Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 34 - Part 2

00:01 Chapter 34. We are up to the line “the Shechinah spoke from his throat.” The Alter Rebbe says here that this state of bittul to Hashem was present in the Patriarchs constantly, all the time, in its fullest perfection. After them, it was also present in the prophets, each according to his level. There are certainly many different levels, but each of them had bittul to Hashem on one level or another. Moshe Rabbeinu was on the highest level of all. The Alter Rebbe cites the teaching of our Sages: “The Shechinah spoke from Moshe’s throat.” We didn’t have time to explain this in the previous class. What does it mean that the Shechinah spoke from Moshe’s throat? A person speaks with his throat. The throat is where a person’s voice passes through. So the throat is subordinate to the voice, just as all the limbs of a person are subordinate to the soul. We learned this in chapter 23. The Alter Rebbe explained that a limb obeys the soul and is completely subordinate to it. Whatever the soul wants to do, the limb does automatically, without being commanded or summoned. The moment a person wants to move his hand or his foot, it moves. The same is true of the throat and the voice: the throat is not an entity unto itself. Its whole function is to be subordinate to the voice, which passes through it, enabling a person to speak. The teaching of our Sages means that with Moshe Rabbeinu, his throat was subordinate not just to his voice, but to the Shechinah. That is the meaning of “the Shechinah spoke from his throat.” Moshe Rabbeinu’s bittul to Hashem permeated him so completely that there was no act, no

02:38 part of him, no movement that was not connected with G-dliness. So the point is not merely that his throat was subordinate to his voice. The very reality of his throat was that the Shechinah spoke from it. It was as though he had no separate existence when he spoke. It was not “my voice; I am speaking here.” The Shechinah was speaking. Hakadosh Boruch Hu was speaking. There was no separate existence of his own at all; Hakadosh Boruch Hu spoke through him. This is explained in Chassidus. And where do we see this with Moshe Rabbeinu—that his whole being and his voice were not his own, but the Shechinah speaking from his throat? We see it in the Chumash. As is known, Moshe Rabbeinu said the Book of Devarim—“Moshe spoke on his own initiative,” as the Gemara puts it. In Devarim, Moshe Rabbeinu is speaking. Take the verse “And it shall be, if you listen.” Moshe Rabbeinu says it. Listen to how it reads: “And it shall be, if you diligently listen to My commandments which I command you today, to love Hashem your G-d and to serve Him.” We see something unusual there. On the one hand, he says, “to love Hashem your G-d”—Moshe is speaking to the Jewish people and telling them to love Hashem. On the other hand, he uses language that refers to himself: “which I command you,” and then he says, “And I will give.” That is the example Chassidus brings from this verse: “And I will give.” Who is the “I” who will give? If Moshe Rabbeinu is speaking himself, he should have said… Moshe is speaking in the name of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so he should have said… Instead, he says, “And I will give.” Sometimes he uses one form of expression and sometimes another. In any case, from this we see—and this is one

04:47 of the proofs brought in Chassidus—that because Moshe Rabbeinu had no separate existence of his own, because his whole being was G-dliness and the Shechinah spoke from his throat, his bittul was absolute. He felt: “It is not I who am speaking; the Shechinah is speaking.” So when he said, “And I will give,” he meant Hakadosh Boruch Hu. There is no question about it. He could say “And I will give” because it was Hakadosh Boruch Hu speaking through him—not Moshe as a separate entity, but G-dliness, Hakadosh Boruch Hu speaking through him. That is why he could say “And I will give” in the name of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This is the idea. Moshe Rabbeinu had this bittul, absolute bittul, with no separate existence of his own. In any case, this is a point discussed often. The Rebbe speaks about it a great deal in his sichos, in connection with speaking about a Rebbe. There is a well-known sicha in which the Rebbe speaks about what a Rebbe is, and the misnagdim came out against it. They ask questions: “What is going on here?” That simply comes from not knowing this whole subject. Have they heard the teachings of our Sages about it? This is what the Zohar says. The Zohar states explicitly that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is called… And for those who object, if proof from the Zohar is not enough for them, there is also proof from the Jerusalem Talmud. It says so there too, so clearly there is a basis for it. But what is the reasoning? The whole explanation—and this is the mistake made by people who do not study Chassidus—is that they do not understand bittul. They do not study Chassidus. When you praise a person, then the praise belongs to that person. You are praising him as a person, as an entity unto himself. Right?

06:50 So when you say that this person is a genius, a tzaddik, a great man, a rabbi, or wise, you are speaking about his mind. How many titles can you give him? “The great scholar,” “the righteous rabbi,” “the pious rabbi,” this rabbi and that rabbi—today people pile on every title they can. That is the way of the world today; people love falsehood. They give everyone all kinds of titles. Rabbi Greenspass once related that the Rebbe wrote a letter to one of the rabbis in America and addressed him as “HaRav HaGaon.” One of the secretaries asked the Rebbe, “How can you call this man that? Everyone knows he is simply an ignoramus.” The Rebbe stands for truth, so why write “HaRav HaGaon”? The Rebbe answered that the initials could stand for “HaRav HaGaon,” “the great scholar,” or they could stand for “HaRav HaGoy,” “the gentile rabbi.” Initials can mean different things; interpret them as you like. That is one story told about the Rebbe. In any case, that is how things are today. When you praise someone, praise in the ordinary sense refers to his personality as a person: what he is, what qualities he has, his titles. He is a great rabbi, a great scholar; he is learned, a genius, G-d-fearing, a tzaddik, holy, and so on. So if you then offer praise of that kind and say, “Do you know what he is? G-dliness,” G-d forbid—that touches on idolatry. Since praise means you are speaking about his own existence, saying something G-dly about a person’s existence means giving independent significance to something other than Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That touches on idolatry. This is the misnagdim’s objection: How can you say such things about a Rebbe,

08:37 or say things of that kind about the Rebbe? But the Zohar does say it, and the Jerusalem Talmud says it too. They do not really understand what it means. So what does it mean? The point is as the Rebbe explains. Chapter 34 follows chapter 33, where the Alter Rebbe explained the whole concept of Hashem’s oneness: that “there is nothing besides Him.” Hashem’s oneness means that there is nothing besides Him, no existence apart from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is the true meaning of Hashem’s oneness. Someone who has never studied Chassidus would not know this. Chassidus reveals the true meaning of Hashem’s oneness: there is no independent existence; there is only Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The Alter Rebbe explained this at length, with the examples of the sun’s rays within the sun and letters within the soul. There is only He alone, and nothing besides Him. What is a Rebbe? What is a tzaddik? A tzaddik is a person in whom the truth that “there is nothing besides Him” shines openly. That is the meaning. For example, the Alter Rebbe begins chapter 34 with this point: he has no separate existence of his own at all. He has absolute bittul. So quite the opposite—you are not praising him as an entity unto himself, G-d forbid. You are saying that he is not a separate entity; that in this person, the state of being nothing in his own eyes, of absolute bittul, has reached its fullest perfection. That is the whole idea of Hashem’s oneness. His bittul encompasses his body and his entire being. When a sage speaks, you see that there is no separate existence of his own. In such a state, he can speak in a way that refers to Hakadosh Boruch Hu as though he were speaking about himself, because he has no separate existence of his own. “A person’s agent is truly like the person himself.” It is the one who sent him who is speaking here, and that is the idea in this case too. It is not that we say, “the face of the Master”

10:20 “Havayah—that is Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.” But when the Rebbe speaks in the first person, in a physical body, it is not, G-d forbid, to lend support to something outside of G-dliness. On the contrary: it means that the Rebbe exists in such a way that he has no independent existence at all. His entire existence is to reveal G-dliness, so that through him “there is nothing besides Him” is revealed—that there is no existence apart from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. For him, this is openly revealed. The Rebbe once said this in a maamar. Why the Alter Rebbe? Why? After all, the concept of a tzaddik, the concept of a Rebbe, had always existed, in every generation. So how could so many generations pass without this whole concept of a Rebbe in Chassidus? Only the Alter Rebbe began to reveal the whole thing again. It existed; it is not that there were no tzaddikim or no leader of the Jewish people. There was always a leader of the Jewish people. There was [unclear]; there was the Maharal of Prague in his generation; there were tzaddikim. Nevertheless, this idea of a connection—a chossid’s connection to a Rebbe, traveling to the Rebbe, speaking about the Rebbe, and all these things—the whole concept of a Rebbe, all the excitement surrounding it, began together with the revelation of the secrets of Chassidus. What is the connection? Why? This whole concept is something real, written in the Zohar; it should always have been there. So the Rebbe once explained it this way: As is well known, Chassidus is the beginning of the revelation of Moshiach. “Your wellsprings will spread outward.” That is what the Baal Shem Tov said: the revelation of Moshiach is connected with the revelation of Chassidus. The revelation of Chassidus is the beginning of Moshiach’s revelation, of the qualities of Moshiach. So, with the revelation of Moshiach, what will be revealed? It will be revealed in the world that “the glory of Hashem will be revealed, and all flesh will see that the mouth of Hashem has spoken.” The revelation of

11:56 Moshiach means that it will be openly revealed in the world that there is nothing besides Him. We are learning this now in the maamarim, and we learn it as a matter of faith; then people will come and see it with their physical eyes: “All flesh will see that the mouth of Hashem has spoken.” So, to make the weighty concept of Hashem’s unity easier for us to grasp, Hakadosh Boruch Hu brought down and revealed the concept of tzaddikim. They had always existed, but this was concealed. Hakadosh Boruch Hu revealed the concept of a Rebbe: on the one hand, a Rebbe is a soul in a body, and on the other hand, he has no independent existence. In practice, when you look at him, you see a person whose entire being is G-dliness. He has nothing of his own that matters to him. His whole existence, his entire purpose, is only to reveal G-dliness in the world. This is apparent even in the nature of his body, because you see a person who does not function according to the laws of nature. We mentioned that, in the Rebbe’s case, doctors said that for eighteen years of his life he had not lived according to the laws of nature. Medically, he was very ill. [unclear] He was not living according to nature. Doctors could not understand how he could live. In other words, with your physical eyes you saw a living person, you saw him with a body, and yet you could see that this was not an ordinary body. And you can see this in the Rebbe more generally. Plainly, the Rebbe was a person who, according to the laws of nature... A few months ago, a well-known doctor from Eretz Yisroel was here. He is not a chossid, but he had the privilege of knowing the Rebbe. He saw him. He once spent a week or two with the Rebbe. He was here in Argentina, and he told us about his visit to the Rebbe. I think

13:33 it was in the month of Tishrei. He was with the Rebbe over Sukkos, and someone invited him to a meal at Rabbi Levi Gordon’s home, and so on. He had been the doctor of various Rebbes in Eretz Yisroel, including in Ger, and he had connections with various prominent people there. And he had been with the Rebbe. So he asked a little about the Rebbe’s daily habits, and people told him. He said—he told us this here—that when he saw how the Rebbe lived and conducted himself, and heard about the Rebbe’s daily schedule, he thought: This is not... this is a person who does not live in this world. There is no physical explanation for how a person with the Rebbe’s daily schedule could function as the Rebbe did at his age. There is no medical explanation for it. It makes no sense at all according to the laws of nature. We do not need to hear this from a doctor, of course. To us, this was obvious; that is how we understood the Rebbe all along. Nevertheless, when you hear it from someone who understands medicine, it is something recognized in the physical world: this is not according to nature. How can a person live with such a routine? His mealtimes, his sleeping hours, how he maintains himself, how he manages such a heavy schedule—none of it makes sense according to nature. How can this person live? What does it mean? It means that something is being revealed here in the world: within physical existence, the reality that there is nothing besides Him. So we are not, G-d forbid, trying to give significance to something outside of G-dliness. On the contrary: it means that it is being revealed here that there is nothing outside of G-dliness. That is truly the meaning of “there is nothing besides Him.” That is what is being revealed here. That is what

15:12 the Alter Rebbe says here in Tanya: with the Patriarchs, and likewise with the prophets, and especially with Moshe Rabbeinu, the reality that there is nothing besides Him shines openly. To the point that [unclear]. So what independent existence was there? And the Alter Rebbe’s wording on this is: “And this was so for all of Israel at Mount Sinai.” The Alter Rebbe says that this awareness of “there is nothing besides Him”—what we said about it permeating a person’s entire being—was also experienced by all the Jewish people. But only once. This level, which Moshe experienced constantly, was experienced by the Jewish people as a whole, by every individual, only once in history. “And this was so for all of Israel at Mount Sinai.” At Mount Sinai there was a particular moment, a time when all the souls of Israel and the entire Jewish people were there, souls and bodies, and so on. At that time, G-dliness was revealed so tangibly that the reality of “there is nothing besides Him” shone within the Jewish people. They felt it in the most absolute way. But only for a brief time, for however long the giving of the Torah lasted. This is in today’s Tanya. Later, at the very end of the chapter, he discusses it as well, and in chapter 36 in greater detail. Here he says only that they could not bear the revelation of “I am Hashem” at the time of the giving of the Torah, at the revelation at Mount Sinai. You see, the Jewish people’s bodies did not have the capacity to contain the light of Ein Sof in that way, and so they could not bear it. As our Sages say, at every utterance their souls departed. In other words, they did not have the capacity to live with it. Moshe Rabbeinu, however, experienced

17:03 it in a way that he had the capacity to contain: he remained standing in his place, as the Rambam writes. That is the difference between all the prophets and Moshe. All the other prophets would fall and grow weak during prophecy. Moshe Rabbeinu remained standing throughout. The reason was that his body was so refined and so pure that it was a vessel for the openly revealed light of Ein Sof at all times. But the Jewish people as a whole did not have that capacity. Therefore, “their souls departed”—a state of complete self-nullification. In other words, the moment they grasped the reality of the light of Ein Sof, they became completely nullified. They simply ceased to exist as independent beings; they could not contain it within the vessels of this world. The world itself was nullified. But that is not the intent. The intent is for the light of Ein Sof to be revealed in a way that joins with physical existence. The Jewish people, however, were not yet refined or ready for this. As explained in the maamar we are learning here at night—the maamar “Lema’an Tesaper,” which most of the students in the third year are learning—it describes the difference between Avraham and Yitzchak as being like the difference between the giving of the Torah and the days of Moshiach. At the giving of the Torah, G-dliness truly was revealed here in the world. But because the revelation did not come through the world below—meaning that the world had not been refined—it brought about self-nullification. So as soon as the revelation passed, the world remained just as it had been. That is why the sin of the Golden Calf could happen after the giving of the Torah: the change had not come from below upward; it had come from above downward, and so it was not yet according to the ultimate intent. By contrast, there is the refinement we are constantly carrying out. When Moshiach comes, the light of Ein Sof will be revealed

18:45 In a way that works from below upward, through the vessels of the world, so that it would be possible to receive it. At the Giving of the Torah, too, there was a revelation of Hashem’s oneness to the Jewish people, but it came in a way they could not receive. Their souls flew out of their bodies, because they did not have the vessels to receive it. So He immediately told them to make a Mishkan with a Holy of Holies in it. The Jewish people could not receive the revelation of Hashem’s oneness; they had not been refined. So Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave them things through which they could become refined and receive the idea of Hashem’s oneness—to clothe it in vessels, to bring it into garments. So what was the Mishkan? As explained in Chassidus, the difference between the Giving of the Torah and the indwelling of the Shechinah in the Mishkan is along the lines of the difference discussed between the Giving of the Torah and the days of Moshiach, the difference between two extremes. But first, this is also the difference in general between the Giving of the Torah and the Mishkan. At the Giving of the Torah there was a revelation from above, and it brought about complete self-nullification. Afterward came the Mishkan, which worked from below upward: making a vessel, making a place where the Shechinah could dwell, where Hashem’s oneness would also be present, but in a way that was clothed within it. “Make them a Mishkan with a Holy of Holies in it.” What is in the Mishkan? In the Mishkan there is a Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies is where His Shechinah dwells—the revelation of His blessed oneness, as it says regarding the Holy of Holies. That is the place where the Shechinah is present, and where Hashem’s oneness is present in its fullest perfection. In other words, Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted them to be able to receive the idea of Hashem’s oneness in the world. What was special about the Holy of Holies? The Aron HaKodesh was there. And as we know, the Aron HaKodesh—what was special about the Aron HaKodesh? The Aron HaKodesh was in a manner of

20:32 “The place of the Ark took up no space.” They wrote, the sons of Mahari [unclear], they wrote it here. There was this phenomenon that the place of the Ark took up no space. There, in... what was there in the Holy of Holies, in that very place? You could see it. On the one hand, it had measurements and limits. As with the Tablets, it says in the parsha, “And the Ark shall be two and a half cubits...” It had to have measurements and limits according to the Torah. And the Holy of Holies, too, had measurements and limits according to the Torah: ten cubits, ten cubits [unclear]. It says in Parshas Vayakhel as well that it had measurements. Yet when they measured, it was as though the Aron HaKodesh was not there: five cubits on one side and five on the other. And where were the two and a half cubits? Where had those two and a half cubits gone? They did not exist. Yet when you measured the Ark itself, you had an Ark two and a half cubits wide. It occupied space and took up no space at the same time. How can that be? Because there, at the place of the Ark, Hashem’s oneness was openly revealed—“there is nothing else besides Him.” From that perspective, all measurements and limitations are nullified. Yet both things are true at once: on the one hand, it can occupy space, and at the same time, within that very space, its taking up no space is also revealed. As is explained many times about this, [unclear], and this opens up further questions. How exactly does it work? The unity of Havayah above... But what is the point here? This was a vessel through which to draw Hashem’s oneness into the world. Why was a vessel needed for that? Because the Jewish people could not receive it, so it had to come through vessels, through the Holy of Holies and the Ark, with all that this entails. There is an interesting nuance here. The Rebbe raises it, and I’ll give you the exact wording in a moment. It is brought—anyone who learned the sicha, I don’t know if you learned it—in the volume

22:15 on Parshas Vayakhel, which happens to be this week’s parsha. There is a sicha of the Rebbe in volume three on Vayakhel. There the Rebbe cites several opinions about when Hakadosh Boruch Hu told Moshe Rabbeinu about the Mishkan. According to Rashi, when was the command to make the Mishkan given? After the sin of the Golden Calf, right? So that was not immediately. Here it says “immediately,” meaning immediately after the Giving of the Torah. There are indeed several opinions on this. One opinion says that both Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s command to Moshe and Moshe’s command to the Jewish people came after Yom Kippur. Another says that Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s command to Moshe came earlier, but Moshe did not command the Jewish people until after Yom Kippur. And there is an opinion that it all happened immediately, right after the Giving of the Torah: before the sin of the Golden Calf, both Hashem’s command to Moshe and Moshe’s command to the Jewish people had already taken place. The Rebbe explains there that this reflects the difference between tzaddikim, beinonim, and resha’im—three levels. There is a very beautiful sicha of the Rebbe there, in volume three on Vayakhel, explaining how to reconcile the three opinions and their three levels in avodah. Here in the wording of Tanya, the Alter Rebbe says, “He immediately told them.” That sounds like he follows the opinion that the command concerning the Mishkan was given immediately. Although, as the Rebbe says, one could also read “He immediately told them” differently: it could mean that Hakadosh Boruch Hu commanded Moshe immediately, while some time passed before Moshe told the people, and that would still count as “immediately.” The sin of the Golden Calf took place in between. So it is possible to read the Alter Rebbe as following that opinion, but the wording suggests more strongly that he is speaking according to the opinion that it happened immediately. “Since the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, Hakadosh Boruch Hu has no dwelling place in His world for His presence and His blessed oneness

24:25 other than the four cubits of halachah.” That was in the time of the Beis Hamikdash. When a Jew wanted to experience the oneness of Havayah, he had to go to the Beis Hamikdash. A Jew would go up to the Beis Hamikdash three times a year on the pilgrimage festivals, and there he would see a revelation of G-dliness in the Mikdash, vividly. It even says in the Midrash that they would open the curtain for them so they could see the miracle that the place of the Ark took up no space. There is such an opinion. However it was done, there they experienced the oneness of Havayah, and it affected them throughout the entire year. But now that we do not have that, the Gemara says that since the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, Hakadosh Boruch Hu has nothing in His world but the four cubits of halachah. So he says that Hakadosh Boruch Hu dwells there, and His blessed oneness is there, in the four cubits of halachah—the place He desired for His dwelling—as they said, He has nothing in His world but the four cubits of halachah. Where can a Jew now connect with the oneness of Havayah? In Torah study. After all, what was in the Holy of Holies, in the place of the Ark? The Torah. Now that the place of the Ark does not exist physically, it exists spiritually. When a Jew studies Torah—the four cubits of halachah—and connects with the Torah, that is where he connects with the oneness of Havayah. So what is the Alter Rebbe trying to tell us with all this? The Alter Rebbe is following a sequence here. Let’s say again: what is the point he wants to reach? This is where the Alter Rebbe is heading. In chapter 33 we discussed the oneness of Havayah: a Jew should be happy and rejoice because through it he has closeness to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The question was that, seemingly, this joy comes only from faith. It exists only through the power of my faith. But what happens in actual practice? In actual practice, I do not live

26:13 with it. My whole being—my limbs, my body, my entire existence—stands outside of it. So it is only through the power of my faith. But the Alter Rebbe says that for them, for Moshe and so on, it was revealed. For the Jewish people as a whole, it is not revealed. Where is it revealed for them? Through the Beis Hamikdash. And now that there is no Beis Hamikdash, it is in the Torah. In other words, for a Jew today to reach the oneness of Havayah openly, in actual practice and in day-to-day life, he does so by studying Torah. Consequently, he should experience joy in his Torah study. The same joy we discussed in chapter 33—the joy in the oneness of Havayah, in the oneness of Havayah as apprehended through faith—should also be present when he studies Torah. Through Torah study he draws the oneness of Havayah upon himself, because that is the four cubits of halachah. There is a vort from Reb Levik, if I’m not mistaken—a vort from the Rebbe’s father—about the four cubits of halachah. He offers a beautiful thought. What is the idea of “the four cubits of halachah”? What does that wording mean—“the four cubits of...” Hakadosh Boruch Hu has nothing but the four cubits of halachah? He says that the four cubits of halachah—what is four times...? What does it come to? He says that the four cubits of halachah correspond to Gemara. What is the numerical value of “Gemara”? It comes to two hundred and forty-four. So what is the numerical value of “halachah”? Halachah is sixty. Four times sixty is what? Four times sixty is two hundred and forty. So four times halachah, together with the four—the “four cubits of halachah,” meaning four times. It says that “the four cubits of halachah” means four times halachah, together with the four

28:23 Of the number four, the four amos, which also correspond to the four letters of the name Havayah. So that comes to 244, which is the gematria of “Gemara.” So he says: When you learn Gemara, those are the four amos of halachah. It means that there, in Gemara, you can receive what is associated with the four letters.