Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah Chapter 6

00:01 Speaker 1 Good evening. We’re up to chapter 6 of Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah. Chapter 6 is a summary of everything we’ve learned so far. We won’t really see new ideas here. Of course, looking at it all together gives us a completely different perspective, but these aren’t things we haven’t learned already. As we said when we began Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, the Alter Rebbe asks at the very beginning, in the first line, about the verse: “Know this day and take it to heart that Hashem is G-d in the heavens above and on the earth below; there is nothing else.” So this is a mitzvah: every Jew must try, make an effort, work at taking to heart that Hashem is one, and that in the heavens above and on the earth below there is nothing else. And he asks: What does “there is nothing else” mean? Would anyone imagine that there’s some idol, or some sea god beneath the earth? We’re speaking to a Jew. It doesn’t occur to a normal person that there are other gods. Why does this take so much effort? “Know”—you don’t need great effort for that. Every person, certainly every Jew, knows it quite naturally. Even a non-Jew, when it’s explained to him in simple, logical terms, understands that there is only one G-d. It isn’t hard to understand. Why does the Torah stress so strongly, “Know this day and take it to heart that Hashem…”? Why all that length and emphasis? So the Alter Rebbe says there at the beginning that to understand this, we have to understand how Hakadosh Boruch Hu creates the world. And then he begins explaining how Hakadosh Boruch Hu creates the world. We haven’t quite finished that explanation—or actually, we almost

01:52 Speaker 1 finished it last week, and today we’ll complete it. What was the main point? When Hakadosh Boruch Hu creates beings, it isn’t creation of something from something: taking something that already existed and making something else out of it. Hakadosh Boruch Hu creates all beings, the entire world, something from nothing. That’s the point. And because the world is created something from nothing, he demonstrated and illustrated—and we explained this at length—that the created beings must be nullified within their source and root, just as sunlight is nullified within the sun itself, before it has even emerged from the sun. The whole world, all created beings, are nullified as independent entities. That’s what he said. So since the created beings, the entire world, are nullified as independent entities, clearly Hashem is one. Right? Then he raised a question: If created beings really are nullified as independent entities, if they really don’t exist in their own right, how do they feel that they exist? Is it just an illusion? And if the entire feeling that created beings exist—our feeling that I’m alive, I’m breathing, that there’s a world here—is all just an illusion, then what is the point of Torah and mitzvos? If Hakadosh Boruch Hu is here anyway, sustaining everything and bringing everything into being, then Torah and mitzvos are meant to draw G-dliness into the world. If the entire world is G-dliness, there’s no need for Torah or mitzvos. So to explain this, he explained the other side: “Hashem Elokim is a sun and shield.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu has not only the name Havayah, the attribute of kindness that brings created beings into existence, but also the name Elokim, which is

03:51 Speaker 1 a shield and a covering for the name Havayah. It performs two functions, as we said. We explained at length what those two functions of the shield and covering—the name Elokim—are. First, it conceals the Divine revelation from created beings, so they don’t sense the light that brings them into being. Then we asked—and I’m briefly going over the whole line of thought, not repeating the full explanation—what good does it do if they don’t sense it? Suppose the sun is shining and someone makes a shadow with his hand. If you take away the hand, the shadow won’t remain. There’s no shadow without the hand. If the whole world is just a kind of shadow produced by something concealing the light, then remove the concealment and there’s no independent existence there, nothing at all. So what good does concealing the source and root from created beings do? If you remove what conceals it, where are the created beings? To answer that, he explained that the name Elokim, which conceals from us the light that brings things into being—the power of the Creator within the created being, or any of the other names we’ve used for it—has another quality. It doesn’t merely conceal; it also has substance of its own. It is a vessel. What is a vessel? Take this pitcher here, for example. You put water in it. Now, this pitcher happens to be transparent, but when you put water or another liquid into an opaque earthenware vessel, the vessel doesn’t merely hide it; it also limits it. Only a certain amount can go in, no more. The name Elokim doesn’t merely conceal

05:54 Speaker 1 the source and root from created beings; it also limits the Divine light, giving it a particular form through the letters, so that this will be a person, that will be an angel, this will be a tree and that will be a bird, and so on. So the creation of beings comes from the combination of the name Havayah, which brings them into being—that is just the basic, infinite act of bringing into being—and the name Elokim. If there were only the name Havayah bringing things into being, without the name Elokim, there would be no created beings. Everything would be infinite. Every single point would be infinite; there would be no created being. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted a world of created beings, of finite things, so He also brought about the name Elokim. Through their combination, one brings reality into being and the other limits it, creating distinctions and details, while created beings do not sense their source and root. That’s why there is a world and an existing reality. And that’s why it is possible to fulfill Torah and mitzvos, and why we need to bring G-dliness into the world and reveal it there. That is more or less what he explained up to this point. Then we asked one more question—sorry, one more point. The whole purpose was to explain that there is nothing besides Him, right? That’s what we wanted to explain. But what have you explained to me about there being nothing besides Him? That there is a power that brings things into being and a power that limits them: the name Havayah and the name Elokim. Right? That’s what we explained. Well, now you’re saying there are two. The name Havayah and the name Elokim aren’t one; they’re two. So how can you tell me there is no multiplicity in G-dliness? He explained that this isn’t a difficult question, because in their source and root, the name Havayah and the name Elokim are one. That was the explanation up to that point. Afterward, we raised questions about it and answered them. That was in the previous class, and that’s where we stopped. To complete the explanation of Hashem’s oneness, there are two more details we still need to address,

08:03 Speaker 1 and we’ll deal with them now. One thing we haven’t explained—we spoke about this at the end of the previous class, if you remember—is why the name Havayah is called Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei. Why is it called Havayah, from the word meaning “to bring into being”? Because that’s what it does: it brings things into being. That’s its name because that’s its function. But why is the name Elokim—the name associated with severity, contraction and vessels—called Elokim? It’s very clear why the name Havayah is called Havayah, Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei. Why is the name Elokim called Elokim? We haven’t explained that yet. Once that point is briefly clarified at the beginning of the chapter, he moves on to the chapter’s central theme, where he lays out the meaning of everything we’ve learned from the start until now. So let’s look inside. Chapter 6: “And behold, the name Elokim…” As we said, we’ll begin by explaining the connection between the name Elokim and what it does. “And behold, the name Elokim is the name of the attribute of severity and contraction, and it also has the same numerical value as hateva”—“nature.” What is the connection between the name Elokim and its function of constricting, serving as a vessel and setting limits? The fact that it has the same numerical value as hateva, nature. Well, if it has the same numerical value as hateva, why does that mean it’s connected to setting limits? He explains immediately: “Because it conceals the supernal light that brings the world into being and gives it life.” What does nature do? Nature conceals. When we look at nature, at the forces of nature—what today we call physics, the forces at work in nature—we don’t see them as Divine forces. We don’t see that their source is Divine. It appears to us that the Divine power is hidden within nature. We see the power, we see the laws of nature, but we don’t see the G-dliness inside. What does teva, “nature,” mean? It is related to the phrase “her gates sank into the earth.” Teva means submerged. G-dliness is submerged within nature. We don’t

10:46 Speaker 1 see it; it is concealed.

10:48 Speaker 2 Good.

10:49 Speaker 1 So that’s the first reason the name Elokim—the power that limits and conceals—is called Elokim. Why? Because its numerical value is the same as that of hateva, “nature.” What does nature do? Nature conceals and hides. It’s related to the word for sinking, like the sea, which covers everything in it. And there’s another reason—or it’s the other side of the same idea. It doesn’t just conceal. It makes it seem as though the world exists and operates according to nature. Why does nature conceal and hide? Because the world exists and operates the same way all the time. The moment something in nature changes, we call it a miracle, right? Then it’s clear to me that Hakadosh Boruch Hu intervened here, because this isn’t according to the forces of nature. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way; something else was supposed to happen, right? What’s my proof that there’s a revelation of G-dliness here? That nature isn’t working here; the forces aren’t working, hmm?

12:07 Speaker 2 I told you that it’s not...

12:08 Speaker 1 The forces of nature suddenly stopped working here. Something went wrong. What do you mean, “went wrong”? This is their nature. How can that be? There’s Divine intervention here. In other words, what does this mean? What causes the concealment? The fact that it goes on continuously. The very fact that the forces Hakadosh Boruch Hu implanted in nature always behave the same way. We do an experiment, right? We want to check whether hot coffee causes a burn. So you pour it, and whenever you pour it, it will always cause a burn.

12:49 Speaker 2 Nature also has the sense of engraving, and also the sense of sinking, from the word “to sink.”

12:52 Speaker 1 Yes, yes, yes, yes. Nature has exactly those two meanings. One is from the word for engraving: it’s its nature, it’s always the same, that’s how it behaves.

13:01 Speaker 2 Ah.

13:02 Speaker 1 On the other hand, because it always behaves that way—because that’s its nature—the G-dliness is submerged within it. You don’t see it. So that’s the connection: Why is the name Elokim—why is the power that hides, conceals, and limits—called Elokim? Because from it, from it comes... It’s the limiting power that produces these forces, the forces of nature. And because it produces these forces continuously, you don’t see that it’s G-dliness; that’s why it conceals. Good evening. All right, we had started. As we said, before you arrived we hadn’t said much. We only said that chapter six sums up everything we’ve learned so far, and the Alter Rebbe began explaining what the name means, what the connection is between the name Elokim and the name itself. Why is the power of tzimtzum called Elokim? Why doesn’t it have some other name? The name Havayah is called Havayah because it brings things into being. Why is Elokim called Elokim? Because Elokim has the same numerical value as hateva, “nature.” Well, so what? We said that nature is, as someone here put so nicely—who said it?

14:31 Speaker 2 Chani.

14:32 Speaker 1 Chani. Teacher Chani said that hateva is related both to imprinting, to engraving, and to sinking—someone sinks, G-d forbid, in... What?

14:45 Speaker 2 In swimming pools.

14:46 Speaker 1 No, there’s no need...

14:47 Speaker 2 And a river.

14:47 Speaker 1 Yes, you don’t need to drown anyone for this. You can also throw a coin into the sea, and it will sink and you won’t see it. Right.

14:53 Speaker 2 A numerical equivalence is nice, but why is it a numerical equivalence?

14:56 Speaker 1 Yes, that’s another point. It’s a good question, but...

14:58 Speaker 2 Above.

14:59 Speaker 1 What?

14:59 Speaker 2 To show it to Hakadosh Boruch Hu.

15:01 Speaker 1 No, no, I haven’t seen that stated explicitly. She’s asking why it isn’t explicit, as it is with the name Havayah: Havayah is related to “bringing into being.” I understand. Why, with Elokim, is it only hinted at through its numerical value? I haven’t seen an explicit answer to that question, but it would seem to be because the name Elokim has several other meanings. Besides being the power of tzimtzum, the name Elokim has, um...

15:26 Speaker 2 An idea, no?

15:28 Speaker 1 Ah, it says in... I don’t remember, in the second chapter, I think. “The stream of Elokim”—there’s “the living Elokim,” there’s the root of the level of Elokim. There are various other ideas associated with the name Elokim. They’re all connected to the power of tzimtzum, but not necessarily to this particular aspect of concealment. Maybe that’s the answer; I’m not sure. In any case, okay, we’ve understood why the name Elokim is called—why the power of tzimtzum is called Elokim. He continues.

16:06 Speaker 2 Which line did you say?

16:07 Speaker 1 Ah, line five. “And the name Elokim is a shield and sheath for the name Havayah, concealing the light and life-force that flows from the name Havayah and brings things into being from nothing, so that it will not be revealed to the created beings and they will not become nullified in their existence.” Right? So we have this interplay of forces. The name Havayah is what brings the created beings into existence. But so that the created beings won’t become nullified in their existence, and each one will have its own distinct form and feel itself to be an entity, there is the name Elokim, which acts. It’s the instrument that gives form to what comes from the name Havayah through the power of chesed. “It follows, then, that this aspect of gevurah and this tzimtzum are also an aspect of chesed.” Until now, we’ve always understood chesed and gevurah to be opposites. Chesed wants to give, and gevurah wants not to give. Chesed wants to bestow, and gevurah wants to limit. Gevurah... And then we had the question: If chesed and gevurah are two forces, and they’re so different, even opposites, how can you tell me there’s no multiplicity in the name Elokim? What was the answer? At their source, they are one. Fine, that answer worked there. But if they’re one at their source, that’s all well and good—down here, they’re opposites, and they’re still Divine powers. So how is there no multiplicity in G-dliness? He comes and answers that this aspect of gevurah and this tzimtzum are also an aspect of chesed. That is to say, there is gevurah and tzimtzum that aren’t chesed, but this gevurah—and we won’t discuss the other kind here now; it was discussed earlier, at the beginning of Tanya, in chapter six—this gevurah of the name Elokim is chesed. What does that mean? How can gevurah be chesed? For created beings to exist, there has to be tzimtzum. So what is the purpose of the tzimtzum?

18:23 Speaker 2 For there to be created beings.

18:24 Speaker 1 For there to be created beings. To give something to someone, there has to be someone. If there were no gevurah, there would be no created beings, no one to give to. So the very possibility of there being someone who can receive is made possible only through the power of gevurah. And this power of gevurah isn’t really gevurah at all; it’s chesed.

18:50 Speaker 2 Gevurah within chesed, or chesed within gevurah.

18:52 Speaker 1 Very good that you’re connecting them. They really are connected. In fact, it’s the very same idea. We’re talking about gevurah within chesed. For anyone who isn’t... who’s a little less familiar with this: it’s called the interinclusion of the middos. Each of the middos, each of our soul’s faculties as they appear in us, in a person, includes all the other faculties. That means the faculty of chesed contains all the other faculties within it. What other faculties? For example, chochmah, binah, daas, chesed, gevurah, and so on. What does... What does chesed within chesed mean? What is gevurah within chesed? What does this interinclusion mean? It means that chesed is the light. What do I mean? It’s the inner content. Gevurah within chesed, or netzach or hod within chesed, is how that content is expressed. My intention now is to give in a way of chesed. I don’t just give; I also do it through a vessel of chesed. For example, when a mother feeds her baby, right? She does it with love, with affection, with a warm expression. She doesn’t just give the baby something to eat; she also does it through a vessel of... Right? On the other hand, that very same action also has an aspect of gevurah within chesed. It’s not just chesed within chesed; it has both chesed within chesed and gevurah within chesed. Why? If the mother says she loves the baby so much that she wants to give him grilled meat, that won’t work. He’ll stay hungry, right? She has to limit what she gives him to what’s suitable for him. So again, she limits it; she doesn’t give him everything that... Or when... parents set limits for their child, right? They set limits for his own good; they

21:08 Speaker 1 They want what’s best for him. That’s called gevurah within chesed. It’s mentioned in connection with the “gevurot of rain.” If Hakadosh Boruch Hu brought down all the rain from the clouds at once, there would be a flood here. The world would be wiped out at once, as in the days of Noach. When Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings the rain down drop by drop, that’s called the gevurot of rain. On the one hand, there’s gevurah here: Hakadosh Boruch Hu divides the water into countless tiny drops. On the other hand, the purpose of that gevurah is to water the earth, make it bring forth and sprout, so that things can grow from it. That’s called gevurah within chesed. The vessel, the action, is one of gevurah, while the light—the purpose—is chesed. Here too, Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants to bestow. How does He do it? Through the vessel of gevurah and contraction. So it turns out that the name Elokim is not something separate from the name Havayah at all. It’s the same One, with the same purpose. It’s the same Hakadosh Boruch Hu acting for the same purpose. They aren’t two things at all. Even down here, they remain united. “This gevurah and this contraction are also an aspect of chesed, through which the world is built; this is the aspect of gevurah included within chesed.” And from the way the attributes are included within one another... “Now, from the way the attributes are included within one another,” we can see something further: “He and His attributes are one.” The attributes are included within one another until they are truly one. How can that be? How can gevurah and chesed come together? Only because there is... Take me, for example, right? When I perform an act of gevurah within chesed, I’m one person. Right? I’m now doing something that combines both gevurah and chesed. How can I do that? How can gevurah and chesed be in one act? Because in both of them, in gevurah and in

23:23 Speaker 1 chesed, the same “I” is present. Gevurah and chesed, in themselves, are two opposites. Right? Fire and water can’t join together. But when the same Hakadosh Boruch Hu performs an act containing both, they come together because Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present in it. And since Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present within them, they really aren’t two opposites. Now they are truly one. That’s what the Zohar says: “He and His attributes are one.” Since His attributes are completely united with Him, they are united with each other and included within each other. As Eliyahu said, “You are the One who binds them and unites them.” In themselves, the attributes aren’t connected or united; they’re two opposites. But because Hakadosh Boruch Hu is revealed within them, because the infinite light is revealed within them, they’re both expressions of Him. “And apart from You there is no unity in the higher realms,” and so on. Yes, even in the higher realms. If You weren’t there, there would be no unity at all. Now that we’ve understood... we’ve really tied up all the loose ends, right? How the world was created, what the power of chesed is, what the role of gevurah is, and exactly how it all happens in every detail. Now we return to the question in the very first line of Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah. This is the meaning of “You shall take it to heart.” Now we can finally understand what the Torah wants from us when it says we must work to attain faith in Hashem’s oneness. Seemingly, if the whole point is to know that Hashem is Elokim and there are no other gods in the world, that doesn’t take any effort. I understand that all the idols of the nations are nonsense. Why would a person think some statue can harm him or do him good? You’d have to be, I don’t know, a little crazy to believe that. You made a statue, and you believe it makes

25:49 Speaker 1 your life better or worse? Where does a belief like that come from?

25:55 Speaker 4 We can understand that.

25:57 Speaker 1 Hmm?

25:57 Speaker 4 Can we even understand what you mean?

26:00 Speaker 1 Yes. And there are many people today, too. They say that most of the world still believes in it today.

26:05 Speaker 4 Could be.

26:05 Speaker 1 Huh?

26:06 Speaker 4 Really.

26:07 Speaker 1 Most people in the world live in China and India. It’s simply—

26:15 Speaker 4 Those are very different subjects.

26:18 Speaker 1 As of today, most of the world still does, in sheer numbers.

26:22 Speaker 4 That they’re all one G-d, whatever the power may be.

26:26 Speaker 1 Most of the world, even today, still—

26:28 Speaker 4 That’s India.

26:30 Speaker 1 China too. Not only India.

26:32 Speaker 4 Yes.

26:33 Speaker 1 Most of the... I don’t know if it’s most today, but in any case.

26:37 Speaker 4 The East. China has over a billion people.

26:41 Speaker 5 I read on Wikipedia that there are eight billion people in the world and fifteen million Jews. Amazing, isn’t it?

26:51 Speaker 1 So there really are... But when a person opens his eyes a little and starts thinking, it’s obvious that this is nonsense. You don’t need the Torah for that. The Torah doesn’t need to tell us not to believe in statues. The Torah doesn’t need to say, “Know this day and take it to heart that Hashem is Elokim in the heavens above and on the earth below.” There’s no other boss in the world; He’s the only boss. You don’t need “know and take it to heart” for that. What does require “know and take it to heart”? Something else entirely.

27:14 Speaker 4 Something further.

27:16 Speaker 1 That “there is nothing else besides Him” means that heaven and earth themselves are not something else. It’s not that there’s no other god in heaven; it’s that heaven is not something else, and earth is not something else either, because everything is utterly nullified in its source and root. This is the meaning of “You shall take it to heart that Hashem is Elokim”: these two names are truly one. Even the name Elokim, which contracts and conceals the light, is an aspect of chesed, like the name Havayah. For Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s attributes are completely united with Him, and He and His name are one; His attributes are His names. So you’ll know, as a matter of course, that “in the heavens above and on the earth below, there is nothing else.” What does “there is nothing else” mean? Not that there is no other god. It means that even the physical earth, which appears to everyone to be a fully independent existence—even the physical earth—is truly nothing. Don’t say, “Well, the heavens are something spiritual.” Even the physical earth is truly nothing in relation to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Why? Because the name Elokim, which makes it appear to us as though the earth exists in its own right, conceals and contracts only for those below, not for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. There’s a concept—I don’t know if you’ve heard of it; maybe you have—that an entity cannot conceal itself. Do you know the concept? There’s a concept in... I don’t know if its source is in Chassidus or even earlier, in Kabbalah. An entity cannot conceal itself. It appears in halachah too, even in the Shulchan Aruch. To make a brachah, you need a head covering. Right? What can you cover your head with? Anything. Put a hat on it, a kippah, a wig, a piece of paper, a towel.

29:09 Speaker 6 Except your own hand.

29:10 Speaker 1 Huh?

29:10 Speaker 6 Except your own hand.

29:11 Speaker 1 You can use a hand, too. Ask your friend to put his hand on your head and you can make a brachah. Everything’s fine; your head is covered. But put your own hand there, and suddenly you can’t. What happened? What’s the difference between my hand and his? Is his hand better than mine? An entity cannot conceal itself. I can’t conceal myself from myself. What do I mean? My hand is me, and my head is me. How can I conceal myself from myself? I can’t. That’s the principle. Since the name Elokim is one with the name Havayah, they aren’t two different things. They’re two different expressions of... “Hashem is Elokim.” “Hashem is Elokim.” It doesn’t mean that... How does the world understand “Hashem is Elokim”? There’s Moishele, who manages the factory. Right? “Factory manager” isn’t his name; it’s his job. What does Moishele do? He manages the factory. Right? So how is the verse commonly understood? Hakadosh Boruch Hu is Havayah. That’s His proper name; that’s what He’s called. And how does He govern the world? Elokim is the Divine power that governs the world. So Elokim is Havayah’s occupation, right? He governs the world through Elokim. This is His name, and that is what He does. That’s how people understand it. This is the straightforward understanding of the verse; that’s how the commentators explain it. This is His name, and this is how He governs the world. What does Chassidus explain? It says no: “Havayah is Elokim” does not mean that Havayah governs the world through the name Elokim.

31:00 Speaker 6 Truly.

31:02 Speaker 1 Havayah is Elokim. Elokim is Havayah. It isn’t someone else; it’s the very same One. He is He. And since He is He, and one essence cannot conceal another essence, the name Elokim does not conceal the name Havayah. It conceals it from created beings, so that we feel ourselves to be real, so that we feel separate. As we said, after light passes through glass, it turns green. If the glass is green, then on the other side you see green. No, there isn’t something else there. It’s green. Has the light changed? It remains light. It knows it’s light. The glass colored it green. Has it changed? It remains the same. So here’s an analogy—maybe we’ve already used this analogy, but it gets more to this point. An analogy about an analogy. Ah, an analogy of an analogy. When a teacher wants to explain something to his students, he uses an analogy. Now we’re using an analogy, right? So what does an analogy do? It takes an example from something else and finds the teacher’s same intellectual point in something simpler that the student can understand. Now, if the student isn’t really a student but a child, he hears only the story about the king and queen, about how this and that happened. It was a story, and he enjoys the story very much. Can you say that the story he hears contains nothing of the idea they wanted to convey? The idea is there. But what does he take in? He takes in only the outer layer, only the concrete details—the story.

32:37 Speaker 7 There’s a book, I think it’s called Bemikra. The whole book is just stories and analogies, and at the end there’s a page explaining them, but people always skip that part. It’s very difficult.

32:50 Speaker 1 Yes, yes, yes, yes. Why? Because that’s—now.

32:52 Speaker 7 When I got to it, I really said, “I wonder what the message of the analogy is.”

32:55 Speaker 8 Mishlei Melech HaChassidus, yes, and there’s also that handful of...

33:01 Speaker 1 Now, the analogy conceals the idea only from the student. It doesn’t conceal it from the teacher. The same teacher who came up with the idea also came up with the analogy. For the teacher, there’s no difference between the idea and the analogy. Even after he’s given the analogy, does the teacher look at the analogy? The teacher doesn’t see the analogy at all. The teacher sees—he tells the student the analogy, but what’s in the teacher’s mind? The idea he wants to explain to him. He isn’t thinking about the—the analogy doesn’t interest him at all. Yes, the analogy conceals the idea from the student; it doesn’t conceal it from the teacher. Why? Because one essence cannot cover another essence. It’s his too. Therefore, the earth as well—on line seventeen—the earth and what is beneath the earth are truly nothing and naught in relation to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and are not called by any name at all, not even “additional.” What does “additional” mean? It means something secondary. As our Sages said, “Yehuda—and an addition to the verse?” This appears in tractate Kiddushin. Tractate Kiddushin discusses the betrothal of a woman. So there, quite near the beginning of the tractate, we’re used to a man marrying a woman. Under the chuppah, when he gives her the ring, he says, “Behold, you are betrothed to me with this ring according to the law of Moshe and Yisroel,” right? But it doesn’t say that in the Torah. The Torah doesn’t say he has to say, “You are betrothed to me.” The Torah says, “When a man takes a woman.” Why do we specifically use the wording “betrothed to me”? Maybe he could use some other wording that expresses a relationship? “Behold, you are my wife.” “Behold, you are”—instead of “betrothed to me,” yes—“behold, you belong to me,” “behold, you are acquired by me,” and so on. Why use specifically the word “betrothed”? Who said that’s the only word you can use? So the Gemara discusses this at length. It brings—I don’t remember—ten or twenty or I don’t know, very, very many expressions, and discusses...

35:19 Speaker 1 ...each one. If a man betroths a woman and uses that expression, is she considered his wife or not? There’s a whole list, and the Gemara discusses it, with proofs from verses and all sorts of places. It’s an interesting discussion. One of the—one of the...

35:33 Speaker 8 There’s also the possibility that only “betrothed” works.

35:36 Speaker 1 No, no.

35:37 Speaker 7 Doubtfully betrothed, or betrothed.

35:40 Speaker 1 Yes, there are all kinds. With some expressions there’s a doubt, with some it’s definite, and with some it doesn’t work at all. You’d have to look it up. I haven’t studied tractate Kiddushin in a long time, but that’s the substance of the discussion there. In any case, one of the expressions the Gemara mentions is: What happens if a man says to a woman—and of course they’ve already discussed getting married and both agree that they want to—now the expression he uses is, “Behold, you are my charufah.” My charufah.

36:14 Speaker 7 With...

36:15 Speaker 8 With witnesses. There are some Tosafos who would betroth her that way.

36:21 Speaker 1 The Gemara says: What is “my charufah”? Where did you get “my charufah” from? The Gemara asks, and answers: What do you mean? It’s an explicit verse! Yes. It says, “A maidservant betrothed to a man.” There’s a verse about a—a—a charu—a charufah maidservant. That’s a category in Torah law, in the Written Torah. There’s a woman who has the legal status of a slave. She was sold into slavery, but only half of her was sold into slavery. In other words, one day she’s a maidservant and the next day is her own. One day she’s a maidservant, one day is her own. She—one day—yes, half and half. On one day she’s a slave; on the other she’s free, free for herself. This is called a charufah maidservant, who is...

37:08 Speaker 8 They asked about the half-and-half arrangement.

37:09 Speaker 1 What?

37:09 Speaker 8 One day she’s mine, one day she isn’t.

37:10 Speaker 1 So he says to her, “Behold, you are my charufah.” So the Gemara says: Certainly. If he said that to her—well, the Torah itself says that a charufah is betrothed: “A maidservant betrothed to a man.” So she’s certainly betrothed. No problem. The Gemara says: I have another proof. What other proof? In the kingdom of Yehuda, where most Jews lived at the time, they actually used to say, “Behold, you are my charufah.” That really was their custom there at the time. The Gemara asks: “Yehuda—and an addition to the verse?” You have an explicit verse in which the Torah says that’s what they say, and you bring me an additional proof that this was the custom in the kingdom of Yehuda? Why do you need that proof? The Torah says that’s the law. Yes, the Written Torah. So the wording of our Sages is “Yehuda”—as though the custom in Yehuda is something additional? Can you even say that it’s secondary to the verse? How can you say—it’s nothing, yes. The Torah says it, and that settles it. Then you bring me more proofs that are entirely secondary, a custom someone observed. So from the Sages’ wording we see that “additional” means secondary. So heaven and earth are not only not called by any name in relation to Hakadosh Boruch Hu; they not only have no exis—

38:33 Speaker 8 Yes, you can. Yes, yes.

38:34 Speaker 1 What?

38:35 Speaker 8 That’s the idea behind doing it in...

38:38 Speaker 9 A charufah maidservant is only half and half.

38:39 Speaker 8 They brought you other proofs.

38:41 Speaker 9 No, no problem.

38:42 Speaker 1 Ah, what is the practical ruling in the Shulchan Aruch? What was decided? Well, honestly, I don’t know.

38:47 Speaker 8 No, but the idea is that yes, because there’s that master.

38:49 Speaker 1 I mentioned it because it’s written here, and that’s all. As for the halachah, no one...

38:56 Speaker 8 “Behold, you are my charufah.”

38:58 Speaker 9 He’ll say the word we use afterward.

39:00 Speaker 1 Come on. Someone called me today. Two or three hours ago, someone called me. He seals tefillin. That’s his profession, sealing tefillin. He asks me halachic questions from time to time. He calls to ask. He says someone brought him a tefillin box to seal. A customer brought him the parchment passages and a tefillin box, and at the front of the box there’s a hole. A hole. You look at it and you see a hole. He asks whether it’s kosher or invalid. At first I didn’t understand what he was asking. So I say to him: Are these peshutim boxes, higher-quality boxes, gassos boxes, Ashkenazi, Sephardi? There’s a whole range of details that affect what to do. In the end he says to me: “No, no, no, no. It’s a new box.” I said: “If it’s a new box, what are you talking to me about? What do you mean, a new box? Someone bought a new box, and you want to give him a box with a hole? What difference does it make whether it’s written or not written, kosher or not kosher? Can you give someone who’s paying thousands of shekels for tefillin a box with a hole? What difference does the halachah make?” Yes. That’s... That’s not what we’re discussing here. If you want to know the practical halachah, there’s the Shulchan Aruch; that’s where the practical laws are. These are discussions in the Gemara. The Alter Rebbe brings a proof from here that the word “od,” “additional,” means secondary. Good. So heaven and earth not only cannot be called by a name; they aren’t a reality at all. Not even something additional. They aren’t even something secondary to Him. As our Sages said, the body, which is secondary to the soul and the life within it, is called “additional.” Yes, the body. All right, we do see only the body, but we relate only to the soul. The whole person is only the soul, the life within him. The body without...

40:37 Speaker 1 ...a soul is nothing. Yes, the body is completely secondary to the soul. He adds an interesting proof in square brackets.

40:45 Speaker 10 Yes, there are brackets—those brackets?

40:46 Speaker 1 What?

40:47 Speaker 10 Those brackets, yes, are there brackets like that?

40:48 Speaker 1 Two lines later: “I will praise Hashem with my life; I will sing to my G-d with my being.” So it says here: when I praise Hashem, I praise Him with my life—“I will praise Hashem with my life.” But when I sing to Hashem, I sing to Him with my being. What are “my life” and “my being”? “My life” is the soul, and “my being” is the body. So here is proof that the body is called “my being,” and it is only secondary to the soul: life is drawn from the name Havayah, while “my being,” the body, is secondary and comes from the name Elokim. Now, the soul does not bring the body into being from nothing. Why, in fact, is the body secondary to the soul? Because the soul does not bring the body into being from nothing. If the soul brought the body into being, the body would not merely be secondary to the soul; it would be nullified to the soul, nullified in its very existence. But the soul does not bring the body into being; it only gives it life. The body has an existence even without the soul. So there is the soul, one complete existence that is primary, and there is a second existence, the body, which is secondary. There is this existence and there is that existence. Now, which is primary? This one is primary. But this is one and that is two; this is primary and that is secondary. That is why the body is called “my being.” All of this concerns the soul and body. But Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings everything into being from nothing, and everything is utterly nullified to Him, like sunlight within the sun. As we have explained several times, because there it is not... The world has no existence at all without Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Hakadosh Boruch Hu does not just give the world life, and He does not just govern the world. He brings it into being from nothing, and therefore the entire world is utterly nullified, like sunlight within the sun. And since no one actually sees or senses this,

42:49 Speaker 1 and even after the deepest contemplation it is hard to understand—it takes, uh, six deep lessons in Tanya to reach this conclusion—this is truly something that requires “you shall know,” and Scripture had to clarify it. “You shall know today and take it to heart”: do not imagine that the heavens and all their hosts, and the earth and all it contains, are something separate in their own right. That is what Scripture wants to clarify. When you see the world, the point is not merely that there is no other G-d ruling over it. You must not imagine that the world is separate from G-dliness. That takes contemplation. And Hakadosh Boruch Hu fills the entire world. In other words, do not imagine that Hakadosh Boruch Hu fills the entire world the way the soul is invested in the body. How is the soul invested in the body? There is a body and there is a soul. The soul enters the body and gives it life. Right. So we might say this: Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world. The world is the body. And now Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives it life. What would that mean? That He supplies the power of growth in the earth and the power of motion to the celestial spheres, moving and guiding them as He wishes, just as the soul moves the body and guides it as it wishes. But in truth, the analogy does not resemble what it is meant to illustrate at all, because the soul and body really are separate from each other. They are separate even at their source, because the origin of the body and its very substance do not come from its soul, but from the seed of its father and mother. And even afterward, its growth does not come from its soul alone. True, the soul is what drives that growth, and through it the body grows, but the body’s actual growth comes from the food it eats. That does not come from the soul; the soul only operates the system. Rather, it comes through the mother’s eating and drinking throughout the nine months, and afterward through the person’s own eating and drinking. Not so the heavens and earth: their entire substance and essence came into being from absolute nothingness solely through the word of Hashem and the breath of His mouth, blessed be He. And even after the world came into being, the word

45:06 Speaker 1 of Hashem still stands forever and flows into them—the heavens and earth—constantly, at every moment, bringing them into being from nothing continually, like the emergence of sunlight from the sun within the body of the sun itself, by way of analogy. If so, they—the heavens and earth—are truly and utterly nullified in their very existence before the word of Hashem and the breath of His mouth, blessed be He. Period. The Alter Rebbe adds something further, and before the next sentence, let us add a question that will explain and emphasize the point. We have spoken at great length, all the way through, about how the word of Hashem—the utterances—creates the created beings, right? And the created beings are nullified within their source and origin. What is their source and origin? The word of Hashem that creates them. Right? Well, what about the word of Hashem itself? Until now, we have treated the word of Hashem as though it were Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. Right? But actually, once we call it speech—why does the Torah call it the word of Hashem, speech? That means there is Hakadosh Boruch Hu, His essence and being, and there is what He says. So what He says is no longer Him. It is only what He says. What comes out from Him is not Him at all. So that means we have returned to the problem of multiplicity: there is Hakadosh Boruch Hu, who does not bring anything into being, and there is the word of Hashem, which brings the created beings into being. Oops. Right? The Alter Rebbe continues and says that the word of Hashem and the breath of His mouth, blessed be He, are also united with His essence and being, blessed be He, as will be explained later, like the nullification of sunlight within the sun. I have already mentioned this to you several times. Now let us add another word or two. Uh, the analogy we brought in chapter 3 was about the nullification of created beings before their source and origin. You remember, right? The analogy was sunlight within the body of the sun. That was the analogy. When we get to chapter 10, with Hashem’s help, it will discuss

47:37 Speaker 1 the nullification of the word of Hashem before His essence and being. There the analogy will not be sunlight within the body of the sun, but sunlight within the sun—which is an enormous difference. With Hashem’s help, we will see that there. For now, it is enough for us that the word of Hashem, too, is nullified within its source and origin, and therefore all created beings truly are nothing at all.

48:01 Speaker 11 One second, I’ll say here that this lesson is in the merit of...

48:12 Speaker 1 So why, in fact, do we not see the created beings that way? It is precisely this that shows His might: the attribute of gevurah and contraction conceals and hides the life-force flowing into them, so that the heavens and earth and all their hosts appear to be something in their own right. But the contraction and concealment are only for those below. Before Hakadosh Boruch Hu, however, everything is truly considered as nothing before Him, like sunlight within the sun. And the attribute of gevurah does not conceal anything from Him, G-d forbid, because it is not something in its own right; rather, Havayah is Elokim. So up to this point, from the beginning of Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, the Alter Rebbe has laid out for us the Baal Shem Tov’s approach to Divine Providence. From that, we understood the essential point of the faith a Jew is obligated to have. Now, the title of this part of the book is Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, right? We have understood what we need to recognize as one and believe in. We have, right? Some understood it, and some understood less. I did not understand a great deal either, okay, but, but, but the Alter Rebbe has finished the explanation. Yet Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah has twelve chapters, not six. That means that beyond the basic matter of Divine unity, there is another whole subject that takes six chapters to explain, that is connected to unity and faith, and apparently we cannot do without it. What?

49:49 Speaker 11 What do you mean?

49:50 Speaker 3 Yes.

49:53 Speaker 1 So in this chapter we emphasized this very strongly. I deliberately emphasized it to confuse you.

49:58 Speaker 11 You said that, but not as part of the section on...

50:03 Speaker 1 Yes, right, I said it at the beginning. I said it at the beginning.

50:09 Speaker 11 Good students.

50:10 Speaker 1 Up to this point, we have explained what “You shall know today and take it to heart that Havayah is Elokim” means. Where does that appear? It appears in the first line. The first line of Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, right? But there, if you remember, before the first line there is a heading. And the heading says that the purpose of Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah is to understand at least a tiny bit of what is written in the holy Zohar. That the higher unity... uh, that “Shema Yisroel” is the higher unity, and “Blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom” is the lower unity. Right? So up to this point, we have explained only what unity is. What the higher unity and the lower unity are—that, with Hashem’s help, is for next week.

50:58 Speaker 11 That is for the weeks after that.

51:00 Speaker 1 The weeks after that, in another...

51:02 Speaker 11 There was one more chapter.

51:05 Speaker 3 Ah, just a correction: that was another week.

51:07 Speaker 11 Ah, enough, enough.