all the beings in this lower world, the nations of the world, and Israel—all of them, equally, from nothing into something. He created this one and that one and that one and that one. And He created them all through the same attribute of kingship, through the utterances. Why should He relate to us more than to the others? So to speak, what does it mean that He singles out His kingship? He created everything; nothing makes a difference to Him. He created all the beings in the world for us. He singles out His kingship over us. Right? And he says, not only over His people Israel as a whole, but over him in particular. What does “over him in particular” mean? You could explain it in two ways. We read about general and particular, particular and general, in the morning blessings—those who say the korbanos before davening. Our Sages said: “The general contains only what is found in the particular, and the particular contains only what is found in the general.” What does that mean? What is the whole made of? Here we have a hundred. What is a hundred made of? One plus one plus one plus one. Right? So if the particulars are a hundred apples, the whole will be a hundred apples. Right? If they’re a hundred of something else, then that’s what the hundred will be.

24:31 Speaker 1 The whole is made up of particulars, right. So we might have said that when Hakadosh Boruch Hu singles out His kingship over him in particular, it means that since Hakadosh Boruch Hu singles out His kingship over the Jewish people, and I’m part of the Jewish people—the Jewish people are made up, in part, of me—He therefore singles out His kingship over me. Right? But no, that isn’t what it means. Our Sages said that a person must say, “For my sake the world was created.” What does “For my sake the world was created” mean? That Hakadosh Boruch Hu singles out His kingship over each and every Jew, truly as an individual. For his sake He created the entire world. Hakadosh Boruch Hu didn’t create the world for the Jewish people. Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world for me, just for me. You’ll ask how that can be.

25:29 Speaker 11 That way of looking at it.

25:30 Speaker 1 What?

25:30 Speaker 11 What does holiness tell me, or can—

25:32 Speaker 1 When a person contemplates that Hakadosh Boruch Hu created all the worlds for me, it gives him a certain awe, a sense of responsibility. All the worlds, this entire world, and all the other Jews—Hakadosh Boruch Hu created them for me. How can it be for me and for him and for him? Everyone says, “For me.” So what’s going on here? Leave it to Hakadosh Boruch Hu to work that out. Hakadosh Boruch Hu created all the worlds, including all the Jewish people, for me. Not for the whole of which I’m a part—for me as an individual. And a person should continue contemplating. Not only is Hakadosh Boruch Hu King over all the worlds, and not only does He single out His kingship over the Jewish people, and not only does He single out His kingship over me in particular, but I, for my part, accept His kingship over myself, to have Him as my King, to serve Him and do His will in every kind of service a servant performs. It could be that Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world for me, but I don’t feel like it. Right? When a person contemplates that it comes from both sides—Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the entire world for me, and I myself understand the responsibility, the weight of the responsibility, that the rectification of all the worlds depends on me, personally—then I’ll naturally be ready to do for Hakadosh Boruch Hu whatever He wants, whatever is needed. Just, yes. So all this contemplation is meant to awaken kabbolas ol in my mind. In the heart, that’s another matter; at least in the mind. Think about it. Contemplate it. If you also fix your mind firmly on it, then, with Hashem’s help, you’ll have awe in your heart too—kabbolas ol in your heart. But first of all, the moment a person thinks about it, contemplates it, devotes time to it—every day, or over a certain period, or at certain hours—and dwells at length on how Hakadosh Boruch Hu is King, King over all the worlds, singles out His kingship over him in particular, and I accept upon

27:56 Speaker 1 myself the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, that itself already brings a person to kabbolas ol. Then he continues and says, “And behold.” What is “And behold”? We’ve spoken about this many times in Chassidus. Whenever it says “And behold,” a new point begins. There’s something else, another stage of contemplation. We need to consider what the second stage is. Up to this point, the first stage was that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is King, He singles out His kingship over me in particular, and I accept upon myself the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven. What’s the second stage? To contemplate that “behold, Hashem stands over him, and His glory fills the whole earth, and He gazes at him and examines his mind and heart to see whether he serves Him properly.” A person can be in the king’s country and reflect on how important it is to pay taxes, so he pays them. He doesn’t break the law or run a red light, because he understands that the laws are proper and right. So he accepts the yoke of the king’s rule. Right? But how will that same person feel when he enters the king’s chamber, stands before the king, and the king speaks with him? That is an entirely different kind of kabbolas ol. Right? He says, yes, that’s true, but you have to continue contemplating. It isn’t only that Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the entire world for me, and that I’m in the king’s country and have work to do. Hakadosh Boruch Hu stands over me and is with me at every moment. And He isn’t just with me—He’s looking at me. I could be in a room with Him while He’s looking at someone else, not at me. But He “stands over him” and “gazes at him.” And what is He looking for in me? He “examines his mind and heart to see whether he serves Him properly.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu isn’t merely looking for me to serve Him. He’s looking to see whether I serve Him properly. What’s the difference between serving and serving properly?

30:00 Speaker 12 Doing what needs to be done.

30:01 Speaker 1 Serving means doing everything that needs to be done. Serving properly means that it’s also in the heart, that I put effort into it.

30:09 Speaker 12 With intention.

30:11 Speaker 1 Yes.

30:11 Speaker 12 How do you put effort into the heart?

30:12 Speaker 1 What?

30:12 Speaker 12 How do you put in that effort?

30:13 Speaker 1 First of all, through this contemplation. That’s the initial, basic thing. We’re building it now.

30:25 Speaker 12 What are you—

30:26 Speaker 1 And therefore, since Hakadosh Boruch Hu not only singles out His kingship over me but also stands over me and checks at every moment whether I serve Him properly, with intention, whether I put effort into thinking about Him and accepting upon myself the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven—therefore I must serve Him with dread and awe, like someone standing before the king. Not just like someone who accepts the yoke of his kingship; at every moment, a person needs to feel as though he is standing before the king. Within kabbolas ol, within the whole idea of a person’s kabbolas ol, there is someone who... Why does he accept upon himself the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven? It’s a different yoke, not the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, because he contemplated, thought, and understood: this is what one should do. Right? Such a person accepts the yoke only because he’s a fairly observant Jew. “I’ve accepted the yoke of mitzvos. I’m observant, and I’ve been keeping mitzvos for a long time.” Right? If that’s all a person’s kabbolas ol amounts to, then when something comes up involving lashon hara, or some other undesirable thing, at some point he’ll catch himself because it isn’t appropriate. Right? But if a person has kabbolas ol in which he feels all the time as though he’s standing before the king, he constantly senses that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is there, looking at him. He has contemplated and delved into it so deeply that it’s simply with him all the time. It wouldn’t occur to him to let an unkind sentence slip out, or to waste even a second of his life, or to look this way and that. He’s constantly in the state of “Hashem stands over him, and His glory fills the whole earth, and He gazes at him and examines his mind and heart to see whether he serves Him properly.” He feels it all the time. How, how... Right? We’re still not talking about

32:48 Speaker 1 About fear. We’re not talking about fear. He has no fear. He isn’t afraid of the king; there’s no fear in his heart, only kabbolas ol. But kabbolas ol is an inner movement, a kind of contraction, a kind of self-nullification a person has. Understood? That’s the difference between having it in his mind and having it in his heart. There’s kabbolas ol in the mind: he understands and he knows, fine, but it can come and go. If it’s in the heart, it’s an inner movement. That’s how he feels. And when he feels it—how shall I put it?—it won’t ever disappear. That’s how he lives. “He should delve deeply into this thought and dwell on it at length.” At length doesn’t just mean spending a long time on it; mainly, it means developing the thought at length. How shall I put it? Explaining something at length, with many, many details—not just taking a long time because it goes on and on. “At length, according to the capacity of his mind to grasp it, his thought, and the time he has available.” When? Before engaging in Torah and mitzvos. Every time he comes to do a mitzvah or learn Torah, he should stop and contemplate that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is King, that He creates all the worlds from nothing, that He encompasses all worlds and fills all worlds, and that all the worlds exist only through His power. And He establishes His kingship over the Jewish people in general and over me in particular. And I accept His yoke upon myself. Not only do I accept His yoke in a general way, but He stands over me and examines my innermost thoughts and heart to see whether I serve Him as I should. Right? That’s what one should think about every time before doing a mitzvah.

34:45 Speaker 13 Hmm?

34:46 Speaker 1 It’s not simple. Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe, by Whose word everything came into being.

34:55 Speaker 13 Amen.

34:55 Speaker 1 You see that it’s not simple, but we haven’t even reached the main point yet.

34:58 Speaker 13 This is an introduction.

34:59 Speaker 1 Wait, wait.

35:02 Speaker 13 I’m still on the main point from last week. Having the proper intention. I mean...

35:07 Speaker 1 I said when we started the class—before we started—that I deliberately gave a long introduction, even though it’s a short subject. But this chapter is a foundation of serving Hashem in Chassidus, the foundation of the beinoni’s service of Hashem. The Rebbe said to learn this chapter by heart. Some people study it endlessly. There are people, as was mentioned here, who say it every day, at least its beginning, before davening. And already in the Alter Rebbe’s time, chassidim would say: “The intellectuals go up to chapter 40.” Chapter 41 is for those who actually serve Hashem. It’s about serving Hashem. It’s no longer theory.

35:44 Speaker 13 They say up to “as is fitting” before...

35:46 Speaker 1 Up to “as is fitting.”

35:48 Speaker 13 Oh, just that? There’s that passage, isn’t there? There’s a passage...

35:52 Speaker 1 Up to “as is fitting.”

35:52 Speaker 13 I was just asking you for your question. Which part—this one?

35:55 Speaker 1 That passage.

35:57 Speaker 13 I didn’t understand what you were saying. No, but I’ll take it over to the microphone.

36:01 Speaker 1 Yes, yes.

36:02 Speaker 13 We’ll read the whole thing. Up to here.

36:08 Speaker 1 “He should delve deeply into this thought and dwell on it at length, according to the capacity of his mind to grasp it, his thought, and the time he has available, before engaging in Torah and mitzvos.” He gives an example: before putting on a tallis and tefillin. The Rebbe points out here—

36:21 Speaker 13 So they...

36:22 Speaker 1 Hmm?

36:22 Speaker 13 They expect it of men, not of—

36:24 Speaker 1 Right, it really is intended only for men. You’re right, yes.

36:27 Speaker 13 No, but tallis and tefillin are just the example.

36:29 Speaker 1 On the simple level, the primary service of Hashem in general—what is explained in Tanya—is addressed more to men. Because—

36:38 Speaker 13 Hashem Himself—it’s natural. No, really.

36:44 Speaker 1 On a deeper level, that’s true.

36:44 Speaker 13 A connection to holiness, and... It’s not for nothing that we were exempted from time-bound mitzvos.

36:53 Speaker 1 On the simple level, the Rebbe explains that the Alter Rebbe chose this particular example because it comes right at the beginning of the day.

37:01 Speaker 13 Yes.

37:01 Speaker 1 It’s a mitzvah you do at the beginning of the day.

37:03 Speaker 13 Sorry. What was that—getting up?

37:07 Speaker 14 No, first Yossi, then you, then someone over there. Sorry.

37:10 Speaker 1 The first thing a person does in the morning is put on tefillin. The first mitzvah—he gets up in the morning, says the morning blessings, and goes to daven. But before the mitzvah—this is simply the first mitzvah a person ordinarily does each day. On a deeper level, it’s specifically tallis and tefillin, as we’ll see shortly, because they’re general matters. We’ll see in a moment. So this is one thing a person needs to contemplate: “He should delve deeply into this thought.” And there’s also a third stage of contemplation. The first stage was plain kabbolas ol. Right?

37:48 Speaker 13 A cup, please. Is this sweetened water? Is it sweetened? Thank you.

37:57 Speaker 1 The first stage was kabbolas ol in his heart, or in his mind—at least in his thought. The second stage was, “And behold, Hashem stands over him.” Then he spoke about a fourth stage: contemplating this before Torah and mitzvos.

38:12 Speaker 13 Take this.

38:16 Speaker 1 Yes? And now he adds another point, a fourth point: “He should also contemplate how the light of the blessed Ein Sof, which encompasses all worlds and fills all worlds, and the Supernal Will, are clothed in the letters and wisdom of the Torah, or in these tzitzis and tefillin.” Until now, all the contemplation was general. Sorry—until now, the contemplation wasn’t connected to Torah and mitzvos. A person needs to accept the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven. Right? Here we’re already talking about kabbolas ol not just from the perspective of his accepting the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, but from the perspective of what Hakadosh Boruch Hu reveals to him. When I do a mitzvah now—tallis and tefillin or another mitzvah—it’s Hashem’s will, and Hashem’s will is revealed; Hashem’s light rests upon me. When I learn Torah, Hashem’s wisdom becomes one with me. So even when I don’t feel it, I need to contemplate, as I do a mitzvah, that through doing it Hakadosh Boruch Hu now rests upon me—Divine holiness. It isn’t only that I accept His kingship; He becomes one with me. Before, He was merely present here; now He becomes one with me. “And by reciting it or wearing them, he draws His blessed light upon himself—that is, upon the ‘part of G-d above’ within his body—so that it may be included and nullified in His blessed light.” Now, when he does a mitzvah or learns Torah, his G-dly soul... We learned this earlier, in previous chapters—chapter 24 and several other places—that when a person does a mitzvah, his soul now... Do you remember how we spoke several times about the difference between things being joined together and being a single entity? Joined means two things coming together. A single entity means there is only one. Right? When the G-dly soul now fulfills Hashem’s will through speaking words of Torah, through learning Torah, or through a mitzvah, it now is Hashem’s will. They aren’t two separate things. The soul itself is included; it openly becomes one with Hakadosh Boruch

40:58 Speaker 1 Hu. And this happens every time I do a mitzvah or learn Torah: I become one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. When a person contemplates this, it brings about a certain inner movement of kabbolas ol. That is, “upon the ‘part of G-d above’ within his body, so that it may be included and nullified in His blessed light.” That’s the general idea. In general, with every mitzvah a person does—whether it’s tallis, tefillin, another mitzvah, or learning Torah—his G-dly soul is included in G-dliness. Now he needs to contemplate it not only in general, but also in particular. What does “in particular” mean? Specifically, with each mitzvah a person does, a different faculty of the G-dly soul is involved, or the G-dly soul is included in a different way. He needs to contemplate that too. “Specifically, with tefillin: that the chochmah and binah of his G-dly soul should be nullified and included in the chochmah and binah of the blessed Ein Sof.” Why? What is it about tefillin that, when a person puts them on, his chochmah and binah become one with the chochmah and binah of Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Why specifically tefillin? This is brought in Kabbalah. The Rebbe will say it here in a moment: tefillin contain four passages, two from the Book of Shemos and two from the Book of Devarim: Kadesh Li Kol Bechor, Vehayah Ki Yeviacha, Shema, and Vehayah Im Shamoa. Four passages from the Torah written inside the tefillin. These four passages allude—or contain words that allude—to chochmah, binah, and daas. We won’t go through all the details now; this isn’t the place. All right? So the first two passages, Kadesh Li Kol Bechor and Vehayah Ki Yeviacha, allude to chochmah and binah, and the last two, Shema and Vehayah Im Shamoa, allude to daas. Why does daas need two passages? Chochmah, binah

43:26 Speaker 1 Each one has its own parsha. Daas has two parshiyos. Why? Because we spoke about this today, just a few moments ago: for a person to have love and fear, he has to fix his mind firmly on the subject. Right? If a person only contemplates it, it remains something he can grasp intellectually, but it won’t touch his heart. For contemplation to stir emotion, he has to fix his mind firmly on it. Daas is the root of the middos, the root of the emotions. Only when a person thinks about something until it becomes important to him—when it matters to him—does emotion awaken. As long as it’s just an intellectual matter, he only understands it. He could be a great professor, but it won’t touch his emotions. Right? There’s a well-known story about a villager who couldn’t read or write. He employed a teacher to teach his son. Later, his son went away and letters would arrive from him from time to time. The teacher would read the letters to the father, who couldn’t read. One day a letter arrived saying that the father’s father had passed away. When the teacher read to the man that his father had passed away, the man fainted. He was so shocked that he fainted. So people ask: the teacher saw it with his own eyes and read it, and nothing happened to him. The father only heard it—why did he faint, while the teacher didn’t? It’s explained everywhere that hearing isn’t as powerful as seeing. When a person sees something, he connects with it, whereas hearing... What happened here? It mattered to the father. It mattered to him, so it stirred his emotions. The other man didn’t know the father; he hadn’t lost anything. Right. Daas is called in the Zohar “the key that encompasses six.” Daas is the key to the six middos. It opens

45:40 Speaker 1 the door from intellect to emotion.

45:44 Speaker 3 Daas?

45:45 Speaker 1 The faculty of daas. Daas means connection: he connects to the subject. He understood it. He may have understood it, but what does it have to do with me? Daas is connection. He connects to what he understood. That connection is what stirs the emotions and links the intellect with them. Since daas is what connects—it is what activates and gives rise to the emotions—and emotions generally come in two kinds, positive and negative, chessed and gevurah, netzach and hod, right? Two lines. Emotion has two lines. Since the faculty of daas gives rise to two lines of emotion, it must already contain two lines itself. Otherwise, how could it give rise to two lines? Right? Since the faculty of daas gives rise to two lines, it itself comprises chessed and gevurah. That’s why daas also has two parshiyos in the tefillin: one parsha alluding to the source from which chessed is born, and one from which gevurah is born. So there are four parshiyos in tefillin: one for chochmah, one for binah, and two for daas. What is the Rebbe saying here? When a person puts on tefillin, since in general every mitzvah brings holiness, the light of Hashem, upon him, what particular light of Hashem rests upon him when he puts on tefillin? The light of Hashem in the form of chochmah, binah, and daas. So his chochmah, binah, and daas are incorporated into G-dliness. All right? Specifically, with tefillin, “to nullify and incorporate the chochmah and binah of his G-dly soul into the chochmah and binah of the Infinite One, blessed be He, which are specifically clothed in the parshiyos Kadesh and Vehayah Ki Yeviacha.” That is, what does it mean for him to use his chochmah? What? What does he need to contemplate? He’s not talking here about the actual act of putting on tefillin. He says that before putting on tefillin, a person needs to contemplate not only in general that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is now resting upon him, but also the specifics. He needs to contemplate. What is the specific contemplation? He should contemplate that he must not

47:54 Speaker 1 “use the chochmah and binah of his soul except for Hashem alone.” Every mitzvah has its own spiritual content. So before performing any mitzvah, a person needs to contemplate. Besides the fact that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is King and commanded him to do it, and that through Torah and mitzvos the light of Hashem unites him with G-dliness, he must also think specifically about the mitzvah he is about to perform: which part of my G-dly soul is now being incorporated into G-dliness, and how? “And likewise, to nullify and incorporate the daas of his soul, which comprises chessed and gevurah—the fear and love in his heart—into the supernal daas, which comprises chessed and gevurah, and is clothed in the parshiyos Shema and Vehayah Im Shamoa.” That is, as the Shulchan Aruch says, “to subject the heart and mind,” and so on. All of this explains the specific contemplation involved in tefillin. And before putting on tefillin, he wraps himself in tzitzis. “When wrapping himself in tzitzis, he should intend, as stated in the Zohar, to draw upon himself His blessed kingship, which is the kingship over all worlds, and so forth, to establish it over us through this mitzvah.” What is a tallis? A tallis is something he

49:06 Speaker 4 wraps around himself.

49:07 Speaker 1 What is he wrapping himself in? “Like the King’s garment”—he wraps himself in, how do you say it, the King’s covering. Now Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so to speak, envelops him on all sides through the mitzvah. So when he puts on tefillin, he should contemplate how his daas... When he contemplates putting on tefillin, putting on... When he wraps himself in tzitzis, he should contemplate this specific point: that he accepts His kingship. Doesn’t anyone have a question?

49:35 Speaker 4 When someone lights candles, then it’s like that with every mitzvah.

49:39 Speaker 1 Every mitzvah. That’s why we need to study Chassidus: to understand the particular meaning of each mitzvah. Right, but here’s what I’m asking. We said earlier that accepting the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven is where he started, right? First, a person has to accept the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven in general. Then he goes into more and more detail. When he gets to tzitzis, what does he suddenly say? That the point of tzitzis is to accept the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven. But that’s the general point we already discussed! What’s specific to tzitzis here? Do you understand the question? Yes? Is the question clear? Do you see the difficulty?

50:20 Speaker 4 I understood the question, but I didn’t understand the difficulty.

50:25 Speaker 1 At the beginning, the Alter Rebbe says that accepting the yoke is a general matter. Then there are specific aspects to it. Contemplate that He stands over you, and how that relates to Torah and mitzvos, and precisely how it works in this part of Torah and mitzvos and that part. Here the light of Hashem shines upon you from above, and there you nullify yourself to Him. Suddenly we come to tzitzis. What is the very specific point of tzitzis? That he accepts the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven. Excuse me, didn’t we say that earlier, as the most general point? So the Alter Rebbe doesn’t leave us hanging. He adds a few words that clarify it immediately: “to establish it over us through this mitzvah, and this...” What does accepting the yoke mean here? It’s like the verse, “You shall surely appoint a king over yourself.” Earlier, when we said that a person must accept upon himself the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven, with Hakadosh Boruch Hu as King, what did we mean? Hakadosh Boruch Hu is King, and I am in His country or standing before Him. Right? What are we talking about here? Now I am making Him my King. The specific intention of tzitzis isn’t that there is a King and I am His servant. It’s that now, when I wrap myself in tzitzis, I make Him my King; now I accept His kingship, in this particular act. That’s an entirely different contemplation. And then, after he contemplates everything explained from the beginning of the chapter—how did he start? How did he begin? That a person must awaken acceptance of the yoke in his heart, or at least in his mind. How does he come to accept the yoke at least in his mind? Through contemplation. Contemplation of what? Of everything he has said up to now, first generally and then in greater detail: that Hashem stands over him and that he establishes His kingship over himself, and the connection to—

52:28 Speaker 4 A tallis katan, right? That’s tzitzis?

52:31 Speaker 1 Mm-hm.

52:31 Speaker 4 The one children wear.

52:32 Speaker 1 Yes.

52:32 Speaker 4 A tallis katan is like—

52:33 Speaker 1 Yes.

52:35 Speaker 4 No, I mean another garment that he wears, like the tzitzis they put on children—or do the children wear the tzitzis?

52:42 Speaker 1 In general, it’s the same mitzvah, the mitzvah of tzitzis. The mitzvah of wrapping oneself in tzitzis is that—

52:50 Speaker 4 A tallis gadol?

52:52 Speaker 1 There’s only one mitzvah of wrapping oneself—

52:54 Speaker 4 No, because when I look at the garments, for example, there’s this—

52:56 Speaker 1 There’s only one mitzvah. The mitzvah is that—no, there is no Torah obligation for a person to wear tzitzis. No obligation. A person can live his entire life without wearing tzitzis even once and not commit a sin. There are mitzvos that we’re obligated to pursue, that I have an obligation to do, and there are mitzvos like, “If a bird’s nest happens to be before you.” You were walking along, saw a bird under the conditions described, you were hungry, you took it, and that’s how you got to do a mitzvah. You don’t have to go looking for birds. Tzitzis is that kind of mitzvah: you don’t have to pursue it. If you have a garment with four corners, put tzitzis on it. If you don’t have a four-cornered garment, you don’t have to put tzitzis on anything. There’s no obligation to pursue the mitzvah of tzitzis. Right? There is a mitzvah to put on tefillin every day. If a person doesn’t put on tefillin one day, he has failed to fulfill a positive mitzvah. There’s a mitzvah to say Shema every day; if he doesn’t say it, he hasn’t fulfilled the mitzvah. If a person never wore tzitzis in his entire life, he hasn’t failed to fulfill an obligation. But holy Jews want to fulfill mitzvos; they look for opportunities to do more and more. Right? And on this very point—there is a Jewish custom, not something from our generation, probably going back to the time of Moshe Rabbeinu, to wrap oneself properly in a tallis, so that it wraps around you. Right? And so as not to be without the mitzvah for even a moment, they said: Fine, wear a four-cornered garment all day, so that you’ll be surrounded by mitzvos all day. So these aren’t two mitzvos. That’s why, when we make the blessing in the morning on wrapping ourselves in tzitzis, we also have the tallis katan in mind. But we don’t actually make a blessing on the tallis katan, unless—

54:58 Speaker 1 Unless you change it in the middle of the day; then that’s a separate mitzvah. Fine, that’s a halachic matter, less relevant here... So what are we discussing now? A person has contemplated this—meaning, he needs to picture it in his mind. He pictured it, thought about everything written here, studied it well until it became engraved in his memory, and he keeps thinking about it and contemplating it all the time, without stopping. Yes. Once a day, twice a day, twice a week—he contemplates it, thinks about it. Right. “And then, even if, despite all this, awe and fear do not come upon him openly in his heart.” After all that contemplation... What can he do? It didn’t touch his heart. A person has to be honest with himself. You mustn’t lie. You mustn’t deceive. The Rebbe once said, “You can’t deceive everyone all the time.” Right? What can you do? You can deceive some people all the time, or everyone some of the time. But you can’t deceive everyone all the time. Whom can you deceive? A person can only deceive himself, but someone who deceives himself is a fool. There’s no point in deception. A person has to be honest, truthful. You thought, you contemplated, you did what you were supposed to. Fear didn’t awaken. What can you do? What now? “And then, even if, despite all this, awe and fear do not come upon him openly in his heart, nevertheless, since he accepts the yoke of Heaven upon himself, he draws His fear upon himself openly in his thoughts.” In his mind, he thinks about it all the time, right? It’s open in his thoughts. He thinks about it. “And in the desire in his mind.” He wants to have kabbolas ol. He also wants to have genuine kabbolas ol. He wants it to be in his heart. But what can he do? He thought about it, and it didn’t awaken. “And this kabbolas ol in his thoughts is genuine, without any doubt.” Why?

57:23 Speaker 1 Because it is the nature of the souls of all Jews. The nature of the G-dly soul is not to rebel against the holy King. Every Jew has a G-dly soul, and part of its nature is that it doesn’t want to rebel against Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So even if this doesn’t actually reach your heart, the thought itself is true. It isn’t just imagination. From the perspective of the G-dly soul, it’s true. You haven’t managed to bring it into your animal soul, but from the perspective of the G-dly soul, the thought is genuine. It really is. “Therefore, the Torah he studies or the mitzvah he performs because of this acceptance, or because he has drawn fear into his mind,” even though it isn’t in his heart, it is in his mind, “are called complete service, like all the service of a servant to his master and king.” It’s complete service. “This is not so,” if he studies or fulfills the mitzvah out of love alone, without fear, without kabbolas ol. And what does “out of love” mean? He fulfills the mitzvah in order to cleave to Him. He fulfills a mitzvah for its own sake. We discussed in the previous chapters what that means, how very hard it is to fulfill a mitzvah for its own sake—truly for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, with nothing in it for me. Right? And now he has labored and labored to attain love of Hashem, and he fulfills a mitzvah out of love of Hashem, for its own sake. He fulfills the mitzvah for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, not for himself. “Only in order to cleave to Him through His Torah and mitzvos; nevertheless, this is not called the service of a servant.” He serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu, but it isn’t the service of a servant. “And the Torah says, ‘You shall serve Hashem your G-d.’” One must serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu. If he does the—

59:21 Speaker 5 So you mean intention alone isn’t enough?

59:25 Speaker 1 Intention for its own sake isn’t enough. Why? Because the Torah says, “You shall serve Hashem your G-d.” What’s the difference between serving out of fear and serving out of love? With love, when a person does something out of love, ultimately, at some level, he loves, he wants it. It’s what he wants. It isn’t for the other person.

59:50 Speaker 5 But wait, isn’t love specifically—

59:56 Speaker 1 When you do something out of fear, you do it because of the other one, for his sake. When you do something out of love, you do it because of—because of me.

1:00:05 Speaker 5 So he says not to do it for myself, but to do it for Him.

1:00:09 Speaker 1 Right, but ultimately, even when a person does something for someone else because he loves him, he loves him. The point behind love—any love, even love that is for the other person—is that, in the end, it starts with the fact that I love him. It starts with me. The foundation of love is an awareness of oneself. Any love whatsoever. If it’s love, it starts with me: I love. Fear is precisely the opposite. It’s bittul. There’s no “I”; there’s Him, not me. What does He want? Not what do I want. Right. So even if a person serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu for its own sake, out of love, to cleave to Him and to fulfill Hashem’s will, and he truly loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he’s still doing it without setting himself aside. Ultimately, the foundation of love is “I.” If there’s an “I,” that isn’t bittul. The Torah commanded, “You shall love,” but that isn’t service. Can we continue?

1:01:29 Speaker 5 Yes, Hashem—

1:01:30 Speaker 1 Hm? We’re out of time. Wait, wait, let’s finish just one more line, because here the Alter Rebbe gives an analogy for this. The Torah says, “You shall serve Hashem your G-d,” and so on, and “Him shall you serve,” and so on. As it says in the Zohar, Parshas Behar: “Like an ox upon which they first place a yoke in order to bring good from it into the world,” and so on. Like that ox—ah, like that—

1:02:04 Speaker 5 [unclear]

1:02:05 Speaker 1 Like that ox on which they first place a yoke in order to bring good from it into the world. What is the point of the Zohar’s analogy?

1:02:20 Speaker 5 To put a burden on the ox so that it will, so to speak, use its strength.

1:02:27 Speaker 1 What’s the meaning of the analogy—doing good? The service of “do good.” Right? If the service of “do good” doesn’t begin with kabbolas ol, then it isn’t good. He explains this point a few lines further on. We won’t read that now. We’ll read it again next time, with Hashem’s help. The Alter Rebbe says, “Holiness does not rest upon it.” If a person fulfills a mitzvah out of genuine love of Hashem, for its own sake, but without kabbolas ol, the Alter Rebbe says, “Holiness does not rest upon it.” There’s no holiness in it. If you remember, we learned the difference between holiness and the sitra achra, the kelipos. Holiness is what is nullified to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Kelipos are what feel themselves separate from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Right? If a person’s service of Hashem is because “I love Hashem,” he feels himself, so he isn’t nullified. “Holiness does not rest upon it”—there’s no holiness in it.

1:03:49 Speaker 5 I didn’t understand the situation he’s talking about. So where does that leave us? I didn’t understand where we’re supposed to place ourselves.

1:03:56 Speaker 1 There has to be love of Hashem, because that is the main thing in serving Him. First of all, you have to fulfill the mitzvos. The motivation for fulfilling them should be love: you want to cleave to Hashem and do them for His sake, for Hakadosh Boruch Hu—all that we discussed about the service of the beinonim in the previous chapters. But for there to be holiness in it, the love itself has to come from kabbolas ol. If it does not come from kabbolas ol, then it is not service of Hashem. He is serving himself; it feels good to him. It has nothing to do with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He imagines that he loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu. No, it is not imaginary—he really does love Him. It is for His sake. But where does it come from? What is the initial motivation? Where is it born? Where does it begin? It begins with me, with “I.” What do I want? That “I” is kelipos; it is sitra achra. It is not holiness. Holiness is “And you shall love Hashem your G-d”—what does Hakadosh Boruch Hu want? And the foundation of wanting what He wants is kabbolas ol. If you cannot have it in your heart, at least have it in your mind. But without kabbolas ol, how did he put it? “With one wing, it cannot soar upward.” A bird cannot fly with one wing. Even if it is the biggest wing in the world, you cannot fly with one wing. There has to be love, but that love has to be founded on awe. Not just awe in the sense that I accept kabbolas ol and then serve Hashem out of love. No—the love itself has to be permeated with awe. We will continue next time, with Hashem’s help.

1:05:48 Speaker 6 Thank you very much.