Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 4 - Part 7

00:00 Speaker 1 The Rebbe asks here: How can we say that through Torah and mitzvos we have Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself? Anyone could ask this question. Torah and mitzvos are limited, defined, physical things, while Hakadosh Boruch Hu is infinite. They seem so far removed from Him. How can you say they are Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself? To this, the [unclear] Rebbe answered: Because He is infinite, He has no limitations and can be present in any form. He can be however He wants to be. If He wants to be present in a limited form, then He is present in a limited form. What does that mean? It does not mean that He withdraws and brings about something limited. He Himself is present, with His entire essence, in a limited form. That is what Torah and mitzvos are. And that is the meaning of “Where you find His greatness, there you find His humility”: within His humility, within the constriction, are all His greatness, all His infinity and boundlessness. He can be present in an openly boundless form, or in a form of constriction and concealment. And that is how it came about. Just look at what he goes on to say: Hakadosh Boruch Hu constricted His will and wisdom, which are truly infinite and boundless. He constricted them into the 613 mitzvos of the Torah and their laws—that is the matter of mitzvos; into the combinations of letters in Tanach—that is the Written Torah; and then into their interpretations in the aggados—that is the Oral Torah. You see, he brings three things into which Hakadosh Boruch Hu enclothed and constricted His infinite wisdom and will. First, the mitzvos: 613 mitzvos. That is a limited number, and each individual mitzvah is itself

02:20 Speaker 1 a limited mitzvah. And in their laws, every mitzvah has many details. For example, tefillin must be precisely two fingerbreadths by two fingerbreadths and square. Everything else could be in order; the tefillin could contain a million intentions written into them, all fine. But if one detail is missing—if the square is not truly square, even by a millimeter, some tiny excess—then it is not a mitzvah. You have not fulfilled it. The whole thing is lacking. Why? Because this is where He is present. This is the Infinite. Hakadosh Boruch Hu specifically wanted the mitzvos in this limited form. The same applies to the combinations of letters in Tanach, the Written Torah. That is the second thing he brings: the letters. There, too, we see that the letters are limited, and they must be precisely these letters. If even one letter is not exactly as it should be, it can invalidate the entire Torah scroll, the entire set of tefillin, or the entire mezuzah. The letters of the Torah in a Torah scroll must be written exactly as they should be, specifically in this limited form. It is specifically there that the sanctity of a Torah scroll is enclothed. Otherwise, that sanctity is not there. The same applies to their interpretations, which refers to the Oral Torah. There, too, the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, with all its infinity, is present in these laws, in each interpretation. There is a point of precision here that they explain, and it leads to a broader understanding of many subjects in Chassidus. What does the Alter Rebbe mean here when he says, “Hakadosh Boruch Hu constricted”? Hakadosh Boruch Hu made a tzimtzum. When we hear the word tzimtzum, we could mistakenly understand it to mean the same kind of tzimtzum we speak about in connection with the creation of this world. After all, we are all used to hearing in Chassidus that this world was created through tzimtzum. So the same word, tzimtzum, is used for the creation of this world. The same

04:15 Speaker 1 word is used here: “constricted.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu made a tzimtzum for the Torah. A tzimtzum is a tzimtzum, so one might think it is the same kind. But in truth, they are completely different, with no connection at all. More than that: they are two opposite meanings of the word tzimtzum—the tzimtzum we speak of in the creation of the world, and the tzimtzum spoken of here in relation to Torah, when Hakadosh Boruch Hu constricted Himself within Torah. These are not merely two different meanings of tzimtzum; they are two completely opposite meanings. And this is relevant, too. I will explain it a little. It is relevant—I am explaining it in more detail because it is also relevant to the maamar we study at night. In the maamar we are studying now, “Turn from Evil and Do Good,” section 2—I do not know whether everyone has reached that part yet—there is a passage about this matter of tzimtzum, and it speaks about Torah as well. It discusses tzimtzum as it relates to two people. It raises this point about tzimtzum, and there, too, one could make the same mistake. The word tzimtzum has two meanings. This is said in the name of earlier mashpi’im. Some attribute it to Reb Alter Simchovitch or to Chatshe Feigin, or perhaps even earlier, to mashpi’im of previous generations in Tomchei Temimim. They say that this is what they used to say. I do not remember exactly who originated it, whether Reb Alter or someone before him. Reb Alter Simchovitch was one of the mashpi’im, primarily in the generation of the Frierdiker Rebbe. He was among the students in Lubavitch who were later sent as shluchim to establish Toras Emes, as its rosh yeshivah. Then he returned, and afterward he became a mashpia at Toras Emes. Years later,

06:05 Speaker 1 [unclear]. He also served as a mashpia in practice. He was a very great chossid and an extraordinary scholar of Chassidus. People say remarkable things about his understanding of Chassidus. So Reb Alter said this: the word tzimtzum has two translations in Yiddish. Tzimtzum can mean “eingekvetst,” and it can mean “areingekvetst.” That is the whole difference between the tzimtzum of the worlds and the tzimtzum of Torah. What do “eingekvetst” and “areingekvetst” mean? I do not remember how to say it in Hebrew. Um, “eingekvetst” means a kind of contraction. To contract—concentrate. No, pardon, pardon, not concentrate. Contract. In other words, this kind of tzimtzum means that He moves Himself aside. “Eingekvetst” means that He contracts Himself. He moves Himself aside so that something else can exist, so that there can be room for something else. This is the tzimtzum Hakadosh Boruch Hu made for the world. Hakadosh Boruch Hu constricted Himself, meaning that He seemingly moved Himself aside, as though He concealed Himself. He concealed the infinity and boundlessness so that a limited world could exist. That is the tzimtzum of the worlds: a tzimtzum of withdrawal and concealment so that something else can exist. Even the light of the kav that extends after the tzimtzum is only a portion of what was there. He constricted it, withdrew it, took away all that vastness and left only a small portion. That is the kav. That, too, is “eingekvetst.” “Areingekvetst” means—to use the Hebrew word—to compress. It is like someone who has a suitcase and wants to put a lot of things into it. Right? He is traveling, and people give him lots of packages and all sorts of things, but he has only a small suitcase. So he puts them in—“areingekvetst.” He fits a lot into a small space, right? Perhaps that is called concentrating. Right? In other words, taking a great deal

08:42 Speaker 1 And put it into a small space. That’s called arayngekvet­sht—squeezed in. It’s a different kind of tzimtzum, the complete opposite. Here, it means taking something great and lofty, with all its greatness, and compressing it. In other words, taking all of it and squeezing it into a limited, specific place. That is the tzimtzum of the Torah. For example, look at what he says here: “Hakadosh Boruch Hu compressed His will and wisdom,” and so on. This means that Hakadosh Boruch Hu took all of His infinity, His boundlessness, and compressed it. He squeezed it into this limited place: the 613 mitzvos, the study of Torah, and the teachings of our Sages. In other words, within every halachah and every mitzvah, all of the infinite is present in that limited place. This is like the statement quoted in the maamar we study at night: “He compressed His Shechinah between the two poles of the Ark.” “He compressed His Shechinah.” The maamar asks: Why does it say “compressed His Shechinah”? It should have said “revealed His Shechinah.” Why use the word “compressed”? The answer is that it came by way of tzimtzum. What does that mean regarding the poles of the Ark? Between the two poles of the Ark there wasn’t just a small part of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That isn’t what “He compressed His Shechinah between the two poles of the Ark” means. On the contrary, that is the maamar’s question: It should have said “revealed His Shechinah.” Seemingly, there was a revelation there—between the poles of the Ark, in that confined space, there was a revelation of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s infinity and boundlessness. So why call it “compressed”? It means that Hakadosh Boruch Hu squeezed His infinity and boundlessness into the space of two and a half cubits, between the two poles of the Ark. In that small, limited place was all of the infinite and boundless. That is the tzimtzum

10:39 Speaker 1 of Torah. He put the infinite and boundless into a limited mitzvah, into physical tefillin and tzitzis, and into every individual mitzvah. If we think about this a little, it gives us a deep, very lofty, very inward understanding of how we should look at a mitzvah or a detail of halachah. Sometimes someone thinks, “It’s a small detail. What difference does it make? It’s a minor point in halachah, not so important. The main thing is that I did what was required overall. What difference does a little issue with the tefillin make?” Sometimes you look at someone’s tefillin and see a problem: the black on the straps isn’t quite black anymore. How do you say it? My Hebrew isn’t so good. The black is peeling a little, right? Then they’re no longer quite kosher. Similarly, sometimes a corner of the tefillin has become worn. And likewise, sometimes the tzitzis aren’t quite one hundred percent. All kinds of things. What difference does it make? The point is that in this detail, this specific halachah, this small ruling, this millimeter, this centimeter, this exact point, the entire Supernal Will is present. Hakadosh Boruch Hu compressed His infinity and boundlessness and put all of His very essence into this detail. Specifically this way, it is a mitzvah; another way, it is not a mitzvah. That is the importance of every halachah and every ruling. Indeed, it is the infinity of Hakadosh Boruch Hu that allows Him to compress Himself into something limited. Along these lines, this is also what the Rebbe explains about another matter—and we’ll get to the point about keeping the study schedule. This is why there is such insistence on it. The Rebbe was very particular about keeping the study schedule.

12:46 Speaker 1 Exactly. The Rebbe cites the well-known expression that keeping the study schedule is “self-imposed limitation.” What does “self-imposed limitation” mean? It means precisely this. Usually, a limitation implies a deficiency. Something is limited. You have something boundless, infinite, and this is limited—it’s only a small thing. “Self-imposed limitation” means that the entire essence is present within that limitation. It is a limitation, but the entire essence is in it. All of the infinite is in that limitation. So if you want to sum it up in one point, this is it. We talk about boundless Chassidus, about endlessly lofty concepts. So one might think it doesn’t matter: “I came a minute late. I got to the study session a little late. What difference does it make?” Self-imposed limitation means that the entire essence is present in this very matter. In other words, if you come late to the study session, it doesn’t mean you’ve merely missed one detail: “So I was there for an hour and a half minus ten minutes.” It isn’t just a detail that’s missing. Something is missing from the very essence of the matter, because the Rebbe’s essence is present in the schedule he established, in precisely how it is arranged and all its details. If it isn’t done that way, the whole point is missing. It is a limitation—but what kind of limitation? A self-imposed limitation. That is where all the care we need to take comes from. It isn’t just a matter of answering to the mashgiach, so that if I know how to get along with the mashgiach, everything is fine. It has nothing to do with whether there’s a mashgiach or not. The infinite and boundless, the Supernal Will, is present here. If it must be this way, then another way isn’t it. That’s by the way—but it isn’t really so much “by the way.” In any case, let’s return to our subject. Why? The Rebbe adds another point. He asks: Why did it come about this way? Why did it

14:39 Speaker 1 come about this way—that Hakadosh Boruch Hu put His infinity specifically into the limitations of Torah and mitzvos, Tanach, and all these things? The Rebbe says it was because of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s great love for us, His desire to connect with the Jewish people. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants a connection with us; mitzvah is related to the word tzavsa, meaning joining and connection. So that we, limited created beings, could connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, He made the entire framework of Torah and mitzvos. That is what the Rebbe points to here: “so that the soul within the body can grasp them with its understanding and fulfill all that can be fulfilled in action and thought, and thereby become enclothed in them.” This brings about the connection, the union, between the limited soul and the boundless Infinite. What makes that connection possible? Torah and mitzvos. Let’s continue. Yes, everyone, we’re on page two, in the middle of the page: “which is the drawing down,” etc. And again, at the end of the line: “Therefore, the Torah is compared to water.” Now we can understand why the Torah is compared to water. From everything we’ve just explained, the Torah is the light of the Ein Sof as He compresses Himself and enters into something limited. “Therefore, the Torah is compared to water.” What does water do? It flows from a high place to a low place. So too, the Torah descended from its place of glory, for it is His blessed will and wisdom. Why is the Torah compared to water? For example, the verse says, “Ho, everyone who is thirsty, come to the water,” referring to the Torah. Why water? That is the analogy: We see that water naturally flows from a high place to a low place. “So too, the Torah descended from its place of glory, for it is His blessed will and wisdom; and the Torah and the Holy One, blessed be He, are entirely one, and no thought can grasp Him at all.”

16:53 Speaker 1 So the Torah, too, was in a lofty place—with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And Hakadosh Boruch Hu, as He is beyond the grasp of any thought, as He is in the Infinite, at the loftiest level—that is where the Torah was. And the Torah descended from there, like water flowing from a high place to a low place. From there it traveled and descended through the hidden stairways, from level to level in the chain of descent, until it became clothed in physical things. Why did it descend? From there, from a lofty place, from the Infinite, from where no thought can grasp Him at all, all the way down to this physical world. That is why it is compared to water. Now a question arises—a simple question about understanding Tanya. The Rebbe asks it. Seemingly, what is the Alter Rebbe adding here? This entire passage, from here to the end of the chapter, seems unnecessary. Or at least this passage certainly seems unnecessary. What does the comparison to water add now? The Alter Rebbe has already explained: the Torah is infinite, and it descended to the level of Shabbos, matzah, and sukkah. So you know that within something finite there is an infinite dimension. That settles it. “And therefore the Torah is compared to water”—what does that add to the explanation? Why is it relevant here that the Torah is compared to water? If you simply want to explain why the Torah is compared to water, write a commentary on Proverbs, where it says, “Ho, all who are thirsty, go to the water,” and explain it there. Tanya is not a book of commentaries or a book of sermons—that is, discourses that come to explain verses. Here, Tanya wants to explain how Torah and mitzvos are connected to the Infinite. It has already explained that. So there is a comparison to water. What does it add? What does it add to the explanation here? The Rebbe answers in a very profound way. The Rebbe says that through the comparison to water, the Alter Rebbe is explaining something remarkable.

18:57 Speaker 1 The Alter Rebbe is coming to explain something new. What is it? What do we see with water? We see not merely that it flows from a high place to a low place. We see that when water reaches the low place, it leaves the high place. It is specifically in the low place; it is no longer in the higher place. That is the new point the Alter Rebbe is adding. Until now, we might have thought: Where is the Torah’s true place? Above, in the Infinite. That is where the Torah belongs. But it also descended and became clothed in physical mitzvos; it descended into this world too. Still, where is the essence of the Torah? As though the essence of the Torah remained above. Only, since Hakadosh Boruch Hu is unlimited, it can also be below. No. It is like water: the water leaves the high place, and now it is specifically in the low place. So with Torah—where can you find the Infinite? There is a thought chassidim say here, another way of understanding the comparison to water in Tanya. It is another interesting explanation that is really connected to this point of the Rebbe’s. The comparison to water. And by way of introduction: the Alter Rebbe’s wording is that “from there it traveled and descended through the hidden stairways, from level to level.” What does “through the hidden stairways” mean? Why use that expression? It is language from a verse—“the hidden stairways.” But the Alter Rebbe does not use poetic expressions just for effect. His wording is precise. What does he mean by “from there it traveled and descended through the hidden stairways, from level to level”? What is this expression, “the hidden stairways”? “From there it traveled and descended”—that is only the physical aspect. What are “the hidden stairways”? The Tzemach Tzedek explains somewhere what “the hidden stairways” means.

22:29 Speaker 1 A person is on a high floor and then goes down to a lower floor. How does he get from one to the other? He goes through a hidden stairway. In other words, he is concealed. He passes through the stairs, which are neither the upper floor nor the lower floor. While he is on the stairs, he is, as it were, in an enclosed place, hidden there. He is not in either place. That is where he is for the moment—hidden by the stairs until he arrives. In other words, what I wanted to say here, following the Tzemach Tzedek as well, is that the point is not that the Torah descended from the Essence of the Infinite and passed through the entire chain of descent until it reached this physical world. If that were so, where would the Torah be? In all the worlds! There would be Torah in the Essence, Torah in Atzilus, Torah in Beriah, Torah in Yetzirah, Torah in Asiyah—Torah throughout the entire chain of descent. Since the Torah descended from the Essence all the way down, you could find it wherever you wished. So the Alter Rebbe says no: it passed through “the hidden stairways.” At every level through which the Torah descends, it only passes through in concealment. When is the essence of the Torah revealed? Specifically in this physical world. Where is the essential nature of the Torah revealed again—the fact that the Torah is one with the Essence of the Infinite? That is not revealed in a higher world, not in the world of Atzilus or in the higher worlds. There, only revelations of Torah are found; the Torah’s infinite light is concealed. Until where? Until this physical world. Here, in this physical world, the essence of the Torah is revealed again. So chassidim would say that this is why the Alter Rebbe specifically uses the comparison to water. What do we see with water? First you have water—the water in the clouds, wherever it is. There it exists as water. Afterward it turns into—

24:22 Speaker 1 On the way, as it passes through the atmosphere, there is a point where it becomes snow. There it turns into snow. You do not see water; you see only snow. You no longer see the liquid, the water. When the snow gets down here, near the ground or on the ground, and it becomes a little warmer, it turns back into water. In other words, it was water at first, it became snow in the middle, and down below it became water again. For a certain time you did not see water; you saw snow, something tangible. The water was concealed in the snow and afterward was revealed again. Right? So that is what is meant by comparing the Torah to water that descends to a low place. It is hinted at; it is not stated openly, but hinted at. Right? There was Torah as it is in the Essence, in the Infinite. There it is the essence of the Torah. It descended through the chain of descent like snow: it became clothed in something else and was concealed. When it reached this physical world, the water was revealed again. In other words, here we have the Torah connected to the Infinite—the essence of the Torah—specifically down here. And they say that this is hinted at in the verses we recite every day in davening. We say, “He casts down His ice like morsels”—is that what it says there?

25:50 Speaker 2 Hm?

26:01 Speaker 1 “He gives snow like wool; He scatters frost like ashes. He casts down His ice like morsels; who can stand before His cold? He sends forth His word and melts them; He causes His wind to blow and the waters flow. He tells His words to Yaakov, His statutes and His judgments to Yisroel.” It describes what happens with the snow. It describes how it begins, becomes snow, and what happens afterward. And then it concludes, “He tells His words to Yaakov, His statutes and His judgments to Yisroel.” What is the connection? This is the connection: it becomes snow and comes down here. Then, “He causes His wind to blow and the waters flow.” When it gets down here, the snow turns back into water, as it was before. So too, “He tells His words to Yaakov, His statutes and His judgments to Yisroel”: specifically down here, where we are in this physical world, in our Torah and mitzvos, here we have the water. That is, the very Torah as it is in the Essence. According to the Rebbe’s point, it is even deeper. The Rebbe’s point is that it leaves. Not that it is there—and now it is specifically only down below. No. In any case, that is the point: you see that he adds several passages about it.