Likkutei Amarim Chapter 28 · 5785

00:02 Speaker 1 Like, I don’t know, yeah, you just have a place to do it, and then you need to talk about a particular chapter.

00:09 Speaker 2 Okay, we want to understand chapter 28. Chapter 28 talks about what happens if thoughts of desire and other distracting thoughts occur to a person during avodah and davening. How did he begin the discussion? In chapter 25, the Alter Rebbe finished explaining what serving Hashem means. What did he explain there? What does serving Hashem mean for people on our level? How does a Jew serve Hashem? Hmm?

00:33 Speaker 1 Davening, fulfilling mitzvos.

00:35 Speaker 2 Right. And if he’s tempted to commit a sin, what does he do?

00:43 Speaker 9 Teshuvah.

00:44 Speaker 2 Teshuvah is after he’s committed a sin.

00:45 Speaker 1 Forcing himself.

00:48 Speaker 2 Right now he’s faced with a sin—something he very, very much wants to do. How can he overcome it?

00:52 Speaker 9 Thinking about the soul.

00:58 Speaker 1 Contemplating.

00:58 Speaker 2 Contemplating what?

01:00 Speaker 1 Hashem’s greatness.

01:01 Speaker 2 He doesn’t have—

01:02 Speaker 1 That disconnects him.

01:03 Speaker 2 He doesn’t know how to contemplate. He’s an unlearned person; he hasn’t studied Chassidus, he hasn’t had... He can’t do that. We’re talking about a simple person, not some great tzaddik who knows how to contemplate lofty matters. He doesn’t know about Hashem’s greatness; he hasn’t learned it. So what happens when he’s tempted to sin right now? He very much wants to do something forbidden. How can he hold himself back? What’s the explanation?

01:27 Speaker 1 He thinks that if it were idol worship, it would disconnect him, and if—

01:31 Speaker 2 Simple.

01:31 Speaker 1 This disconnects him too.

01:32 Speaker 2 A person simply has to remember—remember that he’s a Jew. I’m a Jew. If I were put to the test right now over idol worship, I’d be ready to give up my life, right? Yes? So am I going to commit a sin over something like this? This also disconnects me from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Just the same as—That’s all. For a thought like—

01:52 Speaker 1 To work it out and think about it.

01:53 Speaker 2 Yes, but—

01:53 Speaker 1 It’s in my nature.

01:54 Speaker 2 Right, but to have a thought like that, you don’t need to study Chassidus.

01:59 Speaker 1 Yes.

01:59 Speaker 2 You don’t need to study Gemara; you don’t need to be a genius or a tzaddik. You don’t need anything. Remember that you’re a Jew, and as a Jew you have the strength to give up your life at any moment, over anything. That’s all. That’s everything he says in Tanya from chapter 1 through chapter 25. What’s the central point of serving Hashem? Remember that you’re a Jew. That’s all. Remember that you’re a Jew; remember that you have the strength for mesirus nefesh. And once that strength—You don’t actually have to give up your life. Just remember that you could, and you won’t commit any sin. That’s what he explained. Then he said: Fine, but for a person to remember this, to be able to bring it to mind, he has to be in a state of joy. If a person is sluggish, weighed down, down all the time, he won’t think, he won’t make the effort, and he won’t manage to overcome his yetzer. So it isn’t enough to remember that he’s a Jew; he needs to be joyful all the time. Then he asks, “But how can I be joyful? All kinds of things keep a person from being happy. And since I can’t be happy because various things are bothering me, I won’t be able to overcome my yetzer either. I won’t be able to reach that thought—that I’m a Jew, that I could give up my life. It won’t work. The thought won’t even occur to me, because I’m completely in a state of sluggishness, sadness, heaviness.” Right? So you need to be joyful. The advice is to be joyful. Simple. Well, how can I be joyful? So the Alter Rebbe begins—he devotes four chapters to it, right? 26, 27, 28... That’s it. Three chapters. Right? How can a person always be joyful? He simply analyzes it. He says:

03:45 Speaker 2 What causes a person to be—Let’s think: What causes a person to be sad? And how can he be happy in any situation, even when he has a reason to be sad? Right? In general, there are two things, two kinds of reasons that can make a person sad: either something is lacking materially, or something is lacking spiritually. That’s all.

04:13 Speaker 1 Very simple.

04:14 Speaker 2 Huh?

04:14 Speaker 1 Very simple.

04:14 Speaker 2 Very simple. So he started with the simplest case. If a person is lacking something materially, he needs to remind himself, “Hashem reproves the one He loves.” Why is Hakadosh Boruch Hu causing me suffering? I’m lacking when it comes to children, to livelihood. Why? Because Hakadosh Boruch Hu loves me. Because Hakadosh Boruch Hu loves me, either He’s putting me to the test in order to raise me to a higher place, or He’s giving me something so lofty and good that it can’t be revealed in this world at all. He explained several aspects of this. So first of all, if a person has—Simply put, the fact that you lack something material is no reason to be sad. On the contrary, it’s a reason to be happy. And with that he finished discussing the material reasons for sadness. But if a person is sad about spiritual matters, that’s more complicated. Spiritual matters are always more complicated... So he divides them into two. What are spiritual matters? Spiritual matters here mean sins. A sin, right? What does it mean for a person to be sad about spiritual matters? He’s sad that he commits sins. He can’t overcome himself; he does things he mustn’t do, or wants to do things he mustn’t do, and the very fact that he wants to—or does—bothers him. On the one hand, he can’t stop himself; on the other hand, it hurts him to find himself in that position. I’m a Jew, and I don’t want to look like... No, I don’t want to look like that. Right? And just thinking about the fact that he committed a sin, or that he wants to commit one, that he’s drawn to sins—that thought makes him sad. That’s what’s called sadness over spiritual matters, right? And he divides that itself into two: there’s sadness over spiritual matters, sadness because

06:02 Speaker 2 he committed a sin, or sadness because he’s drawn to worldly things, drawn to sins. In practice, he doesn’t do them. But the very fact that he feels drawn to them makes him feel that something’s wrong with him. I’m a Jew; I shouldn’t be drawn to this. Why am I attracted to things that I know, intellectually, a normal person shouldn’t be attracted to? So he divided that into two as well. Then in... in chapter 27 he expl—Sorry. At the end of chapter 26, he explains what happens, how a person can be happy even though he has committed sins. Right? What do I have to be—How can I—What do I have to be happy about when I’ve committed sins?

06:55 Speaker 1 Hmm.

06:56 Speaker 2 Huh?

06:56 Speaker 1 Hmm.

06:57 Speaker 2 What was the answer there? What did he say to that? Here’s a person who has no material problems; materially, everything is fine, but he’s sad and dejected because he committed a sin. What can he—

07:09 Speaker 1 No, that came afterward. That sins can lead you to a higher place? No.

07:19 Speaker 2 No.

07:20 Speaker 1 That came afterward. What? That you’re not a tzaddik? No, that came afterward, right?

07:35 Speaker 2 What, in the middle of the day you suddenly start having thoughts of teshuvah? Where did that come from? There’s a time for doing teshuvah. To do teshuvah properly—this is what the Alter Rebbe explains—a person needs to contemplate Hashem’s greatness. He needs to contemplate how serious the sin he committed is: what he did, how much it damaged him, and how much it caused damage Above. When he understands the gravity of the sin, he’ll truly feel pain over it, and then he’ll truly do teshuvah. What are you doing suddenly, in the middle of the day, while you’re busy with something or other, saying, “Yes, I’m very sad, I deeply regret it”? That sadness isn’t genuine. Your regret isn’t genuine. That’s not how you do teshuvah. You need to do teshuvah properly. You need to set aside a time. If you really committed a sin, or think you committed a sin, find a time—before reciting Shema at bedtime, or some other suitable time. Sit with yourself for five minutes, ten minutes, half an hour. Contemplate the sin you committed. Contemplate the damage it did: the damage to you, the damage Above, the damage to your soul, the damage to your purpose in this world. How far down did it bring your soul? How did you go against Hakadosh Boruch Hu? And the fact that you rebelled against Hakadosh Boruch Hu—contemplate the greatness of the One against Whom you sinned. Fine, find time for it and contemplate it. Think it through so that it will genuinely hurt. In the middle of the day, if a thought comes to you that you’re sad about your sins, that thought isn’t coming from the G-dly soul. When, in the middle of the day, a person suddenly has a thought like, “Oh no, I committed a sin,” a thought like that comes to him then only from the animal soul. Why?

09:26 Speaker 2 What’s the animal soul’s interest in putting thoughts of teshuvah into a person’s mind in the middle of the day?

09:36 Speaker 10 To bring him down.

09:39 Speaker 2 Exactly. The animal soul wants something very simple: it wants a person not to keep mitzvos. If he starts keeping mitzvos, he’ll feed it less. He’ll try to spend the whole day learning Torah and davening. No, it doesn’t want that. It wants this person for itself. It would rather he be sad, so it puts all kinds of thoughts into his head that it knows will make him sad. So if you have thoughts like that in the middle of the day, thoughts that seem like teshuvah, know that it isn’t teshuvah or anything of the sort. It’s simply your animal soul trying to make you sad. So what should you tell your animal soul? Or what should you tell yourself when you have thoughts like these? Now is not the time. I’m here right now; I need to do what I’m doing right now, and I need to do it with joy. If I’m not joyful, I won’t be able to overcome my yetzer. The aveiros I committed—yes, yes, yes, it’s true, I committed aveiros. Right now I’m deciding that tonight, at eleven o’clock, I’ll devote ten minutes to that. Yes. Fine. So that’s how a person can remain joyful when thoughts come to him—when sadness comes over him because he committed aveiros. But there’s another kind of person whose sadness about his spiritual state isn’t about that. He’s a beinoni. He doesn’t commit aveiros, hasn’t committed an aveirah, won’t commit an aveirah, doesn’t commit aveiros. At least, generally speaking, he tries not to commit aveiros; he hardly ever does. He doesn’t at all. What is he sad about? This person has no problems materially. Materially, everything is fine, boruch Hashem. Children, livelihood, a home, a mortgage—everything, everything is in order. And as for aveiros, he doesn’t commit aveiros. An ordinary person gets up in the morning, davens, says Shema, learns Torah, keeps mitzvos, keeps Shabbos, doesn’t

11:33 Speaker 2 commit aveiros. What does he have to be sad about? Well, that’s each of us. Sometimes we find ourselves feeling sad, right? What are we sad about?

11:45 Speaker 10 Being drawn to material things.

11:47 Speaker 2 Being drawn to material things. Why am I so coarse? That bothers every one of us, right? The Alter Rebbe says this, too, has to be divided into two. Why? Because a thought like “Why am I so materialistic? Why am I so coarse?” can come to a person at two different times. Such thoughts can come while he’s going about his business—what he calls “during the day”—or they can come during davening or Torah study, when he’s serving Hashem. What’s the difference? There’s a big difference. When a person is in the middle of his business, who is in control of him then: the G-dly soul or the animal soul? The animal soul. Throughout the day, it’s the animal soul that’s in control, right? So if, all of a sudden, in the middle of the day, a thought arises—some distress over how materialistic he is—where does that thought come from? From the animal soul. To him it sounds and feels like a thought of teshuvah. “Wow, what a tzaddik I am! Here I am in the middle of the day, and suddenly I’m having such holy thoughts.” What’s really happening? The animal soul wants to bring him down, that’s all. So what’s the advice? The same advice as in the previous chapter: now is not the time. You’ll have time for teshuvah, to deal with all of this—how materialistic you are, and so on and so forth. It’s true; your situation isn’t so wonderful. But now is not the time. The Alter Rebbe says something more: why do you have thoughts like these? Why does a person have thoughts about what he’s drawn to? Why is a person drawn to material things? Why?

14:00 Speaker 11 Because he has an animal soul.

14:01 Speaker 2 Because he has an animal soul. A tzaddik isn’t drawn to material things. He won’t be. I saw something yesterday—do we have time for a story?

14:14 Speaker 11 Yes, yes, yes. In another chapter.

14:16 Speaker 2 Yesterday I saw a story about the Tzemach Tzedek. It’s a familiar story, but yesterday I happened to spend some time on it. I had time, so I read a few stories.

14:23 Speaker 11 We were supposed to have a class with a Chassidic story, and I don’t know. I only saw it after we postponed.

14:27 Speaker 12 Right, me too.

14:28 Speaker 11 We didn’t cancel it; we just postponed it.

14:30 Speaker 12 Yes, postponed it. Exactly, we didn’t cancel it. So it’s better to continue with our subject—and you were outside too.

14:39 Speaker 2 The Tzemach Tzedek once had to travel around Europe for some matter, and one of his sons went with him. The Tzemach Tzedek had six sons, all great tzaddikim, every one of them. Each established a dynasty of Rebbes, a genuine one. They were all tzaddikim. One of the sons accompanied him, and wherever the Tzemach Tzedek went, he was received with royal honors. He was a renowned Torah genius throughout the world. His knowledge of—

15:17 Speaker 12 The third Rebbe of Chabad.

15:19 Speaker 2 The Tzemach—the Tzemach Tzedek.

15:23 Speaker 11 Absolutely incredible.

15:23 Speaker 12 You’re good.

15:26 Speaker 11 A week from the Rebbe, a week ago. Wow, wow, wow, a week.

15:30 Speaker 12 Ready for a week.

15:33 Speaker 11 I’m staying here for one night.

15:36 Speaker 12 What?

15:36 Speaker 11 I feel like we’re camping out.

15:38 Speaker 12 What?

15:39 Speaker 11 It feels like a year to me.

15:42 Speaker 2 The Tzemach Tzedek became known throughout the world for his genius in the revealed dimension of Torah, not for Chassidus. He wrote works and gave halachic rulings. There are volumes of responsa by the Tzemach Tzedek. He also wrote long, very profound explanations. He became famous... People honored him, invited him to speak wherever he went, asked him questions, consulted him, came to greet him, and showed him tremendous honor. The account describes at length the great honor he was given in every city. During the trip, which lasted several weeks, the son accompanying him wrote a letter to his mother, the Rebbetzin: “Everywhere we go, Father receives tremendous honor, and I’m enjoying it very much.” That’s what he wrote. As if to say, people recognize Father’s worth. Not just Chabad chassidim—the whole world. When the tour ended, they returned home. One day, the Tzemach Tzedek came across the letter his son had sent. He was very angry. He took his son aside and rebuked him; he was deeply, deeply upset with him. So the Rebbetzin asked, “What do you want from him?” And the Tzemach Tzedek said to her, “They spilled my blood like water, and he writes that he enjoyed it?”

17:18 Speaker 13 Wow, wow.

17:23 Speaker 2 A person... The Tzemach Tzedek was a human being. Imagine someone who toils his whole life, to the point of mesirus nefesh, over Torah study. He arrives somewhere, travels around the world, and people recognize him, ask him questions, genuinely honor him. It wasn’t empty honor. They honored him because of—

17:45 Speaker 13 His Torah scholarship.

17:45 Speaker 2 His Torah scholarship, the effort he had invested, his character, his righteousness. The honor was genuine; it wasn’t put on. “They spilled my blood like water.”

17:59 Speaker 13 What did she say to him? What did she...?

18:02 Speaker 2 The point is...

18:11 Speaker 13 Hi, hello.

18:12 Speaker 2 Hello.

18:12 Speaker 13 Oh, oh. Here’s Honda. Wow, you’ve arrived as a whole group. How nice.

18:17 Speaker 2 Boruch Hashem.

18:17 Speaker 13 They got a personal invitation, I heard.

18:20 Speaker 2 Thanks to the generosity.

18:22 Speaker 13 Wonderful. How are you?

18:23 Speaker 2 Fine.

18:24 Speaker 13 I told them there was—how nice.

18:26 Speaker 2 I don’t...

18:28 Speaker 13 Because I didn’t know if your husband was here. Okay, okay.

18:33 Speaker 2 People ask about you; they tell you that...

18:34 Speaker 13 They ask.

18:35 Speaker 2 The fact that she always comes to the class makes an impression—don’t forget.

18:38 Speaker 13 Yes.

18:38 Speaker 2 For happy occasions, though.

18:39 Speaker 13 Thank you very much.

18:39 Speaker 2 Do you realize we’re starting our seventh year now?

18:42 Speaker 13 Wow, wow, wow.

18:43 Speaker 2 Seventh, Michael.

18:45 Speaker 13 Michael says twenty-one.

18:47 Speaker 2 I said approximately.

18:48 Speaker 13 Yes, okay.

18:55 Speaker 2 Come sit here; there’s room.

18:59 Speaker 13 No, it’s fine. It doesn’t matter.

19:00 Speaker 2 Come, come sit down.

19:04 Speaker 13 No, why? There’s room for you. Come on.

19:07 Speaker 2 Don’t you want to sit here next to me?

19:08 Speaker 13 No, but where am I sitting? There’s room here. Chani is arranging it. You come.

19:24 Speaker 2 Where can we sit?

19:25 Speaker 13 You can sit. Where is she—Ella?

19:30 Speaker 2 I don’t know, [unclear].

19:35 Speaker 13 Did she make sure Mira wouldn’t be here?

19:36 Speaker 2 Yes.

19:36 Speaker 13 She came down with us. I told her, no, that’s not interesting.

19:47 Speaker 2 Okay, so the point of the story... The point is that a tzaddik not only doesn’t enjoy physical pleasures—he cannot enjoy them. Give him all the honor in the world, genuinely honor him, and he cannot enjoy it. Put money in his hand, and it feels like burning coals; he cannot touch it. All the worldly desires that attract us—this is what we learned in chapter 10 about a tzaddik. So what does the Alter Rebbe say in chapter 27? When a person has thoughts during the day that draw him toward physical pleasures and desires, and he is upset by that—upset by the very fact that he feels attracted to them, by the fact that he is a physical person—the Alter Rebbe says: “Excuse me, do you think you’re someone who isn’t drawn to physical pleasures? Do you think you’re like the Tzemach Tzedek, who was repelled by physicality, who loathed it? That’s just pride.” A person who is upset during the day because he is drawn to physical pleasures is simply being arrogant. He imagines himself a tzaddik. If he knew his place, he would realize that he is a beinoni, not a tzaddik. So why is he drawn to physical pleasures? Because that is how Hakadosh Boruch Hu created him. Why be upset that you’re drawn to them? Are you upset about how Hakadosh Boruch Hu created you? And that leads to the question—we got into this because of the earlier question. I saw it wasn’t coming across, so I went on at length. Why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu create us this way? If Hakadosh Boruch Hu can create tzaddikim—and He did—why didn’t He create us as tzaddikim too?

22:18 Speaker 2 On the contrary, there are only a handful of tzaddikim in the world. Hakadosh Boruch Hu created most people as beinonim. What is a beinoni? Someone who is a physical person, who finds worldly desires enticing and is drawn to them. Why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu create you like that? Huh? You don’t think about that? Why did He do it? What answer does he give there? We learned this a week ago.

22:45 Speaker 14 Two weeks ago.

22:48 Speaker 2 Two weeks ago, even.

22:52 Speaker 14 Yes.

22:52 Speaker 2 Yes. Hakadosh Boruch Hu has two kinds of pleasure, just as a person has two kinds of food—that’s the analogy he gives. The Rebbe also gives this analogy. There are sweet foods, and there are sharp and sour foods. Which tastes better?

23:11 Speaker 14 Each person likes something different.

23:13 Speaker 2 Everyone has their own taste. But there’s a limit to how much sweetness you can eat. Sour, sharp foods—you know, you can keep eating until your stomach bursts. More than that, a pungent food revives a person. When someone faints and you want to revive him, you don’t put a sweet smell under his nose; you put a sharp smell there, and that jolts him awake. You envy tzaddikim because they aren’t drawn to physical pleasures? Your avodah is worth more than theirs. Hakadosh Boruch Hu didn’t create the world for the tzaddikim; Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world for you! And He created it for you so that you would overcome that pull toward physical pleasures. So why are you upset? “Why am I drawn to them?” Is that what upsets you? The fact that you’re drawn to them—that is your avodah, and through it you give Hakadosh Boruch Hu pleasure. Through it you give Him even more pleasure than the tzaddikim do. So clearly, a person has no reason in the world to be sad that he is drawn to physical pleasures. On the contrary, he should be happy that he can fulfill Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s command and do His will. We covered all that last week.

24:31 Speaker 15 Two weeks ago.

24:32 Speaker 2 Two weeks ago. So we said that for a person to be able to serve Hashem—as discussed from chapter 1 through chapter 25—he needs to be happy. How can he be happy? All kinds of things make him sad. If he’s sad because he lacks certain material things, he needs to reflect on “the closeness of G-d is good for me,” and “Whom Hashem loves, He chastises.” If what troubles him is sins he has committed, set aside a time to deal with that, a time around Krias Shema. Right now, in the middle of the day, is not the time. And if what troubles him is all kinds of thoughts and desires, the fact that he’s drawn to physical pleasures, then he doesn’t need to be sad; he needs to be happy. That is why Hakadosh Boruch Hu created him. There’s one more loose end to tie up, and that’s the chapter about...

25:21 Speaker 15 If it happens in the middle of davening.

25:23 Speaker 2 What happens—yes. What happens if a person feels that same pull toward physical pleasures and is sad about it, but when? Not just in the middle of the day—in the middle of davening. What difference does it make whether he’s sad about his... his physicality? What’s the word I’m looking for? What difference does it make whether he’s sad about it in the middle of the day or in the middle of davening? During the day, we tell him he should be happy. But if it happens while he’s davening, can he be happy? He can’t daven! He’s trying to concentrate on davening, and thoughts are interfering with his davening. He tries to learn, but he can’t concentrate and can’t understand anything. How can he be happy? It’s interfering with his service of Hashem right now. So those very same thoughts—the ones that, during the day, he should address by reflecting that this is why he was created—that advice doesn’t help during davening. How can he be happy now? We need to tie up that loose end. That’s chapter 28. So before we learn chapter 28, even though we’ve already started reading a little inside: what would an ordinary person think? Someone who doesn’t have the Alter Rebbe, who hasn’t learned Chassidus, hasn’t learned Nigleh, hasn’t learned anything. Just an ordinary person. Each of us could find ourselves in this situation. I’m about to start davening. Let’s picture it, okay? I start davening, and in the fifth blessing, suddenly some thought occurs to me, and I feel sad that I’m so caught up in physicality and that I’m getting distracted during davening.

27:15 Speaker 15 What’s the fifth blessing?

27:16 Speaker 2 It happened to me in the fifth blessing, okay? I didn’t even hear what I was saying for the first four blessings. No, but you understand what I mean, right? What am I supposed to think now? Why is this happening? Why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu do this to me? It can’t be so that I’ll be happy now, because it’s interfering. You can’t be happy about that, right? So why am I having these thoughts now? What’s the reason? Apparently, someone is trying to hint something to me. Right? That makes sense. That’s what we would seemingly think. What might Hakadosh Boruch Hu be hinting to me by sending me thoughts like these in the middle of davening? One of two things: either Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants me to correct these thoughts, this character trait, and so on, or He wants to show me that I’m not who I thought I was. An ordinary person, using plain common sense, would think one or the other, right?

28:38 Speaker 16 Yes.

28:38 Speaker 2 Then the Rebbe comes along and, in chapter 28, says: “Neither.” All right? Let’s read it first. “And even if thoughts of desire and other foreign thoughts occur to him while he is engaged in Torah study or davening with concentration”—while he is trying to concentrate and these thoughts come to him—“he should pay them no attention, but immediately turn his mind away from them. And he should also not be foolish enough to engage in elevating the character traits involved in the foreign thought, as is known. For those teachings were said only of tzaddikim, who do not have foreign thoughts of their own, but only thoughts that come from others.” This teaching appears in the name of the Baal Shem Tov. The Maggid also brings it, as do several works by students of the Maggid: when a foreign thought enters a person’s mind in the middle of davening, why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu cause that to happen? So that he would correct something. Correct what? During davening, which soul is davening—the G-dly soul or the animal soul?

30:05 Speaker 16 The G-dly soul.

30:07 Speaker 2 Obviously, the G-dly soul. And what is happening with the body while a person is davening?

30:17 Speaker 16 It’s davening.

30:19 Speaker 2 Is it alive or dead?

30:21 Speaker 16 Alive.

30:22 Speaker 2 It keeps on living.

30:24 Speaker 16 Alive.

30:25 Speaker 2 Does the G-dly soul have a connection with the body?

30:29 Speaker 16 No.

30:30 Speaker 2 What does it have to do with the body? The G-dly soul doesn’t know what a coin looks like; it doesn’t know what this world looks like. What’s the connection? What is the G-dly soul doing inside the body? There’s an animal soul. Hakadosh Boruch Hu took the G-dly soul and planted it inside the animal soul. The animal soul gives life to the body. So when a person prays, it’s the G-dly soul that’s praying. But how does he move his mouth, his lips? The G-dly soul doesn’t know what a body is or what lips are. The G-dly soul is clothed in the animal soul, and the animal soul moves the lips when he prays. And it’s not just the power of action. A person stands on—stands on two legs. What keeps his legs standing? The animal soul. Who thinks the thoughts? The animal soul too.

31:25 Speaker 16 …

31:26 Speaker 2 Hmm? The G-dly soul is clothed inside the animal soul. Which one actually operates within the body? The animal soul. Is the animal soul pleased that the person is praying? Not exactly. That’s not its thing. Right now, well, it’s been tied down. It has no choice. So it tries to slip something of its own into the prayer. The holy Baal Shem Tov says: Every thought a person thinks comes from some emotional attribute. If a person desires something, that comes from the attribute of chessed. If it’s the opposite, that comes from the attribute of gevurah, and so on. So every thought a person thinks comes from some attribute. If, in the middle of prayer, a thought suddenly enters his mind, what does that mean? That he has a problem with that attribute, and therefore Hakadosh Boruch Hu brought him a thought from that attribute. Let’s say a desire has now awakened in him—for some food, or for something else. Since this is the attribute of desire, and desire stems from chessed, he should now strengthen chessed in holiness during prayer—that is, strengthen his love of Hashem. And when he strengthens his love of Hashem during prayer, prompted by that thought arising from the opposing side of chessed, it will rectify the chessed of his animal soul. All right? That’s what the Baal Shem Tov says. The Maggid repeats it and explains it with an illustration. What’s the problem? The problem is that this doesn’t apply to us. Why doesn’t it apply to us?

33:36 Speaker 3 The water.

33:46 Speaker 2 Have you ever heard of Baron Munchausen?

33:49 Speaker 3 No.

33:49 Speaker 2 Hmm?

33:50 Speaker 3 Only the baron.

33:53 Speaker 2 You haven’t heard of him? Well, even better. It’s a story from the non-Jews. One of the stories about him is that he once... he and his horse sank into a swamp. There are lots of stories—windmills, all sorts of stories. Once he and his horse sank into a swamp, and he shouted for help, but no one could help him. So he decided, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?” He grabbed himself by the hair and pulled himself and his horse out of the swamp. Why are you laughing?

34:26 Speaker 3 I don’t deserve it.

34:27 Speaker 2 Because someone who’s sunk in the mud can’t pull himself out. He’s in it... Someone outside has a point of support; he can pull out the person in the mud. But if you yourself are in the mud, how can you pull yourself out? Tzaddikim. A tzaddik isn’t inside this world. He’s not—he’s not here. The desires of this world don’t touch him at all, because this world has no hold on him. So when a thought comes to him, he can take that thought and draw it into holiness. But you’re inside it. How do you think you can find a way... pull yourself out? It doesn’t apply. On the other hand, someone will immediately ask: If he’s such a tzaddik and has nothing to do with this world, where do foreign thoughts in the middle of prayer come from? Hmm? Do you hear the question? A person who’s a tzaddik—what are we saying? Who can elevate foreign thoughts? Only a tzaddik. Why? Because he isn’t in the swamp. So, excuse me, if he isn’t in the swamp, where does he get foreign thoughts?

35:49 Speaker 3 A tzaddik has foreign thoughts in the middle of prayer?

35:51 Speaker 2 That’s what the Baal Shem Tov says.

35:58 Speaker 3 No.

35:58 Speaker 2 We learned the explanation in chapter 2 of Tanya; we just didn’t attach much importance to it. Right at the beginning of Tanya, the Alter Rebbe says that the souls of all the Jewish people are one soul. The souls of all—all the Jews, the boys and the girls, and not only in this generation but throughout all generations—are just one soul that shines in each body in a different way. Why does it shine differently in each body? If it’s the same soul, why does each person have a different character? Why does it look different in each person, with different feelings? Because on its way from its source above until it descends into a body below, the soul passes in order through the four worlds—Atzilus, Beriah, Yetzirah, Asiyah. It goes through an entire process, similar to the development of a drop in the mother’s womb, where one drop becomes a whole child with limbs and a body and countless living cells, each of which... Right? So each of our souls is like one cell in a body, or even less than that. But we are all cells of the same soul. And in every generation there are “the heads of the thousands of Israel,” as he says there in chapter 2, who are the head and brain of the souls of the masses and ordinary people. Who are the souls of the masses and ordinary people? That’s us. Who are the tzaddikim and the sages? The tzaddikim and the sages. And since the tzaddikim and the sages are our head, when I have problems, when I’m immersed in material things, the tzaddik feels it. That’s what it means that the foreign thoughts that arise in him aren’t his own; they’re other people’s. He himself is outside. The foreign thoughts he has aren’t his—they’re our thoughts. Or, in the words quoted by the Gemara, “Surely he has borne our sicknesses and carried our pains.” That’s in a spiritual sense. So, since you’re not a tzaddik—let’s go back. We’re now in the middle of prayer. We have some thought

38:11 Speaker 2 and we’re upset about it. What would a person say? “I learned in the writings of the Baal Shem Tov that the advice is to elevate the foreign thought.” Excuse me, you’re not a tzaddik. It doesn’t apply to you. You can’t do that. We’ve ruled it out. Moving on. What do we do now? “But as for one whose thought comes from his own self, from the evil in his heart, in the left cavity—how can he elevate it when he himself is bound below? Nevertheless, he should not let his heart fall within him and be overcome by lowly sadness during divine service, which must be done with great joy.” What does “lowly sadness” mean? A person might say the opposite: “Okay, if Hakadosh Boruch Hu brought this thought into my mind not so that I should rectify it, because I’m not someone who can rectify thoughts, then why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu bring it to me now? Because Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants to tell me: Listen, tone it down. Don’t be so joyful right now.” No, no, no, no. Hakadosh Boruch Hu doesn’t tell a Jew not to be joyful. If you aren’t joyful, you won’t be able to pray; you won’t be able to do anything. So elevating the thought isn’t the advice. And doing teshuvah—right now you’re praying; this is a time to be joyful. It’s not the time to do teshuvah. What, then? “On the contrary, he should strengthen himself all the more and redouble his efforts with all his might to concentrate in prayer, with even greater gladness and joy.” Listen, a foreign thought came to you; now you need to be happy. Well, during prayer. If a foreign thought comes to him when he isn’t praying, why should he be happy? We saw that: because now he has an opportunity to fulfill Hashem’s will, to sanctify Hashem’s name, to give pleasure to his Creator. All right? Well, what do we say about during prayer? Why should he be happy now? Because we won’t think

40:25 Speaker 2 any more foreign thoughts? “When he takes to heart that the foreign thought comes from the kelipah in the left cavity, and the kelipah in the left cavity wages war against the beinoni’s G-dly soul.” Where is that written? If you know, don’t give it away. Do you remember which chapter it’s in?

40:50 Speaker 4 Three, two, thirteen.

40:52 Speaker 2 Ah, a little further on, yes?

40:55 Speaker 4 Four, but how many? I don’t...

41:00 Speaker 2 Chapter 9 of Tanya is the war between the souls.

41:02 Speaker 4 Oh, no, then I read it two lines later.

41:05 Speaker 2 Ah, so... Chapter 9 explains that a person has two souls. We said the G-dly soul is in the brain and the animal soul is in the heart. The G-dly soul is in the brain and the animal soul is in the heart—that’s what he writes there. So seemingly, if you have—how do you put it?—two countries: the Jews are in the Land of Israel and the Egyptians are in Egypt. Why would there be a war? They’re not here, and the others aren’t there. Why would there be a war? When does a war start? A war starts either when the Egyptians want to cross the border into here or when the Jews want to cross the border into there. As long as each one stays in its own place, there’s no war. So if the G-dly soul were content with its place in the brain and the animal soul were content with its place in the heart, there would be no war. What would it look like if that were the reality? On the side of his heart, a person would be drawn to all sorts of things, and on the side of his brain he would be occupied with... Have you ever heard of Aristotle? Aristotle was a great tzaddik among the non-Jews. Hmm?

42:26 Speaker 4 Ah, of the vessel.

42:28 Speaker 2 Yes, the Rambam quotes him—the Rambam quotes him a lot. Once they caught Aristotle, who was a very great philosopher, in one of the least modest places in the world. They asked him, “Our teacher, what...?” So he said, “In the study hall I’m Aristotle. Here...” What does one have to do with the other?

42:48 Speaker 4 The whole person.

42:49 Speaker 2 What does one have to do with the other? Intellect is intellect, emotion is emotion; they have nothing to do with each other. For a Jew, it isn’t like that. The divine soul wants to rule the entire body. The animal soul also wants to rule the entire body. So the divine soul tries to take control of the heart, and the heart tries to take control of the mind, and that’s why there’s a war. And what is a war? As we know from people fighting or wrestling each other: when one gains the upper hand, the other exerts himself with all his strength to gain the upper hand too. We’ve been at war with Iran for I don’t know how many years now. Fifty years at war with Iran, but there were twelve days when bombs were dropped. There’s a war, and then there’s a time of battle—when the sides come close and actually fight. Right? The time of davening is when the divine soul and the animal soul are fighting, throwing things, firing at each other. The rest of the day there’s a war too, a war all the time. The war doesn’t end. But the time when each one actually exerts itself—the divine soul trying to take control of the heart so that the person will love Hashem, and the animal soul fighting back by putting thoughts into the mind—that’s the time of davening. What happens at the time of battle? When the divine soul exerts itself and prevails in davening, the kelipah also grows stronger against it, trying to confuse it and bring it down with its distracting thoughts. That’s how war works. As long as one side hasn’t begun to fight... Once one side actually starts fighting, the other side grows stronger too. This is not what people mistakenly think. People make a mistake when they take the occurrence of a distracting thought as proof that their davening is worth nothing. Why does a person who has distracting thoughts during davening despair, become sad, feel bad about it and blame himself? Why? Because what does he tell himself? “If I were davening properly, this wouldn’t be happening to me.” Right?

45:12 Speaker 2 “If I had learned Chassidus before davening, gone to the mikveh, given tzedakah and concentrated on davening, I wouldn’t have this now. Why am I having these distracting thoughts? Apparently I didn’t daven properly.” That’s what everyone says. The Alter Rebbe says this is a common mistake. A mistake. Do you hear? It’s a mistake. It isn’t true. A person might prepare for davening, prepare genuinely and well—so well that the Torah itself testifies that he prepared properly and truly exerted himself—and still have distracting thoughts. Why? Very simple. The distracting thoughts aren’t his; they don’t come from him, and they don’t depend on him. Imagine someone standing there about to daven, and a non-Jew comes and stands in front of him—someone else. Did the non-Jew come because of him? It has nothing to do with him. Why is the non-Jew standing there to disturb him? Because the non-Jew wants to disturb him. He feels like annoying the Jew right now. The animal soul is not the divine soul; it’s someone else. Inside us there are what people today would call split personalities: two souls. It’s written already in chapter 1 of Tanya. This is the foundation of all our service of Hashem. We have to grasp that we have two souls. A soul has pleasure, desire, thought, speech, action, intellect and emotion. The divine soul has all these levels and faculties, and the animal soul has counterparts to all of them. The divine soul takes pleasure in closeness to Hashem. The animal soul takes pleasure in the finest things this world has to offer. The divine soul wants to become nullified. The animal soul wants to feel itself as an independent existence. The divine soul wants to understand Torah. The animal soul wants to understand mathematics, chemistry, physics and things like that. The divine soul wants to feel love and awe of Hashem. The animal soul wants to feel warm and comfortable and good. This isn’t one person; it’s two people. So when the divine soul exerts itself—“Now I want to feel G-dliness”—the animal soul immediately digs in its

47:38 Speaker 2 heels. “What do you mean?” It puts distracting thoughts into the person’s mind. So why are you surprised that you have distracting thoughts now? It’s because you’re davening seriously that you have distracting thoughts. Someone who doesn’t daven seriously has no distracting thoughts. It’s exactly the opposite, says the Alter Rebbe. The fact that you have distracting thoughts is a reason to be happy. It’s a sign that you’re serious, that you really mean it, that you prepared properly. The exact opposite of what everyone thinks. Remarkable. All right? What people think is that if he had davened properly, distracting thoughts wouldn’t have occurred to him. They would be right if there were only one soul, and that same soul both davened and thought distracting thoughts. Then, of course, if there’s just one soul and that soul... If I really had only one soul, that would be a soul, and—

48:34 Speaker 5 It would be easier.

48:35 Speaker 2 Let’s say there’s one soul, but it has a good inclination and an evil inclination. There are two forces. One force pulls it this way, another pulls it that way, but there’s only one soul. So when I think, who is doing the thinking? I am thinking bad things. When I have those thoughts and desires, I am the one having them. That’s me. But if there are two souls here, it isn’t me at all. In truth, though, there are two souls fighting each other in a person’s mind during davening. Each wishes and desires to rule it, so that the mind will be filled with it alone. Do you remember what we explained about wishes and desires?

49:19 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

49:22 Speaker 2 How are we doing for time? Are we finished already?

49:27 Speaker 5 No.

49:28 Speaker 2 Mm. A person has... each of us has inner faculties and encompassing faculties. We call the inner faculties nefesh, ruach and neshamah—that’s the language of Kabbalah. In terms more familiar to us, we call them intellect and emotion. An inner faculty is something inside me that I have control over: what I think about, what I understand. I can work hard at one thing, work hard at something else, or not work hard at all. Emotions, too, are inner faculties of mine. What are encompassing faculties? They’re connected to the essence of the soul. They’re called chayah and yechidah, or will and pleasure. These are encompassing faculties. They aren’t something you control. A person doesn’t control what he wants. What do people always say? “That’s just how I am.” Why do you want that? “That’s how I am.” Will is something that encompasses a person; it isn’t so much under his control. And within will there are two levels, two kinds of desire. There’s the kind where today I very much want to study some subject, and it fills my entire being. I put effort into it, work hard at it, and it’s on my mind all the time. Or there’s something else occupying me right now. I don’t know—registration for preschool, right? Preschool registration is coming up, and it’s occupying me day and night for these weeks. Yes?

51:20 Speaker 5 No, not for me either. Uh, on the computer, what...

51:24 Speaker 2 Everyone has periods like that. This week, these days, this month, there’s something they really, really want. Now it’s a wedding. The wedding is in two months—not now—but for those whole two months, that’s where the person’s mind is. Right. That’s called desire. He’s aware of this desire. It’s an example everyone knows: because there’s going to be a wedding, that’s what he wants right now. So there’s a dress, clothes, money, arrangements, guests. There are lots and lots of inner faculties involved, lots of little details. What drives it all? It all comes from the desire. Because I want to reach that goal, it sets all the inner faculties in motion. Right? So desire is something encompassing that governs all the inner faculties. Is this desire the essence of the soul? No. How do we know it isn’t? It changes. What does that mean? Right now I want this; once the wedding is over, I’ll want something else.

52:27 Speaker 5 It isn’t constant.

52:28 Speaker 2 Hm?

52:29 Speaker 5 It isn’t constant.

52:30 Speaker 2 It isn’t constant. But there is desire—this is one kind of desire. There’s another kind of desire that doesn’t change, that arises from the very essence of a person. For example—

52:43 Speaker 5 To be healthy.

52:44 Speaker 2 To be healthy.

52:47 Speaker 5 To have money.

52:48 Speaker 2 Hm?

52:48 Speaker 5 To have money.

52:49 Speaker 2 Not everyone wants money. A tzaddik doesn’t want money. But there’s no one who doesn’t want a home. It’s impossible. Even a homeless person wants a home—he needs to have the bench he sleeps under at night. It’s a psychological need. It comes from the very essence of a person. Take someone in prison, isolated from other people. He can’t... A person is a social being; he can’t live without company. There are things that are also called desires, but they’re much deeper desires. They don’t change. These two levels of desire are called chefetz and ratzon. Chefetz is the inner dimension of desire, and ratzon is its outer dimension. An external desire does come from the essence of the soul, but it can change. Chefetz is the essential desire of the soul’s very essence—the inner dimension of desire. The Rebbe says that when the two souls do battle, it isn’t only the soul’s ratzon at work; its chefetz is at work too. When a person davens, both the G-dly soul and the animal soul enter the davening with all their strength, all the way. In Hebrew, that’s called mesiras nefesh. All or nothing. When someone goes into battle, it’s simple: either I win or I die. That’s what war means. Either I win or he does. There’s a constant state of war between the G-dly soul and the animal soul. Davening is the time when both the animal soul and the G-dly soul say, “Either me or him.” There’s no middle ground. Not only ratzon, but chefetz too. And so, all thoughts of Torah and fear of Heaven come from the G-dly soul, while all worldly matters come from the animal soul, with the G-dly soul merely clothed in it.

55:06 Speaker 2 And it is like the analogy of a person davening with concentration while a wicked idol worshiper stands before him and starts talking to him to confuse him. Surely the best advice is not to answer him at all, good or bad, but to act like a deaf person who cannot hear, and to fulfill the verse, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you too become like him.” There are two possibilities. We can picture two situations. A Jew is standing and davening, and a non-Jew comes over and starts chatting with him in the middle of davening. There could be two situations. What might the non-Jew want? Maybe he...

55:52 Speaker 5 To confuse him.

55:53 Speaker 2 No. It could be that he doesn’t want to confuse him at all. He genuinely wants to ask him a question.

55:57 Speaker 5 What does he need to ask?

55:58 Speaker 2 He doesn’t know whether the Jew is davening or not. He just wants to ask him something. Right. How do we get rid of him? Listen, answer whatever he needs so he’ll leave you alone, right? Yes. But—

56:10 Speaker 5 In the middle of davening?

56:11 Speaker 2 At a point where it’s permitted to speak. Signal to him. Indicate, “Just a moment, I’m davening now.” If you see that he’s asking because he needs something from you, are you going to ignore him? He’ll just get upset. You’ll insult him for no reason. What for? Right? There’s no point. But if you see that he’s come to confuse you, what good will answering him do? He wants you to answer. Answer one way and he’ll say something else. Answer another way—it doesn’t matter what you say, whether you get angry with him or try to appease him. Either way, answering him will only make him stay longer. Right. It’s the same during davening. Not every thought a person has during davening means he must ignore it and throw it to the winds because the animal soul is trying to bother him. Why not? It could be that he really didn’t prepare properly before davening. He truly didn’t prepare properly. Why didn’t he? Because he’s preoccupied. And why is he preoccupied? Because he has problems. There are real things troubling him, and he’s having a hard time; he can’t get them off his mind. Right. So if a person begins davening in that state, the reason he has thoughts during davening isn’t that the animal soul has come to confuse him. It’s that the animal soul is in control of him right now. Right. In that situation, he does need to address it and say, “Excuse me, now isn’t the time. Wait another five minutes. Let’s daven quietly for a bit and try to concentrate.” Right? But if he did prepare for davening, and he began davening properly, and now thoughts come

58:06 Speaker 2 to him, that’s something else entirely. There’s no point telling it to wait a moment. It isn’t interested in waiting. Tell it “one moment,” and it’ll say, “Another moment.” There’s a story about the Baal Shem Tov. Back when the Baal Shem Tov was still a reish duchna, a teacher’s assistant, he used to go around... It’s a well-known story. He took the children to... to daven in the forest... Sorry, he gathered the children to bring them to their teacher. But with all the enthusiasm, singing and music along the way, somehow, instead of reaching the teacher, they ended up—I don’t know—in the forest, singing and walking around. In short, the teacher waited, and they didn’t arrive. Eventually, when they met, the teacher started shouting at the Baal Shem Tov and humiliating him in public. The Baal Shem Tov listened and listened and listened. Finally he said to him, “When a person throws mud at his fellow, whose hands get dirty?” When someone has thoughts in the middle of davening, why get involved with them now? The very fact that you’re engaging with that sadness will itself bring you down. That’s what he says: “He should not answer at all, nor offer any argument or response against the foreign thought, for one who wrestles with a filthy person becomes filthy himself.” You might win. What good will that kind of victory do you? “Rather, he should”—so what is the advice?—“act as if he neither knows nor hears the thoughts that have occurred to him. He should remove them from his mind and strengthen the power of his concentration.” Up to here, this is the advice from chapter 27: if a person is overcome by sadness because of such thoughts during davening, he should remind himself that, on the contrary, these thoughts have come precisely because he’s making an effort to daven properly, and he should ignore them. But what if he finds it difficult to remove them from his mind? He can’t manage it. He tries to push them away. He pauses for a moment

1:00:42 Speaker 2 in the middle of davening and tries to stop them, but the thoughts won’t stop because they trouble his mind so forcefully. Then he should humble himself before Hashem and plead with Him in his thoughts to have mercy on him in His abundant compassion, as a father has mercy on children who come from his mind. After all, we said that the soul of every Jew comes from His thought and wisdom, blessed be He, and “He is wise, but not with a knowable wisdom.” So He’s our Father. If you can’t push away the thoughts, pause in the middle of davening and, in your mind, pray to Hakadosh Boruch Hu to help you. Then Hashem will have mercy on his soul—on my soul—which comes from Him, blessed be He, and rescue it from the raging waters. “For His own sake He will act, for His people are truly a part of Hashem.” We are a part of Him, so Hakadosh Boruch Hu will act for His own sake. What does “for His own sake” mean? There are two interpretations. Either: because I am His child, Hakadosh Boruch Hu will act for my sake—“for his sake” meaning for the sake of the person asking. Or the reverse: since Hakadosh Boruch Hu is our Father, He will do it for His own satisfaction, for Himself—

1:02:02 Speaker 6 For Hashem.

1:02:03 Speaker 2 For Himself, He will take those thoughts away from us. So the last three chapters, from 26 through 28, are three chapters in which the Alter Rebbe gives four pieces of advice on how to always be happy, in any situation. The Alter Rebbe divided the things that can cause a person sadness into two general categories: physical matters and spiritual matters. He divided the spiritual things that can cause sadness into two as well: sins or thoughts of desire. Then he divided thoughts of desire into two again: those that come while a person is occupied with his affairs, and those that come during davening. And that’s it. Those are the four things that can cause a person sadness. If he studies these chapters—or at least remembers their general content—then whenever he falls into sadness, he’ll stop and think: What am I sad about now? Physical matters? Spiritual matters? Sins? Thoughts while I’m occupied with my affairs? Thoughts during davening? That’s it; there’s nothing else. There are only four things, and each has a simple piece of advice. So he simply won’t ever be sad.

1:03:14 Speaker 6 Wow. So let’s...

1:03:17 Speaker 2 Only four things.

1:03:19 Speaker 6 You have to remember the solution.

1:03:20 Speaker 2 Huh? Go over it again?

1:03:23 Speaker 6 Yes.

1:03:23 Speaker 2 If a person is sad about material matters—and material matters include everything we mentioned: children, health, livelihood, all the things in a person’s life—he needs to remind himself: “For the one Hashem loves, He rebukes.” The fact that Hakadosh Boruch Hu rebukes me is because He loves me, as is explained there at length. If a person is sad because he committed aveiros, he needs to remind himself that the time for sadness over that—the time for teshuvah—is during the nighttime Shema, and right now it’s the middle of the day. If it comes to you in the middle of the day, it comes from the animal soul, not the G-dly soul. Leave it; put it off until later. If the sadness is because he feels coarse, and it just comes over him in the middle of the day, he needs to remind himself: he isn’t a tzaddik; he’s a beinoni. On the contrary, this is his service of Hashem. He should be happy about it, not sad. Right? And if that thought comes during davening, he needs to remind himself: wait, I’m having this thought because I’m making an effort in davening. It’s not a bad sign; it’s a good sign. Right? And if that doesn’t work for me? Altogether, there are four reasons for sadness. Think about it; you need to reflect on it. There aren’t any more. Try as hard as you like to think of one—I’ve tried. You need to reflect on it. There really is no other reason for a person to be sad. None. It doesn’t exist. These are the four reasons. So whenever a person falls into some kind of... As he says at the beginning of chapter 26, when a person has any sadness or low spirits, he can’t overcome the yetzer hara. He can’t. If a temptation comes his way, he won’t withstand it; he’ll fall. How can he be happy? Here you go: you have one, two, three, four reasons for sadness.

1:05:18 Speaker 2 Decide. Think for a moment about what’s making you sad right now. Remember what you need to do, and be happy. So, seemingly, right?

1:05:32 Speaker 7 Sounds simple.

1:05:34 Speaker 2 …

1:05:34 Speaker 7 Seemingly.

1:05:35 Speaker 2 After all, let me say it again: Tanya is a book for beinonim, not a book for tzaddikim. Tanya comes to teach us simple things, to speak to us at eye level, as they say. Tanya teaches how every Jew can get there easily. It’s based on the verse, “For the matter is very close to you.” The Torah says it—the Written Torah. Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself writes in the Torah, “Close to you.” Who is “you”? To whom did Moshe Rabbeinu give the Torah? “The matter is very close to you, in your mouth.” And what is close to you? No, I’m not... So what does “close to you” mean? Look one verse earlier: “For this mitzvah that I command you today”—the entire Torah. Hakadosh Boruch Hu says, Moshe Rabbeinu says, that all Five Books of the Torah, all 613 mitzvos, are “close to you.” Why does he say that? How is it very close? The Rebbe—the Alter Rebbe—explains in Tanya: it’s very simple. Just remind yourself that you’re a Jew, that you have the capacity for mesirus nefesh, and be happy. That’s it. So what’s missing?

1:06:57 Speaker 7 Chapter 29.

1:06:58 Speaker 2 I see there’s another chapter after this, but we’ve finished explaining the whole Tanya, haven’t we? What is Tanya about? How to serve Hashem, right? What is Tanya? Tanya is a book that explains how to serve Hashem. How do we serve Hashem? By reminding myself that I’m a Jew and being happy. Have we finished explaining it? We have. Is Tanya finished? No. That means we haven’t finished explaining it. What haven’t we explained yet? At the beginning of chapter 26 of Tanya, he said that laziness and heaviness have two causes, not just one. What brings a person down so that he can’t fight the yetzer hara is laziness and heaviness. Right? But there are two things that can cause a person laziness and heaviness. One is sadness. We’ve dealt with that; we’ve covered that part. What was the second?

1:08:04 Speaker 7 Heaviness.

1:08:04 Speaker 2 No. Laziness and heaviness...

1:08:06 Speaker 7 Oh, that’s one.

1:08:07 Speaker 2 Laziness is... They’re two things, but laziness and heaviness are caused by two things. One is sadness. What’s the second? Sadness and timtum halev, a blocked heart. We read that. So in the next chapters—29 through 31, 29, 30, 31 and onward—we get advice for timtum halev. What do you do with a person who has timtum halev? What is timtum halev?

1:08:37 Speaker 7 What is it?

1:08:38 Speaker 2 Huh?

1:08:39 Speaker 7 Yes, what is it?

1:08:41 Speaker 2 What does metumtam mean?

1:08:44 Speaker 7 He wants—

1:08:44 Speaker 2 No, I don’t mean in slang.

1:08:47 Speaker 7 Very, very much.

1:08:47 Speaker 2 Huh?

1:08:48 Speaker 7 When he wants something very, very much.

1:08:51 Speaker 8 Let me... get it.

1:08:55 Speaker 2 There’s a term in the Mishnah: dough, “metumtam dough.”

1:09:01 Speaker 7 Wow.

1:09:01 Speaker 2 What is “metumtam dough”?

1:09:02 Speaker 7 Is it metumtam or metumtaman?

1:09:04 Speaker 2 Hm?

1:09:04 Speaker 7 Does it end with an m or an n?

1:09:05 Speaker 2 With an m. Metumtam, yes. Sealed, blocked, closed up.

1:09:10 Speaker 7 Sealed.

1:09:11 Speaker 2 You knead it, and it’s all one lump.

1:09:14 Speaker 7 It hasn’t risen.

1:09:15 Speaker 2 It hasn’t risen—yes, it has risen. It’s one lump. It has no distinct parts. You can’t get inside it; it’s sealed. Metumtam means sealed. What is a tumtum?

1:09:30 Speaker 7 All right, so we’ll tell the students—

1:09:31 Speaker 2 In the language of the Mishnah, what is a tumtum? There’s what’s called a regular person, a tumtum, and an androgynous person. An androgynous person has both male and female sexual organs. A tumtum is someone whose sexual organs are not visible as either male or female. Apparently such a thing exists, or existed once; I don’t know. Covered. Metumtam means covered; nothing gets in. What does timtum halev mean? The heart is blocked.

1:10:04 Speaker 7 Yes, sometimes people use metumtam to mean “closed off,” like you’re not getting it.

1:10:08 Speaker 2 Closed off. That’s what it means. Metumtam means closed off.

1:10:10 Speaker 7 Yes.

1:10:10 Speaker 2 The light of Hashem doesn’t penetrate.

1:10:13 Speaker 8 We’re talking about the mind, not the heart.

1:10:14 Speaker 7 What?

1:10:16 Speaker 8 Nonsense.

1:10:16 Speaker 2 Timtum halev. You’re talking in...

1:10:18 Speaker 7 There are people—

1:10:19 Speaker 2 I said, not in everyday slang. I’m talking in the terminology... We’re talking about Torah, not about that.

1:10:25 Speaker 7 That’s tumah, not tumah.

1:10:27 Speaker 8 It doesn’t matter, but the blockage.

1:10:28 Speaker 2 There’s also something called timtum hamoach, a blocked mind. That isn’t in Tanya, and there’s a reason for that. I don’t want to get into it now.

1:10:32 Speaker 7 In connection with the mind.

1:10:34 Speaker 2 There is—

1:10:35 Speaker 7 Yes, there is timtum hamoach.

1:10:36 Speaker 2 ...the G-dly soul—where is it? We said, in the mind.

1:10:41 Speaker 7 We said that, we said that.

1:10:43 Speaker 2 Serving Hashem means that the G-dly soul doesn’t merely take control, but penetrates the heart and transforms it, as we’ve seen in several places. But if the heart is closed off, no matter how much a person reflects—he sits and studies Chassidus, toils, davens, makes an effort, goes to the mikveh, gives tzedakah, dresses modestly, whatever else, gives of himself—absolutely nothing gets into his heart. What can you do? There’s some kind of cover there.

1:11:21 Speaker 7 A story.

1:11:22 Speaker 2 That doesn’t let the light of the mind penetrate the feelings of the heart. It’s an illness. Just as there are physical illnesses, there are spiritual illnesses. This is a spiritual illness called timtum halev, and it needs to be cured. To cure it, we study chapters 29, 30, and 31 of Tanya.

1:11:49 Speaker 7 Wow, beautiful. That’s what I’m looking forward to next week.