We have reached chapter 26 of Likkutei Amarim in Tanya, which appears on folio 32b. It is fair to say that a new subject begins here in Likkutei Amarim: although it follows from, and is connected to, everything explained until now, it stands as a unit in its own right.
In the first twenty-five chapters the Alter Rebbe explained at length, broadly speaking on two levels, the verse "for the thing is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it" - what that "very near" actually is, how it happens, and what it contains. Within this, two paths were set out: the path up to chapter 18, of contemplation and understanding in order to arouse love and fear, and the path from chapter 18 onward, how to arouse the hidden love that already exists within every Jew, as we discussed at length in the previous lessons.
From here on, in the group of chapters running from chapter 26 through chapter 33, the Alter Rebbe deals mainly with the advice one must give a Jew for coping with the obstructions he meets in avodas Hashem, his service of G-d - those things that simply will not let the yetzer tov, the good inclination, prevail: lack of joy, sadness, a heart dulled like stone, and the like. All of these are like sticks in the wheels, and as long as the obstruction is there the avodah makes no progress. In these chapters the Alter Rebbe will explain, for each and every one of them:
What the problem in that particular matter is, and why one must be rid of it.
To what extent it actually constitutes a hindrance and a delay in practice.
And above all - the ways and the practical advice for how to solve the problem and how to overcome it.
The opening of the chapter:
"ברם כגון דא צריך להודיע כלל גדול" - "However, in a matter such as this one must make known a great principle." Having arrived at this stage, there is a great principle in avodas Hashem that must be conveyed to a Jew, one that can enable him to move forward without the central obstruction. And what is that great principle? The Alter Rebbe opens with a mashal, a parable.
"כי כמו שנצחון לנצח דבר גשמי, כגון שני אנשים המתאבקים זה עם זה להפיל זה את זה, הנה אם האחד הוא בעצלות וכבדות ינוצח בקל ויפול גם אם הוא גיבור יותר מחבירו" - "For just as with victory over something physical, for example two people who wrestle with one another, each trying to throw the other down: if one of them is in a state of laziness and heaviness he will easily be defeated and thrown, even if he is stronger than his fellow." Two men are wrestling, each one trying to bring the other down. If one of them is sunk in laziness and heaviness, so that every movement of a hand or a foot comes slowly, hesitantly, without energy and without quickness, he will be thrown easily and lose, even if he is the stronger of the two. The outcome does not depend on strength but on quickness: quick hands and a fast reaction decide who throws whom, not who is strong and who is weak. The lazy one fails and the quick one succeeds.
Why specifically "wrestling"?
The Alter Rebbe does not speak simply of two men fighting each other, but specifically of two men "who wrestle with one another," and the precision of the wording deserves attention. What is the difference between a war and a wrestling match?
War: one side can be at one end of the country and the other at the opposite end, barely able to see each other through binoculars, firing arrows and hurling catapult stones at one another. And at times the intention of one is to kill the other outright.
Wrestling: the two are body against body, pressed right up against each other, and they are not out to kill one another but to throw each other down.
And in the nimshal, the lesson: all these chapters are speaking about the beinoni, the intermediate person. The beinoni is not like the tzaddik, who has killed off his yetzer hara; in the beinoni the yetzer hara remains in full force, and all it wants is to throw him down. And the same is true from the other side: the yetzer hara is not trying to 'kill' the Jew, that is, to trip him into actual sin, but only to throw him down - and we will see in a moment what that fall consists of: the instant the yetzer hara draws him into sadness and bitterness of spirit, it has thrown him.
A further point in the mashal: someone who sees two men in the middle of a wrestling match and does not understand what he is looking at may think they are two friends, embracing each other so tightly that they cannot bear to separate; it is not always possible to tell whether one is looking at an embrace or at a wrestling match. And so too in the nimshal: sometimes sadness descends upon a person precisely from spiritual matters, from worry over the sins he has committed, as the Alter Rebbe will bring at the end of the chapter - and such sadness does not come from the yetzer tov at all, but from the yetzer hara. The yetzer hara says to him, "Look how terrible it is that you committed sins," and it appears as one who loves him and embraces him and has come to help him for his own good, while its whole intent is to throw him down. That is why the Alter Rebbe chose specifically the example of two men wrestling with one another, since this is exactly what is happening in the nimshal.
The nimshal in avodas Hashem:
"כך ממש בנצחון היצר, אי אפשר לנצחו בעצלות וכבדות" - "Exactly so with conquering one's evil inclination: it is impossible to conquer it with laziness and heaviness." There is no way whatsoever to defeat the yetzer hara out of a state of laziness and heaviness. When a person stands facing a temptation or a desire, facing some difficulty or other through which the yetzer hara is trying to trip him up, and at that very moment he is in a mood of laziness and heaviness - he will not manage to withstand the test in any way at all.
It is therefore self-evident what is required: that there be in him neither laziness nor heaviness. But in order to uproot them one has to know their source, and with that the root of the matter that needs treating becomes clear. On this the Alter Rebbe continues: "הנמשכות מעצבות וטמטום הלב כאבן" - "which stem from sadness and from a heart dulled like a stone":
Sadness (atzvus) - from this comes laziness: a sad person becomes a lazy person.
A heart dulled like a stone (timtum halev) - from this comes heaviness: his heart is heavy as a stone that does not budge, and he has no energy to move, to get up and do anything, and he is wholly sunk in a low mood. (The subject of timtum halev will be explained at length in the coming chapters.)
As long as a person is in an inner state of sadness or of timtum halev, which lead him into laziness and heaviness, he has no chance of defeating the yetzer. What, then, is the one and only way to stand up to all those temptations? "כי אם בזריזות הנמשכת משמחה ומפתיחת הלב וטהרתו מכל נדנוד דאגה ועצב בעולם" - "but only with alacrity, which stems from joy and from a heart that is open and pure of any trace of worry and sadness in the world." A person must be quick and full of vitality, and do everything with zerizus, alacrity, and not with laziness. And that alacrity stems from joy, from an open heart and from the heart's purity - a "pure heart," in the language of the chapter of Tehillim said every night in Krias Shema al Hamitah. Pure of what? "Of any trace of worry and sadness in the world": there should not be in him even a hint of sadness, not a trace of it, not a flavor of it, no connection to sadness whatsoever.
In summary: Chapter 26 opens a new unit in Likkutei Amarim, dealing with the advice for coping with the obstructions in avodas Hashem. The Alter Rebbe announces a "great principle" and explains it with the mashal of two men wrestling to throw one another down: the one caught in laziness and heaviness will be easily beaten even if he is the stronger, since the outcome depends on alacrity and not on strength. The word "wrestling" is precise, because in wrestling the two are pressed body against body and the goal is to throw, not to kill, and so too is the wrestling between the beinoni and his yetzer - and at times it even resembles an embrace, when the yetzer hara injects sadness into a person precisely through worry over his sins. In the nimshal: one cannot defeat the yetzer with laziness and heaviness, which stem from sadness and from a heart dulled like stone, but only with alacrity, which stems from joy and from a heart open and pure of any trace of worry and sadness.
In the next part we will take up the detailed types of sadness and the practical advice the Alter Rebbe brings in the continuation of the chapter, and how a person should conduct himself in each of these situations.