Transcript
Good morning, boker tov. Welcome back to 10 minutes of meaning as we're making our way through Tanya, beginning Perek Hey today. I want to thank our generous sponsors of our 10 minute series, Marilyn and Michael Fedak. Thank you for their generosity, sponsoring Tanya and so much more. Please help yourself to a coffee on this cold day, or a slushy on the cold day, or a pastry on this cold day, and soon, please God, soon, where's Moshe? We're going to add soup to the repertoire as well. A little early in the day for soup, but it's never too early for a good soup. Okay, Perek Hey of Tanya. I see some of you have not had your coffee yet. It's okay. I'm entertaining myself, it really doesn't matter about you.Okay, Perek Daled, we last left off talking about the greatest way that we can connect and unite, integrate with the Ribono Shel Olam, with the Almighty, is through Torah and through mitzvot, that even our inner thoughts essentially are levushim, are garments of the soul, but when does our soul unite, return to its creator? Through the observance of mitzvot and through the learning of Torah. And that's exactly what the Ba'al HaTanya elaborates here on in Perek Hey, in chapter five, a little esoteric and complicated, but we'll learn it together. I'm the furthest thing from an authority, as I say, I don't teach Tanya, I'm learning Tanya out loud, and hopefully we'll learn it and make some headway together. So again, we established in Perek Daled that the greatest bonding experience with Hashem is through Torah study and mitzvot, and now we'll talk about why that is. לתוספת ביאור בר היטב לשון תפיסה, שאמרו בזהר על אליהו, לית מחשבה תפיסא בך. Last perek, we quoted the Tikunei Zohar. The holy Tikunei aZohar tells us in the name of Eliyahu that no thought can grasp you. No thought, thinking alone, לית מחשבה תפיסא בך, thought alone cannot grasp the Almighty. So what does that mean? הנה כל שכל כשמשכיל ומשיג בשכלו איזה מושכל, הרי השכל תופס את המושכל ומקיפו בשכלו. It sounds like a riddle or a tongue twister. Say it again. כל שכל כשמשכיל ומשיג בשכלו, when your mind processes and masters an idea. What we're trying to understand is Eliyahu HaNavi told us, no thought can grasp Hashem. So what does it mean thought, and what does it mean grasp? In order to appreciate and understand that statement, we have to define our terms, which is always true. What is a thought and what does it mean to grasp? כל שכל כשמשכיל ומשיג בשכלו, when your mind processes and masters an idea, eizeh muskal, הרי השכל תופס את המושכל ומקיפו בשכלו. Your mind initially grasps the basic point of the idea, mentally engulfing it. So when we're exposed to an idea, our mind grasps it and mentally engulfs it. That's the way that Rav Miller translates these words in his Tanya, the mind grasps and then mentally engulfs. Rabbi Steinsaltz in his defines it as, when a mind conceives and comprehends a concept, the mind grasps and encloses it within its intellect. So different English words are used to describe the same idea. When you understand something, we absorb it. Like a sponge that picks up a puddle of water, that idea is absorbed into our mind. So we're exposed, we read, we listen, we hear, or we think, we discover, so our mind absorbs that idea like a sponge absorbs water. But at this early stage, you've only engulfed and absorbed the basic point, we haven't actually integrated it. We haven't analyzed, we haven't delved into, we haven't fully grasped it. So the Ba'al HaTanya continues. והמושכל נתפס ומקיף ומלובש בתוך השכל שהשיגו והשכילו. And after you've thoroughly analyzed it, now it's fully grasped, engulfed and absorbed in your mind. So at first essentially we just perceive it. We're exposed to it. We get a perspective of it. But then when we spend time on it, when we marinate in it, when we analyze it, when we peel back the layers of the onion of it, now we can fully grasp and absorb and become engulfed. V'gam, but there's another dimension to the experience of mentally grasping, and that is השכל מלובש במושכל בשעת שמשיגו ותופסו בשכלו. During their entering time when the mind is processing it and attempting to grasp it, it is your mind that is absorbed in the idea. There's two directions going on here. We are absorbing the idea and the idea is engulfing us. The holiest and highest ideas, we are absorbing the idea and the idea is engulfing us. So until we've mastered the idea, it still captivates us. When you're exposed to something, when you heard a gishmak shiur, a shmuz, when something really touches a deep place, inside you, you're continuing to think about it. You're continuing to marinate in it. It continues to captivate you. It wonders you. You tell everyone you see and everyone you meet. When you heard a great vort, you tell everyone you know. Listen to this idea, listen to this thought, listen to this einfall, listen to this concept, listen to this chiddush. It's not just that we're absorbing the idea, the idea is absorbing us. It captivates us. At that point, it's absorbed in you. So when the idea, that when we study Torah, a text which is one with Hashem, then there's a union that takes place between the author of the idea, in this case Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the Almighty himself, and us. As we're absorbing the idea and the idea is captivating us, there is a union that takes place between the two. Derech mashal, another Baal Tanya tries to illustrate this by way of example. כשאדם מבין ומשיג איזה הלכה במשנה בגמרא לאשורה על בוריה Again, what are we trying to accomplish here in Perek Hey? The Baal Tanya is telling us that we think it's only through experiential Yiddishkeit. When I do a mitzvah. If I farbreng and I make l'chaims and I sing and I dance and I hop and I bop, that's my avodah. And there's nothing wrong, there's a time, there are a place that's also wonderful. When I shake the lulav, and when I hear the shofar, and when I wrap the tefillin, and when I sit in the sukkah, the experiential physical mitzvos also are a way that we're bonding, we're connecting with Hashem. But the highest union is in the mind, is in the intellect. The highest union is in the sobriety of thought. Not diluted or distorted by too many l'chaims, but it's when we're actually able to meditate and contemplate and think about when we're absorbing the ideas that the author that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has given himself and we are captivated by those ideas, so it's absorbing us. The greatest union. And here Chabad I would say gets a bad rap, and it's wrong to think that it's all about farbrengens and l'chaims and singing and dancing and the experiential, which it is also, but at its core, chochmah, binah, v'daas, the Baal Tanya's system of avodah at its core is about cognition, the intellect, the thought, it's about learning Torah. People try to sort of create a line and say, you know, oh, the Litvish, it's all about learning Torah, the Nefesh HaChaim, Rav Chaim Volozhiner, it's all about learning Torah. And by the Chassidim, it's all about because, you know, that's only for the elite, that's only for the highest level, it had to be able to speak to the every man, so it's all about farbrenging. It's not true. It's not true. All you have to do is open the Tanya and it's very clear from the very beginning, but certainly as you unpack here in Perek Hey, chochmah, binah, v'daas. We already saw Perek Gimmel, but again here in Perek Hey, chochmah, binah, v'daas, it's the layers of the mind. It's the connection to Hakadosh Baruch Hu through Talmud Torah. It's through davka only the learning of Torah. Derech mashal, when you're in the process of analyzing and mastering Mishnah, Gemara, Halacha, הרי שכלו תופס ומקיף אותם. The intellect grasps and engulfs this Halacha, observing all the details, all the consequences, all the ramifications, all the applications. וגם שכלו מלובש בה באותה שעה. Your mind is absorbed in it and is captivated by it. We are absorbing the idea and the idea is absorbing us. So the author of that idea, the authority who dictates that halacha, that idea, the ultimate union that we have between us and them is the connection we get through it. והנה הלכה זו היא חכמתו ורצונו של הקדוש ברוך הוא. This is not just some idea you discovered. It's not the diary of a mere mortal. You're not just looking through the comic book, the artwork, the literature, the essay of a mere mortal. Kadosh Baruch Hu, this is divinely written. This is the essence, the ratzon of the Ribono Shel Olam. So when we open up and we learn and we study, when we absorb and are absorbed by those ideas, there's a union, there's a connection that takes place. שעלה ברצונו שכשיטעון ראובן כך וכך דרך משל ושמעון כך וכך יהיה הפסק ביניהם כך וכך. Reuven and Shimon are in a dispute. They argue. There's a financial conflict, they have a dispute over where the fence goes, where's the border, are they encroaching one on the other, whatever the argument may be. And there is a particular legal argument, Shimon has a counter argument, and there's a ruling. Hapsak beineihem in the Halacha, the conclusion is kach v'kach. So you're absorbing the wisdom and will of Hashem into our mind and we're being captivated by it, and that's a union between us and Hashem. And chevra, I would say unfortunately, tragically, too often this is missing in our experience of learning Torah. We sit down and we're so caught up in the intellect that we forget that we're having a union with the Ribono Shel Olam. That's why there's a tefillah in the beginning, when you open the inside of your Gemara, there's a tefillah to say before you learn. And when you're done learning, great tzaddikim encouraged us to turn that Torah into a tefillah, that whatever I just learned, Reuven said this, Shimon said this, the psak is this. *Hakadosh Baruch Hu* let me inculcate and applicate, apply, and let me execute those ideas, that *halacha* in my life in this way. We have to, *Hakadosh Baruch Hu* has to be in. Who was it Rav Kook used to say? שנים אוחזים בטלית זה אומר כולה שלי וזה אומר כולה שלי. *Hakadosh Baruch Hu omer yachloku*. You have to read the *mishna* not just *Sumchus*, it's this *Tanna*, it's this *Amora*. This is the will, we're tapping into the essence of *Hakadosh Baruch Hu*, of the Almighty. You can't see him, feel him, hear him, touch him. How do you know what he wants? Because he gave us, he authored his Torah. And when we study it, when we learn it, when we're absorbing it and we're absorbed by it, we create this union between us and *Hashem*. It's the moment of rendezvous. It's a moment of intimacy. We should walk out of every experience of *talmud Torah* of learning. Every *Daf Yomi* that you attend or learn on your own, every *shiur* that you go to and say, how am I transformed, how am I different? How did I just connect? How did I just have a moment of intimacy with the Almighty? How am I forever changed by it? So much so that indeed, the intellect, what we call it, is *chochma, bina, v'daas*. The Torah, the word that's used for an intimate experience, a rendezvous, we don't have a word for intimacy, physical intimacy, sexuality. The word that's used is *daas*. וידע אדם את חוה אשתו to know. So when we come to know, to absorb the ideas authored by *Hashem*, and they absorb us, that's as close as we can come to an intimate moment with *Hashem*.So *hisboidedus* is critically important. Meditation, *farbrengens*, *niggunim*, they're all critically important. But the highest level of intimacy, of union, don't think it's just the *Nefesh HaChaim* and by the *Litvishe*. It's the Alter Rebbe, *Perek Hei*, the highest level is to connect to the divine wisdom and will. But what if you study a part of the Torah that has no particular relevance? What if you're studying an esoteric part of Torah, or a part of Torah that doesn't seem to represent the will and wisdom? So the Alter Rebbe continues. ואף אם לא יבוא דבר זה לידי מעשה לעולם, even if that thing that you're analyzing, you're studying never happened, never will happen, לא בא למשפט על טענות של דיעות אלו, there's no *Reuven* who ever argued this, there's no *Shimon* whoever counter-argued that, there's no *halacha* that ever concluded the other thing. מכל מקום מאחר שכך עלה ברצונו וחכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא שאם יטעון זה כך וזה כך יהא הפסק כך, הרי כשאדם יודע ומשיג בשכלו פסק זה כהלכה ערוכה במשנה בגמרא פוסקים, הרי הוא משיג ותופס ומקיף בשכלו רצונו וחכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא. When we learn Torah, the whole method of the *Gemara* is to sometimes give extreme examples and scenarios. So the novice says, this happens when you're learning. The novice says, this is ridiculous! It's never happened, it never could happen. Somebody throws something off the roof and you break it before it land, and then somebody jumped off a roof and they landed inside a woman, and that's how they raped, and therefore... that never happened, it never could happen, it's ridiculous. It's not ridiculous. The *Gemara* gives extreme scenarios, circumstances, even those that might be highly unlikely, first of all, to extract and extrapolate the principles and the theories, but moreover, to expose us to the divine wisdom and will of *Hashem*.דלית מחשבה תפיסא ביה כלל לא ברצונו ולא בחכמתו. As we said, the Zohar teaches, no thought can grasp him, nor his will, nor his wisdom, since no finite mortal can grasp something infinite, כי אם בהתלבשותם בהלכות ערוכות לפנינו. *Hakadosh Baruch Hu* did us an incredible favor. And it's true, he's infinite and omnipotent, he's boundless and endless. We mere mortal, finite minds could never access or tap into or grasp him. So what did he do? He simplified. He constricted, restricted. He was *m'tzamtzem*. The *levush*, he put it in a *levush*. The divine wisdom and will is dressed in the Torah, the *Mishna*, the *Gemara*, and the *halachos* that we have. וגם שכלו מלובש בהם. Your mind becomes absorbed in them and is captivated by them. והוא יחוד נפלא שאין יחוד כמוהו. And listen what the Alter Rebbe says. When we learn Torah with that *kavana*, when we learn Torah with that mindfulness and that intent, when we go in and out of the *Daf Yomi* with that goal and reflect on what we just experienced in that way, then there is no other merging, *ein yichud*, like it. *Ein yichud*. The *yichud* you get from learning Torah with that intention, there is nothing like it. ולא כערכו נמצא כלל בגשמיות, no *sukkah*, no *tfilin*, even *tfilin*. Not even wrapping *tfilin* on yourself or someone else. In anything physical, there's nothing as high as the merging, the union, the connection, the intimacy, להיות לאחדים ומיוחדים ממש מכל צד ופינה. You become completely one with another entity from every conceivable perspective and retain your own experience. That is, that is the experience of... on that level. So here in Perek Hey, the Alter Rebbe is teaching us about chochma bina and daas. Why is it תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם? Why is it that above everything physical including mitzvahs, Torah, when the mind is able to connect, we're absorbing and receiving and we're being absorbed by and captivated by the ideas. We're connecting with the author of those ideas, the authority over those rulings and conclusions. And that is the yichud, the highest yichud, the highest merger and union that we're capable of. So chevra, we hopefully all learn Torah. But are we really learning Torah? Do we walk away from the learning of Torah that we just had an intimate rendezvous with the Almighty? Are we experiencing it in that transformational way? That is the first part of Perek Hey. Mirtzeh Hashem we'll continue with it next.
