In the previous section we studied the state of the beinoni, the intermediate person. In this section we will look at the mitzvah of Krias Shema and its blessings, at the unique level the beinoni reaches during davening, and at his state once davening is over.
Krias Shema and its blessings:
Krias Shema is a positive mitzvah from the Torah, and its content is the love of Hashem and the keeping of the mitzvos. The blessings recited before and after it are not from the Torah; they were instituted by the Sages of Israel:
Shacharis: two blessings before it and one blessing after it.
Maariv: two blessings before it and two blessings after it.
The purpose of these blessings is to serve as a preparation for fulfilling Krias Shema. Now, ordinarily preparation comes before the act: "whoever toiled on Friday eats on Shabbos." The blessings before Krias Shema are easy to understand as a preparation for the mitzvah. But the blessing said after it, once Shema has already been recited and the person has already been lifted up, how can that be called a preparation?
The answer lies in the precise wording: the blessings are a preparation for the kiyum, the taking hold, of Krias Shema. The recitation itself is not enough; it has to be given permanence and a grip on every hour of the day, rather than being left behind between the walls of the shul while a person returns to daily life as if nothing had happened. That is why the blessing immediately after Krias Shema of Shacharis opens: "ויציב ונכון וקיים... הדבר הזה עלינו" ("and firm and established and enduring... is this matter upon us"), meaning that what was just recited in Krias Shema is true and firm. The fifteen expressions beginning with the letter vav said there have one purpose: to draw these matters into all the hours of the day. And as the blessing says, "fortunate is the man who listens to Your mitzvos", it is the person who actually carries out the mitzvos who gives Krias Shema its enduring hold.
Why are they called "the blessings of Krias Shema"?
In chapter 49 of Tanya a question is raised that bears directly on our subject. When we speak of "the blessings of Krias Shema", logic dictates a certain kind of text. The blessing on tefillin is "Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe, who sanctified us with His mitzvos and commanded us to put on tefillin", and the blessings on food and drink are short blessings said before deriving the pleasure: mezonos, ha'adamah, ha'eitz, hagafen. So if Krias Shema is a positive mitzvah from the Torah, just as we bless before wrapping ourselves in a tallis and before blowing shofar, one would expect a short blessing: "who sanctified us with His mitzvos and commanded us to recite Krias Shema", and then immediately "Shema Yisrael". In practice it is not like that at all: the blessings of Krias Shema are long pages dealing with the creation of the world, with the angels, and with the exodus from Egypt. What does any of that have to do with Krias Shema?
In light of what we have said, it is understood. Krias Shema is an enormous demand on a Jew: to arrive at love of Hashem. In order to get there, the Sages instituted blessings, and "berachah" comes from the root meaning to draw down: it gives a person the power that draws him toward Krias Shema and connects him to it. And how? Through the contemplation of Hashem's greatness that precedes it.
The descent of the generations and the added preparation:
In the earlier generations the blessings of Krias Shema were enough as a preparation.
As the generations declined, the Sages determined that this was no longer sufficient, and they added Pesukei Dezimrah and the psalms of Tehillim. One does not begin davening immediately with "who forms light and creates darkness", but with "Ashrei yoshvei veisecha" and the psalms, and these are meant to be contemplated.
In the later generations even that is not enough, and learning Chassidus before davening is needed: those passages and maamarim that awaken the heart and the emotions to the greatness of Hashem. Only through them does a person begin to understand what Pesukei Dezimrah are and what the blessings of Krias Shema are.
And even after all these preparations, the expression used is "kuli hai ve'ulai", all of this, and perhaps: perhaps when he reaches "Ve'ahavta" some faint stirring will be awakened in him that will actually affect him.
The beinoni during davening:
For the beinoni who succeeds in reaching this state, the time of davening is a time when he is literally like a tzaddik. He is not locked in battle and struggle with his desires; he is in an entirely different atmosphere. The noise of the left chamber of the heart, which is present in him all day long and which he keeps from breaking out into action, is at this moment subdued and nullified before the good that spreads through the right chamber from the Chochmah, Binah and Daas of the mind. Because the good in his heart is filled and multiplied with the G-dly good coming from the mind that is bound up with the greatness of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, the beinoni's yetzer hara falls completely asleep.
Why does it say here that the good spreads into the right chamber from the mind?
In chapter 9 we learned that the G-dly soul has two positions in a person's body: one in the right chamber of the heart, and one in the brain. The wording here might suggest that its center is in the brain alone, and that during davening the good spreads out to the heart as well, whereas according to chapter 9 the good in the right chamber exists in its own right and needs no impetus from the brain. The explanation is that there are indeed two centers, but there are times when the good of the heart is the one that arouses, and times when the good of the mind is what rules and arouses. The time of davening is a time of mochin degadlus above, an opportune hour for arousing the Chochmah, Binah and Daas of the soul, and therefore it is from there that the G-dly illumination bursts forth. The heart does not burst open on its own without contemplation: someone who lets words out of his mouth without thought will not have any genuine feeling awakened in him, and the words will carry no effect and no meaning. The effect comes solely as a result of the mind's contemplation.
After davening:
When the mochin degadlus of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, withdraw at the conclusion of davening, the beinoni lands back in reality. He is not a tzaddik who has uprooted the evil from his heart; he only managed to put it to sleep for a certain time, and every anesthetic wears off at some point and the pain returns. The evil reawakens in the left chamber and craves the desires of this world and its pleasures. The beinoni feels that the territory is familiar to him and that he belongs to it, yet actually acting on it is utterly out of the question for him.
The rasha ve'tov lo: he stands next to the store where forbidden foods are sold, he wants to fall, and it may well be that in the end he will overcome himself and not go in. He too is a person of a certain level, and nowadays people would call him a complete tzaddik, but in truth this is no more than the level of rasha ve'tov lo.
The beinoni: he passes by that same store and knows that there are tasty foods inside, but the whole thing simply has nothing to do with him. It would never occur to him to plan how to get in there, and he does not even entertain a fantasy about it.
This is the meaning of the words: "רק מפני שלא לו לבדו משפט המלוכה והממשלה בעיר" ("only because the authority of kingship and rule in the city is not his alone"). True, the yetzer hara reawakens after davening, but it is not the sole master of the house. There are two judges in the body, and every practical step requires the consent of both. The yetzer hara raises an idea, and the yetzer tov stops it and does not allow it to come out into action. Therefore "אינו יכול להוציא תאוותו מכוח אל הפועל" ("he cannot bring his desire from potential into actuality") and clothe it in the limbs of the body in actual deed, speech and thought.
This principle is hinted at in the verse "Judges and officers you shall appoint for yourself in all your gates." The mussar seforim explain that a person has many gates in his body: the eyes, the ears, the nose and the mouth, and over each and every gate he must station a judge and an officer. The gates are not to be thrown open freely to whoever comes along; one has to know when to open and when to close. This is the strength of the yetzer tov, which in the end rules and prevents the desire from being brought out into action.
To summarize: in this section we learned that the blessings of Krias Shema instituted by the Sages are a preparation for the kiyum of Krias Shema, that it should have a grip on all the hours of the day, as is spelled out in the blessing "Emes veyatziv venachon vekayam". We saw why the blessings are not in the short form of a blessing over a mitzvah, but rather a lengthy contemplation of Hashem's greatness, since "berachah" means drawing down, and it is what draws a person toward love of Hashem; and how the later generations added Pesukei Dezimrah and learning Chassidus before davening. We looked at the beinoni's state during davening, when the noise of the left chamber is nullified before the good spreading from the Chochmah, Binah and Daas of the mind, and at his state afterward, when the evil reawakens but he has no ability to bring his desire from potential into actuality.
In the next section we will continue with the Alter Rebbe's words in chapter 12 and go deeper into the definition of the beinoni in thought, in speech and in deed.