In the previous section we looked at the two levels of ahavah rabbah and ahavas olam. In this section we turn to the love that is blended from both of them together, and within it two levels: the level of «Nafshi ivisicha» (my soul, I desire You), and above it the level of «k'vra d'ishtadal basar avuhi v'imei» (like a child who exerts himself for his father and mother).
The Alter Rebbe is speaking of a situation in which a child loves his parents «yasir mi'garmei v'nafshei v'ruchei», more than his own body, soul and spirit. He gives no thought to himself at all; he gets up and runs and does for them more than he would do for himself. And in the nimshal, «כי הלוא אב אחד לכולנו» (for we all have one Father): the Holy One is our Father.
The Alter Rebbe himself writes in one of his maamarim that the mashal is not entirely comparable to the nimshal. For in the mashal, in the relationship of son and father, there are matters in which halachah itself gives the son precedence over his father: if a man has lost an object and his father has lost an object as well, and he can recover only one of them, «his own lost object and his father's lost object, his own comes first.» If so, how can the mashal of a son and his father be brought here to describe a bond of «yasir mi'garmei v'nafshei v'ruchei», when according to halachah the son's own life takes precedence over his father's?
The answer: indeed, the mashal is not comparable to the nimshal. Physically, although a son is drawn in his root from his father, once he has emerged into the air of the world he is a separate entity from him, and therefore there is room for the son to come first. In the nimshal, however, a Jew is never separate from his Father. He feels that he is one with his Father; he has no self-existence at all, and his entire existence is his Father's existence, as though the son had never emerged from his father and were always present in his root. The nimshal, then, is far deeper.
This expression, «yasir mi'garmei v'nafshei v'ruchei», has its source in the Ra'aya Mehemna, where it describes the love of Moshe Rabbeinu: a love in which a person has no existence whatsoever, in the mode of «v'nachnu mah» (and what are we), and all that exists is the Holy One alone. How, then, can such a level be relevant to every single Jew?
On this the Alter Rebbe writes: «ואף כי מי הוא זה ואיזה הוא אשר ערב לבו לגשת להשיג אפילו חלק אחד מני אלף ממדרגת אהבת רעיא מהימנא» (and though who is it, and which is he, whose heart would presume to approach and attain even one part in a thousand of the level of the love of the Faithful Shepherd): who could possibly come close to a thousandth of the level of Moshe Rabbeinu? And nevertheless: «מכל מקום הרי אפס קצהו ושמץ מנהו מרב טובו ואורו מאיר לכללות ישראל בכל דור ודור» (nevertheless, the merest extremity and a trace of his abundant goodness and light shines upon the whole of Israel in every generation): some taste, a small sample of this feeling, is present in every single Jew. And «כמו שכתוב בתיקונים» (as is written in the Tikkunim), that is, Tikkunei Zohar, «דאתפשטותיה בכל דרא ודרא» (that he extends into every single generation). For what purpose? «לאנהרא לון וכו'» (to illumine them): to give light to each member of the generation, so that each one has an illumination from Moshe Rabbeinu.
[This power arrives by way of an illumination to the hidden dimensions of the soul; and the «Moshe» of every generation belongs to Moshe Rabbeinu himself. It is one and the same point, as the wording has it, «that he extends into every single generation.»]
When one reads the passage straight through, there seems to be a contradiction between its beginning and its end. At the outset it says that this great and abundant love lies hidden in the heart of every Jew and is an inheritance to us from our fathers, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov; yet a few lines later the Alter Rebbe quotes the Ra'aya Mehemna and traces it to Moshe Rabbeinu. So from whom did we receive this love?
The Rebbe takes up this question and explains it simply, with two illustrations:
A man is born with a nature of kindness, and beside him stands another man who is likewise kind by nature. What distinguishes the kindness of the one from the kindness of the other? The intellect and wisdom in a person's mind are what direct his emotions. One whose intellect is loftier will perform one kind of kindness, and one whose intellect is of a different order will perform kindnesses of a different kind.
Two men both have a nature of kindness. One of them is also blessed with a nature of bittul, self-nullification, and makes nothing of himself at all; the other loves to feel himself and to stand out wherever he goes. Both will do kind deeds, but there is no comparing the kindness of the man of bittul to the kindness of the man who wants to be noticed. The nature is the same, but the additional components that direct it change the result.
So too here. The natural love of a son for his father is an inheritance to us from our fathers. But on what level and with what intensity will it come out? Had we only the inheritance from our fathers, it might well have remained at the level of «Nafshi ivisicha.» Once the illumination of the Faithful Shepherd is added to it, Moshe Rabbeinu takes the nature we received from our fathers and raises it to far loftier levels, all the way to the wondrous power of «k'vra d'ishtadal», a son who acts for his father without giving a thought to himself at all.
The Alter Rebbe continues: «רק שהארה זו היא בבחינת הסתר והעלם גדול בנפשות כל בית ישראל» (only that this illumination is in a state of great concealment and hiddenness in the souls of the whole House of Israel). The power is present in every Jew; it is simply hidden. Even to a Jew who knows nothing at all one can say: embedded within you is an illumination with the power to give over your very soul for matters of G-dliness without a thought for yourself. Not only on the previous level, where you are ready to do everything because it completes your own soul («Nafshi ivisicha»), but even without considering what you will get out of it, like a son ready to give his life for his father more than for himself. It is there within you; it is only in great concealment.
«ולהוציא אהבה זו המסותרת מההעלם וההסתר אל הגילוי להיות בהתגלות לבו ומוחו» (and to bring this hidden love out of concealment and hiddenness into revelation, to be revealed in his heart and mind): how is that done? Says the Alter Rebbe: «לא נפלאת ולא רחוקה היא» (it is not beyond you, nor is it far off). This is not reserved for great tzaddikim alone. Rather, «אלא קרוב אליך הדבר מאוד בפיך ובלבבך» (the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart).
And in explanation: «דהיינו להיות רגיל על לשונו וקולו לעורר כוונת לבו ומוחו, להעמיק מחשבתו בחיי החיים אין סוף ברוך הוא כי הוא אבינו ממש האמיתי ומקור חיינו, ולעורר אליו האהבה כאהבת הבן אל האב» (namely, to accustom his tongue and his voice to arouse the intent of his heart and mind, to immerse his thought in the Life of life, the Infinite One, blessed be He, for He is literally our true Father and the source of our life, and to awaken toward Him a love like the love of a son for his father). A person should accustom himself to speak of this constantly, that the Holy One is literally our soul, and more than that, literally our Father. The speech will awaken the thought and the feeling, until «כשירגיל עצמו כן תמיד הרי ההרגל נעשה טבע» (when he accustoms himself to this always, the habit becomes nature).
To summarize: in this section we dealt with the love that is composed of both ahavah rabbah and ahavas olam, and with its two levels: the level of «Nafshi ivisicha», where for all its greatness a person is still thinking of his own soul; and over against it the lofty level of «k'vra d'ishtadal basar avuhi v'imei», complete self-surrender with no thought of self whatsoever, «yasir mi'garmei v'nafshei v'ruchei», because the Holy One is literally our Father. We saw that the mashal is not comparable to the nimshal, since a Jew is never separate from his Father; that the nature is an inheritance to us from our fathers while its intensity comes from the illumination of the Faithful Shepherd that extends into every generation; and that bringing this love out of concealment into revelation is not far off at all, but lies in accustoming the mouth, the heart and the mind, until the habit becomes nature.
In the next section we will take up the question that arises from all this: if a person works on himself and trains himself, is this not merely external avodah?