Chapter 1

Our wise men¹ They say that before birth, Hashem makes the soul swear (neshamá) that when he is born “he will be a Righteous One (tzadik), and he will not be a villain (rashá)”, and even if everyone tells him he is Righteous, he must always think of himself as if he were Wicked!

However, in another writing by our sages² It says the opposite: that a person should never think of themselves as evil…

So, how should one think of oneself: as righteous or as wicked? Furthermore, if one were to think of oneself as wicked, one would be sad and unable to serve. Hashem with joy, as every Jew should. And if he is not saddened by being a Wicked One, it may happen that he no longer cares about the Mitzvot…

To understand this problem, the Alter Rebbe explains what the soul is. When we understand this, we will understand the oath we are made to take before birth, why we must consider ourselves wicked, and why that will not stop us from fulfilling it. Torah y Mitzvot with joy and fulfill our mission in the world.

On the cover, the Alter Rebbe wrote that this is the book of the “Middle Men” (beinoním): What is an “Intermediate Man”? Our wise men³ They tell us about five different types of Jews:

1) The Righteous One to whom things go well

2) The Righteous One Who Fails

3) The Villain who does well

4) The Villain who has bad luck

5) The “Middle Man”

Later (chapters 10 to 12) the Alter Rebbe will explain what each of them means, but, for now, we see that there is a type of Jew called intermediate, which means "one who is in the middle," not a Righteous one and not a Wicked one.

So, what is it? To answer this question, the Alter Rebbe analyzes different sayings from our sages.⁴ on the subject and comes to the conclusion that an “Average Man” is very close to a Righteous One (tzadik). This is a person who uses every opportunity to fulfill Mitzvot, and not a moment is wasted in studying Torah. But he is not a Righteous One.

The Alter Rebbe says there are not many truly righteous people (tzaddikim), that's why Hashem He scatters them throughout the generations of humanity so that there will always be some in the world. This is because most of us cannot become Righteous, although we can all become "Intermediate Men.".

(In the next twelve chapters we will learn what a Righteous person is (tzadik), an evil one (rashá) and an “Average Man” (beinoni), and how we can all try to be “Middle Men” and serve Hashem with joy).

The Alter Rebbe begins his explanation by saying that every Jew has two souls.

We receive our first soul when we are born; it takes care of everything we do naturally, such as breathing, eating, etc., and it is in the blood, which circulates throughout the body, giving us strength.

Furthermore, this soul makes us act in different ways: there are people who get very angry, or are arrogant, there are people who love to eat delicious things (even if they are not good for the body), there are those who like to talk nonsense, or make fun of others, and there are people who are always sad, or are simply lazy.

All these examples are called bad emotional qualities (midot raot) and all originate from the first soul, which the Alter Rebbe calls the Animal Soul (nefesh habahamit). Hashem He doesn't want us to do things based on these feelings, because they aren't good. All human beings have this soul.

But in the case of a Jew, the Animal Soul also has good emotional qualities (midot tovotFor example, he naturally has mercy, wanting to help people in trouble. A Jew naturally performs acts of kindness (gemilut hasadim), helping others even if they gain nothing from it. (Generally, a Gentile does acts of kindness because they want to gain something, perhaps to be seen by others, or because it makes them feel good, but a Jew has a special strength to do kindness even for nothing.).

Understanding this first soul will help us know who we are, and understand what we must do to serve. Hashem with joy.