Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 46 - Part 1

00:00 Speaker 1 Yes, today we’re starting a new chapter, chapter 46. Chapter 46 begins not only a new chapter but a new topic as well. In this next chapter of Tanya, the Alter Rebbe begins discussing a new way to awaken love for Hashem, called “love like water reflects a face.” That is the name of this love: love like water reflects a face. It is a special kind of love, and later in the chapter we’ll see how this love in particular differs from all the levels of love we’ve studied in the chapters up to now—chapters 41, 42, 43, 44, and 45. Here the Alter Rebbe begins with a new approach, a new kind of love. As he will show, this love is far more accessible to every single person than all the kinds of love we’ve discussed so far. This chapter—this topic of love like water reflects a face—begins in chapter 46 and continues over four chapters: 46, 47, 48, and 49. In these next four chapters, the Alter Rebbe will explain how to reach, awaken, and bring about this love within ourselves. By hashgachah pratis—hashgachah pratis—we’re beginning our lesson on chapter 46 just as the daily Tanya study in Chitas begins it. Tomorrow morning, the Chitas for—what day is it? Was today the 8th?

01:58 Speaker 2 The 8th. Tomorrow is the 9th.

02:01 Speaker 1 Tomorrow is the 9th. The Chitas for 9 Iyar begins chapter 46, and this section continues for about two weeks. In the daily Chitas study, we’ll be learning it until a day or two after Lag BaOmer, something like that. So we’ll be studying this topic of “like water reflects a face.” In our yeshivah Tanya class, it will probably take a little longer than two weeks. But you’ll be learning it in Chitas over the coming days, so it will be easier to understand the points as we study Tanya here. Through the daily Chitas study, you’ll know the overall course of the topic. Before we go into the chapter, I wanted to speak about something else, and then we’ll continue inside Tanya. It isn’t connected to the chapter, but it is connected to matters here in the yeshivah, and it needs to be addressed. So I’ll pause for a bit, and afterward we can study the chapter inside. This concerns something that happened here on Shabbos, which I need to address and protest publicly. That is the fact that several bochurim went far beyond the limit when it came to mashke, to an astonishing degree—one could call it sheer recklessness. I know not all of them were bochurim from the zal; there were other bochurim there too. But the details don’t matter. What matters is that if we stay silent and don’t talk about it, some people will think that this is what Chassidishkeit is, that this is the accepted practice and that it’s a good thing. They’ll think that the person who can drink more, get drunker, and create more upheaval is considered a greater chossid. Obviously, that’s nonsense. But as you know, we’ve spoken about this several times. You know what chassidim say about how the idolatry of Peor came about:

04:01 Speaker 1 It wasn’t that people set out to do those filthy things before an idol. They made idols, and the question is asked: How could those idols have become an object of worship? The answer given is that it didn’t begin with the idols. It began with a grandfather who would meditate and become so absorbed, to the point of being overcome with longing, that he no longer felt what was happening to his body. Such a thing can happen in idolatrous practice: a person meditates and rises through spiritual levels, forgetting about his body, and then his body might soil his pants without him feeling it because of the state he is in. Right? Then his son or grandson and his students came along and saw their teacher soiling his pants. They understood that this must surely be what they were supposed to do, and eventually that became the goal, the main point. Something similar, though of course the two are worlds apart, can happen with the ways of Chassidus. Sometimes people take something that is secondary to the essence of Chassidus—something external, though it does have its place—and turn that external thing into the main point. Then they get the whole thing wrong and can only cause harm. This finds expression in a number of ways. Of course, in the ways of Chassidus there was the practice of Reb Alter, Reb Shimon, and the Rebbe, and this is how chassidim conducted themselves: when chassidim got together, there is the principle that drinking together brings people close. They say l’chaim together and drink a little vodka, a little mashke, to awaken the heart, awaken joy, and bring down the barriers between them. But of course, the l’chaim was entirely secondary, and it was kept very limited. You drink only what is needed to awaken the heart and bring joy, so that a person can be uplifted a little. But when it turns into a situation where someone who doesn’t drink is considered not Chassidish, and one person pressures another, saying, “What, you won’t say l’chaim?” and gives him noch a glezele, another little glass, thinking that this

05:59 Speaker 1 is the height of his Chassidishkeit—that he knows how to pour into glasses and push a drink on someone—and that otherwise the person is a balabus, not a young bochur, not a chossid at all, and so on and so forth—I don’t need to go on about it. These things are obvious. Whether you like it or not, that is not Chassidus. That is not the point. The Rebbe spoke out strongly against this at many farbrengens even before the restriction. The Frierdiker Rebbe spoke about it in Likkutei Dibburim and in several sichos. The Frierdiker Rebbe says that drinking mashke is something chassidim find repugnant. So why do it at all? For a particular purpose, just as certain things were permitted when there was a need, this too was permitted—but only during a farbrengen, and only in a limited amount. It must never, G-d forbid, be made the main thing. Then there is the Rebbe’s takanah: the Rebbe instituted that one should not drink more than four small cups—not full-sized cups. This is a takanah of the Rebbe, which the Rebbe repeated many times, pleading and asking people to keep it. So of course we have to observe it. It isn’t a joke or a game. Beyond that, there is the issue of chillul Hashem. That is another matter, and in our generation we can clearly see the damage caused when, G-d forbid, people aren’t careful about it. One of the things we can plainly see in our generation is that great care is needed. We find ourselves in places where there are other Jews—baalei teshuvah, people becoming close to Yiddishkeit, people who don’t understand all the upheavals and things like that. We have to be very careful not to cause a chillul Hashem and drive Jews away from Chassidus and Yiddishkeit through such behavior. It can take the form of drinking mashke beyond the limits, or davening late for no particular reason, or any number of similar things. A person needs

07:50 Speaker 1 to know that great care is required here. You want to daven? If you got up early, learned, and davened, and you ended up finishing late, that’s one thing. Of course, that won’t cause any chillul Hashem. We don’t need to stop observing the customs of chassidim. On the contrary, we should be proud of the teachings of Chassidus. But when it’s an attitude of recklessness, when someone sees that you’ve only just gotten up, your eyes are still sticky from sleep, and now it’s afternoon and you’re davening—that is a chillul Hashem and a desecration of the ways of Chassidus. The same applies to drinking mashke without limits. What happened this Shabbos made this very clear: it caused an actual chillul Hashem in the eyes of a number of people, because several bochurim were behaving that way outside the yeshivah too, and they caused a major chillul Hashem. The details of the story don’t matter; that isn’t what we’re discussing now. What matters is that we need to know that these things are the opposite of Chassidus, the opposite of its intent, and the opposite of Chassidishkeit. It is plain recklessness. We need to call things by their names: it is recklessness for its own sake. The only thing Chassidus is doing here is serving as an excuse for recklessness. And on a related note, that brings me to the mashke people drink on Friday afternoon, which we already discussed once at a farbrengen. It helped a number of bochurim; I saw that it did help. But I see that some still think there is some special holiness to it, that it is Torah from Sinai and that, for some reason, they have to give their lives for it. So in any case, I’m saying it again. We discussed this a few months ago at a farbrengen—I don’t remember when—and I’m repeating it now. Perhaps some people didn’t hear it. So I’m making it known. First of all,

09:35 Speaker 1 We need to know that this has no place anywhere. It has no place in the ways of chassidim. No, this was never a chassidic custom. I know a few stories about chassidim. I also grew up among chassidim. I didn’t come out of nowhere. I know a little about Chabad history. There was never such a custom; we never saw it or heard of it—not among us, not among our fathers, not among our forefathers. Among our Rebbeim, there was never a practice of drinking mashke before sunset on Friday. This is a new, crazy, strange practice. I don’t know who first started doing it, and suddenly it has become a matter of chassidishkeit and all that. So we need to know that it has no place. There are also halachic questions about whether it is permissible at all. And beyond that, the main point is that it is sheer recklessness, sheer wildness. There is no substance to it. You hold a farbrengen when it is time to hold a farbrengen—on Shabbos or at night, at normal times and on appropriate occasions. But to sit down before Shabbos and hold a farbrengen—all these things are done only when circumstances call for it, generally on special occasions, like a wedding or Simchas Beis Hashoevah. It is not something you do routinely. It is a foolish practice, and it needs to be stopped completely. Besides, we can see plainly that it serves only as an excuse for recklessness, so it is certainly the complete opposite of what it should be. In any case, along these lines there are a few other details we really should discuss—practices that take root. Sometimes someone does something, and then it takes root and becomes “chassidish.” I once even heard that some bochurim were arguing over whether eating cholent on Shabbos morning before davening is a chassidish practice. One of them argued that eating cholent before davening is the chassidish thing to do. As though misnagdim don’t eat cholent before davening, but a chossid certainly has to. Otherwise, apparently that’s the whole difference between a chossid and a misnaged: a misnaged davens first, makes Kiddush, and then eats cholent; a chossid gets up in the morning and immediately eats cholent. So now that, too, has become a chassidic custom. Soon enough, someone will find a source for it as well. No, it is the very opposite of what it should be. From the standpoint of Chassidus, it is completely wrong, because it is obvious that eating cholent before davening does not help you understand the davening afterward. I’m sure of that. It only makes things worse: your stomach is full and you feel like going to sleep. And the cholent you ate will certainly help you daven with more kavanah! Fine, if someone eats a little mezonos and drinks some coffee, that is one thing. But eating cholent before davening—apart from the coarseness of it, because he can’t restrain himself, the smell of the cholent reaches his nose, and he simply has to have some—there is no hiddur in this, no matter of... These are simple things, but as we were saying, when nobody talks about them, they suddenly turn into a way of doing things. You already hear bochurim making an issue of it. So it is worth mentioning. I hope we won’t have to discuss it again. These are simple things. May Hashem help us bring the Rebbe nachas, and may our conduct be as it should be, in a way that brings the Rebbe nachas. Chapter 46. “There is a straightforward path for a person,” and here the Alter Rebbe presents another path, which he will now begin to explain. “There is a straightforward path for a person, equally suited to every soul, and the matter is very, very close.”

11:16 Speaker 1 Here the Alter Rebbe introduces something remarkable. The words “the matter is very close” are the words of the entire Tanya. They are the foundation of the Tanya, its gateway. The Alter Rebbe cited the verse, “For the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.” The entire Tanya comes to explain how it is very close. Here the Alter Rebbe writes, “and the matter is very, very close.” A remarkable innovation. That means the subject we are about to explain, this path in serving Hashem that we are about to discuss, is not merely very close; it is very, very close. The “very” is doubled. Why is it doubled? We’ll explain shortly. First, let’s read a few lines inside: “To awaken and illuminate the light of the love implanted and concealed in his heart, so that it shines with the full force of its light, like a blazing fire, revealed in his heart and mind.” A Jew’s love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu is implanted and concealed, hidden in the heart. The goal is for it to emerge from concealment into revelation and shine with the full force of its light. And not only that. The Alter Rebbe adds: “like a blazing fire, revealed in his heart and mind.” The love should emerge and reveal itself in him with flames of fire, with a feeling of... Because love can take several forms. We said earlier that there is love like water and love like fire. There is cool love and warm love, different kinds of love. Here the Alter Rebbe is explaining how a Jew can awaken not just love, but love that is like fire, revealed in his heart and mind, “to give over his soul to Hashem, and his body and his all.” To give himself over to Hakadosh Boruch Hu—his soul, his body, and his all—“with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might.” This is the wording of Shema that we say: “And you shall love Hashem your G-d with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.” Now, when studying Chassidus in maamarim and other places,

13:06 Speaker 1 we see that there is a kind of contemplation that awakens the love of “with all your soul.” There is a kind of contemplation that awakens the love of “with all your heart.” First there is “with all your heart,” then “with all your soul,” and then “with all your might.” These are three kinds of love, brought out through three different kinds of contemplation. Here the Alter Rebbe says that the contemplation we are about to study—the contemplation of “as water reflects a face to a face,” which we will study now—awakens love in all three forms. It brings about love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu “with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might”: “with all your heart,” “with all your soul,” and “with all your might.” “From the depths of the heart, in the truest sense, especially at the time of reciting Shema and davening, as will be explained.” A person can awaken this love from the depths of the heart, in the most genuine, innermost way. The Alter Rebbe writes, “especially at the time of reciting Shema.” That means, in general, you can do this twenty-four hours a day. Yes. In other words, the point we are about to learn is not specifically connected to Shema. You can think about it at any moment of the day. If you contemplate the idea of “as water reflects a face to a face,” which we will learn in these chapters, you can awaken this love at any time. But there is a particular time when it is easier and especially conducive to it—because of the nature of that time and because this is what we speak about when reciting Shema. At that time, you can awaken this love to a much greater degree, as will be explained. “As will be explained” refers to chapter 49. In chapter 49, the Alter Rebbe will explain how the blessings before Shema and Shema itself contain the entire idea of love that is “as water reflects a face to a face.” The Alter Rebbe will explain in chapter 49 how the entire content of the blessings before Shema and Shema itself, which we say every day, if you contemplate their words and their meaning,

15:20 Speaker 1 So we see that one kind of contemplation awakens the love of “with all your soul,” while another kind awakens the love of “with all your heart.” First there is “with all your heart,” then “with all your soul,” and then “with all your might.” These are three kinds of love that are revealed through three different kinds of contemplation. Here the Alter Rebbe says that the contemplation we are about to learn—the contemplation of “as water reflects a face,” which we will study now—awakens love in all three forms. It brings about love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu “with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.” It is love from the depths of the heart, in the truest sense, particularly during the recitation of Shema and davening, as will be explained. A person can awaken this love from deep within the heart, in the most genuine, most inward way. The Alter Rebbe writes “particularly during the recitation of Shema.” That means that, in general, you can do this twenty-four hours a day. Yes. In other words, the point we are about to learn is not specifically tied to the recitation of Shema. Shema is a particular time for it, but you can think about this at any moment of the day. Contemplate the idea of “as water reflects a face” that we will learn in these chapters. So this is something through which you can awaken love at any time. But there is a particular time when it is easier and especially conducive to it. It is more suited to that time itself and to what we speak about during the recitation of Shema; together, these make it possible to awaken this love to a much greater degree, as will be explained. “As will be explained” refers to chapter 49. In chapter 49, the Alter Rebbe will explain how the blessings before Shema and Shema itself contain the entire theme of the love of “as water reflects a face.” The Alter Rebbe will explain in chapter 49 how all the content of the blessings before Shema and of Shema, which we say every day—if you contemplate their words and their meaning,

17:17 Speaker 1 So you’ll see that all the blessings of Krias Shema, and Krias Shema itself, speak about the point of “as water reflects a face to a face.” Now, what does the Alter Rebbe say here? That what we’re going to learn in this chapter is a special kind of love, and this love, the Alter Rebbe says, is very, very accessible to every person in every generation. We asked why the Alter Rebbe uses the expression “very, very” here—why repeat “very” twice? Why is this love not just “very” accessible, but “very, very” accessible? That’s one question. A second question we need to understand as we come to this chapter is one that was asked of the Rebbe when the Tanya classes were being prepared. Thanks to those Tanya classes, we merited wonderful explanations. The Rebbe revealed remarkable insights into the plain meaning of Tanya. There were many questions people would ask the Rebbe, and the Rebbe would answer. Sometimes the Rebbe himself would write an interpretation or add an explanation, but often someone would ask a question and the Rebbe would answer it. Through that, we gained an understanding of fundamental points in Tanya. So here, Reb Weinberg, who merited to give those classes on the radio, asked a question. Every week he would submit that week’s class to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe would respond. In any case, he asked the Rebbe a simple question: At first glance, the order in Tanya is hard to understand. Why did the Alter Rebbe put chapter 45 before chapter 46? What was the love we learned about in chapter 45? The love connected with Yaakov, the attribute of compassion. What happens in chapter 46? The Alter Rebbe returns to love itself. In chapters 43 and 44, the Alter Rebbe spoke about love—love like fire, love like water, ahavah rabbah and ahavah zuta. He spoke about all

19:14 Speaker 1 kinds of love. So the Alter Rebbe should first have finished discussing all the levels of love, and only afterward said that there is another attribute: compassion, the attribute of Yaakov. Service that comes from the attribute of compassion is a third attribute, a different one. The Alter Rebbe should have written about that after completing his explanation of love. So the order here is hard to understand. First the Alter Rebbe discussed love like fire, love like water, ahavah rabbah and ahavah zuta. Then he suddenly discussed Yaakov, the attribute of compassion. In chapter 46 he goes back to speaking about love. That is the question they asked the Rebbe: the order of the chapters in Tanya is hard to understand. The Rebbe gave a wonderful explanation that answers both questions. It explains the order in Tanya and also why the Alter Rebbe describes this love as so very, very accessible. The Rebbe explains it this way. This will really be the foundation for understanding what is new in these chapters, which the Alter Rebbe is about to explain. The Rebbe explains that the love we’re about to learn about, “as water reflects a face to a face,” is a new kind of love. It works in the opposite way from all the loves the Alter Rebbe has discussed. It isn’t merely another explanation or level of love. The way to arrive at this love is the opposite of everything we’ve learned until now. Why? The Rebbe says this: Generally, for a person to awaken love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, what does he need? He needs to contemplate. It doesn’t happen on its own. Whatever love you want to awaken—whether ahavah rabbah,

21:00 Speaker 1 ahavah zuta, love like fire or love like water, love of this world, ahavah rabbah—all the kinds of love we learned about earlier, including the love of “our life” and “our Father”—a person needs to contemplate in order to awaken that love. The more refined a person is, the more capable he is of contemplation, and consequently, the more capable he is of feeling love. Of course, someone who is more sensitive, more refined, more eidel, less coarse—as Chassidus famously quotes from Chovos Halevavos, fire and water cannot occupy the same vessel. If you put fire and water together in one vessel, it won’t work. In the same way, love of Hashem and love of this world cannot be in the same heart. So a person who has even a little love of this world—who loves this world, loves material things—will find it very difficult to reach love of Hashem. It takes work. Thus, the more refined a person is, the more capable he is of contemplation and of feeling this emotion, and then love awakens within him. But what did the Alter Rebbe introduce in the earlier chapters, for example in chapter 44? He introduced a kind of contemplation that even someone who isn’t on a high level can reach. Take, for example, the love of “our soul, our life”: Hakadosh Boruch Hu is our true life. The Alter Rebbe’s innovation was to say that this is accessible to every person. What does that mean? Really, this belongs to high levels. Who can feel that G-dliness is his life? A person on a high level feels that G-dliness is his life. An ordinary person feels that life is eating pizza. The Alter Rebbe comes and teaches that even someone who isn’t on a high level can contemplate the love of Hashem as “our life,”

22:51 Speaker 1 because there are explanations that can help him do so; and the same applies to love arising from “our Father.” So the innovation is that even if you’re on a low level, you can reach it too. But fundamentally, it belongs to a refined, sensitive person. The love we’re learning about now, in chapter 46, is something entirely new. Here it works the other way around. With this love, on the contrary, the coarser a person is, the lower his level and the poorer his spiritual state, the easier it is for him to awaken it—to feel the love of “as water reflects a face to a face.” Not only do you not need to be on a high level; on the contrary, the lower you feel yourself to be, the more you can be stirred to this love. Why? Because the whole basis of “as water reflects a face to a face” is that even I, a coarse person sunk to the lowest levels, in the garbage, as the Alter Rebbe is going to say—even so, Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s love is so great that He descends to that place, to that person, and takes him out of there. And so, “as water reflects a face to a face,” it awakens love within me. On the contrary, the lower and coarser a person is, the more capable he is of awakening this love. So this love works in precisely the opposite psychological direction from everything we’ve learned—a completely different approach from what we learned before, sorry, from what we’ve learned now. That is why the Alter Rebbe separated it out. First the Alter Rebbe discussed all the kinds of love for which you have to be something, to be at some level. You have to have something to you. Yes. So the Alter Rebbe discussed all sorts of love that require a bit of work. They require

24:43 Speaker 1 awakening. And that is why the Alter Rebbe also brought in the attribute of Yaakov, because awakening great compassion also takes something. It’s true that someone on a low level can also awaken great compassion, but it doesn’t work the other way around: a person on a higher level feels the compassion more keenly, though someone on a low level can awaken it too. But here, in chapter 46, a new kind of love begins. Precisely someone on a low level can feel “as water reflects a face to a face.” That is why the Alter Rebbe writes that this love is “very, very” close. Why? Because, as you’ll see, it is something that belongs to every single person. As the Alter Rebbe is about to say, it is accessible to every person. It’s natural. Anyone can understand it. You don’t need to be a great scholar to understand the idea, so that already makes it “very” close. But there’s more: not just “very,” but “very, very.” Why the second “very”? Because the more a person feels his own lowliness, the easier it is for him to awaken this kind of love. The Rebbe brings this point here to explain it. I’ve already told you the story we learned in chapter 45, about Reb Mottel Yoel Duchman, a chossid of the Tzemach Tzedek. He said that chapter 46 really should have begun without a connecting “and.” Since it introduces a new path in serving Hashem, it should have begun without that “and.” The Alter Rebbe should have started: “There is a straight path before a person.” That is how the Alter Rebbe intended to begin chapter 46: “There is a straight path before a person,” because this is an entirely new path. Why did he add

26:26 Speaker 1 A vav? Because the Alter Rebbe did not want to begin with the word “yesh.” Yesh is associated with kelipah; it is something external, something undesirable. So the Alter Rebbe added a vav so it would not begin with the word “yesh.” That’s how Reb Yoel puts it. I once told you, when we studied chapter 45, that we find this there too. But in practical terms, we understand here that the point of chapter 46—which the Alter Rebbe will discuss at length—is that this is a new path in serving Hashem. On the contrary, the lower a person is, the easier it is for him to attain it. And that also answers the question. There was a third question they asked the Rebbe: Why does the Alter Rebbe write that this matter is “very, very close”? You can see it plainly: the Alter Rebbe discusses it over four chapters. When you first learn it, you keep thinking this is going to be something very easy. Yet, seemingly, he takes four chapters to explain this love. The Alter Rebbe discussed ahavah rabbah for a quarter of a chapter. He discussed the love of “our life” for a third of a chapter, and the love of “our Father”—yes, the love of abundant compassion—for one chapter. It is specifically this love, which he says is very, very close and accessible to every person, that he discusses for four chapters, at greater length. So that was a question they asked the Rebbe, and it too needs an explanation. The Rebbe explained this point and several others. With Hashem’s help, as we continue through the chapter, we will understand more about the particular advantage of this love.