Tanya Igeres Hateshuvah - Chapter 2 - Fasts

00:00 Speaker 1 Ah, I’ll say one point from chapter 2, and then we’ll continue and get to chapter 4. Just so you can see that there’s depth in chapter 2 as well. When you learn Igeres Hateshuvah, chapters 2 and 3 seem to be talking about more technical things. The Alter Rebbe goes into the whole subject of fasts. First, the Alter Rebbe explains that the essence of teshuvah is specifically leaving the sin behind, as we discussed at length: the mitzvah of teshuvah according to the Torah is not a matter of words, but of accepting Hashem’s sovereignty. That’s the whole point we discussed in the previous classes. But for teshuvah to be complete, for atonement to be fully achieved—and especially for a person to be pleasing and beloved to Hakadosh Boruch Hu as he was before the sin—fasts are needed. So the Alter Rebbe goes into the entire subject of fasts at length. Just from one letter of the Rebbe’s, you can see how much depth there is to fasts. The Alter Rebbe begins by saying that the purpose of fasts is to make a person pleasing and beloved to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Right? That’s the purpose of the fasts: they’re like an offering, specifically a burnt offering. A burnt offering is like someone sending a gift to a king. Through that gift, not only does the king forgive and pardon him, but the king also comes to favor him. Right? Even more than before. That’s what fasts are like. Right? But then the Alter Rebbe says that we find among several Tannaim and Amoraim that they fasted very many fasts over a minor matter. Even for minor transgressions, they undertook a great many fasts. And then the Alter Rebbe gives three examples. Right. One is Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah, who did not protest when his neighbor’s cow went out with a strap between its horns. It’s some issue in the laws of carrying as they apply to an animal, something very minor involving muktzeh—not muktzeh, carrying—and he

02:17 Speaker 1 didn’t—he—he held one way and his colleagues held another way. Because the Sages ruled stringently, the halachah wasn’t decided according to his view, and his neighbor’s cow went out with that strap. Right? Not according to the halachic ruling, even though he himself thought otherwise. He thought it was permitted, but because his view was contrary to that of his colleagues, he was so distressed over it that his teeth became black from fasting. He undertook so many fasts over his sin—failing to protest when his neighbor’s cow went out with that strap—that his teeth turned black from all the fasts. A second example is Rabbi Yehoshua. Rabbi Yehoshua once said something harsh to Beis Shammai. He said to them, “I am ashamed of your words, Beis Shammai; I am ashamed of your words.” You might think, what did he say already? But because of that very thing, he undertook many fasts, until his teeth turned black. Rav Huna—once, the straps of his tefillin turned over. With tefillin, the black side has to face outward, right? The boys learned about tefillin here, didn’t they? Was that during a mivtza, or was it during a mivtza?

03:31 Speaker 2 Yes, it was.

03:33 Speaker 1 Right. So, so, so one of his tefillin straps turned over, and he undertook forty fasts. Right. That’s what he brings here. Afterward, the Alter Rebbe writes that, on this basis, the Arizal prescribed many fasts for certain acts of rectification. For anger, 151 fasts. Right. A person gets angry once, and he has to undertake 151 fasts. Similarly, for drinking ordinary non-Jewish wine, 73 fasts; and for neglecting prayer once, 68 fasts. Now, the Rebbe has wonderful explanations of this entire passage. In short, there are many details, and it looks a little as though—what is the Alter Rebbe trying to tell us? So I’ll mention a few points here, just to show how precise every word in Tanya is. First of all, why does he give three examples? One example is the cow that went out with a strap, in the case of Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah. The second is “I am ashamed of your words, Beis Shammai,” and the third is a tefillin strap. The Rebbe notes that these three examples correspond to thought, speech and action. Right. Not protesting concerns thought. “I am ashamed of your words” is speech, and the tefillin strap is action. Why does he give three names—Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah, Rabbi Yehoshua and Rav Huna? Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah was a Kohen. Rabbi Yehoshua was a Levi, and Rav Huna was a Yisroel. The Rebbe brings proof from the Gemara for each one. Right—where do we know it from? Right. Kohen, Levi, Yisroel. In other words, the Rebbe wants to give specifically three examples showing that in all three areas—thought, speech and action—there were many fasts, and that this applied to every group: Kohanim, Levi’im and Yisroelim. Then the Rebbe explains what the novelty is in each case. Why might we think Kohanim would need fewer fasts and Yisroelim more? What’s the distinction? The Rebbe goes on to explain that there is

05:38 Speaker 1 a novel point in each one. Why do we need to be told specifically that a Kohen, a Levi and a Yisroel each did not suffice with teshuvah alone, but also fasted? The Rebbe also explains later that when the Alter Rebbe cites the Arizal, he again gives three examples: anger, ordinary non-Jewish wine, and prayer. The Rebbe explains that these three examples are also connected with—what?—thought, speech and action, if I’m not mistaken. Right. The Rebbe explains that there’s also—I don’t remember now—a certain order to why the Alter Rebbe gives specifically these examples. But in any case, that’s not the main point I wanted to make. There’s something much deeper here, and the Rebbe establishes a wonderful principle concerning the laws of teshuvah, based on one small detail in the wording here. The Alter Rebbe says that Tannaim and Amoraim “fasted very many fasts” over a minor matter. Right—that wording, “many fasts.” When you look further, you see that Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah’s teeth turned black because of fasting, so that’s a lot. Blackened teeth are a sign that he undertook many fasts. It also says that Rabbi Yehoshua’s teeth turned black. In Rav Huna’s case, it says he undertook forty fasts. Forty fasts—that’s “very many fasts.” What’s so many about that? Forty fasts sounds like a lot. Forty fasts isn’t a lot, especially when you look at what comes next: for getting angry once, you need 151 fasts. Right? For ordinary non-Jewish wine, it comes to 73 fasts. So forty fasts is the smallest number of fasts here. And the Rambam writes of 84 fasts. Right.

07:38 Speaker 1 So forty fasts doesn’t sound like all that many; it doesn’t seem all that severe an act. And why did Rav Huna fast forty fasts? Here the Rebbe arrives at a wonderful principle—a general principle concerning teshuvah that the Rebbe explains here. The number forty isn’t arbitrary. In fact, none of the numbers here are arbitrary. Every number brought here in Igeres Hateshuvah has an explanation according to Kabbalah. Why does anger require 151? That’s the gematria of the word for anger, including the word itself, and there’s an explanation for that too. Why include the word itself? There are also cases where it isn’t included. 324 fasts—every case has an explanation according to Kabbalah for why that particular transgression requires that number of fasts. What’s the point of forty fasts? Forty is a very general number, connected with the entire service of teshuvah. Where do we see the number forty in a general way in the service of teshuvah? We see it simply in the time we’re in now. There are forty days from Rosh Chodesh Elul until Yom Kippur, the forty days of teshuvah. Right? It says plainly in the Shulchan Aruch: Why do we blow the shofar from Rosh Chodesh Elul? Because the forty days of Divine favor begin on Rosh Chodesh Elul. Those forty days of Divine favor are connected with the forty days it took Moshe Rabbeinu to obtain “I have forgiven, as you said.” Right. So we find that the service of teshuvah is connected specifically with the number forty. From this we understand that Rav Huna’s forty fasts weren’t an arbitrary number. It’s a central number, because it expresses the idea of the forty days needed for the service of teshuvah. Just as Moshe Rabbeinu needed forty days, so too

09:42 Speaker 1 For any Jew who wants to attain complete teshuvah through the work of teshuvah, there is a particular significance to the number forty. Why forty? Why was Moshe Rabbeinu there for forty days? Why are there specifically forty days of divine favor from Rosh Chodesh Elul until Yom Kippur? The Rebbe says that the Gemara in tractate Taanis states that the formation of a child takes forty days. At the beginning of a pregnancy, there is a stage called the formation of the child, and it takes forty days. The Gemara says that during those forty days one can still pray and ask for a male to become a female, or a female to become a male. Things can still change. That is why, even in the laws of ritual impurity, there is a difference between a miscarriage before forty days of pregnancy and one after forty days. There are distinctions in halachah. The “formation of the child” means that the drop of seed takes on a form, the general form of a child, and that takes forty days. What happens during the following nine months? After all, pregnancy lasts nine months. During those nine months, the child grows and develops in all its details. But the essential formation of the child takes forty days. In other words, how long does it take to go from a drop of seed, from something that is not yet a child, to the reality of a child, a new reality? Forty days. And this helps us understand teshuvah as well. The point of teshuvah is that a person becomes a new reality. In Hilchos Teshuvah, the Rambam writes that the central point of teshuvah is that a person becomes a new reality: “I am another person, not the same person I was yesterday.” The Rambam writes about a person doing teshuvah. What defines teshuvah? The definition of

12:00 Speaker 1 teshuvah is that a person undergoes an essential change, like a newborn child. He becomes someone new; he changes. He actually becomes a new reality. Since a child’s becoming a new reality is connected with forty days, the work of teshuvah also has forty days of divine favor. And in the case of Rav Huna’s fasts, too, the number of fasts is forty. The Rebbe puts it this way: If we take the example of pregnancy and birth, we find three stages. From the time a child comes into being until birth, there are three stages. First is the essential beginning of pregnancy, the initial point, which takes a single moment. It happens immediately. The Gemara asks: From when does a child have a share in the resurrection of the dead? From the moment of conception. In other words, the child’s essential existence begins at the very first moment of pregnancy. Then come forty days, the days of the child’s formation, when it becomes a child with the defined status of a child. After that, it takes nine months for the child to develop fully, with all its details. So there are three stages: the initial point of conception, the forty days of the child’s formation, and then the period until birth. Now, the time of birth differs from one child to another. Generally it is nine months, but some babies are born after seven months, and some are born in the ninth month—at its beginning, middle, or end. Some remain in the womb for more than nine months. As cited in Midrash and Chassidus in the name of several Midrashim, [unclear] was carried for twelve months. His gestation lasted twelve months. That stage varies from one child to another.

14:04 Speaker 1 What does this mean in the work of teshuvah? The Rebbe says that this gives us a fundamental principle about the entire work of teshuvah. In chapter 1, the Alter Rebbe already described the essential point of teshuvah as simply abandoning sin. That is the single point of teshuvah: abandoning sin. We explained that abandoning sin is the movement of accepting Hashem’s sovereignty, of kabbolas ol. That point is the essence. It is like the moment of conception. It is the essence of teshuvah, and it does not take forty days. It takes one moment. “In one hour and in one moment,” as the Rebbe always said about the work of teshuvah. Or, in the language of the Gemara in Kiddushin, which you have just learned, “Perhaps he contemplated teshuvah in his heart.” With one movement of contemplating teshuvah, a person can go from being completely wicked to becoming a baal teshuvah, completely righteous. If a man betroths a woman on condition that he is completely righteous, “perhaps he contemplated teshuvah in his heart.” So a thought of teshuvah is one movement, like the essential moment of conception. After that comes the structure of teshuvah, its details. And the details of teshuvah themselves have two parts. Just as with a child there are the forty days it takes for the child to form, which is still a general stage—only it is a stage that unfolds over forty days. It is the child’s overall structure, and in that respect everyone is alike. So it is an intermediate stage. It is no longer just a single point; there are already details. But these are not yet the details particular to each individual. They are the details that make up the general form of a child. In this, everyone is alike, which is why it takes forty days for everyone. And that is the idea of the forty days of teshuvah. The forty days of teshuvah serve to take the essential point of teshuvah, the point of kabbolas ol, and bring it into every detail. Just as, with a child, there is the initial point

16:09 Speaker 1 of conception, and then it takes forty days for the child to take shape, so too with the forty days of teshuvah. This is also the idea of the forty days Moshe Rabbeinu spent there. They brought about a transformation: a person takes on a new form and becomes a new reality. For teshuvah to permeate every part of you and make you a new person, a new reality, you need the forty days from Rosh Chodesh Elul until Yom Kippur. After that come the particular details, according to each person’s circumstances, means, and character. One person has more intellectual ability, another has more emotional capacity; people have different abilities and different things to work with. That relates to each person’s particular shlichus in the world, and it continues throughout the year. So we are being told that teshuvah has three stages: the essential point of teshuvah takes one hour, one moment. Building teshuvah takes forty days. But living teshuvah lasts a lifetime. Teshuvah does not end when Yom Kippur ends. Every day, throughout the year, we need to do teshuvah. What is the difference between the forty days of teshuvah and the teshuvah we need to do all year? It is like the difference between the forty days of a child’s formation and all the development that follows. The forty days establish the general structure. After that comes the individual development, which differs from one person to another. To help us understand this better, the Rebbe gives an example. We discussed it here in one of the classes, class three. Yes, the Rebbe gives an example concerning eating on Yom Kippur. There is, on the one hand, a defined amount of food on Yom Kippur that is the same for everyone: the volume of a large date. If a person eats that amount, then he

18:01 Speaker 1 Liable to kareis. It makes no difference whether you’re a large person or a small person, fat or thin, a yeshiva student or someone very young—after bar mitzvah, of course. What kind of body do you have? The law is the same for everyone: if he eats less than a date-sized amount, he is exempt. If he eats a date-sized amount—which is a little more than an olive-sized amount—he is liable to kareis. The Gemara asks: How can you set the same amount for everyone? Surely each person needs more or less food, depending on his body. So the Gemara distinguishes between two things. There is food needed to sustain the body, to stay alive and not die. And there is food needed to feel satisfied. To feel satisfied, each person certainly needs to eat the amount his body requires. Some need to eat more, some less. But for basic sustenance there is one measure. It’s a universal measure, because it concerns life at its most basic level. And something universal has a universal measure. The Sages knew this; they received a tradition from Sinai that the measure for basic sustenance is a date-sized amount. That’s the first point. So the Rebbe brings this example here too. That’s the distinction between the forty days of teshuvah and the teshuvah of every day. The forty days of teshuvah are the universal measure. That is teshuvah as a whole. First there is the essential point of teshuvah, the starting point: Rosh Chodesh Elul. The moment a yeshiva student, a person, takes himself in hand on Rosh Chodesh Elul and puts himself in a mindset of teshuvah, the very essence of teshuvah has already begun. That’s one point. But after that come the forty days of teshuvah, to bring about the formation of the child, which is teshuvah as a whole. And after that, throughout the entire year, there has to be teshuvah every day, to bring teshuvah down into the particulars. In this, each person has his own

19:52 Speaker 1 way of life and his own way of doing it. And the same applies to fasting. Since teshuvah works in these three stages, fasting also has these three stages. There is the matter of a fast for teshuvah: one fast. Once you have observed one fast for teshuvah, the essential act is already complete. One day, even a single day. When a person observes one day of fasting for teshuvah, he has already reached the essential point. Through that, he has also taken the step toward being accepted and cherished. In the time of the Beis Hamikdash, there was no need to bring forty offerings. One offering was enough, and the same is true now. As the Rebbe says at the end of chapter 2, even a single day of fasting has the power to bring about all that one desires. That’s the essential point of teshuvah. Then there are forty fasts. Forty fasts correspond to the formation of the child: the transition from an unformed drop to a child. You already have the status of a child—already a person—and for that, forty fasts are needed. That’s the story of Rav Huna, who observed forty fasts. After that come all the other numbers: 121 fasts, 61 fasts, 81 fasts, and all the many fasts. Those relate to the further development of teshuvah, like a child in the womb after forty days. These are already individual matters. One fetus needs more time to grow; another needs less. So with fasts, too, there are all the— So this is what the Rebbe is explaining here in chapter 2. It isn’t for no reason that the Alter Rebbe includes all these details about how many fasts to observe. He isn’t just making an encyclopedia of fasting, bringing a fast from the Gemara, another from the Arizal, and throwing in fasts from here and there. There is a structure here too. The Alter

21:44 Speaker 1 Rebbe is speaking here about three stages of fasting. Just as there are three stages of teshuvah, there are three stages of fasting. There is the starting point of teshuvah; then there is teshuvah as a whole, its full structure—the formation of the child, becoming a new being—which corresponds to forty. And after that come the particulars, everything concerning the child and each individual matter. There is a prescribed number of fasts, and today, when we cannot observe the fasts, we make up for them through tzedakah, as the Alter Rebbe goes on to explain in chapter 3. This also explains why the Alter Rebbe writes about four fasts of forty days. We asked—the Rebbe asks—why do four fasts of forty days count as only forty fasts? The Rebbe explains that the number forty is what brings about the formation of the child. It’s the number that brings about a complete transformation, turning him into a new being. That is why the number forty is significant here. In other words, forty days of fasting define that change. If you have observed thirty-nine fasts and are missing one day, the formation of the child has not yet taken place. So it does not count as forty days of fasting: it has not reached the final point, the essential point. Forty fasts bring about the change that makes him a new being. That is why forty days of fasting count as the defining number. It’s similar to Birchas Hamazon, where ten people constitute a large group. There is a disagreement in the Gemara, right? When do we say, “Let us bless our G-d, from Whose food we have eaten”? Ten are considered a large group.

23:42 Speaker 1 There is a disagreement there, right? Whether a group of ten, a thousand, or ten thousand calls for different wording. In practical halachah, ten is enough. From ten onward, it is already considered a large group. It’s the same thing here. From forty onward, the fasts already count as forty-day fasts, because forty is the minimum number that makes the difference, the transition from one extreme to the other, so that he becomes a new being. Yes. The Rebbe explains—we’ve gone on quite a bit; sorry about the time—that we can see this too. We see this number forty not only in teshuvah. We also see it in prayer. There are the forty days of prayer that we see with Moshe Rabbeinu. When he was on the mountain, the forty days were connected with the service of prayer, with praying. And then there are also forty days connected with Torah study. There were three periods of forty days when Moshe Rabbeinu was on the mountain—sorry. The first forty days were connected with Torah. The second forty days were connected with prayer. And the last forty days were connected with teshuvah. Torah, teshuvah, and prayer: in all three, we find the significance of the number forty, because it marks the new reality that comes into being through the service of teshuvah.