The Ba’al HaTanya compares our nefesh behamit (our “animal soul,” which motivates the most basic physical and physiological functions of our bodies) to a character in the Zohar HaKodesh, a “harlot” who has been commissioned by the king to seduce his only son, the prince, in order to test the prince’s moral fortitude. This “harlot,” deep in her heart, hopes that the prince will not succumb to her (for she is promised his “hand” if he passes the test), but nevertheless uses every tactic that she knows to wear down his resistance. Our “animal soul” is a “hooker with a heart of gold” sent by Hashem to test us; it ultimately wants us to serve Hashem, but meanwhile does everything in its power to prevent us from doing so.
Someone whose nefesh elokit (“G-dly soul,” which motivates us purely to connect to and to serve Hashem) struggles to overcome their nefesh behamit in an incomplete or inconsistent way is known as a tzaddik v’ra-lo (a righteous man who suffers). Even though it might appear to the struggler that his “G-dly soul” has triumphed over his “animal soul” completely, a residual trace of the latter’s influence can remain inside him, and the G-dly soul’s dominion over his thoughts, speech and actions can remain quite incomplete.
How can our G-dly souls completely dominate our animal souls? This can only happen when we DESPISE those physical pleasures of this world that serve solely to distract us from our service of Hashem – only when we frame our physicality and our physical pleasures wholly in terms of our avodah (service) will the dominion of our G-dly soul be complete. Our avodah should frame every thought, every word, every action – anything extraneous should not be tolerated, and moreover, hated, as it says “Ohavei Hashem Sin’u Ra”, those who love Hashem hate evil. This is not to associate the body and the physical with evil. Rather, as Rebbe Nachman says (and blessed are we that learn Rebbe Nachman and Tanya within the same lifetime, let alone the same week) the body has an azus, an unholy boldness which makes it strive only for pleasure and pull the nefesh eloki down with it. Once the body’s azus is broken it can be purified and reprogrammed to do what the soul needs it to do, which will now be the new definition for the body of what is pleasurable for it, i.e. eating in kedusha. And if it is so purified and effectively reprogrammed, if the soul “forgets” how to attain its pleasure, the body can “remind” it by doing what it has learned from the soul to be pleasurable.
Jerry Silverman
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Jerry Silverman is a former student of Yeshivat Bat Ayin. He is working in new media, designing and managing media projects. He lives in Riverdale, NY with his wife Sarah and their two children. |