Tanya Likkutei Amarim - Introduction B

00:01 The point of the compiler’s introduction is that the Alter Rebbe comes to explain what led him to print the... the booklet of... the booklet of the Tanya. In any case, the Alter Rebbe explains that there are several kinds of mussar books. One kind is written on the basis of human reasoning, and there are mussar books based on works of Kabbalah and the hidden dimension of Torah. First, the Alter Rebbe explains that, in general, no mussar book, whatever it may be, is suitable in the same way, because no mussar book can compare to seeing something firsthand. Hearing is not like seeing. The point is for these things to be conveyed not merely as something heard, but as something seen firsthand. That is the general idea: hearing is not like seeing. In other words, the aim in serving Hashem in general, and particularly in spreading Chassidus, is for it to happen face to face—for someone to convey these things to another person face to face. That is what the Alter Rebbe says right at the beginning. “Hearing is not like seeing” means that hearing the words from the teacher himself is not the same as looking in books. Why? Because when a person looks in books, he can become confused. He does not necessarily know what applies to him and what does not, or he may interpret it differently. But when he hears it from the teacher himself, there is something special about that. The person can grasp what he needs to and understand the true intent. And that was the aim

02:35 throughout the whole approach of Chassidus. As we explained in the previous class, they wanted Chassidus to be passed on specifically by word of mouth, from Rebbe to Rebbe, from teacher to student. Only in that way can it be received truly and thoroughly, unlike when it comes through reading books. The Alter Rebbe says that if a person’s mind and understanding are confused and he “walks in darkness,” he can hardly “see that the light is good.” Yes, if a person is confused in his mind, he will look in books and fail to find the light there. Then, as you see, he makes a further distinction: there are two kinds. There are mussar books built on human reasoning. What is the problem with human reasoning? What does “human reasoning” mean? It means books written in a philosophical way, as an interpretation of the human psyche—not necessarily books built on the teachings of our Sages. Mussar books like the psychology books we have today and similar things: books that discuss character traits and the workings of the mind, and how a person should conduct himself according to human reasoning, and so on. Regarding this, the Alter Rebbe says that each person has his own mind and his own traits, so you cannot apply it to every single person. He brings up the idea of the One Who knows all secrets. Only Moshe Rabbeinu could relate to the spirit of each and every person. You would have to be Moshe Rabbeinu to know exactly what each person needs to receive according to his particular situation. But not everyone can do that. So when an ordinary person writes a book of ethics, a mussar book, it may be very interesting, but it may be relevant to one person and not to another. It may be relevant to one person in one way, while for another it may come across

04:17 differently. In other words, one person is not the same as another. That is regarding mussar books built on human reasoning. On the other hand, there are mussar books built on the teachings of our Sages, whose foundations are in the holy teachings of the Midrashim of our Sages. With our Sages, we are already talking about Torah. It is not human reasoning; it is Torah. Torah is light and holiness, and every Jewish soul has a share in Torah. So if a mussar book is built on Torah, it is relevant to everyone, because it is Torah, and Torah belongs to everyone. The Alter Rebbe says: That is indeed true. Mussar books built on Torah, like Pirkei Avos and the mussar books of the Alter of Slabodka, as well as other mussar books built on the Midrashim of our Sages—certainly, that is Torah, and through it one connects with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and so on. But the Alter Rebbe says that even within Torah, every soul has its own share. Just as we find in the revealed dimension of Torah, there are Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel. Some, coming from the side of gevurah, tend toward stringency; others, coming from the side of chessed, tend toward leniency in the revealed dimension of Torah. In other words, everyone has a share in Torah. So too—and even more so—in the inner dimension of Torah, in serving Hashem through one’s character traits, every person has his own share in understanding. Every person has his own soul’s portion. One is stirred by one matter, and another is stirred by something else. And he cites the verse, “Her husband is known at the gates,” on which the Zohar says, “Each according to what he estimates”—that for each person, according to his own measure,

05:55 it is revealed to him in his own way, and he is stirred by it. So one person will not necessarily be stirred by the same thing that stirs another. All this is to say that the Alter Rebbe gives reasons why a book is not the most effective way. But he does not rule books out. If anyone asks, do not think that the Alter Rebbe is rejecting books. Of course we need to study, and we can study. Nevertheless, especially when it comes to serving Hashem, where every detail must be true, it is very important that one’s whole approach be genuinely sound and free of mistakes. A book is not what produces that effect. The best way is specifically for it to come through hearing, through the Rebbe, through the tzaddik, because then there is a bond. As we know, when a chossid enters yechidus, there is a connection between the yechidah of one and the yechidah of the other; that is why it is called yechidus. Yechidus means that the yechidah of the chossid connects with the yechidah of the Rebbe. The Rebbe then knows which words to use in speaking to him, and how to have an effect on that particular chossid. That is why we see that one chossid is not told the same thing as another. Each has his own matter and his own path, because that is the nature of yechidus: it passes from the Rebbe to the chossid. The Rebbe knows his path in serving Hashem, which is not the same as someone else’s path. They tell a story that illustrates this. In Lubavitch, it was known that some students needed particular forms of correction. Students would enter yechidus, and some needed certain forms of correction. One of the well-known corrections the Rebbe Rashab would prescribe was to stay awake on Thursday night. It was customary in Lubavitch for the Rebbe Rashab to prescribe this: staying awake all Thursday night as a form of correction. Once, a student entered yechidus, and the Rebbe Rashab did not tell him

07:43 to do that. But he knew that the Rebbe told the other students to stay awake on Thursday night. He thought that although the Rebbe had not specifically told him, surely it was a correction for him too. Since everyone knew about this correction, he began staying awake on Thursday nights. In fact, the student did stay awake on Thursday nights, and after several weeks he developed a serious eye condition. He went to doctors; there were real problems, and the doctor said it was because he had not been sleeping at night. It was not that this student had previously had an eye problem that kept him from staying up at night. Rather, after he stayed awake for several nights, this happened to him, and they did not know whether it could be treated. In short, the mashpia found out about it. I do not remember whether it was Reb Michoel Bleiner or Greiner. He took the student aside and questioned him: “Tell me, did the Rebbe tell you to stay awake on Thursday night, or was that your own decision?” In the end, the student had to admit that the Rebbe had not actually told him to do it. Because the Rebbe told everyone else, he had thought it applied to him too. The mashpia rebuked him and said, “If the Rebbe did not tell you to do it, then it was not meant for you. You do not play around with the Rebbe’s instructions.” Well, that is an example of an actual incident. But from it we can understand matters of serving Hashem and matters of guidance, such as yechidus. This is something that passes from the Rebbe to the chossid individually, and so it pertains to that particular chossid. That instruction can... Therefore, the proper approach is through guidance received directly from the Rebbe. Nevertheless, if so, what is the purpose of doing the

09:12 The Tanya, after all? So the Alter Rebbe comes and explains this. The Alter Rebbe says: “For behold, each and every one of our fellow chassidim.” What does it mean that it is in everyone’s hands? “Each and every one of our fellow chassidim.” The Alter Rebbe explains that he knows his chassidim. Since he knows each and every one of them—they come to him for yechidus and reveal the hidden things in their hearts to him. There is a well-known saying that has been passed down among chassidim from generation to generation: the Rebbe knows each person, and the Tanya is like a yechidus. The Alter Rebbe knows each and every person who studies the Tanya, in every generation, including each and every one of us. Even in our generation, more than two hundred years after the Tanya was printed, when someone studies Tanya and connects with it, it is as though he has entered yechidus with the Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe knows him and all the hidden things in his heart, and the Alter Rebbe is speaking to him. In other words, the Tanya has a special power that other works of mussar do not have: it is like entering yechidus with him. The Alter Rebbe knows a person’s problem, knows each person’s particular problem, and gives him advice suited to it. But even so, even if the Tanya is a yechidus and contains personal guidance for each person and his problems, the question remains: the Tanya has fifty-three chapters, with profound concepts. How does each person know how to translate them into his own daily life? So the Alter Rebbe adds that although, with Hashem’s help, he writes here the answers to all the questions, he nevertheless asks the mashpiim—that is, the leading people in each town. This is one of the things the Alter Rebbe

11:00 established: every town should have mashpiim, people appointed to guide our fellow chassidim. So the Alter Rebbe asks the leading people in each town to explain and interpret the words of the Tanya in a way suited to each person. In other words, how do chassidim understand this? Besides writing the Tanya, the Alter Rebbe also provided a way for each person to find the advice, the correction, and the remedy for his own avodas Hashem. The Alter Rebbe also gave strength to the mashpiim and guides, those involved in these matters, so that they would succeed in translating and explaining the words of the Tanya, teaching each person what he needs according to his ability. That calls for a special self-sacrifice. And the Alter Rebbe sharply rebukes those who, out of a false sense of humility, do not want to explain it. They say they are not suited to it. The Alter Rebbe writes very sharply about them: someone who withholds grain, who does not serve as a mashpia, is not doing what he needs to do. The Alter Rebbe rebukes him very strongly. And what is striking here? The Alter Rebbe demands that, first of all, everyone study the Tanya, and also seek out a guide and mashpia who will teach and guide him in how to bring it into daily life. The Alter Rebbe then promises that he will succeed in correcting what he needs to correct and serving Hashem as he should. Yes, this was true even in the Alter Rebbe’s first generation, and it remained the practice generation after generation. In Lubavitch, and generally wherever chassidim lived, it mattered and it was important: every place needed a mashpia. And later, in the most recent generation, there was [unclear] in 5747. There was a period when the Rebbe renewed the emphasis on the whole matter of mashpiim. That was in

12:43 5747. There were several... There was a Premishlaner shtiebel, a shul of Premishlaner chassidim, and he liked to go there. I don’t remember whether it was Premishlan or another chassidic group, but he would sit there while paying a shiva call, and sometimes he would also study something there. He would sit there paying a shiva call, and afterward sit and study for several hours. There was an elderly Jew there who was a Premishlaner chossid, or from some other group—a chossid who was not a Chabad chossid. And Rabbi Shmuel Aftim[?]—he was an elderly Jew—and Rabbi Shmuel Aftim[?] always liked talking with him, hearing stories from him and discussing things with him, telling him things he had heard from older chassidim. There were all sorts of things he heard from him. Once, that elderly man began giving him a talking-to. The elderly man did not stand on ceremony with Rabbi Shimon[?]. He said to him, “Young man, anyone can see that you are talented,” and so on. He began admonishing Rabbi Shimon[?] and said, “I see how you study. You are very much in your head, but I don’t see your heart. I don’t see anything in your heart. When you daven, you are always thinking like this; when you study, you are thinking all the time. But Chassidus is something that needs to reach the heart. It is a sefer that should stir something in the heart.” Well, Rabbi Shmuel Aftim[?] became serious and asked him, “So what advice do you have for me? How can I awaken my heart?” The elderly Jew went to the bookcase, took out a sefer, brought it to Rabbi Shmuel Aftim[?], and said, “This sefer will awaken your heart.” He opened the sefer. It was the Tanya. So Rabbi Shimon Aftim[?]

16:11 opens the Tanya, looks at it, and begins leafing through it. Page after page after page, he looks through it. “Ah? It’s a beautiful sefer, very beautiful, like the Zohar.” That was the story. But what happened here? This Jew was a chossid. He saw the Tanya as a sefer that should awaken the heart. So here is the Tanya: it is the sefer that awakens the heart. He came to teach Rabbi Shimon[?] how the heart should be awakened through the Tanya. By the way, this is just a story; on its own, it sounds like a tale. But we see here this point about studying Tanya: for it to connect with a person, for the concepts to be taught properly, there needs to be a guide and educator who explains how to interpret it, how to teach it, and how to bring it into practice—what applies and what does not, and what applies to each person. At the end, the Alter Rebbe explains—at the end of the introduction, the Alter Rebbe adds, and this has always been part of the introduction, including in editions of the Tanya—that since the booklets, the Tanya, had been circulating among chassidim as booklets, they had spread widely with all sorts of errors. It was known that the misnagdim wanted to cause confusion about the Alter Rebbe, so they took the booklets of the Tanya that were circulating at the time, written by the Alter Rebbe. At first, he had only written it; he had not planned to print it, but intended it to remain among the chassidim. When the misnagdim took it and began falsifying it, the Alter Rebbe was precise in his wording. He uses the phrase “different and strange scribes.” Not just different—strange as well. In other words, strange people who inserted things against Chassidus, all sorts of nonsense. There was once a story. They say that Rabbi Yonasan Eibeschutz—this was the time

17:59 I don’t remember. There were two great chassidim of the Alter Rebbe in 5554—5554, or 5555. They were at one of the fairs in Russia. As they walked around, they saw a table where copies of Tanya were being sold. They came closer, saw the Tanya, and began looking through it. They found that it was full of all sorts of anti-Chassidus material. Misnagdim had taken it and inserted things to cause confusion and turn people against Chabad and the Alter Rebbe. So they went and bought every copy of the Tanya, paying a lot of money, so that no one else would buy one. Then they told the Alter Rebbe what had happened, and the Alter Rebbe decided that Tanya had to be printed and published so that something like this would not happen again. In any case, that is the story about the printing of Tanya. To get to Tanya itself, I wanted to say a little before we begin the text. We’ll get to chapter 1. Tanya begins—chapter 1—the Alter Rebbe begins with the word “Tanya.” Before learning the text itself, there is the well-known question: Why did the Alter Rebbe begin Tanya with the word “Tanya”? The Gemara does not say “Tanya.” In the passage he quotes, about administering an oath to the soul, “Be righteous and do not be wicked,” it does not say “Tanya”; it says, “Rabbi Simlai expounded.” Another question is that Rabbi Simlai was apparently not a Tanna at all. He was already one of the Amoraim, and we do not find “Tanya” used for an Amora. “Tanya” introduces a baraisa, a teaching of the Tannaim. Although Rabbi Simlai lived in the period between the Tannaim and the Amoraim, one could, with some difficulty, explain that he was a Tanna. And also

19:46 there is a version of the text that does have the word “Tanya,” but it is not the common version, and it does not seem to fit. Nevertheless, the Alter Rebbe specifically chose the version he found that said “Tanya,” and specifically chose that word. Chassidim give two answers to this: one from the negative side and one from the positive side. First, the negative side. Chassidim explain it this way: The works of Kabbalah say that the primordial serpent has a male and a female aspect. The primordial serpent is called a tanin—the great serpent. There is tanin and there is tanya. Tanya is the female aspect of the primordial serpent. It is a certain spiritual concept. This kelipah is very powerful, and it says that it opposes the inner dimension of the Torah in particular. By putting that word at the very beginning of Tanya, the Alter Rebbe subdued the kelipah that causes confusion in opposition to the inner dimension of the Torah. That is also why, if I’m not mistaken, Yitzchak or something also begins with the word “Tanya”—for the same reason, to subdue the power of the kelipah that opposes the inner dimension of the Torah. That is the negative side. On the positive side, there is the well-known explanation that the letters of “Tanya” can be rearranged to spell “eisan.” Eisan means firmness; eisan means strength. And Chassidus explains that eisan refers to Avraham Avinu. One of his names is eisan: “A maskil of Eisan HaEzrachi.” Avraham Avinu is called eisan. What does eisan mean? There are three meanings to the word: ancient, strong, and firm. These are three qualities of the soul. A Jew’s soul, which we inherited from our forefather, gives a person strength and resolve—firmness in serving Hashem. It enables us not to be shaken by all the concealments and obstacles, by all the confusion. That is eisan:

21:43 firmness and strength. And what does “ancient” mean? It means that we have inherited this from our forefather; it is something that never changes. It is the essence of the soul, the inner strength within every Jew, through which one can stand against all the concealments and obstacles. The Alter Rebbe begins Tanya with this word. The letters of “Tanya” spell “eisan,” emphasizing that this is the foundation of Tanya. The foundation of the teachings of Chassidus is the eisan within the soul: a Jew’s ability to overcome every concealment and obstacle, every confusion, the yetzer hara, and everything else—including the whole spiritual plague at the end of the time of exile, as we discussed in the previous class. To overcome it, we are told: Know that you have the eisan of the soul. Each and every one of us has an essential inner strength, and because of it, nothing can move us or weaken us in serving Hashem. It says that the four letters of “eisan”—alef, yud, tav, nun—are letters used to form the future tense: “I will be,” “he will be,” “you will be,” “we will be.” Those four letters make a word future tense. And in the future, this strength will be revealed. It refers to the yechidah of the soul, which will be revealed within each and every person in the time to come. But in our service of Hashem, even though it is not revealed now, it gives each of us the strength to be a servant of Hashem. When the Alter Rebbe demands that we serve Hashem—not only “with your mouth and with your heart,” but also “in your heart”—it is through eisan, through revealing the strength of the soul. We’ll finish with just one saying of the chassidim: Tanya begins with a tav and ends with an alef. Tanya begins with a tav, and at the end of Tanya,

23:33 at the end of chapter 53, the Alter Rebbe finishes with an alef. Chassidim explain it this way: Before a person begins learning Tanya, he thinks he is already at tav, already at the end of the work, already complete. Then he begins learning Tanya, and the more he learns, the more he realizes that he is still only at alef. It is like the story of Reb Hillel of Paritch. He said that before he learned Tanya, he thought he was a tzaddik. When he began learning the first chapter of Likkutei Amarim, he said, “A tzaddik? No, I’ll never be a tzaddik. But if only I could be a beinoni—if only I could at least be a beinoni as the Alter Rebbe demands.” That is the meaning of Tanya beginning with a tav and ending with an alef. Well, the main thing is that our learning should lead to practice and action going forward: that we begin learning regularly, learn Tanya, and be Jews as the Alter Rebbe demands in Tanya.