In the previous section we learned that Torah study is a kind of kiss between a Jew and his Creator. When a Jew learns Torah only in his heart, he is, as it were, kissing the Creator but not with his mouth: he is doing the essential part of the kiss, but he is not bringing it out into revelation. The moment he pronounces the words of Torah with his lips, the kiss becomes an actual kiss and the whole matter comes into the open.
Why is it not enough to learn pilpul and iyun (deep analytical study)? Why must one also learn halachos? Here the Alter Rebbe brings the verse «כי על מוצא פי ה' יחיה האדם», “for by everything that issues from the mouth of Hashem does man live,” and he explains it in a striking way. Which part of Torah is called the mouth of Hashem? The halachos. The halachos are the aspect of the mouth of Hashem, while analytical study is, as it were, the aspect of ChaBaD (chochmah, binah, daas, the intellectual faculties). And from what does a person live, that is, from where does he know how he is actually meant to conduct himself? From the halachos. Therefore one may not content himself with the give and take of Gemara alone; he must also learn the halachos, which are the practical bottom line by which “man lives.”
And how must one learn? “Al levavecha,” upon your heart, is not enough; “vedibarta bam,” and you shall speak of them, is also required. Why? Because as long as the words are not brought out into speech, the connection has not been revealed. It is like a person who loves his friend, or his child, with tremendous love, and never gives him a kiss. The function of a kiss is not to create the love but to express it and reveal it: the kiss itself is not the love, it is the technical act of the mouth, and its whole purpose is to bring what is happening inside out into the open.
Let us summarize the progression so far:
So that a Jew should have love for his Creator, the Torah says “Ve'ahavta,” you shall love.
That love cannot be allowed to remain on the level of “Ve'ahavta” alone; it has to be drawn down below: “Vehayu hadevarim ha'eileh,” and these words shall be.
This drawing down is accomplished through Torah study, and in it there are two elements: “al levavecha” and “vedibarta bam.”
But if we were to stop here, the importance of “vedibarta bam” would be only secondary. Even if a person never pronounced the words of Torah with his lips and sufficed with analytical study, he would still be kissing the Holy One and cleaving to Him, only without expressing it openly. According to that, in study by iyun alone nothing would be lacking in the connection itself, only in its revelation. After all, a kiss given with no feeling at all, merely with the lips and no more, is worth nothing, which shows that the essence of the kiss is the feeling, and the kiss is only its expression.
To this the Alter Rebbe adds that in truth one cannot suffice with Torah study of the heart: «ומכל מקום לא יצא ידי חובתו בהרהור ועיון לבדו עד שיוציא בשפתיו», “nevertheless, one does not fulfill his obligation with thought and contemplation alone until he brings it out with his lips.” Even though Torah study is the primary expression of a Jew's love for his Creator, he cannot make do with love in the heart alone and learn Torah without articulating the words. Just as with prayer one does not fulfill his obligation with thought alone, as we learned earlier, so too with the mitzvah of talmud Torah: without speech something truly essential is missing here, because the matter does not come down below.
And why? Here the Alter Rebbe makes clear that “Ve'ahavta” is not meant as an escape upward, to stay there. The love expresses itself precisely in bringing things down below, into actual, practical expression. This is why it is impossible to fulfill the mitzvah of talmud Torah without speech: when a person speaks, it is not only the soul that takes part in the learning, but the physical side as well, the body and the nefesh hachiyunis, the vitalizing soul that animates it.
And from where does the body get the strength to speak? From the food he ate, the drink he drank, the rest he took. And how many partners in the world were needed for that: how many people and how many factories labored until the food reached the plate, until the bed and the mattress were made, until the house was built and the air conditioning installed. Since all of these have a share in his very ability to sit and produce speech with his mouth, it emerges that the moment a person pronounces words of Torah with his lips, he brings the entire world into his learning and elevates it.
In the Alter Rebbe's words: «כדי להמשיך אור אין סוף ברוך הוא למטה עד נפש החיונית השוכנת בדם האדם המתהוה מדומם צומח חי», “in order to draw down the light of the Ein Sof below, until the vitalizing soul that dwells in a person's blood, which comes into being from the inanimate, the vegetative and the animal.” Through this, the domem, tzomeiach and chai from which he is nourished are elevated as well. And this itself is bound up with “Ve'ahavta”: what a person wants in his love is to cleave to the Creator, and to that he is told not to ascend alone, but rather «כדי להעלות כולן לה' עם כל העולם כולו», “in order to elevate them all to Hashem together with the entire world.” And how? By learning Torah, which is the kiss he gives the Creator, and by not sufficing with the learning of the heart but bringing the words out with his mouth. For then, beyond revealing the kiss itself, with his speech he elevates all of creation.
«ולכללן ביחודו ואורו יתברך אשר יאיר לארץ ולדרים», “and to include them all in His blessed unity and light, which shines upon the earth and upon those who dwell on it.” A person must take all of this and absorb it into the Divine light. It is worth noting that in the corrections to the Tanya the words “aleha,” upon it, were added, and in them the entire world is included.
As we learned in earlier chapters, the Holy One divides the world into six hundred thousand general portions, and into many more particular ones. The number of the Jewish people corresponds exactly, like a puzzle, to the number of portions in the world, and each and every one has his own portion that it is his task to refine and sanctify. When he learns and prays, it is by hashgachah pratis, individual Divine providence, that this particular food that those particular workers labored over came to him, along with those particular parts of the world connected to him. Accordingly, one who does not do this has had an entire system placed in his hands and has treated it lightly instead of elevating it. Every individual therefore bears the responsibility to elevate, through his learning, everything connected to him.
The Alter Rebbe concludes that the light shines upon the earth and upon those who dwell on it «בבחינת גילוי», in a manner of revelation, until there will be fulfilled in the whole world «ונגלה כבוד ה' וראו כל בשר וכו'», “and the glory of Hashem shall be revealed and all flesh shall see, etc.” As we learned in chapter 36, the revelation of Moshiach and the bringing of Divine light into the world are the result of our deeds today: already now, when a Jew learns, he sanctifies the world and refines his surroundings, and everything becomes holy. True, it is not visible to the eye, but when Moshiach comes the curtain will, as it were, be drawn back and what is actually happening will be seen. The sanctification is taking place already now, and in the revelation of Moshiach's coming there will be fulfilled “and the glory of Hashem shall be revealed and all flesh shall see.”
A fine point is worth noting here: at the end of the quotation the Alter Rebbe writes “etc.” (vechu). In light of what we learned earlier, that when citing a verse one should properly conclude with “vegomer,” the Rebbe places a question mark on this “vechu”: does it refer to the continuation of the verse, or does it refer to chapter 36, where the matter is explained at great length? From here we see how precise every single expression in Tanya is, both in the way it is written and in what it means.
At the close of the chapter the Alter Rebbe adds a few words that are not there for nothing, but in order to tie together the whole order of Krias Shema: the blessings of Krias Shema are the “warm up,” in which a person prepares himself for love of Hashem in a manner of face to face; “Ve'ahavta” is the expression of that love; and “Vehayu hadevarim ha'eileh al levavecha vedibarta bam” is the bringing down of the love into reality through Torah, and with it the elevation of the entire world, as explained. And now the circle closes with the two blessings of Krias Shema:
The first blessing: in the blessing of “Yotzer Or” we say “Mah rabu ma'asecha Hashem,” how manifold are Your works, “Yotzer mesharsim,” who forms ministering angels, a world and all that fills it. On this the Alter Rebbe says «שזהו תכלית השתלשלות כל העולמות», “that this is the purpose of the entire hishtalshelus of all the worlds”: all those worlds are waiting for the work of this person. For this physical world is not simply one more link in the chain of worlds (atzilus, beriah, yetzirah, asiyah); rather, the entire chain, with all the angels and all the created beings, was brought into being for its sake: so that a Jew should sit and pronounce words of Torah with his mouth and elevate all of creation, «להיות כבוד ה' מלא כל הארץ הזאת דוקא», “that the glory of Hashem should fill specifically this earth,” as the first blessing puts it, “the whole earth is full of His glory.” And why specifically here below; is the Divine light above not enough? «כי הוא בחינת גילוי לאהפכא חשוכא לנהורא ומרירו למיתקא כנ"ל באריכות», “for this is the aspect of revelation, to transform darkness into light and bitterness into sweetness, as explained above at length.” In atzilus, beriah and yetzirah the light is light to begin with, whereas in the world of asiyah, which is darkness to begin with, every light that is revealed comes from the transformation of darkness into light, and such light has an entirely different preciousness and an entirely different power. In fulfilling “vedibarta bam,” then, a person completes what he declared in the first blessing.
The second blessing: in the blessing of “Ahavas Olam” we say that the Holy One loved the Jewish people, “uvanu vacharta mikol am velashon,” and You chose us from every people and tongue. The Holy One could have brought the world to its purpose by Himself, but He chose the Jewish people and wanted that man should be the one to do it. That is why the Alter Rebbe concludes «וזהו תכלית כוונת האדם בעבודתו להמשיך אור אין סוף ברוך הוא למטה», “and this is the ultimate intent of man in his service, to draw down the light of the Ein Sof below”: one who has declared in the second blessing that he was chosen from all the nations and from all of creation must now complete that in his avodah.
At first glance the chapter contains two opposite directions: the line of “Ve'ahavta,” which goes upward, in the mode of ratzo, the run of love and longing to ascend; and the line of “Vehayu hadevarim ha'eileh al levavecha vedibarta bam,” which goes downward, in the mode of shov, the return. What is the connection between them? The Alter Rebbe concludes that the two are bound up with one another, «רק שצריך תחילה העלאת מ"ן למסור לו נפשו ומאודו כנ"ל», “only that one must first raise mayin nukvin, to surrender to Him his soul and all that he has, as explained above.”
Mem Nun stands for mayin nukvin, “feminine waters,” waters of the aspect of nukva. The Jewish people as a whole are compared to a wife and the Holy One to a husband, and everything by which a Jew lifts himself up and seeks to rise toward the Creator is called in Kabbalah and chassidus mayin nukvin. What the Creator then draws down from above is called mem daled, mayin duchrin, “masculine waters,” from the word for male, and this is the hamshachah, the drawing down from above. In order to receive the drawing down from above, one must first make an arousal from below, as Chazal say: “Open for Me an opening the size of the eye of a needle, and I will open for you an opening the size of the entrance hall.”
In summary: in this section we learned that Torah study in the heart is the essence of the kiss, but bringing the words out with the mouth is its revelation; therefore pilpul and iyun alone are not enough and one must also learn halachos, which are the aspect of the mouth of Hashem, by which “man lives.” We saw that although it would seem that “vedibarta bam” is only the revelation of the connection, the Alter Rebbe teaches that “one does not fulfill his obligation with thought and contemplation alone,” because in speech the body and the nefesh hachiyunis take part, and with them the entire world from which a person draws his strength. In this way he raises along with himself the domem, tzomeiach and chai, and includes them in the Divine light that shines upon the earth and upon those who dwell on it in a manner of revelation, until “the glory of Hashem shall be revealed and all flesh shall see.” We also looked at the close of the chapter, which brings the circle back to the two blessings of Krias Shema, the purpose of the entire hishtalshelus of all the worlds and the Holy One's choice of Israel, and at the relationship between ratzo and shov: the raising of mayin nukvin from below that brings about the drawing down of mayin duchrin from above.
In the next section we will continue, with Hashem's help, with the following chapter of Likkutei Amarim.