The Summary of Today’s Tanya #4

 

In chapter 3 The Alter Rebbe begins to discus how these two souls (the animal discussed in chapter 1 and Divine discussed in chapter 2) express themselves.

A soul fundamentally is an attraction (when we speak of someone’s soul we are speaking about their heart / deep felt inner desire.)

The Divine Soul being one with the Divine (like a child to a parent) obviously is attracted to the Divine.

Now each soul has ten modes of expression, which fundamentally are 3 intellectual, and 7 emotional.

The 3 intellectual are the ability to conceive of an idea (for example “God is really great”) the ability to expand an idea into it’s details and ramifications (“so therefore I should follow Him unconditionally” etc.) (later he will explain the third level called daas.)

Now if I truly believe this (“God is great, hence I should follow Him unconditionally”) this (through the faculty of daas) will become the first of the seven emotions:

Love, a desire (in this case) to follow God (for love is the ramification of the conception of what is desirable.)

Fear is the flipside of love (for “if God is truly great, not only should I follow him but I should likewise not disobey him!”)

Then there are another five emotions all of which are offshoots of love and fear.

For example, Netzach, victory (“if I love Him and wish to follow Him I may need to overpower someone or something trying to prevent this”) etc.