Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 40 - Part 8

00:00 Speaker 1 The idea is that Abba and Imma are called wings. He brings various proofs that Abba and Imma are wings. The Rebbe brings this in a note here, in connection with Abba and Imma being wings. The Rebbe says: Look at the note on page 110—yes, the note at the top—or in Tikkun 45. Hm? Tikkun 45. There is Tikkunei Zohar, which is divided into seventy sections, or “tikkunim.” In Tikkun 45 it says, “And the bird is Metat.” It says that the bird refers to the angel Metat. That is what it says in Tikkun 45. The verse says, “And let birds fly,” when Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world. On the fifth day it says, “And let birds fly.” So the angel—the Zohar there says this refers to the angel Metat. He is the angel called “let birds fly”: “And the bird is Metat.” Now, we’ve mentioned Metat before, haven’t we? When did we speak about Metat—in the previous class?

01:35 Speaker 2 Maybe. Sunday or Monday.

01:38 Speaker 1 Sunday. Was it Sunday?

01:41 Speaker 2 The eighteenth.

01:43 Speaker 1 Ah. I thought I had taught it, but that could be. Look, getting into Metat is a separate lesson. You have to explain the whole thing. To get to Metat: on the external level, it is known that one of the things about Metat is that he is the angel of the world of Yetzirah. The angel Metat is connected to the world of Yetzirah. There is a verse, “I was young, and I have also grown old.” And the Gemara asks: Who said that verse? The minister of the world. And who is the minister of the world? The angel Metat. Yes? He is the angel who says, “I was young, and I have also grown old.” So there we are. What does “I was young, and I have also grown old” mean? It means that there are times when he is in the category of “young” and times when he is in the category of “old.” When he is in the world of Yetzirah, during the six weekdays—the six weekdays correspond to the six middos, which are associated with the world of Yetzirah. As we said, the six middos are connected with the world of Yetzirah. Yes, in Atzilus there is Chochmah; Beriah is Binah; Yetzirah is the level of Ze’eir Anpin, the six middos; Malchus is Asiyah. So the six days of Creation are connected with the world of Yetzirah, and then he is called “young.” “And I have also grown old” is when he ascends to Atzilus, and the world of Atzilus is considered “old.” Yes. He has two periods: during the six weekdays he is in the world of Yetzirah, and on Shabbos he is in the world of Atzilus. That is the angel Metat. The angel Metat is a general angel with an overarching role, which is why the Gemara calls him the minister of the world. He is the world’s minister. What does that mean? Broadly speaking, he is the angel who serves as an intermediary through whom influence reaches the world. That is why this is also connected with the middos, since the middos are the medium through which influence reaches the world, as we learn from the bar mitzvah maamarim. All those maamarim: six days—the six days are the six middos. The six middos became enclothed in Creation. So the angel Metat is the angel connected with this. Where, then, is the angel Metat’s place? His place is in the world of Yetzirah, and from there he exerts his influence. By the way, for the sake of completeness, the reason he is called Metat is that the word “Metat” is actually half a name. His full name, as is known—Rashi brings it in Parshas Mishpatim—is Metatron, with a reish, vav, and nun at the end. We do not say it because it is a name, a name with a degree of holiness, the name of an angel. So we take care not to say the name in full. But the meaning of the word in Aramaic refers to the part of the body called the womb—the place where the child is carried. In connection with pregnancy and birth, a woman’s womb in Aramaic is called a matron, a beis matron. The Rebbe also cites that expression. So the root of the angel Metat’s name comes from there, from the idea of the womb. In other words, just as the abdomen is the place where the child is carried—yes, the part of the woman from which children come—similarly, children correspond to the middos, as in the birth of the middos. So that is the connection between the angel Metat and Yetzirah, because the whole character of Yetzirah is that it is the world of the middos. Also, the full name Metat has the numerical value of Shaddai, which is one of the names of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. More specifically, Shaddai is the name associated, at times, with the sefirah of Yesod. It, too, is connected with the idea of influence, with the middos.

03:46 Speaker 1 So the angel Metat is the angel connected with the world of Yetzirah. Now, what were we saying about “And the bird is Metat”? It says there in the Zohar that the bird refers to the angel Metat. It says that, more specifically, he has all four letters of the name Havayah. When you look at a bird physically, you can see in its form the shape of the name Havayah. Physically: the bird has a small head, which is the yud; it has a long body, which is the vav; and when it opens its two wings, they look like a hei—one hei on one side and one hei on the other. So the bird’s form is like yud-kei-vav-kei. In fact, the Zohar and the writings of the Arizal bring many examples of how, in the forms of the created beings Hakadosh Boruch Hu made, you can see the shape of yud-kei-vav-kei. Even when we come to a person, it is known that the human form also contains yud-kei-vav-kei. The head is the yud, the body is the vav, and the two arms are the two heis. Or sometimes it says the two arms and the two legs. There are various explanations of this in Kabbalah and Chassidus. But here we are talking about the bird. So it says that the bird is Metat. “His head is yud.” What is Metat’s head? It is the yud. But which yud? It is the yud within Yetzirah. Yes, he will explain that shortly. It is the yud which, although yud represents Chochmah, here means the yud found in the world of Yetzirah. “And his body is vav.” The angel’s body is vav. “And his two wings are the two heis.” The two wings are the two heis. It is interesting that he writes the vav as vav-alef-vav. He writes the yud and the two heis without spelling out their letters, but he writes the body with the letters spelled out: vav-alef-vav. The straightforward reason is that we are dealing here with the world of Yetzirah. In the world of Yetzirah, the main thing is the vav, right? The middos. Of course, every world contains all ten sefiros, so there is a yud and a hei as well; all four letters are present. But the primary character of the world of Yetzirah is the vav. That is why he writes the vav more fully, with its letters spelled out. In any event, the main aspect of the angel Metat is the vav. The Rebbe explains that this refers to the world of Yetzirah, which is called Metat; the world of Yetzirah is called Metat. And in it, the vav—what is there? In the world of Yetzirah are the body of the halachos in the Mishnah. Yes, that is where the body of the halachos in the Mishnah is found. The Rebbe says this is a mistake, a printing error. It should not say “and in it” here; it should say “vav.” It is simply an error by the printer. Interestingly, this is not listed in the errata. The correction appears in Lessons in Tanya, at the Rebbe’s instruction. The Rebbe writes—apparently the Rebbe added this later—that there is an error here. After all, “and in it” can also be understood, as we just explained. But the Rebbe says that the wording that follows, and the content of the discussion, suggest more strongly that it was a mistake. Instead of “and in it,” it should say “vav,” as before: vav-alef-vav, not vav-beis-vav. Yes, vav. So he says: the vav, the letter vav, is the body of the halachos in the Mishnah. The letter vav represents the reality of the world of Yetzirah. As we said, the primary character of Yetzirah is the vav, and that is the body of the halachos in the Mishnah. It refers to the halachos. “And his head is the level of Chabad.” The head of the vav, the head

05:54 Speaker 1 Influence is a matter of middos. So the angel Metatron is associated with the world of Yetzirah. As mentioned earlier, look at “and the bird is Metatron.” The Zohar says there that the bird refers to the angel Metatron. He says that, in detail, it has all four letters of the name Havayah. When you look at a physical bird, you can see the form of the name Havayah in it. Physically. A bird has a small head—that’s the yud; it has a long body—that’s the vav; and when it opens its two wings, they look like two heis: a hei on one side and a hei on the other. So the bird’s structure follows the form of yud-kei-vav-kei. In fact, the Zohar and the writings of the Arizal bring many examples of how Hakadosh Boruch Hu created beings in the form of yud-kei-vav-kei. If we come to the human being, it’s well known that the human form also contains yud-kei-vav-kei. The head is the yud, the body is the vav, and the two arms are the two heis. Or sometimes it says the two arms and two legs. There are various explanations of this in Kabbalah and Chassidus. But here we’re talking about the bird. So he says that the bird is Metatron. “Its head is a yud.” What is Metatron’s head? It’s the yud. The yud. But which yud? It’s the yud in Yetzirah. Yes, he’ll explain shortly. Even though yud represents Chochmah, here he means the yud found in the world of Yetzirah. “And its body is a vav.” The angel’s body is a vav. “And its two wings are two heis.” The two wings are the two heis. It’s interesting that he writes out the vav as vav-alef-vav. He writes the yud and the two heis without spelling them out in full. But he writes the body

08:00 Speaker 1 in full, as vav-alef-vav. The reason, simply, is that we’re talking here about the world of Yetzirah. In the world of Yetzirah, the main thing is the vav, right? The middos. Now, every world contains all ten sefiros, so it also has a yud and a hei—all four letters. But the essential character of the world of Yetzirah is the vav. That’s why he writes the vav more fully, spelling it out. In any case, the central aspect of the angel Metatron is the vav. That is, the Rebbe says, this refers to the world of Yetzirah, which is called Metatron. And what is there in the vav, in the world of Yetzirah? The body of the halachos in the Mishnah. Yes, that is where the body of the halachos in the Mishnah is found. The Rebbe says that this is a mistake—a printing error. It should not say “and in it” here; it should say “vav.” It’s simply a printer’s error. Interestingly, this isn’t in the list of corrections. The correction appears in Lessons in Tanya, on the Rebbe’s instruction. The Rebbe writes—apparently he added this later—that it’s a mistake here, because you could also read it as “and in it,” the way we just did. But the Rebbe says that, from the continuation and the substance of the passage, it seems more likely to be an error. Instead of “and in it,” it should say “vav,” as before: vav-alef-vav, not vav-beis-vav. Yes, vav. So he says: the letter vav is the body of the halachos in the Mishnah. The letter vav, which is the defining feature of the world of Yetzirah—the main feature of Yetzirah is the vav, as we said—is the body of the halachos in the Mishnah. That refers to the halachos. “And its head is the aspect of Chabad.” The head of the vav, the head

10:12 Speaker 1 Of Metat. What is the head? It is the yud. It is the mochin, the level of Chabad—the intellectual dimension of the Mishnah. What does he mean here? He means, as we will also see later, that there are four worlds: Atzilus, Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah. And there are also, as it were—we discussed several aspects of this—the four worlds in relation to the sefiros, the four worlds in relation to souls, and also in relation to the levels of the soul: nefesh, ruach, neshamah, and chayah. There is also Torah: Torah in Atzilus, Torah in Beriah, Torah in Yetzirah, and Torah in Asiyah. Broadly speaking, Torah in Yetzirah is Mishnah. In other words, each world is a different level of Torah. The world of Yetzirah corresponds to Mishnah. Why? It is straightforward: Yetzirah is the world of middos. Middos means chesed, gevurah, tiferes—the whole matter of chesed and gevurah. What is Mishnah? Mishnah is a matter of middos, and its main point is not the intellectual reasoning. What is its main point? What is the practical ruling? Middos: exempt, liable, forbidden, permitted, innocent—yes, invalid, all six categories corresponding to the six middos. The whole matter of life and death, right and left, chesed and gevurah. That is the main concern of Mishnah, and that is why Mishnah belongs to Yetzirah. So this is what the Rebbe says: the body of the angel Metat is the vav. That is the Mishnah, the body of its halachos; “and its head”—its head. We said that every world also contains all the sefiros. Although its main aspect is Mishnah, it also has the reasons behind the Mishnah. So the mochin, the aspect of Chabad, are the yud of the vav. What does that mean in spiritual service? They are the inner meaning of the halachos, their secrets, and their reasons. The inner meaning of the halachos, their secrets, and the reasons for the halachos. There is another point here from Reb Levik, the father of

12:28 Speaker 1 the Rebbe. He notes that there are three expressions: the inner meaning of the halachos, their secrets, and their reasons. He explains that the inner meaning of the halachos corresponds to the sefirah of daas. This, too, is within Chabad. So the inner dimension corresponds to daas. Daas is the inner dimension of the middos, as the Alter Rebbe says in chapter 3. “Their secrets” corresponds to the sefirah of binah. That is what Reb Levik says. Presumably it is based on Kabbalah. I do not know why “secrets”; he writes that secrets correspond to binah. “Their reasons” corresponds to chochmah. Yes, that is what he writes. In truth, going by the order, one might say the reverse, but since this is Torah, this is how it is written by Reb Levik. Everything Reb Levik writes is grounded in Kabbalah. So he writes that secrets are binah and reasons are chochmah. Presumably that is based on Kabbalah. I do not know the explanation. He brings it there. Take a look. I did not understand it. In any case, that is the yud of Metat, the yud of the letter. “Two wings”—what are the two wings of the angel Metat? What did we say? They are the two heis. What do the heis represent? He says: fear and love. That is the idea. Two wings: fear and love. The upper hei is love. The upper hei, the first hei, represents love. And the lower hei is lower-level fear. Yes, the lower hei represents fear and awe. What level of fear? Lower-level fear: the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven. It is accepting the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven and fearing Hashem as one fears a king, for example—fearing Hakadosh Boruch Hu as one fears a king. That is an external, manifest fear. In any case, it is an external fear. So that is what the Alter Rebbe says. What else does he explain?

14:37 Speaker 1 What is the connection between the two heis and fear and love? The Alter Rebbe adds this in the note here. It gives us a further explanation of what he discussed in the main text. In the main text, the Alter Rebbe explained that the wings are love and fear. What was the explanation there? It was based on the right side and the left side. That was the explanation in the main text: one wing is on the right, and one wing is on the left. Just as we say of the hands that the right hand is chesed and the left hand is gevurah, so too with the wings: the right wing is chesed, love, and the left wing is gevurah, fear. That was the explanation in the main text until now. Here comes another explanation, based on what is written in Tikkunim: the wings are connected with the two heis of the name Havayah. As is known, the first hei is connected with love, and the lower hei, the second hei, is connected with fear. So this gives another explanation of the connection between the two wings and love and fear. Let us explain this. In general, it is known in Chassidus that the four letters of the name Havayah correspond to four levels: fear, love, love, fear. Let us go from the bottom up. The lower hei represents lower-level fear. Why, simply? Because the lower hei is malchus, and malchus is the acceptance of the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven. As the Alter Rebbe says here, it is fear of the king. Just as you fear a king, this is an external fear. It is not an inner fear, but it is an external fear. In other words, it is fear on account of the king, his greatness and exaltedness, and the fact that he is your king. As we explained, it is more external, more connected to actual deed. So that is the lower hei, on the outside. The vav corresponds to love. What level of love? It is love—“lesser love,” in the language of Chassidus. Yes, as we learned earlier here in chapter 38, this is natural love and fear. It is called lesser love. So

16:38 Speaker 1 the vav, which represents a middah, is connected primarily with natural love. It is love, lesser love—a more natural love. The upper hei also represents love, but it is great love, love that comes through contemplation. That is why it is connected with the sefirah of binah. It is a kind of love that comes through contemplation—intellectually generated love and fear. That is the upper hei. And the yud is higher-level fear. That is the highest level. So the two kinds of love are in the middle. The two kinds of fear are at the extremes: lower-level fear is the lowest, and higher-level fear is the highest. What is the reasoning here? Why are the two kinds of fear at opposite extremes, while the two kinds of love are in the middle? The simple explanation is that fear is bittul, self-nullification. What kind of fear? Fear is bittul. And there are two kinds of bittul. At one extreme is the bittul that comes before any defined spiritual state, before all the levels. The bittul of kabbolas ol is the basic bittul. A person has no grasp or understanding; he submits out of kabbolas ol. That is the bittul that comes before everything. And there is the bittul that comes after everything: after all the spiritual work and understanding, one reaches a bittul that transcends all of it. Right? That is how it is in serving Hashem. There is bittul at the beginning of one’s service, and there is bittul after all the service, when one reaches the ultimate perfection and then submits beyond reason and understanding. That is why they are at the two extremes. The lower hei is the bittul of lower-level fear, and the yud is the bittul of higher-level fear—two extremes. Love, by contrast, is different. Every level of love involves a sense of self; it is not bittul. Love is chesed. It is a matter of closeness, of a sense of self. That is why love is connected with the hei and vav in the middle, the levels where there is a sense of self. They are not about bittul. A sense of self is felt more there, and so there is also greater closeness between them.

18:28 Speaker 1 Great love and lesser love are close to each other. The hei and vav are two letters next to each other, because in the matter of chesed they have something in common. Higher-level fear and lower-level fear, by contrast, are two utterly distant extremes: one is the bittul that comes before everything, and the other is the bittul that comes after everything. The Alter Rebbe concludes: “Higher-level fear, the fear of shame, however, is among ‘the hidden things that belong to Hashem our G-d.’” We are not discussing higher-level fear here. Here we are talking about aspects of spiritual service connected with doing. That is the thrust of all these chapters: they seek to explain the wings, love and fear, as connected with actual deed. So we are not discussing the yud, higher-level fear, here. Higher-level fear is the yud of the name Havayah, blessed be He, as stated in chapter 40. That is not what we are discussing now. Here we are discussing the wings, which are specifically the two heis: the upper hei and the lower hei. One is connected with love at its highest level—intellectually generated love and fear—but even intellectual love is relevant to practical service, as the Alter Rebbe explained in the preceding chapters. And the fear is lower-level fear.