Likkutei Amarim Chapter 42 (Part 3) · 5785

00:02 Speaker 1 Maybe this, this.

00:04 Speaker 2 Okay, this is the end of chapter 42. We’re up to—we reached the note at the end, at the bottom of page 61. There’s a note at the end of the chapter, and then the chapter concludes. So what are we talking about here? The Alter Rebbe began explaining in the previous chapter, chapter 41, that the beginning of avodah, its starting point or the foundation of all avodah, is fear. Now, why fear? Why specifically fear? What is avodah in general? We spoke last week about how startled we were by this: avodah means that a person changes himself, changes his very nature. So the main avodah is love of Hashem. In the words of the Zohar, “There is no service like the service of love.” A person’s main avodah is to awaken within himself the feeling that he loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That’s the main avodah. And it’s also explained why this elevates and refines a person, and so on. Even though that’s the main avodah, the beginning of avodah—or avodah itself—must be founded on fear. That’s what he said. The starting point of avodah, its essence and its root: the avodah itself is love, but it must be founded on fear. Why? He explained there that when a person serves Hashem out of love, what is love about? Love means I want this, I’m drawn to it, it’s good for me. For me? Then that’s no good.

01:40 Speaker 1 So what then?

01:41 Speaker 2 Then I’m not serving Him.

01:45 Speaker 1 Ah.

01:45 Speaker 2 What lies behind the feeling of love is that it’s good for me. If serving Hashem begins without that foundation, then it no longer matters. I can love and be drawn to the holiest things, but if the foundation is me, then I’m not serving Him.

02:02 Speaker 1 And He wants me to feel that way.

02:05 Speaker 2 Right, but the foundation—but it has to be avodah. If I love Hakadosh Boruch Hu, if my avodah is for my own sake, then it isn’t for His sake. It isn’t lishmah.

02:22 Speaker 1 I don’t understand.

02:24 Speaker 2 Huh?

02:24 Speaker 1 I don’t understand.

02:24 Speaker 2 All right, we spoke about this at great length. This isn’t the point to go into it now. To serve means to serve someone, to work for someone. For whom? For Him. Fear—why is a person afraid? He’s afraid of Him. A person isn’t afraid of himself; he’s afraid of someone else. In other words, the foundation of love is “I,” while the foundation of fear is “He.” So the foundation of serving Hashem is fear. And then, when there is love of Hashem, he said that fear isn’t just a gateway, just some kind of entrance. Even when a person already has love of Hashem in practice, it must be permeated with fear all the time. He explained that at length. That was the content of chapter 41.

03:24 Speaker 1 By fear, do you mean being afraid, or respect?

03:26 Speaker 2 In a moment, in a moment.

03:27 Speaker 1 Ah.

03:28 Speaker 2 I’m just reviewing briefly.

03:31 Speaker 1 Okay.

03:31 Speaker 2 Then he explained what kind of fear we’re talking about. In general, fear of Hashem is like a person’s fear of a king. How is a person afraid of a king? There are many levels to it. There’s someone who is only now accepting this person as king over him. Until now he wasn’t his king, and now he has decided, together with many other people, to crown this particular person as king over himself. Right? Such a person isn’t afraid of the king. On the contrary, he wants him to be his king. Right? Rather, he accepts upon himself that he will do whatever the king says. The king will enact laws; whatever those laws are, he accepts in advance: whatever the king tells me, I’ll do. This is called accepting the yoke of kingship in the physical sense, and spiritually it’s the same: he accepts Hashem as king over himself. Then there’s a level beyond that. The king is already king. He isn’t accepting him as king; he is king. He’s already his king, and now, if he doesn’t do what the king tells him, he’ll be in serious trouble. Right? That’s already fear. He’s no longer merely accepting it upon himself; he’s afraid of the king. Now, where is he? The king might be somewhere else, who knows where, while he’s somewhere in the country with no one around. So he knows there’s a stoplight and he has to stop. But the king isn’t here now, so what? No one sees him. Right? No—if he has fear of the king. There are plenty of people like that. I know a few people, observant Jews, mainly from Sephardic communities, who would never evade taxes. You could kill such a person and he still wouldn’t evade a penny in taxes. He’ll issue a receipt for

05:25 Speaker 2 every tiny thing. Why? You’re alone, and the other fellow doesn’t even want a receipt. He wants you not to give him one. “I won’t steal from the king.” Right. That means he has developed a feeling of fear toward the government. It’s no longer just kabbolas ol. He has an inner feeling: he fears the king even when he doesn’t see him. Now there’s a greater fear than that: when he is actually standing in a room with the king, in the king’s court. In a room with the king. Right? There’s an even greater fear when he’s not only in the room with the king, but the king is now watching what he does, or he’s standing trial. If it’s a king who can sentence someone to death with a wave of his hand, then all the more so. Then the fear is tremendous. There are levels. So he explained how to reach each of these levels in relation to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That was the content of chapter 41. Then, in chapter 42, he continued explaining how a person reaches them. Some of the higher levels require great effort, hard work and contemplation; they aren’t within everyone’s reach. He explained how to contemplate, what to contemplate, and the difference between one kind of fear and another. Broadly speaking, there are two levels in everyone: fear of sin and fear of G-d, each of which he divided into several aspects. I’m not presenting them in order, and they’re mixed in with one another. That doesn’t matter so much right now. But fear of sin means that a person is afraid to commit a sin. It’s as if he says, “Hakadosh Boruch Hu doesn’t want this, so it’s forbidden. It’s forbidden; I won’t do it.” Right? Fear of G-d is something entirely different. He isn’t afraid of the sin; he’s afraid of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “How can I do such a

07:46 Speaker 2 thing? Hashem doesn’t want it. How can I do something He doesn’t want?” Right? That’s a much more inward fear. With fear of sin, it’s settled in his mind. It’s clear to him that this is a transgression, and he won’t do it. The king doesn’t want it, so you don’t do it. That isn’t fear so much as a decision in the mind. Right? There are several levels to this too, and he goes into the details. He explained it. That’s fear of sin: he fears the sin, he doesn’t want to sin, and he won’t do it.

08:17 Speaker 3 But doesn’t it trouble someone who has fear of sin that he doesn’t have fear of G-d?

08:20 Speaker 2 No. Fear of G-d is a very high level that’s very hard to reach. To reach fear of G-d—I mean, fear is a feeling.

08:35 Speaker 3 Yes.

08:35 Speaker 2 Fear is a feeling. It’s something... So arriving at a feeling of fear of sin is very easy. Most people, most of us, perhaps all of us—even if someone says, “Come on, turn on the light on Shabbos.” Right? The moment someone says that to me, I feel an aversion. Is that fear? Yes. Am I thinking about Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Not at all. That’s fear of sin.

09:05 Speaker 3 Yes.

09:05 Speaker 2 Right. Fear of G-d means feeling G-dliness. Being afraid of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, not of the sin. He said that. It doesn’t matter what he said. Being afraid of Him.

09:17 Speaker 3 Give an example.

09:18 Speaker 2 Huh?

09:18 Speaker 3 Give an example.

09:22 Speaker 2 When a person is in a room with the king—and we’re talking about the kind of king we discussed earlier, an exalted king, a real king, who knows he has power and authority and so on. And the king is warm toward him and smiles at him. Because the king smiles at him, will he stop being afraid? He fears the king’s very greatness. He isn’t afraid of what the king will or won’t tell him to do. He fears the king himself, his very person. Right? It’s something entirely different. Now, for a person to reach a level where he truly has fear of G-d, that’s... that’s already a step back. That’s already... Then he went on.

10:16 Speaker 3 That’s a level—

10:17 Speaker 2 Yes, that’s a level, a lofty level. Absolutely. That was discussed in chapter 41. Then in chapter 42 he continued, and, all right, there are other things there too. In chapter 42 he continued. It’s the chapter we’re learning: despite this being a very lofty level, it does belong to everyone. Every single person, if he is a Jew, can reach the point of having fear of G-d as well. How? Because, ultimately, the fear we’re talking about is not a fear that has to be brought into being. It’s a fear that’s part of the makeup of the G-dly soul. The G-dly soul has it; it has fear. Just as it has love of Hashem, it has fear of Hashem. It’s part of it. Now, revealing it is hard. Very hard. But everyone has it. You just have to reveal it. Revealing it isn’t simple. It takes contemplation. He explained how to contemplate, what to contemplate, and that you have to do it every day over a long period, put effort into it and keep trying. Some people have souls on a lower level, and it’s harder for them. Some people’s minds aren’t so sharp or strong, so it’s hard for them to think about it. Someone else has trouble concentrating. Some people have a heart of stone. There are quite a few obstacles and hindrances, but in the end everyone can do it, and it’s relevant to everyone. Yes. That’s the beginning of chapter 42: there are two levels, fear of sin and fear of G-d. And everyone can attain even fear of G-d. Why? Because it’s in his nature. Then he said that although everyone can reach that lofty level too, it isn’t a prerequisite. What does Hakadosh Boruch Hu ask of us? Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai told his students, when they asked him before he passed away: What guidance can you give us? What can you

12:24 Speaker 2 give us, as they say, as a last-minute tip for life? So he said: “May your fear of G-d be as great as your fear of a human being.”

12:36 Speaker 4 I wanted to mention that. Right, you wrote it in one of the earlier chapters.

12:41 Speaker 2 Yes, yes. So there it was a question, and here we have the answer. Just the fear you have of another person—that’s all. He says, yes. Why is fear of another person what’s called fear of sin? It’s a lower fear: “I would feel uncomfortable.” Everyone can reach that sense of discomfort. You don’t need more than that to keep the mitzvos. Basic fear is desirable and necessary, and attainable, and so on. But the fear demanded of everyone is fear of sin. And then he began offering several suggestions, and we stopped in the middle of them. How can you actually attain that fear of sin? Because even with fear of sin, we’re not talking about something that stays in your head. He should feel real fear in his heart. A person is standing—how does the analogy go? How did you put it? As though standing before the king? I’m standing before the king, a flesh-and-blood king. I see him. There he is, the king. I’m afraid. But I don’t see Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Am I supposed to imagine that I’m sort of... No, that’s not it. He says: Yes, you do see Him. What? What do you mean, I do? Remember this? When a person stands before a king and is afraid of him, why is he afraid? Is he afraid of his body, his flesh, his muscles? He’s afraid of his personality, his soul. Does he see his personality? No. It’s the same with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. You see the body. Our Sages said that the world is the body of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, while Him you don’t see. You do see the body. What difference does it make if you see the— You see the body, which means there’s a soul inside. You see the world moving and alive, so clearly there’s a soul in it. You just have to practice and get used to recognizing that when you see the world alive, the wind blowing and the

14:57 Speaker 2 sun rising and setting, it isn’t happening on its own. There’s a soul inside. And when you get used to looking at the world as a body with the King inside it, you’ll feel, in a tangible way, that you’re facing the King. Afterward, he added something even further in a note. All right, that’s where we got to. Let’s finish—well, continue the chapter. We’re on page 61: “And although it is through being clothed”—that’s just after the asterisk in the middle of the page.

15:30 Speaker 4 No, no, it doesn’t close there.

15:45 Speaker 2 “And although it is through being clothed in many garments.” So when I see the king, I see the king himself. Here I don’t see Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself; I only see His garments. I don’t see Him. So what? How does that work? He’s almost returning to the question: How can you say it’s the same thing? He says: There is no difference at all in one’s fear of a flesh-and-blood king, whether he is naked, wearing one garment, or wearing many garments. It’s the same king. If you know he’s the king, you feel awe. Rather, the main thing is habit: to train one’s mind and thoughts so that it is always firmly established in one’s heart and mind that everything one sees with one’s eyes—the heavens, the earth and all they contain—is an outer garment of the King, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Simply practice thinking about it. And through this, one will always remember the inner being and life-force within them. You don’t need any special contemplation for this. You don’t need to study Torah or Chassidus or anything at all for it. Just remember: a person needs to think about this. It’s something very easy to understand. A person simply has to put in a few days, a minute, two minutes, five minutes each day, I don’t know, and close his eyes and think about it until it sinks in. It’s not beyond reach. And once it has sunk in, he only needs to recall it. It’s already there; he just has to remember it. The feeling will come on its own, because it has already sunk in. This is also included in the meaning of the word emunah. Why is emunah called emunah? Emunah is related to becoming accustomed, as an artisan trains his hands. There’s a wonderful depth here that people don’t quite grasp. It goes further than that, and further, and further. There’s someone who has a feel for writing.

18:05 Speaker 2 He writes, and it comes alive before your eyes. Someone else writes, and it just isn’t the same, right? Yes. The person who does know how to bring it to life—or someone with a feel for painting or, I don’t know, for music. Someone studies music, knows the notes and can read them, but it’s... It’s not that it sounds jarring, but it’s just technique. That’s all.

18:31 Speaker 5 Or a chazzan, a chazzan.

18:33 Speaker 2 Or a chazzan. One person sings and knows the traditional melodies, but you can hardly listen to him. It doesn’t sound good. There’s no life in it. Why? What’s the difference? He knows all the rules. He studied and knows them, knows them very well—better than that other person. So why does he sound worse? He’s practiced more than the other one.

18:56 Speaker 5 What is it? Why is that? He practiced?

19:00 Speaker 2 I mean, the one who knows—maybe in terms of knowledge, and even practice, one person has practiced more and is better at it. And yet he sounds worse. He knows the technique better, he’s practiced more, and still he sounds worse.

19:14 Speaker 5 It’s not in his soul.

19:15 Speaker 2 It’s not in his soul. An artisan can develop what he has. If he doesn’t have it, nothing will help. There’s a sicha of the Rebbe, a wonderful sicha of the Frierdiker Rebbe. Every Jew is an artisan when it comes to faith in Hashem. Every Jew has a natural fear in his soul. He has it. You can develop it.

19:47 Speaker 5 Yes.

19:49 Speaker 2 For a non-Jew, contemplation won’t help. He can understand it, but he’ll never have that kind of feeling of fear. A Jew—

19:55 Speaker 5 So he says that we have it.

19:57 Speaker 2 We have it.

19:57 Speaker 5 All of us have it.

19:59 Speaker 2 On this subject, yes, yes. That is why the Jewish people are called “believers, the children of believers.” It is something we inherit. And since every Jew inherits this awe, you have it. But if you don’t practice, you don’t practice. It’s like someone with a talent for drawing who has never practiced. You have to practice. The talent is there, but it takes effort. Emunah and training. That, too, is included in the word emunah: it can mean becoming accustomed to something, as a person trains himself, like a craftsman training his hands, and so on. And one more thing. So we spoke about what to contemplate, how to contemplate it, and why we can really be sure it will work. And one more thing. What’s that? “To keep it in mind always.” Until now, he spoke about practicing and contemplating. There is something you only have to remember—not even contemplate, just remember: keep it in mind always. In the words of our Sages, kabbolas ol malchus Shamayim, accepting the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven. A person accepts the King as his king. Now I accept Him as King. So I don’t feel it, I don’t contemplate it, I don’t have the time or the understanding or the strength, I’m preoccupied—leave me alone. I can’t. It’s hard for me. But you can accept Hakadosh Boruch Hu as King over yourself. Just accept Him. Remember that He is King and that you have to accept Him. Bow your head. For that, you only have to remember, not even contemplate. Simply remember that He is King. So even if you don’t feel anything and haven’t contemplated it, He is King. Because Hakadosh—because Hakadosh Boruch Hu sets aside... That’s it. He is returning to where he began, at the beginning of chapter 41: Hakadosh Boruch Hu sets aside the upper and lower worlds and singles us out for His kingship, and so on. He went into all the details there.

22:33 Speaker 6 As it says elsewhere.

22:36 Speaker 2 And so on. Where?

22:37 Speaker 6 It just says “elsewhere.”

22:42 Speaker 2 “Elsewhere” means the beginning of chapter 41, yes.

22:45 Speaker 6 That’s what it says there.

22:47 Speaker 2 No. “As it says elsewhere.” So it does literally mean “elsewhere” here. But what it’s referring to is indeed the beginning of chapter 41, absolutely. In the previous chapter, He singles us out for His kingship, and we accept it, and so on. And that is the meaning of bowing during the Shemoneh Esrei, after verbally accepting the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven in Shema. You said “Shema Yisroel,” put your hand over your eyes, shut out the world, and accepted the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven. That was on a spiritual level. Now you bow, so that the body bows too. You bring it into practice, accepting it again in your actual actions, and so on, as discussed elsewhere. Long live our master, teacher, and Rebbe, King Moshiach, forever and ever. Well, shall we start the next chapter?

23:38 Speaker 6 Did we already read it?

23:40 Speaker 2 What?

23:40 Speaker 6 Did we read the note?

23:41 Speaker 2 Um, I don’t remember. There’s a note here.

23:44 Speaker 6 Ah, yes. We accept.

23:49 Speaker 2 Yes, I think I explained the note without reading it inside. All right, let’s start chapter 43. So what does he say next? What has he been discussing? Until now he has discussed the lower level of awe, yirah tata’ah. He said that the beginning of serving Hashem, through accepting the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, is awe. Broadly speaking, this awe has two levels: fear of sin and awe of G-d. Both are relevant to everyone. Fear of sin is easier to bring out. Awe of G-d is a higher level, but all that is required of everyone is fear of sin. At the end of the chapter he discussed at length how one can easily attain fear of sin. It isn’t in heaven. What is the Tanya? The Tanya is a book for beinonim. People often... You have to keep... I don’t remember who said this, one of the chassidim. In the Torah there are small letters and large letters. Have you ever seen that? Have you seen it?

24:52 Speaker 7 There’s a small one, some—

24:53 Speaker 2 In a Torah scroll, in the Written Torah, for example, the alef in “Vayikra el Moshe.”

24:59 Speaker 7 Yes.

24:59 Speaker 2 The first verse of Vayikra. The alef in “Vayikra” is small, half the size of the other letters. That is how Moshe Rabbeinu received it. And in “Bereishis bara Elokim,” the beis, the first letter in the Torah, is large.

25:12 Speaker 7 Yes.

25:12 Speaker 2 An enlarged beis. And throughout the Torah there’s a complete set of small letters from alef to tav, and a set of large ones. Not only in the Torah; there are certain letters in the Megillos too. So one of the large letters in the Torah, written larger, is the dalet in “Shema Yisroel, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem echad.”

25:34 Speaker 7 Yes, it’s large.

25:35 Speaker 2 The ayin and the dalet are large there. There are explanations for it. Our Sages said the ayin and dalet are like the word “eid,” witness, and so on. There are several explanations, several things in Kabbalah, and Chassidus explains it at length. But one of the chassidim—perhaps even the Alter Rebbe himself—said: Why is the dalet in “echad” so large? Ah, you have to hammer the oneness of Hashem into your head. Keep pounding, pounding, pounding until it sinks in.

26:11 Speaker 7 Eventually it will sink in.

26:18 Speaker 2 So that’s what he discussed there. Let’s continue with chapter 43. “Now, regarding this lower level of awe, which enables one to fulfill His mitzvos by turning away from evil and doing good...” “The beginning, the mainstay, and the root of divine service is awe.” What is awe? Awe is the root and purpose and the bas—the root and foundation of all service of Hashem. It is about the awe discussed in the previous two chapters that they said: “If there is no awe, there is no wisdom.” What is wisdom? What is the one true wisdom?

27:01 Speaker 7 Torah?

27:03 Speaker 2 Torah. Wisdom means Torah. “If there is no awe, there is no wisdom.” What does that mean? Can’t a Jew study Torah if he doesn’t—if he has no awe of Hashem?

27:12 Speaker 7 Torah lishmah?

27:13 Speaker 2 What?

27:14 Speaker 7 Torah lishmah?

27:15 Speaker 2 He can study Torah, but he won’t feel that it’s Torah. They tell a story about someone who argued with a chossid. That’s how the story goes. There are many jokes chassidim tell about misnagdim. They tell of a chossid who argued with a misnaged, and the chossid wanted to shake him up a little. So he says something to him about... about Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He asked him when he thinks about Hakadosh Boruch Hu. When he studies Torah, he studies... So the misnaged gives him all the details. The misnaged says to him, “I swear to you, I haven’t thought about Him in twenty years.” So... There are a lot of jokes on this subject. There was also a great rabbi—this isn’t a session for jokes—but there was a great Litvish rabbi, an opponent of Chassidus, a very great rabbi, who was lying on his deathbed. His children were gathered respectfully around his bed in his final moments. “Can we help you, Father? Do you want anything?” He reaches under the mattress, takes out a swastika, and kisses it. Wonderful. Maybe that’s another one. A person can study Torah without feeling its holiness. And it isn’t just some distant possibility; it’s something very, very close to home. When a person studies Chassidus, he is looking toward Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But when a person studies Shulchan Aruch or Gemara, it doesn’t speak about Hakadosh Boruch Hu. There are all kinds of laws: do this, do that, do this. It doesn’t speak about the greatness of Hashem or anything like that. It’s dry. A person can study Torah because he was told it’s very important, and it’s also very interesting and intellectually rich. There’s great depth to it; everyone sits and studies, and he gets excited. I can study Torah in depth and know Torah without any connection to the Giver of the Torah.

29:55 Speaker 8 How does that make sense?

29:56 Speaker 2 Hmm?

29:56 Speaker 8 How does that make sense? I mean, why is it funny?

30:02 Speaker 9 What, with all the... intellect of—

30:05 Speaker 2 When you see two people arguing over Torah matters and you see one of them getting angry: “It says this,” “It says that,” “You have to do it,” “You’re not allowed to do it,” “That’s right,” “That’s wrong.” Neither of them is thinking for even a moment. If he were thinking about what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants, there wouldn’t be an argument, and it wouldn’t look like that.

30:36 Speaker 9 All right, but there are seventy facets to the Torah, so each person understands—

30:38 Speaker 2 Exactly. Of course there are seventy facets to the Torah. But the fact that a person can get angry at his friend because he understands it differently is because he doesn’t feel that he is studying Hashem’s Torah.

30:53 Speaker 8 He’s asking how it makes sense that we study halachah and investigate it without understanding that it’s the Torah of Hakadosh Boruch Hu.

30:58 Speaker 2 He understands it intellectually; he doesn’t feel it. And why doesn’t he feel it? Because nobody told him he needs to feel it. His teacher doesn’t feel it either and doesn’t know that he needs to. This didn’t start with our generation. It began back in the time of the Baal Shem Tov, when the world was sunk in darkness. Today it’s become more—it hasn’t become better, it’s become...

31:22 Speaker 9 I’m going to read Sefer Hazichronos.

31:25 Speaker 2 Sefer Hazichronos. You haven’t read Sefer Hazichronos?

31:27 Speaker 9 There wasn’t—

31:27 Speaker 8 What is Sefer Hazichronos?

31:29 Speaker 9 That’s the end of the class.

31:32 Speaker 8 What is Sefer Hazichronos?

31:34 Speaker 2 We’re stopping the class now.

31:38 Speaker 8 It’s interesting.

31:40 Speaker 2 Sefer Hazichronos is, is, is the ABCs. It comes even before awe of Hashem. It’s the root of everything. Someone who hasn’t read Sefer Hazichronos can’t know what Chassidus is. He can’t. I’m not even talking about Sefer Hatoldos or other things. Sefer Hazichronos. You have to read it from beginning to end, then from the beginning again, then passages in the middle, and then—I don’t know. It has to be a book you keep with you.

32:15 Speaker 9 Come on, it’s a book you read stories and accounts in, yes. It’s interesting.

32:22 Speaker 2 I know a great many people, a great many chassidim, who simply know the entire book from beginning to end.

32:30 Speaker 9 They know it?

32:30 Speaker 2 They know all of it. So many of them. In our home, it was an ironclad rule: until the children reached army age, every Motzaei Shabbos we would read a chapter, two chapters, three chapters of Sefer Hazichronos around the table. Each of them also read it on their own four, five, eight, ten times. It’s... you have to see it for yourself.

32:58 Speaker 9 I’ll try to read it.

32:59 Speaker 2 You have to see it for yourself. You just start, and you can’t stop. All right, so in the previous two chapters we spoke about yirah tata’ah, lower-level awe, which is the root and the foundation of everything. He says of this yirah tata’ah: what is the purpose of all this awe? To bring a person to “turn away from evil and do good.” It is the foundation, the gateway, the basis, the beginning, the starting point, the root. Of this they said, “If there is no awe, there is no wisdom.” Without this kind of awe, a person cannot sense the holiness of the Torah. And it has a lesser level and a greater level. We spoke about that: fear of sin and awe of G-d. Meaning, why are there two levels here? What lies behind it? He says: “When this level of awe is drawn from contemplation of the greatness of Hashem.” Maybe let’s introduce this first; it’s a little long. Let’s give some background. Later he calls them inner awe and external awe, fear of sin and awe... Let me put it differently. In general, when a person feels awe of another person, right, there are two kinds of awe. Not two degrees of intensity—two kinds of awe. What does that mean? What is he afraid of? One person is afraid of what the other can do. That man is a king; he has the power to do things to me that won’t be good. Right? What am I afraid of? I’m afraid of what he can do. Who is the king himself? I don’t know him. What feelings does he have? He appears to me as a king. He tells me what I have to do. Do I know what he wants, what he thinks, what he understands? I’ve never spoken with him. He’s a king. I can’t get close to him. My whole relationship with a king is external. A person in the kingdom, a subject of the king, has no connection with the king’s personality. His entire connection

35:58 Speaker 2 with the king is with the king’s instructions, the king’s words, the king’s commands, the king’s... way of governing. What is the king like with his children, with his wife? What does he like to do? A person doesn’t know. He has no connection to that. Right? There’s another kind of awe. There’s a person, a great rabbi, a Rebbe. That’s another example. When someone feels awe of the Rebbe, is he afraid the Rebbe will do something to him? It’s not that there’s nothing to be afraid of; that’s not the point. So why do you call it awe? What is the awe here? You feel awe—but awe of what?

36:52 Speaker 10 His soul.

36:53 Speaker 2 He feels awe of the soul within him. He recognizes that the rabbi, the Rebbe, has a mind that reaches the heavens, refined character traits; he’s a tzaddik, he’s a different kind of soul. I can’t stand beside him. What does that mean? What’s the difference?

37:23 Speaker 10 It’s not an absolute feeling.

37:25 Speaker 2 What’s the difference? When a person fears a king, what is he afraid of? He’s afraid of what will happen, of what the king might do. Right? When a person feels awe of a tzaddik, he isn’t afraid of what will or won’t happen. He wishes he could cease to exist, that he simply wouldn’t be there. He wants his own sense of self to disappear. I don’t want to be here. I want the ground to swallow me up. I’ll tell two stories. The first is my own experience: on one of my visits to the Rebbe, in Tammuz 5748, I traveled to the Rebbe. It was the year of the Rebbetzin’s passing, so the Rebbe davened in his home, and they let people come in. The living room of the Rebbe’s home could hold fifty or sixty people, packed in tightly. I was there for only a week or two, and I wanted to get in. So whenever there was a minyan, if everyone arrived ten minutes early, I arrived twenty minutes early. I’d stand first in line. However much they pushed me back, I got inside. That’s how I davened with the Rebbe for two weeks.

38:43 Speaker 10 Wow.

38:46 Speaker 2 You know, right up close. A few times during those two weeks, the Rebbe distributed dollars after davening in the house. This was how it worked: they davened in the living room, and the Rebbe stood in the passage between the living room and the kitchen, or in the kitchen itself. People went out through the kitchen, passing by him. One time I approached the Rebbe to receive a dollar, everything went black before my eyes, and I fainted.

39:21 Speaker 10 Really?

39:21 Speaker 2 Physically.

39:24 Speaker 10 Wow.

39:24 Speaker 2 And the Rebbe was smiling.

39:26 Speaker 10 Wow.

39:27 Speaker 2 The Rebbe didn’t... To come close to the Rebbe—when a person stands before the Rebbe’s tremendous greatness, he simply wants not to exist, for his sense of self to disappear, for himself not to be there. This is called yiras boshes, awe born of shame; this is called yirah ila’ah, higher-level awe. He isn’t afraid of what might happen—whether the Rebbe will say something to me or not. That’s not the point. I want not to exist at all, for my sense of self to disappear.

39:59 Speaker 10 Did that happen to you too?

40:00 Speaker 2 Yes.

40:03 Speaker 10 That doesn’t happen to everyone.

40:05 Speaker 2 That’s the second story. There’s a prominent rabbi here in Afula, the head of a community and a good friend of mine for many years. He likes to tell about being at the Rebbe’s when the donation to 770 was being arranged, because he happened to... That was also in 5748. Was it then? I don’t remember. He was there, and the Rebbe came outside and delivered a sicha, and [unclear] was there. It was a big, elaborate occasion. Afterward, he says, “What was everyone so afraid of? I went up to the Rebbe and offered him my hand. The Rebbe shook my hand like friends, like two men.”

40:46 Speaker 10 Really?

40:46 Speaker 2 There’s a video of it. Why? Because he had never contemplated the Rebbe’s personality. He knows the Rebbe is a great rabbi. Right? Well, I’m a rabbi too. He’s a great rabbi; I’m a great rabbi. He had never contemplated the Rebbe’s character traits, the Rebbe’s inner self. So that’s how it works. If a person focuses on the other person’s external side—what he can do to him—then it is external awe, yirah tata’ah. If a person focuses on the other’s personality, his inner self, then it is inner awe. The kind of awe a person feels depends on what he contemplates: the external or the inner. All right? Well, our time is up. Next week we’ll start a new chapter from the beginning.

41:55 Speaker 10 Will next week’s class also be in the sukkah?

42:00 Speaker 2 Uh, if there’s a sukkah.