Likkutei Amarim Tanya - Chapter 1 - Part 7

00:00 So, the Alter Rebbe explains here—and we’ll get to the first soul, the animal soul. What is the animal soul? First, the Alter Rebbe said that its source is kelipah and sitra achra. We explained what kelipah and sitra achra mean. Sitra achra means “the other side,” the opposite of bittul. Holiness means bittul to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The animal soul belongs to sitra achra: it is another side, not the side of holiness, because it is not nullified to G-dliness. That is the point: holiness is only bittul. Something that is not nullified has a sense of independent existence. The Alter Rebbe then goes on to explain the role of the animal soul. First, he says that it is something very, very… connected to the body. The very fact that the soul gives life to the body, that a person feels himself to be alive, means that he feels himself to be an independent entity. That is the essence of the animal soul: the sense of self, the feeling that he exists as an entity apart from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, apart from G-dliness. It is the feeling of “I—I exist, I am here,” and consequently, “I want, I need, I desire.” Those are already results. But the very feeling of “I,” a person’s “I” when he is not attached to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and the true bittul does not shine within him—that is the independent existence of kelipah. That is what the animal soul means. From there the Alter Rebbe continues: “And from it”—from this soul, from this sense that a person feels himself to be an independent, living entity apart from G-dliness—“come all the evil character traits.” All the various evil traits branch out from it, “from the four evil elements within it.” That is—

02:13 The animal soul has four elements, just as every physical thing in the world is composed of four elements. Just as in the physical realm there are fire, air, water, and earth, so too there are four elements in the spiritual realm: fire, air, water, and earth in every created being, including in the soul. So it has four evil elements, from which come four kinds of evil character traits. Later, in Tanya chapter 9, the Alter Rebbe also explains these four elements as they exist in holiness. Just as there are evil elements, there are also four elements in holiness. Later in Tanya, the Alter Rebbe discusses water and fire and various aspects of how they exist in holiness. Here he explains how they exist in kelipah. So he says: What are the evil traits and the four evil elements within it? “Namely, anger and pride, from the element of fire, which rises upward.” Anger and pride come from the element of fire in the animal soul. Why? The Alter Rebbe says: because it rises upward. What does that mean? Quite simply, we see it in the nature of fire. Fire naturally rises. It lifts itself above where it was. It has a tendency toward height and elevation; we see that in fire. The same is true of these two traits, anger and pride. With anger, what is the basic reason one person gets angry at another? Why does the trait of anger exist? Its root is that he feels himself to be above others; he is haughty. If a person were humble, he would not be arrogant. This is [unclear] in the words of our Sages. The Tanya explains it in Igeres Hakodesh: “Anyone who becomes angry is considered as though he worshiped idols.” Why? What is the connection between anger and idolatry? Because idolatry involves haughtiness—

04:34 A sense of self, self-importance, pride. And anger stems from self-importance. Anger comes from haughtiness. If a person had humility, then when something happened to him, he would understand that it came from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, that it was something he was meant to receive. As the Alter Rebbe explains there, what happens to the injured party was decreed from Heaven. Take King David. When King David was cursed by Shimi ben Geira, what did he say? Not to do anything to him. Why? Because “Hashem told him to curse.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu told him to curse. Where did Hakadosh Boruch Hu tell him? Nowhere does it say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu told Shimi ben Geira to curse David. Rather, David was humble. David had humility; he had utter bittul. So he knew that if he had been cursed, he was meant to receive it, and therefore he did not get angry with him. Similarly, the Alter Rebbe says, a person should look this way at everything that other people do to him. People disturb him or do something to him—whatever it may be. A humble person knows this, and he does not get angry. He accepts it; he accepts it with love. The Alter Rebbe also explains this in Igeres Hakodesh, section 25, and in Igeres Hateshuvah, chapter 11. These are matters that are very relevant to serving Hashem. In any case, anger comes from this tendency to rise upward. The same is obviously true of pride: pride is haughtiness, rising upward. It is interesting that the Alter Rebbe gives this reason. Seemingly, one could give a simpler explanation: anger and pride are connected with fire because of heat. Anger involves heat. Yes. In Castilian, I think they say of an angry person, “caliente.” That is what they call him in Castilian: “caliente.” In other words, becoming heated means becoming angry. The root of anger is heat. In general, when a person gets angry, his whole body heats up. That is why the Zohar says that anger is the worst trait. The Zohar speaks very sharply about anger and says that, among the evil traits, anger is the worst: it damages the soul more than all the other evil traits. This explains why: anger is heat, and a person’s whole body heats up. We see that when a person is angry, it produces heat in his body, and that heat is the heat of kelipah, the heat of anger. In other words, he burns his entire body with the fire of kelipah. Anger causes damage throughout the body. So, yes, there is the matter of heat. Pride, too, is connected with heat. Our Sages speak of “strange fire” in connection with haughtiness—fire of kelipah—and that too is connected with heat. I don’t remember the exact point right now. In any case, there is a lengthy note by the Rebbe Rashab. I won’t go into it now, but he wrote it when he was a fifteen-year-old boy, and there he explains at great length why the Alter Rebbe specifically chose to give the reason that fire “rises upward,” emphasizing its tendency to rise rather than its heat. Whoever wants to can look it up. Back to our subject: anger and pride come from the element of fire because it rises upward. The Rebbe Rashab explains there that there are several levels of anger and pride, and the Alter Rebbe wanted here to—

06:18 Specifically emphasize this point. And we need to examine ourselves in all these things. “And the desire for pleasures comes from the element of water.” The Alter Rebbe continues and says that desire—the desire for pleasures—comes from water. Why? “Because water causes all kinds of pleasures to grow.” Water is the source of all pleasures. Chassidus explains here that the pleasures are found in all the things that grow. All the sweet things, the things a person desires, all come about through water. Of course, water alone is not enough; other things are needed too. But Chassidus explains that the pleasure in things—their sugar and all their other qualities—comes specifically from the water within each thing, from its moisture. The fact that things develop a special sweetness is connected specifically with water. Water is the source of all pleasures. There is an interesting point explained in the maamarim of Chassidus. I want to go into it now. Chassidus explains that water itself has no taste. Yet it is the source of all desire, the source of all pleasures. It is the source of all pleasures, while in itself it has no pleasurable taste. But what do we see? When a person is very thirsty, he takes greater pleasure in water than in anything else. Specifically when he is very thirsty. Now, I don’t know—perhaps some people would argue about this—but when someone is very thirsty, he will enjoy drinking water more than drinking Coca-Cola or something else. Water specifically is the source of pleasures. How is this expressed? It doesn’t say “Coca-Cola,” but it says that specifically drinking water gives more pleasure than drinking something else when a person is thirsty. When a person is not—

08:04 I want to emphasize precisely this point. And we need to look at each of these in its own right. “And the desire for pleasures comes from the element of water.” The Rebbe continues and says: Desire for pleasures comes from water. Why? Because water causes all kinds of pleasures to grow. Water is the source of all pleasures. Chassidus explains that these pleasures include all the things that grow—all the sweet things. The desires we’re learning about come from water. Of course, water alone isn’t enough; other things are needed too. But Chassidus explains that what makes things pleasurable—their sweetness and all their other qualities—comes specifically from the water, the moisture, within each thing. Water is the root of all pleasures. Now, I want to get into what the maamarim of Chassidus explain about this. With water, we see something interesting: water itself has no taste. And yet it is the root of all desire, the root of all pleasures. It is the root of all pleasures, though it has no pleasure in itself. But what do we see? When a person is very thirsty, he takes greater pleasure in water than in anything else. Specifically when he is very thirsty. I don’t know, perhaps some people would argue with this, but when a person is very thirsty, he’ll enjoy drinking water more than drinking Coca-Cola or anything else. Water specifically is the source of pleasures. How is this stated? It doesn’t say Coca-Cola, but it says that when a person is thirsty, drinking water gives him more pleasure than drinking something else. When a person isn’t

09:57 Thirsty—if a person is just drinking for pleasure, he’ll certainly choose something sweeter than water. But when a person is thirsty, he experiences greater pleasure in water than in any other pleasure. Even though water has no taste, it is the source of pleasures. This is discussed in the maamarim. We’ll get to the sounding of the shofar. The same is true of the shofar. It isn’t an instrument of pleasure, right? Yet the shofar is the source of pleasures, even though, of all musical instruments, it gives the least pleasure. Other instruments give much greater pleasure, but the shofar is called the source of pleasures. They give the analogy of water: water is the source of pleasures, even though it has no pleasure in itself. In any case, this is the element of water, from which all the pleasures in physical things come. So the element of water in the animal soul gives rise to a person’s desire for pleasure. Frivolity, mockery, boasting, and idle talk come from the element of air. Now, there are other negative character traits too, but the Alter Rebbe gives four examples here, the first being frivolity. What is frivolity? It’s a kind of joy, but joy without content—empty joy. A person can be happy because of the joy of a mitzvah, the joy of Yom Tov. “Serve Hashem with joy.” He’s happy to be a Jew, happy to be a chossid—“How fortunate we are, how good is our lot.” That joy comes from something. But there’s a kind of joy that’s just emptiness. That’s called frivolity. A person carries on and... I don’t know how you’d say it in another language, how you’d translate it. But you see it among non-Jews at their celebrations: they drink, roll around, and carry on. That’s

11:44 joy without any content. And sometimes... Jews can have the trait of frivolity too—people who like to make a commotion. And mockery as well. What does mockery mean? It isn’t just talking; it includes anything that makes fun of someone else, ridicule and scorn. And in general, all these things are also talk without content. Mockery. And boasting—boasting is also similar to arrogance. A person boasts. What’s the difference between boasting and arrogance? The Alter Rebbe said that arrogance comes from the element of fire, while boasting comes from the element of air. What’s the difference? Arrogance rises upward: a person has qualities, but he elevates himself on account of them. That’s what arrogance means. When we say it comes from the element of fire, which rises upward, we’re talking about someone who has qualities. He has a lot of wisdom and knowledge; he’s spiritually accomplished, or whatever it may be. He’s talented, he has a good mind, he’s intelligent—he has all sorts of qualities. And because of those qualities, he feels above someone else. That’s the idea of rising upward. It comes from the element of fire. But boasting means a person prides himself on nothing. He boasts over someone else for no reason at all. That’s like what it says in Tehillim: “He grows strong in his wickedness.” Hm? There’s a verse in Tehillim. “He grows strong in his wickedness.” Who knows where it is in Tehillim? Hm? “He grows strong in his wickedness”—“Behold the man who did not make G-d his stronghold, but trusted in his great wealth; he grows strong in his wickedness.” What does “he grows strong in his wickedness” mean? It means he acts boldly; he takes pride, or boasts, in his very being. Just in the fact that he exists—that’s one way of understanding the phrase. Just because he exists. He has no qualities, nothing of substance. He takes pride in his very existence. Along

14:01 these lines, it’s also said of Haman, that foolish non-Jew. Look at Haman: he had no qualities, nothing of substance, yet he was arrogant—air without content. This point in Tehillim is easy to understand. I think everyone understands how true it is. So the Alter Rebbe says that these four things come from the element of air. Now, the Alter Rebbe doesn’t need to explain it. When I get to arrogance, the Alter Rebbe gives an explanation. With water, too, the Alter Rebbe explains its connection to water. But when he reaches these four things and says they come from the element of air, he gives no explanation, because it’s obvious: they’re air. All four are things of air. What does “air” mean? Something with no basis, no foundation, and no content. It’s just air. Likewise, with all four of these, a person puffs himself up, but it’s only air. There’s nothing to it, no substance. And laziness and sadness come from the element of earth. We come to the fourth element, earth. What comes from earth, according to the Alter Rebbe? Laziness and sadness. These two traits are connected with the element of earth. What connects laziness and sadness to earth? Well, we can see it plainly in earth. Earth has this feature—two details. First, in earth we see... how do you say it? Heaviness. It’s heavy and falls downward. And the second thing we see in earth is that it doesn’t... how do you put it? I’ve forgotten. In any case, the point about earth is its heaviness. That’s the main thing. We say laziness and sadness come from the element of earth because of that heaviness. As we see in the physical world, a person who is lazy... What

16:18 defines a lazy person? He doesn’t act; he doesn’t do anything. He’s in a state of heaviness. He sits down—study time arrives, and he sits down with his book. By the time he moves, looks for the book, finds it, opens it, and moves his head and bends it toward the book—or bends the book toward himself, whichever it may be—you can already see how this young man’s study session will go today. I don’t know how much he’ll learn. That’s laziness: its very nature is heaviness, like earth, which is heavy and weighs things down. It’s the opposite of growth, development, and ascent. That’s the idea of the element of earth and laziness itself. The same is true of sadness. When a person is sad, he also has no desire to do things. Someone who’s sad, with a gloomy face, in a state of “ugh”—he has no desire, no energy. This is also like the well-known saying of Reb Shalom of Karlin—no, not of Karlin. Reb Karlin said... No, that’s not the saying I mean. Chassidim speak about the difference between sadness and bitterness. The well-known saying of Reb Karlin is about the difference between a mikveh and sadness. He said that going to the mikveh isn’t a mitzvah, but no mitzvah can accomplish the kind of spiritual ascent that a mikveh can bring about in a person. And sadness isn’t a sin, but no sin can bring about the kind of spiritual descent that sadness can cause. That’s a saying of Reb Karlin. The other saying is about the soul—the difference between sadness and bitterness. How can you tell them apart? Sadness isn’t good; it’s a bad thing. They warned against the trait of laziness. When does it... We’ll get to sadness in a moment. The opposite...

18:06 The opposite of holiness. Bitterness. But bitterness is a good thing. What’s the difference between bitterness and sadness? They say you can see the difference afterward: after bitterness, a person goes to learn, while after sadness, he goes to sleep. In other words, sadness leads to sleep. So both laziness and sadness come from the element of earth, which is characterized by heaviness and falling downward—the opposite of rising and being uplifted. Along these lines, the Tanya goes on to say that laziness is a result of sadness. They aren’t simply two separate traits; one comes from the other. Generally, if you see a lazy person, one of the main reasons for his laziness—there are other reasons too—is sadness. A sad person doesn’t necessarily cry. Sadness means he feels hopeless. He doesn’t see himself as useful. He doesn’t feel that he’s worth anything, that he belongs, that he has a purpose on this earth. So he enters a certain state of despair, and the result is laziness. Laziness is a result of sadness. That is why the Alter Rebbe says in Tanya, chapter 26, as he will explain later, that a fundamental principle in serving Hashem, a fundamental principle in the battle against the yetzer hara, is that you cannot defeat it through laziness born of sadness, but only through alacrity born of joy. In other words, a person must have alacrity in serving Hashem. But what brings about that alacrity? Joy. When a person is happy and isn’t weighed down by worries, by all kinds of challenges and feelings of laziness—on the contrary, he feels joy—that awakens alacrity

20:11 in serving Hashem. So those are the four that come from it, from the animal soul. Why does the Rebbe say “from it”? If we think about it, we can see why. We spoke about this at the beginning of the previous class. Why do they come from it? Because if we examine each of the traits we’ve just discussed—pride, anger, desire, frivolity and mockery, showing off and idle talk, laziness and sadness—we’ll see that the root and cause of all these negative traits is that sense of self. They all stem from that same point, from what is clothed in a person’s blood and gives life to the body. They all stem from the feeling of “I.” When a person lacks self-nullification before the truth, before G-dliness, before Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he feels himself to be a separate entity, a self in his own right. Because he has that sense of self, he takes pride in his qualities. Because he has that sense of self, he gets angry when his honor is slighted. And because he has that sense of self, he needs everything. He has to have the tastiest food, the nicest bed, the best clothes, and so on and so forth. That’s desire and craving. And because he has that sense of self, he looks for all sorts of foolish, empty things with no substance—frivolity, mockery and idle talk—to waste his time. He doesn’t see a purpose in his time or in any of these things. And because he has that sense of self, he also becomes sad when things don’t go the way he wants them to, and then he becomes too lazy to do what needs to be done. In other words, all the negative traits have the same root: that sense of self. That is why they all come from it, from the animal soul.