Igeret HaKodesh: Epistle 27 - Part 1

Part (a)

The Alter Rebbe wrote this letter of condolence to his Chasidim in 1788 after the passing of his colleague and mentor, the saintly R. Mendele of Vitebsk (or Horodok), who had settled in the Holy Land in 1777. It concludes by rousing them to the mitzvah of tzedakah in general and particularly of maintaining the family of R. Mendel.

The Alter Rebbe is here addressing Chasidim who in the past had benefited from their connection with the tzaddik both through his advice and blessings on material matters and through his guidance in matters of the spirit. He comforts them, therefore, with the teaching of the Zohar that a tzaddik is to be found in this world after his passing to a greater extent than while he was physically alive. His disciples are thus able to receive his guidance in their Torah study and Divine service to an even greater degree than before. Materially, too, the tzaddik protects this world after his passing even more effectively than he did during his lifetime.

Likkutei Haggahot on the Tanya likens the opening three terms of address to the three Scriptural terms of endearment successively addressed by a king to his beloved daughter in the parable cited by the Midrash5: “My beloved” recalls the paternal love expressed by the phrase “my daughter”; “my brethren” recalls the fraternal love expressed by the phrase “my sister”; and “my friends” recalls the filial love expressed by the phrase “my mother.” The further phrase “as my soul” indicates the love that one has for his own life, as in the phrase of the Zohar, “he called her by his own name,”6 while “and so forth” indicates a love even greater—a bond with the ultimate soul-level of yechidah.

According to the above interpretation of Likkutei Haggahot, the Alter Rebbe’s blessing that “the Name of G‑d be upon you” is intended to elicit a transcendent mode of Divine benevolence while the blessing “may you live forever” is intended to draw down this transcendent benevolence so that it can be internalized within its finite recipients. (Or, in the terms of Chasidut, it is intended “to be mamshich the makif into the pnimi.”)

If this simply means that others have remained alive after his passing, what are we to make of the expression “left life”? Did he leave them life? Surely, the life they are living is their own.

The Alter Rebbe will explain below that the idiom means quite literally that the tzaddik left something of his own life to others. For the true core of a tzaddik’s life is not fleshly; rather, it comprises the spiritual qualities of faith, awe, and love of G‑d. When a tzaddik departs from this world, he leaves over his faith, fear, and love to all those who are bound to him so that they will be able to receive even more than they received from him while he lived his physical life together with them. All three qualities are alluded to as “life” in the verses enumerated below:

As the Alter Rebbe will soon say, disciples receive their influence from the soul-level of the tzaddik, which is called ruach. In addition, as explained in Likkutei Haggahot, those disciples who are also [as close as] children receive their influence from the higher soul-level called neshamah.

On a less literal level, the Hebrew word lefanim (here translated “formerly”) can also be understood to mean “to the inwardness”; i.e., the tzaddik infused and integrated this faith, fear, and love into the innermost core of his disciples, this being—

Or, less literally, “a tzaddik’s labor for the living,” to provide them with life. At any rate, at the time of his passing, the tzaddik bequeaths the fruit of his lifelong labors—

This alludes to the chayah of the tzaddik, the soul-level which is even loftier than the soul-level called neshamah, and which infuses the followers of the tzaddik with a transcendent mode of life-force which enables them to withstand challenges from non-Jewish (i.e., unholy) sources.

To the extent of each individual’s bond with the tzaddik, so does the tzaddik share with him his ruach and his faith, fear, and love of G‑d.

With regard to the above sentence, the Rebbe notes that the Zohar (Part II, p. 215a, and Part III, end of Parashat Kedoshim) distinguishes between a “path” (derech) and a “way” (orach). “Path” signifies a well-trodden track which the tzaddik has cleared for common use while “way” suggests a trail that is presently being blazed according to the spiritual needs of the individual’s Divine service. The Rebbe refers the reader to Likkutei Torah, Shir Hashirim (12b).

The reason that the Alter Rebbe characterizes the tzaddik’s life as consisting of faith, fear, and love is that (as explained in the very first epistle in this series) faith is the underpinning, the “loins” that support the entire body of a man’s Divine service, and this finds expression in his fear and love of G‑d, his “arms.”

Surely, this should only apply to the higher worlds. How can this be true of this world? How is he to be found here to a greater extent than while he was alive?

As the Gemara states,25 “Today is the time to do them; tomorrow is the time to receive their reward.” Man’s primary task in this world is the actual fulfillment of the commandments while the receipt of rewards or anything akin to rewards belongs to “tomorrow,” to the World to Come.

In any event, even in this “world of action,”

As will soon be explained, this refers to the illumination that is drawn down into the sefirah of malchut in the World of Atzilut, which is known as “the field which G‑d has blessed.” The Torah and mitzvot of the tzaddik draw down into the sefirah of malchut an additional flow of Divine energy from the six higher sefirot (collectively known as za of Atzilut). This current arouses within his disciples thoughts of repentance and good deeds, which the Alter Rebbe calls “successive generations of offshoots”—harvests of the second generation.

The Alter Rebbe now provides a deeper understanding of the above letter.

As mentioned above, the expression is problematic: surely, he has not left anyone life which was not their own. The Alter Rebbe will now explain in what sense it may truly be said that the departed tzaddik left his surviving disciples something of his own life.

These he possesses not only for himself but transmits to his disciples as well.

In Scripture, we find that faith, awe, and love are each termed “life.”

Hence, when the term “life” is used to describe chesed, it applies to love as well. To sum up: Faith in G‑d, and the awe and love of Him, are thus all referred to as “life.”

At any level, each world serves as an antecedent (a “cause”) to the lesser world (the “effect”) which it brings into being.

The tzaddik’s utterances and thoughts are able to reveal no more than a minor ray of his attributes.

The three attributes, now unbounded by the body, are in the Garden of Eden, a spiritual space whose atmosphere surrounds every individual in this world, as the Alter Rebbe will presently explain.

To summarize: After the tzaddik’s passing, his power and his faith, his awe, and his love are not limited by his bodily vessel and by the physical world in general but are in the Garden of Eden, which is to be found in this world as well.

Rather, some trace of it always remains in its original lowly location. Moreover, as noted above, the Lower Garden of Eden is to be found even in the lowly World of Asiyah.

For this aspect has detached itself from the essential aspect of the ruach of the tzaddik; its entire purpose is to be vested within his disciples.

And when this degree of love is present, the three attributes of faith, fear, and love are then drawn down.

So, too, the disciple’s heartfelt love for his master draws down these three attributes—

As explained by an unnamed elder Chasid quoted in Likkutei Haggahot, “great preparation” refers to the preparation of the soul; “intense effort” refers to the toil of the body.

As explained by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe,40 “Only if he will prepare himself toward his G‑d with a great preparation and intense effort” means that every man’s task is to vest this faith, awe, and love within his physical everyday life in his observance of Torah and mitzvot.

It would also seem from the continuation of his explanation that the meaning of “If you have labored…, believe it” is that the individual then gains a great deal more than what he actually labored for, very much like an unexpected find. Through his toil, “successive generations of offshoots” are bound up with their source within the “essential aspect of [the master’s] ruach (i.e., his essential faith, awe, and love that relate to himself and not to his disciples) [which] is raised, elevation beyond elevation, to become absorbed in his neshamah, which is in the Higher Garden of Eden, in the supreme worlds.”

The disciples of the tzaddik thus benefit not only from his ruach insofar as it remained in the Lower Garden of Eden but also from his essential ruach that was incorporated within his neshamah that is found in the Higher Garden of Eden. Surely, this is a gain that far outstrips the individual’s effort.

This level of energy, as Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak concludes, is not integrated internally within his disciples but merely encompasses them in a transcendent manner. Nevertheless, it is so powerful that it enables even their “successive generations of offshoots” to produce unending generations of further offshoots.

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak also states there that by toiling in the path that was handed down by their master, disciples cause his spiritual life of faith, awe, and love to descend into the practicalities of their own Divine service, Torah study, and observance of the mitzvot. Through these labors, moreover, even the further disciples who are his “successive generations of offshoots” become connected with their source in the constantly ascending ruach and neshamah of the tzaddik, who is in the Higher Garden of Eden.

For, as will be explained below in Epistle 28, all of man’s lifelong labors and attainments are revealed from their former state of concealment and shine forth at the time of his passing.

His Divine service thus implants lofty illuminations above, which are revealed and descend below at the time of his passing.

Since the illuminations themselves grew directly out of the lights implanted by the tzaddik, the good deeds which these illuminations in turn inspire are its offshoots of the second generation.

As with Moses, so, too, with the tzaddikim who are his successors: by means of his Torah and spiritual service, every tzaddik illumines successive generations of offshoots—his direct disciples and in turn their disciples, and so on—when they follow his teachings in matters of Torah and spiritual service.

Addendum

The Alter Rebbe spoke above of those who benefit from the gifts that a tzaddik continues to bequeath after his passing, from his ruach that remained in the Lower Garden of Eden. There he does not say “all his disciples” but only “among his disciples.” Moreover, he adds that the extent of the spiritual bequest received by each Chasid varies “according to the level of his bond and closeness to [the tzaddik], during his lifetime and after his passing, out of an abounding love.”

This is so because there, the Alter Rebbe is speaking of their receiving from him the sublime spiritual attributes of faith, awe, and love. Hence, since (as the Alter Rebbe concludes there) “anything spiritual is elicited only by means of an abounding love,” it follows that a bequest of such stature is drawn down only to those disciples whose bond to him was particularly close.

Here, however, at the close of the epistle, the Alter Rebbe speaks of the degree of illumination which radiates “over them from above,” encompassing and transcending them. This degree, which “instills in their hearts thoughts of repentance and good deeds,” radiates “over all his disciples,” upon all those who may be considered his disciples because they “became servants of G‑d through his Torah and worship.”

It could be argued that the former kind of benefaction, that which is dependent upon being bound with great love, refers specifically to those who were the tzaddik’s disciples during his lifetime; it is they who are close to him both “during his lifetime and after his passing.” By contrast, the kind of benefaction which is transcendent, as opposed to integrated within them, also applies to those who became the tzaddik’s disciples after his passing, in the sense that they drew closer to G‑d as a result of his teachings. These disciples are the successive generations of his offshoots in the same way that the radiance of Moses continues after his passing to illuminate generation after generation.