Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 19 - Part 6

00:00 Speaker 1 We’re holding here in Tanya, near the bottom of page 20, at the line beginning “as his portion and his lot, to give his life for the sanctity of His name.” At the end of the line: “And although the kelipos.” The Alter Rebbe says that the divine soul has two levels. There is the extension of chochmah, and there is the essence of chochmah. The extension of chochmah becomes invested in the inner faculties. There, exile or concealment is possible, and a person can reach a state of death—the opposite of life in holiness—to the point that he can fall into transgression. Then there is the essence of chochmah. There is no exile there, but there can be a state of sleep. As long as a person is down in his desires, the essence of chochmah is in a state of sleep. It is still there. But the moment he faces a test, his faith awakens, the chochmah in his soul awakens, and then Hashem—the Divine Name Havayah within chochmah—awakens. “Havayah awoke as one who had slept”: that is the infinite light that shines in chochmah. When it is revealed, all desires and all the kelipos are nullified. The person comes to loathe everything of this world and all its pleasures, even though he has spent his whole life immersed in them, and he chooses Hakadosh Boruch Hu as his portion and his lot, to give his life for the sanctity of His name. Yes, [unclear] of the soul. What happens when the yechidah is revealed? That is the point he is making. And one more thing. There’s more to explain here; I’ll explain it afterward. I want to read a little inside first. Just one more thing we didn’t manage to explain in the previous class about the Alter Rebbe’s wording here, at the line beginning “Havayah”—“but the reverse was not the case”—“as his portion and his lot.” The Alter Rebbe uses the wording that he chooses Hakadosh Boruch Hu as his portion and his lot. These two terms, “portion” and “lot,” refer to two levels in the soul: its encompassing faculties

02:35 Speaker 1 and its inner faculties. That is the precise meaning of “portion” and “lot.” After all, we say every day, “How fortunate we are, how good is our portion, and how pleasant is our lot.” This is discussed in Chassidus. What? Yes? It’s discussed in the maamarim. Chassidus discusses “How fortunate we are, how good is our portion, and how pleasant is our lot”: there is a “portion” and there is a “lot,” two levels. Have you learned the maamarim on Ashreinu? We say “our portion” and “our lot.” A portion is inward. In the plain sense, when you say “portion,” it means something inward, something that is part of him. The Rebbe brings this in maamar twelve: “Hashem is my portion, says my soul.” A portion is inward, while a lot is encompassing. The whole concept of a lot is beyond reason and understanding. That is the meaning of “How fortunate we are, how good is our portion, and how pleasant is our lot.” “How good is our portion” refers to the inner faculties. When a person serves Hashem with his nefesh, ruach, and neshamah—with his soul, intellect, and feelings—that is called “our portion.” When a person serves Hashem with the encompassing faculties, that is called “our lot,” the aspect of lot within the soul. So the Alter Rebbe says that the moment a Jew’s faith, this essential point, is revealed, the person loathes every physical craving and chooses Hakadosh Boruch Hu as his portion and his lot. In other words, it brings about a change both in the inner faculties and in the encompassing faculties. He gives himself over completely to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. I’ll come back to this shortly. There’s a whole subject here, but first let’s read a little inside. “And although”—here the Alter Rebbe raises a question. The Alter Rebbe asks: “And although the kelipos prevailed over him all his days, and he could not overcome them.” After all, we’re speaking here about a person who is among the transgressors of Israel. All his life the kelipos ruled over him, and he couldn’t overcome his cravings. What suddenly happens

04:42 Speaker 1 that the moment the chochmah in his soul awakens, all the kelipos are nullified and flee? After all, the whole matter comes from the yechidah, this point at the foundation of faith. We say that when it awakens, it isn’t just that his faith awakens, or that it affects only that point of faith. It penetrates his entire being. Then all his cravings, this whole world, everything—[unclear]—it all becomes empty, utterly nothing. He gives himself over completely to that point, with his entire being. But what is the connection? Why do we say that when this is revealed, it affects the whole person? The person as he is, his actual makeup and his inner faculties, still have no connection to it. They were bound up with the kelipah his whole life, and they still are. They don’t understand. It’s not that he has now gained some understanding, some feeling, or something else connected with his inner faculties. No. What is revealed here is the point of faith. Yes? What is it? What does that have to do with this? Focus on the Tanya. We’re learning Tanya here in the middle of the class. Don’t get confused. Yes, so that is the question the Alter Rebbe asks here. Pay close attention to his wording: “Although the kelipos prevailed over him all his days, and he could not overcome them, as our Sages said, ‘The wicked are under the control of their hearts.’” Yes, our Sages say that the wicked are under the control of their hearts. That means the defining condition of a wicked person is that he has no control over his heart. On the contrary, his heart controls him. What does that mean? It means this: the Alter Rebbe speaks about this throughout Tanya. He also brought it up earlier, in the previous chapters: the mind rules over the heart. Yes, the mind rules over

06:38 Speaker 1 the heart. That is the natural order in a person: the mind controls the heart. So when the mind understands something, it also affects the heart, and the heart follows the mind. But with a wicked person, the Alter Rebbe said in chapter 17 that someone who is wicked—and not just wicked, but truly wicked, in the Alter Rebbe’s words—not only does he have no control over his heart, but the opposite is true. His heart—how is it written? “His heart is not under his control.” In other words, the heart controls the person and does with him what it wants. The heart is in charge of him. As it also says in the maamar, [unclear] “all heart”—[unclear] that the Rebbe brings there in the maamar: the heart becomes his master. So how can it be that here, the moment he faces a test, all the evil suddenly flees? The kelipos flee completely and are nullified. “The wicked are under the control of their hearts.” To understand the Alter Rebbe’s question more deeply: in Tanya, chapter 17, two chapters ago—we haven’t learned it recently, but I assume the bochurim remember—the Alter Rebbe spoke about three levels. There is the level of a tzaddik, the level of a beinoni, and the level of a rasha. A complete rasha means a rasha who is truly wicked, not just someone called a rasha. A rasha—I’m not sure exactly—a rasha in that condition. The Alter Rebbe gives three levels. With a tzaddik, “his heart is under his control.” That means he is completely in charge of his heart. That is “his heart is under his control.” His heart is entirely connected with G-dliness. Anything contrary to that is utterly unthinkable to him. That is what “his heart is under his control” means. Of a beinoni, we do not say that his heart is under his control. His mind is under his control. That is

08:35 Speaker 1 how it works for a beinoni. A beinoni’s heart is still not entirely under his control. His heart has desires; he has a struggle, he has a yetzer hara, and he is also drawn to improper thoughts, as the Rebbe says about a beinoni. He has desires. But what does he have? His mind is under his control. He has a mind with which he can reflect and think. By contemplating G-dliness with his mind, he also affects his heart. That is called “the mind rules over the heart.” It does not mean that the heart is completely devoted to G-dliness. It is a matter of control: he controls the heart. He takes hold of the heart by force; through the mind, he rules over the heart. But of a rasha, we say, “His heart is not under his control.” That means the heart is in charge of the person. And here we are speaking about a rasha. Look: a person described as one of the “transgressors of Israel” is truly a rasha. So his heart is not under his control. Nevertheless, that holds only as long as the sanctity of Hashem has not awakened within him. The moment it does, his entire being undergoes a transformation. All the kelipos flee, and he changes from one extreme to the other. He chooses G-dliness, Hashem, as his portion and his lot. So the Rebbe asks: How can this be? What does the Alter Rebbe explain? “When he comes to face a test in a matter of faith.” The Rebbe wants to explain how faith affects the inner, revealed faculties—thought, speech, and action. To explain this, the Alter Rebbe says: “When he comes to face a test in a matter of faith in the one Hashem,” whose foundation is in the holy heights, in the chochmah of his divine soul, in which the infinite light of the Blessed One is invested. The moment he faces a test—a test that challenges the oneness of Hashem—the chochmah of his soul awakens.

10:34 Speaker 1 For there the name of Hashem shines, and the Ein Sof vested within it shines. All the kelipos are nullified and utterly negated, as though they had never existed before Hashem. Because the moment the yechidah of the soul is revealed—the chochmah of the soul, in which Hashem’s infinite light shines—all the kelipos are nullified by that revelation of the Ein Sof. That is the answer to the question. Since the blessed Ein Sof shines in the soul’s chochmah, the moment the Ein Sof, G-dliness, is revealed, the entire reality of this world is nullified of its own accord. This does not happen through struggle or coercion. When the Ein Sof is revealed in the soul, the entire reality of the kelipos is completely nullified in relation to it. The Alter Rebbe brings the following verses for this. “All the nations are as nothing before Him.” And it is written, “For behold, Your enemies, Hashem—for behold, Your enemies shall perish; all workers of iniquity shall be scattered.” And it is written, “As wax melts before fire, so shall the wicked perish before G-d.” And it is written, “The mountains melted like wax.” So he brings four verses here. The common point of these four verses is this: the moment there is a revelation of G-dliness, the reality of kelipah is nullified as though it had never existed. What do we see in these verses? “All the nations are as nothing before Him.” What does “as nothing before Him” mean? It means before Him, in the presence of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The moment G-dliness is seen, the reality of the nations—the reality of kelipah; “nations” here refers to kelipah—becomes nothing. Likewise, “Your enemies shall perish”: they are lost. In other words, they become utterly nothing. “All workers of iniquity shall be scattered.” Similarly, “As wax melts before fire, so shall the wicked perish”—there too, they perish. They are lost. And likewise, “The mountains melted like wax.”

12:34 Speaker 2 How can this also reach my children? I don’t know how to connect this to what we’re discussing here.

12:41 Speaker 1 I’ll explain in a moment. I’ll explain in a moment. First let me translate the Tanya here. The Alter Rebbe says that there is a revelation of the Ein Sof here. Since the entire reality of kelipah disappears completely in relation to the Ein Sof, it becomes utterly nothing. Remember, what is the explanation here? The explanation is that the entire reality of kelipah is a concealment of G-dliness. The defining feature of kelipah is concealment. Kelipah has no true reality of its own. Its entire reality is a concealment of G-dliness. So the whole idea of kelipah is a sense of self: feeling oneself, feeling oneself to be an independent existence. But the truth is that there is nothing besides Him. The truth is that Hashem’s oneness is the true reality, and there is nothing besides Him. It’s just that, as long as G-dliness is concealed and Hashem’s oneness does not shine openly, kelipah puffs itself up as though it were a reality. It feels itself to be a separate existence. The moment G-dliness is revealed, the truth is revealed. What truth? The truth of G-dliness, the truth of Hashem’s oneness. Once the truth of Hashem’s oneness is revealed, anything that is not an expression of that oneness simply cannot exist; it is utterly nothing. And that is what happens when the soul is revealed. The revelation of the soul is not merely a revelation of faith. The revelation of the soul is a revelation of the Ein Sof. It is the revelation of Hashem’s oneness. Tests—what are tests? A test means that something comes along in opposition to Hashem’s oneness. That is the test. As long as a person does not feel that Hashem’s oneness is being challenged, he can buy into a falsehood. He can deceive himself. He thinks he is fine: Hakadosh Boruch Hu is there, he is here, everything is fine. He sees no contradiction. The moment he feels there is a contradiction

14:26 Speaker 1 to Hashem’s oneness, then Hashem’s oneness is revealed, the soul is revealed, the G-dly spark is revealed. There he feels the truth that there is nothing besides Him. So when the truth that there is nothing besides Him shines, anything opposed to that truth is nullified of its own accord. That is what these verses mean. What do the verses say? That is what they say: “All the nations are as nothing before Him.” It does not mean that they have to be broken or fought. “As nothing.” From the outset, the moment G-dliness is revealed, then in relation to G-dliness, all non-G-dly things—the nations, anything that is not G-dliness, anything belonging to the kelipos—become utterly nothing. Now, it is interesting that the Alter Rebbe brings four verses. Why does he bring four verses? Rabbi Levi writes that the four verses correspond to the three completely impure kelipos and kelipas nogah. That is why there are four verses. That is what Rabbi Levi writes. You should know that Rabbi Levi puts it briefly: there are four verses corresponding to the four kelipos, the three kelipos and kelipas nogah. So that is why there are four verses here. There is an interesting distinction in the wording: in the first three verses, the emphasis is on becoming nothing, on being nullified. “All the nations are as nothing before Him.” “Your enemies shall perish,” “for behold, Your enemies shall perish.” The Alter Rebbe emphasizes the word “perish”: they are lost, completely nullified. In the fourth verse, it does not say that. It only says, “The mountains melted like wax.” There is no language of perishing or becoming nothing, only “melted like wax.” Because that is the difference between the three completely impure kelipos and kelipas nogah. Through the revelation of the light of the Ein Sof, the three completely impure kelipos are entirely nullified. When we come to kelipas nogah, there is something deeper: there, it does not have to be lost entirely. There, it is subdued. As is well known, this is written in the siddur regarding what we say in the Shemoneh Esreh, in the blessing of Velamalshinim, in four expressions. We say Velamalshinim—what is the wording there?

16:43 Speaker 1 “Uproot, break, crush, and subdue.” It says that one should pause. Yes: “Uproot, break, crush”—make a pause—“and subdue.” The first three words refer to the three completely impure kelipos, and the fourth word refers to kelipas nogah. Because that is the difference. “Uproot, break, crush” are expressions of destruction. That applies to the three completely impure kelipos. When it comes to kelipas nogah, the word used is only “subdue.” You do not need to break it or uproot it; you need to subdue it. To subdue it means to bring it into the domain of holiness. This also explains the precise wording: what does “The mountains melted like wax” mean? How do you translate that? What is wax? Who knows what wax is? All right, understood. I wanted us to say “coupons.” The point is that wax is the material of a candle. So what do we see with wax? You have a wax candle; it looks like a big, hard candle. But the moment you light a flame, the wax softens. Yes, that is what “wax melts” means. So it does not become nothing. It softens. It melts. That is what happens with kelipas nogah. Yes, when you have a candle and it becomes like that, you can make things out of it—different shapes and designs. You can shape it, because it becomes like this. You can work with it. Yes, a solid piece: the moment it melts, you can make things out of it. It is not nullified, but its form changes. That is the idea of kelipas nogah. Now, the previous verse also says, “As wax melts,” but it then goes on to say, “the wicked shall perish.” It starts with wax, but then it says

18:34 Speaker 1 A Jew. In other words, we’re talking about something that really has to be eliminated completely. The order is that first you subdue it, but ultimately the aim is to destroy it altogether, because these are the three impure kelipos. But with kelipas nogah, there ... not that those things should be eliminated completely—on the contrary. The aim with kelipas nogah, as the Alter Rebbe explained earlier, is to use those things for the sake of Heaven, to elevate them to holiness. So here you see how every detail in Tanya is precise. That’s regarding the plain meaning of Tanya here. As for the subject as a whole, there’s more to add to our understanding. There’s a great deal of discussion about it. I’ll just mention the details, for the sake of completeness. Here the Alter Rebbe says that when a Jew’s faith is revealed, when there’s a test of mesirus nefesh and the point of yechidah is revealed within him, what does it accomplish? It brings about a change in the entire person. He ... and he despises all the kelipos, and so on. Now, as is well known, this isn’t so simple. The Rebbe discusses it several times in maamarim and always refers to Kuntres HaAvodah. There, the Rebbe Rashab also says that we see plainly that when a person faces a test and his mesirus nefesh—his yechidah—is awakened, he changes completely. In other words, there’s something in that power. At first it’s along the lines of—perhaps he even cites it; I didn’t have time to check. It’s possible that the Rebbe even cites this passage in the maamar. But the point is that the Rebbe Rashab discusses it at length there, in chapter—chapter five, if I’m not mistaken. He explains that when yechidah is revealed through a test, or on Yom Kippur and at other times

20:38 Speaker 1 when the yechidah in a person’s soul is awakened, then it isn’t just yechidah as some isolated point of faith. The entire person changes from one kind of being to another. There are expressions like “from one extreme to the other”: the person becomes someone entirely different. And the Rebbe Rashab says, “This is what we see plainly,” and so on. That’s what it says in Kuntres HaAvodah. Nevertheless, sometimes the opposite is written. Sometimes it says that when a Jew’s yechidah is revealed in mesirus nefesh, he may experience an awakening of yechidah and a movement of mesirus nefesh, yet still remain someone who commits transgressions in other areas. His kelipas nogah may still not be one hundred percent as it should be. And, plainly, that’s what we see and have seen throughout history. There were Jews whose yechidah was awakened, who had mesirus nefesh and gave themselves over completely, yet in other areas they remained as they were. Their kelipas nogah didn’t change, and they didn’t become people who observed every detail of the Shulchan Aruch in practice. So the Rebbe says many times in maamarim that the wording in Kuntres HaAvodah is entirely sound, but when you look at the particulars, you can see that it doesn’t always happen that way. What explanation does the Rebbe give? One of the best-known maamarim of the Rebbe on this subject is Ve’atah Tetzaveh. It doesn’t explain this point at such length, but the Rebbe brings up something else there that is similar. In Ve’atah Tetzaveh, the Rebbe speaks about mesirus nefesh: in the time of the Frierdiker Rebbe there was a decree, and as a result many Jews and chassidim stood firm with mesirus nefesh throughout the year. It was mesirus nefesh in practice. Nevertheless, when the time came and they left Russia and reached places like America, their mesirus

22:43 Speaker 1 nefesh cooled. For some it remained, but in others you could see a certain decline, a cooling. They returned to their previous state. What does the Rebbe say in Ve’atah Tetzaveh? What’s the explanation? The Rebbe says that yechidah is the essence, and the essence penetrates even the inner faculties. So at a time of mesirus nefesh, it transformed their inner faculties too—not just the external aspect, not just the encompassing aspect—because yechidah penetrates the entire soul. It’s similar to what Tanya says here: there’s a change even in the revealed faculties. Nevertheless, because the awakening of the essence came about in response to the decree, it didn’t originate in the inner faculties themselves. What awakened them was the decree, which stirred their essence. And when the essence is awakened, it permeates the whole person. But still, as the Rebbe explains there, since the awakening was rooted in the essence, the inner faculties didn’t connect on their own terms. So when the decree passes and the person reaches a place where everything is fine, that feeling can cool again and he can return to his previous state. Along these lines, the Rebbe says in another maamar, the Purim maamar in Sefer HaMaamarim Melukat, volume four, that this can happen even during the act of mesirus nefesh itself. The Rebbe Rashab says that when a person is awakened to mesirus nefesh, his whole being changes from one extreme to the other—but that isn’t inevitable. We’ve seen such things many times in history too. We have seen Jews in whom this awakening brought about a change in their very being: they became complete baalei teshuvah, and so on. But that doesn’t necessarily happen. The reason is the same: ultimately, the revelation comes in response to a cause. The cause was the decree. The cause was that

24:34 Speaker 1 there was a test. So yes, it awakened the essence within him and brought about a change in his very being. But it still didn’t come entirely from an inner necessity, and so even at that moment there may be certain areas in which he hasn’t changed and remains as he was. This is a general principle through which the Rebbe explains a number of things. What does it mean for our avodah? According to the explanation the Rebbe gives in several places, it means we cannot stop there. On the one hand, Chassidus—and Tanya here—speaks about the tremendous power of faith, the tremendous power of mesirus nefesh, of yechidah when it is awakened. But at the same time, it tells us that this isn’t enough. It isn’t enough for yechidah to be revealed. We can’t just wait for yechidah to be revealed and then assume everything will be fine. There has to be dedicated work with the inner faculties as well. That is really what Chassidus wants to achieve. The Rebbe says several times in sichos and maamarim that a person shouldn’t be satisfied with having the point of Jewish faith awakened within him and seeing it change his whole being, because that awakening can come and it can also go. There must be particular, inner avodah with the inner faculties, so that the person’s very being changes, including the form of his middos. And that’s really what this time of year, Sefiras HaOmer, is about. Chassidus explains that the avodah must be done specifically through the inner faculties; avodah that comes from the essence of the soul isn’t enough. The Frierdiker Rebbe relates in one of his writings that there was once a farbrengen on Purim Katan. Purim Katan was well known as the occasion when the Frierdiker Rebbe said the maamar VeKibel HaYehudim, which is the basis of the maamar. I saw Tzvi, and then there was a farbrengen following the maamar. The Frierdiker Rebbe was there, and the chassidim said l’chaim.

26:39 Speaker 1 And it wasn’t always the custom at the Rebbe’s farbrengens for only the Rebbe to speak while chassidim remained silent. There was a time when chassidim spoke at farbrengens too. The Frierdiker Rebbe relates that after the maamar Vekibel HaYehudim—a maamar about mesirus nefesh, and a remarkable maamar in what the Frierdiker Rebbe says there—there was a farbrengen. Two chassidim were sitting there: Rabbi Landau and Reb Itche der Masmid. That is how the Frierdiker Rebbe tells it. They were both speaking and debating what Chassidus is, what the essence of Chassidus is. Rabbi Landau said that, yes, the Rebbe was speaking about mesirus nefesh. Imagine: this was the very day of Vekibel HaYehudim, the maamar that brought about a revolution throughout Russia, at a time of tremendous fear. They took the Frierdiker Rebbe, and he was imprisoned because of that maamar. As is known, the whole story of “an ordinary Jew” was because of the maamar Vekibel HaYehudim. So there was a farbrengen, and of course it was all permeated with mesirus nefesh. Rabbi Landau said that although the Rebbe was speaking about mesirus nefesh, that is not Chabad Chassidus. Chabad Chassidus is chochmah, binah, and daas; inner avodah, intellect and understanding—that is Chabad Chassidus. But what can you do? The times now demand mesirus nefesh because of the situation in Russia. There are decrees; there are Communists. So the Rebbe speaks about mesirus nefesh. Reb Itche der Masmid said, “No, that is Chassidus. Chassidus is mesirus nefesh, and Chassidus is yechidah. The whole point of Chassidus is mesirus nefesh. That is the very essence of Chassidus.” And so the debate went on. After some time, they asked the Frierdiker Rebbe to mediate: What does the Rebbe say? The Frierdiker Rebbe recounts in his notes the central point of what he said. He told the story of Rabbi Avraham the Malach, who, when the Alter Rebbe was leaving Mezritch, said to him—the well-known expression—

28:32 Speaker 1 “You have to whip the horses,” so that they know they are horses, or so that they stop being horses. The Frierdiker Rebbe explains this at length. He explains that Chassidus encompasses two things. Chassidus demands the avodah of love and working with one’s inner faculties. And Chassidus demands the avodah of mesirus nefesh. He explains at length that this is called “a person and not knowing,” and that the ultimate aim of Chassidus is for a person to rise beyond knowing. There must be avodah with the inner faculties, on the level of a person; but after all that, a person must know that the ultimate aim is to rise beyond knowing, which is the idea of mesirus nefesh. And bringing together the person and the state beyond knowing—that is the whole point of Chabad Chassidus. The Frierdiker Rebbe reconciled the two approaches there.