Daily Tanya – Chapter 12 Part 1: The Beinoni (Shabbos 14th Teves)

14^th Teves

1.      The definition of the Beinoni-A person who never sins:

• Never sins: A Beinoni is an individual whose evil never overcomes him to the point that his evil conquers the small city, which is his body, to cause it to sin.
• The three Levushim of the animal soul are not allowed expression in the body: This means that the three garments of the animal soul which are thought, speech and action that derive from impurity, never overpower the G-dly soul, and thus never come to expression in one’s mind, or mouth, or 248 bodily limbs to cause it to sin and defile it.
• Only the three garments of the G-dly soul are expressed in the body: Rather, the three garments of the G-dly soul are the sole dominant force within the body which is allowed expression through one’s thought, speech, and action of the 613 commands.
• Beinoni has never sinned and will never sin and has never been called a Rasha all his days: The Beinoni is an individual who has never transgressed a sin in the past [as even if he has transgressed in the past he has completely repented and is like a new person] and [in his present situation] will never [be tempted to] transgress a sin in the future. The Beinoni has never been called a Rasha even for one moment throughout all of his days.

2.      The internal battel of the Beinoni:

• The G-dly soul has no control over the essence and instincts of the body: Although in the Beinoni, the G-dly soul controls the body to the point that it blocks the animal soul from expressing itself within the body, nonetheless, it does not control the essence and instincts of the soul and body.
• The ten soul aspects of the G-dly soul only rule the body at specified times: The essence of the G-dly soul, which refers to its 10 soul faculties, does not have sole control and governance over the small city which is the body, [and he rather shares control of it together with the animal soul, with exception to the times to be specified below].

3.      The control of the G-dly soul during Davening even over the essence:

• There exist however certain auspicious times in which is an exception to the above, in which the essence of the G-dly soul takes the sole control of the body. An example of such a suspicious time is during the time of reading the Shema and the time of prayer. The reason for this is because during prayer the Divine intellect above in heaven is revealed and this has an impact on one’s G-dly soul below [to give it the extra strength to overcome even the essence of the animal soul].
• The love and passion for G-d during Davening: During prayer one connects his intellect to G-d, to deeply concentrate on the greatness of the infinite G-d, which then arouses a great passionate and fiery love in the right ventricle of his heart. This creates a great desire to attach to G-d through the fulfillment of Torah and Mitzvos, which is the content of discussion within the Biblical reading of the Shema paragraphs. Now, the blessings which are Rabbinical that come before and after the reading of the Shema, are there to prepare us for the above experience in the reading of Shema.
• No existence of evil during this type of prayer: When a person experiences the above love during his prayer the evil that is in the left side of his heart become subservient and nullified to the good that is in the right side of his heart which is aroused by the intellect found in his mind which is connected with the greatness of the infinite G-d.
• The evil returns after prayer: After one finishes his prayer, the evil of the animal soul returns to its conscious state within the left ventricle of the heart, and he once again begins to lust and desire the physical pleasures of the world. The reason for this is because after the prayer has concluded, the intellectual connection with the greatness of the infinite G-d leaves the person.