Let My People Know

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: “Beyond the grasp of the intellect.”

There are people who are incapable of attaining constructs within their souls of love and fear for God through intellectual contemplation.

So how does such a person attain love and fear through fulfilling the mitzvot?

The author of the Tanya addresses this question by returning to the fundamental point of the book, which speaks to the elemental nature of the Jewish people.

Within every Jew, in the prototypical essence that is passed down hereditarily, there is a hidden love of God.

This love is beyond the grasp of the intellect and is indisputable.

Because it is a love that is a part of the soul’s essence, it is not dependent on the person’s intellectual traits and talents.

It does not derive from a person’s contemplation of the greatness of God, but rather from the person’s essential Jewishness that connects him to God.

However, because this love is hidden, it is necessary to recall it and mention it, to awaken it, at the very least to raise it within oneself to the level of consciousness, to think about and be aware of this essence that exists within oneself.

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz