Igeres Hateshuvah Chapter 4, Part 12

00:01 We’re in the middle of Igeres Hateshuvah, chapter 4, page 94b. The Alter Rebbe is explaining the four letters of Hashem’s name. We discussed the letter yud and the letter hei, and then we also discussed the letter vav. The Alter Rebbe explains that the yud is a point: it represents what is hidden and concealed before it comes into revelation. The letter hei, by contrast, represents wisdom as it expands and is revealed in length and breadth, which is the idea of the sefirah of binah. He explained that the breadth of binah means its details, its expansiveness—like an explanation. And its length means a drawing down from above to below. What does “from above to below” mean? We said this refers to almin stimin, the concealed worlds. In the previous class, we discussed that “from above to below” refers to almin stimin, the hidden worlds, worlds connected with Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s thought. These worlds are utterly nullified. So that is the drawing down from above to below found in the letter hei. Then there is the letter vav. The letter vav, says the Alter Rebbe, refers to the middos. And the middos are a drawing down from above to below, because a middah comes into play when a person wants to give to others. When someone wants to communicate his wisdom to others through speech, there are the middos, which connect him to another person. So these are Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s middos. Speaking of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s middos, the Alter Rebbe says, “the attribute of His kindness and His goodness, and His other holy attributes.” As examples, the Alter Rebbe gives His kindness and His goodness, and His other holy attributes. He says these middos are in the letter vav. Why? Because vav represents a drawing down, and vav also has the numerical value of six. There are six middos. The six middos are, yes, chessed and gevurah, and the six middos that follow. Apart from malchus; malchus is

02:31 already the letter hei. We’ll learn about that now, when we get to the letter hei. But before that, I want to pause here. Before we learn about the letter hei, there are several points we need to explain, and they are very, very important for our avodah. They are also based on a teaching of Reb Levik, the Rebbe’s father, which the Rebbe cites here—a point he makes based on Kabbalah. But as the Rebbe explains to us, Reb Levik’s teaching is essential to understanding Igeres Hateshuvah. Without it, you cannot understand the plain meaning of Igeres Hateshuvah. Very interesting. Reb Levik asks: Why does it say “the attribute of His kindness and His goodness”? What are these two attributes? The Alter Rebbe does not list all the middos. He mentions the attribute of His kindness and His goodness. We usually think they are the same thing. What is the difference between kindness and goodness? They’re the same thing. A good person is someone who does acts of kindness. Reb Levik comes along and says: It says “His kindness and His goodness.” Goodness is the attribute of yesod. These are the first and last attributes. The Alter Rebbe wants to—wants to mention the middos. He doesn’t list all of them, because that isn’t relevant here, but he mentions the beginning and the end. Chessed is the first of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s six middos, and yesod is the last of the six middos, and yesod is called “good.” Why is yesod called “good”? There is a verse, “Say of the righteous man that he is good.” That is what it says: “Say of the righteous man that he is good.” A tzaddik is called good; a tzaddik is good. We know that the sefirah of yesod is called tzaddik: “The tzaddik is the foundation of the world.” So when it says “His goodness,” it refers to the attribute of yesod. This is actually explained in many places in Chassidus. It isn’t an innovation of Reb Levik’s, or just a Kabbalistic insight. Many maamarim

04:37 discuss the difference between kindness and goodness. Well, chessed is giving. Chessed is bestowing. A person gives because he loves to give—that is chessed. He does not necessarily take the recipient’s situation into account. Goodness means connecting with the recipient. It isn’t simply giving because the giver loves to give. Goodness means that I feel for the other person, I care about the other person. And that is, in fact, the defining quality of yesod. As the Alter Rebbe says in Igeres Hakodesh, section 15, yesod is defined by the connection between the giver and the recipient. The giver is connected to the recipient. Some people give because they love to give, not necessarily because they have a connection. A person has the attribute of chessed, of giving, so he gives—but he isn’t connected. He does not necessarily feel what the recipient feels or have a bond with him. By contrast, the attribute of goodness, which is yesod, means that the giver cares about the recipient; the recipient matters to him. That makes his giving much deeper and more inward. He gives with love and desire, and so on. So these are the two ideas, kindness and goodness. That is Reb Levik’s point. The question is: Very nice, a beautiful explanation—but why is it relevant here? Why does the Alter Rebbe need to bring in yesod here? Usually, when the Alter Rebbe wants to mention the middos, he mentions the first one. If he wants to give an example, he could say chessed and so on. He didn’t even need to name any middah. The Alter Rebbe could simply have said “the six middos mentioned in the verse, ‘Yours, Hashem, is the greatness.’” He didn’t need to name any of the middos at all—why does he need to? And if he does name them, let him name only the first, or the first two, chessed and gevurah. Many times in Tanya the Alter Rebbe writes

06:43 “chessed, gevurah, etc.” What is going on here, where the Alter Rebbe mentions chessed and so on? He mentions the first attribute and the last attribute, and calls that “etc.” Why is that relevant? Why? Every detail in Tanya is precise. There is a wonderful principle here, says the Rebbe. What Reb Levi Yitzchak is hinting at in this explanation is not just some Kabbalistic insight. It has a depth that resolves difficult questions here in Igeres Hateshuvah. One of the questions we need to understand in Igeres Hateshuvah concerns the difference between these two kinds of drawing down. First, a simple question: What exactly is the difference between the drawing down represented by the letter hei and the drawing down represented by the letter vav? We discussed this in the previous class. The Tanya says here—even without that class, you can see it here in Tanya—that the letter hei has a drawing down from above to below. The hei has breadth and length. We said that length is a drawing down from above to below. After that, it says: No, there is also a vav, another drawing down. Why do we need two? Why isn’t the drawing down of the letter hei enough? Why is there also another drawing down, that of the letter vav? On a simple level, the Tanya seems to mean that it descends further. There is a drawing down to almin stimin, alluded to by the drawing down of the letter hei. As the Alter Rebbe says, that is a drawing down into almin stimin. And there is a further descent, when it is drawn down into almin d’isgalya, the revealed worlds. So even on the surface, it looks like another drawing down, a matter of degree. The hei represents a greater, higher drawing down, while the vav represents a further drawing down. But the truth is, no: these are two entirely different kinds of drawing down, as different as one extreme from the other. The reason there are two letters, a drawing down represented by the hei and one represented by the vav, is that these are two fundamentally different kinds of drawing down. The difference between them is like what we also explained in the previous class about almin d’iskasya, the concealed worlds, and almin d’isgalya, the revealed worlds. The difference

08:55 The difference between almin d’iskasya, the hidden worlds, and almin d’isgalya, the revealed worlds, is not merely that one is higher and the other lower. They are altogether different kinds of worlds, entirely different in essence. Almin d’iskasya are worlds utterly attached and nullified to G-dliness. In those worlds, there is no sense of anything separate; what is felt is that there is nothing besides Him. On the one hand, they are worlds, recipients. On the other hand, they are recipients completely attached to and united with G-dliness. Almin d’isgalya, by contrast, are a new kind of recipient: a recipient that is distinct, something separate. And the flow of influence is directed to something separate. That is why there are two forms of drawing down, two forms of extension. The extension of the hei, the extension of binah, is a flow to worlds that are utterly attached and nullified to G-dliness. These are worlds that, from the outset, are not something separate—a different kind of world. The flow associated with the vav is already a flow that goes beyond itself, toward what is, so to speak, something separate. Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so to speak, contracts Himself so that there can be a reality of something else, something separate, a world, and His influence flows there. So these are two entirely different kinds of flow. Now, there is something very interesting here. In general terms, what are we saying? This is the difference between binah and the middos. The distinction we just explained—between worlds that receive yet are completely nullified, and worlds that take the form of something separate—is, broadly speaking, the difference between the sefirah of binah and the middos. Binah is part of the intellectual faculties. As we explained in the previous class, intellect is for oneself. So in the realm of intellect there is nothing separate. What is felt there is that everything belongs to the higher level; intellect is removed from anything outside itself. The middos, on the other hand, are directed toward another. That is why, with regard to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, we say, “The world is built through kindness.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu, as He is in Himself, is beyond any connection to worlds. For Hakadosh Boruch Hu to have a connection to worlds—which worlds? Almin d’isgalya, worlds that are in the category of something separate, an independent existence—

11:13 for that, Hakadosh Boruch Hu had to bring about the vav and the middos. Because only middos relate to something separate. This is what it says in the maamar everyone remembers, the bar mitzvah maamar: “The world is built through kindness.” For Hakadosh Boruch Hu to create the world, He had to bring about the attribute of kindness. As long as there is no kindness, only intellect, there is no world. For there to be a world, there had to be middos, which means a relationship with another. This is what the Alter Rebbe says: the middos involve a connection to another. Now a question arises. You say the middos relate to another, but seemingly that is not quite right. We see in a person that the middos are not really only for someone else. A person’s middos are also for the person himself. There is a distinction: for kindness, severity, compassion—all the middos—to be expressed in practice, someone else is needed. But the attribute itself does not need someone else. The attribute itself is also there for the person himself. The proof is Avraham Avinu. When it was hot and there were no guests, it says that Avraham Avinu stood looking for guests. He stood at the entrance even though he was ill. Why? If the entire purpose of the attribute is only for another person, then when there is no one else, there is no attribute. So why did Avraham Avinu feel compelled to give? He couldn’t. The Rebbe says something wonderful here. The Rebbe says there is a very great difference between Hakadosh Boruch Hu and a created being, between Creator and creature. A human being is, from the outset, social; he is part of a society. Having a connection to others

14:12 is part of what makes me complete. That is how a human being is made. A person is not just something unto himself. From the outset, a person is created to live among many other people, and part of what makes him complete is relating to people and talking to them. As is known, the Rambam also writes that man is social by nature. A person naturally wants to be with friends and with people; he needs people. It is part of what makes him complete. So for a human being, yes, an attribute is part of who he is, part of what makes him complete. But with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, there is nothing separate. He alone exists and there is none besides Him; there is nothing besides Him. As far as Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself is concerned, there is only Him. There is nothing else. So the whole idea of another existence is something new. It has to be brought into being, and that is the difference between the Creator and a created being. For a person, the attribute itself also serves to make him complete, and so the attribute relates to the person himself as well. It is part of who he is. But with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, without anything separate, without a desire to bring worlds into being—if Hakadosh Boruch Hu had not wanted there to be an independent existence—the entire idea of middos would have had no place. What would middos be needed for? There is only Him. There is nothing outside of Him. So the entire existence of something separate is for—what—sorry, the entire existence of middos is because there is a world. That is why there are middos. The Rebbe says that this explains what Reb Levi Yitzchak says. This is why the Alter Rebbe writes here, “His attribute of kindness and goodness.” The Alter Rebbe wants to explain this: “His attribute of kindness and goodness.” What did we say? What is the difference between “kindness” and “goodness”? “Kindness” is when only the giver is felt—the kindness of the giver.

16:09 “Goodness” is when the recipient is felt as well. The Alter Rebbe says that with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, it is “His attribute of kindness and goodness.” The very existence of middos with Hakadosh Boruch Hu is because there is a world, because Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted there to be a world, with recipients. That is why there is “His attribute of kindness and goodness.” The relationship with another is there from the very beginning, already in the first attribute, the attribute of kindness, with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The whole point of kindness is to reach goodness, to move from chesed to yesod, where the recipient is felt: there is a recipient to whom the influence must be given. The Rebbe points out another detail as well: this is why “His attribute of kindness and goodness” is written in the singular. The Alter Rebbe should have said “attributes,” in the plural. If you look in Tanya, the Alter Rebbe’s wording is “His attribute of kindness and goodness,” in the singular. Why is “His attribute of kindness” singular? Because it is all one continuous process. With Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the entire existence of the middos begins with His desire that there be a world. So the whole definition of the middos is another being—a relationship with another. Without that, middos are not needed at all. And the whole point of chesed is that it begins the flow of influence, leading to the attribute of yesod, where there is a recipient who needs to receive it. That is the point here in the Alter Rebbe’s words. That is what the Alter Rebbe is teaching us here. But wait, the point is not finished yet. The Rebbe says that based on this explanation—that there is a very great difference between a human being and Hakadosh Boruch Hu: for a person, the middos are part of what makes him complete; they are not entirely for someone else, and we will come back to that, whereas with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the middos exist solely for the sake of the worlds—based on this, the Rebbe says, we can resolve a tremendous question in Tanya.

18:17 There’s a tremendous question here in Tanya, in Igeres Hateshuvah. We haven’t learned this passage yet, but it’s already relevant here, so I’ll say it now. When the Alter Rebbe discusses the four letters of Hashem’s name, he says: the Yud is chochmah; the first Hei is binah. The length of the Hei represents the concealed worlds. Okay, the Vav is the middos, and the final Hei is malchus. That’s in the four letters of Hashem’s name. But when the Alter Rebbe speaks about the human soul, about a created being and a person’s avodah, he says something completely different. In the soul, the Alter Rebbe says, the Yud is chochmah—the soul’s faculty of chochmah. We’ll see it inside shortly. The letter Hei is the faculty of binah, contemplating G-dliness. And the length of the letter Hei, the Alter Rebbe says—what is the length of the Hei in the human soul? The middos: love and awe. Wait. When we were talking about G-dliness, what was the length of the Hei? The concealed worlds. The middos were the letter Vav. But the Alter Rebbe writes that in the human soul, the middos are in the letter Hei. And what is the Vav? The Vav is learning Torah aloud. And the final Hei is speech, malchus, action. Something completely different. Seemingly, there’s a contradiction here in what the Alter Rebbe says about the soul. When you’re talking about G-dliness, where are Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s middos? In the letter Vav. When he speaks about a person, where does he put the middos? In the letter Hei. What’s the explanation? Based on what we’ve just explained, it makes perfect sense. There’s a tremendous insight here. This is the foundation—the whole foundation here. When we speak about Hakadosh Boruch Hu, since for Hakadosh Boruch Hu the entire concept of middos is only for the sake of the worlds, the whole existence of middos is only for another, the middos in Hashem’s name are represented by the Vav. Because that is where the other begins, and middos relate to another. In the Hei there is no other. The Hei is

20:37 presumably something else. It isn’t about another; it is for a purpose. But when we speak about a human being, whose middos are part of the soul’s own completeness, he is still, in a sense, within himself and has not yet gone fully outward to another. That’s why, for a person, the middos belong to the Hei. So a wonderful principle emerges here. It simply explains this for us. I don’t know how people learned the plain meaning of Tanya before the Rebbe explained this. I have no idea. This sicha came out in 5751, 5751—really in the later years. I can’t know how chassidim understood Tanya before then. I have no idea. But when you learn Tanya simply, you see an obvious contradiction. There’s an explicit contradiction here. When speaking about Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he places the middos in the Vav of the name, and that’s how it always is in Chassidus. That’s what you see in most cases: the Vav of the name is the middos. The Alter Rebbe says here, too, that for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the middos are in the Vav of the name. But when he gets to a person, the Alter Rebbe suddenly says the middos are in the Hei. The Hei isn’t only binah; it’s also love and awe. What’s the explanation? Now we understand it. Because there’s a very big difference between the two concepts—and let me clarify further. For a person, the middos are part of who he is in himself. For Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the middos are for another. That’s why, for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the middos are in the Vav of the name, while for a person, they’re in the Hei. Now the Rebbe makes a wonderful point. This is the plain meaning of Tanya. The Rebbe now says something wonderful: What does this have to do with Igeres Hateshuvah? Why is this whole insight relevant to Igeres Hateshuvah? The Rebbe says here that the Alter Rebbe includes it in Igeres Hateshuvah because it is relevant to understanding the general concepts of lower teshuvah and higher teshuvah. After all, the Alter Rebbe begins chapter 4 by saying: Why am I now going to explain

22:23 the four letters of Hashem’s name? Because the upper Hei corresponds to higher teshuvah, and the lower Hei corresponds to lower teshuvah. What’s the difference between lower teshuvah and higher teshuvah? We’ll learn it in the coming chapters. Lower teshuvah is teshuvah connected with the world. A person committed transgressions, brought impurity into the world, and needs to repair the damage. That relates to the part of a person that engages with what is outside himself. That’s the idea of lower teshuvah. Higher teshuvah is a person’s work within himself. Higher teshuvah is the work of elevating the soul, drawing closer to G-dliness. Higher teshuvah is the work of the soul cleaving to G-dliness, and that’s why higher teshuvah corresponds to the upper Hei. It is therefore connected with the avodah of the intellect and the middos. In a person, the middos are part of the person himself; in a person, the middos are connected with the Hei. That’s why the Alter Rebbe will say in the following chapters: What is higher teshuvah? The avodah of contemplation, love and awe. Love and awe already belong to higher teshuvah, because they are part of the Yud-Hei. This is connected with the levels of delight. Lower teshuvah, by contrast, is voice and speech. That’s the avodah connected with the reality of the world. So the entire continuation of these chapters becomes clear: to explain lower teshuvah and higher teshuvah, we need to explain that the difference between Yud-Hei and Vav-Hei is a difference in the very nature of the activity. Yud-Hei is for myself; Vav-Hei is for another. Therefore, lower teshuvah, which is connected with another, is avodah in Vav-Hei. Higher teshuvah, which is connected with oneself, is avodah in Yud-Hei. What does this mean in the avodah of nefesh and ruach? In the avodah of the human soul, lower teshuvah is the work of learning Torah and fulfilling mitzvos, while the avodah of higher teshuvah is love and awe and contemplation of G-dliness. That’s the general picture, to understand how the discussion continues

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