Core Concepts Tanya: Chapter 26

Brief recap of Chapter 26:

Chapter 26 begins a new section in Tanya.
We've learned about our makeup, we learned about our souls and how they function, we learned about the battle they wage with each other and where we stand at each point in that battle. Then we spoke about the creation of the world and spiritual ramifications that occur when we do/don't act as we should. We learned about how each of those actions affect our relationship with Hashem and about how serving Hashem, and Torah and Mitzvot are closer to us than we think because of the hidden love we possess.
This new chapter addresses how to deal with physical and spiritual challenges in our service of Hashem. More specifically, we know that we should serve Hashem with joy, so what happens if something threatens/mitigates that joy? In other words, how do we deal with sluggishness and laziness stemming from sadness or depression? How do we rekindle our joy so we can be the best version of ourselves?
This chapter isn’t about answers or justifications for pain and suffering, especially in regard to others. Many of the ideas are not easy to digest, and even knowing them does not erase the pain.
But they do give us tools and a framework of perspective to make it through challenging times.

1. Some fundamental ground rules:
Hashem created the world and continually creates it every second.
Ergo, Hashem is in absolute control of what happens in the world and intimately involved in every single aspect, AKA, "Hashgacha Protis," Divine Providence.
Hashem is entirely good.
Ergo, nothing bad can come from Him.
Everything and anything that happens to us is with purpose and for the good.
However, our finite perspective does not always allow us to see it, so there are times of revealed good and times when good is concealed.

2. The Alter Rebbe likens our struggles to two wrestlers.
No matter if one is stronger or more agile or better trained, the one who tries harder and doesn’t slack off will win.
Our G-dly soul is incredibly powerful. However, if we do not fight to keep it on top, for our joy or level headedness or perspective to remain intact, then we can be overwhelmed by the negative forces rising against us.

3. "In every sadness there will be profit/benefit/advantage."
Sadness for its own sake does not benefit us. Sadness of remorse, regret, etc, is sometimes necessary, but is not an end unto itself. Sadness must be an impetus for action, a way to reach a new level of joy. Specifically, "a greater quality joy, similar to the distinctive quality of light which follows darkness." Light is worth so much more, shines so much brighter, when it follows darkness.
Sometimes the darkest moments in our lives, the times of rock bottom, can serve as a path toward a new beginning.
Sometimes we break, but thereby we rebuild stronger.
We must endeavor to find inner strength instead of giving into paralyzing victimization.
Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk taught there is nothing as whole as a broken heart.
Because sadness and depression sink and immobilize us. It narrows our world so we can't see outside it. Sadness, a broken heart, is only a beginning that leads to humility, submission, and the ability to rise again.

4 The Gemara teaches that "just as one recites a blessing for his good fortunate, so must he also recite a blessing for his misfortune." WHAT?!
On a basic level this teaches that just as we credit and praise G-d for the good in our lives, acknowledging and accepting it’s from Him, so are times of hardship from Him.
This would be a time of "concealed good," which in many ways is greater than "revealed good," because the higher something is the lower it will fall. This is where the phrase "gam zu l'tovah," "this too is for the good" comes in, even if we don't see it or understand how.
Of course, we pray that all good comes to us revealed and in a way of clear blessing.

5. All this leads into one of the most important points of this chapter.
Do we believe that life is a random throw of the dice or do we truly believe Hashem orchestrates all?
We don't always understand why things turn out the way they do, but we can accept that Hashem has a plan, a blueprint for our lives.
Because we can't read it, we struggle and undergo pain as each piece comes into place, but there is purpose and reason to it all.
Otherwise, if everything is random, that could mean that even death is random, and if death is random then death is meaningless, and if death is meaningless then what meaning is there in life?

6. Rather, often, life is like the game Shutes & Ladders. There are days we merely move from one square to the next, there are days we are blessed with a ladder "shortcut," and there are days when we hit a slide and some of those slides seem to never end. But there is an end, and there are squares that await us beyond the bottom of the slide. We have to know that there is a goal, a reason, and a purpose.
We might not know what it is, or why we have to endure it, but Hashem does.
Life is not a wild gamble, but a carefully woven tapestry that's beautiful to behold. Sometimes, all we see is the tangle of threads on the back.

7. Think of a person who might have a limb amputated to live.
Knowing it will save his life, he can accept that it must be.
But it doesn't negate the pain or the fear or restore what's missing.
It simply means that there was a reason for what he had to undergo.

8. The Alter Rebbe shifts focus to address moments of spiritual sadness, when we're going about our day and an overwhelming sense of sadness or depression washes over us.
Tanya considers this an artificial sadness, sent our way simply to distract us and lead us to unwanted behaviors.
What's the proof? There's no reason for it! It simply comes without impetus or cause and simply seeks to interrupt our day.
Because humans don't want to be sad or depressed, negative forces send this our way so we will seek immediate satisfaction/pleasure/gratification to be rid of it.
It's trying to create a trap.

9. The Alter Rebbe separates bitterness/remorse from depression.
Bitterness/Remorse is active, something we maintain control of and use to better ourselves.
Depression is resigned and dead because it weighs us down and immobilizes us. It maintains control.

10. If we are faced with this "artificial sadness" during the day, and it threatens to overtake us, then we need to firmly tell ourselves that now is NOT the time to give in.
Rather, we can take an accounting of ourselves every night when we say Shema, or at the end of every month, or every year on Yom Kippur.
These are set times for soul searching during which we may be filled with sadness over where we're at in life, when sorrow or remorse may overcome us as we regret all we haven't done right.
Yet, we must remember that Hashem always forgives and we always have a chance to try again.
This is the joy, the benefit, the profit that may come from sadness.
Thereafter we must push the sadness away and know the time for dwelling in it has passed.

We wrapped up our lesson by reminding ourselves that even in the darkest of night skies, stars still shine, and the more we seek them, the more we find.
We do not control what happens to us, but we do control who we are on the other side.
Let us pray and bless each other to have lives with joy and revealed good, with blessings and good fortune that easily allow us to be the best we can be.