In the previous section we began the parable the Alter Rebbe brings in chapter 46: a great and mighty king who turns to a simple, lowly man. In this section we will complete the picture of the parable, move on to the nimshal and to the description of the King's greatness, and finally examine a fascinating precision in the Alter Rebbe's wording when he quotes the Gemara.
«ומתייחד עמו שם ביחוד וקירוב אמיתי וחיבוק ונישוק ואתדבקות רוחא ברוחא בכל לב ונפש» (and there he unites with him in a true union and closeness, with embracing and kissing, spirit cleaving to spirit, with the whole heart and soul): the king wishes to reveal his entire self to this man, with no barrier whatsoever.
It is worth pausing to picture it: what would such a man feel toward the king? He would faint from sheer love. He would lose himself entirely and find no words with which to thank the king. If such a revelation took place between two people of equal standing it would already stir the heart; «על אחת כמה וכמה» (how much more so) when a great and mighty king unites himself with a lowly commoner, «שתתעורר ממילא האהבה כפולה ומכופלת בלב ההדיוט ושפל אנשים הזה אל המלך בהתקשרות הנפש ממש, מלב הנפש מעומקא דליבא, לאין קץ» (that a love doubled and redoubled should awaken of itself in the heart of this lowly commoner toward the king, with an actual bonding of the soul, from the heart of the soul, from the depths of the heart, without end), and his entire being would be given over to the king.
«ואף אם לבו» (and even if his heart), the heart of that man, had been «כלב האבן» (like a heart of stone), an apathetic person whom nothing moves and whom no one has ever managed to arouse, in such a moment «המס ימס והיה למים ותשתפך נפשו כמים בכלות הנפש ממש לאהבת המלך» (it would surely melt and turn to water, and his soul would pour out like water in a literal expiring of the soul out of love for the king).
Why does the Alter Rebbe dwell at such length on the details of the parable? A parable in Torah is an exact parable, and every detail in it is aimed precisely at the nimshal. When a person contemplates the very scene standing before us, between himself and the Holy One, blessed be He, where He is and where we are, he grasps the magnitude of what is happening.
«והנה ככל הדברים האלה וככל החזיון הזה» (now, all of this, and this entire vision), meaning every detail of the description in the parable, for one who has the capacity to depict and imagine that scene to himself, «וגדול יותר מאד בכפלי כפליים לאין קץ עשה לנו אלקינו» (and far greater, doubled and redoubled without end, has our God done for us). The Holy One, blessed be He, has done with us immeasurably more than that king did with that lowly commoner.
From here on the Alter Rebbe sets out the details: first the greatness of the King, then the lowly place in which we found ourselves (and perhaps still find ourselves), and how the King draws us near and gives us opportunities to enter His palace and His castle at any time. A most wondrous thing.
«כי לגדולתו אין חקר» (for His greatness is unfathomable): there is no thought and no human capacity able to probe and grasp the greatness of the King. And nevertheless, the Alter Rebbe brings several points that are explained in the Zohar, in the writings of Kabbalah, and in verses.
«ואיהו ממלא כל עלמין» (and He fills all worlds): the King fills all the worlds in an inner way; every single detail receives its life force and its own individual providence from Him.
«וסובב כל עלמין» (and encompasses all worlds): He also surrounds and encompasses them all. These two concepts have already come up many times, and we will yet dwell on them at length further on.
«ונודע מזהר הקדוש והאריז"ל ריבוי ההיכלות והעולמות עד אין מספר» (and it is known from the holy Zohar and from the Arizal that the chambers and worlds are innumerable): and this does not refer only to our physical, material world, but to spiritual and lofty worlds without limit.
«ובכל עולם והיכל ריבוא רבבות מלאכים לאין קץ ותכלית» (and in every world and chamber there are myriads of myriads of angels, without end or limit): in each and every world there are angels without limit, and every angel receives its life force and its mission. We are speaking of quantities beyond number.
Someone looking for a source for the concept of a multiplicity of worlds would naturally turn to the works of Kabbalah, to the Zohar and the Arizal. But the Rebbe points out that this matter appears in the Gemara as well and in verses, as the Alter Rebbe brings: «וכמו שכתוב בגמרא כתיב היש מספר לגדודיו וכתיב אלף אלפים ישמשוניה ורבו רבבן קדמוהי כו'» (as it is stated in the Gemara: it is written, «Is there any number to His troops?» and it is written, «A thousand thousands served Him, and myriads of myriads stood before Him»).
The verse in Iyov asks «היש מספר לגדודיו» (is there any number to His troops?), implying that the troops of angels are beyond number; whereas the verse in Daniel specifies a definite quantity, «אלף אלפים... ורבו רבבן» (a thousand thousands... and myriads of myriads), which would seem to set a limit. «ומשני» (and it answers): the Gemara resolves the contradiction: «אלף אלפין וכו' מספר גדוד אחד אבל לגדודיו אין מספר» (a thousand thousands and so on is the number of a single troop, but His troops themselves have no number). So there is no contradiction between the verses at all: Iyov speaks of the number of troops, and Daniel of the number of angels within each troop.
«וכולם קמיה כלא ממש חשיבי» (and all of them are considered as literally nothing before Him): this entire staggering multiplicity of worlds and angels, which the mind reels to contemplate, counts as nothing at all relative to the King. One might have thought that the King's greatness is expressed precisely in His having a multiplicity of worlds and a multiplicity of angels; but the truth is that all this multiplicity is as naught and as nothing, literally nothing, in relation to Him, «ובטלים במציאות ממש» (and they are nullified in their very existence).
And in what way? «כביטול דבור אחד ממש לגבי מהות הנפש המדברת ועצמותה, בעוד שהיה דיבורה עדיין במחשבתה או ברצון וחמדת הלב כנ"ל באריכות» (like the bittul of a single utterance in relation to the essence and substance of the speaking soul, while that speech was still within its thought, or within the will and desire of the heart, as explained above at length), as we learned at length in chapters 20 and 21 and those that follow. In brief: a person can speak an infinite number of words, and therefore a single word he has spoken has no value at all relative to his capacity for speech. And the Holy One, blessed be He, created the angels through speech, «בעשרה מאמרות נברא העולם» (the world was created with ten utterances), so that the life force of all those limitless angels comes from a single utterance. And just as with a human being a single utterance is as nothing relative to his capacity, so too this utterance is as nothing relative to the infinite capacity of the Creator. If so, all the angels together amount to one utterance, and that utterance is as nothing, so that they are literally nothing at all. So much for the greatness of the King.
Before we move on, let us stop at a fascinating precision in the passage we have learned. The Alter Rebbe is quoting the Gemara in tractate Chagigah, and comparing his words with the language of the Gemara itself reveals two changes:
The order of the verses is reversed. The Gemara says: «כתוב אחד אומר אלף אלפים ישמשוניה ורבו רבבן קדמוהי יקומון, וכתוב אחד אומר היש מספר לגדודיו» (one verse says, «A thousand thousands served Him and myriads of myriads stood before Him,» and another verse says, «Is there any number to His troops?»), to which the Gemara replies, «לא קשיא: אלף אלפים ישמשוניה מספר גדוד אחד, ולגדודיו אין מספר» (this is no difficulty: «A thousand thousands served Him» is the number of a single troop, while His troops have no number). The Gemara brings the verse from Daniel first and the verse from Iyov after it, and the Alter Rebbe reversed the order.
A change in wording. The Gemara's phrasing is «כתוב אחד אומר... וכתוב אחד אומר» (one verse says... and another verse says), while the Tanya has «כתיב... וכתיב» (it is written... and it is written). Every word in the Tanya is astonishingly precise, and this is no casual change.
The Rebbe explains that the context in the Tanya is different from the context in the Gemara. There in the Gemara a whole page of verses dealing with maaseh merkavah is brought, the chariot of Yechezkel and the like, puzzling verses that are not understandable on their face, and the Gemara resolves them one by one. The verse «אלף אלפים ישמשוניה» is brought there as a difficulty: how can one say that there is a limited number of angels? Even had the Gemara brought this verse alone, it would have raised a question on it; it therefore adds the opposing verse and reconciles the two.
In the Tanya, however, the intent is the reverse. The Alter Rebbe comes to show the sheer quantity of angels, that the King is so great that He has a multiplicity of angels. He therefore brings first the verse that indicates multiplicity, «היש מספר לגדודיו», and with that he could have been satisfied; only afterward does he add that although it is written «אלף אלפים ישמשוניה», this verse does not diminish the first one, since the Gemara explains that this number refers to a single troop alone. Since his purpose differs from the purpose of the Gemara, he reversed the order.
For this very same reason he also changed the wording. Anyone familiar with the style of the Gemara knows that the expression «כתוב אחד אומר» announces a question, a contradiction between one verse and another, and the Alter Rebbe is not here engaged in a give and take of questions but in bringing citations for the multiplicity of angels. He therefore wrote «כתיב... וכתיב»: it is written this, and it is also written that, and neither diminishes the other. From here we learn how precise every single word in the Tanya is, and how important it is to know, when the Alter Rebbe brings a quotation, exactly for what purpose the quotation has been brought.
In summary: in this section we completed the picture of the parable, the king uniting himself with the lowly commoner «רוחא ברוחא» (spirit cleaving to spirit), and the love doubled and redoubled that awakens in the man's heart to the point of kelos hanefesh, the expiring of the soul, even if his heart had been «כלב האבן». From there we moved on to the nimshal, that the Holy One, blessed be He, has done for us «מכפלי כפליים לאין קץ» (doubled and redoubled without end) more than this, and we examined the greatness of the King: «לגדולתו אין חקר», memale kol almin and sovev kol almin, a multiplicity of chambers and worlds beyond number, with myriads of myriads of angels in each and every one, and all of them «קמיה כלא ממש חשיבי», like the bittul of a single utterance relative to the essence and substance of the speaking soul. Finally we examined the Alter Rebbe's precision in citing the Gemara in Chagigah: the reversal of the order of the verses and the change from «כתוב אחד אומר» to «כתיב», because his purpose is to demonstrate the multiplicity of angels, not to raise a difficulty from one verse against another.
In the next section we will take up the second half of the parable: how the king leaves his palace, and where he goes.