In the previous section we examined the Alter Rebbe's language regarding sur mera, turning away from evil. Now, as he turns to aseh tov, doing good, the Alter Rebbe uses expressions he had not used until now: "להתגבר כארי בגבורה ואומץ הלב נגד היצר המכביד את גופו מבחינת יסוד העפר שבנפש הבהמית" - "to rouse himself with the strength of a lion, with might and courage of heart, against the yetzer that weighs his body down from the element of earth in the nefesh habahamis."
The yetzer hara makes a person heavy and lazy, and the source of that laziness is the element of earth in the nefesh habahamis, the animal soul. We already learned this back in chapter 1 of Tanya, where the Alter Rebbe explained how each of the four elements of the animal soul produces its own negative traits, and the element of earth produces laziness. With this laziness the yetzer holds a person back "מלהטריח גופו בזריזות בכל מיני טורח ועבודת משא בעבודת ה'" - from exerting his body with alacrity in every sort of toil and heavy labor in the service of Hashem. Its arguments are: why bother? Why work so hard in avodas Hashem? I have no strength, it's cold, it's hot, I'm tired, and anyway it can wait until tomorrow or the day after. And indeed, avodas Hashem in its positive form is not easy: "שיש בה טורח ועמל" - it involves exertion and labor, physical and emotional effort, time, money and family.
The Alter Rebbe brings an example from each of the three pillars - Torah, avodah (prayer) and gemilus chassadim - and what kind of effort each one demands of a person:
The pillar of Torah: "כגון לעמול בתורה בעיון ובפה" - to labor in Torah both in deep study and with the mouth. There is the effort of sitting down and thinking through a sugya, and a further effort of the mouth, "לא פסיק פומיה מגירסא" - that his mouth should not cease from learning. "וכמאמר חז"ל: לעולם ישים אדם עצמו על דברי תורה כשור לעול וכחמור למשאוי" - "as the Sages said: a person should always place himself upon words of Torah like an ox to the yoke and like a donkey to the burden." Why are two images needed? The ox is about plowing - persisting in study and breaking new ground; the donkey carrying its load is about holding on to what has already been gathered and learned so that it does not fall away. For guarding against forgetting is an avodah in its own right, and at times it is harder than learning something new. A person gets far more pleasure from new material, while reviewing a chapter he already knows is emotionally difficult for him, and nevertheless he must go back and review it again and again so that he will remember.
The pillar of tefillah: "וכן לתפלה בכונה" - so too prayer with kavanah, the intention of understanding the meaning of the words, grasping every word he says, "בכל כחו ממש" - with literally all his strength. Not only with the strength of concentration, but with physical strength as well: to push himself and to invest extra time, which in itself is exertion and toil.
The pillar of tzedakah: "וכן בעבודת ה' שהוא בדבר שבממון כמו עבודת הצדקה" - and likewise in service of Hashem that involves money, such as the avodah of tzedakah. An opportunity for the mitzvah of tzedakah comes his way, he has the ability to give, but he simply has no desire or appetite for it, and he must push himself and give.
"וכיוצא באלו ממלחמות היצר ותחבולותיו" - and similar battles with the yetzer and its stratagems. There are many more examples, and in all of them the yetzer seeks to cool a person's soul and to fill him with indifference, heaviness and laziness, "שלא להפקיר ממונו ובריאות גופו" - so that he should not give up his money and his physical health. It argues: will you throw away money you worked so hard to earn? Will you give up your health by getting up early every morning for a minyan, and by immersing in the mikveh every day through the cold winter months, when you might catch a cold? This is how it plants a whole array of thoughts in a person's head, all in the name of protecting his body and his money.
To all of this the Alter Rebbe says that it is "קרוב מאד אל האדם" - very near to a person: to stand up against the yetzer and conquer it, and to tell it: nevertheless, I am going to push myself and do it.
But in what way is it "very near"? Something must be there to awaken that nearness.
To this the Alter Rebbe answers that a simple contemplation is enough to arouse the hidden love that already exists within him: "כשישים אל לבו שלנצח היצר בכל זה ויותר מזה" - when he takes to heart that to conquer the yetzer in all of this and even more than this, in Torah, in tefillah, in tzedakah and the like, "ולעשות הפכו ממש" - and even to do the very opposite of what it wants, "קל מאד מיסורי מיתה ה' ישמרנו, ויסורי מיתה ה' ישמרנו היה מקבל באהבה וברצון שלא ליפרד מיחודו ואחדותו יתברך אפילו לפי שעה להשתחות לעבודה זרה חס ושלום" - is far easier than the agonies of death, may Hashem protect us; and those agonies of death he would accept with love and willingly, rather than be separated from His blessed unity and oneness even for a moment by bowing to idolatry, G-d forbid. For if someone were to come and tell a Jew that unless he bows right now to an idol he will be put to an agonizing death, at that very moment his love for the Creator is awakened and he is ready to give up his life and say: do with me as you wish, but bow I will not. From here a person should make his own reckoning: the agonies of death, the hardest thing of all, he would accept with love and willingness out of the power of that love - and the "agonies" of a little extra effort in Torah, in tefillah and in tzedakah are incomparably lighter than those. "וכל שכן שיש לו לקבל באהבה וברצון כדי לדבקה בו לעולם ועד" - how much more so should he accept with love and willingness the labor and the exertion in order to cleave to Him forever, and not be too lazy to do what is being asked of him.
The kal vachomer works in two ways:
If a person is ready to give up his life merely so as not to be separated from the Holy One, how much more so when he is handed an opportunity to connect to Him and to tighten the bond. After all, his whole desire is never to be cut off and always to remain with Him - and in doing the mitzvah the road to cleaving to Him has just opened up before him.
Mesiras nefesh is demanded even for "a single moment" - even if they tell him to bow for one instant and afterwards he may do as he pleases, as the king said to Chana's seventh son, that he need only pick up the ring for a moment, a Jew gives up his life. Whereas in a mitzvah he performs as aseh tov, the connection formed between him and his Creator is not for a moment but "forever and ever": even though the deed is done in a single instant, the connection it creates is eternal, as the Alter Rebbe will elaborate further on.
And the reason, in his words: "דהיינו כשיעשה רצונו יתברך בעבודה זו" - that is, when he carries out His blessed will in this avodah of Torah, tefillah, tzedakah and the like, then "יתגלה בה פנימית רצון העליון, בבחינת פנים וגילוי רב ולא בהסתר כלל" - the innermost dimension of the Supernal Will is revealed in it, in a manner of "face" and abundant revelation, with no concealment at all. For the essence of a mitzvah, as we explained at length in the previous chapters, is that the will of the Holy One is present in it in an inner and revealed way; and at the moment of performing the mitzvah, His inner will is revealed over his body, over his soul, over his money and over everything around him.
"וכשאין שום הסתר פנים ברצון העליון, אזי אין דבר נפרד כלל וכלל" - and when there is no hiding of the "face" of the Supernal Will, then there is nothing separate at all. For how does idolatry exist in the world at all? We learned, in explaining the term elohim acherim, that everything receives its life force from the Holy One and there is no other source of vitality in creation - including tumah and kelipah - except that the life force reaches them by way of achorayim, the "back," in a manner of concealment. And because the vitality is received in concealment from the inner will, a sense of ego and self-existence is created, which is separateness from truth, from G-dliness and from holiness. The Alter Rebbe already said in chapter 6 that the defining quality of holiness is bittul to G-dliness, and whatever is not nullified to G-dliness is yesh, self-existence.
Therefore, a person for whom the will of the Creator shines in a revealed way is nullified to G-dliness and has no sense of self; and in that moment, when he performs the mitzvah and connects to the Divine will, there is nothing in him that is separate at all, "להיות יש ודבר בפני עצמו" - to be a self-existing entity, something standing on its own.
Consequently, when he actually does what is asked of him - learns one more minute, prays with a little more kavanah, gives one more coin to tzedakah - "ולזאת תהיינה נפשו האלוקית והחיונית ולבושיהן כולן מיוחדות בתכלית הייחוד ברצון העליון ואור אין סוף ברוך הוא כנ"ל" - and therefore his G-dly soul and his vital soul and all their garments become united in absolute union with the Supernal Will and the Ein Sof light, as explained above. The entire system that took part in the act of the mitzvah becomes bound up at that moment with the Divine will in an infinite and eternal bond; and although the person is limited and his deed was done within limited time, he has nonetheless connected to the Infinite. This connection is real and eternal, and it never ceases.
Here is a very physical analogy, but it helps the idea land: a clever person sits and invents a patent or a new idea, discovers it, develops it and publicizes it, and then moves on to other matters. Does the idea cease to exist once its owner has turned his attention elsewhere? Not at all. Once he has brought it down into the world, it remains in existence - in every place, at every time, for every person. The idea exists permanently in the world of intellect, and even when the inventor himself is no longer here, his idea stands and endures.
In summary: in this section we learned that aseh tov demands of a person "to rouse himself like a lion" against the yetzer that weighs his body down through the element of earth in the nefesh habahamis. We examined the three examples the Alter Rebbe brings from the pillars of Torah, tefillah and tzedakah, and the stratagems of the yetzer, which cools a person's soul with arguments about protecting his money and his physical health. We saw how this is "very near": through contemplating that this effort is lighter than the agonies of death, which he would accept with love and willingness rather than be separated from His blessed unity even for a moment - and from here a double kal vachomer: how much more so in order to cleave to Him, and how much more so when the effect of the mitzvah is "forever and ever." We also learned that in performing the mitzvah the innermost Supernal Will is revealed in a manner of "face" and abundant revelation, and since there is no concealment there, nothing is separate, and his G-dly soul and vital soul and their garments become united in absolute union with the Supernal Will.
In the next section the Alter Rebbe will continue and elaborate on the eternity of the mitzvah's effect and the bond it creates between a Jew and his Creator.