Tanya Chapter 32 - Part 5

00:02 Chapter 32, page 41. We’re returning to the bottom of page 41. Until now, the Alter Rebbe has explained the general idea of Ahavas Yisroel, and how it is possible to “love your fellow as yourself”—every single Jew, great or small—with a genuine love, just as you love yourself. That was the first part of the chapter. Now the Alter Rebbe raises a question. Through this question, we’ll also gain several very important principles and arrive at a way to fulfill the mitzvah of Ahavas Yisroel. The Alter Rebbe begins here with a question. We’ve explained how there can be Ahavas Yisroel for every Jew, no matter which Jew, and that this love is wholehearted—an essential love, just as you love yourself. As the Alter Rebbe explained, this is because the love is connected to the soul, to the essence, to a person’s true being: the root of the soul. From that oneness comes genuine love for every Jew, just as you love yourself. So now the Alter Rebbe asks: How does this fit with Ahavas Yisroel according to halachah? When we look at Ahavas Yisroel in halachah, we find certain limitations. According to halachah, Ahavas Yisroel does not always apply in the way we might understand from what we’ve learned in Tanya so far. There seems to be a contradiction. How does the Alter Rebbe’s explanation of Ahavas Yisroel fit with the limitations on fulfilling the mitzvah? What limitations are we talking about? The Alter Rebbe cites this: “As for what is written in the Gemara, that one who sees his fellow sin is commanded to hate him.” This is in the Gemara in Bava Metzia. There, the Gemara discusses the law of “If you see the donkey of one who hates you.” All the boys have learned this Gemara; they know it. Look, it’s talking there—and we’ll get to the law—about the mitzvah of “you shall surely raise it.” What do you call

02:14 that? If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its load, there is a mitzvah to “surely help him”—to raise the animal and lift the load. And it says there that the mitzvah applies when he hates you: “If you see the donkey of one who hates you.” If this happens to someone you hate, the law gives priority specifically to the person you hate, so that you overcome your inclination. He must help the person he hates before helping someone else whom he doesn’t hate. Then the Gemara asks: Someone he hates? How can a Jew hate someone else? What does it mean that the mitzvah applies to someone he hates—that the Torah allows for hatred? After all, “You shall not hate your brother in your heart.” It is forbidden to hate another Jew. How can there be such a thing as someone you hate? The Gemara answers that there is such a case even according to halachah. In other words, there are circumstances in which, according to Torah law, there is a mitzvah to hate someone. That is the person being discussed, about whom it says that nevertheless you must “surely raise it” and “surely help him.” In what case does halachah say there is a mitzvah to hate someone? That is what the Alter Rebbe cites now: “One who sees his fellow sin”—a person sees his friend committing a sin—is commanded to hate him. In that case there is a mitzvah to hate him. Not only that, and not only must he himself hate him, but it also says: “He should tell his teacher to hate him.” He should go to their teacher and tell him—tell his own teacher, the one who teaches them—that the student committed this sin, so that the teacher will hate him too. If so, here is an explicit halachah that does not seem to fit what we’ve learned until now. According to what we’ve learned, love for every Jew transcends his conduct. It doesn’t

04:22 matter how he behaves. You love every Jew because of who he is at his core. And if you love him for who he is at his core, then he could even be a complete rasha, as we discussed in previous classes. You love a complete rasha just as you love a completely righteous person, because, as far as this essential love is concerned, every Jew has a soul, and the souls are united. Yet here they say no: if a person commits a sin, not only are you obligated to hate him, but you must also tell his teacher so that the teacher will hate him too. What is the explanation? The Alter Rebbe explains this here. The explanation has several parts. We’ll learn the beginning. It isn’t the whole answer, only part of the explanation. Later in the chapter, we’ll see the Alter Rebbe add another point. The explanation here is divided into several parts, several degrees and levels, and different kinds of people as well. First, the Alter Rebbe establishes a basic principle: what halachah says about there sometimes being a mitzvah to hate someone who commits a sin, and even to tell his teacher so that he will hate him too, applies to a very, very limited case. It isn’t so simple. It is a very limited case with very specific conditions. So the Alter Rebbe first tells us what the conditions are. Namely, what case are we talking about? “His fellow in Torah and mitzvos.” We’re talking about someone who is your fellow in Torah and mitzvos. That is, the wording is “one who sees his fellow sin.” That wording is precise: not just any Jew. The Gemara does not say that if you see a Jew sinning, you have to hate him. G-d forbid! That would be a very serious mistake. The Gemara is precise: “his fellow.” That is the first condition. What defines someone as “his fellow”? It means someone on the same level, the same standing as I am in Torah and mitzvos. He is my peer in Torah and mitzvos, in observance of halachah. That is

06:23 the first condition. In a little while we’ll explain why all these conditions are needed. Yes. In a little while; we’re at the beginning of the subject. First I’m reading what it says. I’ll ask the question. We’ll see shortly. First, what does the Alter Rebbe say? The first condition, says the Alter Rebbe, is that he must be “his fellow in Torah and mitzvos.” Second, says the Alter Rebbe, “he has already fulfilled toward him the mitzvah of ‘You shall surely rebuke your fellow.’” The second condition is not only that he is my fellow, but that I have already tried rebuking him. You don’t start hating someone the moment he commits a sin, even if he is your fellow in Torah and mitzvos. Even then, you still don’t hate him because he committed a sin. On the contrary, you love him, and therefore you rebuke him. Rebuke has to come from genuine love. We know that “you shall surely rebuke” and “love your fellow as yourself” are written in the same verse. Yes, the Rebbe quotes in Hayom Yom—how does the verse go? “You shall love”... “You shall surely rebuke”... “You shall surely rebuke”... “Love your fellow as yourself.” How is it written there? “You shall surely rebuke your fellow.” “Love your fellow as yourself,” “and you shall not bear sin because of him.” That’s the verse; it says something like that. Bring me a Chumash Vayikra for a moment, and I’ll look inside. Huh? Is that how it goes? Which comes first, “love” or “you shall surely rebuke”? “You shall surely rebuke.” That’s what I thought. I’m looking inside. Oh, oh, oh. You see?

08:20 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your fellow, and you shall not bear sin because of him.” That’s the verse. After that it says: “You shall not take revenge or bear a grudge against your people, and you shall love your fellow as yourself; I am Hashem.” Those are two verses next to each other. So in Hayom Yom there is the well-known teaching, in the entry for 22 Iyar, where the Rebbe explains that “You shall not hate your brother in your heart” is the condition. The first thing is that you must be free of hatred before you come to rebuke someone. You cannot harbor hatred. There has to be genuine love. If there is hatred, you cannot rebuke him; only then can there be “You shall surely rebuke your fellow.” In other words, rebuke must come from a place of genuine love. Otherwise, as Hayom Yom explains, the verse continues, “and you shall not bear sin because of him.” If it wasn’t done that way, then you are at fault, not he, because you did not give the rebuke properly. So it follows that you must first have great love for the person. That love leads you to rebuke him, and only after you have done so and it has not helped... So there are two conditions here. First, the person is your fellow in Torah and mitzvos. Second, you have already tried approaching him with love and rebuke, and after all that, it has had no effect. Then the Alter Rebbe adds something else, a third condition—and we come to “You shall surely rebuke your fellow.” The Alter Rebbe writes: “One who is with you in Torah and mitzvos.” What does “your fellow” mean? “Your fellow”? There are different expressions. Yes, sometimes it says “your neighbor,” and sometimes it says “your fellow.” What exactly does “your fellow” mean? Our Sages understand it as though it were two words: “one who is with you.” “Your fellow” is like “one who is with you”—a person who is with you, who is on the same level, the same standing as you in Torah and mitzvos. In other words, even the mitzvah of rebuke has a condition: this person must be on your level in Torah and mitzvos. That is another new point.

10:30 In other words, earlier we discussed that to hate a person who commits a sin, he has to be your peer in Torah and mitzvos. That’s the first thing. Now the Alter Rebbe also says something about the mitzvah of rebuke. When do I know that rebuke is the kind that can actually accomplish something? Only when the person you’re rebuking is your peer in Torah and mitzvos. There is a general mitzvah of rebuke: if I see a Jew doing something wrong, I have to rebuke him. That’s a mitzvah. Yes, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the rebuke will have its intended effect. It may fail because the other person isn’t receptive to it; he isn’t at a level where it can affect him. There are many people who aren’t aware, who aren’t at the level where they understand that their sin has an effect. So even if you rebuke him and he doesn’t listen to you, that still isn’t a reason to hate him, because he isn’t your peer in Torah and mitzvos. The rebuke doesn’t necessarily have to affect him. The fact that your rebuke didn’t move him means that the person is at a different level, so it doesn’t reach him. It follows, then, that for there to be a mitzvah to hate a Jew—in what circumstances can one fulfill what the Gemara in Bava Metzia says, that there is a situation in which the Torah says one should hate a Jew? Three conditions are needed. To begin with, he has to be someone at your level, your peer in Torah and mitzvos. There has to…