Transcript
Good morning and Boker Tov. Welcome back to ten minutes of Minyan Tanya together. I want to thank our generous sponsors Marc, Marilyn, and Michael Fedak. Please help yourself to coffee, pastries, slushies in our Reb Shaya'la corner on this important and significant day, not only because we're learning Tanya together but today is Yud Shevat, the tenth of Shevat, a significant day because it is the yahrtzeit of the Frierdiker Rebbe. The Rebbe passed away on Yud Shevat and a year later on Motzei Yud Shevat, that was a Shabbos that he was nifter, that he passed away, a year later on Motzei Yud Shevat, the previous, the last Rebbe accepted the nesiyus, his hachtara. He agreed after a year, a year of trying to persuade him. A year. I spoke recently in shul about the new profession, the new career of being an influencer. The greatest influencers of Klal Yisrael's history ran away and shied away from being influencers. They never signed up for it, they didn't ask for it. From Rav Soloveitchik who was a poshute melamed to the Lubavitcher Rebbe who spent a year resisting agreeing to be the Rebbe, to Rav Pam who refused to be on the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah until he was convinced to do so. So the Rebbe took a complete year, a full year, and so today Yud Shevat is a significant day, both the histalkus, the yahrtzeit of the Frierdiker Rebbe and all that he did when he escaped the horrors of the Nazis and replanted Chabad Lubavitch on these shores, and a year later his successor the Rebbe zt\"l and of course the army that he dispersed around the world that all of us benefit from on a regular basis doing so much for Klal Yisrael. So today learning Tanya on Yud Shevat is very meaningful. We are in Perek Zayin, we're going to finish up the seventh Perek of Tanya and what we've been learning until now is the idea of the three klipos versus the fourth. Klipa is the husk, the peel, it eclipses the Ohr Ein Sof, the light of the Ribbono Shel Olam, and negative or categorically bad evil behavior even thoughts and speech create an eclipse that block this light of the Ribbono Shel Olam. And so that which is assur, the word assur, the Rebbe the Alter Rebbe introduced us to that the reason for that which is forbidden it's called assur, isur and heter, assur and mutar, is that language comes from the notion of being tied, being bound. Matir Asurim, release those who are bound, who are imprisoned. Matir is to untie, is to release. There's melacha on Shabbos, you're not allowed to tie a knot and so on, so matir is to untie and asurim, isurim is to be tied, that which is bound. So that which is isur, that which is forbidden is bound up with the klipa, with that husk, with the sitra achra, with the dark side. So those are the three klipos that the Alter Rebbe explained to us. If you eat non-kosher food, if you violate Shabbos, if you gossip and speak lashon hara, if you do that which is bad, that which is wrong, you have indulged the klipa, the klipa of tumah, the sitra achra, that which eclipses the light altogether. There is the fourth category of klipas noga, which is a partial eclipse where some light of the Ribbono Shel Olam still can shine through, the klipas noga, which is the area of reshus, which is the area of it depends on our intent that we bring. Eating kosher doesn't necessarily equate with eating healthy, eating positively, eating what's good for you at the time it's good for you in the amount that's good for you or why you're eating altogether. Do you live to eat or do you eat to live? So the attitude and intention we bring to eating will determine in that fourth area whether that's klipas noga or whether the light of elokus is shining through. Are we indulging in ego or elokus? All of that was up until now, the three klipos versus the four, we spoke about it. If you didn't hear it you can go back and listen and review what we've said until now, which brings us up to the end of the third section of Perek Zayin and maybe you didn't see this coming, that there is one energy and there is one act which is easier to repair because we left off that when a person does that which is assur, that which was tied and bound with the klipa, with sitra achra, with negativity, so the level of teshuvah that you have to do in order to even find the nekuda tova, to find that light that's been totally eclipsed. But even when there's a total eclipse the sun is still there. When there's a total eclipse it means that we're in the complete dark but the sun is still there. So even when you have the three klipos, the three total eclipses, the sun is still there, the Ohr Ein Sof, the Ribbono Shel Olam, but to get to it is harder. So that requires not the ordinary teshuvah we spoke about, not the ordinary sense of I want to repair and I want to repent, it requires teshuvah mei-ahava and when a person does teshuvah mei-ahava me'umka d'liba b'ahava raba, there's ahava raba and ahavas olam. When a person does the ahava raba, the love of the Ribbono Shel Olam so deep, so profound, so authentic, so real, so raw and they want to not just to get out of a punishment, not just to get out of a consequence, but they want to actually repair and redeem because they want to transform, they want to come close again, so when it's a teshuvah mi-ahavah from that ahavah rabbah, not ahavas olam, then they can even find the light behind the total eclipse of klipah, they can reveal even the Elokus, even when they violated ego, they can do a teshuvah mi-ahavah, and they can repair and redeem that way. And that requires enormous effort, and it requires an enormous act of teshuvah, teshuvah mi-ahavah, תשובה מאהבה רבה. However, there's one act of klipah which is from the dark side, where it's a total eclipse, not a partial eclipse, and the Ohr Ein Sof is totally blocked, and it's easier to do teshuvah in that than in other things, and it's entirely counterintuitive. It would not have come up if I polled everyone in this room and everybody listening combined times a million, you wouldn't have come up with this as the top thing. And what is that? says the Alter Rebbe, how's that for a build up? says the Tanya: אך החיות שבטיפה זרע שיצא ממנו לבטלה, the energy in the drops of semen that a person emits wastefully represents an exception to the above. Didn't see that coming. Tanya taught that permitted acts without the correct intention, or forbidden acts, both strengthen the negative forces of klipah. So if you do permissible acts, what we call in halachah reshus, permissible acts, sleeping and eating and so on, but you do it without the right intention, you do it for ego not Elokus, or you do that which is assur, forbidden acts, in both cases you're strengthening, you're indulging in the forces of klipah of sitra achra. The difference between is how it's corrected. Right? That if it's klipas nogah, it's more easily corrected than absolute klipah. But if the act is forbidden, a very profound repentance, the teshuvah mi-ahavah, mi-ahavah rabbah is required. But an exception to that rule, the only act that belongs to the world of total eclipse, in which you don't need the highest level, most profound, most intense teshuvah, the תשובה מאהבה רבה is מוציא זרע לבטלה, is a person, a person who chas ve-shalom wastes seed. Now at first that should fall into the category, מוציא זרע לבטלה not only should fall into the category of absolute klipah, you might have thought it'd be the top of the list. Many learned in yeshiva, many shmuzen that rabbeim gave was about what an act of murder, the act of murder of millions, how irredeemable and irreparable, how unrepentable, if that's a word, how the punishment is to boil in a pot of the most horrific graphic descriptions of the consequence and the punishment and the suffering, all meant to scare and instill fear and disincentivize or motivate a person to be vigilant in this area, and all of which is almost entirely ineffective in helping particularly young men overcome this very real and human and universal struggle. This is a topic for ManUp, for another time, not for the Tanya shiur, but most of which those shmuzen and those rabbeim put people in therapy and SA rooms and created all kinds of dysfunction and likely did not inspire and elevate and motivate and empower young people and all people to overcome that. And not only that, but it turns out, at least according to the Alter Rebbe and the Tanya, it's wrong, it's inaccurate. Does that mean to say it's not a severe sin? Does that mean to say that a person does not need to be vigilant and careful? We find ourselves in the Yemei Shovavim, שמות וארא בא בשלח יתרו משפטים, the Arizal learned from the pasuk shuvu vanim shovavim, Shovavim, an acronym for these parshiyos, that just like Mitzrayim we went from galus to geulah, these are days to take ourselves out from our own personal galus to geulah. Watching the wrong things, thinking the wrong things, seeing the wrong things, acting in the wrong ways, these are the time to be vigilant and grow and regulate ourselves and strive for inyanei kedushah that in the area of holiness and self-regulation and sovereignty, we can be God-like, we could nourish our godly soul, we can grow. We don't have to indulge our ego, we can strive for Elokus. This week's parshah, the sea split in the merit of aron, arono shel Yosef. What does Yosef have to do with the sea splitting? So the pshat is, the same way that water naturally sticks together and is one, how do you perform a miracle, how did God, how did we convince the Ribbono Shel Olam violate nature and split a sea? In the merit of Yosef, because he superseded his nature. The nature of man is to give in, the relentless proposition of Eshes Potiphar, a lesser person would have given in, and Yosef didn't, he resisted. Yosef essentially overcame his nature. If he could overcome his nature, Ribbono Shel Olam, overcome the nature that You created and split the But also the, that's why it's called Yosef the, when we talk about inyanei kedusha, inyanei yesod, we're talking about Yosef. Yosef is the one who instills in us the capacity to overcome nature. Ai, it's natural to want to look, it's natural to want to gaze, it's natural to want to walk, it's natural to want to think, it's natural to want to act. Who says you have to do everything that's natural? Just because it's natural doesn't mean you have to do it. Where do we get the koach to not do that which is natural? From Yosef, from Yosef Hatzaddik. So the Baal Hatanya's not chas v'shalom saying that we don't have to be vigilant, that this isn't severe, that it's something that we can take lightly, that it's something that chas v'shalom a person can indulge in. So what is he saying? What is he saying then? How could this be the only exception that even though it should belong to the world of total klipa, not klipas nogah, it's not a partial eclipse, it's a total eclipse, and it should require the highest level of teshuva, teshuva me'ahava raba. And yet the Baal Hatanya says no, it's the exception, and you can repair it, now not with the highest level of teshuva, you can repair it. How? אף שיורד ונכלל בשלש קליפות הטמאות. Even though the energy of this wastefully emitted seed is downgraded and absorbed into the three impure klipos, not klipas nogah, the three total eclipses, הרי זה עולה משם בתשובה נכונה ובכוונה עצומה בקריאת שמע שעל המיטה. Here's the teshuva you can do. You don't have to do teshuva me'ahava raba, a person who chas v'shalom found, intentionally or unintentionally, that they violated this prohibition, even though it's the world of klipa, not just klipas nogah, what do they do to repair? Not teshuva me'ahava raba, but קריאת שמע שעל המיטה when going to sleep at night say Krias Shema with the Alter Rebbe writes bekavana atzuma. What's the teitch of kavana atzuma? What's kavana atzuma? Translate the words kavana atzuma. Kavana atzuma means intense intent, intense concentration, kavana atzuma. But my friend Rabbi Abovsky shared with me this morning that the teitch kavana atzuma as brought down in Likutei Sippurim that כוונה עצומה בקריאת שמע שעל המיטה פירוש כוונה לכוון בטוב פירוש המילות. Just understand what the words mean. We think kavana atzuma means you have to think about the Sefiros and the Kabbalah and higher levels of meaning, פשט רמז דרוש סוד פרדס. No, it just means pay attention when you say קריאת שמע על המיטה. Think about what the words mean. Be present, be mindful. That's kavana atzuma. Kavana atzuma doesn't mean some higher levels or deeper levels, more intense levels, multiple levels, it just means kavana atzuma means hav kavana, pay attention, be mindful of the words that you're saying, כנודע מהאריז״ל זכרונו לברכה as it was known from the Arizal in Pri Etz Chaim that saying Krias Shema with kavana is the antidote, is the repair for the damage done from being motzi zera l'vatala, to redeem the energy - I'm reading now from Chaim Miller - to redeem the energy trapped in the negative forces by wasted seed, it is not necessary to carry out an extraordinary penance, teshuva me'ahava raba. It's sufficient to feel remorse, resolve not to carry out the forbidden activity again, and the trapped energy can be redeemed with a kavana atzuma, say קריאת שמע על המיטה and be mindful, be present. ומרומז בגמרא כל הקורא קריאת שמע על המיטה כאילו אוחז חרב פיפיות and this is hinted in the Gemara Brachos, Daf Hey, anyone who says קריאת שמע על המיטה, it is like they held a double-edged sword. להרוג גופות החיצונים שנעשו לבוש לחיות שבטיפה, a sword which destroys the destructive agents of the negative forces absorbing the energy from the drops, ועולה החיות מהם enabling the energy to rise out of them, כידוע ליודעי חכמה נסתרה. Now the notion that being motzi zera l'vatala, wasting seed, is more easily corrected, more easily - what do you mean? That goes against everything we're taught. We're taught that this is the most severe, this has the greatest punishment. What do you mean it's corrected more easily? So this also appears in the Torah itself. ולכן לא הוזכר עון זרע לבטלה בתורה בכלל ביאות אסורות. Notes the Alter Rebbe on Yud Shvat, notes the Alter Rebbe that in the list when the Torah tells us what are the forbidden illicit relations, where do we have the arayos appear where? Parshas Acharei Mos, we read it on Mincha Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, this is what we read, that a person has to be aware of and vigilant and never chas v'shalom violate the most intense, the most severe arayos, illicit relations. And yet on that list, in fact in the Torah explicitly nowhere does it say one is forbidden to be motzi zera l'vatala. Nowhere does it say that a man is prohibited to intentionally waste or spill his seed. Where do we learn it from? Er v'Onan. Er v'Onan who did so intentionally, and the Torah tells us it was evil, ra be'einei Hashem, it was evil in the eyes of. because the Torah also says in Devarim that shemor a person has to be careful mikol davar ra a person has to protect themselves from any evil thing from which the Gemara concludes don't be meharer bayom because a person who's meharer bayom will be motze balayla so a person should not indulge fantasy thought because doing so even the wrong thoughts can unintentionally lead to the wrong outcome and so the Gemara has to find a pasuk here and a pasuk there Er Onan nowhere in the Torah itself does it say explicitly being motzi zara levatala is assur nowhere it's an issur d'oraisa a severe issur d'oraisa but it doesn't appear explicitly in the Torah so the Alter Rebbe says that's instructive that's not coincident that means something in Acharei Mos where it lists all the sins of arayos there's no mention of wasting seed so the Tanya suggests that that omission hints to the theme of our discussion that the spiritual damage caused by this issur is different than others Af shechamur meihen even though wasting seed is considered worse it's worse sin but it takes less teshuva how does that make sense and by the way the Shulchan Aruch when it talks about this in Even HaEzer Siman Chof Gimmel the Shulchan Aruch writes that it's an aveira chamura more serious than any prohibition in the Torah that's why those shmuzin from all those Rebbeim spoke out that way because the Shulchan Aruch itself records that it's an aveira chamura it is a more severe sin than any other in the Torah and yet the Alter Rebbe says note that nowhere does it appear explicitly and note that the teshuva for it is less than the teshuva necessary for other things that require teshuva mei'ahava raba why הגדל עוונו בבחינת הגדל ריבוי הטומאה והקליפה שמוליד מאד מהוצאת זרע לבטלה his sin is great due to the enormity and extremely abundant quantity and impurity in klipos which is all from it yoseir mibios asuros on the one hand it's worse because it's a total waste it is the ultimate ultimate act of wastefulness we live in a world where we're supposed to imitate Hashem Hashem is best known and his greatest accomplishment is being a creator and we are meant to emulate and imitate him by creating we create we create with chidushei Torah we create with recipes in the kitchen we create by mixing ingredients to produce and conceive a child we create we use creative energy we use creativity and we imitate Hashem by creating when we do the opposite of creating which is destroying which is wasting which is eliminating which is having nothing productive or creative coming that is the ultimate of the opposite of imitating or emulating Hashem and therefore it's severe so this then is something of a paradox on the one hand more spiritually damaging than all sins because it's completely wasteful nothing positive or creative or productive about it but in the other hand its more damage is more easily repaired and rectified it doesn't require teshuva mei'ahava raba קריאת שמע על המיטה בכוונה עצומה which means just pay attention to the words focus and pay attention on the taitsh on the translation of the words when saying it so how is it how do you understand this paradox רק שבביאות אסורות מוסיף כח וחיות בקליפה טמאה ביותר in the case of other forbidden relations those sins give power and energy to a klipa that is so extremely impure עד שאינה יכולה להעלות משם החיות בתשובה in ordinary repentance does not have the power to extract energy so wasting seed is more serious in terms of enormity and extremely abundant quantity of the negative energy however the extreme impurity renders the klipa less willing to release the energy it absorbed far greater repentance is required so emitting seed in vain causes more spiritual damage it's the other prohibitions are harder to rectify why because the other illicit relations seed is spilled with a recipient of that seed a kli kibel another person another party so extracting anything positive from it is harder whereas the act of wasting is more severe as an act but extracting the light from it because it wasn't received by another is easier אלא אם כן יעשה תשובה מאהבה רבה כל כך שזדונות נעשו לו כזכויות ובזה יובן מאמר רבותינו זכרונם לברכה איזהו מעוות שלא יוכל לתקון now we understand the pasuk in Koheles what are considered twisted things that you can't straighten broken things that can't be fixed זה שבא על הערווה והוליד ממזר somebody who has relations with another individual who's forbidden to them issur kareis and results in a mamzer and results in a mamzer all the teshuva in the world cannot remove the label and the consequence of a mamzer שאז גם אם יעשה תשובה גדולה כל כך one can All the teshuva in the world can't undo the mamzeros. That's the result of arayos, of arayos. Whereas spilling seed because there's no outcome, not of a mamzer nor a kli kibul or recipient for it, one can extract and one can do the teshuva from it even more easily. Rabbi Steinsaltz will end with this, when he describes this, explains this, he writes the following: The possibility of rectifying the sins of wasteful emission is not because it's less serious. On the contrary, the negativity of this sin is more profound and it touches on the very essence of evil. However, precisely because this sin entails such utter destruction, precisely because there's no vessel to receive it, it can be even more readily rectified. Because it is not absorbed by another being, it also does not become part of any other reality. It does not become part of the complex systems that make up reality. Its severity lies in that it is wholly one-directional, being an emission of life that is not received by any vessel. It is for that very reason it does not become rooted in reality. The person can, with a proper repentance, entirely obliterate its negative embodiment, which is spiritual rather than physical. He cannot transform it and redirect it, but he can destroy it and render it utterly non-existent as if it never was. On the other hand, other forbidden unions, because they do not entail an utter destruction, the life force is received by and absorbed within a female element, and the sin is etched in reality. There remains a black hole, a blot of evil, and this blot cannot be eradicated with ordinary teshuva. So counter-intuitively, somewhat paradoxically, in some ways it's more severe, and of course we have to work on ourselves and inspire others, not through fear tactics but through inspiration, to be vigilant, because on the one hand it is more severe, but on the other, paradoxically, the teshuva from it, it's more easily rectified than other acts. Because it's utterly wasteful, because it's not rooted in reality, because there's no recipient and kli kibul, because there is no vessel, because there's nothing produced and there is no outcome, it is more easily rectified and it's rectified how? Through קריאת שמע על המיטה with a kavanah atzumah. And the Alter Rebbe here gives us I think a very important message in how to communicate these ideas and others. We continue next week with perek ches of Tanya, which will continue us on the world of klipos. Should be a meaningful day, Yud Shevat, in the memory, in the zchus of the histalkus of the Frierdiker Rebbe, and in celebration of the appointment of his successor, the great Rebbe Zatzal.
