In the previous section we learned the reasoning that it is worth desecrating one Shabbos so that a person will go on to keep many Shabbosos. Before going further, we need to introduce a point that the Alter Rebbe himself is about to make in the lines that follow:
If this halachah rested on logic alone, the very same logic could be applied to idolatry, to forbidden relations and to murder. A Jew whom a gentile is forcing to worship idols could argue: better that I bow once, and then I will go on living and remain a believing Jew for the rest of my life. Yet with idolatry and forbidden relations it is perfectly clear that no such reasoning applies at all; rather, "let him be killed and not transgress." It follows that this is not human logic but a Divine decree: the Holy One determined that regarding Shabbos this reasoning holds, and regarding other matters it does not.
And it is not because Shabbos is lighter and the other matters are more severe. From the standpoint of being cut off from the Holy One there is no difference whatsoever: there is no light and no severe, it is all one and the same. It is simply that the Holy One ruled one way here and another way there.
The Alter Rebbe brings a proof that the matter does not depend on leniency and severity. At first glance forbidden relations and idolatry sit in the "severe" basket, while Shabbos looks lighter. In parentheses the Alter Rebbe brings a fascinating proof that with respect to certain laws Shabbos is in fact more severe than forbidden relations: "תדע שהרי שבת חמורה ושקולה כעבודה זרה לענין שחיטת מומר לדבר אחד ביורה דעה סימן ב', מה שאין כן מומר לגילוי עריות" - "Know this, for Shabbos is severe and is equated with idolatry regarding the shechitah of one who is an apostate with respect to a single matter, in Yoreh Deah siman 2, which is not so with one who is an apostate regarding forbidden relations."
The language of the Shulchan Aruch in Yoreh Deah:
"The shechitah of an idolater is neveilah" - even if the gentile is an expert in shechitah, and even if we inspect his work and see that he slaughters exactly as a scrupulous Jew would, what he slaughtered has the status of neveilah and may not be eaten.
"One who is an apostate regarding idolatry, or regarding desecrating Shabbos in public, has the status of an idolater" - a Jew whose weakness lies in idolatry or in public Shabbos desecration, and who cannot break away from it, even if he keeps all the other mitzvos meticulously, if he slaughters, what he slaughtered is neveilah.
"But if he is an apostate regarding one of the other sins, his shechitah is kosher" - a person who knowingly and openly transgresses other sins, forbidden relations for example, and everyone knows that he feels no shame about it at all, his shechitah is kosher. We do not even need to examine his knife; we rely on him and eat from what he slaughtered.
So it turns out that regarding the laws of shechitah, public Shabbos desecration is as severe as idolatry, while an apostate regarding forbidden relations is not nearly as severe. And nevertheless, "ואפילו הכי פיקוח נפש דוחה שבת ולא גילוי עריות" - "and even so, saving a life overrides Shabbos and not forbidden relations." When life is at stake the rules reverse: it is specifically Shabbos that gives way, and forbidden relations do not. We cannot say, then, that Shabbos is always lighter than forbidden relations and that this is why saving a life overrides it. The rules shift from one matter to another.
And what emerges from this whole discussion? "אלא דגזירת הכתוב הוא" - "rather, it is a decree of Scripture." This is what the Holy One decreed and determined: here the halachah gives way, and here it does not. It does not hinge on severity and leniency, but on what actually happens at the moment of the transgression, and from the standpoint of G-d's will the very same thing happens in every transgression: a disconnection from the Holy One. That is the question and that is the answer the Alter Rebbe arrived at, and that is what we learned in the previous section: that there is no difference between one matter and another.
Still, an important clarification is needed. Although with respect to the disconnection all transgressions are equal, there nevertheless is a difference between one transgression and another. And that difference is not at the moment of the act - when a person stumbles there is no difference between a small sin and a great one, it is the very same severance - rather the difference reveals itself after the act, once he has finished the sin he committed.
The difference lies between the severance that is created and the blemish that is made. From the standpoint of the severance there is no difference between one sin and another, but from the standpoint of the blemish left in the soul at the moment of severance, in some cases the blemish is more severe and in some cases lighter. And so there are matters in which a person stumbles in something small, some clause in Shulchan Aruch, and he can do teshuvah quickly and return to his place, and "he does not move from there until he is forgiven"; and there are matters where, after the severance, the return is a longer process, and there are even matters for which Yom Kippur alone does not suffice. But all of this is after the act, and it does not mean that at the moment of the act there was any difference. At the moment of the act it is all one and the same.
And this is how the chapter concludes, in the Alter Rebbe's words: "אלא שלאחר מעשה החטא, אם היא מעבירות שאין בהן כרת ומיתה בידי שמים, שאין נפשו האלקית מתה לגמרי ונכרתת משרשה באלקים חיים, רק שנפגם קצת דביקותה ואחיזתה בשרשה בחטא זה" - "only that after the act of the sin, if it is among the transgressions that do not carry kares or death at the hands of Heaven, his G-dly soul does not die entirely and become severed from its root in the living G-d; rather, its cleaving and its grip on its root are somewhat blemished by this sin."
What is "kares"?
In Iggeres HaTeshuvah the Alter Rebbe explains that the bond between the soul and the Creator is compared in the verse to a rope, as it says, "Yaakov is the rope of His inheritance." Just as a rope is woven of 613 fine threads, so the soul is bound to the Creator through the 613 mitzvos. Every sin creates a severance, and "kares" means that the severance occurs in the rope as a whole. Therefore, in a sin that carries kares the blemish is very severe and retying the bond is a far harder process; but in transgressions that do not carry kares or death at the hands of Heaven, his G-dly soul has not been entirely severed from its root.
And here something must be added. Even a person who has transgressed a sin carrying kares has not, G-d forbid, been entirely severed, for had he been entirely severed he would have left the community of Israel. Chassidus explains that there are two levels in the soul: the level of "Yaakov," and the deeper level of "Yisrael." The severance created by kares is on the level of "Yaakov" - and indeed the metaphor of the rope is stated about "Yaakov is the rope of His inheritance." But on the level of "Yisrael," which is a deeper point, kares severs nothing at all. This is the meaning of the well known expression, "A Jew, even though he has sinned, remains a Jew."
The Alter Rebbe himself writes this with a detailed explanation in Likkutei Torah, in the well known maamar "Ani LeDodi VeDodi Li" on the month of Elul: even a person who committed such a sin that he was separated and entirely severed from his root, through a single thought of teshuvah he returns and cleaves to his root again. And he brings an analogy there: it is as if a medicine were found that could reattach a body to a head after it had been severed. In physical medicine no such ability has yet been found, but in spiritual terms this ability exists. On this he cites the verse, "For my father and my mother have forsaken me, and G-d will gather me in": "my father and my mother" are levels within G-dliness, and relative to them kares has indeed taken place - "they have forsaken me." But relative to the name Havayah, "and G-d will gather me in": the awakening of teshuvah reattaches the Jew to his root anew.
In Tanya, however, the Alter Rebbe does not enter here into the distinction between the level of "Yaakov" and the level of "Yisrael." He makes a general distinction between sins that carry kares, where one is entirely severed from his root, and sins that do not carry kares, where he is not entirely severed, "רק שנפגם קצת דביקותה ואחיזתה בשרשה בחטא זה" - "only that its cleaving and its grip on its root are somewhat blemished by this sin." Through the sin a smaller blemish and severance is created in the cleaving and the grip between his soul and its root.
And the awakening to teshuvah is already what returns a person to his root, and that is genuine teshuvah - even though it does not in itself cleanse the blemish, and there is still a process of cleansing afterward. As the Alter Rebbe writes in Iggeres HaTeshuvah, the mitzvah of teshuvah from the Torah is leaving the sin behind: the very decision to abandon the sin is already the Torah's mitzvah of teshuvah, and although there are further details involved, in essence the matter has already taken effect.
In summary: in this section we learned that the permission to desecrate Shabbos in order to save a life does not stem from human reasoning but from a decree of Scripture, and it is not because Shabbos is lighter. The Alter Rebbe proves this from the laws of shechitah, where one who is an apostate regarding public Shabbos desecration has the same status as an apostate regarding idolatry, whereas one who is an apostate regarding the other transgressions, forbidden relations among them, has kosher shechitah and we do not even examine his knife. From the standpoint of being disconnected from the Holy One there is no difference between the transgressions, and the difference between them reveals itself only after the act: in transgressions that do not carry kares or death at the hands of Heaven the cleaving and grip on the root are only slightly blemished, while in transgressions that carry kares the blemish is severe and the return is harder. And even there, a single thought of teshuvah restores the Jew and attaches him to his root, and leaving the sin behind is the Torah's mitzvah of teshuvah.
In the next section we will begin chapter 25 and continue with the Alter Rebbe's explanation.