Torah Ohr · Parshas Vayeishev · Maamar 3
שיר המעלות בשוב כו׳ היינו כחולמים
A Song of Ascents: When [Havayah] Returns... We Were Like Dreamers
The Rebbe on this maamar
The Rebbe opens from it in these maamarim of his: ד״ה וכפי שמצינו בהדרושים בתורה אור (5724)ד״ה שיר המעלות בשוב הוי׳ (5727)
Kept on this device only. Sign in to save it on every device
The big idea
Exile is a dream: with the intellect ‘asleep’, a person holds opposites together, love of G‑d in prayer and love of self afterward. Yet the dream’s power to unite opposites comes from the highest level, the ‘circles’ where all is one, and in the redemption that hidden source will be revealed.
The maamar in brief
The maamar explains the verse “When Havayah returns the captivity of Zion, we were like dreamers.” A dream fuses opposites because in sleep the discerning intellect withdraws and only the imagination remains. So too the G‑dly spark in exile: a person loves G‑d in prayer and then spends the day chasing profit, holding both as if they fit together. Work in the world could be divine service, but most people work for the body alone, the very opposite of prayer’s love. This should not lead to despair, as though prayer were a vain fantasy, because the dream-level has a lofty root. In exile G‑d’s Name is ‘clothed’ and not read as written; in this ‘sleep’ life is drawn from the level of circles, where there is no above or below and opposites are one, unlike the lines of Chochmah and Daas that divide. That light can shine only hidden, in the darkness of exile. In the Time to Come the covering will be removed, and we will recognize that exile was sustained by this dream-level. This is Yosef’s quality: the leader of Israel in exile, the interpreter who joins opposites.
Outline
- The nature of a dreamIn sleep the intellect withdraws and the imagination joins opposites; awake, the intellect keeps them apart.¶1–2
- The dream of exile in divine serviceA person loves G‑d in prayer and then pursues gain all day; work could be service, but most make the body’s needs the main thing.¶3–5
- Not vain imaginingsOne might think dreamlike prayer is worthless; in truth the dream-level is rooted in supernal holiness.¶6
- The Name in exile and the world of circlesIn exile G‑d’s Name is clothed; in ‘sleep’ life is drawn from the circles, where opposites are one, shining hidden in darkness rather than through the dividing lines of intellect.¶7–10
- The redemption revealedWhen the covering is removed, all will recognize that the exile was sustained by the level of the dream: “we were like dreamers.”¶11
- Yosef, master of dreamsYosef, rooted in the circles, leads Israel in exile; ben poras spells poser and tofer, one who interprets and joins opposites.¶12
Key concepts
- Dreamחלום
- The state in which the imagination joins opposites because the intellect has withdrawn; an image of exile, and also of a level where opposites truly are one.
- Imaginative facultyכח המדמה
- The power that forms images and can combine things that cannot exist together, governed when awake by the intellect.
- Departure of the intellect (mochin)הסתלקות המוחין
- The withdrawal of intellect, as in sleep; in Kabbalah, the state of exile, when the emotive attributes are without their intellect.
- Circles and linesעגולים וקוין
- Two arrangements of divine light: in the circles all is equal and opposites are united; in the lines (right, left, middle) things are divided and defined against each other.
- Not as I am written am I readלא כשאני נכתב אני נקרא
- The Talmud’s statement that the Divine Name is now read differently from how it is written; for the maamar, a sign that the Name is clothed in exile.
For children · ages 9–13
Exile is like a dream
The big idea
Exile is like a dream that holds opposites together, but even the dream comes from a very high place, and in the redemption we will see it.
The verse says, “When G‑d returns the captivity of Zion, we were like dreamers.” Why is exile like a dream? In a dream, two opposite things can fit together, such as a ship racing through the air. This happens because in sleep the mind that judges what makes sense is resting, and only the imagination is awake. Exile is like that. A person can love G‑d deeply while davening, and then spend the day busy only with what the body wants, as if these two fit together. That can make someone feel that their davening was only a dream. The maamar says not to be discouraged. The power of a dream to join opposites comes from a very high level, where everything is one. In exile this level is hidden, but in the time of the redemption it will be revealed, and we will see what was holding us up all along. Yosef, who interpreted dreams, is the leader of the Jewish people in exile. The maamar also teaches that our everyday work can itself be serving G‑d, when we do it with the right intention.
The mashal
In a dream a person can see a ship racing through the air, and it does not seem strange, because the mind that judges is asleep. On waking, the mind sees at once that the two cannot go together. So in exile we hold opposites together, like dreamers.
Questions for the Shabbos table
- Why does the maamar say that exile is like a dream?
- What does the verse “we were like dreamers” teach about the time of the redemption?
- How can the things you do after davening, like schoolwork, also become a way of serving G‑d?
Explanation © likuteitorah.com, CC BY-NC 4.0: retold for children from our translation and explanation, with AI assistance; not yet reviewed by a human editor.
The Rebbe’s maamarim on this maamar · 2
AI summaries Written by AI from each maamar and checked against it by a second AI reader; no person has reviewed them yet, so check the maamar itself before relying on a detail. See something to correct?
The Rebbe built these 2 maamarim (5724–5727) on the Alter Rebbe’s. Open one for a summary, for what it adds paragraph by paragraph, and its lesson. All of them, by parsha.
1.5724Opens from itד״ה וכפי שמצינו בהדרושים בתורה אור
The Rebbe’s maamar builds mainly on the Alter Rebbe’s short maamar “Inyan HaChalomos” (Maamarei Admur HaZaken 5562), together with the preceding short maamar “Mah enosh ki sizkerenu.” It applies their ideas to the Torah Ohr maamar “Shir HaMaalos... Hayinu kecholmim” in its fifth section.
Summary
The Rebbe opens from a short maamar of the Alter Rebbe, “Inyan HaChalomos.” That maamar holds that dreams cannot be grasped by human intellect. They are not simply the imagination, since a person may dream what he never saw or thought, and dreams mix truth and falsehood. A dream is like a miracle above nature, and what the human mind grasps of it is only “katnus shebegadlus.” The Rebbe then raises two questions. First, elsewhere dreams are explained as the rectification of the day’s letters of thought and speech, not as something above intellect. Second, the Gemara says a person is shown in a dream only the musings of his heart, yet this maamar says one dreams what one never thought. He also asks how prophetic dreams fit the Gemara’s rule. He answers that prophecy, though from above, must clothe itself in the prophet’s own letters and style, which come from his soul; hence “no two prophets prophesy in one style.” That is why even prophecy is tied to the musings of the heart. The Gemara speaks of the majority of dreams. There is also an exceptional dream: a revelation of light above the dreamer’s vessels. It comes from “nimna hanimnaos,” the One for Whom nothing is impossible, and this also explains why dreams hold both truth and falsehood.
Drawing on the Alter Rebbe’s maamar on “Mah enosh ki sizkerenu,” the Rebbe shows that when G‑d extended His little finger and “burned” the angels, this was no punishment. It was a revelation of higher light that nullified the limitation of their vessels. So a revelation of light above the vessels in the end refines the vessel itself. He applies this to the Torah Ohr maamar on “Hayinu kecholmim” and asks what comfort there is in being told that our dreamlike, self-contradicting service is rooted in the circles and will be revealed in the future. His answer has two parts. Even now, alongside the falsehood that comes from limited vessels, there is genuine truth, because a light above the vessels shines in it. And that light ultimately refines the vessel. He extends this to miracles in exile, including the revealed miracle of Yud-Tes Kislev. Seeing the miracle not as one that happened more than 160 years ago, but as one happening now, and being stirred by its wonder, refines the vessel. Yet this is still katnus shebegadlus, which leads to the gadlus shebegadlus of the Time to Come. He closes with the hope of passing straight from prayer to redemption.
What the Rebbe adds
- ¶6
The Alter Rebbe consoles the one whose love fades after prayer: the dream is rooted in the circles. The Rebbe asks what comfort this offers while the person is still in deep sleep, one moment one way and the next the opposite. He answers that the dream is like a miracle in which a light above the vessels shines. Its mix of true and false means that even where, because of the limited vessels, there are matters of falsehood, there are also matters of truth.
The Alter Rebbe
אך באמת הנה בחי׳ חלום זה שרשו למעלה ויסודתו בהררי קדש עליון
The Rebbe
ולכאורה אינו מובן, מהי הנחמה שבדבר, בה בשעה שבמשך זמן העבודה
- ¶11
The Alter Rebbe places the revelation of the dream’s source in the redemption. The Rebbe adds, through the model of the angels being ‘burned’ by G‑d’s little finger, that a light above the vessels does more than wait to be revealed: when it is revealed within the dreamlike condition, it eventually refines the vessel and nullifies its limitation.
The Alter Rebbe
שיתגלה מדרגה ובחי׳ זו של החלום עד אשר כולם יכירו וידעו
The Rebbe
הנה סוכ״ס הרי זה פועל גם זיכוך הכלי
- ¶10
The Alter Rebbe describes the light of the circles in exile as hidden in darkness. The Rebbe applies ‘hayinu kecholmim’ to the miracles of exile. These are not only hidden miracles, which are in truth higher, but also revealed ones like Yud-Tes Kislev. Seeing such a miracle as happening now, and being stirred by its wonder, refines and frees the vessel. He calls this still katnus shebegadlus, a step toward the gadlus shebegadlus of the Time to Come.
The Alter Rebbe
אזי מתנוצץ ומאיר האור העליון והוא מסתתר ומתעלם בבחי׳ קדרות וחשך
The Rebbe
אלא גם נסים גלויים, כמו הנס די״ט כסלו
The lesson
One should not despair over the contradictions of a dreamlike avodah, where love in prayer gives way to self-love afterward. Even now a light above one’s vessels shines in it with real truth and gradually refines the vessel. Seeing the miracle of Yud-Tes Kislev as a present event and being moved by it advances this refinement.
AI summary
The full maamar: read or print it free at Lahak Hanochos (lahak.org)
2.5727Opens from itד״ה שיר המעלות בשוב הוי׳
The Rebbe builds mainly on the Tzemach Tzedek’s maamar on this verse ("ע״כ תוכן מאמר הצ״צ"), which he says is founded on this Torah Ohr maamar. He explicitly notes where the Tzemach Tzedek adds to Torah Ohr.
Summary
The Rebbe opens from the Tzemach Tzedek’s maamar on this verse, which he notes is founded on the Torah Ohr maamar. In the Time to Come, when Havayah returns the captivity of Zion, everyone will see that throughout the exile “we were like dreamers.” A dream joins two opposites in one subject. The Rebbe gives a sharper example than the Torah Ohr’s: one can dream of being killed and then alive in the same moment, or of being here and in Spain at once, and it does not trouble the dreamer at all. The same happens in divine service. In the Shema a person feels that “there is none else besides Him,” and right afterwards he toils for physical livelihood. These seem to contradict each other, so how can he be preoccupied with his parnassah?
The Rebbe answers, following the Tzemach Tzedek, with a point he says is absent from Torah Ohr: in truth there is no contradiction, because both sides “were caused by Heaven.” The dream is rooted in the supernal makif, which encompasses all worlds equally and is above all division. On one level, opposites stand together through their bittul to what is above them, like Michael and Gavriel, between whom G‑d “makes peace.” On a deeper level they are not opposites at all, like the middos as they are included in Binah, the source of all makifim. Exile is the ibbur of Z”A in the womb of Imma of Atzilus, so in exile we are truly “like dreamers.” The makif of Imma is clothed in “sackcloth,” the dream below, so we do not notice it until the garments are removed. The Rebbe then asks what the “return” (teshuvah) of Zion means. Teshuvah and the days of Moshiach preceded the world: they come from the reshimu, which is above even the beginning of the kav. And teshuvah comes from the opposite, through refining the sparks, which is why the nations will say “Havayah has done great things.” He ties this to Parshas Masei and to the liberation of 12-13 Tammuz.
What the Rebbe adds
- ¶2
The Rebbe explicitly calls this a sharper parable than the Torah Ohr’s. The Alter Rebbe’s ship racing through the air combines two things that are merely incompatible. The Rebbe’s examples join outright contradictories in one moment: dead and alive, here and in Spain. This also sharpens the nimshal. It is no longer just love in prayer beside self-interest. Feeling "אין עוד מלבדו" in the Shema contradicts toiling for parnassah head-on.
The Alter Rebbe
כמו ספינה רצה באויר
The Rebbe
שיוכל לראות בחלום אשר הוא נהרג או מת ואח״כ הוא חי
- ¶3
In Torah Ohr, the dreamlike joining of prayer and worldly self-interest is a flaw. It even raises the fear (¶6) that the arousal in prayer is not genuine. The Rebbe notes that the Tzemach Tzedek adds what Torah Ohr lacks. Both prayer with kavanah and the toil for livelihood are intended by Heaven, so in truth they do not contradict each other at all. Their union comes from the makif that joins them.
The Alter Rebbe
ובאמת הם נפרדים ורחוקים זמ״ז
The Rebbe
שבאמת אין זה סותר לזה כלל, כי שניהם, הדבר והיפוכו, נסבו מן שמים
- ¶8
The Alter Rebbe says only that in the circles, opposites are united without division. The Rebbe distinguishes two levels. On the first, opposites remain opposites but stand together through bittul to what is above them: Michael and Gavriel do not extinguish each other because G‑d makes peace between them, like two ministers before the king. On the second, they are not opposites at all, like the middos as they are included in Binah.
The Alter Rebbe
ושם כל הדברים המתפרדים למטה מחוברים וכלולים יחד
The Rebbe
אלא יתירה מזה, שאינם הפכיים זמ״ז כלל
- ¶8
The Alter Rebbe hints at exile as sleep with “three contained within three.” The Rebbe spells this out as the ibbur of Z”A inside Imma of Atzilus. Imma is the supernal makif that joins all opposites. He also reads the second half of the verse, “and I make sackcloth their covering”: the sackcloth is the dream below, in which the makif of Binah is clothed and hidden.
The Alter Rebbe
בגלות הוא בבחי׳ שינה והסתלקות המוחין תלת כלילן כו׳
The Rebbe
ענין הגלות הוא בחי׳ עיבור דז״א בבטן אימא דאצילות
- ¶11
The Alter Rebbe reads the verse only as the future revelation of the dream-level. The Rebbe asks what the “return” of Zion means and answers from the teaching that teshuvah and the days of Moshiach preceded the world. Both stem from the reshimu, which is above even the beginning of the kav. This is why baalei teshuvah stand where perfect tzaddikim cannot, and why Moshe attained teshuvah only before his death. Teshuvah also comes from the opposite, through refining the sparks. Hence “Havayah has done great things with these.”
The Alter Rebbe
ואזי נאמר בשוב ה׳ את שיבת ציון היינו כחולמים
The Rebbe
אך צריך להבין מ״ש בשוב הוי׳ את שיבת ציון, מהו ענין התשובה של ציון
The lesson
Even what is undesirable, like the journeys in the desert or the arrest of 12 Tammuz, is meant to be turned into a revelation of G‑d’s kindness. Each Jew is given the power to transform the cause of exile, our sins, so that they become merits, and once the cause is nullified the exile itself ends.
AI summary
The full maamar: read or print it free at Lahak Hanochos (lahak.org)
AI summary Written by Claude Opus 5.5 reading each of the Rebbe’s maamarim, from the scan corrected by AI, beside the Alter Rebbe’s maamar and our translation; not yet reviewed by a human editor: check the maamar itself before relying on a detail. The Hebrew words are quoted exactly. The full text of the Rebbe’s maamarim is published by Vaad Hanochos B’Lahak, free to read and print on lahak.org, and in print by Kehot. This page gives only short summaries and brief quotes.
In the Rebbe’s light · 8
AI research Found by AI reading every place in the Rebbe’s works that cites this maamar, and checked against each source by a second AI reader, the less certain by a third. Only what rated high is shown: the Rebbe’s own words, about this very passage. No person has reviewed it yet, so check the place itself before relying on a detail. See something to correct?
The maamar in the Rebbe’s light
In the Rebbe’s teachings this maamar’s dream is every exile (a note of Shabbos Shelach 5749, citing it, says that the seventy years of exile likened to a dream, which Choni found in its opening verse, hint at all the exiles, not Babylon’s alone), and its stress falls on comfort. He keeps returning to ¶6’s „לא יפול לב האדם עליו” (‘let no man’s heart fail’): the stirring in prayer can be true even when its opposite follows (a letter of 26 Iyar 5712); we are only „כחולמים” (‘like’ dreamers), for „העבודה היא עבודה אמיתית” (the service is true) and the dream is whatever contradicts the prayer (Shabbos Naso 5726, Shabbos Shemini 5716); a Jew’s true reality, by the Rambam’s ruling on his inner will, is his prayer and mitzvos (Shabbos Tetzaveh 5743). On Shabbos Pinchas 5744 he turns the image outward: a dream lets a person „ברגע אחד יכול להתהפך מן הקצה אל הקצה” (pass in one moment from one extreme to the other), so exile, the dream, can in one moment become redemption, its lofty root revealed through prayer and mitzvos. In a sicha on Mikeitz (Likkutei Sichos vol. 15) he brings the maamar’s close, with the Mitteler Rebbe’s Torah Chaim and the Tzemach Tzedek’s Or HaTorah, for why Yosef, rooted in the circles (עיגולים), was the interpreter of dreams, and from it explains why his reading of Pharaoh’s dream of exile joined its opposites.
Paragraph by paragraph
- ¶1
Background from the Rebbe
In an edited talk of Shabbos Shelach, 28 Sivan 5749, on how the exile and its fasts, which began with the spies, are turned to good, the Rebbe reads the saying that one who answers „אמן יהא שמי׳ רבא” (‘Amen, yehei shmei rabba’) with all his strength „קורעין לו גזר דינו של שבעים שנה” (has a decree of seventy years torn up) as hinting at the end of the seventy-year Babylonian exile and of the last exile too, and adds this note.
In a note to a talk of Shabbos Shelach 5749, the Rebbe brings the Talmud’s story of Choni HaMe’agel, who all his life was troubled by this verse (Rashi: „כחלום נדמה גלות בבל”, the seventy-year Babylonian exile seemed like a dream) and asked „מי איכא דניים שבעין שנין בחלמא” (whether anyone sleeps seventy years in a dream), until it happened to him. Thereby, the Rebbe writes, it is emphasized that the seventy years of exile, which is likened to a dream (citing this maamar), „רומז לא רק לגלות בבל, אלא לכל הגלויות” (hint not only at the Babylonian exile but at all the exiles). So the dream of the verse with which the maamar opens is, in his reading, every exile’s, not Babylon’s alone.
The Alter Rebbe
שיר המעלות בשוב כו׳ היינו כחולמים.
The Rebbe
ובזה מודגש ששבעים שנה דגלות — שנמשל לחלום (ראה תו״א וישב כח, ג ואילך) — רומז לא רק לגלות בבל, אלא לכל הגלויות
Sefer HaSichos, vol. תשמ״ט ב, p. 544, note 95 · ש״פ שלח, כ״ח סיון, מבה״ח תמוז, ה׳תשמ״ט
- ¶3
The Rebbe explains
At the farbrengen of Shabbos Pinchas, 14 Tammuz 5744, answering the feeling of one so steeped in exile that talk of the redemption coming now seems to him ‘a dream’, the Rebbe turns to this maamar: „הגלות הוא חלום, ואילו הגאולה היא המציאות האמיתית בהקיץ” (the exile is the dream, and the redemption is the waking reality).
In a talk of Shabbos Pinchas 5744 the Rebbe quotes this paragraph and says where its stress lies: „על מעלת ענין החלום” (on the virtue of the dream). Though a moment ago a person was sunk in worldly matters, „ברגע אחד יכול להתהפך מן הקצה אל הקצה” (in one moment he can turn from one extreme to the other), shake off the imaginings of this world and come to „מציאותו האמיתית” (his true reality), love of G‑d and cleaving to Him. And since exile as a whole is a dream that joins opposites, it too can turn in one moment into redemption.
The Alter Rebbe
יכול הוא להרכיב ב׳ דברים הפכיים להיות כל היום טרוד במו״מ איש לבצעו
The Rebbe
ההדגשה היא על מעלת ענין החלום — שכן, למרות שברגע הקודם הי׳ מונח בעניני העולם כו׳, מ״מ, ברגע אחד יכול להתהפך מן הקצה אל הקצה
Toras Menachem – Hisvaduyos, vol. תשד״מ ד, p. 2211–2212 · ש״פ פינחס, י״ד תמוז, ה׳תשד״מ
- ¶6
The Rebbe explainsThe Rebbe says this in more than one place
In a letter of 26 Iyar 5712 to a man who complained of his spiritual state and felt that his stirrings to the good lasted only a moment, the Rebbe brings this maamar.
The Rebbe writes that Chassidus explains on „היינו כחולמים” (‘we were like dreamers’) (citing Torah Ohr, Vayeishev) that even if after a stirring to the good one finds oneself in the opposite state, „אפשר אשר בשעת ההזזה היתה אמיתית” (it is possible that at the time of the stirring it was genuine), as in a dream two opposites can be joined. The fall that follows does not prove the stirring false.
The Alter Rebbe
הרי מובן שגם בתפלה לא ביטל אהבת גופו מכל וכל
The Rebbe
אשר אף שלאחר ההזזה לטובה מוצאים א״ע במצב ההיפך ח״ו, הנה בכ״ז אפשר אשר בשעת ההזזה היתה אמיתית, וכמו בחלום, שאפשר להיות חיבור שני הפכים
Igros Kodesh, vol. ו, p. עו–עז · כ״ו אייר ה׳תשי״ב
- ¶6
The Rebbe explainsThe Rebbe says this in more than one place
At the farbrengen of Shabbos Naso, 9 Sivan 5726, the Shabbos after Shavuos, drawing the lesson of the giving of the Torah: a Jew who was greatly aroused then (or at Ne’ilah on Yom Kippur) may, when he goes out to the world, have to fight his evil inclination over the simplest things, and so may fall in spirit.
On this the Rebbe brings this paragraph’s „לא יפול לב האדם עליו” (‘let no man’s heart fail’), adding that the falling of spirit is itself the counsel of the evil inclination. He reads the verse precisely: „היינו כחולמים” (‘like dreamers’), with the kaf of comparison, for exile is not wholly like a dream, in which both opposites are untrue. Here „העבודה היא עבודה אמיתית” (the service is true service); that the concealment of the animal soul follows when one comes to worldly matters does not prove that the service was not true.
The Alter Rebbe
לא יפול לב האדם עליו לומר כי ההתעוררות שבתפלה והתבוננותו הן דמיונות שוא
The Rebbe
העבודה היא עבודה אמיתית, אלא שכאשר באים לעניני העולם אזי ישנו ההעלם וההסתר של נפש הבהמית כו׳, אבל אין זה מוכיח שהעבודה אינה אמיתית
Toras Menachem – Hisvaduyos, vol. תשכ״ו ג, p. 75–76 · ש״פ נשא, ט׳ סיון, ה׳תשכ״ו
- ¶6
The Rebbe explainsThe Rebbe says this in more than one place
At the farbrengen of Shabbos Tetzaveh, Parshas Zachor, Erev Purim 5743, explaining a note of his father, R’ Levi Yitzchak, on the Zohar’s reading of ‘Mevarech’ as מ״ב and ר״ך (kindnesses and judgments joined in one word), a reading given in a dream, the Rebbe goes through this maamar line by line and draws the lesson for a person’s service.
In a talk of Shabbos Tetzaveh–Zachor 5743 the Rebbe gives a reason the arousal in prayer is no „דמיונות שוא” (‘vain imagining’): a Jew’s „מציאותו האמיתית” (true reality) is his arousal in prayer and his keeping of the mitzvos, as the Rambam rules that a Jew’s inner will is to do G‑d’s will; the imagination of the dream is only the undesirable things he does. That both live in him together comes, he says, not from a flaw but from a virtue: the dream’s root „למעלה מעלה בבחי׳ עגולים” (in the circles), where there is no division of lines.
The Alter Rebbe
אך באמת הנה בחי׳ חלום זה שרשו למעלה ויסודתו בהררי קדש עליון
The Rebbe
מציאותו האמיתית פון א איד איז דאס וואס ער ווערט נתעורר בתפלה און איז מקיים תומ״צ און דער דמיון איז - די ענינים בלתי רצויים
Sichos Kodesh, vol. תשמ״ג ב, p. מד–מו · ש״פ תצוה, פ׳ זכור, ערב פורים ה׳תשמ״ג
- ¶11
The Rebbe explains
In the same farbrengen of Shabbos Pinchas 5744 (the Yiddish transcript), after showing from this maamar that the exile, not the redemption, is the dream, the Rebbe shows that the „חלום הגלות” (‘dream of exile’) is itself according to the Torah and very high in its root, and says what it is for.
The Rebbe explains why exile had to be a dream: its purpose is that the loftiest revelation, the circles, be drawn down, and it could come down only clothed in a concealing garment, the dream. So within exile all that runs against the service of G‑d is only dream and imagination, while „די איינציקע ווארהייט אין גלות איז עבודת התפלה ותומ״צ” (the one truth in exile is prayer and the mitzvos), and through them the lofty root of the dream of exile is revealed. Perhaps (biur b’derech efshar) this is „החיות הנמשך להם בזמן הגלות” (‘the life-force drawn to them in the time of exile’) that this paragraph says all will recognize in the redemption.
The Alter Rebbe
פי׳ שיתגלה מדרגה ובחי׳ זו של החלום עד אשר כולם יכירו וידעו וישיגו החיות הנמשך להם בזמן הגלות
The Rebbe
די איינציקע וואָרהייט אין גלות איז עבודת התפלה ותומ״צ . . און דורך דעם ווערט נתגלה דער שרש הכי נעלה פון חלום הגלות
Sichos Kodesh, vol. תשד״מ ד, p. כ–כא · ש״פ פינחס, י״ד תמוז ה׳תשד״מ
- ¶12
The Rebbe explains
In an edited sicha on Mikeitz (from talks of Shabbos Mikeitz 5732 and 5734), asking why Pharaoh’s magicians could not give so plain-seeming an interpretation and what was wise in Yosef’s, the Rebbe explains that Pharaoh’s dream, which began the exile of Egypt, expresses exile itself.
Citing the derushim (the end of this maamar, with the Mitteler Rebbe’s Torah Chaim and the Tzemach Tzedek’s Or HaTorah), the Rebbe sets out why Yosef in particular interpreted dreams. The plain reason a dream joins opposites is that the intellect is idle and the imagination (כח המדמה) remains; the inner reason is that the root of exile is in the circles (בחי׳ עיגולים), above the division of lines, and that level is clothed, hidden, in a dream. Yosef’s root is in the world of circles, so he had the power to remove that concealment and garment, so that the circles stand revealed below as above. From this the Rebbe explains why the heart of Yosef’s interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream was joining the two opposites, the years of plenty (שנות השובע) and of famine, and why it gave the power for the redemption.
The Alter Rebbe
כי בזמן הגלות הנהגת ישראל הוא בבחי׳ יוסף שהוא מבחי׳ חלום מעולם העגולים כו׳
The Rebbe
דער שרש פון יוסף איז פון (עולם ה)עיגולים, האָט ער דעריבער געהאַט דעם כח אַראָפּנעמען דעם העלם און לבוש
Likkutei Sichos, vol. טו, p. 346–347 · ש״פ מקץ ה׳תשל״ב, ה׳תשל״ד
- ¶12
Background from the Rebbe
In a short reply of [11] Nissan 5720 to R’ Gershon Chen (sent, the editors note, with the general Pesach letter), answering a question on the end of this maamar.
The Rebbe gives the source of the Alter Rebbe’s statement here that „נדב ואביהוא היו נ״ר של יוסף” (Nadav and Avihu were the nefesh and ruach of Yosef): „כ״כ בל״ת להאריז״ל פ׳ וארא” (it is written so in the Arizal’s Likkutei Torah on Va’eira); see also Shaar HaGilgulim, Introduction 14, and the Arizal’s Likkutei Torah on Vayikra. The Alter Rebbe states it without a source; the Rebbe names it.
The Alter Rebbe
ונדב ואביהוא היו נ״ר של יוסף
The Rebbe
במש״כ בתו״א וישב סד״ה שה״מ בענין נדב ואביהוא — כ״כ בל״ת להאריז״ל פ׳ וארא. וראה ג״כ שער הגלגולים הקדמה יד
Igros Kodesh, vol. יט, p. רסא · [י״א ניסן ה׳תש״כ]
Short quotes only, with the place of each so it can be read in full. The Rebbe’s sichos, letters and maamarim are published by Kehot and by Vaad Hanochos B’Lahak (lahak.org).
The nature of a dream ¶1–2
1שיר המעלות1 בשוב כו׳ היינו כחולמים.2 הנה החלום הוא מחבר שני הפכים בנושא א׳ ומרכיב שני ענינים הפכיים3 כאלו היו לאחדים. והיינו מפני כי בשינה נסתלק מוח השכל המבחין ולא נשאר רק כח המדמה.
“A Song of Ascents: When [Havayah] returns,” etc., “we were like dreamers.” Now, a dream joins two opposites in a single subject, and combines two opposite matters as though they were one. This is because in sleep the discerning faculty of the intellect departs, and only the imaginative faculty remains.
The maamar opens with the Psalm that describes the return from exile: when G‑d brings back the captives of Zion, “we were like dreamers.” The Alter Rebbe first defines a dream: it holds two contradictory things together in one picture as if they belonged together. This happens because in sleep the intellect, whose job is to tell things apart, withdraws, and only the imagination is left working.
¶11 How the verse "we were like dreamers" applies is explained in paragraph 11.
The paragraph introduces the verse and defines the dream as the imagination’s power to fuse opposites once the discerning intellect is asleep; this definition drives the whole maamar.
Another transcript of this maamar (Sefer HaMaamarim 5565) illustrates the point: in a dream a person can see himself killed and then alive in the same moment, or be here and in Spain at once, and feel no contradiction.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
Background from the Rebbe
In an edited talk of Shabbos Shelach, 28 Sivan 5749, on how the exile and its fasts, which began with the spies, are turned to good, the Rebbe reads the saying that one who answers „אמן יהא שמי׳ רבא” (‘Amen, yehei shmei rabba’) with all his strength „קורעין לו גזר דינו של שבעים שנה” (has a decree of seventy years torn up) as hinting at the end of the seventy-year Babylonian exile and of the last exile too, and adds this note.
In a note to a talk of Shabbos Shelach 5749, the Rebbe brings the Talmud’s story of Choni HaMe’agel, who all his life was troubled by this verse (Rashi: „כחלום נדמה גלות בבל”, the seventy-year Babylonian exile seemed like a dream) and asked „מי איכא דניים שבעין שנין בחלמא” (whether anyone sleeps seventy years in a dream), until it happened to him. Thereby, the Rebbe writes, it is emphasized that the seventy years of exile, which is likened to a dream (citing this maamar), „רומז לא רק לגלות בבל, אלא לכל הגלויות” (hint not only at the Babylonian exile but at all the exiles). So the dream of the verse with which the maamar opens is, in his reading, every exile’s, not Babylon’s alone.
The Alter Rebbe
שיר המעלות בשוב כו׳ היינו כחולמים.
The Rebbe
ובזה מודגש ששבעים שנה דגלות — שנמשל לחלום (ראה תו״א וישב כח, ג ואילך) — רומז לא רק לגלות בבל, אלא לכל הגלויות
Sefer HaSichos, vol. תשמ״ט ב, p. 544, note 95 · ש״פ שלח, כ״ח סיון, מבה״ח תמוז, ה׳תשמ״ט
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail. How it was made
Marei mekomos
- 1שיר המעלות · הנחה אחרת בסה״מ תקס״ה ע׳ קפד. ראה לעיל בציונים לכ״ק אדמו״ר זי״ע. באוה״ת בראשית כרך ו תתש, ב המאמר עם הגהות ומתחיל: ”להבין ענין החלומות שהגלות נמשל לבחי׳ חלום”. ד״ה זו נזכר בלקו״ת ויקרא בהוספות נא, ב. שלח לז, ד. שה״ש כ, א. אוה״ת ויחי תתרט, ב בשם אדה״א שאמר בשם כ״ק אדה״ז. לכללות מאמר זה ראה ד״ה שיר המעלות תשכ״ז. שיחת ש״פ פנחס תשד״מ.
- 2שיר המעלות בשוב כו׳ היינו כחולמים · Psalms 126:1
- 3שני ענינים הפכים · ראה תו״ח שמות נב, א. ספר המאמרים ת״ש ע׳ 8. בסה״מ תקס״ה ע׳ קפד ”(והיינו שיוכל לראות בחלום אשר הוא נהרג או מת ואח״כ הוא חי ברגע א׳ ממש ולא יקשה לו כלל מה שהם הפכיים שיתכון ויתיישרו בשעת החלום או כמו שיחלום לו שהוא כאן ובאספמי׳ ברגע א׳ כו׳ וכה״ג טובא וכנודע לכל)”.
2וכח המדמה יכול להרכיב ב׳ ענינים הפכיים כמו ספינה רצה באויר כו׳ כמ״ש הרמב״ם [הרבי משה בן מימון] בשמונה פרקים1 רק שבהקיץ שמתעורר כח השכל הוא השולט על כח המדמה ואינו מניחו להרכיב לפי שרואה בעין שכלו שהם דברים נפרדים ואינן מתאחדים כלל.
And the imaginative faculty can combine two opposite matters, such as a ship racing through the air, etc., as Maimonides writes in the Eight Chapters. But when awake, when the faculty of the intellect is aroused, it rules over the imaginative faculty and does not let it combine [them], because it sees with its mind’s eye that they are separate things that do not unite at all.
Maimonides gives the example of imagining a ship flying through the air: the imagination can put together things that cannot exist together. When a person is awake, the intellect governs the imagination and refuses such combinations, because it clearly sees that the two things are separate and cannot be one.
The paragraph grounds the definition of the dream in Maimonides’ account of the imagination and contrasts it with the waking intellect that keeps opposites apart.
The Kehot note remarks that this whole paragraph is missing from the 5565 transcript of the maamar.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
From the Rebbe’s maamar ד״ה שיר המעלות בשוב הוי׳, 5727
The Rebbe explicitly calls this a sharper parable than the Torah Ohr’s. The Alter Rebbe’s ship racing through the air combines two things that are merely incompatible. The Rebbe’s examples join outright contradictories in one moment: dead and alive, here and in Spain. This also sharpens the nimshal. It is no longer just love in prayer beside self-interest. Feeling "אין עוד מלבדו" in the Shema contradicts toiling for parnassah head-on.
The Alter Rebbe
כמו ספינה רצה באויר
The Rebbe
שיוכל לראות בחלום אשר הוא נהרג או מת ואח״כ הוא חי
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail.
Marei mekomos
- 1כמ״ש הרמב״ם בשמונה פרקים · פ״א. בתקס״ה ליתא כל זה.
The dream of exile in divine service ¶3–5
3וכך הענין בגלות ניצוץ אלקות בנפש האדם שהוא בבחינת שינה והסתלקות המוחין. יכול הוא להרכיב ב׳ דברים הפכיים להיות כל היום טרוד במו״מ [במשא ומתן] איש לבצעו מקצהו1 זה פונה לזיתו כו׳.
So too is the matter in the exile of the spark of G‑dliness in a person’s soul, which is in a state of sleep and of the departure of the intellect (mochin). [Such a person] can combine two opposite things: being occupied all day in business, “each one for his gain, from his every quarter,” this one turning to his olive grove, etc.
The dream now becomes a picture of the soul’s exile: the spark of G‑dliness in a person is as if asleep, its intellect withdrawn. In that state a person can live with a contradiction, spending the whole day chasing his own profit, like the prophet’s “each one for his gain,” each turning to his own olive grove.
הגם שבתפלה מעורר את האהבה עד שתחפץ להתפשט מלבושיה כו׳ לדבקה בו ית׳ מחמת התבוננותו ביחו״ע [ביחודא עילאה] ויחו״ת [ויחודא תתאה] אעפ״כ [אף על פי כן] אחר התפלה חולפת ועוברת האהבה ואינו שם ללבו
Even though in prayer he arouses love, until [the soul] longs to divest herself of her garments, etc., to cleave to Him, blessed be He, because of his contemplation of the higher unity and the lower unity, nevertheless after prayer the love passes and is gone, and he does not take it to heart
In prayer, contemplating how all things are nothing before G‑d (the higher unity) and how G‑d is present within all things (the lower unity), a person can feel a love so strong that the soul wants to shed the body’s “garments” and cleave to G‑d. Yet once prayer is over the feeling fades and he does not notice the contrast.
כי הוא הפוך ההתבוננות שבתפלה ומדמה בלב להרכיב ולחבר שני עניינים הפכיים יחד כאלו היה לאחדים ובאמת הם נפרדים ורחוקים זמ״ז [זה מזה]. כי הגם דכתיב בתורה שש שנים תזרע שדך.2
that this is the opposite of the contemplation in prayer; and he imagines in his heart that he can combine and join two opposite matters together as though they were one, while in truth they are separate and distant from one another. For although it is written in the Torah, “Six years you shall sow your field,”
His daytime pursuit of gain contradicts what he felt in prayer, yet he imagines he can hold both at once, like a dreamer; in truth they are far apart. The Alter Rebbe then begins to anticipate an objection: the Torah itself commands “Six years you shall sow your field.”
The paragraph applies the dream to a person’s divine service in exile: love in prayer and self-interest in business sit side by side, a contradiction only the ‘dreaming’ state allows.
The higher and lower unity are the two stages of contemplation described in Tanya (Shaar HaYichud VehaEmunah): the world as nothing before G‑d, and G‑d as the true being within the world.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
The Rebbe explains
At the farbrengen of Shabbos Pinchas, 14 Tammuz 5744, answering the feeling of one so steeped in exile that talk of the redemption coming now seems to him ‘a dream’, the Rebbe turns to this maamar: „הגלות הוא חלום, ואילו הגאולה היא המציאות האמיתית בהקיץ” (the exile is the dream, and the redemption is the waking reality).
In a talk of Shabbos Pinchas 5744 the Rebbe quotes this paragraph and says where its stress lies: „על מעלת ענין החלום” (on the virtue of the dream). Though a moment ago a person was sunk in worldly matters, „ברגע אחד יכול להתהפך מן הקצה אל הקצה” (in one moment he can turn from one extreme to the other), shake off the imaginings of this world and come to „מציאותו האמיתית” (his true reality), love of G‑d and cleaving to Him. And since exile as a whole is a dream that joins opposites, it too can turn in one moment into redemption.
The Alter Rebbe
יכול הוא להרכיב ב׳ דברים הפכיים להיות כל היום טרוד במו״מ איש לבצעו
The Rebbe
ההדגשה היא על מעלת ענין החלום — שכן, למרות שברגע הקודם הי׳ מונח בעניני העולם כו׳, מ״מ, ברגע אחד יכול להתהפך מן הקצה אל הקצה
Toras Menachem – Hisvaduyos, vol. תשד״מ ד, p. 2211–2212 · ש״פ פינחס, י״ד תמוז, ה׳תשד״מ
From the Rebbe’s maamar ד״ה שיר המעלות בשוב הוי׳, 5727
In Torah Ohr, the dreamlike joining of prayer and worldly self-interest is a flaw. It even raises the fear (¶6) that the arousal in prayer is not genuine. The Rebbe notes that the Tzemach Tzedek adds what Torah Ohr lacks. Both prayer with kavanah and the toil for livelihood are intended by Heaven, so in truth they do not contradict each other at all. Their union comes from the makif that joins them.
The Alter Rebbe
ובאמת הם נפרדים ורחוקים זמ״ז
The Rebbe
שבאמת אין זה סותר לזה כלל, כי שניהם, הדבר והיפוכו, נסבו מן שמים
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail. How it was made
TermsYichuda tata’ahYichuda ila’ahDeveikusHisbonenus+3
- Yichuda tata’ah יחודא תתאה
- Yichuda ila’ah יחודא עילאה
- Deveikus דביקות
- Hisbonenus התבוננות
- Mochin מוחין
- Tefillah תפלה
Also Torah
Marei mekomos
- 1
- 2שש שנים תזרע שדך · Leviticus 25:3
and likewise in the Shema, “and to serve Him with all your heart,” etc., “I will give the rain of your land,” etc., “and you shall gather in your grain,” etc.
The Shema, too, joins serving G‑d “with all your heart” to the promise of rain and of gathering in the grain. So the Torah itself connects everyday work with divine service.
הנה הכל הוא ע״ד עבודה כידוע שבכל עניני עוה״ז יש בהם כח, דענין עבודת ה׳ שש שנים תזרע כו׳ ובשנה השביעית3 כו׳.
All of this is by way of service, as is known that in all the matters of this world there is [an element] of the service of G‑d: “Six years you shall sow,” etc., “and in the seventh year,” etc.
The answer: all of this is meant as service of G‑d, since every matter of this world contains an element of serving Him. The six years of sowing and the seventh year of rest are both part of that service.
The paragraph states the objection’s premise and its answer: worldly work, as the Torah prescribes it, is itself a form of divine service.
TermsOlam HaZehAvodas HashemKrias Shema
- Olam HaZeh עולם הזה
- Avodas Hashem עבודת ה׳
- Krias Shema קריאת שמע
Marei mekomos
- 1ולעבדו בכל לבבכם · Deuteronomy 11:13
- 2ונתתי מטר ארצכם כו׳ ואספת דגנך · Deuteronomy 11:14
- 3ובשנה השביעית · Leviticus 25:4
5והוא ענין הבירורים שבבחי׳ שש שנים. וההעלאה שבבחי׳ השנה השביעית כמ״ש במ״א. ואחר כוונת הלב הן הן הדברים
This is the matter of the refinements (beirurim) of the level of the six years, and the elevation of the level of the seventh year, as is explained elsewhere. And these very things go according to the intention of the heart.
The six years of work stand for refining the physical world (the beirurim, sifting out the holy sparks within it), and the seventh year for raising what was refined back to its source. But whether work is service depends entirely on the heart’s intention.
אבל לב ההמון הנוטים אחר בצעם להטריף לחם חוקם כפשוטו לבבם לא כן ידמה1
But the heart of the multitude, who incline after their gain, to provide their allotted bread in its plain sense: “their heart does not so imagine.”
Most people, though, work simply to earn their bread; their heart does not think of their work as refining the world for G‑d. The phrase “his heart does not so imagine” is borrowed from Isaiah.
ולבם לא נכון2 ע״פ הכוונה הראויה רק כל ישעם וכל חפצם3 למלאות די מחסורם אשר יחסר להם4 בצרכי גופם ועושים מצרכי הגוף עיקר
And their heart is not set according to the proper intention; rather, all their salvation and all their desire is to supply what suffices for their need, whatever they lack in the needs of their body, and they make the needs of the body the main thing.
Their heart is not directed to the proper intention: all they want is to fill their bodily needs, and those needs become the main thing in their life, rather than the service of G‑d that work was meant to be.
וזהו ממש הפוך ההתעוררות שבתפלה להיות נקבע בלבו האהבה לה׳ לבדה בלי תערובת זר ח״ו [חס ושלום] כו׳:
And this is the very opposite of the arousal in prayer, that love for G‑d alone be fixed in his heart, without any foreign admixture, G‑d forbid, etc.
That attitude is the exact opposite of what prayer aroused: a love for G‑d alone, with nothing foreign mixed in. So holding both together is indeed like the dream that fuses opposites.
The paragraph answers the objection: work can be divine service, but only with the right intention, and for most people it serves the body, which contradicts the love felt in prayer.
Explained elsewhere AI research
Explained by the Tzemach Tzedek and the Alter Rebbe
„הבירורים שבבחי׳ שש שנים. וההעלאה שבבחי׳ השנה השביעית כמ״ש במ״א” (‘The refinements of the six years and the elevation of the seventh year, as is explained elsewhere’): where is it explained, and in what sense does the seventh year ‘elevate’? The step from „הכל הוא ע״ד עובדה” (‘all of this is service’) to ‘the multitude’ who work for bread alone is also quick.
The Tzemach Tzedek, quoting this passage (Or HaTorah, Vayikra vol. 2, p. תרסב), points to where it is explained: the Arizal’s Taamei HaMitzvos on Behar and the maamar ‘Es Shabsosai tishmoru’, where the seventh year is „עליי׳ לבחי׳ סוכ״ע” (an ascent to the level that encompasses all worlds, sovev kol almin); that is why sowing and plowing are forbidden then, „כי אז עליות מה שנברר מכבר” (for it is the time when what was already refined rises). The Alter Rebbe’s other transcript of this maamar (Sefer HaMaamarim 5565, p. קפה) fills in the next step: when Israel stood high, even their plowing and sowing were only for Heaven’s sake, to refine; „עתה מצטרך לפרנסה עצמו” (now the livelihood itself is needed), and that is „ההיפוך לקדושה” (the opposite of holiness) that the dream holds together with prayer.
the Tzemach Tzedek: Or HaTorah, Vayikra, vol. ב, p. תרסב
כמ״ש בד״ה שיר המעלות כו׳ היינו כחולמים ... וע׳ בלק״ת בטעמי מצות פ׳ בהר, ועמ״ש בד״ה את שבתותי תשמרו בענין שביעית שהי׳ עליי׳ לבחי׳ סוכ״ע
the Alter Rebbe (another transcript of this maamar): Maamarei Admur HaZaken 5565, vol. א, p. קפה
לא הי׳ מצטרכים לזה העסק בעצמו זולתי לש״ש ... אבל עתה מצטרך לפרנסה עצמו נמצא זהו ההיפוך לקדושה
Where the maamar leaves something unexplained, found by AI in the library and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail.
Marei mekomos
- 1לא כן ידמה · Isaiah 10:7
- 2ולבם לא נכון · Psalms 78:37
- 3כל ישעם וכל חפצם · II Samuel 23:5
- 4די מחסורם אשר יחסר להם · Deuteronomy 15:8
Not vain imaginings ¶6
6והנה גם אחרי הדברים והאמת האלה לא יפול לב האדם עליו1 לומר כי ההתעוררות שבתפלה והתבוננותו הן דמיונות שוא שהרי הוא כמו החלום שהוא כח המדמה שמחבר ב׳ הפכים.
Now, even after these words and this truth, let no man’s heart fail within him, [so as] to say that the arousal in prayer and his contemplation are vain imaginings, since it is like the dream, which is the imaginative faculty that joins two opposites.
The Alter Rebbe now guards against despair. A person might conclude that if his prayer is like a dream that joins opposites, then his feelings in prayer and his contemplation were just empty fantasies.
כי הנה מאחר שרואה בנפשו אחר התפלה שחולפת ועוברת האהבה לה׳ ומתהפך לאהוב את גופו דוקא הרי מובן שגם בתפלה לא ביטל אהבת גופו מכל וכל
For, since he sees in himself after prayer that the love for G‑d passes and is gone, and he turns to love specifically his body, it is understood that even in prayer he did not nullify the love of his body entirely.
The reasoning behind that fear: since the love for G‑d vanishes after prayer and he goes back to loving his body, he never entirely set aside his self-love even while praying.
וההתעוררות שבתפלה את האהבה לה׳ לבדה אינה אמיתית רק כדמיון החלום שמחבר ב׳ הפכים ודומה לו שאוהב את ה׳ ואעפ״כ [ואף על פי כן] אוהב את גופו
And the arousal in prayer of love for G‑d alone is not genuine, but only like the imagining of a dream, which joins two opposites: it seems to him that he loves G‑d and nevertheless loves his body,
So, he thinks, the love for G‑d alone that he felt in prayer was not real: it was only a dreamlike image that combined two opposites, loving G‑d while still loving his body.
הגם כי לא צדקו יחדו2 לפי שזה נלקח מכח המדמה אשר יכול לדמות דמיונות שוא. אך באמת הנה בחי׳ חלום זה שרשו למעלה ויסודתו בהררי קדש3 עליון.
even though they cannot be right together, because this is taken from the imaginative faculty, which can imagine vain imaginings. But in truth, this level of the dream has its root above, and “its foundation is in the mountains of” supernal “holiness.”
Those two loves cannot both be right together (the words borrow the psalm’s “righteous altogether”), so the combination seems to come from the imagination, which produces false images. The Alter Rebbe answers that the opposite is true: this ‘dream’ level has a lofty root, founded in the heights of supernal holiness, as the next paragraphs explain.
¶9 How the dream-level is rooted above is explained in paragraphs 8–10.
The paragraph raises the fear that dreamlike prayer is worthless and begins the answer: the dream itself is rooted in a very high level.
Explained elsewhere AI research
Explained by the Alter Rebbe and the Rebbe
The paragraph rejects the conclusion that the arousal in prayer was „דמיונות שוא” (a ‘vain imagining’), but its answer speaks only of the dream’s lofty root. Does it mean that the arousal was genuine?
The Alter Rebbe’s other transcript of this maamar (Sefer HaMaamarim 5565, p. קפה) says it outright: one might say that since he is busy all day with worldly matters he cannot have prayed with real intent, „גם זה אינו אמת” (‘and this too is not true’), for „הי׳ כיון לבו באמת בתפלה” (he did direct his heart truly in prayer), and the thing and its opposite stand together as in a dream. The Rebbe, in an edited sicha of Shavuos 5724 that cites our maamar together with this transcript (Likkutei Sichos vol. 23, pp. 30–31, note 37), retells the maamar’s opening picture the same way: in prayer one stands „אין א תנועה פון התעוררות אמיתית בהחלטה טובה” (‘in a movement of true arousal, with a good resolution’), and the concealment of exile lets it be forgotten afterward, so far that one can act against it.
the Alter Rebbe (another transcript of this maamar): Maamarei Admur HaZaken 5565, vol. א, p. קפה
ואם נאמר מאחר שעסקו בעניני עוה״ז… שלא התפלל בכונה ... גם זה אינו אמת שאעפי״כ הי׳ כיון לבו באמת בתפלה
the Rebbe: Likkutei Sichos, vol. כג, p. 30–31, note 37
בשעת׳ן דאַוונען שטייט מען אין אַ תנועה פון התעוררות אמיתית בהחלטה טובה כו׳, און נאָכן דאַוונען זאָל דאָס פאַרגעסן ווערן
Where the maamar leaves something unexplained, found by AI in the library and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
The Rebbe explainsThe Rebbe says this in more than one place
In a letter of 26 Iyar 5712 to a man who complained of his spiritual state and felt that his stirrings to the good lasted only a moment, the Rebbe brings this maamar.
The Rebbe writes that Chassidus explains on „היינו כחולמים” (‘we were like dreamers’) (citing Torah Ohr, Vayeishev) that even if after a stirring to the good one finds oneself in the opposite state, „אפשר אשר בשעת ההזזה היתה אמיתית” (it is possible that at the time of the stirring it was genuine), as in a dream two opposites can be joined. The fall that follows does not prove the stirring false.
The Alter Rebbe
הרי מובן שגם בתפלה לא ביטל אהבת גופו מכל וכל
The Rebbe
אשר אף שלאחר ההזזה לטובה מוצאים א״ע במצב ההיפך ח״ו, הנה בכ״ז אפשר אשר בשעת ההזזה היתה אמיתית, וכמו בחלום, שאפשר להיות חיבור שני הפכים
Igros Kodesh, vol. ו, p. עו–עז · כ״ו אייר ה׳תשי״ב
The Rebbe explainsThe Rebbe says this in more than one place
At the farbrengen of Shabbos Naso, 9 Sivan 5726, the Shabbos after Shavuos, drawing the lesson of the giving of the Torah: a Jew who was greatly aroused then (or at Ne’ilah on Yom Kippur) may, when he goes out to the world, have to fight his evil inclination over the simplest things, and so may fall in spirit.
On this the Rebbe brings this paragraph’s „לא יפול לב האדם עליו” (‘let no man’s heart fail’), adding that the falling of spirit is itself the counsel of the evil inclination. He reads the verse precisely: „היינו כחולמים” (‘like dreamers’), with the kaf of comparison, for exile is not wholly like a dream, in which both opposites are untrue. Here „העבודה היא עבודה אמיתית” (the service is true service); that the concealment of the animal soul follows when one comes to worldly matters does not prove that the service was not true.
The Alter Rebbe
לא יפול לב האדם עליו לומר כי ההתעוררות שבתפלה והתבוננותו הן דמיונות שוא
The Rebbe
העבודה היא עבודה אמיתית, אלא שכאשר באים לעניני העולם אזי ישנו ההעלם וההסתר של נפש הבהמית כו׳, אבל אין זה מוכיח שהעבודה אינה אמיתית
Toras Menachem – Hisvaduyos, vol. תשכ״ו ג, p. 75–76 · ש״פ נשא, ט׳ סיון, ה׳תשכ״ו
The Rebbe explainsThe Rebbe says this in more than one place
At the farbrengen of Shabbos Tetzaveh, Parshas Zachor, Erev Purim 5743, explaining a note of his father, R’ Levi Yitzchak, on the Zohar’s reading of ‘Mevarech’ as מ״ב and ר״ך (kindnesses and judgments joined in one word), a reading given in a dream, the Rebbe goes through this maamar line by line and draws the lesson for a person’s service.
In a talk of Shabbos Tetzaveh–Zachor 5743 the Rebbe gives a reason the arousal in prayer is no „דמיונות שוא” (‘vain imagining’): a Jew’s „מציאותו האמיתית” (true reality) is his arousal in prayer and his keeping of the mitzvos, as the Rambam rules that a Jew’s inner will is to do G‑d’s will; the imagination of the dream is only the undesirable things he does. That both live in him together comes, he says, not from a flaw but from a virtue: the dream’s root „למעלה מעלה בבחי׳ עגולים” (in the circles), where there is no division of lines.
The Alter Rebbe
אך באמת הנה בחי׳ חלום זה שרשו למעלה ויסודתו בהררי קדש עליון
The Rebbe
מציאותו האמיתית פון א איד איז דאס וואס ער ווערט נתעורר בתפלה און איז מקיים תומ״צ און דער דמיון איז - די ענינים בלתי רצויים
Sichos Kodesh, vol. תשמ״ג ב, p. מד–מו · ש״פ תצוה, פ׳ זכור, ערב פורים ה׳תשמ״ג
From the Rebbe’s maamar ד״ה וכפי שמצינו בהדרושים בתורה אור, 5724
The Alter Rebbe consoles the one whose love fades after prayer: the dream is rooted in the circles. The Rebbe asks what comfort this offers while the person is still in deep sleep, one moment one way and the next the opposite. He answers that the dream is like a miracle in which a light above the vessels shines. Its mix of true and false means that even where, because of the limited vessels, there are matters of falsehood, there are also matters of truth.
The Alter Rebbe
אך באמת הנה בחי׳ חלום זה שרשו למעלה ויסודתו בהררי קדש עליון
The Rebbe
ולכאורה אינו מובן, מהי הנחמה שבדבר, בה בשעה שבמשך זמן העבודה
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail. How it was made
TermsAchdus HashemTefillah
- Achdus Hashem אחדות השם
- Tefillah תפלה
Marei mekomos
- 1לא יפול לב האדם עליו · I Samuel 17:32
- 2לא צדקו יחדו · Psalms 19:10
- 3יסודתו בהררי קדש · Psalms 87:1
The Name in exile and the world of circles ¶7–10
7ויובן בהקדים מ״ש ביום ההוא1 יהיה ה׳ אחד ושמו א׳. ופריך בגמ׳ [בגמרא] אטו האידנא לאו שמו א׳ הוא. ומשני לא כשאני נכתב אני נקרא כו׳.
This will be understood by first introducing what is written, “On that day Havayah will be One and His Name One.” The Gemara asks: Is His Name not One now? And it answers: Not as I am written am I read, etc.
To explain the dream’s root, the Alter Rebbe brings Zechariah’s prophecy that “on that day” G‑d’s Name will be One. The Talmud asks why this is only in the future, and answers that now the Name is not pronounced as it is written: the four-letter Name is read as Ado-nai.
והענין כי שמו הוא בבחי׳ גלות ולכן אינו נק׳ כמו שנכתב רק בלבוש ונרתק כו׳.
The explanation is that His Name is in a state of exile, and therefore it is not read as it is written, but only in a garment and a sheath, etc.
He explains that G‑d’s Name itself is in exile, and so it is not read as written but is covered by another Name, like a garment or a sheath. The same concealment that affects the soul affects the Divine Name.
The paragraph introduces the idea that in exile G‑d’s Name is ‘clothed’, read differently from how it is written, as the key to understanding the dream.
TermsLevushim
- Levushim לבושים
Marei mekomos
- 1ביום ההוא . . ופריך בגמרא · Zechariah 14:9
Now, in exile it is in a state of sleep and of the departure of the intellect (mochin), “three contained [within three],” etc., and then his soul draws life for him from above, etc.
In exile the Divine Name is as if asleep, its intellect withdrawn, “three contained within three,” a Kabbalistic image of the state of gestation (ibbur): with the intellect withdrawn, the six emotive attributes are folded into one another, three within three. And just as the Midrash says that while a person sleeps his soul goes up and draws life for him from above, so in this sleep a higher life-force is drawn down.
ושם הוא בבחי׳ עגולים2 שאין בהם בחי׳ מעלה ומטה רק הכל בהשוואה אחת ובהתכללות והתאחדות כל הענינים בלי שום פירוד והתחלקות כנודע מארז״ל [מאמר רבותינו זכרונם לברכה] אלו ואלו דא״ח [דברי אלקים חיים].3
And there it is on the level of circles (iggulim), in which there is no level of above and below; rather, all is in one equality, with the inclusion and unification of all matters, without any separation or division, as is known from the saying of our Sages, of blessed memory, “These and these are the words of the living G‑d.”
That source above is the level of ‘circles’ (iggulim), where there is no higher and lower and everything is equal, included and unified without division. The Sages’ saying about the disputes of the School of Shammai and the School of Hillel, “these and these are the words of the living G‑d,” shows how opposite rulings can both be true at their root.
רק כשנמשך דרך קוים אזי יש התחלקות קו ימין חסד כו׳ משא״כ בבחי׳ עגולים אין שם התחלקות כלל ושם כל הדברים המתפרדים למטה מחוברים וכלולים יחד ולא נראה שום פירוד והתחלקות ביניהם:
Only when it is drawn down by way of lines is there division: the right line, Chesed, etc. This is not so on the level of circles: there is no division there at all, and there all the things that are separate below are joined and included together, and no separation or division is seen between them.
Division appears only when light is drawn down as ‘lines’ (the structure of right, left and middle: Chesed on the right, and so on). In the circles nothing is divided, and things that are opposites below are joined together there.
The paragraph identifies the source of the dream: in sleep, and in exile, life is drawn from the ‘circles’, a level where opposites are united, unlike the divided ‘lines’ below.
The Kabbalah distinguishes two arrangements of divine light: iggulim (circles), in which each level surrounds the next and all are equal, and yosher (the straight ‘line’), arranged as right, left and middle. The Tzemach Tzedek (Biurei HaZohar) explains that in sleep the soul draws specifically from its hidden essence, the level of circles, while when awake its reach is to the intellect, the level of ‘line’.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
From the Rebbe’s maamar ד״ה שיר המעלות בשוב הוי׳, 5727
The Alter Rebbe says only that in the circles, opposites are united without division. The Rebbe distinguishes two levels. On the first, opposites remain opposites but stand together through bittul to what is above them: Michael and Gavriel do not extinguish each other because G‑d makes peace between them, like two ministers before the king. On the second, they are not opposites at all, like the middos as they are included in Binah.
The Alter Rebbe
ושם כל הדברים המתפרדים למטה מחוברים וכלולים יחד
The Rebbe
אלא יתירה מזה, שאינם הפכיים זמ״ז כלל
From the Rebbe’s maamar ד״ה שיר המעלות בשוב הוי׳, 5727
The Alter Rebbe hints at exile as sleep with “three contained within three.” The Rebbe spells this out as the ibbur of Z”A inside Imma of Atzilus. Imma is the supernal makif that joins all opposites. He also reads the second half of the verse, “and I make sackcloth their covering”: the sackcloth is the dream below, in which the makif of Binah is clothed and hidden.
The Alter Rebbe
בגלות הוא בבחי׳ שינה והסתלקות המוחין תלת כלילן כו׳
The Rebbe
ענין הגלות הוא בחי׳ עיבור דז״א בבטן אימא דאצילות
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail.
TermsIgulim veyosherMochinChesedHiskallelus+1
- Igulim veyosher עגולים ויושר
- Mochin מוחין
- Chesed חסד
- Hiskallelus התכללות
Also Neshamah
Marei mekomos
- 1נשמתו מושכת לו חיים מלמעלה · Bereshit Rabbah 14:9
- 2ואז נשמתו מושכת לו חיים מלמעלה כו׳ ושם הוא בבחי׳ עגולים · בבה״ז לכ״ק אדמו״ר הצמח צדק פ׳ ויגש ע׳ קמט: ”פי׳ בשעת השינה דוקא מושכת לו מבחי׳ עגולים דהיינו מבחי׳ ההעלם דעצמות הנפש שהוא בבחי׳ עגולים שלשם הוא הרצוא בעת השינה, משא״כ בהקיץ הנשמה והרצוא הוא לאור השכל שבמוח שהוא בחי׳ יושר” עכ״ל ע״ש. ראה אוה״ת פ׳ שמיני כרך א ע׳ לו.
- 3אלו ואלו דא״ח · Eruvin 13b
9אך להיות בחי׳ זו בגילוי למטה אינה כ״א ע״י בחי׳ שינה והסתלקות המוחין בגלות וע״ז נאמר אלביש שמים קדרות.1 שמים הם בחי׳ עגולים הם מלובשים בבחי׳ קדרות וחשך.
However, this level comes to be revealed below only through the state of sleep and of the departure of the intellect in exile. Of this it is said, “I clothe the heavens in blackness.” “Heavens” are the level of circles; they are clothed in the level of blackness and darkness,
The unity of the circles can appear below only through sleep and withdrawn intellect, that is, in exile. The verse “I clothe the heavens in blackness” describes this: the ‘heavens’, the level of circles, are wrapped in darkness.
שהוא העלם והסתר2 שאז מאיר ומתנוצץ מלמעלה מעולם העליון שהוא בבחי׳ עגולים בבחי׳ חלום שהוא כח המדמה לחבר שני הפכים בנושא אחד כאלו הם אחדים ממש לפי שבאמת בשרשם בעולם העליון הם מחוברים ומיוחדים
which is concealment and hiddenness; for then there shines and sparkles from above, from the supernal world, which is on the level of circles, [into] the level of the dream, which is the imaginative faculty, to join two opposites in one subject as though they were truly one, because in truth, in their root in the supernal world, they are joined and united,
That darkness is concealment, and it is precisely then that light from the higher world of circles glimmers into the dream, the imagination that joins opposites. It can join them because at their root, in the higher world, they really are one.
¶6 This explains the dream's supernal root, raised in paragraph 6.
כי שם הוא בבחי׳ עגולים3 כנ״ל רק למטה בהתחלקות הקוין ע״פ חכמה ודעת להיות קו זה כך וזה כך4 אזי נראה ונגלה ההפוך.5 שזה ההפוך מזה ואזי הם נפרדים ורחוקים זה מזה.6
for there it is on the level of circles, as said above. Only below, in the division of the lines according to Chochmah and Daas, so that this line is thus and that line is thus, is the opposition seen and revealed: that this is the opposite of that, and then they are separate and distant from one another.
Opposition appears only below, where Chochmah and Daas divide the light into lines, each with its own character. There each thing is defined against the other, and so they become separate and far apart.
The paragraph explains that the dream is a veiled glimmer of the circles: in the darkness of exile the higher unity of opposites shines through the imagination, while the intellect’s lines reveal their separateness.
Or HaTorah’s version adds that the circles are the makifim (encompassing lights) that contain two opposites together equally, “equalizing small and great” and “darkness as light.” Or HaTorah on Mishpatim draws from this a new understanding of Daas: as the middle line it links the two lines so that they are not opposites.
TermsIgulim veyosherMochinDaas+1
- Igulim veyosher עגולים ויושר explained here“I clothe the heavens in blackness”: in exile the igulim shine only in concealment, as in a dream, where the imagination joins two opposites in one subject. In their root in the higher world, which is in the mode of igulim, they truly are united; only below, where the lines are divided by Chochmah and Daas, do they appear as opposites and separate.
שמים הם בחי׳ עגולים הם מלובשים בבחי׳ קדרות וחשך
- Mochin מוחין
- Daas דעת
Also Chochmah
Marei mekomos
- 1אלביש שמים קדרות · Isaiah 50:3
- 2שו״ה עגולים — העלם והסתר · באוה״ת מקץ כרך ו תתשא, א נוסף: (שהוא החלום לבוש המקיף): שאז.
- 3כי שם הוא בבחי׳ עגולים · באוה״ת שם נוסף: שהוא בחי׳ מקיפים הכוללי׳ ב׳ הפכים ביחד ע״ד השוה ומשוה קטון וגדול כו׳ וכחשיכה כאורה: כנ״ל.
- 4רק למטה בהתחלקות הקוין . . קו זה כך וזה כך · ראה אוה״ת פ׳ משפטים ע׳ א׳קי ”ועפמש״ש [=הכוונה לכאן] י״ל הבנה חדשה במעלת הדעת כי דעת קו האמצעי מקשר ב׳ הקוין שלא יהיו הפכיים” ע״ש.
- 5אזי נראה ונגלה ההפוך · ראה אוה״ת פ׳ שמיני ע׳ לו.
- 6נפרדים ורחוקים זה מזה · באו״ת מקץ שם נוסף: ועמש״ל פ׳ וישב בביאור ע״פ ויוסף הורד [באו״ת] בענין ר״א שהי׳ אומר על טמא טהור ומראה לו פנים כו׳ שהוא לפי ששרשו מבחי׳ המקיפי׳ בחי׳ עיגולים שאין שם התחלקות כ״כ כמ״ש במ״א באריכות): ולכן.
10ולכן א״א להיות גילוי בחי׳ ההתכללות בבחי׳ גילוי החכמה שהיא ראשית התחלקות הקוין אלא בבחי׳ שינה והסתלקות המוחין בגלות
Therefore the level of inclusion cannot be revealed in the revelation of Chochmah, which is the beginning of the division of the lines, but only in the state of sleep and of the departure of the intellect in exile;
Since Chochmah is where division into lines begins, the level where opposites are included together cannot be revealed through it. It can appear only in ‘sleep’, the withdrawal of intellect that is exile.
אזי מתנוצץ ומאיר האור העליון והוא מסתתר ומתעלם בבחי׳ קדרות וחשך דהיינו בבחי׳ התלבשות ההעלם כו׳ ולא בבחי׳ גילוי כי הגילוי הוא בבחי׳ חכמה ודעת שהוא ע״פ קוין:1
then the supernal light sparkles and shines, and it is hidden and concealed in the level of blackness and darkness, that is, in the enclothing of concealment, etc., and not in revelation, for revelation is on the level of Chochmah and Daas, which is according to lines.
Then the higher light shines, but hidden, clothed in darkness, not openly revealed. Open revelation always comes through Chochmah and Daas, which work by lines and so divide.
The paragraph concludes that the unifying light of the circles can come only in hidden form, through the ‘sleep’ of exile, never through the revealed intellect.
Or HaTorah adds the Kabbalistic background: exile is the ‘gestation’ of Z’eir Anpin in the womb of Imma, “three within three,” when its intellect withdraws; Imma is the source of the makifim above the division of lines, and so in exile we are ‘like dreamers’, the encompassing light clothed in a concealing garment.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
From the Rebbe’s maamar ד״ה וכפי שמצינו בהדרושים בתורה אור, 5724
The Alter Rebbe describes the light of the circles in exile as hidden in darkness. The Rebbe applies ‘hayinu kecholmim’ to the miracles of exile. These are not only hidden miracles, which are in truth higher, but also revealed ones like Yud-Tes Kislev. Seeing such a miracle as happening now, and being stirred by its wonder, refines and frees the vessel. He calls this still katnus shebegadlus, a step toward the gadlus shebegadlus of the Time to Come.
The Alter Rebbe
אזי מתנוצץ ומאיר האור העליון והוא מסתתר ומתעלם בבחי׳ קדרות וחשך
The Rebbe
אלא גם נסים גלויים, כמו הנס די״ט כסלו
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail.
Marei mekomos
- 1חכמה ודעת שהוא ע״פ קווין · באוה״ת מקץ שם נוסף: (וכנודע שהגלות הוא בחי׳ עיבור ז״א בבטן אימא תלת גו תלת שהוא בחי׳ הסתלקות המוחין ואמא היא מקור המקיפי׳ שלמעלה מהתחלקות קוין דז״א לכך בזמן הגלות היינו כחולמים בחי׳ התלבשות המקיף בלבוש המסתיר לא כשאני נכתב אני נקרא כו׳): ולע״ל.
The redemption revealed ¶11
11ולע״ל [ולעתיד לבוא] כתיב ולא יכנף עוד מוריך.1 בכנף ולבוש כו׳ ולכן ביום ההוא יהיה שמו א׳ שלא יהא מלובש ומכוסה בנרתק2
And of the Time to Come it is written, “Your Teacher will no longer be hidden” (yikanef), [hidden] by a wing (kanaf) and a garment, etc. Therefore “on that day His Name will be One”: it will not be clothed and covered in a sheath,
Isaiah promises that in the future G‑d, the Teacher, will no longer be hidden; the word yikanef comes from kanaf, a wing or garment’s corner, so it means He will no longer be covered. That is why “on that day His Name will be One”: it will no longer be wrapped in a sheath.
And it will be read as it is written, etc. For “they will see eye to eye,” etc. And then it will be said, “When Havayah returns the captivity of Zion, we were like dreamers.”
Then the Name will be pronounced as it is written, and “they will see eye to eye,” with no covering between. At that time people will say, “we were like dreamers.”
פי׳ שיתגלה5 מדרגה ובחי׳ זו של החלום עד אשר כולם יכירו וידעו וישיגו החיות הנמשך להם בזמן הגלות שהוא מבחי׳ החלום.
This means that this rank and level of the dream will be revealed, until all will recognize, know and grasp the life-force drawn to them in the time of exile, which is from the level of the dream.
This is the meaning of the Psalm: in the redemption the dream-level will be revealed, and everyone will recognize and understand that the life-force that sustained them throughout the exile came from this high level of the dream. What looked in exile like a mere dream will turn out to have been the circles’ hidden light.
¶1 This explains the verse "we were like dreamers" from paragraph 1.
The paragraph returns to the opening verse: in the redemption the hidden source of exile’s ‘dream’ will be revealed, and then we will say that we were like dreamers.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
The Rebbe explains
In the same farbrengen of Shabbos Pinchas 5744 (the Yiddish transcript), after showing from this maamar that the exile, not the redemption, is the dream, the Rebbe shows that the „חלום הגלות” (‘dream of exile’) is itself according to the Torah and very high in its root, and says what it is for.
The Rebbe explains why exile had to be a dream: its purpose is that the loftiest revelation, the circles, be drawn down, and it could come down only clothed in a concealing garment, the dream. So within exile all that runs against the service of G‑d is only dream and imagination, while „די איינציקע ווארהייט אין גלות איז עבודת התפלה ותומ״צ” (the one truth in exile is prayer and the mitzvos), and through them the lofty root of the dream of exile is revealed. Perhaps (biur b’derech efshar) this is „החיות הנמשך להם בזמן הגלות” (‘the life-force drawn to them in the time of exile’) that this paragraph says all will recognize in the redemption.
The Alter Rebbe
פי׳ שיתגלה מדרגה ובחי׳ זו של החלום עד אשר כולם יכירו וידעו וישיגו החיות הנמשך להם בזמן הגלות
The Rebbe
די איינציקע וואָרהייט אין גלות איז עבודת התפלה ותומ״צ . . און דורך דעם ווערט נתגלה דער שרש הכי נעלה פון חלום הגלות
Sichos Kodesh, vol. תשד״מ ד, p. כ–כא · ש״פ פינחס, י״ד תמוז ה׳תשד״מ
From the Rebbe’s maamar ד״ה וכפי שמצינו בהדרושים בתורה אור, 5724
The Alter Rebbe places the revelation of the dream’s source in the redemption. The Rebbe adds, through the model of the angels being ‘burned’ by G‑d’s little finger, that a light above the vessels does more than wait to be revealed: when it is revealed within the dreamlike condition, it eventually refines the vessel and nullifies its limitation.
The Alter Rebbe
שיתגלה מדרגה ובחי׳ זו של החלום עד אשר כולם יכירו וידעו
The Rebbe
הנה סוכ״ס הרי זה פועל גם זיכוך הכלי
From the Rebbe’s maamar ד״ה שיר המעלות בשוב הוי׳, 5727
The Alter Rebbe reads the verse only as the future revelation of the dream-level. The Rebbe asks what the “return” of Zion means and answers from the teaching that teshuvah and the days of Moshiach preceded the world. Both stem from the reshimu, which is above even the beginning of the kav. This is why baalei teshuvah stand where perfect tzaddikim cannot, and why Moshe attained teshuvah only before his death. Teshuvah also comes from the opposite, through refining the sparks. Hence “Havayah has done great things with these.”
The Alter Rebbe
ואזי נאמר בשוב ה׳ את שיבת ציון היינו כחולמים
The Rebbe
אך צריך להבין מ״ש בשוב הוי׳ את שיבת ציון, מהו ענין התשובה של ציון
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail. How it was made
Marei mekomos
- 1ולא יכנף עוד מוריך · Isaiah 30:20
- 2שלא יהא מלובש ומכוסה בנרתק · באוה״ת שלח ע׳ תקפט מציין לזח״א רסב, ב.
- 3כי עין בעין יראו · Isaiah 52:8
- 4בשוב ה׳ את שיבת ציון היינו כחולמים · Psalms 126:1
- 5פי׳ שיתגלה . . הנמשך להם בזמן הגלות . . היינו כחולמים · בסה״מ תרל״ג ח״א ע׳ צח מציין לכאן. ראה בשיחת ש״פ פנחס תשד״מ.
Yosef, master of dreams ¶12
12ולכן יאמרו היינו כחולמים. ובזה יובן מעלת ומדרגת יעקב ויוסף ע״י החלומות. ויש בחי׳ שיוסף הוא יותר במעלה כט, אממדרגת משרע״ה [משה רבינו עליו השלום]. ונדב ואביהוא היו נ״ר [נפש רוח] של יוסף.
Therefore they will say, “We were like dreamers.” And with this the greatness and rank of Yaakov and Yosef through the dreams will be understood. And there is an aspect in which Yosef is higher in rank than the level of Moshe our Teacher, peace be upon him. And Nadav and Avihu were the nefesh and ruach of Yosef.
Because the dream-level will be revealed, we will say “we were like dreamers.” This also explains the greatness of Yaakov and Yosef, whose lives turn on dreams: in one respect, rooted in the circles, Yosef is even higher than Moshe, whose prophecy was clear revelation. Nadav and Avihu, Aharon’s sons, are described as the nefesh and ruach (the two lower levels of the soul) of Yosef.
ואנחנו טמאים לנפש אדם זה אביהוא.1 אבל נדב היה מבחי׳ רוח ולא היו צריכים הזאה בשבילו כלל. ועליו נאמר ורוח נדיבה תסמכני.2 וז״ש [וזהו שכתוב] נוהג כצאן יוסף.3
“We are impure through the soul (nefesh) of a man”: this is Avihu. But Nadav was of the level of ruach, and they did not need sprinkling on his account at all. And of him it is said, “And may a generous (nedivah) spirit uphold me.” And this is what is said, “Who leads Yosef like a flock.”
In the verse, nefesh adam means a human corpse; the Alter Rebbe also reads nefesh as the soul-level of that name. Those who said “we are impure through the soul of a man” were, according to one view in the Talmud, impure through Nadav and Avihu; the Alter Rebbe says this refers to Avihu, while Nadav, being ruach, a higher level, caused no impurity requiring sprinkling. In the Torah, one who becomes impure through a corpse is purified by being sprinkled with the purifying water of the red heifer on the third and seventh days; to say that Nadav’s death required no sprinkling means that it left none of the corpse impurity that belongs to the level of nefesh. The verse “a generous (nedivah) spirit” alludes to Nadav’s name, and “Who leads Yosef like a flock” shows that the whole people is led through Yosef.
כי בזמן הגלות הנהגת ישראל הוא בבחי׳ יוסף שהוא מבחי׳ חלום4 מעולם העגולים כו׳. ולכן נק׳ בן פור״ת5 אותיות פות״ר6 ותופ״ר7 שמחבר כו׳. ולכן היה פותר חלומות:8
For in the time of exile the leadership of Israel is on the level of Yosef, which is from the level of the dream, from the world of circles, etc. Therefore he is called ben poras (פורת), whose letters are poser (פותר, “interprets”) and tofer (תופר, “sews”), which joins, etc. And therefore he interpreted dreams.
In exile Israel is led through the level of Yosef, the dream that comes from the world of circles. Yosef is called ben poras, whose letters also spell poser, one who interprets, and tofer, one who sews two things together; that is why he could interpret dreams, joining their opposites into one meaning.
The closing paragraph links the dream-level to Yosef: in exile the Jewish people are led through Yosef’s quality of the dream, which draws from the circles and joins opposites.
In the Talmud (Sukkah 25a–b), the men who were impure when the Pesach offering was due, and whose plea brought about Pesach Sheni, were, by one opinion, those carrying Yosef’s coffin, and by another, those who tended to the bodies of Nadav and Avihu (a third view holds that they had buried a corpse no one else would bury); the Alter Rebbe’s identification of Nadav and Avihu with Yosef’s soul-levels ties those first two opinions together. A maamar of the Rebbe (Padah VeShalom 5735) adds that Yosef’s dreams, even in their plain sense, speak of all Israel: the sun, moon and eleven stars, and the sheaves of the twelve tribes.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
The Rebbe explains
In an edited sicha on Mikeitz (from talks of Shabbos Mikeitz 5732 and 5734), asking why Pharaoh’s magicians could not give so plain-seeming an interpretation and what was wise in Yosef’s, the Rebbe explains that Pharaoh’s dream, which began the exile of Egypt, expresses exile itself.
Citing the derushim (the end of this maamar, with the Mitteler Rebbe’s Torah Chaim and the Tzemach Tzedek’s Or HaTorah), the Rebbe sets out why Yosef in particular interpreted dreams. The plain reason a dream joins opposites is that the intellect is idle and the imagination (כח המדמה) remains; the inner reason is that the root of exile is in the circles (בחי׳ עיגולים), above the division of lines, and that level is clothed, hidden, in a dream. Yosef’s root is in the world of circles, so he had the power to remove that concealment and garment, so that the circles stand revealed below as above. From this the Rebbe explains why the heart of Yosef’s interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream was joining the two opposites, the years of plenty (שנות השובע) and of famine, and why it gave the power for the redemption.
The Alter Rebbe
כי בזמן הגלות הנהגת ישראל הוא בבחי׳ יוסף שהוא מבחי׳ חלום מעולם העגולים כו׳
The Rebbe
דער שרש פון יוסף איז פון (עולם ה)עיגולים, האָט ער דעריבער געהאַט דעם כח אַראָפּנעמען דעם העלם און לבוש
Likkutei Sichos, vol. טו, p. 346–347 · ש״פ מקץ ה׳תשל״ב, ה׳תשל״ד
Background from the Rebbe
In a short reply of [11] Nissan 5720 to R’ Gershon Chen (sent, the editors note, with the general Pesach letter), answering a question on the end of this maamar.
The Rebbe gives the source of the Alter Rebbe’s statement here that „נדב ואביהוא היו נ״ר של יוסף” (Nadav and Avihu were the nefesh and ruach of Yosef): „כ״כ בל״ת להאריז״ל פ׳ וארא” (it is written so in the Arizal’s Likkutei Torah on Va’eira); see also Shaar HaGilgulim, Introduction 14, and the Arizal’s Likkutei Torah on Vayikra. The Alter Rebbe states it without a source; the Rebbe names it.
The Alter Rebbe
ונדב ואביהוא היו נ״ר של יוסף
The Rebbe
במש״כ בתו״א וישב סד״ה שה״מ בענין נדב ואביהוא — כ״כ בל״ת להאריז״ל פ׳ וארא. וראה ג״כ שער הגלגולים הקדמה יד
Igros Kodesh, vol. יט, p. רסא · [י״א ניסן ה׳תש״כ]
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail. How it was made
TermsIgulim veyosherRa’aya MehemnaOsiyos
- Igulim veyosher עגולים ויושר
- Ra’aya Mehemna רעיא מהימנא
- Osiyos אותיות
Marei mekomos
- 1ואנחנו טמאים לנפש אדם זה אביהוא · Numbers 9:7
- 2ורוח נדיבה תסמכני · Psalms 51:14
- 3נוהג כצאן יוסף · Psalms 80:2
- 4כי בזמן הגלות הנהגת ישראל הוא בבחי׳ יוסף שהוא מבחי׳ חלום · ראה ד״ה פדה בשלום תשל״ה (מהנחה בלתי מוגהה) ”ויש להוסיף בזה דגם חלומות יוסף לפי פשוטם מדברים אודות כל ישראל, דהחלום השני לפי פתרונו קאי על כללות עם ישראל, השמש והירח ואחד עשר כוכבים, ועד״ז החלום הראשון הנה אנחנו מאלמים אלומים בתוך השדה דקאי על עבודת י״ב שבטי ישורון, שזה כולל כל פרטי הסוגים בבני ישראל” ע״ש.
- 5בן פור״ת · Genesis 49:22
- 6בן פורת אותיות פותר · ראה בעה״ט כאן. אוה״ת בראשית כרך ב תט, ב. וביהל אור ע׳ תצב.
- 7פורת אותיות . . ותופר · ראה ג״כ אוה״ת בראשית כרך ו תתשמח, ב.
- 8ולכן הי׳ פותר חלומות · ראה תו״ח ויחי ד״ה בן פורת יוסף פ״ג ואילך. אוה״ת וישב תתשב, א. לקו״ש חט״ו ע׳ 346.
Finished the maamar?
Mark it as learned; it counts toward the week and the year’s siyum.
Each Rosh Chodesh the names of those learning here are brought to the Ohel. Add your name, and mark what you learn so it is counted.
In one’s avodah
A person should not be discouraged when the love felt in prayer fades afterward and seems to have been only a dream, for its source is in supernal holiness; at the same time he should see that work in the world is meant as divine service, done with the heart’s proper intention, and not make the body’s needs the main thing.
Questions for discussion
- Why does the intellect prevent the joining of opposites, and why does the imagination allow it?
- How can working the land be divine service, and what turns it into the opposite of prayer?
- If the love in prayer fades after prayer, why is it not a vain imagining?
- Why can the unity of the circles shine only in concealment, through the ‘sleep’ of exile, and not through Chochmah?
- How do the letters of poras (poser, tofer) express Yosef’s role as leader of Israel in exile?
Key terms in this maamar
- The intellect (mochin)מוחין
- The intellect, Chochmah, Binah and Daas, as the “brains” of a level; chiefly the light of Abba and Imma clothed in Z’eir Anpin, the middos, by which they grow. ×4Where it’s explained, stated differently
- The higher unity (yichuda ila'ah)יחודא עילאה
- The unity seen from above: before G‑d all is as nothing and nothing exists besides Him (the Name Havayah, the Shema’s first verse); the lower unity is the existing world’s self-nullification.Where it’s explained, stated differently
- The lower unity (yichuda tata'ah)יחודא תתאה
- The unity seen from below: through the Name Elokim the world exists as a “something” (yesh), and that yesh bows before G‑d (bittul hayesh). It receives from the higher unity, which through it rests below.Where it’s explained, stated differently
- Chesed (kindness)חסד
- The Sefirah of kindness (the right arm; Avraham): giving that comes from its nature to do good, spreading from highest to lowest like water. Gevurah, its opposite, limits it; in tikkun each includes the other. ×1Where it’s explained, stated differently
- Chochmah (wisdom)חכמה
- The first Sefirah of revelation: a single point of insight (koach mah, the yud of Havayah) that comes from the “nothing” above it; being bittul, Or Ein Sof rests in it, and Binah expands it. ×3Where it’s explained, stated differently
- Daas (knowledge)דעת
- Knowledge as felt recognition: the intellect bound into the soul until it is felt as if seen. Daas unites Chochmah with Binah and spreads into the middos as their inner life; the middos follow it. ×2Where it’s explained, stated differently
- Life-forceחיות
- Life-force: the G‑dly vitality that brings each creation into being and keeps it alive, drawn to each according to its level and renewed from nothing, as the soul enlivens the body. ×1Where it’s explained, stated differently
- The kav (line of light)קו
- The thread-like line of Or Ein Sof drawn into the vacated space after the tzimtzum: a small revelation, root of all hishtalshelus and the inner light, narrowing as it descends until it ends in Atzilus. ×2Where it’s explained, stated differently