Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah – Educating a Child

00:00 Speaker 1 Okay, good evening. Mazel tov, mazel tov. First, I owe you an apology—a significant correction to something I said at the end of last week’s class. Not that it was wrong, but it needs a major correction. I said we have no explanation for why the second part of Tanya comes after the first part rather than before it. If the second part discusses the foundation of serving Hashem—the basis for love and awe of Hashem—and the first part discusses how to serve Hashem, then the foundation, the second part, should have come first, followed by the first part. So why did the Alter Rebbe arrange them the other way around? It’s true that this isn’t stated or explained anywhere directly. On the other hand, there are several sichos of the Rebbe, including edited sichos in Likkutei Sichos, in volumes 17 and 25, where the Rebbe does address the order of the parts of Tanya. The Rebbe asks a different question there, but he addresses their order. And when you see what the Rebbe says there—at least according to the explanations of those sichos—it becomes so clear and so understandable that you understand why the Rebbe didn’t explain it: it’s so obvious that there’s nothing to explain. The point is very simple. Chassidus is an innovation. Chassidus brought something into the world that hadn’t existed before the Baal Shem Tov. Everything we take for granted, the ABCs—Hashem’s unity, faith, joy, the idea that the essence of simple Jews is their soul—all the basics we live with every day weren’t there. The Baal Shem Tov introduced them. More than that,

02:24 Speaker 1 Tanya’s particular innovation is this: the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid themselves wrote nothing. They simply didn’t write letters or maamarim and explanations of Chassidus. The first people to begin writing explanations of Chassidus were the Maggid’s students, after his passing. But even after people had begun writing Chassidus, none of those writers—not the Maggid’s students, nor their students in later generations—wrote a systematic path for serving Hashem. They explained verses and concepts in serving Hashem. There are books that explain all the weekly parshas according to Chassidus, going through verses of the Torah in order. There are many such books, not only in Chabad Chassidus but in other branches of Chassidus as well. But a book that explains how to serve Hashem—how to begin, how to go on, how to bring awe and love of Hashem into your life, how Jews deal with difficulties, and certainly in a systematic way—that didn’t exist. It didn’t exist before Tanya, and it didn’t appear after Tanya. Tanya is the only book in Chassidus—all the branches of Chassidus stemming from the Baal Shem Tov—that serves as a guide to serving Hashem. That was an unprecedented innovation. It made such a stir that even among the Litvaks, they understood they couldn’t compete with it. Then there was the Netziv—Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin—who composed a book along the lines of Tanya. It is also very similar to Tanya, and it seems he drew many of its ideas from Tanya. It’s a book called Nefesh HaChaim, a Litvak guide to serving Hashem, [unclear]. But within Chassidus, across all its branches, Tanya is an innovation. Tanya’s innovation is a path for serving

04:41 Speaker 1 Hashem. Now, that’s what the entire first part of Tanya discusses. What is the second part of Tanya? The second part isn’t just an innovation; it’s an innovation within the innovation. It’s the heart of the innovation. As I’m sure you all know, the Alter Rebbe explains in the second part of Tanya that faith in Hashem’s unity does not mean that Hakadosh Boruch Hu rules the world, that He alone rules it and there is no ruler besides Him. “Hashem reigns, Hashem has reigned, Hashem will reign forever and ever”—and no one else rules the world. That is how Jews believed throughout the generations. When a Jew covers his eyes and says, “Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One,” what is he supposed to think about? What does it say in the Shulchan Aruch and the halachic authorities? That he should think about how Hakadosh Boruch Hu reigns over all the worlds, the seven heavens and the earth. What the Baal Shem Tov introduced was that faith in Hashem’s unity means “there is nothing besides Him.” Not “there is no ruler besides Him”—there is nothing besides Him. Nothing exists apart from Hashem. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the one and only true existence, and nothing exists outside of Him. That was the Baal Shem Tov’s innovation. Where is it written? In Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah. The second part of Tanya, Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, is not only an innovation in general; it is this particular innovation. It is the central point of Chassidus, of all Chassidus: the belief that there is nothing besides Him. And as we all know, once a person believes in Hashem’s unity as the Baal Shem Tov understood it, and as the Alter Rebbe explains it here in this book, as we’ll see, his entire life changes. Love and awe—we don’t even start with love and awe. It begins, first of all, with overcoming obstacles.

07:08 Speaker 1 Throughout life, a person faces challenges and all kinds of difficulties. If he lives with the awareness and feeling that there is nothing besides Him, that the entire reality of the world is Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he relates to those challenges differently. He doesn’t see them so much as challenges. This is Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. It changes his whole relationship with the world. When a person lives with the awareness that the entire reality of the world is “there is nothing besides Him,” he no longer looks at the world as an independent reality that can also be used for serving Hashem. No. The entire reality of the world is about serving Hashem. He created it. There is nothing here apart from serving Hashem. It changes how a person sees himself, too. Once he grasps, feels, and senses that there is nothing besides Him, I no longer have some private life of my own, some goals in life that I need to achieve. That no longer exists. My entire existence is something Hakadosh Boruch Hu created for a particular purpose. There’s nothing else here. Once the Baal Shem Tov introduced the idea that the world’s existence is not separate from G-dliness, a person who internalizes it—who reflects on it more and more, thinks about it and lives with it—has nothing else in his world. His whole existence changes, his Torah and mitzvos change, his entire conduct in the world and the way he sees the world change completely. In other words, this innovation of the Baal Shem Tov... And really, this was the point that all the opposition of the misnagdim to Chassidus centered on. Why did the Vilna Gaon come out against the Alter Rebbe? Do you know? Have you ever heard? Why did he care so much about the chassidim? All right, they observe the mitzvos in a different way. So what? Why did it matter so

09:17 Speaker 1 much to him?

09:18 Speaker 2 Was it because no one pointed it out, or was that in the Baal Shem Tov’s time?

09:21 Speaker 1 No, why did the Vilna Gaon come out against the Alter Rebbe?

09:24 Speaker 2 He changed the wording of the prayers from...

09:27 Speaker 1 That came later.

09:31 Speaker 2 I don’t understand. I thought he was, like, considered a tzaddik in every respect.

09:36 Speaker 1 The Vilna Gaon was an extraordinary kabbalist. I don’t know if you’re familiar with it—have you ever heard of the book Sifra D’Tzniusa?

09:46 Speaker 2 What’s that?

09:46 Speaker 1 In this passage—I think we mentioned it once—there is a section of the Zohar called Sifra DeTzniusa. It’s short, three or five pages, something like that. It’s a work of Kabbalah attributed to Yaakov Avinu, and it appears as a section within the Zohar. The Vilna Gaon wrote a commentary on Sifra DeTzniusa. You only have to glance at the first lines of his commentary to see that he knew what he was talking about. He was an extraordinary Kabbalist. So what did he disagree with the Alter Rebbe about so strongly? The Arizal introduced the idea that Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world through tzimtzum—what we know as the first tzimtzum. At that time there was a dispute over how to understand what the Arizal had written. If the Arizal wrote that Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world through tzimtzum, presumably that’s true; before the Arizal, this idea wasn’t there. I won’t go into the approaches to Kabbalah that preceded the Arizal, including that of the Arizal’s own teacher, the Ramak. The Ramak does not yet have the first tzimtzum. This also relates later to other concepts in Chassidus, such as tehiru and so on. But it was the Arizal who introduced the idea of the first tzimtzum. The Kabbalists after the Arizal disagreed about whether he meant the tzimtzum through which Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world literally or not literally. Why does it matter so much whether tzimtzum is literal or not? If we say the Arizal meant that Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world through a literal tzimtzum, then Hakadosh Boruch Hu literally contracted Himself in order to create the world. That means the world is an existence in its own right, a separate existence. It is not part of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, because

11:54 Speaker 1 Hakadosh Boruch Hu contracted Himself, moved Himself aside. That’s it. He is not here; in the place where He is not, He made a world. So the world is something entirely separate. If we say the tzimtzum is not literal, that means “there is nothing besides Him”—there is no existence besides Him. These are two approaches in Kabbalah, and both have support and, what’s the word, strong sources and foundations in the writings of the Arizal. This is what the Alter Rebbe and the Vilna Gaon disagreed about. The Vilna Gaon maintained that in the writings of the Arizal, tzimtzum is literal; that is how he understood them. And the Alter Rebbe maintained that tzimtzum is not literal. Why? Because that is what he received from the Baal Shem Tov—because that is how the Baal Shem Tov understood it. So the entire dispute against Chassidus really rested on one point. What was it? Is there an existence apart from Hashem, or is there no existence apart from Hashem? In other words, the new teaching the Alter Rebbe discusses here in Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, in the second part, is the very heart of the whole approach of Chassidus, of the Baal Shem Tov, and of the writings of the Arizal from the outset. It is all concentrated here in these twelve—or rather, in the first six chapters of Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah. Here lies the foundation of all the foundations of Chassidus. So clearly, although the first part of Tanya is also an enormous innovation—a systematic path in serving Hashem, something that did not exist before—the innovation in the second part is many, many times greater. It is the very heart of what Chassidus introduced, and when a Jew grasps this point, internalizes it and feels it, his whole life changes. So it turns out that Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah has two opposite sides. On the one hand, faith is the basis, the root of love and awe. If someone has no faith, how can there be love and awe? So according to

14:17 Speaker 1 that, it should have been the first part. On the other hand, what is the main point of the second part? It is not just faith, but a kind of faith that transforms a person’s entire reality, their entire being. Clearly, that kind of faith comes after the first part. So on the one hand, the Alter Rebbe is dealing in Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah mainly with a more elevated form of avodah, which comes after the first part. On the other hand, there are still foundations here that are the basis and the root. There are several hints to this. We’ll see them inside during today’s class—that it also belongs before the first part. All right? So that makes it clearer. Let’s start reading inside. We’re not yet studying Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah itself, only the introduction, called Chinuch Katan. First, about the name: what does Chinuch Katan mean?

15:16 Speaker 3 Educating young children.

15:18 Speaker 1 Educating young children. Exactly. Educating children. “Likkutei Amarim, Part Two, called Chinuch Katan.” So we already see something interesting: the Alter Rebbe gave the second part two names. One name he gave it was “Likkutei Amarim, Part Two.” As we discussed last week, the second part belongs to the same book. It is not a different book; it is still part of Likkutei Amarim, the Sefer Shel Beinonim. But the second part also stands on its own and has its own name: Chinuch Katan. How do you educate a young child? Why do we need to know how to educate a young child? Who’s interested in that? We’re adults. So let’s look inside. “Compiled from books and from the teachings of saintly sages, may their souls rest in Eden.” That is an exact quotation from the title page of the first part. “Books” refers to the Shelah and the Maharal of Prague, and “sages” refers to the Maggid and the rabbi from Horodok, the Alter Rebbe’s teachers. And the book is based on the first paragraph of Shema. We’ll talk about that next time, when we get to the subject itself. The Alter Rebbe begins: “Educate a child according to his way; even when he grows old, he will not depart from it.” He asks: “Since it says ‘according to his way,’ does that not imply that it is not the way of absolute truth?” If I say I’m educating a child according to his way, then it’s only his way. It’s a way suited to a young child. You educate a young child by giving him an ice cream cone or a popsicle or chewing gum. I don’t know what they give children nowadays to get them to come and shout out pesukim, right? That’s called educating a young child, according to his way, and it isn’t relevant—yes, as the Rebbe goes on to say. If so—

17:35 Speaker 4 [unclear] Come in, come in.

17:50 Speaker 1 Welcome. We started just a minute ago. Until now we’ve been giving an introduction. You’ve really arrived in the first half-minute. We’re talking about the second part of Tanya. Today we’re beginning to study its introduction. Today we’re studying the introduction to the second part, and in the lines we’ve started reading, he is explaining what Chinuch Katan means, what educating children means. So he asks: “Educate a child according to his way; even when he grows old, he will not depart from it.” What does that mean?

18:28 Speaker 4 By the way, could you give an overview of Tanya in general—what it teaches, what Tanya is about?

18:35 Speaker 1 I could, but not now. No, we’re not...

18:40 Speaker 4 There won’t be enough time.

18:42 Speaker 1 It’s not within the scope of today’s class. That would be good for a 19 Kislev farbrengen. Why do you educate a child according to... What does the verse say? “Educate a child according to his way”; even when he is old, when he is grown, he will not depart from it. It will benefit him; it will help him even when he is old. What? When you give a child candies while he is small so he’ll come and recite pesukim, why do our Sages say that even when he is old, when he grows in his service of Hashem, he still won’t depart from it, that it will still benefit him? What is beneficial about it? That’s how you educate a small child. Why is it good? What is the virtue of “even when he grows old, he will not depart from it”? Why does an adult who already serves Hashem with love and awe still need the education he received as a child? What good is it? So to explain this, he says: “But it is well known to everyone that the roots and foundations of serving Hashem are fear and love”—awe and love. What is the difference between a root and a foundation?

20:00 Speaker 4 A root is where you start building.

20:02 Speaker 1 A root is something from which a plant grows. It is the source, the root of the thing, right? A building doesn’t grow out of its foundation. But the foundation is what the building stands on. You can’t have a building without a foundation.

20:17 Speaker 4 A base.

20:19 Speaker 1 That is a foundation. As long as a building stands, it needs its foundation all the time—in the same size, in the same place, in the same form, with the same strength. Without the foundation, the building will fall apart. Love of Hashem and fear of Hashem, love and awe, are both the root of serving Hashem and the foundation of serving Hashem. In chapter 4 of Tanya—we learned this at the beginning—it says that when a person fears Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he will not commit transgressions. He is afraid; how could he commit a transgression? If he loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he wants to do His will, so he will observe all the mitzvos. Love and fear are the root of all the positive mitzvos and all the prohibitions. Why is it called a root? Because love and fear are the source of all the mitzvos. If he loves and fears Hashem, he will observe the mitzvos and avoid transgressions. So they are the root of all the mitzvos. It is clear why they are a root. Why are they a foundation? Because they are not only a root. We learned later, in later chapters of Tanya, that even when a person already observes all the mitzvos, when he performs the mitzvos and studies Torah with love and fear, his mitzvos are on an entirely different level. The love and fear add something to the mitzvos and raise them to the higher worlds, along with many other virtues—many things we learned about. So love and fear are both the root of all the mitzvos and the foundation of all the mitzvos. Fear is the root and foundation of turning away from evil, and love is the root and foundation of doing good and observing all the positive mitzvos, both from the Torah and from the Sages, as will be explained in their places. Here, “will be explained” is in the future tense. But when will it be explained? We already learned it in chapter 4. Yes, this is the first place where it says “will be explained” and the Alter Rebbe means something he already wrote fifty chapters earlier. Why? That is what we discussed at length before. And the mitzvah of educating children is also

22:46 Speaker 1 included in positive mitzvos, as stated in Orach Chayim, section 343. He adds here in a note: You might think that when educating a young child, what is the main part of the education? Teaching him what not to do. “Don’t do this, don’t do that.” Right? How do you educate a child? “That’s forbidden, that’s forbidden, that’s forbidden.” Right? That’s the main part of education. No, no, no, no. The mitzvah of educating children also applies to positive mitzvos. The mitzvah to educate a child is not only about teaching him the prohibitions; it is also about teaching him what he should do. So we have two things here. There is observance of the mitzvos as an obligation, when a person becomes bar mitzvah or bas mitzvah, and there is observance of the mitzvos before that, as part of education. A child observes mitzvos so that, when the time comes, he will already be accustomed to them and know what he needs to do. If the mitzvos themselves have two forms—observing them as part of education and observing them as a true obligation—we must say that their root, love and fear, also has two kinds. There is love and fear whose main purpose is education, and love and fear whose main point is obligation, as it is for adults. So what are these two kinds of love and fear?

24:25 Speaker 4 Now what are they

24:31 Speaker 1 Or

24:33 Speaker 4 Six days

24:37 Speaker 1 [unclear]. So the Alter Rebbe explains what those forms of love and fear are—now he begins explaining the two aspects they contain. Regarding love, it is written at the end of Parshas Eikev. We learned this last week: “Which I command you today to do, to love Hashem,” and so on. It is a verse in Parshas Eikev. Hakadosh Boruch Hu commands us to love Hashem, “to do.” What does “to do” mean? We need to understand how the language of doing applies to love, which is in the heart. Love—to do something means using your hands. What does it mean to do love? To awaken love, to reveal love, to bring love into being—I would understand that. But what does it mean to do love? What kind of mitzvah is that? What are they asking us to do, take a hoe and dig in the ground so that I’ll have love? What does it mean to do love? The point is, to understand what “to do love” means, we first need to explain that there are two kinds of love of Hashem. So he first explains love of Hashem on the higher level, and through that we will later understand what it means to make love, using the language of doing. What is the greater love? The first, the loftier love, is the soul’s natural yearning to expire in longing for its Creator. A Jewish soul has a nature that loves Hashem. We have spoken about this many times. The nature of the G-dly soul is love of Hashem. Now, if you were to take the G-dly soul out of the body, so to speak, and look at it—picture what a G-dly soul looks like—you would see love, a fire burning for G-dliness. You would see love. That is what you would see. That is what is there. There is an intellect that contemplates the greatness of Hashem, and emotional faculties that become stirred and excited and love. The whole G-dly soul is a set of ten faculties that love and long

27:09 Speaker 1 to cleave to G-dliness. That is the G-dly soul; that is its nature, the way it is made. Just as a goat is made in such a way that it likes to drink milk, so the G-dly soul is made in such a way that it loves Hashem. That is its nature. So one kind of love is the soul’s natural yearning to expire in longing for its Creator. When does such love become revealed in a person? When the intellectual soul overcomes the physical nature, humbles it and subdues it—small words for me—and brings it under its control. A person has a soul—a person has two souls. We have learned this many times; we have spoken about it: a G-dly soul and a natural soul. In fact, they have various names. The G-dly soul has an intellect. The natural, animal soul also has an intellect. What does the intellect of the G-dly soul understand? It understands G-dliness. It understands the greatness of Hashem, understands the sefiros. It understands angels, understands souls. That is what it sees, what it knows, what it understands. When someone comes to the G-dly soul and explains, “Listen, there’s money here, there’s a salary, there’s a world you have to live in, there are health, children and livelihood,” it says, “Come explain to me what you’re talking about.” The intellect of the G-dly soul does not understand what goes on in this world. It does not live here; it does not know what any of that is. What is the intellectual soul? The intellectual soul is the intellect of the soul clothed in the body. It understands perfectly well what a body is. It knows perfectly well what is good for the body, and it explains to the animal soul: “This is worth desiring, and if you eat this, it will taste good,” and so on. That is the intellect of the intellectual soul. The intellect of the G-dly soul cannot subdue the body’s material nature. A person has desires in his heart; his feelings crave everything he sees.

29:26 Speaker 1 The G-dly soul cannot explain to the body, “This is good and that isn’t,” because it has no connection with the body. For a person to subdue his desires, to break them down, to lower the fire of those desires, he needs someone who knows what desires are. Who is it that, on the one hand, understands desire and, on the other hand, can, if he chooses, tell the body: “Listen, it isn’t quite as wonderful as it looks to you. There are bad things about it too”? That is the intellectual soul, a person’s ordinary intellect. The simplest example: I find Coca-Cola very tasty. There’s some right here on the table. Yes, it’s very tasty. My ordinary, natural intellect can explain to my body: “Listen, it tastes good, but it isn’t healthy.” Right? The intellect of the G-dly soul cannot explain that to the body. It does not know what cola is; it does not know what “tasty” means. How could it explain anything? It does not know what “healthy” means. That is not its language. The intellect of the intellectual soul, of the natural soul, can explain to the body: “Listen, this isn’t good, and that isn’t good. And in general, everything you see in this world isn’t quite as wonderful as it looks. The world isn’t so shiny.” It can explain that. So when, says the Alter Rebbe, the intellectual soul—when a person explains to himself that this world is not, as people say, all glittering gold, that this world is not so amazing after all, and he explains it over and over, the body can accept it. The animal soul can accept it. And when he explains it properly, and his desires really

31:14 Speaker 1 They gradually subside, and he overcomes the body's physicality. What happens? The body's physicality, let's say, is no longer there; it has been nullified. When the body's physicality is nullified, the G-dly soul can reveal itself. What is the G-dly soul? Its nature is to love Hashem to the point of the soul's yearning to leave the body. So that is what he is saying. When does the G-dly soul reveal itself—its natural yearning? “When the intellectual soul overcomes the physical and lowers and subdues it beneath itself, then the G-dly soul will become excited and blaze with a flame that rises of its own accord, and it will rejoice and be glad in Hashem its Maker and delight in Hashem with a wondrous delight.” The Alter Rebbe says: This really sounds good, but those who attain this level of great love are the ones called tzaddikim. It isn't simple. You don't get there so quickly. As it is written, who truly rejoices in Hashem? “Rejoice, you righteous, in Hashem,” says the verse. It doesn't say, “Rejoice, beinonim,” or “Rejoice, wicked people.” Only someone who has reached the level of a tzaddik can truly rejoice in Hashem, with genuine joy and delight in G-dliness. Why? Because such joy depends on nullifying the physical, and only someone who has truly nullified it completely has done that—a tzaddik. As he says immediately afterward: “But not everyone merits this, for this—to merit the revelation of the soul—requires very, very great refinement of the physical.” There is a story about the Alter Rebbe that just came to mind, and it relates to this. One of his colleagues, a disciple of the Maggid, came to visit the Alter Rebbe and boasted to him, “All my chassidim experience a revelation of Eliyahu.” So the Alter Rebbe pointed to one of the... I think it was Reb Moshe Vilenker, who was davening there at the time. He had spent the entire davening in the room where he was praying. Everyone else had finished long ago, and Reb Moshe was still there, with his head against the wall, davening for hours. So the Alter Rebbe said to that Rebbe—I don't remember who it was—“With him,

33:43 Speaker 1 the revelation of his soul is shining right now, and the revelation of the soul is higher than a revelation of Eliyahu.” A revelation of Eliyahu comes to a person... When does Eliyahu appear? Perhaps he has some merit from good deeds, some ancestral merit. He did something particularly good; he made an effort. Eliyahu app—he did something according to Kabbalah, and Eliyahu appeared to him. What you might call a big deal: Eliyahu appeared to him. But he himself hasn't changed at all. Eliyahu came and went. Boruch Hashem. When a Jew's soul reveals itself to him, it means that he has become a tzaddik, that he has changed his very nature, that he is not like other people, as it says in chapter 10, which we learned. “Not everyone merits this, for this requires very, very great refinement of the physical. And also much Torah study and many good deeds, to merit a higher level of soul, above the levels of ruach and nefesh,” as it says in Reishis Chochmah, Shaar HaAhavah. Reishis Chochmah is also a book of Kabbalah. It explains there that a person's soul, as it is in the body, has three levels: nefesh, ruach, and neshamah. How does an ordinary person keep Torah and mitzvos? With kabbolas ol, right? How many people, without Chassidus, have love and awe? An ordinary person accepts the—he keeps the mitzvos because he has to. That is called the level of nefesh. When the lowest level of the soul is revealed in a person—the level associated with sustaining the physical organs, the soul as it is vested in the liver, in the terminology of Reishis Chochmah—then he has attained the level of nefesh and keeps the mitzvos. A person who works and tries harder also attains the level of the soul vested in the heart, not just in the liver. The life-spirit is vested in the heart—the level of ruach—and then he keeps the mitzvos with feeling too, with love and awe. That is already the level of ruach. But for the level of neshamah, which is in the brain, to be revealed in a person, as

36:03 Speaker 1 it says in Tanya chapter 9, which we learned, and as it says in the Book of Iyov, “And the soul from Shaddai gives them understanding”—the neshamah is connected with understanding; it reveals itself in the brain. For that, says the Alter Rebbe, effort is not enough. Two things are needed. First, Torah study and good deeds, and also very, very great refinement of the physical. Why are both needed? So first of all—no, not “first of all.” A person's neshamah, that natural quality of the soul, which by its nature yearns to leave the body—that is something given to a person from Above. On his own, if he were not given it from Above, if I had not been given a G-dly soul, I could not reach those levels of love for Hashem. How far can a non-Jew go in loving Hashem? A non-Jew, too—why couldn't he? No, why? Why couldn't he? But he's a non-Jew; he doesn't have that. True, but he does have a soul. So how can he reach those levels? Well, he can reflect and think, and he can come to love Hashem. He can attain a limited love, a love commensurate with his intellect. Like the example we've given here many times: a person doesn't like eating a certain thing. He doesn't like it; it doesn't taste good to him, right? If he reflects on how healthy it is, then thinks about how beneficial it is, and keeps at it, eventually he'll like it. A green smoothie. Hmm? A green smoothie. Look, I'll even say this: I know lots of people who drink—what's it called?—drink brandy and say it tastes good to them. I can't understand it; I'm incapable of understanding it. Surely anyone who drank the stuff for the first time spat it out, threw it up. Right? Nobody drank brandy for the first time in his life

37:59 Speaker 1 and found it tasty. There is no such thing. That isn't human nature. How did it suddenly become tasty to him? Everyone drinks it, his friends do, and then he tries it again, and... yes, eventually it tastes good. It's like that with everything, not just... A person can convince himself and change his character traits, change his nature. That is human nature. The mind rules the heart; that is true of a non-Jew as well. But if he reflects on the greatness of Hashem, or, I don't know, on things that... a love can awaken in a non-Jew too, but it is limited by his intellect. A love that comes from the intellect cannot be above the intellect. It was born of the intellect, so it is below it. But a Jew has the love of the G-dly soul, which is literally a part of G-d Above. An enormous blaze of love, of mesirus nefesh. A non-Jew doesn't have that; a Jew does. Since this is something that comes from Above, something a person receives as a gift, awakening it also requires something that comes from Above. If it comes from Above and not from me, how can I reach it with my own abilities? The highest faculty I have is intellect. Now I want to reach the neshamah, which is above intellect. How can I get there? So the Alter Rebbe says that the way to reach the revelation of the neshamah is, first of all, through Torah and mitzvos. Where do Torah and mitzvos come from? From Hakadosh Boruch Hu. They come from Above. By keeping Torah and mitzvos, a Jew can connect with that higher level of soul. And beyond that—hmm—through good deeds that... through refining, refining the body. When a person refines his body, then, since the purpose of all creation, as we have learned several times already, is

40:00 Speaker 1 For a person to refine his body, to reveal G-dliness down here. By doing the work of iskafya and ishapcha, by working to change himself, he reveals... he fulfills Hashem’s will, and Hashem’s will is revealed within him. Okay, Hashem’s will is revealed within you, and your soul can be revealed within you. So not everyone merits the revelation of the soul and becomes a tzaddik. Only someone who has a great deal of Torah and good deeds, and has refined his physical nature to a very great extent, as it says in Reishis Chochmah, Shaar Ha’ahavah. So all of that is about the love of tzaddikim. The second type of love is lower, and it is a love that anyone can attain. You don’t have to be a tzaddik for it; a beinoni can attain it too. It comes when a person contemplates deeply, in the depths of his heart, the things that awaken love for Hashem in the heart of every Jew, both in a general way and in a particular way. What do “in a general way” and “in a particular way” mean? In a general way, a person contemplates the fact that He is truly our life. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is our life. Where is that? Do you remember where that’s written? Where did we go over that whole... Huh? Very good. Yes. The love there, “My soul longs for You,” yes. That Hakadosh Boruch Hu is... You are our life. And just as a person loves his own soul and life, so he will love Hashem when he contemplates and takes to heart that Hashem is his true soul and his very life. As it says in the Zohar on the verse “My soul longs for You.” So that is the general approach: love that comes through general contemplation, contemplating that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is my life. There is also contemplation of particular details: when a person understands and grasps the greatness of the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, in detail, as far as his mind can reach and even beyond what his mind can grasp. He contemplates both what he can understand directly and what he can understand by recognizing what G-dliness is not. He will contemplate and grasp everything he

42:16 Speaker 1 can, making an effort and working hard to understand Hashem’s greatness as much as possible. And afterward he will contemplate Hashem’s great and wondrous love for us: that He descended to Egypt, the nakedness of the land, and brought our souls out of the iron furnace, which is the sitra achra, may Hashem protect us, to bring us close to Him and attach us to His very name. Where is that written? Hmm? We learned that at length. That comes afterward. Yes, from chapter 46 through chapter 49. The love of “as water reflects a face to a face.” Broadly speaking, there are two parts to this: a person contemplates Hashem’s greatness and his own lowliness. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is so great and exalted, while I am such a lowly person, unworthy of anything. And despite that, Hakadosh Boruch Hu comes down to me and caresses me, embraces and kisses me, gives me Torah and mitzvos, gives me life, and so on and so on—and I am not at all worthy of it. So if an exalted king were to lift an ordinary person from the rubbish heap and bring him into his private chamber, from one inner room to the next, surely that person’s heart would be stirred with tremendous love for the king. How much more so when Hakadosh Boruch Hu shows His love for me. So the more a person contemplates Hashem’s greatness and his own lowliness, the more his love will grow. That is called love through general and particular contemplation. In general, this means... So the second love, a love that does apply to beinonim, that does apply to everyone, is awakened through both general and particular contemplation. General contemplation means contemplating that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is our Father, that He is our life. Particular contemplation means contemplating that Hakadosh Boruch Hu, who is above all worlds and all things, nevertheless turns His attention to me, though I am unworthy of it. That is particular contemplation. In other words, He raised us from the lowest depths and impurity to the ultimate holiness and to His blessed greatness, which has no end or limit. When a person contemplates this, then, as water reflects a face to a face, love will be awakened in the heart of

44:32 Speaker 1 anyone who understands and contemplates this matter in the depths of his heart. A powerful love for Hashem will awaken within him, a love that makes him want to cleave to Him with heart and soul, as will be explained at length in its place. When we learned those chapters, we said that here the Alter Rebbe really goes on at length—four whole chapters—about this love of Hashem. Now, it was this love that Moshe Rabbeinu, peace be upon him, wanted to plant in the heart of every Jew. Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to instill love in the Jewish people. He was not speaking about the first love, the love of tzaddikim, or love experienced as delight. He was speaking about this love, the love that is within everyone’s capacity—specifically the lower love that comes through contemplation. In the section beginning “And now, Israel,” and so on. We can see it in the verses of the Torah. First comes the verse, “Behold, to Hashem your G-d belong the heavens and the heavens of heavens,” and so on. A Jew must contemplate Hashem’s greatness: “To Hashem your G-d belong the heavens and the heavens of heavens.” Then comes, “Only in your forefathers did He delight”—He left the heavens and the heavens of heavens and chose you alone. This is exactly that love of “as water reflects a face to a face” described in chapter 46 of Tanya. “And you shall circumcise”—therefore. Because Hakadosh Boruch Hu lowered Himself, humbled Himself out of His great love for you, you must “circumcise” yourselves, enter into a covenant, bind yourselves to G-dliness, and love Him. And Hakadosh Boruch Hu did you an immense kindness: “With seventy souls,” and so on. “With seventy souls your forefathers descended to Egypt, and now Hashem your G-d has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.” And so he concludes there, “And you shall love.” He concludes his words about this love with: “Which I command you to do.” So now we understand why, in Parshas Eikev last week, Hakadosh Boruch Hu says in the Torah through Moshe Rabbeinu, “Which I command you to do.” Because which love does Moshe Rabbeinu demand, or want to plant in the Jewish people? The love that can be brought about by doing something. Not a love that comes from Above, but the love a Jew brings about through contemplation, a love made in the heart. It is not something naturally present in the heart; it is something a person does, a love he creates himself through understanding and awareness of the things that awaken love. And about this he already commanded, at the beginning of those verses: “And these words which I command you today shall be upon your heart,” so that through this you will come to love Hashem, as it says in the Sifrei on that verse. Now, with regard to this second love, explain, the terms “mitzvah” and “commandment” apply. With regard to the first love, the love that is already there, that a Jew is born with—the love of the G-dly soul—it makes no sense to tell the G-dly soul, “Love Hashem.” Why not? It already loves Him. What are you going to command it to do? Command a donkey to be a donkey? It’s already a donkey. That won’t help. You give a commandment to someone who needs to do something. Namely, to direct...

46:58 Speaker 1 So what is the commandment? To direct one’s heart and mind toward the things that awaken love. But the first love is a flame that rises on its own. It doesn’t need a match to light it; its nature is to burn. The terms “commandment” and “command” do not apply to it at all. What’s more, that first love is the reward given to tzaddikim: to taste in this world something of the World to Come. After all, what do tzaddikim do in Gan Eden in the World to Come? They sit and... the wording there is: “Their crowns are on their heads, and they enjoy the radiance of the Shechinah.” They sit and delight in G-dliness. What does it mean that they delight in G-dliness? Their souls are revealed. They don’t have a body there to get in the way. They sit and delight in the radiance of the Shechinah. So when a Jew here in this world is granted the ability to delight in... to have his soul revealed,

49:21 Speaker 1 So in a sense, he is already in Gan Eden right now. And no, not figuratively. He is actually there. Not on the same level, because he is still in a body, but it is the same idea. Of that love it is said, “I give your priesthood as a gift of service,” as explained in its place. And here, “explained in its place” means chapter 10. Maybe chapter 10? Probably chapter 10. Indeed—so up to this point the Alter Rebbe has explained... What did we ask at the beginning? How did he begin this whole discussion? Why does it say, “Educate a child according to his way; even when he grows old, he will not depart from it”? Right? That was the question. If he is being educated according to his own way, all that means is that we give him candies and sweets to get him to come say pesukim. So what is so great about continuing to give him candies and sweets when he is old? What—what—what do we gain from that? Yes. Having explained the two levels of love, he now comes back to answer the question. “Indeed, those who understand the reason for the verse know why it is written, ‘For a tzaddik may fall seven times and rise.’” When we say, “A tzaddik may fall seven times and rise,” that means even someone who is a tzaddik sometimes falls. That is what it says, right? Because ultimately, a tzaddik is also a person, and he can have ups and downs. He does have ups and downs, and sometimes he falls. Apart from the fact that a tzaddik is human and can also have occasional declines and falls, there is sometimes a kind of fall that is necessary for a tzaddik. It does not happen by accident, because of various external or internal factors. Rather, it is a fall that is part of his progress, because a person is called “one who walks,” not “one who stands.” And he must—what does “one who walks” mean? That he must go from one level to the next, and not remain at one level forever. And between one level

52:10 Speaker 1 and the next, before he reaches the higher level, he experiences a fall from the first level. We need to understand that. Why does a person have to fall in between when going from one level to another? Why do we fall on the way up the stairs? No. So first of all, yes—if you pay attention when we climb... What?

52:39 Speaker 5 We lift one foot just a little.

52:42 Speaker 1 When we lift a foot, we’re standing on one leg, which isn’t very stable. That is the analogy for a fall. As for the substance of the idea, there are two kinds of ascent. There is an ascent where a person advances within the same level; he does not become something different. Say I now understand something new. Until now I understood this much, and then I study another line, another page in the book. That kind of understanding is built—everything that follows is built on the previous understanding. But that is not called leaving one’s place. The essence of walking is that when a person takes a step, he is no longer in his previous place. The new place he occupies is somewhere else; it is not connected to the previous place. When we speak of an ascent in which the previous level prepares him for the new level, that is not truly walking. Angels also have that kind of ascent, but compared to souls, angels are called “those who stand”: “And I will give you a place to walk among these who stand.” A soul is called one who walks; a person is called one who walks, and an angel is called one who stands. Why? An angel also rises, but his ascents are on a comparable scale. Every ascent builds on what came before it, an ascent in orderly stages. With a soul, with a— with a Jew, there can be an ascent that is completely beyond comparison, a leap, to the point that his previous understanding interferes with and confuses his new understanding. The example Chassidus gives for this is Rav Zeira. The Gemara relates that Rav Zeira went up from Bavel to Eretz Yisroel. He was one of the leading sages there, and when he decided to go up to Eretz Yisroel, he fasted forty fasts. There is a version that says he fasted eighty. Yes, there is a version that says he fasted eighty fasts in order to forget the Babylonian Talmud.

55:10 Speaker 5 Why forget it?

55:13 Speaker 1 That is the question. Are you normal? A Jew who was one of the Amoraim, one of the people who shaped the path of the Jewish people, spent his whole life studying Torah and now wants to go up to Eretz Yisroel. How does he prepare? By fasting forty or eighty fasts to forget what he learned. So what is the explanation? Chassidus explains—and cites this as an example in many places—that the method of study outside Eretz Yisroel, in Bavel, differs from the method of study in Eretz Yisroel. The Babylonian Talmud, compared to the Jerusalem Talmud, is described by the verse “He has made me dwell in darkness.” Compared to study in Eretz Yisroel, study in the Holy Land, the Babylonian Talmud is called darkness. To... when you open the— the Gemara, the Babylonian Gemara, the Gemara studied in yeshivos, how do they reach a conclusion about the halachah? They bring the Mishnah and begin. One tanna says one thing, and then an amora says, “No, it can’t be that way. I have proof from here.” Another says something else, and a third comes along and says, “What are you talking about? Look at what it says here.” It looks like someone in a dark room who wants to— wants to reach the light switch. He wants to take a book off the shelf, whatever it may be. He feels his way around, feels his way around, and bumps into things. Wait, what’s this? What’s this? What’s this? No, no, no, that’s not what I was looking for. Like that. Right? That is what the whole Babylonian Talmud looks like.

57:06 Speaker 6 Why? Why? What’s that?

57:09 Speaker 1 Why does it look like that? That is how it looks. Why it does is another matter. And on the contrary, in yeshivos they specifically study the Babylonian Talmud, not the Jerusalem Talmud. In the Babylonian Talmud, any halachah can take, you know, a page, two pages, three pages—with reasoning, with analysis, with depth, tremendous depth—until they finally reach a conclusion, or they do not reach one. Often, very often. “Teiku”—look, we haven’t figured it out. We don’t know. We can’t find the answer. We don’t know what the halachah is. There is no such thing in the Jerusalem Talmud. The Jerusalem Talmud brings the same Mishnah: this opinion, that opinion. At most, two or three lines—halachah, done, all settled. That’s it. Why? The Talmud of Eretz Yisroel is a Talmud of light. When you turn on the light, you can see. You don’t need to search much; you can see. Here it is, here it is, here it is. Done. That is the halachah. All is well. End of story. Someone who has spent his whole life learning by the method of the Babylonian Talmud will not be able to learn anything if he enters a beis midrash in Jerusalem. It will confuse him. The method of learning ingrained in his mind will prevent him from understanding what they are talking about in the beis midrash. He fasted in order to forget that method of learning. When a person—when we speak about rising from one level to another, an ascent beyond comparison, the previous level not only fails to help; it interferes with and confuses the next level. Similarly, this is also what happens when a Jew finally passes away, thank G-d, from this world. I shouldn’t say “thank G-d”; we should strive to live here. But in any case, then... he arrives at a better place, at least better from our perspective. So in between, he has to cross the River of Fire between this world... Even a tzaddik, to enter Gan Eden, has to pass through

59:18 Speaker 1 The River of Fire. Even between the lower Gan Eden and the upper Gan Eden, there is another river—the River of Fire. What happened? Is it a punishment? No, it isn’t a punishment. It is so the soul can forget the sights of this world. A soul that was clothed in a body for seventy years, or, with strength, eighty years—if it arrives in Gan Eden with the perceptions of the body, it won’t be able to enjoy Gan Eden. It won’t be able to receive the revelations there. When we speak of an ascent to a level beyond comparison, the previous level gets in the way and causes confusion. When a true tzaddik goes from one level to another, with every level he advances in this world, since the new level is beyond comparison with his previous one, he experiences a kind of fall in between. Without that, as long as he has not fallen from his previous level, he cannot receive his new level. But—we’re on the last line there on the right, yes? At the bottom. It is written, “Though he falls, he will not be cast down.” Even when the tzaddik falls from his former level because he must advance, he will not be cast down. What does “not be cast down” mean? It is called a fall only relative to his former level. He no longer has that same love and awe in the soul’s revealed experience. He doesn’t have it now, because he has fallen. But, G-d forbid, it is not called a fall relative to everyone else. Why? Because even though he has now fallen from his former level, he is still above everyone else in his service. How? Didn’t he fall? Because a trace of his former level remains within him. There is a wonderful explanation of this from the Rebbe in Igros Kodesh. We’re short on time, but let’s include this too. The Rebbe gives an analogy. What is this trace? A person has fallen from his level, yet something remains that still holds him up. What is it?

1:01:47 Speaker 1 So the Rebbe explains it like this. Imagine two speakers. One is wonderful, and the other is so wonderful that—well, they’re both wonderful, but one is so moving that his listeners have tears in their eyes, while the other is so moving that his listeners begin to cry. Yes? The audience comes in and sits down. The first speaker begins to speak, and as he goes on, everyone is stirred. They’re all deeply moved, with tears of teshuvah in their eyes. He finishes and steps down. The second speaker comes in and begins. At first, in the first few minutes, the audience hasn’t yet adjusted to the new style. They’re hearing entirely new things, but they’re still under the impression left by the first speaker. They can already hear the new speaker, but because of what they heard before, they can’t concentrate on what he is saying. So the inspiration from the first speaker is already gone, and the inspiration from the new one hasn’t yet come. What is there in between? A kind of fall, right? But even during that fall, in that state of confusion between the two, the impression of the first level still remains. The person still has tears in his eyes. He has already fallen, but the impression remains. That is the analogy the Rebbe gives.

1:03:33 Speaker 7 A beautiful explanation.

1:03:33 Speaker 1 Hmm?

1:03:33 Speaker 7 A beautiful explanation.

1:03:34 Speaker 1 A wonderful explanation. But the Rebbe says—the Alter Rebbe says here—that first of all, even when the tzaddik falls, a trace of his former level remains. But the main source of the love the tzaddik has during that fall is not the trace. There is a trace of his former level, but the main source of the love and awe he has when he falls from that level is something else. What is it? It comes chiefly from the love he was educated and trained in from his youth, before he reached the level of a tzaddik. And this is what is meant by “Even when he grows old,” and so on. In other words, the love a person develops within himself. True, the love a person generates within himself is much lower. It is limited by his own capacities and his intellect; it depends on his intellectual and natural faculties. It is a childlike love. It isn’t something innate; it isn’t the love of the G-dly soul. All of that is true. But in the end, that love is real. Why is it real? Because he himself loves. It isn’t something placed in him from outside. When a person brings love into being within himself, who is doing the loving? It isn’t some G-dly soul that was put into my body. It’s me. My body loves; my animal soul loves. This is love that comes from the person himself. A person reflects on G-dliness, both generally and in detail. He reflects on the fact that Hashem is our Father, that Hashem is our life, that Hakadosh Boruch Hu loves us. The love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu that forms within him is his own, and he himself has changed. So even if the tzaddik’s immense love later grows a thousandfold, its foundation, its root, and what remains constant is this: it is he himself. That stays with him always. More than that, the Rebbe explains something even deeper—much more than that. The purpose of the world’s creation is for people to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is why He created the world. Why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu

1:06:22 Speaker 1 create the world? He wanted us to serve Him, for there to be Jews who serve Him and observe Torah and mitzvos. When a Jew observes Torah and mitzvos with love of Hashem, he fulfills Hashem’s will. What is revealed within him? Hashem’s will. Hashem’s will is infinite; Hakadosh Boruch Hu is eternal. When a person brings love and awe into being in his heart, the eternity of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is revealed within him. Love given to him from above—whether his soul becomes revealed or not—can come and go. There can be a fall, and it can return. But when Hashem’s will is revealed within him, that is eternal. It does not fall; it stays with him always. That is why the lower kind of love, the love a person arouses through contemplation, is so tremendously important. “Now, the beginning and foundation of the matters that arouse love and awe…” He explained at length in the first part the things that arouse love and awe: contemplation in all its forms, as he explained there at length in chapters 41 through 49—nine chapters explaining all the things that arouse love. But the foundation of those things is “pure and faithful belief in His unity and oneness.” So now, beginning with the next class, in the second part, the Alter Rebbe will explain over twelve chapters what belief in Hashem’s oneness means. This will encompass both points. First, it is present within love and awe. And when love and awe are based not merely on a belief that Hakadosh Boruch Hu exists, or that Hakadosh Boruch Hu governs the world, but on belief in Hashem’s oneness—that there is nothing besides Him—the love and awe themselves are entirely different. Second, it is not only love and awe: a person’s entire outlook on himself, on the world, and on serving Hashem changes completely. So that was the introduction, and next week we will actually begin to see

1:08:49 Speaker 1 inside what those matters are that a person needs to contemplate in order to strengthen and internalize the recognition and feeling that there is nothing besides Him.