Continuing from what we have been learning: when a person performs a mitzvah he creates a connection with Elokus, G-dliness, with his soul, with his body and with his garments (thought, speech and deed), and the connection he creates is eternal.
It may well be, as will be explained in the lines ahead, that here in this world the person stopped and moved on to other matters: he drifted into idle talk, he closed his sefer, he is no longer occupied with the mitzvah, and at that moment he no longer feels the wondrous thing he accomplished five minutes ago. But the deed has not ended. It is eternal, and it is in his hands to return to it at any moment. When he does teshuvah and reconnects to the Creator, he reconnects as well to that very point he created, because it exists. Spiritually it exists all the time; it is only in his animal, physical sensation that there are ups and downs. He can return to it and he can, G-d forbid, run from it, but in its spiritual essence the connection is eternal and always present.
If a person would truly internalize this, he would not want to be disconnected for even one moment, and he would make every effort to forge this connection at every single moment, for what is at stake is an infinite, eternal bond with Elokus.
Even a person who performs a mitzvah without intention, as we have discussed on earlier occasions, the mitzvah exists. Certainly if he does it with kavanah the connection will be deeper and far more powerful, and there are levels within this: even one who acted with depth and intention will be surpassed by another who acts with greater intention, and so on without end. Nevertheless, the very act itself creates the bond.
So much so, that an example is brought of a man from whose pocket a coin fell, and he does not even know that it fell and has already given up on it, and the coin found its way into the hands of someone in need who used it for his needs. That man is considered to have fulfilled the mitzvah of tzedakah even without his knowledge: a Jew was sustained from his money, and he fulfilled a mitzvah. Even with no awareness at all, an infinite connection to Elokus was created here.
In the words of the Alter Rebbe: "ויחוד זה למעלה" ("and this union above"), the oneness formed between the person and Elokus. It was formed down here, with his body and with his garments, and down below it has interruptions; but above, "הוא נצחי לעולם ועד" ("it is eternal, forever and ever"). The union created at one particular point in time is eternal. Why? "כי הוא יתברך ורצונו למעלה מהזמן" ("for He, blessed be He, and His will are above time").
Recall the example we brought from the intellect: intellect is above time. One plus one equals two, today and tomorrow, in darkness and in light, in the Land and outside the Land, and it does not depend on one's age. Elokus is surely above time, and consequently a connection to Elokus does not stand or fall with time. It is not a matter of "today yes and tomorrow no," but something true in its very essence, and therefore what was created here, in essence, is a bond that is eternal.
"וכן גילוי רצונו שבדבורו שהיא התורה הוא נצחי" ("and likewise the revelation of His will in His speech, which is the Torah, is eternal"). When a person learns one line of Torah, he is learning the word of Hashem as He is saying it right now. One cannot say: the Holy One said this thousands of years ago, what have I to do with learning something old? He said it then and He is saying it today, and that utterance is eternal. The words of G-d are eternal, and right at this moment it is mattan Torah, right at this moment the words are being spoken in exactly the same way.
As the prophet Yeshayahu says: "וכמ"ש ודבר אלקינו יקום לעולם" ("as it is written: 'and the word of our G-d shall stand forever'"). The commentators on Scripture apply this verse to the words of the prophets, that whatever the prophets say is the word of G-d, and therefore it "shall stand forever" and is eternal. The Alter Rebbe gives here an interpretation that reaches considerably further than the commentators: even words said in the Oral Torah, and even everything that a veteran student is destined to innovate, every word written in Torah is "the word of our G-d" being spoken right now, and it "shall stand forever."
"ודבריו חיים וקיימים כו'" ("and His words are living and enduring"). This is the wording we say every morning in the blessing of "Emes veyatziv" among the blessings of Krias Shema, and likewise in the text of "Yigdal Elokim Chai": "ולא יחליף ולא ימיר דתו לעולמים כו'" ("He will not alter nor exchange His law for all eternity"). The words of G-d are eternal at all times, and consequently when a person connects to the word of G-d, he connects to eternity and he connects to eternality at every moment.
"אלא שלמטה הוא תחת הזמן" ("only that below, it is under time"). We are creatures of time, and we fulfill the mitzvah within a particular slot of time, and therefore we feel the connection "ובאותה שעה לבדה שעוסק בה בתורה או במצוה" ("and only during that hour alone when he is engaged in Torah or in a mitzvah"). At the moment a person places tefillin on his arm he senses that a bond with the Divine will has been formed here, and once he removes the tefillin, seemingly the matter is over.
But if, after removing the tefillin, the person moves on to the next mitzvah, continues learning Torah and goes from one matter to another, then nothing has ended at all. The connection remains the whole time; he is simply carrying it forward, according to the will of the Creator, from one matter to the next. And even one who goes off to his work, since this is the will of the Creator, and he conducts himself according to the Torah's instructions in business dealings, in honesty and the like, has not disconnected in the least. He is continuing the connection in a different form.
"כי אחר כך, אם עוסק בדבר אחר, נפרד מהיחוד העליון למטה" ("for afterwards, if he occupies himself with something else, he becomes separated from the supernal union down below"), meaning, when he occupies himself with something that cuts him off at that moment from the Divine oneness here below, "והיינו שעוסק בדברים בטלים לגמרי שאין בהם צורך כלל לעבודת ה'" ("that is, when he occupies himself with matters that are completely idle, in which there is no need at all for the service of Hashem").
The Rebbe notes the precision in the wording "completely idle matters in which there is no need at all for the service of Hashem": the implication is that there are idle matters in which there is a need. A person speaking with a colleague at work about business matters is not speaking words of Torah, and perhaps these are idle words, yet there is a need for them and they are part of a process he is obligated in. As long as he is engaged in things in which there is a need for the service of Hashem, he continues the connection on one level or another; but if he engages in things in which there is no need whatsoever for the service of Hashem, aimless talk with no meaning at all, at that moment a disconnect is created.
And where is that disconnect created? Only here below. Above, in the spiritual worlds, on the spiritual plane, the disconnect does not exist at all; but below, in the person's own sensation, in his time and in his small world, a disconnect is created, since he has moved on to something else.
How does a person turn the wheel back? "ואף על פי כן, כשחוזר ושב לעבודת ה' אחר כך לתורה ולתפלה, ומבקש מחילה מה' על שהיה אפשר לו לעסוק אז בתורה ולא עסק - ה' יסלח לו" ("and nevertheless, when he afterwards returns to the service of Hashem, to Torah and to prayer, and asks forgiveness of Hashem for having been able to occupy himself with Torah then and not having done so, Hashem will forgive him"). The person suddenly realizes that he has disconnected from the bond, he regrets the disconnect and wants to come back, and when he genuinely decides to return, the Holy One immediately restores the situation to what it was, "כמאמר רז"ל: עבר על מצוות עשה ושב - לא זז משם עד שמוחלין לו" ("as our Sages said: one who transgressed a positive commandment and repented does not move from there until he is forgiven"). And the meaning of "does not move from there" is not that he has to stay standing in his place, but that he needs no further action whatsoever: the instant he does teshuvah he is forgiven, and the forgiveness is immediate.
One point of precision in the Alter Rebbe's language: why did he add five words, "to the service of Hashem, afterwards, to Torah and to prayer"?
Seemingly he could have written it more briefly: "when he returns and asks forgiveness." What is he coming to teach us by saying that the person returns to the service of Hashem? It is obvious: if he does not return to the service of Hashem, what kind of teshuvah is that? As the well known expression puts it, "immersing while holding a sheretz," one who goes into the mikveh to purify himself from impurity while holding an impure creature in his hand and keeps holding it throughout the immersion gains no purification at all. So it is self evident that one who does teshuvah returns to the service of Hashem, to Torah and to prayer. Why add these words?
The Rebbe explains something fascinating: certainly, as far as teshuvah itself is concerned, this did not need to be said. Rather, the Alter Rebbe is adding a hint here. In the time when the Beis Hamikdash stood, a person who sinned and did teshuvah also had to bring a korban: teshuvah and a korban. Today, when the Beis Hamikdash has not yet been rebuilt, teshuvah still exists, and in place of the korban, prayer. This is why the Alter Rebbe stresses that one who repents needs prayer as well: that he pray to the Holy One and ask of Him that his teshuvah be accepted. And of course, in the Shemoneh Esrei there is the blessing of teshuvah and the blessing of "Selach lanu." Prayer is like the korban that completes the teshuvah. That is one point.
A further point: here we are speaking of a person whose problem was occupying himself with idle matters, or studying forbidden things and the like, and therefore it is not enough simply to do teshuvah; he must also clean up what he damaged. What is his rectification? One who damaged his mind must repair his mind, learn Torah and bring Torah into his mind. This is why the Alter Rebbe emphasizes both points, Torah and prayer: not merely to state the obvious, that one who does teshuvah returns to the service of Hashem, for that he would not have needed to write, but to hint that one who does teshuvah must remember that if the damage was in the mind he should learn Torah in order to repair it, and that prayer must always be there, for just as teshuvah once required a korban, so it requires prayer.
"ולזה תיקנו ברכת 'סלח לנו' שלוש פעמים בכל יום" ("and for this reason they instituted the blessing of 'Selach lanu' three times each day"). This can be explained in two ways:
Since in the innermost part of his heart, because of the ahavah mesuteres, the hidden love, a person wants to be constantly aroused to a renewed connection with Elokus, the Sages instituted that it be in his hands to ask forgiveness every few hours, in the three daily prayers.
Since the Holy One will always forgive him, the Sages gave him an opportunity to make use of this: Hashem forgives, and therefore they instituted asking forgiveness three times a day in the blessing of "Selach lanu."
[It is worth noting that the span of time between one prayer and the next is not fixed: a person can daven Minchah at 1:00 and Maariv at 11:00 at night, while on the other hand he can daven Shacharis at length and finish close to sunset, with Minchah immediately afterward and then Maariv, so that almost no time has passed at all. These things are said in a general way.]
In summary: in this section we learned that the connection created by performing a mitzvah is eternal, since He, blessed be He, and His will are above time, and likewise the Torah, the revelation of His will in His speech, is eternal, "and the word of our G-d shall stand forever," including even everything a veteran student is destined to innovate. Below, a person is under time, and therefore he feels the connection only during that hour alone when he is engaged in Torah or a mitzvah; one who occupies himself with things in which there is a need for the service of Hashem continues the connection, whereas one who occupies himself with completely idle matters becomes separated from the supernal union, below only. And when he returns to Torah and to prayer and asks forgiveness, he is forgiven immediately. Hence also the precision in mentioning Torah and prayer: prayer in place of the korban, and the study of Torah to repair the damage to the mind. And for this reason the Sages instituted the blessing of "Selach lanu" three times each day.
In the next section we will continue with the words of the Alter Rebbe in chapter 25.