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Tevet 13, 5783 · January 6, 2023
Today's Tanya Lesson
Likutei Amarim, Chapter 11
Having described in ch. 9 the ongoing battle between the
divine and animal souls to capture and dominate the body, the Alter
Rebbe proceeds, in ch. 10, to define the term tzaddik within
the context of this struggle.
He explains there that tzaddikim are classified
in two general categories. The first is that of the “complete tzaddik,”
also known as the “ tzaddik who possesses (only) good.” Such a
tzaddik has succeeded in completely transforming the evil of
his animal soul to good and holiness. A tzaddik of the second
category, that of the “incomplete tzaddik,” or the “ tzaddik
who possesses evil,” is one who has not yet completely converted his
animal soul to good; he still retains a vestige of its native evil.
This remaining fragment of evil, however, is completely nullified
within the far greater proportion of good.
In ch. 11, the Alter Rebbe now addresses himself to the
definition of the rank that is the antithesis of the tzaddik —
that of the wicked person, the rasha. In direct contrast to
the tzaddik, whose divine soul overpowers his animal soul, the
rasha is one whose animal soul overwhelms his divine soul.
The rank of rasha, too, is divided into two
general categories: the “complete rasha,” or the “rasha
who possesses only evil,” and the “incomplete rasha,” or the “rasha
who possesses some good.” These categories will be defined in this
chapter.
(Note: Following the Talmudic expressions which the Alter
Rebbe employs, these terms are henceforth translated as the “rasha
who knows (only) evil,” and the “rasha who knows good,”
respectively.)
וזה לעומת
זה, רשע וטוב לו לעומת צדיק ורע לו
1“One is the
opposite of the other”: the “rasha who knows good” is the
antithesis of the “tzaddik who knows evil.”
דהיינו
שהטוב שבנפשו האלקית שבמוחו ובחלל הימני שבלבו
This means, that
the good that is in [this rasha’s] divine soul, which is in
his brain and in the right part of his heart (these being the chief dwelling places of the divine
soul, as explained in ch. 9),
כפוף ובטל
לגבי הרע מהקליפה שבחלל השמאלי
is subservient
to, and nullified within, the evil of the animal
soul which stems from the kelipah, which is in
the left part [of the heart], as explained in
ch. 9.
Thus, in the “rasha who knows good” the evil of
the animal soul overpowers the good of the divine soul, to the extent
that the good is subservient to the evil and is nullified within it.
וזה מתחלק
גם כן לרבבות מדרגות
This rank, too,
is subdivided into myriads of degrees.
Just as the rank of the “tzaddik who knows evil”
is subdivided into myriads of degrees with respect to the nullification
within him of the evil to good, so too are there
numerous subdivisions within the rank of the “rasha who knows
good” with respect to the nullification of good to evil,
as the Alter Rebbe continues:
חלוקות
בענין כמות ואיכות הביטול וכפיפת הטוב לרע חס ושלום
[The difference
between these myriad sublevels lies] in the quantity i.e., the extent and the quality of the
nullification and subservience of the good to the evil, G‑d forbid.
The “quantitative” difference between one “rasha
who knows good” and another is indicated by whether the good is merely
outweighed by a majority of evil, or whether the evil is (say) sixty
times more prevalent than the good, and so on. The “qualitative”
classification hinges on what aspect of the divine soul is
subservient to its evil counterpart: in one rasha the divine
soul’s holy capacity for affection may be subservient to the animal
soul’s affection for forbidden matters, while in another rasha
the subservience may lie in another area. The Alter Rebbe now provides
practical illustrations of different levels within the ranks of the “rasha
who knows good.”
יש מי
שהכפיפה והביטול אצלו מעט מזער
There is one in
whom the subservience and nullification of good to evil are exceedingly minor,
ואף גם זאת
אינו בתמידות, ולא תדיר לפרקים קרובים
and even these minor degrees are not permanent, nor recurrent
at frequent intervals.
אלא לעתים
רחוקים מתגבר הרע על הטוב, וכובש את העיר קטנה הוא הגוף
Rather, only on
infrequent occasions does the evil prevail over the good, conquering
the “small city,” i.e., the body which, as
mentioned in ch. 9, is likened to a small city, whose conquest is the
objective of both the divine and animal souls.
אך לא כולו
אלא מקצתו לבד
Furthermore, even when the evil does conquer the body, yet not all of
the body falls under its dominion, but only part of
it,
שיהיה סר
למשמעתו ונעשה לו מרכבה
subjecting it — that part of the body — to its
discipline, and causing it to be a “chariot” to the evil, i.e., as subservient to the evil as is a chariot to its
driver,
ולבוש
להתלבש בו אחד משלשה לבושיה הנ״ל
and further causing that part of the body to serve as a
“garment” wherein one of the animal soul’s aforementioned three
garments will be clothed.
As mentioned in ch. 6, the garments of the animal soul are
sinful thought, speech and action. In the case of the rasha
now described the evil of the animal soul, even on those rare occasions
when it does prevail over the good, can do no more than express itself in
one of these areas or “garments”.
Furthermore, even in this restricted field of expression,
the evil is further limited in that it can motivate this rasha
to commit only minor transgressions, as the Alter Rebbe now continues:
דהיינו או
במעשה לבד, לעשות עבירות קלות, ולא חמורות חס ושלום
Namely, the animal soul prevails either in deed
alone, in the commission of minor transgressions [only], not major
ones, G‑d forbid — for his animal
soul has not the power to prevail to such an extent;
או בדיבור
לבד, לדבר אבק לשון הרע וליצנות וכהאי גוונא
or it may prevail in speech alone, [but merely] in
the utterance of that which borders on slander or scoffing, the evil being too weak to cause him to engage in actual
slander or scoffing and the like;
או במחשבה
לבד, הרהורי עבירה הקשים מעבירה
or the evil may prevail in thought
alone, in contemplations of sin which are in certain respects worse than
actual sin.2
Thought is more refined than speech and action, and of the
soul’s three garments, it is the one most intimately connected with the
soul itself. Therefore, contemplations of sin can befoul the the soul
even more than the sinful deed itself.
וגם אם
אינו מהרהר בעבירה לעשותה, אלא בענין זיווג זכר ונקיבה בעולם
[This is the
case] even where one does not actually contemplate committing a sin,
but merely indulges in contemplation on the carnal union of male and
female in general,
שעובר על
אזהרת התורה: ונשמרת מכל דבר רע, שלא יהרהר ביום כו׳
whereby he
violates the admonition of the Torah,3
“You shall guard yourself from every wicked thing,” which our Sages interpret as an injunction that4 “one must not
harbor impure fancies by day so that he will
not become polluted at night”; thus, contemplation on such matters
violates a command of the Torah.
או שהיא
שעת הכושר לעסוק בתורה, והוא מפנה לבו לבטלה
or another area in which the evil may prevail in the case of
such a partial rasha: when, at a time
fitting for Torah study, he turns his heart to inane matters,
כדתנן
באבות: הניעור בלילה כו׳ ומפנה לבו כו׳
as stated in the Mishnah,
Tractate Avot:5 “He who awakens at night when he has time to study Torah. and turns his
heart to vanity, is guilty
against his own soul.”
In the latter two instances, then, the animal soul’s
garment of thought has prevailed and manifested itself in his body.
שבאחת מכל
אלה וכיוצא בהן נקרא רשע בעת ההיא
In any one of all
these instances, or their like, i.e., whenever
one commits even a minor transgression in thought, speech or action, he is called rasha, wicked, at that time;
שהרע
שבנפשו גובר בו ומתלבש בגופו, ומחטיאו ומטמאו
the term rasha meaning that the
evil of his animal soul prevails
within him, clothing itself in his body, inducing it to sin and
defiling it.
ואחר כך
גובר בו הטוב שבנפשו האלקית, ומתחרט
Afterwards, after this person has transgressed in any of the
above-mentioned matters, the good that is in his divine soul
asserts itself, and he is filled with remorse over his transgression in thought, word or action;
ומבקש
מחילה וסליחה מה׳, וה׳ יסלח לו, אם שב בתשובה הראויה על פי עצת חכמינו
זכרונם לברכה בשלשה חלוקי כפרה שהיה רבי ישמעאל דורש כו׳, כמו שכתוב במקום
אחר
he will seek
pardon and forgiveness of G‑d for his
transgression, and if he repents with the appropriate
penitence, in accordance with the counsel of our Sages of blessed
memory, G‑d will indeed forgive him, with [one of] the three forms of
pardon expounded by Rabbi Yishmael,6
as explained elsewhere.7
The three forms of pardon: (a) If one transgresses a
positive precept and repents, he is pardoned at once; (b) if he
transgresses a prohibitive commandment and repents, the Day of
Atonement together with his repentance atones; (c) if his transgression
carries the penalty of karet (spiritual excision) or execution
at the hands of the court, then after having repented and undergone the
spiritual cleansing of Yom Kippur, suffering brings about full
atonement.
However, as the Rebbe notes, the divine pardon elicited by
this person’s repentance does not change his status of rasha
in the true sense of the term, but only in the borrowed sense of the
terms rasha and tzaddik as applied to reward and
punishment. Indeed, when weighed on the scales of merits and sins, such
a person — who sins rarely, only in minor matters, and then repents
immediately — is deemed a tzaddik and deserves reward, since
the overwhelming majority of his deeds are good.
But this usage of tzaddik is merely a borrowed
term, as explained in ch. 1. As true definitive terms, tzaddik
and rasha describe the quality of the good or evil in one’s soul.
Viewed in this perspective the person described above is classified as
a rasha even after he repents and is pardoned, for he still
retains his predisposition toward sin, and his animal soul still tends
to dominate him.
Thus far the Alter Rebbe has discussed a higher-level rasha
— the “rasha who knows good” — one in whom the animal soul
rarely prevails, and then only in one of the three soul-garments of
thought, speech and action.
ויש מי
שהרע גובר בו יותר
There is,
however, another [type of “rasha who knows good”], in whom the
evil prevails more strongly.
ומתלבשים
בו כל שלשה לבושים של הרע, ומחטיאו בעבירות חמורות יותר, ובעתים קרובים
יותר
All three
garments of evil clothe themselves in him — he transgresses in thought, in speech, as well as in
action; also, the evil causes him to commit more heinous sins,
and [to sin] more frequently.
אך בינתיים
מתחרט, ובאים לו הרהורי תשובה מבחינת הטוב שבנפשו, שמתגבר קצת בינתיים
Yet he, too, is nevertheless described as a “rasha who knows good,” for intermittently between one sin and the next he experiences
remorse, and thoughts of repentance enter his mind, arising from the aspect of good that is still in his soul, that gathers a degree of
strength in the interim.
אלא שאין
לו התגברות כל כך לנצח את הרע
However, the good
within him does not strengthen itself sufficiently to vanquish the evil
לפרוש
מחטאיו לגמרי, להיות מודה ועוזב
so that he can
rid himself entirely of his sins, and be as one who confesses his sins and abandons them once and for all.
ועל זה
אמרו רז״ל: רשעים מלאים חרטות
Concerning such a
person, the Rabbis of blessed memory have said,8
“The wicked are full of remorse,” i.e., between
sins. It is also possible that even while sinning they regret their
actions, but feel themselves unable to master their desires.
שהם רוב
הרשעים, שיש בחינת טוב בנפשם עדיין
These represent
the majority of the wicked, in whose soul there still lingers some good
— and it is this good which causes these
feelings of vexation and remorse in their mind and heart.
We thus see that there are many levels within the rank of
the “rasha who knows good,” ranging from one who sins only
rarely, only in minor matters, and with the involvement of only one
soul-garment, to him who sins often, grievously, and with all three
soul-garments. Yet they all come under the same heading of the “rasha
who knows good,” the difference between them being to what degree the
good within them is dominated by the evil — in direct contrast to the
rank of the “tzaddik who knows evil,” where there are various
degrees of dominance of the evil by the good.
Having defined the “rasha who knows good,” the
Alter Rebbe now turns to consider the “rasha who knows (only)
evil”:
אבל מי
שאינו מתחרט לעולם, ואין באים לו הרהורי תשובה כלל, נקרא רשע ורע לו
But he who never
feels contrition, and in whose mind no thoughts of repentance at all
ever enter, is called a “rasha who knows (only) evil.”
שהרע
שבנפשו הוא לבדו נשאר בקרבו, כי גבר כל כך על הטוב עד שנסתלק מקרבו
For only the evil
in his soul has remained in him, having so prevailed over the good that
the latter has departed from within him,
ועומד
בבחינת מקיף עליו מלמעלה
and the good now
stands in a manner of makkif over him, i.e., the good hovers over him, so to speak, in an aloof
and external manner, so that he has no conscious awareness of it.
Yet, since he still possesses good, albeit as a makkif,
for after all, he possesses a divine soul —
ולכן אמרו
רז״ל: אכל בי עשרה שכינתא שריא
Therefore have
the Sages said,9 “Over every gathering of any ten Jews rests
the Shechinah (the Divine Presence).”
That is to say, even if they are all in the category of
the “rasha who knows (only) evil,” the Shechinah
still hovers over them; for they too possess good in a manner of makkif.
Since at such a gathering the Shechinah is present only in the
externally encompassing way of makkif, not entering the
consciousness of those assembled, therefore their correspondingly makkif
level of good is sufficient to enable them to receive this revelation.
With regard to the subject of the Jew whose animal soul
prevails over his divine soul, the following story bears mention.
A certain freethinker once asked of the Tzemach Tzedek:
The word Yehudim (“Jews”) is normally spelled in the Book of Esther
with one letter yud before the final letter. Why is it that
when the word is used there in connection with the harsh decree against
the Jews, it is spelled with two letters yud?
The Tzemach Tzedek answered: Yud is numerically
equivalent to ten; it represents the ten soul-powers possessed by both
the divine and animal souls. There are Jews who conduct their lives
solely according to the dictates of the divine soul’s ten powers, while
in other Jews the animal soul prevails, and their conduct is dictated
also by the animal soul’s ten powers. Haman planned to exterminate all
the Jews, even those who were of two yuds, i.e., those ruled
by the ten evil soul-powers as well.
But the man persisted: Why then is the word spelled
several times with two yuds even after the decree was
repealed? To which the Tzemach Tzedek responded: After suffering under
Haman’s evil decree and ultimately witnessing G‑d’s salvation, even
those Jews repented and became equals of their brethren whose lives
were led by the dictates of the divine soul and good inclination. Thus,
concluded the Tzemach Tzedek, the two yuds (yud, or yid,
is also Yiddish for “Jew”) became equal.
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FOOTNOTES
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By Rabbi
Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812), founder of Chabad Chassidism
(Free Translation) More articles... |
Elucidated by
Rabbi Yosef Wineberg. Translated from Yiddish by Rabbi Levy Wineberg
and Rabbi Sholom B. Wineberg. Edited by Uri Kaploun.
Published and
Copyright by Kehot Publication Society
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