Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 44 - Part 10

00:00 Speaker 1 We’re on page 63b, on the line ending with “and thought,” after the colon. There’s a colon here, and here the Alter Rebbe begins: “Now.” What is the Alter Rebbe coming to explain? First, we need to sum up what we’ve learned so far. The students remember what we’ve learned in this chapter. The Alter Rebbe began by explaining that there is a level of love for Hashem that belongs to every person. He says there are many levels of love for Hashem, corresponding to many levels of contemplation. Each kind of contemplation awakens another kind of love, but there is a love that is equally accessible to everyone. The Alter Rebbe discussed two levels of this love. We have them as an inheritance from our forefathers, and everyone can reach them. The first love was based on the idea that Hashem “is your life”: “My soul longs for You.” A person needs to contemplate that Hashem is his true life. When he does, then just as a person loves to live and wants to live—and when he is weak, suffering, or ill, a longing to live awakens in him and he treasures life—so too, he comes to love Hashem. A person must contemplate that true life, the Life of life, is Hashem. Then “My soul longs for You”: he wants and longs for G-dliness, because G-dliness is true life. “My soul longs for You at night.” After that, the Alter Rebbe brought another level of love for Hashem, another contemplation accessible to everyone: contemplating “our Father.” We contemplate that Hashem is our true Father. A person loves his father, and not only loves him, but as the Zohar puts it: “Like a son who strives for his father and mother, whom he loves more than himself.”

02:21 Speaker 1 A son who devotes himself to his parents, to his father, more than he loves his own body and soul—to the point that he is prepared to give his life for his parents. Similarly, when he contemplates that Hashem is our true Father, a desire for Hashem awakens in him, a desire to devote himself to G-dliness, like a son who strives for his father. The Alter Rebbe explained in detail that we can attain this because we have it as an inheritance from our forefathers. This is true in general, and particularly with regard to “our Father.” We have this from Moshe Rabbeinu as well. The extension of Moshe in every generation shines into every soul, enabling us to feel that Hashem is our Father. The Alter Rebbe said that everyone also has the ability to awaken this by thinking about it, or by speaking about it. Speech, too, awakens the inner intention when we speak about the idea that Hashem is our soul and our life, that Hashem is our Father. This awakens the feeling in our hearts that Hashem is our life and Hashem is our Father. The Alter Rebbe explained that even if a person does not succeed in awakening this as a heartfelt feeling—sometimes a person contemplates it and speaks about it, yet it still does not awaken in his heart—that is not so crucial in practice. The Alter Rebbe says this is because we are speaking here about the avodah of a beinoni. What matters most for a beinoni is actual deed. Primarily, he needs love and fear to serve as wings that elevate thought, speech, and action—his actual deeds. So even if love and fear do not awaken as heartfelt feelings, the very fact

04:10 Speaker 1 that he thinks about it and contemplates it, and this brings him to actually serve Hashem in order to give pleasure to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, like a son serving his father—and similarly, that he pictures in his mind the idea that Hashem is our life—even if he does not feel it in his heart, Hakadosh Boruch Hu joins the thought to the deed. It is also considered as though he has this love in a revealed way. That is the point we have learned up to now. Now the Alter Rebbe goes on to explain that within these two kinds of love—the love of “My soul longs for You” and the love of “our Father”—there are, as it turns out, two levels, two ways they can be experienced. Let’s see. “Now”—you have it in front of you—“Now,” after the colon on page 63b: “Now, these two aspects of love, although they are an inheritance to us from our forefathers and are like a natural trait in our souls.” As we said earlier, every Jew has these two kinds of love, “My soul longs for You” and “our Father,” as an inheritance from the forefathers. For the forefathers, this was their very life, and we inherited it from them; it is like a natural trait in our souls. So it has become part of our nature. A Jew naturally feels that true life is only G-dliness, and that our true Father is our Father in Heaven. Nevertheless, the Alter Rebbe says, “and the fear included in them.” These kinds of love also contain fear. Until now, the emphasis has been on love. The feeling of “My soul” is connected with love: a person loves his life. The same applies to a son and his father. Their relationship is one of love; the son loves his father. A son’s devotion to his father is a bond of

06:17 Speaker 1 love. The Alter Rebbe says: This love also contains fear—“and the fear included in them, which is the fear of being separated, G-d forbid, from the Source of our life and our true Father, blessed be He.” Love also contains fear. What is that fear? The Alter Rebbe explains: When a Jew feels that Hashem, His G-dliness, is his life, and he loves life, then along with his love of life he is also afraid of being cut off from it. He fears being separated from life. We can see this quite simply: a person loves to live. And when, as the Alter Rebbe said earlier, does that love awaken? On an ordinary day, a person does not feel that he loves to live. He is alive; he does not think about loving life. But when he is in distress or danger, or experiences some weakness, a love of life awakens in him: “I want to live.” Then we see that together with the love of life comes fear. A feeling of fear awakens in him: he is afraid of the opposite, of the opposite of life. The two feelings arise together. The fear follows from the feeling of love. In other words, fear is included in love: I love to live, and I am afraid—I fear being separated from life. Similarly, with the relationship between a son and his father, the same is true. A child loves his father. There is a bond of love, honoring one’s father and mother, and reverence for one’s teacher. Besides the son’s love for his father, he also has fear: he is afraid of losing his connection with his father. In other words, he fears that if he does not behave according to his father’s wishes, it will cause a disconnection, a separation in his relationship with his father. So this fear, this desire not to be separated, in order to elevate

07:59 Speaker 1 thought, speech, and action—actual deeds. So even if it does not awaken in his thoughts or as a feeling in his heart, the very fact that he thinks about it and contemplates it brings him to actually serve Hashem, to give pleasure to Hakadosh Boruch Hu like a son who wants his father. Similarly, he pictures in his mind the idea that Hashem is our life. Even if he does not feel it in his heart, Hakadosh Boruch Hu joins the thought to the deed, and it is considered as though he has this love in a revealed way. That is the point we have discussed and learned up to now. Now the Alter Rebbe goes on to explain that these two kinds of love—the love of “My soul longs for You” and the love expressed in calling Hashem “our Father”—are present in every Jew as an inheritance from the forefathers. For the forefathers, this was their very life, and we inherited it from them; it is like a natural trait in our souls. So it has become part of our nature. A Jew naturally feels that true life is only G-dliness, and that our true Father is our Father in Heaven. Nevertheless, the Alter Rebbe says, “and the fear included in them.” These kinds of love also contain fear. Until now, the whole emphasis has been on love. The feeling of “My soul longs for You” is connected with love. A person loves his life, and similarly, the relationship between a son and his father is one of love. The son loves his father. A son’s devotion to his father is a bond of love. The Alter Rebbe says: This love also contains fear—“and the fear included in them, which is the fear of being separated, G-d forbid, from the Source of our life and our true Father, blessed be He.” Love also contains fear. What is that fear? So the Alter Rebbe

07:59 Speaker 1 The Rebbe explains: When a Jew feels that Hashem, the G-dliness within him, is his life, and he loves life, then along with that love of life he is also afraid of being cut off from it. He is afraid; he does not want to be separated from life. We see this plainly, too: a person loves to live. And when does that love of life awaken? The Alter Rebbe said earlier that on an ordinary day, a person does not feel that he loves life. He simply lives. He does not think about loving life. But when he is in pain, in danger, or feeling weak, his love of life awakens: “I want to live.” Then we see that together with the love of life, there is also fear. A feeling of fear awakens in his soul: he is afraid of the opposite, of the opposite of life. The two feelings come together. The fear follows from what he feels. In other words, the fear is contained within the love. I love to live, and I am afraid. I fear being separated from life. The same is true of the bond between a child and his father. A child loves his father, and within that loving bond is a fear of being separated from him. That is the fear contained within the love. So this is the point the Alter Rebbe is discussing now: there is a love we inherited, and along with that love we also inherited fear—the fear contained within it. The Alter Rebbe says: “Nevertheless.” Despite everything we have said—that the love expressed in calling Hashem “our Father,” the love of “My soul yearns for You,” and the fear as well are all present naturally in a Jew—nevertheless, they are called natural fear and love only under certain conditions. We cannot call this love and fear natural love and fear

09:05 Speaker 1 unless they remain only in his mind and thought and in the hidden recesses of his heart. Yes. What does the Alter Rebbe mean here? The Alter Rebbe now continues. I’ll explain it in my own words so we can understand what he means. His wording here goes on at some length, and we need to understand what he is coming to explain. After that, it will be easier to read his words inside. We learned in the earlier chapters of Tanya that the Alter Rebbe began explaining the whole subject of love of Hashem in chapters 17, 18, and 19. There we learned that we all have love—two kinds of love. In chapter 17, the Alter Rebbe spoke about a love that comes through contemplation. A person contemplates the greatness of Hashem, developing an understanding of memalei and sovev. In chapter 18, the Alter Rebbe began explaining another kind of love: a love that every Jew has, a natural love. A Jew naturally has a hidden love inherited from our forefathers. The whole task is simply to awaken it; we have it by nature. When faced with a test of sanctifying Hashem’s name, every Jew, even the most unobservant and even the sinners of Israel, is prepared to give his life for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Why? Because we have this by nature. But what does it mean that we have it? We need to awaken it. These are the two kinds of love the Alter Rebbe discussed in the earlier chapters of Tanya. Chapter 17 spoke about love that comes through contemplation; chapters 18 and 19 spoke about love that comes as an inheritance from our forefathers, a natural love. And as is well known,

11:06 Speaker 1 the Rebbe points out in Likkutei Sichos that these are the two approaches the Alter Rebbe writes about on the title page of Tanya. The Alter Rebbe writes there that there are two ways of serving Hashem. He writes that the book comes “to explain clearly how it is very near, by a long and short way.” There are two ways to serve Hashem with one’s heart. Yes, to serve Hashem with the heart—and to do it in practice. There is a long way and a short way. The Rebbe explains what “a long way” and “a short way” mean. There are two explanations. One is that “long and short” describes a single way that is both long and short. That is one explanation. Another is that they are two ways: one long and the other short. What is the difference? The long way is the path of contemplation. That is what he discussed in chapter 17: the approach in which love comes through contemplation. You have to learn, reflect, and delve deeply until love awakens within you. That is called the long way. By contrast, the short way is what he explains in chapter 18: we inherited this love, so it is natural. Every Jew has it by nature; the whole task is to awaken it. That makes it a short way. It is short because the love is already there. You do not need to learn and contemplate in order to create it. It is already within you; you only need to bring it into practice, so that it finds expression in thought, speech, and action. That is the general distinction there, beginning in chapter 17. Yes. Now, regarding the hidden natural love, which is called the short way: there, the Alter Rebbe consistently calls it a natural love, a hidden natural love. The love he discusses there is a Jew’s essential bond with G-dliness. A Jew wants, in every

13:00 Speaker 1 situation, to be ready to give his life, and we see there that a Jew naturally wants to cleave to G-dliness. That love is called a hidden natural love. The Alter Rebbe also explained there why it is called natural: it is like the nature of a flame, which rises upward. Even though by rising upward it would cease to exist as a flame of the candle, it nevertheless wants to rise by its very nature. In the same way, a Jew naturally wants to connect with G-dliness. Now, what does the Alter Rebbe want to tell us here? Here, too, we are talking about that kind of love. The Alter Rebbe has also been speaking here about a love we inherited from our forefathers. So, seemingly, the love discussed here in chapter 44 belongs to the same family, the same kind of love he discussed in chapter 19—the hidden love. Why? Because this, too, is a love we have by nature, inherited from our forefathers. The love in chapter 19 is a Jew’s desire to cleave to G-dliness and not be separated from Hashem. It is a certain natural love inherited from our forefathers. This love of “For You are our Father,” and the love that comes from recognizing that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is our life, our soul—we inherited this love from our forefathers as well. Nevertheless, the Alter Rebbe says that this love is not always called a natural love. I will not always call it that. Why? Because sometimes contemplation is needed to awaken it. What distinguishes the love discussed here? On the one hand it is similar, and on the other hand it is different. The love of “For You are our Father” and the love that comes from recognizing Hashem as our very soul are similar to the love of chapter 19—the love described by “The soul of man is the lamp of Hashem,” in which a Jew does not want to be separated from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. They are alike in that both are inherited. On the other hand, there is a difference. The difference is that this love involves the intellect. It has explanations behind it. The love the Alter Rebbe discussed in chapter 19 is not connected to the intellect. On the contrary, it is not an intellectual matter. A Jew inherently wants to be one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, without any reasoning. As the Alter Rebbe says, even if that means he will cease to exist as a separate being, that is what he desires by nature. A Jew inherently wants to be one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He does not want to be separated from Him. That is not an intellectual matter at all. The love we are discussing here, by contrast, is essentially an intellectual love, because the idea of “my soul” calls for understanding. There is something to contemplate: What is a soul? What is life? And why is Hakadosh Boruch Hu the true source of life? You need to learn and contemplate that. So intellect is involved. The same applies to “For You are our Father” and the whole idea of the bond between a child and a father. There is something to contemplate intellectually: What does “our Father” mean, and why is Hakadosh Boruch Hu our true Father? It involves understanding. Therefore, although we inherited this love from our forefathers, we do not always call it a natural love, because awakening it requires intellectual explanation. So what does the Alter Rebbe explain here? There are two ways the love of “For You are our Father” and the love of “My soul yearns for You” can exist. One possibility is that a person learns and contemplates how Hakadosh Boruch Hu is his life. He contemplates “My soul yearns for You,” yet love does not awaken in his heart. It remains in his mind, and as for his heart, as we said earlier, it is only a matter of something reaching it here

14:54 Speaker 1 To be separate from Hashem. They are alike in that both are an inheritance. On the other hand, there is a difference: this love involves intellect; it has explanations behind it. The love the Alter Rebbe spoke about in chapter 19 has nothing to do with intellect. On the contrary, it is not a matter of intellect at all. A Jew, at his core, wants to be one with Hashem without any intellectual reasoning. As the Alter Rebbe says, even if that means he will cease to exist as a separate being—that is what he desires; it is his nature. A Jew, at his core, wants to be one with Hashem. He does not want to be separate from Hashem. It is not an intellectual matter at all. The love we are discussing here, by contrast, is essentially an intellectual love, because the idea of “my soul” involves understanding. There is something here for the mind to contemplate: What does “soul” mean? What is life? And why is Hashem the true source of life? That is something you need to study and contemplate. So intellect does play a role here. The same is true of “For You are our Father,” and the whole idea of the bond between a son and his father. There is something here for the mind to contemplate: What does “our Father” mean, and why is Hashem our true Father? This involves intellect. Therefore, although we have inherited this love from our forefathers, we would not always call it a natural love, because awakening it requires intellectual explanations. So what is the point? The Alter Rebbe explains here that the love of “For You are our Father” and the love of “My soul desires You” can arise in two ways. One possibility is that a person studies and contemplates how Hakadosh Boruch Hu is his soul. He contemplates the idea of “My soul desires You,” yet he still does not feel love awaken in his heart. It remains in his mind, and his heart, as we said earlier, only gets as far as this

16:46 Speaker 1 In practice, though, love and fear do not awaken in his heart; they remain hidden in the heart. That is one way. There is another way: you contemplate “My soul desires You” and “You are our Father,” and you feel it as an awakening in the heart, an open awakening. Those are the two ways. In the first, when it remains hidden in the heart, the Alter Rebbe says it is called natural love and fear. That is, apparently. By contrast, when it brings about an open feeling in the heart, it is called intellectual love and fear. This is the distinction the Alter Rebbe is now explaining in Tanya. Yes, that is what the Alter Rebbe is explaining in these lines: the difference between the awakening of “My soul desires You” and “You are our Father” when it remains hidden in the heart, and the awakening of “My soul desires You” when it becomes openly felt in the heart. Now let’s read it inside and see how the Alter Rebbe explains it clearly. The Alter Rebbe says: “Nevertheless”—I’m starting again here, six lines from the bottom—“they are called natural fear and love only when they are in his mind and hidden in his heart alone.” When is the love and fear of “For You are our Father” and “My soul desires You” called natural love and fear? When? When the understanding has not reached the heart; it remains up in the air. “Then their place is in the ten sefiros of Yetzirah.” So we say that the Torah and mitzvos rise only to the ten sefiros of Yetzirah. He says that the place of this love and fear is in the sefiros of Yetzirah, “and there they raise with them the Torah and mitzvos that come from them.” All the Torah and mitzvos a person does out of this love and fear rise to where? To the world of Yetzirah. Why? Because his love and fear have not become openly felt in his heart. His understanding has not brought that about; it has remained hidden in his heart. So the Torah and mitzvos rise

18:45 Speaker 1 only to the world of Yetzirah, which is where love and fear rise when they are natural love and fear. “But when they are openly felt in his heart”—if a person succeeds in awakening the good within us and the idea of “My soul desires You” in a way that awakens love and fear openly in his heart—“it is called re’usa d’liba.” That is what the Alter Rebbe calls it: re’usa d’liba, an awakening of the heart. His heart is aroused; this has had an open effect on his heart. Then the Alter Rebbe says: “And their place is in the ten sefiros of Beriah.” So the love and fear rise to the level of the sefiros of Beriah, “and there they raise with them the Torah and mitzvos that come from them.” Thus, all the Torah and mitzvos a person does through this love and fear, openly felt in the heart, reach the world of Beriah. Well, there is a lengthy explanation here of the difference between the sefiros of Yetzirah and the sefiros of Beriah, and why, when love and fear are only hidden in the heart, they reach only the world of Yetzirah, whereas when they are openly felt in the heart, they rise to the world of Beriah as well. The Alter Rebbe himself explains this later in the lesson. With Hashem’s help, we’ll cover it in the next lesson.

19:53 Speaker 2 Yes, listen.