Video Audio Text והנה נודע ליודעי חכמה נסתרה Now it is known to those familiar with the “Hidden Wisdom”23 (i.e., the Kabbalah) כי דבר ה׳ נקרא בשם שכינה בלשון חז״ל, ואימא תתאה ומטרוניתא בלשון הזהר that the “word of G‑d” is referred to as the Shechinah, in the terminology of the [Talmudic and Midrashic] Sages, […]

Video Audio Text The Alter Rebbe now returns to the theme of the Divine spark in exile: ונקרא גם כן בשם גלות השכינה This [sustenance of idolaters through the Divine spark] is also called “the exile of the Shechinah.” מאחר שחיות זה, אשר בבחינת גלות בתוכם For this life-force, which is in a state of […]

Video Audio Text אך שלמדרגה זו, צריך התעוררות רבה ועצומה However, for such a level one needs a great and intense arousal. ועצה היעוצה להתעוררות זו, היא מענין זה עצמו And the counsel suggested to attain such an arousal, derives from this very subject. כשישים אל לבו ויתבונן ענין ירידת השכינה כביכול, ותרד פלאים להתלבש […]

Video Audio Text The letters that comprise Iggeret HaKodesh were written over many years and assembled in their present order by the sons of the Alter Rebbe after his passing, as they explain in their introduction (“Approbation”) to Tanya (Vol. I, p. 19ff., in the present series). It is clear from internal evidence, as the […]

Video Audio Text To resume the discussion of R. Shimon bar Yochai: וגם פלפול הקושיות ותירוצים, דמסטרא דרע ורוח הטומאה, אשכחן ברבי שמעון בר יוחאי, דעסק ביה טובא Moreover, we find that R. Shimon bar Yochai dealt considerably (not only with the mere statements of law in the Mishnayot, but) also with the argumentation of […]

Video Audio Text The Alter Rebbe will now point out that a careful reading of the passage from Ra’aya Mehemna reveals that it is not the laws themselves nor the study of them that are termed the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Rather, this term is applied to the actual food or other […]

Video Audio Text אבל הלימוד בתורה, אף הלכות איסור והיתר, טומאה וטהרה But the study of Torah, even the laws of issur and hetter, impurity and purity, i.e., not the objects but the laws concerning them, שהם המשניות וברייתות שבגמרא those being the Mishnayot and the Beraitot in the Gemara that address these issues, ופוסקים, […]

Video Audio Text The Alter Rebbe will now answer another question which he himself had posed earlier. The Ra’aya Mehemna had stated that so long as the bipolar influence of the Tree of Knowledge of [both] Good and Evil is dominant in the world, Torah scholars (who are likened to the Shabbat and festivals) are […]

Video Audio Text The above applies nowadays, when the Shechinah is exiled in kelipat nogah; hence the main function of Torah study is to seek out and elevate the sparks of holiness from the kelipot. Hence, too, the current concentration on the laws of issur and hetter, kasher and passul, and the like. אבל בצאת […]

Video Audio Text Part (a) The Alter Rebbe wrote this letter of condolence to his chassidim in 1788 after the passing of his colleague and mentor, the saintly R. Mendele of Vitebsk (or Horodok), who had settled in the Holy Land in 1777. It concludes by rousing them to the mitzvah of tzedakah in general, […]