We continue in chapter 30, on page 38b (page 76), in the last third of the page, from the line that begins "כמו שכתוב לקמן באריכות" ("as will be explained at length later on"), at the words "וכל שלא הגיע לידי מידה זו" ("and whoever has not reached this level"). Let us first review briefly what has been explained until now.
The chapter opens with the words of the Mishnah, "הוי שפל רוח בפני כל האדם" ("Be exceedingly humble before every man"): a person is to contemplate his fellow, whoever that fellow may be, even the lowest of the low, and to genuinely feel himself lower than him. And since what is demanded here is a true feeling, a feeling that is honestly accurate, the Alter Rebbe leads the student there in stages:
Not to judge the other: One has no right to judge his fellow for his conduct, because it is his circumstances that bring him to sin: his yetzer burns within him, the environment he finds himself in drags him along, and the upbringing he received was whatever it was. True, regarding himself a person has no excuse, for one who breaks the will of Hashem is called a rasha; but his fellow he cannot judge, because that fellow's circumstances are different from his own, and he does not even know what those circumstances are.
The recognition that he himself is in exactly the same position: Not only can he not judge his fellow, he himself is standing in precisely the same situation. His fellow faces tests and fails them; and he must examine himself, whether he truly strives and exerts himself in what is demanded of him. Take, for example, the avodah of davening with kavanah: is he really concentrating? Is he really laboring at it?
From here the Alter Rebbe continues: "וכל שלא הגיע לידי מידה זו להילחם עם גופו מלחמה עצומה כזו" ("and whoever has not reached this level, of waging such a mighty battle with his body"): one who has not reached the point where he wages war with his body and exerts himself to do what is demanded of him in the positive line of "do good", "עדיין לא הגיע לבחינת וערך מלחמת היצר הבוער כאש להבה להיות נכנע ונשבר מפני פחד ה'" ("has not yet come anywhere near the level and measure of the battle with a yetzer that burns like a flaming fire, that it be subdued and broken by the fear of Hashem").
A person who looks at his fellow and wonders how he could fail before his desires and not hold out in the battle, must turn and examine himself in the line of "do good," which demands of him an inner, spiritual effort. And if he does not meet the demand that the Aibershter makes of him, it turns out that he is standing in that very same situation himself.
Examples from the three pillars:
The Alter Rebbe brings examples from the three pillars upon which the world stands, Torah, avodah (tefillah) and gemilus chasadim, in each of which a person should examine himself as to whether he is doing what is asked of him to the fullest of his ability. He began with tefillah, and now continues with a further matter that still belongs to that same area: "וכן בעניין ברכת המזון וכל ברכות הנהנין והמצוות בכוונה, ואין צריך לומר כוונת המצוות לשמן" ("and so too regarding birkas hamazon and all the blessings over enjoyments and over mitzvos, said with kavanah, and needless to say, the intent of performing mitzvos for their own sake"):
Birchos hanehenin: the brachah over water, over a piece of cake, and the like.
Birchos hamitzvos: the brachah over tefillin, over tzitzis and so on. Are they said with kavanah and in the proper way?
Performing mitzvos for their own sake: and needless to say, when he does a mitzvah, is he doing it for the sake of the mitzvah itself, for the sake of connecting with the Aibershter?
In other words, a person has to make an honest accounting with himself: am I meeting what is being asked of me?
How much investment birkas hamazon demands:
It is well known that there is a whole order of halachos about when one may interrupt in the middle of davening, to answer amen, to say "Baruch Hu uvaruch Shemo" and the like. Now, the Shulchan Aruch brings something that many people are not aware of: regarding greeting someone in the middle of birkas hamazon out of fear or out of respect, that is, whether one may interrupt birkas hamazon to greet a person whom he fears or a person whom he honors, the law of birkas hamazon is like that of Shemoneh Esrei, where one does not interrupt except where there is a danger, and not like that of krias Shema and its brachos, where in certain situations the halachah is lenient for fear and for respect. And even a light action is forbidden in the middle of it, even for the purpose of a mitzvah.
It emerges that the law of birkas hamazon is the law of Shemoneh Esrei. Just as it would never occur to a person to answer the phone or to motion with his finger in the middle of Shemoneh Esrei, so too in the middle of birkas hamazon: as long as there is no question of actual danger to life, he may not even signal with a finger, "One moment, I am in the middle of bentching." And this is a real temptation, because very often a person allows himself all sorts of signs and signals in the middle of bentching, out of concern that so-and-so might walk away, and the like.
If so, let a person examine himself as to how he stands in birkas hamazon. What business does he have looking at the lowest of the low who fails his tests, when he himself is not withstanding the tests that have been placed upon him?
The pillar of Torah:
The Alter Rebbe continues and brings an example from what is demanded of a person in the study of Torah: "וכן בעניין עסק לימוד התורה ללמוד הרבה יותר מחפצו ורצונו לפי טבעו ורגילותו" ("and so too regarding the occupation of Torah study, to learn much more than his desire and will according to his nature and habit").
Let us first recall what we learned in chapter 15: something a person does according to his own standard, in a matter to which he is already accustomed, is not called avodas Hashem, because it has become nature and routine for him. Avodas Hashem begins with that "little bit beyond the usual." This is the meaning of the saying that one who reviews his lesson a hundred times is not comparable to one who reviews it a hundred and one times: that one additional time is weighed against all the hundred, because it goes beyond his habit and involves effort and difficulty.
And there the mashal was brought [updated to our own day]: one who travels in a shared taxi from place to place pays a fixed fare; but if he asks the driver to take him another five hundred meters beyond the route, the driver will double the whole price, even though he drove him ten kilometers for less, because the request goes beyond the routine. And so too with tefillah, which a person davens every day as a matter of routine: the avodah lies in the added kavanah, the concentration and the effort.
Here, though, the Alter Rebbe demands more than that. One who does a bit more than his usual has indeed already earned the title "oved"; but he must examine whether he is battling and doing much more, for that is what makes it a mighty battle with his body. In his words: "כי הלומד מעט יותר מטבעו הרי זו מלחמה קטנה ואין לה ערך ודמיון עם מלחמת היצר הבוער כאש" ("for one who learns a little more than his nature, this is a small battle, and it bears no comparison or resemblance to the battle with a yetzer that burns like fire").
Someone accustomed to learning an hour a day who learns an hour and five minutes: those five minutes are indeed hard for him, since they are beyond his nature, but this is only a small battle. Whereas the lowest of the low who stands in the marketplace, sees the object of his desire before his eyes and has to restrain himself, his battle is a mighty one. Therefore let a person put himself into a comparable situation and examine: does he add another half hour, which for him is like the splitting of the Yam Suf?
"והרי אותו פלוני נקרא רשע גמור אם אינו מנצח את יצרו להיות נכנע ונשבר מפני ה'" ("and that person is called a complete rasha if he does not conquer his yetzer, that it be subdued and broken before Hashem"): that person, who did not withstand the temptation, even though his battle is exceedingly hard, is called a rasha for not having conquered his yetzer.
At first glance, what is the comparison? That one fails to withstand a temptation to commit an aveirah, while this one merely fails to withstand the difficulty of adding in a mitzvah.
To this the Alter Rebbe says: "ומה לי בחינת סור מרע ומה לי בחינת ועשה טוב, הכל היא מצוות המלך הקדוש היחיד והמיוחד ברוך הוא" ("and what difference is there to me between the aspect of 'turn from evil' and the aspect of 'do good'? It is all the command of the holy King, the One and only, blessed be He"). It makes no difference that his fellow's difficulty lies in "turn from evil" and he fails there, while of this person "do good" is demanded in the study of Torah: it is all the command of the King.
A precision in the expression "the command of the King":
Every expression here is exact. The Alter Rebbe is not satisfied with a short phrase, "it is all the command of Hashem." He goes at length: "the command of the holy King, the One and only, blessed be He," and each and every word comes to strengthen the idea. Let us first dwell on the word "the King," and on the well known principle that distinguishes between the laws of the state and the laws of the kingdom:
The laws of the state: laws enacted for the benefit of the citizens. Every law has a logic and a reason behind it, and therefore not all the laws are equal in their force and severity: for some, one who transgresses is fined money, and for others the punishment is far more severe. Consequently one's attitude toward them is not uniform either.
The laws of the kingdom: the rules the king himself has laid down in his palace. Here the content of the command carries no weight, and whoever transgresses it, however small the matter may be, is a rebel against the crown. There is no room to argue, "My lord the king, it was only a small thing that you commanded." Once the king has said a thing, any transgression of it is rebellion against the kingship.
And so the Rambam writes in Hilchos Melachim: "כל המורד במלך ישראל יש למלך רשות להורגו, אפילו גזר על אחד משאר העם שילך למקום פלוני ולא הלך" ("anyone who rebels against a king of Israel, the king has the right to put him to death, even if he decreed upon one of the common people that he go to a certain place and he did not go"). And likewise, if he decreed upon him that he not leave his house and he left, he is liable to death. In our times there is no example of such a level of kingship, but this is the principle: in the sheer force of a king there is no difference between one law and another.
In summary: in this section we learned that one who does not wage a mighty battle with his body cannot judge his fellow, since he himself is not meeting what is demanded of him. The Alter Rebbe brings examples for self-examination: kavanah in birkas hamazon, in the birchos hanehenin and in the birchos hamitzvos (and we saw how stringent the law of birkas hamazon is in the Shulchan Aruch, that its law is like that of davening), and likewise learning Torah "much more" than his desire and will according to his nature and habit, since a small addition is only a small battle. Finally we dwelt on the principle that there is no difference between "turn from evil" and "do good," for it is all the command of the King, and on the distinction between the laws of the state, which have gradations, and the laws of the kingdom, in which every transgression is rebellion against the crown, as emerges from the words of the Rambam in Hilchos Melachim.
In the next section we will continue with the precision of the Alter Rebbe's wording in the rest of the phrase: "the holy King, the One and only, blessed be He."