In the previous section we worked with the contemplation of G-d's greatness as He is «memale kol almin», the divine life-force that fills all worlds, and we brought the language of the Gemara that spells out the staggering distances within the chain of worlds, the hishtalshelus. These distances are entirely beyond our grasp; even that first span of five hundred years of travel cannot be contained in a person's seventy years of life.
Even so, this is the kind of contemplation that a person with a broad mind, someone with the power of abstraction, who can build analogies and lift himself to a higher understanding, can actually climb through and arrive at the greatness of G-d: all of this the Holy One created, and He brings it into being, enlivens it and sustains it at every single moment. G-d's greatness is revealed here in a wondrous way, and not from the angle of smallness but from the angle of grandeur.
So why does this contemplation give birth only to «yirah tataah», the lower level of awe? Because the very way we speak, «there is a firmament and there is another firmament», «there are the chayos and there are the feet of the chayos», sets up a reality: there are creations, great creations and still greater creations, and the Holy One brings them all into being and enlivens them at every moment. The bittul, the self-nullification, that a Jew reaches through such contemplation is a wondrous bittul, and the contemplation itself is enormous, and nevertheless this awe is called «yirah tataah», lower awe, because the whole of it deals with the level of «memale kol almin»: there are worlds, and there is That which fills all worlds.
Let us read the words of the Tanya: «מהתבוננות בגדולת ה' דאיהו ממלא כל עלמין ומהארץ לרקיע מהלך ת\"ק שנה וכו' ובין רקיע לרקיע וכו' ורגלי החיות כנגד כולן וכו' וכן השתלשלות כל העולמות למעלה מעלה עד רום המעלות», «from contemplating the greatness of G-d, who fills all worlds, and from the earth to the firmament is a journey of five hundred years, and between one firmament and the next, and the feet of the chayos correspond to them all, and so too the chain of all the worlds higher and higher to the very summit of the levels». The Alter Rebbe does not spell out the full passage we read in the Gemara; he simply alludes to it in shorthand (the letters tav-kuf have the numerical value of five hundred).
With the phrase «וכן השתלשלות כל העולמות למעלה מעלה עד רום כל המעלות», «and so too the chain of all the worlds, higher and higher to the summit of all levels», the Alter Rebbe hints that a person can rise and contemplate still loftier worlds. We already mentioned in chapters 38 and 39 where the angels are situated within the worlds: there are angels in the world of Yetzirah, angels in the world of Beriah, and still higher than that. All of these are worlds, and the person contemplates the worlds and the divine vitality within them, and every bit of fear of Heaven that a Jew arrives at through this contemplation is called «external awe», «yirah tataah», as he writes: «אף על פי כן נקרא יראה זו יראה חיצונית ותתאה», «nevertheless this awe is called external and lower awe».
What do all the kinds of contemplation we have discussed share in common, both the one in the previous chapter that deals with smallness and the one here that deals with grandeur? «מאחר שנמשכת מהעולמות», «since it is drawn from the worlds». All of these contemplations establish a reality: there is a world. True, the person contemplates that this reality is nullified to its Source at every moment, but the very fact that he grants the worlds a place, «שהם לבושים של המלך הקדוש ברוך הוא אשר מסתתר ומתעלם ומתלבש בהם להחיותם ולקיימם להיות יש מאין וכו'», «for they are garments of the King, the Holy One blessed be He, who conceals and hides Himself and clothes Himself in them, to enliven and sustain them so that they exist as something from nothing», shows that the world still takes up space. G-d has garments, and the world is His garment, as was mentioned in the previous chapter; the person contemplates the garment, and contemplating the garment brings him to recognize Him, but it does not turn the world's reality into absolute nothingness, «רק שהיא השער והפתח לקיום התורה והמצות», «it is only the gateway and the entrance to the fulfillment of Torah and mitzvos».
Chassidus often brings an analogy for the renewal of yesh me'ayin, existence out of nothing, at every single moment, something a person can actually see and feel in daily life. A person throws a stone upward. How does the stone fly up? The stone did not turn into a flying stone; it is the same stone it was before, and once it falls it will be the very same stone again. Rather, there is a force, an energy, propelling the stone upward, and as long as that force is pushing, the stone is in flight; the moment the force weakens and stops, the stone drops.
Which is loftier, the stone or the force propelling it? Clearly the force, which is a spiritual, abstract, powerful energy, and it is what lifts the stone. If so, does the stone take up any place as far as the force is concerned, or is the force so lofty that the stone is utterly nullified to it and takes up no place at all?
The stone does take up a place as far as the force is concerned, for the force is occupied with it and is sending it flying. The force, as it were, says: there is a stone, I have a purpose with it, and now I am launching it. True, nobody attributes the flight to the stone; we do not say «there is a flying stone here», we attribute the flight to the force. But even when we attribute the flight to the force, we do not say that the stone does not exist. The stone exists; it is simply nullified to the force, and without the force there is no flight at all. And still, the very fact that the force is occupied with it is a sign that it has some significance.
The nimshal is creation itself, the entire world and every level within it, whether in the aspect of smallness or the aspect of grandeur. Creation is like the flight of the stone: the Holy One creates the world at every single moment, and the divine force brings it into being and propels it, «who in His goodness renews each day, constantly, the work of creation». The world exists solely because the divine force brings it into being and enlivens it at every moment, and it is certainly nullified to its Creator. But this bittul is not on the level of saying that the world does not exist at all: the very fact that the Creator is occupied with it and creates it gives creation a certain importance and standing.
What level of bittul can the world reach if one contemplates only the force propelling it? A bittul in which the world says, «I exist, but I nullify myself». This is exactly the language we read earlier from the Alter Rebbe's Siddur: like a people standing before the king. There is a king, and he rules, but the people take up a place; they are not absolute nothingness. All of this falls under «yirah tataah».
At first glance, how could there be an awe higher than this? There is a creation, and the Creator brings it into being at every moment, and therefore it exists and takes up a place. What could be loftier than this contemplation? Let us look at the next lines.
«אך היראה עילאה ירא בושת», «but the higher awe is the awe of shame». The first characteristic of yirah ilaah, and its first result, is «awe of shame»: a person is ashamed of himself, of his very existence. Like someone standing before one of the great tzaddikim of the generation: the power before him is so overwhelming that his own existence simply is not there, and he is embarrassed by the mere fact that he exists.
In yirah tataah there is no «awe of shame» at all, and there cannot be. In yirah tataah there can be fear of G-d and fear of sin, each according to its level, for even within the aspect of smallness itself there is fear of sin and there is fear of G-d, as the Rebbe Rashab explains in Kuntres HaAvodah. But yirah ilaah is an entirely different order, a different world: a Jew who has arrived there does not say «I exist and I am coming before the King», he says «I do not exist at all».
[Is this level a gift or the fruit of avodah? One arrives at it through avodah, and there is an orderly progression: «if there is no wisdom there is no fear», one cannot reach the higher level of awe without the preface of chochmah, of Torah study and the fulfillment of mitzvos and an understanding of the matter of chochmah. It is work and effort, and it is also a divine revelation granted to the person. With a tzaddik, and especially the tzaddik of the generation, there is also an element of gift, and this level is rooted in him from the outset (and it is understood that if he does not work he will not arrive at it). But the Alter Rebbe is speaking here to every Jew: Tanya is a book for beinonim and not a book for tzaddikim, and the Alter Rebbe wants every Jew to know that this matter exists and where he is meant to arrive.]
Yirah ilaah is the awe that produces that shame in a person, utter bittul and nothingness. He is ashamed and he simply flees, and he can find no place for himself. This is not like a people standing before the king, who do find a place for themselves and merely bow before him; here he does not even ask to bow: «Who am I at all? I do not exist, and I do not want to be seen at all».
The Alter Rebbe continues: «ויראה פנימית שהיא נמשכת מפנימיות האלקות שבתוך העולמות», «and it is an inner awe, which is drawn from the inner dimension of the G-dliness within the worlds», not from the external dimension of G-dliness but from its inner dimension. What does «the external dimension of G-dliness» mean, and what does «the inner dimension of G-dliness» mean? Being occupied with creation is an immense tzimtzum, a contraction: is the whole of what the Holy One is about simply dealing with a world?
Let us take a very physical analogy from our own world. King Solomon was great and wise. Imagine a person who observes King Solomon's conduct throughout the day, and afterward comes and reports that he saw King Solomon, and when asked what he saw in him he answers: «I saw that he knows how to tie his shoelaces». Did he lie? No, he spoke the truth. But is that King Solomon? It has nothing whatsoever to do with what King Solomon is about.
In the same way, to say that the whole matter of G-dliness is creating worlds: yes, there are worlds and the Creator is occupied with them, but that is the external dimension of G-dliness, that is the vessel. There is a divine content within this vessel that deals with the vessel, and there is what is entirely beyond that. A Jew needs a recognition not only on this level of the external dimension of G-dliness (and may we merit even that, except that it gives birth only to «external awe», «yirah tataah»), but, as the Alter Rebbe says here, a recognition of the inner dimension of G-dliness, of the power that is above any involvement with the world. And in that state it is not that there is a world and the world is nullified; rather the world is absolute nothingness: «כולא קמיה כלא חשיב», «before Him all is considered as nothing», it does not count and takes up no place at all.
In summary: in this section we learned that the contemplation of G-d's greatness on the level of «memale kol almin», the journey of five hundred years, the firmaments, the feet of the chayos and the chain of all the worlds up to the summit of the levels, though it is a tremendous contemplation that brings one to a wondrous bittul, nevertheless gives birth to «external awe», «yirah tataah», because it is drawn from the worlds and grants them a place as garments in which the King conceals Himself in order to enliven and sustain them. The analogy of the stone and the force propelling it made clear that even though the stone is nullified to the force, the very fact that the force is occupied with it grants it importance and a place, like a people standing before the king. «Yirah ilaah», by contrast, is «the awe of shame» and an inner awe drawn from the inner dimension of the G-dliness within the worlds, which is above any involvement with the world, and in it the world takes up no place at all: «kula kamei kela chashiv».
In the next section we will continue with the Alter Rebbe's words and go deeper into understanding yirah ilaah and the path by which a person arrives at it.