Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 33 - Part 8

00:01 Speaker 1 Chavakuk came and based them all on one. By the way, Chavakuk was the son born to the woman we also learn about in the maamarim—the son we’re learning about now in the evening. What was the story of his birth? This woman had no children. Then she received a blessing from Elisha the prophet, and a son was born to her. That son died, and Elisha performed miracles. That son was Chavakuk. That was Chavakuk, wasn’t it? Ah, you knew? Right, Chavakuk—it doesn’t say so in Tanach, but the Midrash says that Chavakuk was the son of the Shunammite woman. A son was born to her and died, Elisha performed miracles, and afterward he became a prophet. He was the one who said, “The righteous person shall live by his faith.” But the Rebbe explains what it means that “Chavakuk came and based them all on one”: “The righteous person shall live by his faith” means that faith brings life into all 613 mitzvos. When a person feels that he has nothing else, that his entire life is devoted only to the mitzvah of faith—as though he had only that one mitzvah—then the joy and vitality he gets from faith, from recognizing and feeling that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is here below together with him, will give him so much strength that he can overcome any upheavals that may come. That was the point we learned until now. There’s a story. People tell it in connection with several things, but it’s relevant here too. It also helps explain what we were discussing about “Chavakuk came and based them all on one.” They tell of a Jew who was once walking down the street and met a friend. He saw that his friend looked miserable. He asked him, “What’s wrong?” The man had all kinds of worries. “I have

02:15 Speaker 1 thousands of problems, thousands of problems. I can’t take it anymore. Thousands of problems.” So his friend tries to get him talking. [unclear] He says, “Tell me, maybe I can help you?” The man says, “No, you can’t. It’s too much. Far too much.” So he says, “Well, we’re friends. At least tell me. ‘If a man has worry in his heart, he should talk about it.’” He starts telling him all his problems: one problem, then another, and another. All kinds of problems. He has trouble earning a living. Then he has several children to marry off. There’s already a whole line, so to speak, of sons and daughters who need to get married. Then Yom Tov comes, and he has to buy meat and fish and wine—the whole list, as they say. So his friend says, “You don’t have a thousand problems. You have just one problem: you need money. That’s the one issue behind all your problems. You need money—money to support yourself, money to marry off your children, money for... So you have one problem. Why make it into a thousand?” He says, “Ah, you’ve comforted me! One problem—a person can live with one problem. Until now I thought I had a thousand problems. Now I realize I have only one.” Well, that was one way of putting it. He got another little rebuke besides. It’s just a saying people tell. But here, of course, it means much more. Still, that is the point Chavakuk came and explained to a person: it isn’t a matter of 613 separate mitzvos, but of one point—faith. Faith is the central point of all 613 mitzvos. Here the Rebbe adds something more: not

04:09 Speaker 1 only is faith the central point of the 613 mitzvos, but the joy a person has from faith, the joy he has from the oneness of Hashem, strengthens him. It gives him the strength to overcome all the thousand obstacles that may arise. When the Alter Rebbe says here, on page 42b, in the line beginning “for there are,” chassidim sometimes point out the precise wording here, what the Alter Rebbe adds with this explanation about pushing aside obstacles. There is another maamar of the Alter Rebbe’s—it’s worth looking at the reference given above, in Likkutei Torah. In short, it’s discussed at greater length there in the volume of maamarim. There the Alter Rebbe gives another explanation of “The righteous person shall live by his faith.” “Shall live” specifically—that is the precise wording. It doesn’t say, “The righteous person is alive by his faith,” but “The righteous person shall live by his faith,” as though speaking in the future: he shall live. That would mean that before this he was dead, and through faith he becomes a living person. That seems to be the Alter Rebbe’s emphasis: “shall live” specifically. Not necessarily. Perhaps the emphasis is in the plain meaning. He uses the language of life. He doesn’t say, “The righteous person will fulfill the mitzvos by his faith,” or “The righteous person will fulfill the 613 mitzvos by his faith.” He speaks of life. So the Alter Rebbe explains that “The righteous person shall live by his faith”—“shall live” specifically, meaning life—is like the resurrection of the dead, for example. When a Jew lives with faith in the oneness of Hashem, it gives him life, as though he were being resurrected. His soul comes alive with great joy, like the resurrection of the dead. It is exactly like that: a person living with this joy experiences a true resurrection. In other words, a moment before faith in the oneness of Hashem brings about that change—before a person feels that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is here below together with him, that he is not alone—

06:07 Speaker 1 it brings about such a change in his soul, like the change from death to life. For him it becomes an actual resurrection of the dead. It is as though, a moment before, before faith was alive in him, before he felt the oneness of Hashem, he was like a dead person; and through this he passes from death to life. That is the transition. That is how powerfully it affects him. This emphasizes the magnitude of the joy, like a resurrection of the dead. Chassidim sometimes point out the precise wording here, what the Alter Rebbe adds with this explanation of the resurrection of the dead. In another maamar of the Alter Rebbe’s, entitled [unclear], in Likkutei Torah—it is discussed more fully in Sefer Hamaamarim—he gives a different explanation. There, “The righteous person shall live by his faith” also uses “shall live” in the sense of having life and savor, not life in the sense of resurrection. Sometimes, when you say something gives life, you mean that it gives savor. As we say in the blessing of Borei Nefashos: “Who creates many living beings and their needs, for all that You have created to give life through them to every living soul.” What does “to give life through them to every living soul” mean there? It isn’t speaking about bread. Borei Nefashos is said over foods that people eat for their taste. It isn’t bread. We say Borei Nefashos over meat, over fish, over things a person eats not only to sustain life but also for their taste. So the Shulchan Aruch explains, in discussing this blessing, what “to give life through them to every living soul” means. “To give life” there refers to savor. Lively. It gives a person a taste for life. It makes him lively; that kind of life means having savor. Accordingly, the Alter Rebbe explains in Likkutei Torah on Parshas Bechukosai, and in several other places, what “the righteous person

07:55 Speaker 1 shall live by his faith” means: contemplating the oneness of Hashem gives a person tremendous savor in life. But here the Alter Rebbe does not emphasize that. Here he emphasizes something stronger: “shall live” means a resurrection of the dead. Faith in the oneness of Hashem makes a person as though he has actually been resurrected. A moment earlier, it is as though he was dead, and through it he becomes cheerful and simply becomes a living person. This is also connected with a story the chassidim tell, I think in Sefer Hasichos 5668. It seems to me it’s Sefer Hasichos 5668, or perhaps Sefer Hasichos 5678. I don’t remember now. I read there that chassidim of the Alter Rebbe once sat together at a farbrengen. One of the chassidim stood up and said that Chassidus brings about the resurrection of the dead. They were talking about the beauty of Chassidus, about what Chassidus does for a person. So one of the elder chassidim said that Chassidus is the resurrection of the dead. What does that mean? He said that being dead means being cold. When a person is dead, he is cold. Being alive means warmth. And there is nothing colder than the mind. Yes, the mind is cold. [unclear] When the cold mind can grasp an idea with concentration—an idea about the oneness of Hashem—and be moved by it, that is a resurrection of the dead. You take something cold and dead and bring it to life. That is what the Alter Rebbe accomplished through Chassidus. This saying is also found in brief in Hayom Yom. I don’t remember exactly which day, but it appears in one of the entries in Hayom Yom too: the point that Chassidus is a resurrection of the dead. So that is what he says here: “shall live by his faith” is like an actual resurrection of the dead. It is joy.

09:45 Speaker 1 Doubled and redoubled. The Alter Rebbe continues now. Until this point, the Alter Rebbe has explained contemplation of the oneness of Hashem and the joy a person feels because Hakadosh Boruch Hu is right here with me—the joy of Hashem’s oneness. Now the Alter Rebbe goes on to say that this joy is, in fact, doubled and redoubled. There are several levels of joy here. It is not just one joy, arising from Hashem’s oneness, from the fact that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is here below and dwells with me. This joy is doubled and redoubled. Let’s read a little inside, and then we’ll explain it. What is doubled and redoubled here? “For besides the joy of the understanding soul in its closeness to Hashem and His dwelling together with it”—besides the joy a thoughtful person feels when he contemplates Hashem’s oneness, the joy of being close to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and of Hakadosh Boruch Hu dwelling with him—“he should also rejoice doubly.” There is another joy here, doubled and redoubled, a greater joy. Doubly in what sense? The Alter Rebbe says: “In Hashem’s joy and the great pleasure before Him, blessed be He, in this faith.” In other words, in the joy and pleasure Hakadosh Boruch Hu has when a Jew lives with this faith. So here the Alter Rebbe begins to introduce an entirely new idea. There are two joys. There is the joy I feel because Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with me. In contemplating Hashem’s oneness, that is the person’s joy. A person is happy when he realizes that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not in the seventh heaven, but is here below, together with me. That awakens tremendous joy in us. That is the person’s joy. And now there is another joy, a redoubled joy: the joy that Hakadosh

11:46 Speaker 1 Boruch Hu feels. One should rejoice in the joy of Heaven. A person needs to know that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is happy. What makes Hakadosh Boruch Hu happy? When a Jew who is down here in this physical world, with his mind immersed in materiality, in concealment, in a world of “me and nothing else,” a world of kelipos, a world of falsehood—when he learns Chassidus and contemplates the fact that... that brings great pleasure and joy Above. So I rejoice in that joy Above, in the fact that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is happy. That is the doubled joy, the joy of Heaven. Now, on a simple reading, that is what “doubled and redoubled joy” means. But what does “doubled and redoubled” mean? At first glance, the wording implies more than two joys. “Doubled” means two; what does “redoubled” mean? Seemingly three or four. “Doubled and redoubled” might mean four: two and then another two. So before we get to the explanations we’ll discuss shortly, what is the straightforward meaning? It is this: first, the joy is doubled. Why? Because one joy is the joy a person feels at Hashem’s closeness to him, and the second is his joy in the pleasure this gives Hakadosh Boruch Hu—in Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s joy. That makes it doubled. And when the Alter Rebbe says “redoubled,” he is speaking about quality. It is doubled in quantity and redoubled in quality. “Redoubled” does not mean another numerical doubling. When you say in the Holy Tongue “doubled and redoubled”—I don’t know whether other languages have this too, but in the Holy Tongue you say

13:46 Speaker 1 “doubled and redoubled”—“doubled” refers to quantity: not one, but two. But when you add “redoubled,” you mean that this is not merely another joy; the second joy is incomparably greater, an entirely different quality of joy. So “redoubled” refers not to quantity but to quality. That is the meaning. And what does it mean in simple terms? It’s understandable: the second joy is not merely another joy. It is utterly beyond comparison with the first. The first joy is what a person feels: I am happy that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with me. That is the joy of a created being. The second, by contrast, is the joy of the Creator—Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s joy that a Jew lives with this faith. The Creator’s joy is certainly beyond comparison with a created being’s joy. It is the incomparable difference between Creator and creation, a truly unlimited difference. So that is what “doubled and redoubled” means: there are two joys, and not only are there two, but the second is redoubled—greater in quality, an entirely different kind of joy. That is the straightforward reading. But there is a deeper explanation. The Rebbe’s father alludes to it briefly in Likkutei Levi Yitzchak, and the Rebbe explains it at greater length: “doubled and redoubled” actually means four levels of joy. The two joys we are discussing each have two parts. A person’s joy that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is close to him contains two joys, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s joy also contains two. There are four joys here. What are they? Let’s start at the beginning. First, why is a person’s joy doubled? When he contemplates Hashem’s closeness to him,

15:44 Speaker 1 there are two joys. We spoke about this—we mentioned it before the summer, though you’ve probably forgotten by now. The Alter Rebbe’s wording here is precise: the joy of His closeness “with him, together with him.” There is “with him,” and there is “together with him.” One is a little more distant; the other is closer. In other words, a Jew’s joy that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with him has two levels. The first is described in the Alter Rebbe’s earlier wording: the King stays as a guest in my home. He is a guest, there for only a day or two, in an encompassing way. Then there is something more: “and He dwells with them.” These are two different things. The King may come only in an encompassing way, without yet being internalized; or He may take up permanent residence, like someone living in a home. Broadly speaking, that is the difference between “with him” and “together with him.” A person contemplates the fact that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is in his home, but has not yet fully absorbed it. He contemplates it, but then forgets; it has not taken hold of him deeply. Or it remains only a matter of faith and has not reached conscious understanding and recognition. Even so, he is happy—tremendously happy—that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with him. But it has not yet taken hold. Then the Alter Rebbe says that He is not only “with him,” but dwells in the home permanently: it becomes internalized within the person. Once a person brings that faith into his conscious understanding, recognition, and comprehension, the Divine presence becomes more deeply internalized for him. Then the joy is doubled. That is the idea of doubled joy: a person rejoices that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with him in that first way, and then, to an even greater extent, that He

17:26 Speaker 1 Doubled. “Doubled” refers to the joy Hashem has. We now come to Hashem’s joy, and there are two kinds of joy there as well. What are they? The Alter Rebbe continues—look inside: “And furthermore, he will rejoice doubly.” There is an even greater double joy here. As we said, Hashem’s joy, too, is a double joy. “And this joy is”—that is, “the pleasure He derives from this faith”—the joy Hashem has. Here is the great novelty: the very fact that a Jew believes in the unity of Havayah brings Hashem pleasure. Why? What joy does Hashem derive from it? “For the sitra achra is subdued”: when a Jew here in this physical world lives with the unity of Havayah, the sitra achra is thereby subdued. “And darkness is transformed into light”: the darkness of the kelipos in this material world, which obscure and conceal His light until the time of the end, is transformed—as it is written, “He has set an end to darkness.” So there is a double joy here. Hashem has one joy from the subduing of the sitra achra, and another from darkness being transformed into light. We already said earlier in Tanya that subduing and transforming are two different things. Chapter 27 came up in last week’s Tanya class, where the Alter Rebbe explains that there are two kinds of pleasure before Him, from two different kinds of delicacies: sweet delicacies and sharp delicacies. Hashem derives pleasure from the beinoni who subdues the sitra achra while it is still in full force, and Hashem derives pleasure from darkness being transformed into light. That is what the Alter Rebbe says here. So it comes out that when a Jew believes in the unity of Havayah and lives with that faith, two things happen: the sitra achra is subdued. Through

19:29 Speaker 1 the fact that a Jew, despite the darkness of this world crying out, “I, and nothing besides me,” despite the kelipos crying out that they have an existence of their own, nevertheless lives with the unity of Havayah—on the one hand, he subdues the sitra achra, which gives Hashem one kind of joy. And beyond that, he also transforms darkness into light, which gives Him another kind of joy. The joy of subduing and the joy of transforming are two entirely different kinds of pleasure. Each has its own advantage, as explained in the maamarim. We learned a little about this just before Yud Shvat. The Basi Legani maamar discussed the difference between subduing and transforming, and how subduing has an advantage even over transforming, in terms of [unclear], and so on. This isn’t the place to go into it at length; we learned it a little while ago. But the point is that these are two distinct kinds. So this gives us a deeper interpretation: What does “double and redoubled joy” mean? Four kinds of joy. Two kinds relate to the person’s own joy in his closeness to Hashem and in Hashem dwelling with him, and two are on an entirely different plane: Hashem’s joys, which the person rejoices in because Hashem rejoices—the joy of subduing and the joy of transforming.

20:40 Speaker 2 Wait a moment—is your father involved at all, or is it only from the garbage dump?

20:45 Speaker 1 Through faith and the work of faith—but that pushes it away, and there is another point here. Look, when do subduing and transforming apply to this same matter? He is speaking here about subduing and transforming that are brought about through faith. A Jew sits and contemplates the unity of Havayah, and through this the sitra achra is subdued. First of all, within himself, right? Before I contemplated the unity of Havayah, I thought I was an independent existence. Through this contemplation I bring about the nullification of that sense of self, and this itself can have two stages. At first it is a matter of subduing. Later it goes further, until it becomes a transformation within him: the unity of Havayah becomes part of his very being. And beyond that, as we said earlier, when a Jew lives the unity of Havayah within himself, he draws it into the world. [unclear]. When a Jew contemplates the unity of Havayah, he also causes the unity of Havayah to be revealed in the world. So he brings about subduing and transforming not only within himself. “Until the time of the end,” as it is written, “He has set an end to darkness”—“that is, the end of the right hand.” What does “He has set an end to darkness” mean? Look, this refers to the end of the right hand, “when He will remove the spirit of impurity from the earth.” That is the idea of the end of the right hand. In other words, “the end of the right hand” is a phrase from a verse in Daniel. There are two verses. One says ketz hayamim, “the end of days,” with a final mem. Another says ketz hayamin, “the end of the right hand,” with a final nun; that refers to the Geulah. “The end of days,” with a mem, means that Hashem has set an end: How long will exile last? Until the end of the days of exile, when the Geulah begins. What does “the end of the right hand,” with a nun, mean? On the simple level, some say that hayamim and hayamin mean the same thing; the final mem and nun are sometimes interchanged. But on a deeper level, it is brought in [unclear] that “the right hand” refers to what is written about Hashem during exile: Hashem’s right hand is concealed—“He has turned back His right hand.” Hashem’s right hand, which brings kindness and revelation, is turned away: “He has turned back His right hand.” When Moshiach comes, Hashem will reveal the right hand again. It also says this in the prayer on Rosh Chodesh before Pesach: “He will restore His right hand.” Only when Moshiach comes will He restore His right hand. Hashem will restore and reveal the right hand, which is in a state of exile. That is what is meant by “the end of the right hand.” And here ketz does not mean an ending, but a beginning. Ibn Ezra explicitly writes that ketz has two meanings: it can mean an end, and it can mean a beginning. “The end of the right hand” means the point of beginning, when Hashem will reveal His right hand. Once Hashem reveals the right hand, the darkness will be dispelled, because darkness comes from the left, from gevurah. When the right hand is revealed, darkness will be dispelled. “The end of the right hand,” “when He will remove the spirit of impurity from the earth, and the glory of Hashem will be revealed, and all flesh together will see,” as it says here. That will happen in the future. But meanwhile, until Moshiach comes, darkness, the kelipos and the sitra achra are still here. When a Jew lives with the unity of Havayah, he brings about an inner Geulah in his own soul, and through this he brings very great pleasure Above—especially outside the Land of Israel. Here there is a mistake—well, not a mistake, but a change made because of the censors. Yes, the text says [unclear], but in the list of corrections the Rebbe corrects it to read “outside the Land of Israel.” “Especially outside the Land of Israel, where the air of the lands of the nations...” I think that is how the Rebbe corrects it too: “the air of the lands of the nations.”

22:39 Speaker 1 Look, “especially outside the Land of Israel, where the air of the lands of the nations is impure.” The Alter Rebbe now adds an even stronger point: contemplating the unity of Havayah, understanding the unity of Havayah and the matter of faith, is particularly relevant during exile. That is a time of double and redoubled darkness, and through this a Jew subdues the sitra achra by breaking through the darkness. Especially, the Alter Rebbe says, in physical exile and specifically outside the Land of Israel. That is to say, when a Jew sitting in Argentina learns Chassidus and contemplates the unity of Havayah, it is even more lofty and brings greater pleasure and joy Above than when a Jew sitting in Jerusalem, in the Land of Israel, learns Chassidus. That is what the Alter Rebbe says here. “Especially outside the Land of Israel”: because the kelipos are stronger there, “the air of the lands of the nations is impure,” as also stated in halachah. There are various laws of impurity concerning the air and the soil of those lands, concerning which decrees were made. So specifically when a Jew sits outside the Land of Israel and lives there with faith, the joy and pleasure Hashem derives are certainly even greater. “The air of the lands of the nations is impure and full of kelipos and sitra achra, and there is no joy before Him like the light and joy of the superiority of light that comes specifically from darkness.” Hashem has no greater joy than the joy of the superiority of light that comes from darkness: when a Jew finds himself in a state of darkness, and right there he lives with faith. The joy this brings Hashem is the greatest joy; there is no greater joy than that. And there is the well-known parable from the Maggid of Mezritch about the talking bird. He says that the greatest delight for a king—as they say, Hashem’s pleasure comes from a Jew contemplating

24:49 Speaker 1 Now, particularly outside Eretz Yisroel, where the air of the lands of the nations is impure. The Rebbe says—now the Rebbe adds an even stronger point—that contemplating the oneness of Hashem, understanding the oneness of Hashem and the matter of faith, is especially relevant during exile. That is when there is a doubled and redoubled darkness, and through this a Jew practices iskafya, subduing the sitra achra by breaking through the darkness. And particularly, the Rebbe says, in physical exile and specifically outside Eretz Yisroel. In other words, when a Jew sits in Argentina and learns Chassidus, contemplating the oneness of Hashem, that is more—it is loftier, and brings greater pleasure and joy to Hashem than when a Jew sits in Jerusalem, in Eretz Yisroel, and learns Chassidus. That is what the Rebbe says here. Particularly outside Eretz Yisroel, because there the kelipah is stronger: the air of the lands of the nations is impure. That is how it appears in halachah as well. Yes, there are decrees concerning the impurity of the air and the soil. Various laws concerning impurity state that the air of the lands of the nations has the status of impurity. So specifically outside Eretz Yisroel, when a Jew sits there and lives with faith, the joy and pleasure this gives Hakadosh Boruch Hu are certainly even greater. The air of the lands of the nations is impure and full of kelipos and sitra achra, and there is no greater joy before Him, may He be blessed, than the light and joy that come specifically from the superiority of light that emerges from darkness. There is no greater joy for Hakadosh Boruch Hu than the joy of that light emerging from darkness: a Jew is in a state of darkness, and right there he lives with faith. The joy this brings Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the greatest joy; there is no greater joy than that. And there is the well-known parable about this from the Maggid of Mezritch, concerning the talking bird. As they say, the king’s greatest delight... This idea that the pleasure Hakadosh Boruch Hu receives comes from a Jew contemplating

26:42 Speaker 1 In the unity of Hashem—that is the way. As brought in the name of the Maggid of Mezritch, there is the parable of the talking bird, what they call a parrot, right? The king takes more delight in the bird’s speech than in a person’s speech. True, a person says intelligent things, while the bird can only say a word or two; it doesn’t have much to offer. But still, the king takes greater delight in it. Why? Because it is a greater novelty. Even such a lowly creature, a bird that cannot really speak, can nevertheless say words. That novelty gives the king tremendous pleasure. So too Above: even a person living in this material, physical world, full of kelipos and sitra achra and so on, nevertheless lives with this idea and contemplates the unity of Hashem. The pleasure, the joy, the nachas that Hakadosh Boruch Hu has from this is the greatest there is. There is no greater joy. And a Jew who knows this, who takes it to heart, is happy to bring joy to Heaven. So the joy is doubled: he is happy that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is happy. It is like what tzaddikim always write, right? “May I merit to bring the Rebbe nachas.” What is the greatest joy a chossid can have? Knowing that the Rebbe has nachas. He is happy because of the nachas the Rebbe has. That is what the Rebbe is saying here as well. Knowing that Hakadosh Boruch Hu has nachas from this is the source of our joy. And this comes up in the sicha for Terumah. Anyone who wants can look afterward at the sicha for Parshas Terumah in 5752, the last sicha for Parshas Terumah that we received from the Rebbe. There, in the middle of the sicha, the Rebbe goes into this at some length: the idea that “when Adar enters, we increase in joy.” And the Gemara says: “Just as

28:26 Speaker 1 when Av enters, we diminish joy, so when Adar enters, we increase joy.” Why does the Gemara connect the joy of Adar with Av? It’s difficult; I can’t quite grasp that detail. So what does the Rebbe explain? On the contrary, as we say, “the advantage of light that comes from darkness.” So, just as when Av enters—joy comes through this, an even greater joy. And there the Rebbe brings up this whole idea. The Rebbe refers to chapter 33 of Tanya: a Jew is in a world of concealment, yet he contemplates how Hakadosh Boruch Hu is right there with him, how he is the son of a king, the only son of the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And the whole idea is that he sits there with such extraordinary joy—as the Rebbe spoke about in the very last sichos we merited to hear from him. This brings a person tremendous joy. That is the idea of increasing joy: there should be celebrations.