Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 42 - Part 12

00:00 As we explained, in this passage the Alter Rebbe takes the whole subject he discussed in the last few chapters and brings it down into practice. In other words, he takes the whole subject of yiras Shamayim, lower-level fear, and brings it into actual practice. How? How do we put it into practice? The Alter Rebbe says: “And every Jew, whoever he may be.” There is no condition here. No particular preparation is needed; a person does not have to be on any special level. Rather, this applies to every Jew, whoever he may be, whatever his level. As the Alter Rebbe said earlier, it applies to everyone. “When he contemplates this for a substantial hour each day.” If he contemplates what we said earlier for a substantial hour each day. The Alter Rebbe will now say briefly what one needs to contemplate. The contemplation should take place every day, for an hour. That means setting aside a substantial period of time each day—significant in both quantity and quality. In other words, investing a meaningful amount of time in it every day. As the Alter Rebbe said earlier, an uninterrupted hour; as we discussed, the contemplation needs a significant amount of time. What should one contemplate? The Alter Rebbe says: “That Hakadosh Boruch Hu truly fills the upper and lower realms.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu truly fills the upper and lower realms, “the heavens and the earth literally.” As we explained yesterday—no, on Monday—the upper and lower realms include all the worlds. They are spiritual worlds; even the lower worlds can be spiritual worlds. So, broadly speaking, he means all the spiritual worlds, which themselves comprise upper and lower realms. Then he adds something else: “the heavens and the earth literally,” which refers more to the physical. In other words, not just the upper and lower realms; for us it needs to be

02:51 especially so, because the whole purpose here is to bring about actual yiras Shamayim. That is, the awe that comes from Hashem being here, as we will say later. So it cannot remain in our hearts merely as the idea that Hakadosh Boruch Hu fills the upper and lower realms, generally speaking, in the spiritual worlds. We need to bring it down into tangible reality: the actual heavens and earth, including the physical earth. “His glory truly fills the whole earth.” What does he add by saying, “His glory truly fills the whole earth”? I told you in the previous class that there are several explanations. But seemingly the explanation closest to the plain meaning, the one that seems most understandable in light of what follows, is that the Alter Rebbe wants to emphasize the earth. There are seemingly two points to examine here. First, the Alter Rebbe appears to say the same thing several times. He repeats: “He truly fills the upper and lower realms,” “the heavens and the earth literally,” “His glory truly fills the whole earth.” What is the difference between them? And there is another point: what is this word “truly”? The Alter Rebbe repeats it three times. Each time he says “truly.” He makes a point of emphasizing it: He truly fills the upper and lower realms; the heavens and the earth literally; His glory truly fills the whole earth. In fact, the answers to these two questions are connected. The whole point here is that the Alter Rebbe is bringing yiras Shamayim down into actual practice. As we said, this entire passage explains how every Jew can engage in the avodah of lower-level fear. This is not awe born of a sense of Hashem’s exaltedness, or awe born of shame. That kind of awe comes from some feeling for something lofty. A person needs to be on a certain level, with a sensitivity to exaltedness,

04:51 spirituality, and lofty matters. In that respect there are differences in level. Not everyone can attain it, as the Alter Rebbe also explains later in the chapter. We will get to the whole question of who can attain that awe and what its conditions are. But lower-level fear is about tangible reality. The whole point of lower-level fear is that a person needs to reach a concrete awareness. What does that mean? That Hakadosh Boruch Hu is here. Here, the question is not how wondrous and exalted Hakadosh Boruch Hu is. That is not what we are dealing with. What matters here is that a person comes to recognize, feel, and grasp that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is actually here. This is not a joke; it is not a theory or philosophy. We are talking about what happens in practice. That is what the Alter Rebbe emphasizes here: the explanation, and especially the contemplation, must focus on its tangible reality. In other words, the contemplation must be about something real and practical. We are not talking about some abstract, lofty greatness, but about actual reality. Within this emphasis on what is actual, there are three stages. First, he emphasizes Hashem’s presence in the order of contemplation. One begins by contemplating that Hakadosh Boruch Hu truly fills the upper and lower realms—all the upper and lower realms, that Hashem is present everywhere. Here too he emphasizes “truly.” That is, Hashem is present throughout the entire seder hishtalshelus. Then he comes even closer. The whole aim is to bring it closer to the person. That is the second stage. He says: not only the upper and lower realms, but also the physical heavens and earth. Not only the spiritual, but also the physical. So this is another detail, another step in bringing it closer to the person.

06:41 The heavens and the earth literally. And then, within that, he says, “His glory truly fills the whole earth.” There is a special emphasis on the earth. After all, what we want here is yiras Shamayim, here. The aim is to awaken yiras Shamayim so that it leads a person, as the Alter Rebbe will go on to say, to actually turn away from evil—to turn away from evil and do good in actual practice. So what matters most here is what happens on earth, down here on this physical earth. Yes, so the Alter Rebbe adds, “His glory fills the whole earth.” In other words, even after you have contemplated that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present not only in the spiritual heavens and earth, but also in the physical heavens and earth, you still need to add the earth. Not just heaven and earth: there is something special here. Hakadosh Boruch Hu has a particular interest in what happens here on earth, in this physical place. When you say “heavens and earth,” you are already speaking about the physical, but that includes the heavens, which are also something above. The third point the Alter Rebbe adds, “His glory fills the whole earth,” means that He is present on the physical earth as well, right here below. And each of these statements includes the emphasis on actual reality. That is, each stage of the explanation should bring the feeling closer and closer, until it is felt as something real—specifically, as actual reality. And that is the foundation here in Tanya for attaining lower-level fear, as we explained. Higher-level awe, as we explained, is connected with a feeling of wonder and exaltedness. What, then, does the person fear? What causes a movement of awe within him? It is the wonder of Hakadosh Boruch Hu—His exaltedness and greatness. He feels that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is so lofty, so great, so exalted. So how can I? How can I not be ashamed of my behavior? How can I

08:35 Can he do things that Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants? The yirah of binah is a different kind of fear. There, the emphasis is not so much on His actual presence; it is more on the wonder, the greatness, the exaltedness. Here, though, the fear does not come from Hashem’s greatness. Here, the fear comes from the fact that Hashem is right here. So the more I emphasize that He is actually here—that He is here below, and even further below, right here in a tangible way—the closer this brings a person to actually feeling yiras Shamayim: the lower level of yirah, fear of sin. That is the point the Alter Rebbe emphasizes here. So the Rebbe continues: “And He watches and observes.” Until now, the first part has been about Hashem: how He is present everywhere, and how He is present here below, in this physical world, as it were, in an actual way. Now the Rebbe turns more specifically to the person. So the Rebbe continues: “And He watches and observes, and examines the kidneys and heart.” Hashem looks, and He does not merely look—the emphasis is on “observes.” Observing means looking more deeply, more intently, with greater focus. In other words, this is not just a general awareness; it is attention to every detail. It matters to Him. “And examines the kidneys and heart” goes further, to the inner faculties: the kidneys and the heart. He looks at what is happening inside—what a person feels, what his emotions are, what occupies him, and how he does things. Then he adds the more external aspects: “And every deed and word.” Hashem also looks at and examines the external faculties, the external garments of speech and action. “And counts all his steps.” Here the Rebbe adds a new point that he has not mentioned earlier in the chapter. It is all

10:36 to emphasize even more how real this is. “And counts all his steps” is the wording of a verse that the Rebbe uses here. “And counts all his steps.” This means that Hashem does not only look at what a person does in Torah and mitzvos, and how he does it—with what feeling, with what is in his kidneys and heart. Hashem also counts a person’s steps. In other words, matters of ordinary life, external matters, also matter to Hashem. The plain meaning of “counts all his steps” includes every step a person takes in the everyday world. What are steps? They are part of life, something external. Even the steps matter. Every detail of a person matters to Hashem. Even within the service of Hashem, for example, “steps” can be understood to mean the preparations a person makes for a mitzvah. How so? The preparation for the thing, not the thing itself. Those are steps. He walks to shul. There is an entire halachah in the Shulchan Aruch about how one should walk to shul. Why should it matter how you walk to shul? The main thing is to daven once you get there. No—there is a section, a halachah, in the Shulchan Aruch that says it is a mitzvah to run to shul, and so on. In other words, even though the walk itself is not part of the mitzvah, walking toward it is also part of serving Hashem, and that too matters to Hashem. That is one interpretation, at least, of “counts all his steps.” Even the steps matter to Hashem. In other words, even external matters that are not part of the thing itself matter in some way. Some explain that this relates to serving Hashem more generally. It is a very fundamental point, this idea of “counts all his steps.” There is a concept

12:31 in serving Hashem as a whole. Serving Hashem includes the idea of being a careful person. For someone with yiras Shamayim, it is not only a matter of “turn away from evil and do good,” of what is forbidden and what is permitted. There is an overall attitude of carefulness. So even with things that are not a matter of turning away from evil, a person is careful in general. A Jew is someone who is careful with every step and every detail, even when the thing itself has nothing to do with sin. The Rebbe Rashab explains this at length in Kuntres HaAvodah, chapter 2. He calls it “restraining the senses.” What does restraining the senses mean? It does not just mean refraining from transgressions, from looking where one is forbidden to look. It means that a person’s gaze does not simply wander everywhere. Usually, people walk down the street and naturally look here and there all the time. They are not looking for anything forbidden; they are not looking for anything in particular. But as they walk, they look here and there—at passing cars, at airplanes, at birds, flowers, and all sorts of things. Yiras Shamayim does not only mean being careful not to look when something forbidden is in the street. Of course, do not look at something forbidden. But beyond that, a person has control over his senses. Who says you have to look toward every noise in the street? He walks down the street, and he just keeps walking. He does not inspect every passing car—what kind is it, who is inside, what color is it? It does not interest him. He sets boundaries for his senses. He is careful about what he looks at. The same applies to speech, and the same applies to hearing. In other words,

14:31 the restraint of the senses that the Rebbe Rashab writes about in Kuntres HaAvodah is the foundation of the whole subject of yiras Shamayim. It is connected to “counts all his steps.” In other words, Hashem standing over a Jew, looking at him and examining him, is not limited to “turn away from evil and do good.” It includes his steps—how he walks, what he does, the manner in which he goes about things. That too matters in serving Hashem. “Counts all his steps.” There is a story in the Gemara, for example. This is just one detail, one illustration, but it conveys something of the idea. The Gemara tells of Rabbi Yosi HaGelili, if I am not mistaken, who was walking along and encountered Beruriah, Rabbi Meir’s wife. Rabbi Yosi HaGelili asked Beruriah which way led to Lud, something like that, or how to get to some place in Jerusalem. He wanted to go somewhere, so he asked Beruriah, Rabbi Meir’s wife. The Gemara says that Beruriah kicked him. That is what it says: she kicked him, struck him, and scolded him. How could he be so lacking in modesty? Why did he have to say, “Which way do we go to Lud?” Why use so many words? She said to him, “Does it not say, ‘Do not engage in excessive conversation with a woman’?” That is what it says. Beruriah rebuked Rabbi Yosi HaGelili. It says in Pirkei Avos not to engage in excessive conversation with a woman. What does that mean? All right, he needed to know which way to go; he had to ask. I understand that. But instead of saying it in four words, he could have said it in two. In other words, being careful even about the words a person uses—whether he says something briefly or at length—matters too. So when we speak about the care a person must take with speech and thought

16:23 and hearing, and with every detail, that is the meaning of “counts all his steps.” The words a person uses, the way he walks, and all these things—even though they are not themselves transgressions or mitzvos—are part of restraining the senses. A person must be careful even with such external matters. So the Alter Rebbe says that all this is part of the explanation: on the one hand, a person should contemplate the greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, how He is present everywhere, emphasizing that this means He is actually present—in all the worlds, and in the lower world, and on this physical earth, and so on. On the other hand, Hashem looks at every detail of the person, observes and examines him, and “counts all his steps.” Every detail matters. Then fear will become fixed in his heart for the entire day. If he contemplates this at length once a day, it will become fixed in his heart and remain there as a constant yiras Shamayim throughout the day. “When he returns to this and contemplates it, even briefly, during the day.” He does not have to sit and work through these explanations all day. Once a day, he needs to spend hours on this contemplation—that is, he needs to devote a real stretch of time to it, as we have just said. After that, throughout the twenty-four hours of the day, it is enough to review it briefly. “When he returns to this and contemplates it, even briefly, at any time and at any hour, he will turn away from evil and do good in thought, speech, and action.” This will affect him so that at any time, at any hour, in every moment and situation, he will turn away from evil and do good in thought, speech, and action, “so as not to rebel, G-d forbid, before the eyes of Hashem’s glory, which fills the whole earth.” The reason is that he does not want to be a rebel

18:25 Instead, to stand there and picture Hakadosh Boruch Hu, Who is everywhere. That is the point of yiras Shamayim. The Rebbe writes here in a letter that someone asked: There are two ways to read this. What do the words “at every moment and at every hour” go with? One way is to read them with what comes before: when a person brings this back to mind and takes it to heart, even through brief contemplation, at every moment and at every hour. In other words, a person contemplates it regularly once a day, and afterward, throughout the day, whenever he reflects on it, it will help him turn away from evil. So “at every moment and at every hour” refers to the contemplation. The other way is as we said earlier: “at every moment and at every hour” goes with what follows—at every moment and at every hour he will turn away from evil and do good. All the time, all day, he will turn away from evil. Some have interpreted it one way and some the other. The Rebbe argues that it would seem to go with what follows: “At every moment and at every hour he will turn away from evil and do good.” What is the Rebbe’s proof? From this passage in Tanya itself, there is no proof, nothing that settles it. It could be like the Rebbe’s sicha about verses that have no definitive interpretation: they can be understood either way, and both readings are correct. But the Rebbe’s proof that it goes with what follows is from chapter 41. There, too, the Alter Rebbe uses the same expression, “at every moment and at every hour,” and there the wording must be understood to mean that “at every moment and at every hour” he “will turn away from evil and do good.” So if that is the case, why should we think the Alter Rebbe means something different here? Here, too, the Alter Rebbe is repeating the same point: at every moment and at every hour he will turn away from evil and do good. So that reading fits better.

20:17 In light of what the Gemara says, too, it fits better to say that here he means the same thing—that the words go with what follows. In any case, what is the point the Rebbe explains here? We need to do this seriously once a day, and afterward it is enough to return to it during the day. Even briefly: once a person contemplates it regularly, once a day, it becomes fixed in his heart. When a person truly contemplates it in this way and takes it deeply to heart, it becomes settled in his heart that this is how things are. After that, it is enough to return to the point during the day. That is the point. He reviews it briefly, and that helps. It can help him turn away from evil and do good throughout the day. For example, the Rebbe writes in letters about the need for contemplation. The Rebbe writes that according to the revealed teachings of Torah, there is no distinction between Shacharis, Minchah, and Maariv in this regard; it applies to all the prayers. From what the Gemara and the Mishnah say, it appears that Shacharis, Minchah, and Maariv are the same: the early chassidim would wait an hour before praying—before Shacharis, Minchah, and Maariv alike. But the Rebbe says that in practice, chassidim have the custom—and the Rebbe writes that this should be the custom—to spend longer in preparation before Shacharis, just as that prayer itself is longer. The whole idea of prayer is that a greater intellectual engagement requires more preparation for prayer. It is still prayer, the same Shemoneh Esrei. Just as the Men of the Great Assembly made the Shacharis prayers longer, so too with what Chassidus says here: one should contemplate Hashem’s greatness and all the things that awaken yiras Shamayim and love of Hashem.

22:06 In that setting. So extended contemplation should take place once in the morning, before prayer. It follows that here the Alter Rebbe is not saying when one must contemplate. What the Rebbe means here is not necessarily before prayer. It could be at another time; no time is specified here. It could be in the morning when he gets up, or at some other time. But we know that before prayer is a more conducive time: a person is generally in a frame of mind that brings him closer to G-dliness. So it is a better time for this. In any case, the Rebbe writes in several letters that before Shacharis, contemplation should be extended, while before Minchah and Maariv it should be brief—just a brief review of the point, not lengthy contemplation. This is written in Tanya. As the Rebbe also writes about Tanya, once a day there should be an extended period, and afterward, during the day, even if he returns to the thought and contemplates it only briefly, it will help bring about an effect in actual practice, in truly turning away from evil and doing good. I will come to why the Rebbe uses the word “mamash”—“actually”—several times here. There is a well-known illustration chassidim tell. Once there was a man—there are several stories like this. In one of them, a man was at some celebration or other gathering, and someone came up to him and said his house had burned down. “Your house burned down in a fire.” The man did not believe him. His first reaction was, “No, you’re lying.” The other man told him, “Yes, your house really burned down.” “No, that can’t be.” “Yes, it really burned down.” This went on several times, until it sank in that it was true—and he fainted. Yes.

23:59 So chassidim say that this is the meaning of what we say in Shacharis: “True and firm and certain,” and so on—fifteen words. A person says Shema and reaches the conclusion that the world has no independent existence, that everything is utterly nullified, that Hashem is One, and all that. Then: “True.” Yes. “Firm.” Ah, yes. No, that can’t be. “Certain.” And you repeat it fifteen times until you see—yes, until it sinks in that it really is so. It is not a joke; that is what it means. This is the point of “True and firm.” It is written that this passage is concerned with the letters vav, which express strength, its central concern. The whole passage of “True and firm” is connected with yesod. The Rebbe explains in Likkutei Torah that the whole point of “True and firm” [...] “True and firm” is that the animal soul does not like it. It does not like connecting with this, becoming attached to it. You say those fifteen words in order to connect with the idea: yes, really, we mean this seriously. The same applies here when the Rebbe says “mamash.” That is the whole point of “mamash”: actually, truly so. We heard the Rebbe say “mamash, mamash” all the time. People heard the word from the Rebbe a great deal, especially in the later years. In a single sicha, you might hear the Rebbe say “mamash” twenty times, over and over and over. “Immediately, mamash.” “Mamash, mamash.” This “mamash” is the Rebbe’s point. That is the point of “mamash.” After all, the initials of the Rebbe’s name spell “mamash.” It is not, how do you say, a coincidence that the initials of the Rebbe’s name spell “mamash,” because with the Rebbe everything had significance. The Rebbe’s whole concern was

25:34 to bring these ideas down into actual reality—mamash. But it has to be actual. And in Tanya you see this very strongly. In various places in Tanya, the Rebbe comes back to and brings in this idea of “mamash.” It is well known that the Rebbe cites the Frierdiker Rebbe as saying that “mamash” has two meanings: “actually,” and “tangibly,” from the word for something tangible. What does that mean? The Rebbe writes this in connection with chapter 2, where the Alter Rebbe writes in Tanya: “an actual part of G-d above.” What does “an actual part of G-d above” mean? There are two meanings of “mamash.” First, truly an actual part of G-d. It is not a figure of speech or an analogy; it really is an actual part of G-d. That is what the word says: truly, actually. On the other hand, “mamash” also means tangibility: here, in the physical world, in this physical body, there is a part of G-d. Not just as an abstract conception; it is also tangible. These are the two sides of “mamash”: its meaning as “actually,” and its meaning as “tangibly.” Along these lines, we can say that wherever the Alter Rebbe writes “mamash” in Tanya, here too he means both. Both sides: it really is so, truly so, and it is tangible in the experience of this physical world. So that is the point the Alter Rebbe is telling us here in Tanya: we have to bring this down into actually turning away from evil and doing good. Contemplation once a day should be for one long, uninterrupted period. Afterward, it is enough to return to it in brief contemplation, as though settling it in his mind. Through this, he will turn away from evil in thought, speech, and action. The way he conducts himself—that is the point of.