Chapter 10 - Part Two

00:00 So we’ll continue here in chapter 10 of Tanya. In this chapter, the Alter Rebbe explains what a “tzaddik who has good” is and what a “tzaddik who has evil” is. We’re up to page 14b, at the words “And the explanation of the matter.” The Alter Rebbe will begin by explaining what a complete tzaddik is, and from there we’ll also understand what an incomplete tzaddik is. The Alter Rebbe says: “And the explanation of the matter is that a complete tzaddik is one whose evil has been transformed into good.” What does “complete tzaddik” mean? It means someone whose evil has been transformed entirely into good. In other words, “complete” means that he has completed the work. He has done it to the fullest possible extent. His service of Hashem has permeated his entire being. He is a tzaddik through and through. Not a single part of him remains unconnected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, because even the evil in the left chamber of his heart has been transformed into good. As we discussed earlier, this chapter continues the previous one, where the Alter Rebbe explained how the divine soul seeks to enter a person’s body and take control, so that love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu fills his entire being, including the left chamber of his heart, and, within that chamber itself, transforms the evil completely into good. That, he says, is the definition of a complete tzaddik: his righteousness is complete. Why? Because he has reached the point of transforming evil entirely into good. “He is therefore called a tzaddik who has good.” That is why he is also given this second name. What does “has good” mean? According to Tanya, good is his sole master. In other words, not a trace or aspect of evil remains, not even in the left chamber. By stripping

02:06 the filthy garments completely from the evil. How does one reach that point? By completely removing all the soiled garments, the forms of expression: thought, speech, and action that have become soiled. Removing them completely from the evil. “That is, to utterly loathe the pleasures of this world when indulging in them as people do for their own pleasure.” What does it mean that he removes them? What does it mean to strip off the filthy garments completely? The Alter Rebbe wants to explain that this does not mean only in practice. If he removes the soiled garments only in practice—meaning the thought, speech, and action that are not directed toward Hashem—then all he has done is refrain from committing a sin, or from speaking or thinking about things that are not good. That alone does not make him a tzaddik. He is still at that stage. It still does not mean that he has become—he may still be drawn to evil. Here, as the Alter Rebbe explains, he loathes it. Not only does he remove the filthy garments in practice; he utterly loathes anything that runs counter to G-dliness. “That is, to utterly loathe the pleasures of this world when indulging in them as people do for their own pleasure.” The Alter Rebbe’s wording here is deliberate. Of course, he means to emphasize things that are permitted. When it comes to forbidden things, what would be novel about that? There’s no need to discuss them. The point here concerns permitted things. So the Alter Rebbe emphasizes that the complete tzaddik does not merely refrain from indulging his desires in practice. It is not merely that he practices iskafya—self-restraint. Rather, he loathes these pleasures. And what does he loathe? Even permitted things. If they are pursued solely for human pleasure, he loathes them completely. “To satisfy the desires of the body alone, and not for the service of Hashem.” In other words, the Alter Rebbe is hinting here that there is a level of the complete tzaddik at which he can

04:09 indeed enjoy the world, enjoy physical things, when that physical enjoyment is a G-dly pleasure. In general, of course, there is a level in the service of Hashem at which a person can derive pleasure from physical things, but it is not the pleasure people seek for its own sake; it is G-dly pleasure. It’s like what we say about eating on Shabbos and Yom Tov. There is a mitzvah to take pleasure in eating and drinking. That is the mitzvah of oneg Shabbos, the delight of Shabbos. So the complete tzaddik does feel pleasure when he eats and drinks on Shabbos, but there is no animalistic pleasure in it at all. His pleasure in eating and drinking on Shabbos is entirely the pleasure of Shabbos. Of course, that is a very high level. As they say, when we eat cholent, we all enjoy the cholent, not only the delight of Shabbos. But there is a way of serving Hashem through which a person can reach a level where the pleasure he feels in something physical is entirely G-dly pleasure. There is a well-known story connected with 19 Kislev. The Rebbe once told it at a 19 Kislev farbrengen as well. It’s the well-known story about the Alter Rebbe and Reb Shlomo of Karlin. Everyone knows the story; it also appears in Likkutei Sichos, Parshas Vayishlach, volume 10. The Rebbe relates that the Alter Rebbe once invited Reb Shlomo of Karlin to his home. They prepared a great deal of food, cooked, and made a whole feast. The women doing the cooking divided up the tasks among themselves, deciding who would do what, but forgot to assign anyone to add the salt. Each woman who came into the kitchen realized they hadn’t discussed the salt, so she added some. They all added salt, and in the end the food was full of it. When it came time to eat, Reb Shlomo of Karlin couldn’t eat it. He set the food aside and said it was impossible to eat. But the Alter Rebbe ate as though

06:12 nothing had happened. Reb Shlomo of Karlin was amazed that the Alter Rebbe could eat without noticing that the food was impossible to eat—it was full of salt. The Alter Rebbe told him, “When I was in Mezritch, I worked on myself until I could no longer taste food.” Now, the Rebbe once said at a farbrengen, as I heard from Reb Yarden[?], that this was not yet the Alter Rebbe’s highest level. It was something the Alter Rebbe learned in Mezritch. But later the Alter Rebbe reached an even higher level. Not tasting the food is still a level at which the tzaddik needs not to taste it in order to serve Hashem. But there is a higher level: he does taste it, yet his pleasure is G-dly. In other words, he tastes the food, but he does not experience its flavor as a coarse, animalistic pleasure. He experiences it as G-dly pleasure. That is, in fact, the true nature of oneg Shabbos and the level of tzaddikim. At any rate, this is what the Alter Rebbe is saying: we are talking about someone whose efforts have transformed all the evil in his soul, to the point that he utterly loathes all the pleasures of this world—even physical things, when they are enjoyed merely for human pleasure and not for the service of Hashem. But when they serve the service of Hashem, he can indeed awaken within himself pleasure in the service of Hashem involved in them. Why does he loathe those other pleasures? Why does a complete tzaddik reach a level where he utterly loathes things that are not G-dly? The Alter Rebbe explains: because they are drawn from and sustained by kelipah and the sitra achra. The reason he loathes them, the Alter Rebbe says, is not that he has some problem with physical things in themselves, but

08:00 The tzaddik sees where a physical thing comes from. The tzaddik sees the root of things, because he looks at everything at its root. He knows that everything in the world comes from a higher place, and he knows what we learned earlier in Tanya about desire—the desire that exists in this world, physical, material pleasure. Where does it come from? It comes from kelipah and sitra achra, as explained in Chassidus. Where do all the pleasures in this world come from? Pleasure itself is found in G-dliness. The source of pleasure is only in holiness. So pleasure, in its source, exists only in holiness. This pleasure, its source, was only in G-dliness. But what happens? It descends through the descent of the worlds and their tzimtzumim, particularly through the breaking of the vessels, as explained in the maamarim, until it falls down here and becomes the pleasures of this world. This is explained at length in Chassidus. At every level there is waste. Just as in the physical world, when a person eats, there is waste from the food, and there is an animal or some other creature for which that person’s waste is a pleasure. And further down, there are very, very lowly creatures that eat the waste of waste of waste. In the same way, so to speak, the Divine pleasure in the world of Atzilus produces what becomes waste for lower levels—angels, seraphim, Ofanim—until it reaches the dregs of the Ofanim, from which the desires of this world come into being. So through the many tzimtzumim and the breaking of the vessels, it becomes pleasure belonging to sitra achra and kelipah. Therefore, when the complete tzaddik sees and looks at pleasures, what does he see in them? He sees where those pleasures come from—that they come from sitra achra. And the tzaddik hates sitra achra, because sitra achra is the opposite of G-dliness. So he is repulsed by things that receive their life from sitra achra.

09:59 This is what the Alter Rebbe says here. The complete tzaddik hates everything that comes from sitra achra with an absolute hatred. What does that mean? It is because of the greatness of his love for Hashem and His holiness, with the great love of delights and extraordinary affection mentioned above. In other words, what is the Alter Rebbe saying? There are two things: hatred and revulsion. What is the difference between hatred and revulsion? Simply put, when I say I hate something, hatred is directed at what opposes me. Whom do you hate? You hate an opponent. A person who opposes G-dliness, a person who opposes something good—you hate the opponent. Revulsion is directed at things. Revulsion doesn’t really apply to—to—to… It applies mainly to things, to objects that repulse you. It is the same here. Sitra achra is the forces of impurity. What is sitra achra? It is the forces of impurity, the forces in this world that oppose holiness. That is what sitra achra means. As the Alter Rebbe explained earlier, sitra achra is the “other side,” the side that is not holiness. The side of holiness is whatever is nullified to G-dliness, and anything that is not nullified to G-dliness belongs to sitra achra. So sitra achra is met with hatred. The tzaddik hates sitra achra because it opposes G-dliness. Now, from sitra achra there descend things in this world that receive their life from it: the desires of this world, its pleasures, and the whole matter of love for this world. For those things, the right word is revulsion. And that is what the Alter Rebbe says: because the tzaddik hates sitra achra, he is repulsed by the affairs of this world, by physicality and by worldly desires. He hates it. But where do this hatred and revulsion come from? They come from love and delight. That is what he is saying. Because the tzaddik loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the stronger his love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the greater his hatred and revulsion

12:04 will be. That is what the Alter Rebbe is saying now: they stand opposite each other. Hatred and love stand opposite each other. As it is written: “I hate them with an absolute hatred; they have become enemies to me. Search me and know my heart,” and so on. King David says this verse in Tehillim. King David is speaking about those who hate Hashem, about heretics. The Gemara in Tractate Shabbos—and the Alter Rebbe also cites it in chapter 32—speaks there about heretics, about people who deny G-dliness and oppose it. King David says, “I hate them with an absolute hatred.” He hates those who oppose Hashem. And what does he say? “They have become enemies to me.” I hate them, and they are my enemies. “Search me and know my heart.” What do the words “Search me and know my heart” mean? As the Alter Rebbe understands them here, David is saying to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: You know my heart; You know how much I love You. “Search me and know my heart.” You know how deeply my heart is connected to You, how much I love You, and therefore You know how much I hate those who oppose You. This tells us that hatred corresponds to love. So we see here as well—and this is relevant to our avodas Hashem in relation to physicality and G-dliness—that because the complete tzaddik’s love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu is absolute, his hatred is also absolute. Again, this all follows from what we learned in the previous chapter. If you remember what we discussed there, we learned that there are many levels of love. There is love “with all your heart,” then “with all your soul,” and then “with all your might.” There is love on the right and love on the left; there is love like fiery flames and love of delights. There are many levels of love, and we explained that the deeper the love, the more it connects a person with Hakadosh Boruch Hu.

14:07 And the deeper and more inward that connection is, the more anything incompatible with G-dliness becomes unthinkable to him. That is why we discussed the difference between iskafya and ishapcha. When the love is like fiery flames—even though love like fiery flames is a very great love—he has still not become one with that love. He has a thirst, he has strength and longing, but he is still at a certain distance. So it has not yet become a delight for him. G-dliness has not yet become his very reality. With love of delights, by contrast, it becomes his entire reality. That is the nature of delight: it becomes completely united with him. Then anything contrary to it becomes unthinkable to him. And that is what the Alter Rebbe says: the complete tzaddik attains love of delights. His love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu is absolute, and therefore his hatred of sitra achra is also absolute. “According to the greatness of his love for Hashem, so is the greatness of his hatred of sitra achra and his utter revulsion toward evil.” The greater his love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the greater his hatred as well, as we have just explained, “for revulsion is the very opposite of love, just as hatred is.” As we explained, revulsion and hatred are similar. Both are the opposite of love. The difference, as we said, is that hatred is generally directed at a person, while revulsion is directed at things. Here, in spiritual terms, hatred is directed at sitra achra, and revulsion at desires—at things that receive their life from sitra achra. You would not speak of hating food; you would speak of being repulsed by it. He sees something in the food that he simply cannot bear. Why? Because it comes from sitra achra. But

16:03 But the common point is that hatred and revulsion are both the opposite of love. And when a person’s love is absolute, his hatred is also absolute. What does absolute love mean? Love that takes the form of delight. There is a word here in Tanya where the Alter Rebbe says, “Because of the greatness of his love for Hashem and His holiness.” The question is: What does “and His holiness” mean here? “Because of the greatness of his love for Hashem” is clear. He loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and because he loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he hates the sitra achra. But what about “and His holiness”? Does “His holiness” refer to Hakadosh Boruch Hu or to the tzaddik? “Because of the greatness of his love for Hashem and His holiness.” He loves Hashem, and he loves holiness—that is, the holiness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is one way to read it. Or it could mean “because of the greatness of his love for Hashem”—the tzaddik’s love for Hashem—and the tzaddik’s holiness. Does “holiness” refer to the tzaddik or to Hakadosh Boruch Hu? There are two ways to read it. The Rebbe then leans toward one reading, though not definitively. The Rebbe writes that, seemingly, “His holiness” refers to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: the tzaddik’s love for Hashem and his love for Hashem’s holiness, the holiness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Why? Because, seemingly, what relevance does the tzaddik’s holiness have here? What matters here is the tzaddik’s love. His hatred of the sitra achra is connected to his love of G-dliness. What difference does it make that the tzaddik is a holy person? His holiness does not seem relevant here. So the Rebbe leans toward saying that “His holiness” refers to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: he loves holiness. On the other hand, that reading is also a little strained. What does it mean to love holiness? That is an interesting expression too. So the Rebbe also says that even if we say “His holiness” refers to the tzaddik, it does not mean the holiness of

18:18 the tzaddik himself. Rather, it means the holiness of the G-dly soul. As the Alter Rebbe said in the previous chapter—in chapter 9, above, in the first line—there is the holiness of the G-dly soul, which transforms the evil in the animal soul into good. In other words, the G-dly soul, through its holiness, has the ability to transform the evil of the animal soul. So perhaps that is the meaning: “the greatness of his love for Hashem and His holiness.” “His holiness” means the holiness of the tzaddik’s G-dly soul, and that holiness is what transforms the evil of the animal soul. These are two ways to understand what “His holiness” refers to: whether it refers to Hakadosh Boruch Hu or to the tzaddik’s G-dly soul. Just an interesting point about what the word refers to here. The Alter Rebbe continues: “And a tzaddik who is not complete.” Everything until now concerned a complete tzaddik. But how do we define a tzaddik who is not complete? The Alter Rebbe says: “A tzaddik who is not complete is one who does not hate the sitra achra with absolute hatred.” An incomplete tzaddik does not have that absolute hatred, and therefore he also does not feel absolute revulsion toward evil. Because he does not hate it, this also shows itself—the opposite, that his love—sorry. So he does not feel absolute revulsion toward evil. “And whenever the hatred and revulsion are not absolute, there must still remain some trace of love and pleasure in it.” This is a sign that he still has some attraction to it. But what does that mean? The Alter Rebbe does not mean that he literally loves this evil. He means it in a very subtle sense: it is not utterly out of the question for him; it has not become completely repulsive to him. That is why it is described as a subtle trace of love that still remains. “And the soiled garments have not been entirely removed, nor has the evil been truly transformed into good, since

20:18 it still has some hold on the soiled garments. But it is nullified because it is so small, and is of no account; therefore he is called a tzaddik who still has evil in him, but the evil is subordinate and nullified to him.” Since he does not yet love Hakadosh Boruch Hu absolutely, he also does not feel absolute revulsion toward evil. That is why we call him a tzaddik who still has evil in him. There is still some evil there, in an extremely subtle form, even though it has no practical effect whatsoever, as we said. He has no craving and no attraction, but the fact that it is not repulsive to him shows that his love for Hakadosh Boruch Hu has not yet permeated his entire being. It has not completely transformed all the evil within him, turning evil into good. That is why he is called a tzaddik who still has evil in him. What does that mean? There is evil, although it is subordinate and nullified to him. “And therefore his love for Hashem is also not absolute; he is called a tzaddik who is not complete.” So he is also called an incomplete tzaddik. In other words, he has two names. What is the difference between them? Calling him “a tzaddik who still has evil in him” and calling him “an incomplete tzaddik” refers to two different things. He is called a tzaddik who still has evil in him because the evil is subordinate and nullified to him. There is still the tiniest amount of evil, although it is utterly nullified, as we learned at the beginning of the chapter. It is like a drop of dirty water that you cannot detect. You can drink the water without any problem; it has no practical effect whatsoever. But in fact, somewhere, it does exist. That is what it means that he still has evil in him: the evil is subordinate and nullified. On the other hand, why do I call him an incomplete tzaddik? That refers to the good within him, which has not yet

21:55 reached the level of love that takes the form of delight. So that is the general idea the Alter Rebbe explains to us here: the difference between a complete tzaddik and an incomplete tzaddik, between a tzaddik who has only good in him and a tzaddik who still has evil in him. Now, everything we have discussed here is simply a reading of the plain meaning of Tanya. Of course, much greater depth is needed to understand the real basis of the difference. Something seems to be missing here. The way the Alter Rebbe puts it, it can seem as though the difference is quantitative: whether he loves a lot or a little, more or less. The language in Tanya does not make it entirely clear exactly how to define the essential difference between a tzaddik who has only good in him and one who still has evil in him. That requires a lengthy discussion of its own. With Hashem’s help, we will talk about it further on. I just want to say