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Vol 20.25 - Yud Tet Kislev 2       Spanish French Audio  Video

Hebrew Text:

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Summary:

(5742) Connection between the redemption of the Alter Rebbe to the third day of the week (Tuesday). And to the printing of Tanya - the written Torah of Torat HaChassidut  

 

Translation:

1. The redemption of the Alter Rebbe on Yud-Tes Kislev was on a Tuesday, as he writes in his well-known letter that on:

“On the day in which the words “ki tov” (it was good) were doubly said, on Yud-Tes Kislev . . . while I was reading in the book of Psalms the verse (55:19), ‘He redeemed my soul in peace,’ (Padah B’Shalom) before beginning the following verse, ‘I emerged in peace . . .’ “

Since the Alter Rebbe himself emphasized that his Geulah was on Tuesday that is “the day in which the words “ki tov” were doubly said“, it is simply understood that the essence of the Geulah of Yud-Tes Kislev has a connection to the essence of the third day of the week (Tuesday).

2. One could say that the gist of the explanation is:

It is known that “yafutzu mayanosecha chutza” (יפוצו מעינותיך חוצה) – the spreading of Torat HaChassidut - mainly began “after (the Alter Rebbe’s imprisonment in) Petersburg”, in other words after the Geulah of Yud-Tes Kislev.

Therefore, just as we find by Matan Torah, in general, that it is connection with the number three – and especially with regarding to time: Matan Torah was on the “third day, in the third month”

So too was it by the revelation of Pnimiyut HaTorah on Yud-Tes Kislev, namely that it occurred:

  1. In the month of Kislev, which is the third month from the beginning of the year.
  2. On the third day – on a Tuesday.

One could say that the explanation of this is:

The innovation of Matan Torah is that at that time the decree that:

“The upper worlds (Elyonim) not descend to the lower worlds (Tachtonim) (עליונים לא ירדו לתתתונים); and conversely that the lower worlds (Tachtonim) not ascend to the upper worlds (Elyonim) (תחתונים לא יעלו לעליונים)

was nullified. This accomplished the connection between the “Upper” and “Lower” worlds. This is alluded to in the aspect of “third”.

  • “First” (ראשון) - depicts that (from the very onset) it is only one thing.
  • “Second” (שני) - depicts the aspect of division – two separate things (like before Matan Torah where Upper and Lower were two distinct things)
  • “Third” (שלישי) - depicts the connection of both things together.

Therefore, the aspect of Torah is “peace/Shalom” as Rambam writes that:

“The entire Torah was given in order to make peace in the world”

In addition, Torah is called Shalom since the aspect of Shalom is the connection of two (opposites).

Similarly, this also pertains to the revelation and the spreading of Torat HaChassidut:

Before the Geulah of Yud-Tes Kislev, the wellsprings of Torah were not spread outward. Both the “outside” of the person himself, which this is, beginning with his intellect, as well as the literal “outside”-learning Pnimiyut HaTorah publicly, and spreading it everywhere, even in the most distant places.

The Geulah of Yud-Tes Kislev accomplished the “spreading the wellsprings outward” in a manner of connecting the “Upper” and “Lower” worlds that took place at Matan Torah.

As aforementioned, one could say that this is the reason, or at least one of the reasons that the Alter Rebbe connected his Geulah with the saying of the verse “He redeemed my soul in peace” (Padah B’Shalom). For this is the essence of the aspect of “peace”.

3. With this one can also understand the connection of Yud-Tes Kislev to the aspect of a “double portion of good” (“ki tov”), that the Alter Rebbe precisely writes in his letter. In other words that his redempton was (not coincidentally on the third day of the week, but) “the day in which the words “ki tov” were doubly said“.

The a doubling of the words “it was good” (“ki tov”) on Tuesday shows, as is known, of the doubling of good – “Tov la’shamayim v’Tov la’beriot” — good to Heaven (“Shamayim” i.explained., in matters between man and G‑d) and good to the creations (“Beriot” i.explained. in matters between man and his fellow).

The double good is an aspect of connecting “Upper” and “Lower”– the good is connected and together for heaven and creation.

This double good is especially emphasized in Torat HaChassidut, which demands from a Yid both extremes.

Pnimiyut HaTorah, namely that the Avodah between man and G-d should be at the epitome of loftiness – “Heaven” (meaning being permeated (דורכגענומען) with the wellsprings of Torah)

On the other hand, Chassidut demands the aspect of Ahavat Yisroel (love for a fellow Jew). So much so that it extends to “simple beings” (בריות בעלמא – meaning those who are far from G‑d’s Torah and His service) as the Alter Rebbe explanation at length in Sefer HaTanya Chap. 32

4. Another aspect in this is:

The Avodah of Chassidut is one that is relevant to, and moreover, one that encompasses all Yidden. Both those which are in the level of “Shamayim/heaven” as well as those which are in the level of “Beriot/beings”.

The Alter Rebbe emphasizes, immediately in the title page (שער־בלאט) of sefer HaTanya that “For this thing is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it“. This means that each Yid must know that the aspect of Avodat HaShem is “to you” (אליך), and that it is “very near” (קרוב מאד). As the Alter Rebbe continues immediately in the title page and elaborates in the explanation in his sefer – Sefer HaTanya – how one can accomplish this “in both a lengthy and a short way “(בדרך ארוכה וקצרה).

On the other hand, the Alter Rebbe emphasizes that even one who is already at the level of “Shamayim/heaven”, where this Avodah is already at a level of habit (רגילות) and second-nature (טבע) and he does not endeavor to strive even higher - that he is called “one who does not serve” (לא עבדו). For a Yid must always be a “servant of G-d” (עובד אלקים) – more than his norm.

With this, one forewarns, that even this aspect is “very near to you“. A Yid could think that since he already is at the level of “Shamayim” – why is it demanded from him to strive even higher? To answer this the Alter Rebbe says that even regarding this Avodah, powers are given to accomplish this. So much so that it is “very near” for each Yid.

5. According to the aforementioned explanation in the innovation (at least, one of the main innovations) of Yud-Tes Kislev, one can also understand the connection between the Geulah of Yud-Tes Kislev with Sefer HaTanya:

As is known, the fifty-three days that the Alter Rebbe was imprisoned correspond to the fifty-three chapters of Tanya. And the Geulah of Yud-Tes Kislev was in the merit of the “Two years of vitality in Torah and Avodah which the Tanya added among Chassidim“ (which is why the Alter Rebbe wanted that the Tanya should be printed before Yud-Tes Kislev)

For even though the sefer was printed two years before the Geulah of Yud-Tes Kislev (the Tanya was printed in the year 5557 (1796-תקנ"ז )  and the Geulah was in 5559 (1799 -תקנ״ט), nevertheless the innovation of the Sefer HaTanya (with regard to his other expositions) was connected with the innovation of Yud-Tes Kislev.

One can understand this according to the saying of our Holy Rebbes that the Tanya is “the Written Torah of Torat HaChassidut”.

As is plainly understood, the description “the Written Torah of Torat HaChassidut“ on Sefer HaTanya is not just because the Alter Rebbe wrote it himself,

(Not like his dissertations of Chassidut which he said verbally – and were written down by his students (and similarly the Torah of the Maggid and the Baal Shem Tov which were written only by their students and not by themselves alone))

Rather, because the connection of Sefer HaTanya to the other teachings of Chassidut is similar to the connection of the Written Torah to the Oral Torah, as will be explained.

6. The difference between the Written Torah and the oral Torah is a difference which brings an actual distinction in Halacha in the manner of their study:

  • Regarding the Written Torah, (one fulfills the Mitzvah of Torah study) even if one does not understand what he is saying (אף דלא ידע מאי דקאמר)
  • Whereas regarding the Oral Torah, one must specifically understand the topic.

In other words

  • Regarding the Oral Torah, the primary aspect related to the understanding and comprehension of the topic being studied. However, the precision of the letters and words is not that important.
  • Whereas regarding the Written Torah, each letter must be written precisely, and the main aspect in this is the reading of the letters.

One could say that this is why this aspect was first introduced at Matan Torah. For even though the aspect of Torah study was also before Matan Torah, as it states “From the days of our ancestors, yeshiva (study) never left them“. So much so that, they even had Torah that was written down, as Rambam writes that “he authored sefarim and made them known to his son Yitzchak”. However, all this did not have the scope of the Written Torah. That aspect was accomplished only through and after Matan Torah.

Since before Matan Torah there was the decree that “The upper worlds (Elyonim) not descend to the lower worlds (Tachtonim) (עליונים לא ירדו לתתתונים); and conversely that the lower worlds (Tachtonim) not ascend to the upper worlds (Elyonim) (תחתונים לא יעלו לעליונים) “, this also pertained to the Torah itself. There was the Upper – the spirituality of Torah (the understanding and comprehension). However, the Upper did not descend to the Lower – the writing and the Sefer that one wrote – that it should be an object of holiness.

Specifically, afterward when the decree was nullified, it accomplished that the “upper worlds descended to the lower worlds” . Torah came down into deed (מעשה), the Written Torah, as it states “and the writing was the writing of G-d“. For when a person holds in his hand a sefer Torah, and so forth, he is taking a (holy) object.

Moreover, it is not an aspect of lowering (ירידה) in Torah, G-d forbid. Rather it is as Torah is manifested in deed, in “writing”. For this is the “writing of G-d” – the connection of “Upper” and “Lower”.

Similarly, this is in Sefer HaTanya, which the Alter Rebbe wrote in a manner that each letter should be extremely precise. As the Rebbe Rayatz told, that the Alter Rebbe wrote the Tanya over the course of twenty years. And he “revised and critically examined each and every word, until he formed and polished it so that in the final manuscript there was neither a missing nor a superfluous letter”.

(And when he gave the Tanya to be printed, he strongly requested from the printer that he should be extremely careful in the “redacting of a missing or a superfluous letter“)

This enclothment of Pnimiyut HaTorah into written letters is one theme with the aspect of the Geulah of Yud-Tes Kislev which accomplished the “yafutzu mayanosecha chutza” (יפוצו מעינותיך חוצה) – the spreading of Chassidut outward. Namely that the “wellsprings” of Torah should come down even into the “outside”.

Just as the Written Torah, includes not only the entire Oral Torah, as it states “there is no thing that is not alluded to in the Written Torah”, which was later revealed, but also includes the aspects in the Torah which were learned before Matan Torah,

Similarly, the same applies to Sefer HaTanya. It has included within it aspectz of Torat HaChassidut, and even those aspects which the Alter Rebbe revealed before the writing of Tanya.

Moreover, one could say even more than this:

Since the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid did not have their Torah written down – it was only at the level of the Oral Torah which was written down through the students – and with Torat HaChassidut Chabad, the Alter Rebbe brought the aspects of general Chassidut (חסידות הכללית) into understanding and comprehension, starting with the Sefer HaTanya. It comes out that in the Sefer HaTanya even those aspects of the general Torat HaChassidut are brought into writing.

From all of the above, great aspect and virtue etc. of studying Sefer HaTanya – the Written Torah of Torat HaChassidut, is understood. For through this study, among the study of Chassidut, in general, we will soon merit to study the Torah of Moshiach- whose aspect is Pnimiyut HaTorah.

And in the words of Rashi, on the verse in Shir HaShirim (1:2):

“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth etc.”

that:

“(He will appear to them to explain to them) the secret of its reasons and its hidden mysteries, (and they entreat Him to fulfill His word, and this is the meaning of ‘Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth’) “-

from the mouth of Moshiach, speedily and in our times, mamosh.

MSichas “Shamayim” Parshat Vayishlach 5742

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