We now begin learning the Hakdamas HaMelaket, the introduction written by the compiler, the Alter Rebbe himself. As the subtitle states, this introduction “is a letter sent to the entirety of Anash”: a letter the Alter Rebbe sent out in advance of the printing of the Tanya. It was not handed over together with the sefer; it was sent ahead as a letter of its own, as an apology, and even more than that, as an explanation to the chassidim, who had raised very serious objections to the very act of writing the Tanya.
It is worth noting that beyond the well known opposition of the misnagdim to the Tanya, which we discussed in the previous section when we spoke about the manuscript copies and the various and strange copyists, there was also opposition from within the ranks of the chassidim themselves to the writing of the sefer. This letter was sent as the answer to their claims.
A general introduction: a “sefer for beinonim”
The Tanya is called a “sefer for beinonim,” for those in the middle, as we mentioned in the previous section. Interestingly, before writing it the Alter Rebbe had composed a sefer for tzaddikim. Where did that sefer disappear to? It is told that the Shpoler Zeide came to the Alter Rebbe's city and said to him: “I heard that you wrote a sefer for tzaddikim. The world is not a fitting vessel for this.” And since the world was not a vessel for so lofty a sefer, it was decreed that it be burned. He added: “And I will ascend to heaven in that very flame.” Afterwards a great fire broke out in the Alter Rebbe's city, and in it the sefer for tzaddikim was burned, along with sections and chapters of his Shulchan Aruch (and as is known, parts of it are missing from what we have). At that very time the Shpoler Zeide passed away, exactly as he had foretold.
The sefer we hold in our hands is a sefer for beinonim. The sefer for tzaddikim was an entirely different work, and it was not called Tanya. As the Alter Rebbe himself writes at the beginning of chapter 14: “מידת הבינוני היא מידת כל אדם”, “the level of the beinoni is the level of every person.” This is something that belongs to each and every one of us; the world is a vessel for it, and this is the sefer that we have.
The Tanya: the Written Torah of chassidus
It is well known that the Tanya is called the “Written Torah of chassidus,” while the rest of the seforim of chassidus are called the “Oral Torah of chassidus.” The comparison between the Written Torah, meaning the Five Books of the Torah, and the Tanya as the Written Torah of chassidus, is both fascinating and remarkably precise.
The Tanya has fifty three chapters. Together with the Compiler's Introduction, which itself counts as a chapter (it is known that when the Rebbe Rayatz asked, on certain occasions, that Tanya be learned by heart, he included the introduction among the chapters), the number reaches fifty four. The Torah, on the other hand, has fifty four parshiyos, and yet the holy Zohar mentions in several places that the Torah contains “gan sedarim,” numerically fifty three sedarim. Many commentators discussed how to reconcile this, and several explanations are offered:
Nitzavim and Vayeilech are essentially one parshah, and only sometimes are they split into two. According to this, the Torah has fifty three parshiyos.
Parshas Bereishis is a general, all inclusive parshah: it folds within itself more than a thousand years of history, more than all the other parshiyos of the Torah combined, from Noach through the end of Devarim. Therefore, when it is said that the Torah has fifty three sedarim, the intention is fifty three particular parshiyos, aside from the general parshah, which is Bereishis.
The same pattern holds in Tanya: fifty three chapters, and in addition to them the introduction, which functions as the general parshah, a kind of “Bereishis” of the sefer.
Here is another astonishing parallel. Of the fifty four parshiyos of the Torah, most open with the letter vav, and only a few open with other letters (for instance, Bereishis with a beis and Haazinu with a hei). Precisely the same is true in Tanya: only ten chapters open with other letters, and all the rest open with the letter vav.
None of this is coincidence. Although these look like marginal, external details, it is precisely they that teach us what the title “Written Torah of chassidus” means: the correspondence holds, astonishingly, even in the outer details of the matter.
Now to the introduction itself
“הקדמת המלקט, והיא איגרת השלוחה לכללות אנשי שלומנו”, “The Compiler's Introduction, which is a letter sent to the entirety of Anash,” and following it three letters as an abbreviation: yud, tzaddik, vav. There are several ways to unpack them: “may our Rock bless them and protect them,” “may our Rock and Redeemer protect them,” and others. The Alter Rebbe deliberately wrote it as an abbreviation, so as to include every good possibility that can be contained in those three letters.
The letter divides into four parts, and this is in fact how its sections are structured:
An opening passage.
An explanation of the chassidim's objection to the writing of the Tanya.
The answer: why, even though their claims have merit, the Tanya responds to all of them, and it is only right that we should have this sefer.
A section that was added close to the printing and attached to the sefer itself, which connects with the passage familiar to us from the haskamos we learned in the previous section: that the sefer not be reprinted without permission, by force of the rights granted to the first printers.
Part one: the opening
In this section the Alter Rebbe does what is so characteristic of his style, weaving together verses and fragments of verses from various places in Tanach. He opens with a verse from Mishlei: “אֲלֵיכֶם אִישִים אֶקְרָא”, “To you, O men, I call”. To you, ishim (from the word anashim, men), this letter is addressed.
In one of his sichos the Rebbe draws a parallel between the seforim of the Alter Rebbe and the seforim of the Rambam, on several levels. Among other things the Rebbe points out that the Rambam's work dealing with matters of faith and with answers to questions, the Moreh Nevuchim, opens with this very same verse, but with an interesting difference: the Rambam brings the verse in full, “אֲלֵיכֶם אִישִים אֶקְרָא וְקוֹלִי אֶל בְּנֵי אָדָם”, “To you, O men, I call, and my voice is to mankind,” whereas the Alter Rebbe cites only the first half and omits the second.
Why the omission?
The commentators on Moreh Nevuchim explain the Rambam's intent in Shlomo HaMelech's poetic language: he is addressing two levels of student. “Ishim” are the wise and sharp minded, those who delve deeply and grasp the depth of the matter, and as is known, Ishim is also the name of a lofty rank of angels. “And my voice is to mankind” means that even those who will not attain wisdom and will not reach the depth of his words will still be able to find something in them according to their own capacity.
The Alter Rebbe, by contrast, brings only the first half of the verse, hinting that he is not dividing his readers into two levels. He turns to every single one of the students of his sefer and calls them all “ishim.” The sefer, and this will emerge especially in the third part of the introduction, belongs to each and every person: anyone can understand it, learn it, and reach the level of “ishim” toward which the sefer is aimed.
To sum up: in this section we learned that the Compiler's Introduction was written by the Alter Rebbe as a letter sent ahead to the chassidim, in answer to their objections to the very writing of the Tanya. We saw that it is a “sefer for beinonim,” for which the world is a fitting vessel, unlike the sefer for tzaddikim that was burned; and that it is the Written Torah of chassidus, with the precise parallels between its fifty three chapters and their openings with the letter vav and the sedarim and parshiyos of the Torah. We also saw the four part structure of the letter, and the meaning of its opening with the verse “אֲלֵיכֶם אִישִים אֶקְרָא”, of which the Alter Rebbe cites only half, hinting that the sefer addresses all its students as “ishim” and belongs to each and every one of them.
In the next section we will continue with the Compiler's Introduction, and in particular with the chassidim's objection to the writing of the Tanya: we will explain what lay at the root of their opposition, and why the Alter Rebbe saw a need to address it explicitly.