Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 21 - Part 3

00:00 Yes, we’re in the middle of chapter 21, six lines from the bottom. The Alter Rebbe is explaining the subject of Hashem’s oneness, the depth of that oneness, which is what he adds in chapters 20 and 21. In chapter 20, he explained the analogy of speech and the soul: how speech relates to its source in the soul, and all the more so to thought, and all the more so to the essence of the soul itself, where speech has no discernible existence at all. From this, he explains how the worlds brought into being through speech are also nullified before Hashem. But in chapter 21 he adds that there is a difference between the analogy and what it represents. In the analogy, speech is nullified while it is within the soul. Outside the soul, though, it becomes an entity: speech separates from the person, leaves his mouth, and goes outward. There it really is separate and has an existence of its own. Its nullification applies only while it is within the soul. With Hashem, by contrast—what did I say? With Hakadosh Boruch Hu, we say that speech is always nullified. Even after Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so to speak, reaches outward, as though He enclothes and contracts Himself to create His world, and says, “Let there be a firmament,” and a physical firmament comes into being, the nullification remains. It is as though the speech had never separated from Him, because in truth it never did. With Hakadosh Boruch Hu, there is nothing outside Him, no place empty of Him. So wherever His speech is found, His very essence is there too. Therefore, this nullification

02:00 —the created being’s utter insignificance, its being as nothing and naught—remains even after the speech has left His mouth. Now, the question arises: why is it called speech? The whole nature of speech is that it separates from the speaker. So why call it speech? Why not call it thought? The Alter Rebbe explained this. We discussed in the previous class that it has the advantage of speech without the disadvantage of speech. The advantage of speech is revelation. Thought remains concealed; speech is revealed. That revelation is present in creation: things emerge, as it were, from Hakadosh Boruch Hu rather than remaining within Him; they come forth and become a revealed reality. But there is also a disadvantage when something is revealed. We discussed this in the previous class: thought has an advantage and a disadvantage, and speech has an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage of thought is that only he knows about it—ah, I’ve confused the disadvantage and the advantage, sorry. The advantage of thought is that it remains attached to him; its disadvantage is that it is concealed. The advantage of speech is that it is directed to someone else, that it is revealed to someone else; its disadvantage is that it separates from him. With Hakadosh Boruch Hu, there is the advantage without the disadvantage: it is revealed to another, yet it remains attached to Him. That is what we discussed in the previous class. So this is what the Alter Rebbe says: Hashem’s word, which brings the world into being, is called speech because of its revelation. In the same way, the Torah is called speech—as in “the Ten Commandments,” “And He spoke to,” and “He spoke to you.” The whole concept of speech, both in Torah and mitzvos and in the creation of worlds, concerns things being revealed from Hakadosh Boruch Hu for the sake of created beings. The Alter Rebbe continues. Now he goes on to explain how speech is nullified in relation to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: “For His speech and thought, so to speak, are united with Him in an absolute unity.” What is the point here? Until now,

03:58 he was speaking about speech. Now the Alter Rebbe brings thought into it as well. He is discussing the nullification of speech and its unity with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Until now we spoke only about speech—about the difference between a person’s soul and Hakadosh Boruch Hu. With a person, speech separates from the soul; with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, speech remains united with Him. Here the Alter Rebbe adds thought too. Speech and thought, with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, “are united with Him in an absolute unity. By way of analogy, this is like a person’s speech and thought while they are still within the potential of his wisdom and intellect.” That is, before a person speaks, and even before he thinks, when there is only a desire in his soul. We discussed this at the end of chapter 8: “while they are still within the potential of his wisdom and intellect, or within the desire and longing in his heart, before it has risen from the heart to the mind to be contemplated in the form of letters.” Before he clothed it in letters, there was only a longing in his heart or knowledge in his mind. As we discussed when we studied the end of chapter 8, a person has concepts in his soul that he knows or feels, but is not thinking about. We understood that this does not mean there are no letters there, but that there is no awareness of letters. There is only the sense of a feeling, something within the soul. The letters are not felt; it is as though they do not exist at all. When a person decides to contemplate it, he brings letters into being, and then the letters become a distinct reality. Before that, they are not. So he is saying that even after Hakadosh Boruch Hu thinks and even after He speaks, His speech and thought remain nullified as though they were still at the level they were before He spoke. At that point, the letters of thought and speech were contained within a longing, a desire in the heart. They existed in potential, not in actuality, and were united there in absolute unity

05:59 with their source. They were entirely one with it. Just as wisdom and intellect in the mind, or longing and desire in the heart, are united with a person’s own faculties, so, by way of analogy, the speech and thought of Hakadosh Boruch Hu are united in absolute unity with His essence. Even after the speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu has gone forth—even after He has spoken and thought, and worlds have come into being as a result—the attachment and unity remain as they were before, as though they had never gone forth from Him. “Even after His speech went forth to create worlds, it is united with Him, blessed be He, just as it was before the creation of the worlds.” The unity is of the very same kind as it was before creation. So what is being explained here? And why does the Alter Rebbe add thought? All along we have been talking about speech. The discussion centered on speech, but here the Alter Rebbe emphasizes thought as well. He brings thought and speech together and explains the same thing about both: although there is a going forth here, a revelation—even though thought does not go forth, since thought is for oneself—he nevertheless includes it here with speech. Although there is a going forth, it remains united with Him, like a person’s speech and thought before he speaks or thinks. With Hakadosh Boruch Hu, even after He speaks and thinks, it remains as it was before. The unity remains as it was before. Just as before creation the unity was absolute—He alone existed, the infinite light filled all space, and there was no room for worlds—so it remains exactly the same now, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu has undergone no change whatsoever. So what new point does the Alter Rebbe want to make here?

07:37 And why does he add the matter of thought? The explanation is as follows. The point is that there are worlds. In Chassidus we speak about worlds that come from speech and worlds that come from thought. We discussed this in earlier classes too. There is alma d’iskasya, the concealed world, and alma d’isgalya, the revealed world. Alma d’isgalya refers to worlds that have a sense of independent existence. In this world, that sense of existence is openly apparent. Alma d’iskasya refers to worlds that are in a state of bittul; their existence is in a state of bittul. In Torah Or—look at Parshas Beshalach—there is a maamar there in which the Rebbe discusses this at length. The idea is that there are two kinds of souls: souls from the level of—uh, what does the Rebbe call it there?—souls from alma d’isgalya, dry land, and souls from the level of “fish of the sea,” from alma d’iskasya. There he speaks about the spies, who were souls of kohanim and therefore did not want to go down to the Land of Israel. They wanted to remain on the level of alma d’iskasya and did not want to descend to alma d’isgalya. He speaks there about this same point, these two aspects. In any case, we know that the Rebbe writes that there are two kinds of worlds, and this is the difference between a world that comes from speech and a world that comes from thought. Hashem’s thought, too, brings something into being. This is what we discussed about the verse, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts.” When a person thinks, nothing comes into being from it, because it is only an idea, only a thought, only a theory. With Hashem, the moment He thinks of something, it comes into being. As soon as it arose in thought, it was done. As soon as there is thought, the world already exists. But what kind of world is it? A world of bittul, a world of created beings that are in a state of bittul, like fish that are completely submerged and in a state of bittul. By contrast, speech brings about a world with a sense of independent existence, a created being of alma

09:29 d’isgalya. So it turns out that thought, too, contains a world. Thought is therefore not quite as utterly nullified as things were before—before thought. There is a world here too. True, this world is on a much higher level. It is like with a person: we say that the letters of thought are much more subtle, much more refined, than the letters of speech, to the point that thought is united with the soul, with all the advantages that entails. But ultimately thought is not the soul; it is letters. Thought is a garment, and because it is a garment, it has this whole aspect of letters. So what if the letters are subtle? They are still letters. The emotions, the intellect, the soul itself—not its garments—are the essence. They have no relation to another. There is no aspect of a garment there, no independent existence at all, not even in a subtle form. So when the Alter Rebbe wants to explain the unity, to explain that the worlds are now truly and completely united with the infinite light of G-d just as they were before Creation, he says “even before thought.” From this perspective, thought too is something other than the essence. Granted, it is alma d’iskasya, but even alma d’iskasya is an alma, a world. It too is some kind of subtle existence. There is something there. And so the novel point is that this unity is as it was before—not only before speech, but even before thought, as it is within Hashem’s essence, above letters, even above the letters of alma d’iskasya. This is the Alter Rebbe’s novel point: even afterward, at the opposite extreme, after Hashem descended not only to the level of concealed thought but even to revelation through speech, which brings about a world with a sense of independent existence, a world that appears separate—even so, He truly remains united. Hashem remains one and unique as He was above, not only above speech

11:27 but even above thought. That unity applies to both, ultimately. Now, if you look inside the Tanya, there is a very interesting point made by the Rebbe, or by the Rebbe’s father. I don’t remember right now; I think it is the Rebbe. He notes the Alter Rebbe’s wording... Look above, on page 27. It says: “And precisely so, by way of analogy, the speech and thought of Hakadosh Boruch Hu are united in perfect unity with His essence and being, blessed be He, even after His blessed speech came into effect in the creations of the worlds, just as it was united with Him before the creation of the worlds.” There is something interesting here. The close readings of the Tanya by Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, the Rebbe’s father, teach us that we need to pay attention to the very letters of the Tanya, just as we do with Chumash. So if you look inside, you’ll see in the fourth line that the Alter Rebbe’s wording is “in the creations”—beri’os, in the plural—“of the worlds.” That is unusual wording. “The creations of the worlds”—we don’t normally say that. Usually it would be “the creation of the worlds,” beri’as ha’olamos. But the Alter Rebbe writes beri’os ha’olamos, in the plural. Then, one line later, he says, “just as it was united with Him before the creation of the worlds”—beri’as, in the singular. Why? Why does he begin in the plural and end in the singular? Rabbi Levi Yitzchak says that the difference between “the creations of the worlds” and “the creation of the worlds” is, in general, also the difference between coming into being through speech and coming into being through thought. This is what we say in Pirkei Avos: “The world was created with ten utterances,” and “Could it not have been created with one utterance?” I think you studied the maamarim of Kislev. Yes, you studied the maamarim of Kislev. There the Rebbe Rashab and the Frierdiker Rebbe discuss the ten utterances and the one utterance. The difference between the ten utterances and the one utterance is that the one utterance can create. It is not merely that it could have, hypothetically; that is actually how it is.

13:34 There is a level of one utterance. And in the language of the Gemara in tractate Rosh Hashanah, “Bereishis, too, is an utterance.” The Gemara says that “Bereishis” is considered an utterance. After all, the word “And He said” appears nine times, not ten. In Chumash, in Parshas Bereishis, “And He said” appears only nine times through the sixth day. So the Gemara asks: Where is the missing utterance? The Gemara answers that Bereishis is also an utterance. What does “Bereishis” say? It does not say “And He said.” What does it say? “G-d created the heavens and the earth.” What does Rashi say? “‘The heavens’ includes everything that comes from them, and ‘the earth’ includes everything that comes from it.” In other words, the utterance of Bereishis contains the entire creation of the worlds; everything is there. Hashem said Bereishis, and the whole world was created—the heavens and the earth and all their hosts. Everything was created on the first day through the utterance of Bereishis. But it was an all-encompassing utterance. So through that all-encompassing utterance, all the worlds came into being in an all-encompassing way. Everything was, as it were, one thing—some kind of hidden or concealed state. I don’t know how to put it: something not yet defined. Everything is there—the inanimate, the plant life, the animals—all within one existence. Then come the nine utterances: first the general, then the details. Hashem specified, “Let there be light,” “Let there be a firmament,” “Let there be earth,” and so on—all the details. It turns out that the creation of the worlds also followed an order: first everything came into being through one utterance, and through that one utterance it all came into being as a single existence. Accordingly, it was also in a state of bittul. This is not just a matter of general versus particular. It means that in the general state, G-dliness is felt more strongly, and that is why it is all-encompassing. Then comes the stage of details, which brings division and the coming into being of the individual things. So this is why the Alter Rebbe is precise in writing “in the creations of the worlds,” in the plural. He means the utterances that produced the divisions: the ten utterances that divided Creation into its many creations.

15:40 In the plural, meaning creation in a way that involves division, and therefore in a way that involves separate existence. So the Alter Rebbe says that even after speech went forth in the creation of the worlds—that is, Hakadosh Boruch Hu clothed and contracted Himself to create worlds in a way that involves division, “creations” in the plural—He remains united in thought as He was before creation, higher even than the level of “creation” in the singular, higher even than creation through one utterance. Because one utterance involves bittul, but in practice there is already some degree of non-bittul there too. It is also an existence, though in a subtler way. What we are learning here now, the true unity of Havayah, is far beyond even the bringing into being through “Bereishis,” the one utterance, which, as we said earlier, is even higher than the level of thought. The Alter Rebbe continues: “And there is no change at all before Him, blessed be He.” He says: Don’t look at it superficially—there is no change at all before Him, blessed be He. For Hakadosh Boruch Hu, creation brings about no change. The bittul of this world after creation is exactly as it was before creation. This is what we said earlier: “I, Havayah, have not changed.” But now comes the other side. So far, we have been speaking from His perspective, so to speak—from the higher perspective, from the perspective of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. We have been speaking about the truth from the perspective of the unity of Havayah, from the perspective of the Ein Sof, and how He is therefore present everywhere. From His point of view, from the perspective of G-dliness, He is present everywhere. So everything is nullified as though no separate existence had ever come into being here; it remains in a state of complete unity. That is all from His perspective. But there is another side: the nature of the created beings. “But to the created beings, who receive their life from the aspect of His speech.” Where is there a change? In relation to the created being, in relation to creation.

17:56 It is a change in relation to the created being. For the created being, certainly, in its own experience, how it appears now as compared with how it was before feels different. Relatively speaking, this already applies in Atzilus and Beriah, and in this world, as it did already in Atzilus and Beriah. No, let me say that again. It begins with the first utterance, “Bereishis,” where some sense of existence already begins. That is, from the perspective of the created being’s experience, even the utterance “Bereishis” no longer has the complete bittul that existed before the utterance. With “Bereishis,” some sense of existence already begins to be felt. All the more so as it becomes further clothed and physical bodies are created: there is the division into the ten utterances through which the world was created, to give them life. Here Hakadosh Boruch Hu clothes Himself to give life to the created being in such a way that, at least in its own experience, it feels itself to be an existence. How can that be? If the truth is that there is nothing besides Him, and the truth is that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is here just as He was before, and the truth is “I fill the heavens and the earth,” and so on—there is nothing apart from Him—how does the created being feel otherwise? How can it not feel this bittul? The rabbi explains—sorry, the Alter Rebbe explains: through a chain of cause and effect and a descent through levels. This is the concept of seder hishtalshelus. Hakadosh Boruch Hu made it so that, in relation to the created being, in the created being’s experience, there would be an order of hishtalshelus. Hishtalshelus works through cause and effect, from higher to lower: with each descent the light becomes more concealed, and consequently existence becomes more apparent. There is a descent through levels by means of many different tzimtzumim. The levels descend from one to the next through many tzimtzumim, differing both in number and in kind. There are very many tzimtzumim in number. The word “different” adds that they also

20:04 differ in kind. In other words, there are different types of tzimtzum. There are many tzimtzumim: a multitude of worlds, a multitude of tzimtzumim. Every tzimtzum is another world and another stage in hishtalshelus. But there are also different kinds of tzimtzum. For example, when we study the maamarim, we have presumably learned the difference between a tzimtzum and a parsa. They are not the same thing; a tzimtzum and a parsa are two different types of contraction. Take, for example, a teacher studying with a student. One possibility is that the teacher simplifies the idea: instead of explaining its deeper meaning, he gives a simple explanation, and then an even simpler one. Those are all tzimtzumim. But sometimes the teacher does more than simplify the idea: he gives an analogy. An analogy is not the idea itself; it is something foreign to it. That is an entirely different type. Similarly, with regard to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and how His light descends through seder hishtalshelus, there are levels called tzimtzumim and levels called parsos. Within tzimtzum itself, there is tzimtzum by diminution, tzimtzum by withdrawal, the tzimtzum of hairs, and the tzimtzum of the beard. These are various forms and concepts studied in Chassidus and Kabbalah. What is the point of the many tzimtzumim? It is not only a matter of quantity. This is why the Alter Rebbe is precise in his wording here: “many and varied tzimtzumim, until the created beings can receive their life and existence from Him without being nullified out of existence.” Why does Hakadosh Boruch Hu do all this? So that the created beings can receive life from Him without feeling that bittul, so that they feel themselves to be an existence. This brings us to the very point we are learning in the Tanya of these days in Chitas as well. Here we are learning chapter 21, but in Chitas, right now, we are at chapter 7 of Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah. Yes, we are learning this very

21:52 thing now. Tomorrow, with Hashem’s help, the discussion of tzimtzum begins—all the extended discussion the Alter Rebbe gives on tzimtzum. That is tomorrow’s Tanya. Yes, we have just learned about yichuda ila’ah and yichuda tata’ah. The Alter Rebbe explains that the higher unity means that everything is in a state of complete bittul—yichuda ila’ah—as he explains at length. But because Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s will, as stated here in Tanya, is that His kingship be revealed... Look, there is something the Alter Rebbe does not discuss at the beginning of Tanya, but does discuss here in Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah. The Alter Rebbe uses the expression “that His kingship be revealed.” At first glance, this is the same idea. The revelation of kingship is similar to the concept of a dwelling place in the lower realms. But one could say they are not entirely the same; there is a difference, and this whole question needs to be examined. What does it mean? Is the reason of “the revelation of kingship” stated in Tanya the same as the reason of “a dwelling place in the lower realms” stated in the following chapter, or are these two reasons? Are they the same reason? I will leave that for those who delve deeply into this subject. But the general point is that Hakadosh Boruch Hu brought about the reality of seder hishtalshelus in relation to the created being because He willed it. And look, it is real. It is not merely imaginary. This is the wonder of Hakadosh Boruch Hu: “In the place of His greatness, there you find His humility.” The whole wonder is that Hakadosh Boruch Hu truly brought about this entire hishtalshelus so that there could be a created being, so that there could be avodah. Alongside that truth is the other truth: in that very place, He is present in the full force of His essence, and everything is utterly nullified. That is the heart of this whole matter. The reality of the lower perspective is also true, and at the same time there is the reality of the higher perspective, where it is felt that “everything before Him is considered as nothing” is

23:34 This is explained in Chassidus, in all the maamarim. And what is the purpose? So that there can be the service of Torah and mitzvos. Accordingly, when Moshiach comes, the two will be joined together. All the work we do, all our avodah, is a preparation for the revelation of Moshiach. When Moshiach comes, there will be a revelation from Above down here, in this physical world, as is brought in all the sichos and maamarim in which the Rebbe explains the Geulah through Moshiach. The purpose, the intention, and our work must be to reveal Hashem’s presence in the world—to reveal in the world what comes from Above. That is the Geulah through Moshiach: “And all flesh will see together that the mouth of Hashem has spoken.” Our work now is to learn about this, contemplate it, and know that it is the truth. Then we will also merit, as the Rebbe wanted, to experience the feeling of Moshiach already now. That is what the Rebbe wanted from us. The Rebbe wanted us not merely to talk, not merely to say words, but truly to live the life of the days of Moshiach. And living the life of the days of Moshiach means living a life of awareness of Hashem’s oneness. That is the defining feature of the days of Moshiach: Hashem’s oneness will be revealed in the world, and it will become clear that there is nothing besides Him. That will be our life, and we will live by it. As the Rebbe also explains in several sichos on the weekly parsha, regarding the whole matter of the spies: the Rebbe explains at length in a sicha the point of “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of Hashem as the waters cover the sea.” The point, in practice, is that this must happen specifically in the world. Within the world’s own reality, Hashem’s oneness will be revealed. The Rebbe once said at a farbrengen that it says, “one man.” The weekly parsha begins by saying that the spies were “one man, one man for each tribe.” So the Rebbe says that “one man” means drawing down the One—

25:40 drawing down the One. What happened—how did it happen? In practice, the spies made a mistake. They did not succeed in drawing down the One because they could not understand how Hashem’s oneness could be drawn down into the world. They thought that to experience Hashem’s oneness, you had to leave the world and live in the desert. Within the bounds of the world, they thought, it could not happen. [unclear], as the Rebbe brings out in the Tanya. So now we are in an especially opportune time, in these days we are in now—we are at 3 Sivan. It is already a matter of ten days in which each person must act and do everything in his power to bring Moshiach in actuality. As the Rebbe spoke to us in all those sichos about two months ago—well, our path and our task, our avodah, is to live the Geulah. We must learn about the Geulah through Moshiach, to the point that we actually bring about the Geulah in practice, and then we will merit to see the Rebbe with our physical eyes. Of course, it is easier to sleep, but that accomplishes nothing. We must work and exert ourselves and do everything we can, every single one of us, to learn these matters. The main thing is to live, especially, with an awareness of Hashem’s oneness. This is what the Rebbe meant by living with Moshiach: contemplating Hashem’s oneness, davening with this awareness, and living in an atmosphere of Hashem’s oneness. That is called living with Moshiach inwardly. Then we will merit to see it with our physical eyes as well, and the Rebbe will lead us out.