We are in chapter 42 of Tanya, near the end of the chapter, on its last page, folio 61 (page 121), in the very first line at the top: «ועוד זאת יזכור» (And this too he should remember). In the previous lesson we covered a few lines, but it is here that the subject itself begins. So let us first review briefly what we have learned until now, and continue from there.
Chapter 42 deals with the question of how every single person can arrive at yiras shomayim, fear of Heaven. In chapter 41 we learned that yiras shomayim is the most basic element in serving Hashem; the Alter Rebbe called it «ראשית העבודה ועיקרה ושורשה», the beginning of avodah, its essence and its root. The new point in chapter 42 is that everyone can reach it, and more than that: the Alter Rebbe brings the language of the Gemara that this is a «זוטר» matter, something small and easy for anyone. And as was already explained at length according to Tanya's reading of the Gemara: since the soul of every Jew contains a dimension of Moshe Rabbeinu, and relative to Moshe Rabbeinu yiras shomayim truly is a small thing, every Jew has the ability to awaken that dimension of Moshe Rabbeinu within himself, and through it to arrive at yiras shomayim.
There are various forms of hisbonenus, contemplation, through which a Jew is meant to strengthen yiras shomayim within himself. One of the central points is that the Holy One is looking at him at every single moment, examining his deeds, probing his heart and his innermost thoughts, seeing and hearing everything that happens with him. Every last detail is under His providence at every moment. This thought alone should bring a person to yiras shomayim: since the Holy One is looking and seeing his actions right now, hearing his words right now, and knows exactly what is going on with him, he has to conduct himself accordingly. There is no room here for anything loose or careless.
On this the Alter Rebbe brings the language of the Mishnah in Pirkei Avos: «עין רואה ואוזן שומעת, וכל מעשיך בספר נכתבים», an eye that sees, an ear that hears, and all your deeds are inscribed in a book. When a person contemplates this, says the Mishnah itself, «ואין אתה בא לידי עבירה», you will not come to sin. This contemplation guards him from failures and from transgressing the will of Hashem. And although the continuation of the Mishnah, that all your deeds are inscribed in a book, also has its effect, it is already the opening words, an eye that sees and an ear that hears, that place the fear in him.
And so too the language of the Gemara in the name of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai: even when a person merely thinks that a human being of flesh and blood is watching him, it holds him back and he refrains from the sin so that no one should see him. And if flesh and blood holds a person back like that, how much more so the eye that sees and the ear that hears of the King of kings, the Holy One blessed be He.
In the previous section we addressed a question: how can one speak of «עין רואה ואוזן שומעת» regarding the Holy One, when He has no body and no bodily form? How is it appropriate to describe Him with human expressions such as an eye and an ear? The answer was that indeed He has no physical eye and no physical ear, but this does not diminish His seeing and His hearing in the slightest. On the contrary, His seeing and hearing are not limited the way a physical eye and ear are limited; they are unlimited, incomparably beyond any physical eye or ear.
[In our generation the Holy One has provided all sorts of devices, through which a person can bring closer to his own mind how it is possible that from one end of the world to the other, in a single instant, there is an eye that sees and an ear that hears every single detail.]
Now the same question can be asked in the opposite direction. Just as we asked it regarding the Holy One, we can ask it regarding ourselves: how are we, human beings, expected to awaken yiras shomayim within ourselves toward One who has no body and no bodily form? Normally a person fears something tangible: he sees something concrete, and it affects him and stirs his emotions. But from something he cannot see, where he only understands intellectually that this is how it is, it is very hard for that intellectual knowledge to move him with the same force with which physical sight moves him. Sight takes hold of some physical thing, and that physical thing is what expands and connects a person to the concept standing behind it. Something that offers no grasp at all remains far from his awareness.
So the question is not about the Creator but about us: there has to be some physical dimension that will help us arrive at yiras shomayim. The intention, Heaven forbid, is not to make the Holy One physical, He has no body and no bodily form, but even so we need some point of contact, something the physical eye can see which will then produce yiras shomayim within us. What is that something?
The Alter Rebbe does not pose the question explicitly in the form of a question and an answer. He goes straight into the explanation, but that explanation is in fact the answer to this very question.
And these are the words of Tanya: «ועוד זאת יזכור, כי כמו שבמלך בשר ודם עיקר היראה היא מפנימיותו וחיותו», And this too he should remember: that just as with a king of flesh and blood, the main fear comes from his inner self and his life force. There is something more for a Jew to bear in mind. When a person fears a king of flesh and blood, what his eyes see is the king's physical body, but what is he really afraid of? Not of his hands, not of his feet, not of his body. For if an ordinary man were to stand next to him looking exactly the same, with the same two hundred forty eight limbs and three hundred sixty five sinews, it would do nothing to him at all. The fear is not because the king is large or strong, but because of the unique personality standing behind the body he sees with his eyes. It turns out that the main fear is not of the king's body but of his soul.
And the proof: «שהרי כשישן אין שום יראה ממנו», for when he is asleep there is no fear of him at all. The king's body is the same body whether he is awake or asleep, and yet while he sleeps it does not carry that same force, and there is not that same fear of him as there is when he is awake and looking.
So the question arises: if a person fears the king's soul and personality, does he actually see his soul and his personality? Those he does not see with a physical eye at all, only with the eyes of the mind. His intellect tells him that there is a king here, that there is a personality here, that this is an extraordinary man. The physical eye shows him nothing but a physical body.
But when a person looks at the king's physical body, it is not that he sees an ordinary body and only afterwards his mind adds and informs him that there is a royal personality here and therefore he must fear him. The king's personality is bound up with his body so powerfully and so immediately that when he sees the king's body, it is his personality that he is seeing. Even though he does not see that personality with physical eyes, and all that is visible to the eye is the body, the body is so joined to his inner self and his personality that there is no separating at all between what the mind sees and what the eye sees. What he sees with his eye fuses instantly with what he sees with the eyes of his mind, and out of that he comes to fear him.
In the Alter Rebbe's words: «והנה פנימיותו וחיותו אינה נראית לעיני בשר, רק בעיני השכל על ידי ראיית עיני בשר בגופו ולבושיו, ויודע שחיותו מלובש בתוכם», Now his inner self and his life force are not visible to eyes of flesh, only to the eyes of the mind, by means of the eyes of flesh seeing his body and his garments, knowing that his life force is clothed within them. The king's inner self and life force are not visible to eyes of flesh; they are seen only with the eyes of the mind. But the mind's seeing alone is not enough: if a man sits at home and grasps intellectually that there is a king and that his personality is such and such, while the king is in one place and he is in another and he sees nothing, it will do nothing to him. What is required here is a joining of the two together, the seeing of the physical eyes and the seeing of the eyes of the mind, and when both come as one, it produces fear within a person. In the very second that he sees the king's physical body, his mind tells him: know what you are looking at here. This is not a sack of flesh and bones; the life force of the king is clothed within it. And so, in seeing the king's body he immediately sees his life force.
In summary: in this section we reviewed the foundations of chapter 42, that yiras shomayim is a small thing for every Jew by virtue of the dimension of Moshe Rabbeinu in his soul, and the contemplation of «עין רואה ואוזן שומעת» which guards a person from sin. We then took up the question that is the reverse of the one asked in the previous section: not how we can say of the Creator that there is an eye that sees and an ear that hears, but how we can be expected to fear something that is not tangible, when a human being's feelings are moved by what his eyes see. The explanation opens with the analogy of the king: the main fear is not of his body but of his inner self and life force, with the proof from the sleeping king, of whom there is no fear, and yet that inner dimension is grasped only together with the eyes of flesh seeing his body and his garments, knowing that his life force is clothed within them.
In the next section we will continue with the Alter Rebbe's words and see how we move from the analogy to its lesson in a person's own avodah.