Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 44 - Part 14

00:00 We’re at the end of the chapter, in the last lines of chapter 44. With Hashem’s help, today we’ll finish chapter 44 of Tanya. Especially since it’s the eve of 14 Nissan, it’s an auspicious time to finish chapter 44 of Tanya. So, we’re in the last lines of chapter 44. Last class, when quite a few of the bochurim were absent, we left off with the question the Alter Rebbe raises in the final part of the chapter. It’s not just a question about a point in chapter 44; it’s a general question that relates to the whole Tanya. What is the question? We say that every Jew has a love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu—a natural, essential love, inherited from Avraham Avinu. And that’s what the Alter Rebbe explained here in chapter 44 about the love of “My soul desires You” and the love of “a son who strives after his father.” These loves exist naturally in every Jew, because he is “a part of G-d above” and because of the inheritance from our forefathers. So the question is: Why do we also need intellectual love? Why does Tanya speak at all about the “long path,” about love that has to come through contemplation? After all, if we have a love that needs no contemplation, a love we possess naturally, isn’t it enough to awaken that natural love? It even has an advantage: since you have it by nature, you only need to reveal it and bring it out into the open. So why do we need intellectual love? For that, we have to study, work hard, and exert ourselves. What do we gain from it?

02:22 So here, at the end of the chapter, the Alter Rebbe explains that intellectual love has two advantages. In the previous class we learned one explanation. What was the first explanation? That intellectual love makes the bonfire of love grow, with fiery sparks, a powerful flame rising heavenward. Contemplation, specifically—intellectual love—is what makes that fire grow. We don’t want love to be only like water, only a cool love. We want it to be a flame, with fiery sparks and enthusiasm. For love to have that enthusiasm and fire, it has to come through intellectual love, through contemplation. We explained at length last time the difference between the love of a brother and sister, or two brothers, or a son and father—an essential love—and the love between a husband and wife. When love is the natural love between siblings, on the one hand it is an enduring love that does not change. On the other hand, it has no fiery sparks, no excitement. It is always the same; it is cool. By contrast, when love comes from contemplating the qualities of the person one loves—as with two friends, or people who are not essentially one—then, because that love is connected to recognizing the other person’s qualities and greatness, it arouses not a cool love but an emotional response, a love like fiery sparks. The same applies to love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. When that love is natural, because a Jew is “a part of G-d above,” or because of the love of “a son who strives after his father,” or because of “My soul desires You,” as we

04:29 are discussing in this chapter, on the one hand it has a tremendous quality, as the Rebbe has explained until now: how natural it is, and the quality of a love that is at the height of Atzilus. Nevertheless, it does not have the quality of fiery sparks. Because it is natural, part of his very being, it does not carry him beyond himself or take him beyond his limits. He remains within his bounds; he does not go beyond his own reality. That happens specifically with a love that comes from contemplating the wondrousness and exaltedness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That sense of wonder arouses in a person fiery passion, thirst, and a movement beyond his limits. So intellectual love has a special advantage, because it comes from recognizing the wondrousness and greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is the point the Alter Rebbe explains here. He says that the advantage of this fiery love is “like the superiority and advantage of gold over silver, etc., as will be explained later.” What is the advantage of gold over silver? He says, “as will be explained later.” Where is that? In chapter 50, where the Alter Rebbe also explains the advantage of gold over silver. But what is the point in connection with what he says here? What is gold’s advantage over silver, and how does it explain the advantage of this love—the love that comes through contemplating the wondrousness and exaltedness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu? How is that connected to gold? What do we see in gold and silver? What advantage does gold have over silver? Simply speaking, what

06:32 is gold’s advantage over silver? Gold is worth more; it’s more expensive. That’s true in practice, but it’s not the point. That’s only a matter of price. Sometimes prices change: silver goes up, and gold goes down. We’ve seen major changes in recent years. For a few years, gold fell sharply; then there was a period when silver went up. These things change. Of course, gold is generally worth more than silver, but that’s not the point. Gold has a special quality. As explained in Chassidus, based on what our Sages say: “The world was not worthy of using gold.” That is what our Sages say—the world was not worthy of gold. “It was created only for the Beis Hamikdash.” From this teaching of our Sages, we see that gold is something essentially above the world. “The world was not worthy of gold.” That is said specifically about gold, not about silver, copper, or iron. Gold is a creation that is essentially above the world. Its novelty is that it is a created thing, yet the world was not worthy of it. So why was it created? For the Beis Hamikdash. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted there to be a Beis Hamikdash, and certain parts of the Beis Hamikdash required gold. So Hakadosh Boruch Hu created within the world something above the world: gold. A book says something interesting about this. I don’t know exactly; I don’t know much about jewelry and all these things, or about gold

08:42 and so on. But the book says that this is how it is: gold has a certain effect on a person. When someone looks at gold, it catches the eye in a special way, unlike other minerals. Its color catches the eye. It has a shine, a special brilliance that gives a person a particular spark. That’s how it is. I don’t know who can measure that. I don’t really have a feel for these things; I don’t know much about them. But at home, they generally understand jewelry better. They know better how it works. In any case, the book says that gold arouses excitement and fascination. You look at it, and it has that shine, that sparkle that arouses a special excitement. This is connected to gold being something above the world, not an ordinary thing. Why, fundamentally, is gold more expensive? This is the answer: it has to do with gold being something different in its very nature. So we can understand why he uses the analogy of gold’s advantage over silver. That advantage is not merely a matter of exchange value—this is worth a hundred dollars and that is worth ten, or a million or ten thousand, whatever the exchange value may be. It is a difference in their very nature. Gold is something more elevated, and therefore it arouses a special excitement. That is why they say that gold was created only for the Beis Hamikdash, and that the world was not worthy of it. This difference also applies to love: the love connected with the idea of

10:46 The greatness of sovev kol almin—contemplating the greatness of sovev kol almin produces a different kind of love. It is a love that produces fiery flames. What are fiery flames? They are a special kind of fervor, a person going beyond his own reality. When the love is natural, a love like water, a person remains within his own reality. It is a cool love; he does not go beyond himself. By contrast, contemplating the greatness of sovev kol almin, and even reflecting on how removed He is from the world, causes a person to rise up like fiery flames. It is a special kind of love, a love that comes in a surge. Now, another difference between gold and silver is their color. Silver is the color of water, while gold is the color of fire—its physical color. Today they make white gold. There is such a kind of gold, and it is becoming more and more common, but that is not the original. Everyone knows that the original color of gold is not like the color of silver. Silver is whitish, like water, while gold has a color like fire. This relates to what we are discussing here, the idea of water and fire. The love associated with silver is a love like water, a cool love. That is why its color, too, is associated with water. It is associated with the attribute of chesed. By contrast, the love of fiery flames is the love associated with gold. That is why, even physically, the color of gold is associated with fire, and with the attribute of gevurah. It therefore brings about gevurah, which involves challenges and trials. In any case, this is what the Alter Rebbe is saying here. This is one explanation of why there need to be trials and [unclear]. Love,

12:51 love—ahavas olam. Why? Because it arouses a love like fiery flames, and that has a special advantage: “Many waters cannot quench it.” The Alter Rebbe continues and says that there is another advantage, another special advantage found specifically in ahavas olam, a love reached through contemplation. The Alter Rebbe says: “And also because this is the whole purpose of man.” This contemplation of Hashem’s greatness—particularly His greatness in relation to the world—is, the Alter Rebbe says, something very fundamental. It is the whole purpose of man. This is what a person’s entire existence is for. This is why a person was created, and it is his purpose. The purpose of creating a person in this world is “to know the glory of Hashem and the precious splendor of His greatness.” The entire purpose of a person in this world, and the entire purpose of creation, is for a person to know the glory of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, to contemplate His splendor and greatness. That is the idea of ahavas olam: contemplating the greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the precious splendor of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “Each person according to his capacity.” There are different levels. Each person, according to his abilities and faculties, must study and contemplate His greatness. For this is the purpose of all creation; this is why a person was created. As it says in Raaya Mehemna, “To glorify his Master, so that they may know Him,” and so on, as mentioned above. The Raaya Mehemna in the Zohar asks: Why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu create the world? And why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu create a Jew—create the soul and bring it down into the world? The Zohar says that the entire purpose of creation is “so that they may know Him.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted a person to recognize and know Him. That is also why He created a world and created beings. This is also expressed

15:00 in another way. It is also written in Patach Eliyahu, which is recited on Erev Shabbos. It says there that Hakadosh Boruch Hu created heaven and earth, the stars, the moon, the sun, and all the beings He created, “so that they may know Him”—to make His G-dliness known. In other words, the whole purpose for which Hakadosh Boruch Hu created a person in the world is that, by looking at creation, all its beings, and the world, the person should come to recognize and know His greatness. That is the entire purpose of creation: “so that they may know Him.” So this is another explanation of why there must be contemplation of the world and of His greatness as it is expressed in the world: because that is the purpose of creation, “so that they may know Him.” Therefore, if a person has love of Hashem because he has a soul, “a part of G-d above,” and he arouses his essential love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu; or if he contemplates the idea of “My soul desires You,” a love arising from “My soul desires You”; or if he contemplates the idea of “our Father”—then, despite all the advantages we discussed earlier in ahavah zuta, he has still not fulfilled the purpose for which he was created. He may have a tremendous love—and not just a tremendous love, but an extraordinarily lofty love. It is an essential love, and it also has the advantage of ahavah rabbah. It has all sorts of advantages that we discussed earlier. But it lacks the main advantage for which a person was created: that people should come to know Him. Essential love is not connected with knowledge, with knowing His greatness. The idea of “My soul” and the idea of “our Father” are also not connected with specific knowledge of His greatness, so he has not fulfilled the purpose for which he was created. The purpose of creation is for a person to know and recognize Hakadosh Boruch Hu, for a person to contemplate His greatness—to come to know Him. And that can be accomplished specifically through

16:50 studying Torah and Chassidus and through avodah: contemplating His greatness as it is expressed in the world. That is the idea of ahavas olam. This is another explanation of its special advantage, and of why the Alter Rebbe insists on it. We asked in the previous class: Why does the Alter Rebbe insist on taking the long way? Why is the short way not enough? Why must it specifically be the long way? The explanation is that contemplating His greatness fulfills the purpose for which the world was created: that people should come to know Him. So these are the two explanations. One concerns the love itself. What is the difference between the two explanations the Alter Rebbe gives here for why ahavas olam is necessary? One concerns the love itself: ahavas olam has an advantage because it has fiery flames, fervor, passion—a special fire that can lead as far as mesiras nefesh. That is one explanation. And what is the second explanation about? Not the love, but the knowledge of Hashem that leads to it. Coming to know Him through ahavas olam fulfills the purpose of the world’s creation: “so that they may know Him.” Now, everyone already knows from the maamarim that there are several explanations of the purpose of creation. Earlier in Tanya, in chapter 36, the Alter Rebbe himself said that the purpose of creation is not that people should come to know Him. Rather, Hakadosh Boruch Hu desired to have a dwelling place in the lower realms. That is the well-known explanation brought in all the maamarim, and the Alter Rebbe also brought it earlier, in Tanya chapter 36: the idea that He desired to have a dwelling place in the lower realms. Yet here the Alter Rebbe says that the purpose of creation is for people to come to know Him. That is a different explanation. It is not about a dwelling place in the lower realms; it is something else entirely. This is a well-known question, mentioned in a number of maamarim, including at the beginning of Hemshech 5664.

18:37 And it is also mentioned in the sicha on [?] Parshas Shemos. Perhaps some of the bochurim learned it in the sicha in Likkutei Sichos, volume 13, on Shemos. There the Rebbe explains at length that there are several reasons for creation, and that they do not contradict one another. There are reasons from the perspective of the revelations, and there is the matter from the perspective of the Essence, not the revelations—the Essence. And in the maamar Basi Legani that we studied last year, Basi Legani 5731, the Rebbe also explained at length how the two explanations do not contradict one another. Rather, one completes the other, and both are needed. In any case, here the Alter Rebbe emphasizes understanding: that is the purpose of the creation of the world. So there must be the study of Chassidus, as we explained, and understanding as well. And in the Shulchan Aruch we are learning this point now, as we approach 24 Teves. We are right on the eve of 24 Teves—tomorrow night, Thursday, Wednesday night. Not tomorrow night. Wednesday night begins 24 Teves, Thursday, the Alter Rebbe’s yahrzeit. And we all know that this was the Alter Rebbe’s work throughout his life, and this was his innovation. That is why the Alter Rebbe writes it here; this was the Alter Rebbe’s strength. It was his innovation, and it was the point of disagreement about the Alter Rebbe. His innovation, compared with the other students of the Maggid, was that the Alter Rebbe revealed the path of avodah and understanding of the greatness of the Creator. That is the approach of Chabad Chassidus: it asks a person to study and know about the greatness of the Creator. So aside from the goal of arousing love and awe, the learning itself has a purpose. People often ask—bochurim ask—what is the purpose of studying lofty concepts in Chassidus: the higher and lower perspectives, the reshimu, the kav,

20:22 what was before the tzimtzum and what came after the tzimtzum, and all sorts of levels and matters of G-dliness along those lines? What does that have to do with my life? How will it help me be a better professor, or a better person? Or at least a better layman, a better shliach, more connected to the Rebbe? These subjects don’t seem connected to my life. What is the purpose of studying intellectual concepts, matters concerning the higher worlds? Why is it important in my life? So here the Alter Rebbe answers that question for us. On the one hand, it is true that part of the intention is to arouse love of Hashem and awe of Hashem through study. As the Rambam writes, as the Alter Rebbe writes, and as the Baal Shem Tov writes, study leads to love. Through “Hear, O Israel” comes “And you shall love”: when a person contemplates the greatness of the Creator, it arouses love and awe within him. But there is also a purpose in its own right. As the Rebbe writes here, it is a purpose—an entire purpose. There is a particular goal, a particular purpose, in the very act of studying and knowing the greatness of the Creator. The study and knowledge of the Creator’s greatness are themselves the purpose of creation. A person fulfills the purpose of creation by knowing about Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This is also connected with a story we mentioned. They relate—yes, it makes the point—that someone asked the Rebbe why he sometimes speaks about such lofty matters, which are not relevant to every individual. What is the purpose of learning the order of these matters? [unclear] So the Rebbe said that it is written that when Moshiach comes, “I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu will remove our heart of stone for us. But it does not say that He will remove a “brain of stone.” It does not say that. So we see that each person has to remove his own brain of stone, and that is what studying Chassidus is about. At least our minds should not be like stone. We should know the concepts of Chassidus and know the order of hishtalshelus. Know ... and know all the concepts of Chassidus, even if it does not reach the heart. The very understanding is itself a goal in its own right. Especially as the Rebbe says, this is the purpose of creation, and that should give us strength in studying Chassidus. Especially now, as we approach 24 Teves, we need to rouse ourselves to strengthen our study of Chassidus, in avodah ... and in diligent study of Chabad Chassidus itself.

22:09 And Hakadosh Boruch Hu will remove it for us. But it does not say that He will remove a brain of stone. It does not say that. So we see that each person has to remove his own brain of stone, and that is what studying Chassidus is about. At least our minds should not be like stone. We should know the concepts of Chassidus and know the order of hishtalshelus. Know [unclear]. Know about [unclear], and know all the concepts of Chassidus, even if it does not reach the heart. The very understanding is itself a goal in its own right. Especially as the Rebbe says, this is the purpose of creation, and that should give us strength in studying Chassidus. Especially now, as we approach 24 Teves, we need to rouse ourselves to strengthen our study of Chassidus, in avodah [unclear], and in diligent study of Chabad Chassidus itself.