Chapter 9 - Part Four

00:00 We’re continuing with Tanya, here in the middle of chapter 9, where the Alter Rebbe begins to explain the battle between the two souls. After explaining where the animal soul and the G-dly soul are centered, and how each extends from its center to the rest of the body, the Alter Rebbe began to explain how they fight. He said their battle is like one between two kings. What is the point of that comparison? A king doesn’t just want to be a partner or have a share. A king means that he is the sole master, with complete and exclusive control. There is no room for anything else. That is what kingship is about. So the G-dly soul wants to be king in such a way that the entire body, every limb, the whole person, belongs to it completely in practice. We’ve already discussed all the details the Alter Rebbe gives about what the G-dly soul seeks: that all the limbs should be nullified to it, a vehicle and a garment for it. There are many levels and ways in which the G-dly soul wants to permeate, penetrate, and affect a person’s body and soul, until the person belongs to it entirely, with no part left over, and “no stranger shall pass through them,” G-d forbid. The precise wording, “no stranger shall pass through them,” means not even in passing. As far as the G-dly soul is concerned, it gives the animal soul no opening. Its desire for control is so total, so absolute, that it will not allow the animal soul even a momentary foothold, even in passing. It must not pass through even in passing. This is similar to what is brought in a work of Chassidus on Parshas Bechukosai, that there is

02:06 “and no sword shall pass through your land”—not even a sword of peace. Even a sword of peace, one that is not coming to wage war but is coming in peace to be your friend, is not allowed. In other words, under no circumstances, not even in passing, does it make room for the animal soul. It does not want the animal soul to have any foothold in any of this. Up to this point, the Alter Rebbe has spoken in general terms. As we continue today, he goes into the details. There is great clarity in the way the Alter Rebbe explains them. He will no longer speak only about the body as a whole; he will speak specifically about the faculties of the mind, the emotions, thought, speech, and action. What does the G-dly soul want from each part of the body? We need to understand that the Alter Rebbe takes things to an extreme here in this chapter. He has not yet begun to discuss a tzaddik, a beinoni, and a rasha. We have not yet spoken about levels in Tanya; we will discuss them in the coming chapters. So here, as we said, the Alter Rebbe is speaking about what the G-dly soul would want if it were given free rein. What does it want ultimately? We are speaking about the G-dly soul at its highest level, its deepest aim. Later in Tanya we will see that it is not at all easy to reach that point, and perhaps only a select few do. There is the tzaddik, then the tzaddik who suffers and the tzaddik who prospers, and there is the beinoni and all the different levels. Yes, that comes later. But here in this chapter, before the Alter Rebbe discusses levels, he is speaking about what the G-dly soul itself would want the state of

03:55 the person to be. We are in the middle of page 14, chapter 9, halfway down the page, at the line beginning “that is.” The Alter Rebbe says: “That is, the three faculties of the brain in the head should be filled with the chochmah, binah, and daas of the G-dly soul, which are the wisdom of Hashem and the understanding of Him—to contemplate His greatness, which is unfathomable and infinite, and through daas to give rise from them to…” Yes, the Alter Rebbe names the three faculties here: chochmah, binah, and daas. The G-dly soul wants all three faculties of the brain in the head. What exactly does that mean? I want to remind you of something we learned earlier. The Alter Rebbe says here that the battle is over the body—only the body. So even when he speaks about chochmah, binah, and daas, he is not speaking about the faculties themselves, but about their physical organs. “The three faculties of the brain in the head” refers to their place in the brain. As is known, the Zohar says that the brain has three parts. The physical substance of the brain has three chambers—“three cavities are in the brain.” There are three spaces, three places in the physical brain: the right side, the left side, and the back. One side is the place of chochmah, the other is the place of binah, and the third, at the back, is the place of daas. That is why the head tefillin must be placed here, toward the back of the head, the place of daas, because the brain consists of three faculties. So the Alter Rebbe is saying that the G-dly soul wants the three faculties of the brain—the entire physical organ, with its three parts, each corresponding to chochmah, binah, or daas—to be completely permeated with G-dliness.

06:04 That means a person’s chochmah should be wholly occupied with the wisdom of Hashem, and his binah with contemplation and understanding, until these reach daas, through which chochmah and binah give rise to the emotions. That is what the G-dly soul wants of the brain: “through daas to give rise from them to awe in his mind.” Now we move from the mind to the heart. Through daas we descend to the heart, and something develops there too. Here as well, there is an order of progression: first, awe in his mind, and then fear of Hashem in his heart. As is known, the Tzemach Tzedek explains—and the Alter Rebbe also mentioned this—that when a person contemplates the greatness of Hashem, the greatness of the infinite Blessed One, the first response is awe. That is human nature. When a person stands before a king, before a great person, particularly before a Rebbe or a tzaddik, what is the first feeling? Awe. That is the first thing. A sense of reverence, awe of His exaltedness, a sense of shame, is awakened. Then, as you continue to delve into it and contemplate it, awe also leads to love. That is the next stage. But by human nature, awe is the first response. And within that itself, there is awe and there is fear: awe in the mind and fear in the heart. Awe is not an emotion in the same way. Awe is more a kind of understanding than a feeling. The response of awe is not an emotion of the heart. It is not fear. Awe is something like being awestruck. It is a kind of bittul, a kind of drawing back or retreating. That is the basis of awe, and that is why awe belongs more to the world of the mind. The mind is more elevated and sees things on a higher level. So its response is awe: it yields itself to the G-dly reality shining within it. And after

08:07 that comes fear. Not just awe, but an emotion, a feeling in the heart—a feeling of fear, of yiras Shamayim. He is afraid. Not, G-d forbid, that he is afraid Hakadosh Boruch Hu will punish him. We are not speaking about fear of punishment. We are speaking about fear born of His greatness. It is a feeling of, “Who am I? Who am I?” In the Rambam’s words, he trembles before the greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu; it shakes him. “And fear of Hashem in his heart.” By the way, chassidim tell a story connected with this—since we’ve mentioned the Rambam. There is such a story involving the Tzemach Tzedek. I don’t know the… I heard it many years ago and don’t remember the details now. One of the Baal Shem Tov’s students once asked the Baal Shem Tov—or perhaps it was a student of the Maggid. I think it was a student of the Maggid who asked the Maggid to let him experience the Rambam’s awe. He wanted the Rambam’s yiras Shamayim. He was, of course, one of the Maggid’s great students, a tzaddik, not just anyone. He asked the Maggid to let him feel the Rambam’s yiras Shamayim. The Maggid told him it was not advisable; he would regret it. But he kept pressing him. The Maggid said, “I can give it to you, but you are going to regret it.” What happened? He insisted, and the Maggid gave him the blessing. It was Rosh Hashanah, before the blowing of the shofar. He had the shofar in his hand, and suddenly he began to feel such awe and such fear before the greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu that his whole body began to tremble. He shook so violently that the shofar fell and became unfit for use. Then he understood why the Maggid had told him he would regret it, because it wasn’t—he couldn’t

10:09 He didn’t have the capacity for that. His body didn’t have the capacity to contain that level of yiras Shamayim—the Rambam’s yiras Shamayim. That’s a story told among chassidim. In any case, this brings fear and awe into his heart. The Alter Rebbe continues and tells us what happens next: “And love for Him.” As we said, yes, from fear we need to move on to love. So “love for Him will burn in his heart like flames of fire.” Here too, as we said, the Alter Rebbe is speaking of love at its fullest intensity. Not just any love, but love that sets his entire heart ablaze like flames of fire. As we’ll learn in the coming chapters, the Alter Rebbe will tell us that there is cold love and warm love, love hidden in the recesses of the heart and love revealed in the heart. The bochurim here who just learned this on the site know this whole subject—the different levels. But here the Alter Rebbe is speaking of the greatest intensity. What does the G-dly soul want? It wants the love not to be limited, but to burn like flames of fire: “His soul should long and even expire with yearning and desire to cleave to Him, blessed be He, to the blessed Ein Sof, with all his heart, soul, and might, from the depths of the heart in the right chamber.” We all know the verse, and we say it every day: “You shall love Hashem your G-d with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.” Chassidus explains that these three expressions are three levels, three stages in the love of Hashem. First there is loving Hashem “with all your heart”: the heart catches fire, with flames of love for Hashem. The heart is aflame with that love. Then we say “with all your soul.” The soul is more than the heart. The heart is just the heart: it is aflame, it is warm, it begins to feel love. But “your soul” refers to the entire soul. In other words, the love spreads beyond the heart; it spreads through the whole

12:11 soul, the whole person. Then there is something greater still: “with all your might.” “Might” means without limit. In other words, it is not confined even to the soul; it goes outward without limit. This is explained as the idea of running to do a mitzvah. It becomes a movement in which he breaks past his limits, so he runs and acts with alacrity, and so on. In all sorts of ways, the love crosses every boundary. Or sometimes Chassidus explains that it also means with one’s possessions, with things outside oneself. In other words, his love of Hashem extends even to things beyond his own person. In any case, that is what the Alter Rebbe is saying: the G-dly soul wants his love of Hashem to permeate his entire being, to the point of the soul’s expiring, as he says, “to cleave to Him, blessed be He, with all his heart, soul, and might”—all three levels. “From the depths of the heart in the right chamber, so that his inner being is lined with love, full and overflowing.” Here too, the Alter Rebbe’s wording is interesting. He now begins to speak about another stage: how this love does not remain only in the right chamber, and how we reach the left chamber as well. What did we say? The G-dly soul does not merely want to be in charge in its own place. It wants complete control, absolute control, total control, and therefore it wants to reach the left chamber too. So the Alter Rebbe says that it begins in the right chamber, the place of the G-dly soul. And let’s remember what we learned at the start of the chapter: the Alter Rebbe said that the G-dly soul dwells not only in the mind but also in the heart. We said that this is the difference between the G-dly soul and the animal soul: the G-dly soul has a dwelling place in the heart as well, but on the right side of the heart. There

14:09 it has the fervor, the feeling, the emotional arousal, and the love we spoke about. But now it wants that love to spread to the left side as well. That is why the Alter Rebbe uses these words here: “So that his inner being is lined with love, full and overflowing, until it spreads to the left chamber as well.” There are three expressions here too, and the Rebbe examines them closely: “lined with love,” “full,” and “overflowing.” What are these three ideas? Lined, full, and overflowing. “Lined”: think of painting a house so that it is completely covered. It means something covers the whole area. It is like the Hebrew word for floor: why is a floor called a floor? Because it covers the ground. So here too, “his inner being is lined with love” means that love covers the heart all around. Then he says “full,” which is more than lined. The love is not just all around it; the heart itself has filled with love. And then he says “overflowing.” Overflowing means it is not merely full; it spills over. We all know that the Rebbe would often speak about the well-known order established by the Baal Shem Tov, [unclear]. In other words, the blessing of Hakadosh Boruch Hu spills outward. The same applies here: “full and overflowing.” The love begins by lining the heart, then it fills it, and finally it overflows. And what happens when it overflows? Once the love spills beyond the right side of the heart, it spills into the left side. That is what the Alter Rebbe means here:

16:23 “Until it spreads to the left chamber as well.” When the love exceeds its vessels, it spills into the person’s left side too, “to subdue the sitra achra”—to take control, to break and overcome the sitra achra, “the element of evil water within it.” Within the sitra achra itself, this is primarily the water in the animal soul. What did we learn in chapter 1 of Tanya? What is the water in the animal soul? The element of water is pleasure. Love is the root of desire, the root of pleasure; at its root, it is really love. So when the love exceeds its bounds and spills into the left side too, the fire extinguishes the water: “to subdue the sitra achra, the element of evil water within it, which is the desire that comes from kelipas nogah.” As we said, desire is connected with craving, and pleasures come from the element of water. So the love extinguishes the water, “changing and transforming it from pleasures of this world into love of Hashem, as it is written, etc., ‘with all your heart’—with both your inclinations.” Here we reach the stage of is’hapcha: the animal soul, the left chamber, changes and is transformed into love of Hashem. Notice the wording of Tanya; it is very important to pay attention to the Alter Rebbe’s words. The Alter Rebbe begins with iskafya and ends with is’hapcha. First he says “to subdue the sitra achra,” and afterward he says—what is the wording?—“to change and transform it.” In other words, this too happens in stages. At first the love is only in the G-dly soul, and even there it first lines the heart. Then it fills it, and then it overflows, and from there it passes onward. The overflow reaches the animal soul too, the left side. And what does it do on the left side? First, it subdues the sitra achra; then it changes it and transforms it completely. We’ll see more as we continue. There are very, very important foundations here for the whole subject of loving Hashem. But first,

18:40 I want to explain what iskafya and ishapcha mean when the Alter Rebbe speaks about them here. This is very important, because it can be confusing, and people make a mistake about it. Here the Alter Rebbe is not speaking about iskafya and ishapcha in the usual sense. Usually, when we speak about them, iskafya means doing something you don’t want to do. In simple terms, you have a desire and you force yourself to act against your will, as the Alter Rebbe also says in chapter 27. Iskafya of the sitra achra: you have an intrusive thought, and you force yourself not to think it. You have a desire that is still in full force, and you fight not to act on it. That is not the iskafya the Alter Rebbe is speaking about here, because here we are talking about serving Hashem. The person is already contemplating Hashem’s greatness. His mind is filled with chochmah, binah and daas, and he has awe and fear and love, and so on. So what is left? Now he needs to transform the animal soul too. All right, how do you affect the animal soul? The order is first iskafya, then ishapcha. When we say iskafya here, in the context of serving Hashem, the effect on the animal soul is not through force. It is not simply that the animal soul doesn’t want to and you force it; rather, you persuade it. There is coercion with a whip, coercion with a stick. There is also coercion through reason. What does coercion through reason mean? Say you’re learning Tosafos with your chavrusa, and you disagree. I explain it one way, my chavrusa explains it another way, and we argue. Now, if your chavrusa manages to convince you that you’re wrong—he explains your mistake—then, if you’re a mensch, in the end you’ll tell him, “You’re

20:42 right.” Sometimes that’s hard, yes? But you’ll tell him he’s right. Now, why do I say he’s right? Because I understood my mistake, and I understood that his explanation is more correct. Even so, I can’t say that ishapcha took place. It’s not that I’ve been completely transformed and will understand it his way from now on. Deep down, I would still like to understand it the way I did before. But in practice, he’s right. So I agree with you, but it’s an agreement based on reason. In essence, I thought differently; it’s just that your explanation won me over. It’s like “the Sages concede to Rabbi Meir.” What does it mean that they concede? They concede because Rabbi Meir said something more correct. But it’s not that their own way of thinking is now gone. Deep down, a person would like to think differently, but in practice the other person has won him over. This idea is discussed in several places. That too is called iskafya. Although it happens through reason, since the person’s entire being has not been transformed, it is called iskafya. And this is the love the Alter Rebbe spoke about earlier, which subdues the sitra achra: the love of the G-dly soul becomes so powerful that it reaches the animal soul too. At first, the animal soul merely agrees with the G-dly soul, but it has not yet been transformed. The next stage is to affect the animal soul so that it doesn’t merely agree, but is truly transformed completely—so that its love of Hashem becomes its entire being. That is a higher level. For this, love like a flaming fire is not enough; you need love like water, a love of delight, as the Alter Rebbe will explain later in this chapter. In any case, what

22:35 did we learn today? We learned how the G-dly soul seeks to take complete control of the person—to make the whole person entirely focused on G-dliness. As we said, it begins in the mind and passes from the mind to the heart. First comes awe, fear, and then love. And love itself has all the stages we mentioned: first on the right side, and then it passes to the left side too. And on the left side itself, first through iskafya and then through ishapcha. So [unclear].