Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 44 - Part 9

00:01 Speaker 1 We talk a lot about matters of Chassidus, about serving Hashem at the level of mesirus nefesh. And what is it that doesn’t require effort? That’s yechidah. And here we’re talking about the root of the soul. These are very lofty things, but before anything else, you have to know that you need to be a mensch. Yes, zayn a mensch. If a person isn’t a mensch, none of these matters of Chassidus are relevant to him at all. I’m looking at the floor here, and it looks like a kindergarten after a birthday party. It’s simply a disgrace, such a thing. You’re bochurim, not little children. How does so much garbage end up here? Huh? Breaking cups, doing things like that—it’s not fitting, it’s not fitting. There are things that simply aren’t fitting. [unclear] We’re talking about basic decency here, not about the food. Yes, it isn’t menschlich; it’s a matter of character. And I remember, during davening—I was there when the Rebbe stopped in the middle of davening to look at some litter on the floor. There’s even a video of it today. I remember it; I was there when it happened. The Rebbe was in the middle of davening, davening with delight. Suddenly the Rebbe turned like this and gestured with his hand. Everyone started looking. The Rebbe began to shout. There was a piece of paper on the floor. That was all. The place was clean, too. There was the floor and a piece of paper, and then the Rebbe began to shout: “How, how, how, how? How do you take care of this?” I don’t remember his exact words. The Rebbe began to say that Rashi’s father would clean the shul with his beard, and that this is why he merited to have Rashi as a son. So he was very, very particular about this. It wasn’t that the place was actually dirty. In any case, we need to make sure from the outset that this doesn’t happen. Older bochurim shouldn’t need to be told

02:05 Speaker 1 such a thing. Simple. In any case, back to our subject. We’re up to Tanya, page 63b, the line beginning “a dwelling in the lower realms, as explained above,” in the middle of the page. “And behold, also with regard to the aspect of ‘My soul desires You.’” Where are we up to here? Where is the Alter Rebbe in the middle of his explanation? The Alter Rebbe was discussing, again, two levels of love that are accessible to every person. They are an inheritance from our forefathers. One is the love expressed by “My soul desires You,” and the second is the love of “like a son who strives.” The Alter Rebbe said that the love of “like a son who strives” is a greater love—a great love, greater than the love of “My soul desires You.” When a person contemplates that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is his soul and his life, the true meaning of life, our true life, that awakens in a Jew a love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu like the love of life. Yes, just as a person loves his own life, and when his vitality is lacking, he waits and searches for it. He wants to be healthy; he wants to live, because life is precious to him. That is how it should be, reaching the point of “My soul desires You”: because Hakadosh Boruch Hu is my soul and my true life, I want Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Then the Alter Rebbe says that there is a great love, greater than this: the love of “like a son who strives.” He contemplates: Hakadosh Boruch Hu is my father. So he is “like a son who strives for his father and mother, loving them more than himself.” And why is this a great love, greater than the first? Because the love of “My soul desires You” is bound up with a person’s own existence, his soul. By contrast, with the love of “like a son who strives,” his feeling as a son leads him to love his parents more than himself. He goes even further: it is a love that brings him to the point of mesirus nefesh for his father. The Alter Rebbe said

04:16 Speaker 1 that each of us has this as an inheritance from our forefathers, Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. We have the inheritance of the Jewish people, and the aspect of “like a son who strives” is also ours as an inheritance from Moshe Rabbeinu, whose presence extends into every generation. But it is concealed. To awaken it and bring it from concealment into revelation is also very close at hand. A person can awaken it by speaking of it, using his voice to arouse the intention of his heart. By talking about it and saying it until his words awaken the intention of his heart, he brings it to life within himself, as we discussed. When he thinks about how Hakadosh Boruch Hu is truly our Father, that will awaken in him a love like a son’s love for his father. The Rebbe said that even if the feelings of his heart are not awakened, the main benefit is that it emerges from concealment into revelation as far as action is concerned: his conduct will be directed toward giving pleasure to his Father, like the pleasure a father has when his son returns from captivity. The father rejoices that his son has returned from captivity; similarly, there is the pleasure of bringing about a dwelling for Hashem in the lower realms. That is what we learned in the previous classes. Now let’s continue in the text. The Alter Rebbe says there—and you have the Tanya in front of you—in the middle of page 63b, the line beginning: “And behold, also with regard to the aforementioned aspect of ‘My soul desires You.’” The Alter Rebbe is speaking now: all the lengthy discussion about awakening the intention concerned the love of “like a son who strives.” But as for the love of “My soul desires You,” the Alter Rebbe did not discuss it at length. So now the Alter Rebbe returns to “My soul desires You.” He says: “And behold, also with regard to the aforementioned aspect of ‘My soul desires You,’ it is very close at hand to bring it from concealment into revelation through constantly accustoming his mouth”

06:30 Speaker 1 “and having his heart be in accord with it.” This applies to “My soul desires You” as well—the first love we discussed earlier. Here too, says the Alter Rebbe, we can use the same advice we just gave for the love of “like a son who strives.” Well, whatever you want. Huh? And then—[unclear]. It has to be one person. Huh? It’s like two twins. With regard to “like a son who strives,” the Alter Rebbe gave advice on how to awaken it so that it comes from concealment into revelation: through practice, putting it into words, and all of this will awaken the intention within him. The Alter Rebbe says that for “My soul desires You,” too, we can use the same advice. What does that mean? What is he adding? Because earlier, at the top of page 63a, when the Alter Rebbe spoke about “My soul desires You,” how did he say one arrives at it? Through contemplation. A person sits and contemplates that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is his soul and his true life. Just as a person longs for life itself, he should likewise long for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, who is the life of life. So the emphasis there was on contemplation. Now the Alter Rebbe comes and says that for the love of “My soul desires You,” too, there is the advice we gave earlier for “like a son who strives”: he doesn’t begin with contemplation. He begins with speech, talks about it, and says it aloud. By talking about it, what he says awakens his soul and his intention. So that is what the Alter Rebbe says here: through constantly accustoming his mouth and having his heart be in accord with it. How does he bring it from concealment into revelation? By training himself to say it. In other words, he begins with his mouth, and his heart is in accord with it: his heart feels what his mouth says. Sometimes you can

08:45 Speaker 1 say something with your mouth while your heart is far from it. You say the words, but you don’t feel them. So he has to say them with his mouth and have his heart in accord with it. In other words, he should also feel in his heart what his mouth says: that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is our life, our soul. Yes, that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is my soul and my true life. He says it aloud and feels it as well. That, too, awakens it and brings it from concealment into revelation. And here a very simple question arises: when you read these two lines, there is an enormous difficulty in the plain meaning, a contradiction within Tanya itself, between page 63a and page 63b. Earlier, on page 63a, the Alter Rebbe said explicitly: which is the greater love? The love of “like a son who strives.” The Alter Rebbe followed an order. First he explained the love of “My soul desires You,” and said that it is accessible to every person. Then he said: “A great love, greater than this.” In other words, this is a greater, higher love, the love of “like a son who strives.” So it would follow that the love of “like a son who strives” is greater and higher, and therefore requires special effort. Because we saw—and this is as we explained—that the whole idea of the love of “like a son who strives” is a higher love. It is a love already connected with a lofty secret. Here, suddenly, it seems exactly the opposite. When he comes to “like a son who strives,” the Alter Rebbe says quite simply: how does a person awaken it? By saying it aloud, putting it into words, and so on, and that will awaken a full intention. Look, the Alter Rebbe tells you to start with that. It is advice for awakening love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And the love here

10:43 Speaker 1 You see, this is done by saying it aloud, and speech arouses the feeling. When he gets to the love of “My soul longs for You,” he says—and this is a new point—that the same approach can also be used for “My soul longs for You.” It sounds as though this approach applies primarily to the love of “like a son who strives,” while applying it to “My soul longs for You” is something new. But surely the opposite would seem true: if, G-d forbid—if I reach “like a son who strives,” which is a higher love, and we say that he can arouse the feeling by saying it aloud, then what does that mean? Surely with the lower love of “My soul longs for You,” all the more so. [unclear] Yet here it sounds as though this needs to be stated as a new point, as though this case in particular is surprising. Let’s look at the continuation of the Alter Rebbe’s wording. It makes the question even stronger. Let’s continue inside. Before we explain it, let’s read another few lines, where the Alter Rebbe says:

11:51 Speaker 2 “And his mouth and heart are in accord.”

11:54 Speaker 1 How?

11:54 Speaker 2 We had that. I think I had it.

11:57 Speaker 1 That’s another distinction too. Yes, it is, because the wording there was different. There it sounded as though the feeling was only imagined. In other words, this wording is a little stronger: “His mouth and heart are in accord.” We also need to understand the precise meaning of that. But let’s continue inside, and we’ll see the distinction even more clearly. The Alter Rebbe goes on: “But if he cannot bring it into revelation in his heart.” The Alter Rebbe is saying: What happens if a person says it aloud? He speaks aloud about “my soul”; he expresses the idea with his voice and mouth—that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is our soul and our life, that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the true source of life—and nevertheless, it doesn’t inspire him at all. The Alter Rebbe says, “But if he cannot bring it into revelation in his heart”—if he cannot awaken it openly. The Alter Rebbe says, “Nevertheless, he can engage in Torah and mitzvos for their own sake.” He can still serve Hashem, and not just serve Hashem, but serve Him for the sake of the Torah and mitzvos themselves. How? “By picturing this love in the thought of his mind, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu joins a good thought to action.” The Alter Rebbe is saying here that even if you cannot awaken it in your heart, you can picture this love in your mind. A person can picture the idea of “my soul” in his mind, picture the explanation, picture in his thoughts that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is true life. He pictures what life means, and then explains to himself that true life is G-dliness. So even though he does not feel that life, the very fact that he pictures the idea in his mind makes it a good thought,

13:56 Speaker 1 which Hakadosh Boruch Hu joins to the action, so that it is considered as though he has this love. What do we see here? Again, we see a very big distinction between the love of “My soul longs for You” and the love of “like a son who strives.” Regarding the love of “like a son who strives,” the Alter Rebbe said earlier—at the beginning of the page, in the sixth line—“And even if it seems to him, at first glance, to be a product of imagination.” What was the problem for the person contemplating “like a son who strives”? What does he feel? That it’s imaginary. The Alter Rebbe does not say there that he cannot bring it out. He only says that it seems to the person that he does not truly feel it, that the feeling is a product of imagination. But there is something to feel; he just isn’t sure it’s real. Here, though, the Alter Rebbe’s wording is “if he cannot bring it into revelation,” implying that he cannot do so even in his imagination. He cannot bring it out into the open at all. So what do we see? It’s remarkable. There is a very big distinction between the love of “My soul longs for You” and the love of “like a son who strives.” The love of “like a son who strives” can be aroused by speaking aloud; the voice arouses the feeling. With the love of “My soul longs for You,” that is a new point. Although intellectually the love of “My soul” is on a lower level, when it comes to actually awakening the feeling, it is surprising that the voice can arouse it. It doesn’t work as simply as it does with “like a son who strives.” We need to understand this. And the second distinction is that earlier, regarding the love of “like a son who strives,” the Alter Rebbe says that it does become revealed. What’s the only problem? It seems imaginary. And the Alter Rebbe needs to explain to the person

15:52 Speaker 1 concerned that even if it is a product of imagination, he should not worry about it. What matters most? That it leads you to action—to bring your Father pleasure. Regarding the love of “My soul,” the Alter Rebbe does not say it is a product of imagination. He says “if he cannot bring it out.” He may contemplate it and nevertheless feel nothing awakened by it—not even an imagined feeling. Why is that? What’s the distinction? This question was put to the Rebbe when the lesson was being written. It is a very fundamental question. I don’t know what explanations were given over the generations, but the question remained. They asked the Rebbe about it when they were preparing the radio lessons on Tanya, forty years ago or more—fifty years ago. It was one of the questions they asked the Rebbe about the plain meaning of Tanya. The Rebbe gave a wonderful explanation. The Rebbe wrote it briefly, but when you understand it, it is a wonderful explanation. Now we see the subtleties of the soul; we need to understand how a person’s inner life works. The Rebbe gives a particularly wonderful explanation. The Rebbe says that, on the one hand, it’s quite true that the love of “like a son who strives” is much higher than the love of “My soul.” It’s simple. As we said earlier, the love of “My soul” is connected to my own existence. It doesn’t negate my existence. On the contrary, it explains that life is G-dliness, and so I want to live. I know that living means living with G-dliness; otherwise, it isn’t life. “Like a son who strives,” by contrast, calls for mesirus nefesh—striving to go beyond one’s limitations. So it is a greater love. It is ahavah rabbah, a great love, because of the self-nullification it involves. That’s one side. On the other hand, the Rebbe says, the love of “like a son who strives” is a spiritual feeling: feeling

17:44 Speaker 1 that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is your father. A father is a more intellectual, more spiritual concept. Life, by contrast, is something more physical. That is, the feeling that He is “our life” is closer to the body, while the feeling that He is “our Father” is closer to the soul. We can see this plainly in the feeling for life. The moment a baby is born, it feels a desire to live. A newborn begins to cry. It wants something; it wants to nurse; it is hungry and thirsty. That desire to live is a physical feeling. And when it gets hurt, it cries because it feels pain. Something is wrong. In other words, it fights for its life, even as a baby or a child. That is a bodily feeling, the feeling of living flesh. The feeling for a father is different. I’m not even talking about G-dliness yet; we’re still talking about the general feeling, even in the physical world. To feel what a father is requires some understanding. Chassidus cites the well-known expression: “A child does not know how to call ‘Father’ until he has tasted grain.” In other words, before a child reaches the age when it begins eating grain, it cannot yet grasp what a father is. Knowing how to call “Father” isn’t just a matter of saying the word; it means recognizing what a father is. Recognizing a father takes a little bit of understanding, of awareness. All right, this is discussed at length, and it also relates to matzah. Why do we eat matzos on Pesach? Because they are made from grain, which awakens faith. The feeling, the recognition that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is our Father, comes through eating matzos. What I mean is—coming back to our subject—what is the difference between “our Father” and “our soul”? “Our soul” is a bodily feeling. “Our Father” is an intellectual, spiritual feeling. So when we want to take the idea of “our Father” and take the

19:51 Speaker 1 A person wants to come to an awareness of G-dliness. What is the whole point here? The point is that we have to take the concept of physical life, life in the flesh, and apply it to G-dliness. A person knows what life is. He knows the feeling that life is precious. When he comes to recognize that G-dliness is what makes life precious, he develops a love for G-dliness. But this also applies to “our Father.” When you come to understand what “our Father” means, you already have some understanding of a father. The feeling associated with a father is one that comes through the intellect. So when you realize who your true father is—Hakadosh Boruch Hu is your true father—you naturally come to love Hakadosh Boruch Hu, may He be exalted. Therefore, the Rebbe says that recognizing the idea of “my soul” requires something closer to the body. It is a bodily feeling. That is why the idea that “the voice arouses intention” does not fit quite as well here. The whole idea of the voice arousing intention has to do with an intellectual intention. The way it works is that you say several times, “My Father, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is my Father, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is our Father, Avinu Malkeinu,” and again, “Avinu Malkeinu,” and again, “Avinu Malkeinu.” You repeat it many times. You dwell on “Avinu Malkeinu,” on “our Father,” and you speak about it and repeat it. That arouses your intellectual intention, your spiritual feeling about a father. It is an intellectual intention. So it is easier for the voice to arouse that intellectual intention and the feeling of a father, and from that, love for his Father will awaken. But when we come to the idea of “our life,” it is different. The feeling of being alive is a bodily feeling. It is more closely connected to what the body feels. In other words, a person has to feel what

21:48 Speaker 1 life itself is. A person has to feel a love of life in his body. So what does saying “my soul, my soul, my soul, my soul” have to do with that? Simply saying that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is “my soul” will not necessarily awaken the feeling of “our soul.” That feeling takes more than the voice. A person has to have a feeling for life itself. He has to feel, physically, that life is precious. You can see this in the physical world. There are people who do not care. They do not care about their lives or about putting themselves in danger. They throw themselves into all kinds of dangerous situations. That is a certain attitude. It does not come from trust in Hashem; it comes from recklessness. Such people may drink a lot of alcohol, smoke cigarettes, or do other things like that, even though they know it is dangerous. It is not healthy. Today, that is no longer... Today it is well known, and the whole world talks about it. So a normal person, someone for whom life is precious, who feels how precious life is, takes care of himself. He knows that something is dangerous. That understanding is settled in his mind. End of story. As I told you, there is the story of the Frierdiker Rebbe. When the doctor told the Frierdiker Rebbe that doctors were beginning to discover that cigarettes were not good for the lungs, the Frierdiker Rebbe put down the pack that very moment. That was the end of cigarettes for him, even though just before that he had smoked a great deal. Once the doctor said it was unhealthy, the matter was settled. Later, the doctor wanted to give the Frierdiker Rebbe a cigarette. The doctor himself did not believe what he had said. He himself smoked, so he wanted to slip the Frierdiker Rebbe a cigarette, so that he could smoke. But the Frierdiker Rebbe

23:42 Speaker 1 told him, “I do not smoke.” The doctor said, “What do you mean? You used to smoke.” The Frierdiker Rebbe replied, “The moment you told me, as a doctor, that it was forbidden, it became forbidden. That was the end of it.” That was already... that was already settled completely. When a person recognizes, to some degree, how precious life is, he takes care of himself. He wants to be healthy and wants to avoid doing things that put him in danger. But someone with a reckless attitude does not care. He says, “I’ll take any risk in life.” So you start explaining to him, “You know, G-dliness is true life, it is true life.” But he does not care about life at all. Is he going to care about G-dliness, about true life? He does not even care about physical life; he does not care about spiritual life either. So this is what the Alter Rebbe says. When we come to... This is why what the Alter Rebbe says is a novelty. Even when it comes to “My soul yearns for You,” one can try the approach of “the voice arouses intention,” but there, his mouth and heart have to be in accord. In other words, he must already recognize to some degree how precious life is. He needs to have that bodily feeling that life is precious. The voice will not create it. So why can the voice arouse it at all? When you already have it, the voice can bring it out more openly, so that you have a greater awareness of G-dliness. And that is why he might say aloud the words about “our soul,” and nevertheless nothing will be awakened in him. That is the difference between this and the love of “our Father.” When it comes to loving “our Father,” even if Hakadosh Boruch Hu arouses the intention in him, in practice he has some awareness of the matter. It may be imaginary, but he has some awareness of

25:23 Speaker 1 the love of “our Father,” because this is a spiritual feeling, a feeling built on understanding. So if, through my intellect, I come to recognize that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is my true Father, that the Rebbe is our true father, then at least some fatherly feeling will awaken in me, a feeling that will lead to action. As the Alter Rebbe says, even if it is on an imagined level, it will at least lead to action and cause him to return to his Father. But when I come to the feeling of “our soul,” it is possible that no feeling at all will awaken, because this feeling is not so closely connected to the intellect. It is more connected to the bodily feeling of it. Therefore, the Alter Rebbe says that even if this feeling does not awaken in him, he can still picture what this love is like. We do, after all, have the ability to picture things. Through that ability, he can at least picture in his mind how precious life is and what it feels like to be alive. Then a feeling for G-dliness can awaken in him through that sense of life’s preciousness, at least in thought. And a pure thought—Hakadosh Boruch Hu joins it to action, as the Alter Rebbe said earlier.