Likkutei Amarim Chapter 9 · 5785

00:01 Speaker 1 Good.

00:04 Speaker 2 Yes, your mother-in-law.

00:06 Speaker 3 No, wind.

00:07 Speaker 2 With this weather, it’s windy.

00:08 Speaker 3 It’s windy.

00:08 Speaker 2 It’s the wind, not perspiration.

00:09 Speaker 3 Do you know how strong the wind is outside?

00:11 Speaker 2 I got here after walking quite a distance.

00:13 Speaker 3 That wind, with this weather.

00:14 Speaker 1 Because you walked, you’re warm.

00:16 Speaker 2 I’m not that warm.

00:18 Speaker 3 It isn’t hot.

00:18 Speaker 2 It’s pleasant, very pleasant.

00:19 Speaker 3 Pleasant, yes.

00:20 Speaker 2 It’s...

00:22 Speaker 3 No, don’t make a thing of it.

00:23 Speaker 2 Yes, her mother said she needs to throw it out because it’s no good. Ask her.

00:27 Speaker 3 Do you want me to open the window for you? Would you like more water?

00:32 Speaker 2 To drink. I can see we need a little comfort.

00:35 Speaker 3 Are you hot? Are you cold?

00:36 Speaker 2 Cold, cold.

00:37 Speaker 3 Hot.

00:38 Speaker 2 Now we have a problem with the cold and the heat.

00:41 Speaker 3 No, you can say it’s cold. Who has the majority against David?

00:44 Speaker 2 Turn it off.

00:45 Speaker 3 Against David, they can.

00:46 Speaker 2 Hot.

00:47 Speaker 3 Yes.

00:50 Speaker 2 I half came—sorry, I half came.

00:55 Speaker 1 All right, we’ve reached chapter 9. In the previous chapters, the Alter Rebbe explained that each of us—every Jew—has two souls. He said that these souls are not just... They are two complete beings, each with its own intellect, emotions, and identity, and both are inside our body. The Alter Rebbe explained at length what each of these souls is about: what it looks like, what its character is, what its intellect and emotions are like, and what its garments are like. Broadly speaking, the explanation was that the G-dly soul is called G-dly because it is G-dliness, literally a part of G-d above. It is nullified to Hashem’s will, nullified to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and all it cares about is observing Torah and mitzvos. The animal soul is exactly the opposite, the complete opposite. It doesn’t know what G-dliness is; it doesn’t know what spiritual things are. It knows this world, and it wants this world. It feels comfortable and at home in this world. He explained that when the animal soul wants this world, even if it wants things that aren’t forbidden, those things still come from the kelipos. In other words, anything that isn’t holiness is kelipos. He explained at length how any action a person takes—even permitted things, even permitted speech, and often even things done without intent—brings him down into the kelipos, and so on. So he explained at length the two souls, the G-dly and the animal, and the differences between them. What wasn’t so clear from that whole explanation was where the point of friction between them is. Why do they need to fight? One wants this and the other wants that. It’s as if they have nothing in common. Why would they fight each other? Why would they quarrel?

03:26 Speaker 1 So in this chapter, chapter 9, the Alter Rebbe clears that up and explains why they quarrel. But at the beginning of the chapter, he first sharpens the question before explaining the matter. Chapter 9: “Now the dwelling place of the animal soul, which is from kelipas nogah, in every Jew, is in the heart.” Where in the heart? Not throughout the heart—in the left chamber of the heart. Why specifically the left chamber? Because the left chamber is filled with blood. That’s according to medical knowledge, at least according to the medicine of the past. So the right chamber... the left chamber of the heart is where the heart draws in blood, and in the right chamber, the blood mixes with air coming from the lungs and goes out... goes out to the body, to the whole body. So the left chamber is considered full of blood, while the right chamber has no blood of its own. It only receives blood from the left side, but in and of itself, it has no blood. So the animal soul’s place is in the heart, in its left chamber, which is full of blood. Well, what does that have to do with anything? If the left chamber of the heart is full of blood, why does that mean the animal soul is there? What’s the connection?

04:50 Speaker 4 Because the blood is the soul.

04:51 Speaker 1 That’s what he says: “And it is written, ‘For the blood is the soul.’” In other words, our Sages said that the soul is invested in the blood. Where is the blood? In the heart, in the left chamber. That’s why the animal soul dwells there. Ah, but when it says, “For the blood is the soul,” blood is found throughout the body. There’s no organ without blood.

05:17 Speaker 4 That’s also where the fitness is.

05:19 Speaker 1 Hmm?

05:19 Speaker 4 That’s also where the fitness is.

05:22 Speaker 1 Its source—it’s produced in the liver. Blood isn’t produced in the heart. Its source is in the liver.

05:28 Speaker 4 The whole body.

05:29 Speaker 1 What?

05:29 Speaker 4 The heart is the pump.

05:30 Speaker 1 The heart is the pump. The blood passes through it. That’s true, but blood is found throughout the body. Its source is in the liver. So why say that it’s specifically the blood in the heart? It also says—there’s another verse: “The soul of the flesh is in the blood.” There are several verses like that. The soul is present in the blood throughout the flesh. The body receives its physical vitality through the blood in it. Why? Our Sages said that there are different qualities of blood. Some blood is more basic, coarser, and some is finer and finer still. And what the soul...

06:12 Speaker 4 Is it the same blood?

06:14 Speaker 1 In each person. And the soul, uh, the soul that gives life to the body, which joins with the blood, doesn’t join with all the blood. It joins only with the most distinctive revi’is of blood. There are about five liters of blood in the human body, I think something like that, but only one revi’is of that blood is called “the revi’is of blood on which the soul depends.” A person’s life depends on... A revi’is is a measure, a cup like this, there’s...

06:47 Speaker 4 Kiddush.

06:49 Speaker 1 No, a large cup. A cup like this holds about three, almost three revi’is. In other words, a revi’is is a small amount, about the size of a matchbox, let’s say, something like that. So our Sages said that a person’s vitality—his life—depends on the revi’is of blood within him, the high-quality blood. That blood is in the heart. Then, when blood from the rest of the body reaches the heart, it mixes with that blood and receives vitality from it, and from there it goes back throughout the body. But... yes? That’s what he says here: “The blood is the soul.” And where is the main blood, the high-quality blood in which that revi’is is invested? It’s in the heart. That’s why the animal soul dwells there, and that’s why all desires, boasting, anger, and the like are in the heart. When a person desires something, where does he feel the desire? In his heart. When he boasts, where does he feel it? In his heart. When he’s angry, where... Why in the heart? Because that’s where it is. That’s where the soul is, so that’s where he feels it. By the way, the Rebbe points out: Why does he list them in precisely this order—desires, boasting, and anger?

08:18 Speaker 4 Desires.

08:20 Speaker 1 Why specifically in that order? When a person has an animal soul, first of all, it desires. When a person sees something that doesn’t yet belong to him...

08:33 Speaker 4 He wants it.

08:34 Speaker 1 He immediately wants it; he immediately desires it. He doesn’t need to think about it or do anything else. As soon as he sees it or hears about it, if it’s something he likes, he immediately desires it. Nothing needs to happen first; it doesn’t have to go through the intellect. The desire appears first. Where? In the heart. If a person gives in to his desires and starts fulfilling them, and then he has many things he desires... There’s someone who wants to have a lot of money, so he desires it and works until he has money. Yes, there are people like that. Someone told me today that he wanted... he wanted to be muscular. So he asked GPT—this was a few months ago—he asked GPT because he wanted defined abs, and asked if it could make him a plan to get them.

09:23 Speaker 4 Mine are embarrassing?

09:25 Speaker 1 Not exactly. It made him a plan.

09:27 Speaker 4 It gave him one.

09:28 Speaker 1 It made him a workout plan, and he followed it, and within a few months he developed defined abs. So a person can have desires like that. After he gets what he desired, he boasts about it. Yes, that’s the order. First the desire, then boasting. If someone gets in the way of his getting what he wants, he gets angry. So that’s the order. They really told me that today.

09:59 Speaker 4 Plans like that.

10:00 Speaker 5 Of course. Anything that...

10:02 Speaker 4 They want for it.

10:03 Speaker 1 Come on, come on, don’t get me started, because it’s very easy.

10:10 Speaker 4 It’s a toy.

10:11 Speaker 1 So, uh, the animal soul is in the heart, and that’s why we feel desires and character traits in the heart. And the order is boasting—desire, boasting, anger. The animal soul does indeed dwell in the heart, but it also rises to the brain in the head to calculate and ponder those desires and that boasting, and to devise ways to pursue them. Just as, physically, blood has its source in the heart and spreads from the heart to all the organs, and also rises to the brain in the head, so too, spiritually, the animal soul dwells in the heart. We spoke about this several times in the previous chapters. What’s the difference between the animal soul and the G-dly soul? I want to explain this expression, that the soul rises from the heart to the brain. What does that mean—is there some kind of elevator? What was there?

11:10 Speaker 4 The first thing it suggests to you...

11:12 Speaker 1 What?

11:12 Speaker 4 The dwelling place of each one.

11:15 Speaker 1 We’ll get to the dwelling place in a moment. We’ll talk about the animal soul in a moment. I want to explain the concept. What does it mean that the soul rises from the heart to the brain?

11:24 Speaker 4 We spoke about how the animal soul first sees something, wants it, and then starts thinking: “I want that,” and first...

11:31 Speaker 1 Yes, I wanted to mention exactly that. Yes, the animal soul—what is it? It’s emotion, it’s feelings, it’s desire. That’s what it has. The G-dly soul is intellect, it’s understanding. And you can see this plainly. When it comes to desires, there’s no difference between a small child’s desires and an adult’s desires. They’re the same desires. Why does a small child desire small things?

12:04 Speaker 4 Because his intellect is also small.

12:05 Speaker 1 Because his intellect determines what he understands. If he understood more, he would desire bigger things. The desire itself is the same desire. So with the... the animal soul’s intellect only gives the desire a form, shapes it. What will it attach itself to? To whatever he understands. He attaches the desire to that. That’s what he understands, so he attaches it to that. But desire is the... the essence of the... of that soul is desire. The G-dly soul has no desires. The G-dly soul is intellect, it’s understanding, it’s only... yes. But when a person contemplates the greatness of Hashem, love is born in him. An emotion is born: love, awe, joy. Right? The G-dly soul in itself... has no, has no emotions. It’s an intellectual soul. Call it intellectual, call it G-dly, but its essence is intellect. When he contemplates, that’s when the emotions are born.

13:05 Speaker 4 Yes.

13:05 Speaker 1 All right? So this is what it means that the animal soul’s dwelling place is in the heart. But when it becomes manifest, when desire reveals itself in the heart—now he desires something he saw or wanted or heard about or became aware of—his intellect starts picturing how to get it, planning how to obtain what he desires. That is called its rising to the head. Good. So that’s the animal soul. “But the dwelling place of the G-dly soul is in the intellect of the head.” We’ll examine this at very, very, very great length later. In the last three chapters of Tanya, 51 through 53, he discusses how the G-dly soul enters a person through the intellect in the head, and from there spreads through all the limbs, from above downward. It spreads to all the limbs, including the heart, in the right chamber, which has no blood. The right chamber is full of air. That’s where the air from the lungs arrives, at least according to our Sages, and that’s where the G-dly soul spreads. Its place is in the intellect, and when a person contemplates G-dliness, it spreads to the heart. Where in the heart? Not on the left side. The left side is the place of the animal soul. It spreads into the right chamber, where there is love and awe. As it says, “A wise man’s heart is to his right.” Who is the wise one?

14:35 Speaker 4 The G-dly soul.

14:36 Speaker 1 The G-dly soul is called wise. The evil inclination is called, uh, an old and foolish king...

14:43 Speaker 4 And a wise little child.

14:43 Speaker 1 And the G-dly soul, the good inclination, is called a wise little child. “A wise man’s heart is to his right.” And what is revealed in the right chamber of the heart when the G-dly soul spreads there? Love of Hashem. Love of Hashem blazes in the heart like flames of fire. When does it blaze? When people use their minds to grasp and understand, and contemplate with the daas in their minds matters that awaken love—then love is aroused. So he mentions here that love in the heart, in the right chamber, is aroused when? After there is intellectual insight, understanding, and...?

15:26 Speaker 4 Contemplation.

15:27 Speaker 1 What does it say?

15:29 Speaker 4 They contemplate.

15:30 Speaker 1 “They contemplate with their daas.” Intellectual insight is chochmah.

15:34 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

15:35 Speaker 1 Right? Binah, contemplation—that’s binah. And “with their daas” means that he firmly fixes his mind on it. So when a person invests all his intellect—chochmah, binah, and daas—and contemplates a matter that awakens love in the heart, love is born. What kind of love? Love like flames of fire. His whole being burns for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And not only love of Hashem: in the same way, joy of heart is aroused by Hashem’s splendor and the majesty of His greatness. What is the difference between love and joy?

16:17 Speaker 4 Mm, it’s different.

16:20 Speaker 1 Hm? It’s somewhat, somewhat similar, but it’s not all that similar.

16:29 Speaker 4 You don’t want to...

16:30 Speaker 1 Love is when I very much want something, right? I’m drawn to it. Yes? Joy is when I enjoy looking at it.

16:38 Speaker 4 When you obtain it.

16:42 Speaker 1 Not even when I obtain it. When I know...

16:45 Speaker 4 That.

16:46 Speaker 1 When I know that someone else, a good friend of mine, uh, I don’t know, has had a son. That makes me happy.

16:52 Speaker 4 It brings you joy.

16:53 Speaker 1 Yes. It’s not mine. When a person thinks about something he knows is good, it makes him happy; it warms his heart. Yes. So if a person contemplates the greatness of Hashem, it brings him to love of Hashem. But if he looks at the beauty—if he simply stops to marvel at the greatness of Hashem, at how He gives life to the worlds and brings them into being, and how He gives me life and sustains all of us and does good for us and performs miracles for us—it simply brings joy. It makes you happy. Yes. When the eyes of the wise man, which are in his head—in the chochmah and binah of his mind—look upon the glory of the King, upon the splendor of His greatness, which is beyond measure, without end or limit, as explained elsewhere. And not only love and joy, but likewise the other holy emotions of the heart arise from the Chabad faculties of the mind. So the unholy emotions that stem from desires come from the animal soul, which is where? In the...

17:58 Speaker 4 Left chamber.

17:59 Speaker 1 The left chamber. And all the holy feelings of love and joy are in the right chamber and come from the G-dly soul’s contemplation. Up to this point, we haven’t seen where the two meet. On the contrary, if the animal soul is confined to the left chamber there, while the G-dly soul is up in the intellect, nowhere near it, and at most reaches the right chamber, they never meet. Seemingly, they could live together for 120 years in peace, love, and friendship. Yes.

18:39 Speaker 4 Until a person crosses over to the...

18:41 Speaker 1 Why would they fight each other?

18:43 Speaker 4 There’s no reason to. Wherever the G-dly soul is, even when it reaches the heart, it reaches a place of holiness.

18:52 Speaker 1 Now that the question is clear, he begins to explain the matter itself. But... I’m on the next page; you’re on the one we’re already going through. For it is written, “One nation shall prevail over the other.” Why? Because the body is called a small city. It’s like two kings fighting over one city, each wanting to capture it and reign over it. What does it mean to reign over it? To govern its inhabitants according to his will, so that they obey whatever he decrees for them. In the same way, the two souls—the G-dly soul and the vital animal soul that comes from kelipah—fight each other over the body and all its limbs. The animal soul isn’t content to be in the heart; it wants to control the entire body. And the G-dly soul isn’t content to be in the mind. It also wants to control the entire body. So now there’s a problem.

19:52 Speaker 4 Why?

19:53 Speaker 1 Hm?

19:53 Speaker 4 Why?

19:54 Speaker 1 This is where it starts. Once, Reb Dovid Kertz[?] told me, in connection with some disputes at a shul, “When does a war begin? A war begins when someone crosses the border.” There’s a border; as long as you’re within your own border... The moment one side crosses the border into the other side’s territory, that’s where the war begins. Um...

20:33 Speaker 6 No.

20:33 Speaker 1 They fight each other over the body and all its limbs. And here the Alter Rebbe begins to spell out what each one wants. What does the G-dly soul want?

20:42 Speaker 6 He spells out what the G-dly soul wants.

20:44 Speaker 1 What?

20:44 Speaker 6 He mainly spells out what the G-dly soul wants.

20:47 Speaker 1 Right.

20:48 Speaker 6 Then the G-dly soul—the animal soul also wants something.

20:53 Speaker 1 Right, and why?

20:55 Speaker 6 Because the only one that interests me is the G-dly soul.

20:58 Speaker 1 Not exactly. We don’t need an explanation of what the animal soul wants. That’s how it’s explained. What does the G-dly soul want? Its desire and will are that it alone rule over the entire body and govern it, and that all the limbs obey it. What does “obey it” mean? That they do whatever it tells them. And more than that: it wants the limbs not only to obey it, but also to be completely nullified to it. What’s the difference between obeying it and being completely nullified to it?

21:42 Speaker 6 Here there are still [unclear]...

21:45 Speaker 1 Yes. Obeying means following a command: one gives an order to another. The other one has no choice; he does it, as though he’s being forced. Yes. The G-dly soul doesn’t want the limbs merely to say, “All right, you said it, we’ll do it.” It wants the limbs to want what it wants, to be nullified to it. And beyond that, it wants them not only to be nullified to it, but to be a vehicle for it. What is a vehicle? What’s the difference between being nullified and being a vehicle?

22:18 Speaker 6 They don’t obey at all because they’re nullified... In obeying, in being nullified, there’s [unclear]...

22:24 Speaker 1 More or less. Yes, right. Being nullified means they have a will of their own, but they set aside their will for its will. Being a vehicle means they have no will of their own at all. Only its will is present here. To such an extent that all the limbs of the body become garments for its ten faculties and the three garments mentioned above. You remember what the ten faculties and three garments are, right? All its powers and garments should be invested in the limbs of the body, and the entire body should be filled with them alone—only with the powers and garments of the G-dly soul—and no stranger, G-d forbid, should pass among them. The G-dly soul isn’t content with everyone being nullified to it and becoming a vehicle for it and so on, while from time to time there’s also some... the animal soul can pass through there too.

23:22 Speaker 6 A brief appearance.

23:23 Speaker 1 It wants all of it to be its own forever, with the animal soul unable to set foot there for even a second.

23:32 Speaker 6 Not a hundred percent of ninety-nine percent. It’s a hundred percent of...

23:37 Speaker 1 In other words, it wants the three mochin—he spells this out precisely—the three parts of the brain in the head to be filled with the Chochmah, Binah, and Daas of the G-dly soul. The brain in the head—what does that mean? What are these three parts of the brain in the head?

23:51 Speaker 6 The brain.

23:51 Speaker 1 No. They are to be filled with the Chochmah, Binah, and Daas of the G-dly soul.

23:56 Speaker 6 What do you mean, the brain?

23:58 Speaker 1 Huh? We’re talking about the physical brain, quite literally. Yes, there’s a brain in the head, and it’s divided into three: the right, the left, and the back. And the G-dly soul simply wants those physical parts of the body—the right, left, and back of the brain—to be filled with its Chochmah, Binah, and Daas: the wisdom of Hashem and the understanding with which to contemplate His greatness, which is beyond all searching and without end. Right? So that the brain—the physical brain—won’t occupy itself with other things, but will think only about its concerns. And it wants that same physical brain, through Daas, to give rise to awe and love in his mind, fear of Hashem in his heart, and love of Hashem blazing in his heart like flames of fire, so that his soul yearns and even pines, with longing and desire, to cleave to Him, the Ein Sof, blessed be He, with all his heart, soul, and might. What are “heart, soul, and might”? Why, “You shall love Hashem your G-d with all…” “You shall love Hashem your G-d with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.” Right. What does that mean? What does “with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might” mean? That the heart should be full, the soul should be full. And what is “might”? “With all your might” refers to your money, to your body. The whole soul, heart, and body should be filled with nothing but the G-dly soul. “From the depths of the heart,” in the right chamber: at first, the inside of the heart should be paved with love. “Paved” is like a floor—a floor covered wall to wall with nothing but love of Hashem, leaving no room for anything else. And then, beyond that, the heart should also be full and overflowing. Not just the floor of the heart, but its entire chamber should be full and overflowing. What’s the difference between full and overflowing? Full means up to the brim; overflowing means it spills over. Yes. So it wants the heart first to be paved with love, and not only paved but full. Not only

26:16 Speaker 1 full, but overflowing too. Where should it spill? Into the left side. Into the left chamber of the animal soul. And here’s where the action begins. Until it spreads into the left chamber as well. What will it do there? What is love of Hashem looking for in the left chamber? Because the animal soul is more involved with the body. So once the G-dly soul manages to transform it, all the person’s inner stirrings—its aim is “to subdue the sitra achra, the element of evil water within it,” the desire that comes from kelipas nogah. Here the Alter Rebbe says almost explicitly that although, as we said, the animal soul has four elements, its main, central element is the desire for pleasures—the desire associated with water, the element of water. So the G-dly soul wants love of Hashem to spill into the left chamber until the animal soul bends. And after that, it wants not only to bend it, but to change it. What’s the difference between bending it and changing it? Bending it means it simply remains subdued. Transforming it means that it itself—no, it’s more than being subdued. When we say one person subdues another to do his will, the other person does what the first wants, right? He’s forced to, but he does it. What does it mean that the G-dly soul forces the animal soul to do its will? It compels it to love Hakadosh Boruch Hu. When a person contemplates G-dliness, Hashem’s greatness, and the good that Hakadosh Boruch Hu does, and contemplates it deeply, it stirs enthusiasm in him. That enthusiasm sweeps the animal soul along. How does he put it here? It spills over onto the animal soul until it, too, begins to feel that there’s something exciting here. It likes getting excited. When it comes to a feeling of enthusiasm, the animal soul enjoys it; it feels good to it.

28:43 Speaker 7 You asked me.

28:44 Speaker 1 It suits the animal soul, so it joins in. Right? Then it gets excited too. But once that animal soul has been shown how good Hakadosh Boruch Hu is, and it really has begun to get excited—what happens to that excitement when the person stops contemplating?

29:01 Speaker 7 Probably…

29:03 Speaker 1 It will be as though it had never happened. He’ll simply go back to the same desires he had before, the desires of the world. Why? Because the animal soul hasn’t changed; it’s still what it was before. For a moment it was shown something bright, something sparkling, and it got swept along. But its essence didn’t change. At the next stage, though, the G-dly soul isn’t satisfied even with that. It wants “to change it and transform it from the pleasures of this world to love of Hashem.” As it says, “‘With all your heart’—with both your inclinations.” That means it should rise and reach the level of a great love and an even deeper affection, beyond the level of fierce love like flames of fire. The G-dly soul wants the animal soul to love Hakadosh Boruch Hu not only with a love like flames of fire, but with an even greater love. What love is greater than flames of fire?

30:13 Speaker 7 Love of delights.

30:14 Speaker 1 Huh?

30:14 Speaker 7 Love of delights.

30:16 Speaker 1 Love of delights.

30:17 Speaker 7 Which is also…

30:18 Speaker 1 Huh?

30:20 Speaker 7 The whole idea of love of delights.

30:24 Speaker 1 And in the verse it is called “love of delights.” What does that mean? Taking delight in Hashem—a foretaste of the World to Come. The G-dly soul wants the animal soul to take delight in Hashem, for its pleasure to stop coming from worldly desires. Think about how he began the analogy: two kings fighting over one city. What does each one want? He wants the other king not just to submit to his rule; he wants the other to want what he wants, not merely obey him. The G-dly soul wants to take the animal soul and transform it, change it. Do you grasp what that means? How is it possible? The G-dly soul wants it—fine, it wants it. But how is it possible? Tell me, can you take… We learned what the animal soul is, right? It is kelipah, it is sitra achra, it draws its sustenance from the kelipos. Its whole nature is the sense of being something in its own right, its sense of self, its sense of ego. It toils—because of all the things we’ve discussed. And now the G-dly soul wants to take it and tell it, “Until now you loved this world. No—now that’s over. Now take delight in something that is the opposite of your whole reality.” What? Is that possible? On what basis does the G-dly soul even want this? How can it expect such a thing to happen? Do you understand what I’m asking? Yes. So he explains it here, on line fourteen: “As it is written in Eitz Chaim, Gate 50, chapter 3, in the name of the Zohar, that evil is transformed into complete good, just like the good inclination itself.” Eitz Chaim already says in the name of the Zohar that such a thing exists: evil can cease to be evil and change. You don’t burn it, break it, fold it up, or crush it. You change it so that it itself becomes… You change its entire

33:02 Speaker 1 essence, its entire reality. How can that happen? “By removing its soiled garments.” What are soiled garments? They are the pleasures of this world in which it is clothed. The Rebbe explains a very deep idea here in two and a half lines. The truth is, the animal soul isn’t evil. It isn’t evil. The animal soul is a capacity for desire. Why does it currently desire the pleasures of this world?

33:42 Speaker 8 Because that’s what surrounds it.

33:43 Speaker 1 That’s what’s before its eyes. That’s what it’s shown. But if we show it that there are better things to desire, that spiritual matters can bring greater pleasure than physical things—if I manage to explain that to my animal soul, it will throw this whole world away. It doesn’t need it; it needs to experience pleasure. That’s what it needs. Of course, explaining such a thing to the animal soul, which by its very nature is a coarse animal—just try telling it that it can take pleasure in spiritual things! That’s no easy task. Right? But that’s what the G-dly soul wants.

34:35 Speaker 8 It tries

34:36 Speaker 1 to remove the animal soul’s garments, to take away the screen of this world from before its eyes and show it the spiritual world, so that it begins to take delight in spiritual matters, in matters of G-dliness. “And likewise all the other emotions of the heart, which are branches of awe and love”—he has spoken only about awe and love, but the G-dly soul wants all the other emotions, too, to be for Hashem alone. And not just the intellect and emotions he’s discussed so far, but also the entire power of speech in the mouth and thought in the brain. The G-dly soul wants everything, everything, to be filled solely with its own garments of thought and speech: thought of Hashem and His Torah, “so that his conversation is about it all day and his mouth never ceases from studying.” And the power of action in the hands and the other limbs should be devoted solely to performing mitzvos, which is the G-dly soul’s third garment. The G-dly soul doesn’t want—and as far as it’s concerned, won’t allow—the animal soul any foothold, anything at all. Everything belongs to it. What does the animal soul want?

35:52 Speaker 8 The same thing.

35:53 Speaker 1 The exact opposite.

35:55 Speaker 8 She also wants everything to be hers.

35:57 Speaker 1 The same thing, but the exact opposite.

35:59 Speaker 8 For everything to be hers.

36:00 Speaker 1 “But the animal soul, which comes from kelipah, desires the exact opposite.” How can there be a victory?

36:12 Speaker 8 That will always be there.

36:14 Speaker 1 It looks like an endless war.

36:16 Speaker 8 That will always be there.

36:17 Speaker 1 The Alter Rebbe says: No. There’s a point of light that we don’t think about much. He says it here in just a few words: “for the person’s benefit, so that he will overcome it and defeat it.” Why does the animal soul want the opposite of what the G-dly soul wants? For the person’s benefit.

36:41 Speaker 9 The G-dly sou... the animal soul?

36:42 Speaker 1 The animal soul wants the exact opposite. Why does it want the exact opposite? It wants what’s best for the person.

36:50 Speaker 8 So that he’ll have standing in Heaven.

36:52 Speaker 1 What?

36:53 Speaker 8 So he’ll have something to contend with, and then he’ll win.

37:08 Speaker 1 Ah, ah, that’s what you said. Sorry, I didn’t understand. Yes. That’s right. The holy Zohar gives a parable about a king who wanted to educate his son, so he hired a prostitute to tempt him. Now, the king doesn’t want his son to give in; he wants him to withstand the test. And she knows very well what the king wants, and she wants to do the king’s will. So she faces a dilemma. On the one hand, she knows the king wants his son not to give in. On the other hand, she’s being paid to do the job properly, right? In other words, the animal soul receives its vitality from kelipas nogah. Kelipas nogah is a spiritual kelipah that knows its Master. It knows exactly where its vitality comes from. The animal soul knows perfectly well that the only reason Hakadosh Boruch Hu placed it here in the body together with the G-dly soul is to bring out the G-dly soul’s strengths through its effort to overcome the animal soul. What the animal soul truly wants is for the G-dly soul to win. That’s what it wants. It can’t show that. It can’t even hint at it. It isn’t allowed to. It has to carry out its role faithfully. It has to do everything it can to trip us up with desires and transgressions. That’s what it’s here for; that’s its job. But what does it really want deep down? It, too, wants the G-dly soul to win. And that gives us the strength to know that, ultimately, when a person does make an effort to fight, he can and will succeed. Now, up to this point in this chapter... In the previous chapters, the Rebbe explained what the two souls are. Here the Rebbe explained where they are, why they fight, and what the battle is about. Now, what happens when one wins? What happens when the other wins? What happens when neither

39:13 Speaker 1 one wins? That’s the next three chapters.

39:20 Speaker 8 Not bad.

39:21 Speaker 9 Thank you very much.

39:22 Speaker 8 How was it?