An explanation of the statement in Tanya that the word ve'ad is equivalent to echad when the letters are exchanged

Table of contents

Search this book:

The need to pay one's debts to Kehot; how the lack of financial resources is a serious factor in inhibiting the spread of Chassidus

No. 221

This letter, a response to a question posed by R. Menachem Mendel Margolios, was originally written on 20 Av, 5705, but was revised and, like the preceding two letters, was printed in Kovetz Lubavitch, Vol. 11.

Question: I saw an essay in [the forum] Teshuvos U'Biurim (Vol. II, p. 22)[388] which states that everything written in the talks of the Rebbe Shlita has a source in the statements of our Sages. Certainly, how much more so [must we say that] there is a source for the statements made in the maamarim and printed texts of Chassidus.

I would like to ask if there is a source in Nigleh, the revealed teachings of the Torah, for the statement in Tanya, Iggeres HaTeshuvah, ch. 7, that a multitude of minor transgressions can create a blemish [for the soul] equivalent to [that produced by the transgression of] a prohibition [punishable by] kareis or death?

Response: There is an example of a similar concept in Nigleh. Moreover, it involves a law that is applied in actual practice. Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chayim 328:14) states that if a person who is mortally ill requires meat, we slaughter an animal for him [on Shabbos] rather than have him eat meat that was not ritually slaughtered.

[Now,] if he would eat less than a k'zayis[389] of meat that was not ritually slaughtered, he would be transgressing only a prohibition [that does not require punishment by an earthly court].[390] Slaughtering [an animal] on Shabbos, by contrast, is punishable by execution through stoning. Nevertheless, we slaughter the animal, [rather than have the person eat the meat that was not ritually slaughtered].

One of the reasons given for this is that in slaughtering the animal, one transgresses only once. When eating the meat that was not ritually slaughtered, by contrast, one transgresses every time he eats, even though it is a [lesser] prohibition (Rabbeinu Nissim; Magen Avraham as quoted in the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch 328:16). There are opinions (Bach, Taz) which hold that this principle applies even when a food is forbidden only by Rabbinic decree. Even when the prohibition is very light, this law remains in force.

See also the text Lekach Tov - by R. Yosef Engel - General Principle 15 ([which debates] if a greater quantity outweighs a greater quality), that cites several places in Talmud that express this principle. Among them: Rashi, Yevamos 32b; Tosafos, s.v., Kasavrei, Sanhedrin 50a.[391]

   

Notes:

388. (Back to text) [See Letter No. 154.]

389. (Back to text) [An amount equivalent to an olive in size. Our Rabbis equate this to approximately one ounce in contemporary measure.]

390. (Back to text) [The fact that this transgression does not involve any punishment at all indicates that it is not as severe as those that require punishment.]

391. (Back to text) In General Principle 20, [R. Yosef Engel] questions the former guideline noting that [if the repetition of even slight prohibitions is so severe,] the law should be that one should accept martyrdom rather than transgress even commandments other [than idolatry, murder, and adulterous or incestuous relations] if one is forced to violate them many times, just as one must accept martyrdom when forced to violate one of the three transgressions [mentioned above].

     This, however, does not present a difficulty. For as the Alter Rebbe explains, Tanya, ch. 24, the decision whether or not one is commanded to accept martyrdom [is a decree of the Torah and] is not dependent on the relative severity of the transgressions.

An explanation of the statement in Tanya that the word ve'ad is equivalent to echad when the letters are exchanged

Table of contents

Search this book:

The need to pay one's debts to Kehot; how the lack of financial resources is a serious factor in inhibiting the spread of Chassidus