What is the Tanya? - in a nutshell

about five years ago there was a Jew who lived in Lakewood New Jersey any Jersey people here who else okay got familiar with Lakewood River Tom's River there we go so there's this guy lives in Lakewood New Jersey and New Jersey was not at least that area he was in is not a well lit place the streets are not well lit he's driving in the winter at night 5:30 p.m. it's pitch black he turns the corner and he almost hit somebody thank God he didn't but he got very nervous because Lakewood New Jersey is a very Jewish Community a very traditional community and people are walking dressed like this in the dark and it's just not not a good idea so he rolls down the window and he sees that it's a teenager and he's thinking should I say something should I not say something should I tell him that he should walk more responsibly wear some sort of reflective vest or just let it slide in his words life and death or getting an altercation with a teenager he says I'm going to say something he rolls down the window and he says young man excuse me I don't know if you noticed I almost killed you and you really should be more responsible you're dressed all in black it's pitch black outside there are no lights here you really should consider wearing some sort of reflective vest or or something like that you know how the young man responded he points to the front of the car he says your headlights are off your headlights are off his headlights are off and when his headlights were off he noticed somebody else was doing something wrong if his headlights were on that young man was still doing something wrong but he wouldn't have noticed it he would have saw a human being and this is really what the Tanya is all about how to turn our headlights on how do we become more Soul conscious left less self-conscious in fact the entire 31 first 31 chapters of the Tanya there's 53 chapters the entire first 31 chapters of the Tanya are dedicated to becoming more Soul conscious more comfortable with the soul until we get to chapter 32 we're in chapter 32 the author tells us what happens what's the result of becoming more comfortable with the soul I view other people not as a body but as a soul the more comfortable I become with My Soul the more comfortable I can become with your soul and I'd like to read for you just one line of T and I'll conclude with this he says this is from chapter 32 the Le the heart of T those who make their body the primary part of their existence their soul secondary part of their existence it's impossible to have true love amongst people if we're looking at people from the perspective of the body if our headlights aren't on it's going to be a love that's contingent to have true love to have true peace we have to be so conscious and this is where the is taking us