In the previous section we learned about the ruach shtus, the "spirit of folly" that brings a person to transgress the will of the Creator, and about the fact that at the moment of the act he stands even further from holiness than the impure animals. In this section we will complete the explanation: we will see that animals have no freedom of choice at all, while a human being takes the very power of choice that was given to him and uses it to become worse than they are. And we will see how a clear, steady view of this picture turns the whole avodah into "ki karov eilecha hadavar me'od," "the matter is very close to you."
Animals have no bechirah, no power of choice, and that makes the claim against a person twice as sharp: the power of choice was placed in his hands, and look what he has done with it, he has used it to become worse than they are. It is not that he descends to their level; he drops below them. It is the ruach shtus that keeps him from noticing this and taking it to heart. But the moment he sees the picture in front of his eyes and grasps what is actually happening when he transgresses the will of the Creator, and what state he is putting himself into, choosing correctly becomes incomparably easier. After all, a normal person is not willing to walk into a barn or a cage and live like the animals there; how much more so once it is made clear to him that by transgressing the Creator's will he becomes worse than they are. It is this constant, clear seeing that turns the matter into "ki karov eilecha hadavar me'od befichah uvilvavcha la'asoso," "for the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it."
Even predatory animals do nothing but the will of the Creator: when an animal or a person comes before them, they know whom to attack and whom to leave alone. And this is not through any mechanism of understanding and comprehension, "ואע"ג דאיהו לא חזי כו'" ("and even though it itself does not see"), the animal itself sees nothing, but mazla chazi, its "mazal," the spiritual force that rests upon it, does see, and that is what gives it the impulse of when to attack and when to hold back. Since the Alter Rebbe has mentioned this point, he adds a few lines explaining how even in predatory beasts there rests a true "seeing" that leads them to do only the will of the Creator.
"וכמו שכתוב" ("as it is written") in Bereishis, after the Holy One created all the animals, including the predators, it was said to man: "ומוראכם וחתכם יהיה על כל חית הארץ", "and the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth." Hashem established that all the beasts of the earth would fear man. At first glance one could ask: if so, why is a person not willing to walk into a lions' den and rely on what is written in the Torah? To this the Gemara answers, "וכפירוש רז"ל שאין חיה רעה מושלת באדם אלא אם כן נדמה לו כבהמה", "as our Sages explained, that a wild beast has no power over a man unless he appears to it like an animal." The beast attacks when it sees an animal in front of it; therefore a person who conducts himself like an animal should not enter the lions' den, since it is the lion's nature to prey on animals. But a person who remains a person has nothing to fear.
[The Gemara presents this in stages:
Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar speaks even before the subject of predators, and states (and Rashi brings this in his commentary on Chumash as well): a living day-old infant does not need to be guarded from mice; whereas Og king of Bashan, the giant of giants, once dead, does need to be guarded from mice. The mouse is not afraid of the enormous dead body, yet it is afraid of the tiny living infant. How does it know the difference? We see plainly that an animal can distinguish between the living and the dead, and in a living person "the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth" is in force.
Rav Papa says that a lion does not attack two people; one, yes, two, no. He learns this from the plural form of the verse, "umora'achem vechitchem," "the fear of you and the dread of you": when there are two, their dread falls upon the beasts of the earth.
The Gemara (in Maseches Shabbos) objects: we see in reality that lions do attack two people and more. And the Gemara answers with the very principle the Alter Rebbe brings here in Tanya, that no beast has power over a man until he appears to it like an animal, as it says, "adam bikar velo yavin nimshal kabehemos nidmu," "man in his glory who does not understand is likened to the beasts."]
From here we see that the animal's discernment is so precise that it even distinguishes between ordinary people and tzaddikim. In the Alter Rebbe's words: "והצדיקים שאין צלם אלוקים מסתלק מעל פניהם - כל חיות רעות אתכפיין קמייהו", "and the tzaddikim, from whose faces the divine image never departs, all wild beasts are subdued before them." A tzaddik upon whom the tzelem Elokim rests constantly, all the wild beasts come to him and nullify themselves before him, "כמו שכתוב בזהר גבי דניאל בגוב אריות", "as is written in the Zohar regarding Daniel in the lions' den." The king threw him into the den and was certain that within minutes nothing would be left of him, and in the end it turned out that all the lions settled down beside him in bittul, like sheep beside their shepherd. For with a complete tzaddik it is simply impossible that a beast or an animal should harm him at all, while the sinner is worse than they are.
The Gemara in Maseches Sanhedrin relates that Rabbi Shimon ben Chalafta was walking on the road when a lion confronted him and roared at him, ready to devour him. What did he do? He quoted a verse and said: "Hakefirim sho'agim lataref," "the young lions roar for prey", Master of the world, they are only hungry. Immediately two chunks of meat came down from heaven, and when the lion saw the meat it left Rabbi Shimon ben Chalafta alone, ate one chunk, and disappeared from the place.
(The Gemara continues that Rabbi Shimon ben Chalafta took the second chunk of meat, brought it to the beis midrash, told the story, and asked: how should this be treated, as kosher meat or as treifah, permitted to eat or forbidden? They answered him that nothing impure descends from heaven, and so it is kosher according to all opinions.)
On the first part of this story the Rebbe asks: if with tzaddikim from whose faces the divine image never departs the beasts nullify themselves immediately, as happened with Daniel, why did Rabbi Shimon ben Chalafta need to say "the young lions roar for prey," and why was a miracle of two chunks of meat descending from heaven necessary? Why was the whole encounter not prevented from the start?
An answer to this is found in one of the maamarim of the Tzemach Tzedek, who refers us to a Midrash. The Midrash (on the offerings of the nesi'im in Parshas Naso) asks what was special about Daniel that he was saved from the lions' den, and brings several details. One of them: Daniel was from the tribe of Yehudah, as is stated explicitly in Sefer Daniel that he was "of the children of Yehudah," and about Yehudah it says "gur aryeh Yehudah," "Yehudah is a lion cub", the power of the lion is contained within him. And when a lion sees a lion, it does not devour it but settles down beside it. With this the Tzemach Tzedek explains that there are tzaddikim who are themselves on the level of lions, and they need no miracles of meat falling from heaven to quiet the lion's roar; with them there is no problem to begin with. Rabbi Shimon ben Chalafta too was a tzaddik, and the lion did not harm him, but with him it did not come about directly; it came through a miracle from heaven.
What all of this shares in common: when it comes to animals, even the predators among them, they do nothing other than the will of the Creator, and they never transgress it.
And from here the Alter Rebbe concludes: "ואם כן החוטא ועובר רצונו יתברך אפילו בעבירה קלה, הרי הוא בשעת מעשה הוא בתכלית הריחוק מקדושה העליונה שהיא יחודו ואחדותו יתברך, יותר מכל בעלי חיים הטמאים ושקצים ורמשים המושפעים מסטרא אחרא וקליפת עבודה זרה", "and therefore one who sins and transgresses His blessed will, even with a light transgression, is at the moment of the act in the utmost distance from the supernal holiness, which is His blessed unity and oneness, more so than all the impure animals and the creeping and crawling things that receive their vitality from the sitra achra and the kelipah of idolatry", worse than they are.
It is enough for a person to take this one point to heart, and it will give him strength of soul: every time the yetzer hara comes to entice him, in something small or something large, he answers it, I do not want to be worse than you, I do not want to be worse than animals and creeping and crawling things, I do not want to transgress the will of the Creator and cut myself off from Him. This is the hisbonenus, the contemplation, that brings a person close to "ki karov eilecha hadavar me'od," so that at any given moment the ruach shtus will not overpower him; instead a measure of chochmah will enter him, and he will not, G-d forbid, transgress the will of the Creator.
In summary: In this section we learned that animals, who have no freedom of choice at all, never transgress the will of the Creator, "even though it itself does not see, its mazal sees." We looked at the verse "and the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth" and at the words of the Gemara that no wild beast has power over a man unless he appears to it like an animal; at the gradation between the living infant and the dead Og king of Bashan; at Rav Papa's statement that a lion does not attack two people; and at the tzaddikim from whose faces the divine image never departs, before whom all wild beasts nullify themselves, like Daniel in the lions' den. We brought the Rebbe's question from the story of Rabbi Shimon ben Chalafta and the Tzemach Tzedek's answer from the Midrash, that Daniel was of the children of Yehudah and carried within him the power of "Yehudah is a lion cub." And from all of this we learned that the sinner, even with a light transgression, stands at the moment of the act in the utmost distance from the supernal holiness, further than all the impure animals; and that this contemplation is what gives a person the strength to stand up to the yetzer.
In the next section we will continue with the words of the Alter Rebbe and with the explanation of the ruach shtus and chochmah in a person's avodah.