Likkutei Amarim Chapter 11 · 5781

00:03 Speaker 1 Good evening. We’re starting chapter 11. Chapter 11 is very short and very easy, too. It certainly won’t take us long.

00:12 Speaker 2 How—

00:12 Speaker 1 We’re moving quickly. We learn a chapter every week, and we’ve reached chapter 11? So we’re in the middle—well, toward the end—of the subject. We want to explain what a beinoni is; chapter 12 will explain that. That’s our immediate goal, what we’re working toward right now. Once we know what a beinoni is, we’ll know what’s expected of us. Then we can start thinking about how to put it into practice. But first we need to understand what’s expected of us and what abilities we have. So we began with the souls: everyone has two souls, and we learned about their faculties and their garments. Then, in chapter 9, we were told how they fight each other. The G-dly soul dwells in the brain. Remember that? In chapter 9, the G-dly soul was in the brain, and from there it spread to the heart and all the limbs. It wants to control the body on its own. It isn’t willing to let anyone else tell the body what to do; it wants to be the only one telling it what to do. And the animal soul is in the heart; that’s where it dwells. In other words, what does it mean that the G-dly soul dwells in the brain? Its main faculty is intellectual: understanding and contemplating G-dliness. The animal soul, by contrast, is primarily emotional. It loves, it’s drawn to things, it has desires. It’s in the heart, and from the heart it wants to spread through the whole body, control it, and dictate that the body do what it finds pleasant, good, and tasty. And to satisfy its desires, he explained there, it isn’t content with the body alone. The animal soul knows very well—it senses perfectly—that if the brain doesn’t cooperate, it won’t be able to do anything. So it tries to rise into the brain in the head as well and fill it, to make the brain think and ponder and devise ways to get what it wants—

02:23 Speaker 1 how to satisfy all its desires. So one is in the brain and spreads through the whole body; the other is in the heart and spreads through the whole body. Each one wants to rule alone over the body, the “small city” that is the person, and so they’re at war. That was chapter 9. Then, in chapter 10, which we learned last week, he explained what happens when the G-dly soul wins. Chapter 9 was the battle; chapter 10 was a victory. The G-dly soul won. When the G-dly soul wins, the person is a tzaddik. What does “wins” mean? He has no yetzer hara. He defeated it, drove it out, killed it. He no longer has a yetzer hara. So if that’s the case, if there’s no yetzer hara, what does “a tzaddik who has good” and “a tzaddik who has evil” mean? If he has no yetzer hara, what evil does he have? There’s no evil in him. He’s good; he killed the yetzer hara. What does “a tzaddik who has evil” mean? He explained that at length there. We saw that, for a tzaddik, “evil” doesn’t mean he’s drawn to evil. I have evil in me: I want things that aren’t good, things one shouldn’t want. A tzaddik has nothing like that. What does “evil” mean for a tzaddik? He doesn’t utterly loathe evil. Evil isn’t completely out of the question for him. He hates evil, loves only G-dliness, and wants only holiness. He hates all the concerns of this world, but they aren’t entirely out of the question for him. They still have some place. That’s what’s called “evil” in a tzaddik. And what does it mean that there are many levels of “a tzaddik who has evil”? He explained that among tzaddikim of this kind, each differs in how repugnant evil is to him, how completely out of the question it is. Being drawn to evil is out of the question

04:20 Speaker 1 for any tzaddik. But there are differences in how utterly unacceptable and repugnant evil is to him: for one it’s more so, for another less; one loathes one kind of evil more, and another loathes a different kind more. Those are the differences. But as for the actual presence of a yetzer hara, a tzaddik has no such thing. Why? Because the G-dly soul defeated the animal soul. That was chapter 10. Chapter 11, which we want to learn today, presents the opposite situation. What happens when the animal soul wins? When the yetzer hara wins, what happens then? The Alter Rebbe says that here too, corresponding to the tzaddik who has good and the tzaddik who has evil—just as there are two levels of tzaddik, one who has only good and one for whom evil isn’t entirely out of the question—so too among resha’im, there are those whose yetzer hara has won and driven out the G-dly soul. It’s no longer there. But most resha’im are like most tzaddikim. That is, the yetzer hara has won, and the G-dly soul can’t make itself heard out loud—but it depends to what extent. So let’s look inside. Chapter 11. Chapter 11: “And corresponding to this is a rasha who has good,” corresponding to a tzaddik who has evil. He ended the previous chapter with the tzaddik who has evil, so he begins this chapter with the tzaddik who has good—that is, the rasha who has good. “That is, the good in his G-dly soul, which is in his brain and in the right chamber of his heart, is subordinate and nullified to the evil of the kelipah in the left chamber.” The G-dly soul dwells in the brain and spreads to the heart, but in the rasha it is subordinate—subordinate and nullified—to the evil. And he’ll explain that right away. “And this, too, is divided into myriads of different levels.” Just as there are myriads of different levels of a tzaddik who has evil, so too, among those who are resha’im who have good,

07:05 Speaker 1 there are myriads of different levels. How are the different levels expressed in a rasha? After all, the yetzer hara has won. So what accounts for the different levels from one rasha to another? “In the quantity and quality of the good’s nullification and subordination to the evil, G-d forbid.” What’s the difference between quantity and quality?

07:32 Speaker 3 They’re different things.

07:34 Speaker 1 They’re two completely different things, right? What is the quantity of evil, and what is the quality of evil?

07:41 Speaker 3 There are a few ways to look at it. There’s what you—

07:44 Speaker 1 The quantity of evil is how much evil there is: a lot or a little. The strength of the evil. Is it very strong, less strong, or only a little strong? That’s the quantity of evil. And the quality of evil is what kind of evil it is. There’s a person who desires something bad. What does that mean? He desires worldly pleasures. He likes to eat. Well, that really is bad, but it’s not so terribly bad. Then there’s someone who desires things that are actually forbidden. What forbidden things? Minor transgressions. He can’t help slipping into lashon hara; he can’t restrain himself. People are having an enjoyable conversation, and he can’t stop. That’s the evil he desires. Then there’s someone whose desires are for outright prohibitions. He wants to eat forbidden foods. He wants to do forbidden things. He desires to—

08:51 Speaker 4 That’s the quality.

08:52 Speaker 1 That has to do with quality, yes. What kind of evil. So quantity is how much—

08:56 Speaker 4 Even among forbidden things, there are differences in quality: better, worse, higher, lower.

09:00 Speaker 1 Certainly. There’s evil that’s mixed up with—

09:02 Speaker 4 If, if, if within...

09:05 Speaker 1 Yes.

09:08 Speaker 4 Sure, but they say that all the mitzvos are the same in that respect.

09:11 Speaker 1 Well?

09:13 Speaker 4 So how can there be a difference in quality?

09:16 Speaker 5 There are mitzvos that people do for the sake of—

09:17 Speaker 1 There’s evil that has good mixed into it. It isn’t wholly evil.

09:21 Speaker 4 What does it mean that good is mixed into it?

09:23 Speaker 1 It’s bad, but it’s not quite so terrible. There’s some intention for the sake of Heaven in there. He gives someone tzedakah so people will say, “Look, I give tzedakah”—but he does give tzedakah.

09:32 Speaker 4 What difference does that make? You’re still giving.

09:34 Speaker 1 So what difference does it make? It’s evil with good mixed into it. There’s pure evil. That’s evil of a different quality. Evil—

09:42 Speaker 4 Something that actually harms you.

09:43 Speaker 1 Evil for evil’s sake. Yes. There are different kinds—so when it comes to evil, there’s both quantity and quality.

09:50 Speaker 4 Can there be good in desecrating Shabbos?

09:53 Speaker 1 What? Can there be what?

09:55 Speaker 4 Good in desecrating Shabbos?

09:58 Speaker 1 What do you mean?

10:00 Speaker 4 Well, there are all kinds... This isn’t about ranking it now. The Rabbi said there’s evil of one quality and evil of another, evil that’s more or less mixed with good.

10:09 Speaker 1 Yes, yes, yes.

10:10 Speaker 4 And desecrating Shabbos—could that also have good mixed into it?

10:14 Speaker 1 Desecrating Shabbos is forbidden. What do you mean? How could it—

10:16 Speaker 4 It can’t have good intentions mixed into it.

10:18 Speaker 1 I don’t think so. So, regarding the differences between resha’im: in all of them, the evil has overcome the good. But did it overcome it with greater or lesser force? Does he desire things that are completely forbidden, or only less serious things? There are different levels in quantity and quality: how much the good is nullified before the evil, and how far the good is, G-d forbid, subjugated to the evil. For some people, that subjugation and nullification is very slight. And even that isn’t constant—or even frequent. It’s not only that it doesn’t happen all the time; it doesn’t happen often, either. Once in a while, at long intervals, the evil overcomes the good and captures the “small city,” or once in a while he stumbles in something. On the whole, he’s a Jew who keeps the mitzvos, a chossid, a Chabadnik, a G-d-fearing person. Meaning, here and there something might slip. You know, anything can happen, right? Once in a while. But it doesn’t capture all of him, only a part of him, which submits to it and becomes its vehicle and garment. And even then, it becomes a vehicle and garment for it to clothe itself in only one of the soul’s three garments. That is, either he stumbles in action alone, committing minor transgressions and not serious ones, G-d forbid; or he stumbles in speech alone, speaking something bordering on lashon hara, or mockery, and the like; or he stumbles only in thought. About this our Sages said, “Thoughts of transgression are more severe than transgression.” In practice, he didn’t commit a transgression, but he thought about doing one—he wanted to commit one. He thought about it; he already planned how to commit it. Planning it is also forbidden. A person is not allowed to plan how to commit transgressions

12:41 Speaker 1 even if, in practice, he doesn’t commit them. That, too, is forbidden.

12:47 Speaker 6 A person isn’t allowed to be perfect, either.

12:52 Speaker 1 No. Perfect means a tzaddik. Perfect means a tzaddik. No one is being asked to be a tzaddik.

12:58 Speaker 6 He’s not allowed to think about reaching that level.

13:00 Speaker 1 Right.

13:01 Speaker 6 Someone who never thinks about evil is perfect as far as I’m concerned.

13:04 Speaker 1 So that’s exactly why we’re learning Tanya: to understand that a person who never thinks about evil isn’t a tzaddik. That’s the minimum requirement. You know, there’s—

13:18 Speaker 6 The minimum requirement, like—

13:19 Speaker 1 …there’s a… yes. There’s—

13:22 Speaker 6 A servant, a servant.

13:25 Speaker 1 In the world there’s something called the Olympics. I don’t know if I’m allowed to say that name here. It’s an impure name—the name itself is impure. But the idea there is that anyone who wants to qualify first competes in preliminary contests in his own country, against all the other professionals in his field. There’s a certain threshold he has to meet, a minimum standard. Below that, you have no business going there. Right? So for a Jew, too, there’s something called the Shulchan Aruch. The Shulchan Aruch isn’t the pinnacle. How do you be a Jew? The Shulchan Aruch is—

14:03 Speaker 6 Basic.

14:04 Speaker 1 …up to here it’s kosher; beyond here it’s… What does the Shulchan Aruch say? This you may do, this you may not do. Right?

14:12 Speaker 6 Right.

14:13 Speaker 1 This is pure, this is impure; this is kosher, this is invalid. Up to here it’s still okay; from here on it’s forbidden. In other words, the Shulchan Aruch defines the minimum of Jewish practice.

14:25 Speaker 6 If that’s the minimum.

14:26 Speaker 1 That’s what the Shulchan Aruch is about.

14:28 Speaker 6 Yes, okay, but we’re not—

14:30 Speaker 1 What does the Torah say? The Shulchan Aruch tells you how to fulfill the mitzvos, right?

14:40 Speaker 6 Right.

14:40 Speaker 1 And the Torah says that “the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.”

14:47 Speaker 6 In the throat.

14:48 Speaker 1 The requirement for every Jew is, at the very least, to observe what’s written in the Shulchan Aruch. That’s the minimum. So if the Shulchan Aruch says it’s forbidden to think about something, then refraining from that is part of a Jew’s minimum requirement.

15:06 Speaker 6 Wait, the Shulchan Aruch is the minimum, and you want—so you come out a chossid, a chossid—

15:12 Speaker 1 Tanya isn’t talking about the maximum; it’s talking about a beinoni. A beinoni is the minimum. That’s where you start.

15:20 Speaker 6 To fulfill [unclear]. Chaya. Not Chaya’s, but from the outset it’s—

15:24 Speaker 1 Since this is… We started with this in the first class, and we’ve mentioned it several times already: only after you learn the first twelve chapters of Tanya do you suddenly realize what the Torah demands of you. And only after you realize what the Torah demands of you do you suddenly fall into despair: “Excuse me, I don’t feel this has anything to do with me at all.” That’s why Tanya says right at the outset, on the title page, before it even begins its first word: Know that everything I’m about to tell you is very close to you. That’s Tanya: to explain how… Later in Tanya, from chapter 35 onward, there’s more; we’ll get there, with Hashem’s help. But the basic point of Tanya, the purpose for which Tanya was written, is this: How can every Jew be a beinoni? A beinoni means someone who has not committed, does not commit, and will never commit a transgression—not in action, not in speech, and not even in thought.

16:34 Speaker 7 Before that, he did teshuvah.

16:37 Speaker 1 How did he do teshuvah? Well, of course: if he committed a transgression, he should do teshuvah. We’ll deal with that a little more today.

16:42 Speaker 7 Who is this about—from age thirteen?

16:51 Speaker 1 From age twelve and one day.

16:53 Speaker 7 No, no, because I’m told that you only start with this from age thirteen. Until then it’s all just [unclear].

16:59 Speaker 1 Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe, by Whose word everything came into being.

17:06 Speaker 7 Amen.

17:06 Speaker 1 We’ll continue this later in a WhatsApp exchange. Let’s—no, really. Let’s focus on the class, because if—

17:14 Speaker 7 That we bring in—

17:16 Speaker 1 Yes, but if we start going off on tangents, we won’t finish. Even though it’s a short chapter, we won’t manage to finish it. No, I’d be happy to correspond with you, but this isn’t the forum.

17:31 Speaker 7 Okay.

17:36 Speaker 1 And even if he doesn’t think about committing a transgression. Now it goes a step further. We said that action is certainly serious. Speech is serious, too. Even thinking about committing a transgression is serious. Even… We need to finish this. And even if he thinks about a transgression without intending to commit it—not that he’s going to do it, but he thinks about something that is a matter of transgression—that too is forbidden. He gives the example of relations between a man and a woman in this world: a person thereby violates the Torah’s warning, “You shall guard yourself against every evil thing,” meaning that he should not think about such things during the day in a way that will lead him to transgression at night. Or even less than that: he isn’t even thinking about a transgression; he simply isn’t doing a mitzvah. He has an opportunity to study Torah, he has time right now, and he turns his heart to idle matters, as we learned in Avos. What does “t’nan” mean? It refers to the Mishnah. The word “lishnos” means to study. “Tanya” means “it was taught”; “t’nan” means “we learned.” Right? “As we learned”—where in the Mishnah? In Tractate Avos. It says there: “One who stays awake at night, etc., and turns his heart to idle matters, etc., is liable for his own life.” If a person has an opportunity—right now is a suitable time to study—and he doesn’t study, then even if he isn’t thinking about a transgression at that moment, he could be fulfilling the mitzvah of Torah study and isn’t studying, so he is already liable for his own life. Even for one of these things, or anything similar, he is called a rasha at that moment. At the moment he commits the transgression, the evil has overcome the good. So he certainly isn’t a tzaddik. He has actual evil within him, and he isn’t even a beinoni: the evil has defeated him, so he is called a rasha. The evil in his soul overcomes him, clothes itself in his body, and causes him to sin and become impure. Afterward—and afterward the good in his G-dly soul overcomes it, and he regrets it and asks Hashem for pardon and forgiveness.

20:25 Speaker 1 And Hashem will forgive him if he repents properly, in accordance with the teaching of our Sages, of blessed memory, about the three categories of atonement that Rabbi Yishmael expounded, and so on, as explained elsewhere. The “elsewhere” alluded to here is Igeres Hateshuvah, the third part of Tanya, chapter 1. Maybe I’ll say a word about this now. We’ll surely talk about it again when we get to chapter 17, but let me put in one word here. To be a beinoni—I’m getting ahead of myself—to be a beinoni, you have to do teshuvah. The work of a beinoni is through contemplation, thought and intellect: to awaken the heart’s feelings and thereby control one’s actions. That is the work of a beinoni: mind, heart, liver. Through the mind, you awaken the heart and control your actions. That is the work of a beinoni. There are several ways of doing this, as we’ll see. A rasha—oh, this is connected to Amalek, you know? I’m just thinking of that now. What is a rasha? Even when he contemplates, he isn’t stupid. A rasha isn’t a fool. Right? The opposite of a rasha isn’t a fool. The opposite of a rasha is a tzaddik; the opposite of a fool is a wise person. So a rasha can be wise, yes? There’s no contradiction. A rasha can be wise, learn Chassidus, know it, and understand everything. He contemplates Hashem’s greatness, but nothing happens in his heart. No, no—a rasha is defined by what he does. A rasha is someone who actually stumbles in action, speech or thought. His yetzer hara has overcome his G-dly soul; he has fallen. That might be someone who falls once in a while, in some small matter. It might be someone who falls every day, or someone who falls in more serious matters, as we’ll see shortly. Now, as long as a person’s inner makeup—mind, heart, liver—is in the state

22:54 Speaker 1 of a rasha, where the heart rules the mind and the animal soul rules the G-dly soul, what good will contemplation do? What good will it do to contemplate endlessly? The animal soul is in charge of your heart. Its coarseness and its desires for this world won’t let the G-dly soul penetrate inward and stir him. There’s a kind of Amalek there. You know that between the head and the body there’s a narrow place called the neck. Familiar with it? That neck is called the narrow straits of the throat. It’s a narrow place. Why is it narrow? It’s a vulnerable point: the breadth of the mind has to contract in order to reach the heart. There’s an explanation of how that happens, and Amalek gets in there. He can easily sit on the artery and simply stop it from getting through. I’m painting a rather vivid picture, but that’s what happens. So for a person to be able to serve Hashem, he first has to do teshuvah. Until he does teshuvah and breaks down that barrier between mind and heart, he can contemplate from now until tomorrow; it won’t penetrate his heart, and it certainly won’t affect his actions. That’s why, in several places, when people asked the Rebbe, “If we want to study Tanya, where should we begin?” the Rebbe said, “First of all, study Igeres Hateshuvah. If you haven’t studied Igeres Hateshuvah and haven’t done teshuvah, what are you doing studying the beginning? After you study Igeres Hateshuvah, study Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah. Learn the foundations of faith. Once you’ve done teshuvah and have some foundation in faith, then study the first part of Tanya.” So that’s the order for studying Tanya: from the end to the beginning. That was all an aside. Now, what does it say there in Igeres Hateshuvah? How

25:09 Speaker 1 does a person do teshuvah? Our Sages say that if he failed to fulfill a positive mitzvah, his teshuvah takes one form. If he transgressed a prohibition, his teshuvah takes another form. And if he committed one of the more severe transgressions in the Torah, those punishable by kareis or by a court-imposed death penalty, then there is yet another kind of teshuvah. But we study all that there. Here, he only writes that if a Jew sinned—he fell, he stumbled—and afterward did teshuvah as described there in Igeres Hateshuvah, Hashem will forgive him. And the moment Hashem forgives a person, the barrier between mind and heart is broken, and he can begin to serve Hashem. So even a rasha can do teshuvah and serve Hashem. But here’s the thing: even after he has done teshuvah, he is still called a rasha. Why? That’s a question to think about. We see here that a person is called a rasha when his yetzer hara has won and he has sinned. Then he does teshuvah. Why is he still called a rasha?

26:47 Speaker 8 Because of all the impurity, he still...

26:49 Speaker 1 What?

26:50 Speaker 8 Maybe there are things that only afterward, sort of...

26:54 Speaker 1 He’s still capable of committing a sin. He’s capable of falling again.

27:00 Speaker 8 Right.

27:00 Speaker 1 He did teshuvah for that particular act. He regretted it; he truly regretted it. He really did genuine teshuvah, but only for that particular act. His essential nature hasn’t changed. Ordinary teshuvah isn’t enough to leave the level of a rasha, and that’s explained there in Igeres Hateshuvah. Nevertheless, even a rasha who has done teshuvah on its most basic level, so that he is still called a rasha afterward—even his teshuvah is accepted. Hashem forgives him, and he can serve Hashem. Let’s go on. That’s the rasha at the mildest level. “And there is one in whom the evil prevails more strongly, and not just one garment of evil becomes invested in him, but all three garments.” Thought and speech too. He stumbles in all of them, “and it causes him to sin in more serious transgressions”—not merely through some desire, but in matters that are actually forbidden—“and at more frequent intervals.” He stumbles more often. “Yet in the meantime he regrets it, and thoughts of teshuvah come to him from the good in his soul, which gains a little strength in the meantime.” Even a rasha on a higher—or lower—level, however you want to put it, even someone whose evil is stronger still has good in him. And because he has good in him, between one sin and the next he has thoughts of teshuvah. More than that, often—well, I assume this doesn’t happen often to anyone here. But I think each of us can sense, if we think about it, that even when we knowingly commit some sin—I’m not talking about someone who stumbled because he got confused or didn’t know, or something just slipped. I mean, there’s something he knows he’s not allowed to do, and he doesn’t restrain himself and does it anyway. It can happen, right? Rarely, but sadly it can happen to any of us. While he is committing

29:12 Speaker 1 the sin, he doesn’t feel good about it. He knows it isn’t right. There’s good in him; the good hasn’t died. He’s a rasha with good in him: the good is working inside him. It doesn’t stop working for a moment, even as he actually stumbles. But although he has good in him, and that good brings him thoughts of teshuvah—sometimes even during the sin itself—nevertheless, “he does not have enough strength to overcome the evil and abandon his sins entirely.” He can’t do that. He wants to, but he can’t. Each of us has our own pull toward evil, and let’s not fool ourselves: none of us, I think, has reached the level of a tzaddik, or probably even the level just below that. Each of us falls, and in between, that pull is still there. And the good in us doesn’t have enough strength to overcome the evil and abandon our sins entirely—to admit the wrong and leave it behind. I admit it’s wrong; I know. Well, then stop! We can’t manage it. Of this our Sages said, “The wicked are full of regrets,” because most wicked people do still have good in their souls. All of this describes a rasha who has good in him, corresponding to a tzaddik who has evil in him. Just as there are many levels of a tzaddik who has evil in him, as we discussed at the beginning, depending on how completely the evil has been separated from him, there are also many levels of a rasha who has good in him. “But one who never feels regret, and to whom thoughts of teshuvah never come at all”—what can you do?—“is called a rasha who has evil in him. The evil in his soul alone remains within him, for it has so thoroughly overcome the good that the good has departed from within him and stands above him in an encompassing state. Therefore our Sages said: Wherever ten Jews gather, the Shechinah rests.” So the good—a G-dly soul—is present in every Jew, even a rasha, even a rasha

31:40 Speaker 1 and feels bad, but the good in him remains external. How does that show itself? What is the difference between something external and something internal? Something external is like a house, like a garment: it’s on the outside. It doesn’t enter inside like food does; it doesn’t become one with the person. He has good somewhere out there, but inside, that good doesn’t speak. What does it mean that it doesn’t speak? When was the last time a thought of teshuvah crossed my mind? Let’s take stock. A week ago? Two weeks? A month? Two years? Three years? The good remains external. So if a person never occasionally feels sorry or regrets things he’s done, that means he isn’t even a rasha who has good in him. There’s a story about this, and we’ll finish with it. Ah, a story about the Tzemach Tzedek, actually connected to Purim. An apikores—an unbeliever—or perhaps a maskil came to the Tzemach Tzedek and asked him an interesting question: “Tell me, Rebbe, why is it that in most places in Megillas Esther, Yehudim is written with one yud, but whenever it says something about the decree, suddenly Yehudim is written with two yuds? What’s that about?” That was this apikores’s question. He wanted to make fun of the Tzemach Tzedek, as if to say, “You and all your fine distinctions.” So the Tzemach Tzedek told him, “Listen, there are Jews in whom only the G-dly soul is in control. It has ten faculties, and those are what speak in them. That’s an ordinary Jew: he has just the ten faculties of the soul. But when a Jew falls from his level and suddenly has two sets of ten faculties—the ten faculties of the G-dly soul and the ten faculties of the animal soul—and the animal soul’s ten faculties overpower those of the G-dly soul, he falls to the level of a rasha.” That’s what the Tzemach Tzedek told him. “And then there are decrees.” So this apikores

34:10 Speaker 1 smiles at the Tzemach Tzedek and says, “Well, Rebbe, if that’s so, why, after the Jewish people won and the decree was annulled, does it again say Yehudim with two yuds? The Jews have already won. So what’s happening now?” The Tzemach Tzedek tells him, “Listen, listen. After a Jew sees signs and wonders, sees tzaddikim, sees the signs and wonders in the Torah, then even in those Jews who have fallen very, very far, the animal soul is stirred and begins to love Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Then he loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu with both of his inclinations. That’s why there are two yuds there as well.” So that was chapter 11. This chapter—let’s briefly go back over the context. First we spoke about the souls. Then, in chapter 9, the souls fight each other. After that, what happens when the good inclination wins? What happens when the evil inclination wins? What else do we still need to understand about this battle? There’s one more subject we haven’t covered, one loose end—

35:26 Speaker 9 The beinoni.

35:27 Speaker 1 Yes. What—what do you mean?

35:29 Speaker 9 What happens to him? What?

35:32 Speaker 1 What? There’s one more loose end in this battle. We explained what happens when the good inclination wins and what happens when the evil inclination wins. What haven’t we explained? What happens when there’s no clear outcome, when neither one manages to win? What kind of person is it when neither the good inclination nor the evil inclination has won? How does that show itself? How does he live? What are his feelings like? What is his way of—what is his way of thinking? So—

36:08 Speaker 9 But according to the Torah, there’s no way that won’t happen, because it is there inside.

36:13 Speaker 1 That’s an excellent question, and we asked it in chapter 1. We said that if the evil inclination wins, he’s a rasha; if the good inclination wins, he’s a tzaddik. So how can there be a beinoni? Now that we understand that there can be such a thing as a tzaddik, even though he may have some connection to evil, and that a person can be a rasha even though he has a good inclination that is active within him, we’ll see, with Hashem’s help, in the next chapter the most important point for us: there is a third kind. As we’ll see, a beinoni isn’t someone who is one way at one time and another way at another, sitting on the borderline. He’s a third kind of person, a different kind altogether. He isn’t someone who is half tzaddik and half rasha. He isn’t someone who sometimes is and sometimes isn’t. He’s a different kind of person, a level in its own right, and we’ll see that, with Hashem’s help, in the next chapter.