The Battle for Your BODY | Ten Minutes of Meaning | Tanya #41

Good morning, Boca Towne. Maybe a day that we have a star service Yeshua is a winner. Welcome back to 10 minutes of meaning. Our learning of safer Tanya together. Please enjoy Reb Shayala's corner, some coffee, slushy pastry. Uh tremendous gratitude to our dear friends Melanie and Michael Fedak for the generous sponsorship of our 10 minutes of meaning of Tanya. Last week we began perek tes of Tanya, chapter nine, in which we discussed where the two souls that are competing with each other within us are housed. There is the animal soul, the nefesh bahamis, and there is the godly soul, the chelek elokah mimaal mamash. And the Baal Tanya seemingly is giving an anatomy lesson, telling us within the heart, the left ventricle, the right ventricle, the oxygen, the air, that starts at the heart and pumps the blood to the brain, that starts at the brain, and then communicates down to the heart. Reb Shneur Zalman of Liadi also suggests that perhaps it's meant to be taken literally, an anatomy lesson, though also perhaps not, because if it were meant to simply be anatomical, then a person can get a heart transplant and get rid of their animal soul. A person would get a blood transfusion and eliminate the sitra achra, the klipos, all the instinct for evil, for wrong. And we know that that's not the case. And so, at least in addition to the anatomical description is another level. And that Reb Shneur Zalman of Liadi says is the notion of ego versus Elokus. The idea of the head versus the heart. The idea of where these souls are housed is the idea what drives us. What is our identity? Who are we in our core? How do we see ourselves in our essence? Is it the ego? Is it the animal? Is it what feels good? What feels right? What we want? What we need? What gives us honor? What gives us glory? That's ego. Or is it the brain? Is it Elokus? Is it the ability to find the divine within us, that which is sovereign and disciplined over ourselves? And the way to get there, said the Alter Rebbe, the Baal Tanya, between the blood on the right side that lacks the energy to fuel the animal passion of the body, where we can uh direct ourselves, the nexus of where the divine soul is in our heart that produces this love of Hashem that's like a flaming fire. It flares and we know it's burning. When we use the brain to analyze with bina, the place of chochma, bina, and daas, when we use the brain to analyze and come to recognize the daas, the ideas that will awaken within us and arouse within us and generate within us this love of Hashem. In other words, the Alter Rebbe here, the Baal Tanya, is endorsing the idea of meditating, of reflecting and focusing and thinking about Hashem. Now, we're living in a time in a world in which you're looking at me like you don't know what I'm talking about. Who has the space and the margin and the ability to sit and to meditate and to think? Who can think? You always have AirPods in your ears. You're always in conversation. There's always noise. There's always some playlist that's playing. Some podcast or playlist. We're always occupied or we're busy or we're running or we're going or we're doing. The ability to stop and to sit and to think? Huh? So, Reb Shneur Zalman is a creator. He gave me the gift of my existence. And he knows everything intimately in my life. And he has expectations of me. And maybe he even needs me, cuz that's how he chooses to reveal himself to me in this world. He limits himself but simtsum as a God who needs me. How am I needed? What am I meant to do? What difference am I meant to make? What is my mission? What is my purpose? The Alter Rebbe elsewhere describes these meditations in much more depth, which uh we'll get to. But here he's just making a passing reference to it in terms of its role of using the brain over the heart, of using the chochma, the bina, and the daas to arrive at it's through generating the thoughts, the meditations, the recognitions, it's coming to the conclusions that are going to awaken within us. L'havdil, l'havdil. A person sometimes needs to stop and say to themselves, my spouse, they work, they shop, they prepare, they cook, they clean, they care, they love, they compromise, they sacrifice, they take an interest, they're invested. Huh? You know, when I meditate and think about their role in my life, what they do in my life, the good they get in All of a sudden I'm filled with this incredible love, this burning love, this boundless gratitude, this feeling of wow. Wow, am I grateful. So, sometimes the emotion is the result of meditating on the information, the intelligence. It's a matter of analyzing and thinking about and coming to the knowledge. Huh? When we're living life at warp speed, when there's always noise, when we're always so busy, then we don't even arrive at the information that would generate the feeling, which is what we claim we're looking for. We just want to skip right to the feeling. We just want to Why don't I feel in love with Hashem, in love with my spouse, in love with my children, in love with life? Why don't I have the energy? Well, when you're living at warp speed and you're just always distracted by things around us, never meditating, never reflecting, never analyzing, never coming to the conclusions of the information that would generate the feelings, then we're never going to have them. So, the Baal Tanya examples of meditations, this is from Reb Chaim Miller. Number one, how godly light and energy is found within all physical objects, even those you can't see. How far your life is from God and how close you'd like it to be. Number two. Number three, how the angels worship Hashem with utter dedication and love. Number four, how in its source the world is absorbed in Hashem. Number five, how Hashem renews the creation with fresh energy every morning. Number six, how wondrous is the world which Hashem created. And the list could go on and on. V'chein b'simchas levav, b'tif'eres Hashem v'hadras ga'on and also the divine soul, the chelek elokah mimaal mamash that's inside us, that we're trying to make contact with, that soul that we're trying to nourish can bring a rejoicing of the heart in the glory of Hashem and the splendor of His majesty. K'sher einayim el chochmas Hashem b'rosho, because this is an allusion to a passuk in Koheles, d'chochmas einayim b'rosho, the wise person doesn't live in the here and now. The wise person isn't only in the present. They have an eye to the future, that which is going to be born from what they're doing now. Using our mental powers of chochma and bina, mistakel b'yikar d'malchus v'tif'eres geduloso, we can gaze at the glory of the King and the beauty of His greatness, ad ein cheker v'ein sof v'tachlis, which is unfathomable, endless, and limitless. Let me repeat, unfathomable. We can't know His essence. Impossible. Ad ein cheker v'ein sof v'tachlis. We cannot know Him or we'd be Him. To admit that He exists, He's infinite, and we're finite is to concede that we cannot know Him in His essence. As I zokt the Baal Tanya, so the Alter Rebbe says, ad ein cheker v'ein sof v'tachlis. So, what does it mean then when he says that we can use moach chochma u'bina, so we can use our chochma and bina mistakel b'yikar d'malka? What does that mean to gaze at the King? Where? What's the address? Give me the coordinates. I'll put it in Waze and Google Maps and I'll show up. I want to see. What channel do I turn to? What's the website? Where can I gaze at the King? How can I see Him? In this meditation, this second meditation that's going to generate this passion, this energy, this enthusiasm, this love. Zohar refers to as gazing at God. How do I gaze at God? Where? Are there like virtual reality goggles I can put on? Is there a website? Is there a 3D theater? Where can I gaze at God? So, of course it doesn't mean a physical vision. Hashem is not physical. He's not limited in any way. Certainly not physically. But it means using the mind's eye. A person can enter, and again, here's where I'm learning out loud. I'm not teaching Tanya. I'm learning it out loud and admitting the borders and the boundaries of my understanding. But a person could achieve in meditation such a level that they can with their mind's eye feel that they're in the presence, ki'ilu see the Ribono shel Olam. It's compared to sight, because after this lengthy meditation, Hashem is almost tangible and real. You feel that you saw. You saw. You know, sometimes you're talking to someone, I see what you're saying. I see what you're saying. Or you can see the so I saw the solution. What do you mean you saw it? You saw it? There was a whiteboard? You saw it? There was a multimedia presentation? No, when something is so real it feels tangible, palpable, undeniable, so real that it's life-changing, so real that it's absorbed within you, I saw it. I saw it. So, with the mind's eye, even with your eyes closed, you can gaze at the experience, k'mo v'eir b'makom acher, as is going to be explained elsewhere the Alter Rebbe in Torah Or, Likutei Torah, and other places. V'chein sh'ar midos kedoshos b'lev heim b'chochma, bina, v'daas b'mochin. So, the above, the other holy emotions of the heart, originally from chochma, bina, and daas. So, when you're living, to summarize this first section of perek tes, to summarize so far. First section of perek tes, when we're living incorrectly, when we're indulging in the klipos, in the sitra achra, in the nefesh bahamis, when the heart is leading the head, then are we giving in to our impulse. We say and we go and we look and we do and we eat and we act because of our animal impulse, our ego. I want to sleep, so I come late to shul. I feel like shmoozing, so I talk during davening. I have some juicy lashon hara, so I share the gossip. Even though I should I I want to eat that, even though the hechsher I'm not entirely positive that it's good. I want to look at that, so I gaze at it even if it's not I shouldn't be. When the heart, the ego, the I, that need, that impulse is driving us, then it pumps the blood till it even goes to the head, where the head now rationalizes and justifies and excuses and explains and defends why the thing we did is okay. Where we're meant to live is not the heart over the head, but the opposite. The head, chochma, bina, and daas. Chochma, bina, and daas. Where the chochma, bina, and daas help me arrive at the information, the conclusion, the facts, the truth that now the head is giving instructions to the heart, so now the heart is pumping this love, this passion, this enthusiasm, this energy, this craving, this connection to Hashem that didn't just come out of emotions. Didn't just come out of impulse. Didn't just come out of the boich. It came because I used my head, my chochma, and my bina, and my daas. So, there's two ways that you can live. I end last year's Shabbos Shuva drasha, I end the forthcoming book by Ephraim Goldberg, already finished and written, just in my head. Now, I have to get it out. But, on the difference between living a life of ego versus Elokus. There's only two choices. There's two ways to live life. You can wake up every morning, go to sleep every night. Life could be about everything in between is ego, I, or I'm living my life for Elokus. The way I eat, the way I sleep, the way I talk, what I look at, what I do, where I go, the money I earn, how I spend it, every aspect, everything about my life, my mission, my purpose, my ongoing relationship, and my conversation. Is it ego or Elokus? And, as you'll read there, beautifully written, it describes again, one day, we'll get it there. I If I keep talking about it, that's my theory. If I keep talking about it, I'm going to do it. So, it describes there people mistakenly think that when I live the life of ego, I find happiness. But, it's exactly the opposite. When you live your life for ego, you're terribly miserable and lonely and anxious and depressed. And when you live life for Elokus, for mission, for purpose, because you're needed, then all of a sudden you find the greatest happiness and the greatest joy and the greatest fulfillment and the greatest satisfaction, the greatest peace of mind, the greatest mental hygiene and mental health that can be found in living for Elokus with a sense of mission. So, that's the difference here in perek tes. It's really, so far what we've seen in all of Tanya, but here really elucidated so brilliantly and beautifully in perek tes, is are you living from your heart or from your head? It's neither either or. Again, the Alter Rebbe says, if you're living with your head, you're not some calta intellectual who has no feeling and no love and no energy. It's what sparks. Where's the engine? Where is it found the Where's the core? Where's the processor? Is the processor in the driver, the engine? Who's giving the commands? Of course, from the head you get to the heart. But, if you start in the heart and you get to the head, you're going to be living inside out, upside down, backwards. That's when you're going to be indulging in the sitra achra. That's when you're going to making the terrible mistakes. And then the Baal Tanya elaborates, I'll just go on a couple more minutes. Please indulge me. Achai Nachsei Omei Omei Amats. Pasuk says in Breishis, one nation will overpower the other nation. What are these two nations? Are they external? Are they internal? It's another chiddush of the Alter Rebbe. Kia guf nikra ir ketana. The body, the Gemara in Eruvin daf lamed beis, calls the body daf lamed beis, leiv, calls the body the a small city. Two kings fight over a city, each one desiring to conquer it and to rule over it. Two kings is a city. Nations are fighting over Yerushalayim. Ir Hakodesh is ours. It's undeniable. No one's taking it from us. Lav dil, Russia's taking Ukraine, Ukraine's fighting back. Nations fight over what? Territory, geography, land, a city. Dehainu l'chana tzanua she tzarich l'shamosh Yerushalayim. Why does Russia want Ukraine? And why do evil others want to take Yerushalayim? Why do they want it? Look at the red peppers that grow in Israel. Why do they want it? I have no idea what grows in Ukraine. Not because they want what grows in the ground. Why do they want it? As the Alter Rebbe says, each king wants to institute their laws. Each kid king wants that its inhabitants become their servants and their slaves, their citizens. They want the people who live there to obey their every whim and every decree. So, the same way that two kings and two countries will battle over one city, they're battling Who's laws? Who's in charge? Who's in control? Who will these people serve? Similarly, says the Alter Rebbe, the two souls, the divine soul and the animal soul inside us, they're fighting each other for control over the body. The body is the city. And the animal soul and the godly soul are two kings and they're fighting. Who will we serve? Who are we citizens of? Who are we living for? Whose laws and directives and edicts will we follow? Shel Elokus v'adam l'an ego. The divine souls will wants to rule over us exclusively. Divine soul says, I say jump, you say how high. Torah and mitzvos. Divine soul says, be disciplined in the service of Hashem. Live life for Elokus, not ego. And if you're living for God Elokus, all the limbs, all the organs, the entire body surrenders completely just to be a vehicle of Hashem. That's all we are as an instrument, a vehicle of Hashem. How can I use every organ, every limb, my entire body? How can I live the use the lavush of speech, thought, and action to all serve Hashem? The divine soul wants the powers and the garments to influence the body in complete control, surrendering and serving only Hashem. Nothing else interfering. Since the mind ultimately controls everything, means the three faculties of the brain dealing with inquiry, cognition, and recognition will be influenced by chochma, bina, daas of our divine soul. So, that's one paradigm. Is it the divine soul's in charge? They conquer the city that is the body. And they tell the limbs of the body exactly how to behave, what to do, how to act, what to say, what to think, what to wear, the lavush of thought, speech, and action. She chochma u'bina u'daas. So, practically this means that the intellectual inquiry in Hashem, the cognition of these ideas, l'hisbonen b'gulas Hashem cheiker v'ein sof. By pondering his unfathomable unfathomable and endless greatness. And if a person thinks about Hashem's how unfathomable, how we can't know his essence, and we have to surrender to him, then it will, through that recognition, it will create a tremendous reverence and a trepidation. If a person thinks, there's me, there's my friend, and there's God. There's my essence, my friend's essence, and we can know God's essence. Casual, comfortable, we know each other super well. So, then a person's going to lack the yirah, the reverence, the awe, the fear. And rishpei sh'l leivav the mind to the heart, a love of God burning. Lius nichsafah gam kalsa nafsho k'chafitza. So, that our soul will yearn and languish. A pasuk in Tehillim, nichsafah like ka'etzof. Nichsafah k'chisufein. That our soul will yearn, begam kalsa nafsho, and our soul will languish with fervor and desire. V'dafka b'ein sof Baruch Hu b'chol leiv u'nefesh u'me'od. To attach ourselves to Him with all of our heart, all of our soul, and all of our might. So, this is the next level meditation, and this is the meditation of who's going to own the body? Who gives directives? Who gives orders? Whose instructions? Who conquers the city that is our limbs and our organs and our body? Is it going to be the divine, the godly soul? Or is it going to be the animal? Who's going to give in? Every time you open that cabinet at 12:00 at night and that bag of cake, potato chips are facing you, and you shouldn't be eating them, you shouldn't be eating them at that hour, you shouldn't be eating them in that quantity. That's who owns the city. The city being here your mouth, your taste buds, your throat, your stomach. Who Who owns? Whose laws? Who is it a citizen of? The animal impulse that says, "Ah, just eat it, you deserve it, you're starving. Come on, just give in." Or the godly soul says, "You don't need to. You don't really want to. And you know this isn't good for you. It's not going to make you feel good in the morning." Which one will win? That's the battle that's raging in us from when we wake up till we fall asleep, probably even while we're sleeping, and certainly while we are awake. That's this to finish. Me'umka d'liba l'chola y'monei. This meditation is aimed at reverence and love emanating from the depths of the heart, from the right chamber. What's the right chamber? Where the divine soul's she atochu ratzu v'ahava malei d'godush. The experience should be so intense that the right chamber, the place of the godly soul, is inlaid with love, filled and overflowing b'hashpa'ah gam l'chol as smali. So, that it will overflow and spill into the left side of the heart, which is the animal soul. It should be so overflowing, so filled, so on fire, so raging, so bubbling and boiling that it will overflow into the left chamber of the heart, which is the animal soul. L'achpi l'sitra achra sod mayim m'n hashpa'ah d'teina d'klipas noga. The effect of this love will be to subdue the sitra achra's negative element of water, the source of lust and desire for kosher pleasures from klipas noga. When the right side will control the left side, when the brain will control the heart, when the Elokus will control the ego, we won't obliterate the animal, now we'll train it. Now we'll uplift it. Now we'll get it to serve us. The soul is not trying to escape the body. It's not its goal and mission in this world. The soul is housed in the body. The soul is just trying to command and elevate and transform the body. That's when the brain controls the heart. B'ezras Hashem, we'll pick up next time. B'yom be'sason u'simcha u'yeshuos v'nechamos. Amen. Amen.