Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 39 - Part 1

00:00 As we’ve explained many times, the Tanya is divided into chapters, and it’s also divided into sections, groups of chapters, larger parts. In other words, several chapters together develop a particular subject. In general, there’s the well-known distinction in Tanya between the “long way” and the “short way”: one part of Tanya takes the long way, and another takes the short way. There are various ways to divide up Tanya, if you want to divide it into sections. The truth is that the chapter we’re in now, chapter 39, comes somewhat in the middle of a discussion. It’s the discussion the Alter Rebbe began in chapter 35, and it continues from chapter 35 through chapter 40. It’s one discussion in which the Alter Rebbe examines the whole question of action and intention—one of the most fundamental questions in serving Hashem generally, and especially in the service of Chassidus. It’s about the connection and the relationship that need to exist between action and intention. On the one hand, we see that the main emphasis is placed on action: “Study is not the main thing, but action.” Or, in short, as the Rebbe says in so many sichos, “Action is the main thing.” We see this throughout Torah and mitzvos: the main emphasis is placed on action. On the other hand, we see a special emphasis on intention. As he quotes the words of our Sages, “Prayer without intention is like a body without a soul.” And the Rebbe says this in all sorts of contexts, placing the main emphasis on intention, on feeling. Especially in the service of Chassidus, we find this tension even more—the contradiction, the, how should I put it, the complexity between these two things. In the teachings of Chassidus, when we look at the various ways it discusses serving Hashem and the paths of avodah, we see places where the main emphasis is on feeling and intention. And there are places where more emphasis is placed

02:22 on actual action. In the service of Chassidus—Chabad Chassidus—we try to hold both ends of the rope. In other words, the whole point in Chabad Chassidus is to bring action and intention together. And that’s where the question lies. Action and intention: which is primary? Which is important? Which matters more? Where should the main emphasis be placed? What is the ultimate goal? And so on. This is what the Alter Rebbe began discussing in chapter 35, and it continues through chapter 40, inclusive. So here we’re really in the middle of the subject. On the other hand, every chapter of Tanya also stands on its own. After all, the Alter Rebbe himself divided Tanya into chapters, so every chapter has a point of its own that can be studied independently, without reference to what comes before or after. In every chapter of Tanya, the Alter Rebbe expresses, explains, defines, and reveals a particular idea unique to that chapter. In general, it’s well known that the Alter Rebbe revealed the inner dimension of Torah in the form of a developed discussion. And in every chapter of Tanya, the Alter Rebbe makes a revolution, as people say—a complete shift—and arrives at one central point. The Alter Rebbe changes our whole way of thinking and reveals an inner depth in all kinds of things that, until the Alter Rebbe, had been taken as simple. People hadn’t paid attention to them or thought about them. The Alter Rebbe revealed depth in every detail of serving Hashem, in every single subject. Start with chapter 1 and continue chapter by chapter, and you see the Alter Rebbe reveal a new depth each time. When you study Tanya the way it should be studied—not the way you study the daily Tanya portion in Chitas just to fulfill an obligation, but when you study Tanya properly, in depth, inwardly, with insight and understanding—you see that in every chapter of Tanya, the Alter Rebbe reveals the most remarkable things in the seemingly simplest matters of Yiddishkeit. What

04:16 is a Jew? What is Torah? What is a mitzvah? What is a soul? What is joy? What is bitterness? And in everything, the Alter Rebbe expresses the idea in the clearest, most concise way—clearly, and with the greatest depth. All right, in any case, with that introduction, let’s get into what the Alter Rebbe continues to discuss here. We’ll briefly review what we’ve covered so far and move on to chapter 39. As we’ve said, the Alter Rebbe is trying here to explain the relationship between action and intention. On the one hand, the Alter Rebbe brought the verse that is the foundation of the entire Tanya: “For this matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.” There we see that the main emphasis is on “to do it.” So much so that, although the verse says “in your heart,” as the Alter Rebbe already explained in chapter 17, what is demanded of every person as something “close to you” is not simply that it be in your heart. It is “in your heart, to do it”: a state of heart that leads to action. In other words, a person is not asked—particularly the beinoni, who is the main subject of Tanya, the book of the beinoni—to attain lofty levels of love and awe. What is primarily asked of him is that it come to actual practice. Even when the Torah calls for something of the heart, for feeling—“You shall love Hashem your G-d,” “You shall love your fellow as yourself”—when it calls for love and awe, for feeling, it asks for what is “in your heart” insofar as it leads to action. So we see in this verse that the main thrust, the main force, the main emphasis needs to be on action. The Alter Rebbe then also brought a passage from the Zohar, first introduced in chapter 35, which he continues to discuss right through to the end of Likkutei Amarim. The Zohar in Parshas Balak says that what brings about the indwelling of the Shechinah

06:06 upon a person is good deeds. There it compares the body to a wick and the Shechinah to a flame, and oil is needed to sustain the flame on the wick. What is the oil that sustains the flame? The oil is good deeds. So the Zohar emphasizes good deeds specifically. The Alter Rebbe asks: Why specifically good deeds? Why isn’t having a soul enough to connect the body with Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Why isn’t the soul enough? Why aren’t the soul’s love and awe enough? Why isn’t Torah enough? Even that isn’t enough. Specifically “good deeds”—ovdin tavin, in the words of the Zohar. Here again we see the emphasis on action. The Alter Rebbe explains this in chapters 36 and 37, beginning the explanation in chapter 35 and continuing it in chapters 36 and 37: “Hakadosh Boruch Hu desired to have a dwelling place in the lower realms.” Since Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted a dwelling place in the lower realms, and a dwelling place in the lower realms means that this lowest realm, beneath which there is nothing lower—the realm of the kelipos and the sitra achra—should be transformed into a place where Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself, His very Essence, is present, this dwelling place in the lower realms is brought about specifically through the physical act of a mitzvah. You take a physical object, an object associated with kelipah, whose vitality comes from kelipas nogah, and by performing a mitzvah with it, you transform its existence and make it into something that can serve as a vessel for G-dliness. That is with regard to the object. And the same applies to the person: a person invests energy in actually performing a mitzvah, in action and speech. To speak words of Torah, he has to draw on the energies of his animal soul. To perform a mitzvah, he has to invest the energies of his body and animal soul. So it turns out that he transforms his body and his animal soul. When they eat and drink and receive vitality from kelipas nogah, they thereby become a...

07:57 By using it to fulfill mitzvos, he makes that physical thing into a dwelling place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And when all the Jewish people do this work, they make the entire world into a dwelling place for G-d. That will be the revelation of the future: all the revelations of the future depend on our deeds and our work during the time of exile. This means that the revelation of Moshiach is not a reward, some incidental reward unrelated to the work. Rather, the revelation of Moshiach means the revelation of our work—what we are doing all the time, transforming the world into a dwelling place for G-d. The Geulah will come when Moshiach comes, when this entire process is complete: the whole world will be elevated, the existence of the kelipos will be nullified, and “the glory of Hashem will be revealed, and all flesh together will see that the mouth of Hashem has spoken.” He discussed all this in chapters 35, 36, and 37. But in chapter 38, the last chapter before the one we are learning now, the Alter Rebbe began explaining the other side of the... Although the deed is primary—and he begins chapter 38 by bringing the halachic ruling, too, which shows that in practical halachah the deed is primary: if a person had all the intentions associated with a mitzvah but did not perform it, he has done nothing. Conversely, when he actually performs the mitzvah, even without those intentions, he has fulfilled the mitzvah. We see that the deed is primary in halachah as well. Nevertheless, the Alter Rebbe says that a mitzvah without intention is like a body without a soul. On the other hand, intention is necessary—so much so that it is said to make a difference comparable to the vast difference between a living person and a dead person. Or, as the Alter Rebbe says, the vast difference between an inanimate object and a human being, which are entirely incomparable. An inanimate object is inanimate; it has no

09:37 life. Even though everything has the word of Hashem—Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings into being the inanimate, the plant, the animal, and the human being—when it comes to what is revealed, there is a difference from one extreme to the other. An inanimate object has no life. What is revealed is only inanimate matter. It exists, but there is no spiritual revelation here. A human being, by contrast, reveals life—and not only life, but intellect and higher qualities. So that is the vast difference between an inanimate object and a human being: one is lifeless and the other is alive, and even within the category of living things, there is the life of an animal and the life of a human being. The latter is a much higher form of life. Similarly, this is the vast difference between performing a mitzvah without intention and performing a mitzvah with intention. In other words, intention matters; it changes the entire nature of the mitzvah. It makes the mitzvah something alive. Both are mitzvos. After all, we said that from the standpoint of the deed—making a dwelling place for G-d in the lower realms—the deed is primary. So the Alter Rebbe explains that Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants revelation as well. This is what he explains in chapter 38, and to some extent in chapter 37: Hakadosh Boruch Hu does not only want a dwelling place in the lower realms where His Essence is present. He also wants His Essence to be revealed, through revelation and divine manifestations. Intention makes the difference. If you perform a mitzvah without intention, then as far as revelation is concerned, there is no revelation here, no manifestation of G-dliness. There is an act, but there is no drawing down. You have [unclear], but in a revealed way it is not... By contrast, when it is done with intention, the intention brings revelation. As the Alter Rebbe said in chapter 38, he divided this into four

11:14 categories, as we have been discussing: inanimate, plant, animal, and human. There are four categories, and we divide them into two groups. The inanimate and plants belong to the category of the body, because an inanimate object is only a body. There is no form here, nothing spiritual, only matter. A plant is also matter. What is a plant? It is matter that grows. There is growth, but there is no life. You do not see in a tree’s growth the kind of movement that indicates life. You only see a small body becoming a large body. So both the inanimate and plants belong to the category of the body. Animals and human beings, on the other hand, both belong to the category of the soul, because their distinctive quality is that they have vitality. Within that category, a human being has human vitality, the life of an intelligent being, whereas an animal has vitality without intellect. It has life, it has desires, it has a soul, but it lacks the distinctive quality of intellect. So there are two groups, each with two categories: the inanimate and plants belong to the body, while animals and human beings belong to the soul. The Alter Rebbe says that, similarly, in serving Hashem there is the act of the mitzvah, which is the body, and there is the intention behind the mitzvah, which is the soul. The act of the mitzvah has two levels, like the inanimate and plants. What are the two levels of the act of a mitzvah? Mitzvos connected with action and mitzvos connected with speech. A mitzvah performed through action is like the inanimate, because the action itself does not change. It is the same act. If it is putting on tefillin, it is the same thing; you cannot make a change in the act itself. That is why it is like the inanimate. Speech, by contrast, is already somewhat higher. After all, speech belongs to a human being, so it already has a higher quality; it is somewhat more spiritual than action. That is why it is comparable to a plant. On the other hand, intention, too, is divided into two levels. There is intention comparable to an animal, and there is intention comparable to a human being. What is the difference between these two kinds of intention? The Alter Rebbe explains that these are two kinds of love and fear: natural love and fear, and intellectual love and fear. What is the difference between an animal and a human being? An animal also has feelings. An animal also has feelings. There are things an animal loves, things it hates, and things it fears. An animal has emotions too, but its emotions are natural. That is, it does not have the intellectual capacity for you to explain to it and make it understand, “This looks good to you, but it is actually bad,” or, “This looks bad to you, but it is actually good.” With an animal, everything it loves and everything it hates is entirely natural. These are emotions without intellect. A human being, by contrast, has the great advantage of being able to have emotions guided by intellect. In other words, he has the advantage of not being limited by the nature of his emotions. He can use his intellect to understand things he would not have felt on the basis of the emotions themselves. His intellect explains the matter to him, and then his emotions are influenced by his intellect. Emotions guided by intellect are far greater than simply natural emotions. Of course, intellect and emotions shaped by intellect are much higher than emotions on their own. So it is also clear that love and fear based on intellect are much higher than natural love and fear. Accordingly, there are also two ways of serving Hashem.

12:58 It belongs to the human being, so it already has a higher quality; it is already somewhat more spiritual than the deed. That is why it is analogous to plant life. On the other hand, intention itself is divided into two levels. There is intention analogous to animal life, and intention analogous to a human being. What is the difference between these two kinds of intention? The Alter Rebbe explains that they correspond to two kinds of love and fear: natural love and fear, and intellectual love and fear. What is the difference between an animal and a human being? An animal has feelings too. An animal has feelings too. There are things an animal loves, things it hates, and things it fears. An animal also has emotions, but its emotions are natural. In other words, it does not have the capacity for understanding that would allow you to explain something to it and help it grasp: “This seems good to you, but it is actually bad. This seems bad to you, but it is actually good.” With an animal, everything it loves and hates is a matter of nature. These are emotions without intellect. A human being, by contrast, has the great advantage of being able to have emotions guided by intellect. In other words, a person is not limited by the natural character of his emotions. He can use his intellect to understand things he would not have felt on the basis of his emotions alone. The intellect explains the matter to him, and then his emotions are stirred in accordance with his understanding. Emotions guided by intellect are much greater than emotions that are simply natural. Of course, intellect and intellectually guided emotions are much higher than emotions alone. So it is also clear that love and fear based on intellect are far more elevated than natural love and fear. Accordingly, there are also two approaches in avodah.

14:33 There is service through natural love and fear. A person may serve Hashem with natural love, as the Alter Rebbe explains. Every Jew has a natural love of G-dliness, inherited from Avraham Avinu. This is not something we need to arrive at intellectually. It is something we have by nature. The Jewish soul naturally has love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What is needed, though, is to awaken it. But it is already there. We do not need intellect to create it. We only need to find a way to bring it out—to work out how to awaken that love. As the Alter Rebbe explains at length in chapters 18 through 25, there are ways to awaken this hidden love. But a person does not build that hidden love through intellect. He has it by nature; he needs to reveal it. The same applies to natural fear. Every Jew has natural fear within him. And if I fulfill mitzvos with intention, but what kind of intention? The natural intention of love and fear—I am only awakening natural love and fear—then that intention is considered comparable to an animal. In other words, this form of service is on the level of an animal: its love and fear are natural. Similarly, a person serving Hashem through his natural feelings is on that level. By contrast, a person who davens and learns and fulfills mitzvos out of intellectual love and fear uses his intellect. He contemplates and awakens love and fear through Chabad, through the faculties of the mind—intellectual love and fear. That is like a human being. Yes, it is like a human being. So there are four levels. In other words, the two groups are divided into four: two forms of action and two levels of intention, which is, which is, which is the general idea of

16:12 The service of Hashem that a person needs to have. So on the one hand, what is primary, and what is the body of it? There are the two aspects: a mitzvah performed through action and a mitzvah performed through speech. Yes. But on the other hand, for this to bring G-dliness into revelation, for G-dliness to shine inwardly and openly, for it to be something alive, for G-dliness to be revealed here openly—which is also part of the purpose of making a dwelling in the lower realms—there needs to be feeling, love and fear. And within that itself, there can be two forms: natural love and fear, and intellectual love and fear. That is the point we learned in chapter 38. Now the Alter Rebbe continues into chapter 39. The Alter Rebbe says: “For this reason, the angels are also called chayos and beasts.” The Alter Rebbe is saying that, for the reason we mentioned earlier, when love and fear are natural, they are like an animal. This is not the level of a speaking being. An animal has natural feelings of love and fear. So we can also understand why angels are called chayos and beasts. For the same reason that we say natural love and fear are like the level of an animal, angels are called chayos and beasts. “For it is written, ‘And the face of a lion was on the right,’ etc.” The Tanach tells us that the prophet Yechezkel saw the divine chariot, and he saw beasts and chayos. He saw the chariot, the angels, as they appear and express themselves in the form of chayos. In particular, “the face of a lion was on the right”—those are the angels associated with the right side. Angels of love are called “the face of a lion,” etc. “And the face of an ox was on the left,” etc.—the angels associated with the left side, the line of gevurah, the line of fear, are called “the face of an ox.” Why does he call them chayos and beasts? For the same reason we mentioned earlier: because they do not have free choice. Because the beasts...

18:18 Sorry, the angels—the angels above also do not have free choice, and their fear and love are natural to them. All the fear and love the angels have is a matter of nature, as it says in Raya Mehemna, Parshas Pinchas. The angels’ love and fear do not come from choice or intellect; they are natural love and fear. Therefore, the tzaddikim are greater than they are. So we can understand why the tzaddikim are on a higher level than the angels: the abode of the souls of the tzaddikim is in the world of Beriah. Where are the souls of the tzaddikim? In the world of Beriah. As the Alter Rebbe will explain later, the world of Beriah is the world of intellect. The abode of the angels is in the world of Yetzirah. The angels, who are called chayos and beasts, serve Hashem with natural love and fear, so they belong to the world of Yetzirah. And the world of Beriah is higher than Yetzirah, so the souls of the tzaddikim are higher than the angels. What exactly does the Alter Rebbe want here? This is a book for beinonim, not a book about angels. Why does the Alter Rebbe want to explain what goes on with the angels now? How is it relevant? We all know that Tanya is not a book of discourses. In Chassidus, there are entire maamarim explaining the angels—their levels here and there, the distinctions between them, and all kinds of aspects of the angels’ service. This is one of the subjects discussed at length in Chassidus. The question—and it isn’t really a question—is why Chassidus discusses angels. Because, of course, there are things about this that are relevant to a person’s service of Hashem. There is a story the Rebbe told several times about a rabbi from Deutschland, from Germany, a Yekke, who came to the Rebbe Rashab. They had matters to discuss, and the Rebbe Rashab was in the middle of writing a maamar of Chassidus. The rabbi wanted to see what the Rebbe Rashab was writing, so he came closer and looked. Of course, this rabbi was a very great Torah scholar, but he did not know Chassidus.

20:32 He came closer to look and saw that it was discussing a certain subject: the Rebbe Rashab was writing something about angels.