Chapter 4 - Eighth Lesson

00:01 We’re at the end of chapter 4 of Tanya. The Alter Rebbe has explained here, in a wonderful way, the tremendous greatness of Torah and mitzvos: when a person fulfills Torah and mitzvos, he unites with Hakadosh Boruch Hu in the deepest unity possible. “No thought can grasp Him at all.” No level, no thought, no spiritual experience can grasp His Essence or connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself—only through Torah and mitzvos. The only place where Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself is found is the place He chose. A person cannot reach Hakadosh Boruch Hu on his own, because a person is limited and Hakadosh Boruch Hu is unlimited. The limited can never reach the unlimited. However high the limited rises, it remains limited. However much a person rises and rises, elevates and refines himself, he will always remain limited—and the distance between the limited and the unlimited is infinite. There’s no way to cross it. The only way is for the unlimited to come close to you. The Infinite has no limitations; He can connect with you. You cannot do it from your side. That is why no thought can grasp Him: no thought, no cleaving to Him, no light or revelation—not even in Gan Eden or in the worlds where souls enjoy the radiance of the Shechinah. All of that is radiance, revelations, lights. Connection with the Essence comes only through the things the Essence chose. And what did the Essence choose? Torah and mitzvos. Hakadosh Boruch Hu contracted Himself—“contracted” in the sense of placing Himself—and put His entire Essence into the 613 mitzvos, into Torah and mitzvos, into the verses of the Torah, into the fundamentals of the Torah. There He is in His entirety, His whole Being and Essence. This is what we mean when we say, “One hour of teshuvah and good deeds in this world is better than all the life of the World to Come.” Here in this world, through Torah and mitzvos, the soul, a Jew, has a way to unite with Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. In the World to Come,

02:27 that is not possible. We’ve already learned all this. Now a question arises. Look at what he said here: it follows that there is an advantage available only in this world, something that does not exist in the World to Come. What makes this world “better”? The Mishnah says, “One hour of teshuvah and good deeds in this world is better than all the life of the World to Come.” Why is this world really better, more wonderful, more elevated? What is there in this world that lets a Jew unite with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, when in Gan Eden he cannot? Here the Alter Rebbe asks a question. Let’s read it inside. The Alter Rebbe says: “Although the Torah is clothed in lowly, physical things.” Look at his question. How can you say that here in this world there is a deeper connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Down here, the mitzvos are clothed in physical things. You don’t grasp Hakadosh Boruch Hu; you hold tefillin, you hold tzitzis, you say verses, you study Torah—wisdom—and you’re told that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is here. But where, from the person’s perspective, is the unity with Hakadosh Boruch Hu? What is the deeper point of the question? Seemingly, what difference does it make what I see or don’t see? Clearly, the Essence is present in the mitzvos. When you fulfill mitzvos, you connect with the Essence. So what is the Alter Rebbe’s question here? Why does a question suddenly arise here at the end of Tanya? What is its deeper point? Seemingly, the deeper point is that, as we understand from the explanation the Alter Rebbe has just given, the difference between this world and the World to Come is also from the person’s perspective. In other words, it goes like this. People say that this world has an advantage over the World to Come: “One hour of teshuvah and good deeds in this world is better than all the life of the World to Come.” Then they ask: Why, really? Why is one hour in this world said to be better than all the life of the World to Come? So the answer—

04:36 Sometimes, elsewhere in Chassidus, in quite a few maamarim, it is explained that the World to Come is more wonderful from the person’s perspective. There, the soul feels greater closeness, the soul feels something greater, the soul experiences tremendous pleasure in Gan Eden. But if we’re speaking from Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s perspective, where does He have pleasure? Down here. That is one explanation, a very well-known one found in many maamarim: the pleasure of the Creator and the pleasure of the created being. Gan Eden is the pleasure of the created being; the soul enjoys it. But what gives Hakadosh Boruch Hu pleasure? Mitzvos do. That is the pleasure of the Creator. So which is greater, the Creator’s pleasure or the created being’s pleasure? Certainly the Creator’s pleasure is greater. This is an explanation found in the maamarim of the Rebbe Maharash. The Rebbe brings it up often in his sichos, saying that this is what the maamarim explain. That is the meaning of “One hour of teshuvah and good deeds in this world is better than all the life of the World to Come.” What is this world’s advantage over the World to Come? The World to Come is the pleasure of the soul, the created being. But this world is the pleasure of the Creator, and the Creator’s pleasure is greater than the created being’s pleasure. Along these lines, they even say this in relation to the days of Moshiach. We say, “Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed be He; blessed is He who calculated the end”—thanking Hakadosh Boruch Hu for setting an end. It is written in the name of the Pri Adei Kahal [unclear]: Do you know what it means to thank Hakadosh Boruch Hu for setting an end? Hakadosh Boruch Hu derives pleasure from exile. When a Jew in exile practices iskafya, faces challenges and performs a mitzvah, Hakadosh Boruch Hu takes pleasure in it. We don’t enjoy it; for us it is iskafya, it is hard. But for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, it is the Creator’s pleasure. He delights in our iskafya. When Moshiach

06:33 comes, who will experience pleasure? We will. There will no longer be challenges; there will be a revelation of G-dliness in the world, and those will be the days of Moshiach. That is the pleasure of the created being. So if we look from the person’s perspective, the World to Come brings greater pleasure. If we speak from Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s perspective, it’s the opposite: Hakadosh Boruch Hu derives more pleasure in this world, more pleasure from exile. And this is why we say, “Blessed is the Omnipresent who calculated the end.” We thank Hakadosh Boruch Hu for practicing iskafya: He set an end. He says, “One day I will put an end to My desire, and I will bring you Moshiach [unclear].” So that is an explanation found in Chassidus. But here in Tanya, the Alter Rebbe did not give that explanation. Here the Alter Rebbe spoke from the person’s perspective, not Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s. He said that in Gan Eden a person grasps only lights and revelations, the radiance of the Shechinah. Down here, you grasp the Essence. We were speaking about what the person grasps: even from the person’s perspective, one hour here is better, because the closeness to Hakadosh Boruch Hu in this world is greater than in the World to Come. So the Alter Rebbe asks: If so, in this world we don’t feel any closeness. Torah and mitzvos are clothed in physical things. As I draw close, I feel something physical. I put on tefillin. I don’t see myself suddenly becoming more spiritual, more G-dly, closer to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is the question the Alter Rebbe is asking here. So again: “Although the Torah is clothed in lowly, physical things.” Where, then, is the person’s closeness to Hakadosh Boruch Hu down here? To this the Alter Rebbe answers: “It is like embracing the king.” The Alter Rebbe says: Consider the example of someone embracing the king. The whole point of Torah and mitzvos is that a Jew unites with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, as the Alter Rebbe

08:36 He said at the beginning of the chapter, “The 248 positive commandments are the 248 limbs of the King.” So when you fulfill a mitzvah, it is as though you are holding on to the King—to one of the King’s limbs. So to speak, every mitzvah is a limb of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. When I fulfill a mitzvah, it is as though I am embracing the King. Now, if we take the analogy of embracing the King, right? He says, for example, that there is no difference in the degree of closeness and attachment to the King between embracing him when he is wearing one garment and embracing him when he is wearing several garments, since the King’s body is inside them. And the Alter Rebbe is saying: Look at this analogy and understand it. When a person has the privilege and the ability to draw close to the King, to unite with the King, to embrace the King, he does not care how many garments the King is wearing. What difference does it make? The garments the King wears make no difference at all. You understand that the embrace here is not of the garment; it is of the King. The connection is with the King. Whether the King wears one garment or ten garments makes no difference. The connection is with the King himself. The garments are of no consequence; they do not enter into it at all. The point here is the King. In the same way, says the Alter Rebbe, the physical thing is only a garment. The fact that tefillin are physical is the garment. What is their essence? What is actually here? What is actually here is the will and wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu—the will of the Essence. What is present in a mitzvah? Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself is present here. Only, Hakadosh Boruch Hu has clothed Himself in garments. There is a garment of Keser, a garment of Atzilus, a garment of Beriah, a garment of Yetzirah—several garments. So when you speak of Hakadosh Boruch Hu as He is present in a sefirah, if it is Chesed, then He is in Chesed. That is the highest level in the order of hishtalshelus. But it is a garment; it is not the thing itself,

10:40 It is the garment, though it is the highest garment. And there is not only Chesed; there is another garment, and another, and another. Does that make Him any less the King? Does wearing several garments make Him any less the King? It does not. The King is here—that is all. That is the point the Alter Rebbe is making here. So when a Jew understands that all these things—what are they? They are only garments of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. When you put on tefillin, what do you see here? You do not see animal hide, tefillin, the physical substance of the tefillin. You see Hakadosh Boruch Hu, present in the garment of the tefillin. For me, the main thing is not the garment; the main thing is the King. So it is the King. It does not make the connection any less real, because the King’s body is inside it. The main thing is the King himself. This is a fundamental point in every aspect of serving Hashem. The Alter Rebbe uses this analogy several times. We need to understand that there is the garment and there is the King, and sometimes we get caught up in the garment and miss what is happening here. Yes, the Alter Rebbe says this later as well, in chapter 42, where he discusses fear of Heaven. The Alter Rebbe says a person needs to train himself to see that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is present here in the world: “Behold, Hashem stands over him.” This is a foundation of serving Hashem, of fear of Heaven: “Behold, Hashem stands over him”—Hakadosh Boruch Hu is here. But, says the Alter Rebbe, I see a world; I do not see Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So the Alter Rebbe says: With a flesh-and-blood king, the essence of your awe does not come from—from the king’s flesh. Your awe of the king comes from the king’s inner being, his soul. So the fact that he is clothed in a body and in a garment

12:38 And another garment makes no difference. The King is here. When a person stands before a rabbi, before a tzaddik, before a king, before a holy person, it is not the outward appearance; it is the inner being, the soul. That is just the garment; that is not what matters here. In the same way, when a person trains himself to contemplate that all these things—what are they? The garments of Hakadosh Boruch Hu—then they do not conceal Him from him. The King is here; He is in a garment. What difference does it make? Is He any less the King because of it? The same point is being made here, and we will come to mitzvos: When a person understands that the whole world is, above all, garments—but who is in the garment? The King is here. So when you fulfill a mitzvah, you embrace the King. “And likewise, if the King embraces him with His arm.” The Alter Rebbe gives another example. The first example is a person embracing the King. The second is the King embracing the person with His arm. “And likewise, if the King embraces him with His arm, even though it is clothed in several garments.” The same applies from the King’s side. Suppose the King comes to you, takes hold of you, and gives you a hug. Would it make any difference to you whether the King was wearing one garment, two garments, or ten garments when He hugged you? Would it make it any less an expression of love, any less of an embrace? What difference does it make? Again, the garment is not the point. That is not what matters here. What matters is the King. Why does the Alter Rebbe bring two analogies? After all, they are the same thing. Here we return to what we discussed in the previous class. The Alter Rebbe spoke earlier of two aspects, one from the person’s side and one from Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s side. If you remember, we discussed this earlier in Tanya: there is “all of it is bound up and contained within Him,” and there is “He envelops him from head to foot.” When a Jew engages in Torah and mitzvos, there is

14:39 The way the person unites with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and there is the way Hakadosh Boruch Hu envelops the person. We already discussed this; I said why, not what it means. That is why the Alter Rebbe brings two aspects here as well: my embracing the King and the King embracing me. One is more from the person’s side, and the other is more from the side of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. They convey the same point: whether the embrace comes from me toward Him or from Him toward me, the garments are of no consequence at all. What matters is what is inside the garments—the King himself. “As it is written, ‘And His right arm embraces me.’” There is a verse about the King embracing me with His arm. In Shir Hashirim it says, “His left arm is under my head, and His right arm embraces me.” The King, Hakadosh Boruch Hu—His right arm embraces us. What does “His right arm embraces me” refer to? The Alter Rebbe says, “It is the Torah, which was given from the right, which is the quality of Chesed and water.” What does “His right arm embraces me” mean? It refers to the Torah. The Torah is called the right. In other words, this is not just any analogy. Even its details have meaning. The Alter Rebbe did not simply pick the first analogy that came to mind; the detail in the analogy is connected to the subject we are discussing—the right side. The right side is the attribute of Chesed, and the Torah is called the right. There is a verse: “From His right hand, a fiery law for them.” The holy Zohar says that the Torah was given from the right. Why was the Torah given from the right? Because the Torah is a Torah of kindness, and Chesed is the right hand. But the Alter Rebbe adds “Chesed and water.” Why does the Alter Rebbe add the word “water”? On a simple level, because water too is associated with Chesed. Water corresponds to the attribute of Chesed. How so? Well, water moves downward, and Chesed too involves a descent. But the Alter Rebbe’s addition of the word “water” here, of course,

16:40 Goes back to what the Alter Rebbe said earlier in the chapter, where he asked: Why is the Torah compared to water? What did we discuss when we studied that? We asked: Why is it relevant here to explain the analogy of water? Just as water descends from a high place to a low place, so the Torah descended from its place of glory. Why do we need the analogy of water? Chesed also involves a descent. The Alter Rebbe emphasized water as well, we explained, because there is a difference between Chesed and water. With Chesed, there is a giver and a recipient. The giver is above and the recipient is below. There is wealth and there is poverty; there is a giver and there is a receiver. The giver is the one who bestows, and out of Chesed he gives. So we sense a flow from the higher to the lower. With water, as we discussed, we say the opposite: water is found specifically below. It does not essentially remain above; it descends. Water leaves its place above and is found specifically below. This relates to what we discussed earlier: Where is the essence of the will and wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu found? Specifically in the Torah down here—that is the water. So this is what the Alter Rebbe says: The King embraces us with His arm. Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives us His arm, the right arm. What is the right arm? Chesed. And within Chesed itself, what kind of Chesed? The Chesed of water—not ordinary Chesed. With ordinary Chesed, you might think that the Torah is primarily above, and down below there is only a radiance of the Torah. So the Alter Rebbe adds “Chesed and water” to emphasize that the Torah is primarily found specifically here below. Consequently, the primary way Hakadosh Boruch Hu embraces us is specifically through the Torah down here. So when a Jew studies Torah down here—why is it physical? It is Torah in a physical world. And through this, through fulfilling mitzvos, physical mitzvos, the Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu embrace each other.

18:42 That is where He is found in the deepest way. That is why we say that one hour of teshuvah and good deeds in this world is better than the entire life of the World to Come. The point the Alter Rebbe makes here at the end of the chapter is one he develops at greater length later in Tanya. It comes up in the following chapters. In chapter 23, the Alter Rebbe will explain it more fully. There he will also explain the difference between Torah and mitzvos—where there is a greater union. Later, in chapters 35, 36, and 37, there is also a lengthy discussion, where we will go more deeply into it. The Alter Rebbe will explain the matter in greater depth. Ah, there is one point the Alter Rebbe makes that is relevant to what we are learning here; he will explain it further in the following chapters. There the Alter Rebbe says that a created being is, in essence, a separate existence. However spiritual it may be, it will always be a separate existence. It can be spiritual, but it is still an existence. That does not necessarily mean a coarse sense of self; it can be a very subtle one. As the Alter Rebbe says, even a perfectly righteous person who serves Hashem with love and fear, with delight, is still “someone who loves.” In essence, you see, there is the feeling that I love, I fear, and I rejoice. There is an awareness of one’s own existence, and as soon as that awareness exists, even in its subtlest form, that itself contradicts Hashem’s oneness. So Hakadosh Boruch Hu is not present there in His fullness, because He is One, and One means He alone, with nothing besides Him. Where does Hakadosh Boruch Hu shine? Where there is no sense of separate existence—only where there is utter bittul. And that is a mitzvah. A mitzvah is not what I say, what I want, or what I love, but what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants. That is where He Himself is found. It comes from Him, not from me. And since a mitzvah is the will and wisdom of

21:02 Hakadosh Boruch Hu, that is where Hakadosh Boruch Hu is found as He is. That is why we say that a Jew’s primary connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, in the deepest and most inward way, is specifically through Torah and mitzvos, because His wisdom and will are found there. These are matters the Alter Rebbe will explain later on. In any case, this is what we mean when we say that it is specifically through physical Torah and mitzvos that Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s choice is expressed, and that a union between the soul and G-dliness takes place. That is also where the matter reaches its fullest expression. This point we are learning in this chapter is one of the foundations of Chassidus. It is relevant to mivtzoim. Bochurim go out on mivtzoim. One of the things the Rebbe taught us is that when you approach a Jew, the first thing you speak to him about is an action: put on tefillin. And often people ask: What is the point of putting on tefillin? What about Hakadosh Boruch Hu? And [unclear], or he argues against it. Sometimes he does it only because he feels uncomfortable refusing. You drive him crazy every week; you keep coming to him. But after ten weeks he says, “You know what? I’ll put on tefillin.” This has happened to you many times; it happens to everyone sometimes on mivtzoim. A person may even tell you to your face, “I’m not interested, but if it makes you happy, I’ll do it.” It happens. So what is gained from all this? First explain it to him, guide him, educate him, learn with him, uplift him, draw him out—and then he will want to put on tefillin because he understands its importance. But that is not our way. What is the reasoning behind this? It is the foundation of what we learned here in Tanya. If Torah and mitzvos were essentially a spiritual matter expressed in physical form, then we would be talking about a spiritual connection. But what?

22:55 We would also need to do things to bring that connection into practice. Fine. So start with the spiritual, and the physical will follow. It is like a person who is happy and then goes to dance. You would not tell him, “First dance, and then you’ll be happy.” The dancing is not the point. The point is the joy: be happy, and it will naturally come out in dancing too. The dancing is the actual deed, but the main thing is the love, the connection, the faith, the cleaving, and the union. Then you do things; the action follows as a result. So what does Chassidus explain to us? What was Matan Torah about? As the Alter Rebbe explains here, where are the will and wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu found? The whole innovation of Matan Torah was that the decree separating the higher and lower realms was nullified—unlike the time of all the Avos. It is that Atzmus chose. It is not about what I love or what seems right to me. To me, this seems greater, deeper; the spiritual seems deeper than the physical. But from His perspective, spiritual and physical are truly equal. He is infinite; in relation to the Infinite, the spiritual is no closer to Him. As it is written: “Hashem is exalted above all nations; His glory is above the heavens. He lowers Himself to look upon heaven and earth.” For Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the spiritual is like the physical. So if the physical is not, on its own, a vessel for Him, neither is the spiritual. You may have love and fear, but that will not bring you closer to Him. On the contrary, as we said, that is a separate sense of self. It is only about what He wants, and He wanted tefillin. He wanted tzitzis. He wants a physical thing; that is what He wanted, and that is where He is found. So when you approach a Jew, the first thing is: come, let’s put on tefillin. You have made that connection with him. After that, it works the other way around. Once he puts on tefillin, it is already a mitzvah—“a mitzvah is a lamp,” and so on. So

24:38 that will already have its effect, and the person will become more refined as well. Because ultimately, the soul also needs to be there. As we learned earlier, the goal is not just to perform the mitzvah in practice; the goal is for the whole person to be involved. But the process here does not begin with “First I’ll feel it, and then I’ll do it.” It is the reverse. First you need to do it, and then you will feel it. Naaseh comes before nishma. And that is essentially what the Alter Rebbe explains to us here in this chapter.