Daily Tanya Thursday 18th Elul Igeres Hakodesh 15 Part 2: The Sefira of Chesed in comparison to Chesed of Avraham Avinu

Introduction

In this teaching, we explore the inner meaning of Avraham Avinu’s words “I am dust and ashes”, revealing that they are far more than an expression of humility. We learn how his neshama shone with the light of Ahavah Rabbah, a boundless love rooted in the supernal Chesed of Atzilus, making him a living Merkavah to Hashem. Yet, through the descent of worlds and many tzimtzumim, that infinite light became enclothed in the limitations of a physical body, incomparable to its original state above. The mashal of a tree reduced to ash shows how the essence remains the same, yet its form, beauty, and vitality are beyond recognition. This perspective teaches us true bitul — to recognize the source of our light while knowing it is but “dust and ashes” before the Infinite.

🌟 Abraham’s Declaration: “I am Dust and Ashes”

• I heard from my Rebbe, of blessed memory, on the possuk “Ve’anochi afar va’efer” —Avraham Avinu said this regarding the illumination of his neshama shining in his body from the Supernal Chesed, which is his middah of Ahavah Rabbah — a boundless, lofty love for Hashem.
• His love for Hashem was so great that he became a Merkavah (chariot) to the Shechinah.

🔝 Comparing to the Supernal Middos

• One might think: the Chesed and Ahavah in the supernal Sefiros is of the same type as Avraham’s Ahavah Rabbah, just infinitely greater — without end or limit — because the Ohr Ein Sof is actually shining and enclothed within them, and “He and His middos are one.”
• A human soul in a physical body, however, has middos with boundaries and limits. Still, one might think they are the same type as the supernal middos, just on a smaller scale.

🌳 The Parable of Ashes from Wood

• That’s why Avraham said: “I am dust and ashes.”
• Ash is the essence of the burnt wood. The wood was made of the four yesodos: fire, air, water, earth. The first three — fire, water, air — depart in the smoke when burned. The fourth — earth — remains, unaffected by fire, as ash.
• The entire physical mass, length, width, and thickness of the wood before burning was primarily from the earth-element in it, with the other elements mixed in.
• After burning, all returns to the earth-element — the ash — once the other elements have separated.

📏 No Comparison in Quality or Quantity between Chesed of Avraham to Chesed of Atzilus

• Just as ash has no comparison to the large, beautiful tree it came from — neither in quantity nor in quality — even though it is its very essence and substance — so too Avraham said about his own middah of Chesed and Ahavah: Even though it was the supernal Chesed of Atzilus shining in his neshama, once it descended through the chain of worlds, via many tzimtzumim, to be enclothed in a physical body, it bears no comparison to the essence of that Chesed in Atzilus.
• The difference is like ash compared to a “tree pleasant to the sight and good for food” —
  and even more so, with infinite separation — but the Torah speaks in the language of man, using parable and metaphor.