Chapter 4 - Fourth Lesson

00:00 So we’re continuing in Tanya. We stopped in the middle of chapter 4, and today we’ll pick up exactly where we left off. A major subject begins here, one that is fundamental to the entire Tanya: the unique quality of the garments of thought, speech, and action. We all know that Tanya is the book of the beinoni. Its central point is to explain the beinoni’s unique quality: the main purpose of the beinoni’s avodah lies specifically in the garments of thought, speech, and action. This is the purpose of the soul’s descent into this world, and this is what it means to make a dwelling place for Hashem in the lower realms. The whole Tanya revolves around this. And it really begins here, in the middle of chapter 4. To follow the progression: in chapter 1, the Alter Rebbe explained what the animal soul is. In chapter 2, he explained the nature of the G-dly soul. In chapter 3, he explained the faculties of the G-dly soul—the ten faculties of the soul in general, the intellectual and emotional faculties. In chapter 4, the Alter Rebbe began explaining the garments. The G-dly soul has garments: thought, speech, and action, in which the intellect and emotions are clothed. These are the garments associated with the 613 mitzvos. There are mitzvos of thought, mitzvos of speech, and mitzvos of action. The main thing in a mitzvah is the action. And the soul is clothed in them: the intellect and emotions are clothed in these three garments. There are mitzvos connected with thought, purity, and so on. There are mitzvos connected with speech, and many mitzvos connected with action. And we need the soul’s faculties of love and fear: love gives us the strength to “do good,” and fear gives us the strength to “turn away from evil.” That’s what the Alter Rebbe has explained so far. Now he begins to explain the unique quality of the garments. At first glance, calling something a garment implies that it is on a lower level. A garment is lower than a faculty. We see this in the physical world: a person has clothing

02:32 that he wears. Clothing is something lower; it’s a garment, something external. The person himself is his soul and body. Clothing is just something external that one puts on for others. If I call thought, speech, and action “garments” in relation to the soul, that means they are external, on a lower level. That makes sense at first glance, too. Thought is merely a garment; it’s something one does. Speech is a garment—it’s only for others. Action is even more of a garment: it is something one does, something external. Nevertheless, the Alter Rebbe now introduces a remarkable idea: on the contrary, it is specifically the garments that bring about an extraordinary ascent in the soul. So let’s begin learning it inside the text. “Now these three garments, which come from the Torah and its mitzvos, though they are called garments for the nefesh, ruach, and neshamah...” On the one hand, I’m saying that they’re merely garments. Why? Because they are something external: thought, speech, and action. They are activities in relation to the soul—seemingly external activities, just as clothing is external in relation to the body. So I call them garments in relation to the nefesh, ruach, and neshamah. “Nevertheless, their level is infinitely higher and greater than the level of the nefesh, ruach, and neshamah themselves.” The Alter Rebbe says that, on the contrary, the garments have a special quality—and not just any quality. Because the Torah and mitzvos are found in the garments, because Hashem gave us Torah and mitzvos specifically in connection with the soul’s garments, the garments are therefore on a far higher level than the nefesh, ruach, and neshamah themselves. Higher “than the level of the nefesh, ruach, and neshamah themselves. As stated in the Zohar, ‘The Torah and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are entirely one.’” The Zohar says, “The Torah and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are entirely one.” That is to say, this is said specifically of the Torah—“Torah” here means Torah and mitzvos. It is specifically of Torah and mitzvos that we say, “The Torah and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are

04:42 entirely one”—one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. We don’t say that about the soul. We don’t say, “The Jewish people and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are entirely one.” We say it about the Torah: “The Torah and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are entirely one.” “Meaning: the Torah is the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu.” The Alter Rebbe explains that “Torah” doesn’t mean only Torah study. It includes mitzvos as well: His wisdom and His will. Torah and mitzvos are both included in the term “Torah.” They are the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and they and Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself are entirely one. The Torah—Torah and mitzvos—and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are literally one. So this is the quality the garments possess that the nefesh, ruach, and neshamah do not. We don’t say “entirely one” about the nefesh, ruach, and neshamah; we do say it about Torah and mitzvos. Now a simple question arises, one that any young man learning the basics of Chassidus would ask: What do you mean we don’t say “entirely one” about the Jewish people? We all know that Chassidus constantly says, “The Jewish people, the Torah, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are entirely one.” Maamarim often say that the Jewish people and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are entirely one. So just as this is written about the Torah, the same thing is written about the soul. Suddenly the Alter Rebbe comes along and says: No, we say “entirely one” only about the Torah, but not about the nefesh, ruach, and neshamah. What does that mean? The Rebbe gives an interesting answer to this in a letter. The Rebbe says that, in fact, there is no source for that saying as a teaching of our Sages. The Zohar does not say, “The Jewish people, the Torah, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are entirely one.” There is no such passage in the Zohar. The Zohar does say, “The Torah and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are entirely one.” But concerning the Jewish people, it says, “Three bonds are bound together.” That comes from another passage in the Zohar, which people combined with the first. And in Chassidus, the Rebbeim did indeed speak this way. But even if we look closely at the Zohar’s wording, the familiar phrase about the Jewish people, the Torah, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu

06:55 does not say there that they are “entirely one.” It says “three bonds,” or, in another version, “three levels bound to one another”: there are three bonds—the Jewish people, the Torah, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “Bonds” and “one” are two different things. Bonds are connections between two things that are tied together. Of course, when you tie them, they become connected, but they are fundamentally two things that are being joined. That is what is written concerning the Jewish people, the Torah, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That’s one passage in the Zohar. It describes a connection: a Jew connects with the Torah, and the Torah connects with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Chassidus says even more—that there is also a connection between the Jewish people and Hakadosh Boruch Hu—but it, too, is described in terms of bonds. Fundamentally, these are two things that become united. But there is a separate teaching in the Zohar about the Torah, and what it says about the Torah is unique: “The Torah and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are entirely one.” There it uses the word “one,” meaning that they are one in essence. They are not two things that become united; they are one to begin with. And that is easy to understand. Since the Torah is the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu and His wisdom are one, the Torah is, so to speak, Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. In other words, what the Zohar teaches us—particularly in light of what the Alter Rebbe is about to explain here in chapters 4 and 5—is that Torah and mitzvos are not just what we might ordinarily think they are. What are Torah and mitzvos? We might think that Hashem gave us ways to conduct ourselves and live in the world. We say in the familiar prayer, “Blessed is He, our G-d, Who gave us the Torah of truth and planted eternal life within us.” Hashem wanted to teach us how to behave, how to be good Jews and observe Torah and mitzvos. So He gave us Torah and mitzvos, teaching us how to get up in the morning, how to go to sleep, how to eat, what to eat, and how to keep Shabbos. These are ways to serve Hashem

09:01 in the world. The Zohar comes along and says: No. Torah and mitzvos are something much deeper. Torah and mitzvos are the way a Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu become one. What are Torah and mitzvos? They are, so to speak, Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. “The Torah and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are one.” And when a Jew studies Torah and fulfills mitzvos, through them he becomes one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The soul, by contrast, is itself a created being. It is a part of G-d above. The soul also comes from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, as we learned in chapter 2. That raises another question: How can the Alter Rebbe suddenly say here that the soul needs Torah, and that only of Torah do we say it is one with Him? After all, the Alter Rebbe himself said in chapter 2 that the soul is truly a part of G-d above. So why do we need Torah? The answer is that the soul is indeed truly a part of G-d above, but through its descent it becomes distinct. That is clear from what we learned in chapter 2 as well. The soul is a son. Look, he explained in chapter 2 that the soul is like a son. True, the son comes from the very brain of his father and is rooted in his father’s wisdom, and that is why we said all those lofty things about the soul. But in practice, the son is distinct from the father. He comes from his father’s brain, but he becomes a separate existence. Of course, the son’s mind has a connection with his father—all the things the Alter Rebbe said in chapter 2. But the bottom line is that the soul descended below and became a created being, a distinct existence. In the wording of the prayers we say, “The soul You have given me is pure; You created it.” So through its descent, the soul became a created being, and we cannot call the soul “one” in that sense. Through Torah and mitzvos, though—with Torah and mitzvos

11:17 we do say “one.” And that is what the Alter Rebbe says here: “Their virtue is infinitely higher and greater than that of nefesh, ruach, and neshamah.” The nefesh and neshamah come from Hakadosh Boruch Hu; they are a part of G-d. But because the soul descended below, it became a distinct existence, a created being. Torah and mitzvos are different: they remain one with Him. Even now they are the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu; even now, their essence has not changed. That is why their virtue is infinitely higher and greater than that of the soul itself. So the soul’s garments, which contain Torah and mitzvos, are incomparably higher than the soul itself. One is a created being; the other is Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. The Alter Rebbe continues: “For He is the Knower and He is the Knowledge,” and so on. When he comes to Torah, he says, “He is the Knower and He is the Knowledge.” Here too, we see how wonderfully precise every word in Tanya is. In chapter 2, when the Alter Rebbe spoke about the soul, he also cited the Rambam. He says here, “as stated above in the name of the Rambam.” The Alter Rebbe already cited that Rambam in chapter 2. So what is the difference between Torah and the soul? Of the soul too, we say, “He is the Knower and He is the Knowledge.” And now the Alter Rebbe says it when he comes to Torah. What is the difference? There is a letter from the Frierdiker Rebbe that points out that in chapter 2 the Alter Rebbe’s wording is “He is the Knowledge and He is the Knower.” In chapter 4, the Alter Rebbe’s wording is “He is the Knower and He is the Knowledge.” That difference is precisely the difference between Torah and the soul, as we have just explained. Of course, as we said, both the soul and the Torah come from Hakadosh Boruch Hu.

13:28 But the difference is that the soul becomes an existence in its own right. What is the difference between “Knowledge” and “Knower”? When we say, “He is the Knowledge and He is the Knower,” who is the Knower and what is the Knowledge? Knowledge—is that the object? Knowledge is the thing that is known. The Knower is Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So in chapter 2, when the Alter Rebbe speaks about the soul, the soul has already become distinct. It is actually clothed in a body, so to speak, and has become an existence in its own right. So he starts from below and moves upward: “He is the Knowledge.” There is a soul; it has become an existence. About that we say: Know that the soul truly remains a part of G-d—“He is the Knowledge and He is the Knower.” Although you see a distinct existence, you should know that the soul is truly connected with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But with Torah we see the reverse: “He is the Knower and He is the Knowledge.” It starts from above and moves downward. The Knower is Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu clothes Himself in wisdom, in Torah. That is the difference: here it is Knowledge and Knower, and there it is Knower and Knowledge. That, in essence, is the difference between the soul and Torah. The soul is an existence that is also connected with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so in this respect it is more distinct. Torah, by contrast, is the reverse: it is Hakadosh Boruch Hu as He is revealed in the intellect. In essence, it is the Knower. So in this respect Torah is higher than the soul. That is the meaning of the Tanya here. And we see how closely we need to read Tanya to understand what is being discussed. Otherwise, we are just saying words. There is a very great difference between the soul and Torah, and that is the difference between chapter 2 and chapter 4. To round out the subject, since we are discussing the difference between the soul and Torah, I want to add something. What we are coming to here is an entire subject in Chassidus, with many maamarim about it: Which is

15:36 higher, the soul or Torah? It is a subject in Chassidus. It comes up in the second maamar of the 5659 series. Later on, we see that they study the 5659 series here. I don’t know whether they studied this or skipped it, but in any case, it is in the second maamar of the series. [unclear]. The Rebbe discusses it at length in [unclear]. It is a very fundamental subject, and there are many maamarim about it. Which is loftier, the soul or Torah? According to what we learned here, Torah is higher than the soul: “Its virtue is infinitely higher and greater.” But sometimes it says the opposite: “The Jewish people preceded the Torah.” There is the well-known midrash cited in Chassidus in the name of Tanna Devei Eliyahu. The Rebbe writes that the precise source of the midrash needs to be examined. But there is such a midrash cited in Chassidus; [unclear] cites it. The Rebbe cites it often in maamarim and sichos: “Two things preceded the world, and I do not know which preceded which.” There are two things that existed before the creation of the world, and we do not know which came first: the Jewish people and the Torah. Then the midrash says that when the Torah says, “Command the Children of Israel” and “Speak to the Children of Israel,” I conclude that the Jewish people came first. Since the Torah says, “Command the Children of Israel,” it follows that the Jewish people preceded the Torah, and the Torah tells them what to do. So the Jewish people preceded the Torah. That is the opposite of what we are learning here in Tanya. Here in Tanya, Torah is higher—“Its virtue is infinitely higher and greater.” How does that fit with the statement that the Jewish people preceded the Torah? The central explanation—and of course this is an entire subject, discussed at great length in a number of maamarim, including one from 5666 and a maamar for the last day of Pesach—is the difference between revelation and essence. When we are speaking about revelations, Torah is higher than the soul. In terms of revelation, “Torah is light”; Torah is a revelation of light. Torah

17:49 is a revelation of light. As the Alter Rebbe says here, it is the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The Torah openly reveals the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So when you study Torah, you are studying the revealed wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Quite simply, however far the Torah descends, Torah in essence is the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu as it has been revealed. So in terms of revelation, Torah is light; Torah is a revelation. The soul, as it appears openly, does not reveal G-dliness. On the contrary, the soul is clothed in a body, and looking at the body from the outside, you cannot see the difference between a Jew and, G-d forbid, a non-Jew. As a Jewish person, a soul in a body, he has become a created being. So if we look at what is revealed, Torah is higher than the soul. But when we speak of essence, the opposite is true: the soul is rooted in the Essence more deeply than Torah. Torah is only a revelation of the Essence. Wisdom is a revelation. The soul, by contrast, is, so to speak, the Essence itself. In this respect, therefore, the soul is higher than Torah. This is explained in a number of places. That is why there is the power of teshuvah: because in essence a Jew is higher than the Torah. A Jew can therefore, through teshuvah, repair all the damage done in relation to the Torah. Mesirus nefesh, teshuvah, saving a life—why does saving a life override the entire Torah? “And you shall live by them.” The explanation is that this comes from the soul’s being higher than Torah, and there are a number of other examples along these lines. I remember a farbrengen that I had the privilege of attending. I’ve told this story a few times. It was Simchas Torah 5747. On the night of Simchas Torah, I had the privilege of being at the Rebbe’s farbrengen. The Rebbe delivered an entire sicha with much weeping and many tears. That was not at all usual for Simchas Torah; it was always joyous. That year, that Simchas Torah, the Rebbe delivered a sicha and wept a great deal while speaking. So the sicha was about

20:09 The last Rashi in Chumash is about Moshe breaking the Tablets. Yes, what does it say there? “That you broke.” “Before the eyes of all Israel.” At the end of Chumash it says “before the eyes of all Israel,” referring to Moshe breaking the Tablets. Rashi says, “Well done for breaking them.” So the Rebbe spoke about this in a sicha. How can the Torah end with something bad? Is the breaking of the Tablets the last thing the Torah has to say? It’s the opposite of Torah. Moshe broke the Tablets. That was the sin of the Golden Calf. How can that be the last thing in Chumash? The Rebbe cried a great deal. But what is the point? That in this story of the breaking of the Tablets, the greatness of the Jewish people is revealed. Precisely in the last verse, at the end of the Torah, the Torah tells us that the Jewish people come before the Torah. Why did Moshe Rabbeinu break the Tablets? Because Moshe Rabbeinu says: If, G-d forbid, the Jewish people are going to be harmed, then I will break the Torah, because the Jewish people come before the Torah. So the Rebbe cried out this Midrash very forcefully. Moshe Rabbeinu, the shepherd of Israel. ... Torah, they merited the Torah of Moshe, all the greatness of Moshe Rabbeinu. But if, G-d forbid, someone wants to speak badly about the Jewish people, Moshe Rabbeinu says: We don’t need the Torah. He takes the Tablets, breaks them, and says: You do not touch the Jewish people, because the Jewish people come before the Torah. So precisely in the last verse of the Torah, the greatness of the Jewish people is revealed: they are higher than the Torah. That, of course, is another side of it. But here in Tanya, this is what the Alter Rebbe is saying. When we are speaking about avodas Hashem, though, the body has a connection to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is what we are learning here now in Tanya: avodah in the matter of “For the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.” We are speaking in terms of revelations. So the soul descended below; against its will, it became a created being. As a result, there is distance, there is separation, there is a certain divide. And therefore, through

22:15 Torah and mitzvos—and Torah and mitzvos are one, truly one—the soul becomes connected to G-dliness. So in this respect, the garments are higher than the nefesh, ruach, and neshamah themselves. The Alter Rebbe continues: “And although Hakadosh Boruch Hu is called Ein Sof, and His greatness is beyond searching, and no thought can grasp Him at all—and the same is true of His will and wisdom, as it is written, ‘There is no searching His understanding,’ and it is written, ‘Can you discover G-d by searching?’ and it is written, ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts.’” Here the Alter Rebbe raises a question. It is a fundamental question, central to this entire discussion: How can you say, “The Torah and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are entirely one,” that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present in the Torah? After all, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is completely beyond comparison. Hakadosh Boruch Hu cannot be grasped in any way, not even in His wisdom and will. So how can it be that through the Torah we study, we grasp Hakadosh Boruch Hu—that “the Torah and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are entirely one”? This is a fundamental question. A broad question. A central question. With Hashem’s help, we will discuss it at length later, but it relates to this point. For now, look: he explains further on in Tanya, toward the end of Tanya, in chapter 47, where the Alter Rebbe writes: What was new about the giving of the Torah? The central innovation of the giving of the Torah is “I am Hashem your G-d.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu did not merely give us the Torah; He gave Himself within the Torah. As is well known, “Anochi” is an acronym for “I have written and given My very self.” The meaning is that Hakadosh Boruch Hu did not merely give us wisdom; He gave us Himself. Because that is what the Alter Rebbe is asking here: How can it be that when we study halachah, study Chumash, study halachah, study Mishnah, study Gemara, we have Hakadosh Boruch Hu here, when we know that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is utterly infinite, without limit, beyond comparison? So how can we grasp Hakadosh

24:22 Boruch Hu through the Torah? With Hashem’s help, we will discuss this in the next class.