Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 47 - Part 1

00:00 Speaker 1 A new chapter. A short chapter. Many of the bochurim know it from having learned it several times. So let’s look inside. This chapter is really a continuation of the previous chapter. Although it stands on its own, the Alter Rebbe explains a subject here that can also be learned independently. He explains the idea of the Exodus from Egypt as it applies within the soul. We’ve learned it here in yeshivah several times in previous years in connection with Pesach, because this is the chapter where the Alter Rebbe explains the Exodus from Egypt as it applies to a person’s inner service of Hashem. But we’re coming to this chapter now as a continuation of the preceding chapters. So, of course, its main point is part of what the Alter Rebbe is explaining here, and it follows directly from the previous chapter. In chapter 46, the Alter Rebbe began explaining a particular way a person can awaken love for Hashem. He used very special words to describe it. The Alter Rebbe wrote that this is a straightforward path for a person, and that “the matter is very, very close.” There is a way to awaken love for Hashem. The Alter Rebbe sought ways to serve Hashem “with your mouth and with your heart, to do it”—in a way that “the matter is very close.” That’s the whole foundation of Tanya. About the love he explains in these chapters, the Alter Rebbe writes that the matter is not merely “very close,” but “very, very close.” We already explained in the previous chapter why this love is so very, very close. In any case, we won’t go over that now. But the Alter Rebbe began this subject in chapter 46. What is it about? It’s the love the Alter Rebbe calls the love of “as water reflects a face to a face.” In other words, it’s a love based on the idea of “as water reflects a face to a face”: love in response to love.

02:12 Speaker 1 The Alter Rebbe began explaining this love in chapter 46, and as we said, the discussion continues through the end of chapter 49—four chapters explaining this love. What is its central point? The Alter Rebbe explained it with the analogy he introduced in chapter 46. Even if two friends are in the same class, on the same level and at the same stage, if one shows love to the other, the other naturally responds with love. How much more so when the two people are not equal in stature: one is of the highest standing, while the other is of the lowest. Yet the person of the highest standing—a great and mighty king—shows love, and not just any love, but tremendous love. And to whom does he show it? To a person of the lowest and humblest standing, with all the details of the analogy that the Alter Rebbe explains. How much more will the simple person naturally feel an immense love for the great king. The same applies to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and the Jewish people. We contemplate the tremendous love of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, a great and mighty King—[unclear]—and everything the Alter Rebbe explained about Hashem’s greatness and exaltedness. He descended to Egypt, where we were in utter lowliness for four hundred years, and raised us up. He took us out of there. He brought us out of Egypt and to the Giving of the Torah, where there was the union, the bond, the marriage, and all the aspects of Torah and mitzvos that the Alter Rebbe explains. In the Exodus from Egypt and the Giving of the Torah, we see the greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s love for the Jewish people. So, “as water reflects a face to a face,” a Jew’s love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu is awakened. Similarly, in the same way, the Alter Rebbe explained that this is really

04:05 Speaker 1 the idea regarding Torah and mitzvos in general. That was the point of chapter 46. What is the Alter Rebbe coming to explain now in chapter 47? We have discussed the love of “as water reflects a face to a face.” The point is that, as we explained, chapter 46 dealt with something collective, something that happened to the Jewish people as a whole: the collective Exodus from Egypt. The same is true of the Giving of the Torah; it was discussed in general terms. So when a person contemplates it, the fact that it happened to the Jewish people as a whole may mean that it doesn’t reach him so deeply. What’s more, it’s not only a collective event; it’s something that happened in history some three thousand three hundred and some years ago. It isn’t a new story. The Exodus from Egypt happened thousands of years ago. That was when Hakadosh Boruch Hu brought us out of Egypt, followed by everything else in the story. So it’s something that happened once, long ago. A person may therefore find it difficult, when contemplating the Exodus from Egypt and the Giving of the Torah as they first occurred. True, they show the tremendous greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, but they won’t necessarily awaken in him the love of “as water reflects a face to a face.” So the Alter Rebbe comes and explains now, in chapter 47, that this applies to each and every person individually. It isn’t only a collective matter. Each individual has his own Exodus from Egypt. Each individual Jew has his own Giving of the Torah. And it isn’t just something that happened in the past; it happens today. Every single day, there is this experience of “as water reflects a face to a face.” We can see it every single day.

06:04 Speaker 1 We can see this idea of “as water reflects a face to a face”: what Hakadosh Boruch Hu, a great and awe-inspiring King, does for each of us personally. We can see it every single day, because every day, in every soul, there is an Exodus from Egypt and a Giving of the Torah. That is the foundation of chapter 47. Now let’s begin learning the text: “And behold, in every generation and on every day, a person is obligated to regard himself as though he had left Egypt today.” The Alter Rebbe is saying that what we discussed in the previous chapter is not limited to Hakadosh Boruch Hu redeeming the Jewish people in the Exodus from Egypt. Regarding this, the Mishnah in Pesachim says that in every generation and on every day, a person must regard himself as though he had left Egypt today. The bochurim learned this here last year, so they know it. The problem is that, having learned it, they know that the Gemara in Pesachim doesn’t actually say that. Pesachim says “in every generation”; it doesn’t say “on every day.” The Alter Rebbe added that. Likewise, Pesachim doesn’t say “as though he had left Egypt today.” It says “as though he had left Egypt.” Those who don’t know this from Pesachim know it from the Twelve Pesukim. Children recite the Twelve Pesukim—and bochurim are allowed to say them too. In the Twelve Pesukim, the words of our Sages are given as they appear in the Mishnah; they don’t say “on every day” or “today.” Where did the Alter Rebbe get those words? Let me address the first point: “in every generation and on every day.” Where did the Alter Rebbe get that? He combined two Mishnayos. That is how the Rebbe explains it. The Alter Rebbe does not write here in Tanya

08:05 Speaker 1 “Our Sages said,” because the Alter Rebbe changes the wording of our Sages. He uses language similar to their words in Pesachim, but he doesn’t present it as an exact quotation. Why? Because he actually took two teachings here and joined them together. Besides the Mishnah in Pesachim that says, “In every generation, a person is obligated to regard himself as though he had left Egypt,” there is another Mishnah, in Berachos. The Mishnah in Berachos also speaks about the Exodus from Egypt. What does it say? Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah? How does it go? Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah says: “I am like a man of seventy years, yet I did not merit to have the Exodus from Egypt mentioned at night until Ben Zoma expounded: ‘The days of your life’—the days; ‘all the days of your life’—the nights.” “So that you remember the day you left Egypt all the days of your life.” “The days of your life”—the days; “all the days of your life”—the nights. What does it say there? There’s a Mishnah in Pesachim that says there is a mitzvah and an obligation—sorry, a Mishnah in Berachos that says there is an obligation to remember the Exodus from Egypt every day. Not only by day, but also at night. The Sages disputed whether it applies only by day or at night as well. But in any event, the halachah is that there is a mitzvah to mention the Exodus from Egypt twice a day, and we learn it from the verse, “So that you remember the day you left Egypt all the days of your life.” That’s the Mishnah in Berachos. It speaks about the Exodus from Egypt every day. And there is a Mishnah in Pesachim that says, “In every generation, a person is obligated to regard himself as though he had left Egypt.” The Alter Rebbe took the two Mishnayos and made them into one. What does that mean? He isn’t simply quoting what our Sages said. Rather, the Alter Rebbe is introducing a new understanding here of how we fulfill the obligation concerning the Exodus from Egypt every day. When you learn the Mishnah in Berachos, and likewise when you learn the halachah in Shulchan Aruch, you see that there is a daily obligation

10:02 Speaker 1 To mention the Exodus from Egypt. How do we understand that simply? According to halachah, there is an obligation to mention the Exodus from Egypt every day. When you say Shema, at the end you say, “I am Hashem your G-d, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt,” and with that you fulfill a mitzvah. You’ve already learned this section; you’ve already learned the laws of Shema. So I’ll skip ahead. Look, it says there—and this is a halachah in Shulchan Aruch that the Alter Rebbe writes—that there is an obligation to mention the Exodus from Egypt every day and also at night. That is the whole reason we say the passage of tzitzis at night, and so on. But when you learn the Mishnah in Berachos, you might think the mitzvah is just to mention it. To remember it. The Alter Rebbe comes along and says: No. The daily mitzvah concerning the Exodus from Egypt is fulfilled in the same way. How do we fulfill it on Pesach, on the festival of Pesach? On the night of Pesach we say, “A person is obligated to see himself as though he had left Egypt.” Mentioning it is not enough. Pesach has arrived. What is the halachah? What defines the mitzvah of the Exodus from Egypt, the mitzvah of remembering Egypt on Pesach? So the Mishnah says—and everyone knows this—that on Pesach it is not enough to mention it. On Pesach, a person has to see himself as though he is leaving Egypt right now. That is why, on Seder night, we observe all the customs with the matzah, the Seder, the wine, and everything else we do that night. A person has to see himself this way: sitting at a set table, with all kinds of things, silver utensils, everything prescribed to convey royalty. A person has to see himself as though he had left Egypt. In other words, on Pesach night a person is expected to feel as though he is leaving Egypt right now. So much so that the Rebbe explains—there is an established halachah, and the Rebbe explains why on the night of

11:56 Speaker 1 Pesach we make a remembrance of both maror and matzah, both together: so that a person feels both the bitterness and the sense that right now he is actually emerging from a state of bitterness into a state of freedom. The Rebbe explains this at length in several sichos and explanations. But each time—so what is the point here? This is the Alter Rebbe’s innovation on this point in the halachah of remembering the Exodus from Egypt every day. When the Mishnah in Berachos says that we must remember the Exodus from Egypt every day, it means as on Pesach: as though he is leaving Egypt. He must see himself that way and feel as though he has just left Egypt. That is one point. The Rebbe asks: Where did the Alter Rebbe get this from? It is a major innovation. The Mishnah in Pesachim says this; it is a halachah in Pesachim. In Berachos it speaks only of remembering. Where did the Alter Rebbe get this major innovation, that the obligation to remember the Exodus from Egypt means seeing yourself as though you are leaving Egypt? The Rebbe writes that the Alter Rebbe’s reasoning is that there are several Midrashim and several places in the Talmud, as well as in the commentaries, that discuss various halachic distinctions between Pesach—the remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt on Pesach—and the daily remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt. For example, we say in the Pesach Haggadah, “‘Because of this’—at the time when matzah and maror are placed before you.” They discuss the distinction between having matzah and maror and not having them. Various distinctions are discussed between the daily remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt and its remembrance on Pesach, yet nowhere in the Talmud do we find it stated that the distinction is that here it is only a matter of remembering, while there it is a matter of seeing oneself that way. Since nowhere does it say there is such a distinction—so what do we say?

13:54 Speaker 1 That is the substance of the Alter Rebbe’s reasoning. If the halachah were that every day it is enough just to remember, while on Pesach you must feel as though you are leaving Egypt, that should have been listed somewhere as one of the distinctions. Several distinctions are listed, but this one is not. So the Alter Rebbe’s point is that this detail—which detail? The requirement that a person feel as though he is leaving Egypt—is the same in both cases. Not only remembering, but feeling as though one is leaving Egypt. This applies equally on Pesach and throughout the year. That is precisely the wording the Alter Rebbe adds here: “each and every day.” Why does the Alter Rebbe add that it is as though he left Egypt today? The word “today.” The Mishnah in Pesachim does not say “today.” The Alter Rebbe adds that word. The Rebbe gives a very interesting explanation of this as well. Actually, this is not an explanation in a sicha of the Rebbe on Tanya. It is in a sicha of the Rebbe found in the Pesach Haggadah. But incidentally, it gives us an understanding of how the Rebbe approaches Tanya. The Rebbe is speaking in a sicha about Pesach and brings these explanations. The Rebbe says this: The Alter Rebbe offers a new understanding of Pesach itself. We say that “in every generation, a person is obligated to see himself as though he had left Egypt”—a person has to see himself as though he had left Egypt. What is the reason for that? Why? I did not leave Egypt. My grandfather left Egypt. People left Egypt three thousand years ago. Why do I have to feel as though I left Egypt? What does it say in the Pesach Haggadah? The Haggadah gives another reason. It says: “Had Hakadosh Boruch Hu not brought our ancestors out of Egypt, we and our children and our children’s children would still be enslaved in Egypt.” If Hakadosh Boruch Hu had not brought

16:01 Speaker 1 our ancestors out of Egypt then, and we had remained in Egypt, then we too, and our children and our children’s children, would still be there. So my grandfather’s departure from Egypt was, in effect, my departure too. That is what the Haggadah says. In other words, why must I feel as though I left Egypt? Because if Hakadosh Boruch Hu had not brought our ancestors out at that time, we would still be stuck in Egypt today. There are all the explanations about their having reached the forty-ninth gate and almost the fiftieth gate, and what would have happened had they reached the fiftieth—all the descriptions of this in the Midrashim, the stories, and the explanations. So that is why it applies to me as well. It was not just my grandfather’s departure; it was ours too. That is the simple explanation. What follows from that? When did the Exodus from Egypt actually happen? Not today. The Exodus from Egypt happened three thousand years ago. It is just that I feel as though I left Egypt because of this reasoning: had we not left then, we would still be there. So I feel that I, too, left. But that is not the same thing. It does not mean I can leave Egypt today. So the Rebbe adds the idea that it is as though one left Egypt today—that there really is an Exodus from Egypt today. Not only in the sense stated in the Haggadah, because of our ancestors, but actually, each and every day, there is a real Exodus from Egypt, in a literal sense as well. Of course, this can only be understood through Chassidus. What does the Exodus from Egypt mean? Back then, in the plain meaning and according to the revealed dimension of Torah, Egypt was a country, a place, an area of the world where the Jewish people were, and from which they departed. But according to what I explained, as the Rebbe just explained, there is also a spiritual Egypt. So it follows that it is not only because my grandfather

17:51 Speaker 1 left Egypt, so it is as though I left, even though I did not leave. Rather, it is also something personal to me: today I am in Egypt, and today I am leaving Egypt. So these are the two points the Rebbe introduces here in the daily avodah of leaving Egypt. First, every day a person must feel as though he is leaving Egypt. And second, what does “as though he is leaving” mean? Not that he is leaving because our ancestors left, but that today he himself is actually leaving Egypt. Because there is an Egypt now, and he is leaving Egypt now. Incidentally, the bochurim just learned this. It was only last week, Parshas Masei. There is the explanation the Rebbe brings in Likkutei Sichos, an explanation of the Alter Rebbe, about why the Torah says “Masei,” “journeys,” in the plural. Why does it say, “These are the journeys of the children of Israel who left the land of Egypt”? Why “journeys,” in the plural? There was only one journey out of Egypt. All the other journeys took place elsewhere—Refidim and all the other places. There was only that first departure from Egypt. Nevertheless, it says, “These are the journeys,” in the plural, “of those who left the land of Egypt.” The explanation is that Egypt is not just a physical place. Every place they reached was a form of Egypt relative to the stage that followed. Each time, they were in a state of leaving Egypt: moving beyond one limitation to another stage, and beyond that stage too, until they reached the plains of Moav by the Jordan, opposite Jericho. The ultimate goal was to reach a state without limits, which at that time meant entering Eretz Yisroel. And in the spiritual sense, it means Moshiach—leaving behind every state of limitation. So from this too we

19:37 Speaker 1 see that there is a leaving of Egypt every single day. There is also another verse the Rebbe often brings in this connection. In a maamar for Pesach, he explicitly cites the well-known verse, “As in the days of your leaving the land of Egypt, I will show him wonders.” There too, the same question is asked: Why does it say “days,” in the plural? The answer is that all the days from the Exodus until Moshiach comes are one continuous period of “the days of your leaving,” because every day is a leaving of Egypt. So it is also understood in our avodah: there is a mitzvah to remember the Exodus every day. The intention is that a person must see himself as though he is leaving Egypt. He needs to feel it now—to feel as though he is leaving now. And not just because it happened then, but because he himself is actually leaving Egypt now. There are two more small points in the Alter Rebbe’s change of wording. One is the word “see.” How do we say it in the Gemara, in the Pesach text? In the Twelve Pesukim? Does anyone remember? Hm? It says “see.” All right, it also says “see.” But in the Shulchan Aruch, the Alter Rebbe writes “show.” There is a sicha of the Rebbe about this, in this volume. I don’t remember which volume; I think volume 12. He points out the difference between the Alter Rebbe’s wording in the Shulchan Aruch and his wording in Tanya. In the Shulchan Aruch, the Alter Rebbe writes “show”; here he writes “see.” True, “see” follows the wording of the Mishnah more closely. But why is it different in the Shulchan Aruch? There the Alter Rebbe departed from the Mishnah’s wording and wrote “show.” The Rebbe gives a very interesting explanation. What does the Rebbe say? He says this: there is a difference. It does not explain the wording of the Mishnah.

21:49 Speaker 1 It explains only the Alter Rebbe: why in Tanya the Alter Rebbe writes “see,” while in the Mishnah it says “see,” and in the Shulchan Aruch he writes “show.” The Rebbe says that there is a very significant difference in practical halachah between how a person must see himself on Pesach and how he must do so every day. In terms of the feeling, it is the same: “A person is obligated to see himself as though he is leaving Egypt.” The same feeling, the same idea. But in practice, there is a very significant difference. On Pesach, one must do this openly and on a grand scale, through actions and with a set table—with all sorts of things done visibly, before one’s eyes. “The matzos and bitter herbs are placed before you.” Every day, by contrast, it is something private. We do not make a grand display to show our freedom. You daven, you daven with concentration, you say Shema, and you contemplate the Exodus. That is done privately. So that is the difference between “see” and “show.” “See” is something internal: a person must see himself. “Show” is directed toward others. That is the precision in the Alter Rebbe’s wording in the Shulchan Aruch. Yes, the Alter Rebbe changed the wording in the laws of Pesach. He added the letter hei, making it “show.” Because on Pesach the instruction is not only to see oneself, an internal matter, but also to show it outwardly. That is one difference. So in Tanya, where the Alter Rebbe is discussing our daily avodah, he writes “see.” Hey, why does the Mishnah in Pesachim say “see”? A good question. I don’t remember whether the Rebbe addresses that in the sicha. No, I don’t remember. We would have to check. There is another change in wording. The yud. No, we already mentioned the yud. What change is there? Come on, you tell me. Hm? You don’t see it.

24:00 Speaker 2 So.

24:00 Speaker 1 “Et”—“see himself,” with the word “et.” Here, that word does not appear. I have not seen an explanation from the Rebbe about this. But one of the commentators on Tanya, Reb [unclear], writes something about it. I’m repeating it in his name. He writes that the word “et” itself indicates an inclusion. I don’t know the basis for this explanation. What he means is this: when it says “see himself” with “et,” it is as though he sees himself as part of all the Jewish people. Without “et,” it refers only to the individual. So he explains that since Pesach is the time of the Exodus, one must think about the Exodus with a focus on the fact that all the Jewish people left Egypt. It is the time of the Exodus, and so one must “see himself” as part of the whole. But with the daily leaving of Egypt, since that is an individual, spiritual leaving of Egypt, the word “et” does not appear. By the way, we see in Tanya how precise every word is. And it is, in the end, a matter of both meaning and wording. That is why Tanya must be studied as the Rebbe Rashab said: even the least of the least can study Tanya and understand something, while even the greatest of the great, however much he studies it, will always find more depth, and then still more depth. That is how it is with Tanya. Even if someone has studied it and says, “I already know what Tanya says,” that is simply not so. Of course, the more one studies, the more one discovers just how much depth upon depth there is in Tanya. And as the Rebbe Rashab said, the main thing in Tanya is not only to grasp its ideas intellectually, but to understand them and bring them into practice. As he said, one must be careful about offering novel interpretations of Tanya, but if it comes to [unclear], then it is permitted. So that is the point here. There.