Daily Tanya

The Alter Rebbe goes on to explain that “fruits in this world” refers not only to physical blessings but also to the insights and spiritual delights of Gan Eden (lit., “the Garden of Eden”), for even Gan Eden is termed “this world” in relation to the World to Come at the time of the Revival of the Dead.

There is an aspect of tzedakah that also affects the past, [and the Rebbe adds:] “causing one to give to an even greater degree than what he keeps for himself, since this is” to secure the rectification and atonement of his past sins.

When fathers and mothers are crying out for bread for their little ones, and for firewood and clothing to protect them from the cold, this surely takes precedence over the valid but nonessential needs of one’s own family.

This “lower soul” naturally inclines to “lower” (i.e., corporeal) matters so that even its intellect goes only as far as understanding the composition, and so on, of mundane things. For although the kelipah , which is the source of this soul, is kelipat nogah , a kelipah whose darkness is relieved by a ray of good, nevertheless, it is wholly bound up with mundanity.

The father’s fear and dread are thus the internal aspect of his gevurah , the attribute that completely or partially withholds the flow of instruction. The remaining emotive attributes are all offshoots of love and fear (as explained in Part I, ch. 3, above), and accordingly, they too possess internal and external aspects. Having dealt with the middot , the seven emotive attributes of the soul, th...

Our soul, in G-d's image, possesses 10 attributes, including 6 emotional attributes. The seventh, Malchus, is not included in this count. These emanate from G-d's six traits. Because the attribute of chesed is unlimited, it desires to benefit even someone who lacks nothing. The attribute of rachamim , by contrast, being also compounded of gevurah , will not seek to diffuse indiscriminately. At the...

Unlike speech, which utilizes only the external aspect of the speaker’s breath, blowing emits the innermost breath. Thus, when Scripture states that “He blew into his nostrils a soul of life,” it means to indicate that the soul derives from the innermost aspects of G-dliness, as explained in Iggeret Hateshuvah , ch. 4.

Since the life-giving light that issues from supreme chochmah is infinite, it follows that whatever the intensity of the light drawn down in the previous year, it is still possible that a greater degree of light be drawn down in the new year.

the term “eyes” alludes to the Divine attribute of chochmah , or kodesh ha’elyon , which irradiates the Land of Israel constantly, from the beginning of the year to its end.

The excellence of light is most appreciated when darkness itself is transformed into light.

The excellence of light is most appreciated when darkness itself is transformed into light.

Since the soul emanates from the inward aspect of the Divine attributes, it is infused with them as well so that the attribute of kindness dominates the soul even as it finds itself within the body.

The Alter Rebbe will now go on to explain the effect of the “act” of tzedakah upon the individual benefactor himself, in terms of his battle with the evil of his animal soul. The animal soul may be refined, and the good within it separated and elevated from its evil, in one of two ways:

By way of analogy: The intense enmity of two high officials dissolves, in the presence of their sovereign, into friendship. It is because of their joint nullification before the king that this unity comes about. So, too, the defined bounds of the various attributes dissipate in the face of the limitless revelation of the infinite light.

Some commentaries explain that “act” (מַעֲשֵׂה) and “service” (עֲבוֹדָה) are one and the same; the verse merely reiterates the same theme in different words. Targum Yonatan , however, writes that “act” and “service” indicate two different forms of charity: the reward for the “act” of tzedakah is peace; the reward for the “service” of tzedakah is eternal quietness and surety.

The Alter Rebbe begins this letter in the singular, indicating that every single individual can attain the level of divine service that he/she does not desire physical pleasures. For it requires only an absolute faith in G-d, and this lies hidden within every Jew; let him but unveil this faith, and he will be able to live by it.

When a Jew echoes G-d’s boundless kindness and compassion, his actions are thus termed “G-d’s acts of kindness.”

Since all of creation is of no account in the eyes of G-d, anything received from His hand is not deserved but a gratuitous gift, as, indeed, is the very fact that mortal endeavors are able to draw down Divine light. At any rate, boundless tzedakah and kindness draw down the degree of Divine radiance that transcends all worlds.

Surprisingly, the Hebrew verb used here is tamnu (in the first person plural), which would make the phrase mean, “ we have not been brought to an end.” If the verse sought to say that the kindnesses “have not ended,” rather than “because of G-d’s kindnesses, we have not been brought to an end,” it should surely have used the verb tamu (in the third person plural), as the Alter Rebbe goes on to poi...

The Mishnah states in Peah : “The study of the Torah is equivalent to them all,” 25 i.e., to all the mitzvot previously enumerated in the Mishnah, and these include gemilut chassadim , the performance of acts of lovingkindness,

When the soul finds itself within the body and allows itself to be led by it, it resembles a sighted person whose eyes are bound and who, intelligent though he may be, is then led about like an imbecile. If the soul, a part of G-d Above, descends within a body but cannot restrict it from fulfilling its desires, it is considered to be blinded by the body, as the Tzemach Tzedek writes in Or Hatorah...

Just as in the analogy, planting a seed will unveil the earth’s vegetative power, so, too, the Jew’s act of charity will elicit the Divine attribute of chesed , since this act serves as the mayin nukvin to its spiritual counterpart Above,

The disposition of a particular degree of G-dly illumination to a specific soul through the performance of a select command is wholly dependent upon a consideration that transcends logic: it is a “lot” determined from Above.

At this point, the Alter Rebbe resumes the thought begun earlier, where it was pointed out that Jacob referred to G-d as “ E-l , G-d of Israel,” for the soul of Jacob (otherwise known as Israel) was illumined with all the aspects of the Divine radiance, just as was the soul of Adam.

G-d’s Being is indeed utterly uncompounded so that there cannot possibly be any division into “parts.” Nevertheless, with regard to the radiance that descends below, (whose main purpose is that it permeate the Jewish soul,) the concept of “parts” does apply.