Chapter fifteen of the Tanya draws a distinction so subtle that most people miss it entirely: the difference between a person who "serves God" and a person who "does not serve Him", when both are righteous.
The verse in (Malachi 3:18) says: "You shall discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him." Rabbi Schneur Zalman asks: is "one who serves God" the same as "the righteous"? And is "one who does not serve Him" the same as "the wicked"? No. They are four different categories.
The tzaddik (a righteous person) is called eved Hashem (עבד ה׳), a "servant of God", in the past tense. He has already completed his work. He fought the war, transformed his evil into good, and now rests in spiritual peace. He is like a sage who has earned the title through years of study and no longer needs to prove himself.
The benoni who actively struggles against his nature is called oved Elohim (עובד אלוהים), "one who serves God", in the present tense. He is in active service right now. The war is ongoing. Every prayer, every moral choice, every resisted temptation is an act of combat.
But then there is the benoni who does not struggle. And this is the surprising category. This person has never sinned. He studies Torah diligently, fulfills all the commandments, and lives a perfectly observant life. But he is not called "one who serves God." He is called "one who does not serve Him." Why? Because his nature does not challenge him. He is naturally studious, naturally calm, naturally disinterested in worldly pleasures. He has no war to fight.
The Tanya's conclusion is radical: spiritual value is measured by effort, not achievement. A person who struggles against a fiery temperament and wins is serving God. A person who is born mild-tempered and never faces temptation may be perfectly righteous. But he is not serving. Service requires resistance. Without an enemy, there is no war. Without a war, there is no warrior.
With the above in mind, we may now understand the text, “And you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves G–d and one who does not serve Him.”1 Malachi 3:18. The difference between “one who serves G–d” and a righteous man (tzaddik) is that “one who serves (oved) G–d”—in the active present—is one who is engaged in “active service,” namely, the struggle against his evil nature in an effort to gain mastery over it and to banish it from the “small city,” that it should not vest itself in the organs of the body. Verily it entails much effort and toil to wage constant war with it. This is the benoni. The tzaddik, however, is designated “servant (eved) of G–d,” which is a title already earned, as the title “sage” or “king” is bestowed on one who has already become a sage or king. So is this person who has already effected and completely accomplished his task of waging war against the evil in him, with the result that he has expelled it and it has disappeared, and his heart has become “void within him.”2 Cf. above, ch. 1. In the category of benoni there are also to be found two gradations, namely, “one who serves G–d” and “one who does not serve Him.”3 In the sense that he requires little or no effort, by virtue of his natural disposition, as subsequently explained. Yet the latter is not wicked, for never in his life did he commit even a minor transgression and, moreover, he fulfilled all the commandments which were possible for him to fulfill, including the study of the Torah which balances everything else, his mouth never ceasing from study. The reason he is referred to as “one who does not serve Him” is that he does not wage any battle against his [evil] disposition in order to vanquish it by means of the Divine light that irradiates the divine soul, whose abode is in the brain which predominates over the heart, as explained above;4 Ch. 12. for his disposition does not confront him at all in an attempt to distract him from study and prayer, and he is consequently never obliged to wage war against it. Thus, for example, is the case of one who is by nature an assiduous student because he is organically so disposed, and is likewise free from conflict with regard to sexual desire by reason of his frigid nature, and similarly with the other mundane pleasures wherein he naturally lacks any feeling of enjoyment. Hence he does not need to concentrate so much on the greatness of G–d to consciously create a spirit of knowledge and fear of G–d in his mind in order to guard himself against violation of the prohibitive commandments or to arouse the love of G–d in his heart to induce his attachment to Him through the fulfillment of the [positive] commandments and the study of the Torah, which balances everything else. For him suffices the hidden love that is in the heart of all Jews, who are called “those who love His name.”5 Psalms 69:37. Therefore he is not at all called “one who is serving,” inasmuch as this latent love is not of his making or accomplishment by any means, but it is our inheritance that has come down from the Patriarchs to the whole community of Israel, as will be discussed further.6 Chs. 18, 19, and 44. So, too, is one who, although by nature not an assiduous student, has yet accustomed himself to study with great diligence, so that the habit has become second nature with him; for him, too, suffices the innate love, unless he wishes to study more than his wont. This will explain the statement in the Gemara that “one who serves G–d” refers to one who reviews his lesson 101 times, while “one who does not serve him” refers to one who repeats his lesson no more than one hundred times.7 Chagigah 9b. This is because in those days it was customary to review each lesson one hundred times, as, indeed, illustrated in the Gemara, ibid., by the example taken from the market, where donkey drivers used to hire themselves out at a rate of ten parasangs8 Persian miles. for a zuz, but for eleven parasangs charged two zuzim, because that exceeded their customary practice. For the same reason, the 101st revision, which is beyond the normal practice to which the student had been accustomed since childhood, is considered equivalent to all the previous one hundred times put together, and even surpassing them in endurance and effort, hence entitling him to be called “one who serves G–d.” For in order to change his habitual nature, he must arouse the love of G–d by means of meditation in his mind on the greatness of G–d in order to gain mastery over the nature that is in the left part [of the heart], which is full of blood of the animal soul originating in the kelipah, from where his nature comes. This is a perfect service for a benoni. Or, he must awaken the hidden love in his heart to control,9 In this case—without changing his nature, only keeping it in check. through it, the nature that is in the left part, for this, too, is called service—the waging of war against his nature and inclination, by means of exciting the love that is hidden in his heart. However, if he wages no war at all, the said love in itself can in no way be credited to his service.
