Transcript
Good morning Boker Tov and welcome back to 10 Minutes of Meaning Sefer Tanya with tremendous gratitude to our dear sponsors Marilyn and Michael Fedak for their generosity sponsoring this shiur and so much more. Please help yourself to a coffee, a slushy, a pastry in Der Shul's corner as we learn Tanya together. We are on Perek Yud, the tenth Perek of Tanya. The Ba’al HaTanya has been dissecting, analyzing a little bit further in more detail the categories that he first outlined at the beginning of the Sefer. The Tzaddik Gamur, the complete Tzaddik, the incomplete Tzaddik, the Beinoni and the Tzaddik VeRa Lo and Tzaddik VeTov Lo and the different categories. And he began Perek Tes by telling us about the Tzaddik who was an incomplete Tzaddik. The Tzaddik being labeled a Tzaddik, complete or incomplete, being labeled a Tzaddik means that the individual is making the correct choices, the right choices. This individual is not drawn to poor behavior, negative behavior, self-destructive behavior towards doing the wrong things. And yet, they’re called a Tzaddik SheEino Gamur, an incomplete Tzaddik, or Tzaddik VeRa Lo. So if they’re a Tzaddik externally on the outside, both the complete Tzaddik and incomplete Tzaddik on the outside look the same. Neither indulges in impulse, neither gives in to a Yetzer Hara, neither makes poor or wrong choices. Both are righteous in the levush, in the malbush, in the garments of the soul, in speech, thought, and action. What makes one a Tzaddik SheEino Gamur? And the Ba’al HaTanya explained because the Tzaddik SheEino Gamur, the incomplete Tzaddik, is the one who still has a little bit residue of Ra in him. Even though he doesn’t indulge, he doesn’t give in to it, he doesn’t behave or make the wrong choices with it, nevertheless it still exists within him. He’s not entirely repulsed, he’s not entirely offended, he doesn’t hate the bad, he even tolerates it, he understands it, he sees it, he recognizes it. And therefore he’s a Tzaddik SheEino Gamur. U’ve’ur Ha’inyan, we’re up to the U’ve’ur Ha’inyan. כי הנה צדיק גמור שנהפך הרע שלו לטוב, when it comes to a complete Tzaddik whose evil has been transformed to good, לכן נקרא צדיק וטוב לו. Tzaddik VeTov Lo, he’s called a Tzaddik who has it good. על ידי הסרת הבגדים הצואים לגמרי מהרע. This individual sits down to eat and there’s nothing neutral about eating. There’s nothing in food that tempts him or her to do the wrong thing, have the wrong thoughts, eat with the wrong mindset. Everything about the experience is connected to Elokus. There is no ego, not only in their external action, but even in the food itself they don’t even see or contemplate or understand how possibly a person could eat out of ego. Eating is all about Elokus, it’s about fueling and energizing ourselves to better serve Him. דהיינו למאוס מאד בתענוגי עולם הזה. He’s deeply repulsed by the pleasures of this world. להתענג בתענוגות בני אדם למלאות תאוות הגוף בלבד ולא לעבודת השם. The notion of enjoying mortal pleasures purely to gratify the body and not in the worship of God, מהיותם נמשכים ונשפעים מהקליפה וסטרא אחרא. He finds the notion repulsive. In other words, the Tzaddik SheEino Gamur, the incomplete Tzaddik, is sitting and having lunch with a friend. He, he only sees in the food Elokus. He sees Godliness, he sees Chiyus, he sees Kirvas Elokim, he sees a connection and closeness to God. There’s no ego in eating. It’s not about his taste buds or his desires, it’s not about his satisfaction or his yearnings. It’s all about: how can I fuel, how can I energize, how can I eat, how can I live, how can I eat to live, not live to eat? The person he’s sitting across from is fressing, stuffing his food, stuffing his face, loves the food. The eating experience is all about ego. It’s disconnected from Hashem. Maybe they made a Bracha before and a Bracha after, maybe the food is kosher, but it is not a religious experience they’re eating. The Tzaddik Gamur is repulsed, is disturbed, is offended, hates the idea that somebody could misuse food to serve ego instead of Elokus. The Tzaddik SheEino Gamur says: Look, I’m not driven, I have no impulse, I have no desire, my eating is all right, okay, but I’m not bothered the other one’s eating the way that they’re eating. The difference between the Tzaddik Gamur and Eino Gamur, Tzaddik VeTov Lo and Tzaddik VeRa Lo, says the Alter Rebbe, the Ba’al HaTanya is, or it’s measured by, are we repulsed, are we disturbed, are we offended even by the notion, by the possibility, by the existence of people misusing this world? Of the Sitra Achra, of the Kelipah, of even Kelipas Nogah. Rabbi Chaim Miller writes the hallmark of a complete transformation of the animal soul is to be utterly repulsed by evil or even the notion of self-gratification. To love Hashem even with the animal soul. If we’ve transformed the act of eating, the drive to eat, into Elokus not ego, then we’re repulsed by someone who hasn’t, by someone who doesn’t see it, by someone who doesn’t get it, by someone who doesn’t get it. That’s the measure. measure of the tzaddik gomur versus the eino gomur. אוהבי השם שנאו רע. If you love Hashem you have an intolerance for ra. And ra doesn't just mean evil people, ra doesn't just mean the bully, ra doesn't just mean the person with no integrity, ra doesn't just mean the person who perpetrates evil, ra means the person who misuses this world, the person who's living for ego instead of Elokus, person who indulges the klipa and sitra achra. That's also a form of ra. This world is filled with invitation and possibility for Elokus, not only in the spiritual, godly, not only sitting in shul and learning Tanya, but it means even in when going to sleep, even when eating our meals, even when going to business, even when going to the gym, each of those acts and activities are also filled with Elokus possibilities. מלא כל הארץ קנינך. We can make a kinyan on Hashem everywhere we go. So the tzaddik gomur sees the person who's lowered themselves, they're not violating issur. They're not technically doing anything wrong. The food's kosher, the gym is kosher, they're eating the right amount, they made a bracha before and a bracha after. Technically everything externally is kosher, but internally the attitude towards it is ra. They've lowered themselves, they've indulged in the most base and animal part of that thing of ego. And that should offend, it repulses, it drives away the tzaddik who's a tzaddik gomur. Now if it's hard to imagine such a person living at that level, not only in the mindfulness they bring themselves, but how they experience the entire world around them, know that we'll get to, such a thing is incredibly incredibly unlikely, rare across all Jewish generations, to get and rise to that level. Don't forget it's called the Sefer Habenonim. It's not even called the ספר הצדיקים שאינם גמורים. It's a Sefer Habenonim, Sefer Habenonim. I was curious, hashgacha, I was curious, and I didn't get a chance to ask someone I respect, I want to know, I'm not asking now because I don't want to have the conversation here. Do Chabad consider the Rebbe, was the Rebbe a tzaddik gomur, eino gomur, beinoi? I don't know. Do we have an opinion? Where would the Alter Rebbe, where the Alter Rebbe fit in? Maybe it's not for us to have opinions of others, what their opinions were of themselves, what category we fit in, but if this seems so aspirational and out of reach, know that the Alter Rebbe himself identifies that this level of the tzaddik gomur who's repulsed and disturbed and offended by the people who misuse and abuse this world, the ra in it, not only ra again as evil action, but even ra meaning the wrong mindset, ego not Elokus, that is a very, very high level, very high level. Now this is all predicated on what we saw the Alter Rebbe in the last chapter tell us, in previous chapters, that, and this was a big chiddush of his, that even though according to other philosophers, ideologies, other machshava, there is a category called neutral or pareve. There's mitzvah, that which is religiously virtuous, and there's aveira, that which drives us away from Hashem. And then we have a whole world called reshus, neutral. Eating, sleeping, watching the Yankees on a tear in baseball, that's neutral, it's pareve. It's not right, it's not wrong, it's not a mitzvah, it's not an aveira, it's just neutral, it's just neutral. Came the Alter Rebbe and he says there is no category of neutral. There is no pareve. Everything is either ego or Elokus. Everything is either raising you up, it's a high level, it's contact with the divine, or it's indulging something base within ourselves. Even that which appears neutral, it can be laced, filled in our mindfulness, in our intention, we can elevate the experience or we indulge it and it lowers us, and it lowers us. Take that mashal, you know, a person can enjoy a game or a few innings of a game, not the whole game, because it's recreation, the root of the word recreation is to recreate ourselves. Person needs a break, person is connecting with somebody else, okay, so then it's raising you up, maybe there's something righteous even in it. A person who's obsessed, has to watch every inning, every single game, can't miss, doesn't learn, does neglect other things because of it, and it's lowering you. There's different ways you could bring, there's no neutral activity. And that's the tzaddik she-eino gomur is not repulsed sufficiently by the ra, by the people or the intention or even the world that is klipa. וכל מה מהסטרא אחרא הצדיק גמור שונאה בתכלית השנאה. The complete tzaddik utterly detests anything that is from the world of sitra achra, from the world of ego, מחמת גודל אהבתו להשם וקדושתו. Because the tzaddik gomur has a profound love for Hashem and his holiness, באהבה רבה ותענוגים חיבה יתירה הנזכר לעיל. With an exceptional love that's great and pleasurable. So the tzaddik gomur, again, this incredibly high level may be almost unattainable, lives... lives at such a high level, the complete Tzaddik utterly detests anything from the Sitra Achra. כי הם זה לעומת זה because quoting a posuk in Koheles, Hashem has made one opposite the other. You're either on the right side or the wrong side. You're either for good or you're for evil. You either understand you get it or you don't get it. Tzaddik Gomor understands that the world is divided, it's binary into those two. There is no middle ground. כדכתיב תכלית שנאה שנאתים לאויבים היו לי חקרני אל ודע לבבי. The posuk says in Tehillim, I utterly detest them, they have become my enemies. Dovid Hamelech asks Hashem to probe his heart. Do I utterly detest enemies of Hashem? Love of Hashem and contempt for that which opposes Hashem are inversely related. If you're not sufficiently repulsed, if you don't detest that which is opposite Hashem, you have to ask yourself how much you love Hashem. Unfortunately, we're in a world that has an assault on Hashem. It's competing with Hashem. The arrogance and the ego and a world which is trying to erase Hashem, eliminate Hashem, not to credit Hashem, to try to redefine His definitions and His principles and His institutions and His formulas. So when we see that, when we read that, when we hear that, we have to be careful, it's not necessarily that we hate the people, but we hate those values. And if you don't hate it sufficiently, it doesn't make you open-minded and progressive and loving and open-minded, you have to check and question the love of Hashem. Now again, how that expresses itself is a separate question. A person has to be incredibly careful how that expresses itself. Who are they? Where, how, when, why they express that. But in our heart, when we read some of these ideas and these values and we see the corruption, the moral corruption in the world we're living in, if you love Hashem, you should be repulsed by it. You should detest it. And if you don't detest it and you're not repulsed by it and you say to each his own and let everyone think the way they want and okay, you know, whatever, then you have to check yourself and ask do you sufficiently love Hashem? Because they're inversely related. That's how we measure. כפי ערך גודל האהבה לה׳, again, I want to say, you have to be incredibly careful how, if, when, why you ever express that or manifest it is a very sensitive subject. Nobody should be emboldened by what I just said to now go out and act on it. But it means internally in our heart, the way we process, the way we experience so many of the things that we see or hear that are so incompatible with Hashem's formula and prescription for this world, they are the gut check to ask ourselves about our love of Hashem. כפי ערך גודל האהבה לה׳ כך ערך גודל השנאה לסטרא אחרא והמיאוס ברע בתכלית. This is the rule the Alter Rebbe says. Directly proportional to the level magnitude of your love of Hashem will be the intensity of the detest for the Sitra Achra and our sense of complete repulsion from evil. Now the Alter Rebbe here uses two separate words, detest and repulsion. Sina and Mius. Sina and Mius. Detest and repulsion. What's the difference between the two? Detesting is the rejection of the abstract force of Kelipa and Sitra Achra. Repulsion refers to the rejection of the tangible allure of physical pleasures. One is the ideas, values, and the other is the allure of the physical pleasures themselves. כי המיאוס הוא הפך האהבה ממש כמו השנאה. If a person's achieved the complete transformation, if you've trained the animal so there's no ego in the animal, the animal is trained to only elevate Elokus, then there's a repulsion for the base part of the animal. That's the opposite of the love of Hashem. That is the incomplete Tzaddik. Incomplete Tzaddik is not sufficiently repulsed. צדיק שאינו גמור הוא שאינו שונא הסטרא אחרא בתכלית השנאה ולכן אינו מואס גם כן ברע בתכלית וכל שאין השנאה והמיאוס בתכלית על כרחך נשאר איזה שמץ אהבה ותענוג שם. So if you don't hate it, there's only two choices: either you hate it and you're repulsed by it or a little bit you're still drawn to it. You may have conquered it. Again, he's a Tzaddik. Why is he a Tzaddik? Because he's conquered it. This is a pretty harsh judgment. This Tzaddik has conquered it. Tzaddik never indulges it. Tzaddik never acts out on it. And yet, he's Aino Gomor. Why is he Aino Gomor? Because he can still identify a little, he still sees a little bit, he still is not so repulsed by it, it means he's still a shtikel drawn. ולא הוסרו הבגדים הצואים לגמרי מכל וכל. He's not taken off the soiled garments entirely. ולכן לא נתהפך לטוב ממש מאחר שיש לו איזה אחיזה עדיין בבגדים הצואים. Since he's still holding on a little bit to it, you can't call him a Tzaddik Gomor. He's a Tzaddik. He deserves to be called a Tzaddik. Give him Maftir Yona, he's a Tzaddik. But because there's still the residue, a little bit, a shemetz, a shtikel. So why then is the incomplete tzaddik not drawn at all to the physical indulgence? The Alter Rebbe says because he has the capacity to negate it שוב בטיל במיעוטו וכלא חשיב וכלא חשיב. He's able to devoid, he can overcome, a bitul. ולכן נקרא צדיק ורע kafuf ubatel lo. Tzaddik vera lo. Here the Alter Rebbe came up with an entirely new tatch, definition. The classic definition of tzaddik vera lo is why is somebody righteous and yet bad things happen? Bad things happen to good people. Tzaddik vera lo. Or in the beginning of the sefer, tzaddik vera lo meant he's a tzaddik, vera lo, he still has a little bit of ra. But now the Alter Rebbe is tatching, tzaddik ורע כפוף ובטל לו. The ra, even though he still sees a little bit of bad, lo, he's conquered it. He's a tzaddik, why? Because ra, the ra that he still sees, identifies, connects a little bit with, but it's lo. He's conquered it, he's mastered it. He's a tzaddik because the ra is lo. He's found the ability for bitul. על כן גם אהבת להשם אינה בתכלית לכן נקרא צדיק שאינו גמור. But since there is ra, even though it's lo, he's a tzaddik who's eino gamur, who's eino gamur. And then the Alter Rebbe will finish with this, says מדרגות מתחלקות לרבבות מדרגות בענין בחינת מיעוט הרע הנשאר. This status of the incomplete tzaddik is subdivided, it's tens of thousands of levels depending on the precise nature, quantitatively and qualitatively, of the minuscule evil that remains. Different tzaddikim, different tzaddikim can have different expressions or manifestations, a residue of different levels of ra that can be subdivided into tens of thousands מהאחד מארבע יסודות הרעים עניין ביטולו במיעוטו בשישים על דרך משל באלף ורבבה כיוצא על דרך משל. And if you want to complete the parable, just like the world of bitul in halacha, some things are nullified one in sixty, some things, some things takes one in a thousand. So depending on the ra, lo, how the tzaddik needs to be mevatel the ra, so it's lo, so he conquers it, will be different for different ones והם מבחינת צדיקים הרבים שבכל הדורות. The various levels of incomplete tzaddik are found throughout the different duration, generation k'disa b'Gemara בתמני סר אלפי צדיקי קיימי קמי הקדוש ברוך הוא. As Gemara says in Sukkah, eighteen thousand tzaddikim stand before Hashem. What do you mean? If a tzaddik is a tzaddik, what do you have so many categories? The answer is different tzaddikim have a different ra lo, subdivided into all these categories and manifestations, therefore there are so many. So with that we conclude the tzaddik she'eino gamur and im yirtzeh Hashem next week, baruch Hashem I have a couple weddings in New York, so I'm not here, maybe we'll still do it online, maybe not. We'll find out. But whenever we learn next, we'll go from the tzaddik she'eino gamur to the tzaddik gamur, that highest level and take it from there. Have a wonderful day, besuros tovos, yeshuos v'nechamos.
