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00:00 The Gemara in Kiddushin, page 40b, tells an interesting story. In the time of Rabbi Akiva, there was a debate among the Tannaim: Rabbi Tarfon, Rabbi Akiva, and the elders were sitting in an upper room in Lod, discussing a fundamental question. What is primary, and what is greatest in Judaism? Is Torah study greater, or is action greater? We know that in Judaism we have two central things. There is Torah study—not only as a mitzvah, but as a value in its own right: to learn, to know, and to gain knowledge and wisdom. There are many verses and teachings of our Sages praising Torah study. “Torah study is equal to them all,” as we also say in the morning blessings, comes from the Mishnah at the end of Pe’ah. So is study the greatest thing, or is action greater? Action means actually fulfilling the mitzvos, bringing what we learn into practice. That was the debate. The Gemara says Rabbi Tarfon held that action is greater. Rabbi Akiva held that study is greater. In the end, they reached an interesting conclusion: study is greater because it leads to action. Now, the commentators offer many explanations of this. There is Rashi, there is Tosafos, and the Gemara also discusses it in Bava Kamma, page 17, where there are comments by Rashi and Tosafos. What exactly does it mean? Is the conclusion that study is greater? Even with this phrasing, “study is greater because it leads to action,” you are still left wondering: Does that mean study is greater, or action is greater? Is study’s greatness only that it leads to action, or does study have a value in its own right? There are many explanations. What emerges, generally speaking, is that Torah study really does have a special importance, and action has a special importance too. Each has its own greatness. In other words, when you

02:23 consider each one on its own, each has greatness—meaning importance. There is something very special about Torah study, even as a value in its own right. Learning is something truly wonderful. And action also has value in its own right; it has a special importance. But the conclusion is that study is greater because it leads to action. That means that when you have study, the value of both is included in it. Study itself has value, and when you learn, your learning will bring you to action. So you will have both. As the early commentators say, both study and action are included here, because study will bring you to action: you have both in hand. There are other explanations as well, but in general, we hear in the Gemara an interesting debate among these great Tannaim. We hear Rabbi Akiva say study is greater, and Rabbi Tarfon say action is greater. And in the conclusion, we hear that study has a particular greatness. True, part of its greatness is that it leads to action. That is the Gemara. Now we want to understand what this whole debate is really about. What exactly is the question of whether study or action is greater? What does the conclusion, “study is greater because it leads to action,” mean? What are they actually concluding? And here is something else remarkable—a major insight from the Alter Rebbe. In one of his maamarim from 5567, the Alter Rebbe, the author of Tanya, discusses the verses of Shema Yisroel. He points out something interesting: in the first paragraph of Shema, it says first, “And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them”—Torah study. After that it says, “And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes”—the practical mitzvos.

04:42 So in the first paragraph of Shema, Torah study comes before performing the mitzvos. In the second paragraph, “And it shall be, if you listen,” the order is reversed. First it says, “And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hands, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes”—the mitzvah of tefillin. After that it says, “And you shall teach them to your children.” Torah study appears after the performance of mitzvos. The Alter Rebbe says something astonishing. He cites the Gemara’s account of the disagreement between Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarfon, and says that the Gemara’s conclusion—study is greater because it leads to action—is reflected in the first paragraph of Shema. First comes study: “And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road, when you lie down and when you rise,” which refers to the mitzvah of Torah study. That comes first, because study leads to action. Only afterward comes, “And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand.” The Alter Rebbe says: this is what the Tannaim decided and ruled for the present time. Right now, that is how it is: study is greater because it leads to action. But in the time to come, when our righteous Moshiach comes, the conclusion will be that action is greater. Then, says the Alter Rebbe, the wondrous power hidden in action will be revealed, and the conclusion will be that action is greater. This is an astonishing insight, but that is what the Alter Rebbe says. What does it mean? We are hearing several things here. First, study has a special importance as a value in its own right, and action has importance as a value in its own right. That was the subject of Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarfon’s debate. At the same time, we hear the conclusion that study is greater because it leads to action. And then we hear something remarkable and new: that ruling, that conclusion, applies only in the present time. In the time to come, action will be greater. What does that mean? What does it mean that, in the present time, study is greater because it leads to action?

07:02 And what exactly will happen in the time to come that will make action greater than study? To understand all this, today we will discuss the meaning of this teaching of our Sages, the debate, and its conclusion. We will explain both sides: the value of study and the value of action, and also what the conclusion means. Why do we say that study is greater because it leads to action in the present time? What does the Alter Rebbe mean when he says that in the time to come, in the days of Moshiach, the advantage of action will be revealed? The subject of action especially concerns us, because we know that particularly in our time—in this last period, in the last generation—the emphasis is specifically on action. We saw this constantly, especially with the Rebbe. He always emphasized it. You could say that one of the phrases we heard most often from the Rebbe, in thousands of sichos, repeated at almost every farbrengen, again and again, was: “Action is the main thing.” At first glance, that is Rabbi Tarfon’s position. Or, in light of what the Alter Rebbe said, the advantage of action will be revealed in the time to come. And on this basis, the Rebbe kept saying: “Action is the main thing.” Where do those words come from? We could say they come from the Mishnah in Pirkei Avos. Near the end of its first chapter, the Mishnah quotes Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel: “All my days I grew up among the sages, and I found nothing better for the body than silence.” And there he says, “It is not study that is the main thing, but action.” So the expression “action is the main thing” apparently comes from those words: “It is not study that is the main thing, but action.” That means that in Pirkei Avos too, Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel rules, in effect, like Rabbi Tarfon: action is the main thing, not study.

09:27 Rather, action is the main thing. But what is this whole subject really about? There is a wonderful explanation the Rebbe once gave in connection with the weekly parsha. This brings us to a very interesting subject connected with the meeting between the brothers and Yosef in Parshas Vayigash, where we find the historic encounter between Yehudah and Yosef: “Then Yehudah approached him and said, ‘Please, my lord.’” The explanation of this entire point lies in their story. Study and action: on the one hand, study is greater; on the other, action is greater. Then there is the view that study is greater because it leads to action; and finally, that in the future, action will be the main thing. So let’s look at the story of Yehudah and Yosef. In the weekly parsha, Yosef is at the center of events. He is second to the king, and Yehudah comes to him. Yehudah bows to Yosef, as all his brothers do. “Then Yehudah approached him”—and although Yehudah speaks forcefully and stands before him with all the gravity of the situation, to explain that what Yosef wants to do, taking Binyamin, is not going to happen, who is actually sitting in the seat of power? Yosef. And Yehudah addresses him as “my lord” and pleads for mercy. That is the weekly parsha. In the haftorah we read this week, there is a wonderful account in the book of Yechezkel. Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells the prophet Yechezkel to take two pieces of wood and write “Yehudah” on one and “Ephraim, Yosef” on the other. Something remarkable happens in this prophecy. Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells Yechezkel: Until now there have been two kingdoms. As we all know, after the time of King Shlomo, in the time of Rechavam, the tribes of Israel split into two groups. There were the kings of Yehudah and the kings of Israel. The kings of Israel came from the tribe of Ephraim, the house of Yosef, beginning with Yeravam ben Nevat,

12:07 and afterward the line of Yeravam continued as the kings of Israel, ruling the Ten Tribes. On the other side were Yehudah and Binyamin, the group ruled by the kings of Yehudah. That remained the situation for a long time. For nearly the entire First Beis Hamikdash period, there were two kingdoms: the kingdom of Yehudah and the kingdom of Ephraim. Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells the prophet Yechezkel, who was a prophet at the time of the destruction, between the First and Second Beis Hamikdash, to take two pieces of wood, one for Yehudah and one for Yosef, and join them together into one piece. He tells him that until now there have been two kingdoms, but in the future, when Moshiach comes, the time will come when there will no longer be two kingdoms and they will never again be divided into two kingdoms. “My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd.” From then on, from the time of Moshiach’s coming, Moshiach, who is from the house of David, will be king. “My servant David,” a king from the house of Yehudah, will be the one king over the Jewish people. All the Jewish people, all the tribes together, will be under King David. So we see something astonishing here. In the weekly parsha, we learn about Yosef as second to the king, the one in charge, while Yehudah approaches him. Who is at the center? Yosef, and Yehudah must bow before him and plead for mercy. But the haftorah—the haftoros were established by our Sages to correspond precisely to the parsha. As explained in detail, the whole practice of reading the haftorah was instituted because there was once a decree preventing them from reading the Torah, so they read a passage from the Prophets corresponding to the parsha. And the haftorah chosen here tells us the opposite: a time will come when Yosef will submit to Yehudah, and there will be only one king. Who will that king be? “My servant David will be their leader forever.” Chassidus explains the deeper meaning of this.

14:23 What exactly does Yehudah represent? What does Yosef represent, and how does this connect with everything we discussed earlier? That is really the disagreement. The question is whether action is greater or study is greater. To understand what Yosef and Yehudah each represent, we can look at their names. Yosef represents study; Yehudah represents action. The name Yosef comes from a word meaning “to add”: “May Hashem add another son for me.” Yosef expresses addition. Addition means growth—not staying in one place, but going from strength to strength, moving forward, rising higher, growing and developing. Yosef’s theme belongs to study. When a person studies Torah, he does not remain in one place. He studies wisdom, and every day he learns something new. Whatever I learn, I later discover greater depth in it. I ask questions, find answers, delve deeper, and learn more and more. “Days speak, and the abundance of years makes wisdom known.” Through study, a person is constantly growing. That is the nature of study: it demands growth, and study itself produces growth. That is what Yosef’s name expresses—the power of Torah, the power of study, through which a person grows and goes from strength to strength. The name Yehudah comes from the word hoda’ah, giving thanks. “This time I will thank Hashem.” Right? When Leah named her son, she said, “This time I will thank Hashem.” Hoda’ah. The word can also mean acknowledging something, which is quite the opposite of understanding. When a person acknowledges something, it is usually connected with lowering his head. “I admit that you are right.” I may have understood it differently and may even think differently, but I acknowledge it. I acknowledge

16:53 that you are right. Acknowledging something involves a kind of self-effacement: a person sets aside his own opinion in favor of someone else’s. The same idea applies at an even deeper level to giving thanks. When a Jew gets up in the morning, he says Modeh Ani, “I thank You.” Saying Modeh Ani involves lowering one’s head and saying, “I am Yours.” It is an expression of devotion. A Jew gets up in the morning and says Modeh Ani. This is not only saying, “Thank You, Hashem, for giving me life.” It is much more than that. Chassidus explains the deeper meaning of Modeh Ani as a Jew’s devotion: when he wakes up, he says to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, “I am Yours, entirely.” This acknowledgment, this self-effacement, is connected with the power of action, because it is hard to speak of growth in action. Action means doing what I am commanded to do. When we speak about action, about observing mitzvos, we say, “Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us.” A Jew must follow the Shulchan Aruch exactly as Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants: do not add and do not subtract. Suppose someone wants to put more than four passages in his tefillin. That is forbidden. If you want to add and grow, that belongs in Torah study. Observing mitzvos calls for kabbolas ol of the Kingdom of Heaven: submitting to the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and doing what He wants. That submission is the hoda’ah, the aspect of Yehudah, in the observance of mitzvos. Thus Yosef represents the idea that study is greater, while Yehudah represents the idea that action is greater. Now we can also understand the precise point of the debate. Why does it make sense to say that study is greater, and why, on the other hand, does it make sense to say that action is greater? On the one hand, you have study and growth. That is the wonderful gift Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave human beings: He gave us intellect. That is our unique advantage

19:12 that a person has, which sets him apart from all the animals and from all created things—still, growing, and living. A human being has the advantage of intellect. The intellect can grow and develop, going from strength to strength, and that is a person’s main advantage: his intellect. So if Hakadosh Boruch Hu has given us His wondrous wisdom, and a person, when he learns, uses his power of intellect to connect his mind with the Divine wisdom of the Torah, there is nothing greater than that, nothing more wondrous. Torah study is greater. So Yosef comes along and says that Torah study is greater. And Rabbi Akiva—Akiva ben Yosef—adopted that approach. He says Torah study is greater, because in Torah study you find the most wondrous thing: the deepest connection between a Jew’s intellect and the Divine wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. On the other hand, action is greater. What is there in action? Self-nullification. It is true that intellect is the most wondrous thing. Intellect is the most wondrous thing about a person, and there is nothing more wondrous than connecting your intellect with the Divine intellect. But there is something deeper in a Jew: a Jew is literally a part of G-d Above. And a Jew has the capacity for self-nullification. He does not think about where he can grow or develop, but about what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants from him. What does Hakadosh Boruch Hu want from me? The ability to set himself aside—even the most wondrous things about himself—and think about the Divine will. The Alter Rebbe explains this to us in Tanya. There is something remarkable we see in Tanya. In the opening chapters, when the Alter Rebbe discusses Torah and mitzvos, he explains in chapter 5 how extraordinary Torah study is: when a Jew learns Torah, he becomes one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. In the words of Tanya, it is

21:20 “a wondrous union, the like of which, and anything comparable to it, is not found at all in the physical world: to become one and united from every side and angle.” You want to become united? There is no more wondrous way than for my mind to unite with Divine wisdom. You do not find that in any other mitzvah, as the Alter Rebbe explains there at length. But later, in the following chapters of Tanya, chapters 36 and 37, the Alter Rebbe comes along and says, after all these wondrous things: when a Jew looks at the Torah and thinks about what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants, he comes to the famous teaching of our Sages that Chabad Chassidus speaks about so often: “Hakadosh Boruch Hu desired to have a dwelling place in the lower realms.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants specifically this physical world to become a dwelling place. And to make the physical world into a dwelling place, Torah study does not accomplish that completely. Because Torah is something spiritual; it is intellect. It is still not the lower realm, still not the physical. It is still not taking the material substance of the world and bringing Hakadosh Boruch Hu there. That we accomplish through doing mitzvos. That requires self-nullification. Because action, for a person, is a kind of descent, a kind of diminishment. To occupy oneself with technical actions—tefillin, tzitzis, restrictions, halachah, physical things—and to do them precisely this way, at this time, in this place, according to these rules, and to be deeply occupied with physical things: for a person whose advantage lies in intellect, feelings, and spirituality, suddenly descending into the world of action is a kind of descent. And this is where self-nullification comes in. Yehudah: “I acknowledge.” It is not about what I understand or what I feel. I acknowledge; I set aside my own opinion for the Divine will. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants action from me, and when I set myself aside for the Divine will, there is nothing greater than that. So this is really the question here: Is Torah study

23:32 greater, or is action greater? What is the Gemara’s conclusion? The Gemara says: “Torah study is greater, because it leads to action.” That means that in the present time, as we said—just as the Alter Rebbe says—the halachah has been decided: “Torah study is greater, because it leads to action.” “In the present time” means while we are still before the coming of Moshiach, before we can see the perfection of creation, which is the purpose of creation. When Moshiach comes, the depth of these things will be revealed. This whole idea that we say Hakadosh Boruch Hu has a desire, an inner will, for the physical world to be a dwelling place, the place where He will be revealed—right now we cannot understand it or see it. On the contrary, from the way things appear to us, from an ordinary person’s understanding, as we said earlier, intellect is the wondrous thing. Spirituality is the great thing. Physicality and action are a kind of diminishment. So we say that in the present time Torah study is greater, because that is what we can see: study, growth, understanding. And we are talking about the true greatness of Torah study—my wisdom, my intellect, becoming united with the higher wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But what else do we say? That Torah study leads to action, that study brings you to act. In other words, self-nullification is not missing here either. Because when a Jew learns—and the more you learn, when the learning is genuine, meaning I am not learning because I want to say what I think, how I understand things, or to show off my wisdom and prove that I understand more than someone else—we are talking about genuine learning, when a Jew truly learns. So why is he learning? Because he wants to know the Divine will, what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants. Then learning will bring you to action. When a person learns in the right way, learns genuinely,

25:49 that learning will, in fact, bring you to action. It will bring you to that self-nullification, to the recognition that Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants deeds. That is what we see when we learn Torah, and it will bring you to action. But action comes as a result of learning, because at present we are not yet vessels for it. In other words, we still cannot see, absorb, and understand the depth of the matter: what is so profound, so important, about action that makes it the greatest thing? So Torah study is greater. But they explain to us that Torah study itself will bring you to action. Action, then, is an expression of Torah study. When Moshiach comes, the truth will be revealed. When Moshiach comes, we will see the physical world and understand what is really hidden within the physical, within this physical world. As Chassidus explains at length, the deepest expression of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s oneness is found in physicality, more than in all the higher worlds. This is what we spoke about earlier: the dwelling place of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Where is the essence of Hakadosh Boruch Hu found? Specifically in this physical world. Here we connect with the greatest thing. And in the language of Chassidus, “The higher something is, the lower it is revealed.” The deepest and greatest thing is found specifically in the lowest thing, in action, in the physical. When Moshiach comes, we will see the physical world and truly recognize how the truth of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present right here in physical reality in the deepest way. And this is accomplished through the mitzvos we have performed throughout the generations. Then we will see it and understand it, and that is why action will then be primary. Then we will understand the immense value of our actions. And that is what they mean when they say: Yehudah—Moshiach will come specifically from the tribe of Yehudah. That is the story of Parshas Vayigash.

28:03 In the parsha, as compared with the haftorah: when we read the parsha, the story is about how things stand now. Yosef is at the center; he is the viceroy. The principle is that study is greater, and Yehudah approaches Yosef and receives from him. When you study, the study leads you to action, and then the greatness of action is revealed—but it comes as a result and an expression of the study. So Yehudah has to ask Yosef, “Please, my lord,” because that is where he will receive his strength. But then comes the haftorah, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells Yechezkel: the time will come when there will no longer be two kingdoms, and then the truth will be revealed. What is that truth? “And My servant David will be king over them forever.” Notice something interesting: “My servant David.” In the haftorah, King David is called “My servant”—a servant—because that is where the whole point lies. What was King David’s extraordinary greatness? The special quality we see in King David, which we did not see in anyone else, was his tremendous self-nullification before Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “My servant”—a servant. David was a servant despite all his greatness. David was a king, a mighty king—King David. Yet what do we see throughout the stories about him? His service, his complete self-nullification before Hakadosh Boruch Hu. In the Tehillim King David composed: “But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people.” “Surely I have stilled and quieted myself”—quieted, like something inanimate, like a stone. I am nothing. “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” is said of King David. In King David we find this theme of self-nullification, of being a servant. “And if He says, ‘I do not desire you,’ here I am.” And it is well known that this was one of the reasons the kingship was taken from King Shaul and given to King David: Shaul wanted to understand. He did not understand why—why kill all of Amalek? Why kill the sheep? And from there

30:20 came his whole mistake, which is why King Shaul lost the kingship. With King David, the defining quality was kabbolas ol, accepting the yoke of Heaven. “The words of David son of Yishai, the words of the man raised on high”—the one who established the yoke of Torah, who established the yoke of repentance. A yoke, a yoke—that yoke, that self-nullification, the yoke of Heaven. That was King David. And so, when Moshiach comes, we will see that action is the main thing—not only as a result of study, but the very root of action will be revealed. The root of action is far, far above, where the supernal will is found in the deepest and loftiest place. It is precisely down here, in this physical world, that the very essence of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is found, as explained at length in Chassidus. The Rebbe spoke about this at the Chanukah farbrengen that I was privileged to hear at the time, in 5742, on Zos Chanukah. The Rebbe explained this point in a most wonderful way: the whole story of Yehudah and Yosef, the question of action and study, and the secret the Alter Rebbe revealed—that in the future, action will be the main thing. Because we, in these latter generations, are close to the coming of Moshiach, the time has come to prepare for that era. That is why Chassidus revealed the power of action specifically in these later times. And that is why we see that in the latter generations, more and more with each generation, the tzaddikim and sages have emphasized the extraordinary power of action—and in our generation especially, the power of doing things in practice. To seek out one more Jew and another, to put on tefillin with him, to bring him a mezuzah, to help him fulfill a practical mitzvah. To find one more Jew, and another, and another, and connect him with actually observing the mitzvos. Actually doing the mitzvos—because we are close to the complete Geulah, when we will truly see this. “And David My servant will be king over them forever, and will be a leader for them all.” When the root of action is revealed, we will see that precisely in the physical thing,

32:42 there lies the essential power of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is why now is the time when this is emphasized so strongly: it is so important to invest in doing things. Certainly there must be Torah study, with Torah study as a supreme value, and the Torah that connects you with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But alongside that, in recent times there has been special emphasis on the principle that action is the main thing. That is why we heard so much about it, as we discussed. The Rebbe spoke about it so often at the farbrengens: things must not remain only on the level of ideas, logic, thought and outlook, but must be carried out in practice. To go out into the world and act, to bring Yiddishkeit into practice on the most concrete level. And this, too, will bring us to merit the coming of Moshiach Tzidkeinu soon, in the most concrete way. At that farbrengen, when the Rebbe spoke about this subject, he related the story of an interesting exchange between the Tzemach Tzedek and his son, the Rebbe Maharash. The Rebbe Maharash said to his father, the Tzemach Tzedek, that a certain year had been expected to be the year Moshiach Tzidkeinu would come, but the year had passed and Moshiach had not come. So he asked him, “What happened? Why didn’t Moshiach come?” His father told him, “That year, a book of Chassidus by the Alter Rebbe, Likkutei Torah, was printed, and it speaks a great deal about the revelation of Moshiach. So, in effect, we received a taste of the days of Moshiach.” That was what the Tzemach Tzedek said. His son, the Rebbe Maharash, replied, “But we want Moshiach in actuality.” The Rebbe made the same point. There is the greatness of study, and there is the greatness of action. Studying about Moshiach, preparing for Moshiach, knowing what will happen in the days of Moshiach—that is the study side of it. But a Jew cries out and asks: We want Moshiach in actuality. We do not want it to remain only on the level of ideas or study. We want to truly merit Moshiach’s coming in actuality, in practice, in this physical world, so that we merit, truly, on

34:52 this very day, the complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu.