Chassidic philosophy centers on the soul and the experiences of man as he attempts to reach out to G-d. A man who desires to serve Hashem finds within himself both the fonts of exalted feeling that draws him Heavenwards and sources of opposition: dullness, inertia and physicality that weigh him down and block his path. When a mind casts around for what to call these forces and how to identify them so they can be understood and harnessed, it seeks a a metaphor in the world around us. Sometimes they are termed “animal”, as in “nefesh habehamis”, because animals do not possess spiritual urges and strive only for physical gratification. Another, less common comparison is to call such impediments “a Goy within”. It is not that something perjorative is being expressed; rather, this is an easily accessible metaphor that, to those who lived in Russian countryside, immediately communicates an image of a Russian peasant, of uncouthness, of spiritual coarseness and immobility.
When Reb Shmuel Munkis was a young man, he decided to go to Liozna to become the chassid of the Alter Rebbe. He arrived in the middle of the cold, winter night and found the Alter Rebbe's house, the only one with the candles still burning. He knocked and asked the Alter Rebbe if he could come in and warm himself up. The Alter Rebbe told him to find another Jewish house and then warned Reb Shmuel that if he tried to force his way in, the goy (servant of the house) will chase him out. Reb Shmuel replied that his own goy is stronger, referring non-literally to his animal soul which he was certain was stronger than his Rebbe's animal soul! The Lubavitcher Rebbe [quoted in the book Reb Shmuel Munkis by Rabbi Shalom DovBer Avtzon published by Kehos where this story is told at length] explains that Reb Shmuel wanted to learn from the Alter Rebbe how to serve HaShem with warmth and was acknowledging that his 'goy', his stranger within his heart, could not be overcome without the help of the Alter Rebbe.
The Alter Rebbe's Tanya explains in more technical and expanded manner that there takes place an internal war between a person's G-dly soul and animal soul, which are respectively the struggle between his good and evil inclinations, between his Yetzer HaTov and Yetzer Hara. The previous Lubavitcher Rebbe Yosef Yitzhak explains [in a letter quoted in the back of his edition of Sefer Tehillim] that a person's animal soul and evil inclination are non-Jewish; in other words, as other footnotes therein reference, every person has to wage a daily war with his goy residing in a person's olam katan, aka his personal psyche (literally “small world”) to serve HaShem properly.
The Chiddushei HaRim, founder of Gerrer chassidus, in his Perush al HaTorah states "It brings in sefarim that Erev Shabbas is the time for Teshuvah. The sins that are found in a person are a piece of goy in him. Since it is forbidden for a goy to rest of Shabbas (i.e. according to the halacha a that a ben Noach that rests on Shabbas is liable for a death penalty); therefore, one has to do teshuvah at that time to remove from himself the portion that is a goy" (so it is not inside with him when he is observing Shabbas). The Chiddushei HaRim also states in that sefer, "a person who has a court case with a goy should wait until Adar. As for the court case with his goy, that is portion of Amalek in every person, Adar is also the time then that one can overcome him (as that is when the Jewish people in general were victorious over Amalek)".
Rav Zev Cohen of Chicago [Irgun Shuirei Torah tape SF266 and SF317] interprets this to mean that in both cases a person is battling a foreign persona that became established inside himself due to his adapting the customs, habits, etc. of the non-Jewish world; therefore, we call this foreign personality a goy. In order to build a Jewish home, a person needs to internalize only Yiddishe attitudes. The Pnei Menachem (in Tavo p.153), states that the removal of the orlahs (obstructions) of the heart, body, mouth and ears corresponds to the removal of the "ger asher b'kirbacha" (Devarim 28:43), getting rid of external goyish appearances.
On a more kabalistic level, had Adam not sinned, everyone would be Jewish in the sense that all of his offspring would be fullfilling all the mitzvos. Adam's fall yielded fragmentation which eventuated spiritually and physically in goyish souls in goyish bodies which on the superficial level of existence serve as opposition to Jews trying to serve HaShem. Chassidic philosophy also ironically points out that the snake was originally the external personification of the Yetzer Hara, that evil caricature often drawn on a person's shoulders in cartoons: only after Adam's sin was the personal conflict internalized and became a different, internal battlefield, within the person as well as still existing in the external world.
In one of his discussions [Toras Menachem 10, 114] of the first Rashi in Chumash, the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson discusses this concept as an answer to what to answer the nations when they claim that Jews stole Eretz Yisroel. He compares this conversation to that between the animal soul (the goy inside you) and the G-dly soul, the nefesh Elokis. The land of Eretz Yisroel represents the physical part of a person’s life (since physical mitzvos are done there on the land which is a physical place) and thus the animal soul claims that the nefesh Elokis has stolen its land for its own spiritual service ! According to the animal soul, the world only exists for it's own physical enjoyment. The Nefesh Elokis counters that HaShem created both the person and the world to be made into a vessel for Elokus and that the Land of Israel is its by right.
The Rebbe quotes the above story of Shmuel Munkis apropos to this discussion. Applying this story is a commentary on how Lubavitch views Eretz Yisroe, not like the secular Zionist who denies the claim of his personal Nefesh Elokis and rejects the mitzvos of the land. In contrast, Torah-observant Jews strive to have the state of Eretz Yisroel achieve its purpose of existence: Jews observing Torah in the Land, both internally and externally!
Various Jewish commentators all agree that the "microcosm mirrors the macrocosm", in other words, what goes on in person's own world is related to global events. The Tzemach Tzedek (see Sefer Likutim) phrases a question brought by the Mekubel R. Moshe Zacuto (known by his initials ReMaZ) in his perush on the Zohar: the Ushpizin, the supernal guests who visit on Sukkos are Avraham, Yitzhak, Yaakov, Moshe, Aaron, Yosef and Dovid. However there is also a famous mashal brought in the Gemara/Midrash about Shemini Azteres marking the special relationship between HaShem and the Jewish nation after the departure of the other guests, the nations of the world, for whom 70 offerings are brought during the days of Sukkos. The Remaz points out that the identity of just whom the Sukkos guests are is contradictory: are the guests the holy Ushpizin or are they a bunch of goyim ?! So who is it really that comes for dinner on Sukkos – the patriarchs of the nations of the world? He concludes that the Ushpizin represent the inner-Pnimiyus aspect of the holiday and the nations delineate the outer-Chitzoniyus aspect of the holiday, which is called guests because it does not occur on a regular weekday. Chabad chassidus in a number of mamarim (for example: 5731 2nd Day Sukkos) develops this concept further based on the passuk from Tehillim (Ps. 118) that the external praise of HaShem by the nations is intrinsically connected to each person's Avodas Hashem and his/her conquest of the evil inclination (Also see Bnei Yissachar's Arga D'Pirka 303 for a similar but alternative depicture of this dual interaction.)
In his academic publications, Chabad Shaliach Professor Rabbi Dr. Naftali Loewenthal of Oxford University has discussed this relationship between the quest for individual redemption form Yetzer Hara and historical-geopolitical redemption of Israel in terms of campaigns of the last two Lubavitcher Rebbes stating, "Thus in 1967 the Seventh Rebbe responded to the Six Day War by inaugurating the "Tefillin Campaign", claiming if a Jew ... would put on tefillin, the Israeli War effort would be aided." At the same time, he cites that the Rebbe was also focusing more on private contemplation by re-publishing sefarim such "Tract on Prayer" which now can be see in light of what we explained as part of the pathway to Moshiach coming. His father-in-law is also noted to have gone on a two-prong attack during the 1940's, focusing on Teshuvah leading to the Geulah in his sichas and in the publication HaKriah v’HaKedusha”, while simultaneously discussing the seemingly “unrelated topic” of intellectual avodah in his mamarim.
Such an approach can be traced to the concept in the Siddur Arizal of R. Yaakov Koppel. He notes that the kevanna ( mystical intention) of the bracha "Shelo Asani Goy" is that when the soul of a person descends each day back into the body after its elevation during sleep of the previous night, we praise Hashem that it should return only as a pure Jewish soul without being interchanged with or cleaved to by a goyish soul. On one of his tapes [Shiur Perush Tefilah -Shiur 67], Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Schlesinger of Monsey elaborates on the meaning of this bracha and concurs with the thesis above: we petition HaShem with this bracha to clean ourselves from influences of the non-Jewish world around us. In Siddur Arizal (Reb Shabsi) the mention of the nations praising HaShem at the start of Hodu is attributed to the getting the spiritual klipos in a person’s life to praise HaShem. This does not refer to the whole world directly but first to the negative energies and evil impulses in one's own life. A number of other references to goyim throughout the siddur are also conceptualized in the terms of the internal conflict of a servant of Hashem: “Nakama (revenge) on the goyim” (same psalm as just mentioned, explained in Torah Or 2b) and “kol goyim savavuni” (psalm that is part of Hallel, explained in Likutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 90d). When a Jew davens for his personal needs, he is also davening for the nation as a whole. Sometimes these two concepts are separated, as they are during the prayer of the the Amidah, which are grouped separately into blessing that are for the individual and for the community. However, once a Jew realizes that his internal struggles are reflective of those in the world, all of his prayers will then be directed for both a personal and collective redemption simultaneously.
Such a perspective is not rascism ! The Gemara in Megilla (14) explains that Achashverosh and Haman's conspiring to destroy the Jews can be compared to a man with a mound of dirt giving it to a man with a ditch. It is not that Haman manipulated Achashverosh but that each of the two had a different but complementary motivation for his Jew hatred. The Lubavitcher Rebbe explained that in general, there are two responses amongst goyim when encountering Jews. The former group feel that the Jews are a mound of dirt, something excess in the world that must be removed. The latter group feels like an empty hole that is inadequate and lacking self-esteem in the presence of Jews and for that reason needs to eliminate them. There are several views about the ultimate destiny of goyim when Moshiach comes; although there is one opinion they will be eradicated, there are also opinions that they will assist the Jews in serving HaShem or even become converts.
As the Shelah Hakodesh has often been quoted "And they shall make me a Mikdash b'socham"... inside every Jew there is a personal dwelling place for HaShem: the Third Temple will be achieved by the combined efforts of every member of the Jewish people both on a personal level and then together on many levels leading up to the global scale. The establishment of the Third Temple in Jerusalem will be for all Jews and nations under the leadership of Moshiach.
Indeed prior to the conclusion of the first section of Tanya (chapter 53) where it explains that through doing mitzvos a person can experience the Shechinah, the Divine Presence, the discussion apparently digresses to explain the revelation of the Shechinah in each of the Temples. This would appear to be so since each person's individual service creating his own mishkan combines to create the global Beis HaMikdash reality of redemption. It has been stated [Sukkah 55b and Yalkut Shimoni] that if the nations were only aware of the physical benefits that they derived from the sacrifices in the Temple, they would have protected it from being destroyed instead. Just as the elevation of the body is through the G-dly soul, so is the survival of Earth intimately connected to the Jews!
The Shelah also has that kavanna for "shelo asani goy."
Posted by: Yona | July 24, 2009 at 01:15 AM