Daily Tanya Shabbos 18th Teves: Chapter 13 Part 1 – A Deeper look at the Beinoni

Chapter 13: A Deeper look at the Beinoni

1. The evil may judge but cannot rule in the Beinoni:

• Based on the teachings of the previous chapter we can better understand the teaching of our sages that the Beinoni is judged by both his good and evil inclination. In this teaching, the sages use the word judge [and state that the two inclinations judge the body] as opposed to the word control and they do not say that the two inclinations have control over the body.
• Not a Rasha for even a moment: The reason for why in a Beinoni the evil inclination can only judge, and cannot control, is because if the evil inclination takes even slight control of the small city for even one moment, then the person is already called a Rasha for that moment.

2. The “court case battle” that exists within the body of the Beinoni:

• Is like a single judge within the tribunal of judges who give a verdict contrary to his opinion: The evil inclination is likened to a single judge within a tribunal of judges who states his opinion regarding what should be the verdict in the case. Nonetheless, despite the opinion that he voices, the final verdict may not be like his opinion being that there is another judge who argues against his opinion, and a third opinion is necessary to arbitrate between them and give the final verdict, and in such a case the final verdict will follow the opinion of the third arbitrating judge.
• The opinion of Judge number one-the evil inclination: The same applies regarding the evil inclination. The evil inclination retains the right to voice his opinion within the left side of the heart. Furthermore, he has the ability to send this opinion from his heart to the mind of the Beinoni to challenge him to think about it.
• The opinion of judge number two-the G-dly soul: As soon the opinion of the evil inclination enters the mind of the Beinoni, the second judge, immediately argues against it. This second judge is the G-dly soul found in the brain and which also extends to the right part of the heart which is where the good inclination dwells.
• The third judge, which is G-d, arbitrates: The final ruling in the above debate between the two judges follows the opinion of the third judge. The third judge is G-d who gives assistance to the good inclination, as the sages state that if not for the assistance G-d gives the good inclination, a person would not be able to overcome his evil passions.

3. Understanding the advantage of the second judge over the first:

• A G-dly revelation to create the advantage of light over darkness: In greater detail, the exact assistance that G-d gives the second judge which is the G-dly soul, is that He shines His Divine light on the G-dly soul. This Divine revelation gives the G-dly soul the advantage and upper hand over the foolishness of the evil inclination and gives it the power of light over darkness.

4.     Why the Beinoni is to view himself like a Rasha:

• The lust for passion has not budged a single inch: Earlier in the first chapter we stated that a person should always view himself like a Rasha. The reason for this is because after all, the evil that is found in the left part of the heart of the Beinoni still retains its full strength, just as when it was born. It still maintains its ability to lust after all of the pleasures of this world, and has never become nullified to good, or pushed away from its place at all within the heart.
• Hashem prevents it from spreading-Only thanks to G-d is the evil not expressed: The only thing that holds true in the Beinoni is that his evil does not have the ability to express its lust within the limbs of the body, and even this is merely due to the fact that G-d stands guard next to it in the right part of the heart, and assists it through shining His Divine light to the G-dly soul. [In other words, the evil in the heart of the Beinoni remains strong that on his own he does not have the power to overcome it and requires assistance from G-d in order to do so.]
• Viewing oneself like a Rasha: It is for this reason that the Beinoni is to be considered similar to a Rasha, as the sages’ state that even if the entire population of the world tell him that he is a Tzadik, he should nonetheless not believe them and continue to view himself like a Rasha.
• Not like an actual Rasha but a Beinoni who has similarities to a Rasha: Now, this does not mean that one should actually think of himself as being a Rasha [as in truth he has not transgressed and believing this would be contrary to the truth, and possibly cause him depression in his service of G-d], but rather simply that he should view himself as a Beinoni which is similar to a Rasha [in the respect that he retains lust for evil within his heart].
• Not to view himself like a Tzadik-know that you still contain evil: The main thing is that he should not believe what people are saying about him and view himself like a Tzadik whose evil has become nullified to his good, and he should rather be on guard and view himself as if the essence of his evil has still remained in his strength within the left part of his heart just as when it was born, and has not left or diminished itself at all even one iota.
• His evil has even become strengthened with time: On the contrary, his evil inclination has only strengthened with time, as a result of his many involvements in eating and drinking and other matters of the physical world. [Thus, not only should he not be fooled to think that his evil no longer exists, but furthermore he needs to be aware that in truth it has gotten even stronger than it was when it was first born.]