“וזהו פירוש לשם יחוד קב"ה ושכינתיה בשם כל ישראל” (And this is the meaning of «for the sake of the union of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shechinah, in the name of all Israel»). In the previous section we looked at the formula of intent, «leshem yichud Kudsha Brich Hu uShechintei». Now we turn to the emphasis at the end of that formula, «in the name of all Israel», and to the question of how such a lofty kavanah can belong to every single Jew.
What is the emphasis in the words «in the name of all Israel»? That is the whole point: in performing the mitzvah, a person unites all the souls of Israel. This is the loftiest thought contained in any mitzvah, for in doing it he is not drawing G-dliness into this world for himself alone, but in the name of all Israel, provided only that he give his mind to it.
This is bound up with the mutual responsibility that one Jew bears for another, what the Gemara calls arvus, and about which the Previous Rebbe writes in one of his letters. This influence works in both directions:
A Jew at one end of the world who falls away from keeping Torah and mitzvos and enters into a «ruach shtus», a spirit of folly, may very well have gotten there because at the other end of the world a Jew who keeps Torah and mitzvos in the most meticulous way slipped for one small moment, for instance he spoke in the middle of Kaddish, something that relative to his own level counts as a descent. That is what set off the chain that reached the other Jew.
And how much more so on the positive side: when a person performs a mitzvah here, he helps a Jew at the far end of the world, in whom an awakening in avodas Hashem suddenly stirs, even though he does not know him, has no idea who he is, and has never laid eyes on him.
The formula speaks of uniting the letters yud and vav, and the difference between them is the same as the difference between Kudsha Brich Hu and His Shechinah. As is explained at length in Seder HaOsios, the yud alludes to Kudsha Brich Hu and the vav alludes to the Shechinah, so this is one and the same idea.
[We will skip the gloss for now so as to keep the flow of the chapter, and return to it later.]
The Alter Rebbe continues: "ואף שלהיות כוונה זו אמיתית בלבו, שיהיה לבו חפץ באמת יחוד העליון הזה, צריך להיות בלבו אהבה רבה לה' לבדו, לעשות נחת רוח לפניו לבד, ולא לרוות נפשו הצמאה לה'" (And although, for this kavanah to be truthful in his heart, so that his heart genuinely desires this supernal union, he must have in his heart a great love for G-d alone, to give Him nachas ruach alone, and not to slake his soul that thirsts for G-d). For the kavanah to be genuine, and for a person to have in mind not himself but the whole, a love of the highest order is required: love for G-d alone, where his entire aim is to give the Creator nachas ruach, and not to quench the thirst of his own soul.
This is the difference between the two levels. On the lower level, a person loves his Father in Heaven because he seeks to satisfy his own soul, knowing that this is good for him. On the higher level, he is not looking to satisfy his soul at all, but to give his Father pleasure. In the language of the Tanya: "אלא כברא דאשתדל בתר אבוי ואמיה דרחים לון יתיר מגרמיה ונפשיה וכו'", like a son who exerts himself for his father and mother, whom he loves more than his own body and soul.
Such a level is rare, “כמו שכתוב לעיל בשם רעיא מהימנא” (as was written above in the name of the Raaya Mehemna), as the Alter Rebbe wrote earlier, at the end of chapter 10. There he distinguished between a complete tzaddik and a tzaddik who is not complete, and when he spoke of the complete tzaddikim he wrote that this is the level of «bnei aliyah vehem muatim», those who ascend, and they are few: Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his like, one in a generation. There too he explained why they are called «bnei aliyah»: because their every thought is of the One Above, of the Holy One alone; and there too he already cited the phrase «like a son who exerts himself for his father and mother».
So this kavanah, «leshem yichud Kudsha Brich Hu uShechintei in the name of all Israel», is the level of one in a generation, a complete tzaddik, the bnei aliyah. And yet this very formula is said by every single Jew: whoever opens the siddur and begins Shacharis in the morning says it. How, then, can such a lofty kavanah belong to everyone?
To this the Alter Rebbe answers: "מכל מקום יש לכל אדם להרגיל עצמו בכוונה זו, כי אף שאינה באמת לאמיתו לגמרי בלבו, מכל מקום מעט מזעיר חפץ לבו בזה באמת" (Nevertheless, every person should accustom himself to this kavanah, for although it is not entirely truthful in his heart, still a tiny bit of his heart genuinely desires it). No one can say of himself that he truly has all of Klal Yisrael in mind and that his whole heart desires only that. But «meat mizeir», a small measure of that desire, exists in each and every person genuinely, and therefore he should train himself in this kavanah.
Where does that small measure come from? "מפני אהבה הטבעית שבלב כל ישראל לעשות כל מה שהוא רצון העליון ברוך הוא" (because of the natural love in the heart of every Jew to do whatever is the supernal will, blessed be He). Every Jew wants to do the will of the Holy One, and His will is that the mitzvah be done in the name of all Israel; it follows that every Jew wants that too. This is the ahavah mesuteres, the hidden love. And as we have learned, a Jew has a love that is his own and a love he inherited from the Avos. The love that is his own is love on the first level, whereas the love inherited from the Avos is about being like a merkavah, a chariot, thinking only of the Rider, of the Holy One. That is why every Jew truly has a small measure of this point in him, even though it is not revealed in him.
A proof from the very text of the siddur: if this matter did not belong to everyone, there would be no reason to print this line in the siddur at all. Where something belongs only to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and to one in a generation, one tells whoever wants to imitate him, «do not stand in the place of the great». From the fact that it is printed in the siddur, which is equally accessible to every soul, and that everyone says it because it is true, it is clear that it belongs to every Jew.
Worth noting: in truth this kavanah belongs before every single mitzvah. There are customs to say it before mitzvos and before the prayers, such as before Minchah and before Maariv, while in the nusach of prayer that the Alter Rebbe established it appears only once a day, before Baruch SheAmar. That does not mean the idea is absent before every other mitzvah. When it is said and when it is not said depends on other considerations, but the truth is that the kavanah belongs before every single mitzvah, even when it is not actually recited.
[We will now skip several lines that are a kind of parenthesis, and continue to the point that follows them.]
"אבל יחוד נפשו והתכללותה באור ה' להיות לאחדים - בזה חפץ כל אדם מישראל באמת לאמיתו לגמרי בכל לב ובכל נפש" (But as for the union of his own soul and its absorption into the light of G-d, to become one, this every Jew desires with complete and absolute truth, with all his heart and all his soul). When it is not a matter of Klal Yisrael but of the person himself, that he wants to be bound and attached to the Holy One and to be one with Him, here every Jew desires it not merely with a small measure but with complete and absolute truth.
And the reason: "מאהבה הטבעית המסותרת בלב כל ישראל לדבקה בה', ולא ליפרד ולהיות נכרת ונבדל חס ושלום מיחודו ואחדותו יתברך בשום אופן, אפילו במסירת נפש ממש" (because of the natural hidden love in the heart of every Jew to cleave to G-d, and not to be separated, severed or sundered, G-d forbid, from His blessed unity and oneness in any way, even by literal mesirus nefesh). Every Jew, whoever he may be, wants with all his heart and all his soul to be attached to the Creator and not to be separated from Him, even to the point of actual mesirus nefesh.
We thus find two levels of desire:
The union of his own soul: this every Jew desires with complete and absolute truth.
The union of all of Israel: this is not entirely truthful in his heart, only a small measure of it, and therefore each person must accustom himself to this kavanah.
Practically speaking, what does it mean to «think of Klal Yisrael» while doing a mitzvah? That a person have in mind that he is doing this mitzvah now so that there be holiness in the whole world and so as to help another Jew, so that a dirah betachtonim, a dwelling place for Him below, be made. He himself will also benefit from the mitzvah, but that is not the main thing.
This does not mean doing things for the community and becoming a public figure, which many people do. It means the small act a person performs in his own room, between himself and himself: for whose sake is he doing it? For himself and for his own connection, or for Klal Yisrael? That is the point. A person whose thinking is always like this leaves nothing for himself and does not think of himself at all. For Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and the great ones of Israel this is simple and revealed, while every Jew must train and accustom himself to this kavanah, since a small measure of it exists in him as well.
This principle, that every Jew truly wants to do the will of G-d, is not merely a teaching of Chassidus. It is ruled as practical halachah in the Rambam, Hilchos Gerushin chapter 2:
The case is of a man whom beis din obligates to divorce his wife, and he screams that he does not want to and refuses to give a get. For the get to have halachic validity the husband must want to give it, and if he does not want to, there is no get. What is done? He is coerced, and even beaten, until he says «I want to».
The Rambam asks: on the face of it, what is such a will worth? A moment earlier he was screaming that he does not want to, and now he says «I want to» only because he has no choice, whereas the Torah wants the get to be given willingly.
And the Rambam gives an answer that is pure Chassidus: in the truth of his soul that Jew wants to do what beis din instructs, for every Jew wants to do the will of G-d. The one who does not want is only the yetzer hara, and when he is coerced and beaten, the coercion of the yetzer hara is removed, until his true will is revealed and he says «I want to».
This is exactly what the Alter Rebbe writes here: every Jew wants, and when he screams «I do not want», it is the yetzer hara screaming and not him. The Jew wants, and the one receiving the blows is the yetzer hara.
In summary: in this section we learned the emphasis of «in the name of all Israel», the uniting of all the souls of Israel through the performance of the mitzvah, and the mutual responsibility between one Jew and another that works in both directions. We looked at the level of love this kavanah demands, a great love for G-d alone, to give Him nachas ruach, «like a son who exerts himself for his father and mother», which is the level of the few bnei aliyah; and nevertheless every person must accustom himself to this kavanah, since «a tiny bit of his heart genuinely desires it» because of the natural love in the heart of every Jew. We distinguished between the union of the whole, which a person desires only in small measure, and the union of his own soul, which every Jew desires with complete and absolute truth, even to the point of actual mesirus nefesh. And we closed with the Rambam's ruling about «I want to»: the Jew wants, and the one screaming «I do not want» is the yetzer hara.
In the next section we will return to the gloss and to the lines we skipped, and continue with the Alter Rebbe's explanation in this chapter.