Likkutei Amarim Chapter 41 (Part 2) · 5785

00:00 Speaker 1 Okay, we reached the middle of chapter 41. There are mainly three points in this chapter, and we reached the end of the first one, which discusses how the beginning, essence, and foundation of our service is fear of Hashem. In the preceding chapters, the Alter Rebbe speaks at great length about serving Hashem out of love. The nature of loving Hashem is connected with the spiritual worlds—Yetzirah and Beriah, and even Atzilus. When a person fulfills the mitzvos out of love, that elevates his mitzvos to the higher worlds, and he becomes united with G-dliness. In our chapter, the Alter Rebbe began by saying that despite everything said earlier about the great virtue of loving Hashem, the beginning, essence, and foundation of our service is not love. It begins specifically with fear. He then explained that fear is not merely a preliminary condition for serving Hashem. In other words, one might say that the main thing is to love Hakadosh Boruch Hu and fulfill the mitzvos out of love, but first there has to be fear. That’s the initial condition: first, turn away from evil. What are you going to accomplish by doing mitzvos if you’re committing transgressions? First, turn away from evil. You could call that a kind of prerequisite: first fear, and only then can the rest follow. But the Alter Rebbe explains in chapter 41, which we began studying, that it goes much further than that. Fear is not just an introduction or a condition for fulfilling the positive mitzvos; fear is part of the mitzvah of love. What does it mean that fear is part of love? More than that—it’s not just a part; it is its essence, foundation, and root. Among the mitzvos, there is a mitzvah to love Hashem: “You shall love Hashem your G-d.” There is a mitzvah to fear Hashem: “You shall fear Hashem your G-d.” And among the 613 mitzvos, there is another mitzvah:

02:23 Speaker 1 “You shall serve Hashem your G-d.” We have to serve Hashem. That’s a separate mitzvah. There’s a mitzvah to love Him, a mitzvah to fear Him, and a mitzvah to serve Him. So what does it mean to serve?

02:36 Speaker 2 To fulfill the mitzvos.

02:37 Speaker 1 I fulfill the mitzvos, and I love and fear Him. So what is this mitzvah? What does the mitzvah to serve mean?

02:43 Speaker 2 You give Him that after you love the…

02:46 Speaker 1 If it happens automatically, then it isn’t a mitzvah. What do you actually do for this mitzvah? The mitzvah of serving Hashem is a mitzvah to exert yourself, for a person to set himself aside.

03:01 Speaker 3 Of course.

03:02 Speaker 2 Boro-Boro?

03:03 Speaker 3 That’s Baruch’s. The one here belongs to the place.

03:04 Speaker 2 Oh.

03:07 Speaker 3 This one’s mine.

03:08 Speaker 1 Great. Baruch.

03:10 Speaker 3 Is there a spare here, or should I…

03:11 Speaker 2 Here?

03:12 Speaker 3 This one’s mine.

03:13 Speaker 2 Is there a spare here?

03:14 Speaker 1 Yes, yes.

03:14 Speaker 3 Yes, both of them have a spare.

03:17 Speaker 1 I’m making one account.

03:20 Speaker 2 I need to add that to the list. You filled out accounts that I didn’t add.

03:31 Speaker 1 A person who serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu only out of love is, in a subtle, inward sense, not really serving Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Why does he do all the mitzvos? Because he wants to, because it feels good to him. He enjoys serving Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Whatever level of love it may be—even the loftiest level of love—in the end, what drives that love is the person himself: what I feel. So if my service of Hashem is based on what I feel, I’m not serving Him; I’m serving myself. I’m doing what I want, what feels good to me. I’m not serving Him. There is a mitzvah to serve Him: to do the mitzvos because He wants them done, not because I understand or feel something. Right? So if a person serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu only with love, without fear, he isn’t serving Hashem at all. A person could avoid transgressions, keep all the mitzvos, and even have genuine love of Hashem—and still not be serving Hakadosh Boruch Hu.

04:39 Speaker 4 What, without love it doesn’t count?

04:41 Speaker 1 Without fear it doesn’t count. Because without fear, he isn’t serving Hakadosh Boruch Hu; he’s serving himself. That’s why the Alter Rebbe says fear is not just a preliminary condition for service. Fear has to be present within the love, because if his love doesn’t also contain fear—if it’s only love, without fear—then he isn’t serving. After he explains that—well, he explains these things along the way—but when he explains the importance of fear in serving Hashem… I’m just giving a brief review. He says there are several levels of fear. First he introduces lower fear and higher fear. The fear required for serving Hashem is not higher fear. We’ll discuss higher fear in the coming chapters, chapters 43 and 44; that’s where they discuss it. Here we’re talking about basic fear, the fear a person needs for his service, for his fulfillment of a mitzvah, to count as service of Hashem. What is that fear? How does it manifest itself? He says there are many levels to it. Even within that lower fear, there are many levels. At its most basic, fear is like the fear a person has of a king. A person should picture himself—

06:21 Speaker 4 Does fear mean respect? To respect Him?

06:24 Speaker 1 No. Respect is already higher fear.

06:26 Speaker 4 To be afraid?

06:26 Speaker 1 Fear means being afraid.

06:28 Speaker 4 Oh, not respect.

06:29 Speaker 1 No. That’s higher fear, a different level. For serving Hashem, what’s required is simply to have fear, the way a person fears a king. So how does a person bring himself to feel that fear of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, as he would fear a king? He needs to think, simply contemplate, that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is King over all the worlds, and that His very kingship creates all the worlds from nothing into being. That already instills fear in a person. Then he should contemplate further, more specifically, that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not merely King over all the worlds; He is King over the Jewish people. To Hakadosh Boruch Hu, as it were, all the worlds are not what matters. He created all the worlds for the Jewish people, for us. That produces a greater fear. Then he needs to go further: Hakadosh Boruch Hu didn’t create all the worlds even for the Jewish people in general; He created the worlds for me. What does “for me” mean? If it’s for me and for him, and for him—well, yes, but a person will immediately say to himself, “What do you mean, for me? I have children and family and friends and neighbors, and, bli ayin hara, there are so many Jews.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world for this person and that person and that person, and for me too. No, says the Alter Rebbe. Every Jew needs to know—not just think, but know—that Hakadosh Boruch Hu set aside the upper and lower worlds and created the world for me. He created this entire kingdom for me. How can it be just for me? There are other people—that’s not for you to work out. How can it be? Hakadosh Boruch Hu can do anything. This is one of the things He can do. He can create the

08:15 Speaker 1 entire world just for you, even though there’s someone else too.

08:18 Speaker 4 Every person is an individual.

08:20 Speaker 1 It’s not as if, so to speak, He created it for me. He really did create it for me. That places the whole world, and responsibility for the whole world, on my shoulders. You really begin to feel it. Then the Alter Rebbe goes further: a person should see not only that Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world for me—that’s from His side—but that I, from my side, willingly accept the yoke of His kingship. A person could know that everything was created for him and just shrug it off. What does he care? No. He needs to think about the fact that he himself willingly accepts the yoke of Hashem’s kingship. Then the Alter Rebbe goes further still. A person needs to contemplate not only that Hakadosh Boruch Hu created all the worlds for him, but that He created the worlds so that I would perform a mitzvah. So now I need to feel all the time as though I’m standing before the King. Not that I have a King somewhere in a palace, but that the King is here with me now. All the more so when a person is about to perform a mitzvah. Before every mitzvah, he should stop for a moment and think: I’m about to perform a mitzvah. What does “mitzvah” mean? Hakadosh Boruch Hu commanded it. Who issued this command? The One who created all the worlds, all the Jewish people, and me. For what purpose? So that I would perform a mitzvah now. And right now He is standing over me, watching whether I serve Him properly, with love and awe. A person should contemplate this before every mitzvah. It instills even greater awe in him. This is a higher level of awe. Then the Alter Rebbe says there’s more. That was in general. On a more specific level, there are differences between mitzvos. There’s

10:16 Speaker 1 the mitzvah of tefillin, for example, and the mitzvah of tzitzis. Tefillin has to do with drawing down mochin, and tzitzis has to do with accepting kingship. Every mitzvah has its own particular significance, and one should contemplate it before performing that mitzvah. It’s not only that, in general, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is King and He reigns over me; that He is King right now and I accept His kingship right now. It’s also: How? In what way? What am I drawing down here? What does my mitzvah accomplish? After all this, the Alter Rebbe says that a person might contemplate all of it at length and genuinely devote time to it. It’s hard to do before every mitzvah. But at least once or twice a day, at the beginning of the day, he should contemplate it—and still no awe may come over him. That can happen. He thinks and thinks and thinks. He understands it. The Alter Rebbe says that if a person contemplates it and doesn’t feel awe in his heart, then fine, his heart isn’t afraid. What can you do? He has a lowly soul and an unfeeling heart, a heart of stone, and it doesn’t penetrate. But the very fact that he contemplates it in his mind, with his intellect, does awaken that awe in his mind. True, it isn’t awe in the heart, but it is awe in the mind. That, too, is avodah. Yes.

11:44 Speaker 4 What’s the difference between the mind and the heart? They’re connected, aren’t they?

11:48 Speaker 1 They’re very closely connected, but you feel fear in your heart. You don’t feel fear in your mind.

11:53 Speaker 4 The mind doesn’t compel you to be afraid.

11:56 Speaker 1 The mind is the mind; it governs, it arouses the... What does that mean? It arouses the emotion.

12:04 Speaker 4 Yes.

12:05 Speaker 1 But the emotion might not be aroused. That happens a lot. There are many things I understand should move me emotionally, but they don’t. What can I do?

12:20 Speaker 4 I do get emotional. I’m a normal person.

12:23 Speaker 1 Well, there you go.

12:23 Speaker 4 All my life.

12:24 Speaker 1 Well, there you go. It depends on the storehouse.

12:28 Speaker 4 It depends on our storehouse.

12:29 Speaker 1 Yes, of course. Do you feel it on your back too?

12:32 Speaker 4 It’s better now that she closed the door.

12:34 Speaker 1 Yes?

12:35 Speaker 4 Yes. I felt awkward asking her to move back.

12:36 Speaker 1 No, that’s fine. You should have.

12:38 Speaker 4 Now she’s closed it, so...

12:40 Speaker 1 There’s a difference—

12:41 Speaker 4 You closed it too.

12:42 Speaker 1 There’s a big difference between understanding something well and thinking, “Fine, that’s how I should behave, so I’ll do what I’m supposed to,” and thinking, “Oh, I understand this! Wow, this really matters to me, and I’m doing it because I feel that it’s the right thing to do.” That I feel in my heart. It isn’t just an intellectual conclusion. Right? There’s a big difference. The Rebbe says that’s true, but even a person whose contemplation doesn’t manage to affect his heart—even though it’s a big difference—is serving Hashem in his mind at the moment he contemplates. Right? He exerted himself, he contemplated, he did the work; it accomplished something in him. Right? Okay? Then the Alter Rebbe speaks of an even lower level. At first, he described progressively greater levels of awe of Hashem within yirah tata’ah. We’re talking throughout about lower-level awe, yirah tata’ah. Right? First he described greater and greater awe. Then he says: yes, but if it doesn’t affect you, this too is avodah; and if not, then this is also avodah. Finally, he concludes that the lowest level of awe is what Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai told his students: “May it be His will that your fear of Heaven be like your fear of a human being.” What was he actually telling them? He said, “May it be His will that your fear of Heaven be”—you know, not like your fear of a king, but like your fear of an ordinary person, just a friend. That, too, is a kind of awe. Generally speaking, awe is when a person fears someone greater than himself. Right? But a person might refrain from a transgression because he thinks, “I’d be embarrassed if someone saw me.” Right? He isn’t afraid of the other person. That person can’t do anything to him.

14:33 Speaker 1 And that person isn’t any greater than he is; he’d just feel embarrassed. Right? So, seemingly, after all that contemplation, if all a person can manage is to refrain from a transgression so someone else won’t see him—because he’d feel embarrassed before that person—he isn’t thinking about Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He can’t manage that; it doesn’t touch him.

14:53 Speaker 4 What will people say?

14:53 Speaker 1 Huh? What will people say?

14:54 Speaker 4 What will people say?

14:55 Speaker 1 Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai says: “May it be His will that your fear of Heaven be at least like your fear of a human being.” Why? You couldn’t bring about awe in your heart? Bring about awe in your mind. You couldn’t do that in your mind? Bring about something external—just a decision, just a conclusion. You couldn’t even do that? Then let it at least be like your fear of another person. Why? Because when a person commits a transgression—these are Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai’s words—he says, “May no one see me.” It’s that simple. That, too, is some form of awe. But if there’s no awe at all—that’s how he concludes. Let’s read it at the top of page one hundred and fourteen. We’ll start here. This is the end of what we read last week. So there has to be—let’s go over it again. At the beginning of the chapter he says that “the beginning of avodah, its essence and its root, is awe.” Right? And there should be awe, and then a greater level, and a greater one still. But if that’s not possible, then this level also counts, and this one, and this one—at least this much. Then he concludes: “But without any awe at all, it does not soar upward through love alone.” A Jew who only loves Hashem. Think about this: arousing awe, arousing love of Hashem—not everyone attains that. It isn’t simple. What you said about awe applies equally to love: for my heart to love and be drawn to Hakadosh Boruch Hu.

16:41 Speaker 5 Not everyone has that.

16:43 Speaker 1 It doesn’t just happen. It isn’t our natural feeling.

16:47 Speaker 5 That also takes work.

16:47 Speaker 1 To put it mildly, it isn’t how we naturally feel day to day. But here’s a person who already has love of Hashem. What does that mean? How did he reach it? He studied a lot of Chassidus. He contemplated Hashem’s greatness and concentrated deeply on it until it penetrated his heart. Now he’s drawn to Hakadosh Boruch Hu; he loves Him and seeks Him. The Alter Rebbe says that if he has no awe—not even that minimal level of “may no one see me,” the barest minimum—it does not soar upward. All his avodah, all his love of Hashem, all the mitzvos of Hashem—his mitzvos—it all goes to the kelipos. It does not soar upward; it remains in the world of separation.

17:33 Speaker 5 The world of what?

17:35 Speaker 1 The world of separation. Excellent—he didn’t say that. In chapter 39, he didn’t say it goes to the kelipos; he said it doesn’t ascend. It “does not soar upward through love alone.” Why? Because, as in the analogy, a bird cannot fly with one wing. Love and awe are the two wings. If a person has love, even genuine love of Hashem—we’re not talking about something imagined, but genuine love—yet lacks even a minimal level of yirah tata’ah, he isn’t serving Hashem, he isn’t serving Hashem. It cannot ascend. Those aren’t easy words...

18:26 Speaker 5 Not easy at all.

18:27 Speaker 1 As it says in the Tikkunim—this is from Tikkunei Zohar. For something like this, you need to cite a source. The Zohar says it; it’s not me. And fear alone, too—a person might say, “Fine, I’ll put my effort into fear.” Fear alone is also one wing; it cannot fly upward with it, even though it is called the service of a servant. A person might say, “I want to serve Hashem. What do I need love for? Whether I love Him or not, what difference does it make? Who am I, anyway? The main thing is to serve Hashem. The main thing is fear of Hashem.” A person will work constantly on fear, to instill fear in himself through the kinds of contemplation we’ve learned. You will serve Hashem. That’s true. But your mitzvos won’t ascend without love. Even though it is called the service of a servant, one must—one must also have the aspect of a son. That’s why on Rosh Hashanah we say “Avinu Malkeinu,” “Our Father, our King,” so many times. We mentioned this last week, right? It’s one of the familiar points discussed in Chassidus about kingship. What is malchus, the attribute of kingship? A king can reign only over a people. The word for “people,” am, is related to omemos, dim, like coals whose glow has weakened. You can’t reign over someone close to you. A king can’t be king over his own children; he can’t reign over his sons. Right?

20:05 Speaker 5 He rules over them.

20:06 Speaker 1 What?

20:07 Speaker 5 He rules over them.

20:07 Speaker 1 Like every father rules over his children.

20:10 Speaker 5 Not like a king.

20:14 Speaker 1 He’s a father. He can’t be both—

20:16 Speaker 5 There are all kinds of characters.

20:21 Speaker 1 And it works the other way around, too. Just as a king cannot be a father to his subjects, a father cannot be a king to his sons. Father and king are a contradiction. You can’t be both at once. Yet we say of Hakadosh Boruch Hu that He is both Father and King: “Avinu Malkeinu.” How does that work together? That’s where the explanation comes in.

20:48 Speaker 5 So they would be half a king.

20:50 Speaker 1 Without love of Hashem—if a person doesn’t relate to Hakadosh Boruch Hu as his father, loving Him as a child loves his father—his mitzvos won’t ascend. We learned that in the previous chapters. Without fear of Hashem, if he doesn’t relate to Hakadosh Boruch Hu as a king, then he isn’t serving Hashem at all. So of course it won’t ascend. It has to be “Avinu Malkeinu.” Both are needed; you need both. So from here, and through the rest of the chapter, the Alter Rebbe explains the other side, the second wing: love of Hashem, and the other half of “the beginning, essence, and root of the service.” One must also have the aspect of a son, to awaken at least the natural love. Now, just as fear has two broad levels, lower fear and higher fear—we haven’t explained what higher fear is, while for lower fear he explained at least five or six levels—love of Hashem also has two broad levels: natural love and intellectual love. And the love required for serving Hashem is, at the very least, natural love. Intellectual love is already—we’ll see that later. That’s another level. But to serve Hashem, the beginning of the service must, first of all, include natural love. Do I need to explain the difference between natural love and intellectual love again?

22:25 Speaker 5 It would be good.

22:26 Speaker 1 Let’s put it in a word.

22:28 Speaker 5 Well, I wouldn’t have—

22:32 Speaker 1 It’s a subject we’ve been coming back to since more or less chapter one of Tanya, and, uh...

22:37 Speaker 5 Natural love is without intellect. Like the way you love your children without any reason, because they’re your children. That’s natural love.

22:46 Speaker 1 There is such a thing as an inborn nature. Yes, a raven’s nature is cruel. An eagle’s nature is compassionate, and so on. A lion’s nature is to prey on other animals. A duck’s nature is—I don’t know—to eat bread, I don’t know. Everything has its own nature, the natural traits it was born with. A human being—a Jew in particular, but any human being, including a non-Jew—has free choice. What does choice mean? A person can change his nature, change what he loves. He loves one thing, and he can change his nature to love another. He hates something, and he can change his nature to hate something else. A person can train himself to dislike sweet things. Many people do.

23:37 Speaker 5 You have to work at it.

23:38 Speaker 1 You have to work at it. No, I’m not saying you don’t have to work at it.

23:40 Speaker 5 I’m like that.

23:41 Speaker 1 That is choice. An animal can’t do that. It has no choice; that’s its nature. A person has free choice and can change his nature. Intellectual love is love born through contemplation. It’s a love that wasn’t there before, and now something new has come into being—a love born of the intellect. We’re talking about love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Natural love is something completely different. Natural love is a Jew’s nature to love Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What’s the difference? A Jew has two souls: the G-dly soul and the animal soul, which gives life to the body. The G-dly soul’s nature is to love Hakadosh Boruch Hu. It cannot love anything else. It hates this world, abhors it, and loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The animal soul loves the body. It was made in such a way that its pleasure and enjoyment come from living through the body. Whatever is good for the body feels good to it. It loves to eat, it loves to drink, it loves pleasure. It loves this world. Whatever the G-dly soul loves, the animal soul hates; whatever the animal soul loves, the G-dly soul hates. They’re opposites. Intellectual love, broadly speaking—there are many details and several levels—is when the G-dly soul contemplates and uses the intellect until the animal soul changes and also begins to love Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Natural love is something completely different. Here we’re not dealing with the animal soul. We reveal the G-dly soul’s existing nature. That’s something entirely different, a different character. The G-dly soul’s love is calm. The animal soul is all fiery passion; everything about it is intense. It’s a different kind of love, born of a different contemplation. It’s something else. Intellectual love

26:06 Speaker 1 is something that comes into being; natural love means revealing what already exists. Changing the animal soul’s nature so that it begins to love Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not simple. It’s hard work. Taking anything and changing it from one kind of being into another is difficult. To awaken the G-dly soul’s natural feeling, you don’t have to create anything new. It’s simply covered up. Remove a little of what covers it, and it will be revealed. The Alter Rebbe says: To serve Hashem, “the beginning, essence, and root of the service”—there are levels, and later there are further levels. But the beginning, essence, and root of the service is to serve Hashem, first of all, with lower fear and natural love.

26:58 Speaker 6 Fear of what?

26:59 Speaker 1 Lower fear—the lower level of fear, which we discussed at several levels: what to contemplate and how to reach it—and natural love. That’s all. Later we’ll get to chapter 43, and there we’ll begin climbing to the higher levels. But right now we’re talking about what a Jew needs to do to serve Hashem. “One must also have the aspect of a son, to awaken at least the natural love hidden in his heart, so that it is revealed at least in his mind: to recall in his thoughts his love for the one Hashem and his desire to cleave to Him, blessed be He.” Even within natural love there are many levels—not levels in the love itself. It is the soul’s love, and there is nothing in it that can change. But there are levels in how much of it is revealed. When the G-dly soul is without a body in the higher world, it is truly one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, united with G-dliness. Its love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu is tremendous, an inconceivable love that we cannot imagine. And no love a person can bring forth through his intellect can reach the level of that love—the G-dly soul’s great love. But that’s how it is up there, at its source. Here, within our bodies, it is deeply concealed. So sometimes, when a person is put with his back to the wall, so to speak, and someone points a gun at him and says, “Convert or we’ll kill you,” that soul sometimes reveals itself. “Do whatever you want to me; I’m with You.” He doesn’t even know why. The soul cannot separate itself from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But ordinarily, in daily life, we don’t feel it or see it. Even though we usually don’t feel it, we can reveal it. Not at its full intensity, but we can reveal it. How do we reveal natural love? The Alter Rebbe explained that at length in the first part.

29:30 Speaker 1 In the Tanya, at the beginning of chapter 25 and in the chapters before it, he says something very simple. Whenever you find yourself in a situation where a transgression is right in front of you, and you’re tempted to do it, you start debating with yourself. You have a story about someone that you desperately want to tell. You know it’s forbidden, but you feel you have to tell it. And anyway, who’s going to hear? So you’re torn. Yes, I know it’s forbidden, but it’s very hard. The Alter Rebbe says: At that moment, when you feel the urge—even though you know it’s forbidden and feel you can’t hold back—stop for a moment and think: If they put me up against a wall right now and forced me to convert to Christianity, I’d be willing to die, wouldn’t I? So I’m willing to endure the suffering of death, but I can’t endure the discomfort of not telling this person the story? Just remembering that you have such a love is enough to bring it out. How does it show itself? By your not committing the transgression. That’s chapter 25 in brief. This is called awakening the love hidden in one’s mind. In his heart, he feels nothing, but in his mind he remembers. He remembers that he has such a love, and that already affects him. So when he says “awaken,” what does that mean? What is the most basic level of serving Hashem through love? Just as the most basic level of serving Hashem through awe is lower-level awe: at least have as much awe of Hakadosh Boruch Hu as you have of another person. You’d feel uncomfortable committing a transgression if another person saw you. So have awe of Hakadosh Boruch Hu: “I feel uncomfortable that Hakadosh Boruch Hu sees me committing a transgression.” At a minimum, at least that. What is

31:40 Speaker 1 minimal love? At least remember intellectually, in your mind, that you have love for Hashem. “That it should at least be revealed in his mind, so that he remembers in his thoughts and desire his love for Hashem, the One, and his desire to cleave to Him, blessed be He. And this should be his intention in engaging in this Torah study or mitzvah.” Right now, I’m about to fulfill a mitzvah. What for? “To cleave to Him with his G-dly soul and his vital soul and their garments.” Every mitzvah a person is about to fulfill—why am I doing it? For its own sake. What does “for its own sake” mean?

32:18 Speaker 7 For the honor of Hakadosh Boruch Hu.

32:19 Speaker 1 For the honor of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Not so that I’ll earn merits from it, and not so that I’ll merit Gan Eden. And not so that, thanks to it, Hakadosh Boruch Hu will later save me from something—I don’t know what—or give me this or that. I’m fulfilling a mitzvah now in order to cleave to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. I’m fulfilling a mitzvah for the sake of the mitzvah, for His sake. Yes. So that is the basic service of Hashem. “The beginning of the service, and its essence and root”: whenever a person is about to fulfill a mitzvah, he should stop and think that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is King. He is King over the entire world, King over the Jewish people, and King over me personally. I accept His kingship upon myself. And now He is looking at me and examining my innermost thoughts and heart: Am I serving Him properly? Am I serving Him? Why am I fulfilling mitzvos? Am I fulfilling them with love and awe? And what does “with love and awe” mean? At least I should feel in my heart—or if not in my heart, then at least understand in my mind—some awe of Hashem from this contemplation, and remember that I’m fulfilling the mitzvos for Him, not for myself. This is what one needs to think about before fulfilling every mitzvah. It’s the ABCs. “However, our Sages said: A person should never exclude himself from the community. Therefore, he should intend to unite and cause to cleave to Him, blessed be He”—whom? What were we talking about before? That when I perform a mitzvah, I cleave my soul to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He adds that, beyond this, a person should intend to unite and cause to cleave to Him, blessed be He, not only his own soul but the source of his G-dly soul and the source of all Jewish souls. What is the source of all Jewish souls? “It is the breath of His mouth, blessed be He, called the Shechinah.” Why is the source of Jewish souls called the Shechinah? “Because it dwells and is invested within all the worlds to give them life and sustain them.” And when I fulfill a mitzvah, I need to intend not only that I will cleave to Hakadosh

34:39 Speaker 1 Boruch Hu, but that Malchus of Atzilus will be united with the Ein Sof light. Now, I’m not playing games, right? Hakadosh Boruch Hu doesn’t ask us to imagine fantasies or play make-believe. When we’re asked to have the intention, while fulfilling a mitzvah, that through my fulfilling it right now Malchus of Atzilus will be united with its source and root in the higher sefiros—what do you want from me? How did this get to me? So the Alter Rebbe immediately explains why it does have something to do with us. Because the source of Jewish souls—the Shechinah, Malchus of Atzilus—is what gives me the power of speech with which I speak words of Torah. I’m speaking words of Torah right now. Who gave me the power to speak words of Torah? The Shechinah. Who gave me the power to perform the acts of a mitzvah? The Shechinah. And what is the mitzvah I’m performing? What is the mitzvah itself? What are mitzvos?

36:12 Speaker 7 They’re serving Hashem.

36:14 Speaker 1 Yes, from my perspective. We’ve said many times that mitzvos are the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and Torah is the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. There’s also plenty of proof for this in the Torah itself. What are will and wisdom in a human being? What are my will and my wisdom? They’re me myself. Who am I? Why do I thi—wait, who am I? I am what I want, what I think, what I understand. Right? That’s me. So what does it mean to speak of the will and wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu? That’s Him Himself, right? So now, when I fulfill a mitzvah, who is fulfilling it? Me, my G-dly soul. Right? And what is the mitzvah I’m fulfilling? It’s His will and His wisdom. It’s Him; it’s Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So it’s true that, during and through the mitzvah, my soul connects with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But the root of my soul is Malchus of Atzilus, while the mitzvah I’m fulfilling is the will and wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So it isn’t only my individual soul that now connects with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The Shechinah, the source of all Jewish souls, connects with Hakadosh Boruch Hu through my fulfillment of the mitzvah. It follows that—

37:39 Speaker 7 That’s a big responsibility.

37:40 Speaker 1 Huh?

37:41 Speaker 7 A big responsibility.

37:43 Speaker 1 Yes.

37:45 Speaker 7 Is that what it means that all Jews are responsible for one another? Is that what...?

37:49 Speaker 1 Yes, yes. The entire existence of the higher worlds, and the fulfillment of Hashem’s purpose in creating the worlds, depend on my fulfilling a mitzvah right now.

38:01 Speaker 7 Wait, can you go over that again? The Shechinah, the sefiros, all of it...

38:11 Speaker 1 What isn’t clear?

38:12 Speaker 7 No, it isn’t clear—the part about the connection. You said that when you fulfill a mitzvah, you’re carrying out Hashem’s will and wisdom. So where does the Shechinah come into it? How does that connect all those souls too?

38:28 Speaker 1 Among the sefiros of Atzilus are the attributes: Chochmah, Binah, Daas, Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferes, and so on, as well as Malchus. There are ten sefiros altogether: nine attributes and Malchus. The attributes are Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself—His will, His wisdom, His understanding, His knowledge, His kindness. That is Him Himself. Malchus is not Him. It’s an analogy: in a person, what I think is me, what I understand is me, what I want is me, what I love is me. What I say is already directed to someone else.

39:12 Speaker 7 To what?

39:13 Speaker 1 To someone else.

39:14 Speaker 7 Ah.

39:15 Speaker 1 Until I speak, nobody knows anything. The whole nature of speech is to go outward. That’s what speech is about: communication. Right? Among a person’s faculties, speech is the faculty that brings the person outward, toward someone else. So to speak, there’s something analogous to this with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What does that mean? There is Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself, and there is the G-dly light that descends to give life to the worlds. The G-dly light that descends to give life to the worlds is called the Shechinah. Why? Because it dwells—it descends below, dwells in the lower realms, descends to dwell there. Elsewhere, for other reasons, because of other qualities it has, it is called Malchus: the sefirah of Malchus of Atzilus.

40:13 Speaker 7 That’s the Shechinah?

40:14 Speaker 1 The Shechinah is Malchus of Atzilus, yes. It’s the same thing; it has many other names too. We’re talking about the lowest level of G-dliness, the gateway beyond which there are created beings, no longer G-dliness. So he says: “My soul is rooted in the Shechinah. The mitzvah I fulfill and the Torah I study are rooted in Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. So when I connect with Torah and mitzvos, up there my root connects with the root of the Torah and the mitzvah.”

40:54 Speaker 7 Wait, so the bottom line is the bottom line.

40:58 Speaker 1 If I’m down here and I connect with the mitzvah, up above there is my root and the root of the mitzvah. My root is Malchus of Atzilus. The root of the mitzvah is everything—it is Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself, His will and His wisdom.

41:13 Speaker 7 Um. Okay. So you’re saying that I connect...

41:20 Speaker 1 I connect with the mitzvah down here. But look, when—there’s, what do you call it, a marionette, right? Or that’s not a good example. There’s a rope with one end tied up above and the other down below. When someone pulls it down here, it moves up above.

41:35 Speaker 7 So when you do a mitzvah down here, you’re saying that it, it, it connects...

41:39 Speaker 1 It’s connected.

41:41 Speaker 7 Okay. Ah, and so that’s why it has an effect, like—

41:44 Speaker 1 It’s connected. What can I say? It’s all one thing. Down here is the very end. We don’t even see the tip of the iceberg; we see the last millimeter. I don’t know, not even that—the zero point down here. But that zero point down here is connected up above, and when a person does a mitzvah here, it’s connected and it has an effect above. What effect does it have? The unification of Kudsha Brich Hu and His Shechinah. That’s why, before doing a mitzvah, Sephardim say it before every mitzvah, while among Ashkenazim the custom is to say it just once in the morning for the whole day. They say, “For the sake of the unification of Kudsha Brich Hu and His Shechinah.” Doing a mitzvah unites, connects, Kudsha Brich Hu—the Divine attributes—with the Shechinah. How? That’s what Jews do. All right? “Our Sages, however, said: A person should never separate himself from the community. Therefore, he should intend to unite and attach to Him, blessed be He, the source of his Divine soul and the source of the souls of all Israel. This is the breath of His mouth, blessed be He, called the Shechinah because it dwells and is enclothed within all the worlds to give them life and sustain them. It is this that gives him the power of speech with which he speaks words of Torah, or the power of action with which he performs this mitzvah. This unification is accomplished by drawing the light of the blessed Ein Sof downward through engaging in Torah and mitzvos, in which it is enclothed. And he should intend, when performing a mitzvah, to draw His light, blessed be He, upon the source of his soul and the souls of all Israel”—not just upon his own soul, but upon the source of his soul—“to unite them, as the meaning of this unification will be explained at length below. See there.” With Hashem’s help, we’ll get to that and discuss it at length. “This is the meaning of ‘For the sake of the unification of Kudsha Brich Hu and His Shechinah, on behalf of all Israel.’” Why do we say “on behalf of all Israel”? Because every mitzvah I do is on behalf of all Israel; it has an effect on all Israel. All right, there’s a note here. Because of the

43:32 Speaker 1 limited time, we’ll skip it. Writing “skip this” beside every line is... a shame. All right, it says: “Although, for this intention to be genuine in his heart—for his heart to truly desire this supernal unification...” Well, after all the contemplation, do I really care? Is there actually something stirring in my heart, something moving there—that Hakadosh Boruch Hu should be united with His Shechinah? Do I truly care? Does it really touch my heart? After all... yes, let’s be honest. Serving Hashem is about truth. Hakadosh Boruch Hu looks at us; it has to be real. If it isn’t real, then it’s not... So why do you demand something from us when you know it isn’t real? “Although, for this intention to be genuine in his heart—for his heart to truly desire this supernal unification—he must have a great love for Hashem alone,” a Jew who has a great love for Hashem alone, “to bring Him pleasure alone.” Everything he does in fulfilling the mitzvos is only for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, “not to satisfy his own soul, which thirsts for Hashem.” He fulfills the mitzvos “like a son who strives for his father and mother, whom he loves more than himself and his own life, etc., as explained above in the name of Ra’aya Mehemna.” We learned that a long time ago, in chapter 10. Those who remember: the beginning of Tanya, up to chapter 12, explains what a tzaddik, a beinoni, and a rasha are. Do you remember that subject? There are twelve chapters there about what a tzaddik is, what a beinoni is, and what a rasha is. And when he gets to chapter 10 to explain what a beinoni is, he says what—what a tzaddik is. What is a tzaddik? A tzaddik is someone like Moshe Rabbeinu. What does it say about Moshe Rabbeinu? Why is he the example of a tzaddik? So he says in chapter 10 of Tanya that Moshe

45:32 Speaker 1 Rabbeinu loved Hakadosh Boruch Hu the way a son loves his father. What am I asking here? What’s so special about a son loving his father? He says that when a son loves his father, there’s this point where he does things for his father, not to gain anything. There is such a—

45:56 Speaker 8 Without expecting anything in return.

45:57 Speaker 1 Huh?

45:58 Speaker 8 Without expecting anything in return.

45:58 Speaker 1 Yes. A lot of the time, it’s true, a son does things so that his father will give him something. That happens too. But with every son, from time to time, there can also be something like this.

46:16 Speaker 8 No,

46:16 Speaker 1 he does something not because he’s afraid of his father. His father isn’t going to punish him, and it’s not because he wants to gain something. No, he isn’t thinking about that at all. He does it simply because he loves his father. Dad asked, so I’ll do it. Moshe Rabbeinu embodied this perfectly. Everything he did, every moment of his life, from the day he was born until the day of his passing, was only for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He didn’t think about himself. That’s the example of a tzaddik. He doesn’t do it for himself; he does it because he loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu.

47:00 Speaker 8 And for his people too.

47:02 Speaker 1 What?

47:02 Speaker 8 He did it for the people too.

47:04 Speaker 1 Because he loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and Hakadosh—

47:09 Speaker 8 His people. That’s why he did it.

47:11 Speaker 1 There’s a story about the Alter Rebbe. Once, the chassidim were having a discussion. They asked which is greater, love of Hashem or Ahavas Yisroel? Which is the higher level? The Alter Rebbe came in and said, “Ahavas Yisroel is greater than love of Hashem.” Why? Because you love what the one you love loves.

47:44 Speaker 8 What does that mean?

47:44 Speaker 1 Why does he love another Jew? Not because he loves that Jew, but because he knows Hakadosh Boruch Hu loves him, and therefore he loves him. The greatness is in doing something not because I want to, but because He wants to.

47:59 Speaker 9 Not loving Hashem—loving the Jew.

48:01 Speaker 8 No, I’m saying that’s also why it’s easier to love Hashem than to love every Jew.

48:05 Speaker 9 No, you didn’t understand it.

48:06 Speaker 8 No, I did understand. If you love the Jew because Hashem loves him—

48:11 Speaker 9 Right.

48:11 Speaker 8 then you want to love what Hashem loves. But I’m saying it really is easier to love Hashem than to love every Jew. So Hashem must want us to love every Jew.

48:17 Speaker 9 Yes, that’s right. Now you’ve explained it.

48:20 Speaker 8 Jews can be annoying.

48:24 Speaker 1 After learning chapter 32 of Tanya, there are no more annoying Jews.

48:29 Speaker 9 Really.

48:30 Speaker 1 They’ve all become tzaddikim.

48:31 Speaker 9 Absolutely.

48:35 Speaker 1 After learning chapters 29 and 30 of Tanya, everyone is a tzaddik. Not only...

48:42 Speaker 8 Then they wouldn’t need to come to the class. How sweet.

48:51 Speaker 1 So for me to truly care in my heart about the unification of Kudsha Brich Hu and His Shechinah—I’d have to be Moshe Rabbeinu. How can you demand of me something that’s expected of someone on Moshe Rabbeinu’s level? So he says: “Nevertheless, every person should accustom himself to this intention all the same.” Why? “Even if it is not entirely genuine in his heart, so that he desires it with all his heart, nevertheless his heart genuinely desires it to some small degree.” There’s something in every Jew, some point in his nature, where it is genuine. Why? Because ultimately, as we said before, every Jew has a Divine soul. The Divine soul’s nature is to love Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That’s its nature; that’s how it was born. And part of its nature of loving Hakadosh Boruch Hu is doing what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants. So if it knows—the Divine soul knows—that Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants the unification of Kudsha Brich Hu and His Shechinah, then it wants that too. So in the Divine soul of each of us, there’s a point that truly wants this. Since the Divine soul is, after all, my soul, even if it isn’t revealed and I don’t feel it, and even if it doesn’t find expression in my heart, when I think about it and contemplate it, it does connect with that genuine point within me. That’s why everyone is asked to contemplate not only how a mitzvah connects me to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, but also that Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants this. It does relate to you, at least a little, “because of the natural love in the heart of every Jew to do whatever is the will of the blessed Supreme One. And this unification is His true will.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu truly wants it, and the soul feels

50:55 Speaker 1 That. This means the higher union in Atzilus, brought about through an awakening from below, when the G-dly soul unites with and becomes incorporated into the light of Hashem clothed in the Torah and mitzvos in which it is engaged, and they become truly one. As we explained, through Torah and mitzvos a person unites with Hakadosh Boruch Hu; his G-dly soul unites with Him. And that also has an effect Above. By uniting with Hakadosh Boruch Hu through Torah and mitzvos, he also brings about the union of the source of Torah and mitzvos, which is Hakadosh Boruch Hu, with the source of his G-dly soul, called the Shechinah. These are the levels of memalei kol almin and sovev kol almin. In other words, the Shechinah, Malchus of Atzilus, is memalei kol almin, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu is sovev kol almin, as explained at length elsewhere. We’ll see this at length in chapter 48; that’s the chapter where the Alter Rebbe discusses this subject. So that was a digression. There aren’t any parentheses here, but it was a digression. If you remember, do you remember when we started talking about this subject? We started on page 114, the fourth line from the top: “However, our Sages said: A person should not separate himself from the community.” True, you need to contemplate how to fulfill the mitzvos for their own sake. What does “for their own sake” mean? Not only with awe, but also with love. What does “with love” mean? Before doing a mitzvah, you should think both about how Hakadosh Boruch Hu is King and you are serving Him, and about how, through this mitzvah, you are now connecting and joining with Him. Through it, your soul—your own soul—becomes incorporated into and united with G-dliness. You also need to think about how this has an effect Above. Then he begins to discuss at length how it has an effect Above, and why that is relevant to me as well. Here he finishes that discussion, after the period. But do you see the “but” down there? So everything

52:45 Speaker 1 we’ve discussed—the contemplation of how Hakadosh Boruch Hu unites with His Shechinah, the union of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and His Shechinah—that has some connection to everyone. But the union of a person’s own soul with the light of Hashem, its becoming incorporated into that light so that his soul and the light of Hashem become one—that is something every Jew truly desires. It isn’t just make-believe. It comes easily. The Alter Rebbe says... All right, we’ll stop here. We’ll stop and continue next time. This is more or less the end of this discussion.

54:13 Speaker 10 Okay.

54:13 Speaker 1 Hmm?

54:13 Speaker 10 We need to get things organized.

54:14 Speaker 1 We’ll just, afterward, start—we’ll start with this—

54:18 Speaker 10 We’ll arrange it for you.

54:19 Speaker 1 From here, actually—

54:21 Speaker 10 That came out well.

54:22 Speaker 1 Yes. From here to this point—as I said earlier, I think that in this chapter the Alter Rebbe generally discusses three things. First he speaks about basic awe, “the beginning of the service, and its essence and root.” Then he speaks about basic love, which means awakening the hidden love, including its different levels. And then, in practice, from here to the end of the chapter, he simply explains how to put it into action. It’s straightforward and practical: how it applies to each and every person.

55:00 Speaker 10 That’s what’s called—

55:01 Speaker 1 We’ll see that... We’ll start from the middle and continue; we’ll see it next time.

55:07 Speaker 10 Excellent. Excellent! Because he needs to... What else was written?