Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 39 - Part 2

00:01 Ah, the source of the souls is in the Higher Gan Eden. In any case, that is what the Zohar says. What the Alter Rebbe explains here is that the difference between natural love and fear and intellectual love and fear is also the difference between the World of Beriah and the World of Yetzirah. Beriah is the world in which the intellectual faculties of Hakadosh Boruch Hu shine. In Yetzirah, by contrast, His emotional attributes shine. Therefore, the primary avodah in Yetzirah relates to the emotions, and that is mainly where the angels belong: their primary avodah is natural love and fear. That is why they are called the holy chayos. Likewise, Jews who serve Hashem out of natural love and fear belong in the World of Yetzirah, the lower world, as mentioned above. In Beriah, by contrast, the intellectual faculties of Hakadosh Boruch Hu shine—primarily binah, though all three intellectual faculties shine there together. So the primary avodah there is through comprehension, and that is where the neshamah belongs. That is the primary place of the neshamah. But which neshamah? Specifically, one associated with intellectual love and fear. The Alter Rebbe brings a proof from the Zohar. The Zohar says that avodah performed with re’usa deliba, the heart’s desire, creates a garment for the neshamah in the Higher Gan Eden. The Higher Gan Eden is the World of Beriah. How is a garment created for the neshamah there? Through re’usa deliba. And what is re’usa deliba? It is intellectual love and fear, as the Alter Rebbe brings in chapter 3; we discussed this in the previous class. Let’s continue. What does it mean that a garment is created for the neshamah? What is this garment? This is explained in the maamarim of Chassidus. The Alter Rebbe explains in Torah Or, and it is explained elsewhere too, that every mitzvah a Jew performs creates a garment for the neshamah Above. The level of the garment depends on the way the person performs the mitzvah. But broadly speaking, every action a Jew performs as a mitzvah brings about garments.

02:30 The Alter Rebbe explains what these garments are for. In brief, the point is this: for the neshamah to enjoy the radiance of the Shechinah, it needs garments. For all its qualities, the neshamah is, after all, a created being. The neshamah was created. When it descended into Beriah, it became a created being. Although in essence it is a part of G-dliness, when the neshamah is in a world—even in Gan Eden—it is manifestly a created being, in the World of Beriah. As a created being there, it cannot apprehend G-dliness as it is, because it would cease to exist as a separate entity. There must therefore be some kind of garment to connect the neshamah with the radiance of the Shechinah. What does “garment” mean? The Alter Rebbe gives an analogy. It is like looking through glass. Sometimes there is a very bright light, or the sun, and you want to look at it, so you put something dark in front of your eyes, like glasses. There are sunglasses, and there are various darkened devices used to look at the sun. Someone who wants to look at the sun needs something tinted and dark so that their vision is not overwhelmed. In other words, that device helps them look without being overwhelmed or losing their ability to see. Similarly, for the neshamah to connect with the radiance of the Shechinah without ceasing to exist, it needs this garment. It receives that garment through Torah and mitzvos. Why? Because a mitzvah itself joins a created thing with G-dliness. On the one hand, a mitzvah is an action connected with the world. On the other hand, it is G-d’s will present here. The mitzvah thus creates the garment that makes this connection possible.

04:37 So this means that when a person performs a mitzvah with re’usa deliba—not merely doing the mitzvah, but doing it with re’usa deliba—then, as the Alter Rebbe explains here, that means love and fear attained through binah. The garment is then for the Higher Gan Eden, the World of Beriah. All right, let me continue with the Alter Rebbe. Page two, third line, after the word “Gan Eden”... The Alter Rebbe now says: “But this applies specifically to actual neshamahs.” The Alter Rebbe is saying that the souls of tzaddikim are found—where? In the World of Beriah, in the Higher Gan Eden. But this applies specifically to actual neshamahs. What does “actual neshamahs” mean? He means to exclude nefesh and ruach. It is specifically the level of neshamah. There are nefesh, ruach, and neshamah. When we say that the souls of tzaddikim are in the Higher Gan Eden, we mean specifically the tzaddik’s level of neshamah. That is what ascends to the Higher Gan Eden, for these neshamahs embody the expanded intellectual faculties of the Ein Sof, blessed be He. Avodah stemming from the level of neshamah is avodah with expanded intellectual faculties. This is what we were saying earlier: intellectual love and fear are all part of this. We will explain the details shortly. Yes, but the ruach of the tzaddikim—even the tzaddik’s level of ruach—while the tzaddik’s neshamah, associated with intellectual love and fear, ascends to the Higher Gan Eden and belongs there, the tzaddik’s ruach is in the World of Yetzirah, in the Lower Gan Eden. But the ruach of the tzaddikim, and nefesh and ruach as well, and all the other

06:47 souls of the Jewish people whose avodah is with natural love and fear—and the Jewish people generally, who serve with natural love and fear and are not tzaddikim—do not ascend there. They are not in the Higher Gan Eden. In other words, although we said earlier that the Higher Gan Eden, the World of Beriah, is the level of the neshamahs, the Alter Rebbe explains that this means only neshamah, not nefesh or ruach. And even among neshamahs, it means only that of a tzaddik who served Hashem with expanded intellectual faculties. But the souls of all Jews who serve Hashem with natural love and fear do not ascend to the Gan Eden of Beriah. They do not ascend there, except on Shabbos and Rosh Chodesh, at special times when all the souls ascend to the Higher Gan Eden—even the nefesh of the Jewish people generally, even those who served Hashem with natural love and fear. So there are special, auspicious times when they too ascend to the World of Beriah, to the level of Shabbos. But that happens only at those special times, only then, “through the pillar that extends from the Lower Gan Eden to the Higher Gan Eden.” They ascend through a pillar that rises from the Lower Gan Eden to the Higher Gan Eden. In other words, there is something called a “pillar” between the Lower and Higher Gan Eden. That is the term used in Kabbalah: a pillar. We will explain shortly what this pillar is. There is a pillar between the Lower and Higher Gan Eden, and through it the souls ascend at special times, such as Shabbos and Rosh Chodesh, when all the souls ascend to the Higher Gan Eden, which is the World of Beriah. They ascend to the World of Beriah, called the Higher Gan Eden, “to delight in Hashem and enjoy the radiance of the Shechinah”—to experience delight in Hakadosh Boruch Hu and enjoy the radiance of the Shechinah. What is the Alter Rebbe explaining here? There are several things we need to explain. First of all, why—why do the souls have

08:50 For them? Why is it that at certain special times all the souls ascend to the higher Gan Eden? The Alter Rebbe himself raises that question, and he will explain it shortly. But before that, the question is: What is the Alter Rebbe trying to tell us here? Why explain here that there are special times when souls can ascend from the lower Gan Eden to the higher Gan Eden, and that they do so through a pillar? Why does that belong here? This is Tanya, not a book of Kabbalah. The Alter Rebbe is here to explain our service of Hashem. What does this whole subject have to do with serving Hashem? So the Rebbe explains as follows. Again, it all comes back to the point the Alter Rebbe is explaining here about serving Hashem: there are those who serve Hashem according to their nature, and there are those who serve Him on the basis of intellect. At first, when we learn Tanya, the difference between them seems to be as great as it could possibly be. From what we have explained so far, the distance between these two kinds of souls seems like the distance between a human being and an animal. No matter how refined an animal becomes, it will not turn into a human being. An animal remains an animal. In other words, the distance between a human being and an animal is absolute. Similarly, the distance between souls and angels is absolute. So, seemingly, there is no possibility for these souls

10:32 who serve Hashem with natural love and awe. That is it; they have no way forward. The Alter Rebbe wants to emphasize that this is not so. All souls do, in fact, have a connection to this higher level, and a person can rise. Even someone who serves Hashem with natural love and awe can rise. An animal cannot become a human being, right? An angel cannot become a soul. But a Jew who serves Hashem with natural love and awe can rise higher. It is possible to ascend from the lower Gan Eden to the higher Gan Eden, as we see from the fact that there are times when all the souls ascend to the higher Gan Eden. That shows that it is possible. In other words, we learn from this that all souls have a connection to the higher Gan Eden. What does it depend on? Your avodah. Of course, it is not easy, but it is within reach. So the first thing the Alter Rebbe shows us here is that ascent from the lower Gan Eden to the higher Gan Eden is possible. In terms of avodah, that means a person whose service until now has been with natural love and awe can begin to reach the level of love and awe born of intellect. It is relevant to every single person. Even someone who until now was a Polish chossid can become a Chabad chossid. That is the distinction between natural love and awe and love and awe born of intellect: he begins to study Chassidus and to work at it. But the Alter Rebbe also adds how the ascent takes place: through the pillar. That detail matters too. Why? The Alter Rebbe could simply have said that souls ascend. Why say that the ascent is through the pillar? Because the Alter Rebbe is teaching us that

12:25 the manner of ascent is also essential to understanding this. How, really, does a person who belongs to the level of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah rise to a higher level? How does one go from Chagas to Chabad? How does one kind of soul become another? The pillar represents bittul, self-nullification. Chassidus explains the purpose of the pillar between the lower Gan Eden and the higher Gan Eden. What is a pillar in this context? As the Zohar describes it, it is a way of ascending between levels. There are stairways—and I do not know, this is only an approximate example; this building is not quite like it—where you are in an enclosed place, as though in a room, and cannot see the stairs. You are on the first floor, then you enter something like a pillar. From outside it looks like an enclosed column, and you go up. There are also ways of going up where there are not even stairs. In our world today, the easiest way to understand it is as an elevator. Some elevators are so smooth you do not feel them move—not like the elevators here, where you certainly feel it. In a very modern elevator, a person can step in, the doors close, and suddenly he has arrived. He has gone up ten floors in a moment, or even fifty floors. In a tall building, before you know it you are there, and you can hardly believe you got up so high so quickly. That is an elevator. But the Zohar speaks of a pillar. In other words, there was

14:19 a way of ascending without even having stairs. A person goes up, perhaps along a ramp, without feeling that he is climbing. He just keeps going around and around, and then suddenly looks and finds himself on a higher floor. That is what the Zohar uses a pillar to illustrate. Of course, there are no stairs from the lower Gan Eden to the higher Gan Eden, and no elevator either. It is only an analogy. But what is its meaning? The pillar represents a state in which you have left your previous form but have not yet reached the next one. Your former form has been nullified. You are neither here nor there—a point of ayin, of nothingness. You are no longer in the form of the lower level, but you have not yet reached the higher one. It is a state of ayin. This is like the account brought in Chassidus of Rav Zeira, who fasted forty fasts in order to forget the Babylonian Talmud and come to understand the Jerusalem Talmud. There is an intermediate stage of ayin, when he nullifies his previous way of thinking. He has forgotten the Babylonian Talmud but does not yet grasp the Jerusalem Talmud, so he is neither here nor there. Yet it is precisely this bittul that makes him a vessel capable of reaching the higher level. As long as he remained attached to his previous way of thinking, it was not possible. He was settled there, comfortable with it. As long as his mind was still attuned to the Babylonian Talmud, he could not absorb the Jerusalem Talmud. Nullifying that former way of thinking—this movement of bittul—is precisely what makes him a vessel for the higher light. The same applies to the ascent from the lower Gan Eden to the higher Gan Eden. For a soul to become a vessel for the higher Gan Eden, it must

16:04 To become free of its previous form. And within this itself, there are two kinds of bittul. Chassidus explains—the Alter Rebbe does not go into this here, but Chassidus explains—that there are two things that bring about this bittul. There is a River of Fire between one Gan Eden and another. The soul has to undergo an immersion in fire. The River of Fire is, of course, spiritual fire, which burns away, consumes, its entire previous form. This is a process of cleansing, a kind of turning away from evil that nullifies that form. After that comes the pillar. The pillar is not a matter of the opposite; it is a revelation of an exceedingly lofty light. In other words, there are two ways bittul can happen: through the negation of the previous state, and through the revelation of a lofty light that brings a person to bittul. It is like someone hearing a new school of thought. At first he is bewildered, because he has never thought in those terms. Only afterward does he begin to grasp what it is about. That is the pillar. In any case, the point here is that the pillar is a process of shedding one’s previous form. The soul nullifies its previous form, and that makes it a vessel to receive the new revelation, the new light. That is the principle the Alter Rebbe is explaining here. On the one hand, a person who served Hashem with natural love and fear has the possibility of rising to intellectual love and fear. But how? How can that happen? In his present form, the two are opposites. So there has to be bittul—the pillar, which is a process of self-nullification. Through that bittul he can reach the higher level. He has to nullify his previous form, and then he can rise to the new one, to intellectual love and fear. There is a story about the Maggid of Mezritch along these lines. There was once

17:48 a Jew who was very wealthy, and then he became a chossid. At first he had been an opponent of Chassidus, and afterward he became a chossid. When he became a chossid, he lost his money. So he came to the Maggid to complain. What did this mean? Because he had become a chossid, did he have to be poor and destitute? What was the connection? Why did he have to lose his money precisely because he became a chossid? The Maggid explained that the Gemara says, “One who wishes to become wise should turn south,” and it also says—well, in short, wealth is associated with the north, and wisdom with the south. “One who wishes to become wealthy should turn north, and one who wishes to become wise should turn south. Your sign is the table in the north and the menorah in the south.” So these are two opposite directions. As long as you were not a chossid, you were on one path, and you had wealth. Then you moved to the path of wisdom: you became a chossid and began learning Chassidus. That is a different path—one to the left, the other to the right. So he said: Does that mean it is impossible to be a chossid and have money too? The Maggid told him: There is a solution. The solution is bittul. Bittul is above these opposite directions. As long as you remain in a particular form, right and left are opposites; wealth and wisdom are opposites. But when you have bittul, you can be in both places, in both ways. Through bittul, you can have both. In other words, bittul is what enables a person to do that. And that applies in life. I just mentioned this story—it is not so directly related to our subject—but the point here is that bittul enables the soul to rise from the lower Gan Eden to the higher Gan Eden. Yes. The Alter Rebbe continues and says:

19:54 “For a created intellect has no enjoyment or pleasure except in what it comprehends, understands, knows, and grasps with its intellect and understanding of what it is capable of understanding and grasping of the light of the blessed Ein Sof, through His wisdom and understanding, which shine there in the world of Beriah.” The soul’s true pleasure comes from comprehension. Gan Eden is a place of pleasure. What is that pleasure? It is the soul’s comprehension of G-dliness; that is what gives rise to pleasure. Chassidus explains that this relates to binah, understanding. Pleasure is connected specifically with binah—the revelation of Atik in binah. It is specifically understanding and comprehension that produce pleasure. So the soul’s comprehension of G-dliness, of the light of the Ein Sof that shines in the world of Beriah, is the soul’s pleasure. That is the higher Gan Eden.