The distribution of Kehot texts in Eretz Yisrael

Table of contents

Search this book:

An explanation of the statement in Tanya that the word ve'ad is equivalent to echad when the letters are exchanged

No. 219

This and the letters which follow were printed in Kovetz Lubavitch, Vol. 11. That volume was intended to be published in honor of the dates Yud-Tes Kislev and Tes Adar. Actually, the volume was not printed until the following year. It thus appears that the main body of this letter was written before the time of publication originally planned, but that minor revisions were made later. Thus one of the notes mentions the 5707 printing of the Tanya in Munich.

{The winter of 5706}

Question: Tanya, at the beginning of ch. 30, cites our Sages' statement: "Be of humble spirit before all men" (using the wording kol ha'adam). The source is Pirkei Avos 4:10, but that source uses the wording kol adam, without a hei. Is this a printing error in the Tanya?

Response: All of the texts of the Tanya[377] that I have seen use the wording kol ha'adam, employing the hei. If so, this is not a printing error.

In the Mishnah, we also find two versions: one that uses the wording kol ha'adam, without a hei and one that uses the wording kol ha'adam, with a hei.[378] In Tanya, the Alter Rebbe chooses the second version, including the hei. I must emphasize that the intent is in Tanya here, because as cited later on, there are several other places where the Alter Rebbe cites the version without the hei and indeed, this is the text that he cites in the text of Pirkei Avos in his Siddur.[379]

Every letter included in the Tanya is exact; there is nothing extra or lacking.[380] On the surface, the above reflects a minor variance and there does not appear to be any significant difference between the [two versions]. Nevertheless, after slight contemplation, it appears that this difference is dependent on the explanation of the concept. Therefore here the Alter Rebbe follows the version ha'adam with a hei, while in another source he follows the version adam without a hei.

To explain the concept: There are two paths that lead a person to develop a humble spirit in the presence of every person:

1. One is based on our Sages' teaching:[381] "Do not judge a person until you arrive at his place." For it is his [spiritual] place that causes him to sin. By nature, he is excitable and his [natural] inclination challenges him with great and awesome battles. Every person must evaluate and appraise himself, [seeing whether] he is serving G-d with the intensity of such an awesome war, as explained in ch. 30 of Tanya.

2. Everyone possesses an advantage over his colleague, and that advantage is brought about by the colleague himself. To explain by analogy, in the human body, the feet are on the lowest level and the head on the highest. Nevertheless, the feet possess a positive quality: that one walks employing the feet and that they support the head and the body. Moreover, when a person suffers a headache, we let blood from the feet and that heals him, [indicating] that [the head] receives life-energy from there, as explained at length in Likkutei Torah, Parshas Nitzavim.

There are two differences in the outcome produced by these different approaches. The first approach leads to feelings of lowness, sadness, and bitterness. Nevertheless, this is the quality [necessary to transform the person's character], as our Sages declare:[382] "A person should always arouse the good inclination against the bad inclination," provided he overcomes it and in his conduct, "turns away from evil and does good," as explained in Tanya, ch. 31. Moreover, this meditation will lead a person to be humble, not only in the presence of his fellow Jews, but also in the presence of gentiles. For example, if one will contemplate [the great expression of] honor which Duma ben Nasina showed his father (Kiddushin 31a) or the like.

The second path leads to humility, but not to sadness. And it is effective only with regard to a colleague from among the Jewish people. For the Jewish people are like one complete body and every limb is connected to [all] others and requires them. This concept does not apply with regard to gentiles.

Our Sages declare: "You are called adam," [i.e., Jews and] not gentiles. The term ha'adam applies also to gentiles (Yevamos 61a; Tosafos, s.v. ve'ein). Therefore when a person cannot battle against his evil inclination because of the heaviness in his heart[383] and he must subjugate the evil inclination, to crush it and humble it [by] reproving himself, [saying] that he is lower even than the impure animals, he must follow the first course mentioned. Hence, he will be humble even in the presence of a non-Jew. Therefore, [in this source,] the Alter Rebbe is careful to quote the text: kol ha'adam, with a hei.

When, by contrast, we are speaking of one's love for one's fellow Jew, the above meditation is not relevant. Instead, one should contemplate how the entire Jewish people are like one body and everyone possesses an advantage over his colleague. Therefore [in sources focusing on this concept,] the Alter Rebbe cites the version kol ha'adam, without a hei. See Tanya, Iggeres HaKodesh, Epistle 22; Likkutei Torah, Parshas Nitzavim; and the maamar entitled Atem Nitzavim in the Siddur, Shaar HaElul.[384]

Similarly, when speaking about the Divine service of the righteous, and in general about higher levels of Divine service, not merely about efforts to turn away from evil, the meditation that one is inferior and abominable is not appropriate. Instead, one should meditate on how one's colleague is superior and that one should not seek [supremacy]. In such a situation the version adam, without a hei, is employed. See the end of maamar entitled VaYachperu in Torah Or, Parshas Toldos, the first maamar entitled Vayihi MiKeitz (ibid.), and the first maamar entitled BaYom HaShemini in Likkutei Torah.

Based on the above, it is apparent that the primary version of the mishnah is adam, without a hei, and therefore this was the version included by the Alter Rebbe in his Siddur.

For the simple meaning of the mishnah concerns Torah study, teaching that a person should be humble in the presence of every person and learn from him. Alternatively, that even though one occupies himself in Torah study, he should be humble in the presence of every person. These concepts are relevant only to the Jewish people.

---

If from the addition of one letter in Tanya, we can learn all the above, think how much can be learned from one word, one statement, or one concept, and certainly one chapter of Tanya!

   

Notes:

377. (Back to text) [These include] the printings of Slavita in 5556-5557, Zalkava in 5559 and 5565, Shklov in 5566 and 5574, Altoona in 5580, Koningsberg in 5587, Lemberg in 5616, 5620, 5622, and 5624, Vilna in 5632, 5633, 5640, 5656, 5660, and 5669 (the plates for the latter printing were used for several subsequent printings), Shanghai in 5703, Munkatsch in 5703 (both of these were offset prints of the Vilna printing of 5669), Tel Aviv, 5703, Munich, 5707 (an offset of the Vilna printing of 5669), the Vienna printing of (year not known) and the printing in the year alluded to by the verse: uvidvar hazeh ta'arichu yomim in a location that is not known.

     In all of the above texts with the exception of the Vienna printing, the text states ha'adam with a hei. There are two manuscript copies of Tanya in the library of my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe Shlita. It appears that they were written before the printing of the Tanya and there are some variances between them and the printed text of the Tanya. [These manuscripts] do not contain ch. 30 at all. What is ch. 31 in our text is ch. 30 [in these manuscripts].

378. (Back to text) Rabbeinu Yonah in his commentary [to Avos]. Apparently, this was also the version of the text Chen Tov which is cited in the commentary Melaches Shlomo [to Avos], ch. 4, mishnah 4. Similarly, Derech Eretz Zuta, ch. 3, states: "Be of humble spirit before all men" (using the wording kol ha'adam).

379. (Back to text) Shaar HaCollel 30:3 states: "The text of Pirkei Avos in the Alter Rebbe's Siddur contains several differences from the version stated in the Mishnah. It is possible that this is the reason why the Alter Rebbe included [Pirkei Avos] in the Siddur," [i.e., to clarify the proper version of the text].

380. (Back to text) See Kitzurim VeHaaros LiTanya, p. 118ff. It is a tradition received in the family of the Rebbeim that once, the Alter Rebbe's brother, R. Yehudah Leib of Yanovich, found his brother, the Alter Rebbe, sitting with great concentration at his desk. Approximately an hour passed [before] the Alter Rebbe broke out [of that concentrated state]. He saw his brother standing next to him and told him [while] pointing to a manuscript copy of the Tanya that was placed before him: "This is the third week I am meditating about how to write this word, whether or not to write it with a vav that links it to the previous word. (For example, the phrase ve'ikrah ve'shorshah, "[the beginning of Divine service] and its core and root," at the beginning of ch. 41, could have been written without a vav, in which instance it would read "the beginning of Divine service, its core.... [The Alter Rebbe, however, chose] to include a vav.

     He said: "It is possible to give up six weeks [contemplating whether to include] a vav in Tanya. During the seventh week, it will become actually light, [shining forth] an essential luminance. Every [time I had the choice of including] a letter that joins [one word to another] in Tanya, I thought over the entire book" ([from] a letter of my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe Shlita, 28 Tammuz, 5692).

381. (Back to text) [Avos 2:4.]

382. (Back to text) [Berachos 5a.]

383. (Back to text) Note Tanya, ch. 29ff.

384. (Back to text) A similar concept is also found in the maamar entitled VaYirau in Torah Or, Parshas Mishpatim. Therefore that text also cites the version kol ha'adam, without a hei.

The distribution of Kehot texts in Eretz Yisrael

Table of contents

Search this book:

An explanation of the statement in Tanya that the word ve'ad is equivalent to echad when the letters are exchanged