24 Teves | Know the Enemy - The Alter Rebbe's Map of the Soul for Victory Over the Yetzer Hara

00:00 Everyone is talking today about the “conception”—the mistaken conception. In other words, a distorted understanding of reality that led to the terrible situation and the bloody war we are still in the midst of. Our hearts ache, and day after day we still cannot see the end. On the one hand, many miracles are happening every moment, but by the natural course of things, we still have a long war ahead of us. Every moment we look to Hashem for wonders, hoping that we will soon merit a decisive victory in this war and the complete Geulah we are all waiting for. But what brought all this about? People ask: What happened here? How did we fail to notice? How did we not understand and open our eyes to the cruel reality that was right in front of us? This is where the mistaken conception comes in. Today we all acknowledge that we made a mistake in how we understood reality. There was a distorted view of reality on both sides. On the one hand, we had a distorted view of the enemy. We did not know the enemy facing us. We thought the enemy was afraid, that he was deterred. We thought he did not really want this kind of war. We thought that with a little talk of peace, with some solution, there might be a more creative way to deal with the enemy. On the other hand, there was also a mistaken view of the strength of the Jewish people. Some said: The army is tired; the Jews do not have the strength to fight, do not want wars, do not want any of this. There was the division within the people that tore them apart, and so on. The truth is, these are things better left unsaid, especially in these times. This distorted view of reality on both sides is what led to the grave, painful, unimaginable events of Simchas Torah 5784. When we speak about a mistaken conception, let us talk today about another kind of war: the war each of us fights every day, the war against the yetzer, the war of good against evil, the war of the good inclination

02:33 against the evil inclination. It is the inner war that takes place in the heart and soul of every Jew. These days, this week, bring us to 24 Teves, the day of the passing, the yahrzeit, of the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman, founder of Chabad Chassidus and author of the Tanya and the Shulchan Aruch. Today we will talk about the Tanya and its battle against the mistaken conception a Jew may have in serving Hashem. The Tanya is a wonderful book that gives us the tools, the path, the right way of looking at things, the right understanding, so we can recognize the true reality on both sides and know the enemy. In the Tanya, the Alter Rebbe opens our eyes and gives us the right perspective. You could say that the Alter Rebbe confronts the mistaken conception that many Jews had—and that many still have before they begin learning Tanya. He shows us where our view is distorted and brings us face to face with reality. First, we must know the enemy and understand what is really happening in this war. On the other hand, we must know our own strengths, recognize the positive and good side, recognize the Jew within us and the wonderful G-dly power within us. With that, he gives us the path, the strength, and the tools to bring this war to victory. The Tanya is a book about war. The Frierdiker Rebbe speaks about the Tanya and says: “The Tanya is a book of wars.” It teaches us that we are at war, that every moment of life is a battle of good against evil, light against darkness, holiness against kelipah—as the Alter Rebbe calls it, drawing on the writings of Kabbalah—impurity, the force of the sitra achra, what is called kelipah. So this battle of holiness against kelipah, of good against evil, of the good inclination against the evil inclination—that is the Tanya, a book about

04:54 war. It teaches us to open our eyes, to truly recognize the enemy we face and, opposite him, to recognize the wonderful strength, the wonderful strengths, that each of us has. Of course, we could devote entire classes to this. Today we will try to condense some very basic, fundamental points about understanding both sides. As we said, we need to know the enemy through the eyes of the Tanya, and also to know holiness, the soul, the G-dly power within us, and our ability to win. And there is good news: every Jew, every one of us, has the power to win this war and bring about the victory of light over darkness. The Alter Rebbe begins the Tanya in an interesting way. He begins with twelve introductory chapters in which he explains how each of us is made up, the structure of a Jew’s inner life. He simply takes us on a journey to discover who we are. The Alter Rebbe speaks about two souls. First, he teaches us: Know this—citing the writings of the Arizal—every Jew has not one soul but two. This is something unique to the Jewish people. We are made up of two souls. We always knew that we have two inclinations, a good inclination and an evil inclination. But what does that mean? Surely there is only one soul. I have one body and one soul, like all animals and all created beings. Hakadosh Boruch Hu created us with a body and a soul. The soul is our life-force; it gives us life, feelings, and all our inner, spiritual faculties. What is every being in the world made up of? There is the soul and there is the body. Then the Alter Rebbe comes and says: Know that you have two souls, not one.

07:10 A soul means life. There are two kinds of life: life that comes from the side of holiness, and life that comes from the side of kelipah. There is a soul whose life is, as the Alter Rebbe calls it, that of an animal soul—a soul whose entire focus is on the animal side of life, a soul that wants to put the self at the center. What is the animal soul? It is the soul with the selfish “I” at its center: I want, I need, I deserve. From that self, from that selfishness, comes its sense of “I live, I exist,” and therefore it has desires. From there come all sorts of things that the Alter Rebbe calls negative traits—all sorts of behaviors that spring from this “I,” this self that is disconnected from the G-dly, from G-dliness, from G-dly power, and thinks only of itself and its needs. From there come pride, desires, and all sorts of other negative traits we recognize in our own souls. On the other hand, there is the G-dly soul. The G-dly soul is literally a part of G-d above. Its life is not life in the ordinary sense. The G-dly soul is, in essence, a G-dly power. It is literally a part of G-d above. So to speak, Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave us something of His very essence, of His innermost being, of what is deepest within Him, and He gave it to every Jew as their innermost essence: the G-dly soul. And here the Alter Rebbe begins to explain the war. This is where we need to know the enemy, to know what is happening in this war. A fierce, bloody war is taking place within our souls. It is the war between the two souls. And here is a very, very fundamental point we need to know: this war is total. The G-dly soul wants the person in their entirety—all the organs of the body, all the faculties of the soul, all thoughts, speech, and actions—to be completely

09:32 Totally devoted to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and to serving Hashem. The animal soul, by contrast—the yetzer hara, our selfish side—wants precisely the opposite, and just as totally. This is a fundamental point to recognize in serving Hashem, because this is where our number-one misconception often comes in: we think the struggle isn’t so absolute. In other words, sometimes we think: What will happen if I give the yetzer hara a little room? Just something small; nothing will happen. I’ll still be fine with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. We’ll work it out. It’s not a major transgression; it’s a minor one. Nothing will happen. After all, I’m a good person. I learn Torah, I observe mitzvos, so I slipped up here and there. The Alter Rebbe explains that we need to understand that this is an all-out battle. The yetzer hara wants the whole person. It isn’t interested in just one detail, one part: “Give me my little corner and I won’t bother you.” The yetzer hara wants total destruction—that is, to bring a person into the domain of kelipah and the sitra achra. It wants to take complete control of the person. The G-dly soul, by contrast, is truly a part of G-d above. It recognizes the truth, and here we come to recognizing the extraordinary strength we have. There are two points the Alter Rebbe teaches us in Tanya that give us strength. On the one hand, the Alter Rebbe says: Know what the G-dly soul is. Recognize the extraordinary strengths within you. Every Jew has within his soul a spark of Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself: an infinite power, a power that nothing in the world can break. There is a power within a Jew—the power of faith, the power of self-sacrifice. It isn’t a power we produce on our own, because if we produced it on our own, it would be limited, and it could

11:52 be broken too. It’s a power we received, an inheritance we received. Avraham Avinu, the first Jew, received a gift from Hakadosh Boruch Hu for himself and his descendants, through the end of all generations. Every Jewish boy and girl born to a Jewish mother automatically receives this inheritance, as the Alter Rebbe calls it. This inheritance is the G-dly power, the boundless love, an essential, intrinsic, unlimited bond through which a Jew does not want to, and cannot, be separated from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. A Jew loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu with that kind of love. This isn’t the kind of love you would say you feel as excitement. No, we’re not talking about a love that is felt in the heart. That takes a great deal of work; for that, you already need to study, contemplate, and delve deeply. Here we’re talking about a kind of love you could call cool, but real. It’s like love within a family, the love between parents and children. It isn’t a love that bursts forth. It’s a quiet love. When the children are at home day to day, you don’t necessarily see it. But there is a deep, inner bond that may show itself only in difficult moments, when things aren’t so clear—when the bond is in some danger. Then, suddenly, it comes out: I don’t want to, and I can’t, break away, because that’s my father, that’s my mother. We’re talking about something that is mine, something intrinsic and essential to me. I cannot and do not want to be separated. Every Jew has this bond at his very core, and because we have it, it gives us the strength—tremendous strength—to overcome our enemy. Because we know that our enemy does not have this power. Our enemy, the yetzer hara, the animal soul, as we said, is a soul,

13:59 an entire inner life of selfishness that lives within us. Day to day, it may control us. We become very focused on ourselves, thinking about ourselves and our desires, our wants. From there come jealousy, hatred, rivalry, arguments, and sometimes even a kind of depression or bitterness. If you look at the root of it all, everything revolves around our selfishness, around my “I”—that “I” that doesn’t sense the G-dly, that doesn’t sense the purpose of life. And that is where all those negative things that want to conquer us begin. But our animal side has no such intrinsic, essential point that says, “I cannot be separated.” There is no such thing in the animal side. “It’s comfortable for me. I’m used to it. It feels good. I want it.” But to say “I can’t”—when a person says, “I can’t break away from my desires”—that’s false. It isn’t true. You can, because that isn’t you. It’s kelipah. That is the meaning of the word kelipah, which the Alter Rebbe uses so often in Tanya. The side of evil, of self-centeredness, of kelipah, of the sitra achra, is just a shell. Just a shell. It’s something external. When you look at it in a very shallow, superficial way, you see a shell. It has no taste, no fragrance. It’s hard, it’s something without substance—but it’s only a shell. The moment you break the shell, you find the fruit inside. The G-dly part within us is real and everlasting, and it is our true self. So that is the first point: to recognize the extraordinary power I have. Once a Jew simply recognizes that power, knows about it, becomes aware of it—that is what the Alter Rebbe asks of us. Awareness. To know that I have this soul, to know that this bond exists within me. How do I know? You know it from the history

16:09 of the Jewish people, from the moments when we saw Jews face moments of kiddush Hashem, moments of trial. Even the simplest Jew, a Jew who had no connection to Judaism in day-to-day life—our people’s history is full of such stories. When the moment came and their faith was put to the test, when they were brought face to face with the truth, every Jew, even the simplest, would cry out: “I am a Jew. I was born a Jew, and I want to die as a Jew. I am not willing, I do not want, and I cannot be separated, be cut off from Hakadosh Boruch Hu.” So this is within us every day. It’s just that day to day we fall asleep; we don’t pay attention. Sometimes we fool ourselves and think that everything is fine, everything is all right. But when I have this awareness, I can take it and apply it to every detail of serving Hashem. That is, when I face a test of any kind, involving any mitzvah or any transgression—something I know the Shulchan Aruch says I must do, but I don’t feel like doing, or the reverse: the Shulchan Aruch tells us something is forbidden, but I do want to do it, I have a desire to do it—I tell myself: “I am a Jew, and I don’t want to be separated from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. With this small act, at this very moment, if, G-d forbid, I don’t do what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants, I separate myself from Him, and I don’t want to be separated. I want to be connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, because it’s in my blood.” I just need to be aware of it, and with that strength I can overcome any yetzer. If I am prepared to give my life in order to

18:00 Not to be disconnected from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, not, G-d forbid, to be separated from His oneness and unity. So if I understand that every sin or every mitzvah is, in essence, either a connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu or, G-d forbid, a disconnection from Him, I want to be connected. I don’t want to lie to myself. I want to be with the truth. Once we have the right understanding and fight against the mistaken one—the mistaken understanding says, “Nothing happened. Everything is fine. It’s a small sin. Hashem will forgive you. It’s all good. You’re still a Jew.” That’s the mistaken understanding. The true understanding says, “I’m a Jew, and I want to be connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. I know that every mitzvah connects me to Him. Every sin disconnects me, and I want to be completely genuine with Hakadosh Boruch Hu in every thought, word, and deed.” Once I awaken the Jewish strength within me, I have the strength to overcome the enemy standing before me. That is, as we said, the first piece of good news. What is the second piece of good news, from the other side, that the Alter Rebbe also reveals to us? To know that the enemy—the yetzer hara, evil, impurity—is, as we said, only a shell. It isn’t something real. And here the Alter Rebbe comes and tells us something even deeper, based on the Zohar: if we peel away that whole shell of impurity, of the sitra achra, of the enemy, and get to the root of things, we will understand why impurity, the shell, and the sitra achra exist in the world at all. After all, Hakadosh Boruch Hu created them. He is the Creator. “Who forms light and creates darkness”; “who forms light and creates evil,” says Yeshayahu. Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the power of the yetzer hara, the power of impurity, of the shell and the sitra achra. Why did He do it? For a person’s benefit.

20:06 At the end of chapter nine of Tanya, after explaining the all-out war in which each side wants to conquer the person completely—the war is total—the Alter Rebbe adds a few words. He says that the yetzer hara, the animal soul, wants the complete opposite of what the G-dly soul wants, as we said. It’s total. But it is for the person’s benefit, so that he will overcome it and defeat it. Do you know the truth? The secret behind this entire war is that the animal soul, too, is something Hakadosh Boruch Hu created for a positive purpose. The only reason evil exists in the world, the only reason there is a sitra achra, an animal soul, a yetzer hara that pursues us in daily life, is to reveal the wonderful strengths we have—the fact that we can overcome it. It is for a person’s benefit. Hakadosh Boruch Hu knows the extraordinary strength hidden in the soul of every Jew, the wonderful G-dly treasure we possess, which enables us to overcome everything that troubles us in our service of Hashem: to overcome, defeat, and conquer the entire reality of the world, and transform darkness into light. Because, in truth, the darkness itself also wants what is good, since it, too, was created by Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The Alter Rebbe gives a very interesting parable. He says: A king has a son, and the king invests his finest resources in him. He brings him the best teachers, gives him the best education, and surrounds him with the most wonderful things, both material and spiritual, until the time comes for a test. The king knows that his son, the prince, has tremendous strength. So the king puts his son, the prince, to the test. He hires people who are specifically negative people, people with a destructive influence, and tells them: “Your job is to convince my son, the king’s son, to do something inhumane,

22:24 something bad, something that would be unbecoming of a good person. You have to convince him.” But the inner purpose is to reveal the prince’s wonderful strength, his ability to overcome these things. It is precisely through this that his essential strength, his wonderful strength—his truly extraordinary abilities—will be awakened and revealed. When he lived in the king’s palace, everything was pleasant; he had no occasion to awaken his true inner secret, the truly wonderful strengths hidden within him. It is precisely when there is a test that this happens. That is when they are revealed. And that, in essence, is what happens to every Jew in this war between the G-dly soul and the animal soul. The animal soul, too, wants the person to overcome it and defeat it, for his own benefit. When we know this, we know that the war is entirely different. It gives us strength, gives us energy, gives us a new outlook, an entirely different way of understanding reality. Once you look with the right eyes at the G-dly side within you and truly recognize its wonderful strengths, while also looking properly at the destructive part within us and understanding the secret behind it, the full depth of it, that gives a person the strength to know: I can do it. And here we come to the verse on which the entire Tanya is built. The Alter Rebbe says: “For the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.” The Torah says this at the end of Parshas Nitzavim. Moshe Rabbeinu, at the end of his life, stands on the last day of his life and addresses the Jewish people. He tells them: You are now beginning life in a new era. Moshe Rabbeinu is about to leave this world, and a new era, lasting thousands of years, is beginning in a new reality. Remember these words: “For the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.” To serve Hashem. This is in your mouth, too: studying Torah,

24:31 speaking words of Torah. And “in your heart,” too: with the heart, with feeling, with love, with awe, with joy. My heart should be involved in serving Hashem, not just my outward actions. Genuine action that comes from the heart—“to do it”—is very close. Someone comes along and says: “What do you mean, ‘very close’? Is this close? It’s far away. It’s hard to be a Jew and live like a Jew ‘in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.’” It really is very close. But once we look, understand, and have the right grasp of reality, we recognize the wonderful strengths we have in serving Hashem, and that gives us strength. This is a foundation. We’ve only touched on it briefly—a general look at how to understand the G-dly side within us and recognize the enemy as well. If we go on through Tanya, we’ll discover how the Alter Rebbe takes us by the hand and explains how a person should be joyful, how to understand the struggle with the yetzer hara, and why joy is so essential in serving Hashem. Because when a person is joyful, free of worries, and knows he is in the right place, that, too, brings out his strengths in the most wonderful way. A person can have wonderful strengths, as we said, in the G-dly soul. But if I’m not happy, if I’m sad and depressed and think I have no strength, then I will fall. And in the following chapters the Alter Rebbe goes on to teach us about the wonderful joy we need to know: that a Jew must know that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with us, loves us, and is close to us. And that, in truth, all of creation is perfectly united with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with every Jew. And the wonderful joy that Hakadosh Boruch Hu has when a Jew

26:35 He manages to overcome the yetzer even in a single action. One time I set aside my own desires to do the will of Hashem, or refrain from doing something Hashem does not want. What a delight! What joy, what nachas it brings Him. There is no greater joy than the joy of light emerging from darkness. So when we begin to understand our purpose in life, recognize our extraordinary strengths, and understand what is going on here, it gives us the strength to fight this battle with power and with a sense of uplift, and to know that in the end we will win. We come to know that the purpose of all our daily service of Hashem is that with every action I take, I break the power of kelipah and the sitra achra, and through it I also bring about an ever-greater revelation of Hakadosh Boruch Hu in the world. Through what each of us does—another action, another word, another thought—we make the entire reality of the world into a dwelling place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is the very purpose of creation. As the Alter Rebbe goes on to explain in chapter 36 and the chapters that follow, he teaches us about the purpose of creation: Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s desire to have a dwelling place in this lowest world. By transforming this darkness into light, we bring the world toward the perfect goal we all await—a process we are already in the midst of, and which keeps advancing. This is the complete revelation of the ultimate Geulah, when all the darkness of the world will turn to light. Down here, in this physical world, the light of Hakadosh Boruch Hu will shine, as it is written: “Hashem will be King over all the earth; on that day Hashem will be One and His Name One. And the glory of Hashem will be revealed, and all flesh together will see, for

28:35 the mouth of Hashem has spoken.” This is what we have learned from Tanya. The Alter Rebbe teaches us not to be misled by the mistaken way people may understand the realities of life, but to have the right perspective: to understand the extraordinary strengths we have from the G-dly soul, while also recognizing the enemy and knowing what powers it has, so we can overcome it. And to know what our avodah is—how we must serve Hashem with joy, because it is precisely through that joy that we can overcome everything that interferes, prevents, or holds us back. In this way, a Jew can proceed with confidence in serving Hakadosh Boruch Hu properly and truly, preparing ourselves and the entire world for the complete victory in this battle. We are now in its final moments, bringing the complete Geulah through our righteous Moshiach.