Igeres Hateshuvah Chapter 5 Part 2

00:00 We’ll continue with chapter 5 of Igeres Hateshuvah. We began with the opening words, the first few lines. What is the Alter Rebbe coming to explain in chapter 5? He is explaining how, even when the soul descends below—chapter 4 discussed the soul’s inherent greatness, its greatness over all created beings, even the angels. The soul is inwardness; the soul is a part of Havayah. All created beings come from Elokim, from the external dimension. The soul is inwardness: “And He breathed.” In particular, he discussed the four letters of the name Havayah. Now, in chapter 5, the Alter Rebbe explains that even when the soul descends below and enters a body—even though, for the soul to descend and enter a body, it must also be enclothed in speech: “Let us make man” is speech, which means there is an enclothing in the external dimension, in action—nevertheless, even when the soul descends below, it remains inwardness in its essence. The soul never loses its essence. In essence it is inwardness, connected to its root and source. That is what the Alter Rebbe began to explain. The Alter Rebbe made two points. First, he explained “And He breathed.” If we look at the verse, which is the entire source for the soul’s inwardness, it does not say “speech”; it says “And He breathed,” an expression of breathing forth, which comes from the innermost power. But what does the verse say? It says, “And man became a living soul.” In other words, where does this breathing take place? When the soul descends into the body. “He breathed into his nostrils”—the soul within the body. And there it remains connected to its root and source. That is the first verse. Then he brings a second verse: “Yaakov is the rope of His inheritance.” He brought the first half of that verse earlier, in chapter 4: “For Hashem’s portion is His people”—they are a part of the name Havayah. What does the same verse go on to say? “Yaakov is the rope of His inheritance.” What does “rope” emphasize? The rope tells us that even

02:19 when it descends through speech, through the lower hei, to enter the human body, there is nevertheless a rope connecting the soul in the body with the soul above, with the lower hei, with the hei above. And that rope is Torah and mitzvos. We explained in the previous class why he brings these two verses: they describe two levels. There is the soul’s connection with the soul above through “And He breathed,” which comes from the soul’s inwardness; and there is the connection between the soul above and the soul in the body in the form of a rope. These are two levels of connection. Okay, we won’t go over that again; we already discussed it. Now I’ll read the continuation of the chapter inside. The Alter Rebbe says: Look on the page, in chapter 5, at the lines beginning “By way of analogy,” after the period. The Alter Rebbe says: “For the plain meaning of the verse, ‘And He breathed,’ is…” The Alter Rebbe returns to the first verse. He first brings “And He breathed,” then “For Hashem’s portion is His people; Yaakov is the rope of His inheritance,” and now he returns once more to the earlier verse. The Alter Rebbe says: “For the plain meaning of the verse, ‘And He breathed,’ is…” What is the verse telling us? Look at its plain meaning. What is it conveying with these words? “To teach us”—the Torah wants to teach us—“that, by way of analogy, when a person blows toward a certain place, if something intervenes and separates between them, the breath of the one blowing does not reach that place at all. So, too, if something intervenes and separates between a person’s body and the supernal breath…” That is the first point. Here the Alter Rebbe begins to address the subject he has been leading up to in Igeres Hateshuvah: What does a sin or transgression do? After all, the whole reason the Alter Rebbe goes into this explanation here

04:25 in Igeres Hateshuvah and explains the soul’s greatness is not simply that he wants to explain how great the soul is. He already discussed that in Likkutei Amarim. What does the Alter Rebbe want to explain here in Igeres Hateshuvah? He wants to explain what happens through sin and transgression: how they affect a Jew, what they do. From this, we will later understand kareis, which the Alter Rebbe asked about: what happens through kareis, when, G-d forbid, even the body’s life-force is cut off? We need to understand sin and transgression, and then we can understand the power of teshuvah—how a Jew can repair what happened through teshuvah. That is the whole foundation of Igeres Hateshuvah. The Alter Rebbe says that this is what the Torah teaches us with the verse. What do we learn from “And He breathed”? Earlier, in the previous chapter, and in Likkutei Amarim chapter 2, where the Alter Rebbe brings “And He breathed,” what do we learn from it? The soul’s greatness. All created beings come from speech; the soul comes from “And He breathed,” from inwardness. That is the soul’s greatness. But the Alter Rebbe says: No, the Torah wants to tell you something else—something more important; not more important or less important, but something very important in our lives. The Torah tells us, “He breathed into his nostrils”: the breath is revealed within the body. “Into his nostrils”—the breath is in the body. And what is the Torah telling us through this? Take the analogy of blowing. We see this physically: a person wants to blow air into something. I’m standing here and want to blow into a vessel, to put air into some… You’re playing with balloons. Yes, you’re getting ready for a birthday party and you’re playing with the balloons. You want to blow air into the balloon. So what happens?

06:31 If there is something in the way—glue, plastic, something—the balloon won’t inflate. You often see it: you try to blow, and it doesn’t work. Why not? Often it’s because something is blocking it, some separation that keeps the air from getting through. So the Torah tells us: “He breathed into his nostrils.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu—the soul does not merely come from inwardness. “He breathed”—what does it mean to breathe forth? He breathed from within Himself. There must be no interruption for Hashem’s G-dly life-force, the soul, to connect with the human body. Nothing can separate them; if something does, it cannot reach the body. And that is the difference between breathing forth and speech. If I speak here and there’s a wall here, people on the other side of the wall can hear me. No problem; it doesn’t prevent that. I’m standing here speaking, and there’s a wall, but there’s a person behind it. He can hear what’s happening on this side of the room. Why? Because with speech, the separation, the partition, does not stop it. It continues beyond it. With “And He breathed,” on the other hand, no: there must be no separation between you and the place you want to breathe into. What does this mean in the analogy’s application? The Alter Rebbe is about to explain. This is the difference between all created beings and the soul. All created beings come from the speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So whether created beings behave well or not, Hakadosh Boruch Hu still sustains them. Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings the world into being, creates the world. Even though the world is full of evil and darkness, of kelipos and sitra achra, we don’t see Hakadosh Boruch Hu stopping because of that. Why is that? Because all created beings come from speech, and speech is external; the external dimension continues even when there is

08:40 An interruption, even when things are not as Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants. The soul, because it comes from “He breathed,” is connected to the innermost aspect of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That innermost connection has to remain intact. The moment you are no longer connected—when you have committed a transgression—there is a break. Then the breath does not reach its destination. And when it does not reach its destination, there can be, rachmana litzlan, kareis, death by a beis din, death at the hands of Heaven, and concealment. There is an interruption: “Rather, your sins have separated between you and your G-d.” This is what the Alter Rebbe wants to explain to us. People do not always understand this when we speak about punishments. Look, we speak about kareis, death by a beis din, death at the hands of Heaven. So one might think all these things are punishments in the ordinary sense. Say a student comes late to seder, and the supervisor gives him a fine. What connection is there between the fine and his coming late to seder? Coming late is a problem with the student’s laziness. You give him a fine, and he has to bring money—sometimes it is not even his money. He goes to ask his father for it, and hopefully he will not take it from somewhere else, rachmana litzlan, right? Hopefully it will all come from a permissible source. But what did his father do wrong because he came late to seder? Why should his father be punished? Those are the kinds of punishments we know. There is no direct connection between the act and the punishment. Rather, they want the student to feel that he did something wrong, and they see no other choice, so they look for all sorts of ways to do that. I am not saying now whether that is the right approach or not. I am not getting into that debate. I am only saying that with the punishments we know in our world, there is no direct connection between the sin and the punishment. But with Torah and mitzvos, it is not like that. With Torah and mitzvos, the punishment

10:47 is a natural result. It is something natural, something automatic. Say a child plays with a match and gets burned, right? He gets a burn on his hand. That is not a punishment; it is a result. You play with fire, and you get burned. It is not called a punishment. It is the natural result of playing with fire. The Alter Rebbe says the same thing here. There is something special about a Jew, because a Jew is literally a part of G-d above. His connection to G-dliness is through “He breathed”—an inner connection, a connection of breath. And if there is an interruption, that breath does not reach him. That is natural; it cannot get there. And if it does not get there, the flow of life is cut off. So when a Jew commits a sin, the connection between the soul and the soul as it is in the body is interrupted. That is what the Alter Rebbe wants to say. What does he mean by writing at such length, “The plain meaning of the verse, ‘And He breathed,’ is to teach us”? The Rebbe elaborates on his wording here. In other words, what does the Alter Rebbe want to say by “the plain meaning of the verse” and “to teach us”? When you read it, the Torah tells us that the soul is not like all other creations; the soul comes from “He breathed.” But what does the Torah want to teach us? It is telling us about the soul’s virtues, yes, but what does “to teach us” mean? What is it telling us down here? And why does it speak of the physical body? The Torah wrote “He breathed into his nostrils,” into the body, to teach us this point: to know how careful a Jew must be not to commit transgressions, and to observe Torah and mitzvos. Because for a Jew, Torah and mitzvos are not an addition to his life; they are his life itself. They are the way the soul, which is a part of G-d, connects with his body. There is an interesting point here connected to what the Alter

13:02 Rebbe says. There is very interesting wording in Tanya. If you look at the wording, the Alter Rebbe says: “If there is anything intervening and interrupting between them, the breath of the one blowing does not rise and reach that place at all.” “Rise and reach”—what is this wording? “The breath of the one blowing does not rise and reach at all.” Why say both “rise” and “reach”? It is a repetition. Reb Levik, the Rebbe’s father, asks this question. This is one of Reb Levik’s insights. The Rebbe gives a wonderful, profound explanation of it that helps us understand the entire chapter. So Reb Levik asks why it says both “rise” and “reach,” and he answers: We know that the life of the soul and body follows a pattern of ratzo v’shov—running and returning. The Alter Rebbe explains this in Igeres Hakodesh, and it is explained in many maamarim. We all know that the soul enters the body in a manner of ratzo v’shov. There is a constant running and returning, just as we see physically with the heart. The heart beats constantly; it contracts and expands. Why? Because the blood has to spread through all the limbs and then return to the heart to receive life-sustaining breath. That is how it works physically. A person’s blood circulates through all the limbs, bringing life, and then returns to the heart, where it receives oxygen, and then goes out again. That is how it works all the time. It is a movement of ratzo v’shov. The Divine soul works this way too. There is a constant connection and return. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is constantly breathing into the soul. It is not something that happens just once when you are born, and that is it. Rather, it is ratzo v’shov. The soul’s life-force constantly returns to connect with its source and then enters the body again.

15:12 Ratzo v’shov. That is precisely “rises and reaches.” That is what Reb Levik writes: “rises” is ratzo, and “reaches” is shov. And there is more. The Rebbe comes and says: His father, the Rebbe’s father—as the Rebbe always said—did not say things casually. Every word of Reb Levik’s is a profound explanation of Tanya. He wrote briefly, and he wrote in the language of Kabbalah, but in fact he wants to explain a fundamental point underlying everything we learn in Igeres Hateshuvah. So the Rebbe gives a wonderful explanation here. First, another question: Why does it say “rises”? It should say “descends.” After all, we are learning here about the soul’s descent, the descent of its life-force. The soul emanates from above; it is a part of Hashem, from Atzilus. And the soul descends: “You created it, You formed it, You breathed it” into the body. So that should be called descending. Why does it say “rises”? Reb Levik’s explanation of ratzo v’shov answers this question, and it also answers a broader question about the entire premise of chapter 5. The Rebbe says the following—listen carefully. The Rebbe establishes this principle: What is the point of ratzo v’shov? Why does the life-force really move in this way? Why can it not enter just once and remain? Think of the sun. The sun shines throughout the world. Do we see any ratzo v’shov? No. There is a sun, it shines, and that is that. Why can the soul not work the same way? The soul is in the body, and the person lives. Why must there constantly be ratzo v’shov? The explanation is that, fundamentally, the soul does not belong to the world. Fundamentally, the soul belongs to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The soul is above the world. The soul is literally a part of G-d above. A Jew is, in essence, bound up with G-d’s Essence, above

17:14 any connection to worldly matters. That is his true place. He has no connection to the world. But then why is he here? Because Hakadosh Boruch Hu desired a dwelling in the lower realms. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted the soul to be in the world to bring about the ultimate purpose. So He takes the soul and brings it down, because that is the purpose: to bring G-dliness into the world. The soul therefore always has these two movements. On the one hand, the soul does not inherently belong to the world or to the body. The soul is a part of G-d above. In other words, the soul feels, at its core, that it does not belong in this place; it belongs to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. On the other hand, Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants a dwelling in the lower realms, so we have to descend. This produces the two constant movements of ratzo v’shov in the soul. What do these two movements accomplish? They mean that even while the soul is in the body, enclothed in it and acting through it down here, it always feels connected to something higher, something more elevated. It is connected to the innermost aspect; it is a part of G-d. In essence, it is higher than the world. And this brings us to an understanding of the whole chapter. What are we trying to understand here? Why is it that with all the other creations, no one pays attention? What does the Midrash say? “Jerusalem has grievously sinned.” Is it only the Jewish people who sin? Do the nations of the world not sin? Everyone sins. “Jerusalem has grievously sinned”—yes, there is such a Midrash. It asks Hakadosh Boruch Hu: Is it only Jerusalem that sins? Do the nations not sin? Why is Hakadosh Boruch Hu angry with the Jewish people? So the Midrash says: When the nations of the world sin, it amounts to nothing. But when the Jewish people sin, it matters; it has an impact. That is what the Rebbe comes to explain here.

19:20 This can be understood only through the principle of ratzo and shov—rising and returning. Hakadosh Boruch Hu created all other beings as something separate, as independent existences, distinct from Him. So whether there is sin or no sin, that does not change their basic status: they remain separate existences. From the outset, their connection is only with the external aspect of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But the soul, even when it descends below, is essentially connected with the inner dimension and essence of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This follows from the whole principle of ratzo and shov: even while the soul is here, it is constantly seeking to escape upward, because its essential connection is above, with the inner dimension of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So for the soul, the moment there is sin, it causes a separation, and that is why it is so serious. This explains why sin is so serious. And it also helps us understand the power of teshuvah. A Jew’s connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu is one of ratzo and shov: the soul is always essentially connected with something above, with the essence that transcends the world. That also explains how, although a Jew has caused damage through his sins, the moment he does teshuvah, he reveals his connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu once again. The separation caused by the breath is only from the perspective of the body, of the soul’s being enclothed in it. But from the perspective of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, He never stops breathing into the soul. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is constantly breathing into it; that breath never ends. The problem is only on the receiving end. But from the side of the Giver, from the side of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the breath continues. So a Jew always has an essential connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and therefore, even after sin

21:13 and wrongdoing, the moment a Jew is stirred to teshuvah, he can arouse abundant mercy, repair all the damage, and renew his connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That, in brief, is a point from the Rebbe’s sicha explaining the words of Reb Levi Yitzchok, which gives us an understanding here. So we see why the Rebbe says “rises and reaches”—specifically “rises.” He begins with “rises” to emphasize the ascent. In essence, the soul comes from above the world, because it is connected with ratzo. After that, it “reaches,” it descends—as it were, “reaching” is shov, the descent. But essentially it rises, because it is connected with what is above. And for that very reason, a Jew can always do teshuvah and put everything right.