ONCE THE ANIMAL SOUL IS AWAKENED TO THE LOVE OF G-D, NOT ONLY WILL YOU HAVE THE STEADY DEMEANOR OF T
ONCE THE ANIMAL SOUL IS AWAKENED TO THE LOVE OF G-D, NOT ONLY WILL YOU HAVE THE STEADY DEMEANOR OF THE G-DLY SOUL, YOU WILL BE STRENGTHENED BY G-D GIVEN ENERGIES EVER-SUPPORTING THE PASSIONATE ANIMAL SOUL Daily Study Daily Tanya Likutei Amarim, end of Chapter 9 https://www.chabad.org/dailystudy/tanya.asp?tdate=12/18/2021#lt=primarydownload audio; https://www.chabad.org/multimedia/filedownload_cdo/aid/1390071 This [level of love] is what Scripture describes as ahavah betaanugim (“a love which experiences delights”); it is the experience of delight in G-dliness that is a foretaste of the World to Come, since man’s reward in the World to Come consists of delighting in G-dliness.16This delight is [felt] in the brain containing chochmah (wisdom) and intelligence, which delights in perceiving and knowing G-d, commensurate with the capacity of one’s intelligence and wisdom—the greater one’s grasp of G-dliness, the greater his delight.[This delight] is the level of Water and “seed,” i.e., light that is sown in the holiness of the divine soul,which transforms to good the element of Water in the animal soul, from which the lust for physical pleasure had previously arisen.This means that the element of Water in the animal soul, which had previously expressed itself as a desire for physical pleasures, now expresses itself as a love of G-d, having been transformed by the divine soul’s love of G-d.It is similarly written in Etz Chaim, Portal 50, ch. 3, on the authority of the Zohar, that the evil of the animal soul is transformed and becomes perfect good like the good inclination itself, when it is stripped of its “unclean garments,” meaning the mundane pleasures in which it had been clothed.The yetzer hara (evil inclination) consists of a powerful drive, an appetite for whatever it perceives as good and desirable. This drive is neutral and may be steered in any direction; however, being clothed in a corporeal body, it inclines toward physical pleasures. These lusts become “unclean garments” for the animal soul’s drive.By steering it away from physical pleasures toward an appreciation of spiritual pleasures, the divine soul strips the yetzer hara of its “unclean garments” and clothes it in “pure garments” so that it may apply its powerful appetite for pleasures to G-dly, holy matters.This, then, is the divine soul’s desire: that it create, by means of its intellectual faculties, a fear and love of G-d so powerful as to transform the animal soul to good.The divine soul further desires that similarly, all other emotions of the heart, which are offshoots of fear and love, be dedicated solely to G-d.Thus far, the Alter Rebbe has discussed the divine soul’s desire for dominion over the mind and heart. He now goes on to speak of the other organs of the body.Also, the entire faculty of speech that is in the mouth, and the thought that is in the mind, be filled exclusively with the divine soul’s garments of thought and speech,namely, thoughts of G-d and His Torah, in which he would speak all day, “his mouth never ceasing from study.”17And the faculty of action vested in his hands and the rest of his 248 organs—this faculty being the third of the garments of the divine soul—be engaged in the fulfillment of the mitzvot, i.e., that he utilize his ability to act solely in the observance of mitzvot.In summary: The divine soul desires that its faculties and garments pervade the body entirely and exclusively.But the animal soul derived from kelipah desires the very opposite; it desires that the body be pervaded with its faculties and its thought, speech, and action.But the animal soul desires this for man’s benefit in order that he prevail over her and vanquish her, as in the parable of the harlot [related] in the holy Zohar.18The parable: A king desired to test the moral strength of his only son. He had a most charming and clever woman brought before him. Explaining to her the purpose of the test, he ordered her to exert every effort to seduce the crown prince. For the test to be valid, the supposed harlot had to use all her charms and guile without betraying her mission in the slightest way. Any imperfection on her part would mean disobedience and the failure of her mission. However, while she uses all her seductive powers, she inwardly desires that the prince should not succumb to them.So, too, in our case: The kelipah itself desires that man overcome it and not permit himself to be led astray. The entire stratagem is solely for man’s benefit.-[A BAAL TESHUVAH IS SAID TO BE EVEN GREATER THAN A ZADDIK, FOR THE VERY REASON HE WAS NOT PERFECT. PERFECTION IS NOT THE PRIZE, RETURN TO THE TRUE LOVE OF G-D, IS] -- source link