You live with 2 simultaneous realities:
Your body. That’s pretty straightforward
Your soul. That spark in you that strives for purpose and meaning
These 2 things are Complete opposites
The body enjoys eating, drinking, sleeping, lusting…
The soul has no interest in all that. She knows she is here for a reason and that there is purpose and meaning to life.
The question is - how can the soul convince the body to go along with her search and live her life accordingly? Is this even possible?
Bridging the gap between the body and divine soul is (surprise!) *The Animal Soul*
👉🏻On the one hand, she’s got physical tendencies: sleep, eat, reproduce…
👉🏻On the other hand, she is a soul. She possesses spiritual/intangible qualities, such as intellect and emotions
It turns out that the animal soul essentially serves as a pair of crutches for the divine soul in this world, enabling it to carry out its wishes.. In other words, it’s only through engaging with the animal soul that the divine soul can get its wishes fulfilled.
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Let’s clarify:
When the divine presence rests on a person, where exactly does it reside❔
In the divine soul,
In the animal soul,
Or in the body❔❔
It really depends on which parts of the person were activated when observing the commandment: If the mitzvah involved just the divine soul✨, then G-dliness rests there✨.
Learning Torah 📖, for example, involves the divine soul, along with 2 of its tools/garments: Thought🙄 and Speech🗣️… Therefore, G-d’s presence will dwell on just the spiritual aspects of the person.
If you want to refine and elevate your body, 👉🏻 you need to do a good deed utilizing your limbs🧍 Such mitzvot employ not only the more spiritual aspects of yourself (such as understanding the importance of, and then planning and arranging the fulfillment of, the mitzvah), but even the thing most disconnected from your soul; the seemingly lowest parts of you - your actions!
Tefillin, Circumcision, Immersing in a mikvah - are all examples of actions you can do to elevate either specific parts, or even all, of your body.
What about the animal soul? Does G-d’s presence rest upon it?
The divine soul itself cannot convince the body to do any mitzvot. It has no common language with the body. The animal soul is what mobilizes the body into doing a mitzvah. By fulfilling the mitzvah, the animal soul transforms herself into an entity worthy of hosting G-d's presence 🌟. This is the awesome power of fulfilling commandments with your physical body.
When you have to Run🏃♂️, Sweat 🥵, And Persevere ✊ In order to fulfill a mitzvah, it involves much more effort than utilizing your mind or your words to connect with G-d. This is how you bring G-dliness even to your animal soul - and into all of this physical world ↙️↙️.
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Now we have the answer to the bothersome question we asked at the beginning of this chapter of Tanya: Why does G-d give us an animal soul 🐮 that ✖️we won't ever✖️ be able to transform?
Now we get it 😊!
The _essence_ of the animal soul will never change. There always will be a struggle 👊 - between its animalistic desires and the altruistic dreams of the divine souls. Its attraction to physical pleasure will never suddenly switch into an attraction for holy pursuits.
But when it comes down to action 🤚🤩 ✋ … Where it really counts 👍… The animal soul can *always* do what G-d wants - just like a Tzaddik, a righteous person. When that happens, the animal soul is tied up and is totally subservient⛓️🐮⛓️ to the divine soul and so the divine presence can rest upon the person.
