Tanya Chapter 1 - Part 10

00:00 So, the Alter Rebbe explains here and comes to the first soul, the animal soul. What is the animal soul? First, the Alter Rebbe explained 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, while the animal soul belongs to sitra achra, another side, not the side of holiness, which is not nullified to G-dliness. And because it is not nullified to G-dliness, it is sitra achra. Holiness is solely a matter of bittul. Something that is not nullified has a sense of independent existence. So the Alter Rebbe goes on to explain the role of the animal soul. First, he says that it is clothed in a person’s blood to give life to the body. The very fact that the soul gives life to the body—that a person feels himself to be alive, and consequently feels himself to be an entity—that is the essence of the animal soul. It is the sense of being an entity: he feels himself to be an existence unconnected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, unconnected to G-dliness. This sense of “I exist, I am here,” and consequently, “I exist, I am here, I want, I need, I desire”—those wants are already a result. But the very sense of “I,” a person’s “I,” when he is not attached to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and the true bittul of “there is nothing else besides Him” 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 entity, that he is alive, and thus an existence apart from G-dliness—from this, other things subsequently develop. “And from it come all the evil middos.” All the different evil middos branch out from this. “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—fire, air, water, and earth—so too there are four elements in the spiritual sense: the fire, air, water, and earth of every created being, even in the spiritual realm, in the soul. So there are “four evil elements within it.” From them come four kinds of evil middos. Later, in chapter 9 of Tanya, the Alter Rebbe will also explain the middos, the 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 will explain 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 middos and the four evil elements within it? “Namely, anger and pride come from the element of fire, which rises upward.” Anger and pride come from the animal soul’s element of fire. Why? The Alter Rebbe gives the reason: “which rises upward.” What does “rises upward” mean? Simply, it is what we observe in the nature of fire. We see that fire naturally rises. It lifts itself upward from wherever it is. Its nature is to ascend. We see that in fire. The same is true of these two middos, anger and pride. With anger, what is the basic reason one person gets angry at another? Why does the middah of anger exist? It comes from a person feeling that he is above the other person, that he has a higher standing than the other person. So when the other person offends him, when the other person says something to him that he feels is not that person’s place to say, he gets angry at him. In other words, anger is the result

04:14 of haughtiness, of his already feeling himself to be above others. If a person were humble, he would not be proud. That is why our Sages said, as the Alter Rebbe explains in this connection, “Anyone who becomes angry is as though he worships idols.” Why? What is the connection between anger and idol worship? Because idol worship is a matter of arrogance, of a sense of self, of self-importance and pride, and anger stems from self-importance. Anger stems from haughtiness. If a person had humility, then when something happened to him, he would understand that this was what Hakadosh Boruch Hu had brought about, that it was something meant for him. As he explains, what happens to the person harmed was decreed upon him from Heaven. When King David was cursed by Shimei ben Gera, what did King David 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 Shimei ben Gera to curse David. Rather, David was humble. David was modest; David had complete bittul. He therefore knew that if he had received a curse, it was because he was meant to receive it, because it was coming to him, and so he was not angry with him. Along these lines, the Alter Rebbe says that a person should look at every single thing that happens to him at the hands of other people. People get in his way or do something to him—whatever it is. A person who has humility knows this. He does not get angry; he accepts it, accepts it with love. The Alter Rebbe explains this in Igeres Hakodesh and also in Igeres Hateshuvah. In any case, these matters are very relevant

05:47 to serving Hashem. So anger stems from this quality of “rising upward,” and so does pride. Clearly, pride is about raising oneself up, “rising upward.” It is interesting that the Rebbe gives this reason. Seemingly, one could put it more simply: anger and pride are connected with heat. Anger is a matter of heat. When we say someone is angry, it is caliente, I think. Is that how you say it? Yes, that is how you say it. I think [unclear] is caliente. That is, he gets heated up, meaning he gets angry. The core of anger is heat. In general, when a person gets angry, his whole body heats up. That is why the Zohar says anger is the worst middah, and the Zohar speaks very sharply about anger. So among the evil middos, anger is the worst, damaging the soul more than all the other evil middos. This explains why: anger is heat, and the person’s whole body heats up. We do see that when someone gets angry, it produces heat in his body, and that heat is the heat of kelipah, the heat of anger. In other words, the expression is that he burns his entire body in the fire of kelipah. Anger causes harm throughout the body. So there is this aspect of heat, and the same applies to pride. It, too, is connected with heat. He cites a teaching of our Sages—I cannot recall it exactly. They speak about arrogance, which is a matter of the fire of kelipah. That, too, is connected with heat. I do not remember the point right now. In any case, there is a lengthy note by the Rebbe Rashab, of blessed memory. I will not go into it now, but there is a lengthy note by the Rebbe Rashab, of blessed memory, which the Rebbe wrote when he was a fifteen-year-old boy. There he explains at great length

07:40 why the Alter Rebbe chose here specifically to give the reason that fire “rises upward”—the aspect of height in fire—rather than the aspect of heat. In any case, anyone who wants to can look it up. So that brings us back to our subject. Anger and pride come from the element of fire because it “rises upward.” The Rebbe explains that there are several levels of anger and pride, and here the Rebbe wanted to distinguish the... to emphasize this particular point. We need to look inside the text. “And desire for pleasures comes from the element of water.” The Rebbe continues: Desire, pleasures, come from water. Why? Because “water causes all kinds of pleasures to grow.” Water is the source of all pleasures. Chassidus explains that pleasures are found in all the things that grow, right? All the sweet things that people desire. Why is that? They all come about through water. Of course, a tree needs more than just water; it needs other things too. Chassidus explains that the pleasure in things—the fact that they develop, that they have juiciness and fragrance and all sorts of qualities—comes specifically from the water within each thing, from its moisture. The pleasure of things developing and acquiring a special sweetness is specifically connected with water. Water is the source of all pleasures. This is explained in maamarim of Chassidus. I do not want to go into it now. Chassidus explains that we see something interesting about water: water itself has no taste. Water has no taste. Nevertheless, it is the source of all desires, the source of all pleasures. It is the source of all pleasures, yet it has no pleasure in itself. But even so, what do we see? When a person is very thirsty, he experiences tremendous pleasure from water, more than from anything else. And specifically when he is thirsty. So I do not know; perhaps some people will argue about

09:38 But when a person is very thirsty, he gets more pleasure from drinking water than from drinking Coca-Cola or something else. Water, specifically, is the source of pleasure. How is this explained? It doesn’t say Coca-Cola, but it does say that when a person is thirsty, drinking water gives him more pleasure than another beverage. When a person isn’t thirsty and is just drinking to satisfy a craving, he’ll certainly choose something other than water—a sweeter drink. But when a person is thirsty, he feels greater pleasure in water than in anything else, even though it has no taste. It is the source of pleasure. The maamarim discuss this in connection with the blowing of the shofar as well: shofar is associated with pleasure, because it is the source of pleasures. Yet of all musical instruments, the shofar is the one that gives the least pleasure. Other instruments give greater pleasure. Nevertheless, 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 of its own. In any case, that concludes the element of water: from water come all the pleasures found in physical things. So the element of water is associated with pleasure, which gives rise to a person’s cravings and pleasures. And frivolity, mockery, boasting, and idle talk come from the element of air. Now there are other bad character traits. Here the Alter Rebbe gives four examples of bad traits, beginning with frivolity. What is frivolity? It is 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 a siyum—the joy of a mitzvah. “Serve Hashem with joy.” Joy at being a Jew. Joy at being a chossid. “How fortunate we are, how good is our lot.” That is joy that comes from something. But there is another kind of joy that is just emptiness.

11:26 That is what is called frivolity. A person carries on—I don’t know how you say it in another language. You can translate it, but you see it among non-Jews at their celebrations: they drink and roll around and make a whole display of revelry. It is joy with no content at all. And sometimes, to make a distinction, Jews too have this trait of frivolity—people who like to make a commotion. And mockery as well. What does mockery mean? It isn’t just talking. It includes all the ways of making fun of someone else—ridicule, derision, and the like. All these, too, are words without content. Mockery. And boasting. Boasting is also like arrogance: he boasts over someone else. The difference between boasting and arrogance is that the Alter Rebbe said arrogance comes from the element of fire, while boasting comes from the element of air. What is the difference? Arrogance rises upward: a person has qualities, but he elevates himself because of those qualities. That is what arrogance means. When we say that arrogance comes from the element of fire, which rises upward, we mean a person who has qualities. He has a lot of wisdom, a lot of knowledge; he is a person of spiritual stature and fears Hashem, or whatever it may be. He has qualities and talents, a good mind, intelligence—all kinds of qualities—and because of them he feels above someone else. That is the idea of rising upward. It comes from the element of fire. But boasting means a person prides himself on nothing. He is proud for no reason at all. He boasts over someone else for no reason. As it says there 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 says that in Tehillim? Hm? “He grows strong in his wickedness.” “Behold the man who did not make G-d his stronghold, but trusted in his abundant wealth; he grew strong in his wickedness.” What does “he grew strong in his wickedness” mean? It means he is brazen, he

13:44 is proud and boasts simply of his existence—that is one interpretation of the phrase: simply that he exists. He has no particular quality, nothing of substance. He just asserts his existence. He prides himself on the mere fact that he is there. Similarly, it says of Haman that he was a foolish gentile. Look at Haman: he had no qualities, nothing of substance, yet he was arrogant—air without content. The words in Tehillim are easy to understand at face value. I think everyone understands just how much this happens. So the Alter Rebbe says that these four things come from the element of air. And here the Alter Rebbe doesn’t even need to explain. When it came to arrogance, the Alter Rebbe gave an explanation. There was something to explain. Look—when does the Alter Rebbe explain its connection to water? But when he reaches these four things, which come from the element of air, he gives no explanation, because it is obvious: they are air. All four are things of air. What does air mean? Something with no basis, no foundation, and no content. It is just air. Likewise, with all four of these traits, a person puffs himself up, and it is all air. There is nothing to it, no substance. “And laziness and sadness come from the element of earth.” Now we come to the fourth element, earth. What comes from earth? The Alter Rebbe says laziness and sadness. These two traits are connected with the element of earth. What is the connection between laziness and sadness and the element of earth? Well, simply, we see two features of earth. First, earth has this quality of—how do you say it? Hm? Come on. Heaviness. Heaviness: it falls downward; it is heavy. And the second thing we see in earth is that it doesn’t have... How do I put it? With earth... I’ve forgotten.

16:02 In any case, the main point about earth is its heaviness. That is the central idea. Laziness and sadness are said to come from the element of earth because of this heaviness. Take a person who is lazy in the physical sense. What defines a lazy person? He is someone who doesn’t act, doesn’t do anything. He is in a state of heaviness. He sits down; the study session begins, and he settles down with a book. By the time he moves, looks for the book, finds it, opens it, and moves his head to bend down toward the book—or brings the book toward himself, whichever it is—you can already see that you don’t know how much this bochur will learn during today’s session. Yes, that is laziness. Laziness is heaviness, like earth: it is heavy and weighs itself down, the opposite of growth, development, and ascent. That is the nature of earth itself. The same applies to sadness: when a person is sad, he also has no desire to do things. Someone in a state of sadness, depression, feeling down, has no desire, no geshmak. And there is also the well-known saying of Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin—not Shlomo of Karlin. Aharon of Karlin said it. No, that isn’t from Rabbi Aharon of Karlin. It’s from... Chassidim speak about the difference between sadness and bitterness. Rabbi Aharon of Karlin said the well-known saying about the difference between a mikveh and sadness: “Mikveh is not a mitzvah, but what a mikveh can accomplish in elevating a person, no mitzvah can accomplish. And sadness is not a sin, but what sadness can do to bring a person down, no sin can”

17:52 To act. This is [unclear]. But when people try, they ask: How can you tell the difference between sadness and bitterness? Sadness is not good; it is something bad. The sages of truth warned us to keep far from sadness. Sadness is the opposite of holiness. But bitterness—bitterness is a good thing. What is the difference between bitterness and sadness? They say you can see the difference afterward. After bitterness, a person goes to learn; after sadness, a person goes to sleep. In other words, sadness leads to sleep. So both sadness and laziness come from the element of earth, from heaviness that sinks downward, the opposite of rising and being uplifted. Later on in Tanya, the Alter Rebbe says something interesting: laziness is a result of sadness. They are not just two separate traits; one comes from the other. Usually, if you see a lazy person, one of the reasons for his laziness—there are other reasons, but one of the main ones—is sadness. A sad person does not necessarily cry. Sadness means he feels hopeless. He does not see himself as worth anything, as someone who belongs, as someone with a role in the higher worlds. So he falls into a certain state of despair, and laziness is the result of that sadness. That is why, in chapter 26 of Tanya, the Alter Rebbe will go on to say that a great principle in serving Hashem, a great principle in the struggle with the yetzer, is that one cannot overcome the yetzer through laziness that comes from sadness, but only through alacrity that comes from joy. In other words, in serving Hashem, a person must have

19:56 alacrity. But what brings about alacrity? Joy. When a person is happy, he has no worries or [unclear]. On the contrary, he feels joy, and that arouses alacrity in serving Hashem. So these are the four categories that come from the animal soul. Why does the Alter Rebbe say they come “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 look closely at every trait we have just discussed—arrogance, anger, desire, frivolity and mockery, boasting and idle talk, sadness and laziness—we will see that the root and cause of all these bad traits is this feeling of being a separate self. Everything comes from that same point, from [unclear]. It all comes from the feeling of “I,” because a person lacks self-nullification before the truth, [unclear], and Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He feels himself to be a separate entity, a self. Because he feels himself to be somebody, he takes pride in his qualities. Because he feels himself to be somebody, he gets angry when his honor is slighted. And because he feels himself to be somebody, he needs everything: he must have the tastiest food, the nicest bed, the best clothes, and so on and so forth. That is desire and indulgence. And because he feels himself to be somebody, he looks for all kinds of foolish, empty things with no substance—frivolity, mockery and idle talk, wasting time. He sees no purpose in his time or in these things. And because he feels himself to be somebody, he also becomes sad when things do not go the way he wants. As a result, he becomes too lazy to do what needs to be

21:49 done. In other words, all the bad traits result from this sense of self, and that is why they all come from the animal soul.