Chapter 4 - Second Lesson

00:01 So before we continue in Tanya, let’s see where we are in chapter 4. The Alter Rebbe begins here to discuss the garments. He explains that the G-dly soul has three garments: thought, speech, and action, in which the 613 mitzvos of the Torah are found. First, the Alter Rebbe explains thought, speech, and action in general. A person has mitzvos performed through action, mitzvos performed through speech, and mitzvos performed through thought. Through these, a person’s soul and its faculties are clothed in the Torah’s 613 mitzvos. Now the Alter Rebbe has begun to explain this in greater detail. He said that there is Chabad—the intellectual faculties—within the soul. The soul’s faculties are divided, broadly speaking, into two categories, as we discussed in the previous chapter: intellect and emotions. The intellectual faculties of the soul are clothed primarily—and we’ll come to this—in the study and pursuit of Torah. Now the Alter Rebbe will discuss the soul’s emotions. As we said in the previous chapter, the emotions in general are love and awe. In detail, there are all the different emotions, but broadly speaking, as we discussed, there is the attribute of love and the attribute of awe: love and its branches, awe and its branches. In general, though, it is love and awe. So now the Alter Rebbe will explain how love and awe are the root of mitzvos performed through speech and action. Let’s read inside. The Alter Rebbe says: “And the emotions, which are awe and love and their branches and offshoots, are clothed in the fulfillment of the mitzvos through action and speech.” We’re talking about the emotions, love and awe, being clothed primarily in speech and action. That is to say, we mentioned thought, speech, and action. Certainly, love and awe exist not only in speech and action but also in thought. Of course, love and awe require thought as well. For a person to have love of Hashem and awe of Hashem, he also needs to think. Nevertheless, we’re speaking here about what is primary, in order to distinguish between them. The Alter Rebbe is explaining in greater detail that thought is primarily connected with the intellectual faculties.

02:27 And speech and action are primarily connected with the emotions. What is the reasoning behind this? Broadly speaking, the difference between intellect and emotions, as is well known and explained at length in Chassidus, in maamarim, is that intellect is for oneself, while emotions are directed toward another. This is explained in many places. One of them is in Likkutei Sichos on Parshas Pekudei, where the Rebbe explains at length the difference between intellect and emotions. Intellect is primarily for oneself. In simple terms, speaking about physical life, intellect is for oneself. Emotions are primarily directed toward another. This is also explained in a maamar about the mitzvah. Emotions concern one’s relationship with another. So the garment of thought, which is for oneself, is primarily connected with the intellectual faculties. That is why the Alter Rebbe says that it is especially in Torah study that the intellectual faculties are clothed in the garment of thought. Speech and action, by contrast, are the garments of the emotions. Since emotions are primarily directed toward another, they are clothed in speech and action, which are means of relating to what is outside oneself. Speech relates to another person, and action certainly relates to what is outside the person. That is why the Alter Rebbe says that the emotions are expressed primarily in speech and action. Now the Alter Rebbe will explain in detail why we say that the emotions are connected with performing mitzvos. Mitzvos in general come in two kinds: mitzvos of “turn away from evil” and mitzvos of “do good”—the 365 prohibitions and the 248 positive mitzvos. These correspond to the two broad categories of emotions we discussed, love and awe. The Alter Rebbe says: “And the emotions, which are awe and love and their branches and offshoots, are clothed in the fulfillment of the mitzvos through action and speech, which is Torah study, equal to them all.” When the Alter Rebbe mentions speech, he brings up Torah study. That is, although there are quite a number of mitzvos performed through speech—reciting Shema is a mitzvah performed through speech, and prayer is a mitzvah performed through speech, as the Alter Rebbe says

04:39 at the end of Likkutei Amarim—nevertheless, the Alter Rebbe singles out Torah study because it is the primary avodah throughout the day. The Alter Rebbe wants to discuss the beinoni and the beinoni’s avodah: serving Hakadosh Boruch Hu in thought, speech, and action throughout the day. So which mitzvah performed through speech is especially relevant to the beinoni’s avodah all day long? Speaking words of Torah. That is why, several times in Tanya, when the Alter Rebbe speaks about a mitzvah performed through speech, he mentions verbal Torah study. We can already see this in chapter 1, and likewise here. In any case, what else does the Alter Rebbe say? That the emotions are clothed in the performance of mitzvos, in speech and action. What is the explanation? The Alter Rebbe explains that love... He is going to explain now that the attribute of love is primarily connected with positive mitzvos, and the attribute of awe is primarily connected with prohibitions. Now, what is the Alter Rebbe trying to explain? How does this fit into what we’ve been discussing? What does the Alter Rebbe want to explain now? To understand the point a little more deeply, the Alter Rebbe wants to explain the word “garments.” On the one hand, the word “garments” emphasizes that they are something separate. They are not the person himself. A garment is something separate—that is what garments are. We discussed this in previous classes. It is something outside the person, the actions you perform. It is not you yourself. Intellect and emotions tell us who a person is; thought, speech, and action are what a person does. Okay, that’s one point. But here the Alter Rebbe also wants to emphasize another point. The word “garment” also means that the person clothes himself in it.

06:29 He is present in it; he becomes united with it. We speak of being clothed in garments. “Being clothed” means that there is something that clothes and something that is clothed: the higher is clothed in the lower. In other words, there is some unity here, some connection, some bond, some attachment between what is clothed and what clothes it. It’s like what we discussed in the previous class: when a person puts on clothing, the clothing usually does say something about him. A person dressed neatly and cleanly—that shows something about him. By nature, he is a more orderly person. And if his clothes are more, as they say, shleppy, a mess, that also says something about his inner self. Sometimes a person may conceal who he is. He wants to be a hidden tzaddik, so he puts on clothes that don’t match who he is, and to do that he has to put on an act. But as a general rule, what a person clothes himself in reveals something about him. In other words, there is a certain unity, a connection. Likewise here, we say that the emotions are clothed in the fulfillment of the mitzvos. Love is clothed in the positive mitzvos, and awe is clothed in the prohibitions. That means there is certainly a connection between positive mitzvos and the attribute of love, and between prohibitions and the attribute of awe. The Alter Rebbe is now going to explain what that connection is. So the Alter Rebbe says: “For love is the root of all 248 positive mitzvos.” The attribute of love in the soul is the root from which all 248 positive mitzvos come, and from it they are drawn forth. In simple terms, positive mitzvos flow from love. What does that mean, simply? It means something very straightforward: if I love someone, I will naturally do things for him. The Alter Rebbe will say this later on. He also says it in chapter 39.

08:26 At greater length. In general, what the Alter Rebbe writes here briefly, he will explain at greater length in the chapters that follow—chapters 38, 39, 40, and 41, where he discusses the whole subject of serving Hashem with love and awe in detail. There the Alter Rebbe explains what it means that love is the root of the 248 mitzvos and that they flow from it. We see this in ordinary life: when a person loves someone, there is the love itself. You feel close to them; you enjoy being with them and talking to them. But love finds expression in doing what they ask of you. If you love someone, you want to do things for them. The same is true Above, all the more so. A Jew loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The love itself is an emotion of the heart: “You shall love Hashem your G-d with all your heart.” He feels closeness and love. But the love does not remain just a feeling. It leads him to act—to do things that express his love and show it. That is the first point: love is the root of the 248 mitzvos, and they flow from it. Now the Alter Rebbe adds another point: “And without it, they have no true permanence.” The Alter Rebbe goes even further: the connection between love and fulfilling a mitzvah is so deep that without love, the mitzvah has no true permanence. In other words, the connection between love and the mitzvah touches the very nature of the mitzvah. As the Alter Rebbe will also explain at length in the following chapters, when a person does a mitzvah without any feeling, it is like “a mitzvah without intent is like a body without a soul.” A

10:17 person does a mitzvah without feeling or intent, and it is like a body without a soul. Everyone understands that a body without a soul cannot endure. In the physical world, we see the difference between a living body and a dead one. A living body endures; a dead body decays. The students are studying the maamarim of 5659 here now. In the maamar Shuvah Yisroel, it explains that we see physically that as long as the soul lives in the body, the body remains intact, healthy, and so on. It does not decay. The moment the soul departs from the body, the body immediately begins to decompose, until it decays completely. The same is true in serving Hashem. When a person fulfills mitzvos without a feeling of love and awe, he does fulfill them in practice, but over time they lose their vitality. He does them less, and with fewer hiddurim. He does them just to discharge his obligation, until gradually, rachmana litzlan, we see in practice that he stops altogether. He looks for leniencies, he looks for an excuse, and eventually he no longer even looks for an excuse. In other words, it loses its permanence. But when there is intent, when there is love and awe, the mitzvah endures. The vitality—the soul, the love and awe—gives the mitzvah permanence. That is another point. The Rebbe Rashab explains even more in Kuntres HaAhavah. It is not merely permanence; as the Alter Rebbe says precisely, it is true permanence. In practice, we plainly see many Jews who observe Torah and mitzvos their whole lives. They keep Shulchan Aruch their whole lives, but it does not have true permanence. There is more to it. True permanence, as the Rebbe Rashab explains there in Kuntres HaAhavah, means that the observance itself is of a different kind: it is done with a smile, with

12:15 geshmak, with hiddur, and with attention to detail. That is what true observance means: there is sincerity in the observance itself; there is a certain greatness to it. Because when a person fulfills mitzvos without love and awe, without vitality, even if he may in fact fulfill a mitzvah his whole life, it is called “mitzvos performed by rote,” and mitzvos performed by rote lack truth. That is how it is in practice. Certainly, actually fulfilling the mitzvos is the main thing, but the truth is missing. What does it mean that the truth is missing? The G-dliness is missing; the investment in serving Hakadosh Boruch Hu is missing. So he merely does it in practice. And all that devotion and investment is missing, which also shows in practice: the hiddur of the mitzvah is missing, as is the bittul to Hakadosh Boruch Hu in doing it. All of these things are lacking. But when there is love of Hashem, the mitzvah is done in an entirely different way. That, essentially, is the deeper meaning of enclothing, as with the soul and body. When I say that a soul becomes enclothed in a body, it becomes a completely different body. With the soul enclothed in it, it is a living body, not merely the same body. It is a different kind of body. The body is alive. There is bittul in the body, vitality in the body, movement in the body. The body itself is transformed into a different body, a different kind of being. Similarly, when love becomes enclothed in the fulfillment of a mitzvah, it is a different kind of mitzvah, one that has true permanence. “And they have no true permanence without it, for the one who truly fulfills them is someone who loves the Name of Hashem and desires to cleave to Him in truth.” As we said, this is so that fulfilling the mitzvos will be a true fulfillment. What does

14:08 true fulfillment mean? As we said, it means fulfilling them with a connection to Hakadosh Boruch Hu—with bittul, with devotion, with investment, in a way that we truly feel something G-dly in the fulfillment itself. “He loves the Name of Hashem and desires to cleave to Him in truth.” When you have love of Hashem, when there is love of Hashem, then the fulfillment of that love, its expression, will be through the mitzvos. He “loves the Name of Hashem and desires to cleave to Him in truth.” This is a person who loves Hashem and truly wants to be attached to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “And one cannot truly cleave to Him except by fulfilling the 248 precepts, which are, so to speak, the 248 limbs of the King, as it is written, etc.” The person wants to cleave to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and he knows that true attachment to Hakadosh Boruch Hu is possible only when you fulfill the mitzvah, where Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present. What does that mean? Let us explain. There is a very powerful point here that the Alter Rebbe wants to emphasize. What is he trying to emphasize with all this discussion about fulfilling the mitzvos? Why is love of Hashem so important to fulfilling the mitzvos? We said, first of all, simply, that if you love someone, you want to do what they ask of you. So love brings you to the mitzvos. But there is more, says the Alter Rebbe: love does not merely lead to the mitzvah; it becomes enclothed within it. That means the mitzvah itself is a different kind of mitzvah. With love, it is a mitzvah with vitality. It is not the same mitzvah. Then the Alter Rebbe adds here that one cannot truly cleave to Him except by fulfilling the mitzvos. What third point does the Alter Rebbe want to add here? There is a very great difference between the analogy and what it represents—between a person who loves someone else and therefore does what they ask, and a Jew who loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu. A world of difference. When a person loves someone else in ordinary life,

16:11 in human relationships, in “love your fellow as yourself,” we are speaking about love between people. Then love is the main thing—the feeling is the main thing. We love each other; we are friends. In connecting with every Jew, the feeling of love is the essential point. The act is only its practical expression, its result. I love you—that is the main thing. So if you ask me for something, and I love you, I will do it too. If I do not do it, that means I do not love you quite so much. In other words, the act is only the result of love; the main thing is love itself. But between a Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu, it is the opposite. Think about it logically. When it comes to a Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu, love is utterly beyond comparison. A person is a created being, saying, “I love Hakadosh Boruch Hu.” But there is no comparison at all between the created being and the Creator. Creator and created being are incomparable. To say, “I love and unite with Hakadosh Boruch Hu”—who are you, after all? Creator and created being are incomparable, so we cannot say that a created being can unite with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Again, when two people are both created beings, there is a connection. At their core they are connected. So once there is a bond of love, that itself is already the connection. Afterward, you also do things to strengthen that love. But with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the feeling of love on its own accomplishes nothing, because a person and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are not comparable at all. So a true connection cannot come about through feeling alone. How, then, can there really be a connection between a Jew—a human being—and the Creator, between Creator and created being? That depends on the Creator, not on the created being. Hakadosh Boruch Hu, Who is beyond all comparison, as the Alter Rebbe is about to explain, can say how

18:14 I want you to connect with me. And Hakadosh Boruch Hu says: I want you to connect with Me through mitzvos. That is where I am; I am in the mitzvos. Without mitzvos, I am not there. So when a Jew goes on mivtzoim, when a bochur goes on mivtzoim, and you say to a Jew, “Come put on tefillin,” and he tells you, “I love Hakadosh Boruch Hu in my heart. I’m a Jew in my heart”—what does “a Jew in my heart” mean? There is no connection between you and Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Being a Jew in your heart is a very beautiful thing, a good thing, but love alone does not connect you with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. To connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, you have to do what He wants, not what you want. You think your feelings connect you with Him? That depends on what He wants. He wants tefillin. Hakadosh Boruch Hu says: I want tefillin. That is the way. Where am I? In tefillin. “The 248 limbs of the King”—the mitzvos are the King’s limbs, and that is where I am. That is what the Alter Rebbe says: “It is impossible to truly cleave to Him except through the fulfillment of mitzvos.” Of course—and again, of course—you can also connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu through love itself, because love, too, is a mitzvah. There is also love: “You shall love Hashem your G-d,” the verse in Shema Yisroel, love, and so on. So love itself also creates a connection. But this is what the Alter Rebbe says: “It is impossible to truly cleave to Him.” True cleaving to Hakadosh Boruch Hu comes through what He wants, as the Alter Rebbe will explain in more detail. The Arizal says that even a completely righteous person who loves Hashem with great love and delight still has a sense of self. With love, there is someone doing the loving. That is not bittul; those are your feelings. Very beautiful, a wonderful thing. But the connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not built on a sense of self. It is built on bittul, and bittul means

20:19 what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants mitzvos—the King’s limbs. What does “limbs” mean? Limbs are where the soul is present. The soul clothes itself in the limbs; mitzvos are, as it were, the limbs of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is within the mitzvah, so the only way to unite with Him is by fulfilling the mitzvos. So, then, we have learned three points here in Tanya. Why do we say that love is the root of the 248 positive mitzvos? First, because it is the root from which they flow: love will bring you to action, to do these things. Second, because love is present within the mitzvah. It is the life of the mitzvah, its true fulfillment. And third, as the Alter Rebbe says, you cannot connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu in a true way unless it leads to actually performing mitzvos. That is His will, and so these are His limbs; that is where He is. The truth is that the prohibitions, too, can be observed out of love—not only the positive mitzvos. But Tanya speaks here about positive mitzvos. Really, the prohibitions can also be observed out of love. If you love someone, you will not only do things for him; you also will not hurt him. You do not need fear for that. Love, too, can lead you to observe the prohibitions. Simply put, if I love you, I will not do things that bother you. If you love your roommate, you will not turn on music while he is trying to sleep, right? Or you will not make a mess in the room and throw your—your clothes on the floor, because you know that bothers him. In other words, love is connected not only with doing good for another person. Out of love, you also will not do him

22:19 harm; you will not do things that bother him. Nevertheless, the Alter Rebbe emphasizes that love is the root specifically of “doing good,” for the reason we mentioned. In actually “turning away from evil,” there is no action, nothing tangible. The Alter Rebbe wants to speak about love being clothed in an act. That happens primarily through positive action: you do things, and those actions have life in them. A prohibition, by contrast, is primarily about not doing something. It is a negative movement. So the Alter Rebbe emphasizes positive mitzvos. But really, as brought in Likkutei Torah, Ma Tovu, and in several other places, the Alter Rebbe does not mean specifically the 248 positive mitzvos. The truth is that all 613 mitzvos can be fulfilled in two ways. You can fulfill a mitzvah from the perspective of what is forbidden and what is permitted, or you can fulfill it from the perspective of “doing good.” In other words, I can observe a prohibition, too, with the intention that I want closeness, I want to cleave to Him, and that is why I also observe the prohibitions. In particular, as brought in Likkutei Torah, Pekudei, the prohibitions draw down something even higher than the positive mitzvos, and so on. In any case, by Divine providence, you know that this passage in Tanya is studied on 11 Nissan. In an ordinary year, if I am not mistaken—an ordinary year or a leap year, I cannot remember right now. But it is interesting that this passage in Tanya, this discussion of love—that if you love someone, you will do everything that needs to be done for him—is the daily portion. Yes, in an ordinary year we study it on 11 Nissan. The Alter Rebbe says, at the end of chapter 39, “A person does nothing for his fellow to fulfill his wishes unless he loves him or fears him.” In other words, love is what moves

24:10 you to do good. It is interesting, because this connects with what we have been discussing during the month, about bringing a gift to the Rebbe for 11 Nissan, with the whole campaign in which the friends study and serve as mentors. What does love mean? It is explained by what is written in the Tanya portion for 11 Nissan. If you love someone, that love expresses itself in actions—actions in which you know he is present. So you study Torah, you go on mivtzoim, you take action, you do things in which you know his will is present, and through them you connect yourself to him. That is the idea of the gift we have been discussing and preparing. It is remarkable that this appears precisely in the Tanya portion for 11 Nissan. Divine provi—