Transcript
Good morning, Boker Tov, welcome back to Ten Minutes of Tanya. Thank you for adjusting to a different day this week. Our ten minute series is generously sponsored by Marilyn and Michael Fiedak. We are very grateful to them for their sponsorship and so much more. And how appropriate that we had to move Tanya this week to be able to learn it today on Gimmel Tammuz. We will also dedicate our learning Lilnishmas Rav Menachem Mendel ben Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, the Rebbe, Zatzal, whose Yahrtzeit we observe today. Someone who transformed the world the way we know it. Whether you are a Lubavitcher strictly speaking or you simply benefit from Chabad houses around the world, but we all are beneficiaries of his leadership and our learning should be Lilnishmas. So we'll finish up the eleventh Perek of Tanya today. The last Perek we defined the difference between a Tzaddik Vera Lo, Tzaddik Vetov Lo, complete Tzaddik, the incomplete Tzaddik, who each on the outside look exactly the same. From the outside they're living the same lives, which are essentially perfect. They don't make mistakes. They don't fall prey, they don't indulge in appetite. They do the right thing, but the difference is their inner world. The entire difference is their inner world. And now we move to the Rasha, Rasha Vera Lo, Rasha Vetov Lo. So we began to go through the Rasha who's an incomplete Rasha. The Rasha who only occasionally, only in a very superficial way, only even in Issur Derabanan, a rabbinic prohibition, but nevertheless indulges the ego over Elokus. And such a person, while they do Tshuva, while they repent, while they repair, while they come back, but nevertheless indulging that ego inside them gives the definition or the title of a Rasha. Even someone who sins only once a year, someone who sins once a minute, they have something in common, which is that there is within them this voice, this appetite, this drive, this instinct, this animal soul that is tempting them and that they want to indulge in, as opposed to the Tzaddik who's either eliminated it or conquered it, but the Rasha has this ego inside. אם שב בתשובה ראויה על פי עצת חכמינו זכרונם לברכה. They can, they can do Tshuva, they can repair, they can repent, בשלוח חלופי כפרה שבשמונה עשרה כמו שנתבאר במקום אחר, which brings us up to the second kind of Rasha and with this we end Perek Yud Alef. יש מי שהרע גובר בו יותר. Up until now we've been discussing the incomplete Rasha who only momentarily, only occasionally, only rarely and only even something that is not intense. But now we turn to the other end of the spectrum. Somebody is a perpetual Rasha, somebody who regularly indulges that ego, that appetite. יש מי שהרע גובר בו יותר ומתלבשים בו כל שלשה לבושים של רע and in contrast to the mild Rasha who only makes a mistake in one area, in one area of thought, speech or deed, this individual מחטיאו בעבירות חמורות יותר ובעתים קרובים יותר. They do something more severe and they cause him to do something more serious and more frequently. They're indulging that appetite, it's part of their core who they are. Ach bintayim mischarat. Now even this person who regularly is indulging that appetite, who regularly is giving into that voice, the person who's caught up in this battle and is losing too often, is giving into ego over Elokus, but nevertheless, nevertheless, they have within them this voice. Ach bintayim mischarat. Between the bouts, between the mistakes, between the impulse, they experience remorse, regret, and Hirhurei Tshuva. And they have thoughts of repentance. Hirhurei Tshuva. Rabbi Soloveitchik's thought was even greater than Tshuva, they precede Tshuva. You can't do Tshuva if you don't first have Hirhurei Tshuva. You won't change unless you believe you can change. You won't repair and repent unless you believe you can repair and repent. מבחינת הטוב שבנפשו שמתגבר קצת בינתים from the good within the soul which gathers a little strength in the period between sins. אלא שאין לו התגברות כל כך לנצח הרע. So this individual perpetually makes mistakes, regularly indulges impulse, but they have a conscience, they have a compass. They regularly want to repair and return, they regularly want to come back to be where they're supposed to be. Ela mai? What happened? It's hard. That appetite, that drive, that voice, that temptation, that desire to indulge, it overwhelms. אלא שאין לו התגברות כל כך לנצח הרע. They don't have that inner strength so much to overcome Lifrosh meichata'o l’gamrei. They're unable to have the Elokus supersede the ego, Lehiyos modeh v’ozeiv, to be one who admits, one who concedes, confesses and then abandons. The Alter Rebbe is invoking a Posuk from Mishlei. Throughout Tanya we've seen he uses Psukim, he weaves in Tanakh, Chazal, doesn't necessarily attribute, but he assumes that the reader, the one learning it. with him is aware and familiar. So here too a posuk from the 28th perek of Mishlei: lios modeh ve'ozeiv to be someone who confesses and abandons. דזה אמרה רבנו זכרונו לברכה רשעים מלאים חרטות. And this is what our rabbi said, he's quoting the Reishis Chochma, that resha'im, wicked people, mele'im charatos. Even somebody who has the title of a rasha who regularly is indulging ego over elokus, who's making mistakes, even that person, even that person, is mele'im charata, is filled with regret. I think the 8:30 is out there. I'm teaching emuna in here. Rabbi. So even the resha'im are mele'im, are mele'im charata, are filled with a sense of, of regret. שהם רוב הרשעים שיש בחינת טוב בנפשם עדיין. This accounts for most resha'im who still harbor some good in their souls. So most resha'im are not resha'im outright. They're not so categorical wicked that they have no good in them. They're rasha, ella mai, there's the animal soul, the animal impulse, the animal instinct, the animal desire, the animal in them that wants them to still, it draws us, it pulls us. It's an appetite, it's hard to overcome, to look at, to say, to eat, to do, to go. Inside, the essence of who we are is the purest part of who we are. חלק אלוה ממעל ממש is us. But there's a klipa, there's a peel, there's something obscuring, there's something covering that light, there's something over it. So resha'im, they're still mele'im charata, they're filled with regret, they're filled with regret. Just parenthetically, we've spoken in the emuna shiur at length, Izhbitza and others understand that very differently. That resha'im mele'im charata. If you're mele'im charata, if you're filled with regret, how are you a rasha? The rasha usually celebrates their mistakes, they don't regret them. So how is somebody who has regret a rasha? So Izhbitza and others understand that a Yid is supposed to go forward and believe in ourselves and start again and give ourselves a fresh start. When you're filled with regret, that's rishus. Why? You're stuck in the past, you knock yourself down, you struggle to get up. When you can't look forward and go forward and move forward, when you're filled with regret, that's the thought of a rasha. Even if you made mistakes. People reach out to me all kinds of questions, I have an anonymous system people ask. It's meant for taharas hamishpacha, they ask all kinds of other things too. There are people who've done some one would call severe or egregious things, things that the Torah even describes having a severe penalty to. And they ask how what do I do? Hashem will never forgive me, Hashem can't love me, I'm caught in the cycle, I can't break out of acting out in these ways, what can I do? And the first thing is a hirhur teshuva, a person has to believe they can change, but a person has to also not become paralyzed and stuck in the past. You can't, you can't become perseverate on what you did wrong in such a way that you can't move forward. So that's how they understand. But the Alter Rebbe is understanding resha'im mele'im charata that even the wicked. So that refers to the severe case of the low-end incomplete rasha who has enough good to still contemplate teshuva, but not enough to actually repent. They're caught in this vicious cycle between the animal soul and the godly soul, the ego and elokus. I'm, I want to be elokus, essentially I'm pure, I'm filled with Torah and mitzvos, but ella mai the ego appetite, that animal soul wants me to look at or say or go or do, it's hard to break that cycle. And I want to repent, but to actually repent is much harder. It's deep inside us. שהם רוב הרשעים שיש בחינת טוב בנפשם עדיין. This accounts for most resha'im who still harbor good in their souls. Ach, but then the Alter Rebbe goes on and he decides, he defines, in extreme cases there's the rasha, there's the kind of wicked person who never even entertains thoughts of repentance because the evil has gained full dominance over him. The person who's not in the cycle between ego and elokus, who's not essentially good and pure, but ella mai they have the animal appetite and and drive. What could they do? This is the person who never feels remorse, who has no thoughts of repentance, who says, yeah, that's who I am, I look at, I say, I do, I go. Yeah, what's the problem? That's who I am, that's what I enjoy, that's my life, that's my lifestyle, that's what I love. Such a person is an extreme case. That animal inside them has gained a full dominance over them. נקרא רשע ורע לו. They're called a rasha. שהרע בנפשו הוא לבדו נשאר בקרבו. The evil in his animal soul is all that remains. כי גבר כל כך על הטוב עד שנסתלק מקרבו. That evil has so overwhelmed the good, it caused the good to depart from inside him. And now the good has no role in his inner life. That doesn't mean a person could purge the godliness in them, the חלק אלוה ממעל ממש. No. That's always in them. The Alter Rebbe quickly jumps in to explain that. ועומד בבחינת מקיף עליו מלמעלה. The good still exists, but it hovers above him and doesn't penetrate into him. Meaning, a Yid, ישראל אף על פי שחטא ישראל הוא. A Yid even if they make a mistake is always a Yid. They're always a Yid. We have to know we're always a Jew and we always have that godly soul inside us. We could always come back and return to it, and it could always penetrate. into us, but somebody who has institutionalized the wickedness, somebody who has embraced the ego over elokut to the extent that they're not caught in a cycle, it's not indulgent moments of weakness, but they've essentially adopted the identity of ego. That's who I am, that's how I live, that's what I am, I don't aspire to anything else. I don't repent, I don't repair, I don't even have visions, I don't even believe, I don't even try. There is nothing else in me. That person, that person, that person is purged. It's, there is always the opportunity to return, but it's enveloping, it's hovering over, it's not inside him. ולכן אמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה על כל בי עשרה שכינתא שריא. And that's what Chazal said, the Gemara in Sanhedrin, over every ten the divine presence rests. Even if they are on the level of a rasha who possesses only bad, because the divine soul's influence is banished, but the presence still hovers and rests above the body. על כל בי עשרה שכינתא שריא. Over every ten the divine presence rests means even this person. Even this person, the extreme case, even the rasha v'ra lo. The rasha and all they have is ra lo, all there is is ego in him. Not only making the choice of rasha but in him is only rasha. Even that person still also has the opportunity to return. To summarize, we saw two types of tzaddikim who on the outside do the same thing, but in their inner world are very different. And two types of reshaim, here on the outer world are doing very different things, the occasional mistake, the occasional indulgence, the occasional animal or ego overcoming, overwhelming the elokut, versus the rasha v'ra lo who's embraced the identity of ego to the extent they've essentially pushed the godliness out of them. It still hovers above them but it's not in them. So the key is the hirhurei teshuva, the ability to repair, to come back and to return. And what we'll pick up with next time, Perek Yud Bet begins about the Beinoni, the halevai beinoni. Halevai we should be on the level of Beinoni. Halevai beinoni. At the beginning when you weren't here we mentioned Gimmel Tammuz. Halevai beinoni. So on Gimmel Tammuz the Rebbe's yartzeit l'ilui nishmaso, halevai beinoni, we should all strive to be a tzaddik v'tov lo, to be a tzaddik gamur, why not, why give up, but halevai beinoni. More realistically, halevai, halevai, the beinoni on the outside does everything right. So what's the difference between the beinoni on the outside does everything right and the tzaddik who is incomplete? That's what we'll pick up with im yirtzeh Hashem next time. Have a wonderful and a meaningful day.
