Likkutei Amarim Tanya, Chapter 27 - Part 5

00:00 So the Alter Rebbe, here in chapter 27, on page 34b, quotes the verse, “Make me delicacies.” He explained that there are two kinds of pleasure for Hakadosh Boruch Hu: the pleasure that comes from the service of is’hapcha, transforming evil, which is the service of tzaddikim; and the pleasure that comes from the service of iskafya, subduing evil, which is the service of beinonim. The Alter Rebbe quotes the verse, “Make me delicacies.” As we said, this verse was spoken in connection with Yaakov Avinu. Ultimately, Yitzchak had Eisav in mind, but in practice it was meant for Yaakov Avinu, who is the source of the souls. Yitzchak said to Yaakov, “Make me delicacies such as I love,” which encompasses the entire service of birurim, refining the world. As we know, in that whole story, Yitzchak sent him to bring food so that he could give him the blessings. Those were blessings for the service of birurim. Chassidus explains that the whole account of “May He give you,” all the blessings, were blessings that Yaakov Avinu gave for the service of birurim. Sorry—Yitzchak. Yitzchak gave them. Yitzchak wanted to give them to Eisav because he thought the birurim should go directly to Eisav, to elevate him. But Rivkah understood that they needed to pass through Yaakov. So the entire service of birurim, which includes both iskafya and is’hapcha, is alluded to in this verse, “Make me delicacies.” What, then, is the Rebbe—the Alter Rebbe—pointing out here when he says there are two kinds of delicacies? It is not incidental. There are sweet delicacies, and there are delicacies that are sharp, sour, and seasoned. Just as there are two kinds of delicacies, so too in our service: the service of tzaddikim, is’hapcha, is like sweet foods; and there is the service of beinonim, which involves fighting evil—is’kafya—like sharp and sour delicacies. But the Alter Rebbe does not only

02:05 want to draw from this verse and this analogy the idea that there are two kinds of delicacies. He also wants to hint at the advantage of the beinoni’s service. That is why the Alter Rebbe adds the expression “to revive the soul” here. We mentioned this at the end of the lesson, but we did not have time to explain it. [unclear]. The Alter Rebbe’s wording is that sharp and sour foods become delicacies “to revive the soul.” With this, the Alter Rebbe is hinting that the beinoni’s service has an advantage. The service of iskafya also has an advantage over is’hapcha. That is what “to revive the soul” alludes to. In practice, there are two kinds of tasty delicacies. But when it comes to reviving the soul, we see plainly that it is specifically sharp foods that have that power. A person eats sweet foods and feels good; they are tasty and enjoyable. But when someone is weak and needs to revive himself, it is specifically sharp foods that help. This connects with what is explained in the maamarim of Acharon Shel Pesach. The Siddur explains that when a person is distracted, what is needed is specifically something with a sharp smell. We will get to the subject of smell. Yes, I am explaining that when a person is distracted and we want to rouse him from that state, a sharp smell is specifically what is needed, because of its sharpness. On Yom Kippur, yes, a sharp smell is used to revive a person. There is a similar idea with eating. The Gemara in Yoma discusses a smell on Yom Kippur, including a sharp smell. It can bring something on; it can be dangerous. Bulemus, for example, and other conditions—a sharp smell can specifically cause greater weakness, so one has to be especially careful about it. And there is a similar idea with eating: sharp and sour foods specifically

04:10 revive the soul. They give more strength than sweet foods. So what does this mean Above, in a spiritual sense? When we say that in one respect iskafya has an advantage, and speak of reviving the soul Above, we mean in relation to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: iskafya draws down a higher light even than is’hapcha. As the maamarim explain, iskafya has an advantage over is’hapcha in drawing down a transcendent light; iskafya draws down light from a higher source. This is what is meant by the statement, “When the sitra achra is subdued, the glory of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is elevated throughout all the worlds.” Specifically iskafya draws down from a higher level than is’hapcha. And that is the allusion in the words “to revive the soul” used here about the foods as well. The whole subject is explained at length in Ayin Beis. The Rebbe Rashab explains that there is direct light and reflected light. Reflected light reaches higher than direct light. Similarly, with these foods, iskafya has its particular advantage because it comes through breaking something, through struggle—as he said, while the evil is still in full strength. That arouses reflected light, and therefore draws down from a higher source. That is the meaning of “to revive the soul”: life of life, a higher source. The Alter Rebbe continues and says that, based on this, we can also understand the verse in Mishlei: “Hashem has made everything for His purpose.” Everything Hakadosh Boruch Hu does, all His actions, are for His purpose—to reveal His glory. “Even the wicked for the day of evil.” Even the wicked, for the day of evil, are also for His purpose. Everything is for His purpose. Everything that happens in the world is ultimately done by Hakadosh Boruch Hu so that His glory will be revealed in the world.

06:08 But a wicked person contradicts G-dliness. Where do you see it? You see a wicked person, someone behaving in a wicked way, a state of wickedness in the world. How does that serve His purpose? It seems to be the very opposite of “Hashem has made everything for His purpose.” A Jew, a person, does things like that—and here we have concealment. So that is what King Shlomo says: “Even the wicked for the day of evil.” The wicked person, too, serves His purpose. On the straightforward reading of the verse, what does “for the day of evil” mean? When the day comes that Hakadosh Boruch Hu punishes him, we ultimately see that wickedness cannot endure. In the end, the wicked person receives his punishment, and everyone sees—it becomes evident in the world—that wickedness is something for which a person is punished. That itself reveals the power of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is the straightforward meaning of “even the wicked for the day of evil,” the plain meaning of the words. But the Alter Rebbe takes this verse in line with the subject we are discussing here: the service of subduing the sitra achra. “Hashem has made everything for His purpose”—in the context of our service, this means that everything a person encounters in his service is there to reveal the power of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So how do we explain the verse in light of what we have learned about the advantage of iskafya? Here it is not talking about the punishment of the wicked. Here “wicked” refers to the beinoni, in keeping with what we said earlier about the wicked and the righteous. What does “wicked” mean here? It means the beinoni, who has desires that he must fight. That is whom we are discussing. So what does the verse, “Hashem has made everything for His purpose, even the wicked,” mean in the context of the beinoni’s service? “It means that he turns away from his wickedness and makes his evil into day and light Above.” Through his teshuvah—the Alter Rebbe is bringing in here

08:12 The idea of a baal teshuvah. In general, we’re talking here about the avodah of the beinoni and its merit, and that also includes the virtue of a baal teshuvah. Because in this respect, the virtue of a baal teshuvah is similar to the virtue of a beinoni who has a desire. For the beinoni, it’s the struggle itself: he has a desire, and he has to fight it and practice iskafya. With a baal teshuvah, he has actually stumbled as well. And afterward, when he does teshuvah, he takes all the... all the desire he had and all the sins he committed. And when he does teshuvah, what happens through his avodah? “He turns away from his wickedness and makes his evil into day and light Above”—through the avodah of teshuvah. So he does that. What does he do? He transforms the evil and makes it into... That’s the meaning of “for the day of evil.” How does he interpret “for the day of evil”? He makes day out of the evil. He takes the evil, the things associated with evil, and turns them into day. He makes them light, makes them holiness. But the Alter Rebbe is precise in saying “Above.” What exactly does “Above” mean? Why does he specifically say “Above”? So he explains: “When the sitra achra is subdued, the glory of Hakadosh Boruch Hu rises Above.” The Alter Rebbe is precise that the meaning is that he makes his evil into day Above, because we’re talking here about a beinoni. We’re not talking about a tzaddik. In other words, down here he still hasn’t finished the battle. After all, who is the Alter Rebbe talking about in what follows? He’s talking about a person who is in the midst of a battle and doesn’t finish it. Every day he is in this battle. You see, this is what he was created for, and with help, he does it every day. And in this battle, down here it still hasn’t become

10:02 light. There’s still, so to speak, a state of darkness. He has a struggle; he has a desire. And even after he overcomes it, the desire returns again. He is constantly in battle. That’s why the Alter Rebbe is precise: “He makes his evil into day and light Above.” This causes the evil to be transformed into day Above, because every act of iskafya brings about what we said earlier: “The glory of Hakadosh Boruch Hu rises Above.” And there, the kelipah really is broken. Every act of iskafya a Jew does causes a breaking of the sitra achra Above. That’s why we say it becomes day Above, because “the glory of Hakadosh Boruch Hu rises Above.” In any case, what becomes clear here is the greatness... the magnitude of what this accomplishes and the great pleasure it brings Hashem. The Alter Rebbe wants to explain all this so a person will be happy about having the opportunity each time he practices iskafya—even though he doesn’t finish the battle, and even though down here he is still in the midst of the struggle and still has a desire from his yetzer hara. But every single time you succeed in overcoming the yetzer hara, every act of iskafya you do in thought, speech, or action, brings about everything we discussed earlier. That’s the whole idea of iskafya and the ascent of the glory of Hakadosh Boruch Hu Above, and it gives Hakadosh Boruch Hu very great pleasure. So much so that, as we said, this pleasure has the power to draw down the light of the Ein Sof, which comes specifically through this. I remember when we were learning in yeshivah, the mashpia, Rabbi Gringlass, would give the Tanya class. He had a regular way of telling stories. I learned with him for several years. Rabbi Gringlass had a special way of giving the Tanya class. Every year he would start Likkutei Amarim again, and usually over the course of the year he would cover almost all of Likkutei Amarim. After

12:08 that, nearly thirty-five chapters, sometimes forty chapters. He learned quickly. The classes weren’t—he would go through the material at a steady pace. But at the end of the class, there was always a vort, a story, an incident, some point. So in connection with what we’re learning here, I remember a story Rabbi Gringlass told about the virtue of iskafya. He said that this happened in Poland. The Frierdiker Rebbe was in Poland, and there was a gabbai there, one of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s secretaries and gabbaim. If I remember correctly, the name he gave was a Jew called Leiber Rasky [?]. If I remember right, that was his name. For a certain period, he was the gabbai. He related that once he went in to the Frierdiker Rebbe and brought him some food. The Frierdiker Rebbe was eating and drinking. In short, he brought him a cup of tea. He went in and then left. When he came back an hour later, the tea was sitting on the table. The Frierdiker Rebbe hadn’t drunk it, and it was already cold. So he said to the Frierdiker Rebbe, “Why didn’t the Rebbe drink it?” The Frierdiker Rebbe told him, “I’m practicing iskafya.” So the gabbai said to him, “Does the Rebbe need to practice iskafya too?” After all, “It’s a feat for a wise man, a feat for a king.” What’s the wording in Tanya? “It’s a feat for a servant, a feat for a king.” Remember? He’s already a tzaddik. How does that apply? A tzaddik isn’t about iskafya. So the Frierdiker Rebbe told him, “Others have to do it; I want to do it.” Others have to practice iskafya. I want to practice iskafya. That was the vort: others have to practice iskafya, and I want to practice iskafya. In other words, even though he was a tzaddik—specifically the Frierdiker Rebbe—he was on the level of ishapcha. Ishapcha means that you can take something material and elevate it. You don’t

14:22 need to see physical pleasures as something that calls for iskafya. There is ishapcha. Nevertheless, because iskafya has its own virtue, even a tzaddik says, “I want to do it.” He seeks it out; he seeks to bring himself to that point. How—what does that mean? How exactly can there be iskafya? He brings himself into a situation where a desire arises, and then he holds back. How exactly does iskafya work for a tzaddik? It’s hard to understand exactly how it works. In Chassidus, you sometimes find the expression that for tzaddikim, iskafya means bringing themselves to a state of desire and then saying, “I would like to, but what can I do? My Father in Heaven has decreed otherwise.” In other words, he brings himself to a state of “I would like to,” awakens a desire, and then overcomes it. All right, that doesn’t apply—it doesn’t really apply to us. It’s just a vort, a story, to show that iskafya is something very great. On this subject, I also once heard from the mashpia in Morristown, Reb Melech Zweibel. He related that once, at a farbrengen, the Rebbe spoke at length about the virtue of iskafya. The Rebbe gave examples of a Jew practicing iskafya: one time you hold yourself back from doing something—someone wants to put salt in his soup, but he restrains himself and doesn’t add it, or he puts less sugar in his tea. It doesn’t matter; those were the kinds of examples. About that, the Rebbe says in Tanya, “And each and every act of subduing,” and so on. Reb Melech related that the Rebbe made a motion with his hand like this: “It turns over the entire seder hishtalshelus.” That’s what the Rebbe did. With each such act of iskafya, he brings about an upheaval throughout the entire seder hishtalshelus. That was the expression. The Rebbe also made that motion with his hand: “It turns over the entire seder hishtalshelus.” We need to understand this idea. That’s what we’re learning here now

16:25 in Tanya: how much the whole matter of wanting to practice iskafya matters.