Chapter 2
This is the meaning of the saying of our Sages (Brachos 26b), “The daily prayers were instituted by our Forefathers, Avraham, Yitzchok, and Yaakov.”
On a simple level, this means that Avraham prayed in the morning, establishing the Shachris morning prayer; Yitzchok prayed in the afternoon, establishing the Minchah afternoon prayer; and Yaakov prayed in the evening, establishing the Maariv evening prayer.
The Alter Rebbe will interpret this on a deeper level:
Meaning: the “Forefathers” represent the three attributes of Hashem in Atzilus, known as Chesed-Kindness, Gevura-Severity, and Tiferes-Beautiful Blending of opposite traits, from which are derived our love and fear of Hashem, and mercy for our Divine soul, which is trapped in physicality. These three holy emotions are embodied in Avraham, who embodied love of Hashem, Yitzchak, who embodied fear of Hashem, and Yaakov, who embodied arousing mercy on our Divine soul.
Thus, the meaning of saying that “Our ‘Forefathers’ instituted the prayers” is that every prayer consists of three types of verses corresponding to the three Forefathers; Avraham, Yitzchok, and Yaakov.
Chesed: Avraham and Love of Hashem
Meaning, that there are verses describing Hashem’s Kindness to us, which help us produce a feeling of love for Hashem when reciting Shema, which corresponds to “Avraham, who loved Me [Hashem]” (Yeshaya 41:8). These verses help to reveal the love for Hashem hidden in the Divine soul, which is expressed in a manner of running in yearning to connect to Hashem.
Through this awakening of love for Hashem, this leads afterward to the fulfillment of the verse, “And these words of the Torah that I [Hashem] command you today, should be on your heart, and you shall speak of them...” (Devarim 6:6-7)
When someone loves Hashem, he will express that love in connecting to Him by studying Torah.
Even though, in the second passage of the Shema, (entitled “Vehaya Im Shamoa”) it is written, “And you will gather in your grain” (ibid. verse 14), this implies that even after experiencing love for Hashem in Shema, he will still be involved in material occupations, like farming. So, if the love of Hashem can only be expressed in learning Torah and fulfilling Mitzvos, how can we say that he truly loves Hashem? Seemingly, after experiencing true love of Hashem, he should have no interest in any material pursuits?
Nonetheless, one is still expressing his love for Hashem, despite his material occupation, since he “has made his Torah study of primary importance and his mundane work of secondary importance.” (See Brachos 35b)
Since he is passionate about his Torah study and deep down this is what he is thinking about all day, the fact that he must be involved in material matters for many hours a day doesn’t take away his love for Hashem.
Man as a Tree: Primary and Secondary Pursuits
This idea is also expressed in the verse, “For a man is like a [fruit-bearing] tree of the field.” (Bamidbar 20:19)
Meaning that just like a tree that grows from the ground, whose primary purpose is the fruit it produces, even though it also has thorns and leaves and a trunk, but its primary purpose is just for its fruits.
So too, with regard to a person, whose primary purpose is his “fruit,” meaning his Torah and Mitzvos. As our Sages say (Sotah 46a), “What are a person’s main ‘fruits?’ His Mitzvos.” This is the idea of “establishing one’s Torah study as primary.” He must view the remainder of his bodily needs as being like “leaves” compared to the “fruit.”
In other words, establishing whether something is primary or secondary is not dependent on quantity, but on quality. Most of the tree is its trunk and roots and the leaves. The fruits are very small compared to the rest of the tree. Nonetheless, the entire importance of a fruit-bearing tree is the fruit it produces. So too, a person who truly appreciates the value of Torah and Mitzvos will view them as being of primary importance, even though the majority of his day he is involved in material matters.
This entire change of perspective comes from one’s love of Hashem, which corresponds to the aspect of Avraham.
Gevurah: Yitzchok and Fear of Hashem
Similarly, Yitzchok corresponds to the Gevurah-Severity of Hashem, which produces a fear of Hashem in a person’s soul, which is the aspect of “the fear of Hashem of Yitzchok.” (See Bereishis 31:42)
When someone sees how Hashem uses severity to punish the wicked, this inspires one’s fear of Hashem. The verses in prayer describing how Hashem uses His might to punish the wicked help a person reveal his soul’s aspect of “Yitzchok,” the innate fear of Hashem.
Tiferes: Yaakov and Mercy on the Soul
The aspect of Yaakov corresponds to “awakening mercy from Hashem on his Divine soul.”
This refers to one whose heart is hard as a stone, and despite contemplating Hashem’s Kindness, as described above, he does not experience a love of Hashem when reciting Shema.
This is due to his strong connection to the vanities of this world that cause him to feel his ego as though he is separate from Hashem, causing his heart to be as hard as a stone.
Then, the only advice for this person is to awaken great mercy on his Divine soul that is trapped in the coarse materialism of his animal soul.
This is the meaning of the verse, “Yaakov who has redeemed Avraham” (Yeshaya 29:22), as will be further explained in the maamar.
This is accomplished through the verses in prayer that request Hashem’s mercy, such as, “Exalted King, in your great mercies have mercy on us,” and “Our Father, Merciful Father, have mercy on us, and place in our heart understanding to know and discern, perceive, learn, teach, practice, and fulfill all of the teachings of Your Torah with love...so that we will not be embarrassed or ashamed forever.” (The Blessings before the Shema)
The Meaning of Not Being Embarrassed Forever
The meaning of asking to “not be embarrassed forever,” is:
Now, it is written, “for no man can see Me [Hashem] and live” (Shemos 33:20). Regarding this, our Sages said, “In a person’s life he cannot see Hashem, but when he dies, he can see Hashem” (Kallah Rabasi 3 and other places), because, in a person’s lifetime, his soul is invested in his body, which covers over and conceals it, and causes this world to appear as though it has its own existence independent of Hashem.
However, when the soul leaves the body, then he sees that, in truth, the real existence of the world was really nothing other than Hashem’s Very Being and Essence.
This is because Hashem existed before the word was created, exists now, and will exist forever, without any change whatsoever.
The creation of the world made no change in Hashem at all. Before the world was created, He was the only existence. So too now that we see a world, Hashem is the only true existence. Otherwise, there would be a change in Hashem’s Oneness, G-d forbid, by the creation of the world. The fact that there is no change in His Oneness despite the creation of the world is because it is not separate from Him at all, and since it has no independent existence whatsoever, even now Hashem is still the only true existence.
And nothing can clothe and conceal Hashem at all, when viewed from His perspective, Above. Even though we see the world as concealing Hashem, it doesn’t hide anything from Hashem at all, and Hashem sees that there is nothing besides for Himself.
It was completely “false advertising” that he bought into, to look at the world as though it has its own existence, independent of Hashem. The world is lying to us by making itself look as though it is separate from Hashem. Since we see this lie all day, every day, we buy into it.
Then, when a person dies, his embarrassment will be very great, since almost all of his thoughts and pursuits were regarding the vanities of this world and its matters, instead of being primarily focused on Torah and Mitzvos, as though he and the world are totally disconnected from Hashem, and this is extreme brazenness and disrespect to Hashem.
When someone is in the presence of a king, and he is focused on his own petty matters instead of on the king, this is a great disrespect. Similarly, we are always in Hashem’s presence, and “There is no place where He is not.” Hence, it is disrespectful to Hashem to be involved in material matters with no intention of how it will help him serve Hashem. This subtly implies that that place is separate from Hashem, G-d forbid, and that is why he isn’t focused on Hashem while he is there.
As the maamar explained before, this doesn’t mean that no one should have any material pursuits at all. Instead, he should make the Torah and Mitzvos his main purpose in life, and all his material matters are only secondary, in order to enable him to learn Torah and fulfill Mitzvos. When his thoughts are constantly on serving Hashem, then even in his material pursuits, he is aware of Hashem and not disrespectful, since his purpose in those matters is also to serve Hashem ultimately.
Therefore, we ask Hashem, “In Your great mercies, have mercy on us, and place in our heart understanding.”
Meaning, we ask for help to understand things the way they really are, so that while our soul is invested in our body, we should understand and perceive how, in truth, everything has no independent existence other than Hashem, just like before the world was created, with no change whatsoever, as explained above.
The verse asking for mercy concludes, “And we will not be embarrassed... forever,” we are asking for this insight into reality so that we should not be embarrassed “forever,” even after we die.
This is the meaning of “Yaakov (Hashem’s mercy) who has redeemed Avraham (love of Hashem).”
According to Chassidus (see Tanya chapter 45), the meaning of this verse is that through the attribute of Yaakov, which is awakening mercy from Hashem on our Divine soul, we redeem our hidden love of Hashem, the aspect of Avraham.
