Likkutei Amarim Chapter 42 (Part 2) · 5785

00:00 Speaker 1 Something new is always good. New is always a good thing.

00:06 Speaker 2 We’re in the middle of chapter 42, on page 60. In chapter 41, he began by saying that the foundation, the starting point of serving Hashem, is fear of Hashem. Until a person has fear of Hashem, it’s as if... It isn’t just a prerequisite; it’s what gives life to all of the service, including the service of “do good.” He also explains there the service involved in fulfilling mitzvos. Everything has to be permeated with fear of Hashem. Fear is what gives life to all the mitzvos. He explains that at length there. That was chapter 41. Then, in our chapter, he began to explain: Fine, but what he discussed in chapter 41 was only in general terms—that a person should picture himself standing before the King, with the King looking at him. In chapter 42 he began to explain it more deeply and in greater detail. Where does this fear come from in the first place? Because... well. He explained that... No, he didn’t say this explicitly. He explained that the root of this fear—the fear we’re discussing, since there are different kinds and levels of fear—is natural fear. What is natural fear? Natural fear is part of a Jew’s nature, part of the soul’s nature. A Jew’s soul is constituted in such a way that he naturally has fear of Hashem. There is also a later fear, a great fear, a higher fear. But the fear required to begin the service of Hashem, the first stage of that service, is the natural fear a Jew has. It is something inherent in him by virtue of his soul. So the question naturally arises: If it’s in the soul’s nature, and I don’t feel it in my day-to-day life, why don’t I feel it? Because this nature is hidden somewhere very deep inside, and we need to bring out this natural fear

02:22 Speaker 2 that the soul has—to bring it from potential into actuality. And who says I can bring it from potential into actuality at all? Maybe it’s so deeply hidden in me that I simply can’t. Okay, so I have something like that inside, but it’s very deep, and I can’t see how I could bring it into actuality. So he explained that just as every Jew has fear in the nature of his soul, every Jew also has daas in his soul. Moshe Rabbeinu, who is called the faithful shepherd, planted—placed, planted—within the soul of each of us a faculty called daas. Daas means connection. The ability to...

03:09 Speaker 1 Daas is

03:10 Speaker 2 daas. Daas is the ability to look at something, think about it, fix your gaze on it, attach yourself to it and connect with it. To awaken that fear, that natural fear, and bring it out of hiding so that it becomes apparent to me in my mind and heart, you need daas. And since each of us has daas, each of us has a spark of Moshe Rabbeinu’s soul, or at least a ray from his soul, then each of us really can reveal this fear within ourselves. That was the beginning of the chapter. Later he went on—and we’ve already learned this part too—to explain what it means to fix one’s daas on something. How do you fix your daas on it in order to bring that natural fear from potential into actuality? He says it takes both exertion of the soul and exertion of the body. Exertion of the soul simply means working very hard, making an effort to contemplate the greatness of Hashem until G-dliness becomes something you sense. What does it mean to sense it? What’s the difference between knowing that something exists and

04:41 Speaker 7 feeling it?

04:42 Speaker 2 I feel it. That’s something else entirely. Right?

04:45 Speaker 7 So it’s stronger when you feel it.

04:46 Speaker 2 Sensing it is already... Yes. It’s the same with material things. There are things that aren’t present for a person and aren’t on his mind day to day. If he thinks deeply about them, he’ll come to feel them. With material things, it’s easy for a person to reach that point. If a person wants a particular issue to matter to him—say people are talking now about the school’s campaign and the need to donate a lot of money to the school—it can go in one ear and out the other. But if I think about it and reflect on how important it is, how necessary it is, how we can’t manage without it, and what will happen if it doesn’t happen, then I’ll feel it. I’ll feel it, and naturally I’ll donate more. Yes, the more a person... Material things...

05:32 Speaker 7 Hello.

05:33 Speaker 2 Hello.

05:40 Speaker 7 It needs to arrive. After Shabbos. What I have here.

05:45 Speaker 2 So with material things, it’s relatively easy for a person to come to feel them. But when we’re talking about feeling Hakadosh Boruch Hu, actually feeling Him, a person needs to fix his daas on this firmly and consistently. That takes work. It isn’t simple. And he says even that isn’t enough, because a person has a body—a material body, a coarse body. What can you do? He was born with one. Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave him that kind of body. Or it may be because, over the years, he allowed himself to pursue desires a great deal. Pursuing desires—or simply eating, drinking and making use of the things of this world—makes a person more material and makes his body coarser. Then, even if he fixes his daas on it and contemplates it with exertion of the soul, he still won’t succeed in bringing that fear out of hiding. That’s why he said exertion of the soul isn’t enough; there must also be exertion of the body. “Exertion of the body” refers to breaking down one’s coarseness, as we learned in chapters 29 and 31: what a person needs to contemplate in order to do that. Through both of these things—fixing one’s daas with exertion of both body and soul—he’ll succeed in bringing out that natural fear. The soul senses Hakadosh Boruch Hu and therefore fears Him. He’ll succeed in bringing that out, so that he feels it in his heart, or at least feels it in his mind. That’s what we discussed. We’ve already learned this.

07:27 Speaker 7 So that means feeling it throughout the body.

07:29 Speaker 2 Ideally, it means feeling it in the heart. When a person feels fear of Hashem in his heart, wherever he goes, he constantly feels that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with him. Well, then he won’t commit aveiros. And his mitzvos will have vitality too. At the very least, he should feel it in his mind: it should be so firmly settled there, so tangible to him, that at least in his mind he’s constantly... The more a person feels it, the more... Many times when we’re in the middle of davening...

08:05 Speaker 7 All the way through. Yes.

08:08 Speaker 2 Good evening. I’m sure it doesn’t happen to you, but many times when I’m in the middle of davening, all sorts of thoughts come up. I start davening, get to the middle and stop. Wait, what am I even thinking about? Where something is written, and something I’m not even... Wh-why?

08:28 Speaker 7 Do you know where we are? Because the mind is occupied.

08:30 Speaker 2 We haven’t started that yet.

08:31 Speaker 7 The mind is occupied.

08:32 Speaker 2 Ex-exactly. Why is my mind occupied with these things? I look at it and say: I’m davening to You. Wh-why is my mind occupied with other things? What causes that? Because what feels real to me is this world.

08:43 Speaker 7 That’s true for everyone.

08:44 Speaker 2 If G-dliness felt real to me even just in my mind, not in my heart, then during davening I wouldn’t be thinking about other things. They simply wouldn’t enter my mind. Right. So the beginning of the service of Hashem, and its essence and root, is to awaken the natural fear in the soul, to bring it out of concealment, from potential into actuality, so that I feel it in my heart. Ideally, in the heart, and at least in the mind. Then a person won’t commit aveiros. How do you awaken it? How do you bring it out? Through exertion of the soul and exertion of the body, by fixing one’s daas on the greatness of Hashem, as he explained. All right? That’s the first part of the chapter. Then he continues, and we’re on page 60. In the third or fourth line, it ends: “So too, one must dig with tremendous effort.” Yes. So when a person knows there’s some hidden treasure—nowadays there are all sorts of ways to know where to dig for treasure, because people already know it’s there, right? If a person knows something is there, he’ll invest all those millions. He knows it’s worth investing millions to get billions. Right. So if, after the whole explanation from chapter 41 to this point in chapter 42, a person knows that he has fear of Heaven, that he has such a thing inside him, then he has to dig for it as a person searches for a hidden treasure buried deep in the earth. If he knows for certain that it’s there, he digs for it with tremendous effort. He doesn’t give up, and nothing stops him from working to reach it—to uncover the treasure of fear of Heaven stored away and hidden in the understanding of the heart of every Jew. That treasure of fear of Heaven is of a level beyond time, and it is the hidden natural fear

10:55 Speaker 2 The fear mentioned above, which we’ve been discussing since the beginning of chapter 41. Here a new subject begins: “Only so that it leads to action, in the form of fear of sin, to turn away from evil in action, speech, and thought.” That’s something else entirely. What were we discussing until now? That through effort and concentrating his mind, with all his soul and body, a person can reach a point where G-dliness feels real to him. Right? That’s what we were discussing? That he actually feels, so to speak, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So the Alter Rebbe says that although this is within everyone’s reach, it’s called fear of G-d. What is he afraid of? When Hakadosh Boruch Hu feels real to a person, when G-dliness feels real to him, then what does he fear? He fears G-d. That takes tremendous effort. And although everyone can reach it, because everyone has an aspect of Moshe and everyone has a hidden fear, not everyone succeeds in reaching it.

12:07 Speaker 7 What, not everyone can be afraid of G-d?

12:09 Speaker 2 For G-dliness to feel real to him. So he explained how to reach that.

12:14 Speaker 7 Ah. Nice of you to come. The girls really did come—well done, well done.

12:22 Speaker 2 Oh, wow.

12:25 Speaker 7 She’s already tall compared to us. What’s her name? Rachel, Rachel. And Asaf, and Asaf. Mushka, Mushka.

12:33 Speaker 2 There are... there are pages here. We’re on page 60; we’ve only just started looking inside. After all, when you tell someone that awakening the natural fear requires such effort... is it hard, or is it hard, or can he simply not do it? It’s not that he can’t. It’s very, very hard. Not everyone manages it. So the Alter Rebbe says that within this fear of sin, this revealing of the natural fear, there are two levels. One is the level we’ve discussed until now: being afraid of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. There’s a lower level, where a person isn’t afraid of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, but is afraid of sin.

13:28 Speaker 7 Isn’t that the same thing?

13:29 Speaker 2 What’s the difference?

13:31 Speaker 7 Fear of punishment.

13:32 Speaker 2 No, not of punishment.

13:33 Speaker 7 Fear of G-d.

13:35 Speaker 2 Fear of Hashem isn’t fear of punishment.

13:37 Speaker 7 Fear of G-d. Fear of sin means something.

13:41 Speaker 2 Reverence, awe of His exaltedness—that’s something else entirely. We’ll discuss that in the next chapter, chapter 43.

13:45 Speaker 7 No, the difference between them... it’s as if the fear isn’t because of sin. Sometimes I don’t have any sins, so I’m certainly not afraid of committing a sin.

13:53 Speaker 2 That’s what we discussed earlier. It’s still called the lower fear, yirah tata’ah, fear of G-d. G-dliness feels real to him: Hakadosh Boruch Hu is here, looking at me, beside me, and He is a King, and He has left all the worlds and focused all His kingship on me. So I’m afraid. Where does that fear come from? It comes from Hashem’s greatness. Because Hashem’s greatness feels so tangible right beside him, because he has contemplated it, he fears G-d—Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This still isn’t awe of His exaltedness. He’s simply afraid; he feels fear, awe. Fear of sin: a person isn’t afraid of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. There are many, many people—most people, myself included. I don’t feel Hakadosh Boruch Hu. I’ll let you in on a secret.

14:42 Speaker 7 What are we supposed to say?

14:43 Speaker 2 A person... that really is a level. Although it’s the beginning, the essence, and the foundation of the service of Hashem, it’s a lofty level at the beginning of that service. Most people don’t feel it. If someone puts his hand on his heart, he can’t testify that he truly does—perhaps sometimes, once in a while. Fear of sin. There are many people, but on the other hand, it’s written in the Shulchan Aruch. Have you ever heard that?

15:10 Speaker 7 What?

15:10 Speaker 2 Huh? How can you do such a thing? The Shulchan Aruch says it’s forbidden. Right? It’s written in the Shulchan Aruch, so, fine, you have to do what it says. And they aren’t thinking about Hakadosh Boruch Hu at all.

15:25 Speaker 7 Indirectly it comes from...

15:26 Speaker 2 Indirectly, of course, indirectly. What does he feel? He doesn’t feel G-dliness; he feels the sin.

15:34 Speaker 7 The sin—what’s forbidden.

15:36 Speaker 2 Yes. So feeling G-dliness really is a level, but feeling fear of sin—simply recoiling from it: “How could I do such a thing? It’s a transgression. I don’t do that.” Yes, that too belongs to the natural fear. It isn’t an intellectual fear, or some other kind of fear. There are several more levels we’ll discuss later. It’s a Jew’s nature to fear committing a sin; he doesn’t want to. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants it this way, says it should be this way. I’m afraid to do otherwise. I want to stress this: someone here mentioned fear of punishment. That isn’t fear of punishment. Fear of punishment is something else entirely. It isn’t even a level of fear of Hashem; it isn’t a level at all. When a person is afraid of punishment, he isn’t afraid of Hakadosh Boruch Hu at all. He’s afraid for himself.

16:36 Speaker 8 He’s afraid Hakadosh Boruch Hu will punish him.

16:38 Speaker 2 Who is he thinking about? He’s thinking about himself. Fear of punishment isn’t a level in the service of Hashem at all.

16:47 Speaker 9 He thinks about the outcome, not the act itself.

16:50 Speaker 2 I didn’t understand.

16:51 Speaker 9 Someone who’s afraid of punishment

16:53 Speaker 2 Of punishment

16:53 Speaker 9 thinks about what comes after the act, not before it. Like, what will happen...

16:58 Speaker 2 Even if he thinks beforehand—even if a person refrains from doing it. There are people like that. He doesn’t do it. Why doesn’t he commit transgressions? Because he’s afraid that after 120 years, they’ll give him 120 years in Gehinnom. He doesn’t want to end up there, so he’s afraid. Yes, there are people like that. He doesn’t care about Hakadosh Boruch Hu at all. All he cares about in life is that things should be good for him—good for him in this world and good for him in the World to Come. Hakadosh Boruch Hu doesn’t interest him. If things could be good for me without Hakadosh Boruch Hu, all the better. Yes, fear of punishment has nothing to do with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The person thinks only of himself.

17:46 Speaker 8 But who gives the punishment? Isn’t it Hakadosh Boruch...

17:48 Speaker 2 Who gives it?

17:50 Speaker 8 So...

17:51 Speaker 2 That isn’t...

17:51 Speaker 8 That isn’t Hakadosh Boruch...

17:52 Speaker 2 That isn’t called serving Hashem. Someone who fears punishment won’t commit transgressions either. That’s true, but the Tanya is talking about serving Hashem. Serving Hashem—as we’ve said and stressed since the beginning of our learning, coming back to this point again and again—is inner work. Chabad demands inwardness. What does “inner” mean? That a person changes his very nature: instead of thinking about himself, he thinks about Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And it shouldn’t be something external—“I know I’m supposed to think about Him, so I do”—but something he truly feels.

18:30 Speaker 8 That it should come from the soul.

18:32 Speaker 2 From the soul, as you say. Changing a person’s very nature—that’s, how do you put it...

18:41 Speaker 8 Not simple.

18:42 Speaker 2 It’s not simple, just as a goat can’t suddenly turn into a cat.

18:45 Speaker 8 It’s not simple.

18:46 Speaker 2 That’s how he was born; that’s how he was created. To change his emotions and his intellect, the character of his emotions and intellect, so that instead of desiring this world and being afraid of matters of health and livelihood, his love and fear become love of Hashem and fear of Hashem—that’s certainly not simple. And that’s why there are 53 chapters in Tanya explaining how to do it.

19:13 Speaker 8 About what?

19:15 Speaker 2 How a person transforms his inner being

19:19 Speaker 8 Yes.

19:20 Speaker 2 into someone who serves Hashem.

19:22 Speaker 8 I think this is the first time I’ve understood that. He says 53 chapters...

19:27 Speaker 2 Even though we spoke about it explicitly in the introduction to the chapter—I remember we spoke about it in the introduction to the first chapter.

19:33 Speaker 8 Three chapters on the same idea. Nice. The truth is, everyone has it somewhere in their heart.

19:43 Speaker 2 That’s the essence of the work.

19:44 Speaker 8 Everyone is at a different level.

19:47 Speaker 2 Otherwise it isn’t work. What? Did we ever discuss what the word... Sorry for going off topic. What does the word... Why is avodah called “work”? Chassidus explains that it comes from the term...

20:01 Speaker 8 Radiating energy.

20:03 Speaker 2 No, that’s in physics. That’s true.

20:07 Speaker 8 Serving Hashem takes energy too. It means getting up early to daven.

20:10 Speaker 2 Avodah comes from the word... Chassidus explains...

20:13 Speaker 8 Two things.

20:13 Speaker 2 That avodah is related to working hides.

20:17 Speaker 8 Is that spelled with an ayin?

20:18 Speaker 2 Tanning—yes. How do you tan hides? You take an animal’s hide and soak it in lime for several days. Every two or three hours you have to take it out of the lime and put it back in, because the lime settles, so the water gets mixed. Now, first of all, it’s terribly, terribly hard work. A cowhide—even a sheepskin—especially when it’s soaked in water, weighs a great deal. It’s very hard work, and the smell is awful. Truly awful. Anyone who’s ever been in a tannery knows. And what’s the result? You take a hide with certain properties and turn it into a product whose properties after tanning are nothing like they were before. You’ve turned it into something else: a material that doesn’t rot, can last hundreds of years, and is strong. It wasn’t like that before. You’ve changed its very nature. That’s why serving Hashem is also called avodah, work. It’s very, very, very hard. Sometimes it’s unpleasant, too, and the result is that a person changes himself from one kind of being into another. That’s what avodah means. And when we say that the beginning of avodah, its essence and its root—not just its beginning, but throughout the rest of the avodah too—must all be permeated with awe, the Alter Rebbe explains which kind of awe we mean. There are all sorts. There is lower-level awe, which itself, as we saw, has four or five levels. There is higher-level awe, which we haven’t begun to discuss. There is natural awe and intellectual awe, and more. What matters in practice? As the foundation, the root that begins all of a Jew’s service of Hashem, one must bring the natural awe in the soul from potential into actuality, so that he feels it in his daily life. That’s what chapters 41 and 42 are about. And he divided that itself into two parts. Until now, he

22:41 Speaker 2 discussed bringing awe into actuality in a way that a person feels Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That takes hard work. It takes exertion of soul and exertion of body. There’s a whole lengthy discussion about it. But, he says, for a person not to commit a transgression—even if he doesn’t feel Hakadosh Boruch Hu, but he does feel that what’s before him right now is a transgression, he won’t do it. That, too, is called avodah, and this kind of awe, fear of sin, also comes from that same natural awe. All right? Is the structure clear now? So how do we bring this about? In other words, we’re no longer talking about awe of G-d coming to light in the heart, where a person feels the G-dliness. Rather, it will be felt only in the mind, as fear of sin. How do we do that? That’s what he’s discussing now. “But in order that it”—what is “it”? That hidden natural awe, the treasure of awe of Heaven concealed in the understanding of every person’s heart—“should come into action.” What does “into action” mean? “In the form of fear of sin, refraining from evil in deed, speech and thought, one must reveal it from the recesses of the heart’s understanding, which is above time, and bring it into actual thought in the mind, dwelling on it in thought for an actual period of time.” That’s quite straightforward. This awe of Heaven, concealed in the heart’s understanding, is above time. What does “above time” mean? It was in the soul before the person was born. It will be in the soul after the person is born. It’s there whether he feels it or not, and it never weakens or grows stronger. It’s there all the time. Time has no hold over it. But we live in a world of time. In his daily

25:05 Speaker 2 life, from the day he’s born until the age of 120, a person lives in a world defined by time and place, and things that belong to spiritual realms above time and place aren’t felt in this world. That’s simply true. So what must we do for it to be felt? Take something that is, in itself, above time and place, and bring it within the bounds of time—time and place. How? Simply. What is awe? You know; we’ve already discussed it. If you devote a little time to thinking about it every day—not as we discussed earlier, two hours a day, but a few minutes every day—a few minutes is time. You’ve brought the natural awe that is above time within the bounds of time, into your mind, into your intellect. You’ve brought it within those bounds. It’s there now, “until its effect emerges from potential into actual practice. That is, to turn from evil and do good in thought, speech and action, because of Hashem, Who watches and sees, listens and hears, and understands all his deeds.” Do those words sound familiar? They’re the words of the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur prayers. Because Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are indeed about accepting Hashem’s kingship. And here we’re talking about this lower-level awe as accepting the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven. So if a person reflects every day, as he said at the beginning—at the beginning of the first chapter—that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is King, that Hakadosh Boruch Hu reigns, and that He looks at him and watches him, listens and hears him, gives thought to him and cares about him, and watches me all the time—if he thinks about that for a few minutes every day, it comes from potential into actuality. It’s present in his mind, and as a result he won’t commit transgressions.

27:08 Speaker 10 So you have to think about it every day.

27:09 Speaker 2 Yes.

27:11 Speaker 10 Another thing to do.

27:12 Speaker 2 Another thing. Wait, there’s plenty more.

27:16 Speaker 10 But this applies to everyone; it’s already there, so to speak. It’s not as though I have to say, “Now I’m going to think about it.” It’s there on its own.

27:23 Speaker 2 Yes, but what’s there on its own doesn’t have an effect—

27:27 Speaker 10 It doesn’t have an effect?

27:27 Speaker 2 It has less of an effect.

27:28 Speaker 10 It’s part of the body.

27:30 Speaker 2 There are things we get from the way we were educated. Why say it’s there on its own? No, we weren’t born with it. Someone who didn’t receive a Jewish education doesn’t have it. What does “on its own” mean? We got it from somewhere. It’s just that when we were little, we were in preschool or school, and people spoke to us about it a lot. It became etched somewhere inside us, and so it stayed.

27:50 Speaker 10 So it’s there.

27:51 Speaker 2 So it’s there. But the fact that it’s... Do you know the prohibition against charging interest?

27:57 Speaker 10 The prohibition against interest?

27:58 Speaker 2 Yes. Interest. The prohibition against interest. When one person gives another a loan—

28:06 Speaker 10 Then he pays him back double.

28:07 Speaker 2 He may not take back more than what he...

28:14 Speaker 10 Yes.

28:15 Speaker 2 Why? What is the underlying idea of the prohibition, as the Rebbe explains it? The underlying idea—

28:21 Speaker 10 You can decide on your own to give more, can’t you?

28:23 Speaker 2 What?

28:23 Speaker 10 You can decide on your own to give more.

28:25 Speaker 2 It’s forbidden.

28:25 Speaker 10 I’m saying it’s forbidden; it’s interest, not a bank. No, but the banks—oh, the banks do very nicely from it.

28:30 Speaker 2 What? That’s forbidden too.

28:33 Speaker 10 Banks are allowed?

28:34 Speaker 2 It’s forbidden. For them too.

28:35 Speaker 10 For them too.

28:36 Speaker 2 Only—only if...

28:37 Speaker 10 Putting money in.

28:38 Speaker 2 No, no, no, no, no.

28:40 Speaker 10 No, I’m not getting into banking.

28:40 Speaker 2 I didn’t want to address that. I’m talking about the spiritual aspect, not the halachic question—the spiritual aspect of it.

28:46 Speaker 10 Yes.

28:46 Speaker 2 The Rebbe explains the underlying principle: Why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu forbid it? What’s wrong with it? The person benefits. The other person—say Reuven gave Shimon a loan. Shimon benefited from the money, and he’s happy. He can choose to give more. Why is that forbidden? What’s the problem? He’s saying, “You helped me so much. I want to give you more.” What’s wrong with that? The Rebbe says the point of the prohibition here is that the lender—Reuven gave Shimon the money—Reuven now wants to benefit from money that used to be his. The moment you gave the money, you gave it. That’s it; it’s no longer yours. And now, a week or a month later, you want to benefit from something that used to be yours? Hakadosh Boruch Hu doesn’t agree to that. You have to work now.

29:40 Speaker 10 To give it back.

29:41 Speaker 2 You have to work now. The Rebbe takes this into the spiritual realm. A person reaches retirement age, or gets a bit older, and says, “That’s it. I’ve already done so many mivtzoim and learned so much Torah. Now the children... now it’s the children’s turn.” So the Rebbe says: What kind of thing is that? You want to benefit now from what you did in the past? The Rebbe says that’s charging interest.

30:05 Speaker 10 Certainly.

30:07 Speaker 2 You want to benefit from what your children are doing? That’s charging interest. How can you expect to benefit now from the education you gave them in the past—from the education you gave them in the past?

30:16 Speaker 10 Rabbi, our grandchildren are the interest, aren’t they? That’s interest.

30:22 Speaker 2 The point is that something a person did once has an effect at that time. The work has to be constant. “Man is born to toil”—that’s a verse. Nothing happens automatically; nothing in this world is free. Now, it’s true—and we’ll talk about this and see it too—that things a person received and that were etched into him in childhood, through his upbringing or other influences, really do have a powerful effect and help him all along the way. But the work has to be done each and every day. When we say “the beginning, the essence, and the root of the work” is to bring out, to awaken, that inner fear, so that this natural fear comes to the surface, it doesn’t mean that when I began serving Hashem at age fifteen, I needed to do that, and after that it’s taken care of. No, that’s not what it means. It’s every day and every moment. Every time we fulfill a positive mitzvah, too, and when we engage in prayer and in loving Hashem. At the start of prayer, before love of Hashem, there is the solemn frame of mind that our Sages required: awakening the natural fear. That has to be there all the time. “As our Sages said: Consider three things, etc.—an eye that sees and an ear that hears, etc.” And our Sages said... This is what the Rebbe discussed at the beginning of the previous chapter. That raises a question: How can you demand that I think of Hakadosh Boruch Hu as though He were a king? How is a person supposed to awaken his natural fear? By contemplating that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is a king. Right, that was the point. He discusses many details, but that’s the point. How can you demand that I fear Hakadosh Boruch Hu the way I would fear a flesh-and-blood king? I can see a flesh-and-blood king with my own eyes. I believe that Hakadosh Boruch Hu exists. How can I bring myself to that? How can you demand of a Jew, of a person, that he fear Hakadosh Boruch Hu the way he fears a flesh-and-blood king? A flesh-and-blood king, a real king whom you

32:39 Speaker 2 stand before, and you know what he can do...

32:44 Speaker 11 People bow to him.

32:45 Speaker 2 Either people bow to him, or he has your head cut off with a sword. You’re afraid.

32:50 Speaker 11 Yes.

32:51 Speaker 2 With Hakadosh Boruch Hu... I believe I should be afraid. I know I should be afraid. But to feel it as I would before a flesh-and-blood king, so to speak—what kind of demand is that? Yes?

33:02 Speaker 11 What kind of comparison is that?

33:03 Speaker 2 What kind of comparison is it? So here, in these clear lines, the Rebbe comes to explain that yes, that is what is demanded of us: that our fear of Hakadosh Boruch Hu should be as tangible to us as fear of a flesh-and-blood king, quite literally. And he asks: “Although Hakadosh Boruch Hu has no bodily form,” how can we fear Him in such a tangible way? After all, He has no bodily form. Sorry. Sorry.

33:41 Speaker 11 Yes.

33:43 Speaker 2 I’ll explain what I was talking about in a moment. There are a few more introductory points first. Our Sages said that Hakadosh Boruch Hu has an eye—“an eye that sees and an ear that hears,” and so on. Right? How does He have an eye and an ear? Hakadosh Boruch Hu has an eye, He has an ear. What? Didn’t our Sages say that He has no body—

34:03 Speaker 11 No bodily form.

34:03 Speaker 2 He has no body and no bodily form. What is a body? When we say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu has no body, what do we mean? That He isn’t made of flesh and bones?

34:15 Speaker 11 And He has no limits.

34:17 Speaker 12 Can He be identified with anything? He isn’t a physical entity.

34:24 Speaker 11 Nobody knows what G-d looks like. Who knows?

34:27 Speaker 2 When we say He has no body, what are we trying to rule out? What does that mean? Would anyone imagine that Hakadosh Boruch Hu does have a body? What...

34:33 Speaker 11 No.

34:34 Speaker 2 What are we ruling out here? All the created beings we know have a body and a soul. That includes physical creations—inanimate things, plants, animals, and humans—and spiritual creations too, even the sefiros of the World of Atzilus and even higher. Everything has a body and a soul.

35:00 Speaker 12 What, even an inanimate object?

35:02 Speaker 2 Hmm?

35:04 Speaker 12 An inanimate object has a soul, doesn’t it?

35:05 Speaker 2 Even an inanimate object has a soul.

35:09 Speaker 12 Yes, what?

35:09 Speaker 2 We learn that in Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah.

35:11 Speaker 12 Could souls be reincarnated into them?

35:13 Speaker 2 Huh? No, no, no. That’s something else. That’s in Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah; we’ll get there in a few chapters. It isn’t relevant now. Everything has a body and a soul that gives life to the body. With Hakadosh Boruch Hu, it’s not that He has a body—He has no body. Right? Why doesn’t He have a body? He has no body because He has no soul.

35:42 Speaker 11 So what is He, then? We don’t know.

35:45 Speaker 2 So our Sages said not only that He has no body, but that He has no semblance of a body either. You might have said, fine, He has no body, but there’s something roughly like one, by way of analogy. No. There isn’t even an analogy. So if Hakadosh Boruch Hu not only has no body but no bodily form either, how can you say—how can we say—that He has an eye and an ear and a nose, that He looks at you and sees what you’re doing, that He knows or doesn’t know? What are we talking about?

36:19 Speaker 11 He sees but is not seen.

36:21 Speaker 2 How does He see if He has no eye?

36:23 Speaker 11 Yes, I know.

36:27 Speaker 2 If He has a spiritual eye, then He has a body. If He sees, then He has an eye; if He has an eye, then He has a body. No, He has no body. So how does He see? Yes, that’s something... “Although He has no bodily form, on the contrary, everything is revealed and known before Him infinitely more than through sight of the eye and hearing of the ear.” It isn’t a question, the Alter Rebbe says. Even though Hakadosh Boruch Hu has no eye or anything like an eye, He still sees and knows. How? “By way of analogy, it is like a person who knows and senses within himself everything that happens and takes place in any one of his 248 limbs—such as cold or heat, even heat in his toenails, for example, if they are burned by fire.” He feels it immediately. Right? He doesn’t need someone to tell him, or to tell him to look there, to know that he’s hot or cold. Right? He knows it himself, without an eye, without an ear. He’s there; he senses it, so he knows. “And likewise their nature and essence.” Not only does a person know what’s happening to each of his limbs, he also feels his limbs even when nothing is happening to them. Right? A person feels his hand; he feels that he has a hand. Right? Yes or no?

38:07 Speaker 11 Yes, of course.

38:07 Speaker 2 He feels it.

38:08 Speaker 11 He feels his whole body.

38:09 Speaker 2 So if a person can know everything that happens in his limbs and can feel the limbs themselves—not through sight or hearing or any of the senses, but because they are part of him—then that is why he feels them. Right? So by way of analogy, the same is true of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He doesn’t need... When our Sages said “an eye that sees,” that’s only an analogy. The truth is that He knows what happens with every created being far more directly. By way of analogy, which is clearer to a person: something he sees, or something happening within himself?

38:41 Speaker 11 What he feels.

38:42 Speaker 2 What he feels. So when we say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu sees all your deeds, it doesn’t mean He looks to see whether you did something or not. He feels it; He knows it more directly than the eye can see. And everything that takes place within a person, he knows and feels in his mind. Likewise, by way of analogy, Hakadosh Boruch Hu knows everything that happens to all created beings, in the upper and lower worlds. That is, since they all receive their existence from Him, blessed be He, He knows what happens with all of them. He fills everything. This is what the verse we also say in prayer means: “No creature is hidden from You,” because You give them all life at every moment. And as the Rambam wrote, and the Kabbalists agreed with him—as the Ramak wrote in Pardes—that by knowing Himself, He knows, so to speak, all the created beings whose existence comes from the truth of His existence, and so on. The Alter Rebbe qualifies this: “This analogy is only to make it understandable to the ear. But in truth, the analogy does not resemble what it illustrates at all.” There’s a big difference. A person’s soul, even the intellectual soul and the G-dly soul, is affected by what happens to the body and by its pain, because it is actually enclothed in the vital soul, which is actually enclothed in the body. In other words, it’s the vital soul that feels. A person feels what happens to one of his limbs. Who feels it? The vital soul feels it. That makes sense, right? Yes? Now, does the G-dly soul perhaps not feel it? No. The G-dly soul is enclothed within the vital soul, so it feels it too. All right? Is Hakadosh Boruch Hu enclothed in the world?

40:33 Speaker 13 Yes.

40:34 Speaker 2 How?

40:35 Speaker 13 Throughout the world.

40:36 Speaker 2 Huh?

40:37 Speaker 13 He also permeates everything.

40:45 Speaker 2 A person’s soul, even the intellectual and G-dly soul, is affected by what happens to the body and by its pain. When something happens to the body, the soul—even the G-dly soul—feels it. It hurts, because it is actually enclothed in the vital soul, which is actually enclothed in the body. But Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not affected, Heaven forbid, by events or changes in the world, or even by the world itself. None of them brings about any change in Him, Heaven forbid. Why does it hurt the soul when something happens to the body? Because it is united with the body. So when the body hurts, the soul hurts too. All right?

41:34 Speaker 13 Of course.

41:35 Speaker 2 So if it didn’t hurt her before and now it does, something changed in her. Right? Before it didn’t, and now it does. There was a change. Yes. The intellectual soul is enclothed in the brain. So before, he didn’t understand, and now he does. There’s a change in the soul. Something changed there, something changed in his understanding. Right? So the soul is enclothed in the body, and it changes because of what happens in the body. When Hakadosh Boruch Hu is enclothed in the world and something changes in the world, does something change in Him?

42:11 Speaker 13 No.

42:16 Speaker 2 So if nothing changes in Him, and there’s no difference between before a person committed a sin and after, or between his doing a mitzvah and committing a sin, then how does He sense that there’s a problem here? What exactly does He sense? Do you hear the question? Yes? It’s a problem. There’s a contradiction here. On the one hand, we say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives life to the world, brings it into being, and is present in it, so He senses everything all the more. He doesn’t need eyes and ears; He senses it Himself. On the other hand, how can we say He senses it? If He senses something, then He changes. Then He’s no longer Hakadosh Boruch Hu. If He changes, I don’t know what that is, but it’s no longer Him.

43:06 Speaker 13 So Hakadosh Boruch Hu doesn’t change.

43:08 Speaker 2 Then how does He sense it?

43:08 Speaker 13 We change.

43:09 Speaker 2 Then how does He sense it? There’s a contradiction here. Yes. So let’s read the next line. “Now, to comprehend this properly with our minds”—how to reconcile this contradiction—“the sages of truth have already discussed it at length in their books. But all Jews are believers, the children of believers, without any investigation by human intellect, and they say: ‘You are He before the world was created; You are He since the world was created,’ etc., as explained above in chapter 20.” So every Jew says every morning—how does he begin his prayers? “You are He since the world was created; You are...” Oh, there’s a contradiction in that? It’s a contradiction. Hakadosh Boruch Hu—everything’s fine. Yes. The truth is that the Alter Rebbe himself does discuss this at great length in Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah. Where we spoke earlier about the soul of an inanimate object, this subject is also discussed there at great length. But that’s not our concern here. Here we’re talking about bringing natural fear from potential into actuality. Through effort, a person brings it out, so that he feels it in his heart and becomes G-d-fearing. And by contemplating it in his mind for a little while each day, he brings it into a set time, so that he feels it in his mind and becomes afraid to sin. What does he contemplate? That Hakadosh Boruch Hu is King, and He sees and hears everything I do. And even though He has no eye or ear, He knows what I do even better without an eye or ear. He doesn’t need them. An eye doesn’t fit with His absolute unity. Leave that to the kabbalists. All right? That isn’t relevant to the daily contemplation needed to awaken fear.

45:05 Speaker 3 Is that part of the order of prayer?

45:07 Speaker 2 What?

45:07 Speaker 3 This stage of contemplating fear—is it part of the order of prayer? Is it written in one of the passages, or is it before prayer?

45:14 Speaker 2 Before. It says that it comes before—“earnestness.” “One may stand to pray only in a state of earnestness.”

45:21 Speaker 3 To concentrate—that’s what it means, basically.

45:23 Speaker 2 Yes, that’s the main idea of earnestness. It’s in Tikkun Chatzos. For someone who can’t manage that, it isn’t complete concentration, but one does need to awaken fear. There are several levels and stages in this, too. Then there’s the whole order of the offerings that we recite beforehand; it’s all arranged around these ideas. “Now every Jew, whoever he may be, when he contemplates this for a substantial period each day”—all right, what we discussed earlier—“how Hakadosh Boruch Hu truly fills the upper and lower realms, and the heavens and earth; ‘the whole earth is truly filled with His glory’; and He watches, looks, examines his innermost thoughts and his heart, and counts all his deeds, words, and steps. If he contemplates this for a substantial period each day, fear will become fixed in his heart for the whole day. And when he returns to contemplate it, even briefly, at any time and hour, he will turn away from evil and do good in thought, speech, and action, so as not to rebel, G-d forbid, before the eyes of His glory.” So at the start of the day, before prayer, a person needs to contemplate this for a substantial period, until at least he understands it well in his mind. A substantial period can even be a minute or two.

46:42 Speaker 3 Some time.

46:42 Speaker 2 Some time—a meaningful amount of time. Yes, a noticeable amount of time. Not just letting the thought pass through his mind.

46:49 Speaker 3 A period of time.

46:51 Speaker 2 A person thinks about it until it becomes clear. After that, during the day, it’s enough just to remember it. “As Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai said to his students,” as mentioned above. What did Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai say to his students? “If only your fear of Heaven would be like your fear of a human being.” Do you remember the whole discussion about that? I’ll briefly remind you. Before his passing, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai said to his students, “If only your fear of Heaven would be like your fear of a human being.” His students asked him: Is that all? Fear of Heaven is when a person fears Hakadosh Boruch Hu and is afraid to sin. What is fear of a human being? It’s when a person refrains from doing something because someone might see him.

47:46 Speaker 3 Because of what people will say.

47:47 Speaker 2 He’s concerned about another person, about what people will say. No, it’s just a matter of feeling uncomfortable. It isn’t really fear; it’s feeling uncomfortable, right?

47:56 Speaker 3 Yes.

47:56 Speaker 2 Yes. So what is Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai saying? May you have fear of Heaven at least to the point where you feel uncomfortable committing sins. So his students ask him: “Our teacher, only this far?” After everything you’ve taught us for a hundred and twenty years, this is what you have to tell us—that we should fear Heaven, that we should feel uncomfortable before Hakadosh Boruch Hu? So he tells them—ah, yes, you should know that when a person knows someone is watching him, he refrains from committing sins. Simply knowing that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is watching him will keep him from sinning. So if, before prayer, he contemplates this until it becomes real to him that Hakadosh Boruch Hu truly is watching him, then afterward, during the day, it will be enough to remember: “Oh, Hashem is watching me. I’d feel uncomfortable.” He won’t do it. Even if he doesn’t actually feel fear of sin, he still won’t commit a sin. And that is what the verse means by “but to fear Hashem your G-d.” What? Let’s start with the question about the chapter. “What does Hashem your G-d ask of you but to fear Him?” What does Hakadosh Boruch Hu ask of you? Only fear of Hashem. Just fear—that’s it. As though that’s all! Fear is a great thing. What does “but to fear” mean, as though it’s something tiny? So he says that, after this whole explanation, we understand what kind of fear of Hashem the verse—the Torah—requires of a person in his day-to-day conduct: lower-level fear. Fear that leads a person to fulfill His mitzvos by turning away from evil and doing good. That’s all. There are higher levels of fear. There’s fear of sin and fear of G-d. There are still higher levels. But what does the Torah require? What is the beginning of serving Hashem, the foundation

50:07 Speaker 2 and essence and root of it? The kind of fear that keeps a person from committing sins. That’s all. And to have that kind of fear, it’s enough—for that, a person doesn’t need contemplation or daas, certainly not knowledge, or any of that. Not even contemplation. It’s enough just to remind oneself that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is watching. That’s all. And remembering that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is watching isn’t difficult; it can be done at any moment. “This is the lower-level fear mentioned above. And in relation to Moshe—that is, in relation to the faculty of daas within every Jewish G-dly soul—it is a small matter, as explained above.” Yes, each and every one of us has a spark of Moshe’s soul within our own soul, and therefore each of us can attain even fear of G-d. So given that what’s required of us is only fear of sin, or even less than that, attaining this kind of fear is a small matter for each of us. How are we doing for time?

51:24 Speaker 4 Fine, another ten minutes.

51:26 Speaker 2 Another ten minutes? I thought we’d finish the chapter. All right, let’s move on a little. “For daas connects what is hidden in the understanding of the heart to actual revelation in thought, as is known. And remember this, too.” What does “this, too” mean? A new point. Something more.

51:45 Speaker 4 Something else.

51:45 Speaker 2 Hm? Something else. Yes. A flesh-and-blood king. Here he addresses what I spoke about earlier: a person can ultimately say to himself, after all the fine explanations and everything we’ve said is required of me, “In the end, I can’t see Hakadosh Boruch Hu, but I can see a flesh-and-blood king.” Yes, so he comes to answer that here. “Remember this, too: Just as with a flesh-and-blood king, the primary fear is of his inner self, his life-force, not his body. For when he is asleep, there is no fear of him.” There’s a king, and a person is standing before him. Yes. Is he afraid of the king’s body?

52:50 Speaker 5 No.

52:51 Speaker 2 Afraid of the king himself, afraid that the king might do something to him.

52:53 Speaker 5 The soul.

52:54 Speaker 2 Yes. Right.

52:56 Speaker 5 Of course.

52:57 Speaker 2 Does he see the soul?

52:58 Speaker 5 No.

53:00 Speaker 2 He sees the body. How do you know? Maybe the soul isn’t there? What are you—right? You’re standing before the king, and you don’t see his soul, do you? You only see his body. So why are you afraid? Maybe his soul isn’t there at all?

53:14 Speaker 5 You feel his soul.

53:15 Speaker 2 Do you actually feel his soul, or don’t you feel anything?

53:18 Speaker 5 Yes, you feel it.

53:19 Speaker 2 Can a person feel the soul of someone standing in front of him?

53:22 Speaker 5 When a person stands in front of you, you don’t feel his soul.

53:25 Speaker 2 His soul.

53:26 Speaker 5 What’s inside him.

53:28 Speaker 2 You feel it.

53:29 Speaker 5 I do.

53:30 Speaker 2 No. I know that if he speaks... I—no, that’s a conclusion we draw. It doesn’t work that way. What you’re saying isn’t right, no.

53:38 Speaker 5 Maybe I don’t...

53:39 Speaker 2 No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I’ll explain it further. That isn’t right. What you’re talking about is a conclusion we draw. Each of us draws that conclusion. Ah, I see him speaking. I see him moving his hands and feet; I see him moving. Yes. I know that I speak and move too. Right? Why do I speak? I have a soul, I have a personality, and my personality moves my body. Right. Well, if he moves, then presumably he also has some kind of personality inside him. That’s what we’re sensing. We automatically make that sort of calculation: if that’s true of me, then surely it’s true of him too. I don’t feel the essence of the other person. I can feel what he’s feel—I can feel what he’s feeling, what he’s thinking. His soul... I se—I’m in contact with the other person, with his body. That’s all. And about this, precisely this, we ask: Why are you afraid of him? You see his body; maybe he has no soul inside at all. No, we don’t say that, do we?

54:42 Speaker 5 Every person has a soul.

54:44 Speaker 2 We don’t say that. Why not? Because it’s obvious to us that if he has a body that moves, he has a soul.

54:50 Speaker 5 A soul.

54:50 Speaker 2 Right?

54:51 Speaker 5 Yes.

54:52 Speaker 2 The Alter Rebbe says: With Hakadosh Boruch Hu, it’s exactly the same. True, you don’t see Hakadosh Boruch Hu. You see the world. The world moves; the world is alive. Who, exactly, gives it life?

55:03 Speaker 5 G-d.

55:06 Speaker 2 If you get used to looking at the world as the body that Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives life to, it’s no different from a king you’re afraid of, even though you don’t see his soul. It’s exactly the same. You just aren’t used to thinking of the world as Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s body. But if you think about it, contemplate it, and train yourself to think this way, then simply looking at the world will make you afraid, as though you were standing before a king.

55:41 Speaker 5 It makes me feel wonder, not fear.

55:44 Speaker 2 Huh?

55:44 Speaker 5 It makes me feel wonder, not fear.

55:46 Speaker 2 There’s an element of wonder too. Yes, that’s there as well.

55:48 Speaker 5 Fear of it.

55:49 Speaker 2 Huh?

55:50 Speaker 5 The world. She’s saying: “Wow, I don’t feel awe of it, as it were. I enjoy the world.”

55:54 Speaker 2 When a person stands before a king, it arouses fear in him. If I look at Hakadosh Boruch Hu... Earlier, I contemplated that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is a king. Yes. What does “king” mean—some sort of spiritual king? What does that have to do with me? No. He is the King of the world, and He is here. If we just look at that, it, it, it... There are different ways of contemplating something to bring a person to love of Hashem and fear of Hashem, to different emotions. The contemplation you’re describing really is appropriate for bringing us to love of Hashem: how great Hashem is, how He gives life to everything. That isn’t what we’re discussing. We’re discussing the fact that He is the King who is here. All right? “He should also remember that, just as with a flesh-and-blood king, the principal fear is of his inner being and life-force, not of his body—for when he is asleep, there is no fear of him. Now, the king’s inner being and life-force cannot be seen with the physical eyes, only with the mind’s eye, through the physical eyes’ seeing his body and garments, knowing that his life-force is clothed within them.” He concludes that there must be a soul inside. “If so, in precisely the same way, he should fear Hashem through the physical eyes’ seeing the heavens and earth and all their hosts, within which the light of the blessed Ein Sof is clothed to give them life.” There’s a wonderful note here. Despite the little time we have, we’ll read this note too. It adds a great deal to our understanding. Sometimes... I won’t say “often.” There’s the question, even when a person stands before a king: Where is the king? Is the king now sitting on his throne in his royal garments? Or is he in the courtyard with all his ministers, wearing ordinary clothes? If a person is standing alone before the king with two guards behind him, then of course he’ll be afraid, won’t he? But if he’s in a courtyard where the king is also

57:58 Speaker 2 there, then it’s less so, right? Yes?

58:01 Speaker 6 Yes, because he has to be part of the people.

58:04 Speaker 2 So a person might say: “Okay, I’ve managed to think of Hakadosh Boruch Hu as a king, and I’ve managed to know, understand, think and feel that He gives life to the whole world, that the world is His body, and that He really is a king who is here.” Fine, but He’s in the courtyard. Right? All right? So the note addresses that: “It is also visible to the eye that they—the heavens and the earth—are nullified before His light, as they bow each day toward the west when they set, as the Zohar says concerning the verse, ‘And the host of heaven bows to You’: the Shechinah is in the west.” We spoke about this once, a long, long time ago, that... In the spiritual realm there are six directions: north, south, east, west, up and down—the dimensions of space. Right? Yes or no? Is that true or not?

58:58 Speaker 6 Yes, yes. I don’t know.

58:59 Speaker 2 What makes up... what is volume? Forward, backward, right, left, up, down.

59:05 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm.

59:05 Speaker 2 In Hebrew they’re called north, south, east, west, up and down. Why does the world have exactly six directions? Why not seven, or fifty, or twenty-eight? I don’t know, some other number. Why specifically six? Every physical thing comes from a spiritual counterpart. Right? Why are there six directions? Because in the spiritual realm there are six directions: chessed, gevurah, tiferes, and so on, through yesod and malchus. Right? Kabbalah explains that chessed corresponds to north, gevurah to south, and so on for all the directions. Malchus, the sefirah of malchus, is connected to, is the source of, the western direction. Right? What is the Shechinah? The Shechinah is G-dliness as it descends, dwells within and becomes clothed in our world, giving it life. The King we’re talking about. Right? Because the Shechinah, malchus of Atzilus, is the source of the western direction, we see in the physical world that all the stars are constantly bowing toward the west.

1:00:21 Speaker 6 That’s something new. Well, I don’t know.

1:00:23 Speaker 2 Huh?

1:00:23 Speaker 6 That’s something new.

1:00:24 Speaker 2 It’s written here in the note in Tanya.

1:00:26 Speaker 6 Wow. Who, who—

1:00:28 Speaker 2 “Thus, their movement throughout the day toward the west is a form of bowing and nullification. Now, even someone who has never seen the king”—he’s in the king’s courtyard, and the king is there, dressed like all the other ministers, and he can’t, can’t, can’t tell from his appearance which one is the king. So he isn’t afraid, because he doesn’t know who the king is. There’s a whole world here, and he doesn’t know who the king is. “He has never seen the king and does not know him at all. Nevertheless, when he enters the king’s courtyard and sees many distinguished ministers bowing to one man, awe and fear will fall upon him.” If a person contemplates that Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives life to the world, and that the very existence of the world shows that the King is present, it doesn’t fill him with awe and fear. Why not? Because He’s the king, but a king in a general sort of way. I know He’s here, but I don’t know who He is. Right? So think about it: look and see that, in the physical world, the distinguished ministers do know who He is. Right? Well, when you see ministers—many people—bowing to one man, won’t you be afraid too? It’s the same here. All right, will we finish next time or not? I don’t know. We’ll see. We’ll decide next time whether to finish this chapter or start more of the next one. But simply because of the time, this is getting too long.

1:02:02 Speaker 6 Where are we now?

1:02:04 Speaker 2 This is the end of the chapter.

1:02:06 Speaker 6 The end of the...

1:02:06 Speaker 2 There’s still, there’s still more here... We’ve finished with fear. There are another two points the Rebbe adds at the end of the chapter on this matter of fear before moving on to the next subject.