Gimel Tamuz: Intro

00:01 As we are approaching Gimmel Tammuz this year, marking lev Shana thirty-two years, we'll begin with an introduction to the Gimmel Tammuz series with the Sichof the Rebbe regarding thirty-two. In honor of Gimmel Tammuz this year, marking thirty-two years since Gimmel Tammuz Taf Shin Nun Dalet nineteen ninety-four, we will refer to a Sicha in the year Taf Shin Mem Beis nineteen eighty-two, where the Rebbe marked thirty-two years since Yud Shevat Taf Shin Yud nineteen fifty, the passing of the previous Rebbe. In the Sich of Yud Shevat of that year, the Rebbe said the following, "It is thirty-two years since Yud Shevat Taf Shin Yud, the passing of my father-in-law, the Rebbe. In Hebrew, thirty-two are the letters lamed and beis, which spell lev, meaning heart. The heart is the source of a person's vitality and life, as explained in Igeres HaKodesh, the fourth section of Tanya, chapter thirty-one, and the AdRebbe writes as follows, 'The cause of illness or health lies in the extension and flow of the life force vested in the blood of life, which flows from the heart to all the limbs. When the circulation and flow of this spirit of life is as it should be, man is perfectly healthy, for all the limbs are bound together and receive their proper vitality from the heart.' The Rebbe continues, the previous Rebbe, leader of Jewry, functioned as the heart. As the Rambam writes that the king, the leader of Am Yisrael, is the heart of Am Yisrael. The king is the heart of

02:05 Am Yisrael because his function is similar to the heart of a person from which vitality flows to all the body's limbs. Thus, the thirty-second yartzeit, the lev of the previous Rebbe emphasizes the idea of our connection to the Nasi Yisrael, the leader of Jewry, the heart of all the community of Yisrael, from whom flows vitality to all Jews. All physical things are derived from the spiritual as they are in Torah, for Torah is our life and the length of our days. So too with the concept of the heart. The first word of the Torah is Bereshit, in the beginning, and the last word is Yisrael. The first and last letters of the Torah are thus beis and lamed, which spell out lev, heart. Torah is similar to the concept of a king who is the heart of the community of Am Yisrael, as our sages have said, who are the kings, the rabbis? Since the function of rabbis is to teach the directives of the Torah, they are called kings, similar to the function of a king to direct his people, for each yid must fulfill the Torah's directives. Moreover, our sages state, Hashem looked into the Torah and from it created the world. From this it is apparent that e- the existence of world is from Torah, similar to the limbs of the body which receive their life from the heart. This concept is alluded to in the order of the letters lamed, which is from the word Yisrael, and beis, which is from

04:10 the word Bereshit, which form lev. The word Yisrael is an acronym, an abbreviation for there are six hundred thousand letters in the Torah. Thus, the lamed of Yisrael corresponds and alludes to the concept of Torah, l'Torah. the lamed of Yisrael is the word l'Torah. The word Bereshit refers to the general creation. In the beginning, Hashem created, including all the order of the world's spiritual and physical. We now continue and refer to another Sicha where the Rebbe discusses the difference between the brain and the heart. It was published in Likutey Sichos volume nineteen, page one sixty-eight. Among the differences between the heart and the brain are the heart is in a constant movement of ratzu v'shuvu, of running and returning. The beating of the heart, the fiku dliba, without interruption. The heart is constantly functioning with movements. By contrast, in the brain, there is no movement. Indeed, from it comes the vitality of the entire body, but the brain itself remains at rest. The second concept that we have by the heart, the heart is the weakest of all the organs of the body, even weaker than the brain. As it says in Isaiah, the heart is soft and weak. And it may be said That these two characteristics are dependent on one another. The heart is weaker than all the organs because its entire existence is that it is for others. For this reason, a king is specifically compared to the heart because a king also possesses these two characteristics of the heart as explained

06:31 above. He stands in a constant devotion and dedication to the people. Asher yelichem ve'asher yeviem, who shall lead them out and who shall bring them in. For the whole content of kingship is to serve the people. And for this reason, there is a certain weakness in his existence relative to the rest of the nation in that he receives from them all his needs. The above difference between the heart and the brain is also found by way of analogy. In the soul powers, there are vested within them intellect in the brain and emotions in the heart. The concept of intellect to understand a matter can be true only when the person remains separate from the matter that he wishes to understand. If the matter is connected with and mixed into his intellect, this is a bribe. It will bias the intellect and he will not understand the matter correctly. By contrast, the concept of emotions is the person's feeling towards a matter, which comes through bringing his own existence into relation with that matter until this arouses within him a feeling of closeness, love, or the opposite fear. We will, im yirtze Hashem, continue in the next installment based on the concept of the heart and stories relating to this concept.