Chapter 6 - Part Two

00:00 We’re in the middle of chapter 6 of Tanya. The Alter Rebbe begins the chapter by discussing how G-d has made “one opposite the other”: the reality of the animal soul and the faculties it possesses. He started by explaining the animal soul’s inner faculties. Here, too, it is “one opposite the other”: it, too, has intellect and emotions. He explained this in detail, emphasizing, as we discussed in the previous class, that the animal soul is the reverse of the G-dly soul. Although both have intellect and emotions, in the G-dly soul the intellect comes first, and then the emotions. In the animal soul it’s the other way around: the emotions come first, and then the intellect. The Alter Rebbe continues. Now he begins discussing the garments. The last line of chapter 6, at the bottom of page 10: “And likewise, these ten impure faculties, when a person thinks with them…” The Alter Rebbe will now discuss the garments, just as we discussed in chapter 4 that the G-dly soul has garments: the garments of the G-dly soul, which are Torah and mitzvos. We also discussed two aspects of this. First, what does “garments” mean? On the one hand, it’s only a garment, something more external, something that relates to others. On the other hand, the garments are actually higher in one respect: through Torah and mitzvos, they bring about the soul’s ascent. Now the Alter Rebbe will say the same thing in reverse about the animal soul. “And likewise, these ten impure faculties, when a person thinks with them, and speaks or acts, his thought in his brain, his speech in his mouth, and the power of action in his hands and other limbs are called ‘garments of impurity’ for these ten impure faculties, which are clothed in them.” These are the garments in which a person clothes his faculties. In other words, he has intellect and emotions and undesirable concerns, and when he

02:17 clothes his intellect and emotions, his desires, his wants, and so on, he clothes them in the garments of thought, speech, and action: thinking about undesirable things, speaking about them, and even actually committing a transgression. These are called “garments of impurity.” Earlier we said mesavusa—kisrin d’mesavusa. Mesavusa means impurity, and these are garments of impurity for “these ten impure faculties, which are clothed in them at the time of an action, speech, or thought.” When a person commits a transgression, or speaks or thinks about something undesirable, at that moment the soul is clothed in these garments. So they’re called garments of impurity. They are the garments of the kelipah of the animal soul. The Alter Rebbe continues: “And these are all the deeds that are done under the sun.” Everything we’ve been discussing here—the animal soul’s undesirable thought, speech, and action—comprises “all the deeds that are done under the sun.” What is the Alter Rebbe adding now? He’s adding that this doesn’t necessarily mean transgressions. At first glance, we’re talking about thought, speech, and action involving transgressions. But the Alter Rebbe adds that it need not be a transgression. It can also be something that isn’t inherently forbidden—an ordinary, permissible activity—and yet it, too, brings about a descent in the soul. That’s what the Alter Rebbe is saying: “And these are all the deeds that are done under the sun.” This includes everything that happens in this world. The phrase “all the deeds that are done under the sun” is from a verse said by King Shlomo in Koheles. He means all the material things a person does in the world: business matters, mundane matters. Koheles—anyone who has studied it knows—speaks about all our involvement in worldly affairs, even legitimate ones. But when a person engages in legitimate things not for the sake of Heaven,

04:33 as we’ll study at length shortly, these are called “the deeds that are done under the sun.” Chassidus explains what “under the sun” means. In the physical sense, we understand what it means to be under the sun. But spiritually, “under the sun” means below “Hashem is a sun”—below Hakadosh Boruch Hu. These are things that are beneath G-dliness, things that are not connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So the Alter Rebbe says that even though these things themselves are not forbidden, they are “deeds that are done under the sun,” of which it says, “All is vanity and vexation of spirit.” That’s what King Shlomo says. Koheles begins, “Vanity of vanities, said Koheles; vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” Later he says, “I saw all the deeds done under the sun; all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” Those are King Shlomo’s words. So what does this mean on a simple level? It means they’re literally vanity. “Vanity of vanities” means a waste of time—time you could spend learning. The whole point of Koheles is that King Shlomo wants to say that a person should use his time for Torah and mitzvos, for fear of Heaven and serving Hashem, and everything else is vanity. “Vanity of vanities”—it’s all vanity and vexation of spirit. In simple terms, “vanity” means there is no substance to it, and “vexation of spirit” means it wears a person down physically. All that involvement in worldly affairs wears him down. He always wants more. However much he has isn’t enough; if he has a hundred, he wants two hundred. That’s vexation of spirit: it breaks his spirit. Instead of giving a person satisfaction, joy, and a sense of well-being, it does the opposite—it just wears him down. But what do the words mean on an inner level? That’s what he brings here now. So

06:32 he says, “As it is written in the Zohar, in Beshalach, that they are ‘a breaking of the spirit,’ and so on.” That is, he explains the phrase as referring to a breaking of the spirit. The spirit here means the holy spirit; the word is understood in the sense of breaking, as in the verse, “You shall break them with a rod of iron.” So “vexation of spirit” means that it breaks the spirit. What does it mean to break the spirit? The spirit refers to the higher spirit, the spirit of holiness. Everything has G-dly vitality, and when a person is absorbed in something not for the sake of Heaven, without a higher purpose, he breaks the spirit. In other words, he does not allow the G-dly light to spread through that thing. Everything in the world has G-dly vitality, G-dly light, G-dly energy. By serving Hashem through the things of this world, we make them vessels for G-dliness. But when a person does not act for the sake of Heaven, he breaks the G-dly spirit. He does not allow the G-dly light to be revealed in the world. That’s what we’re saying here, and it relates to what follows. When a person uses his thought, speech, and action for forbidden things—or even for permissible things, but not for the sake of Heaven—what does he do? He brings about a breaking, a concealment and hiding of G-dly light: “vanity and vexation of spirit.” “And likewise, all speech and all thoughts that are not directed to Hashem and His will.” Not only actions. The wording of the verse is “the deeds that are done under the sun”—actions. The Alter Rebbe adds: not only actions, but speech and thought too, when they are not directed to Hashem. What does that mean? Again, he is not talking here about forbidden things. He says “not directed to Hashem”; they can be permissible things, things that are inherently allowed. But when these things are not directed to Hashem, they have no

08:38 If there is no intention for the sake of Heaven, it is called vanity and striving after wind. It is a spirit of impurity, and it brings a person down. As we discussed earlier regarding the garments of the soul, garments of holiness elevate the soul. We spoke about chapter 4: the Alter Rebbe said that when the garments of thought, speech, and action are involved in holiness, they uplift the soul. That is the distinctive power of garments: a garment can elevate the soul beyond what it could achieve on its own, because it is Torah and mitzvos. The same is true of the garments of the sitra achra: they bring the soul down further than it would descend on its own. In other words, garments have these two sides. Look, on the one hand, a garment is something external. On the other hand, it can affect a person more than the person can affect himself. We see this in physical life: sometimes a person wears clothes that dignify and elevate him, making more of him; and sometimes the opposite happens—the clothes demean him. That is why halachah says a person must take care to dress appropriately. The Shulchan Aruch discusses how a person should dress, which kinds of clothes to wear and which not to wear. The Rambam writes that a person should not dress in a way that is degrading. A person should be recognizable by his dress; his clothes, too, should reflect who he is. So it can go to either extreme. Sometimes clothing can give a person tremendous dignity, and sometimes, conversely, it can bring him very low. The same applies to serving Hashem: when the garments of the soul are connected with Torah and mitzvos, they elevate the soul. Conversely, when the soul’s garments are connected with forbidden things, they bring the soul down further than it would descend on its own. What is this descent? As we will learn later in the chapter, the Alter Rebbe

10:44 will explain that the soul on its own is kelipas nogah. A Jew’s animal soul, on its own, is kelipas nogah. But the moment you use its garments for things that are not for Hashem, they come under the three impure kelipos. So the result is a descent beyond the soul’s condition on its own. The Alter Rebbe will explain this now, in the coming chapters—chapters 6, 7, and 8. The whole point is to explain how much the garments matter in serving Hashem, how careful we need to be, and even more than that, as we said here. The Alter Rebbe is explaining that this applies not only to garments involved in forbidden things, but even to garments involved in permissible things. This, in fact, is how the Rebbe Rashab understands the plain meaning of the Tanya: it is the difference between the opening lines. When the Alter Rebbe began, “And these ten impure faculties,” speaking of a person thinking, speaking, and acting, he was referring to forbidden things. Then, when he said, “And behold, all deeds done under the sun, and likewise all speech and thoughts,” he meant permissible things. In other words, these are the two points the Alter Rebbe is explaining now: forbidden things bring the soul down, and permissible things also bring the soul down when they are not for Hashem—when they are done without intention for the sake of Heaven. There is a maamar in Likkutei Torah [unclear]. There, too, the Alter Rebbe explains this point, that it applies even to permissible things. The Alter Rebbe explains that thought, speech, and action do not have to involve forbidden things; they can involve permissible things as well. The Alter Rebbe then quotes, “Where no man has dwelt.” There he explains the difference between holiness and kelipah: holiness is called a city and a settlement, while kelipah is called a wilderness. What is the difference between a city and a settlement? A settlement is a place where

12:42 a person dwells. Of the wilderness, it says, “Where no man has dwelt.” “Man” here refers to the Primordial Man—to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So when a person thinks, speaks, and acts in matters that are part of serving Hashem—even permissible things, provided he does them for the sake of Heaven, so that his deeds are for the sake of Heaven and his words are [unclear]—he turns them into a settled city. He brings Hakadosh Boruch Hu into them, and they become a settled city. But when a person thinks, speaks, and acts in ways that are [unclear], that is called a wilderness “where no man has dwelt” [unclear]. The point is that when a person does these things, or thinks or speaks about them, not for the sake of Heaven, they become a place “where no man has dwelt.” G-dliness is not present there. This is what the Alter Rebbe wants to explain to us here in Tanya. It is a central principle of Tanya as a whole: in Sefer Shel Beinonim, the Alter Rebbe explains that a Jew’s service is not only a matter of mitzvos and transgressions. What distinguishes one person from another—a tzaddik from a beinoni, as we will learn in the coming chapters—is not only mitzvos and transgressions, but also permissible matters. Serving Hashem applies to permissible things as well, and to thoughts, words, and actions that are permissible in themselves: eating, drinking, business—things that are inherently permissible, and may even be necessary to sustain the body. Nevertheless, there too, a person must do them for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Otherwise, they are vanity and wind. The Alter Rebbe continues and says, “This is the meaning of the term sitra achra.” We can now understand why it is called sitra achra. In chapter

14:35 1, the Alter Rebbe used the terms kelipah and sitra achra. Now he is going to explain what the words sitra achra mean. Based on what we have just explained, we can understand more deeply why the side of kelipah is called sitra achra. What does kelipah mean? The Alter Rebbe will explain that later in the chapter as well. This point is very, very important. The Alter Rebbe wants to show us how the entire depth of the matter is contained in the words themselves, in their translation. When we speak about the difference between the G-dly soul and the animal soul, and the difference between holiness and kelipah, the words we use matter for understanding what we are talking about. It is not arbitrary that the Zohar calls it sitra achra. The term conveys the depth of the matter. Without the esoteric teachings, without the Zohar, before the inner dimension of Torah, people speak of mitzvos and transgressions, or good and evil, or impurity and holiness. Those are the usual terms. Then the Alter Rebbe comes and says: No, the Zohar’s term here is precise. It does not call this evil or impurity; it calls it sitra achra. The words sitra achra contain the whole depth of what defines kelipah and the animal soul. And this is what the Alter Rebbe says: “This is the meaning of the term sitra achra”—meaning “the other side,” which is not the side of holiness. The translation of sitra achra tells us the essence of kelipah. What is its essence? It is another side. Kelipah is not necessarily evil; kelipah is not necessarily a transgression. It is not necessarily something negative in itself. It could be something good in itself. It could be kosher food, or something with no halachic problem at all. So what does sitra achra mean? “The other side.” “The other side” means that it lacks the essence of holiness; it is not the side of holiness.

16:45 What do we mean by “not the side of holiness”? The Alter Rebbe explains: “The side of holiness is nothing but the indwelling and extension of the holiness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu.” The definition of holiness, its very essence, is that it is an indwelling and extension of the holiness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. In truth, there is only one thing that is holy. Who is holy? Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He is the Holy One. Nothing else is holy in its own right. We call things in this world “the side of holiness” when they are connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, are nullified to Him, and His light shines within them. They are an indwelling and extension of His holiness. There is only one who is holy: Hakadosh Boruch Hu, who is holy and set apart. “There is nothing besides Him.” Anything that is a vessel for “there is nothing besides Him,” anything with the genuine bittul that allows G-dliness to shine within it, is illuminated by the holiness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and is therefore called holy. So when we say Shabbos is a holy day—“You shall keep Shabbos, for it is holy”—or call a Yom Tov “a holy convocation,” or a Jew “a holy people,” or the Torah “the holy Torah,” or the Beis Hamikdash a place of holiness, or speak of a holy person, this is what we mean. It is not that there are many separate holy things. There is only one source of holiness: Hakadosh Boruch Hu. When something is united with Him, it is holy. When that union is missing, when bittul is missing, it is sitra achra. So the definition of sitra achra is the absence of bittul to G-dliness. This is what the Alter Rebbe—

18:46 The Alter Rebbe wants to give us an understanding here. Why do we say that everything is vanity and chasing after wind? Why say that even about permitted things? What is the problem? The food is permitted. He is eating kosher food, with supervision; everything is one hundred percent kosher. There is no problem with the food. The only thing is that he did not have the intention of doing it for the sake of Heaven. He ate a delicious meal, enjoying its physical pleasures, without thinking about serving Hashem or about Hakadosh Boruch Hu in the food. But it was one hundred percent kosher. Still, when bittul to G-dliness is missing, it belongs to the other side. That is the principle. If G-dliness is present in it, it is holiness. Once the connection to G-dliness is missing—even if the thing itself is not evil and does not belong to the three impure kelipos—it is called sitra achra, the other side, which is not the side of holiness. This is one of the fundamental things the Alter Rebbe comes to teach us in Tanya. The Rebbe discusses this in one of his sichos: Before Tanya, we had always understood there to be three domains. There is what is forbidden, what is a mitzvah, and what is permitted. There is a domain of mitzvos, belonging to Hakadosh Boruch Hu; there is the domain of evil, the other side; and there is something in the middle. The middle consists of all the things in which, so to speak, Hakadosh Boruch Hu does not intervene. He did not tell you they are forbidden, and He did not tell you they are a mitzvah. Do as you please. The Alter Rebbe comes and says: No. There are not three domains; there are only two: either holiness or sitra achra. If it lacks bittul, it is sitra achra. That is what the Alter Rebbe says here: “Hakadosh Boruch Hu dwells only upon something that is nullified

20:40 to Him, blessed be He—whether in actual fact, like the supernal angels, or in potential, like every Jew below, who has the capacity to be utterly nullified to Hakadosh Boruch Hu by giving his life to sanctify Hashem’s name.” In any case, the Alter Rebbe goes into detail here to explain the meaning and definition of holiness: holiness is bound up with bittul. Something that is nullified to Hakadosh Boruch Hu—because G-dliness means “there is nothing besides Him”—and in which “there is nothing besides Him” shines, is holiness. Something in which “there is nothing besides Him” does not shine is kelipah. This is connected with the entire innovation of Chassidus. The point we are learning in this passage of the Alter Rebbe is really the foundation for what he will explain later. It is one of the foundations of Chassidus revealed by the Baal Shem Tov: the true unity of Hashem means “there is nothing besides Him.” Consequently, where we do not sense the true unity of Hashem, where we do not sense “there is nothing besides Him,” that is kelipah and sitra achra. There is a story about the Raza. The Raza was born on 19 Tammuz, which was also the day of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s bris. So two events in Chabad history fall on that date. This is a story about the Raza. It is a well-known story, but it relates to our subject. The Raza was the Rebbe Rashab’s older brother. He was born on 19 Tammuz 5618, I believe. The Rebbe Rashab was born on 20 Cheshvan 5621. So there were about two years between them, something like that—a year and a half, two years. In short, the Raza was a little older. As is known, they used to play together. There are several stories in Sefer Hasichos about the games the Raza and the Rebbe Rashab played. In one story, the question arose: What is the difference between a Jew and a non-Jew? The Rebbe Rashab asked the Raza, his older brother.

22:54 The Raza offered various explanations, but he could not explain the difference. The Rebbe Rashab did not fully accept his answers, so they went to the Rebbe Maharash to ask him. Instead of answering, the Rebbe Maharash called over a non-Jew who worked in his courtyard in Lubavitch. His name was Ivan. He asked Ivan why he ate, and Ivan said he ate in order to live. I do not remember the exact exchange: he worked in order to eat, ate in order to live. In short, his answers went around in a circle of working, eating, and living. Then the Rebbe Maharash called over a Jew, a simple man named [unclear] who was a servant of Reb Yisroel. He asked him, “What do you do?” “I work.” “Why do you work?” “So I can eat.” “And why do you eat?” In the end, he arrived at Hakadosh Boruch Hu: it was all so that he could serve Hashem. That was his purpose in life. The Rebbe Maharash explained to the children—they were young children—that this was the difference between a Jew and a non-Jew. The essence of a non-Jew is the animal soul. As the Alter Rebbe said earlier, the essence of a non-Jew is kelipah. In other words, his own existence is central, and everything revolves around it. He eats so he can work, works so he can eat, and lives—that is what life is about for him. For a Jew, what is essential is G-dliness and serving Hashem. All his work and eating are so that he can serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu, learn, and daven. This was evident even in a simple man. The Frierdiker Rebbe tells this story in a letter printed at the end of Tehillim. He relates it at length and in detail, and there he writes that everyone has “the non-Jew within him”: when we are absorbed in worldly matters, do not think about Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and make

24:56 worldly matters more important than Torah, it is as though a non-Jew has entered—the non-Jew within you. Each of us must work on ourselves so that the G-dly soul overcomes the animal soul. That is, essentially, what the Alter Rebbe comes to explain in these chapters.