Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 41 - Part 13

00:00 Speaker 1 We’ll start again from line ten, “even with actual mesirus nefesh,” at “the study.” We also stopped in the middle of a point, so we’re starting six lines from the bottom, line ten, even in the middle of the line: “and the study of Torah and mitzvos.” The Alter Rebbe says here that there are certain intentions a person is not really capable of having, except to a small extent. This refers to the intention of uniting the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shechinah. The general intention that a person has through Torah and mitzvos—to bring about the union of Hakadosh Boruch Hu with the souls of the Jewish people—requires a complete tzaddik who has anahavah betaanugim, a love of delight. Such a person is not concerned with himself. He cares only about being among the bnei aliyah. At that level, his intention relates to the Divine dwelling in the lower realms. For us, this does not fully apply; it applies only to a small extent, because every Jew wants what Hashem wants. Since he knows that Hashem wants to dwell in the lower realms, he wants that too. We explained that through our connection with the Rebbe, we can also gain a more revealed connection to this. But in terms of our spiritual level, we do not truly and fully belong there. The union of a person’s own soul, by contrast—connecting to G-dliness through Torah and mitzvos—is something else. Every Jew wants to cleave to G-dliness through Torah and mitzvos. This applies to every single person, and every Jew truly wants it. We just need to see it. The Rebbe explained that a Jew’s desire to connect to G-dliness through Torah and mitzvos is so strong that he has it with full force, to the point that he is prepared to give his life for it. When he faces a test involving kiddush Hashem, a Jew is ready to give his life rather than be separated from G-dliness,

02:07 Speaker 1 because a Jew wants to cleave to G-dliness. The Alter Rebbe continues: “And the study of Torah and mitzvos.” “And the study of Torah and mitzvos, and prayer, are also a matter of actual mesirus nefesh.” The Alter Rebbe is saying that mesirus nefesh is not only what we learned in the previous chapters: that when a test involving kiddush Hashem arises, a Jew must be ready to give his life. That readiness must give him strength in practice, as the Rebbe explained in chapter 25. The Alter Rebbe adds that every act of Torah and mitzvos actually contains an element of mesirus nefesh. It has that movement of mesirus nefesh, as we explained last week. The Alter Rebbe explains here: Why are Torah and mitzvos mesirus nefesh? He says, “As it departs from the body.” What does mesirus nefesh mean? When the soul leaves the body, a person gives his soul over to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “At the completion of seventy years”—when the soul reaches its completion after seventy years and leaves the body—it no longer thinks about the body’s needs. The soul does not think about anything to do with the body. Rather, its thought is united with and clothed in the letters of Torah and prayer. At that point, a person’s thoughts are occupied only with the letters of Torah and prayer, “which are the word of Hashem and His thought, blessed be He.” The letters of the Torah are the word of Hashem. Prayer is referred to here as “His thought, blessed be He”: prayer involves thought, the attachment of one’s thought to G-dliness, “and they become one.” That is all the soul does when it leaves the body. It has no connection to, no interest in, and no desire for the concerns of the body. All it has is its attachment to G-dliness through the letters of Torah and prayer. That is all the soul does

04:09 Speaker 1 above. Why does the Alter Rebbe use this wording? At first he says “the study of Torah and mitzvos, and prayer,” but here he says “Torah and prayer” and does not mention mitzvos. Yes, six lines from the bottom the Alter Rebbe says “the study of Torah and mitzvos, and prayer.” He names three things: Torah, mitzvos, and prayer. Here he mentions only Torah and prayer, not mitzvos. The explanation is simple. Earlier, he was speaking about a person as a soul in a body, where all three—Torah, mitzvos, and prayer—apply. But here he is speaking about the soul leaving the body. After seventy years, when a person is already above and the soul has left the body, mitzvos no longer apply, right? “The dead are free.” The performance of mitzvos does not apply once the soul leaves the body. Torah and prayer, on the other hand, do apply to a soul without a body. As is well known, souls in Gan Eden study Torah too. And prayer also applies above. In Gan Eden there is love and awe; [unclear] refers to the soul before it descends below, when it stands in love and awe—which is the idea of prayer. So Torah and prayer apply to the soul even without the body. Mitzvos, by contrast, can be performed specifically because of what? Because of the physical world. As in the well-known story about the Baal Shem Tov: before his passing, he took hold of his tzitzis and said that the angel Michael would give up all the holiness, attachment, and spiritual standing he possesses—and he is the highest angel. He would give up all his levels of love and awe for the chance to kiss one tzitzis of a simple Jew. Even a thread of tzitzis is precious. The Rebbe explains this at length according to the revealed dimension of Torah. What does “one tzitzis” mean?

06:06 Speaker 1 According to halachah, there have to be four tzitzis. What is “one tzitzis”? That is not a mitzvah. The Rebbe explains it according to the revealed dimension of Torah. The Rebbe has an entire sicha on the subject. We’ll get to it shortly, with Hashem’s help. In any case, the point here is that the Baal Shem Tov said the angel Michael would give up all his worlds for one tzitzis—for the chance to kiss one tzitzis of a Jew. That can only be done in this physical world. Up above, they cannot attain it. This is what the Alter Rebbe emphasizes: when he comes to speaking about the soul above, he writes “Torah and prayer,” but not mitzvos in the plain sense. The Alter Rebbe is saying that this is a form of mesirus nefesh. What does mesirus nefesh mean? When the soul leaves the body, it does not think about physical things; it thinks only about spiritual things. Similarly, when a Jew observes Torah, performs a mitzvah, studies Torah, and prays, he steps away from the physical. Instead of using that time to think about his physical needs, he thinks about G-dliness. This is the soul’s entire occupation in Gan Eden. Torah and prayer are what the soul does in Gan Eden all the time, wholly and at length. The Gemara says that above there is no eating or drinking, no procreation, and none of these things. Rather, the souls of the righteous sit with their crowns on their heads and delight in the radiance of the Shechinah. This is written in the Gemara, and especially in the Zohar. There it describes at length everything that takes place in Gan Eden—the holiness, the soul’s immersion in it, and so on—all sorts of matters that the Rebbe explains in connection with the soul in Gan Eden, and that relate to Torah and prayer. But there is a difference: a soul in Gan Eden delights in the radiance of the Shechinah. The difference is that one can draw

07:59 Speaker 1 It is in Gan Eden, so there the soul is not only occupied with Torah and prayer; it also experiences delight. That is the soul’s pleasure. That is what Gan Eden is about. Gan Eden is a place of delight. Above, the soul has Torah and prayer, revelation, and that is also connected with pleasure. Here below, we do not feel the level of delight found in Gan Eden. Of course, great tzaddikim do feel that delight, as in the expression, “May you see your world in your lifetime.” Yes, the Patriarchs—while in this world, they felt the delight of that closeness to Hashem. But the Alter Rebbe is not speaking here about perfect tzaddikim. He is speaking about each and every person. When someone studies Torah, at that moment he is not occupied with the needs of the body. So he has a movement of mesirus nefesh: right now he is not occupied with the needs of the body, just as the soul above is not occupied with the needs of the body, only with Torah and prayer. He too sits and studies Torah, forgetting all his bodily needs and occupying himself with Torah and prayer, although he is doing so under different circumstances. What about the delight? Of course, that exists only above, in Gan Eden. But the essential element of mesirus nefesh is there: he gives over his soul, gives over his will, and devotes his time to Torah and prayer. That is a movement of mesirus nefesh. This is what we discussed in the previous class: the new point the Alter Rebbe adds here in Tanya, compared with what he said in its earlier chapters. There he spoke about mesirus nefesh for the sanctification of Hashem’s name, or the mesirus nefesh a Jew should have when remembering that sanctification—the mesirus nefesh associated with reciting Shema. Here the Alter Rebbe introduces a movement of mesirus

09:44 Speaker 1 nefesh every time a Jew performs a mitzvah and every time a Jew studies Torah. In connection with what the Alter Rebbe says here, there is a wonderful discussion. [unclear] says, regarding the Alter Rebbe’s words about the soul leaving the body, when it no longer thinks about the body’s needs but only about Torah and prayer, and tells another wonderful story. There was a well-known chossid of the Tzemach Tzedek named Reb Schneur Zalman of Lublin. He was known as the Toras Chessed; there is a sefer called Toras Chessed. Reb Schneur Zalman of Lublin was an extraordinarily learned man. There is also a long story about how he was born—a whole story in itself. But what matters here is that he later became one of the Tzemach Tzedek’s great chassidim. Besides being a brilliant scholar, he was an immense genius in the revealed dimension of Torah. Toward the end of his life, he moved to Eretz Yisroel, where he passed away. His grave is on the Mount of Olives. In any case, they relate that the Toras Chessed was once with the Tzemach Tzedek. He was an older man, and the Tzemach Tzedek told him that in old age a person should make an effort to learn Mishnayos by heart. He asked him why. The Tzemach Tzedek told him: When a person passes away, from the time the soul leaves the body until the burial, some time passes—sometimes several hours, sometimes more. That interval is a difficult time for the soul. On the one hand, it is no longer in the body and no longer has the advantage of what can be accomplished only while the soul is in the body. It has left that behind. On the other hand, it has not yet reached Gan Eden, so it does not yet have the delight

12:01 Speaker 1 of Gan Eden. The only thing that sustains it then is Torah and prayer. If a person knows Mishnayos by heart—letters of Torah by heart—then throughout the time from death until burial, the soul can think about those letters and the words of prayer. But if it has nothing to think about, it suffers greatly, because it has neither one nor the other. The soul feels much pain and anguish; it suffers from that. So one should make an effort to learn Mishnayos by heart. The Tzemach Tzedek told him that this is the meaning of the passage in Tanya that we just learned. It says here in Tanya, yes? “As when it leaves the body upon the completion of seventy years, when it no longer thinks about the needs of the body.” The Alter Rebbe was not referring here to Gan Eden. He meant the time between death and burial. The Alter Rebbe says that when the soul leaves the body, it no longer thinks about the body’s needs, because it has left the body. On the other hand, it does not yet have the delight of Gan Eden. So what does it do all that time? The Alter Rebbe says it thinks about [unclear]. This is the source for saying that during the time between death and burial, the soul thinks about the letters of Torah and prayer. This also makes the continuation clearer. The Alter Rebbe distinguishes between Gan Eden, where the soul also receives delight, and the time between death and burial, when it does not yet have the delight of Gan Eden. It is not yet in Gan Eden, but it also does not think about the body’s needs. That is what the Alter Rebbe compares it to: when a Jew studies Torah, performs a mitzvah, or prays, he should feel as though he were at that moment when the soul leaves the body. So that is what

13:53 Speaker 1 the Tzemach Tzedek told the Toras Chessed. It is an interesting explanation of Tanya. But what is even more interesting is the rest of the story. The Tzemach Tzedek said this to the Toras Chessed, and what did the Toras Chessed do afterward? He traveled to Eretz Yisroel and passed away there. The Toras Chessed passed away on 5 Nissan. That year, 5 Nissan was a Friday, and they could not bury him before Shabbos. So he remained unburied until after Shabbos, until Sunday. He passed away on Friday and was buried only on Sunday. [unclear] So in the end, more than twenty-four hours passed between his death and burial—a day and a half. Then they understood why the Tzemach Tzedek had told him specifically to learn Mishnayos by heart: he would need them for many hours. So the Alter Rebbe told him to learn many Mishnayos by heart. That was the story of the Toras Chessed. So this is also the meaning here in Tanya: when a person performs mitzvos, he should feel as though he is free of the body’s limitations and needs. There is another point here from the Rebbe. In one of his maamarim, the Rebbe comments on this. There is a maamar of the Rebbe, Padah Veshalom, in which the Rebbe explains this idea in Tanya at length. This is the meaning of something said about every Jew. There the Rebbe discusses the verse, “He redeemed my soul in peace from the battle against me, for many were with me.” Now the Rebbe Rashab, and the maamarim, ask

16:14 Speaker 1 the question: On the one hand, you say “redeemed in peace,” meaning the ultimate perfection of peace. So how, on the other hand, can you say “from the battle against me”? A battle means there is a struggle. How can both be true? The Rebbe answers there based on this passage in Tanya, where the Alter Rebbe introduces the idea that every time a Jew performs a mitzvah, there is a movement of mesirus nefesh in it. Mesirus nefesh is connected with yechidah, the soul’s innermost level. So on the one hand, we are speaking here about an ordinary Jew on a very simple level. He simply performs mitzvos. There is no special spiritual level here, no special experience. He sits and studies Abaye and Rava, studies whatever he is learning, or performs an ordinary mitzvah on an ordinary day. Nevertheless, the Alter Rebbe emphasizes that within every mitzvah there is a certain point, a movement: since he is not thinking about the body’s needs, he is occupied only with the mitzvah. That movement of mesirus nefesh is a movement of yechidah. So this brings the two sides together. On the one hand, it is “redeemed in peace”—the peace of yechidah—because there is a movement of mesirus nefesh here, and mesirus nefesh is connected with yechidah. Yet in terms of his spiritual level, this is a level of battle. He is a person at a low level in serving Hashem, who has to struggle to perform mitzvos and study Torah. But at the very moment when he steps beyond his bodily concerns and studies Torah or performs mitzvos, there is that essential movement of mesirus nefesh. That is how the Rebbe explains this whole idea.

17:47 Speaker 2 Where else can this be found?

17:49 Speaker 1 19:31—that’s in the Likkutei, in Likkutei II. This connects with what the Rebbe says here. There’s a story about it too, because the Alter Rebbe says here that when a person studies Torah, he doesn’t think about the needs of his body. In a way, he is like someone after seventy years. So there’s a very interesting story. I once heard it from the chossid Reb Leizer Nanes. He said that he was a young married man, or perhaps still a bochur at the time. As is known, he was a close student of the Rebbe Rashab, who sent him on various missions. Leizer Nanes was a chossid who lived to be a hundred. I still had the privilege of knowing him. He told us many stories. He was a Torah scholar, one of the Temimim of Lubavitch, and later showed tremendous mesirus nefesh. The Rebbe Rashab sent him on all kinds of missions, and he was a close student. Later he was imprisoned for twenty years: ten years in prison in Russia and ten years in Siberia. And after all that, he spent another ten years there. He had lengthy study sessions—even in prison, at any rate. When he came to the Rebbe after all that suffering, once he was released, the Rebbe told him that the years of imprisonment would not count toward his age. So he lived for many years. People would always ask him, “Reb Leizer, how old are you?” He would answer, “According to my passport, I’m ninety-five. According to the Rebbe’s reckoning, I’m seventy-five.” That was always his answer. He always had the coupons. So this is one of the stories Reb Leizer Nanes told, about what happened in 5681. At the time, the Frierdiker Rebbe—the Rashab, Friedlander[?]—was living in Moscow, and conditions in Moscow were such that there was nothing.

19:58 Speaker 1 It was a dangerous time in general. Yes, it was already the time of the Bolsheviks, the Communists, and it was dangerous in general. Besides that, it was a time of famine. There was simply nothing to eat. Conditions in Russia were at their lowest. It was a very difficult time, materially and spiritually. He was the Frierdiker Rebbe’s emissary, a fundraiser. He would travel to different shtetls collecting money for the yeshivos, for the Temimim. The Frierdiker Rebbe had sent him. At that same time there was another chossid who was already known as Itche der Masmid. Itche der Masmid was also a fundraiser. Leizer Nanes was a bochur then, and he very much wanted to work alongside Itche der Masmid, even to assist him, because that way he would have the opportunity to be with that chossid. Among chassidim, having the chance to assist Itche der Masmid was considered very important. He could learn from him in the meantime, hear stories—“Serving him is greater than learning from him.” Assisting a chossid is on a higher level than learning from him. So he asked the Frierdiker Rebbe whether he could assist Itche der Masmid. The Frierdiker Rebbe told him, “Itche is a spiritual person.” That was his wording. “Itche is a spiritual person; he doesn’t need you.” All right, that was that. But Leizer Nanes was left wondering, and at some point—perhaps right then, when the Frierdiker Rebbe said it—he asked the Frierdiker Rebbe, “What does ‘a spiritual person’ mean?” The Frierdiker Rebbe didn’t answer him. He asked, and the Frierdiker Rebbe didn’t answer. So the question remained. Three days later, he said, one night he arrived in Rostov. He was returning from a trip on which he had collected money.

21:54 Speaker 1 He arrived in Rostov in the middle of the night, and then he had a yechidus. It was dark. Rostov was—and I think it’s still—a large city in Russia, and by then it already had electricity. This was in the early days of electric street lighting. Electricity. It was the beginning of the era of electricity, but it still didn’t work well. One day it worked; for three days there was trouble with it. The lights would keep going on and off. In short, Leizer said that this was a night when there was no electricity anywhere in the area. It was pitch-dark. He was in yechidus with the Frierdiker Rebbe, going over the arrangements concerning the money he had brought. When they had finished what needed to be settled, the Frierdiker Rebbe rose from his chair. He went over to the window and said to him, “Come and look. Do you see the light over there?” Leizer looked, but he saw nothing. “Do you see that there’s a light there?” the Frierdiker Rebbe asked. “No, I don’t see it,” he answered. The Frierdiker Rebbe asked him several times, and he said he couldn’t see anything. The Frierdiker Rebbe said to him, “Well, let me tell you.” He pointed out a building there, on a lower floor. Rostov was already a city with buildings, unlike other shtetls in Russia. “On that floor of that building, there’s a group of young married men who gather to study Chassidus. They have a regular Chassidus class. These young men have no livelihood. They themselves haven’t eaten for several days because they simply have nothing to eat. But they have a set time for Chassidus, so they study Chassidus. While they’re studying, they forget that they’re hungry,

24:07 Speaker 1 “they forget that they have no livelihood. They forget all their bodily needs, and so light shines from their room. The fact that you can’t see it is your problem, but the light is there.” Afterward, Reb Leizer Nanes thought to himself: Why had the Rebbe told him all this? Then he understood that it was an answer to the question he had asked: What does “a spiritual person” mean? What does it mean? One could explain it this way—and I’m not sure which was meant: Is a spiritual person someone who can forget his hunger and sit down to study Chassidus? Or is it someone who can see the light shining from a house where people keep to their study schedule? In any case, that’s how it happened. Reb Zusha told us that this was when he understood what “a spiritual person” means. It’s a person who can do that. This also relates to the plain meaning of the Tanya: studying Torah and observing mitzvos have an aspect of giving oneself over completely, of mesirus nefesh. When a person is learning, he shouldn’t think about his bodily needs at all. All the more so, he doesn’t need to go buy a Coke, a drink, some candy or a snack in the middle of a class, or go take care of the children’s schedule. The Rebbe says one must forget bodily needs entirely, even essential needs. Certainly that applies to matters of desire—to insisting on having a Starbucks drink here on the table, and all sorts of other pleasures. Certainly one can’t feel vitality in davening in general, or in Chassidus in particular, when one is absorbed in bodily needs. That, too, is the great direct light. Thank you very much.