Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 43 - Part 2

00:00 The lower level. Yirah tata’ah, the lower level of fear, is the root of the entire matter of observing Torah and mitzvos. It is the beginning, the essence, and the root of avodah, and the Alter Rebbe writes that it is the gate and the entrance through which one enters into observing the mitzvos. About this they said, “If there is no fear, there is no wisdom.” If a person has no fear of Heaven, then the whole matter of observing mitzvos is simply not possible. This is the foundation of all service of Hashem. Within this, the Alter Rebbe spoke of two levels: a lesser level and a greater level. The lesser level is what we learned in the previous chapter: contemplating the reality that the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, stands over him. The greater level is when he contemplates all the details of the worlds. This is the greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu—how His presence extends into the details of the worlds. This is memalei kol almin and the many levels of Hishtalshelus. That brings a person to a more inward fear. This is called an external fear. But it is all still yirah tata’ah. Why is it “lower”? Because it all involves contemplating not G-dliness itself, but G-dliness as it is enclothed in the worlds and the garments through which He is concealed. That is why it is considered yirah tata’ah. Now, in the following lines, the Alter Rebbe will explain what yirah ila’ah, the higher level of fear, is. The Alter Rebbe is now going to explain the other end of the spectrum. Yirah ila’ah does not come next in the order of levels in avodah. In the order of avodah, one does not go straight from yirah tata’ah to yirah ila’ah, as the Rebbe will explain later. The order of avodah is that after yirah tata’ah there must be avodah through love, not yirah ila’ah. Yirah ila’ah is the culmination of avodah. We learned in chapter 30—in chapter 40—that there is fear, love, love, and fear. There are four levels: two levels of fear and two levels of love. And the order is first yirah tata’ah, then ahavah tata’ah, then ahavah ila’ah, and then yirah

02:18 ila’ah. In other words, yirah ila’ah comes at the end. It is the ultimate goal of the avodah. This is the idea of yirah ila’ah, which is alluded to in the four letters of the name Havayah: the lower hei is Malchus, which is yirah tata’ah. Then come the vav and the upper hei, the two levels of love. The vav is ahavas olam, and the upper hei is ahavah rabbah. Then comes the yud, which is supernal Chochmah, which is yirah ila’ah. So the order of avodah is: fear, love, love, fear. But here he is not following the order of avodah. The Alter Rebbe wants to clarify all the aspects of fear, and afterward he will discuss all the aspects of love. So the Alter Rebbe goes directly from yirah tata’ah to yirah ila’ah. Now, regarding yirah tata’ah: we said that it is an external fear. Why? Because it comes from the external aspect of G-dliness, from the way G-dliness extends into the worlds and the external garments. But yirah ila’ah, the Alter Rebbe says, is a fear bound up with shame. Yirah ila’ah is a fear bound up with shame, an inward fear. The Alter Rebbe gives it several names: a fear bound up with shame. Why is it called that? Because here the fear is connected with shame. He feels ashamed before the greatness, the depth, of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And this is another difference between yirah tata’ah and yirah ila’ah: yirah tata’ah does not involve shame. Yirah tata’ah, the fear a person has of the King of kings because Hakadosh Boruch Hu stands over him, is not a fear of shame. It is not a fear connected with a loftiness and greatness that make you feel ashamed. Rather, there is a king, and one must be careful not to rebel against the king. In other words, there the fear is not connected with shame. Rather, the fear is connected with what one

04:17 actually does. Since Hakadosh Boruch Hu stands over him, watching and examining him, and so on, he must be careful not to rebel against the king. That is the point of yirah tata’ah. It is not connected with a feeling of shame, but with the fact that, since I am the servant and He is the King, I must do what the King wants. That is the rule with a king: not to rebel against him. Yirah ila’ah, by contrast, is connected with a feeling of shame, because there a person already senses the greatness of Havayah. As we will see later, there a person feels ashamed. We will explain this in more detail shortly. For now, I am just translating the words. Then the Alter Rebbe adds that this fear is an inward fear. Why is it called an inward fear? The Alter Rebbe explains that it is drawn from the inward dimension of G-dliness. Why is this fear called an inward fear? Because it comes from the inward dimension of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. It comes from contemplating G-dliness, the inward dimension of Hakadosh Boruch Hu within the worlds—what is present within the worlds. And this is another difference between yirah tata’ah and yirah ila’ah. With yirah tata’ah, a person mainly contemplates the extent of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s kingship over the worlds. That is why we said earlier that it involves the multitude of worlds, the many levels of memalei kol almin, the multitude of levels. So what gives the person this fear is more the sheer scale, the extent. The worlds themselves, so to speak—Hakadosh Boruch Hu as He is in the worlds themselves. The fear is primarily of the extent of His presence in the worlds, not of Him Himself. With yirah ila’ah, by contrast, it is the opposite: a person strips away the worlds, goes beyond the worlds, and the fear comes from the greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu as He is in His essence. That is why it is called inward: it comes from the inward dimension, what is within the worlds. About

06:04 this fear it is written, “If there is no wisdom, there is no fear.” About this fear they said the reverse: first there must be wisdom, and only after wisdom can one reach fear. In other words, yirah ila’ah comes after all the wisdom a person can attain. Through Chochmah, he can reach yirah ila’ah. What is the explanation for this? Why does yirah ila’ah come after Chochmah? And why do they say of it, “If there is no wisdom, there is no fear”? The Alter Rebbe explains this according to the inner meaning. Chochmah means koach mah, “the power of what.” That is the meaning of the word Chochmah: koach mah. And “Chochmah is found from ayin,” from nothingness. Chochmah comes from ayin. In other words, the inner essence of Chochmah is ayin. And “Who is wise? One who sees what is born.” Since Chochmah is a matter of what? Ayin. And what is a wise person? A wise person is someone who is at that level of ayin. “Who is wise? One who sees what is born.” A wise person is someone who sees what is born. What does “sees what is born” mean? This follows from what the Alter Rebbe just said, that Chochmah is characterized by ayin. So the Alter Rebbe explains: what does it mean that a wise person sees what is born? It means that he sees how everything is born and comes into being from ayin to yesh, from nothing into existence. A wise person sees how everything comes into being, yesh me’ayin. And that is the meaning of koach mah: by seeing how things come into being from ayin to yesh, he comes to bittul, to ayin. That is why he becomes koach mah; he is in a state of bittul and ayin. He sees how everything is born and comes into being from ayin to yesh, through the word of Hashem and the breath of His mouth, blessed be He. Through the speech of Hakadosh…

08:07 He made all this, “and by the breath of His mouth all their host.” And through this, since he sees how everything is brought into being from nothing, the heavens and the earth and all their host are utterly nullified within the word of Hashem and the breath of His mouth. They are considered truly nothing, absolute naught—like the light and radiance of the sun within the sun itself. So it follows that created beings are nullified before Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And what kind of nullification is this? The loftiest kind: absolute nothingness, like sunlight within the sun. This is what we’re learning now in Tanya as part of Chitas. These days we’re learning Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, where the Alter Rebbe explains that created beings’ nullification to the word of Hashem is not like sunlight outside the sun, but like sunlight inside the sun—complete nullification. So what is the Rebbe explaining here? What is the difference between the explanation we learned in the previous chapter, and also at the beginning of this chapter, about lower-level awe, and the explanation the Alter Rebbe now gives about higher-level awe? What is the difference? Because, seemingly, let’s read it: they’re all talking about the same thing. Yes, earlier too we spoke about the whole world being an outer garment, with Hakadosh Boruch Hu—the King—within it. And now too we’re speaking about the whole world being utterly nullified to the word of Hashem that brings it into being every single moment. What exactly is the difference between the explanation we learned earlier about lower-level awe—and there too, we said, there are lesser and greater levels—and this awe, which is higher-level awe? We say they are at opposite extremes, two entirely different things. So from the plain sense of what Tanya says here, what is the distinction? As we said, with lower-level awe, the main point of the explanation has to do with what a person sees—not, not, not with how he conducts himself. In other words, with lower-level awe, what does a person see? He sees the world. Where

10:19 is the person? He’s in the world, and what does he see? He sees the world. But he trains himself to contemplate that this whole world belongs to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This whole world belongs to G-dliness, and within the world is the life force of G-dliness. But what does he see? He sees a world. So where does his awe come from? His awe comes from the fact that this is a world in which Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present. And the more he sees the world’s grandeur—its vastness and all that—the more it expresses the greatness of the King. So that brings about in him a sense of self-nullification, a sense of awe. But, but, but, but what does the person see? Primarily, he sees the world, not G-dliness. With higher-level awe, by contrast, the main work is the reverse. What does the person see? He sees G-dliness. That’s why the Rebbe quotes the teaching of our Sages here: “Who is wise? One who sees what is being born.” First of all, notice the precise wording: “sees what is being born.” It’s not just that he understands; this is a matter of seeing. But the Rebbe isn’t speaking here about a lower level, where someone studies Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah and understands what it says there—that the worlds are created anew every moment by the word of Hashem. That still isn’t called higher-level awe; it still isn’t higher-level awe. “Who is wise? One who sees what is being born.” The wise person has reached a level where he looks and sees—he sees the word of Hashem bringing the world into being. He sees G-dliness. So the main thing he sees is not the created being. It’s not that he sees the created being and, through it, comes to recognize G-dliness. He sees each thing; he sees how it is born from nothing into existence. He sees that the world, in essence, is

12:01 nothing; that, in essence, there is nothing at all—there is only G-dliness. The existence of something as a distinct entity is a new development at every moment. It’s a wonder. After all, it shouldn’t exist. This is along the lines of how the Rebbe explains the account everyone has learned, that at Matan Torah “they saw what is normally heard and heard what is normally seen.” The innovation of Matan Torah was... yes. What does that mean? The Rebbe explains that until Matan Torah, this was a matter of faith. In other words, what did they see? They saw a world, and from there they had to arrive at G-dliness. So G-dliness was something they heard about. We believe, but what do I see? I see physical reality. By contrast, at Matan Torah they saw “Hashem descended upon Mount Sinai.” They saw “face to face” in a tangible way. So a Jew developed the opposite orientation: What does he see? What is clear to him? What does he take as obvious? That “there is nothing besides Him.” And consequently, what becomes a wonder to him is: How can a world exist? The world is the secondary thing, the distant thing. It’s something that shouldn’t exist, something inconceivable. The Rebbe points out that in maamarim of Chassidus we find the question asked—yes, what question do the maamarim ask? Since it says, “Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One,” meaning that there is no world, how can it be? How does that fit with the verse, “In the beginning G-d created”? In other words, the starting assumption is that there is no world. The new idea is that the Torah says, “In the beginning G-d created,” so there must be a world. Thus the whole approach is entirely different. The approach is not that I constantly see a world and, from the world, come to recognize that G-dliness exists. It’s the reverse. What do I see? I see that there is nothing besides Him. What is clear to me, what do I take as obvious? G-dliness. And then I see a created reality. How can there be a world? I can’t understand how anything can exist.

13:47 So what is the answer? Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings it into being every moment, and it has no existence of its own. Its entire existence comes from the word of Hashem, like the sun’s radiance within the sun. So that is the difference between higher-level awe and lower-level awe. A person sees a world, and from that comes to recognize that there is a Master. With that kind of awe, he must therefore take care not to act out of habit, but to conduct himself as the Master says—to be, to be, to be a servant, and not to be separate in his very being. With higher-level awe, by contrast, what does the person see from the outset? He sees G-dliness. That’s why it is called inward awe. He sees the G-dly reality of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. His contemplation focuses on Hakadosh Boruch Hu—not on the world in relation to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, but on reaching Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. Afterward, the world becomes, for him, something that has no existence in its own right; it is nothingness. The fact that it exists is because the word of Hashem brings it into being every single moment. And since the word of Hashem brings it into being every moment, it is not really an independent entity. Even now, it is like the sun’s radiance within the sun. That is the point the Rebbe explains here about higher-level awe, in a slightly different way. Perhaps it’s the same thing, just phrased differently. That’s how it seems. And the Alter Rebbe writes in his introduction to Tikkun Chatzos—it appears in the Alter Rebbe’s siddurim. In the newer siddurim they took it out. Yes, apparently they saw that many people were using that page and they needed the pages for something else. I don’t know what happened. In the siddurim we had a few years ago, the large Tehillat Hashem siddurim, there was Tikkun Chatzos. So they also had the Alter Rebbe’s introduction, which he wrote before Tikkun Chatzos. Yes. So what does the Alter Rebbe write in the introduction to Tikkun Chatzos? Even those who don’t recite Tikkun Chatzos are allowed

15:34 to study the introduction to Tikkun Chatzos. It’s very interesting. Yes, the Alter Rebbe writes there about a very fundamental matter in serving Hashem. So there, in the introduction to Tikkun Chatzos in the siddur, the Alter Rebbe explains—after all, the Alter Rebbe writes that it is a further explanation of chapter 43. Yes, the Alter Rebbe writes that it explains chapter 43. What does it say? The Alter Rebbe adds a very interesting explanation there. He explains the difference between lower-level awe and higher-level awe. The Alter Rebbe gives a very interesting analogy. He says: the difference between awe of a king and awe of a righteous person. That is the analogy the Alter Rebbe gives. What is the difference? When a person has awe of a king, he is not in awe of the king himself, of the king’s essential character. The king himself could be anyone. The awe a person feels when standing before a king, a ruler, comes from the influence that person wields over such a vast domain. If he rules a small country, there is a lesser degree of awe. If he rules a large country... yes, there’s a difference between seeing the prime minister of Bolivia and seeing the President of the United States of America. That is a person with influence over many states and many other things—greater influence. So the awe, the respect, or whatever we want to call it, will also be different. Why? Not because he is inherently a more remarkable person. Inherently, there may be no difference between them; both of them—I don’t know. It could even be the other way around. Rather, it’s a matter of scale, of how far his influence extends. Because he leads many states, that makes a greater impression; another leads fewer states. So where does the awe come from? From his outward reach. Whereas

17:33 Yes, the awe one feels in the presence of a tzaddik—the awe one feels before a great and righteous person of the generation. That is the Alter Rebbe’s wording. So this is a different kind of awe. It is not because he has many chassidim, or because of the number of people connected to him, or the number of shuls he has. You don’t see that; it has nothing to do with it. It has to do with what the tzaddik is inwardly. A person senses that a tzaddik is something altogether different, beyond comparison to himself. That is where the awe comes from: the awe of being humbled before his inner essence. That is why this is called inward and the other is called external. With a king, the awe comes mainly from what surrounds him—from his influence and what he does. With a tzaddik, by contrast, it comes from the tzaddik himself: from his loftiness, his extraordinary qualities, his greatness, his inner being. It comes from who he is in himself. That is what the Alter Rebbe writes there.