From: murray.bbs@cybernet.cse.fau.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Tanya, epistle 4, 1 of 3
Date: 21 Aug 92 15:41:11 GMT
Organization: Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton

Tanya Epistle 4 1/319 part 1 of 3 
 
   Epistle Four  "Israel shall be redeemed only by virtue of tzedakah,"
(1)  as it  is written,  (2) And  her repatriates  [shall be  redeemed]
through tzedakah.  [Tzedakah,  whose root connotes both "righteousness"
and  "charity", thus brings about  the redemption of  the Jewish people
from exile and their ultimate return to Zion. The same  root appears in
the  next verse to  be quoted:]   It is  written: (3) "Tzedek  shall go
(yehaleich) before Him." Now, one should have expected the verse to say
yeileich. [Yehaleich, by  contrast, is  a causative form  of the  verb,
seeming to imply that righteousness or charity causes some other entity
to "go before Him."]  This concept may be understood by considering the
verse, (4)  "In Your behalf my  heart says, `Seek My  face.'" [As Rashi
explains it,  the simple meaning of  the verse is that  "On Your behalf
and as  Your messenger my heart tells me  to seek out Your face" (i.e.,
G-d's inwardness, or innermost  essence, for the word Panim  is related
to both meanings, "face" and "interior"). And in this  spirit the verse
concludes: "Your countenance, G-d, do I seek"; i.e., "I am indeed doing
so: I am  seeking Your countenance."   However, if  panai does in  fact
refer to G-d's countenance and inwardness, why would it be necessary to
conclude, "Your countenance, G-d,  do I seek"? Surely it  would suffice
to say,  "Your  countenance do  I  seek," since  we have  already  been
informed that we  are speaking of  G-d's countenance.  The  Alter Rebbe
therefore  explains that  the  word panai  ("my  face") refers  to  the
inwardness  of the  Jewish  heart, while  panecha ("Your  countenance")
refers to the inwardness of G-d.]  This  means [that man is being urged
to] "seek the inwardness of the heart," [that hidden element within his
own heart that must  be sought after if it  is to be revealed.]  For in
the flame  of the Element  of the  Divine Fire  that is  in the  heart,
[i.e., within  the soul's  ardent love  of G-d which  derives from  the
Element of Fire within the soul, as mentioned in Tanya, Part I, ch. 3,]
( (5) A variant reading: "For in the heart, the Element of  Divine Fire
within  the heart,") there are  two aspects: the  aspect of chitzoniyut
("outwardness",  [i.e., externality,  as opposed  to essence])  and the
aspect of pnimiyut ["inwardness"].  The chitzoniyut of the heart is the
ardent  [love] that  flares up  on account  of one's  understanding and
knowledge of the  greatness of G-d, the blessed Ein  Sof, by meditating
(6) on His  greatness, and from  this contemplation  giving birth to  a
strong  love resembling (7) "flashes of  fire...."  [This, then, is the
chitzoniyut, the external level, of the G-dly soul: a revealed love  of
G-d in one's heart  which results from meditation on  G-d's greatness.]
And the pnimiyut of the heart is the innermost point in the heart * the
depth of the heart, which transcends by far the categories of knowledge
and  understanding with which  man can meditate  in his  heart on G-d's
greatness.    [Unaided, man  would  never be  able  to  achieve such  a
profound love through meditation alone; it is granted to the  soul as a
gift,  as will  soon be  explained,  and man's  task is  to search  and
discover  it within himself.]   As it is written: (8)  "From out of the
depths do  I call  unto You,  O G-d";  [i.e.,] from  the depths  of the
heart.  (9)  ["Depths" appears  in the  plural,  for the  heart harbors
depths, with yet profounder depths beyond.]  (By way of analogy,  there
is  a  parallel in  worldly matters.  Sometimes  there is  an extremely
important  matter upon which a man's entire vitality hinges; it touches
him as  far as  - and  including -  the innermost  point of his  heart,
causing him to do things  and say things without any reason  whatever),
(10) [for it touches the essence  of his soul that transcends logic and
reason.]  And (11)  "the one corresponds to the  other": [The spiritual
realm corresponds to  the physical. Just  as worldly affairs  sometimes
touch  a person  so  strongly that  he  acts without  reason:]   It  is
precisely so with the "service of the heart." [A Jew's love for G-d may
be so great that it touches his soul's essence which utterly transcends
logic and reason.] As is known,  this is because the innermost point of
the  heart transcends  the faculty  of reason  which extends  and vests
itself in the  emotive attributes  born of ChaBaD,  [i.e., born of  the
three  intellectual stages  - wisdom,  understanding, knowledge  - that
together constitute  the intellectual process called  ChaBaD.]  Rather,

[the pnimiyut  of the heart] is a  radiation from the supreme Chochmah,
which transcends Binah and  Daat, and in this [supreme  Chochmah] there
is vested and concealed the actual light of G-d; as it is written, (12)
"By wisdom (Chochmah) G-d [founded the earth]."  [The two quoted Hebrew
words  literally mean,  "G-d [is]  in Chochmah";  i.e., G-d's  infinite
light is  clothed in Chochmah.]   And  this is precisely  the spark  of
Divinity in  every  soul of  Israel.  (13) [It  is  this Divine  spark,
utterly transcending reason, that gives birth to the love of G-d in the
pnimiyut of the  heart, that  likewise transcends all  reason. (14)   A
question arises: Since this  love emanates from the Divine  spark found
within the soul of all  Jews, why do they not all attain  this level of
Divine service?]  The reason that not every person merits this rank [in
the service of the heart]  - service from the  depth of the heart in  a
state of pnimiyut -  is that within him this  faculty is in a  state of
exile and captivity. And this is actually the state of the exile of the
Shechinah, for it  is precisely the [Shechinah]  which is the spark  of
Divinity that is in one's  Divine soul.  [Thus, when the "spark"  is in
exile, the Shechinah is in exile as well. Moreover, being in exile, the
spark cannot rouse  the soul to  serve G-d with  the loftier manner  of
love that stems from  the innermost depths of the heart.]  The cause of
the exile [of the Divine spark of the soul] is, (15) as in the words of
our  Sages,  of blessed  memory: (16)  "When  [the Jewish  people] were
exiled to  Babylon, the Shechinah  went with them."   [In terms  of the
individual  sparks of  the soul this  means that  when a spark  is in a
state of "Babylon"  - i.e., when an  individual acts in  a "Babylonian"
manner - then the Shechinah is in exile together with him.]  This is so
because he  has vested the innermost point of his heart in [that aspect
of  the  universe which  is]  the opposing  counterpart  [to holiness],
namely, in the soiled garments - mundane matters and worldly desires  -
which are known as "Babylon". [He has thereby banished the Divine spark
within his soul - the personal Shechinah within himself, so  to speak -
to  this all-pervasive  "Babylon".]   This [exile]  corresponds to  the
"foreskin"  that covers  the covenant  and the  innermost point  of the
heart.  Of this it is written, (17)  "And you shall excise the foreskin
of your heart." [In principle, the spiritual service of circumcision is
that  of repentance. (18)   With regard  to exile our  Sages teach that
(19) "if Israel repent  they will be immediately  redeemed." Repentance
thus leads to the redemption (on  a personal scale) of the Divine spark
within  each individual soul, and (on  a cosmic scale) of the Shechina,
from   their  respective  exiles.  In   spiritual  terms,  the  act  of
circumcision likewise  removes a  veil of  concealment, and  allows the
innermost point of  the heart  to be revealed.]   Now, in  circumcision
there  are two  stages:  milah ["excision"]  and periah  ["uncovering",
which remove respectively] the  coarse foreskin and the thin  membrane.
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