Likkutei Amarim Chapter 31 - Part 4

00:00 And we’ll continue here with Tanya, chapter 31, near the bottom of page 49b. Now, after the Alter Rebbe explained the difference between sadness and bitterness, he explained that bitterness, on the contrary, has the vitality of gevurah of holiness. It is not a matter of kelipah; on the contrary, it is a matter of holiness, but holiness from the side of gevurah. Chessed is joy, and gevurah is bitterness, and sometimes we need that. So here the Alter Rebbe continues: “And at times one must arouse the quality of gevurah of holiness.” There are times in serving Hashem when a person must serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu specifically through an approach of gevurah, gevurah of holiness. There are times in the year, times in the day, and times in life when a person needs to serve Hashem from the perspective of gevurah. Clearly, we must serve Hashem with all our emotional qualities, and there are times when we must serve Him with gevurah as well. As is well known in Chassidus, Avraham represents chessed and Yitzchak represents gevurah. Of course, Yitzchak was one of the Patriarchs, a vehicle for holiness; he was entirely holy. His service followed the path of gevurah. That means that, in serving Hashem, every Jew sometimes needs to engage in service from the perspective of gevurah. When? Here the Alter Rebbe adds: “In order to sweeten the judgments.” When is a person called upon to use the approach of gevurah in his service? Generally, we know that Chassidus tends more toward the side of chessed. The Baal Shem Tov in particular, as is known, revealed the approach of serving with joy and love. That was the central innovation of the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings. And so, from the time the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings were revealed, this became the primary approach to serving Hashem. The Rebbe once spoke about how, before the Baal Shem Tov, there were many years when serving Hashem was more along the lines of gevurah: awe, restraint, fear of sin. In general, everything was more on the side

02:16 of gevurah. Then the Baal Shem Tov came and revealed an approach of chessed—an approach of love, of Ahavas Yisroel, love of Torah, love of Hashem, and serving Hashem with joy. That was his whole focus. Nevertheless—and this is what the Alter Rebbe comes to teach here in Tanya—as is known, this was one of the matters on which many of the Maggid’s disciples disagreed with the Alter Rebbe. Among the disagreements between the Alter Rebbe and the Maggid’s disciples, there were several matters on which they did not agree with him. One of them concerned this very point: many of the Baal Shem Tov’s disciples believed there was no longer any place for gevurah. The service was only joy, only love; the Baal Shem Tov had done away with that whole approach altogether. The Alter Rebbe disagrees. As he explains here in these chapters, serving Hashem sometimes does specifically require bitterness and gevurah. And what is the reasoning? The Alter Rebbe explains: “And at times one must arouse the quality of gevurah of holiness.” When? “In order to sweeten the judgments.” There is such a thing as sweetening the judgments, and when we need to sweeten the judgments—meaning the animal soul and the yetzer hara, when, G-d forbid, they have control over a person—there are times when this sweetening is needed. These judgments are all the things associated with the left side, which draws its vitality from gevurah. We want to sweeten the judgments, because “judgments can be sweetened only at their source.” So the principle is that judgments are sweetened through their source. This is one of the fundamental ideas in Kabbalah, the inner dimension of Torah: the principle called “judgments can be sweetened only at their source.” If you want to sweeten judgments—what does it mean to sweeten judgments? Sweetening judgments is something we do throughout the year in our service of Hashem. It is

04:18 one of the more important things we do many times over the course of the year: sweetening the judgments. What does that mean? It means bringing sweetness into things associated with the attribute of judgment. Sweetening the judgments. For example, we find it on Rosh Hashanah. A great deal is said about the intentions behind the practices of Rosh Hashanah. Eating honey, having an apple dipped in honey, and generally dipping everything in honey are connected with sweetening the judgments. Similarly, on Hoshana Rabbah, it is said that by striking the aravos, we sweeten the judgments, sweeten the gevurah. The concept of sweetening the judgments applies very broadly to many aspects of serving Hashem. What does it mean here in Tanya? There are many dimensions to it, but as we come to this passage in Tanya, judgment means constriction. The attribute of judgment is the attribute of constriction associated with the name Elokim. From the constriction of the name Elokim, from the judgments, there develops concealment and obscurity—in simple terms, an intensification of judgment. So the attribute of judgment gives rise to concealment, obscurity, and constriction, and from that comes evil. The very existence of a yetzer hara in the world is due to judgments and constrictions. That is what we mean when we say that the vitality of the animal soul and the vitality of the sitra achra come from the left side, the side of judgment. This is explained, for example, in what is said about Chanukah. Why do we place the Chanukah lights specifically on the left? Because kelipah receives its vitality from the left, from gevurah, from the judgments. What is our task? Through his service, a Jew sweetens the judgments. By lighting a Chanukah light on the left side, a Jew sweetens the judgments of the soul, the gevurah and the constrictions. In this way, he refines and purifies the animal soul, and the same applies to many other aspects of our service. So that is what the Rebbe says

06:29 here: sweetening the judgments at their source. If I want to sweeten the judgments, there is more than one way. One way is to bring in a great deal of chessed, so that the chessed cancels out the judgment. That is one approach. For example, suppose you have a dish that is very salty. Sometimes a dish comes out so salty, or so bitter, that you can’t eat it. What do you do? You pour in a lot of sugar or a lot of honey. You add a great deal of sweetness, and it cancels out the saltiness. That is what it means for chessed to sweeten the judgments. That is one approach. But there is another, deeper approach. That is why I quoted the wording here: “Judgments can be sweetened only at their source.” Instead of bringing in chessed to cancel out the judgments, you reveal the source of the judgments. You reveal the source of gevurah itself, because at its source, gevurah is G-dliness; it is holiness. When you reveal the source of gevurah, how gevurah is rooted in a higher place—in gevurah of holiness—the evil aspect of gevurah is thereby transformed into good. One of the examples given in Chassidus is a tangible illustration of sweetening gevurah at its source: salt. Salt represents gevurah, and you cannot eat salt on its own. Eating salt by itself does not taste good; quite the opposite, it is hard to eat. But when we use salt and put it on meat or other foods, not only does the salt not make the food worse; on the contrary, it enhances its flavor. So this is gevurah, right? Meat represents gevurah; it is red, and so on. When you put salt on meat, it enhances the meat’s flavor. That is a kind of sweetening gevurah at its source. You reveal the

08:41 The root of the gevuros. Salt, as it were, represents gevuros, and by bringing gevuros to bear on gevuros, you sweeten them. It is much like what we see in medicine. One approach is to take the harmful substance itself and make the remedy from it. Today the whole world is talking about this, right? With coronavirus and everything surrounding it. One approach is to use the virus, the disease itself, and make the remedy from that very thing. This is called sweetening the gevuros at their source. There is also an explanation of this in connection with honey. The Torah teachings discuss it at great length. Toward the end of the Torah teachings, the Alter Rebbe speaks about honey. The verse describes Eretz Yisroel as “a land flowing with milk and honey,” and the Alter Rebbe discusses this at length. What is honey? Does honey represent chassadim or gevuros? On Rosh Hashanah we eat honey, and [unclear] honey. On Yom Kippur we eat honey—after Yom Kippur. What is the significance of honey? It is very interesting. People think honey represents chassadim. Why? Because it is sweet. But the Alter Rebbe says the opposite: honey represents gevuros. Why? For one thing, honey is a preservative. Honey preserves things, right? If you want to keep something from spoiling, one way is to put it in honey. Honey makes it last; it gives it staying power. How? Through gevuros, as it were: it prevents the thing from breaking down. It protects it. Protection is an expression of gevuros, of discipline, and so on. That is on the physical level. There is another aspect

10:38 of honey that is also discussed in halachah: if a bee falls into honey, the halachah says the honey remains permitted. It does not become... right? Because over time, what the honey does is turn it into honey. Sometimes bees end up in honey and leave behind parts of their wings and legs. At first glance, that should make it forbidden, since a bee is not a kosher creature. Nevertheless, the halachah says no, because the honey consumes what remains of it and turns that, too, into honey. This is also a form of gevuros. The Alter Rebbe explains several things that show that honey specifically has a function of gevuros, and its sweetness is the sweetness of gevuros. [unclear] He explains this in [unclear]. In any case, this also relates to what we say on Rosh Hashanah. Look: the Siddur says that on the night of Rosh Hashanah we should eat “a sweet apple in honey.” So everyone asks: What does that mean? Does “sweet” describe the apple or the honey? How do you read it: “a sweet apple in honey,” or “an apple sweet in honey”? How does it work? The whole point of the apple and honey is the sweetening of the gevuros. So which one represents the gevuros, and which sweetens which? Does the apple sweeten the honey, or does the honey sweeten the apple? People generally say that the apple is sour and the honey is sweet, so the honey sweetens the apple. But according to the deeper teachings, it comes out exactly the opposite: the honey represents the gevuros, and the apple is the sweet one. The apple sweetens the honey, and the apple contains chessed—or, at any rate, it is not so simple. There is sweetness and sourness here, gevurah and chessed. The

12:44 apple also contains chessed together with gevuros, and the honey also contains chessed. When they come together in a certain way, the gevuros are sweetened. Each sweetens the other. The Alter Rebbe’s wording is “an apple soaked in honey,” as though both have [unclear]. Back to our subject: What is the Alter Rebbe saying here in Tanya? Since the animal soul and the yetzer hara are, in their very nature, gevuros and dinim, one way to sweeten them is to sweeten them at their source. In other words, we must use the gevuros of holiness. By revealing their source in the animal soul and yetzer hara, you transform them. And so, through bitterness—as the Alter Rebbe said earlier, bitterness is gevuros of holiness—we transform the dinim of the animal soul and bring them into holiness. That is the avodah. Now, this is very interesting, because it gives us another explanation of what the Alter Rebbe said at the beginning of the chapter. There he spoke about sadness. Why do we use sadness? To subdue the animal soul. He said we must counter kelipah with kelipah. We take something from kelipah itself to break kelipah. That, too, meant taking something from the thing itself, but it was an avodah within kelipah: taking a tree from the forest to break down the forest. That is the meaning of “from the forest itself comes the handle for the ax that cuts it down.” We take the sadness that comes from kelipah in order to break kelipah. That was an avodah involving kelipah. Here the Alter Rebbe describes an avodah of holiness. We take the gevuros of holiness to transform the gevuros of this

14:27 world. So here the avodah follows the path of holiness, but the principle is the same: we take something of the same kind and use it to transform it. The Alter Rebbe continues: “Therefore our Sages said, ‘A person should always rouse his good inclination against his evil inclination.’” This explains the well-known statement in the Gemara in Berachos: “A person should always rouse his good inclination against his evil inclination.” What does “rouse” mean? It means arousing bitterness. That is the straightforward meaning: to become indignant at the animal soul, an approach of gevuros. As the Alter Rebbe said in the previous chapter, chapter 29, one should tell it loudly and angrily: “You are evil, wicked, abominable, loathsome, and disgraceful.” These are all expressions of gevuros. But the Gemara says “always.” What does “always” mean? It seems to contradict what we are saying here: our avodah should specifically follow the path of joy, with bitterness only from time to time. Why does the Gemara say “always”? The Alter Rebbe explains that “always” does not mean that we must constantly be in this state of indignation. He writes: “That is, whenever he sees within himself that there is a need for it.” It means at those times—not all day. Certainly not all day; throughout the day we should specifically be joyful. “Always” means whenever it is needed. That is what the Gemara means. Whenever you sense that your animal soul has become inflated and you need to put it in its place, then rouse your good inclination against it. That is the meaning of “always”: whenever it is needed. “Whenever he sees within himself that there is a need for it,” he must do this avodah with bitterness—specifically bitterness of holiness, not just bitterness—and through that, the dinim are transformed at their source. The Alter Rebbe continues: “However, an opportune time—a time especially suited and appropriate”

16:21 “For most people.” But there are special times. In general, he says “always”—whenever you feel the need. But there are special times, the Alter Rebbe says: “The opportune time, the hour especially suited to this for most people.” When is there a particular time that suits everyone? “When he is already sad over worldly matters.” There are times when a person is in a bad mood. Interestingly, that is the “opportune time” the Alter Rebbe gives us. Sometimes a person—we’re human beings, and we have moods. That’s our nature. It isn’t a problem; it’s a reality. People have moods. There are moments when we’re in high spirits, and that’s how we should want to be all the time. But sometimes a person feels a bit low. He’s in a bad mood. There’s a well-known teaching of Rabbeinu Tam about “days of love” and “days of aversion.” It’s cited in many works of mussar. There are days of love and days of aversion. A person has moments when he’s in a state of mourning, a state of bitterness, or a state of joy. And there are times during the day or week when we’re not in a good mood. Those are called days of aversion—moments when we feel a little depressed, a little down. The Alter Rebbe says: When you find yourself in that mood, use the time to reflect on things that bring you to bitterness in your service of Hashem. That is the “opportune time”: when you’re already sad over worldly matters, because of material problems, G-d forbid, or simply in a bad mood for no particular reason. That is the opportune time. And the Alter Rebbe says you should also see it as Divine providence. Don’t think it’s a mistake that you’re in precisely this mood right now. Make use of it. You have

18:22 a moment like that? Use that moment. Turn it into something holy. Turn it into holy gevurot. Use that moment, that time, to take stock, in addition to what we’ve learned in the last two chapters. If you want life, reflect on these matters. Take a maamar of the Rebbe; take a chapter of Tanya that awakens a person to teshuvah. Take something that speaks about bitterness. Reflect on these things that bring about bitterness. Then the time is right to transform the sadness, to break the very substance of the kelipah, and to become one of those who take stock of themselves. Then it will become holy gevurot. And you will fulfill the teaching of our Sages, “A person should always rouse…” and so on, as mentioned above. Through this, you fulfill that teaching of our Sages, the idea of “A person should always rouse…” The Alter Rebbe says: “And through this he will be rid of sadness over worldly matters.” This action, the Alter Rebbe says, brings another benefit: it will rid you of sadness over worldly matters. It will bring you out of sadness. Why will it bring you out of sadness over worldly matters? On the simple level, the meaning is straightforward. Since you’ll be occupied with thinking about what needs to be corrected in your service of Hashem, about teshuvah, you won’t have time to think about other things. You’ll stop dwelling on the negative aspects of material life. Instead, you’ll think about your service of Hashem and teshuvah, so you’ll be occupied with holy matters. That’s the simple meaning. But perhaps there’s a deeper, more inner meaning here to “through this he will be rid of it”: this will actually resolve it for him. In other words, when a person transforms his sadness over worldly matters and instead reflects on the holy matter of teshuvah, through that he will be rid of it. It will really bring him out of it. It will transform the... the bitterness over

20:19 matters of this world into holy bitterness, and that will free him—that will free him from bitterness over worldly matters. Why? What’s the explanation? The explanation is that, first of all, the person will realize that he really has nothing to be sad about. All the sadness we have over worldly matters comes from seeing only the surface. It’s like the Frierdiker Rebbe said: “The needs of Your people are many, and their understanding is limited.” Why are people sad? They’re sad because they think about themselves and are occupied with themselves all the time: I’m missing something, I don’t have it, I don’t have enough. I want this, I want that. There are so many desires; each time a person wants more things and doesn’t have what he wants. But the moment a person immerses himself in holiness and the service of Hashem, he comes to bittul, self-nullification. Once a person reaches bittul, he no longer needs anything. He comes to recognize that Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives him abundantly; he lacks nothing. As it says in the maamarim, “The humble will increase their joy in Hashem.” Through bittul, a person is always—things are always good for him; he never feels that anything is lacking. All those feelings of lack come from our sense of self. After all, it says that the primordial serpent instilled a sense of self in her. The serpent is always sad. That’s what it says, yes, in books on nature: snakes are always, always sad. Why? Because the serpent is a yesh, the root of the sense of self. So it always feels it lacks something, is always jealous, and is always afraid that tomorrow it will be missing something. All of this is the sense of self, which brings bitterness and sadness. The moment you break that sense of self through the work of teshuvah, you lack nothing. So that itself transforms the bitter...

22:05 the matters, the sadness over worldly matters, and nullifies them. That is how he will be rid of sadness over worldly matters.