Tzaddik (צדיק) — the righteous one

Core definition

A tzaddik is the person whose entire life is Torah, mitzvos, and closeness to the Holy One without break — "brothers and friends to the Holy One" ("למען אחי ורעי"): "brothers' love never separated; always serving in Torah and mitzvos, all their matters closeness and cleaving" [15966/maamar_016 :: Overview]. The Vayechi discourse asks why they are called "tzaddikim" and not "ovdim" (servants): because "the mitzvos' generality are called 'tzedakah'" — "'u'tzedakah tihyeh lanu'"; their avodah effects "'tzaddik Havayah' — the tzedakah above: 'l'hachayos ruach sh'falim'" — drawing the supernal charity that revives the lowly spirit [15966/maamar_016 :: Overview].

How the Rebbeim develop it

Creation's consultation. "B'mi nimlach? B'nishmosam shel tzaddikim" — with whom did He consult at creation? With the tzaddikim's neshamas: "the nachas ruach from their Torah and mitzvos decided creation" [15966/maamar_016 :: Overview]. Hence "v'tzaddik y'sod olam" (the tzaddik is the foundation of the world) and "amud echad yesh ba'olam, v'tzaddik sh'mo" — one pillar stands in the world, and "tzaddik" is his name [15966/maamar_016 :: Overview]. The Shavuos 5652 maamar agrees: "the tzaddikim sustain the world by drawing the one utterance into the ten through the Torah — rooted in Adam Kadmon's inwardness" [58845/maamar_005 :: Overview]. And "eileh toldos Yackov — Yosef" is read as the order of the avodah: "the tzaddikim's toldos: mitzvos and good deeds" [15966/maamar_016 :: Overview].

Two levels: Yosef and Binyamin. The tzaddik has an upper and a lower form: Yosef (the supernal tzaddik, Z'A — "giver bonding in receiver") and Binyamin (the lower tzaddik, "the spirit left in the body" — "receiver bonding in giver") — the two unities joined [19801/maamar_008 :: Summary — section 25]. Binyamin is "the tzaddik who did not sin"; his middos "fit the supernal's" [15966/maamar_016 :: Overview]. "Yosef" is also read as the tosefes (added light) of lights through the mitzvos [15966/maamar_016 :: Overview].

Tzaddik vs. ba'al teshuvah. Two derushim coexist: "the tzaddikim's virtue greater; the ba'alei teshuvah's level higher ('b'makom she'ba'alei teshuvah omdim...')" [15966/maamar_016 :: Overview]. The root of the difference: "the root of the tzaddikim is from the Name Mah (= adam, 45) — essential ayin"; "the root of ba'alei teshuvah is the Name Ban (= behemah, 52) — letters and keilim, yesh — which fell in the shevirah and ascends as ohr chozer (reflected light) through teshuvah" [31678/maamar_001 :: Summary — עמוד ט]. The tzaddik's avodah "is in the light that comes in the aspect of revelation — generally the Name Havayah of the order of hishtalshelut" [31678/maamar_001 :: §2814], and "the tzaddikim draw from the aspect of the externality of chochmah stima'ah" — while the ba'al teshuvah's refinement of Ban reaches its inwardness, "the essential delight of Atik" [31678/maamar_001 :: §3316; Overview].

The two unities. The joining of the supernal and lower tzaddikim mirrors the joining of the two unities: "also in Malchus, the lower unity, the nullification of the supernal unity" [19801/maamar_008 :: Summary — section 25].

Key distinctions

Related concepts

Sources