Chapter 29: A Torah Lesson of the Alter Rebbe, the Maggid and R. Zusya of Anipoli

Rabbi Shmuel continued. My father [Rabbi Menachem Mendel] repeated for me what the Alter Rebbe had told him during an audience on Elul 6, 5564 (1804). The previous Friday evening (parshat Shoftim) 1 an hour after lighting the Shabbat candles, the Alter Rebbe delivered the discourse on the verse, "Judges and officers shall you appoint at all your gates." 2 The discourse was based on the theme that emotions are the outcome of the intellect, the latter being their cause. The discourse elaborated on the passage, 3Fifty portals of understanding were created in the world. The fiftieth relates to Understanding proper; the other forty-nine correspond to the combinations of the emotion-attributes. 4 The commandment contained in the above quoted verse means, that in order that worship affect practice, every portal of emotion needs a judge for its qualitative content, and an officer for its quantitative content.

My father was by then already writing glosses on his grandfather's [the Alter Rebbe's] discourses, besides interpretations for his own benefit based on Midrash, Zohar, and the writings of the Ari. 5 He was in doubt about some of the subjects in the discourse mentioned, and on Monday, 6 Elul 5564 (1804), was granted an audience to present his questions and have them clarified. The Alter Rebbe answered all his questions in order, and concluded by stating that each of the forty-nine portals has its own type of prayer. Prayer combines power with deed, as explained in a discourse of Rabbi DovBer, the Maggid of Mezritch, delivered on Shabbat Tavo 5528 (1768), beginning with the verse, 6 V'shavta ad Havayeh Elokecha.

The Maggid explained, in that discourse, that the avoda of teshuva must attain a level at which Havayeh, transcendent Divinity beyond worlds, becomes Elokecha-Elokim being numerically equivalent to hateva [nature], and as we find, 7 In the beginning Elokimcreated the heavens and the earth. . . .

All the disciples of the Maggid were profoundly stirred by the Maggid's words. The tzadik R. Meshulam Zusya of Anipoli asserted that he could not attain the lofty heights of such a teshuva; he would therefore break down teshuva into more manageable components, for each letter of the word teshuva is the initial of a verse:

ת::Tamim - Be sincere with the Eternal, your G-d.8

ש : Shiviti - I have set G-d before me always. 9

ו : V'ahavta - Love your fellow as yourself. 10

ב: B'chol - In all your ways, know Him. 11

ה: Hatznei'a - Walk discreetly with your G-d.12