Tanya: Chapter 20

I spent a lot of time with this chapter, reviewing it for a few weeks now. It's an amazing chapter in that it so succinctly describes the flow and various stages of desire transforming into action.

The most striking point to me is that everything starts off in the intellect at a level of potential. Any desire is initially a dormant potential desire in the mind. Later it is awakened to actual desire in the heart, and finally it is clothed in letters of thought and speech (and action, i think) when planning and execution is needed to fulfill that desire.

My question is: how does the potential desire in the intellect get there in the first place. To which I have two potential answers. (1) The simplest, and at some deeper level the truest, is that all those desires are built-in to our essence. (2) The only major alternative is to suggest that these desires, even in the potential state, are acquired. I can see three means of acquiring new potential desires: (a) intellectual consideration and extrapolation, (b) a subset and perhaps a go between for the last method: seeing something through one's eyes. (The eyes see and the heart desires--as Chazal point out. Not to mention science says that the eyes are/were essentially specialized parts of the brain, not some entirely separate organ) Lastly (c) we may obtain new potential desires through experience. For example tasting a new food to see whether or not it is worth eating. (At an ice cream parlor they give you a little tasting spoon.)

I think it is clear that all three are means of gaining new potential desires whereas (b) might be the most powerful, (c) more rare, and (a) most challenging. Still, it seems to me that somewhere deep down (1) is fundamentally true.

If (1) is in fact true, and all of those potential desires are bound up within our very being, then that says a lot about the nature of creation. It does a good job of explaining why changes in the world in no way affect changes in HaShem. All of those eventual outcomes already exist within Him, in potential. The Baal HaTanya does touch on similar ideas elsewhere, including regarding how the "abilities" of the soul are clothed in the body, so I imagine we aren't far off the mark conjecturing here.

Tanya: Chapter 9

First a technical point:
There is an apparent scientific incongruity I find in this chapter that bears explaining: the Baal HaTanya states that the left chamber of the heart contains blood whereas the right does not. Clearly this is scienifically false. Unless his definition of blood is different than our modern understanding of blood. What is different about the 'blood' in the left chamber of the heart compared to he right chamber? The blood in the left chamber is oxygenated, the blood in the right chamber is not.

Interesting coincidence perhaps, but what proof is there that the Baal HaTanya might be suggesting something like this? The Zohar discusses something conspicuously similar: From the moment a baby is exposed to the air of the world, it receives a yetzer hara, the Zohar explains.

So, while being far from conclusive, this Zohar at the very least provides reasonable support for our interpretation.

Now to the meat of the chapter:

What comes out of this chapter, if you look at the big picture is this: The major organ from which "drives" originate is the Heart. The Yetzer Hara, or the Animal Soul (nefesh haBehami) is rooted in the heart. What this means is that when our Animal Soul wants something, we feel a drive towards that thing, be it food, money, people, anything. On the other hand, our Godly Soul or our Yetzer Tov is rooted in the intellect. When our Godly Soul wants something, we know it is the right thing to do, but we don't feel driven to do it.

This is very heady. It implies that in order to give our Godly Soul mastery over our Animal Soul, WE have to make ourselves want it, WE have to supply the drive. To me it seems there are two major reasons HaShem created us this way: 1) The Animal Soul comes with a built-in drive for self-preservation purposes. Everything the Animal Soul wants are things we need. The difference is we need to learn to moderate this need and use it for the purposes of Holiness - Kadesh et Atzmecha b'mutar Lcha - Use what is permitted as a means to sanctify yourself [not for personal gratification.] 2) Our reward and relationship with HaShem needs to be based on our voluntary participation. Without free will to choose life how can we be rewarded for choosing it? HaShem says He places both life and death before us, and then He commands us to choose life. The fact that we submit to His Will is what makes us worthy to receive life. If we don't submit, we still receive our needs, our Animal Soul still drives us to pursue (against our will) what we need, but we don't really live. It's not us in the driver's seat living life unless we choose.