Darwin is Half Right

A quick thought in honor of 24 Teves, the yoma d'helula of the Alter Rebbe.  My uncle told me that he finds the Sefer Tanya a depressing book for its thrust is that we won't be tzaddikim, rather its our mission to be the benoni.  However, I find it isn't depressing, it is a very therapeutic and calming message.

Most people struggle with emotional, spiritual  swings.  There are times when a person has feelings of great spirituality and then the same person may come crashing down to earth, caught up in the most mundane, gashmious pursuits.  A person starts to think am I crazy, schizophrenic, a split personality?  Who is the real me?  The answer according to the Tanya is that there are two dinim within an individual.  There is the you of the nefesh elokis, the you of the lofty thoughts , the being that wants to cleave to God.  Then then there is the you of the nefesh habihamis, the person that is just interested in taking care of its basic needs and desires. [It isn't c"v evil (at least in a Jew,) it is just selfish, interested in its own self-indulgence.]  These  two souls exist within every individual and are engaged in a power struggle.  The yetzer tov and yetzer harah in the world of the Tanya aren't merely different urges, pulls and desires that a person experiences.  Those conflicting feelings are coming from two, independent forces that coexistent within a person. 

Darwin's theory of evolution besides the science of it, has tremendous theological applications.  According to Darwin, humans are no better than animals, we may be more technologically advanced but at our core we are no better than the apes.  In a certain sense he is right, there is a nefesh behamis inside a person which has characteristics much like an animal.  However, what he failed to recognize is the nefesh elokis.  It could be his colleagues were people dominated by their nefesh habehamis, had he been exposed to different people, he would've come to his conclusions. 

"The Alter from Kelm also remarked that Darwin was able to formulate his theory of evolution only because he had never seen a real human being. Thus he could view men as no more than smarter monkeys. "Had he seen my rebbe, Reb Yisrael Salanter, who developed his character traits to a degree of perfection that fully expressed the essence of the Divine Image, he never could have entertained the possibility that human beings evolved from monkeys," said the Alter" (From here.)  

The tzaddik lives the life of the rose without the thorns.  However, for most that just isn't a reality as we discussed last week here.  The Tanya teaches us how to live life with our struggles, not overlook them.  
Life according to the Alter Rebbe is a struggle.  I find sometimes sugarcoating Judaism to be a cheap,  untrue message.  There is a struggle between the two souls of man.  It isn't a easy battle.  However, we must realize that the struggle of the religious man doesn't at all take take away from the beauty, magnificence and greatness of Judaism.  I know this is a tough balance to strike and it a struggle of its own.  If you have any thoughts about how to balance these themes, please comment.