Daily Tanya Thursday 10th Iyar Chapter 46 Part 2: A mirrored love- reciprocating the love that G-d has for you

10^th Iyar/(LY) 6^th Iyar

1. Hashem’s love for us is even greater than in the parable of the king and his subject:

• Now, like every detail of the above parable and the level of love shown, so too our G-d has shown love to the Jewish people, but on an infinitely much larger scale. How this is, we will now explain.

2. The greatness and loftiness of Hashem and the number of angels serving Him is much greater than the king in the parable:

• Hashem’s greatness is beyond comprehension, and He fills all worlds and encompasses all worlds, and it is known from the Zohar Hakadosh and the Arizal the multitude of chambers and worlds which are beyond number, and in every world and chamber there are myriads upon myriads of angels to no end.
• The number of angels in existence: The Talmud^[1] states: One verse^[2] says “Is there a number to his brigades of angels?” [implying there is an infinite number of angels] while another verse^[3] says, “A million serve Him while a hundred million stands before him.” [Thus, implying that there is a limited number of angels.] The Gemara answers that the second verse speaks of the number of angels in each brigade, which reach a million etc., however, the former verse speaks of the number of brigades of angels that exist which is truly infinite.
• All the angels are like naught before G-d: All the angels and brigades are like naught before Hashem, and they are actually nullified in existence like the nullification of one word to the essence of the soul of the speaker, while its speech is still found in its thought or heart, as explained in length in previous chapters. [All the above emphasizes G-d’s greatness, and how He is much greater than the king in the parable, as in the parable there is some relation of level between the king and his servants and subjects, while to G-d there is no relation or comparison, as He is infinitely greater and higher than them all. Furthermore, in the parable, the king rules over a limited amount of people in his nation, while Hashem rules over infinite amounts of angels, worlds and chambers. In addition to the above description of the angels we will now also explain the immensity of the love Hashem showed to us, the Jewish people, by leaving them and uniting with us.]

(LY) 7th Iyar

3. Hashem abandoned the upper worlds and redeemed us from captivity, so He can be with us:

• Now, all the angels ask, “Where is the place of Hashem’s glory?” [where does Hashem reside Himself], and they answer, “The entire earth is filled with His glory”, this referring to the Jewish people. This rhetorical question and answer of the angels is describing how Hashem abandoned the upper worlds and lower worlds and did not choose any of them with exception to the Jewish people, His nation.
• Hashem Himself took us out of Egypt to unite with us: Hashem took us out of Egypt, which is the obscenity of the earth, an area filled with impurity and spiritual toxins. He did so not with an angel or other messenger, but He Himself with all His glory descended to there to remove us, as the verse states “I will descend to save him.” Now, the reason Hashem redeemed us is in order to draw us close to Him with true closeness and unity, in the spiritual equivalence of hugs, kisses, and soul attachment, as explained next.

4. Uniting with G-d in a true unity of hugging and kissing, and spiritual attachment:

• Kissing Hashem through verbally studying Halacha: Hashem desired for us to have a connection of the actual soul to Him in a way of kisses, mouth to mouth. This is accomplished through speaking the word of G-d which is Halacha. [By doing so, the breath of our mouth attaches to Hashem’s breath expressed in His words of the Torah, and thus we have an attachment similar to a kiss in which our breaths become united.]
• Attaching our spirit to Hashem through comprehending Torah: Likewise, Hashem desired we attach our spirit to His spirit, which is accomplished through the comprehension of the Torah and attaining knowledge of His will [i.e. the Halacha] and wisdom [i.e. its source and reasons], which is all one with Him.
• Embracing with Hashem through Mitzvah fulfillment: We also attach to Hashem in a form of an embrace, through fulfilling the physical Mitzvahs with one’s 248 limbs which correspond to the 248 spiritual counterpart limbs of Hashem [as Hashem has 248 channels of G-dliness that He emanates, and each Mitzvah corresponds to one of those channels. When one performs a Mitzvah, he becomes embraced by that corresponding channel of G-dliness that G-d shines.] In a general manner, the 248 Mitzvahs fall under one of three categories; right which is Chesed, left which is Gevura, and the middle which is mercy. This is similar to a body and its two arms. [Thus, by fulfilling the 248 commands we enter a full body embrace with Hashem including both arms and the body itself.]

[1] Chagiga 13b

[2] Iyov 25:3

[3] Daniel 7:10