Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 41 - Part 12

00:00 One is to be—how does he put it? To cleave to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, for his soul to be attached to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What does it mean to be attached to G-dliness? For his soul to cleave to Hashem. And how does one attain that attachment to G-dliness? Through observing Torah and mitzvos. That is one point. The Alter Rebbe then explains at length that this is not enough. A person must want not only to be attached to Hashem himself, but also for all the souls of Israel to be united and joined with the source of souls. That is where all the souls of Israel are found, and this is the union of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and His Shechinah. In his service of Hashem, when he observes Torah and mitzvos, a person must desire both of these things. He must want not only for his own soul to be attached to G-dliness—a personal attachment—but also for the entire union of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and His Shechinah to take place. Through this, it is not only his own soul that is connected to G-dliness; Hakadosh Boruch Hu is united with all the souls of Israel. That is the point we have learned so far in Tanya, and it is the wording we say before prayer, declaring that we perform all the mitzvos for the sake of the union of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and His Shechinah. His Shechinah is the source of souls, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the source of Torah and mitzvos. When a Jew observes Torah and mitzvos, he brings about the union of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and His Shechinah. Now the Alter Rebbe asks a question. That is what we have learned up to here. The Alter Rebbe now comes and asks a simple question. After all, this chapter of Tanya that we are learning, chapter 41, begins as the Alter Rebbe says: “This is the beginning of divine service, and its essence and root.” The whole point of chapter 41 is that the Alter Rebbe is addressing a person at the beginning of his divine service. What is needed? A person comes and asks the Alter Rebbe: What should come first? Where do I begin? So

02:01 the Alter Rebbe starts well. He tells him: You need to have fear of Heaven, as we discussed, right? He explains what the beginning of divine service is. Then he tells him that, on the other hand, he also needs to have love of Hashem. At the very least, a simple love, rather than the natural love that everyone has. Suddenly the Alter Rebbe leaps to “for the sake of the union of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and His Shechinah.” Is that “the beginning of divine service, and its essence and root”? That is a lofty level. In fact, the Alter Rebbe explicitly asks this question here. He goes into the question at length and spells it out. Look below, on page 114, in the small print, first line. The Alter Rebbe says: “And although, for this intention to be genuine in his heart”—for a person to have this intention. Which intention? The intention of acting for the sake of the union of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and His Shechinah. For this intention to be genuine in his heart, for him to have it with all his... “for his heart to truly desire this supernal union.” For a person to truly want the supernal union—not only for his own soul to be united with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, but for there to be a union Above as well, the supernal union of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and His Shechinah. So for a person to be on a level where he truly desires this supernal union, the union of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and His Shechinah, “his heart must have a great love for Hashem alone.” A person needs to have a great and profound love—not just a great love, but a great love for Hashem alone. He must be on a level where his immense love is for Hakadosh Boruch Hu alone. What does it mean “to bring pleasure to Him alone”? To act solely so that Hakadosh Boruch Hu will have pleasure. “And not to satisfy his soul, which thirsts for Hashem.” A person must be on a level where his love is not merely

04:05 the sort of love in which he wants to quench his own thirst and be close to G-dliness. He must reach a level where he is not concerned only with himself—with feeling good, feeling fulfilled, feeling close—but wants to bring pleasure to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Only someone with that kind of love can reach a point where his entire intention in Torah and mitzvos is for the sake of the union of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and His Shechinah. So the Alter Rebbe says: “Rather, like a child who strives for his father and mother.” In what way? What kind of love is needed? What is “a great love for Hashem alone”? It is like a son who devotes himself to his father and mother because he loves his parents. A normal son, right? One who loves his parents, as he should. The son has a strong bond with his parents and loves them, “loving them more than himself, his soul, and his spirit.” He loves his parents more than he loves himself, his body. “Himself” refers to the body; “his soul” refers to the soul. He loves his parents more than his own body and soul, and therefore he wants to bring his parents pleasure. He goes so far in bringing his parents pleasure, as the Alter Rebbe brought earlier in chapter 10, that he is prepared to go to the point of self-sacrifice so that his parents will be well. Not so that he himself will feel good. The son’s love for his parents, more than for his own body and soul, is not because he wants to be close to them. No, the opposite: he is prepared to give up his own interests

05:50 and put himself aside so that his parents will be well. That is how devoted a son who is bound to his parents can be. That is the kind of love a Jew needs in order to act for the sake of the union of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and His Shechinah. That kind of love: a great love for his Father alone. As it says in the Zohar in the name of the Raaya Mehemna, right? The Alter Rebbe brings this in chapter 10. So the question naturally arises: How can you demand this of someone as... [unclear]? You are speaking here about a Jew who is only now beginning his divine service, only now starting to become a beinoni, and so on. And you demand such love from him? Let’s explain the question in more detail. In fact, when we learn Tanya, earlier on, at the beginning of chapter 10... Well, what happens there? Two reasons? When we learn chapter 10 of Tanya, the Alter Rebbe discusses the levels of tzaddik, beinoni, and rasha. The Alter Rebbe explains what a tzaddik is. A tzaddik is a person who has no yetzer hara. He has no evil—not only in practice, but even, as I’m saying now, in his character traits. He is a person who has completely transformed his entire being. He utterly hates the sitra achra, and his love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu is a love in its fullest measure. Anything contrary to Hashem, anything that is not G-dliness, is utterly foreign to him. He regards it with complete revulsion and hatred. That is love; that is a tzaddik. The Alter Rebbe says: What is the tzaddik’s purpose? What is his work? What is his goal? There the Alter Rebbe explains that a tzaddik is called a “son of ascent”—one of the “sons of ascent.”

07:47 What does “sons of ascent” mean? The Alter Rebbe gives two explanations there. Everyone remembers them, at the end of Tanya chapter 10. “Sons of ascent” has two meanings. One meaning is that their entire work is to elevate evil and transform it into good, right? They have passed the stage of iskafya. The tzaddik’s work is such that, as Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said, one who has not reached that level cannot attain his place in Gan Eden. In other words, these were the sons of ascent: their task is to elevate and transform darkness into light on the highest level. And then there is another explanation of “sons of ascent.” “Ascent” means that all their service of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not for themselves; it is only for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “Sons of ascent” means “Above”: ascent, G-dliness, ascent, so to speak, toward Above. All their service is only for the sake of what is Above, for the sake of Heaven, not for themselves. In other words, there are two ways to understand this. Why does a Jew observe Torah and mitzvos? In the simple sense, a Jew observes Torah and mitzvos—why? Because he wants to connect to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He thirsts for G-dliness. Yes, I hear you, he thirsts... He wants to be connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and the only way to connect to Hakadosh Boruch Hu is to observe Torah and mitzvos. So when he observes Torah and mitzvos, he quenches that thirst. You know, as is mentioned many times in Chassidus, there is the verse, “You shall love Hashem your G-d with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.” What comes next? “And these words which I command you today shall be upon your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them... and bind them as a sign upon your hand.” What does that mean?

09:45 Meaning, the point is this: You awaken, you contemplate your love for Hashem, and then something stirs within you. You want to draw close to Hakadosh Boruch Hu with all your heart, all your soul, and all your might. I thirst for G-dliness. I want to draw close to G-dliness. What do we say? You thirst for G-dliness? “And these words, which I command you today”—fulfill the mitzvos; there you will connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This is a form of avodah that belongs to every single person. He thirsts for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, wants Him deeply, and through this he draws close to Him. But in this avodah, a person is seeking something for himself. That is, he wants to be connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Of course, this is a very great form of avodah, but the point is that the person wants to be close to Him. What he is seeking is for his own sake. He thirsts for G-dliness and wants to cleave to Him, and he is told that the way to do so is through Torah and mitzvos. But there is a higher way: a person does not think about himself at all. What does he think about? Him alone. He does not think about himself, about his thirst, or about what he will gain from it. He thinks about just one thing: how to bring more nachas ruach to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What can bring Hakadosh Boruch Hu nachas ruach? What he himself will gain from it makes no difference to him. That is not what drives him. What I am looking for is something that will bring Hakadosh Boruch Hu nachas ruach. And this is the meaning of a path that is possible for the bnei aliyah: he does not think about himself, his love, or his thirst. It is for Him alone. That is what “alone” means. What does “alone” mean? In ordinary love, when you love someone, you do not love that person entirely for who he is.

11:34 You do not love him alone; in a straightforward sense, you love yourself. That is true of all love. We are talking here about a refined love, but the plain meaning of love—even when you love a friend—is this: Why do you love this particular friend? Because being with him does you good, and you receive something from him. Sometimes this is true even among unmarried young men. He is a chassidic young man, a good young man, and being close to him makes me want to learn better, or even gives me standing in the beis midrash. But ultimately, that love does not mean you love him entirely for his own sake. You love yourself, and through your love for the other person, you also feel good. Something similar can be true of love for Hashem as well. I thirst. I want to cleave to Hakadosh Boruch Hu; I draw close. I quench my thirst for G-dliness. In truth, that is not love for Hashem alone; it is love for myself. It involves both the person and Hakadosh Boruch Hu. By contrast, a great love for Hashem alone means that a person does not think about himself at all. He thinks only about Hakadosh Boruch Hu alone. What does Hakadosh Boruch Hu want? What will I gain from it? I do not care about that at all. He puts himself completely aside. That is the level of the bnei aliyah. Well, then what? Chapter 10 tells us that this is the level of a tzaddik. So, seemingly, the idea of acting “for the sake of the union of Kudsha Brich Hu and His Shechinah”—where a person does not think about himself—what is he thinking about? He is thinking about bringing about the union of Kudsha Brich Hu and His Shechinah. For a person’s service of Hashem to be such that he wants this union to take place, he must have a great love for Hashem

13:15 alone. Because that is what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants the union of Kudsha Brich Hu and His Shechinah. That is where the focus lies. So, seemingly, how can we demand such a level of great love from an ordinary Jew? That is Rabbi Shimon’s question. Seemingly, it belongs to tzaddikim. But what about a beinoni? The Alter Rebbe says: “Nevertheless, every person should accustom himself to this intention.” The Alter Rebbe says that even so, a person should not be put off by it. Even so, the Alter Rebbe demands it of every single person. Every person, whatever his level, must accustom himself to thinking about this union of Kudsha Brich Hu and His Shechinah. “Even though it is not entirely, in the truest sense, in his heart.” A tzaddik has this in the truest sense; that is his level. It is what his whole life is about. He does not care about anything for himself. He has a great love for Hashem. An ordinary person does not have that, so it is not there in the truest sense. The Alter Rebbe does not deceive us. We might say, “You belong to this.” True, you do not have it in the fullest sense. But even so, the Alter Rebbe says: “Even though it is not entirely, in the truest sense, in his heart, so that he desires it with all his heart, nevertheless, a very small part of his heart does truly desire it.” Even so, there is some point within him, however tiny. It is just a very small amount. That is how it is explained. In other words, even a drop of it, just some tiny crumb. So

15:00 this is true of every Jew. Somewhere in his heart, he has this point, at least in a subtle way. In a subtle way, a Jew has this bittul, this desire to bring Hakadosh Boruch Hu nachas ruach. Every Jew has it hidden within. “And a very small part of his heart does truly desire it, because of the natural love in the heart of every Jew to do whatever is the will of the Supreme One, blessed be He.” Every Jew has a natural love that moves him to do whatever Hashem wants. This is a major new point. Just before this, at the top of page 114, the Alter Rebbe spoke about natural love. What did he say there? “To arouse the natural love, at least the love hidden in his heart, so that he will desire and want to cleave to Him, blessed be He.” Earlier, at the top of page 114, the Alter Rebbe spoke about a different kind of natural love, while here he speaks about a new kind. Every Jew naturally has a love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Certainly—we inherited it from Avraham Avinu. We have love by nature. But what form does that love take? What is this love? What does he love? I love—but what exactly do I love? So there are two aspects here. Earlier, the Alter Rebbe said that every Jew’s natural love is his desire to cleave to G-dliness. That is natural love. Every Jew has a natural love that makes him want to be close to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He wants to be near Him, to draw close to Him. He wants to receive from Him and connect with Him. Every Jew has this natural love. It needs to be awakened, but it is there. Here the Alter Rebbe says something new.

16:53 What is the natural love every Jew has? A Jew wants to do what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants. That is natural love. It is another kind of natural love. It is not that I want to draw close to G-dliness. No. I want to do what Hashem wants. What Hashem wants is what I want. That is what natural love means here. In fact, this is closer to what the Rambam says. The Rebbe often cites the well-known ruling of the Rambam: “We compel him until he says, ‘I want to.’” Why do we compel him? Because he does not want to. The Rambam asks: How can you say that a man who does not want to give a get, but whom the beis din has ruled must give one, can be compelled until he says, “I want to”? He does not want to; he only gives it because he was beaten. So what does the Rambam write? That every Jew’s true desire is to do what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants. What the Shulchan Aruch says to do is what a Jew wants to do. That is his nature. What is the Rambam’s source for this? We do not need to come to Tanya for it; it is in the Gemara. Anyone who studies it learns this too. So the Rambam says that a Jew naturally wants to do what Hashem wants. Accordingly, if the Shulchan Aruch and the beis din rule that a get must be given in this case, he truly wants to give it. Oh, he shouts, “I don’t want to”? His yetzer has overpowered him. By giving him a few blows, or whatever it may be, his yetzer is weakened, and what he truly wants is revealed. So someone approaches a person while doing mivtzoim, and the person shouts, “I don’t want to put on tefillin! I don’t want to!” What do you answer him? What does a Chabad chossid answer him? Not even a Chabad chossid—what does any Jew who learns Rambam answer him? “That’s not true.”

18:33 You’re lying. A lie—you want... Rabbi Elazar was in Israel a few years ago. Maybe I’ve already told you this story; I don’t know. Yes, a few years ago Rabbi Elazar was in Israel, and someone from a very important newspaper there, one of the country’s well-known papers, interviewed him. This was a man completely removed from the ways of Torah and mitzvos, a leftist. He asked Rabbi Elazar about various things. Rabbi Elazar made a condition: he would answer all his questions if the man put on tefillin. In the end, it was the first time he had ever done so. Now, among other things, this man told him, “I don’t believe in G-d. I don’t believe in Moshiach.” So Rabbi Elazar said to him, “You’re a liar. You’re a liar.” The man got upset. “What do you mean, a liar? Where’s your decency, your humanity? I’m telling you honestly that I don’t believe, and you call me a liar?” He was really angry. So Rabbi Elazar said, “Do you want the truth? Do you? Do you want someone to believe you when you say you don’t believe? Go to Meah Shearim, find a Litvak, and tell him you don’t believe. They’ll believe you. But I’ll tell you the truth: you’re lying.” The person who says that truly thinks that someone who doesn’t observe Torah and mitzvos is secular—what’s the word?—that he doesn’t believe. But what you’re saying is that a Jew is a believer by his very nature! Not only does he believe; he has faith, he has everything. Oh, he says he doesn’t? That’s a lie. That’s just the surface. These are straightforward things. The Alter Rebbe is introducing something new here in Tanya. What we

20:29 say—that every Jew has a natural love—means not only that he wants to be bound to G-dliness. A Jew’s natural love also means wanting to do what Hashem wants. And Hashem wants the union of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shechinah. Hashem wants a dwelling place in the lower realms, and, so to speak, every Jew wants that too. So this really isn’t a level reserved for a tzaddik. Of course, the difference is that for a tzaddik, this desire is entirely his own. It shines openly within him, in the truest sense. In an ordinary person, it exists in the essence of his soul and isn’t as revealed, but that doesn’t contradict it. In the innermost part of his heart, every Jew truly desires it. “Desires”—that means the inner dimension of the will. Within every Jew’s innermost will is a natural love that wants what Hashem wants, to do everything Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants. And he truly wants this union. This union of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shechinah is what Hashem truly wants. That is, the union of the light of Ein Sof in Atzilus, brought about through the union of the G-dly soul and its inclusion in the light of Hashem clothed in the Torah and mitzvos in which a person is engaged, so that they become truly one, as explained above. Yes, this union of Yud-Hei with Vav-Hei, the union between Yud-Hei and Vav-Hei, takes place when a person observes Torah and mitzvos. For this also unites the source of Torah and mitzvos, the Holy One, blessed be He, with the source of the G-dly soul, His Shechinah. Hashem is the source of both memalei kol almin and sovev kol almin, as explained in several places. The union of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shechinah is a union above. That is what Hashem wants to happen through our Torah and mitzvos. And what Hashem wants, every Jew wants. That’s the point the Alter Rebbe is explaining. What do we see here? We see something remarkable. We see something remarkable. This is one of the

22:24 remarkable things we find in the teachings of Chassidus, and in Chabad in particular. It isn’t always emphasized so much, but we see it in many places. There are aspects of serving Hashem that belong only to people on the very highest level. There are things that belong to tzaddikim, and things that belong to others. Yet Chassidus revealed that every Jew has a connection to these things. In a way, these are opposites, and that’s what’s so remarkable. You see it in Tanya. On the one hand, the Alter Rebbe tries to lay out a clear path for a person: the order of levels, what applies to you and what doesn’t. He shows very clearly what belongs to each person. There are things that don’t belong to you. The whole point of Tanya, after all, is to explain to everyone that he shouldn’t try to be a tzaddik; he should try to be a beinoni. And how does he get there? What does he need to do? And so on. Don’t fool yourself. Don’t exaggerate. Don’t go looking for things that aren’t yours. Look at what it says there: “Let him not be a fool.” “Let him not...” In all sorts of places in Tanya, the Alter Rebbe puts a person in his place. He tells him: Don’t get carried away; don’t go looking for things beyond you. [unclear] In all sorts of places in Tanya, the Alter Rebbe puts a person in his place: don’t run after something that isn’t for you. At the same time, the Alter Rebbe takes lofty matters—levels of serving Hashem that belong to tzaddikim—and shows how they connect to him. He explains this carefully. He isn’t saying that everything belongs to everyone. No, he explains that it really isn’t your level, so don’t try to take it on. But nevertheless, because you’re a Jew, you have

24:19 a connection to the whole matter, to all these things. This is one of the things Chassidus speaks about. There’s the question of a soul that has to descend. Why? Why does Chassidus in general, and Chabad Chassidus in particular, place so much emphasis on a soul having to descend? Besides the fact that through connecting to the Rebbe, the Rebbe brings out things in a person that he could never reach on his own—and we see this in practice—and all kinds of other things. There are things today that people out in the world simply can’t understand. They can’t understand how it happens. They look at Chabad chassidim and ask, “How do they do it? How can you, an ordinary person, do all these things—the campaigns and shlichus? You go out and sacrifice yourself for another Jew. You fly to some remote corner of the world just to do something good for a Jew. You give up your own material comforts for someone else’s spiritual needs. Sometimes you even give up your own spiritual needs.” People look at such things and say, “They’re all crazy.” They don’t understand. “You’re devoting yourself and your children to this? You live in some remote place where you won’t have anywhere to educate your children, where it’ll be hard to keep all the mitzvos. Why? To help some Jew stranded out there?” They don’t understand it. Now, the Rebbe is a tzaddik, an all-encompassing soul, so he cares for the entire Jewish people. It matters to him. But you’re not a Rebbe or a tzaddik—so they have no idea what you’re talking about. Why would you sacrifice yourself for the Jewish people? Moshe Rabbeinu sacrificed himself for the Jewish people. Moshe Rabbeinu wept twice: “Erase me, please, from Your book.” He cared for the entire Jewish people. But an ordinary person, a yeshivah student who grew up with his mother and father, a young man who later argued with the mashgiach about the schedule and the rules—

26:08 but a Torah scholar? What does Chassidus have to do with it? And his own concerns were difficult enough. Where does this come from? This is what we see here, in this point that Chassidus revealed: every Jew has a connection. In his essence, he has a connection to all these levels. And that’s why the Alter Rebbe says what he says here: a person should put himself aside. He shouldn’t be concerned with himself; he should care about what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants. He isn’t concerned with what he himself will receive. What matters to him? That there should be a dwelling place in the lower realms. In plain terms, this is what Chabad Chassidus is doing today. Go ask one of them. Ask him, “Why are you going on shlichus? Why are you doing this? Why do you go out on the campaigns? What’s your aim in all of this? What do you gain from it? Is it the honor?” It’s about a dwelling place in the lower realms. A dwelling place in the lower realms—that’s something for tzaddikim, for people on a lofty level. They don’t think about themselves; they think only about a dwelling place in the lower realms. But for chassidim, it’s simply a given. Where did we get this from? From ourselves? We have a connection to it all. Clearly, it’s the strength the Rebbe gives us, and it’s what the Rebbe instilled here. That’s why [unclear] the Rebbe. There’s a sicha of the Rebbe on this part of Tanya. In this chapter of Tanya, you can see the point the Rebbe instilled in the chassidim, even the simplest of the simple. The level of... He remains an ordinary person, still a person with a yetzer hara. But the Rebbe planted in him a point of bittul: what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants is what he wants. He cares only about bringing pleasure to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, about bringing pleasure to the Rebbe. That’s what matters to him. Nothing else matters to him. So

27:56 Chassidim would always write this in a pan, in all sorts of places. Whenever they wrote to the Rebbe asking for a blessing, what did they ask for? The wording was always that we should merit to bring the Rebbe nachas. That was a guiding principle in life. Just the thought, “I might reach the point where I merit to bring the Rebbe nachas,” was life-giving and uplifting. And that is the point the Alter Rebbe is making here in Tanya.