B"H

By Miriam Cohen

Based on our Live Kabbalah Light Warrior Program 

We have been speaking a lot lately about something that I find both revolutionary and deeply comforting in Tanya: the idea that we actually have two souls.

Most of us live with this constant inner tug-of-war. One part of us wants to pray, to be present, to grow, to be kind, to feel aligned and connected to Hashem. Another part wants to shut down, escape, scroll, check out, eat, get angry, fight, or run away. So many people come into learning and say, “If I feel this pull in two directions, something must be wrong with me.”

Tanya says the opposite. Nothing is wrong with you. This tension is part of the design. We have a Divine soul and we have an animal soul. And here is the radical piece: the animal soul is not just “the bad part” of you. It is a soul. It is alive. It has intelligence and intention. It is trying, in its own way, to protect you, to keep you safe, to help you survive.

Once we begin to see it that way, our entire relationship with our struggles begins to shift. That protective, reactive, resistant part of you is not some foreign intruder you need to crush. It is a dimension of you that needs relationship, guidance, and compassion.

Klipa, the Peel, and the Light Inside

To understand the animal soul, Tanya brings us into the language of klipa and, more specifically, Klipat Noga.

Everything in existence, literally everything, is receiving Hashem’s life-force every moment. A cup on the table, a tree outside, a stone on the ground, your body, your phone, your computer screen – all of it exists because there is Divine energy inside of it.

But the way Hashem created the world is that the core Divine vitality is surrounded by a kind of shell, a husk. This is klipa. The classic image is an orange. The part we really want is the fruit, the sweet, juicy inside. But around it is a peel. We do not eat the peel, but we also cannot reach the fruit without it.

Klipa is any energy that hides the truth that everything comes from Hashem. It can exist in objects, in the world around us, and even in our own bodies. Think about a moment when you feel tightness in your chest, or a knot in your stomach, or a heavy tension in your shoulders. There is a kind of dense energy that makes it hard to feel our inner light, our inner Godliness. That, too, is a form of klipa.

The Zohar describes four forms of this energy: a stormy wind, a great cloud, a flashing fire, and a fourth one called Noga, which means brightness or luminosity. The first three are called the three completely impure klipot. There is no spark to be redeemed through their current expression; ultimately, they need to be dissolved and removed.

Klipat Noga is different. It is mixed. In one direction it can pull toward darkness, separation, and forgetfulness of Hashem. In the other direction it can be elevated and become a vessel for holiness. It can flip either way.

Most of our daily life happens inside this space of Klipat Noga.

Phones, Food, and the Power of Consciousness

Think of your phone or computer. On one hand, they can completely pull you away from yourself: endless scrolling, comparison, news, anxiety, distraction. On the other hand, that same device can be used to learn Torah, to connect to people in a meaningful way, to listen to something that opens your heart, to bring more kindness and awareness into the world.

The object itself is not holy or unholy. The question is: What consciousness am I bringing to this moment?

The same is true with food. Kosher food sits exactly in this Klipat Noga zone. I can stand in the kitchen and eat mindlessly as I rush, stressed and disconnected, in and out of the car, feeding my anxiety more than my body. Or I can sit down for a moment, make a bracha, breathe, and remember that I am nourishing a body that holds a Divine soul, that I am eating so that I can live, serve, love, and be more present.

The food does not change. My awareness does.

Klipat Noga means that so much of life is neutral material, waiting for me to decide which way it will tip. It is humbling and at the same time empowering to realize how much our perspective, our intention, and our inner state literally shape the spiritual reality of our lives.

The Four Elements of the Animal Soul

Tanya goes on to explain that the animal soul itself is made up of four spiritual “elements”: earth, air, fire, and water. These are not just poetic images. They are very real tendencies in our personality and nervous system. Each element has a beautiful, healthy expression, and each has a shadow side that appears when we feel unsafe.

As I describe them, notice where you see yourself, not as a way to judge, but as a way to understand and befriend your own nature.

Earth is the quality of being grounded and rooted. Earthy people are practical, steady, realistic, down to earth. They see things in a concrete, pragmatic way. It is a beautiful, stabilizing presence.

When earth becomes a defense mechanism, it can turn into heaviness, depression, withdrawal, a sense of shutting down. In nervous system language, this is the dorsal response: “Life feels too overwhelming; I am going to disappear.” The same groundedness that can keep a person steady can, in its shadow form, become a kind of emotional numbness or disconnection.

Air is lightness, free-spiritedness, curiosity, movement. Air people love ideas, conversation, playfulness, humor. They often feel more at home in the realm of thought and possibility.

On the defensive side, air can show up as subtle inflation or self-importance. “If I make myself feel bigger, if I stay up in my head, if I impress or entertain, then I will feel safe and validated.” It is not always conscious. Often it is more of an energetic pattern where we float upward so we do not have to touch the tender places inside.

Fire is passion, drive, intensity, vision. Fire people feel a lot, want a lot, care a lot. They can be incredibly inspiring and powerful.

But when fire feels threatened, it can come forward as anger, control, attack, the classic fight response. Fire begins to burn rather than warm. Again, the quality itself is not bad; it is just unchanneled. When guided by the Divine soul, fire becomes holy passion, courage, and deep love. When left alone in fear, it becomes reactivity and destruction.

Water is warmth, pleasure, beauty, sweetness, emotional flow, and expansion. Water people often love aesthetics, good food, cozy spaces, sensory experiences, and deep relationships. Water, just like in nature, nourishes and makes things grow.

In its defensive form, water can move into addiction, overconsumption, and a constant need to fill. “If I keep pouring good feelings into myself – whether through food, shopping, other people, constant entertainment – then maybe I will not have to sit with my pain.” It is an attempt to avoid inner emptiness by flooding it.

When we look at these four elements through the lens of the animal soul, something wise and gentle happens inside. We stop asking, “What is wrong with me?” and begin asking, “What is this part of me trying to do for me? How is it trying to keep me safe?” We recognize that we were born with certain tendencies, and those tendencies interact with our upbringing, our experiences, our traumas, and our environment.

The goal is never to erase the animal soul or to amputate parts of ourselves. The goal is to let the Divine soul become the wise rider and the animal soul become the powerful, beautiful horse. They are meant to travel together.

The Divine Soul as Our Core Essence

What is so fascinating in Tanya is that it calls the Divine soul our “second” soul. We might think it should be first. Yet, in our actual lived world, the animal soul is usually louder. It is the one that reacts quickly, that shouts, that tugs, that panics, that wants immediate relief.

The Divine soul is quieter. It speaks in a softer, more delicate tone. It often comes as a gentle intuition, a whisper, a feeling in the heart that does not push but invites.

The Torah says, “Vayipach be’apav nishmat chayim” – Hashem blew a soul into Adam. When we talk, we use our breath lightly. When we blow, it comes from a much deeper place within us. The image is that Hashem did not just “speak” us into being. He blew from His inner essence into ours. The Divine soul is literally a piece of Hashem’s essence within us.

This means that at the deepest point of who you are, you are whole. You are pure. You are untouched by the stories of your life. No matter what happened, no matter what you went through, no matter how you acted, that essential point never becomes damaged. It can be covered, obscured, exiled, but it is never broken.

If we really let that in, it is enormous. It means that my worth is not something I build through performance. It is something that is already there, and I am learning to uncover it.

Doing Mode, Being Mode, and Getting Off the Roller Coaster

So many of us are caught in doing mode. If my house is clean, if I daven the way I think I should, if my bank account looks a certain way, if my children behave, if I show up nicely in relationships, then I am good. If not, I am not.

That is the language of the animal soul when it is disconnected from the Divine soul. It constantly gives a verdict: today I did well, so I am worthy; today I failed, so I am unworthy.

The Divine soul lives in being mode. It is not passive; it inspires plenty of doing. But its message is: “You are worthy already. You are good already. You are a piece of Hashem already. Your actions can express that or contradict that, but they cannot create or destroy it.”

When we begin to live more from the knowledge that our essential worth never changes, we can still take responsibility for where we acted out of alignment. We can apologize, repair, grow, set better boundaries. But we do so from a place of dignity, not from self-hatred.

This shift – from “I am valuable only if…” to “I am valuable, therefore I want to live in alignment with that value” – slowly takes us off the exhausting emotional roller coaster that so many of us have been on for years.

Believing in Hashem Also Means Believing in the Hashem Within You

We speak a lot about believing in Hashem, having emunah and bitachon, trusting that He is good, that there is purpose and meaning in our experiences. But if Hashem placed His own essence within us, then believing in Hashem also means learning to trust that the Divine spark inside of me is real.

It means remembering that He did not just create a world “out there” and then throw us into it. He is literally pulsing within the deepest part of our being. So strengthening emunah is not only “outward,” it is also very inward: reclaiming trust in the part of us that is aligned, wise, compassionate, creative, loving, and capable of returning.

“Acting Godly” and the Subtlety of Language

Sometimes our language itself can get in the way. We often say things like, “I need to act godly.” That can sound as if godliness is something outside of me that I put on like a costume. Tanya invites us to reframe. You are a godly being. You can behave in ways that are aligned with that truth or in ways that are out of alignment with it. But the connection itself is never severed.

This is why teshuva means “return.” We are not creating a self that never existed. We are returning to who we always were beneath the layers.

Facing Evil, October 7th, and Pain Within Our Own People

In our class, the learning moved naturally into very raw questions that are living in so many of our hearts right now.

How do we hold these teachings alongside the horrors of October 7th? How do we understand people who commit cruel, unspeakable acts and seem to enjoy it? Where do they fit in this language of souls and klipot? And perhaps even more painfully for some of us: what do we do with Jews – even rabbis, teachers, people in positions of spiritual authority – who abuse, harm, manipulate, or crush others, especially children?

These questions are not theoretical. They touch deep trauma, confusion, and heartbreak.

Kabbalah explains that there are forces and souls rooted in the three completely impure klipot, where the current expression has no redeemable spark in that form. This is the energy of absolute, destructive evil, like Amalek. Spiritually, these forces are not meant to be integrated; they are meant to be eradicated. That is why there is a mitzvah to destroy Amalek. There is no life-force within that expression that can be elevated; it must be removed.

At the same time, there are righteous people among the nations whose souls are from Klipat Noga, who choose goodness, morality, and Godliness in beautiful and courageous ways. There are also individuals who were raised in deep darkness and still choose light. Their existence shows us the power of bechirah, of choice, and of the soul’s longing for truth.

Every Jew, by definition, has a Divine soul. But that Divine soul can be so deeply exiled, so covered over, that a person acts in ways that are completely out of alignment with it. This does not minimize the harm or the responsibility. It simply gives language to what is happening spiritually: the Divine soul is buried, suffocating under layers of klipa.

For those who have been hurt by such people, especially within the religious world, there is a second wound: it can feel like, “If this is what ‘G-d’ looks like, I do not want that G-d.” That place deserves tremendous compassion. It is understandable. The work there is not to rush and defend theology, but to gently help the person reconnect to a truer picture of Hashem and of the Divine soul within them – one that is loving, safe, and kind.

We are not responsible for the teshuva of those who hurt us. We are responsible for our own healing, our own boundaries, our own reconnection to our essence. And that is holy, deep work.

Being a Little More Light

With everything happening in the world – wars, antisemitism, hatred shouted proudly in the streets and online – it is very easy to be pulled into fear, anger, and constant consumption of news. Often, that only feeds the klipa and drains our own souls.

I am not saying there is no place for activism, for speaking up, for standing strong. For some people that is their avodah, and they do it with courage and dignity. But for many of us, spending hours immersed in the darkest energies does not actually empower us. It brings us more into heaviness, panic, and despair.

Tanya gently redirects our focus: be a light warrior. Strengthen your own connection to your Divine soul. Learn to recognize and embrace your animal soul and its elements, and help them feel safe enough to come along in a healthier way. Bring more Torah, more chesed, more presence and curiosity and honesty into your home, your relationships, your small corner of the world.

A little bit of light truly does dispel a great deal of darkness.

Every time you pause before reacting, every time you choose compassion over shame, awareness over autopilot, blessing over mindlessness, prayer over numbness, you are transforming Klipat Noga. You are partnering with Hashem in revealing His light – both in you, and through you – into this very complicated, very holy world.

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