Daily Tanya

The Alter Rebbe sent this pastoral letter to all his followers upon his release from the imprisonment brought about by calumnies instigated by the opponents of Chasidism.1 This slander resulted from his selfless and tireless efforts to strengthen the Chasidic movement and disseminate its teachings. His subsequent release (also) served as a nod of approval from the government for their continued dissemination.

The Rebbes, the successive leaders of the Chabad Chasidic school of thought, have taught that the Alter Rebbe’s arrest resulted from an indictment voiced in the Heavenly Court against his doctrine of clothing the teachings of Chasidism in intellectual terms.2 (In fact, the very word ChaBaD, naming the movement he founded and the teachings he first articulated, is an acronym for chochmah, binah, and daat, “wisdom,” “understanding,” and “knowledge,” respectively.) The same voice, moreover, disapproved of the fact that the Alter Rebbe beamed these teachings at the Jewish masses.

The Alter Rebbe wrote this epistle in order that it be clearly understood that his release from physical incarceration resulted directly from his being cleared of all spiritual charges. Indeed, a clear signal and an extra measure of strength was thereby given from Above that the teachings of Chasidism be promulgated according to the Alter Rebbe’s approach of making them intelligible and accessible to all.

With the Alter Rebbe’s release, there thus began a second era in the dissemination of Chasidism. This is alluded to by this letter, which is numbered Iggeret Hakodesh, Epistle 2. It will be noted that the number 2 is mentioned only after the heading, “Upon his Arrival from Petersburg.” Now, Epistle 27 also has a prefatory heading that explains why it was written. There, however, the number of the epistle appears first, and only then is it followed by the introductory heading. Here, the order is inverted because the second period (or, in Chasidic terminology, “the second degree of greatness”3), which is alluded to by the number 2, began with the Alter Rebbe’s arrival from Petersburg.

These words were uttered by Jacob as an introduction to his plea to G-d that He save him from Esau. Although G-d had previously assured him5 that He would accompany and protect him wherever he went, Jacob nonetheless feared that all the kindnesses that G-d had already shown him had made him “small,” i.e., had reduced his merits. He thus feared that he was possibly in a state in which he would have to ask G-d anew, “Save me….”6

Rashi comments that “I have become small” is a result of “all the favors and all the truth”7; i.e., “My merits have diminished because of the favors and truth You have done with me.” Ramban argues that this comment is inconsistent with the “language of the verse,” which states that “I have become small,” not that the speaker’s merits have become small; there is a diminution in quality rather than in quantity.8

Ramban therefore understands “I have become small” to mean: “I am unworthy of receiving all your kindness and truth.”9 Thus, according to Ramban, “I have become small” is not a result of G-d’s “kindness and truth” but rather an expression of the speaker’s being unworthy of receiving G-d’s “kindness and truth.”

The Alter Rebbe, however, is going to explain this verse according to the commentary of Rashi: “from all the kindness” simply means that it was the kindness that made Jacob feel “small.” At the same time, though, the Alter Rebbe will understand “I have become small” as referring to the speaker himself: it is he himself who has become diminished as a result of G-d’s many kindnesses and His truth. (Thus, not only have the particular person’s merits become lessened, which results in his diminishment,10 but he himself is directly affected as a result of the “kindness and truth.”)

Although it is the person himself (and not the tally of his merits) that has become diminished, nonetheless, this diminution is a result of the “kindness and truth.” This, then, is what the Alter Rebbe intends by saying “This means”—

Every Divine act of chesed brings a man closer to G-d.

When G-d appears to an individual through a particular manifestation of kindness, this should make him perceive himself as being in relation to G-d—“afar,” i.e., humbly distant from Him. Alternatively, the verse may be implying that perceiving oneself as being “afar” is the very means by which to attain a state in which “G-d has appeared to me.”

A being of even the highest conceivable spiritual level is of absolutely no account indeed; it is nullified out of existence when in G-d’s presence, when it is “before Him,” for nothing exists before G-d other than Himself.

The kindness that G-d showed Abraham motivated him to attain the ultimate degree of humility that this statement expresses. Just as in the heavenly realms, “the right arm of Divine chesed” causes recipients of the chesed to lose their independent identity in the identity of the Bestower of lovingkindness, so, too, does it affect mortals upon whom it is bestowed, making them likewise humble and self-effacing.

“I have become small” thus means that the multitude of kindnesses bestowed upon Jacob caused him to feel so small and insignificant that he feared that he had sinned and hence needed once again to beseech G-d that He save him from his brother Esau. And, indeed, every Jew would do well to follow in the footsteps of his father Jacob, becoming ever more humble with every successive act of kindness that G-d shows him.

The Rebbe once explained why at the outset of this epistle, the Alter Rebbe uses an expression in which the word chesed is repeated: בְּכָל חֶסֶד וָחֶסֶד. (This is translated above, “with every single favor [that G-d bestows upon man].”) In general, there are two modes of Divine kindness: (a) that which descends to man within the ordered framework of created worlds and becomes manifest in a natural manner and (b) that which transcends the conventions of the created universe and whose manifestation is supernatural.

This is why the Alter Rebbe there goes on to say that (a) “chesed is the right arm” as well as (b) “His right arm embraces me.” The former phrase alludes to the chesed of the supernal sefirot, a finite mode of Divine kindness that is analogous to the finite degree of life-force that is clothed in the human arm; the latter phrase alludes to the infinite mode of Divine kindness that is analogous to the infinite degree of life-force that transcends the limitation of being clothed in a particular organ and is thus said to be “encompassing” (makif) or “embracing.”

The counterpart to Abraham, who personifies the attribute of “chesed (kindness) that belongs to holiness,” is Ishmael, who personifies “kindness that belongs to unholiness”; the opposite of Isaac, who represents the attribute of “gevurah (severity) that belongs to holiness,” is Esau, who represents the attribute of “gevurah that belongs to unholiness.”

A Jew must thus be on guard against the “chesed of kelipah” and ensure that G-d’s acts of kindness will lead him to cultivate the traits of Abraham and Jacob, the “chesed of holiness,” so that his response will be humility rather than pride.

The attribute of chesed (kindness) is also known by the name gedulah (greatness), as in the verse21 which enumerates the Divine attributes and which begins, לְךָ ה' הַגְּדֻלָּה וְהַגְּבוּרָה. Indeed, the term gedulah connotes an even greater manifestation of Divine kindness than does chesed. The Alter Rebbe therefore adds the phrase regarding “the great things that G-d has done for us,” thereby indicating the extraordinary kindness G-d had shown Chasidim by releasing him.