Explanation of the Contemplation Before Prayer - Part 1

00:08 Speaker 1 Let’s start with a story about the Rebbe. Once, when the Frierdiker Rebbe and the Rebbe were sitting together, the Frierdiker Rebbe said to him, regarding the avodah of davening: “You need to daven—especially since you have a feel for music.” That is how the Frierdiker Rebbe put it: “You have a feel for music. Especially if you have a feel for music, you need to daven.” The Rebbe asked the Frierdiker Rebbe, “What does it mean to daven?” The Frierdiker Rebbe told him, “Davening means contemplating. Davening is with contemplation.” What is contemplation? Thinking deeply about a concept in Chassidus, before davening and also during davening—contemplating a maamar of Chassidus. The Rebbe then asked the Frierdiker Rebbe, “But isn’t that an extraneous thought?” What does “an extraneous thought” mean? Chassidus explains that an extraneous thought is not only when you think about trivial things. Even if your thoughts are holy, if they are unrelated to what you are doing, they are considered extraneous thoughts. In Chassidus, “extraneous thoughts” means thoughts that do not belong to the subject you are occupied with now. “Extraneous” means foreign to this chapter, foreign to this subject—not necessarily thoughts about something alien. If you are occupied with one subject and you think about nigleh in the middle of Chassidus, or Chassidus in the middle of nigleh, that is considered an extraneous thought. So, seemingly, thinking about Chassidus in the middle of davening is also an extraneous thought. The Frierdiker Rebbe told him, “Nevertheless, that is what the Rebbeim intended.” The Rebbeim instructed us to do it this way. If the Rebbeim instructed it, then it is not an extraneous thought. The Rebbe then asked the Frierdiker Rebbe, “And what is the benefit of it?” The Frierdiker Rebbe told him that this was the question the Raza had asked the Rebbe Rashab. The Frierdiker Rebbe had an uncle called the Raza, yes? He was the Rebbe Rashab’s older brother

03:28 Speaker 1 The Raza asked the Rebbe Rashab this very question: “What is the benefit of thinking about Chassidus in the middle of davening?” The Rebbe Rashab answered him, “In twelve years, you’ll understand.” He said, “In twelve years, you’ll understand.” You’ll see—in another twelve years, you’ll understand. What happened twelve years later? The Raza passed away. The Raza passed away twelve years after that conversation. So, that is how it was. This story appears in a reshima, a diary entry. A few lines were left out when it was published because... From the published reshima, it is not entirely clear exactly what the Rebbe asked, because there were personal matters there, so they left out a few lines. But I saw the complete reshima, and the whole thing proceeds as questions and answers: the Rebbe asks and the Frierdiker Rebbe answers; the Rebbe asks and the Frierdiker Rebbe answers. If you look at the published diary entry, it is written a bit like an account of a conversation; they also left out the questions, and it is somewhat private, as they say. What is interesting about that reshima is, first of all, that when the Frierdiker Rebbe speaks about thinking about Chassidus, he does not tell him that the subject has to be directly related to davening. In other words, we learn a very fundamental point about contemplation here, a question many people ask. This story makes it clear that thinking about Chassidus does not necessarily have to be directly related to davening. After all, the Rebbe asked about extraneous thoughts. Why ask about extraneous thoughts? Because you are thinking about a subject in Chassidus, some maamar, some concept, and it will not necessarily relate afterward to the meaning of the words of davening. Perhaps there will be a verse somewhere that relates to it, but it will not necessarily relate to davening as a whole. So,

06:00 Speaker 1 it is as though you think about one subject in Chassidus and then you daven, saying the words of davening as they are written here, without necessarily having a direct connection to what you contemplated. Nevertheless, the Rebbeim said that this is what one should do. That is the answer. That is the point. This teaches us something very fundamental about contemplation in Chassidus: we do not always have to look for the subject of the maamar we are contemplating to connect with every word of davening that we say. Contemplation means focusing on a subject in Chassidus. Whatever the maamar discusses—whether it discusses sovev kol almin, faith, or chizuk. Whatever the maamar discusses—for example, the subject of chizuk explains... as in some of the maamarim we have been learning recently, which explain souls and angels, angels. It is not necessarily discussed explicitly in davening. Perhaps there is some place in davening, some verses that speak about it, but not throughout davening. Nevertheless, that is the idea. It does not mean that we have to look for a connection. It is a subject in its own right. There is a point to contemplating Chassidus, yes, and the Rebbeim said it should be part of the avodah of davening. The second thing we learn is that we will not necessarily see the benefit of contemplation in the present. I am not saying it has to come afterward; in that story, it was after the person’s life had ended. But the point is that you do not necessarily see right away—or even later—that it had an effect, or see the result of it. That is one of the things we need to know in order to understand the matter. Yes? Contemplating Chassidus is something of value in itself: the maamar itself, the contemplation itself, the very act. Now, of course, among maamarim themselves there are some that are more closely related to davening. That does not mean you should specifically seek out others. I did not tell this story so that people would look specifically for maamarim that have no

08:26 Speaker 1 connection to davening. I told it only to emphasize that when you choose a maamar to contemplate, it does not always have to connect to davening, so that afterward you can see how the maamar appears in davening. Some people think that is the point. It is not; contemplation is a matter in its own right, as we also discussed in the previous class. That is what I wanted to say. Now, clearly, for a bochur who is beginning to contemplate Chassidus, it is of course preferable to look for subjects that have more to do with davening and that he knows better. Yes, because when one is beginning to contemplate, it is certainly worthwhile to choose things that have a closer connection to the Rebbe, and so on. That is just a general point. There was once a difference of opinion among chassidim. Broadly speaking, the debate began earlier—I am talking now about the later generations. It existed in Lubavitch even before that, but take, for example, Reb Shlomo Chaim and Reb Nissan, two great mashpi’im in Lubavitch who influenced the later generations. Books about each of them have come out recently; anyone can read them and see for themselves. They had different approaches to a number of matters—in the ways of Chassidus, in outlook, and in guidance. One of those matters was contemplation. In general, Reb Nissan held that contemplation should focus more on the Rebbe’s own words. Reb Nissan maintained that the way to contemplate Chassidus is to contemplate the Rebbe’s words—meaning the wording of the maamar. Reb Nissan even called for going almost word by word. But even if not word by word, one should not add anything. Even if you go over it in Yiddish, in your own language, it should still be the Rebbe’s words. You should concentrate entirely on the Rebbe’s words. Reb Shlomo Chaim, on the other hand, maintained that it should be in your own words—that contemplation should be in your own words, not the Rebbe’s words. You take the maamar as a basis,

10:58 Speaker 1 But you need to explain the ideas to yourself. You bring an analogy; you put it more and more in your own words. They had a disagreement about this. Reb Nissan argued one way, and... On this very point, thank G-d, we have very clear guidance from the Rebbe. There is a letter in Igros Kodesh—I think it’s in volume 28. There the Rebbe writes about how to contemplate a maamar: you should not be exacting about the master’s wording. You can use your own words and explanations, which leans a little more toward Reb Shlomo Chaim’s approach, but you should stay close—close to the maamar. That’s the expression. I don’t remember the exact wording, but the point is that the Rebbe’s approach is something in between. Generally, when contemplating, you should follow the maamar and its style. In other words, you should follow the maamar’s line of reasoning, but you don’t necessarily have to be exacting about every word. Focus more on the idea itself. So, for example, you take a maamar, right? You take some maamar, learn it well, learn it several times, and know it by heart—its line of reasoning—the way you repeat a maamar in public on Shabbos. You repeat it in roughly the language of the maamar, following its line of reasoning, but clearly, so people can understand. Some people repeat a maamar so quickly that no one can understand it. Or they recite it in the master’s exact words, as though those words are untouchable. I’m talking about how a maamar should be repeated in public: clearly, point by point, not necessarily in the master’s exact words, but

13:17 Speaker 1 in a way that stays close to his wording and line of reasoning, so the people listening can hear and understand the maamar in language they can follow. Contemplation should work the same way, all right? You contemplate the maamar and follow its style, but in your own words. On the other hand, don’t go on too long with explanations. If a point needs explaining, explain it so you understand it—but don’t wander into all sorts of explanations. Then you start coming up with all kinds of interpretations and lose the point. In general, from what I heard from Reb Shlomo Chaim Kesselman’s students, he had a particular order for guiding bochurim in contemplation. It went like this: First, Reb Shlomo Chaim would ask a bochur to get used to contemplating at all. Not necessarily contemplation in the full sense. First, get used to spending a few minutes thinking every day. You could think about the Gemara you learned during your nigleh study period, or about the maamar you learned during Chassidus study. But for the first while, about a month, just train yourself to think things through. We’re really not used to thinking. We think while we’re learning, but we’re not used to setting aside time just to think. When you learn something, you think about it as you go. But we’re not so used to stopping and thinking. That is, you finish a maamar, a chapter, something you’ve been learning—stop for a few minutes and think about what you learned. Usually a bochur learns with a chavrusa. He discusses it back and forth with his chavrusa, the study period ends, and they go eat kugel, or whatever there is. So those five or ten minutes when you sit and go over it

15:37 Speaker 1 in your head—what you learned from Gemara or Chassidus—that’s the first foundation of contemplation, the first stage. At the second stage, he would tell the bochur to take a chapter of Tanya, usually chapter 41, because, as is known, it’s the foundation of all these matters in contemplation. Chapter 41, about the King. The Rebbe writes this many times as well, right? Chapter 41, about the King, is the foundation. Study it. Reb Shlomo Chaim’s approach was that—and really, this is how it should be—there is a difference between Tanya and a maamar. With Tanya, you should contemplate its actual words. Even as you explain it to yourself, you should also keep the Alter Rebbe’s wording, because in Tanya the words themselves are holy and were written with precision. So Reb Shlomo Chaim would have a bochur learn chapter 41 by heart, word for word, with its plain meaning. His contemplation would be chapter 41 with its plain meaning, without elaborate arguments or explanations. Chapter 41 with the meaning of chapter 41. That should take between three and five minutes—five minutes at most, no more. He had a view about the timing, too: if it took longer, it was a sign your mind had wandered. If it was too quick, that wasn’t really contemplation either. So for the bochurim, depending on the bochur, it should take between three and five minutes if he was thinking properly. After a certain period of contemplating chapter 41, Reb Shlomo Chaim would give him a little more to study in Tanya itself. Usually the beginning of Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, the first two chapters, or other places in Tanya itself, chapter 33 and the like. That is, more detailed contemplation within Tanya. At the next stage came a maamar—not a whole maamar, but part of one. For instance,

17:49 Speaker 1 when Reb Shlomo Chaim had bochurim begin contemplating a maamar, he would give them Achas Sha’alti—part of Achas Sha’alti, the section about contemplation during Pesukei Dezimra. That’s a page and a half or two pages there in Achas Sha’alti. Or Shuvah Yisroel 5659—again, only the section of the maamar that discusses “and as is known,” and so on. There are about three pages there. After that came another maamar, then longer maamarim. But it was gradual. At the next stage, once bochurim had learned to contemplate a maamar in an orderly way, they would, after a while, begin contemplating whole maamarim. Then, in time, he would tell them to begin thinking through broader topics. That means connecting several maamarim, not just one. A bochur who could already think in an orderly way for more than half an hour—forty minutes, perhaps even an hour—would begin working through a topic systematically: taking one subject, one maamar and then another. What does this maamar add to that one? You build up the idea further. That was Reb Shlomo Chaim’s approach to guiding the bochurim. Now, Reb Shlomo Chaim would say that all the levels we’ve just discussed come before the level described in Kuntres Hatefillah. If you’ve ever studied Kuntres Hatefillah, it speaks about contemplating G-dliness—not the structure of an idea, its explanation and line of reasoning, but the G-dliness within the idea. You know what I mean. The Rebbe Rashab discusses two general forms of contemplation there. In one, you contemplate an idea—its explanation, its reasoning, the give-and-take within it—and you know it’s a G-dly idea. While you’re contemplating it, that awareness is there in the background.

20:19 Speaker 1 That always has to be there. If I want Chassidus to have an effect on me, then when I contemplate an idea in Chassidus, I need to keep in mind that this isn’t just philosophy; it’s about G-dliness. You may be contemplating bittul and related ideas, but you’re talking about G-dliness. It isn’t a calculation, like one plus one equals two. It’s [unclear]—it’s connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But that’s the first level. Kuntres Hatefillah then says there’s a higher level, where a person strips away the intellectual framework entirely and enters into the G-dliness of the idea. Reb Shlomo Chaim would say that this belongs to very high levels. That’s not what we’re talking about. In other words, it isn’t a level for ordinary people. There’s a story told about someone who asked the Rebbe Rashab whom he had written this for. After all, in Kuntres Hatefillah he presents it as a path in avodah, almost as though it were the main form of contemplation. So he asked him, “You wrote Kuntres Hatefillah for the Temimim—but who can actually do this?” They say the Rebbe Rashab answered, “Avraham Dovid. For Avraham Dovid.” Who was Avraham Dovid? He was a bochur in Lubavitch named Avraham Dovid. He was deeply devoted to avodah and had the ability to reach that level. He was also at a level in avodas hatefillah where he could grasp what the Rebbe Rashab was describing. That itself suggests that this isn’t an avodah for everyone. But in any case, that’s the idea. Ah, yes, did you want to ask something?

22:17 Speaker 2 No, I had...

22:20 Speaker 1 There is one more point in this whole subject we are discussing. I’ll finish with this matter of what the Rebbe said in yechidus. It’s interesting that when bochurim asked the Rebbe about avodas hatefillah, the Rebbe would tell them to contemplate a concept in Chassidus before davening. What’s interesting is that the Rebbe gave two kinds of instructions and guidance about contemplation. To quite a few bochurim, the Rebbe would specify a maamar and instruct them to contemplate it. There were many bochurim whom the Rebbe told to contemplate emunah. Rabbi Chanka [unclear]. There were bochurim whom the Rebbe told to contemplate a concept in Kuntres U’Maayan. There was a bochur whom the Rebbe told to contemplate the Hemshech Shavuos [unclear]. What’s interesting is that the Rebbe told some people to contemplate one or two maamarim repeatedly, every day. But there were also many bochurim whom the Rebbe told to contemplate, each day, what they were learning in their Chassidus study session—the maamar they had studied that morning. That was something new. Why do I say it was new? Because the mashpi’im in Lubavitch generally trained people specifically to contemplate one maamar. In other words, you contemplate one maamar because, as we explained, the whole point is that it should become daas, a deep connection. If you think about something different every day, you never really connect to any one concept. But the Rebbe specifically instructed many bochurim to contemplate the maamar they were learning that morning. They relate—I heard this in the name of Mizrachi [unclear]—that one bochur asked the Rebbe; someone told me it was Rabbi Eli [unclear], but I’m not sure. In any event, I didn’t hear the story with a name attached, so I don’t want to give names.

25:01 Speaker 1 He asked the Rebbe: If every day you contemplate the maamar you learned that morning, then every day you are contemplating something different. You might study one hemshech, then another, one maamar, then another—so you aren’t living with any one thing. The Rebbe answered that all of Chassidus is one subject. The central point of all Chassidus is... Interestingly, I heard that the Rebbe said the central point of all Chassidus is quantity and quality. That is the wording I heard: quantity and quality. And G-dliness and the world. Now, quantity and quality means—I don’t know whether the Rebbe explained this, or Rabbi Eli [unclear] explained it, or Mizrachi [unclear] explained it. It isn’t clear to me what the Rebbe said and what the chassidim explained. In any event, “quantity” means tangible existence; a sense of independent existence is a matter of quantity. “Quality” is a matter of spirituality, of G-dliness. All of Chassidus is founded on this point: G-dliness is a matter of quality, and tangible existence is a matter of quantity. So if a maamar discusses Atzilus and Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah, for example, the distinction is that Atzilus has more quality, while Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah have more quantity. And in Shas and in Hemshech 5672, the maamar may discuss how much—yes—in which respects there is quantity in Atzilus, more tangible existence or less, and in Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah more G-dliness, more... In other words, it depends on the subject. If the maamar discusses souls and angels, the angels will likewise represent more tangible existence, and souls more G-dliness. And within that itself, the soul as it exists Above—resembling [unclear]—but the underlying principle remains. If the maamar discusses Tohu and Tikkun, then again, the distinction between Tohu and Tikkun is which has more G-dliness and which has more tangible existence; in which respects this one has more tangible existence, and in which respects that one has more... So throughout Chassidus,

27:16 Speaker 1 throughout all the maamarim, it’s all there, and so on—lights and vessels. But it’s interesting that the Rebbe used the expression “quantity and quality.” So the Rebbe’s approach was: if that’s the case, what difference does it make if today you contemplate Tohu and Tikkun, tomorrow you contemplate lights and vessels, the next day souls and angels, the day after that Torah and mitzvos, and the following day Kesser and Atzilus? Before the tzimtzum, after the tzimtzum. Ultimately, the point is G-dliness and tangible existence. All of avodas Hashem, all of davening, and the whole idea of a dwelling place in the lower realms revolve around that point: how to bring G-dliness into tangible existence. So there is no problem. Well, that’s an interesting point. In practice, of course, I’m giving a class now, not a farbrengen. This isn’t a personal instruction or individual guidance.

28:15 Speaker 1 I was asked to give a class on contemplation, so that’s what we’re discussing. Of course, each person needs to ask his mashgiach what to do, how to do it, and in what manner. I’m relating the general principles, the details, and the stories so we can understand what it’s about. But one thing is very fundamental and very clear, and with this we’ll finish for today: contemplation is fundamental to the ways of Chassidus. You could say it is the chief innovation of Chabad Chassidus in the ways of our Rebbeim, as we explained in the previous class. You see it throughout Tanya. Some people mistakenly think it isn’t relevant in the seventh generation. That is a very serious mistake. It’s true that in the seventh generation the emphasis is on action, because the whole purpose is to make a dwelling place for Hashem in the lower realms, and so on. But as the Rebbe says in a number of sichos and maamarim, Chabad Chassidus is essential to the purpose of making a dwelling place in the lower realms. The fact that Chabad Chassidus emphasizes the whole idea of a dwelling place in the lower realms means these aren’t two separate things; each completes the other. Or, as the Rebbe puts it in one of the well-known sichos, for there to be a dwelling place in the lower realms, it isn’t enough for there to be “lower realms.” It has to be a luminous dwelling place. The dwelling must be filled with light, and that can be accomplished only through contemplation. With action alone, without contemplation, a person remains outside the things he does; he and his actions remain separate. By contrast, contemplation makes it part of the person’s very being. Ultimately, when a person uses his mind to contemplate and study Chassidus, his mind becomes a G-dly mind. It changes his very being and transforms his reality. That’s it. Much success.