Introduction: In the previous section we learned that in the beinoni (the intermediate person) "this one and that one judge him" - both the yetzer tov and the yetzer hara sit as judges in his heart - and that "the halacha follows the one who decides." Now we continue with the Alter Rebbe's own words and see how this trial actually unfolds, and who it is that casts the deciding vote.
"כך היצר הרע אומר דעתו בחלל השמאלי שבלב" ("so too the yetzer hara states its opinion in the left chamber of the heart") - the yetzer hara resides in the left chamber of the heart, and from there it announces its opinion and its will: that the person should stumble in thought, in speech and in deed. Its ambition is to conquer the person at every step, and not to leave a single corner of him free.
But the matter does not stay in the heart. As we noted at the outset, in this chapter the Alter Rebbe maps out three levels within the beinoni, and here he is speaking of the beinoni on the lower level. In his case the "opinion" of the yetzer hara does not remain confined to the heart; it manages to climb upward - "ומהלב עולה למוח" ("and from the heart it rises to the mind"). The craving that was in the heart ascends to the mind, and the mind begins "להרהר בו" ("to muse upon it"), to think about the very thing the heart is drawn to.
Here a question arises: will this musing be a thought he chooses, or will he try to push it away the moment it comes up? For deliberate thought already lies within a person's free choice. True, the Holy One created him with bad middos in his heart - that is a given he has no power to change, and there is no way to arrange that such a thing simply not arise in the heart at all. But no person is created in such a way that he must specifically have bad thoughts. Therefore, from the moment the craving rises from the heart to the mind, that is the yetzer hara's attempt at conquest - the beginning of the conquest, in the arena of thought.
And the moment the matter leaves the domain of the heart, where a person has no control, and crosses into the domain where he does have control, that is where the battle and the struggle begin, even in thought: "ומיד חולק עליו השופט השני, שהוא הנפש האלקית שבמוח המתפשט בחלל הימני שבלב מקום משכן היצר טוב" ("and immediately the second judge disputes him, namely the divine soul in the brain which extends into the right chamber of the heart, the dwelling place of the yetzer tov"). The divine soul in the mind is roused at once and rules that such a thought is forbidden, and it immediately sends that message down toward the heart. And so a war breaks out: from the heart, forbidden thoughts rise upward; from the mind, the decision that such thoughts are off limits comes down.
[This struggle exists in every person. What is unique about the beinoni is that he succeeds in standing up to it, and at that moment, in that specific point where he succeeds, he is considered a beinoni.]
From here we return to the principle we learned: when there are two judges, one saying this and the other the opposite, "והלכה כדברי המכריע" ("and the halacha follows the words of the one who decides"). Each side here has broad representation: one in the heart and one in the mind, one in the left chamber and one in the right; and here too the matter has already risen to the mind, while from the other side the mind resists. Who, then, decides? "הוא הקב"ה העוזרו ליצר טוב" ("it is the Holy One, blessed be He, who helps the yetzer tov"). The Holy One casts the deciding vote and grants strength to the yetzer tov to overpower the yetzer hara; and once the yetzer tov's force is many times greater, it prevails as a matter of course.
The question presents itself immediately: why did the Holy One decide to help specifically the yetzer tov, and whom does He help and whom does He not - is there favoritism at work here?... Let us first see how He helps, and afterward whom He helps.
The source of the idea is stated explicitly in the Gemara: "כמאמר רז"ל: אלמלא הקב"ה עוזרו אין יכול לו" ("as our Sages said: were the Holy One not to help him, he could not overcome it"). The war is so hard that without help from Above a person would never manage to withstand it; he genuinely needs that help.
And what is that help? "והעזר היא ההארה שמאיר אור ה' על נפש האלוקית, להיות לה יתרון ושליטה על סכלות הכסיל ויצר הרע, כיתרון האור מן החושך, כנ"ל" ("and the help consists of the illumination with which the light of Hashem shines upon the divine soul, so that it should have superiority and mastery over the folly of the fool and the yetzer hara, like the superiority of light over darkness, as explained above"). The Holy One gives an illumination to the divine soul, and as we learned in the previous chapter regarding the superiority of light over darkness, it works in two ways: a little light dispels a great deal of darkness, and it does so effortlessly, of itself.
And whom does the Holy One help? The one who is prepared to help himself. The Torah commands a person who sees a donkey "crouching under its burden": "עזוב תעזוב עמו" - "you shall surely help him," and whoever finds himself on the scene is obligated to assist the owner who asks for help. But if the owner of the load says to the passerby, "The mitzvah is yours; I will sit on the side and you will do the work," one is not required to help him. And where do we see this? From the wording of the verse, "עזוב תעזוב עמו" - "you shall surely help with him": precisely when he himself lends a hand and makes the effort and simply cannot manage alone, then you must help him.
The Holy One fulfills this same mitzvah with a Jew. When a person wants to overcome, exerts himself and tries, and it is simply very hard for him, the Holy One helps him, for he is indeed "crouching under his burden." But if a person throws up his hands and says, "That's it, You do the work for me," then the work will not be done in his place. When a person arouses the will from within himself, he is given help from Above.
To what can this be compared? "נר ה' נשמת אדם" - "the soul of man is a lamp of Hashem": every soul is a lamp, and a little light dispels much darkness. The Holy One provides the lamp, the match, everything - but He asks that the person himself do the kindling. His part is the small act: the effort, the expression of a will to overcome. That is precisely the little bit asked of him, and in its wake the lamp will shine.
There is a story told of one of the Tannaim who wished to donate a large, beautiful stone to Jerusalem; but the stone was so heavy that he could not budge it. He stood and prayed: Master of the world, help me, I want to bring this beautiful stone. The Gemara relates that five angels came down from heaven in the form of men - he had no idea they were angels - and said to him: we will carry the stone up to Jerusalem for you, on one condition: that you too put in your little finger and help along with us. He put in his finger, and together they carried the stone to Jerusalem.
On the face of it this needs explaining: do angels really need his little finger? But that is exactly the point. The yetzer hara is a "heart of stone," and it weighs a person down until it seems to him that he cannot move from his place - yet if he will invest even a small measure of will, he will be granted enormous help from Above. This is what the Alter Rebbe is saying here.
In the previous chapter we learned the principle "כי המוח שליט על הלב בתולדתו מטבע יצירתו" ("for the mind rules the heart by birth, by the very nature of its creation") - the Holy One formed a person such that the mind rules over the heart. So why, here in chapter 13, does the Alter Rebbe not simply invoke that argument, and instead says that the beinoni needs a special siyata dishmaya and an illumination from Above? After all, we are speaking of a natural power that the Holy One implanted in man, and no special assistance should be needed.
The answer is simple, and it lies in the precise wording of the Tanya. As long as the cravings are located in the heart alone and have not risen to the mind, and the mind still retains the impression left by davening, as we learned in the previous chapter, the contest is mind versus heart, and there the rule applies that the mind naturally rules the heart. But here the Alter Rebbe is precise: the craving that was in the heart did not stay in the heart; it already succeeded in rising to the mind and musing there. And once it is inside the mind itself, you can no longer say that the mind rules the heart - the thing has already climbed up into the mind, so how will the mind evict it? The mind does not rule over the mind. Therefore, special help from Above is required here.
A practical illustration: when a person feels and notices the craving in his heart, that itself means it has already risen into his thought, since thought is the mirror of the heart. By the time he takes note of the craving pulsing in him, the craving is already in the mind, and that is too late.
What we learned in the previous chapter deals with a beinoni whose mind, during davening, is given over to the davening and to the matters the davening speaks of. Consequently the craving does not manage to rise into his mind, and he is not even aware of it, because the mind rules the heart and does not let it up. Here, by contrast, we are speaking of a beinoni on a lower level: a businessman who is not standing in prayer at the moment but is immersed in worldly affairs, moving about in the world and seeing everything in it. For him the struggle is hard, because thoughts are being hurled up at him from the heart to the mind all the time. In his case one cannot rely on the natural power of "the mind rules the heart," since the matter has already risen into the mind - and that is why he needs special help.
In summary: In this section we learned that in the beinoni of the lower level, the opinion of the yetzer hara does not remain in the left chamber of the heart but rises from the heart to the mind to muse there; and immediately the second judge disputes it - the divine soul in the mind, which extends into the right chamber of the heart, the dwelling place of the yetzer tov. The verdict in this trial belongs to the Holy One, who helps the yetzer tov, as our Sages said, "were the Holy One not to help him, he could not overcome it"; and the help is the shining of the light of Hashem upon the divine soul, so that it should have superiority and mastery "like the superiority of light over darkness." We saw that this help is given precisely to one who makes the effort himself, along the lines of "you shall surely help with him" and the analogy of the lamp that a person is asked to kindle. And we saw that here, once the craving has risen into the mind, the natural power of "the mind rules the heart" no longer suffices, and special assistance from Above is needed.
In the next section we will continue with the Alter Rebbe's words in chapter 13 and examine the remaining levels found within the beinoni.