We continue our study of Tanya, in the closing part of chapter 12. We stopped near the top of folio 17b (page thirty-four), and before we move ahead let us briefly review what has been explained until now.
Chapter 12 deals with the beinoni, the intermediate man. As the Alter Rebbe will define further on, the beinoni is "the measure of every man": a level that every person must do everything in his power to reach and to hold on to at all times, at every moment. This is a constant battle, in which a person determines at any given moment what his standing will be.
As we explained, a person's makeup is divided into two layers: the inner, essential layer, his emotions, his understanding, the ten faculties of his soul; and the revealed layer of thought, speech and action. What distinguishes one type of person from another is the relationship between these two layers:
The rasha: Not only is his inner essence, his emotions and his understanding, under the rule of the yetzer hara, but even on the outer level, in thought, speech and action, he fails.
The tzaddik: This is the opposite extreme. Not only does he never fail in thought, speech or action, but his very inner essence is entirely governed by the G-dly side; only the yetzer tov and the nefesh haElokis are active within him. We discussed the levels of tzaddikim at length in an entire chapter.
The beinoni: He is exactly what his name says, in the middle. As far as his essential, inner part is concerned he resembles the rasha, for deep within him desires arise that seek to confuse him, and the yetzer hara is openly active in his soul. But as far as the outer part is concerned, which is the main thing and the whole purpose, thought, speech and action, he does not fail in anything, and he does not cast off the yoke of Heaven in any negative thought, speech or deed.
One further point that was explained: although the beinoni's avodah is primarily in thought, speech and action, and seemingly he has no power to rule over and transform the emotional, inner layer (that being the level of the tzaddik), even so the beinoni too has his hour of favor. Every day there is a set time for him, the time of davening, an hour of mochin degadlus (expanded consciousness) above and an hour of opportunity below. At that time he is able to contemplate the greatness of the Creator in such a way that the contemplation produces in his heart a revealed love for G-dliness and for holiness, and then the nefesh habahamis is as if asleep and does not arouse any desire in him at all. After davening a residue, a reshimu, of that contemplation remains with him, and this is what helps his avodah succeed throughout the day. This is "moach shalit al halev": the impression left in the mind rules over the heart and helps him not to fail in thought, speech or action.
A halachah in the Rambam's laws of selling:
Before we go on with the words of the Tanya, let us look at an interesting halachah in the Rambam that bears directly on our subject.
In the laws of selling the Rambam lays down a principle: a person cannot transfer to another something that has not yet come into existence. That is, one cannot obligate himself and sell to another an item that does not exist at the time of the sale. For example, someone who wishes to sell the crop of oranges that will grow next season: whatever they agree between them has no legal force, and the buyer can back out. The Rambam's language is: one who sells the fruit of a date palm to another can retract even after the fruit has come into existence. Even though the fruit has already grown and exists now, at the moment the agreement was made it was not in the world, and therefore nothing was accomplished here. This halachah is practical law, and batei din rule according to it.
It is worth noting that according to this principle, the standard practice today in commodity trading on the exchange, futures contracts and options, in which merchandise that does not yet exist is sold at a fixed price for a future date, has no validity as a sale according to Torah law. The parties are free to keep their word, and there is no problem with that, but according to Torah law either one of them could change his mind at the last moment, and the other has no claim against him.
So what should a person do if he wants to sell, in a way that is valid by Torah law, fruit that has not yet grown? Here the Rambam brings a solution: a person can transfer the body of the tree for the sake of its fruit. Meaning: the owner of the palm does not want to sell the tree itself, since he wants the tree to remain his; he wants to sell only next season's fruit. The solution is to convey to the buyer the body of the tree, which does exist right now, but not as an outright, permanent sale, rather only for the purpose of the fruit that will grow from it, and that fruit will belong to the buyer. It is comparable to leasing or renting a house: the house is handed over to the tenant for his use, but the ownership remains with the owner. So much for the halachah in the laws of buying and selling in its plain sense.
The spiritual dimension of the halachah:
And what does this halachah have to do with Tanya and with the avodah of the beinoni? The Rebbe once explained that every halachah has several layers: there is the halachah in its plain sense, in the laws of dealings between one person and another, and then it must also be translated into the spiritual, G-dly layer: how this halachah is learned in Gan Eden above.
First we have to define what a sale is. All of a Jew's avodas Hashem is an act of buying and selling: when a person takes an object that belongs to him and sanctifies it, makes a brachah over it, buys tefillin with it, fills his time with holy content, he is transferring that object and that time into the ownership of the Creator, like a seller handing his merchandise over to the buyer.
And how do we know we may speak this way? From explicit expressions in davening:
"Koneh hakol" ("Who acquires all") - this is how we address the Holy One, blessed be He, in Shemoneh Esrei. He is the buyer, and He wishes to acquire from man. All the merchandise was created by Him, and His will is that we sell it to Him.
"Am zu kanisa" ("this people You acquired") - this is what we recall every day in connection with the exodus from Egypt. Beforehand the Jewish people were slaves and were considered part of the Egyptians, and when the Holy One, blessed be He, took them out and transferred them into His own domain, this is called an acquisition.
To summarize: in this section we reviewed the fundamentals of chapter 12: the division of a person into an inner, essential layer and a revealed layer of thought, speech and action, and the difference between the rasha, the tzaddik and the beinoni; and the beinoni's hour of opportunity during davening together with the impression it leaves behind. We also learned a halachah from the Rambam's laws of selling, that a person cannot transfer something that has not yet come into existence, and that the solution is "a person can transfer the body of the tree for the sake of its fruit", and we began to open up its spiritual dimension: that all of avodas Hashem is an act of buying and selling, as hinted in the expressions "koneh hakol" and "am zu kanisa".
In the next section we will see how the Rebbe translates the details of this halachah into the avodah of the beinoni, as explained in chapters 12 and 13.