Likkutei Amarim Tanya, Chapter 28 - Part 2

00:00 So we’ll continue here with chapter 28, at the two dots on page 35. The Alter Rebbe asks: What is the advice? When thoughts of desire and distracting thoughts arise while a person is engaged in Torah study and davening, he should not become worried about it. On the contrary, the Alter Rebbe says he should put them out of his mind. The way to get rid of distracting thoughts is to turn his attention away from them and continue davening. The Alter Rebbe will explain this further. First, he explained that one should not follow the advice found in certain sefarim of elevating the middos behind distracting thoughts. That belongs specifically to the avodah of tzaddikim. It is not something that applies to a beinoni, and certainly not to someone below the level of a beinoni. Now the Alter Rebbe continues: “Nevertheless, he should not let his heart fall within him.” This follows his explanation of why elevating the middos behind distracting thoughts is not for us: How can a person elevate them above when he himself is bound below? Seemingly, that could leave a person feeling the opposite of joy. You tell him, “You should know that you have distracting thoughts because you are bound below.” In other words, it shows that you are deep in the kelipos, in a bad place. That thought could seemingly make a person sad. So the Alter Rebbe explains that nevertheless, a person should not be sad. On the contrary, as he explained earlier, he should have even greater joy, as we will now see. Sometimes a different approach is explained regarding how to deal with distracting thoughts in the middle of davening. As we said earlier, the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid speak of contemplating the root of the distracting thought and elevating its middos.

02:04 But there are also sefarim, and sometimes sefarim of Chassidus, that say the opposite: that a person can correct the distracting thoughts that arise during davening by taking stock of himself, making a cheshbon hanefesh, and engaging in an avodah of bitterness. Chassidus does give such advice. Sometimes, when a person has distracting thoughts and improper thoughts during davening and so on, he should contemplate that very fact. He should think about it and arouse bitterness in his soul over being so low, deep in the kelipos, which is why distracting thoughts come to him. That bitterness will bring him to teshuvah, and through that he will be rid of the distracting thoughts. Sometimes that is the advice. Even in the Alter Rebbe’s own teachings, we find something similar in Likkutei Torah. In the maamar Ani Ledodi, there is an approach along those lines. In that well-known maamar, the Alter Rebbe speaks about distracting thoughts and explains that, as far as elevating the middos is concerned, if distracting thoughts occur to a person while he is engaged in Torah study and davening, he should not be alarmed by them, and so on. Then what advice does the Alter Rebbe give? He says that a person must search for their root through a cheshbon hanefesh. He must reflect on everything he has done in the past, in thought, speech, and action, and so on. So yes, sometimes bitterness is called for. But here the Alter Rebbe wants to rule out that approach as well. In other words, in chapter 28 the Alter Rebbe wants to say that the way a person overcomes distracting thoughts and desires that arise during davening is not by elevating the middos behind those thoughts—that is certain, because it is not for us. How can he elevate them above when he himself is bound below? Nor is it through

04:08 contemplating the bad and becoming bitter over it. That is why the Alter Rebbe continues: “Nevertheless, he should not let his heart fall within him and become dejected and despicable in his own eyes because of this”—because he has a distracting thought. During—he is not saying never; he is saying not now. While you are engaged in the avodah, in the middle of davening, that is not the way. The Alter Rebbe does not rule out that approach; there is such an approach, and one must make use of it. Just not now, during davening. While you are engaged in the avodah, when distracting thoughts come to you, the way to overcome them is to put them out of your mind, nothing else. Yes, while engaged in the avodah, when one must be very joyful. At the time of avodah one must have great joy, as the Alter Rebbe has already said several times. That is how he began this discussion in chapter 26. The Alter Rebbe explained that a great principle in serving Hashem is that one must serve Him specifically with joy, because without joy the yetzer hara will bring you down, and so on—the whole discussion. To defeat the yetzer, one must have great joy. So whenever one is serving Hashem, one must serve with joy. That is why now is not the time to be sad. If you now sink into sadness, depression, or bitterness, you will not have the strength to overcome the yetzer, as the Alter Rebbe said earlier. To overcome the opposition, a person must have energy, and energy comes from joy. So contemplating these matters now will not help you; on the contrary, it will interfere. That is what he means when he says one must have great joy. But notice that he adds even more. Not only must there be joy; on the contrary, he says: “He should strengthen himself all the more and put all his strength into concentrating on his davening.” What should his approach be toward

06:08 distracting thoughts? A person must enter into davening with more strength and resolve. The Alter Rebbe will explain this with the analogy of a battle. On the contrary, as soon as you notice a distracting thought during davening, the way to deal with it is to throw yourself into davening with more life, more strength, and more determination, with delight and even greater joy. So the joy, too, must be not just joy but greater joy. The Alter Rebbe takes us from one extreme to the other. First, he rules out bitterness during davening—bitterness over a distracting thought. Then he not only says there must be joy; he says that precisely because you have a distracting thought, your joy must be even greater. Why greater joy? Simply because you need greater concentration. As the Alter Rebbe is now explaining to us, to defeat a distracting thought you need greater concentration: you must enter into davening with more life, more concentration, more fervor. Consequently, your joy must be greater too. This also connects with the explanation in chapter 26. To defeat the yetzer, you must serve Hashem with joy. Joy gives you the strength to overcome the yetzer, so the more strength you need to put in, the more joy you need. That is why the Alter Rebbe says there must be greater joy. But where will that greater joy come from? From the fact that he is confused and has a distracting thought? How can he be joyful about that—when he actually has distracting thoughts and improper thoughts? Where will his greater joy come from? So the Alter Rebbe explains: By taking to heart that the distracting thought comes from the kelipah in the cavity

08:08 the left side. A person needs to pay attention, to reflect and come to the realization that a foreign thought comes from the kelipah. Where do my foreign thoughts come from? From the kelipah in the left chamber of the heart, which wages war against the beinoni and the G-dly soul within him. There’s a war going on here. A foreign thought isn’t just something that happens naturally. It comes because there’s a war going on. The yetzer hara wants to disturb my davening. During the day, the yetzer hara doesn’t, well, it doesn’t assert itself quite so strongly. It’s specifically during davening that the battle takes place, as the Alter Rebbe is about to explain. So when foreign thoughts come to me during davening, what causes that? The fact that there’s a war going on. The kelipah in the left chamber wages war against the beinoni and the G-dly soul within him. And we know how it is with people fighting or wrestling each other: when one gains strength, the other also tries to gain strength with all his might. That’s how a battle works. The Alter Rebbe is continuing the same thought he expressed in chapter 26, with the same analogy. In chapter 26, the Alter Rebbe gave the analogy of two people fighting each other, each trying to bring the other down. If one is sluggish and heavy, the other will defeat him easily, even if he is stronger, because to win you have to be energetic, and energy comes specifically from joy. So here the Alter Rebbe continues and says: The fact that foreign thoughts are coming to you now shows, on the contrary, that you’re fighting. If you weren’t fighting, the other side wouldn’t be fighting either. If you were relaxed, if you were asleep, if you were just going along like that, the yetzer hara would have no one opposing it. No one would be threatening it. When does the commotion start? When it feels threatened. The moment you begin to daven, you begin

10:06 to put effort into your davening, the yetzer hara wakes up. Oops, what’s happening here? And it starts picking a fight with you. So on the contrary, the fact that foreign thoughts are coming to you shows that you’re in a good place: you’re davening, you’re fighting, and that’s how a battle works. When one side starts to gain strength, the other pushes back. So what do you do? Get frightened and run away? Just the opposite. Your task is to use the advice the Alter Rebbe gave in chapter 26: to grow stronger with greater joy. It’s precisely through greater joy that you have more strength and more energy, and consequently the power to defeat it. That’s the work here. “Therefore, when the G-dly soul exerts itself and strives to daven, the kelipah, too, strives against it, to confuse him and cause its foreign thoughts to fall into his mind.” That’s the point. This is what the Alter Rebbe means when he says, “when he takes to heart.” When a person understands what’s going on here, he won’t get confused. In other words, what is the Alter Rebbe trying to explain to us with “when he takes to heart”? He has to pay attention. Usually, this is the mistake we make. The Alter Rebbe will speak about the mistake shortly, yes? He’ll go into it in more detail. But the basic point the Alter Rebbe is making here, following what he said earlier about sadness, is this: Our natural reaction is that when we’re davening and trying to daven, and suddenly foreign thoughts come to mind, we get upset. Why do we get upset? Because it feels like some kind of test that proves I’m deep in the kelipos. It’s as though it proves there’s something wrong with me. It shows that I’m, that I’m, that I’m not... And here’s the proof: I’m trying to daven, and it’s not working, and I have foreign thoughts. So that must show where I stand. That must be my place. And so, in short, we fall into all kinds of

12:02 reactions. It’s natural for a person to get upset at this point. And sometimes there are thoughts—things like this are actually written. It’s not as though there’s no source for it, right? Sometimes you do find such things written. So the Alter Rebbe is trying to explain what the right way to think is. He is explaining here that a person needs to reflect and take to heart what’s really causing this foreign thought right now. The real reason is precisely that I’m davening. On the contrary, it comes from a battle. Because I’m davening, because I’m trying to put effort into my davening, the opposing side fights back. So what do you need in a battle? In a battle, as in a battle, you need greater resolve. How can a person have greater resolve? By being in a more joyful frame of mind. When people go out to battle, as we know, they march to a victory tune. Before they enter the battle, that’s precisely what gives them confidence and strength. It lifts them up; it gives them the strength to win. If you enter a battle already feeling defeated, you won’t be able to win anything. The right approach is, on the contrary, to put more into your davening, with more life, more strength and, accordingly, more joy. Joy will help him. Through it, he’ll be able to defeat the yetzer hara. Chassidim have an example, a vort, an analogy about why foreign thoughts come specifically during davening. There’s a vort that chassidim say illustrates it in a tangible way. They give this example: When you cook—perhaps this is even brought in maamarim; I don’t remember right now, but there is such a vort—when you cook a dish, meat or soup, you see that as it heats up and cooks, the waste

14:15 rises to the top. Then you have to remove it. There’s a word for it in the Mishnah, a term used by butchers. There’s this stuff that sits on top of the food, this sort of fat, this waste, and you have to remove it so that... So there’s a vort that this is what happens with foreign thoughts during davening. When a person begins to daven, he begins to warm up. There’s warmth, enthusiasm and life in his davening, right? It’s as though the person is cooking in his davening, and that’s precisely when the waste rises. The foreign thoughts that rise in his mind are that waste coming up because he’s warming up in his davening, and love, awe and vitality are awakening in him. That causes the waste from the evil to rise to the surface. And that’s why foreign thoughts come to him. But the waste from the evil rises to the surface, on the contrary, so that he can take it out and nullify it. How does he nullify it? We’re talking about an ordinary person. As it says here, he does it by standing firmer, with more courage and more strength—by putting more effort into his davening, in short, in order to defeat it. There’s a well-known story they tell about Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Pshischa[?] that relates to what we’re learning here. A Jewish man, a Polish chossid, once came to Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Pshischa[?]. As is well known, in Chabad Chassidus the emphasis was on davening at length—davening at length and deliberately. Among some Polish chassidim, the approach is the opposite. Not all of them, but some. Even today there are some who daven very quickly. There are groups, Belz, Satmar and others, where the approach to davening is specifically not to... The idea is that one should daven quickly. So the story goes that a Polish chossid once came to Rabbi Simcha Bunim[?] and said, “We daven quickly.” Why do they daven

16:33 quickly? He explained the vort: When a person is traveling in a wagon and there are non-Jews outside throwing stones at him, what does he do? Does he go slowly? Just the opposite—he goes faster. So you have to hurry through davening, so the non-Jew—the yetzer hara—won’t have the chance to throw stones at you, to throw foreign thoughts at you. That’s why they daven quickly, close on the heels of one word after another, with a lot of vitality. You’ve seen it, right? Polish chassidim daven with tremendous enthusiasm, but very, very quickly. One, two, they’re already moving on, as if not giving the yetzer hara, the foreign thoughts, a chance to get in. They daven without a pause; there’s no time for foreign thoughts to enter. They say that the Rebbe of Pshischa answered him: “What you’re saying is true when the non-Jew is outside, throwing stones at you. But what if he’s already inside? What good will running do? He’s right there with you in the wagon, throwing stones at you from inside. So where are you running to? It won’t help at all.” In other words, what are you talking about? The foreign thoughts are already deep inside. They’re traveling along with you. You’re not escaping anywhere. So what do you do? You have to stop. You have to get him out, and then... That’s the difference. Davening at length is how you get rid of him; it has to be done in just that way. That’s a vort among...