Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 46 - Part 3

00:00 Speaker 1 Once again, from the beginning of the discussion here, the beginning of the explanation. It’s on page 65, chapter 46, line four, [unclear] after the period: “And this is when he takes to heart.” We’re talking here about the love that the Alter Rebbe says is accessible to everyone, and that attaining it is very, very close at hand. In other words, the Alter Rebbe is explaining a particular kind of love that anyone can attain—and not only that, but it is very, very close at hand. Here the Alter Rebbe begins to explain what this love is and how to reach it. As it says: “And this is when he takes to heart what is written: ‘As water reflects a face to a face, so does one person’s heart reflect another’s.’” How do we reach this love? By taking this to heart. In other words, a person thinks about it, pays attention to it. Think about what it says: “As water reflects a face to a face, so does one person’s heart reflect another’s.” Just as water reflects a person’s face, the same is true of one person’s heart toward another. “Meaning,” the Alter Rebbe explains, “just as the likeness and form of the face that a person shows in the water appears to him there in the water in that very same form.” The same expression you show the water is the one you see. When a person looks, the water shows him that same face in return. So too, “the same is true of one person’s heart toward another who is faithful in his love for him.” This also applies to one person in relation to another: he shows another person love with loyalty, genuine love. “This love arouses love for him in the heart of his friend as well.” So the love Reuven shows Shimon naturally arouses love for Reuven in Shimon. “So that they, too, become faithful friends to one another”—so that Reuven and Shimon love each other faithfully. Especially

02:52 Speaker 1 “when he sees his friend’s love for him.” When is this even stronger, more apparent? When he shows him his love for Shimon. Especially when he shows him that love, shows him that he has genuine love. Then it happens naturally. Just as water reflects a face—when a person sees his face in the water, there’s a reflection of his face there—the same applies to one person’s heart toward another. The love Reuven shows Shimon is reflected back to him, and that love makes them faithful friends. As we explained in the previous class, when we learned this passage, this is the Alter Rebbe’s innovation. The Alter Rebbe adds the word “meaning.” That is, there is the plain meaning, and the Alter Rebbe gives a new interpretation here. We explained it in the previous class, so I’ll just say it briefly now: on the plain reading, the verse is calling for a kind of avodah. It is teaching a moral lesson: just as water reflects a face, a person must show love and take action toward another person. In other words, “one person’s heart toward another”: a person must do things for his friend so that his friend will love him. It takes effort and action. The Alter Rebbe’s innovation here is that no action is needed; this is a matter of nature. The Alter Rebbe is teaching us that it happens naturally. You don’t need to take action to arouse love; that’s simply how it works. Just as a face reflecting in water is natural. You don’t have to do anything; you only have to stand facing the water, and naturally

04:47 Speaker 1 your face appears to you there. In the same way, it is natural that if a person loves another, that naturally arouses love in return. In other words, a person needs to know that if he wants someone else to love him, showing that person love—or simply loving him—will bring that about on its own. Even if you have a friend who doesn’t love you, or treats you badly, or seems to hate you, if you treat him lovingly, he will generally come to love you. But the point is that this is natural. Why is it important to emphasize that? The Alter Rebbe wants to emphasize that this is natural, just as a face reflecting in water is natural. That connects to the first line of the chapter. The Alter Rebbe said this love is accessible to everyone. If “as water reflects a face” referred to a kind of avodah requiring a special action, there would be differences between people’s levels. You would need to contemplate, to undertake a particular kind of contemplation. And in that, people differ: one person contemplates more, another less. That is why the Alter Rebbe emphasizes that “as water reflects a face” requires no special contemplation, because it is natural. The moment Reuven shows love to Shimon, Shimon will naturally be stirred to love Reuven. All the more so with Hakadosh Boruch Hu: as the Tanya will explain shortly, Hakadosh Boruch Hu shows love to the Jewish people, so surely a Jew will be stirred to love Him. It is natural. And because it is natural, it is accessible to everyone. Everyone can relate to it; there are no limitations. In light of this, we also explained in the previous class

06:34 Speaker 1 why the Alter Rebbe uses the words “takes to heart” here. The Alter Rebbe doesn’t write “contemplate”; he writes “takes to heart.” “Takes to heart” means that you just need to pay attention, to concentrate—to look at it. If you look somewhere else, you aren’t looking into the water, and you won’t see your face. You can stand beside the water, but if your face isn’t turned toward it, you won’t see your face in it. You have to look into the water to see your face there. Similarly here, a person needs to think about this, to look at it, so he can see that Reuven is showing him love, that Reuven loves him. Then he will naturally return that love. That is why the precise wording is “takes to heart,” though in essence it is something natural. In the wording of the text, the Alter Rebbe continues. Here we leave off. Now look inside the Tanya. “Now...” Within the Tanya. Huh?

07:37 Speaker 2 Yes. Well, I must—

07:40 Speaker 1 Again. So why aren’t you looking at someone else? Huh? “Now,” the Alter Rebbe explains in Tanya, “this is natural to every person.” The Alter Rebbe says that what we have been discussing—“as water reflects a face”—is natural to every person. It is natural for all kinds of people, “even if the two are equal in stature.” Even if two people are on the same level, “as water reflects a face” still applies. Neither has any advantage over the other; they are completely equal. Nevertheless, you see that if Reuven loves Shimon, Shimon loves Reuven. Now the Alter Rebbe will explain how much more so this applies when they are at opposite extremes, rather than equal in stature. If one is greater and the other is lesser, it is all the more so, and that adds to the explanation. Then we’ll come to the application, to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and the Jewish people. Let’s look inside now. “Now, this is natural to every person, even if the two are equal in stature. How much more so if a great and mighty king shows his great and intense love to an ordinary person, despised and lowly among men, repulsive and lying in the garbage.” Now you see that he is making an all-the-more-so argument: a great king shows love to an ordinary person. And within that, he explains several details. Here he wants to convey the greatness of the king and the distance between them, to emphasize even more the idea of “as water reflects a face.” Because when the two people are not equal in stature, when the person showing love is on a higher level and the person receiving that love is on a more

09:48 Speaker 1 Lowly. So the farther apart the two extremes are—the person on a high level being as high as can be, and, conversely, the person on a low level being as low as can be—the greater the distance between them, the more powerfully the principle of “as water reflects a face to a face” applies. When you see that even though this person is so exalted and I am so lowly, he nevertheless draws me close and loves me, then surely that love will awaken in me many times over. That is what the Alter Rebbe is emphasizing here. That is why he goes into such detail, and within that description he includes several particulars. So let’s look inside and see how precise every word is. First, all the details the Alter Rebbe gives in the analogy will, of course, apply to what it represents. Afterward we’ll see how each detail in the simple analogy of the king is translated by the Alter Rebbe into our avodah, and we’ll understand how it applies to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and a person. But how does it work in the analogy? Regarding the king, the Alter Rebbe gives two details. First, he says that he is a king. A king is obviously of high standing—the highest position in the country. But he adds two descriptions: “a great and mighty king.” What is the difference between great and mighty? Greatness generally has more to do with quality. “Great” points more to quality, while “mighty,” in the sense of abundance, has more to do with quantity. In other words, when you say “a great king,” you mean the king’s personal greatness: he is a king of exceptional stature, a very wise king, an extraordinary man, “a man in whom is the spirit of G-d.” He is a very elevated, exalted person. That is

11:39 Speaker 1 the idea of greatness—the king’s own inherent qualities make him a great king. “Mighty,” referring to quantity, points to the extent of his domain. A person can be king of a small country or king of a large one, and “in the multitude of people is the king’s glory.” The more there is—more lands, more troops, more subjects—the greater and more exceptional the king is. So this points more to the scope of his kingship. That is why the Alter Rebbe emphasizes both: this is not just any king, but a great king; and not just great, but great and mighty. His greatness is both in quality and in quantity. Similarly, regarding Hakadosh Boruch Hu we speak of both “How great are Your works” and “How manifold are Your works.” In a moment you’ll see how this is translated into its application to Hakadosh Boruch Hu as well. Now we make the same distinction in the next phrase: he “shows his great and immense love to a common man.” Here too, he says both “great” and “immense.” These are two details, greatness and immensity. We need to understand exactly what they mean here. But on a simple level, “great” indicates greatness, though still within measure and bounds. “Immense” is already beyond measure and bounds—a love that exceeds all limits. That is what “immense” means. Then he describes what the king does: he does not merely give the man something, but “shows his great and immense love.” To whom does he show it? Here too he gives several details: “to a common and despised man, the lowliest of people, filthy and lying in the refuse.” According to the explanations here, these descriptions divide into three groups. One level

13:38 Speaker 1 is “a common and despised man”; the second is “the lowliest of people”; and the third is “filthy and lying in the refuse.” The explanation is that “common and despised” generally relates to intellect. “Despised” has more to do with matters of intellect. These descriptions relate more to the faculty of understanding. In general, the word “common” is used for a foolish person; it describes someone on a level of foolishness, a person lacking intellect. That is what “common” means here. “Common and despised” is even lower intellectually. “Common” means only that he lacks intellect; “despised” means not only that he lacks intellect, but that he behaves almost irrationally. That is a still lower level. But all of this concerns shortcomings in his intellect. “The lowliest of people” relates more to middos. There is, after all, an order to the four terms for a person: adam, ish, gever, enosh. What does adam refer to? Intellect. As the Rebbe cites in Hayom Yom, adam refers to intellect and ish to middos. “The lowliest of people” means lowly middos—a coarse person whose character traits are base. Then he writes, “filthy and lying in the refuse.” “Filthy” means dirty. “Lying in the refuse” already concerns dirt on a more external level. So this relates more to the garments, the external expressions of a person. He is dirty—dirt is something on the outside. And refuse is certainly external: it describes the place where he is, a place full of refuse. So this relates more to the garments, including the spiritual garments. In other words, his thought, speech, and action are soiled. The Alter Rebbe is also speaking about this physically, in the plain sense: a man literally lying in the refuse. But that too relates to what is external. In any case, I am speaking about a man

15:37 Speaker 1 literally lying in the refuse, but it also relates to the external garments. In any case, the point is that this person has three kinds of shortcomings: he lacks intellect, he lacks good middos, and his garments are soiled. There is also the place where he is—among the refuse. Perhaps that could be called a fourth shortcoming: the place where he finds himself, lying in the refuse. We’ll now see how the Rebbe explains this in what the analogy represents. We’ll see how every detail applies to the Jewish people as well. There, it is understood that “lying in the refuse” refers to Egypt, “the nakedness of the land”—the place where the kelipos are, the land of Egypt. As the Alter Rebbe explains, it also applies to the animal soul and the body. “In the refuse” refers to one’s surroundings, to the physicality of this world. These are all different kinds of shortcomings. And here lies the novelty. [unclear] The greater the contrast—the king being a king of the highest order, “great and mighty,” and, on the other side, this filthy man, a person at the very lowest point in every respect, in intellect, middos, and garments, and lying in the refuse because of the place where he is—the more striking the king’s actions become. What does the king do with this man? How does he show him his love? “He descends to him from his place of honor.” Here too, several details are emphasized in the way he shows his love. As we said earlier, it matters especially when love is shown through action. And in this analogy, the Alter Rebbe gives

17:21 Speaker 1 several details about the way the king shows him love. He writes: “He descends to him from his place of honor.” The king comes down to this lowly man from the exalted place where he is, “together with all his ministers”—with all his ministers. What is the point here? The Alter Rebbe adds that when the king comes down to him, he comes as he is in his place of honor. That is the novelty. Yes. In other words, the king does not diminish himself to the point that he stops appearing as a king, goes alone, and dresses in simple clothes. That would be like the analogy of the king in the field, where he dresses in clothing suited to the field so he can relate to the people there. Here, the entire point is that “he descends to him from his place of honor”—as he is in his place of honor, great and mighty in his stature, together with all his ministers. That was the novelty of Matan Torah. As explained in the maamarim, the novelty of Matan Torah was that Hakadosh Boruch Hu revealed Himself to the Jewish people not through tzimtzum, not in a concealed way. Rather, Hakadosh Boruch Hu descended as He is above, with all His greatness, with all the wonders, together with the Divine chariot—with everything in its fullness. That is how He descended below. That was the novelty of “Hashem descended upon Mount Sinai.” It is explained in a maamar that when Hakadosh Boruch Hu spoke with Moshe from heaven, it was truly “from heaven”—with that same full force. So that is the point in the analogy: the king descends to the man from his place of honor, together with all his ministers, together with his entire retinue. The king descends to the man

19:12 Speaker 1 this lowly man, and raises him up and lifts him from the trash heap. The king takes the man, raises him up and lifts him from the trash heap. “Raises him up” means, quite simply, helping someone get up from where he has fallen or lies in the trash. “Lifts him” is already a matter of elevating him. It points to something more spiritual. Raising him up means that he is in the trash, and the king takes him out of it. Lifting him means elevating him to a higher level, taking him out of that lowly state so that it is no longer his place. This is also the wording we say in Hallel: “He raises the poor from the dust; He lifts the needy from the trash heap.” There are two things here: raising the poor from the dust, which is a matter of helping him up, and then lifting the needy from the trash heap. That is a matter of elevating him. Elevating someone is more than helping him up: the king lifts him to a higher level. “And brings him into his palace.” What does the king do? He does not merely clean him up and remove him from his negative situation, from the trash heap. He goes further and brings him into his palace, the king’s palace. He takes this lowly, ordinary man and brings him inside the king’s palace. “Into the innermost chamber.” Within the king’s palace itself, he brings him into the innermost chamber, “a place where no servant or minister may enter.” He brings him to a place where no one enters, neither servant nor minister. There are places in the king’s palace where the servants enter, and places where the ministers enter. A servant has an advantage over a minister, and a minister has an advantage over a servant, as explained in the Gemara. The Gemara says this in connection with Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai and Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa: “I am like a minister before the king, while he is like a servant before the king.” There are differences between a servant and a minister in their relationship with the king. On the one hand, the minister has a more intimate closeness to the king,

21:11 Speaker 1 whereas the servant’s closeness is more external. On the other hand, the servant enters rooms that the minister does not, because the servant also has to clean and do other things. So each has his own advantage. The Gemara there explains that this is why Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa, who was like a servant, had an advantage over Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, who was like a minister. Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, as a minister, had an advantage; Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa was a servant. Each had an advantage. So when the Gemara relates that Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai needed to ask for a miracle, a blessing for his sick child, he went to Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa to ask for a blessing. They asked him: Why do you need to go to Chanina ben Dosa? You, too, have Torah. Can’t you ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu? He answered that a servant has an advantage over a minister. Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai was a minister, but Chanina ben Dosa was a servant. Although a servant is lower, he goes further inside. That is why he can sometimes accomplish things that a minister cannot. So each has an advantage. Here the Alter Rebbe wants to emphasize just how far the king brings this lowly, humble man. He adds that the king takes him not only into the innermost chamber, but even into places where neither minister nor servant enters. Only he, this man, will be there. The king brings him in; he does not bring in any minister or servant. In a moment we will see how this is expressed in the application of the analogy. “And unites with him in true intimacy and closeness.” There, deep within the innermost chamber, the king connects and unites with this lowly, humble man in a genuine bond, in true closeness, “with embraces and kisses,

22:53 Speaker 1 spirit with spirit and soul with soul.” That is the bond between this great king and the lowly man: the king connects with him and draws close to him, embracing him, spirit with spirit and soul with soul. These are various details of their attachment. The Alter Rebbe will later explain how all these details are expressed in the application of the analogy, in Torah and mitzvos. If this is the kind of closeness involved, then how much more so, says the Alter Rebbe, will a doubled and redoubled love for the king’s soul naturally awaken in this ordinary man’s heart. It follows all the more strongly. A love doubled and redoubled beyond comparison will awaken in this ordinary person. What exactly does “doubled and redoubled” mean? “Doubled” in quantity and “redoubled” in quality. The love with which this ordinary man connects to the king is not merely like the love between two people of equal standing. Since the distance between the king and the ordinary man is both quantitative and qualitative, as we explained in detail in the analogy, and the love the king shows him is likewise greater in both quantity and quality, a higher kind of love, his love too is doubled and redoubled in both quantity and quality. The ordinary man’s love for the king will be much greater in its intensity, and its quality, the kind of love it is, will be on a far higher level. It is doubled and redoubled here, and then he has “a true attachment of the soul to the king, from the depths of his heart and soul, without end.” This will bring the lowly man to an attachment to the king. What kind of attachment? One that is as deep as can be, without limits, without end. Some say that here, too, we can see something similar, because the Alter Rebbe spoke here about three aspects of the lowly man. We said there are

25:19 Speaker 1 three details: a deficiency in intellect, a deficiency in character traits, and a deficiency in the garments of the soul. I was just speaking about the garments: he is filthy and lying in the trash. And when the king takes him out, there is a corresponding ascent. So here, too, he describes three things. “Raises him up and lifts him from the trash heap” means that he takes him out of those soiled garments, out of the filth, from being filthy and lying in the trash. “Brings him into the king’s palace, into the innermost chamber” relates to intellect and character traits. The palace and the chambers already indicate closeness. Entering the king’s palace, the king’s chamber, shows closeness. But that closeness still involves more external levels. In detail, these are the intellect and the character traits. The character traits are closer, more inward than the garments, but the intellect is still external in comparison with what comes next. Then there is the attachment of “spirit with spirit,” which is the level of intellect, of daas. In other words, he takes him out of all three states. Through the bond the king forms with this ordinary man, through lifting him up, he takes him out of all three. He takes him out of the filth, out of his lowliness in character, and also beyond being a servant. He draws him close to a level above the intellect. These are the three details of the king’s connection with this man. But look how the Alter Rebbe ends the analogy: “And were your heart a heart of stone,” even to that extent. This is something accessible to every person: even someone whose heart is made of stone, it will surely melt and turn to water. Even if he has a heart of stone, that stony heart will melt and become water: “the soul pouring itself out like water, and a true longing of the soul for the king’s love.” As soon as he takes to heart how much the great king

27:27 Speaker 1 draws close to him, it will cause him to melt and become like water. His soul will pour itself out like water, in a true longing of the soul. So all of this, you see, comes to explain the special quality of this love. The Rebbe explains that, accordingly, we can understand why the analogy is so lengthy. The Rebbe says that this also explains the precise wording the Alter Rebbe used earlier, at the beginning of the chapter, regarding this love. The Alter Rebbe wrote that it is “accessible to every soul” and that “the matter is very, very close.” The Rebbe explains that “accessible to every soul” is what we explained earlier: this is human nature, and it does not even need an explanation. It is natural. If another person shows you love, you will generally feel love for him too. So it is accessible to every soul. It is natural; no special spiritual level or anything else is needed. That explains “accessible to every soul.” Then he says, “the matter is close.” Look at what “the matter is close” means. Since this is true even of two people of equal standing, the matter is naturally close. You see, it is close even for two people of equal standing. So why “very close”? What is the significance of “very”? The point is that if it is close even when they are equal, all the more so when they are not equal—when one is a great and mighty king and the other is lowly and humble. Then it is not merely close; “the matter is very close.” And what does “very, very close” add? The Alter Rebbe adds “very” once again. That is the point we discussed at the beginning of the chapter, if you remember. The Rebbe brings it in his explanation.

29:20 Speaker 1 Here. You see, what is distinctive about “very, very” is that here, on the contrary, the lower a person feels, the easier it is for him to reach this love. As we explained once in a class, with all the kinds of love we’ve learned about until now, the more refined a person is, the closer he is to that love. Of course, even if you aren’t so refined, you can still reach it. But here, as he says, when it comes to reaching a love like fiery flames, the more aware we are of how lowly and unworthy we are, and how we’ve been cast into the refuse, the more we realize that despite all that, Hakadosh Boruch Hu loves me. Hakadosh Boruch Hu lifts me out of the refuse and draws close to me. And the fact that this happens every single day, through the recitation of Shema, davening, and observing the Torah, as the Rebbe explains later in this chapter, arouses that fiery love even more. That’s why the Alter Rebbe adds “very” here—and beyond the usual wording, it’s “very, very.” There’s another connection to what he writes, just a brief vort. We’ll finish with this today. There’s a vort from the Rebbe [unclear] on something written in this week’s Pirkei Avos: “One whose heart is arrogant in rendering rulings is a fool, wicked, and haughty.” You see, there’s a Mishnah like that in Pirkei Avos: “One whose heart is arrogant in rendering rulings.” The straightforward meaning is a person who deals with halachic rulings arrogantly, as though he thinks he knows everything and... insists on issuing rulings. He is arrogant about rendering rulings. So the Mishnah says that he is a fool, wicked, and haughty. The Rebbe [unclear] explained a deeper meaning. He said that hora’ah, “ruling,” is related to or, “light.” So hora’ah refers to Torah. Torah is light. “One whose heart is arrogant in rendering rulings” means that he studies Torah, studies Torah

31:14 Speaker 1 and halachic rulings, but he studies them with arrogance. He studies with his whole sense of self. He feels that he understands, that he knows, and that he can give his own interpretation. He studies Torah with an arrogant heart. “One whose heart is arrogant in rendering rulings”—he studies Torah arrogantly. So he is a fool, and [unclear] arrogance, in the sense of [unclear] and brazenness. This connects with what we learned here about the three aspects of the sense of self.