In their Approbation to Tanya,1 the author’s sons write that the discourses and open letters together entitled Iggeret HaKodesh2 (“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 S. Petersburg in 1798.
The Rebbe 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 (תרמ״ח; 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.’ ”
פותחין בברכה, לברך ולהודות לה׳ כי טוב
We begin with a benediction, to bless and to give thanks to G‑d, for He is good.5
שמועה טובה שמעה ותחי נפשי
My soul has heard and been revived by good tidings —
אין טוב אלא תורה
and “good” signifies Torah, as our Sages state in Tractate Avot.6
תורת ה׳ תמימה
More specifically, it signifies7 “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.”
זו השלמת כל הש״ס כולו ברוב עיירות ומנינים מאנ״ש
[The above remarks] refer to the completion of the whole8 Talmud,9 in its entirety,10 in most towns and congregations of Anash, the men of our [chassidic] brotherhood.
הודאה על העבר ובקשה על העתיד
[So much for] gratitude in respect of past accomplishments. And [now,] a request for the future:
כה יתן וכה יוסיף ה׳ לאמץ לבם בגבורים מדי שנה בשנה בגבורה של תורה
May G‑d thus continue from year to year to grant added strength to your hearts among the mighty,11 with the might of the Torah,
I.e., may G‑d increase that which He has previously granted — His increase being even greater than the original blessing12 — so that the hearts of those who study Torah be strengthened to such a degree that they will be considered mighty even among the mighty, with their strength deriving from the Torah.
