Chapter 5 - Part Three

00:00 We’re discussing chapter 5 of Tanya, where the Alter Rebbe explains the supreme importance of Torah study. There is something special about Torah study that no mitzvah has. The Alter Rebbe speaks here of “a wondrous union, the like or equal of which is not found at all in the physical world: to become truly one and united from every side and angle.” This union happens specifically through Torah study. A person’s union with Hakadosh Boruch Hu takes place in a way more wondrous than in any other matter. So when it comes to union, to becoming one, to this wondrous union, Torah offers the greatest union. Mitzvos certainly have their own advantages; those are different matters. But when it comes to becoming one—the intellect, the person who understands, and the idea being understood; the person and G-dliness; Hashem’s wisdom and the person’s mind and wisdom—they are united in the deepest way. We’ve already discussed all the explanations of this in previous classes. There’s one point left, a very delightful insight the Rebbe gives here. Actually, it’s two insights, two very interesting points through which the Rebbe illuminates the Tanya. We see in so many places how the Rebbe taught us to look at Tanya carefully, paying attention to every word. You look at what it says, and you see that a single word in Tanya can contain a deep richness, something delightful. Here’s one interesting insight from the Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe says, when introducing his example: “If Reuven argues thus and thus, for example, and Shimon thus and thus, the ruling between them will be thus and thus.” There are several interesting things here. First, we’ve already discussed in a previous class why he chooses an example of a claimant and a respondent. But look at the Alter Rebbe’s wording: “If Reuven argues thus and thus, for example.” Why the double expression, “thus and thus”? Then he says again, “Shimon thus and thus,” and “the ruling will be thus and thus.” Why the double expression? An even harder question comes later,

02:25 when the Alter Rebbe goes on to explain: “And even if this matter never has happened and never will happen,” and so on. The Alter Rebbe says that it arose in the will and wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu that if one person argues thus and the other thus, the ruling will be thus. Here he says it only once, not “thus and thus.” He says just “thus”: “If this one argues thus and that one thus, the ruling will be thus.” Why? You can read right past it without noticing. But the Rebbe noticed and gave a delightful insight. What is “thus and thus”? As we learn Tanya, we see that every halachic matter has three levels. There is the halachah as it exists above in the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu; there is the way the halachah is clothed in the Torah—in the Shulchan Aruch, in the Rambam, in the Gemara, clothed in the wisdom of Torah; and there is the way the halachah exists in the physical world. So when we get to the story of Reuven and Shimon, they come with a dispute. One says, “I lent you a maneh,” and the other says, “No, what are you talking about?” Reuven and Shimon are arguing. So there are three levels here: how the matter exists above in His wisdom and will; how it is clothed in halachah, in the Rambam and the Shulchan Aruch; and Reuven and Shimon in this world, arguing over a coin, over money, over the maneh. So that is what the words mean: “If Reuven argues thus and thus.” What does “thus and thus” mean? The source of the halachah is above, with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, in His wisdom and will. In the Shulchan Aruch it is thus, as it is in the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is how it is clothed in the Shulchan Aruch, the Rambam, and the Gemara—that is the first “thus.” Then there are Reuven and Shimon in the physical world, arguing over a hundred dollars, each claiming it belongs to him. That, too, is “thus.” And thus,

04:39 the physical reality is like the halachah in the Shulchan Aruch, which is like the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is “thus and thus.” “If Reuven argues thus and thus”: what does the physical Reuven say? What is written in halachah, and the halachah accords with the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Shimon, too, is “thus and thus.” So the ruling is “thus and thus.” That is how it is written the first time. But what does it say afterward? The Alter Rebbe continues: “And even if this matter never has happened and never will happen, to come before a court.” What about a halachah that never occurs in the world? There are halachos that will never come up; no Reuven and Shimon will ever come with that kind of claim, because it is not a real-life possibility. Yet halachah also addresses matters that are not practically relevant. Nevertheless, since it arose in His will that if this one argues thus... Here the Alter Rebbe no longer says “thus and thus,” because here there is only the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and the Gemara; it will not happen in the world. So there is no second “thus,” only the first one: the halachah in the Shulchan Aruch as it exists in the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But since it will not happen in the world, only one “thus” is written: in the Shulchan Aruch it is as it is in the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu—“if this one argues thus and that one thus, the ruling will be thus.” So here you see how precise the wording of Tanya is. When a halachah can occur in reality, it is “thus and thus”—both in the Shulchan Aruch and in the world. But if it is a halachah that does not occur in reality, there is only one “thus,” in the Shulchan Aruch; it is not clothed in the world. All that from one letter. There’s another delightful insight from the Rebbe, something interesting in general. We’re always learning Gemara, and the bochurim get immersed in Kesubos; they learn the revealed dimension of Torah here, and they’re always talking

06:34 about Reuven and Shimon. Why mention Reuven and Shimon? “If Reuven argues thus, Shimon...” Why Reuven and Shimon? That’s what people are used to in yeshivos, and you find it in the Gemara too. Those familiar phrases: Reuven, Shimon; Reuven the seller, Shimon the buyer. Always Reuven and Shimon, disputes between Reuven and Shimon. Why? What did Reuven and Shimon do to make them the ones always arguing? What’s going on with Reuven and Shimon? The Rebbe writes something interesting: the first dispute in the Torah is between Reuven and Shimon. Look in Chumash: where is the first dispute between two people, Reuven and Shimon? Where does it come from? It’s the dispute when Yosef arrived. What happened there? Yosef Hatzaddik came looking for his brothers. Shimon said he wanted to kill him, and Reuven said, “What do we gain by killing our brother and concealing his blood?” So there was a dispute between Reuven and Shimon. That became the source of all disputes. Everything has its place in the Torah. Reuven and Shimon had the first dispute, and all disputes developed from that. It’s just an interesting point, but I remember a Shabbos farbrengen with the Rebbe. There was... at that farbrengen, the Rebbe spoke about the Rambam, as he did every Shabbos. The Rebbe would give a sicha on the Rambam. In the Rambam being studied that Shabbos, the Rambam discussed Reuven and Shimon. There was a passage in the Rambam about lineage and [unclear] that they were studying that very Shabbos. The Rambam writes that Reuven sold a field to Shimon, and Shimon... There was a dispute between Reuven and Shimon. Then Levi came along as the witness. The Rebbe asked why it says Reuven, Shimon, and Levi, and gave a very interesting explanation. In that sicha, the Rebbe explained that everything has a source above. He explained that, according to Chassidus, Reuven represents sight and Shimon represents hearing. In avodas Hashem, Reuven represents the inner service of seeing

08:47 And Shimon represents the inner avodah of hearing. So it makes sense that it is always Reuven and Shimon: one is the lender and one the borrower, one the seller and one the buyer. Seeing and hearing are the giver and the receiver in avodah, and that is why Reuven is always there. Reuven and Shimon will always be some form of giver and receiver, seller and buyer, lender and borrower. Yes, and Levi is the witness, because Levi is “This time my husband will become attached to me,” so he is connected with the idea of testimony, not with being hired. The Rebbe explained according to Chassidus how these names, Reuven and Shimon, also fit in avodas Hashem. The sicha continued along those lines, with a very beautiful point in avodah: the Rebbe translated the halachah they had studied in Rambam. Just a memory that stayed with me—the Rebbe saw a teaching in everything, even such seemingly minor details. In any case, those are nice explanations. But let’s get to the point the Alter Rebbe is teaching us here: what is the “wondrous union”? Yes, the wondrous thing about Torah is that you unite with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But there is another point here that perhaps we haven’t emphasized enough: it is precisely here that the Alter Rebbe goes on at length to explain what happens when the halachah does not exist in the world. “Even if this case never has occurred and never will occur, with these claims and demands coming before a court, nevertheless…” And after all that, what is he getting at? I’ll come to that. What does it have to do with Tanya? Why does it matter to me here whether it happened or will happen? Whether it did or didn’t, the same wondrous union takes place: you study a halachah, and through it you unite with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So why does the Alter Rebbe go on at length about whether the halachah exists in reality or not? In the previous class we mentioned a simple point: since the Alter Rebbe here wants

10:40 to emphasize that you are studying not for the practical halachah but for the sake of understanding it—because, as we said, that is the avodah of Tanya here, the avodah of chapter 5. Sometimes we say there is a purpose in studying Torah in order to know what to do. The Rebbe placed special emphasis on having halachah and Shulchan Aruch studied in every yeshivah and every cheder. There is a need to study in order to know what to do. But on the other hand, that is not the point here in Tanya. In chapter 5, the Alter Rebbe is speaking specifically about studying Torah for its own sake. So he emphasizes that even if the case never occurs, the same wondrous union takes place; that union does not depend on whether it occurs or not. But there is something deeper here. There is something even deeper: on the contrary, this expresses the depth of that wondrous union. What the Alter Rebbe wants to say is that Torah itself is the wisdom and very essence of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Torah is the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. It is not tied to the world—the opposite of what people think. People generally think Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave the Torah so that we could live in the world. It is the manual, as people say, for how to behave. That is the straightforward way people look at Torah. Torah is… for us, as it says in the blessing over the Torah: Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted us to know how to behave, so He gave us a Torah that teaches us how to behave. That is the outer dimension of Torah. It is not what Torah is in essence. Torah is the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Torah is not tied to… Of course, it does have practical implications, but that is not the point. Torah is the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s will, so Torah is not a means to anything else. The Rebbe speaks about this in a number of sichos. Torah is

12:39 not a means to anything else. Torah is halachah. The Rebbe discusses this in the well-known sicha—everyone knows the sicha on “The laws of the Oral Torah will never be nullified.” The difference between a halachah and a mitzvah: a mitzvah is a command to do something, and in the future, the Torah’s mitzvos will no longer have that practical context. A mitzvah is a command, and that presupposes something other than Him; then everything will be utterly nullified. But halachos will never be nullified. A halachah is not a mitzvah. A halachah is how a matter stands in the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu in essence, above the world. It cannot be nullified, because it is beyond any connection to this world. Along these lines, that is what the Torah here in chapter 5 is telling us. A Jew who studies Torah is not looking for its connection to the world. He is seeking to unite with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is what the Alter Rebbe says. So the point is the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu as they are in essence. Even if the case never has occurred and never will occur—why should that matter to me? It is the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and you unite with it. On the contrary, precisely when it never has occurred and never will occur, that expresses the depth of the matter all the more: it is the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu in essence, above the world, and I unite with it. This is the wondrous power of Torah: a Jew has the ability to unite with the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu that is above the world. There are sichos of the Rebbe on Purim that make this point very strongly. We often hear the objection—especially in the last generation, when this sort of objection has become common, coming from the outlook of the world, from the practical-minded people of today, so to speak. But you often hear questions like this from bochurim: Why do we study subjects that will never come up in practice? Bochurim sometimes ask that. In Nigleh, why do we need to study Tractate Kesubos? I don’t know; that’s beside the point. I don’t know why

14:30 we don’t study Gemara that is more practical. These are Gemaras, sugyos, subjects that will never come up in practice. What relevance do they have? Why should I care? And sometimes the question is even asked about Chassidus: Why do we study certain subjects in Chassidus? Sometimes abstract schools of thought, the order of hishtalshelus, tzimtzum, the tzimtzum of Adam Kadmon—what relevance does it have? Why study so many proofs and work through these matters? There are several answers, but one of them is what we are learning here. This is the fundamental point that the Torah teaches in chapter 5. It depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for yourself, fine and good. But if you are looking for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, if you are looking for a wondrous union, there is something special here. The true gift of Torah is that Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave us His wisdom and will, which are above the world. Through in-depth study, a Jew can unite with them, so that his mind becomes a Torah mind—the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu above the world. So that’s it. What are you looking for? That it should be practical? That is an entirely secondary matter. It is not what matters here. Let’s come to understand the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The Rebbe would often speak about this in connection with Purim as well. The Gemara says—and the Midrash says—that when Haman arrived, he saw Mordechai studying with children. What was he teaching them? There are several versions. One Midrash says he was teaching the laws of the Omer or the laws of kemitzah. The Rebbe discusses this in the sichos. What was it that made Haman so angry? Haman was planning to kill the children. What provoked his anger? The Rebbe explained that what Haman noticed was that they were studying things with no practical relevance. They were in Persia and Media. There was no Beis Hamikdash. No Omer,

16:29 no kemitzah. Those things did not exist then. They were children—teach them how to wash negel vasser. Teach them how to say a blessing. Teach them things that relate to their lives. This had no connection to their lives at all. But that itself is what Haman grasped: he understood that a Jew is not bound by the reality of the world. A Jew studies Torah because it is something altogether different. He is connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is what brought about the whole outcome, the miracle of Purim. The Rebbe spoke about this many times. In any case, all this is to give us a little more depth in what we are discussing here. What is the Alter Rebbe teaching us in this chapter? Let’s continue a little further in the text. We are up to page 9b. In the middle of the page, the Alter Rebbe says: “And this is a great and wondrous superiority, without end, that the mitzvah of knowing and comprehending Torah has over all the practical mitzvos.” This is a wondrous, distinctive quality found specifically in the mitzvah of knowing and comprehending Torah. It is not found in any of the practical mitzvos, or even in mitzvos performed through speech, or even in the mitzvah of Torah study through speech. In other words, the Alter Rebbe wants to say: sometimes we place thought and speech on the same level. Sometimes we group thought and speech together. For example, later, in chapter 35, when the Alter Rebbe explains the difference between Torah and mitzvos, he comes to the subject of practical mitzvos, the concept of oil and good deeds. There the Alter Rebbe writes that Torah is an inner garment, because Torah involves thought and speech, while a mitzvah is an outer garment—action. So there, thought and speech are grouped together. But in what we are learning here, the point is specifically thought. That is

18:31 The Alter Rebbe says here in our chapter that the special quality of this wondrous union is not in action, nor in speech—not even in speaking words of Torah. The Torah has a mitzvah, “You shall speak of them.” That is not the point here. What we are talking about is specifically the quality of studying in depth, grasping, understanding and delving into the subject. That is what the Alter Rebbe is saying. Even the mitzvah fulfilled through speech, even Torah study through speech: through all the mitzvos performed in speech and action, Hakadosh Boruch Hu clothes the soul, and the light of Hashem surrounds it from head to foot. There is an encompassing light. But with knowledge of Torah, besides the mind being clothed in Hashem’s wisdom—which is an encompassing relationship—Hashem’s wisdom is also within the person. The mind grasps, takes hold of and encompasses in its understanding whatever it can grasp and comprehend of Torah knowledge, each person according to his intellect and his capacity for knowledge and comprehension in PaRDeS. What is the Alter Rebbe telling us here? Torah study involves several mitzvos. There are several aspects to studying Torah. There is the mitzvah of Torah study, and that mitzvah has several parts. There is speech: “You shall speak of them”—speaking words of Torah. There is also, as the Alter Rebbe writes in the Shulchan Aruch, the mitzvah of “You shall meditate on it.” That, too, has two parts. As the Alter Rebbe writes in the Kuntres Acharon to the Laws of Torah Study, the mitzvah of “You shall meditate on it” includes two things: studying in depth and learning by review. Both are part of that mitzvah. When you study in depth, you fulfill “You shall meditate on it”; when you learn by review, you fulfill it as well. And there is another mitzvah: knowing the Torah. That is a separate mitzvah. There is a mitzvah to know the Torah, and it is entirely a matter of thought. So “You shall speak of them” is entirely speech; “You shall meditate on it” has an element of speech and an element of comprehension; and the mitzvah of knowing the Torah is entirely a matter of

20:42 comprehension. The mitzvah of knowing the Torah is what the Alter Rebbe cites in the Shulchan Aruch: every Jew is obligated to know all 613 mitzvos, along with their reasons. Are you familiar with the sicha? The Rebbe has a sicha about this, on the difference between the Rambam and the Alter Rebbe. How is the mitzvah of knowing the Torah defined? Is the mitzvah to know the 613 mitzvos along with their reasons, or even without their reasons? In any case, there is a sicha of the Rebbe’s on this in Likkutei Sichos, volume 36, if I’m not mistaken. The whole disagreement on this subject concerns what exactly is included in the mitzvah of knowing the Torah. With this, we can understand the precision of the wording. The Rebbe focuses on the wording in Tanya: the Alter Rebbe says, “the mitzvah of knowing the Torah and comprehending it.” What is the difference between knowing the Torah and comprehending it? Why use both expressions? The Rebbe explains that, simply put, the mitzvah of knowing the Torah is the mitzvah to know the 613 mitzvos with all their details and reasons. That is called knowing the Torah. Comprehending it refers to the mitzvah of “You shall meditate on it.” As we said, that mitzvah includes comprehension, and that is what “comprehending it” means. So what the Alter Rebbe is saying here is that specifically through knowing and comprehending the Torah—especially when studying in depth, when your intellect becomes united with the intellect of the Torah—there is this wondrous union, found in no other way and in no other mitzvah, not even in Torah study through speech. And this is the distinction the Alter Rebbe makes: all the mitzvos involve an encompassing light. Simply put, a mitzvah is a matter of will, and will is encompassing. When you fulfill a mitzvah, there is an encompassing light. Even on the physical level, the mitzvah always remains above the person. You put on tefillin; you wear tzitzis. There is something encompassing about it. It does not become part of you. It does not become completely one with the person; it always remains something above. Likewise, what is drawn down through it

22:40 is an encompassing expression of will. Torah, by contrast, is as the Alter Rebbe says: “besides.” On the one hand, it has an encompassing aspect too, as we discussed earlier. There is always a part of the Torah that remains above you, so the Torah encompasses you. But there is also an inward aspect: you encompass the Torah. You take Torah into your mind, you grasp it, and it becomes part of you, because the Torah is within your soul and unites with you. There is this inward union, as we said, and it is a special quality found only in Torah study. Now, of course, we need to stress a very, very important point: the encompassing light of a mitzvah does not remain entirely external. Certainly, in mitzvos too, the encompassing light affects a person inwardly. That is what is meant by “One mitzvah leads to another.” When someone fulfills a mitzvah, that encompassing light pushes him to do another mitzvah. It certainly has an effect. A mitzvah refines a person and brings him to greater bittul, greater refinement. Every mitzvah has an effect on the soul. Nevertheless, compared with Torah, that is called an influence from an encompassing light, not an inward influence.