The service of the Beinoni is not an IEP for those who, unfortunately, cannot be righteous. The pleasure that G-d receives each time a person overcomes a compulsion is a pleasure like no other! It is for _this_ reason that G-d created all the worlds!
Understanding the reality of the Beinoni - that he was born to struggle - raises a philosophical question:
How can we say a person has free choice, if he was created this way?
The Talmud states that before birth, an angel pronounces the future that awaits this child:
Rich/poor
Wise/gullible
Beautiful/homely…
But, declares the Talmud, whether the person will be righteous or wicked is not proclaimed. This choice is left to the individual.
There is no contradiction here.
The point is, that there's a difference between _tendency_ and _behavior_.
We cannot choose our natural predispositions. G-d created certain people to be righteous, with no internal conflict, and He also created everyone else, who are attracted to sin.
And yet:
*The Beinoni controls his behavior.* He constantly wrestles his thoughts, inclinations, and desires. When these impulses arise in his mind, he pushes them away and does not engage with them.
Every time he overcomes and withstands temptation, he exercises his power of free choice to choose his reaction. He crushes and weakens a bit more of the evil in the world, and this brings pleasure to G-d Who rejoices in witnessing the Beinoni’s strength of character.
However, even knowing all this, being a Beinoni is hard!
A Beinoni never gets to enjoy feelings of accomplishment and perfection.
He never achieves feelings of purity and closeness to G-d. After all, he is still struggling!
Despite this, the accomplishments of a Beinoni are not any less than those of a righteous person. A Beinoni is perfect in his own way.
There are two types of pleasure G-d has from the service of human beings.
The first comes through destroying the forces of evil and changing them over to good. Bitter becomes sweet and darkness is transformed to light 🌟.
This kind of work is done by righteous people.
The second type of pleasure results from controlling and subjugating the forces of evil while they are still going strong, in full force.
There are two different types of foods that people enjoy as a treat:
*Sweet and smooth* like ice cream or cake.
*Savory or sharp* foods which are flavored with spices and sour flavors. The spices transform an unappetizing dish into something delicious and pleasurable.
G-d, too, receives two kinds of delights:
*Righteous people* serve G-d in a manner that is sweet.
The service of the *Beinoni* is compared to hot, sharp, or spicy treats. The Beinoni adds spice to the ugly, unappetizing material of this world and turns them into aromatic and piquant treats of delight.
The Beinoni is involved in some way with evil, which, on its own, is pungent and unpleasant.
The job of the Beinoni - and each of us working to become better people - is to take the negative, unpleasant parts of our lives and flavor them properly. By properly harnessing the negativity, we enhance and direct it to the service of G-d. G-d loves this treat!
The Talmud states that G-d created the Evil Inclination and created the Torah as its spice.
This is because your job is not to eradicate the evil inclination.
What you need to do is add seasoning to it. Work with it, enhance it, and spice it up so that it will turn into something pleasurable.
Each human being, along with his physical impulses and attraction to negativity, was created in order to bring honor to G-d!
How can a person use his evil inclination to honor G-d?
After falling into darkness and seeing how horrible it is, he emerges from there and uses the experience as a catalyst to change his life. He takes the negative energy, the pain and darkness he used to be lost in, and he pulls himself up, closer to G-d. He transforms the negativity into a positive force in his life.
