The Gate of Unity and Faith

This is the second part of my Tanya study guide, covering a second part of the classic Chassidic work of philosophy, The Gate of Unity of Unity and Faith.  It is dedicated to the rapid and complete healing of my mother, Gail bat Adele.  

Chap 1 the world is made of g'ds ten utterances.

Chap 2 the universe is sustained by these continuing utterances and without them would revert to void.  Human creation is transformation of what already exists, while Divine creation is creating existence itself.

Chap 3.  Sunbeams appear like they have their own identity but at their source, the sun itself, they are subsumed.  So too the material world is an illusion which we only perceive because its divine source is obscured.

Chap 4

The aspects of the divine associated with אלוקים׳  , vessels, הגבר protect the world from an over abundance of divine light while the aspect associated with light, יקוק  and הגדול provide the constant renewal of creation. Both aspects have their source in the highest level of the divine.

Chap 5

Divine mercy is embodied in our world through saintly people and through the miracles recounted in the Torah.  There are levels of comprehension of the universe that are beyond what even Moses perceived.  Such understanding will nourish the souls of Torah scholars when they enter the Garden of Eden after they die.

Chap 6

The divine tendency to expand and influence provides life.  The divine tendency to conceal allows life to continue.  The two tendencies are one at their source.

Chap 7 - Direction and time are the structure of our revealed world; these dimensions are not pertinent to G'd but he is one with them.

Chap 8

Consider how a person's speech is derived from thought.  Thought in turn is derived from aspects of personality, which in turn are derived from a person's wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.  The speech, thought, personality aspects, and wisdom knowledge and understanding are all one.  So too the universe, with all its multiplicity of parts and complexity, is one.

Chap 9

Wisdom is the highest level of this world, but there are levels of the divine that are above and beyond wisdom.

Chap 10

One can understand the first three days of creation as follows:  Day One, with the creation of luminaries, is the revelation of light, divine kindness and extension. Day Two, with the separation of heaven and earth, is the revelation of boundaries and limits.  Day Three, the revelation of dry land, is the unveiling of space maintained through the tension between divine boundary and divine extension.  This 'dry land' is the space within which we can exist and serve G'd.

Chap 11 and 12

The Rabbis called the process of divine creation 'utterances' because the manifestation of divine will in this world is similar to the translation of thought into speech.  The revealed world is analogous to divine speech while the concealed world is analogous to divine thought.

The 22 Hebrew letter are analogous to 22 kinds of emanation of divine influence.  Every distinct created thing comes from a unique permutation of these letter-forces.  A thing's name reflects the 'letters' from which it is created.

Tanya Cheat Sheet

I've spent the last several months working on a cheat sheet for the 'Tanya' or 'Sefer Benoni,' one of the key works of Chabad Chassidut.

The Tanya is written in very rich Hebrew, full of allusions to other Rabbinic texts.  This makes the book a pleasure and a challenge:  it is easy to loose track of the 'forest' of a chapter, let alone the entire book.  My cheat sheet is meant to help the reader gain a broader perspective than is easily acquired by simply reading a chapter or the book through.  It is by no means meant to be a substitute for reading the Tanya, but rather as a study aid.

Finally, note this is a work in progress, where I expect to come back and refine it.  It is dedicated to the complete healing of my mother, Gail bat Adele.

Sefer HaBenoni

Chapter 1: Jews have two souls.  One soul is from material called Klipa Noga, with the positive and negative material attributes.

Chapter 2:  Jews also have a soul that is a literal part of the Divine.

Chapter 3: Nefesh, Ruach, and Neshamah are parts of the Divine soul, and they come from the divine emanations named Chochmah, Binah, and Da’at. 

Chapter 4: The Nefesh, Ruach, and Neshamah become material in thoughts, words, and deeds of the commandments and Torah, which are G’d himself.

Chapter 5: When you learn Torah the learning becomes a garment for your holy soul

Chapter 6: When you get involved in work other than divine service, it is rooted in your other soul.

Chapter 7, 8: Klipa noga has the potential for good or evil – it depends on whether you use it for the sake of heaven or not.  When you get involved in it for other reasons, or with the other klipot whatever the reason, you need some kind of purification, like rotting in the grave or time in Gehenom.

Chapter 9: The animal soul lives in the blood-filled left chamber of the heart, while the divine soul lives in the mochim in the brain.  They are two kings at war with each other, striving to make the entire self submit.

Chapter 10:  There are five modes of existence: The saint who lives well, the saint who lives badly, the wicked one who lives well, the wicked one who lives badly, and the ‘Benoni.’ A ‘saint who lives well’ has transformed his animal soul into pure divinity, and regards pleasures of this world with disgust.  A ‘saint who lives badly’ doesn’t hate pleasures of this world, and still hasn’t transformed his animal soul. 

Chapter 11: The ‘wicked person who lives badly’ sins, and has thoughts of regret and penitence.  The ‘wicked person who lives badly’ never has such thoughts.

Chapter 12:  The Benoni never sins, but hasn’t transformed his animal soul.  He has sinful thoughts but pushes them away immediately.

Chap 13 In the Benoni the evil desire is incapacitated during periods of love like prayer and Torah study.  Otherwise it is awake.  

Chap 14: Anyone can be a Benoni, constantly turning away from bad for it divides you from G’d.  The requirement for being saintly is to hate bad itself.  

Chap 15: There are two kinds of Benoni.  One is engaged in continuous war with the evil desire.  The other has a truce, due to the desires not being so strong or constant.  

Chap 16: The task for the Benoni is to meditate on G’ds greatness, which leads to a love and awe that births self-transformation.  Such love and awe are on the level of nature but G’d raise it to an even higher level. 

Chap 17: The wicked are ruled by their heart.  Repentance will shatter the dominion of the heart.

Chap 18: Even fools that can't contemplate G’d’s greatness can also achieve a level of holiness, for great holiness is within them.  They also have the merit of the Patriarchs.

Chap 19: The holy soul aspires to rise up to G’d like a candle's flame.  When people do evil this impulse to arise towards the divine is hidden, but moments of public sanctification allow it to break free.

Chap 20: G’d is one and unchanging.  The universe relative to Him is as unsubstantial as words are relative to one who utters them.

Chap 21: G’d is not separate from his 'words;' the appearance of separation is due to concealment.

Chap 22: Evil is the ultimate concealment of the divine.

Chap 23: Doing mitzvot, especially learning Torah, literally manifests the divine in this world.  

Chap 24: Transgressing the negative mitzvot makes you worse than the lowest creatures, and distances you as far as possible from holiness.

Chap 25: It's our duty to constantly awaken our love for G’d and thus out passion to serve him.

Chap 26: Strength for combat with the evil inclination comes from true joy.  True joy emerges from true sorrow for ones sins, accompanied by reflection on G’ds mercy and greatness.

Chap 27: Just as culinary delicacies can be sweet or spicy, combat with the evil inclination comes in two flavors. A saint sweetens it, turning it to good.  The Benoni doesn't transform the evil inclination but rather lives a spicy constant struggle of pushing aside thoughts and inclinations.  When one feels such thoughts or desires during most periods of life, the right response is to rejoice in the opportunity to push them aside.

Chap 28: If one encounters evil thoughts or desires during prayer or study, don't try to raise them up or confront them.  Just concentrate on the prayer or study.

Chap 29: One’s life’s circumstances help determine the character of one’s spiritual struggle.  Thus we should not judge others, for we are ignorant of their circumstances. 

Chap 30: Sometimes a person gets depressed or numb and can't pray properly.  To avoid this set times to humble yourself by reflecting on the bad things you've done. Evil only has power lent to it for the sake of giving us the ability to overcome it.

Chap 31: After such reflection on one's distance from G’d, the process of return brings the highest joy.

Chap 32: The reduction of ego from such reflection permits the true love of one's fellow and true love of G’d

Chap 33: Awareness on the level of the divine influence in this world is annulled in the presence of awareness of G’d, like any source of light is annulled before the sun.  Awareness of G’ds unity and closeness is the highest joy, and such awareness creates a home for G’d in this world.

Chap 34: The Patriarchs could live in perpetual awareness of G’ds unity.  We can't - thus the Tabernacle and Temples were home for His unity.  Since their destruction, a home is provided in Halacha, especially daily Torah study and charity.

Chap 35: Good deeds are like a wick that causes the light of the divine presence to dwell over ones head, or like an open window that lets the light in.

Chap 36: The lower worlds are ever-intensified forms of veils of G’ds unity.  These veils were lifted temporarily at Sinai, and will be lifted forever when the dead are resurrected.

Chap 37: Doing a mitzvah draws divine light into this world.  The physical things, even the energy, used to do mitzvot, become holy and reclaimed from the profane world.  Charity is particularly powerful as money represents all our physical needs and desires.  Torah study is especially powerful since it represents holiness conquering the highest parts of the profane world.

Chap 38: Saintly people's souls rise to a higher world (beriah) than even most angels (who only dwell in yetzirah).  This is because having choice and turning away from evil, as saintly people do, is a higher level than doing good by nature, as angels do. 

Chap 39: Most people's souls only rise up to the level of beriah on Shabbat and Rosh Hades.  Even for saints it is only the highest part of the soul that rises so high.  Rare Saints' divine service rises to the level of atzelut.  When people do good deeds or learn Torah merely out of habit it gets stored up and soars above when someone does something with proper intent.  Even when one does something with the wrong intent, the good deed or learning can soar after the person repents of their bad intent.

Chap 40: Upper world accept more light than lower worlds, and accept it with less concealment. Torah and mitzvot are like the body of a bird; love of G’d and fear of G’d are like the wings that allow the bird to soar.

Chap 41: Awe and love of G’d are like two wings.  Learning and good deeds need both to soar. The proper intention behind such deeds is to give pleasure to G’d

Chap 42: We are commanded to know G’d.  This is knowledge that leads to connection. It comes through effort expended in stimulating both mind and body towards exertion in divine service.

Chap 43: Lesser awe is from simple restraint.  Greater awe comes from appreciation of G’ds greatness. Similarly lesser love comes from pleasure and greater love comes from understanding G’d's greatness.

Chap 44: Two levels of love, Abundant Love and Eternal Love, are hidden within each of us as an inheritance from our ancestors.  It's our job to reveal these loves.

Chap 45: Jacob provides a model of divine mercy that can reveal this love.

Chap 46 and 47:  We can awaken this love by reflecting how, when we learn Torah and do mitzvot, we are locked in an embrace of G’d who created the world, chose us, and freed us from Egypt.

Chap 48: G’d is infinite and each world, even the Garden of Eden, exists only through G’ds self concealment.  This is similar to the way that infinity must be concealed to perceive finite numbers.  While G’d can't be seen in the worlds, he surrounds and encompasses each one.

Elevated Vision: The Netivot Shalom on Elul

I’m going to share some thoughts from one of my favorite commentators, the Netivot Shalom.  Before I start, here’s a brief introduction to him.  He was the Rebbe of the Slonim Chassidim.  He was born in 1911 in modern-day Belarus, and was a Rosh Yeshiva by 1941 in Israel.  He died in 2000.  For anyone interested in Chassidic thought, he is one of the most accessible writers out there, with a beautiful focus on the spiritual meaning of the Torah, and its application to our personal journey.

We are in the middle of a forty-day journey starting with Rosh Hodesh Elul and ending at Yom Kippur.  While the holidays keep going… and going… and going… for most of us the mood changes suddenly after Yom Kippur.  The themes up to then are reflection, awe, and vulnerability.  Afterwards the focus is on physicality in the building of the sukkah, and joy, perhaps enhanced by some l’chaims in the sukkah.  The Netivot Shalom connects the length of forty days to the Noam Elimelich’s idea that it takes forty days to create lasting change in ourselves. 

What do we have to change?  To answer this question, the Netivot Shalom brings a parable from Duties of the Heart, a work by the Spanish Jewish philosopher Ibn Pakuda.  Suppose a person was born in a king’s prison, and never left.  All of the person’s needs, food and water, were provided in the prison.  After many days, the prisoner begins to praise the king, for all of the prison and everything within it belongs to the king.  The king’s servants, hearing this, mock the prisoner, for its silly to praise a king who has dominion over so many wonderful things for a cell and some basic provisions.  Our role in the parable, of course, is that of the prisoner.  We are often guilty of having a narrowness of vision.  Even when we put aside our own concerns and praise G’d, we often praise him for minor things, things that are almost beneath the dignity of the creator of the Universe. 

The Netivot Shalom connects this idea to the verse from Isaiah Chapter 40:  ‘Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these?’  He re-reads the verse as speaking, not of literally looking upwards, but rather elevating our vision.  We should look at creation in an inspired, broad manner.  Rambam famously says that, through science and the wonders of nature we can come to an appreciation of G-d’s greatness.  The Slominer takes a similar but distinct path, suggesting we meditate on G’ds infiniteness and our own infinite smallness relative to G-d. 

Psalm 24, which most congregations say often during the period between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, states: “Who will ascend G’d’s mountain and arise to his holy place?  One of clean hands and a pure heart.”  Clean hands means that we have good deeds, and a pure heart is holy thoughts.  We can get there through another verse in that Psalm, “Raise up your heads, gates!  Arise, infinite doorways!  Let the King of Glory enter!”  Our eyes and heart are the gates and entrances to ourselves.  When we raise up these parts of ourselves, and focus on the infinite greatness, the Netivot Shalom says we can more easily shake away those things that cause separation between us and G-d, material temptations and pleasures that, perhaps in the short run are satisfying, but in the long run narrow our vision and leave us trapped.  May we merit a vision that helps bring the King of Glory into our lives.

Ki Tetze

This week we read about one of the most troubling commandments in the Bible.  The first paragraph talks about when a Jewish warrior encounters a beautiful female during the conquest of an enemy city.  What follows is a kind of extended, ritualized rape.  The warrior must take the woman into his house, where she has thirty days to mourn.  Afterwards he can have his way with her.

It’s one of the tougher sections to read in our central holy text.  Some responses, like the midrashic commentary Sifre, retreat into pilpul, perhaps with the motivation of limiting the application of the law. The Sifre asks, what if the captive is ugly, rather than beautiful, as the Torah specifies?  Do the laws still apply?  It’s a question that only the Rabbis would have thought to ask. 

Classic apologetic responses note that rape is often an inevitable part of war, and the ritual as dictated by the Torah slows down the process to offer some protection to the woman.  She has to change her clothes and let her fingernails grow, measures to reduce her attractiveness and perhaps make consummation less likely.  The passage of time might also reduce the likelihood of actions that seem inevitable in the heat of battle.  I don’t find this a productive effort.  Underneath all the details, rape is inescapably ugly, and it is hard to accept it as an inescapable part of human conduct.  Why does the Torah seem to condone it, even with reluctance and perhaps with an attempt to indirectly legislate it out of existence?  Also, I’m certain that the Israeli military Rabbinut today would not permit anyone to actually do this, which leaves us with seemingly useless sections of the Torah.  If every word of the Torah is precious and divine, what do we do with that, other than groan and skip over it?

Being mystically inclined, I try to read this section as a lesson for moral growth with our individual struggles to become better people.  I wander far away from the literal meaning of the text on this journey, but have plenty of company in doing this among our people’s sages. 

In the world we see, it is often too easy to forget our sins.  We can do damage of one sort or another, and then just walk away from it.  The spiritual world, according to Jewish tradition, is completely different.  Rabbi Chaim Vital, as quoted by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, talks about how every bad deed creates a malevolent spirit, called a ‘Mazik’ or ‘damager’ in Hebrew.  These Mazikim are tied to their creator, and follow the creator around.  Each of us has an unseen entourage of such creatures, who are restrained from fulfilling their intended harm to us only by G-‘d’s kindness. 

I find this image terrifying.  I love the images of mercy that are present in the upcoming holidays, and the implied access to forgiveness and a new clean slate in the New Year.  This is the opposite, a trail of blemishes that can’t be erased or escaped. While I hesitate to take the image of Mazikim literally, the idea has helped me put off doing one or two things that I wouldn’t be proud of.

I think the laws of the captive woman are a parable-like message, like this concept of the mazikim, that we need to consider the effects of our actions.  On the battlefield, it would be all too simple for a warrior to see a captive woman as an object of plunder.  Her nation, perhaps even her extended family, was just trying to kill you, and maybe killed some of your comrades.  While I’ve never been in combat myself, I’ve hated people enough to want to hurt them, and it is so easy to write off their subjectivity, their perspective and feelings. 

Taking the woman into the house, and giving her time to mourn, opens up a possibility of change.  How can you ignore someone who is in the depths of grief and loss?  It creates a doubtlessly awkward and painful relationship with the warrior, a reminder of the captive’s humanity.  On the battlefield, a warrior could satisfy a momentary urge and, in his eyes, be done with it.  Having brought her into the house makes the warrior confront the magnitude and lasting impact of his action.  It’s similar to the idea of Mazikim being created by sin.  If you have a continuing, even permanent, relationship with your bad deeds, it makes those deeds less appealing.  Hopefully, incorporating such awareness into our lives can make us better people.

I bless us that, in the coming weeks and New Year, we have the wisdom to, as Ethics of the Fathers says, ‘envision the result’ of our actions in all its fullness.  May such expanded vision help us to do things that heal whatever damage we do, and focus on things that heal the world. 

Love and Awe: Tanya Chapter 39

Rabbi Steinstaltz states in his commentary on the premier work of Chabad Chassidut, the Tanya:

Love and awe are wings that make a mitzvah 'fly' and raise it up from this world.  Just as a bird cannot fly without wings, so too it cannot fly with only one wing.  A person needs love and awe together in order for his or her service of G'd to rise up to heaven.  In truth, it is impossible for there to be true love without awe; when love is serious it is accompanied by awe, a worry that loss of the love will occur.

Sfat Emet on Hanukah

We say over Hanukah candles each night, “We are only allowed to look at the candles, and are forbidden from making any other use of them.”  Thus we are commanded to look at the candles.  The meaning of the commandment to look at the candles is because the candles illuminate every Jewish soul, and allow us to look deeply into ourselves in the way that every person should. 

This commandment of looking deeply is related to the statement in Ethics of the Fathers, “Look deeply into these three things and you will not come into the power of sin.”   Behind the miracle of the candles is illuminating the eyes of those whose vision has dimmed.  It says in the Gemara with reference to searching for leavened stuff the night before Passover, ‘The light of a candle is beautiful for checking.’  Proverbs 20 also says, “G’d’s candle is a person’s soul; He searches every chamber of our insides.” 

We can understand ‘checking the chamber of our insides’ as a search for the point of life from G’d that is within every soul, as it is written of the creation of Adam in Genesis 2, “G’d breathed a living soul into his nostrils, and Adam became a living creature.”  We search with a candle and feather in a person’s soul; perhaps we will find a space where this divine soul can spread out further and shine.  Such a process of spreading out the divine soul is literally like that of a candle, which seeks oil from the wick. 

In the Midrash we interpret the word ‘Seeking’ or חיפש like the word for freedom, חופש… because the divine point of life banishes concealment.  Even if a person is completely enslaved to his negative desires and can’t sense the truth, that person can with the candle’s help search within himself for the divine… 

The Gemara teaches that the mezuzah should be on the right side of the door, and the Hanukah candles on the left side.  Proverbs 3 teaches, “A full life is in G’d’s right hand, and riches and honor are in G’d’s left hand.”  The Mezuzah, which speaks of a full life coming from obedience to G’d, represents one who clings completely to the source of life, and is already connected to the world that is all light.  A Hanukah light, on the left side and connected to worldly honor and riches, is for even the one who has no connection to G’d and is saturated with darkness.  For even such a person, the Hanukah candles provide illumination… The candles on the left side help reveal the truth to such a person, and give him strength to return home.

How do we Light Chanukah Candles? Mei Shiloach on Ma'asechet Shabat

The dispute between the School of Shammai and the School of Hillel regarding the manner in which G'd's will be clarified is the same as their dispute as to how we light Chanukah candles, as the manner of lighting hints at the revelation of G'd's will.

• The School of Shammai thinks that we should start with eight candles and reduce the number each day, as we do with the number of cows sacrificed on Sukkot.    So too is clarification of G'd's will; one should reduce non-holy things so that they shrink until holiness is revealed.  
• The School of Hillel things we should start with one candle and increase each night.  This is because they believe that the essential matter is to spread holiness at all times and non-holy things will automatically be annulled.