Chapter 3 - First Lesson

00:00 Today we’re starting chapter 3 of Likkutei Amarim. In the first two chapters of Tanya, the Alter Rebbe explained the two souls in general terms. In chapter 1, he explained the animal soul. In chapter 2, he explained the G-dly soul. He explained the essential difference between them. The animal soul, in its essence, is a sense of self. Its various aspects include negative traits and bad middos, and it also has good middos. But when those good middos are built on a sense of self, they are still part of the animal soul. Then there is the G-dly soul, which is literally a part of G-d above. In chapter 2, the Alter Rebbe explained the essence of the G-dly soul: every Jew, no matter who, even the least of the transgressors of Israel, has a soul that comes from Chochmah, the supernal Chochmah, the Chochmah above. That is why every Jew has a connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He has life in G-dliness; he has a connection with G-dliness to the point of mesirus nefesh, as we’ll learn in the coming chapters—particularly through connecting to the heads of the Jewish people, connecting to the Rebbe, to the tzaddik. The Rebbe is the mind, the mind of the son that connects him to the mind of the father. Broadly speaking, that was the first two chapters of Tanya: the Alter Rebbe explained the two souls in general, the animal soul and the G-dly soul. Now, in chapter 3, the Alter Rebbe is going to examine the soul’s faculties. That’s the order of Tanya: in each chapter, the Alter Rebbe teaches us another part of how to know ourselves, to know the soul, how a person is made up, what a person is. So in chapter 3 we’re going to learn about the faculties of the soul. In other words, in chapter 2 we learned about the soul itself, the G-dly soul, but we were speaking about the soul’s essence. The soul’s essence comes from Chochmah—koach mah, the power of “what”—which is within His blessed wisdom, which is G-dliness. That is the general bittul, the essential bittul,

02:24 the bittul of yechidah, or mesirus nefesh—whatever we call it. But here, in chapter 3, the Alter Rebbe begins speaking about the soul’s faculties, the inner faculties that make up a person. The soul has ten faculties. We’ll begin learning this in the text now. The Alter Rebbe says: “And behold, each level…” Before I go into the text, it’s very important to emphasize: the Alter Rebbe isn’t just giving us information in Tanya. It isn’t merely a book of information, a book of facts or Kabbalah, telling us how a person is structured and various other things. Tanya is, in a special way, a book about serving Hashem. It teaches the particular approach that the Alter Rebbe teaches us, and every chapter of Tanya gives us a path in serving Hashem—the distinctive path of Chabad Chassidus. Tanya is “a long and short way,” as he said in the introduction to Tanya, on the title page: “For it is very close to you.” So too, as we now come to chapter 3, after learning about the essence of the animal soul and the essence of the G-dly soul—which is foundational to all of Tanya, knowing that there are two souls, not just one soul, and that there is a struggle, and so on, as we’ll learn later—we are going to understand the faculties of the soul. This isn’t only so that we’ll know what faculties we have, though that too is extremely important. A person needs to know what tools he has, what he has to work with, what faculties he has. But there is also a fundamental point here that relates to the whole approach of Chabad Chassidus. Knowing that the soul has ten faculties, made up of intellect and middos, relates to the whole approach of Chabad Chassidus. Chabad, of course, stands for Chochmah, Binah, Daas. Chabad says that serving Hashem must be inner work: we cannot be satisfied with merely external practice,

04:19 but the work must also be inner work. That means changing the person from within as well, so that he also has “in your heart”—love of Hashem and fear of Hashem. And for there to be “in your heart” even for a beinoni, who isn’t a tzaddik, an ordinary person—he too is expected to have “in your heart,” to the extent that it can be expected of an ordinary person—that takes intellect; it takes contemplation. Understanding the soul’s faculties and how our faculties are structured helps us know how we can serve Hashem inwardly. That is why chapter 3 is a fundamental chapter in Chabad Chassidus. The Alter Rebbe says: “And behold, each level of these three—nefesh, ruach, and neshamah…” In chapter 2, the Alter Rebbe mentioned—he didn’t elaborate, but he mentioned briefly, in passing—that there is nefesh, ruach, and neshamah. In other words, he introduced these terms, and from that we understand that these aren’t just three names but three levels. They aren’t merely names. When we say that the soul is called nefesh, ruach, and neshamah, it means that the soul has three levels: the level of nefesh, the level of ruach, and the level of neshamah. Now, generally speaking, as is known and explained in the maamarim—one maamar where you can see it in the text, explained at length and in a very engaging way, is a Purim maamar from the year [?]. There the Rebbe explains very beautifully and engagingly the difference between nefesh, ruach, and neshamah. In general, nefesh is the level of the soul associated with actual practice: thought, speech, and action. Ruach is the service of Hashem associated primarily with the work of the middos. And neshamah is the service of Hashem associated with mochin, with intellect. And here the Alter Rebbe tells us not to make the mistake of thinking that neshamah is

06:10 only Chabad, only mochin; that ruach is only middos; and that nefesh is only thought, speech, and action. The Alter Rebbe says: No. Each one is a complete structure. Nefesh has ten faculties, ruach has ten faculties, and neshamah has ten faculties. So although I say that neshamah is primarily mochin, I don’t mean that neshamah is only Chochmah, Binah, and Daas. Neshamah is a complete structure. There is a way of serving Hashem on the level of neshamah: a Jew serves Hashem with intellect and middos, with thought, speech, and action, but he is on the level of neshamah. He serves Hashem with what the Rebbe will call, in a chapter of Tanya, “intellectual love and fear.” He serves Hashem with love and fear, and his service of Hashem is expressed in thought, speech, and action. But for him, the main thing, his essential character, is the level of neshamah. He is a neshamah-type Jew, a Jew of mochin. His service of Hashem is the service of mochin. And similarly with ruach: a Jew whose service of Hashem is the work of the middos also has mochin, middos, and action. But his primary character is that he is a person of middos. His service is primarily natural love and fear—what you call the realm of the middos. And similarly with nefesh: a nefesh-type Jew is a Jew of kabbolas ol. That Jew, too, needs to have the foundations; he needs love and fear. After all, kabbolas ol requires the whole structure. But the main thing for him is kabbolas ol, and his kabbolas ol, too, needs all the elements. That is what the Alter Rebbe means here by the words “comprises ten aspects.” Each of the three—nefesh, ruach, and neshamah—has ten aspects.

08:01 There are ten faculties in the nefesh, ten in the ruach, and ten in the neshamah. Why do I say there are ten faculties in each? The Alter Rebbe says: corresponding to the Ten Supernal Sefiros. Why does a Jew have ten faculties of the soul to work with? Because above, in G-dliness, there are ten sefiros. In other words, what is the Alter Rebbe telling us? Following what we said in chapter 2: the G-dly soul is literally a part of G-d above. It comes from Hakadosh Boruch Hu; it is literally a part of G-d above. So since the G-dly soul is literally a part of G-d above, and G-dliness has not only chochmah but ten sefiros, and the soul comes from G-dliness, from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, it follows that just as there are ten sefiros in G-dliness, the soul too corresponds to the Ten Supernal Sefiros. Just as G-dliness has ten sefiros, the soul has ten faculties. And the Alter Rebbe adds: “which descended from them.” Here, too, is a very, very fundamental point. The Alter Rebbe is not just using words casually. Every word here is very important in serving Hashem, in the foundations of Chassidus, of Tanya, and of serving Hashem. The Alter Rebbe says that the ten faculties descended from the Ten Supernal Sefiros. When we speak of an analogy—what is it called?—one of the foundations of Chassidus, particularly Chabad Chassidus, is, as is known, that the Alter Rebbe said he came to reveal the analogy: to reveal that the soul, the Jew, the human being, is an analogy for G-dliness. A person might look at it and say, fine, it is an analogy. A human being is an analogy for G-dliness. That is, there is the analogy and there is what it represents. Above, in G-dliness, there is the analogy of a king: it speaks there of a king, Hakadosh Boruch Hu above, and there is a king

10:12 below. So from a king below, I understand the King above. In the same way, I say that from the person below I can understand the sefirah above. But that would be only an analogy. The Alter Rebbe says: “which descended from them.” A person’s ten faculties of the soul are not just a resemblance—ten here and ten there, an analogy. Rather, the analogy descends from what it represents. The human being descends from above. Since the human being below descends from the Adam above—the Supernal Adam, as is known; Chassidus cites the holy Shelah and the Kabbalists on the meaning of “Adam,” the Supernal Adam—so just as above, in G-dliness, so to speak, there are ten sefiros, they descended from them. It is not merely a resemblance. Rather, the ten sefiros above came down through a process of descent into the soul below. So the ten faculties of the soul are, in fact, a continuation, a descent from the ten sefiros above. Why is this so important? Because it helps us understand that the faculties of our souls are G-dly faculties. It helps us understand the extent of a person’s ability: how a person, with his intellect, can understand G-dliness. A person can study and understand G-dliness, contemplate the oneness and greatness of Hashem, and come to love and fear Hashem; to cleave to Him, as we discussed earlier, by cleaving to His attributes: “Just as He is gracious, so should you be gracious,” “just as He is righteous,” and so on—all the expressions that are written. This is not just a nice saying, that a person can work hard and perhaps... Rather, the point is that this is where you come from. This is your essence. Since the ten faculties of the soul descended from them, they are, in fact, a descent of the ten sefiros above. Therefore, the ten faculties of the soul are vessels for the ten sefiros above, and a person can connect with G-dliness through his ten faculties. His intellect is, in essence, G-dly intellect that has come down here below,

12:30 and therefore I can understand G-dliness. Divine chessed descended below and became the faculty of chessed, so through my chessed I can express “chessed is the right arm”—the chessed of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Similarly, my love of Hashem is a love whose “sparks are sparks of fire, a flame of G-d.” It becomes love of Hashem, a Jew’s love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. It is that same love, and so it is with all the other faculties of the soul. This is relevant to everything the Alter Rebbe will explain later: a Jew has the ability, through his ten faculties of the soul, to become completely united with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is the significance of the precise phrase “descended from them.” There is a well-known story chassidim tell about Reb Hillel of Paritch. They say that Reb Hillel was originally a chossid of Novi[?]. Later he became close to the Alter Rebbe; there is a long story of how he came to the Alter Rebbe. Around Parshas Amalek, Parshas Zachor, there are the famous stories of how Reb Hillel came to Chassidus. They relate—and this is written in Likkutei Dibburim—that Reb Hillel of Paritch was asked what had changed for him when he studied Chassidus. There are two stories. There is another well-known one connected with studying Tanya: Reb Hillel said that until he studied Tanya, he thought he was a tzaddik. Reb Hillel truly was on a very high level, but when he studied Tanya, he said, “Me, a tzaddik? If only I were a beinoni! Certainly not a tzaddik. If only I could be a beinoni as described in Tanya.” That is another well-known saying attributed to Reb Hillel. The Rebbe repeated it many times. But there is another saying of Reb Hillel’s connected with chapter 3: he said that until he studied Chassidus, he hated his body.

14:18 He hated his body. Why? Because the body concealed G-dliness. He hated himself, hated... Because what conceals G-dliness more than anything? The human being, with his sense of self and his ego, with physicality and desires. He simply felt revulsion; he was repelled by his body and by his own existence. When he began studying Tanya and reached chapter 3, and the Alter Rebbe revealed to him the secret of “descended from them”—that everything in a person is, in fact, a descent from those things as they exist above—he automatically developed respect for the body, for the soul, and for his entire existence. So much so that, as he put it, he understood that the human being—his existence, his soul, his body, all the faculties of his soul, the whole person—is essentially, what was the expression he used? Binoculars. What do you call it? Huh? No. The thing you use to see distant things close up. A telescope. Huh? Yes, something like that. Everyone is right. What do you call it in English when you see distant things as though they were closer? So for him, the body became a telescope for seeing Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Through the body, one can reach the faculties, the lights, the essential meaning of “descended from them.” That is what the Alter Rebbe revealed to him in chapter 3 of Tanya. He then began to take care of his body, to look after his health, and so on. There are a number of stories connected with this. In any case, let me return to our subject. This is what the Alter Rebbe is telling us here: the ten faculties of the soul descend from the ten sefiros above. “And they are divided into two.” Now, the ten faculties, like the ten sefiros, are divided into two groups: “three mothers and seven doubles.” Above, among the Ten Supernal Sefiros, we also say that the sefiros are divided into two groups. There are the first three, which Tanya calls the “three mothers,” and the lower seven, which it calls here the “seven doubles.” Just a few words: what does “three mothers and seven doubles” mean?

16:35 Sefer Yetzirah says that there are twenty-two letters. The alphabet has twenty-two letters, and they are divided into three groups. That is what it says in Sefer Yetzirah. There are three letters called “mothers.” They are the sources, the most important, central letters of the entire alphabet: alef, mem, and shin. These three letters are called the three mothers. “Mothers” means sources, just as a mother is a source. So there are three letters that are the sources: alef, mem, and shin. Why these three? There is an explanation, but we will not go into all the explanations now. Then there are seven doubled letters. These are letters that have a hard and a soft pronunciation, like beis and veis, or kaf and chaf. There are seven such letters. In the language we speak today, we do not know exactly how to distinguish all of them. We know beis and veis, kaf and chaf, and pei and fei. But there is also tav and sav. And there are two kinds of gimmel and two kinds of dalet. In any case, there are seven letters called doubled letters, with and without a dagesh. According to Kabbalah, there are another twelve letters. Three, seven, and twelve make twenty-two. The other twelve are called simple letters. They are neither doubled nor unique. This division develops from their roots. The three mothers are chochmah, binah, and daas. The seven doubled letters are the middos, because the middos have

18:43 two forms. With middos, there is always a middah of Tohu and a middah of Tikkun. That is why they are called doubled: there are harsher middos and gentler middos, just as a letter can be pronounced with or without a dagesh. The twelve are called the twelve diagonal boundaries. The maamar discusses this at length: the twelve diagonal boundaries correspond to the twelve simple letters. So this is the structure of the sefiros above. The Alter Rebbe says that just as in G-dliness above there is a division into three mothers and seven doubled letters—meaning that chochmah, binah, and daas are the mothers, and the seven days of creation are the doubled letters, chesed, gevurah, tiferes, and so on. Here the Alter Rebbe introduces another term. None of these terms is arbitrary; we will come to it later in Tanya too. The seven days of creation: the seven middos are called the days of creation. Why? Because the intellectual faculties are above the world. We learn this in the bar mitzvah maamar; everyone remembers. The intellectual faculties are set apart from the world. For a person, intellect is inward-facing, while a middah relates to another. Similarly, above, with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, chochmah, binah, and daas are beyond any connection to the worlds. The middos, by contrast: “Remember Your mercy and Your kindness, for they have been from of old”; “The world is built through kindness.” The middos are connected to the building of the worlds. That is why there are seven days in the week, corresponding to the seven days of creation. Those seven days express the connection to the worlds. In other words, the Alter Rebbe wants to tell us that, as we say regarding G-dliness, there is a very great, essential difference between the intellectual faculties and the middos. With Hakadosh Boruch Hu, chochmah, binah, and daas are beyond any connection to the worlds; they are set apart. The seven middos build the worlds—they are the seven days of creation. So everyone understands that there is a great distance between them. But

20:42 nevertheless, the intellectual faculties influence the middos. Even above, the seven days of creation receive their influence from chochmah, binah, and daas. It says, “You made them all with wisdom.” The creation of the world came from the chochmah and binah above as they are invested in the middos. But in themselves, the intellectual faculties are set apart; they are above the worlds. What actually acts upon the worlds? The seven middos. In the same way, we can understand the human soul. Why does the Alter Rebbe bring this up here? Because it matters for what follows in the maamar—in Tanya, excuse me. We are now going to learn in Tanya about the entire matter of working on the middos, and how necessary that work is in order to bring about actual action. The Alter Rebbe will explain later in Tanya that for a person to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu in thought, speech, and action, he must work on his middos. He needs love and fear of Hashem. But what is being asked of you? Not a tzaddik’s love of Hashem. A beinoni’s love of Hashem is enough, and that will lead him to act. This is the idea of the seven days of creation. Just as we say that above, Hashem created the world and its beings through the seven middos, so too, the middos in the human soul bring vitality to the observance of mitzvos. They bring vitality to service in practice. Love is the root of doing good, and fear is the root of turning away from evil. That is what sustains practical service. For the middos to develop, they need the intellectual faculties, but the intellectual faculties are more set apart. In essence, they are on a higher level. They are the mother. This is what the Alter Rebbe goes on to say: “And so, the human soul is divided into two: intellect and middos.” The human soul, too, is divided into two, called intellect and middos. Interestingly, when speaking about G-dliness, the Alter Rebbe did not say “intellect and middos.” Above, he did not use those words. But when speaking about the human soul, he does. The reason is simple:

22:39 The Alter Rebbe wants to tell us that above, we cannot call Hakadosh Boruch Hu “intellect” or “middos.” “He is wise, but not with a knowable wisdom. He understands, but not with a knowable understanding.” The sefiros above are certainly incomparably higher. Nevertheless, something descends from them, from the sefiros above, into the human soul below. “And so, the human soul is divided into two: intellect and middos.” The intellect includes chochmah, binah, and daas, while the middos are love of Hashem, dread, fear, and so on. Here the Alter Rebbe mentions only the primary middos. At the end of the chapter, he will say that among the middos there are primary middos and branches. Netzach, hod, and yesod are the branches, whereas chesed, gevurah, and tiferes are the primary ones. In other words, when we speak about middos, some are the principal middos—the emotions of the heart. Chesed, gevurah, and tiferes are emotional middos. There is love, fear, and compassion, which are expressed through chesed, gevurah, and tiferes. Netzach, hod, and yesod concern conveying that influence. They are not emotional traits in the same sense. They are more about acting, about bringing these matters into practice. That is why they are called branches, and why the Alter Rebbe mainly emphasizes the primary middos. He says “dread and fear”—two aspects of fear, one in the mind and one in the heart. He mentions both. We need to understand why. In any case, the Alter Rebbe says that Chabad—chochmah, binah, and daas—are called “mothers.” Why are they called mothers? As we said, “mothers” here does not mean that each one is literally a mother. We will soon see that chochmah is the father, only binah is the mother, and daas is the connection between father and mother. So why emphasize “mothers”? Because here the word means “source.” The word em, “mother,” can mean “source” in the language of the Sages, in Aramaic. That is why they are called mothers: Chabad is the source of the middos.

24:47 They are the mothers because, quite simply, they are the source. That is also why a mother is called a mother. In any case, “mother” here means that the intellectual faculties are the source of the middos, because the middos are born from Chabad. What is he emphasizing? Again, as we have discussed, every detail in Tanya concerns the service of Hashem. The Alter Rebbe wants to say: Remember that the middos need the intellectual faculties. The middos are like children who need parents. If you want to awaken love and fear of Hashem, they cannot arise on their own. They must be awakened through contemplation. Contemplation is a matter of chochmah, binah, and daas. That is the mother, the source. Through intellectual contemplation and work in matters of G-dliness, the middos are revealed—offspring, such as chesed. The middos are born from the intellect, and the precise point is that they are born from it. That does not mean the intellect creates them. It only gives birth to them, bringing them from concealment into revelation. In truth, every Jew has love and fear of Hashem, as we will see later. But to reveal them and bring them into practice, the whole process of contemplation is needed. Only through that can the middos be born.