Transcript
Good morning Boker Tov, welcome back to 10 minutes of Tanya generously sponsored by Marilyn and Michael Fedak, please help yourself, Rav Shaila's Corner, coffee, slushy, pastry, enjoy our 10 minutes of meaning. Of course we daven for בשורות טובות ישועות ונחמות thinking about אחינו כל בית ישראל in Eretz Yisrael that they should be safe and secure. We are on Perek Tes, on the 9th chapter of Sefer Tanya. In the beginning of the ninth chapter the Baal HaTanya has now been taking all that he's been introducing about Chochmah, Binah, and Daas, about the Nefesh HaBehamis, about the animal soul, the impulse in us, about the חלק אלוה ממעל ממש, the Godly soul inside us literally and the relationship between the two. Here in Perek Tes he's taking concepts and ideas and ideals and he's crafting a formula and a prescription for life. So we began Perek Tes by talking about where they're found within ourselves. In the left side of the heart, the right side of the heart, that the emotion, the animal soul begins in the heart and tries to get the brain to justify and rationalize and explain and defend whereas the Godly soul starts in the head, Chochmah, Binah, and Daas and it filters down in giving orders and direction to the heart. And then we spoke about we last left off with the metaphor that the same way you have a city Ir Ketanah and there are two kings, two nations who are vying, who are fighting, Ukraine and Russia for the same territory, each wants it to be governed by its ruler, by its rules and who's going to win, who's going to occupy, who will it serve, whose rules will will be the ones that that carry? And similarly the Nefesh HaBehamis and the חלק אלוה ממעל ממש are fighting over our body, our body is likened to that Ir Ketanah and each one wants to be our master, our ruler, and wants the body to follow its rules, its policies and to worship it. And that's the question, that's the battle that rages inside each and every one of us, who will win, who will win, what will define us, how will we identify, who will be the one who who makes the orders? Which brings us up to how do we now relate between the two? There's a battle over our body. Is our body a vehicle for our soul? Are we a body that has a soul, are we a soul that has a body? Are we driven by ego, are we driven by Elokus? Our day from the beginning of our day till it ends, what informs and inspires our relationships, our actions, our thoughts, our speech, is it ourselves, our ego, our needs, our pleasures, our wants, our honor, or are we here to serve Hashem, are we simply an instrument, a vehicle of His will? Is He working for us or are we working for Him? That doesn't mean we can't enjoy and have pleasure in life. Hashem wants us Lehisaneg Al Hashem. He wants us to get higher on Him, He wants us to enjoy the beauty of this world. But do we do it in the context of having a mission, of being agents and ambassadors of His will or do we do it thinking it's all about us? So now the Baal HaTanya continues here in the middle of Perek Tes, לשנותו ולהפכו מתענוגי עולם הזה לאהבת השם, we should try to tame our darker side, our animal impulse, our Sitra Achra, the Kelipah. And in some cases it can be healed. There are two approaches and two attitudes we could bring to those voices inside ourselves, the voice that says, the voice that says eat and sleep and enjoy this physical world in which you're in. We're not talking about Kelipah, we're not talking about Sitra Achra, we're talking about absolute and categorical Issur, that which is forbidden, that's just the dark side, there's nothing redeeming about it. But we're talking about the fourth Kelipah, Kelipas Nogah. We're talking about the animal in us that wants that which we previously called neutral or Pareve, Reshus, eating, sleeping, watching a sports game, things that neither are a Mitzvah nor an Aveira, they certainly are not a Mitzvah, they're not counted among Taryag, but nor are they an Aveira, nor can you point in Shulchan Aruch where it says it's Assur to do. But how do we direct it? How do we experience it? What's it all about? So that there are two attitudes or approaches we can bring. Two phases are known as Iskafya which is subduing, we can subdue the negativity, or Ishapcha. Ishapcha, Lehaphcho is to transform it completely. It can exist but we subdue it or we can transform it entirely. So we start: לשנותו ולהפכו מתענוגי עולם הזה לאהבת השם. The love from the right side ought to be so powerful that it not only changes but transforms the left side from seeking worldly pleasure to loving Hashem. In other words, we can train the animal in us. That animal, that drive, that desire for sleep, for food, for pleasure, we're not trying to extinguish it or purge it or obliterate it, we're trying to change it, train it and elevate it. That's what we have the capacity to do: לשנותו ולהפכו מתענוגי עולם הזה לאהבת השם. Now throughout the Tanya, the Tanya uses that expression Ahavas Hashem in different ways and several times to produce different experiences. But they're all aimed at a love that is like a flaming fire. A love that's like being on fire. We read in last week's parsha, we read in this week's parsha. I don't remember what week we're up to. Shabbos Hagadol, Pesach, Vayikra, Tzav. We read אש תמיד תוקד על המזבח לא תכבה. The fire has to burn. The ner tamid in shuls is modeled after the esh tamid, the fire that continuously burned on the ma'aracha, on the pyre, on the on the mizbe'ach, on the altar. It had to burn. And that fire is a image is a model for what should be in our heart in our soul. We should be on fire, on fire, like the Yeshiva and seminary students who are back. They're on fire. They're on fire. We should be on fire. The ahavas Hashem, that love, lehavdil, lehavdil. You ever have a Shabbos meal, maybe it's a relative, im yirtzeh Hashem it's a child, a neighbor, a friend. You ever have a Shabbos meal with like a couple that just got engaged? It's nauseating. Absolutely nauseating. You have to look away, it's hard to even look. This chosson, this kallah, the way they're looking, the googly eyes, the way they're admiring—it'll wear off quickly after the sheva brachos, but at least for then, it's like this burning fire, this burning fire. They're so excited. They think they're adorable. They think they're the greatest thing that ever happened. They see only the best in each other. They're just this this fire. There's this fire that's nauseating to everyone else around them. It's a beautiful nosh. Halevai we should be zocha to that nosh. We should be zocha to see that nosh. But it's nauseating. So love like a flaming fire. The Ribbono Shel Olam—it's not my language, it's the Rambam's language. And the Rambam is defining yidias Hashem, ahavas Hashem. He calls ahavas Hashem is yidias Hashem. It's a taiva he describes it like this desire, like this burning flame, like this yearning, like this craving, like this obsession, like this infatuation. The way the Rambam describes it: כמו שכתוב בכל לבבך בשני יצריך. Now the pasuk says in Shema, pasuk says in Shema we're going to say it every day, we serve Hashem bechol levavecha. Now bechol levavecha means with both of your hearts. Because if it meant with all of your heart, to serve Hashem with all of your heart, then it should say bechol libecha. What's bechol levavecha? All of your multiple hearts. No cardiologist here, they're already at work, they're already at work, but if there were cardiologists here, they would tell you that we all only have one heart. It has four ventricles but we have one heart. So what do we mean in Shema when we say bechol levavecha with all your hearts? We should say bechol libecha with all your heart. So says the Gemara, Chazal darshan, bishnei yetzirecha. bechol levavecha with both of your hearts means with all of your impulse. גמרא ברכות דף נד. Both the yetzer hatov and the yetzer hara. We can direct both. It's not only the yetzer hatov that serves Hashem. It's not only that we want to daven, we want to learn, we want to do chesed, we want to do everything right, well, and we're noshly, lovingly engaged to Hashem. Not only with our positive inclination we serve Hashem, even with our yetzer hara. We can transform, we can channel, we can direct, we can transform our yetzer hara to serve Hashem as well. The animal soul just wants whatever it deems to be good. Physical pleasure—I'm reading Rav Chaim Miller—physical pleasure which are tangible and easily experienced will naturally allure the animal soul, but it could easily be drawn to a higher pleasure, such as meditating on Hashem and feeling His presence. This is the transformation of the yetzer hara to the yetzer hatov. If a person drinks in moderation, makes a l'chaim, elevates their experience, which we do at a bris, at a pidyon haben, at a wedding, Shabbos, Yom Tov, four cups at a Seder. That's what we do. That's what we do. We elevate the experience. Tonight we have our annual men's Seder, explain the Haggadah. I believe there are a couple spots left if you haven't signed up yet at a new restaurant, Mamoush, we're going. It's going to have four courses and four different cups of wine, and four rabbis giving divrei Torah on the Seder. You will leave with a full stomach but also a full heart and a full soul and fully ready to come to your Seder with divrei Torah. I believe there are a few spots left if you want to sign up. So we're going to sit tonight, we're going to enjoy four courses and four drinks, but not to be gluttonous and not God forbid to indulge in an unhealthy extreme, but to elevate it with divrei Torah, with song, with friendship, with preparing for the Seder and the Haggadah. We can engage the physical and enjoy it. It'll be delicious, im yirtzeh Hashem, and plentiful, but enjoy it in a way that elevates and that transforms, use that yetzer hara. So there's a yetzer hara tonight to sit, to eat, to drink, to be with friends. You could do it in an inappropriate venue, you could do it over inappropriate conversation, you could do it with no boundaries and in the extreme, or you could take that same yetzer hara so to say, that drive, that appetite, and you can do it in a way that you elevate. I hope you'll join us to do it in the way that we'll elevate. והיינו שיעלה ויבוא ויגיע למדרגת אהבה רבה בחיבה יתירה ממדרגת אהבה עזה. kerishpay esh. This happens says the Baal HaTanya when we elevate ourselves and eventually reach the level of Ahava Rabba. Ahava Rabba, the great love, which is a more powerful term of endearment than strong love like a flaming fire. The Ahava Rabba, the great day is coming. The Ahava Rabba of the great love, as we've seen love like flaming fire is a yearning and a languishing, but great love is the experience of closeness. You feel an intimate rendezvous, an intimate connection, an intimate integration, the intimate presence of Hashem, this incredible connection. I saw, I felt, I heard, I felt heard, I'm in a relationship with Hashem, that's an Ahava Rabba, that's an Ahava Rabba. One of the paths to the Ahava Rabba is by channeling and transforming that animal soul, the yetzer hara. This is a big chiddush. We've said it before, but the Alter Rebbe here, other the Ramchal for example says, the goal is to obliterate the yetzer hara. We get rid of the yetzer hara, we destroy the yetzer hara, that's what we're Chametz, Pesach. Shabbos HaGadol's coming, we're going to speak about this, talk about the things that we are addicted to, the things that we're doing habitually that we're struggling to regulate ourselves for, that's the Chametz of our lives. That's the Chametz that we're trying to get rid of, obliterate, destroy, not even have a mashehu of. That's the yetzer hara we're trying to get rid of. Baal HaTanya comes along and he says no, no. Absolute issur, klipa, for sure we've got to get rid of, but klipa noga, this nefesh habahamis, we're not trying to get rid of, we're not trying to shecht, we're trying to train, trying to train. Where would the world be with no animals? We don't want to get rid of every animal. We want to get rid of the mosquitoes and the flies and the nuisances, but even those serve a purpose. The flies do something, I'm not sure exactly what. They eat things we don't want maybe? I'm not sure exactly what. But they're important to have. The mice are important to have, the cats eat the mice are important to have. These things are all important to have. You need an ox to plow the field. Now none of us are farmers, but we rely on farmers who grow what they grow so we could eat, and you need an ox to plow the field v'chulu. So the goal is not to shecht and destroy, the goal is to train and have it work and serve us. So we have a yetzer hara, we have an animal soul, and the goal is to transform it to an Ahava Rabba. The path to the Ahava Rabba, to this love connection with Hashem, is not to shecht the yetzer hara, but to transform it and to elevate it, to train it to serve us והיא הנקראת בספר אהבה בתענוגים. This great love is referred to as pleasurable love, lehis'aneg al Hashem. Lehis'aneg al Hashem is based on a pasuk in Tehillim. Lehis'aneg al Hashem, to take pleasure in Hashem. Some of us mistakenly were taught, some people think that Yiddishkeit, Judaism, is all about being miserable and sacrifice and unhappy and give up all pleasure and just serve Hashem, but that's malpractice, whoever taught that. A Judaism that says give up all pleasure, give up all happiness, give up everything and just serve Hashem, compromise and sacrifice and pain, that's malpractice to teach that. Dovid HaMelech didn't say that. He said life is lehis'aneg al Hashem. To quote Reb Shlomo, Lord get me high get me high, but not get me high on a substance, to get high on Hashem, to get high on Hashem, get high on Hashem. Lehis'aneg al Hashem, the greatest pleasure there is is the source of all pleasure. And when we direct whatever pleasure we experience to the source of all pleasure, then that's the highest pleasure. The love of the flaming fire represents the intense desire to connect to Hashem, but He remains distant. But the Ahava Rabba, that highest pleasure, that joy, that connection is not with a Hashem who's distant and we're yearning to come close, that's the connection of coming close. That's the pleasure that we experience and that we feel, that's the Ahava Rabba. Neutralizing your desires for worldly pleasure, even your animal soul desires only Hashem. Your love of Hashem is what the love of physical pleasure is for most people, me'ein olam haba. It is a foretaste of the world to come. והעונג הוא במוח חכמה ושכל המתענג בהשכלת וידיעת ה'. The delight, this oneg, is experienced in the mental faculties of inquiry and intelligence, the sheer pleasure of understanding Hashem כפי השגת שכלו וחכמתו. So the greatest pleasure you could have in Hashem is to know Him. The greatest way to know Him is to learn and study His Torah. In contrast to the love kerishpay esh, that's bevinas mayim. So the love of Ahava Rabba, that oneg, is Chochma Bina Da'as, is in Chabad. But the love of the flaming fire is like the element of water. Like the element of water. Im yirtzeh Hashem we'll pick up with this next week. Fire versus water, different types of love that we can have in Hashem, but the big chiddush is again the relationship between the godly soul and the animal soul, and the goal is not for one to defeat and eliminate the other, it's to train and regulate. Even the animal soul to be advancing the love and the connection with Hashem. We're not on next week, it's Erev Pesach, and the next week after that is Yom Tov, but Im Tirtzeh Hashem following Yom Tov we will resume. We should have Besurot Tovot.
