In the previous part we learned about the two ways of understanding the Alter Rebbe's words, the "long way" and the "short way." Now we will see how the Rebbe clarifies that these are not two separate paths at all, but one single path which is itself both long and short at once, and how this principle is derived from a well known story in the Talmud.
The story appears in Tractate Eruvin. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi relates that he was traveling and saw a child sitting at a fork in the road. When he asked the child which road leads to the city, the child answered: זו קצרה וארוכה, וזו ארוכה וקצרה, "this one is short and long, and this one is long and short." (In Midrash Rabbah on Eichah the wording differs slightly: זו דרך קרובה ורחוקה וזו רחוקה וקרובה, "this road is near and far, and this one is far and near.")
Rabbi Yehoshua tells that he chose the road that is "short and long." When he came close to the city, he discovered that it was surrounded by gardens and orchards, and there was no way to get inside. He had to retrace his steps, and he said to the child: "My son, did you not tell me that this road is short?" The child answered: "And did I not also tell you that it is long?" Rabbi Yehoshua kissed him on his head and said: "Fortunate are you, Israel, that you are all great sages, from your greatest to your smallest."
From this story the advantage of the "long and short" road emerges: it does not merely bring a person up to the gates of the city, it enables him to enter inside. The short-and-long road brings the traveler quickly to the outskirts of the city, but leaves him standing outside. The long-and-short road, by contrast, guarantees that he will actually get all the way in.
The Alter Rebbe deliberately borrows the language of Chazal to hint that his explanation of the verse כי קרוב אליך הדבר מאד ("for the thing is very close to you") is a long way: learning Tanya demands working through many chapters and deep explanations. But it is short, because it is the way that produces an inner, stable avodas Hashem.
The verse says: גדול ה' ומהולל מאד בעיר אלוקינו, "Great is Hashem and greatly praised in the city of our G-d." The "city of our G-d" represents the place every Jew is meant to enter: the fulfillment of Torah and mitzvos in a way that is whole, genuine and lasting, not temporary and not partial. This is the Alter Rebbe's approach: to bring the student inside the city itself.
This path is hinted at first and foremost in the wording of the verse: בפיך ובלבבך לעשותו ("in your mouth and in your heart to do it"). When a person experiences only an emotional arousal, something that can sometimes be achieved through a passing enthusiasm, the feeling is liable to evaporate quickly if it is never applied. But when it penetrates into speech and action ("in your mouth... to do it"), the person is no longer standing at the entrance to the city; he has come inside and settled there. The Alter Rebbe sets out to explain how the verse כי קרוב אליך הדבר מאד holds true for entering the city at every one of its stages.
A further point: Chazal define the Jewish people as מאמינים בני מאמינים, "believers, the children of believers." If so, why doesn't every single Jew keep Torah and mitzvos in full?
The answer lies in a well known principle: emunah on its own does not necessarily obligate a change in actual behavior. Chazal illustrated this with the thief who breaks in through a tunnel and calls out to the Almighty to help him succeed. He believes in the reality of G-d, yet he feels no contradiction between his emunah and the act of stealing. Chassidus explains that emunah is a "koach makif," an encompassing faculty. It surrounds a person from without, but it does not penetrate and govern his inner self and his essence.
For a person to change from the ground up, an encompassing emunah is not enough. What is required is internalization, depth, and the rule of the mind over the heart. This is what is unique about the Tanya: it does not content itself with relying on natural emunah, but lays out the way of Chabad (Chochmah, Binah, Daas), drawing spiritual matters down into understanding, grasp and careful contemplation. That is indeed a long way, full of details and analogies, but it is short, because it moves a person from the level of an encompassing emunah to actually entering the city.
This is also the principle that sets the Chabad approach apart. As is well known, the Alter Rebbe was a disciple of the Maggid of Mezritch, who was a disciple of the Baal Shem Tov. From the Baal Shem Tov's beis midrash many branches and chassidic dynasties emerged. The difference in the approaches to avodah between these schools is hinted at in the vowelization of a single word in the verse in Chavakuk: וצדיק באמונתו יחיה ("and the tzaddik will live by his faith"):
In general Chassidus the verse is expounded as: וצדיק באמונתו יְחַיָּה, "the tzaddik, through his faith, gives life," meaning that the tzaddik, through his lofty avodah, arouses and enlivens his chassidim, and they are carried along with him without needing prolonged work of their own.
In Chabad the verse is expounded according to its plain meaning: וצדיק באמונתו יִחְיֶה, "the tzaddik will live by his faith," meaning that it falls upon every single individual to internalize these matters and live them through his own inner, independent avodah.
This work on oneself is a long road, but in the end it is the short one, because it brings about a genuine inner change and brings the person into the city itself.
Let us return to a question we touched on in the previous part of the lesson. In one of his sichos the Rebbe raised a fascinating observation about the order of the words in the verse בפיך ובלבבך לעשותו. Why does the verse not follow the familiar order of thought-speech-action, or action-speech-thought?
The Rebbe explained that this order reflects the actual stages of development: in the growth of a child, in a person's daily schedule, and in the historical unfolding of the Jewish people:
In the child: from the moment he comes into the world and begins to speak, his father is commanded to teach him תורה צווה לנו משה ("in your mouth": speech comes before understanding). As he grows, one can reach his heart and his mind ("and in your heart"). When he reaches the age of mitzvos, the obligation of actual deed takes effect ("to do it").
In the daily order: upon waking, a person opens his mouth and says Modeh Ani ("in your mouth"), then he prays and learns with understanding and feeling ("and in your heart"), and from there he turns to practical activity ("to do it").
In the course of history: at Mattan Torah the divine speech was heard ("in your mouth"); through the generations of exile the avodah of Torah and of the heart is carried on ("and in your heart"); and the completeness of actual deed will be revealed in the future, in the complete Redemption ("to do it").
Another fascinating point appears at the bottom of the title page:
In many sefarim it is customary to note the year of printing at the bottom of the first page. Sometimes the year is given in numerals or in plain letters (such as "תרס״ו" or "תרס״ז"), and sometimes the practice is to print a verse and highlight (or enlarge) certain letters within it, so that the gematria of the highlighted letters alone yields the year of printing.
Over the last hundred years (and a bit more), printings of the Tanya have marked the year of printing at the bottom of the title page with the verse בקדוש ישראל יגילו ("in the Holy One of Israel they will rejoice"), highlighting in each edition the letters that correspond to that year.
It is worth noting that in the very first editions of the Tanya it was specifically the verse כי קרוב אליך הדבר מאד בפיך that was used, with letters from it highlighted; but for more than a century now the accepted practice has been to use the verse בקדוש ישראל יגילו.
The Rebbe pointed out the hashgacha pratis in the choice of this particular verse. The second word, ישראל, alludes to the Baal Shem Tov (Rabbi Yisrael). The first word, בקדש, is made up of the letters ב, ד and ו, which allude to the Alter Rebbe's teacher, Rabbi Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezritch. Thus the very title page hints at the names of the Alter Rebbe's teachers, from whom he gathered the sources for his sefer, teaching us that every detail in the Tanya, even the seemingly technical details, is planned and precise by hashgacha pratis.
In summary: in this part we learned that the Alter Rebbe charts one single path that is "long and short" at once, as illustrated by the Gemara's story of the child, a path that brings a person inside the city. We saw that emunah on its own is a "koach makif," an encompassing faculty, and that is why the teaching of Chabad demands in-depth study with Chochmah, Binah and Daas, in order to internalize these matters from the mind into the heart and into action. We also examined the precision of the order in the verse בפיך ובלבבך לעשותו on the personal, daily and historical levels, and the allusion to the Alter Rebbe's teachers in the verse that marks the year of printing.
In the next part we will take up another introduction, "Tanya is like the ketores for the soul," and the special significance of learning Tanya as a segulah and a healing for the soul.