Transcript
Good morning, Boker Tov, Boker Tov. Welcome back to 10 Minutes of Meaning. Thank you for adjusting the schedule this week because of a conflict on Wednesday. Glad to be able to learn together to start off our week on Monday. I want to thank our generous sponsor of 10 Minutes of Meaning, Tanya, Marilyn Michael Fedak, for all that they do. And everyone's invited to help themselves in the Rabbi Shaya corner. Please have coffee, slushy, pastry, enjoy. We are at the end of Perek Yud of Tanya. We are completing the third section of the tenth Perek. Where the Ba'al HaTanya, the Alter Rebbe, has been defining for us the difference between a Tzaddik Gamur, a Tzaddik V'Tov Lo, and an incomplete Tzaddik, a Tzaddik V'Ra Lo. These two levels of Tzaddik are not the same. Even though externally on the outside they look the same, in both cases they're called a Tzaddik. Why? Because they make the right decisions. They behave in the right way. They don't indulge, they don't give into temptation or distraction. They do the right things, they fulfill Mitzvos, they avoid Aveiros. They're always making the right choice. The difference between them, says the Alter Rebbe, is that the Tzaddik V'Ra Lo is a Tzaddik on the outside, all the actions, but Ra Lo. On the inside, there's still a concept, there's still a notion, there's still the idea, there's still the residue of being distracted. The notion that the material physical world and the components in it can be used to indulge the ego rather than Elokus, the Ra, the Ra Lo, he still has a Ra to him that makes him an incomplete Tzaddik. Even though on the outside he's doing everything right. In contrast, the Tzaddik V'Tov Lo, the complete Tzaddik, the complete Tzaddik is somebody who not only externally does everything right, but internally also can't comprehend. Internally, it's absolutely foreign, it's an anomaly, it's an anathema for the Tzaddik, for the complete Tzaddik. They can't even see how the world can be used in any way other than to give Hashem a Dirah B'Tachtonim, other than to be a vessel, an instrument to be able to receive Hashem in this world, to bridge heaven and earth. And in fact, the Tzaddik V'Tov Lo, the Tzaddik who only sees the good, is repulsed, has an allergic reaction to Ra. אוהבי ה׳ שנאו רע. He sees people using and misusing, like misusing and abusing the physical world and he's turned off. So the Alter Rebbe now ends the tenth Perek with a little bit of an esoteric teaching, which is beyond, not that the rest of Tanya is not beyond me, but this part is particularly beyond me. So I'm certainly not teaching it, I'm trying to learn it out loud and letting you listen in. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai taught that there are two distinguishing components of the Tzaddik V'Tov Lo, the complete Tzaddik. He identifies himself and his son when they come out of the cave, Rabbi Elazar, the two of them are Bnei Aliya. And the two distinguishing characteristics of the Bnei Aliya is they've elevated their Nefesh HaBahamis, their animal soul, to be complete good. The animal appetite, the animal drive, what most indulge negatively, they've been able to transform and train. Not slaughter or eliminate the animal in them, but train and elevate the animal. Take that same appetite, that same drive, that same connection, but instead of it being further down in the physical, taking the physical and lifting it to be spiritual. Number one. And number two, their utter selfless elevated worship of Hashem. That when they fulfill Torah and Mitzvos, there's no component of I feel good. I'm gratified and satisfied and I feel good about myself, I'm doing the right thing. I said goodbye to my son this morning on his way to Yeshiva. I said, Kol HaKavod, I'm so proud of you. Today the whole world takes off and you're going to learn Torah. It's Gishmak, Gevaldig, I'm so proud of you. I always try to give him a little encouragement to go to Yeshiva while the whole world's taking off. You should feel amazing. Because we're not on the level of the complete Tzaddik. The complete Tzaddik is not you should feel amazing. It's Memorial Day, the whole world has off, everyone has barbecues and mattress sales, and you're going to Yeshiva. Wow, you're waking up still early, you're going to Yeshiva. I'm proud, you should be proud, Gevaldig, Gishmak, unbelievable. That's the lower level Tzaddik. Halevai Beinoni, Halevai Beinoni, Halevai Beinoni. But the Alter Rebbe is describing the Tzaddik, not even the Tzaddik V'Ra Lo, the highest level Tzaddik is the one who I don't feel good about, what does it have to do with me? I'm going to Yeshiva to learn Hashem. My Torah, my Mitzvos, my Middos, my everything is Hashem. There's no me in it. There's no that feels good for me. There's no I get anything out of it. That's the high level. So now he ends the tenth Perek with this. ושניהם עולה בקנה אחד, both dynamics of this Ben Aliya, they work in synergy, they work the same way. The core of Yiddishkeit, there's a reciprocal relationship, we're reading from Rabbi Chaim Miller, between humans and Hashem. Humans make the efforts to worship Hashem, and Hashem responds by showering Shefa Bracha and by manifesting His presence. That's right, I said manifesting. Manifesting His presence accordingly. כי על ידי הבירורים שמבררים מנוגה, by means of the process of refinement, through the effort of complete Tzaddikim, refining and transforming the animal soul from Klipas Noga. Remember we learned there are four Klipos. Three are completely categorically bad, indulging... The energy of the feminine waters stimulates the heavenly activity known as supernal unions, and it opens different channels in which Hashem can shower his beracha, lehorid mayin d'chrin, mayin d'chrin, to cause masculine waters to be drawn down. There's this relationship, reciprocal relationship, this give and take, and when we make the effort, when this highest level tzaddikim make the effort to connect and bridge heaven and earth, we create the superhighway. So when you open up the superhighway, when you open up the plumbing system, now Hashem can open up the faucet and there's a channel for which the shefa beracha to run. But we have to first, we have to bottom up, we have to from here on earth towards heaven, we have to open up the pipeline, the tzinoros. And then when we do, our waters, then Hakadosh Baruch Hu can open his tap so that the shefa beracha, his waters are able to, there's a reciprocal relationship. It goes both ways. So these tzaddikim at the highest level, they do a mitzvah in this most lofty way. They've transformed the animal instinct in them and they do mitzvos, the bnei aliyah do mitzvos with no ego, no self-gain whatsoever, and by doing that they create the ultimate superhighway, the ultimate high-speed connection, which enables Hashem to open up the channel back down. שהם ממי החסדים שבכל מצוה ממצות עשה. These energies are the waters of kindness within each of the 248 positive commandments. And so each mitzvah, why does the Alte Rebbe call mitzvah ממי החסדים שבכל מצוה? The waters of kindness in every mitzvah. What part of a mitzvah has a kindness, a chessed? So a mitzvah is considered a chessed on the part of Hashem because through the mitzvah heavenly energy flows into the world. So they're called waters of kindness because Hashem showers literally waters of kindness when He makes it rain. When you go to work and it rains, if you were a farmer who had a field and it rained, our success and our blessing relies on and correlates with rain, water, it's no coincidence. So they're called waters of kindness because water expels the kelipos which ground themselves through judgment and guevurah. שכולן הן בחינת חסדים ומיין דכרין. All the mitzvos are expressions of kindness and masculine waters, דהיינו המשכת אלקות יתברך מלמעלה למטה להתלבש בתחתונים. Oh, to become dressed in the lowly substance of the world. So that's how the Alte Rebbe ends the tenth perek by telling us that indeed the highest level tzaddik and the complete tzaddikim, who are the bnei aliyah, who are identified in those two ways, they train, transform the nefesh habahamis, the animal soul, and they have no self-interest or self-fulfillment, self-gratification in the performance of mitzvos, and therefore they successfully open this channel, feminine water, masculine water, the waters of chessed of Hashem down to earth. Now that brings the question, which is how the tenth perek ends and the eleventh perek will get into, but the Alte Rebbe wonders, why do you have to be a tzaddik gamur in order for a mitzvah to fulfill that purpose? What about the regular beinoni who does a mitzvah? What about even the rasha? A rasha v'tov lo. The rasha v'tov lo's doing a mitzvah, that's how the eleventh perek's going to begin. We've defined the tzaddik v'ra lo, tzaddik v'tov lo, the tzaddik gamur, the complete tzaddik and the incomplete tzaddik, but now we'll get to the corresponding rasha v'ra lo, rasha v'tov lo, the complete rasha, the incomplete rasha. What about when they do a mitzvah? The rasha v'tov lo's still doing a mitzvah. He's a rasha, why is he a rasha, we'll get into next week, but he's still doing a mitzvah. So why isn't his mitzvah also achieving a certain type of a chessed? So I want to end by sharing with you Rabbi Steinsaltz, what Rabbi Steinsaltz in his commentary here on Tanya describes this end, this high-level lofty the flow of the waters of kindness, upper waters, lower waters, masculine waters, feminine waters, what in the waters is going on over here? So I want to read to you and share a little bit from Rabbi Steinsaltz. The two aspects of a mitzvah: the first is elevating the effect, the mitzvah acts upon the lower waters, the profane world of kelipas nogah. The person performing the mitzvah takes a material substance, a part of the lower realm of creation, refines it, wholly or partially, and elevates it to the realm of holiness. In this sense, the act of a mitzvah is an ascending of feminine waters. But this is only one aspect of the mitzvah. Why are we the feminine waters? Because where the mikabel. We're the recipients. Hashem is the mashpia. Hashem is the one who gives. In the world of Kabbalah you have mashpia, mikabel, in the, in the, we have corresponding in this world, masculine and feminine, male and female, but ours is the feminine waters because we are the mikabel. So we though have to create the opening, so to say, for Hashem to with the masculine waters be able to shower the bracha and the way we do that is our attitude towards and the way we fulfill mitzvos. So the essence of mitzvah is a joining, a tzavta, tzivuy. The word tzivuy we mistranslate as command. But a mitzvah, a tzivuy is not a command. Tzavta means a connection, a bridge. Tzavsa Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave 613 not commandments, not the image of a king, a master, a commander saying jump and we say how high, though that's also true of course. But the word tzavsa means a connection, a bridge, a joining of the terrestrial with the supernal, a collaboration of the human and the divine in a single act, the act of the mitzvah. The mitzvah is more than an ascent of the lower, it's a spurt of divinity from above in which the divine immanence is revealed within the physical reality. A mitzvah, listen to Rabbi Steinsaltz, a mitzvah is not only a human deed, it is the revelation of godliness, a flash of divinity in the world. I love that image, a flash of divinity. You know, if it's dark out and there's a flash of lightning, everything around you is lit up, is illuminated for a moment. The lightning strike, a flash of lightning lights up everything around you. We have artificial light today, we don't appreciate it as much, we have street lights, we have lights. But not that long ago, before there were lights, if it were pitch black outside and there was a flash of lightning, everything was lit up for a moment. So the Alter Rebbe is saying that a mitzvah is like a flash of divinity in the world. In this lower world in which Hashem is hidden and cloaked and disguised and we don't have revelation, when we do a mitzvah, a tzavsa, when we create that bridge of heaven and earth, we give revelation, we reveal Hashem in this world, there's a flash of revelation, a flash of divine in this world. The human deed is the body of the mitzvah, the vessel, a physical conductor that attracts and captures the flash of divinity from above. And then he writes, the complete tzadik, this is what the complete tzadik does. So the two interpretations of the phrase ascendent ones, benei aliya, that the complete tzadik elevates material existence and that his concern lies not with self-development but with the divine endeavor, are not contradictory but complementary. The occupation of the tzadik in this world, the process of transformation he generates is the union of the immanent and transcendent aspects of the divine reality. Divine service of one who is not a complete tzadik might in fact be an escape from the material in which a person takes things from the world and runs off with them to fight to closeness with Hashem. But the complete tzadik never runs away from the world. He takes everything in the world and raises it. So the incomplete tzadik achieves holiness by running away from the world, by transcending the world, by escaping the world. The complete tzadik takes the world with him. He doesn't have to run away. He transforms it, he elevates it. And that's how he ends here, these glorious portraits are not to enable us to analyze or evaluate the tzadikim themselves, something beyond our capacity, but to serve as ideals against which we might measure ourselves and attain a true assessment of our own place in the spectrum of human potential. It's pretty depressing. Rabbi Steinsaltz writes that the Alter Rebbe later is going to say that you cannot attain these states with your own efforts. You cannot become a tzadik gamur or incomplete tzadik just of your own efforts. If a person is not born with the unique ability to achieve total mastery, there's no way he can make himself a tzadik. That's pretty depressing. But why are we learning about it? If you can't achieve it without being born with it, why are we learning about it? Because it becomes nevertheless the metric against which we measure ourselves. It's important to know that there is such a category, there is such a category out there, that it does exist, that it does exist. So we'll pick up with the correlating other, the opposite, the rasha vera lo, rasha vetov lo, im yirtzeh Hashem next week. Thank you again for joining on a Monday and have a wonderful day.
