Likkutei Amarim, Chapter 29 - Part 5

00:01 We’re up to chapter 29, page 36b, at the line beginning “as above,” after the parentheses and the bracket, at the words “and especially.” The Alter Rebbe is in the middle of giving us various ideas, ways of reflecting, ways of taking stock—how to break through the coarseness of the material self, to break the crudeness of the animal soul. This breaks the spirit of kelipah and the sitra achra. Once the sitra achra is broken, the light of the soul can shine within a person’s body. So the Alter Rebbe now continues with another reflection. Until now, he has spoken about reflecting on one’s basic state of being: the state of my soul is that of kelipah and sitra achra. In a beinoni, the animal soul is still in its full strength and power, and from the standpoint of the animal soul, he is still capable of desiring forbidden things. That itself shows that he still draws his vitality from the kelipos. That was an assessment of his inner state. Now the Alter Rebbe goes further and says, “And especially.” Look, he moves a little closer to actual conduct. It is not only about the state of the soul; there are also blemishes a person has caused. The Alter Rebbe says: “And especially when he remembers the impurity of his soul from the sins of his youth.” A person should remember the impurity of his soul from sins committed when he was young. As is known, this refers to wasting seed, what is called a blemish of the bris. It is generally during youth, when the blood runs hot, that people stumble in this; it is a sin that is very difficult to avoid. And, as is known, the sins of youth are difficult to free oneself from altogether, which is why the Alter Rebbe gives this as an example. By the way, the Rebbe emphasizes that this provides proof for what the Rebbe always says about the Alter Rebbe’s statement in chapter 12 concerning a beinoni: “He has never committed a sin in his life and never will.” Chapter 12 says that a beinoni is a person who has never committed a sin

02:29 in his life and never will. So the question is asked: Can someone who once committed a sin not be a beinoni? What, then, does “he has never committed a sin in his life” mean? It is not meant literally. It means that he has done teshuvah. He is now in a state in which he will not commit a sin. Since teshuvah also repairs the past, once he has done teshuvah, his past too has been repaired. And in light of his present standing, after doing teshuvah, he has never committed a sin in his life. One of the proofs the Rebbe brings is from here. The Alter Rebbe is speaking here about a beinoni, and he says that he should remember the impurity of his soul from the sins of his youth. That means we are talking about someone who committed sins of youth in the past—a very serious sin, as stated in Igeres Hateshuvah, and as the Alter Rebbe discussed earlier in chapter 7. Nevertheless, the Alter Rebbe says that this sin can be part of a beinoni’s past, and he is still called a beinoni. Why? Because when we say of a beinoni that he has not sinned and will not sin, we are speaking about his present standing. In any event, the Alter Rebbe presents this as a reflection, an accounting of the soul, intended to break the self-importance and coarseness of the kelipah. So he says, “And especially when he remembers the impurity of his soul from the sins of his youth, and the blemish he caused in the higher realms.” It is known that a sin blemishes not only the soul but also the supernal realms. As the Alter Rebbe explains in Igeres Hateshuvah, the soul is rooted in the Name Havayah, and this extends throughout the entire order of spiritual worlds. The soul is present at every level; the soul of a Jew is rooted in the four letters, which are present at every level of the order of spiritual worlds. So when a person causes a blemish through sin,

04:24 he causes a blemish at every level. The blemish affects all the worlds and pierces the Name Havayah. It makes a breach and causes a blemish in the Name Havayah throughout the entire order of spiritual worlds. And when we speak of the blemish caused in the higher realms, those realms are beyond time. The limits of time do not apply there. When we speak of the Name Havayah, that is beyond time, “and it is as if he had caused the blemish and become impure today, G-d forbid, quite literally.” A person should reflect on this. It turns out that at certain levels in the higher realms, the blemish he caused in the past is not only a problem from the past. He remembers a sin he committed long ago, and he might say to himself: I committed a sin of youth, but that was in the past. I have already done teshuvah. As the Alter Rebbe is about to say—yes, what about the teshuvah? He did teshuvah. Nevertheless, we say it should still trouble him, cause him pain, break him, and bring him to a broken heart, even though it happened in the past. Why? It happened in the past, and he has already done teshuvah. This is what the Alter Rebbe adds here: the blemish does not affect only the soul. If it affected only the soul, fine—his soul is now in the state of a beinoni; he has done teshuvah. So there is no longer a sin. But since the blemish also affects the higher realms and every level of the order of spiritual worlds, there is always a place where he has not yet repaired it, a place where the blemish remains. There, as he says, it is beyond time, so it is as if he caused the blemish and became impure today. There, the blemish is not a blemish of the past; it is a blemish of the present, as if he caused it today, G-d forbid, quite literally. So the Rebbe

06:18 continues: “And although he has already done proper teshuvah.” Seemingly, how can a blemish remain? After all, a person has done teshuvah, and teshuvah is supposed to repair all the blemishes. That is what teshuvah does: it cleanses the blemishes. And as we discussed, teshuvah also affects the past. So, seemingly, how can a blemish remain here? The Alter Rebbe explains: “And although he has already done proper teshuvah.” He then describes it: “For the essence of teshuvah is in the heart.” The main part of teshuvah is a matter of the heart. Teshuvah involves regret, and the regret must be genuine. That is what it means for teshuvah to be in the heart. It must come from the depths of the heart: one must feel sorrow and regret over the sin from the depths of the heart. “And the heart has many aspects and levels.” Since the essence of teshuvah is in the heart, and the heart has many levels—the depths of the heart are boundless. We say, “From the depths,” in the plural. The Alter Rebbe already explains in Likkutei Torah that there is one depth beyond another. So the heart has many depths. Teshuvah must be in the heart, and the heart has one depth beyond another. Accordingly, even if your confession today came from the depths of your heart, and according to your state today you confessed, did teshuvah, and repaired what needed repairing at today’s level, tomorrow the teshuvah must be deeper. The teshuvah of yesterday and today will no longer be enough. Once a person rises to a higher level, this is what the Alter Rebbe means: “The heart has many aspects and levels, all according to the person and according to the time and place, as is known to those who understand.” Teshuvah involves confession in the heart. But when it comes to actual conduct—thought, speech, and action—there are definite things there. It is all clear: did you do it or not, did you fulfill it,

08:22 You haven’t fulfilled it. So there, yes, we’re talking about things connected with actual practice. Did you put on tefillin or didn’t you? There’s nothing to argue about. Right? If the tefillin were kosher, you fulfilled the mitzvah; if not, you didn’t. But when we speak about mitzvos connected with the service of the heart, the service of the heart is endless. The heart, as he says, has many levels. The heart is endless. What your heart feels today may not be the same level as what it feels tomorrow. And that is what he means: “Everything depends on the person, and on the time and place.” What does the Alter Rebbe mean by “the person, and the time and place”? Three things. There is world, year, and soul. You know this, right? Chassidim always say that everything in a person’s life is made up of three things: world, year, and soul. “World” is place, “year” is time, and “soul” is the person. Yes, the entire order of creation, all of human life, is made up of these three things: world, year, and soul; time, place, and life. The Alter Rebbe says: “According to the person”—the person, the soul, changes. The soul is not always on the same level. Sometimes a person is at a certain spiritual level, and sometimes a person rises to higher levels. A person rises; they go from strength to strength. That is the level of the soul. Just as different people have different strengths, so too, within each person there are different levels. That is what “according to the person” means. The person you are today is on a different level from the person you were yesterday. That is “according to the person.” Then there is the matter of time. There are different times. Weekdays are not the same as Shabbos,

10:17 or Yom Tov, or the Ten Days of Teshuvah. As the Rambam says in Hilchos Teshuvah: “Although teshuvah and crying out are always appropriate, during the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur they are especially appropriate and are accepted immediately.” So there are particular times that are an auspicious time. Similarly, a fast day is an auspicious time. So there is time, and likewise there is place. Certainly, there are places where teshuvah is more readily accepted, or where a higher level of teshuvah is required. It is not the same when a person is outside the Land of Israel or in the Land of Israel, in a holy place or in a more elevated place—in the Rebbe’s house. There are different places. In fact, in the edited maamar “Tziyon Bemishpat Tipadeh” from 5735, the Rebbe speaks about this whole subject: world, year, and soul, and their many levels. He speaks about precisely this point. So that is what the Alter Rebbe is saying. Since everything depends on the person and on the time and place, and these things change, teshuvah changes too. Therefore, “now, at this moment, when he sees within himself that the light of his soul does not shine forth”—the person sees that right now he has dullness of the heart. That is what we are discussing here. We are talking about a beinoni who wants to daven, but right now he feels he cannot. Why can’t he daven? Because he has dullness of the heart. Where did that dullness come from? From the coarseness of the kelipah. Where did the coarseness of the kelipah come from? From sins. Yes, this is all a chain of cause and effect. A person committed sins, and those sins give strength to the animal soul, give strength to the kelipah. “Your iniquities separate between you and your G-d.” Through your iniquities, there comes to be—there comes to be a matter of—

12:11 giving life to that sin. And that life is what brings him dullness of the heart. But I already did teshuvah! Why do I have dullness of the heart? That itself is proof that, at my level today, the blemish has surfaced again. At yesterday’s level, the teshuvah was entirely complete. At the level my heart was at yesterday, my confession was as it should be. So at yesterday’s level there was no blemish, and therefore no dullness of the heart. Yesterday’s davening went up as it should, and everything went well. That was yesterday’s level. But today, since the person has risen to a higher level, the blemish surfaces again at the level where he is now. The blemish exists in many worlds, and that itself means that teshuvah must take place on many levels. So today, because you are at a higher level, the blemish surfaces again. This should awaken a person to a deeper inner arousal to do teshuvah and repair the blemish. Reflecting on this will break his own coarseness, and that will break the power of the sitra achra. There is something remarkable that the Alter Rebbe explains here, a major insight into the whole subject of teshuvah. This entire idea here is not in Igeres Hateshuvah. It is not entirely clear—perhaps it is not there at all; I am not sure it appears in Igeres Hateshuvah. It is very interesting. In Igeres Hateshuvah, the Alter Rebbe actually speaks in the opposite way. When we study Igeres Hateshuvah—soon it will be half past; we need to get started. After nine fifteen, we need to start preparing for half past. So there, in Igeres Hateshuvah, when the Alter Rebbe speaks about teshuvah, he specifically says that teshuvah is

14:07 a matter of actual practice: simply abandoning the sin. Here the Alter Rebbe introduces the idea that teshuvah is a service of the heart. Yes. In Igeres Hateshuvah, the Alter Rebbe emphasizes the opposite: “The mitzvah of teshuvah according to the Torah is simply abandoning the sin.” Yes, there too the Alter Rebbe adds that one must, in his words, “resolve in his heart, wholeheartedly, not to return to his folly.” But the emphasis there is on what the Rebbe explains to be the Alter Rebbe’s insight into the Torah’s mitzvah of teshuvah. The Rebbe explains the central principle that the Alter Rebbe introduces in Igeres Hateshuvah: the main thing in the mitzvah of teshuvah is the resolution from now on—abandoning the sin. That is the essence of teshuvah, not regret. Regret is one element. Regret is a building block; it helps ensure that it will not happen again. But it is not the essence of teshuvah. The Torah’s mitzvah of teshuvah is abandoning the sin, and abandoning the sin is not about regret. It is a decision. Abandoning the sin is the decision that from today onward I will no longer be involved in it. There, the Alter Rebbe calls sin “rebellion against the King.” A person comes to recognize that sin is rebellion against the King, and the moment he decides that from today onward he will no longer rebel against the King, he accepts upon himself the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven. That is teshuvah according to the Torah. That is the mitzvah of teshuvah. That is teshuvah in practice. Here, the Alter Rebbe is speaking about the beinoni. For the beinoni, it is not only teshuvah in practice. In the beinoni’s case, the Alter Rebbe uses the precise expression here, “proper teshuvah.” The Rebbe emphasizes that “proper teshuvah” is a particular kind of teshuvah. We are talking here about the service of the beinoni. As we said earlier, a beinoni is not simply someone who has done teshuvah in practice. A beinoni is a person who does teshuvah in such a way that he has never committed a sin in his life and never will. It must be genuine teshuvah, inner teshuvah.

16:08 When teshuvah is such that it places a person in a state where he will not commit a transgression again, it has to be teshuvah of the heart, teshuvah from the depths of the heart. When there is regret, the teshuvah has staying power. There is inner work. That is what the Alter Rebbe is saying here: for a beinoni, teshuvah is not merely an external teshuvah. It is an inner teshuvah, teshuvah in the heart, from the depths of the heart. And there are many levels within the heart, so there are many levels of teshuvah. Therefore, although yesterday, at your level, your teshuvah was complete—and at the level you were at yesterday there was no blemish, because at that level it was complete teshuvah; you had repaired it—the moment you rise to a higher level, the blemish is felt again, and you have to repair it again. That is precisely why dullness of the heart arises in him: so that he will repair it. This is the first explanation the Alter Rebbe gives here. The Rebbe gives a very simple example of this in his sichos: a garment. It is a familiar example from the Rebbe’s sichos. The Gemara says that if a garment has a stain, then on the garment of an am haaretz it is not considered an interposition, while on the garment of a Torah scholar it is considered an interposition. So there are levels of garments. What happens if he was an am haaretz and then became a Torah scholar? At the level he was at as an am haaretz, it was not a blemish or a stain. Now that he has risen to the level of a Torah scholar, the very same thing that yesterday was not considered a blemish is considered a blemish today. Today it is considered a stain, according to the level you are at now. So now—

18:11 It becomes apparent. Suddenly it becomes a stain. The very same thing that was not a stain yesterday is one now, because of the level you have risen to. In Likkutei Torah, Parshas Shelach, the Alter Rebbe gives the example of a garment. When you wash a garment, the finer and more important the garment is, the more something that would not count as a blemish on a simpler garment becomes a blemish on the more expensive one. Sometimes, in the garment’s earlier condition, something did not matter. But as you repair it and improve it, the blemish suddenly matters more; it becomes more noticeable, and so you have to repair it. That is why, the Alter Rebbe explains, we say “Forgive us” in Shemoneh Esrei. Why do we say “Forgive us” in Shemoneh Esrei? Because when a person reaches Shemoneh Esrei, he rises to a higher level, and then something that previously was not considered bad suddenly becomes apparent. Suddenly it matters; suddenly it becomes something real. Something that did not count before now stands out. The same applies here to the beinoni. At the levels he had reached until now, his teshuvah was complete. But at the level he is at now, the blemish is felt again, and he has to repair it. That is the first point the Alter Rebbe makes. [unclear]. The Alter Rebbe then adds another point: teshuvah from even greater depths of the heart. There is another situation, another reason. Sometimes dullness of the heart is not because a blemish has surfaced—

20:01 It need not be. Sometimes a person has done such genuine teshuvah, teshuvah so deep and from such depths of the heart, that it has repaired the blemish throughout the entire order of spiritual worlds. Nothing remains that requires repair. He has uprooted the sin entirely, so that no blemish remains in any world. Genuine teshuvah, so complete that no blemish remains anywhere, in any world. If so, how does he suddenly experience dullness of the heart? The Alter Rebbe says there can be another reason for it—not a blemish, but something entirely different. Sometimes, from Above, they want to raise a person to a higher level in serving Hashem. “And higher teshuvah comes from even greater depths of the heart.” This is another kind of teshuvah, not one connected with repairing blemishes, but with teshuvah ila’ah, higher teshuvah. After all, teshuvah is not only for sin. As is well known, and as it says in Igeres Hateshuvah and especially in Likkutei Torah, Parshas Haazinu, not every aspect of teshuvah concerns sin or wrongdoing. Teshuvah is not only for sin; it also applies when there is no question of sin. Even tzaddikim need to do teshuvah. As it says concerning Moshiach, “He will bring the tzaddikim to teshuvah.” Teshuvah is a form of avodah: drawing closer to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So sometimes, when Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants to raise a person to a higher level of teshuvah, to teshuvah ila’ah, a kind of dullness of the heart is brought about in him as well. Then he has to work harder and exert himself more, and through that he can reach a higher level in serving Hashem. “And therefore David said, ‘My sin is before me always.’” The Rebbe explains that “therefore”—

21:56 refers to the second point. The Rebbe adds, “And therefore David said”—and this brings us to the second point. We are saying that sometimes a person is meant to reach a higher level of teshuvah ila’ah, and for that purpose dullness of the heart is aroused in him, bringing his sins to mind. That is a great novelty. If there is a blemish, then of course we understand that it needs to be repaired. But here there is no blemish at all, yet dullness of the heart is brought about in him so that he will remember his sins and transgressions. What is the purpose? Where do we see such a thing? We see it with King David. “And therefore David said.” The Rebbe already discussed earlier in Tanya that King David was on the level of “My heart is hollow within me.” He had no evil within him at all. “My heart is hollow within me.” He had repaired the sin completely. [unclear]. Nevertheless, King David said, “My sin is before me always.” Why did he say that? With King David, it was for the second reason, not because of a blemish. He wanted to rise to a higher level of teshuvah, to teshuvah ila’ah. Having “my sin before me always” brought him to break his own will, and that led him to deeper teshuvah ila’ah, to a higher level of teshuvah. Today is the yahrtzeit of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, on 20 Menachem Av. The Rebbe mentioned this several times. The Rebbe also wrote his life story. The only chossid whose life story the Rebbe wrote was Rabbi Levi Yitzchak; the Rebbe prepared a booklet. There is a booklet printed in [unclear] in which the Rebbe published a brief account of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak’s life. But it is very interesting to see how the Rebbe writes about him. Here—

24:00 On the particular point we are discussing here, there is Rabbi Hillel of Paritch, who worked to refine himself. The Frierdiker Rebbe says several times in Likkutei Dibburim that Rabbi Hillel worked on himself and refined his body completely, making his body... There is the well-known story the Frierdiker Rebbe tells. It was Lag BaOmer, and there was a farbrengen. The chassidim ate, but Rabbi Hillel did not. Why? Because he was in the middle of the Behab fast. Sometimes Lag BaOmer falls on a Thursday, one of the Behab fast days after Pesach. The chassidim had started the farbrengen before sunset, and everyone began to eat, but Rabbi Hillel did not eat because of the fast. So Reb Beizhe[?] took him to task: Why wasn’t he eating? Everyone was farbrenging, and it was Lag BaOmer. He wanted him to have a little something. Rabbi Hillel said he could not swallow. It was not simply that he would not swallow; that was Rabbi Hillel’s body. It was not that he really wanted to eat but held back... Someone there said that Rabbi Hillel’s body was a reincarnation of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair’s donkey. That was the expression he used. Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair’s donkey could not eat food that had not been tithed. There were a few expressions of that sort, but someone there said this one. The Frierdiker Rebbe explains in Likkutei Dibburim that Rabbi Hillel worked on himself. He refined his body and made it a vessel, a vessel for G-dliness. His avodah was such that he was master of his body. There are many stories chassidim used to tell about Rabbi Hillel, showing how refined his body was, how in practice he—

26:05 He worked on himself. One of the things was that once, while traveling, he fell asleep. Rabbi Gringlass would always tell stories about Reb Hillel. So he was traveling and fell asleep, and the horse and wagon came to a river where there was a bridge. When they reached—the wagon reached the bridge, and suddenly he jumped, jumped out of the wagon. He had been fast asleep. What happened? It says in the will of Reb Yehuda HeChassid not to ride across a bridge in a horse and wagon. You have to get down; that’s what it says. All right, today we don’t do that, because they say bridges today aren’t like they used to be. I don’t know, but the will of Reb Yehuda HeChassid says not to ride across a bridge in a horse and wagon. So even though he was fast asleep, and this was the will of Reb Yehuda HeChassid—you might think it’s not a commandment from the Torah—it was so deeply ingrained in him, and his body was so refined, that his body sensed they were coming to a bridge. They tell another story about how short he was. Reb Hillel was very petite, very short in stature. It was very noticeable. He was so short that when he sat down, his feet didn’t reach the floor, so they would put something there—a box, a crate, what do you call it—for him to rest his feet on. They say that once they put a crate there, and he jumped, jumped out of his chair. They checked and found a sefer inside the crate. He sensed there was something there that shouldn’t be. That came from his avodah. He refined his body; he worked on himself to become a vessel for G-dliness. And the Rebbe says, in the account of Reb Hillel’s life, that this was the level Reb Hillel of Paritch reached through his connection to our Rebbeim. The fact that Reb Hillel reached such a level of avodah and service of Hashem was not through his own strength. It was through the strength

28:21 of his connection to the Rebbe. So the Rebbe raised him to that level.