From here the Alter Rebbe begins a new passage, dealing with the secular wisdoms of the nations. Before we go on, let us briefly review the main points that were explained in this section of the chapter, and add a few points to round out the picture.
Klipas nogah and the three impure klipos in food:
In the last few lessons we studied the concept of 'klipas nogah', the intermediate shell that is found, for example, in permitted foods. With klipas nogah there are three possibilities:
To elevate it to holiness.
To leave it as it is.
To drag it down into the three impure klipos.
We stressed that even when a person deals with matters of klipas nogah and simply leaves them where they are, the name still tells the story: it is a klipa, a shell. A klipa is not something positive, and at some point it has to be removed. That is why the Alter Rebbe mentioned several ways in which the Holy One cleanses the soul of the klipa that has attached itself to it.
The three impure klipos, by contrast, are far more severe than klipas nogah, and in the realm of food they express themselves in forbidden foods. There a person has no ability whatsoever to elevate the thing upward, as he can with klipas nogah. There is only one direction: downward. Someone who eats forbidden food cannot elevate it, and it makes no difference whether he ate with lofty intentions and a blessing, or whether he prayed and learned with the strength he received from it. None of that will help in the slightest.
Klipas nogah in the world of speech:
The Alter Rebbe then moves on to speak about the world of speech. Here too there is speech that has the status of klipas nogah, and there is speech that comes from the three impure klipos. And with speech that is klipas nogah, the same three possibilities return: it can remain where it is, it can descend, or it can be elevated, exactly as with any klipas nogah.
Forbidden speech, such as lashon hara and mockery, certainly draws from the three impure klipos, since the act itself is forbidden. But a distinction has to be made. The Gemara says that all mockery is forbidden except for mockery of idolatry, and we also mentioned in the previous chapter, chapter 7, the matter of a light word of humor with which the sages would open before beginning to learn. When this is done properly, there is no question that it rises to holiness. What we are speaking of here is mockery and lashon hara in their negative sense, which belong to the three impure klipos.
Idle talk, devarim beteilim, is a different matter altogether. We are not speaking about words that are forbidden in themselves, but about conversation regarding the weather, the general news and the like, with no lashon hara in them at all, just plain talk. Such speech is klipas nogah, and its status depends on the person doing the speaking.
The source for this is the verse we say in Krias Shema: "ודיברת בם", "and you shall speak of them." The Gemara asks what is precise about the word "בם", "of them", and answers that it comes to exclude: "of them", of words of Torah, and not of idle matters. It emerges that every hour in which a person is engaged in Torah and not speaking idle words, he is fulfilling the mitzvah of "ודיברת בם". From here there are two situations:
An unlearned person who is unable to study: He has no way of fulfilling "ודיברת בם" with words of Torah, since he does not understand and cannot even read. For him, idle words are permitted, and therefore the klipas nogah in them remains where it is and does not descend downward. Even so, since klipas nogah too requires cleansing, the soul needs a certain purification, and that is the matter of 'kaf hakela' which we discussed at length in the previous lesson.
One who could be engaged in Torah and is not: For someone who speaks idle words at a time when he could have been learning, those words are forbidden to him, and they are no longer merely klipas nogah. For him kaf hakela is not enough; something more is required: a descent into Gehinnom.
Such a person has three matters requiring rectification. First, the very act of speaking idle words and the klipa that attaches itself to him as a result. Second, the nullification of the positive commandment of "ודיברת בם". And third, that the mitzvah he nullified is the mitzvah of Torah study, for which there is a separate accounting of its own.
The analogy of the garment:
One of the maamarim brings a physical analogy for this. A garment that has merely absorbed dust needs only to be shaken out; the dust comes off and the garment is fit to wear. But a garment with a stain on it, even a stain that is not one of the worst, will not be helped by a thousand shakings. It has to be taken to the laundry, put in hot water, and cleaned.
So it is with the soul. Klipas nogah is like dust, and kaf hakela is like a shaking out that cleanses the soul. But the three impure klipos, such as forbidden speech and mockery, are like a stain, and for them shaking is not enough. An additional process is required, and that is called Gehinnom.
"A Gehinnom of snow":
At the end of the previous lesson we mentioned that one who fails to fulfill a positive commandment out of laziness requires a type of Gehinnom known as a "Gehinnom of snow." Why specifically snow? Chassidim of earlier generations who studied Tanya explained this according to the practice of physical medicine. When a person has a fever, he is offered a cup of hot tea, which at first seems strange: he is already hot, so why add more heat? The principle, however, is "havla mapik havla", heat draws out heat, and the warmth that is brought in draws out the heat that is already there. Similarly, when a person is frozen with cold, one of the ways to warm him is to rub his body specifically with snow, and through this his vitality returns (the rubbing is what acts, but it is done with snow).
According to this explanation, a person who transgressed a prohibition performed an active deed out of heat, and therefore his rectification is in a Gehinnom of fire, since fire draws out fire. Whereas one who failed to fulfill a positive commandment did so out of coldness and laziness, and therefore his rectification is in a Gehinnom of snow, since cold draws out cold.
In one place, however, the Rebbe rejects this explanation, even though it sounds logical and interesting, and refers us to the Likkutei Torah of the Arizal, from which the Rebbe quotes a passage that proves conclusively that this is not the intent. The Rebbe explains that the reason is different: it is a matter of measure for measure. You acted with fire, you receive fire; you acted with cold, you receive cold.
A quip about 'kaf hakela':
To round out the subject, here is something that one of the chassidim of the previous generation said in jest, in the sort of mockery that is permitted... A person's age, he said, is not determined by what is written in his identity card or passport, but by what he has learned, as the verse says, "and you shall honor the face of the elder," and our sages expounded: "an elder, this is one who has acquired wisdom." One who has learned a great deal is an elder, while one who has learned nothing at all, even if he has reached the age of seventy, is, as far as learning goes, still a child.
Accordingly, when a person who spent all his days on idle matters reaches old age with a long white beard, and his soul ascends on high and the angels receive it, something strange happens. On the outside we have before us a white-bearded elder, but on the inside there is a child here who has learned nothing. One angel says to the other: "That is the kind of soul you received? Throw it over to me, let me see what you got." And the soul is flung from one end to the other, for the angels are astonished to see souls of this sort, and the Gemara has an expression that an angel stands a third of the world tall, which means enormous distances. That, said in jest, is the matter of 'kaf hakela'. And of course all this was said only humorously, since there are people who have accomplished a great deal in a short time.
In summary: in this section we reviewed the foundations learned in chapter 8: the distinction between klipas nogah, which can be elevated, left in place or brought down, and the three impure klipos, which have no possibility of elevation at all; the application of this distinction in the world of speech, between forbidden speech and idle words, and between the unlearned person whose idle words are permitted and one who could be engaged in Torah and is not; the analogy of the dust and the stain, which explains the difference between kaf hakela and Gehinnom; the reason for a "Gehinnom of snow" according to the explanation of the chassidim and according to the Rebbe, who establishes it as measure for measure; and the chassid's quip about kaf hakela.
In the next section we will continue from where we stopped, with the new passage in chapter 8, which deals with the secular wisdoms of the nations.