Introduction
In the original manuscript of Tanya, this chapter was absent. The author wrote it later, after deciding to go to print, and inserted it as chapter 32. The choice was obviously deliberate: In Hebrew, every number spells a word. Thirty-two spells heart. This chapter was meant to be the heart of the Tanya.

Nevertheless, the opening was adapted to follow the three chapters before. Those chapters provide advice for those who just can't get inspired—no matter how much they study, ponder and pray. The counsel is simple: You think too highly of yourself—of your "body-self." Your soul is beautiful, but that's not the self with which you identify. It is the material-pleasure oriented, impulse-driven, self-centered self. Put that body-self in its place, and your G‑dly soul will shine through.

From that rejection of materialism, the author finds a clear pathway to love.


Glossary for this chapter:
Sitra Achra: Literally, "the other side." There are only two sides: One side lets the truth of G‑d's oneness shine through, the other opposes it; one side tells you—or at least admits—that there is nothing else but Him, and the other side denies it. See chapter six.

Chapter 32
Let's say you have accomplished that which we just discussed—you despise the body-self and all you celebrate is the joy of the soul alone. Now you have a direct, easy route to fulfilling the mitzvah of loving another Jew as yourself. And this love will be towards every Jew, great and small.

You see, since you despise the body-self, obviously that will not be the critical factor in your relationship with another Jew. That leaves only your soul and spirit—and who can know how great and how high is the soul and the spirit of another Jew in their root and their source in the living G‑d?

Especially when you consider that all souls are matching and that we all have one Father. That is why all Jews are called brothers—because they literally are brothers at the root of their souls in G‑d's oneness. It is only their body-selves that differentiate them.

It turns out that those who make their body-self their principal concern and provide their soul only a background role can never experience true love and brotherhood. Whatever love they experience will be conditional.

Hillel the Elder had this in mind when he said that by fulfilling this mitzvah you have "the entire Torah, all of it—and the rest is commentary..." How could this be? Because the basis of the entire Torah at its very root is a twofold dynamic: First of all, the act of picking up the soul and raising its status over the body-self, higher and yet higher until it reaches the core root level of all existence—which, as we explained, is the necessary condition to fulfillment of this mitzvah.

And secondly, to draw inward the Infinite Light within the community of Israel. That means into the source of all Jewish souls (as we will explain later) so that they are rendered in a state of "one within One." This cannot happen, however, when there is division among the souls, G‑d forbid. In the language of the Zohar, "G‑d does not dwell in a blemished place." And as we say in our prayers, "Bless us, our Father, all of us as one in the light of Your presence." Elsewhere, we will provide more explanation.


What about the statement in the Talmud that if you see your colleague sinning you must hate him, and also tell his teacher so that he should hate him as well?

That's talking about someone who is your peer, who learns Torah and does all the mitzvahs. He did something that he should have realized is wrong and you rebuked him for it, as the Torah instructs you, "Rebuke, you shall rebuke your comrade." The word for comrade used here is "amitecha." Who is amitecha? The Talmud tells us that this means those people who are with you in Torah and mitzvahs. Nevertheless, this friend of yours still has not repented from his sin. This is how the situation is described in Sefer Chareidim.

Let's say, however, this person is not your comrade in Torah and you are not close with him. In that case, Hillel the Elder instructs you to "be of the disciples of Aaron: love peace...love those that were created and attract them to Torah." He was speaking of those who are far from G‑d's Torah and from being observant Jews—which is why he calls them just "those that were created." He was saying that you must pull in these people with thick cords of love, and perhaps, with all this effort, perhaps you will attract them to Torah and to the service of G‑d. Perhaps yes, perhaps not. Whatever the outcome, you have not lost the reward for showing love to a fellow Jew.

This love also applies to those who are close to you—the ones that you have rebuked and yet have not repented of their sins. Yes, it is a mitzvah to hate them, but it is also a mitzvah to love them—and both in all earnestness: Hatred due to the evil within them and love due to that aspect of good that is buried within them—meaning the spark of G‑dliness within them that vitalizes their G‑dly soul.

Aside from this, you need to inspire your heart towards compassion for this G‑dly soul. It is in exile within the evil of the sitra achra that dominates it in those that do wrong. Once you awaken that compassion, it can overwhelm the hatred and stir up the love. Think of the interpretation given to the verse, "To Jacob who redeemed Abraham." Jacob is the quality of compassion and Abraham the quality of love, and compassion redeems love from within the hatred.1