Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 42 - Part 11

00:03 In the middle of the page, after the dots. There are two dots here because the Alter Rebbe begins a new point. On the one hand, it’s a continuation—it’s the same chapter. But on the other hand, the Alter Rebbe begins another point here, a relatively new one, in his explanation of the avodah he is discussing in this chapter. So let’s first recap. What have we learned? What has the Alter Rebbe been discussing until now, so that we can understand what he is going to discuss next? In chapters 41 and 42, the Alter Rebbe speaks about yiras Shamayim. These are the two foundational chapters in which the Alter Rebbe inspires us and explains how a person begins serving Hashem. What is “the beginning of avodah, and its essence and root”? How the foundation, root, and beginning of all service of Hashem must be kabbolas ol malchus Shamayim and yiras Shamayim. The Alter Rebbe offers various ways to reach this, as well as guidance on several levels of how to awaken yiras Shamayim. Within this discussion, in chapter 42, the Alter Rebbe cited a teaching of our Sages on the verse, “And now, Yisroel, what does Hashem your G-d ask of you but to fear Hashem your G-d, to walk in all His ways?” The Gemara asks, “Is fear, then, such a small thing?” Is yiras Shamayim a small thing? How can it say “but to fear,” as though it were something small? The Gemara answers, “Yes, for Moshe it is a small thing.” Since Moshe Rabbeinu said this, and for Moshe Rabbeinu, fearing Hashem your G-d was a small thing. The Alter Rebbe asks: But the verse says “of you,” meaning every Jew. So how does it answer the question to say that it was a small thing for Moshe Rabbeinu? The words are addressed to each and every person. So the foundation

02:16 that the Alter Rebbe began to explain, and explained at relative length, is that every Jew has the power of Moshe Rabbeinu. There is an aspect of Moshe Rabbeinu within each and every Jew. Within that, the Alter Rebbe discussed three points. First, there is Moshe Rabbeinu as the raaya mehemna, the faithful shepherd, and the shepherd of the entire people—he is the... he is the head and the one who encompasses all of Yisroel. Moshe Rabbeinu thus draws the faculty of daas into each and every soul. This is the vitality and feeling that every Jew has in the soul. We receive it from Moshe Rabbeinu. The Alter Rebbe then spoke about how, besides the original Moshe Rabbeinu, there is also a Moshe Rabbeinu in every generation, who teaches daas to the Jewish people, and through this they can attain yiras Shamayim as well. Then there is the third point: every Jew has the faculty of daas. It is not enough to learn from teachers and from books; there must be the faculty of daas. Daas is the power to connect. It is the ability a person has to delve into and connect with abstract, higher, spiritual matters—to connect with G-dliness and form a bond with G-dliness as though forming a bond with something physical. With a physical thing, a person has a connection to it as a matter of course, because I myself am physical. I don’t have to work to connect with physicality. Daas is a power through which a person can, with work and effort, form a bond through understanding. We receive that too from Moshe Rabbeinu, although the work must be done with our own strength. But the power to do it also comes from Moshe Rabbeinu, who gives us the ability to awaken this aspect of daas. On the other hand,

04:03 because the soul is clothed in a body, the animal soul and the body conceal it. So it takes tremendous effort, doubled and redoubled. In other words, although we have all the powers of Moshe Rabbeinu, because the body and animal soul conceal them, we must work very, very hard to remove all those concealments. Broadly speaking, this effort consists of the effort of the flesh and the effort of the soul. The effort of the flesh is to stir oneself to teshuvah, as the Alter Rebbe explained in chapters 29 and 30. The effort of the soul is to exert oneself and diligently focus one’s mind on Hashem’s greatness. The Alter Rebbe then cited the verse, “If you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of Hashem and find the knowledge of G-d.” Every Jew has yiras Shamayim in the soul, because of the aspect of daas within it. So yiras Shamayim is also there, within the soul. It is certain that if you dig, you will find it and reveal it. In other words, a person needs to know with absolute certainty, without the slightest doubt, that if he digs deep within his heart through the effort of the soul and the effort of the flesh, he will certainly attain actual fear—lower-level fear. Why? Because it is present in the soul, and present in its entirety. The only issue is that it is above time. It exists on a level of the soul that is sometimes unconscious, meaning that the person is not openly aware of it, because it is above time. It must be brought down and drawn into time and place. How do we bring it into time and place? By thinking and reflecting on it. Through the effort of the soul and the effort of the flesh, a person works to think about these matters of yiras Shamayim—to think about the idea of an eye that sees.

05:58 “An eye that sees and an ear that hears”—that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present, looking at him and seeing him, and so on. Through this, he doesn’t—because he reveals the yiras Shamayim hidden in his heart and brings it into actual practice, in action, speech, and thought, turning away from evil and doing good. On this, the Alter Rebbe asked: Seemingly, Hakadosh Boruch Hu has no body and no bodily form. How can you speak of an eye that sees and an ear that hears? Hakadosh Boruch Hu has no eyes or ears; the whole notion of eyes and ears does not apply to Him. The Alter Rebbe explains that not only is this not a question, but the opposite is true: it gives us an even deeper understanding of how thoroughly Hakadosh Boruch Hu knows, is aware of, and grasps everything. He is present in every detail of what we do. Hashem’s knowledge is not like seeing with your eyes, when you see something outside yourself, or hearing something outside yourself. Rather, for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the whole world is He Himself. Nothing exists outside Him. “By knowing Himself, He knows all created beings,” for everything is included within Him. Everything is part of Him. So when Hakadosh Boruch Hu knows, senses, and sees, it is like a person sensing what is happening in his own body, not something outside himself. When a person feels pain, it is not the pain of something outside him; it is his own pain. The soul feels it. The same applies here: this is how Hakadosh Boruch Hu knows, senses, and sees every action a person takes. So, on the contrary, the yiras Shamayim that should come from contemplating that Hashem stands over him, seeing, looking, examining, and considering everything he does, is far greater than the feeling that comes from another person watching from outside and seeing what I do. That was the central point of the explanation the Alter Rebbe has given until now. On the other

07:55 hand, the Alter Rebbe also explained that, nevertheless, “I, Hashem, have not changed.” Although Hakadosh Boruch Hu senses everything that happens among created beings and every action we take, whoever we may be—every person, no matter what state he is in. That is, when the Alter Rebbe says “whoever he may be,” he is continuing what he said earlier. On the previous page, the Alter Rebbe said that there is a soul that is refined by nature, which reaches yiras Shamayim more quickly, and a soul that is lowly by nature, for which it takes longer. Then there is also the matter of the sins of youth, which makes it even harder. So there are many different conditions and levels in a person’s soul, to the point that some people are in an extremely low state for all sorts of reasons. The Alter Rebbe now says that every Jew, whoever he may be, no matter what his standing or situation, if he contemplates this for a substantial period every day—how Hakadosh Boruch Hu actually fills all the higher and lower worlds. A person should set aside a fixed time every day, a considerable period, “a substantial hour.” What the Alter Rebbe means, simply, is a significant amount of time. A person should devote a fixed, significant amount of time to it each day. “An hour” does not mean a full sixty minutes, but a significant period each day. What does he contemplate? How Hakadosh Boruch Hu actually fills all the higher and lower worlds, and the very heavens and earth; how “the whole earth is full of His glory,” literally; and how He watches, looks, and examines his innermost thoughts, his heart, and all his actions and words. These are all the details a person needs to contemplate. “And He counts all his steps.” So there are several points here. The Alter Rebbe writes briefly here, because earlier he spoke at somewhat greater length. Here the Alter Rebbe is doing

09:56 In short: What should one contemplate during that long period of contemplation? First, the Alter Rebbe speaks about the general contemplation of how Hakadosh Boruch Hu fills all the worlds—literally fills them. That is what “literally fills” means. As the Rabbi explained earlier, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not like a person standing outside, as the misnagdim thought. Since they had not learned Chassidus, they did not grasp the true meaning of tzimtzum and understood it literally. They thought Hakadosh Boruch Hu is outside, looking in at what is happening in the world. Rather, as Chassidus revealed, tzimtzum is not literal. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is actually present within the world, in every detail of it. That is what the Alter Rebbe emphasizes with the words “literally fills”: Hakadosh Boruch Hu is actually present. This is a subject explained at length in Chassidus—the whole subject of Hashem’s oneness and tzimtzum not being literal, which is discussed extensively in maamarim of Chassidus. So the first point is to contemplate how Hakadosh Boruch Hu is actually present, inwardly, in all the worlds, higher and lower. Then the Alter Rebbe adds “the heavens and the earth themselves.” The higher and lower worlds are spiritual worlds, so he adds that this is not only true of higher and lower spiritual worlds, but also of heaven and earth—meaning the physical realm as well. In other words, when we say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu literally fills everything, that includes physical reality. We need to understand this. There are maamarim that explain it, but this is what Chassidus revealed to us: even within the physical heavens and earth, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present and literally fills them. “The whole earth is full of His glory”—literally. The entire world is full of the glory of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Some say that the added words “the whole earth is full of His glory—literally” are a verse; the Alter Rebbe wants to tell us that this is written explicitly.

11:36 In other words, this is not just something one needs to understand through Chassidus; it is written in the Torah itself: “The whole earth is full of His glory,” meaning, quite literally, this world. Some say that the Alter Rebbe is adding another level here, another idea—the concept of sovev kol almin. In any case, there are several explanations, but the simple meaning is that the Alter Rebbe is also citing a verse. “And He watches and looks and examines his innermost being and his heart, and all his deeds and words.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu looks, and not only looks, but also examines what is happening inside—how a person serves Hashem. Not only his thoughts, but also his actions and words. “And He counts all his steps.” Here the Alter Rebbe adds a new detail that he did not mention earlier: Hakadosh Boruch Hu counts even a person’s steps, every step. Every step a person takes, though steps might seem entirely external. It is not only what you do in yeshivah, but also what you do on the way to yeshivah. The steps you take from your room to the study hall, or from the study hall to the mikveh—all your steps matter to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He counts those steps too. These details, too, matter in serving Hashem. We will explain this, with Hashem’s help, in the next lesson. “Then the fear will become fixed in his heart for the entire day.” This will establish yiras Shamayim firmly in a person’s heart, so that the yiras Shamayim is there within him. With Hashem’s help, we will continue.