In the previous sections we studied the two extremes: the upper extreme, the tzaddik in his various levels (chapter 10), and the lower extreme, the rasha ve'tov lo and the rasha ve'ra lo (chapter 11). Now we arrive at chapter 12 (folio 16b, page thirty-two), and with it at the central point of the entire Tanya: the beinoni.
On the title page the Alter Rebbe himself calls the work a "sefer shel beinonim," a book for beinonim, and in doing so he reveals its purpose: to bring every Jew to the level of beinoni. But to understand what a beinoni is, a great deal of groundwork was needed, a lengthy treatment of the two souls, the nefesh ha'Elokis and the nefesh habahamis, and the faculties contained in each. Now, with all the introductions behind us, the explanation itself begins.
"And the beinoni" - with the definite article:
The Alter Rebbe opens the chapter with the words "vehabeinoni hu" ("and the beinoni is"), not "uveinoni hu" ("and a beinoni is"). Following the pattern of the preceding chapters, we would have expected "and a beinoni is such and such," yet he writes "the beinoni," with the definite article. By this he teaches that this is the destination, the point toward which we have been heading from the very start. And as we will see in chapter 14, the measure of the beinoni is the measure of every person: every single one of us both needs to reach it and is capable of reaching it.
The definition of the beinoni in the lashon of the Tanya:
"והבינוני הוא שלעולם אין הרע גובר כל כך לכבוש את העיר קטנה, להתלבש בגוף להחטיאו" - "And the beinoni is one in whom the evil never gains enough strength to conquer the 'small city,' to clothe itself in the body and make it sin." In every person both sides are present: the right chamber of the heart is the dwelling place of the yetzer tov, and the left chamber is the dwelling place of the yetzer hara. The beinoni is not like the tzaddik, who has uprooted the evil; in him the evil is present in full force. The first element of the definition is that the evil within him does not gain the upper hand.
The inner layer and the outer layer:
To grasp what "does not gain the upper hand" means, we must first distinguish two layers within the soul of a person:
The inner layer - the ten faculties of the soul: the three intellectual faculties (chochmah, binah, daas) and the seven middos of the heart. This is the person's very essence, who he actually is.
The outer layer - the three levushim, the garments of the soul: thought, speech and action. Thought is a person's means of communicating with himself, speech is his means of communicating with those around him, and action is his means of communicating with the physical world.
The beinoni is one in whom, on the inner level, the nefesh habahamis is present in full strength and the evil has not been uprooted at all; yet on the outer level, in thought, speech and action, the nefesh habahamis does not manage to take control in any way whatsoever. He does not stumble in any sin, not in thought, not in speech and not in deed. And not only does he not stumble in practice, but as will be emphasized further on, the very possibility of sinning in any of the three garments is ruled out for him; the concept of actually sinning does not exist in his consciousness.
This is the meaning of "shele'olam ein hara gover kol kach", "the evil never gains so much strength." He does have evil, and cravings and temptations do arise in him, but the evil does not succeed in ruling the outer layer, and does not succeed "lichbosh es ha'ir ketanah", in conquering the "small city," which is the body with its three garments.
In his words: "שלשה לבושי נפש הבהמית, שהם מחשבה דיבור ומעשה שמצד הקליפה, אין גוברים בו על נפש האלוקית להתלבש בגוף, במוח ובפה ובשאר כל האיברים, להחטיאם ולטמאם חס ושלום" - "the three garments of the nefesh habahamis, namely thought, speech and action deriving from the kelipah, do not prevail in him over the nefesh ha'Elokis so as to clothe themselves in the body, in the brain, in the mouth and in all the other limbs, to make them sin and to defile them, God forbid." The garments of the nefesh habahamis are forbidden thoughts, forbidden words and forbidden deeds, and in the beinoni they never gain momentum and never manage to express themselves in his body at all: not in the brain (thought), not in the mouth (speech), and not in the rest of the limbs (action).
Thoughts that are not willed:
Later in the chapter it will be explained that thoughts which are not good do at times fall into the mind of the beinoni, but these are not willed thoughts. The moment he becomes aware that a forbidden thought has arisen in him, he immediately pushes it away and removes it. The Previous Rebbe uses a striking expression: thought is the mirror of the heart. Since in the beinoni's heart, in the left chamber, the yetzer hara with its cravings is still active, those cravings are reflected in his thoughts, but not with awareness and not with his will.
The three garments of the nefesh ha'Elokis, by contrast, are the only ones that clothe themselves in his body: pure thoughts, proper speech and good deeds. The physical body of the beinoni knows nothing but the nefesh ha'Elokis, and on the operative level only G-dly matters are at work in him: the thought, speech and action of the taryag mitzvos of the Torah. He transgresses no prohibition, he neglects no mitzvah, his speech is permissible and his willed thoughts are clean and holy.
"And he never committed a sin in his life":
Here the Alter Rebbe adds a definition that seems to make the level of beinoni altogether impossible: "ולא עבר עבירה מימיו, ולא יעבור לעולם, ולא נקרא עליו שם רשע אפילו שעה אחת ורגע אחד כל ימיו" - "and he has never in his life committed a sin, and never will, and the name rasha has never been applied to him, not for a single hour and not for a single moment, all his days." The beinoni is one who has never sinned, who never will sin, and who has never been called a rasha even for one moment.
The difficulties this raises:
The Alter Rebbe himself writes in chapter 14 that the measure of the beinoni is the measure of every person, and that anyone can be a beinoni. According to the definition given here that is impossible, so we seem to have a contradiction.
If a person committed even a single sin, it turns out that the door has been shut before him and he can never again be a beinoni. Yet the Rambam rules in Hilchos Teshuvah that nothing stands in the way of teshuvah, and that even one who denied the very foundation of faith all his days and repented at the end has a share in the World to Come.
The Gemara in Yoma states "David bishtayim," that David HaMelech sinned in two matters (and what "sin" means for a person on David HaMelech's level requires its own understanding). Yet in chapter 1 David HaMelech was brought as the example of a tzaddik gamur, whose yetzer tov judges him, as it says "velibi chalal bekirbi," "and my heart is void within me." So a person who sinned can even be a tzaddik; why then could he not be a beinoni?
And the strongest difficulty of all: how can it be determined already today that "he will never sin," when free choice is given to a person all the days of his life? A person may be a complete tzaddik today, as we find in the story of Yochanan Kohen Gadol.
In summary: in this section we learned that chapter 12 opens with the wording "vehabeinoni," with the definite article, because this is the purpose of the entire sefer and the measure of every person. The definition of the beinoni is that the evil exists in him in full force on the inner level, in the ten faculties of the soul, yet does not prevail at all on the outer level, in the three garments of thought, speech and action. In the beinoni, only the three garments of the nefesh ha'Elokis clothe themselves in the body: the thought, speech and action of the taryag mitzvos. We also examined the sharp formulation "and he has never committed a sin in his life and never will," and the difficulties that arise from it.
In the next section we will take up the resolution of these difficulties and arrive at a precise understanding of the definition of the beinoni.