Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 6 - Part 3

00:02 Speaker 1 For if he is nullified, then “wherever ten are gathered, the Shechinah rests.” That is what we said here. What does holiness mean? Holiness means being nullified to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Wherever there is nullification to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the Shechinah rests. Hakadosh Boruch Hu dwells in a place of nullification. Where there is no nullification, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not present in that way. Therefore, when a Jew studies Torah, the Shechinah rests there. And similarly, “wherever ten are gathered, the Shechinah rests,” as we explained earlier. “But anything that is not nullified to Him, blessed be He”—now he explains the other side, what is not holiness. What, then, is a kelipah, the sitra achra? Anything that is not nullified to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, but is something separate, an entity unto itself. In the middle of the passage—again, start from the line “but is something separate, an entity unto itself.” Something that is not completely nullified to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, but feels itself to be something separate, an entity unto itself, does not receive vitality from the holiness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Such a thing, such an entity, cannot receive its vitality directly from the holiness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, from the inner dimension and essence of holiness itself. The Alter Rebbe comes here to explain: Seemingly, what are you saying? Holiness means something in which the holiness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu dwells. Holiness is where Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present. But Hakadosh Boruch Hu is everywhere. If He is not present where there is no nullification, how can that thing live? How does it continue to exist? Hakadosh Boruch Hu must be everywhere, even where things are not nullified to Him. There, too, there is vitality from Hakadosh Boruch Hu.

02:12 Speaker 1 “In the heavens above and on the earth below, there is nothing else”—even in permissible acts, even in things that are contrary to His will, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present there too. So what does it mean to say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present only in holiness, but not in something that is not nullified? This is what the Alter Rebbe explains. It does not mean He is absent. The difference is in how He is present. In holiness, it is in an inward way. That is what he says here: the inner dimension is holiness in its very essence, as it is in itself. In holiness, the vitality flows inwardly. But a kelipah, something that is not nullified to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, cannot receive vitality from His inner dimension, only from the aspect of “the back.” So how do the kelipah and the sitra achra—things that are not nullified—receive their vitality? From the aspect of the back. The vitality they receive comes in that way. What is the difference between the inner dimension and the back? The Alter Rebbe explains further on in chapter 23—in chapter, sorry, chapter 22. What is the difference? In general, we know that there is a face and there is a back, as with a person. There is a difference between the face and the back: a person’s vitality is apparent in his face. As the verse says, “A person’s wisdom illuminates his face.” So in a person’s face you can see its radiance, you can see the… But from behind, you do not see any of that. You cannot even tell from a person’s back whether he is alive. So the Alter Rebbe explains in Tanya that, similarly, when a person loves someone, he looks at him face to face. When he loves someone, he looks at him face to face, and when he gives him something, bestows something on him, he gives him

04:02 Speaker 1 a gift face to face. That shows he is interested in him, that he cares about him and has enthusiasm and desire. But when it is someone he hates, he gives to him offhandedly. If there is someone I hate, but for some reason I have no choice and must give him something, I give it to him offhandedly. I am not interested in him. I toss him some gift. I give it to him from the aspect of the back, meaning without warmth or enthusiasm. The root of this idea is explained in Chassidus. What is the root? Why does Hakadosh Boruch Hu bestow vitality on things of holiness in an inward way, but on things of kelipah in an external way? Why are there things Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives face to face, and things He gives from behind, not because He wants them for their own sake? Chassidus explains that this has to do with the inner and outer dimensions of desire itself. There are things a person truly wants—his innermost desire—and there is the outer dimension of his desire. What is the difference? An innermost desire is something a person wants inwardly; he truly wants it. It matters to him. It is important to him. He really wants it. And there are things he does not actually want, but because he needs to reach some other goal, he needs those things along the way. In other words, if he could get what he wanted without going through that step, he would. It is only because he has no choice, because he has to go through it, that he wants it on the outer level. The familiar analogy brought in Chassidus is a person who works to earn money. If a person could earn money without working, especially without hard work, he would not work. Why work for its own sake?

05:51 Speaker 1 He does not want to work. We are not referring to anyone in particular. Yes. The point is that the work gets him to a goal, because—because there is no other way. Because there is no other way to receive what he needs—that is the point I am making here—except through work, he has to work. So the work itself is the outer dimension of his desire. The inner dimension of his desire is the profit he will get from it. Further, even the profit is an outer dimension of his desire. His innermost desire is to be able to live. Right? That is how it is explained in Chassidus. In any case, the same applies to our subject. Hakadosh Boruch Hu does not want this world, or the kelipah and sitra achra, for their own sake. What Hakadosh Boruch Hu truly wants is holiness. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants a dwelling place in the lower realms. That is what He wants. But what? For there to be free choice, this world must also exist. For there to be avodah, there must also be what stands in the way: there must be kelipah, there must be the other side. So all of this is only the outer dimension of His desire, a means of reaching His innermost desire: that a Jew should do his avodah. Therefore, the giving and bestowal of vitality to holiness, to things that are nullified to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, is inward, with vitality and enthusiasm. But to kelipah, it is given in an external way. This is what the Alter Rebbe says: the kelipos, which are not nullified to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, cannot receive vitality from the inner dimension of holiness, from the light of Ein Sof, but only from the aspect of the back. That is how they receive their vitality. There are two sayings I heard from mashpi’im about this. One is from Reb Mendel Futerfas. He would often point out at farbrengens the precise wording in Tanya: “something separate, an entity unto itself.” It is a well-known saying. Reb Mendel would say that these are three types of kelipos.

07:44 Speaker 1 Reb Mendel speaks about yeshus, about a case of kelipah. This is yeshus that is not batel. He couldn’t just say “there is yeshus”; Reb Mendel uses three words: “a thing separate unto itself.” He would say that these are three stages of yeshus. First, on a subtle level, a person begins to feel that he is something. He is a refined person, someone of some importance. He starts to feel that he is an important person, a person of worth. He becomes “a thing.” Yes, “there is nothing that does not have its place,” and then you have a thing. After that it gets worse, more coarse. This sense of self grows, and he becomes “separate.” At first he is merely a thing. He thinks, and he is not yet separate from G-dliness or from the truth. It’s just that he has an elevated opinion of himself. He studies. He studies and does good things too. But he feels himself; he feels that he is the important one, that he does things, studies, knows, accomplishes, and is a person of spiritual stature. What happens next? He becomes separate when he separates himself from G-dliness, separates himself from the truth, separates himself from... from... from G-dliness. Worse still—and the worst thing—is “unto himself.” What does “unto himself” mean? That he stops sitting at a chassidisher farbrengen, or starts acting like the rabbis in Brisk? That is the worst thing. He is a thing unto himself. He has left the farbrengen; it no longer suits him. It doesn’t suit him to sit at the table with this person. It doesn’t suit him to sit at the table with another person. No, no. It’s too simple for him, and he’s too... that’s it. He can no longer get along with anyone. He has become unto himself. That is the greatest kelipah: he stops coming to Chassidus, to a farbrengen of chassidim, and starts acting like the rabbis in Brisk. To the point where the situation

09:36 Speaker 1 is extremely difficult. That is one kind of avodah. So here, Reb Ginzburg[?]—I remember when he gave the Tanya class, he would go over the chapters of Tanya every year. Each year the class would start from the beginning and cover a number of chapters over the course of the year. But he also had his collection of explanations and stories for each point. He had stories he would tell regularly, so they stuck in my memory. I remember that here, when he taught the chapter that says the kelipah receives life from the “back,” he would tell a story. Once a Jew came to the Tzemach Tzedek. If I’m not mistaken, he was a misnaged. He came to the Tzemach Tzedek about some matter. The Tzemach Tzedek asked him, “Where do you come from? Where do you live?” He said he lived behind Slutsk. Slutsk was a city of misnagdim, a well-known city in Lithuania, a distinctly misnagdic shtetl. So he said he lived beyond Slutsk, meaning in the area behind Slutsk. In Yiddish he said, “unter Slutsk.” But the Tzemach Tzedek said to him, “Slutsk has a backside too.” Its whole existence is “the back,” and even that has a back. Yes, he would tell that story, that vort, to explain this idea of “the back.” In any case, this is the point. He goes on to say here that there is the matter of kelipah. That is where they receive life—from the back. The Alter Rebbe explains this here in detail: it descends from level to level, through myriads of levels in the chainlike descent of the worlds. What does that mean? Life given in the manner of “the back.” He explains that the life-force from Hakadosh Boruch Hu descends through the chainlike order of worlds, from level to level, through cause and effect and many tzimtzumim. There has to be

11:48 Speaker 1 an orderly progression. There are explanations here of all sorts of details—what the Alter Rebbe includes here, all the levels. In any case, there is a chainlike order in which the G-dly life-force descends from level to level, through cause and effect and many tzimtzumim. There is a descent by way of cause and effect. “Cause and effect” means the orderly progression from one level to the next. There is a chainlike progression of cause and effect. For the life-force to reach us, this physical world, it has to descend through that progression of cause and effect. But cause and effect are still on a comparable scale. A descent through cause and effect is not yet one in which the lower level is utterly incomparable to the higher one. There is still some relationship between them, as mentioned with regard to emotions, thought, and speech. Although there is a descent, there is still some relationship between the lower and the higher. Then there are many tzimtzumim, which go further than cause and effect. It is not only cause and effect; there is also tzimtzum. The light becomes more constricted, to the point that the levels are increasingly incomparable. Until the light and life-force are diminished so greatly, reduction after reduction. He then says that through the many tzimtzumim, the G-dly light becomes so diminished, reduction after reduction, that it can be constricted and enclothed in a state of exile within that separate thing, giving it life and sustaining it from nothing into existence, so that it does not return to being nothing, as it was before it was created. So essentially, if we divide this into general categories, we see three things here. In his notes—but there are three things here. There is the chainlike descent, meaning through cause and effect. Then there is its being diminished, reduction after reduction, right? That is another kind of tzimtzum,

13:33 Speaker 1 and then he says that it enters exile. These are essentially three stages in the tzimtzum of the G-dly life-force, in how it descends. At first it is a descent on the level of cause and effect. For example, we can understand this somewhat from the human soul. There is life in the limbs: the soul gives life to a person. The life-force in the limbs follows cause and effect. The life-force as it is in the brain is not like the life-force in the eyes, hands, or feet. It descends and progresses through cause and effect. With each descent, the life-force becomes less. In the brain it is at its most subtle and refined. That is why, according to halachah, if something happens there, in the internal organs, the animal is a treifah: every detail there matters. By contrast, in the lower parts, down to the leg, according to halachah even most of the leg... That is, something more serious is needed for it to be a treifah. So this is a matter of diminution—of, sorry, cause and effect in the life-force. It is life-force, but it descends further and further. Then there is another kind of tzimtzum, called “hair” in the language of Chassidus. With hair, it is not merely a matter of cause and effect. There is already a certain break. Hair, too, draws life-force from the brain, from the soul. There is life in hair—that is why it grows. But the life-force there is completely constricted. The life-force in hair is no longer a matter of cause and effect, where one level is comparable to the next. The skull itself forms a barrier. So this is already a matter of reduction after reduction. It is already

15:23 Speaker 1 a reduction in the quality of the life-force. It is no longer just a matter of quantity, but of quality. In other words, it is a different kind of life-force, one that is utterly incomparable. That is why a person’s hair can be cut without his feeling pain. Then comes the third thing: he says it enters exile. Only after such a great tzimtzum can there be exile. What is exile? Exile means being in an opposing place, a place where one has no control at all. As long as there is still some degree of life-force—even a lesser degree—there can still be life. Ultimately, though, it still has a connection; it is still linked, still attached. Exile, on the other hand, means being in a place where one cannot do as one wishes. That is what exile is. A person in exile is in a foreign place, where he is not in charge. When he is still in his own home, on his own ground, he is free to do what he wants. He is in charge. But when he is in exile, he is there—and he has no control. Someone else rules over him and tells him what to do and how to do it. Similarly, when we come to the G-dly life-force that is in the realm of kelipos, the sitra achra, there is G-dly life-force there. G-dly life-force gives life even to the kelipah, but the kelipah takes that life-force and uses it for things contrary to the Divine will. Instead of being a vessel for G-dliness, it becomes yeshus, a thing separate unto itself. That is exile. So what is the Alter Rebbe saying here? For the reality of... to be possible

17:00 Speaker 1 This matter of exile must first involve concealment, and then a great contraction, one reduction after another. Only then can there be exile. Obviously, in the simple sense, exile is impossible as long as the light is present in its full strength. As long as the G-dly light is present in its full strength, it cannot be contracted and exiled. When the G-dly light is present in its full strength, it shines openly. The truth that “there is nothing else besides Him” shines openly, so exile is impossible. Exile becomes possible after the light has undergone contraction and reduction, and all these other things. Only then can something opposing it arise and gain control. But as long as the light is revealed, the whole idea is impossible. That is why it says—and we’ll come to several examples—regarding the Jewish people, for example, there was a difference between the time of Moshe Rabbeinu and the time of Yehoshua bin Nun. Certain things that were impossible in the time of Moshe Rabbeinu were possible in the time of Yehoshua bin Nun, because one was “the face of the sun” and the other “the face of the moon.” In other words, as long as the light shines in its full strength, things like exile are impossible. For exile to be possible, there must first be some contraction. Only after contraction and many further contractions, when the light no longer shines in its full strength, can an opposing force arise and take the G-dly vitality over to its own side. Right? The same applies here. That is why the Alter Rebbe says there must be contractions until exile becomes possible: “to sustain them, so that they do not become absolute nothingness as they were before they were created.” Before they were created. What is the purpose of this G-dly vitality

18:44 Speaker 1 being within this independent entity, this separate thing, this thing of kelipah? To sustain it, so that it does not become absolute nothingness as it was before it was created. The moment the G-dly vitality departs from it, it will become absolute nothingness. The kelipos, too—their entire existence depends on G-dly vitality. Without it, they would be absolute nothingness. But that is its only role there. In other words, the difference between holiness and kelipah is that kelipah also contains G-dly power, but what does that G-dly power do there? Its whole purpose is merely to allow the kelipah to exist. It needs to be sustained, to be something that can continue to exist. But beyond that, it does nothing to give the kelipah any sense of G-dliness. It only sustains it. There is no influence here, no revelation. In holiness, by contrast, not only is there the force that brings the thing into being, but G-dliness is also revealed there. The degree of that revelation determines the degree of the thing’s bittul and its connection to holiness. There is an expression in Chassidus. I’ll get to the subject of kelipah—there is an expression in Chassidus. This paragraph does not go into it very much, but other maamarim discuss it at length. It appears particularly in maamarim of the Rebbe Maharash [unclear] from that period. When we come to the kelipos, we find that kelipah is an absence. The existence of kelipah is, in essence, a matter of absence; it is not a true existence. That is not simple: what do you mean, it is not an existence? We can see that kelipah exists. So Chassidus addresses this. When Hakadosh Boruch Hu created what became the kelipos, the world of Tohu—when He created the world, He first created the worlds of Tohu, which made room for kelipos, and afterward He created the worlds of Tikkun. It says that when Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the worlds

20:55 Speaker 1 of Tohu, He said, “These do not please Me. I don’t want these.” That became the basis for kelipah. So the entire existence of kelipah comes from “These do not please Me”: Hakadosh Boruch Hu created something of which He says that He does not want it. What, then, is the true existence of the kelipos? The absence of His will. And the absence of His will means the absence of existence. The existence of everything comes from His will, for “Hashem does whatever He desires.” Things exist because Hashem wills them. “These do not please Me”—He does not want them. So what is their existence? The absence of His will. Essentially, then, they are not a true existence. Okay. But you can see that they exist. There is an expression in Torah Sheleimah [unclear] that describes the existence of the kelipos as being like bubbles. Bubbles, as they say in Yiddish. They stand out. You have soap, right? When you put soap in water, you get—what do you call it—foam?

22:05 Speaker 2 Foam?

22:06 Speaker 1 Foam.

22:06 Speaker 2 But that’s not it.

22:08 Speaker 1 Bubbles.

22:09 Speaker 2 It’s round.

22:11 Speaker 1 That’s right.

22:12 Speaker 2 Foam is froth.

22:14 Speaker 1 Bubbles are like balloons. It looks like cholent, like something big and substantial, but when you burst them and look inside, there is nothing there. There is nothing there at all. That is what I mean when I say that kelipah is an absence. So you need to understand this. What does it mean? I once heard Reb Yoel [unclear] tell a story about Reb Chonye [unclear], who was a mashpia in Lubavitch and gave classes and so on. Reb Chonye [unclear] was a man of truth. He himself was an example, a living example. He was giving a Chassidus class and spoke about the nullification of the kelipos. He explained that kelipah is an absence, but the students did not understand. They began whispering among themselves and arguing: What does it mean that kelipah is an absence? Kelipah exists. We can see there is a world, there is kelipah, there are non-Jews, there is this nation, there are priests and churches and big things. So what does it mean? He tried to explain it using the terms of Chassidus, but he saw that the young men were not accepting it. It wasn’t sinking in. So Reb Chonye [unclear] told them: “I don’t understand your question at all. Go to some non-Jewish village. Go into a village where no Jews live and look around. Is there a shul? No. A mikveh? No. Sifrei Torah? No. A beis midrash? No. Books? No. So they have nothing. That is an absence. They have nothing.” In any case, that is the idea of absence. So that is what the Alter Rebbe is saying here: although the kelipos have come into existence, from the standpoint of the inner vitality they have no enduring existence; from the standpoint of the inner will, they are not a true existence. Their entire existence comes only from the external aspect. And how does the vitality reach them? Through many contractions and diminutions, until, in a state of

24:21 Speaker 1 exile, the kelipos receive some vitality so that they can exist. Chapter seven: “Therefore, this world and all that fills it is called the world of kelipos and sitra achra.” This is why this world is called the world of kelipos and sitra achra. What is the explanation? What does it mean to call it the world of kelipos and sitra achra? This is the explanation. What does “therefore it is called” mean? Based on what we’ve explained, what does it mean? Kelipah does not necessarily mean outright evil. We’ll come to that later. Why is this world called the world of kelipos?