Quote from Tanya: The Masterpiece of Hasidic Wisdom

Tanya: The Masterpiece of Hasidic Wisdom

by Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Lyadi (1745-1813)

Skylight Paths, Woodstock, Vermont   © 2010   240 pp.

The essential task of those who serve God is to surrender the selfish passions to the divine light of intellect by meditating on the spaciousness of God. 

Contemplating God's spaciousness stokes the love of God in the right side of your heart, enflaming a yearning for God so strong as to align all your deeds with godliness. 

If such passion is alien to you, do not despair for you can love God rationally even if you do not do so emotionally. 

Such love is called comprehension or the intellectual love of God, and it too aligns your deeds with godliness, as our Sages taught, "The Holy One, blessed be He, join a good thought to the deed."(p. 55) 

Note:   This book was translated and annotated by Rabbi Rami Shapiro.