Igeres Hakodesh Chapter 5 (Part 3)

00:01 Speaker 1 Good evening. Today we’re finishing the fifth letter of Igeres Hakodesh, “And David Made a Name.” The first two classes were a little long and deep, but to make up for that, today’s class is both short and easy. This is the conclusion. At the beginning of the letter, the Alter Rebbe asked what the Zohar means when it interprets the verse “And David made a name” to mean that David made Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s name by giving tzedakah. We said that this isn’t the plain meaning. The plain meaning is that David made a name for himself—he gave himself and the Jewish people a good name. But the Zohar says that David made Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s name by giving tzedakah. What does the Zohar mean? The Rebbe said that to understand this, we first need to discuss what our Sages said about the verse “For with Yud-Hei, Hashem formed worlds”: that Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the worlds with the letters yud and hei. The Alter Rebbe said that once we understand what it means that Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the worlds with yud and hei, we’ll have a basis for understanding the Zohar. So he set aside the question about the Zohar and began explaining what it means that Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the worlds with yud and hei. The explanation was that the letter yud points to Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s wisdom, to the inner dimension of Divine vitality, which is felt only in the higher worlds. And the letter hei is the breath of the heart. The letter hei is the substance of the letters—what comes outward. It is speech. This world was created only from speech, and not simply from Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s speech, but from the substance of the letters rather than their inner dimension. That is why this world is the world of action. This is what

02:18 Speaker 1 our Sages meant when they said that the worlds were created with yud and hei. The World to Come was created with yud—meaning all the higher worlds, because Divinity is felt there. And this world was created with hei, because Divinity is not felt in this world. Along the way, he asked several other questions. Our Sages’ teaching about the hei with which the world was created concerns the final hei, but they based their interpretation on the first hei of Hashem’s name. He raised several questions along the way, answered them, and explained the whole matter. In fact, in the previous two classes we finished learning his explanation from beginning to end of what it means that the World to Come was created with yud and this world with hei. Now, the Alter Rebbe promised us at the beginning of the letter that once we understood how the World to Come and this world were created, we would be able to understand what “And David made a name” means—that he made Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s name. So now the answer begins. We have the foundation. It’s on page 59; in the schedule for a leap year, it falls on 19 Menachem Av. Here begins the second part of the letter, the explanation itself. It starts like this: “Now, in the case of a person here below, for example, someone with great wisdom who can grasp wondrous concepts, if he contracts his intellect and thought into a single letter of his speech, this is an immense contraction and a great descent for his wondrous wisdom.” What did we learn in the introduction? That Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the entire world—the physical world, the world of action—with the letter hei. Hei is “a light letter without substance.” Of all the letters, hei is the most, uh, lacking in…

04:29 Speaker 2 Limitations?

04:31 Speaker 1 Lacking a backbone. With all the other letters, the breath coming from the heart meets one of the organs of speech. It is stopped by the tongue, or the teeth, or something else, and that gives the letter its shape. But with hei, there’s nothing to catch hold of. It’s a faint letter. When Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world with hei, that hei was only the source from which the twenty-two letters subsequently emerged, and from those letters speech is formed. After all, all the letters of speech begin with hei. And hei itself is “a light letter without substance”—such a small, light, faint letter that it has hardly any distinct existence. What are we trying to say by this? Let’s look at how it works with us, with a hei produced by a person. Say someone wants to express an idea. Out of everything he knows, he chooses one idea. Now he needs to express that idea in many words, many sentences, a great deal of speech. But here he takes, from the entire explanation, just that one subject. He could give endless explanations about all kinds of things, but he has chosen one subject. And from the subject he now wants to discuss, he chooses just one sentence. From that he chooses just one word, and from that, just one letter. Which letter? Hei. So how does it compare? How far must a person descend from his intellect to focus now on the letter hei? For a person, that is an immense descent. Right? That’s what he says. The analogy applies here, but the reality is infinitely more so. When a person contracts his intellect and speech into a single letter, there is still some relationship between the person and his speech. But when Hakadosh Boruch Hu

06:41 Speaker 1 contracts Himself into the letter hei in order to create the worlds, that contraction is beyond all comparison. There was a great, immense, and vast contraction when “by the word of Hashem the heavens were made” during the Six Days of Creation, “and by the breath of His mouth, all their hosts.” What is that breath of His mouth with which He created the heavens and the earth and all their hosts? It is the final hei of Hashem’s name. That letter is the source of the letters of speech, and with it He created the entire world. As it says, “When they were created”—which can be read, “He created them with hei.” One interpretation of “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created” is that Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world with the letter hei. And it is the source of the Ten Utterances: the other nine utterances were drawn from the first utterance. The first utterance is “In the beginning, G-d created the heavens and the earth.” It doesn’t say there, “And G-d said, ‘Let there be…’” Yet although it isn’t an utterance with which Hakadosh Boruch Hu created one particular thing, it is the general utterance from which the nine specific utterances emerged. Now, this general utterance is no longer the letter hei alone; it is the letter hei as it has taken the form of an utterance. Right? And it is the level of wisdom called “beginning”—wisdom that is the beginning of the chain of descent through which the world came into being. Ultimately, it all comes from the letter hei. So when Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted to create the worlds, He contracted Himself. What do we take from this whole passage? When Hakadosh Boruch Hu came to create the world, He contracted Himself in a great, immense, and vast contraction beyond measure. But at that time, when the world was created, this flow downward took place without any arousal from below whatsoever. No one asked Hakadosh Boruch Hu to do it. He decided that He wanted to create the world, and He created it. Why would He do such a thing? A normal person doesn’t seek to contract

09:10 Speaker 1 himself into a single letter. Right? What is a person? He has intellect; he has feelings. He wants to express himself, to say something. Why would he suddenly decide, “No, I’m setting all that aside. I don’t want intellect, I don’t want feelings, I don’t want anything. Right now I’m just one letter”? What for? What sense does that make? Right? And Hakadosh Boruch Hu did it anyway. Why did He do it without any reason? He did it—but He did it once. Why did He do it that once? Because there was no man to till the ground, and so on. Actually, there’s another point to the Alter Rebbe’s precise wording here: he writes that it happened “without any arousal from below whatsoever.” Why “whatsoever”? There was no arousal from below. Since there was no person, it happened without arousal from below. That’s obvious enough, isn’t it? Why add “whatsoever”? What is he emphasizing? The Rebbe explains that one might have thought that souls existed before the world was created and that they asked Hakadosh Boruch Hu to create it. No person asked Hakadosh Boruch Hu to create a world, but souls did. The Rebbe says no: there was no arousal from below whatsoever. Even souls did not yet exist.

10:29 Speaker 5 But souls preceded the world.

10:30 Speaker 1 Hmm?

10:31 Speaker 5 But souls preceded the world.

10:32 Speaker 1 At their source, not in the form— not in the form of souls. But why did He create the world? Why did He contract Himself so infinitely? Because “He desires kindness,” and “the world is built through kindness.” As our Sages said, “The world is built through kindness.” What does kindness mean? Hakadosh Boruch Hu performed an act of kindness by creating the world. Kindness is when someone does something of his own accord; nobody asked him to. And that is the meaning of “behibaram”—“beAvraham.” Because “kindness to Avraham,” and so on. This is another interpretation by our Sages: “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created”—the letters of “behibaram” can also be read as “beAvraham.” What does it mean that Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the generations of the heavens and the earth “through Avraham”? Avraham represents the attribute of kindness. Hakadosh Boruch Hu contracted Himself through “behibaram,” through Avraham’s attribute of kindness. That was the first time, when the world was created. But after the creation of man, “to work it,” and so on, from that moment onward, every arousal from above that awakens the attribute of supernal kindness comes through an arousal from below, through the tzedakah and kindness that Jews do. Even now, every moment that Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives life to the world is an act of kindness. Because even now, the world still descends from just one letter hei, so it is still kindness, just as it was then. But then He did it of His own accord. From the moment man was created, for Hakadosh Boruch Hu to contract Himself without limit in order to create the world, someone has to ask it of Him. Someone has to bring about His desire to do so. And how do we bring about in Hakadosh Boruch Hu a desire to contract Himself and give to another? Well, that’s simple.

12:34 Speaker 6 Tzedakah.

12:36 Speaker 1 Tzedakah. Why tzedakah? What do we do when we give tzedakah?

12:40 Speaker 6 We give.

12:41 Speaker 1 I set myself aside and give someone else something that is actually mine. Yes. So if I want Hakadosh Boruch Hu to set Himself aside and contract Himself into the letter hei to create the world, I behave that way, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu will behave that way too.

13:03 Speaker 6 Even though my doing that doesn’t require Hakadosh Boruch Hu to do it.

13:06 Speaker 1 It doesn’t require it. We’ll see in a moment. I think the Rebbe says this explicitly: “But after the creation of man, ‘to work it,’ and so on, every arousal from above that awakens the attribute of supernal kindness comes through an arousal from below, through the tzedakah and kindness that Jews do in this world. Therefore our Sages said: ‘Anyone who says, “I have only Torah,” without acts of kindness—even Torah he does not have.’” Torah draws down spiritual influence. But if he doesn’t give tzedakah, how will the world continue to exist? There is no, there is no basis for the Torah to endure without tzedakah. “Rather, one must engage in Torah and acts of kindness.” So even someone who sits in the study hall and whose focus is Torah must also engage in acts of kindness. “For although the Torah comes forth from wisdom”—it’s true that the Torah comes from the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu; it is something very, very lofty. “And more than that, our Sages said”—because the Torah comes forth from wisdom, therefore “through Torah the world is sustained,” the world is sustained through Torah study. “And through those who engage in it”—those who study the Torah are the ones who sustain the Tor— the world. It says that Torah scholars are called, uh, builders. “Do not read ‘your children’ but ‘your builders,’” because they build; they draw G-dliness into the world. “For through the speech of those who study Torah, they draw down illuminations and influence, manifestations of supernal wisdom, the source of Torah, into the letters of speech through which the world was created. As our Sages said: ‘Do not read “your children” but “your builders.”’” So those who study Torah draw G-dliness into the letters through which the world was created. Then seemingly, why is tzedakah necessary? It can be done through Torah. Right? So the Rebbe says no. Why? “Because this drawing down through Torah is a tremendous descent, and for this one must awaken the supernal kindness, which flows like water from a high place to a low place, through an arousal from below, through tzedakah and kindness below, which bring life”

15:36 Speaker 1 “life and kindness to revive the spirit of the lowly and the dead.” It’s true that the world’s actual existence is sustained through Torah study. Torah study is what draws down that influence. But without tzedakah, Hakadosh Boruch Hu will not want to draw it down. The G-dly influence that actually creates the world does indeed come through Torah study. But to bring about in Hakadosh Boruch Hu the desire to draw down that influence, tzedakah is essential. “And this is what is meant by the verse: ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom.’” It then continues, “And let not the mighty man glory in his might.” So what should he glory in? “But let him who glories glory in this.” Who—who is worthy of glorying? Ah, “In understanding and knowing Me, that I am Hashem, Who practices kindness.” What should a person glory in? If he does kindness and gives tzedakah, then he can glory. He can be wise, and he can be mighty, and he can study Torah, and that is all good. But what can a person glory in? Only doing kindness. Because only tzedakah sustains the world physically: kindness draws wisdom down below. Otherwise, if there is only Torah without acts of kindness, without kindness, it is called “his wisdom alone.” And it really is the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, but without drawing down life, G-d forbid, it will remain above in the higher worlds. It will not descend below, it will not create the world, it will not give life to the worlds. And with this we can understand—everything up to here is clear, right? Very simple. And with this we can understand what the Arizal wrote: that there are two kinds of souls among the Jewish people. There are the souls of Torah scholars, people whose souls give them a stronger pull toward Torah study, and they engage in Torah all their lives. And the Arizal also wrote that there are souls of Jews who are more inclined toward mitzvos, who are drawn to doing, and do, tzedakah and acts of kindness. And he asks:

18:01 Speaker 1 Seemingly, Torah scholars too must engage in acts of kindness, as our Sages said, “Even Torah he does not have,” the teaching of our Sages that we saw earlier. So what did the Arizal mean? That there are souls of Torah scholars whose focus is Torah, and souls of people devoted to mitzvos whose focus is mitzvos. What did he mean? Rather, for Torah scholars, Torah is their main occupation; they spend most of their days on it and a smaller part of their days on acts of kindness. So their arousal from below, which awakens supernal kindness to draw down the light of Ein Sof vested in supernal wisdom—the source of the Torah in their mouths—reaches only the world of souls in Beriah, through the study of Talmud, and the angels in Yetzirah, through the study of Mishnah. So the world certainly needs Torah scholars.

18:51 Speaker 7 I find this distinction difficult. What does it mean—that one has the potential and the other doesn’t? As though the Torah doesn’t come to fruition, isn’t realized.

18:56 Speaker 1 Because he has the potential for something else.

19:01 Speaker 7 But it’s difficult.

19:13 Speaker 1 It’s true that Torah scholars draw down G-dly life, but where do they draw it down? They draw it down into the spiritual worlds. Without the Jews who give tzedakah, this world will not continue to exist. It will remain spiritual; spiritual life will be drawn down and revealed—where? In the worlds created with the letter yud, in the World to Come. This world will not continue to exist. In the plain, physical sense. No, no.

19:43 Speaker 7 It’s like, you know how they say that when they ask the soul, “Did you engage in Torah?” and all sorts of ques—so the soul will say, like, that its potential, that my soul, so to speak, isn’t suited to it. I find that a little difficult, but okay.

19:56 Speaker 8 Again, they’ll ask it why not; they’ll ask it, “Why didn’t you do it?”

19:58 Speaker 7 Some souls have the potential of the souls of Torah scholars, as it were, and there are souls of another kind.

20:03 Speaker 8 No, but they’ll ask it why it wasn’t, like—

20:06 Speaker 7 As though it was like that from the start.

20:08 Speaker 8 They’ll ask it, “Why didn’t you do like [unclear]?” Like, like [unclear]. All right, fine.

20:12 Speaker 1 What the soul is asked about is setting fixed times for Torah study—fixed times. Halachah says that for one person, those fixed times mean “You shall meditate on it day and night” literally. For another, “You shall meditate on it day and night” can mean even one chapter in the morning and one in the evening. And what really accounts for the fact that some Jews, in practice, keep on studying Torah, while other pursuits don’t work out so well for them? Even when they try to get involved in other things, it’s just not their thing. And for others it’s exactly the opposite. We see this plainly. This isn’t about punishment and reward. It says that this is why man was created as a single individual. If I were him, there would be no need for me; it would be enough for him to exist. Every person has a unique set of inner qualities. There has never been anyone like him from the creation of the world through the days of Moshiach, inclusive. In general, the Arizal divides people into Torah scholars and people of mitzvos. The Torah scholars draw life-force to the souls in the world of Beriah through the study of Talmud. When they learn Gemara, they draw life-force to the souls in Beriah, and when they learn Mishnah, they draw life-force to the angels in Yetzirah. I think we’ve discussed this several times, right? Angels primarily belong to the world of Yetzirah, and souls primarily belong to the world of Beriah. “For the life-force of the souls and angels flows from the combinations of letters of speech in the Oral Torah.” So when one studies the Oral Torah, Gemara and Mishnah, it draws life-force to the souls and angels. “It flows from the combinations of letters of speech in the Oral Torah, and the source of the letters is supernal Chochmah, as explained above.” That is what the Torah scholars accomplish. But to draw down an illumination and life-force from the supernal breath, the lower hei, into this lowly world—which involves a far greater contraction—here the arousal

22:38 Speaker 1 from below by Torah scholars is no longer enough. Very interesting. Here the Rebbe says, it’s in...

23:05 Speaker 8 Shalom.

23:06 Speaker 1 Good evening. You’ve arrived right at the end.

23:13 Speaker 8 I wasn’t here; I fell asleep for a bit.

23:20 Speaker 1 Very interesting. The Rebbe says here—it’s right there in the words—that even the Torah scholars, who draw Divine, spiritual life-force to the souls and angels, are still bringing about a descent. The Divine life-force descends into the worlds. All right, into spiritual worlds, but it descends into those spiritual worlds. Right?

23:47 Speaker 8 No, it’s—

23:49 Speaker 1 Really?

23:50 Speaker 8 Yes.

23:51 Speaker 1 So even that comes about through tzedakah. In other words, even for the influence drawn down by Torah scholars, they too must give tzedakah; otherwise they couldn’t draw it down even into the spiritual worlds. But since they spend most of their time studying Torah and a smaller portion doing acts of kindness, where can they draw it down? Into the spiritual worlds. But to draw down an illumination and life-force from the supernal breath, the lower hei, into this lowly world—for Divine life-force to descend into the world and give life to and bring into being this physical world... We’re on page 61, around line sixteen. We’ll review it in a moment. We’ll do a bit of a review and finish the subject.

24:54 Speaker 9 Wow, dear soul.

24:55 Speaker 1 But to draw down an illumination and life-force from the supernal breath into this lowly world—which involves a far greater contraction—the arousal from below by Torah scholars, who spend a smaller portion of their time on tzedakah and acts of kindness, is no longer enough. Rather, it must come through the arousal of people of mitzvos, who spend most of their time on tzedakah and acts of kindness. As it says in Likkutei Amarim, part one, chapter 34—we saw it there. That is why businesspeople, whose main avodah of Hashem in this world is giving tzedakah, are called supporters of Torah. Now, what’s our usual way of thinking about this? The main thing is Torah study. Ah, there are people whose main work is earning a living and doing business. So what’s their purpose? They’ll earn money and then give it, or set some aside for those who study Torah, so the Torah students can learn in peace. That’s how we always understand it, right? In our straightforward understanding, the Torah scholars are the main thing. And why are the rest of the people called supporters of Torah? Because they support the Torah scholars, right? That’s how it sounds. But the Alter Rebbe explains it here in exactly the opposite way. It’s true that the Torah scholars draw down the Divine light that creates the world. But if there aren’t people to support them—to take the Divine light they draw down and bring it down here below—the Torah scholars’ work won’t help. The world won’t endure. We ordinary people are called supporters of Torah, supporters of those who study Torah, not because we support the scholars, but because only we have the power—

27:01 Speaker 9 There are supporters of Torah and students of Torah.

27:03 Speaker 1 Yes.

27:04 Speaker 9 “Supporters” means those who—

27:06 Speaker 1 Those who spend most of their time doing acts of kindness, giving tzedakah.

27:09 Speaker 9 Studying, uh, studying tzedakah. It’s like the foundation of Torah and faith.

27:12 Speaker 1 Right. So the main advantage—

27:16 Speaker 9 Belongs to the person who gives tzedakah.

27:17 Speaker 1 Yes. And why? Because—

27:19 Speaker 9 It won’t help for him just to sit and study Torah. The world won’t be able to—

27:22 Speaker 1 There won’t be a world. Physically, there won’t be a world. The world exists—we learned this in Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah—because at every moment the letters of Hashem’s speech give it life. The letters of Hashem’s speech have their source in the hei. The hei is breath, and, as he said earlier, this is an immense contraction and descent. Why would Hakadosh Boruch Hu want to contract Himself to create the world? What does it give Him? Only when a Jew gives tzedakah—since a Jew’s soul reflects the supernal sefiros of G-dliness, and so on, higher and higher—everything a Jew does down here has an effect. It says, “Know what is above you.” There’s the simple meaning: know and learn that there are things above you. Chassidus explains it the other way around: “Know what is above—from you.” Everything that happens above is brought about by a person’s avodah. A person brings about everything that happens above. So when a person down here, who encompasses all the worlds—when any one of us gives tzedakah, I am now doing an act of kindness. Then that sefirah in the world of Asiyah becomes kindness, and in the world of Beriah it becomes kindness, and in the world of Atzilus it becomes kindness, and higher and higher, all the way to the Essence and Being of Hashem Himself. And Hakadosh Boruch Hu now brings down Divine light and creates the world.

28:56 Speaker 10 And what’s the answer? Why does that oblige Hakadosh Boruch Hu to create?

28:59 Speaker 1 Why does it oblige Him? That’s how He made things. Hakadosh Boruch Hu bound Himself to the Jewish people.

29:05 Speaker 10 No, fine. But why? Does my giving tzedakah oblige Hakadosh Boruch Hu to—

29:09 Speaker 1 It doesn’t oblige Him. Hakadosh Boruch—

29:12 Speaker 10 That’s how it was from the outset.

29:13 Speaker 1 Do you know what self-limitation is? Have you ever heard the term “self-limitation”?

29:19 Speaker 10 I don’t know.

29:23 Speaker 1 Take someone who... why does he get up in the morning? Because his mother pulls off his blanket and yells at him and pours a bucket of water over him, and his father pours a bucket of water over him. I don’t know how it works in every family. Eventually he has no choice. He gets up, yes. Why doesn’t he keep sleeping? Someone imposed a limit on him. Yes. Then there’s someone who, before he goes to sleep, knows he has to wake up at six-oh-eight. Without an alarm clock, at six-oh-eight his eyes open. Do you know that experience? Huh? It happens. Maybe it’s a little hard for everyone to put into practice every day, but everyone knows that when there’s something important tomorrow and you’ve decided to get up at a certain time, your eyes open—even if it’s the middle of the night, or whatever. Yes. That’s self-limitation. When a person sets a limit for himself, it’s he himself doing it, not someone else. Hakadosh Boruch Hu connected the Jewish people to Himself in that way. Why did He do it? Hakadosh Boruch Hu desired to have a dwelling place in the lower realms. That’s what He desired. As the Alter Rebbe says, you don’t ask questions about a desire. That’s what He wanted. That’s how He made it. Why did He do it? That’s how He did it. And everything, every—

30:49 Speaker 10 Yes, it gives Him pleasure. He enjoys seeing us give tzedakah.

30:53 Speaker 1 That’s another question: why does He enjoy that? He could have enjoyed something else.

30:56 Speaker 10 He enjoys other things too, though I don’t remember.

30:59 Speaker 1 It says that this is Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s pleasure. Why is it His pleasure?

31:01 Speaker 10 He has other pleasures, doesn’t He?

31:03 Speaker 1 I don’t know.

31:04 Speaker 10 What do you mean, “I don’t know”? This is Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s only pleasure.

31:07 Speaker 1 Let’s say He has other pleasures. Why does He take pleasure in this? Did someone make Him take pleasure in it?

31:11 Speaker 10 What do you mean, “make Him”? Nobody makes Hakadosh Boruch Hu do anything.

31:15 Speaker 1 The moment I say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu takes pleasure in this but not in that, I’ve placed a limit on Him.

31:20 Speaker 10 What do you mean, placed a limit on Him? Hakadosh Boruch Hu doesn’t take pleasure in a Jew committing a sin.

31:24 Speaker 1 Excuse me. When a person takes pleasure in one thing—it makes him feel good—and not in another, then he’s limited. He’s limited.

31:34 Speaker 10 But does Hakadosh Boruch Hu enjoy it when I commit a sin?

31:38 Speaker 1 Again, there’s... First of all, there’s the matter of pleasure. With us, I can’t choose what I take pleasure in.

31:51 Speaker 10 I think today you know that too.

31:55 Speaker 1 All right, a person can’t choose what to take pleasure in. If he’s a human being, he likes eating hot soup. If he’s a donkey, he likes eating thorns. He has no choice in the matter, because he’s limited. A donkey can like thorns, but he can’t like tuna. What can you do? Right? He’s limited.

32:20 Speaker 10 Okay.

32:20 Speaker 1 But you can’t say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is limited to this pleasure or another.

32:25 Speaker 10 Right.

32:26 Speaker 1 So why, in practice, does He take pleasure in this and not in something else?

32:29 Speaker 10 How did He decide?

32:30 Speaker 1 That’s how He decided. And in that “that’s how He decided,” in that desire—whatever you call it—that’s free choice. It doesn’t matter what name you give it. At that very point, He connected Himself with the Jewish people, and what that connection means is that everything a Jew does has an effect Above. That’s one aspect of it. So when a Jew gives tzedakah, that brings about Hakadosh Boruch Hu giving tzedakah. How does Hakadosh Boruch Hu give tzedakah? He contracts Himself into the letter hei to create the world. He gives tzedakah to the needy. That’s why ordinary people are called supporters of the Torah—not because they’re less important than those who study Torah, but just the opposite: because they’re the ones who support the Torah and bring it down, drawing it down here into the world.

33:41 Speaker 10 No, no, no, no.

33:42 Speaker 11 Can I make a comment, Nach Nach?

33:43 Speaker 10 No, no, I’m listening.

33:52 Speaker 1 …

33:53 Speaker 10 Wow, there’s...

33:55 Speaker 1 We’re at line twenty, after the parentheses at the bottom. “And therefore they are called supporters of the Torah, and they correspond to the levels of Netzach and Hod.” Ordinary people correspond to the levels of Netzach and Hod, “because they draw the light of Torah down into the world of Asiyah.” What are Netzach and Hod in the human body? We say it in Patach Eliyahu on Friday night: “Netzach and Hod are the two legs.” What are the legs? The legs. No, before that, Chesed and Gevurah are the right arm and the left arm. Tiferes is the body; Netzach and Hod are the two legs. So why are the supporters of the Torah—businesspeople, those who give tzedakah—called Netzach and Hod? Because they correspond to the legs. They’re the ones who bring G-dliness down, all the way to the earth, to the world of Asiyah. “And with this we can understand why tzedakah is called an act, as it is written: ‘And the act of tzedakah shall be peace’—because its effect is to draw the light of Hashem into the world of Asiyah.”

35:15 Speaker 10 Ask tomorrow. Bring it.

35:24 Speaker 1 After all those introductions, the answer to the question at the beginning of the letter comes here in just one line. So let’s recall the question, and then we’ll look at the answer, now that the general idea is clear. At the beginning we asked: What does this mean? How can we understand the words of the holy Zohar on the verse “And David made a name”? Instead of explaining it according to its plain meaning—that he made a good name for himself, a good name for the Jewish people—the Zohar explains that he made the Name. David made the Name of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. How did he make the Name of Hakadosh Boruch Hu? “And David administered justice and tzedakah.” He practiced tzedakah and justice, and by doing so he made the Name of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That’s what the Zohar says. What does it mean? Now we can understand. “And this explains the precise wording of the holy Zohar: ‘Whoever makes the Holy Name makes it for Him.’” Who makes the Name of Hakadosh Boruch Hu? “For through an awakening from below, through tzedakah and kindness below”—the acts a person does down here—“he arouses the supernal kindness to draw the Infinite Light from the level of supernal Chochmah, the yud of the Name, to the hei of the Name, the level of speech and the breath of His mouth, so as to bestow it upon the world of Asiyah.” So that’s the whole explanation. In the end, the explanation is very simple. Why is David said to make the Name through tzedakah? Because what is the Name? A person gives tzedakah and draws the G-dly light, the Name of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, into the world to give the world life. All right, that would seem to finish the explanation, but the Alter Rebbe adds a few more lines here. Let’s first read the lines, and then we’ll try to understand what they say. Where does it begin? “By way of analogy”—that’s line ten there. “By way of analogy, though the distinction is infinitely great, just as a person speaks only to others.” Right, when does

37:57 Speaker 1 a person speak? Only when there’s someone else there, not when he’s by himself. A person what? Yes, but then no. Either you don’t call him a person, or you put him somewhere suited to people like him. A normal person doesn’t talk to himself, huh?

38:18 Speaker 12 How can I understand?

38:21 Speaker 1 “And then, when he speaks to others, only then does he contract his intellect and thought into his speech to them. And those with understanding will understand.” Well, let’s try to understand what it says here. First of all, what’s the connection between this and what it says above, with everything we’ve been explaining? What did we explain, basically? We explained that through tzedakah we draw the Name of Hakadosh Boruch Hu down here into the world. Right? What does the Rebbe say? By way of analogy, you want to understand that? It’s like a person who doesn’t speak to himself, but only to others. What? How is that connected, and what does it explain? Yes. What does it say here in parentheses? “And not when he is by himself.” Well, obviously. What does that tell us? And at the end he says, “And those with understanding will understand.” What is there to understand here? Haven’t we already explained everything? What’s still missing from our understanding? Understand what? What is there to understand here? Yes. So these lines really are a hundred words. “By way of analogy, though the distinction...” These last four lines here are truly a riddle.

39:37 Speaker 12 You don’t know what it means, then?

39:40 Speaker 1 I searched quite a bit. I spent quite a few hours over the past two weeks—and it wasn’t my first time looking—for some explanation of what it says here. I didn’t find one. The more or less only explanation of these lines is what’s here: the Rebbe’s footnote 68 at the bottom. We can try to understand that footnote, but I don’t know how far we can actually get in understanding it. We can try. So we won’t explain the whole thing, simply because I don’t know the whole thing. But there is at least one point we can understand, and that may shed light on this entire letter, on its whole content. The Rebbe asks the following. Our Sages said that before the world was created, there was only He and His Name. Right? Are you familiar with that saying of our Sages? So if the Name of Hakadosh Boruch Hu existed even before the world was created, before man was created, what does it mean to say that David makes the Name, that we make the Name through tzedakah? The Name of Hakadosh Boruch Hu existed before man did. Why do we need to make it? Yes, that’s one question, one thing we need to understand. And the second thing is this: the explanation we gave was a very nice explanation, but it didn’t explain why David makes the Name. It explained how, through tzedakah, we draw the Name into the world. But it didn’t say that we make the Name of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. There’s a G-dly revelation that is only on the level of a name. It’s only a breath, something very, very limited, and through tzedakah we draw it into the world. We don’t make it; it exists without us too. We only draw it into the world. Right?

41:48 Speaker 3 The Name—meaning, there’s the Name of Hakadosh Boruch Hu as it is revealed to Himself, and now we’re getting into something more complicated.

41:54 Speaker 1 What does “revealed to Himself” mean?

41:57 Speaker 3 Like, from the end.

41:58 Speaker 1 Yes.

41:59 Speaker 3 It isn’t for us. That’s what existed before the world was created, and then afterward He reveals Himself. Maybe that’s where we come in—afterward He reveals Himself, and then it also comes down.

42:10 Speaker 1 So that’s the key to the explanation. Yes. Let’s put it in more...

42:17 Speaker 3 Amazing!

42:20 Speaker 1 That’s the point. If I’ve understood correctly, that’s the point. There’s a... a verse about how, before the world was created, Hakadosh Boruch Hu investigated it, created it, formed it. I don’t remember the... I can’t. I can never remember the wording. There are four stages in which Hakadosh Boruch Hu, before He created the world, was there at four levels. And this is compared to a person speaking to himself. When does a person speak to himself? When there’s something he wants to understand for himself, even before he wants to explain it to others.

43:02 Speaker 3 He contemplates it.

43:03 Speaker 1 He contemplates it. He thinks. Yes, he thinks about the matter. What does he do? He explains to himself what it is. What does it mean to explain it to himself? Yes, but that’s what we do.

43:15 Speaker 3 To connect it. To hear it too.

43:16 Speaker 1 Huh?

43:17 Speaker 3 To hear it in a tangible way, not just in your mind.

43:20 Speaker 1 That’s another step, but yes, that’s true too—it’s another step. Everyone feels and knows from their own experience that they often explain something to themselves, working out what it is and how it works, clarifying it within themselves. Chassidus explains that this inner self-explanation has about four stages. Now, even after a person has understood something, worked through it, and explained it to himself—until, as far as he’s concerned, the matter is settled and everything is completely clear—why should he speak? Why should he tell someone else? He might or he might not. He can decide to speak, or decide not to. It’s up to him. In other words, bringing that speech out requires doing something. As long as it remains between him and himself... You can even call it speech. It isn’t just thought. He’s really explaining it to himself in sentences, in words—actual speech. There are several levels within thought: thought within thought, speech within thought, and action within thought. Thought within thought is when he contemplates the subject itself without letters. He thinks about it, reflects on it without letters. Then there is speech within thought, when he thinks in the letters of speech. Action within thought is when he pictures himself writing the letters. It’s still in thought, but he can already picture written letters. So even when he has speech within thought, it’s still speech within thought; it hasn’t come out yet. It’s part of him. What’s the difference? When a person speaks to himself, meaning in thought, between him and himself, his understanding shines within the words he’s thinking. But when he says those very same words he was thinking to someone else, the other person doesn’t have that understanding; he has only

45:56 Speaker 1 the words. Right? And this step of drawing the speech out from within and bringing it outside is a stage at which all the content of the speech, in effect, disappears. It’s taken out of the words. Something has to be done here. That is called doing. The same applies, so to speak, by way of analogy, to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. As long as we’re talking about the worlds—even created worlds, Beriah, Yetzirah, and even the spiritual world of Asiyah—it remains within Him, on the inside. The G-dly light shines there. It is already speech; you see letters, you see created beings, you see separate entities. Yes, but the G-dly light is felt within them all. For it to come outside, though, an act is needed, and that act of bringing it outside comes through tzedakah. That is why the verse says, “And David made a name.” When a person gives tzedakah, he doesn’t just bring down something that was above and bring it outside. Something new is accomplished here, something that did not exist before. The Divine speech that goes outside, so to speak, is not the same speech that remains within Him. And this is accomplished through a Jew’s act of giving tzedakah. That is why it says, “And David made a name”: he not only draws G-dly light into the world, but makes that G-dly light—he does something here that had not been done before. That’s the point of the explanation. In any case, in the earlier letters of Igeres Hakodesh we discussed how tzedakah brings a person material blessings. That was at the beginning. Then we discussed how it brings a person spiritual blessings. After that, we discussed how tzedakah reveals a person’s hidden love. And here, in this letter of Igeres Hakodesh, the Rebbe adds that tzedakah also, quite simply, creates the world from nothing. The entire existence of the world depends on giving tzedakah.

48:23 Speaker 4 Wow. What an amazing...