Likkutei Amarim Chapters 44–45 · 5781

00:00 Speaker 1 AVS Media 10.

00:01 Speaker 2 All right, we’ll begin. Or rather, we’ll finish chapter 44. There’s very little left, and chapter 45 is both short and easy. So I hope we’ll finish

00:13 Speaker 1 what remains in our time together.

00:17 Speaker 2 All right. In chapter 44, we began explaining two kinds of love. AVS Media 10. We spoke about two kinds of love that a person needs to think about and contemplate: that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is our life. “My soul desires You.” What does “My soul desires You” mean? Hakadosh Boruch Hu, You are my soul, and I understand that You are my life; therefore I desire You. A person wants to live. He loves feeling good, feeling alive. So with “My soul desires You,” I desire the source of my life.

00:46 Speaker 1 AVS Media 10.

00:47 Speaker 2 The point here is not—not primarily physical life, but more spiritual life: vitality, joy, love in serving Hashem, enthusiasm in serving Hashem. A person understands that all his vitality and pleasure come from G-dliness, so he desires G-dliness.

01:09 Speaker 1 AVS Media 10.

01:10 Speaker 2 The second love he discusses is the love of “For You, Hashem, are our Father.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu is our Father. Why is He our Father? Because we are Jews, and my soul—the soul of every one of us—was born from G-dliness, born from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is our Father. A person contemplates these two things.

01:32 Speaker 1 AVS Media 10.

01:33 Speaker 2 He sees that He is our life and our Father, and that brings him to love Hashem. Why does the Rebbe—what leads the Alter Rebbe to go into detail and speak specifically about these two loves? After all, there are many, as he himself said in the previous chapter, chapter 43, when he presented the

01:55 Speaker 1 AVS Media 10.

01:56 Speaker 2 general levels of love and fear. He said there are many levels of love: ahavas olam, and many levels of ahavah rabbah, and likewise with lower fear and higher fear. He only said that there are many levels, and that the levels, the concepts, and the contemplations that lead to all the different kinds of love are explained in Chassidus.

02:18 Speaker 1 AVS Media 10.

02:19 Speaker 2 In Chassidus, in maamarim, including maamarim by the Alter Rebbe himself, many places explain many kinds and ways of contemplating different things that bring a person to a different form of love, a different level of love. For example, it is explained at length that a person should contemplate the greatness of the angels’ service:

02:41 Speaker 1 AVS Media 10.

02:41 Speaker 2 how wondrously the angels serve Hashem. That will cause his animal soul to be moved and stirred as well, because the angels are its source and root. And there are many other things along these lines. So in chapter 43, the Alter Rebbe does not go into

03:04 Speaker 1 AVS Media 10.

03:05 Speaker 2 explaining all the kinds of love. Even when he begins to discuss specifically how a beinoni serves Hashem in chapter 44, he does not explain all the many kinds of contemplation and love. He explains two things: “My soul desires You” and “You, Hashem, are our Father.” Why does the Alter Rebbe

03:27 Speaker 1 AVS Media 10.

03:28 Speaker 2 speak specifically about these two ways of contemplating? The Alter Rebbe himself says in Tanya—we saw this; I don’t remember the wording. We saw it explicitly. Let me read the words themselves, right at the beginning of the chapter. Thank you. Um, “One is a love that includes all

03:50 Speaker 1 AVS Media 10.

03:51 Speaker 2 the levels of ahavah rabbah and ahavas olam; it is equally accessible to every soul.” We are speaking in Tanya. For our purposes, the Alter Rebbe says, when speaking to a beinoni about serving Hashem, we explain something that applies to everyone. I’m not going to talk to you now about loves that apply only to people on a low level,

04:13 Speaker 1 AVS Media 10.

04:14 Speaker 2 or only to people on a high level, or only in all sorts of special circumstances. What is the foundation, the basis, the broad path that applies to everyone? These two loves. First of all, they are equally accessible. Every single person can attain them easily, as he said. We saw in the previous chapter—in the continuation of this chapter, he says that every single person can attain these two loves relatively easily. They apply to everyone because what is needed is not deep contemplation but practice, getting used to it. If every morning he thinks, “You are our Father,” and every morning he thinks, “You are our life,” and thinks about it again and again and again, it will sink in and he will become accustomed to it. This is something everyone can attain easily, unlike other loves, which are not necessarily so easy to attain. That is one point. Not only do these two loves apply to everyone more than other kinds of love, but they include all the levels of all the kinds of love explained in chapter 43. That is the main new point. Why go to the trouble of contemplating this and that and this and that? Here is a love you can attain easily, and it includes all the kinds—all the countless kinds and levels of love. That is how he began the chapter. Later, he explained how this is possible: how the same love can include both ahavas olam and ahavah rabbah. Ahavas olam is a love born of intellect. Ahavah rabbah is something a person already has in his soul; he does not need to bring it into being. How can the same love have both qualities? What is the explanation? The explanation was simple. These two loves, “My soul desires You” and “You, Hashem, are our Father,” have

06:22 Speaker 2 something in common. In themselves, they are part of the soul’s nature, but awakening them requires contemplation. So these two loves really do include all the levels. That was the content of the chapter we studied last—last week? Two weeks ago. Last time. And he finished that discussion on page 58. In our booklets, that is page 58.

06:54 Speaker 10 AVS Media Demo.

07:08 Speaker 2 Now we begin where it says, under the heading for Thursday, 1 Iyar, at the bottom: “Now, in regard to these forms of love.” What is he coming to explain now? After all, he has already finished explaining that...

07:17 Speaker 10 AVS Media Demo.

07:19 Speaker 2 What has he not finished? What is missing? When we spoke about kinds of love in the earlier chapters, chapters 39 and 40, we said that intellectual love is—he began with natural love. Natural love raises one’s Torah and mitzvos to its own place, the place of the natural emotions—that is, to the World of Yetzirah. Do you remember that? Intellectual love raises Torah and mitzvos to the World of Beriah, because Beriah is the world of intellect, the world of binah. So if a Jew performs a mitzvah with love that results from intellectual understanding—we now have a name for it. Today we already know it is called ahavas olam. Ahavas olam is love born of intellect. So if he performs the mitzvos with hidden love, his Torah and mitzvos rise to the World of Yetzirah. And if he performs a mitzvah with ahavas olam, his Torah and mitzvos rise to the World of Beriah. He explained that there is another level there: a level of love like a chariot, of self-nullification, love like that of the Patriarchs and Moshe Rabbeinu. When a Jew merits to fulfill Torah and mitzvos with such great love—a love whose essence is self-nullification before Hakadosh Boruch Hu, in which he nullifies himself to G-dliness like a chariot—his Torah and mitzvos rise as far as Atzilus. Those were the three levels.

08:58 Speaker 11 The love we inherit from Avraham Avinu is the love with which he loved Hakadosh Boruch Hu.

09:06 Speaker 2 Right.

09:06 Speaker 11 How do we know?

09:07 Speaker 2 Right.

09:07 Speaker 11 Why isn’t it that love?

09:09 Speaker 2 It is the same love, only in us it is hidden. Now,

09:15 Speaker 11 regarding the love we receive from Moshe Rabbeinu.

09:19 Speaker 2 Wait—regarding hidden love: it is present in every Jew. We spoke about this once. It is present in every Jew, but it is hidden. So if I just remember that I have such a love, I remember that I am a Jew and that, because I am a Jew, I am connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and therefore I do not want to commit sins. So I fulfill the mitzvos after contemplating that I ought to have such a love. In practice, I feel no love in my heart at all. Why do I fulfill the mitzvos? Because I decided in my mind, with my intellect—I understand intellectually that I should have love. In practice, I do not feel love.

09:54 Speaker 11 Mm-hmm.

09:54 Speaker 2 Yes, that is called hidden love. It is hidden. Where is it hidden? In the recesses of his heart and mind. In his mind it is in the recesses, not in concealment. Sorry—in his mind he has understood and decided, and that affects his heart, which, in concealment, agrees. His heart agrees with it. He does not want and yearn for it; he agrees with it. That is hidden love. But in itself, this love is an immense love. It is the love of Avraham Avinu, the love—the love of the Patriarchs. When it is revealed, it becomes ahavah rabbah, a great love, and then his Torah and mitzvos rise to Atzilus. Now, these loves we are discussing, “My soul yearns for You” and “For You are our Father”—where do they raise the Torah and mitzvos?

11:02 Speaker 11 What kind of love do they come from?

11:03 Speaker 2 What kind of love do they come from? We said they include all the kinds together. How do we classify them? Is it worth my using this or not? How far will it raise my Torah and mitzvos? So from here to the end of the chapter, the Alter Rebbe discusses this question. “Now, these two kinds of love, although they are an inheritance to us from our forefathers”—because if they are an inheritance, they are like the nature of our forefathers. And if it is a natural love, where should it raise the Torah and mitzvos?

11:34 Speaker 11 Yetzirah.

11:35 Speaker 2 To Yetzirah. “And likewise the fear included in them, which is the fear of being separated, G-d forbid, from the source of our life and our true Father, blessed be He.” So the fear, too, is natural. “Nevertheless, they are called natural love and fear only when they are in his mind and thought alone, while in the heart they are merely hidden in the recesses of his heart and are not openly felt there. Then their place is in the ten sefiros of Yetzirah, and there they raise with them the Torah and mitzvos that result from them and are motivated by them.” Exactly as it says in chapters 39 and 40. No, nothing has changed, because this is natural love. But when they—who are “they”? Those same two loves—are revealed in his heart, they are called re’usa deliba, the desire of the heart. They are no longer in the recesses of his heart; this is what his heart wants, what it yearns for. Because in the first part of the chapter, which we learned last time, he basically said that a person can contemplate these two ideas until he knows that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is our Father, until he knows and understands that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is our life. But if he contemplates them more deeply and more persistently, he will feel it too. So these are two levels of the very same love. If he makes only a little effort, it will be in the recesses of his heart and mind; if he works harder, it will also be revealed. Then that same love will raise his Torah and mitzvos to Beriah as well, not only to Yetzirah. “Their place is in the ten sefiros of Beriah, and there they raise with them the Torah and mitzvos that result from them, because they emerge from the heart’s concealment and hiddenness into a state of revelation through daas—firmly fixing one’s thought, with intense contemplation from the depths of the heart, more deeply and constantly, on Ein Sof, blessed be He.” If he only talks about these ideas and thinks about them, reflects on them, understands them,

13:40 Speaker 2 then they will remain in the recesses of his heart. But if he fixes his daas on them, as he writes there in chapter 3, at the beginning of Tanya—fixing it firmly and persistently through daas—then a genuine love will be born from this. That is love revealed in his heart. When it is revealed in his heart through intellect, through firmly fixing his daas, its place is Beriah. How is He truly our life, and how is He our true Father, blessed be He? “And as is known”—meaning, everyone knows what is written in Tikkunim, Tikkunei Zohar—that in the world of Beriah, Imma Ila’ah, Binah, dwells. We have spoken about this a few times. Right? Yes. I think we have discussed a few times that the four partzufim of Atzilus—Chochmah, Binah, the middos, and Malchus—exist individually within the world of Atzilus. That is, Chochmah of Atzilus, Binah of Atzilus, the middos of Atzilus, and Malchus of Atzilus. Four levels corresponding to the four letters of Hashem’s Name. The yud is Chochmah, the first hei is Binah, the vav is the middos, and the final hei is Malchus. There is also a reason and an explanation for why each letter is associated specifically with that level. Not now. Similarly, this applies more broadly to the four worlds: Atzilus, Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah. Atzilus, in general, corresponds to Chochmah. Beriah, in general, corresponds to Binah. Yetzirah is the middos, emotion, the world of angels. And Asiyah is the lower world, the world of kabbolas ol. A world concerned solely with actual deed—actual divine service, Torah and physical mitzvos. So Imma Ila’ah, the Binah of Atzilus—where does it dwell? What is its place in the broader scheme? In the world of Beriah. The world of Beriah is Binah, the realm of intellect, which means contemplation of the light of Ein Sof in serving Hashem. What is Binah in serving Hashem? In serving Hashem, Binah is contemplation—contemplation of the light of Ein Sof, blessed

16:03 Speaker 2 be He, the light of Ein Sof, the Life of all life, blessed be He. There, “Binah is the heart, and through it the heart understands.” When one firmly and persistently focuses one’s daas and Binah on the greatness of Hashem, Ein Sof, blessed be He—on the fact that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is our Father—love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu is born in the heart. “Binah is the heart, and through it the heart understands.” And not only that. So up to this point, these two loves, ordinarily and without too much effort, raise our Torah and mitzvos to Yetzirah. If we work hard, they will bring them to Beriah as well. And not only that—there is more. What more? “Not only that, but these two kinds of love mentioned above also include an aspect of ahavah rabbah.” Ahavah rabbah already belongs to Atzilus. Because ultimately, as we said before, when the hidden love is revealed, it is higher than an intellectually generated love. It comes from the essence of the soul, and the essence of the soul is higher than intellect. So once it is revealed, it is already higher than intellect. Thus these loves also include ahavah rabbah, a love greater and loftier than ahavas olam, which comes from understanding, daas, and intellect. A love born of understanding, daas, and intellect is what we called ahavas olam. Here we are speaking of its revelation—this is ahavah rabbah. It turns out that these two loves are, on the one hand, very easy for anyone to awaken within himself, and on the other hand, they raise the Torah and mitzvos to Yetzirah, and beyond that to Beriah, and beyond that to Atzilus, just like those other loves. So it is clear—but now we understand why the Alter Rebbe explains to the beinoni, who is setting out to serve Hashem, where to place the emphasis. Where should you invest your effort? Don’t go off into all kinds of territory when who knows whether you will make it all the way. Here you have a clear, reliable, well-paved path: very simple contemplation. It does require effort. True, nothing

18:45 Speaker 2 comes for free, but it is not… Anyone can feel love. Everyone knows what a father is. Everyone knows what their own life is. So contemplate that. Work at it, and you are there. It is close to you, because “the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.” Think about it, work at it, talk about it. You are there. It is within you. It depends only—only on you. You put in the effort, and you are there. But this raises a question from the other side. We have said many times that he ties up all the loose ends, so to speak: whenever his explanation raises questions, he immediately pauses and addresses them. He does that here too. Wait a moment. If these two loves are so effective, if they include both intellectually generated love and hidden love, as well as ahavah rabbah, then why did you explain the whole concept of ahavas olam to me in the first place? Here is a clear, open path, and you have explained it so well. Now I do not understand why you explained the whole subject of ahavas olam to me. Do I need it at all? So he answers that now, on page 68a: “Nevertheless, one must exert his intellect to grasp and attain the level of ahavas olam mentioned above as well,” even though it is lower—lower than the love of “My soul yearns for You” and “You are our Father.” Why? It comes openly from knowing the greatness of Hashem. Why pursue it? “In order to intensify the blaze of love with fiery flames.” That element is absent from the love of “My soul yearns for You.” When a person yearns for Hakadosh Boruch Hu as he yearns for his own life, that is not fire. Fire wants to separate from the wick. “My soul yearns for You” wants its life-force to reach it. It does not want to separate from the wick; it does not

20:54 Speaker 2 Wants to separate from the body? He’s comfortable here in the body. The burning, the movement of mesirus nefesh, of giving oneself over to G-dliness, of giving up oneself—that won’t come from “My soul, I desire You,” or even from “For You are our Father.” Even though, as we said, “For You are our Father” is the love of Moshe Rabbeinu, who had the mesirus nefesh to sanctify Hashem’s name. That’s all true, but it still isn’t like fiery flames. Fiery flames come only from ahavas olam. So despite the extraordinary quality—well, despite all the most extraordinary qualities of these two kinds of love, we also need ahavas olam: to build up the bonfire of love into fiery flames, a mighty blaze, a flame rising to the heavens, until “many waters cannot extinguish it,” and so on, “nor can rivers wash it away,” and so on. That’s... a verse from—

21:59 Speaker 12 Shir Hashirim.

21:59 Speaker 2 From Shir Hashirim, I think. Is it Koheles? From Shlomo Hamelech, at any rate. And—

22:06 Speaker 12 The additional powers.

22:07 Speaker 2 And he’s talking—the Alter Rebbe—

22:12 Speaker 12 Sorry.

22:12 Speaker 2 Take that again. No, you’re right, it’s from Shir Hashirim. Thank you. In Likkutei Torah, in Parshas Noach, there’s a wonderful maamar in which the Alter Rebbe explains this whole verse in relation to the Flood, the sea that rose and covered everything, and the rivers that swept everything away. He explains there that a person has two broad kinds of things in this world that interfere with the revelation of his G-dly soul. One is the worries of earning a living. When a person is preoccupied with making a living, it’s called the burden of earning a living. It’s called a burden. It weighs on his head; he can’t lift his head to catch his breath. It troubles him. It’s like water lying on top of him, a heavy weight that keeps him from getting up and thinking about other things. That kind of worry is called a sea. It’s called “many waters.” “Many waters cannot extinguish the love.” Even a person who has a heavy burden, who has a hard time materially—it won’t extinguish his love of Hashem. Love of Hashem cannot be extinguished. The verse goes on to say that rivers, too, cannot wash it away. Not only a sea, not only many waters—even rivers cannot wash away love of Hashem. Rivers are worries about earning a living that aren’t a burden sitting on top of him. They’re thoughts that keep racing and racing: how will he get this, how will he get there, how will he obtain that, what is he lacking? His thoughts are running constantly, and he can’t—

24:06 Speaker 12 Not the Rebbe’s.

24:07 Speaker 2 What?

24:07 Speaker 12 That’s not from Likkutei Torah.

24:09 Speaker 2 Of course it is. “Many waters...” But, well, I don’t want to get sidetracked. Leave it. In any case, this is where he’s directing us, right? The love of “My soul, I desire You” and the love of a son for his father aren’t enough. We have to build up the bonfire of love until many waters and the worries of earning a living—rivers—cannot wash it away. And that comes through ahavas olam, a love born of intellectual contemplation. “For there is an advantage and a superior quality to the level of love like fiery flames and a mighty blaze, which comes from understanding and awareness of the greatness of the blessed Ein Sof, over the two aforementioned kinds of love when they are not like fiery flames and a blaze, as gold has an advantage and superior quality over silver, and as explained below.” So there are two things here to notice. Broadly speaking, it’s very clear. Two things to notice. Pay attention to the words: there is an advantage and a superior quality to love like fiery flames and a mighty blaze, arising from understanding and awareness, over the two aforementioned kinds of love “when they are not like fiery flames.” What do you hear in that?

25:42 Speaker 13 Its one advantage over them is that it’s like fiery flames.

25:44 Speaker 2 That—

25:44 Speaker 13 Its one advantage over them is that it’s like fiery flames and they aren’t.

25:49 Speaker 2 Yes, but when he says “when they are not like fiery flames,” it’s as if—

25:52 Speaker 13 That means there’s also a state in which they are.

25:53 Speaker 2 That there’s a state in which those same two kinds of love are like fiery flames. Such a thing exists.

26:00 Speaker 13 Certainly.

26:02 Speaker 2 “As explained below.” Yes. Now, there’s a comment by the Rebbe on this “below,” because it really isn’t explained anywhere. The Alter Rebbe writes “as explained below.” There’s nowhere below—not in Tanya and not anywhere else in Chassidus. Nowhere below, not in the Alter Rebbe’s writings or in those of any of the Rebbes, up to and including our Rebbe, is there an explanation of where these two kinds of love are like fiery flames.

26:31 Speaker 13 Surely it’s in what still needs to be written.

26:33 Speaker 2 It isn’t written explicitly. On the words “as explained below,” the Alter Rebbe adds a note there: chapter 50. Now, the Rebbe doesn’t explain it, and the commentators don’t dwell on it much, but seemingly we need to understand it. We’ll talk about it, with Hashem’s help. The love discussed in chapter 50 is the love of gold. Everything we’re dealing with now, all the kinds of love we’re talking about, are loves of silver. A person wants and yearns—and it’s all silver. There’s silver in the form of “My soul, I desire You,” silver in the form of the love for one’s father, silver in the form of intellectual love and ahavah rabbah. In other words, it’s all silver, all yearning for G-dliness. In this way, he is exposed to G-dliness. There’s another kind of love, the opposite of everything we’re discussing now: love in the form of gold.

27:29 Speaker 13 Which is?

27:30 Speaker 2 In chapter 50. When we get there—I’m mentioning it here because... So we need to understand: seemingly, what the Rebbe means is that the love in chapter 50, which is a love like gold, can also exist in these two forms. In other words, a person can yearn for Hakadosh Boruch Hu with “My soul, I desire You,” because he wants Divine life, and also from the perspective of gold. We’ll discuss that there. And the same applies to the love of a son for his father. Fine, but that’s all an aside. In practice, what’s relevant to each of us is to work on these loves: to reach the level of Yetzirah, whether in the hidden recesses of his heart or openly in his heart; the level of Beriah; and even to become nullified to G-dliness up to the level of Atzilus. But since it isn’t so relevant for these two kinds of love to become like fiery flames, you need to awaken a love like fiery flames without relying on those loves. You have ahavas olam, an intellectual love. True, it’s a lower love, but it arouses this quality, so you need it too. And there’s another reason we need this lower love: because “this is the whole purpose of man—to know the glory of Hashem and the splendor of His greatness.” Our Sages gave a number of reasons why the world was created. We’re used to “Hakadosh Boruch Hu desired a dwelling place for Himself in the lower realms,” but there are other reasons too. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted—as it says in the teachings of our Sages—to create the world “so that they would know Him.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted Him to be known. And how could He be known if there was no one to know Him? So He created people so that—

29:20 Speaker 2 They would know Him, right? And along those lines, there are several other reasons. Chassidus explains at great length the differences between all these reasons, and why the principal reason really is a dwelling place in the lower realms, and so on. But there are other reasons. What?

29:35 Speaker 14 Don’t the angels know Him? The angels are also part of the creation of the world.

29:39 Speaker 2 You’re right. You’re right. That is exactly the question the Rebbe Rashab discusses at the beginning of Hemshech 5662. Don’t the angels know Him? That’s exactly the question he asks, and he explains it at great length. But that’s not for now.

29:56 Speaker 14 Okay. But He didn’t create the world; He only created the angels.

30:02 Speaker 2 So one of the reasons Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world is “so that they would know Him.” How would they know Him? If a person contemplates Hakadosh Boruch Hu through “My soul, I desire You”—that You, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, are my life—that doesn’t bring him to know Hakadosh Boruch Hu. If he cleaves to Hakadosh Boruch Hu because “You are our Father,” that doesn’t bring him to know Hakadosh Boruch Hu either. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted Him to be known, and it is primarily through ahavas olam that we fulfill this purpose of the world’s creation.

30:29 Speaker 14 Wow.

30:31 Speaker 2 Each person according to what he can bear. As it says in the Raya Mehemna in Parshas Bo, “so that they would know Him,” and so on.

30:41 Speaker 14 To love Hashem, you mean?

30:43 Speaker 2 Yes, yes, yes, yes.

30:45 Speaker 14 Wait, can I have the...

30:47 Speaker 2 What? I said it aloud fifteen times, didn’t I? “So that they would know Him”—so that they would know Him. Oh, no, I took these pages out deliberately just now. We’re turning the page. Chapter 45. As we said at the beginning, before you arrived, we’ll try to learn chapter 45 as well, because it’s both short and easy. I think we’ll manage it.

31:33 Speaker 14 An hour and a quarter.

31:39 Speaker 2 So in the previous chapter, the Alter Rebbe discussed which kinds of love a person needs, which he can and is capable of attaining, why one comes first and another afterward, and what is primary and what is secondary. He’s already explained that there are levels and kinds, and we’ve discussed all the kinds of love and awe and how to attain them. Everything we’ve discussed until now has been love and awe. Love comes from the attribute of... which attribute?

32:10 Speaker 14 Chessed.

32:10 Speaker 2 Love comes from the attribute of chessed, right? And awe comes from the attribute of gevurah. But Hakadosh Boruch Hu planted all kinds of other attributes in us besides chessed and gevurah. Tiferes. And the main thing is tiferes, and the service that comes from the attribute of tiferes—the service of compassion. That is chapter 45. We need to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu with compassion too. We want to be complete Jews. Hakadosh Boruch—Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave us this quality so we would use it too. Chapter 45: “There is yet another direct path before a person, to engage in Torah and mitzvos for their own sake.” You can observe Torah and mitzvos not for their own sake. Without intent... without intention. And you can observe Torah and mitzvos for their own sake, meaning with a feeling of love and awe. There is another way to observe Torah and mitzvos for their own sake. That is, with an inner feeling, but the feeling will be neither love nor awe. It’s a combination of the two, isn’t it? Hmm? It’s a combination of the two. No. It—it will contain both of them. It’s true that compassion includes love and awe within it. Right. But it isn’t a combination of love and awe. The middle line is something in its own right. It isn’t made by taking love and awe and mixing them together. The third line is a third line; it just has something of each within it. It isn’t right to say—or at least it isn’t quite accurate to say—that it’s a combination. It isn’t a combination; it’s something in its own right. It includes both of them, but no, that isn’t what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about the third line. The third line in its own right. “There is yet another direct path before a person, to engage in Torah and mitzvos for their own sake, through the attribute of our forefather Yaakov, peace be upon him.” Not the attribute of Avraham and not the attribute of Yitzchak, but the attribute of compassion. How do we serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu with this attribute? “First, to arouse in his mind great compassion

34:28 Speaker 2 before Hashem for the spark of G-dliness that gives life to his soul, which descended.” What, I’m supposed to have compassion for Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Maybe it’s the other way around? Our spark of G-dliness. Maybe He should have compassion for me? No, our spark of G-dliness.

34:42 Speaker 15 In the revelation of a quality of His, of His. No, I’m not sure.

34:47 Speaker 2 Yes, me too. But that isn’t right. That isn’t right. A part of infinity is also infinite. We think of our spark of G-dliness as though there’s a great fire and a little spark from it. On the one hand, that’s true; on the other hand, the analogy doesn’t fully apply. G-dliness isn’t a fire. It isn’t limited by time or place. It’s infinite. And the spark within us is a spark of infinity, and a spark of infinity is also infinite. So our soul isn’t limited; it’s boundless. And it descended, that spark of G-dliness, “from its source, the Life of life, the blessed Ein Sof, Who fills all worlds and encompasses all worlds,” as we’ll learn later in chapter 48. What are “fills” and “encompasses”? Just concepts that come up endlessly in Chassidus; there’s no maamar where they don’t come up. “Fills” and “encompasses.” Yes. But—he mentions them in chapter 48. The place in Chassidus where what “fills” and “encompasses” mean is explained is chapter 48 of Tanya.

36:04 Speaker 15 They were mentioned earlier too, “fills” and “encompasses.”

36:05 Speaker 2 He mentioned them many times, but didn’t explain them.

36:08 Speaker 15 Why? No...

36:10 Speaker 2 But we added a few explanations. The Alter Rebbe didn’t explain them. There’s “fills” and there’s “encompasses.” That’s it. The explanation is there. And this spark came from—it’s a spark whose source is both “fills” and “encompasses.” That is its source and root, and “all is considered as nothing before Him”—an even higher level of G-dliness, above both “fills” and “encompasses,” to the point that they are on the same level relative to Him. And from there, that spark of G-dliness descended and “was clothed in the skin of a snake.” What do those words mean?

36:44 Speaker 15 Snake skin.

36:45 Speaker 2 Yes. There’s a saying among chassidim. I don’t want to attribute it to Reb Hillel of Paritch, because I’m not sure. I think that’s who said it: a soul—a spark of G-dliness descended to be clothed in a sack of flesh and bones.

37:07 Speaker 15 Wait, but isn’t this mentioned in chapter 7 of Igeres Hateshuvah?

37:11 Speaker 2 What?

37:13 Speaker 15 About the—like, why one has to go through, uh, do teshuvah? After a struggle?

37:17 Speaker 2 Absolutely. Chapters 6–7, yes.

37:19 Speaker 15 Okay.

37:21 Speaker 16 Why aren’t you sure?

37:26 Speaker 15 Yes.

37:26 Speaker 2 Exactly right. About the rope. “Yaakov is the rope of His inheritance.” Yes, it’s explained there at great length. Here I’m just mentioning it.

37:33 Speaker 16 It appears there too.

37:34 Speaker 2 “Clothed in the skin of a snake,” chivya, chivya, “utterly distant from the light of the King’s countenance.” Why? Why are our body and animal soul so utterly distant? Because this world is the lowest of the coarse kelipos, and so on. We learned that in chapter 36: it is the lowest realm, with none lower than it, and the wicked prevail in it, and so on. This world conceals G-dliness more than any other. “And especially when he recalls all his actions, words, and thoughts since the day he came into being that were not good.” It isn’t just that the spark of G-dliness isn’t revealed; he also went and—

38:12 Speaker 15 Brought it down.

38:13 Speaker 2 Brought it down even further. So much so that about this it is said, “The King is bound in the rahitim.” AVS Media Demo That’s a verse the Zohar interprets as “the channels of the mind.” Rashi explains rahitim as the troughs from which animals drink water. There’s a long groove in a stone, and you put water in at one end, and the water AVS Media Demo runs through the troughs. It’s that kind of image. What does the Zohar mean by “the channels of the mind”? That thoughts race through the head like water running through the animals’ troughs. And the G-dly soul is bound within the channels AVS Media Demo of the mind, within those thoughts. It wants to sense G-dliness, to contemplate, to think, to—to have love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And the G-dly soul is entwined with the animal soul like a wick. Wherever the animal soul goes, it has no choice; they’ve been joined together, and that’s where it is. It’s forced to think AVS Media Demo and speak and do and feel things that are the very opposite of its entire essence. It isn’t merely in exile; it’s imprisoned. I don’t know what to call it. “For Yaakov is the rope of His inheritance.” What does that mean? What is the analogy? Why—

39:47 Speaker 15 What’s the connection to “the rope of His inheritance”? We weren’t—

39:50 Speaker 2 Hmm?

39:50 Speaker 15 What? I mean, what—

39:52 Speaker 2 AVS Media Demo Here, here—he explains it right away.

39:54 Speaker 15 No, because there’s a period there. It’s as if he’s saying, okay, let’s move on.

39:59 Speaker 16 No.

39:59 Speaker 2 It’s like a colon.

40:01 Speaker 15 Oh, okay.

40:01 Speaker 2 Yes. What does “Yaakov is the rope of His inheritance” mean? “Like someone pulling a rope,” and this is the secret of the exile of the Shechinah. The spark of G-dliness within us—our soul—is like a rope. AVS Media Demo It’s explained at length in the Igeres Hateshuvah you mentioned earlier: it’s woven from 613 strands. One end of the rope is the blessed Ein Sof, and the other end is with me, in my heart, in my thoughts. When I take my thoughts and start thinking all sorts of things, I pull the lower end of the rope, but it—AVS Media Demo doesn’t hang there on its own; that also pulls the upper end.

40:42 Speaker 15 Let’s put it this way: it’s a shame the class wasn’t good last time.

40:47 Speaker 2 And that’s called—the King—that’s called “the King is bound in the rahitim.” Who is bound in the rahitim? The King. The blessed Ein Sof. AVS Media Demo It says: Hakadosh Boruch Hu in His very essence. My soul is “literally a part of G-d above.” It isn’t just a rope; it is Him.

41:14 Speaker 15 What’s the plain meaning of “the King is bound in the rahitim”? I mean, it’s—

41:19 Speaker 2 In the verse? I don’t remember, yes.

41:21 Speaker 15 In Shir Hashirim.

41:23 Speaker 2 I don’t remember its plain meaning. AVS Media Demo

41:26 Speaker 15 Rivka is here, uh...

41:30 Speaker 2 The two of us will check later at home. It really is interesting. I never thought to look it up. All right, in any case, that is the meaning of “the King is bound in the rahitim.” The Zohar explains that it isn’t just the spark that is in exile. The King of kings is in exile. AVS Media Demo It isn’t there on its own; it isn’t disconnected. “Yaakov is the rope of His inheritance.” When you pull the rope down here, then—the King Himself is there. So a person contemplates this: where is his spark? Even without his doing anything, it has descended into the skin of a snake, into kelipas nogah. And not only that: through my actions, I’ve done things I shouldn’t have done. I’ve thought things I’m forbidden to think, spoken things I’m forbidden to say, and bound and dragged the King of kings down into the mud, into the filth. A person contemplates this, and about this it says, “He will return to Hashem and have compassion on Him.” Have compassion on whom?

42:32 Speaker 15 On himself.

42:33 Speaker 2 No. AVS Media Demo Have compassion—

42:34 Speaker 15 On the King of kings?

42:36 Speaker 2 “He will return to Hashem and have compassion on Him.” To arouse great compassion for the Name of Hashem, Who dwells with us, as it is written, “Who dwells with them amid their impurities.” A person contemplates how far the G-dly spark has descended, and more than that: how, through his actions, he himself brought it down into impurity with his own hands. In Igeres Hateshuvah, he adds another layer: after all, the life force of all the worlds, of everything, comes from holiness, from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. How do the kelipos receive life? Where do they get their life force?

43:14 Speaker 15 From holiness.

43:15 Speaker 2 How do they receive sustenance from holiness? Holiness doesn’t give it to them. When a Jew has both an animal soul and a G-dly soul, and he commits a sin—yes, the animal soul committed the sin, but the G-dly soul participates in it. The power of the G-dly spark then gives vitality to the kelipos. It simply—

43:34 Speaker 15 So if Jews kept the mitzvos, there would be no kelipos in the world?

43:37 Speaker 2 “And I will remove the spirit of impurity from the earth.” That’s exactly the point. AVS Media demo. The source of vitality for all the evil in the world is the sins we commit.

43:49 Speaker 15 Wow. But wait, before we committed any sins, there was already evil in the world.

43:53 Speaker 2 What?

43:53 Speaker 15 Before we committed sins, there was already evil.

43:55 Speaker 2 It was separate. It existed in a different way, behind a partition; it wasn’t connected as it is now. All right, so what is this contemplation, this service through the attribute of mercy? To contemplate— AVS Media demo. The extent of the G-dly spark’s descent, until it makes my heart ache over the descent of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Not over my own descent, not over my own situation. And this is what the verse says. Where does the strength come from? Can I have mercy on Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Who am I to have mercy on Hakadosh Boruch Hu? So the Alter Rebbe explains here in a few lines that we received the strength for this from Yaakov Avinu. This is what the verse says: “Yaakov kissed Rachel, raised his voice, and wept.” There are three things here. First he kissed her, then he raised his voice, and then he wept. Rachel is Knesses Yisroel, the source of all souls. Yaakov, through his lofty attribute of mercy in Atzilus, arouses great mercy for her. How does he arouse great mercy for the source of the souls of Israel? In other words, how does he give us the strength to serve Hashem through the attribute of mercy, to have mercy on Hakadosh Boruch Hu? How does he do it? Through “he raised his voice.” Raised it where? Yaakov is already at the level of mercy. Where is the attribute of mercy? It is Tiferes of Atzilus. He is already there. What does “he raised his voice” mean? Raised it where?

45:37 Speaker 17 AVS Media Demo.

45:38 Speaker 2 He raised his voice upward, beyond the attribute of mercy, to the source of the higher mercies, called Av Harachamim, whose source is in the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, far, far above Atzilus. Then “he wept,” arousing and drawing down from there great mercy upon all the souls and upon their source, Knesses Yisroel, to lift them from their exile and unite them in a supreme union with the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He—to unite them in a supreme union with the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He. So Yaakov Avinu, in the prayer he offered for Rachel Imeinu—Rachel Imeinu here is not simply Rachel Imeinu. Each of us has a soul, and the source of our souls is Rachel, Knesses Yisroel. The power our souls have to feel mercy for the G-dly spark comes from that prayer Yaakov Avinu prayed: “Yaakov raised his voice and wept.”

46:41 Speaker 17 What does Av Harachamim have to do with it?

46:43 Speaker 2 Because the attribute of mercy as it is naturally embedded in the soul does not have the power to feel mercy for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. A person cannot reach that point without help. Where does the help come from? Who can awaken it? A person has already sunk so low, and each person knows within himself where he has sunk. How can such a lofty level of the soul be awakened in him? We receive the strength for this from Yaakov Avinu. That is, when I contemplate the descent of the G-dly spark, I can reach a point where it truly hurts me, where I truly feel mercy for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. I can reach that point. How is that possible? Yaakov’s prayer makes it possible.

47:38 Speaker 17 Thank you very much.

47:41 Speaker 2 And the union brought about through the attribute of mercy, through mercy for the G-dly spark, is on the level of kisses. When people kiss, there are two things.

47:55 Speaker 17 AVS Media Demo.

47:56 Speaker 2 First, their physical mouths meet. Second, their breath, the air, joins together. It is not only a physical connection; there is also a spiritual connection of breath. This is the level of kisses, a cleaving of spirit to spirit. As it says, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth”—meaning that a person’s speech connects with the word of Hashem, which is halachah; likewise, thought connects with thought, and action with action. Thought connecting with thought is the joining of spirit. When a person contemplates G-dliness and studies Torah, he connects with Hakadosh Boruch Hu in his thoughts. That is the level of kisses: the spirit of the kiss mingles with the spirit of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. When I think, contemplate, and engage with the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, His wisdom and my wisdom become one; they join together. That is the cleaving of spirit to spirit. And speech in words of Torah and the performance of mitzvos—speech in words of Torah is, so to speak, the physical joining of the mouths. And it is not only kissing, which is Torah, thought and speech in Torah; action is already an embrace. We have discussed several times that Torah study is inward: it enters the person. But when a person performs a mitzvah, he does not unite with the physical object used for the mitzvah. It remains separate: it is here and I am here. That is... Yes?

49:44 Speaker 3 It is the same with that too.

49:46 Speaker 2 When a person gives tzedakah, he may unite with the spiritual aspect of tzedakah, but the bill stays in the charity box and he stays outside the box. Yet it is called an embrace, because its influence surrounds him; it is all around him.

50:02 Speaker 3 A mitzvah involving eating.

50:03 Speaker 2 Right, there it does. There it actually becomes united with him.

50:07 Speaker 3 Yes.

50:08 Speaker 2 Right.

50:09 Speaker 3 Ah, so there are mitzvos that—

50:10 Speaker 2 There are, yes. Even with a mitzvah—even with the mitzvah of Torah study, which he discusses at length in Tanya—there are two aspects. There is the study of Torah itself, and there is the fact that Torah study is a mitzvah, just like any other mitzvah: Hakadosh Boruch Hu commanded us to study Torah. Now I am fulfilling a mitzvah, so Hakadosh Boruch Hu embraces me. And when I study Torah, I also unite with it, and—

50:36 Speaker 3 AVS Media Demo.

50:38 Speaker 2 Generally speaking, then, Torah is inward, and mitzvos are an embrace.

50:45 Speaker 3 We also covered that in a class.

50:46 Speaker 2 Hmm?

50:48 Speaker 3 Right. Actually, we had a group session last week about all the concepts in Tanya, so it’s easier when you understand what—

50:56 Speaker 4 Yes, that’s the hardest part.

50:58 Speaker 2 Ah, now I understand what you were talking about last week. Okay. And among all the mitzvos, the main expression of connecting with G-dliness is the performance of tzedakah and kindness, for “chesed is the right arm.” It is truly an embrace, as it says, “His right hand embraces me.” And engagement in Torah through speech and contemplative thought—

51:22 Speaker 3 AVS Media Demo.

51:23 Speaker 2 —is truly the level of kisses. Generally speaking, mitzvos—all the mitzvos, and particularly the mitzvah of tzedakah—are an embrace, while Torah study is more a matter of kisses, an inner connection with G-dliness. Through speech and contemplative thought, it is truly the level of kisses. Up to this point, from the beginning of the chapter, he has been saying that one can serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu not only through love and awe, but also through the attribute of mercy, the attribute of Yaakov Avinu. There is no contradiction. Yes, one needs to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu with this, and one needs to serve Him with that. But although one can also serve Hashem—

52:08 Speaker 3 AVS Media Demo.

52:09 Speaker 2 —through the attribute of mercy without love and awe, by arousing mercy for the G-dly spark in one’s soul, the Alter Rebbe emphasizes at the end of the chapter, in its last two lines, that through this attribute of mercy one can come to a level of great love revealed in one’s heart.

52:31 Speaker 5 AVS Media demo

52:32 Speaker 2 Ultimately, “There is no service like the service of love.” There is service through awe of Hashem and through mercy, and there are also the attributes of Hod and Netzach, among others. But the main part of a person’s service is love of Hashem.

52:54 Speaker 5 AVS Media demo

52:55 Speaker 2 Therefore, one cannot be satisfied with serving only through the attribute of mercy, even though it is a little easier. Rather, one must—

53:09 Speaker 6 Return.

53:10 Speaker 2 Return to love. On the contrary, he says that the attribute of mercy is a springboard—

53:17 Speaker 5 AVS Media demo

53:18 Speaker 2 —back to love. Because if a person tries to reach love through contemplation, it takes great toil and effort. It is not simple. One has to focus one’s mind intensely and keep at it consistently. But if a person—

53:40 Speaker 5 AVS Media demo

53:41 Speaker 2 —arouses mercy, and truly arouses mercy so that it genuinely hurts: when I see someone injured, G-d forbid, it hurts my heart. One can contemplate the G-dly spark until its plight truly hurts. There are many stories of tzaddikim getting up at night for Tikkun Chatzos and weeping over the exile of the Shechinah.

54:03 Speaker 5 AVS Media demo

54:04 Speaker 2 Not like the chossid who came up with a technique to make himself cry, so that tears would actually run down his face even while everything in his heart was calm and peaceful. That is not what is meant. A person can contemplate the descent of the Shechinah, the descent of the G-dly spark in his soul, until it hurts him. And if it truly hurts him, through that he can come to a level of great love. He truly feels pain over Hakadosh Boruch Hu—

54:26 Speaker 5 AVS Media demo

54:29 Speaker 2 And not just ahavas olam, or another kind of love, but even ahavah rabbah—abundant love—revealed in his heart, as it is written, “To Jacob, who redeemed Abraham,” as explained elsewhere. Now, actually, we’ve spoken about this before. There’s no such verse. Our forefather Yaakov didn’t redeem Avraham from anywhere.

54:49 Speaker 5 AVS Media demo

54:52 Speaker 2 There was no such story in the Torah.

54:54 Speaker 6 Are you sure?

54:55 Speaker 2 Hmm?

54:56 Speaker 6 Are you sure?

54:56 Speaker 2 I’m sure. So what does “To Jacob, who redeemed Abraham” mean? Well?

55:01 Speaker 6 They weren’t together for... They were together for fifteen years.

55:03 Speaker 2 They were together for fifteen years, yes, but there was never any situation where he...

55:09 Speaker 6 Right.

55:09 Speaker 2 ...redeemed him. The verse is in Yeshayahu.

55:12 Speaker 5 AVS Media demo

55:14 Speaker 2 It’s something the prophet tells the Jewish people: “Thus said Hakadosh Boruch Hu to the house of Yaakov”—to the house of Yaakov. What did Hakadosh Boruch Hu say to the house of Yaakov? That He, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, redeemed Avraham.

55:33 Speaker 6 Okay.

55:35 Speaker 5 AVS Media demo

55:38 Speaker 2 Chassidus took that verse and literally cut off four or five words from its beginning.

55:47 Speaker 6 And what does it add?

55:49 Speaker 2 Even the Hebrew prefix meaning “to” in “to Yaakov” was taken off, leaving just “Yaakov, who redeemed.” Now, this wasn’t Chassidus that did it.

55:58 Speaker 5 AVS Media demo

55:59 Speaker 2 The Zohar writes: “Yaakov, who redeemed Avraham.” What does that mean?

56:03 Speaker 6 We didn’t do that.

56:04 Speaker 2 It wasn’t us. Yes, it comes from an explicit passage in the Zohar. What does the Zohar say there? That the attribute of compassion, Yaakov’s attribute, has the power to redeem the attribute of love, Avraham’s attribute.

56:21 Speaker 5 AVS Media damage.

56:22 Speaker 2 A Jew sees that he isn’t succeeding. He contemplated the greatness of Hashem. He contemplated “My soul longs for You,” and “You, Hashem, are our Father.” He contemplated everything he needed to, but neither ahavah rabbah nor an intellectual love was awakened in him—not even the hidden love. Nothing was awakened. So there is Yaakov, who redeems Avraham. If you have compassion for the spark of G-dliness in your soul as you should, that itself

56:44 Speaker 5 AVS Media damage.

56:45 Speaker 2 will awaken Avraham—all the loves you contemplated.

56:48 Speaker 6 The idea of compassion awakens...

56:51 Speaker 2 What? What?

56:52 Speaker 6 Why doesn’t he explain how compassion awakens love? He doesn’t say it explicitly. I don’t understand.

56:58 Speaker 2 What do you mean, he doesn’t say it explicitly?

57:00 Speaker 6 He doesn’t say how we do this when we awaken love.

57:02 Speaker 2 Here: through this, one can come to a state of love.

57:05 Speaker 6 One can, but... There’s a verse...

57:07 Speaker 5 AVS Media damage.

57:09 Speaker 2 ...that compassion awakens...

57:10 Speaker 6 ...love. It’s detailed in...

57:13 Speaker 7 Which one—in the Zohar?

57:15 Speaker 2 No, I don’t know what you’re talking about right now. So here, in practice, each time we say, “Oh, now we’ve finished the Tanya. Now we’ve covered all the topics.”

57:30 Speaker 5 AVS Media damage.

57:31 Speaker 2 We discussed how to awaken intellectual love. We discussed what intellectual love is in the early chapters—chapters 17 and 16. Then we said that intellectual love is a little difficult, so let’s serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu with the hidden love. That was for someone whose capacity for understanding is limited, from chapter 18 through 25.

57:53 Speaker 5 AVS Media damage.

57:54 Speaker 2 We said, fine, but if a person isn’t joyful and doesn’t have clarity of mind, he won’t be able to overcome the yetzer. He won’t be able to draw on the hidden love either. So how do we awaken it? How can a person have vitality and enthusiasm, so that he can overcome the yetzer even when he faces all kinds of disturbances, obstacles, and delays? That’s chapters 26, 27, and 28.

58:16 Speaker 5 AVS Media damage.

58:17 Speaker 2 How do we overcome the various obstacles in the world, so that a person can be joyful—or at least emerge from sadness—and prevail? Then he’ll succeed in awakening the hidden love. Ah, but none of the advice helped him. He contemplates and contemplates, and he feels so down. That’s because he has a spiritual problem. He has

58:39 Speaker 5 AVS Media damage.

58:40 Speaker 2 dullness of the heart, dullness of the mind. He has spiritual problems; he’s a little unwell, his soul is a little unwell. So there are two chapters there, 29 and 30, about how to heal the soul through breaking down the body, through breaking down the soul. Ah, but that itself might make me sad. So chapter 31 says: Don’t worry, something like that will bring you to joy.

59:02 Speaker 5 AVS Media damage.

59:03 Speaker 2 Then there’s an aside, chapter 32: If you do what I just told you—make the body secondary and the soul primary—it will bring you to love of Hashem. Then he goes back to the subject of joy. How can that be? You spoke to me about bitterness; you spoke to me about joy. How can that work? What do you want from me? Do you want to make me

59:25 Speaker 5 AVS Media damage.

59:25 Speaker 2 a yo-yo and pull me between up and down? A beinoni can experience love and jo... bitterness and joy together. Chapter 34. So far, we’re done. Okay, so I can keep all the mitzvos. No, I can

59:48 Speaker 5 AVS Media damage.

59:49 Speaker 2 awaken my inner strengths to attain completeness in Torah and mitzvos, and I won’t commit transgressions. He says: Yes, but that’s not enough. The mitzvos themselves also need to be illuminated. Why do the mitzvos need to be illuminated with love and awe, with feeling? I was told to do them, so I do them. Thank you very much.

1:00:11 Speaker 5 AVS Media damage.

1:00:11 Speaker 2 Do I need to do something more in Tanya? No, no, no, no. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants the mitzvos to be... There are three chapters there. Why does Hakadosh Boruch Hu want the mitzvos—your service of Hashem—to be illuminated by Hashem’s light? Because that is the purpose of creation: Hakadosh Boruch Hu desired a dwelling for Himself in the lower realms. What do you want, a dirty dwelling? You have to clean it. Cleaning the dwelling means that keeping the mitzvos should include my own part—my enthusiasm, my joy, my love. So he explains its importance over three chapters. Fine, how do we do it? He begins with chapter 40 and continues through our chapter. How do we do it? We awaken love and awe. Fine, what are love and awe? Chapter 43 explains what lower love, ahavas olam, and ahavah rabbah are.

1:00:57 Speaker 8 AVS Media Demo

1:00:58 Speaker 2 Lower awe, awe... you have two chapters before you. So that is the beginning of the service; it happens at its root. Higher awe—there are several levels. So we’ve finished explaining how to illuminate the dwelling.

1:01:10 Speaker 9 So what now?

1:01:11 Speaker 2 So what now? The next chapter begins the main point. It’s all one subject.

1:01:20 Speaker 8 AVS Media Demo

1:01:22 Speaker 2 Chapters 46 through 49.

1:01:24 Speaker 9 Isn’t this about becoming a beinoni? I don’t understand what it is.

1:01:26 Speaker 2 It’s a beinoni in the plain sense: a Jew who doesn’t commit transgressions. That’s all.

1:01:33 Speaker 9 Right. So why, in chapter 46, is this the main point, or is it...?

1:01:37 Speaker 2 That’s where we get to what a beinoni’s service of Hashem is.

1:01:40 Speaker 9 Oh, okay.

1:01:42 Speaker 2 What is the main part of serving Hashem?

1:01:43 Speaker 8 AVS Media Demo

1:01:44 Speaker 9 ...a beinoni, and then you reach the main point. But you need the whole Tanya.

1:01:47 Speaker 2 Tanya doesn’t explain how to become a beinoni. That’s a common misconception. Tanya doesn’t explain it. There is nowhere in Tanya, not even a hint, about how to become a beinoni. It isn’t written in Tanya. Tanya speaks to a beinoni; it doesn’t explain how to become one. Where? Where is that written in Tanya? We haven’t seen any such thing.

1:02:06 Speaker 8 AVS Media Demo

1:02:07 Speaker 2 You are a beinoni. We are all beinonim. We started with this in the introduction to the first chapter, and we’ve said it I don’t know how many times—endlessly. A beinoni is an ordinary person. He’s a beinoni; he isn’t a tzaddik, he doesn’t have a special soul, and he isn’t looking all day to commit transgressions. He isn’t a rasha. He wants to serve Hashem. An ordinary person with ordinary abilities, an ordinary mind, ordinary feelings—like all of us—who wants to serve Hashem completely. How does he do that? That’s what Tanya is about. It’s an instruction manual. As Ofer Miyodovnik always tells the bochurim in yeshivah, Tanya is the instruction manual for a washing machine. This button

1:02:52 Speaker 8 AVS Media Demo

1:02:53 Speaker 2 is for one cycle; that’s another cycle. For this kind of laundry, you need to do this; for that kind, you need to do that. It’s an instruction manual. You’re not manufacturing the clothes here. You’re a beinoni. Chassidus regards every Jew as the beinoni of Tanya. That’s the ABCs; that’s where we begin. Every single one

1:03:15 Speaker 8 AVS Media Demo

1:03:16 Speaker 2 of us is a beinoni—and not a beinoni in the way people commonly use the word, but the beinoni of Tanya. Tanya shows how a beinoni should serve Hashem. And up to this point, we’ve... We’ll see it at the beginning of the next chapter; we’ll discuss it. Why? Why...

1:03:38 Speaker 8 AVS Media Demo

1:03:39 Speaker 2 Everything we’ve discussed until now isn’t really, fully relevant to everyone. But the love of Hashem discussed in the coming chapters—that, specifically, is the main thing, and it is relevant to everyone. And so you’ll see that with all the kinds of love and awe we’ve discussed until now, he was speaking to every...

1:04:01 Speaker 8 AVS Media Demo

1:04:02 Speaker 2 He devoted a line or two to each kind of love, right? Okay, that’s it—there wasn’t any point, any place, any kind of love that we discussed for more than a few lines. But the love of “as water reflects a face,” which begins in chapter 46—four whole chapters speak exclusively about that love.