Likkutei Amarim Chapter 46 · 5781

00:03 Speaker 1 Okay, so take, uh...

00:05 Speaker 2 What was—what does it say there?

00:12 Speaker 1 Where’s Chani [unclear] today?

00:14 Speaker 2 Oh, she went to a wedding.

00:16 Speaker 1 Oh, okay. Right.

00:18 Speaker 2 Downstairs.

00:22 Speaker 1 Okay, we’re up to chapter 46. At the last class, we finished by saying that the main part of Tanya begins with chapter 46. Remember we talked about that at the end of the class? Do you remember?

00:40 Speaker 2 We said something.

00:40 Speaker 1 Something like that.

00:43 Speaker 2 I don’t remember exactly.

00:45 Speaker 1 Why is this the main part of Tanya? Because until now, the Alter Rebbe explained why it’s so important to serve Hashem. What does serving Hashem mean? That a person serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu with the heart too, with feeling, not just through mechanical action. That his Torah and mitzvos should be illuminated, above all, by love of Hashem and fear of Hashem. At first he explained why that’s good: because for a person not to commit transgressions, he needs to have feeling. If he loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu and fears Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he won’t commit transgressions. So at first, throughout the first part of Tanya, the Alter Rebbe explained how to awaken love and fear so that they are sufficiently revealed in the heart to keep a person from committing transgressions and propel him to do mitzvos. Then, in the second part of Tanya, he said: That isn’t enough. Love and fear like that aren’t enough if all they do is ensure that a person keeps the mitzvos. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants His dwelling to be illuminated, for the mitzvos themselves to be illuminated, and for a person to fulfill the mitzvos with vitality, with enthusiasm. For that, hidden love isn’t enough. For that, the mitzvos and Torah have to be fulfilled together with feeling. So first he explained how tremendously important that is, and then he also explained how to do it. How do you do it? First he explained: The beginning of the service, its foundation and its root, is to awaken yirah tata’ah, the lower level of fear. And once a person has kabbolas ol, and more than that, even yirah tata’ah—fear of sin, fear of G-d—he can begin serving Hashem and can begin to contemplate. Good evening. We’ve only just started.

02:50 Speaker 2 Just started.

02:51 Speaker 1 And after... We haven’t started yet. This began in chapter 42: At the beginning, a person has to awaken yirah tata’ah within himself. Then, once he has fear of Hashem—fear of sin or fear of G-d, at the levels of smallness or greatness, in the various forms he explained—he can begin serving Hashem with love of Hashem. Then he explained that there are several levels: two levels of fear and two levels of love. After that, he explained how one can reach love. There are two approaches that make it very easy for anyone to reach love, by contemplating that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is our Father and our life. These are approaches that are easier even for someone who doesn’t have such a great intellect or such strong feelings. Those two kinds of love are easier to reach; even someone who finds it difficult can reach them. Then, in chapter 45, he added that even someone who finds it difficult to awaken those kinds of love can still make use of the attribute of compassion, by having compassion for the spark of G-dliness in his soul. First of all, compassion itself is also a feeling that becomes invested in the mitzvos. And second, when a person has compassion for the spark of G-dliness in his soul, he will naturally also come to love Hashem and to keep the mitzvos. So in effect, by the end of the previous chapter, he had explained how a person can serve Hashem: first, how to keep the mitzvos and not commit transgressions, and then how to fulfill them with love, fear, and compassion. So why can’t we finish Tanya there? What happens now? Look at chapter 46. Chapter 46 talks about love of Hashem again—another kind of love of Hashem, a love he calls “as water reflects a face.” So...

04:57 Speaker 1 At least when I learned this chapter—not just the first time, but even the twentieth time—I had the same question every time. He’s already talked about love of Hashem. He’s talked about all the kinds of love of Hashem: how they’re possible, how to reach them, and how to do it. He finished with love of Hashem and started talking about another approach, the attribute of compassion. Why go back to love of Hashem again? If there’s another kind of love of Hashem you want to discuss, you’re already discussing love of Hashem. Talk about it then; put it all together. Why... No? This question never occurred to you?

05:32 Speaker 6 No, we didn’t exactly have the sequence.

05:35 Speaker 1 So—

05:36 Speaker 6 No, we only got the sequence just now.

05:37 Speaker 1 For me, it’s been a question since the first time I learned Tanya. It bothered me every time. Until a few years ago, when I opened Rabbi Weinberg’s book of explanations on Tanya. There are notes printed around the text. It turns out I wasn’t the only one who had this question. When Rabbi Weinberg gave his classes on the radio in the United States, he had the same question. He asked the Rebbe, and the Rebbe answered him. So here, the entire first page simply explains the question, quotes what the Rebbe answered him, and explains the Rebbe’s answer. Without that explanation, you really can’t understand what chapters 46 through 49 are doing here. Without it, they don’t make sense at all. He’s already finished discussing everything. What is he doing here now? What are we doing here now? The Rebbe says that the central point of the explanation is simple, profound, and wonderful. Until now, the discussion was about how everyone can serve Hashem—even someone with this difficulty, even someone with that difficulty, even, even, even. Even the lowest of the low: everyone can. But the point was “even.” From here on, it becomes “specifically,” not “even.” Specifically a simple person; specifically a person who has no ability to contemplate G-dliness. The further a person is from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the easier it is for him to serve Hashem. It’s the exact opposite of everything we’ve had until now. Until now it was “even”; from here on it’s “specifically.” And because the kind of love discussed here is specifically for those who truly cannot manage it any other way—or at least feel that they cannot, and that’s most people—the Alter Rebbe devotes four whole chapters to this love. The analogy and what it represents, what I meant by the analogy and what it represents, and how to apply it in actual practice.

07:57 Speaker 1 More and more, all the way to the end. We’ll see in the text that this really touches on the most basic simplicity. You don’t need any contemplation or any extraordinary ideas. So let’s look inside. Chapter 46: “There is a direct path for a person, equally accessible to every soul.” This is no longer “even”; it’s equally accessible to everyone. “And the matter is very, very close.” Until now we had “close in your mouth and in your heart”—very close. We haven’t had “very, very close” yet. That’s something new. “To awaken and illuminate the light of love.” What love? The love that is “very, very close to everyone, equally accessible to every soul,” the love “embedded and hidden in his heart.” And what is he to do with it? “Make it shine.” Not merely shine, but make the love of Hashem shine with the full force of its light. What does that mean? “Like a blazing fire.” Not a fire blazing somewhere deep inside. “Revealed in his heart and mind, to the point that he will give over”—in such a way that he gives over his soul to Hashem. And not just his soul, but his body and all that he has. Not some part of his body, possessions, and soul, but with all his heart and all his soul, and to a very great degree. It won’t be something superficial, but from the depths of his heart, with absolute sincerity. These are words—there are no words like these. Not in Tanya, not in Chassidus, not anywhere else. And here the Rebbe is saying this is accessible to every soul: men, women, children, tzaddikim, people who have committed transgressions. Accessible to every soul. “And very, very close. Especially at the time of reciting Shema and its blessings, as will be explained in the second chapter”—in the next chapter. “And it is...” So what is this love? “When a person takes to heart what the verse says: ‘As water reflects a face, so one person’s heart reflects another’s.’ That is, the likeness and shape of the face a person shows the water is the very same shape he sees there in the water.” A person smiles at the water, and the water smiles back. There’s an explanation from the chassidim. It’s...

10:36 Speaker 1 It isn’t necessary for understanding the chapter, but it’s a lovely point. It’s very beautiful, very moving. Why did the Alter Rebbe choose water here? Usually you look in a mirror, not in water. When someone wants to see himself, he doesn’t go to a river. He looks in a mirror. Mirrors have always existed, too. Why doesn’t he use a mirror as the example here?

10:56 Speaker 7 Mirrors weren’t something new?

10:58 Speaker 1 No, no, no. Even glass mirrors already existed in Italy hundreds of years ago. They had them in China too.

11:06 Speaker 7 I know.

11:07 Speaker 1 Thousands of years ago, they surely had mirrors made of copper, and surely of silver too. Besides, water moves; it ripples. Try finding water that stays perfectly still. In short, why look into water and not a mirror? The chassidim explain: When you look in a mirror, you stand upright; when you look into water, you have to bend down. A little bit of bittul. But that isn’t needed to understand the chapter. It’s just an aside. All right. So: “When a person’s heart is faithful in its love for another, that love awakens love for him in the other person’s heart as well.” This is something everyone encounters day to day. If I smile at someone—even a person on the street whom I don’t know—he’ll smile back. You can try it. I’ve done it more than once. It works. You say “Shalom aleichem” to someone, and he returns your greeting with a smile, or in his own way. That’s human nature. He won’t respond with a scowl. And especially when someone sees that his friend loves him, he certainly returns that love. The Alter Rebbe continues: “And this is natural.” Nature isn’t dependent on intellect. That’s simply how it works. Just as an object falls onto the table when you drop it, when you smile at someone, he smiles back. That’s how the world was created. You don’t have to contemplate it. It isn’t dependent on intellect or on anything else. It’s cause and effect. “This is the nature common to every person,” even if the two are equal in standing: one smiles, and his friend smiles back. How much more so if “a great and mighty king shows his great and immense love to a common, despised man, the lowest of men, filthy and lying in a rubbish heap.”

13:14 Speaker 1 So when a king shows me his love, that’s far more than when an ordinary person does. If the mayor smiles at me, that’s already something special. But a king could be—It says that in Avraham Avinu’s time, four kings fought against five. You know the story, right? How many people did each of those kings rule? They were all here in this land: four fought five, and the story mentions another six or eight kings involved in the surrounding conflict who weren’t part of that battle. At least fourteen or fifteen kings are mentioned there. They all lived here in this land. How many people did each king have? Remember, this was in Avraham Avinu’s time. Avraham Avinu was only the tenth generation from Noach, right? Ten generations from Noach to Avraham. How many years had passed? If you do the calculation, it’s about 350 years. From when Noach left the ark until the war of the kings was around 350 years, a little less. How many people were born in the world over 350 years?

14:33 Speaker 8 A lot.

14:34 Speaker 1 A great many. A thousand? Five thousand?

14:37 Speaker 8 A bit more.

14:38 Speaker 1 Ten thousand?

14:39 Speaker 8 More than that. Hundreds of thousands.

14:42 Speaker 9 How could that be?

14:43 Speaker 8 No, no.

14:43 Speaker 9 How many people? Why do you think so?

14:46 Speaker 8 A great many.

14:47 Speaker 9 Three hundred and fifty years.

14:49 Speaker 8 If you consider that all that time they—

14:55 Speaker 1 Well, they didn’t yet have today’s medicine, but in any case, there weren’t—How many kings, how many people? A king could have a few families, a court; they build a house, put a fence around it, and he’s a king. So there are—

15:09 Speaker 8 Wow.

15:10 Speaker 1 Huh?

15:10 Speaker 8 Wow.

15:15 Speaker 1 There’s that kind of king. There’s a king who is powerful. A king might be a weakling, or he might be a truly great king. And then there’s a king who is not only great but also mighty. So what happens if someone who isn’t just a king, but a king who is both great and mighty, shows his love to a simple person? And what sort of simple person? Someone who is also—

15:39 Speaker 8 Wait, how many people were there?

15:41 Speaker 1 Where?

15:42 Speaker 8 In the war?

15:43 Speaker 1 I don’t know. Not too many. It doesn’t say, but you can estimate; there weren’t millions. In any case, suppose a great and mighty king shows his immense love to a man who is common, despised, the lowest of men, filthy and lying in a rubbish heap. How does he show him his love? The king descends to him from his place of honor, comes down with all his ministers, raises him up from the rubbish heap, and brings him into his palace—from room to room, into a place no servant or minister is permitted to enter—and is alone with him there. What does he do when they’re alone? He doesn’t just bring him into a room and study Tanya with him. There is genuine closeness and intimacy, embracing and kissing, a joining of spirit with spirit—spiritual and physical closeness, with all his heart and soul. In other words, the king shows him that he truly loves him. So if it’s human nature that merely smiling at someone brings an immediate smile in return, how much more so, when a great and mighty king shows his love in this way to a person like that, an immeasurably greater love will naturally awaken in the heart of this lowly man for the king, a true bond of soul to soul, with all his heart and soul, from the depths of his heart. Far more than when one ordinary person shows love to a friend. It’s obvious. That lowly man doesn’t need to contemplate the fact that the king—he doesn’t need to contemplate it. Yes. “Even if his heart is like a heart of stone, it will melt and become water, and his soul will pour out like water, with an actual yearning of the soul for love of the king.” That’s the whole parable. And the lesson: Everything described here, and infinitely more—immeasurably more—our G-d has done for us. For the greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not like the greatness of that great and mighty king: His greatness is beyond fathoming. However great

18:06 Speaker 1 and mighty a king may be, there are other kings besides him, and in the end he is only flesh and blood. He is here today and elsewhere tomorrow. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the King of kings of kings, and His greatness is beyond fathoming. He fills all worlds and encompasses all worlds. And as is known from the holy Zohar and the Arizal, there are countless chambers and worlds. In each of those countless worlds and chambers are myriads upon myriads of angels, without end or limit. As the Gemara says, one verse states, “Is there any number to His troops?” What do we understand from that verse? That His troops are beyond number. The verse asks, “Is there any number to His troops?” It’s phrased as a question. In other words, it’s—

19:02 Speaker 10 A rhetorical question.

19:02 Speaker 1 A rhetorical question. Yes, exactly: His troops are beyond number. But the Gemara continues that another verse states, “A thousand thousands minister to Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before Him.” Another verse says that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is served by thousands upon thousands and myriads upon myriads of angels. That is a great many, but it isn’t beyond number. One verse says there is no number, and another gives a number. So what’s the answer? The Gemara answers: “A thousand thousands,” and so on, is the number in one troop, but His troops themselves are beyond number. A simple answer. And before Him, all of them are considered truly nothing, utterly nullified, like the nullification of a single spoken word in relation to the essence of the soul that speaks it—while that word was still in the soul’s thought, or in its will, or in the heart’s intention, as we learned at length in chapter 21. What does it mean that the greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is beyond fathoming? His greatness—He is king over the countless angels in each troop, and His troops are beyond number. He reigns over them all. So first of all, His dominion is incomparably greater than that of any other king. And not only that: His power, too, is incomparably greater than any other king’s, because all kings exist only from Him, and without Him they have no existence at all. So Hakadosh Boruch Hu is infinitely and incomparably greater than any king we can know, and His dominion is greater than that of any king we can know. And all the kings, the infinite hosts of angels, ask, “Where is the place of His glory?” What do they answer one another? “The whole earth is full of His glory.” Who is His glory? Where is His glory, I mean? What is the glory of Hakadosh Boruch Hu? His glory is His people Israel. What does that mean? The angels ask one another, “Where is Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Where

21:24 Speaker 1 is the King?” He is on earth. Where on earth? Yes, that’s where His glory is found. His glory is on earth. That is His glory. Who is His glory? His glory is Israel. How so? Hakadosh Boruch Hu is on earth—that I understand. But what does it mean that His glory is His people? Is the question clear? Yes? So he explains.

21:53 Speaker 11 So there’s a distinction between Him and His glory?

21:56 Speaker 1 Certainly. It isn’t His Essence and Being.

21:58 Speaker 11 So it isn’t saying that He Himself is on earth, but that His glory is, meaning the Jewish people.

22:02 Speaker 1 Yes.

22:05 Speaker 12 Then how is the whole earth full of it, if it means the Jewish people?

22:10 Speaker 1 His glory is on earth. Who is His glory that is on earth? His people, the Jewish people.

22:15 Speaker 12 It says “the whole earth,” not just “on earth.”

22:18 Speaker 1 “The whole earth is full of His glory.” Those who are on earth are His glory: His people Israel. That’s the wording. He immediately explains why Israel are called His glory.

22:28 Speaker 11 She’s asking why it specifically says “the whole earth.”

22:31 Speaker 12 We’re not throughout the whole land.

22:34 Speaker 1 I don’t know how to say that precisely. They’re in the land. Why are the Jewish people called the glory of Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Because Hakadosh Boruch Hu passed over the upper and lower realms and chose none of them, only His people Israel. And He brought them out of Egypt, the nakedness of the land, a place of filth and impurity. It’s like the king who took the—who took the man out of the garbage heap. And He brought them out, brought us out, not through an angel and not through a messenger. Not through some angel, meaning someone from the worlds of Beriah, Yetzirah, or Asiyah, and not through a messenger, not even through something from Atzilus. Rather, Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself, in His glory, descended there, to Egypt, the nakedness of the land. As it says, “And I descended to rescue him,” and so on, in order to draw them close to Him. And how did Hakadosh Boruch Hu draw the Jewish people close to Him? With true closeness and union, an actual bond of the soul, like kisses mouth to mouth: speaking the word of Hashem, which is halachah. So first there’s the connection of a kiss, which is with the mouth. Speaking the word of Hashem is halachah, and the joining of spirit with spirit is grasping the Torah and knowing His will and wisdom, which are all one. Truly all one. You remember, we learned that a kiss has its physical side, and that the breath of the two people who love each other mingles. So when a Jew learns halachah, speaking words of Torah is the kiss, while understanding the Torah is the union. A kiss is union with Hakadosh Boruch Hu both physically and spiritually, both in body and in spirit. And not only with the mouth, but with the body too, in the form of an embrace. After all, a kiss, though it brings you very, very close, is only at the head; there is also a connection with the body. The embrace is the performance of practical mitzvos with the 248 limbs, for the 248 positive commandments are the 248 limbs of the King, as mentioned earlier. We explained that once; we won’t go over it

24:59 Speaker 1 now. And generally speaking, the 613 mitzvos divide into three categories: there are mitzvos more associated with the right side, the line of chessed; mitzvos associated with the left side; and mitzvos that fall along the middle line, of kindness and compassion. Kindness and compassion are the two arms and the body. When someone embraces a friend, he embraces him with both hands and draws him close to his body, right? So the mitzvos have three aspects: right, left, and body. It is as though Hakadosh Boruch Hu embraces us with both His arms and draws us close to His body. It follows that through Torah and mitzvos, Hakadosh Boruch Hu descends to us in Egypt, the nakedness of the land. By giving us the Torah and mitzvos, He also kisses us, with both a physical and a spiritual kiss, truly unites with us, and draws us close to His body. This is just like the king who descended to the nakedness of the land and draws the man close, embracing and kissing him. And this is what is meant by “Who has sanctified us with His mitzvos.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu sanctified us through the mitzvos. You might think we should say, “Thank You, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, for giving us holy mitzvos.” That’s what it should say. What does it mean that He “sanctified us with His mitzvos”? I become holy? I perform mitzvos that are holy. What does that mean? Why do I become holy by performing a mitzvah? Why does it say that He sanctified us with His mitzvos? It is like a man who betroths a woman so that she will be exclusively united with him in complete union. Just as a man betroths a woman and is then together with her, embracing and kissing her in complete union, so through Torah and mitzvos we become the wife of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, united with Him completely. As it says, “And he shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Through Torah and mitzvos, we become one flesh with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That means we become

27:10 Speaker 1 holy like Him. “Who has sanctified us with His mitzvos.” Just a moment, okay. “Who has sanctified us with His mitzvos”—through Torah and mitzvos we become holy like Him. So when the angels ask, “Where is the place of His glory?” the answer is, “The whole earth is full of His glory.” For in the higher worlds, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not revealed. But when a Jew down here learns Torah and performs mitzvos and unites with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he isn’t just performing Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s mitzvos; he becomes one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are one. So they ask, “Where is Hakadosh Boruch Hu?” Here, this Jew—this is Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And the angels say this about every single Jew. Literally. And beyond that—not just beyond that, but infinitely beyond that—is the union of the divine soul engaged in Torah and mitzvos, the vital soul, and their garments mentioned above with the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He. When a Jew performs mitzvos, Torah and mitzvos, then his divine soul, his animal soul, and their garments—his body—become truly one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, through the union of an embrace and a kiss. Now, when a person thinks about this, he doesn’t need to contemplate who the great Hakadosh Boruch Hu is or how He gives life to the worlds. A person doesn’t need to imagine anything. He only needs to take to heart, to remember, that Hakadosh Boruch Hu brought us out of Egypt, the nakedness of the land—where we were, and how high Hakadosh Boruch Hu raised us through Torah and mitzvos—so that his soul will pour itself out. He just needs to think about it. He just needs to remember it. It isn’t even a matter of contemplation. He goes on to say that this is why Shlomo, peace be upon him, likened this union in Shir Hashirim to the union of a groom and bride, who cling to one another with attachment, desire, and longing, embracing and kissing. I don’t know exactly what “desire” means here, but

29:38 Speaker 1 attachment and longing are two spiritual levels. When you glue one thing to another, they’re stuck together. But they’re still two things joined with glue, right? With a cheifetz, an object, there’s only one object; there are no longer two. So cheifetz is more inward than attachment and embracing and kissing. Again, we see that an embrace is with the body and a kiss is with the head. So Hakadosh Boruch Hu—so King Shlomo likened in Shir Hashirim a Jew’s union with Hakadosh Boruch Hu through observing Torah and mitzvos to an embrace and a kiss. Thank you very much.

30:23 Speaker 13 Cover it.

30:26 Speaker 1 And this is what is meant by “Who has sanctified us with His mitzvos.” Now we can understand what it means: not “Who has given us holy mitzvos,” but “Who has sanctified us with His mitzvos,” raising us to the level of supreme holiness, which is the holiness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself, in His glory. Look at the words: through Torah and mitzvos, Hakadosh Boruch Hu embraced and kissed us and raised us to the level of supreme holiness, which is the holiness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself, in His glory. Every Jew who learns Torah and observes mitzvos becomes sanctified with the holiness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself, in His glory. And holiness means being set apart. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is set apart from the worlds; this is the level of sovev kol almin, encompassing all worlds, which cannot be enclothed within them. That’s the particular point. In the analogy, Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings us into an innermost chamber, a place where none of the ministering angels can minister—uh, enter. For through the soul’s union with and inclusion in the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, it attains the level and degree of the holiness of Ein Sof, blessed be He, itself, since it unites with and is included in Him, blessed be He, and they become truly one. And this is what is meant by “You shall be holy to Me, for I am holy.” Because I am holy, you will be holy. What does it mean that because I am holy, you will be holy? Because I give you Myself. Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives us the Torah, which is His wisdom, and gives us the mitzvos, which are His will. And when we learn Torah and unite with His wisdom, and perform mitzvos and unite with His will, then, just as He is holy, we too are holy.

32:13 Speaker 13 Right, like Me.

32:15 Speaker 1 Yes. “And I have separated you from the peoples to be Mine,” and it says, “And you shall do all My mitzvos and be holy to your G-d.” Do all My mitzvos and be holy to your G-d. “I am Hashem your G-d,” and so on. Meaning that through fulfilling mitzvos, I become your G-d, like the G-d of Avraham, the G-d of Yitzchak, and so on. Now, if we’re talking about what a person feels—how much he feels Hakadosh Boruch Hu—he might not feel anything. To feel the Divine holiness, you really have to be Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, or Moshe Rabbeinu, or the Rebbe. But the thing itself happens even if you don’t feel it. Just as with Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, who are called that because the Patriarchs were a vehicle for Him, may He be blessed, nullified and absorbed in His light, so it is with every Jewish soul while engaged in Torah and mitzvos. Every Jew, while engaged in Torah and mitzvos, is exactly like Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, with no difference whatsoever. Like the greatest tzaddikim. There’s no difference. He unites with Hakadosh Boruch Hu in exactly the same holiness, no more and no less. It’s the same thing. That is why our Sages required us to rise and stand before anyone engaged in a mitzvah, even if he is ignorant and unlearned. Because if there were a difference with the mitzvos of an ordinary person—after all, he doesn’t feel it. He doesn’t understand it at all. What does he even know? He’s fulfilling the mitzvah. So why should I stand before him? A tzaddik is fulfilling a mitzvah now—I understand why I should stand. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is being revealed here. But an ordinary person? Why should I stand before him? But no: our Sages instituted it, and it was established as halachah, that you must stand before anyone fulfilling a mitzvah. Why? Because anyone fulfilling a mitzvah is exactly like a tzaddik. There is no difference.

34:23 Speaker 13 Why did he explain earlier that with love and awe it reaches the World of Beriah, and without them it reaches—

34:30 Speaker 1 We’ll get to that in a moment, in the next few lines.

34:36 Speaker 13 Okay.

34:37 Speaker 1 That is, in the next section. And that’s an obvious question. “This is because Hashem dwells and is clothed in his soul at that moment. It is only that his soul does not sense it.” He doesn’t feel it. Why? “Because of the screen of physical matter, which has not been refined.” His physicality darkens the eyes of his soul so that it cannot see visions of G-d, as the Patriarchs and others like them did, who saw their world during their lifetime. So I don’t see it, but the fact that I don’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. It’s the same thing. No, actually, he doesn’t answer your question here; he was only explaining this. That isn’t the point. The point is different from what we were discussing. What it says there, as we saw in chapters 39 and 40, is that through a person’s intention, his love and awe, the Torah and mitzvos ascend to the higher worlds and unite with the inner dimension of those worlds. What is that discussing? Ascent. Here we’re discussing drawing down. As for Hakadosh Boruch Hu being drawn down below, that always happens. A person fulfills a mitzvah; it doesn’t matter whether he understood it or not. Even if he did it under duress, he fulfilled the mitzvah. That’s it. Divine light is drawn into the world. But how did that Divine light affect the world? If he fulfilled it with inner feeling, then the Torah and mitzvos—the physical things in this world with which he fulfilled the Torah and mitzvos—are elevated to the higher worlds. If not, they remain below. In other words, there’s a fundamental difference: are we talking about ascent, raising something up, or drawing something down? Raising it up depends on feeling. You felt something, you were moved, your feeling rose upward and took the Torah and mitzvos along with it, together with the physical things you used to fulfill them. But as for drawing down from above, you fulfilled it. What did you fulfill? You fulfilled Hashem’s will. Hashem’s will is here now. Right. That’s it. There’s no difference here between

36:58 Speaker 1 from above to below and from below to above. “And this is what Asaf said with ruach hakodesh on behalf of all the Jewish people in Tehillim, on behalf of all the Jewish people in exile: ‘I was brutish and knew nothing; I was like a beast with You.’” From here until the end of the chapter, the Alter Rebbe emphasizes the point he began discussing: even when a person does not feel it, Divine holiness takes effect in his soul. This is what Asaf said with ruach hakodesh on behalf of all the Jewish people in exile. Even a Jew in exile—there is no Beis Hamikdash, no prophets, no revelation of G-dliness; we don’t see or feel it, there are no miracles. “I was brutish and knew nothing.” I have no knowledge or feeling of G-dliness. Nevertheless, “I was like a beast with You.” I am with You like an animal. Just as an animal doesn’t know, doesn’t have understanding, so I too lack understanding. I don’t know You, but nevertheless, “I am always with You.” With You. Even a Jew who doesn’t feel anything is together with Hakadosh Boruch Hu when he fulfills mitzvos. That is, “Although I am like a beast when I am with You...” Why do we always use the expression “beast”? It comes from the Gemara. It says that when an animal walks and tramples something—if it’s walking along its usual path and there are earthenware vessels there, it breaks them as it walks, or if there is a child and it steps on the child and kills him—we don’t blame the animal. It has no understanding. It walks; it doesn’t understand the difference. It has no understanding. You can’t blame it. So there can be a Jew who fulfills mitzvos and is like an animal. He has no understanding, he doesn’t feel anything, he isn’t aware of the whole matter at all. And although he is like an animal, “I am always with You.” That doesn’t change

39:21 Speaker 1 the reality. It doesn’t contradict the situation. “Although I am like a beast when I am with You”—I’m learning now, observing and fulfilling mitzvos, and learning Torah. There is the attachment of spirit to spirit, the kiss and the embrace, all of it. “Yet I do not know or sense in my soul this union, so that awe and fear should first fall upon it, and afterward great love with delight.” Do you remember in chapter 3, when he spoke about the levels of love and awe? There is lower awe and worldly love. Those are the first two levels. Lower awe: a person contemplates that he stands before the King, Who sees and examines his innermost thoughts and heart, or he considers how Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives life to all the worlds, and that brings him to awe. Then, when he considers the great wonder—that Hakadosh Boruch Hu creates something from nothing and gives life to all the worlds, that He has countless hosts, and so on—it brings him to love of Hashem. That is lower awe and lower love. When a person works on himself and attains those two levels of lower awe and love, higher awe and great love with delight are then revealed to him from above. Higher awe is already a sense of shame. He feels Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so he is ashamed to commit sins. Love with delight comes afterward as a gift from above. As for higher awe, he says there in chapter—chapter 43—that it can be reached through contemplation. He contemplates, thinks, internalizes it, pictures the greatness of Hashem. Eventually he can feel the G-dliness, and then a sense of shame, higher awe, falls upon him. That can be reached through contemplation. But great love with delight cannot be reached through contemplation. It’s impossible. It isn’t within human power. It comes as a gift. When a person labors and labors and labors in awe, sometimes he is given, as a gift from above, the love that comes after awe. And the Radak says even more there: that if a person truly

41:37 Speaker 1 If a person has yirah ila’ah, a great love of delight will necessarily follow. Why? Because it is the way of a man to pursue a woman. That was the wording there. If there is yirah ila’ah, it draws after it—a person cannot reach a great love on their own, but yirah ila’ah draws after it love of delight. That is the loftiest level. There are several levels here, but we won’t discuss them now. So that is what he mentions here too: I am like a beast; I do not know or feel this unity in my soul, and so awe and fear do not first fall upon me. Certainly, then, I do not afterward attain a great love of delight, or even a love like flames of fire, because I am not like the tzaddikim. The tzaddikim have refined their physical nature, and, as is known, daas means an inner sense of something, and it encompasses chesed and gevurah. Because the tzaddikim have refined their physical nature, their daas and their inner sense of G-dliness lead them to feel it, yearn for it, pour out their souls, and feel reverential shame. They have that, but I am like a beast. I have no daas, and I do not feel all this—I do not feel G-dliness in my soul. Nevertheless, “I am always with You,” because the physical body does not prevent the soul from uniting with the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He. My body’s physical nature only prevents me from feeling it; it does not prevent my soul and body from uniting with G-dliness. I perform mitzvos and study Torah. Hakadosh Boruch Hu descends into the world and unites with my soul, my neshamah, my animal soul, and my body. The body’s physical nature does not prevent the soul from uniting with the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, which fills all worlds. As it says, “Even darkness does not obscure anything from You.” This explains the severity of the punishment for the prohibition against doing work on Shabbos, and for chametz on Pesach, which applies equally to everyone. Because

44:02 Speaker 1 At first glance, how can you impose a blanket prohibition on everyone? When someone is brought to court and accused of an offense, there are mitigating circumstances. That is a real thing, mitigating circumstances, right? “I didn’t mean to. I didn’t know. I had no strength. I was tired. I’m old, I’m sick. No one told me.” People tell their stories. The situation isn’t—and naturally, the judge takes that into account too. If two people committed the same offense, do you give them both the same punishment? No, because each person’s situation is different. So if one person understands the seriousness of Shabbos and the other does not, and both desecrated Shabbos in exactly the same way, why give them the same punishment? You should hold the one who understands more accountable, and the one who does not understand less accountable. Why give them the same punishment? Because in truth there is no difference. That is what we just learned. When a person performs a mitzvah, it makes no difference whether he is a tzaddik or a wicked person. And when he commits a transgression, it makes no difference whether he is a tzaddik or a wicked person. It is exactly the same: the same Hakadosh Boruch Hu and the same desecration of Hashem’s name.

45:17 Speaker 3 It matters that he isn’t a tzaddik.

45:18 Speaker 1 What?

45:19 Speaker 3 Even if he isn’t a tzaddik. But all those who were raised without a Jewish education—they’re Jews, Jews.

45:27 Speaker 1 So that doesn’t change the reality.

45:28 Speaker 3 Still, when someone commits a transgression, it is a Jew who is committing it.

45:38 Speaker 1 As for someone who falls under the category of a child raised without a Jewish education, the Rambam writes in Hilchos Mamrim that he is exempt from all the mitzvos. Even if he has seen Jews and their religion—even if, as he grew up, he saw Jews and their religion—he is still exempt from all the mitzvos, because he was raised in the ways of... I don’t remember the exact wording there anymore. Given the upbringing he received, even when people explain it to him, deep down he is accustomed to thinking that he is not obligated to keep mitzvos.

46:10 Speaker 3 And even if he was educated.

46:12 Speaker 1 Hmm?

46:12 Speaker 3 What if he was educated and then, as it were, decided that he...

46:16 Speaker 1 I can’t answer the particulars of that right now, but certainly, when it comes to a person who does keep mitzvos, there is no difference. You know what? More than that—I’m thinking about it now, also because of what you asked. The prohibition against doing work on Shabbos applies to him. There is no difference between a religious person and a nonreligious person. Is a person who drives a car on Shabbos permitted to do so? No, it is forbidden. There is no difference in the prohibition.

46:58 Speaker 3 It doesn’t matter whether he’s religious or not.

47:00 Speaker 1 It doesn’t matter. The prohibition applies equally. “For even in the soul of an ignorant person, a complete am ha’aretz, the light of the holiness of Shabbos and Yom Tov shines, and his soul is subject to kareis and stoning for desecrating this holiness.” So those were two examples from Torah law. Then the Alter Rebbe adds two examples from rabbinic law. There is also the matter of chametz: the Torah prohibited chametz on Pesach, but the Sages added a prohibition against even the smallest amount of chametz, not only the minimum quantity prohibited by the Torah. Or moving muktzeh, which is also prohibited by rabbinic law. Moving muktzeh on Shabbos damages the holiness upon his soul, just as it damages the holiness of a tzaddik’s soul. In other words, when the Sages instituted rabbinic decrees, they modeled them on Torah law. Just as, in matters of Torah law, performing a mitzvah or committing a transgression has the same effect on everyone’s soul and body, so it is with matters of rabbinic law, because there is one Torah for everyone. The Rebbe adds—in parentheses, square brackets. This is the end of the chapter. There is a detail in the wording that sheds a little more light on the matter. He means that the verse uses “beasts” in the plural. The whole verse is in the singular: “I was foolish and did not know.” Right? “Beasts” is plural. Then it continues, “I was with You.” The entire verse is in the singular. The only plural word in the verse is “beasts.” Why does it say “beasts” in the plural? To hint that before Him, blessed be He, even the level of supernal daas, which encompasses chesed and gevurah, is considered like beasts and physical action in relation to the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He. As it says, “You made them all with wisdom.” It isn’t merely that a tzaddik and an ordinary person are judged by the same standard because the G-dly light shines equally in both. It goes much further than that. Just as you are like a beast and do not feel it, you should know that even the loftiest tzaddik, in whom the supernal daas of Atzilus shines, is also like a beast. He too does not feel the G-dly light. The essence of G-dliness, the essence of G-dliness—

49:35 Speaker 1 No one has access to that. All anyone feels is the revelation that descends below—the light, the radiance, the glory that descends to be revealed in the worlds. No one feels the essence of G-dliness. So what difference does it make that you feel—

49:49 Speaker 4 Not even the Rebbe?

49:50 Speaker 1 Hmm?

49:51 Speaker 4 Not even the Rebbe?

49:52 Speaker 1 The essence of G-dliness cannot be felt. Reb David Kertz[?], a"h, told me that when he was in the group that came in 5728, the Rebbe delivered a maamar—I no longer remember which maamar it was—about the revelation that will take place in the future. The Rebbe described one level, and then another, and then another. David told me that in the maamar, the Rebbe described level after level, and... that was it. That was where it ended. David told me that afterward this really bothered him. What about Atzmus? What about the revelation of Atzmus? It happened that his birthday fell around that time, and back then, the practice was for a bochur to go into yechidus. A bochur who came with the group would go into yechidus with the Rebbe once, on his birthday—perhaps also when he traveled, or when he left—once a year. The bochurim went into yechidus with the Rebbe on their birthdays. Around that time, he went into yechidus with the Rebbe, and he simply asked the Rebbe about the maamar: What about Atzmus? He told me that the Rebbe paused briefly and did not answer right away. Then the Rebbe gave a sort of sigh and moved on.

51:18 Speaker 4 What does that mean?

51:19 Speaker 1 Huh?

51:20 Speaker 4 What do you mean, “paused”?

51:22 Speaker 1 The revelation of Atzmus is the revelation of Atzmus. There is no Atzmus. And more.

51:34 Speaker 4 The Geulah.

51:35 Speaker 1 Huh?

51:35 Speaker 4 In the Geulah, Atzmus will be revealed.

51:39 Speaker 1 So we’re talking about levels within Atzmus.

51:42 Speaker 4 Are there levels within Atzmus?

51:43 Speaker 1 Huh?

51:44 Speaker 4 How can there be levels within Atzmus?

51:45 Speaker 1 That’s a good question. Everything that is explained—this level and that level and another level, and even, even beyond those... But look, you can see in all the maamarim that discuss these subjects: they always go only so far. They never reach the essence itself. It isn’t possible.

52:08 Speaker 4 But the light of the essence of the lower daas—why isn’t that possible?

52:10 Speaker 1 Yes.

52:11 Speaker 4 [unclear]

52:17 Speaker 1 Atzmus itself, literally. On the one hand, it is present everywhere openly, but it cannot be felt. Why? I don’t know enough to explain it, but that is how it is understood in many places.

52:37 Speaker 4 Where? Where?

52:39 Speaker 1 I can’t tell you where at the moment, but this is not a new idea.

52:44 Speaker 4 It also says in many places that Atzmus itself will be revealed.

52:46 Speaker 1 But not Atzmus itself, literally.

52:48 Speaker 4 No, Atzmus itself, literally.

52:53 Speaker 1 Just as it is with the soul. Yes, there are the inner faculties, and then there is the essence itself. What is the essence of the soul? The will. Yes, but there is the will that is the essence of the soul. There is the outer aspect of the will and the inner aspect of the will. The inner aspect of the will is the level of pleasure. So that’s it—that’s pleasure. Yes, but there is pleasure that depends on something else, and there is simple pleasure. Does he take pleasure in something, or does he take pleasure in himself? Beyond that, that’s it. He already takes pleasure in himself. That is his very self. Right, but he is still taking pleasure. We already call that pleasure. It’s no longer... There’s a story about one of the Alter Rebbe’s chassidim—I don’t remember who it was—who could enumerate and explain thirty-six levels in the Ohr Ein Sof before the tzimtzum.

53:59 Speaker 4 That just shows that it’s possible to speak about it.

54:02 Speaker 1 Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe, by Whose word everything came to be.

54:05 Speaker 4 Thirty-six.

54:10 Speaker 1 Don’t ask me where that story is. I didn’t make it up. Probably in the book of the Alter Rebbe’s history. I went through it thoroughly a few times, but that was many years ago. It has interesting stories. All right, so this is what he says: Don’t despair because you’re like an animal and don’t feel anything. Even the completely righteous person, in whom the higher daas of Atzilus shines, doesn’t feel it either. He, too, is an animal. So what? You’re an animal in the plain sense, and he is a great animal. Fine. As it says, “You made them all with wisdom.” The higher daas of Atzilus is not merely like an animal. After all, even of the chochmah of Atzilus it says, “You made them all with wisdom”—chochmah is described as something made. So daas, which is below chochmah, is certainly only something made. Thus, even the higher daas is not merely an animal; it is actually on the level of something made, and is called a “great animal,” as explained elsewhere. And it is Shem Ban, numerically equivalent to behemah, “animal,” before Atzilus. In other words, even the level of daas at which he understands that he does not understand—the level above Atzilus—is still a great animal, the source of the great animal, but still an animal. To understand, to feel the essence of Atzilus—that really isn’t possible. The essence of the Divine light truly, truly cannot be grasped. So what have we learned from this whole chapter? In the first of the four chapters on the love described by “As water reflects the face,” he presents the analogy and its application. The analogy is that... First, he told us that when a person smiles at his friend, it is natural for the other person to love him in return. That is part of human nature. That is how the world was created. All the more so when a great and exalted king shows his love to an ordinary person, someone lowly and simple. The same applies with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, but Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not merely a great and exalted king,

56:21 Speaker 1 He... His greatness is without end, and His exaltedness is without end, while our lowliness by comparison also extends endlessly downward. And all the more so, since Hakadosh Boruch Hu draws us close, we should... If a person thinks about this for a moment, his soul will pour itself out of its own accord. He doesn’t need to make his soul pour itself out. If he just thinks about how Hakadosh Boruch Hu, an exalted and lofty King, draws us close, his soul will pour itself out of its own accord. “But I don’t feel that closeness.” Fine. Even the great tzaddikim, whose souls actually pour themselves out, don’t feel it either. That doesn’t interfere; it doesn’t prevent it. When each and every person contemplates how Hakadosh Boruch Hu brought us out of Egypt, the most depraved of lands, and embraces us—drawing us close with hugs, kisses, and words—our souls will pour themselves out. What is still missing from this explanation? It is still missing... Well, the Exodus from Egypt happened many years ago. Three thousand three hundred and four, if I’m not mistaken.

57:25 Speaker 5 Thirty and...

57:27 Speaker 1 Three thousand, three—three thousand three hundred and thirty-four. So I can contemplate it, remember it, yes, but it still happened a long time ago. In the next chapter, the Rebbe will explain how that same Exodus from Egypt exists not only in our thoughts, in our understanding, or in remembering what happened then, but is present with us in actuality, with every one of us, even today.

58:05 Speaker 5 Thank you very much.

58:05 Speaker 1 Good evening.

58:25 Speaker 5 Thank you very much.