Chapter 2 - Fifth Lesson

00:01 We’re at the end of chapter 2. In the previous class, we spoke about this briefly. Today I want to go into it a little more. The Alter Rebbe himself goes into it in connection with the tzaddik. The Alter Rebbe says that, as in the analogy of the son, what do we see? Even after the son is born and becomes a distinct, separate person in his own right, the fingernails—and likewise all the other limbs—still need to be connected to the head, linked to the brain. Through their connection to the brain, they are also connected to the father’s brain, even after the son has become a person in his own right. The same is true of the Jewish people. Who is the brain? In this analogy, the son’s brain represents the tzaddik, the Torah scholars. On one side, we’re speaking about Hakadosh Boruch Hu, Who is, so to speak, the father’s brain—supernal Chochmah, the source of all souls, “literally a part of G-d above.” Then there is the whole range of the Jewish people. There are many, many levels, from the limbs down to the fingernails, representing all the different kinds of Jews—from Atzilus, Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah, down to the soul of the very lowest person, even the sinners of Israel. But there is still a special connection. Even now, the connection of Jewish souls, of the Jewish people, with supernal Chochmah, with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, comes through their connection to the brain—the son’s brain. This refers to the leaders of the thousands of Israel in each generation. In other words, the Alter Rebbe is continuing what he said at the beginning of the chapter. There, the Alter Rebbe said that there are the souls of the Patriarchs and Moshe Rabbeinu, and likewise, in every generation there are souls on the level of the head and brain, and souls on the level of the heels. There, the Alter Rebbe was speaking about the vast difference between their levels. He asked: How can there be such a vast difference—lofty souls on the level of the head and brain,

02:41 and lowly souls on the level of the feet, heels, and fingernails—when they all come from supernal Chochmah? Now the Alter Rebbe adds that this is not just meant to describe how incomparable their levels are; it also tells us about their connection. Just as in a child, all the limbs must receive life from the brain, and through the brain they are also connected to the father’s brain, so too, we need to be connected to the tzaddik, the leaders of the thousands of Israel in each generation. This is what the Alter Rebbe says: “For the nourishment and life-force of the nefesh, ruach, and neshamah of the unlearned come from the nefesh, ruach, and neshamah of the tzaddikim and sages, the heads of the Jewish people in their generation.” Of course, when he speaks here of tzaddikim and sages, he does not mean just any rabbis or Torah scholars. He means, of course, a Rebbe. As is well known, “head of the Jewish people” refers to a Rebbe. What is the point here? It’s our connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What is the Alter Rebbe trying to explain? We’re talking here about nourishment and life-force. What does that mean? It refers to the G-dliness in the soul. Every person has a body, has a soul, and has the G-dliness within the soul. That G-dliness is the sense of G-dliness that makes one’s service of Hashem a G-dly service. A person can live his life—there is a saying the Rebbe once repeated at a farbrengen—a person can live seventy or eighty years, observe the entire Shulchan Aruch, study Torah and perform mitzvos, and never once have served Hakadosh Boruch Hu. None of it has any connection to G-dliness. Why? Because he serves Hashem out of habit, because that is how he was raised, or because of [unclear], because of [unclear], because of [unclear], because he wants all sorts of things and makes all sorts of calculations. But there is no connection to G-dliness. What the Alter Rebbe is going to teach us in Tanya—and this is, of course, a central theme of Tanya—is

04:47 how to serve Hashem, how to bring G-dliness into my relationship with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And we receive that through the tzaddik. That is what the Alter Rebbe says in chapter 2. In chapter 2, the Alter Rebbe explained to us that the G-dly soul is not just about doing good things. That is the Alter Rebbe’s innovation, as we learned in previous classes: in the first two chapters of Tanya, the Alter Rebbe reveals that a person can do many good things without their coming from the G-dly soul. They can also come from the animal soul. The animal soul also does good things; kelipas nogah has good in it too. So what is the point the Alter Rebbe is teaching us? The difference between the G-dly soul and the animal soul is an essential one. It is not just a difference in what you do; it is a difference in what is present within the deed. Are you doing it from your sense of self, from your nature, from a sense of being someone in your own right? The animal soul is characterized by yeshus, selfhood, while the G-dly soul is characterized by bittul, self-nullification. To bring about bittul, to bring more G-dliness into our service, we need a Rebbe. That is the role of the sages, the heads of the Jewish people in their generation—the tzaddik, the Rebbe. With him is the connection between the father’s brain and the son’s brain. That is where bittul is found. After all, what is Chochmah? Chochmah is koach mah, “the power of ‘what.’” We will learn later that the Alter Rebbe explains Chochmah as koach mah, the quality of bittul. Supernal Chochmah is where true bittul shines. As the Alter Rebbe will explain in chapter 35 of Tanya, in supernal Chochmah the light of Ein Sof shines: “He alone is, and there is nothing besides Him.” That is supernal Chochmah—true bittul. So the tzaddik, the Rebbe, the head of the Jewish people, senses true bittul

06:47 within himself. That is what is called the son’s brain, Chochmah. In other words, the bittul of Chochmah, true bittul, shines within him. That is why he is called the head of the Jewish people: the head, the brain of Chochmah, bittul. Through connecting to that brain, we can receive true bittul. That is the meaning of nourishment and life-force: that there should be true bittul, bittul in our service. For that, we need to connect to the Rebbe. This relates to what is explained in many maamarim. For example, the maamarim that explain Yosef and his brothers discuss bowing down. The brothers gathered the grain, and in Yosef’s dream they were binding sheaves; then there is the part where the sheaves bowed down to his. The brothers’ work represents the service of the Jewish people: doing the work of birurim, refining the world, and achieving bittul hayesh, the nullification of the ego. But to reach true bittul, we need Yosef, the tzaddik, the Yosef of the generation. Similarly, this is discussed with regard to Moshe Rabbeinu, [unclear]. Chassidus explains what Moshe Rabbeinu represents, and the Alter Rebbe will also discuss it later, in chapter 42: Moshe Rabbeinu embodies Chochmah. Moshe—what is a neshamah? True bittul shines within him. [unclear] He had true bittul, the bittul of Chochmah. Moshe Rabbeinu represents supernal Chochmah, and through our connection to Moshe Rabbeinu, he was able to bring that about. Moshe was a shepherd, the Raya Mehemna, the faithful shepherd: he brought true bittul into the Jewish people. So that is what the Alter Rebbe is saying here. This is what a Rebbe is. A Rebbe does not mean simply a person who knows a great deal of Torah and knows how to perform mitzvos and good deeds. There can be many good people like that. That is not what defines a Rebbe. Of course, the Rebbe has all those qualities too, and everything else. But

08:45 The essence of a Rebbe is a person whose entire being is utterly nullified. A person who has reached the ultimate degree of bittul, so that G-dliness shines in him with full force. It’s not simple. And so, through connecting to him, one can attain true bittul. There’s a saying among chassidim. I don’t know how firmly it’s rooted in our sources and among our Rebbeim, but it’s a chassidic saying. I heard Reb Sholom Chaim say that “sustenance and vitality”—the two terms the Alter Rebbe uses here—refer to the material and the spiritual. All blessings come through the tzaddik. We receive both spiritual and material blessings through the tzaddik. Because, as is well known, a tzaddik isn’t only about spiritual matters and G-dliness, as we said, but also about material blessings. Everything passes through him; we receive everything through the tzaddik, as is explained in many places. There’s a famous sicha of the Rebbe in volume 11, Parshas Pekudei, if I’m not mistaken, where the Rebbe explains this according to Shulchan Aruch as well, according to halachah: the tzaddik of the city, the sage of the city. When a person needs a blessing for health or livelihood, there is a reason to go to the sage of the city. The Rebbe points out the precise wording: “the sage of the city.” On the one hand, he is a sage—wisdom is associated with bittul. And “of the city” means he isn’t detached from the world. He is present within the world. That is what a Rebbe is: on the one hand, true bittul shines in him, and on the other, he cares for his flock and is present within the world. That is why all blessings, both spiritual and material, come specifically through him. The Alter Rebbe continues: “And this is what our Sages said about the verse, ‘And to cleave to Him’: Whoever cleaves to Torah scholars, Scripture considers it as though he has actually cleaved to the Shechinah.” That is the meaning of the Sages’ teaching on “And to cleave to Him.” The Gemara asks—and the Midrash asks—how is it possible to cleave to the Shechinah? “And to cleave

10:43 to Him.” The Torah says it in Parshas Eikev, in Parshas Ki Savo—how many times does “and to cleave to Him” appear in the Chumash? And the question is: Can one really cleave to Him? How? How can one cleave to Hakadosh Boruch Hu? One cannot cleave to the Shechinah. So the Gemara says, “Whoever cleaves to Torah scholars, Scripture considers it as though he has actually cleaved to the Shechinah.” What does that tell us? On the simple level, as it is understood according to the revealed dimension of Torah, according to halachah and the plain meaning, it’s as though Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives you that reward when you attach yourself to Torah scholars: you help a Torah scholar, learn from a Torah scholar, and so on. There’s the wording there about doing business with a Torah scholar and marrying one’s daughter to a Torah scholar; through that, you too will cleave to the Shechinah. A Torah scholar will teach you how to serve Hashem. But according to what we’re learning here, it goes much deeper. Cleaving to Torah scholars is itself the point. What does it mean to cleave to scholars? To cleave to a Jew who has reached the ultimate degree of bittul, a Jew whose entire being is supernal Chochmah, utter nullification. So when you cleave to Torah scholars, when you cleave to a tzaddik, to a Rebbe, you are cleaving to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, because the Rebbe is not an independent entity. He isn’t simply some great person by virtue of his perfection or his talents. On the contrary. What does it mean that a tzaddik is a chacham, a sage? It means the ultimate degree of bittul. That is the significance of the term “students of the sages,” as is sometimes explained in Chassidus. That is precisely what it means: students of the sages, students of a chacham—a person whose entire being is utterly nullified. And by cleaving to him, you cleave to the Shechinah, because his whole purpose is to connect you to G-dliness. “For through cleaving to Torah scholars, the

12:42 nefesh, ruach and neshamah of the common people are bound and united with their original essence and root in supernal Chochmah, for He, may He be blessed, and His wisdom are one, and He is the Knower, etc.” So that is the idea of hiskashrus, connecting to a Rebbe. I once heard Reb Zechary[?] say something: Why did the Alter Rebbe write about a Rebbe right at the beginning of Tanya? This is the beginning of Tanya. We’ve barely learned two chapters, and already in chapter two of Tanya the Alter Rebbe introduces the idea of hiskashrus. Of course, the Alter Rebbe was a chossid. The Alter Rebbe was a Rebbe, and he was also a chossid. So of course, at the first opportunity, the Alter Rebbe made the point that we need to know that without a Rebbe, it doesn’t work. But Reb Zechary[?] repeated a saying in the name of the early chassidim. As he put it, why does the Alter Rebbe introduce hiskashrus already in chapter two? Because as soon as a person learns the first two chapters of Tanya and learns that he has two souls, he needs a Rebbe. Once you know that you’re not so simple—that we’re not so simple. We’re complex. There are two souls. A person has two lives within him: he has a G-dly soul and an animal soul, two souls. So you know that without a Rebbe you’ll be completely confused. Without a Rebbe, you’ll have what’s called a split personality; you’ll be a completely confused person. Look, a divided person: here you’re living with the animal soul, there with the G-dly soul, all of it. You need a Rebbe so you can know how to strengthen the G-dly soul over the animal soul, how to serve Hashem. Anyway, that’s a saying; it sounds like... But in any case, getting back to the point. The Alter Rebbe teaches us that we have a G-dly soul, and this is the beautiful picture of the G-dly soul that the Alter Rebbe gives us. It is G-dliness, “an actual part of G-d above.” A Jew is a piece of G-dliness. But to reveal

14:45 that, so it shines openly in everyday life—that comes through a Rebbe, through the head. And the Alter Rebbe continues: “And those who sin and rebel against Torah scholars—their nefesh, ruach and neshamah draw sustenance from the ‘back’ of the nefesh, ruach and neshamah of the Torah scholars.” This raises a question: What about those who sin and rebel? There are people in the world who don’t accept the tzaddik. They sin and rebel against Torah scholars. So what happens? How can that be? How can such a person even exist? Because according to what we’ve said here, for a person to have a connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, it has to pass through a Torah scholar. Then everyone in the world should be chassidim. Yet we see that some are not. There are people who sin and rebel, and if they sin and rebel, they have no connection to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. How does that work? So the Alter Rebbe says that even those who sin and rebel against Torah scholars receive life through the Torah scholar. In other words, the Alter Rebbe is saying: There is no way to connect my soul with Hakadosh Boruch Hu other than through the tzaddik. There is no other road, no other route, no other way. The only way for the soul to shine within the body is through, through, through hiskashrus. There has to be a connection with the tzaddik, with the head of the Jewish people. Those who sin and rebel also receive life from the tzaddik. But how do they receive it? From the aspect of “the back.” The Alter Rebbe will explain this in later chapters. The Alter Rebbe is going to explain it in chapter 22, I believe. There he discusses the concept of “the back.” The Alter Rebbe explains that there are two kinds of influence: influence from the aspect of “the face,” and influence from the aspect of “the back.” As we see in the physical world: there’s a person you love, and you

16:52 You give someone a gift face-to-face: because you love him, you give it with your whole heart, with desire, pleasure, and joy. And there’s someone you don’t love, but you give him something anyway because, for some reason, you have to. Then the giving is like... That’s called “from behind.” It’s still giving, but the giving is from behind. The same is true with regard to G-dliness. And the same is true with regard to tzaddikim: the tzaddik gives to each and every person. For a Jew to be able to connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he needs the tzaddik. But what happens? One person connects to the tzaddik willingly, with joy and pleasure, and then it’s “as water reflects a face back to a face.” The influence he receives from the tzaddik is inward and personal. Consequently, in his actual service of Hashem, more G-dliness shines for him; there is more bittul, more revelation of G-dliness. But a Jew who isn’t interested in connecting to the tzaddik also receives influence. Where does he receive it from? From the “back” of the tzaddik, because he is rebellious toward Torah scholars. In other words, his relationship with the Torah scholar is one of “back to back,” without pleasure or desire. So the tzaddik influences him too—the tzaddik influences everyone—but it isn’t like face-to-face. The influence this Jew receives will therefore also be “from behind,” and consequently his service of Hashem won’t be complete, won’t be as it should be. That’s why this matters so much. That’s why chassidim spoke so much about the need to connect to the Rebbe, and why we need to look for ways to strengthen that connection in sichos, maamarim, and letters. Strengthening our connection is something real, inward, and profound, because for G-dliness to truly shine in all our service of Hashem, the chossid must connect to the Rebbe. Whenever we studied

18:51 this passage, the mashpi’im would tell a story. I was privileged to hear it from Rabbi Gringlas, too, every time he taught this passage. We studied it almost every year, and he would always repeat the same story. So apparently it’s a story chassidim traditionally tell at this point. The story goes like this: There was a town in Russia called Slutsk. Slutsk was a town of misnagdim. Gradually, a group of people in the Slutsk area became close to Chassidus and became chassidim, and they traveled to the Tzemach Tzedek. They came to visit him during a period when he would receive people in groups. This was apparently in his later years, when the Tzemach Tzedek was weak, so groups would come from different towns. The Tzemach Tzedek asked them, “Which town are you from?” They answered in Yiddish, “Unter Slutsk”—behind Slutsk. They lived behind Slutsk, meaning somewhere on the outskirts, outside the town. “Unter Slutsk.” The Tzemach Tzedek began to laugh. He said, “Even Slutsk has a back!” That’s what the Tzemach Tzedek said: “Even Slutsk has a back!” They had said “unter Slutsk,” behind Slutsk. What was the joke? Why did the Tzemach Tzedek laugh? Slutsk was a town of misnagdim. The Alter Rebbe says here in Tanya that sinners and unlearned people receive their life-force from the “back” of the tzaddik. So all of Slutsk was “the back.” And if you say you come from behind Slutsk, then even Slutsk has a back—it’s the back of the back. That was the joke. In any case, the point is that there’s a way to receive life-force from the “back” and a way to receive it face-to-face. A chossid should seek that inward connection, that desire and pleasure. The Alter Rebbe continues

20:59 and says: “As for what is written in the Zohar and Zohar Chadash, that the main thing depends on sanctifying oneself at the time of intimacy.” Here, at the end of the chapter, the Alter Rebbe adds another point. It might seem like a side point, but it’s essential. The Alter Rebbe has a question here. Until now, we’ve said that the soul is something special. The soul is literally a part of G-d above. There is no partner in its creation. There’s no plurality of “let us make” there—that’s the point. Wisdom is not a part of G-d above; on the contrary. Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself is involved in creating the soul and placing it within a person. Yes, it comes from the very highest level: literally a part of G-d above. We might have thought that this applies only to the soul’s essence, its very core. But as for the soul’s level, as we said earlier, there are souls on the level of intellect and souls on the level of middos; souls of Atzilus and souls of Asiyah; souls associated with the “back,” with “fingernails,” with sinners and unlearned people. Perhaps that no longer depends on Hakadosh Boruch Hu, but on other factors. That’s why the Alter Rebbe brings this passage from the Zohar. The Zohar seems to indicate that some things depend on the father and mother, on the parents. This is what he writes: “As for what is written in the Zohar and Zohar Chadash, that the main thing depends specifically on sanctifying oneself at the time of intimacy, unlike the children of unlearned people, etc.” The Zohar seems to say that the parents’ holiness—the way they conduct themselves, modesty, the dignity of family life, and all aspects of holiness connected with intimacy—affects the child. One could mistakenly understand the Zohar to mean that this determines the level of the soul: whether yours will be a lofty soul or a simple soul, a soul of Atzilus or of Asiyah, or a soul on the level of “fingernails.” That depends on the parents, while Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives only the soul’s essence. The soul’s different levels depend on the parents. So the Alter Rebbe says: No, that’s a mistake. We were talking—the Zohar is talking

23:21 about something else. The Zohar isn’t talking about the soul or even its levels. It’s talking about something entirely different: “For there is no nefesh, ruach, or neshamah that does not have a garment from the soul derived from the very substance of its father and mother.” There’s another thing called a garment. It isn’t the soul; it’s a garment. What is this garment? It’s accepted among chassidim, and the Tzemach Tzedek says explicitly in his notes on Tanya, that this garment is the intellectual soul, the nefesh hasichlis. The Alter Rebbe doesn’t discuss it openly in Tanya. As we know, in Tanya the Alter Rebbe speaks only of two souls, one from the side of holiness and one from the side of kelipah. But in the maamarim, beginning with the Alter Rebbe’s own Likkutei Torah on Bechukosai, and then in many maamarim of our Rebbeim, including several maamarim of the Rebbe, it’s explained that there is a third soul, called the nefesh hasichlis. So the Tzemach Tzedek says that although the Alter Rebbe doesn’t speak openly about the nefesh hasichlis in Tanya, that is what he means by the garment mentioned here. What is the nefesh hasichlis? It’s an intermediary: neither G-dly nor animal. That’s the idea of a garment. On the one hand, a garment is something external; it covers and conceals. On the other hand, there are different kinds of garments. A coarse garment conceals completely, while a fine garment can actually add beauty and grace. It depends on the garment, on what kind it is. The same applies to the nefesh hasichlis. It isn’t the G-dly soul, but it isn’t the animal soul either. Its intellect isn’t just intellect; it’s the whole way it relates to things. But it is intellectual, meaning that it isn’t wholly bittul, and it isn’t simply driven by instinct. Nor is it entirely self-centered. It wants to understand, it wants to understand, it...

25:21 He wants to listen, he wants to receive, he’s interested in knowing and hearing what it’s about. So he’s somewhere in the middle, kind of neutral. And this intellectual soul consists of the senses, talents, character traits—things that are neither on the G-dly side nor on the animal side. It is the garment. And they say that this garment depends very strongly on the parents’ conduct: if the parents conduct themselves with holiness and purity, they make the intellectual soul, the garment, more refined, more delicate, more purified. That makes it easier for the child to serve Hashem. And if, G-d forbid, they do not observe the proper holiness, it causes the child to be born with coarser garments. That is what he says here: “There is no nefesh, ruach, or neshamah that does not have a garment from the soul of its father and mother, and all the mitzvos it performs are through that garment,” and so on. What does it mean that the mitzvos it performs are through the garment? It says in the writings of the Arizal that to perform a mitzvah, a person needs help, strength, energy—something to give him the push to fulfill it. That help also comes from the garment his parents give him. The Arizal says something else: “Even the flow of blessing given to him from Heaven.” A person is given strength, a flow of blessing. Sometimes it’s a heavenly voice; the Baal Shem Tov tells various stories about influences that come from Above. It all comes through this garment. The garment has a very great effect on all these details. “And if he sanctifies himself, he will draw down a holy garment for his son’s soul.” If there is proper sanctification, a person can bring down a holy garment. “And even a great soul requires the sanctification of its father,” and so on. Sometimes there can be a very lofty soul, but that sanctification determines what kind of garment it will have. But the soul itself—going back to the beginning of the chapter—the essence of the soul, and even its level, whether it is the soul of a tzaddik or

27:20 of a wicked person, is not a garment and is not connected to the father and mother. It comes entirely from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He is the one who gives the soul to the appropriate person, according to His understanding of who should receive it. And so the Alter Rebbe says: “Sometimes the soul of an immeasurably lofty person comes to be the son of a lowly and debased person,” and so on. An exceptionally lofty person can come from very lowly parents, because the level of the soul does not depend on the parents. Rabbi Akiva was the son of converts, and so on; Avraham was the son of Terach. Our sages and all the Jewish people have seen this throughout the generations, down to our own day. As the Arizal wrote, all this is in Likkutei Torah, Parshas Vayeira, Parshas Bereishis. So that is what the Alter Rebbe wants to say here: the soul, and the level of the soul—where does it come from? From Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The garments depend on the parents; that is a separate matter. But the soul is literally a part of G-d Above. That is entirely a G-dly matter. The level of the soul, too, is entirely a G-dly matter. It is a gift that Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave us, and our entire work must be to reveal the soul and give it ascendancy over the body. Regarding the end of what the Alter Rebbe says here, and this point that the garment comes from the parents, there is a story chassidim tell. The Frierdiker Rebbe once held a farbrengen with the students in Lubavitch. [unclear] It was Simchas Torah, and he had a little l’chaim. Then the Frierdiker Rebbe said, “Temimim, you have everything. The Rebbe gives you everything. If you stay connected, the Rebbe will give you everything you need, materially and spiritually, and so on—and even the thing that troubles you.” That is what he said. The matter of the garments, the garments from your father and mother that clothe your souls: know that if you stay connected to the Rebbe, he will take care of

29:23 those garments for you too. That is what the Frierdiker Rebbe said. In other words, even in this matter, the connection to the Rebbe reaches the garments. The Rebbe can help put these matters right. So, as we come to this point in Tanya, the conclusion we reach is that we need to strengthen our connection to the Rebbe. And as is known from what is written in Hayom Yom, the ways to strengthen that connection include studying his teachings—halachah, Chassidus, and all the other matters.