Before we move on, let us stop at an interesting point: an exactitude in a single word, which will teach us in passing just how precise every detail in Tanya is.
In one of his maamarim in Ohr HaTorah, the Tzemach Tzedek quotes the language of Tanya and closes the passage with the words, "as it is written in Tanya, end of chapter 19" - "all the kelipos are nullified and void... כאין נגדו מאפס ותוהו נחשבו לו" ("as nothing before Him, they are counted by Him as less than nothing and emptiness"). Yet in Tanya only the first of the four verses quoted there appears, "כל הגוים כאין נגדו" ("all the nations are as nothing before Him"), while the words "מאפס ותוהו נחשבו לו" do not appear in Tanya at all.
So which is it? If these words belong here, why did the Alter Rebbe not include them in Tanya? And if the Alter Rebbe did not bring them, why does the Tzemach Tzedek add them? The verse in Yeshayahu in full reads: "כל הגוים כאין נגדו מאפס ותוהו נחשבו לו". Why, then, is the verse not brought in full in Tanya, while the Tzemach Tzedek does bring it in full?
This point will teach us something about the styles used in Tanya. Many times a verse is quoted and followed by "וגומר" with a vav, and many times a verse is quoted and followed by "גומר" without a vav. And first of all we should ask: why is such an addition needed at all? If only part of the verse is relevant, let him quote the relevant part; and if he wants to bring the whole thing, let him bring the whole thing.
The answer is that the Gemara lays down a rule: any verse that Moshe Rabbeinu said as a complete verse, without breaking in the middle, we too must say in its entirety when we quote it. For the division of the verses was made by Moshe Rabbeinu, and the place where a verse ends is the place where Moshe Rabbeinu stopped. Accordingly, when a writer does not wish to bring the entire verse, because only part of it is relevant to his subject, he hints that the verse has a continuation:
"גומר" (without a vav): the verse continues, but the continuation is not relevant to the matter under discussion.
"וגומר" (with a vav): continue and see what is written further, because the continuation is relevant to the matter, and it was left out only for the sake of brevity.
And how does the Alter Rebbe bring the verse here? "דכתיב כל הגוים כאין נגדו וגו'" - with a vav, teaching us that the continuation is relevant. That is precisely why the Tzemach Tzedek, in his maamar, brings it together with its continuation and elaborates on it to the very end.
And why is the continuation relevant? Because the subject here is the three impure kelipos, with regard to which total bittul is required. "כאין נגדו" does not mean absolute nullification, only that it does not count: in its own existence it is there, it simply is of no account. The continuation of the verse, "מאפס ותוהו נחשבו לו", says something more: not merely "as nothing," but that it utterly does not exist. So the continuation does belong to the subject, and the Alter Rebbe, wanting to be brief, hinted at it by writing "וגו'".
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In the last part of the chapter the Alter Rebbe comes to answer the fourth question, which has not yet been explained: how is yirah also included in the hidden love? We learned that Avraham Avinu gives every Jew a hidden love, and this love must necessarily contain yirah within it as well. For without fear of Heaven a person is liable to stumble into forbidden things, and this love is meant to bring a person both to the fulfillment of the positive mitzvos and to refraining from the prohibitions. So how does a love contain fear within it?
The essence of the Alter Rebbe's words at the close of the chapter: out of the Jew's love for the Holy One, blessed be He, a love that carries within it mesirus nefesh and a readiness to give up his very life, there is born in him a carefulness and a fear never to stumble, not even in the smallest and most marginal matters that might, God forbid, connect him to anything of avodah zarah. Were the love not to include yirah within it, he would not be so afraid of becoming attached even to things of no consequence.
So it was in the well known story of Chana and her seven sons. The king demanded that her sons bow to an idol, and when they refused he killed them one after another. When he reached the last son, the youngest of them, the king knew that he was not going to bow, so he said to him: I will throw a ring onto the floor and you will pick it up, so that those standing at a distance will at least think you bowed. On the face of it there was no problem in this: it is not bowing, and not even the intent to bow, but merely picking up a ring. Yet the act had the appearance of something bound up with avodah zarah. And even over this the little boy gave his life, and would not agree to do it under any circumstances.
And why should a person be prepared to give his life even over something like this? Seemingly it is not a matter of faith at all, for he could have said: I will bow, and my faith will not be damaged in the slightest; I go on believing in Hashem, and all I am doing is an external act, a technical gesture of lowering my head and raising it again. The same if a gentile forces him to say a word that carries heresy in it: he could say, I will let the word out of my mouth, and inwardly I will not mean a thing I am saying. After all, the place of love is in the heart, and in my heart I will go on loving the Creator without any limitation.
To this the Alter Rebbe answers: this is not love alone, there is yirah in it as well. It is not only that he loves, but that he is afraid to be cut off even in a matter that is the very edge of the edge of the most marginal of the marginal. That is the power of the hidden love, which includes within it a fear even of something small.
"והנה אור ה' אין סוף ברוך הוא המלובש בחכמה שבנפש גדול ועצום כחו כל כך לגרש ולדחות הסטרא אחרא והקליפות שלא יוכלו יגעו אפילו בלבושיה שהם מחשבה דבור ומעשה של אמונת ה' אחד" ("Now the light of Hashem, the blessed Ein Sof, which is clothed in the chochmah of the soul, is so great and mighty in its power to banish and repel the sitra achra and the kelipos, that they cannot touch even its garments, which are the thought, speech and action of faith in the one God") - there is in a Jew a power so strong to drive the kelipah and the sitra achra out of his heart, that they cannot touch even its garments, namely thought, speech and action. He is not prepared to transgress Hashem's will even in deed alone, even though in his heart he remains whole.
"דהיינו לעמוד בנסיון למסור נפשו אפילו שלא לעשות רק איזה מעשה לבד נגד אמונת ה' אחד, כגון להשתחוות לעבודה זרה אף שאינו מאמין בה כלל בלבו" ("that is, to withstand the test and give up his life merely so as not to perform even one single act against faith in the one God, such as bowing to an idol, even though he does not believe in it at all in his heart") - a person might say: I am bowing to the idol and I do not believe in it in the least, I am simply doing as everyone else does. But a Jew in whom the yechidah of the soul has been aroused says: I am not willing even to bend my head, even though I do not believe in it, for in the very bending of the head I am already taking on the impurity of avodah zarah.
It is worth noting: if one were to ask the rabbonim whether there is a sin of avodah zarah here, they might well say that this is not avodah zarah, since avodah zarah depends on the heart and on belief, and he does not believe. And indeed, as far as the name of the transgression goes, there is no sin of avodah zarah here. But he has been made impure by avodah zarah; he touched the thing and was spoiled by it to some degree, and a Jew is not prepared even to be spoiled in that measure.
And here one must ask: how does a person arouse that point in the heart, the yechidah of the soul? This is at once a small question and a great one. Small, because "קרוב אליך הדבר מאוד" ("the matter is very close to you"); and great, because one really does need to understand how it is aroused. As for our subject here, we learned in this chapter that when it is a test of faith, the question of how to arouse it does not arise: when a test of faith comes, the thing awakens of itself. How it is aroused in other matters as well we will see, with God's help, in chapters 20 and 21.
Let us continue with the language of the chapter. After the example of an act, the Alter Rebbe adds: "וכן שלא לדבר תועה חס ושלום על אחדות ה' אף שאין פיו ולבו שווים רק לבו שלם באמונת ה'" ("and likewise not to speak falsehood, God forbid, against the unity of Hashem, even though his mouth and his heart are not in agreement and his heart remains whole in faith in Hashem") - even if in his heart he believes and the words in his mouth are mere words, he is not willing to let them out of his mouth. The gentile comes and tells him: if you do not say this word you will get a bullet in your head, and he answers: shoot me, and the word I will not say. And although he could have argued: what does it matter if I say the word, I do not believe it, and the gentile does not know what is in my heart and will think that I do believe - nevertheless, a Jew in whom the yechidah of the soul has been aroused will not touch the very outermost edge of the thing, not in action, not in speech and not in thought. His thought the gentile cannot examine at all, yet even between himself and himself he is not prepared for it.
"וזה נקרא דחילו הנכלל ברחימו" ("and this is called the fear that is included within love") - yirah ("dechilu") contained within love: because he loves the Creator with so great a love, he is not willing, God forbid, ever to be severed from Him, not even in some small matter.
"שהיא אהבה הטבעית שבנפש האלקית שבכללות ישראל" ("which is the natural love in the divine soul of the Jewish people as a whole") - a natural love that every single Jew possesses, "שחפצה ורצונה בטבעה לידבק בשרשה ומקורה אור אין סוף ברוך הוא, שמפני אהבה זו ורצון זה יראה ומפחדת בטבעה" ("whose desire and will by its very nature is to cleave to its root and source, the blessed Ein Sof light, and because of this love and this will it naturally fears and dreads") - because of the sheer force of his love and his will not to be severed, he fears and dreads by his very nature. And of what? Not only of transgressing faith in Hashem, but "מנגוע בקצה טומאת עבודה זרה ח"ו" ("of touching the edge of the impurity of avodah zarah, God forbid") - the sin of avodah zarah itself certainly not, but even the edge of its impurity: to say a word he need not say, or to do an act he need not do, even to this he is not prepared, and this even though in his heart he remains in his faith - "שהיא נגד אמונת ה' אחד אפילו בלבושיה החיצונים שהם דיבור או מעשה בלי אמונה בלב כלל" ("which is against faith in the one God even in its external garments, which are speech or action without any belief in the heart at all").
And this is the great gift that Avraham Avinu gave to every single Jew.
In summary: in this section we noted the precision of the Alter Rebbe's language, by way of the Tzemach Tzedek's citation in Ohr HaTorah, where he added "מאפס ותוהו נחשבו לו". We learned the difference between "גומר" (a continuation that is not relevant) and "וגומר" (a continuation that is relevant to the matter), and from here that the continuation "מאפס ותוהו", which expresses absolute nullification and not merely "as nothing," belongs to the subject of the three impure kelipos. We then explained the fourth question: the yirah included within the hidden love, "dechilu that is included within rechimu," by whose power a Jew is unwilling to touch even the edge of the impurity of avodah zarah, even in the external garments of speech and action with no belief in the heart at all. And this is Avraham Avinu's great gift to every Jew.
In the next section, in chapters 20 and 21, we will take up the question of how this hidden love is aroused not only at a moment of a test of faith, but in all other matters as well.