Quotes from the Tanya – Chapter 14
By zevi770 · February 19, 2012
CHAPTER 14
“The level of a Beinoine is for the average person and all people should strive to reach it.”
“Every person can be a Benionie at any given moment.”
“The reason every person can always be a Benoinie is for the Benoinie needs not to abhor evil, rather to not allow it to overpower him.
Every person, whenever he considers doing wrong, can overpower evil by saying to himself “I desire not to be a Rasha, evil, for even a moment.
Every Jew has the power to give up his life for God, the only reason one sins, is for one accepts the foolish premise of the Yetzer Hara that sins don’t separate me from one’s father in heaven, which is not true.”
“The Tzaddik’s delight in God is unique and it is due to this delight that his love and hence repulsion of evil is so consummate.
Now we can comprehend why God makes the soul swear a seemingly repetitious oath “be a Tzaddik, righteous, and not a Rasha.”
If one were to be a Tzaddik surely one wouldn’t be a Rasha!
However the truth is, that one cannot necessarily reach the level of abhorrence for evil, hence the conclusion of this part of the oath, at least don’t be a Rasha, which is action based, not emotionally based, and actions is something under every Jew’s control.”
“Though the Benoine cannot achieve the Tzaddik’s love, hence repulsion of evil, nonetheless he should take the time (and set times) to meditate on thoughts, images, that turn lust into repulsion, as our sages state to imagine a woman, filled with excrement or similar images.
Furthermore all food which we lust after, turns into excrement.
All desires end up in the junk, covered with worms etc.
(The idea here is to turn the instinctual desires from the Yetzer Hara’s pleasures into repulsions.”)
“Additionally the Benoinie should contemplate thoughts that cause a delight in God, by understanding the infinity of God, and even if he would only produce fantasies (for the Alter Rebbe, the author believes that a love that dissipates after its genesis is a fantasy, for truth would endure,) nonetheless, the Benoinie should fulfill his part of the oath (to be a Tzaddik, which induces delighting in God) and it is up to God to deem fit whom he wishes to bestow this delight in God with, or not.”
“Furthermore whatever you accustom yourself to reigns supreme, and becomes second nature.”
“As mentioned, habit becomes second nature, hence someone who habitually meditates on the repulsion of evil and the loftiness and infinity of God will ensure that to some extent he will be repulsed by evil and who knows perhaps God will love him and reward him by implanting within his soul the spark of a Tzaddik, so he truly may find joy in his service of God.”