Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 32 - Part 2

00:00 The Alter Rebbe explains here in chapter 32 the idea of Ahavas Yisroel: “Love your fellow as yourself.” So what is the new point in this verse? That Ahavas Yisroel must be “as yourself”—quite literally. Just as a person loves himself, that is how he must love every Jew. The question is: How is such a thing possible? Second, there is no condition attached to Ahavas Yisroel. No limitation is stated. It applies to every Jew. So here, too, the question arises: How can one have the same love for every kind of Jew? After all, there are all kinds of Jews, “from the heads of your tribes” down to “your woodcutters and your water drawers,” and all kinds of levels among the Jewish people. How can a person bring himself to do that? In other words, these are two questions—or one question divided in two. First, how can the love truly be “as yourself”? And second, how can that love extend to all Jews? The Alter Rebbe explains that from the perspective of the nefesh, of the soul, it is possible. Because from the perspective of the soul, we truly are all one. And from the perspective of the soul, as we will explain, all Jews are truly equal. So it is possible for a Jew. Through his avodah, a Jew comes to awaken his soul, and his soul becomes what matters most to him. In this way, he can achieve genuine Ahavas Yisroel: both love “as yourself,” like the love one has for oneself, and love for every Jewish soul, from the greatest to the least. That is the point we have just learned. Let’s look at it now in the text. The Alter Rebbe explains it here. We are returning to chapter 32, on the fifth line: “For since his body is repulsive and loathsome to him, and as for the nefesh and ruach—who knows their greatness and stature in their root and source in the living G-d?” Since, for this person, the body is repulsive and loathsome. As we said earlier, this follows chapters 29, 30, and 31,

02:19 where the Alter Rebbe explains how a person should reach a state in which his body is repulsive and loathsome to him. “For since his body is repulsive and loathsome to him, and as for the nefesh and ruach—who knows their greatness and stature in their root and source in the living G-d?” On the one hand, his body is repulsive and loathsome to him. On the other hand, what does he have? What is important and precious to him? The nefesh and ruach. Regarding the nefesh and ruach, the Alter Rebbe says, a person cannot know: “Who knows their greatness and stature?” Why is there a shortcoming in Ahavas Yisroel? Because a person thinks he is greater than someone else, that he has more virtues. That is why it is difficult for a person to have Ahavas Yisroel “as yourself.” Why can’t the love be “as yourself”? Because a person thinks he is more important than the other person, for all kinds of reasons: he knows more Torah, he has better character traits, and all sorts of other things that make him feel superior. All of that can be said about matters of the body. Once, with regard to the body, you say that it is repulsive and loathsome to him, what remains important to him? The nefesh. That is what matters most to him. Regarding the nefesh, the Alter Rebbe says, “Who knows their greatness and stature in their root and source in the living G-d?” A person cannot know who is greater. Outwardly, it may appear that I am greater, but that may be only from the perspective of the body, of outward appearances. From the perspective of the nefesh and ruach, the other person may be greater. We do find this idea. For example, the Gemara tells of one of the Tannaim who became ill and passed away for a time, and then Hakadosh Boruch Hu brought him back to life. They asked him what he had seen Above, and he

04:21 said that when he was Above, he saw “those who are high below, and those who are low above.” In other words, those considered high here below are low Above. People whom others here regard as important and great—Above, where those things are not what counts, those considered high are below, and those considered low are actually above. So what appears here in this world, the ranks we see down here, is not necessarily how things are Above. It may be the reverse. Chassidus also explains the account of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai. The Gemara says that before Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai passed away, he cried and said, “I do not know along which path they will lead me.” Chassidus asks: What does that mean? Did Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai deceive himself? Did he not know that he was a tzaddik? After all, the Gemara says extraordinary things about Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai. He was a great person, a noble person who studied Torah, a person in the image of G-d, with all kinds of virtues. He was on an exceptionally high level. So how could Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai say, “I do not know”? What does Chassidus explain? A person can be a tzaddik outwardly, yet in terms of his soul, he may be in the depths of the kelipos. That is the wording used in Chassidus. Sometimes the reverse is also possible: a person may appear outwardly to be in the depths of the kelipos, yet inwardly he is good. This is what is explained about the difference between Yochanan the Kohen Gadol and Rabbi Elazar ben Durdaya. We are told that Yochanan was the Kohen Gadol for eighty years. And what happened afterward? He became a Sadducee.

06:16 He was the Kohen Gadol. That means he was in the category of a tzaddik. He entered the Holy of Holies for eighty years, and at the end of his life he became a Sadducee. So this, too, is written. In other words, outwardly everything about him may have been good and fine, but a point came when something deeper within him was revealed. So this is what the Alter Rebbe is saying: As long as a person considers the body his main concern, his calculations are superficial, and he cannot unite with someone else. He thinks he is smarter than the other person, or has more money or more honor, or has all sorts of virtues the other person lacks. With that approach, it is hard for him to unite with the other person. He makes calculations: It is more worthwhile to get close to this person; I will gain more. I will gain less from the other one, so I will be less close to him. But the moment I look from the perspective of the nefesh and ruach, then, with regard to the nefesh and ruach, “Who knows their greatness and stature in their root and source?” Above, he may be higher than I am. All this is the straightforward explanation of the words of Tanya. But it explains something a little deeper; that is not the whole meaning. On a simple level, when we say “body,” we mean the body, and when we say “nefesh and ruach,” we mean the soul. But in truth, as is clear from the continuation of Tanya here, “body” does not mean only the physical body. “Body” can also include the nefesh, since the nefesh is clothed in the body. Because, in fact, that line of reasoning is not enough. It is not simply a matter of saying that, from the perspective of the body, I am greater. A person thinks more of himself than of another because the body has become more important to him than the nefesh. That is the main point. But sometimes a person may have virtues not only

08:11 In terms of the body, a person may have advantages; but he also has advantages in terms of the soul. In other words, there are different kinds of advantages. When you talk about a person looking at the advantages he has, some are physical advantages—external things, things of the body, material things. He has a lot of money, a nicer car, a bigger house. He has all sorts of things considered important in this world. Those are matters of the body. But sometimes a person also has genuine advantages. Not just advantages of the body, but advantages of the soul. He has learned more Torah, fulfilled more mitzvos, davened with greater concentration, and he has genuine, spiritual advantages. And the Alter Rebbe wants to set those aside too. After all, we need to understand what the Alter Rebbe says here: that their bodies are primary and their souls secondary, whereas “who knows” the greatness of their souls and spirits? So “body” does not mean just the physical body. “Body” is a general term here. It means all the advantages and distinctions a person has in this world, including qualities of mind and character: this person seems smarter, more perceptive, knows more, has learned more. In a certain sense, even these things count as matters of the body. But as for the soul and spirit, who knows their greatness and stature? He is speaking about the true essence of the soul—what the soul is like above, at its source. So it could be that a person down here appears more elevated even spiritually. Not only in matters of the body; he also behaves better in matters of the soul. But it may be that at their root and source, the other

09:58 person is higher, more elevated. For example, there is a story people tell—I heard it this way. I don’t know exactly how to verify it, but this is how I heard it. There were two young men in Bnei Brak. One was a very chassidic young man who learned, a truly fine young man. The other did not outwardly appear to be one of the outstanding students. He was actually one of the simpler ones. Once, someone went in to the Rebbe, and they spoke about shidduchim or something like that. About the young man everyone said was good, who indeed appeared that way outwardly, the Rebbe said, “I don’t know this young man.” But of the other young man, the one who outwardly seemed different, the Rebbe said, “That young man I know.” It sounded as though the Rebbe thought highly of him. Even though, as far as anyone could tell from the outside, the first young man learned more, davened more, and behaved better. But there is more to a person. The point is that the Rebbe looks at things and sees them on a higher plane. And, simply put, someone may be more elevated down here in terms of what he does, while someone else may be more elevated above, in terms of his soul’s source. That is the meaning of what it says here: “As for the soul and spirit, who knows their greatness and stature at their root and source in the living G-d?” The other person may be more elevated than he is. But that is still not enough. According to this line of reasoning that the Rebbe discusses here, I am saying that the other person’s soul might be higher than mine. But that means there are distinctions. After all, one person is higher and another lower; there are souls

11:55 that are higher and souls that are lower. So what is the point? Since I don’t know which is higher, I have to treat them all equally. But ultimately, that still leaves a distinction between higher and lower. Now the Alter Rebbe adds a deeper point: “And furthermore, they are all alike.” There is a deeper sense in which they are all alike. At one level, we say there are higher souls and lower souls, but who knows which one’s source is higher or lower? There is, however, a deeper level at which we say they are all alike. There is an aspect of the souls in which all souls are equal, all alike. “And they all have one Father.” They all come from the same Father, so from the standpoint of the Father, each has the same Father. They all share one common point. At that point they are all equal, and no distinction can be made between them at all, even in terms of their source. “Therefore, all Jews are called actual brothers, by virtue of the root of their souls in the one Hashem.” From this standpoint, they are truly equal, actual brothers. It is only their bodies that are distinct. All the distinctions are only on the level of the body. In general, then, the Alter Rebbe is speaking here about two levels of Ahavas Yisroel, about how a person should work on himself to love every Jew because of this profound subtlety. The Alter Rebbe gives two lines of reasoning. The first is that you should look at a person in terms of the soul. In terms of the soul, the other person may be higher than me, or greater than someone else. Since I cannot know who is greater, I must love everyone equally. That is the first line of reasoning. In other words, there are differences in level, but who knows? That is why this is

13:53 the first line of reasoning. But in the second, the Alter Rebbe says there is a deeper level where there are no differences in level at all: “They are all alike, and they all have one Father.” From the standpoint of their one Father, they are all truly equal. There is no difference. Every soul shares that one point, so there is no question here of differences in level, of one being this way and another that way. That would itself create a distinction. Looking more closely, we see that there are several explanations here. In the Rebbe’s sichos, there are several ways to explain this. If we look at the Rebbe’s sichos on this passage in Tanya, we see that the Rebbe explains that, more precisely, there are not two levels here but three. And there are several ways to understand that too. I don’t want to make this too complicated for you, but I’ll explain it as simply as I can, and we’ll see if there’s time to explain a little more. The Rebbe understands that here in Tanya, the Alter Rebbe is speaking about three levels of souls. That is, there are three levels in the soul’s connection above. At the first level, we say, “Who knows their greatness and stature at their root and source in the living G-d?” What does “who knows” mean? Chassidus explains that “who” refers to the sefirah of Binah. “Who knows their greatness and stature?” “Who” refers to Binah. Why does “who” refer to Binah? Because questions belong to Binah. That is the difference between Chochmah and Binah. In Chochmah there are no questions; the light shines plainly, and everything is clear. When do inquiry and questions begin? In Binah. That is why it says, “Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these?” “Who” refers to Binah, while “these” refers to the middos. “Who created these?” Also, the numerical value of “who” is fifty, and Binah is associated with the number fifty—the fifty gates of Binah. In any case, “who” is the sefirah of Binah. So what does “who knows” mean? It does not

16:07 The question is “Who knows?” But the intent is “Mi,” as a name for a level—the level of Mi, the sefirah of Binah. There, “Who knows their greatness and their lofty stature?” The souls are at the level of Binah, and in Binah there are distinctions. After all, that is the whole idea of Binah. What is Binah? What is the difference between Chochmah and Binah? Binah is a realm of distinctions. In Binah there are different kinds of understanding: a higher understanding and a lower understanding, a deeper explanation and a simpler one. In Binah, it makes sense to speak of distinctions. So when the souls are in Binah, we say, “Who knows their greatness and their lofty stature?” There is greatness and there is lofty stature. As the souls exist at the level of Binah, there is a soul corresponding to the head and a soul corresponding to the foot; there are souls of those devoted to Torah, to avodah, and to action. There are all kinds of souls. In the sefirah of Binah there is a division into levels. But because we do not know where anyone stands in Binah, a person cannot say, “I am greater than someone else.” That is the meaning of “Who knows their greatness and their lofty stature in their root and source in the living G-d?” Chassidus explains that the wording “the living G-d” is also precise. In Tanya, every word is precise. What does “the living G-d” mean? Chassidus explains that it too refers to the sefirah of Binah. Chassidus explains that there is “Elokim” and there is “Elokim Chayim,” the living G-d. When it says simply “Elokim,” that refers to tzimtzum, to the sefirah of Malchus. But when it says “Elokim Chayim,” it means we are speaking about the root of the root, where there is no limit. That is the sefirah of Binah. Binah is the secret in which everything is contained, and so Binah is called “Elokim Chayim.” That is what is being said here: from the perspective of the sefirah of Binah, who knows? It is true that there are distinctions there, but because we do not know—

18:08 because who knows how things stand at their living source?—a person therefore has to value every Jew. That is the reasoning from the perspective of the sefirah of Binah. Then there is a higher level, that of Chochmah. With regard to Chochmah, we say, “We all have one Father.” What does “We all have one Father” mean? As is well known, father and mother correspond to Chochmah and Binah. What is the difference between a father and a mother? That is essentially the difference between Chochmah and Binah. The difference between father and mother is well known. When the child is in the father’s seed, you cannot distinguish and say that there is a head and there is a foot. In that drop there is one point, and within that point everything is equal. You cannot distinguish which part is higher. It is all the same, one point. When it is in the mother’s womb, there is [unclear]; when you look at an ultrasound, you can see the whole division: there is a head, a heart, a foot, fingernails—all those parts. From the father’s perspective, all of it is one point. That is the father’s point. The head and the foot are all one point, one essence. You cannot distinguish between them. From the mother’s perspective, by contrast, there are distinctions. So that is what the Rebbe says here. First he says, “Who knows their greatness?” That is the level of Binah, where there are differences in greatness. Why say only “Who knows their greatness?” After that we speak of the perspective of the father—that is, of the souls as they exist in Chochmah. In Chochmah, all the souls are one point, so the whole idea of distinctions does not apply there. Then the Rebbe gives a third, still higher level, when he says, “They all fit together.” The Rebbe gives two explanations of this. In one place, the Rebbe explains that “they all fit together” is a lower level.

20:06 In one sicha, the Rebbe explains that “they all fit together” is a higher level. At least for now, we are learning it as a higher level: the level of will. There is Binah, there is Chochmah, and there is Kesser. Kesser is a higher level; Kesser is will. What is the difference between them? What could be higher than that? You say that Chochmah is one point. The difference is this: Chochmah is intellect. True, it is a single point, but Chochmah is intellect. Chochmah is the foundation of Binah. In other words, although everything in Chochmah exists as a single point, it is already the root from which details will emerge. In other words, the details are present within Chochmah in a hidden state. It is just that while they are still in Chochmah, we do not sense them. We sense the point they share, not the differences in their levels. When it descends into Binah, those differences become revealed. But you cannot say that Chochmah has no connection at all to distinctions. It is the root: everything is there within that point, only it has not yet been revealed. Soon it will be. With will, in Kesser, by contrast, distinctions do not begin at all. That is the difference between will and Chochmah: will is above distinctions. In will, [unclear]. You cannot say that one thing is higher and another is lower. In will, everything is one point. If a person wants something, then it matters; if he does not want it, it does not. There is no more or less. Will is one point, and so the unity as it exists within will is much greater. So, according to the analogy, these are the three levels we can see here in Tanya. There is Ahavas Yisroel that comes despite the differences in levels between souls. There are differences in levels. But what? Even on the simplest level there must be unity among Jews, because who knows their greatness—

22:02 the greatness of another Jew? There is the level of Chochmah, where differences in level are not felt. What is felt there is the one point that connects them: Chochmah. And there is a still higher level, where there are no differences in level at all: the level of will. From there comes true Ahavas Yisroel. This is what we can see in the statement that the souls are rooted in the one Hashem—how the souls are rooted in “Hashem is one,” in the unity of Hashem. This is at the very highest level, the level of will, of Kesser. There lies the meaning of “Hashem is one”: unity in its highest form, with no differences in level. From that comes brotherly love, and it is genuine. This is the meaning of loving another Jew “as yourself.” When a Jew reaches such a state that his soul shines within him—and not just his soul, but his soul as it exists at the very highest level, at its root in “Hashem is one”—he feels the root of the souls of the Jewish people. Where is that? It is at that level of G-dliness where there are no differences in level; everything is one point. So the moment that point of the soul shines within me, Ahavas Yisroel is certainly “as yourself” in the literal sense. It is brotherly love. From the perspective of that point, there are no differences in level, no higher and lower. Therefore the love extends to every Jew, from the greatest to the smallest. They are all equal in my eyes. If you look at the sicha for this week’s Parshas Lech Lecha in volume 1—volume 1, Lech Lecha; I keep mentioning other things, and everyone has already learned this—but in the sicha for this parsha, interestingly, the Rebbe cites Tanya. There, though, the Rebbe writes the opposite. There the Rebbe writes that “they all fit together” is a lower level. There the Rebbe understands the plain meaning of “they all fit together” to be that they resemble one another, but they remain distinct. In other words, they are side by side. You have many souls, but they are side by side. That is, the first level, “Who knows?” In Binah there are souls—

24:16 Very beautiful, though much less so. After that comes a level where everyone is alike. In other words, there are many souls, but no one is higher than another; everyone is equal. They are still distinct, though. Beyond that is the level where there is just one point, with no distinction at all. There is no division here whatsoever. It is all one essence. That is how the Rebbe explains it in the fifth section. Elsewhere, though, in Likkutei Sichos, the Rebbe says it as we just did: everyone is equal in the same measure and at the same level. The next level is Chochmah. But then, seemingly, after this entire explanation, we need to understand a simple question: Why doesn’t the Alter Rebbe begin with that level? Why doesn’t the Alter Rebbe say from the outset that Ahavas Yisroel should be based on the fact that we are all equal, on the point of unity? Why does the Alter Rebbe bring in the level of Binah at all—“who knows their greatness,” and so on? Seemingly, that is a lower level. The Alter Rebbe’s whole purpose here is to explain “as yourself”: Ahavas Yisroel must be as yourself. And to explain “as yourself,” we have to look specifically at the soul’s source at its very highest level, where it is truly one point. So why doesn’t the Alter Rebbe go straight to that? Why does the Alter Rebbe also explain and bring in a level where there are distinctions, where we have to say that nevertheless, “who knows their greatness,” and so on? Why does the Alter Rebbe need to bring that in? The Rebbe asks this in Likkutei Sichos, and the Rebbe answers as follows. It is wonderful, because it certainly gets to the heart of it. The point is that the Alter Rebbe wants to teach us that Ahavas Yisroel must exist at every level. Ahavas Yisroel is demanded of us, so it must be present at every level of a person. What does that mean? Whatever level a person is on, whatever state

26:28 his soul is in, whatever his standing and situation, he must have Ahavas Yisroel. Otherwise, when would Ahavas Yisroel actually be Ahavas Yisroel? When I reach the soul as it is in its essence? That would mean that, to have Ahavas Yisroel, I would first have to reveal the yechidah of my soul. I would have to do a whole lot of work to awaken it, say a lot of l’chaims, do a great deal, and reach a state where the yechidah of my soul shines within me [unclear]. And only once the yechidah of my soul shines within me as it is in its essence would I have Ahavas Yisroel. But what about everyday life? Can’t there be Ahavas Yisroel there? Because when the soul is experienced in its distinct form, he doesn’t have that... The Alter Rebbe wants to explain to us here that Ahavas Yisroel is needed at every level. There is a kind of Ahavas Yisroel that comes from the soul’s innermost point—from the yechidah, from the soul’s source and its unity. At that point, everyone is equal. We need that, but it is not enough. We must bring Ahavas Yisroel down into the individual faculties as well. In other words, even at the level where there are distinctions—where we say this young man has one character trait, that young man has another; this one likes to do practical work, that one likes to make friends, and so on. Everyone has his own interests and his own judgment. Even amid those distinctions, we must arrive at Ahavas Yisroel. The point of unity must shine there too. So the Rebbe explains that even considering their individual qualities, “who can know their greatness, their virtue, and their source as they truly are?” And as the Rebbe explains at length in the sichos, we can understand this by looking at the human body.

28:31 We can look at the human body in two ways. In one way, a person looks at the body and sees that it has many limbs and organs; it is made up of many parts. Yet all the parts are equal in that they are one entity: one body. In another way, there is a head and there is a foot, but together, each completes the body. Just as the head is needed, so is the foot. From this perspective, you do feel the distinctions: one is the head and one is the foot. But just as the head is needed, so too... All of them are needed together to make the body complete. The same is true of Ahavas Yisroel. There is a kind of Ahavas Yisroel where what you feel is: they are all Jews. What difference does anything else make? There are no distinctions here, because of the essential point of being a Jew. So Moshe Rabbeinu—as Rabbi Levi, the Rebbe’s father, would say—is no more a Jew than [unclear], and [unclear] is no less a Jew than Moshe Rabbeinu. Why? Because a Jew is a Jew. At that essential point, they are all Jews. That is one kind of Ahavas Yisroel. The second kind of Ahavas Yisroel is that even with their distinctions, each person complements the other, and all of them together form part of one body. That is why the Rebbe emphasizes here that there are different kinds of Ahavas Yisroel.