Igeres Hakodesh Chapter 10

00:00 Speaker 1 Okay, we’re up to the last section of Tanya, Igeres Hakodesh, Letter 10. This is one of the wonderful letters of Igeres Hakodesh. It’s another letter about tzedakah. The earlier letters about tzedakah discussed its various benefits: it gives a person spiritual and material blessings, and it reveals a person’s love—his hidden love, the innermost part of his soul. And when a person gives tzedakah, he needs to give it with bittul, feeling that his money isn’t his own. All sorts of points. We’ve discussed tzedakah in various letters. This letter is still about tzedakah. Here the Alter Rebbe shines a light—puts a spotlight—on another point about tzedakah: that tzedakah atones for sins. Now, the wonderful thing about this letter of Igeres Hakodesh is that, in the course of his explanation, the Alter Rebbe raises a point that gives us something to think about. We’ll get to it and discuss it. He begins: “After inquiring after your peace and well-being.” So the Alter Rebbe inquires after the peace and well-being of each and every one of the chassidim. “I will begin by rousing attentive ears to hear a life-giving rebuke.” So the Alter Rebbe says he is going to rebuke us here. I’m asking how you’re doing, but I want you to open your ears and listen to my rebuke. It’s not so usual for the Alter Rebbe to open with an announcement: I’m about to give you a talking-to, to rebuke you. And the Alter Rebbe says that, in fact, the rebuke I want to give you is not my own, but “the life-giving rebuke with which Hashem rebuked us through His prophet.” The rebuke I want to give you isn’t mine; the prophet already rebuked the Jewish people with it. Hashem’s life-giving rebuke was conveyed to us through His prophet, the prophet Yirmiyahu. In the Book of Eichah, the prophet Yirmiyahu says: “The kindnesses of

02:13 Speaker 1 Hashem, for we have not come to an end,” and so on. Now, what does the verse mean there? “The kindnesses of Hashem, for we have not come to an end.” The prophet Yirmiyahu is saying that every Jew should reflect on how many kindnesses Hakadosh Boruch Hu does for him. And when we understand that Hakadosh Boruch Hu does so many kindnesses for us, that Hashem’s kindnesses never end—He pours kindness upon us again and again and again—then we need to thank Him. That makes sense, right? The Rebbe says—

02:45 Speaker 2 That happened with S. too; they saw the terrorists right next to the house.

02:48 Speaker 1 What’s that?

02:49 Speaker 2 If they had gone—how does it go? “See that Your kindnesses have not ended.”

02:52 Speaker 1 Yes.

02:52 Speaker 2 I said they—they lived near the family in Sderot, and they actually saw the terrorists next to the house.

02:58 Speaker 1 They slept there.

02:58 Speaker 2 Where they, uh, came out to them.

03:00 Speaker 6 No, below the yard.

03:01 Speaker 2 In the yard.

03:02 Speaker 1 You were also in Sderot that Shabbos.

03:04 Speaker 2 Yes, yes, they really were—they were close. Yes, they were really close.

03:08 Speaker 6 In Sderot?

03:12 Speaker 1 They have family in Sderot. They were there that Shabbos; they were there. That Shabbos was Simchas Torah. They had traveled to visit family.

03:18 Speaker 2 Yes.

03:20 Speaker 1 Yes.

03:20 Speaker 2 It’s unbelievable that they got out alive.

03:23 Speaker 1 To this day, Ezra doesn’t want to talk about what happened there. You can’t get a word out of him.

03:29 Speaker 2 Maybe he was traumatized.

03:30 Speaker 1 I don’t know. We tried a few times. It didn’t work.

03:39 Speaker 2 Yes.

03:39 Speaker 1 So he says this: “And every person”—at first glance, the simple meaning of the verse is that every person should thank Hashem for His kindnesses. Why? Because Hashem gives us kindnesses, and keeps giving and giving, and we should thank Him for it. The Alter Rebbe says: Wait. If that is what the verse means, it should have said, “The kindnesses of Hashem, for they have not come to an end.” Why does it say, “The kindnesses of Hashem, for we have not come to an end”? Hashem’s kindnesses have not ended—His kindnesses haven’t run out. What does “The kindnesses of Hashem, for we have not come to an end” mean? What is that extra letter doing in the word? As it says elsewhere: “For Your kindnesses have not ended.” If the meaning is that there are so many kindnesses and they never run out, it should have said, “The kindnesses of Hashem, for they have not come to an end,” not “for we have not come to an end.” This will be understood in light of what is written in the holy Zohar. So the Alter Rebbe is now going to explain this precise wording. Why does the prophet Yirmiyahu say, “The kindnesses of Hashem, for we have not come to an end,” with that extra letter? This will be understood from what is written in the holy Zohar: “There is chessed and there is chessed.” There are two kinds of kindness. The verse says “the kindnesses of Hashem”—“kindnesses” is plural. Whenever something is plural, what is the smallest number it can mean? At least two. It could mean three or four or ten or a million, but at least two. Right. So when we speak of Hashem’s kindnesses, Hakadosh Boruch Hu has two kinds of kindness: there is chessed and there is chessed. “There is chessed olam,” and so on, “and there is a higher chessed, which is rav chessed.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu has two kinds of kindness through which He guides the world and bestows blessings upon it. Hakadosh Boruch Hu bestows blessings upon the world

05:29 Speaker 1 through one kind of kindness called chessed olam, and another kind called rav chessed. There’s a period here. Do you see the period in Tanya? There are very few periods in Tanya. This period means that here the Alter Rebbe begins something of a digression, as though it were in parentheses, and those parentheses close at the end of the passage, with the words “until their souls departed entirely” on the next page. So first we’ll learn what he says in the parentheses, and then we’ll understand the connection, because at first glance, everything he says from here on seems unrelated to kindnesses, and the connection isn’t so clear. We’ll see that later. He says: “For it is known”—meaning, it’s a known fact—“that the Torah is called oz,” strength. Oz means might, strength. As our Sages said, the 613 mitzvos were given to Moshe at Sinai “from the mouth of the Mighty One.” So our Sages said that the Torah was given to Moshe by Hakadosh Boruch Hu, who is called “the Mighty One.” And it isn’t just something our Sages said; it’s also written: “From His right hand, a fiery law for them.” So what is the right hand? The Torah was given to us from Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s right hand, in fire. The law was given from the right, in fire. The law is the Torah; it was given from the right, in fire. What is the right hand?

07:07 Speaker 7 Chessed.

07:08 Speaker 1 Chessed. What is fire?

07:09 Speaker 7 Gevurah.

07:10 Speaker 1 So how was it given?

07:13 Speaker 7 Yes.

07:15 Speaker 1 The Torah was given from the right through gevurah, through fire. The Torah’s source and root are chessed, the right hand. But in what form was it given? It was given through gevurah, through contraction, through judgment. What does that mean? Let me explain. How can it be both chessed and gevurah? The Torah’s source and root are solely Hashem’s kindnesses, which are called the right hand. What is Torah? Torah is kindness. Torah isn’t judgment. Torah is Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s wisdom, His will. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is good, and it is the nature of the good to do good. The entire Torah is nothing but kindness. Torah is only the right hand. In itself, Torah has nothing to do with judgment. That is, “drawing down a level of His G-dliness, and a radiance from the light of the blessed Ein Sof, into the upper and lower worlds.” So what is the purpose of Torah? The purpose of Torah is to draw down and reveal Hakadosh Boruch Hu here in our worlds. How does that work? How does Torah reveal Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Yes?

08:38 Speaker 8 No.

08:40 Speaker 1 Torah is His wisdom, right? In other words, take a person. Who is the person himself? Who am I? I am what I think, what I understand. Right? So this is, as it were, an analogy. If I am what I think or understand—my mind is me, my mind and my feelings—and we say that the Torah is Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s wisdom, then, broadly speaking, His wisdom is Him, in terms of the analogy. Right. So if the Torah is His wisdom and I am now studying Torah here in this world, then Hakadosh Boruch Hu—His wisdom—is being revealed down here now. When I study Torah here, it reveals His wisdom; it reveals Hakadosh Boruch Hu.

09:23 Speaker 8 All right.

09:27 Speaker 1 How is it revealed? Through the person. When a person studies Torah, he draws the light down upon himself by fulfilling the 248 positive mitzvos. He studies Torah and fulfills the mitzvos, and the mitzvos are the 248 “limbs of the King.” Just as a person has a mind and feelings and also a body, so too, figuratively speaking, Hakadosh Boruch Hu has His mind and feelings and His body. The Torah is, so to speak, His mind and feelings, and the mitzvos are, so to speak, Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s body. So when a person studies Torah and fulfills mitzvos, he reveals Hakadosh Boruch Hu here in the world—His spirit, soul and body, so to speak. Why specifically 248 mitzvos? Why exactly two hundred and forty-eight? It isn’t written here, but we’ve discussed it a few times recently. There are specifically 248 mitzvos in the Torah because, altogether, we have nine sefiros, from Chochmah through Yesod. Malchus isn’t counted, and each of the nine sefiros contains all the others. We have Chochmah within Chochmah, Chessed within Chochmah, Binah within Chochmah, and so on. So do the calculation—though you don’t need to.

10:49 Speaker 8 Oh, I have another sticker.

10:50 Speaker 1 Huh?

10:50 Speaker 8 A sticker for this.

10:54 Speaker 1 For this? What do you mean?

10:56 Speaker 8 No. Then no.

11:02 Speaker 1 No, no, no, absolutely not. Fifteen times no.

11:10 Speaker 8 What’s that? Oh, nothing. All right, this—

11:16 Speaker 1 Every time I see that diagram, it annoys me all over again.

11:22 Speaker 8 Uh-huh.

11:23 Speaker 1 It’s not that it’s wrong, but they put it right where it doesn’t belong. Usually, when we talk about the sefiros, we’re talking about them unfolding one from another, not existing in three separate lines.

11:43 Speaker 8 Uh-huh.

11:43 Speaker 1 There is such a concept of three separate lines, but it has nothing to do with what we’re discussing. It’s another subject, also explained in Chassidus. But no, not here. Anyway, let’s skip that. It really is a less important detail. Just as a person has 248 limbs, so, as it were, Hakadosh Boruch Hu has 248 limbs—the 248 mitzvos. And just as a person’s soul is clothed in a body with 248 limbs, so too, as it were, the soul of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the Torah, is clothed in the mitzvos. The mitzvos are 248 vessels and garments for the radiance of the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, that is clothed within them. And from this light, a person draws awe and love through each mitzvah, as is known. We’ve spoken about this many times too: when a person observes Torah and mitzvos, it reveals G-dliness in his soul. What does it mean to reveal G-dliness in his soul? How does that show itself? Suddenly he feels that he loves this world a little less and loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu more. The more he devotes himself and the more he contemplates and thinks, the more love of Hashem is revealed within him. Now, what has he said up to this point? So far, he’s said that the Torah is characterized by chesed. Why chesed? Chesed is something you give. The Torah is something Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives. He gives G-dliness, He gives spirituality, He gives the middos, love and awe. He gives and gives. Hakadosh Boruch Hu only gives. So what does “From His right hand, a fiery law for them” mean? Where do we see gevurah here? It’s that this flow of Torah, of chesed, was first clothed in Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s attribute of gevurah, which is called fire. And what is this fire? It is the contraction of the light and vitality that flow from the Ein Sof, blessed be He. Why? Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants to give, and He is chesed

13:43 Speaker 1 and He wants things to be good for us. Why does He contract it and diminish it through gevurah? So that it can be clothed in the performance of the mitzvos, since virtually all the mitzvos involve physical things. After all, what do we use to perform mitzvos? Tzitzis: you take sheep’s wool, spin it into threads, and tie them, right? You can’t perform the mitzvah of tzitzis without wool. Yes. Um, what other examples does the Rebbe give here? Um?

14:18 Speaker 9 Tefillin.

14:19 Speaker 1 Tefillin, yes. You take the hide of an animal; you have to slaughter it, clean it, and process it. That’s how you make tefillin. And offerings: you take the offering and bring it on the altar with fire, and so on. And the mitzvah of tzedakah, too. So since all... Where are we? Line twelve. We have lines so we don’t lose our place... What grade are you in?

14:46 Speaker 9 I’m in eighth grade.

14:47 Speaker 1 Eighth?

14:48 Speaker 9 Yes.

14:53 Speaker 10 I’m in sixth grade.

14:55 Speaker 1 You’re doing well.

14:57 Speaker 10 Boruch Hashem, yes.

15:01 Speaker 1 Once, in one of my previous incarnations, I had to... There was a school in Yavne’el that was being closed, a state religious school that was closing for lack of students.

15:14 Speaker 9 What’s a state religious school?

15:16 Speaker 1 A government-run religious school.

15:18 Speaker 9 Oh.

15:19 Speaker 1 Not a Chabad school. And the Ministry of Education—the religious supervisor there—approached Chabad, the Chabad school network. So there was... what was his name? I can’t remember now. They asked if he could revive the school, because otherwise it would become a secular state school. So he took on the task, and this was four days before the school year began.

15:48 Speaker 9 Wow.

15:49 Speaker 1 Now, four days before school starts, you have to find a principal, find a teaching staff, and find students. And it’s four days before school starts. So you have a school registration number and a budget; all you need is to find people to fill the place, that’s all. Hedva Segal volunteered to be the school principal.

16:15 Speaker 9 Wow.

16:16 Speaker 1 They recruited teachers from wherever they could find them. Among others, they recruited me. Why? Because some of the students they recruited would have to travel from Yavne’el itself and from all the communities around there—from Massad, from here, from there. And to have enough children to open classes, they asked all the Chabad families in Tiberias to send their children to the school. Now, that meant taking their children out of Talmud Torah and sending them to a school—and you understand what kind of school we’re talking about, right? A state religious school. They didn’t want to. So they made it a condition that if there would be a melamed there every day to teach the children Gemara in the afternoons, I don’t know, for three hours, they’d agree. I happened to be looking for work, I didn’t have a job, and they came to me. For a year, I traveled there every day by bus to teach the children. So that was it. It was a very interesting class, because I had one group of children from first through sixth grade to teach Gemara to, all together, for three hours.

17:26 Speaker 9 How hard.

17:26 Speaker 1 It wasn’t just hard; it was simply impossible. Besides, I didn’t know Gemara myself. And there was something else. It was an interesting class.

17:33 Speaker 9 Oh.

17:35 Speaker 1 The two children who made it through to the end of the year are both shluchim today.

17:39 Speaker 9 Nice.

17:41 Speaker 1 Anyway, one of the two—why did I bring this up? First of all, you mentioned sixth grade, and that reminded me. The oldest child there was in sixth grade, and when we came to learn on the first day, I discovered that he couldn’t read.

17:58 Speaker 9 Wow, that bad?

17:59 Speaker 1 He couldn’t read. Why? Because those were the years when they taught reading by whole words. They didn’t teach letters with vowel marks. The approach with children was—

18:11 Speaker 9 There was a program.

18:12 Speaker 1 There were programs that taught only whole words. Some children picked it up, and some didn’t. And those children got all the way to even higher grades. So for the first few days, I simply taught him to read. We just sat down, and I taught him the alef-beis, then the letters and how to put them together. But he was an older child, in sixth grade, so he picked it up quickly.

18:30 Speaker 9 Nice.

18:33 Speaker 1 After that, we sat and learned Gemara together, as chavrusas. All right, that was just an aside. So the Rebbe says here that, on the one hand, the Torah itself, the entire Torah, is on the right side. But for it to be clothed in physical things—how can G-dly light be clothed here in the physical world? It has to be contracted. That’s why the Torah is described as “From His right hand, a fiery law for them.” The Torah is the law; it comes from the right side, but through fire, through contraction, so that it can be clothed in the physicality of the world. That applies to all the mitzvos, even tzedakah, he says. And not only those mitzvos: even mitzvos that take place within a person spiritually, like the mitzvos of love and awe—awe and love—are nevertheless limited and measured, even though they are spiritual mitzvos. They are not at all infinite. For a great love of Hashem, a love without end, limit, or measure—a person cannot contain it in his heart and remain alive in his body for even a moment. As the Zohar says, at the Giving of the Torah, when there was a revelation of G-dliness, of His blessed light, and the Jewish people experienced love of Hashem openly, as it is above—and the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, was revealed through speech—their souls departed. They couldn’t remain in their bodies. Like the well-known story of Nadav and Avihu, who came to offer incense in the Beis Hamikdash: because of the tremendous delight they experienced, their souls remained above and did not return to their bodies. Or the story of Ben Azzai, who gazed and was harmed. There are several stories like that. I think I also told a story here once about something that happened in the previous generation, here in Israel. Do you remember the story? There was... Well, today is turning into a bit of a storytelling day. That’s all right. There was a Chabad yeshiva in Chevron before—until the events of 5689. There was a young man there who... There were several young men there who were a little... There wasn’t food there,

20:44 Speaker 1 but apparently there was plenty of spirituality. And... this young man...

20:54 Speaker 11 He didn’t feel it in practice?

20:56 Speaker 1 No. I’m trying to remember the niggun. Here. Um, one second. I need the words in front of me, and then I’ll remember. Anyway, he had a niggun that he would sing regularly, and his whole davening—everything—was in that same tune. Ah, all right. And he would daven for hours every day, for hours. He would say a few words and sing, say a few more words and sing, and it was all the same niggun, the same tune. Everything was like that with him... He wasn’t so much in this world. And one day, while he was davening, he sang his familiar niggun and became absorbed in contemplation as usual. When people noticed that it was taking too long, they went over to him and saw that he was no longer alive. Simply from such intense delight and cleaving to G-dliness, he just...

22:05 Speaker 11 Klos hanefesh?

22:06 Speaker 1 Yes, klos hanefesh in the literal sense. So even in our generations, such a thing is possible. Why am I mentioning it here? This was at the Chabad yeshivah in Hebron, before they were murdered, before the yeshivah came to an end, before the events of 5689. There’s the name of the young man, and the niggun too. I can’t remember it right now, but it’s a familiar niggun that people sing. It’s called Niggun Klos Hanefesh. That’s the name of the niggun. Look up Niggun Klos Hanefesh on YouTube.

22:36 Speaker 11 Yes.

22:37 Speaker 1 You’ll find it. It’s a well-known niggun.

22:40 Speaker 11 Oh, is that why it’s called that?

22:42 Speaker 1 Yes.

22:42 Speaker 11 Oh.

22:46 Speaker 1 Exactly. By the way, this niggun does not appear—no, it isn’t in Sefer Haniggunim. It’s a niggun that came to light later, after the book had already been printed. All right, how does this relate to our subject? We wanted to understand why it says, “Hashem’s kindnesses, for we have not come to an end,” rather than “for they have not come to an end.” To explain that, the Rebbe prefaced that there are two kinds: Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives life to the world through two kinds of kindness. There is chesed olam, worldly kindness, and there is rav chesed, abundant kindness. Right? Before continuing the explanation, in the section we’re coming to now, line nineteen, he inserts a parenthetical point. What does that point say? That Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave the Torah through kindness, but in order for us to receive it, He contracted its light through gevurah. Now we return to the two kinds of kindness. “And since”—on line nineteen—“the mitzvos were given to us through being enclothed in the attribute of gevurah and a contraction of the light.” This is like we said in the previous chapter, right? That all the mitzvos were given through contraction. Therefore, most mitzvos—now pay attention: earlier it was all the mitzvos that had limits, right? Suddenly it’s no longer all of them; it’s most of them. Most mitzvos have a defined measure. That means there are mitzvos that do not have a defined measure. What are examples of most mitzvos? The length of the tzitzis strings is twelve thumbbreadths. A thumbbreadth is... How many centimeters is a thumbbreadth?

24:34 Speaker 12 A thumb.

24:35 Speaker 1 A thumb, yes. How many centimeters is that? The Torah’s measure of a thumbbreadth is the broad part of the thumb. According to Rabbi Chaim Naeh’s measurements, which Chabad follows, it’s considered two centimeters. So the length of the tzitzis strings is twelve thumbbreadths, twenty-four centimeters. If someone wants to be extra meticulous and make them twenty-five centimeters, has he committed a transgression? No. Has he performed an additional mitzvah? Also no.

25:06 Speaker 12 Isn’t that also considered enhancing the mitzvah?

25:08 Speaker 1 No. Not even that. All right? The mitzvos have a measure, meaning that this is the required size. There’s nothing for you to add.

25:19 Speaker 12 What if his tzitzis strings get shorter?

25:20 Speaker 1 If they get shorter, they’re invalid.

25:25 Speaker 12 How do they shrink?

25:26 Speaker 1 No. They could snap or unravel. Even if they unravel—the thread is twisted together, after all—if it unravels, it’s also considered as though that part is gone. That doesn’t matter right now; there are particular measurements involved. Whether it’s one thread or several threads, whether it broke higher up or lower down—there are plenty of halachos about it.

25:46 Speaker 12 No, I was saying that regarding Dovid, if, like—

25:50 Speaker 1 As a starting point, I can give all the halachos briefly; that’s no problem. The length needs to be twelve thumbbreadths. Since we take the threads from underneath and bring them back up, right? If one thread breaks on one side, we know that it has that whole length and the other side remains, right? So if it breaks only on one side, it clearly still has twelve thumbbreadths, right? Because the entire other side is there. So eight strings come out of the knot: four here and four here. Even if all four on one side break off completely, it is still kosher after the fact, because the entire other side, the full length, remains. Right? But if one breaks here and one here, it will already be invalid. Right? There are—there are many details to it. That’s the basic idea, but there are a lot of details. In any case, the point the Rebbe wants to make here is that all mitzvos have a measure. The measure for tzitzis is twelve. If someone wants to make them longer, he isn’t performing an additional mitzvah or enhancing it, because it says twelve; twelve is the size. All right? He gives another example: tefillin are two fingerbreadths by two fingerbreadths. If someone wants to make tefillin five centimeters across, he’s welcome to. It doesn’t bother anyone. He hasn’t performed an additional mitzvah or enhanced it in any way. And the tefillin specifically have to be square, right? For “square,” he says “specifically”; he didn’t say “specifically” for the other things. Why? Because with the other things, if you add to them, nothing has happened. But if you make tefillin pentagonal instead of square, that is a problem. In other words, with tefillin the limit applies both

27:40 Speaker 1 above and below. And a lulav is four handbreadths, a sukkah is seven handbreadths, a shofar is one handbreadth, and a mikveh is forty se’ah. The same applies to offerings. Offerings, too, have a defined age: lambs and— they must be offered specifically within their first year of life. Rams, the male sheep, must be within their first two years. Bulls must be within three years, and so on. So just as all the mitzvos have limits—what did we say a limit means? That if you do more, you haven’t accomplished anything additional, right? The Alter Rebbe says that even giving tzedakah and acts of kindness with one’s money, although that is one of the pillars on which the world stands, one of the most important mitzvos—as it says, “The world is built through kindness”—nevertheless, even the mitzvah of tzedakah, as important as it is, has a set measure: a fifth for the choicest fulfillment of the mitzvah. And if a person gives more than a fifth? Then what? Has he enhanced the mitzvah or not?

29:15 Speaker 13 Yes.

29:16 Speaker 1 No.

29:19 Speaker 13 It depends.

29:19 Speaker 1 Yes.

29:19 Speaker 13 No, because if it were objects, then...

29:21 Speaker 1 Here things start to depart from the usual pattern. With all the other mitzvos, we said that if you do more, you’re welcome to, but it’s clear to everyone that you haven’t done anything more—or you haven’t performed a mitzvah at all. But when we talk about the mitzvah of tzedakah, although it too has a stated measure—a tenth is the intermediate standard, and a fifth is the choicest fulfillment—I want to give more. Have I performed a mitzvah or not?

29:46 Speaker 13 Yes.

29:47 Speaker 1 It’s clear to everyone that I have. What’s the difference between this mitzvah and all the others? That’s where the explanation begins. So the fact that even the mitzvah of tzedakah has a set measure—a fifth for the choicest fulfillment, and a tenth for the intermediate standard, and so on—is called chesed olam. It is kindness, it is tzedakah. He helps someone else; he does an act of kindness. But it is kindness limited by the limits of the world. The meaning of “G-d’s kindness lasts all day” is that it becomes enclothed in the upper and lower worlds through an awakening from below, through the mitzvos of tzedakah and the acts of kindness that people do for one another. When a person gives tzedakah and does kindness in a limited measure, that causes Hakadosh Boruch Hu to shine into the world in a limited way, because the world has boundaries and dimensions. What is its extent? What is the size of the world? From the earth to the firmament is five hundred years. How much is five hundred years?

30:54 Speaker 13 A year and a half.

30:57 Speaker 1 Five hundred years. The Hebrew letters tav-kuf mean five hundred. Here, five hundred years is a distance, not a length of time. It’s the distance a person would cover if he walked for five hundred years. An average person walks forty kilometers a day, as our Sages said. If he gets up in the morning and walks all day at an ordinary pace, he can cover forty kilometers. And if he walks forty kilometers a day for five hundred years, that is the distance from the earth to the firmament. That is the size of the world.

31:35 Speaker 13 Wow.

31:36 Speaker 1 Yes, certainly big. And from one firmament to the next, there are also five hundred years, and there are seven firmaments, one above the other, and so on. The Midrash continues there, higher and higher, and there are many wonderful things to learn about where we get the five hundred years from, too. We’ll learn them another time, with Hashem’s help. In any case, however vast and enormous the world is, it has a size. It is limited. Five hundred years, not five hundred and one. Right? It has a finite size. And “the world will exist for six thousand years.” The world exists for a great many years—six thousand years. True, that’s a lot, but it’s limited. And because the world is limited in both space and time, the Torah’s mitzvah of tzedakah and kindness was also given a measure and a limit, like the Torah’s other mitzvos. How does Hakadosh Boruch Hu give life to the worlds? Through kindness. Does He owe us anything? Is He obligated to create the worlds? He doesn’t owe us anything. He creates the world through the attribute of kindness. He does kindness for us, for the worlds. And everything Hakadosh Boruch Hu does comes about through a person’s service. What service of ours causes Hakadosh Boruch Hu to create the worlds, so to speak? Not “so to speak”—in practice. When we do kindness, it causes Hakadosh Boruch Hu to create the world. That is why the Torah’s mitzvah of tzedakah and kindness was also given a measure and a limit, like the Torah’s other mitzvos. But all this is speaking about one kind of tzedakah, one kind of kindness. That is, who are we talking about? Specifically someone who keeps the Torah and does not turn from it to the right or left, even if we don’t say... Someone who has never committed a transgression, who does not commit transgressions: for him, giving a fifth is the mitzvah in its most exemplary form, and giving more serves no purpose. But someone who has strayed from the path—that is, someone who has committed a transgression, G-d forbid—since he has distorted

33:43 Speaker 1 his path and caused deficiencies in the supernal holiness, diminishing what he could have drawn down—what he could have drawn down of G-dliness and the radiance of the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, had he kept the Torah and observed it properly. He has blemished his observance of the mitzvos, so he did not draw down that light, and it is lacking. What a person has distorted... What a person has damaged by committing a transgression cannot be repaired except by drawing down a supernal light that is above the worlds. The light that gives life to the worlds is a limited light, and to repair what he damaged, he needs to draw down something higher than that limited light. But if he gives tzedakah in a limited way, even if he gives a fifth, that is still limited and can draw down only the limited light that extends into the worlds. He needs to draw down the supernal light that is above the worlds, a light that does not become enclothed within them. This is called supernal kindness and abundant kindness. Why is it called supernal kindness? Because it is supernal; it is too lofty to become enclothed within the worlds. That is why it is called abundant kindness—as if to say, a kindness so great that it is greater than the world. There is no room for it within the world; it cannot be revealed in the world. For it shines and spreads in an infinite manner, without limit or measure. Since it is not confined within the worlds but encompasses them, it is above everything, from the highest level to the lowest. I’m deliberately not explaining all the concepts. And when a person draws it down—the supernal kindness, the abundant kindness—through his actions, through an arousal from below, then this supernal light shines and spreads within the worlds. It repairs every distortion and every deficiency caused in the supernal holiness, and renews their light and goodness with greater strength and greater power, as an entirely new light. That is why they said, “In the place where baalei teshuvah stand...” How does it continue?

36:12 Speaker 3 The completely righteous.

36:14 Speaker 1 Good. “In the place where baalei teshuvah stand, the completely righteous”—not that the completely righteous don’t stand there; they cannot stand there. After all, a completely righteous person has never committed transgressions in his life, while a baal teshuvah has. How can he draw down a higher light? That is precisely what this is telling us: the service of a tzaddik is very lofty, but limited. The service of a baal teshuvah is unlimited, and therefore it can draw down the unlimited light. That is why one moment of teshuvah is worth more than an entire lifetime of a completely righteous person who does not do teshuvah. Wait—so what draws down the supernal light? Tzedakah or teshuvah?

37:06 Speaker 3 I think teshuvah.

37:07 Speaker 1 Huh? All along he was talking about tzedakah. Suddenly he’s talking about teshuvah. Is the question clear?

37:15 Speaker 3 I don’t know.

37:16 Speaker 1 Huh? I know you don’t know. First we want to see that we understand the question. Then we’ll look at the answer. So in the next passage—this passage, the final one we’re about to learn—the Alter Rebbe explains what teshuvah accomplishes and what tzedakah accomplishes, and what kind of tzedakah. That’s the main point. Here we go. “The essence of teshuvah...” So first we said that to draw down the unlimited light, to atone for transgressions and repair the damage, we need to draw down the unlimited light, and that is through teshuvah. “The essence of teshuvah is in the heart.” How do you do teshuvah? By feeling regret and remorse. The essence of teshuvah is in the heart, because heartfelt regret, from the depths of the heart, awakens the depths of the supernal light. Just as a person awakens the depths of his own heart, this awakens the depths of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s heart, so to speak. But to draw it down so that it shines still further in the higher and lower worlds, there must be an actual arousal from below, expressed in action. So we need two things here. Teshuvah in the heart awakens the heart above. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is then ready to give. But that is spiritual. For it to be drawn down into the physical world, the teshuvah must be not only in a person’s feelings, not only in his spiritual life, but also in his physical actions. And what is teshuvah in a person’s physical actions? That is tzedakah. What’s the connection? He explains it immediately. That is, when a person performs an act of tzedakah and kindness without limit or measure, it draws down that same supernal light, the light that has no limit or measure. It draws it down through action. Why? Just as a person bestows abundant kindness, that causes Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s light of abundant kindness to be drawn down. What does it mean for a person to bestow abundant kindness? What is the difference between kindness and abundant kindness? I give tzedakah. When is it

39:31 Speaker 1 kindness? When is it abundant kindness? Let’s explain it this way: The Hebrew word for kindness, chesed, contains the letters ches and dalet, right? Dalet points to someone poor and needy. So chesed means that a person has compassion and gives even to someone poor and needy, who has nothing of his own, and he sets no limit or measure on what he gives and bestows. We need to understand this. This sentence is the point of the entire letter. Let’s think for a moment. Let’s stop and think aloud together: Who is it easiest to give tzedakah to?

40:15 Speaker 3 Someone who has money.

40:16 Speaker 1 Hmm?

40:17 Speaker 3 A rich person.

40:18 Speaker 1 It’s easy to give to a rich person? What does he need my tzedakah for?

40:20 Speaker 3 I said—I meant a rich person. I thought you were, like—

40:22 Speaker 1 No, when I want to give tzedakah to someone, who will I give to first?

40:27 Speaker 3 Someone who’s lacking something.

40:28 Speaker 1 Someone who’s lacking something, right? So why don’t I really feel like giving money to the beggars on the street? Because I don’t really believe they have nothing, right? If I knew he had nothing, I’d give him everything I have. I would give him something, right? The Alter Rebbe says in these two lines that you’re a liar—that this is an argument from your yetzer hara. What’s the explanation? It’s very simple when you think about it objectively for a moment. Let’s take ourselves and have a look... Let’s examine ourselves for a moment without... Let’s strip away the outer layer, and suddenly we’ll discover that we’ve been lying to ourselves our whole lives. When my son needs something and asks me for it, “Here, take it.” I don’t think twice. Whether he has it or not—I know he already has things too. So what? I’ll give it to him, so he’ll have it. Right? When someone who’s a bit closer to me, a friend, comes to ask for money once in a while—fine, he’s a good friend. It’s not like giving to my son, first of all... But I trust him to do good things with it, and I’m sure it’s all right. So I’ll give him something too. Not like I give my children, but I’ll give. When a stranger I don’t know very well comes, I start thinking: Wait, does he really need it? Doesn’t he really need it? Right? It’s already a little harder. And when someone is standing on the street, the distance keeps growing. And when I see someone who truly has nothing: Let him go to work. Why don’t you tell your son to go to work? Isn’t that how it is?

42:23 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

42:23 Speaker 1 In other words, we lie to ourselves and deceive ourselves all our lives. The truth is that, as far as our feelings go, the more a person has, the easier it is for me to give to him; and the less he has, the harder it is for me to give to him.

42:42 Speaker 3 Why?

42:44 Speaker 1 Why? Because that’s human nature. That’s how the yetzer hara works. So who is the hardest person to give to? Not just someone who genuinely has nothing, but someone who has nothing and doesn’t deserve it, either. Why should I give him anything? So what if he has nothing? He doesn’t deserve it at all. Someone who has nothing of his own—nothing. Meaning, not only does he have nothing; he doesn’t deserve anything, either. Let’s see you give tzedakah to someone like that. Ah, that’s already rav chesed, abundant kindness. That’s kindness without limits. True tzedakah, which draws down the essence of G-dliness, the rav chesed that atones for sins, is giving tzedakah to the person I don’t feel like giving to, the person I have no inclination toward, the person it doesn’t seem right to me to give to. That’s tzedakah; that’s called rav chesed. All right? I think this is a startling point in this Igeres Hakodesh. It’s the opposite of everything we’re used to thinking and feeling. Because, after all... Now we can also understand why the Alter Rebbe begins this Igeres Hakodesh—ah, what was it called? “An ear that hears.” “Until now I have held back from speaking... an ear that hears the rebuke of life.” It isn’t me: “the rebuke of Hashem, the source of life.” How does Hashem rebuke us? Through His prophet. Hakadosh Boruch Hu, in the Torah, through the prophets, has rebuked you: give tzedakah even to someone you don’t feel like giving to. Good, so we’re on line

44:31 Speaker 4 twelve.

44:32 Speaker 1 Twelve. So, when a person conducts himself this way... then Hakadosh Boruch Hu also bestows His light and goodness from the level of supernal kindness, called rav chesed, which shines from the infinite, without limit. Because when you give kindness without limit and don’t set limits for yourself—“It feels right to give to this one, but not to that one”—then Hakadosh Boruch Hu, too, will shine without limit or measure into the higher and lower worlds. All of them, all the worlds, are poor and needy before Him, may He be blessed, having nothing of their own. When Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives us life, blessing, success, abundance, health, children, a good life, all these things, long years—why does He give them to us? Why doesn’t He say, “Go work, earn your own living, manage on your own. What have you done to deserve it?” He doesn’t ask us those questions. He gives. You give, too, and you’ll receive, too. “And all is considered as nothing before Him.” Through this, all the damage a person caused through his sins to created beings in the higher and lower worlds is repaired. This is what is meant by the verse, “Doing tzedakah and justice is more desirable to Hashem than a sacrifice.” The verse says, “Doing tzedakah and justice is more desirable to Hashem than a sacrifice.” A sacrifice means korbanos. Korbanos are an exceptionally lofty mitzvah. The verse says that giving tzedakah is greater than korbanos. Why? Korbanos bring atonement, and tzedakah brings atonement. Why is tzedakah better than korbanos? The Alter Rebbe says—and emphasizes—“Doing... doing tzedakah and justice.” If you give tzedakah at the level of a tenth or a fifth, it really isn’t greater than korbanos. This is limited, and that is limited. But when you give tzedakah by judging yourself, that is greater—it is worth far more than a sacrifice, incomparably more than a sacrifice.

46:28 Speaker 4 So “justice” here doesn’t mean a limitation. But [unclear] the judgment

46:33 Speaker 1 Justice—judging yourself.

46:34 Speaker 4 Okay.

46:35 Speaker 1 According to the Alter Rebbe’s explanation here. Ah, because sacrifices are subject to a set amount, measure, and limit, whereas a person can give tzedakah without limit if it is to repair his sins. And as for the statement, “One who gives generously should not give more than a fifth”—all right, true, there is such a rule. That applies specifically to someone who has not sinned, has never sinned. Fine, no more than a fifth; no problem, everything is fine. Or someone who has properly repaired his sins through self-denial and fasts, repairing all the damage above—and we saw in Igeres Hateshuvah what that involves. But someone who still needs to repair his soul: obviously, the healing of the soul is no less important than the healing of the body, for which money is of no account. And it is written, “A person will give all that he has for his life.” Now, this quality of kindness without limit or measure is called by Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s name: “the kindnesses of Hashem.” So now, after understanding the difference between the two kinds of kindness, we go back—I still haven’t explained the point in those parentheses; there’s no time now. We’ll return to it another time. So now, after understanding the two kinds of kindness, we return to the question: what does it mean—why—what is the significance of tamnu instead of tamu? This quality of kindness without limit or measure is called by Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s name: “the kindnesses—the kindnesses of Hashem.” It isn’t just kindness; it is Hashem’s kindness, kindness without limit. As it is written, “Hashem’s kindness is from eternity to eternity.” It has no limit. Although all Jews are compassionate and perform acts of kindness, human compassion has a limit. But Hakadosh Boruch Hu is called Ein Sof, the Infinite One, and His attributes are infinite, as it is written, “For His mercies have not ended,” and so on. This is what the prophet said after the destruction and the exile: “It is through Hashem’s kindnesses that we have not been consumed.” Since we—meaning, because we are not whole, because we are not perfect and complete, because we have sins—we must conduct ourselves not with ordinary kindness but with Hashem’s kindnesses.

48:30 Speaker 5 As if always.

48:31 Speaker 1 Tamnu can be understood as meaning that we are not whole. No, it doesn’t mean the kindnesses have run out. According to the plain meaning, “we have not been consumed” means the kindnesses have not ended. According to the Alter Rebbe’s inner explanation, it refers to the fact that we are not whole. Because we are not whole, we must conduct ourselves with Hashem’s kindnesses. Why do we need—why must we conduct ourselves with Hashem’s kindnesses? Because we are not whole. We are not perfect. What proves that we are not perfect? The destruction and the exile. If we were perfect, there would be no destruction and exile; we would have gotten out of here already. Meaning, because we are not whole, because we are not perfect and complete, without any sin or blemish in the soul or in the higher worlds, we must therefore conduct ourselves with Hashem’s kindnesses, which are without limit or end. That will arouse mercy and supernal kindness upon us—rav chesed and mercy without limit or end—as it is written, “For His mercies have not ended,” and so on. This is what our Sages said: the Jewish people will not be redeemed... When will the destruction and the exile stop, come to an end? Only through tzedakah that they give even when they are exempt according to the law. In other words, ordinary tzedakah really will not bring us out of exile. But tzedakah that a person gives when he is exempt according to the law, simply giving without limit or measure—that will bring the Jewish people out of exile. For “the son of David will not come,” and so on. The ending of this... of this teaching of our Sages, the Alter Rebbe did not want to quote. Do you know how it ends? Our Sages said, “The son of David will not come until the last coin is gone from the purse.” So the Alter Rebbe did not want to quote the ending. And our Rebbe says that it wasn’t simply because he wanted to end on a positive note. Rather, by not quoting the ending, the Alter Rebbe brought about the possibility of fulfilling it in a spiritual sense: if a person feels poor and needy spiritually and gives tzedakah materially, that is enough to bring the Geulah. The last coin does not actually need to disappear

50:51 Speaker 1 from the purse.