In the previous section we raised two questions that arise from the phrase «עין רואה ואוזן שומעת» (an eye that sees and an ear that hears). First, how can such language be used about the Holy One at all? Second, how is a person actually supposed to be affected by knowing that the Creator is present at every moment, watching and observing, when he does not see Him with his own eyes? The first question we already answered: we can indeed say that He sees and hears, only not within the limitations that exist in our seeing and hearing, and beyond that, His knowledge is a knowledge that comes from knowing Himself. Now we turn to the second question, the practical one.
For an idea to actually take hold of a person and awaken yiras Shamayim in him, he needs something tangible. The question, then, is: where did the Holy One give us that tangible thing, the thing from which real, practical fear of Heaven will be aroused?
Before we read the words of the Tanya itself, here is a story brought by the Previous Rebbe about Reb Zusha of Anipoli. It is a strange story, but since it was committed to writing and was not left as a secret, it may be told. Reb Zusha once suffered from constipation, and it caused him great distress. He looked for a way to free himself, and as is known, a sensation of fear loosens the body. So he went out in the middle of the night, looked up at the stars, and through seeing them he contemplated the divine power present in them at every moment, directing their courses, and anyone who understands even a little about the order of the movement of the stars knows what an awesome thing that is. He contemplated and contemplated, until he arrived at such a fear of Godliness that not only was he relieved, but, in the words of the story: «עד שזה יצא לו עם דם רב» (until it came out of him with much blood).
At first glance one could ask: if Reb Zusha wanted to contemplate, he could have sat in his room and contemplated the fact that there are stars and there is a divine power acting within them, and aroused the very same feeling. Why did he have to go outside and see the stars physically? From here we learn that in order to accomplish inner contemplation, seeing is needed. Physical sight works on a person; it broadens and strengthens the inner understanding.
Here is a simpler example. When Reuven speaks with Shimon, to whom is he speaking? Not to the forehead and not to the nose, but to his soul and his personality. And yet, while he speaks he looks precisely at his face and into his eyes, and not only out of politeness. After all, he does not see the soul itself; what he sees are the eyes and the physical body. The physical body serves him as a pair of binoculars through which he sees the soul. It is not that he sees a piece of flesh and then deduces intellectually that a soul must be hiding behind it; in looking at the face he immediately sees the soul and the personality, and even before any response he can see whether the other person is happy or sad, tense or at ease. For «חכמת אדם תאיר פניו» (a man's wisdom lights up his face), and the face reveals the inner self. That is why a person looks at his friend's face and not at the back of his head or anywhere else.
We see from this that contemplating an abstract idea is not enough; something tangible is needed. And this is exactly what happened with Reb Zusha: when he wanted to contemplate the reality of the divine power, he went out to see the stars, and seeing the stars served to magnify the contemplation that was already occupying his mind at that moment.
Along these lines the Alter Rebbe explains how a person can come to an awareness of the Creator at every single moment through contemplating creation, since all of creation is an expression of the divine power. There is no room for the claim «I do not see the Holy One», for a person does not see his friend's soul either, and nevertheless, when he looks into his eyes he understands that he is seeing his soul and speaking to his soul. In the same way a person must arrive, through practice and contemplation, at a state in which he looks at the world and sees that the world is the garment of the Holy One, and consequently sees Godliness at all times. This is the tangible thing that the Holy One gave us in order to bring us close to His powers, and of course contemplation and habituation are required for it.
The Alter Rebbe's words in the chapter: «והנה כל אדם מישראל - יהיה מי שיהיה» (Now every Jew, whoever he may be), that is, any Jew at all, «כשיתבונן בזה שעה גדולה בכל יום» (when he will contemplate this for a good while every day), setting aside for himself a substantial amount of time each day, «איך שהקב"ה מלא ממש את העליונים ואת התחתונים ואת השמים ואת הארץ ממש, מלא כל הארץ כבודו ממש» (how the Holy One literally fills the upper and lower worlds, and literally the heavens and the earth, the whole earth is truly filled with His glory), that the Holy One is present in every detail and gives life to every detail, including the physical heaven and earth. A person sees a leaf fall: let him say to himself that this is the divine power acting at this very moment. This is a practice one has to train oneself in, to see this in every single thing in the world.
[It is worth noting the precise wording: the Alter Rebbe does not say to see the upper worlds, but to contemplate, that the Holy One fills the upper worlds and the lower worlds. Contemplation comes first.]
«וצופה ומביט ובוחן כליותיו ולבו וכל מעשיו ודבוריו וכל צעדיו יספור» (and He watches and observes and examines his innermost thoughts and his heart and all his deeds and his words, and counts all his steps), that the Holy One is present everywhere, looking at the person and examining every detail at every moment.
«אזי תקבע בלבו היראה לכל היום כולו» (then the fear will become fixed in his heart for the entire day). The extended contemplation each morning will serve him for the whole day. How? «כשיחזור ויתבונן בזה אפילו בהתבוננות קלה» (when he will return and contemplate this, even with a light contemplation). Once he has brought the matter into his awareness at length in the morning, then when the yetzer overcomes him in the middle of the day and a desire arises in him to see or hear something forbidden, a single moment of recalling everything he thought during that long hour is enough, and the light contemplation will stand by him. So that «בכל עת ובכל שעה יסור מרע ויעשה טוב במחשבה דיבור ומעשה, שלא למרות ח"ו עיני כבודו אשר מלא כל הארץ» (at every time and in every hour he will turn away from evil and do good in thought, speech and deed, so as not to rebel, God forbid, against the eyes of His glory which fill the whole earth). At every single moment he will have the strength to stand firm in yiras Shamayim and not transgress God's will, out of the knowledge that the Creator is here, examining and observing and counting his steps.
«וכמאמר רבן יוחנן בן זכאי לתלמידיו כנ"ל» (and as Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai said to his students, as mentioned above), as we learned in chapter 41 (page 57a, at the bottom), that he said to his students: «הלוואי ותהא עליכם מורא שמיים כמורא בשר ודם» (would that the fear of Heaven be upon you as the fear of flesh and blood). For someone who knows that a hidden camera is examining his every step immediately adjusts his behavior; and a person ought to know that there is a camera openly trained on him at every single moment. That is «an eye that sees and an ear that hears».
Here the Alter Rebbe returns to the opening of the chapter, to the verse with which he began the whole subject of yiras Shamayim, «מה ה' אלוקיך שואל מעמך כי אם ליראה» (what does the Lord your God ask of you, but to fear): «וזהו שאמר הכתוב כי אם ליראה את ה' אלקיך ללכת בכל דרכיו» (and this is what the verse says, only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways). What level of fear can every person reach? A fear that will move him «to walk in all His ways», a fear that guards him in actual practice, «שהיא יראה המביאה לקיום מצוותיו יתברך בסור מרע ועשה טוב, והיא יראה תתאה הנ"ל» (which is the fear that brings one to fulfill His commandments, turning away from evil and doing good, and this is the lower-level fear, yirah tata'ah, mentioned above), a basic fear, that a person should be afraid of sin and not want to fail, because he knows that the King is watching him at every moment.
«ולגבי משה, דהיינו לגבי בחינת הדעת שבכל נפש מישראל האלקית, מילתא זוטרתי היא» (and relative to Moshe, meaning relative to the faculty of daas in the divine soul of every Jew, this is a small matter). Where is Moshe to be found? In every single person, for Moshe Rabbeinu gives every Jew the faculty of daas. And what is daas? «שהדעת הוא המקשר מצפוני בינת הלב אל בחי' גילוי במחשבה ממש כידוע לי"ח» (for daas is what connects the hidden depths of the heart's understanding to actual revelation in thought, as is known to yodei chen, those familiar with the inner wisdom). As we said earlier, yirah tata'ah, the natural fear, lies in binas halev, the understanding of the heart, and daas is what brings it out into revealed thought.
The Alter Rebbe continues and addresses that very same question, the person's claim: «Master of the world, I am contemplating this, but I want to see something tangible». «ועוד זאת יזכור, כי כמו שבמלך בשר ודם עיקר היראה היא מפנימיותו וחיותו ולא מגופו» (and furthermore he should remember, that just as with a king of flesh and blood the main fear is of his inner self and his life-force, not of his body). What is a person afraid of in the presence of a king? Of his personality and his greatness, not of his hand or his foot. And the proof: «שהרי כשישן אין שום מורא ממנו» (for when he is asleep there is no fear of him at all). While the king sleeps one can walk right past him and feel no awe, whereas when he is awake, watching and inspecting, there is awe. And if the fear were of his body, his body is standing there while he sleeps as well. From here it is clear that the fear is of the king's soul.
But here the very same difficulty arises: does he see the king's soul? «והנה פנימיותו וחיותו אינה נראית לעיני בשר, רק בעיני השכל» (now his inner self and life-force are not visible to the eyes of flesh, only to the eyes of the intellect). The inner self of the king is not seen with physical eyes but with the eyes of the mind, «על ידי ראיית עיני בשר בגופו ולבושיו, שיודע שחיותו מלובש בתוכם» (by means of the physical eyes seeing his body and his garments, for he knows that his life-force is clothed within them). A person sees the body, and his intellect tells him that within this body, within the bones and sinews and blood, a soul is clothed, and it is that soul he fears.
From here the Alter Rebbe establishes that exactly the same is true with the Holy One: «ואם כן ככה ממש יש לו ליראה את ה' על ידי ראיית עיני בשר בשמים וארץ וכל צבאם, אשר אור אין סוף ברוך הוא מלובש בהם להחיותם» (and if so, in exactly this way he should fear God by means of his physical eyes seeing the heavens and the earth and all their hosts, in which the Ohr Ein Sof, the infinite divine light, is clothed in order to give them life). A person contemplates that the Holy One gives life to the entire world at every single moment. The world, that «physical body», he sees with his eyes, and let him contemplate that clothed within it is the soul, the divine life-force.
Of course, there is a condition here. A primitive man, a villager who has never been to the city and has no idea what a king even is, will see the king and see a man standing there, with no idea who he is, and it will make no impression on him at all, even though he sees the king's body. Whereas a person of understanding, who grasps that a great personality stands before him, is moved by it. The same is true of the world. Someone who looks at the world with a villager's eyes says: «I see a world, and I want to see the Holy One». The Alter Rebbe tells him: look at the world with contemplation. Contemplate that the Holy One gives the world life at every moment and is present here at this very instant, in every single detail. And then, when he looks at creation, he will ultimately see the soul within it, the divine reality supervising every detail, at every moment and in every matter, and this will make it easier for him to reveal his yiras Shamayim.
Someone who has no awareness and no contemplation will not understand any of this, and for him a deeper understanding and a deeper contemplation are required. But one who does contemplate will look at the rain coming down and say: what a blessing is descending from Heaven, a divine blessing. He will look at the sun rising in the morning and say: what a divine power. And so with every single thing, for He supervises every detail. This contemplation will certainly help him strengthen and arouse his fear of Heaven.
This, then, is the principle: a person needs a physical detail to help him, and the Holy One gave us tangible means that lead us into the inner content of the matter. There are those who look at the world as an obstacle and a concealment, but the Holy One did not give us the world as an obstacle. He gave us a world whose entire purpose is to help us, to reveal to us and to bring us close to the divine reality.
In summary: in this section we dealt with the second question raised by the phrase «an eye that sees and an ear that hears»: how a person is actually affected by a hashgachah he does not see with his eyes. We learned that inner arousal requires something tangible, as in the story of Reb Zusha who went out to see the stars, and as in a person who looks at his friend's face and sees his soul in it, since «a man's wisdom lights up his face». On this basis the Alter Rebbe instructs us to contemplate for a good while each day how the Holy One fills the upper and lower worlds, watching and observing and examining, and then the fear will become fixed in the heart for the entire day, so that even a light contemplation suffices to arouse it. This is yirah tata'ah, which brings one to turn from evil and do good, and it is revealed through the faculty of daas in the soul, which draws the hidden depths of binas halev out into revealed thought. Finally we learned the parable of the king: the main fear is of his inner self and not of his body, and nevertheless it is produced by seeing his body and his garments, and exactly so by looking at the heavens and the earth and all their hosts, in which the Ohr Ein Sof is clothed to give them life.
In the next section we will continue, with God's help, with the Alter Rebbe's words in chapter 42.