We are now in the final part of chapter 27. We stopped at page 34b (page 68), and before we move on to the passage that begins "velo od, ela afilu bidvarim hamutarim" ("and not only that, but even in permitted matters"), let us briefly review the main points we have learned and sharpen a few of them.
Review of the previous section:
From the beginning of chapter 27, the Alter Rebbe addresses the Jew who is sad and explains to him why there is no room whatsoever for his sadness. Who is he speaking about? About a Jew into whose mind evil thoughts keep falling and in whom improper desires keep arising, and the constant struggle and warfare leave him frustrated. He wants some peace and quiet in this area already, and the absence of that quiet brings him low and leaves him depressed. To this the Alter Rebbe offers a number of reasons why this is not only no cause for sadness, but on the contrary, it is a cause for joy:
Fulfilling a mitzvas lo saaseh: The Torah says, "velo sasuru acharei levavchem ve'acharei eineichem asher atem zonim achareihem" ("do not stray after your hearts and after your eyes, after which you go astray"). Whom is the verse speaking to? Certainly not to tzaddikim, for by a tzaddik no evil thoughts arise at all. Perforce the verse is speaking to someone in whom such thoughts do arise and who has to fight them, that is, the beinoni. It emerges that every single time he pushes the thought away, he is fulfilling the prohibition of "velo sasuru," and that is something to be happy about.
Knowing honestly where he stands: A person should not hold himself in such greatness and conceit as though he belonged to the level of tzaddikim, and then be astonished that an evil thought falls into his mind. There is nothing astonishing here at all: it falls into his mind because that is his nature, and he belongs to that category.
The revelation brought about through iskafya: Every single time a person rejects the thought and the desire, he is engaged in iskafya (subduing the animal side), and every single time he thereby draws down a lofty and wondrous divine revelation. So there is no reason to be sad over it; on the contrary, it may be that this itself is the very purpose for which his soul descended into a body, to accomplish precisely these things.
On this basis the Alter Rebbe explained the words of Iyov, "You created tzaddikim, You created resha'im." The Holy One created only two categories, and the Jew, through his avodah, brings about a third category in creation. The Holy One created tzaddikim and resha'im, and this does not mean wicked people in the literal sense, heaven forbid, but rather that He created Jews in whom improper desires and confusing thoughts are constantly arising, and in this respect they resemble resha'im. So from the side of creation there are either tzaddikim, who do not have these things, or those whom Iyov calls "resha'im" because they do have them. The Jew's avodah is to produce a third category, to be a beinoni: the thought does indeed fall into his mind, but he rejects it and removes it.
The analogy of sharp foods:
In this avodah of the beinoni there is a wondrous and very great pleasure Above, and the Alter Rebbe illustrated this with two types of food: sweet foods and sharp or sour foods. A sweet food is tasty, but that is all there is to it. A sharp or sour food, however, has an advantage that the Tanya calls "meishiv hanefesh", it restores the soul. A person who feels weak and is looking for something to invigorate and refresh him takes something sharp or sour into his mouth and it lifts him up, much as a person who is fasting smells a pungent scent and it revives him. A sweet food has no such power.
And what does it mean to "restore the soul"? The soul's power is present within the body, but in the soul itself there are, broadly speaking, two levels: the higher level, which is not clothed in the body and remains above and outside it, and the lower portion, which is clothed within the body. When a person is in a state of decline and weakness, the deficiency is in that portion clothed in the body, which is presently weak and insufficiently alert. For it to return to alertness, he must draw fresh strength from the higher portion of the soul, where it always stands in its completeness and no defect touches it at all. And the thing that reaches that higher portion and draws from there is precisely the sharp and sour food.
The nimshal is in avodas Hashem: when a Jew does a good deed he draws down G-dliness, and every mitzvah draws down G-dliness. But in G-dliness too there are two levels: a contracted level that fits the vessels of creation, and a level above creation that generally does not shine within it. The tzaddik, who fulfills things with a straight light (or yashar), draws down to that contracted level that fits the vessels of creation. But it is specifically the beinoni, who engages in iskafya and grapples with the sharp and the sour and knows how to season it, who accomplishes the "restoring of the soul": he reaches higher levels in G-dliness. This is the language of the Zohar, "kad iskafya sitra achara istalek yekara dekudsha brich hu" ("when the sitra achara is subdued, the glory of the Holy One is elevated"), and "istalek" does not mean departure but revelation: a light so lofty that no obstruction or hindrance can hold it back. And who brings about this revelation? Precisely iskafya.
"And not only that, but even in permitted matters":
Now the Alter Rebbe says: it is not only in the struggle and the iskafya regarding forbidden things, where a person who is tempted by something forbidden and holds himself back and does not stumble brings about a wondrous revelation, but "velo od, ela afilu bidvarim hamutarim", even in matters that are entirely permitted. Even when a person is involved in things that are completely permitted, kosher lemehadrin, and not only that, but even in things that are necessary and are not a matter of desire at all: a food that is permitted to eat and that he genuinely needs, or something he has to say and that matters to him, not words of Torah or of a mitzvah but ordinary permitted speech that is even essential. On the face of it, what is the problem? Let him say it and feel unburdened.
To this the Alter Rebbe says: know that even in things that are completely permitted, whatever a person "zoveiach yitzro" ("slaughters his yetzer"), meaning that he does not do the thing immediately but holds it off a little, saying to his yetzer: you want it? No problem at all, but in a little while.
Understanding the word "zoveiach":
One of the mashpi'im added an explanation here. When a person takes an animal and slaughters it with a kosher shechitah, it becomes kosher and permitted to eat. What does the shechitah accomplish? Before the shechitah the ox had blood, vitality and force, and with that very vitality and force it was an ox that could do damage. Once it is slaughtered with a kosher shechitah, it becomes kosher, permitted meat: we have taken the vitality and the fire out of it and left the flesh as it is, kosher and without any problem.
The same applies to the yetzer. In front of you is a kosher, perfectly fine food, and you may eat it with all the proper kashrus; the trouble is that the yetzer wants to be a partner in that eating and to attach its own vitality to it. To that partnership we say to the yetzer hara: no. There is no problem at all with the eating itself, but without a partner. And how is this done? By slaughtering the yetzer: we leave the meat and the food exactly as they are, except that it will happen in another hour. What will be lost if it happens in an hour, or in half an hour, or in five minutes? We are not speaking, heaven forbid, of a case of pikuach nefesh. And who loses out in this process? The yetzer hara, who wants it so badly. And we say to him: "You want it very, very much, and precisely for that reason I do not want it right now." In this way we take the vitality out of him, and that is "zoveiach yitzro."
In summary: in this section we reviewed the Alter Rebbe's reasons that evil thoughts are no cause for sadness but rather for joy: the fulfillment of the prohibition of "velo sasuru," an honest recognition of where a person really stands, and the lofty revelation brought about with every act of iskafya. We saw the analogy of the sharp foods that "restore the soul," which in the nimshal is the drawing down of a level of G-dliness above the vessels of creation, in the sense of "istalek yekara dekudsha brich hu." And finally we learned the Alter Rebbe's novel point, that even in permitted and necessary matters there is an avodah of "zoveiach yitzro," pushing the thing off for a while, and in doing so taking from the yetzer its vitality and its partnership.
In the next section we will continue with the Alter Rebbe's words on this theme, which carry on into chapter 28 as well.