From: murray@cybernet.cse.fau.edu (murray kahl)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Tanya, Epistle 14, Part 1 of 2
Date: 15 Sep 92 15:42:26 GMT
Organization: Cybernet BBS, Boca Raton, Florida

Subj: Tanya Epistle 14      1/2
Epistle Fourteen
 
[Many of the letters that together constitute Iggeret HaKodesh were
written in order to rouse Jewry to contribute generously to tzedakah
in general and in particular for the Holy Land. More specifically, the
Alter Rebbe strongly encouraged the support of Rabbi Mendele Horodoker
and Rabbi Avraham Kalisker and their followers, who had settled there,
through the Kollel Chabad Fund that he had founded.
 
In the present letter the Alter Rebbe places singular emphasis on the
merit of tzedakah for the Holy Land. Every year, he declares, it
should be given with more vitality and in greater volume, thus echoing
the rhythm of the annually-renewed life-force that emanates from On
High to the Holy Land, as he explains in this letter.
 
The Alter Rebbe begins here by stating that his purpose is "to arouse
the old love and fondness for our Holy Land...." It would seem that
"the old love" refers to the ardent enthusiasm which his chassidim had
originally felt for the fund when it was freshly founded, and which
had faded somewhat with the passage of years. It was this "old love"
that the Alter Rebbe sought here to reawaken.]
 
[This letter is written] to arouse the old love and fondness for the
Holy Land, so that it burn like fiery flames from the inwardness of
man and from the depths of his heart, as if this very day G-d had set
His spirit upon us, a spirit of generosity, so that people volunteer
to consecrate themselves to G-d with a full and generous hand,
with one increase after another, from year to year, continually rising
and excelling themselves, in keeping with the measure of [the level of
Divinity called] Kodesh HaElyon ["Supreme Holiness", another name for
the attribute of Chochmah,] which radiates to the Holy Land and is
constantly renewed [qualitatively] and increased [quantitatively],
as it is written, (1) "Forever are the eyes of the L-rd your G-d upon
it [i.e., upon the Land of Israel], from the beginning of the year to
the end of the year."
 
[As the Alter Rebbe will soon say, the term "eyes" alludes to the
Divine attribute of Chochmah, or Kodesh HaElyon, which irradiates the
Land of Israel constantly, from the beginning of the year to its end.
 
In order to explain how we derive from this verse that the level of
Chochmah that radiates to the Holy Land is constantly renewed and
increased, the Alter Rebbe first raises the following query:]
 
Now, this phrase "to the end..." appears to be problematic, for at the
end of one year begins another year. Thus it should surely have said
[that the eyes of G-d are upon the Land of Israel] "everlastingly".
 
However, this matter will be understood by considering the verse, (2)
"G-d by Chochmah established the earth." That is, the foundation of
Eretz HaElyonah [lit., "the Higher Earth" or "the Higher Land"; i.e.,
the heavenly model of the terrestrial Holy Land], which is the mode of
[creative Divine influence which is immanent and therefore called]
memaleh kol almin [lit., "filling all worlds".
 
This refers to the Sefirah of Malchut of the World of Atzilut, called
"land" for it is the last and (so to speak) lowest of the Supernal
Sefirot, and it vests itself in created worlds and beings so as to
vitalize them.] and [likewise the foundation] of the nether [land],
which is [the Land of Israel which is known as] Eretz Chefetz ["the
land of [G-d's] desire"], which truly corresponds to it[s heavenly
counterpart], [viz., Eretz HaElyonah,] and is called by its name,
Eretz HaChayim [the land of life], - [the foundation, then, of the
higher and the lower lands] issues from the downward flow and
radiation from the Supreme Chochmah which is the source of Supernal
life; as it is written, (3) "Chochmah animates those who possess
it...."
 
["G-d by Chochmah established the earth" thus means, that the Sefirah
of Chochmah diffuses its creative light upon Eretz HaElyonah ("the
Higher Land," i.e., Malchut of Atzilut), as well as upon its
terrestrial counterpart, the Land of Israel.]
 
This radiation and efflux from Supreme Chochmah, that irradiates the
"land" at both these levels, is renewed annually by a truly new light.
For G-d [blessed be He] and His Chochmah are one, in an absolute unity
which is called "the [infinite] Ein Sof-light," because there is no
limit nor end to the quality and greatness of the light and vitality
that issues forth from Him and from His Chochmah, in elevation upon
elevation, to no end or limit, to the peak of the loftiest levels.
 
[Since the life-giving light that issues from Supreme Chochmah is
infinite, it follows that whatever the intensity of the light drawn
down in the previous year, it is still possible that a greater degree
of light be drawn down in the new year.]
 
And every year there descends and radiates a new and renewed lighthe e 
Chochmah (4) to the Eretz
HaElyonah.
 
[The light that reaches down to this level is here described as "new
and renewed," for in the first instance a new light radiates into
Chochmah from the Ein Sof that transcends it, and then a new light
issues from Chochmah and irradiates the Eretz Ha-Elyonah.]
 
For the light of every year withdraws to its source [in the Essence of
the Ein Sof] on the eve of every Rosh HaShanah, "when the moon is
covered."
 
[Rosh HaShanah is known as (5) "the holiday when the new moon is
covered," and is not seen. In a spiritual context this means that the
Sefirah of Malchut (represented in the Kabbalah by the moon), the
light that animates the worlds and created beings, is concealed and
withdraws to its source.]
 
Afterwards, by means of the sounding of the Shofar and by means of the
prayers, a new and superior light is elicited, [a light] of a yet
higher rank in the sphere of the Supreme Chochmah, to radiate to the
Eretz Elyonah and those who dwell upon it, i.e.' to all the higher and
lower worlds that receive their vitality from it, i.e., from the
[infinite] Ein Sof-light, and from [G-d's] Chochmah which is vested in
it, [i.e., in "the Higher Land"]; as it is written, (6) "For with You
is the source of life; in Your light shall we see light."
 
[Supreme Chochmah, which is the source of life, is "with You," i.e.,
nullified and unified with the Ein Sof; "in Your light" (i.e., in the
light that radiates from Chochmah to "the Higher Land") "we shall see
light" (i.e., the light that descends from "the Higher Land" and
illumines all the created beings which receive their vitality from
it)].
 
This refers to the light that radiates from Supreme Chochmah, the
source of life. ( (7) And, as is known to the scholars of the Hidden
Wisdom, [i.e., the Kabbalists,] every Rosh HaShanah the nesirah takes
place, and [the Sefirah of Malchut] receives new, more sublime Mochin,
and so on.)
 
[This is a Kabbalistic theme regarding the "rebuilding" of the Sefirah
of Malchut that takes place every Rosh HaShanah. The paradigm of this
sequence is the slumber that G-d brought upon Adam (8) on the day of
his creation, which took place on the day of Rosh HaShanah, and the
subsequent excision (nesirah) of the rib from which Eve was then
formed.
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