Weekly Tanya lecture: Chap. 26, class 3
Weekly Tanya lecture: Chap. 26, class 3

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We see from all the above the importance of serving G‑d joyfully. Yet, many things in one’s life, both physical and spiritual, may cause him sadness. The Alter Rebbe now goes on to propose means of combating this sadness, so that one may always be joyful.

והנה עצה היעוצה לטהר לבו מכל עצב ונדנוד דאגה ממילי דעלמא, ואפילו בני חיי ומזוני

Sound advice has been offered by our Sages on cleansing one’s heart of all sadness and any trace of worry about mundane matters, even a sadness or worry caused by the lack of such essentials as children, health, or livelihood.

מודעת זאת לכל מאמר רז״ל: כשם שמברך על הטובה כו‘

The advice is contained in the well-known saying of our Sages: 10 “Just as one recites a blessing for his good fortune (’Blessed are You, G‑d,Who is good and does good‘), so must he also recite a blessing for misfortune.”

ופירשו בגמרא: לקבולי בשמחה כמו שמחת הטובה הנגלית והנראית

The Gemara explains11 that this does not mean that he recite the same blessing (for the blessing in a case of misfortune, G‑d forbid, is “Blessed are You, G‑d, the true Judge”); rather, the implication is that one should accept misfortune with joy, like the joy in a visible and obvious good.

כי גם זו לטובה, רק שאינה נגלית ונראית לעיני בשר, כי הוא מעלמא דאתכסיא, שלמעלה מעלמא דאתגליא

For it, too, is for the good, except that it is not apparent and visible to mortal eyes, for it stems from the “hidden (spiritual) world,” which is higher than the “revealed (spiritual) world,” whence derives an apparent and revealed good.

שהוא ו״ה משם הוי״ה ברוך הוא, ועלמא דאתכסיא הוא י״ה

The latter emanates from the letters vav and hei of the Tetragrammaton (the Four-Letter Divine Name, composed of the letters yud hei vav hei), while the former derives from the letters yud hei.12

וזה שכתוב: אשרי הגבר אשר תיסרנו י״ה וגו’

This is also the meaning of the verse, 13 “Happy is the man whom You, G‑d (spelled yud hei), chasten.” Since the verse speaks of man’s suffering, only the letters yud and hei are mentioned.

Man sees misfortune only because he cannot perceive that which derives from a higher, hidden level of G‑dliness. In truth, however, the “misfortunes” are actually blessings in disguise. On the contrary, they represent an even higher level of good than the revealed good, since they originate in a higher world.

FOOTNOTES

10.Berachot 9:5.

11.Berachot 60a.

12. See Iggeret HaTeshuvah, ch. 4, where the relation of the various Worlds to the letters of the Tetragrammaton is discussed at length.