Chapter 8 - Part Two

00:01 We’re continuing here with Tanya, chapter 8. In this chapter, as we discussed, the Alter Rebbe continues explaining how kelipah affects a person. In the previous class on this chapter, we talked about two extremes that the Alter Rebbe describes. Broadly speaking, there is kelipas nogah, and there are the three impure kelipos. That is the difference between something permitted and something forbidden. The basic distinction is that a permitted thing is, in Tanya’s language, “permitted”: it is not bound in the hands of the external forces, and therefore it can be elevated. The novel point is that it can be elevated even after it has already fallen. Even after a person brought it down into the three impure kelipos by eating for the sake of desire, he can still elevate it. At the other extreme is something forbidden, which belongs to the three impure kelipos. It is bound in the hands of the external forces and cannot be elevated. Here the novel point is at the opposite extreme: even if a person had the best intentions, did not know it was forbidden, ate for the sake of Heaven, and then learned and davened with the strength he got from that food, it is nevertheless bound in the hands of the external forces. Those are the two extremes. From this we see that there is an essential difference between what is permitted and what is forbidden. A permitted thing fundamentally belongs to the positive side; the possibility of elevating it is always there. A forbidden thing always belongs to the negative side and cannot be elevated except in special ways, and so on—as we discussed. The Alter Rebbe concluded that this is why one is called “Jewish demons” and the other “non-Jewish demons.” Desire for permitted things is, in essence, Jewish: since you always have the possibility of elevating it, it belongs to the world of a Jew, whose struggle is

02:05 to elevate the physical and not fall, and so on. On the other side are forbidden things, which do not really belong to a Jew. That is a non-Jewish element, a yetzer hara that enters a person. But now the Alter Rebbe continues. We’re on page 13, the fourth line, where the Alter Rebbe tells us that this still does not make it acceptable. We have to know that even with permitted things, a person needs to be careful. Because ultimately, we keep coming back to what the Alter Rebbe said in chapter 6: anything that is not utterly nullified to G-dliness is kelipah. The Alter Rebbe explained that sitra achra means “the other side,” the side that is not holiness. And the side of holiness consists only of what is nullified to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Something that is not nullified to Hakadosh Boruch Hu is kelipah and sitra achra. That includes kelipas nogah, not only the three impure kelipos. This is why, throughout Tanya, the Alter Rebbe explains how we must serve Hashem in our dealings with permitted things, not only by avoiding forbidden things. So now, in this part of the chapter, the Alter Rebbe explains that nevertheless, even with permitted things, we must know that in practice they can bring a person down and draw him over to the side of sitra achra. That is why we need to be careful with permitted things. The Alter Rebbe continues on the fourth line and says, “However…” What does “however” mean? Although we said that a permitted thing is associated with “Jewish demons”—meaning that it belongs to a Jew and can be elevated, and even after it falls, he can still elevate it when he returns to serving Hashem—nevertheless, before it returns to holiness, it is sitra

03:58 achra and kelipah. In other words, before you return to serving Hashem, when you eat something permitted but eat it for the sake of desire, at that time it is actually sitra achra, something disconnected from G-dliness. So it is sitra achra and kelipah. In practice, then, it brings a person down. He now enters the domain of sitra achra and kelipah. That is the first thing the Alter Rebbe tells us: remember this; don’t give yourself permission. Don’t think that because it’s permitted, there’s no problem: “I’ll enjoy myself, and afterward I’ll learn. I can enjoy eating, and then…” The Alter Rebbe says: No. Remember that at the time you eat for the sake of desire, the food goes to sitra achra, to kelipah. At that moment, you enter the domain of kelipah. And beyond that, even afterward, when you do return to serving Hashem and daven and learn with the strength you got from that food, “the trace of it remains attached to the body.” The Alter Rebbe said this briefly earlier. Here he returns to it at greater length and in more detail, because he wants to emphasize this point, as we said: why a person must be careful with permitted things. Although permitted things can always be elevated to holiness, we must still be careful not to become attached to them. So here the Alter Rebbe explains the problem in detail. First, while you are eating for the sake of desire, even though the food is permitted, you are in the domain of sitra achra, and you bring the food down to sitra achra. More than that: even if you later do teshuvah and take the strength you gained from eating and use it to learn, daven, and serve Hashem, the trace of it remains attached to the body. An impression of the desire remains, and it becomes attached

05:58 to the body. For “from every food and drink, blood and flesh immediately become part of one’s flesh.” Once I’ve eaten and taken pleasure in eating, it becomes part of my blood and flesh. As is known, the sefarim say that the act of eating itself produces blood, while the pleasure in eating produces fat. In other words, it adds schmaltz—what we call fat—and that is connected to the pleasure of eating. So through a person’s eating out of desire, enjoying it and taking pleasure in it, blood and flesh are added to his body. “Therefore the body requires chibut hakever,” the ordeal of the grave. Even if you did teshuvah and learned and davened with the strength you got from the food, there was a moment when you enjoyed the food and it was not for the sake of Heaven. When this person ate, he was eating for the sake of desire. At that moment, his body acquired blood and flesh, and part of his flesh came from desire, from things associated with desire. So it needs to be cleansed. “Therefore the body requires chibut hakever, to cleanse and purify it from the impurity it acquired through the pleasures and delights of this world—from the impurity of kelipas nogah and the ‘Jewish demons.’” So in practice, the body will need chibut hakever. What is chibut hakever? I don’t know exactly, but it is one of the punishments described as taking place after 120 years. When a person is taken and placed in the grave, after the body is lowered into the grave, there is a process called chibut hakever. Yes, chibut hakever. Literally, chibut means beating—blows. But to understand the idea of chibut hakever in physical terms: when you beat something, when you have… Grandmothers used to do this; I don’t know if people still do. Even today in Jerusalem I see it on the eve of Pesach, when people want to clean the dust off the—off the beds, off the

08:14 The mattress—how do you say it? The mattresses? There’s a thing you use to beat mattresses, and it gets the dust out. You put them outside and beat them to get the dust out. That’s an analogy, right? Since the body took pleasure in things of this world, and that pleasure remained attached to it, you have to, so to speak, get that dirt out of the body so it can be a vessel for all the revelations it will receive afterward in Gan Eden. Why? There are various things that need cleaning. There are things the body has to go through a process for, and things the soul has to go through a process for. Both body and soul need refinement so that afterward a person can be a vessel for the reward of the World to Come, Gan Eden, the Resurrection of the Dead, and so on. So let’s get to the body. This is what is being said: What sticks to the body comes specifically from permitted things, not forbidden things. But you had a desire for and pleasure in the food as you ate, and that pleasure was an animal kind of pleasure. So even if you learned and davened afterward, while eating you enjoyed the food, and it became your blood and flesh. That belongs to kelipah, and the beating is meant to remove the pleasure taken from those things. As is known, the Rebbe writes in Hayom Yom that today this can be accomplished by reciting verses of Torah. There are various practices, such as learning passages by heart, that bring about this correction so that one will not have to undergo chibut hakever, the beating of the grave. Some books say that exertion in Torah study does this too: when you study with effort, working through questions and intricate discussions, that is also a kind of beating of the soul, and it likewise makes the correction so that you won’t have to undergo chibut hakever. So don’t be alarmed—that’s what the Alter Rebbe is saying, because this—what is the Alter Rebbe

10:09 trying to say here? It’s striking that the Alter Rebbe would discuss this. After all, in Tanya the Alter Rebbe generally tries not to speak about fear of punishment. Nevertheless, fear of punishment is real. It exists; it’s a reality. The fact that chassidim don’t talk about it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Yeshivah students in particular have learned the series of maamarim from 5659, so they know what the Rebbe Rashab says there. He explains that fear of punishment is also necessary. When it comes to outright evil, if a person has no other kind of fear, at least fear of punishment can save him from sin. So the Alter Rebbe does mention here that we must know there are also punishments for certain things. But that is not at all why he brings it up here, as we said earlier. What the Alter Rebbe wants to emphasize is that kelipas nogah, too, is not something a Jew should become attached to, G-d forbid. Kelipas nogah also brings impurity and makes a person more materialistic, and in the end there are punishments to cleanse that away. That is why we must be careful even with permitted things, to use them with the intention of serving Heaven. The Alter Rebbe continues: “Unless”—who is exempt from chibut hakever?—“one did not enjoy this world all his days, like Rabbeinu Hakadosh.” For a person to be exempt from chibut hakever, he must have no desire for this world. Who can say he never enjoyed this world all his days? The Alter Rebbe gives an example: Rabbeinu Hakadosh, Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi. The Gemara says Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi was very wealthy. Not just wealthy: his household had great riches, and every kind of food in the world. Radishes and lettuce. It says that everything was on his table. He would host many

11:56 people, with all the trappings of royalty, and he had everything—even radishes and lettuce. There are several explanations of what “radishes and lettuce” means. In the physical sense, we know what radishes and lettuce are, right? But what’s so remarkable about radishes and lettuce? They aren’t especially unusual foods. The point is that he had even the little things. A radish is a kind of vegetable. Everyone knows lettuce from the maror of Pesach. In other words, these are the most incidental things; you can manage without them. He had everything. Even the most incidental things were there, all within his reach. And yet, before Rabbeinu Hakadosh passed away, he raised his fingers toward Heaven and said that it was revealed and known that he had not enjoyed this world all his days. Rabbeinu Hakadosh could say of himself that he had never enjoyed this world. Now, the Rebbe has a sicha about this. Among other things, the Rebbe asks: How does this relate to what is being discussed here? What is the Alter Rebbe trying to say? On the face of it, the Alter Rebbe seems to be saying that you simply have to be an exceptionally holy person. It follows from what the Alter Rebbe says—and so it says in several maamarim of Chassidus—that even a beinoni cannot attain this. Even a beinoni cannot go his whole life without enjoying this world at all. He can eat for the sake of Heaven, but not enjoying this world is more than eating for the sake of Heaven: it means not feeling any pleasure in eating at all. That’s an entirely different level. An ordinary person can eat for the sake of Heaven; a beinoni who serves Hashem can do so. That is what is demanded of every one of us: eating for the sake of Heaven. Meaning that when you eat, you intend that the food should enable you to learn and daven. But to say that you

13:51 don’t enjoy the food, that you don’t taste it—that’s another level. They say of Rabbeinu Hakadosh not only that he ate for the sake of Heaven, but that he never enjoyed this world all his days. That’s a higher level. He simply did not experience the pleasure of eating. That’s already the level of great tzaddikim. There’s the well-known story of Reb Shlomo of Karlin and the Alter Rebbe: a lot of salt was put in the food, and Reb Shlomo of Karlin couldn’t eat it, while the Alter Rebbe ate it and said that in Mezritch he had worked on himself not to taste his food. Well, that was the Alter Rebbe’s level. And here, too, the Alter Rebbe says “Rabbeinu Hakadosh.” So it’s interesting. On the one hand, the Rebbe says that, seemingly, this is true: to reach such a level, a person must not enjoy this world at all. In other words, he doesn’t experience the pleasure of eating at all. Nevertheless, the Rebbe says that since the Alter Rebbe uses the expression “Rabbeinu Hakadosh” here—he doesn’t say “Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi”; he says “Rabbeinu Hakadosh”—the Alter Rebbe wants to emphasize that this is relevant to everyone. Because if it said “Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi,” then we’d be talking about Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi. He was a special person; not everyone can relate to his level. But when we say “Rabbeinu,” we’re saying precisely that he is our Rebbe. And if he is our Rebbe, then he is connected to us. That means that through hiskashrus, connection to him, we too can have a connection to this kind of avodah. Through a chossid’s connection to his Rebbe, Rabbeinu Hakadosh drew down his holiness to the entire Jewish people. He gives every Jew, even a simple Jew, the strength to reach a point where he has no geshmak, no particular pleasure, in eating. Well,

15:46 the Rebbe says that this shows it is relevant to us. The Rebbe raises us to that level. There’s a sicha of the Rebbe’s—we’d have to check it—in volume 10, a famous sicha for 19 Kislev, Parshas Vayishlach. There the Rebbe brings the story of Reb Shlomo of Karlin and the Alter Rebbe, and says that Chassidus really did accomplish this. How? We aren’t on that level. So the Rebbe says that we see in practice that sometimes a person is so absorbed in something that he doesn’t notice all sorts of other things. We see it in practice: sometimes you’re extremely busy, your mind is occupied with something very important. You eat something because you’re hungry, but if someone asks you a minute later what you ate, you don’t remember. “I ate—but what did I eat? I don’t know. I was busy; I didn’t even notice.” The food mattered so little to me that I didn’t pay attention to it. So this is something that can indeed be achieved: you can be so focused on other, loftier matters that although you ate the food, you didn’t notice it, didn’t make a big thing of it, didn’t take pleasure in what you ate. That is what the Alter Rebbe is saying here: since he is Rabbeinu, he affected his disciples. He raised Jews to this level as well, so that we too can have a connection to it. In any case, the point is that even when the things involved are permitted, the act of eating itself brings the soul down, and afterward that has to be corrected. So we need to be careful. The Alter Rebbe wants to tell a person—in the Book of Beinonim, right?—that a person has to work on himself as much as he can so that he will not have

17:39 The pleasure, the appetite, the pull toward it. The Alter Rebbe continues: “And speaking idle words that are permitted, such as in the case of an unlearned person who cannot study, requires him to cleanse his soul of the impurity of this kelipah by its being tossed about in Kaf Hakela, as stated in the Zohar, Parshas Beshalach, page 59.” The Alter Rebbe goes on to say that just as this applies to eating, it also applies to spiritual matters. Eating concerns the body. We say that impurity clings to the body and requires chibut hakever, which is connected with the body. There is also something that concerns the soul: idle talk. Now, in the vast majority of cases, idle talk is forbidden. Why? Because usually it involves neglecting Torah study. You should be learning—why are you talking about nothing? So there is a prohibition involved. And usually, most idle talk is lashon hara, gossip, or mockery. But sometimes idle talk is permitted. When can that happen? For yeshivah students, for bochurim, it doesn’t apply. There is no such thing as permitted idle talk in their lives. We have to find what qualifies as permitted idle talk. So it is interesting what the Alter Rebbe says: “And speaking idle words that are permitted, such as in the case of an unlearned person who cannot study.” There can be an unlearned person. The poor man—you can’t expect him to speak like [unclear]. He can’t; he is unlearned, he doesn’t know how to study. That is one side of it. On the other hand, he still needs to do things. So sometimes he talks, but of course he, too, must be careful. He may not speak lashon hara, mockery, or gossip. But idle talk does not involve the prohibition of neglecting Torah study for him, because he is not capable of studying Torah all day. On the other hand, he

19:47 is careful not to say anything forbidden, but he does speak idle words. There is a point here that requires further examination. Interestingly, in the Rebbe’s notes on Tanya, he writes that this requires further examination: Surely he can recite Tehillim; he can recite passages from the Written Torah. Even for an unlearned person, there are things he can do. It is hard to say that the Alter Rebbe means someone who cannot even read—that he is unlearned to that extent. So the Rebbe leaves it somewhat unresolved, but in any case, that is what the Alter Rebbe is discussing. This person speaks idle words that are permitted. So that, too, is kelipas nogah, because these are permitted idle words. And that, too, leaves an impression on the soul. Here as well, it has to be cleansed. “He must cleanse his soul of the impurity of this kelipah by its being tossed about in Kaf Hakela.” What is Kaf Hakela? Kaf Hakela is similar to chibut hakever, except that it involves the soul. What is a kaf hakela in physical terms? It is like what Dovid Hamelech used. How did Dovid Hamelech kill Golyas? He had a kind of sling, some sort of implement, and a stone, and with it he threw the stone like this, right? It struck Golyas in the forehead and killed him. That is what Dovid Hamelech used—this kaf hakela. The verse mentions a sling, something like that, right? That is what he used to kill Golyas; he had five stones. So what is Kaf Hakela in spiritual terms? The soul is tossed about. The soul arrives Above, and they want to remove the dirt from it. Idle words cling to it. The idle words a person speaks cling to the soul and soil it. So for the soul to be able at all—all of these matters, as is already clear,

21:41 in Chassidus are not arbitrary. Everything the soul undergoes Above is a form of cleaning, refinement, and purification. The soul is cleansed so that it can receive G-dliness, so that it can enjoy the radiance of the Shechinah. The dirt has to be removed, like dirt from a garment. One form of cleaning is called Kaf Hakela. In other words, you toss it from one side to the other, and that makes various bits of dirt fall off, as can happen physically too. As we said earlier, if you have something dirty, you shake it out. You toss it around and shake it, and bits of dirt and dust fall off. Then, after you have removed the dirt and dust, you put it in the wash and wash it with hot or cold water. That is the next stage. So that is the nature of Kaf Hakela. There is an extended discussion of this—everyone knows the Rebbe’s famous maamar, [unclear]—where the Rebbe discusses at length the punishments of Kaf Hakela in spiritual terms: the soul is tossed from the spiritual to the physical, from one kind of pleasure to another. This causes the soul great distress. There is this tossing from Gan Eden to Gehinnom, [unclear]. Beyond that, the Rebbe describes several levels. There are different forms of this tossing, and the distress it causes the soul removes the dust of idle words, even when those words were permitted. But with forbidden speech, such as mockery and lashon hara, what happens when it is no longer merely permitted idle talk, when there is also a prohibition involved? These things come from the three completely impure kelipos. The Alter Rebbe says: “Kaf Hakela alone is not enough”

23:35 to cleanse the soul and remove its impurity. Kaf Hakela is needed here too, because the speech itself—the words that cling to the soul—must be removed through Kaf Hakela. But besides the speech, there is also the prohibition, and a prohibition is not merely something external. It also leaves a stain. There is a difference between a garment with surface dirt and a garment with a stain, where the dirt has penetrated. You can shake off surface dirt and it falls away. But if the dirt has penetrated and become a stain, something deep in the fabric, then a more thorough process is needed. That is what the Alter Rebbe is saying: Kaf Hakela is not enough; the soul must also descend to Gehinnom. Gehinnom is a form of inner cleansing. The fire of Gehinnom, its heat, acts on the dirt that has clung to the soul internally. The G-dly soul is enclothed in the animal soul, and it, too, becomes soiled. All this causes a blemish in the soul, an inner blemish. To remove that inner blemish, Gehinnom is needed. The fire, the heat of Gehinnom, burns the dirt away completely. Then the soul remains clean and can afterward enter Gan Eden. As we said earlier, the punishments we are discussing here are not simply punishments, blows that are inflicted. They are forms of cleansing that a Jew must undergo. It is all to cleanse, refine, and purify the soul so that it can be a vessel for revelation. “And likewise, one who is able to engage in Torah study but instead engages in idle talk.” The Alter Rebbe now adds another detail. All these are things it is very easy to stumble over. And because the Alter

25:45 Rebbe wants to address the beinoni here, to warn him and explain how careful he must be in all sorts of details, he gives examples that apply to people like us. These are things it is easy to stumble over. We need to know how serious they are so that we can guard ourselves. The Alter Rebbe says: “And likewise, one who is able to engage in Torah study”—not an unlearned person—“but instead engages in idle talk: Kaf Hakela alone is not enough to cleanse and refine his soul.” For such a person, Kaf Hakela is not enough; rather, there are severe punishments specifically imposed for neglecting Torah study. Here there is another issue: neglecting Torah study. That is a grave sin, and consequently its punishment is severe. The Alter Rebbe does not list here the particular punishments for neglecting Torah study. There is an entire section in Reishis Chochmah explaining the various punishments Above for different sins and transgressions. He then continues: “Besides the general punishment for neglecting a positive mitzvah out of laziness, in the Gehinnom of snow, as explained elsewhere.” There is a general punishment in addition to those for neglecting Torah study, mockery, and other forbidden things. The Alter Rebbe discusses another general punishment, for neglecting positive mitzvos. Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of transgressions. Some come from heat. Usually these involve prohibitions: a person has a fire burning within him, a desire. He wants to eat something, commit a sin, or look at something. A fire of desire is kindled in him, and that leads to a sin involving a prohibition. Neglecting a positive mitzvah, on the other hand, usually comes from coldness. He is lazy, he feels weighed down, he has no energy, and he stays

27:41 In bed, he doesn’t get up. So he misses the time for reciting Shema, or misses davening, or misses Mincha. That comes from coldness, the opposite of warmth, and so the punishment is measure for measure. When it comes to sins that stem from warmth—he has a desire to speak lashon hara, he has a desire to reveal a secret in public—then it’s Gehinnom of fire. The heat of the fire is measure for measure. When it comes to neglecting positive mitzvos, that stems from laziness, coldness, and heaviness. So the punishment is coldness, Gehinnom of snow. There is a particular Gehinnom called Gehinnom of snow, and its coldness, too, is a cleansing, measure for measure, for the coldness a person had in serving Hashem. That calls for its own particular rectifications. So, as we said, the Alter Rebbe tells us all this so we’ll know that we need to be careful. There is also a place for fear of punishment, and for guarding ourselves against all these things, so that a person can serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu and know that each thing has its own... the cleansing the soul needs to undergo in order to become a fitting vessel. And there’s the well-known story among chassidim: Once, some bochurim were talking to each other as they walked along in Lubavitch. One said to the other that fear of punishment didn’t affect him, because fear of punishment is something external and all that. We’re chassidim; we serve Hashem inwardly. We don’t... fear of punishment is for misnagdim, and so on. We’re not afraid of punishment. Then a dog passed by, and the bochurim were frightened of the dog. So Reb Gronem said, “You’re not afraid of Gehinnom, but it looks to me like you are afraid of the dog.” Apparently... What he wanted to tell them, to explain, was that it’s very easy to say you’re not afraid when you simply don’t know what it is. But the truth is that in serving

29:42 Hashem, there is a place for this too. It’s true that Chassidus doesn’t speak about fear of punishment as a goal in itself, because Chassidus really wants a person to want to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu because of G-dliness, not because he’s afraid of some external fear. Nevertheless, this too has a place, and we need to know about it in our service of Hashem so that our service will be as it should be.