In other words, you cannot pre-meditate tears. You cannot manufacture them. They are the spontaneous shattering of the ego when it realizes its helplessness within the structure of divine service. For a Lubavitcher Hasid, Tanya 157 is not just theory. It is performed. During the silent Amidah —the peak of Jewish prayer—Hasidim go through intense intellectual preparations (the hisbonenus ). They meditate on God’s greatness and their own nothingness.
He argues that the entire edifice of divine service—Torah study, mitzvot, meditation, even structured prayer—operates within the realm of “the revealed will of God.” This realm has rules, hierarchies, and gates. To enter, you must be ritually pure, focused, and intellectually sincere. Your prayers ascend through celestial chambers, angels, and sefirot. tanya 157
Tanya 157 offers a radical alternative: Pray anyway. When the words feel like lies, do not suppress that feeling. Let that dissonance become your prayer. The gap between what you are saying and what you feel—that very gap—is a tear in reality. And that tear is your true voice. In other words, you cannot pre-meditate tears
That anguish—if it is genuine and not performative—is the “tear.” And that tear does not ascend slowly through the spheres. It teleports. It strikes directly at the “Infinite Light of the Ein Sof” which surrounds all worlds equally. The result? In one blinding flash, the person achieves a unity with God that even the highest angels cannot achieve through their perfect, intellectual prayers. Critics, particularly from the Misnagdic (opponents of Hasidism) tradition, have pointed out a dangerous implication in Tanya 157. If tears bypass the system, then why bother with the system at all? Why keep the mitzvot? Why study Torah? Why not just sit in a corner and weep? For a Lubavitcher Hasid, Tanya 157 is not just theory
Tanya 157 announces a shocking answer: III. The Core Doctrine: The “Gateway of Tears” The chapter pivots on a cryptic line from the Talmud (Berachot 32a): “The gates of prayer were closed, but the gates of tears were never closed.” This statement is usually interpreted to mean that while formal, structured prayer might be rejected by God for being insincere, a raw, weeping cry from the heart always penetrates.