Tanya Igeres Hateshuvah - Chapter 1 - Part 5

00:00 So let’s continue with Igeres Hateshuvah. We’re back on page 91, in the lesson [unclear]. The Alter Rebbe has brought up the mitzvah of teshuvah according to the Torah. He explains that, according to the Torah, the mitzvah of teshuvah is simply abandoning the sin. In the previous lesson, we explained what is new in the Alter Rebbe’s approach: he comes to explain what the Torah’s mitzvah of teshuvah is, what the essence of teshuvah is. According to the Torah, the central point is abandoning the sin, and the Alter Rebbe explains what that means. It means that from now on, a person resolves never to return to his folly, never to transgress the King’s commandments, and to accept upon himself again the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven and the yoke of the mitzvos. We already explained that in the previous lesson. I just want to add one point. What is new in the Alter Rebbe’s approach goes in two directions. On the one hand, he sets aside the multitude of details; he makes things easier. When you look in the works on teshuvah, you find many different matters involved. As the Rebbe points out, Rabbeinu Yonah’s Shaarei Teshuvah lists twenty elements of teshuvah. Other numbers are given elsewhere, but you find many different elements. So on the one hand, the Alter Rebbe makes it easier. This is the idea that “it is close to you”: he brings it close and explains that the mitzvah of teshuvah really has one central point. On the other hand, the Alter Rebbe does not only make it easier; he also makes the demand more stringent, in a sense. Tanya and Chabad Chassidus explain the truth: genuine teshuvah means correcting that central point and doing teshuvah for it. You have to address the essence, not so much

02:18 the particular detail as the central point. That is why he says teshuvah is for casting off the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven. In other words, when you look at the essence of teshuvah, it is not just about correcting the particular sin you committed. That, too, has to be corrected afterward. But the primary mitzvah of teshuvah according to the Torah begins with addressing the rebellion. It is not the particular sin, but the point common to every sin. Whatever the sin may be, the moment a person commits a transgression, he rebels against the King. There is a rebellion here, and that is what needs correcting. You have to correct the root: the rebellion, the casting off of the yoke. So the Alter Rebbe says here that teshuvah means resolving never again to return to one’s folly by rebelling against the King. There is a Creator. In one of the sichos, the Rebbe adds that we see here in Tanya that even if a person’s teshuvah is for one sin, his teshuvah has to encompass everything—all 613 mitzvos. Whether he committed one sin, ten sins, or a hundred, the moment a person commits even one sin, he is rebelling against the King. Since he has rebelled against the King, he has to correct things at their root, by accepting His kingship. He therefore has to resolve anew to observe all 613 mitzvos. That is the significance of the Alter Rebbe’s precise wording: “and he will never again transgress the King’s commandments, G-d forbid, whether positive commandments or prohibitions.” When you look at the Rambam’s Hilchos Teshuvah, the wording is that I will not return to that sin—as though teshuvah is primarily for that particular sin, that detail. But according to Chassidus, according to the Alter Rebbe’s explanation, since the issue here is the rebellion, the correction is not only for that particular sin. Rather, it is a new beginning:

04:19 a person must accept upon himself the yoke of the entire Torah and all the mitzvos, both positive commandments and prohibitions. In other words, the Rebbe looks at it this way: when a Jew commits a sin, the inner point is that he has taken off the yoke of Hakadosh Boruch Hu—as though it does not matter to him if he commits a transgression. Even if he committed only one transgression or two, that is just the number; that is how it happened to work out. The essential point is that it indicates a casting off of the yoke. Teshuvah must therefore address the inner point, which is kabbolas ol. That is the principle the Rebbe teaches us here. At the beginning, the Alter Rebbe brings proofs from the verses, as we discussed in the previous lesson. Now let’s continue a little further inside. Tanya says—the Alter Rebbe says: “Not like the common view that teshuvah means fasting.” Here the Alter Rebbe also wants to correct a misconception: the common view that teshuvah means fasting. Some people look in the works on teshuvah and see discussion of fasts. A number of works were written by great Torah sages—Sefer Chassidim, for example, and the Alter Rebbe will soon mention some other works that discuss at length practices of penitence, fasts, self-denial, and so on. Some people understood that these were the main thing in teshuvah: that teshuvah meant fasting and self-denial. Interestingly, the Rebbe cites the Noda BiYehudah in a footnote. He was not a chossid, and the Rebbe cites him in a footnote. He lived in the Alter Rebbe’s time. The Noda BiYehudah writes about a Jew who described various transgressions he had committed and asked what practices of penitence he should undertake. He explains to him that it is a mistake to think those practices are teshuvah. Teshuvah is something—

06:35 teshuvah is teshuvah. There, he does not explain exactly what it is, but he, too, rejects that misconception. The Alter Rebbe comes here to explain it. We will soon see that he rules out many other details as well, but the fundamental misconception he addresses here is the idea that fasting and self-denial are the main part of teshuvah. That is what the Alter Rebbe comes to explain: “Not like the common view that teshuvah means fasting.” People think teshuvah means fasting, and he now explains that this is a mistake. Of course, this is not a side point in the Baal Shem Tov’s interpretation. We all know that the Baal Shem Tov publicized the teaching on “You shall surely help him.” As explained in the well-known teaching quoted in Hayom Yom, when a person “sees the donkey of one who hates you”—when he sees his own physicality—he might think he needs to fast and practice self-denial to correct it. To this he is told, “You shall surely help him”: he must work together with the body, correcting things with the body, not against it. This is fundamental to the Baal Shem Tov’s interpretation. And here we see the Alter Rebbe explain to us, right at the beginning of Igeres Hateshuvah, that fasting is not the main part of teshuvah. “And even one who transgresses sins punishable by kareis or death by the court, whose atonement is completed through suffering.” Even at the third level we mentioned earlier—sins punishable by kareis or death by the court, for which we said suffering cleanses a person—one might think that for such transgressions, fasting is necessary. After all, suffering cleanses. So if a person wants to bring that suffering upon himself, what is the problem? He can undertake fasts and self-denial. To this the Alter Rebbe explains: it means that Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings suffering upon him. Fasting and self-denial are not something

08:28 That a person does it to himself; rather, Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings it upon him. Yes, as it says, “I will visit [their transgression] with the rod,” and so on. “I will visit,” specifically. Yes, in the verse the Gemara brings, “I will visit”—Hakadosh Boruch Hu does it. So it is not that a person brings fasts and self-mortification upon himself. If Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants to cleanse you, then He will do so, but a person should not seek it out himself. In other words, we already explained that this is why the Alter Rebbe brought the verse. Why is it that in this chapter of Tanya, the Alter Rebbe does not bring the other verses, but specifically regarding fasts and self-mortification, on the previous page, he brings the verse “I will visit their transgression with the rod”? Because this verse expresses a fundamental point in the Alter Rebbe’s approach: a person should not seek out fasts and self-mortification for himself, because that is something that comes from Above. On the other hand, if so, the question arises: If suffering and self-mortification—fasts and self-mortification—are not things a person should bring upon himself, but come only from Above, then are they not in a person’s hands? If so, complete atonement for a transgression punishable by kares or by a court-imposed death penalty is not in his hands. That would contradict the whole point the Alter Rebbe wants to explain to us in Tanya: “For the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.” It is in a person’s hands to do teshuvah, and it is also in his hands to rectify his entire past. That includes atonement. But according to what we have just said, that atonement comes through suffering, and that suffering comes from Above—a person does not bring

10:23 it upon himself—then it does not depend on him. This is what the Alter Rebbe now comes to explain in the following lines. That is, he comes to answer this question. The Alter Rebbe says, “That is, when his teshuvah...” The Alter Rebbe wants to explain that although the suffering that cleanses comes from Above—a person should not inflict it upon himself; rather, Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings it upon him—nevertheless, this too depends on his avodah. This too is in a person’s hands. “That is, when his teshuvah is accepted before Him, blessed be He, and he returns to Hashem with all his heart and soul, out of love.” When a person does complete teshuvah and returns to Hakadosh Boruch Hu—yes, teshuvah out of love—“then, through an awakening from below, and as water reflects a face to a face, there is an awakening from Above, arousing Hashem’s love and kindness to cleanse his sin through suffering.” So the Alter Rebbe explains that it is in a person’s hands through doing teshuvah—and not just any teshuvah, but specifically teshuvah out of love. As the Gemara says in Tractate Yoma, there is teshuvah out of fear and there is teshuvah out of love. Teshuvah out of love has all the advantages of teshuvah out of love that the Alter Rebbe discussed near the beginning of Tanya, in chapter 7. So the Alter Rebbe says that when a person does not just any teshuvah, but teshuvah out of love, the principle with love is that it is like water reflecting a face to a face. When you do teshuvah out of love, you thereby arouse Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s love for the person from Above as well. And when Hakadosh Boruch Hu loves us—it is hard to say it, but yes, out of His love—He cleanses us. So the suffering that cleanses is suffering born of love. It is to cleanse his sin through suffering

12:27 in this world. As it says, “For whom Hashem loves, He rebukes,” and so on. It is specifically a person whom Hakadosh Boruch Hu loves that He rebukes. This is the suffering born of love that Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives. The Alter Rebbe will explain this point at the end of Igeres Hateshuvah. Here he does not explain it; he only states it briefly. But at the end of Igeres Hateshuvah, in chapter 12, the Alter Rebbe explains at length why suffering is suffering born of love: Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants a person’s sins to be cleansed through suffering specifically in this world. That way, he will not need, G-d forbid, suffering in the World to Come, and suffering in this world is nothing compared to suffering in the World to Come. That is Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s love: He wants to cleanse us specifically in this world. In any case, this is the point the Alter Rebbe explains: Because this is a matter of love, when a person does teshuvah out of love, love is like water reflecting a face to a face. Through the person’s love, he arouses love from Above, and that causes Hakadosh Boruch Hu to cleanse him. So even the suffering that comes from Above depends on the avodah below—on his teshuvah being teshuvah out of love. The Alter Rebbe continues: “Therefore, neither the Rambam nor the Semag mentions any fast at all as part of the mitzvah of teshuvah, even for transgressions punishable by kares or by a court-imposed death penalty.” The Alter Rebbe says that this explains why the Rambam and the Semag, who enumerate the mitzvos and also write about the mitzvah of teshuvah—the Rambam in Hilchos Teshuvah, and likewise the Semag... As is known, the Semag was one of the Tosafists, and he wrote Sefer Mitzvos Gadol—that is what the initials stand for—where he presents the 613 mitzvos together with various laws, based on

14:26 the Rambam. And he, too, does not mention any fast at all as part of the mitzvah of teshuvah, even for transgressions punishable by kares or by a court-imposed death penalty. Why do they not mention it? Because, as we said, it is not part of the mitzvah of teshuvah itself. “Only confession and a request for forgiveness.” On the other hand, what do they mention? The Rambam and the Semag mention something else: confession and a request for forgiveness. What is this confes—yes, this they do mention. The Rambam has not mentioned this yet. The Rambam mentioned that the Torah’s mitzvah of teshuvah is simply abandoning the sin, which concerns what one does from now on: resolving not to do it again. That is the mitzvah of teshuvah. He ruled out fasting as part of the mitzvah of teshuvah. Now he says that the Rambam and the Semag did not mention fasts for the reason we gave, but they do mention confession and a request for forgiveness. Who was talking about confession and a request for forgiveness? Until now, the Alter Rebbe has not mentioned them. He says: “As it is written in the Torah, ‘And they shall confess their sin,’ and so on.” Why did they write about confession and a request for forgiveness? Because it is written in the Torah. The Torah says there must be confession. As we mentioned before, the Rambam holds that this is the Torah’s mitzvah of teshuvah. We mentioned in a previous class the disagreement between the Rambam and the Ramban: According to the Rambam, the entire mitzvah is the mitzvah of confession. So the question arises: What is going on here? Suddenly the Alter Rebbe mentions confession and a request for forgiveness. Who was talking about that at all? And it becomes clear from what follows. If the mitzvah of teshuvah is only abandoning the sin, then not only are fasts not the point; confession and a request for forgiveness are not the point either. Why does the Alter Rebbe bring up confession and a request for forgiveness as something relevant? What is the difference between confession and a request for forgiveness, and fasts? So, as

16:30 As the Rebbe explains in a well-known sicha in volume 17 on Parshas Acharei, and also elsewhere, in volume 29 on Yom Kippur. The Rebbe discusses this several times. There is the mitzvah of teshuvah, and there is the completeness of teshuvah. At the heart of the mitzvah of teshuvah is leaving the sin behind. That is the verse Rabbi brought earlier, “And you shall return to Hashem your G-d.” This is teshuvah in the heart, the essence of the mitzvah of teshuvah: a resolve for the future not to return to one’s folly. Accepting the yoke of Heaven is the essence of the mitzvah of teshuvah. But there is also the completeness of teshuvah, what is needed for teshuvah to be complete. What does that mean? As we discussed in previous classes, according to the Alter Rebbe and the beraisa, there is teshuvah and there is atonement. Teshuvah and atonement are two distinct things. So here, too, the Alter Rebbe says that the essence of the mitzvah of teshuvah is accepting the yoke of Heaven. True. But since the aim of teshuvah is also atonement, the rectification of the sin and atonement for it, leaving the sin behind is not enough for that atonement to be complete. There must also be confession and a request for forgiveness. Confession is “They shall confess their sin,” as the Torah says. And requesting forgiveness—put simply, the text of confession has two parts. There is the admission: “I have sinned, I have transgressed, I have rebelled.” That is called confession: a person admits that he sinned. Then there is the request for forgiveness: “Forgive us, pardon us, atone for us, pardon us.” As we say in the text of Krias Shema... So one part is confession, and the other is requesting forgiveness. We see that the Rambam includes both in the text of confession. When a person confesses,

18:49 he says, “Hashem, I have sinned, I have transgressed, I have rebelled,” and so on. And he says, “I resolve not to do it again,” and so on. Here we have confession as well as a request for forgiveness. The Rebbe adds another reason the Alter Rebbe wrote “requesting forgiveness” here: the Alter Rebbe wants to allude to a mitzvah between one person and another. We know that when a person sins against someone else, besides doing teshuvah before G-d, he must also ask that person for forgiveness. So when the Alter Rebbe writes “requesting forgiveness,” he also wants to allude to asking another person for forgiveness, if the sin was against that person. These things are needed to reach the completeness of teshuvah; they are not the essence of teshuvah. The essence is to cast off the rejection of the yoke and accept the yoke. As we said, that is the essential point. But since I want my teshuvah to bring about atonement as well, that requires the completeness of teshuvah. For that, the Torah gave us confession and the request for forgiveness, through which a person brings about complete atonement for the sin. That is according to the revealed dimension of Torah. According to Chassidus, we know what is explained in Derech Mitzvosecha: Why is confession necessary? Why isn’t teshuvah in the heart enough? Why must teshuvah also involve confession, the movement of the lips? The Tzemach Tzedek explains that every sin has a soul and a body. When a person sins, there are two things involved. There is the soul—the vitality and pleasure the person experiences while committing the sin. On the other hand, there is the body of the sin: the actual, physical deed he did. And when a person sins, an angel is created from it. As it says in Pirkei

20:47 Avos, “One who commits a single transgression acquires a single accusing angel.” An angel is created from it, with a body and a soul. The soul of that angel comes from the desire and pleasure in the sin, and its body comes from the sinful act. The work of teshuvah must rectify both. That is why there are these two elements. Teshuvah itself—the regret and the resolve for the future that are in the heart—rectifies the soul. But to rectify the body of the sin as well, there is confession. Why confession? Because confession is an act. It is a small act, a movement of the lips, but “the movement of one’s lips is considered an act,” as the Gemara puts it. Since there is some physical movement here, at least the movement of the lips, that action can rectify the body of the sin. That is why the confession goes through the whole alphabet: “We have been guilty, we have betrayed, we have stolen.” We say the entire alphabet, because through that you rectify the body of the sin, not just its soul. So we need both teshuvah and confession. That is the explanation according to Chassidus. In any case, that is the point the Alter Rebbe is making here.