Tanya Likkutei Amarim, Chapter 41 - Part 5

00:01 Speaker 1 We’re up to chapter 41, at the words “And behold, Hashem stands over him.” Until now, the Alter Rebbe has been speaking about the contemplation—the thoughts—needed to awaken kabbolas ol malchus Shamayim, accepting the yoke of Heaven. “The beginning of the service, and its core and root” is kabbolas ol. And how do we awaken it? Through the contemplation and the details we’ve discussed until now. Broadly, we spoke about three points. The first is thinking about His greatness: the greatness of the King of kings, and how He lowers Himself toward all the worlds. The second point is that Hakadosh Boruch Hu sets aside the upper and lower worlds and singles out His kingship over the Jewish people as a whole, and over each person in particular, for the sake of the Jewish people. Then comes the third point: he, too, accepts it. There must be acceptance on the person’s part—he accepts the kingship of Hakadosh Boruch Hu upon himself as a yoke. Those are the three points that awaken kabbolas ol. As the Alter Rebbe says, every Jew actually has this by nature. What’s needed, then? To awaken it. We need to think about it so that it remains constantly in our awareness, and that is “the beginning of the service, and its core and root.” What is the Alter Rebbe adding now with these words? In our Tanya, we see a break here, and then it begins, “And behold, Hashem stands over him.” So it would seem that the Alter Rebbe is adding another point. What is he adding with these words? These words are very important. As is well known, when the Rebbe taught the Twelve Pesukim and Sayings of Our Sages for children—even before Tzivos Hashem, in 5736, when the Twelve Pesukim initiative began—the Rebbe chose these words for the Twelve Pesukim. They included passages from the Written Torah, the Oral Torah, and Tanya, and from Tanya the Rebbe chose these words. And also, later on, something from chapter 33. What does it say here?

02:09 Speaker 1 What—meaning, these words are absolutely fundamental, so important that the Rebbe made them a foundation in a young child’s education. So first, let’s read what it says, the Alter Rebbe’s wording. The Alter Rebbe says, “And behold, Hashem stands over him.” A person needs to know that Hakadosh Boruch Hu stands over him. “And the whole earth is full of His glory.” He does not stand over him only at certain times. You might think that “Hashem stands over him” applies during davening, when the Shulchan Aruch says we must stand before Hakadosh Boruch Hu as we would before a king. So the Alter Rebbe emphasizes: No, “Hashem stands over him” is always true—twenty-four hours a day, in every situation and at every time. That is why he adds the words, “And the whole earth is full of His glory.” Since Hakadosh Boruch Hu is everywhere, it follows that “Hashem stands over him” is true everywhere. “And watches him.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not merely standing there; someone could stand over him and just be there. No: He stands over him in a way that He watches him. That means Hakadosh Boruch Hu is looking, watching attentively. This is not just a casual glance; it is an inward, engaged look, a look of personal concern. “And watches him and searches his innermost thoughts and heart”—another detail. “Watches him” means seeing how he behaves, what he actually does. Then it says that He not only watches how he behaves, but also what is happening inside. The Alter Rebbe brings up what is relevant in practice here. What is that? As we said, what is the Alter Rebbe adding? As the matter is explained, the Alter Rebbe is adding the idea of awe. Kabbolas ol has two aspects. Later in the chapter, the Alter Rebbe apparently says this explicitly. There are, in fact,

04:36 Speaker 1 two aspects to kabbolas ol. There is kabbolas ol malchus Shamayim itself: being a servant. A Jew needs to know that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the King and I am the servant, and I must serve Him. There must be kabbolas ol malchus Shamayim. “You shall serve Hashem your G-d”—the mitzvah to serve Him. What matters in this regard is kabbolas ol. Then there is another aspect: for kabbolas ol to be complete, there must also be awe. There can be kabbolas ol malchus Shamayim without an emotional feeling. A person can accept the yoke of Heaven upon himself even if he does not feel awe. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the King and I am the servant. It doesn’t matter what I feel or how I feel. We are not talking about feelings; we are talking about the acceptance itself. I need to accept the yoke of Heaven upon myself. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the King, and a king must be served. One must not rebel against the king. For kabbolas ol to be complete, though, there is the idea of “You shall surely set a king over yourself”—that you should stand in awe of him. That is awe of the king. This is the difference between the two aspects. In the first part, the Alter Rebbe speaks about kabbolas ol malchus Shamayim. He explains that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is King of the entire world, yet He sets everything aside and singles out His kingship over you. These are reasons for kabbolas ol. But when you contemplate “And behold, Hashem stands over him,” it adds something else: not just an attitude of kabbolas ol, but a feeling of awe along with it. This is what the Rebbe Rashab explains in Kuntres HaAvodah, and it is explained elsewhere in his writings as well: kabbolas ol needs this in order to be complete. In other words, sometimes a person’s kabbolas ol alone does not help him; it is not enough, particularly when there are tests. There are concealments and obstacles, thoughts and confusion, and the yetzer hara interferes and confuses him. So a feeling of awe must be added.

06:37 Speaker 1 In addition to kabbolas ol, there must also be a feeling of awe. That adds to the entire avodah and gives him more strength to overcome the yetzer hara, so that he can serve Hashem as he should. This is what the Alter Rebbe is saying: in addition to everything explained until now—that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is my King and I am His servant—we need to know that, behold, Hashem stands over him. When you contemplate that Hashem stands over him and watches him, it also gives you a feeling of awe. With a king, the distinction is obvious. Think of a flesh-and-blood king: everyone understands that it is not the same thing. You can contemplate the fact that there is a king, but the king is in his private chambers. Even knowing that there is a king in his private chambers helps, of course. A person living in a country knows that the country has a king, that he is my king, that he has commands and orders, and that I must take care not to rebel against him. Certainly, that person will do what the king wants, and so on. But it is not the same when the king is in his innermost chambers, room within room, as when you stand face-to-face with the king. Certainly, when you stand face-to-face with the king, the awe is felt much more deeply, and consequently it affects your conduct much more deeply as well. That is what the Alter Rebbe adds here. It is not only that Hakadosh Boruch Hu places the yoke of His kingship upon me, showing how much my service of Hashem matters. I must also know that at every moment, behold, Hashem stands over him. You are standing before the King. That will naturally arouse great awe in a person, and his avodah will be much more deeply felt. They tell a story about a young man who once entered yechidus with the Rebbe, and he told the Rebbe about certain challenges

08:38 Speaker 1 The yetzer hara. There was a particular matter he found very, very difficult to overcome, and he complained to the Rebbe that he could not overcome a certain test in his life. So the Rebbe told him: “Contemplate, every day, several times a day, that Hashem stands over you and His glory fills the whole earth.” Then, as he recounted it, the Rebbe raised his voice and cried out so loudly that people could hear it even outside: “And He looks at you and examines your heart and innermost thoughts.” The Rebbe said it with such force that the young man simply felt fear. When the Rebbe said it, a powerful fear entered him. So when you contemplate this, the yetzer hara will flee from you; it will no longer bother you. Of course, when the Rebbe says it, it has an effect deep within. But the Alter Rebbe says this as well. We need to contemplate it and realize that these words need to be, how do you say it, shouted inwardly, deep within, in a way that affects a person. To know that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present all the time, and that this touches our avodah in every detail. So that is the explanation. “And behold, Hashem stands over him.” What do these words add to what the Alter Rebbe said earlier? As we discussed in the previous class, the Rebbe explains this here and adds another layer of depth. “And behold, Hashem stands over him” is also a continuation. It is not just another point; it also continues what he was saying before. Let’s just review the point, the Rebbe’s reading here: At first glance, the words “And behold, Hashem stands over him” are words from a verse. The Alter Rebbe was not concerned with bringing verses; the Alter Rebbe does not simply write verses. The Alter Rebbe writes what is relevant to serving Hashem. Why does the Alter Rebbe use the wording of the verse?

10:34 Speaker 1 The straightforward meaning of the Rebbe’s point is based on the Midrash on “And behold, Hashem stands over him.” It means that Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so to speak, stands there. He is, so to speak, sustained. Hakadosh Boruch Hu needs the avodah of a Jew. “Hashem stands”—He is maintained, as it were; He stands and sustains His presence in the world through a Jew’s avodah. The power a Jew has, that a Jew, so to speak, enables Hakadosh Boruch Hu to stand, is that there is havayah—being, in the sense of bringing into being. Being, in the sense of existing, living and enduring: Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings the world into being, enters it, is revealed in it and acts in it. His presence in the world depends on our avodah. So this is another contemplation: a person knows that his service of Hashem matters not only to himself, and not only to created beings and so on, for the sake of His creations, but that it also matters to G-dliness. Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so to speak, stands over him. This adds still more responsibility and self-sacrifice: knowing that every thought, word and deed of mine matters, so to speak, even to Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. The Alter Rebbe continues: “Therefore, one must serve Him with awe and fear, as one standing before the king.” When you contemplate all this, what will be the result? To serve. This contemplation will move a person to serve Him with awe and fear, as one standing before the king. The service of Hashem should be a service performed before Him. As we said earlier, it is not merely that there is a king somewhere far away; the king is here with me. So, naturally, I serve before Him. I serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu and stand before the king, with awe and fear, as one standing before the king. As everyone understands, when you stand before a king, you must feel tremendous awe and fear. In the same way, our service of Hashem must be like standing before the king every single day, in every part of our avodah. When the Rebbe taught the sicha—and we spoke about

12:46 Speaker 1 this in previous classes—the sicha of Parshas Bechukosai, Parshas Noach, where the Rebbe explains all of chapter 41 in detail, the Rebbe cited, in connection with the words “as one standing before the king,” the story in Likkutei Dibburim. There, the Alter Rebbe tells at length a story about Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev. It is a long story; we will not go through all its details now. But in that story, a man describes a meeting he had with the king, the king of Russia in those days. He describes how the soldier meets a commander, then a minister, then one minister after another. He goes into detail, and each time he speaks of meeting a more important figure in the royal court, his sense of bittul, awe, fear and dread grows—until, when he reaches the meeting with the king, he faints. And he is only telling the story. He was a simple soldier, but merely speaking about it affected him with such awe and fear that he collapsed and fainted. So the Rebbe brings this story to explain what “as one standing before the king” means. When we contemplate the greatness of the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and that we stand before Hakadosh Boruch Hu as one stands before the king—how profound our avodah in yiras Shamayim must be. But the Rebbe adds another point in that same sicha—sorry, in the sicha of Noach [?]: Along with the fear that the Rebbe calls for here, there must also be joy. Although the Alter Rebbe does not emphasize joy here, in chapter 33 the Alter Rebbe does emphasize joy using the same analogy. In chapter 33, the Alter Rebbe, after all,

14:42 Speaker 1 also speaks of a great and exalted king who... how do you put it, stays and dwells with him. The great king is there together with the person.

14:54 Speaker 2 “How great is the joy of an ordinary, lowly person when a king of flesh and blood draws close to him, staying and dwelling with him in his home.”

15:01 Speaker 1 We are talking about a king who comes to stay in your home. The joy is tremendous. And the same applies, all the more so, to the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So the Rebbe teaches that along with the bittul brought about by “Hashem stands over him,” which should make a person feel awe and fear as one standing before the king, this does not contradict the need to feel tremendous joy at the same time: the king is there with him, the king cares about him, and He comes to stay and dwell with him in his home. That should arouse tremendous joy. I believe I mentioned this—I don’t remember if I mentioned it here in the previous class—that the Rebbe also wrote this in a yechidus letter to young men concerning the explanation of chapter 41. He emphasized that along with the explanation in chapter 41, they should also contemplate this idea from chapter 33, so that there would be not only fear, but fear together with joy. The two go together and complement each other. And when it comes to combining fear with joy, there is the well-known question everyone asks: How can you have both at once? Look, fear and joy are opposites. Fear is a movement of contraction, a movement of bittul. Joy is a movement of expansion, of openness. There are maamarim about this. There are maamarim from this time of year, around Sukkos—by the Rebbe, by the earlier Rebbeim, by the Tzemach Tzedek. There is a maamar by the Frierdiker Rebbe, “Serve Hashem with Joy.” He begins the maamar: We have “Serve Hashem with joy” and “Serve Hashem with fear.” How can you have both together? The Rebbe writes simply: Since both verses are verses in the Torah—here it says “Serve Hashem with joy,” and here it says “Serve Hashem with fear”—and avodah must continue twenty-four hours a day, and the Torah

17:01 Speaker 1 The Torah itself says, “Serve Hashem with joy,” and that same Torah says, “Serve Hashem with awe.” So it must be possible to do both together. But how? The maamarim discuss this. To understand their explanation, you have to study the maamarim on “Serve Hashem with awe” and “Serve Hashem with joy,” and the maamarim of Sukkos. The Rebbe also discusses this in quite a few maamarim. But there’s a story that helps explain it too. Once, at a Simchas Torah meal with the Rebbe—in the early years, the Rebbe would eat upstairs at the Frierdiker Rebbe’s home on Yom Tov—the Rashag would ask questions. Anyway, at one meal the Rashag related that the Frierdiker Rebbe had once asked this question: In the maamarim for Simchas Torah and Shemini Atzeres, Shemini Atzeres is described, on the one hand, as a time of joy, and on the other, as a time of accepting Hashem’s kingship. How can the two go together—kabbolas ol and awe, together with joy? The Rashag related that the Frierdiker Rebbe had said that Jews can hold opposites together, and therefore both awe and joy can be demanded of them. Now, the Rebbe’s response was very interesting. Generally, it was difficult for the Rebbe to take issue with something the Frierdiker Rebbe had said. In any case, the Rebbe said, “If my father-in-law said it, well, then...” But to begin with, the question isn’t a question at all. That was the gist of his words: it simply isn’t a question. Why? Because kabbolas ol and awe aren’t a posture of constriction. If you think of kabbolas ol as constriction, then it really does conflict with joy. But the truth is that kabbolas ol means setting aside your own comfort; it’s self-sacrifice. When a person is devoted, he isn’t constricted—he’s devoted. Whatever

19:07 Speaker 1 the king wants, that’s what will be. If the king wants expansiveness, then he is expansive—not on his own account, but because that is the king’s will. That’s an entirely new way of defining it. There are no two conflicting postures here. Now, this is very interesting. It’s a fundamental point. Because when you study Kuntres HaAvodah, chapter 6 explicitly says that kabbolas ol involves constriction. The Rebbe Rashab writes there explicitly that kabbolas ol is a great constriction of the senses. Right? That’s the wording there. And yet the Rebbe said plainly that it isn’t so. That means we’re speaking here about two kinds of kabbolas ol. There’s the ordinary kabbolas ol of a servant, an avodah of constriction: the fear, the restraint, the [unclear]—the king is here, so he can’t act freely. It’s a posture of holding back, and that would seem to conflict with joy. But true kabbolas ol, as the Rebbe sees it, isn’t a posture of constriction. Kabbolas ol means giving yourself over, putting yourself aside. When you’re completely self-effacing, you have no form of your own, and then your form is the king’s form. If the king wants expansiveness, the servant is expansive. Awe is explained along these lines too in the maamarim of Chassidus—[unclear]. In any case, that’s the point: the Alter Rebbe is asking us here to arouse kabbolas ol, which is the beginning of avodah, its essence and its root.