A New Tanya class By Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowicz “The most impactful Prayers & Torah study” Tanya Last Essays Number 3 In chapter 39 & 40 of the first section of Tanya we learnt that when one prays or studies Torah his soul is elevated. The elevation depends on the כוונה of אהבת ה׳ ויראת ה׳. If the love & Awe is based on intellect than the soul is elevated to the world of Beriyah the world of intellect, if the the love & Awe is natural as all Jews naturally love Hashem than they are elevated to the world Yetzira the world of emotions. If one studies Torah with out the love & Awe for Hashem than it’s elevated to the external Worlds & creates angels in the world of Yetzira. When one prays with out love & Awe it is not elevated to the world of Yetzira. The question is why is Torah & tefilah equal when done with love & Awe, however when done with our there is a distinction as Torah is still elevated & prayer is not elevated rather actually descends lower. The Alter Rebbe explains. When one learns Torah you have to use your mind otherwise it’s not called learning so even when your lacking the revealed love & Awe the natural love & Awe exists so that the Torah is elevated to the world of Yetzira. When one learns Torah for ulterior motives Honor or money than the Torah is not elevated. When one does not have love & Awe in prayer even though that itself does not downgrade the prayer however the strange thoughts enter & that does downgrade the prayer. Nevertheless one can recite those prayers again & have the right feeling of love & Awe that will elevate all the past prayers done with out love & Awe. So even though Torah has an advantage over prayer in that neutral Torah is elevated & neutral prayer is not. Prayer has an advantage as downgraded prayer for negative thoughts can be elevated by praying the same prayer with holy thoughts Torah can not be elevated with such a simple task. Torah can still be elevated once downgraded by doing Teshuva hence a person should always learn Torah even for the wrong reasons as we can repent & elevate the Torah. The Alter Rebbe clarifies two different pieces of Zohar that talk about the elevation of prayer with out love & Awe where in one place it says it’s elevated to מלכות דעשיה & in another place it says can’t be elevated the Alter Rebbe explains that it can’t be elevated to ז״א however all agree it is elevated to מלכות the issue is that מלכות can’t effect change or blessings as it has to go higher to draw down blessings. The Alter Rebbe clarifies another place in the Zohar where it says that prayer with out love & Awe is elevated to as high as ז״א דבריאה the Alter clarifies that even sins are elevated to those high levels buy unfortunately they are elevated & create a Blemish not a desirable elevation. The Alter Rebbe gives an example where when does a mitzvah he receives garments for his soul from גן עדן התחתון דעולם העשיה & in another place it says היכל ב׳ דעולם הבריאה as the elevation to a higher level is not necessarily the same quality of an elevation. Prayer with strange thoughts is higher than Torah for selfish reasons. As prayer with strange thoughts is elevated to מלכות דעשיה however the Torah study is not elevated at all. Torah study neutral in other words no love & Awe on the other hand no selfish thoughts just plain study of Torah since every Jew has a natural love for Hashem is not worse than the pure & innocent Torah study of children that is totally elevated (with a child even if he is studying for reward or punishment it’s elevated as a child is pure). The Zohar says that the angels take the Torah study of the children till Atzilut. A Project of Chabad Lubavitch of Southwest Florida 5620 Winkler Road Fort Myers, FL 33919 239-433-7708 www.Chabadswf.org Rabbi@chabadswf.org A Special thanks to Warren Kahminsky for Video Taping the Class Watch on YouTube: youtu.be/K4JxdTRMM04 Brought to you by: ALL THINGS PODCAST Contact us for all your podcast needs: podcast@habet.dev