Chapter 10 - Part Four

00:01 So we’ll continue here. Where did we leave off? In the middle of chapter 10, on page 16. Up to this point, the Alter Rebbe explained the difference between a tzaddik who has good and a tzaddik who has evil. We discussed how each has two names: a tzaddik who has good is also called a complete tzaddik, while a tzaddik who has evil is called an incomplete tzaddik. These aren’t just two names; each name expresses another aspect. What are those two aspects? As the Alter Rebbe explained here, there are two differences between them, and the two are connected. One is how much the person has accomplished with the evil within him. The other is how much he has accomplished with the good within him. Those are two separate matters. In other words, the difference between a complete and an incomplete tzaddik is a difference in the level of love in the service of “do good.” Generally speaking, the complete tzaddik’s love is much higher than the incomplete tzaddik’s. The complete tzaddik’s love is a love of delights. As we’ve explained several times, his entire being—his delight—becomes love of Hashem, and that becomes his whole concern. There is nothing for him besides love of Hashem, to the point that anything that is not G-dliness is utterly out of the question for him. By contrast, the incomplete tzaddik’s love is not yet a love of delights in its fullest sense. He may have a little of it, but love has not become his entire being. That is in the level of “do good.” The same applies to how much he has accomplished with the evil. For the tzaddik who has good, evil has become utterly repulsive. By contrast, for the tzaddik who has evil, evil is repulsive, but

02:06 not utterly so, as we said. That is the meaning of the two names. The incomplete tzaddik is called a tzaddik who has evil because there is still some evil there. It is utterly hidden and exceedingly subtle, but it is still there; only it is completely nullified to the good. He is called an incomplete tzaddik because of his level in “do good”: his love has not reached absolute perfection. The tzaddik’s love is incomplete; he has not attained the perfection of love. With the tzaddik who has good, it is the opposite. He is a complete tzaddik, meaning that his love has reached absolute perfection—a love of delights. That is also why he is called a tzaddik who has good: he is entirely good, and even the evil has been transformed into good. The Alter Rebbe is going to explain this now, in the continuation of the chapter. So we left off after the Alter Rebbe explained the difference between a tzaddik who has good and a tzaddik who has evil. The Alter Rebbe goes on to say that there are many, many levels among tzaddikim who have evil. This is what he says: “Now, this level is divided into myriads of levels.” There are myriads of levels of a tzaddik who has evil—an enormous number of levels—“with regard to the small amount of evil.” Why are there so many levels of the incomplete tzaddik? The Alter Rebbe explains that the differences lie in how small the remaining evil is, which of the four evil elements it comes from, and the extent to which it is nullified in its smallness. The Alter Rebbe is saying two things. There can be many levels in two respects: quality and quantity. First, which of the four evil elements is involved? As we said, at the beginning of Tanya, in chapter 1, the Alter Rebbe spoke about the animal soul’s four elements, which correspond to four kinds of negative traits. There is the element of water, associated with desire and pleasures, and

04:17 the element of fire, associated with arrogance and anger; the element of air, associated with idle talk and frivolity, and likewise the element of earth, associated with laziness and sadness. So when we say that a tzaddik who has evil still has a tiny, tiny bit of evil within him—which kind are we talking about? For some tzaddikim it will show up in matters of arrogance, and for others in matters of desire: the element of fire or the element of water. For someone else it might show up in the element of air, in frivolity. In other words, which particular area is it? That is a qualitative distinction. That is the first thing he says: a small amount of evil remains from one of the four evil elements. Which one, which particular element? Then he speaks about quantity as well: the degree to which it is nullified in its smallness. Suppose we’re talking about a tzaddik in whom a trace of the element of water remains. What is the element of water? Some degree of desire for this world. Again, not that it is present in practice in a tzaddik, but on an extremely subtle level he still has it; he has not completely eliminated his desire for worldly things. Within that itself, how much has he nullified it? To what extent is it nullified within him? As we’ve said, he has not transformed it. A tzaddik who has good has transformed it completely. A tzaddik who has evil has not transformed it, but it has been nullified. The analogy we used for this in previous classes is a vessel filled with the finest clean, sweet water, into which a drop of dirty water has been mixed. It is a drop you can’t taste or see. Someone who doesn’t know it is there won’t even notice it. So the question is: to what extent is that drop nullified relative to what is there? There can be many quantitative levels. And that is what

06:10 the Alter Rebbe continues: its nullification in its smallness may be one in sixty, for example, or one in a thousand or ten thousand, and so on, by way of example. You see, there are several kinds of nullification. The Alter Rebbe uses examples from halachah. We know that in halachah, when we discuss the nullification of something forbidden in something permitted, there are several kinds. Everyone knows about nullification by a majority. With certain things, we say that a majority is enough, while with others we need sixty times as much. There is nullification in sixty. We learn this regarding [unclear], and in a number of halachic cases where the permitted substance must be sixty times the forbidden one. Then there is also nullification in a thousand or ten thousand. The Rebbe points out that in halachah, a thousand or ten thousand is mentioned only in the negative. Anyone who studies Rambam or Shulchan Aruch knows the ruling that something is “not nullified even in a thousand.” Halachah says, for example, that if a whole creature falls in—a bug, how do you say it, an ant—not a live animal, but an entire creature, a whole entity—it is not nullified even in a thousand. That is where the expression “a thousand” is used. Similarly, halachah sometimes uses the expression “ten thousand”: even if there are many tens of thousands. It appears in Rambam regarding an ox sentenced to be stoned and various other things. Those are the expressions used. So the Alter Rebbe uses these halachic expressions. Just as in halachah we see different levels and different thresholds for nullification, so too in spiritual matters: the evil in the soul, which is analogous to something forbidden, is nullified relative to the good in the soul. How much love of Hashem does he have? How much holiness? How much of a connection to concentration? He may have sixty times as much love of Hashem, and that brings about nullification in sixty. That just reminds me, when we’re talking about nullification in sixty, I remember

08:14 It was, as is well known, in 5752, during the period before 27 Adar, that the Rebbe spoke a great deal about nullification in sixty. The Rebbe was speaking then about joy. In 5752, the Rebbe saw that something was coming—people understood it afterward; at the time they did not, but the Rebbe saw that something was going to happen. So from the beginning of Adar, the Rebbe kept speaking about the fact that it was a leap year, with sixty days of joy, and that by increasing joy throughout those sixty days, the undesirable things would be nullified—nullification in sixty. The Rebbe wanted to nullify the decree. When the Rebbe saw that something was going to go wrong, he spoke about this a great deal. In other words, there would be sixty measures of joy against the undesirable thing, until it was completely nullified. Along these lines, the Alter Rebbe says here that a tzaddik who has good within him has sixty measures of love of Hashem against some tiny drop of evil, so it is not felt at all. And there is a higher tzaddik who has a thousand measures, and another who has ten thousand—a myriad. Now, these numbers might look like just interesting numbers that the Alter Rebbe brings here, but we can be sure that everything is precise. There is an interesting point about this from the Rebbe’s father. For things like this, you have to look in the teachings of the Rebbe’s father, Rabbi Levik. The Rebbe’s father explains it according to Kabbalah. I think it was a question from the Rebbe and an answer from Rabbi Levik. If I remember correctly, it was some “requires further study” written in abbreviation. The Rebbe wrote an abbreviation, noting that this point in Tanya required further study, and his father answered him. Rabbi Levik explains that these numbers are precise in the spiritual source of these matters according to Kabbalah: sixty,

09:57 a thousand, and a myriad. He explains that they correspond to the three levels of Tiferes, Binah, and Chochmah. He also explains why. He explains that the number sixty is connected to six: six times ten, referring to the middos. This relates to the sefirah of Tiferes, which encompasses the six middos. A thousand—the sefirah of Chochmah is called “a thousand,” and there is a verse about it. I don’t remember it right now. The sefirah of Binah. Did I say Chochmah? The sefirah of Binah is called “a thousand.” A thousand refers to Binah; I don’t remember the source. Then he brings that a myriad refers to Chochmah, and “[unclear] a myriad of holiness.” He cites verses for the whole thing. What am I getting at? Among the tzaddikim we are discussing, there are different levels of love of Hashem, different levels of bittul. Has he reached love of Hashem at the level of the middos? That is sixty. Or has his love of Hashem reached the level of Binah, or the level of Chochmah? Accordingly, the evil is nullified in sixty, in a thousand, or in a myriad. It simply shows us that the numbers in Tanya are not arbitrary; they are precise in the spiritual source of the matter according to Kabbalah as well. What does the Alter Rebbe want to say? The Alter Rebbe says: Now, everything we have said about the many levels of a tzaddik who has evil within him—this is what the Gemara says in Tractate Sukkah. These are the levels of the complete tzaddikim in every generation, as the Gemara states, “Eighteen thousand tzaddikim stand before Hakadosh Boruch Hu.” The Gemara says there are eighteen thousand tzaddikim. It sounds from the Gemara as though there are eighteen thousand tzaddikim in every generation. On the other hand, the Gemara says there are thirty-six tzaddikim. The Alter Rebbe does not bring that here, but the Rebbe brings it in his notes. Because in the Gemara there in Sukkah, as in Sanhedrin, the Gemara brings a statement by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, which he will quote shortly. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said, “I have seen people of ascent, and they are few”—that there are only... And in the end he said

11:55 two; there is only one. So the Gemara says there are many tzaddikim. What it means is that there are different kinds of tzaddikim. There is a category numbering eighteen thousand tzaddikim. There is a category numbering thirty-six tzaddikim. And there is a category with only one, the tzaddik who is the foundation of the world—Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. What does that mean? According to what we are learning here, the categories under discussion are levels of a tzaddik who has evil within him. Eighteen thousand tzaddikim can only refer to levels of a tzaddik who has evil within him. Even the thirty-six tzaddikim refer to levels of a tzaddik who has evil within him. That is how the Rebbe explains it in his notes. But when Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said they are few—fewer than thirty-six, perhaps even just two, or even just one—that is already the level of a tzaddik who has good within him. At times the Rebbe spoke of an even higher level of a tzaddik who has good within him, but in any case, that is not what Tanya is discussing here. So this is what the Alter Rebbe is saying here: all these numerous tzaddikim are levels of a tzaddik who has evil within him. By the way, these numbers too are precise. The Gemara’s number of eighteen thousand—the number eighteen is also precise. Eighteen is the numerical value of chai, “life,” and life is the level of a tzaddik. A tzaddik is called—after all, “tzaddikim, even in death, are called living.” The defining quality of a tzaddik is that he is alive, particularly Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Chai is associated with the sefirah of Yesod, and “a tzaddik is the foundation of the world.” A tzaddik is called essentially alive. So the word chai, eighteen, is connected with the level of tzaddikim. Along these lines, as we know, the Alter Rebbe says in Igeres Hakodesh in Tanya, speaking of a tzaddik, that “the life of the tzaddik is faith, awe, and love.” In other words, the quality of being alive is connected with a tzaddik. And likewise,

13:42 the number thirty-six is connected with the same idea, because thirty-six is the numerical value of chai twice. It too is connected with life. In any case, there is also a verse concerning the tzaddik that says, “The living, the living, will thank You”—chai twice—and there are explanations of this as well. The question, in practical terms, is why chai appears twice. So all this is on the level we are discussing here: a tzaddik who has evil within him. Now the Alter Rebbe returns to the complete tzaddik. The Alter Rebbe says: “But as for the level of a complete tzaddik, of whom Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says...” Now that we are returning to the complete tzaddik: this is a tzaddik who has attained the ultimate perfection of love and the refinement of the animal soul. As we said, his love is a love of delights. Therefore, he has not only nullified the evil; he has transformed it into good. That is the special quality of a complete tzaddik: he has transformed evil into good. The Alter Rebbe now explains what Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said about a complete tzaddik: “I have seen people of ascent, and they are few.” “Few” means fewer than eighteen thousand and, as we said, even fewer than thirty-six. So few that he said there might be only one or two. Up to this point, he has explained the distinctions. Now the Alter Rebbe comes to tell us another very, very important point: Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai used the expression “people of ascent.” He calls the complete tzaddikim “people of ascent.” The Alter Rebbe is now going to give us two explanations of “people of ascent.” This is not just a straightforward explanation. Tanya is not offering commentary on the Gemara simply to explain why Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said “people of ascent.” Rather, if we understand the depth of what “people of ascent” means, it will give us a deeper understanding.

15:33 At a deeper level, this is the level of tzaddik that the Alter Rebbe wants to explain here in the chapter. We’re about to see that the Alter Rebbe gives two explanations for why Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai calls a complete tzaddik one of the “bnei aliyah”—those who ascend. These two explanations go together with the two descriptions we mentioned earlier: “a complete tzaddik” and “a tzaddik who has good.” They will help us understand what is distinctive about a complete tzaddik in serving Hashem, both in refining the animal soul and its evil and in serving Hashem more broadly. This is what the Alter Rebbe comes to explain at the end of the chapter. Continuing in chapter 10, the Alter Rebbe says: “And therefore they are called bnei aliyah.” Why did Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai give complete tzaddikim that name? The Alter Rebbe says: “Because they transform evil and elevate it to holiness.” This is his first explanation of bnei aliyah: aliyah means ascent; they elevate. In other words, these are people whose whole concern is to bring about an ascent—to transform evil into good, to elevate the darkness, to elevate the world. “Because they transform evil and elevate it to holiness, as stated in the Zohar’s introduction: When Rabbi Chiya wanted to ascend to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s chamber, he heard a voice go forth and say: ‘Which of you have transformed darkness into light and tasted bitterness as sweetness before coming here?’” And so on. What is the story? It’s a well-known story in the Zohar. The Zohar relates that at a certain point Rabbi Chiya became ill and ascended to heaven while still alive. He had not passed away; he was alive. That is why he was called Rabbi Chiya, because he was one of those tzaddikim who remained alive. Afterward,

17:38 he returned to the world, and the story continues. It says in Chassidus that Rabbi Chiya was on the same level as Yaakov Avinu, of whom it is said, “Yaakov Avinu did not die.” He was, in fact, alive. Rabbi Chiya was on that same level. The Zohar’s introduction relates that Rabbi Chiya merited to enter Gan Eden while alive, a soul in a body, and came to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s chamber. He wanted to enter, but a voice came forth saying that not everyone could enter. The condition was that a person had transformed darkness into light and bitterness into sweetness before coming there. “Before coming there” means before arriving—in this world. If you accomplished those things in this world, you can enter Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s chamber. The Alter Rebbe says that these words define for us what a complete tzaddik is: a tzaddik who has good, who elevates evil and transforms it into holiness. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is saying that to enter his chamber, you must be on a certain level. Merely nullifying evil is not enough; that is a tzaddik who is not complete. You must have brought about an ascent in evil, transformed it into good—specifically, transformed darkness into light and bitterness into sweetness. What do these two expressions mean? The Alter Rebbe does not explain them here, but they are explained elsewhere in Chassidus—in Torah Or on Chanukah and in many maamarim. There is an extensive discussion in the Chanukah maamarim, including several from 5663. [unclear] They explain that these are two distinct things: transforming darkness into light and bitterness into sweetness. Transforming darkness into light relates primarily to the world. Through his service, the tzaddik transforms the world’s darkness. The world in itself is a place of darkness, where things are concealed and hidden; through his service, he illuminates it so that Divine light shines in the world. That is transforming darkness into light.

19:39 Transforming bitterness into sweetness concerns one’s personal service, the animal soul. Bitterness refers to worldly desires, to material things. A person thinks these desires are pleasurable, but in truth, “in the end she is bitter as wormwood.” They are bitter things. When the tzaddik transforms bitterness into sweetness, he uses the pleasures of this world to bring about Divine pleasure. He transforms them into holiness. So those are the two things: transforming darkness into light and bitterness into sweetness. In any case, this is one meaning of bnei aliyah: someone who has transformed bitterness into sweetness and darkness into light. Only then does he belong in Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s chamber. By the way, for chassidim of our generation, this passage of the Zohar is very, very significant. It relates to the well-known story of what happened with the Rebbe in 5738. After the Rebbe came through the heart episode—the whole matter of Rosh Chodesh Kislev—and, boruch Hashem, recovered, the Rebbe asked that a farbrengen be held on Chanukah. There was to be a thanksgiving meal on Zos Chanukah. The Rebbe called Rabbi J. J. Hecht and instructed him to arrange it discreetly, and so on. On Zos Chanukah there was a special farbrengen, a dairy meal, with a cup of blessing, in thanks for the miracle that had happened to the Rebbe. Afterward there was

21:37 a note, a tzetl, in which the Rebbe expressed his thanks. The next day, a report with all the details was given to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe wrote a thank-you for what they had done, for all the work Rabbi J. J. Hecht and his brother had put into it. The Rebbe wrote to him: “See Aggados Hazohar.” What did the Rebbe mean? He was referring to this story. In the story in the Zohar, Rabbi Chiya entered Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s chamber because he said he had done this work. They let him in, and then a discussion began: perhaps he should stay there already. Why should he return to the world? There was a discussion about whether he should remain above or descend below again. Then Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai told him that the world still needed him, and sent him back to the world for another period. That is how the Zohar tells it. The Rebbe pointed to this passage in the Zohar as an allusion, so to speak, to what had happened to the Rebbe himself. We know what the Rebbe’s condition was that Simchas Torah. In the natural course of things, the doctors said very grave things. Nevertheless, we merited that afterward the Rebbe regained his health for so many more years. That is the passage in the Zohar the Rebbe pointed to—a similar situation. So we can understand that if the Rebbe referred to this story in the Zohar, its content also relates to the Rebbe: the whole idea of the Rebbe as one of the bnei aliyah. At least, we are now discussing the first meaning of bnei aliyah—one who brings about transformation. That is the Rebbe. What did the Rebbe do all his life? He transformed the darkness; he transformed the world. He made the world into a world of Geulah, a world of Moshiach. And that expression is interesting too, because bnei aliyah is all about ascent. There is also another well-known story,

23:33 With the Rebbe. They tell a well-known story about the Rebbe. Rabbi Yossel Weinberg also related that once there was a very urgent matter, a very important matter, that needed the Rebbe’s answer. The Rebbe was in his room, and no one from the secretariat was there. So what did he do? He took the letter and slipped it under the door. The moment he did, everything went black before his eyes: now the Rebbe would have to bend down to pick it up. He was deeply distressed by what he had done. How could he not have realized that he was placing it where the Rebbe would have to trouble himself to bend down and pick it up? The next day, he wrote to the Rebbe asking for forgiveness and for a way to make amends. He couldn’t believe he had done such a thing. The Rebbe answered him: “That is my whole purpose—to bend down in order to lift up.” I don’t remember the exact words, but that was the substance of what the Rebbe wrote to him. “That is why I am here. I am in this world to bend down in order to lift up”—meaning, to bend down in order to lift up Jews. Essentially, that is a translation of the term bnei aliyah: the idea of lifting others up. The Rebbe also said this once to J.J. Hecht after Lag BaOmer. The Rebbe’s purpose is to uplift, to elevate—to take a Jew who is in a low place and lift him up. That is the idea of bnei aliyah. That is the first interpretation. Now the Rebbe discusses the second interpretation. With Hashem’s help, we’ll talk about it in the next class.