Tanya the Masterpiece of Hasidic Wisdom: Selections Annotated & Explained

By Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi

The wisdom of Jewish spirituality and mysticism can be a companion for your own spiritual journey.

Tanya, "It Was Taught," is one of the most powerful and potentially transformative books of Jewish wisdom. Written in 1797 by Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad Hasidism, Tanya sets forth the fundamentals of Jewish spirituality and mysticism. While a focus of daily study by tens of thousands of Hasidic Jews, Tanya is little known outside the world of Jewish mysticism. Until now, its kabbalistic terms and esoteric language have made this essential text of Jewish spirituality inaccessible to most readers.

In this engaging volume, Rabbi Rami Shapiro offers a contemporary English translation of key selections of Tanya coupled with commentary designed to clarify and amplify the wisdom it contains. He also outlines the philosophical and spiritual framework on which Tanya is based—God's nonduality; the five dimensions of reality and their corresponding intelligences (body, heart, mind, soul, and spirit); the purpose of mitzvot, the practices of Jewish life, as catalysts to God realization and the hallowing of all life through godliness—to help you understand the selected Tanya translations in a way that enhances your own spiritual development.

Now you can benefit from the wisdom of Tanya even if you have no previous knowledge of Judaism or Hebrew terminology. This SkyLight Illuminations edition presents the core teachings of Tanya, with insightful yet unobtrusive commentary that will deepen your understanding of the soul and how it relates to and manifests the Divine Source from which all life comes, in which all life lives and to which all life returns.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
• Release date: Mar 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781594733598

Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi

Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi, the inspiration of the Jewish Renewal movement, is widely recognized as one of the most important Jewish spiritual teachers of our time. Professor emeritus at Temple University, he has contributed to Jewish Mysticism and the Spiritual Life: Classical Texts, Contemporary Reflections, and is the author of Jewish with Feeling: A Guide to Meaningful Jewish Practice, Davening: A Guide to Meaningful Jewish Prayer, winner of the National Jewish Book Award; First Steps to a New Jewish Spirit: Reb Zalman's Guide to Recapturing the Intimacy & Ecstasy in Your Relationship with God, (all Jewish Lights); From Age-ing to Sage-ing; and Wrapped in a Holy Flame, among other books.

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Selected Books in the SkyLight Illuminations Series

The Art of War—Spirituality for Conflict: Annotated & Explained

Bhagavad Gita: Annotated & Explained

The Book of Mormon: Selections Annotated & Explained

Celtic Christian Spirituality: Essential Writings—Annotated & Explained

Chuang-tzu: The Tao of Perfect Happiness—Selections Annotated & Explained

Confucius, the Analects: The Path of the Sage—Selections Annotated & Explained

Dhammapada: Annotated & Explained

The Divine Feminine in Biblical Wisdom Literature: Selections Annotated & Explained

Ecclesiastes: Annotated & Explained

The End of Days: Essential Selections from Apocalyptic Texts—Annotated & Explained

Ethics of the Sages: Pirke Avot—Annotated & Explained,

Ghazali on the Principles of Islamic Spirituality: Selections from Forty Foundations of Religion—Annotated & Explained

Gnostic Writings on the Soul: Annotated & Explained

The Gospel of Philip: Annotated & Explained

The Gospel of Thomas: Annotated & Explained

Hasidic Tales: Annotated & Explained

The Hebrew Prophets: Selections Annotated & Explained

The Hidden Gospel of Matthew: Annotated & Explained

The Infancy Gospels of Jesus: Apocryphal Tales from the Childhoods of Mary and Jesus—Annotated & Explained

John and Charles Wesley: Selections from Their Writings and Hymns—Annotated & Explained

The Lost Sayings of Jesus: Teachings from Ancient Christian, Jewish, Gnostic, and Islamic Sources—Annotated & Explained

Maimonides—Essential Teachings On Jewish Faith and Ethics: The Book of Knowledge and the Thirteen Principles of Faith—Annotated & Explained

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius: Selections Annotated & Explained

Native American Stories of the Sacred: Annotated & Explained

Philokalia: The Eastern Christian Spiritual Texts—Annotated & Explained

Proverbs: Annotated & Explained

The Qur’an and Sayings of Prophet Muhammad: Selections Annotated & Explained

Rumi and Islam: Selections from His Stories, Poems, and Discourses—Annotated & Explained

The Sacred Writings of Paul: Selections Annotated & Explained

Saint Augustine of Hippo: Selections from Confessions and Other Essential Writings—Annotated & Explained

The Secret Book of John: The Gnostic Gospel—Annotated & Explained

Selections from the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna: Annotated & Explained

Sex Texts from the Bible: Selections Annotated & Explained

Spiritual Writings on Mary: Annotated & Explained

St. Ignatius Loyola—The Spiritual Writings: Selections Annotated & Explained

Tanya, the Masterpiece of Hasidic Wisdom: Selections Annotated & Explained

Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained

The Way of a Pilgrim: The Jesus Prayer Journey—Annotated & Explained

Zohar: Annotated & Explained

Tanya, the Masterpiece of Hasidic Wisdom: Selections Annotated & Explained

2010 Quality Paperback Edition, First Printing

Translation, annotation, and introductory material © 2010 by Rami Shapiro

Foreword © 2010 by Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

For information regarding permission to reprint material from this book, please mail or fax your request in writing to SkyLight Paths Publishing, Permissions Department, at the address / fax number listed below, or e-mail your request to [e-mail].

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Shneur Zalman, of Lyady, 1745–1813.

[Likute amarim. English. Selections]

Tanya, the masterpiece of Hasidic wisdom : selections annotated & explained / translation & annotation by Rami Shapiro ; foreword by Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi. –2010 quality paperback ed.

p. cm. — (Skylight illuminations series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-59473-275-1 (quality pbk. original : alk. paper) 1. Shneur Zalman, of Lyady, 1745-1813. Likute amarim. 2. Hasidism. 3. Habad. I. Shapiro, Rami M. II. Title.

BM198.2.S56213 2010

296.8'332—dc22

                                                           2009054330

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Manufactured in the United States of America

Printed on recycled paper.

Cover design: Walter C. Bumford III

Cover art: © istockphoto.com / peter zelei

SkyLight Paths Publishing is creating a place where people of different spiritual traditions come together for challenge and inspiration, a place where we can help each other understand the mystery that lies at the heart of our existence.

SkyLight Paths sees both believers and seekers as a community that increasingly transcends traditional boundaries of religion and denomination—people wanting to learn from each other, walking together, finding the way.

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Contents

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

Key Philosophical Ideas

Core Spiritual Practices

  1. The Five Kinds of Humans

  2. God, Wisdom, and Your Essential Nature

  3. The Three Mothers: Wisdom, Reason, and Knowing

 4. The Three Garments: Thought, Word, and Deed

  5. Unity Beyond Thought

  6. The Necessity of Opposites

  7. Using the Body for Good

  8. Using the Body for Evil

  9. The Secret Yearning for the Good

10. The Purpose of Transformation

11. Redemption from Evil

12. Bringing Light into the Darkness

13. Internal Conflict

14. Becoming an Inbetweener

15. Serving God

16. The Essential Task

17. The Practice of Comprehension

18. The Nature of Wisdom

19. The Candle of God

20. The Unchanging One

21. God’s Speech

22. Other Gods

23. Torah and God Are One

24. The Interplay of Opposites

25. Folly

26. The Profit of Sadness

27. Passive Restraint

28. Distracting Thoughts

29. A Dull Heart

30. Cultivating Humility

31. Working with Sadness

32. Love Your Neighbor

33. Attaining True Joy

34. Generosity

35. The Task of Self

36. No High or Low in God

37. Illuminating the World

38. The Necessity of Intent

39. Acting without Ulterior Motive

40. Revealing the Hidden God

41. Love and Awe

42. Your Inner Moses

43. Two Types of Awe

44. Higher Grades of Love

45. Compassion for God

46. Way of Friendship

47. Release from Bondage

48. The Finite and the Infinite

49. The Purpose of Creation

50. Run and Return

51. The Dwelling of God

52. Perceiving the One

53. The One Is within You

Notes

Glossary of Hebrew Terms

Books Cited in Tanya

Suggestions for Further Reading

About SkyLight Paths

Copyright

Foreword

Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi

Many a Jewish person has said that if it hadn’t been for Tanya they would not have been able to remain committed to our tradition. This is also true for me. This is why I’m so delighted that Rabbi Rami Shapiro has prepared this rendition of the book. There is much in the book, even in the Chabad authorized translation of Tanya, that is inspiring. Yet without filtering and rendering some of the material, the raw content as it stands may be off-putting for some people. What Rami brings to the task is an integral, dare I say it, Taoist lens, an approach that he has used in some of his other brilliant renditions of classical Jewish texts.

For me, too, Tanya was the faith saver, a spiritual lifesaver. What I intuited inside its pages I could not find in the schools or synagogues I attended as I grew up in Vienna, Austria. After the Anschluss my family and I crossed the border illegally to Belgium where I met some people who were students of Tanya. When I sat with them, singing and praying, I was able to attune to their contemplative and feeling space, which afforded me a sense of signification that nourished a longing for the light that I experienced.

Later on, when I was doing my graduate work in pastoral psychology and psychology of religion, I was able to appreciate what the psychological contributions made by Reb Schneur Zalman and Tanya were all about.

The most far-reaching psychological contribution Rabbi Schneur Zalman made was his concept of the beinoni. The word itself is as difficult to translate as is the concept. Some translators define it as average person, but this rendering is a sociological fiction. Rabbi Schneur Zalman intended no such meaning. He understood beinoni as a term for the individual who straddled somewhere between tzaddik (saint) and rasha (wicked person). He therefore begins his teaching by defining tzaddik and rasha.

Tzaddik

Rabbi Schneur Zalman was of the opinion that tzaddik was a qualitative term, not a behavioral one. Were it only behavioral, tzaddik would merely have meant someone who behaves righteously more often than not, and, at the deepest level, might sometimes also desire that which is not of God’s will. He therefore spoke of "absolute tzaddik and conditional tzaddik." He treats rasha, which we will explain later, in the same manner.

The absolute tzaddik, in the qualitative sense, is a person who has completely mortified her or his demons so that there is not even so much as an unconscious inclination to invest energy—libido—toward evil. The absolute tzaddik cannot even attempt such an inclination since all fascination for evil has been canceled. The tzaddik’s disdain for evil, however, is not at all fanatical as it is quiet and existential.

The conditional tzaddik, however, while not involved behaviorally in evil or inclined to invest libido toward it in any way, is nonetheless vulnerable to the potential for evil. There may be abhorrence for evil, but it is not absolute, and the fascination for it still lingers on at some unconscious plateau.

Yet, in both categories of tzaddik, the vital and decisive principle is the Divine Soul (Nefesh HaEloki), which shares a common ontology with God. Thus, as a tzaddik a person could not act against God for it would be tantamount to acting against a person’s own nature.

Rasha

The absolute rasha is totally under the governance of body drives and emotional whims. Such an individual identifies with the Animal Soul (Nefesh HaBehamit), is one with its will, and, not being reason-directed, completely blocks out any awareness of the manifestation of Divine Soul. The absolute rasha, however, is in a rare minority. More common is the conditional rasha, driven by impulse, rationalizing but not quite rational, and conforming to pressures from both within and without—characteristics with which most of us can easily identify. We use reason as a tool for furthering the animal dimension of our nature, yet delegate no control to reason over our emotions. We may, for example, be aroused to teshuvah (repentance), Torah study, and the performance of mitzvot (sacred commandments), but not on a primary level. At best, we may be involved in these peripherally, momentarily enveloped in the holiness they vibrate, but as we step back into our rasha condition, all of this disappears like an illusion, though some traces of the experience remain at some level, and once again the Animal Soul is control.

Beinoni

Finally, there is the beinoni, the person whose character figures somewhere in between tzaddik and rasha. The beinoni has not sinned behaviorally, but neither has the beinoni purged him or herself from evil. And though the beinoni’s evil inclinations may fade out during such ecstatic experiences as prayer and the celebration of sacred festivals, eventually they fade in again and become restored to their original strength.

Not too many people are of the category of beinoni. To remain a beinoni a person has to be able to keep repeating the decision that entails the recognition of the ontological definition of sin as idolatry. A beinoni can therefore never act out in sin, for each sin would be akin to idolatry in that, at the very moment the sin is committed, all of a person’s energies draw from the evil energy system of kelipah, the shell, rather than from the pure source of God. The beinoni, recognizing this, makes a conscious and deliberate decision never to draw life energies from any source other than God, a decision which must thereafter be constantly nurtured and reinforced, often at great emotional expense. While it is a difficult, impossible seeming feat, it can be accomplished.

The Psychology of Beinoni

At some point, every person needs to make a decision about his or her nature. This philosophical as well as theological homework needs to be done, and it needs to be done consciously. In the process, however, it is often images of self as painted by others, such as roles which others have forced upon you, that become unconsciously interwoven in your self identity. Consequently, you might be innocently inclined to direct your energies toward the fulfillment of these interjected roles. Nonetheless, the overall image you maintain of yourself forms an essential identification. You may decide, for example, that you are essentially an animal, a part of the animal continuum (the lioness, too, loves her cubs, etc.). By dint of this identity option you are a reasoning animal, your rationale perhaps serving as a vehicle for the enhancement of your animal behavior. Once you have chosen this nature, however, you cannot expect to transcend the animal continuum, and you would not have any reason to do so.

On the other hand, you might opt to image yourself as a divine child, in which case you perceive your body as an instrument for life divine. Before the advent of Hasidism, this was the only available alternative for the tzaddik. Only by an heroic exertion of will and with the help of God were a select few able to reach this level. Others continued to fluctuate between the Animal and the Divine. Still others (i.e., the followers of Shabbatai Zvi, the seventeenth-century Jewish mystic who claimed to be the long-awaited messiah, and later converted to Islam) identified the Divine and Animal Souls as

Reviews for Tanya the Masterpiece of Hasidic Wisdom

[Matheus Sousa Ramalho · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Amazing read! May G'd unity us all into The One.

[Shinhang Kang · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

very good invitation to chossidic mind and deep moral in judaism.
there are much of books of shows what judaism but do not let people can think inside much.
this book will leads you another dimension.
kabbalah as Science starts in deep thinking of life and human to see.
Highly recommend to all who aware unseen world and seen world.