Tanya Igeres Hateshuvah - Chapter 2 - The Fasts of the Tannaim

00:00 When we learn Igeres Hateshuvah, chapter 2, it seems to be talking about more technical matters. The Alter Rebbe goes into the whole subject of fasting. He begins by explaining that the essence of teshuvah is abandoning the sin, as we discussed at length. The Torah’s mitzvah of teshuvah is abandoning the sin, accepting Hashem’s kingship—all the points we discussed in the previous classes. But in practice, for teshuvah to bring about complete atonement, and especially for a person to be pleasing and beloved to Hakadosh Boruch Hu as he was before the sin, fasting is needed. So the Alter Rebbe goes into the whole subject of fasting at length. Even from a single point the Rebbe makes, you can see how much depth there is to fasting. The Alter Rebbe begins by saying that fasting serves to make a person pleasing and beloved to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Yes, that is what fasting accomplishes: it is specifically like an olah offering. An olah offering is like someone sending a gift to a king. Through that gift, not only does the king pardon and forgive him; the king also becomes fond of him and wants him even more than before. Fasting works in the same way. Then the Alter Rebbe says that we find several Tannaim and Amoraim who fasted many fasts over a minor matter. Even for minor transgressions, they fasted a great deal. The Alter Rebbe brings three examples. One is Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah, who did not protest when his neighbor’s cow went out with a strap between its horns. It was some issue in the laws of what an animal may carry on Shabbos, something to do with muktzeh and carrying. It was something very minor, and he didn’t... He simply held a different opinion. His colleagues held otherwise, and since they were the majority of sages, the law followed them rather than him. So his neighbor’s cow went out with that strap—not in accordance with the ruling, even though

02:22 he himself thought the opposite. He thought it was permitted, but because that went against his colleagues’ view, he was so distressed over it that his teeth darkened from fasting. He fasted so many times over the sin of not protesting when his neighbor’s cow went out with the strap that his teeth turned black. They turned black from all the fasting. A second example is Rabbi Yehoshua, who once said something harsh to Beis Shammai. He told them, “I am ashamed of your words, Beis Shammai.” You might wonder what was so terrible about what he said, but that alone led him to fast so many times that his teeth turned black. And Rav Huna’s tefillin strap once turned over. After all, the black side has to face outward. The bochurim learned about tefillin here. It wasn’t on mivtzoim, but on mivtzoim it was. So his tefillin strap turned over, and he fasted forty fasts. Those are the examples brought here. Afterward, the Alter Rebbe writes that, on this basis, the Arizal prescribed many fasts according to the teachings of Kabbalah. For anger, 151 fasts. A person gets angry once and has to fast 151 times. Similarly, for drinking non-Jewish wine, 73 fasts; and for neglecting prayer once, 61 fasts. Now the Rebbe has wonderful explanations of this entire passage. At first glance, it has so many details that you wonder what the Rebbe is trying to tell us. So I’ll mention a few points here, just a few words, to show how precise the discussion of fasting is. First, why does he bring three examples? The cow that went out with a strap between its horns; “I am ashamed of your words, Beis Shammai”; and the tefillin strap. The Rebbe points out that the three examples correspond to

04:26 thought, speech, and action. Not protesting is a matter of thought. “I am ashamed of your words” is speech, and the tefillin strap is action. Why does he name three people—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 proofs from the Gemara for each one, showing how we know. So: Kohen, Levi, Yisroel. In other words, the Rebbe wants to bring specifically three examples to show that there was extensive fasting in thought, speech, and action, and among all three groups: Kohanim, Levi’im, and Yisroelim. The Rebbe then explains what is novel about this. What is the difference? Why would we think a Kohen would fast less and a Yisroel more? What’s the point? Later in the sicha, the Rebbe explains that each of them presents something novel in its own right. Why is it significant that a Kohen, a Levi, and a Yisroel each did not make do with ordinary teshuvah, but fasted as well? The Rebbe also explains later that when the Alter Rebbe cites the Arizal, he again brings three examples: anger, non-Jewish wine, and prayer. The Rebbe explains that these three examples are also connected with—what is it?—thought, speech, and action, if I’m not mistaken. Yes, the Rebbe explains—I don’t remember it right now—that there is a particular order behind the choice of those examples too. But in any case, that isn’t the main point I wanted to make. There is something much deeper here: the Rebbe establishes a wonderful principle about the laws of teshuvah based on one small detail in this chapter. The Alter Rebbe says that Tannaim and Amoraim would fast many fasts over a minor matter.

06:27 A great many fasts. Yes, the wording indicates numerous fasts. When you look further on, you see that Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah’s teeth turned black from fasting, so that’s a lot. Blackened teeth are a sign that he fasted many times. It says the same about Rabbi Yehoshua: his teeth turned black too. But about Rav Huna it says that he fasted forty fasts. Forty fasts. Are forty fasts really such a great many? Forty fasts sound like a lot, but forty fasts aren’t so many—especially when you look further on and see that getting angry once calls for 151 fasts. And then there are the fasts for non-Jewish wine. So forty fasts are the smallest number mentioned here. Then [unclear] writes forty fasts. Yes, forty fasts don’t sound to me like such a great number, as though the act were so terrible. So why does the Alter Rebbe call them “many fasts”? This is where the Rebbe arrives at a wonderful principle, a general principle about teshuvah that he explains here. Forty is not just an arbitrary number. In fact, none of the numbers here are arbitrary. According to Kabbalah, there is an explanation for every number in the list of fasts he brings later. Why does anger require 151 fasts? That is the numerical value of the word for “anger,” including the word itself. There is also an explanation of why the word itself is included there, while in other cases it isn’t. Sixty-one fasts—each figure has an explanation according to Kabbalah. Why is that particular number of fasts needed to remove the blemishes? What is the significance of forty fasts? Forty is a very general number, connected with the entire avodah of teshuvah. Where does

08:33 Do we see the number forty in the general idea of the work of teshuvah? We see it in the time of year we’re in now. There are forty days from Rosh Chodesh Elul until Yom Kippur—forty days of teshuvah. Right? The Shulchan Aruch explains why we blow the shofar starting on Rosh Chodesh Elul: that’s when the forty days of Divine favor begin. Those forty days of favor are connected to the forty days it took Moshe Rabbeinu to bring about “I have forgiven, as you have said.” Right? So we find that the work of teshuvah is connected specifically with the number forty. From this, we understand that Rav Huna’s forty fasts weren’t just an arbitrary number. Forty is a fundamental number, because it expresses the forty days needed for the work of teshuvah. Just as Moshe Rabbeinu needed forty days, so too, for any Jew who wants to achieve complete teshuvah, there is a particular significance to the number forty. But why forty? Why did Moshe Rabbeinu himself need forty days? Why are there specifically forty days of Divine favor from Rosh Chodesh Elul until Yom Kippur? That itself needs explaining. So the Rebbe says that the Gemara in tractate Niddah states that it takes forty days for a fetus to form. When a child is conceived, there is the stage of the fetus’s formation, which takes forty days—the first forty days of pregnancy. The Gemara says that during those first forty days, one can still pray and ask for a male fetus to become female or a female fetus to become male; things can still change. And so even in halachah, in the laws of ritual impurity, there is a distinction between a miscarriage before forty days of pregnancy and one after forty days. There are distinctions

10:40 in halachah. In other words, the formation of the fetus means that the seed takes on a form, the general form of a fetus, and that takes forty days. What happens over the next nine months? After all, pregnancy lasts nine months. During those nine months it develops and grows larger; that is a matter of growth in quantity. But the formation of the fetus itself 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 fetus, to a fetus—a new existence? Forty days. Right? And the same applies to teshuvah. The point of teshuvah is that a person becomes a new being. The Rambam writes in Hilchos Teshuvah that the point of teshuvah is for a person to become a new being: “I am another, and I am not the same person I was yesterday.” The Rambam writes that when a person does teshuvah, what defines it? He undergoes a fundamental change, like a newborn child. He becomes someone new; he changes. He becomes a new being. And since the formation of a fetus, a new being, is connected with forty days, the work of teshuvah also has forty days of Divine favor. That is also why Rav Huna fasted forty times. The Rebbe says here that if we take pregnancy and birth as an example, we actually find three stages. In the development of a child, there are three stages. First is conception itself, the initial point, which happens in a single moment. It takes place right at the beginning. The Gemara asks: From when does a child have a share in the Resurrection of the Dead? From the first moment of conception. In other words, the child’s essential existence is already there

12:54 at that first moment. After that come forty days, the forty days of the fetus’s formation, when it becomes a fetus in the halachic sense. Then it takes nine months to develop fully, with all its details. So there are three stages. There is the initial point—conception. There are the forty days of the fetus’s formation. And then there is the time until birth. Now, the time of birth differs from one child to another. Some babies are born... Generally it’s nine months, but some babies are also born after seven months. Some are born at the beginning, middle, or end of the ninth month. Some remain in the womb for more than nine months, as brought in the Midrash, in [unclear], citing several Midrashim, and [unclear], whose pregnancy lasted twelve months. Right, twelve months—so that varies from one person to another. What does this mean in serving Hashem, in teshuvah? The Rebbe says that this gives us a foundation for understanding the whole matter of serving Hashem. In chapter 1, the Alter Rebbe described the essential point of teshuvah as “abandoning sin alone.” The essential point of teshuvah is one point: abandoning sin, which, as we explained, is the movement of accepting Hashem’s sovereignty—kabbolas ol. That point is the essence. It’s like the moment of conception. It is the essence of teshuvah, and it doesn’t take forty days. It takes a single moment. “There is one who acquires his world in a single hour.” As the Rebbe always said in a sicha, the work of teshuvah can happen in a single moment. In the words of the Gemara in tractate Kiddushin, which you’ve just learned, “Perhaps he contemplated teshuvah in his heart.” With a single thought of teshuvah, he goes from being completely wicked to being a complete baal teshuvah, completely righteous. If a man betroths a woman on the condition that he is righteous, “Perhaps he contemplated teshuvah in his heart.” So that thought of teshuvah

14:50 is a single movement, like conception itself. After that comes the development of teshuvah. The details of teshuvah themselves have two parts. Just as in pregnancy there are forty days for the fetus to form, which is also a general stage—but one that unfolds over forty days, giving the fetus its overall form, and is the same for everyone. So this is an intermediate stage. It is no longer a single point; it already involves details. On the other hand, these are not the details that differ from person to person. They are the details involved in taking on the general form of a fetus. In this respect everyone is the same, so for everyone it takes forty days. That is the idea of the forty days of teshuvah: to take the essential point of teshuvah—kabbolas ol—and bring it into every detail. Just as pregnancy begins with the point of conception and then takes forty days to acquire form, so too with the forty days of Divine favor. And so too with Rav Huna’s forty fasts here: they brought about a transformation, making him into a new being, so that teshuvah would penetrate every limb and make you a new person, a new being. For that, the forty days from Rosh Chodesh Elul until Yom Kippur are needed. After that come each person’s individual details, according to their own circumstances, strengths, and character. One person has greater intellectual ability, another has stronger emotions, another has more strength or other capacities. That is connected to each person’s particular shlichus in the world, and it continues throughout the entire year. So we are told that teshuvah has three stages: the essential point of teshuvah takes a single hour, a single moment. The development of

16:53 Teshuvah has forty days, but the work of teshuvah continues throughout one’s life. It does not end on the night after Yom Kippur. Every day, all year long, we need to do teshuvah. What is the difference between the forty days of teshuvah and the teshuvah we must do throughout the year? It is like the difference between the forty days in which a child is formed and everything that comes afterward. Those forty days establish the overall structure; afterward come the individual details, each according to its nature. To make this clearer, the Rebbe gives an example. We discussed it here in one of the classes, class three. Yes, the Rebbe gives an example from eating on Yom Kippur, where there is a set measure. On the one hand, the same measure applies to everyone: if a person eats the amount of a date, he is liable to kareis. It makes no difference whether he is big or small, fat or thin, or what kind of body he has—after bar mitzvah, of course. The measure is the same for everyone. If he eats less than a date-sized amount, he is exempt; if he eats that 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 measure for everyone? Doesn’t each person need 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

18:41 more and some less. But for basic sustenance there is one measure. It is a general measure because it relates to life in its most basic sense, and for that there is a general measure. The Sages knew this; they received it from Sinai: the general measure for sustenance is an egg-sized amount. That is the point. The Rebbe uses this as an example here as well. This is the difference between the forty days of teshuvah and doing teshuvah every day. The forty days are the general measure. They establish teshuvah as a whole. First there is the essence of teshuvah, the initial point, on Rosh Chodesh Elul. The moment a young man—a person—takes himself in hand on Rosh Chodesh Elul and puts himself in a mode of teshuvah, teshuvah itself has already begun. That is one point. Then come the forty days of teshuvah, forming the child, as it were: establishing teshuvah as a whole. Afterward, throughout the entire year, there must be teshuvah every day, bringing it down into the details. Each person has his own circumstances and his own way of doing that. The same applies to fasting. Since teshuvah works in three stages, fasting has those same three stages. First there is a fast for teshuvah—a single fast. Once you have observed one fast for teshuvah, the whole point is already there. Even if a person fasted just one day for teshuvah, that is already the essential point. Through that alone, he has also attained the state of being accepted and beloved. In the time of the Beis Hamikdash, one did not have to bring forty burnt offerings; one offering was enough for this. And the same applies today. As the Alter Rebbe concludes in chapter 2, a fast—even a single day of fasting—is a segulah for breaking through even the barrier. That is

20:31 the initial point of teshuvah. Then there are forty fasts. Forty fasts correspond to the formation of a child: the transition from a drop to a formed child. It has already taken the form of a child—of a person—and that requires forty fasts. That is the story of Rav Huna, who observed forty fasts. After that come all the other numbers: 151 fasts, 61 fasts, 84 fasts, and the many other fasts. These relate to teshuvah in its completeness. It is like the child after forty days, when the individual details develop. One limb needs more time to grow; another needs less. So fasting, too, has all these stages. That is what the Alter Rebbe is doing here in chapter 2. He is not simply inserting all these details about how many fasts to observe, making an encyclopedia of fasting. He cites the Gemara, the Arizal, this source and that, and lists fasts—but there is a structure here. The Alter Rebbe is describing three stages in the process, just as there are three stages in teshuvah. There is the initial point of teshuvah; there is the course, the structure of teshuvah—the formation of the child, becoming something new—which is the stage of forty. And then there are the details: each person and each matter has its own number of fasts. Today we cannot observe these fasts, so we make up for them through tzedakah, as the Alter Rebbe continues in chapter 3. This also explains why he writes “fasts” in the plural. We asked—and the Rebbe asks—why? But the plural here means forty fasts. The Rebbe explains that forty fasts is the number that brings about the formation of the child. It is the number that produces a transformation from one extreme to the other, so that a person

22:26 becomes a new being. That is why the number is forty. Forty defines the category of forty days of fasting. In other words, that number of fasts brings about the change. If you have observed thirty-nine fasts and are missing one day, the child has not yet been formed. So it does not count as forty days of fasting: it has not reached the final point, the essential result. It is forty fasts that bring about the change that makes a person a new being. That is what defines forty days of fasting. It is similar to what the Gemara says about Birkas Hamazon: ten people already count as a group. Yes, when do we say, “Let us bless,” or “Let us bless the One from Whose food we have eaten”? There is a discussion there about ten, a thousand, or ten thousand, and what wording to use for those who ate. From ten onward, it is already considered a group. The same applies here: from forty onward, the number is already considered... Once you have observed one fast for teshuvah, the essential point is already established. One day, even just one day: if a person has fasted one day for teshuvah, that is already the essential point. Through that, he has also attained the state of being accepted and beloved. In the time of the Beis Hamikdash, one did not have to bring forty burnt offerings; one offering was enough for this. And the same applies today. As the Alter Rebbe concludes in chapter 2, a fast—even a single day of fasting—is a segulah for breaking through even the barrier. That is the initial point of teshuvah. Then there are forty fasts. Forty fasts correspond to the formation of the child. That is the transition that takes you

23:45 from being a drop to being a formed child. It has already taken the form of a child—of a person—and that requires forty fasts. That is the story of Rav Huna, who observed forty fasts. After that come all the other numbers: 151 fasts, 61 fasts, 84 fasts, and the many other fasts. These relate to teshuvah in its completeness. It is like the child after forty days, when the individual details develop. One limb needs more time to grow; another needs less. So fasting, too, has all these stages. That is what the Alter Rebbe is doing here in chapter 2. He is not simply inserting all these details about how many fasts to observe, making an encyclopedia of fasting. He cites the Gemara, the Arizal, this source and that, and lists fasts—but there is a structure here. The Alter Rebbe is describing three stages in fasting, corresponding to the three stages of teshuvah. There is the initial point of teshuvah; there is the course, the structure of teshuvah—the formation of the child, becoming something new—which is the stage of forty. And then there are the details: each person and each matter has its own number of fasts. Today we cannot observe these fasts, so we make up for them through tzedakah, as the Alter Rebbe continues in chapter 3. This explains why the Alter Rebbe writes “forty fasts.” We asked—and the Rebbe asks—why forty fasts? It is only forty fasts. The Rebbe explains that forty fasts is the number that brings about the formation of the child. It is the number that produces a transformation from one extreme to the other, so that a person becomes a new being. That is why the number is forty. Therefore, forty defines the category of

23:45 Forty days of fasting. In other words, the reality of fasting for forty days. The large number of fasts brings about... In other words, what is distinctive about the number forty is that if you fasted for thirty-nine days and are missing one day, the fetus has still not formed. So it does not count as a forty-day fast, because it has not brought about the... it has not reached the final point. It has not reached the essential point, because forty fasts bring about a change that makes a person into a new being. That is what defines a forty-day fast. Yes, there are also the forty days connected with Moshe’s study of Torah. Moshe Rabbeinu was on the mountain for three periods of forty days. Sorry—the first forty days were connected with Torah. The second forty days were connected with prayer. The final forty days were connected with teshuvah. Torah, teshuvah, and prayer: in all three, we find the significance of the number forty, because doing teshuvah brings about a new reality.