Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah Chapter 1

00:00 Speaker 1 Well, good evening. We’re beginning Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah. Last week we spoke very briefly about what needs to be discussed. There isn’t time for it today either—about what is distinctive about Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, which is the foundation of all Chassidus: the foundation of Chassidus in general, of its particular teachings, and of Chabad Chassidus. These chapters are the foundation of all Chassidus. Elsewhere, these subjects are explained in various chapters and in different contexts. Here the Alter Rebbe arranges it all, each matter in its proper place, from beginning to end: what faith means according to the Baal Shem Tov’s approach. The Alter Rebbe begins by calling it Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, which, as we said last week, is its specific name. Its general name is the second part of the book Likkutei Amarim, and this second part has a specific name: the gateway to the unity of Hashem and faith in Hashem. He begins this section with a heading, just as he began the first part, Likkutei Amarim, with a heading. He writes: “To understand a very small measure of what is written in the Zohar.” The difference from the first part is very striking. In Likkutei Amarim he begins by setting out “to explain thoroughly how it is very near”—“For this thing is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.” To explain thoroughly how it is very near. But here the Alter Rebbe tells us at the outset that everything we’re going to understand about unity and faith cannot be understood thoroughly. We can understand only a little, and only a very small measure. In other words, the unity of Hashem, and faith in Hashem based on an understanding of His unity, is so profound that it is beyond the capacity of created beings. That is why it isn’t something that can be

02:14 Speaker 1 explained thoroughly. After all the explanations and all the understanding, know from the start that the understanding one can have of Hashem’s unity is only a very small measure. It isn’t like the first part, where everything is presented as a thorough explanation—even though the subjects here are profound, and they are explained very clearly and intelligibly. The Alter Rebbe says: Know that whatever you think you understand, that isn’t it. It’s something else entirely. So what is this very small measure that we can understand? What the Zohar says: “Shema Yisroel,” and so on, is yichuda ila’ah, the higher unity, while “Blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever” is yichuda tata’ah, the lower unity. When we say the Shema, it begins with two lines—or, more precisely, a verse and a statement of our Sages. The verse is, “Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One.” In the Torah, it continues straight on: “Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One. And you shall love Hashem your G-d with all your heart and with all your soul.” “Blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever” isn’t written in the Torah; it isn’t a Torah verse. Where does it come from? Our Sages said, and Rashi brings this in his commentary, that “Israel” refers to our forefather Yaakov. When Yaakov was about to depart this world, he brought all his sons together, all the brothers. The twelve tribes stood beside his bed, and he asked them: “Is there perhaps something amiss among you? Is there someone who does not share my faith wholeheartedly?” His children, the tribes, answered Yaakov: “Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One.” Just as there is only One in your heart, so there is only One in ours. When the aged Israel, our forefather Yaakov, heard his sons praising Hakadosh Boruch Hu with such praise, he responded to them: “Blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever.” So we take that phrase,

04:17 Speaker 1 that saying of our forefather Yaakov, and add it among the verses of the Torah. That is the straightforward meaning. The holy Zohar writes that these two lines are not merely a question and answer between the sons and their father, or a declaration by the sons and their father’s agreement. Rather, they represent two levels, two aspects of faith in the unity of Hashem. This is how the holy Zohar explains it: the first verse, “Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One,” is one kind of faith in Hashem’s unity. The second line, “Blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever,” is another, lower kind of faith in Hashem’s unity. The first is called yichuda ila’ah, higher unity, and the second is called yichuda tata’ah, lower unity. I’m sorry to spend so long on something some of you know by heart, but there are also people here for whom this is new. So far, these are familiar ideas. The Alter Rebbe raises a simple question. He doesn’t ask it explicitly, but the question cries out: When I believe that Hashem is One, how can there be two ways of believing it, a higher way and a lower way? I believe He is One, so I believe He is One, right? What does higher faith or lower faith mean? Either I believe or I don’t, right? What does the Zohar mean when it says that we, the Jewish people, believe in Hakadosh Boruch Hu in two ways: with a higher faith that Hashem is One, and also with a lower faith that Hashem is One? What are these two ways? How can one believe in Hashem’s unity in two ways? What does that mean? The Alter Rebbe tells us in the heading that he is now going to spend the next twelve chapters explaining these two ways of understanding Hashem’s unity. Actually, before we begin reading the text, one more thing. The explanation itself—the difference between

06:26 Speaker 1 yichuda tata’ah and yichuda ila’ah—which chapter do you think the Alter Rebbe begins explaining it in? Take a guess; I know you don’t know. Only in chapter 7. The Alter Rebbe begins explaining the question posed in the heading to the entire work only in chapter 7. What comes before chapter 7? Six chapters that are all still within the heading, without explaining that distinction at all, without touching on it. In the first six chapters of Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, the Alter Rebbe lays out the Baal Shem Tov’s approach for us. How does the Baal Shem Tov explain the meaning of Hashem’s unity? The Baal Shem Tov explains it in a way that had never been explained before and did not exist before him—not in the revealed teachings of Torah, not in the Midrashim, not in the Zohar, not among the early or later commentators, and not anywhere else. The Baal Shem Tov introduced a new idea about faith in Hashem. The Alter Rebbe is going to explain this point in six chapters—a point so profound that all the great sages of Israel, the prophets, the tzaddikim, and so on, had not revealed it. Once we understand the Baal Shem Tov’s approach, we can turn to what the Zohar meant by yichuda ila’ah and yichuda tata’ah. All right? So let’s start at the beginning. In chapter 1, the Alter Rebbe simply presents the Baal Shem Tov’s approach. Chapter 1: “And you shall know today and take to heart that Hashem is G-d in the heavens above and on the earth below; there is nothing else.” That is a verse in Parshas Vaeschanan, where we also say the Shema. What is the verse saying? That every Jew—come, let’s read it, let’s break down the verse into our own simple words. Now, what does Hakadosh Boruch Hu command each of us? To know today, right? What do we need to know? No, no, no, wait. Before I tell you what you need

08:41 Speaker 1 To know—it isn’t enough just to know. “Know this day,” and after you know, you also have to “take it to heart.” You have to know it, but knowing it intellectually isn’t enough. You have to make an effort to bring it into your heart, not just your mind. You must both know it intellectually and take it to heart. In other words, the Torah is about to give us a command that must be very hard to grasp and take to heart; otherwise, it wouldn’t need to be such a command. “Know this day and take it to heart,” right? What are we commanded to know and take to heart? “That Hashem is G-d in the heavens above and on the earth below; there is no other.” Well, what’s so hard about that? What is there to know? What is there to take to heart? Everyone knows that Hashem is G-d in the heavens above and on the earth. Who would imagine that there’s another G-d? What’s more, this verse appears in Parshas Va’eschanan after the warning, “Lest you raise your eyes to the heavens and see the sun and the moon and bow down to them,” and the warning against making an image of creatures beneath the earth. In other words, the preceding verses prohibit us from treating creatures in the heavens or in the sea as deities. Then this verse comes and says: Listen, not only must you not believe that the stars or fish are deities; beyond that, don’t even entertain the thought. “Know this day and take it to heart that Hashem is G-d in the heavens above ... there is no other.” That means there is no power besides Him that rules the world. Not only is there no other G-d; there is no one else with any power, neither in the heavens

10:41 Speaker 1 above nor in the waters beneath the earth. That is the plain meaning of the verse. The Alter Rebbe asks: We need to understand. Would it occur to you that there is a deity dwelling in the waters beneath the earth, so that you need such a strong warning to “take it to heart”? Who would imagine that somewhere under the sea there’s some... The Torah tells you to know this and take it to heart—what is this grave warning that demands so much effort? It’s obvious. So to explain this, the Alter Rebbe says: “It is written”—what’s the answer?—“Forever, Hashem, Your word stands firm in the heavens.” This verse has several interpretations. What is this word that always stands firm in the heavens? The Baal Shem Tov explains one interpretation: “For Your word that You spoke, ‘Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,’ and so forth—these words and letters stand forever within the firmament of the heavens and are enclothed within all the heavens forever, giving them life.” The Baal Shem Tov says that when the verse says, “Forever, Hashem, Your word stands firm in the heavens,” which word of Hashem stands firm there? When Hakadosh Boruch Hu spoke the Ten Utterances, one of the things He said was, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters.” That utterance, those words, that sentence that Hakadosh Boruch Hu spoke—the words and letters of “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters”—are within the heavens constantly, without interruption. They sustain them, bring them into being, and give them life anew from nothing every moment. How are there heavens? Hashem’s word, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,” is there. That utterance in Parshas Bereishis is there all the time, giving life to the heavens and sustaining them from nothing. But how can that be? We know that when a person speaks, as soon as he closes

13:19 Speaker 1 his mouth, the speech disappears. Speech doesn’t last forever. What does it mean that “the word of our G-d shall stand forever”? Hakadosh Boruch Hu said a sentence. Fine, let’s say that utterance created the heavens. That was nearly six thousand years ago. Once speech has been spoken, it ceases to exist. What does it mean that Hashem’s speech is there all the time? What kind of speech is that? The Alter Rebbe says: Yes, it’s an explicit verse: “As it is written, ‘The word of our G-d shall stand forever.’” There is a verse. Hashem’s speech isn’t like ours. Our speech ceases when we stop speaking. Just as Hakadosh Boruch Hu is eternal, His speech is eternal. Once He speaks a word or a sentence, it exists forever. And it isn’t only in the Torah. We also say every day in the blessings of Shema: “His words live and endure forever.” Which words of Hakadosh Boruch Hu live and endure forever? The speech of the Ten Utterances, which creates the world anew from nothing every moment. The Alter Rebbe goes on to explain what the Baal Shem Tov meant. What does it mean that within the heavens there are Divine letters, Divine speech, creating them from nothing? Take the simplest analogy: when a craftsman makes an earthenware vessel, he takes clay, kneads it with water, shapes it into a vessel, and dries it in a kiln. That’s it, right? Does the craftsman have to keep working on the vessel for it to exist? Once he has made it, he can go home. He doesn’t have to keep watching it. The vessel exists. So what does it mean that the speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu constantly gives life to the heavens? Why? Once He said there should be heavens, that’s it—they exist. Why must He keep creating them anew from nothing? What kind of

15:47 Speaker 1 thing is that? Yes, is it clear what the question is? So he says: “For if the letters were to depart for even an instant, G-d forbid, and return to their source, all the heavens would become absolute nothingness and nonexistence, as though they had never existed at all, just as before the utterance ‘Let there be a firmament,’ and so forth.” That is what the Baal Shem Tov says—or rather, the Alter Rebbe is explaining what the Baal Shem Tov meant. We’ll also look at this at much greater length later, in chapter three—chapter two. But the essential point is that the existence of the world is not something separate. When a craftsman takes clay and makes a vessel from it, the clay was there before. He only changed its form, from something shapeless into a vessel; he didn’t create the material itself. Right? The potential for the vessel’s shape was already in the clay: it was clay from which such a vessel could be made. The craftsman didn’t create a new existence here; he only changed its form. When Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world, He created it. What does creation from nothing mean? He took nothing. What is “nothing”? It isn’t empty space—empty space is still space, space that is empty. Hakadosh Boruch Hu took nothing and made something from it. There was nothing there before. Right? So what, so to speak, is the entire existence of the world made of? Hashem’s word. The moment Hashem’s word is no longer there, there is no existence. Is the difference clear? When we look closely, the Alter Rebbe uses three expressions here. He says that if the letters were to return to their source and stop bringing the world into being, then the heavens would become nothing. Not only nothing: they would become absolute nonexistence. And more than that, they would be as though they had never existed at all, just as before the utterance “Let there be a firmament.” In other words, the Alter Rebbe goes to great lengths here,

18:31 Speaker 1 using three expressions: if the letters were to return to their source, the heavens would be nothing, they would be nonexistence, and they would be as though they had never existed at all. What is the difference between these three expressions? Once something is nothing, it doesn’t exist and is as though it never was, right? What’s the difference between “nothing,” “nonexistence,” and “as though they had never existed at all”?

18:53 Speaker 2 That there’s no trace of them at all. Yes, but there is still some kind of existence in each of those expressions.

19:03 Speaker 1 Listen, we won’t explain right now what the Alter Rebbe means by that. “Nothing” can mean a radiance, something that has no independent existence. The light and radiance that come from the sun—if you put up a barrier, there’s no light here. It has no existence of its own; it is nullified to its source. Right? The light is nullified to its source, but there is light here. So “nothing” can mean that it is nullified in relation to something else. When you look at it—you know how people say, “What they’ve given us for the school so far is nothing compared to what there will be here”? Right? Compared to what there will be, it’s nothing. The light, compared to the sun, is nothing, but it is light; it does exist. So “nothing” means nothing in comparison to something else. “Nonexistence” isn’t relative to something else; objectively, it’s zero. There’s nothing here. Right? “Nonexistence” is much more of a nothing than “nothing” is. It’s absolutely nothing. And within that, the Alter Rebbe says there are two levels: there is absolute nonexistence, and there is being “as though they had never existed at all.” What’s the difference between absolute nonexistence and something that is, so to speak, even more nonexistent?

20:30 Speaker 3 That they would go back to being... Yes, but

20:34 Speaker 1 Chassidus gives a wonderful analogy for this. Say we have clay powder. We’re back to the clay powder, all right? On Sunday, the first day of the week, there’s only powder here. On Monday, a potter comes, mixes it with water, shapes it into a vessel, fires it in a kiln, and it becomes a vessel. On Tuesday, that same potter comes with a stick, strikes it, breaks it, crushes it, grinds it up, and returns it to powder, just as it was before. Right? Now we ask: Was there a vessel on Sunday? No. On Tuesday, after it was ground back into powder, is there a vessel? No. What was there on Sunday? Only powder. What is there on Tuesday? Only powder. Is there a difference? Yes. What’s the difference? Here it’s absolutely nothing. Is there a vessel here? Absolutely nothing. Is there a vessel here? Absolutely nothing. What’s the difference? The difference is that the vessel broke because of an external action. Something caused it to break. In itself, as a vessel, its identity as a vessel remains. The fact that it doesn’t exist now in practice is because something external caused it to break. Right? But if not for that external thing—and even after it happened—we can say there was a vessel here. There’s some sort of reality here, right? True, in practice there’s nothing; in practice it’s the same zero. But the definition of a vessel had come into being. Do you understand the difference? Yes? What does the Alter Rebbe say about the heavens? About the existence of the world? That if the letters were to withdraw to their source and root, it would not be like that vessel that existed, was broken, and became nothing. Rather, it would be exactly as it was before the utterance “Let there be a firmament,” and so on. Because when the letters return to their source and root, since even while the world did exist it was not an independent reality, then if the letters return to their source

23:12 Speaker 1 and root, the existence of the world will cease in a way that is exactly as though it had never been created at all. Do you understand the difference? If we were to say that there’s something here... There’s a story. A chossid met a misnaged and wanted to tease him a little. So he asked him, “Tell me, do you believe in Hakadosh Boruch Hu?” “Of course. I spend all day learning Gemara—how could I not believe in Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Of course I believe.” “Tell me, if Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted to do away with the world, what would He do?” “What do you mean? He’d burn it in a fire.” The chossid laughed at him: “Well, what would He do with the ashes? What would He do with the fire?” So he said, “He’d scatter the ashes in the wind.” “Well, what would He do with the wind?” In short, he backed him into a corner. In the end, when the misnaged had nowhere left to go—he’d been pushed into a corner—he said to him, “You and your G-d can burn together.” If Hakadosh Boruch Hu doesn’t want there to be a world, the moment He stops creating it—Hakadosh Boruch Hu doesn’t... It’s not as if there’s some existing thing that needs to be eliminated. He doesn’t need to eliminate anything. He’ll stop creating it, and it won’t be there. And it’s not just that it will cease to exist from then on; it will cease to exist retroactively. It never existed at all, because its entire existence—even while it exists, it doesn’t exist. “There is nothing besides Him.” That means there is nothing besides Him, literally nothing else.

24:49 Speaker 4 We’re only speech.

24:50 Speaker 1 Hmm?

24:51 Speaker 4 We’re only speech.

24:52 Speaker 1 Wait, we’re only at the beginning. It gets even worse. Exactly. The letters would be absolute nothingness and would be as though they had never existed at all, just as before the world was created. So far we’ve spoken about the heavens. The verse says—how does it go? “Your word... ‘Let there be a firmament in the midst of...’ The words and letters of that utterance stand forever within the firmament of the heavens.” Well, what about the rest of the world? The Alter Rebbe says: Yes, and the same applies to all the created beings in all the higher and lower worlds. Not just the heavens, not just the earth, not just the physical world, not just the spiritual worlds—all the created beings in all the worlds. More than that, even this physical earth, even actual inanimate matter: if, G-d forbid, the letters of the Ten Utterances through which the earth was created during the Six Days of Creation were to withdraw from it right now, the physical earth would return to absolute nothingness, exactly as it was before the Six Days of Creation, with no difference at all. It would be as though it had never existed or been created. Up to this point, the Alter Rebbe has presented these ideas in the name of the Baal Shem Tov. Seemingly, nothing explained so far is a novel teaching of the Baal Shem Tov. It’s already written in Midrash Tehillim. There are several explanations of why the Alter Rebbe cites it in the name of the Baal Shem Tov. First, the Baal Shem Tov was the one who publicized it and explained it. There’s another reason the Rebbe gives, connected with remembering the Baal Shem Tov, who was born on a Monday, and so on. There are several reasons, but that isn’t the main innovation. Here the Alter Rebbe adds—he begins to explain—that the Baal Shem Tov’s teaching has an additional depth that wasn’t in the Midrash. The Alter Rebbe says: “This is what the Arizal meant”—this is what the Arizal intended—“when he said that even in actual inanimate matter, such as stones, earth, and water, there is a soul and spiritual life-force.” What had we said until

27:20 Speaker 1 now? Until now, we’d only said that if Hakadosh Boruch Hu were to stop speaking the word of Hashem that gives life to the worlds, the worlds would cease to exist. What is the Alter Rebbe saying now? That even after He has created the worlds and inanimate matter exists, there is a soul and spiritual life-force within the inanimate matter Hashem has created, giving it life. So suddenly we’re hearing that there are two kinds of Divine powers here. There are the letters that bring the created thing into being, and there’s the life-force that gives it life. Did you hear that? That’s what it says here, right?

28:05 Speaker 4 It’s just like a body and soul, as it were.

28:07 Speaker 1 Yes. So when we talk about a body and soul, that’s fairly understandable. There’s the body, and there’s the soul that gives it life. Without the soul, the body isn’t alive. It doesn’t move, it doesn’t breathe, it doesn’t live, think, or feel. Where is there a soul in inanimate matter? A soul in inanimate matter? What—is something there growing, moving, developing, living, thinking, feeling? What? If we say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives life to the world through letters that bring created beings into existence from nothing—well, Hakadosh Boruch Hu said it, it’s written in the Torah, I believe it. But once we say that He also gives them life, then just as He gives life to all created beings, He also gives life to... He brings all created beings into existence in the same way. So He gives life to inanimate matter too; He gives it life... it has a soul. What is this soul of inanimate matter? “This is what the Arizal meant when he said that even in actual inanimate matter, such as stones, earth, and water, there is a soul and spiritual life-force.” What is it? “Namely, the letters of speech from the Ten Utterances, which give life to inanimate matter and bring it into existence as something from absolute nothingness, become enclothed within it.” So there are two new things here. First, the letters of speech from the Ten Utterances both give life and bring into existence. Right? Two things. Second, how do they do so? By becoming enclothed within it. When we say... Let’s explain it this way. If we were to say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted to create a world—how did He want to create a world? He has infinite power, infinite power. He decided there should be a world, so He created a world. He wanted a world with infinitely many created beings, so He created a world with infinitely many created beings. What’s the difference between the created beings? There’s no difference; they’re all the same: one was created as a chair, another as a table, and another as a person. So Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives life to them all

30:07 Speaker 1 In the same way, He brings them into being in the same... He said, He wanted this and this and this and this, right? There’s no difference. But the moment we say that Divine life-force is enclothed within the created beings, He isn’t just bringing them into being from the outside. That is, the created beings aren’t G-dliness. Hakadosh Boruch Hu, with His infinite power, made something that isn’t G-dliness. He can do that. He did. When we say that Divine life-force is enclothed within the created beings, what does that mean? It means that G-dliness—the created beings are G-dliness. G-dliness is enclothed within them. It isn’t something external, like the soul... That’s a good example given in Chassidus, as you said: the soul gives life to the body. When we look at a living person, nobody relates to that person as just a body. We don’t. When you meet someone for the first time, then yes, but once you know him and see him every day, you don’t relate to his body. You relate to his soul, to the life within him. Why? Because when the life-force is enclothed in the body—what does “enclothed” mean? It gives life to the body in such a way that it’s no longer just a body. It’s a body with life enclothed in it. It’s not some sort of vessel with a soul inside operating it, like—I don’t know—some machine with electricity running through it. No. The body and soul become one thing. So when we say that Divine life-force is enclothed within the created beings, it means that the Divine life-force unites with them. The created beings aren’t something separate from G-dliness. Yes. Now, if we... What does that mean? It has a very profound implication. If we say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself created everything—He went “poof” and everything was created—fine. But if we say that He gives life to the created beings, that He is enclothed within them, and every created being is different—we don’t have two

32:15 Speaker 1 created beings that are the same. An angel isn’t a fish, and a goat isn’t a chimpanzee. Every angel is... Every created being is something different. It has a different life-force. And if Divine life-force is enclothed within... There are many kinds of created beings. So, excuse me, we have many gods here. Each one has Divine life-force within it, and...

32:36 Speaker 5 A part of G-dliness—that’s not...

32:38 Speaker 1 Yes, but...

32:39 Speaker 5 A part of Him isn’t something...

32:41 Speaker 1 How can you... How can you say that about G-dliness? We say He is One. That would mean there are many kinds of Divine life-force.

32:51 Speaker 5 Not kinds.

32:54 Speaker 1 A human soul isn’t the soul of a frog, right? It’s something different.

32:59 Speaker 5 Hashem can, can give life to a person just as much as He...

33:04 Speaker 1 Yes. If we say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is, so to speak, external and created something else, something separate, fine—He created a person, and He created this. And there were indeed great Torah scholars who understood it that way. Until the Baal Shem Tov, that’s how everyone understood it: Hakadosh Boruch Hu created many beings; He can do that. But the Baal Shem Tov introduced something new: Hakadosh Boruch Hu didn’t just create the created beings; He is enclothed within them. If He is enclothed within them, that means He is here in one way, there in another way, and elsewhere in yet another way. So there are many kinds of Divine life-force. How can that be? Hashem is One. How? What’s going on here? This is what the Alter Rebbe explains to us.

33:44 Speaker 5 There’s no clear literal understanding. If you look at what... You could understand it to mean that each one brings with it its own particular life-force, its own character.

33:52 Speaker 1 No. If I say He gives it life, then that isn’t G-dliness; it’s something else, something separate. Hakadosh Boruch Hu created beings and He created life-force—fine.

34:00 Speaker 5 Yes, you gave the example of electricity earlier.

34:03 Speaker 1 Yes.

34:04 Speaker 5 Well, electricity operates different machines, right?

34:08 Speaker 1 Yes.

34:09 Speaker 5 A refrigerator, a washing machine—they’re different things.

34:10 Speaker 1 Yes.

34:11 Speaker 5 The electricity is the same electricity.

34:12 Speaker 1 Yes, but, but one... But the...

34:15 Speaker 5 So, with a thousand distinctions. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the same...

34:18 Speaker 1 Why “with distinctions”? Why? Because electricity isn’t really enclothed in the machine; it doesn’t become part of it. Even while it’s working and operating the machine, it remains entirely external. It’s like a person pulling the strings of a marionette. The puppet doesn’t come alive. The person’s life-force doesn’t enter it or unite with it. They’re separate. He operates it from the outside. But when we say that Divine life-force is enclothed, the word “enclothed” means that it is Him—He is there. And if He is there, how is He a frog in one place and a monkey in another? Hakadosh Boruch Hu isn’t a monkey. What’s missing is a link in between. So he explains as follows: “Although the word ‘stone’ is not mentioned in the Ten Utterances in the Torah.” Since Hashem, in the Ten... Hakadosh Boruch Hu didn’t say, “Let there be a stone.” So how does a stone have a life-force that gives it life? He didn’t say, “Let there be...” As we said, “Let there be a frog”—how does a frog have life? Where does it come from? “Nevertheless, life-force is drawn into the stone through combinations and substitutions of letters.” Combinations are like saying, for example, netach, a cut of meat, and chassan, a groom: netach and chassan have the same letters, right? They’re just arranged differently, and you get another word. Yes, so they took... Hakadosh Boruch Hu said the word rakia, “firmament,” in “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters.” And when Hakadosh Boruch Hu changes the combinations of the words and the sentences and the... within the... plays with the letters, other beings are created, ones that aren’t explicitly mentioned.

36:13 Speaker 5 Sorry to interrupt. There’s... [unclear] Rami son of Chaya Miriam, who found a good yeshivah this way.

36:20 Speaker 1 Who is that?

36:21 Speaker 5 [unclear] Rami son of Chaya.

36:23 Speaker 1 Fire.

36:24 Speaker 5 I want to... What does he want there?

36:25 Speaker 1 What does he want there?

36:26 Speaker 5 No, he found a good yeshivah, and he...

36:27 Speaker 1 Ah, that’s fire. So those are combinations. What are substitutions of letters? Simple substitutions: instead of Alef you write Beis; instead of Alef you write Gimmel or Dalet; instead of Beis you write Tzaddik. You substitute one letter for another. Yes, we have the word chassan. I replace the Ches with a Tzaddik, the... and so on. Yes. How can you substitute letters for one another?

36:53 Speaker 5 Yes.

36:54 Speaker 1 What’s the rule? It’s written in Sefer Yetzirah. Sefer Yetzirah is a book composed by Avraham Avinu, peace be upon him. We have it, and you can study it. Anyone who wants to study it inside is welcome to. It isn’t one of the easy books. So right there in chapter one it says that there are substitutions of letters that revolve through 231—Reish, Lamed, Alef—231 gates, front and back, as explained in Sefer Yetzirah. We have a total of twenty-two letters in the Torah, not counting the final forms—the basic letters. If you pair Alef with each of the other letters, how many do you get? How many kinds of pairings are there? Twenty-one. There are twenty-two letters, so Alef with each of the others makes twenty-one. If you pair Beis with each of the others, that’s another twenty-one. Right, we have twenty-two letters, so the total number of possible pairings is twenty-one times twenty-two, which comes to 462.

37:52 Speaker 5 You substitute only one letter each time.

37:56 Speaker 1 Kinds of pairings. There are 462 kinds of pairings. Good, but pairing Alef with Beis and Beis with Alef is the same thing. It’s just forward and backward, right? So 462 can be divided by two.

38:19 Speaker 5 Four hundred and sixty-two? Reish, Lamed, Alef is 364.

38:19 Speaker 1 No, 462 divided by two is 231. Reish, Lamed, Alef—231 gates, front and back. Yes, there are 231 possibilities for pairing letters. So that’s a second kind of letter combination. There’s rearrangement, where you simply change the order of the letters, and there’s substitution, where you replace one letter with another. Some of these are more familiar. Everyone certainly knows Atbash, Gardak. Do you know that cipher? Do you know it? Alef–Tav means Alef and Tav; Beis–Shin means Beis and Shin. The letter—

39:04 Speaker 5 From the beginning to the end.

39:05 Speaker 1 Yes, you substitute letters. For example, in place of the word ayin, you write, uh, tav—I don’t know what it comes out to—in place of yud and nun. Yes. That’s one kind of substitution. There are different kinds. For example, our Sages said that the word echad and the word va’ed are the same word. Why? Because alef and ches are both—how does it go? Sorry. Alef and vav. Echad corresponds to va’ed. Alef and vav can be interchanged. Why? Because they both belong to the letters alef, hei, vav, yud, the letters that carry a sound forward, letters that can appear at the end of a word. Then ches and ayin can also be interchanged, because they’re both guttural letters. So that’s another kind of substitution. Yes, and daled and daled are the same. So echad and va’ed are the same. Yes, and so on. There are various kinds. Altogether there are 231 kinds of these substitutions, detailed there, as it says in Sefer Yetzirah. Until, through a chain of descent from the Ten Utterances, the combination forming the name even, “stone,” is drawn from them. So how—after all, the Torah doesn’t say how Hakadosh Boruch Hu created a stone. He didn’t say, “Let there be a stone.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu said, “Let there be a firmament,” “Let there be earth,” and so on. But through combinations, changes in order, and substitutions, it descends through one substitution after another until you get the name even, the letters alef, beis, nun. And that combination is the life-force of the physical stone. The same is true of all the created beings in this world and in the spiritual worlds: the names by which they are called in the Holy Tongue are the very letters of speech that descend from level to level from the Ten Utterances in the Torah, through substitutions and transpositions of letters in the 231 gates, until they reach that created being and become invested in it to give it life. This is explained in connection with the wisdom of Adam Harishon. It says that Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted to test Adam Harishon’s wisdom, so He brought all the creatures before him, and Adam Harishon gave each one

41:11 Speaker 1 a name. Yes, he said, “This is a cow; this one should be called a donkey.” There’s a Midrash that lists a number of creatures Adam Harishon named. Finally, He brought a woman before him, and he said, “She shall be called ishah, for she was taken from ish.” So the commentators ask: What was so wise about Adam Harishon? Anyone can make up names. Is his wisdom that he knew how to invent a name for everything? Just throw out names—what’s the problem? The explanation is that Adam Harishon wasn’t just throwing out names. In every creature Hakadosh Boruch Hu brought before him, he saw the combinations of Divine letters that gave it life. The name he gave it was the combination of letters in the Holy Tongue that brings that thing into being. Incidentally, this is also a foundation of Kabbalah: people use combinations of letters and intentions to do various things, miracles and wonders. Yes, those who are truly wise in Kabbalah, who really know the combinations, can, by saying the letters in the proper order and manner, with the proper intentions, actually change physical reality—bring about the healing of a sick person, or whatever it may be. Why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu do it this way? Why did He make created beings in this way? It would have been much simpler, as we said at the beginning: Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants to create them, so He creates them. Boom! He makes the Big Bang, and all created beings come into existence at once, from nothing into something, each with its own character and form. Why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu create the world by way of investiture? The Alter Rebbe explains: Because individual created beings cannot receive their life-force directly from the Ten Utterances in the Torah. The life-force drawn from the utterances themselves is far too great for individual created beings, and they cannot receive it unless the life-force descends, step by step,

43:35 Speaker 1 from one level to a lower one through substitutions and transpositions of letters and gematrios—the numerical values of the letters. We haven’t spoken about that. That’s a third kind; we’ll get to it in a moment. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted to give life to the world by becoming invested in it. That was His will. He wanted to give life to created beings in such a way that the Divine life-force would become invested in them: the world would not be separate, but the Divine life-force would be invested in it and united with the reality of created beings, to the point that their entire reality would be G-dliness, an extension and revelation of G-dliness. That cannot happen all at once. Created beings are small, finite, limited. The Divine life-force, even the life-force of the Ten Utterances, is infinite. So for individual created beings to receive it, it has to come—Hakadosh Boruch Hu made it come—through an ordered chain of descent. First there is the great utterance that creates the heavens. Then there are the combinations that create the great beings in the heavens. Then come the substitutions, which create more particular beings. Then come the gematrios, and so on—substitutions of substitutions and gematrios, until the lowest and humblest beings are created. In this way, the life-force can be contracted, invested in, and bring into being this particular creature. And its name in the Holy Tongue is a vessel for the contracted life-force in the letters of that name, which descended from the Ten Utterances in the Torah.

45:15 Speaker 6 Wait, and all the things that are—Hakadosh Boruch Hu—basically it’s the same thing, only their life-force comes from—

45:22 Speaker 1 I didn’t understand what you’re asking.

45:24 Speaker 6 All the... basically, all the created beings that... basically, their whole reality is opposed to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So does that also come from... do they somehow receive...

45:34 Speaker 1 You’re asking how... you’re asking how there can be, uh, a mayor who opposes the establishment of a Chabad school? Is that the question?

45:42 Speaker 6 No, exactly that. Because of that. How can it be that—you told me there are people who, like, come and—

45:48 Speaker 1 How can there be a Pharaoh? Where does he get his life-force?

45:52 Speaker 6 Not where he gets his life-force. Where does he get it in terms of his physical substance?

45:56 Speaker 1 Yes.

45:57 Speaker 6 His very existence, too—I mean, does his existence also come from those Ten Utterances, or is there something else involved?

46:05 Speaker 1 Everything comes from the Ten Utterances. And when Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted lower things to be created, even matters of kelipos, there was another substitution, and another, and another gematria, and another combination, and more and more. It goes down and down and down until it gives him life directly from G-dliness. There’s no other source, no other generator. Mm. The Rebbe adds something on this—yes, to sum up at the end. Ultimately, only Hakadosh Boruch Hu can create something from nothing. The Ten Utterances are only speech, only utterances. How can they give life? How can they bring something into being from nothing? Because they are the Ten Utterances in the Torah. And because they are in the Torah, they have the power and life-force to create something from nothing and sustain it forever, for “the Torah and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are entirely one.” The power of the Ten Utterances to create something from nothing comes from the fact that the Ten Utterances are in the Torah, and the Torah is united with His Essence and Being. So it is by the power of His Essence. So... up to this point, we’ve said everything and we’ve said nothing. We’ve said everything: we’ve explained the Baal Shem Tov’s approach, that the entire world is created anew at every moment, from nothing into something, through combinations of letters in two ways. Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings it into being from nothing Himself, and at the same time the life-force comes through the Ten Utterances by way of substitutions and transpositions. We skipped things here—you didn’t have the patience, so we skipped a lot of explanations along the way. So the Divine life-force unites with the created being and gives it its properties: a stone is heavy, water is wet, fire is hot, a living soul is alive, and so on. Those are the properties it receives... Why did I say... why didn’t I say... that’s what we did say. Why did we say nothing? Because when you look at everything written here, it’s an enormous innovation. About the foundations, about the foundations

48:28 Speaker 1 Of nothing. It’s written in the Torah somewhere as a hint, in some Midrash. The Alter Rebbe brings a verse from which you can draw some indirect proof. And there’s a hint in the Zohar and in the writings of the Arizal, and that’s it. The whole idea rests on that. It’s not something you can understand intellectually; it’s really a matter of faith. The Rebbe says—the Rebbe, the Alter Rebbe says—that’s how it is. What do you mean, “that’s how it is”? This is Chabad, this is Chassidus. This is how we learn, how we can believe, how we can bring it into our hearts. How can I connect with something that’s incomprehensible and beyond reason, that goes against my understanding and against what I feel? I don’t feel that this world is G-dliness. I don’t feel that way. How can I connect with something like that, internalize it, live with it? For that, the Alter Rebbe brings another two chapters. In the next chapter, the Rebbe explains this idea intellectually. He gives us a way to understand that the world has no existence without G-dliness. How can we understand that intellectually? Then, in the following chapter, the third chapter, the Rebbe adds another explanation: Listen, after telling you this, after explaining it to you intellectually, I also have an analogy.

49:56 Speaker 7 Sorry. Welcome. May we hear good news. Not just tomorrow—tomorrow too. Good morning to you. You’ve started your day.

50:02 Speaker 1 A little coffee in the morning clears away the nonsense.