Tanya: Chapter 29 - Part 3

Those whose souls are of the level of beinonim must seek means of contending with yet another difficulty.

Occasionally, and even frequently, they experience a dullness of the heart, as though it had turned to stone, and, try as they might, they cannot open their heart in prayer, which is by definition the “service of the heart.”1

Also, the heaviness in his heart prevents him at times from waging war against the evil impulse in sanctifying himself in permitted matters.

In this case, the advice given in the holy Zohar 2 is, as the president of the academy of Gan Eden said: “A wooden beam which does not catch fire should be splintered, and similarly, a body into which the light of the soul does not penetrate should be crushed,” and thereby, the body becomes receptive to the soul’s light, as the Zohar concludes.

The reference to the “light of the soul” which, in this case, does not penetrate the body means that the light of the soul and of the intellect does not illuminate to such an extent as to prevail over the coarseness of the body.

Thus, although he understands and meditates in his mind on the greatness of G‑d, yet that which he understands is not apprehended and implanted in his mind to the point where it enables him to prevail over the coarseness of the heart because of the degree of their (the mind and heart’s) coarseness and crassness.3

The cause of this deficiency is the arrogance of the kelipah of the animal soul, which exalts itself above the holiness of the light of the divine soul so that it obscures and darkens its light.

Therefore, one must crush it and cast it down to the ground, just as in the previously quoted analogy, the beam is splintered so that it will catch fire.

This means that one must crush the sitra achara and cast it to the ground by setting aside appointed times for humbling oneself and considering himself “despicable and contemptible,”4 as it is written.

Now “a broken heart [leads to] a broken spirit,”5 the “spirit” being the sitra achara, which, in the case of beinonim, is the very man himself.

For in his heart, the vital soul which animates the body is in its full strength as it was at birth; hence, it is indeed the very man himself.

With regard to the divine soul within him, it is said: “The soul which You gave within me is pure.”6 The word “(within) me” cannot be understood as referring to the body alone: the body cannot speak for itself as a complete man. Thus, it must refer also to the (animating) soul. Therefore, the words “(which You gave) within me” imply that the man himself who is saying these words is not identified with the “pure soul,” i.e., the divine soul is a thing apart, which has been “placed within” this “me”—the body and animal soul—except in the case of tzaddikim.

With them, the contrary is true: the man himself is the “pure soul,” i.e, the divine soul, while their body is called “the flesh of man,” i.e., secondary to the man himself—the divine soul.

It was in this sense that Hillel the Elder would say to his disciples when he went to eat that he was going to do a favor to the “lowly and poor creature,” meaning his body. He regarded his body as a foreign thing and therefore used this expression—that he was doing it a favor by giving it food. For he himself was nothing other than the divine soul. It alone animated his body and flesh, inasmuch as in tzaddikim the evil that was in the vital soul pervading their blood and flesh has been transformed into good and completely absorbed into the holiness of the divine soul, and thus, the divine soul is the man himself.

With a beinoni, however, since the substance and essence of the vitalizing animal soul (stemming from the sitra achara), which pervades his blood and flesh, has not been transformed into good, it indeed constitutes the man himself, and therefore, by crushing his own spirit, the beinoni actually crushes the sitra achara.

If so, that he is actually the animal soul, he is removed from G‑d with the utmost remoteness. For the lusting drive in his animal soul is capable of lusting also after forbidden things, which are contrary to G‑d’s will.

While he does not desire to do them (these forbidden things) in actual practice, G‑d forbid, yet they are not truly repulsive to him as they are to tzaddikim, as explained above (in ch. 12).

In this, he is inferior to and more loathsome and abominable than unclean animals and insects and reptiles, as mentioned above—for even they do not transgress against G‑d’s will (see ch. 24), and since he does do so (in his mind, at least), he is worse than they,

and as it is written: “But I am a worm and not a man….”7

(8Even when his divine soul gathers strength within him to arouse his love of G‑d during prayer, this predominance of the divine soul is not altogether genuine, since it is transient and vanishes after prayer, as mentioned earlier, end of ch. 13.)

Especially so if he calls to mind the contamination of his soul with the sin of youth and the blemish he has wrought thereby in the supernal worlds—the source of his soul. The fact that they were sins of “youth,” belonging to a time and to a spiritual level from which he may presently be far removed, is irrelevant in these supernal worlds—where everything is timeless, and it is as if he had caused the blemish and defiled himself this very day, G‑d forbid.

True, he may already have repented sincerely and thereby removed the blemish and cleansed himself. But the essence of repentance is in the heart, and in the heart, there are many distinctions and levels. Moreover, everything depends on what kind of a man he is (—the greater his stature, the higher the level of repentance required of him) and on the time and place in which he now stands, as is known to the knowing.

Consequently, now, at this time, when observing himself he sees that “the light of the soul does not penetrate into him,” it is evident that either (a) today his repentance has not been accepted and his sins [still] separate him from G‑dliness or (b) it is desired that he be raised to a more sublime level of repentance, coming from a point yet deeper in his heart than his earlier repentance.

For this reason, King David said, despite the fact that he was a tzaddik, who was also able to say of himself: “My heart is a void within me,”9 which means (as Rashi comments, “The evil impulse is as if dead within me”10—despite this, he would still say:) “My sin is constantly before me.”11

Even he who is innocent of the grievous sins of youth, but wants to attain a broken spirit, should set his heart to fulfill the counsel of the holy Zohar13—to be “a master of accounts.”

This means that he should take stock with his soul of all his thoughts, utterances, and actions that have come and gone since the day he came into being and until the present day. Were they all of the realm of holiness or of the realm of impurity (G‑d deliver us)? This latter realm includes also any thought, utterance, or action not directed toward G‑d, His will, and His service even when they are not actually sinful, since this is the meaning of the term sitra achara: not necessarily “evil” but simply “the other side”—the “side” (realm) that is not holy; thus, anything that does not contain holiness belongs to the realm of impurity, as explained earlier (in ch. 6).

Now, it is known that whenever a person thinks holy thoughts, he becomes, during that time, a “chariot” for the “chambers” (heichalot) of holiness whence these thoughts originate, or, more precisely, whence their vitality originates.

Conversely, when he thinks impure thoughts, he becomes an unclean “vehicle” for the heichalot of impurity, from where all impure thoughts originate. So, too, with speech and action.

Let him further consider his dreams in order to humble his spirit, for one may learn more about himself from his dreams than from his waking, conscious thoughts. For the most part, they are “vanity and an affliction of the spirit,”15 because his soul does not ascend heavenward during his sleep, since it is written: “Who shall ascend the mountain of the L-rd?”16—meaning, in our context, “Whose soul shall rise heavenward while he sleeps to see and absorb matters of Torah and holiness, which will in turn be reflected in his dreams?” And the next verse gives the answer: “He that has clean hands and a pure heart”—implying that the soul of one whose hands and heart are not pure does not ascend, and that is why his dreams are a patchwork of vanity and foolishness.

Furthermore, “those originating from the ‘evil side’ come and attach themselves to him and inform him in his dreams of mundane affairs…and sometimes mock him and show him false things and torment him in his dreams,” and so on, as stated in the Zohar on Vayikra (p. 25a, b). See it there discussed at length.

The longer he reflects on these matters, both in his own thoughts and by delving deeply into books which speak of these matters, in order to break down his heart within him and render himself shamed and despised in his own eyes, as is written in the Scriptures,4 so utterly despised that he despises his very life—

the more he despises and degrades thereby the sitra achara, casting it down to the ground and humbling it from its haughtiness and pride and self-exaltation, wherewith it exalts itself over the light of the divine soul’s holiness, obscuring its radiance.

He should also thunder against it (the sitra achara) with a strong and raging voice in order to humble it, as our Sages state, “A person should always rouse the good impulse against the evil impulse, as it is written,17 ‘Rage, and sin not.’”18

This means that one should rage—in his mind—against the animal soul, which is his evil impulse, with a voice of stormy indignation, saying to it: “Indeed, you are truly evil and wicked, abominable, loathsome, and disgraceful,” and so forth, using all the epithets by which our Sages have called it.19

“How long will you obscure the light of the blessed Ein Sof, which pervades all the worlds, which was, is, and will be the same, even in the very place where I stand, just as the light of the blessed Ein Sof was alone before the world was created—utterly unchanged,

as it is written: ‘I, the L-rd, have not changed,’20 i.e., the fact of creation has wrought no change in Him, for He transcends time, and so on? And therefore, the fact that it is now ‘after’ creation cannot affect Him.

“But you, repulsive one (and so forth) deny the truth which is so plainly visible—that all is truly as nothing in His presence—a truth which is so apparent as to be ‘visible to the eye’!”

In this way, he will help his divine soul, enlightening its eyes to perceive the truth of the unity of the infinite light of the Ein Sof

as though with physical sight and not merely through the lesser perception of “hearing” and understanding,

for, as explained elsewhere, this is the core of the whole [divine] service.

The reason that humbling the spirit of the sitra achara is effective in crushing it is that in truth, there is no substance whatsoever in the sitra achara. That is why it is compared to darkness, which has no substance whatsoever, and is automatically banished by the presence of light.

Similarly with the sitra achara. Indeed, it possesses abundant vitality with which to animate all the impure animals and the souls of the nations of the world and also the animal soul of the Jew, as has been explained.21 Yet this vitality is not its own, G‑d forbid, but stems from the realm of holiness, for the realm of holiness is the source of all life, including even the life-force of the sitra achara, as has been explained above.22 Therefore, it is completely nullified in the presence of holiness, as darkness is nullified in the presence of physical light. Its power lies only in the fact that in regard to the holiness of man’s divine soul, G‑d has given it (—the sitra achara) permission and ability to raise itself against it (—the divine soul) in order that man should be roused to overpower it and to humble it by means of the humility and submission of his spirit and by being abhorrent and despised in his own eyes—for through this, he humbles the sitra achara and abhors it.

The arousal of man below to crush the sitra achara causes an arousal above to fulfill what is written: “From there will I bring you down, says G‑d”23 to the sitra achara, which seeks to rise against G‑dliness and to obscure it.

This means that He deprives it of its dominion and power and withdraws from it the strength and authority which had been given it to rise up against the light of the holiness of the divine soul.

Thereupon, it automatically becomes nullified and is banished, just as darkness is nullified before physical light.

Indeed, we find this explicitly stated in the Torah in connection with the spies sent by Moses to scout out the Holy Land. At the outset, they declared: “For he (the enemy) is stronger than we,”24 and, interpreting the word מִמֶּנּוּ, the Sages say: “Read not ‘than we,’ [but ‘than He,’]”25 meaning that they had no faith in G‑d’s ability to lead them into the Holy Land. But afterward, they reversed themselves and announced: “We will readily go up [to conquer the Land].”26

Whence did their faith in G‑d’s ability return to them? Our teacher Moses, peace unto him, had not shown them in the interim any sign or miracle concerning this, which would restore their faith. He had merely told them that G‑d was angry with them and had sworn not to allow them to enter the Land.27

What value did this Divine anger and oath have to them if in any case they did not believe in G‑d’s ability to subdue the thirty-one kings28 who reigned in the Land at that time, for which reason they had had no desire whatsoever to enter the Land?

Surely, then, the explanation is as follows: Israelites themselves are “believers, [being] the descendants of believers.”29 Even while they stated, “The enemy is stronger than He,” their divine soul still believed in G‑d. They professed a lack of faith in His ability only because the sitra achara clothed in their body in the person of their animal soul had risen against the light of the holiness of the divine soul, with its characteristic impudent arrogance and haughtiness, without sense or reason.

Therefore, as soon as G‑d became angry with them and thundered angrily: “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation…your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness…I, G‑d, have spoken: I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation…,”30

—their heart was humbled and broken within them when they heard these stern words, as it is written, “And the people mourned greatly.”31 Consequently, the sitra achara toppled from its dominion, from its haughtiness and arrogance.

But the Israelites themselves i.e., as far as their divine soul was concerned had believed in G‑d all along.

Every person in whose mind there occurs doubts concerning faith in G‑d can deduce from this episode of the spies that these doubts are nothing but the empty words of the sitra achara, which raises itself against his divine soul. But Israelites themselves are believers….

Furthermore, the sitra achara itself entertains no doubts at all concerning faith. As explained in ch. 22, the kelipah in its spiritual state (i.e., when not clothed in the human body) does not deny G‑d’s sovereignty. It has merely been granted permission to confuse man with false and deceitful words in order that he may be more richly rewarded for mastering it.

In this, it is similar to the harlot who attempts to seduce the king’s son through falsehood and deceit with the king’s approval, as in the parable narrated in the holy Zohar.32