Tanya (Part 17)

Morning Booker Tove and welcome back to 10 minutes of meeting. Please help yourself to coffee slushy pastries. Want to thank our generous sponsors Marilyn and Michael Fedak for sponsoring 10 minutes of meeting Tanya and so much more. We are still together in the third peric of the holy Tanya and we've been learning all about and the three brains that a person has. First par we spoke about the nevish bame the animal soul. Second peric we spoke about the moish the fact that each and every one of us is not like but we are quite literally an extension of peace an expression a unique distinct expression of Hashem in this world mameish literally and therefore if you're searching if you're yearning if you're looking for Hashem don't look outside or elsewhere all you have to do is look in the mirror and find Hashem inside yourself and then we came to the anatomy of the soul if that is who we are and that's what we strive to be if that's what we're trying to nourish If that's what we're trying to express is our unique, we have to better understand it. In order to have a self-awareness, in order to know who we are, in order to manifest and fully express who we are, we have to know ourselves. So, we spoke about the neph. We spoke about the 10 spheros within it divided into two categories. The three mothers and then the seven kulos, the seven doubles in it. And we spoke about that format that speaks to the description of the anatomy of our soul and of the universe as a whole. But quickly we pivot from the spheros in general or the seven kulos in particular to focus on the three emos the three mothers or matriarchs that yield all the rest of the qualities all the rest of the midos. Midos can be emotions. Midos can be we saw Miller all defined it differently. So what are these three emos? What are the the um intellect? Where do the feelings that they give birth to come from? The divine soul's intellect which is his power to understand all things which the said is it's called by the name which is the fusion of two words and are not simply synonyms. We don't have any synonyms in the Hebrew language and it wouldn't add or contribute anything to use three words that all mean the same thing. So they have to be describing three separate or distinct things subtle maybe differences but meaningful nonetheless. So, bina and das the anatomy of our intellect which is the beginning of our relationship with Hashem which is the mother that gives birth to the emotion is made up of the three parts and is says the zak sorry not the z isma is the capacity to say what is this an inquisitiveness an openness a yearning a learning a desire to delve into and uncover and understand the mysteries of the world. It's the it's the power of asking ma what what is this is potential it's bringing is a language that uses Torah is potential what is the potential in this is a chair a table an idea a vision a blueprint it's the power of asking what it's the power of asking what Rabstein elaborates he has a long long um interpretation here on these words the ma the potentiality of the what he writes what ma is more than an expression of query and quest it is an expression of nothingness of the point at which ends being ends and n and nullity begins mosha said we are what to we are nothing then is the faculty of what the faculty that grasps nothingness and that also is nothingness is the first of the faculties of the soul the point at which perception begins from a prior state of non-conception. The transition from nothingness to something. It is the of it is the ability to nullify abregate ourselves. It is not saying we understand or have the capacity. It's the power of ma of nothingness. Teachings speak of as the faculty for safe selfnigation. For the capacity to perceive is the capacity to nullify oneself. The more a person obnigates himself, the more he can receive on the level of one who's unable to divest himself of ego cannot perceive anything. If you walk around and you think, "I have all the answers. I have all the understanding. I'm the source of all wisdom and knowledge. I have all power." The more a person has ego, which we've shared many times, ego stands for edging God out. The bigger the ego, the less room or space there is for God. When you have an ego, ego is the enemy. You've edged God out. But when you can nullify and obnigate the ego, then you make space and capacity to say ma, wow, look at this universe. Look at this world. Look at how Hashem operates and navigates it. And it's ao the capacity the kak to say ma. So writes of says like the dark chamber of the camera or the black pupil of the eye empty and utterly devoid of light. It is the optimal vessel for absorbing the light entering into it from the outside. This is the connection between wisdom and humility. One who lacks humility can't absorb anything. when was full of himself certainly that he knows everything can't learn anything. It's no accident that Moshe who merited the loftiest revelations ever revealed who had the continuous flash of it's not a coincidence that Moshe was the same who was the most humble of all the men on the face of the earth. His unparalleled humility is but the other face of his unparalleled wisdom. They go together. It's a mistake. When you see somebody who's super smart, has insight, knows a lot of information and it makes them have an inflated ego and act arrogantly. Their wisdom is compromised. Their wisdom is corrupt. True wisdom, true capacity for the kawak of ma goes hand in hand is opposite side of the coin of humility. And that's why it's no coinc coincidence that the same Mosha Rabenu, the same Moshe who is our teacher in perpetuity for eternity. That same Moshe who is Rabenu both is the source of greatest. It's Toras Moshe. He transmits Torah, the ultimate. And he also is the most humble of all people because they go together. So that's the first step in the first stage towards the end of per giml. That's the first step in stage. And when you bring the potential to fruition through meditating in your mind to clarify an idea is this and that. Bina is the capacity to analyze to distinguish to compare to contrast. So is somewhat illdefined is a lot of tries to describe it as this flash of understanding. You're struggling over a over a and all of a sudden you say I got it. What'd you get? Can you put it in words? Not yet, but I've got it. It's this flash. That'sma. But then the ability to describe to find words to elucidate to distinguish between this and between that that's bina is analysis. Bina is distinction. Bina is the ability to process. It's cognition that comes after first the we gave the example last time is I have an idea. I want to build a house. What are the blueprints? What's the square footage? What's the architecture? How will it come together? What are the building blocks? What are the materials? So is the I want to build a house. Then bina okay let's come up with some blueprints. And das is how many materials do we need to order? What's the square footage? What's the engineering of it? What's the engineering of it? I have to tell you, it's so complicated learning this together. I don't say teaching because I'm not in a position to teach Tanya, but to learn it together because every line here you could spend the next five years on. Every line you could spend five years on. But we want to cover some ground. So what does it mean? The bala says h these mental processes this combination this collaboration of and bina are the father and mother which give birth to love and to reverence. In other words it begins in the intellect cognitively and then it filters or descends or manifests in the emotion. So and when they operate together they become the father and the mother. It still takes a father and a mother. We believe to conceive a child we believe. So it takes a and bina are the father and the mother the a and the aim. And what do they give birth to? They give birth to the emotion the feeling of love of hashem also which is going to define probably won't get to today but not how would you translate the word ya >> correct most people translate the word ya as fear but fear is a very low level of ya. You could walk around. It's healthy and it's important and it's a starting place. But yunes is I don't want to do the wrong thing. Lightning's going to strike. My stock portfolio is going to go down. I'm going to get bad news. The other shoe is going to drop. So I better be a good boy. I won't speak lashar. I won't look at the wrong things. I have to make sure that I davin. I won't talk during davining because I have a I don't want I don't want the sky to fall. I don't want I'm afraid of a punishment. That's a very low level. The higher level of ya is what we call awe. That's wow. That's off. In other words, and we're going to get to this. I'm getting ahead of myself, but one's child can follow in their footsteps or do what the parent asks. They could do it out of if you don't brush your teeth, do your homework, go to bed, come to shul going to take away your Nintendo Switch. I'm going to take away your phone. I'm going to put you in timeout. I'm going to cut you off the credit card. That's your own. And there are there's a place for that in parenting. But I don't know any parent who would be satisfied or gratified to have children who only follow what they want because they're afraid of the consequence. What do we want from our children? A child says, "I'm in such awe of my father, my mother." Wow. When I look at them, how they live, their lifestyle, their values, what's important to them, I want to follow what they do. I have awe for who they are and how they live. That's a haramos. So and bina are the mother and father. A mother and a father come together and conceive children. And what are the children that the mother and father and bina conceive? What do they give birth to? They conceive and they give birth to love of which we'll say is the higher level and then the trepidation of him. So what does it mean that there is conception? So I take you back to the great Rabbi Stein. There's so much to say. I mean pages and pages and pages on the words these are the father and the mother six words these are the father and the mother one two three four five page that's why shines's commentary on five words there's five pages I'm not going to read them all to you right now but I will give you his insight with this and bina referred to as the father and mother because their inter relationship and interaction resembles a father and a mother in procreation this refers to both their mutual relationship bina receiving from kma in other words we have in cabala the idea of the mashia and the macabel, the masculine and the feminine. The masculine is the mashia. Anatomically, the masculine's the man's procreative anatomy is on the outside. And a woman procreatively receives on the inside. The man is the mashia. He's the giver. And the woman is the mabel. She is the receiver. And that power that capacity that energy of mashia and macabel there there's feminine part within men areas and aspects of their life with their mabel. There's masculine parts to a woman areas of her life where she's a mashpia. These are not absolute distinctions but they are central core fundamental ones defining ones that women the woman generally is the mabo. The man generally is the mashia in the act of procreation. That is undeniable. That is undeniable. Although it's shocking what's become deniable, that used to be undeniable, but for now that's still undeniable that the anatomy of the man and the anatomy of the woman positions the man as the one who is mashia, who emits something, who's who's entering, who is mashia. And the woman who is receiving, who is accepting, who is fertilized, conceiving. So this refers to the mutual relationship. Bina receives from is like the father, it gives. Bina is like the mother the woman it receives and to the relationship to the midos the father provides the seed the basic nucleus that bina the mother develops into the many faceted entity koma the nucleus is not merely a miniature of the offspring that needs only to be enlarged to its full size but a DNA like code that concentrates an entire organism in a single cell for this cell to develop into a multifaceted organism requires a process similar to pregnancy in the mother's womb so it may grow qualitatively as well as quantitatively Each component's part evolving, diversifying and correlating with other parts. It needs a mother. The physical development of a fetus thus resembles the spiritual development of an idea from the stage of conception through the stages of pregnancy which like physical pregnancy of nine months requires time and breastfeeding until it reaches full maturity. Again, he has five pages. because I'm not going to read to you the whole thing, but that's what the bal just in those words just on the words and are like the father and the mother, the giver, the receiver, the gestation, the conception, then the gestation. So gives to beina. Bina needs to gestate. Bina needs to process. It needs to host it until it can give birth to das or in this case it gives birth to the midos of and you see why I say that those six words five words you could spend five years on he has many many pages on in really understanding and the two inseparable mates whose union within our reality is perceptual. The bond between them is the soul of existence. Any separation of the two is tantamount to death. It suspends all renewal movement and growth. Life is predicated on conscious and consciousness is the product of the union of and of all of this. We thought we knew ourselves. We thought we are who we see in the mirror. We thought we are what we think about. But without the balata here helping us go for this. You go for a physical, you go for a spiritual. This is we're we're putting our soul through an MRI machine in order to light up and understand its different parts. Your soul has kma. your soul has been only the union of the two creates the and then he's going to get into more what that means but again just to end by giving the overall what the bal is getting at the alter is telling us is that a relationship with hashem is predicated first on cognition gets a bad rapid at large and in particular to minimize or mistakenly think it's just about fabian and it It's there's nothing intellectual. It's not about learning. It's not about Torah. It's all about emotion. It's all about singing and it's all about drinking. Is is to have never learned Tanya is to not understand the foundation of what it's all about. Reba says the emotion that comes in a connection to Hashem is born from and begins with the union of the intellect of of the cognition of and first you have to have the idea the curiosity the and then you have to be the bina asking and understanding and analyzing and interpreting and only then the union between the two will it give birth to. So anasm and a and a that did not begin it wasn't conceived by and is inauthentic is not real to skip to the to the to the emotion that is not born from a place of understanding and intellect and of is counterfeit. It's not real. It begins with the intellect which is where he's going to go exactly from here. We're off again for a few weeks. We resume at the end of August and Hashem will fly from there continuing finishing up periml and onto peralid and viter in Tanya. May we hear besos Yeshua. Amen.