This part of Tanya is called “Shaar HaYichud VeHaEmunah.” This means that it talks about the mitzvah of knowing that Hashem is One — understanding that there is nothing separate from Hashem, even if it sometimes looks like that. We will learn about how that is, and how we can have proper Emunah in Hashem.

First the Alter Rebbe tells us that there are two ways of understanding Achdus Hashem, knowing that Hashem is One. They are hinted to in the pesukim of Shema and Boruch Shem. The Alter Rebbe will explain these two ways (Yichuda Ila’a and Yichuda Tata’a) in Shaar HaYichud VeHaEmunah.

The Alter Rebbe starts with a question to show that we don’t understand Achdus Hashem yet.

There is a posuk in the Torah that says “Veyadaata Hayom Vehasheivosa El Levavaecha Ki Hashem Hu HaElokim, Bashomayim Mimaal Ve’al Haaretz Mitachas, Ein Od” — “You should know today and take to your heart that Hashem is our G-d, high in Shomayim and under the earth — there is nothing else.”

The Alter Rebbe says that this is a funny-sounding posuk! Would anyone think that there’s another Aibershter hiding under the ocean?

The Torah must be teaching us something from this posuk, showing that Hashem is One. (The Alter Rebbe will explain this later.)

The Alter Rebbe starts to explain it with a posuk in Tehillim: “Leolam Hashem Devarcha Nitzav Bashomayim” — “Hashem’s Word is always in Shomayim.”

The Baal Shem Tov explains what this means: “Hashem’s Word” means the words Hashem used to make the world — the Asara Maamoros (for example “Yehi Or”, “Yehi Rakia”). And the word “Leolam,” “forever”, means that Hashem has to keep on saying these words for the world to be there. If Hashem stopped, the world would just completely disappear, just like it was before Hashem made it.

The Arizal says that it’s not just people that need this — even things that don’t move (like rocks) also need this chayus or else they can’t be there.

If everything in the world needs to get chayus from Hashem’s words, and Hashem only said TEN things (like “Yehi Or” — let there be light, or “Yehi Rakia” — there should be a sky), how do all of the other things get their chayus? Everything needs to get chayus from Hashem’s words!

The answer is that the chayus can come in a few different ways. It can come from the exact way Hashem says it, by switching around the letters into a different order, OR by changing letters for each other like the hundreds of ways in Kabbalah (like Gematria, or letters that sound the same). When the letters are switched, it can spell the Hebrew name of another thing in the world, and that’s where THAT thing gets it’s chayus!

(The chayus that comes when Hashem said those words specifically is greater than the chayus that comes from switched letters.)

So we see that it’s the letters of the name in Lashon Kodesh that gives each thing its chayus! (So a tree (Eitz) gets its chayus from Ayin and Tzadik, and a rock (Even) gets its chayus from Alef, Beis, and Nun!)

(You get YOUR chayus from your Hebrew name too — so if your name is Chaya you get chayus from Ches, Yud, Hey; and if your name is Yosef you get your chayus from Yud, Vov, Samech, Fey!)

The Rebbe points out that today’s Tanya has a very special connection to Shavuos, because it mentions the 3 Tzadikim connected to Shavuos!

- Moshe Rabbeinu who gave us the Torah (there’s a posuk from Torah — Veyadaata Hayom)
- Dovid Hamelech whose yartzeit is Shavuos (there’s a posuk from his Tehillim — Leolam Hashem)
- Baal Shem Tov whose yartzeit is Shavuos (the Alter Rebbe brings his explanation on the posuk)