Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 4 - Part 8

00:00 The Rebbe says here, regarding Torah and mitzvos: “The advantage of the garments—thought, speech, and action—is infinitely higher and greater than the level of nefesh, ruach, and neshamah.” Why? Because thought, speech, and action are the means through which we engage in Torah and mitzvos, and “the Torah and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are one.” Torah and mitzvos are Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s wisdom and will. So they are one with His very Essence, with Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. And therefore, when Torah and mitzvos are clothed in thought, speech, and action, you have the very Essence of Hakadosh Boruch Hu there—unlike nefesh, ruach, and neshamah. So we’ll see, we’ll see. And therefore this is between the... The Rebbe brought in the idea of water. Indeed, Torah is compared to water. Just as water descends from a high place to a low place, so too with Torah. It is not merely that there is light, and water, that descend; the water itself—the very same water that was in the high place—descends to the low place. The same is true of Torah and mitzvos: Torah is His wisdom and will, and “the Torah and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are one”; “no thought can grasp Him at all.” That very Torah, as it is in itself, descended through the hidden levels until it became clothed in physical action. In other words, the Essence of Hashem is present here. We saw what the Rebbe adds here. Through the analogy of water, the Rebbe adds more than the fact that Torah descended below. You have Torah from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and it is here, so Hakadosh Boruch Hu is here. Torah is above, in His wisdom and will, and it also descended below. The analogy of water tells us that specifically below, after Torah has descended—just as water descends from a high place to a low place—His wisdom and will have descended below, and the essence of Torah is found specifically below. Now

02:22 after Torah has descended, where is the essence of Torah found? Specifically below, in every case: in physical action, in a Torah that deals with physical things. So we saw that this is also the meaning of “the hidden levels,” the expression the Rebbe uses here. What does “the hidden levels” mean? It means that throughout the entire order of hishtalshelus, Torah descends in a hidden way. Torah descends from the Essence and passes through the entire order of hishtalshelus. There it is concealed; the essence of Torah is not present there openly. That is what “the hidden levels” means. It is as though Torah is merely passing through; it does not belong there. When is the essence of Torah revealed again? Specifically here below, in physical action. There is another interpretation. Everything we have discussed was the explanation from last time. There is another interpretation of “the hidden levels.” What does the Rebbe mean when he says that Torah descended through “the hidden levels”? The word “hidden” can be understood as meaning demolition—not concealment and hiding, but demolition, as in building and demolishing. To demolish, to break down. Demolition is the opposite of building. On this reading, “the hidden levels” means breaking down the levels—the demolition of the levels. In other words, Torah breaks down the levels of the order of hishtalshelus. What does that mean? The order of hishtalshelus is that whatever extends downward is lower. That is simply what hishtalshelus means: the further something descends, the lower and lower it becomes. What is hishtalshelus? There is a higher level and a lower level. Above is higher, and whatever extends and descends becomes lower and lower.

04:16 What are we saying? When we come to Torah, it is true that Torah descended below, but the essence of Torah is here exactly as it is above. In other words, Torah did not undergo hishtalshelus; it did not become lower or diminished through the levels. Torah remained in its full force, with its full essence, just as it is with Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. So that is the meaning of “the hidden levels”—the demolition of the levels. Torah’s descent below, as it were, contradicts the whole idea of levels. Levels mean that there is a higher and a lower, and the lower something is, the more concealment there is, the less revelation there is. But with Torah, even below it has its full force, just as it is in itself. As the verse says, “Hashem is close to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth,” and “there is no truth but Torah.” Torah is present here below just as it is in itself, without any change. That is why we say Torah cannot become impure. That is why it says of Torah, “Is not My word like fire?” Even a person who is impure needs Torah, and even a wicked person needs Torah, because wherever Torah extends, it retains its essence. It remains in its full force, just as it is above. We learned this as well from [unclear]. But Torah was brought down in a peaceful and merciful way, because Torah always remains as it is in itself. It never becomes physical. That is what is unique about water. The Rebbe continues on page 22. I’ll continue; I’ll start again from this point: “And from there it traveled and descended,” “and from there it traveled and descended through the hidden levels, from level to level.” When he finishes saying that, we understand that Torah descended from the will and wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, from the level where “the Torah and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are one,” through the entire order of hishtalshelus, until it became clothed in physical things. “That is...” What does this mean? “Which comprise most of the Torah’s mitzvos, virtually all of them.” Torah became clothed

06:11 in physical things, and these things comprise “most of the Torah’s mitzvos, virtually all of them.” Why the precise word “most”? And why this wording about the Torah—“most of the Torah’s mitzvos, virtually all of them”? You could say “most of the Torah’s mitzvos” or “all of the Torah’s mitzvos.” Why use this expression? There is an expression, “the majority is like the whole.” But what does it mean here? What does “most of the Torah’s mitzvos, virtually all of them” mean? The Rebbe wants to emphasize that, on the one hand, not literally all of the Torah’s mitzvos are physical. Nevertheless, he emphasizes that most of the Torah’s mitzvos—virtually all of them—are. So the Rebbe explains it this way. First of all, most of the Torah’s mitzvos are certainly physical mitzvos. Most mitzvos are physical mitzvos: sukkah, tefillin, tzitzis. Most of the Torah’s mitzvos are physical. But there are some spiritual mitzvos, called duties of the heart: belief in Hashem, knowledge of Hashem, love of Hashem, fear of Hashem, Ahavas Yisroel. These are mitzvos of the heart. They are spiritual mitzvos, not physical ones. They concern the duties of the heart and the feelings of the heart. Love is not a physical thing; it is spiritual. So these are not called physical things. Nevertheless, even the mitzvos that are duties of the heart have details in their laws that relate to physical things. In other words, there are mitzvos whose essence is spiritual, but when you look at the details of their laws, you find physical matters. The Rebbe gives Ahavas Yisroel as an example. Ahavas Yisroel is a spiritual mitzvah. It is a mitzvah to love. Love is spiritual, not physical; it is a spiritual feeling, a duty of the heart. But what is the halachah of Ahavas Yisroel? Look in the Rambam; open the Shulchan Aruch. What does it say? What is the mitzvah? The mitzvah is to love every Jew as you love yourself. What

08:22 does it say? To the best of your ability, you must speak in his praise. That involves speech. You must look after his money. That involves his possessions. In other words, although love—the mitzvah itself—is a feeling of the heart and is spiritual, its expression in the details of the mitzvah also involves physical things. And the same is true of love of Hashem. Even though love of Hashem is a spiritual mitzvah, when it comes to putting it into practice, its details are expressed in physical actions. Right? Because he loves Hashem, he... it is expressed in “and you shall speak of them,” and so on. In other words, when you get to the details of loving Hashem and what you must do to carry out that love, it is carried out through physical matters. It comes down to physical matters—transgressions and mitzvos and all of that—which are all expressions of love of Hashem. So that is the meaning of “most of the Torah’s mitzvos, virtually all of them.” What is the emphasis in “virtually all of them”? Even the spiritual mitzvos have details concerning our relationship with other Jews, and their laws are, for the most part, laws involving physical things—even though the mitzvah itself is spiritual. By the way, the Frierdiker Rebbe adds something here. The Rebbe brings this many times; it is always cited in the Frierdiker Rebbe’s name. The Frierdiker Rebbe adds a point that goes a little deeper: even mitzvos of the heart, such as affection for another person, are also physical mitzvos. He goes further. The Frierdiker Rebbe says: take the mitzvah of Ahavas Yisroel. When can I be said to be fulfilling the mitzvah? When my love brings about a change in the physical flesh of my heart. True, it is a feeling of the heart, an emotion, but the heart should begin... there should be a physical change in the heart. It is like when I am very happy and very excited: there is a change in my heartbeat. The heartbeats are in a way

10:26 Another example: when a person is very happy and deeply moved, there is a change in his heartbeat. In other words, there is a physical change in the heart, in the body. Or when a person is in a state of fear, of fear of Hashem, a change takes place in the heart. The heart beats differently—faster or slower. All of these are changes in the flesh of the heart. And likewise with the mitzvah of affirming Hashem’s unity and believing in Hashem. Although the mitzvah is spiritual, what is its measure? How far must a person’s contemplation of cleaving to Hashem go? To the point that his physical brain changes. As it says in the Siddur, when a person labors in the service of his Creator, the brain does not remain the same. Various marks appear in the substance of the brain when it is used, when one labors with it. In other words, even spiritual mitzvos have an effect on the physical substance of the brain and heart. And there is more on this. I brought this from the Frierdiker Rebbe. So that is what the Rebbe is saying here: “For these mitzvos, like all of them”—because even spiritual mitzvos ultimately have a physical expression, in the physicality of this world. “For these mitzvos, like all of them...” Now, alongside the physical letters, which correspond to the mitzvos, since a mitzvah is physical: if we turn to Torah, where do we see that Torah, too, descended into the physical? Torah descended not only below, into a person’s soul and thought, but also has a physical expression. So the Rebbe brings this here: “And in combinations of physical letters, in ink on a scroll.” In Torah, too, we have this element of physicality, in the letters of the Torah. The letters of the Torah are physical letters. In other words, we see here that the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu were clothed in physical letters

12:26 in ink on a scroll, in the twenty-four books of Torah, Nevi’im, and Kesuvim. There, too, we see the element of physicality: physical ink, physical letters—a Torah scroll. If you have a Torah scroll with everything in it, but one letter is missing, or one letter is not written as it should be, the entire Torah scroll is invalid. So here, once again, we see that Torah finds expression in physicality, in letters of ink on a scroll, in the twenty-four books. This applies specifically to the Written Torah, because here he mentions only the twenty-four books. We do not find this same requirement in the Oral Torah. Physical letters—the actual substance of physical letters—are found specifically in the Written Torah. But in any case, what is the point here, that Torah and mitzvos are clothed in physicality? Both the mitzvos and Torah—here, the Written Torah, which is clothed in physical letters. “So that every thought can grasp them, and even speech and action, which are below the level of thought, can grasp them and be clothed in them.” What is the purpose of all this? Torah and mitzvos descended into physicality so that every thought could grasp them, and even speech and action, which are below the level of thought. So that through thought, speech, and action, one can grasp the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What does that mean? What is the Rebbe saying? What is new here? The Rebbe says, “and even.” Why “and even”? Because earlier the Alter Rebbe quoted the statement of the Zohar: “No thought can grasp Him.” The Zohar says that even thought, which is a subtle, spiritual garment of the soul, cannot grasp Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So the Rebbe says: that is true of Him as He is in Himself. But through Torah and mitzvos, there are two new things. First, thought can grasp them

14:36 through Torah and mitzvos. When a Jew thinks about Torah—reviews a Mishnah by heart, or Tanya by heart, thinks Torah—his thought does grasp Atzmus. Yes? “No thought can grasp Him” as He is in Himself, but through Torah and mitzvos, thought can grasp Him. And there is an even greater innovation: even speech and action—which are not even mentioned there—even speech and action, which are below thought, can also grasp Him. Through speech—words of Torah, words of prayer—and through action, the performance of mitzvos, one can grasp Atzmus. Yes, so there are two innovations here. The first concerns thought. The Zohar says, “No thought can grasp Him,” but through Torah and mitzvos, thought can grasp Him. The second is that speech and action can grasp Him too. Through Torah and mitzvos, even the power of speech and the power of action, which are more physical, lower powers, can grasp Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. What are these two expressions here, “grasp them” and “be clothed in them”? What is the difference between grasping and being clothed in them? Grasping is from below upward. Being clothed is from above downward. Right? “Grasping” means that thought, speech, and action grasp Atzmus. When I think Torah, my thought grasps Atzmus; when I speak words of Torah and prayer, I grasp Atzmus. How does that happen? Thought, speech, and action grasp them—Torah and mitzvos—and through them, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “Being clothed in them” is the reverse: Torah and mitzvos become clothed in the person. There are two things here: I grasp Torah and mitzvos—“grasp them”—

17:45 and Torah and mitzvos become clothed in a person. Torah and mitzvos become clothed in a person when he observes them. Those are the two aspects. In a moment we’ll see how he explains this in relation to Torah and mitzvos as well. These are the two sides of it: the person grasps Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu, as it were, becomes clothed in the person, surrounds him and encompasses him. That is how the text continues here: “For Torah and mitzvos clothe all ten faculties of the soul and all its 613 limbs, from its head to its foot.” Through Torah and mitzvos, it says that they clothe all ten faculties of the soul, down to its foot. “It is thus entirely bound up in the bond of life with Hashem Himself.” So Torah and mitzvos are clothed in thought, speech, and action—but wait, now you are going back to the ten faculties of the soul. Until now he was speaking about the garments: Torah and mitzvos are clothed in the garments. Now the Alter Rebbe returns to the soul’s faculties in relation to Torah and mitzvos. We said that the ten faculties of the soul are not themselves Torah and mitzvos. But when the ten faculties of the soul become involved in Torah and mitzvos—as we said earlier, when the attribute of love is invested in a mitzvah, the attribute of fear is invested in a mitzvah, and the intellect is invested in Torah study—the person uses the faculties of his soul for Torah and mitzvos. Then, as he says, “It is entirely bound up in the bond of life with Hashem Himself.” This means that even the soul, which in itself is a created being, becomes “entirely bound up in the bond of life with Hashem Himself.” The soul becomes bound up—that is, encompassed by the bond of life and united in the bond of life with Hashem Himself. “And Hashem Himself surrounds and clothes it from its head to its foot.” You see that here, too, the Alter Rebbe uses two

19:55 The wording is: from below upward, the soul is “bound in the bond of life with Hashem” Himself. That is, the soul connects to its Master. And from above downward, he says that Hakadosh Boruch Hu surrounds the soul. These are the two aspects we discussed earlier, and then he brings two verses: “My Rock, in Whom I take refuge,” and “You surround him with favor like a shield.” He brings these two verses corresponding to the two directions. “My Rock, in Whom I take refuge” is from below upward. The soul says: He is my Rock, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is my Rock, and I take refuge in Him; I am united with Him. And “You surround him with favor like a shield” is from above downward: the supernal will surrounds a person like a shield. A shield is something protective that surrounds a person on all sides. So it is both from below upward and from above downward that the Jew, the soul, connects with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. It is brought in Chassidus that the initial letters of “You surround him with favor like a shield” spell keser, “crown.” Keser is the supernal will that surrounds a person, the encompassing light that we draw down through observing the mitzvos, surrounding a person from head to foot. It is His will and wisdom. [unclear] So, in short, what is the point we have understood so far? What is the Rebbe revealing to us here about Torah and mitzvos? [unclear] The Rebbe is explaining how we should look at Torah and mitzvos. A person needs to know that Torah and mitzvos are not just ordinary matters. It is not that Torah and mitzvos are something that pertains only to the person, that Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave them to us for the person’s sake—as one might understand from several statements of our Sages when learning them superficially. “The mitzvos were given to refine people,” and similar expressions, can make it sound as though the whole purpose of Torah and mitzvos is solely for a person’s benefit.

21:56 G-d forbid. So the Rebbe explains: That is true too; he is not saying it is untrue. But it is not the essence of Torah. It is not the essential point of Torah and mitzvos. What is their essential point? That they are the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and “the Torah and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are entirely one.” And not only the Torah as it exists above. On the contrary, it is specifically the physical Torah here in this physical world—laws concerning physical things, physical mitzvos, physical acts, the laws in the sefarim—through which we connect with Hashem’s Essence, with the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu as they are in His Essence. Here is where the essence of Torah is found. And the Rebbe adds a point at the end: these are the primary garments. But here the Rebbe adds that the garments are not enough. One must also use the faculties of the soul. When a person takes the faculties of the soul and clothes them in the garments of Torah and mitzvos, a complete union is formed between the person and Hakadosh Boruch Hu—both the garments and the soul. And one could say that this is what Chassidus is about. These are the two directions that Chassidus emphasizes constantly. We are now in the days of Kislev—10 Kislev, 19 Kislev—so this is the time to understand and grasp what Chassidus is. In Chassidus we see both directions. On the one hand, Chassidus constantly emphasizes that “the deed is the main thing.” All the maamarim, all the sichos, and especially the Rebbe’s sichos and teachings—we see it there all the time. The emphasis is on the deed as the main thing: thought, speech, and action, the garments. The practical work is primary. Hakadosh Boruch Hu desired to have a dwelling place in the lower realms; all the learning is so that the mitzvos will actually be performed, in thought, speech, and action. And this is a constant strength in Chassidus.

23:52 Kabbolas ol relates to action—to speech, thought, and actual deed. That is one side. On the other hand, what do we see in Chassidus? We see that there must be understanding; that is Chabad. Thought, speech, and action are not enough. There must be faith and comprehension, reason and understanding, feeling, love and awe, influence, and so on. The faculties of the soul must be there, giving life to all the garments. This is the idea of... Chassidus explains that there are two elements in the intent of making a dwelling place in the lower realms, so that it will be complete. Both are needed to build a dwelling place for Him, may He be blessed—a dwelling for His very Self. Where is His Self found? Hakadosh Boruch Hu desired a dwelling in the lower realms, specifically in the lower realms. The physical aspect is thought, speech, and action—the garments. So to build the dwelling in the lower realms, the main thing is actual deed: performing the mitzvah and saying the words of prayer and Torah. What takes place in speech and thought, in actual practice—that is a dwelling in the lower realms. But on the other hand, for that dwelling to be inward, meaning for it to encompass the whole person and not just the garments around him, more is needed. After all, the intention of a dwelling in the lower realms is that all of existence should be a dwelling place for Him, may He be blessed, including a person’s inner faculties. If you say it is only speech and thought, then the entire dwelling for Hakadosh Boruch Hu is made only in the person’s garments. His intellect and mind have not connected with Hakadosh Boruch Hu; they remain outside the whole matter. So there must also be comprehension, faith, feeling, and all the rest, so that the dwelling in the lower realms encompasses the inner faculties as well. And that is what we see here in Tanya. On the one hand, the Alter Rebbe emphasizes the greatness of the garments, that His very Self is found specifically there. And on the other hand, what

25:54 do we see? He concludes here that Torah and mitzvos clothe all the faculties of the soul. Torah and mitzvos must also penetrate the soul’s faculties, with life, feeling, love, faith, desire, and understanding, so that those faculties too are part of it. Only then does the whole thing take shape in a truly positive way. Only then does the whole person—all of him, his innermost self and his entire being—dwell with, and become completely united and connected to, G-dliness. We’ll finish with just one story. Today was the day of the Mitteler Rebbe, and there is a story told about him. In general, we know very little about the Mitteler Rebbe’s knowledge of the revealed Torah. We always speak, and all the stories speak, about the Mitteler Rebbe’s Chassidus—his Chassidus, his maamarim, and his power in Chassidus. He was immersed in it, and so on. But there is a wonderful story told by one of the chassidim who wrote it down. He lived in the Mitteler Rebbe’s time, and he tells it as an eyewitness, because he was there. He knew the Mitteler Rebbe closely. It appears in what may be the first book, or one of the first books, of chassidic stories, the book Sipurim Nora’im. Some of you know it. Sipurim Nora’im, by Reb Yankel Kadaner. He was a chossid of the Mitteler Rebbe, and he collected stories about the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid. So he relates that once the Mitteler Rebbe had to travel. He was young, a young married man, and this was still during the Alter Rebbe’s lifetime. He needed to travel to take care of some matter in another place, somewhere in Lithuania. After he finished taking care of it, he said that the time had come when they needed to

28:23 To go and learn. Yes, it was a waste of time. So he ordered them to whip the horses and not stop under any circumstances—to whip them with all their strength so they would keep running without a break. It was literally a danger to life. They raced like mad, and at one point he even fell. He broke... he suffered... he broke several bones. There’s a story about it, but I don’t remember the details. He paid no attention to it. He didn’t feel it at all. He just kept going and going. No one even knew why he was in such a rush, until he got home. And when he got home, still in his traveling clothes—he didn’t have even a moment to spare—he jumped off the horse, ran to the bookcase, took out a Gemara, stood at the lectern, and learned Gemara for eight hours straight. Only then did he calm down. He describes how, when the Mitteler Rebbe went over to the bookcase and took the Gemara, you could see such joy on his face, such delight. He gave the example of a child who hasn’t seen his father for years, running to embrace him. In the same way, the Mitteler Rebbe ran to the Gemara, seized it, embraced it... took the Gemara, embraced it... and sat down to learn. You could see what it meant to him. So there’s a longer story; never mind. It’s already getting late. It has to do with the Rebbe Rashab. The Rebbe once told this to a student. The Rebbe was once speaking with a young misnaged whom he wanted to bring closer to Chassidus. So the Rebbe told him this story and said that to reach that kind of feeling in learning nigleh, that kind of vitality in learning nigleh, is possible only if you learn Chassidus. Only someone who learns Chassidus can feel such tremendous joy and delight when he picks up a Gemara. That young man was

30:27 a misnaged, and he was... he was a little cheeky. So he asked the Rebbe whether the Rebbe had ever seen anyone do that—whether he had ever seen someone like that. The Rebbe thought for a moment. He said, “Yes, I have seen someone.” [unclear]. [unclear]. The test of Chassidus.