Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 25 - Part 4

00:00 We’re in the middle of chapter 25, on page 31b: “And likewise with the other battles against the yetzer.” The Alter Rebbe is explaining here, “For this matter is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.” The Rebbe explains how a person brings himself to that point where “it is very near to you”: how every Jew can be a beinoni with respect to each and every prohibition by awakening the hidden love, awakening the capacity for mesirus nefesh. The Alter Rebbe sets out a line of reasoning for a person to consider. Through it, serving Hakadosh Boruch Hu becomes very near to him, both in turning away from evil and in doing good. The Alter Rebbe makes a kal vachomer: If I am prepared to give my life and endure the suffering of death so as not to be separated from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, then all the more so when the suffering involved is not the suffering of death, but only the breaking of my desires. We’re not talking about the suffering of death here. That’s one point, one kal vachomer: you are not being asked, G-d forbid, to endure the suffering of death. You are only being asked to break the yetzer, to overcome a desire. That is much easier. The Alter Rebbe explains this both with regard to turning away from evil, even a minor prohibition of the Sages, and with regard to doing good. As we explained in the previous class, “doing good” here doesn’t mean only fulfilling mitzvos. It means doing them with hiddur, with vitality and with eagerness, including all kinds of effort, toil and work involved. The Alter Rebbe gives examples in all these areas: in purity, in davening and in tzedakah. The Alter Rebbe continues: “And likewise with the other battles against the yetzer,” and, he says, “its tactics for cooling a person’s soul.” Like the examples

02:13 we’ve brought up until now, there are other kinds of battles against the yetzer and other tactics it uses. The yetzer hara employs all kinds of tactics to cool a person off. As is well known, coldness is associated with Amalek, “the first of the nations.” This is the kelipah of Amalek, which seeks to leave a person without vitality in serving Hashem, and especially without serving Him through toil. “To cool a person’s soul so that he will not sacrifice his money and his bodily health.” The yetzer hara comes and tells a person that he has to be careful. It dresses itself up in various guises. As is well known, the yetzer hara takes on all kinds of guises, presenting itself as a good person and trying to make its advice seem to be for the person’s benefit. So the yetzer hara tells a person not to sacrifice his money or his bodily health. When it comes to tzedakah, a person has to give from his own money. The yetzer hara comes and tells him that he needs to protect his money: “You shouldn’t sacrifice your wealth. I shouldn’t sacrifice my money.” Similarly, when it comes to serving Hashem in matters of purity and davening, it’s not only a matter of giving up one’s resources; it also involves one’s bodily health. The yetzer hara says, “You’re tired. You need to sleep a little longer. You have to look after your health. Don’t daven with so much effort. If you put so much energy into davening, you’ll become weak. You have to look after your bodily health. Don’t spend so many hours learning. You need to rest a little.” All sorts of things like that. The yetzer hara dresses itself in the garments of holiness, as though it wants to look after you, and tells you to be careful not to sacrifice either your money or your bodily health. Some also explain the passage here in Tanya to mean that “bodily health” relates to tzedakah as well. “His money and his bodily health” go

04:15 together in connection with something involving money. The Alter Rebbe speaks about serving Hashem with one’s money—the service of tzedakah. As is well known, there is tzedakah with one’s money and tzedakah with one’s body. There is tzedakah where you give money, and there is tzedakah where you give of yourself: you actually help, lend a hand and assist. That is tzedakah with one’s body. It says of Avraham Avinu that he was generous with his money, his body, his soul and his neshamah. These are the initials of magen, “I am your shield”: magen stands for money, body and soul. So the yetzer hara comes along and says, “Why should you sacrifice your money and your bodily health? You have to look after your health, look after your body.” Now, of course, we need to make something simple clear: G-d forbid that we should understand the Alter Rebbe to be saying that a person should immediately sacrifice these things in practice, as though he should not look after his body or his health and should throw away his money, and as though caring for them were contrary to Chassidus. We know that Hayom Yom says the Baal Shem Tov revealed the meaning of “You shall surely help together with him”: one must look after the health of the body. Of course the Alter Rebbe does not mean otherwise. The Alter Rebbe is talking about what the yetzer hara uses. It wants to cool a person off, so it tells him to be careful not to sacrifice his money or his bodily health. That argument can come from the yetzer hara. A person needs a way to test it, to weigh it up and notice when it comes from the yetzer hara and when he really does need to be careful that, G-d forbid, he not harm his body or his finances. So he says these are all kinds of battles against the yetzer. Here, a person must stand against it and conquer it. The Alter Rebbe says that a person can stand against the yetzer hara and conquer it. And conquer

06:15 [unclear]. “And when he takes to heart that overcoming the yetzer in all this and more is very much easier than the suffering of death, may Hashem protect us.” So how does a person bring himself to overcome the yetzer hara in all these matters, in the examples we’ve brought until now? Through the kal vachomer we mentioned earlier. A person should take to heart, should work through the reasoning, that overcoming the yetzer in these matters, which involve only breaking a desire, is much easier than the suffering of death that he is prepared to accept so as not to be separated from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “It is very much easier than the suffering of death, may Hashem protect us; and the suffering of death, may Hashem protect us, he would accept with love and willingness rather than be separated from His blessed unity and oneness even for a moment by bowing to an idol, G-d forbid.” As we said in the previous chapters, a person is prepared for this—and not just prepared, but prepared to accept it with love and willingness. When his neshamah is awakened, his capacity for mesirus nefesh is awakened. As the Alter Rebbe discussed in the earlier chapters, particularly chapter 19, every Jew, even the simplest of the simple, even the most wayward among the Jewish people, when his faith is touched, when he faces a test of his faith in Hashem’s blessed unity and oneness, is not only prepared to give his life. He is prepared to do so with love and willingness. He will go, and go joyfully, because under no circumstances does he want to be separated from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So the Alter Rebbe is saying that when you take this to heart, when you think about it and recognize that you have this point within you—it is there, it is who you are; you are a Jew—then you realize that you are prepared to give your life with love and willingness rather than be separated from His blessed oneness. And here, after all, you are not being asked to give your life and endure the suffering of death.

08:20 Here, all that is asked of you is to exert yourself and go against your desires, against... That is much easier. So that is the first kal vachomer, the first a fortiori argument, that the Alter Rebbe makes here about “for it is close to you.” That is the point the Alter Rebbe has explained so far. Now, of course, you need to put it into practice. The reasoning is very compelling; it makes sense. But in practice, it is not easy. There is a yetzer hara, there are desires, and there is a struggle. The Alter Rebbe does not say—some people make a mistake about Tanya. I remember that when I was a yeshivah student, Reb Shlomo Rozov spoke about this at a farbrengen. He explained a very fundamental point in Tanya: many people mistakenly think that when the Alter Rebbe says “it is close to you,” he means it becomes easy, that he has come to make things easier. The Alter Rebbe has not come to make things easy. He does not make life easy. On the contrary, the Alter Rebbe demands very great, very deep work. He demands tremendous effort. The verse does not say it is easy. It says it is close—“the matter is very close to you.” Close, not easy. There is a difference between easy and close. Easy means there is not much work involved. Close means something else: it is close to you. You do not have to go beyond who you are to find it. It is within you. That is what “close” means. It is right here. You do not have to go up to the seventh heaven for it. You do not have to step outside

10:13 your essential self, outside your nature, and become someone else. You are not being asked for something that is not already within you. That is what “close” means: it is within reach. It is with you, inside you. And that is what the Alter Rebbe is saying. What is the new insight the Alter Rebbe has been teaching throughout these eight chapters, from chapter 18 until now? He wants us to pay attention to the fact that we are Jews. And what does it mean to be a Jew? It means that in your heart, you have the trait, the nature, that makes you willing to give your life and suffer the pains of death rather than be separated from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. In your very essence, you are prepared for mesirus nefesh rather than be separated from G-dliness. That is already inside you. You do not have to create it. It is something you have, and you are ready for it. The work, then, is to think it through: How do I bring that into all 613 mitzvos? If I am prepared for mesirus nefesh for the sake of Hashem’s oneness, then once I understand deeply that every mitzvah is an expression of Hashem’s oneness, and every transgression is idolatry and separation, it follows that if I am prepared to suffer the pains of death to remain attached to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and not be separated from Him, then how much more so when no one is asking me to suffer the pains of death. All that is involved is iskafya, the struggle with the yetzer, what the Alter Rebbe calls here breaking one’s desires. That is much easier than the pains of death. And that is why it is “very close”—that is the precise wording the Alter Rebbe uses below. Very close, not easy. When a person pays attention

12:00 to the fact that breaking one’s desires is much easier than suffering the pains of death, and that I am prepared to suffer the pains of death rather than be separated from Hashem, then surely I should be prepared to fight the yetzer, break my desires, and come to “turn away from evil and do good.” That is the reasoning. So it is close because it is already within you. Now the Alter Rebbe adds another point. The Alter Rebbe says, “And how much more so”—this is another kal vachomer. It is easy to miss that. Until now there was one kal vachomer; now the Alter Rebbe begins another. He says that a person would accept the pains of death, may Hashem protect us, willingly and lovingly rather than fall away from the Creator’s unity and oneness even for a moment by bowing to an idol, G-d forbid. “And how much more so should he accept them willingly and lovingly in order to cleave to Him forever.” Here we come to a new kal vachomer. The earlier one compared breaking one’s desires to suffering the pains of death. It is much easier to overcome desires than to suffer the pains of death. So if you are prepared to suffer the pains of death rather than be separated, surely you are prepared to break your desires. That is what we have covered until now. Now the Alter Rebbe gives another kal vachomer. In a test involving idolatry, what is the test? Someone is trying to make a person separate himself from Hashem—and only for a moment. If, G-d forbid, you were to fail in a test of idolatry, you would be separated from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, but that separation would be temporary, because afterward you could do teshuvah, as the Alter Rebbe said earlier. Nevertheless, a person is prepared for mesirus nefesh rather than be separated from Hakadosh Boruch

14:19 Hu even for a moment. Those are the two points here: not to be separated, even for a moment. A Jew is prepared to suffer the pains of death for what? So as not to be separated from Hakadosh Boruch Hu for even a moment. What happens when I fulfill a mitzvah—any mitzvah? When you fulfill a mitzvah, not only do you avoid becoming separated; you become attached to Him. That is more, something much greater. If I show mesirus nefesh so as not to be separated, what have I gained? I have avoided separation. I have not been cut off from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But when you fulfill a mitzvah, you become attached to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. There is something positive here: a bond. In other words, mesirus nefesh merely prevents separation. Fulfilling a mitzvah not only prevents separation; it creates a bond. And what is more, that bond lasts forever. There are two points here. In his explanation of the plain meaning in Lessons in Tanya, the Rebbe draws attention to these two details. The Alter Rebbe’s wording is “to cleave to Him forever.” Regarding idolatry, he said not to fall away “even for a moment.” Those are two details. First, it is only a negative—not falling away. Second, it is only for a moment, because you can do teshuvah afterward, and once you do teshuvah, the separation does not remain. That is “not to fall away even for a moment.” By contrast, fulfilling a mitzvah brings a gain in both respects: you cleave to Him, and you cleave to Him forever. The bond is eternal. We will soon see why it is eternal. In any case, those are the two details the Alter Rebbe explains here in Tanya, and they give us another, new kal vachomer. If a person is prepared

16:22 to go so far as mesirus nefesh—why? So as not to be separated even for a single moment—then how much more so to become attached to Him. You are not merely avoiding separation; you become attached and gain something. And this attachment is not for a single moment. It is an eternal bond, forever. So surely you should be prepared to fight the yetzer in order to be attached to Him forever. Do you understand the point here? To sum up, the Alter Rebbe makes two kal vachomer arguments in this chapter. How does a person bring himself to the point where “it is close to you”? Why is “the matter very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it”—to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu, both by turning away from evil and by doing good? That includes serving Hashem with toil and effort, working hard at Torah study and davening, and everything else the Alter Rebbe asks of us here. What are the two arguments? The first: you are not being asked to suffer the pains of death. You are asked only to break your desires and overcome the yetzer’s coldness and laziness. That is much easier. The second: in the case of idolatry, the aim is merely not to be separated, and the separation would only be for a moment. Here, the aim is to become attached to Him, and that attachment is eternal. If we think about this and contemplate it, it gives us wonderful vitality and tremendous strength to overcome the yetzer and be complete in turning away from evil and doing good. This is the strength that enables a person to be a beinoni in thought, speech, and action. I did not understand the question. Here, one could ask a different question. Seemingly, one could ask: Didn’t the Alter Rebbe say earlier that the reason a Jew is unwilling to be separated from Hakadosh Boruch Hu even for a moment is that the light of Hashem is beyond time

18:30 So that is also eternal. What is the difference between—when the Alter Rebbe makes his second point and says that one is only temporary, while this is forever? What does “temporary” mean? Since Hakadosh Boruch Hu is beyond time, what difference is there between temporary and eternal? It is all eternal. It is beyond time; it has nothing to do with the bounds of time at all. So, in essence, everything is eternal. Even the separation is eternal. But that is not a question. The answer is simple: ultimately, there is a difference in practice between an aveirah and a mitzvah. After an aveirah, you can do teshuvah, and the aveirah does not remain. It is erased. That is the power of teshuvah. The Rebbe discusses this at length in Likkutei Sichos. With an aveirah, even though at the moment it is committed there is separation, and that separation is felt as something eternal—because Hashem is beyond time, so even a single moment can feel eternal to a person—in practice, after an aveirah there is teshuvah. Teshuvah has the power to erase the past, so no separation remains. That is the meaning of “they become like merits for him.” Teshuvah has tremendous power. A mitzvah, though, is eternal. The bond formed through a mitzvah is an eternal bond, an actual eternal bond that is never erased. The Rebbe addresses a well-known question in one of the maamarim: How can it be? We say that every moment, every day, we are drawing closer to the Geulah. Every day the world draws closer to the Geulah. Why? Because every day people do many good deeds and mitzvos and refine aspects of the world, so each day the world becomes more elevated, more refined. But then people ask: What do you mean? Just as mitzvos are done every day, aveiros are committed

20:29 every day. Every day there are also undesirable things. So how does that work? The Rebbe says—there is a maamar in Kuntres [?], one of the collected kuntreisim—the Rebbe explains that when it comes to an aveirah, a Jew does teshuvah. There can also, G-d forbid, be suffering that cleanses a person. But that is not the point, and we do not need to talk about suffering. One can do teshuvah without having to come to that. In practice, though, the evil does not remain; it is erased. A mitzvah, by contrast, creates an eternal bond, as the Alter Rebbe is about to say here in the chapter. Let’s continue inside the text. So this is what the Alter Rebbe says here... This is the point of the kal vachomer, the a fortiori argument, that a person should make. The Alter Rebbe now explains. We said there are two aspects to this bond: that it is a bond, and that it lasts forever. When the Alter Rebbe says “that is,” he is explaining both of these aspects: “That is, when he fulfills His blessed will through this service”—the moment a person does a mitzvah and fulfills the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu through his service—“the innermost aspect of the Supernal Will is revealed within him face-to-face, with great openness.” So within that service, the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is revealed inwardly and openly, “face-to-face, with great openness, and not concealed at all.” Okay? “For when there is no concealment whatsoever of the Supernal Will, nothing exists as a separate entity in its own right. Thus his vital soul and its garments will all be united in a complete union with the blessed Supernal Will.” All these words the Alter Rebbe has just said explain the bond—the extraordinary power of a mitzvah. When I do a mitzvah, my soul becomes bound to G-dliness. Because a mitzvah

22:31 is the innermost aspect of the Supernal Will, and there is no separation there. As the Alter Rebbe already explained in chapter 23—we learned how Torah and mitzvos are such that “the Torah and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are one.” There, the innermost aspect of the Supernal Will is present without interruption, and it permeates both the body and the soul. In other words, the entire person becomes bound and united with Hakadosh Boruch Hu in a wondrous union. The Alter Rebbe will explain this at greater length later in Tanya, in chapter 35. But this union created by doing a mitzvah—the union above—is eternal, forever, because He, blessed be He, and His will are beyond time. And the revelation of His will in His speech, which is the Torah, is likewise eternal, as it says, “The word of our G-d shall stand forever”; “His words live and endure forever”; and “He will never change or exchange His law, for all eternity.” So the union above is an eternal union. Therefore, when a person does a mitzvah, it creates both a bond and an eternal one. So certainly, all the more so, a person should overcome the yetzer and serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu by turning away from evil and doing good, with vitality and tremendous joy—overcoming every concealment and obstacle that the yetzer places in the way of that bond. That is the point. There are still quite a few details here that we need to examine. With Hashem’s help, in the next class we will discuss some of them. I just wanted us to grasp the overall picture and the flow of the discussion here.

24:15 This is how the Alter Rebbe explains it, showing how every Jew can do this. You do not need to be someone with a great intellectual understanding of Hashem’s greatness. It is simply a matter of uncovering the innermost core. Once I get to the root of what it means to be a Jew, and recognize that I have this connection—that my connection to Hakadosh Boruch Hu is one of mesirus nefesh—then, when I remember that point and live with it, it gives me the ability and the strength to overcome and conquer the yetzer, to turn away from evil and do good.