In the previous part we studied the first page of chapter 12, stopping at the top of page 17. Let us begin with a brief review of the main points and continue from there. It is worth saying at the outset that the definition of the beinoni (the "intermediate" person) is not something that can be exhausted in one lesson or two: the Tanya devotes many chapters to the subject, describing the various states of the beinoni and the ways he contends with them. In chapter 12 we are only beginning to lay the first foundations for understanding the matter.
The first definition: thought, speech and action
The Alter Rebbe teaches that the first definition of the beinoni concerns the executive side of the soul: everything connected with thought, speech and action. In these three the beinoni is careful and does not stumble, not in his thoughts, not in his words, and not in his deeds.
So much so, that the Alter Rebbe uses a striking formulation: the beinoni is one who "לא עבר עבירה מימיו ולא יעבור לעולם", "has never committed a sin in his life, and never will." This definition raises two difficulties:
How can it be said that the beinoni never sinned in his life? Is someone who stumbled even once lost forever, unable ever again to be a beinoni?
And how can it be determined that he never will sin? Free choice is never taken away from anyone, so what room is there to say that it is already clear now that he will not fail in the future?
We learned that although the wording seems to speak of past and future, the Alter Rebbe's main intent in this chapter is to define the state of the beinoni in the present.
The secret of the beinoni: living in the moment
The secret of the beinoni's success lies in his focus on the moment he is in. He is not weighed down by the sediment of the past, nor is his mind preoccupied with how tomorrow will look. Most people live the opposite way: a person is angry now about what was done to him yesterday and remains stuck in an event that has already passed, and when something good comes his way he immediately wonders what he will do with it tomorrow, so he never properly seizes what is being asked of him right now. The beinoni, by contrast, rises above the past and is not lodged in the future: if he sinned in the past, he did complete teshuvah and the matter has been erased from him; and in his present state of soul it is clear to him that he will not sin.
This understanding also helps a person overcome his drives. He is not required to say to the animal side of himself: from now on we are cutting ourselves off entirely from everything of this world, a declaration far too large and heavy to bear. What he must say to it, at every single moment, is: "At this moment we are in control and we are doing what is required," and when the next moment arrives, the work begins again from the start. That is how a person lives, moment by moment.
The service of the heart at the time of prayer
Another point we learned: the beinoni is not occupied only with thought, speech and action; he also works on the emotional side, the side of the heart. In what circumstance? During prayer, which is a person's hour of opportunity and a time of Divine favor. When he contemplates the greatness of the Creator, in the blessings of Shema and in the order of the prayers, his nefesh habahamis (animal soul) falls asleep, and even after the prayer ends an impression of that contemplation remains with him.
And what is someone to say who feels that prayer came and went and nothing at all happened inside him?
Let us first recall a saying brought in Hayom Yom about rain. We call rain "rains of blessing," and yet one can see with one's own eyes that in a plot of earth that has been worked it brings forth good fruit, while two or three meters over, that very same rain brings forth thorns and thistles. The rain is undoubtedly a blessing; it is just that the blessing shows itself in the one who plowed, sowed, tended and labored over his field. He is the one who will feel the benefit of the rain.
So it is in our case. The time of prayer is indeed a time of favor, an hour of mochin degadlus (an expanded state of mind), but that elevation takes effect in the person who works on himself consistently: in the beinoni, who is careful not to stumble in thought, speech and action, and who takes upon himself kabbolas ol malchus shamayim (the yoke of Heaven) at every single moment. With him the influence does not fall on empty ground but on soil that has been prepared, and therefore the contemplation is active in his mind and affects the animal side, putting it to sleep.
After prayer: "the mind rules the heart"
The beinoni should not imagine that if his yetzer fell asleep during prayer, the yetzer is already dead and ready for burial. The Alter Rebbe teaches otherwise: after prayer the nefesh habahamis awakens as though there had been no prayer at all, with every craving in the world, and once again it seeks to indulge just as it did before. And why does it not succeed in bringing him down? Here comes the sentence at which we stopped, the second line at the top of page 17: because the mind rules over the heart. During prayer the mind labored and contemplated the greatness of the Creator, and since the mind is active in him, it is the mind that governs the heart, even though there are cravings in the heart itself.
The Alter Rebbe adds: "כי המוח שליט על הלב בתולדתו וטבע יצירתו", "for the mind rules over the heart by birth and by the nature of its formation": this is a gift a person received with his very creation. It is evident even in his physical makeup. In an animal, the brain and the heart are on the same level, whereas in a human being the brain is set above the heart. The very form of man's formation testifies that the mind was meant to rule the heart, and so he was created from birth, so that every person is able "ברצונו שבמוחו להתאפק ולמשול ברוח תאוותו שבלבו", "by the will in his mind, to restrain himself and to rule over the spirit of craving in his heart."
To sum up: in this part we reviewed the foundations of the definition of the beinoni: his carefulness in thought, speech and action, and the meaning of the phrase "has never committed a sin in his life and never will," which defines his state in the present, in the life of the moment, rising above the past and not being preoccupied with the future. We learned that the beinoni also works on the side of the heart at the time of prayer, which is a time of favor and an hour of opportunity, and that, like the parable of the rain, the influence shows itself precisely in the one who has prepared the soil of his soul through constant work. Finally we saw that after prayer the yetzer awakens again, and even so it does not bring the beinoni down, because the mind rules over the heart by birth and by the nature of its formation.
In the next part we will continue with the Alter Rebbe's explanation of the mind's rule over the heart and what it means in the beinoni's practical avodah.