In the previous section we looked at the first kind of nachas ruach, satisfaction, that a Jew gives the Almighty. Now the Alter Rebbe comes to the second kind: "והשנית כד אתכפיא הסטרא אחרא" - "and the second is when the sitra achra is subdued." This is when a Jew crushes the sitra achra, the "other side," the force of evil. He does not nullify it out of existence; he tells it, absolutely not, he fights it and bends it.
"A fayg":
In Yiddish there is an expression you use when you want to reject someone outright: "a fayg" (said together with a hand gesture, the thumb stuck between two fingers) - "You want it? A fayg, you are not getting it." There is a chassidishe vort (I believe it appears in Toras Shalom of the Rebbe Rashab) that finds a hint in this expression. Why was the Tree of Knowledge a fig tree? Rashi on the verse "ויתפרו עלי תאנה" ("and they sewed fig leaves") explains that the leaves came from the Tree of Knowledge itself. "Fig" in Yiddish is "fayg," and with this the Almighty was hinting to Adam: say to the yetzer hara "a fayg" - no chance, I don't want it. Only that Adam did not say the right thing. And so every Jew must say to his yetzer hara, every single time: "A fayg," I am not giving in to you, I am pushing you away.
In the Alter Rebbe's words:
"והשנית כד אתכפיא הסטרא אחרא בעודה בתוקפה וגבורתה ומגביה עצמה כנשר" - "and the second is when the sitra achra is subdued while it is still in its full strength and power, raising itself up like an eagle." The point is that the sitra achra is crushed precisely when it stands at the height of its force. The brazen yetzer hara dresses itself in the garments of a tzaddik and a holy man, pushing thoughts that supposedly have only the best intentions, when in the end they are nothing but malicious and evil thoughts. The Jew rejects those thoughts, "ומשם מורידה ה'" - "and from there Hashem brings it down," the Almighty brings the sitra achra down from that lofty place to which it had raised itself like an eagle.
And how does it come down from Above? That depends on the person, because the reins are in his hands: by pushing the yetzer hara away down here, he kills the yetzer hara up there. In the Alter Rebbe's words, "באתערותא דלתתא על ידי הבינונים" - "through the arousal from below, by means of the beinonim."
"Make me delicacies such as I love":
"וזהו שאמר הכתוב ועשה לי מטעמים כאשר אהבתי" - "and this is the meaning of the verse, 'and make me delicacies such as I love.'" The verse is Yitzchak Avinu's request of Esav, but it is not only Yitzchak speaking to Esav. It is "מאמר השכינה לבניה" - "the Shechinah's words to her children," as is explained in the Tikkunim (Tikkunei Zohar); the verse is addressed to every single Jew and to Klal Yisrael as a whole. The Almighty says to the Jewish people: make Me delicacies such as I love. And why the plural, "delicacies"? Because there are "שני מיני נחת רוח", "two kinds of nachas ruach."
To explain this, the Alter Rebbe brings an example from the physical kitchen: "וכמו שבמטעמים גשמיים דרך משל" - "just as with physical delicacies, by way of example." In physical food there are two kinds of delicacies:
One kind: a delicacy made from sweet and pleasant foods - tasty, sweet and good.
A second kind, which is superior to it: a delicacy made from sharp or sour ingredients, which only become delicacies once they are well seasoned and properly prepared, so that they "revive the soul," "להשיב הנפש".
Note the precision of the phrase "to revive the soul." When a person's soul is in a good and settled state, he can enjoy something sweet. But when his soul needs strengthening and he is looking for something to wake him up and give him a push, what he looks for is specifically something sharp. A person who says "l'chaim" over a drink does not immediately reach for chocolate afterwards, he reaches for a sour pickle, because it is the sour and the sharp that revive the soul. That is simply human nature.
But only on condition that the sharp food is properly seasoned. Something sharp that has not been prepared cannot even be put in your mouth, and worse, it can actually harm you. But when it is seasoned in the right measure and prepared properly, it revives the soul.
And the nimshal: the yetzer hara is the sharp and the sour. When a person takes that sharp, sour thing and "seasons" it, that is, confronts it, rejects it and subdues it, the Almighty says that this is the sharpness that revives the soul, and this nachas ruach is greater than the nachas ruach of a sweet and tasty dish. That is "make Me delicacies."
And this is what the verse means, "כל פעל ה' למענהו וגם רשע ליום רעה" - "Hashem made everything for His sake, and even the wicked one for the day of evil." The explanation: "שישוב מרשעו ויעשה הרע שלו יום ואור למעלה, כד אתכפיא סטרא אחרא ויסתלק יקרא דקודשא בריך הוא" - "that he turn back from his wickedness and make his evil into 'day' and light Above, when the sitra achra is subdued and the glory of the Holy One, blessed be He, is elevated." "Day" is light and "evil" is darkness, and when the wicked one turns his own evil into day and light Above, this is the greatest delight of all; and it is accomplished through subduing the sitra achra, at which point the Almighty's glory rises and is elevated.
And not only that - even in permitted matters:
The next passage the Alter Rebbe adds is already the kind of thing you find only in chassidus, and mainly in Tanya. Until now we were speaking about evil thoughts, improper musings and cravings, whose rejection gives delight Above; that much is understandable. Here the Alter Rebbe adds something to think about: "ולא זו בלבד, אלא כל מה שאדם זובח את יצרו אפילו שעה קלה, ומתכוון לאתכפיא לסטרא אחרא שבחלל השמאלי" - "and not only this, but whenever a person slaughters his evil inclination, even for a brief moment, intending thereby to subdue the sitra achra in the left chamber of the heart." This applies even in things that are entirely permitted. A person stands in front of food that is kosher lemehadrin, and even with that he can give nachas ruach to the Almighty: eat it, no problem, but eat it in five minutes. He very much wants to eat right now and the food is delicious to him, and nevertheless he holds himself back for two minutes, in order to break the yetzer hara and break the craving. Nobody is telling him not to eat; they are telling him, eat in a minute. And the breaking of the craving itself is the Divine delight. Those two minutes are extremely hard, and that is exactly the point - it is a kind of training.
And the example the Alter Rebbe gives: "כגון שחפץ לאכול ומאחר סעודתו עד לאחר שעה או פחות, ועוסק בתורה באותה שעה" - "for example, he desires to eat and he delays his meal for an hour or less, and occupies himself with Torah during that time." He should not waste that time doing nothing, but learn in it. Although even without the learning, the very fact that he pushed off the craving is a matter in its own right.
And we have to distinguish between being hungry and being desirous. Hunger is a physical need, and a hungry person eats what is healthy for him until he is satisfied. A craving is something else - a desire for a particular, delicious food. And even in routine eating, breakfast or lunch, there is a craving mixed in that we no longer even notice. A person can catch himself looking for the tasty part, for the body's pleasure, not for what he needs but for the enjoyment, arranging things so that his animal gets a proper pleasure and is pampered. That craving is what has to be pushed off a little, and that too is what this passage is speaking about.
In summary: we now have three points addressed to someone who falls into sadness because of these thoughts: (a) he should be joyful, since at every moment he is fulfilling a mitzvah; (b) if he is sad, that is gasus haruach, coarseness and conceit, because he is not evaluating himself correctly; (c) by pushing away the sitra achra he causes a nachas ruach and a Divine delight far greater than that of a person who has no such struggle at all - and it may well be that this is precisely why he was created, and that this is the whole purpose of his soul's descent into the world. And the moment a person fulfills the purpose of his descent, that is the greatest delight there is. When a person looks at his situation with the correct outlook, not only is he not sad, he is happy that he is the king's emissary and can report that he is carrying out his mission properly, one hundred percent.
And one more word to close with: is there such a thing as a spiritual craving? Certainly. A craving is not inherently a negative thing: a craving for the physical and the material comes from the yetzer hara, but there is nothing at all wrong with a craving for spirituality. We already learned in Tanya that the power of the yetzer hara is called "the faculty of desire," the koach hamisaveh, and all that is required is to steer it in the right direction.
In the next section we will continue explaining this passage: the avodah of subduing the sitra achra specifically in matters that are permitted.