Tanya By Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowicz Chapter 11 - A Novel Definition of a "Rasha" Wicked Person

tonight we are studying peric Olive which is chapter 11 in Tanya and as um we explained the beginning of the uh study of Tanya that this is the foundation of mysticism so every chapter is um extremely important in understanding one of the key components of the spiritual makeup and dynamic of every every human being um and this week we're specifically going to talk about um the uh term and we'll explain what the term means of Russia now Russia has bad rap because what does Russia mean that sadic is the righteous man and the Russia so to speak is the wicked man right uh Russia has bad rap you call someone in Russia I mean you shouldn't call anyone Russia but you you think of certain people so as yourself oh my gosh that was a Russia thing to do right so the question really is what does it mean a Russia now um if you remember from the first chapter of Tanya the alra said there's five levels there's sad which is one category in that category you have tloo and we discussed that last week you have the middle category B and that we're going to start getting into next week and as we'll see next week that is the heart of the Tanya and and the alter describes that as the real struggle that we each have so we're going to have to be patient to next week to get into the uh the Russia even though we'd rather not talk about it who wants to talk about the Russia right we'd rather you know not talk about it not deal with it um maybe I don't know if the right word is being denial let's ignore it but you have to know um about the Russia some that we are exactly cuz sometimes sometimes um we can fall into that trap so you want to know who you are not necessarily in every area in certain areas so and it's again the goal of Tanya is not to learn about other people it's about yourself exactly uh to learn who you are and where you can be and where you are at certain times so this week we're learning about the last two which is the Russia and the two categories of the Russia um in terms of Russo Russia that it's good for him whatever that means we'll soon explain and Russia Vero so that's what we're talking about today Russia V too and Russia baralo what does that mean now by way of introduction in other words if you remember from the beginning of T there's two types well there's many ways to view anything but generally speaking in Tanya it refers to two ways of assessing whether someone for themselves um is a Russia or not and that is based on your actions and matter of fact you know the revealed part of the Torah the mishna the talmud the Torah when it deals with someone behaving and someone not behaving so in the term of sadic and it goes by Behavior so in other words for example if you get um aund on your test and you have a rotten personality you still got a 100 and you got an A if you got a zero I mean obviously zero but we're giving an extreme you got a zero in your test but you're a gem of a person you're still a gem of a person even though academically you're not necessarily as smart or as wise or maybe you didn't study it's irrelevant whether you didn't study or you're academically that way but the point is so there's one way to view a sadic and a Russia and that's the way the revealed part of the Torah deals with it because the revealed part of the T deals with the revealed Behavior so if for example you do all the right things you say all the right things and you even train yourself to think all the right things you will get check check check and you got a 100 but are you a nice guy you know what's your outlook in life we don't know but we don't care because we're dealing we want behavior and vice versa if someone could be the nicest generous person really caring compassionate but he just says the wrong things does the wrong things you know thinks the wrong things he's going to get XXXX so we're referring to what not the revealed part of the Torah which deals with your behaviors even though even though that's important as well but when we're trying to analyze what is a sadic mean just to get the right frame of reference is referring to the essence of the person now according to Tanya since it's a book of mysticism so the essence to us is it's not about more everything's important but it's in in a certain way that's really what's really more important to tell us who you really are in other words um if you were let's say for example hiring an employee to work for you so would you want someone that um has is has a you know good heart and even though they sometimes botch up or somebody that's not not a nice person will will do a perfect job tough question right what kind of work is it that's a good question that's a good question that's right working with people customer service yeah because it's just numbers and when not back office I said customer service working with people so even though he might say the right things but if if if he doesn't really like people it's not going to go too far okay so let's bring it back full circle so we are dealing today with to really understand what does it mean Russia V R so the alter explains as follows that again we're going into the essence of the person which means the person's Outlook and he was called or his M his Essence in other words like this last week if you remember we spoke about the sadik in his Essence so what is that sadic in his Essence one extreme what's always a that he basically loves God now we weren't referring we weren't discussing his actions the thought of speech even though that was correct he sadic we're talking with a with a human being that loves God how much does he love God he loves God over the top so because he loved God over the top would he do anything contrary to God no by default so in other words so the best way rather than to so to speak give someone constantly give someone a fish teach him out of fish so the best way for someone to be on the level ofic automatically without have to constantly micromanaging the person guess what fire him up to love God or fire yourself up to love God the minute you love God you would never think of doing anything opposite and as we explained that sad is someone that his love is not up there 100% it's down to 95% 90% And therefore he'll have some slips but he's still called a sadic but it's R because he has some areas where the love is not so fired up but now we're going to look on the left extreme with the case of the Russia so the case of the Russia is somebody who doesn't really care he doesn't really care about God he doesn't care doesn't care it could be he was never educated it could be his um his heart is dull it could be he had a bad experience it could be environmental right it could be uh experience it could be for many reasons so Russia means God is Not on the agenda I me it happens to please God great if it doesn't I mean it God is not number one on his list well number one for sure not question if God is even on his guest list he's not even on the list he doesn't care it's not he he doesn't care if he's on or he's off Russia means he cares about himself I'm here to please myself take care of myself that's all I care about ego could be ego could be selfish it could be just lack of knowledge it could be many many reasons so Rasha means that his main concern in life is himself God he doesn't care if it's great God likes it wonderful Happ be see I'm doing a nice thing and God and God's also happy with it wonderful it know it doesn't really drive him it doesn't excite him either way about God now so then why is he called Russia vlo so here's the caveat Russia means we're talking about his in his personality in his in his Hasa and his uh Outlook and his Essence he doesn't really care about God but on the other hand what does that mean V Tolo too means that it's good to him it's good for him what does that mean it's good for him he still has a Godly soul and The Godly Soul nevertheless still wants to study and wants to pray and wants to do mitzvot and will will um do all the right things say all the right things and do he'll do everything know the this type of Russia that's means that the animal soul is a dominant Force whatever pleases him that's what he does that's what that's you know the driving force you want to study don't bother me you can study tells the you want to study you want to pray I mean I don't care it doesn't really affect me if you study or pray if that makes you happy I mean if there not two different people talking this is one person talking to himself from the animal Soul talking to The Godly Soul you you got you it sounds like two different people but it's one person Hey listen I want to enjoy life I want to do whatever I want to do I care about God the anim and know the animal Soul so to speak has the microphone has the driving uh has the driving wheel but oh you want to sit and pray while I drive while I have fun you want to study you want to do a Mitzvah don't bother me so it turns out he can pray and he can study and he'll do mitv and he maybe even never transgress anything really in reality it's very possible to means it's good for him he's living a good spiritual life know he almost like has a partnership with the uh with the anim animal soul and The Godly so they have a partnership the god anal Souls listen let me live what I want let me do what I want don't give me any pressure don't give me any uh burdens you want to do your stuff it doesn't bother me really does not bother me so he can live his life In Action doing all the right things in speech doing all the right things in thought doing all the right things then why is it called the Russia just because he doesn't care and the answer is yes because he doesn't care so if he's going to be at a at a fork in the road and Theiss The Godly Soul which is good for him everything's so far working out fine they hadn't had any conflict yet there was no re there was no setup for a conflict right so but now there a fork in the road it's whatever the whatever the conflict may be uhoh you know I want to go study now well you know what you know I normally let you but I'd rather go to the movies or go play golf or go to the beach not bad and good so here's a conflict who's going to win the animal Soul so even though I let you do it but it's only because I let you now I want to do something that's conflict with you I'm winning so so know so even though he up until this point they never had really a real conflict and godly Soul was able to do anything he wanted but he was only able to do cu the to the because the animal saw allowed him to do it so that's why he's called a r because ultimately the the real dominance of his Essence and his personality is dominated by who and dominated by what by his animal Soul even though there wasn't yet a there wasn't yet a real match on the table but now when the match comes up true the animal Soul wins but the issue is that since at any moment when there is a conflict and there will be a conflict who will be the one that will overpower the animal Soul because the the the stronger personality is the animal Soul so since the stronger personality is what is the animal Soul therefore he's called what a rush and there's times that in the world of action when there'll be a conflict the animal Soul win in the world of speech who will win the animal soul and even his thoughts once small he'll think of things that he shouldn't be thinking about inappropriate things but what happens when he does that so we know that when a person does that the minute you do that boom now you're totally under the influence of the of the Russia of the animal soul but he will do since he since the the the god the animal Soul doesn't really fight The Godly soul and he he allows him to you know pray spend time praying and studying so it's it's still still it still has a force so so he will feel bad and in Hebrew it's called and he'll do cha he'll repent so is really in reality he's doing all the good things but the dominant force is the Russia is the animal soul and at times yes he will do cha if he ve off so that is basically the um in the Russia Russ it's like the highest it's the perfect it's like the best scenario of the r but then the AL says it drops because here I painted you a scenario which all the way to the right where to he's able to pray he's able to study and really does he you know transgress on the level of thought on the level of speech an action really you know one once in a uh whenever in a blue moon right but then there's times different categories there different types of people where the Tolo is not so strong I gave you in a scenario Tolo is pretty good it's 99% 9% he's able to do what he wants that 1% boom he's out and he does repent but then again the to can drop meaning to say is that not only does he transgress um uh every once you know once in a weird once in a very weird time in action thought speech no it'll be more often more more often in action more often in speech more often in thought and it's all three together you know even though he'll normally he'll study and know pray and do mitzvot but the slipping will be much more often and much more frequent and much more intense and much more uh Global in different areas of his life but nevertheless and again there's many many varieties depending on you know every soul is different but nevertheless the common denominator of the rash on whatever level it may be is he'll always feel bad and always have to repent and always repent so the good thing about the then that so to speak is Saving Grace and that's why the good thing is the good thing is two parts one is that practically he's usually studying and praying and doing mitzvot so that's one good thing but more importantly is that when he does slip and he does give in to the dominant Force which is the animal Soul he'll feel bad and he'll feel bad and he'll repent and he'll get him back on track but never NE less I mean think about it on one hand this is a great guy I mean think about you have basically a conflict you have the God we all have an animal Soul we have a Godly Soul fine let the animal Soul you know think that he's in charge no it's not fine let him think he's are CU he's actually in charge you're saying fine let him things in charge because if you were really in charge no you're not in charge have a good day I run the show here I'm going to do whatever God wants I love God obviously you're not strong enough to say that that's why you're not the sadic you're saying okay fine let him you're obviously weak it's okay it's not the end of the world you know you're a nice peaceful guy you want to let the animal Soul you know give him a little leeway but so in a certain way life is great you you're you're praying you're studying you're doing mitzvot I mean life is wonderful all right so he feels like he's in charge and he actually is in charge right because the proof is when it comes to a conflict and guess what happens worst case scenario when we B up repent it's not a bad place to be a matter of fact when a lot of people when they study T and the way the alter describes this they said oh my gosh I thought it's now I I'm I didn't even know if I'm in Russia but because think of it's a pretty high place to be it's a I mean if you think about it always studying always praying doing as many Ms as you as you can you know generally speaking fine so I'm not the I don't have to be the driving force I love God every second I'm you know because love is a feeling not to be in love with God is a high level now you're really like whoo you're on CL on the clouds in a good way and if I slurp I do repent so trva is pretty powerful so I mean so it's not a bad level to be based on the scripture I we get distracted because Al is calling it Russia but the truth is not a bad level to be obviously the major really issue is because the real issue why it's you really called the Russia and it has the the the negative effect of the name Russia is because a person should be in love with God but that 1% it's not it's deeper than the 1% it's it's deeper than the 1% the issue really is that a person should be in love with God cuz when you're in love with God you won't have any uh you'll not only will you be functional but you'll be inspired there's a difference between surviving and thriving in the case where you're a sadic you're thriving life is great I'm in love with God when always what what B what whatam what animal Soul no God is number one in the case of the sadic I'm I'm a Survivor I'm not really thriving I'm surviving not a bad place to be don't get me wrong but if you're not thriving in life the sadic is thriving the engines are rolling I'm in love with God you could be in a relationship right just you do for me I do for you right functioning and we get in the fight we don't get in fight if you're really in love with your partner what fight you love the person there's no how there's in real love there's no room for fighting there's no room of anything other than being in love so a sadic is in love with God so there's no room for anything else a rash on the other hand I'm not in love with God God of communions where it's communion do your thing not communion we're doing our thing there's no love there there's no love I hate to be the bad news but I'm telling you those S I didn't make this up where was King David at the end of his life he was in he was he got rid of his animal Soul uh but it was a struggle he was a real man we're not comparing but we're just laying out to know what the reality is okay so that is what a rush a Russ again pretty good place but you see what the flaw is the flaw is he's a Survivor he hasn't shifted now knowing this you realize oh my gosh maybe I'm doing this right but what would it take to be go out of this place get in love with God otherwise if you're not in love with God you're going to be the Russ in this category and again many many different levels in the variations of to where it stands and again there's hundreds and millions of combinations depending on who you are where you are and so on and so forth let's go further then there's what a lower level Russia barali what do Russ mean very simple Russia means he doesn't care about God Val means his Godly soul that should be feeding him at least to prey and studying the mitz is gone now let me clarify there's no thing with the Godly Soul it's never gone totally by the the sadic the when the animal soul is gone it's gone know when King David got rid of his animal Soul there was no animal Soul he with you know he transformed the animal Soul became a Godly soul but here when we say that it's gone it doesn't mean it's gone literally it means it's gone from having any impact on your personal day-to-day life that means it's outside of you spiritually no power has no power it's outside of you spiritually it's hovering over you so what so again Rush of means the I don't care about God but even The Godly soul is out of the car he's on the he's he's handing he's on the roof or you know hanging on to the tailgate waiting to somehow try to get back in but the point he's not in the car he has no chance of getting the wheel there's no praying going on there's no studying going on there's no m going on there's nothing going on there's no Godly Soul there it's strictly animal Soul animal Soul period in terms of active reality now so what happens when it's Rush of R doesn't care doesn't care about God at all say he's called a Russia mean say he's no one care about God at all there's no even someone there's no one even nagging him he totally beat up the that Godly soul that it ran away for its life and doesn't even nag the animal Soul F whatever you want gone he doesn't even say whatever you want anymore it's like totally out sleeping so it's not dead it's sleeping and in a deep sleep now so one more thing that's it War's game's over for The Rush of R game's over see in the rush of still struggle and at any point you can jump into the well we'll learn next week about the B but eventually to the tadic level right but the T here you're saying is like you know for example if you have a car and you have a battery start the car it starts why is the battery is dead so you got a boost you got a boost boom it starts up here the battery is so dead it can't even get a boost there's no battery there Rush of alloy so the question is is it is it over is is it hopeless is that battery never going to come back alive again it can't repent so the question is what what happens now so the alter says that here is where this rash ofo you learn a powerful lesson that a Jew is never Forsaken and never lost even someone that's on the level of rash ofo and again we're not making fun we're just we're just describing the situation where the person basically doesn't care about God doesn't have any relationship with God The Godly Soul so to speak out to Lune half you know wouldn't say dead but half dead you know heavy heavy sleep but nevertheless here as you learn the power that Jew is never lost what does that mean that because it's the The Godly soul is not dead it's just totally sleeping in a deep sleep but what happens if you take that Jew and you take him to the wall and you say even a gun and you say say that you are not Jewish otherwise I kill you you know what happens to all of a sudden this sleeping Jew no I'm not doing that I'm Jewish he wakes up he wakes up all of a sudden he wakes up to being jewi he wakes up why did he wake up because the truth is he never really die he didn't die it fell asleep and it fell strongly asleep and allow the animal soul to take over but now when you put him on the test that's it you're gone no way I'm not gone I'm The Godly Soul what was I doing sleeping and all of a sudden he goes on in Hebrew it's called he's willing to pull out powerful energies he has from within from his Godly soul from his Nish and take the animal soul and fight him to the point where he's willing to give everything up for the fight and eventually he'll be successful and that's why you see people that have totally like drifted away from Judaism either they were never brought up that way right or because they got upset about certain things whatever it may be that cing to Drift Away really what happened The Godly Soul fell asleep it's really the animal Soul took over and then one day something terrible happens and they wake up and they go what I'm not living like this anymore and they totally come back on board or something amazing happens they can't handle it they go oh my gosh there must be a God in the world you know something big good or bad will waken them up and they'll do a 360 again and totally come back and get back onto the race and eventually you know they'll climb the ladder and they can go up to literally being a sadic because it says that with place where B Chua reaches someone that returns to J Judaism reaches even aad can't reach why is that because a sadic that loves God a sadic that loves God right he loves God he's in love with God he always had a love for God and he always built his love for God and therefore he'll never sin because he loves God but his his energy that he has is only to go to 10 because that's where he you know he loves God Abal Chua someone that was sleeping and is all of a sudden like oh was woke himself up or someone woke him up and he wakes up and he brings out that energy he has the power to overpass the B Chua and have such a love for god that's way beyond the regular natural love that anyone could have and has for God why cuz he's coming from with steam from a much deeper place and that's why it says in even according to Jewish law that you need for example let's say a quorum of 10 men 10 Jewish men for minan and you have nine religious men or different terms nine sikim nine righteous men is it a minion no it's nine people but if you have 10 people that are sinners that are 100% Rim but they're Jewish you have a minion absolutely absolutely why is that because what really counts is what not the behavior what counts is the n and by a by a um by a Jew as long as the N is there you have a chance to get to tremendous places so in other words that's why um it's so important to really to know this because you have because the reason why it's important this chapter is so important because what happens we know that the um Y is very very tricky what it means very very tricky try what is the goal of the atahar the goal of thear is for what for you not to serve God now thear knows if he comes to you and he tells you you know what don't serve God you're going to say no fly a kite right like when the guy you know tell him hey you Jewish yes I am you know I'm not I'm not giving it up he's not stupid he's very very smart and the word of mym sometimes he gets dressed up in a beautiful you know fancy uh you know spiritual bar right and he could be dressed up like a rabbi like a like a holy man Etc and you think oh my gosh this is the word of God right this is the word from a holy man he comes very very smartly so he never comes he tell you don't listen to God I'll tell you listen listen to God but you don't to be so excited about it I mean let's not get to let's not overreact here you it's only a Mitzvah you know what I mean and you don't have to do it right now you can do it in five minutes from now also and he pushes you all five minutes here five minutes him before you know it oh my gosh I'm tired I'll do it tomorrow already right hi welcome so in other words so what happens is so a person so so the the way he gets to you is he gets to you slowly he slowly Creeps in and as he Creeps in he pushes you away but but by knowing that what do you realize what's theara's goal his goal is not so much that you shouldn't study Torah not so much that you shouldn't do mitzvot not so much that you should do the wrong things or say the wrong things that's not his goal what do you see from here what's the goal the at his goal is one goal to kill what to break the connection which connection God his goal is to kill your excitement and your love for God because what's what what really will keep you connected to God and nobody will be able to break that connection is your love for God and your joy in the relationship with God so if he comes to you tells you don't do a Mitzvah he'll say don't do a Mitzvah no way I'm not going to not do a Mitzvah you do all the Mitzvah you want but let's go out and let's have a party have a good time sounds okay I and he'll tell you you're not transgressing any of The Commandments like what's wrong with doing this correct and in a certain way he's right but you see in the revealed part of the Torah as long as you're doing all the mitv you're not transgressing guess what that's fine you want to go party as long as you know you come back and you the minimum requirements right you know they heard the expression minimum what's the minimum requirements right so that's see the H is very he'll never tell you don't do the mitzvot he knows he's going to have strong opposition he'll never tell you don't study Torah or do the opposite of Torah says because he's opposition his goal is calm you down let's get the let's get the passion out of this guy let's get the love out of this guy let's get the Jo joy out of this guy I'll tell you Mitzvah right you know to always be loving God I mean come on you can't have time for yourself right but so he so what does he do he comes and kills that once he kills that guess where he moved you over to according to Tanya from being in love with God enjoying that relationship with God to being what a Russ a functional human being doing all the Commandments in a certain way like an animal like a machine doing all the Commandments he got you cuz now once you already lost the spirit and you're not in love with God it's very easy to get you to knock off this Mitzvah not completely but slowly and the knock of that Mitzvah and this Torah study and so on and so forth see that's why this chapter so important cuz this chapter is telling you guess what you know what's the most important thing true no one's saying yeah for sure you have to do all the mitv and you got to pray and you got to study but you know what the most important thing is know the distinction between a sadic and a Russ what's the most important thing your love for God and your joy that you have for God so if you're not in a loving relationship with God and if you're not in a joyful relationship with God guess what you're out of the sadic realm you're in whose territory who who took over your life your animal Soul took over and you go on to the spiritual category of AR Russia knowing that is your love for God negotiable is your joy of God negotiable so the real question you have to ask yourself every single day is a you know take a temperature reading how's my love for God today that's good how's my joy for God today and what can I do today to increase to for sure maintain but not only to maintain but to increase my love for God to increase my joy for God because I don't want to be a Russia and not only that what do mean I want to be a Russia it's not that it's not like I think you want to be a side in Russia I want to be in control of my life it means if I'm in if I'm in love with God guess what nobody can get past the first door and that's where I want to be and so how am I going to today increase my love for God how am I going to increase take my joy for God you know and once you have that once you have the love for God even if it dwindles eventually you'll come back if you have the joy for God even for dwindles eventually you'll come back there's a story there was once you know the kabad the very big into you know they go on the street they ask people hey are you Jewish right or you go to people's offices not going to Door anyone Jewish here you know so once two boys and they were in the street corner in Manhattan and telling hi excuse me are you Jewish and one guy says um yes I'm Jewish but I hate kabad so they theyve taken a back I mean what do you hate kabad right they thank God they were humble you know they were humble but nice boys back why do you hate so he says be I'll tell you why I'll tell you why because when I was young I uh grew up in kabad and I learned all about um you know God and about Tanya and mysticism and about love for God and joy for God and I really had all that stuff I loved God I had tremendous joy for God and then you know I got I slipped away uh wasn't you know I slipped away a little bit and I became non-religious but because I had that love and joy for God I can't enjoy the materialistic world the one that I ran away to see so once you have that love and joy you're not going to have to enjoy cuz think about there's no greater love than love for God and No Greater Joy than joy for God so if you drift away you're you're not going to find a replacement for that nowhere where can you find the greater love and love for God if you don't love God you don't enjoy God fine you can find love and enjy enjoyment in materialistic things because that's not real Joy you never experienced a real thing but once you experience the a real thing could you experience the fake like once you wear a real you know something real how can you how can you do a fake you can't do a fake and that's why this chapter is so important because it really really shows you black and white what is key in Judaism what is key in mysticism to make sure that you have a burning passionate love for God and to have tremendous joy for God and His Torah mitv cuz that will keep you in a great place and not only will keep you in a great place that will not allow you God forbid for the heart to take over your life and then he's going to tell you what you could do what you can't do and so on and so forth you're not going to be you and what greater pain is not being you and especially now we're in the month of Adar twoes so we have right smack in the middle we have a month we just finished of Joy we're heading into another month of Joy so we need to take all the Joy from the previous month and continue the joy in this month keep the joy alive keep the love alive and will all Merit to be the way the describes sikim in the real sense of the word of having a tremendous love for our KES