Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 30 - Part 3

00:00 [unclear]. The Rebbe is in the middle of explaining here. You can see that he is explaining that just as even the lowest of the low is required to serve Hashem through an enormous struggle—a struggle that gives him the strength to wage a tremendous war against the yetzer hara, to control himself in matters of turning away from evil, to guard his eyes and his heart—so too, with the same force and in the same way, the beinoni is required to work in the area of doing good. So the Rebbe says that a person needs to weigh and examine himself: In his service of Hashem, in matters of doing good, does he serve Hashem with the same intensity, the same effort, the same toil that is demanded of the lowest of the low? But the Rebbe gives examples here. He says: “In the category of ‘do good.’” What kinds of things in doing good? We have examples of service involving work and toil: “The service of prayer with concentration, to pour out his soul before Him with literally all his strength, to the point of exhausting the soul.” So there is the matter of the service of prayer—not just prayer, but prayer with concentration. And what kind of concentration? To pour out his soul before Him with literally all his strength. To invest all his strength in it. What does “literally” mean? That is, not only... The Rebbe emphasizes “with literally all his strength” because, as is known, Rashi and Tosafos disagree about what the Gemara means when it says, “Whoever answers ‘Amen, yehei shmei rabba’ with all his strength.” The Gemara says that one must say “Amen, yehei shmei rabba” with all one’s strength. But what does “with all his strength” mean? There are two explanations. One explanation is that “with all his strength” means concentration—the full strength of his concentration. In other words, he invests his

02:37 concentration in it. The other explanation is “with literally all his strength.” That is, not only his inner faculties; it also affects his physical strength. This does not mean those who shout “Amen, yehei shmei rabba” at the top of their lungs. Rather, the effort put into “Amen, yehei shmei rabba” should be such that the difference is visible even in his physical strength, not just in his spiritual faculties. That is also what is meant here regarding the service of prayer: a person needs to invest so much strength in prayer, “with literally all his strength.” In other words, with his whole being. He truly puts all the powers of his soul into the service of prayer, “to the point of exhausting the soul.” We have already discussed this. That is the point, the overall idea of the service of prayer: a person needs to invest all his strength in it. “And to wage an enormous war against his body and the animal soul within him, which obstruct concentration.” He needs to fight the body and the animal soul, which interfere with concentration during prayer, and that too requires an enormous war. In other words, there are two kinds of struggle in the service of prayer. One is on the side of the G-dly soul: the struggle to arouse concentration and put all his strength into prayer—that is, to bring more of the G-dly soul into it. The second is to fight the animal soul that interferes with concentration. Those are two separate aspects. “And to crush and pound them like dust before prayer.” Clearly, that refers to the animal soul. Before prayer, one needs to break the animal soul and reduce it to dust, before Shacharis and Maariv every single day. Each day is a new effort: to fight the animal soul, break it, and reduce it to dust. “And also during prayer, to exert himself with toil of the soul and toil of

04:51 the flesh”—and toil... and several chapters. But the Rebbe is speaking here about several aspects of the service of prayer. We know that in Tanya, there is no unnecessary elaboration. Every word in Tanya is precise. So the Rebbe goes into considerable detail here about the toil required in the service of prayer. If we sum it up, what is the Rebbe saying? He is describing several aspects. There is the toil involved in the soul’s yearning. There is the toil of prayer and the soul’s yearning, as a person invests himself in prayer to draw close to G-dliness. That is one. Second, there is the toil and struggle against the animal soul—the yetzer hara—which intrudes and interferes with prayer. And within that toil and struggle against the yetzer hara that interferes with prayer, there are two parts: the struggle before prayer and the struggle during prayer. Altogether, the Rebbe is speaking about these three things. There are three things in what the Rebbe says here. First, the struggle of the service of prayer itself. Second, the struggle against the animal soul, the yetzer hara, which interferes with prayer—and that begins before prayer. Even before prayer, one needs to fight the body and the animal soul. And then there is also a struggle during prayer itself. Those are the three things. So first, let’s explain them a little. What are the three things the Rebbe is discussing here? In general, it is well known that Chassidus teaches that the service of prayer has two broad aspects, alluded to in the Gemara in Tractate Berachos. Everyone has learned this Gemara. It is a well-known Gemara; they still learn it in cheder. The Gemara discusses the source of prayer, and it gives two views. One view says that the prayers were instituted corresponding to the offerings. And the second view

07:09 says that the prayers were instituted corresponding to the daily offerings—that is the wording there. In other words, one view connects prayer with offerings. Prayer is connected with offerings. Or, “The Patriarchs instituted the prayers”: prayer is connected with the Patriarchs. What is the difference? What is the difference in substance between connecting prayer with offerings and connecting it with the Patriarchs? Chassidus explains something interesting: the service of prayer has two purposes, two aspects. There is the service of prayer as it relates to the G-dly soul, and there is the service of prayer as it relates to the animal soul. One aspect of prayer is that the neshamah, the G-dly soul, connects with G-dliness during prayer. The word tefillah implies connection, joining together. The G-dly soul descended into the world; it was created, formed, and breathed into the person, and became clothed in the animal soul. As a result, even the G-dly soul became somewhat distant from G-dliness. During prayer, the G-dly soul reconnects and reunites with its source and root. That is one aspect of the service of prayer: the work of the G-dly soul. Then there is another aspect of prayer: refining the animal soul. The point is that this is a purpose of prayer. If a person only reflects on these matters and his G-dly soul is aroused to love Hashem, but he does not bring about the refinement and purification of the animal soul, he has missed a very important part of the essential purpose of prayer. The goal in the service of prayer is to take the animal soul, engage with it, and explain matters of G-dliness in a way that the animal soul, too, feels the goodness of G-dliness and also prays. He can serve with both his inclinations. These are the two aspects of the service of prayer. The Rebbe explains in the maamarim that each helps the other. That is not directly relevant here in Tanya, but these are the two main aspects alluded to in the Gemara. “The prayers were instituted corresponding to the daily offerings”—that is, corresponding to the offerings. Offerings are connected with the matter of

09:07 The animal soul. Korbanos involve an animal, and this is the refinement of the animal soul. And the prayers were instituted by the Patriarchs. The Patriarchs are connected with the ten sefiros; they represent the soul. As the Tanya says, we received the G-dly soul through the Patriarchs. So that is the second aspect of prayer, involving the G-dly soul. Accordingly, the work of prayer requires both aspects. That is what the Alter Rebbe says here in the Tanya: the effort involved in prayer must be directed toward both. He says there must be an immense struggle, that a person must exert himself tremendously in the work of prayer, in both its aspects. First he brings the idea of coming before Hashem with all one’s strength. That is primarily the G-dly aspect of the work of prayer, the part connected with the G-dly soul. It calls for tremendous effort: putting all the powers of one’s G-dly soul into prayer, drawing on the soul to its fullest, so that the G-dly soul goes beyond its own limits and gives itself over to G-dliness. That is the first aspect he speaks of. Then, when he says to go with the body and the animal soul, that is the other side of the work of prayer: one must bring the animal soul into prayer as well. That is one point. Then there is another: this struggle with the animal soul has two stages. There is the struggle before prayer and the struggle during prayer. “To crush them like dust before prayer,” Shacharis and Maariv each day, and also during prayer, through exertion of soul and exertion of body, as one stands in prayer, in the service of Hashem—the work of prayer. So here he teaches us that there is what happens before prayer, and there is prayer itself. This is actually written in the Gemara. The Mishnah says: “One should stand to pray only in a state of seriousness.” Now, from that we learn that before prayer there must be

11:01 preparation. Since prayer is about connecting and joining oneself to G-dliness, a person needs some preparation to reach that point. You cannot go straight from bed to prayer. You can, but then the prayer does not have an inner effect on the soul. We want prayer to have an inner effect on the soul. As the Alter Rebbe says in the Tanya, the main thing in the work of prayer must be joy: “One should stand to pray only in a state of joy.” For cleaving to G-dliness is joyful. But as long as a person is in a state of coarseness, materiality, and stubbornness, those things conceal and obscure the soul. He cannot be stirred, cannot reach joy, cannot invest his soul in G-dliness, because that coarseness and stubbornness stand in the way. That is why it says that before prayer there must be the work of seriousness—submission and humility—which a person must bring about within himself by arousing a feeling of bitterness. That is what the Alter Rebbe says here: “To crush them like dust before prayer.” Before prayer, there has to be work. But note that he already said in Igeres Hateshuvah that in our generation, in these generations, one should not do this literally right before prayer. In our generation we cannot move between such extremes of feeling, from bitterness to joy. So the Alter Rebbe says to do it earlier, during Krias Shema She’al Hamitah or at midnight. Nowadays the midnight practice does not have to be done at bedtime, and it is not done every day, but from time to time. It has to take place before prayer, but today that does not mean immediately before prayer. “Before prayer” can also mean the night before, when a person takes stock of himself and brings himself to a feeling of bitterness and brokenness. Through that he breaks—just as we learned in chapter 29, the whole idea—

12:55 through that he breaks the kelipah of his animal soul. That is preparation for prayer. Chassidim say that this is the meaning—plain meaning, sorry, chassidim say this is the meaning. The Rebbe says, chassidim presumably say that this is the meaning of “Weeping may lodge for the night, but joy comes in the morning”: if you want there to be joy in the morning, joy and happiness and an inner experience of prayer, then there has to be “weeping may lodge for the night,” the night before. During Krias Shema She’al Hamitah, a person weeps, takes stock of himself, and does teshuvah. Then, in the morning, the next morning, his prayer goes entirely differently. [unclear] before prayer. What is interesting is that here the Alter Rebbe says “Shacharis and Maariv.” People ask: Why does he say Shacharis and Maariv? What about Minchah? Why specifically Shacharis and Maariv? He does not mention Minchah. One could say that it is not meant specifically, but that is difficult as a straightforward reading. He does not mean “Shacharis and Maariv” to include Minchah. He means morning and evening, as we say, rather than the specific prayers of Shacharis and Maariv. In other words, before every prayer, whether in the morning or evening, a person has to wage war against his yetzer hara and break the kelipah, the coarseness within him. But there is an explanation somewhere that the wording is precise: specifically Shacharis and Maariv, not Minchah, because with Minchah this point need not be emphasized. Minchah does not require preparation. Why not? Because, as explained in the maamarim, and also stated briefly in Hayom Yom, “A person should always be careful about Minchah, for even Eliyahu was answered only at Minchah.” The idea of Minchah—you presumably learned this in the tractate too; it is also discussed in the maamarim studied in the booklets, including that well-known maamar about “what was done was done

14:56 through a small intellect.” You do not study that in the tractate. The point about Minchah—what is special about Minchah? It comes in the middle of the day, when a person is immersed in all the bustle of the world, and then he has to detach himself from everything he is doing. For example, a yeshivah student is sitting and learning, right in the middle of a sugya—some passage in Ketzos, something deep, a sugya in nigleh—and suddenly he has to pull himself away from the sugya, from all his intense concentration, and stand up for Minchah. The very fact that he has to tear himself away from what he is involved in and take a siddur for Minchah already breaks his kelipah. It already makes a break in his coarseness. Or a businessman is in the middle of the marketplace, in the middle of the day, and suddenly he has to tell someone, “Wait for me.” All the business, all the matters and calculations—now he has to daven Minchah. That act of preparation itself is enough to break the routine, so no further preparation is needed. For other people, it is having to tear themselves away from their nigleh studies. If only that were truly the case! But in any event, that is what is written. That is the idea in Chassidus. With Shacharis and Maariv, by contrast, that preparation is needed. There is another explanation for why the Alter Rebbe does not mention Minchah: according to Kabbalah, Minchah is a continuation of Shacharis. The Kabbalah texts explain why we do not say—this is also cited in connection with what is written—why do we not say some kind of... before Minchah? After all, it says, “A person should always arrange the praises of the Omnipresent and then pray.” Why is there nothing before Minchah? There should be something like what precedes Shacharis, with the blessings and Krias Shema, right? So there should also be some kind of order before Minchah. And before Maariv there is a similar order, like

16:48 Shacharis, while at Minchah there is nothing except Ashrei. So it says, according to Kabbalah, that Minchah is a continuation of Shacharis. Since Shacharis and Minchah are both during the day, and the day is, so to speak, one period of time, one continuous stretch. Shacharis and Minchah are like prayers that follow on from one another, so the preparation for Shacharis is enough for Minchah too. Maariv, by contrast, is a different time. It’s dark. It’s a different period, so the avodah has to be different too. The Rebbe explains at length in Likkutei Sichos that the Shema of Shacharis and the Shema of Maariv are two different kinds of service of Hashem. Recognizing Hakadosh Boruch Hu by day and recognizing Hakadosh Boruch Hu by night are different kinds of avodah, so the preparation must be different too. That is why the Alter Rebbe specifies Shacharis and Maariv; this is not about Minchah. However we explain it, the point is that the Alter Rebbe says something further: “from day to day.” This avodah must be done every day. Why the emphasis on doing it every day? This is also brought in other sources. It is explained at length elsewhere that the avodah of prayer must be done each and every day, because every day is a new battle, every day is a new avodah. A person cannot say, “Yesterday I davened well and yesterday I overcame my animal soul, so today I don’t need to do it.” He is relying on his service of Hashem from yesterday. But every day, “New every morning; great is Your faithfulness”—every day is a new morning, and therefore every day is a new battle. In other words, yesterday’s animal soul

18:36 is not today’s animal soul. The fact that yesterday I overcame my animal soul and yesterday I davened well has nothing to do with today’s davening, because today there is a new animal soul, with new desires and new concerns, and it has to be brought in anew, made into a vessel for holiness. So the emphasis with the avodah of prayer is that it must begin anew every day. That is why Kuntres Hatefillah says this right at the beginning. The Rebbe Rashab, of blessed memory, wrote Kuntres Hatefillah to explain the avodah of prayer and how it is done. And he begins Kuntres Hatefillah by saying that it must begin anew every day. The avodah of prayer has to be a constant, daily avodah. Why? Because every day is a new battle. Every day brings a new animal soul. Every day is new, so the avodah is new too. Besides that, there are other explanations in Chassidus for why it specifically has to be every day. This isn’t the place for them. The Rebbe explains it; we won’t go into it now. He goes on to say that there is also a struggle during davening, besides the one before davening—the heaviness one feels beforehand. A person might think that if, before davening, he has already managed to calm his animal soul, then he is safe once he starts davening. We are told no: during davening too, a particular effort is needed. This is “exertion of the soul and exertion of the flesh”—the effort during davening itself. What are exertion of the soul and exertion of the flesh? He says, “See chapter 42.” Where is that? Chapter 42 of Tanya. There the Alter Rebbe explains what exertion of the soul and exertion of the flesh mean. The Alter Rebbe explains that exertion of the soul means—first he explains exertion of the flesh. Exertion of the flesh means something interesting; it doesn’t mean what you might assume.

20:28 The Alter Rebbe explains that exertion of the flesh means breaking down the materiality and coarseness that come from bodily concerns, and this is accomplished through thoughts of teshuvah from deep in the heart. That is called exertion of the flesh. Right. What is exertion of the soul? Exertion of the soul means not letting the work feel too burdensome to make the effort to take stock, so that a person can contemplate for an extended time. That is exertion of the soul. In other words, apparently, what Tanya says there in chapter 42 about the difference between exertion of the soul and exertion of the flesh is that exertion of the flesh is primarily mental work. No, no, no, no. Sorry, that isn’t what I meant. Exertion of the flesh is primarily work on removing the obstacles, removing the things that get in the way—coarseness and materiality that prevent a person from feeling something in the avodah of prayer. And exertion of the soul means exerting the soul’s faculties. It means training oneself, training one’s faculties to be devoted to G-dliness, so that one can sit for a while and concentrate on contemplation. It isn’t easy, because we aren’t used to contemplating. We aren’t used to it. A person has to train himself to sit for a while and practice contemplation. That is exertion of the soul, because here the effort is with the faculties of the soul—with concentration, with thought. Yes, sitting in one place. Things like that are called exertion of the soul. It’s interesting that in the Rebbe’s notes on Tanya, which were discovered recently—found after Gimmel Tammuz—there is something interesting here. The Rebbe writes and gives source references throughout Tanya. So here, where he refers to what is explained at length elsewhere, the Rebbe writes, “See chapter 42.” And that is striking. In general, when you look at those notes and see how precise the wording is, the Rebbe is precise with every word. When the Rebbe cites

22:55 something, he doesn’t always write “see.” If he writes “see,” it is because the connection isn’t so straightforward; you have to look into it. When he simply gives a reference, he gives the citation without saying “see.” Here he writes “see.” So what is the significance of that wording? It’s simple: when you look at chapter 42, the Alter Rebbe is not speaking about exertion of the soul and exertion of the flesh in the avodah of prayer. Here the Alter Rebbe is precise: “And during davening too, he should exert himself with exertion of the soul and exertion of the flesh.” This exertion of the soul and exertion of the flesh must be during davening. But when you look at chapter 42, the Alter Rebbe is not speaking about the time of davening. He speaks about the exertion of the soul and exertion of the flesh that a person must bring about within himself to awaken fear of Heaven. To come to fear of Heaven. So although for Moshe it is “a small thing,” something we have through Moshe Rabbeinu—we have inherited the capacity for fear of Heaven—nevertheless, the soul and the body need tremendous exertion. Yes, but he isn’t speaking about the time of davening. And besides, as far as the avodah goes, fear of Heaven is not specifically part of the avodah of prayer; it needs to be there even before davening. So perhaps that is why the Rebbe writes “see.” In other words, the Rebbe’s reference is to the subject as a whole: chapter 42 explains exertion of the soul and exertion of the flesh at length, not necessarily in connection with davening, but from there we can understand what these terms mean in general. There is a story about a chossid who once came to the Rebbe Maharash and complained that he had distracting thoughts during davening. He wanted to daven, but distracting thoughts kept coming to him, and he also found learning difficult. He had trouble concentrating on his learning. So the Rebbe Maharash said to him, “What are you demanding of me? Demand it of yourself.” What

26:25 You come to me with complaints? You should be ashamed of yourself. Break your own desires, and you’ll have... I don’t remember the exact wording. Vitality in davening. Break your head, and you’ll have vitality in davening, something like that. And the Rebbe Maharash said this... After that, there are several stories about how the Rebbeim used this saying. In other words, there are things for which it isn’t appropriate to ask for a brachah. Is that what you’re demanding from the Rebbe? Demand it of yourself. In 5702 and 5703, in the first years after the Rebbe arrived in America, the Frierdiker Rebbe demanded of the bochurim that they not only work on themselves in davening and so on, but also spend some of their time spreading Yiddishkeit and the wellsprings of Chassidus. And to this day, there’s what developed from that over the years: mivtzoim, getting involved with other people. In those early years, the way it was presented, it wasn’t quite so... Later it became like... So there was a bochur who was very chassidish, a genuinely chassidish bochur who davened at length every day. And this bochur complained that since he had begun getting involved in mivtzoim and all that, it had become hard for him to concentrate during davening, because extraneous thoughts would come to him—thoughts about the things he needed to attend to. He couldn’t even approach davening with a clear heart; he didn’t have the... So the Frierdiker Rebbe wrote him a very sharp letter. He said that this was false. It didn’t stem from the mivtzoim; it didn’t stem from... Rather, it stemmed from his mind being scattered. He was looking for excuses. So this was the excuse the yetzer hara had dressed up for him—a chassidish excuse. And he also wrote him this saying: Don’t... Don’t demand it of me; demand it of yourself. Right? Start putting in the effort, and then you’ll see that you can do it. In short, that’s the point the Rebbe is explaining to us here: how things need to be.

28:49 Exertion of the soul, exertion of the body. The daily struggle needed in davening for one’s davening to be as it should be. All this is part of the reckoning the Rebbe is now asking the beinoni to make: to what extent must the beinoni consider how he measures up against the lowest of the low? Does he, too, struggle with himself as much as the lowest of the low is expected to struggle with his own issues? Rabbeinu the Chasam Sofer would say that, in other words, the Rebbe is telling us here that the mashpia of the beinoni is the lowest of the low. Based on what the Rebbe says here, who turns out to be the beinoni’s mashpia? That is, who shows the beinoni the way to serve Hashem? The lowest of the low. Because, because, because, because the Rebbe’s whole reckoning is this: What is the beinoni supposed to ask himself? Am I putting the same effort into my davening that the lowest of the low must put into dealing with his own issues? So who is the model here? Who guides the beinoni? How does he gauge his own service of Hashem? By the lowest of the low. Just... it’s a shame.