Explanation of the Concept of Hiskashrus - Part 3

00:00 We’re talking about the very existence of a Jew. To have Jewish life and a Jewish soul, to feel that you are a Jew, to feel your connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu—an essential connection—that is what we receive from Moshe Rabbeinu. By contrast, chapter 42 speaks about avodah. It discusses yiras Shamayim, fear of Hashem, as it comes down into practical avodah. For a Jew to have yiras Shamayim, that fear must lead him to observe the mitzvos. [unclear] That, too, we receive through Moshe Rabbeinu. One could also say, by the way, that the three places in Tanya—chapter 2, chapter 42, and Igeres Hakodesh, section 27—correspond, in general, and I stress in general, because each place also contains aspects of the others, to three levels of the soul: nefesh, ruach, and neshamah. In other words, the bond between the Rebbe and chassidim exists on every level: nefesh, ruach, and neshamah. What is nefesh? Nefesh is life. Nefesh is life at its most basic level. We won’t go into the soul’s garments now, but the main point is that nefesh is life. As the Alter Rebbe says in chapter 1 of Tanya, every Jew has two nefashos, two souls that are two sources of life. What does “two nefashos” mean? Life—two kinds of life: the life of the animal soul, life from kelipah, [unclear], and the life of the G-dly soul. Then there is ruach. Ruach is middos; it concerns the emotions. And there is neshamah. Neshamah is intellect. In chapter 2 of Tanya, the Alter Rebbe speaks primarily about the level of nefesh. Although he also mentions nefesh, ruach, and neshamah, the main explanation there concerns nefesh. As the Alter Rebbe began, as we said, “They are two nefashos.” Every Jew has a nefesh. Not

02:12 everyone has ruach and neshamah. Even the lowest of the low, the sinners of Israel, [unclear]—he has only nefesh. He does not possess ruach and neshamah on that level. He has nefesh. And regarding this, the Alter Rebbe says in Tanya that every single Jew in the generation draws his life from the leader. The main subject of chapter 2 is the G-dly soul on the level of nefesh—life of holiness. That is received through the tzaddik; one draws life from him. Igeres Hakodesh, on the other hand, speaks primarily about ruach. What is the essence of that passage in Igeres Hakodesh? The Alter Rebbe speaks there about ruach, as the expression goes, “the spirit that he left within them.” There is the spirit of the tzaddik. His ruach is his middos, and he leaves that ruach within us. He leaves something of the tzaddik’s spirit with each of his students. So what does the Rebbe explain there that the tzaddik gives them? Faith, fear, and love. Faith, fear, and love concern the middos. The main point here is the avodah of the middos, and thus it comes from the tzaddik’s middos. That is why the Alter Rebbe calls it ruach. So it is the tzaddik’s ruach. After his passing, that ruach is drawn down to all his students, enabling them to serve Hashem with faith, fear, and love in the way of their Rebbe. The main emphasis is ruach. Again, he also mentions neshamah there, but the extended explanation is mainly about this ruach: how do we receive the middos—faith, fear, and love—from the tzaddik? Chapter 42 of Tanya speaks about Moshe Rabbeinu in connection with daas. The faithful shepherd draws down the level of daas. Moshe Rabbeinu draws down daas of G-dliness to the rest of the Jewish people. Daas is already connected with neshamah. So yes, the point there, too, is the daas

04:21 that will bring you to fear of Hashem. But the emphasis is on daas. In other words, there are three things the Rebbe gives us. The Rebbe gives us life in the plainest sense, nefesh in the plainest sense, for every Jew. We receive that from the Rebbe. The Rebbe gives us ruach—the middos—illuminating how to serve Hashem with faith and love. We receive that through the tzaddik; that is Igeres Hakodesh. And intellect, daas, also comes through our Rebbe. This is Moshe Rabbeinu drawing down daas of G-dliness. In general, it is well known that the Alter Rebbe speaks of chayah and yechidah only by way of allusion. That is why Tanya never mentions chayah and yechidah explicitly, only by allusion. He writes [unclear] five words, and the Rebbe says that this alludes to chayah and yechidah, but does not state them explicitly. Later, however, Chassidus did discuss chayah and yechidah. Chayah and yechidah concern [unclear], and these, too, are things we receive from the nesi’im. But this is explained mainly in later maamarim, especially in the Rebbe’s time: the fact that the Rebbe is the collective yechidah; that the Rebbe gives us the power of mesirus nefesh from the level of chayah; or that the Rebbe reveals our yechidah. [unclear] This is already a deeper aspect of the Rebbe. The essential bond, too, is a matter of yechidah, of essence, of the soul—these are aspects of an essential bond. [unclear] He also explains here that [unclear] is connected with yechidah. This is a deeper aspect of the Rebbe, one that is revealed more particularly in our generation, in the Rebbe’s time. The fact that the Rebbe is [unclear]

06:36 [unclear]. So each and every one of us needs to connect ourselves to the Rebbe and strengthen our bond with our Rebbe, both by learning Torah and by following in his ways. Each of us needs to take stock of ourselves, as the Rebbe writes [unclear]. He writes that after twenty years there must be a personal reckoning, so everyone needs to take stock: what is the state of his bond [unclear]? We must strengthen that bond and truly merit to see the Rebbe revealed in our days, in the plainest sense. You have heard many times, as the Rebbe says here in the maamar, that it will be in the manner of “one country lay in ruins.” We are speaking of one country lying in ruins. That is the plain meaning. That is our situation now, in a time of concealment—one country lying in ruins. The Jewish people are in a state of destruction, a state of darkness, a state of exile, and [unclear]. These are the Rebbe’s chassidim. These are the Rebbe’s students. These are the Rebbe’s children. And so it must be rebuilt. This time there must be building—the building of malchus and the building of Knesses Yisroel—in the manner of an eternal building, one to which destruction can no longer apply.