Tanya Likkutei Amarim, Chapter 41 - Part 4

00:00 We’re continuing here with chapter 41, at the bottom of page 56 in the Alter Rebbe’s Tanya. We were in the middle of explaining the idea that “a person is obligated to say: ‘The world was created for my sake.’” What does the Alter Rebbe want to teach us with this teaching of our Sages, from the Mishnah in Sanhedrin? The Alter Rebbe wants to say that although Hakadosh Boruch Hu is King of the entire world, and His kingship extends everywhere, nevertheless, there is this idea that He sets aside the upper and lower worlds and devotes His kingship to the Jewish people. And not only to the Jewish people as a whole, but to each person in particular. What does “the world was created for my sake” add? As the Rebbe explains in the sicha of [unclear][?], one could interpret this to mean that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is concerned with the Jewish people as a whole, and with me in particular only as one part of that whole. After all, a whole is made up of individual parts, and I am one of them. So each individual matters because all the individuals together make up the whole. One could think the same thing here: Hakadosh Boruch Hu loves the Jewish people and becomes King over them; every Jew is part of the Jewish people, so what concerns me matters to Him too, as part of the whole. That is what the Alter Rebbe wants to rule out. He says: No, the Mishnah shows us otherwise. Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s connection with each Jew individually is not merely a connection to one part of a whole, like a body with one limb and another limb, and sinews within the limbs,

02:04 all the limbs together making up the body. Rather, each Jew matters as an individual in his own right, not just as part of a whole. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is King, and He devotes His kingship to each Jew as an individual. This is alluded to—in fact, it is stated explicitly—in the Mishnah, which emphasizes “alone”: Why was Adam created alone? So that every person would be obligated to say, “The world was created for my sake.” That is the point of “alone.” What was the situation with Adam Harishon? After all, we learn this from him. Adam Harishon could not say that he was part of a whole. Hakadosh Boruch Hu created him alone. There was no other human being in the world. A person today might think: There are millions of other people, millions of other Jews, and I am one among them. Adam Harishon had no way of thinking like that. He was alone, truly the only one. There was nobody else in the world. So when Hakadosh Boruch Hu told him that the world rested on him, that the entire existence of the world depended on him, he really was an individual standing alone. What does the Mishnah say? It says that Adam was created alone so that a Jew, at any time and in any place in the world, would know: “The world was created for my sake.” So we understand that “the world was created for my sake” does not mean as part of a whole. It means for my sake as an individual, just like Adam Harishon. In other words, each Jew matters precisely as an individual in his own right. This is the well-known teaching of the Baal Shem Tov, which the Rebbe quoted many times in this connection: Every Jew is like an only child to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, an only child born to Him in His old age. The emphasis is specifically on an only child. The Rebbe also spoke several times about this Mishnah in Sanhedrin. So

04:02 the Rebbe also discussed the Mishnah’s statement that Adam was created alone so that every Jew could say, “The world was created for my sake.” The Rebbe said that if you think about the plain meaning, something remarkable emerges. What is the Mishnah saying? It is not just teaching us the special quality of a Jew as an individual, which we learn from Adam Harishon, who was alone—that Hakadosh Boruch Hu created man this way so that we would understand what it means to be an individual. There is another lesson here. Why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu create Adam Harishon alone? Why did He create him as an individual at the beginning of creation? So that I, today, would know that I am an individual. In other words, it is the other way around. It is not simply that I must learn from Adam Harishon because I came after him. Adam Harishon was created alone so that he could be a lesson for each and every Jew. That emphasizes even more how much each Jew matters to Hakadosh Boruch Hu as an individual. At the beginning of creation, He created Adam Harishon alone so that we would know the unique importance of each person. So that is the point, the foundation of “the world was created for my sake”—the whole creation. What does that mean? As we discussed, the emphasis is not, G-d forbid, on self-importance or pride. On the contrary, it emphasizes responsibility: how much my thoughts, speech, and actions matter to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, how much depends on the service of a Jew. The entire world depends on it. “The world was created for my sake.” The Rebbe once gave a wonderful sicha based on this idea, at a farbrengen in [unclear]. The Rebbe says something extraordinary. He says this: It is written that Yosef Hatzaddik

06:06 was in Egypt, and while he was there, there came a moment when he faced a test—the test involving Potiphar’s wife. It was an extremely difficult test. Rashi and the Midrash tell us what saved Yosef Hatzaddik: He saw the image of his father. That is what it says—he saw the face of Yaakov Avinu, and that is how he fled the house. “And he fled.” Look at what he saw: the image of his father. The Rebbe gave a wonderful explanation of this whole matter. What was the explanation? The Rebbe said this: The Gemara says that Yaakov Avinu and Adam Harishon had the same likeness: “The beauty of Yaakov Avinu resembled the beauty of Adam Harishon.” Yaakov Avinu’s face resembled Adam Harishon’s. Of course, this does not refer only to their outward appearance. It means something deeper: Yaakov Avinu had the soul of Adam Harishon. So when Yosef Hatzaddik saw the image of his father, he saw Adam Harishon. He saw Yaakov, whose face was the face of Adam Harishon. So he saw Adam Harishon. What did he see in that? The Rebbe said something extraordinary. Yosef Hatzaddik was in Egypt, and the yetzer hara came to him and said: You are alone. There is nobody here. Nobody sees you. There is no social pressure here, as they say. There is no pressure at all. Nobody is watching you. Your family threw you into Egypt. You are alone, isolated, on your own. Nobody will ever know anything. You have no connection with your family anymore. What is the big deal? Commit one small transgression. Nothing will happen. Nothing at all will happen. That was the yetzer hara trying to trouble Yosef Hatzaddik and persuade him. Yosef Hatzaddik faced a very great test. What did he see? The image of his father. In the image of

08:13 his father, what did he see? Adam Harishon. Adam Harishon had been alone. When Adam Harishon came into the world, he was the only person in it, and the primordial serpent—the yetzer hara of Adam Harishon—said the very same thing to him: You are alone in the world; there is nobody else. Hakadosh Boruch Hu told you not to eat from this fruit, but nothing will happen. Eat it and you will gain knowledge. What could possibly happen? That was Adam Harishon’s story. And because of one small act that he did improperly, he brought destruction upon the entire world. So when Yosef Hatzaddik saw the image of his father, he saw the power of one individual’s act—how much one person can accomplish. Adam Harishon, a single individual, brought an ascent throughout the entire seder hishtalshelus through his actions; and when he committed the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, he brought destruction throughout the entire seder hishtalshelus. Yosef Hatzaddik then understood the power of a single act, and that is what led him to flee the house. This is a tremendous point in serving Hashem that the Alter Rebbe wants to teach us here in chapter 41: “A person is obligated to say: ‘The world was created for my sake.’” A Jew needs to know that his conduct as a single individual matters to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. All the worlds await it; my conduct matters and carries weight, and the entire world rests on it. That is the point. The Alter Rebbe continues: Okay, until now we have spoken about contemplation from the perspective of Hakadosh Boruch Hu—contemplating Hashem’s greatness, His kingship over all the worlds, and the fact that He sets aside the worlds and devotes His kingship to each individual. The Alter Rebbe goes on to say: “And he, too, accepts His kingship upon himself, that He should be King over him.” The Alter Rebbe continues and says that now

10:14 Then comes the person’s avodah. This is all part of the contemplation. There is what Hakadosh Boruch Hu does, and then, yes, the result of contemplating how Hakadosh Boruch Hu sets aside the upper and lower worlds and focuses His kingship on each individual. So what should the result be? That he, too, accepts His kingship upon himself, to have Him as his King, to serve Him, and to do His will in every kind of service a servant performs. I need to accept Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s kingship and serve Him, doing everything Hashem says. What is the Alter Rebbe adding here? Isn’t that self-evident? Why add it? At first glance, it seems like unnecessary elaboration. But the Alter Rebbe is adding that in our avodah there has to be an act of acceptance. It is not enough to contemplate what Hakadosh Boruch Hu does. Our Sages’ wording is: “Accept the yoke of Heaven upon yourself.” That wording is precise. There has to be acceptance of His kingship. All the contemplation until now was from the King’s side: Hakadosh Boruch Hu is King of the entire world, He chose the souls of the Jewish people, and He chose me in particular—He chose me as an individual. All of that is from Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s side. But for a person’s avodah to be complete, for the kabbolas ol we are discussing here, there has to be acceptance of His kingship. So it is not enough to contemplate that Hakadosh Boruch Hu chose you. The result has to be acceptance on the recipient’s part: the person must accept it upon himself. This is the familiar wording that the Alter Rebbe will bring later in the chapter, the verse “You shall surely appoint a king over yourself.” There has to be that appointment—the people’s acceptance of him as king. That is why he says, “And he, too, accepts His kingship upon himself.” The wording “and he, too” is interesting. It

12:16 is not ordinary wording either. The Alter Rebbe is adding something with those words; there seems to be an emphasis here, something precise. And on this the Rebbe says: “And he, too.” In other words, it is as though there are two sides here. On the one hand, one has to contemplate what Hakadosh Boruch Hu... A person might think he can also do without all the preceding steps: “I accept the yoke of Heaven upon myself,” without all the elaboration about Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s side—just the person’s side. “I accept the yoke of Heaven,” and that’s it. No; the Alter Rebbe also tells us the reverse. It has to begin with Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s side: understanding that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the King and is worthy of it. And then “he, too,” on his own part, comes to it. In other words, acceptance of His kingship requires two things. It requires what comes from above—how Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants to be our King. That is Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s side. Then there is “he, too”: it must also come from the person’s side, accepting His kingship so that He will be King over him. There is an explanation chassidim give of the precise wording, “And he, too, accepts His kingship upon himself, to have Him as King over him.” What do those words mean? Why the additional phrase “accepts His kingship upon himself”? And how does it end? “To have Him as King over him.” Chassidim explain that “to have Him as King over him” means that a person should be king over himself. The plain meaning is that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the King, but there is also a hint in the Alter Rebbe’s words, “to have Him as King over him”: a person should be king over himself. A person has to be king over his body, king over his limbs. That is the meaning of being king over

14:06 himself. That is, to control his desires—to exercise the authority of a king. A king is the one in charge. A person has to be king over himself as well. This connects to Hakhel, which the Rebbe discusses in his letters and in a sicha about Hakhel. One of the points the Rebbe makes about Hakhel is that every person must be a king, a king within himself as well. In a general letter for Hakhel, the Rebbe speaks about being king over oneself. He mentions three things there: the brain, the heart, and the liver. The Rebbe brings this in the letter. It relates to intellect, emotions, and action, whose Hebrew initials spell melech, “king”: mo’ach, lev, kaved—brain, heart, liver. Being king over myself means being in control of the faculties of the soul, of the body and the soul. Then the Alter Rebbe also says, “And to do His will in every kind of service a servant performs.” This wording, too, is precise. The Alter Rebbe wants to emphasize that a general acceptance of the yoke is not enough; there also has to be acceptance in each particular. As we know, it is mentioned often in the Rosh Hashanah maamarim, in the maamar on “Shuvu” and “Vesukah,” based on the Mishnah in Berachos: there is acceptance of the yoke of Heaven, and there is acceptance of the yoke of mitzvos. There is acceptance of the King Himself—“Accept My kingship.” After that comes acceptance of the yoke in each particular, expressed in actually fulfilling the mitzvos. That is what is being emphasized here. “To have Him as King over him” is the acceptance of His kingship, “Accept My kingship.” There is submission to the One whose will it is, the King, as the maamarim put it. Then comes “to do His will in every kind of service a servant performs”—bringing it down into the particulars. It is not enough to accept, in general, that He is

16:07 King. Afterward, one has to bring it into the particulars: fulfilling the mitzvos, in every kind of service a servant performs. There is a very extensive discussion of this in Hemshech 5666, in the well-known maamar—what is it called?—“Umikneh Rav.” There the Rebbe Rashab, in that famous maamar, explains the idea of a servant’s service at length. He gives an analogy of a king and an actual servant. What work does a servant do? He prepares the food, prepares the drink, cleans the house, washes the clothes. He gives a whole list of tasks a servant performs and explains what each means in spiritual avodah, what each means in a servant’s service: the servant’s straightforward kabbolas ol toward Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So here it is stated in general terms, but the maamarim explain in detail what “every kind of service a servant performs” includes. That is how our avodah of kabbolas ol must be. The Alter Rebbe continues: “And behold, Hashem stands over him.” What does the Alter Rebbe want to tell us now with “And behold, Hashem stands over him”? There are several ways to understand it. The simple explanation is that he is adding another point. Beyond everything we have discussed until now about contemplating the acceptance of the yoke of Heaven, there is this further point: after you have appointed Him King and accepted Him as King, you need to know that you are standing before the King. Sometimes a person accepts someone as his king, crowns him king—“He is my king”—but the king is in his palace, while I am somewhere far away. I am not standing before the king. Then the kabbolas ol weakens. That is certainly so. Everyone understands that standing face to face with the king is not the same thing. Then what concerns

18:09 you in practice is submission to his yoke and awe of him. But when you are on the other side of the country and do not see the king, you think you can do whatever you want. So now another point is being added. For acceptance of the yoke of Heaven to be complete, after all the reasoning we have discussed until now—accepting Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s kingship upon yourself, with Him as King and you as servant—you must know that you are standing before the King. “Behold, Hashem stands over him.” The King is right here with you, and when you stand before the King, you certainly submit to Him completely. As is explained from this passage in Tanya, this introduces the element of awe. In other words, this point adds awe to kabbolas ol. We generally treat it all as one thing, but here in Tanya we see two things, two forms of avodah. As the Rebbe will say later, they are two mitzvos: the mitzvah of accepting the yoke of Heaven and the mitzvah of awe. They are two elements of avodah. They are connected—where there is a king, there is awe—but they are fundamentally two things. There is acceptance of the yoke of Heaven, and there is awe of the King, fear of the King. Those are the two elements here. That is how they explain it in the name of Grenville[?], based on this passage in Tanya: until “And behold,” the discussion was primarily about kabbolas ol, apart from awe—contemplating who the King is and that you are His servant, accepting the yoke of Heaven. Then “And behold, Hashem stands over him” adds another element, the awe present here. That is the second foundation. The Rebbe has a completely new interpretation of the words “Hashem stands over him.” In the sicha on Parshas Noach that we have been discussing, the Rebbe says...

20:10 A completely new explanation of the words “And behold, Hashem stood over him.” By way of introduction, the Rebbe asks: Tanya is not a book of verses. “And behold, Hashem stood over him” is a verse. Right? Not a verse in the sense of the verses children recite in cheder—I mean a verse in the Chumash. It says “And behold, Hashem stood over him” about Yaakov Avinu, when he dreamed of the ladder. The rest of what it says here does not appear there; the verse says only “And behold, Hashem stood over him.” Why does the Alter Rebbe bring this verse? The Alter Rebbe does not just quote verses. Some authors weave verses into their writing, but the Alter Rebbe writes ideas. He would not use the wording of a verse for no reason, only if it matters to the point. Why did the Alter Rebbe choose these words from Parshas Vayeitzei? So the Rebbe said something tremendous. In brief, the point is this: The Midrash explains what “And behold, Hashem stood over him” means in the case of Yaakov Avinu: Hakadosh Boruch Hu stands over Yaakov. The Midrash says, “The wicked depend on their gods; the righteous—their G-d depends on them.” It is the reverse: the wicked depend on their gods, while the G-d of the righteous depends on them. What does that mean? In speaking of the wicked, the Midrash is referring to Pharaoh: “And behold, he was standing over the Nile.” The Nile was Pharaoh’s god; it was his idol. The verse says, “And behold, he was standing over the Nile.” Pharaoh’s entire existence depended on the Nile. Without it, he had nothing. All the idolatry Pharaoh made of himself was because of the Nile. So he stands over the Nile. But with the righteous, it is the reverse: “And behold, Hashem stood over him.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so to speak, depends on Yaakov Avinu. What does that mean? This Midrash is not at all understandable. What does

22:31 it mean that Hakadosh Boruch Hu depends on Yaakov Avinu? So the Rebbe says something wonderful here, and this is really the new point the Alter Rebbe adds with these words. It is not only that the world was created for my sake, not only that the whole world stands in the merit of the Jew, in the merit of my Torah and mitzvos. Even Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so to speak, depends on my Torah and mitzvos. In other words, it is not only the world that needs our Torah and mitzvos. Without our Torah and mitzvos, the world cannot exist. When a Jew fulfills a mitzvah, he sustains the world, gives it life, brings vitality into the world, and so on. That is the idea that the world was created for my sake: the world needs the Jew. Hakadosh Boruch Hu, too, so to speak, needs the Jew. “Their G-d depends on them.” The presence of Havayah—the G-dliness present in the world—is sustained in the world, so to speak, in the merit of a Jew. This expresses the immense significance of our Torah and mitzvos. When we think about it and contemplate how much Torah and mitzvos matter—for whom am I observing Torah and mitzvos?—we realize that the Torah and mitzvos I am speaking about now matter to the entire world. And not only that: they matter to Hakadosh Boruch Hu as well. “And behold, Hashem stood over him.” That is what the continuation here is about. It is not only that the world was created for my sake, that the world needs my Torah and mitzvos. Even Havayah, so to speak—the Divine revelation present in the world—stands and is sustained in the world through the service of the Jewish people. When you think about that, you realize how much we must cherish, how much importance and value we must give to every act a Jew does in Torah and mitzvos. That certainly gives us strength. Chapter 41 comes to give

24:26 us the strength and encouragement to attain fear of Heaven by understanding how much every thought, word, and deed—every aspect of a Jew’s conduct—matters.