In the previous section we looked closely at the situation of the beinoni, whose nefesh habahamis (animal soul) stands in full force, exactly as it was from birth. Now we will complete the Alter Rebbe's question on this point, and then study his answer together with its explanation from the words of the Zohar.
The question: what is gained by the divine soul becoming clothed in the animal soul?
The Alter Rebbe continues: «שלא יוכלו לשלחה כל ימיהם» - that they are unable to banish it all their days. A person simply cannot send the animal soul away from its place. And more than that: he cannot even prevent it from raising its «objections» to the brain. In other words, he does not budge it at all. It goes on all the time producing its thoughts and demanding its deeds, and the person is clothed inside it and never manages to move it for as long as he lives, for its essence remains in full strength, just as it was from birth.
The one thing he does achieve is «רק שלבושיה אינם מתלבשים בגופם» - only that its garments are not clothed in their body. The garments of will, the thought he chooses, the speech he chooses and the action he chooses, are not controlled by the animal soul. There, in the realm of the garments, a person's control does enter and he succeeds; but in the animal soul itself he achieves nothing.
And here is the Alter Rebbe's question: if in the animal soul itself a person does not succeed, why did the Holy One arrange that the divine soul be clothed inside it? What is gained by this clothing? Seemingly it would have been better for them to be two separate entities, without the wrestling and the warfare between them. The precision is in the word «to be clothed»: it emerges that the purpose is not only to fight the animal soul but also to be clothed within it - and what is gained by that clothing if he never budges it? To this the Alter Rebbe adds: «ואם כן למה ירדו נשמותיהם לעולם הזה להתלבש... להתייגע לריק חס ושלום ולהילחם כל ימיהם עם היצר ולא יכלו לו» - if so, why did their souls descend to this world to be clothed... to labor in vain, G-d forbid, and to battle the yetzer all their days without overcoming it. For this is the very definition of a beinoni, that he remains a beinoni all his days: even if he works for a hundred and twenty years and succeeds in never stumbling in a single sin, the animal soul itself he will not have moved by so much as a millimeter.
[It is worth clarifying: if the heart that was active in a person were the divine soul, the impulses rising to the brain would be divine impulses. But since the active heart is the animal one, which is always present, comes without any work and flows on its own, the impulses generally come from it; from the divine soul they come only through effort and avodah, for the divine soul is something a person himself has to activate.]
The Alter Rebbe's answer:
The entire answer is already contained in the first line and a half, even though its explanation runs on at great length: «ותהי זאת נחמתם לנחמם בכפליים לתושייה ולשמח לבם בהשם השוכן איתם בתוך תורתם ועבודתם» - let this be their comfort, to comfort them doubly, and to gladden their hearts in G-d who dwells with them within their Torah and their avodah. The phrase «כפליים לתושייה», doubly, points to the words of the prophet, «נחמו נחמו עמי אמר אלוקיכם», Comfort, comfort My people, says your G-d (which is read on Shabbos Nachamu).
And this is the content of the comfort: know, beinoni, that when you carry out the will of G-d in actual deed, the Creator rests within your deed. And since the divine soul is clothed inside the animal soul, it turns out that the animal soul itself becomes a dwelling for the Shechinah. Had they been two separate entities, in a way that involved no clothing at all, it would turn out that the animal soul had never housed the Creator within itself.
And here comes a powerful point that needs explaining. Picture one Jew whose heart burns with a love for the Creator of an extraordinary kind; and opposite him, another Jew whose heart is utterly far from that, who has no desire and no interest, and only under pressure and compulsion, with difficulty, carries out the Creator's will in actual deed.
With whom does the Creator dwell more?
Says the Alter Rebbe: «השוכן איתם בתוך תורתם ועבודתם» - who dwells with them within their Torah and their avodah. And it is specifically with the one who carries it out in deed. This requires understanding, and we now turn to its explanation.
A long quotation from the Zohar: the words of the Yenuka
Here the Alter Rebbe takes an approach that is rare in Tanya. Usually he quotes only short passages from the Zohar; here he brings a long, complete passage, in Aramaic, word for word, and on its basis the entire explanation of the subject unfolds. In his words, one must first present the language of the Yenuka in the Zohar on Parshas Balak.
Who is the Yenuka?
«Yenuka» means an infant, a young child. This was the son of Rav Hamnuna Sava, a very young boy who was wise and righteous, and it is brought that a spark of the soul of Moshe Rabbeinu was clothed in him. The Zohar contains whole passages of his teachings, and chassidus offers many explanations of these two passages.
In the passage preceding this one, the Zohar tells a story. Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Yose were traveling together and came to the village of Sichnin, to the home of Rav Hamnuna Sava, who was no longer alive, and there were the Yenuka and his mother. The mother said to her son: two of the great men of the world have come in, Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Yose; go over to them and receive a blessing from them. The Yenuka came close to them, and immediately drew back and told his mother that he did not want to be near them, because they had not recited Krias Shema that day, and one may not stand within four amos of someone who has not recited Krias Shema.
Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Yose heard this and were deeply impressed. They took hold of him and kissed him, and said to him: «It is true, we did not recite Krias Shema today, but that is because we were occupied with the mitzvah of escorting a bride, and one who is engaged in a mitzvah is exempt from another mitzvah; we were caught up in it and could not recite. But how do you know that we did not recite Krias Shema?» He answered them: «I smell it on your garments.» From here a long exchange opened up between them, and later in the encounter, around the meal and the washing of the hands, the Yenuka opened up and poured out many teachings before them. And after all this comes the passage that the Alter Rebbe brings.
Why does the Alter Rebbe name the one who said it?
Usually, when the Alter Rebbe brings passages from the Zohar, he does not identify who said them but writes «it is written in the Zohar», even though in the Zohar itself the author of the statement is stated explicitly. Here he specifically emphasizes that these are the words of the Yenuka, and in this he hinted at something. The Yenuka is small and young, and the subject he is dealing with is the superiority of action relative to all the other faculties of the soul. On the face of it, emotion and the heart are the great and mighty ones, while action is the small and young one, a nothing, a «yenuka». So the Zohar comes and says: take this little one, and see how great its superiority is.
«החכם עיניו בראשו» - The wise man's eyes are in his head
The Yenuka speaks in the Zohar on Parshas Balak about the verse «החכם עיניו בראשו», the wise man's eyes are in his head, and he asks a simple question: «וכי באן אתר עינוי דבר נש» - in what other place are a person's eyes? Everyone's eyes are in his head, so what is the verse coming to teach us?
Rather, «קרא הכא ודאי הוא» - this is certainly the meaning of the verse: «דתנן לא יהך בר נש בגילויא דרישא ארבע אמות» - as we have learned, a person should not walk four amos with his head uncovered. «מאי טעמא» - what is the reason? «דשכינתא שריא על רישיה» - because the Shechinah rests upon his head, and out of respect for it the head must always be covered. We learn from this that the head is the place where the Shechinah rests.
And from here «החכם עיניו בראשו» is explained: «וכל חכם עינוהי ומילוי ברישיה אינון» - the eyes of the wise man, meaning his attention, his concentration and his contemplation, are directed to his head, «בההוא דשריא וקיימא על רישיה» - to that which rests and stands upon his head, namely the Shechinah.
And once we have established that the Shechinah is upon the head and that the eyes of the wise man turn to it, the Yenuka continues: «וכד עינוי תמן» - and when his eyes are there, that is, when he contemplates the Shechinah, «לנדע דההוא נהורא דאדליק על רישיה אצטריך למשחא» - he must know that this light burning above his head needs oil. For no lamp burns without oil, without fuel to sustain the flame.
«בגין דגופא דבר נש איהו פתילה» - because a person's body is the wick, «ונהורא אדליק לעילא» - and the light burns above it, above the head. «ושלמה מלכא צווח ואמר: ושמן על ראשך אל יחסר» - King Shlomo proclaims and warns that oil upon your head shall not be lacking, for without it the light will not burn, «דהא נהורא דבראשו אצטריך למשחא» - since the light that is on the head requires oil.
And here comes the surprise: what is this oil? «ואינון עובדאן טבאן» - these are good deeds, specifically. Good deeds are what count as the fuel oil for the Shechinah, «ועל דא: החכם עיניו בראשו» - and therefore, the wise man's eyes are in his head. Thus far the words of the Yenuka.
To sum up: in this section we completed the Alter Rebbe's question about the beinoni - that he has no power to move his animal soul, which stands in full strength exactly as it was from birth, and he cannot even stop it from raising its objections to the brain; and if so, what is gained by the divine soul being clothed within it, and why did the soul descend to this world «להתייגע לריק», to labor in vain, and to battle the yetzer all its days without overcoming it. His answer: «ותהי זאת נחמתם... ולשמח לבם בהשם השוכן איתם בתוך תורתם ועבודתם» - let this be their comfort... and gladden their hearts in G-d who dwells with them within their Torah and their avodah. The Shechinah rests specifically within his Torah and his practical avodah, and because of this the animal soul itself also becomes a dwelling for the Creator. To explain this, the Alter Rebbe brought, in a manner rare in Tanya, a complete passage in the language of the Yenuka in the Zohar on Parshas Balak: the head is the place where the Shechinah rests, a person's body is the wick, and the light burning above the head needs oil - and the oil is nothing other than «עובדין טבין», good deeds.
In the next section we will go deeper into the explanation of the Yenuka's words: how good deeds are the oil that kindles the light of the Shechinah, and why it is specifically action, the smallest of the faculties, that draws the Shechinah to dwell in the body and in the nefesh habahamis.