Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 36 - Part 2

00:01 We are in the middle of chapter 36. Here the Alter Rebbe begins to clarify the statement of our Sages that the purpose of the creation of this world is that Hakadosh Boruch Hu desired to have a dwelling place in the lower realms. And what is the purpose of all creation? Hakadosh Boruch Hu had a desire. What was that desire? To have a dwelling place here, in this lower world. And what does it mean for Him to have a dwelling place in this world—a dwelling place in the lower realms? The Alter Rebbe explains that when we speak about Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the whole concept of “lower” does not apply, just as the concept of “upper” does not apply, because to Hakadosh Boruch Hu everything is equal. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is one and unique, just as He was before creation, when He alone existed. So there could be no concept of upper and lower, because there was only Him. And even now, the concepts of above and below do not apply to Him, blessed be He. From the perspective of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, it is the same now as well. He is equally present now. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not, on His part, revealed more in one place; He is not more present there. The infinity of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not more present in this lower world or in the higher worlds. So from the perspective of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, everything is equal. Why, then, are they called higher and lower worlds? The difference is in relation to those receiving His light. That is, from the perspective of created beings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu made it so that, in their experience, a created being does not sense the Infinite. Each created being senses it only in a limited way, according to its own nature. And this is what gives rise to higher and lower worlds. Where the Divine light shines on a higher level, where a greater closeness to and attachment to G-dliness is felt, that is considered a higher realm. And where there is

01:57 more concealment and obscurity, a greater sense of distance, that is considered a lower world. The Alter Rebbe explains that the light of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is enclothed through many garments. In other words, from the perspective of Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself, of His unity and oneness, He is equally present everywhere. But when His light is enclothed within the limits of those receiving it, there are many garments. Each world is another garment. Sorry, each world is another garment. Just a moment. So there are garments, with each world adding another garment, and through that garment there is more concealment and less revelation of G-dliness. So he says: “This is the meaning...” We are at this point in chapter 36, in the [unclear] lesson, after the word “etc.” “And this is the meaning of the chainlike progression of the worlds and their descent from level to level.” The Divine light reaches us through garments, and in each world there is another garment, so there is less revelation of G-dliness in each successive world. In the language of Kabbalah and Chassidus, this is called the chainlike progression of the worlds. What does “chainlike progression” mean? As is well known, Chassidus explains in a number of places that it means a chain. Like a chain: there is one link, and another link, and another link. Each link is lower than the one before it, but part of that link is connected to the one above it. Then the link continues, extending outward and connecting to the one below it. That is how a chain works. It proceeds in order, step by step. This is also how it reaches this world. The highest world is the first garment, where G-dliness is revealed in the loftiest way that a world can receive. After that comes another link, another descent, another garment, and the light becomes more concealed.

04:26 And so it proceeds like a chain, from level to level, “through the multitude of garments that conceal the light and life-force from Him, blessed be He.” That is the definition of the chainlike progression of the worlds. What does it mean? It means a multitude of garments—various garments that conceal the light. Each garment brings a further tzimtzum, another reduction and another descent of the Divine light, level by level, “until this physical, material world was created.” After all those many stages of progression, level after level, reaching the greatest possible tzimtzum, this actual physical, material world came into being. “Until this world was created.” And here is the difference the Rebbe makes. When he comes to this physical world, the Rebbe does not say, “until it descended through the chainlike progression.” Until now, when speaking about the higher worlds, the Rebbe has used the term “chainlike progression.” But when that chain reaches this lower world, the Rebbe says, “until it was created.” The Rebbe emphasizes that this is not a matter of chainlike progression. It does not mean that there was another step in the chain, another descent. Rather, something new came into being: this physical world was created. So after all the many stages, levels and garments of G-dliness, this actual physical, material world was created. “And it is the lowest in degree, with none lower than it.” This physical world is the lowest there can be. There can be none lower than it. In what way is this world the lowest, with none lower than it? “In the concealment of His light, blessed be He.” This means that the concealment in this world is at its greatest. There is no greater concealment. Here G-dliness is concealed, “in a darkness doubled and redoubled, until it is full of kelipos and sitra achra, which actually oppose Hashem, saying, ‘I, and nothing besides me.’” That is how far the concealment goes.

06:44 The concealment in this physical, material world goes so far that this world is not merely a place of greater concealment. There are also kelipos and sitra achra here that oppose Hashem. First he speaks of concealment, and then we have to look further at what it means to oppose Hashem. There are several points here. So let’s first explain the general idea. What is the main point the Rebbe is explaining? He is explaining the meaning of “lower realms.” It means that there is none lower. That is the true definition of the lower realms: a world with none lower than it. What does that mean? He explains that, in general, there is a chainlike progression. Like a chain, each level is lower than the one before it: another garment, more concealment, less revelation, less of everything. What makes this physical world one with none lower than it? Who says there couldn’t be something even lower? What does it mean to say that this link in the chain has none lower than it? No, there is nothing lower. But how do we know? What is the explanation? Just as the chainlike progression has continued until now, perhaps it could continue to something even lower. So the Rebbe explains when it is possible to speak of a further descent. As long as there is some measure of revelation, you can speak of more or less—of still less revelation, another descent, another reduction. Another tzimtzum, and another, and another. As long as some point of light remains, you can say that it could be reduced further. But the point about this lower world is not that it has the least light.

08:34 Here, the meaning is “doubled and redoubled darkness.” Here there is no longer any light, and so this is what it means that there is no lower realm beneath it. Take, for example, an intellectual idea. There are intellectual ideas on different levels, as in the order of hishtalshelus. Some ideas are deep, others are deeper still, and so on, descending from higher to lower. You can bring an intellectual idea down further and further. King Shlomo, for instance, used three thousand parables. He could bring an intellectual concept down through three thousand levels, one level after another. True, each parable was another descent, another contraction and a greater concealment. But what did they all have in common? They were still within the realm of intellect. There is profound intellect, simple intellect, and all the levels in between. As long as it remains within the realm of intellect, even in its most limited form, you can say that perhaps there is a still lower level; perhaps it can be contracted further. An intellectual idea may be very, very simple, but you cannot say that it is the simplest possible idea. You can say it is very simple, but perhaps there is an even simpler idea. Ultimately, it is still within the realm of intellect, so perhaps it can be contracted further. By contrast, when there is no revelation of light left at all, that progression has ended. This is a lower realm beneath which there is none. And this is what the Rebbe says here as well. In the worlds, there is the entire order of hishtalshelus down to this physical world: the World of Yetzirah, the World of Beriah, the World of Atzilus—the entire order of hishtalshelus. There is less revelation as you descend from the World of Atzilus: less in Beriah, still less in Yetzirah, and less in spiritual Asiyah, but there is

10:22 still some form, some definition, some element of revelation there. And since there is still revelation, something lower than it is possible. By contrast, in this physical world, there is concealment of His blessed light and doubled and redoubled darkness. Here, the defining feature is concealment. It is not a realm of revelation, but of concealment, and nothing can be lower than that. This is what it means that there is no lower realm beneath it. The Rebbe then adds that, within this idea that this world is a world of concealment, there are several details. First, the Alter Rebbe says, “the concealment of His blessed light.” The emphasis is on the concealment of His blessed light. In other words, when we explain what “this lower world” means—that there is no lower realm beneath it—how is this world’s lowliness expressed? There are several details to it. First, the Alter Rebbe says, “the concealment of His blessed light.” This describes an absence: there is no light there. In other words, the first point in explaining why this world is a lower realm beneath which there is none, why it is defined as the lowest realm, is that there is no revelation there at all. That is the point: the concealment of His blessed light. Then the Alter Rebbe goes further: “doubled and redoubled darkness.” This is no longer merely the concealment of His blessed light; it is a positive condition. There is darkness here. This is a world of darkness—not just darkness, but doubled and redoubled darkness. There is a teaching here from the Rebbe Rashab, which the Rebbe cites in the Rebbe Rashab’s name. He explains that “doubled and redoubled darkness” alludes to four things. What does “doubled and redoubled” mean? There is “doubled,” and there is “redoubled”; together they make four. He says this alludes to the four kelipos: the three impure kelipos and kelipas nogah. But this is only an allusion. “Doubled and redoubled darkness” does not explicitly mention kelipos here.

12:19 It is only an allusion. “Doubled and redoubled darkness” alludes to the four kelipos. The Alter Rebbe then goes further: “until it is filled with kelipos and sitra achra.” It is not merely that doubled and redoubled darkness exists there as something incidental; it is the very nature of the world: it is filled with kelipos and sitra achra. “Until”—“until.” In other words, the distinction between the two ideas is this: “the concealment of His blessed light” and “doubled and redoubled darkness” still do not emphasize that the world opposes G-dliness. They only emphasize that the world is not a place where G-dliness is revealed. That alone is enough to call it a lower realm, beneath which there is none: it has no revelation. All the worlds above it have a revelation of G-dliness, whether more or less limited. At any rate, by virtue of the source of all those worlds, there is some revelation there, some expression of G-dliness. What we see in the physical world is hiddenness and concealment. That is the physical world as it is in itself: a world without a revelation of G-dliness, and that is not its ultimate purpose. The Alter Rebbe goes further still: “until it is filled with kelipos and sitra achra.” The nature of this world is not only the absence of revelation, a state of hiddenness and concealment; it also involves opposition to G-dliness. There could be an independent-seeming existence that does not reveal G-dliness but does not oppose G-dliness either. It is simply physical in itself. And what does it mean for something to be physical in itself? It is not a revelation of G-dliness. It does not reveal Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Indeed, not only does it not reveal Hakadosh Boruch Hu; its whole point is not merely that it sees itself as existing independently. Still, it need not oppose G-dliness. It does not necessarily imply an opposite, an opposing force. So the Alter Rebbe adds: “until it is filled with kelipos and sitra achra, which actually oppose Hashem.” This adds even

13:57 more to the definition of this world as the lowest realm. It says, “I, and nothing besides me,” completely denying G-dliness. It does not merely say, “I exist”; it says, “I, and nothing besides me.” Not only do I exist, but I alone exist. Apart from me, there is nothing. It completely denies the existence of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. There is the Rebbe’s well-known sicha about the frog. There is a well-known sicha of the Rebbe’s about the different levels of kelipos. There is a kelipah that believes in Hakadosh Boruch Hu, but what does it believe? That “they, too, call Him the G-d of gods.” There are several levels of kelipah, as the Rebbe explains there. Then there is a kelipah that says, “I, and nothing besides me.” “I, and nothing besides me” belongs to the most severe kelipah. It does not merely say, “I exist.” There is a sense of self, but kelipos can acknowledge that Hakadosh Boruch Hu also exists, as the “G-d of gods”—that Hakadosh Boruch Hu exists somewhere too. But this kelipah says, “I, and nothing besides me.” There is nothing apart from me. That is the point about this physical world. There is another interesting point the Rebbe adds about the Alter Rebbe’s wording: “until it is filled with kelipos.” What exactly does “until” mean? It suggests another stage. True, these are two different ideas, but the Alter Rebbe could have said: What makes it the lowest realm? The concealment of His blessed light and doubled and redoubled darkness, and that it is filled with kelipos. So what is meant by “until it is filled with kelipos”? What does the word “until” add? It seems unnecessary. The Rebbe gives a beautiful explanation. He says that, on the simple level, in the order of creation, when Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world, we already know from the Torah that the world was not created filled with kelipos and sitra achra. Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the

15:50 The world, from the beginning of creation until the sin of the Tree of Knowledge: the world existed then, this physical, material world existed, and it was a world of concealment and hiddenness. True, wasn’t there a revelation of G-dliness in the world? After all, the maamar Basi Legani says that the primary presence of the Shechinah was in the lower realms. But the Rebbe explains that it could not have been revealed. The world was only fit for it; G-dliness was not revealed in the world. The world was prepared so that if Adam did his work, he would draw down G-dliness. But this concealment and hiddenness existed from the beginning of creation. When did the world become full of kelipos and sitra achra? That happened on the sixth day, after the sin of the Tree of Knowledge. That is why the Alter Rebbe uses the word “until.” In other words, first we have to understand what the lower realm is in itself, as created. So what does it mean that it is lower? That it is the lowest in terms of the concealment of His light, with doubled and redoubled darkness, and so on. That was the first stage of creation, as far as the world itself was concerned. Until afterward it became even lower, even lower over time—a matter of several days. But then, through the actual sin of Adam and Chavah, it reached the point where it was full of kelipos in actuality as well. At first there was only doubled and redoubled darkness, and so on. Hashem had also created the kelipos at the beginning of creation. It says in Chassidus that the existence of kelipah was created at the beginning of creation too, but not in a way that the world was full of kelipos. On the contrary, holiness was separate and kelipah was separate. The realm of the kelipos was in a separate place, below the entire world. As the books of Chassidus say in the name of the writings of the Arizal, at the beginning of creation kelipah was not part of the world. It was something outside the world, outside

17:32 the realm of what belonged to the world, and a person was never supposed to be there at all. From the outset, in Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s original plan for the world, the intention was not for a person to immerse himself in evil and have to refine it. Rather, a person’s work was to take place in Gan Eden, a place of holiness. That was where he would do his work. And how would the kelipah be refined? It would be refined as a matter of course. As it says regarding King Shlomo, it was through a great light: King Shlomo was in Jerusalem, and his light spread throughout the world. That is what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted at the beginning of creation—that a person’s work should be in a physical place, but not in a place of sitra achra, of kelipah. Kelipah would remain separate. By doing his work in holiness, a person would have an effect even at a distance, but he himself would not have to enter into evil. That was how things were at the beginning of creation. So when the Alter Rebbe speaks of concealment and doubled and redoubled darkness, and so on, that already existed at the beginning of creation. Then he says “until”: later, on the sixth day, through the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, the world became full of kelipos and sitra achra. Good and evil became mixed together in the world, and as a result, the whole reality of the world of Asiyah became full of kelipos and sitra achra. All of this explains the word “lower realms.” In other words, through all this, the Alter Rebbe wants to explain what “lower realms” means. There’s a vort I once heard from Reb Yoel. He related it in the name of Reb Chaim Shaul Brook, who once put it this way. Megillas Esther says that when Haman came into Achashverosh’s house, Achashverosh asked him, “What should be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor?” Haman said to himself, “Whom would the king wish to honor more than me?” Haman thought: Who else

19:55 could it be? He must mean me. So he said, “Let them bring royal garments, a royal horse,” and so on. Then Achashverosh told him, “Go and do that for Mordechai the Jew.” Reb Chaim Shaul Brook asked: We know that the whole Megillah has both its straightforward story and its spiritual meaning, in which the king refers to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Right? Haman represents kelipah, and Mordechai represents holiness. So what happened there? If we explain it according to the inner meaning, what made Haman think that Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted him? If the king refers to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, then what does it mean, “Whom would the king wish to honor?” Why was Haman so certain the king wanted to honor him? On the physical level, that is what Haman thought. But how do we explain it spiritually? So he gave this vort: It says here in Tanya that Hakadosh Boruch Hu desired to have a dwelling place in the lower realms. Haman knew that “the lower realms” meant a dwelling place below. And what does “lower” mean? A level so low that there is none lower than it in the concealment of His light, a place full of kelipos and sitra achra. So Haman thought, “Who could be lower than me?” Haman was as low as could be, full of kelipos and sitra achra. So “whom would the king wish”—wish, a matter of desire. What is Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s greatest desire? That I should become a dwelling place for Him. That is why Haman argued, “Let them bring royal garments”—I should be the one; Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants me. In that sense, he was right: Haman was full of kelipos and sitra achra. That is what the desire is for. But the answer, as Reb Chaim Shaul would say, is: You really are lower, but you can never be a dwelling place. You’re lower, but you can’t be a dwelling place. In other words, there is a kind of lower realm that becomes a dwelling place for Him, but a lower one like you can never become a dwelling place. What is the explanation for this? We’ll come to it here in Tanya, in what the Alter Rebbe says here. There are two things involved.

21:43 There is physicality. What is it in itself? As we said, it is that way by virtue of its creation. Why is the physical world “so low that there is none lower than it”? Because it is physical, a place of concealment and hiddenness. That is actually something positive. The physical can become a dwelling place for Him. Why? Because physical existence, as Tanya says later in Igeres Hakodesh, comes from His Essence, whose existence is from Himself. On the contrary, the fact that physical existence appears to exist on its own is evidence that it comes from the One whose existence is from Himself. Accordingly, in the future, His Essence will be revealed in the physical, and it will be a dwelling place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But the fact that the world is full of kelipos and sitra achra did not arise from creation itself. It came about through the sin, which made it full of kelipos and sitra achra. So that aspect of the lower realm—its being full of kelipos and sitra achra—cannot become a dwelling place for Him. Therefore, when Moshiach comes, in the future, what will happen? When it comes to kelipah and sitra achra, what does it say? “And I will remove the spirit of impurity from the earth.” Kelipah and sitra achra will not become a dwelling place. The sitra achra, G-d forbid, will not turn into a dwelling place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Regarding sitra achra and kelipah, we say, “And I will remove the spirit of impurity from the earth,” and it says there that there will no longer be darkness and evil standing opposite holiness. The spirit of impurity ... forever. Sitra achra will be nullified. It has no connection to being a dwelling place. Physicality will be a dwelling place for Him. That is the meaning of what was said to Haman: You are lower, but that kind of lower realm cannot become a dwelling place.

23:22 The physical will be a dwelling place for Him. And that is what it means to say to Haman: You are lower, but a lower realm like that cannot become a dwelling place.