From: murray.bbs@cybernet.cse.fau.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Tanya, Epistle 5, part 2 of 6
Date: 21 Aug 92 18:36:41 GMT
Organization: Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton

Tanya Epistle 5  2/619, part 2 of 6 
 
Continued from previous message 
 
This means: The formation  of the letters of speech which  proceed from
the  five organs of articulation  (15) is not  an intellectual process.
[The  letters  do  not  emanate  from  the  soul  as  a  result of  any
intellectual  imperative.] It  is also  not inherent  in the  nature of
these organs [that they must]  pronounce the letters - by means  of the
breath and the sound that strikes them - by either a natural faculty or
by an  intellectual faculty.  With  the lips, for example,  by means of
which the letters beit, vav,  mem and pei are uttered, [Since  the lips
are  the most visible of the organs  of speech, the Alter Rebbe chooses
for his example  the letters which they form; one  can readily see that
pronouncing these letters is impelled neither by the nature of the lips
themselves nor by  the faculty  of intellect.] neither  nature nor  the
intellect  compels  the  utterance   of  the  four  varying  types   of
pronunciation of  these letters  in accordance  with variations  in the
movement of  the lips, which are moved by the  same breath and the same
sound that strikes them equally.  [Since the letter beit and the letter
vav,  for example,  are both  formed by  the same  breath and  the same
sound,  the distinction between  them must be made  by the movements of
the lips: when the letter beit is pronounced the lips are pursed in one
way  and when the letter vav is pronounced they are pursed differently.
This  being so, one would expect that  it would take a conscious mental
effort to move the lips in  one specific manner to pronounce the letter
beit and in another  specific manner to pronounce the letter  vav. (16)
Alternatively,  if  it  were dependent  on  nature,  the speaker  would
naturally want to move his lips in the different ways necessary for the
formation of  one letter or the other.]  On the contrary: the change in
the movements of the lips depends on the difference in pronunciation of
the letters  the soul  wishes to utter  by means  of the lips,  when it
desires to pronounce the  letter beit, or vav, or mem, or pei, [and the
lips will instinctively and spontaneously move accordingly.]  It is not
the other way around, that it is the will and intention of the  soul to
make a change in  the motions of the lips as they are moving now in the
utterance of these  four letters.  As is empirically  evident, the soul
does not at all intend or know how to intend the  change in the motions
of  the lips [which articulate] those distinctions [between the various
letters].  [Since the soul neither intends nor even knows how to direct
the lips to move in the  manner required to form particular letters, it
is  obviously the mere desire to utter  certain letters that results in
the  automatic movement of the lips in  the appropr iate manner.]  This
is even more evident with the pronunciation of the vowels. For when the
soul  wishes to utter the  kamatz vowel, the  lips spontaneously become
compressed, and  with the patach vowel  the lips open (17)  - [of their
own accord,] and not at all because of the will of the soul to compress
or to open [them].   There is no need  to go any further into  a matter
which is simple, comprehensible,  and intelligible to every intelligent
person,  namely,  that the  pronunciation  of  the letters  and  vowels
transcends  the  apprehended  and comprehended  intellect,  but  rather
derives  from the  hidden intellect,  and the  primordial stage  of the
intellect  which is  in the  articulate soul.   This  is why  an infant
cannot speak, even  though it understands everything,  [for speech does
not result from revealed  and apprehended intellect, but from  the more
rarefied  "hidden  intellect"  which  in  the  infant  has  yet  to  be
developed.    We  thus see  that  the  letters  of speech  derive  from
Chochmah.  This, then, is the meaning of "the `father'  who founded the
`daughter'":  Chochmah  is the  "father" or  source  of the  letters of
speech, which are  called the  "daughter", or the  Sefirah of  Malchut.
[Until this point the  Alter Rebbe has explained the  Talmudic teaching
that the World  to Come was created  by the letter yud:  the Sefirah of
Chochmah,  which this letter represents, is the spiritual source of Gan
Eden which is in the World  to Come.  However, according to the  above,
since the letters of the Supernal creative speech derive from Chochmah,
it would seem that this world, which was also created by the letters of
Divine speech, was likewise created from the letter yud that represents
Chochmah. Why, then, do our Sages teach that only the World to Come was
created  from the  letter yud,  while this  world was created  from the
letter hei?   The Alter Rebbe therefore now goes on to explain that the
letters of speech are composed of  "matter" and "form" - the "body" and
"soul"  (or: the external and  internal aspects) of  the letters. While
the  "form"  of  the letters  does  indeed  derive  from Chochmah,  the
"matter" of the  letters of speech merely derives from  the heart.  So,
too, Above: the internal  aspect of the letters derives  from Chochmah;
from this aspect are created the higher spiritual beings which are able
to apprehend  G-dliness. However, the  external aspect of  the Supernal
letters  of speech derives  from the "breath"  - the hei  of the Divine
Name. It  is  from  this lesser  level  that this  physical  world  was
created.  In the words of the Alter Rebbe:]  However, the letters exist
on planes of "matter" and  "form", which are also referred to  as their
"internal" aspect [i.e., the  "form", which is their "soul"]  and their
"external"  aspect  [i.e.,  the   "matter",  which  is  their  "body"].
Although their source is the primordial stage of the intellect and  the
will  of the  soul, for  as  soon as  the soul  desires to  speak these
letters are formed,  as explained above, this is but  the "form" of the
differentiation  in the pronunciation  of the twenty-two  letters.  The
"matter"  and "body" of their  formation, however, i.e.,  the aspect of
their  "externality", is the breath  issuing from the  heart. From this
breath is  formed a simple  sound which proceeds  from the throat,  and
which  is then  divided into  the twenty-two  kinds of  enunciation and
expression of  the twenty-two  letters, [these divisions  taking place]
through the  five known organs of speech: alef, chet, hei and ayin (18)
through the throat; gimmel, yud, kaf and kuf through the palate, and so
on; [e.g., beit,  vav, mem and pei from the lips, and so on;] while the
breath itself, [which has its own sound independent of the letter being
spoken,] is uttered  by the  letter hei (19)  - "the light  letter...,"
inasmuch as it  lacks the substance of a complete  letter, which is the
source of the "matter" and "body" of the  letters before their division
into twenty-two. [The hei is thus the source of each  letter's "body".]
And that is why our Sages, of blessed memory, said that "this world was
created by  the hei": it was created by the external aspect, or "body",
of the Supernal  letters whose source  is the hei  of the Divine  Name.
Now, though this is the "lower  hei," the latter hei of the Four-Letter
Name of G-d, [Supernal speech is of the level of Malchut, as alluded to
in  the verse, "The king's utterance reigns."  (20) The hei that is the
source  of speech  is thus  the lower  hei  of the  Tetragrammaton, the
letter which denotes the level of Malchut.] while our Sages, of blessed
memory, expounded this  - [that the  World to Come  was created by  the
letter yud and  this world by the  letter hei] - from  their reading of
the verse,  "For by yud-hei [did G-d create the worlds],"  [Since these
are the first two  letters of the Divine  Name, how are we taught  here
that  the statement  that "this  world was  created by the  letter hei"
refers to the lower letter hei, the source of the breath of the letters
of  speech?]  this is  because  its  source and  the  beginning  of its
progress into a state of manifestation from the obscurity of the yud is
influenced  and drawn  forth from  the level  of the  upper hei.   [The
obscurity  of the  yud of  Chochmah is  the source  of every  manner of
revelation, both of the World to Come as well as of this world. As this
relates to  the letters: it serves as the source of revelation both for
the "form" as well as the  "matter" of the letters. It is only  that in
the resulting revelation of the letters, the "form" of the  letters and
the revelation of the World to Come  emanate from the letter yud - from
Chochmah - itself,  while the  revelation of the  "matter" or  external
aspect of the letters emanates from the "breath of the heart," from the
latter hei of the Divine Name.] 
 
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