Tanya: Chapter 15 - Part 1

With this distinction in mind, we may understand the verse:

“And you will return and see the difference between the righteous man and the wicked one, between he who serves G‑d and he who serves Him not.”1

The difference between “he who serves G‑d” (oved) and a righteous man (tzaddik) is that “he who serves G‑d,” written in the present tense, describes one who is still presently laboring in his divine service.

This service consists of the struggle against one’s evil nature with the aim of overpowering it and banishing it from the “small city” i.e., the body, which is like a city whose conquest is the objective of both the good and the evil nature,4

so that it should not vest itself in the organs of the body through evil thought, speech, or action.5 Doing battle against his evil nature is the avodah (“service”) of “he who serves G‑d.”

This constant battle with one’s evil nature truly entails much effort (“service”) and toil.

This is the beinoni.

The tzaddik, on the other hand, is designated “a servant (eved) of G‑d,” as a title conferred on the person himself; it is not merely a description of one’s active role as is the designation “one who serves.”

The term “servant” is similar to the title “sage” or “king,” bestowed on one who has already become a sage or king.

So, too, he (the tzaddik) has already effected and completely accomplished his “service” of waging war with the evil in him. He has banished it, and it is gone from him, leaving the seat of evil nature in his heart “void within him.”6 Having completed this task, the tzaddik has earned the title “servant of G-d.”

In the category of beinoni, there are also two levels: “he who serves G‑d” and “he who serves Him not.”

Yet he who “serves Him not” is not wicked, although he does not wage war with his evil nature,

for never in his life has he committed even a minor transgression in the realm of negative commandments.

He has also fulfilled all the positive commandments which he was able to fulfill, including the precept of Torah study—which is equal to all the other commandments combined—

to the extent that his mouth never ceased from study, despite the difficulty involved in this.

Yet he is still described as one who “does not serve G-d,” for

he does not wage any battle against his evil inclination

to vanquish it through the aid of the Divine light that illuminates the G‑dly soul abiding in the brain, which rules over the heart—as explained above7 that the G‑dly soul and the Divine light illuminating it are the beinoni’s answer to his evil inclination. He (“who serves Him not”) does not struggle with it—

for his evil inclination does not oppose him at all in an attempt to deter him from his Torah study and divine service, and thus, he need not wage any war against it.

So it is, for example, with one who is by nature an assiduous student due to his stolid temperament

and who is also free of conflict with sexual desire due to his frigid nature,

and similarly with other mundane pleasures he need not exert himself to master a desire for them, for he naturally lacks any feeling for enjoyment.

For this reason, he does not need to contemplate so much on the greatness of G‑d to consciously create a spirit of knowledge and fear of G‑d in his mind

in order to guard himself from transgressing any prohibitive commandments.

He also need not create a love of G‑d in his heart, which would motivate him to bind himself to Him through fulfilling the positive commandments and through Torah study, which equals all the other commandments together.

The hidden love of G‑d found in the heart of all Jews, who are called “the lovers of His name,”8 is sufficient for him to motivate his fulfilling the commandments, since he is naturally so inclined.

For this reason, he is not considered “one who is serving G‑d” at all,

for this latent love is not of his making or achievement by any means. It is our inheritance, bequeathed by our Patriarchs to the entire Jewish nation, as will be explained further.9

So, too, he who is not inherently studious but has accustomed himself to study diligently so that this habit has become his second nature; thus, diligence is now natural for him,

for him, too, the hidden love of G‑d is now sufficient, unless he wishes to study more than he usually does.

This explains the Talmudic statement2 that “he who serves G‑d” refers to one who reviews his studies 101 times, while “he who serves Him not” refers to one who reviews his studies only one hundred times.

This is so because in those Talmudic days, it was customary to review each lesson one hundred times.

The Talmud illustrates this by the analogy of the market of the donkey drivers. The drivers would charge one zuz for ten parsi (Persian miles) but demanded two zuz for driving eleven parsi, for driving an eleventh mile exceeded their customary practice.

Therefore, this 101st revision, which is beyond the normal practice to which the student has been accustomed since his childhood, is equivalent to all the previous one hundred revisions combined.

In fact, its quality surpasses them in its greater strength and power so that it is only this one extra revision which entitles the student to be called “he who serves G‑d.”

For in order to change his habitual nature, he must arouse within himself the love of G‑d by contemplating G‑d’s greatness in his mind

in order to master the nature that is in the left part of the heart, the seat of the animal soul, which is full of the blood of the animal soul originating in kelipah,

whence comes this nature, and the power of his love enables him to transcend his nature.

And this—to overpower one’s animal soul through a love of G‑d generated by meditation—is a perfect service for a beinoni.

An alternate type of service for a beinoni is to arouse to a revealed state the love of G‑d inherently found hidden in his heart,

thereby to control the nature that is in the left part of the heart.

This, too, is called serving G‑d, although an imperfect service—

to wage war against his nature and inclination by arousing the love hidden in his heart.

If, however, he wages no war at all—not engaging even in the lesser struggle of arousing the love hidden within him, e.g., when he studies only to the limits of his natural diligence, then although he employs his hidden love of G‑d in his divine service,10 yet—

this love in itself can in no way be credited to his service, and he is therefore called “he who serves Him not.”