Transcript
Good morning and Boker Tov. Welcome back to 10 Minutes of Meaning. Tanya with tremendous thanks as always to our series sponsors Marilyn and Michael Fidack. We thank them for sponsoring Tanya. Please help yourself to slushies, coffee, pastries, and Reb Shaya'la's Corner and this morning we are beginning the tenth Perek of Tanya. We spent a lot of time in the introduction telling about the five different types of Tzadikim. We have types of righteous people, types of less than righteous people, and then we have the world of Benonim. Indeed, another name for Sefer Habenonim is the Sefer Habenonim. And Halevai Benoni. In order to orient ourselves, our ambition of course is to be a Tzadik and to be the highest level Tzadik, Tzadik Gomor, Tzadik that only Tov Lo as we will talk about momentarily. But on the other hand, the Benoni is so lofty that Halevai Benoni. Halevai we should get to the level of a Benoni. And then we talked about in the Tanya. We defined first the animal soul, then the godly soul. We talked about the battle and the war between the two. We talked about where they are found in the different ventricles in the heart and beginning launching from the head or from the heart. And we spoke about the ego versus Elokut, that essentially the animal soul, the Klipa represents ego, where we engage and benefit and you have impulse and desire from this world, all nurturing and nourishing, all feeding our sense of ego. And on the other hand, we can and should live for a sense of Elokut. We are a piece of Hashem, not figuratively, not metaphorically, but Mamash, quite literally. We are each a unique and distinct expression and manifestation of Hashem in this world. If you want to find Hashem, all you have to do is look in the mirror. Sometimes people search all over. They look for evidence and proof everywhere around them. They wait and they want Hashem to talk to them, but all you have to do is hear your inner voice. All you have to do is look in the mirror. All you have to do is search and you will find Hashem in you. And that the real life is one in which we are living Elokut over ego. We are not living for our sense of independent self, but rather we recognize ourselves an extension of Him. So now we took that tour through the psyche of the animal soul and the godly soul. Now that we talked about that battle and war, now that we understand the territory of the body that they are fighting over, who will reign supreme, who will be in control, who will rule, whose edicts and orders will we follow? So now we get to a little bit more defining what it means to be a Tzadik. So with this we begin Perek Yud. Hinei כשאדם מגביר נפשו האלוקית ונלחם כל כך עם הבהמות עד שמגרש ומבער הרע שבו מחלל השמאלי K'mo she'kasuv U'viarta hara mi'kirbecha. Now interestingly, the Alter Rebbe is borrowing a Pasuk. Why do I say he's borrowing a Pasuk? Because the Pasuk in Devarim is referring to U'viarta hara mi'kirbecha is talking about a particular individual. When you have a nefarious individual, when you have an individual who essentially, and I don't use this word lightly, is a cancer on the people. Their choice, their behavior, their conduct is a negative impact on others. U'viarta hara mi'kirbecha. Sometimes a person has to be eliminated in order to make a statement about what a community tolerates and what a community is not willing to tolerate. So the Pasuk is talking about a particular individual. But the Alter Rebbe here is borrowing that Pasuk, not about an individual but talking about that person, the Ra within us. U'viarta hara mi'kirbecha. Not eliminate the individual from among you, the community or the people, but U'viarta hara mi'kirbecha. Eliminate the Ra. Demonstrate or manifest in the three garments of the soul, namely speech, thought, and action. So when we indulge the animal soul in speech, thought, and action, we say the wrong things, do the wrong things, sing the wrong things. U'viarta hara, we should get rid of that. Get rid of that. How do you get rid of that? So again, this is what we talked about until now, the first nine Perakim. When you sit down to breakfast this morning, Mistama you haven't eaten yet, because you just Daven and לא תאכלו על הדם certainly you didn't eat before davening. So you're going to go sit down for breakfast. When you sit down for breakfast, you could sit down for breakfast in one of two ways. You could eat because you have an appetite and you're craving and the breakfast looks delicious, and you indulge and you're excited and you want to eat and fress like an animal, stuff your face like a pig. You're going to eat, indulging the animal soul, it's delicious. Or you could sit down and look at the food and you can say, I need energy for this day. I have a chavrusa, I'm going to work to earn a parnassah to give tzedakah. I'm going to make a kiddush Hashem everywhere I go. I want to be marbeh kavod Shamayim, I need energy to fulfill mitzvos, I want to be the best type of husband or wife or mother or father. I want to be an eved Hashem, but I can't do all of that if I'm hangry, I can't do all of that if I'm malnourished, I can't do any of that if I don't have the energy. So Hashem, I'm going to eat this delicious breakfast. And once I'm eating it for that right and righteous reason, there's nothing wrong with it also being delicious. You don't have to eat bread and water. Once you're eating for the right reasons, Elokus instead of ego, let it be delicious. Enjoy, no problem. But I'm going to eat, not because I'm living to eat, but I'm eating to live and I'm going to make a bracha before and after, make sure it's kosher. I'm not going to eat beyond what I need to be full. And I'm going to eat in a way that's healthy and I'm eating in order to be energized to serve you. It's an altogether different way to eat. Lehavdil, like an athlete, like a prospective Olympian eats. When somebody's training, when somebody wants to make the cut, when someone wants to win the gold, they don't fress. They don't sit down to breakfast, lunch and dinner and all the snacks in between and just eat whatever comes their way, any hour, any amount, any place, any ingredients. A person who's training says, I need to be maximum, maximum efficiency. I need maximum performance. So to get maximum performance, there's a very strict diet. The marathon runner has to carb up, whereas the, I'm going to, I don't even know what I'm talking about here, the person who performs or competes in the pool, the weightlifter needs a certain amount of protein. Again, I'm going to pretend I know what I'm talking about here. But the diet is commensurate with the level of performance you want to achieve. They don't sit down and just fress. They sit down with mindful consciousness, with strategy, with determination, and with a formula of what they're going to eat. So we too can sit down every time we eat, not to obsess over it, not to become an unhealthy attitude towards it. But are you eating out of ego or Elokus? That's the great example of the Nefesh HaBehamis versus the Nefesh Elokis, the חלק אלוה ממעל ממש. Are you eating out of ego? Hungry, I fress, it's delicious, I can't stop, I feel so full, I hate myself, I'm going to throw up. It's, or do you eat out of Elokus? I need energy, I want to perform, I want to perform at the highest level for Hashem. Elokus, I'm his emissary, I'm his agent, I'm his ambassador. I have a mission, I have a purpose, there's a reason I'm here. And in order to do that, I have to be at the highest level. Now the Olympian who's training, when they craft their diet for maximum performance, they also want it to be delicious. They don't just eat bland, tasteless food. We too can enjoy it being delicious. The question though is why we eat and how we eat and what we eat. So that's what we're trying to do. So who's the tzadik? So far, the beginning of Perek Yud. The tzadik is the one who sits down and he's מגרש ומבער הרע מחלל השמאלי. He sits down and he divorces that voice who says, just eat anything anywhere anytime, you're hungry, fress, stuff your face. There is no voice like that. He's gotten rid of it, he's divorced it, he's purged it. U-viarta hara mikirbecha, when he sits down to eat, all he sees in front of him is, or she sees in front of her is, the ingredients to nourish the soul for maximum performance. They're eating entirely out of Elokus. ואין הרע נהפך לטוב ממש. Now, when we talk about this individual, they've achieved an impressive degree of self-mastery. When they sit down to eat, it's only out of Elokus, not out of ego. So they never overeat or eat the wrong thing at the wrong time, place, or wrong time because they're only eating for maximum performance. They're on a strict diet, lehavdil like the Olympian. So they're נקרא צדיק שאינו גמור וצדיק ורע לו. However, the person still notices the food is delicious. I'm training for the Olympics, that's why I can't have a donut, but I notice donuts and I like donuts and I want donuts and I remember the taste of donuts and I'm aware of emphasis something called a donut. So such an individual who's experienced self-mastery, they're training for maximum performance and they never indulge in eating the wrong thing in the wrong quantity. But, but, they're still aware of the wrong thing. But, the wrong thing is still maybe a part of their calculation. They're called such an individual is a tzadik she-eino gomur. An incomplete tzadik. They... It means to say, *Steinzaltz* points this out in his commentary, that means to say that the *Tzadik Gamur* and the *Tzadik* that's not *Gamur* externally on the outside they appear they look exactly the same. Two individuals, two prospective spiritual Olympians are sitting down having breakfast. Both are keeping exactly to what they should eat. Both are eating the right amount, the right thing, in the right time, both are eating with the right attitude to be maximum performance for *Hashem*. On the outside they look exactly the same. Only one on the inside there is no *ra*. There is no voice, there is no temptation, there is no impulse, there is no concept of eating for the wrong reason or the wrong thing. And the other, there's still that voice. There's still that awareness. There's still that temptation. In their performance level, on the outside externally they look exactly the same. Internally there's a *Tzadik Gamur* and a *Tzadik* who's not *Gamur*. There's a *Tzadik Vera Lo*. There's *ra* still in him. And a *Tzadik Vetov Lo*. The *Tzadik Vetov Lo* we saw this all the way in the beginning of *Tanya*. The *Tzadik Vetov Lo* only sees food that can nourish him. Only sees maximum performance. Only sees what's going to give him *chiyus* and energy to serve *Hashem*. That's all there is, there's nothing in the equation. He has no awareness, no concept, no tension, no struggle. The *Tzadik Vera Lo*, the *Tzadik* who still there's *ra*, there's still yeah I'm aware, I see, I know, I want, I'm not tempted, I have self-mastery, I've overcome maximum performance. But there's still that difference. *Dehaynu*, and now the *Tanya*, שיש בו עדיין מעט מזער רע בחלל השמאלי. There still remains in the heart's left chamber of the incomplete *Tzadik* a minuscule, negligible amount of *ra*. There's still that notices the donut. Or that notices I could eat beyond when I'm full. Notices I could eat out of ego, not *Elokus*. אלא שכפו ובטל לטוב מחמת מיעוטו. But since, since I've been training as an Olympian for so many years and I already now have conditioned myself that I have self-mastery. I don't eat the wrong thing ever, I don't eat the wrong amount ever, I don't eat the wrong time ever. Tremendous self-mastery. But *Vera Lo* or *eino gamur* means but there's still a *shtickel*, a little, a little residue, a little awareness, a little struggle, a little memory, a little nostalgia, there's still a little *ra lo*. ולפי כך נדמה לו ויגרשהו וילך לו. And that's why he imagines he's driven it away, borrowing a *pasuk* from *Tehillim*, *kulo legamrei*. The *Tzadik* who's not *gamur* has such self-mastery that he mistakenly thinks that he's driven away all the *ra*. אבל באמת אלו חלף והלך לגמרי כל הרע שבו היה נהפך לטוב. But says the *Alter Rebbe*, the *Tzadik* who's not *gamur*, the incomplete *Tzadik*, or the *Tzadik Vera Lo*, had he really purged, conquered, trained, however you want to view it, that animal soul in him, then not only would he not, not only would he not indulge the *ra*, not only would he reach the level of self-mastery, he would have transformed the *ra* *letov*. He would have taken that appetite for the wrong thing and entirely transformed it into an appetite only for the right thing. So that the *Tzadik* who's *gamur*, the *Tzadik Vetov Lo*, doesn't see the wrong food, the wrong time, the wrong amount. All they see is the same appetite to eat something that's not good for them is their appetite to train more, to work out more. Their appetite has been now channeled into, I got to win the gold. Again, we're not talking about Olympians, we're not trying to aspire, we're not aspiring to be Olympians. I'm using that as a *mashal* for spiritually. It means whatever appetite that my animal soul used to give me to eat the wrong thing, the wrong place, the wrong amount, the wrong time, it's not that I have self-mastery but the appetite is still there, it's that I've taken that appetite and I now express and manifest and channel that appetite, another *daf Gemara*, another act of *chesed*, another putting *tefillin* on a Jew, another good thing that I can do to connect to *Hashem*. The *Tzadik Gamur*, the *Tzadik Vetov Lo*, has transformed, היה נהפך לטוב ממש, *Tanya* says, literally. Not figuratively, literally. The animal soul's part of us, and you can't get rid of it. It is there. You can influence what it desires by directing your mind to either spiritual or physical pleasures, but you can't stop it from desiring. So here the *Alter Rebbe's* defining animal soul as that which is desirous in us. We're alive. To be alive is to have desires, to have an appetite, to have a drive. The question is, what's it for? Money, things, pleasures? Or can we take that appetite, that drive, and channel it towards *kirvas Elokim*, closeness to *Hashem* and goodness? and charity and generosity and Torah and Mitzvos. So the incomplete tzaddik, I'm reading now from Chaim Miller, the conscious desire for physical pleasure has departed and he appears to have completely transformed the animal soul for the good but the departure of these desires is deceptive because in reality his animal soul's not been transformed to the good, if that were the case we would find a greater passion towards positive things and a more powerful rejection of the negative. There's still the residual indifference to evil. So the tzaddik who's not gamur, the incomplete tzaddik, has an indifference to the evil. And here's how the Alter Rebbe continues, maybe we'll stop here and we'll pick up with this next week, Biur HaInyan. He explores the idea and he says, this what we'll pick up next week, I'll just give you a shtikel preview. He says, if you're a tzaddik gamur, it's not just that you don't indulge the evil, you are repulsed, you are disturbed, you're bothered and you hate the evil. You know there's the tzaddik gamur who says, I sit and I eat my food. And I have a self-mastery that I only eat the right thing, the right amount, the right time, the right place because I want to be high performance, I'm going for the gold. Everyone else what they're eating, it's not my business, I don't mind, I don't care, I don't look, I don't know, go and indulge. The tzaddik who's a tzaddik gamur says, I'm disturbed, I'm repulsed, I'm bothered that there's such a thing as those foods, that amounts, those times that people eat them, I hate the ra. It's not just that I don't indulge it, I'm repulsed, I'm disturbed, I hate, I want to eliminate that ra. צדיק גמור נהפך הרע לטוב לכן נקרא צדיק וטוב לו הוא על ידי הסרת הבגדים הצואים לגמרי מהרע says the Alter Rebbe. You know if you really love Hashem, אוהבי ה' שנאו רע. If you really love Hashem then you hate all that's ra. How do you define ra? Evil. You know sometimes you have this where somebody claims they love you but they're indifferent to the people who are against you. If you really love me then you'll be bothered, you'll be disturbed, you'll be repulsed by the people who are against me. If you really love Hashem then you are repulsed, you're bothered, you're disturbed and you're dedicated to fight that which is the antithesis of Hashem. If you're indifferent to that which is the antithesis of Hashem, you don't do it, you have a self-mastery, you're loyal to Hashem, but you're indifferent to that which is the antithesis of Hashem then you're a tzaddik but eino gamur, that's an incomplete tzaddik. So on the outside both have a self-mastery. On the outside both are right and righteous, both are doing the right thing. But it's on the inside, is there a residual effect, is there a temptation, is there still some ego left or has it all the ego been transformed to Elokus. And the way you know that is how you react to ra. If you're bothered, disturbed, repulsed and dedicated to fight it, then you're a tzaddik gamur. If you're indifferent, I do my thing, I've trained myself, I have self-mastery, I'm good and you're indifferent to the ra around, it's tzaddik, self-mastery, but it's eino gamur, it's not complete. And with that we'll pick up im yirtzeh Hashem next week.
