Likkutei Amarim Chapter 12 · 5781

00:01 Speaker 1 Good evening. We’re up to chapter 12. Chapter 12 is the first really interesting chapter. Until now, we’ve had introductions. In other words, everything we learned about the souls—the G-dly soul and the animal soul, their faculties and their garments, and the difference between a tzaddik and a rasha—was all an introduction so that we could understand chapter 12. As we learned the earlier chapters, a question was hovering in the background the whole time. We didn’t emphasize it or say it out loud, but it was always there: Why does the Alter Rebbe go into so much detail about the souls? There’s the essence of the soul, its faculties and its garments; there’s all of that in the G-dly soul and in the animal soul; and what happens with the tzaddik and what happens with the rasha. Why go into such detail about the faculties of the soul? Now, in chapter 12, we finally discover why all that detail was necessary. Because, taking everything explained in the earlier chapters together, what picture did we get? Each of us has two souls within our body, and each soul can, broadly speaking, be divided into two parts. There’s the essence of the soul—what the soul itself is—and there are its faculties and garments, the ways it becomes clothed within the human body. The Rebbe explains at great length that these are two entirely different kinds of things, fundamentally different. The difference between the soul’s essence and its garments is an essential difference. It’s not that the soul has various faculties, some higher and some lower, until you get down to the faculties of thought, speech and action.

02:11 Speaker 1 No. They’re two completely different things. The soul’s garments—thought, speech and action—are entirely separate, like a person’s clothing in relation to his body. They’re something else altogether. Why was it so necessary to emphasize this, spell it out and demonstrate it? Because this is what allows us to understand what a beinoni is. After explaining all the details of the G-dly soul and the animal soul, he asks: What happens with a tzaddik? With a tzaddik, there is only holiness. The essence of the soul is holy, and its garments are entirely holy too. And what about the animal soul? The animal soul is entirely impure. Its essence is impure, and its garments are impure too. What does the animal soul itself want? Above all, it wants pleasure. What gives it pleasure? Things of this world. And we said at the beginning of chapter 6 that everything belonging to this world is kelipah and sitra achra. Remember how we discussed that at length? Even things in this world that are permitted are kelipah and sitra achra. So all the animal soul wants is kelipah and sitra achra—the pleasures of this world. It doesn’t care whether something is forbidden or permitted. That isn’t its concern. It wants to enjoy this world. And it isn’t just the soul’s essence; its garments are like that too. That’s what it thinks about, talks about and does. So that’s the tzaddik and the rasha. What is a beinoni? Before we began learning Tanya, the Alter Rebbe asked several questions we couldn’t answer. If you remember chapter 1, he asked: If a person commits a sin, he’s a rasha. If he then does teshuvah, he’s a tzaddik. So how can there be a—

04:19 Speaker 1 beinoni? He raised a number of questions about it. Now that we’ve learned all that detail, we can understand it. How can someone be a beinoni, neither a tzaddik nor a rasha? Because the soul has two parts: the soul’s essence and the soul’s garments. A beinoni is someone whose animal soul, in its essential nature, is alive and present exactly as it is in a rasha. But in the soul’s garments—thought, speech and action—he is a tzaddik. What does “half and half” mean? In the soul’s essence, the animal soul is still there; in the soul’s garments, it has no foothold. That’s what beinoni means, and that’s what he’s going to explain in chapter 12. Let’s start reading chapter 12 inside. “The beinoni is one in whom the evil never gains enough strength to conquer the small city.” We said in the previous chapter that the “small city” is the body. In a beinoni, the evil never gains enough strength to conquer the small city—the body—to clothe itself in the body and cause him to sin. “That is, the three garments of the animal soul—thought, speech and action, which come from kelipah—do not overpower the G-dly soul in him and clothe themselves in the body: not in the brain, not in the mouth, and not in the other 248 limbs, to cause them to sin and defile them.” G-d forbid—that doesn’t happen with a beinoni. He never commits a sin, not in action, not even in speech, and not even in thought. What does sinning in speech mean? What sins are there in speech? Lashon hara. There are many. Gossip, and...

06:21 Speaker 2 Anything that isn’t talk of Torah.

06:22 Speaker 1 Yes. What sins are there in thought?

06:29 Speaker 2 “Do not stray after your hearts.”

06:30 Speaker 1 “Do not stray after your hearts.”

06:30 Speaker 2 Thinking too much.

06:32 Speaker 1 Yes, there are many things one is forbidden to think about. But a beinoni is someone who not only avoids committing sins in practice, but avoids them in speech and thought as well. So what is his actual state? “The three garments of the G-dly soul alone clothe themselves in the body: thought, speech and action devoted to the Torah’s 613 mitzvos.” That’s it. His thoughts are Torah, his speech is Torah, and his actions are mitzvos. There’s nothing else there. A beinoni is someone entirely immersed, day and night—his whole life, his thoughts, speech and actions—in Torah and mitzvos. There is never anything else there.

07:26 Speaker 2 Then what is a tzaddik?

07:30 Speaker 1 The difference between a beinoni and a tzaddik is explained in this chapter. But first, notice what we see when we look at a beinoni. And it isn’t just what an outsider sees; it’s what the beinoni sees when he looks at himself. What do we see? We see a tzaddik.

07:49 Speaker 2 But what about the beinoni’s direction?

07:51 Speaker 1 What?

07:51 Speaker 2 The beinoni’s direction—what about it?

07:53 Speaker 1 We’ll see later, in the next chapter, that there are different levels of this as well—three levels in general. But first, speaking very broadly, before we get into the details: when you look at a beinoni, what do you see? You see a tzaddik. You don’t see a rasha; you see a tzaddik. “And he has never committed a sin in his life.” A beinoni isn’t just someone who doesn’t commit sins in practice now. A beinoni is someone who has never committed a single sin in his life, from the day he was born.

08:22 Speaker 2 A beinoni?

08:22 Speaker 1 What?

08:23 Speaker 2 How does he do that? How does he correct it and become a beinoni?

08:25 Speaker 1 So the Rebbe says that, first of all, when a person does teshuvah, it corrects the past. So he has never committed a sin, because he did teshuvah. And beyond that—we may discuss this at greater length later; it’s more relevant further on—when the Alter Rebbe says, “He has never committed a sin in his life,” it means that now he is in a state where it’s unthinkable. If someone tells him he committed a sin, he can’t believe it of himself. It’s unthinkable: “I did such a thing? That’s not possible for me.” In other words, he is now in a state in which he has not committed a sin and never will. “Nor has the name rasha ever applied to him, even for a single hour or moment of his entire life.” So if that’s the case—and the question was immediately asked here—why is he called a beinoni? Why isn’t he a tzaddik? He doesn’t commit any sins, and even in his thoughts he’s occupied only with Torah and mitzvos. So why not call him a tzaddik? What’s the difference? “But the essence and substance of the G-dly soul, which are its ten faculties”—the intellect and emotions of the G-dly soul—“do not alone hold dominion and rule over the small city.” There’s an animal soul too. The G-dly soul is in the brain. If you remember, we discussed this in chapter 9. The animal soul is in the heart. With a beinoni, that hasn’t changed. The G-dly soul remains in the brain, and the animal soul remains in the heart.

10:04 Speaker 2 Is the small city the heart?

10:05 Speaker 1 What?

10:06 Speaker 2 Is the small city the heart, or...?

10:08 Speaker 1 The yetzer hara is in the heart.

10:10 Speaker 2 No, it says they want to conquer the small city. What is the small city?

10:13 Speaker 1 The “small city” is the entire body. We discussed this in chapter 9, in the battle between the two souls: each wants to conquer the entire body. The dwelling place of the G-dly soul is in the brain, and from there it wants to spread throughout the body. The dwelling place of the animal soul is in the heart, and from there it wants to spread throughout the body. For the beinoni, that has not changed; both souls are still there. So if the animal soul is still in the heart, just as it is in a rasha, and in its full strength, why doesn’t he commit sins? He explains that at certain times, such as during the recitation of Shema and davening... What happens during Shema and davening? What does a person think about? About Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He needs to think about Hakadosh Boruch Hu, about Hashem’s greatness: how He sustains all the worlds, gives life to all the worlds, brings all the worlds into being, gives me life, took us out of Egypt, and about the good He has done for us. During davening, a person thinks about Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Since he is thinking now, this is a time for the work of the mind. Which soul is in the mind? The G-dly soul. What is he thinking about? Hashem, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So which soul is active now? The G-dly soul is now revealed. Davening is a time when a person thinks about Hakadosh Boruch Hu and contemplates His greatness.

11:47 Speaker 2 But I don’t...

11:48 Speaker 1 So now the animal soul is... pushed aside. Right now we are engaged in the work of the mind, and the G-dly soul resides in the mind. This is a time of mochin degadlus, expanded consciousness. As he says, it is a time of mochin degadlus above, and below as well it is an opportune time for every person. I want to expand on this a little. I hope we have enough time. I want to say a bit more about mochin degadlus. Chassidus explains at length in many places that when it comes to a person’s thinking and contemplation, there are two kinds: mochin dekatnus, limited consciousness, and mochin degadlus, expanded consciousness. What is the difference? Mochin dekatnus means that he studies the subject, thinks about it, understands it, understands it well. Because he understands it well, he grasps it. And because he grasps it, he can explain it to himself and to others from every angle. In other words, mochin dekatnus is what you might call a professor. He understands the subject; he knows it extremely well. But it doesn’t obligate him. I understand it, I know it. I don’t... That’s fine. Yes, yes.

13:22 Speaker 6 All of that frees me from it.

13:23 Speaker 1 It doesn’t obligate me. We often see this. There can even be a Jew who doesn’t observe mitzvos but has studied Torah and is very knowledgeable in Torah—perhaps more than I am. If he knows and understands so much more than I do, what is missing? Why does it affect me but not him? What is the point here? This is the difference between mochin dekatnus and mochin degadlus. Mochin degadlus means that it is not only the subject and its details that illuminate a person; he has come to grasp the essence of the subject. Its inner meaning, the idea behind it, illuminates him. A person can understand all the details. Today there are many places like this, Kabbalah institutes. Many people study Kabbalah, and even on the internet there are countless Kabbalah courses for anyone who wants them. You go to those places and see for yourself. It’s always interesting; I do it from time to time. You go in and see people arguing about all kinds of concepts in Kabbalah, and you feel that he is arguing about it, but it doesn’t touch him at all. It’s like...

14:44 Speaker 6 Like arguing over a math problem.

14:46 Speaker 1 Yes, like arguing over arithmetic problems. Is this answer right or that one? This one is right, that’s how it is. The point doesn’t interest him at all—the connection to G-dliness, the cleaving to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He doesn’t even understand that this is what they’re talking about. He is occupied with the details. He hasn’t grasped the point behind them. Mochin degadlus means that G-dliness illuminates a person. He senses Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He isn’t occupied with the details of where Hakadosh Boruch Hu is revealed; he senses Him, His essence, what lies behind all this. G-dliness matters to him. Chassidus explains that when a person has mochin degadlus, when he has come to grasp and sense the essence of the G-dly light, when he has some feeling for what lies behind the subject, then his understanding will naturally be entirely different too. But the point here is not that he understands it better. The point is that he has grasped its essence. When a person performs a mitzvah—recites Shema—my very performance of the mitzvah, when I say Shema or daven, means that I am now performing a mitzvah. A mitzvah is the Supernal Will. Who commanded the mitzvos? Hakadosh Boruch Hu commanded them; they are His will. He wanted us to say Shema. So when I say Shema, His will is aroused. What is His will? His will is He Himself. Now the very essence of the G-dly light illuminates the worlds. When does it illuminate the worlds? When I say Shema. Since I am saying Shema now, and my recitation of Shema has caused the G-dly light to be revealed in the worlds, mochin degadlus has now been revealed above. Therefore, for me too, as an individual, mochin degadlus can now be revealed. I can connect to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. I can cleave to Hakadosh

16:58 Speaker 1 Boruch Hu. Not only through the intellect: the inner point, the essence of the G-dly light, illuminates a person. He can sense Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is what happens during the recitation of Shema. Below, too, it is an opportune time for every person to connect his Chabad—his intellect—to Hashem, to contemplate deeply the greatness of the blessed Ein Sof, and to awaken a love like a blazing fire in the right chamber of his heart, to cleave to Him by fulfilling the Torah and its mitzvos out of love. And what does Shema say? Shema... There are a great many explanations of the concepts discussed in Shema.

17:40 Speaker 7 Does Shema mean that passage itself, or all three paragraphs?

17:44 Speaker 1 All three paragraphs in general. More specifically, it is mainly the first two paragraphs; more specifically still, the first two verses, and especially the first verse. And within the first verse, it is mainly the first two words, and especially the first word. The first word of Shema is “Shema.” Chassidus explains that the letters of “Shema” can be read as “shem ayin”—“a name” and “seventy”—meaning that the entire world is only a name, only a radiance from the seventy aspects of the seven supernal middos. Are you familiar with that? Do you know what a name is? What is a person’s name in relation to the person? I have my name, and someone else has their name. What is the connection between me and my name?

18:36 Speaker 7 It comes through the name.

18:38 Speaker 1 The life-force comes through the... The life-force comes through the name, but the name itself is not connected to the person’s essence.

18:45 Speaker 7 “The name adds to the person”—what does the name add?

18:48 Speaker 1 Two completely different people can have the same name. I even know of a case where a boy and a girl have the same name.

18:58 Speaker 7 Yes.

18:59 Speaker 1 Even that happens, right? There is no essential connection between the name and the person.

19:12 Speaker 7 Entirely external.

19:13 Speaker 1 Entirely external. You can’t say, “Because he has this name, he has these qualities, he’s a boy,” and so on. There’s no connection. Chassidus explains that a name is only a radiance from the essence. It isn’t the thing itself; it isn’t the body or the person himself. It’s his name. That’s what people call him. When you want to call him, you say his name and he comes. Why does he come and not someone else? Because there is some connection. What kind of connection? An entirely external one. It is connected to the essence, not to the inner dimension.

19:50 Speaker 7 Isn’t the essence what’s inside, the innermost part?

19:52 Speaker 1 Really, I really didn’t want to get into this. No, that’s makif. Something internal is something you feel, understand, and experience. Makif is something that’s there and has an effect—even more than that—but you don’t feel it. You don’t know it exists. Every Jew has a G-dly soul. Well, I know plenty of Jews who have a G-dly soul, and even with a microscope you couldn’t see it. It exists, it’s there, it has an effect. In a moment of danger, he might even say Shema, without knowing where it came from. But when you look at him, you don’t see it. It’s makif; it isn’t apparent within him in an internal way. There are many more explanations and aspects to this, but generally speaking, a person’s name has an external connection to him. It’s makif, not an internal connection. So what is Shema Yisroel? What is the shem-ayin with which Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the worlds? All the worlds, in relation to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, are merely like a name in relation to the body. The ayin is the seven Divine middos, so to speak, the Divine body; and all the worlds are only a name, only a radiance from it. We ask: What kind of name is this? We say, “Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our G-d”—Havayah is our G-d. What does “Havayah is our G-d” mean? There are several explanations, both from above downward and from below upward. But as it relates to shem-ayin, Havayah—He Who was, is, and will be—is, after all, “our G-d.” That is already a tzimtzum. Then we go on to say that this same Havayah, Who is “our G-d,” is “Hashem is One.” He is the One Who gives life to all the worlds. Then, “Blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever.” How it, how it

21:40 Speaker 1 the Divine life-force descends and becomes enclothed, and all the worlds are nullified to G-dliness, and so on and so on. There are a tremendous number of explanations. So when a person says Shema Yisroel, he contemplates the greatness of Hashem. He contemplates how all the worlds are nullified to G-dliness, how all the worlds are nothing, and how His Essence and Being transcend everything. “I, Hashem, have not changed.” “You are the First, You are the Last, and apart from You there is no G-d.” And all the ideas and explanations contained in Shema. So now he is contemplating, thinking about Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and there is no world. The G-dly soul is revealed, the G-dly soul is revealed; the animal soul doesn’t exist right now. This is a time of mochin degadlus.

22:18 Speaker 8 Because, say, you gave the example that—

22:21 Speaker 1 There’s—I’ll explain it differently, maybe in simpler words. There are two ways the intellect affects the emotions. One is the natural, ordinary way. A person thinks about something and concludes that it’s good, so he wants it. Right? Why did the desire, the longing for it, arise in him? Because he contemplated it and thought it was good, so he began to want it. Before he thought about it, he didn’t want it. In that case, the intellect affects the emotions directly. How does it do that? The intellect engages with the emotion; it descends from its own level to think about something else, until it descends, changes, and takes on the nature of emotion. So the intellect has descended to become emotion. That’s the usual way. But there’s something else. Sometimes a person has some great joy, tremendous joy. He’s marrying off—the example they give is that he’s marrying off his son, his first son. Right? When a person marries off his first son, his joy is immense. It’s so great that suddenly, at that moment, he begins to love everyone. People he couldn’t even look in the face yesterday, or this morning—what, they shouldn’t be at my wedding? They shouldn’t—he simply has to invite everyone. I’m so happy now! Joy breaks through barriers. Everyone has to be part of my joy. How could anyone not be happy? I’m happy now, right? What changed here? Did he really think about Ahavas Yisroel, about how he has to love everyone, and since it’s his son’s wedding, therefore...? Of course not. We see that here his understanding affected his emotions, and affected them very powerfully. But it didn’t happen through working on them. It

24:21 Speaker 1 didn’t happen through contemplation: he didn’t think, “I have a wedding, so now I need to invite even the people I didn’t like until today,” and then begin to love them. It didn’t work that way, right? The essence of it shines within him: the joy shines within him. The wedding is vivid in his mind. When that shines, when the essential point shines, all his middos, all his emotions, become nullified to the intellect of their own accord. He doesn’t have to do anything to make that happen. He doesn’t have to exert himself. What?

24:56 Speaker 9 What is mochin degadlus?

25:00 Speaker 1 That’s called mochin degadlus. Mochin degadlus means that the essence of the matter shines within him.

25:06 Speaker 9 As though it all flows from there. It’s thinking on a grand scale.

25:09 Speaker 1 It’s more than thinking on a grand scale. It’s grasping the essence of the matter. When a person grasps the essence of it, it shines throughout his entire being equally, all at once.

25:20 Speaker 9 It sounds as though what’s being asked of him is specifically mochin dekatnus—to arrive at it intellectually. Love of Hashem shines.

25:28 Speaker 1 Indeed, mochin dekatnus has a great advantage. That’s certainly true. But this is a time when the very essence of a person’s connection to G-dliness shines within him.

25:39 Speaker 9 The awakening of the—of the—of Hashem.

25:42 Speaker 1 No, mochin degadlus is also an awakening from below; it is a person’s own avodah. Mochin degadlus is his avodah. He reached it. He contemplated during Shema, but he reached the essential point. And because he reached that essential point, it shines throughout all his faculties.

26:03 Speaker 9 Until he reached it, that was mochin dekatnus.

26:04 Speaker 1 Yes. All right. When can something like that shine within a person at all? During Shema. Why during Shema? First, he’s contemplating, and he’s fulfilling a mitzvah. So it’s an opportune time. This idea shines in the world, and because it shines in the world, it can shine within him too. So during Shema, a person can experience this: as a result of his contemplation, the Divine light now shines openly within him. His G-dly soul has been revealed; his G-dly soul has been revealed. So, naturally, he loves Hashem and fears Hashem; he wants Him, longs for Him, and cleaves to Him. Right now he is with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. There is no world right now.

26:48 Speaker 9 That’s what happens with people who return to Torah observance, as it says here.

26:51 Speaker 1 Right? Right. Right? Yes, yes, yes. All right, so that is mochin degadlus, which shines within a person when he says Shema. And what are the blessings before and after it? When we say Shema, there are blessings before it and after it—the blessings of Shema. There’s something very distinctive about them that no other blessing has. With every blessing, when we perform the mitzvah, we say, “Who has sanctified us...”

27:25 Speaker 9 There’s a blessing about love. A blessing about love. Sorry, I thought that was obvious.

27:29 Speaker 1 No, with all blessings, what is a person making the blessing over? The mitzvah. “Who has sanctified us with His mitzvos and commanded us to light candles.” “Who has sanctified us with His mitzvos and commanded us to sit in the sukkah.” In the blessings of Shema, we don’t say, “Who has sanctified us with His mitzvos and commanded us to recite Shema.” There are no such words. These are the only blessings of all the blessings the Sages instituted in which a person makes a blessing over a mitzvah without mentioning the mitzvah. There are no other blessings like that, only the blessings of Shema.

28:05 Speaker 9 What does that mean? He doesn’t make a blessing, but he does make a blessing?

28:09 Speaker 1 The blessings of—it’s called the blessings of Shema. I’m making a blessing now over Shema. So say, “Who has sanctified us with His mitzvos and commanded us concerning Shema.” That’s what you’re making the blessing over now, right?

28:17 Speaker 9 Okay. No, no. Shema

28:19 Speaker 1 Huh?

28:19 Speaker 9 So this is the only blessing that isn’t about what you’re actually doing, but about what’s inside.

28:26 Speaker 1 That’s what the Alter Rebbe says here. Since we’re now making blessings over Shema, why don’t we mention Shema in the blessing? Because the entire content of the blessing is meant to bring a person to the content of Shema.

28:42 Speaker 9 That’s also why here [unclear] in the middle of the blessings.

28:47 Speaker 1 Right, it’s rabbinic, not Biblical.

28:51 Speaker 9 The whole blessing, essentially, is

28:53 Speaker 1 Right. Right. And our Sages saw that saying Shema is such a great thing, so important, that it needs preparation. If a person doesn’t prepare, he won’t be able to reach mochin d’gadlus—a heightened state of awareness. It won’t shine within him. So there’s the first blessing, which speaks about the angels and their order, how they bless Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and how all the hosts of heaven bow down and praise Him. Then there’s the second blessing: how Hakadosh Boruch Hu leaves all of them for us because He loves us. And after all these preparations, now contemplate Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. Now mochin d’gadlus will shine within you. This is the concept explained regarding the mitzvah of saying Shema, which is from the Torah, and its blessings before and after, which are rabbinic and serve as preparation for fulfilling the mitzvah of Shema, as explained elsewhere. And then, when he has said all of Pesukei Dezimra properly, contemplating and thinking about what he is saying, and afterward has said the blessings of Shema properly too, and then has contemplated and thought properly during Shema itself, the evil in the left chamber of the heart is subdued and nullified before the good that spreads through the right chamber from the Chabad faculties of the brain, which are bound up with the greatness of the blessed Ein Sof. Did you hear those words?

30:18 Speaker 9 We heard you.

30:19 Speaker 1 What did we say in chapter 10? What is a tzaddik? A tzaddik is someone like that—not a complete tzaddik. Most tzaddikim. An ordinary tzaddik, not a complete tzaddik, whose evil is subdued and nullified. Right? That’s what we discussed. A beinoni. In other words, for every one of us, during Shema the evil is subdued and nullified.

30:40 Speaker 9 A beinoni is like that during davening.

30:42 Speaker 1 During davening, a beinoni and a tzaddik are the same. There’s no difference.

30:48 Speaker 9 So what’s the situation after he...

30:50 Speaker 1 Every single Jew, during davening, during Shema and the prayers, is given the strength each day to be on the level of a tzaddik. A tzaddik means that the evil is subdued and nullified before the good. The evil can’t raise its head right now. And we understand plainly what “evil” means. Evil means that he is drawn to this world. This world speaks to him. If a Jew is now saying—he’s davening, he’s at Pesukei Dezimra, speaking and thinking about Hakadosh Boruch Hu, about His greatness and His goodness, thinking about the angels, thinking about the higher worlds, about how the hosts of heaven bow down, about love of Hashem—and he says Shema, then at that very moment, if someone comes along and puts some worldly desire before his eyes, he won’t see it. He simply won’t see it. He won’t pay attention to it; it won’t interest him. Maybe an hour later it will, but at that moment, the world doesn’t exist for him. And this is possible for every single person. During Shema, every Jew can be a tzaddik. The evil is subdued and nullified before the good—but that’s during davening. After davening, when the mochin d’gadlus depart, he is no longer thinking about the blessed Ein Sof. He’s no longer contemplating; he’s no longer performing the mitzvah now. So the evil awakens again in the left chamber. After all, the evil, the animal soul, wasn’t nullified. Its mouth was shut; they tied a scarf over its mouth. But as soon as you take the scarf off, it’s there. It’s still there; it hasn’t moved. And a desire for the cravings and pleasures of this world forms, just as before, as if nothing had happened. That’s the difference between a tzaddik and a beinoni. For a tzaddik, the evil in his heart has truly been nullified. For a beinoni, it hasn’t truly been nullified. During davening, it isn’t given a chance... it has been subdued, but its essential nature hasn’t been nullified. Only... Let’s ask the question the other way around. So if, in fact—

33:17 Speaker 1 The evil hasn’t been nullified, and now I’m not saying Shema, and I’m not performing a mitzvah either. I’ve left shul and gone outside. I’m also not someone who learns in kollel all day; I’m busy with business, and now the evil awakens again. So what will stop it—

33:37 Speaker 10 During davening?

33:38 Speaker 1 Huh?

33:38 Speaker 10 During davening?

33:40 Speaker 1 Yes.

33:42 Speaker 10 What about learning Torah?

33:44 Speaker 1 No, during davening. When a person thinks about Hakadosh... When a person learns Torah, he isn’t necessarily thinking about Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Ah, if he learns Chassidus, yes, but when he learns Gemara... Now, there are lots of jokes about this, but this isn’t the time. A person can learn Gemara his whole life and never think about Hakadosh Boruch Hu. No, it isn’t talking about Him there; it gives you halachos. Here you do this, here you do that, here you do that. This is permitted, that’s forbidden. There are disputes, arguments, profound reasoning. Hakadosh Boruch Hu doesn’t shine openly within the Gemara.

34:23 Speaker 10 There’s also that story about Rabbi Yonasan Shimon[?]... [unclear] someone who was afraid he’d sit in prison, just so he could come out with a Gemara like that.

34:37 Speaker 1 There’s a joke they tell about a chossid who was talking to a misnaged. In the end, the misnaged said to him, “I swear to you, I haven’t thought about Him in ten years.” It’s a long joke, but anyway. So the question is the other way around. Now that I’m—okay, I’m a beinoni. I contemplated, I thought, I learned Chassidus, and mochin d’gadlus awakened within me. I was in a state of love and awe, longing and closeness, with a soul that yearned and desired. All the most wonderful words. I was there. I reached that state. Now it’s over; now I’m outside. I’m outside. Now I have a desire. I see the object of desire right in front of me. I’m not thinking about Hakadosh Boruch Hu right now. Why should—what will stop me from being drawn to it now? During Shema, fine. What happens now, throughout the day? Why doesn’t the beinoni stumble during the rest of the day? He isn’t contemplating Hakadosh Boruch Hu now. What stops him from stumbling when he isn’t saying Shema? So the Alter Rebbe continues: “Only because the evil inclination does not have sole authority to rule the city, it cannot bring its desire from potential into actuality, to become clothed in the limbs of the body in actual action, speech, and thought.” The emphasis is on “actual.” In other words, a beinoni cannot have actual thoughts of desire. What’s the difference between a thought and an actual thought? An ordinary thought, a passing thought, can come to him, but not an actual thought. What is an actual thought? He goes on to explain: to dwell deeply in thought on the pleasures of this world—how to satisfy the desires of his heart. That’s not possible for a beinoni; it can’t happen. A passing thought can fall into his mind. He has an evil inclination, he has an animal soul; it hasn’t been nullified. It’s there, hidden and subdued, and it can throw thoughts into his head, put things there. That isn’t under his control. But once a thought about the desires of—

36:43 Speaker 1 This world has come into my mind, do I allow myself to think about it and dwell on it? What was the wording? “How to satisfy the desires of his heart.” Or do I push it away with both hands? The fact that the thought first came to me isn’t under my control. That’s called an ordinary thought. An actual thought is when I dwell on it. Excuse me, I have a G-dly soul too. I don’t have to listen to you. I don’t have to think about you. I can start thinking about something else. That is under my control. How is it under my control? Because the mind rules over the heart, as it says in Ra’aya Mehemna, Parshas Pinchas. Ra’aya Mehemna is a section of the Zohar. I once told you about the Zohar. The Zohar is a very interesting book—what today we’d call a collection. If the Zohar were written today, they’d call it a book of collected writings. It has passages from Moshe Rabbeinu, passages from Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, passages from—from Yaakov Avinu. There are... The whole Zohar consists of sections, and each section has a name. There’s a section in the Zohar called Zohar. There’s a section in the Zohar called, uh—

37:57 Speaker 11 Then why do they call the whole thing the Zohar?

37:59 Speaker 1 Sifra Ditzniusa. There’s Zohar... What?

38:02 Speaker 11 Is it called the Zohar because of the sections? Is that simply the word? I mean, this idea of—

38:06 Speaker 1 Probably from “The wise will shine like the radiance of the firmament.”

38:09 Speaker 12 From the Zohar.

38:09 Speaker 1 What?

38:10 Speaker 12 Sections in the Zohar. There are sections in the Zohar from—

38:13 Speaker 11 He’s quoting, he’s quoting the Zohar.

38:14 Speaker 1 You quote it a lot. So, for example, here, where it says Ra’aya Mehemna, there are very, very long sections of the Zohar called Ra’aya Mehemna.

38:22 Speaker 11 It’s always from the Zohar.

38:23 Speaker 1 Sections that are—that are—by Moshe. Ra’aya Mehemna is Moshe Rabbeinu. These are sections that Moshe Rabbeinu said, or that are attributed to Moshe Rabbeinu, so they’re called Ra’aya Mehemna. So it says there—the mind rules over the heart “by its inborn nature and the nature of its creation.” That’s how a person was created from birth; that’s how a person is born. A person is born with the ability for the mind to rule over the heart. So yes, the heart brought a thought up to the mind, but since he’s a person and not a monkey, he can control it.

38:53 Speaker 11 It gets lost over the course of life.

38:54 Speaker 1 What’s that?

38:55 Speaker 11 Doesn’t it get lost? It gets lost over the course of life.

38:56 Speaker 1 No.

38:57 Speaker 11 I’m supposed to be born that way. So as far as I’m concerned, I should immediately be able to put that into practice, shouldn’t I?

39:03 Speaker 1 For that trait to be lost over the course of life? That’s—

39:06 Speaker 11 Over the course of life, over the years—fifteen years.

39:09 Speaker 1 That’s exactly like saying—just like saying that when I grow older and reach the age of ten, I’ll turn into a frog. This is a human being. It’s the very nature of a human being.

39:21 Speaker 11 But a moment ago you said that a person is born with the mind naturally ruling over the heart.

39:25 Speaker 1 Yes.

39:27 Speaker 11 So for a three-year-old child, his heart rules over his mind. That’s not how he was born. How, in three years—

39:32 Speaker 1 Even a three-year-old child, when he stands on his feet, has his head above his heart. But for him, this is only the beginning of development. The more a person develops, the greater the mind’s control over the heart, until it reaches its fullness at age twenty. But naturally, what develops in a person is the ability for the mind to rule over the heart.

40:01 Speaker 11 That takes work too, because the mind rules—

40:03 Speaker 1 But for that to happen in practice, the heart doesn’t give up its place easily. Still, by birth and by the nature of his creation, this is how a person is made. This is what a person is: anyone can, if he chooses—he doesn’t have to, but he can—use the will in his mind to restrain himself and rule over the spirit of desire in his heart, not to fulfill his heart’s wishes in action, speech, or thought, and to turn his mind completely away from his heart’s desires to their very opposite. I once had a friend, before I was married, when I was serving at the Ramat David military base. I had a friend there, a fellow baal teshuvah, who later became a good friend of mine. He was a very unfortunate fellow. His name was Michael too. His name is still Michael today.

40:57 Speaker 11 There was someone named Yosef Shalom who said he knew you.

41:00 Speaker 1 There were a lot of them back then.

41:03 Speaker 11 There was once—

41:05 Speaker 1 And he had a hard time. He worked there, and he was the only one who kept mitzvos. He worked in the aircraft shelters, where the aircraft mechanics were, with all the oil and grease. Back then they still had the... It wasn’t like today’s planes, the F-16s and F-15s, where everything is as clean as a pharmacy. They still had Kfirs and earlier planes, covered in dirt and oil all day, and the guys would pick on him. He was religious, this poor, rather meek fellow, and they would pick on him, tear into him. It was constant. He had a hard time without a break. He really had a hard time. Anyway,

41:40 Speaker 11 Like all the others.

41:43 Speaker 1 I tried to strengthen him. We learned together, I encouraged him, and we were good friends. Anyway, one time he broke down. He told me, “I can’t take it anymore. I can’t take it anymore.” I felt he wanted to take his own life, though he didn’t say so. I told him, “Michael, we’re writing to the Rebbe now.” He wrote to the Rebbe, pouring out his heart over several pages. We put it in an envelope and sent it to the Rebbe. A short time later—a month or two; letters went by ship then, going there and coming back—the Rebbe answered him. It was a substantial letter, not one of those one-line letters. I made a copy of it, and I still have it somewhere today. The point is that the Rebbe told him what it says here: You don’t have to give in to your feelings. At any given moment, you can turn your mind away and think about something else. Don’t have something else to think about? The Rebbe suggested: Learn a chapter of Tehillim by heart. That’s what the Rebbe wrote to him in the letter. Learn a chapter of Tehillim by heart, or Tanya, or Mishnah. He gave him several options. And whenever you have troubling thoughts, start reviewing in your mind what you learned by heart. A person can do that. Whatever his emotional or mental state, he can turn his mind away. How can he do that when his animal soul is controlling him? Yes: the mind rules over the heart by birth and by the nature of its creation. It’s possible to turn your mind away and think about something else. Anyone can do it, at any moment: turn his mind completely away from his heart’s desires, to their very opposite. Right now he’s drawn to thinking about worldly matters. The moment he catches himself, he can decide to start thinking about something else, about the side of

43:52 Speaker 1 holiness. And particularly toward the side of holiness, as it is written: “I saw that wisdom has an advantage over folly, as light has an advantage over darkness.” Very interesting. King Shlomo is telling us something new. What’s new here? “I saw that wisdom has an advantage over folly, as light has an advantage over darkness.” Do we really not understand that wisdom has an advantage over folly? Do we need an analogy for that? Listen, do we need an analogy? Is something unclear here? Wisdom is better than folly; it has an advantage. Yes, just as light is better than darkness. So what is this analogy meant to tell us? What does it add that isn’t obvious on its own?

44:36 Speaker 13 That just as light pushes away darkness, it becomes much clearer.

44:43 Speaker 1 That’s not what the Alter Rebbe says. The meaning is that just as light has an advantage over darkness and rules over it—a little physical light pushes away a great deal of darkness, which retreats from it. How? Of its own accord, automatically. So too, a great deal of the folly of kelipah and the sitra achra in the left chamber is automatically pushed away, as our Sages said: “A person does not commit a transgression unless a spirit of folly enters him.” It is pushed away by the wisdom of the divine soul in the mind. King Shlomo compares wisdom to light and folly to darkness not so that we’ll understand that wisdom is better than folly. That’s not the point. It’s so we’ll understand that wisdom pushes away folly the way light pushes away darkness. Listen, this is remarkable. If the Rebbe hadn’t said it, we wouldn’t have understood it on our own.

45:30 Speaker 13 It’s like the scientific explanation of it. Darkness is the absence of light. There’s no other way.

45:35 Speaker 1 But the meaning, the meaning: A person is now immersed in worldly matters. Why is he immersed in them? Because they draw him in. His heart is burning with desire. The Alter Rebbe tells him: Listen, if you catch yourself and shift your thoughts—instead of thinking about that, start thinking about the side of holiness—know that all that burning, that pull toward the world that seems so powerful to you, will disappear. It’s like turning on a light in a dark room. Wisdom has the quality of pushing away folly just as light pushes away darkness. Light doesn’t have to struggle to push darkness away. No. You turn on the light, and the darkness disappears. It’s no longer there. Every Jew can do this. It’s remarkable when you think about it, because often I sink into something. I can sink into depression. Things are so, so, so hard for me. How will I get out of it? Know this: one thought, one moment, one second—you shift your thoughts toward holiness, and it all disappears. That’s what it says here.

47:00 Speaker 13 It disappears at that moment.

47:02 Speaker 1 At any moment, he can shift his thoughts. No one is forcing him. The mind rules over the heart by birth and by the nature of its creation. Because of the wisdom of the divine soul in the mind, whose desire is to rule alone over the city and to clothe itself in the three garments mentioned above, throughout the entire body, as explained above: thought, speech, and action in the Torah’s 613 mitzvos. So if that’s the case... Wait, wait, wait. Now we have the question in the other direction. At first we asked—let me go back to the beginning—if the divine soul shines only during davening, and afterward it no longer shines and he can experience desire, why do you call him a beinoni? Call him a rasha. He can experience evil desires. The answer is: No, no, no, you can’t call him a rasha. Why? Because at any moment he can shift his thoughts. Wait, so now it’s the other way around. If at any moment he can shift his thoughts, and a little light will automatically push away all his darkness, why don’t you call him a tzaddik? He can shift his thoughts at any moment, so he’s a tzaddik. But—

48:11 Speaker 13 The thought hidden there.

48:13 Speaker 1 And yet he is not called a tzaddik at all. Because this advantage that the light of the divine soul has over the darkness and folly of kelipah, which is pushed away automatically, applies only to its three garments mentioned above. The divine soul can, in a single moment, illuminate the darkness and drive out the animal soul. But where does it drive it out from? From action, from speech, and even from thought. That’s all. The moment he stops thinking about the side of holiness, the animal soul will stir again. He hasn’t changed its essential nature. The divine soul’s control over the body extends only to the garments, not to the animal soul’s essential nature. That’s why he is a beinoni. On the one hand, he’s not a tzaddik. He has an animal soul, and if it experiences desire, if for even a moment he lets down his guard, it will start speaking. On the other hand, whenever he wants, at any moment, he can be just like a tzaddik.

49:19 Speaker 13 Fear of Hashem.

49:22 Speaker 1 Or he can contemplate Hashem’s greatness. We’ll see that later on in...

49:27 Speaker 13 When do they come?

49:31 Speaker 1 I don’t remember. And not in its essence and substance—[unclear] the essence and substance of the kelipah. For the essence and substance of the animal soul, which comes from the kelipah in the left chamber of the heart, has not been displaced from its place at all in the beinoni after davening. Because after davening, the fiery flames of love for Hashem are no longer revealed in his heart’s right chamber. Rather, after davening, his inner being is filled only with a hidden love—the natural love in the G-dly soul, as will be explained later. We’ll see this later, in chapter 25: every Jew has love, a G-dly soul, and the G-dly soul’s nature is to love Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is in his heart all the time. So it’s there all the time. But it’s a love—an immense love, but hidden. You don’t feel it. And because you don’t feel it, it remains inside, concealed. So the foolishness of the evil fool can become manifest in the left chamber of his heart, making him desire all the material things of this world, whether permitted or, G-d forbid, forbidden—as though he had not davened at all. But there is still a difference between a desire for something forbidden and a desire for something permitted: when it comes to a forbidden act, it would never occur to him to actually do it, G-d forbid. For a beinoni, there is no such thing as acting on a forbidden desire. A beinoni can desire permitted things: “This tastes good to me, I’m drawn to it, I want it, it feels pleasant.” Yes, a beinoni can have a desire for something forbidden, but he cannot act on it.

51:21 Speaker 13 In the kelipah, three faculties are confused.

51:23 Speaker 1 What?

51:23 Speaker 13 In the kelipah, three faculties are confused.

51:25 Speaker 1 Yes. But what can happen? Thoughts of sin, which are worse than sin itself, can arise in his mind and disturb him in his Torah study and avodah. A beinoni can have a thought of a forbidden desire. That can happen. But actually committing the forbidden act is out of the question. As our Sages said, there are three transgressions from which a person is not spared every day, including thoughts of sin and distraction during davening. That can happen. But the impression left in his mind, together with fear of Hashem and the love for Him hidden in the right chamber of his heart, enables him to overcome and control the evil that craves, so it cannot rule the “city”—cannot bring its desire from potential into action by expressing it through the body’s limbs. So what happens with a beinoni? During davening he had expanded awareness. During davening he saw Hakadosh Boruch Hu, who became revealed to him. He had genuine love for Hashem. His heart burned with fiery flames of love. After davening, that love ended. That’s true, but an impression remains. When a person had an active love for Hashem while davening in the morning—not every day, not yesterday, but today, this morning—something of it remains. So yes, afterward the yetzer hara can pull him toward other things during the day. But that impression from davening is enough to sustain him, so that at any moment he can—

53:06 Speaker 3 So it’s a matter of preparing for davening.

53:09 Speaker 1 Preparing for davening, and davening itself. In other words, maybe we can put it more sharply. Let’s put it more sharply. Someone who didn’t put effort into davening in the morning—his heart didn’t burn afterward; he said the words and davened, but love for Hashem wasn’t revealed within him—if he is drawn toward some desire later in the day, not only a forbidden desire but even a permitted one, it will be very hard for him to resist. There’s no guarantee he’ll succeed in meeting the challenge. But a person who invested himself in davening, who thought, contemplated, paused and made an effort—he thought about Hakadosh Boruch Hu—later in the day, when that same desire comes to him, the very same person facing the very same desire, he’ll be able to stop himself. The impression left by davening makes it possible for a person to catch himself throughout the day.

54:10 Speaker 3 I was saying, maybe if schools really invested in preparing for davening, then the davening would be as it should be. Elementary schools and so on.

54:17 Speaker 1 True, but, but, but that’s personal preparation.

54:20 Speaker 3 When I look around at school, the children are waiting for davening to end, and...

54:24 Speaker 1 That’s true even at—at schools for older students, too.

54:27 Speaker 3 I’m describing my own class [unclear].

54:28 Speaker 1 After the Jewish people leave Mount Sinai, there are those inverted nuns there, you know. So our Sages said they are there “to separate one calamity from another.” Then the question is: what calamity? What happened before that? Hakadosh Boruch Hu said to the Jewish people, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain.” You sat there at Mount Sinai for some twenty-six years and received the Torah. You kept the mitzvos. You were inside the cloud. That’s it. Let’s move on. They go, they go toward the Holy Land, and then Amalek comes afterward. So it separates one calamity from another; there’s a break there. What calamity? Amalek comes later, but before that there was the Giving of the Torah and the twenty-odd years they spent at Mount Sinai. What calamity are you talking about?

55:13 Speaker 3 He held the mountain over them like a barrel.

55:15 Speaker 1 Huh?

55:15 Speaker 3 He held the mountain over them like a barrel.

55:16 Speaker 1 No. Our Sages said that when the Jewish people left Mount Sinai, after being there, receiving the Torah, eating manna from heaven, drinking water from Miriam’s well, learning Torah from Moshe Rabbeinu, seeing the Tablets of the Covenant with their own eyes, seeing water come out of the rock—they had gone through all that. They were there; they lived inside the cloud.

55:40 Speaker 3 Sorry.

55:42 Speaker 1 They lived inside the cloud. They’re told, “Come on, now we’re going to the Holy Land.” And they left “like a child running away from school,” in the words of our Sages. That can happen even with the generation of knowledge. Why? It’s like you said: He held the mountain over them like a barrel. All those revelations were something Hakadosh Boruch Hu poured down upon them from above. When a teacher tells a child to daven, all of that is excellent, but it comes from above. If it doesn’t come from the person himself—even a child, according to his abilities—then you need to explain it to him so he knows what to do. But ultimately, if a person doesn’t make an effort himself, doesn’t think for himself, doesn’t awaken himself, nothing will help. Everything depends on one’s own work. I heard a very powerful vort this week. Among Polish chassidim, how do they describe a holy person? They call him a benashak, a “descendant of holy people,” or he has some distinguished lineage, or I don’t know what. In Chabad Chassidus, what do you call someone you want to describe as a proper chossid? There are two descriptions: either a maskil or an oved. Someone deeply versed in Chassidus, or someone who works on himself. What’s the difference between those two kinds of descriptions? There, he’s a descendant of holy people; he has exalted lineage, he’s someone’s uncle. Here in Chassidus, he’s a maskil: he learned. He’s an oved: he works. He himself.

57:08 Speaker 4 It’s his own, it’s his own.

57:08 Speaker 1 It’s his own, and he did it himself. It didn’t come down to him from above. So for all the value—and of course there is tremendous value in guiding and teaching—ultimately, you can’t come and... We can only educate. A person has to do the work himself. So when someone davens properly, then throughout the day the evil has no control, no power to cause him, G-d forbid, to willingly think about the evil thought that arises on its own from the heart to the mind, as explained above. Rather, immediately—it says there around the middle of the page—as soon as it comes up, as soon as the animal soul puts the thought into his mind, he pushes it away with both hands and turns his attention from it the moment he realizes it is an evil thought. So a thought like that might come to me during the day. I might even dwell on it—not for just a second, but for a minute or two. Yes, I’m thinking about it for a minute. But the point is whether, the moment I catch myself, I stop or not. As long as I haven’t noticed—but here, too, there really are levels among beinonim. There’s a beinoni who is immediately alarmed when an evil thought occurs to him, and another who might take many minutes, even hours, before he catches himself. Because a beinoni means that in practice he has not committed a transgression. He hasn’t yet reached the point of facing the challenge.

58:42 Speaker 4 It’s not me when I’m thinking about it.

58:44 Speaker 1 He hasn’t reached the point of facing the challenge. When do we begin to hold him responsible? When he faces a challenge and doesn’t withstand it. The more refined a person is, and the more he contemplates during davening...

58:55 Speaker 4 That takes quite a few hours.

58:55 Speaker 1 It can take a long time. The point is what happens the moment I do remember: do I continue, or do I stop? That’s the point. A person can talk, find... You know what happens? About work matters. I once saw it at a farbrengen. A farbrengen is a holy place, right? People talk and talk and talk, and sometimes they can go on talking for hours, not necessarily about things directly connected to the farbrengen. The question is, once I catch myself, do I stop or not? That’s the test of a beinoni. Until I noticed it, the thought simply came to me; I didn’t bring it on myself. I have an animal soul, and it put the thought into my mind. I know I’m not on such a high level. I do what I can. But if a person contemplates the greatness of Hashem during davening, he’ll notice sooner, and afterward it will also be easier for him to turn his mind away from it.

59:54 Speaker 4 So can I tell the students that preparing for davening and teshuvah are the answer when it comes to feelings?

59:58 Speaker 1 Of course.

59:58 Speaker 4 All kinds of things.

59:59 Speaker 1 That’s the whole point of davening. That’s exactly what he’s saying here. That’s the difference between a beinoni—

1:00:03 Speaker 4 Even in general.

1:00:05 Speaker 1 The difference between a beinoni and a rasha—we’ll actually see this even more clearly later—is whether he davens or doesn’t daven. Both have a G-dly soul and an animal soul. Why can the beinoni turn his mind away from the animal soul, while the rasha can’t? If he davens, or if he doesn’t daven—we’ll see that later. That isn’t entirely precise, because davening does bring about a change in his very being, in the beinoni’s very being. But the essential difference between a beinoni and a rasha is whether he davens or not. Today I davened; today G-dliness shines within me. The next day I was lazy, and... Of course, the more a person refines himself—but at that moment, right now, he’s a beinoni. Right now, committing a sin is out of the question for him: he isn’t doing one, hasn’t done one, and won’t do one. He can’t understand how he could have stumbled in such a thing. He really can’t understand it. “I did something like that?” Everyone has moments like that. At the moment when evil is unthinkable to a person, he is a beinoni. At that moment, he hasn’t sinned and will never sin. And we all have ups and downs. And the same applies to other things. Of course, as we’ll see in the next chapter, there are levels of beinoni. There can also be someone who is a beinoni in his very being—not someone who merely reaches the level of a beinoni at certain times, but someone who is truly a beinoni without interruption. We’ll see that in the next chapter. But the essence of being a beinoni is that right now, at this moment, his G-dly soul overcomes his animal soul. “And likewise in matters between one person and another: as soon as some resentment or hatred, G-d forbid, or some jealousy, anger, indignation, or the like rises from his heart to his mind, he does not accept it at all in his mind or will. On the contrary, the mind rules and governs

1:01:56 Speaker 1 the spirit in his heart, so that he does the exact opposite: he treats his fellow with kindness and exceptional affection, bears with him to the utmost, and does not become angry, G-d forbid. Nor does he repay him in kind, G-d forbid.” That’s what’s called taking revenge or bearing a grudge. It certainly never occurs to the beinoni to do that. On the contrary, he repays those who have wronged him with kindness. As the Zohar says, we should learn from Yosef and his brothers: the brothers wanted to kill him, and instead he went and provided for them.

1:02:23 Speaker 4 Yosef wasn’t a beinoni.

1:02:24 Speaker 1 Yosef was certainly a tzaddik, and not just a tzaddik but a tzaddik of the highest level. But this matter of repaying those who have wronged you with kindness—that, the Zohar says, we should learn from Yosef and his brothers. Only now, after learning chapter 12, can we understand in retrospect why the Alter Rebbe went into such detail about the souls. If he hadn’t first explained that there are two souls, and that each soul has its essence and its garments—what the essence of each soul wants, what the garments of the soul mean, and where each of these things finds expression—if he hadn’t explained every detail, we would have reached chapter 12 without understanding what he wants from us. In chapter 1, he set out the goal. What is the goal? The goal of Tanya is to bring each of us to perfection in observing Torah and mitzvos: that we should never commit a sin and never neglect a mitzvah. That is its purpose. Tanya is meant to be a guide to serving Hashem. Serving Hashem means learning Torah and fulfilling mitzvos. What is perfection in serving Hashem? Perfection in observing Torah and mitzvos: that a person should not neglect Torah study for even a moment, should never neglect a positive mitzvah, and should never transgress a prohibition—not in speech and not in thought. That’s the goal he set in chapter 1. Now, wait a minute, excuse me—what do you want from us? To understand how such a thing is possible for you, I’m telling you that you can be a beinoni, and let me explain what a beinoni is. Then he goes into all the details about the souls and so on, until he has now explained what a beinoni is. Now that I know what a beinoni is, and I know that I have the power to push away the yetzer hara just as a little light dispels much darkness, all that remains... So what has he actually explained?

1:04:24 Speaker 1 He’s explained what a beinoni is, but how do I do it? How do I get there? How do I contemplate the greatness of Hashem? What do I contemplate? When do I contemplate it? What if I have distractions? What if I don’t succeed? What if I have difficulties? What if someone else interferes? All those details are the details of serving Hashem that he’ll begin to explain starting in chapter 16. Between chapter 12 and chapter 16, where he begins discussing the work of serving Hashem, there are three more chapters: 13, 14, and 15. Why do we need them? Up through chapter 12, he explained where we need to get to. He begins explaining how to get there only in chapter 16. In between are three chapters of inner preparation. Take a step back. Before you begin serving Hashem, you first need to engrave three things on your heart. This isn’t a matter of doing the work; these are three things you need to know. If you don’t know them, if these three things haven’t sunk in, there’s no point in even trying to begin. The first of the three things he’ll explain begins in chapter 13: “Be like a rasha in your own eyes.” Don’t think too highly of yourself. Don’t think you’ve succeeded. You haven’t succeeded yet. That’s chapter 13: “Be like a rasha in your own eyes.” A person must not consider himself a tzaddik. The moment he thinks he’s reached the goal, that very moment he has fallen. That’s chapter 13. Then he says: “Don’t think this is easy work.” True, I explained it very simply: just turn your mind away; a little light dispels much darkness. It sounds... it sounds good. Don’t think it’s that simple. You should know that hard work awaits you.

1:06:24 Speaker 5 Serving G-d—

1:06:25 Speaker 1 Hard work awaits you for your entire life. You’ll never reach the end of it, and every single moment will be very, very, very, very hard. That’s chapter 11. Don’t think you’re going to have an easy life. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants your effort. Hakadosh Boruch Hu doesn’t want your successes. Your successes aren’t what matter to Him. Successes? If Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted successes, He would have created angels for Himself. Angels don’t have a yetzer hara. Hakadosh Boruch Hu doesn’t want successes; He wants the effort, He wants the work. So know that the work is hard. Why is it hard? Because what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants is the effort and the work, not the success. Then, in the following chapter, he goes further: after all this, even though you must be like a rasha in your own eyes and even though the work is very hard, you need to have trust in Hakadosh Boruch Hu—complete trust. This is what is asked of me, and what I’m doing is good. Once a person has internalized these three things—“Be like a rasha in your own eyes,” trust in Hashem, and the knowledge that the work is hard, without despairing: “The work is hard; hard work awaits me”—then he can begin. Good, now let’s see what needs to be done. We’ll see that later on, with Hashem’s help.