Chapter 12: The Beinoni: Mind Over Heart

A beinoni is a person in whom evil never gains enough strength to capture the “small city” by entering the body and causing it to sin. In other words, the animal soul’s three garments, the thought, speech and deed that stem from kelipah, never get the upper hand over his G‑dly soul to the extent of taking hold of his body, whether his brain, his mouth or any other of his 248 limbs, so as to lead them into sin and defile them, G‑d forbid.

The body is occupied only by the G‑dly soul’s three garments, and by nothing else: thinking, speaking and doing the Torah’s 613 mitzvos. Never in his life has he sinned, nor will he ever sin, and at no time, not for a single hour or instant, has he earned the title “rasha”.

Yet the G‑dly soul’s own essence, its ten faculties, does not govern the small city by itself, except at particular times, such as while reciting the Shema and praying. That hour is one of “expanded consciousness” (mochin d’gadlus) in the higher worlds, and here below as well it is an auspicious time for everyone. At such a time he attaches his chochmah, binah and daas (wisdom, understanding and knowledge) to G‑d, reflecting at length on how great the Ein Sof (the Infinite One), blessed be He, is, and kindles a fiery love in the right side of his heart, longing to be joined to Him through loving observance of the Torah and its mitzvos. That is the theme of the Shema, a Torah obligation, and of the blessings that precede and follow it, a Rabbinic institution meant to prepare a person to carry out the Shema, as is discussed elsewhere. At that time the evil on the left side is overpowered and made void by the goodness flowing through the right side out of the chochmah, binah and daas in his mind, attached as they are to the greatness of the Ein Sof, blessed be He.

But after prayer, when the “great mind” of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, departs, the evil in the left chamber wakes up again, and he desires the pleasures of this world and its delights.

Still, since the evil lacks sole sovereignty over the city, it is unable to turn its longing into deed, that is, to enter the body’s limbs through action, speech or actual thought, meaning deliberate reflection on worldly pleasures and on ways to satisfy what his heart craves. For the mind governs the heart (as the Raya Mehemna states in Parshas Pinchas); that is simply how it was created. Every human being is built this way from birth: by the will seated in his mind, anyone can restrain himself and master the urge of the heart, refusing to carry out what it craves in action, speech or thought, and can direct his attention entirely away from that craving toward its exact opposite, holiness above all.

As Scripture says: “I perceived that wisdom has the edge over folly, just as light has the edge over darkness.” The meaning: light is superior to darkness and masters it, so that a small physical glow banishes much darkness, which simply flees on its own; in the same way, the abundant folly of kelipah and the sitra achra (the “other side”) in the left side of the heart [as the Sages taught: “No one sins unless a spirit of foolishness has entered into him”] is banished by itself before the wisdom of the G‑dly soul in the brain. That soul wishes to govern the city on its own and to spread through the entire body in its three garments described earlier, namely thinking, speaking and doing the Torah’s 613 mitzvos, as explained above.

Nevertheless he does not earn the title tzaddik in any way. The superiority of the G‑dly soul’s light over kelipah’s darkness and foolishness, which flees on its own, applies only to the soul’s three garments; it does not mean that the soul’s own essence prevails over the essence of kelipah. For in the beinoni, once prayer is over, the animal soul itself, rooted in kelipah on the left side, has not been dislodged in the slightest. At that point his heart shows no burning love for G‑d on the right side; there is only “hidden love” enclosed within it, the natural love that belongs to the G‑dly soul, as will be discussed further on.

And so the folly of the evil fool can be revealed in his heart, in the left chamber, desiring all the physical things of this world, whether permitted or forbidden, G‑d forbid, as though he had not prayed at all.

It is only that, where something forbidden is concerned, the idea of actually committing it never even occurs to him, G‑d forbid. But sinful thoughts, which [in some ways] are graver than the sin itself, may surface in his mind and pull him away from Torah study and divine service, as the Sages taught: “Three transgressions no one escapes on any given day: sinful musing, [inattention] in prayer….”

To counter this, though, the lingering effect on his mind, together with the awe and love of G‑d concealed in the right side of his heart, assists him in mastering this lustful evil, so that it gains no control over the city and cannot carry its craving into deed by entering the body’s limbs.

Even within the mind alone, in the matter of thinking about evil, the evil lacks the power to have him think it, G‑d forbid, by his mind’s own consent, meaning to welcome, G‑d forbid, a bad thought that comes up unbidden from the heart to the brain, as mentioned earlier. Instead, the instant it surfaces there, he shoves it away with both hands and diverts his attention, the moment he recognizes it for the bad thought it is. He refuses to entertain it willingly, refusing even to dwell on it by choice, let alone to contemplate acting on it, G‑d forbid, or even mentioning it aloud. Anyone who dwells on such thoughts by choice is termed a rasha for that time, and the beinoni is never a rasha, not even for an instant.

So too in matters between a person and his fellow: as soon as some resentment or hatred, G‑d forbid, rises from his heart to his mind, or some jealousy, anger, grudge or the like, he does not let them into his mind and his will at all.

Instead his mind overrides what his heart feels and does exactly the reverse: he deals kindly with the other person and shows him even greater warmth, puts up with him as far as is humanly possible without losing his temper, G‑d forbid, and refrains from paying him back, G‑d forbid; quite the reverse, he rewards the wrongdoer with good, as the Zohar teaches us to learn from the way Yosef treated his brothers.