In the previous section we studied the level of the incomplete tzaddik, also called "tzaddik v'ra lo" (a righteous man who has evil within him). We learned that the nefesh habahamis (the animal soul) is present in a person from the day he is born, and that it has a skeleton and an engine of its own, the power that generates desire, and alongside these the actual "garments," the practical failings. The tzaddik's work does not end with controlling the garments; it means changing that generating power itself, until the animal's own craving is turned around and becomes holy. As long as that job is not finished, and his animal soul has not yet been entirely transformed into holiness, he is called a tzaddik she'eino gamur, an incomplete tzaddik, a tzaddik v'ra lo.
We also learned that the evil left in him is so minute that, in the language of the Tanya, it seems to him that "וַיְגָרְשֵׁהוּ וַיֵּלֶךְ לוֹ כֻּלּוֹ לְגַמְרֵי" (he has driven it out and it has gone away entirely), the way something nullified in sixty, in a thousand, or in ten thousand is simply not detectable because of how little of it there is. So how can such a tzaddik test whether his animal has truly been turned to good? Not by searching for the bad trait, since that is no longer noticeable, but by examining his love. An animal loves by nature, powerfully and forcefully, whereas a human being arrives at his emotions through calculation, through contemplation, and even with a certain weakness. When the tzaddik feels that his love for Hashem is simple and forceful, with no need to arouse it, the way a person loves himself, that is the sign that there is no longer any entity of evil in him, and that he has been entirely turned to good.
We now continue in chapter 10, from the line beginning "והן הם בחינת הצדיקים הרבים" (and these are the category of the many tzaddikim).
"וְהֵן הֵם בְּחִינַת הַצַּדִּיקִים הָרַבִּים שֶׁבְּכָל הַדּוֹרוֹת" (and these are the category of the many tzaddikim in every generation):
The Alter Rebbe sums up that the many tzaddikim of all the generations are all included in the definition of the incomplete tzaddik, the tzaddik v'ra lo, "כִּדְאִיתָא בַּגְּמָרָא: דְּתַמְנֵיסַר אַלְפֵי צַדִּיקֵי קָיְימֵי קַמֵּיהּ הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא" (as it is stated in the Gemara: eighteen thousand tzaddikim stand before the Holy One, blessed be He). It is worth looking at the wording of the Gemara in its source, since it bears on the lines that follow as well. The passage appears in several places; we will bring it as it appears in tractate Sukkah.
Chizkiyah said in the name of Rabbi Yirmiyah, who said in the name of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai: "I have seen the bnei aliyah (those of exalted stature) and they are few. If they number a thousand, I and my son are among them; if they number a hundred, I and my son are among them; if they are two, they are I and my son." (In the Zohar there is an addition: "If there is one, it is I.")
The Gemara asks: "וּמִי זוּטְרֵי כּוּלֵּי הַאי?" (are the tzaddikim really so few?) After all, Rava said: "תַּמְנֵי סְרֵי אַלְפֵי דָרָא" (eighteen thousand rows) of tzaddikim stand before the Holy One, blessed be He, as it says in Yechezkel, "סָבִיב שְׁמֹנָה עָשָׂר אָלֶף" (round about, eighteen thousand). And the Gemara answers: "לָא קַשְׁיָא" (there is no difficulty), these are the ones who gaze through the clear glass (aspaklaria ha'meira), and those are the ones who do not gaze through the clear glass.
It emerges that there are two types of tzaddikim: those whose vision of G-dliness is through a clear glass, and those whose vision is through a glass that is not clear. In the language of the Tanya: the complete tzaddik and the incomplete tzaddik. Those eighteen thousand of the Gemara are the ones who do not gaze through the clear glass, incomplete tzaddikim, and they are "the many tzaddikim of every generation."
The distinction of the complete tzaddik:
The complete tzaddik is one whose entire essence is good. For him there is no such thing as a nefesh habahamis in the negative sense; his animal soul has been turned entirely into complete good. And how many such people are there? On this the Alter Rebbe says: "הוּא שֶׁאָמַר רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן יוֹחָאי: רָאִיתִי בְּנֵי עֲלִיָּה וְהֵם מוּעָטִים וְכוּ'" (this is what Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai said: I have seen the bnei aliyah and they are few, etc.). The Alter Rebbe does not quote the whole count: a thousand, a hundred, two, and the addition of the Zohar: one.
The series of numbers that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai used does not come from any lack of knowledge, Heaven forbid. It teaches that even within the level of the complete tzaddik itself there are gradations:
A thousand: the lowest rung among complete tzaddikim, whose maximum number is a thousand.
A hundred: a higher rung.
Two: a rung higher still.
One: the rarest rung of all, which is not mentioned in the Gemara but only in the Zohar.
Rashbi's testimony about himself:
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai testifies about himself that he is among those few, and even says, "if there is one, it is I." This is not arrogance; it is a statement of reality as it is. He was the greatest tzaddik of his generation. In the same way Moshe Rabbeinu says to the Jewish people, "אָנֹכִי עֹמֵד בֵּין ה' וּבֵינֵיכֶם לְהַגִּיד לָכֶם אֶת דְּבַר ה'" (I stand between Hashem and you, to tell you the word of Hashem), which is simply a statement of fact.
And who is in a position to make such a determination? Only a complete tzaddik himself, whose entire essence is good. We look through the eyeglasses of people who have middos, and those middos include arrogance and self-interest, so the moment we hear a person say "I am such and such," we instantly translate it into our own categories as an expression of ego. But by the complete tzaddik there is no "I" in those categories at all, and we have no way to translate his words through our lenses. Along the same lines it is said of the Creator, "ה' מָלָךְ גֵּאוּת לָבֵשׁ" (Hashem reigns, He is clothed in grandeur). In the categories of absolute G-dliness, which is all holiness, there is no contradiction in this.
"Bnei aliyah":
Those few, whether they are a thousand, or two, or one, are called by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai "bnei aliyah." They are the ones called a complete tzaddik, and also "tzaddik v'tov lo" (a righteous man who has good within him), whose entire essence is good. As we learned in the previous section, these are not two synonyms for one state. Since a person has two sides, a nefesh Elokis and a nefesh habahamis, each title describes a different side:
Tzaddik gamur (complete tzaddik): from the side of the nefesh Elokis.
Tzaddik v'tov lo: from the side of the nefesh habahamis, which has been turned entirely to good.
And so too in the opposite direction: "tzaddik she'eino gamur" describes the nefesh Elokis, and "tzaddik v'ra lo" describes the nefesh habahamis that has not yet been fully transformed.
The question arises: what is the practical instruction that comes out of these levels, and how does one reach the level of the complete tzaddik and of absolute bittul, self-nullification? As was mentioned in the previous section, we do not study chapter 10 in order to actually arrive at these levels, but in order to know the highest levels that exist, and from that to recognize where a person himself stands within that framework.
In summary: in this section we learned that "the many tzaddikim of every generation" are incomplete tzaddikim, and it is about them that the Gemara says that eighteen thousand tzaddikim stand before the Holy One, blessed be He. We looked at the passage in tractate Sukkah, "I have seen the bnei aliyah and they are few," and at its resolution that there are those who gaze through the clear glass and those who do not, these being the complete tzaddik and the incomplete tzaddik. We saw that even within the level of the complete tzaddik there are gradations, from a thousand down to the one mentioned in the Zohar; that Rashbi's testimony about himself is not arrogance but fact, which we have no means of measuring in our own categories; and that the titles "tzaddik gamur" and "tzaddik v'tov lo" describe the two sides of a person, his nefesh Elokis and his nefesh habahamis.
In the next section we will move on to chapter 11, where matters are presented in a somewhat different way, and we will not take up the question of how one reaches the level of a complete tzaddik or an incomplete tzaddik.