In the previous lesson we stopped in chapter 39, on page 53a (page 105), at the passage that begins with the words « והנה שכר מצוה מצוה ». Before we continue, let us briefly review the road we have traveled in the preceding chapters.
A general review of the previous chapters:
Chapters 35-37: We learned at length that the greatest importance lies in the practical mitzvos, the mitzvos performed with the body, since the Holy One commanded « להיות לו יתברך דירה בתחתונים », that He should have a dwelling place in the lower realms, a dirah betachtonim. For that reason the deed is the main thing.
Chapter 38: Despite all the primacy of the deed, kavanah, intention, is nevertheless needed, for « מצווה בלא כוונה כגוף בלא נשמה », a mitzvah without intention is like a body without a soul. From here the Alter Rebbe went on to spell out the various levels and modes of kavanah.
Since kavanah is compared to a soul, the act of the mitzvah being the body and the kavanah its soul, the Alter Rebbe expanded on the fact that within the concept of a soul itself there are levels. There is the soul of an animal, whose actions and even whose emotions are purely natural; they do not come from understanding, intellect or deliberation, but follow the nature the Creator implanted in it. And over against it there is the soul of a human being, a creature of intellect, choice and knowledge, whose emotions are therefore meant to arise out of reason and understanding.
Along the same lines there are two modes of kavanah, that is, two modes of the feeling of love and fear of G-d:
A natural feeling (like the soul of an animal): Every Jew, by virtue of being born a Jew, has within him a hidden love for the Holy One, and his task is to awaken it and put it to work. One who serves G-d with such a feeling has not created the love; he has only uncovered what was already there, much like an animal, which also has feeling, but feeling that is innate and given rather than feeling it generated and produced.
A feeling born of hisbonenus, contemplation (like the human soul): A person who has contemplated and studied the greatness of the Creator and delved into it deeply, and out of that contemplation an emotional arousal was born in him commensurate with the level of his understanding. This is a far deeper and more inward feeling.
In the last two lessons we explained the consequence of this in the upper worlds: everything a Jew learns and does ascends on high. Divine service animated by the natural feeling, which is in the category of the animal soul, ascends to the ten sefiros of the world of Yetzirah, while service that comes out of hisbonenus and understanding ascends to a higher world, the world of Beriah. We also mentioned parenthetically, and the Alter Rebbe will hint at it here as well, that there is a third level: great tzaddikim whose service is neither in the natural feeling nor even in the feeling born of contemplation, but who stand in total bittul to G-dliness, in the category of a merkavah, a chariot, which is utterly surrendered to the one who rides it. Their service therefore belongs to the world of Atzilus.
What all three levels share is that the learning and the doing are done with vitality, with feeling and with inwardness, and not as a merely technical performance. Even in Torah study, where there would seem to be no technical side at all, since it involves intellect and comprehension, the question is what draws the person to his learning: is he learning only because the subject is beautiful and interesting, the way a person studies, lehavdil, other bodies of wisdom, or is he connecting in his learning to the holiness of the matter, to the fact that it is a G-dly matter and a mitzvah? This is the subject of « תורה לשמה », Torah for its own sake, which we will take up further on.
« והנה שכר מצוה מצוה »:
The Alter Rebbe continues: « והנה שכר מצוה מצוה », the reward of a mitzvah is the mitzvah, in the language of the Mishnah in Pirkei Avos, « פירוש שמשכרה נדע מהותה ומדרגתה », meaning that from the reward of the mitzvah we can know its essence and its level.
To sharpen the point, let us first consider what happens with a reward that is not the reward of a mitzvah. A man tells us that this month he received a salary of ten thousand shekels. Does knowing the size of the paycheck tell us what work he did? Not at all. The reason is that wages are not a direct outgrowth of the work itself; he did whatever work he did, and in return he received money.
With mitzvos it is not so. The reward of the mitzvah is the mitzvah itself: to what level of G-dliness and holiness it has risen, and to which world it ascends. Therefore, from knowing the reward one also understands the level of the service. If a person's avodah belongs to the world of Beriah, we understand that his service came from feeling that was the product of hisbonenus; and if his Torah and mitzvos ascend to the world of Yetzirah, we understand that his service was with the natural feeling. This is « שכר מצווה מצווה », that from its reward we know its essence and its level.
Of the three levels we mentioned, the highest one, which belongs to the world of Atzilus, is the portion of the great tzaddikim who are called a chariot for G-dliness, and it has no relevance at all to the broad body of the Jewish people. On this the Alter Rebbe says: « ואין לנו עסק בנסתרות שהם צדיקים הגדולים שהם בבחינת מרכבה », we have no business with hidden matters, namely the great tzaddikim who are in the category of a merkavah. Their level of attachment to the Creator falls under the heading of the hidden; it is not within our reach and we do not even grasp what is being spoken of. As we have noted in our study of Tanya, this refers primarily to the holy Avos, the Patriarchs.
The two lower levels, by contrast, Beriah and, beneath it, Yetzirah, are within reach even of one who is not on the level of the great tzaddikim. Of these the Alter Rebbe says: « רק הנגלות לנו שאחריהם כל אדם ימשוך, לידע נאמנה מהות ומדרגת עבודת ה' », only with what is revealed to us, after which every person should draw himself. In the levels that are revealed to us every person can be drawn and can understand what is being spoken of, and can know clearly and inwardly what the essence and level of his own avodah is, so that he will know where he must labor and to what he must rise. The point is not to hand out grades to others, but that each person should know for himself where he stands.
If his avodah is « בדחילו ורחימו בהתגלות לבו שהן הנמשכות מן הבינה ודעת בגדולת אין סוף ברוך הוא », with fear and love revealed in his heart, drawn from understanding and knowledge of the greatness of the Blessed Infinite One, that is, love and fear actually felt in the heart, which are not merely the arousal of a feeling that was already there but come after deep contemplation of the greatness of the Creator, in the category of the human soul, then « מקומה בי' ספירות דבריאה », its place is in the ten sefiros of Beriah.
And if it is « בדחילו ורחימו הטבעיים », with the natural fear and love, the love and fear that exist by nature in every Jew, by whose strength he prays, learns and keeps mitzvos out of a natural sense of being drawn, a sense that a Jew ought to pray and serve his Creator, then this is a lower level, and its place is in the ten sefiros of Yetzirah.
To summarize: In this section we reviewed the foundations laid down in chapters 35-38: the primacy of the practical mitzvos on account of dirah betachtonim, and on the other hand the need for kavanah, which is as a soul to the body of the mitzvah, and within kavanah there are two modes, a natural feeling like the soul of an animal, and a feeling born of hisbonenus like the human soul. We learned the principle of « שכר מצווה מצווה », that from the reward of the mitzvah we know its essence and its level, unlike physical wages, which teach us nothing about the nature of the work. We also explained that « אין לנו עסק בנסתרות », we have no business with the hidden, meaning the level of the great tzaddikim who are a merkavah, which belongs to the world of Atzilus. Our concern is with what is revealed to us: service with fear and love drawn from understanding and knowledge of the greatness of the Blessed Infinite One, whose place is in the ten sefiros of Beriah, and service with the natural fear and love, whose place is in the ten sefiros of Yetzirah.
In the next section we will continue with the words of the Alter Rebbe and take up the subject of « תורה לשמה », Torah for its own sake: what it is that draws a person in his learning, and how connecting to the holiness of the matter determines the level of his avodah.