What is the Tzaddik Emes
Shiur by Rabbi Rosenfeld on Sichos HaRan, Lesson 1
We continue the shiur on Rabbeinu z"l’s teachings. That is, today we begin the Sefer Sichos HaRan, which means “The Sayings of Rabbeinu z"l,” as recorded and written by his talmid muvhak, his greatest of all talmidim, Reb Noson. These are the wise sayings of Rabbeinu z"l on diversified topics, which we’ll try to expound on as much as possible. There are a total of 308 paragraphs, discussions, topics in this sefer alone.
What is the Tzaddik Emes?
It is very fitting that the first topic, the first short paragraph, deals with something that only Rabbeinu z"l can speak about. Rabbeinu z"l is the Tzaddik Emes. The Tzaddik Emes, according to the descriptive sefirah, is Yesod – צדיק יסוד עולם (“The Tzaddik is the foundation of the world”). He is the foundation of all of creation and also known as kol. Kol means “all” or “everything”; one that encompasses everything. We find this word kol expressed by Dovid Hamelech, who said, .כי כל בשמים ובארץ The Tzaddik Emes is one who contains all that is in heaven and earth. But that is only HaShem Himself. And yet the Tzaddik Emes is misdameh (models himself after HaShem); he is the closest to his Creator, to HaShem Himself. What is the meaning of he has “all that is in heaven and earth”? Rabbeinu z"l explains that to mean that the Tzaddik Emes is so great that he can rise up, he can actually rise up to the heights above our universe, above this earthly part of creation, to the next world.
The Tzaddik Emes can rise to Olam HaAtzilus
Now there are four basic worlds. We’ve discussed this many times, but just a very brief synopsis. Four basic worlds:
The names are first Olam HaAsiyah, which refers to not just this earth, but this earthly material creation, which means the earth and all the planets around it, the sun, the moon, all the stars, all the other planets; something which we have called the universe, the entire universe. This would include even the heavens, or rather the sky. The sky as we see it as part of Olam HaAsiyah. Remember the sky is actually part of the earth, or part of Olam HaAsiyah, this material creation. The sky is not spiritual, the sky we see is material; it is the shomayim of Olam HaAsiyah, of this earthly world, earthly universe.
Above this part of creation, this universe, we come to the next world, which is purely spiritual, that is called Olam HaYetzirah; this is the world of the angels. This angelic world, where the angels are found, is not a world where you have one size or one type of angel. Just as on earth you have different types of beings, from the lowly worm to the mighty elephant, or from the lowly animal to the intelligent human, so too in heaven, in this part of heaven, the Olam HaYetzirah, this other world, you have angels of different levels, different sizes, different greatness, but the lowest one of them is far greater than anything that exists on earth. To be more clear: in stature, in comparison, the Gemara (we don’t even have to go as far as the Zohar HaKodesh first) says that if you take this entire universe, not just the earth, the earth is a small planet compared to the other planets – that means take all the thousands or infinite number of planets that we have in this universe, all of them combined, they are all with these millions of light years and so forth in between – this entire space panorama is smaller than the toe of the smallest angel in the next world. Imagine then the size of the rest of this angel, and this is the smallest angel who is very tiny compared to the larger angels. This will give you some idea how very small our chance of conceiving what is meant by size then, what is doing in the next world, the spiritual world.
Olam HaAtzilus
A world above our conception
Of course, you may ask, if this is spiritual, what’s the difference whether the size is a mile or a million miles? The answer is, if you’d understand more about the spiritual world you’d understand why there is a vast difference, very much of a difference. As we said, [it is] so different that even the smallest part of this angel is larger than the entire universe. However, going up to the top of this world, there are 10 spheres in every world, 10 sefiros, and above this world we get to the so-called, kaviyachol (we are using a term which we are forced to use because we are forced to utilize something which we can understand in our mind though it is not actually so; we are forced to use a physical term for something spiritual.) There is a roof on this world, and going beyond that roof, above it, we come to the next world.
The next world is the Olam HaBeriah, which is a world which contains, kaviyachol, again to use the term kaviyachol, the Throne of HaShem, which is above all the angels beneath it, so that the largest, the greatest of the angels, are still beneath this Throne of HaShem, which is the Merkavah, which is held up by the four great names spiritually: Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaacov, and Dovid Hamelech. The four parts of the Merkavah of course are also represented by the four chayos of the Merkavah, four different beings, in a sense, too, a form of angels.
Above this world we come to the so-called, again so-called, top world, the Olam HaAtzilus, the top world as far as we are concerned speaking about worlds. Olam HaAtzilus is a world that is above anything mentioned, above our conception, above our imagination, which cannot be described.
These four worlds correspond to the four letters of HaShem’s Name. The letter yud is the Olam HaAtzilus, the top world that later became the first one. The hei is the Olam HaBeriah, the throne. The vav is the Yetzirah, the world of angels. The final letter hei represents this lowly part of the world, this creation. Of course, without going into it all, Rabbeinu z"l says, again we said the Tzaddik – we’re back to the point the Tzaddik Emes is one who has the power of visiting not anything as silly as a trip to the moon or a trip to Mars, which is infinitely small, which is infinitesimal; it is nothing compared to a trip to the upper heavenly world of the angels. All this, as we said, pales away compared to just a tiny toe of the smallest angel. A Tzaddik Emes can travel beyond this to this world of the angels, through this world of the angels, go through the top, go through the roof of that world where no angel can tread, to go into the next world, the world of Beriah, the world of the Throne of HaShem, and then the Tzaddik Emes can go beyond that into the Olam HaAtzilus.
Rabbeinu Zal did not stop at Olam HaAtzilus
This is testimony by one who has made this trip, Rabbeinu z"l himself, but he was not alone, because we know that the Baal Shem Tov and the Arizal did this too. So that the Tzaddikim Amitiim have the power of going up to these heavenly worlds, only Rabbeinu z"l said that he did not stop at the Olam HaAtzilus. He did not stop at this world because there is much more above and beyond that world. We cannot even discuss this top world, Atzilus. Rabbeinu z"l was so great he could go into this world and above, go through the top into the worlds that are above it. These worlds, of course, exist because, as Rabbeinu z"l says very simply, HaShem is infinite, HaShem is endless. There is no such thing as saying there is a limit, chas v’sholom.
These four worlds are still four. There is above this an endless and infinite amount to get to HaShem, which of course is impossible because that is the infinite, Infinity Himself, or above this, it is called Ein Sof, HaShem who is infinite.
The Tzaddik Emes has the power to go down the depth and bowels of the earth…to bring back a person
Therefore, the Tzaddik Emes who has this power, ,כי כל בשמים who goes above all that is in heaven – heaven, of course, means plural form: [the] heavens above – this Tzaddik Emes going above to these heavens, it would seem to us, is performing the greatest act possible. Rabbeinu z"l says that is not the greatest act possible. One can go crash through these heavens into the upper auras, or areas of kedushah, of holiness. There is something greater than that. The Tzaddik Emes has the power of going down, that’s greater than going up.
He can go down.
How far down? To no matter how far a rosha (wicked person) has descended!
The power of going down that's greater than going up!
A person committing a sin has lowered himself away from his closeness to kedushah, his closeness to HaShem. He has estranged himself from HaShem. By committing a sin, by performing an act against the will of HaShem he has fallen; it is called a nefilah, or a yeridah (descending). By committing more sins he goes still further down. The more he goes down, the more difficult it is for him to come back. The more distant he finds himself from kedushah, from a feeling of closeness to HaShem, and the less of a chance that he feels within himself to go back. Of course the more he goes down the more he is driven, that is propelled down with a much faster pace, because if one commits a sin he is assisted, he is helped. If you want to commit a sin, the door is open for you – go, chas v’sholom. The person who has gone down, way down, could still come back by reminding himself of the mitzvah of the Torah, reminding himself about the fact there is a day of judgment; there is going to become a time the person will have to pay for his acts. A person knows, no matter how little faith he has, he knows he is not going to live forever on this earth; no one has done it yet. He reminds himself ultimately that there must be a day when he will have to pay, he will have to give judgment, and this could draw him back to reality, to realizing the truth and thereby crying out to HaShem from the depth: ממעמקים קראתיך ה' (“From the deepest depth, O God, I call to You”). “HaShem, I am very far, very low, I call You from this deep pit, this depth, I call upon You to help me, elevate me, bring me back to You.”
A fall from which a person cannot come back on his own…saved only by the Tzaddik
But there are people who have fallen so far – Rabbeinu z"l calls it הסתרה בתוך הסתרה (concealment within concealment) – so far that he ceases to realize he has left kedushah. He doesn’t realize there is such a thing as kedushah anymore. He thinks he is living in a normal world where there is no faith, there is no religion. A person like that is so far down that no one can help him. It is impossible for a normal person on this earth to help him anymore. This can be accomplished only by a Tzaddik who can rise so high up into the upper heavens that he has the power too, to go down to this low base point of descent by this rosha, to descend to this person and to bring him up again.
This is the meaning of כי כל בשמים ובארץ, there is no limit to the heights (שמים) the Tzaddik can reach, and ארץ, the depth and bowels of the earth, to where the Tzaddik can descend to elevate, to bring back, a person who has gone so far.