Igeres Hateshuvah Chapter 9

00:00 Speaker 1 What? Yes? All right. That was it.

00:02 Speaker 2 You can, but you don’t have to.

00:04 Speaker 1 [unclear]

00:04 Speaker 3 All right, good evening. We’ll begin. Today we’re up to chapter 9 of Igeres Hateshuvah. Chapter 9 begins, “And the explanation of the matter.” We’ve had that before; I don’t remember where. Maybe in a few places. Shaar 2 here also begins, “Explanation of the matter.” In other words, he’s saying explicitly that he has essentially finished explaining the subject, and now some further explanation is needed. So what is he coming to explain? In the previous chapters, he explained what teshuvah is, how one does teshuvah, and the difference between lower teshuvah and higher teshuvah. The main explanation was in the last two chapters, 7 and 8. There he explained what lower teshuvah is and what higher teshuvah is. Back at the beginning of chapter 4, when he started the explanation, he asked about what the Zohar says: lower teshuvah is the lower hei, and higher teshuvah is the upper hei. What does it mean for the hei to return to its place? Where did it fall, and why does it need to return? The explanation was that the root of our soul, the soul of each of us, is in Hashem’s name as it exists in the World of Atzilus, in the letters of Hashem’s name that shine in the World of Atzilus. And just as there in the World of Atzilus the four letters of Hashem’s name are the source of the ten sefiros, so too those same four letters shine within the ten faculties of our soul as it is in the body, which derive from those ten sefiros. Broadly speaking, the ten faculties of the soul divide into two. There is the faculty of action

02:20 Speaker 1 What, Rachel? Rachel.

02:25 Speaker 3 Thank you very much.

02:27 Speaker 1 Bring the coffee.

02:28 Speaker 3 I was going to tell you I don’t need coffee today, but if you’ve already made it, I’ll drink it. Broadly speaking, the most basic division is that our soul has the faculty of action, a faculty that operates entirely outside the person, and then there are all the person’s inner faculties, which include intellect and emotion. The three intellectual faculties and the six emotional faculties are the person’s inner faculties. And there is the faculty of action. So when a person commits a wrong in action—violates a mitzvah, stumbles into a transgression—he damages the soul’s faculty of action. He damages the threads connecting the soul to the body, the 613 threads of action that make up the cord connecting the soul’s source to the body. And his soul descends to receive vitality from the kelipos. So which part of his soul descends to receive life from the kelipos? The part he damaged, the part that was impaired.

03:36 Speaker 1 Come, sit here. There’s room here.

03:42 Speaker 3 Good evening. We haven’t really started inside the text yet. I’m just talking around it for now. So when a person stumbles in an action—we’re talking about Igeres Hateshuvah, about doing teshuvah for a transgression—when a person commits a transgression, he damages the hei within his soul. And that damaged part of the soul, its lower part, the soul’s faculty of action, descends into the kelipos and receives its vitality from them. This also causes that hei of Hashem’s name above, which is the soul’s source, to descend into the kelipos as well and give them life against its will. So when a person does teshuvah for the act, he also returns his soul to where it ought to be—in holiness rather than in the kelipos. That itself causes the hei of Hashem’s name, the source of that part of the soul, to return to its place as well and channel vitality to holiness rather than to the kelipos. That is lower teshuvah. Higher teshuvah is when the upper hei, the first hei of Hashem’s name, returns to its place to join with the yud. What does that mean within a person’s soul? He explained it, and last week we gave an analogy: the difference between a son and a servant. A servant does what his master wants. A son, too, if he’s a faithful son who loves his father as he should, does what his father wants. And sometimes a servant might deliberately do something against his master to upset or anger him. A son, too, might sometimes deliberately annoy his father, as they say. That’s called intentional wrongdoing: he does it on purpose. But afterward, when the son or the servant does teshuvah, he feels sorry and regrets it. If he’s a servant who truly loves his master—he got angry with him that one time, but afterward he remembers that, really,

06:00 Speaker 3 he loves his master. We gave the example of Eliezer, Avraham’s servant, who loved his master very much, and there could be many like him. Moshe, who is called a servant of Hashem, loved Hakadosh Boruch Hu very much, even though he is called a servant. And a son who has sinned against his father can also afterward regret it and feel sorry that he sinned against him. But there’s an enormous difference between a servant’s regret and a son’s regret. A servant who regrets what he did—at the end of the day, his master isn’t his father. He takes it upon himself to do everything his master wants from now on. But does that give rise to some inner feeling in him? He isn’t related to him; his master didn’t father him. He isn’t a son, and doing teshuvah doesn’t turn him into his master’s son. There’s simply a difference in how it feels. If a servant sets fire to his master’s wheat, or a son sets fire to his father’s wheat and burns it, then afterward they feel sorry and regret it. Clearly, the son’s regret is completely different from the servant’s. The servant is sorry and asks forgiveness, and that’s the end of it. But the son, who is bound to his father, is beside himself: “How could I have done such a thing to my father?” The feeling is entirely different. That’s the idea of higher teshuvah. Higher teshuvah isn’t teshuvah for the act, whose point is, “From now on, I accept upon myself the yoke of Heaven.” Rather, higher teshuvah means that I, as a soul here in a body, feel the soul’s bond with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What matters to me in this world, what matters to me in life, what drives all my actions, my thoughts, my feelings, is my bond with Hashem, with Hakadosh Boruch Hu.

07:58 Speaker 3 That is higher teshuvah. That’s what he explained mainly in chapters 7 and 8.

08:06 Speaker 4 [unclear]?

08:07 Speaker 3 Hmm?

08:08 Speaker 4 [unclear]. I have a question. Can a person ever do complete teshuvah? Is it possible to reach a point where a sin is completely rectified? Can everything be wiped clean?

08:25 Speaker 3 Can everything be wiped clean and a person do complete teshuvah? Certainly.

08:29 Speaker 4 Okay.

08:31 Speaker 3 Certainly.

08:32 Speaker 5 It’s not that simple.

08:34 Speaker 4 Right, that’s the thing. Every second, more are being created—

08:36 Speaker 3 No, actually, the question is a good one. I was debating whether to talk about this or not. I didn’t want to go on too long before we started inside the text, but—

08:44 Speaker 4 No, it bothers me, because it’s a task.

08:47 Speaker 3 So let’s just mention it. I don’t want to get into it now; we’ve already discussed it at length. In chapter 1, we talked about the common misconception. People are very confused. We’re told, “Do teshuvah. You need to do teshuvah.” What is teshuvah? One person says teshuvah means drawing closer to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Another says it means feeling sorry for your sins. A third says it means confessing. A fourth says it means repairing the past. Everyone says something different. Someone says teshuvah means practicing self-denial and fasting. And all these things are written in the sources. So the Alter Rebbe makes it very, very simple. Teshuvah—the word means returning to Hashem. That’s it. The moment a Jew decides that from now on he accepts kabbolas ol, that is teshuvah. Teshuvah isn’t repairing the past, and it isn’t confession, and it isn’t atoning for sins, and it isn’t self-denial or fasting. It isn’t any of those things. Teshuvah is returning. That’s why our Sages said that teshuvah can happen “in one hour, in one moment.” Teshuvah doesn’t take time. The moment a person catches himself and pounds the table—“That’s it. From now on…”—that’s it. He has done teshuvah. Done. From that moment on, not a single thing will be brought up against him on the Day of Judgment—not on Yom Kippur, not on the Day of Judgment, not at all. Teshu—

10:15 Speaker 4 Are there crumbs left over? What about—what, what—

10:17 Speaker 3 First of all, we need to understand what teshuvah means. Teshuvah means returning. Period. That’s it. Then there is the perfection of teshuvah. The perfection of teshuvah is something else entirely. It means not only changing from now on, but also atoning for the past. But that isn’t part of teshuvah itself. It’s the perfection of teshuvah. When a person regrets what he did and accepts the yoke of Heaven upon himself from now on, he has completed his teshuvah. He’s done. That’s it. Correcting the past as well—that’s another matter, the perfection of teshuvah. So you don’t need fasting in order to do teshuvah. You don’t need fasting in order to feel regret and accept the yoke of Heaven upon yourself. The moment a Jew realizes he hasn’t acted properly, he knows he hasn’t acted properly. All the lengthy explanation in Tanya isn’t about how to do teshuvah; it’s about how to reach the perfection of teshuvah. That’s what the whole explanation is about. And then he said: How does one truly achieve teshuvah for sins? There are two levels. The first level is called teshuvah tata’ah. First, a person must understand the damage the sin caused. He reflects on the greatness of Hashem, before Whom he sinned. He reflects on the damage the sin caused, as we discussed at length over three chapters. When he thinks about it, he arouses great compassion for his soul and humbles himself for having been such a beast, so defiled, so coarse. He humbles himself and arouses compassion. Those two movements—arousing compassion and humbling himself—are the true and direct path to teshuvah... and it becomes fixed in his heart. This also corrects the past, and so on. That really does take work, but the work is to correct the past, to atone, to cleanse—so much so that he can be as beloved before Hashem as he was before the sin, as though he had not

12:18 Speaker 3 sinned. That is being created anew, but it isn’t part of teshuvah itself. All right, I think we’ve spent too much time on this. So let’s move toward the subject of our chapter. At the end of the previous chapter, when he discusses teshuvah ila’ah, he asks: What is its essence? The essence of teshuvah ila’ah is that a person connects himself to G-dliness. How does a person connect himself to G-dliness? Through his inner faculties, or—let’s explain it this way. What’s the difference between intellect and emotion? Emotion—the middos. I want, I don’t want. I love, I don’t love. Emotion is about me. How do I relate to someone else? Right? The whole nature of emotion is that a person feels himself. It doesn’t matter which emotion; that’s true of emotions in general. Intellect is the opposite of emotion. The whole nature of intellect is to set aside everything I know and try to understand the thing I’m thinking about now. If a person has preconceived notions—meaning, he comes to understand something, but he has things in his head that he learned here and there, something similar—and while he’s teaching—while he’s learning, he tries to make comparisons in his mind. Wow. One second, hold on. Are there more pages here, or is that...? We haven’t started yet, but we’ll need them soon. We started by saying that the difference between teshuvah tata’ah and teshuvah ila’ah can, in general, be described as the difference between intellect and emotion. With emotion, a person feels: I feel; it’s me. With intellect, when a person comes to understand something, he comes to understand the thing itself. He sets himself aside in order to understand the idea he wants to grasp. In other words, middos—emotion—are about a sense of self, while intellect is about self-nullification. And that is precisely the difference between teshuvah tata’ah and teshuvah ila’ah. Teshuvah tata’ah means that he does teshuvah for a deed he committed,

15:12 Speaker 3 for his external faculties. Teshuvah ila’ah means that he connects himself to what is above him, to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That’s why teshuvah ila’ah is connected... teshuvah tata’ah is connected to the middos, while teshuvah ila’ah is connected to intellect, to Binah. He explained this a little more deeply. And at the end of the previous chapter he asks: Where do we see that teshuvah ila’ah is connected to Binah? He says there—I don’t have the book in front of me—that the Zohar says teshuvah ila’ah is Binah, and that Binah is the “son of Yud-Hei.” Binah is—yes, the son of Yud-Hei. Yud-Hei represents the intellect, Chochmah and Binah. Yud is Chochmah, Hei is Binah, and the son is the middos. So what is teshuvah ila’ah? It’s engaging in Torah. Why? Because Torah involves understanding, intellect. So when a person studies Torah out of love and awe of Hashem... I think I’ve managed to confuse you completely. All right, I’ll think about how to make this simpler. Sometimes you explain too much and can’t see the forest for the trees. To understand what chapter 9 says, we need to understand the difference between teshuvah tata’ah and teshuvah ila’ah. Teshuvah tata’ah is teshuvah in matters of kabbolas ol and action. Teshuvah ila’ah is cleaving to G-dliness. Cleaving to G-dliness is connected to Binah, to intellect, and intellect is connected to Torah. Is that clear so far? Good, that’s simpler. And there he adds something that needs explaining. What needs explaining? He said that teshuvah ila’ah, which is Binah, is the “son of Yud-Hei.” What are we talking about? We’re talking about teshuvah. Teshuvah means cleaving: “And the spirit shall return to G-d Who gave it.” The Hei cleaves to the Yud, returns to the Yud. What does the son have to do with

17:50 Speaker 3 it? What do the middos have to do with it? With teshuvah tata’ah, where we’re talking about action and emotion, that’s where you can talk to me about middos. Now we’re talking about teshuvah ila’ah, about G-dliness, understanding, comprehension, cleaving. He’s contemplating and cleaving to G-dliness in his mind, with his intellect; he’s studying Torah. Why say that it’s the “son of Yud-Hei”? Teshuvah ila’ah is Yud-Hei: the Hei joins the Yud. What does the son have to do with it? What do the middos have to do with it? Fine, I contemplate and middos are born. What does that have to do with teshuvah? All right? That is what he comes to explain in chapter 9: why teshuvah ila’ah doesn’t end with cleaving, doesn’t end with intellect, doesn’t end with Torah study, but also includes emotion. It has to extend into all the faculties of the soul.

18:50 Speaker 6 So it’s really about effort?

18:51 Speaker 3 Hmm?

18:51 Speaker 6 It’s really about effort?

18:52 Speaker 3 No, not at all.

18:53 Speaker 6 That means teshuvah ila’ah isn’t connected to sins.

18:57 Speaker 3 We’ll see that not only is it connected, but teshuvah tata’ah isn’t complete without teshuvah ila’ah. That really does need explaining. That’s what he comes to explain.

19:08 Speaker 6 Teshuvah ila’ah is really the feeling of closeness to the Creator, to Hashem.

19:10 Speaker 3 Hmm?

19:11 Speaker 6 Teshuvah ila’ah, the highest teshuvah. What we said in the previous chapter is really the longing for the Creator, for Hashem.

19:15 Speaker 3 Yes. Chapter 9: An Explanation of the Matter. What does emotion have to do with teshuvah ila’ah? As it says in the Zohar and Tikkunim in several places, “Binah is teshuvah ila’ah.” We already said that in the previous chapter. And the Zohar calls it... What does it mean that Binah is teshuvah ila’ah? “The mother hovering over her chicks.” Usually, when we speak of Binah—contemplation—giving rise to the middos, we call Binah “the mother of the children”—

19:52 Speaker 6 Yes.

19:53 Speaker 3 Right?

19:55 Speaker 6 Yes.

19:55 Speaker 3 What do we call Binah?

19:57 Speaker 6 The mother.

19:57 Speaker 3 The mother of the children. Binah is the mother who gives birth to the children, the middos. Here, suddenly, instead of “the mother of the children,” the Zohar calls it a mother hen hovering over her chicks.

20:07 Speaker 6 But it’s the mother hovering.

20:08 Speaker 3 The mother hovering over her chicks. Why—what do the chicks have to do with this?

20:12 Speaker 6 Cute.

20:14 Speaker 3 What’s the difference between a mother who gives birth to children and a mother hen hovering over her chicks? When a child is born, she has to feed him afterward. Yes, but she doesn’t hover over him all the time. He’s a person in his own right. She has to look after him, feed him, and care for him, but he’s a person in his own right. When chicks are small, the mother is constantly hovering over them; she doesn’t leave them. Do you hear the difference?

20:48 Speaker 6 Yes.

20:48 Speaker 3 What’s the difference between intellect and middos? The explanation is as follows.

20:59 Speaker 6 I’m just trying to understand: What could the intellect be? What could it be—

21:04 Speaker 3 No, in either case the mother is Binah, and the children or chicks are the middos. But there are two ways of contemplating, and therefore there are also two kinds of middos. Some middos are called children, and some are called chicks. And teshuvah ila’ah isn’t the mother who gives birth to children, but the mother hovering over her chicks. The explanation, very briefly, at any rate, is... How is an emotion born? I reflected on the fact that this person is a good friend of mine, right, and how many good things he’s done for me, and therefore I love him. Fine, so contemplation gave birth to a feeling of love. Or I think about how sweet my child is, and that awakens love for my child. Right? Is the love for a friend and the love for a child the same kind of love?

22:10 Speaker 6 No.

22:11 Speaker 3 That is completely different. Both are love, but they are completely different. Why? Because contemplation gave birth to an emotion. Something that is born is already someone else. It is no longer connected to the mother who gave birth to it; it is a person in its own right. When the intellect comes down to deal with the emotions, a person understands something, then goes down to work out the conclusion, and that conclusion brings him to an emotion. The intellect leaves its own realm, stops being intellect, comes down and deals with emotion, and then an emotion is born. Something else is born.

22:56 Speaker 6 What do you mean, “the intellect stops being emotion”? It was emotion all along.

23:02 Speaker 3 It stops being intellect. Sorry, that was a slip. There is another way, a completely different way. A person thinks about the Rebbe—about how great a tzaddik the Rebbe is, how many explanations he has given in Torah, and what Chassidus looked like before and what it looks like now. As he contemplates the Rebbe’s greatness, love for the Rebbe awakens in him. Throughout his contemplation, he was not thinking about why the Rebbe is good for him. That was not the subject. He was thinking about the Rebbe. The emotions awakened on their own. This is called—

23:51 Speaker 6 Even before that—

23:52 Speaker 3 What?

23:53 Speaker 6 Because the love was there before.

23:54 Speaker 3 No, before he contemplated—

23:57 Speaker 6 He loved the Rebbe before. Then, when he contemplated, that love flared up; it awakened. It is like a father and child—

24:04 Speaker 3 And the first time he contemplated the Rebbe?

24:08 Speaker 6 No, I’m just using that as an example.

24:09 Speaker 3 No, no, no. Love for the Rebbe is not something implanted in the very essence of the soul.

24:14 Speaker 6 In the essence of the soul.

24:16 Speaker 3 And—and [unclear] is something that is born—so not the Rebbe; I don’t know, take something else. There is a kind of love or a kind of awe that is not born because a person understands what he needs and therefore it awakens.

24:34 Speaker 6 Because then the person disconnects—

24:35 Speaker 3 Rather, simply by attaching himself deeply, in his intellect and his thoughts, to that understanding and delving into it, his emotions sense that there is something here. The emotion rises and attaches itself to the intellect.

24:51 Speaker 6 Okay.

24:53 Speaker 3 So these are two different kinds, and the difference is enormous. In the first kind, when the intellect descends to the emotion, once the emotion has awakened, you do not see the intellect there. It is no longer present. If someone sees a person loving or hating someone else, and thinks about why, he can arrive at an explanation. But if he does not think about it, all he sees is the love or the anger. In other words, the intellect is not present within the emotion, because it left its own realm, and what was born is something else. But in the second, higher way—intellectual emotions, “the mother hovering over her chicks”—the intellect has not stopped being intellect. The person remains immersed in the intellectual matter throughout. The emotion that is born is not outside the intellect; it is an intellectual emotion, an emotion elevated to the level of intellect. Within the love, the intellect shines through the emotion and is felt within it. That is called “the mother hovering over her chicks.” It is not that the intellect descended to the emotion, but precisely the opposite: the emotion rose to the intellect.

26:17 Speaker 6 And when the intellect descends to the emotion, that means it comes down to what matters to the emotion: me. What do I gain from this? What do I get out of it?

26:26 Speaker 3 Very good.

26:28 Speaker 6 And when the emotion rises, there is bittul: I am not the point—

26:30 Speaker 3 Exactly. Down below, I am the center; up above, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the center. That is called bittul. That is called teshuvah ila’ah. That is called binah. That is called ben Y-H. There is a “son” here, there are emotions, but it is a son of Y-H. It is a mother hovering over her chicks, and the chicks feel their mother all the time. That is: “Through contemplating the greatness of Hashem with deep concentration, he gives birth, from the spirit of his binah, to intellectual awe and love.” And “with sound reason and understanding”—he has a reason and an explanation, and he feels it within the emotion. He feels it with sound reason and understanding; the intellect burns there within the emotion. As it says, “To love Hashem your G-d, for He is your life”—he does not just suddenly love Him for no reason. “And he is not satisfied with the hidden natural love alone.” So a person contemplates G-dliness until his emotions are drawn after his intellect. “And likewise with awe or fear, or shame, and so on, as is known.” I do not want to bring more examples here and make this longer. So this is called “the mother hovering over her chicks,” and so on. Up to here, it is quite clear. This, then, is the explanation. It is what began the chapter: explaining what we said at the end of the previous chapter—that binah, that teshuvah ila’ah, is connected with binah; that binah is attachment to G-dliness; and that this is called ben Y-H. What does a “son” have to do with it? He says that there is indeed a son here, but it is not that binah descends to give birth to the son. The opposite: binah becomes so attached that the person’s entire being rises and is swept along by his attachment to G-dliness. Now he begins another stage: love has been born. All right, he contemplated until love was actually born. “The essence of love is the attachment of spirit to spirit, as it is written, ‘Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth,’ and so on.” Here love has been born. Love is an emotion; it is in the heart, the breath of the heart. How is that expressed when—

29:06 Speaker 3 Two people love each other? I want to feel the other person, and the other person wants to feel me. They come so close that they kiss, and the breath from their hearts mingles together—in the physical sense. About this it says, “And with all your soul.” When contemplation of G-dliness has such depth and such force that it awakens emotion, it is not only that he loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu—not only “with all your heart,” not only with the emotions of the heart. “With all your soul” means it takes hold of his entire being: “all the parts of the soul—intellect and emotions, and their garments, thought, speech, and action—to attach them all to Him, blessed be He.” He spells it out: “That is, his emotions to His emotions, blessed be He: just as He is merciful,” and so on. This is not some conclusion he reaches; it is the result. He is so attached to G-dliness that his emotions become G-dly emotions. He begins to have compassion for people because Hakadosh Boruch Hu is compassionate, and that finds expression in him. “And his intellect to His intellect and wisdom, blessed be He.” It is not merely that he understands he must study Torah in order to connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He wants so intensely to connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu that he studies Torah. Torah is the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He understands that the only way to connect with G-dliness is—what is burning within his intellect, within his learning? The desire to connect with G-dliness. “That is, the study of Torah, for Torah proceeds from chochmah.” He wants his hei, his binah, to cleave to the yud, to chochmah. How? Through Torah, because Torah comes from chochmah. “And likewise his thought to His thought, blessed be He, and his speech to the word of Hashem, which is halachah, as it is written, ‘I have placed My words in your mouth,’ and ‘My words that I have placed in your mouth.’”

31:22 Speaker 7 Is that one verse?

31:23 Speaker 3 Two verses in Isaiah, I think. “And action”—how does he cleave to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, to G-dliness, through action? “Acts of tzedakah, to revive the spirit of the lowly, as it is written, ‘For in six days Hashem made,’ and so on, as explained elsewhere.” Just as Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives life to the world and creates it, lowering Himself to revive the spirit of the lowly, to create the worlds and sustain them, so a person who wants to cleave to Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives tzedakah and sustains the lowly people he can help. “And this is the attachment of spirit to spirit in the ultimate attachment and union, when it comes from love,” and so on. When a person contemplates G-dliness until he is drawn into it, attaches himself to it, and this finds expression in love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu—a love that permeates his entire being from top to bottom, his chochmah and intellect, his emotions, and his thought, speech, and action—that is the ultimate attachment. When? When these things come from love. A person can also study Torah without love. He can do all these things, perform mitzvos, without love of Hashem. He can study Torah, state a halachah, and give tzedakah without love of Hashem. But when all his conduct is shaped by what drives him inside—the desire to cleave to Hashem—that is teshuvah ila’ah. So at this point the Alter Rebbe has finished explaining what teshuvah ila’ah is. We still need to complete two essential points. One, which someone asked earlier: What is the connection between teshuvah ila’ah and teshuvah tata’ah? At first glance, what we have seen so far is two completely different things, right? Teshuvah tata’ah is repentance for sin, for transgressions. Teshuvah ila’ah—he wants to go further. All right, very good: connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, excellent. But apparently teshuvah tata’ah, as we have learned it so far, is not

33:58 Speaker 3 Connected, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that teshuvah ila’ah will follow, and teshuvah ila’ah is not necessarily connected to it. They are two separate things, two separate matters. And there is something else we need to consider. Ah, the Alter Rebbe still owes us an answer. If you remember, when we began studying, right in chapter 1, I think it was, if I’m not mistaken, one of the questions the Alter Rebbe asked was about the statement in the holy Zohar that teshuvah helps for all sins except for one who damages his covenant. For someone who damages his covenant, teshuvah does not help. Astonishing. What does it mean that teshuvah doesn’t help? Have you ever heard of a sin for which teshuvah doesn’t help?

34:48 Speaker 8 What does “damages his covenant” mean?

34:50 Speaker 3 Damaging his covenant refers, for men, to emitting seed in vain or to forbidden sexual relations. Everything connected with those prohibitions, with procreation—all the prohibitions connected with procreation. So what does it mean that if someone did something like that... he can’t do teshuvah for it? Heaven forbid.

35:19 Speaker 8 Maybe that’s Elazar ben Durdaya.

35:21 Speaker 3 What?

35:21 Speaker 8 That happened to Elazar ben Durdaya, and there you do have a form of teshuvah.

35:25 Speaker 3 Yes. No, absolutely. Teshuvah helps for all sins. So what does it mean—why? What does the Zohar mean when it says there is no teshuvah for this? The Rebbe resolves both of these points here, in the last section of the chapter. He says: “And because damaging the covenant through emitting seed in vain—and needless to say through forbidden sexual relations or other Torah-prohibited relations, or even rabbinically prohibited relations, which are also severe, for the words of the Sages are more severe than the words of the Torah...” So whatever type of sin connected with this matter a person commits, he damages the mind. “Therefore, its rectification is to engage in Torah, which emanates from Chochmah.” Based on this, we can understand what the Zohar means. There is a difference—

36:21 Speaker 8 Why the mind?

36:21 Speaker 3 Hmm?

36:22 Speaker 8 Why does it damage the mind?

36:23 Speaker 3 I’ll explain. There is a fundamental difference between every other sin, including the most severe sins in the Torah, including those for which one must give up one’s life rather than transgress, and this sin. All other sins damage the channel that connects the soul with the body; they damage the level of action. But this matter, the reproductive seed, comes from the mind. When a person damages this, he damages the intellectual faculties of the soul. In other words, he is not damaging that part of the soul that descends to be clothed in the body; he is harming his essential connection with G-dliness. So ordinary teshuvah, teshuvah tata’ah, helps for all sins. But teshuvah tata’ah reaches only the lower hei, while someone who sins in these ways damages the upper hei. Therefore, lower teshuvah, ordinary teshuvah, is not enough for him. That is why the Zohar says that the teshuvah for this is to engage in Torah, to study Torah. But seemingly, that itself is difficult to understand. We said: When can a Jew do teshuvah—when can a Jew connect to G-dliness through teshuvah ila’ah? Remember, at the beginning of chapter 8 he said that after a person has done teshuvah tata’ah, and after “a spirit has passed over them and purified them,” the sins and transgressions no longer envelop him. Once a person has sinned, evil clings to his soul and his soul is damaged, and kelipos surround and envelop him, so he cannot sense G-dliness. He can try contemplating until tomorrow morning; it won’t help. He won’t feel it. There is a screen separating him. Only after he has broken the spirit of impurity and the sitra achra, after he has done teshuvah, does “a spirit pass over them and purify them,” moving aside the clouds that conceal. Now he can sense G-dliness; now he can do teshuvah ila’ah. What does the Alter Rebbe say? That only teshuvah ila’ah helps for this sin. How can he do teshuvah ila’ah if he hasn’t done teshuvah tata’ah? Right? So what—

38:59 Speaker 3 Is the explanation? The explanation is that it doesn’t actually say here that he must do teshuvah ila’ah. It says he must engage in Torah. Now, Torah study is connected with teshuvah ila’ah when it comes from love and awe. But Torah study has several aspects. As far as what concerns us right now, there is Torah study that comes from love and awe—that is teshuvah ila’ah—and there is Torah study that a person undertakes to rectify the sin.

39:34 Speaker 8 Right, that’s connected with teshuvah tata’ah, because here in this case—

39:36 Speaker 3 It is teshuvah tata’ah, absolutely. But ordinary teshuvah tata’ah—regretting the sin, breaking his spirit, arousing compassion, and breaking the—won’t help, because he has damaged something higher. But when, in addition to all those things, his teshuvah tata’ah includes studying Torah and engaging in Torah—since “the Torah emanates from Chochmah,” he is engaging his higher faculties, matters connected with the essence of G-dliness—that will rectify the sin. And afterward—

40:11 Speaker 8 The Rashi [?] understands it differently there, in order to rectify the teshuvah of—

40:16 Speaker 3 And this is what is stated in Tanna d’Vei Eliyahu: A person committed a sin and became liable to death at the hands of Heaven. What should he do so that he may live? We need to understand the question. Tanna d’Vei Eliyahu says: A person committed a sin and became liable to die at the hands of Heaven. What should he do? What do you mean, what should he do? He should do teshuvah. What’s the question? Where is the difficulty here? What is Tanna d’Vei Eliyahu asking? Do you understand the problem?

40:47 Speaker 8 What should he do so that he may live?

40:49 Speaker 3 “What should he do so that he may live?” We learned earlier that in times when things were as they should be, when the Beis Hamikdash stood, if a person sinned, he would die by decree of Heaven. So what does it mean, “What should he do?” He should do teshuvah. What is the question? And what answer does it give? If he was accustomed to reading one page, he should read two pages; if he was accustomed to studying one chapter, he should study two chapters, and so on. What does that have to do with it? A person sinned—do teshuvah. What does it have to do with anything? You sinned, so study more Torah. Study twice as much Torah. How does that fit here? Rather, Tanna d’Vei Eliyahu is speaking about that particular sin, a sin punishable by kareis, a sin that damages the very essence of the soul. That is why it speaks about engaging in Torah. That is why it says ordinary teshuvah will not help here; it must specifically be teshuvah connected with Torah study. And now, as to the continuation—why does the Alter Rebbe bring this particular example from Tanna d’Vei Eliyahu? Because it explains the connection between teshuvah ila’ah and teshuvah tata’ah. Why can’t we make do with teshuvah tata’ah? It is like a rope that has snapped and is tied back together: at the knot, it is doubled over. There was a rope, and it tore. You tie a knot so that it won’t tear again at that spot. There, it has thickness, double the thickness. Right? Tanna d’Vei Eliyahu says: A person committed a sin, one of the most severe sins, the kind that actually severs the very essence of his soul from G-dliness. What should he do? Study twice as much Torah. If he used to study one page, then two pages. If you used to study one chapter all day, study two chapters all day. Strengthen it; make a double knot. What is the point of a double knot? Teshuvah tata’ah isn’t enough; you have to reinforce it with another knot. A person ties his shoes. If he makes only one knot—

42:57 Speaker 8 All right, every moment.

42:58 Speaker 3 Every moment he’ll have to bend down and tie them again. Right? But if he also does teshuvah ila’ah, the first knot is reinforced by the second knot, by teshuvah ila’ah, and the lower knot won’t come undone. In the language of Chassidus: a Jew’s bond with Hakadosh Boruch Hu is an essential bond, the bond of a child. My soul comes directly from Him—and that is true of every one of us. So if he makes do with teshuvah for his actions alone, he has tied only the lower knot. He hasn’t truly restored the bond. That is not the nature of his connection with G-dliness. If he doesn’t continue and also do teshuvah ila’ah, the lower knot won’t hold. And so it is with “the rope of His inheritance.” This is what is meant by the verse, “Through kindness and truth, sin is atoned for.” What does it mean that sin is atoned for through kindness and truth? Sin is atoned for through teshuvah. What do “kindness and truth” mean? Rather, “there is no truth but Torah.” Again, we are talking about that sin which severs a person, the root of his soul, from G-dliness. For that, Torah is needed. And the sin of the house of Eli—Eli’s sons, according to the plain meaning of the text, also sinned in those ways. So there, Shmuel the prophet says that it cannot be atoned for through sacrifice and offering. But the Gemara says: Yes, it cannot be atoned for through sacrifice and offering, but it can be atoned for through Torah and acts of kindness, as stated at the end of the first chapter of Rosh Hashanah. So that brings us to the end of chapter—ah, the end of chapter 9 of Igeres Hateshuvah. How many chapters are there altogether in Igeres Hateshuvah?

44:59 Speaker 9 Twelve.

45:00 Speaker 3 Twelve. So we have three chapters left. What’s missing? Every time we finish another chapter, we need to stop and see what we’ve learned already and what’s still missing. The Alter Rebbe promised to explain what lower teshuvah and higher teshuvah are. He explained that, right? Now we understand the difference between them well. He explained how to come to teshuvah. He explained what teshuvah is and the difference between teshuvah and atonement. He explained how to do teshuvah and how to achieve atonement. He explained how to make it genuine, how to make it last, and why we need both. He explained everything.

45:37 Speaker 9 He explains the connection between higher teshuvah and the teshuvah through which one connects.

45:39 Speaker 3 We talked about that. He answered all the questions he raised at the beginning. Well?

45:50 Speaker 9 Whether it also applies to someone who hasn’t sinned.

45:52 Speaker 3 Huh?

45:53 Speaker 9 Whether it can also be the avodah of someone who hasn’t sinned.

45:56 Speaker 3 Igeres Hateshuvah is teshuvah for someone who has committed sins. Igeres Hateshuvah is a guide to becoming a beinoni.

46:06 Speaker 9 A beinoni hasn’t sinned, hasn’t sinned.

46:08 Speaker 3 Huh?

46:08 Speaker 9 A beinoni hasn’t sinned, hasn’t sinned.

46:11 Speaker 3 It explains how to become a beinoni. Igeres Hateshuvah comes to explain how someone who isn’t a beinoni can do teshuvah and then become a beinoni. Once you’re a beinoni, you have the first two parts of Tanya to tell you what your service of Hashem should be.

46:28 Speaker 9 So why isn’t Igeres Hateshuvah first?

46:30 Speaker 3 Hmm?

46:31 Speaker 9 Why isn’t Igeres Hateshuvah first in Tanya?

46:33 Speaker 3 We talked about that when we started learning. I don’t want to go back to it now. Right now I want to focus on the point we’re discussing. I’ll come back to it too. The point is this: the higher teshuvah explained here is through Torah. Right? When do we do lower teshuvah? We said the appropriate time for it is at midnight—

46:58 Speaker 9 Tikkun Chatzos.

46:59 Speaker 3 At Tikkun Chatzos. Can a person go straight from Tikkun Chatzos to learning Torah?

47:11 Speaker 9 That’s how they used to do it.

47:13 Speaker 3 What?

47:13 Speaker 9 That’s how they used to do it.

47:17 Speaker 3 Except for those Tannaim who would pray—or who said, “May my prayer be close to my bed.” Between lower teshuvah and higher teshuvah, between Tikkun Chatzos and learning Torah with love and awe, there needs to be prayer in the middle. And the difference between Torah and prayer, as we’ll see in the next chapter, is that there are two kinds of higher teshuvah. So far we’ve discussed one kind. There’s another kind of higher teshuvah. Prayer, too, is higher teshuvah. There are two kinds: higher teshuvah through prayer, and higher teshuvah through Torah. In these last two chapters, the Alter Rebbe explained higher teshuvah through Torah. We need to understand what higher teshuvah through prayer is, why we need both, and why one comes before the other. So we have three chapters left.

48:22 Speaker 9 [unclear]

48:23 Speaker 3 So we have three chapters left.