1 1. At the same time that something takes place down here,2 corresponding revelations [of Divine light] are aroused Above. Thus, for example, on Rosh HaShanah we say, “This day is the beginning of Your [creative] works,”3 and that revelation is renewed every Rosh HaShanah. The same is true of every festival and of every festive occasion.
2. A Jew’s greatest joy is the marriage of his son in the spirit of the Torah and its mitzvos. This marriage here below, which involves a bridegroom and a bride, serves an analogy for a Supernal marriage, in which the Holy One, blessed be He, and the Torah together represent the bridegroom, and the community of Israel represents the bride. When that marriage is celebrated in the spirit of the Torah and its mitzvos, great joy is aroused Above. And may G‑d grant that this joy should be utterly revealed among the Jewish people at large.4
3. The Alter Rebbe once told his [eldest] brother, R. [Yehudah] Leib of Yanovitch, author of She’eris Yehudah, that when he set out from Lithuania – where scholars focused on nigleh, the revealed plane of the Torah – and visited Mezritch for the first time, he was not excited by the different approach to Torah study that he encountered there.
One day he entered the antechamber before the study of the Maggid of Mezritch, where he found the Maggid’s disciples, who were known as the Holy Brotherhood, sitting together. They were discussing and envisaging the avodah of the highest angels. One spoke of the loud and exuberant avodah of Chayos HaKodesh; one described the avodah of the Ofanim; another spoke of how the Seraphim grant each other permission to exclaim, “Holy [is the Commander of legions],” and sought to define the meaning of this permission and of this exclamation. Yet another spoke of how the avodah of the highest Sefiros varies according to their respective and defined levels.
The Alter Rebbe later told his brother that each of those disciples actually lived at the spiritual level of which he spoke. Indeed, their intense envy of the avodah of those angels and Sefiros brought them to the point of klos hanefesh, the actual expiry of the soul. And that would have actually happened, if their Rebbe, the Maggid, had not entered unexpectedly at that moment.
At the approaching sound of his crutches they fell silent and rose in deference, until he took his seat at the head of the table and said:
It is written, “I have made the earth and created man upon it.”5 The word Anochi (which means “I”) alludes to the concept that “I am Whom I am.”6 This phrase that signifies that Atzmus, the very Essence of Divinity,7 is hidden from even the loftiest of emanated beings in the World of Atzilus. Yet even at that transcendent level of Elokus, G‑d concealed Himself by various kinds of tzimtzumim, and emanated ne’etzalim [who are spiritual beings in the World of Atzilus] and created nivra’im [who are spiritual beings in the World of Beriah], as well as Seraphim and Chayos and Ofanim, and innumerable other angels and worlds.
[The Creator goes on to say:] “Furthermore, by means of limitless tzimtzumim, I made this material world and upon it I created man, who is the ultimate goal of Creation.” The numerical value of וּבָרָאתִי (“and I created”) is תַּרְיַ"ג (613),8 [for the 613 mitzvos are] the ultimate purpose of man. Thus too it is written in Pardes,9 citing Sefer HaBahir:10 “The Attribute of Chessed said to the Holy One, blessed be He: ‘Ever since Avraham has been on earth, I have not been required to perform my tasks, for Avraham is there to function in my stead, as it is written, ‘And he guarded what I was intended to guard!’”11
This plaint of the Attribute of Chessed sprang from envy – because when a soul within a body resembles the Attribute of Chessed in the World of Atzilus, it is in fact superior to the Attribute of Chessed [in the World of Atzilus].
Having delivered that teaching, the Maggid rose and took his leave. It was that teaching that grounded his listeners, preventing their souls from flying free from their bodies and rapturously expiring in klos hanefesh.
The above episode was relayed by R. Yehudah Leib of Yanovitch as he had heard it from the Alter Rebbe, who had concluded by commenting: “Do you hear, Leib? It wasn’t all the holy rapture of those disciples, which had even brought them to the brink of klos hanefesh, that captivated me. What did make a profound spiritual impression on me was the fact that what held them back was this teaching of the Rebbe. That was what made me a chassid!”
R. Yehudah Leib cited this comment by the Alter Rebbe to demonstrate that the dominant role in his spiritual life was played by mochin, by exercising the intellect.
4. My father once commented on the statement in Tanya, [near the end of] chapter 14, that “habit reigns supreme in all matters; it becomes second nature.”He asked: “After all, one’s first nature is so good. Why the need for a second nature?” [At three points in the remainder of this section, its incomplete notes required an early editor to suggest possible ways to understand them. It has therefore been left untranslated.]
5. The Mitteler Rebbe used to thank G‑d that his tena’im, his betrothal agreement, was arranged when he was already grown up12 and was able to understand the maamarim of Chassidus that the Alter Rebbe delivered. (In those days, betrothal arrangements were customarily finalized by the respective parents, while the future husband and wife were still very young children.) The Mitteler Rebbe explained that he had agreed to the particular match that had been arranged for him, because the family of this bride lived in nearby Yanovitch. Since that particular shidduch would thus be settled quickly, he would not have to wait too long to hear the fresh maamar of Chassidus that his father would no doubt deliver on that occasion. And that was how he had made his choice of a shidduch.
6. At the farbrengen celebrating the marriage of R. Moshe Hornstein,13 my father said: “It is written that ‘whoever participates in the wedding meal of a bridegroom but does not gladden him, […].14 And if he does gladden him, he is found worthy of being granted success in his acquisition of the Torah.’15 Now, the verb zocheh [which here means that a person ‘is found worthy’] is related to the expression, zocheh begoral, which means that a person wins a lottery. However, in order to win a lottery, one must first have a lottery ticket. Likewise, in order to attain the spiritual level at which one is found worthy of being granted success in his acquisition of the Torah, one must first share a Torah thought. This means that the way to fulfill the above obligation, to gladden a bridegroom, is via a Torah thought.”
[The listener making these notes added here: “The above words served as a kind of explanation of why the Rebbe Rayatz was about to deliver the maamar that begins, Asher Bara Sasson veSimchah16 – ‘Blessed are You…, Who created joy and happiness.’ ”]
