Likkutei Amarim Chapter 7 · 5781

00:01 Speaker 1 We’re up to chapter 7. Chapter 7 is the middle chapter of three that explain who the animal soul is.

00:13 Speaker 2 There’s...

00:14 Speaker 8 Does anyone want coffee?

00:29 Speaker 1 In general, these things are familiar; this is one of the early chapters of Tanya. But there’s no study hall without a new insight. We also need to review things and learn them again. So in the first chapter that discusses the animal soul, chapter 6, the previous chapter, the general point was this: What is sitra achra? Sitra achra is anything that isn’t holiness. Holiness is something that is nullified to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, that doesn’t feel itself to be an independent existence. Anything that does feel itself—feels its own self. The very feeling of oneself: “I.” Anything that has an existence of its own, that feels its own existence, is sitra achra, “the other side.” It is no longer the side of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And he explained at great length that this sitra achra—this whole framework called sitra achra, the side that is not holiness—includes everything in the world. It includes the world’s physical reality and its spiritual reality, impure things and forbidden things, and even permitted things. The entire reality of the world is one great sitra achra. That is why the affairs of this world are harsh and evil: the whole world is sitra achra. And “the whole world” includes the person himself. Not only is the outside world sitra achra; the person himself is too. What does “the person himself” mean? His animal soul. He already said in chapter 1 that the animal soul is the person—it is what a person feels himself to be. After all, every one of us says “I” at least a hundred times a day. Maybe some people say it only fifty times. By the way, I don’t know if...

02:32 Speaker 1 Chassidic stories tell about Reb Zusha—Zusha the Partisan. I didn’t know him. He was one of the great chassidim of the Frierdiker Rebbe, and of our Rebbe as well. He wouldn’t say the word “I.”

02:48 Speaker 2 Zusha.

02:49 Speaker 1 Huh?

02:49 Speaker 2 Zusha.

02:50 Speaker 1 Zusha, yes. People who knew him say it wasn’t that he was trying, making an effort, thinking, “Since it isn’t good to say ‘I,’ I won’t say ‘I.’” It wasn’t like that. He simply didn’t feel himself. He didn’t feel his own existence. Imagine a person who simply doesn’t feel himself. He thinks only about the Rebbe, about Hakadosh Boruch Hu, about his mission. He doesn’t say “I” because he never thinks “I.”

03:16 Speaker 2 No, he nullifies himself.

03:18 Speaker 1 Nullification, yes—complete nullification of self. That is the state of a tzaddik.

03:21 Speaker 2 To the extent that...

03:24 Speaker 1 There’s a disagreement—yes, a disagreement among later authorities about whether Reb Zusha was a tzaddik or not. All right, but in general, the inner disposition of a tzaddik is that he nullifies himself; he doesn’t feel himself to be an independent existence.

03:38 Speaker 2 There aren’t many like that.

03:40 Speaker 1 Right. That’s why our Sages said in the Midrash, “I have seen men of spiritual ascent, and they are few.” He quoted that in chapter 1 of Tanya: there are very, very few tzaddikim. So in chapter 6, he explained what sitra achra is in general: anything that isn’t on the side of holiness. That includes our own souls, our feelings, our thoughts—everything. Then, at the end of the chapter, he began to get into the details: within sitra achra itself, there are two levels. One level is completely impure. It feels only its own existence. What does “impure” mean? We said that impurity means the feeling of oneself. One can feel himself but can also nullify himself. Another feels only himself; he feels no nullification at all toward Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is called completely impure—utterly distant from holiness. And there is an intermediate level. What is that level of sitra achra that is completely impure? He called it the three kelipos. We know from Kabbalah that these are called the three impure kelipos. What belongs to that level? He discussed all the impure animals that are forbidden to eat—their souls and their bodies as well—and everything from the plant kingdom that is forbidden, right? Orlah, kilay ha’kerem, tevel, shemitah produce—all the things forbidden to eat. And of course, any of a person’s thoughts, speech, or actions that are forbidden: when a person thinks about or does something forbidden, that too draws its vitality from the lowest level, the three impure kelipos. That was chapter 6. Our chapter, chapter 7, begins to explain the main point. What is the main point? We don’t really want to discuss everything else; we want to discuss the animal soul, to explain who it is and what it is.

05:44 Speaker 1 So our chapter—and chapters 7 and 8—explains the animal soul itself. What does it explain? That the animal soul doesn’t come from those three impure kelipos. It comes from another level, still within the kelipos, still within impurity, but a less severe level of impurity. This is called kelipas nogah. He explains what that means and how it affects the soul—how it affects a person—throughout the chapter. Let’s look inside. Chapter 7: “But the soul...” He begins with “but,” right? Unlike what we discussed at the end of the previous chapter, the three impure kelipos, the vital animal soul of a Jew, though it too comes from kelipah and is clothed in the person’s blood, as stated above—and not only it, but also the souls of kosher animals, wild animals, birds, and fish that are permitted to eat, unlike the forbidden ones discussed earlier; and the existence and vitality of everything in the inanimate and plant kingdoms that is permitted to eat; and likewise the existence and vitality of all action, speech, and thought concerning worldly matters. What sort of thoughts and speech? Those that contain no element of prohibition, nor any root or branch of the 365 prohibitions. The ordinary lives of all of us.

07:07 Speaker 9 Mathematical calculations.

07:09 Speaker 1 Hmm?

07:09 Speaker 9 Mathematical calculations.

07:10 Speaker 1 Mathematical calculations, and... eating, drinking, earning a living, conversations, friends. He isn’t doing anything forbidden; he isn’t committing a sin. A person lives in the world—he isn’t committing a sin every moment. A sin is when he does something the Torah says is forbidden. If a person is simply living in the world—living, thinking, talking, feeling, getting excited, walking, doing things—those aren’t sins. They aren’t holiness either, right? What are they?

07:43 Speaker 9 Neutral—neither one nor the other.

07:45 Speaker 1 So that’s what he says: all these things he does are not forbidden, but he isn’t doing them for the sake of Heaven. If they aren’t forbidden and he isn’t doing them for the sake of Heaven, why is he doing them? Because they are what his body wants and desires. It’s comfortable and pleasant for him, so he does it. Even if these are things the body needs for its actual existence and survival. A bodily need might be exercise to stay healthy, right? A person wants to be healthy. Why does he want to be healthy? He wants to feel good. A non-Jew who exercises to stay healthy isn’t doing it so he’ll have the strength to serve Hashem. He does it because he wants to feel good. He wants to lose weight, right? So that’s a bodily need. And there are things a person absolutely needs for his body to survive and stay alive. Like what?

08:43 Speaker 10 Food.

08:43 Speaker 1 Eating. You can’t go without eating. So yes, there are things he really needs to do; he can’t manage without them. But when he does them, his intention is not for the sake of Heaven, so that he can serve Hashem with his body. He does them because of his body’s needs, not out of an intention directed toward Hakadosh Boruch Hu. His intention is for himself. These actions, words, and thoughts are no better than the vital animal soul itself. Where did we say the vital animal soul draws its life from?

09:18 Speaker 10 From kelipas nogah.

09:19 Speaker 1 From kelipas nogah. Right—not from the impure kelipos, but from kelipas nogah. So all these things, which on the one hand aren’t forbidden but on the other hand aren’t holiness either—where do they draw their vitality from? Also from kelipas nogah, like the animal soul. “And all of them, without exception, flow and are drawn from the second level of the kelipos and sitra achra.” By the way, just... he calls it the “second level.” Usually, when we say “second level,” we mean something lower, right? When someone says “second level,” it means less. There’s the top, and then there’s the second level. Right?

10:01 Speaker 10 A stage. You should say “stage,” because with stages it’s... But I also know that in chapter 2, it says “the second soul of a Jew.” We were talking about one...

10:10 Speaker 1 “The second soul” referred to the G-dly soul.

10:12 Speaker 10 Right. So why here? As though it’s higher.

10:14 Speaker 1 Oh. So this is an explanation. At the beginning of the previous chapter, we discussed how the kelipos—the animal soul—stand opposite the soul of holiness. It is like right and left. Everything that exists in holiness has a counterpart on the side of impurity, like “a monkey before a man,” as in the analogy from our Sages that we mentioned. In holiness, everything goes from above downward. With the kelipos, it goes... The main strength of holiness is at the top, while the main strength of kelipah is at the bottom. So the strongest kelipos are the three impure kelipos; that is the first level of kelipah. The second level is kelipas nogah, which is less severe, less evil. It is the fourth kelipah. In other words, counting from the bottom up, we already have the three impure ones, and kelipas nogah is fourth. And which kelipas nogah? Kelipas nogah of this world. When we hear “kelipas nogah of this world,” it follows that there is also a kelipas nogah that is...

11:39 Speaker 10 Not in the world.

11:40 Speaker 1 Not in this world. Right? What does that mean? In fact, every world has a kelipas nogah: the World of Beriah, Yetzirah, Asiyah. Even in Atzilus there is something called kelipas nogah.

11:51 Speaker 10 How can that be?

11:52 Speaker 1 Hmm?

11:52 Speaker 10 How can there be kelipas nogah in Atzilus? Theoretically, we say Atzilus is entirely good.

12:00 Speaker 1 Correct. That is why, unlike the other worlds—but this is not the place to discuss it—the kelipas nogah of Atzilus is not in Atzilus; it is in Beriah. But this is not the place to explain that. There are maamarim of Chassidus about Reumah: “And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tevach, Gacham, Tachash and Maachah.” Now, Chabad Chassidus explains that the letters of Reumah can be read as “see mah.” What is the idea of bittul? Like when Moshe Rabbeinu said, “What are we?” Right? What is this “mah”?

12:46 Speaker 11 Bittul.

12:47 Speaker 1 Moshe Rabbeinu says, “And what are we, that you complain against us?” Who am I? What am I? I am not an entity in my own right. That is the idea of bittul. He does not feel himself to be anything; he is nothing, right? So what is “see mah”?

12:58 Speaker 11 Making his bittul stand out.

12:59 Speaker 1 “Look how much bittul I have.”

13:02 Speaker 11 Hmm.

13:03 Speaker 1 He is in a state of bittul, but: “Look how much bittul I have.” He feels his own bittul. The Rebbe once spoke about this at a farbrengen. I heard it a long time ago; I do not remember exactly. The Rebbe says it is like someone preparing to say Shema. He is davening; he really is davening and learning Chassidus. He immerses in a mikveh and is genuinely absorbed in it. Finally he gets to Shema, says “Shema Yisroel,” and is truly absorbed in it, truly in a state of bittul. Then, when he finishes, he simply looks at his watch. How long did it take? It is not that... He was in a state of bittul, but this is something within serving Hashem. It is also explained in Kabbalah. It really is not...

13:48 Speaker 11 Bittul, but with an awareness of it.

13:50 Speaker 1 Yes. This is subtle, very subtle. This is not the place to expand on the subject. In any case, every world has a kelipas nogah. It is explained that the kelipas nogah of the World of Beriah—the World of Beriah is... What?

14:08 Speaker 11 There would be much more nogah there.

14:10 Speaker 1 It is mostly good, with a minority of evil. Kelipas... What? No, in the World of Beriah. The kelipas nogah of the World of Yetzirah is half good and half evil. That is from Kabbalah.

14:23 Speaker 11 As though it goes down a level.

14:25 Speaker 1 The kelipas nogah of the World of Asiyah is mostly evil, with a minority of good. But that is still good, because we are talking about the spiritual World of Asiyah—the spiritual kelipas nogah of the spiritual World of Asiyah. But the kelipas nogah of the physical World of Asiyah, this world, is not merely mostly evil with a minority of good. It is almost entirely evil.

14:51 Speaker 11 There is practically nothing left.

14:52 Speaker 1 Yet we say it also contains good. So that is what he is discussing here: Where does our animal soul draw its vitality from? From the kelipas nogah of Asiyah in this world, from the kelipas nogah of this world, which is almost entirely evil. That is us. What can we do?

15:20 Speaker 11 Challenging.

15:21 Speaker 1 Challenging? Certainly challenging. The striking thing is that until you learn Tanya, you do not even know there is anything challenging you. You simply do not know such a thing exists. A person feels as he does, and he wants good things—he wants good things. He is a Jew who keeps mitzvos. He is religious, observant, G-d-fearing. He studies in a kollel. I do not know; he does good and holy things. All his thoughts are about his children growing up great in Torah and about succeeding in learning more himself. He wants only holy things. A person cannot imagine that all his desires are “I want, I want.” He does not... You speak to him about Chassidus, and he simply does not understand what you want from him. He wants good things. “I only want holy things. What do you want from me?” He simply does not understand. He does not understand what you are talking to him about at all. Until you learn Chassidus, you literally do not understand what the challenge even is. It is not that you cannot serve Hashem; you know nothing. Simply nothing. So it says here that “the animal soul comes from the fourth kelipah, called kelipas nogah, which in this world is called the World of Asiyah, most of which—” “In this world,” right? That wording is precise.

16:59 Speaker 12 Is called.

17:00 Speaker 1 “It is called the World of Asiyah, and since this is the kelipas nogah of this world, it is therefore almost entirely evil”—not merely mostly evil—“with only a little good mixed into it.” He already said that. In parentheses, he adds something he already said in chapter 1: What does “good” mean? “From it come the good character traits in the animal soul of a Jew, as mentioned above.” Which good traits did he mention there?

17:20 Speaker 12 Compassion, acts of kindness.

17:22 Speaker 1 Compassion and acts of kindness. Do you remember? Yes? Do you remember or not?

17:27 Speaker 12 Yes.

17:27 Speaker 1 When a person has compassion and does acts of kindness, that comes from kelipah and the sitra achra. Why? What is the problem? Why are compassion and acts of kindness called kelipah and sitra achra? Why do they belong to kelipas nogah?

17:46 Speaker 12 Because it is something natural. It is just... it is nature.

17:50 Speaker 1 Yes, and so what?

17:51 Speaker 12 It is not a choice he made himself.

17:54 Speaker 13 It makes him feel, “Oh, I had compassion on the non-Jew.” No? But that belongs to the non-Jews.

18:02 Speaker 1 We need to understand a basic principle. We have three colors, all right?

18:08 Speaker 12 Red.

18:10 Speaker 1 Blue, green and yellow. All right?

18:17 Speaker 12 The primary colors?

18:18 Speaker 1 The three, the three primary colors.

18:20 Speaker 12 No, red.

18:23 Speaker 1 What?

18:23 Speaker 12 Red, blue and yellow.

18:25 Speaker 1 No, I deliberately chose blue here, because there is a reason for it.

18:28 Speaker 12 Yes.

18:29 Speaker 1 Blue corresponds to the side—

18:31 Speaker 12 You said green instead of red.

18:33 Speaker 1 Yes, exac—

18:34 Speaker 12 Green is a mixture of blue and yellow.

18:37 Speaker 1 Right, that is exactly what I meant.

18:38 Speaker 12 All right.

18:40 Speaker 1 Blue—

18:42 Speaker 12 Just pass on the knowledge. Just pass it on.

18:43 Speaker 1 Blue corresponds to the side of chessed, the right side, water. Yellow belongs to the side of gevurah. Kabbalah says that green is the middle line. As Ilana says, it is an integration of green and—

18:58 Speaker 12 No, blue and yellow.

18:59 Speaker 1 Of blue and yellow. The middle line. Now green, the color green, is a color in its own right. It is not merely that you take two colors and mix them. Green does not come about as a result—

19:17 Speaker 12 It stands on its own.

19:18 Speaker 1 It is a thing in its own right, a third thing.

19:21 Speaker 12 Not just a combination.

19:22 Speaker 1 It has both this and that within it. But in itself, it has its own character. It is something else, neither this nor that. Right? How can any intermediary connect two things? After all, it is neither one nor the other. How can it connect them? It has something a little like one and something a little like the other, so it can connect them. Right? Why do we say that the animal soul, or kelipas nogah, is an intermediary between holiness and the impure kelipos? Kelipas nogah really is a thing in its own right; it is an intermediary. It is neither holiness nor an impure kelipah. True, kelipas nogah contains good and evil. The good in kelipas nogah is not holiness. The evil in kelipas nogah is not impurity. Its good resembles holiness, and its evil resembles impurity. So how do the kelipos receive vitality from Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Through kelipas nogah. Holy Divine vitality connects with the good in nogah, and through the evil in nogah it is conveyed to the kelipos. That is why it is called an intermediary. All right? For our purposes, what are compassion and acts of kindness? When a person has compassion for someone else, gives him tzedakah or does him a kindness because Hakadosh Boruch Hu said to, that is holiness. When he has compassion for someone because “I cannot bear to see him suffer,” that has nothing to do with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. It is that I cannot bear to see him suffer. What is humaneness? It is me. It comes from the “I.” Who is that “I”?

21:14 Speaker 14 Through the...

21:15 Speaker 1 “I” is not Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “I” is the animal soul. It’s the sitra achra. So yes, it’s something good, but it’s a good that isn’t holiness. It’s a good that belongs to the sitra achra. Holiness is connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This is good, it’s excellent, but it isn’t connected to holiness.

21:31 Speaker 14 But in chapter 1, didn’t we say that the kindness of the nations of the world is only evil, and that of the Jewish people is only good, or something like that?

21:41 Speaker 1 Because...

21:43 Speaker 14 We said those are the good character traits of...

21:45 Speaker 1 Those are the good character traits that come from kelipas nogah.

21:47 Speaker 14 We can’t arrive at that conclusion.

21:52 Speaker 1 With a Jew, it can be excellent, because a Jew has a G-dly soul. We spoke about this a little. So whatever he does, even when he does something for himself, the G-dly soul is there inside as well. There is some genuine bittul here. With a non-Jew, there is no genuine bittul at all.

22:10 Speaker 14 But what we pointed out there was, well, that everyone has some motive, so we also have some motive of our own in all...

22:20 Speaker 1 Yes, but what’s primary? What’s primary, and what’s the greater part of it? With a non-Jew, there is no element of genuine bittul—of truly doing something not for himself at all, but only for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That element doesn’t exist in him. It isn’t there; he simply doesn’t have it. He has no source for it, no G-dly soul.

22:40 Speaker 14 That’s the other side.

22:40 Speaker 1 With a Jew, even when he does something because he genuinely wants to, because he feels compassion for the other person, as we discussed earlier, right? He wants to give to him, wants to help him—not for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, but for himself.

22:52 Speaker 14 So that’s what we...

22:53 Speaker 1 Out of his, out of his humanity, as someone said here, right? So inside this there is... It’s really a matter of faith. I don’t know if something like this can be proven; probably not. It’s more a matter of faith. But the author of the Tanya says that because he has a G-dly soul, then within this act of giving, even though he doesn’t sense the holiness, the G-dly soul also participates. Even when he doesn’t feel it.

23:18 Speaker 14 Who?

23:20 Speaker 1 Okay?

23:21 Speaker 14 That’s different.

23:23 Speaker 1 Mm? That’s more precise now. There are many explanations of this, you know. All right, so what have we concluded? That the animal soul comes from kelipas nogah. What is kelipas nogah? It is something in between: it is neither holiness nor impurity, but it contains good things and things that aren’t good. What they have in common is that none of it is for Hakadosh Boruch Hu; it’s for oneself. And it—this continues on line seventeen—“is an intermediate category.” We’re still not talking about the animal soul; we’re talking about kelipas nogah. “And it is an intermediate category between the three completely impure kelipos and the level of holiness.” Therefore—oops—what does that mean? What follows from it? Okay, we’ve learned and understood what kelipas nogah is. So what does it mean in practice? “Therefore, at times it is included in the three impure kelipos, as stated in Eitz Chaim, Gate 49, chapter 4, in the name of the Zohar.”

24:25 Speaker 14 What does it say there?

24:26 Speaker 1 What?

24:26 Speaker 14 What does it say there?

24:27 Speaker 1 That at times kelipas nogah descends into the three impure kelipos and becomes included in them. Later we’ll see when that happens. “And at times it is included in and rises to the level of holiness.” So because kelipas nogah is intermediate—apart from what we discussed, which isn’t written in Tanya but is written elsewhere, that it can serve as the link that gives vitality to the kelipos, that their vitality has to pass through it—apart from that, it itself sometimes descends, becomes included in the kelipos and turns completely impure like them, and sometimes rises and becomes holy. We’ll see. Here it’s just the heading; we’ll see it inside. That is, when? When is it considered to rise into holiness? “When the good mixed within it is separated from the evil, prevails, rises and becomes included in holiness.” For example—some examples—“for instance, one who eats the rich meat of a fattened ox.” That’s an example from the Gemara. “And drinks fragrant wine.” Not just any wine, but wine that’s...

25:43 Speaker 14 On a high level.

25:44 Speaker 1 Yes. And why does he drink it? First of all, wait. Let’s go slowly before we continue.

25:49 Speaker 14 He gets drunk.

25:51 Speaker 1 No, no, no.

25:51 Speaker 14 Well?

25:51 Speaker 1 He drinks—no, no, no, no. He drinks fragrant wine, and he does it in a refined way, just for the purpose.

26:01 Speaker 14 His mind.

26:02 Speaker 1 Wait, a second before we go on to the next two words. This ox—where, where does it draw its vitality from? What keeps it alive?

26:14 Speaker 14 Kelipas nogah.

26:14 Speaker 1 Kelipas nogah. So we spoke about this earlier, right? An animal permitted for eating. Wine is from a plant permitted for consumption. So both the wine and the ox, in themselves, before a person has touched them, are kelipas nogah. They receive their vitality from kelipas nogah. All right? What happens when a person eats them? He says this: if he eats them “to broaden his mind for Hashem and His Torah.” Now why does he eat rich meat? He’s hungry. He wants to feel satisfied so he can concentrate on learning, so he can daven properly. That’s why he eats. He doesn’t eat it because it tastes good. Right. As Rava said, “Wine and fragrance sharpen the mind.” There’s a story in the Gemara about Rava: he was asked a question and didn’t know how to answer. Then he ate rich meat and drank fragrant wine, and suddenly the answer and explanation came to him. Right. So he drank and ate tasty things from this world. He didn’t care about the taste; he wanted to broaden his mind for Hashem. And it worked. If that’s the nature of the eating—or another example, if it’s to fulfill the mitzvah of enjoying Shabbos and Yom Tov—that’s already deeper.

27:40 Speaker 14 And more correct.

27:41 Speaker 1 Mm?

27:42 Speaker 14 More correct, too.

27:43 Speaker 1 And deeper. Why deeper?

27:46 Speaker 14 Because he performed a mitzvah.

27:48 Speaker 1 Exactly. In the first case he ate so that he could perform a mitzvah afterward. Here the eating itself is a mitzvah. Right. So if a person eats and drinks with that intention, even if he eats delicacies...

28:04 Speaker 14 More correct.

28:04 Speaker 1 Then what happens? “The vitality of the meat and wine, which had previously flowed from kelipas nogah, is refined and rises to Hashem like a burnt offering and a sacrifice.” What happens to the evil? After all, kelipas nogah is a mixture of good and evil, right? So what happens to the evil?

28:26 Speaker 14 It is nullified.

28:27 Speaker 1 Huh?

28:27 Speaker 14 It is nullified.

28:30 Speaker 15 It goes down.

28:31 Speaker 14 It doesn’t go down. Why would it go down?

28:34 Speaker 15 It’s evil; it can’t.

28:37 Speaker 14 It can’t.

28:37 Speaker 1 It can’t rise. But if it has nothing sustaining it, it ceases to exist. It disappears.

28:47 Speaker 14 It dissolves.

28:48 Speaker 1 It no longer exists.

28:49 Speaker 14 It doesn’t go anywhere.

28:50 Speaker 1 When kelipas nogah rises into holiness, what does that mean? That its vitality, the good within it...

28:58 Speaker 14 Rises upward.

28:59 Speaker 1 Rises upward, while the evil within it is nullified. This is called avodas habirurim, the work of refinement. The moment the holy vitality is extracted from the evil, the evil is nullified. The good becomes included in holiness and the evil is nullified. We can also put it simply. When a person feels compassion—take the example we gave earlier, compassion for a poor person, right? If he feels compassion because he can’t bear to see the person suffering, because it’s hard for him to see him that way, that’s one thing. But the moment he reflects on the fact that Hakadosh Boruch Hu commanded us to help the poor, and that’s why he feels compassion, the feeling he had before no longer exists. It has been nullified; it simply isn’t there. The feeling was previously in kelipas nogah; now it has become holiness. The earlier feeling hasn’t gone somewhere else—it simply no longer exists. It has been nullified. And he gives another example: “One who says something humorous to sharpen his mind and gladden his heart for Hashem, His Torah, and His service.” He tells a joke—not to become idle, G-d forbid, right? So first he gives examples involving eating, and the same applies to speech. If a person engages in worldly activities—doing things, eating, or even speaking—but does them for the honor of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, for a holy purpose, then the good within them is refined and rises into holiness, and the evil is nullified. Right, because we need to be joyful, as Rava did for his students: he would first say something humorous to them, and the scholars would be cheered. But what happens in the opposite case? Someone who is among “those who gorge on meat and guzzle wine” eats that same rich meat and drinks that same fragrant wine. But why does he consume them? Because he’s a glutton. He eats because it tastes good, “to satisfy the desires of his body and animal soul.” His soul says, “Wow, that’s tasty,” so he wants to eat it because it’s tasty. What does “desires” mean? It doesn’t mean... It tastes good, so he wants it.

31:14 Speaker 15 We all do that.

31:15 Speaker 1 Huh?

31:16 Speaker 15 We all enjoy food.

31:18 Speaker 1 Right. So here he explains what the problem is.

31:21 Speaker 15 It’s simple.

31:21 Speaker 1 Huh?

31:21 Speaker 15 It’s simple.

31:21 Speaker 1 So that’s what he says: it’s very bad. Right. We’ll see it inside in a moment.

31:31 Speaker 14 Thank you.

31:34 Speaker 1 He eats only to satisfy the desires of his body and animal soul, which stem from the element of water among the four evil elements. Desire comes from the element of water, as he said in chapter 1. Through this, the vitality of the meat and wine within him descends and is temporarily absorbed into the utter evil of the three impure kelipos, and his body becomes a complete garment and vehicle for those impure kelipos. Why? It’s very simple. Why did he just eat? Because it tastes good to me. Right? What does that eating express? It magnifies and emphasizes the “I.” Who is this “I”? That “I” is the sitra achra. Before, the food was neutral, so to speak; it could have gone this way or that. It was kelipas nogah. The moment he took something permitted and pulled it toward separation from holiness, toward self-awareness, he detached it from kelipas nogah and dragged it into the impure kelipos. Now it gets worse. He didn’t just drag the food into the impure kelipos. Why did he drag it there? Because he ate it for its taste. What happened to that food? He digested it. Right? His muscles now, the fact that he is alive now—that comes from this food. That’s his vitality now. Right? And where is that food? In the three impure kelipos. So now the vitality of his body comes from the three impure kelipos. Well, just try to daven or understand something.

33:32 Speaker 3 You could go crazy.

33:34 Speaker 1 No.

33:35 Speaker 3 What you’re saying is that if someone eats and enjoys it, it’s as though... So eat it because, as he says now, you need to be healthy, so you’ll have the strength to serve Hashem. Don’t eat it because you feel like it, because it tastes good. Eat it. It’s important to eat. Am I eating for that reason?

33:46 Speaker 1 You don’t have to say it. Think it and feel it.

33:48 Speaker 3 Just think it.

33:49 Speaker 1 You don’t have to say it. Saying it doesn’t help.

33:51 Speaker 3 That’s something else.

33:54 Speaker 1 We’ll see much, much more as we go on. We’re only at the beginning. We also have a G-dly soul. One step at a time. Right now we’re learning what the animal soul is. The animal soul is that one inside me who says, “This tastes good to me; I want to eat it.”

34:13 Speaker 3 Wait, but let’s say he’s the sort of person who eats and drinks to excess, yet he goes and has compassion on a poor person, and he has compassion because there’s a mitzvah to show compassion and give tzedakah.

34:22 Speaker 1 So listen, listen.

34:24 Speaker 3 To the book.

34:26 Speaker 1 The Alter Rebbe.

34:28 Speaker 3 In the kelipos.

34:29 Speaker 1 That’s a good question. That’s a good question, and the Alter Rebbe addresses it later in this chapter, in the next few lines. We’ll see it. Until when? Until the person returns to serving Hashem and studying His Torah. When a person returns—“returns” means he does teshuvah—the vitality of the food that he himself pushed or pulled into the kelipos comes back out of there. How? Why? What’s the connection? After all, I took the food and ate it, and we explained the process earlier. Its vitality became a separate “I” and descended into the kelipos. What does my doing teshuvah now have to do with it? I’ve already eaten the food. How does that bring the vitality out of there? Yes, he explains it like this: because, ultimately, it was permitted meat and kosher wine, they can return and rise with him when he returns to serving Hashem, when he does teshuvah. They aren’t bound there. They aren’t.

35:42 Speaker 3 They’re just visiting there.

35:44 Speaker 1 Yes. When a person eats or does permitted things not for the sake of Heaven, he really does bring them all the way down into the impure kelipos, but they’re only there; they don’t become bound to the kelipos. They descend into the kelipos and appear to be part of them. It’s complete impurity, but they aren’t bound to them, so when he does teshuvah, they return with him. That’s the meaning of “permitted.” That’s why permitted things are called mutarim. Why mutarim? They aren’t bound. What’s the difference between mutar and asur, permitted and forbidden? You know the joke about the man who got on the bus, right? Huh?

36:26 Speaker 4 No.

36:29 Speaker 1 Okay. Someone got on a bus with a dog. You don’t know it?

36:31 Speaker 4 No.

36:32 Speaker 1 Huh? There was a man, he had a...

36:35 Speaker 4 Not in our generation.

36:36 Speaker 1 A man wanted to get on a bus with a dog. These days you don’t even ask the driver. You scan the... what do you call it? Validate the ticket—is that the word?

36:44 Speaker 4 Validate.

36:45 Speaker 1 Validate. In the old days you had to speak to the driver when you got on the bus. So he got on with a dog and asked the driver whether he was allowed to bring it aboard. The driver said, “Asur, mutar; mutar, asur. If the dog is tied up, it’s permitted; if the dog is loose, it’s forbidden.” It’s a play on words, but, uh, that’s what the Alter Rebbe... yes, with all due respect to the distinction.

37:10 Speaker 4 [unclear]

37:11 Speaker 1 Why are forbidden things called asurim? Asur also means “bound”: they’re bound to the kelipos. You can’t detach them from there. Permitted things, even when they descend into the kelipos, aren’t bound there. You can bring them out. How? Through teshuvah. That is the meaning of heter and mutar: it isn’t bound and held by the external forces so that it cannot return and ascend to Hashem. Well, then what’s the problem? I’ll eat tasty things because they taste good to me, and afterward I’ll do teshuvah and everything will rise back up. There’s a solution. Nothing happened. It’s not so terrible. Right? Huh? Why not? What’s the problem?

37:52 Speaker 4 Because of the trace it leaves.

37:54 Speaker 1 Hmm?

37:56 Speaker 4 That’s only if it was unintentional.

37:58 Speaker 1 No, forget that. I’ll do it deliberately. I’m doing it deliberately. I know—I’ve studied Tanya, and I know what happens when I eat something because it tastes good to me. But I also know that afterward I can... There’s an option, there’s a trick: I’ll do teshuvah, think deeply about it, feel sorry and regret it, and it will rise back to holiness.

38:18 Speaker 4 But there’s still a trace.

38:19 Speaker 1 There’s a solution. He says no. There’s another problem. Why? Besides its descent into the kelipos, it doesn’t just descend into the kelipos. Something else happens. What’s that “something else”?

38:33 Speaker 4 A little blemish remains in the body.

38:35 Speaker 1 The trace it leaves remains in the body even after he does teshuvah and the vitality of the food returns and rises to holiness. The trace of the kelipah, of the impurity, remains attached to the body. You know when you write something in pencil and then erase it?

38:57 Speaker 4 It remains.

38:58 Speaker 1 Yes, you erased it, you erased it, but it’s no longer a clean sheet of paper.

39:03 Speaker 4 The writing left its mark.

39:04 Speaker 1 Something remains there; the trace remains. Right? And because of that trace, even after a person does teshuvah, that isn’t enough. So the body needs chibut hakever. It’s one of the punishments after... after a hundred and twenty years, may it not happen to us or to anyone. But in the end it’s one of the punishments, at least until Moshiach comes. Immediately after death there’s a punishment called chibut hakever. It’s one of the difficult punishments, even before one merits entering Gehinnom. Gehinnom is already a stage you reach after going through all the preliminary stages.

39:44 Speaker 4 Before the physical part.

39:45 Speaker 1 Yes, before Gehinnom there’s also chibut hakever and kaf hakela. Gehinnom is already the... the final stage.

39:52 Speaker 4 Summer camp, compared to the...

39:54 Speaker 1 I don’t know if it’s summer camp, but it’s already...

39:56 Speaker 4 Compared to... chibut hakever is today.

39:59 Speaker 1 Once you enter Gehinnom, it’s over in eleven months at most. That’s a fixed period. No Jewish soul is there for more than eleven months. But, uh...

40:09 Speaker 4 Enough, even that’s...

40:10 Speaker 1 Even three days is too much. Even a moment is too much. It really isn’t pleasant to be there. But before you get there, you have to go through certain processes so that you’ll be a vessel fit to enter the laundry, and those stages are called chibut hakever and kaf hakela. Chibut hakever is simply a way of cleaning the body, like taking a beater and beating a... a rug. Shaking it out to get the dust out of it.

40:35 Speaker 4 But what does that have to do with the soul?

40:37 Speaker 1 What?

40:37 Speaker 4 What does that have to do with the soul?

40:38 Speaker 1 It’s as though the chibut... it, it, it...

40:40 Speaker 4 This chibut hakever—what does it have to do with the soul?

40:44 Speaker 1 Boruch Hashem, I don’t know who it affects. It affects every person who ate things because they tasted good and then did teshuvah. The vitality in them returned to holiness, but the trace needs chibut hakever to clean it away. It won’t be cleaned away without it. As will be explained later...

41:06 Speaker 4 Wait, but that wasn’t my question either. I didn’t ask... Okay, write that in the answer. He’s doing both things at the same time.

41:13 Speaker 1 Wait.

41:14 Speaker 4 Wait, we haven’t gotten to that point yet.

41:16 Speaker 1 Patience. I once had an Arab friend who used to say...

44:15 Speaker 5 He can’t bear himself; he can’t bear anything. And he awakens with a tremendous, burning desire to draw close to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He’s ready to do anything—anything at all. What brought about that desire? His sins. If he hadn’t committed those deliberate sins, he wouldn’t have awakened with such desire. Right? Two people are running. One runs because he’s been promised something wonderful, the most wonderful thing in the world—something I can’t even describe or imagine. The other runs because he’s afraid of some danger, because someone is going to kill him. Who runs faster? The answer is obvious to everyone, even though we’re in neither situation. Right? Human nature is such that danger arouses a much deeper, more inward, much stronger feeling than being drawn by good things. That’s human nature. That’s why our Sages said: “In the place where baalei teshuvah stand, even the completely righteous cannot stand.” A completely righteous person serves Hashem with love and awe and is drawn toward holiness, but the force of his longing cannot be like that of a baal teshuvah. The baal teshuvah was in “a dry and weary land.” He felt the evil. He can’t bear it; he flees from there. His love is what’s called ahavah rabbah, a tremendous, passionate love. Because it was his sins that brought him to that extraordinary closeness to G-dliness. That is why the sins, too, are elevated to holiness. All right? “For until now his soul had been in a dry land and the shadow of death”—the sitra achra—“utterly distant from the light of Hashem’s countenance. For this reason, his soul thirsts with greater intensity than the thirst of the souls of the righteous, as our Sages said, ‘In the place where baalei teshuvah stand,’ etc. And it is of teshuvah out of this great love that they said deliberate sins become like merits for him.” It isn’t with every teshuvah a person does that deliberate sins become

46:45 Speaker 5 like merits. That happens only when he truly awakens in this way, to this degree. “For through them he came to this great love. But with teshuvah that does not come from this love, although it is proper teshuvah and Hashem will forgive him, they nevertheless do not become like merits for him.” Proper teshuvah. The Frierdiker Rebbe explains that, for example, one of the times—or the designated time—for teshuvah is Krias Shema She’al Hamitah, the Shema before going to sleep. That’s a time when a person takes stock of himself: what happened during the day? And he does teshuvah for everything that happened. Right? So the Frierdiker Rebbe says: What does “proper teshuvah” mean? It means that a person recites Krias Shema and means the words. He thinks about what he’s saying, and he is genuinely sorry. That’s called proper teshuvah, and that is enough for Hakadosh Boruch Hu to forgive him. Even if he committed the most serious sins during the day, Hakadosh Boruch Hu will forgive him. He hasn’t repaired the damage; the damage remains. But the person is forgiven. That is proper teshuvah. Teshuvah out of great love means that it truly touches his heart. “Nevertheless, they do not become like merits for him, and they do not rise entirely out of the kelipah until the end of days, when death will be swallowed up forever.” There’s an exception. There’s an exception: a prohibition that is among the most serious in the Torah, and yet it can be elevated even through ordinary proper teshuvah; it doesn’t require teshuvah out of great love. It isn’t bound up with anything. What? It isn’t bound up with anything. Yes. This is a prohibition that applies only to men, so we’ll read it quickly. We won’t discuss it here at length. “But the vitality in drops of semen emitted in vain, although it has descended and become incorporated into the three impure kelipos, rises from there through proper teshuvah and intense concentration during Krias Shema She’al Hamitah, as is known from the Arizal and alluded to in the Gemara: ‘Whoever recites Krias Shema upon his bed is as though he holds a double-edged sword,’ etc., to kill the bodies of the external forces that became a garment for the vitality in the drops. The vitality then rises from them, as is known to those versed in the esoteric wisdom.”

48:47 Speaker 5 So he explained briefly here: we discussed earlier what the whole problem is when a person does something forbidden—it becomes bound up in the hands of the external forces, right? With semen emitted in vain, it isn’t bound up; it isn’t attached to anything. Because it isn’t attached to anything, there’s no female element there, no woman; it isn’t bound up with anything. So although it’s forbidden, because it isn’t attached to anything, it can rise. “Therefore, the sin of emitting semen in vain is not mentioned in the Torah among the forbidden sexual relations.” It’s forbidden by Torah law, but it isn’t written there. There are several things—several mitzvos in the Torah that are Torah-level commandments. Hakadosh Boruch Hu commanded them to Moshe at Sinai, and nevertheless they aren’t written in the Written Torah. There are other examples. Which? Also among forbidden sexual relations. No, the Torah doesn’t say that a man is forbidden to have relations with his daughter. It doesn’t say so. There’s no verse like that. What doesn’t it say? It doesn’t say it. There is a prohibition for a person—there are many things. It isn’t written. No. What is written? It says a man is forbidden to have relations with his aunt and with his granddaughter. “He shall not uncover...” Right, but it doesn’t say he’s forbidden to have relations with his daughter. It doesn’t say it. There are several things in the Torah that, although they are explicit prohibitions under Torah law, aren’t written in the Written Torah. One of them is the sin of emitting semen in vain. Why isn’t it written? Hmm? Why isn’t it written? Which? That relations with his daughter are forbidden. The Rambam—I don’t know whether there are other reasons. What does the Rambam write?

50:53 Speaker 5 That it follows by a kal vachomer: the Torah speaks of a granddaughter, so it goes without saying that one’s daughter is forbidden. That’s self-evident. Right. Although—fine. Let’s skip to line fourteen. We’re already getting short on time. Let’s skip to line fourteen: “Unless...” That is, when we’re talking about actual forbidden sexual relations, where the vitality does become bound up in the hands of the kelipos, then even teshuvah out of great love—the teshuvah we discussed earlier—will no longer help. This is already a third level. Right? There’s a case where the vitality comes from something that is permissible in itself, but the person brought it into the kelipos. He does teshuvah, and that settles it. All right? There’s something worse: a person transgresses a prohibition. The forbidden thing has become incorporated into his body, so ordinary teshuvah isn’t enough. Teshuvah out of love can bring the vitality out of there. Right? Then there’s something still worse: forbidden sexual relations. Why are forbidden sexual relations worse than all other prohibitions? Because the vitality has been absorbed into an especially impure kelipah. The female element here is a kelipah; it’s called an especially impure kelipah. So even teshuvah out of great love, that extraordinary teshuvah we spoke about before, won’t help. Right? “Unless”—line fourteen—“he does teshuvah out of such great love that his deliberate sins become like merits for him. With this we can understand the statement of our Sages: ‘What is a wrong that cannot be corrected? One who has relations with a forbidden woman and fathers a mamzer.’” Because once a child has been born, the vitality in the drops of semen has been absorbed, and now he’s a person. So what—should he do teshuvah? He’ll do teshuvah out of great love. And then what? Will the child die because of that? Right? Nothing can help anymore. That’s why our Sages said it is a wrong that cannot be corrected: even if he does teshuvah

53:20 Speaker 5 So great that he cannot raise the life-force to holiness, since it has already descended into this world and become clothed in a body of flesh and blood. Still, there’s a story about one of the chassidim—even if you know it, it’s so moving that I have to tell it here. He was a chossid of the Alter Rebbe named Reb Yosef the mashpia. He was one of the Alter Rebbe’s great chassidim and was already quite old. I think he was about sixty at the time. The Alter Rebbe told him, “For the good of your soul, it would be better for you to be a wagon driver than a rabbi.” He got the shock of his life, but his wife said, “The Rebbe said it, the Rebbe said it.” So he left the rabbinate, left everything, bought a wagon and horse, and became a wagon driver. He spent a year or two, perhaps several years, simply driving a wagon. One time—and this is told at great length, with every last detail; it’s a wonderful story—he found himself in a place where a servant of a non-Jewish landowner had arrived. The servant was Jewish. He needed to travel somewhere early in the morning, and the only wagon driver in the area was Reb Yosef. But Reb Yosef didn’t leave for work early in the morning. How could he? He had to daven. So he told him, “Listen, I can’t meet your conditions. Do whatever you want. Stay, or hire another wagon driver. I’m not setting out before I daven.” The man got very angry, and so on. During the night, he woke up and heard Reb Yosef saying Tikkun Chatzos. He was deeply moved, and it stirred powerful memories in him. The story goes on for quite a while, until he became so distressed by what he had done...

55:31 Speaker 5 He had married a non-Jewish woman and had a child with her, a mamzer, and it pained him so deeply when he grasped where he had ended up that he became ill. He lay with a high fever for several days. No one knew what was wrong with him. The landowner called in doctors, but none of them knew what was happening, and he was on the verge of death. He was physically delirious. His anguish over what he had done made him sick—physically sick, to the point of death. Suddenly Reb Yosef realized the source of his illness. He understood what was going on and asked to be alone with him for a moment. They said, “He’s already dying; he may leave this world in another half hour.” So they let the Jew in. Reb Yosef went over and whispered in his ear that his wife and son had been crossing a bridge when their wagon overturned, they fell into the river, and they drowned. The man came to; within half an hour or an hour, everything had passed. He held a great thanksgiving feast and returned to the fold of Judaism. There’s more to the story. Today there is a family in Lubavitch whose members can be identified as descendants of that Jew.

57:03 Speaker 6 Excellent.

57:04 Speaker 5 Huh?

57:04 Speaker 6 Wait, did they really die, or was that part of his visions?

57:06 Speaker 5 No, no. They really died.

57:08 Speaker 6 Ah.

57:08 Speaker 5 So they bring this story... This story, the Rebbe—

57:11 Speaker 6 He held a thanksgiving feast because they died?

57:13 Speaker 7 Because he...

57:14 Speaker 6 Because his teshuvah had such power.

57:15 Speaker 5 What caused him such anguish?

57:16 Speaker 6 That he came out of it.

57:18 Speaker 7 His son was a non-Jew; his wife was a non-Jew.

57:19 Speaker 5 His teshuvah was so powerful that it drew out the life-force of those drops of seed that had descended and become clothed in the son, who was already a grown child. His teshuvah simply drew the life-force out of him; he had no life left and died physically. Why, then, does the Alter Rebbe write here in Tanya... This was a story involving the Alter Rebbe. Why does the Alter Rebbe write in Tanya that it’s impossible? You yourself showed that it’s possible! Why does he write that it isn’t? Because everything discussed here until now is about such great teshuvah that it turns deliberate sins into merits: the sin itself becomes a merit. Here—

58:07 Speaker 6 It was nullified.

58:08 Speaker 5 The son did not become holy; he ceased to exist.

58:13 Speaker 6 If we say it this way, he was a child—

58:15 Speaker 5 Wait, this—

58:16 Speaker 6 If it hadn’t been...

58:17 Speaker 5 That is Rabbi [unclear]’s explanation. Once the kelipah has become clothed in a body of flesh and blood, even such great teshuvah can draw that spiritual life-force out and bring it into holiness, but it cannot transform the physical reality into holiness. So here, in chapter two—the second chapter of the discussion of the animal soul—the Rebbe explained in the first chapter, in general terms, that the animal soul is part of the whole framework, the concept, of the sitra achra. Here he explained what it means for the animal soul to be an intermediary, and what happens when a person commits a transgression: the life-force of whatever he did, whether eating, drinking, speaking, or something else, descends into the kelipos—all the more so if it was something forbidden. That means that even if he does teshuvah, he may still need punishments after death to cleanse him of it. But that is not yet the end of the explanation. Why isn’t it the end of the explanation of the animal soul? Because so far we’ve spoken only about what the animal soul does in the world when a person listens to it, as it were, and is drawn after it—what effect that has on the life-force of things in the world. We haven’t yet spoken about what it does to the person himself. That’s the next chapter.

59:45 Speaker 6 That will be, with Hashem’s help, after Pesach.