In the previous section we worked out the definition of the beinoni, the "intermediate" person: the evil in him is never clothed in action and never in speech. Now let us look closely at the Alter Rebbe's precise wording with regard to thought, and then at the inner strength that allows the beinoni to hold his ground.
The precision of the phrase "actual thought":
The language of the Tanya here is remarkably exact. Clothed in action? No. Clothed in speech? No. But when it comes to thought, the Alter Rebbe adds a single word: "מחשבה ממש", actual thought. That one added word calls for explanation, and the entire distinction is hidden inside it.
Ordinary thought - the thoughts that race through a person's mind nonstop, thoughts he never chose to have, and at times even forbidden thoughts that rise up in him. These do not contradict the level of a beinoni at all.
"Actual thought" - thought that carries will, intent, attention and a plan. This is the thought that has no place in a beinoni.
The Alter Rebbe himself spells this out in the very next lines: "להעמיק מחשבתו בתענוגי עולם הזה", "to immerse his thought in the pleasures of this world", that is, how to satisfy the cravings of his heart. In other words, "actual thought" means sitting down, delving into the matter and planning how the thing will actually be carried out.
Such thinking has no place whatsoever in a beinoni, because it has already crossed over into the territory of the rasha, the wicked person, and to that the beinoni will not consent under any circumstances.
"The mind rules over the heart":
How does the beinoni manage to govern himself and not fall? There are several reasons, and the Alter Rebbe treats them at length. The first of them, and the central one, from which many offshoots and branches emerge, is this: "כי המוח שליט על הלב בתולדתו וטבע יצירתו", "for the mind rules over the heart by birth and by the nature of its creation." The Holy One, blessed be He, created the human being in such a way that the mind can always rule the heart, if only he wants it to. The heart may rage with its desires, but the controls are placed in the hands of the mind.
In a beinoni, the mind is working. As we have learned, the mind is the dwelling place of the nefesh ha'elokis, the divine soul, and from there it instructs the heart not to run wild after its cravings. This is the secret of the beinoni, contained in a single sentence: the mind rules over the heart.
The story of Reb Moshe Meisels:
During the war between Napoleon and Russia, the great leaders of Israel were divided over the question of what would be better for the Jewish people, a French victory or a Russian one. The Alter Rebbe held that it was preferable for the Russians to win. A French victory would bring a permissiveness and openness into the world that could cause a great many spiritual downfalls among the Jewish people, while a Russian victory, even though the world would not march so quickly toward that openness, would preserve the yiras Shomayim, the fear of Heaven, of the Jews. And so indeed it turned out.
One of his great chassidim, Reb Moshe Meisels, was a brilliant man, fluent in many languages. He decided to translate his Rebbe's position into action, and he infiltrated the ranks of the French army in order to pass information and secrets to the Russians. Thanks to his cleverness he rose from rank to rank until he reached the very rooms where the secrets of the war were being handled, and he passed the information along by every hidden route, until the French suffered one defeat after another. Napoleon knew that a spy was moving among them, but he could not manage to discover who it was.
One day, at one of the closed sessions, Napoleon's suspicion fell on Reb Moshe Meisels, who was sitting there. To test him he decided to catch him off guard: he would shout at him in front of everyone, "You are the spy!", and immediately place his hand on his heart. If the pulse raced, that was the sign that the man had been caught. He said it and he did it. And astonishingly, the pulse remained completely regular, as though nothing at all had happened. Napoleon said: apparently this is not the man, and they moved on.
When Reb Moshe returned to the chassidim and told them the story, they asked him: "How did you reach such a level that you were not the least bit shaken? It is human nature to be shaken!" He answered them: in chapter twelve of Tanya the Alter Rebbe writes that the mind rules over the heart by birth and by the nature of its creation. That is the nature. All my life I trained myself so that the mind rules the heart: the mind instructs the heart to be indifferent and cool, and even at the moment when it should have been flooded with agitation, the mind held absolute mastery over the heart.
A testimony from our own generation:
I heard something similar from a chassid who heard it from one of the doctors who treated the Rebbe after the heart attack on Shemini Atzeres of 5738. In those days the Rebbe's condition was grave and critical, and the doctors said that only moments remained and it was doubtful whether he would survive the night. In the end, through great miracles, the situation returned to normal. That doctor, who had some familiarity with the concepts of chassidus, said that he had seen with his own eyes what "the mind rules over the heart" means: even though the physical heart had stopped functioning, the mind ruled over the heart and brought it back to function.
This power is not the exclusive property of tzaddikim. In the Tanya the Alter Rebbe grants it to every single person, for this is how man was created, in the image and the likeness, and everyone can reach it. This is the aspiration of the beinoni, and in it lies the possibility that every person can be a beinoni.
To summarize: in this section we examined the precision of the Alter Rebbe's language, "actual thought", meaning thought that contains will, attention and planning as to how to satisfy the cravings of the heart, which has no place in a beinoni at all. We learned that the central reason the beinoni does not fall is that "the mind rules over the heart by birth and by the nature of its creation", and we saw this in two stories: Reb Moshe Meisels, whose pulse did not stir even at the moment of danger, and the doctor who saw tangibly how the mind brings the heart back to function. This power is given to every person.
In the next section we will expand, with God's help, on the remaining reasons why the beinoni does not fall, and we will delve further into the principle of the mind's rule over the heart.