Let us open with a story. A chassid once came in to the Alter Rebbe and complained: "Rebbe, my problem is that I am in a bad state, and I don't even care." He weighed his own words and added: "And the truth is, I don't even care that I don't care." He paused, and went on: "And I don't even care that I don't care that I don't care." After three or four times, each statement said not casually but out of genuine inner experience, he fainted, having reached the point where he really did care.
Every person has a measure of indifference, but the further in you go, the more that indifference breaks apart. The very fact that this chassid was saying these words was already a form of caring, and the very fact that he had come in to the Rebbe proved that the matter did concern him.
This same principle will emerge from the illustration brought at the end of the chapter, about Rabbi Akiva, who saw the stone hollowed out by dripping water: steady drops, over time, bore a hole even through stone. There is no situation in which a Jew can say "it won't help, I am sealed shut." The bittush (the "pounding" of the heart and the animal soul) must have an effect in any state whatsoever.
"As we find this stated explicitly in the Torah": the episode of the spies
The Alter Rebbe brings an explicit proof from the Torah, from the episode of the spies. Let us first look at the verses themselves. Moshe Rabbeinu sent twelve spies to Eretz Yisrael, and ten of them came back and spoke ill of the land. The verse says (Bamidbar 13:31): "וְהָאֲנָשִׁים אֲשֶׁר עָלוּ עִמּוֹ אָמְרוּ לֹא נוּכַל לַעֲלוֹת אֶל הָעָם כִּי חָזָק הוּא מִמֶּנּוּ" ("But the men who had gone up with him said: we cannot go up against that people, for they are stronger than we"). Ten of the spies said that we cannot enter the land and will not succeed in conquering the thirty one kings who then ruled in Canaan. (How they could say such a thing after the exodus from Egypt, the ten plagues and the splitting of the sea is a subject in its own right, and not our concern here.) In any case, what we have before us is an expression of a lack of faith.
In chapter 14 (from verse 26) Hashem turns to Moshe and Aharon, and there follows a string of verses of the harshest rebuke: "How long shall I bear with this evil congregation," "in this wilderness your carcasses shall fall," "in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die." Further on it says: "And the men whom Moshe sent to scout out the land, who returned and made the whole congregation murmur against him by bringing out an evil report upon the land, those men who brought out the evil report of the land died by a plague before Hashem." Those ten spies died in a plague, "but Yehoshua son of Nun and Kalev son of Yefuneh remained alive of those men who went to scout out the land."
The two verses that close the parshah are the ones relevant to understanding what follows in Tanya: "And Moshe spoke these words to all the children of Israel" (the harsh words that Hashem had said), "and the people mourned greatly. And they rose up early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying: here we are, and we will go up to the place that Hashem has spoken of." The people did teshuvah and said: we are going up.
In the Alter Rebbe's words: "כמו שמצינו דבר זה מפורש בתורה לגבי המרגלים שמתחלה אמרו כי חזק הוא ממנו" ("as we find this stated explicitly in the Torah regarding the spies, who at first said 'for they are stronger than we'"), that the nation dwelling in the land is stronger than we are. And our Sages expounded (and Rashi brings this on the Chumash): do not read "mimenu" (than we) but "mimenu" (than Him), referring to Above, meaning that they did not believe in Hashem's ability to conquer the thirty one kings.
"ואח"כ חזרו ואמרו הננו ועלינו אל המקום וגו'" ("and afterward they turned around and said: here we are, and we will go up to the place"). It was not the spies who turned around and said this, but the people. At first the people were dragged along after the spies, wept and said that we cannot enter; and now they did teshuvah and said "here we are, and we will go up."
The Alter Rebbe's question
"ומאין חזרה ובאה להם האמונה ביכולת ה'?" ("and from where did their faith in Hashem's ability return to them?"). What happened between saying "for they are stronger than He" and saying "here we are, and we will go up"? This is a swing from one extreme to the other: from a lack of faith in Hashem's ability, all the way to a readiness to go up and enter the land of Canaan.
"והרי לא הראה להם משה רבינו ע"ה שום אות ומופת על זה בנתיים" ("and Moshe Rabbeinu, peace be upon him, had shown them no sign or wonder about this in the interim"). Moshe showed them no sign or wonder that would produce a change in their faith and their outlook. "רק שאמר להם איך שקצף ה' עליהם ונשבע שלא להביאם אל הארץ" ("he only told them how Hashem was angry with them and had sworn not to bring them into the land"). That was all he said to them.
"ומה הועיל זה להם אם לא היו מאמינים ביכולת ה' ח"ו לכבוש ל"א מלכים ומפני זה לא רצו לעלות?" ("and how did this help them, if they did not believe, G-d forbid, in Hashem's ability to conquer thirty one kings, and for that reason did not want to go up?"). If in their view Hashem does not have the power to bring them success, how does learning that He is angry with them turn the whole picture upside down?
The Jewish people themselves are "believers, children of believers"
The answer is the foundation of the chapter. When the Jewish people said that they did not believe, it was not they who said it; it was the nefesh habahamis (the animal soul) and the yetzer hara speaking out of their throats. Deep inside, a Jew always believes, and there is no such reality as a Jew who does not believe. Therefore, the moment one pounds away at the outer shell and breaks it, the inner core bursts out and cries, "I believe!" This is exactly what Moshe Rabbeinu did. By telling them harsh words, that Hashem was angry with them, that He would not bring them into the land, that in this wilderness their carcasses would fall, he broke the coarseness that had been shouting "we do not believe."
In the Alter Rebbe's words: "אלא ודאי מפני שישראל עצמם מאמינים בני מאמינים" ("rather, it must be because the Jewish people themselves are believers, the children of believers"). The inner essence of a Jew believes. "רק שהסטרא אחרא המלובשת בגופם הגביה עצמה על קדושת נפשם האלוקית" ("it is only that the sitra achra clothed in their bodies raised itself above the holiness of their divine soul"). The sitra achra that had clothed itself in their bodies grew bold, pushed the divine soul aside and spoke words the mind cannot tolerate: a nation that left Egypt, saw the ten plagues and the splitting of the sea, suddenly says that it does not believe in Hashem's ability.
"בגסות רוחה וגבהותה בחוצפה בלי טעם ודעת" ("with its coarseness and arrogance, with brazenness, without reason or knowledge"). This is brazenness with no logic in it at all. And precisely for that reason you cannot bring it down with explanations and persuasion, since its source is not logic but chutzpah and coarseness of spirit; and with chutzpah there is no other way but to break it.
"ולכן מיד שקצף ה' עליהם והרעים בקול רעש ורוגז עד מתי לעדה הרעה הזאת . . במדבר הזה יפלו פגריכם . . אני ה' דברתי אם לא זאת אעשה לכל העדה הרעה הזאת וגו'" ("and therefore, as soon as Hashem was angry with them and thundered with a voice of noise and wrath, 'how long shall I bear with this evil congregation... in this wilderness your carcasses shall fall... I, Hashem, have spoken, surely this will I do to all this evil congregation'"). Hashem thundered at them in the strongest of voices. "וכששמעו דברים קשים אלו נכנע ונשבר לבם בקרבם כדכתיב ויתאבלו העם מאד" ("and when they heard these harsh words, their heart within them was humbled and broken, as it is written: and the people mourned greatly").
In that moment of shock, their inner core opened up. This is how it goes with a person who comes under pressure, or into a crisis or trouble, G-d forbid: suddenly he wakes up, and the Jew in him wakes up. That very same person, who until yesterday did not want to hear a word, now wants to hear; for even yesterday it was not he who did not want to hear, but the nefesh habahamis, and the moment a crack appears in it, immediately he wants to hear.
"ונפלה הסטרא אחרא מממשלתה וגסות רוחה וגבהותה" ("and the sitra achra fell from its dominion, its coarseness and its arrogance"). The sitra achra that was causing the interference disappeared, "וישראל עצמם הם מאמינים" ("and the Jewish people themselves are believers"). Once the Jew is left on his own, clean of the sitra achra, he is a believer, and there is no problem at all.
To summarize: in this section we learned that the indifference and brazenness of the nefesh habahamis are not a person's true essence, and that they are not to be dealt with by way of reason and understanding but by way of breaking and bittush. From the explicit proof the Alter Rebbe brings from the episode of the spies, that they said "for they are stronger than He" and then turned around and said "here we are, and we will go up," with no sign or wonder at all but only through the force of the harsh words of rebuke that broke their heart, we see that the Jewish people themselves are believers, the children of believers. All that is needed is to topple the sitra achra from its coarseness, and the inner faith reveals itself on its own.
In the next section we will take up the illustration of the stone hollowed out by dripping water, from which it becomes clear that in any state whatsoever the bittush has an effect.