We have arrived at chapter 20 of Likkutei Amarim, on page 25b (page 50). This chapter opens a run of five chapters, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24, all of which come to explain one thing: how "the matter is very close to you," with the emphasis on the word "very," to the point that every single Jew is able to keep and to do all the mitzvos of the Torah.
"To keep" - not to transgress any of the mitzvos lo saaseh, the prohibitions.
"To do" - to fulfill all the mitzvos aseh, the positive commandments.
In other words, every person is capable of being careful in this at all times and guarding everything, and it is easy for him and very close to him. And although it takes five full chapters to explain this, that is no contradiction to how easy the matter is; the chapters simply come to complete our understanding of it.
In the two previous chapters, 18 and 19, and mainly in chapter 19, we learned that there is one thing that no Jew, whoever he may be, even from among the sinners of Israel, even the lowest of the low, will transgress, and for which he is ready to give up his life: when the test touches on emunah, faith in the Creator. When the question is whether to deny, G-d forbid, or to remain faithful to the Torah of Hashem and to faith in Hashem, at that moment the chochmah of the soul awakens, and the yetzer hara cannot confuse him and tell him, "It is not so terrible, you are still connected," the way it confuses him about every other matter, as in "a person does not sin unless a spirit of folly has entered into him." But when it comes to this question, whether he believes or not, he is prepared to die al kiddush Hashem.
Chapter 19, however, spoke about that one moment of testing. Chapter 20 teaches us how it can be this way all the time. The Alter Rebbe states the point and the foundation of this already in the first five lines of the chapter, but to understand it and internalize it one has to learn chapters 20 through 24.
The Alter Rebbe reveals, and afterwards explains in an inner, penetrating way, that every mitzvah a person fulfills, and every aveirah he is about to stumble into, G-d forbid, is nothing other than a question of faith or denial. This is not one single question that a person meets once in his lifetime, if at all, while alongside it he has other, ordinary daily questions regarding the remaining 611 mitzvos. The truth is that every positive mitzvah he must fulfill is an expression of "Anochi Hashem Elokecha," and every prohibition, even a light rabbinic one, falls under "Lo yihyeh lecha al panai."
Once a person understands and relates to every single detail as a question of faith or denial, the chochmah of the soul is aroused in every single matter, and he stands with a mesirus nefesh that is not willing to give up on anything. That is the direction of the whole discussion: once a person understands this, then indeed "the matter is very close to you" - all he has to do is awaken the emunah and the inner love that already exist within his soul.
The Alter Rebbe's words at the opening of the chapter: "והנה מודעת זאת לכל כי מצות ואזהרת עבודה זרה" - "Now, this is known to all, that the commandment and the prohibition concerning idolatry": the mitzvah to believe in one Creator, and the warning that you shall have no other gods before Me, which are the positive and the negative commandments in this area, "שהם שני דברות הראשונים", "which are the first two of the Ten Commandments," "'אנכי' ו'לא יהיה לך' הם כללות כל התורה כולה" - "'Anochi' and 'Lo yihyeh lecha' are the general principle of the entire Torah." The whole Torah is folded into these two commandments, and everything is contained in them.
It is worth noting that there are places where it is said that everything is included in the word "Anochi," and more than that, that everything is included in the letter alef of "Anochi." But to find everything in the letter alef requires a very broad mind, and even to find everything in the word "Anochi" is not simple. To understand how everything is contained in "Anochi" together with "Lo yihyeh lecha," however, is easier to grasp, and so the Alter Rebbe explains it that way:
"כי דבור אנכי ה' כולל כל רמ"ח מצות עשה" - "For the commandment 'I am Hashem' includes all 248 positive commandments." The first commandment, which is a positive statement and directive, the mitzvah to believe in the Holy One blessed be He, includes all 248 mitzvos aseh.
"ולא יהיה לך כולל כל שס"ה מצות לא תעשה" - "and 'You shall have no other gods' includes all 365 prohibitions." The second commandment, whose subject is idolatry, G-d forbid, includes all 365 mitzvos lo saaseh.
And since "Anochi" includes all the active mitzvos and "Lo yihyeh lecha" all the passive ones, therefore: "ולכן שמענו אנכי ולא יהיה לך לבד מפי הגבורה" - "and therefore we heard 'Anochi' and 'Lo yihyeh lecha' alone directly from the mouth of the Almighty." The rest of the commandments were conveyed to us through Moshe Rabbeinu; the first two we heard directly from the mouth of the Almighty, with no intermediary at all. And why specifically these two? Because in hearing them we heard everything, "מפני שהן כללות התורה כולה", "since they are the general principle of the entire Torah." Of course it is extremely condensed, and so the detailing comes: first the initial detailing in the other eight commandments, and afterwards the full detailing in the whole Torah, in the Shulchan Aruch and in all the sefarim. But in fact it is all contained in "Anochi" and "Lo yihyeh lecha."
For example: "Anochi" includes all the positive mitzvos, and among them "You shall love Hashem your G-d," which is one of them, and which in turn includes tefillin, Shabbos and mezuzah. When one says "Anochi," the intent is the fulfillment of all 248 positive mitzvos; and if a person loves Hashem his G-d, he has fulfilled only one of them. That is not a small thing, it is a very great deal, but it is only the engine, and he still has to fulfill all the other mitzvos contained within it. The love is the road that brings a person to the actual doing of the mitzvos.
The source of the expression "we heard from the mouth of the Almighty": the phrase appears originally in the Gemara in several places, and in one of them there is an interesting passage. "Rabbi Simlai expounded: 613 mitzvos were said to Moshe" - taryag mitzvos. And why that particular number? "365 prohibitions corresponding to the days of the solar year" - each day of the year says to a person: be careful not to transgress on my day, and keep the entire year completely clean; "and 248 positive commandments" - corresponding to the limbs of a person, the 248 limbs of the body.
"Rav Hamnuna said: What is the verse?" - in which verse is it hinted that there are 613 mitzvos? - "Torah tzivah lanu Moshe morashah kehillas Yaakov," "Moshe commanded us the Torah, an inheritance of the congregation of Yaakov." The numerical value of the word "Torah" is "shis me'ah vechad sri," 611, and that is what Moshe commanded us. And another two, "Anochi" and "Lo yihyeh lecha," "we heard from the mouth of the Almighty," from the Holy One blessed be He Himself, making 613 altogether.
And Rashi there brings the verse "Achas diber Elokim, shtayim zu shamanu," "One thing G-d has spoken, these two have I heard" - and the two are "Anochi" and "Lo yihyeh lecha," which were both said in a single utterance, and we heard the two of them together. This is the source for the statement that "Anochi" and "Lo yihyeh lecha" include everything, in the Alter Rebbe's words: "and therefore we heard 'Anochi' and 'Lo yihyeh lecha' alone directly from the mouth of the Almighty."
In summary: in this section we learned that chapter 20 opens a run of five chapters (20 to 24) that all come to explain how "the matter is very close to you" to keep and do all the mitzvos of the Torah. After chapter 19 taught us that on a question of emunah every Jew is ready to give up his life, the Alter Rebbe here reveals the basis for this being so at every moment: the first two commandments, "Anochi" and "Lo yihyeh lecha," are the general principle of the entire Torah. "Anochi" includes the 248 positive mitzvos and "Lo yihyeh lecha" the 365 prohibitions, and that is precisely why these two were heard from the mouth of the Almighty with no intermediary. We also traced the source of the expression in the Gemara, in the teaching of Rabbi Simlai and in the verse "Torah tzivah lanu Moshe."
In the next section we will go deeper into this foundation: how every positive mitzvah is an expression of "Anochi Hashem Elokecha," and how every prohibition, even the lightest of rabbinic ones, falls under "Lo yihyeh lecha al panai."