Before a person writes a book, many times they write a Hakdama, an introduction. This usually says what the book is about, and why the book is so important.

For example, in the beginning of Tanya, the Alter Rebbe wrote a Hakdama. He told us that he is writing a Sefer with eitzos for Chassidim. Then he said why it is so important and why he needed to make it into a book.

In this section in Tanya also, the Alter Rebbe has a Hakdama. The Alter Rebbe tells us that this part of Tanya is how to take the first steps in serving Hashem with our neshamos.

There is a posuk that says, “Chanoch Lenaar Al Pi Darko — Gam Ki Yazkin Lo Yasur Mimena.” “Give a chinuch to a child the way that works for him, and even when he gets older, he won’t act differently than that chinuch.”

The Alter Rebbe asks, “If a child gets the kind of chinuch that works for him, won’t he get older and smarter and then need a different kind of chinuch? Why do we say he won’t act differently when he is older?”

The Alter Rebbe tells us that we are talking about the chinuch to help someone do the “neshama mitzvos” like loving Hashem.

How do you teach someone to do the mitzvah of loving Hashem? You can’t make a person feel a certain way! The Alter Rebbe tells us that you can help other people to start loving Hashem by themselves. You can tell them things to think about that will make them feel that way.

If we think about how Hashem gives us chayus, and cares for us even though we’re just regular people, knowing those things will help us love Hashem.

Loving Hashem by thinking about how special He is is called a “thinking” kind of love. This is exactly what Moshe Rabbeinu told the Yidden to do when he gave them the mitzvah to love Hashem! The Alter Rebbe shows us from the pesukim that Moshe told the Yidden things they can think about so they will love Hashem and do what He wants.

(The strong kind of love that you feel but don’t have any reasons for can’t be a mitzvah — it’s like a present that Hashem can give you, to feel that way!)

Now the Alter Rebbe tells us why he made this part of Tanya, and answers the question we had before — why even though a person changes, he still needs to have the same Chinuch. (“Chanoch Lenaar... Gam Ki Yazkin Lo Yasur Mimena.”)

A Yid is constantly growing. The way Hashem made it is that to start doing more, we have to stop doing something the way we did it before. That’s when you step back so you can run farther or jump higher.

When we want to love Hashem MORE, we lose some of the Ahava we had before so we can we can learn a new way to love Hashem stronger. But we need to ALWAYS love Hashem, so what kind of love do we never stop having, even when we’re getting ready to have a stronger love?

That’s the love for Hashem that we get when we first start our Avodas Hashem, and that’s the Ahava we just learned about.

So that’s the answer to our question — “Gam Ki Yazkin” — even when we’re older and stop loving Hashem in one way, we always have this kind of Ahavas Hashem that we got in the beginning of our Chinuch.

But, the Alter Rebbe tells us, even before we can LOVE Hashem, we need to have something even deeper than that! This is something that gets the rest of our Avodas Hashem started. This is EMUNAH, believing in Hashem. No matter what happens, we always have this Emunah so we will always be connected to Hashem.

This is what we are going to learn in this part of Tanya — how to have a very strong Emunah that we will never lose.

When the Alter Rebbe tells us about the things we can do to help us love Hashem, he says “like I will explain later.” Chassidim say that really the Alter Rebbe originally wanted Shaar Hayichud to be FIRST, before Likutei Amarim, because this is the basic chinuch that we all need. Only after we have proper emunah in Hashem are we capable of using the tools of Ahavas Hashem and Yiras Hashem to win over the Yetzer Hara and serve Hashem with kavana. In fact, the Rebbe sometimes told people that the first time they learn Tanya, they should start with Igeres HaTeshuvah, then Shaar Hayichud Veha’emunah, and then Likutei Amarim.