Daily Tanya – Chapter 28 Part 1: Battling evil thoughts during service of G-d (Friday 26th Shevat)

Chapter 28: Battling evil thoughts during service of G-d

26^th Shevat/(LY) 8^th Adar 1

1.      How to handle forbidden thoughts during prayer and Torah learning:

• In the previous chapter we discussed how a person should handle the fact that he suffers from thoughts of evil during his mundane activity, and how the Beinoni rejoices over the fact he can fulfill the Mitzvah of Iskafya in pushing away evil and causing G-d great satisfaction above. In the current chapter, the Alter Rebbe will deal with how one is to handle forbidden thoughts and lusts that occur during times that he is studying Torah or praying.
• Removing one’s mind from the forbidden thoughts: Even if the lustful feelings, and foreign thoughts enter one’s mind during times that he is serving G-d through studying Torah or praying with concentration, he should not pay attention to them at all. Rather, he should immediately remove his mind from them completely.

3.      Not to try to elevate the forbidden thoughts as is done by Tzadikim:

• Tzadikim can elevate the forbidden thoughts of others: One should not be a fool, to tell himself that the reason he received these forbidden thoughts is in order to elevate them, as such a Divine service of elevating forbidden thoughts is only to be performed by Tzadikim who do not have such thoughts coming from their own hearts, and rather have the thoughts of others enter their minds in order to elevate them.
• One cannot elevate his own forbidden thoughts: However, a person who has forbidden thoughts fall into his mind, which derive from the lusts that are found in the left ventricle of his heart, then it is not possible for these thoughts to be elevated by him, as how can he elevate them above when he himself is tied down to below.

4.      To rejoice and not be saddened by the disturbing thoughts:

• Despite the above said, one’s heart should not be saddened and depressed during his time of service of G-d over the fact that he has these disturbing forbidden thoughts. The reason for this is because one must serve G-d with great joy. On the contrary, one must strengthen himself even more in his concentration with all his might and power to focus on his prayer with great and extra joy and jubilation.
• Focusing on the battle of good against evil: One should focus his heart on the fact that these disturbing thoughts that enter his mind come from the Kelipa that is found in the left part of his heart which performs battle in the Beinoni with the G-dly soul that is found within him. [Hence, because of one’s awareness that this is a battle that is taking place between his G-dly soul and animal soul, he should strengthen himself even more to battle against the disturbing thought.]
• During battle every side fights for its survival: It is well known regarding the ways of battle and wrestling, that when one side is succeeding in the battle, then the other side strengthens himself even more, in full strength, to try to overcome his opponent. This is exactly what happens during prayer when one has disturbing thoughts. During prayer, one’s G-dly soul is working hard to pray with concentration, and this causes that its opponent from Kelipa also tries to strengthen itself in battle against it, through sending the person disturbing thoughts in order to confuse him and stop his concentration.