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Likutei Amarim
Chapter 9וְהִנֵּה מְקוֹם מִשְׁכַּן נֶפֶשׁ הַבַּהֲמִית שֶׁמִּקְּלִיפַּת נוֹגַהּ בְּכָל אִישׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל הוּא בַּלֵּב בֶּחָלָל שְׂמָאלִי שֶׁהוּא מָלֵא דָּם, וּכְתִיב: "כִּי הַדָּם הוּא הַנָּפֶשׁ״ (דברים יב, כג).
The abode of the animal soul, which stems from the kelippa of noga within every Jew, is in the heart, in the left chamber, which is filled with blood, as it is written, "As the blood is the soul" (Deut. 12:23). Just as a person wears clothes that fit his body, so is a body fitting for its soul. As a rule, the head is the abode and garment for the soul's intellectual faculties, while the heart is the abode and garment for the soul's emotive attributes. Moreover, the body's limbs and organs are tailor-made to correlate with the respective characteristics of its animal and divine souls, each finding expression through the corresponding limbs and organs of the body. As the author of the Tanya points out, the animal soul specifically resides in the left chamber of the heart, "which is filled with blood." The imagery this evokes accords with the ancients' anatomical conception of the heart as consisting of two chambers, each with a different function: one chamber receiving air (oxygen) and the other being full of blood. Yet the Tanya is not a book of anatomy, and the author is not suggesting that the evil inclination can be removed by a surgical operation. The issue at hand is not where the animal soul resides in the anatomical sense but the relationship between the two souls and the central role that the animal soul plays in the inner life of a man. When the author of the Tanya states that the animal soul resides in the heart – particularly in the part of the heart that relates to the blood and therefore the body – it is to convey that the animal soul is deeply connected to the heart and the emotions. Though the animal soul does not consist only of desires and feelings but is a complete entity containing also intellectual and abstract components, the center of gravity of the animal soul, the self, resides with the emotions, in the heart. In contrast to the essence of the intellect, to the mind, which perceives reality beyond itself, the characteristic of the emotive attributes is to first feel and experience the self and only then – through this lens – to experience reality.
וְלָכֵן כָּל הַתַּאֲוֹת וְהִתְפָּאֲרוּת וְכַעַס וְדוֹמֵיהֶן
Therefore, all lusts, including those that are not physical, such as boasting, anger, and the like, Boasting and anger are not desires in the conventional sense. Although a person might enjoy his conceit, and even his anger, the pleasure is not primary. Yet they too are quintessential expressions of the animal soul, not because they are the fulfillment of a desire but because they are an assertion of selfhood, pitting one's ego against another. In a sense, both are a sort of idolatry, of self-worship.
הֵן בַּלֵּב.
are situated in the heart. All these traits are in the heart in the sense that the heart is their primal cause. When a person's lusts, conceit, and anger are stripped of all rationalizations, what remains is the cause and motivation behind them, which is situated in the heart.
וּמֵהַלֵּב הֵן מִתְפַּשְּׁטוֹת בְּכָל הַגּוּף
From the heart, they spread throughout the entire body, These traits spread throughout the entire reality of the human experience – the totality of the soul and body that clothes it.
וְגַם עוֹלֶה לַמּוֹחַ שֶׁבָּרֹאשׁ לְחַשֵּׁב וּלְהַרְהֵר בָּהֶן וּלְהִתְחַכֵּם בָּהֶן,
also rising to the brain in the head, causing one to think about and ponder them and, in addition, to devise a stratagem with regard to them, The crude impulse, the simple will that arises from the heart, is the nucleus around which the brain constructs an entire edifice. This edifice has two basic components. The first is "to think about and ponder them." The primal impulse is unformed, indistinct, one-dimensional. The person is barely aware of what he wants. When the mind thinks of it, contemplates it, and ponders the what and how of the desire, the primitive, abstract impulse assumes a form, acquires the sophistication and richness of the imagination, and develops into a complex passion. The second component of the rational edifice constructed around the impulses arising from the heart is that the person "devises a stratagem for them" – a stratagem for attaining his desire. In this way, the mind encompasses the desire to its rear and to its fore, erecting a system of rationalizations to back it up and support it, as well as a methodology to move it forward and realize it. Within this structure, the heart's elemental lust for food and drink assumes complex and sophisticated forms, which are given a base upon which they might be justified and a framework within which they can be implemented.
כְּמוֹ שֶׁהַדָּם מְקוֹרוֹ בַּלֵּב וּמֵהַלֵּב מִתְפַּשֵּׁט לְכָל הָאֵבָרִים, וְגַם עוֹלֶה לְהַמּוֹחַ שֶׁבָּרֹאשׁ.
just as the blood has its source in the heart and from the heart spreads to all the limbs, also rising to the brain in the head. The analogy for the way these traits affect the thoughts and mind is the manner in which the blood, the metaphor for the animal soul, circulates through the body. Just as the blood spreads from the heart to all parts of the body, so too the heart's desires and emotions expand to all parts of the soul and its garments – to the thoughts, speech, and deeds.
אַךְ מְקוֹם מִשְׁכַּן נֶפֶשׁ הָאֱלֹהִית הוּא בַּמּוֹחִין שֶׁבָּרֹאשׁ,
However, the abode of the divine soul is in the consciousness and intellect of the brain that is in the head, The brain is the seat of the cognitive faculties, wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. These are the faculties of the mind and intellect and, in a more general sense, the abode of a person's powers of perception and consciousness. Thus, the "headquarters" of the divine soul, the seat of awareness, is not in the blood, in the instinctive throb of physical life, but in a different though no less fundamental organ: the brain, the faculty of consciousness. The basic difference between the heart and the mind is that the heart works to keep itself alive. The self is its ultimate point of reference and the ultimate objective of all its desires. By contrast, the brain, the faculty of perception, has the power to absorb and relate to matters that are outside and beyond the self. The basis of all perception is the surrender of the ego, of the self focused on the self. As long as the "I" is defined solely by the self and its own needs, it cannot assimilate any objective truths, anything that is beyond the self. For this reason, the abode of the divine soul in the human body is the brain, where there is abnegation of the self to another, higher reality.
וּמִשָּׁם מִתְפַּשֶּׁטֶת לְכָל הָאֵבָרִים.
and from there, it spreads to all the limbs. The divine soul abides and is first expressed in the mind. From there, clothed in consciousness and thought, it can spread to the other limbs by way of emotion and action.
וְגַם בַּלֵּב,
It also resides in the heart, The divine soul has a residence in the heart, but this expression of the divine soul remains latent until awakened by the brain.
בֶּחָלָל הַיְּמָנִי שֶׁאֵין בּוֹ דָּם. וּכְמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב: "לֵב חָכָם לִימִינוֹ״ (קהלת י, ב).
in the right chamber, where there is no blood, as it is written, "The heart of the wise inclines to his right, and the heart of a fool inclines to his left" (Eccles. 10:2). Man is not a homogenous creature but a dichotomous being, and thus his heart too is divided. In the right chamber of the heart reside emotions that belong to the realm of holiness – the desires of the divine soul. These do not manifest in the heart in a direct and spontaneous manner but by means of certain processes in the brain. In the left chamber, which holds the blood that embodies the animal soul, is the home of the feelings and desires that derive from the person's physical, animal side – from kelippa. Since the heart can contain contradictory drives, a person is perpetually faced with the question of where his true heart lies. Where does his heart of hearts, his ultimate self, reside? To the right or to the left?
וְהִיא אַהֲבַת ה׳ כְּרִשְׁפֵּי שַׁלְהֶבֶת מִתְלַהֶבֶת בְּלֵב מַשְׂכִּילִים הַמְבִינִים וּמִתְבּוֹנְנִים בְּדַעְתָּם אֲשֶׁר בְּמוֹחָם בִּדְבָרִים הַמְעוֹרְרִים אֶת הָאַהֲבָה.
This manifestation of the divine soul is expressed as love of God as fierce as sparks of a flame, burning in the heart of the wise, who understand and contemplate, with their minds, which are in their brains, matters that awaken the love. The human being also has fundamental desires that are of a holy, rather than an animal, nature, which express themselves as feelings of the heart that stem from the "right chamber." Just as there are emotions and impulses that belong to the animal sphere, there are emotions that are connected to the divine sphere. Love of God, as an emotional impulse, is no different from love that stems from the animal soul, as when one person loves another. The difference is that the feeling of love toward God is not normally evoked by itself. A higher machinery of perception and awareness is required to awaken it. This is not necessarily an intellectual awareness, like book knowledge, but rather a personal awareness, one's individual way of seeing, understanding, and sensing. Every object of love requires some sort of imagery, whether visual, aural, or connected to some other sense, so that the natural feeling can latch onto it. When a person ponders matters that evoke love of God, this awakens a certain place in the heart – "the right chamber." This awareness does not remain a theoretical and intellectual experience but spreads throughout all the organs and limbs, as well as the heart, which has a place that is also open to such an emotion, to a love of God that burns like flaming coals.
וְכֵן שִׂמְחַת לֵבָב בְּתִפְאֶרֶת ה׳ וַהֲדַר גְּאוֹנוֹ, כַּאֲשֶׁר עֵינֵי הֶחָכָם אֲשֶׁר בְּרֹאשׁוֹ בְּמוֹחַ חָכְמָתוֹ וּבִינָתוֹ מִסְתַּכְּלִים בִּיקָרָא דְּמַלְכָּא וְתִפְאֶרֶת גְּדוּלָּתוֹ עַד אֵין חֵקֶר וְאֵין סוֹף וְתַכְלִית, כַּמְבוֹאָר בְּמָקוֹם אַחֵר.
Similarly, another example of a holy emotion is heartfelt joy in God's beauty and the glory of His majesty, which is evoked in the heart when the wise man's eyes that are in his head, in the faculty of his wisdom and understanding, gaze at the King's glory and the beauty of His majesty, which are beyond comprehension and without limits or bounds, as explained elsewhere (Torah Or 47c). The nature of these contemplations, what to meditate upon and how to meditate to evoke a particular emotion in the heart, is explained at length in hasidic thought. Here the author of the Tanya offers only a broad outline of the point of departure and the final goal. With respect to the divine soul, everything falls under the rubric of one topic: God, who is one.
וְכֵן שְׁאָר מִדּוֹת קְדוֹשׁוֹת שֶׁבַּלֵּב, הֵן מֵחָכְמָה בִּינָה דַּעַת שֶׁבַּמּוֹחִין.
Likewise, the other holy attributes that are in the heart, such as fear and compassion, are evoked through the wisdom, understanding, and knowledge that are in the consciousness and intellect of the brain. In later chapters, the author of the Tanya will clarify that we cannot simply say that the emotions that stem from the divine soul are always stimulated by the three cognitive faculties. There are some people who possess innate feelings of holiness and experience natural love and awe of God, feelings inherited with the "genes" of their soul and implanted in their subconscious. For various reasons, the author of the Tanya is not referring here to this type of love and awe of God but to the usual circumstances, where such emotions are derivatives of a person's consciousness.
אַךְ הִנֵּה כְּתִיב: "וּלְאוֹם מִלְאוֹם יֶאֱמָץ״ (בראשית כה, כג),
However, it is written, "One nation will prevail over the other nation" (Gen. 25:23), This verse appears in the Torah in relation to Rebecca's tumultuous pregnancy: "The children were agitated within her" (Gen. 25:22). Sensing that something was amiss, Rebecca "went to inquire of the Lord." The divine response was that "two peoples are in your womb, and two nations shall be separated from your innards; one nation will prevail over the other nation." In a sense, this applies to every Jew, at any time. Every person senses that there are two "children" struggling within him. When he passes a house of Torah, Jacob struggles to get out, and when he passes a house of idolatry, Esau struggles to get out. The reason for this is that "two peoples are in your womb." A person has within him not a single personality but two, each striving in a different direction and frequently in opposition to one another. The problem is that neither one is content with concerning itself with its own affairs. Each is constantly attempting to encroach on the domain of the other. Moreover, the relationship between them is such that "one nation will prevail over the other." Any increase in the strength of one side produces a reaction that increases the strength of the other. It is a fierce, never-ending struggle. The result is the extreme, agonizing spiritual upheavals that virtually every soul must contend with. A person attains a certain level of goodness or holiness, and then, at that very point, when he is anticipating a holy experience and a spiritual elevation, he experiences something that is the very opposite. He was involved in a holy pursuit – he truly was in a holy place – when suddenly a thought invaded his mind or a desire erupted in his heart that had no relation to the holy realm in which he had been, something that expresses the lowest and basest side of his personality. At such moments, a person tends to see himself as even more base and lowly. It is therefore important that a person understand what is transpiring within him. He should understand that there are "two peoples in your womb" and "one nation will prevail over the other," that a person is not one but two, and when one becomes stronger, the other rallies in response. Life is not a smooth and straight progression, and one should be prepared for sudden bursts of energy from one side or the other. As will be explained below, a person whose path in life is straight and smooth is not a normal person; he is a tzaddik gamur, a completely righteous individual. The tzaddik is a one-dimensional person: He has but one soul, one heart, which is directed toward Heaven. Only in such an individual are there no upheavals caused by the other side.
כִּי הַגּוּף נִקְרָא עִיר קְטַנָּה וּכְמוֹ שֶׁשְּׁנֵי מְלָכִים נִלְחָמִים עַל עִיר אַחַת, שֶׁכָּל אֶחָד רוֹצֶה לְכָבְשָׁהּ וְלִמְלוֹךְ עָלֶיהָ, דְּהַיְינוּ לְהַנְהִיג יוֹשְׁבֶיהָ כִּרְצוֹנוֹ וְשֶׁיִּהְיוּ סָרִים לְמִשְׁמַעְתּוֹ בְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר יִגְזוֹר עֲלֵיהֶם,
for the body is referred to as a "small city," and just as two kings wage war over one city, each one wishing to conquer and rule over it, that is, to govern its citizens according to his wishes, and that they obey whatever rules he imposes on them, The author of the Tanya borrows this metaphor from Tanakh.
כָּךְ שְׁתֵּי הַנְּפָשׁוֹת, הָאֱלֹהִית וְהַחִיּוּנִית-הַבַּהֲמִית שֶׁמֵּהַקְּלִיפָּה, נִלְחָמוֹת זוֹ עִם זוֹ עַל הַגּוּף וְכָל אֵבָרָיו.
so too the two souls, the divine soul and the vital, animal soul, which stems from kelippa , wage war with one another for control over the body and all its limbs. The body and all its organs and limbs, including the heart and the brain, are neutral ground. Body and soul are not the conflicting representations of good and evil, holiness and impurity. The body in and of itself is not an expression of evil. Rather, the physical body is an instrument that might serve either the impure forces of kelippa or the holy forces of the Divine. The battle between the two souls is therefore over the body: Which force should it serve and for what purpose? Should it serve the animal soul, which sees the body not as an instrument but as an end in itself? Should the instrument, then, be recast as an objective and thus become an expression of kelippa? Or should it serve the divine soul, which sees it as an instrument through which it can achieve a higher degree of attachment to God than it possesses on its own?
שֶׁהָאֱלֹהִית חֶפְצָהּ וּרְצוֹנָהּ שֶׁתְּהֵא הִיא לְבַדָּהּ הַמּוֹשֶׁלֶת עָלָיו וּמַנְהִיגַתּוּ, וְכָל הָאֵבָרִים יִהְיוּ סָרִים לְמִשְׁמַעְתָּהּ וּבְטֵלִים אֶצְלָהּ לְגַמְרֵי, וּמֶרְכָּבָה אֵלֶיהָ, וְיִהְיוּ לְבוּשׁ לְעֶשֶׂר בְּחִינוֹתֶיהָ וְג׳ לְבוּשֶׁיהָ הַנִּזְכָּרִים לְעֵיל,
The divine soul's desire and wish is that it be the sole ruler and leader of the body and that all of the body's limbs obey the divine soul's wishes, be completely nullified to it, and serve as a vehicle for it so that the body's limbs may be a garment for its aforementioned ten attributes and its three garments ( see chaps. 3–4). In the terminology of Kabbala, merkava, literally a chariot, refers to a vehicle, a thing that possesses no will or identity of its own but merely serves a higher will, like a chariot controlled and directed by its driver. The Midrash states that the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were the divine chariot, comparing their self-negation before God to that of the horse under its rider.
שֶׁיִּתְלַבְּשׁוּ כּוּּלָּם בְּאֶבְרֵי הַגּוּף וְיִהְיֶה הַגּוּף כּוּּלּוֹ מָלֵא מֵהֶם לְבַדָּם וְלֹא יַעֲבוֹר זָר בְּתוֹכָם חַס וְשָׁלוֹם.
It desires that all of them be clothed within the limbs of the body and that the body be completely permeated with them alone, so that no foreigner will pass through them, God forbid. The divine soul wants to attain complete control over the totality of human existence. As has been explained, holiness resides only where nothing else exists. There is neither room for any extraneous emotion or intellectual prowess, nor is there space for a superfluous thought, word, or action. It reigns supreme in the presence of the Divine alone.
דְּהַיְינוּ תְּלָת מוֹחִין שֶׁבָּרֹאשׁ יִהְיוּ מְמוּלָּאִים מֵחָכְמָה בִּינָה דַּעַת שֶׁבַּנֶּפֶשׁ הָאֱלֹהִית,
That is, the three faculties of the brain in the head should be permeated with the wisdom, understanding, and knowledge of the divine soul, In this way, all of a person's thoughts, and his very manner of thinking, will be in the sphere of holiness, linked with the Divine.
שֶׁהִיא: חָכְמַת ה׳ וּבִינָתוֹ לְהִתְבּוֹנֵן בִּגְדוּלָּתוֹ אֲשֶׁר עַד אֵין חֵקֶר וְאֵין סוֹף, וּלְהוֹלִיד מֵהֶם עַל יְדֵי הַדַּעַת הַיִּרְאָה בְּמוֹחוֹ וּפַחַד ה׳ בְּלִבּוֹ וְאַהֲבַת ה׳ כְּאֵשׁ בּוֹעֵרָה בְּלִבּוֹ כְּרִשְׁפֵּי שַׁלְהֶבֶת,
namely, the wisdom of God and His understanding, by contemplating His greatness, which is infinite and beyond comprehension, and generate through them, by means of the faculty of knowledge, awe of God in his brain and fear of God in his heart and love of God like a burning fire in his heart and like sparks of a flame. Two types of fear are mentioned here. The first is yira, the sense of inadequacy generated in the mind when it is aware of an infinitely greater presence than itself, while the second is paḥad, the corresponding emotion in the heart, which is different from the more theoretical sense of awe.
לִהְיוֹת נִכְסְפָה וְגַם כָּלְתָה נַפְשׁוֹ בַּחֲשִׁיקָה וַחֲפִיצָה לְדָבְקָה בּוֹ בְּאֵין סוֹף בָּרוּךְ הוּא בְּכָל לֵב וָנֶפֶשׁ וּמְאֹד,
His soul will yearn and pine with a longing and desire to cling to Him, to Ein Sof , blessed be He, with all his heart, soul, and might "Heart, soul, and might" is a reference to the second verse of the Shema: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might" (Deut. 6:5). "With all your heart," as the Talmud interprets it,
מֵעוּמְקָא דְּלִבָּא שֶׁבֶּחָלָל הַיְּמָנִי,
from the depths of the heart, from its right chamber, The "depths of the heart" is what a person really and truly desires. On the other hand, a person might desire certain things and act upon these desires only in the periphery of his heart. In the routine of life, distinguishing between the two, between that which is central and that which is peripheral, is not always possible, but in a crisis that upsets the normal balance of his life, a person will divest himself of those things that he values only in the periphery of the heart. In those moments, his true desires in the recesses of his heart will express themselves.
שֶׁיִּהְיֶה תּוֹכוֹ רָצוּף אַהֲבָה, מָלֵא וְגָדוּשׁ,
to the extent that its interior is inlaid with love, permeating it and overflowing. These are not mere expressions. "Inlaid" and "permeated" are two manners in which the divine soul's love of God fills the right chamber of the heart until it contains nothing else. "Overflowing" is the stage at which this love spills over from its natural place to the other side.
עַד שֶׁתִּתְפַּשֵּׁט גַּם לֶחָלָל הַשְּׂמָאלִי
That love spills over until it spreads to the left chamber as well, The divine soul does not suffice with consolidating its rule over those parts of the person that are its natural domain – the brain and the right chamber of the heart. It wants more: that the feelings of love and awe of God should spill over into the other side of the heart, into the realm of the animal soul in the left chamber, to the human, biological element of man. The divine soul's desire is to transform the entire human being into a being of holiness.
לְאַכְּפַיָּא לְסִטְרָא אָחֳרָא יְסוֹד הַמַּיִם הָרָעִים שֶׁבָּהּ, שֶׁהִיא הַתַּאֲוָה שֶׁמִּקְּלִיפַּת נוֹגַהּ, לְשַׁנּוֹתָהּ וּלְהַפְּכָהּ מִתַּעֲנוּגֵי עוֹלָם הַזֶּה לְאַהֲבַת ה׳,
to subdue the sitra aḥara in the heart, the element of evil water within it, which is the lust that stems from the kelippa of noga (see chap. 1), to change it and transform it from a lust for the pleasures of this world to the love of God, The left side of the heart contains one's love for mundane things. When the love harbored in the right side of the heart permeates the left, the love for the mundane and material is transformed into the love of God. That is not to say that this permeation renders the left side of the heart equivalent to the right in all respects. Rather, it means that the passion and burning desire for the mundane will now be redirected toward God. The author of the Tanya details a two-stage process in the divine soul's effect on the animal soul: "to subdue the sitra aḥara " and "to change it and transform it." "Subduing" and "transforming" are basic concepts in divine service as expressed in hasidic thought. There is a major difference between subduing the other side and transforming and changing it, and it is explained that one stage follows the next. The first stage of subduing is primarily the divine service of self-abnegation, an act attainable by every person, and it is the service of the beinoni. The second stage, that of transforming, is not easily attainable by the common person and is thus primarily the divine service of the righteous.
כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב: "בְּכָל לְבָבְךָ״ (דברים ו, ה) – בִּשְׁנֵי יְצָרֶיךָ.
as it is written, "With all your heart" (Deut. 6:5) – that is, with both your inclinations, In Hebrew, the word for "your heart" can assume two forms: libkha, spelled with a single bet, or levavekha, spelled with two bet s. In the verse from the Shema quoted here, the word is written with two bet s. The Sages interpret this as a reference to the two sides of the human heart, the right and the left, the inclination for good and the inclination for evil.
וְהַיְינוּ שֶׁיַּעֲלֶה וְיָבֹא וְיַגִּיעַ לְמַדְרֵגַת ‘אַהֲבָה רַבָּה׳ וְחִיבָּה יְתֵרָה, מִמַּדְרֵגַת ‘אַהֲבָה עַזָּה כְּרִשְׁפֵּי אֵשׁ׳.
so that it may ascend, come, and reach the level of great love and affection that surpasses the level of a "love of God as fierce as sparks of fire" (see chap. 3). The love of God described as a fierce love that burns as fierce as "sparks of fire" is the love that develops as a result of the intellectual contemplation of the divine soul in the right chamber of the heart. But the loftier level of love described here as a "great love" cannot be attained by mere intellectual contemplation. It can be achieved only when the lower level of love spills over and permeates the left side of the heart, the locus of one's natural, inborn love, and redirects that love to holiness. This in turn reveals the natural, latent love of the divine soul. This love, newly manifest, is known by two designations: "great love" and "love of delights," as the author of the Tanya goes on to say. The author appears to be charting the process by which the level of ahava rabba, "great love," can be attained. Although it is true that there is no fixed route or technique when it comes to such matters because people operate and develop emotionally in different ways, it is nevertheless possible to speak of a general route that is applicable to most people. The first stage of this process is perception and contemplation of the Divine, which serve to awaken the love that is in the heart. This is a love like a burning fire, a thirst and yearning for God that first develops in the right chamber of the heart, the source of the heart's "holy" emotions, those feelings that are directed toward God alone. The love fills the right side of the heart and then spills over into the left, subduing the heart's love for the material and the mundane and ultimately transforming it into a love for God. When this is achieved, the person can graduate to the higher level of love called ahava rabba.
וְהִיא הַנִּקְרֵאת בַּכָּתוּב: "אַהֲבָה בַּתַּעֲנוּגִים״ (שיר השירים ז, ז),
This great love is referred to in Tanakh as "love of delights" (Song 7:7), Love has two seemingly contradictory modes of expression: love that is like sparks of fire and great love, or "love of delights," which, as noted in hasidic thought, is also known as love that is like water.
לְהִתְעַנֵּג עַל ה׳ מֵעֵין עוֹלָם הַבָּא.
wherein one delights in God, which is a semblance of the World to Come. A higher form of love is the second type of love: love like water or, as the verse calls it, "love of delights." The soul achieves this love when there is no longer any struggle between the divine soul and the animal soul, when all the person's desires are directed toward God. Unlike love that is like fire, which is based on the self and what it lacks, born of thirst and longing for the object of its desire, this is a love in which the lover is not aware of himself at all, only of the object of his love. When the self ceases to be significant, its needs, too, cease to be significant and no longer afflict the soul with thirst and yearning. Such love is satisfying because it makes no demands; it does not seek to dominate or exercise ownership over its object. As long as love implies the desire to obtain something for oneself, the lack is only magnified with the intensity of the love. But when love belongs to a totally different type of relationship, in which the beloved is loved for its own sake, unconnected with the self of the one who loves, then the more one loves and the more one thinks about and occupies himself with the object of his love, the more satisfying that love becomes. When a fiery love graduates into a "love of delights," there is a complete transformation: Love that was formerly characterized by agony and longing becomes a delightful love, akin to the soul's delight in God in the World to Come. No longer is there a sense of lack because one is focused entirely on God, the object of one's love, rather than on the self and its needs. This love is a "semblance of the World to Come" because it bears no connection to this world, a place of struggle, labor, destruction, and creation. It is, instead, a semblance of the world that follows this one, a future world in which the summation of this present world and the true place of everything therein is clearly perceivable. The love of delights thus belongs solely to the World to Come, a reality in which there is no conflict, in which man becomes an integral, harmonious being whose soul is entirely subsumed with the love of God. This love cannot be attained in this world through human effort but can only be granted as a gift from God, akin to the very nature of the World to Come. Yet even in this present world, the righteous – and at rare moments and, to a lesser degree, the beinoni – are privy to an illumination, a guiding light, from the World to Come.
וְהָעֹנֶג הוּא בְּמוֹחַ חָכְמָה וְשֵׂכֶל הַמִּתְעַנֵּג בְּהַשְׂכָּלַת ה׳ וִידִיעָתוֹ כְּפִי הַשָּׂגַת שִׂכְלוֹ וְחָכְמָתוֹ.
The delight is experienced in the brain, the seat of wisdom and the intellect, which delights in apprehending God and knowing Him, commensurate with the capacity of one's intellect and wisdom to apprehend God. As explained above, awareness is what defines feeling. Just as there is awareness that leads to fiery love, to desire, craving, and longing, so there is a type of awareness, deriving from the faculty of wisdom in the mind, by which the more one contemplates, the more delight one derives. It appears that the love of delights in particular is associated with the intellect that generates it. More accurately, it is associated with the faculty of wisdom, not so much as an independent emotion born of consciousness, but more as an emotion inextricably bound to the faculty of wisdom that produces it. This bond is unobstructed by any interposing barriers, allowing for a single, unified state of love "in the brain, [the seat of] wisdom and [the] intellect, which delights in apprehending God…." As explained elsewhere,
וְהוּא בְּחִינַת הַמַּיִם וְזֶרַע אוֹר זָרוּעַ שֶׁבִּקְדוּשַּׁת נֶפֶשׁ הָאֱלֹהִית הַמְהַפֶּכֶת לְטוֹב אֶת בְּחִינַת הַמַּיִם שֶׁבַּנֶּפֶשׁ הַבַּהֲמִית שֶׁמֵּהֶם בָּאוּ תַּאֲוֹת תַּעֲנוּגֵי עוֹלָם הַזֶּה מִתְּחִלָּה.
This love of delights has the quality of the water and seed of light that is sown in the holiness of the divine soul, which transforms to good the element of water in the animal soul from which the lusts for the delights of this world originated. This love of delights is like water, which is always channeled from a higher place. It is the love of the divine soul that is channeled downward to the mundane love experienced by the animal soul, transforming the love for the mundane into love of God. When a person attains the higher level of love of delights, he no longer needs to force himself to abandon worldly matters and desires, because he no longer desires them. In this state of being, the mere existence of God is a source of delight. From this vantage point, all other pleasures are sterile alternatives to the delight in their ultimate source. This is the transition from the stage of subduing to that of transforming, from the stage where one has to suppress the animal soul to where the animal soul itself desires holiness. This is the ultimate solution to all the problems of desire, in all its forms and expressions. On this level, the person has achieved a resolution to the problem of desire at its root, eliminating the necessity for all other solutions. We are drawn to worldly pleasures only so long as we are not connected with the Source of all things. All secondary, tertiary, and other substitutes serve only to drown out our single, basic need: our intrinsic love for God. Unwittingly, our thirst for God is contorted into other lusts, which seem to offer a solution, to quench our thirst. But once we attain a "love of delights" for God, all these things cease to attract us. We no longer crave them; they no longer even exist for us.
וּכְמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב בְּעֵץ חַיִּים שַׁעַר נ׳ פֶּרֶק ג׳ בְּשֵׁם הַזֹּהַר (חלק ג רעז, א),
Likewise, it is written in Etz Ḥayyim 50:3, citing the Zohar (3:277a), that the evil within the animal soul is transformed and becomes completely good, literally like the good inclination, when divested of its soiled garments, which are the pleasures of this world, within which the animal soul is clothed. This form of divine service is fundamental to hasidic thought. The Zohar quoted here distinguishes between the perpetually positive inner motivating force behind desire and love themselves and the garments of the desire, the negative forms it assumes. Because it is possible to separate the two, to strip the essential desire of the animal soul of its "soiled garments," the desire can be transformed and redirected from one extreme to the other. This means that one has to change, not the essence of one's animal nature and the inner forces operating in the animal soul, but only their object.
וְכֵן שְׁאָר כָּל הַמִּדּוֹת שֶׁבַּלֵּב, שֶׁהֵן עַנְפֵי הַיִּרְאָה וְהָאַהֲבָה, יִהְיוּ לַה' לְבַדּוֹ.
Similarly, all the other attributes in the heart, which are the offshoots of fear and love, should also be solely for God. The bulk of this chapter dealt with the emotion of love. But the same applies to the heart's other emotions. A person can also be educated properly with regard to all these, clothed with the proper garments and elevating them, level by level, to holiness.
וְכָל כֹּחַ הַדִּבּוּר שֶׁבַּפֶּה וְהַמַּחֲשָׁבָה שֶׁבַּמּוֹחַ יִהְיוּ מְמוּלָּאִים מִן לְבוּשֵׁי הַמַּחֲשָׁבָה וְהַדִּבּוּר שֶׁל נֶפֶשׁ הָאֱלֹהִית לְבַדָּהּ, שֶׁהֵן מַחֲשֶׁבֶת ה' וְתוֹרָתוֹ לִהְיוֹת שִׂיחָתוֹ כָּל הַיּוֹם, לָא פָּסֵיק פּוּמֵּיהּ מִגִּירְסָא.
The entire faculty of speech in the mouth and the thought in the brain should be permeated solely with the garments of thought and speech of the divine soul, which are the thoughts of God and His Torah, so that it may be one's subject of conversation all day, his mouth never ceasing from Torah study. When everything a person says or thinks revolves around the Torah, or even with things that are necessary for him to live so that he may study and practice Torah, it can be said that his thoughts and speech are "permeated" with Torah. Even if it is not possible for a person's thoughts and speech to be restricted to Torah alone, they can nevertheless be permeated with it: namely, when Torah constitutes his only true desire, a desire that suffuses the innermost recesses of his heart. If a thought or word is not Torah in its substance, then he thinks it or says it only because he must, only because it is essential to his existence – an existence dedicated to Torah – and then he immediately returns to his true and only interest: Torah. When this is the case, his faculties of thought and speech are indeed permeated with Torah.
וְכֹחַ הַמַּעֲשִׂיִּי שֶׁבְּיָדָיו וּשְׁאָר רמ"ח אֵבָרָיו יִהְיֶה בְּמַעֲשֵׂה הַמִּצְוֹת לְבַד, שֶׁהוּא לְבוּשׁ הַשְּׁלִישִׁי שֶׁל נֶפֶשׁ הָאֱלֹהִית.
The faculty of action in his hands and the rest of his 248 limbs should be engaged solely in the act of performing the commandments, action being the third garment of the divine soul. The soul has three garments by which it expresses itself: thought, speech, and action. The desire of the divine soul is that these should exclusively be in its domain, that the person's thoughts, words, and deeds should serve only the divine soul, making the body the exclusive instrument of its will.
אַךְ נֶפֶשׁ הַבַּהֲמִית שֶׁמֵּהַקְּלִיפָּה רְצוֹנָהּ לְהֵפֶךְ מַמָּשׁ.
However, the will of the animal soul, which stems from kelippa , is literally the opposite. The author of the Tanya does not elaborate on the specific ways that the body's faculties and garments should serve the animal soul alone as he does in the case of the divine soul, perhaps because we are already all too familiar with these details, and in any case there is no duty to teach them. The idea that the animal soul desires the exact opposite of the divine soul implies that there is no room here for compromise. A person might arrive at some sort of middle ground between the two halves of his inner self in an attempt to effect a peaceful coexistence between them, but such compromise is inherently partial and temporary. Ultimately, both souls want one thing: complete domination. So inherently, there is no room for compromise.
לְטוֹבַת הָאָדָם שֶׁיִּתְגַּבֵּר עָלֶיהָ וִינַצְּחֶנָּה,
This is ultimately for man's benefit, so that he may overpower it and emerge victorious, Here the author of the Tanya touches on a deeper point. He has defined a dualistic world: holiness on one side, kelippa on the other, each struggling over the neutral ground in between. But at its root, it is not a true duality. In essence, the animal soul too is a creation of God, and it too desires holiness. The animal soul struggles against the divine soul, but its innermost desire is for man to defeat it. The seduction practiced by the animal soul is really a contrived challenge to enable the divine soul to reach higher levels.
כִּמְשַׁל הַזּוֹנָה שֶׁבַּזֹּהַר הַקָּדוֹשׁ (חלק ב קסג, א).
as in the parable of the harlot given in the holy Zohar (2:163a). The Zohar relates the parable of a king who was extremely fond of his only son, and out of his love for him instructed him to stay away from promiscuous women.