Tanya's Flawed Arguments
Moshe Ben-Chaim
A writer posted Yitzchak Schochet's defense of Tanya. I wish to show that Yitzchak Schochet's words are in direct contradiction to God's words, His Torah:
Yitzchak Schochet: The claim that the Chasidic classic, the Tanya, is a racist work is astounding. Its accusers are obviously unfamiliar with the vocabulary of Jewish philosophy and mysticism which underlies its text. Let us review the relevant passage:
"The souls of the nations of idol-worshippers are from the other, the impure ‘shells' which contain no good at all, as stated in Etz Chaim 49:3. All the good that the nations of idol-worshippers do is done for their own sake, as stated in the Talmud [Baba Bathra 10b] on the verse ‘The kindness of the nations is sin' [Proverbs 14:34], ie that all the charity and kindness performed by the nations of idol-worshippers is done for the sake of self-glorification."
If the critics have problems with this passage, their complaint is against the Bible, the Talmud and the writings of Rabbi Isaac Luria. The Tanya is merely quoting these sources. Our Bible has more radical statements about the people of Israel being God's chosen people and God's witnesses on earth.
Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim: Let's be very clear. Yitzchak Schochet does not quote Torah passages, but is taken from Etz Chaim: "souls of the nations of idol-worshippers are from the other, the impure ‘shells'." His gross error is suggesting this is the Bible's words too, as he writes, "If the critics have problems with this passage, their complaint is against the Bible." Schochet carelessly elevates Tanya to Biblical status. It appears this overestimation is Schochet's theme in his response; the cause of all his errors.
Yitzchak Schochet: The critics' confusion is rooted in their ignorance of the kabbalistic term "impure shells". In their view this seems to imply that those idolaters are rooted in some demonic or Satanic source distinct from Divinity. In Judaism, of course, there is no such thing of something devoid of Divinity….
Had they attended a class in Tanya, they would have discovered that the realm of "impurity", too, is infused and sustained by the Divine emanations (the "holy sefirot"), without which nothing could exist. The "impure shells", too, are Divine creations for the purpose they serve, and the difference between "pure" and "impure" is simply how humans are to relate to them.
Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim: Schochet claims everything contains Divinity. This is not found in Torah, and in fact is the view of heretic pantheism, where man assumes God or Divinity permeates all matter. This error stems from the infantile incapability to view something as "other" than God. Mystics cannot accept that God does not "fill" all matter. Their over-religious zeal causes them to view everything as part of God. But this is heresy, as God is not related to anything physical, that He should "occupy" its substance: "To what shall you equate Me, so that I shall be similar", God said. (Isaiah 40:25) God clearly states He is not related to physical creation. Furthermore, as Maimonides teaches, since God is unlike anything He created, He is unlike their properties, such as division. Thus, God cannot be divided among His creations, that part of Him is in everything.
God existed prior to Creation. Thus, He is NOT part of created matter. This rejects Schochet's view "there is no such thing of something devoid of Divinity."
Yitzchak Schochet: Most likely, these critics object also to the classical concept that Jews possess an additional "special soul" which distinguishes them from non-Jews, and cited in the Tanya. To them this surely is the ultimate racism. Yet the selfsame critics themselves proclaim this distinction and separation loud and clear at the conclusion of every Sabbath and festival when they recite the havdalah blessing, and every festival when they recite the section "Atah bechartanu" ("You have chosen us") in the Amidah. They do so because the Torah itself states this explicitly in Leviticus 20:24 and 26, "I have separated you from the nations to be Mine."
Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim: Here, Schochet confuses the Jews' "designation", assuming this must mean the Jew possesses a special soul. This is an unforgivable error, to say the least. The Bible contains no such idea.
Adam was the first man. He was a prophet and a great intellect, as Ibn Ezra states. But he was no more "Jewish" than any of his idolatrous descendants. When his grandson Enosh served idols, is Schochet suggesting God changed his soul, to a lesser model? When Abraham discovered God and taught of Him, Abraham was no more Jewish than Adam or anyone. His perfection was prior to the birth of the nation of Jews or God's promise of this nation. Yet, while a gentile, Abraham was more perfected than anyone alive today, more than any Jew. It is clear: perfection is not a birthright, but an accomplishment. No Torah verse speaks of special souls.
Yitzchak Schochet: Jews are infused with an additional soul precisely because they need this special endowment to enable them to observe the Torah with its 613 commandments and to carry out their mission to be a Divine beacon to the nations, which requires intensified "energy" for this purpose.
Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim: We have sufficiently rejected this in the previous paragraph. But we may add, that as the Torah says the convert follows the same Torah as the born Jew, it is clear that the convert – while a gentile when he perfected his mind so as to decide upon conversion – possesses the same capacity to follow the 613 as the Jew. His conversion adds nothing (no new soul) to him, for he made is admirable decision while still a gentile. Thus, the Jew needs nothing extra to follow the 613, as Schochet suggests, for the gentile is able to accept the full Torah of 613, before conversion.
Furthermore, God says the Jews shall follow the Torah so the nations will say, "What a wise and understanding people is this great nation. Because what great nation has God close to them like God, whenever (they) call to Him? And what great nation has statutes and laws as righteous as this entire Torah(Deut. 4:6-8)…” Here, God teaches that the gentile nations can witness the same level of wisdom in the Torah as the Jew.
Yitzchak Schochet: In short, if the erudite critics at Hampstead Garden Suburb insist on canceling a class in Tanya at their synagogue because of that text's alleged racism, they should be consistent and also cancel all classes in the Jewish Bible, Liturgy, Talmud and the Codes. Anything less is pure hypocrisy.
Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim: Here, Schochet confirms his belief that designation as God's "chosen" people equates to a Jew possessing a superior soul. He suggests this, without citing any Torah verse, since there is no verse. He also clearly equates Tanya with the Bible, the very sin of the writers of the New Testament.
Darren: Rabbi, you write, "Here, Schochet confuses the Jews' "designation", assuming this must mean the Jew possesses a special soul. This is an unforgivable error, to say the least. The Bible contains no such idea. " And: "No Torah verse speaks of special souls."
I ask what of the neshama yeseira, which is derived in the Gemara from the word in Torah "Vayinafash". And, surely only a shomer shabbos Jew has access to this neshama?
Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim: The Rabbinically-coined phrase "neshama yesara; an additional soul" in connection to shabbos must be understood intelligently, as the Rabbis intended.
The clues to understanding this are, 1) why this "soul" is added only on shabbos, and 2) why it's a soul that is gained, and not something else.
As shabbos is a day when we recoil from creative work and our worldly ambitions, what immediately emerges is the additional energies we might redirect towards other endeavors, namely, God's wisdom, which requires the soul.
Thus, on the day when we are not distracted by worldly pursuits, we have additional energies available for wisdom, stated as "an additional soul on shabbos."