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Tevet 15, 5783 · January 8, 2023
Today's Tanya Lesson
Likutei Amarim, middle of Chapter 12
רק מפני
שלא לו לבדו משפט המלוכה והממשלה בעיר, אינו יכול להוציא תאותו מכח אל
הפועל להתלבש באברי הגוף
Yet, because the
evil of the animal soul has not the sole authority and dominion over
the “city”, for the good of the divine soul
(situated in the brain) has its say as well, it is unable to
implement this desire by clothing itself in the limbs of the body,
במעשה דבור
ומחשבה ממש
[to engage] in
deed, speech, or actual thought —
להעמיק
מחשבתו בתענוגי עולם הזה, איך למלאת תאות לבו
“actual” thought meaning: to concentrate
his attention on worldly pleasures [with a view to] devising means of
satisfying the lust of his heart,
The Beinoni’s desire for worldly pleasures will
cause thoughts of such matters to rise from the heart to his mind;
these thoughts are beyond his control, beyond the sphere of dominance
of his divine soul. He can, however, control his “actual” — i.e.,
conscious and wilfull — thought, so that immediately he becomes aware
of the forbidden thoughts he dismisses them from his mind, not
permitting himself to dwell on them, nor to think how to implement them
(as the Alter Rebbe will state at greater length further in this
chapter).
Returning now to his statement that the divine soul of the
Beinoni keeps the desires of his animal soul in check,
preventing their expression in deed, speech and actual thought, the
Alter Rebbe explains why this is possible.
כי המוח
שליט על הלב כמו שכתוב ברעיא מהימנא פרשת פנחס בתולדתו וטבע יצירתו
because the brain
rules over the heart (as it is written in Ra‘aya Mehemna, Parshat
Pinchas1) by virtue of its
innately created nature.
שכך נוצר
האדם בתולדתו, שכל אדם יכול ברצונו שבמוחו להתאפק ולמשול ברוח תאותו שבלבו
For man was so
created from birth, that every person may, with the power of the will
in his brain — i.e., the will
created of his mind’s understanding — restrain himself
and control the drive of his heart’s lust,
שלא למלאת
משאלות לבו במעשה דבור ומחשבה
preventing his
heart’s desires from finding expression in deed, word and thought, when the mind understands the evil inherent in such deed,
word or thought,
ולהסיח
דעתו לגמרי מתאות לבו אל ההפך לגמרי
and [he can, if
his mind will it] divert his attention completely from that which his
heart craves [and turn his attention] to the exactly opposite
direction.
This principle of mind over heart holds true even where
the restraint of one’s desires is dictated by simple logic, without
motives of holiness; the demands of the mind’s logic are, alone,
sufficiently powerful to steer one’s attention in a direction
diametrically opposite to that which his heart craves.
ובפרט אל
צד הקדושה
If this is true whatever his motives, it is true particularly in
the direction of holiness.
When, motivated by the knowledge that his lustful thoughts
are sinful, and thoughts of Torah and mitzvot good and
praiseworthy, one seeks to divert his attention from the former to the
latter, so that both his goal and his motives are holy, his mind’s will
is particularly effective in mastering his heart and thoughts.
כדכתיב:
וראיתי שיש יתרון לחכמה מן הסכלות, כיתרון האור מן החושך
[For] thus is it
written:2 “Then I saw that wisdom
surpasses folly as light surpasses darkness.”
Clearly, the use of analogy indicates that a difficult and
unfamiliar idea is to be clarified by comparison with a simple,
familiar one. However, nothing seems to be gained by equating wisdom
and folly with light and darkness; both are equally comprehensible.
Even assuming that the reference here is to a deeper
aspect of “wisdom”, namely holiness (as in Ecclesiastes‘ depiction of
man’s inclination for good as “a poor and wise child”3), and that “folly”
refers to evil (as in his portrayal of the evil inclination as “an old
and foolish king”), there is still no need for analogy. Clearly,
holiness is vastly superior to evil.
Rather, the Alter Rebbe goes on to explain, the analogy is
used here to illustrate how wisdom is superior to folly: The
superiority of light over darkness is manifest in the ability of a tiny
ray of light to banish a great deal of darkness. Furthermore, the light
need not battle darkness to banish it; the darkness disappears as a
matter of course with the appearance of light. In the same way is the
wisdom of holiness superior to the folly of evil. A mere ray of
holiness suffices to banish — as a matter of course — a great deal of
evil folly.
In the Alter Rebbe’s words:
פירוש: כמו
שהאור יש לו יתרון ושליטה וממשלה על החושך
This [analogy]
means that just as light has superiority, power and dominion over
darkness,
שמעט אור
גשמי דוחה הרבה מן החשך, שנדחה ממנו מאליו וממילא
so that a little
physical light banishes a great deal of darkness, which is displaced
automatically and inevitably, without any
effort on the part of the light,
כך נדחה
ממילא סכלות הרבה של קליפה וסיטרא אחרא שבחלל השמאלי
so is there
driven away, automatically, much foolishness of the kelipah
and sitra achra of the animal
soul located in the left part of the heart,
כמאמר
רז״ל: אלא אם כן נכנס בו רוח שטות וכו׳
(as indeed our
Sages say,4 “A man does not sin
unless a spirit of folly enters him”).
מפני החכמה
שבנפש האלקית שבמוח
Thus our Sages described the desires of the animal soul as
“folly”. Hence they are automatically banished by the wisdom of
the divine soul that is in the brain,
אשר רצונה
למשול לבדה בעיר ולהתלבש בשלשה לבושיה הנ״ל בכל הגוף כולו כנ״ל
which desires to
rule alone over the “city” — the body — and to pervade
the entire body by means of its aforementioned5
three garments,
שהם מחשבה
דבור ומעשה של תרי״ג מצות התורה כנ״ל
namely thought,
speech and action connected with the 613 mitzvot of the Torah,
as discussed above.6
In the Beinoni, this desire of the divine soul in
the brain — that it alone pervade his thought, speech and action, and
hence his entire body — controls the lustful desires which the animal
soul arouses in his heart. Moreover, it prevents their actual
expression because of the natural supremacy of mind over heart and of
holiness over evil.
But if the divine soul of the Beinoni indeed
dominates his every area of practical expression, alone dictating his
every thought, word and deed, why is he not considered a tzaddik?
The Alter Rebbe explains:
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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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