Category: Video Lessons

The Torah speaks in the language of man. Because of this, when the Torah says that God speaks – it means that their is a resemblance between His speech and ours.

We learnt that God speaks creation into being. His speaking, however, is unlike our speaking. When God speaks, the words remain connected to Him, unlike ourselves – that our words separate from us as we say them.

Though it is that when a person speaks, his speech becomes detached from him – this is not so with regards to God. The words that God speaks remain attached to Him even after they “leave His lips”. It is because of this that the concept of existence is very different to the way we imagine it to be.

The Baal HaTanya is about to tell us how it is easy for every person to be able to tap into their love of Hashem. He is about to take us on a journey into understanding the presence of God in the world – and how this is going to be the thing to awaken us to realise that it is just as important to refrain from every sin, as it is to refrain from the biggest of sins, including idolatry, murder and sexual immorality.

It is the hidden love found within each Jew that awakens at certain times of urgency. When a Jew is confronted with the ultimate test of giving up his life under the duress of conversion or serving idols, this love awakens itself as the Jew refuses to be separated from God for even a moment.

In fact, if the Jew could only identify with this deep love to God always, he would never come to commit any sin at all. It is just that a spirit of folly enters into him, and he thinks that when committing a sin, he is not separating himself from God at all. But in truth, every sin tears one away from God.

The hidden love – found even in the most lowly of Jews – is a power that is so great, that it will not allow a Jew to commit a sin even if just overtly – though he does not actually believe in the action he is involved in.

In fact, within the hidden love is also an aspect of tremendous fear of God. It is the fear inherent within the love that prevents the Jew from that particularly serious sin.

We begin Chapter 20 which is a follow on from Chapter 19. Here we will see the concept of (the start) of how a Jew is able implement that hidden love in all matters of MItzvah observance and refraining from committing sins. By understanding more about the first two commandments of the Ten Commandments, the Jew will be able to see how God has manifested His entire Torah within these commandments and through this, the Jew will be able to understand how to refrain from breaking away from God in every single sin – just as he is able to refrain to breaking away from God at the time of such serious sins as idolatry.