Daily Tanya

However, the impression retained in his mind from his meditation, during prayer, on G-d’s greatness, and the [natural] love and fear of G-d hidden in the right part of his heart, enable him

to prevail over and dominate the evil [animal soul’s] craving,

preventing the evil from gaining the supremacy and dominion over the “city” (the body) and carrying out its craving from the potential to the actual by clothing itself in the organs of the body in actual speech or deed.

Furthermore: even in the mind alone, with respect to sinful thought, the evil has not the dominion and power to cause him (G-d forbid) to think such thoughts consciously,

i.e., [to cause the mind] to accept willingly, G-d forbid, the evil thought that rises of its own accord—unbidden—from the heart to the mind, as explained above.10

Instead, immediately upon [the thought’s] rising to [the mind], he—the beinoni—thrusts it aside as it were with both hands, and averts his mind from it,

the instant he realizes that it is an evil thought.

He will refuse to accept it even as a subject for mere conscious thought and will certainly not entertain the notion of acting on it, G-d forbid, or even speaking of it,

for he who willingly indulges in such thoughts is deemed a rasha at that moment,

while the beinoni is never wicked, even for a single moment. Obviously, then, the beinoni would not willingly entertain evil thoughts.

So, too, in matters “between man and his fellow man.”

As soon as there rises from his heart to his mind any animosity or hatred, G-d forbid,

or jealousy, anger, or a grudge and their like,

he will bar them from his mind and will, refusing even to think of them.

On the contrary, his mind will prevail over and dominate the feelings of his heart to do the exact opposite of that which the heart desires,

namely, to conduct himself toward his fellow with the quality of kindness (as opposed to the quality of “severity,” where hatred and anger originate),

and to display toward his fellow a disproportionate love, in suffering from him to the furthest extreme,

without being provoked into anger, G-d forbid, or to take revenge in kind, G-d forbid, even without anger,

but, on the contrary, to repay offenders with favors,

as taught in the Zohar11 that we should learn from the example of Joseph’s conduct with his brothers, when he repaid them for the suffering they brought upon him with kindness and favors.