Chapter 13: Like a Rasha: The Beinoni and the Oath Explained

This clarifies how our Sages phrased it: “Beinonim are judged by the one and by the other” (namely the good and the evil inclination), on the basis of the verse: “For He takes His place at the right side of the needy, to rescue him from those who pass judgment on his soul.” They deliberately avoided saying “governed by the one and by the other”, G‑d forbid. For whenever the evil inclination holds any sway or control over the “small city” [the body], even for an instant, the person carries the name rasha for that time.

Rather, the evil inclination is only, by way of comparison, like a judge or magistrate who states his opinion on a case. Even so, the ruling may not be decided that way in practice, because there is another judge or magistrate who disagrees with him. The two must then be arbitrated, and the ruling follows the arbitrator.

In the same way, the evil inclination voices its view in the heart’s left side, and that view climbs from the heart up into the brain to be considered. Immediately the second judge contests it: the G‑dly soul seated in the brain, which extends into the heart’s right side, home of the good inclination. And the decision goes with the one who settles the dispute, the Holy One, blessed be He, who sides with the good inclination and supports it, as our Sages taught: “Without the help of the Holy One, blessed be He, a person would be unable to prevail over it.”

That aid is the illumination G‑d’s light casts upon the G‑dly soul, giving it superiority and mastery over the foolishness of the fool, meaning the evil inclination, just as light is superior to darkness, as explained earlier.

In the beinoni, however, the evil on the heart’s left side keeps all the force it had from the day he was born, longing for every worldly pleasure. It has not been dissolved into insignificance beside the good, nor dislodged from where it sits in the least. What it lacks is only the authority to extend itself into the body’s limbs, thanks to the Holy One, blessed be He, who “takes His place at the right side of the needy”, coming to the G‑dly soul’s aid and lighting its way. For this reason the beinoni is termed “like a rasha”, as our Sages put it: “Though everyone in the world assures you that you are a tzaddik, regard yourself as though you were a rasha.” Not truly a rasha. The point is that he should count himself a beinoni and refuse to accept the world’s verdict that his evil has dissolved before the good, since that would be the rank of a tzaddik. He should instead regard the evil, in its very essence, as retaining its full force and vigor in the heart’s left side, just as at birth, with nothing of it having faded or disappeared. If anything, time has made it stronger, because he has given it so much use in food, drink and other worldly affairs.

Even a person whose every longing is for G‑d’s Torah, who toils in it day and night with pure motives, cannot take this as any evidence that the evil has been dislodged. Its very essence and substance may remain at full force and vigor where it always was, on the heart’s left side. It is only its garments, the animal soul’s thought, speech and deed, that fail to take hold of the brain, the mouth, the hands and the body’s other limbs, since G‑d granted the brain authority and control over the heart. That is how the G‑dly soul in the brain governs the “small city”, all the body’s limbs, which become a robe and a vehicle into which its own three garments enter: thinking, speaking and doing the 613 commandments of the Torah.

The G‑dly soul’s essence, however, holds no sway over the animal soul’s essence in the beinoni, except for the moments when his love for G‑d stands revealed in his heart, at particular times such as prayer and similar occasions. And at those moments too it is merely a matter of having the upper hand, as Scripture says: “And one people shall be stronger than the other people”, [which the Sages explained:] “As the one ascends, the other descends, and as the other ascends…” The G‑dly soul gathers strength and gets the better of the animal soul by drawing on the wellspring of might (gevuros), that is, understanding (binah): it reflects on how great G‑d, the blessed Ein Sof, is, and thereby brings forth an intense love for G‑d, like bursts of flame, on the heart’s right side. At that point the sitra achra on the left side is held down.

In the beinoni, though, it is not entirely abolished. That is so only with the tzaddik, about whom Scripture says: “My heart is emptied inside me.” He loathes evil and detests it with total hatred and revulsion, or with a hatred that falls short of total, as discussed earlier.

In the beinoni, by way of comparison, it is like a man who is asleep, who can wake up again from his sleep. So the evil in the beinoni is as if asleep in the left chamber during Shema and prayer, when his heart burns with love of G‑d, and afterwards it can wake up again.

That is why Rabbah considered himself a beinoni, even though his mouth never stopped from learning, and his desire was in G‑d’s Torah day and night, with longing, yearning and desire, and a soul thirsting for G‑d with great love, as at the time of Shema and prayer. In his own eyes he seemed like a beinoni who prays all day, as our Sages said: “Would that a person pray the whole day long!”

Now this love we described in beinonim during prayer, the love that arises as the G‑dly soul gathers strength and so on, does not deserve the name “true service” at all when set beside the tzaddikim, who serve G‑d with the deepest truth, because once prayer ends it fades and disappears. And Scripture says: “Truthful lips endure for all time, but a false tongue lasts only an instant.”

Nevertheless, relative to the level of the beinonim it is called “perfect service”, in their own truest truth, each one according to his level among the levels of the beinonim. And I, too, call their love in their prayer “the lip of truth that shall stand forever”, since their G‑dly soul has the power to come back and awaken this love always, when it gains strength at the time of prayer, every single day, through the preparation fitting for each soul according to its worth and level.

For truth is Yaakov’s attribute, and he is called “the central beam that passes from one end to the other”: from the loftiest heights and ranks down to the lowest of all ranks. At each height and rank it passes through the midpoint, which is the core and quality of truth at that rank.

The attribute of truth is “an inheritance without boundaries”. It has no limit upward, to the highest of heights, and all the heights and levels below are as nothing compared with the heights and levels above them. [As is known to those who know the Kabbalah, the “head” and “mind” of lower levels are beneath the “heels” and “feet” of the levels above them, as our Sages said: “The feet of the Chayos are equal to all of them.”]