In the previous section we went through the various levels the Alter Rebbe lists regarding the study of the wisdoms of the world.
The fifth and final level is a person who is not a rav, not a dayan, and not a member of the Sanhedrin, and who studies these disciplines simply in order to earn a living, in the Alter Rebbe's words, "to earn a comfortable livelihood from them" for the service of Hashem. All five of these options are legitimate.
But the Alter Rebbe cannot end the chapter with the words "to earn a comfortable livelihood from them for the service of Hashem," because he is well aware of what the Rambam writes about himself.
The Rambam's own path:
It is well known that the Rambam had to write the laws of sanctifying the new month, and he himself writes that this particular science is necessary for that purpose, so he was obligated to study it. Similarly, it is clear that the Rambam studied the practices of idolatry, since he wrote the laws of avodah zarah. But when it comes to medicine, which the Rambam famously occupied himself with, here the question arises, for the Rambam himself writes that it was not for the sake of livelihood that he invested his time in it.
Livelihood, then, was not the reason for his medical studies either. For in his letters the Rambam relates that he had a wealthy brother who decided to support him and his entire household, and every month he received a fixed allowance from him. His life was comfortable, he had no financial pressure at all, and he could have sat and learned Torah in peace, and nevertheless he went and studied the wisdoms of the nations. What, then, was his reason? His conduct does not fit any of the five levels listed until now.
The sixth level:
Here the Alter Rebbe introduces a sixth level: "מי שיודע להשתמש בהן לעבודת השם ולתורתו" - "one who knows how to use them for the service of Hashem and for His Torah." Such a person is not studying the discipline because of some external need; he knows how to take the wisdom itself and use it for Hashem's Torah and Hashem's service. The only catch is that to stand at this level, you have to be the Rambam...
The Tzemach Tzedek illuminates this point and stresses that the Alter Rebbe chose precisely this language so that no one should try to imitate the Rambam. Rather, one should know that for this you must be a Rambam, or belong to his company, "הרמב"ם והרמב"ן שעסקו בהן" - "the Rambam and the Ramban, who occupied themselves with them."
Medicine as a profession that helps others:
One might have argued that the Rambam deliberately chose a field in which one can be of benefit to others, medicine, rather than going off to study pure mathematics. And indeed, if that is the goal, there is no problem at all: the parshah of Mishpatim says "ורפא ירפא" - "and he shall surely heal," from which we learn that permission has been granted to a physician to heal. The Gemara even rules that one may not live in a city that has no doctor, one of the ten conditions that make a city fit for habitation, and in order for there to be a doctor, somebody has to have studied medicine.
But when you read the Rambam's letters carefully, it becomes clear that this was not the purpose of his study. Nowhere does he write that he learned because he wanted to be a physician. Afterwards he indeed knew how to make use of it, and he even earned his livelihood from it, but all of that came after the fact; at the time of the study itself, that was not his aim.
It is worth noting that although the Rambam and the Ramban disagree on a great many matters, on this point they did not disagree, and both of them occupied themselves with these same wisdoms, and the Alter Rebbe mentions the two of them together here. Medicine was brought as the example here from the Rambam's own words; which disciplines the Ramban occupied himself with is not specified here.
The Rebbe's battle against the rush toward the wisdoms of the nations:
At the beginning of the Rebbe's nesius there was a genuine plague in the United States: even G-d-fearing Jews were sending their young children off to university so that they would have a purpose in life and a source of income. The Rebbe spoke very sharply against the phenomenon: the most precious and finest years of a young man's life must be invested in learning Torah, and as for his livelihood, the Holy One, blessed be He, will provide it. Reality itself bears this out: a person invests years in one field and in the end earns his living from an entirely different one, and it turns out that his whole investment has nothing to do with what he actually does.
During that same period several people came in to yechidus with the Rebbe with a claim and a question: after all, the Rebbe himself studied at a university, at the Sorbonne. The Rebbe did not answer them that "this is the reasoning of the Rambam and the Ramban, who occupied themselves with them." As is known, the Rebbe did so because his father-in-law, the previous Rebbe, sent him and insisted upon it, and over the years, in the natural course of things and by ordinary human reckoning, it proved to be a great help in his role in this generation.
Three answers are recorded that the Rebbe gave to three types of questioners:
Precisely because I was there, I am in a position to tell you how much it is not good.
A man who climbed onto a roof, jumped, and survived: does that mean that everyone who jumps after him will survive?
It was done only after he was fluent in Shas and the poskim and had filled himself with every chamber of Torah; here, by contrast, they take boys who have not yet learned a single word of Torah.
The result is liable to be just like that story mentioned earlier: they send the boy off to get a training, and in the end he stays there.
The story of the Alter Rebbe's grandson:
During that period the Rebbe told an interesting story. The Alter Rebbe had a grandson, a son of the Mitteler Rebbe, who married young as was the custom in those days, not long after his bar mitzvah, at about fifteen. For his wedding he received fine clothing, among them a coat with an especially beautiful fur on the outside, in the latest fashion. Once he came in to his grandfather wearing this new garment.
The Alter Rebbe saw it and said to him: "If you tear off this outer part, I promise you that you will be with me, in my place, in Gan Eden" - a far-reaching promise, the kind one does not give out for just anything. The grandson answered him: "Zeide, must I do this with kabbolas ol alone, or do I also have to hold with it?" In other words, must he be in an inner state in which he genuinely wants to be rid of the garment, for it was very hard for him to part with such a beautiful thing; but if his grandfather instructs him, he will do it out of kabbolas ol, out of sheer acceptance of the yoke.
The Alter Rebbe did not answer him, and in the end the grandson did not take off the garment. The end of the story is well known: in his final years that grandson lay for months at the Alter Rebbe's tziyun, weeping and praying for atonement for not having had the sense in his youth to do what was asked of him, for not having "held with it."
The previous Rebbe, who told this story, asked: why did the grandfather make such a far-reaching promise, to be with him in his place in Gan Eden, over a matter like this? And what is so serious about it? He explained that in that period there was a particular kelipah at work: young boys beginning to beautify themselves with fine clothing. The Alter Rebbe saw that this kelipah had to be uprooted at its very beginning, and he knew that his grandson represented, in his eyes, the youth who were caught up in the new fashion. Uprooting it from him would have broken that kelipah spiritually, and since breaking it mattered to him so deeply, he was prepared to offer even the greatest of promises.
The Rebbe told this story at a time when there was an illogical rush toward the study of the wisdoms of the nations, even in circles of people who keep Torah and mitzvos (today there is no longer such a rush), and he said that the phenomenon must be uprooted at its beginning, for when you uproot something at its inception, you nullify it entirely.
From all this we see how strongly, and in the most striking terms, the Alter Rebbe emphasizes the distance one must keep from wisdoms of this sort, for they bring impurity to the soul, over and above the bitul Torah involved in them. And whoever comes along and says that he is studying them only as an axe to dig with, he had better be recognized as standing at that kind of level and stature.
Summary of the entire subject:
At this point we have completed a substantial section of Tanya, an entire subject that the Alter Rebbe has explained:
Chapters 3-4: the explanation of the nefesh ha'Elokis, the divine soul.
Chapter 5: as a parenthesis, the greatness of Torah.
Chapters 6-7 onward: the explanation of the nefesh habahamis, the animal soul, and all its faculties: the kelipah and its various levels, kelipas nogah and the three impure kelipos, matters of holiness, and how one elevates, how one drags down, and how one rectifies.
Now that we have learned about all the faculties that exist on both sides, from chapter 9 onward we move on to the active wrestling match between these two forces within the soul, and how a person is to cope with, and relate to, the situation as it stands.
To summarize: in this section we learned that the Alter Rebbe does not stop at the five levels he listed, but adds a sixth: one who knows how to use the wisdoms themselves for Hashem's Torah and His service, in the way of the Rambam, who studied even though he had no need of a livelihood. The Tzemach Tzedek stresses that one must not imitate the Rambam, but rather know that for this one must be like him or of his company. We saw that although medicine can serve to help others ("ורפא ירפא," and the prohibition against living in a city without a doctor), the Rambam's letters make clear that this was not the purpose of his study at the time. We also learned of the Rebbe's battle against the rush toward the wisdoms of the nations, the three answers he gave to those who questioned him, and the story of the Alter Rebbe's grandson, from which we derive the principle that a kelipah must be uprooted at its very beginning.
In the next section we will take up chapter 9: the active struggle between the divine soul and the animal soul, and the way a person is called upon to face it.