Yud-Tes Kislev 5768

(short) - Yud-Tes Kislev

(long) - Yud-Tes Kislev

"I have Become Small"

[This teaching is based on the letter that Rabbi Shneur Zalman rote and had circlulated immediately after his miraculous release from Soviet prison on Yud-Tes Kislev 5559 (1798).]

From Tanya IV:2

"I have become small from all the kindnesses and from all the truth that You have done for me…" [Gen. 32:11]

This means that with every single favor that G-d bestows upon a man, he ought to become very humble. For "Chesed is the right arm" and "His right arm embraces me" [Song 2:6], which refers to the state of G-d actually bringing him close to Himself, far more intensely than before. And whoever is brought very much closer to G-d, and elevated to great heights, must be ever more humble, to the lowliest plane, as it is written: "From afar the Lord has appeared to me" [Jer. 31:2]. And as known, "All that are before Him are esteemed as nothing." Hence, whoever is more "before Him" [closer to G-d] is that much more like nothing, naught, and non-existent.

The explanation in Lessons inTanya IV:2

Rashi comments that "I have become small" is a result of "all the favors and all the truth", i.e., "My merits have diminished because of the favors and truth you have done with me." Ramban argues that this comment is inconsistent with the "language of the verse," which states that "I have become small," not that the speaker's merits have become small; there is a diminution in quality rather than quantity.

Ramban therefore understands "I have become small" to mean: "I am unworthy of receiving all your kindness and truth." Thus, according to Ramban, "I have become small" is not a result of G-d's "kindness and truth," but rather an expression of the speaker's being unworthy of receiving G-d's "kindness and truth."

The Alter Rebbe, however, is going to explain this verse according to the commentary of Rashi: "from all the kindness" simply means that it was the kindness that made Jacob feel "small". At the same time, though, the Alter Rebbe will understand "I have become small" as referring to the speaker himself: it is he himself who has become diminished as a result of G-d's many kindnesses and His truth. (Thus, not only have the particular person's merits become lessened, which results in his diminishment, but he himself is directly affected as a result of the "kindness and truth.")

Although it is the person himself (and not the tally of his merits) that has become diminished, nonetheless this diminution is a result of the "kindness and truth."
This, then, is what the Alter Rebbe intends by saying "This means" -

> Some Laws and Customs - Yud-Tes Kislev

Last year's Yud-Tes Kislev page

A Yud-Tes Kislev story