Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 36 - Part 6

00:01 Speaker 1 Page 46, in the middle of the page after the footnote. We were in the middle of this topic last time. I’ll go over the point again, because it touches on broader questions about Moshiach. The students all study these matters, are immersed in them, and live with the Geulah and Moshiach, so they need to know this subject. It’s a very fundamental point. As far as I remember—it’s been quite a while since the last class—the point didn’t quite come across then. So I’ll say it again. What we were discussing will bring us to the Tanya, but it also relates to the broader subject of the Geulah and Moshiach. Here’s the point. Everyone knows the Rebbe’s sichos about the first period, right? What does the Rebbe explain about the Rambam’s position? At the end of Hilchos Melachim, the Rambam writes that there will be no change between the days of Moshiach and this world. Everything written in the Prophets is a parable, and the only difference between the days of Moshiach and this world is freedom from subjugation to the nations. The Rebbe asks in the sicha: How can you say there will be no change at all? The Rambam himself, in the laws of Shabbos, rules concerning jewelry and so on in a way that implies there will indeed be a change in the order of creation in the future. The main question is also from the resurrection of the dead. After all, the Rambam agrees that the resurrection of the dead is one of the principles of faith. It isn’t a parable; it’s literal. And you can’t have a greater change than that. The dead coming to life is a change in the order of creation. So how can the Rambam say there will be no change? The Rebbe says that even according to the Rambam, there must indeed be a change in the order of creation. Ah, so how does he

01:59 Speaker 1 say here that there will be no change? The answer is that, according to the Rambam, there are two periods in the days of Moshiach. The Rebbe explains this at length in Likkutei Sichos, volume 27, sicha 7, the sicha on Bechukosai. It comes up throughout the sichos on the days of Moshiach, and in the hadran on Tractate Kesubos as well. Those who studied the hadran on Tractate Kesubos will know it’s the well-known hadran of the Rebbe that was also printed in the collection of pilpulim, Or Hazeh, which the yeshiva here published this year, two months ago. There the Rebbe explains this subject at length. The Gemara at the end of Kesubos also says that in the future, barren trees will bear fruit; that belongs to this whole discussion. So, according to the Rambam, there are two periods in the days of Moshiach. There is a first period when the world will follow its natural course and everything will operate according to nature. After that comes a second period, the resurrection of the dead, when there will be a change in the order of creation and all kinds of changes in nature, and so on. Now the question is whether this is only the Rambam’s position, or whether it is also the Ramban’s position. What exactly does that question mean? For that, we need another introduction, also something well known. All the students know it. They studied it in Derech Mitzvosecha, and it’s brought in a number of places in Likkutei Sichos: the well-known disagreement between the Rambam and the Ramban. What does the World to Come mean? The Gemara says, “All the prophets prophesied only about the days of Moshiach, but as for the World to Come, no eye has seen it, O G-d, except You.” In other words, everything the Rambam discusses, and everything we discuss about the days of Moshiach—whether or not there will be a change in the order of creation—all of that concerns the days of Moshiach. But the World to Come is what will be after the days of Moshiach. The World to Come

04:00 Speaker 1 is the seventh millennium, and of that it says, “No eye has seen it, O G-d, except You.” We have no idea what it is. Now the question is: What exactly is the World to Come? The Rambam writes in Hilchos Teshuvah that after Moshiach comes, after the resurrection of the dead, after the wondrous period of the days of Moshiach and the resurrection has passed—after all of that, we will all die, our bodies will turn to dust, and the souls will remain without bodies in the World to Come. And that is the end. The reward of the righteous, their eternal reward, will be in a place of souls alone, without bodies. Someone here doesn’t like that. But that is what the Rambam writes in Hilchos Teshuvah; it is his position. That is how he explains the statement of our Sages, “No eye has seen it, O G-d, except You”: it refers to the world of souls. Then comes the Ramban, who lived some years after the Rambam and was also a well-known kabbalist. That is one of the differences between the Rambam and the Ramban: the Ramban studied Kabbalah more than the Rambam did. The Rambam studied Kabbalah toward the end of his life, but his approach in general is not based on Kabbalah. The Ramban writes against the Rambam and wrote an entire work called Sefer Hagemul. There he reaches the conclusion that the World to Come referred to by the Gemara is also here below, in this physical world: it is the world of resurrection. The world of resurrection. That means there will be a resurrection of the dead, souls in bodies, everyone will rise, and the eternal reward will be specifically in the world of resurrection. Souls in bodies, here below in this world—that is the World to Come. Now, with that in mind, let’s understand the question here concerning the two periods we learned about. How does it work? The whole proof we gave that there are two periods in the days of Moshiach—the reason we must say there are two periods—applies only according to the Rambam. Why? Because the Rambam rules that the World to Come is without bodies. The World to Come

06:07 Speaker 1 is Gan Eden. So the resurrection of the dead has to fit into this world, because according to the Rambam, the World to Come is without bodies; it consists of souls alone. We therefore have to find a place for the resurrection of the dead. When will it take place? It must be in the sixth millennium, in this world, not in the World to Come. So according to the Rambam, there must be two periods in the days of Moshiach. The first period is before the resurrection of the dead, when the world will follow its natural course. After that comes the second period, when the resurrection of the dead will take place and there will be a change in the order of creation. So there will be two periods in the days of Moshiach. Only afterward will the third period come—the World to Come, which refers to Gan Eden. That is according to the Rambam. But according to the Ramban, who rules that the world of resurrection is the World to Come, there is no need to say that there are two periods in the days of Moshiach. After all, according to the Ramban, the resurrection of the dead will take place in the World to Come. The world of resurrection is the World to Come, meaning the seventh millennium. So it could be that, according to the Ramban, the days of Moshiach are just one period. The resurrection of the dead will not take place in the days of Moshiach; it will take place afterward, in the World to Come, in the seventh millennium. That would mean that the entire sicha of the Rebbe we are studying—the Rebbe’s discussion of the two periods, one of the fundamental ideas that every child and every student knows when learning about the Geulah and Moshiach in the Rambam—is only the Rambam’s position. Anyone who studies the subject knows it. The Rebbe speaks about the two periods many times. All the hadranim on the Rambam discuss it. So it would turn out that all this follows only the Rambam’s position, not the halachic ruling, since we do not rule like the Rambam on this matter. It is well known that we rule like the Ramban, that the world of resurrection is the World

07:55 Speaker 1 The world to come will be souls specifically in bodies, living eternally, specifically in this physical world. That is the position of Kabbalah and of Chassidus. In other words, we rule like the Ramban, that the resurrection of the dead will take place in the world to come. According to this, the whole idea of two periods is the Rambam’s position, but not the practical ruling, not the halachah. According to the halachah, there is only one period. That is how it would seem, and there is a note by the Rebbe in Likkutei Sichos, volume 16. Anyone who wants can look it up: Likkutei Sichos, volume 16, Parshas Vayechi. There the Rebbe writes a brief note, just a short line, saying that seemingly, the whole idea of two periods is only according to the Rambam. According to the Ramban, the resurrection of the dead gives us no proof that there will be two periods in the days of Moshiach. The explanation is as we just said: according to the Ramban, the resurrection of the dead will take place in the seventh millennium. Nevertheless, one can say that even according to the Ramban there are two periods in the days of Moshiach. Even though we do not have the proof from the resurrection of the dead, one can still say that, according to the Ramban too, there will be two periods in the days of Moshiach, and that the resurrection of the dead will also take place in the sixth millennium. What does that mean? The resurrection of the dead will take place in the sixth millennium, and afterward, in the seventh millennium, souls will continue to live in bodies. There is no contradiction. True, the world of resurrection is sometimes called the world to come, but that does not mean there will be no resurrection in this world. The resurrection of the dead will take place in this world too, before the seventh millennium, even according to the Ramban. So there will indeed be two periods in the days of Moshiach: one period of the days of Moshiach, then the resurrection of the dead, and afterward the seventh millennium

09:50 Speaker 1 when the reward is received. What is the proof that this is so even according to the Ramban? The proof is from this chapter of Tanya, chapter 36. This is what we said in the previous class. Look in the Tanya, on page 46. The Alter Rebbe writes explicitly in the text of Tanya—look inside—“And it is known.” Tanya certainly does not follow the Rambam here. Tanya certainly follows the Ramban, because Tanya was written according to the mystical teachings, according to Kabbalah, where it is clear that the world to come is the world of resurrection. It is souls in bodies; there is no doubt about that. What does the Alter Rebbe write here? We will get to this whole subject. Look inside on page 46, at the line from Tractate Yoma. After the period, the Alter Rebbe writes: “And it is known that the days of Moshiach, and especially when the dead are brought back to life, are the purpose and perfection of the creation of this world, for which it was created from the outset.” The Alter Rebbe writes explicitly here that the days of Moshiach and the resurrection of the dead are the perfection of this world. That is the purpose, the perfection of this world. In other words, the Alter Rebbe explicitly writes that not only the days of Moshiach, but the resurrection of the dead too, is part of it. It is still this world. It is the perfection of this world. It is explicit here that the resurrection of the dead, too, is still part of this world. And the Alter Rebbe adds that the revelation and the receiving of the reward take place in the seventh millennium, after the days of Moshiach and after the resurrection of the dead, all of which take place in this world in the sixth millennium. Then comes the seventh millennium, when the reward will be received. As it is written, ... the Arizal. So here the Alter Rebbe explicitly sets out three periods: two periods in this world—the days of Moshiach and the resurrection of the dead—and afterward the period of the world to come, the seventh millennium.

11:40 Speaker 2 That is what we were discussing.

11:44 Speaker 1 Souls and bodies. After all, we rule like the Ramban: souls and bodies there too. The difference between the Rambam and the Ramban concerns the world to come. So it follows that there is no disagreement between the Rambam and the Ramban concerning the days of Moshiach and the resurrection of the dead. Both hold that there are two periods in the days of Moshiach. As the Rebbe says, the Rambam certainly holds that there are two periods: the days of Moshiach, and the resurrection of the dead in this world. The Rambam too holds that the resurrection of the dead will take place in this world. The entire disagreement concerns only the seventh millennium. According to the Rambam, the seventh millennium is Gan Eden; the world to come, which is the seventh millennium, is Gan Eden. According to the Ramban, the world to come, the seventh millennium, is also the world of resurrection. It too will be for souls in bodies. But it cannot be that the resurrection of the dead will begin in the seventh millennium. The resurrection of the dead will begin in the sixth millennium, because the resurrection of the dead is also part of this world. But what was the explanation? This is what we need to understand. Yes, so a remarkable point emerges here: even according to the Ramban, there are two periods in the days of Moshiach in this world—the days of Moshiach and the resurrection of the dead, both in the sixth millennium. The question, though, is: what is the basis for this? Why must we say it? With the Rambam, we explained that according to the revealed teachings of Torah, it has to be this way; there is no alternative. As we explained earlier, since the Rambam holds that the world to come is souls without bodies, and the Rambam certainly acknowledges that there must be a resurrection of the dead, he has no choice but to place the resurrection of the dead in this world. But the Ramban holds that the world to come will be souls in bodies. So why must we say it? What is the reasoning for saying that, according to the Ramban too, the resurrection of the dead will take place in this world? The answer is understood from the point the Alter Rebbe

13:36 Speaker 1 brings here in Tanya. The Alter Rebbe explains here in Tanya that the days of Moshiach are the perfection and purpose of all creation, of the entire world. “The purpose and perfection of the creation of this world, for which it was created from the outset,” is to reach the stage of the days of Moshiach and the resurrection of the dead. That is the purpose of all creation. In other words, until Moshiach comes, our service of Hashem cannot be completely perfect. Something is lacking in the perfection of our service. As the maamarim explain, it is not for nothing that we say, “And there we will perform before You the mitzvos of Your will.” That refers to when Moshiach comes, because only then will the mitzvos be fulfilled perfectly. As the maamarim explain, this does not refer only to the time of exile, when we cannot bring korbanos and so on, as though it simply means that when Moshiach comes we will be able to bring korbanos. “And there we will perform before You the mitzvos of Your will” applies even in comparison with the time of the Beis Hamikdash, because even then the mitzvos were not fulfilled perfectly. There were korbanos, there was fear of Heaven, there was the Beis Hamikdash. Nevertheless, since the sin of the Tree of Knowledge brought desire, folly, and evil into the world, everything has an admixture of kelipah. So nothing is completely perfect. When a person does a mitzvah, there is an admixture of the yetzer hara in it; there is also some self-interest. An animal, too, is not completely perfect, because it also has bodily desire and kelipah. So nothing in the world—neither the person performing the mitzvah nor the object used for it—is perfectly holy. The perfection of things is lacking. They are not perfect, and consequently the mitzvah performed with them is not perfect either. Consequently, the principal reward produced through the mitzvah is not perfect either. When will our service of Hashem be completely perfect? Both on the part of the person,

15:27 Speaker 1 That a person should reach the ultimate level of refinement and purification and fulfill a mitzvah in the most elevated way, and that the physical object, too, should reach the ultimate level of refinement and purification, so that it is in the most elevated state. That will happen when Moshiach comes. And this is what the Alter Rebbe means when he says here that this is the purpose for which this world was created from the outset: to bring this world to perfection, so that we can fulfill Torah and mitzvos with the utmost perfection, in the most elevated way. Now, over the generations, there have been millions of Jews—Jews who lived twenty years ago, fifty years ago, a hundred years ago, a thousand years ago, two thousand years ago, three thousand years ago. Since Avraham Avinu, Jews have lived in this world without meriting to fulfill Torah and mitzvos in their perfection. But the whole purpose is to reach perfection in the service of Hashem. So they, too, must surely reach that stage, the days of Moshiach, when they will be able to fulfill Torah and mitzvos in their perfection. If we say that the entire resurrection of the dead will take place only in the seventh millennium, the seventh millennium is no longer this world. The seventh millennium is already the World to Come. The World to Come is something else entirely. That is already the receiving of reward, but they would be missing the perfection of this world. It would turn out, then, that they could not reach the stage reached by those living now. We will merit everything that will indeed be revealed: Moshiach will come, we will have the Beis Hamikdash, and so on, and those living now will be able to fulfill Torah and mitzvos in their perfection. But all those who have died until now would reach only the seventh millennium, only the reward, and would miss out on fulfilling Torah and mitzvos in their perfection. Since the purpose of creating this world from the outset was to reach the perfection of Torah and mitzvos in the days of Moshiach, all Jews must be part of it. So

17:19 Speaker 1 it necessarily follows that, even according to the Ramban, there must be a resurrection of the dead in this world as well. And that is what the Alter Rebbe says here in one line: there will be the days of Moshiach and the resurrection of the dead. All of it is part of the perfection of this world. In other words, all these things must happen within the next 230 years: both the days of Moshiach and the resurrection of the dead. All of it will take place within those 230 years of this world, of the sixth millennium. Only afterward will the seventh millennium arrive, when there will be the World to Come, something else entirely. So we say, “Mitzvos will be nullified in the future”; the mitzvos will be on a different footing altogether. What does it mean that mitzvos will be nullified? At any rate, it will no longer be a matter of fulfilling a mitzvah in its ultimate, perfected form. That is something else, because it is already the receiving of reward. With that, the whole point here is understood so far. So, in short, what emerges from this? Even according to the Ramban—and according to the practical halachah, and according to Chassidus, which says that the World to Come is the World of Resurrection—that does not rule out a resurrection of the dead in the sixth millennium as well. That is what the Alter Rebbe says here. It follows that there are, in effect, three stages. There are the days of Moshiach, the first period. After that comes the resurrection of the dead, still within this world. And after that comes the seventh millennium, the receiving of reward, which is the World to Come, where souls will also be in bodies. That is the Ramban’s position. Based on this explanation, we can also resolve the contradiction we mentioned in the previous line concerning “mitzvos will be nullified in the future.” The Rebbe asks this in one of his letters from before the nesius, and there he leaves it requiring further examination.

19:07 Speaker 1 Here the Alter Rebbe writes that the resurrection of the dead is the ultimate perfection of this world, as is stated explicitly in Tanya. Receiving the reward takes place in the seventh millennium. The Alter Rebbe’s ruling here is that the resurrection of the dead is still part of this world, the realm of “today, to do them.” That means mitzvos will indeed be fulfilled at the time of the resurrection, because it is still part of this world. Yet in Igeres Hakodesh, section 26, the Alter Rebbe writes explicitly that in the world of the resurrection of the dead, mitzvos will not be fulfilled. “Mitzvos will be nullified in the future” refers to the resurrection of the dead. Based on what we have just discussed, these are two periods. There is the resurrection of the dead as it takes place in this world, which the Alter Rebbe is discussing here in chapter 36. That is still part of this world, and mitzvos will indeed be fulfilled then. And there is the resurrection of the dead as it will be in the seventh millennium, the second stage of the resurrection according to the Ramban. That is often called the World of Resurrection, as though it were the main stage of the resurrection of the dead. Then will come the receiving of reward, and then, indeed, “mitzvos will be nullified in the future.” That is one way to explain it. The Rebbe did not, in fact, resolve the question that way in that letter. But over the years, in all those sichos concerning the Geulah of Moshiach, the Rebbe revealed more and more on this subject and on many others. So various questions that the Rebbe had left requiring further examination, or in doubt, in the earlier years received their answers and resolutions later on. Of course, quite apart from that, there is the sicha about “mitzvos will be nullified in the future.” There, the Rebbe arrives at a completely different explanation

21:09 Speaker 1 —a wonderful explanation. There is the sicha from Simchas Torah 5752, already in the very last period, among the last revelations we received from the Rebbe concerning the Geulah of Moshiach. It is the well-known sicha published at the time as a kuntres on “The Halachos of the Oral Torah Will Never Be Nullified.” There the Rebbe gave a wonderful explanation, a remarkable new understanding of the whole subject. The Rebbe explains: What does “mitzvos will be nullified in the future” mean? It does not mean that in the future we will not fulfill mitzvos. Rather, mitzvah is related to tzivui, a command. A command means there is someone who needs to be commanded, someone with an existence of his own who must be told, “Do this and that.” Since in the future there will be the ultimate unity with Hakadosh Boruch Hu—every Jew will have that unity with Hakadosh Boruch Hu—there will be no need to command anyone. Each person will perform the mitzvos naturally, as a matter of course, without being commanded. That is how “mitzvos will be nullified in the future”: the command will cease, but the halachah will not. “Halachos will never be nullified.” This explains the two statements: in one place it says, “Mitzvos will be nullified in the future,” while elsewhere it says, “Halachos will never be nullified.” The command will cease in the future, but the halachah itself will not be nullified. We will fulfill everything, but not because we are commanded to. It will happen as a matter of course, naturally, just as a person moves his leg and walks—things that come naturally to him because he could not do otherwise. That is his nature. So it will be with the fulfillment of mitzvos. It will therefore no longer be called a mitzvah: it will no longer be a command, but something that happens as a matter of course. So this changes the whole subject. From this

22:49 Speaker 1 So it follows that even in the seventh millennium, all the matters of laws and rituals will continue. And has there ever been anything like this before? The Alter Rebbe goes on to say, after explaining what will happen in the future and what we will perceive then, that it will come about through the mitzvos we do now. In the future, there will be a revelation of the Divine Essence here below, without any garments. And the Rebbe explained that this is why we received the Torah: so that we will be able to receive the revelations of the future. That is why we received it. Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave the Torah to the Jewish people. But the Alter Rebbe continues: “And something like this has already happened before.” The revelation that will take place in the future has already happened. Something like it has already happened here? It has already happened before. When? When? This kind of revelation of Moshiach has already happened. It is not something that will first come into being in the days of Moshiach; something like it has already happened before. What does the Rebbe want to tell us by this? Why do we need to know whether it happened or not? What difference does it make? What does it add to our understanding of this chapter to know that something like this revelation also occurred at the Giving of the Torah? Why bring it up? Whether it happened that way or not, what does it add to our understanding to know that something like it has already happened before? The Rebbe wants to explain a very fundamental point here. One explanation—and it’s already late, so just one brief point. The Gemara says that a non-Jewish woman asked one of the Tannaim—but she wasn’t asking where the proof was for the Resurrection of the Dead. She was asking how it could happen. Not what verse in the Torah proves it, but how

25:26 Speaker 1 will the Resurrection of the Dead happen, or what power makes it possible? So he answered her—Rabban Gamliel, or whichever of the Tannaim it was: “If something that did not exist came into being, how much more so something that did exist.” If Hakadosh Boruch Hu can make something that did not exist—after all, all creation is something from nothing—then if He can make something from nothing, what is the difficulty in making something from something? The person died, but he already existed. He only needs to be brought back to life. So that is easier. As for the Resurrection of the Dead, “how much more so something that did exist”—certainly Hakadosh Boruch Hu can do it. In other words, to make it easier to grasp the revelations of the future, we have this principle: “how much more so something that did exist.” Since it has happened before, it becomes easier to grasp that it is not inconceivable, that it is something we can accept. In this connection, there is also the account of the prophet Yechezkel. He showed them the Resurrection of the Dead when he spoke to the dry bones. He went and brought the dead back to life; he raised thirty thousand people. He showed the Jewish people the Resurrection of the Dead so that, because it had already happened once in history, it would be easier for a Jew to accept the revelations of the future. So, in any case, that is also the point here: simply knowing that something like this has already happened makes it easier for us to understand how the light of the Ein Sof will be revealed here below in the future. There is another explanation of this, an even deeper one. But we will leave that, with Hashem’s help, for the next class.