Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 32 - Part 4

00:01 “Not so those who make their body primary and their soul secondary.” The Rebbe explained that to reach true Ahavas Yisroel, one must feel the other person’s soul. It comes specifically from the soul. We explained that in spiritual matters, too, there are distinctions of stature and qualities, and that the soul has an animal soul. But at their core, everyone is one. Take care of yourselves. The Rebbe continues: “Not so those who make their body primary and their soul secondary.” A person who has not reached that point, for whom the body is primary—the body is what matters most to him—cannot have true love and brotherhood with others. His Ahavas Yisroel can only be a love dependent on something else. Everyone knows what it says in Pirkei Avos: “Any love that depends on something—when that thing ceases, the love ceases.” Such love depends on some reason, on something external, and so it cannot last. Once the reason is gone, the love is gone. But a love that does not depend on anything never ceases. As it explains there, the example is the love of David and Yonasan: an essential, genuine love. That kind of love does not depend on anything, so nothing can undo it, even if various reasons and considerations fall away. An essential love does not cease. So as long as a person considers the body primary—as long as things matter to him according to the body’s reckoning—someone with more bodily advantages,

02:15 more material possessions, more material qualities, more money or honor, will inspire his love. The moment those things are gone, the love goes too. Therefore, as long as a person makes the body primary and the soul secondary, he cannot have true Ahavas Yisroel, only a love dependent on something else. The wording in Tanya seems to speak mainly about the body and the soul: if the body is primary and the soul secondary, there can be no true love and brotherhood between people. But in the explanation we discussed earlier, the Rebbe explained that there are levels within the soul as well. Even there, a person can be conscious of another’s qualities. So a love dependent on something is not limited to a person for whom the body is primary. It can apply even to someone for whom spirituality matters more than material things, if what matters to him is the other person’s spiritual qualities. And here, too, there are two levels. The Rebbe speaks here in general terms of body and soul; that is how the Rebbe explains it briefly. This is certainly implied in Tanya as well, though it is not stated explicitly in these words. But the Rebbe draws out the distinction in detail: it concerns not only the body; there can be two levels in one’s approach to the soul as well. A person may consider spirituality primary. He loves Hashem; he learns and davens, and spirituality is important to him. But why is it important to him? Because of reason and understanding, because of its qualities. He sees someone who is a great Torah scholar, who learns Torah and davens. He looks at that person’s spiritual qualities, and that is why he loves him. This, too, is called a love dependent on something. It is not limited to a material thing, to bodily matters. It can involve matters of the soul—but the soul as it takes the form of

04:25 a mensch. That, too, is dependent on something, and the love can cease. If that person suddenly stops serving Hashem or stops being charitable—if something happens in his life and he changes—he is no longer on the level I thought he was, and my love will change too. For there to be true Ahavas Yisroel, it is not enough to make the body secondary and the soul primary. One must relate to a particular level within the soul: the level connected with Hashem’s Essence, the soul at its loftiest level. The soul is a part of G-dliness—not merely the soul as it takes the form of a mensch, with reason and understanding. Only when a person brings out the soul’s true light, that part of the soul that is a part of G-dliness, and focuses on that point, is everyone truly one. Then all the… all the boundaries fall away completely, and there can be true Ahavas Yisroel. That is the meaning. Based on this point, the Rebbe gives a very beautiful explanation of Pirkei Avos. The Rebbe raises a wonderful question about what it says there: “Any love that depends on something—when… what is the wording? Any love that depends on something—when that thing ceases, the love ceases.” When love depends on something else, then if that thing ceases, so does the love. There is another version. Guys, guys, come on, this is a bit fantastic. I’m just saying… There is another version here in Pirkei Avos, and in other editions of the Mishnah the wording is: “Any love that depends on a transient thing.” Not, “Any love that depends on something—when that thing ceases, the love ceases,” but a different wording: “Any love that depends on a transient thing.” Such a love depends on something that will not last.

06:56 So let’s go over it again: “When that thing ceases, the love ceases”—here the word “ceases” appears again. The commentators explain that this means a love dependent on something transient: on a material thing. A material thing is transient because it is physical. You have it today; tomorrow you do not. If you love someone only because of the clothes he wears, or because of how much money he has—because of external things—those things come and go. Material things are not lasting things. They are here today and gone tomorrow. So this is a love dependent on a transient thing: what you base the love on will cease. It is not something lasting. By contrast, love based on spiritual qualities would not be called dependent on a transient thing. The Alter Rebbe does not use that wording. The Alter Rebbe writes simply, “Any love that depends on something”; he does not say “a transient thing.” What does this mean? In light of what we have just explained, we can understand the Alter Rebbe’s point: it is not only love dependent on a material thing that falls short. Even love dependent on a spiritual quality does. That quality is not transient; it is real. These are genuine virtues. Spirituality is not something transient; it is something real. But even so, whenever love depends on something—whether spiritual or material—it is a love that will not endure. It is not true love, but an external love. Why? Because ultimately, the moment it depends on some reason, even a spiritual reason, there can be a withdrawal and a sense of disappointment. When is it true Ahavas Yisroel? When it is an essential love, arising from the very fact that the other person is a Jew,

08:38 without any other considerations or calculations. But this raises a very simple question. After learning this passage in Tanya, which says that those who make the body primary and the soul secondary cannot have true Ahavas Yisroel—how is that possible? What is the point here? How can we say that the sole condition for reaching Ahavas Yisroel is to make the soul primary and the body secondary? Most Jews have not reached that level. But the explanation is that this is relevant to each and every person, since the Torah asks it of us. In his essence, inwardly, a Jew—as the Rambam says of every Jew—truly wants to do what Hashem wants. So this is a Jew’s inner nature. The true nature of a Jew is that the soul is primary and the body secondary, and that is why this can be asked of him in practice. In our actual avodah, of course, everyone is at a different level. One person has advanced further, another less so, and each person must work on himself throughout his life. But in the true sense of the matter, a Jew takes it as a given that the soul is primary and the body secondary, because that is the truth. That is how it is from the soul’s perspective, and he can act that way in practice too. In other words, even if I do not actually feel it in my heart, a Jew can at least act accordingly: think this way, speak this way, and conduct himself with the body secondary and the soul primary. This shows itself in his Ahavas Yisroel for every Jew, without calculations. And the truth is, we see this clearly. We see Ahavas Yisroel among Chabad chassidim. Talk to Chabad chassidim. Yes,

12:26 Of course, everyone needs to take stock of himself. I’m speaking generally. On a personal level, everyone needs to examine the state of his Ahavas Yisroel. But when we look at things in practice, in general, we see that among Chabad chassidim—Jews who learn Chassidus, are connected to the Rebbe, and live with the Rebbe, with the Rebbe’s teachings and sichos—the Rebbe has instilled this deeply. Chassidus instills in a chossid this Ahavas Yisroel without calculations. Do you love a Jew because he’s a Jew? These aren’t just words people say; you see it on the ground. And the whole world is impressed by it. They don’t understand it. The whole world is struck by the Ahavas Yisroel without calculations that they see in Lubavitch. You have no connection to him at all, yet you think about him, worry about him, care about him, and want to help him. It shows itself in all sorts of ways. A bochur goes on mivtzoim—what does he gain from it? What does he get out of it? He approaches a Jew he didn’t know before and won’t know afterward. He goes to him week after week, says a kind word, and puts tefillin on him. Why? Because he’s a Jew. And even if the man doesn’t put on tefillin, he continues to love him. It’s not that if I go to someone and, week after week, he doesn’t want to put on tefillin, I’ll start to hate him. No, I’ll continue to love him. Why? He’s a Jew. For us, that point is simply obvious. Sometimes the problem is the other way around. There’s a well-known saying—I don’t know whether the Rebbe said it, but people say it. Throughout the world they say, “A Jew, even though he has sinned, is still a Jew.” That’s what it says.

14:08 In the Gemara: a Jew, even if he sins, is still a Jew. But in Chabad we need to say the reverse: “A Jew, even though he hasn’t sinned, is still a Jew.” Sometimes our Ahavas Yisroel is so strong for people outside, but with people on the inside, things aren’t always so good. Bochurim in a yeshiva can have problems with this person or that one right there in the zal, in the classroom. One doesn’t speak to another, they don’t get along, and there’s all kinds of politics—yet he loves Jews who are very different from him. So we need to work on that too, even when [unclear]. To return to our subject: this is the Ahavas Yisroel the Rebbe is speaking about. In the inner sense, every Jew has the awareness that the soul is primary and the body secondary shining within him. He knows that this is the truth. Even if, in practice, he doesn’t yet live with it twenty-four hours a day, Chassidus teaches him that it is true: the soul is primary and the body secondary, and he comes to act accordingly. This happens with everyone in Ahavas Yisroel, each to his own degree. But to get to what the Rebbe says here—that true Ahavas Yisroel requires the soul to be primary and the body secondary—there is a very great innovation in the maamar Ve’atah Tetzaveh. All the bochurim learned the maamar Ve’atah Tetzaveh. It is the last maamar we received from the Rebbe to date, and there the Rebbe writes what seems to be an innovation: what Tanya says, that true Ahavas Yisroel comes when a person’s soul is primary and his body secondary, applies as long as we are speaking about a level of the soul that is above division. But once the essence of the soul shines within him—as with the luminary, as it says in the maamar Ve’atah Tetzaveh—when the luminary itself shines within a Jew,

16:11 the essence of the soul that is revealed in [unclear] is the gulgoles. From the standpoint of the essence of the soul, there are no limitations at all. So completely are there no limitations that this applies even from the standpoint of bodily matters, not only when the soul is primary and the body secondary. In other words, for Ahavas Yisroel, one need not negate the body’s existence. Even in bodily matters, even when a person is in one situation or another—from the standpoint of the soul’s true essence, one need not nullify the body to have Ahavas Yisroel. This is a remarkable innovation. In Tanya it says that to have true Ahavas Yisroel, one must nullify the body. One must reach a point where the body carries no weight for him. The Rebbe says that this is from the standpoint of a lower level of the soul. From the standpoint of the essence of the soul, which is rooted in Hashem’s Essence, there are no limitations. It is present in every detail, even in the body. So even when the body is not treated as something repulsive and loathsome, true Ahavas Yisroel can exist within bodily matters themselves. That is something tremendous. I once heard this from the rabbi. There was a sicha—I remember the rabbi saying it apart from the maamar Ve’atah Tetzaveh. I remember, there was a maamar, or the rabbi said—no, not a maamar, a sicha. It was in... Well, there was a sicha the rabbi spoke about, and this was brought there: the Rebbe mentioned Tanya, that to have Ahavas Yisroel the soul must be primary and the body secondary. Then the rabbi said: that’s Tanya. But after seven generations of the revelation of Chassidus, with the teachings of Chassidus coming down into practical avodah and all of that,

18:13 now one can bring about Ahavas Yisroel even when the body is primary. That was the point there: true Ahavas Yisroel can exist even when the body is primary. In other words, it’s something like Ve’atah Tetzaveh—not only when the soul and body are [unclear], but even when the body is primary. What does that mean? How can a person be [unclear] and have Ahavas Yisroel? The point is that after seven generations of the revelation of Chassidus, Chassidus has revealed that, on the contrary, the body in particular has an advantage: the body has an essential connection to G-dliness. We always speak about Chassidus as it was taught at first, but in the last generation, particularly in the Rebbe’s sichos, the Rebbe explained the whole idea of making a dwelling place in the lower realms, the significance of the body, and how the body in particular has a higher root than the soul, and so on. This point is mentioned briefly in Chassidus, but the Rebbe expanded on it. So that is what it means to say that even when the body is primary—even from the standpoint of the body itself, not only the body as a vessel for the soul—true Ahavas Yisroel is possible. That is because one senses in the body that it is connected with Hakadosh Boruch Hu in every last detail. So even from the standpoint of the body itself, true Ahavas Yisroel is possible. These are all ideas the Rebbe introduced. But Tanya tells us how things should be, and here we’re following Tanya. The point is that true Ahavas Yisroel comes when the soul shines within a person and the body carries no weight for him. Precisely because the soul is primary for him, he can have true Ahavas Yisroel. They tell of a chossid named Reb Mendel. Mendel

19:57 had genuine Ahavas Yisroel. Rabbi Kirland[?] writes about Reb Mendel’s Ahavas Yisroel. Reb Mendel was a mashpia in Lod, one of its first mashpi’im. He tells at length about Reb Mendel’s Ahavas Yisroel: he simply had a heart. He had a heart of gold and genuine Ahavas Yisroel. He couldn’t bear it when a Jew was distressed or things weren’t going well for him. He would simply cry. He was a Jew with genuine Ahavas Yisroel. Reb Mendel had a saying. He would ask, “How do you come to true Ahavas Yisroel?” And he would answer, “It’s very simple. A Jew inherently loves another Jew, because the Jewish people are essentially one, right? A Jew inherently has Ahavas Yisroel. A non-Jew is inherently separate; each one exists on his own. So when there is a rift between one Jew and another, it doesn’t come from the Jew within him. It comes from the non-Jew within him. There’s a non-Jew sitting inside him. Some goyishness has entered his mind and heart, and that goyishness creates the rift.” So Reb Mendel would say: “Get rid of the non-Jew within you and reveal the Jew within you, and you’ll have Ahavas Yisroel.” Very simple, no? But this is another way of saying what’s written in Tanya. This is what it means for the soul to be primary and the body secondary. The soul is primary—the Jew within you. The body is secondary—the non-Jew within you. So if, for a Jew, the soul, the Jew within him, is primary, then true love is possible. But if the non-Jew within him is primary—if the body takes that place—then there really is no true love. We’ll finish with one explanation by Rabbi Levi, by

22:26 The Rebbe’s father. Rabbi Levi has a very interesting explanation of the passage in Tanya we just learned. Everyone knows that Rabbi Levi explains things according to Kabbalah, but sometimes his explanations give an interesting depth to the whole passage, when you see how precise every word in Tanya is. So Rabbi Levi makes the following point. He says that the Alter Rebbe writes: “And the nefesh and ruach—who knows their greatness and their stature?” Why does the Alter Rebbe single out nefesh and ruach, specifically those two? He explains that, among the levels of the soul, nefesh relates to action. Nefesh is the aspect of action, the part of the soul connected with action. Ruach is middos, the part of the soul connected with the emotions. So at the levels of action and middos, which are Ze’eir Anpin and Malchus among the sefiros, there is differentiation. In Malchus, plainly, there is differentiation. Malchus is speech. And in Ze’eir Anpin, too, in the middos, there is differentiation: chesed, gevurah. There is differentiation. So in nefesh and ruach there is differentiation: “their greatness and their stature.” And what do “their greatness and their stature” mean? We just spoke about this. Greatness is chesed. Greatness is chesed: “Yours, Hashem, are the greatness and the might.” Greatness is chesed. “The great and mighty G-d”—greatness is chesed. “Stature” is gevurah. Why is stature gevurah? Because gevurah involves ascent, like water, like Yitzchak. That is why “stature” conveys ascent. So “their greatness and their stature” means chesed and gevurah. In other words, this is what Tanya says: there are two kinds of roots—roots associated with chesed, like Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel, chesed and gevurah. Some roots belong to chesed and some to gevurah. That is the meaning of “their greatness and their stature”: there is differentiation. “Who,” as we said, refers to Binah, okay? In Binah, which is above Ze’eir Anpin, there is no longer so much differentiation. With Beis Hillel, where they became differentiated,

24:42 that is at the level of middos. But in the intellectual faculties, there is not yet differentiation. There, chesed and gevurah can be together, so there is not yet so much differentiation. That is why it says, “Who knows their greatness and their stature?” On the one hand, there is “their greatness and their stature”; but in Binah, when Binah shines, then “who knows”—you can’t... It is a level where there is not yet differentiation. It is not revealed enough for a person to say, “This is chesed, this is gevurah, this is higher than...” Then what does he say next? “Especially since they are all compatible.” So all of that is in Binah. After that he says, “Especially since they are all compatible, and they all have one father.” He says that “especially since they are all compatible” is Daas. That is the higher Daas of chesed. And “they all have one father” is Chochmah. These are three levels: Chochmah, Binah, Daas. Where do we find Daas in “especially since they are all compatible”? He says that the wording is “especially since”—“bishgam.” “Bishgam they are all compatible.” It is an unusual word, “bishgam.” The Midrash says—ah, “bishgam” is a verse in Parshas Bereishis: “Bishgam he is flesh.” Bishgam, bishgam. The Midrash says that “bishgam” refers to Moshe, because that is its numerical value. “Bishgam” has a numerical value of 345, which refers to Moshe Rabbeinu. That is the meaning of “and his days shall be 120 years,” because Moshe Rabbeinu lived 120 years. That is what it says there: “Bishgam he is flesh, and his days shall be 120 years.” Even Moshe lived 120 years, and perhaps more. Moshe is Daas. After all, Tanya says in chapter 2 that Moshe is supernal Daas. So from the perspective of Daas, “they are all compatible.” “And they all have one father” is Chochmah. So these are the three levels, Chochmah, Binah... So from the perspective of

26:40 Malchus and Ze’eir Anpin, there is “their stature and their greatness”; there is differentiation. But from the perspective of Chochmah, Binah and Daas, those distinctions fall away.