Weekly Tanya video\lecture: The Gate to Faith

• Author: Rabbi Shimon Eisenbach
• Published date: 06 January 2021
• Date: 06 January 2021
• Publication title: Israel National News (Israel)

Tanya/Shaar Hayichud V'haEmunah, Chapter 9, Class 3.

tanyaonline.com/?p=1785

..It is thus impossible to say that G‑d can or cannot be apprehended through intellect, inasmuch as intellect and wisdom are not at all the means by which G‑d can be grasped.

As for the Holy One, blessed be He, being called "Wise" in Scripture, and our Sages, of blessed memory, have also referred to Him with epithets denoting the quality and level of wisdom,

וּמַה שֶּׁהַקָּדוֹשׁ־בָּרוּךְ־הוּא נִקְרָא "חָכָם" בַּכָּתוּב, וְגַם חֲכָמֵינוּ־זִכְרוֹנָם־לִבְרָכָה כִּינּוּ לוֹ מַדְרֵגַת וּמַעֲלַת הַחָכְמָה,

this is because He is the source of wisdom, for from Him issues and emanates the essence of the level of supernal wisdom, which is in the World of Atzilut.

הַיְינוּ, מִשּׁוּם שֶׁהוּא מְקוֹר הַחָכְמָה, שֶׁמִּמֶּנּוּ יִתְבָּרֵךְ נִמְשָׁךְ וְנֶאֱצָל מַהוּת מַדְרֵגַת חָכְמָה עִילָּאָה שֶׁבְּעוֹלַם הָאֲצִילוּת.

Likewise, [He is called] Merciful and Kind, even though He utterly transcends mercy and kindness, because He is the source of mercy and kindness,

וְכֵן "רַחוּם" וְ"חָסִיד", עַל שֵׁם שֶׁהוּא מְקוֹר הָרַחֲמִים וְהַחֲסָדִים.

and likewise, regarding the other emotive attributes: G‑d is referred to by the names of the other attributes because He is their source,

וְכֵן שְׁאָר הַמִּדּוֹת,

for they all proceed and emanate from Him.

שֶׁכּוּלָּן נִמְשְׁכוּ וְנֶאֶצְלוּ מִמֶּנּוּ יִתְבָּרֵךְ.

The manner and nature of the flow and emanation—how and what—i.e., how the intellectual and emotive attributes emanate from the Ein Sof, which totally transcends them, and exactly what they are, for after they have emanated from Him, they are wholly united with Him, is known to the savants.3

וְדֶרֶךְ וְעִנְיַן הַהַמְשָׁכָה וְהָאֲצִילוּת אֵיךְ וּמָה, יָדוּעַ לַמַּשְׂכִּילִים

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The Alter Rebbe now briefly explains the various tzimtzumim that had to take place in order to enable the attributes of Atzilut to emanate from the [infinite] Ein Sof-light.

[This note will outline] the mystical principle of the tzimtzum of the Ein Sof-light,

סוֹד הַצִּמְצוּם בְּאוֹר־אֵין־סוֹף בָּרוּךְ־הוּא,

Before the tzimtzum, G‑d's infinite manifestation was predominant. Tzimtzum caused His capacity for limitation and finitude, which previously had been submerged within His infinite power, to be revealed.

and the tzimtzum of Adam Kadmon, which is the highest state of existence after the tzimtzum, and the primal thought that contains and is the source of all subsequent emanations and creations,

וְצִמְצוּם אָדָם קַדְמוֹן,

and the...