Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 32 - Part 3

00:01 Speaker 1 The Rebbe explains here that when a person works on himself so that matters of the body become repugnant and loathsome to him, and his joy is the joy of the soul, that is the way to reach true Ahavas Yisroel. What does true Ahavas Yisroel mean? That the love should be “as yourself”—literally as yourself. A love like the love you have for yourself. And that the love should extend to every Jewish soul, great and small, without any difference, distinctions, or limits—great and small. How can we reach a level of Ahavas Yisroel where it is “as yourself,” and where it extends to every Jew, great and small? By making the body repugnant and loathsome to oneself. Then matters of the body no longer carry weight. All the differences between one person and another are only on account of the body. Once the body becomes repugnant and loathsome to him, matters of the body no longer carry weight for him. What remains? The soul. The soul is what matters most to him. From the standpoint of the soul, all the differences fall away. Why do they fall away? First, because when it comes to the soul, who knows their greatness and their stature? A person cannot say, with regard to the soul, “I am greater than the other person.” Who knows? And second, on the contrary, from the standpoint of the soul it is not just that we do not know; at their root, they are all one. At the root of the soul, “they all have one Father.” They all have one Father. That is the point the Rebbe has just explained. Now, there are a few things we need to understand. Why is it relevant to Ahavas Yisroel to emphasize that the body is repugnant and loathsome to him? When we say that his joy is the joy of the soul, that is relevant to Ahavas Yisroel: for the love to be “as yourself,” the soul must be what is precious to him. He recognizes his soul as what matters most to him. So the main emphasis should be that the soul is primary, that his joy is the joy of the soul. So up to

02:30 Speaker 1 that point, there is true Ahavas Yisroel. But why does the Rebbe need to emphasize the negative side so much as well—the idea that the body is repugnant and loathsome to him? Seemingly, it is simple. [unclear] Why is this relevant? Why? Of course, in a straightforward sense, it is necessary. The two depend on each other. Yes, it is readily understood that for the joy of the soul to be a person’s main concern, he needs to bring himself to regard the body as repugnant and loathsome. The two depend on each other. As long as a person holds the body dear, it is hard to make the soul what is precious to him. Of course. But that is not the question. The question is why the Rebbe needs to emphasize it so much. In explaining Ahavas Yisroel, the Rebbe already explained in the previous chapter how a person brings himself to feel bitterness over everything connected with his animal soul and his body, and to find joy in his soul, as he draws close to the realization that he has a part of G-d within him. The Rebbe explained that in chapter 31. The question is why, here in chapter 32, the Rebbe needs to return to the idea of the body being repugnant and loathsome. Why is it not enough to emphasize that the soul is primary, which is what leads to Ahavas Yisroel “as yourself”? That is what the Rebbe asks. In short, the Rebbe explains that there are things that hold a person back. What are they? What holds back Ahavas Yisroel? Why can’t one person connect with another? There are two reasons. A lack of Ahavas Yisroel—the difficulty one Jew, one person, has in being a friend to another—can have two causes. One cause has to do with matters of the body. What does “matters of the body” mean? He is afraid

04:46 Speaker 1 that the other person will take his place. He may be afraid the other person will steal from him or cheat him, or that if they become friends, he will lose money or suffer some other loss. In other words, the loss might concern material matters or his health. There can be all kinds of things connected with the body that create separation and a barrier between him and his friend. Material concerns. He is jealous: Why does the other person have more than I do? Things like that—jealousy and hatred arising from matters of the body. And there are also things that arise on account of the soul, making it hard for him to connect with the other person. Why? Because he considers himself more important than the other person spiritually. So the Alter Rebbe wants to proceed in order. The first step is to remove the barrier between him and his friend that comes from matters of the body. That is why it matters that the body be repugnant and loathsome to him. As long as the body is important to him, matters of the body carry weight for him. He will therefore be afraid to connect with the other person: perhaps, if I connect with him, he will take something material from me. Or there may be jealousy, concerns about honor, and rivalry—competition—things connected with the body. So the Alter Rebbe first says: the body is repugnant and loathsome to him. When a person works on himself so that the body and everything associated with it become things he does not value, things he finds repugnant and loathsome—through all the contemplation in Torah discussed earlier in chapter 31—then matters of the body will not carry weight for him. He will not have jealousy, hatred, or rivalry, or any of the things that can

06:50 Speaker 1 arise from the body. And afterward, what remains? The soul. But when we come to the soul, there can still be a lack of Ahavas Yisroel on account of the soul. Why? Because he thinks he is more elevated and spiritual than the other person. So the Alter Rebbe continues: “As for the nefesh and the ruach, who knows their greatness and their stature?” That is the reckoning when it comes to the soul. Even there, a person needs to work on himself. How does he bring himself to have Ahavas Yisroel in spiritual matters as well? By contemplating that, with regard to the soul—the nefesh and the ruach—who knows their greatness and their stature? This will bring him to Ahavas Yisroel even in spiritual matters. So there are two aspects: one removes the separation that can arise from matters of the body, and the other removes the separation that can arise in matters of the soul.

07:34 Speaker 2 What separation can arise in matters of the soul?

07:35 Speaker 1 He thinks he is on a higher spiritual level than the other person. “I can connect with this person because he is on my level, but I cannot connect with that person because he is on a lower level than I am.” That is already a reckoning about spiritual standing. To this the Alter Rebbe says: “Who knows their greatness and their stature?” Those are the two aspects, body and soul. The Alter Rebbe then continues with Ahavas Yisroel that comes from the soul—Ahavas Yisroel that comes from making the soul primary. Even within that, there are several levels. As we discussed in the previous class, there is a level at which differences in spiritual standing exist, but “who knows their greatness and their stature?” At this level, a person does feel that there are differences, but because he does not know who is greater, he cannot take those differences into account. Who knows their greatness and their stature at their root and source? Yes, but there is a still higher level: “They are all of a kind, and they all have one Father.” That is the point. We have discussed it several times. We are mentioning it again. Yes, but no—these are two levels. The professor thought there were three levels, but we are talking here about two levels of Ahavas Yisroel arising from the soul. At one level, differences in spiritual standing are felt—but who knows? At the second level, there are no differences to begin with, because from the standpoint of the level of chochmah, they are brothers and have one Father. Yes. Or, beyond that, the level of the throne. They have one Father; as brothers, they share one Father, which relates to their root, so all the souls are literally one. It is not that one is higher and another lower, but who knows? Rather, from the outset there is no such distinction to speak of; they are all one point. And that is what is meant by true Ahavas Yisroel, “literally as yourself”: the love you have for yourself. They are one in their very essence.

09:13 Speaker 1 There are no differences in level here at all. And this raises the opposite question: Why does the Rebbe need to bring the first point, “Who knows their greatness and their stature?” Why doesn’t he go straight to “one Father for them all”? I don’t remember whether we discussed this in an earlier class. We talked about it a little, yes or no? Yes. Why doesn’t the Rebbe begin with “one Father for them all”? Why does he need to say that there is also a level of “Who knows their greatness and their stature?” Here, too, the Rebbe gives two explanations. In one explanation, the Rebbe says that the Alter Rebbe is proceeding in order. Following what we said earlier, there is a progression here from below upward. The Rebbe is speaking about Ahavas Yisroel, and he presents it in order from below upward. There is Ahavas Yisroel as it relates to bodies. About that he says: Do not regard the body as something of significance in its own right. That is the first level. How do you bring about love so that the body does not immediately stand in the way of Ahavas Yisroel? By not making the body something of significance in its own right. After that, a person rises to a higher level, that of the soul. Then he says: The soul is spiritual, but it still has a particular character. He is on the level of the soul. He has already revealed his soul, but within the soul itself he is at a level where he serves Hashem in a particular way. One person is distinguished by his character traits; another is devoted to avodah, another is an intellectual, another is distinguished by his character traits, and another excels in giving tzedakah. There are all sorts of differences in level. There are simple people and there are prominent people; there are all kinds of levels in spiritual matters. So at this level, the Alter Rebbe tells him: “Who knows their greatness and their stature?” How do you know which is more important to

10:59 Speaker 1 Hakadosh Boruch Hu, this one or that one? Therefore, there must be Ahavas Yisroel. After that, a person rises to an even higher level, where all differences in level fall away entirely: “one Father for them all.” From the perspective of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, to begin with, everyone is one point. There are no differences in level at all. That is one explanation. In other words, there is a progression in Ahavas Yisroel, an order of avodah from below upward. The Rebbe gives another explanation for why the Alter Rebbe brings both of these points: each has its own advantage. We already mentioned in the previous class that there are two kinds of Ahavas Yisroel, and each has a particular advantage. There is an advantage to Ahavas Yisroel that is like love for oneself, where all the Jewish people are one point. What is its advantage? Its advantage is that, in this unity, you are saying that all Jews are one point. When you say that one is higher and another lower, you are speaking on a lower level, where each person has his own particular character. Ultimately, each person has his own character; but “who knows their greatness and their stature?” With essential love, by contrast, everything is one point from the outset. So in terms of unity, where is the greater unity? Where everyone is equal. On the other hand, this has a drawback. What is the drawback? That this unity exists only at a level where all differences are nullified. In other words, to reach this level of Ahavas Yisroel, I have to step outside my own identity, step outside my particular character, and set aside my intellect, my character traits,

12:48 Speaker 1 my own advantages, and all the qualities each person has. It is only when I set aside those faculties of my soul that I can connect with the other person. But within my own identity, within my own defined qualities, there is no Ahavas Yisroel there. I am not like the other person. I am higher, more elevated; there are differences in level. So the Rebbe adds here that there must also be a basis for unity within each person’s particular character. According to the first explanation we gave, the progression is from below upward: first, a person relates to the differences in level, and higher than that is love in which everyone is equal. According to the second explanation, though, each has an advantage. For the foundation to be complete, both must be present together. The point shared by all the Jewish people must be felt: everyone is one point. That is a higher level of unity. On the other hand, there must also be unity within a person’s own particular character, even where he does have an identity of his own. That comes precisely through his awareness that he has his own strengths, and nevertheless, each person must reach the other and receive from the other. In other maamarim, when this subject of Ahavas Yisroel comes up, a different analogy is given. The Rebbe does not bring it here in Tanya. What analogy appears in other maamarim? The limbs of the body. The Arizal already taught that all Jews are like one body. The head was the root of all the souls. The Tzemach Tzedek brings this in Derech Mitzvosecha. Presumably all the students here have learned the maamar in Derech Mitzvosecha on the mitzvah of Ahavas Yisroel. The Rebbe explains that, with Yaakov, the Jewish people are like one complete body. A body has a head, feet, and hands, corresponding to all the different kinds of souls.

14:43 Speaker 1 There are souls with different qualities, the head of the Jewish people. There are souls characterized by kindness, souls characterized by intellect, and all the different kinds of Jewish souls. The head and the hands—and this is the idea that the souls of our generation are called ikvesa deMeshicha, corresponding to the feet. Thus, there are all kinds of differences in level among Jewish souls, but they are all like one body. So what do we say about the body? The human body, too, has two forms of unity. One form is where the shared point is felt: it is one body, whether we are speaking of the head, a foot, or a hand. All of them are part of one body. There is a common point. Just as a toe is part of the human body, so too the head is part of the human body. And if a person is missing even a toe, something is missing from the completeness of his body. It is not a complete body; it is a body that is lacking. The same applies to any limb. So in terms of being part of the human body, all the limbs share a common point. That is one form of unity. There is another form of unity: there is a head and there is a foot. The head provides intellect, the foot enables walking, and each has its own function. Nevertheless, what is their unity? Each needs the other; each receives from the other. Just as the foot needs the head to tell it where to go, the head also needs the foot to carry it. The head cannot manage without the foot, just as the foot cannot manage without the head. Each needs the other. This, too, parallels

16:26 Speaker 1 the two kinds of unity we have just discussed. So the Rebbe asks: This is well known and is mentioned in a number of places, but why doesn’t the Alter Rebbe bring this analogy here in Tanya? Why doesn’t the Alter Rebbe bring the analogy of the Jewish people as one complete body? What does the Alter Rebbe bring instead? He brings the idea of love between siblings: that Jews are called actual brothers. “Therefore, all Jews are called actual brothers by virtue of the root of their souls in the one Hashem; only their bodies are separate.” The Alter Rebbe brings the idea of brotherly love. Why doesn’t he bring the analogy of the unity of a body? There is also a well-known passage in the Yerushalmi about Ahavas Yisroel. The Rebbe mentioned it a number of times: the Yerushalmi, too, gives an analogy for Ahavas Yisroel. What is the idea? A person has two hands, and one hand strikes the other—such a thing makes no sense. After all, they are two hands of one body. Yes. The same applies to the Jewish people: two Jews are like two feet, or two hands, of one body. This is a source in Nigleh that teaches Ahavas Yisroel through the analogy of one body. And it would seem to fit the explanation of “as yourself” through this analogy. Why doesn’t the Alter Rebbe bring it? Here, too, it is interesting: in the Rebbe’s sichos we can find two explanations, and they are opposite explanations. In one place the Rebbe explains that the Alter Rebbe is speaking here in Tanya about a lower level, since Tanya is a book for beinonim, and the Alter Rebbe wants to explain how “the matter is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.” How Ahavas...

18:39 Speaker 1 A fellow Jew is close and connected to each and every one of us. So here the Alter Rebbe is speaking about a lower level of Ahavas Yisroel. He is speaking about someone who does not yet feel that everyone is truly one single point. What does he feel instead? That we are brothers. After all, when we feel brotherly love—why do brothers love one another? It is not love based on a reason; it is an essential love. Why does one brother love the other? Because they come from the same father. Not for some intellectual reason. The love between two brothers comes from the fact that we both come from the same essence. In other words, it is an essential love, but ultimately, the other person is not literally yourself. It is not the same love. After all, however much I love my brother, I love myself more than my brother. Probably not? Ultimately, it is not the same essential love. Yes. Not bad. Sometimes I fight with my brothers too. You look at brothers and see quite the opposite. No, I don’t want people to take these comments the wrong way. But here we see that, however much a person loves his brother, he loves himself more. So because the Alter Rebbe is speaking here about a lower level, he mentions brotherly love. At least that, too, is a love “as yourself,” because it is also an essential love. It is not a love based on reason. It is not a love dependent on something. It is an essential love, because the two of us come from the same essence, the same father. But ultimately, we are two people, two brothers. That is why he does not bring the

20:19 Speaker 1 analogy of the body, because a body is one single point. This is explained in one sicha. Elsewhere, the Rebbe explains the opposite. Elsewhere, the Rebbe explains that the love discussed in Tanya is much higher than the analogy of the body. Here, in chapter 32 of Tanya, the Alter Rebbe speaks about Ahavas Yisroel on its loftiest level, not in a general sense—on the contrary, on its loftiest level. But he says here, “like brothers.” Why does the Alter Rebbe say, “For we are truly like brothers,” if he is speaking about love on its loftiest level? The Rebbe says something wonderful. The Rebbe says that the Ahavas Yisroel the Alter Rebbe discusses here in Tanya is truly an essential love: all the Jewish people are one essence. That is what he means here by “We all have one Father.” At the root of their souls, all the Jewish people are one single point, one essence. So my love for another person is not merely like someone who loves his brother. It is truly an essential love. And when the Alter Rebbe says, “Therefore all Jews are truly brothers,” he is bringing that only as proof. The Alter Rebbe brings it as proof: “Therefore all Jews are truly brothers.” Why? Why do we find in the Torah, in several places in Tanach, that the Jewish people are called brothers? The Jewish people are called brothers, actual brothers. Yes, that is a result. The fact that the Jewish people are called brothers results from their being, in essence, one single point. In other words, why do I love a Jew? I do not love him only because he is my brother. I love a Jew because at their root, “We all have one Father”; from the perspective of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the Jewish people are truly one single point. There are not several separate groups; there is only one point. How does this find expression? When it reaches this world, and the soul descends into the world and becomes clothed in a separate body.

22:24 Speaker 1 So when it finds expression down here, they become what we call brothers. But in essence, the main reason for the love is not that they are brothers. The main reason is that “We all have one Father.” As they exist within the Father, they are truly one single point. There, they are not two; they are one point. In other words, the Alter Rebbe is actually speaking here about a truly essential love. That is why he does not bring the analogy of bodies. With the unity of a body, the emphasis is that there is a head, a foot, and other limbs, and each limb is different. Each has its own advantage, but one receives from the other, and one needs the other. In other words, if the Alter Rebbe had brought the analogy of a body, it would have emphasized distinctions of higher and lower: one needs the other and one gives to the other. Here the Alter Rebbe wants to speak about a higher level of Ahavas Yisroel, where there are no distinctions of level to begin with; it is all one single point. That is why the Alter Rebbe brings only the idea of “We all have one Father.” When he says that we are truly brothers, it is only by way of proof—proof that “We all have one Father.” But the love itself is on a higher level. In any case, what comes out of everything the Rebbe explains here? The Rebbe gives us an explanation of the true Ahavas Yisroel a Jew should have: Ahavas Yisroel must come from the soul’s essential point. From that perspective, “We all have one Father,” and all the Jewish people are truly one single point. There is an interesting sicha of the Frierdiker Rebbe in Likkutei Dibburim where he explains this from the sources. It is very interesting. He says that chassidim—the Rebbe’s chassidim and the chassidim of earlier generations—would say that the verse “Love your fellow as yourself” means you must love

24:20 Speaker 1 the other person as yourself. The simple meaning is to love the other person as I love myself. But the chassidim would say the opposite: to love myself as I love the other person. What does that mean? “Love your fellow as yourself”—to love myself as I love the other person. What does that mean? Not to love the other person as yourself, but to love yourself as you love the other person. What is the explanation? He does not explain it. The Frierdiker Rebbe says this—it is one line in Likkutei Dibburim—and moves on. What does it mean? What is the explanation? Based on what is written here in Tanya, the explanation is as follows. Generally, what is the difference between the love I have for myself and the love I have for another person? My love for myself is natural, as we said; it comes without effort. A person loves himself. Why do I love myself? I love myself because of all sorts of qualities I have. A person loves himself because he thinks he is a person of virtue, with intellect and good character traits. He is very smart, he is a capable fellow; he has all sorts of wonderful talents and qualities. There are all sorts of things a person loves about himself. But when it comes to loving someone else, I don’t see the virtues quite so readily. It is easier to see the other person’s shortcomings. So it is not easy to love the other person. How do I come to love him? I say, “I love him because he is a Jew.” I reflect on what Tanya says about him: he is a Jew and has a part of G-d within him. So even if I don’t perceive any virtue in him, I love him because he is a Jew. Now the Frierdiker Rebbe says this: a person who serves Hashem as he should makes a reckoning of his soul every night before going to sleep.

26:25 Speaker 1 He makes a genuine reckoning of his soul. He does not fool himself. He honestly assesses his standing and his condition. He concludes that he is actually in a lowly state. He had thought he was on a high level, but suddenly he starts seeing that this is not right and that is not right. His davening is not really davening, and so on and so forth. He goes through all sorts of things in this reckoning of his soul. The Alter Rebbe writes about this. Why? So then he has no reason to love himself. Why do I love myself? I have no reason to love myself. This is not right, and that is not right, and that is not right. Everyone knows this about himself—and certainly I am not talking about today. Even the good things I do are full of ulterior motives and so on. So, G-d forbid, he could start hating himself. He has every reason to hate himself. What does he tell himself, then? After this whole reckoning of his soul, what does he tell himself? “Considering all these things about me, I really ought to be utterly repulsed by myself and hate myself. But ultimately, I am a Jew. I have a part of G-d within me, and so I love myself as a Jew.” This is what it means that a person should love himself as he loves the other person. Why do I love another Jew? Because he is a Jew. And a person must reach a level of self-love where he loves himself only because he is a Jew. He should not love himself because of all sorts of virtues and perfections; his love for himself should be only because “I am a Jew, and therefore I love myself.” That is already a level of self-love. It is interesting that we see in the Rebbe’s letters

28:20 Speaker 1 The Rebbe writes about this all the time. Someone once told me he wanted to prepare—he had to prepare a class on lashon hara. Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He wanted to give people a class explaining lashon hara. Now, among the misnagdim, they have the Chofetz Chaim’s books—entire books about lashon hara. In Chassidus, there aren’t books about lashon hara. So he looked for a sicha of the Rebbe. He told me, “I took Igros Kodesh.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What is she asking? He said, “I took Igros Kodesh and looked in the subject index under lashon hara, to see what the Rebbe had said about it.” He said, “I opened one letter after another, one after another. I don’t know if it was ninety percent or ninety-five percent of the letters, but what did they say? ‘There is a well-known saying of my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe: Just as it is forbidden to speak lashon hara about someone else, it is also forbidden to speak lashon hara about oneself.’” In almost all the letters in Igros Kodesh that address lashon hara, this is what the Rebbe discusses: the prohibition isn’t only against speaking lashon hara about someone else; a person must not speak lashon hara about himself either. People write to the Rebbe about all kinds of personal problems they have. Lashon hara about yourself is also forbidden. The perspective of Chassidus is that Ahavas Yisroel toward another person should be a given. And conversely, I should love myself—but not with the self-love of an animal. I should love myself as a Jew, because I am a Jew. I don’t know how we got onto this.