Igeres Hateshuvah Chapter 4 Part 14 and Final

00:00 Today, in our Tanya class, we’ll discuss the last part of chapter 4. We talked about it and read it in the previous class, but we didn’t have time to go into it. There’s a wonderful explanation of this last part from the Rebbe, based on the notes of Reb Levik, the Rebbe’s father. The Rebbe really brings about a revolution here in how we understand the Tanya, and in how we understand what the Alter Rebbe is trying to say. In the last part of chapter 4, the Alter Rebbe speaks about the application—no, not the application, about the four letters of the name Havayah in the human soul. Here in chapter 4 of Igeres Hateshuvah, we’re learning that there are four letters of the name Havayah above, in G-dliness, and from this there are also four letters of the name Havayah in the human soul. That’s the point here: “His people are a portion of Havayah.” We’ve already discussed what he taught about the four letters of the name Havayah, and at the end he explains how those four letters are present in the human soul. Now, first of all, there’s a point we already discussed in the previous class, but now that we’ve read what it says inside, it will be clearer: there’s a very, very big difference between the way the Alter Rebbe speaks about Havayah above and the way he speaks about it below, in the human soul. One very striking difference between the name Havayah above and the name Havayah in the soul is that, when the Alter Rebbe speaks about the name Havayah above, the letter hei refers to binah, and the letter vav refers to the middos. That’s the Alter Rebbe’s explanation of yud-hei-vav-hei above. The letter hei refers to Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s faculty of binah, and the letter vav refers to Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s middos: “Yours, Hashem, are greatness and might”—the six middos. But when he gets to the application in the human soul, the Alter Rebbe changes this. He says that the letter hei in the human soul refers both to binah

02:20 and to the middos. The Alter Rebbe says that the breadth of the hei is contemplation—broadening one’s understanding through contemplation, broadening one’s understanding through contemplation. That is the breadth of the hei. And the length of the hei is a drawing down from above to below: to give rise, from one’s understanding and contemplation, to love and awe and what they produce. So this is a very striking difference, and it’s also unusual. You almost never find anything like this in Chassidus. It’s really unusual in Chassidus to put both intellect and middos into the hei. What’s the reason for this difference? We already talked about it in the previous class, but we hadn’t learned this passage yet. Now that we’ve read it, it will make more sense. What is the point the Rebbe explains? There’s one point in terms of understanding and one in terms of avodah. In terms of understanding, there’s a very great difference between the middos of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and those of a person. The difference is that, for a person, the middos are part of the person himself. Since a human being is, after all, a human being, part of what makes a person complete is his relationship with the world. The human soul has middos from the outset; they’re part of its very nature. Middos are also part of the soul’s completeness. He’s a good person, a loving person, a person with feelings. Those feelings are part of the soul, part of the person. The whole social dimension, the whole capacity to connect, is also part of the soul’s completeness. But with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, in truth, “there is nothing else besides Him.” Nothing exists apart from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is one and unique. So any relationship with the world is something new; middos involve another. That’s the difference. Therefore, when we speak about the human soul, the middos are in the same letter as the intellect. The letter hei includes both intellect and middos, because both belong to the same order: the completeness of the soul. With Hakadosh Boruch Hu, by contrast, these are

04:32 two distinct things. Binah means that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is, so to speak, wise in Himself, and binah means Hakadosh Boruch Hu as He is, so to speak, above the world. Middos and malchus, on the other hand, concern how Hakadosh Boruch Hu relates to the world. That’s why the middos belong to vav-hei, because vav-hei concerns another. Vav-hei is already G-dliness as it relates to the world; yud-hei is Hakadosh Boruch Hu above the world. That’s the explanation in terms of understanding. What’s the explanation in terms of avodah? It relates to the whole subject under discussion here in Igeres Hateshuvah: lower-level teshuvah and higher-level teshuvah. The Alter Rebbe is explaining yud-hei and vav-hei here in order to explain the difference between lower-level teshuvah and higher-level teshuvah. Lower-level teshuvah belongs to vav-hei; higher-level teshuvah belongs to yud-hei. The difference between them is that lower-level teshuvah primarily concerns the soul’s garments. It primarily concerns transgressions and avodah in practice. It has to do with the garments, with what is outside oneself—with thought, speech and action. More than that, it also concerns the world. When a person commits a transgression, he causes a blemish in the world. You commit a transgression involving something in the world, and you damage the reality of the world. So the repair takes place in the world, in the reality of the world. That’s why lower-level teshuvah is primarily connected with the letters vav-hei, which relate to the world. By contrast, yud-hei is higher-level teshuvah. Higher-level teshuvah comes after a person has repaired the world, after he has repaired the garments. What is higher-level teshuvah? The Alter Rebbe will explain later, in chapter 9, that it is the person—the soul—returning to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, to connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu as He is above the world. The whole idea of higher-level teshuvah is the soul’s cleaving to G-dliness above the world, and that is why higher-level teshuvah is connected with the letters yud-hei.

06:42 They represent the revelation that is above the world. Lower-level teshuvah is connected with the letters vav-hei, representing the revelation that becomes enclothed in the world. Along these lines, there’s also a difference in avodah. The avodah of lower-level teshuvah is connected with practical action. So when the Alter Rebbe explains what vav-hei means in the human soul, it is voice, speech and action—avodah in practice: Torah study and the fulfillment of mitzvos in speech and action. When the Alter Rebbe speaks about higher-level teshuvah, its avodah in the human soul is Torah study and love and awe. The Alter Rebbe will explain in chapter 9 that higher-level teshuvah means studying Torah, engaging with the secrets of the Torah, with Torah and Hakadosh Boruch Hu—studying Torah with love and awe. That’s why the Alter Rebbe explains that higher-level teshuvah is connected with yud-hei, the avodah of the mind and the avodah of the middos: contemplation, love and awe, which together make up the avodah of higher-level teshuvah. So this resolves the difference, this apparent contradiction, between the four letters above and the four letters below in the human soul. It also answers another question. What we’ve just explained answers another question: there’s something very interesting here in Tanya, where the Alter Rebbe departs from the usual explanation. Here in Tanya, when the Alter Rebbe discusses what the letters yud-hei are in the human soul, he says that yud is the hidden intellect. We’ll explain what that means shortly. Hei is comprehension and understanding of the greatness of Havayah, and love and awe are also included in the letter hei. The letter vav is voice; studying Torah aloud is connected with the letter vav. And the letter hei is speech and action. That’s how the Alter Rebbe explains it here. But this isn’t how it’s usually explained in Chassidus. Anyone who studies Chassidus knows that there are many maamarim about the four letters of the name Havayah in the human soul. Usually, in Chassidus, it isn’t

08:52 Here’s how it’s explained. In most maamarim, the yud represents chochmah and the hei represents binah within the soul. The vav represents the middos, and the final hei represents malchus. That is how Chassidus usually speaks about the soul. The yud is the point of chochmah. There are many maamarim that explain the four letters, yud, hei, vav, hei—maamarim in Likkutei Torah, in Parshas Re’eh and Parshas Ki Seitzei, and many maamarim of the Rebbe that explain the four letters of Hashem’s name within the soul. So the yud is the point of bittul. The hei is understanding and contemplation. The vav is the work of the middos. And the final hei is action. That is the usual explanation. Why did the Alter Rebbe suddenly decide to change it here and explain it differently? The Rebbe cites a source for this in the Zohar. It is not the Alter Rebbe’s innovation; there is also a place in the Zohar that says this. Even so, there is a reason the Alter Rebbe made this change. Based on what we explained, it makes sense. Here the Alter Rebbe wants to explain lower-level teshuvah and higher-level teshuvah: higher-level teshuvah is connected with yud-hei, and lower-level teshuvah with vav-hei. So here in Igeres Hateshuvah, when it comes to vav-hei, the point is actual practice. That is why vav-hei represents voice, speech, and action—the work of doing things in practice. Yud-hei, by contrast, represents the work of understanding, contemplation, love, and awe, as we said. That is why the Alter Rebbe explains it this way here: it is connected with the whole explanation in Igeres Hateshuvah. In the work of teshuvah, higher-level teshuvah is the work of understanding, contemplation, love, and awe. All of that is included in higher-level teshuvah. That is yud-hei. And the work of studying Torah and actually observing mitzvos belongs to vav-hei. That is one point in explaining the plain meaning here at the end of chapter 4. Now there are

10:48 a few more very, very interesting things here. When we look closely at chapter 4 itself, we see several details that raise questions—points that Reb Levik examines closely. As the Rebbe notes, Reb Levik points them out but does not explain them. In his note, Reb Levik observes that there are changes here. He identifies the changes, but does not give an explanation for them, because Reb Levik, as is well known, wrote very briefly. The Rebbe explains them in a sicha in Likkutei Sichos, volume 39—a wonderful sicha in which the Rebbe really transforms our understanding of Igeres Hateshuvah. I’ll give at least the main point of the explanation briefly, as far as we have gotten in understanding the plain meaning of the Tanya in depth. If we look inside the Tanya, then, when the Alter Rebbe speaks about the soul, there are several very interesting things here. First, regarding the letter yud, the Alter Rebbe says: “The concealed intellect, alluded to by the letter yud, which has the power to emerge into revelation.” The Alter Rebbe does not explain the letter yud in the usual way. Usually, the letter yud is chochmah; that is what the Tanya says. What is the letter yud? The letter yud is chochmah. The Alter Rebbe could simply have said that the letter yud is the point, chochmah. As it says in chapter 3 of Likkutei Amarim, the point of a person’s intellect is the letter yud. But the Alter Rebbe does not say that. He says: What is the letter yud? The concealed intellect that has the power to emerge into revelation. The Alter Rebbe’s wording implies that the letter yud he is speaking about here is not revealed intellect. It is not chochmah, not revealed chochmah. The concealed intellect is the faculty that generates ideas, koach hamaskil. Many students here have learned Chassidus and know that Chassidus distinguishes between revealed intellect and koach hamaskil. Koach hamaskil is the faculty in the soul before an idea becomes manifest, and in Chassidus it is called the concealed intellect. The concealed intellect behind any idea is

13:02 the soul’s koach hamaskil. That is a major innovation. Why does the Alter Rebbe change the explanation here? The letter yud is the concealed intellect. Moving on, the Alter Rebbe says that it has the power to bring forth into revelation the ability “to understand and grasp His truth and His greatness,” and so on. Why the doubled wording, “to understand and grasp His truth and His greatness”? What is the point of saying both? From this, the Rebbe sees that “understand and grasp” refers to binah and chochmah. Understanding is the faculty of binah; grasping an idea is the faculty of chochmah. It is well known in Chassidus that chochmah is called haskalah, the conception of an idea, while binah is understanding. So when the Alter Rebbe says “to understand and grasp,” he means that two things emerge from the concealed intellect, koach hamaskil—not merely from revealed intellect: both chochmah and binah. “To understand and grasp.” What is surprising here? The Alter Rebbe is already speaking of chochmah and binah as they emerge from the yud. In other words, they already belong to the letter hei. That, too, is quite unusual. Why did the Alter Rebbe make this change? The letter yud is koach hamaskil, the concealed faculty, the concealed intellect. From it come chochmah and binah—“to understand and grasp.” And what do “His truth” and “His greatness” mean? Why that doubled wording? The Rebbe says that these, too, are chochmah and binah. The distinction between “His truth” and “His greatness” is the distinction between chochmah and binah. What is the difference between chochmah and binah in the intellect? Chochmah grasps the truth of an idea. With chochmah, when a person studies a concept and it lights up for him—a flash of insight, the point of chochmah—that point illuminates its truth. Chassidus says this, right? At the point of chochmah there is a very clear, very distinct sense that this is the truth: the truth of the idea, its essential point, its point of truth. That is chochmah. That is also why the Alter Rebbe says in chapter 35, “He alone exists, and there is nothing besides Him”; the true One is the level of chochmah. In the soul’s chochmah, the truth of G-dliness shines. Because that is what chochmah is

15:29 in the intellect: the truth of the matter is felt. Binah is about the details. You take that point and work it out in detail—understanding and comprehension, with a wealth of details. There you already sense the breadth of the idea, its expansiveness, its scope. So that is called “His greatness.” That is the difference between “His truth” and “His greatness.” In chochmah, the truth of the idea is felt; in binah, its greatness is felt. It fits very beautifully into the words of the Tanya here. The question is: What is the Alter Rebbe trying to tell us by this? The Alter Rebbe then continues and says that a person’s contemplation subsequently gives rise to love and awe. And as we said, love and awe here are part of what is put into practice: they are the vav of Hashem’s name. First, love and awe arise in the hidden recesses of his heart, and then they become love and awe that he feels in his heart. The Alter Rebbe then continues: “And from this the vav and the final hei were drawn into the practice of Torah and mitzvos.” The Alter Rebbe is saying that when a person contemplates Hashem’s truth and greatness, and love and awe are awakened within him, this then leads to the vav and hei in the practice of Torah and mitzvos—voice and speech, represented by the letters vav and hei in a person’s soul. And here, too, a question arises. Why does the Alter Rebbe need to emphasize here that this is drawn from that? After all, he wants to explain what the four letters of Hashem’s name are. He wants to explain what those four letters are within a person’s soul. So explain them: yud is the concealed intellect, hei is binah, vav is love and awe, and hei is Torah study and mitzvah observance. Why is it important for the Alter Rebbe to say, “And from this they were drawn”—that they come from there? What does it mean that they come from there? That Torah and mitzvos come from contemplation and love and awe. When the Alter Rebbe spoke earlier, he did not say this. When the Alter Rebbe spoke about the four

17:47 With the letters of the name Havayah, we don’t see the Alter Rebbe emphasizing how one flows from the other. He explains what yud-hei is, and then he explains what vav-hei is. But here the Alter Rebbe specifically wants to emphasize that the vav-hei in the soul comes from the yud-hei in the soul. Why does he need to explain that here? And then one last question. At the end of the chapter, after the Alter Rebbe has finished explaining the four letters of the name Havayah, he says there is another point: a person’s contemplation in order to understand and grasp Hashem’s truth and greatness. He goes back to yud-hei again. He has already finished explaining yud-hei and vav-hei. He’s done. Yet the Alter Rebbe returns to yud and says: Know that a person’s contemplation of Hashem’s greatness and truth also comes from Torah, for it comes from the chochmah of his soul, the yud of the name Havayah. What happened here all of a sudden? Why has he gone back to yud? He already finished explaining it. What does he want to tell us with this conclusion to the chapter? So these are questions about the plain meaning of the Tanya here. And here the Rebbe gives a wonderful explanation. In brief, to put it in a few words, the point is that in this chapter the Alter Rebbe is explaining the connection between a Jewish soul and Hakadosh Boruch Hu. After all, the whole purpose of Igeres Hateshuvah is to explain the connection between the soul below and the soul above. Now, the Alter Rebbe wants to tell us something very simple. When you learn Igeres Hateshuvah, it can seem as though the Alter Rebbe is saying that there is the name Havayah above and the name Havayah in the soul. There are four letters above and four letters below. A person’s soul resembles Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Very nice. But in practice, the soul descended below and became a created being. The soul is clothed in a body, and then it becomes

19:53 part of the physical body. So fine, there is a resemblance. Everything has a counterpart. In fact, all of existence—inanimate matter, plant life, animal life, and human beings—also corresponds to the four letters of the name Havayah. Fire, air, water, and earth also correspond to the four letters of the name Havayah. So what’s the big deal? Why make such a point of saying that the Jewish soul is a part of Havayah, part of the name Havayah, because it has four letters? It has chochmah and binah. It has everything. Fine, but what’s the connection? That is the name Havayah—that is Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the Creator above—while the soul is the soul of a created being. They are utterly incomparable. So the Alter Rebbe comes and says: Yes, the person is a created being, but the four letters of the name Havayah in the soul are connected to Torah and mitzvos. These four—the chochmah and binah, the yud-hei-vav-hei—are connected to Torah and mitzvos. And the Alter Rebbe explained at the beginning of Tanya, in Likkutei Amarim, that when a Jew fulfills Torah and mitzvos, “The Jewish people, the Torah, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are all one.” The soul’s bond with G-dliness is formed through Torah and mitzvos. That is what the Alter Rebbe is explaining here. Since the letter vav is Torah study and the letter hei is the fulfillment of a mitzvah, there is a connection here to Torah and mitzvos. Torah and mitzvos bring about a connection to Hakadosh Boruch Hu even after the soul descends below: they are all one. That is regarding vav-hei. What about yud-hei? After all, yud-hei is not Torah and mitzvos. Yud-hei is only contemplation, love, and fear. That is why the Alter Rebbe says, “And from this they are drawn forth.” Contemplation, love, and fear give a person vitality in studying Torah and fulfilling mitzvos. A person contemplates G-dliness,

21:57 and that contemplation brings him to love and fear. Then all that contemplation, together with love and fear, gives him a relish for studying Torah and fulfilling mitzvos. So it follows that not only are the letters vav-hei connected to Torah and mitzvos; the letters yud-hei are connected to Torah and mitzvos too. Through contemplation you attain love and fear, and with those two together you fulfill Torah and mitzvos. So yud-hei is also connected to Torah and mitzvos. And that is why the Alter Rebbe concludes the chapter by saying: It’s not only that contemplation, love, and fear prepare you to fulfill the mitzvos. There is something deeper. Contemplation itself is part of Torah and mitzvos. When you contemplate, what are you contemplating? Things that you learn. So contemplation itself also involves Torah study. This explains how the four letters of the name Havayah in the soul do not merely resemble the name Havayah above, but have an inner connection to it. Even after the soul descends below and is clothed in a body, when a person uses his faculties of chochmah and binah, his emotional attributes, and his yud-hei-vav-hei to serve Hashem, it all becomes part of Torah and mitzvos. Through that, they become all one. There are more details that I haven’t explained, but this is enough for what we’ve discussed. The sicha goes into greater detail.