We have reached the middle of chapter 49 of Tanya. We stopped on page 69b (page 138), at the end of the upper third of the page, on the line that begins with the words «ahavas Hashem», and from there a new passage opens: «ואיך יבא האדם החומרי למדה זו». Let us first review and summarize what we have learned until now, and from that the continuation of the chapter we are about to learn will also become clear.
The run of chapters we are studying, from chapter 46 onward, comes to awaken in a Jew a love for the Almighty on the level of «as water reflects a face back to a face». Just as someone who looks into a mirror gets back exactly the face he shows it, so too between one person and another: the attitude, the investment and the effort a person puts into another are precisely what he receives back.
And if the distance between the giver and the receiver is great, that the giver is a person of lofty standing who comes down from his place of honor in order to draw close the lowest of the low, to grant him love, affection and help, then all the more so does the receiver say: if the one above, who could have stayed where he was, came down to me, gave to me and acted on my behalf, then surely I too will do for him in kind.
The nimshal is the relationship between a Jew and the Almighty. He is the one above, and we, in both the mashal and the nimshal, are called the one below. He came down for our sake and, as it were, contracted His great light for us. Examples of this were brought throughout these chapters: the descent into Egypt in order to take us out of there; the obligation that in every single day a person must see himself as if he is leaving Egypt; and above all, as we learned in the recent lessons, the matter of creation itself. Every single moment that creation exists, it is because the Creator is contracting, veiling and concealing His infinity in order to make room for the finite reality of the world, so that we can exist in it at all.
From here comes the directive: if a person sees that the Creator is, as it were, contracting His infinity for him, he is told that he too should contract himself for the Creator. When desires, worries and cravings stand in the way of keeping Torah and mitzvos, he must set them aside and say: I am putting my cravings to the side and doing what the Almighty said. And why is he willing to put himself aside? Because the Almighty, as it were, puts Himself aside for him at every single moment. This is the essential point.
At the end of the previous lesson we saw that this idea is found in Krias Shema, in the words «ve'ahavta es Hashem Elokecha bechol levavecha», with all your heart. Even in the things the heart, the nefesh habahamis, is drawn to, things that appear to a person so important that he can almost not manage without them, he must say: I am not dragged after those things; I do what the Creator of the world says.
The goal is written in Krias Shema, and the introduction that leads to it is the blessings that precede it. The first blessing, «yotzer or u'vorei choshech», which concludes with «Baruch atah Hashem yotzer hame'oros»; and the second blessing, «ahavas olam», which concludes with «habocher be'amo Yisrael be'ahavah». Why are these two blessings called the blessings of Krias Shema, and what is their connection to «Shema Yisrael»?
The answer is that in these blessings the entire idea we have described is spelled out. On the one hand: how great the Creator of the world is, how infinite He is, and how great His creations are, «mah rabu ma'asecha Hashem»; and on the other hand: the Almighty, as it were, sets all of it aside and says that His very essence and purpose is the Jewish people, and therefore He contracts Himself for our sake. The result of this understanding then arrives in Krias Shema itself: «ve'ahavta es Hashem Elokecha bechol levavecha», a two way love.
Let us learn it inside, in the words of the Alter Rebbe: «ואיך יבא האדם החומרי למדה זו» (And how shall the materialistic person come to this quality?). How does a physical person, whose interest is generally matter, physicality and worldly affairs, arrive at a level where the material does not interest him but rather G-dliness and spirituality, so that when there is a clash between the physical and the spiritual he sets the physical aside and connects to the goal?
To this the Alter Rebbe answers: «לכך סידרו תחלה ברכת יוצר אור» (This is why they arranged first the blessing of «yotzer or»). [This is the correction in the Tanya's list of corrections: «ברכת» in the singular, since he explains each blessing separately.] For this purpose the Sages instituted the blessings that explain this matter, and there is a deliberate order in them: first the blessing of «yotzer or», and after it the blessing of «ahavas olam».
Why specifically in this order?
Because the entire idea is built on an order. In the first stage a person must grasp how great the Almighty is, and in the second stage he must grasp how, despite that greatness, Hashem comes down to the person and establishes that the person is the main thing. Accordingly, the first blessing deals primarily with the first part, how great He is and how great His creations are, even though in it too the importance of Israel is already hinted at, as we will see further on.
It is worth prefacing: Krias Shema is written in the Torah, whereas the blessings are an enactment of the Sages of Israel. The Sages saw that the words «ve'ahavta es Hashem Elokecha bechol levavecha» are lofty words, and how is a person to move from the street, from his bed, from the affairs of the world, to such a level? What is the bridge? So they gave a Jew a bridge that leads to the goal: contemplating what is said in the blessings of Krias Shema. And when he means the words he is saying in davening, they carry him to the goal.
In the Alter Rebbe's words: «ושם נאמר ונשנה באריכות ענין וסדר המלאכים העומדים ברום עולם» (And there it is stated and repeated at length, the matter and order of the angels that stand at the summit of the universe). In the first blessing the matter is stated, and then stated again a second time and at great length: the nature of the angels and their order.
In the blessing of «yotzer or» we open with the first passage: «mah rabu ma'asecha Hashem, kulam bechochmah asisa», how numerous are Your works, Hashem, You made them all with wisdom. Immediately afterward we praise the Name of the Almighty as «yotzer mesharsim», He forms the angels who are called servants, and from here begins the description of those angels, all of whom «stand at the summit of the universe», in the loftiest heights of creation.
In detail, there are levels among the angels (and their names will be mentioned further on in the chapter):
Serafim, in the world of Beriah, the highest world.
Chayos hakodesh, lower than them, in the world of Yetzirah.
Ofanim, in the world of Asiyah.
And what are they doing at the summit of the universe? «להודיע גדולתו של הקב"ה איך שכולם בטלים לאורו ית' ומשמיעים ביראה כו'» (to make known the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be He, how they are all nullified to His blessed light, and they sound forth with awe, etc.). The davening describes how the angels, through their service, make known the greatness of the Almighty, and how all of them are utterly nullified to the G-dly light. They apprehend the greatness of the Creator with their understanding, and that apprehension of the greatness of the G-dly light brings them to bittul, complete self nullification before Him, and out of that they sound forth with awe.
And the passage concludes: «ומקדישים כו' ואומרים ביראה קדוש כו'» (and they sanctify etc., and declare with awe «Kadosh» etc.).
To summarize: In this section we reviewed the foundation of the recent chapters, «as water reflects a face back to a face». The Almighty, the one above, contracts and conceals His infinite light at every moment for the sake of the one below, and therefore a person is asked to contract himself and his cravings for His sake, until «ve'ahavta es Hashem Elokecha bechol levavecha». We saw that in order for the materialistic person to reach this quality, the Sages arranged first the blessing of «yotzer or» and after it the blessing of «ahavas olam», following the order of understanding: first His greatness, and then His descent to the person. In the first blessing the matter and order of the angels who stand at the summit of the universe is stated and repeated at length: serafim, chayos hakodesh and ofanim, who are nullified to the G-dly light, who sound forth with awe and sanctify the Name of the Creator.
In the next section we will go deeper into the angels' proclamation of «Kadosh, kadosh, kadosh» and into the Alter Rebbe's explanation of what it means.