Is SCIENCE dangerous? | Ten Minutes of Meaning | Tanya #39

Good morning, good morning. Purim to all. 10 minutes of mini-series is sponsored by Marilyn Michael Fidac. We're very grateful to them. Those who are able to uh eat or drink something this morning are invited to uh Rub Shaya the Corner. Have a coffee, a slushy, a pastry, enjoy. We are on Tanya and we're in the middle of perek ches, we're in the middle of the eighth perek of Tanya. And the Alter Rebbe has been reminding us about the levels of klipa and its impact on us. When a person indulges in certain behaviors or activities, klipa snowga is the neutral klipa. Klipa snowga is the one that our intention, our mindfulness determines what that action is. And the regular klipa the sitra achra, indulging the other side, is what's categorically negative. And then one needs to in the next world be purged of whatever negativity we've absorbed, whatever mistakes we've made. So, just like a person, Reb Steinsaltz gave the metaphor of exposure to radiation. About Tanya, the Alter Rebbe seems himself to describe it as similar to person who eats, where we absorb what we've eaten. Even if you do teshuvah with the best intention in the world, that doesn't lower your cholesterol level. It doesn't take away, it doesn't change your elaborate lab outcome. So, a person needs to We talked about chibbut ha-kever, the the first what the body goes through, the soul is experiencing through the treatment of the body. And then kaf ha-kela, we talked about the next level. What brings us up to section three of perek ches, I believe. I'm pretty sure. We spoke of dibburim assurim, it's on us lashon hara kyotzei bahem. I think we covered that. Now, let's take hochmas umos ha-olam. B'chol dvarim b'teilim yichasheiv l'inyan avon bitul Torah. Studying even permitted non-heretical forms of secular wisdom, says the Alter Rebbe, is considered to be a neglect of Torah study. Tantamount to Jewish law to bitul Torah, to worthless discussion. K'mo she-kassuv b'hilchos talmud Torah, as the Alter Rebbe writes in the Shulchan Aruch HaRav in hilchos of talmud Torah. That a person It's a very complicated sugya. How do you define the mitzvah? Every mitzvah has a shiur, every mitzvah has a measure. Every mitzvah has a uh amount in order to fulfill it. How do you define What is the shiur of the mitzvah of talmud Torah? How do you fulfill the mitzvah of talmud Torah? So, the assumption is that unless one is occupied and preoccupied with a legitimate, reasonable other activity, they're obligated to be learning Torah. So, the question becomes, what's considered a legitimate alternative activity? Eating, drinking, earning a parnassah, sleeping, certain personal needs. Those are legitimate al- where a person is not being mevatel Torah in those moments, arguably they're not even obligated in Torah in those moments. But what about if a person wants to be ossek b'hochmas umos ha-olam? Somebody wants to study even non-heretical forms, to be exposed to, to read, to study. Heresy, of course, is forbidden. Of course, it's sitra achra. Of course, it's klipa. But even if it's not heretical, it's just secular forms of wisdom. Is that bitul Torah? The Alter Rebbe says, yes. So, it means that a person has a choice at any given moment whether to open a sefer and learn Torah, whether to attend a shiur and learn Torah, whether to challenge themselves with spiritual growth or secular wisdom, if they have the ability to be busy with Torah and they're choosing the alternative, then that's considered to be indulging in some level of klipa. Yotzei sera tumas shochmas umos ha-olam al tumas dvarim b'teilim. And from a perspective of Kabbalah, secular wisdom might even be more negative, more contaminating, more destructive for the neshama than than other forms of dvarim b'teilim. She-einah malbush u'metamei rak ha-middos. Why? Because dvarim b'teilim, if you're talking worthless discussion, it influences, it contaminates only the middos, the emotional attributes of the neshama. But secular wisdom is actually in the intellect. And as the Alter Rebbe said in the beginning of Tanya, the intellect is the highest level. It's the intellect that really defines our godly soul. The way we connect with our godly origin is through the intellect. So, when a person is speaking dvarim she-einam b'chol dvarim b'teilim, you're just schmoozing about uh they sports or the like, or speaking about uh things that speak to the emotional component of the soul, so that's one thing. When a person is engaging their intellect towards a wisdom other than Torah, so that might have a negative impact on the intellectual attributes, and that has a more negative a more negative effect. So, mi-yesod ha-ruach ha-kodesh u'vanefesh ha-elokis, worthless discussion contaminates only the emotional from its sacred element of wind. B'tumas klipa snowga shel dvarim b'teilim mab'in mi-yesod ha-ruach ha-ra'ah shel klipa zu b'nefesh ha-beheimis. So, we're indulging our lower level, which is not categorically wrong. If a person is just schmoozing about dvarim she-einam dvarim b'teilim. Person is just schmoozing about things that aren't noble. They're not ideas, they're not elevating, they're not enriching, they're not empowering. They're not arishkus. So, you can't say it's categorically bad. It doesn't fit into the category of klipa of sitra achra. It's not lashon hara and rechilus. You're not gossiping, you're not slandering, chos v'shalom. You're just wasting your breath and wasting your time. So, that is sourced in b'nefesh ha-beheimis. That's coming from the animal soul, the element of air, k'dei leha'ir, as we spoke about before. So, empty words, chaim u'l'ra'ah, empty words feel good precisely because they're empty content. The lack of alignment to any purpose is related to air, which flows freely in any direction without resistance. The animal soul is primarily an emotional creature, and its natural activity flows from its elemental disposition. Empty words stem from the desire to be carefree and unrestrained. The truth is, this is even in our vernacular. We talk about a person is blowing hot air. A person is talking and there's no substance to what they're saying, ah, they're blowing hot air, wind. It's even in our vernacular, it's the way we describe it. And the Alter Rebbe says, that's where it's coming from. V'lo b'chinat hochma bina v'da'as b'nefesh ha-elokis. Worthless discussion, dvarim b'teilim, again, they're not violating negative, prohibited things, but worthless discussion does not contaminate the intellectual faculties of hochma bina and da'as in the divine soul. Mi-achasheim dvarim dibrei sh- shtus u'burus. Because worthless discussion are words of nonsense and ignorance. She-gam ashutah u'm'e'eres kol ha-avarim The proof of this is being even fools and the uneducated can speak can speak that way. Mash-ein kein b'hochmas umos ha-olam she-einah malbush hochma bina v'da'as b'nefesh ha-elokis, noge'a sheb'hochmas zeh lo. So, again, it's much more dangerous to use our intellect, but for not the most proper, the most sourced, the most authentic is much more dangerous than speaking dvarim b'teilim, which is affecting the middos in the neshama. So, we're not speaking about idolatrous or heretical ideas. We're not talking about fira. But we're talking general knowledge. Doesn't have an anti-religious content or anti-religious bent. It's not trying to compromise or corrupt you. It's just a waste. Which brings the question and begs the question, why should math or medicine, why should physics, chemistry, or biology, why would secular wisdom, which is not heretical or anti-religious, why would it be negative or contaminating to the soul? The Rambam writes the opposite. The Rambam, in fact, writes that there are two ways we get to know the Ribono shel Olam. The highest, of course, is Torah. We have access to Ribono shel Olam gave us his diary, which is a description of Elokus. That's the highest way to know him. But the Rambam also says that when a person studies Hashem's world, when we look around and we see the hochma ein kaitz, it has no end, the brilliance, the wisdom, we understand the intricate detail, we understand the science that drives the world, that's a kiyum emunas Hashem. One of the ways that we draw close, one of the ways we come to love Hashem, to know Hashem is to love Hashem. And how do you know him? You know him in two ways, writes the Rambam. You know him through his diary, his written word, that's the Torah Kedosha, and we know him through his world. We know him through his world. L'havdil, person had an ancestor they never met. You can come to know them through their written word, if you have access to their diary, a letter. You also can come to know them through their creation, through what they built, through what they left us, through their legacy. They left you a painting, they left you a face, a sculpture, they left you something of significance, you come to know them. So, the Rambam says, we know him in both ways. So, why is the Alter Rebbe saying that no, if you study the hochmas umos ha-olam, if you study science, medicine, so you're indulging klipa snowga, comes from the animal soul, and it's contaminating, it's negative. So, the answer the Tanya draws on a teaching of Kabbalah, she-naflu sham b'shviras ha-keilim. Secular wisdom is fallen there. It comes to the realm of klipa snowga through a concept called shviras ha-keilim. Shviras ha-keilim is the shattering of the vessels. Now, I have to tell you, on any day, I'm not in a position to tell you what shviras ha-keilim is. But the morning after Purim, I don't know, maybe you think I got to the levels of understanding sh- I I experienced some ashtaka shviras ha-keilim. But I'm not sure I'm in a position to tell you what shviras ha-keilim is. I'll tell you what Reb Chaim Miller explains. One of the secrets of creation revealed by the Kabbalah by the Kabbalah, Reb Chaim Vital explains, there's a quote from Reb Chaim Vital in Likutei Chadasim. To fashion pottery, the potter first takes an unformed mass of clay, places his hands inside the mass to form it. Likewise, the suprema supernal emanator put his hand, a ray of light, into the amorphous mass. As this light began to enter the mass, vessels were formed, all ten sefiros. Since keter, crown, was the purest and clearest of all the vessels, it could bear the light within it. But Hochma and Bina, though more translucent than those below, were not like Kesser. Not having enough capacity, their backs broke and they fell from their position. I just read to you a paragraph in English. It was English. It's our It's our first language. No, Reb Shachtel, what's Sheviras HaKelim? What's Sheviras HaKelim? We need a few more l'chaims. As the light descended further, six points appeared, six fragments of what had been one point of light. So, the vessels shattered, their spiritual essence, the light, ascended back to the mother's womb, while the shattered vessels fell to the world of creation. As I zapped Reb Chaim Vital. Okay, now translation. While sacred in origin, the falling of these shattered vessels gave rise to the klipos. Since the vessel fragments contained an overwhelming amount of mass, self-awareness, and only a tiny glimmer of light, God awareness, therefore earthly secular knowledge, which was a product of the shattered vessels of Hochma and Bina, has a propensity towards self and ego, and tends to contaminate the mind away from God consciousness. My limited, very limited, extremely limited, extraordinarily limited understanding is essentially that these are wisdoms that were arrived at, discoveries that came not from the perspective of Elokus, of Godliness. They came through the scientific mind and analysis. They came from a place of ego, of wanting to understand, of wanting to master, of wanting to maybe control and manipulate and rule. And so, since the way in which these truths were arrived and derived comes from a place of ego instead of Elokus, they are laced, so to say, they have within them a residue of ego. And therefore, any encounter with study or learning something that sourced or that came through a place of ego instead of Elokus can contaminate the God consciousness, the purity in the neshama in us. How that comes to a Sheviras HaKelim, I don't have clarity. But that's I think what the Alter Rebbe is getting at. Achorayim shel Hochma d'Kedusha. The shattering of the vessels, Sheviras HaKelim, affected the backs of sacred Hochma and Bina. Yedei Hochma d'Stara, as is well known to those familiar with hidden Kabbalistic wisdom, which does not include me. As the above citation makes clear, Sheviras HaKelim affected different sefiros to varying degrees. So, while the vessels of the six emotional sefiros were shattered completely, the intellectual sefiros had a shattering only of their backs. So, practically practically we see this in the extent to which human emotion and intellect are self-serving. Emotions, when devoid of intellect, are always self-serving. The holiness had been completely shattered. So, if a person indulges pure emotion, absent of any intellect, for example, the Rambam and the Ramban both write that while middos, they're called middos, character traits are good in measure, they belong in some measure. We learn this together when we learn the Ger Ramban. There are two, one for sure, character traits that don't belong in our recipe in any measure. And they are anger, anger. I mean the Torah I mean the wrath. The Ramban writes in the letter to his son, you got to get rid of anger altogether. We should condition ourselves to speak b'nachas. B'chol adam u'v'chol eish. U'v'zeh tinatzel m'nakas. That's how I'll be saved from ever getting angry, says the Ramban. And the Rambam writes, person has to be extreme to never get angry. And the other is arrogance. The person has to be extremely humble. The truth is the two go together. They're sourced in the same place. So, in emotion, why is anger so bad? Other emotions belong in some measure. Other emotions have some redeemable quality to them. Anger has no place. What's the danger of anger? Anger is a pure emotion with no intellect. It's a pure emotion, pure emotion. Person gets angry, it's all out of ego. You You should never feel rage. You could feel outrage. We feel outrage right now towards Iran, towards those who don't get it about Iran. You could feel outrage cuz that's an intellect. That's a way That That's dictating how we respond. But rage, anger, it's categorically negative, self-sabotaging, it's bad. Why? Cuz it's pure emotion with no intellect. Whenever there's pure emotion with no intellect, it's coming from ego. It's coming from ego. That's shattering intellect. At its core, positive and helpful only becomes corrupt through bias. So, Tanya will end perek ches right now. Elokim kein oso chardom lachtom bahem. Now, secular knowledge will contaminate a person unless unless you use it, and here he's borrowing language from Mishnah Avos, as a spade with which to dig. D'haynu, k'dei l'parnes b'revach l'vad Hashem. So, to earn a comfortable livelihood. O she'odeh l'hishtamesh b'avodas Hashem l'shmo l'vad. This is a very important qualification the Alter Rebbe puts at the end, where he says this secular wisdom that might have been sourced in ego, which really is coming from the nefesh beheimes, coming from the klipus nogah, is bad unless it is enabling you to earn a parnassah. So, you became a good Jewish doctor to give your parents nachas. You're in the good living. Once upon a time doctors are in good living. So, that's with number one. Or number two, you know how to study biology, chemistry, physics, math, science, you know how to engage these disciplines in a way that's going to not detract or contaminate your godly soul, but it's going to elevate, enrich. It's going to draw you closer to the Ribbono shel Olam. B'zeh ot tamim shel Rambam v'Rabban d'chol avodah. B'siyata d'shmaya oska bahem. So, the Alter Rebbe has to address. Everyone knows the Rambam was a doctor. The Ramban also was a physician. They were both doctors. So, the Alter Rebbe can't be describing that the Rambam and the Ramban indulged, engaged klipus nogah and nefesh beheimes. So, he gives them the benefit of the doubt, either cuz I don't know what he's saying, just parnassah, or also they both knew how to use it for avodas Hashem. I learned by reading to you from Reb Steinsaltz, because Reb Steinsaltz was a brilliant and very knowledgeable in the secular wisdoms of the world. So, I had Reb Steinsaltz comment here on this perek, the end of perek ches. So, he writes the following. Secular science can assist in the service of Hashem not only indirectly, such as through providing a livelihood, but also directly, if the knowledge itself is used to serve Hashem. If a person studies philosophy to clarify for himself the ways of serving Hashem, if he studies astronomy to see how the heavens relate to the glory of God, if he studies other sciences in order to devise ways of better fulfilling the mitzvos, his pursuit of these studies constitutes a part of his service of Hashem. The chapter on astronomy in the Rambam's included in the beginning of of Hilchos De'os are not a professional study of astronomy, part of his halachic work, Mishneh Torah. Rambam's astronomy makes him think not of Ptolemy, but of Hashem. His assumption is that the more one knows about creation, the more one knows about the Creator. The greatness of the Creator can be inferred not only from astronomy. Once looking at a tiny worm in the sand, one rabbi remarked, "People think that only the heavens relate to glory of Hashem. How much divine glory is there in a tiny worm?" There's a saying attributed to the Vilna Gaon, "When someone lacks one part of the science, he lacks nine parts in Torah knowledge." Science aids the understanding of Torah, and even the logical comparison of different systems can be a stimulating tool in studying Torah. So, when a person pursues secular knowledge in one of the above manners, he does it to what he does to the bread he eats for the sake of heaven. He transforms klipah into holiness. One can say this chapter completes the map, delineating the boundaries of good and evil, holiness and klipah, klipus nogah and the profane klipus. In the following chapters, now the Alter Rebbe considers the person, what transpires and what process he should initiate within his soul. So, we were talking theoretical, abstract concepts, categories, and now moving forward, beginning with perek tes, now we're going to get to the tzaddik, the rasha, the beinoni. We're going to get to how this applies to the person. Of course, we have to find a way to understand and reconcile the end of perek ches because the Rebbe, zatzal, studied in university. The Rebbe was an engineer, a practicing engineer before he became gave in and became the Rebbe. So, the Rebbe, too, was very brilliant and very knowledgeable in the secular ways and wisdoms of the world. Chalilah, not indulging his klipus nogah and nefesh beheimes, but this highest level. So, it's interesting how the Alter Rebbe didn't give the qualification at the beginning. He made the absolute statement in a very extreme and intense way, and at the end he gave the qualification, maybe because he wanted it to be a word of caution and a warning that a person has to know that they're capable, that they're in that position, that they're being sincere in the way that they're engaging. Baruch Hashem, we complete perek ches, and im yirtzeh Hashem, next week we'll begin with the ninth perek. Can you hear me better?