The Secret of Breaking the Evil Inclination: From the Furnace of Desires to Divine Tranquility
Lesson No. 60 | Thursday Night, Parashas Chukas, Eve of 4 Tammuz 5756 - General Public Class at the Yeshiva
A profound discourse explaining the difference between fleeting enthusiasm stemming from illusions, and true holiness acquired through toil. The Rav explains how only genuine exertion in Torah study is capable of breaking the evil inclination, cooling the fire of desires, and bringing a person to a state of mental tranquility where he sees only Hashem.
Rebbe Nachman says at the end of Lesson 78 (Likutey Moharan, Part I) that the Torah is what will extract a person from all desires. Sometimes a person feels that he is burning for Hashem, burning for Rebbe Nachman, but suddenly some kelipah (impure spiritual shell) passes by—and within a second, everything flips and he chases after it. How does this happen? Because this is not a true fire of holiness, but merely an enthusiasm of hormones. It is a fire with no substance.
Splitting the Mind with Spiritual Axes
Therefore, the first thing Rebbe Nachman says is: start learning Torah. Everyone wants to be a tzaddik, but they want it to come easily. Rebbe Nachman explains (Lesson 142) that even if a person comes to the tzaddik with tremendous mesirus nefesh (self-sacrifice), despite all the obstacles—he will not receive wisdom automatically. The tzaddik will give you siyata d'shmaya (Heavenly assistance), he will ensure you have good friends and study partners, but the work of opening your mind rests upon you.
You need to take spiritual axes and split your mind, so that it will begin to absorb the holy Gemara. It is impossible to be a tzaddik without learning Torah; no such reality exists. The mind will not illuminate on its own; a person must work through the pain, sawing through a mind filled with nonsense, so that words of Torah can enter it. There is no other patent and no shortcut.
The Torah on One Foot
People look for shortcuts. They come to the tzaddik and want to receive the entire Torah "on one foot," exactly like that convert who came before Shammai and Hillel. Shammai pushed him away, but Hillel, out of his immense humility and lowliness which connected him to the infinite Divine intellect, told him a simple thing:
"That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow."
On the surface, this sounds simple. But is a person truly capable of fulfilling this? After all, when his wife or friends insult him, he immediately retaliates, and sometimes he even preempts them and insults them before they even start. The convert, who was wise, grasped the depth of the matter. He understood that this is the most difficult mitzvah, because a person is naturally an egoist who wants everyone to honor him and bow down to him like the wicked Haman.
Therefore, Hillel told him: "The rest is commentary; go and learn." Only through Torah study will you be able to attain humility, stop insulting those around you, and begin to fulfill these basic character traits.
Living for the Sanctification of Hashem's Name
Sometimes a person suddenly receives an illumination from Above. Some righteous grandfather cries out for him in Heaven, begging for mercy upon him despite the bad environment in which he grew up, and suddenly a great light descends upon him and he awakens to teshuvah (repentance). But he must know that no light in the world will last if he does not start learning Torah.
The evil inclination burns within a person from age zero. The daily struggle, the detachment from desires, and the guarding of one's eyes at every single moment—this is harder than dying Al Kiddush Hashem (for the sanctification of Hashem's Name). Dying Al Kiddush Hashem is an act of mesirus nefesh (self-sacrifice) of a single moment, where a person is burned, cries out "Shema Yisrael," and immediately ascends to the Garden of Eden. But to live Al Kiddush Hashem, to fight the kelipos (impure forces) and desires 24 hours a day—this is a constant and unbearably difficult struggle.
The Torah Extinguishes the Fire of Desires
The only way to break the evil inclination is through the mind. No piece of advice will break the evil inclination; only a strong mind that works in Torah, delving deeply into the Talmudic topics and debating them. When a person studies Gemara in depth, he suddenly feels the lightness of an angel.
Rebbe Nachman explains that when a person learns Torah, the breaths of his study extinguish the fire of the evil inclination's desires. The heart is a blazing fire of hormones and agitation, and as the Sages say:
"Were it not for the wings of the lungs that blow upon the heart, the heart would burn up the entire body."
Only Torah study can calm the boiling blood, bringing a person to true tranquility and peace of mind. Without the Torah, a person can pray with enthusiasm, and immediately afterward punch someone—proof that this was not an enthusiasm of holiness, but a continuation of hormonal agitation.
There is None Besides Him
When a person achieves true devekus (attachment to Hashem) through the Torah, he enters such a state of tranquility that even when people insult him—he simply does not hear it. His mind is engaged 24 hours a day in words of Torah, in Likutey Moharan, in halachos (Jewish laws), and in midrashim.
Rebbe Nachman teaches (Torah 55) that a person can reach such lofty levels of holiness and purity that he interprets every disgrace and humiliation as honor for the King. He understands that there is none besides Him—there are no heretics, there are no wicked people, there is nothing besides Hashem. Everything else is merely illusion and mist. His pure soul becomes refined and transcends the physical body, and he sees only sparks of Godliness and pure souls hovering around him. This is the true fiery enthusiasm of holiness.
Part 1 of 3 — Lesson No. 60