The Tanya's twentieth chapter asks a question with a startling answer: why will even the most secular, disconnected Jew choose death rather than worship an idol?
This is not theoretical. Rabbi Schneur Zalman points to historical reality. Throughout the centuries, Jews with no visible connection to Torah—people who violated Shabbat, ate forbidden food, lived entirely secular lives—chose martyrdom when faced with forced conversion. They could have bowed to the idol and secretly remained Jewish. They could have reasoned that life is more important than a symbolic gesture. Instead, they died.
Why? The Tanya says: because idolatry strikes at the root of the soul in a way that no other sin does. The first two commandments of the Decalogue—"I am the Lord your God" (Exodus 20:2) and "You shall have no other gods" (Exodus 20:3)—contain within them the entire Torah. Every positive commandment flows from "I am." Every prohibition flows from "You shall not have." Idolatry is not one sin among many. It is the negation of everything.
At the moment of the test—when a Jew is told to bow to an idol or die—the hidden love buried deep in the soul erupts through every layer of concealment. The divine light clothed in the faculty of chochmah, inherited from the Patriarchs, transcends time and logic. It does not arrive through rational argument. It simply overrides every other consideration.
The Tanya then makes a breathtaking logical move. If a Jew will die rather than commit idolatry, and if every sin is a form of separation from God's unity—then the same force that drives martyrdom should also drive daily observance. The difference is only one of intensity. Idolatry calls forth the soul's deepest reserves. A minor transgression should, logically, call forth the same refusal to separate from God, even if the stakes are lower.
This is the hidden love in action. It does not need to be felt. It does not need to be understood. It sits beneath consciousness, silent and immovable, and when the moment demands it, it surfaces with a force that nothing in this world can overcome.
It is well known that the commandment and admonition1 The positive and prohibitive aspects of the injunction, respectively. concerning idolatry, which are contained in the first two commandments of the Decalogue—“I am”2 Exodus 20:2. and “You shall not have any other gods”3 Ibid., v. 3.—comprise the entire Torah.4 The first (“I am”) is the positive, and the second (“You shall not”) is the prohibitive aspect, both ruling out idolatry; the first implicitly, the second—explicitly. For the commandment “I am” contains all the 248 positive precepts, while the commandment “You shall not have” contains all the 365 prohibitions.5 Cf. Shnei Luchot HaBrit, beg. Parashat Yitro. Zohar II:276a. That is why we heard only “I am” and “You shall not have” directly from the Almighty, as our Sages say,6 Makkot 24a. The other eight Commandments were relayed by Moses. “because these two are the sum total of the whole Torah.” In order to elucidate this matter clearly, we must first briefly refer to the subject and essence of the Unity7 The discussion of this subject is carried over into the following chapter; cf. also ch. 33. of the Holy One, blessed is He, Who is called One and Unique, and “all believe that He is All Alone,”8 Liturgy of New Year’s Day and Day of Atonement. exactly as He was before the world was created, when there was naught besides Him, as is written, “You were [the same] before the world was created; You are [the same] since the world has been created….”9 Liturgy, daily Morning Service. This means exactly the same without any change, as it is written, “For I, the L–rd, have not changed,”10 Malachi 3:6. inasmuch as this world and likewise all supernal worlds do not effect any change in His Unity, blessed be He,11 Not to mention His essence. by their having been created ex nihilo. For just as He was All Alone, Single and Unique, before they were created, so is He One and Alone, Single and Unique after they were created, since, beside Him, everything is as nothing, verily as null and void. For the coming into being of all the upper and nether worlds out of nonbeing, and their life and existence sustaining them from reverting to nonexistence and nought, as was before, is nothing else but the word of G–d and the breath of His mouth, blessed be He,12 See Psalms 33:6. that is clothed in them. To illustrate from the soul of a human being:When a man utters a word,13 Hebrew text should read דבור instead of דבר. this utterance in itself is as absolutely nothing even when compared only with his general “articulate soul,” which is the so-called middle “garment,”14 Of the three garments: thought, speech, and act. namely, its faculty of speech, which can produce speech without limit or end;15 Physical incapacity (or death) does not limit the soul’s potential capacity for speech, which is intrinsic to it. all the more when it is compared with its so-called innermost “garment,” namely, its faculty of thought, which is the source of speech and its life-force, not to mention when it is compared with the essence and entity of the soul, these being its ten attributes mentioned above,16 Ch. 3. viz., chochmah, binah, daat (chabad), and so on, from which are derived the “letters” of thought that are clothed in the speech when it is uttered. For thought can as much be defined in terms of “letters” as speech, except that in the former they are more spiritual and refined. But the ten attributes—chochmah, binah, daat (chabad), and so forth—are the root and source of thought, and, prior to their being clothed in the garment of thought, still lack the element of “letters.” For example, when a man suddenly becomes conscious of a certain love or desire in his heart, before it has risen from the heart to the brain to think and meditate about it, it has not yet acquired the element of “letters”; it is only a simple desire and longing in the heart for the object of his affection. All the more so before he began to feel in his heart a craving and desire for that thing, and it is as yet confined within the realm of his wisdom, intellect, and knowledge, that is, the thing is known to him to be desirable and gratifying, something good and pleasant to attain and to cling to, as, for instance, to learn some wisdom or to eat some17 Hebrew text should read איזה instead איזו. delicious food. Only after the desire and craving have already found their way into the heart, through the stimulus of his wisdom, intellect, and knowledge, and then ascended once more back to the brain, to think and meditate on how to translate his craving from the potential into the practical, with a view to actually obtaining that food or acquiring that wisdom—it is here that the so-called “letters” are born in his mind, such “letters” corresponding to the language of each nation, employing them in speech and thought about all things in the world.18 Continued in next chapter.
