Tanya Igeres Hateshuvah - Introduction

00:00 Before we begin studying Igeres Hateshuvah inside, I want to give a bit of an introduction. Teshuvah, in general, is central to the service of Chassidus. Chassidus revealed, beginning with the Baal Shem Tov, that teshuvah is not only about sins and transgressions. The essence of teshuvah, the main work of teshuvah, is the work of refining one’s character traits. Teshuvah means “and the spirit returns to G-d Who gave it.” It is a person’s work throughout life. So much so that, as is quoted in the name of the Baal Shem Tov, the central purpose of Chassidus is to reveal the work of teshuvah. Chassidus came into the world to fulfill what the Zohar says: “Moshiach will come to bring the righteous to teshuvah.” Even tzaddikim need to do teshuvah. Chassidus came into the world to make baalei teshuvah—to awaken people and explain what teshuvah is and what its essence is, and that every single person, even a tzaddik, needs to do teshuvah. It is also known that the Baal Shem Tov wanted to call the chassidim “baalei teshuvah.” That is what the Rebbe writes in Likkutei Dibburim: before the teachings of Chassidus had the name “Chassidus.” As is known, the name “chassidim” came from the misnagdim, not from the chassidim themselves. The chassidim had not thought of that name. The misnagdim called us chassidim, and that became the name. But before that, it did not have that name. For a time, the Baal Shem Tov called the chassidim baalei teshuvah. He wanted to call the chassidim baalei teshuvah. Later, that name did not remain; it changed, and they became known as chassidim. In other words, that is not incidental. We know that a name, as the Baal Shem Tov himself says, is the life-force, the soul, the essence of a thing. So the fact that the Baal Shem Tov wanted to give the chassidim, the teachings of Chassidus, the name baalei teshuvah shows that this is, in fact, the essence of Chassidus.

02:13 Teshuvah. This is also what the Rebbe writes several times in Likkutei Torah: “Not as the world mistakenly thinks,” that teshuvah is about sins and transgressions. In other words, “the world mistakenly thinks”—until the revelation of Chassidus, people lived with a mistaken idea. They thought teshuvah was a word that belonged to baalei teshuvah, and that a person who sits and studies Torah and observes the Shulchan Aruch has nothing to do with teshuvah. “Not as the world mistakenly thinks”—and then comes the explanation of Chassidus. What is teshuvah? What is its essence? “And the spirit returns to G-d Who gave it”: the whole of serving Hashem. There is also a well-known story that the Rebbe spoke about many times. The Rebbe tells it at length in Likkutei Dibburim, and the Rebbe Rashab tells it briefly in Toras Shalom. It is in Toras Shalom, from 4 Tammuz 5667. The Rebbe Rashab was then in Würzburg, Germany, and the chassidim asked for a maamar. He delivered the maamar “Hayosheves Baganim.” After the maamar, he spoke about this subject and told the story. This story was passed down from Rebbe to Rebbe, and the Rebbe also explains it in a farbrengen on 4 Tammuz. The story is that once, when the Mitteler Rebbe was still young, he fasted because of a dream, and the Alter Rebbe found out. The Alter Rebbe punished him for it, because he needed to look after his health. The Alter Rebbe did not approve of his fasting. Afterward, he asked him what the dream had been and why he had fasted because of it. One fasts because of a dream when it is a bad dream. What was the dream? He did not want to say. There is more to that part of the story, but eventually he revealed what the dream had been. In the dream, he saw

04:22 the Alter Rebbe, and he also saw two other people whom he did not recognize. One had one appearance, and the other had another. He described them: one was taller, one was shorter, and one had one leg thicker than the other. Various details of their appearance. Afterward, the Alter Rebbe told him they were the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid—and the Alter Rebbe was there too. There was a river, and its water was rushing, foaming, roaring, and flowing rapidly. Across the river was something like a tree trunk, a beam, or a wooden plank. Then—I do not remember whether the Baal Shem Tov stepped onto it—but the Maggid did, and it swayed. Then the Alter Rebbe stepped onto it and crossed the entire river without it swaying. That was the whole dream. And the Mitteler Rebbe fasted. I think that when the Rebbe told the story, he used some expression—I do not... It is hard to understand what was so serious about the dream that he fasted afterward. But that was the dream. When the Mitteler Rebbe told the Alter Rebbe about the dream, the Alter Rebbe interpreted it for him. He said that the reason he could cross the entire river without falling or swaying was that he makes baalei teshuvah. In other words, the Maggid’s work was more about making tzaddikim, while the Alter Rebbe’s work was more about making baalei teshuvah. That is how he explained it. The Rebbe speaks about this in the sichos of 4 Teves. The Rebbe spoke about it in 5741 and 5742. Several times, when 4 Teves came around, the Rebbe would tell this story—the story of 4 Teves—and the lesson the Rebbe

06:27 draws from it about the great value of the work of teshuvah. What does it mean that the Alter Rebbe made many baalei teshuvah? It does not mean only that, in the plain, practical sense, the Alter Rebbe brought people to teshuvah, though he did a great deal of that too. Primarily, it refers to the essence of teshuvah: what the Alter Rebbe explained in his maamarim, here in Igeres Hateshuvah and also in the maamarim in Likkutei Torah, among the many maamarim in which he explained it. He revealed the entire path of teshuvah as an inner work. Through this, he made baalei teshuvah not only of people who had committed sins and transgressions—though he accomplished a great deal with them too—but even among great people, tzaddikim and so on, he brought about that great chassidim would have true teshuvah, as he explains later in Igeres Hateshuvah as well. So these stories show us that teshuvah has a very central, very deep, very inward place in Chassidus. It is a complete path in serving Hashem. And even when speaking about teshuvah in its plain sense—which is, in fact, what Igeres Hateshuvah comes to address—we can see that in its opening chapters the Alter Rebbe speaks about actual transgressions: positive commandments, negative commandments, transgressions punishable by kareis, commandments between one person and another, and matters between a person and Heaven. [unclear] So the Alter Rebbe explicitly sets out to explain how to do teshuvah for actual transgressions. Here too, we see the remarkable innovation, the revolution, the revelation of Chassidus in how to do teshuvah. You could say that until the Alter Rebbe—until the Baal Shem Tov, though the Baal Shem Tov did not explain it; he revealed the central point—but until the Alter Rebbe, when there was no Igeres Hateshuvah, teshuvah was always viewed as something connected with, with a form of service

08:25 Very hard—with the work of bitterness, with tears, with fasts and self-mortification. It was something you could never free yourself from your whole life: suffering and constantly thinking about the bad things you had done, and so on and so forth. Rectifications, and all kinds of rectifications, and more rectifications. That is also what it says in many sefarim. When you read sefarim like Chovos Halevavos, Reishis Chochmah, and Rabbeinu Yonah’s Shaarei Teshuvah—all sorts of works by the great Torah sages of the generations before the Alter Rebbe—we are talking about genuine great Torah sages. I am not just throwing in book titles; I mean genuine mussar works by great Torah sages. But you can see that until the time of the Baal Shem Tov and the Alter Rebbe, teshuvah was understood more as work involving breaking the heart, breaking the body, bitterness and a broken heart. That was the main point, along with all kinds of acts of rectification that had to be done. Then came the Baal Shem Tov, and especially the Alter Rebbe. In Igeres Hateshuvah, he gives us a new way of looking at what teshuvah is in essence and how that is expressed in the actual practice of teshuvah. So that is a little groundwork for understanding what we are going to learn here in Igeres Hateshuvah. And we will get to Igeres Hateshuvah. The Rebbe spoke about something very interesting: the title Igeres Hateshuvah—why did the Alter Rebbe call it Igeres Hateshuvah? Just a little history here, things that are fairly well known, though perhaps some people do not know that Igeres Hateshuvah was not originally part of Tanya. When the Alter Rebbe first printed Tanya, it contained only the first two parts: Likkutei Amarim and—what is the second part called?—Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah. That was the whole Tanya, and that is what was printed in 5557. Igeres Hateshuvah came afterward. It was a kuntres, an epistle. It was not connected to the book; it was not part of it. It was an epistle that—

10:39 circulated among the chassidim. Later it was even printed, but entirely on its own, not as part of Likkutei Amarim. And Igeres Hateshuvah as it was originally printed was not worded exactly as we have it now. It was similar, but not the same. There are many details there that are not here. In other words, in some respects this version is even more concise, while in others it is more extensive. The whole order was different. That was the first edition of Igeres Hateshuvah. Over the years, the Alter Rebbe revised it, and certain sections were rewritten. It then became the twelve chapters of Igeres Hateshuvah, until, if I am not mistaken, in 5566—almost ten years after the first two parts of Tanya were printed—Tanya was printed together with Igeres Hateshuvah, and it was called the third part. You can see that in newer editions of Tanya it says “Likkutei Amarim, Part Three,” because that was among the additions and corrections the Rebbe made to Tanya. But in older editions it does not say that. Igeres Hateshuvah is not called the third part. The Rebbe discusses this in one of his sichos. By the way, this is an aside, but an important one: the Rebbe gave many explanations of Igeres Hateshuvah. Igeres Hateshuvah is one of the subjects with the most explanations from the Rebbe—or perhaps not just one of them: it is the part for which we have the most explanations from the Rebbe. The Rebbe invested tremendous effort in Igeres Hateshuvah, both in speaking and in writing. As for speaking, over a period of almost three years, the Rebbe gave an explanation of Igeres Hateshuvah every week, from 5729 to 5730. Whenever the Rebbe held a farbrengen that week, whether on a weekday or on Shabbos, the Rebbe would explain a section of Igeres Hateshuvah. The Rebbe went through the entire Igeres Hateshuvah from beginning to end, and—

13:01 gave an explanation of every passage. It is one of the remarkable things: you can see the wonders in the Rebbe’s answers, how the Rebbe explained all of Igeres Hateshuvah from beginning to end. Afterward, the Rebbe also explained the glosses—the glosses of Rabbi Levi. Rabbi Levi wrote eighteen glosses on Igeres Hateshuvah. In 5730, the Rebbe began explaining one of Rabbi Levi’s glosses on Tanya each Shabbos. This later became the Likkutei Sichos on Igeres Hateshuvah: the eighteen glosses of Rabbi Levi, with the Rebbe’s explanations—wonderful, foundational explanations. That was in speech. And in writing, when Rabbi Weinberg taught his Tanya classes on the radio, the Rebbe would edit every lesson, including those on Likkutei Amarim. But you can plainly see the vast difference: in the lessons on Likkutei Amarim and Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, there are only a few edits here and there—a line, a word. Not so with Igeres Hateshuvah. The edits the Rebbe made to Igeres Hateshuvah were incomparably greater, both in quantity and in quality. Some of those edits were later discussed in sichos as well; some of what was said aloud... But it is an entire world. It is a whole body of Torah through which the Rebbe teaches us the depth of Igeres Hateshuvah. In any event, back to our subject. In one of those weekly talks, the Rebbe began by explaining the title Igeres Hateshuvah. Why did the Alter Rebbe call it an igeres, an epistle? An igeres is a letter, and a letter conveys two things: a letter is sent to a distant place, and a letter is not something permanent. The Rebbe explained that this is precisely the point of teshuvah. Teshuvah belongs to a distant place: a person’s soul descends into the world and becomes distant from G-dliness, and that is where the whole matter of teshuvah applies. As it says in Likkutei Torah on this week’s parsha, Parshas—

15:17 Balak, the Alter Rebbe writes about the primary purpose of the soul’s descent—its true explanation. Why did the soul descend below? Because down here, teshuvah becomes possible. That is why it is an igeres: it is sent to a distant place. Precisely when the soul descends below, becomes enclothed in a physical body and grows distant from G-dliness, teshuvah becomes relevant. That is why it is a letter written to a distant place. And an igeres is not something permanent, because the work of teshuvah serves as a means to an end. In other words, it is work done in order to reveal the soul. In the work of teshuvah, we should sense that it is not a permanent form of service; its purpose is to remove the concealments and veils so that a person can attain a deeper understanding of G-dliness. That is what the Rebbe explained. There were other explanations based on Kabbalah, as well as explanations of the meaning of the word igeres. The Rebbe connected it with Igeres HaPurim. There was extensive discussion of other matters too, but on the straightforward level, these were the explanations the Rebbe gave for the name Igeres Hateshuvah. The Rebbe also explained why it is the third part. What is hinted at by Igeres Hateshuvah being the third part? The Rebbe spoke about the fact that Tanya can be divided into four parts: Likkutei Amarim, Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, Igeres Hateshuvah, and Igeres Hakodesh, with Kuntres Acharon included in Igeres Hakodesh; or it can be divided into five parts: Likkutei Amarim, Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, Igeres Hateshuvah, Igeres Hakodesh, and Kuntres Acharon. If Tanya is divided into four parts, they correspond to the four sections of the Shulchan Aruch: Orach Chaim, Yoreh Deah, Even HaEzer, and Choshen Mishpat. If Tanya is divided into five parts, they correspond to the Five Books of the Torah: Bereishis, Shemos, Vayikra, Bamidbar, and Devarim. So the Rebbe said something very interesting: if we look at Tanya as we do the Chumash, with its five parts, then Igeres Hateshuvah is—

17:27 So that is Vayikra, and that is exactly the connection. The Book of Vayikra is a book of teshuvah. Its avodah is the offerings; that is what the Book of Vayikra is all about. So Igeres Hateshuvah is specifically the third book of Tanya, corresponding to the Book of Vayikra. Offerings are, after all, primarily about teshuvah. “When a person among you brings an offering to Hashem” speaks of a person who needs to make amends. As you’ll see, he is about to explain this here with offerings such as the olah and sin-offerings. So Igeres Hateshuvah corresponds to the Book of Vayikra, which is called the most demanding of the books, because the avodah of teshuvah is demanding, deep work. On the other hand, if we look at Igeres Hateshuvah in terms of the four sections of Shulchan Aruch, it is the third section. The Rebbe explains the four sections of Shulchan Aruch: Orach Chaim corresponds to Likkutei Amarim. Orach Chaim is the section of Shulchan Aruch that discusses how a Jew should live day to day. In Tanya, that is Likkutei Amarim, the section that explains how to serve Hashem every day. Yoreh De’ah relates to the word da’as, “knowledge,” which connects to Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, beginning with “Know this day.” After that comes Even HaEzer, corresponding to Igeres Hateshuvah. What is Even HaEzer? Even HaEzer discusses divorce and marriage. That connects to Igeres Hateshuvah: through sin and wrongdoing, a Jew distances himself from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is like divorce. And when he does teshuvah, that is like marriage. The whole subject of husband and wife, and the bond between them, is connected to the avodah of teshuvah. And then there is the third point. The Rebbe also explained that this is alluded to in the words even or ezer—the idea of help and assistance in the avodah of teshuvah, and so on. The Rebbe mentioned several details. Choshen Mishpat deals with monetary matters, and in Igeres Hakodesh, too,

19:22 we see that he speaks mainly about monetary matters. So those are the four sections of Shulchan Aruch as they appear in Tanya. Igeres Hateshuvah, then, is connected with Even HaEzer. Those were a few additional details by way of introduction to Igeres Hateshuvah, and, with Hashem’s help, in the next class we’ll begin to go into the text itself.