Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 4 - Part 6

00:00 Speaker 1 There are thirteen principles of faith. One of the fundamentals of faith that every Jew must believe is that “this Torah will not be exchanged”—that the Torah will never be replaced or changed. This is a fundamental of faith. So the Rebbe asks: Why? Why is this called a fundamental of faith? A fundamental means a foundation on which the entire building stands. If someone lacks it, it is not that he is missing one detail or one particular matter. He is missing the foundation, the essential point. So faith in Hashem is understandable: without faith in Hashem, a fundamental is missing. Faith in Hashem’s oneness. Faith that the Torah is from Heaven. These are fundamentals. But why is it a fundamental that this Torah will not be exchanged? What is the problem? Why can’t we say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave the Torah for a certain period, and that a time will come—chas v’shalom, of course—but why couldn’t it? Why is it contrary to the fundamentals of faith to say that one day Hakadosh Boruch Hu might want to change it? He gave the Torah and mitzvos for three thousand years, four thousand years, for a certain period; and when Moshiach comes, or when a different generation and a different era arrive, there will be a different kind of mitzvos. There will be changes. Not that people would make changes, chas v’shalom. We’re not talking about that. That’s just nonsense. But to say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself gave the Torah and mitzvos, and later the Torah and mitzvos would change—even if we say that, in reality, it will not happen—why is believing this a fundamental of faith, without which a person is missing the whole basis of Yiddishkeit? Why can’t there be

02:36 Speaker 1 a good Jew who observes the entire Torah and all the mitzvos, who follows the whole Shulchan Aruch, and nevertheless thinks, believes, that a time might come when Hakadosh Boruch Hu will want to change the Torah and mitzvos and will change them? Why not? What is the problem? So the Rebbe explains that, based on what the Rebbe is teaching us here in Tanya, in chapter 4, which we are now learning, the whole matter becomes clear. If the entire purpose of Torah and mitzvos, if the whole concept of mitzvos, were only for the human being—there is a person in the world, and he does not know what he should and should not do, so Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives him advice, gives him mitzvos, instructions on how to behave. As it says in many sefarim, and as is stated in many places, what are Torah and mitzvos? There is an example that philosophers give to explain Torah and mitzvos: You have a machine, and the machine has rules. You have a booklet that explains how to use the machine, how to set it up, how to operate it, and what to do. In this view, the world is like a great machine that Hashem created, and the Torah and mitzvos are like—what do you call it?

04:08 Speaker 2 Instructions.

04:09 Speaker 1 Ah, instructions, yes. Instructions that tell you how to conduct yourself in the world. If that were all Torah and mitzvos meant, then the point would indeed be valid. What would be the problem with saying that the Torah and mitzvos are only for the period when the world is in a certain state, and when Moshiach comes and things change, the Torah and mitzvos will change too? People will change, the mitzvos will change, and so on. But according to what we have learned here, as the Alter Rebbe explains—the Alter Rebbe is not introducing a new fundamental; he is revealing it—the point is that Torah and mitzvos are the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Every single one. Torah and mitzvos are not something created for the world: there is a world, so there are Torah and mitzvos. It is the other way around. On the contrary, the world was created for Torah and mitzvos. Torah and mitzvos are, so to speak, Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself: the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. There is nothing here apart from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What is prayer? Prayer is the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. These are not separate things; they are the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and He and His wisdom and will are one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. They are all one. That is what Torah and mitzvos mean. Torah and mitzvos are the will of the Essence, and the will of the Essence is the Essence itself. And when it comes to the Essence itself, you cannot say that it can be exchanged or changed. That certainly is a fundamental of faith. If someone were to say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu, chas v’shalom, could change or be replaced, that would run contrary to the fundamentals of faith. The same applies to Torah and mitzvos. If someone comes and says that Torah and mitzvos will change, that runs contrary to a fundamental of faith. Why? Because he does not grasp the essential point of Torah and mitzvos. Torah and mitzvos are not something made for the world. Torah and mitzvos are the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And therefore

06:03 Speaker 1 they cannot change, just as Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself does not change. Has there been any change in Hakadosh Boruch Hu? No. So there has been no change in the mitzvos and His will either. That is why a person who misses this point is missing a fundamental, not a detail. If a person can think that one day the Torah and mitzvos will change, he is not missing some small detail. He is missing the entire foundation. He does not grasp the whole point of Torah and mitzvos. He does not grasp what a mitzvah means, what defines a mitzvah. A mitzvah is a command and a connection—a connection with the Essence. That is what mitzvah means. And change is no more possible in this than it is in the Essence. This is one of the things we understand from Tanya. Here we see that the Alter Rebbe, in writing Tanya, made a revolution. The Alter Rebbe—every chapter of Tanya is like this. If you learn it properly, it gives you depth, a new and deeper understanding of every subject. That is what the inner dimension of the Torah is about. You see, in each subject the Alter Rebbe reveals and explains its inner depth. When you look at Torah and mitzvos without Chassidus, you look at them as instructions, something that exists for the sake of the world, so that we know how to relate to it and how to behave. But when you look at Torah and mitzvos as the Alter Rebbe reveals them to us—the fundamental itself is in the Rambam, but the explanation and the full meaning are in the point he makes here: that Torah and mitzvos are, so to speak, the Creator Himself. They are He Himself. He and His wisdom and will are one. They are the wisdom and will of the Essence. Therefore, no change is possible in them. And this is what the Alter Rebbe explains here.

07:40 Speaker 1 This is the advantage that the garments of the G-dly soul have over the G-dly soul itself. The G-dly soul itself, including its intellect and emotions, is all within the category of created beings. The garments, by contrast—Torah and mitzvos—are the wisdom and will of the Creator, of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and are infinite. That is why the Alter Rebbe says they are “infinitely higher and greater”: not merely higher and greater, but higher and greater without end. For the distance between the garments, Torah and mitzvos, and the person is the distance between the finite and the infinite; they are utterly incomparable. That is another point that helps us understand what the Alter Rebbe explained in the last lines of page 8. Now let’s continue at the top of page 8b. The bochurim always like hearing stories, so perhaps we’ll tell a story connected to this. This is the last hour of the day, so you’re probably a little tired too, especially with several days of farbrengens coming up. In any case, there is a story people tell about one of the great rabbis in Germany. He was a rabbi who often debated the Reformers and fought against them. We’re talking about the first Reform maskilim. Their basic idea was to make reforms—to make changes. They wanted to adapt the Torah to the realities of their day. So this rabbi began debating the Reformers about whether Torah and mitzvos could be changed. He said to one of them: “I’ll tell you a story. Once there was a Jew, a wealthy merchant, who needed to travel to a fair in the middle of winter. It would be cold and snowy, and the journey would be difficult. Because of the snow and cold, he wasn’t sure whether he would get to the fair on time. He might get there, or he might”

10:01 Speaker 1 He would arrive late. He would get there after the fair was over. So he made a condition with the wagon driver. He told him, “Listen, I’m making a contract with you—a contract. How do you say it? I’m setting a condition: If we arrive while the fair is still on, I’ll pay you for the trip. But if we arrive after the fair, I won’t pay you.” Fine. The wagon driver didn’t think too much about it. He trusted his horse and his own abilities, and off they went. As it happened, there was snow and all sorts of trouble, and they lost their way. In short, by the time they arrived, the fair was already over. So the merchant says to the wagon driver, “Well, we made a condition. I’m not paying you.” “What do you mean, you’re not paying me? I’ve spent days on this!” He starts shouting: “What do you mean? I need to support my family!” “A condition is a condition. An agreement is an agreement. We discussed it. No, and again no.” They go to a rabbi. They arrive, and each one presents his side. The rabbi sits and thinks, and then says, “According to Torah law, the merchant is right. He doesn’t have to pay a penny. He made a condition with you.” The wagon driver gets angry. “What do you mean, ‘according to Torah law’? According to Torah law, the merchant is right? When did Hakadosh Boruch Hu give the Torah? On Shavuos. Shavuos is in the middle of summer. Is there snow then? No! They didn’t even think about a situation like this. Now it’s the middle of winter. That’s something else entirely. Why are you bringing me proof from the Torah?” So with this parable, he wanted to explain the foolishness of the argument that the Torah changes—that it depends on the time and changes between summer and winter. By that reasoning, you could say that two thousand years ago there was one Torah, and now there’s a different Torah.

12:01 Speaker 1 That, by the way, was a bit of a digression. It doesn’t fit so closely with Tanya. In any case, let’s continue inside the text. The Alter Rebbe says: “And although Hakadosh Boruch Hu...” Now the Alter Rebbe raises a strong question. What am I saying here? I’m saying that when a Jew fulfills Torah and mitzvos through the garments of thought, speech, and action, he connects with the very... he connects with Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. The Alter Rebbe asks: How can that be? “And although Hakadosh Boruch Hu is called Ein Sof.” We’re speaking about Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the Creator. What is the Creator? Ein Sof. “And His greatness is beyond searching, and no thought can grasp Him at all.” All these descriptions are said of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What is the point of all of them? That we’re speaking of something infinite and without limit: “beyond searching”; “no thought can grasp Him.” And we’re talking about reaching Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. “And so, too, His will and wisdom.” The same applies to His will, as we said that they are all one. The will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is also infinite, and so is His wisdom. “For it is written, ‘There is no searching His understanding,’ and it is written, ‘Can you fathom the depths of G-d?’ and it is written, ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts.’” So the question arises: Since Hakadosh Boruch Hu is infinite and beyond searching, how can you say that a Jew, through the garments of thought, speech, and action, becomes one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu? How can that be? Hakadosh Boruch Hu is infinite and without limit, while the act I perform is limited. I put on tefillin—those tefillin are limited. I put on tzitzis—tzitzis are limited. I say the words of Tehillim—these are all limited things. So how

13:54 Speaker 1 can it be that through a limited thing I connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, who is infinite and without limit? There are commentators who explain that the Alter Rebbe wrote three things here. Yes, he gives three expressions for each point: “Ein Sof,” “His greatness is beyond searching,” and “no thought can grasp Him.” Those are three distinct points. Likewise, regarding His will and wisdom, he uses three verses: “There is no searching His understanding”; “Can you fathom the depths of G-d?”; and “For My thoughts are not your thoughts.” Three points. The explanation is that the three points the Alter Rebbe uses here correspond to memalei kol almin, sovev kol almin, and Atzmus Ein Sof. The Alter Rebbe spoke about this in chapter 3 and went into the explanation there; he spoke of three points. Those same three points are the ones he brings here. “Hakadosh Boruch Hu is called Ein Sof” refers to sovev kol almin. “His greatness is beyond searching” refers to memalei kol almin. And “no thought can grasp Him” refers to Atzmus Ein Sof. The same applies to the other three verses. “There is no searching His understanding” refers to memalei kol almin, if I’m not mistaken. “Can you fathom the depths of G-d?” refers to sovev kol almin. And “For My thoughts are not your thoughts” refers to Atzmus Ein Sof. In other words, the Alter Rebbe brings three verses for these three levels, which are general levels of G-dliness. And regarding all three levels—even memalei kol almin—it is emphasized that they are beyond limitation. Seemingly, memalei kol almin is invested in the world and has a connection to it. Yet even of that we say, “His greatness is beyond searching.” How much more so

15:40 Speaker 1 sovev kol almin, and how much more so Atzmus Ein Sof. So the question arises: How can I say that by fulfilling physical mitzvos I connect with the Creator, with Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself, who is infinite and without limit? To this the Alter Rebbe answers: “Where you find the greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, there you find His humility.” The Alter Rebbe’s answer is what our Sages say: “Where you find the greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, there you find His humility.” What is the basic explanation? We’ll look inside the text afterward. What is the answer? The Alter Rebbe’s answer is simple, simple. Let’s just see whether we can understand it. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not “without limit.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu is Ein Sof. If we say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is without limit, we have a problem: He is without limit and I am limited. How can I, the limited one, connect with the One who is without limit? Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not “without limit.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu is Ein Sof. He has no definition, no description, no limitation. That is to say, even “without limit” is a certain definition and a certain description. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is Ein Sof. Ein Sof means there is no definition you can give Him, and therefore there is no limitation. So just as Hakadosh Boruch Hu can be expressed without limit, He Himself can also be expressed within limits. Who says He has to be without limit? If Hakadosh Boruch Hu were defined specifically as being without limit, in a way that excludes limits,

17:28 Speaker 1 So we have a problem. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not defined by any limits. He is infinite. So just as He can be present without limits, He can also be present, with His entire Essence and all His power, within limits. This is the meaning of what our Sages say here: “Where you find the greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, there you find His humility.” What does that mean? As the rabbi explains it here, just as Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself is present in His greatness, in the unlimited, He Himself is also present in His humility. When you see Hakadosh Boruch Hu in His humility, it does not mean that His humility is a kind of contraction, with only part of Him present there. All of Him is there. You find the very same Essence, the same boundlessness, the same infinity that is present in His greatness. That same infinity is present in His humility. That is the meaning: where you find His greatness—there, in that very place, you find His humility. Now, this teaching of our Sages has several interpretations. Yes. What is the source of this teaching, “Where you find His greatness, there you find His humility”? The source is the Gemara in—no, in the Gemara in Chagigah, I don’t remember, there, among the Amoraim. The Gemara says—we learn it from the verse: “For Hashem your G-d is the G-d of gods and the Master of masters,” followed by “He executes justice for the orphan and widow.” Yes. So the Gemara says: “Where you find the greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, there you find His humility.” What does it mean on the simple level? In the very place where it mentions the greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu—

19:23 Speaker 1 it says, “Hashem your G-d is the G-d of gods and the Master of masters.” It speaks of His greatness, His transcendence, and there it also speaks about widows. Or, to put it another way, even though Hakadosh Boruch Hu is so great and so transcendent, He nevertheless concerns Himself with small things too—with the orphan and the widow. It is an “even so.” But as the rabbi explains it here, the meaning is much deeper. It is not that, despite His greatness, He also does this. Rather, it is the very same infinite, unlimited One who is present in His greatness. That same infinity is present with the widows too. Yes. On the simple level, I’m looking at it a little superficially: Hakadosh Boruch Hu is there, but only part of Him is there, and we only… No. His entire Essence is there. And this also brings us to Torah and mitzvos. Hashem is infinite, but on the contrary, because He is infinite, you find Him in these limited Torah and mitzvos. Because of His infinity, He placed His entire Essence—His infinity, His boundlessness—into tefillin, tzitzis, tzedakah, and a physical Shulchan Aruch with its boundaries and practical laws. “And Hakadosh Boruch Hu contracted His will and wisdom into the 613 mitzvos of the Torah and their laws, and into the combinations of letters in Tanach and the teachings of our Sages.” That is what Hakadosh Boruch Hu did. He took all His infinite boundlessness and placed it—contracted it—into all of Torah and mitzvos: the 613 mitzvos of the Torah and their laws, and the combinations of letters in Tanach, the finite letters of Tanach, “so that every neshamah, ruach, and nefesh

21:05 Speaker 1 within a body can grasp them with its understanding and fulfill everything possible of them in action, speech, and thought.” The purpose is that, by placing His infinite boundlessness into physical Torah and mitzvos, Hakadosh Boruch Hu made it possible for a Jew down here to connect with His infinite Essence through observing the mitzvos and studying Torah. “And through this, it will be clothed in all ten of its faculties in these three garments.” Put it another way: I am a created being. I have no way to reach the Creator. A created being is limited. The limited can never reach the unlimited. It has no way to do so, because the limited and the unlimited are two different modes of being. But the Creator can reach the created being. Why? Because He is not confined to being unlimited. He is infinite, so He can be present anywhere. He can be present without limits, and He can be present within limits. So Hakadosh Boruch Hu placed His infinity within this finite framework, within the limits of Torah and mitzvos, so that a Jew could connect with Him. This idea explained in Chassidus is based on the verse: “Hashem is exalted above all nations; His glory is above the heavens. Who is like Hashem our G-d, Who sits on high, Who lowers Himself to look upon the heavens and the earth?” “Hashem is exalted above all nations”—the nations say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is transcendent, infinite, and unlimited. So “His glory is above the heavens.” Since Hakadosh Boruch Hu is unlimited, He can only be in the heavens; He cannot be down here. That is what the nations say. What do the Jewish people say? “Who is like Hashem our G-d”—our G-d? On the contrary, He is even higher than you think. You think He is unlimited? He is higher even than the unlimited. He “sits on high.” But precisely because He is so exalted and transcendent, because He has

23:06 Speaker 1 no limitations at all, He “lowers Himself to look upon the heavens and the earth.” He can lower Himself in any way, in the heavens and on earth, in any manner. So He chose physical Torah and mitzvos. He chose specifically this limited form, these Torah and mitzvos that we have in the practical Shulchan Aruch, precisely so that a Jew could connect with Him.