In the previous section we drew the distinction between a tzaddik in essence and a tzaddik as a mere description, and we saw how the definition of "tzaddik" shifts depending on the context. In this section we go deeper into that distinction: what our Sages consider the true definition of a tzaddik, and how the Alter Rebbe hints at four different levels among tzaddikim.
The true definition of a tzaddik:
When we come to define who deserves the title "tzaddik" in terms of his actual level and standing, and how tzaddikim are distinguished from beinonim, the definition changes and no longer matches the Rambam's. Here our Sages said: "צדיקים - יצר טוב שופטן" ("the tzaddikim, their good inclination judges them"). As the Alter Rebbe will explain at length in the coming chapters, a "judge" is not a "ruler." The ruler has the final word; alongside him sit a number of judges, one says this and one says that, and in the end the ruler comes and decides. With the tzaddik, not only is the ruler the yetzer tov, the good inclination, but the only judge is the yetzer tov as well. There is no second judge. There is no second opinion in his heart telling him "maybe do the opposite"; such a thing simply does not exist within him, as the verse says, "ולבי חלל בקרבי" ("and my heart is a void within me").
The word chalal carries several meanings: empty and hollow, and also slain, as in "כי ימצא חלל בשדה" ("if a slain body is found in the field"). With the tzaddik, the yetzer tov is the only voice that raises an opinion in his soul, at every moment, and that is why he is called a tzaddik. This is not a person whose deeds are mostly merits, because if he has even one small sin he already has two judges: in most cases the good inclination judges, but from time to time the evil inclination also puts forward its opinion, whereas by the tzaddik there is no dispute at all.
And what about the freedom of choice that every person has? The wording of the Tanya here is "שאין לו יצר הרע כי הרגו בתענית" ("he has no evil inclination, for he slew it through fasting"). He chose to slay his inclination and nullify it, and now it does not exist at all. We will return to explain this point and see that there are several levels within it.
But anyone who has not reached this level of "my heart is a void within me," in which the yetzer hara is dead, and instead the evil inclination is still alive in him and from time to time raises a desire and an attraction toward things that are not good, and he has a will to sin and sometimes even stumbles, even if his merits far outweigh his sins, even if in ninety-nine percent of cases he is on the side of merit and in only one percent on the other side, he is not on the level or standing of a tzaddik at all. And not only that, he is not even a beinoni, for a beinoni does not have even a single sin.
"And a tzaddik is the foundation of the world":
After the lengthy introduction, in which the Alter Rebbe goes to great lengths to prove and stress that a beinoni cannot have even one transgression, he brings the words of our Sages: "ראה הקדוש ברוך הוא בצדיקים שהם מועטים, עמד ושתלן בכל דור ודור" ("The Holy One, blessed be He, saw that the tzaddikim were few, so He arose and planted them in every generation"), as it is written, "וצדיק יסוד עולם" ("and a tzaddik is the foundation of the world").
Here we have to pause over a few precise points. The Alter Rebbe writes "our Sages said in the Midrash," but the source is not a Midrash at all; it is a Gemara, and this is its wording: "אמר רבי חייא בר אבא אמר רבי יוחנן: ראה הקדוש ברוך הוא שצדיקים מועטים, עמד ושתלן בכל דור ודור" ("Rabbi Chiya bar Abba said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: The Holy One, blessed be He, saw that tzaddikim were few, so He arose and planted them in every generation"). At this point the Alter Rebbe stops and attaches the verse "and a tzaddik is the foundation of the world," whereas in the Gemara there are several more lines before that verse: "שנאמר כי לה' מצוקי ארץ וישת עליהם תבל" ("as it says, 'for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and He set the world upon them'"). The Holy One, blessed be He, has His pillars of the earth, mighty tzaddikim who are the earth's supports, and "He set the world upon them," He stood the world upon them. Only afterward does the Gemara continue: "ואמר רבי חייא בר אבא אמר רבי יוחנן: אפילו בשביל צדיק אחד העולם מתקיים, שנאמר וצדיק יסוד עולם" ("And Rabbi Chiya bar Abba said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: even for the sake of a single tzaddik the world endures, as it says, 'and a tzaddik is the foundation of the world'").
So we are left with two questions:
Why does the Alter Rebbe say these words were stated "in the Midrash," when this is an explicit Gemara?
Why does he quote the Gemara not in its own wording, skipping a passage and attaching the verse "and a tzaddik is the foundation of the world," which appears in the following passage, to the earlier one?
The answer is that with his brief wording the Alter Rebbe is hinting something to us. As is known, the Alter Rebbe also wrote a book for tzaddikim, but that book was burned, and what remains to us is a book for beinonim. In this book he elaborates mainly on the definition of the beinoni, yet here and there he hints that there are different levels among tzaddikim as well.
Four levels among tzaddikim:
In the last passage we studied, four levels of tzaddikim are hinted at. Let us list them from the bottom upward:
A tzaddik in a borrowed sense: the lowest level of all, the one the Rambam is speaking about, someone whose deeds are mostly merits, for the purposes of the discussion of the Ten Days of Teshuvah. The Alter Rebbe rejects this definition, since someone who has even a hundred sins is not even a beinoni; still, according to a certain definition one can call a person a tzaddik if his deeds are mostly merits.
A tzaddik as a description: "שאין לו יצר הרע כי הרגו בתענית" ("who has no evil inclination, for he slew it through fasting"). He had a yetzer hara, he fought it and slew it through fasting, and afterward he reached a level of righteousness in which there are no longer any desires and no battle at all.
This will be explained at length in the coming chapters. Although it sounds remote and out of reach, every person can be like this to a certain degree, because everyone has categories of transgressions that simply never enter his mind. Take an extreme example: drinking a cup of water on Yom Kippur. An ordinary person does not have to wage war and restrain himself from doing it; the same is true of idolatry, God forbid. Every person will find within the 613 mitzvos a respectable list of things regarding which he has already slain his inclination, and they do not exist for him at all. One who has done this with all 613 mitzvos is the tzaddik as a description, one who faced the struggle, fought and succeeded.
The few tzaddikim: of these it is said, "ראה הקדוש ברוך הוא בצדיקים שהם מועטים, עמד ושתלן בכל דור ודור" ("the Holy One, blessed be He, saw that the tzaddikim were few, so He arose and planted them in every generation"). These are not tzaddikim who were born with a good inclination and an evil inclination, fought and labored; these are tzaddikim whom the Holy One, blessed be He, brought down into the world as such from the outset. Of them the plural is used, "tzaddikim" who are few, and later in the Tanya they will be called "bnei aliyah," as in the saying "ראיתי בני עליה והם מועטים" ("I have seen men of ascent and they are few"). While they are in the world it is entirely possible that no one knows of them; they are hidden, and they do not involve themselves with the world but with themselves. And what is their role? Of them it is said, "כי לה' מצוקי ארץ וישת עליהם תבל" ("for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and He set the world upon them"), and Rashi explains "and He set the world upon them" to mean that they are the base, the sustaining foundation, that upholds the world. These are tzaddikim in whose merit the world exists. They have no need to communicate with the world and there is no need for anyone to know them, but the Holy One, blessed be He, brought them down into the world, and in their merit the world is granted existence.
The tzaddik who is the foundation of the world: this level the Alter Rebbe hints at by bringing the verse from the continuation of Rabbi Chiya bar Abba's words, "אפילו בשביל צדיק אחד העולם מתקיים" ("even for the sake of a single tzaddik the world endures"). This is one singular tzaddik, and unlike the few hidden tzaddikim, he is not concealed and unknown; he involves himself with the world. His task is to refine the world, to bring people close to Torah and mitzvos and to have an effect on all who come into the world, beginning with Moshe Rabbeinu, whose task this was, and likewise the "Moshe" of every generation.
To summarize: In this section we learned the true definition of a tzaddik according to our Sages, "the tzaddikim, their good inclination judges them," in which the yetzer tov is the sole judge, with no second opinion whatsoever, as in "my heart is a void within me." We saw that anyone in whom the yetzer hara is still active is not on the level of a tzaddik at all. We also noted the precise point that the Alter Rebbe quotes the Gemara not in its own wording, and by doing so hints at four levels of tzaddikim: the tzaddik in a borrowed sense; the tzaddik as a description, who slew his inclination; the few, hidden tzaddikim in whose merit the world exists; and the single tzaddik who is the foundation of the world, who occupies himself with refining the world and bringing people close.
In the next section we will take up the greatness of the tzaddik as "the foundation of the world and of the universe." We will go deeper into the meaning of the verse "for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and He set the world upon them," and into the tzaddik's role in sustaining the world.