The Rebbe’s Introduction to the English Tanya

The Inside Story of Chabad in America — Episode 107 Transcript

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America, through the Mindel Archives.

Since we are now a few days before Yud-Tes Kislev — it is Kislev — we all know the Alter Rebbe, the author of the Tanya. The Tanya is called the Torah Shebiksav of Chassidus, as I once spoke about. And of course, Kislev is the time that we start saying — we start saying the Tanya every day from the beginning.

First of all, let us mention — excuse me — Haman, the one who wanted to kill the Jewish bodies, and they saw that he didn't win — they hung Haman, so it was a miracle. So they said, "We couldn't get rid of the bodies" — that didn't succeed; they saw they couldn't get rid of the bodies. So they said, "Let's now go after the Yid, let's get rid of the soul of the Yid" — that's the answer, like it says... We already once spoke about this — that's called the [unclear] tale. Now they saw that they couldn't get rid of the guf, the body, and they couldn't get rid of the neshama, the soul. So they said, "Now let's start to get rid of the pnimiyus, the essence of the neshama." What is that? That's the inyan of Yud-Tes Kislev. If chas v'shalom there wouldn't be a Yud-Tes Kislev, I don't know — we probably wouldn't be here. Probably Chassidus put life into this world, into Yiddishkeit, and that's the essence of the neshama. And then also the [unclear — Maskilim/misnagdim?], this is the inyan — they wanted to get rid of the Rebbe himself, and that's what they were afraid of. But anyway, so this is the Yom Tov of Yud-Tes Kislev.

And just like the Torah was given in the third month — the seventh of the third month, Nissan — so the same thing also, the third month after Tishrei is the month of Kislev. And that's how we start learning the Tanya.

It says in a sefer — I think the sefer of [unclear, heard as "Mauritian Charming"], a Rishon — that it will come a time that by the Yidden, specifically Yud-Tes Kislev will be a Yom Tov for Klal Yisrael. And as the Frierdiker Rebbe writes, that we say — I'm not going to say the whole story of Yud-Tes Kislev; we already, I think, last year or two years ago, spoke about the whole inyan of Yud-Tes Kislev.

But today I want to do with you an introduction — even though it's printed, but this is the [unclear] that I have — that the Rebbe wrote an introduction to the English Tanya that Rabbi Mindel wrote, translated, and this he himself wrote an introduction. The Rebbe didn't write introductions to too many seforim — there's another one, a sefer that he wrote an introduction to — but the Tanya is one of the other introductions.

Now, as I told you, when Rabbi Mindel completed the translation of the English Tanya — I mentioned this a few weeks ago — he gave it to the Rebbe, the first copy. The Rebbe received it with a smile, and that was in the early '60s — the late '50s, the Sputnik era. So the Rebbe said that the first translation, the English Tanya, came out — this is what they were waiting for. This is what the Frierdiker Rebbe hoped for — he gave over, even from Riga, ten years before, that this should be done, to open up the world to Yidden who speak English. And Rabbi Mindel was the one who was very suited to do this. So the Rebbe said, "Why do you make a tumult over the Sputnik? We have to make a tumult that the first copy of the English Tanya came out."

And then the Rebbe wrote notations — I have many notations that the Rebbe wrote on the Tanya. There was handwriting — I don't know, once again I have over here — it's all notations the Rebbe wrote in Hebrew, and I wrote English notations. But I want to share with you first what the Rebbe wrote separately here.

First of all, Rabbi Mindel — he got his PhD, not only in... I mean he got his degrees in many subjects, and one of them was English, so he was an English person, he knew English very well. The Rebbe told him, "I'm going to sometimes write in English, but if I make a mistake in spelling, you should correct me." And Rabbi Mindel told me that many times he corrected the Rebbe in certain spelling, which you can even see here. But that's besides the point.

So the Rebbe writes a few separate points. First of all, he writes about the Tanya, "Likutei Amarim" — the cover page of the Tanya, "the sefer" — that it's called "Likutei," meaning gathered from here and there — that means he didn't write it himself, just gathered points. From the Zohar, from Chazal, from the Rishonim — and he gathered everything, and that is what it means here, that to help people — people who struggle with their natures, their personalities, people who struggle — this is the Tanya, and everything is in that sefer, everything is there.

Meaning, like, some people said, "Why do I have to learn Tanya, I can do the same thing — I can learn Zohar, a person can learn a mussar sefer, a person can learn the maamarim of the Baal Shem Tov" — and they'll also be able to get to what the Tanya is. That's what the Alter Rebbe did. So the Rebbe says over here two things: number one, why does a person have to struggle and go over and learn the whole thing? It will take him years and years and years, and he might not even come to the end — whereas the Alter Rebbe did it for you, and maybe you still won't come to understand exactly what it means, but he knew better than you, and he already did it. This is the Tanya. So the Tanya is really an answer for the people that struggle — this is the point he mentions here.

Then he says over here, just two words — there's a long-short, short-long, so that — I guess what it means is that this is called "aruch" — it's long but it's short, meaning: when you learn other seforim, you might not get to what you need, you might not get an answer right away, but after learning Tanya you'll get the answer. With mussar, somebody will tell you right away, "If you do this, you'll get such-and-such, or something's going to happen to you" — whatever, whatever you get. But it might go away. It's not — it's short, but it's a long way — you might not get to the point. So this, I guess, is what it means — this is one of the things he mentions over here.

Then he writes over here, with his own handwriting, the possuk — the Rebbe's handwriting — the possuk, also about "ki karov eilecha hadavar," based on that. This is — I copied this from here, this is the original that the Rebbe wrote, the Rebbe's handwriting — it's easier for me when I copy it because it's hard to read the Rebbe's handwriting.

This is what he wrote, so Rabbi Mindel wrote on that: "The sefer shall be binyan — it is a sefer" — he writes — "an intermediate type, whose moral position is between the righteous and the wicked. The ultimate concern is not with tzaddik or rasha, but with the average or moderate person, whose rank is within reach of every person." And "the author took him 25 years," he writes over here.

So this is — like I once said — there's a lot that the Rebbe wrote about the Tanya, there's a lot of sichos; people have to study the sichos of the Rebbe, what he wrote, his notations about the Tanya.

But now I want to read to you the introduction that the Rebbe himself wrote to the English Tanya, and that was probably the first time, because nobody else wrote an introduction to the Tanya before — and as I'll read to you in a minute, what the Rebbe said: people tried and they didn't succeed. So any translation that was done after — in Yiddish or whatever — that's all based on this; that's what Rabbi Mindel wrote, that's what it seems.

I'll just read to you, word for word, what the Rebbe wrote, and that's in English:

"The written word, as the Alter Rebbe, author of the Tanya, pointed out in one of his other works, any of the seventy tongues, when used as an instrument to disseminate the Torah and mitzvos, is itself elevated thereby from its earthly domain into the sphere of holiness, when he writes in another language — while at the same time serving as a vehicle to draw the Torah and mitzvos from above downward to those who read and understand this language."

This is the mazel of English, I guess. "In the spirit of the above-mentioned remarks, the volume presented here" — meaning this Tanya, that Rabbi Mindel wrote, the first English translation of the Tanya since its first appearance 165 years ago — "this, then, is an event of considerable importance. It brings this basic work of Chabad philosophy and way of life to a wider range of Jews to whom the original work presents a language problem, or even a barrier. It is thus a further contribution to the dissemination of the fountains of Chassidus, which were unlocked by Rabbi Yisroel Baal Shem Tov, who saw Chassidus as a stream of living waters, growing deeper and wider, until it should reach every segment of the Jewish people and bring new inspiration and vitality into their daily lives."

Now he finishes off here: "...that the translation of such a work as the Tanya presents a formidable task. As a matter of fact, several unsuccessful attempts had been made at various times in the past to translate the Tanya into one or another of the European languages. It is therefore to the lasting credit of Dr. Nissan Mindel that this task has been accomplished."

And then the Rebbe finishes off: "Needless to say, translations are at best an inadequate substitute for the original. It is confidently hoped, however, that the present translation, provided as it is with an introduction, glossary, notes, and index, will prove a very valuable aid to students of Chassidus in general and in particular." And he signs his name.

So this is what the Rebbe wrote. The Rebbe gives Dr. Mindel credit — even though Dr. Mindel was not yet a doctor at that point, because he didn't get his PhD until later — but the Rebbe saw ahead of time, and he put in the word "Dr. Mindel."

And as we all know, the sefer Tanya — I think there was [unclear name, heard as "Elizabeth"] who once said, "Where is G-d? You can find G-d in that little sefer." This is to say — and this is the — Kislev is the time that we start learning Tanya, and I hope the people — just give us a chance — the people that didn't learn Tanya yet should be talking, should make a good beginning of learning Tanya, starting this Yud-Tes Kislev.

And with this, next week we will continue our weekly program. Thank you.