Chapter 1 - Seventh Lesson (and Final)

00:00 Today we’re finishing chapter 1 of Tanya. We’ve been discussing how the Alter Rebbe began explaining the two souls. In this chapter, the Alter Rebbe speaks about one of them, the first soul. It is first because it also comes to a person first, as it says that the animal soul, the yetzer hara, comes to a person first. In any case, the Alter Rebbe explains this soul, and as we discussed in the previous class, he gives three general points about the animal soul. First, the soul as a whole, which is clothed in a person’s blood and gives life to the body. Then there are the bad character traits that come from it, and after that, the good character traits that come from it as well. Since the animal soul comes from kelipas nogah, and nogah also contains good, it has good character traits too, as we explained at length in the previous class. Now the Alter Rebbe continues and says: “This is not so with the souls of the nations of the world.” He had been speaking about the animal soul of a Jew. He says that since a Jew’s animal soul comes from kelipas nogah, it also contains good—the good character traits of the animal soul. But, says the Alter Rebbe, all this applies only to the nogah of a Jew: because his animal soul comes from nogah, which contains good, he has good character traits. “This is not so with the souls of the nations of the world, which come from the other impure kelipos, which contain no good at all.” They come from the other impure kelipos. As we’ll learn later in chapter 6, the Alter Rebbe explains that there are three utterly impure kelipos. He hasn’t gone into that yet, so for now I’m speaking generally about the other impure kelipos, which contain no good at all. They are entirely evil, utterly impure kelipos, and from there come the souls of the nations of the world, as stated in Eitz Chaim, Gate 49, chapter 3. Therefore, the Alter Rebbe says, because the souls of the nations

02:16 of the world come from the other impure kelipos, “all the good that they do”—we see that they do good things too. After all, what did we just say? That a Jew’s animal soul also contains good. We see good among the nations of the world too. They also do good things. Many people among the nations of the world do acts of goodness and kindness. The Alter Rebbe says: “All the good that the nations of the world do, they do for themselves.” I’m reading it as it appears in the list of corrections, where the Rebbe removes the words “idol worshippers.” As is known, the words “idol worshippers” were added because of the censor. People had to fear the non-Jews in earlier times, so they had to write “idol worshippers,” as though it referred only to nations that worshipped idols in the past. The Rebbe discusses this precisely in a sicha on Vayishlach as well. Many yeshivah students have learned it in the sicha on Vayishlach, which discusses the laws concerning a non-Jew. From the weekly parsha, where Yaakov Avinu changed what he told Esav, we learn laws about how to tell a non-Jew that you don’t want to go with him. There the Rebbe cites the wording found in the Talmud and various halachic authorities, which sometimes use the words “idol worshippers.” That doesn’t necessarily mean they intend to refer to… Today, in most new editions of the books—the new editions of the Talmud and halachic works—they’ve already corrected it. They know that it says “a foreigner” or “a non-Jew,” because it is really speaking about all the nations of the world. In any case, what is the Alter Rebbe saying? Although they have good in them, the good they do is “for themselves.” They do it for their own sense of self, for their own benefit. “As it is stated in the Gemara concerning the verse, ‘The kindness of the nations is a sin’: All the charity and kindness that the nations of the world do is only to glorify themselves,” and so on. And the Gemara says there, in tractate Berachos, I think—there’s, uh?

04:30 Bava Basra. It gives several explanations there concerning the good deeds of the nations of the world. The Gemara cites several opinions about why they do so many good things: whether they do them to exalt themselves, to prolong their reign. Rabban Gamliel says it is to glorify themselves. So the Alter Rebbe takes just one of those opinions, “to glorify themselves,” because it relates to what we’re saying here: “for themselves.” The meaning of “for themselves” is that they do it for their own needs. In other words, you do someone a favor, but you’re not thinking about the other person; you’re thinking about yourself, so that you’ll gain pride and a sense of self-importance from it—to glorify yourself. Yet the Gemara there gives other reasons for their good deeds. So the Rebbe points to the Maharsha, who says these opinions do not disagree. According to the Maharsha, the underlying reason behind all the reasons listed in the Gemara is self-glorification. Even when the Gemara says that some among the nations of the world do good so that their reign will continue, or to exalt themselves, and so on, ultimately their inner aim is to be able to take pride in it. In other words, pride and self-importance—doing it “for themselves,” for their own benefit—are at the center of that good, and therefore that good is not good. That good is not good; it is considered evil. That is the three utterly impure kelipos. In other words, what is the difference between the good in a Jew’s animal soul and the good in a non-Jew’s soul? The difference is that a Jew does good because he loves doing good. With the animal soul, it isn’t because of G-dliness. The G-dly soul does good because G-dliness is good: goodness motivated by G-dliness, by a G-dly intention, by bittul, by completely setting oneself aside and thinking in terms of Hakadosh Boruch Hu or of kindness—“The world is built through kindness,” and so on. All of that is a G-dly intention.

06:41 A Jew’s animal soul isn’t seeking a G-dly intention. Why, then, does it do good? Because that is its nature. In other words, it doesn’t do it out of G-dliness, but it doesn’t do it out of pride either. It does it because that is its nature. It loves doing good. By contrast, when a non-Jew does good, inwardly his aim is “for himself”: he wants to gain something from it, to get something out of it, to be honored for it, to have people applaud him. In other words, there is a sense of self involved; his kindness is mixed with self-importance, which comes from kelipah itself—from the three utterly impure kelipos. The well-known question people ask about what the Alter Rebbe says here—that a non-Jew’s entire being comes from the three utterly impure kelipos, which contain no good at all—is: What about the seven Noahide mitzvos? A non-Jew is obligated in the seven Noahide mitzvos. If he has no good at all, then he has no free choice. And if he has no free choice, how can the seven Noahide mitzvos apply to him? The whole concept of a mitzvah applies where there is choice. When can you command someone? When he has a choice. You can do good or you can do evil, so you can be commanded. But if you say that a non-Jew comes from the three utterly impure kelipos to begin with, and they contain no good at all, then he has no connection to good whatsoever. If he has no connection to good, how can he be asked to do good things? It’s a simple question. So this itself shows that there is something here we need to grasp. What is going on? What really is the situation with the nations of the world? At first glance, this reads as though non-Jews have no good in them at all, only evil. That is hard to understand. It runs counter to halachah: a non-Jew is commanded; he has commandments.

08:48 That is a sign that he has good in him, that it is possible to command him to observe the Seven Noahide Laws. What is the nature of the Seven Noahide Laws? How is this explained? There are several explanations of this in the Rebbe’s teachings. The Rebbe answered this in different ways on many occasions. In his letters, the Rebbe answered this question a number of times, and each time he gave a different answer. It’s interesting. These are different answers, and it’s worth knowing them, because many people ask about this. What is going on here in Tanya? In general, this is something many people ask about. They begin learning Tanya, and right away, in the first chapter, the Alter Rebbe presents the nations of the world in such black-and-white terms. These are interesting questions, and many people ask how to understand this. So the Rebbe answered in several ways. First, one point is that even when a non-Jew observes the Seven Noahide Laws, he may be doing so for a self-interested reason. There can be a motive of “for his own sake.” He is afraid of punishment. That, too, is “for his own sake.” A non-Jew believes in Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and there is no contradiction in that. He believes in Hakadosh Boruch Hu because a non-Jew, too, is a creation of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. We’ll talk about that shortly. So when he is told that Hakadosh Boruch Hu commanded the Seven Noahide Laws, he must observe them. And why must he observe them? Because if he does not, he will be punished, and if he does, he will be rewarded. So the driving force, the reason he observes the Seven Noahide Laws, is self-interest. Reward and punishment are a matter of self-interest, so he remains motivated “for his own sake.” Nevertheless, in practice it is a mitzvah, just as we say about a Jew that even when a Jew observes a mitzvah for reward or out of fear of punishment, it counts as a mitzvah. The same applies when

10:54 educating a Jewish child to observe a mitzvah: we need to give him sweets. We need to tell him that if he learns, he will receive a reward, and if he doesn’t learn, he will be punished. Because in practice, he is still doing it. The main thing is that he actually does the right thing. So it’s true that the nations of the world may have a motive of “for their own sake,” but in practice, through this they fulfill “He formed it to be inhabited”: they make the world a decent world, observe the mitzvah, and bring about observance of the Seven Noahide Laws. Actual observance is the purpose; that is the main thing. That is one point the Rebbe writes. Elsewhere, the Rebbe adds a deeper explanation: this does not mean what it might seem to mean literally, and this is very important. In explaining Tanya, the Rebbe says it does not mean that the nations of the world have no good in them whatsoever. How could one say such a thing? They have a spark. Without a spark, existence would not be possible at all. How could one live without a spark? So the nations of the world, too, have a Divine spark. Everything in the world has a Divine spark; without it, it could not live. Consequently, even the three completely impure kelipos contain a spark. And if there is a spark, there is G-dliness in it. Rather, the spark is so deeply concealed that its G-dliness no longer shines forth. That is the difference between the spark in kelipas nogah and the spark in the three completely impure kelipos. In kelipas nogah, there is also revealed good. That is where it comes from in the case of a Jew. But the spark in the three completely impure kelipos is so darkened, so hidden, that—as the expression quoted in a number of maamarim puts it, including in the maamarim of 5672, in the Chanukah section there, for those who have learned them, and also in the maamarim of 5660 and in several other places in Chassidus—“the piece itself becomes forbidden.” The Rebbe also cites this in a maamar, and elsewhere.

12:59 In “Ve’ahavta Lereiacha,” from 5711, the Rebbe cites it. There is this concept of “the piece itself becomes forbidden.” In other words, sometimes the spark descends so far that no light from it can be seen at all. But G-d forbid, that does not mean it isn’t there. It is there in exile—utterly in exile—but it is there. Therefore, a non-Jew, too, has some point of good, and there is some possibility of refining him. That is the purpose of the Seven Noahide Laws given to non-Jews. Based on this, we can understand a number of things said in Chassidus: ultimately, there is a process of refinement involving the nations of the world. In the weekly parsha, there is [unclear], and “the kingship shall be Hashem’s, forever and ever.” The whole story of Yaakov and Eisav is the story of refining the kelipos of Eisav, Edom, and Yishmael. Of course, there are distinctions as to how and what can be elevated and what cannot. But there is also a kind of refinement in these matters involving the nations of the world... There was once a Yud-Tes Kislev farbrengen—I don’t remember whether it was in 5743 or 5744, somewhere in those years in the 5740s. It was a wonderful farbrengen. The Rebbe spoke about this subject. Around 5740, the Rebbe began speaking about [unclear], that we already have to prepare the world for Moshiach. Consequently, the Rebbe began speaking very strongly about the Seven Noahide Laws in those years—5742, 5743, 5744. So on Yud-Tes Kislev in one of those years, the Rebbe spoke about it at great length, in a very engaging way. The Rebbe referred to a verse in the haftorah of Parshas Vayishlach. Rashi also cites it in the parsha: “The house of Eisav shall be straw, and the house of Yosef shall be fire”—something like that. So we learn from there that when Yosef comes, he burns Eisav. Eisav is like straw. Then Yosef comes—he is Eisav’s adversary—

15:01 and burns him. The Rebbe said that the very fact that Eisav is called straw shows that he has a use. Straw has a use, after all; people use it. It has applications in halachah and in various other things. Straw is something real. So the very fact that the Torah compares Eisav to straw tells us that there is something positive here that needs to be elevated, something that needs to be done with it. What does this mean according to the inner dimension of Torah? That ultimately, even in a non-Jew, even among the nations of the world, whose source is in the three completely impure kelipos, there is a spark—though a spark in utter concealment. But because there is a spark, the Seven Noahide Laws and other positive matters can apply there, too. Then there is another point, a third point. We’ve mentioned two things so far. The first explanation was that he observes the Seven Noahide Laws “for his own sake.” In the second, we said that he has a spark. And the third explanation, which the Rebbe cites in the name of Reb Hillel of Paritch, is that when a non-Jew takes upon himself the Seven Noahide Laws, he becomes one of the righteous among the nations of the world. Once he becomes one of the righteous among the nations, he has a new soul. His soul is from kelipas nogah. Reb Hillel writes this; presumably he heard it from the Tzemach Tzedek or the Alter Rebbe. Reb Hillel did not write teachings of his own; what he wrote, he heard from [unclear], as is known. So he writes—and we come to the question of the soul—that when members of the nations of the world accept the Seven Noahide Laws, their soul is no longer from the three impure kelipos. Their soul is from kelipas nogah, from the good within nogah, and they have a share in the World to Come, as the Rambam writes regarding the righteous among the nations of the world. You might ask: If so, why isn’t this written in Tanya? The Rebbe answers that he did not write it

16:54 in Tanya because [unclear]. But look, Tanya does not set out to explain every detail. It presents the matter briefly, so it does not go into all the details. As for the vast majority of the nations of the world, their souls come from the three completely impure kelipos, which contain no good at all. Why does the Alter Rebbe bring this up in Tanya in the first place? Seemingly, there are two points here. As a general question, what is the Alter Rebbe trying to accomplish with everything he discusses here? On the simplest level, the Alter Rebbe wants to explain the special quality of a Jew, so he explains the contrasting case. He wants to explain that even a Jew’s animal soul is a unique animal soul. This helps explain “for it is very near to you.” In Tanya, the Alter Rebbe wants to explain “for it is very near to you”: that every Jew has the ability, that serving Hashem is within his reach. So the Alter Rebbe wants to point out the special quality of a Jew even in terms of the animal soul. To explain that, he needs to explain the contrast, the other side: a non-Jew does not have this distinctive quality, this particular advantage. A Jew has the special quality that there is good in him even on the level of the animal soul, and therefore it is easier to refine it. That is why it can be refined more easily. And perhaps there is another reason. I have not seen this stated explicitly, but it could be that another reason the Alter Rebbe mentions the nations of the world here has to do with what he goes on to discuss in Tanya in chapter 6 and beyond, returning to it several times in the following chapters: the subject of the struggle. The Alter Rebbe

18:35 After all, he says that this is how things are in practice, as we see: the wicked prevail in it. And this itself is the strength of a Jew, the self-sacrifice of a Jew, to whom Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives special strength. The Alter Rebbe will explain the virtue of iskafya in the coming chapters—he’ll discuss it in chapter 24, chapter 27, chapter 28. Even though a Jew finds himself in a world of kelipah and sitra achra, where the wicked prevail—as we see in practice—the Alter Rebbe says that the nature of the world is the nature of the three completely impure kelipos. That is why, quite simply, this is the reality of the nations of the world. And yet a Jew has the strength to carry out the refinement, to practice iskafya—all of avodas Hashem. And here, of course, we have to tell the story. As is well known, chassidim have a tradition of always telling the familiar story of when the Alter Rebbe was imprisoned and was asked many questions. Twenty-two questions, according to some versions. They asked him fundamental questions. Today, now that the file from his imprisonment has also been found, you can see there all the questions they asked the Alter Rebbe in writing, though apparently there were also questions they asked orally. There are very fundamental questions there about Chassidus. Apparently this was not during the first imprisonment; it was during the second, as is known. They asked the Alter Rebbe many questions about the foundations of Chassidus, the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, and a number of other matters. It’s remarkable. Today we have the Alter Rebbe’s manuscript, in which he explains to them profound concepts in Chassidus. It’s really very interesting. Have you read it yet, or not? If you’re looking for interesting material connected with this period—we’re now in the days around 19 Kislev—I suggest reading it. It’s simply

20:30 fascinating. How was it discovered? After Gimmel Tammuz, or before—around that time. It’s one of the discoveries of the last generation. After the archives in Russia were opened, the documents came to light, and among them is the Alter Rebbe’s holy handwriting. Pages upon pages in which the Alter Rebbe explains his approach to the investigators—something we have very little of from the Alter Rebbe. Now, one question that isn’t found there, which they apparently asked him orally, concerned what he wrote in Tanya about the nations of the world. They say it was the last question: why did he write in Tanya that they have no good in them at all? They relate that the Alter Rebbe smiled, and they asked no more questions. The Alter Rebbe just gave a little smile, and that was it; they asked nothing more. It was left at that. And the Rebbe adds that afterward, when the Alter Rebbe told this story, he added an explanation, as though the smile itself was the answer. In other words: If I’ve explained all these matters to you until now, and you’ve seen that I was right, do you want me to confirm for you that I’m right about this too? So they sort of smiled and understood that it was better not to ask; it would be left as it was. Better not to answer, just to leave it that way. In any case, it is sometimes said that this was due to the severity of the law. Be that as it may, that is the story chassidim tell. But of course, when we seek to understand it, this is the explanation: the world itself falls within the category of kelipah and sitra achra. This isn’t about disparaging a non-Jew, or, G-d forbid, saying that a non-Jew is somehow not all right. On the contrary, as we said earlier, a non-Jew is obligated in the seven mitzvos, the Seven Noahide Laws. There is a Divine purpose in his creation. Rather, the Alter Rebbe is stating the truth about the nature of the world.

22:22 How is this world a world of kelipah and sitra achra? In its essential character, the world belongs entirely to that category. That is its nature. And this is the unique quality of a Jew: Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave him “an actual part of G-d above,” and therefore he can transform the world and make it a dwelling place for Him. Well, whatever comes.