In the previous section we looked at the opening of chapter 29 and at the problem of timtum halev, the dullness of the heart, which in the beinoni is found mainly in the heart and not in the mind. Now the Alter Rebbe brings a mashal from the words of the Zohar, and from it we will learn how a person is to deal with his own soul, and above all with the side of the heart.
The Mashal of the Log in the Zohar:
The head of the yeshivah in Gan Eden says: "אעא דלא סליק ביה נהורא" (a piece of wood in which the fire will not catch), because it is too coarse and too thick. You bring a candle or a match to it, and the fire simply does not take hold. On the face of it there are two options before us. One is to bring a bigger fire, to throw it into a great bonfire, where surely even such a log will burn. But the Zohar is not looking to add fire, because it is not always possible to produce a bigger fire, and certainly not in the nimshal. A person is left with the flame he has in his hand, and his problem is that the log will not catch. So what does he do? "מבטשין ליה" (one crushes it), one splits the log into small pieces, thereby reducing its coarseness and its bulk. Once it is smaller it is thinner and finer, and the fire catches in it easily, just as it catches in a match.
And the nimshal: "גופא דלא סליק ביה נהורא דנשמתא - מבטשין ליה" (a body in which the light of the soul does not take hold, one crushes it). The neshamah descended into the body, and the light of the neshamah is not penetrating it; therefore one must crush it, exactly as one does with the log. And it is worth emphasizing: the intent is not that a person should crush someone else, but that a person crushes himself.
Explaining the Words of the Zohar:
That is the quotation from the Zohar. Now the Alter Rebbe explains its meaning: "פירוש, שאור הנשמה והשכל אינו מאיר כל כך למשול על חומריות שבגוף" (meaning, that the light of the soul and the intellect does not shine strongly enough to rule over the materiality of the body). A person has a body full of materiality and coarseness, and his intellect too does not illuminate it sufficiently; it does not manage to enthuse it, warm it, arouse it. The person understands, but the engine does not turn over. "ואף שמבין ומתבונן בשכלו בגדולת ה'" (and even though he understands and contemplates the greatness of G-d with his intellect), the problem is not in knowing the material; he knows the material, he grasps what is being discussed and can even explain it, and from the standpoint of comprehension he is entirely whole. And nevertheless, "אינו נתפס ונדבק במוחו" (it does not take hold and become fixed in his mind), it does not stick to him and does not become part of him, and so it does not penetrate; and it does not take hold with such force "שיוכל למשול על חומריות הלב" (that it should be able to rule over the materiality of the heart), so that the heart, material as it is, should be caught by at least something of the enthusiasm.
And what is the reason for this? "מחמת חומריותן וגסותן" (because of their materiality and coarseness), in the plural: not "its materiality and coarseness" but their materiality and coarseness, of the heart and of the mind, both of them. Now, at the opening of chapter 29 we learned that the problem lies in the heart alone, while here, in the quotation from the Zohar, the problem is spoken of in the mind as well. The explanation is simple: the Zohar is describing a general situation, not specifically beinonim but even resha'im, and the Alter Rebbe is explaining the Zohar according to its own intent. In the Tanya, by contrast, we are dealing with the specific problem of the beinoni, and the solution is that very same solution.
The Root of Timtum Halev in the Beinoni:
Let us return to our subject: in the beinoni the materiality and coarseness are not in the mind but mainly in the heart. His mind is at his disposal; he can contemplate and even grasp the fine points of the matter. Why, then, is the heart not aroused? After all, if you set before him fine distinctions in worldly matters, he will understand them perfectly well, and not only that, he will be drawn after them and even become excited by them. It is only when the subject is holiness and G-dliness that something there puts on the brakes.
The reason is "גסות הקליפה שמגביהה עצמה על אור קדושת נפש האלוקית, ומסתירה ומחשיכה אורה" (the coarseness of the kelipah, which raises itself above the light of the holiness of the divine soul, concealing and darkening its light). Every person has a divine soul and a nefesh habahamis, the animal soul, and the beinoni too has a nefesh habahamis; he has not uprooted it, he contends with it constantly. That soul is so coarse that in its brazenness it conceals the divine light and does not let the heart be aroused. And the seat of the nefesh habahamis, as we have learned, is in the heart, which is precisely why it takes control of the position and will not under any circumstances allow any stirring of emotion. This is timtum halev, and its root is coarseness, materiality and outsized self-centeredness.
[It is worth distinguishing between timtum halev and timtum hamo'ach, dullness of the mind. There are people who simply do not take anything in: you speak with them about matters of understanding G-dliness and they have no idea what you are talking about, while in matters of money and business they understand everything perfectly and are sharp in them. The Ramban writes on the verse "ונטמתם בם" ("and you shall become defiled through them"), said regarding forbidden foods, that eating forbidden foods blocks up the channels of the mind. That is timtum hamo'ach. But here that is not the subject at all; here we are speaking of a beinoni whose mind is open, who understands and grasps matters of G-dliness, and only his heart is sealed.]
The Counsel: "To Crush It and Humble It":
The Zohar's expression was "מבטשין ליה," and so the Alter Rebbe instructs: "צריך לבטשה ולהשפילה" (one must crush it and humble it). A person must treat himself this way and crush himself. This is not some external act to be made a production of, with everyone watching the crushed fellow turning himself into a nothing.
[As in the well known joke about a group of Jews who made a practice of crushing themselves and making themselves small. Every day, at its close, the finest members of the community would circle the bimah in the beis midrash, and as they went around each one would say about himself: "I am a nobody, I am nothing." Once a new Jew joined the community, and seeing them going around he stepped into the circle too and said about himself: "I am nothing, I am nothing." They immediately looked at him in amazement: "Another nothing is circling around here? To be a nothing you have to work at it..."]
Clearly, then, we are not speaking of external, foolish self-abasement, but of inner avodah: a person must work on himself with an honest inner self-examination, one that will bring about the crushing of the coarseness within him. This chapter maps out a long process, step after step: what a person is to contemplate, and if he truly contemplates it he will indeed crush himself thoroughly.
In his words: "להשפיל עצמו ולהיות נבזה בעיניו נמאס, ככתוב" (to humble himself and to be lowly in his own eyes, despised), as it is written in Tehillim (chapter 15): "נבזה בעיניו נמאס," and that is how a person is to feel about himself. "ולב נשבר" (and a broken heart), that he should have a broken heart through breaking his own coarseness, "רוח נשברה - היא הסטרא אחרא" (a broken spirit, this is the sitra achra).
And when a person debases and humbles himself, whom exactly is he debasing? The body and the nefesh habahamis. One might have thought there is some segulah at work here: that since the person becomes despicable in his own eyes, the animal soul will see this and imitate him. But this is no segulah at all, and in his words: "שהיא היא האדם עצמו בבינונים, שנפש החיונית המחיה הגוף היא בתוקפה כתולדתה בליבו" (for in beinonim it is the person himself, since the vital soul that animates the body is in his heart in its full strength, as from birth). It is not that the person crushes himself while his animal soul stands off in some other corner and takes a lesson from him; the animal is he himself. The nefesh habahamis that animates the body of the beinoni is present in all its strength and force as from birth, as on the day it came into being, in his heart, "נמצא היא היא האדם עצמו" (it turns out that it is the person himself). His feelings are the feelings of the nefesh habahamis, and when he crushes and debases himself, it is the animal that he is debasing.
In summary: in this section we learned the mashal of the Zohar about the log in which the fire will not catch: one does not add fire, rather "מבטשין ליה," one splits it into small pieces and reduces its coarseness; and so too in the nimshal, a body that the light of the neshamah does not penetrate, "מבטשין ליה." We saw that the intellect does not take hold and become fixed in the mind to the point of ruling over the materiality of the heart, because of the materiality and coarseness of the heart and the mind, and that the Zohar is speaking of a general situation while the Tanya is speaking of the problem of the beinoni, which is mainly in the heart. The root of timtum halev is the coarseness of the kelipah, which conceals and darkens the light of the divine soul, and therefore the counsel is "לבטשה ולהשפילה," to crush it and humble it through inner avodah: to be "נבזה בעיניו נמאס" and to possess a "לב נשבר." And all this because the vital soul, which stands in full strength in the heart of the beinoni, is the person himself.
This principle, that the vital soul is the person himself, was already stated in chapter 1 of the Tanya, even though with tzaddikim the matter is different. In the next section we will return to the Alter Rebbe's words in chapter 1 and go into them more deeply.