Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 43 - Part 1

00:06 Speaker 1 We’re starting a new chapter. So here’s the point. First, let’s try to understand where we are—where the Alter Rebbe is holding in chapter 43. What is the Alter Rebbe coming to explain now? That will help us understand what’s going on in the coming chapters. So first, a brief recap of what we’ve learned so far. In chapter 40, the Alter Rebbe brought the teaching of our Sages: “Torah without fear and love does not ascend on high.” When a person studies Torah and fulfills mitzvos but lacks love and fear, his Torah does not rise upward. The Alter Rebbe explains that although the main thing is the deed, as he explained at length in the earlier chapters—35, 36, and 37—nevertheless, for the deed to have vitality and ascend, it must also have intention, love, and fear. As the familiar saying goes, “Prayer without intention is like a body without a soul.” Although the main thing in prayer is speech—the action, and speech is also a kind of action—for it to have a soul, it needs intention. Intention means love and fear. The Alter Rebbe gave the analogy of a bird. A bird has a body, and that is the main part of the bird. In halachah, its body is the essential part; its wings are secondary. As the Alter Rebbe noted in citing the halachah, even if something happens to the wings, the bird is still kosher. That means the wings are not its essential part. Nevertheless, for the bird to fly, it needs its wings. Similarly, the wings are love and fear. They are

02:19 Speaker 1 the two wings: the right is love, and the left is fear. It is specifically through these two things, love and fear, that all the Torah and mitzvos a person does ascend on high. This is what the Alter Rebbe began discussing in the following chapters, broadly speaking chapters 41 and 42, the two chapters we’ve learned so far. There, the Alter Rebbe explained at length how we come to fear and how we come to love. What is the beginning of love and fear? After all, there are many levels and kinds of love and fear, each person according to his capacity. Even with action, there can be greater or lesser care in fulfilling a mitzvah, but broadly speaking, the act of a mitzvah is the same for everyone. When it comes to the feelings of the heart, though, there are all sorts of levels. Not everyone’s mind is the same, and consequently, not everyone’s heart is the same. So there are many levels of love and fear. But there is love and fear at the most fundamental level—“the beginning of the service, its essence and its root.” This is the foundation on which the whole structure stands. The Alter Rebbe explained mainly the subject of fear. Half of chapter 41 and all of chapter 42 deal with fear. Why? Because even within love and fear themselves, as the Alter Rebbe explains at the beginning of chapter 41, fear is the root of doing good as well. So fear is even more essential as a foundation, as “the beginning of the service.” It is even more essential than love. Because if fear is lacking, the whole element of bittul is lacking, the whole foundation is lacking, and then nothing he does has any value. That is why fear

04:11 Speaker 1 is even more essential than love. So the Alter Rebbe explains fear at length, but he also explains love. In the second half of chapter 41, he explains that love, too, has a foundation, a “beginning of the service”: at the very least, awakening the natural love that every Jew has, through which he does not want to be openly separated from Hashem. Those, broadly speaking, are the points the Alter Rebbe discussed in chapters 41 and 42. Now, more specifically, if we break down what we’ve discussed about fear in those chapters, the Alter Rebbe spoke about three points. That is how the Rebbe Rashab explains it in Kuntres HaAvodah: what the Alter Rebbe has discussed so far in chapters 41 and 42 comprises three levels, or three aspects, of fear. What are they? First, kabbolas ol malchus Shamayim—accepting the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven. Second, fear of sin. And third, fear of G-d. These are three subjects the Alter Rebbe discussed in those chapters. Accepting the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven is what the Alter Rebbe explains at the beginning of chapter 41: a person must accept upon himself the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven, of the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Accepting that yoke is connected with fear, of course, but at its core, kabbolas ol is not a feeling. Kabbolas ol is a decision. It means: I accept that He is the King and I am the servant. I must do what He wants. Fear is already a feeling, and a person doesn’t always feel it. Kabbolas ol applies even

06:13 Speaker 1 when there is no feeling. It means recognizing the reality of the situation: He is the King, and therefore I am the servant. There are things one simply cannot do. So one must restrain one’s senses and conduct oneself according to the King’s will. That is the foundation: accepting the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven. Fear, by contrast, is a feeling. It is already a middah. Kabbolas ol is malchus; fear is already a sefirah, a middah, a body. There is fear of sin, and there is fear of G-d. Fear of sin is what the Alter Rebbe explained in chapter 41 and at greater length in chapter 42: “Behold, Hashem stands over him.” The point of fear of sin is that a person reflects that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the King and that He is present—“Behold, Hashem stands over him.” Therefore, in every action he takes, he must be careful not to rebel against the King. He fears sin, because through sin he would become separated from Hakadosh Boruch Hu and rebel against the King. So he already has a feeling of fear. But what does he fear here? He fears the sin—the fact that by doing it, he rebels against the kingdom of Heaven. That is the definition of fear of sin. What is the third aspect, fear of G-d? The Rebbe Rashab says that the entire latter part of chapter 42—what the Alter Rebbe says at the end, that one should always remember the beginning of the service, its essence and its root, that the whole world is only the outer garments of the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, while within them is the inner vitality, the King who is present inside those garments—all of that is already a feeling of fear of G-d. It is a more inward, deeper fear. It is not only

08:23 Speaker 1 that he fears the transgression because it is an act of rebellion. He also feels fear of G-dliness, of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. In other words, there is a G-dly feeling here: a person senses G-dliness within the world. His fear is therefore not only fear of sin, of rebellion; it is also fear of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is here, and He is the true reality. The whole world is only garments. And who is inside those garments? The King, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So this is a more inward fear: fear of G-dliness, not only fear of sin. That is how the Rebbe Rashab explains chapter 42: there are two things here. One is fear of sin—since He is the King, one must be careful not to rebel against Him. The other is fear of G-d, which also involves a G-dly feeling: he senses Hakadosh Boruch Hu. How? Through reflection on what we learned at the end of chapter 42: Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present in everything in the world, and the whole world is an outer garment for the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What does the Alter Rebbe now come to explain in chapter 43? Chapter 43 and onward, from chapter 43 through chapter 50—all these chapters, from 43 to 50. How many chapters is that? Eight. Ah, or seven?

10:05 Speaker 2 Are we including it?

10:06 Speaker 1 Yes.

10:06 Speaker 2 Through chapter 50.

10:07 Speaker 1 That’s eight, through chapter 50 inclusive. In the next eight chapters, from chapter 43 through chapter 50, the Alter Rebbe begins discussing further levels and forms of love and fear. In other words, this is all a continuation of what the Alter Rebbe began saying in chapter 40. He actually began in chapter 38, but in chapter 40 the Alter Rebbe explained that the actual performance of Torah and mitzvos is not enough. There must also be love and fear so that the Torah and mitzvos can ascend. So in the chapters ahead, the Alter Rebbe will discuss several more levels and forms of love and fear. In chapters 40 through 42, he spoke mainly about the basic forms of love and fear that must be there as a foundation; without them, you cannot even begin. But from chapter 43 onward, the Alter Rebbe begins discussing further levels of love and fear that he has not spoken about yet. Specifically, in the first half of chapter 43, he will discuss several levels of fear beyond what we have learned so far—levels he has not yet mentioned. In the second half of chapter 43, he will discuss love, and from the middle of chapter 43 through the end of chapter 50, the Alter Rebbe will speak entirely about love. He will explain many forms, levels, and aspects of love. That, in general, is the point of the next eight chapters. The foundation of the Alter Rebbe’s approach in Tanya is the verse, “For this matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.” The Alter Rebbe comes to explain this verse. It says, “For this matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.” In other words, it mentions not only action and not only what is “in your mouth,” but also what is “in your heart.” That means the verse is telling us that every

12:14 Speaker 1 Jew, whatever his level—even a Jew who is not on the level of a tzaddik—has a connection to “in your heart,” meaning love and fear. So the Alter Rebbe will explain to us in the next eight chapters which levels of love and fear are within reach of every Jew. There are other levels of love and fear that the Alter Rebbe does not discuss here, but those belong to great tzaddikim. They are not within our reach. Everything the Alter Rebbe discusses in these chapters, from 43 through 50, concerns kinds of love and fear that every person has the ability and capacity to attain. They are close. Every Jew can bring them about through his own work. And there can be two reasons for this closeness. Generally speaking, what are those two reasons? One reason is that we have a neshamah, and the soul already has these qualities within it. We only need to reveal what is hidden, and that is why they are close. In other words, there are levels of love and fear that we possess by the nature of the neshamah or as an inheritance from our forefathers. The whole task is simply to awaken them and bring them from concealment into revelation. They are close to a Jew because they are already there, though hidden. We only need to find the ways to bring them out. That is one kind. Then there is another kind that depends on us: forms of love and fear that are intellectual. After all, every person has an intellect—at least most people do. Yes, he has an intellect, and he has inherited one, as the Alter Rebbe said in chapter 17. So he simply needs to learn, delve into the subject, and use

14:10 Speaker 1 his intellect. Through his intellect, he can awaken love and fear. When we are speaking about love and fear that require a gift from Above, things that no longer depend on the person himself, that is another matter, requiring extraordinary spiritual work. That is not what the Alter Rebbe discusses here. It does not pertain to us; it pertains to a tzaddik. That is something else entirely. Here, in these eight chapters, the Alter Rebbe will discuss kinds of love and fear that depend entirely on the person: either they are already within him, hidden, and he needs to reveal them, or they depend on his own efforts. So I tell you: contemplate, learn, delve into it, and you will come to love and fear. That is the general point of the chapters we are about to learn. So let’s begin chapter 43 inside the text. “Now this lower fear, which serves for the fulfillment of His blessed mitzvos, in the manner of ‘turn away from evil and do good’…” This refers to what we just discussed in the previous chapter. In the previous two chapters, and especially in the last one, chapter 42, we spoke about lower fear. The Alter Rebbe discussed fear as it relates to actual deeds, and cited the statement, “Fear is a small matter,” which refers to lower fear. This is expressed in the verse the Alter Rebbe brought in chapter 42. Which 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?” So which level of fear is it talking about? The level of fear that leads to action, fear that brings a person to walk in all His ways. In the language of Chassidus, this is called lower fear, because it reaches one’s deeds and brings about action. “If there is no fear, there is no wisdom.” That is written in Pirkei Avos. If there is no fear, there is no wisdom. What does Pirkei Avos say? It says: “If there is no fear, there is no wisdom. If there is no wisdom,

16:17 Speaker 1 there is no fear.” That’s what it says in Pirkei Avos: “If there is no fear, there is no wisdom, and if there is no wisdom, there is no fear.” So the question is: What does it mean? Where do we begin? Do we first need fear of Heaven in order to become wise, or do we first need to become wise in order to fear Heaven? What must a person do first? This is a practical question. If you simply learn the Mishnah, it is not clear where to begin. Must I first acquire wisdom so that I will have fear, or must I first acquire fear of Heaven so that I can attain wisdom? How can it be both? Surely one of them must come first. That is the question. So what explanation is given? Chassidus explains this, and the Alter Rebbe begins explaining it here in this chapter. But actually, the Alter Rebbe has already explained it; he also mentioned it in earlier chapters. Where? Where did the Alter Rebbe mention “If there is no wisdom, there is no fear”? Who remembers? Come on, let’s have a test. Who remembers? Eh? Where, in the earlier chapters, did the Alter Rebbe bring “If there is no wisdom, there is no fear”? Eh? Don’t worry, it’s no disgrace. It’s embarrassing not to know. It’s no disgrace if you do know. Tanya, chapter 18. And I once told you a story—did I tell you this story before? There was Reb Shlomo, son of Reb Sholom Dovber Brook, and something happened. So Rabbi… Reb Sholom Dovber Brook the elder, Reb Sholom Dovber Brook, Zalman’s grandfather, of… who are here. I don’t know. There was Reb Sholom Dovber Brook. He came to the Rebbe… I don’t know what year. The Rebbe asked him to test the bochurim. So one young man came to be tested by him, a bochur

18:35 Speaker 1 who wanted to be tested on Hemshech Samech Vav. He knew Hemshech Samech Vav by heart. So he came to Reb Sholom, and Reb Sholom told him, “Before I test you on Samech Vav, I want to test you on Tanya. Tell me, how many times does ‘To Yaakov, who redeemed Avraham’ appear in Tanya?” In short, the bochur became confused. So Reb Sholom told him, “You don’t know Tanya. How do you expect me to test you on Samech Vav? Go learn Tanya first, my friend.” He sent him away: first learn Tanya, and afterward I’ll test you on Samech Vav. Well, have you found the place yet? Eh? All the [unclear], all the discussions—nothing. Yes, it’s in chapter 23. I won’t go into that. Perhaps later. So the point is that we have “If there is no fear, there is no wisdom” and “If there is no wisdom, there is no fear.” How is this explained in the books of Chassidus? It is explained in several places, including Tanya and Derech Chayim; they discuss this. The explanation is that these are two levels of fear. There is the fear that comes before wisdom, and there is the fear that comes after wisdom. These are the two aspects of fear that the Alter Rebbe will explain later in this chapter as well. There is what is called lower fear and what is called higher fear, with wisdom in between. What is wisdom? Here, of course, it means the wisdom of Torah. So regarding this we say, “If there is no fear, there is no wisdom.” Lower fear, as the Alter Rebbe said earlier, is the beginning of divine service. Therefore, one cannot enter into wisdom, into Torah and mitzvos, without first having fear of Heaven. That is the foundation. Without it, we cannot absorb the

20:35 Speaker 1 The point. About this we say: “If there is no fear, there is no wisdom.” If you have no fear of Heaven, you cannot attain wisdom. But when it comes to reaching the higher level of fear—which the Alter Rebbe will soon explain how to reach—we say the reverse: “If there is no wisdom, there is no fear.” In other words, it works the other way around. To reach the higher level of fear, there must first be wisdom, purity, and so on, and that enables you to feel that higher fear. So let’s first see what the Alter Rebbe says here. He says that what we discussed in the previous chapters is the lower level of fear, which leads to action: turning away from evil and doing good. About this we say, “If there is no fear, there is no wisdom.” The Alter Rebbe continues: “And it has a lesser level and a greater level.” There are two levels within this fear. Even within the lower fear itself, there is a lesser level and a greater level. What does that mean? The Alter Rebbe is now teaching us that even within the lower fear, there are two levels. Everything we learned in chapter 42, including at the end of the chapter—the contemplation that the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, is present within the garments, and telling myself so—all of that is the lesser level of lower fear. There is another level of lower fear that the Alter Rebbe has not discussed until now: the greater level. In other words, even within the lower fear itself, even within the fear we have been discussing—what we mentioned earlier in the Rebbe’s name [unclear], that there is a concept of fear of Heaven even among the higher beings—there are two levels: lesser and greater. What we have discussed until now was the lesser level, and now the Alter Rebbe will explain the greater level of lower fear. What is that greater level? So the Alter Rebbe

22:25 Speaker 1 explains. That is, what does “greater” mean? He already explained the lesser level in the previous chapter, so now he will explain only the greater level: “When this level of fear is drawn from contemplating the greatness of Hashem—that He fills all worlds, and that from earth to the firmament is a journey of five hundred years, and so on, and from one firmament to another, and so on; the legs of the chayos equal all of them, and so on; and likewise the chainlike descent of all the worlds, higher and higher, to the loftiest heights.” All this contemplation is called the greater level of lower fear. Since the entire contemplation concerns the One Who fills all worlds and the chainlike descent of the worlds, even though it is called “greater,” it is the greater level of lower fear. It is still considered lower fear. “Nevertheless, this fear is called external and lower fear.” Why? “Because it is drawn from the worlds.” A person’s contemplation is not focused on G-dliness itself, but on the worlds, which are garments for the King, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, Who “hides, is concealed, and clothes Himself within them to give them life and sustain them, bringing them into being from nothing, and so on.” That is why it is still considered lower fear. Yet it is the gateway and entrance to observing Torah and mitzvos. What is the Alter Rebbe explaining here? What do “lesser” and “greater” mean, if both are lower fear? In short, the point is the difference between lesser and greater. Think of it simply: what is the difference between someone small and someone grown—a young child and an adult? There are several differences. But for our purposes, the difference is that a young child generally grasps things in broad terms, while an adult grasps the details. That, broadly speaking, is the difference. A young child studies a topic with a teacher and grasps its general idea. He does not go into every last detail,

24:29 Speaker 1 because he will get confused. If he focuses on a detail, he will get confused. A young student, for example, generally grasps the subject as a whole. An adult can go further into its details. He has more composure; his mind is more settled. So he can take each detail and—within that very subject. It is not a different subject. It is the same subject, the same topic of study, the same halachah, the same matter. That is why, for example, a young child studying Shulchan Aruch learns the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch. If you start learning the full Shulchan Aruch with a young child, there are so many details that he will not know what he is supposed to do. First you learn the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch. Later, when he grows older, you can learn the full Shulchan Aruch with him, including all the details and finer points. Similarly, with children, you learn Sefer Hamitzvos. Once he grows older, you already learn one chapter and three lines. In other words, the distinction between lesser and greater is that a child grasps things on a lesser level: he grasps them generally. An adult grasps the very same subject in detail, point by point. So you can see from this distinction that the same applies within lower fear itself. What is lower fear? As we said, it is fear that comes from contemplating that “behold, Hashem stands over him”: Hakadosh Boruch Hu is here, and He is present within the garments that the Alter Rebbe explained earlier in chapter 42. Within that itself there is a lesser level, where the contemplation focuses mainly on the central point. “Lesser” means that you truly contemplate the central point. And what is that point? That all the worlds are garments for the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is the lesser level. Why is it called “lesser”? Not because, G-d forbid, it is somehow insignificant. It is because

26:08 Speaker 1 the person does not go into the details here. He focuses only on the general point: that the whole world, with everything he sees in it, is a garment for the King, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is called the lesser level. But when a person goes further into the details and contemplates the many aspects of the chainlike descent of the worlds, he is already contemplating its many dimensions. There are many worlds, many stages in that descent, many levels—all of this. Then he contemplates how the sovereignty of Hakadosh Boruch Hu extends throughout all these levels, throughout this entire chainlike descent, throughout all these aspects. That affects him much more deeply and inwardly. Its effect reaches deeper and deeper. That is why it is considered the greater level: the person is no longer contemplating merely the basic fact that the King is here. There is a dimension of greatness to it: how the King’s sovereignty, the sovereignty of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, extends through so many aspects, so many worlds, so many details. This heightens a person’s feeling of fear of Hakadosh Boruch Hu even more. Nevertheless, it is certainly still considered external and lower fear. Why is that? Because ultimately the person is not contemplating Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s G-dliness itself. He is contemplating how Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present in the world, how He is present within the world’s garments. That is why this level, too, is still considered lower fear. It is not yet the highest fear. But both levels—the lesser and the greater—are essential. Even though this is lower, external fear, it is indispensable, because it is the foundation for the whole matter of Torah and mitzvos. If a person lacks this point, he cannot enter into Torah and mitzvos. That is how the Rebbe concludes here. Although

27:45 Speaker 1 it is lower, external fear, it is nevertheless essential, because it is the gateway and the entrance to Torah and mitzvos. It is the gateway to love. Once again.