Chapter 8 - Part Three

00:00 So we’re up to the end of chapter 8, where the Alter Rebbe begins explaining the subject of the wisdom of the nations. There’s a very, very important passage here. We know the Rebbe was especially forceful on this issue, particularly in the early years. As is well known, when the Rebbe came to America, in the first years of his leadership, he waged a major campaign concerning secular studies, the wisdom of the nations. It was a difficult battle. In America at that time, one of the strongest prevailing ideas was that everyone had to study, get a certificate, get some kind of degree. That idea is still with us today. But, as is well known, there are many sichos on this subject, and the Rebbe worked very hard to instill the foundations of this approach among chassidim. It seems that all of it is based on what the Tanya says here at the end of chapter 8. In chapter 8, the Alter Rebbe explains several matters in the service of Hashem and exactly what effect they have on the soul: which aspect of kelipah they belong to, whether they come from the three impure kelipos, whether something is permitted or forbidden, how it is rectified, and what punishments people need to undergo to cleanse themselves of it. That’s what we’re discussing here. The Alter Rebbe spoke about several categories: idle talk about permitted things, idle talk about forbidden things, and the prohibition of neglecting Torah study. These are all things people commonly encounter, even someone who wants to be a beinoni. They are transgressions that are very easy to stumble into, and the Alter Rebbe warns a person to be careful about them and to understand their severity. Here, at the end, the Alter Rebbe discussed neglecting Torah study. This is one of the most serious matters. We see

02:09 that the Alter Rebbe returns again and again to the subject of neglecting Torah study, starting from the beginning of Tanya, chapter 1. It has a very important place in Tanya, and it seems that this is the central struggle of the beinoni: to guard against neglecting Torah study. As the Alter Rebbe says, it is among the transgressions that are difficult to avoid. So here, after discussing the severity of neglecting Torah study, the general punishment and the specific punishment and so on, the Alter Rebbe begins, at the end of chapter 8—it’s near the bottom of page 13, about seven lines from the bottom. The Alter Rebbe says: “And likewise, engaging in the wisdom of the nations.” I think that’s how it should be read, right? “The wisdom of the nations.” In other words, the Alter Rebbe means everything connected with secular studies. By “the wisdom of the nations,” the Alter Rebbe doesn’t mean only the study of philosophy, as some people mistakenly understood Tanya to mean. The Rebbe points out that some interpreted Tanya incorrectly, thinking that the Alter Rebbe meant philosophy. Philosophy is among the fields of the wisdom of the nations. It’s taught in schools where they study philosophy, and it is actually bound up with idol worship. Philosophy discusses all kinds of approaches that run counter to the Torah. That is outright forbidden, because it involves actual prohibitions of idol worship and prohibitions from the Torah. So that isn’t what the Alter Rebbe means. The Rebbe discusses this in his letters. The Alter Rebbe means all the fields of the wisdom of the nations, such as the study of animals—ordinary, familiar subjects like arithmetic, mathematics, physics, science. All the sciences are included in the wisdom of the nations. What does the Alter Rebbe say about this? First, he says something very interesting. There are many mistakes people make about this subject. It’s interesting to learn the Alter Rebbe’s approach,

04:18 the approach of Chassidus, to this subject. First, the Alter Rebbe says: “In general, it is considered idle talk with regard to the sin of neglecting Torah study.” Secular studies, the wisdom of the nations, are considered idle talk. We said earlier that with idle talk there is the punishment of kaf hakela; there is the prohibition of neglecting Torah study; and there are three aspects to it. The Alter Rebbe said a few lines earlier that when a person does not study Torah and instead occupies himself with idle talk, three things are involved. There is idle talk, for which there is kaf hakela. There is neglecting Torah study, for which there are severe punishments specific to it. And there is the Gehinnom of snow because of the laziness that keeps him from studying. So the Alter Rebbe says that when a person studies secular subjects, the wisdom of the nations, at a time when he should be studying Torah, all three apply to him. It is considered idle talk even though he is studying intellectual subjects, scientific subjects. Because of the neglect of Torah study involved, it has the same severity as idle talk. The Rebbe adds that there is also a positive side to this: the Alter Rebbe does not say that the wisdom of the nations comes from the three impure kelipos. It is idle talk; it is not considered part of the three impure kelipos. The proof is that, as the Alter Rebbe will say later, it can also be elevated. If it came from the three impure kelipos, it could not be elevated. So how does the Alter Rebbe define secular studies? They fall into the category of idle talk and carry all the severity of idle talk. As the subtitles were generated by AI, there are various teachings of our Sages in which they say

06:14 in several places in the Gemara that engaging in the wisdom of the nations is considered idle talk. There are several teachings of our Sages to this effect cited in the Shulchan Aruch. That is one point. With that, the Alter Rebbe concludes what he has been saying up to now. Here the Alter Rebbe introduces another point. Because, at first glance, one might think from this that the wisdom of the nations isn’t so bad. What’s the problem? It doesn’t come from the three impure kelipos; it comes from kelipas nogah. Is that so terrible? The Alter Rebbe comes and adds a very fundamental point. He says: “Furthermore, the impurity of the wisdom of the nations exceeds the impurity of idle talk.” The Alter Rebbe says that, in one respect, the wisdom of the nations, secular studies, are actually worse than idle talk. Why are they worse? The Alter Rebbe explains that idle talk “clothes and defiles only the middos.” When a person speaks idle words, the impurity it causes in the soul affects only the middos, “which come from the holy element of ruach in his G-dly soul, through the impurity of kelipas nogah in the idle talk, which comes from the evil element of ruach in this kelipah within his animal soul.” What is the Alter Rebbe saying? When a person speaks idly, what is usually the content of those words? They’re about things a person desires—things he shouldn’t be saying. Talking about food. Sometimes yeshivah students sit and talk about food, or they talk about money, trips, outings, clothes, whatever it may be. You’re talking about such things, but you’re not talking about forbidden things. Forbidden things already belong to the three impure kelipos. Hatred and gossip are outright evil. We’re talking about idle talk. Idle talk introduces coarseness and materialism into the soul. It makes the soul more coarse. There is a maamar on Ani Ledodi, from 5712, 5707,

08:28 The Rebbe speaks about this there and gives an interesting, lengthy explanation of what idle talk does. He compares it to thorns in a field. What do the thorns do? They draw moisture away from the fruit trees and damage them. They grow in the soil, take the moisture, and cause the fruit to dry out. In the same way, idle talk causes the soul to lose its G-dly vitality. A person who engages in a great deal of idle talk defiles his soul. But which part of the soul does it defile? The ruach. What is ruach? Ruach relates primarily to the middos, the emotions. There are two points here. First, when we speak of the soul’s levels—nefesh, ruach, and neshamah—ruach relates to the middos. As is well known, nefesh relates to thought, speech, and action; ruach relates to the middos; and neshamah relates to the intellectual faculties. So idle talk affects the ruach, taking the holy ruach into the ruach of kelipah. Besides that, as the Tanya explains in chapter 1, there are the elements of fire, air, water, and earth, and idle talk is connected with the element of air, ruach. In any case, what is the damage, the impurity, the coarsening brought about by idle talk? It makes the soul coarse. But which part of the soul? The ruach: “the evil element of air in his animal soul,” as explained earlier. The Tanya says this in chapter 1. But it does not affect the Chabad faculties of the soul. There is one distinction: idle talk does not damage the intellectual faculties; it damages the middos. The middos. You speak words of desire, words of arrogance, words of fear, and you damage the middos of the G-dly soul. But the intellectual faculties of the G-dly soul do not become defiled. Why? Because these are words of foolishness and ignorance, which even fools and unlearned people can speak.

10:36 Yes, you don’t need to be wise to engage in idle talk. Even a fool can do it. In other words, the intellectual faculties are not invested there. Idle talk is talking nonsense. When you talk nonsense, what is present in it is the coarse, material part of the person—the middos. That is what is involved. The intellectual faculties are not damaged. So in one respect, idle talk has an advantage: the damage to the soul affects only the middos, not the intellectual faculties. By contrast, secular wisdom enclothes and defiles the Chabad faculties of the G-dly soul. When we speak about secular wisdom—and we’ll get to it—the impurity it causes affects not the middos but the intellectual faculties. It is “the impurity of kelipas nogah contained in that wisdom.” A person damages his soul—but where in the soul? In its intellectual faculties. And what does the Alter Rebbe say? “The impurity of kelipas nogah contained in that wisdom.” As we said, there are two sides to this. On the one hand, the intellectual faculties are not associated with the three completely impure kelipos. They are associated with kelipas nogah. As we said, we’re not talking here about philosophy or studying matters of idol worship. We’re talking about studying subjects that are, in themselves, permitted. He studies arithmetic, he studies physics, he studies ordinary subjects, not forbidden ones. That is why this belongs to kelipas nogah. But because it involves the intellect, the mind, the damage occurs in a deeper place—in the mind. Damage to the mind is much more serious, much more subtle, than damage to the middos. What is the explanation? It’s simple. First of all, the intellectual faculties are higher than the middos. That’s clear. Damage to the middos is on a lower level of the soul; the intellectual faculties are on a higher level. So when the damage is in a higher place in the soul, it is more serious. As the chassidim say:

12:49 When the damage is in Chagas—the emotional attributes—it can be repaired through Chabad, the intellectual faculties. In other words, if a person has a shortcoming in his middos, his intellect can correct his middos. To put it simply, suppose a person is coarse and inclined toward physical desires. His middos are not where they should be; he is driven by desire. But if his head is in order, if his mind is healthy, then eventually he can use his mind to correct his middos. Suppose a person has cravings for food. If he studies Chassidus and contemplates it, he will come to recognize that G-dliness is what truly matters. In the end, his intellect will influence his middos. But if something is wrong in a person’s mind—for example, he has doubts about emunah, or he has timtum hamo’ach, a dulling of the mind—then the problem is already in the mind, and it is much harder to correct. The Rebbe Rashab says something further in one of the maamarim: the mind is the essence of the soul. Beyond the fact that the mind is a higher part of the soul, it is also known that the soul itself resides there. As the Alter Rebbe will say later in Tanya, at the end, in chapter 51, the soul’s principal dwelling place is in the mind. Its presence, the neshamah, is there. In fact, the Alter Rebbe will soon say in chapter 9 as well that the G-dly soul has its root in the mind. So when the mind is damaged, when a person defiles his mind, it causes timtum, a dulling of the mind, and makes the mind coarse. Damage to the mind is damage to the essence of the soul. It distances the person, in his very essence, from G-dliness. If the damage is only in the middos, then in his essence the person can still remain someone with feeling. You can reach him, and then his middos can be transformed. But when the damage

14:45 is in the intellectual faculties, it takes hold of the person’s essence. We see this clearly: when a person’s intellect becomes coarse, his distance from G-dliness is much greater. It is much more dangerous. Chassidim tell a story that once, at a farbrengen, the yeshivah administration approached the Frierdiker Rebbe about a particular student who had drifted away. He had been in the yeshivah, one of the Temimim, but he had strayed from the path. The Frierdiker Rebbe immediately asked, “Is the problem in the heart or in the mind?” That was his question. If it is in the heart, it is still easier to work on. If it is in the mind, it is already more complicated. That is essentially what the Alter Rebbe is saying here. So in this respect, secular wisdom is much more serious than a problem with the middos. It turns out that there is a seeming contradiction here. It’s very interesting. On the one hand, when the middos are involved, even the three completely impure kelipos can be involved. A person can fall into the three completely impure kelipos themselves, because permitted desires can lead to forbidden desires, and so on. They can bring a person down into the three completely impure kelipos, since some desires involve things that are actually forbidden. By contrast, with matters of the intellect, in the great majority of cases the intellectual faculties are not connected with the three completely impure kelipos. As we said, secular wisdom does not generally involve things belonging to the three completely impure kelipos. Usually it belongs to kelipas nogah. From that perspective, then, it seems less severe. On the other hand, the damage to the soul is more serious. There is an explanation for this. I’ll explain why, in one respect, secular wisdom does not involve the three completely impure kelipos. Why is that so in this respect?

16:48 What is the explanation for this? Why, on the one hand, is there less kelipah in the intellect, while on the other hand there is more impurity there? The Alter Rebbe offers a few words of explanation here. Look inside. The Alter Rebbe says: “This is not so with these branches of wisdom, for through them he clothes and defiles the Chabad faculties of his G-dly soul with the impurity of kelipas nogah contained in these branches of wisdom. They fell there through the shattering of the vessels, from the external aspect of the wisdom of holiness, as is known to those familiar with the mystical teachings.” In these words, the Alter Rebbe explains the difference between the intellect and the emotions. It is very interesting. We know that the entire existence of kelipah—how did kelipah come into the world?—comes from the shattering of the vessels. Everyone knows from learning Chassidus that there was a world of Tohu, with the sefiros of Tohu, and that the vessels of those sefiros shattered. Sparks then fell into the affairs of this world, even into forbidden things, and these sparks became the life force of all the forbidden things in the world. Now, Kabbalah explains—and the Alter Rebbe brings it here in just a couple of words, though it is a whole subject in Chassidus—that there was a difference in the shattering of the vessels: the main shattering took place only in the emotions. The intellect did not shatter. One of the indications of this discussed in Chassidus is the account of Esav. With Esav, the Torah speaks of the kings of Esav—the seven kings of Edom in Parshas Vayishlach. That is the source of the kelipos, right? There in Parshas Vayishlach, it speaks about the kings of Edom: seven kings, each of whom “reigned and died,” “reigned and died.” This clearly refers to the shattering of the vessels of the seven emotional attributes. So it is only with regard to the seven that we have seven kings who died. But there are ten sefiros. The explanation is that the intellect did not shatter; the intellectual faculties ascended. When the vessels shattered in the world of Tohu, the emotions

19:00 shattered. The intellectual faculties withdrew and ascended. Only their external aspect—something peripheral, so to speak—fell in the shattering of the vessels. That is what the Alter Rebbe means by “the external aspect.” So what follows from this? What does it actually mean in practice? Since the emotions really did shatter—meaning that they actually fell into kelipah—there can be evil emotions. There is [unclear] in the emotions. There can even be desires for forbidden things: genuinely evil emotions, genuinely forbidden things. By contrast, since the intellect did not shatter, but only withdrew, the three impure kelipos are not so present in the intellect. What is there, as we said, is only kelipas nogah. In that respect, intellectual pursuits are not outright forbidden, and so, as the Alter Rebbe is about to say, they can also be elevated to holiness if a person knows how to use them. On the other hand, as we said, precisely because the intellect is deeper, holier, loftier, and more G-dly—what makes intellect superior to the emotions is that the awareness of G-dliness there is greater—when it is turned to secular wisdom, in one particular respect it causes impurity in the soul. It creates a distance from G-dliness greater than desires can create. That is simply the meaning here in Tanya, how to understand what Tanya says. I once heard an explanation—I am not sure whether I heard that the Rebbe said it, or that it was based on something the Rebbe said—but I heard a delightful explanation. What does it really mean that secular wisdom is so serious? What is it about secular wisdom that so defiles the soul? I heard two explanations. One explanation is that secular

21:07 wisdom—the distinction between these branches of wisdom—one of the features of science, of all science, no matter what level or field, is that everything is founded on yesh, on something existing. The basis of secular wisdom is yesh. It never approaches ayin, nothingness; everything starts with something that exists. Even mathematics: there are numbers, there are things. Physics, biology—the premise of science is that something exists. That is why there is that well-known question: How did the world come about? What did the world come from? The assumption is that the world always existed. The question is what existed: some kind of atom, then something smaller, finer, finer still. They keep going back, searching further and further. But the assumption is that the world must be a yesh, something that exists, and this is the opposite of Torah. In holiness, the starting point is ayin. G-dliness is ayin, bittul—the opposite of a sense of independent existence. In essence, there is nothing at all; there is nothing in the world, and the existence of the yesh is the novelty. That is the whole foundation of G-dliness, of holiness. With secular wisdom, when a person gets used to studying it, his immediate assumption is a sense of independent existence. That is where it starts, and this is true of every field. Even psychology: people study psychology, right? Modern psychology, too, is founded on yesh. The person, the “I,” is at the center. Then the question is how to heal that “I,” how to make my “I” pleasant and good and sweet, and so on. But the premise is that the “I” ultimately has to be complete. Everything is founded on yesh. So this is the opposite; this itself is the impurity. This itself is the impurity that distances you from G-dliness. That is one approach. Another approach: There is another fascinating point in the Rebbe’s letters. The Rebbe says—and this brings us to one of the features of science—that everything is in doubt. Nothing is certain. It is all subject to doubt. In science, one of its principles, especially in modern science, is that everything is probable,

23:28 probable. Everything is based on the data we have, so we say it is such and such. But that can change, and that is why science is constantly changing. On the contrary, scientists take pride in that. Science prides itself on being open to criticism and change, on constantly discovering new things. But what is scientific knowledge founded on? On doubts. If this and this is the case, then such and such follows; but if something else is the case, then the result is different. It goes back and forth all the time. Torah wisdom is truth. Torah wisdom is founded on certainty. The wisdom of G-dliness has no doubts; there, things are true. This is how they must be. They cannot be otherwise. So here too, a person who studies secular wisdom develops an assumption: Who says so? Maybe not. And that “maybe not” can enter the mind as well—the familiar kelipah of the mind, doubt. So these are some explanations of what is meant here when it says that this defiles the soul. But, as we said, these are not the three impure kelipos. How is that expressed? The Alter Rebbe now says: “Unless he uses them as an axe with which to cut.” The Alter Rebbe is saying that there is a way to elevate secular wisdom too: if a person knows how to take these branches of wisdom and use them “as an axe with which to cut.” This is an expression from the Gemara, meaning to use something to earn a livelihood. He studies secular subjects so that he can become a doctor, a lawyer, and so on. He earns a living with that and supports his family. That is called “an axe with which to cut.” There is a saying attributed to Reb Levi Yitzchak. He asked: Why is the analogy specifically an axe with which to cut? Why an axe? An axe is a hammer. What is an axe? A knife,

25:29 Something you cut with. A person takes no pleasure in an axe. An axe is something you need in order to chop wood. You want to chop? You need an axe, but nobody says, “I enjoy the axe.” In the same way, if you study secular disciplines to earn a living, it has to be like an axe. You don’t take pleasure in the subject itself. You take pleasure only in the wisdom of Torah. The pleasure you have is when you learn a page of Gemara or a sicha. That’s where your enjoyment lies. The axe is just a tool. He needs to earn a living, so he uses it only as an axe; he takes no pleasure in it. That’s a point made by Reb Levi. In other words, what does it mean to use them as “an axe to chop with”? The Alter Rebbe gives examples: to earn a comfortable living from them for the sake of serving Hashem. One example is using secular disciplines to earn a comfortable living. Here, too, there’s a nuance the Rebbe points out in his letters. Even if it’s only to earn a comfortable living, that is another allowance the Alter Rebbe gives. A person could earn a very modest living from secular disciplines, but he wants to earn a comfortable living, and that, too, is permitted. If your only reason for studying them is that purpose—not because you enjoy the study itself—you are using them solely so that you can earn a comfortable living for the sake of serving Hashem. “Or he knows how to use them in the service of Hashem, or for His Torah.” The Alter Rebbe goes even deeper: not only does he use them to earn a living, he uses what he studies itself for the service of Hashem or for Torah. What does “for the service of Hashem or for Torah” mean? Here are examples. Things from the wisdom of the nations can help him serve Hashem. For example, one of the remarkable things we see in the Rebbe’s sichos and letters is how

27:22 the Rebbe derives lessons in serving Hashem from the wisdom of the nations. The Rebbe draws lessons from a car, from radio, from television, from all kinds of things. When a spacecraft went up, the Rebbe drew a lesson from that too. From all sorts of things in the wisdom of the nations, the Rebbe drew lessons in serving Hashem, making use of the information and knowledge. There’s the well-known letter about the atom, which the Rebbe wrote even before his nesius, when the world was only beginning to learn about it. Einstein had begun speaking about the atom, and in a letter from those years the Rebbe explains what a Jew should learn from the atom about serving Hashem. That is called serving Hashem. “Or for His Torah” is something else: you use that knowledge to learn Torah. You study mathematics so that you can learn the laws of sanctifying the new month. You study the astronomy involved in sanctifying the new month. You want to learn Tractate Eruvin? You need to know calculations, how to measure, [unclear], Zera’im, all the halachic matters and so on. Matters in Eruvin require calculations. So all his use of secular disciplines is to better understand the Torah subjects he is learning. “And this is why the Rambam and Ramban, of blessed memory, and their colleagues engaged in them.” The Alter Rebbe concludes by giving the example of the Rambam and Ramban. We know they were involved in secular disciplines. The Rambam was a physician, and the Ramban was a physician too. The Rambam also used secular knowledge in writing about sanctifying the new month and similar matters. There are many subjects in which he used it. So with them, you could plainly see that their entire involvement in secular disciplines was solely to earn a living, to serve Hashem, or for Torah study. That’s the Rambam and Ramban. In one of the Rebbe’s explanations of why the Alter Rebbe gives the example of the Rambam and Ramban, the point is also to say

29:17 that a person has to be on a certain level. I don’t know whether you have to be like the Rambam, but you have to approach it as the Rambam and Ramban did: they truly took no pleasure in engaging with secular disciplines. None at all. Everyone understands that this was so for them; they themselves write in their letters that they did it entirely for the sake of Heaven, with no material motive. Then not only does it not defile a person—on the contrary, it becomes something elevating. It raises him. As explained in the maamarim, [unclear] using secular disciplines to increase holiness. That is not the case for an ordinary person, who might come to enjoy the study itself. It can then make his soul more materialistic and distance him from G-dliness. Hashem should guide him to keep away from them. That is why it was so important to the Rebbe that children, especially in their early years, not be taught secular disciplines, for all the reasons we are learning here in Tanya itself.