In the previous section we dealt with the 'is'kafya' (self-restraint, the subduing of one's animal drive) that applies to things which are forbidden, as explained at the beginning of the chapter. Now the Alter Rebbe continues and explains the avodah of is'kafya in things which are permitted.
Every time a person slaughters his yetzer, even for a brief moment, something real has been accomplished. He has not slaughtered the yetzer and settled accounts with it once and for all, because that very same yetzer will stir again in an hour or in two days, like one who has received techiyas hameisim, and will return to its place. Even so, that short deferral counts, provided that his intention is "לאכפיא לסטרא אחרא שבחלל השמאלי" ("to subdue the sitra achra in the left chamber of the heart").
That is to say: the goal is not a diet, and the goal is not to be busy with idle matters. For if he pushed off his meal because he was preoccupied with trivialities, he has done nothing more than exchange one desire for another. Before, he had an appetite for food; now he has a different appetite. In the language of the Mishnah, he has "exchanged a cow for a donkey," and accomplished nothing at all. Rather, he takes that very time and uses it for learning Torah.
The first example: eating
In the Alter Rebbe's words: "כגון שחפץ לאכול ומאחר סעודתו עד לאחר שעה או פחות, ועוסק בתורה באותה שעה" ("for example, when he desires to eat and he delays his meal for an hour or less, and occupies himself with Torah during that time"). It does not have to be a full hour; even less than that will do. At the very moment he wants to eat, he pushes it off and says it will be in another hour, and he uses the time for learning.
"כדאיתא בגמרא: שעה רביעית מאכל כל אדם" ("as it is stated in the Gemara: the fourth hour is the mealtime of every man"). The Gemara in Maseches Shabbos lists the order of the hours at which people eat:
The first hour: the mealtime of the Ludim (gluttons).
The second hour: the mealtime of thieves.
The third hour: the mealtime of heirs.
The fourth hour: the mealtime of laborers according to one version, and according to the Alter Rebbe's version here, "the mealtime of every man," meaning the ordinary person.
The sixth hour: the mealtime of talmidei chachamim.
It emerges that talmidei chachamim eat two hours later than everyone else. And what is gained by those two hours? Says the Alter Rebbe: "והיו מרעיבים עצמם שתי שעות" ("and they would make themselves hungry for two hours"), and for this purpose alone: to slaughter the yetzer.
One cannot say that they gained learning time by doing so, since "גם אחר הסעודה היו לומדים כל היום" ("after the meal, too, they would learn all day"). We are speaking of talmidei chachamim who learn Torah the entire day, so what practical difference is there whether the break for eating comes in the fourth hour or in the sixth? Either way they learned before it and they learned after it. Rather, their whole intention was to slaughter the yetzer, to say to the yetzer hara: wait two hours. That is is'kafya.
The second example: speech
"ואם בולם פיו מלדבר דברים שלבו מתאווה מאוד לדברם מענייני העולם" ("and if he curbs his mouth from speaking things about worldly matters which his heart greatly desires to say"). We are speaking of something permitted, for forbidden speech was already included in what we learned in the first part of the chapter, and the heading of our subject here is permitted matters. Just as he gave an example in eating, so too in speech: a person has an idea concerning his business dealings, and it seems to him that he stands to earn a large sum from it and he is bursting to say it immediately. If he says it in half an hour no harm will come to him and he will lose nothing, but he will feel that he is thereby slaughtering his desire. This is a great thing.
And the same applies to the thoughts that run through his mind, "אפילו במעט מזעיר" ("even in the smallest measure"). What is being asked here is not a total shutdown of everything that was occupying him until now, but a minimal deferral for a short time, and this little bit is of the greatest importance. As the chassidic saying goes: what is forbidden is forbidden, and what is permitted is unnecessary. And if it is not entirely unnecessary, let him at least push it off a little, since it is not urgent at this moment and nothing bad will come of the delay.
"Is'kafya l'sata" leads to "istalkusa l'eila"
"דאתכפיא סטרא אחרא לתתא" ("when the sitra achra is subdued below"). Through this a person brings it about that the sitra achra is bent and subdued below, and through that "אסתלק יקרא דקודשא בריך הוא" ("the glory of the Holy One, blessed be He, is elevated"), and His holiness rises above, "l'eila," a great deal. It is worth noticing this expression, which did not appear earlier: on the previous page, when the discussion was about is'kafya in forbidden matters, the Alter Rebbe quoted the same wording of the Zohar, "כד אתכפיא סטרא אחרא לתתא אסתלק יקרא דקודשא בריך הוא לעילא," while here he adds the word "much." This hints that the is'kafya in a permitted matter brings an even greater benefit than the is'kafya in a forbidden one.
The reason is that slaughtering the yetzer in a permitted matter is harder. With something forbidden a person accepts the verdict; he understands that the thing runs counter to the Torah and therefore he must refrain, and even when it is difficult, he accepts it. But with something permitted he argues: "What do you want from me? The Torah permits this, there is nothing wrong with it, what do you gain if I do it in five minutes instead of now?" Precisely the stopping of that impulse, the urge to do it immediately, is the slaughtering of the yetzer, and therefore the divine delight it produces is greater.
Here the Alter Rebbe adds a further gain: "ומקדושה זו נמשכת קדושה עליונה על האדם למטה לסייעו סיוע רב ועצום לעבודתו יתברך" ("and from this holiness a supernal holiness is drawn down upon the person below, to assist him with great and mighty assistance in his service of Hashem"). The is'kafya a person does below brings about a revelation of holiness above, and from that holiness a supernal holiness is drawn down upon him which comes to his aid. It turns out that his avodas Hashem becomes easier thanks to the is'kafya that preceded it. The is'kafya does not weigh him down; every additional is'kafya makes what follows lighter for him.
"Sanctify yourself with what is permitted to you"
This is the meaning of "קדש עצמך במותר לך" ("sanctify yourself with what is permitted to you"), which the Alter Rebbe will mention further on, and in the opinion of the Ramban, among those who enumerate the mitzvos, this is a positive commandment from the Torah. "Kadosh" means set apart and separated, and so the meaning is: separate and set yourself apart even from things that are permitted.
Here it is worth adding an important point which is explained elsewhere in chassidus. Before the avodah that the Alter Rebbe elaborates on here, slaughtering the yetzer in permitted matters, "kadesh atzmecha b'mutar lach," there comes an earlier stage, and this is the proper order in avodah:
The first stage: "a person should always be a person" - a human being and not an animal. An animal does whatever arises in it, while a human being thinks. When a desire arises in him to do something permitted (for if the thing is forbidden, he tells himself at once that it is forbidden and rejects it entirely), he should stop and think: is this really necessary? And if he concludes that it is necessary, let him think one more thought: is it necessary right now, or could it wait a few minutes? He may well arrive at the conclusion that it is necessary and necessary immediately, and he will not have fulfilled "kadesh atzmecha b'mutar lach" - but the very act of thinking has taken him out of the category of an animal and placed him in the category of a human being. Not "I feel like it, so I do it," but "I feel like it, so I think." First a person should accustom himself to live this way.
The second stage: after a period in which he has trained himself in this, the next stage arrives: that even when he has concluded that the thing is necessary and necessary now, he says to his yetzer: not necessarily now, but in five minutes. This is "kadesh atzmecha b'mutar lach," and it comes after the training of the previous stage.
The Alter Rebbe here is already dealing with the second stage, with one who has passed through the first, and he instructs him that he must hold himself back a little even in permitted matters.
"וזהו שאמרו רז"ל: אדם מקדש עצמו מעט למטה - מקדשים אותו הרבה מלמעלה" ("and this is what our Sages said: if a person sanctifies himself a little below, he is sanctified much from above"). The source is the Gemara in Maseches Yoma, and in the Gemara's own wording it is phrased somewhat differently: "Our Rabbis taught: 'And you shall sanctify yourselves and you shall be holy'" - this is the wording of the verse in Vayikra, which continues "for I am holy" - and the Gemara enumerates three stages:
A person sanctifies himself a little, he is sanctified much.
He sanctifies himself below, he is sanctified from above.
He sanctifies himself in this world, he is sanctified for the World to Come.
To summarize: in this section we learned about the is'kafya of permitted matters, that every slaughtering of the yetzer, even for a brief moment, is meaningful, provided the intention is to subdue the sitra achra and not merely to exchange one desire for another. We saw the examples the Alter Rebbe brings: delaying the meal and occupying oneself with Torah during that time, in the manner of the talmidei chachamim who made themselves hungry for two hours even though they learned all day; curbing the mouth from worldly talk that the heart craves; and likewise deferring the thoughts of the mind "even in the smallest measure." We saw that with permitted matters the elevation above is greater, because the slaughtering is harder, and that from that holiness great and mighty assistance in avodas Hashem is drawn down upon the person. We also looked at "kadesh atzmecha b'mutar lach," at the preliminary stage of the thought that distinguishes a human being from an animal, and at the statement of our Sages, "if a person sanctifies himself a little below, he is sanctified much from above."
In the next section we will continue with the explanation of the three stages in the words of the Gemara and with the continuation of the Alter Rebbe's words.