Rabbi Guy Matalon - The Way of God - Part 28

we talked about according to the ramakhal how many souls do we have two what which two nephews and nephews or nephews in the summer right one nephesh is connected to the body and the other one connects that nephesh to the spiritual realm excellent okay good that's where we are now with what part are we able to contemplate to think abstract thoughts so we have one wrong answer here anybody else what nephesh do we contemplate we think abstract thoughts so you would think you would think this is the answer that i always thought then but no he says very specific that because there is a connection between the bodily nephesh and the spiritual nephes right the spiritual nephesh is bound by the boundaries of the body and therefore it cannot be connected with the spiritual incorporeal entities so long as it is connected to the body right so i think you said right don't you say i guess you have to die in order to have correct correct so he says so what does it do it is affected by what happens to the body and it's whatever the body is happening it connects to the light of god right it's sort of bringing whatever connection there is look at it as like you know like a puppet has strings that is the string to the puppeteer right the upper nephesh the spiritual nephesh not the bodily nephesh okay the bodily nephesh is the not you know that actually ties the the arm right because it causes the arm to go like this there's a string right when you die both of them no just one so i don't know it's not a question of thinking it's you have consciousness you have consciousness but we'll talk about that so listen to this so he says that it allows for the lower nephesh to contemplate allows the lower nephesh to contemplate it is what activates your intellect to actually work but the in yes but then the lower nefesh is where the intellect is what does what allows the shaman actualizes the fish's ability to contemplate now even though we speak about the soul the spiritual soul as one entity nephesh really it is full of many many parts it's made up of many parts and various various layers or levels okay so you could say that it's made up of many fascias it's one but they're really many many parts so it depends on whether you focus on the parts or you focus on the whole if you focus on the whole how many do you have two two right lower and the upper one no the top one is men yeah has many many so he says it is almost you should look at it as a chain right do you ever see rings you have a chain it's like this like this like this right it is one chain but the chain is made up of many links right it's the proper english term at least in america you guys call the links link okay good and he says from all of these layers they make up the upper or the the spiritual nephesh and they're all tied to one another and the last one is connected is the nephesh of the body and that one is connected to the blood right and we tried to figure out how so what's the connection how is it in the blood we didn't really have a good understanding right we tried to come up with all sorts of metaphors some people didn't like my metaphor some people like the different one you suggested one you suggested one azure had one they can watch the tape here's the the interesting piece it is possible that some of the parts would disappear in certain times and then would return again or that there would be additional layers to the nephesh that would appear or parts that would disappear yes there's two remember i'm using the netfish in two ways net lower net fish and upper nephesh right bottling fish spiritual nephesh bodily nephesh i'm not talking about leave that alone talking about the spiritual nephews so the ramakhal is saying that spiritual nephew is made up of many parts right and some of the parts appear some of them disappear some of them come into some of them go away they are dynamic it is a situation in flux why do they come in and out of being do you think nobody knows mitzvahs so listen to this and see if it fits with what you what you say he says but regardless of what of as they change right they go back and forth right these come they go nukes incoming old things going there is no effect on the body whatsoever none it's not like you you know one part of the soul is leaving and you're like you have a twitch you know like your pinky and then it comes back like oh good and then the next one like goes like this all day and then that no there's no effect on the body none so what is the effect why are they coming in and out what's what's i'm supposed to see so the ramkhan is explaining that it's simply dependent on the connection of that soul to the supernal realm to the spiritual aspects that they're we're connected to so as we live our life whatever we do down here our connections up there change changes we might not it might not translate physically into anything it's not like all of a sudden then you your hearing is better or your eyesight is better or your understanding is better no it means that simply there is it's a dynamic system and certain parts like this and like this and you move up and you move down but you might not be aware of it but it all is happening within the subconscious so does that mean our relation to the physical it doesn't change but you know the spiritual physical and that affects our relationship to the spiritual so that but you wouldn't know it you wouldn't sense it you wouldn't sense it but by working towards being more spiritual and less physical yeah so there then you are positively affecting your spiritual message why i think i like that idea by the way it's a good idea but let's develop it i want to hear why so i can tell you ah no you're wrong but i like it um i don't know because prayers aren't necessary you're not praying to get what you're praying for answered you're praying just to feel a connection to more of a connection to the spiritual realm at least you know not everything you're praying for you're gonna get so i don't know but that seems to imply well i guess i mean you're right in the sense that um our whatever is going on consciously that we're aware of affects the level of spirituality that we have and therefore even things that we're not perceiving spiritually are affected so that i think i think you're right but he gives the example of the neshama yatira on shabbos right there's an idea that you get this spirit extra spiritual power on shabbat right and you don't feel it it's not like shabbos comes and you're like oh yeah i got it i feel it what happens to me yeah no no no but that doesn't mean that you're unhappy but it's not that you there is something i don't know that's what the ramchal says so you say no i feel it okay good listen i will rewrite the book when we you know when we get to 120 and we go to his year i'll go with you when it's chapter three when section three chapter one we'll raise our hand and say but he feels it and then he'll look at you and like no you don't and like no i do i do i don't or maybe you'll say oh you feel it okay so when someone gets excited for shabbos and they feel like that's not it that's not what he's saying artificial it's not artificial it's real but if that's physical this is non-physical he says you don't feel when it's coming you don't feel when it's going you don't feel it right an adar other is entering right for those of us who are going to dive in minha in a few minutes right we're not going to say because it's going to be rosh chodesh right it's a good reminder for everybody so what right and we get rosh holes we have a new month and in the month of adar we're supposed to be happy happy can you actually change the way you feel on cue yes mike i mean you put it so simply no kind of no yeah no what do you mean no you can take steps to make yourself feel better can you make yourself feel better what the reason i think it's an important point just to talk about in general in terms of you know god wants us to control our emotions when he says be happy you got to be happy i don't feel like being happy too bad put i think someone goes into a bad situation and then they use their intellect to overcome it they go okay one bad thing happened to me today and all of a sudden it takes down the roof they go look at all the good things that have happened maybe not right now but the day before the day before that you know it's one hitch so i really shouldn't get down about this and i should go on with my day and so you're but you're saying you agree that it works you can do it the confusing thing about those instantaneously now well it can be instantaneous but not the first time you try like you could condition yourself to to know that when a situation arises the same situation as there isn't enough times that you know that okay this is how i normally feel when this happens but as soon as it happens i'm going to train myself to just be happy about it so not the first time you try it but if you've gone through it enough condition yourself then maybe you could flip the switch so i want to hear really i don't want to put you on the spot but i'm really interested in what you have to say jacob what do you think can you control your emotions can you become happy because it's rosh chodesh and simply say sorry yeah but you can definitely change your mind yeah not completely from one to another but you can definitely check it how so just through mind over emotions well emotions are basically in the minds anyway most people see at least they start in the mind they might not be staying in line but they if you can control certain behaviors you can probably control do a certain degree of you can go from i don't really care too yes it's other that can go but it's not genuine you're just it's just outwardly like you know don't be rude to people and just but you might have a bad day and feel bad inside and i'll just be polite and nice and smile but really i'm not actually happy yeah it's like people who work in customer service hi how are you can i help you yeah you know i'm like no no no oh why'd you punch me because that's how i feel no we do not condone punching customer service reps in the face it's not what i mean it's just a joke what about like what about brett's love they're supposed to be happy all the time i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm stopping you here because it's a mitzvah in the torah that all jews are supposed to be happy not just breast lift no i know people always think that people always say that the reason i'm stopping because it's important to so they i'm being happy all the time right average you needs to focus on being happy all the time except for when what no yom kippur no tisha bob like it's just no no but but they but i'm not i i just wanted to have a discussion all right this is the point the question is can we control our emotions and the answer is to some extent i think you're right some extent can we change it yes i think to some extent a person can change his mood you could be in a bad mood and you can change it sometimes sometimes right you get really mad but you have to just let it go and you know go surrender that and change that it doesn't just change because i decided right now you know you know let's but sometimes the doing is doing this one two three four five six seven eight nine ten it's over maybe but it depends what is artificial serenity now if i say i think it's really not programming yourself yeah people are stressed don't you program yourself to aren't you programmed now how do you know that what you're feeling now is not a program okay so then what's the problem with being programmed one way or the other now i want to hear from you you were all quiet you didn't say anything so what do you think jump in about emotions it's possible to change like that or like are you like jacob what about this as an example like a baby's crying and you give it a lollipop that stops crying no that's a choking hazard don't you're not babysitting now that's it you're out take them off the list no if a baby's crying you give them a pacifier right and then they falls and they scream again and then you dunk tape to their mouth and then the police is over i'm kidding you're giving them you're comforting if you've got a terrible outlook or like an outlook where like i hate my job i hate going home to my wife because she nags me all the time then i mean it's you're just gonna stay there women man what what is this news to you yes that never happened to me my wife never nags me um no remember i gave you the example the example is it's adar when the month of of comes you have to lower the level of does that mean you have to be no semra no you may might at the level of simcha but in other you ratchet up you ratchet it down usually you just have to be in happiness because otherwise but i think i can i don't think i need to do that in a few in about a few hours then you got to be super happy what time does the month start and when the three stars are out at the jewish year uh we're just like able to uh then for the next month genuinely so you gotta think during the time and then nissan people say it continues do you mind if i speak i don't want to interrupt but you know if you want the mic you know it's fine you know tell them to turn the camera on you i'm trying to that's it it's okay so emotions just like that on command it's like i've got to be a customer service rep for a whole month that's what it's like unless something's going to keep that going like you're going to feed me chocolate all the time or something i don't know so i yes i was just going to say most of the time people don't even have the thought that they have control over their emotions it's like a subconscious like you automatically make things worse so if you can make things worse subconsciously as soon as you think about it you can make it feel good yeah then you have to change it immediately at least like maybe not too that was my point that was my point of the discussion so that we are at least are aware that we do have some level of control over our emotions and we need to take initiative to get ourselves to be happy now does that mean you have to change the environment fine change the environment you have to change your mindset change your mindset put on you know good music is it a natural like thing to want to feel bad if you're not like if it's not uh automatic is it like automatic like you make yourself feel worse unless you decide to yeah what does that mean i don't understand i don't follow you wait wait let him know yes i think so i feel bad and then you feel worse and worse because if you start complaining then you'll complain and you talk to your friend and they'll complain too yeah the rabbis and the classes are bad and the food's like yeah yeah you get like you know you're all worked up you get yourself all worked up and then in the end somebody comes like no it's like this like oh i i didn't know because you were already you know there was a guy i read a story of a guy who bought a house near a lighthouse or something and he would just go out and invite people for coffee or tea when they were ready to jump off and he like saved so many people from committing suicide yeah so i and i thought it was i was bridge that was the one and i thought australia people want to commit suicide why there's a place suicide squad but i felt like people are happy there now there's this library where it's famous people jump off so the same thing at nyu yeah in cornell soul the shama the upper has five major parts and they're called as follows the top five but within those five each of the five is divided into other parts okay so not forever but it keeps going so now it's important to know that the spiritual neshama right has so what are we talking about right now we have to keep in mind what we're talking about you have the nephesh here and you have the neshama here and then the middle one because it's five two here two here the middle one is also called neshama right so the whole thing is called sometimes nephesh sometimes nishama but then you have one of them that is called nishama got it get it or no there's there's nephesh and nephesh right and this top one sometimes is called nishama all of it but one part of it which is the middle part is called neshama that is five parts right but the middle part is called the shama the whole thing sometimes is called nishama the whole thing sometimes is called nephesh no they're not separate because they're connected but they're not about what we're talking about correct has nothing to do with anything right right now it's going to change this is the top and there's five parts the top has five parts then the net fish you have a lower net fish with the body it's in the blood okay now it says the following even though it's tied to the body it does have some connection to the spiritual realm okay and to the extent that it's the body doesn't prevent it from being connected okay the body is supposed to pull it down but if the body doesn't pull it down because of control because of perfection because of lots of different things then it still maintains its connection to the spiritual realm okay and nothing he says like this and nimshach vennola said nothing is derived or experienced from this in the mind of the individual except in very very rare occasions so most of the time you won't know that your neshama is connected and is sort of you know getting connected to the wi-fi you won't know it's not like the you know you'll see in your eyes like some something going on here okay now in the human condition we have on and off there's an on switch when we are awake and there's an off switch when we are asleep okay on and off when we are in off when we are resting at night right so what happens the body rests and also the faculties of the soul rest so he says that his intellect is resting and the only thing that is working when you are asleep is the imagination okay you'll see so he says the is working and will generate images of all sorts of things that the image the imagination had experienced and it is also he says the dreams are affected by certain chemicals and humors in the body so you eat you know certain things it affects you and it'll affect your imagination so your dreams are affected by those type of things and he says and god he created a situation where your nephesh the upper nephish is somewhat detached from the body right and the rest is there's a part that is connected there's a part that isn't and they go and connect to the spiritual realm they connect to the cloud and download all sorts of or upload whatever you want to call it it's probably going both ways and information and that's what's happening at night that happens at night if you take a nap during the day no yours you're in and above do not leave so that's why you don't have to then diamond is different you have all these other rules you don't say look right you don't say that during the day if you take a nap only at night if you walk during the night well that's a good question that's a good question sunday you