Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 44 - Part 7

00:01 Let’s read again the few lines here that we read quickly in the previous class. On page 63b, the fifth line—uh, the sixth, the fifth from the period. The Alter Rebbe asks here about love. He has been discussing the love of a son for his father: a person should serve Hashem and feel that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is our Father. Like a son who works for his father, out of respect and awe for him. Although this seems to be a very high level, the level of Moshe Rabbeinu, every Jew nevertheless has it in the nature of his soul. We received it as an inheritance. At the same time, when a person accustoms himself to speaking about it, thinking about it, and awakening it in his mind, this love—the love of a son for his father—is stirred within him. So the Alter Rebbe now asks: Seemingly, that feeling will not be genuine; it will be imaginary. Let’s read it inside. The Alter Rebbe says here: “And even if it seems to him, at first glance, that it is an imaginary faculty.” In other words, a person may feel that the feeling he is awakening within himself—the feeling that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is my Father—is something imaginary. He does not really believe it or truly feel it. He has merely said it so many times that he imagines it to be so. But that is an imagined feeling, not a genuine feeling that Hakadosh Boruch Hu truly is his Father. He does not have that feeling. So how, seemingly, can a person serve Hashem through imagination? That goes against everything we learned in Tanya

02:07 about not letting it be an empty fantasy. In chapter 3, the Alter Rebbe says that serving Hashem must not be an empty fantasy; it must be real. Yet the feeling of a son toward his father seems imaginary to a person. The Alter Rebbe says: “He need not be concerned.” The Alter Rebbe is explaining that a person need not worry or be afraid because this feeling seems to him not to be genuine. Why? The Alter Rebbe explains: “Since it is utterly true in itself, in the form of hidden love.” The fact that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is my Father is inherently true. Yes, the fact that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is our Father is true. And not only is it true according to the Torah—that He is our Father, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is our Father and we are His children—as it says in the Chumash, “You are children to Hashem your G-d,” and “Israel is My firstborn son.” The Jewish people are like children to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, with Him as their Father. It is not only the relationship itself that is real; the feeling a son has toward his father is also real. In other words, it is not only that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the Father and we are children. A Jew’s feeling of love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, like a son’s love for his father, is also a real part of his hidden love. That is to say, both from Hashem’s side and within the soul’s own feelings, a Jew has, at the core of his soul, love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu like a son’s love for his father. This is something real that exists within a Jew. So it is not imaginary. The feeling of a son toward his father is not imaginary, because it is true in itself. That is the truth. If we were speaking of something I really do not have, something I do not have at all—like what the Alter Rebbe discussed earlier, as we mentioned in the previous class, along the lines of

04:05 what the Alter Rebbe said in chapter 14, concerning Moshe Rabbeinu: I really am not Moshe Rabbeinu, but I act as if I were Moshe Rabbeinu. There you could say that it is not real, that it is imaginary, and so on. There is a whole explanation the Alter Rebbe gave there. But here we are speaking about something that really is within me. It is the truth: a Jew has hidden love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu at the core of his soul, and within that hidden love he feels that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is his Father and he is His son. So it is true in itself. What, then, seems imaginary here? Its revelation. I take that feeling and want to experience it not only at the core of my soul. At the core of the soul it is real. I want to feel it openly, in my conscious faculties—in my mind or emotions. There, I do not feel that it is real. I do not feel it openly in my mind and emotions. A person does not truly feel there that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is his Father. For that, one would have to be on a high level, like Moshe Rabbeinu. I do not feel it. So the Alter Rebbe continues: “Rather, the benefit of bringing it out into revelation is to bring him to action.” Why do we train a person to reveal it? Why does the Alter Rebbe require a person to think about it, speak about it, and contemplate it so that it will come into the open? What is the goal? “Into the open” does not mean a fully revealed feeling, where I feel love for my Father with all the force that Moshe Rabbeinu did. That is not the intention. It is not necessary. That is not what is demanded of us; a beinoni is not required to feel the love of a son for his father as a fully revealed feeling

05:59 because it does not truly shine openly within him. What is demanded of a beinoni is only that it lead to action: to engaging in Torah and mitzvos, to learning and observing them as a result. What do we want from a beinoni? That the feeling of being like a limb of his father should affect what he does. This is the whole point of Tanya. What is the whole point of Tanya? It is what the Alter Rebbe explains, beginning in chapter 17 and throughout these chapters of Tanya, about the verse, “For the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.” The difference between a tzaddik and a beinoni is that genuine love and awe are not demanded of a beinoni. A beinoni is not required to have perfect love and awe, to feel love and awe like flames of fire. As the Alter Rebbe said, what is demanded of a beinoni is a kind of love and awe that affects his actions. The Alter Rebbe explained this in chapter 17, and even more so in the chapters up to chapter 35. The point the Alter Rebbe explains several times in Tanya is the meaning of “in your heart, to do it.” The verse says, “For the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.” The Alter Rebbe asks: How can that be? How can it say “in your heart”? That is a very high level of service, one that belongs to tzaddikim. How can a beinoni attain “in your heart,” with his entire heart devoted to Hakadosh Boruch Hu? That is a very high level. So what was the Alter Rebbe’s answer? That “in your heart” means “in your heart, to do it.” What is demanded of a beinoni is a feeling in his heart that leads to action. He is not asked to have love and awe openly revealed in his heart, love and awe like flames of fire. What is demanded of him is a kind of love and awe that has a practical effect. If it leads him to action—to deeds, speech, thought, and conduct—and because of this love he actually behaves and does what Hashem wants, as he should, then that is called,

07:54 that is called, that is called “in your heart.” That is the “in your heart” demanded of him. That is why the Alter Rebbe also explained in chapter 16—and in a moment he brings it here again briefly—the Alter Rebbe explained at length in chapter 16 of Tanya that even if a person contemplates the greatness of the blessed Ein Sof for several hours and, through that contemplation, reaches the conclusion that he should love Hashem, love Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and be in awe of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, nevertheless, in practice, he does not feel love and awe. He has only understood that one ought to love Him. “Understanding,” as the Alter Rebbe calls it. He has come to recognize that, at the very least, based on what he has contemplated, it is fitting to arrive at love and awe. Then he puts it into practice, observing Torah and mitzvos in thought, speech, and action on the basis of that decision that he should love Him. The Alter Rebbe said earlier that this is enough. Hakadosh Boruch Hu commands us to act; this, too, is considered love and awe for a beinoni. Why? Because it brings him to do it. That is the point when it comes to a beinoni. So the Alter Rebbe says the same thing here in chapter 44. For a tzaddik—for Moshe Rabbeinu and for the tzaddikim of the highest level, whom he mentioned earlier in chapter 10—the feeling of being like a limb of their Father shines openly. For them, that feeling is not only at the core of the soul; it is also in the heart. They openly feel it. The feeling that “Father, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is my Father” truly shines within them. They devote themselves to Hakadosh Boruch Hu with dedication and mesiras nefesh. That is how it is for a tzaddik. Regarding a beinoni, the Alter Rebbe says: I truly have this within my soul, at the core of my soul, as an inheritance. But as for its revelation, the purpose of bringing it out into the open is to lead to action. For a

09:39 For a beinoni, what matters is not that this awareness be fully revealed within him, with all its force. What matters is that it lead to action, and for that, it is enough even if he does not feel it with all its force. So it is not considered a lie or an illusion. That is what the Rebbe wants to explain here: “To bring Him pleasure, like a son serving his father.” So how is this expressed? Incidentally, we are talking here about how his observance of Torah and mitzvos is expressed. After a person reflects on the fact that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is his Father and he is His son, that moves him to observe Torah and mitzvos. With what aim? To bring pleasure to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, like a son who wants to bring pleasure to his father. That is what is asked of him. Whether you feel this with all its force or not makes no difference here. It is not necessary for this purpose. That is what the Alter Rebbe is explaining here to the beinoni. So if this is not considered a false illusion, what is the explanation? Again, what are the two points here? Why is it not considered one? Why need a person not worry that he lacks the feeling of being “a limb of his father”? There are two aspects: In essence, it is absolutely true. So you do have it within you; it is not a lie. And in practice, in terms of what is revealed, it leads you to action. When it comes to action, you observe Torah and mitzvos with the intention of bringing pleasure to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, like a son who wants to bring pleasure to his father. That is all that is asked of the beinoni, no more. Granted, he does not feel it openly. That feeling is not required of a beinoni. It is not asked of a beinoni. “To bring Him pleasure, like a son

11:27 who loves his father.” And regarding this they said—now the Alter Rebbe continues: “And regarding this they said, ‘A good thought, Hakadosh Boruch Hu joins to the deed.’” This explains what the Rebbe is discussing now: A person needs to bring his feeling, his love, into action. The main thing is what it brings about in practice—that he observes Torah and mitzvos to bring pleasure to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, like a son who loves his father. This is what the Rebbe explained earlier with the teaching, “A good thought, Hakadosh Boruch Hu joins to the deed.” In other words, what is the Alter Rebbe explaining? Seemingly, I do not actually feel that way. What benefit is there in reflecting on being like a son who loves his father if I will not attain that feeling? After all, I will not reach the level of Moshe Rabbeinu. So seemingly it is an illusion. That is why the Alter Rebbe earlier cited the saying of our Sages, “A good thought, Hakadosh Boruch Hu joins to the deed.” What does that mean? The Alter Rebbe explained it. A “good thought” means that a person reflects. A person has three parts: the mind, the heart, and actions. The mind—the ideal order, the way things should work, is that a person studies Torah, contemplates the greatness of Hashem, and reflects on all these matters of G-dliness. Then it should descend into his heart, so that the heart produces love and awe within him, a feeling of great love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And “the heart distributes life to all the limbs.” The heart is the motor. The heart is the engine that gives life to the limbs, and that will give him a geshmak in observing the mitzvos in actual practice. That is the way it should work. It is the heart that drives a person, unlike the mind. The mind

13:20 is cool; the mind is detached. The mind is more, more removed. So that is how it should be. But sometimes a person studies, reflects, thinks things through and understands, and reaches the conclusion that one should love and stand in awe of Hashem, yet his heart is not stirred. His heart does not awaken. So seemingly he is missing the main thing, the thing that would move him to action. The Alter Rebbe explained in chapter 16 that this is what is meant by “Hakadosh Boruch Hu joins it to the deed.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu takes a person’s contemplation and the conclusion he has reached about love and awe, and then the person actually performs mitzvos. Hakadosh Boruch Hu joins the thought to the deed and makes that deed permeated with it as well. It too is considered an act done with love and awe. Although the love and awe were not felt in his heart, they were present in the hidden recesses of his heart. Hakadosh Boruch Hu elevates the mitzvos so that they too are raised through that inner feeling, through the love and awe. The same applies here, to our subject. Although he does not feel in his heart the love of a son for his father, he does think about it, reflect on it, and actually conduct himself that way. With every action, he thinks and says, “I am doing this to bring pleasure to Hakadosh Boruch Hu.” So it counts in practice; Hakadosh Boruch Hu joins it to the deed. What does the Alter Rebbe mean by bringing up “wings” here? The idea of wings, in light of what we have said, also helps explain the whole matter. But we will come to the subject of

15:08 wings. The Alter Rebbe explained in chapter 40 that it is written, “Torah without awe and love does not soar upward.” Torah without love and awe does not ascend above; it does not soar upward. The expression “soar upward” suggests wings, as a bird flies. So the Alter Rebbe gives the analogy of a bird. What do we see in this analogy? A bird has a head, a body, and wings. The wings are not the main part of the bird; its head and body are. What are the wings for? They enable it to fly upward. So much so that, according to halachah, if its wings have been removed, it is still kosher. The Alter Rebbe cites that halachah. If its wings are missing, that does not render the bird defective under the laws of treifos. In other words, the wings are not the essential part of the bird. They are not considered a part of the body that it needs in order to live. Why? Because their whole purpose is to lift its body upward. The Alter Rebbe says in chapter 40 that the same applies to love and awe. The wings are love and awe; the head is Torah, and the body is mitzvos. Right? So Torah and mitzvos are the main thing, just as the head and body are the main parts of a bird. The same is true in serving Hashem. The essential point is that action is paramount. Studying Torah and observing mitzvos are what is asked of a person. And what is the purpose of love and awe? To serve as wings that raise the Torah and mitzvos upward. So if you have love and awe, what turns out to be the main thing? Love and awe themselves are not the main thing. The main thing is serving Hashem with love and awe. In other words, love and awe themselves are not what is primarily asked of him. What

17:04 is asked of him is that love and awe serve as wings to lift his observance upward. If a person has a great deal of love and awe but no action, that is like wings without a bird. What good is that? Wings alone are nothing, right? So the whole purpose of the wings is to lift the... The same applies to our subject. The whole purpose of bringing a person to love Hakadosh Boruch Hu as “a limb of his father” is not that we insist on his feeling that bond with all its force. What we want here is for it to lead to action, and it does lead to action. It thereby elevates all his Torah and mitzvos, and so that is enough. Nothing more is needed. That is why this is not considered passing off something imaginary as something real. The Alter Rebbe continues: “And the pleasure”—the Alter Rebbe has just said that there needs to be love so that one seeks to bring pleasure to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, like a son who brings pleasure to his father. The Alter Rebbe asks: What is this pleasure? What exactly brings Hakadosh Boruch Hu pleasure? My observance of Torah and mitzvos? What, precisely, is the pleasure here? So the Alter Rebbe explains: “And the pleasure is like the joy of a king in his son who comes to him upon leaving prison, as explained above.” The pleasure Hakadosh Boruch Hu receives—what kind of pleasure is it? It is like a king’s joy when his son returns from prison, as explained above. The Alter Rebbe explained this in earlier chapters, in chapter 31 and chapter 41. The Alter Rebbe explained several times that when a Jew observes Torah and mitzvos, it is like a son coming out of prison. Yes, like a son coming out of prison.

19:20 A person is in prison. We’re talking about the person himself too, yes? Someone who has not yet refined his body. His soul is imprisoned in the body. There is a body that is a prison, and the soul is inside that prison—the body and the animal soul—and it cannot get out. When does it get out? Through Torah and mitzvos. So every time I do a mitzvah, every time I daven, every time I say a word of Torah, at that moment the G-dly soul leaves the prison of the body and connects with G-dliness. The G-dly soul is like a son, as we just said. A son—what is a son doing here? When the G-dly soul is in the body, it is like a king’s son in prison. You’ve heard what the Alter Rebbe says in chapter 31: a king’s son who is imprisoned and grinding in the—the—what is the wording? Grinding in prison. He is in prison, doing degrading work; the body brings the soul low. The moment he observes Torah and mitzvos, it is as though he leaves prison and returns to the king’s home. So we can imagine how great the father’s joy is. There are two kinds of joy here. There is the son’s joy: the son is happy to be coming home. And there is the father’s joy: the father is happy that his son is returning. Which one does the Rebbe ask us to focus on here? The father’s joy. A Jew needs to work on himself so that his love comes from the pleasure he brings Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What pleasure? The pleasure Hakadosh Boruch Hu has when His son comes home. In other words, what matters to me is my father’s joy at my return from prison—the joy my father feels, not my own personal joy. That is what the Rebbe is asking for here. This comes through awakening the love of a son for his father. Or, to make a dwelling for Him in the lower realms. Another kind of

21:31 pleasure: the pleasure of a dwelling in the lower realms. There are two kinds of pleasure that Hakadosh Boruch Hu has. The Rebbe is discussing a very, very important point here. When we talk about bringing pleasure to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, there are two levels of pleasure. There is the pleasure Hakadosh Boruch Hu has when a Jew does teshuvah, comes home, leaves prison, and is freed from exile. That is one kind of pleasure. And there is another kind of pleasure Hakadosh Boruch Hu has from making a dwelling in the lower realms. “Hakadosh Boruch Hu desired to have a dwelling in the lower realms.” That is what Hakadosh Boruch Hu desires. When a Jew observes Torah and mitzvos, he fulfills Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s desire. So the pleasure comes from his fulfilling his Father’s will. He fulfills Hashem’s will and makes a dwelling in the lower realms. Both kinds of pleasure need to be on a person’s mind when he observes Torah and mitzvos. How do we come to feel this love? How does a person reach the point where all the Torah and mitzvos he does come from this place? By awakening the love of, of... Well, you understand: by coming to recognize that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is our Father. Then, naturally, a person wants to do everything for his Father. His whole aim is not to do it for himself, but for his Father. To bring pleasure to my Father. My Father’s pleasure. There are two aspects to this: either my Father’s pleasure when a Jew returns and leaves prison, or my Father’s pleasure when we make a dwelling in the lower realms.