Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 39 - Part 6

00:26 Up to this point in chapter 39, the Alter Rebbe has discussed three levels of serving Hashem, corresponding to three worlds: Yetzirah, Beriah, and Atzilus. There are three ways of serving Hashem. One is serving Hashem with love and awe—but what kind of love and awe? The natural love and awe a person awakens within himself, bringing out the natural love and awe in his soul. With that natural love and awe, he fulfills Torah and mitzvos with the vitality of natural love and awe. This is called the service of a beinoni, but it is the service of a beinoni that elevates him to the world of Yetzirah. His Gan Eden is the Gan Eden of Yetzirah, and his Torah and mitzvos connect with the Ein Sof light of the ten sefiros of Yetzirah. From this he receives the radiance of his Torah and his service. That is one level. The second level is serving Hashem with the love and awe of Beriah. This is when, through contemplation of the greatness of Hashem, a person awakens intellectual love and awe within himself. His service of Hashem then rises to the world of Beriah, and he and his Torah and mitzvos connect with the ten sefiros in Beriah. From there he receives his reward in the higher Gan Eden of Beriah—the radiance of his Torah and his service in Beriah. Then there is a third level: service beyond love and awe. This service is called a merkavah, a chariot. It is the service associated with the world of Atzilus. There we are no longer talking about love and awe; we are talking about bittul, self-nullification. There is also the question: ostensibly, the world of Atzilus has chochmah, binah, and daas too. But in Atzilus, chochmah, binah, and daas are not a matter of comprehension. They are a matter of complete bittul, because there the Ein Sof light shines openly. So the service of Hashem associated with Atzilus is, in essence, the service of a merkavah, a service

02:37 that is, in essence, one of bittul. Those were the three levels the Alter Rebbe discussed. The Alter Rebbe concluded here that not everyone is suited to serving Hashem as a merkavah. That was the service of the Avos and of exceptionally great tzaddikim. But someone whose soul-root is smaller and who cannot sustain that kind of bittul of a merkavah must do so only from time to time. In other words, I am speaking even of beinonim on the level of the world of Beriah: they too cannot maintain this all the time, only occasionally, during Shemoneh Esrei or when bowing during Shemoneh Esrei, when there is complete bittul. At a particular moment, he too can be on the level of the world of Atzilus, but generally he is in the world of Beriah. That is where the distinction between Beriah and Yetzirah comes in, in the service associated with the world of Yetzirah. Now the Alter Rebbe continues in the text, page 53, line... “Now,” the Alter Rebbe says here, “the reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah.” We have already mentioned several times that the Alter Rebbe quoted the teaching of our Sages, “The reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah”—the reward of the mitzvah is the mitzvah itself. What explanation did the Alter Rebbe give? The Alter Rebbe explained earlier, in chapter 37, and even before that, this idea of “the reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah.” What was the explanation? That the reward of the mitzvah results from the mitzvah itself. That is the whole distinction. As we explained, there is a kind of reward that has no inherent connection to the act. Here, by contrast, when we say, “The reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah,” it means that the reward results from the mitzvah itself. It is not a segulah, a special effect; it is the natural outcome. The moment you do a mitzvah, that mitzvah connects you to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and its reward is the result of the mitzvah itself. The Alter Rebbe began

04:36 to explain this in chapter 37. Right at the beginning of chapter 37, he said that the Geulah—the revelations of the time to come—depends on our deeds and our service during the time of exile. There the Alter Rebbe quoted our Sages’ teaching, “The reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah”: the mitzvah itself brings about its reward. Therefore, the revelation of the Geulah, the revelation of Moshiach, comes from our service during exile. They are not two separate things. The revelation of Moshiach is the continuation of what we are doing now, during exile. Similarly, he brought up earlier the radiance of their Torah and their service. Yes, he applied “the reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah” to that too. That is to say, the mitzvah itself is the reward of the mitzvah: it is the flow of divine energy and vitality, and the revelation of the energy and vitality brought about by the mitzvah is Gan Eden. That is the radiance of their Torah and their service, as he explained earlier. Now the Alter Rebbe brings this up again, but in connection with a different point. It is the same principle, but he wants to draw another detail from it. What does he say? Let’s look inside. “Now, the reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah.” The reward of the mitzvah is the mitzvah itself. Therefore, “from its reward we can know its nature and its level.” From the reward of the mitzvah, we can learn what the mitzvah is in essence and what level it occupies. What does that mean? What is the Alter Rebbe going to tell us here? The Alter Rebbe says something remarkable. Sometimes you say: I want to understand what a mitzvah is, what mitzvos accomplish, the very nature of a mitzvah. The Alter Rebbe says that you can understand the nature of a mitzvah through its reward. It is as if he were saying: Imagine you want to explain something in this world to someone. You

06:43 tell him, “To understand it, I need to understand it through something in the World to Come.” Yes, through Gan Eden. I want to explain to you what the mitzvah you perform is. To explain the mitzvah, I can use its reward to show you what the mitzvah is. In other words, it is hard for me to explain the mitzvah itself to you. I cannot explain its essence to you directly. Through the reward of the mitzvah, I can explain the mitzvah itself. We find an example of this too: the Rebbe uses the same approach in connection with Chassidus. When the Rebbe wants to explain what Chassidus is in the kuntres On the Essence of Chassidus—probably many of the bochurim have studied it—the Rebbe wants to explain the essence of Chassidus. One sicha says this; another sicha says that. So it is hard to pin down what Chassidus is, what its essence is. The Rebbe says that we can know the essence of Chassidus from its reward. What is the reward for Chassidus? Moshiach. After all, it is written that the Baal Shem Tov visited Moshiach. The Baal Shem Tov went to Moshiach and asked him when he would be revealed. He answered, “When your wellsprings spread outward.” In other words, the reward for the revelation of Chassidus is Moshiach. So, the Rebbe says, to understand Chassidus we can do so by understanding Moshiach. At first glance, you would think it should be the other way around, wouldn’t you? Chassidus is closer to us; Moshiach seems much further away. An ordinary person would say the opposite: “If I want to understand Moshiach, I need to study Chassidus. Through Chassidus I will learn what Moshiach is.” So the Rebbe says

08:36 Well, from Moshiach we learn what Chassidus is, and we understand it better. It’s clearer there. Through the subject of Moshiach, we can understand what Chassidus is. Now look: the Rebbe also cites this passage from Tanya in that sicha. Just as it says here in Tanya, “From its reward we will know its essence.” By looking at the reward for a mitzvah, we can understand the essence of the mitzvah. The same applies to Chassidus: from the reward of Chassidus, we can understand what Chassidus is. But what is the explanation for this? At first glance, it doesn’t seem to make sense at all. On the contrary, we should understand the mitzvah itself first, and from that understand its reward. The reward comes afterward. The explanation is very simple. The reward comes afterward in time. First there is the act, the mitzvah, and afterward comes the reward for the mitzvah. But in terms of their substance, no. If we look at their substance, which is higher, the cause or the effect? Which is higher, the cause or the effect? You have a cause and an effect. Which is on a higher level? Clearly, the cause is higher than the effect. Cause and consequence. First comes the cause, then the effect—not just first in time, but higher in level. The cause is on a higher level; the effect is the result. The same applies to a mitzvah and its reward. The mitzvah is the essence; the reward is its revelation. So which is higher, the essence or its revelation? Clearly, the essence is higher. The mitzvah is the thing itself, the essence: the union with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The reward is the revelation of that union with Hakadosh Boruch Hu brought about by the mitzvah. In other words, the reward is the mitzvah becoming revealed. So clearly, if I want to understand the essence, then

10:32 through its revelation I can understand the essence. Just as I can understand a source of light through the light it gives off. I want to understand what kind of source it is—whether it’s the sun, the moon, or a candle. Through what is revealed, I can understand the source itself. The same applies here: “From its reward we will know its essence.” Since the reward is the revelation of the thing itself, and the revelation is on a lower level, through the reward—the revelation—we can know the essence of the thing. The same applies to Chassidus and Moshiach. Moshiach is what Chassidus brings forth: Chassidus is the essence, and this is what it brings forth. The same point also explains the Mishnah in Pirkei Avos. It says, “One hour of teshuvah and good deeds in this world is better than the entire life of the World to Come.” Chassidus explains that the World to Come means not only Gan Eden, but also the Resurrection of the Dead. At first glance, how can that be? How can this world—Torah and mitzvos performed in this world—be higher than the World to Come? The explanation there is the same: teshuvah and good deeds are the essence. The World to Come is the revelation of Torah and mitzvos. The essence is higher than its revelation; the cause is higher than its effect. So to understand the cause, we can look at its effect. Through the revelation, we understand the essence. That is what the Rebbe says here: “From its reward we will know its essence.” Through the reward, the revelation of the mitzvah, we can know the essence of the mitzvah. So what is the foundation of this explanation? What is the point the Rebbe is teaching us here? What else does the Rebbe want to add? The Rebbe wants to add that when a Jew is in this lowly world, in this physical world—when a Jew

12:22 is in this physical world and fulfills Torah and mitzvos, doing so with love and awe—what reward does he receive? If his love and awe are natural, his reward will be the lower Gan Eden. And if his love and awe are intellectual, his reward will be the higher Gan Eden. And as we said, this does not simply mean Gan Eden, but the ten sefiros of the World of Beriah or the ten sefiros of the World of Yetzirah. So what is the Alter Rebbe teaching us now? That this isn’t merely a matter of reward; it is the essence of what is happening now. From his reward we know what he is doing. In other words, what is actually happening when I stand here in this physical world, as a human being fulfilling a mitzvah with love and awe? At that very moment, I am at the level of the ten sefiros of the World of Yetzirah or the ten sefiros of the World of Beriah. I am there now. Since we know that this is my reward, we know that this is what I am accomplishing. That is the reality. Right now, the light of Ein Sof shines within a person as it is revealed in the ten sefiros of Beriah, or as it is revealed in the ten sefiros of Yetzirah. This happens now, at the time the mitzvah is performed. It’s just that the revelation of it will come in Gan Eden. When I leave the physical body, I will feel it. That is when the revelation comes. But the essence of the matter is present right now as well. In other words, when a Jew fulfills a mitzvah with intellectual love and awe, he is now in the higher Gan Eden; and if it is natural love and awe, he is now in the lower Gan Eden. Let’s look inside: “The reward of a mitzvah is the mitzvah.”

14:22 “Meaning that from its reward we will know its essence and its level.” From the reward, we can know the essence of the mitzvah and the level at which it is revealed. “And we have no dealings with hidden matters.” The Alter Rebbe says: we are not dealing with hidden matters. By this, the Alter Rebbe makes clear that he is not coming to explain Atzilus now, even though he mentioned it earlier. He mentioned it only to explain that there is a higher level, a realm in which that light shines; such a level exists too. But the Alter Rebbe is really returning to the beinoni, for whom that is not relevant. Hence the Alter Rebbe says, “And we have no dealings with hidden matters.” We are speaking here about the path of the beinoni. We are not trying to explain Atzilus. It is generally mentioned briefly, just to say that there is a connection to it at certain times. But in essence, we have no dealings with hidden matters, which belong to great tzaddikim who are utterly nullified, so we will not go into that now. What concerns us is the beinoni. The beinoni’s avodah must not be like the higher avodah discussed earlier, which belongs to hidden matters, but rather the avodah of love and awe, which belongs to revealed matters. It is explained that the distinction between hidden and revealed matters is that the revealed matters pertain to love and awe. In other words, revealed matters are connected with love and awe, and that is why we are speaking here about love and awe. But within love and awe themselves there are two levels. “And the revealed matters are ours, toward which every person should be drawn”—this is something relevant to everyone. The Alter Rebbe already used this wording in chapter 14 in connection with the beinoni: the avodah of the beinoni is something relevant to each and every person. Hence the wording, “toward which every person should be drawn.” What does “toward which every person should be drawn” mean? There are two explanations. Chapter 14.

16:13 The same applies here. What does “to which every person will be drawn” mean? There are two interpretations. One is that a person should be drawn to these things. They are relevant to him, so naturally he should be drawn to them. The second is that the Alter Rebbe is stating a fact: “to which every person will be drawn.” That is the natural way of things. A Jew is drawn to being a beinoni. That is how Hakadosh Boruch Hu made a Jew’s nature: every Jew is naturally drawn to being a beinoni. He wants to be a beinoni. So “will be drawn” can be read both as an instruction and as a statement of what will indeed happen. It says there: “To which every person will be drawn: to know with certainty the nature and level of the service of Hashem with fear and love revealed in the heart, arising from understanding and knowledge of the greatness of Hashem, blessed be He—its place is in the ten sefiros of Beriah.” A person needs to know with certainty—that is, to know clearly—the nature and level of serving Hashem with fear and love revealed in the heart, arising from understanding and knowledge of His greatness. Its place is in the ten sefiros of Beriah. When a person serves Hashem with love and fear revealed in his heart, brought about through contemplation of Hashem’s greatness, his service is in the ten sefiros of Beriah. What does that mean? Not just that his reward will be there. Again, this is what he is doing. In other words, that is where he is right now. “And service with the natural fear and love in his mind is in the ten sefiros of Yetzirah.” That is the connection of his being. When it is with natural love and fear, he is on the level of refining his own being. That is in Yetzirah. It tells us the level of his engagement with G-dliness. When he performs a mitzvah with natural love and fear, his engagement with Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with the Ein Sof light as it is enclothed in the sefiros of Yetzirah. When his service is with intellectual love and fear, his engagement with Hakadosh Boruch Hu is a connection.

18:09 That is another level of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, as He is revealed in Beriah. When a person performs a mitzvah, with which aspect of G-dliness does he connect? It is all a bond and a connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Yes, but the question is: which aspect of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s revelation? Here it is Hakadosh Boruch Hu as He is revealed in Yetzirah, in the sefiros of Yetzirah. But what about service without awakening fear and love? A person does not awaken his fear and love. That is, there is no awakening of fear and love in him. He has fear and love—every Jew has fear and love by his very nature—but he does not awaken them. And here the Alter Rebbe is not talking about someone who acts for an ulterior motive; he will discuss that shortly. Here he is talking about someone who serves Hashem, but does not awaken love and fear. He does it out of kabbolas ol and so on, but without a feeling of love and fear, without awakening fear and love. Not even in his mind, in a revealed way; he does not even awaken love and fear in his mind. In other words, he does not even think about it. That is, “to awaken the natural love hidden in the heart and bring it from concealment into revelation, at least in his mind and in the hidden recesses of his heart.” As the Alter Rebbe explained earlier, in chapter 17, there is the most basic level: awakening the hidden love and fear at least in his mind, in the hidden recesses of his heart. So if he contemplates Hashem’s greatness and, on the basis of what he understands, concludes that he needs to connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, then at least he has love and fear in his mind, in the hidden recesses of his heart. It is not revealed in the heart; it is love and fear at their most basic level. When he does not even have that,

19:53 when he does not even have that, he does not awaken even this love and fear; rather, “it remains hidden in the heart as it was by nature.” That does not mean there is no love and fear here at all. There is no awakening of love and fear. The love and fear that every Jew has are still there. As the Rebbe says in today’s Hayom Yom—it was just in Hayom Yom—21 Sivan, no? 22 Sivan. What was today? Huh? The 21st. Huh? What does the Rebbe say in today’s Hayom Yom? There are the ten faculties of the soul, which derive from the ten sefiros of Atzilus. And every Jew has simple faith and does not want to be separated from G-dliness; that comes from the essence of his soul. In other words, every Jew has natural love and fear. The difference is that he does not awaken them. “Rather, it remains hidden in the heart as it was by nature, just as it was before the service.” So the service a person performs—Torah and mitzvos—is done without the help of love and fear. What happens to that service? The Alter Rebbe says: “This service remains below, in the world of separateness.” This service remains below, in the world of separateness. What does that mean? He does not mean this physical world. He means every world: the world of Beriah, the world of Yetzirah, and the world of Asiyah. It remains in a world, but within that world without reaching its ten sefiros. That is what “the world of separateness” means. Yes. In other words, his service remains in whichever world it is in—within the world, but it does not connect with the ten sefiros. It “remains below, in the world of separateness, and lacks the power to ascend and be included in His unity, which is the ten holy sefiros.” So the Torah and mitzvos he performs remain in the heichalos, the chambers, but do not connect with the ten sefiros. Again, what did we learn

21:50 earlier in the chapter? Do you remember? Earlier in the chapter, the Alter Rebbe spoke about the dwelling place of souls. Some souls are in the world of Beriah, some are in the world of Yetzirah, and some are in the world of Asiyah. That is where souls dwell, according to their levels. But there is also the matter of the Torah and mitzvos a person performs: in which world’s ten sefiros do they bring about a revelation? When a person engages in love and fear, as well as tzedakah and Torah and mitzvos, he causes the Ein Sof light to be revealed in the ten sefiros of that world. This is called “fruits,” the attributes that are revealed. But that happens when he awakens love and fear, when he observes Torah and mitzvos with love and fear. So we say that if it is with natural love and fear, it brings about a revelation of the Ein Sof light in the ten sefiros of Yetzirah. And if it is with intellectual love and fear, it brings about a revelation in the ten sefiros of Beriah. But when it is without the help of love and fear, the Torah and mitzvos are still Torah and mitzvos, and they, too, ascend to the higher worlds. What is missing is the revelation in the ten sefiros, in His unity. It remains separate, in the world, without reaching the ten sefiros. “And it lacks the power to ascend and be included in His unity, which is the ten holy sefiros, as stated in Tikkunim.” Concerning this, the Zohar says in Tikkunei Zohar: “Without fear and love, it cannot fly upward, nor can it ascend and stand before Havayah.” When the Torah and mitzvos are Torah and mitzvos, but they are without fear and love, they do not fly upward. In other words, they do not ascend to the sefiros above—“nor can they ascend and stand before Havayah.” They cannot stand there. That is, His unity is not revealed within them. There are two stories about this. One story. Okay, just one story today. There is a story told about the Alter Rebbe. A story about

24:00 The Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe, the Alter Rebbe traveled after he was released from Petersburg. You see, the Alter Rebbe had promised that misnaged that he would visit three Torah scholars from among the misnagdim. The Alter Rebbe kept his promise and traveled to three of the leading misnagdim of the time. Their names are known: Reb Tzeitlin, Reb Chifetz [?], and one other. In any case, he traveled to three of the leading Torah scholars of the Jewish people. When he arrived at one of them, the man asked him all sorts of questions. Among them, he said, “I’ve heard chassidim say that you wrote in your book, in the pamphlets for Bein Hametzarim, that when someone studies Torah without love and awe, the Torah does not rise Above. Where did you get that from? What is the source? What is your source for such a thing?” Now, the Alter Rebbe knew it was in the Zohar, but he understood that the man did not want a source from the inner dimension of Torah; he wanted a source from the revealed dimension. So the Alter Rebbe told him that it was an explicit Gemara. This man knew the entire Talmud thoroughly and had studied it many times. He began to think and think, but he could not find any such passage. He said, “There is no such passage in the Talmud.” So the Alter Rebbe told him, “Tractate Pesachim.” He went through the whole of Pesachim again in his mind and said, “No, there isn’t.” Finally, the Alter Rebbe began quoting the words of our Sages to him: “Rava raised a contradiction.” Rava asked about two verses in Tehillim. One verse says, “For Your kindness is great up to the heavens.” Another says, “For Your kindness is great above the heavens.” Right? Chapters 57 and 108. In Tehillim, chapter 57 says, “For Your kindness is great up to the heavens”; chapter 108 says, “For Your kindness is great above the heavens.” So there is a contradiction here. Rava answered—the Gemara answers—“Here it refers to those who act for its own sake, and here to those who act not for its own sake.” When someone studies

26:16 Torah for its own sake, then “Your kindness is great above the heavens.” In the other case, when someone studies not for its own sake, it is “Your kindness is great up to the heavens.” So it is an explicit Gemara: if someone studies Torah not for its own sake—that is, without love and awe—then the Torah rises up to the heavens, but not above the heavens. In the other case, Torah studied with love and awe rises above the heavens. That’s it.