"God has made one thing opposite the other" (Ecclesiastes 7:14). The Tanya's sixth chapter maps the dark side of the soul's architecture.
Just as the divine soul has ten holy sefirot (the divine emanations) and three garments—thought, speech, and deed directed toward God—the animal soul derived from the kelipah (קליפה), the "husk" or "shell" of impurity, has ten corresponding "crowns of impurity" and three impure garments.
When a person thinks about, speaks about, or acts on desires that violate the Torah, Rabbi Schneur Zalman says, they are clothing themselves in impure garments. Not the dramatic evil of fairy tales. The banal evil of distraction, gossip, and self-indulgence—everything done "under the sun" that is not directed toward God is, in the Tanya's framework, sourced in the sitra achara (סטרא אחרא), literally "the other side."
But the Tanya introduces a crucial nuance. The sitra achara is not a simple binary. Between absolute holiness and absolute impurity, there is an intermediate zone called kelipat nogah (קליפת נוגה)—the "translucent shell." This is the realm of permitted pleasures: eating kosher food without spiritual intention, conducting business honestly but for purely personal gain, having a conversation that is neither sacred nor sinful. These activities are not holy, but they are not absolutely impure either.
Kelipat nogah can go either way. If a person eats a meal and uses the energy to study Torah or perform a mitzvah, the act is retroactively elevated into holiness. If not, it sinks into the domain of the shells. The entire material world sits in this ambiguous space—mostly dark, with sparks of light trapped inside, waiting to be extracted or abandoned.
This is one of the Tanya's most practical teachings. Holiness is not about rejecting the world. It is about intention. The same steak dinner can feed a mitzvah or feed the void. The object does not change. Only the direction does.
“G–d has made one thing opposite the other.”1 Ecclesiastes 7:14. In general, things in the realm of holiness have their opposite in the realm of the profane, or “the other side” (sitra achara). Similarly, everything in the physical world has its spiritual counterpart from which it derives its existence and vitality—a popular concept in Chabad, as in Kabbalah generally. Cf. Zohar III:47b. Just as the divine soul consists of ten holy sefirot and is clothed in three holy garments,2 Thought, speech, and deed. so does the soul which is derived from the sitra achara of the kelipat nogah, which is clothed in man’s blood, consist of ten “crowns of impurity.”3 Cf. Zohar III:41a; 70a. These are the seven evil middot which stem from the four evil elements mentioned above,4 End of ch. 1. and the intellect begetting them which is subdivided into three, viz., wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, the source of the middot.5 Here, unlike ch. 3, the middot precede sechel to indicate the secondary role of the intellect in the animal soul, where passion predominates. For the middot are according to the quality of the intellect. Hence a child desires and loves petty things of inferior worth, for his intellect is too immature and deficient to appreciate things that are much more precious. Likewise is he provoked to anger and vexation over trivial things; so, too, with boasting and other middot. Now these ten unclean categories, when a person meditates in them or speaks them or acts by them, his thought—which is in his brain; and his speech—which is in his mouth; and the power of action—which is in his hands, together with his other limbs—all these are called the “impure garments” of these ten unclean categories wherein the latter are clothed at the time of the action, speech, or thought. It is these that constitute all the deeds that are done under the sun, which are all “vanity and striving after the wind,”6 Ecclesiastes 1:14. as interpreted in the Zohar, Beshalach,7 II:59a. in the sense of a “ruination of the spirit….”8 A reinterpretation of רעות רוח. So, too, are all utterances and thoughts which are not directed toward G–d and His will and service. For this is the meaning of sitra achara—“the other side,” i.e., not the side of holiness. For the holy side is nothing but the indwelling and extension of the holiness of the Holy One, blessed is He, and He dwells only on such a thing that abnegates itself completely to Him, either actually, as in the case of the angels above, or potentially, as in the case of every Jew down below, having the capacity to abnegate himself completely to the Holy One, blessed is He, through martyrdom for the sanctification of G–d. That is why our Sages have said that “Even when a single individual sits and engages in the Torah the Shechinah rests on him”9 Avot 3:6. and “On every gathering of ten [Jews] the Shechinah rests”10 Sanhedrin 39a. always. However, that which does not surrender itself to G–d, but is a separate thing by itself, does not receive its vitality from the holiness of the Holy One, blessed is He, that is, from the very inner essence and substance of the holiness itself, but from “behind its back,” as it were,11 Cf. note 25, ch. 2. descending degree by degree, through myriads of degrees with the lowering of the worlds, by way of cause and effect and innumerable contractions,12 Cf. ch. 48; Iggeret Hakodesh, ch. 20. until the light and life is so diminished through repeated diminutions that it can be compressed and incorporated, in a state of exile as it were, within that separated thing, giving it vitality and existence ex nihilo, so that it does not revert to nothingness and nonexistence as it was before it was created.13 Evil is thus conceived as a creation ex nihilo, like everything else, except that it was not created for its own sake; hence it is merely tolerated. The monistic aspect of creation, despite the apparent dualism in the world, is thus emphasized, particularly in ch. 24, below. Consequently, this world, with all its contents, is called the world of kelipot and sitra achara. Therefore all mundane affairs are severe and evil,14 Cf. ch. 24. and wicked men prevail, as explained in Etz Chaim, Portal 42, end of ch. 4. NOTE: To be sure, there are contained in it [this world] the ten sefirot [of the world] of Asiyah (Action) of the side of holiness, as is written in Etz Chaim, Portal 43, and within these ten sefirot of Asiyah are the ten sefirot of Yetzirah (Formation), and in them the ten sefirot of Beriah (Creation), and in them the ten sefirot of Atzilut (Emanation), in which abides the light of the En Sof, blessed is He. Thus the light of the En Sof, blessed is He, pervades this lower world through being clothed in the ten sefirot of the Four Worlds, namely those of Atzilut, Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah, as explained in Etz Chaim, Portal 47, ch. 2, and in Sefer Hagilgulim, ch. 20. However, the kelipot are subdivided into two grades, one lower than the other. The lower grade consists of the three kelipot which are altogether unclean and evil, containing no good whatsoever. In the chariot of [the prophet] Ezekiel they are called “whirlwind,” “great cloud”….15 “…and a flaring fire.” Ezekiel 1:4. From them flow and derive the souls of all the nations of the world, and the existence of their bodies, and also the souls of all living creatures that are unclean and unfit for consumption,16 Leviticus 11; Deuteronomy 14. and the existence of their bodies, as well as the existence and vitality of all forbidden food in the vegetable kingdom, such as orlah17 First three years’ harvest of fruit of a tree. Cf. Leviticus 19:23. and mixed seeds in the vineyard,18 Cf. Deuteronomy 22:9. and so on, as explained in Etz Chaim, Portal 49, ch. 6, as also the existence and vitality of all actions, utterances, and thoughts pertaining to the 365 prohibitions and their offshoots, as is explained, ibid., at the end of ch. 5.
