Transcript
Good morning boker tov welcome back to 10 minutes of Tanya as always we're very grateful to our generous sponsors Michael and Meryl Fedak please help yourself from Shaya at the corner to coffee slushies pastries this morning. Our learning is also dedicated refuah sheleimah חנה מרים בת אסתר פייגא one of our members undergoing a very serious surgery this morning mirtzeh Hashem she should have a speedy and complete refuah sheleimah reminder we're off next week so there is no shiur next week but im yirtzeh Hashem we resume the week after. This morning we're beginning the 12th perek perek yud beis of the Heilege Sefer Tanya we were introduced to the beinoni at the very beginning of Tanya and then we developed in the meantime many of the ideas of our outer world and our inner world. We went through and defined the two types of tzaddikim the complete tzaddik the incomplete tzaddik the tzaddik v'tov lo the tzaddik v'ra lo and then spent less time but also developed the idea of the rasha v'ra lo the rasha v'tov lo and we know there are five categories all together. Importantly the Tanya taught us these five categories are not labels for life it's not a label that you get at some point you're given this award this tag and this is who you are in perpetuity you're not a tzaddik v'tov lo or tzaddik v'ra lo chalilah rasha v'tov lo or rasha v'ra lo in every moment. In every circumstance throughout our lives in every chapter in every stage in every day depending on both the outer world and the Tanya's defined the outer world as the three levushim the three garments of the soul the three garments of the soul are thought speech and action. And I'll keep reiterating two of those garments we've always understood as garments as external speech and action are external what I say I put out into the world how I act is a reflection of my free will I put out into the world but before learning Tanya if you would have asked me thought machshavah is that a levush is that a garment of the soul is that part of the outer experience or the inner one I would have said the world of thought is part of my inner world. But a big chiddush of the Alter Rebbe is that thought too is part of the outer world thought is levush of the soul it's a garment of the soul it doesn't reflect the inner world the inner world the world that's pnimiyus is really what Tanya's all about because we've defined the two types of tzaddikim and we'll get to now with perek yud beis the beinoni himself. The two types of tzaddikim and the beinoni themselves externally on the outside indiscernible you can't see a difference between them they all do all the right things daven with kavanah mikvah brachas give tzedakah honest in business never get angry outside externally all the right things the differences between the tzaddik v'tov lo tzaddik v'ra lo and a beinoni are all about the inner world not the world of thought but the inner world. What are the differences in the inner world they're very nuanced they're very slight the difference between the two types of tzaddikim is that the tzaddik v'tov lo is repulsed by ra. The tzaddik who only sees the world as an invitation and opportunity for elokus without any room for ego sees food sleep desire temptation drive for the wrong things and is repulsed by it the tzaddik v'tov lo's repulsed the tzaddik v'ra lo is not sufficiently repulsed by it. They're not drawn to it they're not attracted to it they don't struggle with it but its mere existence in this world and on this planet alongside them does not sufficiently repulse them and that's enough to be a tzaddik who's doing the right things on the outside and even the inside but v'ra lo there's ra there's ra lo they tolerate ra they're not repulsed by that ra. Now we come to the beinoni perek yud beis beinoni and now we've clarified the tzaddikim and the resha'im the two types of resha'im too by the way rasha v'tov lo rasha v'ra lo and a rasha's a very very for the Alter Rebbe for the Baal HaTanya. One is a rasha if they violate one din d'rabbanan person who's scrupulous and vigilant in all din d'oraissa all biblical law careful observant one din d'rabbanan rasha such a person is a rasha because externally they've made the wrong choice but internally they let the animal soul defeat the godly spirit. The war the battle what the Alter Rebbe described as over territory two kings who's going to win חלק אלוה ממעל ממש the godly disciplined regulating soul in us or the nefesh bahamis the animal soul that drive that temptation that indulgence the rasha even through one moment of lapse allowed the animal to win therefore they're a rasha. So back to the beinoni the beinoni like the tzaddik never ever made a mistake externally that's why the sefer habeinonim halevai beinoni the sefer habeinonim but Tanya's known as sefer habeinonim it began by telling us that Rabbah the great Rabbah who was a tzaddik. identified himself as a beinoni. And that's how Tanya began. A beinoni can't mean somebody who 51 percent of the time they do the right thing, 49 percent the wrong time. The Rambam's beinoni, you got the scales, more right, more wrong, the beinoni, it's almost even, what's your next move going to be, how you going to tip the scale. But Rabba wasn't a person who half the time was doing things wrong. How could he describe himself as a beinoni? That's what led the Alter Rebbe to a different definition of beinoni. שלעולם אין הרע גובר כל כך לכבוש את עיר קטנה להתלבש בגוף להחטיאו. The beinoni's a person whose evil never gains enough momentum to conquer the small city to influence his body. What small city? What are we talking about? The Alter Rebbe gave a mashal a few perakim ago that Ukraine and Russia, two countries fighting over territory. Who will be the king? Who will be the ruler? Whose laws will it be bound by? Who's going to be in charge? So we have this body, our body, there's a battle raging. It's a territory, it's a little city, ir ktana. Who's going to be the ruler? Who's going to be the king? Who's going to be in charge? To whom will we conform? Will it be the godly soul or the animal soul? So the beinoni's a person that hara, the evil, never goveir kol kach. It never allowed lichbosh, it never conquered. Ela mai, why are they a beinoni? ששלושה לבושי נפש הבהמית שהם מחשבה דיבור ומעשה שמצד הקליפה. The three garments of the animal soul, which are thought, speech, and action of klipa, אין גוברין על נפש האלוקית. They never overcome the divine soul within him. This beinoni, the divine soul, that pure light is radiating and shining bright. There's no klipa. There is no garment from speech, thought, and action covering, obscuring, להתלבש בגוף במוח בפה ובשאר רמ\"ח איברים להחטיאם ולטמאם חס ושלום. So as to become dressed in his body, brain, and mouth, and the other parts of the anatomy, which total 248, להחטיאם ולטמאם חס ושלום. So the beinoni's not a person who the animal drive, the animal impulse, is winning, is defeating, is causing him to make mistakes in speech, thought, and action, chas veshalom. רק שלושה לבושי נפש האלוקית הם לבדם מתלבשים בגוף. Only the three garments of the divine soul are influencing the body. In other words, both the animal soul and divine soul each have these three garments, speech, thought, and action. Of the animal soul, the three garments are klipa. They obscure the light and they can misdirect us and we can pursue those things in a way that brings us down. And those three garments of the godly soul are the way that we interact with the world, speech, thought, and action, in a way that lifts us up, transforms them, in a way that helps us fulfill the taryag mitzvos. ולא עבר עבירה מימיו. This beinoni never violated aveira miyamav. How do you teitch this? What does it mean that the beinoni never did an aveira in his lifetime, ever? Never once? Ever? Since his bar mitzvah, since he's 20, since he's born, since whenever? So the Rebbe's understanding of Tanya, he clarified, ולא עבר עבירה מימיו, once a person reaches the level of beinoni, it's as if you never did aveira in your life. Because remember we said, that's why we introduced it, that these descriptions and labels, the five, tzadik vetov lo, tzadik vera lo, beinoni, rasha vetov lo, rasha vera lo, are not lifetime appointments. They're not labels or descriptions, they're not categories that we are in for life. But every moment we can redefine who we are. Every moment through how we're living, both the external world and the whole Tanya's about the internal world, the conversation with ourselves, our internal world, the inner work we're doing, we can redefine ourselves regularly and constantly. So the person who reaches the level of beinoni, who says, again, what's the beinoni? Externally doesn't do anything wrong. Everything just like the tzadik on the outside. Can't tell a difference. Externally, on the outside, on the surface, early to minyan, doesn't talk, has kavana, kind, patient, good, giving, learns. Externally everything just like the tzadik. Only the tzadik in their inner work has done the inner work that the tzadik vetov lo is so pure, not tempted, not struggling, not battling, not fighting. And even the existence of ra, of ego, he's repulsed by. The tzadik vera lo, not battling, not struggling, does the right thing. Vera lo means not sufficiently repulsed by evil in the world. And then we get to the beinoni. The beinoni ולא עבר עבירה מימיו. The beinoni's in such a place right now that they don't do anything wrong. They make no poor choices on the outside, ke'ilu, as if they've wiped away any mistake of the past, as if they ולא עבר עבירה מימיו. Velo yaavor le'olam. And this beinoni's in such a good place, so on fire, that they They're never going to do an Aveira. In the three Levushim, in the three garments of the soul, in speech, thought, and action, in the external of the world, they're not going to do an Aveira. ולא נקרא עליו שם רשע אפילו שעה אחת ורגע אחת כל ימיו. And for one moment, for one second of his life, he'll never involve himself in activity that would cause him to be categorized as a Rasha. He'll never. He'll never slip up and forget to make a Bracha. He'll never gossip and say Lashon Hara. He'll never give into Ka'as and get angry. He'll never. He'll never talk during Davening. He'll never. He'll never do even one thing that would make him a Rasha. Never, not even one thing. So if this Beinoni on the outside is indistinguishable from a Tzadik, what's the difference? How is the Beinoni different than the Tzadik? So we learned in Perek Gimmel and in Perek Ches that the soul functions at two levels: power and garments, the inner world and the outer world. The inner world is this inner layer of consciousness and the Alter Rebbe defined the inner world has intellectual component and an emotional component. Which one is higher and holier? The Alter Rebbe, I'll give you a hint, the movement he founded is called Chochma Bina and Da'as. Which one is higher: the inner world, the intellectual or the emotional, what we'll call operating system? Like a computer, we have an operating system, an intellectual operating system and an emotional operating system that shape the way that we experience the world, reality, the way we react. What shapes and dictates and determines the programs that we run? Our operating system. We have an intellectual operating system and an emotional operating system. Which one's higher, holier? The intellectual. The garments of thought, speech, and action are the interface between the operating system and the world. Now, the Beinoni, as far as the garments are concerned, as far as the outer world, is like a Tzadik. Both do the right thing on the outside. So what's the difference between them? מהות ועצמות נפש האלקית שהן עשר בחינותיה לא להן לבדן המלוכה והממשלה בעיר קטנה. In the case of a Beinoni, the divine soul's deep core, which is its ten powers of intellect and emotion, are not the only forces attempting to direct and dominate the small city. For the Tzadik, the operating system has no viruses at all. It's pure, it's running perfectly, it is designed and coded to perfection, it's precise, it's efficient, and there's no viruses. The Beinoni, even though, even though the interface and the programs it's running are working well, but the operating system has a virus. What's the virus of the Beinoni in the operating system? The animal soul. The Tzadik does everything right on the outside and doesn't even struggle on the inside. The Beinoni does everything right on the outside, ooh, there is a battle and a war happening on the inside. There is a war going on on the inside. The divine soul, חלק אלוקי ממעל ממש, we learned in Anatomy, who's in the right side of the heart, wants its feelings for Hashem to overflow into the left side, the animal part, and the animal is telling the godly side, 'No, indulge my temptation, my drive, my desire, what I want.' In the Beinoni, this conflict is remaining. In other words, take the Kollel Boker this morning, 6:15 AM in the beautiful Beis Medrash, not nearly as beautiful as the one we're going to move into in Iy'h soon. So there are people, Kollel Boker starts 6:15. Two people walk in the room at 6:14. They were there, they were there early. One, the Tzadik, didn't even set an alarm. This program to wake up, wake up early. As soon as they wake up, they jump out of bed, Modeh Ani, Negel Vasser. They're here, they're here early. The Beinoni was also here, not only on time, was here early. But the Beinoni had 17 snooze buttons, 14 alarm clocks, battled whether to get out of bed or my Chavrusa, I don't even know if they're here, they come late, I could come a little late today. In the end, they're both there, they're both there on time, they're both there early. One didn't need an alarm, didn't hesitate, wasn't tempted, never even understood the notion that there are people who need to snooze. You wake up, you're meant to go somewhere, you jump out of bed. Tzadik. The Beinoni, ooh, by the time they got here, they just fought a battle. By the time they got here, they're exhausted just from the battle that they won to get here on time. So they appear identical, their inner world is incredibly different. The Tzadik is in a state of inner peace. The whole being is singly devoted to Hashem. The animal impulse, animal soul, animal way of looking at the world, it's silenced, it's retrained to serve the godly soul. The service of Hashem is innate, it's natural, there's nothing to the contrary, there's no conflict, there's no tension. The Beinoni... The Beinoni, the inner world of the Beinoni is another place altogether: turmoil, conflict, tension. The heart is being tugged in multiple directions. The service of Hashem is competing with indulging the animal. So that's the first... that's how the Alter Rebbe sets up the Beinoni. Looks entirely on the outside just like the Tzadik. Why am I spending so much time? First of all, because we're learning Tanya, it spends the time. But I'll leave off I keep focusing every week on this. What's striking me, I don't teach Tanya, I learn Tanya aloud with you Wednesday mornings. What's striking me in learning Tanya together is how important the inner world is. The yesod, the theme, the thesis of Tanya. It's like almost a given the outer world. Yeah, the two types of Tzadikim, the Beinoni, yeah they're all doing the right thing on the outside. Yeah, of course. That's a given. You gotta do the right thing in the world of bechira, in the world of choice, bepoel, in the world of action, that's a given you gotta do the right thing. But now let's talk about your inner world. Let's talk about your inner work. Let's talk about what's happening in the place that no one sees, no one has access to, no one knows. What's going on in the different chambers of your heart? What's going on in the battle between the two souls? What's happening? What's happening in that place called the inner world? Because it too matters. It too counts. It too is real. And it too is what defines you. We'll pick up, again we're off next week, Im yirtzeh Hashem in two weeks, we'll pick up with the second section of Perek Yud-Beis. בשורות טובות ישועות ונחמות.
