Tanya: Chapter 10 - Part 1

When a person causes his divine soul to prevail over the animal soul,

and when he wages war against the animal soul to the extent that he banishes and eradicates its evil from its abode within him, namely, the left part [of the heart],

as is written: “And you shall eradicate the evil from your midst,”1 which implies that one ought to eradicate the evil within himself,

as to one who achieves this goal but finds that the evil has nevertheless not actually been converted into good, in which case his entire capacity for desire would now be directed only toward good and holiness, since with him, this is not the case,

he is called “an incomplete tzaddik.”

[He is also called] “a tzaddik who knows evil,” meaning that some vestige of evil still lingers within him, in the left part [of his heart],

except that it finds no expression at all, not even in evil desires, because [the evil,] by reason of its minuteness, is subjugated and nullified by the good and cannot therefore be sensed.2

Hence, he (the tzaddik) may imagine that he has driven it out, and it has quite disappeared.

In truth, however, had all the evil in him departed and disappeared, it would have been converted into actual good.3

The explanation of the matter is as follows:

A “complete tzaddik,” in whom the evil has been converted into good and who is consequently called “a tzaddik who knows [only] good,”

has attained this level by completely removing [his] filthy garments from evil.

This means: he despises utterly the pleasures of this world, finding it repugnant to derive from them that pleasure which other people derive,

namely, the pleasure of merely gratifying the physical appetite instead of using this pleasure toward the service of G‑d.

He despises such pleasures, for they are derived from and receive their spiritual sustenance from the kelipah and sitra achara, the very antithesis of holiness.

The “complete tzaddik” utterly hates whatever is of the sitra achara

because of his great love, a “profuse love of delights,” and his superior degree of affection for G‑d and His holiness, as mentioned above (in ch. 9, where the Alter Rebbe explained that “love of delights” is the ultimate level in the love of G‑d). To resume: Because of the tzaddik’s great love for G‑d and holiness, he utterly hates the kelipah and sitra achara,

since they, i.e., holiness and kelipah, are antithetical; his love of G‑d therefore evokes a commensurate degree of hatred for sitra achara.

So it is written: “I hate them with a consuming hatred,” says King David of those who oppose G‑d, “they have become enemies to me; search me,” he says to G-d, “and know my heart.”4

Hence, according to the abundance of love toward G‑d, so is the extent of hatred toward the spiritual sitra achara which nurtures the physical pleasures and the utter repugnance of the evil of physical pleasures,

for repugnance is as much the exact opposite of love as is hatred.

The “incomplete tzaddik” is he who does not hate the sitra achara—the spiritual kelipot—with an absolute hatred;

therefore, he also does not find evil—physical desires and pleasures—absolutely repugnant.

As long as his hatred and abhorrence of evil are not absolute, perforce he must have retained some vestige of love and pleasure toward it.

The “filthy garments” in which the animal soul had been clothed, meaning (as explained above) the evil inclination and the lusting after worldly pleasures, have [obviously] not been completely shed from it.

Therefore, too, [the evil] of the animal soul has not actually been converted to good since it still has some hold on the “filthy garments,” i.e., the desires for pleasure in which the animal soul had previously “clothed” and expressed itself,

except that this vestige of evil is imperceptible and cannot express itself in evil desires, etc., because [the evil] is nullified [in the good] by reason of its minuteness and is accounted as nothing, i.e., the overwhelming preponderance of good prevents the evil from being sensed and from finding expression.

Indeed, he is therefore called צַדִּיק וְרַע לוֹ, which means (not only “a tzaddik who knows (retains) evil,” but also) “a tzaddik whose evil is [his, i.e.,] subjugated and surrendered to him,” to the good within him. Such a tzaddik is identified with the good, since he is overwhelmingly good.

Perforce, then, the fact that he retains some evil indicates that his love of G‑d is also not complete, for a complete love of G‑d would have converted all the evil within him to good.

He is therefore called an “incomplete tzaddik.”

Now, this level—that of the “incomplete tzaddik” who “knows evil”—is subdivided into myriads of levels, consisting of [varying degrees in] the quality of the minute remaining evil [deriving] from [any] one of the four “evil elements” of which the animal soul is composed (see ch. 1).

[The subdivision] also takes into account the degree to which [the remaining evil] is nullified [in the good] because of its minuteness,

whether in sixty [times as much good], for example, or in a thousand, or ten thousand, and so on.

These various sublevels in the ranks of “incomplete tzaddikim” are the levels of the numerous tzaddikim found in all generations, all of whom belong to the category of the “incomplete tzaddik,”

as we find in the Gemara, “Eighteen thousand tzaddikim stand before the Holy One, blessed be He.”5

But concerning the rank of the “complete tzaddik,” Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai’s statement applies: “I have seen ‘superior men’ (bnei aliyah), and they are but few.”6

The reason that [the complete tzaddikim] are called bnei aliyah (literally: “men of ascent”) is that they convert evil and make it ascend to holiness.

It is similarly written in the introduction to the Zohar 7 that when Rabbi Chiyya wished to ascend to the heichal (heavenly shrine) of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai, he heard a voice come out and say:

“Whichever of you, before coming here, have converted the darkness of the world to light (holiness) and [have transformed] the bitter taste of their animal soul and evil inclination to sweetness (holiness)…[only these may enter].”

Another reason for their designation of bnei aliyah:8

Even their divine service in the area of “doing good,” in their fulfillment of Torah and its mitzvot, is for the sake of Above, and their service is directed toward a most high level, toward the loftiest heights.

[Their divine service] is not [intended] merely to attach themselves to G‑d by serving Him through Torah and mitzvot so as to quench the thirst of their soul which thirsts for G‑d,

as it is written: “Ho, exclaims the prophet, all who are thirsty for G‑dliness should go to the waters of Torah,”9 i.e., let them engage in Torah, which is likened to water,

as is explained elsewhere, that the “thirsty ones” of this verse refer to those who thirst for G‑dliness.

Rather, their service of G‑d is as the Tikkunei Zohar10 explains that which our Sages have said: “Who is a pious one (chassid)? He who is benevolent (mit’chassed) toward his Creator (kono).” The Tikkunei Zohar comments that kono (usually translated as “his Creator”) is here to be interpreted as “his nest” (derived from the root ken—“nest”), and thus, the Chasid is he who is benevolent “with his Nest”—i.e., his Source, G‑d. This “benevolence” toward G‑d consists of

“uniting the Holy One, blessed be He, with His Shechinah (the Divine Presence) so that the light of this union reach and be felt even in the lowest worlds.”

As is also explained in Raaya Mehemna on Parashat Tetze: “In the manner of a son who exerts himself for his father and mother, whom he loves more than himself, [more than] his own nefesh, ruach, and neshamah

and who sacrifices his life for their sake to redeem them, should they be held in captivity,” and as is also explained elsewhere.

(11Both interpretations are complementary, for by refining [the good found in] kelipat nogah, as the “men of ascent” do by converting their animal soul (which is derived from kelipat nogah) to good, one elevates “feminine waters” (mahn),

effecting unions in the higher realms, so as to cause “masculine waters” (mahd) to descend to this world.

These [“masculine waters”] are the “waters” of kindness that flow into and are contained in each of the 248 positive mitzvot, which are all in the nature of “kindness,” or benevolence, and “masculine waters.”

This term “masculine waters” as applied to mitzvot means that the mitzvot draw G‑d’s holiness from above, i.e., from the higher realms downward, so that [G‑d’s holiness] be clothed in and revealed within the lowest realms, i.e., our physical world, as explained elsewhere.) Thus, the two interpretations of the term “men of ascent” are complementary.