Chapter 2 - First Lesson

00:01 Speaker 1 Today we’re starting a new chapter, chapter 2. The Alter Rebbe continues here to explain the second soul. In the first chapter, the Alter Rebbe spoke about the first soul and explained the animal soul. Now he goes on to speak about the G-dly soul. So the Alter Rebbe begins chapter 2 by saying: “The second soul in a Jew is literally a part of G-d above.” We’re talking about the second soul, which is found only in the Jewish people. The Alter Rebbe defines its essence: it is literally a part of G-d above. In other words, its entire essence is G-dliness. Before we go into what this means and what the second soul is about, a few words about why it’s called the second soul. Why call it that? We’re talking about the G-dly soul—the most important thing, literally a part of G-d above. So there’s the well-known question people always ask: Why, specifically, is this soul called the second soul? There’s a reference to this in a Midrash on the verse in Koheles, “the second child.” It says “the second child,” referring to the G-dly soul—but that itself raises the question. Why does the verse, and the Midrash, refer to the G-dly soul as second? There are two well-known answers. One is that it arrives later. That’s simply the straightforward answer: the animal soul arrives as soon as a person is born. As the Midrash on Koheles also says, the moment a person is born, “sin crouches at the entrance.” The animal soul is born along with the person, whereas the G-dly soul takes time. Its entry begins at the bris and is completed at bar mitzvah. So only at age thirteen is the G-dly soul’s entry into a person complete. Accordingly, it’s second: it simply arrives

02:39 Speaker 1 later. On a deeper level, Chassidus explains in many places that this has to do with their source. It’s often explained in Chassidus that the animal soul is rooted in the world of Tohu, while the G-dly soul is rooted in the world of Tikkun. And since the world of Tohu comes before Tikkun—just as Esav is the firstborn, before Yaakov—the animal soul is explained first, and afterward comes the second soul, the G-dly soul. Just as Yaakov comes after Esav. This is also explained at times in maamarim. The Rebbe once gave a delightful explanation that also has a beautiful meaning in serving Hashem: the G-dly soul is called the second soul because its entire purpose is to work with the animal soul. That’s why the neshamah descended into this world. If there were no animal soul, the G-dly soul would never have descended. What would it have to do with this world? The G-dly soul is rooted in Hashem’s Essence. But once Hakadosh Boruch Hu created a body with an animal soul, and there was work to be done to refine it, the G-dly soul was sent down for that purpose. So it turns out that the G-dly soul’s whole role is to be second. In other words, it comes only after there is already a body and an animal soul that need to be corrected. That’s why the G-dly soul is sent. That’s what defines it as second. To put it briefly, the G-dly soul’s entire existence here is built around the animal soul. Of course, the G-dly soul at its source is a part of G-d; we’re speaking about the neshamah’s descent below. Here, the G-dly soul’s entire existence is built around the animal soul. It comes after the animal soul is already there, and then it works with it, refines it and corrects it. So its role is felt to be that of a second soul. That’s another point the Rebbe brought up here.

05:00 Speaker 1 In any case, here in chapter 2 the Alter Rebbe comes to reveal to us—and this is really the whole point of the chapter—the true essence of a Jew. First, the Alter Rebbe says, “a part of G-d above, literally.” Now, it’s important to explain that these words are actually a verse. “A part...” Although the Alter Rebbe doesn’t say it’s a verse, it is. There’s a verse in Iyov, “a part of G-d above.” The Alter Rebbe adds the word “literally.” “Literally” isn’t in the verse. The Alter Rebbe adds it because that addition is fundamental; it’s the heart of his innovation. In general, “literally”—mamash—is a word the Alter Rebbe uses, and Chassidus uses, particularly beginning with the Alter Rebbe. You could say it’s one of the most important words in Chassidus. Mamash is a very, uh, fundamental word in Chassidus. It appears in Tanya many, many times. That’s deliberate, because it reflects the Alter Rebbe’s approach, and we’ll encounter it in many subjects. There are many things we look at as metaphors or figures of speech. Before Chabad Chassidus, there were many expressions and words that people thought weren’t meant literally—like this verse itself. The verse speaks about the neshamah and says, “a part of G-d above.” Many commentators explain that this doesn’t mean—G-d forbid... I mean, G-d forbid we should say the opposite. But commentators were afraid to say it was meant in its plain sense. How can you say of a person’s soul that it is “a part of G-d above”? So they said it meant... they said it referred to knowledge or intellect. They offered all kinds of explanations that treated it as a metaphor, not as something meant literally.

07:05 Speaker 1 The Alter Rebbe comes and says: No, “a part of G-d above, literally.” When we say that the neshamah is a part of G-d above, the verse means it literally. It means it in the plain sense: the neshamah is a part of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. How do we explain that? We’ll learn that now; we’ll explain it now. But that’s the foundation of what the Alter Rebbe is saying here. Now, a little explanation, a few words before we go into Tanya itself, and we’ll also understand what the avodah is here, what this is about, and the nature of the Alter Rebbe’s approach—particularly in light of what we discussed in the previous classes about what the Alter Rebbe says here concerning the animal soul. As we’ve already explained, the Alter Rebbe’s innovation, the revolution of the Alter Rebbe and the Tanya, is that he reveals the essence of things. Before the Alter Rebbe, people spoke about many things, but no one articulated, defined or deciphered their essence. They spoke about the yetzer tov and the yetzer hara, all sorts of things. But the Alter Rebbe came and revealed that every Jew has two souls. As we explained, the word “soul” emphasizes that we’re talking about an essence, a kind of life. It’s not just about committing transgressions or failing to do mitzvos, behaving well or behaving badly. It’s not a matter of good versus bad. On the contrary, as we said in the previous chapter, the animal soul also has good in it. The question is: What is your life? The question every Jew needs to ask themselves constantly, throughout their life, is: Where am I living? What is my life? What—what is my essence? That’s the difference between the G-dly soul and the animal soul. The animal soul’s essence, its life, is a sense of self, a separate existence. That defines its existence; that defines what life is for it. Life means: I exist, I’m here, and since I’m here, I want, I need, and so on. From this flow

09:07 Speaker 1 Levels, levels, all sorts of things, but the foundation is the “I.” Then what comes along? What is the second soul? What is its essence? What does life mean? When we speak—and we’ll get to the G-dly soul—these are the words the Alter Rebbe brings here: “truly a part of G-d above.” In other words, when we speak about the G-dly soul, what counts as reality for it? What does life mean to it? For it, life is defined by G-dliness, because something that isn’t G-dliness doesn’t count; it isn’t real. There’s the well-known sicha—the bochurim are actually learning it now—Kuntres Inyana Shel Toras HaChassidus, where the Rebbe brings the... at the level where they say “his soul.” Yes? Not just a soul, but “his soul.” The point is that, for a Jew, life without G-dliness is not life. Life without G-dliness isn’t life at all. As the Rebbe explains there at length with the story of [unclear]. Not a... A day of life means a day lived with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Life that you don’t live with Hakadosh Boruch Hu isn’t life at all. And in other words, that is what the expression “truly a part of G-d above” means: his entire being, his whole essence, is a part of the Essence. When you grasp a part of the Essence, you grasp the whole of it, because the entire Essence is present in that part. A Jew senses that G-dliness is the only reality, and that apart from G-dliness, nothing else has any place or existence. And that feeling, that essence, is the essence of the soul. And we’ll come to the word “truly.” There’s the well-known explanation the Rebbe brings in the name of the Frierdiker Rebbe. The Rebbe repeated it many times. It comes from a letter of the Frierdiker Rebbe. As we said, the word “truly” is the key here. It’s a very, very important and fundamental word, and it has two meanings. One meaning is something tangible, something you can feel by touch. Something you can grasp, touch—like the sense of touch, which grasps something

11:16 Speaker 1 concrete. It’s a matter of touch, something with substance. And “truly” also means exactly so: when you say something is truly so. It isn’t approximate, it isn’t an analogy, it isn’t a concept or a figure of speech—it’s actually so. So these are two meanings of “truly,” and they’re actually opposites. If you think about it, they’re two opposite things. If I say “tangible,” meaning something you can touch, then we’re talking about the most physical thing. Where can touch apply? Only to something physical. Something you can touch or grasp exists only in the physical realm. In the spiritual realm, there’s no touching. A spiritual thing can be understood, it can be felt, but it can’t be touched. As is known, of the five senses—smell, taste, sight, hearing, and touch—touch grasps only physical things. It goes no further than the physical. So “truly” in the sense of touch means the most physical of the physical. On the other hand, when you say that the soul is truly a part of G-d above—that it is actually so—you mean the opposite. You want to emphasize its lofty greatness, its exaltedness: it really is G-dliness. It’s not something else, but utterly one with Him. So these are two opposites. And the Rebbe explains—the Frierdiker Rebbe writes it in a letter, and the Rebbe repeated it many times—that this is actually what the Alter Rebbe wants to emphasize here in Tanya. The second soul in a Jew is “truly a part of G-d above” in both senses. Even when it is down here in tangible reality, when the soul is clothed in a body—and not merely “even then.” On the contrary, precisely because of the special quality of the soul in a body, precisely as the soul exists in a physical body, it is truly a part of G-d. The full force of the Essence of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present in a Jew’s soul as it exists in a body, in this physical world. This is something wondrous, something tremendous, something very fundamental to the whole

13:17 Speaker 1 way we look at a Jew. And it’s really the foundation of everything we’ll see later in Tanya. The Alter Rebbe explains to us what the service of a tzaddik should be and what the service of a beinoni should be. It’s all founded on this point: the soul as it exists in a body, in the physical realm—and specifically there—is truly a part of G-d above, a part of G-d with all the force of the Essence. Along these lines, there’s also the teaching the Rebbe brings in Hayom Yom, which the Rebbe Rashab taught the Frierdiker Rebbe. He also explained “truly a part of G-d above” in another way, though it’s similar to the previous teaching: “above” means the most spiritual of the spiritual, and “truly” means the most physical of the physical. It’s in Hayom Yom for the month of Cheshvan. And the Rebbe relates that the Rebbe Rashab, on [unclear], studied with the Frierdiker Rebbe. He explained to him: “above” and “truly.” “Above” means the most spiritual of the spiritual; “truly” means the most physical of the physical. And this shows the soul’s great quality: although it is the most spiritual of the spiritual, it acts within the most physical of the physical. That’s what it says in Hayom Yom. And as we said, the Rebbe says it’s not just that the soul acts there, as though that were a novelty. On the contrary, it is precisely there that the soul’s innermost essence finds its primary expression. As is well known from Chassidus, the soul’s essential strength is revealed specifically when it is in a body. One more teaching. It’s all connected, and we’ll get to the general point we’re discussing here. So, again: we mentioned the Frierdiker Rebbe’s teaching about the two meanings of “truly.” We mentioned the Rebbe Rashab’s teaching that “above” and “truly” refer to two different things. Then there’s another teaching, brought in one of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s letters in the name of the Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe explained the words in Tanya this way: “above” is ratzo, the soul’s yearning to ascend; “truly” is shov, its return downward. That’s what the Alter Rebbe said. Someone once asked him what “truly a part of G-d above” means, and the Alter Rebbe said that “above” is ratzo and “truly” is shov. And

15:27 Speaker 1 if you think about this teaching too, it fits exactly with everything we said earlier. In other words, the Alter Rebbe wanted to emphasize that the soul has two movements. On the one hand, “above”: the soul is constantly in a state of ratzo. As we’ll see later in Tanya, the soul’s whole service is like fire, always wanting to break free, rise, ascend, cleave to and become absorbed in the Life of all life. That is its ratzo. At the same time, the soul knows that the ultimate purpose is, on the contrary, to make a dwelling for Hashem in the lower realms, to act within the body. That is “truly,” the shov. Ratzo and shov are the two movements we spoke about earlier—the two explanations of “truly,” or the two ideas of “above” and “truly.” And that is really the whole point of serving Hashem. There’s also a famous story told about the Alter Rebbe. There was Reb Moshe Vilanker. As is known, Reb Moshe Vilanker was one of the Alter Rebbe’s greatest chassidim, one of the very greatest. They tell that Reb Moshe Vilanker was once with the Alter Rebbe in yechidus—or the Alter Rebbe called him in. That’s how this particular story goes. The Alter Rebbe called him and said, “Moshe, Moshe, Moshe.” That’s how the story goes—three times. He asked him, “Tell me, what is G-dliness? What is the Eibershter?” He asked him several times, and Reb Moshe said he didn’t know what the Alter Rebbe wanted from him. He stood there like a stone. What could he say to the Alter Rebbe? Then the Alter Rebbe asked him, “What is a soul?” First he had asked him what Hakadosh Boruch Hu is; afterward, he asked him what a soul is. And he asked each question three times. Then he asked him, “What is faith?” Three central questions in Judaism: What is the Eibershter? What is a soul? And what is faith? Reb Moshe Vilanker related that he stood there like a stone and couldn’t answer. He didn’t know what the Rebbe wanted from him. And he...

17:29 Speaker 1 And the Alter Rebbe entered a state of deep spiritual absorption for some time. Then the Alter Rebbe said to him in a melody, “What is the Eibershter? The Eibershter is”—he said it in Yiddish; I’ll translate it into Hebrew, though perhaps I can’t translate it exactly, but in a moment—“the Eibershter is the One whose existence is certain, and apart from Him there is certainly no other existence.”

17:52 Speaker 2 He clearly exists, and apart from Him, clearly nothing exists.

17:58 Speaker 1 That He is clearly present, and apart from Him, clearly nothing else exists—something like that. I’ve translated it roughly. That was—that’s the Eibershter. What is a soul? A soul is literally a part of G-d above, and it feels that the Eibershter is the only reality, and apart from the Eibershter there is nothing. That is a soul. And what is faith? The soul believes that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the only reality, and apart from Hakadosh Boruch Hu there is nothing. In other words, three of the deepest questions about the foundations of faith. But in the end, it’s one word, one line. The same explanation answers all three, because really it’s all one point. The Eibershter, the soul, and faith are all one. The reality that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the only reality and nothing exists apart from Him—that is the Eibershter, that is the soul, and that is the soul’s faith. That expresses all of Judaism, its entire essence. The Alter Rebbe puts it here in this line: “literally a part of G-d above.” Let’s go on another line. He says, “As it is written, ‘And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,’ and ‘You breathed it into me.’” So the Alter Rebbe brings two verses here. Very interesting. “And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” is a verse in Bereishis. “You breathed it into me” is something we say—it’s not a verse; it’s in the text of the prayers. What does the Alter Rebbe want with these quotations? They show us that the soul is literally a part of G-d above. We say, “And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life”—the wording is “breathed.” The rest of creation isn’t described in those terms; throughout creation it says, “And He said.” Only concerning the soul does it use the expression “breathed”: “And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life”; “You breathed it into me.” As the Zohar says, “One who breathes out breathes from within himself.” When we say “breathed,” it comes from within. Meaning, from a person’s innermost being: in breathing out forcefully, he brings out the life-force deep within him. What is meant by “breathed”? Why does the Torah use that word in connection with the soul? Because

20:23 Speaker 1 the soul comes from the innermost depths. The difference between speaking and breathing out is that speech is external—an outward breath. When a person breathes out, he puts his inner self into it. Speech is for someone else; it isn’t for me. So I don’t put my inner powers into it, only what needs to reach the other person. With breathing out, a person puts himself into it, because there he wants to give of his innermost self. That is why “breathed” is said specifically about the soul: the soul comes from the innermost part of the self. That, in fact, is what “literally a part of G-d above” means. Now, just a few details about the precise wording here. First, the first verse the Alter Rebbe brings raises a question everyone asks. It’s just a klutz kashya, a clumsy question, but everyone asks it. “And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” was said about Adam. So what does that have to do with the second soul in a Jew? The Jewish people came later. Why bring this verse here? It doesn’t prove the point. You start by telling me that the second soul in a Jew is a part of G-d above, and then you cite “And He breathed into his nostrils” about Adam’s soul. The answer is very simple once we know what Chassidus says in the name of the Arizal: Adam’s soul included all the souls of the Jewish people. In fact, Adam was meant to be the first Jew; that is also how it is according to Kabbalah. It was only because of the sin of the Tree of Knowledge that he lost that, and it began with Avraham Avinu twenty generations later. But originally, when Hashem created Adam and breathed into his nostrils, Adam had not just a Jewish soul; he encompassed the entire Jewish people. So this verse is relevant to our subject. And then we come to the second quotation, “You breathed it into me.” Interestingly, the Rebbe points out that in the siddur, the word “nafachtah” is written with a final hei, while in Tanya it is written “nafachta,” without a final hei. Why? You could say it’s a printing error. You could say it was an oversight. [unclear] You can offer all sorts of answers; you can be a master of excuses. The Rebbe says there may be some error here or something, but it is interesting that in Tanya it is written without a final hei, while in the siddur it is written with one. The Rebbe draws out a very geshmak distinction. What is it? When it’s written with a final hei, the emphasis is on where the breath went. Without a final hei, the emphasis is on who breathed it—where it came from. There’s a “from where” and a “to where.” When we say “You created it” and “You formed it,” written with a final hei, we’re talking about the soul: You created the soul, formed it, breathed it into me. We’re talking about what came down. When it’s written without a final hei, you’re talking about the “You,” emphasizing where it comes from. That is the precise point here in Tanya. In the siddur, we’re talking about the soul as it descended from level to level: You created it, formed it—the soul—Hashem created it, formed it, breathed it in until it came to dwell within me. We’re talking about the soul and how it came down here. The Alter Rebbe wants to emphasize the soul’s great quality: it is a part of G-d above. So here the emphasis is on where it came from. Without the final hei, it’s even stronger: “And You”—You, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, breathed; or “You breathed”—it is Your breath. It comes from You; it comes from His very Essence and Being. Here you can see just how precise every line, every letter, and every word in Tanya is.

22:44 Speaker 1 The printing. You could say it was an oversight. This fellow needs... You could offer all kinds of excuses, a whole host of excuses. The Rebbe says there may have been some mistake here or something, but it is interesting that in Tanya, “nafachta” is written without a hei, while in the siddur, “nafachtah” is written with a hei. So the Rebbe draws out a really delightful distinction. What is it? When “nafachtah” is written with a hei, the hei points to the destination—to where it goes. When it is written without a hei, the emphasis is on who it comes from. There is a “from where” and a “to where.” When we say, “You created it” and “You formed it,” with a hei at the end of each word, we are speaking about the soul: You created it, You formed it, You breathed it into me. We are speaking about what was drawn down. When it is said without a hei, we are speaking about the “You”; we want to emphasize where it comes from. And that is precisely the distinction here in Tanya. In the siddur, we are speaking about the soul as it descended from level to level: He created it, He formed it—Hashem created the soul, formed it, breathed it into me, until it is within me. We are speaking about the soul and how it descended here. The Alter Rebbe wants to emphasize the soul’s special quality: that it is “a part of G-d above.” So here the emphasis is on where it came from. That is why, without the hei, it is even stronger: “And You”—You, Hakadosh Boruch Hu—“breathed”; or, “You breathed”—it is Your breath. It comes from You; it comes from His very Essence and Being. Here we can see just how precise every line, every letter, and every word in Tanya is.