1. [The Rebbe asked someone:] Where are they up to in the Tikkun?1[The Rebbe went on to say:] It would be a good idea to arrange the reading in an organized fashion, as was the custom in Lubavitch. The older students can be relied upon to look after themselves, but for the younger ones the reading ought to be organized. Once, after all, the Tikkun ought to be read. I’m not talking about following the practice of Reb Hillel [of Paritch], who used to read the Tikkun on both nights of Shavuos. My father used to read it a second time after Shavuos, on his way to the summer resort.2
2. In the days when the Alter Rebbe was still both a disciple and a colleague3 of Reb Menachem Mendel of Horodok,4 the latter used to dispatch him on various missions. One day, when the Alter Rebbe arrived at a certain town, he delivered the following original interpretation [on the non-literal level of derush] of the verse, מָשְׁכֵנִי, אַחֲרֶיךָ נָרוּצָה; הֱבִיאַנִי הַמֶּלֶךְ חֲדָרָיו; נָגִילָה וְנִשְׂמְחָה בָּךְ – “Draw me towards You; we will run and follow You; the King has brought me into His chambers; we will be glad and rejoice in You.”5 (This teaching6 was delivered in the concise style that characterized the Alter Rebbe’s maamarim in the period “before Petersburg.”7)
“Draw me towards You” – this alludes to the Exodus from Egypt;
“we will run and follow You “ – the self-sacrificing faith with which we then followed you at the Splitting of the Sea empowered us to follow You;
“the King has brought me into His chambers” – this alludes to the Giving of the Torah.
The Torah, however, spans many levels, [some of which are beyond the intellectual grasp of the less scholarly]. So what did those ordinary and unlearned folk say? They said:
“We will be glad and rejoice in You.” In the Holy Tongue, the word for “in You” is בָּךְ, which hints at the Torah’s כ"ב (= 22) letters. And in those holy letters, the unlearned folk too rejoice.
That teaching left such an impact that one elder chassid, Reb Baruch by name, used to recall the exact spot on which the Alter Rebbe stood when he delivered it.
3. [Apropos letters:] One of the grandsons of the Tzemach Tzedek was once asked what made his spirit so contrite.
He answered: “Alef-beis! That is, the initial alef of Anochi (‘I am the L‑rd your G‑d’), and the initial beis of Bereishis (‘In the beginning, G‑d created…’).” That was what filled him with deep-seated reverence and awe.
4. In former times, inspired by their awe of Heaven,8 people used to respect the very letters that constitute the Torah. This could be palpably observed even with unlearned folk. When it was time to say a berachah, they would first wash their hands, or at least wipe them in grass or whatever. They were not familiar with the halachic distinction between (a) netilas yadayim [i.e., using a dipper to pour water over one’s hands in a particular way in order to counter ritual impurity] and (b) washing simply to clean one’s hands.9 Nevertheless, the feeling that before saying a berachah one ought to do netilas yadayim was deeply rooted within them.
Once, as a young child, while I was playing outdoors and making a little paper boat, I heard a gardener saying the blessing, Shehakol nih’yah bidvaro, and the awe with which he uttered those words made me shudder. Nowadays, however, such a person doesn’t hear the blessing that he’s saying, nor does the blessing hear him...
5. We’re not talking about the kind of awe of Heaven that results from cerebral meditation on the theme of yesh mei’ayin (i.e., the creation of material existence out of nothing), or on the theme of hashgachah peratis (i.e., specifically-focused Divine Providence).
[At this point someone asked:] What is the difference between these two kinds of meditation?
[The Rebbe answered:] A mistake can be made about any concept. Nevertheless, the concept of yesh mei’ayin is a subtler concept, so a mistake can easily be made, whereas the concept of hashgachah peratis is more palpable.
[The Rebbe now resumed what he had begun to say before the above question was asked:] What we’re talking about is an ordinary awe of Heaven. This may be discerned in one’s attitude to a hiddur mitzvah, that is, in his optional embellishment or punctiliousness in the performance of a mitzvah. A person’s awe of Heaven is discernible not only in matters of “turning away from evil” (i.e., the prohibitive mitzvos) and “doing good” (i.e., the positive mitzvos).10 After all, [as a classic chassidic adage11 expresses it], “What is forbidden – is forbidden. And what is permissible is dispensable.” Rather, what can be an indicator of a person’s awe of Heaven is a hiddur mitzvah, such as the practice of reading Shnayim mikra ve’echad Targum.12 This practice is not explicitly mandated in the Torah.13 Moreover, one may substitute Rashi’s commentary for the Targum translation. Nevertheless, since the Shulchan Aruch states14 that a G‑d-fearing person should read both Targum15 and the commentary of Rashi,16 that is what such a person does.
6. In the week of Parshas Yisro, 5626 (1866), when my father was five years old, he entered the study of his grandfather – my great-grandfather, the Tzemach Tzedek – who asked him, “Is there something new that you learned this week?”
My father answered, “This is the week of the Giving of the Torah!”
The Tzemach Tzedek countered, “But the Torah was given on Shavuos!”
“So what is the difference between them?” my father asked.
“I don’t know,” said the Tzemach Tzedek.
“But you’re a zeide,” said my father, “so you do know! In fact I think that you remember it from then!”
Also present at the time was my grandfather, the Rebbe Maharash, who told his father, “He’s right!”
And the Tzemach Tzedek gave an answer: “The difference is the same as the difference between a king out in the field and a king in his palace.”
Years later, when my father was about eleven years old, he heard an explanation of that answer. (From the age of five, my father’s recollections were clear and orderly, unlike his recollections before that age.)
The explanation that he heard was as follows: “A king in his palace” means that at the Giving of the Torah, G‑d fortified the universe and confirmed the existence of all the worlds, up to the very highest.
7. The Tzemach Tzedek once cited the following statement that the Alter Rebbe had heard from the Maggid of Mezritch: “When we spent Shavuos together with the Rebbe (i.e., the Baal Shem Tov), each of us identified with the verse,17 ‘The heavens were opened, and I saw visions of Divinity.’“ To this the Alter Rebbe had added: “And when we spent Shavuos together with the Rebbe (i.e., the Maggid of Mezritch), we saw and spiritually sensed.”18
[The Tzemach Tzedek went on to say that] R. Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev19 was a profound scholar. He once opened a learned discourse in nigleh, the revealed dimension of the Torah, by citing the words, “Behold, G‑d rides on a swift cloud,”20 [which were seemingly unrelated]. In the Holy Tongue, however, the last two words are עָב [the numerical value of which is 72] and קַל, [the numerical value of which is 130]. Accordingly, R. Levi Yitzchak’s discourse proceeded to raise 72 problematic points, and to solve them with 130 erudite solutions! The Alter Rebbe thereupon analyzed his argumentation in a 400-page dissertation. Nevertheless, he summarized the experience of that discourse by saying that it did not match what he and his peers had seen when they had spent Shavuos together with the Maggid.
“That final statement,” concluded the Tzemach Tzedek, “is true not only of the Maggid, but of all the Rebbeim, and not only in those times, but at all times – but for that one needs to cultivate, within himself, keilim pnimi’im, spiritual sensors.”
8. By spiritual sensors we mean yir’as Shamayim, an awe of Heaven. This means not only separating oneself21 from that which is forbidden and practicing abstinence22 with regard to that which is permitted. Real awe of Heaven means that when a person is at such a level, evil is of no account in his eyes, as if non-existent. Since he is not drawn to evil, the above distinction is immaterial to him: both sides are the same. This is the level of avodah called is’hapcha (lit., “reversal”), a level at which the only question that interests him is, “Is this thing forbidden or is it permitted?”
True, it is stated in Tanya that is’hapcha is an exalted level of avodah.23 Nevertheless, it can be attained by a person who toils in an orderly regimen of avodah. And its aim is to convert material entities into vessels, i.e., receptors, for Elokus.
9. One’s mouth must be clean. Just as one must rinse his mouth before saying the Morning Blessings,24 so too, in order to be able to rejoice with the letters of the Torah, in the spirit of the above teaching on the phrase, “We will be glad and rejoice in You,”25 one’s mouth must be clean. It must not be soiled or mildewed by idle chatter, gossip, and the like. Keeping the mouth clean will enable a person to read a chapter of Tehillim with tears, or to read a chapter of Tehillim in the spirit of the verse,26 “His heart was staunch in the ways of G‑d.”
10. A certain chassid once asked one of the Rebbeim for advice on how to rectify his bodily coarseness. The Rebbe told him that he should take control over his head, because that is the focus of the various senses – sight, hearing, speech – and “the body follows the head.”27 If the mind is monitored, then as a matter of course everything else is monitored, too.
Nowadays, too, one needs to take control over his mind. True, people study, yet nevertheless…
Bottom line: One’s mind must be kept in check.
