On the Essence of Chasidus (Ch. 1)

welcome to a new series brand new series which we are doing in conjunction with our partners at hyena kaino is a weekly torah journal that includes the study sessions for the daily studies study sessions for hamish and tanya and rambam as well as many other tracks of study including a section every week in some acidic discourse so right now starting this week the hyena will have cuntress alters is often referred to as on the essence of siddhis and we'll be studying just a little bit of it every week over the coming weeks and months the entire discourse is i believe 21 chapters some nights we will study one chapter some nights we will study more um just a little bit on the background of this contrast contrast literally means a booklet or a pamphlet it began as a spoken address specifically at the rebels udteskislive it is the anniversary of the liberation from imprisonment of the al-taraba the balatanya the first rabb of khabad and every year there is a great celebration on that on that date the rabbit would always lead a fabregan a gathering for your test kislev and on the occasion of your test kislev tough shin you're talking about december of 1965. um there was utes kiss liv fabregan and at that fabregan the rabbit generally jotez kislev would address the theme of what is siddhis after all yotescus rosh hashanah so what is this what is this innovation what it what did it bring to the world uh what's necessary about it what was its significance historically and what continues to be its uh significance today that was always a theme uh on at ut's at this particular utes crystal fabric that ever spoke at length and and sort of presented what you might call a systematic uh or or a a categorized or organized presentation of what exactly is teresa this meaning the teaching specifically i'm saying this as opposed to see this which can mean the way of life of siddhis or the the movement or the or or even the culture but this means the teachings the teachings of says how do we define the teaching of our teachings of this what makes what make what makes the teachings of citizens distinct what are the um hallmarks of the teachings of siddhis what defines them what sets them apart you know how would you describe siddhis or the teachings of this i know you know i i've in my capacity as a as a teacher uh who teaches say this quite often you know i've many times had to write a summary of what a class is about and sometimes i'm writing it very often i'm writing it for people who are not familiar with siddhis so there's always that struggle like well do you say it's a classic siddis well what does it say this you know so how do you define this so you so you just say well acidic teachings well it's sort of it that's translating it but it's not defining it doesn't explain what it means what it is i mean acidic teachings isn't any more understandable than saying sid this is just you know using english words or semi-english hasidic you know is an adaptation of hebrew word two in english word anglicized word and then teachings i guess is an english word but still what does it mean acidic teachings okay but what are the what are the teachings of siddhis and and how are they different than the teachings of the rest of of torah and at any rate that's what this contras this booklet is about uh it it it takes the rabbis up uh and they they they edited it and they put it into writing and they gave it to the web for review actually interestingly the first place where this work appeared printed was in volume one of seifer heirken i don't know how many people are familiar with seyfaro airken but i think actually technically people who know dikduk will probably be cringing right now the way i'm pronouncing it it's probably safer but we all say sephiroth is an encyclopedia which was edited basically compiled written by the the scholar reb yeol khan may he be well one of if not the uh greatest student of siddhis in our generation um so the controversial appeared the first time it was printed as a supplement to the to the first volume of sephora at any rate without further ado let's delve into the text and i want to encourage everybody to use the chat um to ask questions please uh it gives the class sort of uh you know a dynamic flow where there's you know what actual reactions and questions uh i i won't be able to necessarily answer every question or answer it immediately but i really do appreciate if people do respond in the chat now i understand most people are going to be watching this class on archive and they will not be able to interact but even if you're watching this on archive if it's during the time when the class is still being recorded please email me at rabbi at soulwords.org rabbi soulwords.org and blinder if the question fits we will we'll work it into a into the next class and we'll just we'll address it um and i i want i want to mention again that we're doing this in partnership with kayenu and that's why if you want to find these classes in archives you'll find them at soulwords.org in fact that's probably how you found this page if you're not watching it live on the zoom you're probably at soulwords.org okay let's jump in a booklet or a pamphlet on the essence of siddhis teachings of exodus the essence of the teachings of citizens regarding what is siddhis that's how i'm going to translate inyana the matter of siddhis but maybe it's better to say what is it what is siddhis the shabba as well as its innovative aspect alhalke hattarashinis gallo lefonaha over the portions of torah that were revealed historically prior to it there's an unspoken question here the unspoken question is if siddhis is indeed so important so vital why didn't it come along until so recently siddhis is a relatively recent advent um it's really if you think about it uh the altar who wrote tanya um you're talking about lahavdil it's about as old as the united states of america okay it's not ancient it's not even medieval it's fairly modern it's it's just i mean depending how far you want to go back to the altered you want to go back to the market all the way back to the malshamtiv but it's 300 years old which compared to the tradition you know that we have going back to to moses where you're talking about 3300 and some years so it's see this is relatively new and and the question becomes you know why didn't it come along until so recently and what advantage does it pose over you know we have plenty of toyota from from through the ages so what did consider this contribute that was new so regarding this question what is this and what's its kiddush what's its innovative aspect what did it add what did it contribute many explanations have been said oh mayhem among them being colon okay and now for we're going to have a list of four explanations of what is siddhis and what is innovative about it these are the four uh suggested answers to this question and and i'm just gonna you know this is a spoiler alert but in very soon not not tonight but in the next class that ebba will say those are all good but none of them are the essence of siddhis so i'm just giving you a heads up they're all true but none of them are the essence of sins all right so here we go aleph bismani shall in the times of the baal champtov the world was in a state of spiritual unconsciousness or a faint like somebody who faints and through the revelation of the baal champiv as a personality and a leader as well as his teachings which are called teresa the world was revived was awoken from its faint in other words the first explanation is sort of a historical uh explanation what is the significance significance of siddhis it came along at a critical juncture in history there was a time where the jewish people were in peril there was a there was impending spiritual crisis as material and spiritual um the situation was there was grinding poverty there was a great deal of division between different classes of jews there were the scholars and then there were the regular folk and there was a great divide between them there was also the the jewish world was still reeling from what until that point had been the biggest uh genocide of the jewish people in in in eastern europe uh the exercise which were talking about 1648 and 1649 that's just prior to the advent of the balchemtev so that wiped out i believe a third of of eastern europe's jewelry and it was absolutely demoralizing and devastating plus you had the great uh disillusionment regarding the false messiah of sha of shopsite sv and then the franchise who followed him so there were all types of reasons why the jewish people at at the time right before the balshempt have emerged on the scene why the jewish people were really in peril and the baal shem tov came and he woke the jewish people up when somebody faints our tradition tells us that the way to revive them is you say their name a name has a connection to a deeper a deeper level of consciousness so when someone faints you whisper their name and and it revives them the jewish people are referred to as israel israel is the name of the jewish people the boshantov's name was also israel so there's a sort of poetry there is came to wake up israel the jewish people so that's one explanation what is the significance of siddhis it is this the teachings of siddhis came at a critical juncture they revived the jewish people they sort of snapped us out of it so that we would you know come to and we wouldn't god forbid succumb to this you know comatose state all right base jose is one who goes beyond the letter of the law so now we're having sort of a more ethical description of what a status quo it is a body of teachings which encourage extra pious or extra scrupulous behavior and not just extra pious nexus scrupulous but as we're about to explain altruistic altruistic meaning self-transcendent where do we as we're going to see where do we get this idea that a khasid the name khasit is one who goes beyond the letter of the law uh like i say just say it's actually it's a gemara serfan khasid one who burns them his nails his nail trimmings is called the khasid shimazu even though it damages him um the trimmings of of of of one's nails are damaging to pregnant women if a pregnant woman steps upon the nails it's it's it's not good so um what are you supposed to do you're supposed to dispose of the nails so it doesn't cause this this damage to a pregnant woman how should you dispose of them well bury them you should bury them like uh you know what with any part of a body that that's lost i mean the nails aren't really living but nevertheless to bury them is that that would be the best thing to do for yourself however however somebody who's extra sensitive might say you know what i'm i'm not comfortable with that because if i bury the nails they still exist they get turned back up and a woman could still step on them and it would damage her so i don't want that to happen i want to completely uh obviate any possibility of damage coming to someone else so i'm going to burn the nails then they won't exist anymore now there's a catch anytime a part of one's body is burned it damages the person how does it damage the person what what's the nature of the damage that's another discussion the point is though that if you burn your nails it hurts you i'm not saying it physically causes pain i'm saying it causes some type of damage it's not healthy for you and that's why it's not required according to the law it's sufficient to bury your nail trimmings you don't have to burn them because the law is not going to require to require you to hurt yourself in order to avoid hurting this pregnant woman or her fetus in other words you know she's important but you're also important so you don't have to you know you have to you don't have to treat her more carefully than you treat yourself however and that that's the letter of the law the chosen says i'm going to go beyond the letter of the law i'm going to do something that will damage me in order to avoid a risk even a risk of damaging someone else and that's that's the source it refers to this person who makes that choice as a hosted so what is it it's the teachings of siddhis it is a body of teachings that lead one to a level of altruism and self-transcendence where one puts their own concerns secondary to the greater good okay so that's another way of explaining what siddis is all right so we've had a historical way of explaining it so this came along at this critical juncture to revive the jewish people from their comatose state and now we have the more ethical explanation because this is a body of teachings which inspires extra sensitive extra scrupulous altruistic behavior all right let's look now at three gimbal miles who the distinctive quality of the teachings of siddhis is that one's natural faculties are transformed into godly faculties as well as the code of jewish law quote the whole indian the whole point of this is to change the nature of one's attributes this is actually a story there's a story behind this and it's in lakota de borum which are seekers of the frida karabin that samarth sadiq who was the al-tarabha's grandson asked the alt-rabbi what is the inion of siddhis and meaning what's the point what point is driving at so the altar answered his grandson the indian of siddhis the point that siddhis is driving at is to change tevami daiso the nature of one's character traits and and the rabbit makes a diok that points out here not just to change his natural attributes but also to change the nature of his attributes so there are two things there are natural traits what's a natural trait that means a trait that you're born with trait that you have you naturally natural nature means that it's native you were born with it literally that's what it means um so you know somebody is more uh he was born more impatient so he has to work on that or is born more um prone to anger so he has to work on that right okay so those are called natural traits so to work on your natural traits means don't just be who you were born as work on yourself and and change your character traits but then there's the nature of character traits that's much deeper that means we're talking about the very nature of how character traits operate you understand the difference now we're not talking about the traits of your nature or the traits that are natural to you we're talking about the nature of traits what do i mean there are certain properties of character traits that if you define certain character churches this is what they are they are what they are so friends you know to give the examples that we were using before impatience is impatience anger is anger to change the nature of the traits does it just mean to change myself and my relationship with those traits it means to change the way those traits work but by by nature that's what makes them that's what makes khasir and that's what makes guru right they have different natures so to change the nature of traits means to get in there so deeply you're actually changing the way the traits function to the extent that they can even work in a manner that is counter to their very nature to the very aspects that define them so that's obviously a much deeper level of transformation at any rate this is our third explanation of what siddis is it's more about um i'd say maybe call it emotional development okay so to review the first explanation is more of the historical see this came to revive the jewish people at a critical juncture in history the second explanation said this it's more of the ethical explanation see this is what teaches you to appreciate being scrupulous to the point of altruism and and then the third explanation we just had here is that siddhis is um about how to master your character traits to the point of even changing the very nature of traits themselves okay dalit the fourth and final suggestion for what might be the nature of citizen the definition of siddhis teachings of this innovated that every individual every one of us even one who does not have a lofty soul the gamble and even one who hasn't refined himself see those are two different things a person could have a lofty soul that means he's just naturally more spiritually sensitive then there could be somebody he doesn't have a lofty soul but he put in the work and he became spiritually sensitive to this innovated that everyone even if they weren't given a natural talent for spiritual sensitivity and even if they haven't acquired spiritual sensitivity even though if they're just regular people like us they will be able to understand godliness abstract concepts in general are challenging but of course godliness talking about you know infinity first of all so infinity is something we can't wrap our minds around and then just god is unknowable so what language is there for discussing godliness so it used to be but regular people they didn't have a language for connecting to the idea of godliness it was now you could have faith of course you could have faith but faith is a totally different matter isn't it faith means i can't explain it but hasaga means no i could explain to you what it is i could speak about it intelligently before siddhis it wasn't possible for most people but see this innovated that regular people can discuss godliness it gave us a language in other words it is that through the teachings of citizens explaining the secrets of toyota and bringing them near to our intellect by using practical examples from our own human experience so this gave the possibility to every individual exactly to understand even the level of side the esoteric level of torah the lay rak the hussein not only with the intellect of his godly soul you know in tanya we talk about the two souls the godly soul is a being which obviously relates to godliness because it is godliness so not only does the person through siddhis understand godliness with the intellect of his godly soul even his intellectual soul there's actually a third soul the intellectual soul the intellectual soul is a is a mammoth is an intermediary between the godly soul and the animal soul uh very very quickly the godly soul thinks about godliness that's all it cares about and that's really all it understands the animal soul thinks about what's good for it and then you have in between you have the uh you call it the the diplomat the nefsa circus because these two uh souls aren't going to talk to each other they don't have a common language the go-between is the nephesha circus that's why when we make choices i don't want to get into a whole discussion about tanya but when we make choices basically the nephiques the intellectual soul um negotiating a deal between the godly soul and the animal soul nephilis appreciates ideas so it's more able to appreciate abstraction than the animal soul the animal soul wants the cake now the intellectual assault appreciates things like deferring my gratification for a greater cause you know ideas but it's it's not a godly soul for instance you know delayed gratification it appreciates that on a philosophical level it's not looking at that the way a godly soul would look at a godly soul would look at it as is it an opportunity to lose myself and the one or not it's looking at it in a binary way of am i connecting to the infinite losing myself in it or am i not and and the intellectual soul is more the philosopher and it's just looking for interesting ideas so what that that's the advantage of it because sometimes what it can do is it can take godliness which that godly soul appreciates and it can turn around and it can translate godly ideas into more idea ideas philosophical ideas and then even somehow successfully translate that to the experience of the animal soul which is concerned with you know immediate payoff so at any rate see this is this language that enables us to understand to understand godliness not only with the intellect of the godly soul which that wouldn't really be a hadith anyways because that's how the godly soul already understands life but even with the intellectual soul so the intellectual soul which automatically understands philosophy but not necessarily godliness see this enables the intellectual soul to understand godliness and even further we're not done yet odd until even even can successfully impart an understanding of godliness to the animal soul okay so just to review very quickly four suggestions for what siddhis is all about and what it innovated one is the historical explanation it came along at a moment of crisis and it saved the jews and by extension saved the world the second one is that uh see this is this ethical system that makes you extra pious and altruistic and you you put others before yourself uh the third one is see this is sort of this uh system for transforming your emotional traits your character traits uh on on a very deep level and the fourth one is that see this is a language for describing the indescribable for communicating infinite ideas godly ideas to the to the animal soul ultimately you know all the way down to to the animal soul so those are the four approaches somebody asked the question does the time you speak at all of the intellectual soul uh why not so um first of all i want to recommend everyone on soul words the classes on tanya there are a series of classes that go through the 53 chapters of tanya i do speak about this over there that the godly soul and the animal soul are the obviously the the main characters of tanya the intellectual soul is hinted to in a number of places in tanya uh specifically the end of chapter two um a very simple explanation why does the tanya not focus on the intellectual soul as a subject unto itself or even as an explicit subject so i remember i said earlier when you're choosing between when you whenever you're choosing between right and wrong it's essentially an at the act of the intellectual soul negotiating or brokering a deal between the godly soul and the animal soul so if you think about it like this the the tanya doesn't speak so much about the intellectual soul because the tanya is speaking to the intellectual soul who's learning tanya the intellectual soul the godly soul doesn't need to learn tanya it's already godly the animal soul can't learn tanya it's just i mean on its own it can't learn tanya but the intellectual soul learns tanya and then can even translate it to the animal soul okay was not revealed that sinai is a question here all of tata was revealed at sinai right that's that's what our sages tell us that every kid every new innovation that will come out was already given to masha tobino from mount sinai so obviously see this was given at sinai and that's why if you notice here at the very beginning there's a word here maybe i didn't make hay of it but at the very beginning what is the innovation of siddhis over the other parts of the titan shin is galileo which were revealed prior to it it's all about revelation so all of toyota is there already from day one right like rabino akash didn't write down the mishna uh until uh you know centuries after maison of but all of the teachings of the mishnah were there in the original toyota as it was taught by maisha baino so later advents within toyota are not additions but revelations so we it's very important to use that word revelation in other words it's all there in the code but it hadn't been yet unpacked but it still begs the question okay but how come earlier things were unpacked or decoded you know relatively early in jewish history and see this if it's after off it's so important how come it wasn't even if you're gonna say it was revealed it was unpacked it was always there but it had to be brought to light okay but why wasn't it unpacked or revealed or brought to light until such a relatively recent time okay anything else for now okay um good night and we'll see you all uh next week for class two