Tanya — Igeret HaKodesh אִגֶּרֶת הַקֹּדֶשׁ, Chapter 1

פּוֹתְחִין בִּבְרָכָה, לְבָרֵךְ וּלְהוֹדוֹת לַה׳ כִּי טוֹב. שְׁמוּעָה טוֹבָה שָׁמְעָה וַתְּחִי נַפְשִׁי, ״תּוֹרַת ה׳ תְּמִימָה״ – זוֹ הַשְׁלָמַת כָּל הַשַּׁ״ס כּוּלּוֹ בְּרוֹב עֲיָירוֹת וּמִנְיָנִים מֵאַנְשֵׁי שְׁלוֹמֵנוּ, הוֹדָאָה עַל הֶעָבָר וּבַקָּשָׁה עַל הֶעָתִיד, כֹּה יִתֵּן וְכֹה יוֹסִיף ה׳ לְאַמֵּץ לִבָּם בַּגִּבּוֹרִים מִדֵּי שָׁנָה בְּשָׁנָה, בִּגְבוּרָה שֶׁל תּוֹרָה. וּלְהוֹדִיעַ לִבְנֵי אָדָם גְּבוּרָתָהּ שֶׁל תּוֹרָה שֶׁבְּעַל פֶּה וְכֹחָהּ עוֹז;

ONE. We begin with a benediction…referring to the completion of the whole Talmud,” etc.; the author, therefore, responds firstly with a benediction, in accordance with the Talmudic precept (Berachot 59b) that one is to laud G–d for glad tidings. Cf. Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 221:1; Seder Birchot Hanehenin, by the author, ch. 12. to bless and to give thanks to the L–rd, for He is good: my soul has heard and was revived by a good tiding—there is no Good but Torah, 4:3; Berachot 5a. the Torah of the L–rd is whole—referring to the completion of the whole Talmud in most cities and congregations of the men of our chasidic brotherhood., Essay 9. Gratitude for the past, and a request for the future: may G–d grant and continue to strengthen their hearts among the mighty 23:1: “The mighty are none others than the mighty in Torah.” with the might of Torah, ch. 4: “There is no might but in Torah.” See also Bamidbar Rabbah 10:8. in like manner from year to year and make known to mankind the might of the Oral Torah, the Oral Torah is related to the sefirah of gevurah—cf. Zohar I:253a; ibid. III:257a; et passim. and its strong (עוז) power. II:58a and Nitzutzei Orot, by R. Chaim David Azulai, ad loc.; cf. below, note 42); see Likkutei Amarim, Part I, ch. 36.

פֵּירֵשׁ שְׁלֹמֹה הַמֶּלֶךְ עָלָיו־הַשָּׁלוֹם ״חָגְרָה בְעוֹז מָתְנֶיהָ כוּ׳״ – ״מָתְנַיִם״, הֵם בְּחִינַת דָבָר הַמַּעֲמִיד כָּל הַגּוּף עִם הָרֹאשׁ הַנִּצָּב וְעוֹמֵד עֲלֵיהֶם, וְהֵם הַמּוֹלִיכִים וּמְבִיאִים אוֹתוֹ לִמְחוֹז חֶפְצוֹ.

King Solomon, peace be to him, explained: “She girds her loins with strength (עוז)….” The “loins” are the faculty which supports the whole body, with the head that was put and stands over them; and they are the ones that take and bring (the body) to its desired destination.

וּכְמוֹ שֶׁהוּא בְּגַשְׁמִיּוּת הַגּוּף, כָּךְ הוּא בִּבְחִינַת רוּחָנִיּוּת הַנֶּפֶשׁ הָאֱלֹהִית, הָאֱמוּנָה הָאֲמִיתִּית בַּה׳ אֶחָד אֵין־סוֹף בָּרוּךְ־הוּא, דְּאִיהוּ מְמַלֵּא כָּל עָלְמִין וְסוֹבֵב כָּל עָלְמִין, וְלֵית אֲתַר פָּנוּי מִינֵּיהּ, לְמַעְלָה עַד אֵין קֵץ וּלְמַטָּה עַד אֵין תַּכְלִית, וְכֵן לְד׳ סִטְרִין בִּבְחִינַת אֵין־סוֹף מַמָּשׁ, וְכֵן בִּבְחִינַת שָׁנָה וְנֶפֶשׁ, כַּנּוֹדָע:

And just as it is with the corporeality of the body, so it is with [the aspect of] the spiritual of the Divine soul. The true belief in the One G–d, the En Sof, blessed is He—[Who permeates all worlds and encompasses all worlds, III:225a.—With respect to the terms “permeates” and “encompasses all worlds” (referring to the immanence and transcendence of G–d), see Likkutei Amarim, Part I, chs. 41, 48, and 51; Part II, ch. 7. Cf. below, Epistle 3, note 12. and there is no place void of Him 57 (91b); 70 (122b). above to no end and below to no limit, and likewise in all four directions, truly in a state of infinitude, and likewise in the aspects of “year” and “soul,” as known.]

הִנֵּה אֱמוּנָה זוֹ נִקְרֵאת בְּשֵׁם בְּחִינַת ״מָתְנַיִם״ דָּבָר הַמַּעֲמִיד וּמְקַיֵּים אֶת הָרֹאשׁ, הוּא הַשֵּׂכֶל הַמִּתְבּוֹנֵן וּמַעֲמִיק דַּעַת בִּגְדוּלַּת אֵין־סוֹף בָּרוּךְ־הוּא בִּבְחִינַת עוֹלָם־שָׁנָה־נֶפֶשׁ, וּבְרוֹב חַסְדּוֹ וְנִפְלְאוֹתָיו עִמָּנוּ, לִהְיוֹת ״עַם קְרוֹבוֹ״, וּלְדָבְקָה בוֹ מַמָּשׁ, כַּנּוֹדָע מִמַּאֲמַר ״יָפָה שָׁעָה אַחַת בִּתְשׁוּבָה וּמַעֲשִׂים טוֹבִים בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה מִכָּל חַיֵּי עוֹלָם־הַבָּא״, שֶׁהוּא רַק זִיו וְהֶאָרָה מִבְּחִינָה הַנִּקְרֵאת ״שְׁכִינָה״ הַשּׁוֹכֵן כוּ׳, וְנִבְרָא בְּיוּ״ד אַחַת מִשְּׁמוֹ יִתְבָּרֵךְ כוּ׳, אֲבָל תְּשׁוּבָה וּמַעֲשִׂים טוֹבִים מְקָרְבִין יִשְׂרָאֵל לַאֲבִיהֶם שֶׁבַּשָּׁמַיִם מַמָּשׁ, לְמַהוּתוֹ וְעַצְמוּתוֹ כִּבְיָכוֹל, בְּחִינַת אֵין־סוֹף מַמָּשׁ, וּכְמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב ״הוֹדוֹ עַל אֶרֶץ וְשָׁמָיִם, וַיָּרֶם קֶרֶן לְעַמּוֹ כוּ׳״, ״אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ כוּ׳״.

Now, this belief is referred to as the faculty of the “loins” which upholds and sustains 24a: “Habakkuk came and based (all commandments) on one belief”; see Likkutei Amarim, Part I, ch. 33. Thus faith is the foundation of all. the “head,” meaning the intellect that contemplates and cogitates on the greatness of the En Sof, blessed is He, in the aspects of “world,” “year,” “soul,” (see there 3:3 ff.; et passim). Generally speaking they represent the concepts of space (world), time (year), and life, or vital force (soul). See Likkutei Torah, Chukat 64d; Haazinu 74d; Shir Hashirim 7b.—Above the author mentioned only “year” and “soul,” because “world” was already described in the “above, below, and all four directions.” and on the magnitude of His kindness and His wonders with us, that we are “A people close to Him”!” See Midrash Tehillim 4:3, 4; also Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 19d. and truly “To cleave to Him.” (Thus it is) known from the saying: 4:17. See Likkutei Amarim, Part I, ch. 4. “One hour of repentance and good deeds in this world is better than all the life of the World to Come,” for the World to Come is but a gleam and reflection of the [aspect called] Shechinah, 17a and Maimonides, Hilchot Teshuvah, ch. 8. “Who dwells…,” itself dwells in this material world, while the (spiritual) World to Come is a mere “reflection,” or a “gleam,” of the Shechinah. Thus only in this world can one cleave to the Shechinah itself through “repentance and good deeds.” In the World to Come, one can attain no more than the “reflection” of the Shechinah. Cf. below, Epistle 8, note 23. and was created by the single yud of His Name, blessed be He…. 29b; see below, Epistle 5. Repentance and good deeds, however, truly bring Israel close to their Father in Heaven, to His Being and Essence, as it were, [the aspect of infinitude, indeed], and as it is written: 4:3, 4 and Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 19d. “His radiance is upon the earth and heavens. He raises the glory of His people…,” “Who has sanctified us (to Himself) with His commandments, and commanded us….”, Part I, ch. 46; Likkutei Torah, Derushim LiShemini Atzeret 83c; cf. Sefer Habahir 57 (184).

וְ״כַמַּיִם הַפָּנִים כוּ׳״ לְהוֹלִיד מִתְּבוּנָה זוֹ דְּחִילוּ וּרְחִימוּ שִׂכְלִיִּים אוֹ טִבְעִיִּים, לִהְיוֹת בְּחִינַת ״צָעַק לִבָּם אֶל ה׳״, אוֹ בְּחִינַת רִשְׁפֵּי אֵשׁ וְשַׁלְהֶבֶת עַזָּה, בִּבְחִינַת ״רָצוֹא״, וְאַחַר כָּךְ בִּבְחִינַת ״שׁוֹב״, לִהְיוֹת פַּחַד ה׳ בְּלִבּוֹ וְלֵיבוֹשׁ מִגְּדוּלָּתוֹ כוּ׳, וְהוּא בְּחִינַת ״שְׂמֹאל דּוֹחָה״, כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב בְּמַתַּן־תּוֹרָה ״וַיַּרְא הָעָם וַיָּנוּעוּ וַיַּעַמְדוּ מֵרָחוֹק כוּ׳״, וְהֵן בְּחִינוֹת הַזְּרוֹעוֹת וְהַגּוּף שֶׁבַּנֶּפֶשׁ:

And as waters (reflect) the face…,, ad loc. (vol. 2, toward end of 961), and Likkutei Amarim, Part I, ch. 46 and 49. from this contemplation are born the intellectual or the natural awe and love,, Part I, ch. 16 and 38 on the concepts (and the distinction between) intellectual and natural awe and love. that there be a state of “Their heart cried to the L–rd,” or a state of “Flashes of fire, a mighty flame”, Chukat 66b and references cited there; below, Epistle 29.—on a level of “advance” (ratzo), and, afterward, on a level of “retreat” (shov), lit., running, signifies a fierce love and passion for G–d: “running” (advancing) toward G–d, in order to cleave unto Him. Shov, lit., returning, which follows upon and is a still higher level than ratzo, signifies the occupation with Torah and mitzvot, thus bringing the “advance” to its proper conclusion. By the “retreat” the Divine abundance is elicited and drawn earthward, in, and through the fulfillment of the Torah and the commandments. While advance signifies “love,” retreat includes “awe.” (Cf. Torah Or, Bereishit 1d-2a; 25b.) In Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 19d, the author applies these two levels to Deuteronomy 13:5: “You should go after the L–rd your G–d”—ratzo; “Him you shall fear. His commandments you shall keep,” etc.—shov.—due to the fear of G–d in his heart and being abashed by His greatness…. This is the aspect of “the left hand parries,” 47a.—An aspect of gevurah; withdrawal (cf. Addendum, Mystical Concepts in Chassidism). as it is written of the Giving of the Torah: “The people saw and they trembled, and they stood from afar….” And these are the faculties of the arms and the body of the soul.

אַךְ מִי הוּא הַנּוֹתֵן כֹּחַ וָעוֹז לִבְחִינַת ״מָתְנַיִם״, לְהַעֲמִיד וּלְקַיֵּים הָרֹאשׁ וְהַזְּרוֹעוֹת? – הוּא עֵסֶק וְלִימּוּד הֲלָכוֹת בַּתּוֹרָה שֶׁבְּעַל פֶּה, שֶׁהִיא בְּחִינַת גִּילּוּי רָצוֹן הָעֶלְיוֹן, דְּאוֹרַיְיתָא – מֵחָכְמָה הִיא דְנָפְקַת, אֲבָל מְקוֹרָהּ וְשָׁרְשָׁהּ – הוּא לְמַעְלָה מַּעְלָה מִבְּחִינַת חָכְמָה, וְהוּא הַנִּקְרָא בְּשֵׁם ״רָצוֹן הָעֶלְיוֹן״ בָּרוּךְ־הוּא, וּכְמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב ״כַּצִּנָּה רָצוֹן תַּעְטְרֶנּוּ״ כַּעֲטָרָה שֶׁהִיא עַל הַמּוֹחִין שֶׁבָּרֹאשׁ, וְכַנּוֹדָע מִמַּה שֶּׁפֵּירְשׁוּ עַל פָּסוּק ״אֵשֶׁת חַיִל עֲטֶרֶת בַּעְלָהּ״; וְ״כָל הַשּׁוֹנֶה הֲלָכוֹת בְּכָל יוֹם כוּ׳״.

But what gives the power and strength to the faculty of the loins—to support and sustain the head and the arms? It is the occupation with, and the study of, the halachot in the Oral Torah—which is the [state of] manifestation of the Supernal Will. For though “the Torah derives from chochmah,” II:121a; ibid., 85a and III:81a; cf. Bereishit Rabbah 17:5 its source and [its] root surpasses exceedingly the rank of chochmah, and is [that which is] referred to as the will of the Supreme One, blessed is He, while chochmah itself derives from the supreme keter which is also referred to as the supreme ratzon. See above, note 37; Tikkunei Zohar 70 (127a); and cf. Likkutei Amarim, Part I, ch. 4. as it is written: “As with a shield ratzon ta’etrenu (You encompass him with favor)”—as a crown, in Hebrew. which is over the brains that are in the head [and as known from what has been explained on the verse “A woman of valor is the crown of her husband”—and “whoever repeats halachot every day…”].

וְזֶהוּ ״חָגְרָה בְעוֹז מָתְנֶיהָ״ – ״אֵין עוֹז אֶלָּא תוֹרָה״ שֶׁהִיא נוֹתֶנֶת כֹּחַ וָעוֹז לִבְחִינַת מָתְנַיִם הַחֲגוּרִים וּמְלוּבָּשִׁים בָּהּ, לְחַזֵּק וּלְאַמֵּץ זְרוֹעוֹתֶיהָ, הֵן דְּחִילוּ וּרְחִימוּ שִׂכְלִיִּים אוֹ טִבְעִיִּים, כָּל חַד לְפוּם שִׁיעוּרָא דִילֵיהּ, (וְעַל הַעֲמָדַת וְקִיּוּם בְּחִינַת הָרֹאשׁ שֶׁבַּנֶּפֶשׁ, הוּא הַשֵּׂכֶל הַמִּתְבּוֹנֵן כוּ׳, אָמַר ״טָעֲמָה כִּי טוֹב סַחְרָהּ כוּ׳״, וּמְבוֹאָר בְּמָקוֹם אַחֵר):

This is the meaning of “She girds her loins with strength”: there is no strength but Torah,, Deuteronomy, sect. 343 (on Deuteronomy 32:2); Shir Hashirim Rabbah 1, s.v. Meshacheni 1; Tanchuma, Berachah 4; cf. above, note 10. See Likkutei Torah, Shelach 39d. for it gives power and strength to the faculty of the loins—which are girded and embodied in it; cf. Tikkunei Zohar 21 (60a), and 70 (131a). to strengthen and fortify its “arms,” namely the intellectual or natural awe and love, each one according to his measure. (As regards supporting and sustaining the faculty of the “head” of the soul, i.e., the intellect that contemplates… [Solomon] said: “She perceives that her trade is good,” as explained elsewhere.)

אַךְ עֵת וּזְמַן הַחִיזּוּק וְאִימּוּץ הַזְּרוֹעוֹת וְהָרֹאשׁ, הִיא שְׁעַת תְּפִלַּת הַשַּׁחַר, שֶׁהִיא שְׁעַת רַחֲמִים וְעֵת רָצוֹן הָעֶלְיוֹן לְמַעְלָה. וְלָזֹאת, אוֹתָהּ אֲבַקֵּשׁ מִמְּבַקְשֵׁי ה׳, יָבִינוּ וְיַשְׂכִּילוּ יַחְדָּיו, וְלִהְיוֹת לְזִכָּרוֹן בֵּין עֵינֵיהֶם כָּל מַה שֶּׁכָּתַבְתִּי אֲלֵיהֶם אֶשְׁתָּקַד בִּכְלָל, וּבִפְרָט מֵעִנְיַן כַּוָּונַת הַתְּפִלָּה מֵעוּמְקָא דְלִבָּא, יוֹם יוֹם יִדְרְשׁוּן ה׳ בְּכָל לִבָּם וּבְכָל נַפְשָׁם, וְנַפְשָׁם תִּשְׁתַּפֵּךְ כַּמַּיִם נוֹכַח פְּנֵי ה׳, וּכְמַאֲמַר רַבּוֹתֵינוּ־זִכְרוֹנָם־לִבְרָכָה בְּסִפְרֵי: ״עַד מִיצּוּי הַנֶּפֶשׁ כוּ׳״:

However, the occasion and time for the strengthening and fortification of the “arms” and the “head” is the time of the morning prayer. For above that is the time of compassion and a time of Supreme favor. I:247b; III:204a. See also Mechilta on Exodus 14:24 and Zohar Chadash 8a. And, therefore, that I will seek after from those who seek the L–rd: let them both contemplate and ponder, and have as a reminder between their eyes, all that I wrote them last year in general, and especially with respect to the devotion of prayer from the depth of the heart. II:63b. Day after day they should seek the L–rd with all their heart and with all their soul, to pour out their soul as water in the presence of the L–rd, and as the saying of our Sages, of blessed memory, in Sifrei: on Deuteronomy 6:3. “To the extent of pressing out the soul….”

וְעַתָּה הַפַּעַם, הִנְּנִי יוֹסִיף שֵׁנִית יָדִי בְּתוֹסֶפֶת בֵּיאוּר, וּבַקָּשָׁה כְּפוּלָה, שְׁטוּחָה וּפְרוּשָׂה לִפְנֵי כָּל אַנְשֵׁי שְׁלוֹמִים הַקְּרוֹבִים וְהָרְחוֹקִים, לְקַיֵּים עֲלֵיהֶם.

And now once more I put forth my hand a second time to an additional explanation and twofold request, extended and laid out before all men of the chasidic brotherhood, those close and those afar, to take upon themselves (the following):

שֶׁכָּל יְמֵי הַחוֹל לֹא יֵרְדוּ לִפְנֵי הַתֵּיבָה הַבַּעֲלֵי עֲסָקִים שֶׁאֵין לָהֶם פְּנַאי כָּל כָּךְ, רַק אוֹתָם שֶׁיֵּשׁ לָהֶם פְּנַאי, אוֹ הַמְלַמְּדִים, אוֹ הַסְּמוּכִים עַל שׁוּלְחַן אֲבִיהֶם, שֶׁיְּכוֹלִים לְהַאֲרִיךְ בִּתְפִלַּת הַשַּׁחַר עֵרֶךְ שָׁעָה וּמֶחֱצָה לְפָחוֹת כָּל יְמוֹת הַחוֹל – מֵהֶם יִהְיֶה הַיּוֹרֵד לִפְנֵי הַתֵּיבָה, עַל פִּי הַגּוֹרָל, אוֹ עַל פִּי רִיצּוּי הָרוֹב. וְהוּא יֶאֱסוֹף אֵלָיו בְּסָבִיב לוֹ כָּל הַסְּמוּכִים עַל שׁוּלְחַן אֲבִיהֶם, אוֹ מְלַמְּדִים שֶׁיּוּכְלוּ לְהַאֲרִיךְ כָּמוֹהוּ, בְּבַל יְשׁוּנֶּה נָא וְנָא:

On all weekdays, businessmen, who do not have so much time, should not descend before the Ark. Only from those who have the time [either teachers, or such as are supported by their parents] who are able to prolong the morning prayer to at least about an hour and a half on all weekdays shall one descend before the Ark, according to lot or by consent of the majority. And he should gather about him all those who are supported by their parents, or teachers, who are able to prolong like himself. This (arrangement) is not to be changed, I beg and beseech you!

אַךְ בְּשַׁבָּתוֹת וְיָמִים טוֹבִים, שֶׁגַּם כָּל בַּעֲלֵי עֲסָקִים יֵשׁ לָהֶם פְּנַאי וּשְׁעַת הַכּוֹשֶׁר לְהַאֲרִיךְ בִּתְפִלָּתָם בְּכַוָּונַת לִבָּם וְנַפְשָׁם לַה׳, וְאַדְּרַבָּה, עֲלֵיהֶם מוּטָּל בְּיֶתֶר שְׂאֵת וְיֶתֶר עֹז, כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב בְּ״שׁוּלְחָן עָרוּךְ אוֹרַח חַיִּים״, וּכְמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב בְּתוֹרַת מֹשֶׁה: ״שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים תַּעֲבוֹד כוּ׳ וְיוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי שַׁבָּת לַה׳ אֱלֹהֶיךָ״ דַּיְיקָא – כּוּלּוֹ לַה׳, וְלָזֹאת גַּם הֵם יֵרְדוּ לִפְנֵי הַתֵּיבָה בְּשַׁבָּת וְיוֹם טוֹב, עַל פִּי הַגּוֹרָל אוֹ בְּרִיצּוּי הָרוֹב, כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתַבְתִּי אֶשְׁתָּקַד:

On Shabbat and the Festivals, however, all the businessmen, too, have the time and opportunity to prolong their prayers with the devotion of their heart and soul to the L–rd. Moreover, theirs is the duty to do so with exceeding uplifting and abundant strength, as stated in Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, and as it is written in the Torah of Moses: “Six days you shall work…and the seventh day is a Shabbat to the L–rd your G–d,” stating expressly that (Shabbat) is wholly to the L–rd., Orach Chaim 290:5. On a Shabbat or Festival, therefore, they too can descend before the Ark, according to lot or by assent of the majority, as I wrote last year.

וּכְגוֹן דָּא צָרִיךְ לְאוֹדוֹעֵי, שֶׁבְּדַעְתִּי, אִם יִרְצֶה ה׳, לִשְׁלוֹחַ לְכָל הַמִּנְיָנִים מְרַגְּלִים בַּסֵּתֶר, לֵידַע וּלְהוֹדִיעַ, כָּל מִי שֶׁאֶפְשָׁר לוֹ וְכָל מִי שֶׁיֵּשׁ לוֹ פְּנַאי לְהַאֲרִיךְ וּלְעַיֵּין בִּתְפִלָּה וּמִתְעַצֵּל, יִהְיֶה נִידּוֹן בְּרִיחוּק מָקוֹם, לִהְיוֹת נִדְחֶה בִּשְׁתֵּי יָדַיִם בְּבוֹאוֹ לְפֹה לִשְׁמוֹעַ ״דִּבְרֵי אֱלֹקִים חַיִּים״, וּמִכְּלַל לָאו – אַתָּה שׁוֹמֵעַ הֵן. וְלַשּׁוֹמְעִים יוּנְעַם, וְתָבֹא עֲלֵיהֶם בִּרְכַּת טוֹב, וְאֵין טוֹב אֶלָּא תוֹרָה וְכוּ׳:

And it should be made known that, G–d willing, it is my intention to send spies secretly to all congregations,—i.e., groups of ten or more men (the legally required quorum) gathered for the purpose of prayer, etc. In colloquial use, the term denotes not only the numbered groups but, where these gather regularly in a fixed place, to the congregation in general. to find out and to inform about anyone who is able, and about anyone who has the time to prolong and meditate on prayer but is slothful. He shall be punished by estrangement, to be pushed away with both hands when he comes hither to hear the “words of the living G–d.” And from the negative you can infer the positive. 11a. But with those that shall obey it will be well, and the blessing of goodness shall come unto them—“there is no Good but Torah…”4

בְּרוֹב עֲיָירוֹת וּמִנְיָנִים מֵאַנְשֵׁי שְׁלוֹמֵנוּ.

in most towns and congregations of our community of hasidim. As these lines show, there were already entire towns of hasidim in those times in the region where the author of the Tanya was living. "Congregations of our community" refers to towns that, though not entirely hasidic, had hasidic congregations.

הוֹדָאָה עַל הֶעָבָר וּבַקָּשָׁה עַל הֶעָתִיד.

I express gratitude for the past and a plea for the future. The author of the Tanya expresses his gratitude for their completing the Talmud in the past year and makes an appeal for the future: that they accomplish the same the next year and every year thereafter.

כֹּה יִתֵּן וְכֹה יוֹסִיף ה', לְאַמֵּץ לִבָּם בַּגִּבּוֹרִים, מִדֵּי שָׁנָה בְּשָׁנָה בִּגְבוּרָה שֶׁל תּוֹרָה. וּלְהוֹדִיעַ לִבְנֵי אָדָם גְּבוּרָתָהּ שֶׁל תּוֹרָה שֶׁבְּעַל פֶּה וְכֹחָהּ עוֹז.

May God thus continue to grant and increase their ability to complete the study of the Talmud, strengthening their hearts among the mighty with the might of Torah from year to year and informing mankind of the strength of the Oral Torah and its great power. Just as God gave the hasidim the energy to complete the Talmud this year, so may He grant them the strength to complete it in the future with even greater fortitude. The author of the Tanya specifies the quality of might in relation to the Oral Torah since this aspect of the Torah is aligned with the side of Gevura , the attribute of restraint. The Oral Torah constricts and delimits the Written Torah within the parameters of the reality of this world. It also gives power and strength to those who study it to overcome the barriers of the concealment and physicality inherent in this world and in the body while experiencing divine illumination without being nullified or burned by it.

פֵּירֵשׁ שְׁלֹמֹה הַמֶּלֶךְ עָלָיו הַשָּׁלוֹם: "חָגְרָה בְעוֹז מָתְנֶיהָ כו'" (משלי לא, יז).

King Solomon, may he rest in peace, explained, "She girds her loins with might…" (Prov. 31:17). The chapter from which this verse is taken describes the woman of valor, extolling the virtues of the Jewish woman. While this can be taken at face value, its mystical underpinnings open up an entirely different dimension. The woman of valor is a metaphor for all of reality, for the sefira of Malkhut (Kingship), for the congregation of Israel, and for the unique holy soul of every individual Jew. In this light, the verse can be understood on a new level. "Might" refers to the Torah, as the Sages affirm: "There is no might besides the Torah." But it is not clear what the "loins" of the Torah refer to, and therefore the author of the Tanya goes on to explain this expression in the verse.

'מָתְנַיִם' הֵם בְּחִינַת דָּבָר הַמַּעֲמִיד כָּל הַגּוּף עִם הָרֹאשׁ הַנִּצָּב וְעוֹמֵד עֲלֵיהֶם, וְהֵם הַמּוֹלִיכִים וּמְבִיאִים אוֹתוֹ לִמְחוֹז חֶפְצוֹ.

The loins are the aspect of the body that supports the entire body, including the head, which is perched atop the body, positioned above the loins. It is the loins that carry the body and bring it to its desired destination. The loins are what we call the pelvic region, which includes the two legs that emerge from it. The pelvis has two functions: First, it provides stability for the body since it is where the body’s weight is centered, and second, it gives the body the ability to move from one place to another. While the head, the center of awareness and cognition, and the heart, the emotional focal point, are loftier, they are incapable of standing alone without the support of the pelvis and unable to move from one place to another without the legs.

וּכְמוֹ שֶׁהוּא בְּגַשְׁמִיּוּת הַגּוּף, כָּךְ הוּא בִּבְחִינַת רוּחָנִיּוּת הַנֶּפֶשׁ הָאֱלֹהִית.

Just as it is with regard to the physical anatomy of the body, so it is with the spiritual structure of the divine soul. The physical structure of man reflects his spiritual composition. A person’s spiritual faculties are his spiritual limbs, metaphysical mirrors of his corporeal limbs. There is, then, a spiritual faculty that fills the role of the hips within one’s soul, that supports one’s conscious essence (the head) and his emotions (the body), enabling him to function without losing his composure and sense of self.

הָאֱמוּנָה הָאֲמִיתִּית בַּה' אֶחָד,

The loins of the soul are true faith in the one God, The spiritual faculty called the loins of the soul is the power of faith. Before the author of the Tanya goes on to explain how faith, like the loins, holds up the rest of the soul’s faculties, he says a few words about faith. The faith that he is talking about, the faith that one’s entire spiritual structure stands upon, must be true faith in the one God. True faith is distinguished in two ways. The first is to believe in that which is true. Some people may harbor faith in that which is false. The second is to truly believe; one’s faith must be genuine and palpable. These two facets of faith do not necessarily go hand in hand. A person once asked a rabbi, "Why are heretics so successful?" The rabbi answered, "Because they truly practice their falsity, while we superficially practice our truth." Moreover, the content of this faith must be in the one God. While faith is a spiritual faculty that transcends rationale, it is built on the basis of a particular cognitive recognition. This logic encompasses the assertion of God’s oneness in detail, as will now be explained.

Notes

True Faith

For faith to be true, it must be defined and specific. This is not the common concept of faith that people refer to today. Faith is what people call that indefinable feeling for the inexplicable. When they feel they have no choice, no other way to relate to something they think is true, they say that they believe. This is how people educate children about values, with that same general vagueness that does not directly explain anything. What kind of values are they? Faith in what? How does this faith relate to me? Therefore, the author of the Tanya emphasizes that the faith he is talking about must be true and real, not just a vague sentiment but rather a defined system of belief that a person lives by, that is integral to his being. It is true faith because it contains particular content, because it is directed toward defined goals. Although that content is rationally incomprehensible, inexplicable, and unprovable, it is rooted in the soul in a very deep and real way and paves a clear road of commitment before the believer. In his introduction to Sha’ar HaYiḥud VeHa’emuna, the author of the Tanya explains the proverb "Train the lad in accordance with his way; even when he grows old, he will not turn from it" (Prov. 22:6). The education of a small child must obviously begin with simple wording that is "according to his way." Yet it is crucial to transmit true content so that "even when he grows old, he will not turn from it." When a person depicts God to a young child, he may describe the imagery of an old man giving out candies from his abode in Heaven. This is certainly "according to his way" since it is an image the child can easily comprehend. But when the child grows older, he will stop believing it. When a person thinks that faith in God means believing in a giant with a white beard who is out there somewhere, at a certain point he stops believing in it. Rightfully so, not only because a rational person does not believe in such a thing, but also because it is downright forbidden to believe it (see Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Sefer HaMadda, Hilkhot Yesodei HaTorah 1:5). Therefore, the author of the Tanya emphasizes that one must relate accurate concepts even to children, only using appropriate wording so that no matter what a person’s level, his comprehension and resonance with those concepts will be genuine.

אֵין סוֹף בָּרוּךְ הוּא, דְּאִיהוּ מְמַלֵּא כָּל עָלְמִין וְסוֹבֵב כָּל עָלְמִין,

Ein Sof, blessed be He, who fills all worlds and encompasses all worlds, Asserting God’s oneness means affirming that He exists within everything and beyond everything and that nothing exists outside His oneness. Other sources explain that this perspective of God’s unity, that He fills and surrounds every aspect of reality, is actually the definition of faith. The mitzva to believe in God does not entail abstractly believing that He exists. His existence can and must be understood, known, and even felt, with whatever degree of clarity a person can cultivate, just as a person senses the reality of His soul. The mitzva of faith relates not only to God’s existence but to His essence: that it fills all worlds and encompasses all worlds.

Notes

Believing That God Fills and Surrounds All Worlds

God’s absolutely incomprehensible essence is described with phrases such as "He who fills all worlds and surrounds all worlds," "Ein Sof, blessed be He," and "the Lord, He is the God" (see Derekh Mitzvotekha, Mitzvat Aḥdut Hashem). The same thread runs through all these expressions: the combination of two opposites, two ways that we can grasp and discuss God. On the one hand, He fills all. He is the innermost dimension of every iota of reality, permeating everything. On the other hand, He encompasses all. He is the farthest, most distant, and hidden dimension of life, like a circle that surrounds, neither touching nor relating to anything at all. The expression "Ein Sof, blessed be He" expresses this dichotomy. On the one hand, God is Ein Sof, infinite, like the mathematical expression for that which cannot be measured or defined. On the other hand, He is "blessed." The Hebrew word for blessed, barukh, etymologically means to draw down and implies drawing close the transcendent Divine into this reality (see Or HaTorah, vol. 3, s.v. "lehavin inyan haberakhot"). Many hasidic discourses grapple with the reconciliation of these two aspects of God. Their main point is that the mutual existence of these two facets of the Divine is rationally inexplicable, and therefore belief in both these truths constitutes authentic faith in God.

וְלֵית אֲתָר פָּנוּי מִינֵּיהּ, לְמַעְלָה עַד אֵין קֵץ, וּלְמַטָּה עַד אֵין תַּכְלִית,

and there is no space void of Him, in the boundless heights and never-ending depths, The dimension of space in both the spiritual and physical realms has six poles: the four directions, above, and below. God fills each direction, and the infinite light is drawn from the highest of heights to the lowest of depths throughout the progressive descent of the Divine from the source above to the lowest world below.

Notes

Boundless Heights and Never-Ending Depths

What meaning does up and down have in the context of the light of Ein Sof? The line between up and down in the spiritual realm is determined by the order of progression. "Up" means greater revelation, and "down" means greater concealment. God’s infinite essence is manifest in both directions but in different ways. "Up" signifies His ability to endlessly manifest Himself, while "down" expresses His ability to conceal and delimit Himself to an infinite degree. His power to illuminate and His power to conceal are equally endless. Elsewhere, these two facets of Ein Sof are referred to as the power of limitlessness and the power of limit (see Hemshekh Samekh Vav, p.188). They serve as the source of the distinction between the light that encompasses all worlds and the light that fills all worlds.

וְכֵן לְד' סִטְרִין, בִּבְחִינַת אֵין סוֹף מַמָּשׁ.

including the four directions, in an absolutely infinite manner. Divine reality fills all the dimensions of space with infinitude. There is no vacant space, no molecule of reality that is impermeable to Him. As the liturgy known as Shir HaYiḥud declares, "There is no space empty or devoid of You."

וְכֵן בִּבְחִינַת שָׁנָה וְנֶפֶשׁ, כַּנּוֹדָע.

The same applies to the dimensions of year and soul, as is known. Reality consists of three basic dimensions: world, year, and soul, which correspond to existence as it manifests within space, time, and human beings. True faith is believing that God’s infinite essence fills all three dimensions. "Year" proverbially refers to time, including its abstract spiritual form: the facilitator of change. God fills it, from its beginning until its end, past, present, and the future. There is no time devoid of Him. "Soul" refers to the conscious reality that is aware and senses the vitality that exists within time and space. In our world, we are the aware souls, while in a higher realm, the angels are the beings that perceive. Higher yet are the sentient beings called seraphim and so on. In every world, at all times, the souls in reality are permeated with pure divine light. True faith, then, is knowing that on the one hand "there is no space devoid of Him," that every atom of the universe is absolutely permeated with the Divine Presence so that there is no separation between reality and Him in any way, shape, or form. He who believes that God exists in a particular place, while other places are not privy to God’s presence and control, does not have true faith. On the other hand, true faith must also include the belief that God is infinitely distant and separate, as it says, "This knowledge is too wondrous for me." In view of this, the definition of faith is the basic awareness of God’s existence as absolutely separate, beyond us, while simultaneously He is intimately close. He is the "Holy One, blessed be He": "holy" because He is unfathomably distant, and "blessed" because infinitely close.

הִנֵּה אֱמוּנָה זוֹ נִקְרֵאת בְּשֵׁם בְּחִינַת ‘מָתְנַיִם׳, דָּבָר הַמַּעֲמִיד וּמְקַיֵּים אֶת הָרֹאשׁ, הוּא הַשֵּׂכֶל הַמִּתְבּוֹנֵן וּמַעֲמִיק דַּעַת

This faith is referred to by the term "loins," that which serve to support and uphold the head, which is the intellect that contemplates and deeply ponders Once there is a foundation of faith, the next stage follows, that of the rationale of the intellect. The intellect contemplates and analyzes, delving in to inquire: What does this mean for me? What is its central axis? Faith itself serves as the bedrock for every logical idea and feeling and establishes one’s whole personhood. Faith constitutes an organic perception of reality, seeing things at their essence. It is not an analytic faculty that organizes and arranges ideas but rather a general outlook that informs a person how he experiences reality itself. When presented with particular concepts, it is faith that enlightens the person as to what is right and what is wrong. While this certainty is not rational nor scientifically provable, it serves as the foreground for all his thoughts and enables his entire rational functioning and being, from which stems all the faculties of the soul. This is why the author of the Tanya places an emphasis on the intellect. The main, conscious spiritual work happens in the head through one’s ability to think and contemplate rationally.

בִּגְדוּלַּת אֵין סוֹף בָּרוּךְ הוּא, בִּבְחִינַת 'עוֹלָם שָׁנָה נֶפֶשׁ',

the greatness of Ein Sof, blessed be He, in the dimensions of world, year, and soul There are two facets to this contemplation. The first is contemplation of God’s infinite greatness, of His vast distance and separateness. This contemplation evokes the sense of God’s might and how that immense, almost oceanic power expresses itself in each of the dimensions of "world, year, and soul." To do this, one should consciously contemplate the infinite nature of space, the infinite aspect of time, and the infinite power of the soul. Afterward, he can attempt to stretch his mind even further to ruminate on the essence of the infinite in relation to the confines of those dimensions.

ובְּרוֹב חַסְדּוֹ וְנִפְלְאוֹתָיו עִמָּנוּ לִהְיוֹת עַם קְרוֹבוֹ, וּלְדָבְקָה בּוֹ מַמָּשׁ.

and God’s abounding kindness and His wonders that He performs with us, allowing us to be a people near to Him and to literally cleave to Him. The other subject of contemplation that the author of the Tanya suggests is not the abstract concept of God’s exalted loftiness but rather the aspect of His closeness, that the infinitely exalted God creates a personal relationship with each and every one of us, certainly a colossal kindness and wonder. This is true not only of the past, throughout our whole national history, but even within the details of every individual’s present are revelations of His kindness and wonders.

כַּנּוֹדָע מִמַּאֲמַר "יָפָה שָׁעָה אַחַת בִּתְשׁוּבָה וּמַעֲשִׂים טוֹבִים בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה מִכָּל חַיֵּי עוֹלָם הַבָּא" (אבות פרק ד משנה יז),

This is known from the Sages’ statement "One hour of repentance and good deeds in this world is more precious than an entire lifetime in the World to Come" (Mishna Avot 4:17), This axiom from the Sages expresses this very idea of a person’s intimate closeness to God against the backdrop of His infinity. The reference here to life in the World to Come refers to life in the Garden of Eden after death. Edenic experience is a very high level of spiritual experience. Every person, commensurate with his spiritual standing and deeds, has his own World to Come, his own level of divine revelation that his soul experiences after it is divested from all its bonds to the materiality of this world. There are, in truth, levels upon levels of revelation, endless progressive phases of bonding with the supernal wisdom and delighting in the radiance of the Divine Presence to which a soul can aspire when it is divested of its ties to this material world. The gradations of the World to Come not only vary from person to person, but each individual may have countless rungs of revelation to climb in his own portion of the World to Come. "All the life of the World to Come," then, refers to all the levels of the World to Come. The Mishna is telling us that every movement toward repentance, every good deed, is loftier, deeper, and more powerful than all the achievements, levels, and potential for attachment to the Divine that one could attain in the World to Come.

שֶׁהוּא רַק זִיו וְהֶאָרָה מִבְּחִינָה הַנִּקְרֵאת שְׁכִינָה, ״הַשּׁוֹכֵן״ כו' (ויקרא טז, טז).

which is but a glimmer and illumination of the level called Shekhina , Divine Presence, whose name is derived from the verse "that dwells [hashokhen ] with them…" (Lev. 16:16). The Divine Presence is but a glimmer of the totality of God’s essence, the manifestation of the Divine that has been clothed within the confines and parameters of reality, enlivening every minutia in existence. Yet the World to Come in its entirety is merely an illumination of the Godly revelation experienced in this world called the Divine Presence.

וְנִבְרָא בְּיוּ"ד אַחַת מִשְּׁמוֹ יִתְבָּרַךְ כו'.

The Word to Come was created with the single letter yod of God’s name and so on, The Sages point out that the name of God that appears in the verse "For God the Lord is an everlasting rock" (Isa. 26:4) is spelled yod-heh . They explain that the Hebrew word for "everlasting," olamim , literally means "worlds," and the Hebrew word for "rock" that is used in the verse, tzur , shares root letters with the word yatzar , created. The verse may then read, "God created the [two] worlds [this world and the World to Come] with the letters yod and heh ." A name is a particular manner of manifestation that reflects the relationship between the self and the outside world. The name of Havaya , which is the name that refers to the divine essence itself, is the name through which God enlivens all the worlds. More specifically, God used the yod from the name of Havaya to create the World to Come. The smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, the yod resembles nothing more than a point and is the embodiment of the most minimal degree of independent existence that one could fathom. It follows that the World to Come is nothing but a glimmer of the smallest letter of God’s name, a mere spark of the divine light. The essence of the World to Come can be summed up as the most reduced experience of God’s name, of the divine essence, that the soul can receive commensurate with its spiritual capacity at that time.

אֲבָל תְּשׁוּבָה וּמַעֲשִׂים טוֹבִים מְקָרְבִין יִשְׂרָאֵל לַאֲבִיהֶם שֶׁבַּשָּׁמַיִם מַמָּשׁ, לְמַהוּתוֹ וְעַצְמוּתוֹ כִּבְיָכוֹל, בְּחִינַת אֵין סוֹף מַמָּשׁ,

but repentance and good deeds bring the Jewish people close to their actual Father in Heaven, to His essence and being, as it were, the level of Ein Sof itself, Repentance and good deeds are not merely instruments through which a person acquires the World to Come. The Torah study and mitzvot that a person performs in his daily life are in and of themselves points of contact with God’s infinite essence, opportunities for a genuine connection with God Himself. The closeness attained in the performance of a mitzva is not just a feeling of spiritual positivity from a faint glimmer of the divine light but literal attachment to God’s actual infinite essence.

Notes

Cleaving to God through Torah and Mitzvot

The Talmud divulges that a deeper layer of the word anokhi, the first word of the Ten Commandments, emerges by reading it as an acronym: Ana nafshi ketavit yehavit, which means, "I Myself wrote and gave" (Shabbat 105a). The simple meaning of this is "I wrote [the Torah] Myself, and I am giving it to you." A deeper understanding is brought in the name of the Ba’al Shem Tov, who reads it as "I have articulated My essence in writing and am giving it to you [through the Torah]" (see Degel Maḥaneh Efrayim, Ki Tisa, s.v. "pesel"). This implies that the Torah is more than a revelation of the Divine. It is literally divine essence. One who engages in Torah study and the performance of mitzvot is fusing with the very essence of the Divine. When a person performs mitzvot, he is not holding an instrument that connects him with God, but rather forges contact directly with God (see Likkutei Amarim, chap. 14).

Illusory Attachment

Attachment to God and the experience of attachment are not necessarily synonymous. A person may feel close to God, while in reality his connection is imagined. On the flip side, a person can have a true attachment to God without a remarkable experience of it. The difference between this world and the World to Come depends on this distinction, on the experience versus the thing itself (even without the experience). In the World to Come, "one hour of tranquility is more precious than an entire lifetime in this world" (Mishna Avot 4:17), because it is a world of being, of experience alone, in which we feel and experience the results of our actions in this world. The degree of experience that the soul encounters in the World to Come is infinitely greater than its experience in this world because it is no longer limited to the confines and parameters of the body and its corporeal faculties. Therefore, the experience of the World to Come manifests through other-worldly dimensions and is unfathomably more powerful than the sum total of all the conceivable experiences of this world. Yet still, this world, which is the foreground for performing mitzvot, offers the opportunity for actual attachment to God. Therefore, "one hour of repentance and good deeds in this world is more precious is than an entire lifetime in the World to Come." The fusion that we can achieve with God Himself in this world is due to "God’s abounding kindness and His wonders that He performs with us," as the author of the Tanya points out above. Imagine a father and his young child. The father wants to connect in some way with the child, but the distance is too great. They are on totally different wavelengths, unable to relate to each other on a cognitive and emotional level. The only way that the father can forge a connection with his child is through an action: He can extend his hand to his child. The child does not understand at all who the father is and what their connection entails, yet when he takes hold of the hand outstretched to him, he literally connects himself to his father. The Zohar calls the Torah and the mitzvot the "limbs of the King" (Tikkunei Zohar 74a). When God gave us the Torah, He gave us His hand, as it were. Every time a person performs a mitzva or studies Torah, he takes hold of God’s proverbial hand and fosters a quintessential connection with God Himself, a bond one would not be able to forge in any other way. A hand that reaches out to bridge an unbridgeable gap is a wondrous phenomenon that only God Himself can accomplish, from above to below. No matter how much a person is driven toward good, he cannot operate beyond his own parameters. Any attachment to God that he is privileged to attain is a product of "God’s abounding kindness and His wonders that He performs with us."

וּכְמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב: "הוֹדוֹ עַל אֶרֶץ וְשָׁמָיִם וַיָּרֶם קֶרֶן לְעַמּוֹ כו'״ (תהלים קמא, יג-יד),

as it is written, "For His name alone is exalted, His glory across earth and heaven; He raises a horn for His people…" (Ps. 148:13–14), for His people cleave to God’s very essence. This virtue of Torah study and mitzvot is expressed by this verse, which signifies that God is so exalted and singularly separate from all the revealed worlds that merely the glory and illumination from His name alone is sufficient to enliven and sustain all of reality. Yet, despite His unimaginable exalted essence, He raises a beam of His divine essence to His nation of Israel through the Torah and mitzvot so that they may literally cleave to Him.

"אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו כו'",

Similarly, in the blessings recited upon the performance of a mitzva, we address God "who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us.…" God imbues us with holiness through our performance of mitzvot, elevating us to His holy essence, which far transcends the aspect of His being called "His glory" that shines throughout the heavenly spheres and the entire universe. The whole purpose of the mitzvot is to forge a connection with the Divine. The word mitzva itself is etymologically connected to the word tzavta, which means connection. The wording of the blessing recited upon performing a mitzva, "who has sanctified us with His commandments," conveys that not only did we receive the commandments in order to perform them, but every commandment kindles the light of holiness within its doer. It hoists a person beyond the realm of corporeal man and into the dimension of the sacred, the inner sphere of the Divine.

וְ"כַּמַּיִם הַפָּנִים כו'״ (משלי כז, כט).

"As water reflects a face to the face, so does the heart of a person to a person" (Prov. 27:19). When a person gazes into water, it reflects back to him the same expression that he shows it. The Sages say that the heart is like water. When a person thinks about how another person feels toward him, those same feelings are evoked in his own heart. The same is true when a person contemplates God’s immeasurable, infinite greatness on the one hand and His outstanding closeness on the other. When a person ponders how God is absolutely separate from anything physical yet provides us with bread to eat and clothes to wear, how He is totally beyond our finite world yet endows us with the most wondrous gift of attachment to Him by imbuing us with holiness through His mitzvot, offering us His outstretched hand through each one, inviting us to approach Him, to literally be with Him, at that moment a corresponding feeling of love burgeons forth, "as water reflects a face to the face," and the person wells up with desire to draw close to God.

לְהוֹלִיד מִתְּבוּנָה זוֹ דְּחִילוּ וּרְחִימוּ

Similarly, such contemplation serves to generate fear and love of God, This reflective contemplation that encompasses both facets of our relationship to the Divine, the loftiness and the closeness, creates a bifurcation of emotion. Fear is the feeling that stems from the realization of God’s exaltedness and distance, while love arises from feeling how close God is and the desire to bond with Him.

Notes

Contemplation Engenders Emotion

Contemplation is not necessarily relegated to the practice of great people, as many would imagine. Every person contemplates; the difference lies in the object of the contemplation. No emotion can develop in a significant way without contemplation. When a person gets angry, he must have contemplated the issue beforehand. He may react to someone who mistreats him, but he does not get angry. It is only after ruminating on what was done to him (How dare he? What an insult!) that he snaps and grows more and more angry. Likewise, if a person contemplates the greatness of God "who sanctified us with His commandments," and thinks deeply about it, over and over, depicting the reality of this truth in his mind more and more clearly, he will undoubtedly awaken an emotional connection to the Divine within himself. To contemplate God’s greatness, one does not need an extraordinary mind nor an exceptional spiritual ability. All one needs is to be invested in it. There were once hasidim, simple people, who hardly knew how to learn Ḥumash with Rashi, but when it came to the teachings of Hasidism, that which touched upon the depths of their being, they arrived at an understanding and an ability to meditate at extremely high levels. A story in Tanna deVei Eliyahu illustrates this point: Elijah met a hunter and asked him, "Why don’t you study Torah?" "My parents never taught me," he answered. Elijah then asked, "And who taught you to hunt?" "God did," the hunter replied. When a person wants something, when he feels that he has no choice, that the issue at hand touches on the depth of his soul, he will do whatever it takes. He will tap into the necessary skills and seek out the advice he needs to achieve it. He will discover skills he never imagined he had. People prefer to contemplate all kinds of things other than the greatness of the Divine because it is easier and they feel that other topics are more relevant to their day-to-day life. But once a person prioritizes accordingly and is ready to invest the effort, he too can contemplate the greatness of God’s infinity and generate love and fear of God within him.

שִׂכְלִיִּים אוֹ טִבְעִיִּים,

whether intellectual or innate, There are actually two types of love and fear, though the author of the Tanya does not elaborate on them here but only gives them a mention. Intellectual love and fear are engendered from intellectual awareness. The deeper and wider one’s awareness, the more the emotions will develop. On the flip side, innate love and fear are not created from conscious awareness and are not even bound to it in the same way. Consciousness merely opens a gate for the innate love or fear to burst outward. While these emotions are woven into the fabric of a person’s soul, they are lying latent deep within, unable to manifest on their own in this world of obscurity and concealment. Contemplation, in this context, unleashes that emotion. This natural love can also be released in ways other than intellectual contemplation. A person can hear a song that makes his heart brim with love or tremble with fear. The lyrics of the song may not even directly relate to the feeling that arises in the heart of the listener, yet they penetrate the depth of a person’s soul, opening a channel to a more subtle, holy divine love or fear.

לִהְיוֹת בְּחִינַת "צָעַק לִבָּם אֶל ה'" (איכה ב, יח) אוֹ בְּחִינַת רִשְׁפֵּי אֵשׁ וְשַׁלְהֶבֶת עַזָּה (שיר השירים ח, ו), בִּבְחִינַת ‘רָצוֹא׳, וְאַחַר כָּךְ בִּבְחִינַת 'שׁוֹב'.

giving rise to the level of love that can be described as "Their hearts cried to the Lord" (Lam. 2:18), due to their feeling of distance from God, or the level described as sparks of fire, a great conflagration (see Song 8:6), which is characterized by an advance followed by a retreat. These are the two essential movements of life, like the beating of the heart, like inhaling and exhaling, outward and inward, advancing and retreating, running and returning. Love and fear beat to the rhythm of advance and retreat as well. Love is generally the movement of drawing close, of desire and yearning to leave one’s place to run to the beloved. The height of love of God is yearning to leave the world to just be with God. Yet afterward, if the awakening was real, that feeling manifests itself in another way, in retreat. One is struck with the awareness of who it is before whom he is standing, that one is in the presence of the Divine. This awareness engenders fear and trembling and results in retreat and distance, in returning to the place where one originally stood.

לִהְיוֹת פַּחַד ה' בְּלִבּוֹ, וְלִיבוֹשׁ מִגְּדוּלָּתוֹ כו'.

The retreat is the outcome of when there is fear of God in one’s heart and when one feels ashamed before God’s greatness, and so on. Retreat entails a feeling of shame, of smallness compared to God, as in the verse "For who is it whose heart dared to approach Me?" (Jer. 20:21).

Notes

The True Test of Serving God

The bond of love and fear, of running and returning, advance and retreat, is a crucial element of serving God (see Ba’al Shem Tov al HaTorah, Parashat Noaḥ) and, in a certain sense, of thriving in the interpersonal realm as well. There was a sage who would say that fear without love is senseless trepidation while love without fear is debauchery. The feeling of love, if real, is directed toward God. It is not a nebulous emotion that has no connection to anything. Of necessity, it encompasses an awareness of the Divine, of God’s greatness. In view of this, one of the litmus tests of true love of God is that fear follows it. It cannot be that one feels such love of God and does not then feel the fear. A person does not feel both emotions at the same time, but one is constantly moving from one to another, alternating between them, advancing and retreating, running and returning.

וְהוּא בְּחִינַת "שְׂמֹאל דּוֹחָה",

This fear and shame comes from the left side that pushes away, This is followed by the "right hand that draws close." The right hand is the symbol of love, the embodiment of the attribute of Ḥesed and the desire to be close, while the left is the side of distancing, the attribute of Gevura , the expression of one’s awareness of God’s exaltedness and the subsequent feeling of fear that necessarily follows coming close.

כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב בְּמַתַּן תּוֹרָה: "וַיַּרְא הָעָם וַיָּנוּעוּ וַיַּעַמְדוּ מֵרָחוֹק כו׳" (שמות כ, יח).

as it is written regarding the giving of the Torah, "The people saw, and trembled, and stood at a distance…" (Ex. 20:15). During the revelation of the giving of the Torah, the nation responded with that same movement of advance and retreat. On the one hand, they were propelled forward, drawn like magnets to God’s supernal infinite being. Yet, upon encountering that intimidating sight, intense fear sent them recoiling backward.

וְהֵן בְּחִינַת הַזְּרוֹעוֹת וְהַגּוּף שֶׁבַּנֶּפֶשׁ.

These feelings of love and fear are the arms and the body of the soul. The Tikkunei Zohar explains that love and fear, the attributes of Ḥesed and Gevura , are the right and left arms of the soul’s faculties. The attribute of Tiferet , compassion, which is the synthesis of love and fear, comprises the "body," or torso, of the soul’s faculties. As previously mentioned, the aspect of the soul represented by the head is the faculty of thought and contemplation, which gives power and direction to the arms. The aspect that corresponds to the hips, faith, upholds them all. When there is a weakness in faith, a person lacks content on which to contemplate and necessarily lacks love and fear. But when a person has faith that penetrates the depths of his soul, he has something to contemplate and can arrive at the emotions of love and fear. This concludes the first part of the letter, which stands, in a certain sense, on its own. It actually comprised one letter in the early years of the author of the Tanya ’s leadership, as corroborated by the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzḥak Schneerson. This section discussed the cultivation of the faculties of the soul – the head, body, and arms, which correspond to the intellect and the emotions that are engendered by it – all of which are supported by the hips, the power of faith. The author of the Tanya explained how faith is that point of absolute certainty in God’s existence and underlies a person’s understanding and emotions. While the intellect is higher, responsible for cultivating a conceptual relationship with God through contemplation and emotional connection, something that is required of a person in his service of God, the contemplation and emotional connection are, at the end of the day, outgrowths of the soul’s experiences. The nucleus of faith, on the other hand, is the essential foundation upon which all these faculties must stand and move. Without faith, one has no framework in which to interpret the soul’s experiences and cultivate them through contemplation and emotion to develop one’s relationship with God. The author of the Tanya now addresses how to develop and fortify one’s faith.

Notes

Faith: Its Beginning Embedded in Its End

Faith ostensibly exists in the lowest level of the soul, lower than conscious awareness, lower than the emotions. Yet, as explained elsewhere, "its beginning is embedded in its end" (Sefer Yetzira 1:6). There is a connection between that which transcends rational comprehension and that which lies beneath one’s emotional radar. Something inherently lofty and inconceivable by the rational mind can be grasped in the soul’s depths in a way that does not demand specific emotional or conscious articulation. Faith itself is imperceivable. If a person feels that faith burns within him, it is not the faith itself that burns but rather the awareness and emotion that it generates. The reality of faith does not depend on whether it can be proven by logical inference or clearly depicted. On the contrary, rational awareness depends on the foundation of faith. Faith is like the feet: A person cannot move or progress without it. One cannot walk on his head; he cannot get anywhere with just his cognitive abilities. The Mishna in Pirkei Avot (3:9, 17) echoes this idea, warning that one’s wisdom should not outweigh one’s deeds. The same is true regarding someone whose wisdom exceeds his faith. The more a person thinks abstractly, even on the highest levels, even if he were to arrive at some emotional experience, it will not spark true change or spiritual growth. One’s ideas must touch on his center of faith for tangible transformation to take place on any spiritual plane.

אַךְ מִי הוּא הַנּוֹתֵן כֹּחַ וָעוֹז לִבְחִינַת מָתְנַיִם לְהַעֲמִיד וּלְקַיֵּים הָרֹאשׁ וְהַזְּרוֹעוֹת?

But what gives the loins the ability and strength to support and uphold the head and the arms? It is faith that enables all of one’s spiritual, intellectual, and emotional work. The question is, where does faith get its strength from? The problem is that we neither know how to reach the realm of faith nor how particular content becomes a matter of faith. We are only aware of its secondary aspects, its peripheral substructures, its outgrowths, but we are not cognizant of its essence or root. We know something about the attributes, how to develop and cultivate them. We know what to contemplate. Yet when it comes to strengthening faith, we are not clear on the mechanism. While we do not have obvious, direct paths to develop and increase faith, we do have practices that are more indirect, that we might call segulot. There is "food" that nourishes faith, that, though illogical (much like faith itself), can be used to strengthen faith.

הוּא עֵסֶק וְלִימּוּד הֲלָכוֹת בַּתּוֹרָה שֶׁבְּעַל פֶּה,

It is the occupation with and study of the laws in the Oral Torah, When a person studies halakha in the Oral Torah, whether it is the laws of ketubot (marriage contracts) in the Mishneh Torah of Rambam or the laws of forbidden mixtures, which clarify such halakhot as the status of a spoon used to eat dairy that fell into a pot that is used for cooking meat, one reveals and strengthens his faith.

שֶׁהִיא בְּחִינַת גִּילּוּי רָצוֹן הָעֶלְיוֹן,

which is the revelation of the supernal will, This strengthening of faith does not come about as a direct result of knowing the halakhot . There is no obvious connection between this study and faith in God. Furthermore, faith is essentially incomprehensible and cannot be strengthened by intellectual contemplation alone. It is only because the Oral Torah is a distillation of the will of God that its study has the power to strengthen one’s faith.

Notes

The Supernal Will of God

Halakha, the delineation of what, when, and how to perform the service of God as explained in the Oral Torah, is the revelation of God’s will. Essentially, halakha is the stipulation of what God wants. This revelation of the divine will, expressed as detailed instructions for the way to conduct ourselves, is independent of any underlying explanation. It is simply how God wants it. While there are layers of insight to be unearthed behind every halakha in the Torah, they are all of secondary importance to the action itself. In other words, since it is the halakha, we search for the reason behind it, but it is not essential to our application of it. Our approach to science resembles this approach to mitzvot. We explain natural phenomena by starting with certain facts, certain principles. Even in the field of mathematics, which is entirely a human creation, as it were, there are certain basic givens, like natural numbers, that we accept without any explanation as fact. While the world is a physical reality that God created, and science a collection of its governing laws and principles, the Torah is a revelation of spiritual reality, and halakha constitutes the simple laws and principles by which God governs it.

The Oral Torah: The Revelation of God’s Will

The author of the Tanya specifically refers to the study of the halakhot of the Oral Torah as the manifestation of God’s supernal will because the revelation of divine will becomes manifest as practical action only through the Oral Torah. One cannot thoroughly decipher the divine will from the Written Torah in all its detail. It is impossible to know exactly what God wants us to do from the Written Torah alone. It is only through the Oral Torah, and sometimes only through literally hearing the laws from the mouth of a Torah scholar, that the revelation of God’s will reaches perfection, becoming clarified to the extent that enables us to actually carry it out.

דְּאוֹרַיְיתָא מֵחָכְמָה הִיא דְּנָפְקַת אֲבָל מְקוֹרָהּ וְשָׁרְשָׁהּ הִיא לְמַעְלָה מַעְלָה מִבְּחִינַת חָכְמָה, וְהוּא הַנִּקְרָא בְּשֵׁם "רָצוֹן הָעֶלְיוֹן בָּרוּךְ הוּא",

for although the Torah is derived from the sefira of Ḥokhma (Wisdom), its source and root is far higher than the level of Ḥokhma . It is from the level called "God’s supernal will, blessed be He ," God’s will corresponds to the sefira of Keter (Crown), which transcends the level of wisdom and the intellect: Before wisdom and understanding comes the initial will. The author of the Tanya is conveying that the Oral Torah is rooted in the level of the supernal will, from Keter . Yet elsewhere it is explained that the root of the Torah lies in Ḥokhma. While it is true that the Torah, especially the Oral Torah, is expressed in rational form so that it is the attribute of Ḥokhma that is applied for apprehending Torah concepts and the way they interact, the root of the Torah is the expression of God’s will. The supernal will far transcends not only every degree of human wisdom and rational understanding, but it also lies far beyond the power of the essence of divine Ḥokhma itself.

Notes

The Will beyond All Wills

The expression "God’s will" is a loose translation of the phrase used here by the author of the Tanya. Its literal translation is "supernal will," and when this term is used in relation to the Torah, it belies a deeper layer of meaning: Not only is it God’s will, but it is the highest, deepest, and most primal facet of His will. God created a world that contains many realities. The existence of some of these realities is conditional (such as that which hinges on Israel’s acceptance and fulfillment of the Torah), while others are sustained by God as a cog in the great entirety of creation (see Tanna deVei Eliyahu Rabba 1). Encompassed in this is that which does not seem to serve an express purpose, including the presence of evil. It is impossible to say that God does not desire these phenomena. Otherwise they would not exist at all. But the type of desire that God has for them is different. They are part of the system, part of the necessary context for sustaining and operating that which God truly wants to remain in existence. Torah, in this sense, is the supernal will, that which God truly desires, the highest, deepest will that lies at the core of all other desires, so that that in every level through which the Torah manifests, it expresses the inner will within it.

וּכְמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב: "כַּצִּנָּה רָצוֹן תַּעְטְרֶנּוּ" (תהלים ה, יג), כַּעֲטָרָה שֶׁהִיא עַל הַמּוֹחִין שֶׁבָּרֹאשׁ.

as it is written, "For it is You who blesses the righteous man, Lord, surrounding him with favor, like a shield" (Ps. 5:13). The word used for "surrounding," tatrenu , is related to the word atara , crown, which sits above the brain that is in the head. The word for "favor," ratzon , used in the verse can also be rendered as "will." The will, which transcends Ḥokhma is like a crown that sits upon the head. The word for crown, atara , which also denotes "surrounding," refers not only to that which sits above but also to the dimension that lies beyond and separate from the soul’s cognitive and emotional realm. This is the will, the ratzon : It crowns and encompasses the soul from without. It is not an internal faculty that lends insight and apprehension but rather a power that comes from beyond. We sense its existence, yet we are incapable of understanding or defining it. When a person performs a mitzva or studies halakha from the Oral Torah, he connects with that supernal will that surrounds and encompasses all of reality yet also penetrates and nourishes it on a deep, subconscious level. Therefore, the act of studying the Oral Torah or fulfilling a mitzva activates the soul’s deep, unconscious levels, such as the soul’s faculty of faith.

וְכַנּוֹדַע מִמַּה שֶּׁפֵּרְשׁוּ עַל פָּסוּק: "אֵשֶׁת חַיִל עֲטֶרֶת בַּעְלָהּ" (משלי יב, ד).

This is also known from the Sages’ explanation of the verse "A woman of valor is the crown of her husband" (Prov. 12:4). The woman of valor is an analogy for the Oral Torah, which corresponds to the attribute of Bina (Understanding). "Her husband" refers to the Written Torah, which corresponds to Ḥokhma. Ḥokhma influences Bina , yet from a certain standpoint, Bina , or the Oral Torah, is higher than Ḥokhma , the Written Torah, because it is the revelation of God’s supernal will, which is rooted in a higher realm than Ḥokhma . From this angle, the Oral Torah is the "crown of her husband," higher than "her husband," Ḥokhma, the Written Torah, and having an influence on it. In this vein, this verse is also understood as prophetic insight into the future, when in all the worlds that which now receives will give. The halakhot of the Oral Torah are thus the expression of God’s will that transcends Ḥokhma . Yet they are manifest in their application on a level lower than Ḥokhma. Unlike the wisdom of mystical Torah teachings that we essentially are incapable of understanding, we are meant to understand halakha , the laws that instruct us what to do, in a way that enables us to perform it.

Notes

Connecting on the Practical Level through the Oral Torah

The intrinsic problem with the service of God, on every level and in every arena, is the issue of connection. When we are standing before God, we are facing the infinite. The gap between us and Him is unbridgeable, no matter how many steps we take. The only one who can bridge the gap is God Himself. He must extend His hand to us. Only He can offer that possibility. Yet even when He does so, when He communicates with us, we can apprehend and connect with Him only at the end stage, on the level of the bottom line, the action. Consider the following metaphor. Two people who speak different languages face each other. One person must relay a message urgently to the other. He needs to tell him, "Move over to the right! You are about to be run over!" He could explain this with his most eloquent terminology and explanations, yet the other will not understand. But if he makes a motion with his hand, signaling that the other should move and he moves, clearly he got the message. Communication was established; connection was achieved. This is the significance of the Oral Torah. It successfully clarifies the point, that we are supposed to do this and not that. This is the goal of learning halakha, the "crown of Torah": It forges a direct connection to the Divine that cuts through all the rifts of lack of comprehension and miscommunication between us and God. The crown thus embodies the concept of "the beginning is embedded in the end" by manifesting both the point of inception and the point of completion. The summary of practical halakha is both the final conclusion of the abstract debate and the very starting point of God’s supernal will. This is why the woman of valor is called the "crown of her husband." This connection between Malkhut, Kingship (the final sefira and level), and Keter, Crown (the first sefira and level), is direct. It circumvents neural pathways and limitations, evading the obstacles that the rational mind attempts to present. This connection is pure and free of any distortion that man’s intellect may cause, in whatever form it would take. The Ba’al Shem Tov (some say it was the Vilna Gaon) asked regarding the verse "The Torah of the Lord is perfect" (Ps. 19:8): In what way is it perfect? His answer: Because no one blemished it (see Degel Maḥaneh Efrayim, Parashat Ha’azinu; Kol Mevaser, vol. 1, Parashat Toledot). The Torah is perfect because it transcends all levels; it is beyond all realms. It is the Keter of the world, God’s supernal will that is beyond everything. It passes through the world, unbreakable and indivisible, a whole package. This explains why it can reach the lowest conceivable levels intact. Likewise, within the soul, the faculty of faith is on the level of Keter, transcending the upper reaches of the intellect. At the same time, it touches a point beneath the radar of the emotions so that, like the Torah, it remains perfect and unblemished.

וְ״כָל הַשּׁוֹנֶה הֲלָכוֹת בְּכָל יוֹם כו׳״ (נדה עג, א).

The Sages have also taught that "anyone who studies halakhot every day is guaranteed that he is destined for the World to Come" (Nidda 73a). This idea, that "the woman of valor is the crown of her husband," will ultimately come to fruition only in the time to come. When it comes to the study of halakha , God’s will is manifest through action, yet the divine rationale behind it remains utterly concealed. The level of Keter , which constitutes the divine will, fuses with the level of action yet bypasses the level of Ḥokhma , the level of wisdom, of cognitive awareness. One who studies halakhot will understand what he must do and act accordingly, but he does not see or feel the Divine there. That is simply the reality of this world. Yet anyone who studies halakhot creates vessels and soul garments through which he will be able to receive reward for his mitzva actions in the future, so that he will apprehend the divine illumination that underlies these actions, in the World to Come.

וְזֶהוּ "חָגְרָה בְּעוֹז מָתְנֶיהָ" (משלי לא, יז), אֵין עוֹז אֶלָּא תּוֹרָה שֶׁהִיא נוֹתֶנֶת כֹּחַ וָעוֹז

This is the meaning of the verse "She girds her loins with might and strengthens her arms" (Prov. 31:17). "Might" means nothing but Torah,

לִבְחִינַת מָתְנַיִם, הַחֲגוּרִים וּמְלוּבָּשִׁים בָּהּ

which gives the "loins," or the faculty of faith in the soul, which are girded and clothed within it, the ability and might We know that strength refers to Torah based on the verse "The Lord gives strength to His people" (Ps. 29:11). By studying the halakhot of the Oral Torah, the embodiment of might, a person strengthens the faith within his soul, even if his wisdom, love, or fear do not increase.

לְחַזֵּק וּלְאַמֵּץ זְרוֹעוֹתֶיהָ, הֵן דְּחִילוּ וּרְחִימוּ שִׂכְלִיִּים אוֹ טִבְעִיִּים,

to strengthen and support the soul’s arms, which are fear and love of God, whether intellectual or innate, The principle is that no matter their origin, whether they develop through cognitive awareness or they are rooted in one’s innate love and fear, one cannot develop enduring emotions of love and fear without the foundation of faith. One must accept things as they are before one can develop an emotional response or cognitive attitude toward them.

כָּל חַד לְפוּם שִׁיעוּרָא דִּילֵיהּ.

every individual according to his capacity. Love and fear are very individual. One person’s love is not like the next, neither in degree nor in type, neither in the way it is aroused nor in the way it is expressed.

(וְעַל הַעֲמָדַת וְקִיּוּם בְּחִינַת הָרֹאשׁ שֶׁבַּנֶּפֶשׁ, הוּא הַשֵּׂכֶל הַמִּתְבּוֹנֵן כו', אָמַר: "טָעֲמָה כִּי טוֹב סַחְרָהּ" כו' [משלי לא, יח]

(Regarding the support and upholding of the soul’s head, the intellect that contemplates and so on, it is written , "She perceives that her merchandise is good…" [Prov. 31:18], The author of the Tanya has primarily been discussing the "arms" of the soul, love, and fear. Here the author comments that the aforementioned concepts apply to the "head" as well. The verse he quotes follows the other verse he just quoted, "She girds her loins with strength," and hints at the stage that comes after a person strengthens his spiritual loins through the study of halakha . The Hebrew word for "perceives" in the verse is ta’ama , which literally means "tastes" but can also mean "reasons." The perception mentioned in this verse refers to rational comprehension, as in the verse "Taste [i.e., comprehend] and see that the Lord is good" (Ps. 34:9). Through consciously connecting and relating to an event or concept, a person is privy to the sound reasoning behind it. Faith itself has no sense of rationale because it transcends reason and knowledge. Only when a person can perceive the rationale and the root of a given idea or experience will he taste the pleasure in it.

וּמְבוֹאָר בְּמָקוֹם אַחֵר.)

which is explained elsewhere.) This letter primarily focuses on the strengthening of the "arms," on love and fear of God, during prayer, the service of the heart. The concept of strengthening the "head," the soul’s intellect, is explained elsewhere. From this point onward, the letter delves into the applicable, practical aspects of the concepts discussed herein. The purpose of the ideas explained in these letters, and in a certain sense in every hasidic discourse, is that they should be applied and not remain in the theoretical realm or be reduced to emotional surges that do not manifest in action. Rather, they should be practiced, deeply activating one’s soul in his day-to-day life, whether during prayer, while performing mitzvot, or when facing the vicissitudes of life in general. Now, after having built the theoretical framework, the author of the Tanya outlines its practical application.

אַךְ עֵת וּזְמַן הַחִיזּוּק וְאִימּוּץ הַזְּרוֹעוֹת וְהָרֹאשׁ הִיא שְׁעַת תְּפִלַּת הַשַּׁחַר, שֶׁהִיא שְׁעַת רַחֲמִים וְעֵת רָצוֹן הָעֶלְיוֹן לְמַעְלָה.

In fact, the occasion and time for strengthening and fortifying the arms and the head is during the morning prayers, which is a time of mercy and a time when the supernal will is revealed above. Each part of the day has its own unique characteristics. The morning is most characterized by Ḥesed and the revelation of divine favor. As explained above, the revelation of God’s will strengthens faith in the soul, which establishes and fortifies the "arms," love and fear of God, and the "head," the awareness and contemplation of God. This time of day, when the gates of Heaven are opened, is therefore the time for prayer through which one draws down the influence of Ḥesed and the supernal will. As a result of this revelation of the divine will, these faculties of the soul will be strengthened and cultivated so that one will be fortified to serve God throughout the day. The author of the Tanya explained above that in order to strengthen the "loins," or the faith within one’s soul, one should be committed to learning the halakhot of the Oral Torah. This connection is not direct or obvious. When a person engages in this study, he builds the appropriate spiritual infrastructure and creates a fitting environment for his spiritual growth. To actually activate this, however, to unleash an internal effusion of love and fear, a person must pray, not only reciting the words but intensely engaging in the spiritual work of prayer.

וְלָזֹאת אוֹתָהּ אֲבַקֵּשׁ מִמְּבַקְּשֵׁי ה':

Therefore, this is what I request of those who seek God: The request that the author of the Tanya makes here is directed at those who seek to be close to God, who truly desire to pray and to strengthen their faith and love and fear of God.

יָבִינוּ וְיַשְׂכִּילוּ יַחְדָּיו, וְלִהְיוֹת לְזִכָּרוֹן בֵּין עֵינֵיהֶם כָּל מַה שֶּׁכָּתַבְתִּי אֲלֵיהֶם אֶשְׁתָּקַד בִּכְלָל, וּבִפְרָט מֵעִנְיַן כַּוָּונַת

that they understand and contemplate together and constantly bear in mind everything I wrote to them last year in general, and what

הַתְּפִלָּה מֵעוּמְקָא דְּלִבָּא.

I wrote regarding concentration during prayer from the depths of the heart in particular. This refers to another letter that appears in this book as well. In that letter, the author of the Tanya outlines general ordinances and directives that relate to communal prayer. Here, when he says "in general," he refers to the hasidic community as a whole, that they should contemplate these ideas together in groups. With the words "prayer from the depths of the heart in particular," he is urging the individual to ensure that his prayer is not insincere but rather deeply personal.

יוֹם יוֹם יִדְרְשׁוּן ה'

Day after day they should seek God Using language from the prophet Isaiah, "Day after day they seek Me" (Isa. 58:2), the author of the Tanya appeals to his hasidim not to suffice with the level of relationship that they have with God. Rather, let them harness the power of their daily prayers to truly seek out God by searching for that which is hidden and asking that the Divine, which is concealed from us, should become perceptible and palpable.

בְּכָל לִבָּם וּבְכָל נַפְשָׁם.

with all their heart and all their soul. This wording echoes the words of the Shema and comes along with their manifold layers of meaning. "With all their heart" implies investing all of one’s heartfelt desires and love, and "with all their soul" means with all the faculties of one’s soul and the willingness to sacrifice one’s soul, as the Sages say, "Even if [God] takes your soul" (Berakhot 61b).

וְנַפְשָׁם תִּשְׁתַּפֵּךְ כַּמַּיִם נוֹכַח פְּנֵי ה'. וּכְמַאֲמַר רַבּוֹתֵינוּ זַ"ל בְּ"סִפְרֵי" (דברים ו, ה): עַד מִיצּוּי הַנֶּפֶשׁ כו'.

They should pour out their souls like water before God. As the Rabbis state in Sifrei (Deut. 6:5), "To the extent of wringing out the soul…." A person must do this inner work until he is able to pour out his heart like water before God. When he prays, he must harness all the energies of his soul until he cannot eke out any more, as the Sifrei comments on the words "with all of your soul." A person must exhaust his soul of all its energy, of every ounce of spiritual vigor that draws, excites, and enlivens him, like a person drains a vessel of the liquid within it, until the soul becomes stripped of all its faculties, and its essence becomes manifest and pours out like water before God.

Notes

The Wringing of the Soul

Some understand this phrase in terms of the image of a barrel that is filled with liquid to the extent that it can no longer hold any more. When only a little more is added, the liquid overflows. While it is the liquid itself that emerges from the barrel in this analogy, it is the sheer force of the quantity in the barrel that pushes it out. This is how prayer should be. Even if a person feels only a very subtle spiritual sensation, it is coming from the overall power and essence of the soul. There were (and probably still are) hasidim who would pray like this. Some of them exhibited their exertion, excitement, and closeness to the Divine, and others kept it all beneath the surface, not even extending the length of their prayers a significant amount. People would say that although the Kotzker Rebbe did not pray a lengthy prayer, it would take him some time until he began recognizing people again after praying. The work of the "wringing of the soul" would leave the soul empty of everything it possessed. All the associations, assumptions, and identity it had before prayer no longer exist. All were offered up in the experience of the individual who was in the presence of God, and building them anew took time.

וְעַתָּה הַפַּעַם הִנְנִי יוֹסִיף שֵׁנִית יָדִי, בְּתוֹסֶפֶת בֵּיאוּר וּבַקָּשָׁה כְּפוּלָה, שְׁטוּחָה וּפְרוּשָׂה לִפְנֵי כָּל אַנְשֵׁי שְׁלוֹמִים, הַקְּרוֹבִים

Now once more I put forth my hand a second time, with additional explanation and a twofold request, extended and put forth before all the members of our community, those near and far,

וְהָרְחוֹקִים, לְקַיֵּים עֲלֵיהֶם שֶׁכָּל יְמֵי הַחוֹל לֹא יֵרְדוּ לִפְנֵי הַתֵּיבָה הַבַּעֲלֵי עֲסָקִים שֶׁאֵין לָהֶם פְּנַאי כָּל כָּךְ.

to take upon themselves that on all weekdays businessmen should not lead the prayers, for they do not have much time to devote to prayer. Here begins the third section of the letter, which was written at a later time, when the hasidic movement had grown and had become more established around the author of the Tanya. A need arose to formulate specific practices and ordinances, and the first of these related to communal prayer. The author of the Tanya knew that it is impossible for a person with limited time to forget everything and immerse himself in the service of prayer with a composed mind. Although there were certainly hasidim who were capable of doing this, devotees who were able to pray as if they had all the time in the world even though they would be imminently delving into business matters and money concerns, this was surely not a common phenomenon. Most people need a great deal of time to attain a mindset of intense connection, a luxury that businessmen do not have.

רַק אוֹתָם שֶׁיֵּשׁ לָהֶם פְּנַאי

Only those who have time, Those who do not run a business or occupy high-pressure positions can clear space in their souls and free themselves of commonplace matters. The service of prayer that the author of the Tanya expects of his hasidim demands more time than simply mouthing the words of prayer. He instructs them to give sufficient time to each word, to allow themselves the mental space to contemplate each one, and imbue them with the light of the hasidic teachings that they learned. They must strive to tap into the depths of their souls, to truly feel and be free to ascend from the mundane concerns of daily living to contemplate and immerse themselves in matters of the Divine, all through the daily morning prayer.

אוֹ הַמְלַמְּדִים אוֹ הַסְּמוּכִים עַל שׁוּלְחַן אֲבִיהֶם,

whether teachers or those who are supported financially by their father, Teachers are included here since elementary-school classes started later in the morning, so they could devote time to their prayers. In addition, those supported by their parents could devote all their time to the study of Torah rather than dedicating some of their time to earning a livelihood and also had more time to spend in prayer.

שֶׁיְּכוֹלִים לְהַאֲרִיךְ בִּתְפִלַּת הַשַּׁחַר עֵרֶךְ שָׁעָה וּמֶחֱצָה לְפָחוֹת כָּל יְמוֹת הַחוֹל, מֵהֶם יִהְיֶה הַיּוֹרֵד לִפְנֵי הַתֵּיבָה עַל פִּי הַגּוֹרָל אוֹ עַל פִּי רִיצּוּי הָרוֹב, וְהוּא יֶאֱסוֹף אֵלָיו בְּסָבִיב לוֹ כָּל הַסְּמוּכִים עַל שׁוּלְחַן אֲבִיהֶם אוֹ מְלַמְּדִים שֶׁיּוּכְלוּ לְהַאֲרִיךְ כָּמוֹהוּ.

who can devote at least about an hour and half to the morning prayers every weekday, one of them should lead the prayers, selected by a lot or by consent of the majority. The designated leader should gather around him all those who are supported by their father or the teachers, who can spend as much time on the prayers as he can. The leader of the prayer service should be someone accepted by most of the congregation, but unlike the custom in other places, where the person who leads the prayers is the one who is most in a rush, or where the entire congregation prays in order to accommodate those who are in a hurry, so that those who want to pray slowly have to essentially pray on their own, the author of the Tanya proposes that it is precisely those who are not pressed for time, who can set aside plenty of time for prayer, should be considered the main part of the quorum, while the rest should be peripheral. In general, there is a certain basic assumption at play here regarding the foundation of the community, what it considers important and what is secondary. Setting the norm for the correct way to choose the prayer leader highlights the community’s values. The community is undoubtedly composed of a plethora of people of all types, each with his own unique place in it, but the axis upon which the whole community stands must be the service of God, and all must recognize this and find their place accordingly.

Notes

The Other Room

It was customary in Chabad synagogues to build an extra room where certain hasidim would pray, separate from the main quorum. This prayer was performed with immense mindfulness, sometimes not only for an hour and a half but four or five hours every day. These hasidim would engage in a deeply personal prayer with serious contemplation, offering up all their souls’ energies. The presence of a prayer group like this created a model for the entire community of how a person should pray: The prayer should not entail simply fulfilling one’s obligation so that he would be free to eat breakfast, but rather should infuse one’s entire relationship with God with meaningful content and living significance.

בְּבַל יְשׁוּנֶּה, נָא וְנָא.

This arrangement should not be altered, I beg and beseech you. The author of the Tanya uses this double language of "I beg and beseech you" to strengthen the intensity of his request. It is hard to institute a custom and ensure that people will not change it when it is contrary to the accepted custom. Therefore, the author of the Tanya poses his request using strong language: "I beg and beseech you."

אַךְ בְּשַׁבָּתוֹת וְיָמִים טוֹבִים, שֶׁגַּם כָּל בַּעֲלֵי עֲסָקִים יֵשׁ לָהֶם פְּנַאי וּשְׁעַת הַכּוֹשֶׁר לְהַאֲרִיךְ בִּתְפִלָּתָם בְּכַוָּונַת לִבָּם וְנַפְשָׁם לַה', וְאַדְּרַבָּה, עֲלֵיהֶם מוּטָל בְּיֶתֶר שְׂאֵת וְיֶתֶר עָז.

However, on the Sabbath and the festivals, when all the businessmen also have the time and opportunity to pray at length to God with the concentration of their hearts and souls, their responsibility is, on the contrary, much greater. Why do the people who are busy working throughout the week have a greater responsibility to pray at length on the Sabbath and festivals than those who spend all week devoted to Torah study and prayer?

כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב בְּשׁוּלְחָן עָרוּךְ אוֹרַח חַיִּים (סימן רצ), וּכְמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב בְּתוֹרַת מֹשֶׁה: "שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים תַּעֲבוֹד כו', וְיוֹם

As it states in Shulḥan Arukh , Oraḥ Ḥayyim (290), and as it is written in the Torah of Moses, "Six days

הַשְּׁבִיעִי שַׁבָּת לַה' אֱלֹהֶיךָ" (שמות כ, ט-י) דַּיְיקָא כּוּלּוֹ לַה'.

you shall work…and the seventh day is Sabbath for the Lord your God" (Ex. 20:9–10), specifying that the day should be devoted entirely to God. The author of the Tanya cites the Shulḥan Arukh to bolster his assertion that the Sabbath is a day when working men, who did not have the opportunity to devote all their weekdays to the study of Torah and prayer, should study more than Torah scholars who study all week long. The Sabbath is the culmination of the weekdays and is nourished from them. In light of this, the heights to which one’s prayers ascend on the Sabbath hinges on the weekdays. Yet when a person who was occupied with mundane concerns during the week prays on the Sabbath with sincere intention and at length, he can elevate his prayers to even loftier heights, like a light that emerges from darkness.

וְלָזֹאת גַּם הֵם יֵרְדוּ לִפְנֵי הַתֵּיבָה בְּשַׁבָּת וְיוֹם טוֹב, עַל פִּי הַגּוֹרָל אוֹ בְּרִיצּוּי הָרוֹב, כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתַבְתִּי אֶשְׁתָּקַד.

Therefore, they too should lead the services on the Sabbath and festivals, by a lot or by consent of the majority, as I wrote last year. When a person who sits and studies Torah during the week steps into the Sabbath, he does not change his routine to a significant degree. Conversely, when a person who works throughout the week, immersed in worldly matters, enters the Sabbath, he undergoes both a drastic change and brings something new with him from his workweek. During his weekly dealings with the mundane world, he met holy sparks that the one who sat and studied Torah did not encounter. These sparks come from imperfect realities that seek to be redeemed. When they encountered this businessman, they attached themselves to him and made him their messenger to elevate them to the realm of holiness. These sparks say to him, as it were, "You were with us and dealt with us. Now you must take us with you to elevate us and redeem us from the kelippot , the forces of impurity." It is therefore the businessman who should pray on the Sabbath or festival, since he must elevate and redeem the sparks. Furthermore, the roots of those sparks lie in the world of tohu , which is higher than the person who is elevating them. When a person comes to pray as an emissary for those sparks, he receives power from them, like a prayer leader who receives power to pray from the congregation for whom he is praying. They are not only sending him to pray for them, but they are giving him the power to do so.

וּכְגוֹן דָּא צָרִיךְ לְאוֹדוֹעֵי שֶׁבְּדַעְתִּי, אִם יִרְצֶה ה', לִשְׁלוֹחַ לְכָל הַמִּנְיָנִים מְרַגְּלִים בַּסֵּתֶר, לֵידַע וּלְהוֹדִיעַ כָּל מִי שֶׁאֶפְשָׁר לוֹ וְכָל מִי שֶׁיֵּשׁ לוֹ פְּנַאי לְהַאֲרִיךְ וּלְעַיֵּין בַּתְּפִלָּה, וּמִתְעַצֵּל – יִהְיֶה נִידּוֹן בְּרִיחוּק מָקוֹם, לִהְיוֹת נִדְחֶה בִּשְׁתֵּי יָדַיִם בְּבוֹאוֹ לְפֹה לִשְׁמוֹעַ 'דִּבְרֵי אֱלֹקִים חַיִּים'.

Moreover, be notified that I intend, God willing, to send covert observers to all the congregations to identify and notify me about anyone who is able and anyone who has time to pray at length and in depth yet is lazy and refrains from doing so. Any such person will be punished by disassociation, being pushed away with two hands when he comes here to hear the words of the living God. The "words of the living God" was a description for the Rebbe’s hasidic teachings. Since this person is not implementing the hasidic teachings that he heard from the Rebbe, he does not deserve to hear them.

וּמִכְּלַל לָאו אַתָּה שׁוֹמֵעַ הֵן, וְלַשּׁוֹמְעִים יוּנְעַם, וְתָבֹא עֲלֵיהֶם בִּרְכַּת טוֹב, וְאֵין טוֹב אֶלָּא תּוֹרָה וכו'.

From the negative you can infer the positive. May it be pleasant for those who adhere to this message, and may blessings of good come upon them, and "‘good’ means nothing but Torah…." The author of the Tanya does not leave it at that, but "from the negative you can infer the positive." The author of the Tanya promises that whoever invests substantial time in the service of prayer and relates seriously to the hasidic discourses that he has heard will be privileged to acquire further hasidic teachings, or, as the author puts it, "the words of the living God." The author of the Tanya concludes as he began, stating that "good" is synonymous with the Torah. He began with gratitude for the conclusion of the study of the entire Talmud, a study that strengthens a person’s faith, and concludes with a blessing directed at one who implements the lessons he has learned from hasidic teachings in his prayer service. By doing this, his newly strengthened faith supports the "head" and "arms," promoting the conscious awareness of the Divine and the love and fear of God.