Chapter 5 - Part Five

00:00 We’re up to chapter 5, at the end of the chapter on page 10. The Alter Rebbe explains that Torah is called food. A mitzvah belongs to the category of garments, while Torah belongs to the category of food. He brings the verse, “And Your Torah is within my innards.” When you look at the commentators, you find various explanations of “within my innards.” What is its plain meaning? The Alter Rebbe comes and says that it means just what we’re discussing here: Torah is a form of food. A person needs food in order to live. There is food, there is clothing, and there is a home. The role of food is to connect the soul and the body. When a person eats, the food gives the soul the strength to connect with the body. That itself, as we discussed and as the Alter Rebbe says here, means you have to know how to eat. If a person eats quickly, or eats large pieces, or doesn’t chew or swallow properly, then the food doesn’t become properly integrated either. As a result, it doesn’t achieve what food is meant to achieve: to become life within him, nourishment for the soul and life for the body, so that they live and gain understanding. Chassidus discusses this at length in many maamarim—this subject of Torah as food, including maamarim of the Alter Rebbe. There is also the well-known maamar “Ki Savo’u El Ha’aretz” in Likkutei Torah, Parshas Behar, and “Va’achaltem Lachmechem Lasova” in Parshas Bechukosai. There are several other maamarim as well, including in the Shir Hashirim section of Likkutei Torah, where the Alter Rebbe explains why Torah is called bread and food, and goes into the details. What’s very interesting there is how the Alter Rebbe explains that, for bread to be wholesome, several things have to be done. There’s the whole preparation of the flour and water, and the kneading. The dough is part of it too. You have to know how to do it. If

02:23 you do it well, then it all works. Every step matters if the bread is to turn out properly. Then there is the stage of baking it. We know that if bread isn’t baked properly, it isn’t wholesome bread. Sometimes bread isn’t finished baking; it remains a little doughy. That’s no good. Eating it can cause problems with digestion, with the stomach, and so on. So it needs to be baked well. After that comes what we’re discussing here: knowing how to chew it, how to digest it, how to eat it and chew it properly. The maamarim explain how all these details relate to Torah. If we want Torah—sorry—to be nourishment for the soul, to become life within us, we need all these elements explained there in Likkutei Torah, Parshas Behar. The Alter Rebbe explains grinding and kneading. Grinding means breaking it down into small pieces; there is the idea of a broken and contrite heart. There is the element of water, which is bittul. There is the element of fire, the baking, which is the warmth and fervor of prayer. These are the various things that make the bread—the Torah one studies afterward—wholesome bread, bread as it should be. Here, as we discussed, our chapter is primarily where the Alter Rebbe comes to explain the great advantage of studying Torah in depth, where that wondrous union takes place. So, to explain that wondrous union, the Alter Rebbe is speaking primarily about in-depth study. That’s why he says that one studies it with intellectual depth until it is grasped by one’s mind. The study needs to be in-depth and profound, in a way that it becomes grasped by one’s mind,

04:31 grasped in a way that creates a union. That happens primarily, as we discussed, through in-depth study. By the way, I remember a maamar—I can’t remember now where I once saw it. It was a maamar of the Alter Rebbe, or actually a maamar of the Rebbe based on a maamar of the Alter Rebbe, from the maamarim of that year. I don’t remember which maamar. There the Rebbe also says something interesting connected to what we discussed: girsa. Why is it called girsa? In yeshivah, girsa means the opposite of in-depth study, but that isn’t necessarily what girsa means. In the Gemara, it refers to a form of learning. But the Alter Rebbe says that the word girsa also has the meaning of chewing with one’s teeth. When you chew something, the language of the verse also calls it “to grind.” To grind means to break something into pieces, a kind of chewing with the teeth. He brings a verse there about grinding something with the teeth. So he says this too relates to what we’re discussing: learning by girsa also means breaking the material into pieces. That seems somewhat the opposite of what happens in yeshivah, where girsa is learning quickly. There, he argues that girsa means the reverse: to study and divide the material into parts, to work through its details—not to rush through it and say, “I got the general idea.” Girsa, too, has to be studied the way a person breaks food into pieces with his teeth. In any case, the Alter Rebbe continues. We return now to page 10: “As is written in Eitz Chaim, Gate 44, chapter 3, the garments of the souls in Gan Eden are the mitzvos, while Torah is the food for souls that engaged in Torah study for its own sake in this world, as stated in the Zohar, Vayakhel, page 210.” The Alter Rebbe says that, in light of everything

06:51 we’ve explained, we can also understand what is written in Eitz Chaim. There is a principle that the Alter Rebbe will explain later in Tanya as well: “From their reward, we can know their nature.” In other words, sometimes the reward above, the reward in the World to Come, can help us understand the point and content of a mitzvah in this world. The Alter Rebbe discusses this at length in chapters 37, 38, and 39. There in Tanya, he goes into the intentions behind mitzvos at length. From the reward, one can understand the differences between the various levels and intentions involved in mitzvos. Here, the Alter Rebbe brings something along those lines regarding the general difference between Torah and mitzvos. The Alter Rebbe has explained until now that mitzvos are primarily a matter of garments, because a mitzvah is encompassing. The connection a Jew forms by performing a mitzvah is an encompassing one. Torah, by contrast, creates an inner connection, and therefore it is considered food. This is also what Eitz Chaim says about the reward above. When the soul ascends, its reward corresponds to what it did below. So there too, in heaven, there are garments and there is food. According to Kabbalah, when a soul ascends above, it also has clothing—the soul has garments. You can see this in the haftarah of Parshas Behaaloscha as well. The haftarah describes someone there in Gan Eden who saw “those who walk among those who stand,” the souls and the angels. It says there, “I will clothe you in fine garments,” and “Let them place the clean turban on his head.” It speaks about various garments which, according to Kabbalah, are the garments that clothe the soul. It also says, “Remove the soiled garments.” There are soiled garments—the garments of this world, garments soiled by physicality and materiality—and there is the garment

08:51 of the soul in Gan Eden. So the soul has garments in Gan Eden too. Those garments are produced through the mitzvos, and there is also food in Gan Eden. The soul in Gan Eden has food too; there is nourishment in Gan Eden. This also appears in Tanya, in chapter 5 of Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah. I don’t know how much the bachurim understood of chapter 5; hopefully they’ll understand chapters 4 and 6. As is well known, chapter 5 of Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah is very difficult, with a lot of Kabbalah in it, and there is a sicha of the Rebbe that illuminates that whole chapter. Thanks to that, we understand it. Until the Rebbe explained it, no one understood what the Alter Rebbe was saying there. We were privileged that the Rebbe simply explained every line of chapter 5. The Rebbe’s sichos gave us the light to understand that chapter. There the Rebbe cites the idea of a firmament from which manna drips, and this is the soul’s food in Gan Eden. There is food; the soul eats. What does it eat? Manna. The manna comes from [unclear], and so on. It is an inner, spiritual reality that nourishes the soul. Eitz Chaim says: Where does this come from? The garments in Gan Eden are received through the mitzvos, while the food in Gan Eden—the soul’s nourishment, through which it enjoys the radiance of the Shechinah as inner sustenance—comes from the Torah we study down here. So that connects to what we explained earlier. In light of our explanation, it makes sense: mitzvos are primarily encompassing, so they provide a garment, while Torah is primarily inner nourishment, so its effect in Gan Eden is also inward, as nourishment for the soul. I’ll get to what the Rabbi says here, that the soul needs clothing even above. What are the soul’s garments in Gan Eden? This is explained, as is well known, in the Torah teaching on Parshas Chayei Sarah,

10:44 This is also from the Midrash Rabbah, regarding the garments of the soul in Gan Eden. So I’ll give a physical example. What are garments? Why are garments needed in Gan Eden? Down here, a person needs clothes simply for protection from cold and heat, for modesty, and for all sorts of reasons—to distinguish between the outside and the inside. But what are garments Above? The Alter Rebbe explains it with a very physical example: glasses, or more precisely, sunglasses. Sometimes a person wants to look at a place with a great deal of light, but he can’t. The brightness is too strong; it burns his eyes, blinds him. So there are special glasses you put on that enable you to look without being burned. That is called a garment: it allows a person to enjoy the light without its being too much for him. That is the soul’s garment in Gan Eden. The soul in Gan Eden needs to receive the G-dly light, but the G-dly light that shines in Gan Eden is so great—particularly the light of the mitzvos. As we said earlier, the light of a mitzvah is a drawing down from Kesser, a drawing down of the encompassing light. Mitzvos in particular come from a higher place, because mitzvos are rooted in sovev kol almin, in the encompassing will. So for a Jew to be able to enjoy that light, to receive it, a garment is needed. The garment is like those glasses, which allow you to receive the light without losing your own existence. Those are just a few points to help us understand what we’re talking about here. But the main point the Alter Rebbe wants to explain here is precisely the advantage of Torah over mitzvos: the influence of Torah is internal, and therefore its reward Above is also an internal reward—the soul receives nourishment. Above, that nourishment comes from its Torah study, from the secrets of the Torah that the soul grasps in Gan

12:40 Eden. This is the idea of dew: dew will be the soul’s nourishment. As is known, dew represents the inner dimension of the Torah, the secrets of the Torah that the soul grasps in Gan Eden. The Alter Rebbe continues and says that the wording in Eitz Chaim is “those who engaged in Torah lishmah”—specifically Torah lishmah. So the Alter Rebbe explains what Torah lishmah means. Why does he want to explain it? Why is an explanation of Torah lishmah relevant here? There is discussion in Shulchan Aruch of how one should study Torah lishmah, and there are other places in Chassidus that discuss it. Why talk about its meaning here? Because it is relevant to understanding everything we have learned in this chapter. The Alter Rebbe wants to say that this itself is the meaning of Torah lishmah. What we have learned in this chapter—that a person studies in order to become united, that through study the soul becomes united with G-dliness in a wondrous union—that itself is the meaning of Torah lishmah. In other words, lishmah is not some separate matter; it describes the true way to study. One could mistakenly understand from the wording of Eitz Chaim that the nourishment does not come from the Torah itself, but from the lishmah. In other words, Torah study would be like a person performing a mitzvah. You can put on tefillin without intention, or you can put on tefillin with intention. Likewise, you could simply study Torah, or you could study Torah lishmah, to fulfill the mitzvah of Torah study. And the nourishment would come from the lishmah: if you did it lishmah, you receive nourishment, but that has nothing to do with the Torah itself. They would be two different things. The Alter Rebbe wants to rule out that interpretation. That is why the Alter Rebbe says: according to what we have explained in this chapter, lishmah is the way one studies; it is not something separate. Lishmah in Torah means this very thing: I

14:37 study Torah because I want to reach a wondrous union. A person wants to be in a wondrous union with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, to connect and bind himself to Him, and he knows that the truest union with Hakadosh Boruch Hu can come only through Torah. For then there is a wondrous union between the intellect, the one who understands, and what is understood—and with the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This is what the Alter Rebbe explains next: “And lishmah means”—what does the lishmah we are speaking about mean?—“in order to bind his soul to Hashem through grasping the Torah, each person according to his intellect,” as it says in Pri Eitz Chaim. The definition of lishmah is that a person wants to bind himself to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, to become united with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and he knows that the way he can become united with Him is by engaging in Torah, each person according to his intellect. So that itself is lishmah. This desire to be in a wondrous union with Hakadosh Boruch Hu—that itself, dos gufa, dos meint, is the meaning of lishmah that we are talking about here. In other words, it is also important to know that there are many levels of lishmah. Anyone who has ever learned sichos or maamarim knows that there are many levels in studying lishmah. There is extensive discussion of this, including the well-known sicha in volume 20 of Likkutei Sichos, about the story of Rabbi Yosi ben Pazi. There, the Alter Rebbe goes into the meaning of studying Torah shelo lishmah in Shulchan Aruch, in the laws of Torah study: “From shelo lishmah, one comes to lishmah.” And there are also many places in Chassidus that discuss this. In fact, if you look in Chassidus, you can see that the level the Alter Rebbe describes here is sometimes called shelo lishmah in the maamarim, and binding one’s soul to Hashem is a lower level. In the deeper meaning given in Chassidus, lishmah means for the sake of the Torah. That is what

16:31 lishmah means. We should not assume that the meaning of Torah lishmah has been settled here: it means for the sake of the Torah. True lishmah is when a person is not seeking to bind himself to Hakadosh Boruch Hu; he seeks to bind the Torah to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “David would join the Torah Above with Kudsha Brich Hu”—a very deep concept in Chassidus. There are also maamarim on Parshas Shelach that discuss levels within Torah: Torah as a gift, as an inheritance, and so on. In other words, there are various ways and many levels of Torah study. The highest form of study is when you study Torah without any goal—not even the goal of becoming one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, because that too is still, in a sense, studying for oneself. It is still not studying Torah for its true purpose. Torah for the sake of Torah. The Rebbe spoke about this a great deal. You know, every year on Yud Shvat, the Rebbe would speak about this, because the Rebbe established a gemach. After Yud Shvat, the Rebbe established a special gemach for Torah lishmah. It was a gemach through which the Rebbe gave money from its funds; people were paid to study Torah without ulterior goals. This was part of the Rebbe’s struggle against secular studies, against the whole approach of studying in order to get a degree. It was one of the major battles the Rebbe waged in the early years among Jews outside Eretz Yisroel, as is well known from many sichos in Likkutei Sichos, particularly in the early volumes. Not to look for some practical end in studying. The Rebbe wanted to change the klipah of America in this regard, and the Rebbe instituted this whole approach of studying not for some goal, but for the sake of study itself. There were many sichos about it. So the Rebbe designated Yud Shvat for this. It’s interesting, but people no longer know this today. The Rebbe designated Yud Shvat for

18:25 This matter. It was the Yud Shvat fundraising campaign. There was a campaign for Keren Torah, a special fund into which the money went. The Rebbe would distribute it. If I’m not mistaken, it paid the stipends of many members of the kollel, along with various other things connected with people who study Torah for its own sake. That was where the money came from. In any case, the Rebbe would give a sicha about it every year, and you can look through the sichos and see. I think it began mainly in 5714. After that, you can look at the sichos from every year. There are very enjoyable sichos from around Yud Shvat, sometimes from the Shabbos after Yud Shvat. In them, the Rebbe speaks very powerfully about how Torah should be studied: What does it mean? What is the meaning of studying Torah for its own sake? The Rebbe demanded in our generation—and it’s remarkable—very strongly demanded that we study Torah without any ulterior purpose. Not to become a rabbi, not to teach, not to issue halachic rulings, not to refine the animal soul—not even for any purpose at all. Torah for the sake of Torah. Torah because... because it is Torah, the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, not even for what I will gain from it. There is also the well-known maamar, which many bochurim know, Vekibel HaYehudim in Sefer Hamaamarim Melukat. There the Rebbe discusses three levels, three ways of studying Torah. In any case, here in Tanya, since the Rebbe is not discussing levels, he wants to speak in simple terms. Here the Rebbe explains the advantage of Torah over mitzvos. The point he is explaining here is the soul’s union with G-dliness. So we won’t go into the different levels of studying Torah for its own sake; that isn’t the point. Here the Rebbe is speaking about studying Torah for its own sake in the

20:14 simple sense: that a person studies Torah not to make himself great, not to show off, not to become arrogant. He studies Torah because he wants to connect with G-dliness, and he knows that the deepest connection with G-dliness, a wondrous union, comes specifically through Torah study, as it says in Pri Eitz Chaim. The Rebbe writes in a note: “See there.” It’s interesting—on Pri Eitz Chaim, there is a note from the Rebbe saying “see there.” When the Rebbe writes that, it implies there is something relevant there. Interestingly, Pri Eitz Chaim says that he seeks “to bind his soul to Hashem,” as quoted here. And Pri Eitz Chaim adds that through this, the Tree of Life will grow—something along those lines. So the wording of Pri Eitz Chaim is interesting too. Although it speaks of studying for its own sake on a lower level, as we said—binding one’s soul to Hashem—nevertheless, the continuation shows that even my desire to bind my soul to Hashem is not selfish, just because I want that connection. Rather, I want the higher purpose to be fulfilled through it. In other words, there is a measure of bittul here too: he does it not only for himself. He does it because he knows that through it the Tree of Life will be brought to completion. That relates to the overall purpose of Creation. So here too, seemingly, we see what it truly means to study Torah for its own sake. That is why the Rebbe writes “see there.” In any case, now, at the end of the chapter, there is a passage in parentheses. The Rebbe mainly wants to explain the matter according to Kabbalah and say that Torah has both advantages: the advantage of food and the advantage of a garment. The Alter Rebbe says: Food is an aspect of inward light, while a garment is an aspect of encompassing light. And therefore, the Zohar says that Torah study

22:20 is equal to all the mitzvos. That is, it seems he means the mishnah we say every morning: “The study of Torah is equal to them all.” For the mitzvos are garments alone, whereas Torah is both food and a garment for the intellectual soul, which clothes itself in Torah through studying it in depth. As we explained, Torah study has two aspects: what you grasp of the Torah, and the way the Torah encompasses you. It follows that studying Torah in depth provides both food and a garment. So in the end, Torah has both advantages together. A mitzvah is only a garment, only encompassing light. Torah has both aspects together. “And all the more so when one expresses it verbally, for the breath of speech becomes an aspect of encompassing light, as stated in Pri Eitz Chaim.” The Alter Rebbe says that Torah has yet another encompassing aspect. Besides the encompassing aspect of the intellect, there is an encompassing aspect of speech. After all, besides the intellectual study of Torah, Torah study also involves the mitzvah of “you shall speak of them”—speaking words of Torah. With the Written Torah, and even with the Oral Torah, there is a mitzvah to speak, to say the words. A person needs to study Torah aloud. Why speech specifically? There are many explanations of why it matters that Torah be studied aloud. The Alter Rebbe himself will give further explanations later in Tanya. But here the Alter Rebbe says it is because speech draws down encompassing light. When a person says the words of Torah aloud, the breath produced by his speech has an effect. This is an encompassing aspect of Torah. He says “all the more so.” Why “all the more so”? Because, as Chassidus explains, encompassing lights have different levels: a nearer encompassing light and a more distant one. There are different kinds of encompassing light. Here too, in Torah study, when we say there is an aspect of the

24:25 intellect that remains encompassing, that encompassing light is connected with intellect. It is not yet the true encompassing light; it is an encompassing light of wisdom. The breath of speech, by contrast, is the encompassing light of a mitzvah. It is a higher encompassing light, and that is why he says “all the more so.” In any case, the Rebbe is saying that this is why Torah study is so important. It has all these advantages: both inward and encompassing light, particularly when the words are spoken. That, in general, is the point the Rebbe comes to explain to us in this chapter: the greatness, the special quality, of Torah study. This is one of the chapters that it is very, very important to study and take to heart, so that we truly internalize the importance of Torah study. Bochurim often ask themselves, or their maggid shiur, or their friends: What is the benefit of studying Torah, and so on? Particularly subjects that have no practical application, such as a tractate of Gemara studied in yeshivah. Sometimes they study topics that have no practical application. Here in this chapter, we learn how great the advantage of Torah study is—so great that, in a certain respect, it surpasses even the fulfillment of mitzvos.