In the previous section we looked at where the nefesh ha'elokis, the G-dly soul, makes its home, and at the love of Hashem that comes to light in the right chamber of the heart. Now we will read the Alter Rebbe's words closely and see how all the holy middos of the heart depend on the work of the brain. From there we will move on to the parable of the small city and to the constant war being waged between the two souls.
A love that is born out of hisbonenus:
This love comes, in his words, "בלב משכילים המבינים ומתבוננים בדעתם אשר במוחם" ("in the heart of those of understanding, who comprehend and contemplate with the da'as that is in their brain"). It arrives in the heart of a Jew only after he has first put to work the chochmah, binah and da'as of his mind and contemplated the greatness of Hashem. Why must it be this way? Because a person lives in this physical world, with the desires of the world laid out in front of his eyes, and in such a setting the G-dly soul cannot simply burst into love of Hashem on its own. It has to be awakened.
True, there are simple Jews who do not know how to learn and never reach any level of intellectual grasp, and yet in their hearts there rests a simple love that flows from pure sincerity, a love so powerful that you cannot even trace where it comes from. But such people are few, you could almost count them on one hand, and their number keeps growing smaller.
Why the teachings of Chassidus were revealed specifically in the later generations:
In earlier generations the world was a finer place. Its coarseness was not nearly as severe, and holiness was within easy reach; a Jew could be aroused to love of Hashem far more readily. The coarser the world becomes, the more energy it takes to get the very same inner system, which every single person possesses, up and running. Once the teachings of Chassidus came down into the world, they are no longer merely a recommendation but the only road to love and fear of Hashem. In these later generations, since the Baal Shem Tov revealed Chassidus, love must come by way of hisbonenus, contemplation, and without it it will not come at all.
The Maggid of Mezritch already asked the obvious question: how can a person be commanded to love? You cannot walk over to a Jew and tell him, "Start loving." The Maggid explained the verse "ve'ahavta le're'acha kamocha" to mean that the Torah is commanding the hisbonenus that brings a person to love. And if that was so in his generation, how much more so in the generations that came after him. Love most certainly does not arrive by itself.
The three faculties are hinted at in the Alter Rebbe's wording, and we discussed them at length in chapter three:
"משכילים" ("those of understanding") - chochmah.
"המבינים ומתבוננים" ("who comprehend and contemplate") - binah.
"בדעתם" ("with their da'as") - da'as.
And all of this is "אשר במוחם, בדברים המעוררים את האהבה" ("which is in their brain, in matters that arouse love"). A person has to contemplate precisely those subjects that awaken love of Hashem. When he contemplates properly, love of Hashem is born in him, and the right chamber of the heart, which in any case wants to love, is given the ability to express that love as it should be expressed.
It is like the primus stoves people once used. The wick is there, the fuel is there, and even a small flame is burning, but for the flame to rise you have to pump. Without the pumping the fire will not rise, no matter what the person does. So too here: everything is already present in a person, but without an act of arousal nothing will break through to the outside.
The joy of the heart:
The second emotion the Alter Rebbe speaks of runs deeper than love: "וכן שמחת לבב בתפארת ה' והדר גאונו" ("and likewise the joy of the heart in the beauty of Hashem and the splendor of His majesty"). When a person sees another Jew beginning to put on tefillin, he is filled with joy - not merely love, but a sense that the revelation of G-dliness in the world is spreading further, as though the joy were his own. This shows that the G-dly matter has been internalized in him to the point that it actually makes him happy.
What is "הדר גאונו," the splendor of His majesty? In the Rosh Hashanah davening we ask the Holy One, blessed be He, to appear in the splendor of the majesty of His strength. Hashem created the world in such a way that He conceals and hides the G-dly truth behind many tzimtzumim, layers of concealment, and we ask Him to appear in full revelation. So too at the splitting of the sea, one of the most striking examples of G-dly revelation in the world, it says "אשירה לה' כי גאה גאה," an expression of every partition being broken through and G-dliness being revealed in the world. A person who rejoices in the splendor of His majesty is one who sees the G-dly revelation within the world, and that seeing produces a tremendous joy in him.
And how does one arrive at such joy? "כאשר עיני החכם אשר בראשו, במוח חכמתו ובינתו, מסתכלים ביקרא דמלכא ותפארת גדולתו עד אין חקר" ("when the eyes of the wise man, which are in his head, in the brain of his chochmah and binah, gaze upon the glory of the King and the beauty of His greatness, beyond all searching"). Seeing with the eyes here is a mashal; what is meant is the seeing that comes through hisbonenus, and that too does not happen by itself. Through it a person sees that this world is nothing more than a wrapping and a tzimtzum, and that hidden inside it are infinite G-dly powers. And whoever breaches one more section of the wall of darkness and exile, revealing another stage of G-dliness in the world, feels that another piece of territory has been conquered and that G-dliness has now been revealed in one more place. The greatness of the Holy One, blessed be He, has no end and no limit; the whole problem is only that the world conceals it. The moment a person sees the splendor of His majesty, joy follows on its own.
This joy, too, cannot come by itself, because on his own a person feels no lack: the world does not bother him, on the contrary, he enjoys it. Only when he contemplates does he grasp that the entire world is one great he'elem ve'hester, concealment and hiding, and that the G-dly revelation lies hidden within it. After much hisbonenus, love will come, joy will come, and likewise "שאר מידות קדושות שבלב" ("the other holy middos of the heart"). For every one of the holy middos of the heart, which is the dwelling place of the nefesh ha'elokis, flows from the chochmah, binah and da'as in the mochin: the brain contemplates and the heart is aroused.
Where the two souls are located - an interim summary:
With these lines, the clarification that has been unfolding from chapter three through chapter nine is now complete: where each of the two souls is located. The nefesh habahamis dwells in the heart, in the left chamber; the nefesh ha'elokis dwells in the brain, and also in the right chamber of the heart.
There is no peace treaty between the souls:
Now that it has become clear that each soul has its own territory, one might have thought that the sensible thing would be to set up a kind of autonomy between them: each stays in its own place, does as it pleases, and lets the other function in its own way. It is to this that the Alter Rebbe turns for the rest of the chapter, teaching that no such arrangement exists. There is no possibility of a peace treaty in which each one rules its own domain, and even if such a treaty were signed it would be pure fantasy, because at the right moment one of them will surge forward and take over everything. Between them a constant war is being waged, and each one seeks to drive the other out entirely.
An important distinction should be made here: the brain and the heart do indeed need to work together, provided that both are facing the same direction. But the nefesh ha'elokis and the nefesh habahamis cannot coexist at all.
This is the meaning of the verse "ולאום מלאום יאמץ" ("and one nation shall overpower the other"). This verse was said to Rivkah about Yaakov and Eisav, who are the symbols of the nefesh ha'elokis and the nefesh habahamis. Eisav is defined as a "yisrael mumar," an apostate Jew, and not like Yishmael, who is called a Yishmaeli because he is the son of Hagar; Eisav is Rivkah's son, exactly like Yaakov, and therefore he is a Yisrael, only a Yisrael mumar, which is the nefesh habahamis of a Jew. Of these two souls, which were together inside Rivkah, it says "ve'le'om mi'le'om ye'ematz": two nations, each one straining to bring the other down, and there is no situation in which both can stand together. It is either this one or that one.
The parable of the small city:
The Alter Rebbe opens with a mashal: "כי הגוף נקרא עיר קטנה" ("for the body is called a small city"). The phrase is taken from the words of Shlomo HaMelech in Koheles: "A small city with few men in it; and a great king came upon it and surrounded it and built great siege works over it. And there was found in it a poor wise man, and he saved the city with his wisdom, yet no one remembered that poor man." The Gemara in Nedarim explains the entire verse, and it is to that Gemara that the Alter Rebbe is pointing:
"עיר קטנה" ("a small city") - this is the body.
"ואנשים בה מעט" ("with few men in it") - these are the limbs, 248 in number; a small city with two hundred and forty-eight residents.
"ובא אליה מלך גדול וסבב אותה" ("and a great king came upon it and surrounded it") - this is the yetzer hara, the first king to reach a person, arriving the moment he is born, for "at the entrance sin crouches."
"ובנה עליה מצודים גדולים" ("and built great siege works over it") - and the Gemara adds "וחרמים," nets used for trapping, and these are the sins: with each and every sin the yetzer hara traps one more limb and then another.
"ומצא בה איש מסכן חכם" ("and there was found in it a poor wise man") - this is the yetzer tov. He is called poor because he arrives second, and finds an entire kingdom already up and running, and he has to take control of all of it.
"ומילט הוא את העיר בחכמתו" ("and he saved the city with his wisdom") - his wisdom is teshuvah and good deeds.
"ואדם לא זכר את האיש המסכן ההוא" ("yet no one remembered that poor man") - "בשעת יצר הרע לית דמדכר ליה ליצר טוב": at the moment the yetzer hara is in control, a person does not remember at all that he even has a yetzer tov, and he is convinced that all he has inside him is the yetzer hara.
The Alter Rebbe's chiddush - two kings:
The Alter Rebbe brings the words of the Gemara in his own language, and in doing so reveals a chiddush in them: do not think that this is a great king facing a poor man; rather it is "שני מלכים הנלחמים על עיר אחת" ("two kings waging war over a single city"). The nefesh ha'elokis, too, has the power of a king.
And what is it that the two kings want? "שכל אחד רוצה לכובשה ולמלוך עליה" ("each one wishes to conquer it and to reign over it"). The difference between the two: conquest is achieved by force, against the will of the inhabitants, while reigning is by their own consent, as we say in the evening davening, "ומלכותו ברצון קיבלו עליהם" ("and His kingship they accepted upon themselves willingly"). First each one seeks to conquer, and afterward to reign, "דהיינו להנהיג יושביה כרצונו" ("that is, to direct its inhabitants according to his will") - all the inhabitants of the city, meaning all 248 limbs, "ושיהיו סרים למשמעתו בכל אשר יגזור עליהם" ("and that they should be obedient to him in whatever he decrees upon them").
To sum up: In this section we learned that love of Hashem comes "in the heart of those of understanding, who comprehend and contemplate with the da'as that is in their brain," and that hisbonenus with chochmah, binah and da'as is therefore required - and in these later generations, in which the world has grown coarser, it is the only road there is. We also examined "the joy of the heart in the beauty of Hashem and the splendor of His majesty," which comes from gazing upon the glory of the King and from seeing the G-dly revelation that breaks through the world's concealment. We completed the clarification of where the two souls are located, and learned that there is no peace treaty between them but a constant war, as it says "ve'le'om mi'le'om ye'ematz." Finally we began the parable of the small city in Koheles, as explained by the Gemara in Nedarim, together with the Alter Rebbe's chiddush that two kings are at war over the city, each one seeking to conquer it, to reign over it, and to direct the 248 limbs according to his will.
In the next section we will go deeper into the continuation of the parable and into the difference between conquering the city and reigning over it willingly.