Tanya Igeres Hateshuvah - Chapter 3 - Part 3

00:00 We’re in the middle of chapter 3 of Igeres Hateshuvah, okay? We’re up to the passage, “Nevertheless, anyone who cares about his soul.” The Alter Rebbe has been discussing two approaches to fasts and self-denial in the work of teshuvah. When a person wants to become beloved and pleasing to Hashem, as we discussed earlier, fasting has a role. But there were two approaches to that: whether to observe the prescribed number of fasts for every time he committed a sin, or to observe them once for all the times together. And the Arizal, the kabbalist, said three times. There is a basis for three times, as he brought from the Zohar. He also said that nowadays one must take care not to fast. We have to protect the body’s health, so fasting should be replaced with tzedakah. The Alter Rebbe continues: “Nevertheless, anyone who cares about his soul and desires closeness to Hashem, to repair his soul and return it to Hashem through teshuvah of the highest order, should be stringent with himself to complete, at least once in his lifetime, the prescribed number of fasts for each of the severe sins punishable by death—even if only by the hand of Heaven. For example, for emitting seed in vain, eighty-four fasts once in his lifetime.” So the Alter Rebbe is saying here that although we said that today we don’t need to fast—we accomplish it through tzedakah; the main work of repairing the sin and becoming beloved is accomplished through tzedakah—the Alter Rebbe nevertheless asks for at least one set of eighty-four fasts. Similarly, for other sins, one should observe their prescribed number once in a lifetime. Yes, once in his lifetime. Now look: he continues, to make it even easier, and says, “He may postpone them to the short

02:04 days.” You can see just how great the Alter Rebbe’s Ahavas Yisroel is, how much he wants to protect the health of the chassidim, of the Jewish people. Even when he asks for this, he tries to arrange it in a way that will cause the least distress and the least physical weakness. So he says: “He may postpone them to the short days of winter and fast, for example, about ten fasts in one winter, or fewer.” A person can sometimes do that because winter days are very short—especially where the Alter Rebbe lived, in Russia, where the winter days are much shorter. Then he can observe those ten fasts. He doesn’t have to do all the fasts at once. Over the whole winter he can observe around ten fasts, one a week or something like that, and then he won’t feel it so much. “He can complete the eighty-four fasts over nine years or more, according to his strength.” According to the strength he has. “He may also eat a little about three hours before sunrise, and it is still considered a fast if he stipulated this beforehand.” The Alter Rebbe says something else to make the fast less difficult, so that a person won’t feel so physically weak from it: he can eat about three hours before sunrise, and it still counts as a fast. There is a whole discussion among the halachic authorities about what the Alter Rebbe meant in this parenthetical statement. Why does he write three hours? After all, one may eat until dawn. Why say dawn? That isn’t three hours; dawn is much less than three hours before sunrise. The Rebbe has extensive explanations, based on the revealed dimension of Torah, of how to reconcile the Alter Rebbe’s words—how to reconcile them so they accord here

04:13 with the halachah in practice: on fasts observed only during the day, the fast can begin at dawn. Yes, and here he says three hours before sunrise. The Rebbe works it out and concludes that in those parts of Russia, where the nights were very long, the time between dawn and sunrise could sometimes be around three hours, close to three hours, something like that. There are entire letters from the Rebbe on this subject. In any case, “To complete the 252 fasts mentioned above, he should fast another four times eighty-four.” So that was for the first set. For one set of eighty-four fasts, the Alter Rebbe says to do it as he has explained up to now: spread it over nine or ten years, with ten fasts each year, and in about nine years you’ll finish. But that leaves the other two sets to complete. For those, he shouldn’t observe full-day fasts, but half-day fasts, only until after midday. That too is considered a fast in the Jerusalem Talmud. There is such a fast, where a person fasts only until midday; that also counts as a fast. “And two half-days count as one day for this purpose.” Each half-day counts as half, so two half-days make one day. He would therefore observe, as it were, four sets of eighty-four half-days. “And the same applies to other similar sins, for every heart knows the bitterness of its soul and desires to be cleansed.” The Alter Rebbe says the same approach can be used for other similar sins: “For every heart knows the bitterness of its soul and desires to be cleansed.” A person knows the bitterness in his own soul and wants to purify it, to cleanse his soul, and therefore he

06:17 needs to do this. What does the Alter Rebbe mean by these words? What does “the same applies to other similar sins” mean? What is the significance of the Alter Rebbe’s wording, “other similar sins”? What does “similar” mean, and what does he add by saying, “For every heart knows the bitterness of its soul and desires to be cleansed”? What is the Alter Rebbe telling us? The Rebbe gives an interesting explanation here. He says that there is, in fact, an interesting detail. Earlier, in chapter 2, the Alter Rebbe cited the Arizal, who prescribed many fasts specifically for relatively minor transgressions, right? That was back in chapter 2. The Arizal prescribed fasts for anger, for drinking non-Jewish wine not prohibited by the Torah, and for neglecting a prayer instituted by the Rabbis. The Alter Rebbe specifically cited matters like these, which, though prohibited, are not Torah-level prohibitions, yet we see that many fasts were prescribed for them. His point was that these fasts are not about teshuvah itself. Rather, they are connected with becoming beloved and pleasing to Hashem, and with all the other effects of fasting. That is why, even for the lightest matters, we find that the kabbalists and the great Torah sages observed fasts. Then, in chapter 3, when the Alter Rebbe suddenly gives an example, he chooses the matter of emitting seed in vain. That is, seemingly, a very severe sin—as he said, one punishable by death at the hand of Heaven. So he began with one kind of matter and moved to another. Why? This is what the Alter Rebbe wants to tell us here: there is what the Arizal taught his students. The Arizal was a great kabbalist, an exalted soul, and his students too were great people—great Torah sages, kabbalists, exalted souls—and for them, there was

08:14 The matter of fasting even for the smallest things. These were very minor matters, and they undertook many fasts for them in order to refine the soul, and so on. That applies to someone on a high spiritual level. But the Alter Rebbe did not write Tanya for someone on a high spiritual level. The Alter Rebbe wrote Tanya for a Jew who has a yetzer hara and has stumbled in more serious sins, particularly the well-known sin, a blemish in the covenant. As we said, this is one of the concerns, one of the purposes, of Tanya. So here in this chapter, the Alter Rebbe is really speaking about this kind of sin—sins that truly are serious. And with sins like these, a Jew wants no trace of them to remain. That is what the Alter Rebbe says here: “And likewise for other comparable sins”—sins of this kind, like blemishing the covenant, which are more serious. A person wants to correct them. When we spoke about minor sins, that applied to exceptional people, people on a high level. That is what we discussed in chapter 2. Here we are speaking about comparable sins, sins in the category of blemishing the covenant, of the well-known sin—more serious sins. And about these the Alter Rebbe says: “Every heart knows the bitterness of its own soul.” A person has a sense of this, each according to his own level. Each person knows, according to his level, what the bitterness of his soul is: which things trouble him more, affect him more, and cause him to feel greater bitterness. So a person needs to listen, as it were, to the bitterness of his soul and correct those things. With regard to these matters, the Alter Rebbe says

10:05 to use this approach. In other words, this gives us a new understanding: it does not mean that for every detail of every sin, one must undertake the full number of fasts. There would be no end to it! Then the Alter Rebbe would not have made things any easier for us. Imagine that you have to undertake 151 fasts for anger, and presumably I have become angry more than three times. So I do 151 three times. Now I spread the 151 out over ten fasts a year—how many years is that? Fifteen years. And I have other sins as well, and so on. There would be no end to it. So the Alter Rebbe’s precise wording is “comparable sins.” He does not mean for you to use this approach for every kind of sin. For comparable sins—sins in the category of blemishing the covenant, which are more serious—use this approach. That is why he says: I cannot tell you exactly which sins, because it depends on each person’s level: how deeply he feels the bitterness of his soul, how strongly he feels the matters he wants to work on and correct so that no trace of them remains. That is the point the Alter Rebbe is making here about this approach to easing the burden of fasting. The Alter Rebbe continues: “However”—sorry—“However, the number of fasts beyond 252 and the like, which he would have to undertake out of concern for the view of the stricter authorities, who require the prescribed number of fasts for each sin according to the number of times he sinned, as stated above.” This concerns the number of fasts a person would have to undertake for each sin beyond the 252, if he wants to follow the stricter view that each time he must undertake

12:07 the prescribed number of fasts. The Alter Rebbe says he should redeem them all with tzedakah, at the value of eighteen Polish groschen for each day. So here we come to the approach we mentioned earlier: tzedakah. He should calculate how many days he would need to fast and give the cost of a meal for each day—the eighteen Polish groschen. “And likewise for other sins for which one must fast as part of teshuvah, even though they do not carry the penalty of kareis, and even for neglecting a positive mitzvah, whether Biblical or rabbinic—and Torah study is equal to them all—according to the numbers specified in the Arizal’s Tikkunei Teshuvah.” Now the Alter Rebbe returns to tzedakah, including for the minor sins that the Arizal discussed. Yes, use your money and give tzedakah. Give the full amount required by the Arizal’s Tikkunei Teshuvah through tzedakah. “Most of them are mentioned in Mishnas Chassidim, in Maseches Hateshuvah.” Most of the Arizal’s Tikkunei Teshuvah appear in the book Mishnas Chassidim. Its author was one of the great Torah sages. I believe his name was Emanuel Chai Ricchi. He was from Italy, and he was... I don’t know whether he was a direct student of the Arizal or a student of the Arizal’s students, but he wrote Mishnas Chassidim. There was a major dispute among the mekubalim over whether to accept the book. It was debated back and forth in Italy. But the Baal Shem Tov gave Mishnas Chassidim his endorsement, and the Baal Shem Tov said that everything in it was the Arizal’s teaching. That is why Mishnas Chassidim is often cited in Chabad Chassidus. By the way, the niggun “Lechatchilah Ariber” comes from the author of Mishnas Chassidim. The Rebbe Maharash took it from his book, where he includes the niggun. The Rebbe Maharash refined the niggun somewhat, which is why it is known as the Rebbe Maharash’s niggun. But the niggun itself comes from the author of Mishnas Chassidim. In

14:00 any case, he says: “He should redeem all of them, without exception, through tzedakah, as stated above, if he cannot subject himself to suffering.” So all these forms of atonement should be accomplished through tzedakah. The Alter Rebbe continues: All right, so instead of fasting, there is tzedakah. But in practice, if you calculate what it would take to correct all your sins through the corresponding amounts of tzedakah, sometimes you would have to give an enormous amount. So now the Alter Rebbe asks: Doesn’t giving so much go against halachah? Halachah says that one should give a tenth to tzedakah, or at most a fifth, whereas this would require far more. This is the Alter Rebbe’s question: “And even if it amounts to a considerable sum.” “Considerable” means a substantial amount—more than a fifth. The Alter Rebbe says: “There is no concern.” It is not a problem. “There is no concern here regarding the rule, ‘One should not give away more than a fifth.’” There is a teaching of our Sages; the Gemara says, “One who gives away his money should not give away more than a fifth.” One may not give more than a fifth to tzedakah. A fifth is twenty percent. If a person has matters to correct and needs to give far more than twenty percent to tzedakah, how can he correct himself? The Alter Rebbe answers: “For this is not considered giving away money in that sense, since he is doing it to redeem his soul from fasts and self-affliction.” The Alter Rebbe says something remarkable here. This is based on the revealed dimension of Torah, not on Chassidus. This is how the Alter Rebbe understands it according to the revealed dimension of Torah; it is a halachic ruling on that basis. The Gemara says, “One who gives away his money should not give away more than a fifth.” When one gives tzedakah simply as an act of giving, one may not give more than a fifth. Ordinary tzedakah has a limit; there is a halachah. What is the minimum? A tenth. The maximum is a fifth. That applies to the mitzvah of tzedakah as such, and about that we say one should not give away more than a fifth. But a person who has a matter that he needs to correct and needs to

16:00 Teshuvah—and because teshuvah requires a person to rectify his sins, he gives tzedakah instead of fasting. So the whole rule about “squandering” does not apply here. Why isn’t it considered squandering? The Alter Rebbe explains: “It is no worse than medical care for the body and his other needs.” A person pays for his food, and certainly for his physical health. We know that a person will spend whatever he needs to, as long as he can be healthy. Here we are talking about healing the soul, healing the spirit. Healing the spirit is no less important than healing the body. If, when it comes to healing the body—sorry, physical healing—we don’t make calculations and a person spends freely so that he can be healthy, then all the more so when it comes to holiness and healing the soul, healing the spirit, one must spend and give as much as necessary. This point is stated briefly here, but it is explained at length in Igeres Hakodesh, section 10, which the rabbi is about to bring up at the end of the chapter. The Alter Rebbe continues: “And since the number of fasts mentioned in the above practices of teshuvah is very, very great”—as we said before, there are a great many fasts—“therefore, all those who are now G-d-fearing have adopted the practice of giving very, very generously to tzedakah.” So the Alter Rebbe says that in our time, the practice is to give very, very generously to tzedakah, “because of the weakness of the generation, which cannot afflict itself to such an extent.” Because the generation is weak and people don’t have the strength to afflict themselves, they give tzedakah instead. Now, there is a point here, a point the Rebbe makes. The “very, very” is not about arriving at a number. It’s not that I need to sit down, take a book, open Mishnas Chassidim, look up what it says about each sin—the numerical value and so on, the number of fasts—and then calculate how many times I did it. Does anyone have an accounting of all those things? And then start calculating

18:18 amounts of tzedakah: how many times eighteen in the currency of the country where you live, and give that amount. There would be no end to it. So the Rebbe says that this is not what the Alter Rebbe means to say here at the end. When the Alter Rebbe concludes, “since the number of fasts…” he means that you don’t need to count. It is a matter of “very, very”—something without limit. You don’t need to look at the numbers and calculate from the book: write down how many times, what the numerical value is, and then decide how much money to give. No. The point is that I know my debts are very, very, very, very great. It is an attitude of knowing that the number is beyond counting. It has no limit. And so the giving of tzedakah must also be without calculation. That is the point. It is not about a number; it is about being beyond numbers. Simply give tzedakah, and give a great deal of tzedakah without making calculations. You have to give. You do have to take account of what you need, but then in practice you give tzedakah without limit. As the point often cited in Chassidus puts it, there is “tzedakah and judgment”: you judge for yourself what the minimum is that you need, and give everything else to tzedakah. So that is the attitude. Being without limit is not a matter of a particular number; it is giving without limit. And because the giving is without limit, it is considered the kind of giving that atones for everything. There is also significance to the wording “very, very,” which is connected with teshuvah. Chassidus speaks of “very” and “very, very.” “Very” on its own still belongs to levels that have limits, but “very, very” repeats the word twice. This is connected along

20:07 the lines of “Comfort, comfort My people” and “I, I am the One who comforts you”—from this week’s haftorah. It is specifically with teshuvah that we find “I, I” repeated twice, just as “Hashem is G-d, Hashem is G-d” was said in the account of Eliyahu on Mount Carmel. Teshuvah always brings a redoubling of strength. In the same way, here too it says “very, very”: tzedakah must be given with an unlimited attitude, in a manner of “very, very.” As the verse says elsewhere, “Hashem’s kindnesses, for we are not consumed.” The Alter Rebbe says that this idea is explained elsewhere through the verse “Hashem’s kindnesses, for we are not consumed.” Where is that elsewhere? As I said, in Igeres Hakodesh, section 10. This last passage is explained there at length. The Alter Rebbe cites the verse “Hashem’s kindnesses, for we are not consumed.” It is a verse in Eichah: “Hashem’s kindnesses, for we are not consumed, for His mercies have not come to an end.” And he asks: What does “Hashem’s kindnesses, for we are not consumed” mean? Seemingly, if it is speaking about Hashem’s kindnesses, the verse should have said, “Hashem’s kindnesses have not come to an end”—His kindnesses never end; they endure forever. “For His mercies have not come to an end” is the continuation of the verse. So it should have said, “Hashem’s kindnesses have not come to an end.” What does “Hashem’s kindnesses, for we are not consumed” mean? The Alter Rebbe explains there—and it fits very well with the explanation here in Tanya—that tamnu does not mean the kindnesses have not ended. Tamnu refers to us. Because we are not complete or whole; we have sins and transgressions. “For we are not complete”: because we, the Jewish people, are not in a state of ultimate perfection, because our sins have left blemishes. Therefore, we need to give tzedakah in a manner of “Hashem’s kindnesses.” What are “Hashem’s

22:08 kindnesses”? Hashem’s kindnesses are kindness without limit. There is ordinary kindness, and there are Hashem’s kindnesses. Ordinary kindness is limited kindness, a worldly kindness. But Hashem’s kindnesses are kindness without limit. So the Alter Rebbe explains at length there, in section 10 of Igeres Hakodesh, that “for we are not complete” means that because we are not whole, because we are not as we ought to be, we must give tzedakah in a manner of “Hashem’s kindnesses”—tzedakah without limit. This is somewhat along the lines of what we learned in the sicha in volume 14, Parshas Shoftim. In the sicha on “and to cleave to Him,” the Rebbe explains that the service of “and to cleave to Him” is to act as Hakadosh Boruch Hu does. It is not a limited service, measured and restricted—not merely performing a mitzvah or doing kindness by walking in His ways. Rather, the service of “and to cleave to Him,” acting as Hakadosh Boruch Hu does, is “Hashem’s kindnesses.” It is beyond measure and limit, even when you are not obligated. That is “Hashem’s kindnesses.” The Rebbe explains it wonderfully in the sicha. Along the same lines, we are saying the same thing here: kindness must be expressed in a manner of “Hashem’s kindnesses.” That is why I give tzedakah in a manner of “very, very,” tzedakah beyond measure and limit. Once, in 574..., the Rebbe spoke about giving a great deal of tzedakah. The Rebbe called on the chassidim to give tzedakah without limit. The Rebbe used a very interesting expression. He said that there are three ways of giving tzedakah. One person gives a tenth, or more—a fifth. Another puts his hand in his pocket and gives whatever comes out. That is already beyond measure and limit, but there is still some calculation involved: he put his hand in his pocket, but he is not giving everything in the pocket, only what comes out. Something remains as well.

24:03 So there is still some calculation there. Then there is a third level, the Rebbe said: a person hands over a check and tells the tzedakah collector, “You write it in. You choose the amount.” That is truly unlimited tzedakah. That is “very, very.” He could write a million; he could write whatever amount. You let the tzedakah collector fill it in, and that is the highest level of tzedakah. So after Shabbos, after the farbrengen, the Rebbe received many blank checks. Many people wrote to the Rebbe and submitted blank checks for the Rebbe to fill in the amount. In some cases the Rebbe did so. The Rebbe wrote in a number; in some cases the Rebbe wrote a number with several zeros; and in some cases the Rebbe returned the check. The Rebbe said afterward that some people submitted a check but immediately went to the doctor to have their blood pressure checked. “I don’t need any favors,” the Rebbe put it. Someone who cannot withstand that test is exempt from it. That was the coupons. So from this we see that there is this—the advice the Rebbe gives us here is that sometimes the answer is to give tzedakah without limit. In 5752, as we know, in the last sicha the Rebbe gave that year, on Vayakhel—the very last sicha of that Shabbos, Shabbos Vayakhel—the Rebbe spoke about “whoever extends a hand is given.” He spoke about giving tzedakah, which is essentially the service the Rebbe describes in section 10 of Igeres Hakodesh. At that time, the Rebbe called on the chassidim to undertake this service.