Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 43 - Part 4

00:07 That brings us to the end of the first half of chapter 43. In this half of the chapter, the Alter Rebbe discussed two levels of fear: lower-level fear and higher-level fear. The Rebbe explained that this is what our Sages meant when they said, “If there is no fear, there is no wisdom; and if there is no wisdom, there is no fear.” They are speaking about two kinds of fear. There is lower-level fear, which is needed for the observance of mitzvos, so it must come before wisdom. And there is higher-level fear, which comes after Torah and mitzvos. About this we say, “Who is wise? One who sees what is born.” This wisdom brings a person to fear: it means seeing that everything is born and brought into being from nothing. Contemplating how created beings are nullified to the word of Hashem brings a person to higher-level fear. So these are the two levels of fear, lower-level fear and higher-level fear. We have also just discussed two levels within lower-level fear itself. The Rebbe spoke of a lesser level and a greater level. The lesser level of lower-level fear is the fear that comes from knowing that the King, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, stands over him, looks at him, and examines his innermost thoughts and heart, and so on. The greater level of lower-level fear also involves contemplating the greatness of Hashem—the greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s kingship, how it extends through everything around us and beneath us, and so on. So the Alter Rebbe discussed two kinds of lower-level fear, and then he discussed higher-level fear. Now the Alter Rebbe will begin speaking about love. From here, the middle of chapter 43, the fifth line, the Alter Rebbe begins to discuss love. Within love itself, he will discuss several levels. This begins here and continues through chapters 44, 45, 46, all the way through chapter 49 and chapter 50 inclusive. In all the coming chapters, the Alter Rebbe will be speaking about love. He will explain

02:22 the different forms and levels of love, and the different kinds of contemplation that awaken different levels of love. That is what we are beginning now. The Alter Rebbe will begin discussing this whole subject. It all rests, once again, on what the Alter Rebbe said in chapter 40. There he said that two wings are needed so that our Torah and mitzvos will not remain down here in the lower worlds. For our Torah and mitzvos to rise upward to G-dliness, they must have wings. What are those wings? Love and fear. So the Alter Rebbe explained the subject of fear at length. He also touched on love, so to speak, in chapter 41. Can one call anything in Tanya an aside? In any case, the Alter Rebbe mentioned love there as well, to emphasize that although the beginning, essence, and foundation of divine service must, on the one hand, be fear, there must also be love. Otherwise there is only one wing, and both wings are needed. So the Alter Rebbe explained love there too, but he spoke mainly about the love that is present in the soul by nature. In chapter 41, the Alter Rebbe spoke about the love a Jew has naturally, but said that it needs to be revealed. He did not speak about love attained through effort. Here, in these chapters, through chapter 50 inclusive, the Alter Rebbe will speak more about love attained through effort—love that comes through contemplation. This too is part of the avodah of a beinoni. After all, we say, “For the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.” The Torah says that for every person, every Jew, the matter is close not only “in your mouth” and not only “to do it,” but also “in your heart.” “In your heart” includes love, and therefore

04:13 it must be possible for every Jew—even a beinoni, even someone who is not a tzaddik and does not have a lofty soul—to serve Hashem and attain love of Hashem. So love of Hashem must be attainable, and it is relevant to everyone. How can one attain love of Hashem? The Alter Rebbe explained this in the earlier chapters of Tanya, chapters 16, 17, and 18. He explained that, broadly speaking, there are two ways to attain love. One is the long way, what Chassidus calls the “long way”: the path of contemplation. Every Jew has a brain in his head. Even someone who is not a tzaddik, even an ordinary person—a person on the level of a beinoni, or on the level of a rasha, though not someone who is truly wicked and completely separated from G-dliness—has an intellect. His mind is under his control, so he can study and contemplate. Through contemplation, he too can come to love Hashem. This is one kind of love of Hashem that is accessible to everyone, and it is called the long way. Why is it called the long way? Because it requires contemplation. One has to study, work hard, study, and contemplate. Then there is another way to awaken love, called the short way: awakening the hidden love. Every Jew has a love that is part of the soul’s nature, an inheritance from our forefathers, and it needs to be awakened. The Alter Rebbe spoke about this in chapters 18 through 25. So that is the general picture. The Alter Rebbe wrote at the beginning of Tanya that every Jew has a way to attain love of Hashem through these two approaches: either through contemplation or by awakening the

06:01 hidden love. In the coming chapters, the Alter Rebbe will speak mainly about fear, but he will also speak about hidden love. He will discuss both together. Here, in the coming chapters, the Alter Rebbe will discuss at length several levels of fear and several ways in which love of Hashem is relevant to every person. How does one come to love Hashem? So let us begin again with this passage. On the fifth line: “And now, concerning love.” Love, too, has two levels. Just as we said that fear has two levels, lower-level fear and higher-level fear, love also has two levels: ahavah rabbah and ahavas olam. There is a level called ahavah rabbah and a level called ahavas olam. What is the point here? Before we continue with the text and the Rebbe’s explanation, some general background: love has two levels, just as fear does. It is known that Hashem’s name Havayah has four letters. We learned this in the note to chapter 40 as well. The Alter Rebbe discusses the four letters of the name Havayah. As explained there, they correspond to fear and love. Lower-level fear is malchus, the final hei. Higher-level fear is the yud. Those are the two ends of the name Havayah, and between them are the hei and vav, corresponding to ahavah rabbah and ahavas olam. Broadly speaking, these are the four levels of the name Havayah, corresponding to the four levels of fear and love. Here, as you can see, the approach is a little different. It is not quite the same as there. Here too, he speaks of four levels—two levels of fear and two levels of love—but let us look at what he says inside.

08:04 That doesn’t fit with all the other places in Chassidus. Here, you see, it speaks of ahavah rabbah as being on a higher level than fear altogether. All right, the order is the order of the Name Havayah: first comes lower fear, then lesser love, then higher love, ahavah rabbah, and then higher fear. Higher fear is the maximum; it is the highest. But here, in chapter 43, the Alter Rebbe speaks differently. In chapter 43, the Alter Rebbe says that ahavah rabbah is the highest. Here in Tanya, the order is lower fear, lower love, higher fear, and then ahavah rabbah. So in this chapter of Tanya, ahavah rabbah seems to be higher. That is a contradiction. In a moment we’ll see how to explain it so there is no contradiction. First, let’s read inside Tanya what the levels are. So love, too, has two levels: ahavah rabbah and ahavas olam. Ahavah rabbah is higher than ahavas olam. In Tanya, the Alter Rebbe explains ahavas olam in terms of the word olam, meaning “world”: love that comes from the world. You see, in Chassidus there are two interpretations of the phrase ahavas olam. What does ahavas olam mean? It can be understood in two ways. It can mean everlasting love. Olam can mean eternity; it conveys the idea of eternity. So one way to understand ahavas olam is everlasting love. But here in Tanya, the Alter Rebbe explains it as love that is invested in the world. In other words, it is love that comes from the G-dliness within the world, and that is why it is called ahavas olam. Now, if we understand ahavas olam as everlasting love—as in “With everlasting love, Hashem our G-d,” which we say before Shema—then when we say ahavas olam, we mean everlasting love. “With everlasting love, Hashem our G-d, You have had great and abundant compassion on us.” There,

10:04 ahavas olam means everlasting love. As brought in Chassidus, there is a Midrash that says the love with which Hakadosh Boruch Hu loves the Jewish people is not a love for three hours, or for seven hours, or for a hundred hours. It is love—everlasting love. Ahavas olam. So there, ahavas olam means everlasting love. And if we interpret ahavas olam that way, then it is higher than ahavah rabbah. If ahavas olam means everlasting love, it is higher than ahavah rabbah, because ahavah rabbah has a limit. It is an intense love, but ultimately that does not mean it is eternal. Ahavas olam, by contrast, is eternal. It is love, love, love without end. It is boundless love. That is why many maamarim in Chassidus explain ahavas olam as higher than ahavah rabbah. Ahavah rabbah is a love connected to reason and understanding, so it is not eternal. Ahavas olam, by contrast, is love connected to the essence of the soul, to the feeling of yechidah, and that is why it is ahavas olam—everlasting love. Here in Tanya, though, that is not how it is explained. Here, ahavas olam means love invested in the world. In other words, it is the love that arises from the G-dliness within the world, as the Alter Rebbe will explain shortly. That is why, here, ahavah rabbah is a higher level than ahavas olam. Ahavah rabbah is great: it is above the G-dliness that is invested in the world; it comes from contemplating G-dliness itself. Ahavas olam, by contrast, comes from the G-dliness invested in the world. So let’s look inside at the Alter Rebbe’s words and see how he explains it here. The Alter Rebbe says there is ahavah rabbah. What is ahavah rabbah? You don’t have a Tanya? Then I’ll write it down. Ahavah rabbah “is a love of delights.” Ahavah rabbah is a love of delights, “and it is a flame that rises of its own accord.” The idea

11:57 of ahavah rabbah is also called a love of delights. With this love, a person experiences tremendous delight in G-dliness. It is like a flame, like a fire that rises of its own accord, as though the person no longer even feels that he is loving. He becomes entirely attached to G-dliness, like a fire that becomes one with its source. “And it comes from above as a gift.” This love is something one receives from above, as a gift. When does one receive it? “To one who is complete in fear.” When a person reaches perfection in fear—meaning that he also has higher fear, as we said earlier—only then is this love of delights given to him from above as a gift. Apparently, this is what our Sages meant when they said, “It is the way of a man to seek a woman.” This, too, is the meaning of their statement. Our Sages say that it is the way of a man to seek a woman. Sometimes our Sages are speaking about the marriage of a man and a woman: the Gemara says in Tractate Kiddushin that the natural way is for a man to seek a woman. When it comes to shidduchim, the man goes to look for the woman; the woman does not go to look for the man. That is the way of the world: the man goes in search of his match, the woman. But all these things have a spiritual counterpart. What is the spiritual meaning of “It is the way of a man to seek a woman”? It means that love follows fear. That is what the Alter Rebbe is referring to here. That is the point I meant. What does “It is the way of a man to seek a woman” mean? Man represents love; woman represents fear. “It is the way of a man to seek a woman” means that love follows fear. First there must be fear, and then love comes and seeks it out. Let’s look inside. “For love is called man.” Love is referred to as man and male. Where

13:59 do we learn that love is referred to as man and male? From the verse, “He remembered His kindness.” The word for “remembered” sounds like the word for “male,” doesn’t it? And “His kindness” has to do with love. So from “He remembered His kindness,” we learn that man, the male, is associated with love. “And a woman who fears Hashem.” On the other hand, we find that the verse speaks of “a woman who fears Hashem.” So we see that woman is associated with fear, and male with love. Apparently, every verse is precise. Yes. So what does “It is the way of a man to seek a woman” mean? That love follows fear. But what does that mean? What is the explanation? It can sound as though these are just words, just quotations—as though the Alter Rebbe is simply saying these things. What is the explanation? There is depth to this; it isn’t arbitrary. Man and woman represent love and fear. Why do man and woman represent love and fear? We can see it in several places. We can see it from what we said earlier about the letters of the Name Havayah. We said that lower fear corresponds to the lower hei, right? And lesser love corresponds to the vav. So the vav and hei, the final two letters of the Name Havayah, represent love—the vav, the aspect of Zeir Anpin—and fear—the lower hei, the aspect of Malchus. This is one explanation of the association with man and woman. Zeir Anpin and Malchus are man and woman. Zeir Anpin gives, while Malchus receives—the feminine aspect, the recipient. Zeir Anpin and the feminine aspect are the giver and the recipient. That is the basis of man and woman. Zeir Anpin is connected with love, and the feminine aspect is connected with fear. So this is how we see that love and fear are man and woman. That is one explanation. You find this elsewhere too. Why? Because we said

16:07 As for the letters yud-hei, there it’s the other way around: higher-level yirah is the yud. First of all, I don’t want to confuse you too much. For our purposes, though, you see it presented exactly the opposite way here. Why do we say that a man represents love and a woman represents yirah? What’s the connection? Kabbalah explains that man and woman correspond to chessed and gevurah. In practical terms, that is the distinction: a man is associated with chessed, and a woman with gevurah. What does that mean? Simply put, what is the difference between chessed and gevurah? Chessed is giving. Chessed is like water, flowing from above downward. That is why it corresponds to a man, who is a giver. Gevurah is fire, rising from below upward. That is the nature of gevurah: fire rises from below upward. That is why it corresponds to a woman. A woman’s direction is from below upward, to give. So that is the connection. In short, a man corresponds to chessed, to chassadim, and a woman corresponds to gevurah, to gevuros. This connects to many things, including what is written about foods associated with gevuros, and so on. We see this distinction—that a man corresponds to chessed and a woman to gevuros—in a number of areas. And here you see it in the verses. What do we see in the verses? There is a verse, “He remembered His kindness.” Now, in its plain meaning, the word zachar there does not mean “male”; it means “remembered.” But since in Lashon Hakodesh the word for remembering and the word for male come from the same root, that tells us there is a connection between them. Lashon Hakodesh is a holy language; this isn’t something arbitrary. So when you see one word in Lashon Hakodesh with two meanings, it is because those meanings are connected in substance as well. That is why it says here—

18:13 —that remembering is associated with the male. For example, we see this in “Remember and observe were spoken in a single utterance.” It says that “remember” is associated with the male and “observe” with the female. There are various places where we find this connection specifically between remembering and the male. This is also brought up in the maamar we have just learned, Lecha Dodi Likras Kallah. Everyone in the yeshivah has just learned that maamar. What does the Rebbe add there about memory? Memory belongs to chochmah, right? The concept of memory is connected with the sefirah of chochmah. Why? Because forgetfulness does not apply in chochmah. That is the point of memory. In chochmah, the light shines from above downward; when something is illuminated and revealed, it remains with you. When a person sees something, he does not forget it, because the thing has been revealed to him openly. He cannot forget it. So memory is connected with the sefirah of chochmah. Chochmah and binah are also male and female, giver and recipient. That is the connection between remembering, zachor, and the male, the giver. This is why we say, “He remembered His kindness.” In other words, the male is associated with the sefirah of chessed. By contrast, of a woman we say, “A woman who fears Hashem—she shall be praised.” The wording used specifically about a woman is fear of Heaven. Why? Because a woman is associated with the movement from below upward, which, in our avodah, is yirah. So these are the two points the Rebbe makes here: man and woman, male and female, correspond to chessed and gevurah. And what are chessed and gevurah in avodah? Love and yirah. Chessed is the right side, love; gevurah is the left side, yirah. That is why we say specifically that the man seeks out the woman: the man—the giver, love—goes

20:18 after the woman, after yirah. In other words, there must first be yirah, and then the man comes after it. First there is the woman, and then the man goes looking for her. The point is that he comes after the woman. First there must be yirah, and then love arrives. Why is that? It does seem surprising, but that is how it is. So the Alter Rebbe explains here why love really comes after yirah. He explains that without yirah being complete, it is impossible to reach this great love. For this love comes from Atzilus, and it cannot tolerate severance or separation, G-d forbid. Since this love comes from the world of Atzilus, and in Atzilus there is no severance or separation—Atzilus is a world of unity. After all, in Atzilus, “He and His life-giving emanations are one; He and His vessels are one.” It is a world where the oneness of Hashem shines openly, and there is no room there for anything opposed to holiness. Therefore, as long as a person is not complete in yirah, he is not complete in bittul. If his yirah is lacking, his bittul is lacking; he retains a sense of self. Yirah is bittul. And where bittul is lacking, a revelation from the world of Atzilus cannot occur. The great love we are discussing comes from Atzilus. Atzilus is revealed only where there is bittul, because it cannot tolerate severance or separation. In other words, there is no place in Atzilus for a sense of independent selfhood or separation. Since this great love comes from Atzilus, and Atzilus is revealed only where there is bittul—and that bittul is yirah—that is why yirah must first be complete. Only then can one receive the great love that comes from above. But how does this

22:10 fit with what is written so often in Chassidus—that higher-level yirah comes after great love? Here he says that great love comes after yirah is fully developed. The answer lies in one word the Alter Rebbe writes here: “great love with delight.” The Alter Rebbe is not speaking here about great love in general. He is speaking about great love in the form of delight, love with delight. There are two levels of great love: ordinary great love, and great love with delight. We need to explain this, and with Hashem’s help we will explain it in the next class. I’ll just tell one or two stories. One story concerns the wording of the prayers. As is known, our version says “Ahavas Olam.” The Alter Rebbe explains [unclear] there in the prayer [unclear]. But there are other versions, particularly among chassidim, and they insisted specifically on the wording “Ahavah Rabbah.” This was one of the points of disagreement between the Alter Rebbe and his colleagues. The Alter Rebbe maintained that one should say “Ahavas Olam,” while they maintained that one should say “Ahavah Rabbah.” That is just an aside. Once, a Jew came late to shul; by the time he arrived, they had already reached Yotzer. A tzaddik noticed him coming in late—he had gotten up late—and said to him, “Apparently Ahavas Olam swallowed up Ahavah Rabbah.” He had been so caught up in ahavas olam, love of the world—he meant it in the plain sense. He had slept well that night, and so he was occupied with love of the world and had not made it to Ahavah Rabbah; he arrived at that point in the prayers. That is just an aside. Who was that—Altshuler[?]? That was on Purim 5709. The rabbi was [unclear] Altshuler[?]. The Rebbe

24:15 said that once, when the Alter Rebbe would deliver short maamarim, he came out and delivered a brief maamar. The entire maamar was just a few words. What did he say? “‘Ahavas Olam’ means love that one derives from matters of the worlds.” That was the whole maamar: the meaning of Ahavas Olam is love derived from matters of the world. It caused a great stir among the chassidim, and so on. Afterward, the Alter Rebbe explained what Ahavas Olam means: one can contemplate the world and, through contemplating matters of the world, come to love Hashem.