Epistle 20
The present Epistle deals with a subject that has not been touched upon in the Tanya until now. Though it is one of the most profound and abstract principles of Chassidut, it has a practical application.
It will be recalled that the introduction to Epistle 18 pointed out the benefits of ascertaining the practical lessons in divine service — through the performance of mitzvot in general and the mitzvah of tzedakah in particular — that are to be found in each of these pastoral letters. For, as the Alter Rebbe’s sons state in their Approbation to the Tanya, the purpose of the letters is to “teach the people of G‑d the way by which they should walk and the deed which they should do.” And this letter is especially significant, for the Alter Rebbe wrote it (as the Tzemach Tzedek testifies1) “several days before his demise in the village of Piena.”
What the profundity of this letter ultimately conveys is a renewed and deepened appreciation of the performance of “physical” mitzvot in general (i.e., those involving material things, such as wool for tzitzit and parchment for tefillin) and the mitzvah of tzedakah in particular.
At the core of this letter is the principle that the creation of the physical derives from the Essence of G‑d Himself; it completely transcends the luminous and revelatory levels of G‑dliness from which all spiritual entities and worlds are created. For, as the Alter Rebbe writes, “Only G‑d Himself — Whose Being is of His Essence, and Who is not, Heaven forfend, caused by some other cause preceding Himself — has the ability to create something out of absolute nothingness,” to create a being that seems (to the corporeal eye) to be a wholly independent entity “without any other cause preceding it.”
Everything else that exists is possible and non-essential existence, and consequently is totally dependent upon G‑d as the cause for its existence. By contrast, only G‑d Himself — Whose existence is an imperative and Whose being derives from His own Self, and as such needs nothing to bring about His existence — has the ability to create a being so corporeal that it is entirely unaware that its existence depends on a Creator; indeed, it is satisfied with the delusion that it is responsible for its own creation.
Apart from this grossly physical world, everything created has an apparent causal link with a source of existence. Light, for example, visibly owes its existence to its source — a luminary; speech, being an alul (“effect”), clearly owes its existence to the faculty of thought, which is its ilah (“cause”). When viewing material matter, however, one does not perceive that it derives from and is nullified to something higher than itself; it seems to exist as a wholly autonomous being.
A being such as this, which is infinitely distant from its spiritual source — its source being Divine while the being itself is physical, and hence has to be created ex nihilo (“from nothing”) — can be created only by G‑d Himself, Who is truly without limitation and as such transcends the physical and the spiritual equally. Thus, it is specifically the physical things that were created by G‑d Himself, Who is, of course, infinitely higher than all the illuminations and radiations of G‑dliness that were responsible for the creation of all spiritual beings and entities.
This principle leads us to a newfound respect for the performance of commandments involving physical things — for their creation comes about from G‑d Himself.
This principle is indeed new. It supplements the explanation in Tanya, Part I (ch. 35ff) of the distinctive quality of practical performance alluded to in the phrase quoted on its title page: “that you may do it.” That explanation highlights the superiority of the mitzvot performed in the realm of action over those performed with thought and speech.
This superiority is explained there only in the light of G‑d’s ultimate intent: G‑d desires a dwelling place, i.e., that His Presence be revealed in the nethermost level, in this spiritually dark, physical world, which seemingly does its best to conceal G‑dliness. And this dwelling place is best built through the mitzvot involving action, for through them G‑dliness is drawn down into those aspects of this physical world that are lower than thought and speech.
The same is true with regard to the refinement and elevation of the animal soul and its transformation into goodness and holiness (for which reason the Divine soul first descended into the body): the optimal refinement and elevation of the animal soul is achieved specifically through the performance of these mitzvot — donning tefillin, wearing tzitzit, etc. — for they engage the power of the animal soul to a greater degree than do the commandments that are performed only in thought or in speech.
All this merely expresses the special quality of “action” as it relates to G‑d’s desire and intent; it does not, however, express the superiority of the physical object with which a practical commandment is performed. Seemingly, a commandment performed with one’s loftier soul-powers — such as the knowledge of G‑d-liness, a mitzvah that engages one’s mind, or the love of G‑d, a mitzvah that engages the spiritual emotions of one’s heart — should be inherently superior to a commandment that merely engages one’s hands or feet.
For as far as the Divine Will is concerned, since this is fulfilled both by the practical mitzvot and by those observed in thought and in speech, the spiritual result — being united with G‑d — would seem to be the same in both types of mitzvot. With regard to the object with which G‑d’s Will is being fulfilled, the commandments that are performed with one’s more spiritual qualities — comprehending G‑d with one’s mind and loving Him with one’s heart — would seem to be superior to the commandments that merely engage one’s physicality.
However, considering (as in the letter below) the unique standing of physical mitzvot inasmuch as the physical derives from G‑d Himself, it follows that the practical commandments are superior to those performed in thought or in speech by virtue of the physical objects they involve, for these objects harbor energy that is released when they are utilized in fulfilling the Divine intent.
The previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Rebbe Rayatz, of blessed memory, once related2 that when “those few heavenly soul-words” that appear in the text below were first revealed, pointing out that it is from the infinite Essence of the Ein Sof Himself that physical objects first come into being, the chassidim of the time found that their performance of the practical mitzvot was invigorated by fresh wellsprings of vitality.
