Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 46 - Part 4

00:00 Speaker 1 We go down to the last line, “And behold.” Here the Rebbe discusses “As water reflects a face to a face, so the heart of one person reflects the heart of another.” The Rebbe explained the analogy here at length. He brought it so we could understand how this principle applies Above. From the analogy, we can understand what happens Above, as the Alter Rebbe will now begin to explain. But the analogy the Alter Rebbe gave had a number of details. We’ll now see how he explains each one and shows that it applies here too. The point he emphasized was that “as water reflects a face to a face, so the heart of one person reflects the heart of another” holds true even for two people who are equals. Even when they are on the same level, this is human nature: when one loves the other, the other responds with love. Especially when one shows that love, it arouses loving feelings even more. All the more so when they are at opposite extremes. And here the Alter Rebbe goes to great lengths to emphasize both extremes: at the very top, a great and mighty king; at the very bottom, a lowly, despised person lying in a garbage heap. Even so, the great king not only loves this lowly person, but shows him his love. And what kind of love does he show him? Not just ordinary love. He shows him a great and immense love. In other words, he makes his love visible. The king might love the lowly person but, in practice, show him only a little of it—only part of it, only a glimmer. The point here is that the king not only loves this lowly, despised person; he also shows him his love. And what kind of love

02:07 Speaker 1 does he show him? The love in all its greatness and intensity: he comes down to him, takes him, lifts him out of the garbage heap, and does everything else the Alter Rebbe describes. He brings him to a place no one enters except the king himself, where there is the deepest closeness. When all that happens, then “as water reflects a face to a face”—surely, all the more so, it will awaken love for the king in that lowly, despised person, to the point that he experiences this great longing of the soul. He responds as he should, to the point that he gives himself over completely to the king. Now we’ll continue inside the text and see how this is expressed, as the Alter Rebbe explains every one of these details. They also apply to the love that Hakadosh Boruch Hu shows the Jewish people, as the passage goes on to describe. The Alter Rebbe will spell out both extremes: the upper extreme, the greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, King of kings; and the lower extreme, how low the Jewish people had fallen before the Exodus from Egypt. Then we can see just how great and immense a love Hakadosh Boruch Hu showed us. Let’s look inside, at the last line at the bottom of page 65a: “And behold, like all these things and like this vision, but infinitely greater, many times over.” What does “like all these things and like this vision” mean? The simple explanation is that this double expression in Tanya is not just a way of writing prettily. In Tanya, every word is precise. So what does it mean here? “Like all these things” refers, simply, to the general principle the Alter Rebbe brings: “As water reflects a face to a face, so the heart of one person reflects the heart of another.” This is a principle of human nature: just as water reflects a person’s face,

04:08 Speaker 1 so one person’s heart responds to another’s. “These things” means the facts, the reality. That is how it is. “This vision” refers to the details the Alter Rebbe explained—the analogy, the account of the great king and the lowly person. A vision is like a scene, like an account of what happened. So the Alter Rebbe says “like all these things,” meaning the general principle, this natural response of one heart to another; and “like this vision,” meaning the details of the analogy of the great king and the despised, foolish person. All this applies, but it is “infinitely greater, many times over.” Not only is it like the analogy; the Alter Rebbe adds that when it comes to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and the Jewish people, it is far greater still. Soon we’ll see that he explains why it is greater many times over. “Our G-d has done for us”—Hakadosh Boruch Hu has done the same for us. So now the Alter Rebbe begins to explain: “For His greatness is beyond measure.” First he explains the upper extreme: the king. What kind of king are we talking about? In the analogy, we said he was a “great and mighty king,” and we said these are two distinct qualities. Remember? “Great” meant greatness in his very stature, in his standing, while “mighty” referred to the reach of his rule—how many lands and peoples he ruled over, and so on. The Alter Rebbe will explain both qualities here too. He says, “For His greatness is beyond measure.” When we speak of the greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, He is not merely great; His greatness is of a kind that is beyond measure. We have no awareness, no conception, no understanding of the essential greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So

06:12 Speaker 1 that is why it is greater many times over. In other words, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not just a great king. His greatness is of a kind that is beyond measure. We have no grasp of it. We cannot fathom the nature or extent of His greatness; it is beyond our comprehension. This is explained in works of Chassidus. Here the Alter Rebbe only cites the verse, but the maamarim discuss this whole subject at great length. What, precisely, is so remarkable about “His greatness is beyond measure”? There is a Shavuos maamar by the Rebbe Rashab, [unclear], in which the entire maamar discusses this and cites two verses. One says, “Great is Hashem and exceedingly praised,” and another says, “And His greatness is beyond measure.” He explains that these are two levels of greatness. There is greatness that relates to the worlds—“Great is Hashem and exceedingly praised”—and there is essential greatness, above the worlds, which is beyond measure. The Alter Rebbe specifically cites “And His greatness is beyond measure” here because he wants to convey just how extraordinary the king is. That is why he says, “For His greatness is beyond measure.” What kind of greatness is this? Essential greatness. The greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu that we cannot grasp or comprehend at all—His true greatness. When we speak of the greatness of Hashem, “Great is Hashem and exceedingly praised,” the greatness visible in the world, that is not really greatness. In relation to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, it is actually a contraction. As the well-known saying puts it, “Where you find His greatness, there you find His humility.” What we call greatness is not greatness; it is a contraction, a descent, a lowering. We have no grasp or awareness of His essential greatness. That is the first point. It emphasizes the idea of a great king in a way that

07:53 Speaker 1 Beyond measure. After that, the Alter Rebbe continues: “He fills all worlds and encompasses all worlds.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu both fills all worlds and encompasses all worlds. Yes. That means He is present inside the worlds, within each and every world, and He also encompasses all the worlds equally. This already relates more to the idea of abundance, because it expresses more of a connection to the worlds. Or we could say that this, too, is greatness, but greatness as it relates to the worlds. So, as we said, there are two aspects of greatness. There is essential greatness, and there is greatness expressed in the worlds. Why is this relevant? Perhaps these are the two ideas the Alter Rebbe is discussing here. “And His greatness” refers to greatness in essence, the essential greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. When he says here, “He fills all worlds and encompasses all worlds,” he is speaking about Hashem’s greatness as it relates to the worlds. We see this greatness in His filling all worlds: Hashem gives each and every thing its particular life force, according to its kind. At the same time, He encompasses all the worlds equally. These are different kinds of greatness. This, too, shows Hashem’s greatness, but it is greatness expressed more in relation to the worlds. And “as is known”—the Alter Rebbe goes on to add another point. We are speaking about a “great and mighty King.” “And as is known from the holy Zohar and the Arizal, there are countless palaces and worlds.” The Zohar and the writings of the Arizal speak of Hashem having countless palaces and worlds, and all of these—and how does it say it there?—each and every world has myriads upon myriads of angels, without end or limit. Each and every world has multitudes

09:55 Speaker 1 of myriads of angels, without end or limit. So from this we can understand the extent of the aspect of abundance. Yes, that is the second point about Him. Not only is He a great King, great in stature and in substance, but He is also a mighty King. What does “mighty King” mean? The Alter Rebbe says that “mighty” refers to multitude: the multitude of worlds, palaces, and angels. There is no end and no count to all these many things, and all of this multitude is the extension of the King’s presence. These are the two aspects of greatness. He says “greatness.” The explanation concerns “He fills all worlds and encompasses all worlds.” We explained that filling all worlds and encompassing all worlds also express an aspect of greatness: the multitude of palaces and worlds in which Hashem’s greatness extends. The Alter Rebbe continues here. That is why he goes into detail: so that we can get a sense of just how many particulars there are, one after another, like the analogy of the king that we gave earlier. Regarding all these particulars, the Alter Rebbe continues with this idea of multitude. He says, as it says in the Gemara: “Is there any number to His troops?” Yet it is also written, “A thousand thousands minister to Him, and myriads upon myriads stand before Him.” The Gemara asks: One verse says, “Is there any number to His troops?” Yes. It is phrased as a question. What the verse means is that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is so great and exalted that His troops, the groups of angels, are beyond number, without limit. But on the other hand, another verse says, “A thousand thousands minister to Him, and myriads upon myriads stand before Him.” In another verse—I think it is in Daniel or somewhere like that—it says that

12:05 Speaker 1 Hashem has a thousand thousands of angels, and myriads upon myriads. Even though that is an enormous number, it is still a number. So the Gemara in Tractate Chagigah, where it discusses the Beis Hamikdash, asks this question: There seems to be a contradiction. One verse says there is no number, that it is limitless. The other verse gives a number: a thousand thousands and myriads upon myriads. And the Gemara answers: “A thousand thousands,” and so on, is the number in one troop. Each group of angels has a set number—a thousand thousands of angels. But how many troops does Hakadosh Boruch Hu have? There is no number. There is no number to Hashem’s troops. So what is the Rebbe explaining here? What is the Gemara trying to emphasize? The Rebbe wants to emphasize the multitude we are talking about when we say “a great and mighty King.” When it comes to the greatness of a king, ultimately there is a limit to it, however much we speak of greatness. And the multitude of a human king is also limited. He has one country, or two countries. He has the United States of America—fifty-one states. How many is it?

13:40 Speaker 2 Fifty.

13:41 Speaker 1 Fifty-one.

13:42 Speaker 2 Obama says it’s only forty-eight.

13:46 Speaker 1 Yes, all right. We won’t get into a dispute. But that already ends at forty-eight. Yes, he says, all right. Fine, that’s not the Tanya we want to study. Let me get back to the point. So what is the point of the Tanya here? What is it trying to emphasize? A king can have greatness in quality and abundance in quantity, but both have a measure and a limit. When we come to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, though, not only is the quality beyond measure and limit, but so is the quantity. That is what he is saying here: Hashem’s numbers are so vast that this multitude has no measure or limit whatsoever. That is why he cites the Gemara’s explanation. One verse says “a thousand thousands,” and another says, “Is there any number to His troops?” There is no contradiction, because each individual troop has a certain number of angels, but how many troops are there? Infinitely many—a truly limitless multitude. The Rebbe raises a question here. There are several questions he addresses. The first is: How can such a thing be? It’s a simple question, and someone asked the Rebbe this in a letter. Seemingly, it’s impossible. If each troop has a limited number of angels, how can there be an unlimited number of troops? There is a rule, a very simple rule of logic, that you cannot have an unlimited number of limited things. Right? You cannot have an unlimited number of limited things. How could you? Imagine you have an apple. Is an apple limited or unlimited? An apple is a limited thing. It is a fruit with a definite size and quantity

16:02 Speaker 1 and quality. Well, can there be an unlimited number of apples? Fill this whole room with apples. How many apples fit in this room? How many? Would a hundred thousand apples fill the whole room? Apples—more. Huh? So that’s a hundred thousand. That’s a quantity. Fill the whole building with apples, and there will still be a number. Fill all of India with apples, and there will still be a number. Maybe it will be myriads of apples. Fill the entire planet Earth with apples, and there will still be a number. Yes. In other words, in theory I don’t know how many apples it would take to fill the Earth, but clearly there is a finite number. Yes. Fill the whole Earth with apples, and you will have so-and-so many apples. Then bring one more apple and add it. You will have all those apples plus one. It will always remain a finite number.

16:57 Speaker 3 That’s the difficulty.

16:58 Speaker 1 Nu, and what’s the difference between [unclear]? In other words, let’s put it this way: if something is limited in some respect, then the main argument is that something limited in one particular must be limited in everything. You can’t have something where one side is limited and the other side is unlimited. Finite and infinite don’t go together. If it’s limited, that means it’s limited by its very nature. How can you say, “No, it will be unlimited”? Yes. Imagine, for example, Adam Harishon. He was very tall. We learned in the maamar: two hundred cubits. Yes, a hundred cubits, two hundred cubits. And we’re three cubits, four cubits—somewhere around there. So there’s a big difference. But if Adam Harishon had been infinitely tall, where would that leave us? In other words, however big you imagine he was, he was still limited in some way. You can’t say there was a grandfather who was unlimited and a limited grandson came from him. From the unlimited comes the unlimited; from the limited comes the limited. That’s the straightforward point here. If this reality is limited, it must be limited in every respect, including its quantity. So however much you increase it—even if one legion has a million angels, you would need an infinity of those millions. In actual reality, that’s not possible. An infinity of millions isn’t possible. You can talk about it as a theory, theoretically speaking. You want to discuss it in theory? Fine. It could exist in theory—that is, potentially, not actually. Potentially, yes. In the power of Hakadosh

19:06 Speaker 1 Boruch Hu, there could potentially be an infinity of millions. But in actuality, you could have a million millions, twelve million shekels, and it would still be limited. Add one, and another one—yes, but it always remains within the category of the finite. Here, though, they’re saying it is truly unlimited: an unlimited number of angels, with each legion limited. There are legions, and each legion has a limit. So that was the question, and the Rebbe said that the only answer is that it doesn’t necessarily follow. From the standpoint of the nature of created beings, there cannot be an unlimited number of limited things. But through the power of the Creator, yes: once the Creator’s power enters into it, there can be an actually infinite multitude, even though each individual legion is limited. That is through the power of the Creator. It isn’t something that follows from their own nature; it isn’t understandable on that basis. Through the Creator’s power, even though each legion is limited, His legions can be without number—an infinity of legions. With this, the Rebbe answers a question about the wording sometimes found in Chassidus, that there is an infinite multitude of created beings

20:30 Speaker 4 —infinite.

20:32 Speaker 1 It isn’t infinite. Yes, yes, it isn’t infinite. Sometimes Chassidus uses the expression that there are created beings “without end.” What does the Rebbe say in the well-known maamar Mayim Rabim 5667? Have you ever seen the maamar? Take a look; it’s very interesting. There, in the maamar itself, the Rebbe brings up this idea that there are created beings without end, an unlimited number of created beings—inanimate, plant, animal, and human—without measure. And the Rebbe asks: seemingly, this requires examination. How can a created being be without measure? If it is created, it is limited. Surely there must be some measure to its quantity as well. How can there be created beings without measure? And the Rebbe leaves it as a question requiring examination. Further down, it says “infinite in the manner of time.” Yes, further down it says “infinite in the manner of time.” The Rebbe added that after writing this note in Tanya as well. Yes, an infinity in the manner of time—which, too, cannot exist from the standpoint of the nature of created beings. But through the power of the Creator, as we find with “His legions are without number”: there, they say that one legion has a number, while His legions are without number. Along these lines, we can say the same about created beings. In each world there is a limit. There is a limit to how many created beings there are in any one world, in the world of Asiyah. Yes, there are many created beings, but there is a limit. There are many inanimate things and many plants, but there is a limit to them. The legions, however, are endless. So we see that this comes from the Creator’s power. What do we want to emphasize with this here in Tanya? The Rebbe wants to emphasize something even further here concerning this great multitude: to emphasize the greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. We’re speaking not just of greatness, and not just of a multitude, but of a multitude that is possible only by virtue of the Creator. And this multitude

22:24 Speaker 1 —this abundance—clearly, even though every legion has a limit, is nevertheless unlimited. That’s one point. Another question the Rebbe asks here about Tanya: the Rebbe explains, very interestingly, that there is a difference here between Tanya and the Gemara. In the Gemara, the order is reversed. The Gemara first brings the verse “A thousand thousands serve Him,” and afterward brings the verse “Is there a number to His legions?” In Tanya it’s the opposite: it first brings “Is there a number to His legions?” and then “A thousand thousands serve Him.” Why is that? Why did the Alter Rebbe change the order? The Rebbe explains that it depends on what the Gemara is discussing and what Tanya is discussing. The Gemara is speaking about the angels of the Merkavah. Yes, that’s the subject of the Gemara there. The Gemara raises a question; there are several questions there about verses concerning the angels of the Merkavah. So the Gemara first brings “A thousand thousands serve Him,” which seems to place a limit on the number of those angels. It says there are only a thousand thousands—that there is a limit. Then the Gemara says: How can you say there is a limit? Another verse says there is no limit: “Is there a number to His legions?” So in the Gemara it makes sense to bring that first verse first. To pose the question, you first bring the difficult verse, and then say: How can you say there is a limit when there is another verse telling us there is no limit? But here in Tanya, the Alter Rebbe isn’t bringing these verses in order to raise questions. The Alter Rebbe wants to explain the wonder of a “great and mighty King”: just how Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not simply a king, but a King who is great

24:29 Speaker 1 and mighty. So the Alter Rebbe first brings the verse that emphasizes the multitude even more: “Is there a number to His legions?” This emphasizes infinity, a multitude that has no limits. Afterward he brings “A thousand thousands serve Him,” which expresses something even deeper: although each legion has a limit, nevertheless, His legions are without number. That is why the Alter Rebbe changed the order from that of the Gemara. Here in Tanya, it is specifically the first verse, “Is there a number to His legions?”, that is relevant. The Rebbe emphasizes another point as well: this is also why the Alter Rebbe uses the expression “as it is written: ‘Is there a number to His legions?’” He doesn’t simply say, “as it is written,” and so on. He uses the expression “as it is written.” As if to say that the main point here isn’t to raise a question; the purpose is to bring proofs from verses. The multitude of worlds isn’t only something written in the Zohar and the writings of the Arizal, a teaching of the Arizal and the Zohar. It is also written in a verse. “As it is written”—this is a verse; the concept appears in Tanach as well. There is a verse that speaks of the multitude of worlds.