Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 40 - Part 2

00:00 For its own sake. His learning does not ascend even to the ten sefiros that shine in the worlds of Yetzirah and Asiyah. The Alter Rebbe says that as long as a person has not studied this material again for its own sake—what does “for its own sake” mean? We learned in the previous chapter that it means with love and awe. Specifically that is called learning for its own sake: learning with a feeling of love and awe. So when he studied it, he did not study it with love and awe. Even though he studied it, he did not, G-d forbid, study it for some ulterior motive. He simply studied it—neither for its own sake nor for an ulterior motive. That is what we are discussing here: a person who studies Torah and observes mitzvos out of habit, because that is what he became accustomed to from his youth—from his father and mother, his parents, his teachers, his school, his cheder. Wherever he learned, they accustomed him to studying Torah, observing mitzvos, and fearing Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So we said earlier that when he serves Him in this way, it is called—it is not necessarily called “not for its own sake,” but it is not called “for its own sake” either, so as to... This Torah does not ascend above. How does one raise it? The Alter Rebbe said at the end of chapter 39 that one raises this Torah by going back and studying the same material again for its own sake. When he studies it again for its own sake, he also raises the Torah he studied earlier. The Alter Rebbe now continues and says that as long as he has not studied it for its own sake, has not gone back and studied it again, his learning does not ascend even to the ten sefiros that shine in the worlds of Yetzirah and Asiyah. This learning does not ascend even to the ten sefiros that shine in the worlds of Yetzirah and Asiyah. In other words, why does he say “even” here? Not only does it not ascend to the ten sefiros in the worlds of Yetzirah and Beriah—that goes without saying—even to the ten sefiros in the worlds of Yetzirah and Asiyah, it also

02:02 does not ascend. Why does it not ascend to the ten sefiros? Because the sefiros are a manifestation of G-dliness. A sefirah is G-dliness. Even a sefirah of Yetzirah or Asiyah is G-dliness, and within them the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, is actually enclothed and united. The sefirah itself is G-dliness, and within the sefirah the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, is actually enclothed and united. Therefore, since a sefirah is G-dliness and Ein Sof is present there, “without fear and love, it cannot ascend and stand before Hashem,” as it says in the Tikkunim. As long as there is no fear and love—no love and awe—the Torah and mitzvos cannot ascend and stand before Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Rather, his learning ascends to the chambers and abodes. Where do this person’s Torah and mitzvos ascend? We are speaking about someone who does not study for an ulterior motive. He simply studies Torah and observes mitzvos. He is not studying “not for its own sake”; rather, he simply studies. He studies Torah and observes mitzvos, and what is he missing? The intention of love and awe. Since that is the case, the Alter Rebbe says: “His learning ascends to the chambers and abodes, which are the external dimension of the worlds, where the angels stand.” So where does it ascend? It ascends to the chambers and abodes of Yetzirah and Asiyah. They ascend into those worlds, but not to the sefiros—only to the chambers and abodes. To the chambers, not to the sefirah itself, because the chambers are the external dimension of the worlds, where the angels are found. So what is he saying here, in other words? The Alter Rebbe is explaining to us here—could someone close the window there? Sorry. What is he explaining here? We already said in the previous chapter that each world has several aspects. Broadly speaking, there are the ten sefiros of a world, and there are its chambers and abodes. In the previous chapter, the Alter Rebbe explained that when a Jew fulfills a mitzvah with

04:34 natural love and awe, his soul ascends to the world of Yetzirah, to its chambers and abodes, while the Torah he studies and the mitzvah he fulfills ascend to the ten sefiros of Yetzirah. Similarly, when a person studies Torah with intellectually generated love and awe, his soul ascends to the chambers and abodes of the world of Beriah, while his Torah and mitzvos ascend to the ten sefiros of the world of Beriah. That is what we said in the previous chapter. Here the Alter Rebbe continues and tells us what happens when a person studies Torah and observes mitzvos not for their own sake—that is, without love and awe, neither natural love and awe nor intellectually generated love and awe. What does the Alter Rebbe say? The Torah he studies and the mitzvos he fulfills ascend to Yetzirah and Asiyah—to the worlds, yes? To their chambers and abodes. Not only the person; his Torah and mitzvos also ascend to the chambers and abodes of Yetzirah and Asiyah, but not to the ten sefiros. For Torah and mitzvos to connect with the ten sefiros, there specifically has to be love and awe. This is what the Zohar means when it says that when there is fear of sin but not fear and love, it does not ascend to stand before Hashem. What does it mean that it does not ascend to stand before Hashem? When a person lacks love and awe, those Torah and mitzvos do not connect with the ten sefiros. They ascend to the spiritual world of Asiyah, or beyond that, even to the world of Yetzirah—but only to the world, to a chamber, not to the sefiros. What is the difference between the sefiros and a chamber? The difference, he says, is that a sefirah is—[unclear]—G-dliness, and Ein Sof is revealed there. The chambers, by contrast, are created realms; that is where the angels are found. Certainly an angel—the angels—are utterly incomparable to a sefirah. An angel is a created being, whereas a sefirah is G-dliness. They are utterly incomparable. And this shows the great—no, this is what the Alter Rebbe is coming to emphasize here: the tremendous importance of love and awe.

06:38 Love and awe are so important that a person can study Torah and observe mitzvos—perform the mitzvah—and even know that he is fulfilling a mitzvah. We are not talking here about someone who studies Torah and observes mitzvos under duress or coercion, or because someone forced him, or without realizing he was doing a mitzvah. He is speaking here—we will soon see the proof—even about a person who, when he fulfills the mitzvah, knows that these are tefillin and knows he is fulfilling a mitzvah, but lacks love and awe. He does it without a feeling of love and awe. About this we say that his Torah and mitzvos ascend to the chambers and abodes of Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah, but do not ascend to the sefiros. Why do they not ascend to the sefiros? Because the sefiros are G-dliness, and to connect with G-dliness—especially since Ein Sof shines in the sefiros—it must specifically be through love and awe. Without love and awe, it does not connect with G-dliness. It remains in a chamber of the world. Here the Alter Rebbe says about the sefiros—he uses this wording—the Alter Rebbe says that “the sefiros are a manifestation of G-dliness.” He says that “within them the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, is actually enclothed and united.” So what does it mean that the sefiros are G-dliness, and that the light of Ein Sof is enclothed and united within them? Some commentators want to explain that these are two different things. By saying that the sefiros are G-dliness, he means the light—the light of the sefiros. And when he says that within them the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, is actually enclothed and united, he means the vessels. That is how some want to explain the plain meaning here. Yes, “G-dliness” refers to the light of the sefiros: the sefiros are G-dliness, and within them the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, is actually enclothed and united. The wording “G-dliness” implies that they themselves are G-dliness. “Enclothed and united” sounds as though something else becomes enclothed in them. So they want to say that “G-dliness” means the lights, and “is enclothed”

08:36 “And becomes united” refers to the vessels. But I think this requires a great deal of examination—whether it can be explained that way—because the meaning should apparently be entirely different, the opposite. By “the sefiros of Elokus,” he means the sefiros as they are in the world of Yetzirah and the world of Beriah. They are Elokus. But what does Elokus mean here? Elokus as it exists in Beriah and Yetzirah. In Chassidus, through to the Rebbe, it is explained that “Elokus” refers to the vessels—not the lights. Just the opposite. The Tzemach Tzedek writes in Derech Mitzvosecha that there is Eloka and there is Elokus. He distinguishes between them: the lights are called Eloka—G-dly—and the vessels are called Elokus, because they are not Hakadosh Boruch Hu; they are vessels. But because they are vessels for Elokus, they too are called Elokus. Elokus can also mean something connected with G-dliness. It is like calling a tzaddik a “man of G-d.” He is G-dly: he has bittul to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and is a vessel for Elokus. But of the lights we say more than that. According to this, it is the other way around: the vessels of Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah—the sefiros—are called Elokus, and within them, within the vessels and sefiros of Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah, the light of Ein Sof is enclothed. The light of Ein Sof is above... Ein Sof here means the Ein Sof present in the world of Atzilus. The light of Ein Sof that shines in Atzilus is revealed in the vessels of Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah as well. We need to understand the plain meaning of the Tanya here. There is another point to note: the Alter Rebbe says, “For they cannot, without fear and love...” If a person lacks love and fear, then his Torah and mitzvos “cannot ascend and stand before Hashem.” His Torah and mitzvos do not ascend and stand before Hakadosh Boruch

10:38 Hu. The wording of Tikkunei Zohar that the Alter Rebbe quoted earlier, in chapter 39, was: “Torah without fear and love does not fly upward and cannot ascend and stand before Hashem.” It does not fly upward, and it does not stand before Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Here the Alter Rebbe does not quote the words “does not fly upward”; he quotes only the second half. And that is straightforward. Here the Alter Rebbe is speaking about someone who observes Torah and mitzvos, and does so not out of outright self-centeredness, but simply by rote, out of habit. So the Alter Rebbe says here that this Torah and these mitzvos do ascend to the higher worlds—to the world of Yetzirah and the world of Asiyah. But they do not unite with Ein Sof; they do not unite with the ten sefiros. That is why the Alter Rebbe omits “does not fly upward” and writes only the last part, emphasizing that they do not unite with the ten sefiros: “cannot stand before Hashem.” They do not unite with Ein Sof, with the ten sefiros. “As Rabbi Chaim Vital, z”l, wrote in Shaar Hanevuah.” As Rabbi Chaim Vital wrote—this is Shaar Hanevuah. There is no book by Rabbi Chaim Vital called Shaar Hanevuah; it is Shaar Hayichudim. Rabbi Chaim Vital has Eight Gates, and one of them is called Shaar Hayichudim. The Alter Rebbe calls it Shaar Hanevuah because the passage on this subject is in the part of Shaar Hayichudim that discusses prophecy. It is interesting that the Alter Rebbe calls it that. As Rabbi Chaim Vital, z”l, wrote in Shaar Hanevuah, chapter 2: Torah studied without intention creates angels in the world of Yetzirah, and mitzvos performed without intention create angels in the world of Asiyah. So Rabbi Chaim Vital is saying that when a person

12:21 studies Torah without intention—what does “without intention” mean? It does not mean that he fails to focus on the mitzvah. It means he lacks love and fear. That is how the Alter Rebbe understands Rabbi Chaim Vital. We will soon see what compels the Alter Rebbe to understand it this way, but that is his interpretation. When a person studies Torah without intention—meaning, without a feeling of love and fear—that Torah produces angels in the world of Yetzirah. Remember, that indicates a great virtue: even if you study Torah without intention, angels are created in the world of Yetzirah. But the Alter Rebbe cites it here not as a virtue; on the contrary, he presents it as a limitation: only angels are created. When you study Torah or perform a mitzvah without intention, without love and fear, it does create angels, but it does not become Elokus. Angels come from it. There are people for whom it is all about oceans of angels. That is the whole point: every bit of Torah studied and every mitzvah performed produces oceans of angels. Sometimes the emphasis is on what a tremendous thing that is: you perform a mitzvah or study Torah, and an angel comes from it. What could be greater? Here the Alter Rebbe emphasizes the opposite: it shows that only angels come from it, only created beings. It does not become something of Elokus, of the sefiros or Ein Sof. Why? Because it lacks love and fear. Why does Torah produce angels in the world of Yetzirah, while mitzvos produce angels in the world of Asiyah? It is easy to understand. What is the difference between Yetzirah and Asiyah? We learned that the middos of Hakadosh Boruch Hu—the sefiros—are found in the world of Yetzirah. Here we are speaking of Yetzirah, of the middos. Middos are connected with angels. Torah—Torah is

14:19 a matter of middos. What is Torah? Here we are speaking plainly of the revealed dimension of Torah. And what does it discuss? Obligation and exemption, forbidden and permitted, liable and innocent—all these distinctions, which are matters of chesed and gevurah, matters of middos. Therefore, in this respect, the main place of the Oral Torah is the world of Yetzirah, with this complex matter of the Names of Hashem. Yes. So the angels created through Torah study, even without intention, are in the world of Yetzirah. But what are they? Angels—not sefiros, not Elokus. That is what he is saying: it reaches the heavenly chambers, the abodes, but not the place of the sefiros themselves. Now, as for mitzvos: a mitzvah is connected with malchus—the commandments of the King, a matter of action. Therefore, the angels created from them are angels of Asiyah. This is the point he cites from Rabbi Chaim Vital: Torah studied without intention produces angels of Yetzirah, and a mitzvah performed without intention produces angels in the world of Asiyah. The Alter Rebbe continues: “And all angels possess matter and form.” Angels have matter and form. What does that mean? It says here that all angels have matter and form. We learned about the dispute between the Rambam and the Ramban, and Chassidus rules like the Ramban. What is the dispute? The Rambam says that angels are only form; they have no matter. That is what the Rambam writes in Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah: angels are forms. The Ramban, by contrast, says the opposite: angels also have matter; they also have bodies. He brings proof from the verse, “He makes His angels winds, His servants a flaming fire.” That implies that angels have a substance. And [unclear]. That implies they have bodies. The difference is that human bodies are made of four elements—fire, air, water, and earth—whereas the bodies of angels are made of only two elements, fire and air, and therefore we

16:06 We don’t see it. In other words, our eyes—the way our eyes perceive things—cannot perceive matter composed of two elements. We can only perceive matter composed of four elements. Since an angel is composed of only two elements, it is beyond our sight. But angels do have bodies—refined bodies, but bodies nonetheless. So here the Alter Rebbe takes it as straightforward, as the Ramban wrote, that angels have matter and form. Accordingly, when a person does a mitzvah even without intention, an angel is created from it. Seemingly, why does the Alter Rebbe bring up here that angels have matter and form? How does that enter into our discussion? What is the Alter Rebbe trying to tell us? What difference does it make here whether angels have matter and form or not? This is an explanation the Rebbe’s father gave in his father’s name. It isn’t in a book by the Rebbe’s father; the Rebbe writes that he heard this explanation from his father and cites it. The Rebbe gives a very interesting explanation. Reb Leivik explains that, from these words, the Alter Rebbe brings proof for our discussion: when we speak of Torah or a mitzvah “without intention,” we mean without the intention of love and awe. When Torah is studied without love and awe, angels are born from it. But the person does have the intention to fulfill the mitzvah. That is the novel point. Even though he intends to fulfill the mitzvah, if he lacks love and awe, then the Torah—or mitzvah—well, simply reading Rabbi Chaim Vital, we might have thought, and there are Kabbalists who understand Rabbi Chaim Vital this way, that “Torah without intention” means he doesn’t intend to do a mitzvah at all. He just studies Torah without thinking at all about fulfilling any mitzvah. Yet he fulfills a mitzvah without intention. He doesn’t

17:49 intend to fulfill the mitzvah; he just does the act, nothing more. And even about that, we say that angels are created. The Alter Rebbe fills in this point. Why? What is the proof? Because every angel has vitality and form. An angel has both a body and a soul. How do the angel’s body and soul come about? Simply put, the angel’s body comes from the act of the mitzvah, and the angel’s soul comes from the intention behind the mitzvah. So there must have been some intention. If he had no intention at all, how could a soul come about? If a person fulfills a mitzvah with only the bodily act, without any intention—not even the intention to fulfill the mitzvah—then how could an angel with a soul come about? There would only be an angel’s body, without a soul. So since all angels have vitality and form—an angel has both a body and a soul—we must say that here the person has some intention, the intention to fulfill the mitzvah, and that is why an angel with a body and soul comes from it. Nevertheless, we call this Torah without intention and a mitzvah without intention. Why is it called “without intention”? Because love and awe are missing, so it does not ascend to the Ten Sefiros. That is why angels are created from it—not just an angel’s body, but an angel’s soul as well, because he did intend to fulfill the mitzvah. But he did not have love and awe. Because he lacked love and awe, an angel comes from it, but it does not become part of the Sefiros; it does not unite with the Ein Sof. And this is the Alter Rebbe’s proof that this is what is meant in Eitz Chaim, in what Rabbi Chaim Vital said. Not Eitz Chaim—Shaar Hanevuah. Yes, this is the Alter Rebbe’s proof concerning what Rabbi Chaim Vital says:

19:23 that angels are created from Torah or a mitzvah performed without intention. “Without intention” does not mean without any intention for the mitzvah. It means without the intention of love and awe. There is a well-known story connected with this, involving Reb Zusha of Anipoli and the Alter Rebbe. It’s a wonderful story. The Frierdiker Rebbe tells it in Sefer Hasichos, but there he does not say what it was about. Later, the Tzemach Tzedek writes the details of the story. The Frierdiker Rebbe relates that once the Maggid’s students were sitting together studying a passage of Tosafos. They could not understand what Tosafos meant, and this went on for some time. They tried to understand it and explain it, but no one could explain the passage. Then Reb Zusha came in. He asked them what the problem was. They knew that, when it came to scholarship, Reb Zusha was not considered so outstanding. He was a person of lofty spiritual standing and holiness, with all kinds of virtues, but Torah scholarship was not where he particularly excelled. So they did not really pay him much attention. But he pleaded with them to tell him the question. They showed him the passage and explained what they could not understand. He went away, and after a while he came back and gave them the explanation. They were amazed—it was a wonderful explanation. He explained Tosafos to them, and they wondered where he had gotten it. Reb Zusha told them that he had gone and cried to Hakadosh Boruch Hu because they could not understand Tosafos, until one of the rabbis who authored Tosafos appeared to him and explained what it meant. That is how he knew the interpretation. That is the story as it appears in the Frierdiker Rebbe’s sichos. In Or Hatorah, the Tzemach Tzedek tells us which passage of Tosafos it was and what happened there.

21:35 He cites a story in the Gemara. I don’t remember—I don’t know if I’ll remember the details exactly. The Gemara relates, if I’m not mistaken, in Avodah Zarah, that Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair was once on his way to redeem captives. That is the whole story with the Ginai River, which he split. It is the well-known story of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair splitting the river so he could cross and redeem captives. After that, the Gemara uses a particular expression. It says, “The Jewish people are holy.” There is one who wants to but does not have the means, and there is—how does it say it there? One who wants to but does not do it, or eats—I don’t remember—and one who eats but does not want to, something like that. Right? Yes. So that is the Gemara’s wording: “The Jewish people are holy.” The Jewish people are a holy people. Why are they holy? There is one who wants to but does not do it, and one who does it but does not want to. Those are the expressions, if I’m not mistaken. One person acts but does not want to, while another wants to but does not act. Tosafos explains, yes? Tosafos writes there why he is called holy. What is the reasoning? Why is he called holy—the one who wants to but does not act? Tosafos says, “Because he wants to, and the other…” There is a line like that, a single line in Tosafos. It is very hard to understand a word of what Tosafos means by it. That was the Tosafos they were discussing, the passage they could not understand. It’s here—never mind, we can look at it afterward. In any case, what was the explanation that was revealed through Reb Zusha of Anipoli, who heard it from one of the rabbis who authored Tosafos himself?

23:45 It is that there is a person who has the intention. Some people have the intention but never come to do the deed. They have the intention to perform the mitzvah, but do not actually perform it. And there are people who do perform the mitzvah, but do not have the intention. That is what “wants to” means: love and awe. He wants to do it; he has a desire for it. He has the will, he has love and awe, but the act is missing. Another person has the act, but lacks love and awe. So why are the Jewish people called “holy”? I don’t remember Tosafos’s exact wording there. Tosafos means that since one person wants to and the other acts, Hakadosh Boruch Hu joins the will of one with the act of the other, and together they form a complete entity, with a body and soul. In other words, sometimes Reuven’s love and awe join with Shimon’s action, and the result has a body and soul. That is what it says there. Afterward, we can look at how this is hinted at in Tosafos’s wording. It is not explicit in Tosafos’s words, but we understand that this is what Tosafos means. Yes, in principle, there are ways for one person’s intention to join with another person’s action, making them into one act. So this is what the Rebbe is saying here: angels must have a body and a soul, and for that there must be both an act and an intention. But here we are talking about ordinary intention, not the higher intention of love and awe. For the result to be more than angels—for it to unite with the Sefiros and for the Ein Sof to be revealed in it—there must also be love and awe.