- Note: Tanya Rabbati, a 16th century Italian code of Jewish law, is an unrelated work with a similar name. For other uses, see Tanya (disambiguation).
Tanya (תניא, Aramaic for "it was taught") is a book more commonly known by its opening word although titled Likkutei Amarim (ליקוטי אמרים, Hebrew, "collection of statements"), an early work of Hasidic Judaism, written by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad, in 1797 CE.
The first few generations of the Hasidic movement established the various approaches of its different schools. The third generation great students of Dov Ber of Mezeritch, who spread out across Eastern Europe, became the leaders of Hasidism in Ukraine, Poland, Hungary and Russia. Among them, Schneur Zalman articulated a different approach to Hasidic Philosophy from general Hasidism. The founding Hasidic mysticism of the Baal Shem Tov, and subsequent Hasidic Masters, emphasised the emotions of dveikus to cleave to the Omnipresent Divine. The intellectual ("Chabad") approach of Schneur Zalman, continued by successive Lubavitch Rebbes, emphasised the mind as the route to the inner heart. The Chabad school requires knowledge of Godliness, drawn from Hasidic Philosophy, to establish Hasidic mystical faith. This enabled Schneur Zalman to take Hasidus to Lithuanian Jews from nearby White Russia, and aroused the opposition of their early leaders. In this, Chabad is a separate offshoot of general Hasidism, and to its students is the profound fulfillment of systematically articulating its inner depths. Therefore, in Chabad, the Baal Shem Tov and Schneur Zalman, who share the same birthday, are called the "two great luminaries" (after Genesis 1:16, according to the Midrashic account, before the moon was diminished), representing heart and mind.
The Tanya is the fundamental work of Chabad Philosophy, as it describes the general Chabad approach to Jewish observance and theology. Chabad writings of each Rebbe are characterised by their systematic intellectual form. In contrast, most Hasidic works of other schools are collected compilations of diverse commentaries. Therefore, the Tanya is the main systematic articulation of overall Hasidic Philosophy, in the general history of the Hasidic movement. General Hasidism venerates Schneur Zalman as one of its great founding figures, and the intellectual philosopher of the movement. They may study Tanya as well as other Hasidic classics, but may not follow its Chabad approach to Hasidic Jewish observance. In Chabad it is called "the Written Torah of Hasidus", while the many writings of subsequent Lubavitch leaders (as well as the other Hasidic schools) are relatively "Oral Torah" explanation.
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Background to the Chabad approach
The Tanya deals with Jewish spirituality, psychology and theology from the point of view of Hasidic philosophy and its inner explanations of Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism). It offers advice for each individual on how to serve God in their daily life.
Kabbalah and Hasidism
The historical development of Kabbalah, from the 12th Century, and its full formulation in the 16th Century, explained the subtle aspects and categories of the traditional system of Jewish metaphysics. Hasidic spirituality left aside the abstract focus of Kabbalah on the Spiritual Realms, to look at its inner meaning and soul as it relates to man. The founder of Hasidism, the Baal Shem Tov, brought the Kabbalistic ideas of Divine immanence in Creation, into daily Jewish life. His popular, charismatic, mystical revival of Judaism founded a new era in Jewish mysticism, as its spirituality became accessible and tangible to the whole community. This celebrated emotional sincerity of the common folk as precious to God, while great scholars also followed the Baal Shem Tov as they saw the profound meanings of his new teachings. The Baal Shem Tov's successor Dov Ber of Mezeritch became the architect of the Hasidic movement, and explained to his close circle of disciples the underlying meanings of the Baal Shem Tov's explanations, parables and stories.
Chabad
Mind versus heart. Among Dov Ber's disciples, Schneur Zalman of Liadi formed Hasidic Philosophy into a profound intellectual system, called "Chabad" after the Kabbalistic terms for the intellect, that differs from mainstream Hasidic emotional approaches to mystical faith. This seeks inward Jewish observance, while downplaying charismatic Hasidic enthusiasm, that it sees as external. The mysticism of Schneur Zalman did not seek cold intellectual investigation. In common with all of Hasidism, it awakens joy and negation of self awareness, from the Jew's perception of the Divine in all things. But in Chabad, later to be called after its Russian village of Lubavitch, external emotional expression is seen as superficial, if devoid of inner contemplation. In this vein, it is related that the second Lubavitch Rebbe, Dov Ber Schneuri, would pray motionless for hours. Emotional expression was replaced with inner, hidden emotional ectsacy from his intellectual contemplation of Hasidic Philosophy during prayer. At the end of praying, his hat and clothing would be soaked in perspiration. Typically, he wrote one of the most personal mystical accounts in Judaism, his "Tract on Ectstacy", that instructs the Chabad follower in the levels of contemplation. This explains his father's concept of the Chabad articulation of Hasidism. While the Baal Shem Tov stressed the heart, Schneur Zalman stressed the mind, but it was a warm, fiery mystical intellectualism.
Intellect versus faith. By giving Hasidism analysis and structure, his Chabad school explained the inner meanings of the "Torah of the Baal Shem Tov". Its systematic investigation enables the mind to fully grasp and internalise the trancscendent spirituality of other Hasidic paths. If the mind can bring the soul of Hasidism into full understanding and knowledge through logic, then its effects on the person can be more inward. The other classic writings of other schools in Hasidism, also relate the inner mysticism of Hasidic Philosophy to the relevance and perception of each person. The main aim of the Hasidic movement and its great teachers, is to offer the Jewish mystical tradition in a new, internal form that speaks to every person. This awakens spiritual awareness and feeling of God, through understanding of Hasidic mystical thought. However, mainstream Hasidism relates this mystical revival through charismatic leadership and understanding based faith. The path of Schneur Zalman differs from other Hasidism, as it seeks to approach the heart through the full development of the mind. Chabad writings of each generation of its dynasty, develop this intellectual explanation of Hasidic mystical ideas, into successively greater and more accessible reach. In recent times the last two Rebbes expressed the spiritual warmth of Chabad in terms of daily reality, language and relevance, in the Yiddish translations and memoires of Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, and especially the Likkutei Sichos of Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
Chabad Hasidus and other dimensions of Jewish thought. Because the approach of Chabad explains Hasidus in intellectual form, it can incorporate into its explanation the other aspects of historical Jewish thought. Complementary or initially contradictory explanations of Jewish thought from Rabbinic Judaism, Jewish Philosophy and Kabbalah can become synthesised into one unity. It can connect the different disciplines of mysticism (Kabbalah) and Jewish philosophy (Hakira), by relating to a higher, essential unity in Divinity, that harmonises diverse ideas. This approaches classic questions of theology from a different route than Hakira. The Jewish philosophers of the Middle Ages, such as Maimonides, reconciled Judaism with Greek philosophy. Their explanations of the nature of the Divine, are related from man's independent understanding from first principles. Hasidic thought looks to the inner meaning of Kabbalah, a conceptual system of metaphysics from mystical encounters with revelation. The insights it brings to theological questions, brought out in its Chabad explanation, are related from a mystical, higher reality "from above". When Hasidic thought addresses traditional questions, such as Divine Providence, immanence and transcendence, it offers "Inner Torah" explanations of spirituality, that can also be harmonised with the explanations of the "Revealed Torah". It is the ability of Hasidic thought to bring the abstract, esoteric systems of Kabbalah into conscious perception and mystical faith, by relating them to man's inner psychological awareness. The ability of the Chabad approach is to explain this spiritual perception in terms of man's understanding and knowledge.
Structure of the Tanya
Shneur Zalman published his Likkutei Amarim anonymously in 1797. Later editions incorporated additional writings by Shneur Zalman. The latest version of this work, dating from 1814, consists of five parts:
- Sefer shel Beinonim ("The Book of the Average Men"). This book describes how contemplating the greatness of the Creator and the union that a Jew has with Him through the Torah's commandments a Jew can achieve the love and fear of God necessary for sincere worship. This approach is the fundamental theme of Chabad teaching: to achieve emotional refinement during prayer (including everyday following of commandments); however, this emotion must stem from intellectual understanding of the mystical and spiritual aspects of the service. That is why this approach and the movement are called Chabad, after the three intellectual Sephirot, God's intellectual forces of creation: Chochmah (Wisdom), Binah (Understanding), Da'at (Knowledge).
- Sha'ar ha-Yichud ve'ha'Emunah ("The Gateway of Unity and Belief") This book describes how although the creation is different from the Creator, they are united. Furthermore, it talks about how although on the surface it seems that the Creator uses multiple forces to create the world, in their origin within the Creator, these forces come from the same source.
- Iggeret HaTeshuvah ("Letter of Repentance".) This section is also known as the "Tanya Katan" ("Brief Tanya".) It describes the mystical aspect of repentance that not only leads to forgiveness for the sins but can actually move the repenting person to a spiritual place that is higher than where he was before sinning.
- Iggeret HaKodesh ("Letter of Holiness".) This section was not published until 1814, after Shneur Zalman's death. It is a collection of letters which the author wrote to his disciples and different Chassidic communities, in which he talked about mystical aspects of certain commandments (such as charity, Torah study, or in general, all commandments concerned with a physical deed). Today it is used as a source of certain in-depth concepts of the Written Chassidism not concerned specifically with emotion felt during service or repentance. It is a more profound and more focused work of mysticism than the previous sections.
- Kuntres Acharon ("Last Thesis".) This section was not published until 1814, after Shneur Zalman's passing. It is also a series of letters in which the author resolved certain seeming controversies in Kabbalah. This section is an even more in-depth revelation of profound mystical notions than the previous one.
In general, although the first book is more concerned with avodah (emotional divine service), while the later ones are increasingly concerned with more complicated and in-depth mystical concepts, the author unites abstract Kabbalistic ideas with the importance of everyday service and an emotion that must accompany it.
Subject matter
Most of the work's first part, "The Book of the Average Man", the beinoni, serves as a fundamental and basic guide to the spiritual service of God.
Unlike other early Hasidic works, this book is not a collection of sermons or stories, but rather a systematic exposition of Shneur Zalman's philosophy. Lubavitcher Hasidim are enjoined to study from this work each day as part of Chitas - an acronym for Chumash, Tehillim and Tanya. The Rebbes of Chabad taught that it is a sacred duty to publish and distribute this book as widely as possible.
The Tanya seeks to demonstrate to the "average" Jewish man or woman that knowledge of God is there for the taking, that spiritual growth to ever higher levels is real and imminent, if one is willing to engage in the struggle.[1] Although many view the Tanya as a work of explanation on Kabbalah or Jewish mysticism, its approbations make clear that Tanya is first and foremost a book of advice in the practical service of God.
Levels of divine service
The Tanya describes five levels:
- The complete tzaddik ("righteous person") has transformed his animal soul completely, to the point that it is able to reach intense Godly delight in its connection to Godliness, and is disgusted by all worldly pleasures.[2]
- The incomplete tzaddik no longer desires evil in a way that will be externally expressed, even on the level of thought; however, a minute amount of desire for very subtle evil remains.[3]
- The beinoni (lit. "intermediate one") possesses an animal soul that still desires evil, but he succeeds at constantly restraining himself from sin in action, speech, and even thought; this, however, requires ongoing tension and struggle. This struggle is not simply the confrontation between good and evil, but rather the ongoing encounter between one's two souls - the animal and the divine - the soul that draws downward toward the earth, and the soul that aspires upward toward Hashem.[4]
- The incomplete rasha ("evil person") has committed sin without doing teshuva, but does good deeds as well.[5]
- The total rasha has sinned so frequently that none of his thought, speech, or action are controlled by the divine soul (though it remains within him), and he is exclusively controlled by his animal soul.[6]
Exposition
The Tanya is said to be the Written Torah of Hasidic philosophy, for it is the first work of Hasidic philosophy recorded by its own author, in contrast to the works of the Ba'al Shem Tov and the Maggid of Mezritch, whose words were transcribed by their disciples.[7] This implies that the teachings of Hasidic philosophy in general are all an exposition of the Tanya, just as the Torah teaches that the entire purpose of the Oral Torah is to elucidate the Written Torah.
In his preface to the Tanya, the author writes that anyone with questions about the meaning or application of the Tanya's guidance should approach "the great ones in his city." In Chabad Hasidic parlance such a guide is known as a Mashpia. Such a person is trained by his predecessors in correct application of the Tanya.
Many works have been written explaining the Tanya, in particular: the Lubavitcher Rebbe's Reshimos on the Tanya, HaLekach VehaLibuv, Shiu'rim BeSefer HaTanya (in its English translation, known as "Lessons in Tanya"[8]), Maskil Le'Eisan, Biurei Ha'Tanya, and "Opening The Tanya," "Learning the Tanya," and "Understanding the Tanya" by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz.
Aphorisms concerning the Tanya
- "Our understanding in Tanya is like a goat looking at the moon"--Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohn.[9]
See also
- Shene luhoth ha-berit - by Isaiah Horowitz - which influenced the early Hassidic movement, and which is echoed in the Tanya.
Cited references
- ^ The Aleph Society, promoting the educational efforts of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz. | Preface to Rabbi Steinsaltz's Commentary on Tanya
- ^ Tanya, Likkutei Amarim, ch. 10
- ^ ibid.
- ^ ibid., ch. 12
- ^ ibid., ch. 11
- ^ ibid.
- ^ See the Holy Letters of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, Vol. IV, p. 261 ff.
- ^ Lessons in Tanya
- ^ Shemu'os Vesippurim, Refoel Kahn, vol. 1, p. 96
References
- HaRav Shneor Zalman of Liadi, Tanya: Likutei Amarim: Sefer Shel Benonim (It was taught, Collected Sayings: Book of Intermediates) with added notes explaining the Mystical concepts by Rabbi Nissan Mindel PH.D.& Rabbi Ya'acov Immanuel Schochet, Bi-Lingual Hebrew-English edition, Kehot Publishing.com
External links
- Watch Live Tanya Class
- Hitbonenut-Paths of the Tanya series - Dr. Yehiel Harari
- Kabbalah and the Psychology of the Soul
- Hebrew full-text
- Tanya in translation with commentary
- Precis of Tanya and Philosophy of Chabad
- Lessons in Tanya
- Daily Tanya Study in Hebrew
- Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz's Commentary on Tanya
- Rabbi Manis Friedman's Explanation of Tanya
- The printing of Tanya
- The greatness of Tanya
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