In the previous section we saw that a person's essential makeup is fixed in advance, at the moment he is created. Let us complete the picture with one more point: even a person's intellectual capacity, whether he will be clever or simple, is set in advance and is not handed over to his choice. But this must be stressed: it has nothing to do with keeping Torah and mitzvos. It concerns only his grasp of worldly matters.
In fact, the opposite is often true. It is precisely people of limited intellectual sophistication who keep the mitzvos with simplicity and wholeheartedness, and the yetzer hara cannot confuse them with clever arguments. All sorts of sophisticated reasoning leave them unimpressed, and their answer is simply: this is how I was raised and this is what I know. So the absence of cleverness can actually bring a person closer to Torah and mitzvos. We all know many simple Jews who do not understand anything beyond the plain and who live their lives in simplicity, and this has no bearing at all on Torah and mitzvos.
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So far we have learned that the level of tzaddik is not given to everyone, and someone who was not created for it cannot become a tzaddik. Yet every soul, as it descends into the world, is made to swear: "תהי צדיק ואל תהי רשע" ("be a tzaddik and do not be a rasha"). This raises two questions:
Tzaddikim are few. Even if we include those on the level of "tzaddik v'ra lo" (a tzaddik in whom a trace of evil remains), where the figure of eighteen thousand was cited, set against fourteen million Jews this is no proportion at all. We are speaking of thousands, not millions. And if virtually everyone has no share in this level, why is every soul made to swear "be a tzaddik"? How can you demand of a person something that simply does not pertain to him?
There is the principle "בכלל מאתיים מנה" (two hundred already includes one hundred): someone who has two hundred does not need to be given a hundred as well, since the two hundred already contain it. So if a person is sworn "be a tzaddik," that certainly includes not being a rasha. Why, then, the double language, stating both sides: "be a tzaddik" and also "do not be a rasha"?
It is worth adding a further precision in the word "משביעים" ("they make him swear"). A shevuah (oath) shares a root with sova, satiation. So too the Midrash says of the month of Tishrei that it is called the seventh because it is sated with festivals: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkos, and since the months are counted from Nissan it comes out seventh. "Shevi'i," "shevuah" and "sova" are all one idea: when the soul is made to swear "be a tzaddik," it is thereby also given the capacity to do so. And the difficulty sharpens: how can such a capacity be given to someone for whom this level is entirely out of reach?
Here the Alter Rebbe introduces something remarkable: even a person who cannot become a tzaddik is obligated to train himself, over the course of his life, in the feelings of a tzaddik. They are not genuine feelings, and he does not actually become a tzaddik, but this is what is asked of him:
In the mode of "do good": love of the mitzvos belongs to tzaddikim, and the beinoni has no such love. Nevertheless he is required to train himself so that with every mitzvah and every festival he receives it with joy. That is "be a tzaddik."
In the mode of "turn from evil": to train himself to see a particular craving as disgraceful and repulsive, evil and out of the question, and to work this into his mind until, when the craving stands before his eyes, he immediately feels in his heart that the thing is loathsome and that he is incapable of it.
And if he has not managed to reach "be a tzaddik," that is, he has not succeeded in cultivating in himself any feeling of love for the mitzvos or any revulsion from transgressions, then at the very least "do not be a rasha": let him not stumble in thought, in speech or in deed. With this, both questions are answered. And at the end of the chapter the Alter Rebbe will add that if a person persists in this work, it is possible (though not guaranteed) that the Holy One will include him among those who were not originally created to be tzaddikim, and yet the strength of a tzaddik will be clothed in them, and he will merit a higher level.
The Alter Rebbe's words in the chapter: "ובזה יובן כפל לשון השבועה תהי צדיק ואל תהי רשע, דלכאורה תמוה, כי מאחר שמשביעים אותו תהי צדיק, למה צריכים להשביעו עוד שלא יהיה רשע?" ("With this the double language of the oath, 'be a tzaddik and do not be a rasha,' can be understood, for it seems puzzling: since he is sworn to be a tzaddik, why is it necessary to swear him further not to be a rasha?"). On the face of it the second half is superfluous: if he is sworn to be a tzaddik he certainly will not be a rasha, and the first half of the oath would have sufficed. Folded into this question is also the question the Alter Rebbe does not state openly: how can a person be asked to be a tzaddik at all, when not everyone was created for it?
"אלא משום שאין כל אדם זוכה להיות צדיק, ואין לאדם משפט הבחירה בזה כל כך להתענג על ה' באמת ושיהא הרע מאוס ממש באמת" ("Rather, it is because not every person merits to be a tzaddik, and a person does not have so much freedom of choice in this, to truly delight in G-d and for evil to be genuinely repulsive to him"). Not everyone merits the level of tzaddik: some are created with the potential for it, and the overwhelming majority are not. And in this a person has no free choice. He cannot decide that from now on he will attain a genuine delight in G-dliness, for he is not on a level where he senses G-dliness at all, so how could he have real pleasure in it? Nor is it in his power to choose that evil should be truly repulsive to him, while he stands inside a world that is almost entirely evil.
"ולכן משביעים שנית אל תהי רשע על כל פנים" ("and therefore he is sworn a second time: at least do not be a rasha"), for in this part of the oath, "שבזה משפט הבחירה והרשות נתונה לכל אדם" ("in this, freedom of choice and permission is given to every person"). As was explained at the beginning of the chapter, every person can, at any time and at any hour, hold himself back, "למשול ברוח תאוותו שבלבו ולכבוש את יצרו, שלא יהא רשע אפילו שעה אחת כל ימיו" ("to rule over the spirit of desire in his heart and to conquer his yetzer, so that he not be a rasha for even a single hour in all his days"). No one can claim "I was incapable." Everyone can rule over his craving even when it burns like fire, and say: I understand that this cuts me off from the Holy One, and I do not want to be cut off from Him.
"בין בבחינת סור מרע" ("whether in the mode of turning from evil"): even if his desire pulls him toward things that are evil, he is able to withstand it.
"בין בבחינת ועשה טוב" ("whether in the mode of doing good"): even if his desire tells him not to fulfill a positive mitzvah, he can overcome his laziness, get up and act. A person has to get up in the morning and say Shema in its proper time, and he is exhausted and has no strength to rise, but the time has come, and he can overcome it, get up and recite it. And he cannot say "I could not": the fact is that if something he badly wanted were being brought to him, he would have gotten up two hours earlier and waited for it.
"ואין טוב אלא תורה" ("and there is no good other than Torah"): learning Torah without interruption is extremely demanding, so much so that bittul Torah is among the things of which our Sages said "no person escapes them every single day." Yet even here a person can overcome at any moment, "דהיינו תלמוד תורה שכנגד כולן" ("namely the study of Torah, which is equal to all of them").
"אך אף על פי כן צריך לקבוע לו עתים גם כן לשית עצות בנפשו להיות מואס ברע" ("but nevertheless he must also set aside times for himself to devise strategies in his soul to come to loathe evil"). Even though the level of tzaddik is not handed over to his choice, a person is obligated to set fixed times for himself and to search out approaches and strategies within his soul so as to loathe evil, and to contemplate the ideas that lead there. Think of a food a person loves: let him tour the factory once and see how it is produced, and he will never touch it again. The advertisements show him only the attractive packaging and the glossy side; they do not show him the other side. Once he sees how the product is made, it becomes repulsive in his eyes. So too someone who works as a mashgiach in a plant and sees what goes into things: sometimes he stops eating them altogether.
"כעצת חכמינו ז"ל" ("as our Sages advised"). Here the Alter Rebbe brings two categories of desire in which a person can prevail with the help of specific strategies.
The first concerns the desire for women. When the yetzer craves and gains strength, let him reflect on what our Sages said, "כגון בעצת חכמינו ז"ל אשה חמת מלאה צואה כו'" ("such as the counsel of our Sages, that a woman is a skin filled with refuse, etc."). "Chemes" means a skin bottle or sack. Let a person consider what it is he is actually craving: were he to see the inside of the body and all its secretions, he could not bear even to be near them.
On this theme the Gemara brings a story, and from it we see that it was precisely a woman who drove the point home, and a non-Jewish one at that. The Caesar said to Rabban Gamliel, "אלוקיכם גנב הוא" ("your G-d is a thief"), for it is written "ויפל ה' אלוקים תרדמה על האדם" ("and G-d cast a deep sleep upon Adam") and He took one of his ribs: He put the man to sleep, took part of him and formed the woman from it. His daughter said to him, "שבקיה, אנא מהדרנא ליה" ("leave him be, I will answer him"). First she replied that one would be glad for a thief who takes a silver vessel and returns gold in its place. The Caesar said to her, "אלא לישקליה בהדיא" ("then let Him take it openly"): if He wanted to give something good, why take it in secret? He should have told Adam that He wished to give him something good, and taken from him in the open.
She said to him, "אייתי לי אומצא דבישרא" ("bring me a piece of raw meat"). She brought a piece of raw meat, which is thoroughly unpleasant to look at, roasted it lightly on the fire on all sides, and served it to the Caesar to eat. The Caesar said he could not eat it, since he had seen what it looked like beforehand and it disgusted him. She said to him: just so, had Adam seen where the woman was formed from, she would have been repulsive to him and he would not have wanted to look at her, and therefore it was done in a way that he would not see. From here we learn that a person must reflect that what stands before him is nothing other than a "skin filled with refuse."
Indeed it is explained that had the Holy One left this desire to a person's true nature as it is in itself, he would not have craved it at all but would have loathed it, and marriage would never have come about in the world. It is only because "הוא ציווה ויעמוד" ("He commanded and it came into being"): the Holy One implanted this will and this desire in the human heart so that the world should endure, in the matter of a wife and children. Except that a person may misuse this will for things that are not good. Therefore, when it comes to something that is not good, he must bring into his mind the true information about what is standing before him.
"וכהאי גוונא" ("and the like"): other lines of thought as well, through which a person can develop revulsion for the thing. And the same applies to all kinds of delicacies and treats. They look magnificent, five layers of cream, and let a person contemplate what becomes of them: in five minutes they will turn into a "skin filled with refuse," and this is what he is craving? Someone with a power of vivid imagination sees the end result immediately and cannot eat, because he is not eating the tasty thing itself but what it is about to become. "וכן כל תענוגי עולם הזה, החכם רואה הנולד מהן, שסופן לרקוב ולהיות רמה ואשפה" ("and so with all the pleasures of this world: the wise man sees what is born of them, that in the end they rot and become worms and refuse"). This is how a person trains himself as though he were a tzaddik who loathes evil. He does not truly loathe it, but from so much contemplation it becomes easier for him to stand up to the craving.
These are examples in the mode of "turn from evil," and there is a parallel in the mode of "do good": let a person contemplate matters of holiness, how pleasant and how good they are. When a festival or Shabbos arrives, let him gladden himself so that he will love the Shabbos and love the tefillin, and let him awaken in his heart a feeling of love for it, "וההפך להתענג ולשמוח בה' על ידי התבוננות בגדולת אין סוף ברוך הוא כפי יכולתו" ("and the reverse, to delight and rejoice in G-d through contemplating the greatness of the Infinite One, blessed be He, according to his capacity"). And when a person does this according to his capacity, he is fulfilling the oath "be a tzaddik." This is what is asked of each and every one of us: to reach at least this level.
In summary: in this section we took up the two questions raised by the double language of the oath, "be a tzaddik and do not be a rasha": how can every person be sworn to a level that does not pertain to him, and why is the doubling needed at all, given the principle "two hundred already includes one hundred." The Alter Rebbe explained that a person has no freedom of choice to truly delight in G-d and for evil to be genuinely repulsive to him, and therefore he is sworn a second time, "at least do not be a rasha," which is something in which choice and permission are given to every person: in turning from evil, in doing good, and in the study of Torah. Even so, a person is required to set fixed times for himself and to devise strategies in his soul, following the counsel of our Sages, to loathe evil and to delight and rejoice in G-d according to his capacity, and with this he fulfills "be a tzaddik."
In the next section we will continue with the Alter Rebbe's words in the remainder of the chapter and at its conclusion, and with the explanation of how a person who was not originally created for the level of tzaddik may nevertheless merit that the strength of a tzaddik be clothed within him.