In the previous section we studied the Hakdamas HaMelaket, the Compiler's Introduction, where the Alter Rebbe explained how every Jew is bound to the Holy One through the Torah. That immediately raises a question: if every Jew is bound to the Torah, then surely a sefer built upon the drashos of Chazal automatically belongs to each and every person? In this section we will look more closely at that question, whether every portion of Torah really does fit every individual person, and out of it we will come to understand why the Tanya had to be written at all, and what its name and its very form are telling us.
At first glance the argument seems airtight. If the Torah is what links every Jew to his Creator, how can anyone claim that a sefer built on the midrashim of Chazal is not addressed to him? The Tanya is not human intellect but divine intellect, for it rests entirely on the words of Chazal, of whom it is said "רוח השם דיבר בם" ("the spirit of Hashem spoke through them"), and therefore it belongs to everyone alike.
But the answer is this: even sefarim founded on divine intellect, though in principle they belong to every person, do not necessarily speak to every person's heart. There is a well known rule, "לעולם ילמוד אדם ממקום שליבו חפץ" ("a person should always learn from the place his heart desires"), for every person is drawn to one particular area of Torah. There is a portion of Torah that is genuinely his, only that he does not feel that it is his.
And although the holy Zohar teaches that the Torah binds every Jew to the Holy One, that is said derech klal, in a general way, regarding Klal Yisrael as a whole. Broadly speaking, all Jews are bound up with the Torah. But look deeper: does every individual Jew have a revealed, felt connection to each and every part of the Torah?
Here is how the Alter Rebbe puts it: "ואף שניתנה התורה להידרש בכלל ופרט ופרטי פרטות לכל נפש פרטית מישראל המושרשת בה" ("and although the Torah was given to be expounded in general, in particular, and in the finest particulars, for every individual soul of Israel that is rooted in it"). Every word of Torah has a general relevance to every Jew, and a particular relevance to his own individual soul. And nevertheless, "אין כל אדם זוכה להיות מכיר מקומו הפרטי שבתורה" ("not every person merits to recognize his own particular place in the Torah"). True, every verse of Torah has six hundred thousand modes of interpretation, and every Jew is bound to that verse and to that midrash at his own private point in it. But not everyone who opens a midrash or a verse finds in it the personal point that touches his own situation; that is something one has to merit. This is what we ask for every morning in davening: "ותן חלקנו בתורתך", "grant us our portion in Your Torah." And this only sharpens the question: even if the Tanya is built upon the midrashim of Chazal, seemingly it still is not addressed to every single person.
A kal vachomer from the laws of issur v'heter:
The Alter Rebbe reinforces the point with a kal vachomer. Until now the discussion has revolved around sifrei yirah, works of mussar and fear of Heaven, which awaken a person to his duties of the heart and the like. Now he argues from an area where you would think there is no room at all for differing approaches: the laws of issur v'heter, the permitted and the forbidden. There, seemingly, there is nothing to argue about. The treifos listed in the Torah are forbidden to eat; the thirty-nine melachos are forbidden on Shabbos. In fine details you may find variations between different communities, but in the broad rulings of issur v'heter the law ought to be identical for everyone.
And so he writes: "והנה אף בהלכות איסור והיתר הנגלות לנו ולבנינו" ("now, even in the laws of the forbidden and the permitted, which are revealed to us and to our children"). The sifrei yirah are called the "nistaros", the hidden matters, while the sefarim of issur v'heter are the "niglos", the revealed. And yet even in these revealed sefarim, "מצאנו וראינו מחלוקת תנאים ואמוראים מן הקצה אל הקצה ממש" ("we have found and seen disputes among Tannaim and Amoraim from one extreme literally to the other"). In the Gemara, Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel argue in the laws of issur v'heter and in the laws of Shabbos: one says permitted and the other says forbidden, one says this is chillul Shabbos and the other says there is no chillul Shabbos here at all. Disputes from one end of the spectrum to the other, and Heaven forbid that we should say one opinion is simply untrue, for it is all recorded in the Torah of truth: "ואלו ואלו דברי אלוקים חיים" ("these and these are the words of the living G-d").
Even after the halacha was decided like Beis Hillel, the Gemara in Eruvin relates that Beis Hillel would state the position of Beis Shammai first, and only afterward give their own view. They did not dismiss the words of Beis Shammai, they never said, G-d forbid, that these are not words of Torah, because "elu v'elu divrei Elokim chayim", these and these are the words of the living G-d. Note that it says chayim, in the plural, because these words are the very source of life for the souls of Israel, and souls divide in a general way into three lines: right, left and middle.
In Elokus there are ten sefiros, and they divide broadly into three lines: the line of the right, the line of the left, and the middle line. Through hishtalshelus, the chain of descent, this comes down below as well: the souls of Israel, which derive from the divine sefiros, some of them are rooted in the line of the right and some in the line of the left, and both lines alike have their source in kedushah, in chesed and in gevurah:
Beis Hillel: the root of his soul is on the right, the attribute of chesed, and therefore "נשמות ששורשן ממידת חסד הנהגתן גם כן להטות כלפי חסד, דהיינו להקל" ("souls whose root is in the attribute of chesed conduct themselves too by inclining toward chesed, that is, toward the lenient ruling").
Beis Shammai: the root of his soul is on the left, the attribute of gevurah, and therefore he sees the halacha on the side of prohibition.
Now if even in the sefarim that deal with what is revealed "to us and to our children" there exist such enormous differences, from one extreme to the other, then "וכל שכן וקל וחומר בהנסתרות לה' אלוקינו" ("how much more so in the hidden matters, which belong to Hashem our G-d"), meaning the sifrei yirah. And what are these nistaros? "דחילו ורחימו דבמוחא וליבא דכל חד וחד" ("the fear and the love in the mind and heart of each and every individual"), which a person must awaken personally, each according to his own level. Here there is certainly no room to claim that all people are the same. Even if the sefer is built on a midrash and on a verse, and even though there is no question that this is Torah, not every person recognizes and sees his own private place in that portion of Torah.
Each and every one according to his own level, "לפום שיעורא דיליה" ("according to his own measure"). Every person has his own intellectual grasp and his own gateway of the heart. The mind descends into the heart, from the comprehension attained in learning to the arousal of feeling in the heart, "לפום מה דמשער בליבו" ("according to what he measures out in his heart"). So the holy Zohar explains on the verse "נודע בשערים בעלה" ("her husband is known in the gates"). Shlomo HaMelech in Mishlei calls the Holy One "husband" and Israel "wife", and "nodah" means known, grasped, understood. How is the "husband", the Holy One, known in the "gates"? "Lefum mah dimsha'er b'libei", it is all according to a person's own understanding and according to which pathways are open in his heart; this one comes by one route and that one by another. That is precisely why the verse says "she'arim", gates, in the plural, for the gates are many.
So why, then, was the sefer written?
The Alter Rebbe has now argued with tremendous force that seemingly there is no place for writing the Tanya at all, and that the earlier arrangement should simply continue: each person enters for yechidus and receives his personal answer from the Rebbe's own mouth. This was the chassidim's claim, and he laid it out in its full strength. In the third part of the introduction he answers it.
He opens with the words: "אך ביודעי ומכירי קאמינא" ("but I speak of those who know me and are familiar with me"). There are two ways to read this:
To those who know me and are familiar with me.
To those whom I know and am familiar with.
As the Rebbe writes, there is something deeply moving in this for every Jew who learns the Tanya hundreds of years after it was written: the Alter Rebbe is turning to him and telling him that he knows him and is familiar with him, and that the learner too knows him and is familiar with him, from a higher plane.
The Rebbe makes a fascinating observation about the phrase "b'yodai umakirai". The Gemara explains that mentioning the name of a certain woman can affect a person with harmful consequences, and one of the Amoraim said that he mentions that name and it has no effect on him whatsoever. The Gemara answers that it takes effect only "b'yod'ah umakirah", for one who knows her and is familiar with her. The Alter Rebbe deliberately uses this very expression, and from here we learn that learning Tanya will certainly have its effect: if from the Gemara's words we see that such a thing works on the negative side, then all the more so on the positive side, for the measure of good is greater than the measure of punishment. There is no other possibility, because a rule has been established here: whoever learns this sefer is included in "b'yodai umakirai".
And who exactly are these "yodai umakirai"? "כל אחד ואחד מאנשי שלומנו שבמדינתנו וסמוכות שלה, אשר היה הדיבור של חיבה מצוי בינינו" ("each and every one of the anash in our land and its surroundings, among whom words of affection were exchanged between us"), the chassidim, between whom and their Rebbe there was this speech of closeness and affection, "וגילו לפני כל תעלומות ליבם ומוחם בעבודת השם התלויה בלב" ("and who revealed before me all the hidden things of their heart and mind in the service of G-d that depends on the heart"). Not one hidden corner was left in their hearts; they laid out everything before him. And apparently the full range of difficulties that arose among the chassidim of that generation represents the full range of difficulties possible in any person's heart in every generation; it was all laid out on the Alter Rebbe's table as they came in to him.
The name of the sefer and its form:
And then he writes: "אליהם תיטוף מילתי ולשוני עט סופר בקונטרסים אלו" ("to them my word shall drip, and my tongue shall be the pen of a scribe in these kuntreisim"). He is addressing all those in whose hearts no new problem will arise that was not already presented and answered (and further on we will see an even stronger expression of this), and it is for them that these answers are being written.
The Alter Rebbe writes "these kuntreisim" because at first the Tanya was known by the name "Kuntreisim", since it was printed in separate booklets.
To sum up: in this section we learned that although every Jew is bound to the Torah, that is only derech klal, in a general way, while in particular not every person recognizes his own private place in the Torah. The Alter Rebbe proved this with a kal vachomer: if even in the revealed laws of issur v'heter there are disputes running from one extreme to the other, in accordance with the roots of souls in the right and left lines of the sefiros, then how much more so in the hidden service of the heart, where each person serves "lefum shiura dilei", according to his own measure, and according to what he measures out in his heart. Having presented the full force of the chassidim's claim, the Alter Rebbe answers it as he opens the third part: "אך ביודעי ומכירי קאמינא" ("but I speak of those who know me and are familiar with me"), the sefer is directed to the chassidim who revealed to him the hidden things of their hearts, and learning it will certainly have its effect.
In the next section we will continue with the Compiler's Introduction: the sefarim and the authors from which these teachings were gathered, and the question of attributing these sayings to their sources.