By the Grace of G-d 8th of Tishrei, 5715 Brooklyn, N.Y.
Mr.
Polygon Road
Manchester 8.
Sholom u’Brocho:
I have received your letter in which you write that during your learning the Sicho of Shabbos Mevorchim Elul,1 several points were not clear to you, and you request an explanation.
Generally speaking, it is difficult to elaborate in a letter on this kind of question, but perhaps the following brief remarks will be helpful to you:
(a) You ask, what is meant by the statement in the Sicho2 that even physically the Jew should by his very nature flee from sin and avoid it even “b’shoigeig,” just as an animal instinctively avoids danger. Your question concerns the term “guf” since the body without the soul cannot commit any act, and how can the two be considered separately in this connection.
The explanation should be clear from the illustration used,3 namely the animal, i.e. a living animal. In other words, the term “body” was not meant to exclude the “animal soul,” but the “Divine soul” and even the “rational soul” (Nefesh haSichlis).
(b) The above explains your other difficulty regarding reward and punishment, namely, if the Jew instinctively, so to speak, avoids sin and does good, why reward him for it?
In general, with the Jew there is first of all the “Divine soul” pulling to the good, then there is the “animal soul” in the strict sense, and both are influenced by the “rational soul” with the free choice of action to follow the lead of the Divine soul or to oppose it. It is this free will to do good (uvocharta bachayim)4 despite the Yetzer Hora pulling in the opposite direction which merits the reward. There is no contradiction here with (a) because in an act committed inadvertently (b’shoigeig) the rational soul does not participate, and therefore, in truth, the body and animal soul ought to avoid it because it is harmful.
(c) Your question, based on Rashi in Bobo-kamo (22),5 presents no difficulty, for it is a matter of common knowledge that an animal under normal conditions flees from danger. In the case of the kid, however, as Rashi points out (in distinction from a grown animal), it is not experienced to recognize danger which is not quite clear and immediate.
May G-d help you to learn Nigle and Chassidus with success, and, especially, to translate them into action, in daily life.
With the blessing of Chasimo uGmar Chasimo Toiva,
By
Notes and sources
1) Sicha of Shabbos Mevorchim Elul, 5711, published in Likkutei Sichos vol. 2, p. 623. The sicha was translated to English by Rabbi Nissan Mindel, and was published by Kehot under the title A Call to Repentance; Elul Message by Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson Lubavitcher Rabbi שליט"א (accessible here).
2) Part 2, regarding the lesson of an accidental murderer being required to flee to a City of Refuge:
The question may be asked, Why should a person be punished for a transgression committed unwittingly? The answer is that a Jew intrinsically - by reason of not only his Divine soul, but even his innate physical nature-abhors to do anything contrary to G-d' s will (as, f. i., even an animal would not walk into fire unwittingly). Hence it is written, "No sin shall befall the righteous."
3) This illustration only appears in the English edition.
4) Devarim 30:19.
5) 22b, s.v., eved kofus lo u'gdi somuch lo venisrafu imo potur: Although we are discussing a kid-goat, we still could not expected it to have escaped {the fire}, for a kid has no understanding.
Source: Typed Copy.