Today we are finishing the second chelek of Tanya — Shaar HaYichud VeHaEmunah!

The Alter Rebbe called it this because it speaks about Yichud Hashem — how Hashem is one. Even though we see so many different things in the world, EVERYTHING is all really part of ONE HASHEM!

Goyim might believe in Avodah Zarah. They think very foolish things, that different things had to be made by different creators. But we Yidden have a MITZVAH to know all the time that Hashem is one. To do this mitzvah, we need to learn about it — and that’s what the Alter Rebbe is helping us do in Shaar HaYichud VeHaEmunah.

The Alter Rebbe explained to us that even though Hashem has Ratzon, Sechel, Midos and Malchus, they are all one with Hashem.

We learned what the Rambam said — that this is something that we cannot understand. It’s like the moshol of light inside the sun — all of these things together are ONE with Hashem. We can see that Hashem is one because Hashem’s midos work TOGETHER with each other when they create the world.

We need to use our Koach of Emunah for this, because it’s not something that can really be explained.

We also saw how the whole world is botul to Hashem, and in two ways: Yichuda Ila’ah and Yichuda Tata’ah.

Now we can use our minds to think about the Yichud of Hashem, and use our Emunah for the things our mind can’t understand!

Finally, the Alter Rebbe finishes today, telling us that the Asara Maamaros Hashem used to create the world have the parts of the world that need a lot of chayus — like people, animals, plants, and the sun and moon. We can see these things written clearly in the Torah (in Parshas Bereishis). Other things, like rocks and sand, don’t have so much chayus. Hashem makes these things too with the osiyos in the Asara Maamaros, but not in a clear way — by putting together the letters in different ways. This way, they don’t get as much chayus.

Do you understand? In case you don’t, the Alter Rebbe gives us a mashal so we understand how the chayus is less:

It’s like the light we have in the world. During the day, we have a lot of light! We get it straight from the sun that shines on us. At night we get much less light because we don’t get the light straight from the sun — it is reflected off the moon.

When something is created STRAIGHT from Hashem’s words in the Asara Maamaros, it can have a lot of chayus, like light from the sun! But when it comes from the letters organized into different words, the chayus is much less, like the light from the moon.

But at the end, EVERYTHING is part of the chayus of our Aibershter, Who is only ONE!

Mazel Tov! We have finished learning the second chelek of Tanya with the help of Hashem!

A great talmid of the Alter Rebbe, named R’ Aharon of Strashele, writes that the Alter Rebbe did not finish Shaar Hayichud Veha’emunah — there was more left to explain. The rest of the explanation about Achdus Hashem can be found in the maamarim of the other Rebbeim .