In the previous section we laid out the questions that arose on the Alter Rebbe's words: first, that this is a difficult thing to do; second, that in our generations it simply isn't within reach; and third, that someone who is not a tzaddik has no connection to it at all. Now we will see how the Alter Rebbe resolves all of this, beginning with a careful reading of the verse itself.
The three levushim (garments of the soul), thought, speech and action, are ranked one above the other. We would therefore expect the verse to follow a clear order: either from above downward ("in your heart," "in your mouth," "to do it"), or from below upward ("to do it," "in your mouth," "in your heart"). Instead the verse opens precisely with "in your mouth," which is the middle rung, continues with "in your heart," and concludes with "to do it." What is this strange order about?
The Alter Rebbe explains that the verse is not listing three items here but two. The word "and in your heart" is not a unit standing on its own; it attaches to "to do it." In other words, the feeling that is "close" to a person is not an active emotion that exists in its own right, but a feeling that pushes him toward doing, exactly as was explained in the previous chapter.
There are two levels in love:
Love as an entity in its own right: a revealed love of Hashem in the heart, which is what we are commanded in the mitzvah of "ve'ahavta." As we learned in chapter 14, one who reaches this level has already received his reward in this world. Tzaddikim merit to see their world in their lifetime, and the expression of that is the love in their heart. A love like that is in the category of a gift.
Love in the mind: an intellectual inclination, a conclusion that it is fitting and right to cleave to Hashem and to keep Torah and mitzvos. This is not pure intellect, because there is an inclination here, and an inclination already carries a certain emotional dimension, but it is emotion on the level of the mind alone. This level is within every person's reach.
A Jew's purpose in this world is actual deed, as the verse says, "today to do them," and our Sages read it precisely: today to do them, and tomorrow to receive their reward. What is demanded of a person is the act, not the feeling. And yet, without feeling the avodah is dry, and so he is asked for at least that feeling which he is capable of attaining: the feeling that drives him to act.
And what is that feeling? This is the whole theme of chapter 16: a person contemplates and arrives at an intellectual conclusion that this is fitting, right, just and true, and worthwhile from every angle. Every person is capable of reaching this level, and this is the meaning of the verse, "For the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it."
And why does the verse open specifically with "in your mouth"? The Alter Rebbe does not say so explicitly, but it emerges from the order of the verse: first a person must learn with his mouth, and from that learning he will have material to contemplate, and from that hisbonenus (contemplation) he will arrive at "and in your heart, to do it."
In the Alter Rebbe's own words:
"אלא דלעשותו רצונו לומר שהאהבה מביאה לידי עשיית המצוות בלבד" ("Rather, 'to do it' means that the love brings one only to the performance of the mitzvos"): we are not speaking of love as a separate entity, but of a love that pushes toward action, "שהיא רעותא דלבא שבתעלומות לב" ("which is the re'usa delibba, the yearning of the heart that remains in the hidden recesses of the heart"), "גם כי אינה בהתגלות לבו כרשפי אש" ("even though it is not revealed in his heart like flames of fire"), that is, even though he does not manage to reach a revealed, active emotion. Revealed emotion belongs to the tzaddikim, whose heart is in their control; an ordinary person cannot do that, but a love hidden in the recesses of the heart is certainly within his reach.
"ודבר זה קרוב מאוד ונקל לכל אדם אשר יש לו מוח בקדקדו, כי מוחו ברשותו ויכול להתבונן בו ככל אשר יחפוץ" ("And this thing is very close and easy for every person who has a brain in his head, for his brain is in his control and he can contemplate with it whatever he wishes"): the mind is given over to a person's control, and it is in his hands to sit down, contemplate, and use it as he wishes. "וכשיתבונן בו בגדולת אין סוף ברוך הוא, ממילא יוליד במוחו על כל פנים האהבה לה' לדבקה בו בקיום מצותיו ותורתו" ("And when he contemplates with it the greatness of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, he will automatically generate in his mind at least the love of Hashem, to cleave to Him through fulfilling His mitzvos and His Torah"): in his heart there will be no feeling, but in his mind a love will be born, that is, that intellectual inclination that it is fitting and right to draw close to Elokus, and it will encourage him and strengthen him in actually keeping Torah and mitzvos.
And if a person protests: so it turns out that all my life I will have no feeling, and what is Torah and mitzvos worth without feeling? To this the Alter Rebbe concludes, "וזה כל האדם" ("and this is the whole of man"): a person's purpose is not the feeling but the deed, "כי היום לעשותם כתיב שהיום הוא עולם המעשה המעשה דוקא ולמחר כו' כמו שנתבאר במקום אחר" ("for it is written 'today to do them,' for 'today' is the world of action, action specifically, and 'tomorrow' etc., as explained elsewhere"), while receiving the reward, which is revealed love, belongs to "tomorrow."
[A question was asked: but we are required to serve Hashem "with joy and gladness of heart, out of an abundance of everything"? Joy is indeed required, but it too is on that same level: joy and love in the mind, not necessarily a joy felt in a revealed way. After all, nobody is as happy putting on tefillin each morning as he would be over a gift of a million dollars. And even if there is excitement the first few times, as the days go on it steadily fades, and it is impossible to reach the hundredth time the way one felt the first time.
And the same applies to the objection that this runs "against our experience." True, reaching a revealed emotion is not close to a person, and even if he manages it from time to time through great effort, that cannot be called "close to you." But reaching the intellectual feeling, that is indeed close, and that is the level the verse is pointing to.]
And why in fact will this intellectual feeling lead to actual deed? "והמוח שליט בטבעו ותולדתו על חלל השמאלי שבלב ועל פיו ועל כל האברים שהם כלי המעשה" ("and the mind rules by its nature and by its makeup over the left chamber of the heart, and over the mouth, and over all the limbs, which are the instruments of action"): the mind naturally rules over the heart, over the mouth and over all the limbs of the body, which are the instruments of action, and when it rules over them a person begins to act in practice.
It would seem that the point has been made clearly: the mind is in a person's control, and when he contemplates he will reach the conclusion and will act on it. And yet in real life we see people to whom you can explain and whom you can convince, and nothing moves them at all, and their mind does not generate in them even that intellectual feeling. Do they have no mind?
To this the Alter Rebbe says, "אם לא מי שהוא רשע באמת" ("unless one is a rasha in truth"). There is much discussion in defining a "rasha in truth," and one of the explanations is as we learned in chapter 11: there is a rasha who sins and regrets, and there is a rasha who never regrets, and that is a rasha in truth. Such a person has had this capacity taken from him, and even the intellectual feeling does not form in him, "כמאמר רז"ל שהרשעים הם ברשות לבם ואין לבם ברשותם כלל" ("as our Sages said, that the wicked are in the control of their heart, and their heart is not in their control at all"): the rasha is the exact opposite of the tzaddik. The tzaddik rules over his heart, while the rasha's heart rules over him, and when the desire stands before his eyes he cannot even open his mouth against it. "וזה עונש על גודל ועוצם עונם" ("and this is a punishment for the greatness and enormity of their sin"): this very closedness is the punishment for the magnitude of his sins, and we are speaking of a rare minority.
But a difficulty arises: the Torah is speaking to the whole of Klal Yisrael, and it says "for the thing is very close to you"? To this the Alter Rebbe answers, "ולא דברה תורה במתים אלו שבחייהם קרויים מתים" ("and the Torah does not speak of these dead, who even in their lifetime are called dead"). The Torah speaks of the majority, and it does not speak about the exception: not the exception above, the complete tzaddikim, for whom even revealed love in the heart is close and not only "in your heart, to do it"; and not the exception below, that rasha in truth, who is not called alive at all.
And the Tanya leaves no one outside the circle. Already in chapter 11, when speaking of the rasha who does not regret, the Alter Rebbe noted that the divine spark is not uprooted from him entirely; it remains. That is why he now moves sharply to the second meaning of the word "hadavar," "the thing," in the verse: the avodah of teshuvah. For the rasha too the thing is very close, not the keeping of Torah and mitzvos, for the ability to be aroused to them has been sealed off from him, but teshuvah, which he is able to do.
"כי באמת אי אפשר לרשעים להתחיל לעבוד ה' בלי שיעשו תשובה על העבר תחלה, לשבר הקליפות שהם מסך מבדיל ומחיצה של ברזל המפסקת בינם לאביהם שבשמים" ("for in truth it is impossible for the wicked to begin serving Hashem without first doing teshuvah for the past, to break the kelipos which are a dividing screen and an iron partition separating them from their Father in Heaven"): the rasha must first break the barrier that is holding him back from drawing close, and that breaking is accomplished through teshuvah.
And how? "על ידי שבירת לבו ומרירות נפשו על חטאיו" ("through the breaking of his heart and the bitterness of his soul over his sins"): he must feel bitterness over his sins and break his heart over the state he is in, and that broken heart is what opens his heart to the Creator, "כמו שכתוב בזהר על פסוק 'זבחי אלקים רוח נשברה לב נשבר וגו'', שעל ידי לב נשבר נשברה רוח הטומאה דסטרא אחרא" ("as the Zohar writes on the verse 'the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken heart...' that through a broken heart the spirit of impurity of the sitra achra is broken"). We say this verse every night in Krias Shema she'al hamitah. The Zohar's explanation: in all the korbanos in the book of Vayikra the name Havayah is used, "a pleasing aroma to Hashem," and the name Elokim is never mentioned in connection with them. So what is a sacrifice to Elokim? "The sacrifices of Elokim are a broken spirit," not an animal brought as an offering, but the breaking of the spirit of kelipah within the person himself. ("ע"ש פרשת פנחס דף ר"מ ופרשת ויקרא דף ח ודף ה' עמוד א' ובפירוש הרמ"ז שם": the Alter Rebbe notes in parentheses a series of references in the Zohar where the difference between a korban to the name Havayah and a korban to the name Elokim is explained.)
"והיא בחינת תשובה תתאה, להעלות ה' תתאה ולהקימה מנפילתה שנפלה אל החיצונים, שהוא סוד גלות השכינה" ("and this is the aspect of teshuvah tata'ah, the lower teshuvah, to raise up the lower hei and lift it from its fall, having fallen to the chitzonim, which is the secret of the exile of the Shechinah"). In Igeres HaTeshuvah it is explained at length that there are two levels in teshuvah: teshuvah tata'ah and teshuvah ila'ah. In the name Havayah there are two hei's, the first one after the yud and the last one at the end after the vav. When a person sins he causes, as it were, the fall of the hei, and when he does teshuvah he returns it to its place. This is "tashuv hei," the returning of the hei: there is the returning of the upper hei to its place, and there is the returning of the lower hei. Breaking the heart belongs to teshuvah tata'ah.
[And there are those who merit both of them at once, in a single moment, like Rabbi Elazar ben Durdaya, of whom it was said "there is one who acquires his world in a single hour," who raised up the lower hei and the upper hei as well, and reached teshuvah ila'ah, the loftiest level of teshuvah.]
The exile of the Shechinah is caused by a person's own deeds, "כמאמר רז"ל גלו לאדום שכינה עמהם" ("as our Sages said, when they were exiled to Edom the Shechinah went with them"). And this does not refer only to a physical exile to the land of Edom, "דהיינו כשאדם עושה מעשה אדום" ("that is, when a person does the deeds of Edom") and conducts himself like Eisav: through conduct that is unworthy he "מוריד וממשיך לשם בחינת וניצוץ אלקות המחיה נפשו את נפש רוח ונשמה, המלובשים בו בנפש הבהמית מהקליפה שבלבו שבחלל השמאלי המולכת בו בעודו רשע, ומושלת בעיר קטנה שלו" ("draws down and brings there the aspect and spark of Elokus that gives life to his soul, his nefesh, ruach and neshamah, which are clothed in him within the nefesh habahamis that stems from kelipah, in the left chamber of his heart, which reigns over him while he is a rasha and rules over his 'small city'"). For a person does not sin alone: it is not only the yetzer hara that is present at the moment of the sin, but the nefesh ha'elokis is dragged along with him, and once he defiles it, it goes down with him into exile, "ונפש רוח ונשמה כבושים בגולה אצלה" ("and the nefesh, ruach and neshamah are held captive in exile within it"): not only are they in exile, they are held captive there, as if choked behind an iron screen, with no strength to rise. Therefore teshuvah means breaking that screen and bringing them out of their condition.
And with this the Alter Rebbe concludes the chapter: "וכשנשבר ליבו בקרבו ונשברה רוח הטומאה והסטרא אחרא, והתפרדו כל פועלי אוון - היא קמה מנפילתה וגם ניצבה כמו שנתבאר במקום אחר" ("and when his heart is broken within him, and the spirit of impurity and the sitra achra is broken, and 'all the workers of iniquity are scattered,' then it rises from its fall and even stands upright, as explained elsewhere").
One could ask: if the tzaddikim have their heart in their control, it follows that one who is not a tzaddik does not have his heart in his control; and if the wicked are in the control of their heart, it follows that one who is not a rasha is not in the control of his heart. So what, then, is the situation of the beinoni, who is neither a tzaddik nor a rasha? His situation is that he does not have the power to rule over his heart like a tzaddik, but neither is he sunk inside his heart like a rasha. His control consists in this: that his mind rules over his heart to the degree that, if he contemplates properly, that hisbonenus will bring him to the conclusion that it is fitting and right to act.
In summary: in chapter 17 the Alter Rebbe explained the word "and in your heart," which does not stand alone but attaches to "to do it." What is close to every person is to arouse at the very least the feeling in the mind, which generates the conclusion that it is fitting and right to fulfill Torah and mitzvos in actual deed, and this is close to every single person, even to someone who has no share in the level of the tzaddikim, since his mind is in his control and the mind by nature rules over the heart and over the limbs of action. We also learned that the Torah was not speaking about the wicked who are called dead: in a rasha in truth the capacity to be aroused has been sealed off as a punishment for his sins, but even for him "the thing is very close to you" by way of teshuvah, through the breaking of the heart and bitterness of soul over his sins, which breaks the kelipos and the iron partition and raises the lower hei from its fall.
With this we have completed the first path in the Tanya for how a Jew arrives at the actual doing of Torah and mitzvos. In chapter 18 the second path begins, a shorter and easier one, through which a person can awaken in his heart "the thing is close to you," and with Hashem's help we will also arrive there at the meaning of the word "very," which we have not yet discussed.