Daily Tanya

Since the ultimate goal is the perfection of the vital soul and the body, thought alone, being the province of the divine soul, cannot satisfy the demands of the mitzvot of speech; they require verbal articulation. Speech alone, however, without thought, is sufficient, since the vital soul and the body are elevated thereby.

charity is superior to all other mitzvot , including Torah study. The thought that in Torah study, one “calls” G-d to himself, just as, for example, one calls his friend to come to him, will surely arouse in the student a feeling of intense awe of G-d.

Creation, and the soul’s descent into the body, were both intended for the purpose of elevating the body and vital soul and thereby the entire world; moreover, this objective is reached primarily through the mitzvot involving action inasmuch as these mitzvot are performed by the body and vital soul; these mitzvot are therefore of primary importance.

Why is it that suffusing the vital soul with Ein Sof -light and banishing the impure kelipot from the vital soul produces a parallel effect on the entire world?

The purpose of the Messianic era and of the resurrection, namely, the revelation of His glory and Divinity and the banishment of the spirit of impurity from the earth, is fulfilled by the act of the Mitzvah.

Since all that derives its vitality from the three wholly unclean kelipot cannot rise to holiness, only the observance of all the 365 prohibitions allows the entire vital soul to ascend without any part of it held back by the impurity of these kelipot . But whereas the revelation at Sinai lasted only a short time, the revelation in the future will be permanent. Kelipat nogah , containing both good...

The 248 positive commandments correspond to the body’s 248 limbs and, indeed, the function of these mitzvot resembles that of the limbs. Every organ of the body is a vehicle for a particular faculty of the soul and brings that faculty into active expression. Similarly, every (positive) mitzvah is a vehicle for the expression of a particular aspect of Divine will and brings about a G-dly revelation...

The divine soul is entirely spiritual, the body, physical. Therefore, the divine soul cannot activate the body to perform a mitzvah except through an intermediary. This intermediary is the animal soul, which, on one hand, is a soul , a spiritual life force, yet, on the other hand, is actually clothed in the blood and the bodily organs.

The Rebbe notes: Unlike, for example, the wages paid by the owner of a field to the laborer who plows and plants in it, where the laborer does not create the money he is paid, a mitzvah actually creates its own reward.

The revelation at Mount Sinai was that of the Messianic Era. We see that in the Messianic era, G-dliness will be revealed to all the nations of the world—and in this state lies the fulfillment of the purpose for which this world was created.

The Torah thus represents the “light of His Countenance,” i.e., the inner light of G-dliness. When this light was revealed through the uttering of the Ten Commandments, the entire world experienced a revelation of G-dliness.

The statement that “G-d desired an abode in the lower realms” shows the latter position to be the true one, and the “abode” is built by the revelation of His Presence in this lowest of worlds to a degree surpassing even that in the highest.

In man, the microcosm, the animal soul and the body, are “the lower realms.” Therefore, the practical mitzvot which draw the light of the Shechinah upon them constitute man’s ultimate purpose. Furthermore, through the practical mitzvot and through their elevating effect on the body and animal soul, the material world in its entirety becomes a “dwelling place” for G-d.

Those mitzvot performed in one’s thought and speech cause the light of the Shechinah to rest upon the divine soul alone. Drawing this light upon the body and upon the animal soul requires the performance of mitzvot which involve action, where one harnesses the power of the animal, life-giving soul.

Man must put their entire focus on feuling the Shechina which rests above them by fulfilling Mitzvot and focusing on Torah and connecting to G-d

Since the divine soul is clothed within the animal soul, the objective obviously lies in perfecting the animal soul itself. From this perspective, the battle of the beinoni does indeed seem futile, since all his efforts have no effect on the evil nature of the animal soul.

The previous discussed forms of joy do not conflict with the bitter remorse and sadness that one experiences over one’s spiritual failings. For, although joy and sadness are opposites, they can nonetheless coexist when each has its own, distinct cause.

At Mount Sinai, Israel was privileged to experience a glimmer of a very high level of self-nullification, akin to the forefathers and Moses. However, this level of Bittul is not sustainable to the common folk.

It is known that “The Patriarchs are truly the Divine Chariot.” I.e., their constant awareness of G-d’s unity led them to be continuously in a state of self-nullification before G-d, as was that of the prophets, including Moses. His was such a total surrender to G-dliness that the very words he uttered were Divine speech; the relation of Moses’ throat to Divine speech was that of one’s throat to h...

When G-d’s unity is revealed in the mind and heart of men, this world becomes an abode for G-d; He is revealed there just as one reveals himself completely in his own home. Being thus imbued with the awareness of G-d’s true unity, he will be able to overcome any obstacle hindering him from carrying out the mitzvot . For how can anything stand in the path of G-d’s will—the mitzvot —when there is no...

The Alter Rebbe goes on to say that one’s relationship with the sinner as a whole should be guided by love. By arousing one’s compassion for him, one restricts one’s own hatred so that it is directed solely at the evil within the sinner, not at the person himself.

To hate such a sinner is surely unjustifiable since no sin that he commits is considered deliberate. There is also no reason to keep one’s distance from him out of fear that he will learn from his evil ways since he is not on close personal terms with him in any case.

Since every Jew has a divine soul, and since the commandment to love one’s fellow is based on the essential unity of the souls, it follows that this commandment applies to every Jew without exception. In fact, however, we find the Talmud exhorting us to hate certain fellow Jews. How do we reconcile these apparently contradictory requirements? The Alter Rebbe proceeds to clarify.

In the previous chapter, the Alter Rebbe taught that when one is bitterly remorseful over his sorry spiritual state, he must strive for joy by considering the following: True, on account of his body and his animal soul, he is utterly remote from G-dliness. Yet, he has within him a divine soul, veritably a part of G-d. This soul, in exile within the body and the animal soul, is to be greatly pitied...

Like the kal shebekalim , he too fails to wage war against his evil impulse when it is required of him. Yet, this still does not explain the requirement that one consider oneself lower than every man. In what way is he worse than the kal shebekalim ? With a scholar, the reverse is true: an oversight due to lack of study is adjudged as being as grave as a deliberate sin. Thus, his failure to restra...