From: murray.bbs@cybernet.cse.fau.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Tanya 1 of 3
Date: 19 Aug 92 14:46:24 GMT
Organization: Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton

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Daily dose of Tanya. - CHITAS for: Av 3 (regular year) Av 7 in a
leap year
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     PART 1 of 3 - From SHIURIM  B'SEFER HATANYA  by Rabbi Wineberg.
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Epistle One
 
In  their Approbation to  Tanya, (1)  the author'  sons write  that the
discourses  and open  letters together  entitled Iggeret  HaKo-desh (2)
("The Holy  Epistle"),  as  well as  the  further  discourses  entitled
Kuntres Acharon  ("Later Pamphlet"),  were all "recorded  personally by
[the  Alter Rebbe's]  own holy  hand in  his own  saintly expression...
These discourses  are [collectively]  entitled Iggeret  HaKodesh, being
mostly epistles  sent by his holy  eminence to teach the  people of G-d
the way by which they should walk and the deed which they should do."
 
Accordingly, the author's learned sons saw fit to publish them together
with the preceding sections of the Tanya.
 
                                *     *     * 
 
The first  epistle opens  with a reference  to the chassidic  custom (a
custom that thrives  to this day) of apportioning the  tractates of the
Talmud for study among  the members of each congregation  or community,
so that  the entire  work is  completed in  the course  of a year.  The
conclusion  of the year's study  and the reallocation  of tractates are
traditionally  celebrated on  Yud-Tes  Kislev, the  anniversary of  the
Alter  Rebbe's liberation  from  imprisonment and  capital sentence  in
Leningrad in 1798.
 
The Rebbe Shlita has noted on a number of occasions that the collective
completion of the Talmud by a number of individuals is considered as if
each one  of the  group had  completed the  entire  Talmud himself.  He
explains that  this is similar to  the law with regard  to performing a
prohibited labor on Shabbat: If doing the labor requires the efforts of
two  individuals,  each of  them is  considered  to have  performed the
entire labor. (3) So, too, since the various individuals partake in the
collective  study   of  the   Talmud  for   they  cannot   complete  it
single-handed in the course of a year, it is considered  as if each one
of them had studied the entire Talmud.
 
                                *     *     * 
 
To return to the central theme of this opening epistle. The Alter Rebbe
explains  here that the  study of  the laws set  out in the  Oral Torah
elevates  a Jew's soul  and assists him  in his spiritual  service - of
meditating upon G-d's greatness, and arousing within himself a love and
awe of Him.
 
On  the  circumstances of  its  composition,  the previous  Lubavitcher
Rebbe,  Rabbi  Yosef  Yitzchak  Schneersohn,  of  blessed  memory,  has
conveyed  to us  the following:  (4) "During  a Simchat  Beit HaShoevah
gathering in the year 5648  (1887), my revered father related that  the
epistle opening  with `We begin with a  benediction' was written by the
Alter Rebbe in three stages in three different years.
 
"The first stage:  When the Alter Rebbe decided to  make the journey to
study at the feet of the Maggid of Mezritch, he presented his disciples
with a `note of arousal.' It opened with `We begin with a benediction,'
and concluded, `And these [faculties] are  the arms and the body of the
soul.'
 
"The  second stage  was when  the Alter  Rebbe returned  from Mezritch,
having had revealed to him by the Maggid - at the behest of his mentor,
the  Baal  Shem Tov,  and  with the  blessing  of  his mentor,  Achiyah
HaShiloni  - his  spiritual identity,  the purpose  of his  holy soul's
descent into this world,  and the great responsibility and  danger that
his mission  entailed.  At that  time the Alter Rebbe  wrote the second
part of this  epistle, beginning with `But  what gives the power,'  and
concluding, `To the extent of pressing out the soul...'
 
"Speaking to  his son,  the Mitteler  Rebbe, and to  his grandson,  the
Tzemach  Tzedek, the  Alter  Rebbe once  described  his inner  feelings
during the  first few years after  his mentor, the Maggid  of Mezritch,
had revealed  to him the  message of the  Baal Shem Tov  [regarding his
soul's mission].
 
"These were  the Alter  Rebbe's words: `The  simple faith that  we, the
disciples  of the Maggid, had in him, and our self-sacrificing devotion
to him, provided us with the potent strength to obey all his directives
with extreme precision, with inner and essential self-sacrifice. In the
course  of several  years, when  my young  married students  settled in
various towns  and villages, I added three paragraphs to this epistle -
from `And now' until  `there is no goodness  but Torah.' This I did  in
view  of the burden  placed upon  me by my  master, the Maggid,  and in
order  to be able to  realize, with G-d's help, the  inner intent of my
soul's descent into this world.'"
 
We begin with a benediction, to bless and to give thanks to G-d, for He
is good. (5)  My soul has heard and been revived by good tidings  - and
"good" signifies Torah,   [as  our Sages  state in  Tractate Avot.  (6)
More specifically, it signifies (7)]  G-d's Torah [which]  is a perfect
whole,"  [for  it is  the  Torah  in this  state  that  the same  verse
describes as "reviving the soul."]
 
[The above  remarks] refer to the  completion of the whole  (8) Talmud,
(9)  in its entirety,  (10) in most  towns and  congregations of Anash,
[the men of our (chassidic) brother-hood.]
 
                                           continued on part 2 & 3
 
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