Four Levels in Teshuvah | Chapter 4

00:02 Let’s begin with chapter 4 of Igeres Hateshuvah. The Alter Rebbe says: “However, all the above concerns the completion of atonement and the cleansing of the soul before Hashem after teshuvah.” In the previous lesson, we summarized the first three chapters of Igeres Hateshuvah. We said that, broadly speaking, those chapters deal more with teshuvah as understood according to the revealed dimension of Torah. The Alter Rebbe explained what the mitzvah of teshuvah itself is and what constitutes its completion. He spoke about fasting and about tzedakah, which bring teshuvah and atonement to completion. Now the Alter Rebbe continues and returns once again to the beginning. He says: “However, all the above concerns the completion of atonement and the cleansing of the soul before Hashem after teshuvah.” What we discussed in chapters 2 and 3—the offerings, fasting, and tzedakah—is meant to complete the atonement and cleanse the soul before Hashem after teshuvah. As the Alter Rebbe said, one would bring a gift so that, after being forgiven, one would again be pleasing and beloved. In other words, this brings about the completion of atonement. As it says in the Gemara, in the first chapter of Zevachim, a burnt offering is a gift brought after the advocate has secured forgiveness, and so on. Earlier, the Alter Rebbe discussed the offerings. There is a sin offering and there is a burnt offering. A sin offering is brought for atonement. A person had to bring a sin offering for an inadvertent sin. Even an inadvertent sin needs atonement, because it comes from the animal soul gaining the upper hand, and so on. So one has to bring about atonement through the sin offering, and in addition there is the burnt offering. What does the Gemara in Zevachim say about the burnt offering? It is like a person who sinned against the king and then asked someone to approach the king and request forgiveness on his behalf. He sent an advocate, a messenger, to ask the king’s forgiveness for him

02:14 so that he could once again enter the king’s presence. That is forgiveness. But forgiveness only means that the king has forgiven you. It does not yet mean that you have become pleasing and beloved to him. That is why one brings the burnt offering, which goes beyond forgiveness. The burnt offering means not only that the king forgives and pardons you, but that you become pleasing and beloved as you were before the sin. That is the purpose of the gift: a gift reawakens the love, making the person pleasing and beloved again. Now, the Alter Rebbe said earlier that there was a disagreement among the halachic authorities, and on this basis he explained their disagreement: Does a person need to fast once for all the times he committed the same sin, or must he undertake another fast for each separate transgression? If we say the fast has the status of a sin offering, then a separate sin offering must be brought for every sin. If we say it has the status of a gift, then one gift can cover many sins—one burnt offering for many sins. The Rebbe once discussed this in a sicha, basing the explanation on Tosafos in tractate Zevachim: a sin offering, too, has something of the character of a gift. Otherwise, the whole sequence of ideas here in Tanya is difficult to understand. The Alter Rebbe says that there is an opinion requiring a fast for every sin, another fast for every occurrence. But the Alter Rebbe says that fasting has the status of a burnt offering. So why would we even consider requiring it for every single occurrence as well? The Alter Rebbe says that it should be done at least three times. From the Alter Rebbe’s words, it would seem that the whole point of fasting is to complete the atonement, and that is the function of a burnt offering. So the Rebbe cited Tosafos, from which it appears that even a sin offering has something of the character of a gift.

04:09 A sin offering, too, is somewhat of a gift. In any case, the sin offering and the burnt offering are interconnected; the sin offering also has something of the character of a burnt offering. That is also the basis of the disagreement discussed earlier. In any case, we spoke about that before. To complete the atonement, one needs to bring a gift—that is the idea of fasting. But today one must not fast, so the Alter Rebbe says that one should give tzedakah. “However, the beginning of the mitzvah of teshuvah, and its essence…” The Alter Rebbe now returns to the beginning of Igeres Hateshuvah: “The beginning of the mitzvah of teshuvah, and its essence, is to return to Hashem in truth and with a whole heart.” What did we say at the beginning of chapter 1? What is the mitzvah of teshuvah according to the Torah? It is what the Alter Rebbe calls the beginning of the mitzvah of teshuvah. Teshuvah begins with the Torah’s mitzvah of teshuvah. And how does that begin? With abandoning the sin. But the Alter Rebbe says that this is both the beginning and the essence. There are two points here: we begin with this, and it is also the essence of the mitzvah of teshuvah. As the Alter Rebbe said, the very nature of teshuvah is to return to Hashem, and that is why it is the essence of teshuvah. “To return to Hashem in truth and with a whole heart.” A person needs to return to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and to do so in truth and with a whole heart. What does that mean? On the one hand, as we said, the Alter Rebbe is trying to make things easier. He is saying: Friends, teshuvah has many aspects, but don’t get confused. Teshuvah comes down to one point. One point: abandoning the sin, and that alone. All the details are additions, ways of bringing it to completion, enhancements. They are all important things. But what is the central point of teshuvah? Just one thing: abandoning the sin. That means

06:04 that, according to the Torah, the moment a person firmly resolves that he will no longer rebel against the King’s rule, as the Alter Rebbe puts it, that is teshuvah. That is its nature, its very core, its rationale, its essence. But then why do we need the whole of Igeres Hateshuvah? The Alter Rebbe says here that this must be done “in truth and with a whole heart.” A person can abandon a sin, yet tomorrow commit it again and fall again. It has to be something deep, something genuine. “He will not return to his folly”—in truth and with a whole heart. The central point of teshuvah is that he will not return to his folly. But for that commitment to be true and wholehearted—for it to last, to be genuine, to be internalized—we need the entire explanation that the Alter Rebbe is about to give. We see in chapter 1 that when the Alter Rebbe spoke about the Torah’s mitzvah of teshuvah, he used this expression there too, saying that the main thing is in the heart, with a whole heart. And he said again: “To return to Hashem with all his heart and all his soul, to serve Him and observe all His mitzvos.” So, on the one hand, the Alter Rebbe is telling us that teshuvah is just one point, the point of abandoning the sin, the point of accepting upon oneself… But at the same time, the Alter Rebbe also wants to teach us that this has to be internalized, that it has to be in truth and with a whole heart. This is the point he will explain in the coming chapters. “It is necessary to explain this thoroughly and at length.” To understand this central point of teshuvah, it is necessary to explain it thoroughly and at length. We need to explain

07:56 it in detail. “But first, we must introduce what is written in the holy Zohar concerning the word ‘teshuvah’ according to its mystical meaning.” To understand this, we first need to explain what the Zohar says. Here begins the part dealing with Kabbalah, the inner dimension of Torah, which the Alter Rebbe uses to explain the Torah’s mitzvah of teshuvah. The Alter Rebbe cites the Zohar, which says that teshuvah means tashuv hei—returning the hei. The mystical meaning of the word teshuvah: What does Kabbalah explain about this word? Teshuvah is tashuv hei, returning the hei. The lower hei is lower teshuvah; the upper hei is higher teshuvah. That is what the Zohar says. Now, from chapter 4 through chapter 10 inclusive, we will learn seven chapters in which the Alter Rebbe explains these two levels of teshuvah. This reveals the secret of teshuvah. The Zohar says that teshuvah means returning the hei. We all know about the Name Havayah, spelled yud-kei-vav-kei—four letters. When a person commits a sin, he causes a blemish in the Name Havayah. We need to understand what that means, but that is the point. When a person sins, he causes a blemish in the Name Havayah within his own soul. As we will learn later, every Jew is part of the Name Havayah: “For Hashem’s portion is His people.” So when I sin, I cause a blemish in the Name Havayah within my soul, and consequently Above as well. What happens within a person also happens Above. When, G-d forbid, I cause a blemish in the Name Havayah within my soul, I cause a blemish in the whole matter of the Name Havayah. As explained in the maamarim regarding “one who pierces the Name Havayah”: the meaning is that, G-d forbid, sins and transgressions make a hole, a blemish, in the Name Havayah. The Zohar says that all 613 mitzvos depend on the letters of the Name Havayah,

10:00 Like grapes hanging from a cluster. You have a cluster, and grapes hang from it. The Zohar says that Hashem hung all 613 mitzvos on the four letters of the name Havayah. That is what we say in the wording of the prayer: “I have blemished the name Havayah.” The Alter Rebbe will bring this later. All the mitzvos are connected to the name Havayah in some way. When a Jew fails to fulfill a mitzvah or commits a transgression, he blemishes the name Havayah. And that is why it is called teshuvah: teshuvah means restoring the hei. The lower hei—lower teshuvah; the upper hei—higher teshuvah. These are two levels of teshuvah: lower teshuvah and higher teshuvah. So the Alter Rebbe says that once we explain these two levels—what lower teshuvah and higher teshuvah are, as he will do in the coming chapters—we will be able to understand the root and essence of teshuvah. Now, here we see something remarkable. The Rebbe discusses this in a sicha. The Alter Rebbe sets out to explain the root and essence of teshuvah. In other words, here in chapter 4, the Alter Rebbe returns to the Torah’s mitzvah of teshuvah itself, to its very nature. And he says that to understand the essence of the Torah’s mitzvah of teshuvah, we first need to understand lower teshuvah and higher teshuvah. When you think about it, that is a tremendous point. At first glance, a person would say that lower teshuvah and higher teshuvah are levels. There is teshuvah as prescribed by the Torah; afterward, you begin learning Chassidus and learn about lower and higher teshuvah, what they mean and what they involve. The Alter Rebbe says no. Lower teshuvah and higher teshuvah are not just levels. They explain how to do teshuvah

12:00 as prescribed by the Torah. To do teshuvah—the teshuvah of the Torah, the Torah’s mitzvah of teshuvah, “And you shall return to Hashem your G-d”—you need to know what lower teshuvah and higher teshuvah are. They are not just levels; they explain the Torah’s concept of teshuvah. This is the essence of teshuvah, its innermost point, and it is a remarkable insight that the Alter Rebbe introduces here in Tanya, Igeres Hateshuvah. One could say that before the Alter Rebbe, people looked at it first from the perspective of the revealed dimension of Torah. We have already discussed how, before the Alter Rebbe, even the definition of the mitzvah of teshuvah was unclear. The Alter Rebbe did not deal only with the revealed dimension; we have discussed that already. But here he goes a step further. Before the Alter Rebbe, people thought: Fine, there is teshuvah according to halachah, and then there is teshuvah according to Kabbalah. Teshuvah according to Kabbalah is for someone who studies Kabbalah, the Torah’s hidden dimension; Kabbalah speaks specifically of teshuvah on higher levels. But the Alter Rebbe’s wording here implies otherwise, and that is his innovation. I’ll go back to the beginning: to understand the mitzvah of teshuvah in the revealed dimension of Torah, you need to understand teshuvah according to Chassidus. If you do not know what teshuvah is according to Chassidus, you cannot do even simple teshuvah. So what is the explanation? The Rebbe once discussed this. It appears in Likkutei Sichos, in the Rebbe’s sichos, in connection with Reb Levik. We said that all the Rebbe’s explanations are based on Reb Levik. So the Rebbe cites Reb Levik and his explanations. Reb Levik’s second explanation of Igeres Hateshuvah is on these words. [unclear] the explanation. So Reb Levik says—what is Reb Levik’s version? Reb Levik says

13:52 that there are four levels of teshuvah. There is lower teshuvah and higher teshuvah, but there is also a person who has attained lower teshuvah and a person who has attained higher teshuvah. The Alter Rebbe, in a maamar—there is a maamar of the Alter Rebbe in Likkutei Torah that is very, very fundamental to the avodah of teshuvah. Of course, it is important to learn it during the month of Elul; several maamarim are based on it. There the Alter Rebbe speaks about teshuvah called “turn away from evil,” teshuvah of “do good,” and teshuvah of “seek peace.” Broadly, these are three levels of teshuvah; in greater detail, they are four. There the Alter Rebbe mainly explains three levels. The first is teshuvah associated with “turn away from evil.” That does not just mean refraining from transgressions. It is teshuvah that addresses casting off the yoke. “Turn away from evil” means kabbolas ol. The first, lowest level of teshuvah is that a Jew must turn away from evil: stop casting off the yoke and accept the yoke of Heaven. That means fulfilling all the mitzvos, as the Alter Rebbe said earlier. That is the first teshuvah. Then there is a higher level within lower teshuvah. This is called a person who has attained lower teshuvah. What does that involve? “Do good.” In other words, a person does not do teshuvah only out of kabbolas ol, which is called teshuvah out of awe. He also does teshuvah out of love, because he loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is what “do good” means. The Alter Rebbe explains there that “do good” does not just mean fulfilling a mitzvah. It means fulfilling it with hiddur, with vitality and enjoyment, going beyond one’s usual practice and making an effort. That is called “do good”: do more good, increase it, and invest yourself more fully in everything. For that, you already need love. Awe is not enough. He explains that, in the name Havayah, this is the difference between the lower hei and the letter vav. The hei represents the sefirah of malchus. In avodah, malchus means setting aside one’s own will, kabbolas ol. The vav represents the middos, whose principal quality is love; that is why this is the second level, the level of “do good.” So these are lower teshuvah and a person who has attained lower teshuvah—the first two levels. There the main avodah is mitzvos: mitzvos performed with the body, the mitzvos of turning away from evil and the mitzvos of doing good. The main thing, though, is mitzvos. When it comes to mitzvos, the person still has a sense of himself as an independent being. There is a commandment, and the person fulfills what it tells him to do. He remains a distinct entity, so this is associated with the middos. In the middos, he has a sense of self; there is feeling, and he is a person serving Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is why it is lower teshuvah. After that begins a higher level: higher teshuvah. Higher teshuvah is Torah, “seek peace.” As we will see later in chapter 9, the Alter Rebbe says that the main aspect of higher teshuvah is Torah study. Torah study is associated with the first hei, the upper hei. The upper hei represents binah, where the avodah is studying a subject in depth and exerting oneself in Torah. When you study Torah, that is higher teshuvah, and the bond there is much deeper. With a mitzvah, as we said, there is a person fulfilling the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is the nullification of a distinct self. With Torah, there is an inner union. When a person studies Torah, what he is studying is the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. It is not a matter of “I am doing what Hashem asks of me.”

16:00 Beyond what he is accustomed to, through effort. This is called “do good”—do good, add more, increase, put more of himself into everything. For that, you already need love. Awe is not enough. He explains that, in the name Havayah, this is the difference between the lower letter hei and the letter vav. The letter hei represents the sefirah of malchus. In our avodah, malchus means restraining one’s will, kabbolas ol. The letter vav represents the middos, and the main middah is love, so that is the second level. That is the meaning of “do good.” So this is lower teshuvah, and a baal teshuvah at the lower level. Those are the first two levels. There, the main avodah is mitzvos—mitzvos performed with the body, the mitzvos of “turn away from evil,” and the mitzvos of “do good.” But the main thing is mitzvos. In performing mitzvos, a person still has a sense of self. After all, with a mitzvah, there is a commandment, and the person fulfills what the commandment tells him to do. So he has a sense of self, and that is why it is connected with the middos. In the middos, he is still someone: there is a feeling here; there is a person here who serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is why it is lower teshuvah. After that begins a higher level, higher teshuvah. Higher teshuvah is Torah—“seek peace.” As we will see later in chapter 9, the Alter Rebbe says that the main aspect of higher teshuvah is Torah study. Torah study is connected with the first letter hei, the upper hei. The upper hei is binah, where the avodah is studying a subject in depth, toiling in Torah. When you study Torah, that is higher teshuvah; there, the connection is much deeper. With a mitzvah, as we said, there is a person fulfilling the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is the nullification of one’s sense of self. With Torah, there is an inner union. When a person studies Torah, it is the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. It is not a matter of “I am doing what Hashem asks of me.”

18:05 In the familiar formulation, a mitzvah is like a servant carrying out his master’s will. So yes, he is nullified, but there is a master and there is a servant. Torah, by contrast, is the master himself. He is giving you his own wisdom. When you learn, you become united with G-dliness—an inner union. There is no union like the one achieved through Torah study, and that is why Torah is teshuvah ila’ah, higher teshuvah. It corresponds to the upper hei, the higher level: Torah study. Then there is a fourth level, the yud of Hashem’s Name, which is called baal teshuvah ila’ah. This is an even higher level, explained elsewhere. It is not explained in Likkutei Torah. Elsewhere it is explained that baal teshuvah ila’ah, the yud, is connected with “sanctify yourself in what is permitted to you.” The Rebbe does cite this in the Samech series. Those who have studied the Samech series know it; the maamar there discusses this subject. There is the avodah of “sanctify yourself in what is permitted to you,” an avodah of utter self-nullification. That is where the ultimate nullification lies, in chochmah, the level of baal teshuvah ila’ah. So Reb Levi Yitzchak says that the Alter Rebbe’s wording here is precise. The Alter Rebbe says, “to explain thoroughly, with an expansive explanation.” Reb Levi Yitzchak says that “to explain” corresponds to the sefirah of malchus—teshuvah tata’ah, lower teshuvah. Why? Because teshuvah tata’ah is called a well. Be’er Sheva: Chassidus explains that a well represents malchus, the recipient. So “to explain,” leva’er, alludes to be’er, a well. “Thoroughly” corresponds to the vav. “Thoroughly” means “do good.” That is the second level of teshuvah, called baal teshuvah tata’ah. Then comes “with an expansive explanation.” “Expansive” corresponds to teshuvah ila’ah, because teshuvah ila’ah is binah, and binah is called “the expanses of the river.” So that is “with an expansive explanation.” Right. So “to explain,” “thoroughly,” “with an expansive explanation”—those are

20:05 teshuvah tata’ah, baal teshuvah tata’ah, and teshuvah ila’ah. Those are the three levels of teshuvah. But he does not mention the yud. He does not mention baal teshuvah ila’ah. And the Rebbe explains: Why does he not mention baal teshuvah ila’ah? Because there is no command concerning the level of yud, so it is not a level of avodah. It is what happens when a person reaches a place of utter self-nullification. In fact, all these forms of avodah are a person’s work toward reaching that place, the level of ultimate self-nullification. The Rebbe explains there in Tanya what he means by this. So the Rebbe says that what Reb Levi Yitzchak is saying here fits beautifully within the order of Kabbalah. But as we have already said, Reb Levi Yitzchak is not speaking only about Kabbalah. This is a fundamental principle in the avodah taught in Tanya. What is the principle? The Alter Rebbe wants to teach us that teshuvah is, in fact—and this is the whole innovation—a process, a path. Some people think teshuvah means kabbolas ol, accepting the yoke, and that is where it ends: I have done teshuvah. After that, if I want to reach a higher level, I will do teshuvah tata’ah or teshuvah ila’ah; those are levels for a baal teshuvah. The Alter Rebbe says no! The Alter Rebbe says no! Teshuvah is one single point. The point of the avodah of teshuvah is to reach an essential bond with G-dliness through utter self-nullification. That is the teshuvah one must reach. But in practice, there is an order to the avodah. First of all, you cannot jump to the yud of Hashem’s Name if you have not yet gone through the whole process. Yet even when you are at the beginning of the avodah, at the beginning of the mitzvah of teshuvah—when I am only now beginning to do teshuvah, at the beginning of the mitzvah of teshuvah, with that first movement of kabbolas ol, which is the beginning, the essence, and the foundation of the avodah—when I am just beginning

22:20 the process of teshuvah and kabbolas ol, I need to feel that the intention, the inner goal of teshuvah, is to reach the deepest self-nullification, the level of teshuvah ila’ah and baal teshuvah ila’ah, the deepest union with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is why the Alter Rebbe says, by way of introduction—this is the Alter Rebbe’s wording—“to explain thoroughly, with an expansive explanation, first citing what is written in the holy Zohar.” To know how to begin teshuvah, you need to know that all these levels exist. Otherwise you think, That’s it, I’ve already done teshuvah. I’m already a baal teshuvah. I no longer commit sins. That’s it, I’m finished. Now I’ll serve Hashem, I’ll put in effort, I’ll go further... No, not yet. The avodah of teshuvah—the purpose of returning to G-dliness—is to bring a Jew to the deepest bond with G-dliness, and that is achieved at the highest level. So this point contains an innovation from two directions. The Alter Rebbe’s innovation here is fundamental to all of Igeres Hateshuvah and to the entire avodah of teshuvah, in two respects. On the one hand, it is the point we just made: even at the beginning of the avodah, a person must know that the ultimate goal is utter self-nullification and a bond with G-dliness. That intention must be there from the start of teshuvah. And the innovation from the other direction is that even when you are at the beginning of the avodah, inwardly everything is already there. In other words, the avodah works in both directions. Until I reach the final point, everything is part of the... In other words, it is all one point. The goal is to reach an inner bond with G-dliness, teshuvah ila’ah, the highest level of teshuvah ila’ah. That is the goal. And moreover, because all the levels of teshuvah are really one continuous process, even when you are only at the beginning of the avodah, your kabbolas ol

24:22 is connected to it too, because in essence you are bound to G-dliness. It is a different kind of kabbolas ol. There is an external kabbolas ol. “[unclear]”—an external kabbolas ol. He does not yet know the whole... He accepts the yoke of Heaven in practice, externally. The Alter Rebbe says that the kabbolas ol of teshuvah is connected with the highest level. The lowest level of teshuvah is connected with the deepest level of teshuvah. So even at the beginning of the avodah, even when he is still at the stage of teshuvah tata’ah, his kabbolas ol in abandoning sin already carries the feeling that his abandonment of sin is connected to this: In essence, I am a Jew; in essence, I have a yechidah; and in essence, I am bound to G-dliness in the deepest way. It is just a question of the order of the avodah. Right now I begin with kabbolas ol, but this is a kabbolas ol connected with essential self-nullification. It is a different kind of kabbolas ol. In simple terms, this means that when we study Chassidus and learn about lofty levels, someone often asks, “Why do we need to learn about all these levels? They don’t apply to us. I’m still at the stage of [unclear]. Why do I need to learn about G-dliness and lofty levels, about the unity of Hashem before the tzimtzum?” But that is the whole point. The point is that even when you are at the lowest level, you need to have it firmly in mind that this is part of a process leading to the deepest self-nullification. Then even within the lowest level of self-nullification, the whole matter is already present in a hidden way. With this, we can understand the entire continuation of the chapter. There are a few more things we could understand here, but our time is already up. Just one point I once heard: there was a farbrengen at which the Rebbe spoke about this point, on Shabbos... the Rebbe spoke about it in the month of Elul. The Rebbe

26:10 The Rebbe spoke... the Rebbe was very joyful. The Rebbe said that on Shabbos Mevarchim Elul, we’re only just beginning, and there’s a whole process ahead. Shabbos... the Rebbe always liked to go through it, right? Shabbos Mevarchim, then the month of Elul, then Chai Elul, the days of Selichos, Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days of Teshuvah, Yom Kippur, and the four days of... The Rebbe would always list all the holidays by name. And then Sukkos, then Hoshana Rabbah and Shemini Atzeres, Simchas Torah. Simchas Torah is the ultimate goal, right? [unclear]. Simchas Torah is the ultimate goal, the whole point. So the Rebbe says you can look at this in two ways. One way is to look at each thing on its own. Right now it’s Shabbos Mevarchim Elul, so I observe Shabbos Mevarchim Elul. Then the month of Elul will arrive, and it’ll be Elul. The avodah of Elul—what does it say? What do I need to do in Elul? I’ll do it. Then the days of Selichos will arrive—what do we do during Selichos? Then Rosh Hashanah—what do we do on Rosh Hashanah? You celebrate each holiday on its own. But that’s not... Chassidus teaches something else. Chassidus says that when you stand at Shabbos Mevarchim Elul, you need to see Simchas Torah. On Shabbos Mevarchim Elul, it needs to be clear to you that the ultimate goal, the point, is to reach the joy of Simchas Torah. That’s the goal. Then even on Shabbos Mevarchim Elul, you’re already in a joyful frame of mind, because you know that’s where you’re headed. True, in practice you still need to begin with teshuvah tata’ah and take stock of yourself, but because that is the direction, the essential point of joy is already present at the very start of the avodah, and so you can already be joyful. And the Rebbe was already in that joyful frame of mind from the very first day... That’s how the Rebbe taught us to live, and all of this is also understood here in Igeres Hateshuvah.