אבל אחר התפלה, בהסתלקות המוחין דגדלות אין סוף ברוך הוא, הרי הרע חוזר וניעור בחלל השמאלי, ומתאוה תאוה לתאות עולם הזה ותענוגיו

But this state of affairs lasts only for the duration of the spiritually-charged time of prayer. After prayer, however, when the intellect of the blessed Ein Sof is no longer in a state of sublimity, i.e., when the spiritual illumination engendered by prayer ceases, the evil of the animal soul in the left part of the heart reawakens, and he (the Beinoni) [once again] feels a desire for the lusts of this world and its delights, since the evil of the Beinoni’s animal soul remains undiminished even after prayer (as the Alter Rebbe will explain shortly).

רק מפני שלא לו לבדו משפט המלוכה והממשלה בעיר, אינו יכול להוציא תאותו מכח אל הפועל להתלבש באברי הגוף

Yet, because the evil of the animal soul has not the sole authority and dominion over the “city”, for the good of the divine soul (situated in the brain) has its say as well, it is unable to implement this desire by clothing itself in the limbs of the body,

במעשה דבור ומחשבה ממש

[to engage] in deed, speech, or actual thought —

להעמיק מחשבתו בתענוגי עולם הזה, איך למלאת תאות לבו

“actual” thought meaning: to concentrate his attention on worldly pleasures [with a view to] devising means of satisfying the lust of his heart,

The Beinoni’s desire for worldly pleasures will cause thoughts of such matters to rise from the heart to his mind; these thoughts are beyond his control, beyond the sphere of dominance of his divine soul. He can, however, control his “actual” — i.e., conscious and wilfull — thought, so that immediately as he becomes aware of the forbidden thoughts he dismisses them from his mind, not permitting himself to dwell on them, nor to think how to implement them (as the Alter Rebbe will state at greater length further in this chapter).

Returning now to his statement that the divine soul of the Beinoni keeps the desires of his animal soul in check, preventing their expression in deed, speech and actual thought, the Alter Rebbe explains why this is possible.

כי המוח שליט על הלב כמו שכתוב ברעיא מהימנא פרשת פנחס בתולדתו וטבע יצירתו

because the brain rules over the heart (as it is written in Ra‘aya Mehemna, Parshat Pinchas2) by virtue of its innately created nature.

שכך נוצר האדם בתולדתו, שכל אדם יכול ברצונו שבמוחו להתאפק ולמשול ברוח תאותו שבלבו

For man was so created from birth, that every person may, with the power of the will in his brain — i.e., the will created of his mind’s understanding — restrain himself and control the drive of his heart’s lust,

שלא למלאת משאלות לבו במעשה דבור ומחשבה

preventing his heart’s desires from finding expression in deed, word and thought, when the mind understands the evil inherent in such deed, word or thought,

ולהסיח דעתו לגמרי מתאות לבו אל ההפך לגמרי

and [he can, if his mind will it] divert his attention completely from that which his heart craves [and turn his attention] to the exactly opposite direction.

This principle of mind over heart holds true even where the restraint of one’s desires is dictated by simple logic, without motives of holiness; the demands of the mind’s logic are, alone, sufficiently powerful to steer one’s attention in a direction diametrically opposite to that which his heart craves.

ובפרט אל צד הקדושה

If this is true whatever his motives, it is true particularly in the direction of holiness.

When, motivated by the knowledge that his lustful thoughts are sinful, and thoughts of Torah and mitzvot good and praiseworthy, one seeks to divert his attention from the former to the latter, so that both his goal and his motives are holy, his mind’s will is particularly effective in mastering his heart and thoughts.

כדכתיב: וראיתי שיש יתרון לחכמה מן הסכלות, כיתרון האור מן החושך

[For] thus is it written:3 “Then I saw that wisdom surpasses folly as light surpasses darkness.”

Clearly, the use of analogy indicates that a difficult and unfamiliar idea is to be clarified by comparison with a simple, familiar one. However, nothing seems to be gained by equating wisdom and folly with light and darkness; both are equally comprehensible.

Even assuming that the reference here is to a deeper aspect of “wisdom”, namely holiness (as in Ecclesiastes‘ depiction of man’s inclination for good as “a poor and wise child”4), and that “folly” refers to evil (as in his portrayal of the evil inclination as “an old and foolish king”), there is still no need for analogy. Clearly, holiness is vastly superior to evil.

Rather, the Alter Rebbe goes on to explain, the analogy is used here to illustrate how wisdom is superior to folly: The superiority of light over darkness is manifest in the ability of a tiny ray of light to banish a great deal of darkness. Furthermore, the light need not battle darkness to banish it; the darkness disappears as a matter of course with the appearance of light. In the same way is the wisdom of holiness superior to the folly of evil. A mere ray of holiness suffices to banish — as a matter of course — a great deal of evil folly.

In the Alter Rebbe’s words:

פירוש: כמו שהאור יש לו יתרון ושליטה וממשלה על החושך

This [analogy] means that just as light has superiority, power and dominion over darkness,

שמעט אור גשמי דוחה הרבה מן החשך, שנדחה ממנו מאליו וממילא

so that a little physical light banishes a great deal of darkness, which is displaced automatically and inevitably, without any effort on the part of the light,

כך נדחה ממילא סכלות הרבה של הקליפה וסיטרא אחרא שבחלל השמאלי

so is there driven away, automatically, much foolishness of the kelipah and sitra achra of the animal soul located in the left part of the heart,

כמאמר רז״ל: אלא אם כן נכנס בו רוח שטות וכו׳

(as indeed our Sages say,5 “A man does not sin unless a spirit of folly enters him”).

מפני החכמה שבנפש האלקית שבמוח

Thus our Sages described the desires of the animal soul as “folly”. Hence they are automatically banished by the wisdom of the divine soul that is in the brain,

אשר רצונה למשול לבדה בעיר ולהתלבש בשלשה לבושיה הנ״ל בכל הגוף כולו כנ״ל

which desires to rule alone over the “city” — the body — and to pervade the entire body by means of its aforementioned6 three garments,

שהם מחשבה דבור ומעשה של תרי״ג מצות התורה כנ״ל

namely thought, speech and action connected with the 613 mitzvot of the Torah, as discussed above.7

In the Beinoni, this desire of the divine soul in the brain — that it alone pervade his thought, speech and action, and hence his entire body — controls the lustful desires which the animal soul arouses in his heart. Moreover, it prevents their actual expression because of the natural supremacy of mind over heart and of holiness over evil.

But if the divine soul of the Beinoni indeed dominates his every area of practical expression, alone dictating his every thought, word and deed, why is he not considered a tzaddik?

The Alter Rebbe explains:

ואף על פי כן אינו נקרא צדיק כלל

Nevertheless, he is not deemed a tzaddik at all.

מפני שיתרון הזה אשר לאור נפש האלקית על החושך וסכלות של הקליפה הנדחה ממילא

For this dominance that the light of the divine soul has over the darkness and folly of the kelipah of the animal soul, which is automatically dispelled,

אינה אלא בשלשה לבושיה הנ״ל

is limited to the divine soul’s aforementioned three garments — only in thought, speech and action does the divine soul of the Beinoni dominate his animal soul,

ולא במהותה ועצמותה על מהותה ועצמותה של הקליפה

but the essence and core of the divine soul does not dominate the essence and core of the [animal soul deriving from the] kelipah.

כי מהותה ועצמותה של נפש הבהמית שמהקליפה שבחלל השמאלי לא נדחה כלל ממקומו בבינוני

For in the Beinoni, the essence and core of the animal soul originating in kelipah, which is lodged in the left part of the heart, remains undisturbed (not displaced by the divine soul)

אחר התפלה, שאין רשפי אש אהבת ה׳ בהתגלות לבו בחלל הימני

after prayer, when the burning love of G‑d is no longer in a revealed state in the right part of his heart, as it was during prayer when the love glowed openly and was palpably felt there;

כי אם תוכו רצוף אהבה מסותרת, שהיא אהבה הטבעית שבנפש האלקית, כמו שכתוב לקמן

rather, the love is (after prayer) only on the inside — his heart is inlaid with hidden love, meaning that love which is natural to the divine soul, not the revealed love born of meditation that the Beinoni experiences during the prayer, but a natural, hidden love of G‑d, as will be discussed further in ch. 18 — that in the heart of every Jew lies hidden a natural love of G‑d.

ואזי יכול להיות סכלות הכסיל הרע בהתגלות לבו בחלל השמאלי

Then after prayer, when the love of G‑d is no longer revealed in the heart of the Beinoni, it is possible for the folly of the “wicked fool” (i.e., the animal soul) to reveal itself in the left part of the heart,

להתאות תאוה לכל ענייני גשמיות עולם הזה, בין בהיתר בין באיסור חס ושלום

craving all physical matters of this world, whether permitted (except that they should be desired and used as means of serving G‑d, whereas at this time the Beinoni craves them for their own sake, for the pleasure they provide) or whether prohibited, G‑d forbid,

כאלו לא התפלל כלל

as though he had never prayed.

אלא שבדבר איסור אינו עולה בדעתו לעשות האיסור בפועל ממש, חס ושלום

[His craving is limited] only [in that] in the case of [a craving for] a prohibited matter, it does not enter his mind to transgress in actual practice, G‑d forbid.

אלא הרהורי עבירה הקשים מעבירה יכולים לפעול לעלות למוחו, ולבלבלו מתורה ועבודה

But thoughts of sin, which are in certain respects (as explained in the previous chapter) “more heinous than actual sin,” can manage to rise to his mind, and to distract him from Torah and divine service,

וכמאמר רז״ל: ג׳ עבירות אין אדם ניצול מהן בכל יום

as our Sages say,8 “There are three sins so difficult to avoid that no man is safe from [transgressing], daily:

הרהור עבירה, ועיון תפלה כו׳

thoughts of sin, [lack of] concentration in prayer… [and slanderous gossip]“; thus the Beinoni is included in the generalization that ”no man“ avoids thoughts of sin.

רק שלזה מועיל הרשימו במוחין, ויראת ה׳ ואהבתו המסותרת בחלל הימני

However, the impression retained in his mind from his meditation, during prayer, on G‑d’s greatness, and the [natural] love and fear of G‑d hidden in the right part of his heart, enable him

להתגבר ולשלוט על הרע הזה המתאוה תאוה

to prevail over and dominate the evil [animal soul’s] craving,

שלא להיות לו שליטה וממשלה בעיר, להוציא תאותו מכח אל הפועל, להתלבש באברי הגוף

preventing the evil from gaining the supremacy and dominion over the “city” (the body), and carrying out its craving from the potential to the actual by clothing itself in the organs of the body in actual speech or deed.

ואפילו במוח לבדו, להרהר ברע, אין לו שליטה וממשלה להרהר חס ושלום ברצונו שבמוחו

Furthermore: even in the mind alone, with respect to sinful thought, the evil has not the dominion and power to cause him (G‑d forbid) to think such thoughts consciously;

שיקבל ברצון חס ושלום הרהור זה הרע העולה מאליו מהלב למוח כנ״ל

i.e., [to cause the mind] to accept willingly, G‑d forbid, the evil thought that rises of its own accord — unbidden — from the heart to the mind, as explained above.9

Evil thoughts will occur to him involuntarily, because the evil in his heart craves evil; however, the evil does not have the final say on what he will let his mind accept willingly; the Beinoni’s conscious mind is dominated by the divine soul.

אלא מיד בעלייתו לשם, דוחהו בשתי ידים ומסיח דעתו

Instead, immediately upon [the thought’s] rising to [the mind], he — the Beinoni — thrusts it aside as it were with both hands, and averts his mind from it,

מיד שנזכר שהוא הרהור רע

the instant he realizes that it is an evil thought.

ואינו מקבלו ברצון, אפילו להרהר בו ברצון, וכל שכן להעלותו על הדעת לעשותו, חס ושלום, או אפילו לדבר בו

He will refuse to accept it even as a subject for mere conscious thought, and will certainly not entertain the notion of acting on it, G‑d forbid, or even speaking of it.

כי המהרהר ברצון נקרא רשע באותה שעה

For he who willingly indulges in such thoughts is deemed a rasha at that moment,

והבינוני אינו רשע אפילו שעה אחת לעולם

while the Beinoni is never wicked even for a single moment. Obviously, then, the Beinoni would not willingly entertain evil thoughts.