Tanya Chapter 32 - The Heart of Tanya

00:05 Chapter 32 of Tanya—everyone knows it is one of the most central chapters, if not the center of the entire Tanya. The Rebbe would always call it the heart of Tanya: 32 is written with the Hebrew letters that spell “heart.” In many sichos and maamarim, the Rebbe spoke about Chapter 32 as the heart of Tanya. On the simplest level, the whole subject of love, of “Love your fellow as yourself,” is connected with the heart. But the Rebbe also relates something well known among chassidim: the Alter Rebbe wrote two versions, an earlier version and a later version. The earlier version of Tanya is now in print—the Rebbe had it printed in 5742—so you can see that Chapter 32 is not there. When the Alter Rebbe first wrote Tanya, there was no Chapter 32. He added it later, in the later version, and you can see this from the content as well. Chapter 32 is not entirely part of the subject being discussed here; it is like a digression. In Chapter 31, the Alter Rebbe was explaining the subject of joy. Throughout the chapters beginning with Chapter 26, he discusses how serving Hashem must be done with joy, particularly in Chapter 31. After explaining bitterness as a counterpart to joy, he began explaining how to come to serve Hashem with joy. In Chapter 33, the Alter Rebbe continues with joy. Chapter 33 follows on from Chapter 31, offering more advice, more explanations, more ways to attain joy. And in the earlier version, that is indeed the sequence. The Alter Rebbe explains how to attain joy. There is joy connected with leaving Egypt, with leaving the confinement of the body and the animal soul. There is joy that comes from the purpose

02:26 of it, as we discussed in Chapter 31. Then there is joy that comes from the unity of Hashem, which is the subject of Chapter 33. So the discussion here is about joy. Who is talking about Ahavas Yisroel? That is precisely the point: the Alter Rebbe inserted it here. Of course there is a connection. Chapter 32 begins, “And through fulfilling the above-mentioned matters.” In other words, it is connected with what we learned in Chapter 31. It is a result, a continuation. The connection is this: you can awaken joy within yourself even though you know you have an animal soul and all that comes with it. Nevertheless, you manage to free yourself from thinking about the body and the animal soul, and connect with your soul and with the G-dly purpose of its descent. If a person manages to free himself from those concerns and elevate the soul above the body, then, through that, he can come to Ahavas Yisroel. That is the connection. But it is a connection through those details of the subject, not the main subject the Alter Rebbe was discussing here. That makes it all the more striking that the Alter Rebbe specifically wanted this subject to be at the heart of Tanya, to teach us that Ahavas Yisroel is the heart, the inner core, the center. Just as the heart is at the center of the body and its life extends from there to all the limbs, so it is with Chassidus, with Chabad Chassidus. What is at its center? The inner core of all of Chabad Chassidus is Ahavas Yisroel. The Rebbe spoke about this many times in connection with our name. We have two names: Chabad and Lubavitch. Chabad relates to chochmah, binah, and daas—the faculties of the mind. That is essentially the Alter Rebbe’s innovation

04:24 in relation to Chassidus in general. The Baal Shem Tov revealed faith, and the Alter Rebbe revealed Chabad: understanding through chochmah, binah, and daas. Indeed, the whole Tanya is founded on the principle that the mind rules the heart, which is the idea of Chabad—chochmah, binah, and daas. But our second name is Lubavitch. What does Lubavitch mean? It comes from the word for love. As the Frierdiker Rebbe relates at the beginning of Sefer Hazichronos, the whole story of how the town of Lubavitch began started with Jews, including Reb Binyamin. In the story he tells there, they were Jews filled with Ahavas Yisroel, and they wanted to find a name for the town. A town of love, a city of love—that is what Lubavitch means, and it became our name. That is what people around the world call us. The Rebbe spoke many times about how this was not by chance. And as is well known, “chassidim” is not a name we gave ourselves. The misnagdim called us chassidim. There is the well-known story about the Alter Rebbe’s debate with one of the leading rabbis. The Alter Rebbe explained to him that the misnagdim had called us chassidim; through Divine Providence, the name caught on and became our name. He also explained to him why, as recounted in the Rebbe’s sichos. And the same applies to Lubavitch: it, too, is who we are. It is not simply that we called ourselves Lubavitcher chassidim because, through Divine Providence, the Mitteler Rebbe was looking for somewhere to live after the Napoleonic war. They could not return to Liadi, with everything that had happened there and all the difficulties; the town had been destroyed. So they had to find a place. They came to Lubavitch, and it became the town of Chabad chassidim. As a result, all the Rebbes from the Mitteler Rebbe onward remained there, until

06:22 the end of the Lubavitch period in Tishrei 5676. The Alter Rebbe himself had also been in Lubavitch before he became known. As is well known, for a time in his youth, before he went to Mezritch to study with the Maggid, the Alter Rebbe studied with a Jew who was a student of the Baal Shem Tov, Rabbi Yissachar Ber of Lubavitch. In any case, our name, Lubavitcher chassidim, reflects the fact that among Chabad chassidim, love—Ahavas Yisroel—is central. In our generation, we saw this very strongly in the Rebbe: Ahavas Yisroel is at the center. Especially in our generation, the seventh generation. So we see something remarkable in 5711, when the Rebbe accepted the leadership. Even before the maamar at the Yud Shvat farbrengen—the historic farbrengen at which he accepted the leadership—the Rebbe said that America has its customs. The Gemara says that when you go to a place, you should follow its customs: “When you enter a city, follow its ways.” So, according to American custom, when someone takes on a new position—becomes president, becomes a new leader, a prime minister beginning his term—he has to make some kind of statement, a phrase or saying that will be his motto. So the Rebbe said at that farbrengen: What would be the saying, the idea, that would be the Rebbe’s motto? He cited the well-known teaching that there is love of Hashem, love of Torah, and Ahavas Yisroel—three loves—and that all three are one. And where does one begin? Sometimes one begins with love of Hashem, which brings one to Ahavas Yisroel and love of Torah. Sometimes one begins with love of Torah and from there comes to love of Hashem and Ahavas Yisroel. And sometimes one begins with Ahavas Yisroel.

08:34 And that brings you to love of Hashem and love of the Torah. I don’t remember the exact words of the sicha, but that was the idea: the innovation in Chabad Chassidus that the Baal Shem Tov brought about was that Ahavas Yisroel is the foundation, and from there you reach all the other kinds of love. That was roughly the content of what the Rebbe said: this is the foundation. This is the basis of the seventh generation. The seventh generation will be based on the three loves. We’re going to work on this—the three loves: love of Hashem, love of the Torah, and Ahavas Yisroel. And you can see it clearly: all of the Rebbe’s teachings are founded on the three loves—love of Hashem, love of the Torah, and Ahavas Yisroel. All the Rebbe’s battles were for the three loves. The matters of—of course, you can see clearly that all the... all the Rebbe’s activities were connected to these three things: love of Hashem, love of the Torah, and Ahavas Yisroel. But within that, Ahavas Yisroel is the foundation. Later, over the years, when the Rebbe began the mitzvah campaigns, in the late 5720s and early 5730s, when the Rebbe began the whole push for the campaigns, the Rebbe started with the tefillin campaign, the Torah campaign, the education campaign. There was an order. How did the Rebbe begin the sequence of campaigns? What was the last campaign? It was the Ahavas Yisroel campaign, in 5737. And the Rebbe said that the Ahavas Yisroel campaign is the campaign that encompasses all the campaigns. It sums them all up and is the guiding principle for them all. It isn’t a particular campaign; it’s an overarching campaign, so that each of the campaigns must be permeated with Ahavas Yisroel. You come to put on tefillin with a Jew? Do it with Ahavas Yisroel. You come to study Torah with a Jew? Let it be with Ahavas Yisroel. It matters. For all the campaigns, Ahavas Yisroel is the guiding principle. Since, by Divine Providence, we’re here now

10:21 talking, and we’re approaching 27 Adar, which was the... yes. So today in the yeshiva we studied the Rebbe’s last farbrengen, and there you can clearly see something remarkable. It was the last farbrengen we have received from the Rebbe to date, and it should be something each of us lives with. Because it is the last farbrengen, the last sicha, the last instruction and guidance the Rebbe gave our generation, though, Heaven help us, thirty years have already passed. But in that sicha the Rebbe gave us guidance, instruction, and a direction in life—how a Jew should live. All this was in that last farbrengen, as the Rebbe spoke about how we are still standing before the Geulah, and there will yet be the ingathering of the exiles, and all the exiles will return. The ingathering of the exiles had already begun, as in that period when tens of thousands of Jews, hundreds of thousands, left Russia. That was the beginning of the ingathering of the exiles, and its completion is still to come. So the Rebbe spoke about this subject at the last farbrengen. And something remarkable that we see in the farbrengen is that it is also an explanation of chapter 32 of Tanya. In fact, the entire Vayakhel farbrengen is one remarkable explanation of chapter 32 of Tanya. So I’ll say a little about one point, given the short time we have, and we’ll see how this point is a foundation and a path of service in the Alter Rebbe’s innovation—the revolution the Alter Rebbe brought about in Ahavas Yisroel. What was the Alter Rebbe’s innovation in Ahavas Yisroel? The Baal Shem Tov was the one who revealed Ahavas Yisroel as a foundation. We say that the Baal Shem Tov laid foundations for Torah. The Baal Shem Tov spoke about the need to love simple people, and he drew simple people close. As we know from the stories the Frierdiker Rebbe tells, what a revolution, what a transformation the

12:18 Baal Shem Tov brought about in loving every Jew, even a simple person. It began back in 5472. As is known, the Frierdiker Rebbe relates that in 5472 the Baal Shem Tov was only fourteen years old. Right? That was the Baal Shem Tov’s age in 5472—fourteen. The Baal Shem Tov had already become one of the hidden tzaddikim. There was a group of hidden tzaddikim then, and the Baal Shem Tov was part of their fellowship. And as soon as the Baal Shem Tov joined, still a young boy of fourteen, he revolutionized the whole matter. What revolution did the Baal Shem Tov bring about among the hidden tzaddikim? Drawing simple people close and helping them with their material needs. The hidden tzaddikim had spiritual things they did, their own activities—yichudim, meditations, spiritual matters. In secret, they would do all sorts of things. But the Baal Shem Tov came and turned the whole approach around. He made the foundation drawing close to a simple Jew and helping him materially. The spiritual matters come afterward. And to such an extent that [unclear], which was in 5475, the year the Baal Shem Tov brought about a revolution. That was the beginning. Later, when the Baal Shem Tov revealed himself, drawing simple people close became a central part of his work. Then the Alter Rebbe comes along in Tanya. In chapter 32, the Alter Rebbe explains the foundation to us. What exactly is the foundation of Ahavas Yisroel? What is the deeper meaning of Ahavas Yisroel according to the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings? That is the point of chapter 32. So here we see it. Of course, with Hashem’s help, we’ll study it inside and see in detail what the Alter Rebbe says. But right now I’m speaking

14:08 only about one particular point, the point connected with the Vayakhel farbrengen. There are two approaches. How do we come to have Ahavas Yisroel for every Jew? The fundamental question is: How is it possible to “love your fellow as yourself,” to love every Jew, when there are all sorts of Jews, and some people are closer to me while others are less close? How can I have Ahavas Yisroel for every Jew? What is the Alter Rebbe’s wording? That there should be Ahavas Yisroel for every Jewish soul, from the greatest to the least. Of course, “from the greatest to the least” includes many things: greatest and least materially, greatest and least spiritually, greatest and least in Torah knowledge, greatest and least in serving Hashem—many different things. How can there be the same love for each and every one? How is Ahavas Yisroel possible? This is the fundamental question the Alter Rebbe comes to explain to us. And not just love: the love has to be “as yourself.” How can it be “as yourself”? “As yourself” means an intrinsic love. A person’s love for himself isn’t based on some quality he possesses. I love myself with an intrinsic love. How can I love my fellow, every Jew, “as yourself”—with an intrinsic love? So what do we see here in Tanya? When we look in Tanya, we see that there are, broadly speaking, two explanations. There is a lot to discuss here. With Hashem’s help, when we study it inside, we’ll see it in greater detail. But on the subject as a whole, there are two explanations of how we come to have Ahavas Yisroel for every Jew. One explanation relates to what the Jewish people share as a whole, and one relates to individuals. The explanation relating to what we share is that all of the Jewish people, all of us, have “an actual part of G-d above.” And since we have an actual part of G-d above, and this G-dly part in each of us comes from the same wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, it is like one father from whom there are many

16:10 Children—but all the children come from the same essence. It is because of that shared essence that he can love them, and that is what brotherhood is about. The love between siblings is an essential love. It is not a love dependent on something else. It comes from the fact that, at our core, we are one essence, one people. So the Alter Rebbe already explained at the beginning of Tanya that this is true of all Jews. We all have our root in the one Hashem, and from that standpoint, the entire Jewish people are one people, one point, one essence. So if you look at the soul as a soul, you and I are one essence, one being: a Jew. I am no less Jewish; you are no more Jewish. As Reb Levik, the Rebbe’s father, used to say: Moshe Rabbeinu is no more Jewish than the lowliest Jew. The lowliest Jew is no less Jewish than Moshe Rabbeinu. If we are talking about avodah, about observing mitzvos, about spiritual levels, then of course there is absolutely no comparison between Moshe Rabbeinu and the lowliest Jew. But when we speak about the essence of a Jew, Moshe Rabbeinu is a Jew. He is not more Jewish; he is Jewish. And the lowliest Jew, even the greatest sinner, is a Jew. He is no less Jewish. From the standpoint of that essential point, this is a love that—so when a Jew gets to the core, to the understanding that our true essence is the soul, as we learned in the previous chapter, “Within me is a part of G-d,” that is who I am. And if my essence is the soul, a part of G-d, then we are all one. This is the idea of the half-shekel that the Rebbe spoke about at the last farbrengen, Vayakhel 5752. But there is another kind of Ahavas Yisroel, which is also explained in chapter 32: “And the soul and spirit—who knows their greatness and stature in their root and source in the living G-d?” Here the Alter Rebbe is speaking about a different kind of love. The Alter Rebbe says:

18:16 There are greater people and lesser people, and that is true. But who knows? Who says that you are the greater one and he is the lesser one? Maybe it is the other way around. This needs explanation. With Hashem’s help, we will discuss it in more detail. But as the Rebbe discusses in a number of sichos, there is the well-known explanation in Likkutei Torah that the Jewish people are like a body. The body has different limbs: it has a head and it has a foot. In general, the head is above and the foot is below. But in certain respects the head needs the foot, and without the foot the head cannot go anywhere. So in that particular respect, the foot gives to the head. As the Alter Rebbe says in Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim, “In this aspect of walking, the foot is called the head.” The same applies to Ahavas Yisroel. Each person has certain qualities. Not everyone is the same. Each person has something unique. There are souls of Yissachar and souls of Zevulun. There are souls of those who serve Hashem, and souls of those who serve Hashem with awe. There are tzaddikim and there are baalei teshuvah. There are many kinds of souls and many kinds of people who serve Hashem, and there is clearly a higher and a lower, one who gives and one who receives. There are “your woodcutters and your water drawers,” and there are “your heads, your tribes.” But each needs the other. Just as the woodcutter needs the heads of the people, the heads of the people need the woodcutter. Everyone needs everyone else. So Ahavas Yisroel comes specifically from the distinct parts. Sorry.

20:01 From one person to another. So Ahavas Yisroel becomes a matter of each person giving to or receiving from the other. That is “the soul and spirit—who knows their greatness and stature in their root and source in the living G-d?” This is Ahavas Yisroel in what the Rebbe calls, at the farbrengen, the manner of Pekudei. Pekudei means the particulars. In Vayakhel, the Rebbe set out that we need to bring about Vayakhel. Pekudei is harder work: you have to distinguish between people, get into the details, and so on. But the focus needs to be on Vayakhel, especially in a year when Vayakhel is separate from Pekudei. So the emphasis in Ahavas Yisroel must be on the essence of Vayakhel: loving a Jew simply because he is a Jew. That is the idea of the half-shekel. A Jew needs to know: I am a half and you are a half, and only when the two of us are together do we become one whole. That is where the emphasis needs to be, and the Rebbe spoke about it at length. There are many details in the sicha. But what concerns us, as we discuss the heart of Tanya, is that we need to take this point and understand that this is what the Rebbe spoke to us about at the last farbrengen. It must therefore be a primary, fundamental, central part of a chossid’s service of Hashem. We need to work on ourselves in this area: the idea of the half-shekel, and especially the idea of Vayakhel. Ahavas Yisroel. Loving every Jew without exception. And sometimes it is easier to love a Jew on the street than your friend in your own class. We always talk about loving a Jew, as Tanya says: even a Jew who is far away, at the ends of the earth, must be loved. Hello—sometimes the emphasis is the other way around. That Jew sitting in the zal may not be exactly your type. He may be a friend from whom you do not stand to gain anything. But it is precisely about Ahavas Yisroel for everyone. That is where the work lies. So there are two kinds of work in Ahavas Yisroel, and both are alluded to in Tanya, chapter 32. The love

22:16 that recognizes greater and lesser people—yet “who knows their greatness and stature?”—is one kind of love. It has a special quality, as the Rebbe explains in a number of places in his teachings: there is a quality in Ahavas Yisroel that comes specifically from knowing the details and connecting with a person where he is. We will talk about that in future classes. But in Vayakhel, the Rebbe spoke about emphasizing the point we share: not focusing so much on our differences, but looking for the point that connects us. We are all Jews; “we are the sons of one man.” Like the story we told about Reb Mendel Futerfas, who went out on mivtzoim and said, “I Jewish, you Jewish, I tefillin, you tefillin.” He did not know how to speak English, so that was what he knew how to say: “I Jewish, you Jewish, I tefillin, you tefillin.” That is an essential Ahavas Yisroel. I am a Jew, you are a Jew, and so: I tefillin, you tefillin. This kind of Ahavas Yisroel is what Chassidus teaches us. It is the heart of Chassidus. And through this work, we will merit, as the Rebbe spoke about at the farbrengen, the fulfillment of “a great congregation shall return here”—Vayakhel, the ingathering of the exiles. May we merit the complete Geulah already, merit to see the Rebbe when he comes, and see an end to all the suffering in the world, all the wars in the world, and all the afflictions in the world. May we merit the complete Geulah already, when there will be no evil, no war, no jealousy, no hatred and no rivalry. “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of Hashem as the waters cover the sea.”