Transcript
Welcome back to 10 minutes of Meaning generously sponsored by Marilyn and Michael Fiedak. Today's shiur is also sponsored by Amanda Lyons for the Refuah Shlema of חיה לאה בת Mary. Please help yourself in our Shayala cafe too. Coffee, slushies, pastries, whatever is out there. I think still some donuts from Hanukkah. Enjoy. Enjoy. Don't do it out of the Nefesh Bahamis, don't joy out of ego, enjoy out of Elokus. Use it to feed not your body, but use it to feed your soul, which brings us to perek vav in Tanya and what we are up to. The holy sixth perek of Tanya. First five prakim we've been developing the godly soul, we're now up to the animal soul. And the animal soul we've been describing, the Baal HaTanya's attitude and approach is that there's no such thing as spiritual neutrality. Everything is, there is no parve. That even though in the world and the realm of Halacha there is issur and there's mitzvah, when it comes to the world of Avoda, and sorry, there's neutral, something which is neither forbidden nor is it a mitzvah particularly. This neutral. But when it comes to Avodas Hashem, there's only true there's the good side and the dark side, the light side and the other side. What we call literally the Sitra Achra, the other side. Feeding the other side. That means to say, again, the Baal HaTanya's chiddush is, not that we're slaughtering or eliminating or purging the animal in us, we are training the animal. We're using the animal to elevate us. We're recognizing the animal has a role, the animal can serve us, even the animal within us. So that we can perform and engage in what could otherwise be dismissed as animal behavior. Eating, sleeping, intimacy and the like, but when we do it with a certain mindfulness and attitude and approach, when we bring God and godliness into it, then it doesn't bring us down, we're not succumbing or feeding into the Sitra Achra, the other side, but rather it is elevating us. It's enabling us to go to the light side. I want to read you this note from Chaim Miller in his commentary on Tanya. He writes, \"In its unenlightened state, my animal soul can appreciate only tangible reality. It lacks the tools to modify that perception, to see itself as divine and sense the pulsating divine energy that lies beneath the world's veil. The animal in me just sees food and says yum. The animal in me says snooze, turn over, back to sleep, who cares? The animal in me speaks during davening because it wants to speak or share that juicy lashon hara gossip because it's a social commodity. The animal in me looks at or acts out in a certain way, because all we see is the surface. The animal in me only sees the immediate benefit. Just think about an animal. An animal doesn't ask, 'Do I own that food? Is this the right place, the right time? Is it mine? Did I make a bracha beforehand?' The animal just sees it and takes it and eats it. When the animal needs to eliminate, the animal doesn't say, 'Is this modest? Is this private?' The animal finds a fire hydrant or a tree or a patch of grass and does what it needs to or wants to do. So the animal in us also only sees the superficial, the surface, the external, and doesn't see the divine energy that lies beneath. Therefore it mistakenly sees its own existence as separate from Hashem. And what appears to be an utterly fragmented world, it follows the path of self-preservation and self-interest. The animal is ego. And the ego says I. My need, my want, my pleasure, my desire, my honor, my ego. The animal inside us is just ego, and ego is by definition, that's what ego stands for, rashei teivos, ego is edging God out. When a person expresses or indulges or nourishes their ego, they've edged God out. They've pushed him away. They're separate, they're apart. There's God, oh yeah, I talk to him in shul. Oh yeah, I deal with him when I have to do a mitzvah bound by halacha. But otherwise, it's all about me. My ego, we edge God out. My divine soul on the other hand, sees right through the false exterior of things and intuited the fundamental interconnectedness of reality and its divine energy. The godliness, the Elokus in me doesn't see a donut, it sees, 'Ah, that's delicious, and if I eat it, I'm going to really feel the joy, the celebration, the happiness of Hanukkah. Afterwards I'll still be remembering Hanukkah. In my waistline it will remind me for a long time, all the donuts I ate and the impact of Hanukkah. But it sees even within the physical something elevated. My challenge is to lift myself from the superficial fragmented consciousness of my animal soul to the more penetrating unified perception of my divine soul.'\" And so the Baal HaTanya now continues and he says, \"You see this, ככל איש ישראל למטה, this is true for every person, every Jew down here in this world, שבכחו להיות בטל ממש לגבי הקדוש ברוך הוא. We all have that capacity to practice what he calls, he's not the first and many after him, call bittel. This is a word I never heard in my entire Jewish education. My entire Jewish experience. With no criticism or judgment of anyone else, but nobody ever talked, bittel? Memorized the 39 melachos of Shabbos.\" Memorize the thirty-nine melachos of Shabbos, memorize the halachos of this, we gotta cover this amount of Gemara, of Navi. Who ever said such a thing as bitul? Chevra, kinderlach, let's work on ego versus elokos, let's practice bitul on the playground, on the basketball court, in life. Bitul, it's not about you, it's not about your honor, it's not about your ego, it's elokos, make room for Hashem. Says the Baal HaTanya every yid, every Jew, כל איש ישראל למטה has the koach, we all have the power and we all have the capacity of bitul. What is bitul? Bitul is that I don't live for me, I don't live for ego. Bitul is not by the way I don't have talents, I don't have skills, I'm a nobody, I'm a nothing, I hide, I cower. We spoke in Shabbas Shuva when we spoke this past year ego versus elokos, we talked sometimes, sometimes excessive humility is ego, not elokos. Somebody who says, I have no talents, I have no skills, I have nothing to offer, I have no leadership, I just disappear, I blend in, I hide, that's actually ego. That's ego, the ego, that's because that's more comfortable, that's more convenient. And that you think brings you greater honor because you're the one who's in the corner, quiet, doesn't need, that's ego. The elokos would say, Hashem has endowed me with talents and skills, Hashem is counting on me for a mission, for a purpose, I'm here for a reason. So it's sometimes counterintuitive. What looks like humility and modesty is actually ego, and what looks like arrogance and confidence is elokos. I'm fulfilling my purpose of why I'm here. The challenge is bitul. Bitul means in every moment, every post I put up on social media, every thing I put on my status, every time I want more people watching and listening, is it because it's the Tanya I want them to hear or is it me? My brand. Who's the brand? Me, or the Ribono Shel Olam? So we all have that capacity of ביטול במסירות נפשו על קידוש השם, kedushas Hashem. The Baal HaTanya says here, he's going to say again later even more explicitly, why is it? Why is it? On unfortunately countless times through our history as recently as October 7th and since then, take a simple stam yid, a simple Jew, there's no such thing, but a simple Jew. A Jew who's not educated. A Jew who may not be observant or practicing, but push come to shove, they're prepared to give their life and to die al kiddush Hashem. In the Holocaust, before in the Inquisition, the Crusades, October 7th since beyond, every IDF soldier who goes to battle for our people, who is ready and prepared to give their life, they're not necessarily practicing Torah mitzvos, they don't have an education and a background. Where does that mesiras nefesh, that instinctive, intuitive mesiras nefesh come from? Says the Alter Rebbe, says the Baal HaTanya, that's the ultimate bitul, to say I'm going to give my life, I'm going to be moser nefesh, that's literally what it means, mesiras nefesh to be moser nefesh is here's my nefesh, take it, take it. Bitul, that's not I'm not here for me, I'm here for you. And if this moment demands and calls for me surrendering, submitting, negating myself to you in martyrdom, then I'm prepared, then I'm ready, then here it is. Tanya will elaborate later, where does that come from? That is the koach, that's the capacity within every yid. Sometimes we know it, we don't know it, it's realized, it's unrealized, but latent inside every Jew is that capacity for bitul. ולכן אמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה אפילו אחד שיושב ועוסק בתורה שכינה שרויה. That's why the Mishnah in Pirkei Avos the third perek tells us, even when a single person sits and learns Torah, right now we're b'chabura, we're sitting and learning Tanya together. But you know if you go to the beis medrash or if you're sitting in your dining room table at home or wherever you are, a Jew is sitting and learning Torah even if they're by themselves, nevertheless shchina shruya, Hashem's divine presence come. Why? Because what happens in the learning of Torah? When a person, which is really what Tanya is all about, chochma, bina, and daas, I was talking to Rabbi Vovovsky earlier this morning, even when the Alter Rebbe references sefiros, he usually concentrates only on the three of the intellect, because chochma, bina, and daas, Tanya's really all about unlike what people think, experiential, farbrengen, l'chaim, it's about shteiging, learning Torah, learning Torah the highest level of dveikus, of connection to Hashem. So similarly if that's the highest level of dveikus, of clinging, connecting to Hashem is limud hatorah, learning Torah, so it's also an expression, a manifestation of bitul. Because what happens during bitul? What happens during limud hatorah? All day long I'm at work, I'm in life and I'm saying, here's my view, here's my opinion, here's the way I see things, here's the correct perspective. I come and I open a sefer, I learn Torah and I shut off. I say, I'm a blank slate, now you draw yourself on me. Bitul, איך בין א גארנישט, I'm a nothing, I know nothing, I'm nobody, you teach me. I'm not going to project my preconceived notions, I'm not going to project my biases on Torah. Torah, imprint yourself, be koveia yourself, Torah, carve yourself, אל תקרי חרות אלא חירות, I'll set myself free when I allow yourself to engrave yourself in me. This is as an aside when we come The Gemara Shabbat tells us a series of questions were asked and one of them is, kavata itim laTorah? Did you set aside time? The translation, the classic translation is: Did you set aside time for learning? Did you go to the Kollel Boker? Did you go to the afternoon Kollel? Did you go to the night Kollel? Did you learn the Daf, did Amud Shvui? Did you set aside Shnayim Mikra? Did you learn Torah? Did you learn Torah? But many bring down an alternative understanding. Kavata itim laTorah means, what's itim? Itim could mean literally: Did you set aside time? But itim means the times, the times in which you're living. Kavata itim laTorah or kavata Torah le'itim? Did you interpret and understand the times based on Torah, or did you mold and shape and distort and make Torah conform to the times? Did you say, 'I'm a blank slate. Torah, tell me, how should I view, how should I understand abortion, immigration, antisemitism, gender issues, everything in the world? How should I understand it? Torah, I'm a blank slate. You teach me what perspective I should have.' Or, chas veshalom, does a person say, 'Well, we are enlightened in 2025 and we believe this, that and the other. Now let me push that and make Torah conform to it.'? That's what will be asked. Kavata itim laTorah or kavata Torah le'itim? Did you make the times conform to Torah, or did you make Torah conform to the times? So the Alter Rebbe, back to Tanya, that's not in Tanya. The Alter Rebbe in Tanya says that that's how he understands the Mishnah in Avos, that אפילו אחד יושב ועוסק בתורה when one person is sitting learning Torah, but they're learning Torah in a way that's kavata itim laTorah. They're sitting and learning Torah and they say, 'Hashem, teach me, tell me, how do I view everything from time, food, sleep, intimacy, immigration, abortion, gender? Everything! הפוך בה והפוך בה דכולא בה. It's all in there. So Hashem, I'm a blank slate, carve yourself onto me. So Shechinah Shruyah. Why? Because that's an expression of bittul. That says, 'I don't come with my ego and my preconceived notions and my biases and the outcomes that I want. I'm coming as a blank slate.' בכל עשרה שכינתא שריא לעולם. And in any group of ten, the Divine Presence, the גמרא סנהדרין לט tells us, le'olam, always, even when they're not studying Torah. If ten Yidden are sitting together, Hashem's Shruyah. Why? Because the ten Yidden are sitting together. There's bittul. It's not ego. It's not ego. A person has to let go and surrender their ego. אבל כל מה שאינו בטל אצלו יתברך אלא הוא דבר נפרד בפני עצמו. But as long as anything that is not surrendered its ego to Hashem and sees itself as a separate entity: 'God, you're pretty good. You run the world. Thank you for that. You created, I'm grateful. But I'm also here. And look what I accomplished. And look what I do. Look what I'm responsible for.' So a person who says, 'There's me, there's you, and then there's my separate... there's you, and then there's my bank account, my net worth. I created it, it's me. There's you, and then there's the gevaldig article I wrote, or the great speech I gave.' אינו מקבל חיות מקדושתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא. We don't receive life energy from God's holiness. It's ego or Elokus. It's either this side or sitra achra, the other side. There is no neutral. There is no Ribbono shel olam, 'I see you in Shul in the morning and I'll meet you back again in Shul in the evening. That's you. And in between is all me. My work, my workout, my lunch, my dinner. You're in the morning and the evening and me in between.' No. Such a person can't mekabel chiyus, doesn't receive life energy from the Kedushah of Hashem. There can't be ego sandwiched between Elokus. There's just Elokus. Because so long as there's ego, there's no chiyus. A person physically may have a pulse, a person physically may look like they're alive, but there's no chiyus, there's no life force, there's no life force. So that's the nefesh bahamis, if it's ego, it's the nefesh bahamis. So if there's no chiyus and it's not coming from Hashem, where does it come from? When we engage that impulse, that appetite, when we act like an animal, the animal inside us, whether for absolute evil - what we call evil - Hamas, Hezbollah, evil - or what the Alter Rebbe and what Torah are telling us is that it's also some form of an evil when we indulge the nefesh bahamis even for things we wouldn't ordinarily label evil. Gossip is evil. Eating something non-kosher, if you know better and could do better, is evil in the sense that it's the wrong choice and you're indulging the wrong impulse and the wrong side of you. So if there's no chiyus, if when there's no bittul there's no chiyus, so where does such an entity derive its spiritual energy and life force from? Where does the nefesh bahamis, how is it alive? How does it express? How does it tempt you? How does it express itself? So that's what we'll pick up with. Cliffhanger. Tanya. Cliffhanger. That's what we'll pick up with next week. Imirtzashem, next week we'll finish. We got a little ways to go. We'll finish perek vov. We're going slowly, but we're trying to understand. We're not teaching Tanya, we're just learning it. We got, we got a ways to go. We got a ways to go. We'll be doing this for a while. But we should imirtzashem all have the day that we live a life of bitul, elokus over ego, of our nefesh elokus, the nefesh bahamis inside us, it's not saying don't enjoy this world, enjoy this world, but do it from the perspective of elokus, not of ego. Stay happy, stay healthy.
