Questions for today:
We’ve learned – and we see clearly – that depression drags us down. Why ask us to look in the mirror, with such emotional results?
We studied several chapters and a lot of places in Tanya, where it says that depression is a poison that makes us lose the battle against our animal Soul.
Yet now, we just had two chapters telling us look in the mirror and beat ourselves up. Why?
Today the Tanya clarifies:
Firstly, we're not talking about ‘depression’, which is a bottomless hole that has no natural results, we are referring to ‘bitterness’.
Bitterness is a painful - but living - experience that accomplishes something.
Secondly, even if when we look in the mirror, the initial reaction is to be down on ourselves before we become productive this is part of the way that G-d created the world.
We fill our house with poisonous chemicals to get rid of bacteria and dirt. We chop down a tree with a wooden axe handle. It takes a snake-like person to catch a snake.
If we're going to get rid of our natural negativity, we might need to use a little bit of emotional bleach.
076 Tanya Adar 5 ~ m091 Adar I, 22
Tanya book 1, ch 31, Pt 1
If depression is a debilitating poison, why ask us to be introspective about our faults?
a Yes depression is debilitating, but what we are stimulating is not depression, it's productive bitterness.
b) Even it brings us down temporarily, since we are fighting a physical battle, we may need physical weapons to fight.
Study today’s Tanya in full:
https://www.chabadmed.com/dailystudy/tanya.asp?tdate=2/23/2022
See today’s video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12AzxRveH5U&list=PLFZQPK6u-zSBls9Hwx3P5vKIBRnjBvHe&index=77