In the previous section we studied chapter 2, where the Alter Rebbe explained the four worlds and the need for the heads of the generation. Now we go deeper into the question of what kind of bond a Jew has with the tzaddik: is it an inner connection or an external one? And what is the one and only way a Jew is bound to the Creator?
A precise reading of the plural: "the tzaddikim and the sages, the heads of Israel"
Look carefully at the Alter Rebbe's wording. He writes in the plural: "הצדיקים והחכמים ראשי בני ישראל" ("the tzaddikim and the sages, the heads of the children of Israel"). Are there many tzaddikim through whom the Jewish people are bound Above, or is there one head for all of Israel? The Rebbe gives an explanation here that opens the eyes.
Which matters more, the brain or the heart?
The Rebbe opens with a question about the human body: which is more important, the brain or the heart? The brain sits above, everything begins there, it is the head and the computer of the whole system. The heart pumps blood up to it, and without that the brain cannot function at all. Obviously every organ matters; the question is what kind of importance each one carries.
On one side, the Rambam writes that the king is "לב כל קהל ישראל" ("the heart of the entire congregation of Israel"): the king is the heart of the Jewish people. On the other side, Rebbe is an acronym for רֹאשׁ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, head of the children of Israel: a head, not a heart. So what is the difference between the job of the brain and the job of the heart, and how does that translate into "the heads of Israel" and "the tzaddikim" in the plural?
The difference between the two functions is fundamental:
The brain: its influence reaches the entire system, down to the fingernails, but it is not the same influence everywhere. To each limb it sends a different instruction: to the eye, sight; to the hands, writing and movement; to the legs, a movement of their own. It does not give everyone the same thing. Each limb receives its own personal message.
The heart: it pumps blood to every limb equally, and they all receive the identical thing from it. That is how circulation works: the heart sends blood out to all the organs, the blood returns and goes out again, and every organ, the brain included, receives blood. True, the brain receives the finer portion of it, but it is all one and the same blood.
The nimshal: the bond between a Jew and the Creator
In a certain sense the role of the heart is deeper and more important than the role of the brain, because in the bond between a Jew and the Creator there are two levels:
The point of connection itself: the sheer fact that he is bound to the Creator by virtue of being a Jew, with a yechida in his soul, what is called in Yiddish "dos pintele Yid," the point of Jewishness, the Jewish spark. This spark, however you choose to describe it, is exactly the same in everyone; there is no difference between one Jew and another. This point comes from the heart, which supplies every limb equally.
The bond built on learning and comprehension: how much a person studies, how much he knows, how much he grasps, which is at a different level in each individual. That he receives from the brain.
The same is true of the Jewish people. The Holy One planted within Israel a Rosh Bnei Yisrael. He is called a head, and he is also called a king, which is the function of a heart. He gives the Jewish people their inner bond with the Creator, the level at which all are equal, and of a heart like that there is only one. But those who teach Torah, who convey content and awaken feeling, there the influence varies: one gives mainly this, another gives mainly that. That is why even in the days of Moshe Rabbeinu we find Moshe Rabbeinu himself, and beneath him officers of thousands, officers of hundreds and officers of tens. The basic point comes from Moshe Rabbeinu; the particulars, in which one person differs from another, come from the heads of Israel.
Here the Alter Rebbe is speaking mainly about the "brain" dimension within the Jewish people, and that is why he writes in the plural, "הצדיקים והחכמים ראשי בני ישראל": they are the ones who supply the side that varies from person to person. But the Rosh Bnei Yisrael, the Moshe Rabbeinu of the generation, necessarily includes both qualities at once: he gives the heart and he gives the brain. There are those whose role is to give brain alone; Moshe Rabbeinu has both.
Moshe Rabbeinu: "melech" and "rabbeinu"
Moshe Rabbeinu is called "ויהי בישֻׁרון מלך" ("and he was a king in Yeshurun"): the man who is king in Yeshurun is Moshe. And he is also called "Moshe Rabbeinu," Moshe our teacher. What is the difference between the title "rabbeinu" and the title "melech"? They are two distinct functions:
"Rabbeinu": from the word rav, our teacher, the one who teaches us. His order of teaching came in stages: first he sat with Aharon alone, then his sons entered, then the others entered. Not everyone received at the same level or in the same measure.
"Melech": as king, everyone feels exactly the same thing. This is our king.
Here the Alter Rebbe is dealing mainly with the "rabbeinu" function, the function of the rav, and that is why he uses plural expressions: there can be many rabbanim, but there is only one king. It emerges, then, that there is no possibility whatsoever for a Jew to be bound to the Creator except by way of the brain and the head of the Jewish people. There is no other route; this is the only way.
"And with this we can understand the statement of our Sages"
The Alter Rebbe concludes: "ובזה יובן מאמר רבותינו ז"ל" ("and with this we can understand the statement of our Sages of blessed memory"), namely the Gemara in tractate Kesubos on the verse "לאהבה את ה' אלוקיך לשמוע בקולו ולדבקה בו כי הוא חייך ואורך ימיך" ("to love Hashem your G-d, to listen to His voice and to cleave to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days"). The Gemara brings this teaching both on the verse "and you who cleave to Hashem your G-d" and on this verse, and the Alter Rebbe chooses specifically the verse "ולדבקה בו." So too in halacha: the Rambam cites this second verse, and in the Midrashim as well the teaching is expounded mainly on this second verse.
The Gemara asks a simple question: what does "and to cleave to Him" mean? Is it possible for a human being to cleave to the Shechinah? And in the passage just before it the Gemara adds: after all, "כי ה' אלוקיך אש אוכלה הוא" ("for Hashem your G-d is a consuming fire"), so how can one cleave to fire?
The Alter Rebbe does not quote the Gemara verbatim; he summarizes it in his own words. The language of the Gemara is: "כל המשיא בתו לתלמיד חכם, והעושה פרקמטיא לתלמיד חכם, והמהנה תלמיד חכם מנכסיו" ("whoever marries off his daughter to a talmid chacham, or does business on behalf of a talmid chacham, or benefits a talmid chacham from his possessions"). The Rambam, when he cites the Gemara, adds a line of his own: "הוא מתחבר להם בכל מיני חיבור" ("he joins himself to them in every manner of joining"), meaning any way in which a person attaches and binds himself to a talmid chacham, even a way that looks entirely physical. About such a person the Gemara says "מעלה עליו הכתוב כאילו נדבק בשכינה" ("Scripture accounts it to him as though he cleaved to the Shechinah").
The Alter Rebbe sums it up: whoever cleaves to Torah scholars, Scripture accounts it to him as though he cleaved to the Shechinah "ממש" ("literally"). Here too he adds a word to the language of the Gemara, just as at the beginning of the chapter he added the word "mamash" to the phrase "חלק אלוקה ממעל" ("a portion of G-d above"). With this the Alter Rebbe is teaching us that cleaving to a talmid chacham is not some substitute arrangement that dilutes one's cleaving to the Creator, a kind of default setting for someone who cannot manage otherwise. It is meant literally: he cleaves to the Shechinah itself, and this is the way in which a person cleaves.
What is a "talmid chacham"?
The intent is not simply someone who knows a few books. In everyday speech we do say that even a person who knows a few mishnayos is called a talmid chacham, and so too in halacha: regarding the daughter of a kohen who marries someone who is neither a kohen nor a levi, the Rebbe wrote that it is proper for her husband to learn through an entire tractate, so that he qualify as a talmid chacham and there be no issue in this matter. In other words, by the common usage of the term, even a child finishing fourth grade who has learned a tractate can be called a talmid chacham. But that is not the meaning here. Here "talmid chacham" is a designation for the level of Chochmah. As we will see in chapter 3, Chochmah is a faculty of total bittul to G-dliness, and a talmid chacham is a student of Chochmah, one who receives from it, in whom the bittul to G-dliness is absolute. This is not the level of every person. Not every classroom teacher is the channel that binds a Jew to the Creator in the way being described here; we are speaking of the genuine level of a talmid chacham.
The Alter Rebbe continues: through cleaving to Torah scholars, the nefesh, ruach and neshamah of ordinary people become bound and unified with their true essence and original root in Chochmah Ila'ah, supernal wisdom. By way of the talmid chacham, who is the "brain," every Jew is bound to the root, to Chochmah Ila'ah, to the very Essence of the Creator, and this is the only route. For "הוא יתברך וחוכמתו אחד" ("He, blessed be He, and His wisdom are one"), as we learned on the first page of this chapter: one cannot separate the Chochmah from Him. It follows that every soul is bound to His wisdom by way of the talmid chacham.
"And those who sin and rebel against the Torah scholars"
The Alter Rebbe adds a parenthesis showing just how far this reaches. What becomes of those who are not bound to a talmid chacham, and who are not even content to remain passive but rebel against him, fight him and obstruct him? It happened in the days of Moshe Rabbeinu: Jews rose up against him who were themselves great sages with real knowledge of Torah, Korach and his company. On this the Alter Rebbe says that even those called "sinners and rebels against Torah scholars" cannot sever themselves, because "יניקת נפש רוח ונשמה שלהם" ("the nurture of their nefesh, ruach and neshamah") comes from the achorayim, the "back" or outer dimension, of the nefesh, ruach and neshamah of the talmid chacham. The only choice left in a person's hands is whether his bond with the talmid chacham will be an inner one or an external one.
To summarize: in this section we learned the distinction between the role of the "heart," the king, who gives every Jew the inner point of connection in which all are equal, and the role of the "brain," the rav and talmid chacham, who gives each person according to his own level; and that is the reason for the plural, "the tzaddikim and the sages." We saw that Moshe Rabbeinu contains both roles at once, and we learned from the Gemara that whoever cleaves to Torah scholars is considered as though he cleaved to the Shechinah literally, since it is through the talmid chacham, who is the level of Chochmah, that every Jew is bound to the very Essence of the Creator, and this is the only way.
In the next section we will see how even someone who is not bonded inwardly still draws his vitality from the talmid chacham, and what place parents have in transmitting this bond onward.