Chapter 13

15. On Pesach one does not offer a guest food and drink, but the guest may help himself.1

16. The observance of the spiritual lifestyle of Chassidus2is gradually showing signs of neglect, and ought to be set right. One of the areas concerned is the singing of niggunim, which needs to be encouraged.

In days gone by a man would daven, and sing to himself in the course of his prayers. As a matter of course, he would then sing spontaneously after his prayers, too. Today, however, davenen has become “a commandment of men practised by rote.”3 People do not have the wherewithal to daven with4 because they do not study Chassidus [beforehand]. Instead, they seek to discharge that obligation by repeating a quotable tidbit or a story. Now a chassidisher vertl5is certainly fine, and a chassidisher story is certainly essential – but on no account can they substitute for studying Chassidus and grasping a G‑dly concept. If one does not study Chassidus, then there is nothing with which to daven, and one lacks the entire inner foundation of the spiritual lifestyle of Chassidus. This lack, moreover, also becomes visible externally.

The inner foundation of the spiritual lifestyle of Chassidus – and the inner foundation of the perception of the light of Chassidus – is the avodah of davenen. Singing is the external dimension of the spiritual lifestyle of Chassidus. As is discussed at length in the literature of Chassidus, every manifestation of inwardness has its outward aspect,6 and everything of external value has its inward aspect.

Davenen, when duly enriched by meditation on Chassidus, is a manifestation of inwardness.7 The outward aspect of this pnimiyus is the ratzo and the shov, the supplication and the awe, that come into being in the course of a chassidisher davenen.

Singing is the external dimension of the spiritual lifestyle of Chassidus. The inward aspect of this chitzoniyus is its function of granting a man cordial entry to subtler levels of spiritual sensitivity.8

In days gone by, the sheer involvement of chassidishe householders9 and businessmen in chassidic melodies used to reach a spiritual simmering point.10 No matter what his temperament, every one of them relished a niggun. He was fond of it, and when he sang, it sundered him from coarseness and elevated him out of his languor.

17. It has been stated and it is widely known that the number of days of the Alter Rebbe’s imprisonment11 corresponds to the number of chapters in Tanya,12one day per chapter.13 From his very first day in prison, the Alter Rebbe’s life was in jeopardy. In fact he was taken there in the black wagon that was traditionally used for traitors and others awaiting execution.

On Yud-Tes Kislev 5592 (1831), my great-grandfather the Tzemach Tzedek said: “Avraham Avinu knew that he was destined to be the father of a son from whose seed the Chosen People would sprout. He also knew how strong Nimrod was – that he was a mighty hunter who could incite rebellion against G‑d,14 and that in collaboration with Satan and his cohorts he could conceivably vanquish him and kill him. Yet despite all that, Avraham undertook the risk of literal self-sacrifice. This was not a question of having trust in G‑d; it was self-sacrifice, in that he regarded his own life as if ownerless, placing himself in actual danger for the sake of disseminating a knowledge of G‑d in the world, without regard for the consequences.

“In the same way, my grandfather [the Alter Rebbe] knew the power of Satan, who acted as Prosecutor in the Heavenly Court against the teachings and the path of our master the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid – for the opposition gained momentum alarmingly from the time that he began to publicly deliver discourses from [what was ultimately to become] Tanya, in the year 5542 (1782). When he repeated this, in 5550 (1790), the effects of this prosecution escalated for three years – until my mother substituted for him and passed away on the third of Tishrei 5553 (1792),15 and he risked his life to compile the Tanya, the Written Law of the teachings of Chabad Chassidus. His very soul remained thus endangered until 5559 (1798), when his body too was under threat, and he underwent deathly suffering for 53 days, corresponding to the 53 chapters of Tanya.

“And by virtue of his Divine service, it was granted him that this holy work (תַּנְיָא), which comprises the same letters as אֵיתָן (‘mighty’), would arouse the might of the soul16 in whoever studied it, and would fortify him in his service of G‑d.”

* * *

Considerable light is enwrapped in this talk. A great deal may be learned from it, even though its light is in the primal state in which it is still contained in the luminary. (Those who study Chassidus17are familiar with the distinction between (a) light that issues from a luminary and illuminates the space of the universe, and (b) light that is still contained within the luminary.) And the main thing that one can learn from this talk is a lesson in self-sacrifice for the sake of tangible Divine service.

The [Alter] Rebbe’s tangible Divine service18 entails exerting an influence on chassidim, both on their souls and on their bodies. As far as the activity that affects their souls is concerned, his function is to elicit [Divine] compassion, so that chassidim will become spiritually sensitized in their Torah study and in their prayer. And as far as their bodies are concerned, the Rebbe arouses [Divine] compassion on their physical brains and hearts so that they should serve their respective functions – so that the brain will apprehend a Divine concept, and the heart will awaken in the love and awe of G‑d.

Such is the tangible Divine service of a comprehensive soul,19 and for this avodah the bearer of such a soul undergoes not potential, but actual self-sacrifice.

18. A word – even a movement – of the [Alter] Rebbe leaves an imprint in all the worlds. At the very spot where the Rebbe settled in on the eve of Shabbos when he was being taken from Liozna to Petersburg,20 and there said the words, צְוָחִין אַף עַקְתִין, a Jewish village was later founded. By spending a Shabbos there, the Rebbe set in motion a process of beirur just as Yosef did in Egypt, so that Yaakov Avinu and his sons would then be able to refine and elevate the sparks of holiness embedded there. This is what the Alter Rebbe did in a general way, enabling the Jews who later lived in the place where he had been to continue the process.

The name of the place is recorded in my notes, but I do not recall whether it was before Nevl or beyond it.21

(As always, I cherish any subject at all that is related to chassidim and Chassidus and the conduct of our forebears, the Rebbeim, so that one cannot help briefly mentioning even something encountered in passing.)

Now the Alter Rebbe stood in extreme danger spiritually as well as physically, as was alluded to above. For antagonism experienced in this world reflects the tone of objections raised in the Heavenly Court. Thus on Rosh HaShanah, the “sons of G‑d”22 present themselves there as prosecutors and demand that judgment be passed. This demand is expressed at a variety of levels. For example, it may be directed at one of the possible levels at which an individual may have transgressed. In the case of tzaddikim, it may point out that considering their spiritual plane, they should have related more closely to This World; or it may be directed at those tzaddikim who serve G‑d with self-sacrifice and thereby help their contemporaries and successive generations too in their Divine service. The latter charge was that leveled in the Heavenly Court against the Alter Rebbe, and from this derived the antagonism that he experienced in This World. Yet even at the time of all this opposition, his holy power nevertheless stood by him, enabling him to prevail over the kelipah and to subdue it.

* * *

As a man, Czar Alexander I was upright and just. Though his benevolent policy towards the Jews corroded in the course of his reign, he was still better natured than his brother Nicholas, who was cruel and depraved by nature, and fanatical in his faith.

On one of the last days of the Alter Rebbe’s imprisonment in the Peter-Paul Fortress,23 he was being escorted from the interrogators’ chamber to his cell. Nicholas, then a boy, was playing in the courtyard with one of his fellow princelings. True to his nature, he was never without a whip in his hand. Catching sight of the Alter Rebbe he raised it suddenly in order to terrify him. The Alter Rebbe turned his eyes at him sharply, with the result that his hand faltered and lost hold of the whip. He lowered his eyes and his head drooped, and he told his tutor that he had been so terrified of the prisoner’s gaze that his heart had grown faint within him.

At the time of the coronation of that same Nicholas, my great-grandfather the Tzemach Tzedek said that his grandfather the Alter Rebbe used to accomplish with a look what his saintly colleagues would accomplish with speech; the effect, moreover, was more intense, reflecting the superiority of sight over speech.

Working through Divine Providence, “the Almighty creates the remedy before the malady.”24 This can be palpably observed in every sphere, public and private. The fact that as a boy Nicholas had to be playing in the courtyard at the very time that the Alter Rebbe was being taken past, and the ensuing episode about the look that made the threatening whip fall to the ground, at the same time dealing a blow to evil at large, – here is an instance of how in the public sphere, “the Almighty creates the remedy before the malady.” Had He not done so, our people would not have been able to survive the severe trials that Nicholas was to decree upon us. With his look, the Alter Rebbe shattered the power of Nicholas’s regnal scepter, just as Yosef, by mentioning the Name of G‑d, weakened a basic element in the kelipah of Pharaoh’s rule.

19. The anthology entitled HaYom Yom sets out the passage of Tanya to be studied every day, and today’s reading, part of ch. 41, begins וְהִנֵה – “Furthermore, even in the case of an individual who even in his mind and thought feels no fear or shame.... “

As was explained above, the trial to which the Alter Rebbe was submitted by Heaven (on account of the charges pressed in the Heavenly Court against the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov), and his sacrifice of soul and body for the sake of the teachings of Chabad Chassidus, both culminated in harsh imprisonment and deathly suffering. Moreover, the days of his imprisonment corresponded in number to the chapters of Tanya. Accordingly, the passages that we are studying from today until we complete the first part of Tanya are the [last] thirteen chapters for which the Alter Rebbe endured the mortal torment of his last thirteen days in the fortress.

(When I say “we are studying,” I refer to all those who are fortunate enough to actively fulfill all the facets of the mission (and this includes the above-mentioned daily study) that is passed on by me to the generation that is undergoing the birthpangs that precede the Coming of Mashiach – and may G‑d grant that we be privileged to witness it in the very near future.)

As is well known, the last twelve or thirteen days of the Alter Rebbe’s incarceration in the Peter-Paul Fortress were the time of bitterest anguish for him. It was during this period that his interrogators persecuted him with endless questions on themes such as: What is a Jew? What is Gimmel-alef-tes?25What is it that binds the Jewish people to Him, and what is it that binds Him to the Jewish people? So intensely did they torment him, that when he heard their questions, couched as they were in vulgar terms, his heart was torn,26 and tears ran down his face. Yet he was obliged to furnish reasoned answers to them all, in a way that could be grasped by the earthy minds of his chief interrogators.

One of their questions concerned a statement of the Midrash on the words, אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה אֶת מֹשֶׁה וְאֶת אַהֲרֹן – “G‑d Who made Moshe and Aharon.”27 On this phrase the Midrash comments, “Moshe and Aharon who ‘made’ G‑d.” One can just imagine in what manner and in what language an earthbound mind can interpret a concept so ethereal and spiritual.

The Alter Rebbe explained them how the Midrash expounds this verse, namely: The holy faculties that G‑d granted Moshe and Aharon, empowering them to prevail over natural phenomena so that with a mere movement of the hand water was transformed to blood, and so too with the other plagues in Egypt, – these were the very faculties they utilized to disseminate a knowledge of G‑dliness, demonstrating palpably that G‑d is the Creator and Guide of the universe and of all that it contains.

Chapters 41 to 51 of Tanya reflect the answer to the focal question: What is Gimmel-alef-tes, what is a Jew, and what is their connection?

In these chapters the Alter Rebbe explains three subjects: (a) the manner of Divine service characteristic of a son;28 (b) Divine service inspired by a love of G‑d;29 and (c) Divine service prompted by the awe (or fear) of G‑d.30 This is no mere explanation. It is also a demand that the subject of his explanation be translated into actual, practical avodah.

Though the Alter Rebbe does express a demand for the first two kinds of avodah, he does not do so intensely. When it comes to the third kind of avodah, however, the Alter Rebbe is insistent that every individual can and must engage in the kind of Divine service that is generated by awe.

This kind of Divine service can be carried out through self-subordination to the Heavenly yoke. And indeed, the Alter Rebbe demands that one should experience at least the kind of awe that is “like the ox on which one first places a yoke in order to make it useful to the world.”31 And just as a seed sown in the ground sprouts into a yield far greater than itself, so too does self-subordination to the Heavenly yoke produce a generous growth.

At this point the Rebbe appealed eloquently for “ever more yoke and ever more avodah,”and concluded: “And when the Alter Rebbe demands, he certainly demands!”

One of those at the table asked: “What meaning is there to such demands?”

The Rebbe’s answer follows.

Such a demand helps an individual by giving him the strength to make his actual, practical avodah conform with the Alter Rebbe’s expectation. Similarly it is written, רְאֵה נָתַתִּי לְפָנֶיךָ הַיּוֹם אֶת הַחַיִּיםוְאֶת הַטּוֹב וְאֶת הַמָּוֶת וְאֶת הָרַע – “Behold, I have placed before you this day life and good, and death and evil,”32 and the passage concludes, וּבָחַרְתָּ בַחַיִּים – “Choose life!”33 And in Chassidus34it is explained that the very fact that this final phrase is written helps a man choose life. Here, too, the Alter Rebbe’s demand in itself gives help to those who engage in avodah.

20. My father once said: “When an ordinary Jew says the word Gimmel-alef-tes, that is the voice of Atzmus, G‑d’s essential Being. When, however, a Torah scholar says that word, this is a question of Sheimos, the holy Names of G‑d – and one must be very careful about saying one of those.”

21. The greatest maskilim have not been able to make the journey as far as chapter 42 of Tanya, while baalei avodah have managed to get through all 53 chapters.

22. Studying a line of Tanya leaves its mark not only in the spiritual plane, but in one’s material life too.

23. My father once said that when he is in solitude on the other side of a locked door and studies Likkutei Torah, he apprehends35 Atzmus.

24. Once at yechidus the Rebbe Maharash explained my father the meaning36 of עַיִן רוֹאָה וְאֹזֶן שׁוֹמַעַת – “an eye that sees and an ear that hears.”37 “An ear that hears” means the ability to hear the Divine utterance, אָנֹכִי ה' אֱלֹקֶיךָ – “I am the L‑rd your G‑d.”38 For from that moment, at the Giving of the Torah, when G‑d pronounced those words, they remain suspended in the atmosphere of the universe. One therefore needs to cultivate “an ear that hears” – the ability to hear that utterance with the faculties of one’s soul. Likewise, “an eye that sees” is a spiritual eye that palpably sees the word of G‑d.

This teaching supplied my father with two months’ avodah.

25. Those were altogether different times in Lubavitch, and Lubavitch was a different place. True it is that time and place do not (G‑d forbid) alter the Torah and its commandments, which are constant, except insofar as certain mitzvos are peculiar to the Holy Land or to certain times. Nevertheless, time and place do affect avodah in general and ovdim in particular.

The main difference between the time and place of bygone days and the time and place of today lies in the atmosphere of then and now. In those days, the atmosphere on all sides was refined; today, the atmosphere on all sides is generally foul. In those days, even in the big cities and certainly in the smaller townships, most Jews went to daven with a minyan three times a day. All the common folk, craftsmen and businessmen, were members of a group that together read Tehillim or studied the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch or Chayei Adam; they listened to a lesson in Ein Yaakov between Minchah and Maariv, and to Midrash and Pirkei Avos on Shabbos. Likewise, whoever had studied somewhat belonged to a study circle in Mishnayos or the Shas. As a result, the letters of the Torah and the prayers and the Tehillim refined the very atmosphere.

Nowadays, however, many folk are poverty-stricken in Torah letters. Many of our people are steeped in the letters of profitless prattle, and some in the letters of objectionable and forbidden speech, whether falsehood, talemongering or slander. As a result, the atmosphere is generally foul.

As to the members of the group sponsored by Machne Yisrael for the study of Mishnayos by heart, may G‑d grant them success in refining the atmosphere.39

26. It just has to be said: Whatever nook that you turn to in Tanya, you see the Alter Rebbe’s Divinely-inspired love of his fellow Jew. In today’s passage, for example, the Alter Rebbe discusses the kind of individual “who even in his mind and thought feels no fear or shame, on account of the limited grade of his soul.” Nevertheless the Alter Rebbe, that Divinely-inspired lover of his fellow Jew, perceives a distinctive virtue in that man’s avodah, and concludes that in fact he too is at the level of the awe of Heaven. He adds, moreover, that even this kind of individual can arrive at the level of avodas ben, the loving manner of Divine service characteristic of a son.

27. The subject of one’s avodah ought to be – oneself. Before his bar-mitzvah my father studied Orach Chaim, and diligently refined every organ so that it would fulfill its functions according to the law.40

28. My father was exceedingly particular about the meticulous practice of his avodah. Any respect in which he enhanced the observance of a mitzvah was not only remote from ostentation: it was so imperceptible that one would need to exert oneself in the extreme in order to detect its existence.

[One such hiddur, by way of illustration:] For several years I observed that on Pesach my father did not pass his fingers over his lips after mayim acharonim, and I wondered at this. I later realized that the explanation lay in the fact that he was particularly careful when it came to shruyah, and there could have been crumbs of matzah shmurah on his lips. (As is known, he would eat matzah shmurah only with “shmurah-milk,” or with wine that was known to be undiluted with water.)

Though one cannot (G‑d forbid) compare oneself to him and imitate him – he was, after all, the bearer of a comprehensive soul – one should nevertheless learn from his ways.