They Look the Same... But They’re NOT | Ten Minutes of Meaning | Tanya #45

Good morning and welcome back to 10 minutes of meaning Tanya with tremendous thanks as always to our series sponsors Marilyn and Michael Fedak. We thank them for sponsoring Tanya. Please help yourself to slushies, coffee, pastries, and a shiyala corner. And this morning we're beginning the 10th 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 beinonim. Indeed, another name for safer Tanya is the safer of beinonim. And all of I beinoni. In order to orient ourselves, our ambition of course is to be a tzadik and to be the highest level of tzadik, a tzadik gomur, a tzadik that only tov lo as we'll talk about momentarily. But on the other hand, the beinoni is so lofty that halavai beinoni. Halavai we should get to level of a beinoni. And then we talked about in the Tanya. We defined first the animal soul and the godly soul. We talked about the battle and the war between the two. We talked about where they're found in the different ventricles in the heart and the beginning launching from the head or from the heart. And we spoke about the ego versus Elokus. That essentially the animal soul, the klipa, represents ego where we engage in benefit and we 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 Elokus. 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'll find Hashem in you. And that the real life is one in which we are living Elokus over ego. We're not living for our sense of independent self, but rather we recognize ourselves an extension of him. So, now that 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're 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, k'sha'adam magbir nafsho Elokus v'nilcham kokach im habahamas, when a person strengthens the influence, the dominance of the divine soul, and is willing v'nilcham, we wage war kokach im habahamas with the animal soul atzhume garish umivair hara shebo michalal usmali, to the extent that we manage to expel and eliminate this evil from the left chamber of the heart. That's what we talked about in last perek, left chamber, right chamber, where the different souls can find themselves, whether literally anatomically or as Shteinzaltz elaborated, not only anatomically but what it means metaphorically. But if a person is able to manage, we have that impulse. It says, "Look at or watch or say or go or do that wrong thing." That thing that comes from a place of ego. That thing that comes from a place of desire and temptation. And a person is not is not giving in to that animal impulse or compulsivity, but a person is reigning supreme discipline. The the godly soul is ruling over. So, such a person is called a tzadik. K'mo shekosev, viarta rami 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 viarta rami 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. Uviarta rami kirbecha, sometimes a person has to be eliminated in order to make a statement about what a community tolerates or 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. Uviarta rami kirbecha, not eliminate the individual from among you, the community or the people, but uviarta rami kirbecha, eliminate the ra. Eliminate that ra. Demonstrate or or 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, think the wrong things. Uviarta ra, 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 prakim. When you sit down to breakfast this morning, mistama you haven't eaten yet cuz you just davened. And though socha l'adam, certainly you didn't eat before davening. So, you're going to go sit down for breakfast. When you sit down for breakfast, you can 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 chavruta. I'm going to work to earn a parnassa, to give tzedaka. I'm going to make a kiddush Hashem everywhere I go. I want to be marbeh kavod shamayim. I need energy to fulfill mitzvot. 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 hungry. 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. I'm going to 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. L'havdil, 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 of 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 uh I'm going to I don't even know what I'm talking about here. Uh the person who uh who uh performs or or competes in the pool, the weightlifter needs a certain amount of 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 habahamis versus the nefesh versus the nefesh Elokus, the chelek Eloka mima'al mamash. 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, beginning of perek yud, the tzadik is the one who sits down and is migarish umivair hara michalal usmali. He sits down and he divorces that voice who says, "Just eat anything, anywhere, anytime. You're hungry, fress, stuff your face." There's no voice like that. He's gotten rid of it. He's divorced it. He's purged it. Uviarta rami kirbecha, 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. Ve'ein hara nefach l'tov mamash. 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. >> [clears throat] >> So, they never overeat or eat the wrong thing in the wrong place, the wrong time cuz they're only eating for maximum performance. They're on a strict diet l'havdil like the Olympian. So, they're nikra tzadik she'eino gomur v'tzadik v'ra lo. 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 epes zeh sh'amdi called the donut. So, such an individual who has experienced a 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 tzaddik. That means to say, as we're starting this process points this out in his commentary, that means to say that a tzaddik gamur and a tzaddik that's not gamur, externally on the outside, they appear they look exactly the same. Two individuals, two perspective 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, and 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's no temptation, there's no impulse, there's 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 In their performance level, on the outside, externally, they look exactly the same. Internally, there's a tzaddik gamur and a tzaddik that's not gamur. There's a tzaddik virah lo, there's rah still in him. And a tzaddik vetov lo. The tzaddik vetov lo, we saw this all the way in the beginning of Tanya. The tzaddik vetov lo only sees food that can nourish him. Only sees maximum performance. Only sees what's going to give him koach and energy to serve Hashem. That's all there is. There's nothing in the equation. Has no awareness, no concept, no tension, no struggle. The tzaddik virah lo, the tzaddik who still there's rah, there's still, yeah, I'm aware, I see, I know, I I'm not tempted, I have self-mastery. I've overcome. Maximum performance. But there's still that difference. The high new. And now the Tanya. She is a dime ma'at mizera bechala shmali. There still remains in the heart's left chamber of the incomplete tzaddik a minuscule, negligible amount of rah. There's still that notices the donut. Or the notices I could eat beyond when I'm full. Notices I could eat out of ego, not Elokus. Elasha kaf uvato machmas biyuto. 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 need the wrong thing ever. I don't need the wrong amount ever. I don't need the wrong time ever. Tremendous self-mastery. But virah lo or ainogamar 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 rah lo. V'lachein nidma lo v'yigaresh v'yelech lo. And that's why he imagines he's driven it away. It's borrowing a possuk from Tehillim. Kulah l'gamrei. The tzaddik who's not gamur has such self-mastery that he mistakenly thinks that he's driven away all the rah of a b'emes ilu chalav a chalav l'gamrei kol harasha bo hay nehpach l'tov. But says the Alter Rebbe, the tzaddik who's not gamur, the incomplete tzaddik, or the tzaddik virah 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 rah, not only would he reach the level of self-mastery, he would have transformed the rah l'tov. 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 tzaddik who's gamur, the tzaddik who's tov 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. Is the appetite has been now channeled into I got to win the gold game. I got 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 moshel 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 a 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 dafka mara, another act of chessed, another putting t'fillin on the Jew, another good thing that I can do to connect to Hashem. The tzaddik gamur, the tzaddik vetov lo, has transformed Hay nehpach l'tov mamesh. 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 is defining animal soul as that which is desirous in us. We're alive. To be alive is to have desires. Is to have an appetite. Is to have a drive. Question is what's it for? Money? Things? Pleasures? Or can we take that appetite, that drive, and channel [snorts] it towards kirvas Elokim, closeness to Hashem, and goodness, and charity, and generosity, and Torah, and mitzvos. [clears throat] So the incomplete tzaddik, I'm reading now from Rabbi 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. Cuz in reality his animal soul's not been transformed to the good. If that were the case, he 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 ha'inyan. He explores the idea and he says, this is where we'll pick up next year. I'll just give you a shtickel 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 cuz 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. They go and do 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, those amounts, those times, there people who eat them. I hate the rah. It's not just that I don't indulge it, I'm repulsed, I'm disturbed, I hate. I want to eliminate that rah. Tzaddik gamur nehpach rah l'tov, l'chein nikra tzaddik vetov lo, hu ideah soras habegadim atzumah gamrei me'rah. Says the Alter Rebbe. You know, if you really love Hashem, ohav Hashem, sinu rah. If you really love Hashem, then you hate all that's rah. How do you define rah? 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 ainogamar. 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 all the ego been transformed to Elokus? And the way you know that is how you react to rah. 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 rah around, it's a tzaddik, self-mastery, but it's ainogamar. It's not complete. And with that we'll pick up b'ezras Hashem next week.