Tanya (Part 14)

Good morning. Welcome back to 10 minutes of meaning. Thank you for adjusting to today due to travel for SIMAS. We have to learn today instead of Wednesday. I want to thank our sponsors 10 minutes of meaning our Tanya generously sponsored by Marilyn and Michael Fak. We're so grateful for their sponsorship of Tanya and so much more. As always, help yourself to slushies, coffee, pastries at our rebay corner. We are at the end of peric bays of Tanya the second chapter of the holy higa tanya. The Tanya began by talking about the first peric was about the animal soul. the animal soul. We don't seek to slaughter, but we want to train. We want to elevate. We want to channel. We're not looking to get rid of or purge, but we're looking to have it work for us and on behalf of us and for our advantage. The second paric began with the nephenus. The second soul we have, not chronologically, but the second soul that we have is the godly soul. Mamesh. The godly soul. It's not just a godly soul in theory. It's not just a godly soul as a nice drussia. It's a godly soul. mameish mameish literally and therefore we can find Hashem stop looking everywhere else just look in the mirror he can be found inside of us and then continued to say that we all found ourselves in the same root the same source namely him so there is a democratization of all humanity of all yidden at least the Jewish people our soul comes from the same place and the alterba was invoking what was an ancient wisdom or understanding one that we know has evolved and changed but that the original seed of a person begins in their brain comes comes down their spinal cord, their spinal their spine. And once ultimately that seed is used for conception, everything comes from the brain which we saw related as being connected to the pituitary gland. Maybe you could connect to free will and the place of choice. But essentially, whatever is created, whatever is created, whatever is conceived as a result comes from that seed. And the creation, the created, both its brain all the way down to its toenails all come from that same seed. who seeded the world. He's our father. And in every generation, whether the righteous down to the toenails of the generation, what he calls the we all come from the same place. We all come from the same source. And therefore, there is a sense of an equality, a sense of connection, a sense of integration, a sense of all coming from the same Hashem. Which brings us up to the third section of the second perk. And now we talk about the saddic, the leader soul. Because the data said in the child the nail the nails draw their spiritual nourishment and energy from the brain and the child is the collected soul of Kalis and of a generation. If you look at the whole generation the collected soul is that child and that generation combined that collected soul of that generation what the elsewhere describes as a koma an integral structure and organism a generation as a koma schlma. There's a complete floor, an integral structure and an organism. It has a head, body parts, and the feet. So the the righteous are the head of the generation. And you got to figure out who you are. A kidney, a lung, a liver, or the lint in the toenail in the belly button. Who are you? writes the three levels of the soul of the simple person are nurtured and energized from the three layers levels of the soul of sadikim is the heads of the Jewish people invoking a pik frombar in their generation. What does that mean? We draw our strength. We draw what animates the three levels of our soul. connects us to its source. Hashem all is piggybacking is connecting is drawing strength and connection from from the generation. And that's what the Torah in tells us. We're told, we're instructed to cling to Hashem that anyone who attaches themselves to find the righteous, the scholars of the generation and attach yourself. Listen, learn, observe, watch, be inspired by them, and you've attached yourself to Hashem. And here again, the alterba uses the word mameish. And when he does, he does it with intent because he wants us to know and to understand this is not some dr. This is not just a nice idea, you know, uh fuzzy feelgood kumbaya nice idea. This is this is uh this is mamish literally. It's meant to be understood literally. Find of the generation. Watch them, learn from them, connect with them. the of simple people become consciously connected with their original source through the highest part of the in other words the most authentic and the highest part of us identifies with and connects seeing it manifest in the saddic and that inspires us. We can surround ourselves sometimes we interact with we spend time with people who bring us down. They connect with the lowest part of who we are. They get us to speak in a way we're embarrassed to speak and act in a way we should be ashamed to act and we're in some WhatsApp groups where memes and gifs and jokes and links are not our best self. We could be with people that speak to the animal in us. They invoke and they nourish the animal in us but the opposite. We can find the and they're speaking to the in us. They light us on fire. They're speaking to us right to our nish. They're giving us an IV. They're plugging us in right in the once connected with the superal wisdom. We're connected with the himself that righteous person that that head of the generation is manifesting has hashem is more on the surface in them. It's more accessible in them. It's more manifest in them. So when we see it, observe it, connect with it, learn from it, then it lights us up. It touches us, it inspires us, it connects with us, connects with us. The um Miller in his commentary quotes a talk of the Reb from a not a talk from aidas in March of 1960 and the Reb gave the following analogy metaphor. I want to give you a different one. The Reb spoke of the concept sadik scholars as a soul nexus can be understood through the relationship of an electrical powerhouse with a lamp that's connected to it by a wire. In order to light his lamp, one must find the right switch or push the correct button. The soul of every Jew is a part of and connected with God. But in order for one to enjoy the great benefits of it, the correct switch must be found or the proper button pushed. So the saddak helps you find the button helps you push it. I want to give you a different metaphor that wasn't in existence at the time of the and that is the following. It's not my own. I heard it. I don't remember where. I apologize. I can't give credit. Sometimes I've spoken about in the context of amuna but it's true for all about of our nama. Are you ever somewhere people are going on vacation this time of year? Don't tout it. Don't plug it. Don't post it. Certainly be sensitive to what's going on in Israel right now. You go where you go, but you don't need to celebrate it publicly in a way that's insensitive to others. But you go to some national park and one of the beautiful things about national parks, public spaces, nature is there's no there are no antennas. So you lose your cell signal and you're disconnected, which for people is like losing their kidney. Maybe they prefer to donate their kidney than donate their cell signal. People struggle. They feel disconnected. They collapse. So one person in the group says, "I have one bar. I have a bar. I have signal." So what does everyone around them do? Yeah. Turn it into a hot spot for me. You got to turn it into a hot spot. Turn it into a I have no signal. I can't connect. But if you have a connection, let me piggyback. Let me connect through your connection. Make your connection a hot spot so I can connect through it too. And I think that's what the alterb is describing. The head of every generation, the toenails, the toes, the feet, the legs, the torso, the different parts of the body, wherever we fit in, whoever we are of that koma of the generation, we can connect through the head. The head is the hot spot. Find that saddic. Find the person with tremendous amuna. Find the person who really feels and talks to Hashem. Find the person who's in touch with and nourishes their nama and turn them into a hot spot and connect with them. Connect with them. and those who sin and rebel against. So if you mock or make fun, if you scorn or you're sarcastic, if you're cynical of the righteous of the generation, if you don't recognize the heads of the generation for who they are, then their nephes and are nourished still from that of the scholars, but indirectly from behind, not from in front. You can't connect to the hot spot. You're going to struggle to connect to the hotspot. are last in line to get through to get through the hot spot. There's one fourth section to finish up the second perk which maybe we'll get to today maybe we won't but I want to share with you's commentary on this uh part of the Tanya of the second per because he writes I think in a very powerful way. He writes as we elaborated earlier all souls of a particular generation constitute a klma an integral structure and organism. It consists of a head, the soul of the sadikim who head the generation and of a great variety of lower organs and limbs down to the souls whose spiritual station is comparable to that of the feet and the toenails of the body of Israel. Every organ and limb of the body is connected in two ways. One with the body's brain in a mutual bond as part of an integral organism and two with its source the generative potential of the father. But although the father's original seed remains the essence of every part of the child's body, it's expressed and manifest in the child's brain in a greater degree than his feet. So the feet and the hands of all of the limbs are subservient to the brain which is the manifest source of their vitality. In the same way, although all Jewish souls are children of Hashem and are related to each other as the component parts of Koma Schlma, the generation, they also include among them those whose souls are the head, souls who possess a greater awareness of their relationship and impart their awareness to the other souls. This connection is not one-sided. This is the part where he adds, listen carefully. Just as in the brain body analogy, the brain senses the pain of the foot. So to a true leader is deeply affected by what happens to the feet of his generation. It is told of a certain saddic who was unable to sleep if a woman was in labor 500 miles away. He felt the pain she was experiencing. A leader is insensitive to the woes of each and every individual of a generation is not ahead of the Jewish people. To a lesser degree, this connection also exists between all the limbs. Biologically, as long as a limb is connected to the body, a mutual bond exists between that and all the other limbs of the body. As the flow of vitality and consciousness circulates in them all, anything happens particular limb is bound to have some effect on the entire body. The difference lies in the degree of awareness. The mind is the master of the body. It's the organ that is most conscious of the bond. It's most sensitive to the well-being of all the limbs. Here lies the basis for the institution of the rebidic teachings. The doctrine of the righteous of the rebba. The reb or sadic is not merely an individual who's more learned or pious than his constituents but one whose soul is a head in the body of Israel. Those who strive to achieve a bond a hisashras with him are people who see in him a source of spiritual nurture and consider themselves as limbs to his to his head. The sadic in turn is bound to them as a head is to its body. Listen, a headless body is no more viable than a bodyless head. A headless body is no more viable than a bodyless head. So it's wonderful to be the head that's saddic. But without a body, a decapitated head is not very useful. It's not very alive. And a body without a head is also not alive. It's the two together. When people when s with the Hashem tells Moshe, go to send your people have corrupted. Hashem was saying, "Descend from your greatness. I've made you great only for their sake." Now they sinned of what value are to me. I made you their head to be connected to the body. But if you want to disconnect to the body, I don't need you to be a head anymore. On another occasion, the alter the alterba applies the concept of Israel as a kashma to shed light in the principle. Every Jewish soul is a part of a single organism. All Jewish souls are interdependent. Loving one's fellow Jew is indeed synonymous with an expression of a person's intrinsic self-love. If we're all one body, if the whole generation of Jews are aim, it takes all of us integrated as one. We're not all equal. Some of the toes, some of the fingers, some of the head, some are the are the other limbs. We're not all equal. But but the we feel the pain of, we feel connected with, we're synonymous with one. A sane person does not hate his own hand, nor does he shrug off a pain in his foot by saying that's my foot problem, not mine. That's that's image of the body. You have to know you have to know your place on the body in the body. The metaphor of where you're out. Another implication of this vision of the community as an integrated integrated organism is the recognition that every individual has a distinct function and role in keeping with his unique qualities as a head, hand, foot and so on that he must fulfill. What's your mission? Why are we here? What's our purpose? What contribution are we meant to make? How do we carry this body towards fulfilling towards fulfilling its its purpose? And he goes on but I want to just finish. Let's see if we could finish this per give me two more minutes. So the fourth section the second par. So the zor teaches that at the time of conception two more minutes. The time of conception, parents ought to focus their desire, their to attaching to the more conscious a person is, the more spiritual, the higher and more lofty their soul, the more that moment of union and conception is not only it's also for physical pleasure. Our Torah believes in and in fact obligates a husband to provide physical pleasure. It's not only for physical pleasure, but that union, that moment of conception is a moment of greatest imitation of Hashem, conception. And it's a moment to connect with him, to do it with a sense of holiness and a sense of sanctity. It's the exact opposite of our generation that everything is done without the holiness and the sanctity. It's casual and it's with anybody, anywhere, anytime, any way. And to us, the more elevated, the more consciousness, the more mindfulness, the more spiritual, the the greater it is, the greater it is. So how does the square how do you connect this? We said on the one hand that all of our souls connect from the same place, the same lofty place of supernal wisdom. The brain of Hashem based on the ramp, not the mar, but the brain of Hashem. All the generation come from that brain of Hashem. All of us have that. We are express itself in the child and the different pieces and parts of the child. And now we're saying the zor says that the main determining factor of the soul's quality is what the parents do. So Tanya answers the zor is not referring to the divine soul itself but to the garments the way that soul interacts in this world. Every without exception has a garment that comes from the mother and father. Maybe you'd call this their DNA. Maybe you call this the predispositions. Maybe they call this nature nurture. What you inherit from the parents becomes the becomes the garment that the soul is wearing as it operates and navigates this world. All the mitzvah are influenced by the garment because mitzvah are the physical acts we do in this world. So they connect with our physical being that we got from the parents. So if parents sanctify themselves during conception, they draw a holy garment for their child. It doesn't matter. Even if the core root of that soul is holy, the core root of that soul was destined to be ahead of the generation. It still wears the of what it got from the parents at the moment of conception. The divine soul, the quality is not influenced by the parents. So the core soul, the essence of the soul can't be the inherits from the parents, but the core soul does not. and that is the conclusion of the second par. So every one of us gets a divine soul from Hashem. Where can you find Hashem most in the world? You're looking for evidence. You want to find him. You want to hear him talking to you? Just look in the mirror. Regardless of our parents intentions at the time of conception, the corn is what it wears is determined and influenced by the parents and the choices that we make. Where are we in a generation? And find a saddic. Find a sadis. Find a find somebody who can be your hot spot. Find somebody who could find your switch to turn on your lamp to illuminate the world and be machus makoma. Which part of the body of that generation that coma schlayma are we? What's our mission? What's our purpose? Where do we fit in? We'll pick up next week with the three brains, the anatomy of our soul. The third paralya gets into what will become the name of the movement. The three parts of the brain are the three brains that we have. It should be a day of bisuros to Yeshua.