3043 —חילוקי דעות בחסידות, הבנת תוהו ותיקון, ויישום מעשי

B"H, 21 MarCheshvan, 5715.

Brooklyn.

Greetings and blessing!

In reply to your letter about the differences of opinion you had with Anash with whom you spoke, in understanding matters in maamarim of Chassidus, especially on the matter of Tohu and Tikkun, which in your view exists from the top of all levels to the bottom of all levels, and you explain this with fitting explanations, and not all agree with this explanation.

Now, in most cases the matters that exist in general do exist from the top of all levels to the bottom of all levels, for there is an order of descent in which one level evolves from another.

It is self-understood that in each place and level of the descent it is in such a way as pertains and fits that place and level. It is like Avraham our father, whose essence is the attribute of kindness of Atzilus, and nevertheless he said, "ואנכי עפר ואפר" ("I am dust and ashes"), where the difference is not only in quantity but also in quality.

The understanding of this can also be gained from the saying of our Sages about the light created on the first day, by which Adam looked from one end of the world to the other, whose meaning is literal. And Chassidus explains the deeper meaning of this, that this is in the revealed world and in the hidden world, which is an entirely different matter from light below, by which one sees only [with] eyes of flesh and in this physical world. Both matters are included in the above saying of our Sages.

See also the Reshimos of the Tzemach Tzedek on Megillas Eichah, p. 26 ff., in the explanation of the matter of a lion on many levels, far from one another, from one extreme to the other.

Yet one must not forget that when one studies a matter, one must first study it in its plain meaning, and only afterwards think how the matter is in a higher world and in a lower world.

The same applies to the matter of Tohu and Tikkun, whose plain meaning in the mystical part of Torah is the world of Tohu, which was destroyed, and this was in order to build up the world of Tikkun in which we now find ourselves (although according to the view of the Arizal the world of Tohu was not a physical world like today's; and in this other Kabbalists differ, holding that Tohu too was like this world of ours; see Torah Or, Parshas Shemos, 51d, and Toras Chaim there). After studying the matter in the plain part of the mystical Torah, one can find the matter above this and below this. On the powers of the soul in particular, see Toras Chaim, Parshas Noach, from 67b, at length.

You surely know what is brought in many of the sichos of my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe, that the greatest intellectual attainment of Chassidus must bring a "therefore" regarding actual practice, in thought, speech and deed. And since it is not always easy to derive a "therefore" from intellectual maamarim of Chassidus, especially in our generation, one must study maamarim of Chassidus on avodah, in which one sees the "therefore" without excessive effort. Therefore an important part of your study is surely in maamarim of avodah...

With blessing for good news in all the above.