Tanya (Part 12)

Good morning Bokerov. Welcome back to 10 minutes of meaning. Please help yourself at Shia La Corner some slashes coffee and pastries. Want to thank our generous sponsors of our 10 minutes of meaning. Marilyn Michael Fedak. Thank you so much for all of your generosity in so many ways. We are on the second per chapter 2 of Tanya. In chapter one, we learned about the nephesh Bahame the lower level soul that we all have. And then ne per begins vene. We spent significant time talking about why is this our second soul? If it's our foundational primary soul, why does the balatanya formulated as our second soul? Is it chronological? Is it for some other reason be it's uniquely Jewish? And it is the it is the literal piece of Hashem that we have in us as we search for and look for confirmation evidence of Hashem's existence everywhere in the universe and the world. All we need to do is look in the mirror. All we need to do is look into ourselves because the greatest expression, the greatest presence of God, the greatest evidence of his existence is inside ourselves and the people around us. The Balatani describes the origin of man. That God breathed life into us. And where did that breath come from? Deep inside himself. Like the glass blower, like the individual who blows a balloon. It's easy to get out of breath. Speech comes from the external. Speech comes from the superficial, the surface. That's why you're not out of breath from speaking. But blowing up a balloon could knock you out because you take a deep breath inside yourself and blow into the other blew into us. This is where it comes from. And we last left off the was telling us that we come from just like the child comes from the brain of the father. Every Jewish person, every year is derived from Hashem through his thought and through his wisdom. We spent time, we won't repeat, you can listen last week about how in antiquity the until the modern early period, they believe that the male seed was physically derived from cerebral matter of the brain. That it began in the brain, came down the brain stem, came down the spine, and then exited through a duct at the spine's base. And that's where we came from and we shared interpretation of the pituitary gland that stimulates reproduction. Maybe that's a modern application or way of understanding it. The alterb himself understood it nonliterally because he writes that elsewhere. But even metaphorically there's a notion that we come from the wisdom. So just like the child comes from the thought process, the intentionality of the father to reproduce. So, so we come from thought concerning Hashem's wisdom. The Zora says wise, but not with the wisdom as we know it. And we also spent time on this last week. We can't know God in his essence. It's not wisdom as we know it. The terms and descriptions we use for ourselves are not applicable to the infinite omnipotent Hashem. Right? In our case, wisdom is external to us. We have to acquire wisdom. We even use that in our vernacular to acquire wisdom. You go to school, you sit in yeshiva, you learn, you download, you acquire the wisdom. For us, it is outside of ourselves and then we internalize it by acquiring the wisdom. When it comes to the Almighty Ram says unlike human beings, God is simultaneously the he's the power to know, the knower and the known. That idea of a wisdom that's entirely integrated with an essence is beyond us. We can't know that because we exist independent of knowledge. We can be ignorant and then acquire the knowledge. But Hashem and knowledge are one. What does that mean? What does that look like? How do we describe that? That's outside the realm of our experience. We can't the is explicit that there are things that are outside. Now he has a he has a note and I was debating what's the you allowed to learn Tanya without going into the note. You have to read the note otherwise you can't make a sem at the end. So in a 100 years when we make our semant if we want to be able to say the cm properly then we have to read the note. So we'll read the note the cited the ram and he quotes the ram to say that and his wisdom are one. The problem is that the ram is not the final word or the only word I should say on this. The ram is following a certain school of Jewish philosophy but he's not following the mystical approach the approach of kabala. In this instance would agree with writes in parades even according to the Arizal even according to the holy which is the primary source of as opposed to nevertheless they would agree with the ram in this case what's the disagreement the ram says and his knowledge are one how and Where would Kabala disagree with that? Because focuses on the notion of the S that is a infinite light. So Hashem's knowledge according to Kabala is a mere eination of that light. There's a light that is greater that is more abstract. That knowledge is the disseminated sort of reduced part of but there's something bigger and something greater. So when we say Hashem and his knowledge are one as opposed to the human who needs to acquire that knowledge outside of ourselves. So that seems inconsistent with Kabala. The Rambam sees Hashem what is Hashem's essence knowledge. That's why the great rationalist how do we know Hashem is knowledge. How do we love writ love is through knowledge. It's all about knowledge. But Kabala says there's an orain which is even above knowledge. So how does that how do you reconcile the opinion the approach of Kabala with the balata here endorsing the Rambam that seems at odds. So the note reconciles its not contradiction because yes there's a place and there's a level there's an orient there's this infinite light which Hashem is not reduced to knowledge. However, in the way that Hashem constricts himself to appear and be available and accessible to us through that in that kali on that level and through that finite vessel who's infinite or how does he fit in? How do we relate? How do we access? We're finite beings. We're mere mortals. So, how do we finite mere mortals connect or access the infinite God? The answer is himself. He constricted, he restricted, he presented himself in that other way. So on that level and in that restricted way, his knowledge and he are one and the same. The ram is right. But at a higher level then there's something greater which is the satani suggests that the ra's description that hashem as knowledge is true of the vessels of the lower level of the constricted form when he wants to make himself available and accessible to us through which the as you can imagine most certainly will explain more thoroughly. So where is all that datus in the world ofus means emanation. So in that world of atilus of divine attributes we can see him and his knowledge as one and the same but that is a incomplete description or view at the higher level he's the oral but's assertion that hashem is synonymous with knowledge with das is not correct above in a place of or at that higher place. So in conclusion, the Tanya can say we can quote the Rambam here and it's not at odds with Kabala because it's talking about two angles or two perspectives or two descriptions. from the highest place is the orient but from a lower where he makes himself available accessible in in in the to us in the world of so there we can see he and knowledge are one and the same that we can describe him as his knowledge that's the that's the footnote back to our regular schedule program back to what the balatanya was trying to make a point so that is all part one of peric bay part one of peric bay is our second soul and the second soul that we have is shalom manifest expressing himself in us. Now that's very hard for us to relate to or identify with because what do you mean Hashem is in me? I'm like like taken over by some ghost taken over by a dick taken over by some I'm me. My autonomy, my initiative, my decision-making, my free will like I'm me. So what does it mean? Hashem is me. So we have to realize that I and hem are the same the doesn't say this here in per but there's a big notion the focus a lot on the concept of bitesh the idea to nullify our sense of self to the godliness in us that there is no conflict there is no tension there is no static between the two that was expressing himself through me that my creativity my entrepreneurship my talent skills and brahas my personality who I am and everything about me and my mission and purpose in this world is the manifestation and expression of so yes there's the lower soul that again the animal in me that I'm not trying to slaughter or kill or purge I'm trying to train and elevate there's the animal in me animal impulse animal instinct of physical material world that we're learning how to navigate a world of time and a world of food and a world of intimacy and a world of physical that's the lower level soul and then there's the higher soul, the essential soul, the eternal soul, which is the manifestation of Hashem in me. And now the Batana turns to continue to say, "And not all these souls are equal when it comes to that higher soul, the godly expression in me. There are tens of thousands of different levels of souls and one higher than the other. The balt is referencing a p in cohelis. Balta was a bucky nigla tan kazal everything. So he embeds references that you have to be far from equally knowledgeable but you have to be aware of to know what he's embedding where he's drawing from what he's saying in passing that become his vocabulary. Tanak is his vocabulary gav the fifth paric of coalis. So this is the idea that on the one hand, Hashem put a piece of his soul, a piece of himself in each and every one of us. On the other hand, it doesn't manifest equally. There are myriad, tens of thousands of different levels that expresses. So you're not going to suggest I'm not going to suggest that Hashem breathed his life into me and Mosher Rabenu. So we're zak Mosher Rabenu and I are the same thing. We're both both of us have God in us. You shouldn't either. We're we're not equal. Me and Mosher Rabenu we're not equal. Me and people in this room are much greater than Idola is are much greater. So what is this? Some democrization of by saying that we're all it's almost like we're all equal. We're all so korak comes to motion. He said who put you in charge? Who says you're any greater? Who says you get to legislate and teach Torah? We're all equal. So is that what we should think? The beginning of perkb should teach us we're all equal. So no peric base continues and says whoa whoa relax. Take a deep breath. Yes, we all have Hashem in us, but the way he appears and manifests, we're not all equal. We're different. We're different. Mosherenu and the nish of our generation which are what's he using in that language is a lion that comes from the that tells us and predicts what the world will be like in the Mashiah in the footsteps the heels of Msiah when we're at the end of days where we see the light at the end of the tunnel we're close to the finish line Mashiach's coming which by the way we see many of those signs today in our time we're living halvai Mashiah should come today. So the bal is invoking that language of Mashia. What's fascinating is when did the Bata live? What century? He lived several hundred years ago and already then he's calling it Mashik. Every generation hopes, longs, wants, wishes. It's Mash. So it occurred to me like we think we look at the world, we see things happening, the modern miracle of a state of Israel, the challenge that come with it. But but several hundred years ago the Batana also felt the term foot these souls literally have the quality of feet compared to the souls of earlier generations who were the brain and the head. Our great great grandparents they didn't have AI. They couldn't speak into their phone and their car would pick them up. They didn't have voice recognition software. They didn't have video conferencing on their phone. They could talk to their children on seven continents simultaneously. And yet they were the head and we are the schmutz in their toenail. We are the the schmutz between their toes. I'm I'm paraphrasing the balatanya here. They were the brain and the head and we are the feet. The smelly ugly fungusfilled feet. And they were the head and the brain. I Iman Barilan drive arts called Gam more more than anybody that any time we've made such progress advance maybe in some ways I showed an article yesterday about who says we're better off for that the Katskarb my friend told me the Katskarb was once asked if Schlom was the wisest of all time why didn't he invent the train if he was brilliant and wise why didn't he invent the train so the Kutskar said he did. He just understood how it could be used for bad. And when he knew that trains could transport millions of Jews to their death, trains could be used to destroy the world. He chose to not introduce it to the world. Sometimes being brilliant doesn't mean you didn't know how to do something. It means you did, but you chose not to because you understood the ugly underbelly of it happening. If we could redo a world and not bring the internet to it, knowing what we know now about its impact on mental health and happiness and relationships with all the good that it brings, would we be better off without it? It's an interesting question. It's not a clear-cut answer, but it's an interesting question. So, just because technologically we have so much more and we think we've advanced, we should never be mistaken to think we're bigger and we're greater. Says the were the head and the brain and we're the feet. And not only intergenerationally meaning relative to previous generations we have aos we have a decline and a descent but even within a generation not all are equal. Are you going to compare the and me? Are you going to compare salvichek hutner yank? You're gonna compare of you're going to compare of and me within each generation there are enormous gaps between those who are the head and the brain and those who are the bottom of the feet the hon the masses and the and the so those distinctions and differences that enormous gap is not only true on the level of but it's true on the lower level of the soul, the level of nephesh. Even on the level of nephesh, there are enormous gaps. As we know, every soul has three layers, the two there are these gaps. So even though we look in this world and you've got some low-life debased animalistic undeveloped immature unsophisticated ignoramis and the next time you have some balidos steeped in kola and they're expressing and manifesting themselves entirely different but what they have in common is the root of every comes from the highest level of the soul. to the point at the very lowest level of the soul and the and the most irreverent and unsophisticated and immature and undeveloped. It flows from the loftiest divine energy referred to as the mo the superal brain or the superal wisdom. And now the bala will end with this gives a mush how to understand this how to understand this. So what does this mean? On the one hand, all of us are we are all equally God not only desires our existence, he is our existence or we are his existence in this world. On the other hand, that doesn't mean we're all equal. We're very far from it. Yet the inequality of us still shares a commonality that we come from the same place. What does that mean? We'll end with this. Coming back to the metaphor of the child who comes from the brain, either the pituitary gland or the decision-making part of the brain, whatever it means metaphor or anatomically. What happens when a when a father contributes the sperm, the seed that conceives a baby? That little seed, that little microscopic seed is going to develop into the brain of the child, that incredibly impressive brain of the child, which is the center of the human being. But that same seed is also going to manifest and express itself in the toenail of the child. So what are you going to compare? the toenail which could fall off. The toenail that you cut, the toenail which you don't need to have is not is not critical to the brain. No, they're different. The brain is certainly more indispensable, more central. The brain is certainly higher than the toenail on the one hand, but on the other, the toenail and the brain both come from the same seed, the same drop of sperm, a nine-month gestation. The seminal drop derived from the father's brain is downgraded, transformed and ultimately expresses itself as the nail. So there are within the generation the people who are the nail, they're the nail people of the generation. The ingrown nail, the fungus nail, moldy nail, they're the nail people of the generation or the healthy, beautiful manicured nail, they're the nail people of the generation. And they're the brain people of the generation. And on the one hand, we are honest in recognizing the difference between them. But simultaneously, we see the beauty and the interconnectivity and the unity that they both come from the same place. Even the nail, the drop is only changed in how it's manifest, but it remains unified in where it came from. The brain and the nail are they're one and the same. They come from the same place. In that way they're one and the same. They have on the one hand everything in common and on the other hand nothing in common. And so too people in this world there are different levels. And on the one hand we have everything in common the same origin and source the shalom our father who essentially seated us in this world. And on the other hand there still are those differences between us. There still are those differences between us. So that's what we'll pick up with next week. section three of peric bay which is the soul of the leaders. So first we began with the unify what we all have the the differentiated souls the toenail versus the brain and then now the brain what does that soul of the leader look like? Have a good day. Should be a day of basis to Yeshu.