Transcript
Good morning boker tov, may it be a day that we hear בשורות טובות ישועות ונחמות. Welcome back to 10 Minutes of Meaning, our learning of Sefer Tanya together. Please enjoy, R' Shaya's corner, some coffee, flaky pastry, a tremendous gratitude to our dear friends Marilyn and Michael Fedak for the generous sponsorship of our 10 Minutes of Meaning of Tanya. Last week we began perek tes of Tanya, chapter nine, in which we discussed where the two souls that are competing with each other within us are housed. There is the animal soul, the nefesh habahamis, and there is the godly soul, the חלק אלוה ממעל ממש. And the Baal HaTanya seemingly is giving an anatomy lesson, telling us within the heart, the left ventricle, the right ventricle, the oxygen, the air, it starts at the heart and pumps the blood to the brain, or starts at the brain and then communicates down to the heart. Rabbi Steinsaltz suggests that perhaps it's meant to be taken literally, an anatomy lesson, though also perhaps not. Because if it were meant to simply be anatomical, then a person can get a heart transplant and get rid of their animal soul. A person would get a blood transfusion and eliminate the sitra achra, the klipos, all the instinct for evil, for wrong. And we know that that's not the case. And so, at least in addition to the anatomical description is another level, and that Rabbi Steinsaltz says is the notion of ego versus elokus. The idea of the head versus the heart, the idea of where these souls are housed, is the idea, what drives us? What is our identity? Who are we in our core? How do we see ourselves in our essence? Is it the ego? Is it the animal? Is it what feels good, what feels right, what we want, what we need, what gives us honor, what gives us glory? That's ego. Or is it the brain, is it elokus? Is it the ability to find the divine within us? That which is sovereign and disciplined over ourselves. And the way to get there, said the Alter Rebbe, the Baal HaTanya, between the blood on the right side that lacks the energy to fuel the animal passion of the body, where we can direct ourselves אהבת השם כרשפי אש שלהבת מתלהבת בלב משכילים. The nexus of where the divine soul is in our heart that produces this love of Hashem that's like a flaming fire. It flares המבינים ומתבוננים בדעתם אשר במוחם בדברים המעוררים את האהבה. When we use the brain to analyze with binah, the place of chochmah, binah, and daas, when we use the brain to analyze and come to recognize the daas, the ideas that will awaken within us and arouse within us and generate within us this love of Hashem. In other words, the Alter Rebbe here, the Baal HaTanya is endorsing the idea of meditating, of reflecting and focusing and thinking about Hashem. Now, we're living in a time and a world in which you're looking at me like you don't know what I'm talking about. Who has the space and the margin and the ability to sit and to meditate and to think? Who can think? You always have AirPods in your ears, you're always in conversation, there's always noise, there's always some playlist that's playing, some podcast or playlist, we're always occupied or we're busy or we're running or we're going or we're doing. The ability to stop and to sit and to think? Ha! There is a Ribono Shel Olam, there's a Creator, and He gave me the gift of my existence, and He knows everything intimately in my life, and He has expectations of me, and maybe He even needs me, because that's how He chooses to reveal Himself to me in this world. He limits Himself b'tzimtzum as a God who needs me. How am I needed? What am I meant to do? What difference am I meant to make? What is my mission? What is my purpose? The Alter Rebbe elsewhere describes these meditations in much more depth, which we'll get to, but here he's just making a passing reference to it in terms of its role of using the brain over the heart, of using the chochmah, the binah, and the daas to arrive at—it's through generating the thoughts, the meditations, the recognitions, it's coming to the conclusions that are going to awaken within us. L'havdil, l'havdil, if a person sometimes needs to stop and say to themselves, \"My spouse: they work, they shop, they prepare, they cook, they clean, they care, they love, they compromise, they sacrifice, they take an interest, they're invested.\" Ha! You know, when I meditate and think about their role in my life, what they do in my life, the good they give—all of a sudden I'm filled with this incredible love, this burning love, this boundless gratitude, this feeling of wow, am I grateful. So sometimes the emotion is the result of meditating on the information, the intelligence. It's a matter of analyzing and thinking about and coming to the knowledge. Ha! When we're living life at warp speed, when there's always noise, when we're always so busy, then we don't even arrive at the information that would generate the feeling, which is what we claim we're looking for. We just want to skip right to the feeling. Why don't I feel in love with Hashem and love with my spouse and love with my children and love with life? Why don't I have the energy? Well, when you're living at warp speed and you're just always distracted by things around us, never meditating, never reflecting, never analyzing, never coming to the conclusions of the information that would generate the feelings. Then we're never going to have them. So the Baal HaTanya examples of meditations, this is from Rav Chaim Miller: Number one, how godly light and energy is found within all physical objects, even those you can't see. How far your life is from God and how close you'd like it to be, number two. Number three, how the angels worship Hashem with utter dedication and love. Number four, how in its source the world is absorbed in Hashem. Number five, how Hashem renews the creation with fresh energy every morning. Number six, how wondrous is the world which Hashem created. And the list could go on and on. וכן בשמחת לבב בתפארת השם והדר גאונו and also the divine soul, the חלק אלוקה ממעל ממש that's inside us, that we're trying to make contact with, that soul that we're trying to nourish can bring a rejoicing of the heart and the glory of Hashem and the splendor of His majesty. כאשר עיני החכם בראשו because this is an allusion to a pasuk in Kohelet that Hechacham einav b'rosho. The wise person doesn't live in the here and now, the wise person isn't only in the present, they have an eye to the future that which is going to be born from what they are doing now B'moach chochmato u'vinato using our mental powers of chochmah and binah מסתכלים ביקרא דמלכא ותפארת גדולתו we can gaze at the glory of the king and the beauty of His greatness עד אין חקר ואין סוף בתכלית which is unfathomable, endless and limitless. Let me repeat, unfathomable, we can't know His essence, impossible. עד אין חקר ואין סוף בתכלית we cannot know Him or we'd be Him. To admit that He exists, He's infinite, we're finite, is to concede that we cannot know Him in His essence. אזוי זאגט דער בעל התניא so the Alter Rebbe says עד אין חקר ואין סוף בתכלית. So what does it mean then when he says that we can use moach chochmato u'vinato, we can use our chochmah and binah, mistaklim bikara d'malka? What does that mean to gaze at the king? Where? What's the address? Give me the coordinates, I'll put it in Waze and Google Maps and I'll show up. I want to see. What channel do I turn to? What's the website? Where can I gaze at the king? How can I see Him in this meditation, this second meditation that's going to generate this passion, this energy, this enthusiasm, this love? Zohar refers to as gazing at God. How do I gaze at God? Where? Are there like virtual reality goggles I could put on? Is there a website? Is there a 3D theater? Where can I gaze at God? So of course it doesn't mean a physical vision, Hashem is not physical. He's not limited in any way, certainly not physically. But it means using the mind's eye. A person could enter, and again, here's where I'm learning out loud, I'm not teaching Tanya, I'm learning it out loud and admitting the borders and the boundaries of my understanding. But a person could achieve in meditation such a level that they can with their mind's eye feel that they're in the presence ke'ilu ro'eh the Ribono Shel Olam. It's compared to sight because after this lengthy meditation, Hashem is almost tangible and real, you feel that you saw. You saw. You know sometimes you're talking to someone, \"I see what you're saying, I see what you're saying\", or you can see the solution, I saw the solution. What do you mean you saw it? Was there a whiteboard? You saw it? There was a multimedia presentation? When something is so real, it feels tangible, palpable, undeniable, so real that it's life-changing, so real that it's absorbed within you, I saw it, I saw it. So with the mind's eye, even with your eyes closed, you can gaze at the experience k'mivoar b'makom acher as it's going to be explained elsewhere, the Alter Rebbe in Torah Or, Likkutei Torah, and other places. וכן שאר מדות קדושות שבלב הן בחכמה בינה ודעת במוח so the above, the other holy emotions of the heart originate from chochmah, binah, and da'at. So when we're living to summarize this first section of Perek Tes, to summarize so far, first section of Perek Tes. When we're living incorrectly, when we're indulging in the klipot and the sitra achra in the nefesh habahamit, when the heart is leading the head, then aren't we given to our impulse? We say and we go and we look and we do and we eat and we act because our animal impulse, our ego. I want to sleep so I come late to shul, I feel like shmoozing so I talk during davening, I have some juicy lashon hara so I share the gossip, even though I should... I want to eat that even though the hechsher I'm not entirely positive that it's good. I want to look at that so I gaze at it even if it's not I shouldn't be. When the heart, the ego, the \"I\", that need, that impulse is driving us, then it pumps the blood till it even goes to the head where the head now rationalizes and justifies and excuses and explains and defends why the thing we did is okay. We're meant to live is not the heart over the head but the opposite, the head, chochmah, binah, and da'at, chochmah, binah, and da'at, where the chochmah, binah, and da'at help me arrive at the information, the conclusion, the facts, the truth that now the head is giving instructions to the heart, so now the heart is pumping this love. this passion, this enthusiasm, this energy, this craving, this connection to Hashem that didn't just come out of emotions, didn't just come out of impulse, didn't just come out of the boich, it came because I used my head, my Chochmah and my Binah and my Da'as. So there's two ways that you can live. Ayen last year's Shabbos Shuvah Drasha, Ayen the forthcoming book by Ephraim Goldberg, already finished and written, just in my head, now I have to get it out. But on the difference between living a life of ego versus Elokus. There's only two choices, there's two ways to live life. You could wake up every morning, go to sleep every night, life could be about everything in between is ego, I, or I'm living my life for Elokus. The way I eat, the way I sleep, the way I talk, what I look at, what I do, where I go, the money I earn, how I spend it, every aspect, everything about my life, my mission, my purpose, my ongoing relationship and my conversation, is it ego or Elokus? And as you'll read there, beautifully written, it describes, again one day, we'll get there, if I keep talking about it, that's my theory, if I keep talking about it I'm gonna do it. So it describes there, people mistakenly think that when I live the life of ego I find happiness, but it's exactly the opposite. When you live your life for ego, you're terribly miserable and lonely and anxious and depressed. And when you live life for Elokus, for mission, for purpose, because you're needed, then all of a sudden you find the greatest happiness and the greatest joy and the greatest fulfillment, the greatest satisfaction, the greatest peace of mind, the greatest mental hygiene and mental health that can be found in living for Elokus with a sense of mission. So that's the difference here in Perek Tes, it's really so far what we've seen in all of Tanya, but here really elucidated so brilliantly and beautifully in Perek Tes, is are you living from your heart or from your head? It's neither either/or. Again the Alter Rebbe says, if you're living with your head, you're not some cold intellectual who has no feeling and no love and no energy. It's what sparks, where's the engine? Where is it found? The core, where's the processor? Is the processor and the driver, the engine, who's giving the commands? Of course from the head you get to the heart. But if you start in the heart and you get to the head, you're going to be living inside out, upside down, backwards, that's when you're going to be indulging in the Sitra Achra, that's when you're going to make the terrible mistakes. And then the Baal HaTanya elaborates, I'll just go on a couple more minutes, please indulge me. אכן כתיב ולאם מלאם יאמץ. Pasuk says in Bereishis, one nation will overpower the other nation. What are these two nations? Are they external, are they internal? This is another chiddush of the Alter Rebbe. כי הגוף נקרא עיר קטנה. The body, גמרא נדרים דף ל\"ב calls the body daf lamed beis, lev, calls the body a small city. וכמו ששני מלכים נלחמים על עיר אחת שכל אחד רוצה לכבשה ולמלוך עליה. Two kings fight over a city, each one desiring to conquer it and to rule over it. Two kings, there's a city. Nations are fighting over Yerushalayim Ir Hakodesh, it's ours, it's undeniable, no one's taking it from us. Lehavdil, Russia is taking Ukraine, Ukraine's fighting back, nations fight over what? Territory, geography, land, a city. דהיינו להנהיג יושביה כרצונו ושיהיו סרים למשמעתו בכל אשר יגזור עליהם. Why does Russia want Ukraine? And why do evil others want to take Yerushalayim? Why do they want it? Not because of the red peppers that grow in Israel. Why do they want it? I don't even have an idea what grows in Ukraine. Not because they want what grows from the ground. Why do they want it? As the Alter Rebbe says, each king wants to institute their laws. Each king wants that its inhabitants become their servants and their slaves, their citizens. They want the people who live there to obey their every whim and every decree. כך שתי הנפשות האלקית והחיונית הבהמית שמהקליפה נלחמות זו עם זו על הגוף וכל איבריו. So the same way that two kings and two countries will battle over one city, they're battling, whose laws? Who's in charge, who's in control, who will these people serve? Similarly says the Alter Rebbe, the two souls, the divine soul and the animal soul inside us, they're fighting each other for control over the body. The body is the city, and the animal soul and the godly soul are two kings, and they're fighting, who will we serve? Who are we citizens of? Who are we living for? Whose laws and directives and edicts will we follow? שהאלקית חפצה ורצונה שתהא היא לבדה המושלת עליו ומנהיגתו. The divine soul's will wants to rule over us exclusively. The divine soul says, I say jump, you say how high? Torah and Mitzvos. The divine soul says, be disciplined in the service of Hashem. Live life for Elokus, not ego. וכל איבריו יהיו סרים למשמעתה ובטלים אצלה לגמרי ומרכבה אליה. And if you're living for God, Elokus, all the limbs, all the organs, the entire body surrenders completely just to be a vehicle of Hashem. That's all we are is an instrument and vehicle of Hashem. How can I use every organ, every limb, my entire body? How can I live, use the levush of speech, thought, and action to all serve Hashem. והלבוש לעשות בבחינותיה גם ג' לבושים הנזכרים לעיל שיתלבשו כולם באיברי הגוף והגוף כולו מלא מהם לבדם. The divine soul wants the powers and the garments to influence the body in complete control, surrendering and serving only Hashem. ולא יעבור זר בתוכם חס ושלום. Nothing else interfering. דהיינו פלס מוחו שבראשו הממולא מחכמה בינה ודעת שבנפש האלקית. Since the mind ultimately controls everything, it means the three faculties of the brain dealing with inquiry, cognition, and recognition will be influenced by Chochmah, Binah, and Daas of our divine soul. So that's one paradigm is that the divine soul's in charge. They conquer the city, that is the body, and they tell the limbs of the body exactly how to behave, what to do, how to act, what to say, what to think, what to wear, the levush of thought, speech, and action. Shechochmas Hashem ubinaso. Practically this means that the intellectual inquiry in Hashem and the cognition of these ideas להתבונן בגדולתו אין חקר ואין סוף. By pondering His unfathomable, unfathomable, and endless greatness. ולהוליד מהם על ידי דעת יראה מפחד ה' בלבו. And if a person thinks about Hashem's how unfathomable, how we can't know His essence and we have to surrender to Him, then it will through that recognition, it will create a tremendous reverence and a trepidation. If a person thinks, there's me, there's my friend, and there's God. This is my essence, my friend's essence, and we can know God's essence. Casual, comfortable, we know each other super well. So then a person's going to lack the yirah, the reverence, the awe, the fear. ואהבת ה' כאש בוערה בלבו כרשפי שלהבת. And rispei shalheves from the mind to the heart, a love of God burning להיות נכספה וגם כלתה נפשו בחשיקה וחפיצה. So that our soul will yearn and languish. A pasuk in Tehillim. Nichsefah like ko echsof. Nichsefah, kisufin, that our soul will yearn. Vegam kalsah nafsho and our soul will languish with fervor and desire לדבקה בו באין סוף ברוך הוא בכל לב ונפש ומאוד. To attach ourselves to Him with all of our heart, all of our soul, and all of our might. So this is the next level meditation, and this is the meditation of who's going to own the body? Who gives directives? Who gives orders? Who's instructions? Who conquers the city that is our limbs and our organs and our body? Is it going to be the divine, the godly soul, or is it going to be the animal? Who's going to give in? Every time you open that cabinet 12 o'clock at night and that bag of Cape Cod potato chips are facing you and you shouldn't be eating them, you shouldn't be eating them at that hour, you shouldn't be eating them in that quantity. That's who owns the city. The city being here your mouth, your taste buds, your throat, your stomach. Who who owns? Whose laws? Who is it a citizen of? The animal impulse that says, ah, just eat it, you deserve it, you're starving, come on, just give in. Or the godly soul says, you don't need to, you don't really want to, and you know this isn't good for you, and it's not going to make you feel good in the morning. Which one will win? That's the battle that's raging in us from when we wake up till we fall asleep, probably even while we're sleeping and certainly while we are awake. That says to finish מעומקא דליבא שבחלל הימני. This meditation is aimed at reverence and love emanating from the depths of the heart, from the right chamber. What's the right chamber? Where the divine soul is. שתוכו רצוף אהבה מלא וגדוש. The experience should be so intense that the right chamber, the place of the godly soul, is inlaid with love, filled and overflowing עד שתתפשט גם לחלל השמאלי. So that it will overflow and spill into the left side of the heart, which is the animal soul. It should be so overflowing, so filled, so on fire, so raging, so bubbling and boiling that it will overflow into the left chamber of the heart, which is the animal soul. להכניע את סטרא אחרא יסוד המים הרעים שבו שהיא תאות קליפת נוגה. The effect of this love will be to subdue the Sitra Achara's negative element of water, the source of lust and desire for kosher pleasures from Kelipas Nogah. When the right side will control the left side, when the brain will control the heart, when the Elokus will control the ego, we won't obliterate the animal, now we'll train it, now we'll uplift it, now we'll get it to serve us. The soul's not trying to escape the body, that's not its goal and mission in this world. The soul is housed in the body. The soul is just trying to command and elevate and transform the body. That's when the brain controls the heart. B'ezras Hashem we'll pick up next time. בשורות טובות ישועות ונחמות.
