Igeres Hakodesh, Letter 11, "Lehaskilcha Binah" - Part 6

00:00 We’re up to chapter 11 of Igeres Hakodesh, near the end, in the last section of the chapter, beginning “And if.” Before we continue, the Alter Rebbe says something remarkable here. The Alter Rebbe says that the reason Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings a person difficulties, G-d forbid, in matters of children, health, and livelihood is—these are the Alter Rebbe’s words—“For the main purpose of man’s creation in this world is to test him with these trials.” The Alter Rebbe is saying here that Hakadosh Boruch Hu tests a person. Why is it that sometimes things don’t come easily—Hashem’s blessings in material matters and the like? The Alter Rebbe says that the main reason Hashem created us here below and brought us into this world is to test us with these trials. Hakadosh Boruch Hu tests us to see what is happening in our hearts. Do we want to receive life from G-dliness, to desire and want to live a true life? Or do we want to receive life from this world—do we want the desires of the body to be our whole life? We explained at length in the previous class that a person’s entire life revolves around this point. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is constantly examining us, testing us. As we explained in the previous class, a “test,” nisayon, is related to the word nes, a banner: Hakadosh Boruch Hu elevates us. He reveals what is within us—that a Jew is connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, not to kelipah and the sitra achra, which seek only to receive for themselves, as the holy Arizal said, as discussed earlier. Now that we’ve reached this point, there is something very important that the Rebbe discusses

02:23 in one of the sichos. In connection with accepting suffering—accepting suffering with joy—we find something interesting: the Alter Rebbe discusses it in four places in Tanya, and in each place there is a difference. Broadly speaking, there are three approaches to accepting suffering with joy. When we look in Tanya for where it explains the joy a person should have in relation to this world—accepting everything with joy, knowing that this too is for the good—we first find it in chapter 26 of Likkutei Amarim. The second time is at the end of Igeres Hateshuvah, in chapters 11 and 12. The third is here, in section 11 of Igeres Hakodesh, and the fourth is in section 22 of Igeres Hakodesh. Now, when we look at the details, at what it actually says, we find that, broadly speaking, there are three different explanations. In chapter 26 of Likkutei Amarim, the Alter Rebbe discusses advice for freeing oneself from worries about material matters—children, health, and livelihood. He is addressing the same problem: a person has difficulties with children, health, and livelihood. What can he do to free himself from worries about material matters? The Alter Rebbe says that the advice is to accept them with joy, as our Sages teach. And how does the Alter Rebbe explain why one should accept them with joy and not be troubled by worldly concerns? He explains that everything that comes to us, every influence, comes from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Revealed kindness comes from a lower level, from the name Havayah, while those things in which we cannot see the kindness openly here below come from a higher level, from the name Yud-Hei: “Fortunate is the man whom You discipline, Yud-Hei.” Hidden kindness

04:48 comes from a higher level, and because it is higher, it is not revealed here below; we cannot see it openly. We learned that here earlier as well, but that is the point: to accept suffering with joy by contemplating that there is hidden good within it, good that is concealed. Then a person will not be troubled by worldly concerns. That is the point of chapter 26 of Likkutei Amarim. In chapters 11 and 12 of Igeres Hateshuvah, the Alter Rebbe discusses it in a different context. Why should a person accept suffering with joy? The Alter Rebbe says that it is exceedingly good for the soul of the sinner: through it, Hakadosh Boruch Hu cleanses and refines him and saves him from the judgment of Gehinnom. The mild suffering a person experiences here below saves him from severe suffering Above. The Alter Rebbe explains at length with an analogy of the sun: when the sun moves a little as seen from here below, its movement above is thousands of kilometers. So a little suffering here below can take the place of immeasurably greater suffering that the soul might endure in the World to Come. When a person knows that this is exceedingly good for him, he accepts suffering with love. He knows that through it Hakadosh Boruch Hu atones for him, forgives him, and pardons all his sins. Therefore, he should accept everything: “Those who are insulted but do not insult, who hear themselves shamed but do not respond.” Whatever humiliation there may be, a person must remember that “Whoever overlooks offenses against himself, all his transgressions are overlooked”—all his transgressions are forgiven. So that is a different avodah. Here in Igeres Hakodesh, the Alter Rebbe says something

06:47 third. Here in Igeres Hakodesh, the Alter Rebbe says that suffering is a test: Hakadosh Boruch Hu tests a person, and the main purpose of man’s creation in this world is to be tested with these trials. This is an entirely different avodah. It is not the avodah of chapter 26 of Likkutei Amarim, nor is it the avodah of Igeres Hateshuvah. It is a different avodah. The Alter Rebbe says that a person was created in this world to connect with and work toward a true awareness of the oneness of Havayah. Hakadosh Boruch Hu constantly places us in situations of trial to awaken that point within us. Is Hakadosh Boruch Hu truly One for me? Do I live with a true awareness of the oneness of Havayah, or do I not? A person must constantly want to live a true life, and then [unclear], as we learned and discussed. We mentioned a fourth place, section 22 of Igeres Hakodesh. There, the Alter Rebbe again discusses accepting suffering in connection with teshuvah. It is more similar to Igeres Hateshuvah. There the Alter Rebbe explains why there is suffering and why we must accept it with joy. He gives the example of a king who is also a father and has an only son: the king himself washes his only son. Why? Because he loves him. It hurts the son and he cries out, but he is foolish, because he fails to notice the great love being shown. Hakadosh Boruch Hu washes us through suffering, washing away the filth and removing it. This is accepting suffering with love, as one does from a father. When a wise and righteous father corrects his son, the son will not run away from him. On the contrary, he will accept it with love, because he knows it is for his good. So that is similar to Igeres

08:47 The answer is that this is a point about atonement for sins. In fact, the Tanya gives three kinds of explanations for accepting suffering. What’s the reasoning? Why does Likkutei Amarim say one thing, here it says another, and Igeres Hateshuvah says a third? How do we explain that? It seems the difference is what each passage is discussing. Likkutei Amarim is the Book of the Beinoni; it isn’t a book about teshuvah. Igeres Hateshuvah is about teshuvah. In Likkutei Amarim, the Alter Rebbe discusses serving Hashem. How does accepting suffering enter into it? That isn’t what the Alter Rebbe sets out to explain there. He sets out to explain how a beinoni serves Hashem with joy, how to be a beinoni. A beinoni serves Hashem in thought, speech, and action: “with your mouth and with your heart, to do it.” To succeed in the battle with the yetzer, you have to be joyful. So how do I put aside my worries? That’s the question. I have worries, material worries, which weigh a person down and make it hard to be joyful. Then he can fall into the hands of the yetzer. So when speaking about becoming a beinoni, the Alter Rebbe says that the contemplation must be: “It is good for me to be afflicted.” The beinoni has to work on himself and contemplate that even in things that don’t seem good, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present—and that a higher level of G-dliness is present there. I don’t feel it or see it, but that’s the truth. When the beinoni works on himself to look at these matters and see the hidden kindness within his trials, they won’t cause him worry. In other words, the aim of Likkutei Amarim, chapter 26, isn’t—the Alter Rebbe isn’t speaking there about

10:53 how to relate to material things. That isn’t the point there. The Alter Rebbe’s point is to help us overcome worry, to take the worry out of the things that trouble us. For that, we need to contemplate that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is here, and then there’s no need to worry. That’s the point of chapter 26 of Likkutei Amarim. But the chapter in Igeres Hateshuvah is about teshuvah. That’s what the Alter Rebbe wants to explain there. He’s speaking to a baal teshuvah. Look, the Alter Rebbe explains that part of a baal teshuvah’s service must be teshuvah with joy. He then explains that joy is part of teshuvah, because all his days are spent in teshuvah ila’ah, which is accompanied by great joy. Great joy also includes accepting suffering joyfully. So when the subject is teshuvah, accepting suffering with joy comes from contemplating that suffering is part of atonement. That’s why he discusses it there. Similarly, in section 22 of Igeres Hakodesh, the Alter Rebbe also discusses teshuvah. That is the content of the letter: the Alter Rebbe tells the chassidim that they need to know that suffering is connected to the service of teshuvah. That’s why he explains the matter of “washing away the filth and removing it.” In that letter, he says that instead of going to the Rebbe, chassidim shouldn’t go to the Rebbe to ask for help with material matters, because they should know that it is atonement for sins and accept it with love. As is well known, regarding Igeres Hakodesh, section 22, Reb Leibel Groner related something the Rebbe once said to him about this letter. Why do chassidim come to ask? The Alter Rebbe says here in Tanya that they should accept it with love and not come to ask for blessings. Reb Leibel Groner said that he had the nerve to tell the Rebbe that even in the Alter Rebbe’s time, the chassidim continued to ask for blessings, even after the Alter Rebbe

12:47 wrote that letter, and the Rebbe accepted what he said. There’s a whole story. Reb Beila[?], a”h, passed away around this time. In any event, that’s one matter. But here it’s something entirely different. Here the Alter Rebbe isn’t discussing the service of the beinoni, and he isn’t discussing teshuvah. He’s discussing a Jew’s outlook: how one should view and relate to material things in general. That’s the purpose of this letter. How should a Jew relate to material things? “To give you understanding, for this is not the way.” That’s the foundation of Igeres Hakodesh 11. How should a chossid relate to all material matters, both when he has material comforts and when he doesn’t? That’s the foundation here. Even when he has them, he shouldn’t desire them or be absorbed in material things and physical pleasures, in a life centered on the body. And when he doesn’t have them, he shouldn’t be distressed. So here the Alter Rebbe approaches it from an entirely different angle. Here, one’s task is to know that all of life is a test, that throughout life Hakadosh Boruch Hu tests us. A person needs to know and contemplate that when Hakadosh Boruch Hu makes things in my life difficult to attain—whether material or spiritual things, whatever they may be—it is the test through which He wants to see how connected we are to Him. That’s the point of Igeres Hakodesh 11. Suffering and the like are a test of how much a person believes, how connected he is, and how strongly the love of Hashem shines within him. Does he want to draw his life from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and is that what matters most to him in life? Or does he want what feels good to him, whatever it may be, to live what the Alter Rebbe calls “the life of the nations”? So that’s

14:41 a point the Rebbe makes in Likkutei Sichos, volume 1. I don’t remember right now where it appears, but there the Rebbe explains these three approaches in Tanya. And particularly in this chapter, the Alter Rebbe isn’t speaking about a specific kind of person. It’s a general letter to all the chassidim, about what a chossid’s outlook should be. We need to know that our whole lives revolve around this point: What is my focus? As we discussed in the previous class, what is at the center for me? Is Hakadosh Boruch Hu at the center, so that He is what matters most, and I’m not shaken by everything else and accept it all with joy? Or are my ego and desires at the center, so that I complain and fall into sadness, and so on? All right, that concludes what we discussed earlier. Let’s continue with the final lines of the chapter. Yes, if anyone wants to ask a question here... Let’s continue with the last part on page 117. The Alter Rebbe says: “And he should believe that, in truth, he lives through Him.” The Alter Rebbe says that a person has to work on himself to believe. What should his service of Hashem consist of? He should work to believe that he truly lives through Him—that in actual fact, his life comes from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and that all his needs and all his affairs, down to their smallest details, truly flow from Hashem and not from the sitra achra. A person must believe at all times that every detail of his life and everything he has—even in the material realm—comes only from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, not from the sitra achra. And since it comes from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, it is all good. As we said earlier, since it comes from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and it is the nature of the Good to do good—Hakadosh Boruch Hu is good in essence. He is

16:42 Life and goodness and beauty. And since this abundance comes from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, everything is truly good. So he is always in the present, always, always joyful, and always trusts in Hakadosh Boruch Hu. For what he receives comes directly from Hakadosh Boruch Hu and not from anything else, as it says, “A man’s steps are established by Hashem.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the One who plans a person’s steps. The verse says—in Tehillim, chapter 37, I think—“A man’s steps are established by Hashem.” Dovid Hamelech is saying that every step, every detail, every movement a person makes comes from Hashem. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the One who prepares and plans it. So if Hakadosh Boruch Hu plans it, if He directs my every movement, then surely Hakadosh Boruch Hu is goodness itself, and the nature of goodness is to do good. So I’m certain that all of it, all of it, is good. Whether I see it or not, I have no worries, no distress. I know that it is all good in essence. So, “A man’s steps are established by Hashem,” and “There is not a word,” and so on. “There is not a word” is from another verse. You see, the Alter Rebbe connects two verses here. “There is not a word” is a verse in chapter 139, apparently. It says there, “Your eyes saw me before I was formed, and in Your book they were all written.” [unclear] I don’t remember all the words there. It’s a verse in Tehillim saying that Hakadosh Boruch Hu created me and formed me, and He watches over me. Hakadosh Boruch Hu made my entire reality. So since Hakadosh Boruch Hu made my entire reality, and “there is not a word,” I have nothing... A person has nothing to say,

18:39 nothing to add, nothing to change. He knows that everything, everything, comes from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Hakadosh Boruch Hu watches over and cares for every single detail. That’s the point. The Alter Rebbe brings several verses that show hashgachah pratis, Divine providence, and show that Hakadosh Boruch Hu provides for every detail. So a person does not grieve or do anything about it. He has complete trust that everything is truly good, and therefore everything is good in practice. All these things are good in practice, because all of it is G-dliness. It’s just that we cannot grasp it. Sometimes we don’t see it openly, because it is hidden good, as we said earlier. Now, there is a teaching of the Rebbe here. The Rebbe adds something about what the Alter Rebbe says: “A man’s steps are established by Hashem.” Why does the Alter Rebbe bring this particular verse? He could have brought many other verses showing that Hakadosh Boruch Hu watches over a person, cares for him, and provides for him. There are many verses, even before Tehillim. In davening, too, we say many verses. Why did the Alter Rebbe choose this one? The Rebbe says that the Gemara discusses this verse. The Gemara teaches: “A person does not bruise his finger below unless it is proclaimed above.” The Gemara is saying that when a person gets a little knock on his hand—bruises his finger, has a little pain in his finger—even the slightest pain a person experiences comes because it was proclaimed Above that he should now experience that pain, for whatever reason he needed to. And where is this learned from? “A man’s steps are established by Hashem.” The Gemara learns it from that verse. So—

20:35 So the Alter Rebbe brings this particular verse because here in the chapter he is speaking about suffering, about a person suffering in material matters. That is why he brings this verse specifically: from it, the Gemara learns that even the slightest suffering, like bruising a finger, comes entirely from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That’s why the Alter Rebbe brings it right here. The Rebbe says in this explanation, in Lessons in Tanya, that this shows how precise every word in Tanya is. Even the Alter Rebbe’s choice of a particular verse is not just a turn of phrase. This verse, specifically, relates to our subject. All right, let’s finish the last lines of the chapter. The Alter Rebbe says: “And with this faith, in truth”—when a person believes... This is the conclusion the Alter Rebbe is now giving us. He is saying something very novel here. He says, “And with this faith, in truth.” When a person truly believes that everything is good because everything comes from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and therefore everything is good, everything is kindness—this faith “makes everything good openly as well.” It causes the good to be revealed openly too. “Makes everything good openly as well”—it makes things good for the person even in a revealed way. Why? What is the connection? Why doesn’t it remain hidden good? So the Alter Rebbe explains: “For with this faith, by believing that the apparent evil has all its vitality from the supernal good.” When a person works on himself to internalize this faith, believing that what appears openly to be evil is only an appearance, but in truth that evil comes from good, and its vitality comes from the supernal good—which is the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, beyond our grasp.

22:37 And it is the Eden that is higher than the World to Come. Through this faith, through a Jew’s belief that in essence everything is the good of the higher Eden, “the apparent evil is truly absorbed and elevated into the hidden supernal good.” This causes the evil down here, which appears to be evil, to be absorbed into the hidden good. Then that hidden good is revealed down here, and it becomes openly good down here as well. What the Alter Rebbe says here is very interesting, and we need to understand it. What does it mean? Why does my believing that this is good cause the evil to turn into openly revealed good as well? The whole foundation the Alter Rebbe explained in this chapter is that the good is so lofty that down here we cannot perceive it. We spoke about this in earlier classes. There can be such a great light that our eyes cannot enjoy it. Sometimes a revelation is so great that down here it comes in a way that feels like a breaking, because the revelation is so great. So why do we say that if I believe in it, that itself turns the evil into good, openly as well? What is the explanation? What is he saying? That because a person believes the apparent evil derives its vitality from the supernal good, the apparent evil is thereby absorbed and elevated into the supernal good. And then what happens? I’m missing an explanation here. Why does it suddenly become openly good down here? There are various explanations that chassidim offer, but there is the explanation the Rebbe gives, and that is the true explanation. Some chassidim want to explain that it doesn’t mean the good actually becomes revealed; it means this happens within the person. In other words, the person is happy, he feels good because he knows it is good and everything is good, so the evil does not unsettle him. But the Rebbe says no—the meaning is that it becomes good

24:32 in a way that is visibly and openly good as well. So the Rebbe understands that the last words here in chapter 11 are the foundation of the well-known saying, “Think good and it will be good.” It is the foundation of the well-known story with the Tzemach Tzedek, and one of the Rebbe’s fundamental teachings, one of the foundations of serving Hashem. There are many letters about this. In one letter to a Jew on this subject, the Rebbe writes that it works measure for measure. The Rebbe says: Faith is something hidden within a person. Every Jew believes in Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But when I bring that faith into everyday life—when I live with it and am happy—something hidden is brought into the open. In the same way, this applies to hidden good and revealed good. Hidden good is very lofty, and it remains hidden. But when I bring G-dliness into the open within myself—when I live with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, am happy, feel it, and have complete trust in G-dliness—then, measure for measure, this also affects matters Above whose goodness is apparent only Above, causing it to be revealed down here too. It then becomes good in a way that is visibly and openly good. And there is a sicha in volume 36. With Hashem’s help, we’ll explain this in more detail in the next class, because it is a very, very important foundation in our avodah: how a chossid should serve Hashem. “Think good and it will be good”—and this brings about goodness, real goodness, in actual practice. May Hakadosh Boruch Hu help us merit to see it with our own eyes.