We left off in the final portion of chapter 29, on daf 37b (page 74), at the fourth line from the top of the page, the line that begins "והטעם לפי". Let us first review briefly the course of the chapter until now, and from there, with G-d's help, continue on to the conclusion of the subject.
This chapter comes as a continuation of the chapters in which the Alter Rebbe addresses the Jew called a beinoni, the things that stand in the way of his progress in avodas Hashem, and the advice for dealing with them. In chapters 26 through 28 we dealt at length with the subject of simcha: how to bring a person to be always in a state of joy, despite all the seemingly justified reasons that interfere with it. In chapter 29 the Alter Rebbe opens a further problem that the beinoni contends with: timtum halev, the dullness of the heart.
What is timtum halev?
Timtum halev in the sense of a heart that has become sealed shut: the Jew tries to arouse himself emotionally, especially during davening, and nothing moves. He contemplates the very matters that are supposed to awaken love of G-d, all the raw material is there within him, and still the heart does not stir, as though some barrier and blockage were standing in front of him.
The solution is learned from the words of the Zohar about a block of wood that fire will not catch in: one has to split it into small pieces and pound it, and then the fire takes hold. So too within the person himself. It is the nefesh habahamis, the animal soul, that seals off his feelings and does not allow him to be aroused, and therefore he must "pound" it, do bittush to it. He must contemplate matters that will bring him to crush himself, and once he has crushed the animal within him, the way opens for a Jewish heart that is aroused in love of G-d and in tefillah.
And one must remember: we are not speaking of a Jew who sins, but of the Jew called a beinoni, one who fulfills everything required of him, who is careful in thought, speech and deed and does not stumble. As we already learned from the beginning of Tanya, those who look at him from the outside are certain that they are standing before a complete tzaddik. Even so, he knows in his innermost self that he has a nefesh habahamis, that desires arise in him and he pushes them away, and precisely alongside that measure of perfection, that he does not fail in thought, speech or deed, precisely he is the one who needs to know how to crush himself.
What should a person contemplate in order to arrive at bittush?
The essence of his soul: Animals, and even creeping and crawling creatures, appear lower than he is, for he belongs to the category of "speaker" and they to the category of "living." Yet he has a deficiency relative to them: they are incapable of sinning and of transgressing the will of G-d, while his soul is capable of it. The very capacity to transgress G-d's will places him in a lowlier position than they, and this contemplation in itself brings him to bittush, like that block of wood that is split open so that afterwards it will be easier to catch fire in avodas Hashem.
The sins of his youth: Let him remember the sins he committed in his younger years. Even though he has already done teshuvah for them, it may well be that precisely today, standing on a higher level, a renewed teshuvah is demanded of him, to repair on his present level what his earlier teshuvah never touched. It may be that a sin from the past has been reawakened and it is what is holding him back today, and when he does teshuvah for it the way opens up.
Thought, speech and deed: Even one who says he has no sins of youth at all should contemplate all his thoughts, words and deeds from the time he knows himself: were all the thoughts always holy, all the words pure, all the deeds whole? Wherever he finds a blemish, let him do teshuvah for it and rise above it, and with that the way opens.
The dreams of the night: And if he does not know whether he occupied himself during the day with empty thoughts, let him look at the subject matter of his dreams at night, for most of them come from what he thought about during the day. And as was brought here in the language of the Zohar, such dreams are an expression of the forces of impurity that cling to him.
All of these contemplations have a single purpose: to bring a person to bittush.
At the end of the previous shiur we discussed a further approach: that a person arouse his G-dly soul and turn to address his animal soul, saying to it, in thought alone, with no need for anyone to hear it, harsh and severe words: "אתה רע ורשע ומשוקץ וטמא ומנוול" ("you are evil and wicked and detestable and impure and repulsive"), why are you concealing the light of G-d from me and interfering with my bond to the Holy One Blessed Be He. When he stands facing some difficulty he strikes himself, as it were, across the face, and wonders how it can be that he finds himself in such a state, and this thought is meant to do its work.
"With sensory sight and not merely with hearing and understanding":
Let us return to the top of the page: through all the paths that were mentioned, "יועיל לנפשו האלוקית להאיר עיניה באמת ייחוד אור אין סוף ברוך הוא, בראייה חושית ולא בחינת שמיעה והבנה לבדה" ("he will benefit his G-dly soul, to illuminate its eyes with the truth of the unity of the Ein Sof light, with sensory sight and not with the level of hearing and understanding alone"). The bittush will illuminate the eyes of the neshamah and connect the person to his Creator, and not through the illumination of intellect and knowledge alone, but with actual sight.
What is this "sight"? Sight is a metaphor for a certain, absolute connection to the thing itself. One who hears something from another, even though he believes him and relies on him and does not suspect him of lying, and is confident that the matter is true, does not reach the level of one who saw it with his own eyes, for there is no certainty stronger than that. So too with connection to G-dliness: when it is like sensory sight, the person is far more moved by it and it becomes internalized within him. And as is explained elsewhere, this is the root of all avodah, that a Jew should arrive at sight and at a real bond with G-dliness.
There is a beautiful parable on this subject from the tzaddik Reb Tzvi of Zidichov. He was asked: what did the teaching of chassidus introduce, and what did the Baal Shem Tov introduce? After all, before him there was the holy Arizal, who revealed the wisdom of the inner Torah, and before him Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, author of the holy Zohar, and the difference cannot be merely one of quantity. He answered them with a parable:
A visitor arrived in a certain country and reported: in such and such a place I saw a wondrous bird, its eyes exactly like the eyes of a human being and its legs exactly like the legs of a calf. The people heard and said: he is imagining things, there is no such creature. Perhaps he convinced one or two, but a person does not connect to something his mind cannot grasp. After a while a second man came from that same place and said: I saw the bird, only its eyes are not exactly like human eyes, they are similar, close to it, and its legs somewhat resemble the legs of a calf. This man already brought many more people to believe the matter, but he still did not convince everyone. Eventually a third man came and brought the bird itself with him and said: here, see with your own eyes. And once everyone sees, there is no longer any argument.
And so, said that tzaddik, is the difference between Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the holy Arizal, and the Baal Shem Tov. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai spoke in the concepts of the world of Kabbalah, which only a handful of people in our world could understand; everyone else looked on and had no idea what was being spoken about. With the holy Arizal the matters penetrated further into the creation and into human beings, but still his students, the "lion cubs" of the Arizal, were only the greatest of the generation and great mekubalim. From the Baal Shem Tov onward it became accessible to every single person: every Jew, through learning the teaching of chassidus, connects in his innermost self to the recognition of G-dly matters until he actually sees them. This too is the intent here: a connection "with sensory sight," which is the root of all avodah.
In summary: in this portion we reviewed the paths of bittush that the Alter Rebbe laid out for removing timtum halev: contemplating the essence of one's soul as against the animals, the sins of youth, one's thought, speech and deed, and the dreams of the night, and the G-dly soul turning to the animal soul with harsh words. We saw that the purpose of all of these is that the G-dly soul should have its eyes illuminated with the truth of the unity of the Ein Sof light, "בראייה חושית ולא בחינת שמיעה והבנה לבדה" ("with sensory sight and not with the level of hearing and understanding alone"), and that this is the root of all avodah, as emerges from the parable of the bird: that these matters became accessible to every Jew from the Baal Shem Tov onward.
In the next portion we will continue from the line beginning "והטעם לפי" through to the conclusion of chapter 29.