Transcript
Good morning, Boker tov, welcome back to 10 minutes of a Tanya, as always with tremendous generosity gratitude to our generous sponsors Marilyn and Michael Fedak for sponsoring our Tanya series today's shiur is sponsored anonymously for the refuah shleimah of Sarah bas Leah, she should have a complete and speedy refuah shleimah. As always, help yourself in Reb Shaya's corner to cold slushies or hot coffee or pastries or one of the above. We are on the eighth perek of Tanya, perek ches of the heilige Tanya. And until now in perek ches, the Alter Rebbe, the Baal HaTanya's been telling us the first section, the limits of good intention. We talked about the three klipos, the three categorically negative peels or shells that which block, feel like I'm missing the volume in here. Until now we're in perek ches of Tanya. And until now the Baal HaTanya's been telling us about the three negative klipos, the categorically negative klipos that are a total eclipse of the Or Ein Sof, of the light of the Ribbono Shel Olam. And that automatically inculcate within us a negative residue that we keep, and we'll talk about in this perek, the Baal HaTanya, the Alter Rebbe is going to tell us what's necessary to atone, to erase, to repair for the damage done in what we absorbed and the residue that we carry from having engaged with that which is categorically assur. Again, the Alter Rebbe introduced us to the idea, the teitsch of the language, that which forbidden is assur, that which is permissible is muttar. Assur and muttar mean bound and unbound, tied and untied. That which is forbidden is tied to the world of Sitra Achra, to the other side, the dark side. And that which is permissible is tied to the world is untied, it's unbound, and therefore it is dependent on our intention. So Klipas Nogah, which is a partial eclipse, the Or Ein Sof can peek through, does come down to our intention and the attitude, the mindfulness, the intention we give it will determine its value or not. So we did talk about there are limits to good intention when a person engages in negativity when we indulge the ruach shtus, when we indulge that alter ego, the yetzer hara, the Sitra Achra, whatever name you want to give it, but that voice that sabotages our own success, when we give into that negative energy, then it leaves its impact on us. And therefore it needs to be repaired, and that's what we're up to in the second section here of perek ches. And says the Alter Rebbe, וגם אחר כך הרשימו ממנו נשאר דבק בגוף even after Klipas Nogah experience has reverted to holiness from the domain of the three klipos, a trace of it remains להיות כמו מאכל ומשקה שנעשה תיקף דם ובשר מבשרו because if you eat forbidden food, if you eat food that's assur, it is bound and tied to the other world, to the other side. Our eating it actually becomes absorbed into us. The food, the drink, they become part of our flesh and part of our blood, it's not just the pleasure from it hasn't been impacting our neshamah, our soul, but it means we literally absorbed it. And so whatever negative experience that we received from absorbing it into the body, it needs to be purged, it needs to be repaired, it needs to be removed. How does that happen? So says the Alter Rebbe, ולכן צריך הגוף לחיבוט הקבר. The body who was temporarily home to these three negative klipos, the body's the place that absorbed these three negative klipos, so the body has to undergo a chibbut hakever. What's chibbut hakever? Chibbut hakever is the cleansing after death. The body was a vessel, was a kli, the guf was the vessel, it was the vehicle through which we experience free will in this world. The neshamah is the engine, it is the computer that drives the free will, but the guf is what is the vehicle, the instrument through which we express the free will in this world. That free will can help us make the right choices, choices that transform and elevate, choices that can do mitzvos, but it can also lead us astray to choices that are negative, to choices that bring us down, to choices that contaminate. So the body that might have been a vehicle or instrument for the wrong choices that weren't in the realm of permissible where we could give good intention, but were in the realm of that which is forbidden, that which we're tied to the other side, the dark side, if the body was the instrument or vehicle through which we expressed free will to indulge in worldly pleasure, so it needs להטהרו מטומאתו שקיבל בהנאת עולם הזה ותענוגיו from the impurity of Klipas Nogah, if we engaged even in the neutral things but with the wrong intent or without the right intent, or if we indulged the shedin yehudain, the Jewish demons, which is what we call the dark side, the other side, the alter ego. the ruach shtus, the self-sabotaging voice, so we need to do something in order to remove it. What is this chibbut hakever? What's this idea of the chibbut hakever? That if with our body we watched, we ate, we said, we did the wrong things, so our soul ascends on high, and our soul undergoes its own process, which the Alter Rebbe will elaborate on, but the body also needs its cleansing process. So according to our tradition, after a person passes away, after the soul is extracted from the body, we don't use the word death. If you look in the Gemara, Chazal did not use the word death. Chazal describe death as yetzias haneshama. A person doesn't die. The body dies. The soul never dies. The soul is extracted from the body. The soul has existed since creation itself and the soul's existence is eternal. We are immortal because we are a חלק אלוה ממעל ממש, we're a piece of Hashem and we can't die by virtue of the godliness in us. We are eternal, we are immortal. So we existed since creation and we will exist eternally. We have immortality, but we're partnered with the body for a finite, short, certainly relative to eternity, a short amount of time. And why is the soul put in the body? Because the body only has, the soul only has free will through the instrument and the vehicle of the body and that's what gives life meaning, making the right choices or the wrong choices, drawing closer to Hashem or becoming more distant from Hashem, listening to that impulse in us or overcoming the chelek eloka, the tzelem elokim dictating over the over the nefesh bahamis inside ourselves. Those are all the choices that we make. So when it's time not for death, because people don't die, bodies die, but what Chazal call yetzias haneshama, and that moment of yetzias haneshama can be, by the way, a moment of tremendous bliss or a moment of extraordinary excruciating pain. What determines which it is? Our relationship to it. So a person who spends their time here in this world and a person who thinks I am a body and I have a soul, so when you discover no, you are a soul that has a body, that's painful. That's a painful reality. And when the soul is extracted from the body, the body then is in pain, the soul is in pain because the soul has this harsh realization, this reality check that I thought all along I was a body that had a soul and now I come to realize I am a soul that has a body and that harsh reality check can be unbearably excruciatingly painful. That's why in that moment we don't leave somebody alone. Somebody now who recently said viddui for who's in the hospital, maybe hospice, of course we wish them well, but I told the family it's a din in Shulchan Aruch, the person should not be left alone if a person anticipates that the end is near because of the pain that the soul might go through and its extraction from the body they shouldn't be left alone. On the other hand, a person who spent their time here on earth knowing that all along they knew they're a soul and they have a body, they're a soul. And just like the clothing I'm wearing, the tie I'm wearing doesn't define me, it's not me, it's something external to me that I'm wearing, so too the body, Rebbe Nachman writes like this, the body is a garment that we wear and just like I care for my garment and I'm grateful to my garment and my garment protected me from the elements and my garment was the uniform that identified me and the garment played a role, but it's not me, I take good care of it, but I take it off because it isn't me, so similarly and so too the body is not me. I'm grateful to it and I'm thankful to it and it serves a role and it serves a purpose but it's not me. So when a person all along knows I am a soul and I have a body and now with yetzias haneshama the soul's extracted from the body, that moment, if they knew that all along what they really were and they were living for eternity, not the here and now, and they were not indulging in the sheidim yehuda'in or the sitra achra, the dark side, klipas noga or three klipos certainly, so such a person when the soul's extracted from the body not only is it not painful, what is it? How is it described? The Rambam writes this in Moreh Nevuchim, many others write this, it's described as neshika, misas neshika, the kiss of death. Kiss of death is glorious. Kiss of death is incredible pleasure. The kiss of death is when the soul is no longer, it's unbridled, unbound from the body, the same way when I get to go home at night and I can take my tie off, finally the day is over and I can take my tie off, my uniform off, and I can enjoy and I can get more comfortable, so too the soul when it's able to undress from the body. Rebbe Nachman writes he longs for not for death, of course, v'achaim he'aluka, we don't glorify or long for death, but he says I wait for when my soul can take the body off just like I wait for when I can take the clothing off. So the body, whatever the body did live in its lifetime, certainly a body that was less than a misas neshika, a body that did indulge and engage in the sheidim yehuda'in, in the klipa, in the klipas noga, that body needs to undergo its purification and has to purge whatever it had previously absorbed through the pleasures of this world that were off limits, that were assur. So four angels come to the person and they beat him until the klipa has been broken and removed from the soul. That's called chibbut hakever. That doesn't sound so good, right? That's the idea. That's the idea. Doesn't sound so good, that's supposed to motivate us in life. If you picture, if you have that image, that's why chazal tell us that when a person is tempted to give in, to indulge that sheidin yehudain, or tempted to indulge and give in to that alter ego or that voice, think about misa. Mashcheihu l'beis medrash, if that doesn't work say krias shema, if that doesn't work think about yom hamisa. Why should it help to think about the day of death? The finality of the day of death, the permanence of the day of death, the chibbut hakever of the day of death. Do we really want someone coming and beating the klipa out of us? That's a new expression. Beating the klipa out of us, because that's exactly what chibbut hakever is. It's beating within the grave. Described at length in maseches chibbut hakever, and it's something that a person has to undergo if their body engaged in things it shouldn't have. In all the worlds, the Alter Rebbe is about to elaborate here: in the world of speech, in the world of action, in the world of thought. The body has to undergo something to beat that out of us after the soul's extracted from it, that's chibbut hakever. How do we get out of chibbut hakever? So we have tradition, this is brought down in Orach Chayim Miller's commentary. Those who live in the land of Israel or those who pass away on a Friday are spared chibbut hakever. Another Nefesh b'Nefesh should promote that. Nefesh b'Nefesh should put that in the advertisement. Make aliya and don't get the klipa beaten out of you. Move to Israel and you don't have to have the klipa beaten out of you after death. Or chazal already told us מת בערב שבת סימן יפה לו that a person who passes away on erev shabbos, it's a good siman and they avoid chibbut hakever. Others can avoid it. The Rebbe in Hayom Yom, seventh of Teves writes: loving justice, loving rebuke, loving acts of kindness, bringing guests to one's home and praying with concentration. Another suggestion: spend four hours a day saying words of Torah and Tehillim. Four hours a day saying words of Torah and Tehillim, and that's how you can avoid chibbut hakever in the next world. But in any case, the Alter Rebbe is telling us, we don't know exactly what this looks like, how we experience it, does Hashem rachmana litzlan... how do we measure if we did the things we need to in order to make sure to avoid it? All of this we don't know exactly, but it should incentivize and motivate us to realize: don't give in to the klipa. Don't give in, 'cause if we don't want the klipa having to be beaten out of us later, don't give in to it now. Now if you say, I can't relate to this, you certainly can. Because we know, this was the old adage in exercise was a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips. When you eat the wrong food, so you're gonna need a bigger belt. And when you do the wrong things with your body, your body absorbs the wrong things that you've done. In fact, Rabbi Steinsaltz in his commentary when he talks about this, he says, he compares it: In order for a person's eating to be holy, there must be holy intent, otherwise he allows the sitra achra to infiltrate. When that happens, the fact of his profane eating is impressed within reality, a stain is formed which is never completely removable. If the deed was permissible, it can be rectified, but the profanity it spawned remains ingrained in the person's body like the blood and flesh. By way of analogy, exposure to radiation above a certain intensity can prove fatal, but also a lesser dose is destructive in the long term. Although the person is not immediately killed, a steady process of deterioration begins from the time of the exposure and onward. Or to cite another example: some poisons like lead, ingested in even the smallest quantities, can never be removed. Any immediate damage can usually be overcome, but the cumulative effect over time as more and more of that material enters the body can be extremely dangerous. In the same way even non-holy act, even if permitted, even if rectified and elevated to holiness, leaves a mark of profanity. So a person can degenerate spiritually merely by doing things that are permitted by Shulchan Aruch. The steady accumulation of mundane actions is liable to draw him out of the realm of holiness. A decent person who never deliberately commits a sin, but merely allows himself a so-called normal life, can in the half hour or afternoon he devoted to activities devoid of holiness, create a mark of profanity in his body that cannot be removed. It's very startling and it's a very powerful image. And that's not accidental, that's intentional and that's by design, meant to motivate us, meant to incentivize us, meant to inspire us, meant to be mindful and conscious and conscientious and present in what we're doing. אלא אם כן מי שלא נהנה מהעולם הזה כל ימיו כרבינו הקדוש. And then the Alter Rebbe says, the only one who doesn't have to avoid chibbut hakever is somebody who lived their entire life and derived no pleasure from this world. Somebody who lived his whole life and what does that mean, derive no pleasure from this world? So the Alter Rebbe tells us an example like whom? Like Rabbeinu Hakadosh. Who's Rabbeinu Hakadosh? Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the great publisher and redactor, the editor of the Mishna. But the Gemara Kesuvos kuf daled tells us, said on his deathbed that he never enjoyed any pleasures from this world. Now we know, the Gemara tells us elsewhere that Rabbeinu Hakadosh was extremely wealthy. He was very rich man. He lived in a palace and he served and he had all the delicacies in the world. What does it mean that he never enjoyed the pleasures of this world? He was a wealthy man, but the Gemara Avoda Zara Yud Alef tells us from whose table neither lettuce nor radish nor cucumber was ever absent, either in summer or winter. Okay, today that we wouldn't be so impressed though, you said, today we'd said, he had the the most expensive tequilas and single malt, he had charcuterie and meat boards, he had herring stations, nothing was ever missing, never. In those days, lettuce, radish and cucumber didn't grow in every season. How did you have it? Unless you were incredibly wealthy, somehow you accessed it. So if he was so wealthy and his table always had these delicacies, how could he say he never benefited from this world? So the reason the Ba'al HaTanya, the Alter Rebbe gives us as an example is because Klipas Noga. Those things, radish, lettuce, and cucumber represent that which is permissible. It's not a mitzva, it's not assur, it's not tied to the dark side. It's a davar shemutar, it's unbound, but it's all the intent you gave. So here the Alter Rebbe is testifying about Rabbeinu Hakadosh, about Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi. He's Rebbe, he's our Rebbe, he's called Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, he's Rebbe, because he enjoyed the pleasures of this world but always did it to serve Hashem. He endowed it and imbued it with the meaning of Avodas Hashem. He didn't live an ascetic life, he didn't deprive himself of pleasures. Here Rabbeinu Hakadosh is a perfect example of the permissibility of enjoying this world. Farbreng, L'chaim, a good meal, a good siyum, a good seuda, enjoy this world. But the kavana, the mindfulness, the presence while we're enjoying it is to serve Hashem. I'm telling divrei Torah, I'm singing beautiful zmiros, I'm hosting guests, I'm energizing myself to go back to learning and to do chesed. I'm doing it because I'm finding Hashem in this food, the magnificence of it, its deliciousness, the chiyus it's giving me, the life force that is Hashem in the food that I'm eating. So Rabbeinu Hakadosh is the prime role model of a person who was wealthy and who had access and who enjoyed this world, but didn't enjoy it from the perspective of klipa. He didn't absorb it into the basar vadam of his body that he needed Chibut HaKever. He was so present and so mindful in all that he did that he didn't enjoy any pleasure ever in this world that wasn't part of the formula of Avodas Hashem, so much so that he didn't need any Chibut HaKever. He didn't need the Chibut HaKever, he didn't need the klipa beat out of him because he never gave into klipa. He lived his life without ever having given into klipa. So we'll pick up next week, the Tanya now turns to another activity which is permissible according to Halacha, but it's spiritually damaging and it requires cleansing, and that is dvarim beteilim beheter. Things that technically are permissible to speak about, technically, but they're not part of the holy realm of learning. So if you're analyzing the Super Bowl game and you're talking about how terrible the Patriots are and how the guy streaker got more yardage than they did, I didn't watch the game, I just found out afterwards, and I admit I'm gonna have to have the klipa beat out of me. I got a little hana'a from hearing the Patriots lost. I got some hana'a from that. I have to do teshuvah for that, I have to do tikkun for that, I got some hana'a from that. I admit it, I'm a work in progress, I'm working on myself. So those are dvarim beteilim beheter. It's not lashon hara, it's not gossip, it's not rechilus, it's not chanifa, it's not it's not part of the realms of that which is assur. It's dvarim beteilim beheter. But it's not elevated, that's Klipas Noga. So what's the repair? That's not Chibut HaKever, we're going to get to the next. It's not so much better than Chibut HaKever, it's not so much fun. Teshuvah doesn't help? Teshuvah can, yes, so teshuvah can help, teshuvah helps the neshama. What exactly helps the guf? The guf still needs to go, because the radiation. You could do, that's exactly where Rabbi Steinsaltz was giving us the mashal. You could do all the teshuvah in the world over the fact that you ate lead. You could do teshuvah in the world of the fact that you were exposed to radiation. But the reality is your body doesn't care about your teshuvah. The facts of the lead and the radiation don't care about your feelings of the teshuvah that you did. The reality is you absorbed it and it needs to be purged. There are these other ways to purge it. The body can be repaired. I guess there's, I don't know, I'm making this up, but if a person were exposed to radiation or lead, maybe there's some oxygen chamber they can go in and get better. So our oxygen chamber, kmo she'amarnu, is four hours a day Torah and Tehillim. That's our oxygen chamber. We need to do things, that's our, so however the radiation was absorbed is there's some formula for the way it's purged. That's not the same as teshuvah. Teshuvah affects the neshama, but these other things, lofty things, they affect the guf to avoid the Chibut HaKever later on in life. Im yirtzeh Hashem we'll pick up with this next week. Stay happy, stay healthy.
