Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 40 - Part 5

00:01 The Alter Rebbe explains—he had a question here. The Rebbe asks: We explained that when a person studies Torah and fulfills a mitzvah with intent, with love and awe, his Torah and mitzvos ascend to the ten sefiros of Beriah or the ten sefiros of Yetzirah. They ascend on high, and there the infinite light is revealed in the Torah and mitzvos as well. But when a person studies Torah and fulfills mitzvos without love and awe—even if, G-d forbid, he has no contrary intention, no intention of doing it for an ulterior motive, but simply does it—the Alter Rebbe says it does not unite with the ten sefiros. It ascends to the chambers and abodes, but not to the ten sefiros of that world, and it does not unite with the Infinite. But here, at the top of page 54b of Tanya, the Alter Rebbe asked: How can that be? After all, “all is one.” Since Hakadosh Boruch Hu and the Torah are one, and He and His will—the mitzvos—are one, how can that be? Why should it matter whether the person has love and awe or not? In truth, Torah is one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu; it is infinite. A mitzvah, too, is infinite light. So how can that be? By virtue of the very fact that he studies Torah and fulfills a mitzvah, it should unite with the Infinite. Why does it matter whether he has love and awe? Granted, when his intention is not for its own sake, an intention rooted in kelipah, the kelipah prevents it from ascending, as the Alter Rebbe said in the previous chapter. But when he simply studies, since Torah and mitzvos are the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, why do they not ascend? That was the question. So the Alter Rebbe began to explain that, in truth, Hakadosh Boruch Hu fills all worlds equally. If we look

02:03 from the perspective of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, He is present equally in all worlds. He fills all worlds equally. As we explained, the Alter Rebbe does not mean the specific level called “filling all worlds,” but the very idea that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is everywhere. He is everywhere—and not merely everywhere. As explained in Chassidus, He is present below, in every matter and at every level. As the Alter Rebbe explains at length later in Tanya, in chapter 48, this is not as people mistakenly think: that “filling all worlds” means being above, as mentioned earlier. Rather, it means He is below just as He is above, present in every detail and everything. So He fills all worlds equally. Nevertheless, there is a difference between this world and the World to Come. What is the difference? The Alter Rebbe says there are two differences: one concerns tzimtzum, the contraction of the light, and the other concerns concealment. Tzimtzum concerns the Divine light present in each world, the light that fills the worlds, the Divine light revealed in each world. After all, there is Divine light within every thing and at every level. But this light undergoes tzimtzum: the Divine light in the higher worlds is loftier, while the Divine light that descends from level to level, from world to world, becomes more and more contracted, until in this physical world there is the ultimate contraction and the ultimate concealment. That is why it becomes an inanimate, physical world. That is from the standpoint of tzimtzum. Beyond that, there is another matter: concealment. What is concealment? It comes from obscuring garments. Besides the contraction of the light, there are garments that cover and obscure it. There are many such garments, until we come to the garment called kelipas nogah. This is not just any garment; it is a garment that opposes, a garment of concealment, a garment of

03:48 kelipah, of the sitra achra. That is what we have here in this physical world: all physical things are clothed in kelipas nogah. So the reality of this physical world involves two things. First, this lowly world represents the ultimate tzimtzum: the Divine light here is on the very lowest level, to the point that no revelation of light is visible at all. In addition, there is the concealing garment of kelipah. But when a person studies Torah and fulfills mitzvos—when I sit and study Torah with my physical mouth—there is a distinction. From the standpoint of concealment, there is no concealment here. These are holy letters, letters of Torah and mitzvos. The moment you say words of Torah with your physical mouth, you connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. These are the words “In the beginning, G-d created the heavens and the earth,” and “Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One.” They are holy words, words of Torah and mitzvos. Because they are words of Torah and mitzvos, kelipas nogah is not present here. On the contrary, as the Alter Rebbe explained in the previous chapters, the whole point of Torah and mitzvos is to transform kelipas nogah. The moment I take my physical mouth and use it to say words of Torah, I transform the energy of kelipas nogah and turn it into holiness. So as far as concealment is concerned, there is none here. There is no garment covering and concealing the light. These are Torah and mitzvos, not nogah; on the contrary, they are holiness. But if we look at the light, at tzimtzum, these are

05:37 physical letters. That is their very nature: the letters of Torah and mitzvos are physical letters. The same mouth, the same—those same words, in the same way, that I use to speak idle talk, by contrast. They are words spoken with the same mouth. You cannot see a difference in the words. They are the same words, the same physical words. Our world is physical and material, and its Divine light is contracted to the greatest degree. It makes no difference whether the words I say are the words of Shema Yisroel or, by contrast, words of idle talk. The words themselves are the same, and so the life-force within them, from the standpoint of the light, is contracted. This is what the Alter Rebbe is saying: from the standpoint of concealment, these are words of Torah and those are words of kelipah. Here there is kelipas nogah, and here there is holiness. So when you say letters of Torah, there is no concealment. But if you look at the light, the Divine light cannot be revealed in this world. On the contrary, here in this world the light is lowly and contracted. Even when you say words of Torah, it is contracted. It is light expressed in physical words. Therefore, the words themselves cannot unite with the Infinite. The Torah and mitzvos have not yet become united with it. He has not finished making his case; I will explain this shortly as we continue. But for now we understand that there are two aspects here, two distinct considerations, as they say: concealment and tzimtzum. So Torah and mitzvos do not involve concealment, but they do involve tzimtzum. And so the Alter Rebbe says—and with this we continue—page 54b, as we said, the line beginning after [unclear]. The Alter Rebbe had just finished saying that in physical matters, kelipas nogah…

07:26 Conceals. That is not the case with words of Torah and prayer, where we say that kelipas nogah does not conceal. On the contrary, kelipas nogah is transformed, as the Alter Rebbe is now going to explain. So, regarding concealment, there is a difference between things that belong to kelipah and things that belong to holiness. With things that belong to kelipah, the kelipah conceals them. But not with Torah and mitzvos. There, there is no concealment. They are Torah and mitzvos; they are the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The Alter Rebbe continues: “Although there is no place devoid of Him.” Indeed, if we look at it from Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s perspective, there is no place devoid of Him; Hakadosh Boruch Hu is everywhere. He is present even within the concealment. So understand the truth: the concealment, too, is G-dliness. That is what “there is no place devoid of Him” means. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is everywhere. Nevertheless, He is “the most hidden of all hidden things.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu is called “the most hidden of all hidden things.” In other words, when we speak about Hakadosh Boruch Hu, both are true at once. On the one hand, what do we say? That there is no place devoid of Him. That means He is present in everything, everywhere. He is everything; everything is Him. And at the same time, He is hidden from everything. He is distinct from everything. He is the most hidden of all hidden things. And He is called “a G-d Who conceals Himself.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself is called “a G-d Who conceals Himself.” In other words, when we speak about Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself, both are true at once. On the one hand, we say everything is Him, and on the other, we say He is distinct from everything. Those are the two things. Precisely those two things. This is the meaning of what is written about the Ein Sof light: “Above, above, without end, and below, below, without limit.” Both within the very same reality. Hakadosh Boruch Hu encompasses all these wonders. On the one hand, everything is

09:09 Him and there is nothing besides Him, and at the same time nothing can grasp Him. He is distinct from everything and is called “the most hidden of all hidden things.” The fact that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the most hidden of all hidden things is not because of concealing garments, because there are things that hide Him. What do we mean when we say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is “the most hidden of all hidden things” or “a G-d Who conceals Himself”? Does it mean that there are things that conceal Him and prevent Him from being revealed? No. He is hidden by His very nature. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is such a reality. He is inherently beyond any connection to worlds. He is “a G-d Who conceals Himself”; He is inherently hidden. So the fact that there is no place devoid of Him, that everything is Hakadosh Boruch Hu, does not contradict the fact that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not revealed anywhere, because He Himself is “a G-d Who conceals Himself.” That is true even of the higher worlds. And just as this is true of Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself—that He is “a G-d Who conceals Himself”—so too, the light and the extension of the life-force from Him, blessed be He, are concealed in numerous powerful garments and screens. So, concerning Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself, although there is no place devoid of Him, at the same time He is “a G-d Who conceals Himself.” He is not revealed anywhere, even in the very highest worlds; “no thought can grasp Him at all.” No one can grasp Him, because He is inherently hidden. Likewise with His light and its extension: on the one hand, Hakadosh Boruch Hu extends everywhere. Now we are speaking about His radiance, its extension—His extension and His light. It, too, extends into every single thing, but at the same time it is clothed in concealing garments, so it is not revealed within them. “And the light and the extension of the life-force from Him, blessed be He, are concealed in numerous powerful garments, until they are clothed in the garment of nogah.” So, just as concerning Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself,

10:53 we say that even though there is concealment of His face, He is Himself hidden, the same is true of His life-force. Certainly, the life-force of Hakadosh Boruch Hu—its extension, its vitality—is present in every single thing. There is G-dly vitality in every single thing. As we said earlier, without it nothing could exist. But at the same time there are concealing garments that prevent that vitality from being revealed there, allowing for the existence of kelipah and concealment, “until it is clothed in the garment of nogah.” So it follows that the physical reality of this world—the physical things of this world apart from Torah and mitzvos, things like speech, houses, animals, figs, living creatures, and all these things as they are in themselves, before you make a mitzvah out of them, before you use them for Torah or mitzvos—through the concealing garments, kelipas nogah comes into being, concealing G-dliness. That is what the world is like in itself, apart from Torah and mitzvos. So what is there in this physical world, besides the fact that it is a world of tzimtzum? It is also a world of concealment—the concealment of kelipah. “Not so with the garments of holiness.” Now you see how he returns to what he said earlier, regarding the garments of Torah and mitzvos. The moment I use those same words, those same letters, to speak words of Torah instead of using them to speak impure things that belong to kelipah—or, similarly, I take a physical animal from kelipas nogah and use it to fulfill the mitzvah of tefillin, or mitzvos of Shabbos and Yom Tov; I turn it into a mitzvah—the moment I do so, “not so with the garments of holiness, Torah and prayer; on the contrary.” What does “on the contrary” mean? Not only

12:36 is the concealment of kelipas nogah absent when I use my words, my power of speech, to speak words of Torah and mitzvos, or use a physical object to fulfill a mitzvah. Not only is the concealment of kelipas nogah absent; on the contrary, it also transforms kelipas nogah into holiness. “On the contrary, kelipas nogah bears fruit through its purification and is included in this holiness, as explained above.” That is the power Torah and mitzvos have. Hakadosh Boruch Hu placed this power in Torah and mitzvos: the moment Torah and mitzvos connect with a physical thing that, just a moment before, belonged to the sitra achra, to kelipah, and received its vitality from the kelipah, the sitra achra—when a Jew takes that thing and makes a mitzvah out of it, what happens? He transforms it into holiness. This is the matter of speech and [unclear] that the Alter Rebbe explained at length in chapter 37: the power a Jew has to transform kelipas nogah into holiness. And that is the point here. So as far as concealment is concerned, there is no concealment here. The moment I use my mouth to speak words of Torah, there is no concealment here. That addresses the matter of concealment. Not only is it absent; on the contrary, he transforms it into holiness. But then we come to the question of tzimtzum: how much G-dly light is here? The question is one of light being revealed. We are not talking about whether something is G-dliness or is not G-dliness. There is no concealment here. This is holiness. But as for revelation, what is actually revealed here? The animal is the same animal. The meat is the same meat. You see no change in the meat. Looking at it from the outside, you see no difference between meat that was purchased, meat from an animal slaughtered according to halachah, and other meat. Outwardly, you see no difference.

14:19 This is meat and that is meat. They are both the same; perhaps they even taste the same. I don’t know. I’ve never tasted non-kosher meat. As far as the meat itself is concerned, it is simply the same meat. And likewise with speech: it is the same speech. You see no difference. You see someone speaking words of Torah in French. You don’t understand French. How do you know he is speaking words of Torah? Maybe he is just speaking impure words. You cannot know. The speech is the same speech. You do not see that it is loftier speech, more spiritual, holier, more elevated. The words are the same words. Why? Because these are words that belong to this physical world. So as for the G-dly light that shines here, because this is the physical world, the light is limited by the physicality, as we said earlier. It is a matter of constricted light, G-dly light constricted to the utmost. The physical thing does not allow G-dly light to be revealed here. Therefore, even in Torah and mitzvos, it is not revealed. In terms of revelation and tzimtzum, there is tzimtzum here. This is what the Alter Rebbe says here: “Nevertheless, the light within them, from the holiness of His will, blessed be He, is subject to an immense tzimtzum, since the voice and speech are physical.” Because the voice and speech are physical, the holy light of Torah and mitzvos cannot be revealed here, due to the physical nature of speech. That is when a person speaks words of Torah and mitzvos without intent. And that is what the Alter Rebbe explained here. This is half of the explanation. Why, when a person—what was the question? Why, when a person speaks words of Torah and mitzvos, when he studies—he studies with [unclear], he studies, but not for the sake of revelation or [unclear]. He is just studying. After all, seemingly, he is studying Torah

16:10 And the Torah’s halachah accords with the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So what’s the problem? What’s wrong with that? Then don’t study. It makes no difference to you. If you’re looking at it in terms of drawing down the light of the Ein Sof, then the light of the Ein Sof is drawn down. That is happening here. [unclear] These are holy letters, the letters of Torah and mitzvos. But if you’re speaking in terms of light and revelation, then in the physical there can be no light and revelation. That is the nature of the physical, of this physical world. What does that mean? There is no revelation of G-dliness here. You’re looking at the physical thing. Take a small child who can’t read yet. He sees something lying here on the table, but he can’t know whether it’s a holy book or a book about love and peace. As far as appearances go, it all looks the same. And this is true of everything. Why? Because that is the nature of the physical. What is the physical? It means that the G-dly light is not revealed here. There is only the material and physical, and from that perspective everything is the same, everything is equal. That’s all. So when you say the words of prayer without kavanah, without any spiritual feeling or spiritual intention, it remains in this physical world, without any revelation. But prayer with kavanah—this only explains why kavanah matters in prayer: when love and awe are missing, there is no revelation. What happens when there is kavanah? The Alter Rebbe now begins to explain what happens when a person does have a feeling of love and awe. The Alter Rebbe says: “But in prayer with kavanah and Torah study with kavanah for its own sake.” When a person prays with kavanah, that means that in his prayer he has a feeling

17:53 of love and awe, and the same applies to Torah study. He studies Torah with the intention of connecting to the soul of the Torah. He has a feeling of love and awe, as the Alter Rebbe explained earlier in chapter 39: when a person does something for his friend, he does it because he loves him or because he stands in awe of him. The same applies here to an act of Torah and mitzvos. There is a feeling of love and awe. So what is the advantage of that? “For the kavanah is clothed in the letters of speech.” The speech here is no longer the same speech. The speech rises to the world of the kavanah, because it comes from a feeling of love and awe. It isn’t just speech; it’s speech expressed with a feeling of love and awe. So the love and awe are clothed in those letters. And once love and awe are clothed in those letters, they are no longer letters of this physical world. It raises the speech, the letters, to a higher world. These letters are like a vehicle for something higher, for love and awe. They are letters connected to feeling. They are entirely different letters. “For the kavanah is clothed in the letters of speech.” What does “clothed” mean? That is the very meaning of being clothed: when one thing is clothed in another, the thing that is clothed in it raises the other thing to its own level. That is the whole concept of being clothed. When you say that a higher thing is clothed in a lower thing, it means that it enters it and raises it. For example, you can see this even in the physical world. A person says words, recites Tehillim: that is speech, letters, physical letters. But when a person speaks about love, and isn’t just saying words—he feels love as he speaks—then the love is clothed in the letters. And you can hear it: they are different letters. In other words, I might hear a person speaking French, as we said before. I don’t understand what he is saying, but I can sense something in his words. He conveys a certain feeling, even though I don’t understand what he is saying. His words move me, because a certain feeling comes through them. It isn’t the words themselves or what he says; it’s the soul from which he speaks. In other words, sometimes the letters rise to a more spiritual level. You feel what he is saying. Look, people would stand at the Rebbe’s farbrengen. Hundreds of thousands of people would stand at a farbrengen without understanding what the Rebbe was saying. The Rebbe spoke in Yiddish. Some understood, but others would stand there for hours on end, captivated, even though they didn’t understand what the Rebbe said. Yet from his tone they understood the life in what the Rebbe was saying. The Rebbe is speaking here. The Rebbe is speaking about G-dliness. The Rebbe is speaking truth. The Rebbe is saying something [unclear]. It aroused awe in them. It wasn’t the words he said; it was the tone carried in the words. That is the point: when something higher is clothed in something lower, the lower thing can rise to the level of the higher. It becomes like the higher thing. You don’t—you don’t see letters here; you see the... Through this, there can be higher levels. A person speaks words of intellect, an intellectual idea, and you don’t even hear the words. You hear the idea itself. In other words, the letters here rise to a higher level. The same is true here regarding love and awe. Since the reason he says these words is that they are words connected with love

19:52 Someone is speaking French, as we said earlier. I don’t understand what he’s saying, but I can feel something in his words. He’s conveying a certain emotion, even though I don’t understand what he’s saying. His words move me, because there’s an emotion coming through them. It’s not the words, not what he’s saying; it’s the soul from which he’s speaking. In other words, sometimes the letters, too, rise to a more spiritual realm. You feel what’s being said here. Look, people would stand at the Rebbe’s farbrengens. Hundreds of thousands of people would stand at farbrengens without understanding what the Rebbe was saying. The Rebbe spoke in Yiddish, so some understood. But others would stand there for hours on end, spellbound. Even though they didn’t understand what the Rebbe said, they sensed from his tone the vitality in what he was saying. The Rebbe is speaking here—here the Rebbe is speaking about G-dliness. The Rebbe is speaking truth here. The Rebbe is saying something here that awakened awe in them. It wasn’t the words he said; it was the tone carried by the words. In other words, the point is that when the higher level is clothed in the lower one, there’s a way for the lower one to rise to the level of the higher one. It becomes like the higher one. You don’t—you don’t see letters here; you see the... And through this, there can be even higher levels. A person speaks words of intellect, ideas, and you don’t even hear words. You hear the idea without... In other words, the letters here rise to a higher level. The same applies here to love and awe. Because the answer he gives about the letters of these words is that they’re words connected with love

21:26 and awe. They aren’t just words of Torah; they are words of Torah that come out of love and awe. The same applies to his prayer. The words of his prayer carry the feeling of love and awe that he has while praying. He has kavanah. So those words rise to the world of the kavanah. They are no longer words of the physical world of Asiyah, and as a result they take on a deeper, more inward, more spiritual form. More G-dly light can shine within them. Let’s look inside. “For the kavanah is clothed in the letters.” What does that mean? ... The whole reason for these letters is the kavanah; it is the driving force, the inner life of these words. These words come from the kavanah. So the letters take on the character of the kavanah. Whatever world the kavanah is in, the letters are there too. “Therefore, they rise with it to the world of Yetzirah or Beriah.” In this situation, because these letters aren’t merely physical letters, but are a product of the kavanah, they are in the same world as the kavanah. When the kavanah belongs to the world of Beriah, the letters belong to the world of Beriah, and the same applies at the other levels. “Therefore, they rise with it.” That is what we mean when we say that if a person recites the words of Tehillim or prayer with kavanah, those letters rise to the world of the kavanah. Wherever the kavanah is, that is where those letters are. Yetzirah: if it was a kavanah of natural love and awe, as we learned in chapters 38 and 39, it rises to Yetzirah. Or Beriah: if it was a kavanah of intellectual love and awe, which is connected with the world of Beriah, then those letters rise

23:15 To the world of Beriah, according to the kind of intention involved—intellectual or natural awe and love, etc., as explained above. As we said earlier, the letters are thus elevated to the level of the intention. The Rebbe points out something precise here: What does “etc.” mean? Seemingly, the word “etc.” is unnecessary here. In his correction, the Rebbe writes that it requires examination what this adds. But the Rebbe writes in a letter that we can explain why the Alter Rebbe added “etc.” here. What is the Alter Rebbe indicating with it? He is alluding to Atzilus, to the level of a merkavah. After all, we said in chapter 39 that there are three levels: natural love and awe, which ascend to Yetzirah; intellectual love and awe, which ascend to Beriah; and love and awe associated with being a merkavah, with the bittul of the great tzaddikim, which ascend even to the world of Atzilus. So there is Yetzirah—and Atzilus. But as the Alter Rebbe said there, he did not want to go into it. He mentioned it, but said, “We have no dealings with hidden matters.” That is beyond us. So the Alter Rebbe immediately moves on, though he does mention there that such a thing exists. Here too, then, the Alter Rebbe mentions it by saying “etc.” He means to allude to the love and awe associated with being a merkavah, on the level of the world of Atzilus. When the intention is connected with Atzilus, these letters are elevated to Atzilus as well. So what have we learned so far? When a person says the words of Tehillim and prayer with intention, those letters are elevated to the world of Yetzirah or the world of Beriah, to a sefirah in those worlds. The Alter Rebbe has not yet finished the explanation. Now the Alter Rebbe takes the next step. Again, so far he has added one point: that the letters ascend to a sefirah of Beriah or Yetzirah. Now the Alter Rebbe adds this point and says:

25:25 “And there the light of Ein Sof shines and is revealed.” There, in the worlds of Beriah and Yetzirah, the light of Ein Sof is indeed revealed. That is the whole difference between the worlds of Beriah and Yetzirah and the world of Asiyah. As we said earlier, Asiyah is the lowest world. Because of the physicality of this world, Divine light does not shine there; it is the lowest world. The Divine light is contracted to the utmost, to the point that physicality and materiality come into being. The light of Ein Sof cannot be revealed here, and so it is not revealed here. But when a person has intention, the words ascend to the worlds of Yetzirah and Beriah, which are spiritual worlds. There, light can be revealed; there, the light of Ein Sof within Torah and mitzvos is also revealed. In other words, Torah and mitzvos are connected with the light of Ein Sof even in the physical world. It is not that only Torah and mitzvos accompanied by love and awe are connected with the light of Ein Sof. That was the mistake behind the question. Even when a Jew studies Torah and performs mitzvos in this physical world without love and awe, that Torah and those mitzvos are connected with the light of Ein Sof. They are, after all, the will and wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu; they too are the light of Ein Sof. But it is not revealed here. As we said earlier, there is no concealment here, but there is contraction. The light of Ein Sof cannot be revealed in this physical world. That is the nature of this physical world: light is not revealed here; this is not a place where light can be manifest. So on the one hand, it is the essential will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, it is the light of Ein Sof, but it is not revealed. When a person does have love and awe, however, they cause it to ascend to a higher world, to Beriah or Yetzirah. And since Beriah

27:17 and Yetzirah are spiritual worlds, some degree of revelation is possible there. The light of Ein Sof within Torah and mitzvos can shine there as well. Thus, once it ascends to a sefirah of Beriah or Yetzirah, “there the light of the blessed Ein Sof shines and is revealed”—the blessed Supernal Will, which is clothed in the letters of Torah that one studies and in one’s intention, etc., or in prayer and its intention, etc., or in a mitzvah and its intention, etc. And that infinitely great light—the light of Ein Sof—shines there in its infinite greatness. It cannot shine or be revealed at all in the world where the mitzvah is performed, in this physical world. In the worlds of Beriah and Yetzirah, the light of Ein Sof within Torah and mitzvos can be revealed. Here in this physical world, by contrast, not even the slightest degree of that light can be revealed, until the end of days, until the time of Moshiach, when the world will be elevated beyond its physicality and “the glory of Hashem will be revealed,” etc.

28:15 When Moshiach comes, there will be a dwelling place for Hashem in the lower realms, and Ein Sof will be revealed even in this physical world. But as long as Moshiach has not come, this physical world has the character of physicality, which conceals G-dliness. That is, the issue with physicality is not concealment but contraction: the light of Ein Sof cannot join with the physicality of the world. That is the nature of the physical in this physical world. The light cannot shine here openly, so Ein Sof is not revealed here in Torah and mitzvos. Ein Sof is present, but it is not revealed. What is the point? As we said earlier about the world, He is present everywhere, yet the world does not receive Him. The same applies to Torah and mitzvos. Ein Sof shines in each one, doesn’t it? Torah and mitzvos are one with Ein Sof, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present in every act of Torah and mitzvos. There is no separate Torah and mitzvos of Beriah. Look, even without love and awe, Ein Sof is there in the Torah. But for it to be revealed—for it to connect with the person openly—that cannot happen with Torah and mitzvos as they are down here. Down here, Torah and mitzvos are physical and material. For Ein Sof to be revealed in them, there must specifically be intention, love and awe. And this is the basis of the answer to the Rebbe’s question at the beginning of chapter 38. More than that, it explains something raised even earlier: the great importance of intention in performing mitzvos. Why aren’t Torah and mitzvos alone enough? There must also be love and awe, because the revelation of Ein Sof in Torah and mitzvos comes specifically through the intention of love and awe.