In the previous part we worked through the analogy the Alter Rebbe brings in chapter 32. Here we return to it and see how it lights up the path to a genuine ahavas Yisroel. When you look at a child you see a head and you see a foot, something greater and something lesser; but the Alter Rebbe directs us not to look at what appears down here, but at their root and source "באלוקים חיים" ("in the living G-d").
Looking at the root, in three stages:
In the mother's womb: there one does not see greater and lesser, and "מי יודע גדולתן ומעלתן" ("who knows which is greater and loftier"). The Gemara describes that things there are not as they appear outside: what is open outside is closed there, and what is closed outside is open there. The brain is less active there, while the digestive organs are more active.
In the father's drop: there there is no head, hand or foot at all - "כולן מתאימות" ("they are all alike").
In the father's mind: a level higher still - "אב אחד לכולנה" ("one father to them all"), where there are no details whatsoever.
Exactly so in the nimshal, in the souls of Israel. True, each and every soul came down into a separate body, and between one body and another there is no connection at all; but that is the situation only after the descent below. That is not what one should be contemplating. Contemplate instead the root from which they all came.
Where the analogy and its lesson part ways:
In the analogy, you cannot turn the wheel back. There is a well known story about the Alter Rebbe in this connection. In the first period after his marriage his mother-in-law gave him a very hard time, because she could not tolerate his unusual conduct and did not understand his ways: the lengthy davening and the rest of his far from ordinary practices. Years later, once his name was known as a great man and a leader with many chassidim, his mother-in-law came to him and begged him to return to her home. The Alter Rebbe answered her: while a fetus is in its mother's womb it is extremely well off there, but once it has left, it can no longer go back inside.
In other words: in the analogy, a person was once in his mother's womb, was once a drop, and was once in his father's mind, but all of that was and is no more. In the nimshal, by contrast, we are not speaking of the past but of the present. Every single person's soul, and all the souls together, are bound in their root right now as well, and right now too "אב אחד לכולנה" - one father to them all. This is a bond that exists always, and the only question is what you choose to look at.
Someone who looks only at the external body and does not see the inner truth sees himself as cut off from his fellow. But one who recognizes that the soul is the essential thing, even if he climbs no higher than the level of "אלוקים חיים," which corresponds to the mother's womb in the analogy, already has no reason to look down at his fellow from above, for there "מי יודע גדולתן ומעלתן" - who knows who is the greater and who the lesser? Therefore it is fitting that he love him and join himself to him. And all the more so one who manages to contemplate the level of "כולן מתאימות," where all are one; while at the level of "אב אחד לכולנה" there are no details at all, and we are all literally one.
Accordingly, "ואהבת לרעך כמוך" ("love your fellow as yourself") means as yourself literally - your fellow is you. And higher still: even the comparison to a single body does not fully capture it, since a physical body is made up of distinct parts. The right hand is not the left hand, and although they are joined and connected and the same blood flows through both, in the end we are speaking of a body composed of limbs. With souls it is higher than a single body: these are not separate details that joined and bonded together, but literally one in their very essence. Someone who contemplates on this level will be able to love his fellow, because he is not looking at the other's body and externality but at the truth and the inwardness in him, and from the standpoint of that inwardness they truly are one.
What is "Elokim Chaim"?
It is worth being precise in the wording "שרשן ומקורן באלוקים חיים" ("their root and source is in the living G-d"). This expression appeared in Tanya only once before, in the Introduction, where the Alter Rebbe spoke of Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel, who disagreed from one extreme to the other, and nevertheless "אלו ואלו דברי אלוקים חיים" ("these and these are the words of the living G-d"). The implication is that on the level called "Elokim Chaim" there is still "these and these": there is a Beis Shammai and there is a Beis Hillel, there is division and there is difference, except that "who knows which is greater and loftier."
The maamarim of chassidus explain that each of the Creator's Names corresponds to a particular sefirah and level, and "Elokim Chaim" corresponds to the sefirah of binah. This adds to our understanding of the matter. We already learned in chapter 3 the difference between chochmah and binah through the analogy of father and mother: chochmah is the flash of the idea, the point, while binah is its expansion. In the father himself there are two levels, the father and the drop from the father's brain; whereas in the mother's womb the expansion takes place, the development of the limbs and the multiplication of details.
Therefore, when we speak of "their root and source in Elokim Chaim," the level of binah, this parallels the mother's womb in the analogy: there is a multiplicity of details there, there is greater and lesser, but "who knows which is greater and loftier." And when we speak of the level of the father, which is chochmah, we are speaking of a higher level: a point that contains no details.
We have no physical analogy for a point, since any point in physicality occupies area and space, even the smallest of points, and in truth there is no essential difference in physicality between a point and an expanse. But in spirituality a "point" does not mean something small; it means a level in which there are no details at all: a level where the details exist only in potential and do not yet exist in actuality. The level of "כולן מתאימות" is the level of the point, and "אב אחד לכולנה" is higher still: there are no details there and no multiplicity or division whatsoever, only the father alone.
"ולכן נקראו כל ישראל אחים ממש מצד שורש נפשם בה' אחד, רק שהגופים מחולקים" ("therefore all Israel are called literal brothers, by virtue of the root of their souls in the One G-d, and only the bodies are divided"). From the standpoint of "one father to them all" there is no multiplicity and no division, and we are all a single point. This is why the Torah refers to one's fellow with the word "אחיך," your brother, in so many verses. Why is he your brother? Because the two of you have one father. The bodies are divided, but at the inner point we are all one point.
We find something similar with regard to the love of G-d. We learned in chapter 18 that every Jew, even the lightest of the light, is ready to give up his life for kiddush Hashem, because from the standpoint of the truth within him the love of G-d is already present in him; it is just that for it to come out into the open he needs contemplation and a great deal of avodah. So too with ahavas Yisroel: in essence we are all one, "one father to them all," all a single point with no division at all; but to reveal that and to feel it actively in this world, that is avodah. The Jew's work is to learn what is primary and what is secondary in his life, and to know that the soul is the primary thing and not the body. And from the standpoint of the soul, which is primary, all Israel are literally brothers: there is no "I" and no "he," but one essence.
One question remains. The Alter Rebbe climbs level by level: "Elokim Chaim," then "they are all alike," then "one father to them all." Why did he not go straight to the highest level and simply say that one must love his fellow because "one father to them all," and be done with it? What do the preceding levels add? We will leave the explanation of this for the next part.
The conclusion of the chapter:
"ולכן העושים גופם עיקר ונפשם טפלה - אי אפשר להיות ביניהם אהבה ואחוה אמיתית אלא התלויה בדבר לבדה" ("therefore, among those who make their bodies primary and their souls secondary, there can be no true love and brotherhood, only a love dependent on something"). For one whose body is primary and whose soul is secondary, the reverse of how it ought to be, true love between them is impossible under any circumstances; at most there can be a love that is dependent on something.
The reason: when the body is primary, the body takes up space and crowds out the other person's place. There is the well known story of the Jew who came to the Tzemach Tzedek and complained, "Rebbe, I come to shul and everyone tramples on me." The Rebbe answered him, "If you don't spread yourself out over the entire shul, they won't trample on you." That is, from the standpoint of the body, one person's very presence gets in the way of another's.
By contrast, "love your fellow as yourself" in its true sense, "as yourself" literally, is possible only on condition that the soul is primary and the body secondary.
To summarize: in this part we completed the Alter Rebbe's analogy and examined the three levels in the root: the mother's womb ("who knows which is greater and loftier"), the father's drop ("they are all alike") and the father's mind ("one father to them all"). We saw that unlike the analogy, where the wheel does not turn back, in the nimshal the bond at the root of the souls exists even now. We were precise about the term "Elokim Chaim," the level of binah, in which there is still "these and these," as opposed to the level of the father, which is chochmah, a point containing no details; and from here, that "all Israel are called literal brothers," since only the bodies are divided. Finally we learned that just as the love of G-d lies hidden in every Jew and requires avodah to be revealed, so too ahavas Yisroel, and that among "those who make their bodies primary and their souls secondary" there can be nothing more than a love dependent on something.
In the next part we will review these points and expand on them, address the question of why the climb from level to level is necessary, and above all see how one actually does this in practice.