In the previous section we studied the Alter Rebbe's words about receiving suffering with joy. To get to the root of the matter, we first need a foundation in the name Havayah and its letters.
The Four Letters of the Name Havayah:
It is well known that the name Havayah has four letters, and that within them is hinted the entire order of hishtalshelus, the chain of descent through which creation comes into being: the ten sefiros, the four worlds, and a great many other allusions besides. One of the most striking points is that these four letters divide into two groups:
Yud-Hei - the first two letters, the aspect of what is covered and concealed.
Vav-Hei - the last two letters, the aspect of revelation.
These letters are mirrored in the soul of man as well (we have already dealt with this at length in earlier lessons, and this is not the place to repeat all of it):
Yud is chochmah, and the first hei is binah. These two letters are the world of the mind.
Vav corresponds to the six middos, the emotional attributes: the vav is shaped like a line drawing downward, and its numerical value is six. This is the heart, the realm of feeling.
The final hei corresponds to speech.
Feeling and speech are the revealed side, and this is true in the simplest sense as well. When a person sits and contemplates, he contemplates privately, within himself. If someone comes over and starts talking to him in the middle of his contemplation, it disturbs him; a person who wants to concentrate looks for a quiet corner where he can be alone. Chochmah and binah are a person's inner work, and therefore they are hidden from everyone around him. Emotion, by contrast, is expressed toward another, and speech too is directed to another. So chochmah and binah, which are yud-hei, are the concealed part, while the middos and speech, which are vav-hei, are the revealed part.
This is why the letters yud-hei are called alma d'iskasya, the concealed world, while the letters vav-hei are called alma d'isgalya, the revealed world. There is a hint to this in the verse "הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו והנגלות לנו ולבנינו" ("The hidden things belong to Hashem our G-d, and the revealed things to us and to our children"). In chassidus the word "והנגלות" is read as vav-hei niglos: the letters vav and hei are the part that is revealed, while "the hidden things" are the higher part, yud-hei. It is worth adding that yud-hei is a holy name in its own right, an exceedingly lofty divine level, whereas vav-hei is not a name on its own.
The Source of the Flow That Descends Into the World:
The Alter Rebbe teaches that the divine flow that descends into the world passes through these four letters. A flow that descends from the aspect of vav-hei is a revealed, measured flow, one that a created being is capable of containing. But a flow that descends from the aspect of yud-hei is on an incomparably higher level, and the creation is simply no vessel for it at all; it is so high that he cannot even grasp what he is dealing with. In the Alter Rebbe's words, suffering comes "מעלמא דאתכסיא שלמעלה מעלמא דאתגליא" ("from the concealed world, which is higher than the revealed world"). The revealed world is the vav-hei of the name Havayah, blessed be He, while in the concealed world it is yud-hei, which is far loftier.
And so we say to a Jew who is receiving suffering: know that right now you have received a flow from a higher world, and precisely because of that it registers with you as suffering, though in truth it is something far loftier. Here everything depends on a person's spiritual and inner level. Someone who knows how to recognize G-dliness, and to sense that his suffering is nothing other than an illumination from a higher level, relates to it in an entirely different way: as someone to whom the secrets of the inner chamber have just been revealed, who has been given what no one else is given.
To what may this be compared? A person who does not know how to appreciate the greatness of the king says: I am not asking for your inner treasures, the crumbs you hand out to everyone outside are enough for me. But one who does recognize the king's greatness says: the king has now allowed me into his private chamber, and even though the matter is deep and I do not know how to grasp it, there is no greater gift than this. This is what is hinted at in the verse "אשרי הגבר אשר תיסרנו י-ה" ("Fortunate is the man whom You chasten, Y-ah"). Suffering comes specifically from the aspect of yud-hei, for from the aspect of vav-hei, which is revelation, there is no suffering at all. "Fortunate" - fortunate is the one who merits to receive the secrets, and one who receives suffering has received the secrets.
And here lies a person's avodah: to relate to his situation as a revelation he has received from a higher level. This is why our Sages of blessed memory spoke of "השמחים בייסורים" ("those who rejoice in suffering"); the joy is the test. One who does not recognize that the King Himself is speaking to him cannot rejoice, and immediately cries out: why did You send me this? But one who recognizes that he has just received the hidden, lofty divine revelation rejoices: the King in His own glory did not send me some minor official to speak with me in a language I can follow; He chose to speak with me directly. I do not understand the language, but the speech is direct.
We Do Not Ask for Suffering:
Even so, a person must never ask for suffering, and he should daven that it not come upon him at all. The reason is simple: a person is no vessel for such a revelation, and he does not know whether he will withstand the difficulty, how he will react, or what will become of him. There is a hint to this in the Neilah prayer of Yom Kippur: "ואוצרך הטוב לנו תפתח". In the Alter Rebbe's siddur the punctuation differs from what appears elsewhere: not "and Your good treasury, open for us," but "and Your treasury that is good for us, open." The Alter Rebbe wants to stress that everything that comes from the Holy One, blessed be He, is good, and there is no room to ask that He give specifically from His good treasury. The request is "Your treasury that is good for us" - good that it should be good for us as well, good that we should not have to believe it is good, but should actually feel that it is good.
Therefore we do not wish suffering on anyone. Just the opposite: to a person who has suffering we wish a refuah sheleimah, and we look for every possible way to ease his situation. The attitude of "rejoicing in suffering" is directed at the past, at suffering that has already happened, so that a person should know that he received personal, intimate attention from the Holy One, blessed be He, a far loftier revelation, which registered as suffering only because he is no vessel to receive it.
"And Those Who Love Him Are Like the Sun Going Forth in Its Might":
What is the reward of one who rejoices in suffering? Of those who rejoice in suffering our Sages said that the verse says about them "ואוהביו כצאת השמש בגבורתו" ("and those who love Him are like the sun going forth in its might"). Who are "those who love Him"? One who does not rejoice in suffering is not called a lover of the Holy One, blessed be He, but a lover of himself, who loves that things should be good for him. But one who rejoices in suffering is a lover of the King, and he knows that he has just received something from the King Himself.
It is a known principle that every reward is of a piece with the deed and a direct outcome of it, so we need to understand the connection between "those who love Him" and "the sun going forth in its might." The sun is a mashal for divine revelation, but the world cannot receive the sun without its sheath, without the covering that protects it, for were the sun to shine in full revelation the world would be burned up. As the verse says, "כי שמש ומגן ה' אלוקים" ("for a sun and a shield are Hashem Elokim"): the name Havayah is the sun, and the name Elokim is the shield and the concealment. A person who receives an ordinary flow, one he can digest and contain within himself, has received the sun together with its covering. One who receives suffering has received the sun without any covering, and that is why it burns.
Measure for measure with the person: if he received it with love and with joy, his reward is that the divine revelation of the future to come will come to him "like the sun going forth in its might," in its full intensity and with no concealment, and he will be a vessel able to contain it.
And finally, what is the root of that joy? It is not that a person is happy about the suffering itself. The joy flows from the fact that he knows what G-dliness is, and knows that everything he receives he receives from the Holy One, blessed be He, and that when it comes as suffering he is receiving it from a higher closeness. The joy comes from loving closeness to Hashem more than all the life of this world: at the time of suffering he does not have the life of this world, but he does have divine closeness. One who is able to rejoice in that has reached a tremendous level, a lofty level of soul, in which he knows how to translate suffering into closeness and to rejoice in it. The Alter Rebbe is giving us here the tools to do exactly that, and his desire is that every person should reach it.
In summary: In this section we learned about the division of the four letters of the name Havayah: yud-hei, chochmah and binah, the alma d'iskasya, and vav-hei, the middos and speech, the alma d'isgalya. A flow descending from vav-hei is revealed and measured, and the created being can contain it, while a flow descending from yud-hei is too lofty for a person to contain, and therefore registers with him as suffering. This is "Fortunate is the man whom You chasten, Y-ah." From here comes the avodah of rejoicing in suffering, the recognition that the King Himself is turning to a person from His inner chamber, and alongside it the emphasis that one must not ask for suffering but for a refuah sheleimah, as reflected in the precise punctuation in the Alter Rebbe's siddur, "and Your treasury that is good for us, open." The reward of one who rejoices in suffering is measure for measure: "and those who love Him are like the sun going forth in its might," a revelation of the sun without its sheath, which he will be a vessel to receive.
In the next section we will continue with the Alter Rebbe's words in chapter 26 and with the practical avodah that is demanded of a person in the matter of joy.