The Tanya is not the Tale of two Souls,
it's the Story of our Life!
By Rabbi Shimon Raichik
This week is the double parsha of Mattos-Massei which begins with the laws of vows. When someone makes a vow and regrets it or needs it to be annulled, a Chacham who knows the laws of has the authority to release him from the vow's obligation. But why do we make vows in the first place? Vows make something that is permitted into something forbidden. Why would someone want to disallow something that the Torah has allowed? The real practical purpose for a vow is to regain control over oneself. If for example someone is having trouble with his food intake or the way he speaks or acts and is unable to get control over the habit, he has a tool called a vow to help. By forbidding oneself with a vow he has added the power and strength of the Torah to overcome his struggle. Nevertheless it is preferable to deal with it conventionally and to avoid making a vow.
So how can we be successful in our service of Hashem without the aid of a vow?
In last week's we discussed the three souls, which are three parts or aspects that make up every person. There is the G-dly soul which lives and desires only to be one with Hashem and wants nothing other than to learn the Torah and to daven. The animal soul is out for itself to fulfill it's desire for fun and pleasure. It's only interest is benefiting itself. This is the tug-of-war that goes on within each and everyone of us. A successful outcome is when the G-dly soul uses the intellectual soul to explain and eventually convince the animal of two things. First, he teaches the animal soul not to live like an animal any longer. Secondly he convinces the animal soul to use its life energy in the service of Hashem.
Chassidus says: "What is forbidden is forbidden. What is permitted is unnecessary." The G-dly soul convinces the animal soul that everything in the world is here and provided to us in order to serve Hashem, otherwise it's basically unnecessary. When animal soul really understands this, he doesn't just think that it's true but also feels it too. Therefore he doesn't need anything that doesn't serve his life's purpose which is to serve Hashem. How do we actualize this thinking and feeling in our daily life?
We accomplish this by first explaining to the animal soul and making him aware what it means to be an animal and how different and removed that is from being connected to G-dliness. Then the animals soul needs to know how we truly don't want to be just an animal, how unacceptable that is. Once the Alter Rebbe was being escorted by the son of the Maggid, Rav Avraham HaMalach on his way home from Mezritch. As they were traveling on the wagon the Alter Rebbe heard Rav Avraham saying to the wagon driver: "You need to whip the horse that it should realize that it's a horse." Later he said further to the wagon driver "You should whip the horse so that he should no longer be a horse." The Alter Rebbe understood the lesson for each one of us and how it applies to our animal soul.
So again how do we do this in a practical way? We accomplish this by learning Chassdus and then applying what we learn to our own lives with the realization that we are in the midst of an intense struggle between our G-dly soul and our animal soul. This battle is neither academic nor theoretical, it's real. When we learn through the first twelve chapters of the Tanya well we come to realize that the Tanya is not a tale of two souls its the story of our lives, here and now today. Once the boundaries of our battle are clear and defined we can go on to tame our animal soul through the practice of hiskafia, bending our animals soul towards a higher purpose. Now we can no longer just dismiss our mistakes by saying that we are sorry for what we have done because it was beyond our control. Once we have taken control and are engaged in the struggle it's no longer an option to look the other way.
As we come closer to Moshiach and as we increase in learning about Geula and Moshiach in depth it becomes far easier to see what's really happening. When we look around at the world today and we see so clearly how so many people, especially the leaders are running after their personal agendas and self-serving philosophies and are turning a blind eye on truth, fairness, and the collective good.
Ashreinu mah tov chelkeinu, how lucky we are that we have the Torah as our guide and can live a good life like a mentch as we prepare for the times of Moshiach and live the times of Moshiach now to the best of our ability.
A Good Shabbos