19 Kislev | An Anchor in Stormy Times - Why It's Important and Necessary for Every Jew to Study Tanya

00:00 Lately, things have been happening in our world that shake our sense of stability. Human nature is such that a person likes stability and security. He likes to get up in the morning knowing what to expect, where he’s going, what’s happening, what direction things are headed. He goes to sleep at night knowing what tomorrow will bring. People like stability, a routine, a clear life, a life of security, solid ground, a steady direction. All of that has been completely thrown into confusion lately—and by “lately,” I mean quite a long time now. For several years, the world has been going through a process we can all feel, something extraordinary. There’s a storm, a sense of chaos, an imbalance, an inability to think clearly, a lack of peace. We had COVID a few years ago, which disrupted the whole world and put it in a situation we were very, very unaccustomed to. At the same time, there are wars around the world, all kinds of insecurity and unrest, growing antisemitism, and a lack of leadership everywhere. There’s no sound voice, no clear voice, no clear direction, no clear leadership. And of course, when we come to Eretz Yisroel, all of this has been growing more acute, especially lately. Where are we headed? Where is our country headed? What direction are we going in here? What’s happening? Of course, with the war now, each of us has so many feelings, such intense feelings. One day we’re hopeful and confident; the next day we fall. One moment we think about the miracles and wonders happening here. The next moment we think about the darkness and the hardship of those who are suffering. Every moment, every second, our thoughts swing from one extreme to the other. And what that usually brings is instability, a lack of inner peace,

02:43 which makes everyday life very difficult. In the midst of all this chaos, surrounded by all this darkness and confusion, how can I remain steady, strong, connected? What’s the answer? There is one word we’re going to talk about today, and that is the subject of the Tanya. We’re going to talk about the Tanya because we are now approaching great days. 19 Kislev is coming—the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus. This is the day the Alter Rebbe, the author of the Tanya, was released from his famous imprisonment. It is the day that, through the Rebbe Rashab, came to be known among Chabad chassidim as the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus. It is also the day associated with the printing of the Tanya. As is known from Chabad chassidic history, there is a very deep connection between the Alter Rebbe’s liberation on 19 Kislev and the Tanya. It’s very interesting. The Tanya was printed two years before the Alter Rebbe was imprisoned. It was printed in 5557. When the Alter Rebbe sent his emissaries to print the Tanya, he made a very heartfelt request. He sent them in Elul to the town of Slavita, home of the famous printing press, and asked them to do everything they could, to make every effort, so that the Tanya would be ready and come off the press on 19 Kislev. Why 19 Kislev? Because it was the yahrtzeit, the hilula, of his teacher and Rebbe, the renowned Maggid of Mezritch. In fact, as we know, the Tanya was not ready on 19 Kislev. It was ready only on 20 Kislev, the following day. It is also known that when the chassidim returned to the Alter Rebbe with the Tanya and told him it had come off the press on 20 Kislev, the Alter Rebbe entered a state of deep contemplation for a long time. Then he said with a sigh, “20 Kislev, 20 Kislev, 20 Kislev. Well, then it will be

05:32 20 Kislev.” And two years later, it was on 19 Kislev that they came to tell the Rebbe—the Alter Rebbe—that he could go free, that he could leave prison. The Alter Rebbe left there, but his release was not yet complete. There was still a process, and it dragged on. It’s a long story, and we won’t go into the details now. Only that night, when it was already 20 Kislev, did the imprisonment come to its end and the Alter Rebbe become able to meet the chassidim. That was when the celebration of the Geulah began. That is why chassidim celebrate both 19 and 20 Kislev. So we understand that there is a very inner connection between the Tanya and 19 Kislev, the festival of liberation. It is also known among chassidim, as our Rebbeim, the Chabad Rebbeim, told us in the name of the Alter Rebbe, that it was by Divine Providence that the imprisonment lasted fifty-three days. That number, fifty-three, is very precise. The Alter Rebbe spent exactly fifty-three days in that dangerous, harsh imprisonment, from after Sukkos and Simchas Torah until 19 Kislev. And the Alter Rebbe said of this that he had written fifty-three chapters in the Tanya. The Tanya consists of fifty-three chapters. One chapter for each day, one chapter for each day. The point right now is not to say that we understand the connection, but we do understand that there is a very deep connection between the celebration and joy of 19 Kislev, the day of the Alter Rebbe’s liberation, and the Tanya. That is also why chassidim follow the practice established by the Frierdiker Rebbe of beginning the Tanya anew on 19 Kislev. There is a schedule for learning the Tanya over a full year: beginning on 19 Kislev and finishing the following year on the eve of 19 Kislev. Chassidim do this year after year. In other words, 19 Kislev is connected with the Tanya, and today we’re going to explore the secret of the Tanya.

08:08 Why do we need to learn Tanya? People ask that. We see, we are witnesses to what is happening around the world. The Tanya is one of the most widely printed books there is. It has been printed everywhere. There isn’t a corner, a remote spot, a neighborhood, town, village, city, or country in the world where the Tanya hasn’t been printed—even in the most remote places and the most dangerous ones. We know that in recent days the Tanya was printed in Gaza. But even before that, during the Lebanon War, people went deep into dangerous areas and printed the Tanya. Beyond that, the Tanya is a book people study. There are countless classes. People learn it and thirst to know what it says, what exactly the secret of the Tanya is, and how this book answers the question of our time, of these moments, of this period—when we find ourselves in a generation, in a time, of such uncertainty, such unease and unrest. How does the Tanya give us an answer to that question? I’ll begin with a short story about the Tanya. Chassidim tell that when the Alter Rebbe sent his emissaries to print the Tanya, he asked them to pass through the town of Anipoli. Anipoli is the town where the resting place, the Ohel, of the Alter Rebbe’s teacher, the Maggid of Mezritch, is located. Two of the Maggid’s students, friends of the Alter Rebbe, lived in that town. One was the renowned tzaddik Rabbi Zusha of Anipoli, and the other was the renowned tzaddik Rabbi Yehuda Leib HaKohen. These two students lived in Anipoli, where the Maggid of Mezritch was buried. The Alter Rebbe wanted to receive an approbation from these two students. Others say that because they lived near the holy resting place of his teacher and Rebbe, he wanted to ask them for an approbation. And therefore, in the Tanya,

10:46 If you open it, you can see on the first pages the approbations of these two tzaddikim. The Frierdiker Rebbe relates something remarkable: Reb Zusha of Anipoli said one thing about Tanya, and Rabbi Yehuda Leib HaKohen said another. Rabbi Yehuda Leib HaKohen said that when he looked at Tanya and read it, he was beside himself with excitement at its wisdom, depth, inner meaning, power of holiness, and messages. He said that Tanya is a book of ketores—incense—against the plagues that would come at the end of the exile, in the footsteps of Moshiach. The concept of ketores as a remedy against plagues is brought in the Zohar. We already know from the Torah that the ketores stopped the plague in the time of Korach, in Parshas Korach. The Zohar says that reading the passage of the ketores is a remedy against a plague. So when he spoke of ketores, he meant that Tanya is a kind of ketores, a kind of wondrous spiritual medicine that heals people amid the severe spiritual plagues of the final days of exile, in the footsteps of Moshiach. That is what Rabbi Yehuda Leib HaKohen said. Reb Zusha of Anipoli said that Tanya is the book with which we will go to greet our righteous Moshiach and our redemption. It is the book with which we will be redeemed and leave exile for the complete Geulah, to greet our righteous Moshiach. So it’s interesting. Each of them expressed a feeling, something deep and inward, about Tanya. And when we think about it, it’s very interesting: one tzaddik spoke about Tanya’s power to help against the severe plagues of the end of exile, while the other spoke of Tanya as a book that opens the gate for us, brings us into the atmosphere, and prepares us for the Geulah. These two explanations also connect with two general explanations given in the sefarim about Chassidus as a whole. There is the well-known question: if

13:38 Chassidus is true Torah, why wasn’t it here earlier? Why was Chassidus revealed only about 250 years ago? What happened before that? Three hundred years. What happened before that? We received the Torah at Sinai more than 3,300 years ago. Why was Chassidus revealed only in recent times? It’s a well-known question, and there are two answers to it, similar to the two things these tzaddikim said about Tanya. In certain sefarim, in certain places, the Baal Shem Tov’s disciples explain that Chassidus was revealed in the later generations to give us the strength to stand against the darkness at the end of exile. Because we are at the end of exile, the darkness is growing stronger. There is much bitterness, much difficulty. The exile has become long and exhausting, and despair—despair eats away at every side and in every corner. So precisely in these generations, when the darkness has grown so strong, we need something stronger. We—the Jewish people—need something stronger to hold out in this darkness. That is what the Baal Shem Tov merited to reveal: Chassidus, a Torah that gives us light, strength, courage, and resolve; that lifts a Jew up, elevates him, and gives him the strength to withstand the difficult and bitter tests of the end of exile. This is written in several sefarim and explained in several places. Elsewhere, however, a completely different explanation is brought from the Baal Shem Tov’s disciples. The explanation is that, because we are approaching the days of Moshiach, we are on Friday afternoon, after midday. As is known, the six thousand years correspond to the six days of Creation, as the Ramban writes, along with other sefarim. The holy Ohr HaChaim explains this at length. He says that the second half of the sixth millennium, beginning with the year 5500—5506 onward—is Friday after midday, when preparations for Shabbos begin. Among the preparations for Shabbos is tasting the Shabbos food. There is

16:13 already an atmosphere of Shabbos. We are already entering the holiness of Shabbos and receiving some of its illumination from Friday after midday, as brought in halachah with a number of details. And so, because we are close to that time, we already feel it. That is why we received the light of Chassidus, the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, which are, in essence, a taste of the Torah of Moshiach. So it is interesting that these two explanations were expressed by these great tzaddikim in connection with Tanya. If we really take a look at Tanya, we see that its message—the immense, wonderful message of Tanya—includes both of these points. Tanya gives a person the strength, the medicine, the ketores, the needed resolve, and the health of mind and spirit to stay connected and strong in the moments we are living through now, amid this redoubled darkness, confusion, and everything surrounding us. It enables a Jew to stay connected to the deepest part of himself, to his soul, to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and to the Torah. At this time, that connection is what gives us solid ground beneath our feet. It gives us the resolve to stand strong, to be confident, to know that our path is right, to know our direction and where we are going. At the same time, Tanya explains and opens our eyes to how we can begin to sense the atmosphere of the days of Moshiach right now, even within this darkness. How can a Jew begin, right now, to taste and feel it and enter the atmosphere of the days of Moshiach? How do we see that in Tanya? Let’s take a few points, at least some fundamental points that can give us a message, a direction. I’ll begin with the name, the word Tanya. As is known, the book of Tanya

18:39 was not originally called Tanya. The Alter Rebbe called this book Likkutei Amarim. If you look at the title page, Tanya is not mentioned. It says Sefer Likkutei Amarim. Then it says “Sefer Shel Beinonim”—the Book of Beinonim. The Alter Rebbe called it that because it is a book about beinonim. In the book, the Alter Rebbe explains that among Jews there is a tzaddik, a rasha, and a beinoni. We won’t go into all the details now, but its well-known name is Tanya. Why? Because the first word inside the book is “Tanya.” Tanya means “we learned.” It begins, “Tanya, at the end of chapter three of Niddah,” quoting a passage from the Gemara in Tractate Niddah, at the end of its third chapter. It speaks there about how, when the soul descends into the world and begins its life here, it is made to take an oath: “Be a tzaddik and do not be a rasha,” and so on. That is why it is called Tanya. What does this mean? The Rebbe once gave a wonderful, fundamental explanation: this is really the point of Tanya. Chassidim have said, going back to earlier generations, that the Hebrew letters of Tanya are the same as those of the word eisan. Eisan is a very fundamental, very profound word. You know that the Midrash calls Avraham Avinu eisan. The verse says, “A maskil of Eisan the Ezrachite”; the Midrash says that Eisan the Ezrachite is Avraham—Avraham Avinu. In Hilchos Avodah Zarah, the Rambam speaks about Avraham Avinu and calls him eisan: “Once this eisan was weaned...” Why is he called eisan? What does eisan mean? Eisan means resolve. Eisan means strength. Eisan means stubbornness. Eisan represents the deeper, more steadfast, stronger part. There is a very deep point within every Jew’s soul: the soul’s steadfast strength, because the soul is “literally a part of G-d above.” The soul is a part of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and this is what the Alter Rebbe explains in Tanya

21:05 From the second chapter onward, he returns to this and explains it in great detail: the power of the soul. A Jewish soul is literally a part of G-d above. Everyone understands that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the strongest, most enduring, most eternal, most real existence. No change, no weakening, and, G-d forbid, no end can apply to Him. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the ultimate truth. The soul is literally a part of G-d above. The soul is part of that truth, and so our soul feels that strength. A Jew has the eisan, the steadfast strength, within the soul. And the Alter Rebbe explains something wonderful about this in Tanya. Before the soul descends into this world, it is in Gan Eden. And when the soul is in Gan Eden, it delights in the radiance of the Shechinah. It studies Torah with the angels, with the souls, with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. It is in the most wonderful, most delightful place—Divine delight. It delights in the radiance of the Shechinah. But there, the soul has no need to reveal its steadfast strength, because it has no tests, no hardships, nothing that gets in its way, no obstacles or delays. The soul is there in the freest, sweetest, most wonderful place. It is precisely when the soul descends here into this physical world and must enter a body and an animal soul, a physical, material body, and is surrounded by all the tests, all the darkness, all the kelipah that the Alter Rebbe speaks about—impurity, the sitra achra, evil—that it is administered an oath. This is what he brings at the beginning of Tanya: an oath. The soul is given an oath. An oath symbolizes strength. When a person takes an oath, he is saying, “I am going to draw on my deepest strengths.” The soul receives deep strengths from the deepest, most essential, most inward place—what is called eisan. This eisan is the deepest strength, from the deepest place within Hakadosh Boruch

23:28 Hu. Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so to speak, gives the soul His very essence, a true firmness that cannot be broken or weakened. That is what the soul gives—the soul receives it, and it gives the soul the strength not to be shaken, not to become distressed, to be connected with Hakadosh Boruch Hu in the deepest way, and to stand firm, with mesirus nefesh and pure faith, in the face of every hardship, every obstacle and delay, and every confusion that can arise from within or without. This is what the Alter Rebbe teaches us in the chapters of Tanya: the power of a Jew’s faith, which nothing in the world can weaken. A person may not be the greatest Torah scholar; he may not have studied much. But every Jew has pure, simple, genuine, sincere faith that nothing in the world can dislodge. At the right moments, at the hardest moments, when our faith in the oneness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is put to the test, the power of mesirus nefesh awakens in every Jew—even the simplest. The Alter Rebbe says: even a wicked person, even the most irreligious, even someone unlearned, a person who has no connection to Torah and mitzvos. The moment his point of faith is touched, the point of his soul, the strength of faith suddenly bursts forth in that Jew with tremendous force. Nothing will move him. He will go so far as to give up his life in practice to sanctify Hashem’s name. This is a reality we have seen throughout the history of the Jewish people, in every generation, and we are seeing it in recent days in a remarkable way. We thought that over the years something had grown dim, something had weakened. And now, in recent days, we see such resolve, such strength—something extraordinary. Tanya is a book for study, and that is a very important point. Many people think: Chassidus—what is Chassidus? A kind word, some sort of celebration, a dance, a beautiful story, stories of tzaddikim, stories of miracles, dancing, niggunim, love. All of that

26:00 is true. All of it is part of Chassidus, but there is something much deeper. There is study here; there is a worldview, a whole way of understanding the world. Every chapter of Tanya completely changes the way we see things from how we saw them before. There is something wonderful here. If we begin studying Tanya seriously, we will notice that Tanya overturns our whole conception. Everyone talks about “conceptions” today. There is a concept, a worldview, a way of understanding a situation, a way of thinking. A person gets used to all kinds of ways of thinking about everything. What is a Jew? What is the Torah? What is a mitzvah? What is it for? What are we living for? How do we fight our yetzer hara? How can we be joyful? What is true joy? How can we love Hakadosh Boruch Hu? What goals are we meant to reach? With every chapter of Tanya, if you reflect on it, you will see something wonderful. You can ask yourself: How did I look at this before, and how do I look at it now? What was my worldview before, and what is it afterward? How did I understand what the yetzer hara is, what the yetzer tov is? I am going in the order of the chapters: the yetzer hara, chapter one; what the yetzer tov is, chapter two; the mind and the emotions, chapter three; Torah and mitzvos—what do they mean? What is the essence of Torah? What is the essence of the mitzvos? And so on and so forth. As for the inner point—and that is what we are talking about now—studying Tanya and understanding the essence of our soul is what gives us the strength to stand firm at moments like these, in this period. When a Jew knows—and not only knows, but understands, studies, delves deeply and reflects—what does it mean to be literally a part of G-d above? What is the essence of

28:30 the soul? When a Jew studies, delves into, investigates and understands in Tanya the reality of creation, the creation of the world, he sees things differently. We look at the world and see it through a mistaken, external perspective. The world seems to us like a vast, powerful, threatening reality, especially when the world goes through hard times, darkness. When there are tests, when there are wars, when there is chaos, evil seems to keep growing. And then Tanya comes and tells you how to see the world from a Divine perspective: the Creator and creation, the Divine power present in every single detail; the particular Divine providence that pervades and directs every detail of creation; the continuous creation that the Alter Rebbe explains—how Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings every single thing into being, gives it life, sustains it and creates it at every moment, and the Divine power is present in every detail. Nothing in the world operates outside Divine power. Suddenly, this worldview turns everything upside down. What had seemed to me to be substantial becomes nothing; what had seemed to me to be nothing becomes substantial. What I thought was not so is suddenly so, and what I thought was so is not. Closeness to Hashem—what could be greater than that? Closeness to Hashem. G-d seems as far from us as could possibly be, especially in these days. Hakadosh Boruch Hu seems to be in the seventh heaven, far away from us. The long exile sometimes gives us a feeling of distance. The Alter Rebbe comes and explains to us how close Hashem is: the great joy a Jew should feel at every moment because Hakadosh Boruch Hu is here with me, together with me in my home, in this physical world. And Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s deepest desire is that He chose precisely this lowly, physical world. Here is where He wants to be. Here is where He wants to dwell; here is where He wants to be with us. And this is the process through which we are moving toward the days of Moshiach. So for each of us, these days are the right time to resolve to begin studying Tanya, but in a way that

31:00 Learning—learning in depth, beginning to understand. Chapter after chapter, passage after passage. Today, baruch Hashem, there are many books with explanations and commentaries that help us understand the depth of the Tanya’s words. There are also classes we can listen to, explanations that help us understand it better and bring it more fully into our own world. But in the Tanya, we will truly find the place where we receive the steadfastness, resolve, determination, and strength we need in these days. It will give us the clarity to understand the depth of this period, to understand what is happening and where we are going. To understand how all our actions are part of a process that brings us toward the great light of the days of Moshiach. Every deed, every word, every thought, every good action we do in these days—what power does it have? What impact does it have? As the Alter Rebbe says in one place in Tanya: every time a Jew subdues his yetzer hara and takes even one single step to control his thoughts, his speech, or his actions, how much nachas does that bring Above! And through that act, we break the power of impurity, kelipah, and the sitra achra in the world. How much light it brings into the higher worlds, into the lower world, and into this entire physical world. Through every action of ours, the world moves closer and closer to the revelation of Moshiach Tzidkeinu and the great light of the Geulah. And so, in these days, as we approach 19 Kislev, the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus, each of us is looking for a way to be strong, to overcome, and to stay connected. This is advice that applies to every one of us: let’s begin studying the Tanya, studying

33:29 it in depth, understanding it and taking it to heart, and beginning to live our daily lives according to the guidance, messages, and lessons the Tanya gives us. And may it truly be Hashem’s will that the words of the tzaddik Rabbi Zusha of Anipoli be fulfilled: with the Tanya, we will go out to greet Moshiach Tzidkeinu and welcome him speedily in our days. Amen.