The Practical Tanya - Part One - The Book for Inbetweeners

The hallmark of service is effort. If you’re not wrestling with your darker side, you are not serving G-d. Period. Doing more than you are accustomed to (in Torah and mitzvos) is always a form of service, since it inevitably requires effort. “Ideal service” of G-d doesn’t mean becoming a tzadik. It means struggling to be the best person you can be.

Because you revere Him, to the extent that you will not rebel against the Supreme King of kings, the Blessed Holy One.

Sha’arei Ha-Kedushah (ibid.) states that the “good side” of your Animal Soul’s four elements mirrors their “bad side” precisely. In place of arrogance and anger, the good side of your Animal Soul’s “fire”draws you to humility, leading you not to take things personally and get angry. Rather than seeking pleasure, the good side of “water” despises bo

“Yiras ha-romemus (reverence of G-d’s majesty) is not the same as yiras ha-onesh (fear of G-d’s punishment). Yiras ha-romemus is the reverence of a king, where a profound sense of shame keeps you from approaching the king, due to his awesome greatness. And, as a result of that, you come to love the king more, since despite his greatness and awesome

Ultimately, I can control my emotions because what I feel is always an outcome of what I think. I let my chochmah flow by being intellectually curious, imaginative and by looking at the bigger picture. Next, I use my binah by being logical and detail orientated, carefully examining the raw concept from my chochmah. The crucial step, which generates

“diminishing

The main thing is to dominate and control the natural tendencies of the Animal Soul, in the heart’s left chamber. The all-encompassing principle is: You must wrestle with your nature and seek to control it.

Chafitzah represents an even more intense state where, unlike physical desires which subside when you are satisfied, your desire for G-d never diminishes. “And upon completing a mitzvah which came your way... you are not satisfied by what you have done. On the contrary, now you have a stronger desire” (ibid.). וְהִיא

An emotion is your reaction to something outside of you. While you might experience a vast range of emotions, they essentially fall into two categories: You are either drawn to the thing (love) or repelled by it (fear).