Shaar Hayichud: Introduction - Part 2

The heading written by the Alter Rebbe reads as follows:

This mention of his sources echoes the words of the Alter Rebbe in the title page to Part One of the Tanya. Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, notes in one of his talks that “books” here traditionally refers to the works of the Maharal and the Shaloh, and “teachers” to the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid of Mezritch.

This first paragraph contains both the verse beginning Shema Yisrael4 and the sentence beginning Baruch shem.5 As explained in the Zohar,6 these quotations refer respectively to yichuda ilaah (the higher level of perception of G‑d’s Unity) and yichuda tataah (the lower level of perception of G‑d’s Unity). It is around this theme that Part Two of the Tanya revolves.

Indeed, it would seem that the very opposite should be the case: when the child matures, he should forsake his childish path in favor of the path of truth. What possible merit could there be in not departing from it?

The performance of Torah study and mitzvot in thought, speech, and deed is rooted in and founded upon one’s love and fear of G‑d. The awe of G‑d enables the Jew to properly observe the prohibitive commandments while the love of Him makes it possible for the Jew to perform the positive commandments with inner feeling,9 as the Alter Rebbe now goes on to explain.

“As will be explained in their proper place” refers to chs. 4 and 41 in the first part of the Tanya. This reference, as the Rebbe points out, corroborates the tradition handed down by chassidim that the Alter Rebbe originally intended to reverse the current order, with this second part of the Tanya appearing first, as Part I, and the fifty-three chapters of the first part becoming Part II.

Since a child is to be educated to observe both prohibitive and positive commandments, it follows that his love of G‑d, as the root and fundament of all positive commands,14 must be such that it serves as the springboard for all the positive commandments that are performed as a result of education. We must therefore say that there exists an inferior and transient degree of love that serves as the root and foundation for those mitzvot that are performed as a result of education, a degree of love distinct from the superior level that motivates an adult. Nevertheless, as shall soon be explained, this lower level of love, too—a love which is “according to the child’s way”—possesses certain permanent qualities that make it desirable that “even as he grows old, he will not (and indeed should not) depart from it.”

The Alter Rebbe now proceeds to resolve this seeming anomaly. (First, however, he describes the superior degree of love that cannot be created: one can merely provide the conditions for its revelation.) As to the above anomaly, he now explains that there exists a manner of love that is indeed created—by meditating upon those concepts that arouse it. An active verb such as “doing” suits this manner of love since it is experienced as a result of one’s own doing.

Since this love is intrinsic to the soul, which is “truly a part of G‑d above,” this love need not—and indeed cannot—be created at all. It merely needs to be revealed. But how can such a passionate yearning become revealed in one’s corporeal, fleshly heart?

Here, the Divinely appointed task of the G‑dly soul comes to the fore: to rectify the animal soul and refine the body by means of the rational soul’s comprehension of G‑dliness. For the G‑dly soul’s own intellect and comprehension are too lofty to affect the body. The rational soul, however, embodies man’s natural quality of intellect and as such is close to the physical body. The rational soul comprehends G‑dliness in such a manner that it is able to cause Form to master Matter—to overmaster the body and harness its corporeality. When it actually does so:

It will be aflame not with a love created through contemplation but with a natural love whose revelation was barred by the grossness of the body. Now, with the mastery and refinement of the body, the soul’s innate love for G‑d can at last be revealed.

In this instance, the delight is part of the love and the divine service itself rather than a reward for the divine service, as is sometimes the case.

To serve G‑d with delight of this order is the privilege of tzaddikim alone. For though the above-described love emanates from the G‑dly soul which is possessed by every single Jew, for which reason one would expect everyone to be able to feel it, it is nevertheless not experienced by all. The reason for this—as the Alter Rebbe goes on to explain—is that one’s physical grossness impedes its revelation. And clearing this hurdle demands prodigious effort.

This is the soul-level whose divine service is intellective; as the verse states, “The Divine neshamah shall provide discernment.”17 Only this manner of divine service can subjugate and refine man’s gross corporeality so that he is able to delight in G‑d with wondrous bliss.

There, the author explains how the above level of love is specifically related to the soul-level of neshamah.

In sum, it is clear that this love cannot be “created” by man. He can only enable it to be revealed within him by refining himself—but to such an extraordinary degree that it is not attainable by all.

The Zohar explains that since G‑d is the Jew’s soul and thus his true life, the Jew loves and desires Him.21

For example, he may reflect on the manner in which G‑d fills all worlds and encompasses all worlds and on how all creatures are as naught before Him.

These two phrases refer respectively to concepts that are within the reach of “positive knowledge” and to truths that lie beyond it and are perceptible only through “negative knowledge”; i.e., though one may not understand such a thing itself, he may understand how it is not subject to the restrictions of a lesser order.

In terms of comprehending G‑dliness, this means to say that one will at least understand that those levels of G‑dliness that are beyond the range of his intellect are not subject to the limitations inherent within created and emanated worlds and beings. This “negative knowledge”—in the Alter Rebbe’s words, “even beyond”—is also considered to be a quasi state of comprehension.

When one has meditated in detail upon G‑d’s greatness and His tremendous love for the Jewish people:

Just as one person’s love for another awakens a loving response in the other’s heart, so, too, our contemplation of the ways in which G‑d has manifested His love toward us will inspire within us a love for Him,

All the above inevitably leads to the first verse in the following chapter, namely:

Here, then, is the answer to the above query as to how it is possible to “do” or to create the spiritual emotion of love:

However, if the verse is in fact referring to the kind of love that is created through contemplation, should it not first command one to contemplate? Indeed so, the Alter Rebbe now goes on to say:

It might seem that to command a person to experience love would be either fruitless or superfluous. Not so, however, with regard to the kind of love that is born of contemplation. Here, one can indeed be given a command:

In the World to Come, the righteous bask in the rays of the Divine Presence: they delight in their perception of G‑dliness. And it is this delight that tzaddikim enjoy in this world when they serve G‑d with love.

The Alter Rebbe now goes on to explain what special quality lies in the lesser manner of service of “educating the child according to his way” so that “even when he grows [spiritually] older, he will not depart from it.” It is true that the lower level of love, that which is engendered by meditation, is a stage in one’s educational preparation, so to speak. Compared with the loftier level of essential and constant love that is revealed only within tzaddikim, it is a child’s service, within the reach of all. Yet, there is something in it that must be retained even when one has graduated to the “adult” manner of love of G‑d.

For it is possible that the superior kind of love will not always be manifest even when one is on the level of a tzaddik. Particularly so, since his mandatory advances from level to level demand that before reaching a higher rung, he must first release his hold of the previous rung; otherwise, it will encumber his ascent.

When the tzaddik is bereft of his own level of love, he then nourishes his divine service with a resource that harks back to his spiritual childhood—with a love born of meditation, the lower level of love in which he was schooled before he attained the state of tzaddik.

Even a tzaddik can (as it were) fall from his level and then regain his stature. There thus exists a certain interval of time during which he does not maintain his higher level of love for G‑d.

This phrase not only means that man is obliged to be ever reaching for ever greater heights, it means, moreover, that his newly attained level is infinitely more elevated than his previous level.

When one is constantly on the same level, or even when one advances in finite stages from one comparable level to the next, there is no need to abandon one’s former level before establishing one’s foothold on the next; on the contrary, one’s former position may well help one to take the next step upward. When one is truly mobile, however, climbing from one level to an infinitely higher one, his previous level—which is finite compared to the level he is about to attain—actually hinders his progress. Indeed, if he aspires to mature to a more exalted spiritual mindset, he must first purge himself of his previous one.35

For if his new level is merely within range of the first, he is essentially fixated at the same level.

Just as then, his love of G‑d was born of contemplation, so, too, now, this lower level of love is the root of his divine service.

Not “when he is old” but “as he grows old.” This implies an ongoing, lifelong climb from level to level. Yet even when he has risen to the dizziest heights of love for G‑d, he will yet have occasion to revert to the path of his youth—to the lower, more measured level of love that is born of meditation.

That is to say, pure faith in G‑d’s Unity is the starting point and foundation of one’s meditation on yichuda ilaah (“higher-level Unity”) and yichuda tataah (“lower-level Unity”), and this meditation in turn leads to the love and fear of Him.

There are truths that transcend intellect, and that can be perceived only through faith. At the same time, utilizing faith for something that can be comprehended is making use of the wrong faculty: intellect must grasp that which is within the reach of intellect, and faith must be used to apprehend that which transcends intellect. When within belief there is a mingling of the rational and the superrational—when truths that are accessible to comprehension are confused with things that defy comprehension—such belief is not “pure,” for pure belief deals only with that which transcends rationality. It is only when one utilizes his intellect to comprehend all that is subject to comprehension and his power of faith is then utilized solely for that which defies intellect that such faith can then be deemed “pure faith.”

Since both categories are represented in the subject of G‑d’s Unity and Oneness, it becomes necessary to explain those aspects of the subject that are capable of being comprehended so that one’s faith will be “pure”—relating only to those matters that entirely transcend comprehension.