In the previous section we examined the event of mattan Torah and the revelation that took place there. Now let us look closely at the Alter Rebbe's wording, for he writes that immediately after mattan Torah the Jewish people were commanded to build a Mishkan.
«מיד אמר להם לעשות משכן» - «Immediately He told them to make a Mishkan»:
What does «immediately» mean here? The word indicates genuine adjacency, one thing right after the other. According to the Zohar it was in fact immediate; and even according to the Ramban, who holds that Moshe Rabbeinu did not actually convey the command to them until after the sin of the golden calf, in any case it was said to Moshe Rabbeinu immediately.
And what is the Mishkan? On the one hand it is a physical place in the world, and in that physical place there is an absolute revelation of the Shechinah. This was precisely the problem at mattan Torah: the moment the Jewish people experienced a revelation of the Shechinah upon their physical bodies, their souls flew out of them. So the Holy One told them: now I will command you to build a physical place, and in it I will rest permanently, and it will provide the power to draw from the Mishkan energies even into ordinary daily life, to permeate one's awareness, one's essence and one's soul with bittul, self-nullification before Hashem.
In the words of the Tanya: «מיד אמר להם לעשות לו משכן ובו קדשי הקדשים להשראת שכינתו, שהוא גילוי ייחודו יתברך» (“Immediately He told them to make Him a Sanctuary, and in it a Holy of Holies for the indwelling of His Shechinah, which is the revelation of His blessed Unity”). In the Mishkan there was a Holy of Holies, the most sanctified place for the indwelling of His Presence, where the Shechinah rested in a revealed and complete manner and the unity of Hashem was openly seen, «כמו שכתוב לקמן» (“as is explained later on”), in chapter 53, where the Alter Rebbe discusses at length the levels of revelation and of the indwelling of the Shechinah that were in the Holy of Holies.
And why did the command to build the Mishkan come immediately after mattan Torah? Because this is the whole purpose: the Creator wants a dwelling for Himself in the world, He wants the Shechinah to rest within the world. And since at the time of mattan Torah itself the Jewish people were not capable of being vessels for such a revelation, they were told to build a Mishkan.
And once the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed:
In the meantime we are still waiting for the Beis HaMikdash to be built, and every morning we ask «יהי רצון מלפניך שייבנה בית המקדש», may it be Your will that the Beis HaMikdash be rebuilt. But as long as it has not been built, from where does a Jew draw the strength to internalize an awareness of Hashem's unity? On this the Alter Rebbe continues: «ומשחרב בית המקדש אין להקב"ה בעולמו משכן ומכון לשבתו, הוא ייחודו יתברך, אלא ארבע אמות של הלכה» (“And since the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash, the Holy One has in His world no sanctuary and no place of dwelling, that is, of His blessed Unity, other than the four cubits of halachah”). After the churban there is no place of which one can say that it is a dwelling and a seat for the revelation of Hashem's unity, other than the four cubits of halachah.
When a Jew learns halachah, he is learning the will of Hashem, and in the halachos the Creator's will is found in a revealed way: «רצונו וחכמתו המלובשים בהלכות הערוכות לפנינו» (“His will and His wisdom, which are clothed in the halachos set out before us”). The Divine wisdom clothes itself in the halachos as they are laid out before us in the Shulchan Aruch. Whoever wants to know where the Creator's will is to be found should learn His Torah. It is Torah study that gives a Jew the ability and the strength to connect with the unity of Hashem and with the inner awareness contained in the Divine will.
From here to the practical conclusion:
Here is where it all comes together. We said that a Jew must arrive at a recognition of Hashem's unity. We looked upward and saw the Avos, the prophets, Moshe Rabbeinu, the Jewish people at the moment of mattan Torah, and the generations after them who had a Mishkan and a Beis HaMikdash, and after all of that, we are left feeling small and shriveled. From what will we receive, and where could we possibly find such power? In Torah, in the study of halachah. Therefore, after a person has thought deeply, as far as he is able, about the matter of bittul, the level of bittul that the Avos had, that the prophets had, that Moshe Rabbeinu had, that existed in the Mishkan and at the Giving of the Torah at Sinai, and the thought rises in his heart: where am I in this whole picture? They are giants, and what am I? Then «זאת ישיב אל לבו» (“let him reflect thus in his heart”):
«כי מהיות קטן שכלי ושורש נשמתי מאין להיות מרכבה ומשכן לייחודו יתברך באמת לאמיתו» (“Since my intellect and the root of my soul are too small for me to be a merkavah, a chariot, and a dwelling for His blessed Unity in absolute truth”). My intellect is small, and I cannot reach such levels and such comprehension; and even the root of my soul is small, so that even if my mind were of the broadest kind I would not reach such depth. It is not in my power for my mind to be a true dwelling for Hashem, to become bittul like a merkavah. «מאחר דלית מחשבה דילי תפיסא ומשגת בו יתברך כלל וכלל» (“since no thought of mine can grasp or apprehend Him at all”). My thought has no capacity whatsoever to grasp or comprehend His blessed Unity, and I have no ability at all to internalize and recognize the unity of Hashem, «ולא שמץ מנהו» (“not even a trace of it”), not even the smallest spark of what the Avos and the prophets attained.
Does it follow, then, that because a person cannot reach the level of the Avos and the prophets he has no part in this at all, and all that is left for him is to learn about it and look on from a distance as though it were history, to envy their greatness and feel that he is simply incapable?
To this the Alter Rebbe answers: «אי לזאת - אעשה לו משכן ומכון לשבתו, הוא העסק בתלמוד תורה» (“Therefore, I will make Him a sanctuary and a place of dwelling, namely, occupying myself with Torah study”). A person cannot be what they were, but he can be what he is: he can build a sanctuary for the Creator inside himself. When he sits and learns Torah, he brings the Holy One into his mind and into his heart, and he becomes a merkavah for the Creator according to his own capacity.
«כפי הפנאי, בקביעות עתים ביום ובלילה, כדת הניתנה לכל אחד ואחד בהלכות תלמוד תורה» (“according to the free time at his disposal, with fixed times by day and by night, as prescribed for every individual in Hilchos Talmud Torah”). In Hilchos Talmud Torah there is an address for every kind of person, each according to his ability: from one extreme, «והגית בו יומם ולילה», you shall meditate on it day and night, in its literal sense, all the way to the minimum, as Chazal say, «אפילו פרק אחד שחרית ופרק אחד ערבית» (“even one chapter in the morning and one chapter in the evening”). Someone who toils hard for his livelihood and is not capable of more should learn one chapter in the morning and one chapter in the evening.
And what does «according to the free time at his disposal» mean? There is an obligation in the morning and an obligation in the evening, but the amount is set according to one's capacity: it may be that his available time allows five minutes in the morning and five minutes in the evening; it may be half an hour; and it may be two hours. The main thing is that the time he has set for himself, whether little or much, he actually seizes and devotes to Torah, and that is kevius ittim, fixed times for learning.
Kevius ittim: fixed in time and fixed in the soul:
It is well known that the Rebbe said many times that kevius ittim must be a kevius in time and a kevius in the soul. It is not enough for a person to set aside a quarter of an hour in the morning and a quarter of an hour in the evening (and it is proper for each person to consult his mashpia or rav as to whether that really is the measure of his ability, since a person can be biased in this matter and may well be capable of more). The kevius must also be fixed in his soul, so that this is the time and he does not budge from it. The moment a person sets that quarter of an hour, a thousand and one disturbances will appear precisely at that hour, and everything in the world will come forward to argue that it is impossible, that this is not the time. That is why a kevius in the soul is needed, one that will not move.
During the time he has set, a person should feel that he is building a sanctuary for Hashem, «ובזה ישמח לבו ויגיל וייתן הודאה על חלקו» (“and in this his heart should rejoice and be glad, and he should give thanks for his portion”). Let him rejoice in that quarter of an hour, or hour, or two hours, each person according to his available time, and let him thank Hashem for the portion he has received, for the gift and the ability the Holy One has given him to fill his time with one chapter in the morning and one chapter in the evening «בשמחה וטוב לבב» (“with joy and gladness of heart”).
And over what is he to rejoice? «על שזכה להיות אושפיזין לגבורה פעמים בכל יום» (“that he has merited to be a host to the Almighty twice each day”). «Aushpizin» means a host, as we know from the aushpizin of Sukkos, when guests come to visit. This person has merited to host the Holy One with him, in his mind and in his home, and twice every single day. If a man were informed that the king himself was coming to him at a set hour each day to drink a cup of tea, he would look forward to that hour and clear away all his other affairs in order to host the king. The King is coming to him, and that is reason to rejoice, «כפי העת והפנאי שלו, כמידת ידו אשר הרחיב ה' לו» (“according to his time and his leisure, according to the measure that Hashem has granted him”). «According to his time» means morning or evening, and «according to his leisure» means how much free time he has at that time, a quarter of an hour or half an hour, each person according to the time and the ability the Creator has given him.
It is worth noting that the two dots that appear here in the Tanya are not an addition inserted by the printer; they are a mark that the Alter Rebbe himself placed when he wrote the chapter.
In summary: In this section we learned that immediately after mattan Torah the Jewish people were commanded regarding the Mishkan, a physical place in which the Shechinah would rest in a revealed way, containing a Holy of Holies that is the revelation of His blessed Unity. This was because at mattan Torah itself their souls flew out of them and they were not vessels for such a revelation. Once the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed, the Holy One has no sanctuary and no dwelling place in His world other than the four cubits of halachah, in which His will and His wisdom are clothed. From here comes the practical conclusion: although a person cannot be a merkavah and a dwelling in absolute truth as the Avos and the prophets were, since his thought cannot grasp or apprehend Him at all, it is nevertheless in his power to make Him a sanctuary and a dwelling place through occupying himself with Torah study according to his available time, with fixed times by day and by night, a kevius in time and a kevius in the soul, and to rejoice and give thanks that he has merited to be a host to the Almighty twice every day.
In the next section we will continue with the Alter Rebbe's words following this mark in the chapter.