In the previous part we learned about the Hakdamas HaMelaket, the Compiler's Introduction, and about the chassidim's claim: they preferred coming in to the Rebbe for yechidus, a private audience, over learning these matters from a written book. In this part the Alter Rebbe goes further and reinforces that claim, spelling out the drawback of writing things down for careful study, from two angles: who the author of the book is, and the bond that every single Jew has with the Torah.
Let us set the stage. Beyond the claim we already saw, there is a further problem in handing a person a written book: who is the author of this book? We are not speaking here of the books of Tanach, but of sifrei yirah, works meant to awaken the reader to fear of Heaven and to the service of G-d. Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of such books:
Books that are the product of human intellect: the author, a flesh and blood human being, sits and writes down his own thoughts, drawing on his sense of how to set hearts aflame in matters of fear of Heaven.
Books that are anthologies of sources: here the author is not writing his own thoughts. He gathers into one place passages from the Midrashim, from the Gemara, from all the sources that stir the soul, and he says: none of this is mine; for every point there is a source.
The Alter Rebbe explains that neither of these two kinds of books can suit every person, and he begins with the first kind.
The drawback of books built on human intellect:
"ובר מן דין" ("and apart from this"): beyond the claim already made, there is another reason for the deficiency in putting things in writing. "הנה ספרי היראה הבנויים על פי שכל אנושי בוודאי אינם שווים לכל נפש" ("books of yirah that are built upon human intellect are certainly not equally suited to every soul"). It simply cannot be that a book written out of a human mind will fit each and every person. Even if the author is a man of great stature and a broad heart, his intellect is still human intellect: it may speak to one community and not to another, and even within one and the same community it will reach certain people and not others.
Why? Because "אין כל השכלים והדעות שוות" ("not all minds and temperaments are alike"). People's mindsets are not identical. One person can read a text and be moved to the depths of his soul, while his friend reads those very same words with total indifference. Just as their faces are not alike, so their minds are not alike, "ובאין שכל האדם זה מתפעל ומתעורר ממה שמתפעל שכל חברו" ("and one person's mind is not stirred and aroused by what stirs the mind of his fellow"). For this reason no human author can write a book and declare that it fits all people; each reader is drawn precisely to the words that speak to his own heart.
The blessing of "Chacham HaRazim":
This principle has a basis in halachah, "כמו שאמרו רז"ל גבי ברכת חכם הרזים" ("as our Sages said regarding the blessing 'Chacham HaRazim'"). The Gemara in Berachos discusses the blessings recited on various occasions, and says: "תנו רבנן, הרואה אוכלוסי ישראל" ("our Rabbis taught: one who sees multitudes of Israel"), that is, one who sees six hundred thousand Jews gathered together, recites, "ברוך אתה ה' אלוקינו מלך העולם חכם הרזים" ("Blessed are You, G-d... Knower of secrets"). And the reason for the blessing: "שאין דעתם דומה זה לזה ואין פרצופיהם דומים זה לזה" ("for their minds are not alike and their faces are not alike"). The Gemara goes on to relate the story of Ben Zoma, who saw six hundred thousand Jews on the Temple Mount and recited this blessing, and so it was fixed as binding halachah.
And why is this blessing said with G-d's Name and Kingship? Because "razim" means secrets: every single person has his own secret, his own inner riddle, and there is only One who is the "Knower of secrets," the Holy One, blessed be He. Apart from Him, the crowd is nothing but a collection of secrets, and it is impossible that they all be the same.
"A man in whom there is spirit":
Having established that people's minds are not alike, the Alter Rebbe adds: "כמו שכתב הרמב"ן ז"ל במלחמות" ("as the Ramban wrote in Milchamos"). In his commentary Milchamos Hashem on the Rif, at the end of Berachos, the Ramban cites "בפירוש הספרי גבי יהושע שנאמר בו איש אשר רוח בו" ("the explanation of the Sifri concerning Yehoshua, of whom it is said, 'a man in whom there is spirit'"). Moshe Rabbeinu asked the Holy One, blessed be He, to appoint a man over the congregation who would lead the Jewish people, and he laid down the criterion: "a man in whom there is spirit." The Sifri explains: one who is able to go along with the spirit of each and every individual. A leader of Israel, a Rebbe, must be someone capable of fitting himself to every single person.
The source of this is that very passage in the Gemara where the blessing of Chacham HaRazim appears. Rav Papa and Rav Huna were traveling, and Rav Chanina came toward them. They turned to him and said: we saw you and recited two blessings over you, "ברוך אשר חלק מחכמתו ליראיו" ("Blessed is He who has apportioned of His wisdom to those who fear Him") and "שהחיינו וקיימנו והגיענו לזמן הזה" ("who has granted us life, sustained us, and brought us to this time"). Rav Chanina answered them, "אנא נמי" ("I too"), I also recited a blessing when I saw you, except that I recited three blessings, for I related to you as one who has seen six hundred thousand Jews. In other words, he saw in them "a man in whom there is spirit," a person with the capacity to go along with the spirit of each and every individual, and therefore he added the blessing of "Chacham HaRazim" as well.
In practical halachah one does not recite the blessing "Chacham HaRazim" over a single individual, since the obligation was stated concerning one who sees six hundred thousand Jews, unless the one seeing genuinely discerns that this person is on the level of "a man in whom there is spirit," as Rav Chanina knew how to discern. The Ramban brings this passage and establishes that there are individuals who contain within themselves, as it were, six hundred thousand Jews, and such a person is "a man in whom there is spirit," just as Moshe Rabbeinu said of Yehoshua, who held within himself the capacity of six hundred thousand Jews.
And what does the Alter Rebbe mean to add with this? That even a person over whom one could fittingly recite the blessing "Chacham HaRazim", and this is exactly how the chassidim looked at the Alter Rebbe, as a leader of Israel who has the ability to go along with the spirit of each and every individual, once his words are set down in a book, the reader can no longer receive that personal fit. Face to face he would find the precise words for each person; but in a book the words are handed over to whatever the reader understands, and so they do not fit everyone. The Alter Rebbe is not disputing the chassidim on the fact itself; rather, the claim about the drawback of writing still stands. All of this, however, concerns books built upon human intellect.
Sifrei yirah "whose foundation is in the holy mountains":
Now the Alter Rebbe turns to the second kind of book: "אלא אפילו בספרי יראה אשר יסודתם בהררי קודש" ("but even in books of yirah whose foundation is in the holy mountains"), books that come to awaken a person to fear of Heaven, of which one cannot say that they are human intellect at all, for they are "מדרשי חז"ל אשר רוח השם דיבר בם ומילתו על לשונם" ("the Midrashim of our Sages, in whom the spirit of G-d spoke and whose words were on their tongue"). The Midrashim of our Sages are literally ruach hakodesh, not human intellect but Divine intellect; every word the Sages said is not human but G-dly. Consequently the drawback here is not like the drawback of human intellect, for with human intellect a reader is entitled to say that these words do not speak to him, and it is legitimate to classify and determine that a given human insight belongs to one community and not to another.
But when we are speaking of the Midrashim of our Sages, of a book whose foundation is a holy source, can a person say of a Midrash, of a verse, of a statement of the Sages, that it has nothing to do with him? Every Jew belongs to the whole of Torah, "כמו שכתוב ואורייתא וקודשא בריך הוא כולא חד" ("as it is written, the Torah and the Holy One, blessed be He, are entirely one"). And all six hundred thousand general souls of Israel and all their offshoots, "עד ניצוץ קל שבקלים ופחותי הערך שבעמנו בני ישראל" ("down to the spark of the lightest of the light ones and the least worthy of our people, the Children of Israel"), down to the very last of the last, down to the spark of the lightest of the light, if he is part of the Jewish people, "כולם מתקשראן באורייתא" ("they are all bound up with the Torah"). Every Jew, whoever he may be, is bound to the Torah, and it is the Torah that binds him to the Holy One, blessed be He.
In summary: in this part we learned that the Alter Rebbe goes beyond the chassidim's claim and strengthens the drawback of putting things in writing. Sifrei yirah built on human intellect are not equally suited to every soul, since minds and temperaments are not alike, as we learn from the blessing "Chacham HaRazim." Even a person who is on the level of "a man in whom there is spirit," able to go along with the spirit of each and every individual, once his words are written in a book they are handed over to the reader's own understanding and do not fit everyone. Sifrei yirah whose foundation is in the holy mountains, however, which are the Midrashim of our Sages in whom the spirit of G-d spoke, are fundamentally different, for every Jew, down to the spark of the lightest of the light, is bound up with the entire Torah, and the Torah and the Holy One, blessed be He, are entirely one.
In the next part we will continue with the Compiler's Introduction: the name of the sefer and its form, how the sefer was shaped, and how its very name comes to teach us about its essence and its purpose.