Tanya By Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowicz Chapter 18 "How it is VERY easy to serve G-D with your heart"

Welcome to tonight's Tanya class. We are tonight studying chapter 18. 18 Hebrew is hi, has a new 8 and 10 which is 18 which is life. And we are continuing to discuss the last few weeks but since some people are new so I'll give an overview. Basically in the introduction of Tanya the author writes and he says that he's writing this book to teach us how it is based on a verse in the Torah ki karav elacha demoed this is very very easy for you very near to you to have a relationship with God bificha with your mouth which means by you know saying words of Torah being nice being kind anything with your mouth bilvavcha with your heart which means having love for God and mean all of God you know feelings all the feelings la'asoso to do all the mitzvot. So the author says in the beginning of Tanya I'm going to show you how it's very easy for you easy. And then he doesn't say only easy karov which is close to you it's easy to you me'od very that it's very easy for you to serve God with your mouth with your heart and in the world of action. Now obviously that's a big promise and a big commitment to be able to show you how it's easy for you. Now as we discussed the last few weeks to do the mitzvot in action that's easy because whether you're in the mood or not in the mood you can still do them. Hi welcome come come inside just in the perfect timing welcome. So to do the mitzvot in action whether you're in the mood or not you can still do them. To say nice words kind words words of Torah you whether you're in the mood or not you can still do that. Welcome I'm just doing a recap the last few weeks so I'm going to continue on with this week so you didn't really miss anything. Okay. And but then the author says that I'm going to show you in your heart how you can have a tremendous love for God feelings right? And love for God. And wow, that's not easy. So, last week the author explained that it's How can How do you do that? By meditating about the greatness of God, how great he is, how wonderful he is, how he created the world, how he created us, and how he created this all these beautiful things that he not only created but he maintains them. Therefore, you're able to have a true love and appreciation uh for God for all the wonderful things that he's done. That's what And he loves us unconditionally. Sure. And that's what he explained last week. So, here this week the author says, "One second. Two issues. Number one is it says in the verse, besides the fact that it's easy, but it says the word "me'od". Me'od means it's very easy. Very easy. So, not only is it easy, but it's very easy. Correct? Right. So, that's issue number one. We're saying it's very easy. Very. But then, what do we say? How does one go about doing so? How do you create a love and awe for God? So, the author explained last week by meditation. Now, anyone that meditated knows meditation is not easy. Firstly, you have to study. You have to have data what to meditate upon. And then, even the meditation itself is difficult. If you're not an intellect and you're not a thinker, it's hard to meditate. If you're an intellect, you're a thinker, you can do it for hours and and you love it. Like someone that likes ice cream, it's the same thing. But an average person rather sit down, have some nice food, right? A nice drink. And meditation is not necessarily an easy thing to do. So, the author says, "But I I promised you I'm going to tell you explain to you that he The author is not creating this new reality. The Torah says it. But I'm going to explain to you this this week in chapter 18, the author presents a beautiful presentation how it is really easy, very easy, without meditation. To have a tremendous relationship with God, one that's fueled with love and all for God. So you're in for a nice treat this week. If I can explain it well, obviously. So now this week the author was going to explain how it's really very easy without even meditation. How do we go do How do we go about doing that? Um so here the author comes along and he says that we each have within us. Now whether we know about it or we don't, we still have it. We'll find out today what it is. We each have within us something which is called in Hebrew, I'll say it in Hebrew and I'll translate, a ahava mesuteret. What does ahava mean? Love. Love. Mesuteret means? Hidden. We each have within us a hidden love for God. What does that mean? Again, we each, everybody, there's no exclusions, has within you a hidden love for God. So if I tell you um I'd like to have, I don't know, a bottle of milk, some apples, right? You got to go to the store and buy it. Or to a farm, right, and milk the cow. Right? You got to go get it. You don't have it with you. But if I tell you tell me about the love for God. Yeah. You don't have to go buy it. The author says you have it within you. Everybody, you might not know where it is. We're going to learn today where it is. Anyone know where your hidden love is? Just maybe maybe the class is over now. Anyone know where the hidden love is? Anyone know where it is? Anyone know that you have it? godly soul. In your godly soul, okay. Where's your godly soul? Your heart. In your heart, okay. I don't know where Theologically speaking. Okay. So cell of your body. Every cell of your body, Okay, good. Good. So, today we're going to learn A, what this love is, and where we have Where do we have it? And what this love does for us. But here you already you see this is an introduction because we each have it within us, we don't have to go elsewhere to look for it. It's like, you know, you're looking for love, you don't have to read novels. Guess what? You have it within you. Just reveal that hidden love that you have. God, when he created each and every one of us, he gave us that ability to love. We have it. We just got to tap into it. It's like, for example, if you have a phone or any other piece of electronic, right? And the battery's dead. Plug it in. To obviously a a power source. Plug it in, guess what? It's going to work. You don't plug it in, it's not going to work. Same thing also, we have that love, but we got to plug into it. Once we plug in to the love that we have, we don't have to go elsewhere, guess what? We will be in love with God and everything else out there in the world. So, now the question is, where What is the love? Where is it? Where do we get it from? And so on and so forth. So, the author explains as follows. And he says like this, that we all know and everything everything is based on the Torah, that we all have matriarchs and patriarchs. We all come from somewhere, right? We don't don't come from nowhere, we came from somewhere, right? Our parents, their parents, etc. And you trace everybody back. Where do we go back to? We go back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah, Bilhah and Zilpah, etc. Okay. So, what does that mean? We all come from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, let's keep it simple. Abraham, who was the first of the patriarchs, before him there were no Jews. Abraham had this tremendous love for God. And because his love for God was so strong, he was willing and ready to do anything to create that relationship, to maintain the relationship, and to make that relationship on fire with God. He was ready to do anything for God. He was ready to do anything for God. How did it come about? How did it come about by Abraham? Yeah, I mean From within. Totally from within. It was his decision. He searched. He searched. he when it emerged? When his love for 3 years old. Three? 3 years old. 3 years old. And where did he find it? Very good. So, Abraham had this tremendous love for God, tremendous relationship with God. And God tested him. Let me see if this guy is a real or he has an agenda. God tested him, you know, with 10 tests. Now, there's a there's a debate what the exactly 10 tests are. Um different commentaries have different opinions, but there was definitely 10 strong tests. Till the final test, the strongest test where he told him to bring up his only his son his only son as a sacrifice in the altar. Okay. Abraham passed every one of the tests. And then finally God says, "Now I know that you are my beloved son." Okay. So, this Abraham, who is our forefather, because he had this tremendous self-sacrifice for God, he got a prize. What is the prize? The prize is that he was able to inherit as an inheritance to every one of his children, grandchildren, great grandchildren until the Messiah comes, forever, something which is called a neshamah. A soul, which we're going to talk in depth what that means, but right now let's give it the term. He He gave an as an inheritance to all his descendants. All his descendants for all future generations, something which is called a neshama, a soul. Simple English, what does neshama mean? A neshama means a part of God, a godly spark that by having this godly spark, which is basically a part of God, guess what? We all have a part of God within us. So, could anybody that has this godly spark be disconnected from God? No, that's who you are. It's like, for example, would somebody not eat? No, cuz you're going to die. Would somebody go out and hurt themselves? No, why would you hurt yourself? It's you, yourself. You would never hurt yourself. So, the same way you wouldn't hurt yourself and you would not starve yourself to death, the same way is you cannot be disconnected from God. Because you got this gift from God, thanks to Abraham, because he committed to God, this beautiful neshama that each and every one of us have, until the Messiah comes. And then from there on we'll see how how things play out further. Right. So, we each have this neshama within us. Now, this neshama that we have within us, and I'm going to go back and explain what the neshama is, but I want to first give you the global, the big picture. This neshama that we have within us, because this neshama is a part of God, and we all have it, so, this neshama by nature, since the part of God, what do you think the what do you think the neshama that's a part of God cleaves to? It cleaves to what? To God. To God. So, in other words, Abraham did not give us an inheritance of love. You can't You can't give somebody an inheritance of love. You like one thing, someone else likes something else. Just because your parents like something doesn't mean you're going to like it. But, if your parents infused within you a neshama, godly soul, you will naturally love God because because a neshama is attracted to God. It's just like you are attracted to yourself. Same thing also, your soul is attracted to what? To God. So, Abraham did not give us love. He gave us the neshama. He gave us the godly soul. The godly soul is what? It's attracted to God. So, therefore, each and every one of us have a soul thanks to Abraham, and this soul is cleaving to God. So, you don't have to go somewhere else to cleave to God. You don't have to go somewhere else to figure out how to have a relationship with God. You have a part of God within you. Get in touch with your soul. Cultivate your soul, and we know the way you feed your soul, and the way you you cause your soul to flourish is by studying Torah, right? Praying, doing mitzvot, and as you do these things, you feed your soul, your soul gets more of an excitement and a love for God. Now, let's talk about this neshama that we have. So, the name this term for the neshama, which basically means a piece of God that's within us. So, the neshama, so to speak, is the is the general name for it, the neshama. But, if you break it down, there's different levels to the soul. We'll start from the bottom going to the top. Now, again, in mysticism, we say from bottom to top, we don't mean physical ascension or uh you know, higher or lower physically, we're referring to higher or lower spiritual energy. So, what does that mean? So, we're going to start with the bottom. The bottom means we all have we all have neshama is called for all the whole package, right? But, there's also one of the levels is also called neshama. So, there's a neshama as the neshama, the whole package of the soul, in the neshama, there's five levels. Nefesh, ruach, neshama as a certain part of the soul, Chaya and Yechida. And we all have it. We all have those five levels. The question is, what's the dominant force of our Neshama? Now, what does that mean? The lowest part of our Neshama, which is called the Nefesh, that's the part in us that when when fired up, when that's the active part, you know, we all have a Neshama. So, if the bottom part, which we call the bottom means lowest energy, the Nefesh is the one that has the energy, we are going to be looking to ways to cleave to God via what vehicle? Action. Anything materialistic, anything mundane, any mitzvah, physical things. Because the Nefesh, the part of our soul that's fired up, is attracted to materialistic physical things. And therefore, it'll want to do a physical mitzvah. Put on a mezuzah, maybe kosher, tefillin if it's a man, and so on and so forth. There's many mitzvahs, all any any of the 613 mitzvahs that relate to actions. That's the concept of the Nefesh. Now, if you have, so to speak, a higher level of a Neshama, back to the big package name, which is called Ruach, so then, let's say your your soul, when you created, was the one that became a fire, was the Ruach level, so you're going to be more attracted to like more feelings, you know, love of God and awe of God. You're going to want to you know, sing and dance and you know, express your love for God and your awe for God. That's because what's what's really fired up is what your Ruach. Ruach comes from spirit. It's more like the spiritual part of it, the love and awe for God. What happens if you're from the levels of Neshama? Then, you're already going to be more of like someone that wants to study Torah and meditate, and that's going to be your way that you're going to relate and you're going to create a connect a connection with God. So, you're seeing from here is very very clearly that not everyone's connection with God is different. In know, words, what's important is a connection. How the connection is, what the connection is unique. And that's why for example, a man can have let's say one type of connection with God, and his wife can have a different connection, depending if it's a nefesh or ruach or neshama. You know, there's higher levels, chaya and yechida, but that's already a whole different concept. That's already more more abstract type of levels of neshama. We're going to talk about the the the internal levels of neshama. You can have for example, you know, let's say as a parent for example, let's say you know, you you know, you connect to God let's say through intellect, or let's say your spouse connects to God more through emotions. And your child is just a simple action-oriented. It's not bad and good. It's just different level of neshama that's shining in them. One is not better than the other. This is not about better, higher, lower. This is about a different type of neshama. Now, knowing this really really helps to have good relationship with people. Think about this. Because what you what you just learned, which is very very powerful, is not everybody is the same. Not everyone has the same soul level. Not everyone has the same mission. So for example, if you see the world from your glasses, the way you Let's say for example, you're on the level of of neshama. That means you see the way to connect to God, which works for you, and rightfully so, is by studying and meditating, right? Love, dancing, no, no, no. It's like weird, right? Why? Because you're coming from a different world of neshama. Actions, I mean, that's simple tasks, right? But what happens if you're the level of nefesh? I just want to do simple mitzvot. Don't get me involved with this meditation, right? Uh love, not for me. Someone else, it's all about love, right? Is Is it a Is it a conflict? No. It's a different level of a soul. Once you really learn this and you get this, guess what? A, you don't you you're not judging yourself. You don't have demand If you are by soul level of neshama, and you want to be like more action-oriented, you're hurting yourself. It's not you. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do the mitzvot. You should do them. But know what your strong suit is. Be have realistic expectations for yourself, not unrealistic expectations. So realistic expectation is once you know your soul level, don't demand of yourself to be something you're not. So A, you'll have inner peace. B, if you're in a relationship with a spouse and a child or in your teacher, you'll realize that every single person has its own I'm giving you general stamps, but there's multiple, you know, codes. Some people can have a mix of this, a mix of that. Everyone has a level of emotions and a level of intellect and of action. And everyone has a unique combination. But what happens now you're able to respect different people for the reason why they were put in this world. You know, every single person in this world, there's no copies. Everyone is unique. Now if you want everyone to do it your way, first of all, it's false. There's no one way. Yeah, we all want to cleave to God, absolutely. Some cleave it through meditation, through intense study. Some do it through dancing and love and all. Some do it through physical mitzvot, physical actions, and so on and so forth. One is not better than the other. So every single soul, we got the Who did we get the soul from? Who did we get it from? God. Through who? Abraham. Abraham. What if your husband likes to study and you like to dance and sing? Can't you join him studying sometimes and he joins you dancing and singing? And absolutely, but remember remember what you said, sometimes. Yes. Don't make it all the time. Sometimes. feeling it and he mostly Right. That's the way we Let him be have strong suit, whatever if it's dancing or intellect. And at times, sure, absolutely, you learn from him, he learns from you, but it's not a it's not a natural fit. Something which And for sure, obviously you have to learn you have to do things which aren't your nature, and that's the way you become a complete person, but it will never be your nature to be something what what's not your nature. Okay. So, Abraham gave each and every one of us this beautiful concept that we all have an ashama. But the common denominator, irrelevant of what level it is, since what does an ashama ultimately want? It wants to cleave to God. It has a love for God. You got it? Yes. So, therefore, we have within us that power. We don't have to meditate. We don't have to think. We just got to tap into what? Our neshama, which naturally has what? A love for God. Now, here comes the big question. What is the power in the Great, we have this neshama, different levels, we got it. But what's the power in the neshama that causes us to draw to God? And especially that we're saying there's different levels, everybody has the same power to draw to God. Where where does it come from? So, the Alter Rebbe explains as follows. That before God created the world, we know that there was no world. What does that mean there was no world? The only thing that existed was the infinite part of God. In the world of Kabbalah, it's called or ain sof. Light, which had no end. Infinite power of God. So, before God went ahead and created a a physical world, the the world was infinite. Infinite power. Now, it's hard for us humans to comprehend infinite cuz we're finite. So, if you let's say for example, you can think of a one, a hundred, a thousand, a million, a billion, a trillion, whatever number you It's still a finite number, even though it's great numbers, and sometimes we don't even comprehend these type of numbers, but it's still a finite number. But infinite's hard for us to comprehend. And there's a difference between one to infinite and a billion to infinite and a trillion to infinite is the same difference. Same distance. It It's just a world away, right? Now, so the infinite power of God existed. What happened after God created the world? God created a finite world. A finite world. And because he created a finite world, we are finite human beings. We are physical human beings. There's time. There was a yesterday, there's a today, there's a tomorrow. You measure things by time. There's space. Here, we're sitting here, we're not sitting in Israel right now, right? So, we're we're limited by space. Not only is time and space um not only is time and space limiting us, but we're we're limited people. We're limited people. Now, but how did God create this gap between How did God create the the the connection between infinite to finite? There has to be some connection. So, here comes a concept which we're going to talk about, which is basically we call it four worlds. Now, what does it mean four worlds? So, in order to God create this physical world. Now, when you look at this physical world, do you see God? No, you see tables, chairs, people. You see materialistic things. Now, if you're smart and you meditate, you realize, "Listen, truly see physical things, but come on, there's a power behind all this stuff. Who created us? I mean, who created Not who put the table together. Who created the wood? Who created the metal? Who created the clothing? Not who put together the the the garment. Who created the materials? It all comes from God." So, if you think But in order to do that, you have to think and you have to be humble, cuz if you're arrogant, "Pah, I made the table." Really? Make me a table. I didn't say put together, make a table. You can't make a table. But the point in this materialistic world, what you see is a physical world. So, this actually on the spiritual level is called the lowest world. The lowest world. What's it called in Hebrew? The world of Assiah, the world of action. Action, physical world. Between this lowest world and the infinite, there's four worlds. So, the we're going to start from the top to the bottom this time. The When God originally was infinite, so God created Okay, we got to make the physical world. So, he he had to create a tzimtzum, which is a step down of energy. And he created the first world, which is called the world of Atzilut. It's a Hebrew word. It actually means comes from the word of etzel, close. It's the closest world to God. It means it's some kind of creation, but it's very close to God. There's not noticeable a physical creation. After he created this step down of a tzimtzum of the world of Atzilut, he went and created another step down of energy, which is called the world of Beriah. There's already some kind of creation there. Nothing that we see here today, but it's some kind of step down to the world of creation. Then God went and made another step down, the world of Yetzirah. Formation. Ah, there are things forming. Until he created this physical world, the world of Assiah. Now, obviously the greatest power of God is where? It's in the infinite. As God went and created the first level, Atzilut, so in the world of Atzilut, we know I mean, obviously we're learning a lot of terms today, but we want to try to cover the concept. Um in the world of Atzilut, so how did he go from the world of Atzilut to the world of Beriah? So, in every one of these worlds, we know if you look in the world, there's something which is called the Sefirot. Sefirot, the 10 um Sefirot that God used to create the world, starting from Keter, Chokhmah, Binah. We skip over Da'at since we mentioned Keter. Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malkhut. In each one of the worlds, you have the full 10 Sefirot. And again, obviously each one of the worlds, just disclaimer, needs its own class. Each one of the 10 Sefirot needs its own class. Uh and we'll do that. But, just for today, to get the complete picture of it today, we can't go and teach one of these cuz we'll be here for the next few weeks in one class, I don't know, I think you guys have a life, right? Unless you guys want to sit here, um we probably can, you know, do that as well. Okay. Um We'll take a vote at the end of the class if you guys want to continue. All right. nothing better to do, so And beats sitting in the airport for a couple hours. Okay. So, back to the point. So, in each one of these worlds, God created So, there's the ten Sefirot. Now, and as you realize, so what would be the highest spiritual power? What would be the highest In you know, it's not infinite because infinite is infinite, but the step down from the infinite, what would be the place on the spiritual plane which has the the Ein Sof, the infinite power of God, which is still somehow there, maybe like in a blurry type of vision, is in the first world, which is Atzilut. Which is the closest Close to God, and in the first Sefirah of Chokhmah. So, the highest spiritual energy would be where? In the world of Atzilut, the highest world, and in the world of Chokhmah. Now, so what's in there? In there, you have the Ein Sof, the infinite light of God, power of God is there. Obviously, not in its fullest power, otherwise it would explode, but it's but the closest we can get to the Ein Sof is felt and present in where? In the world of Atzilut, in the level of Chokhmah. Obviously, as it goes down in the world of Atzilut from Chokhmah down to Malchut, it gets diminished. And then, obviously, you have even a bigger step down as you enter the new world of Beriah, all through all the Sefirot, and so on and so forth. Now, as we mentioned before, every one of these Neshamot, every one of us in this world that have a soul, have within us what creates why somebody would be a soul of Nefesh, a Ruach, or Neshamah, pending on where the person when the person came down from heaven to this world where they spent time in the journey. So, for example, let's say you're 9 months in you know, every woman is a 9 months 9 Whatever the amount of months exactly you but the average 9 months of pregnancy. So, what happens in those 9 months? You go down from from heaven and you come down till you actually your your parents the mom delivers you, right? So, what happens is you can spend an extreme case 8.9 months in the world of Atzilut and then you come down this world. So, when you come down to this world in the in the process of of descending, you spend 95% of your time we're in the world of Atzilut. Highest level. So, when you walk out to this world, you think you're going to see a physical world? You're going to see God and Godliness. As a matter of fact, who is known in the world of Kabbalah is referred to in the world called as a soul of Atzilut? Who is that? It's the Zaddik. Zaddik, which one? Moses. Oh. Like when Moses when God said feed the people, he goes, "Food? Like what kind of food? What do I have to do with food?" What do we need food for? What do we need food for? Exactly. So, if you're in a soul of Atzilut, you have no interest in food. I mean, you don't want to die, so you end up eating something. It doesn't matter what it tastes or looks like, but you just you're in a different world. And that And sometimes you see people like that, they're not crazy. They just were obviously very high high soul level that end up down this world. They're more of called in a soul of Atzilut. And obviously when you when you when initial union took place in the husband and wife, and boom, you went down shot down to the lowest world, Assiah Malchut, and you hung out there for 9 months. And then boom, you came out to this world. When you come out to this world, what are you going to what's going to be your reality? Think about it. Cars, trucks, buses, planes, uh physical things, action, materialism, uh self, and so on and so forth. Is it bad or good? No, that's just the process. That's the process. So, you would So, that soul would not be ready called in a soul of Atzilut, it would be called a nefesh of a nefesh. It we be like the lowest level of a soul. Again, remember we're not saying high and low to God forbid to to make any judgment here. We're just creating the reality. Now, so you see already levels Now, what happens? Whatever level you're at, could you go up in stature? Yes. Absolutely. So, let's say for example you're a real materialistic person. Because that's your soul level. So, you can say, "Hey, victim, that's who I am." Granted, I agree, but could you grow? Absolutely. You can learn, you can meditate, you can learn about finer things in life. Yeah, it's more of a struggle for you, absolutely. But, could you get to become a more of a refined person? For sure. For sure. You can have somebody that comes down to this world and totally, "Oh my gosh, it's only God." Could that person, if it indulges in materialism constantly and consistently and the pleasure of the world, could the person eventually become more coarse and more materialistic? Absolutely. So, even though your nature is one way, but your nurture can affect you up or down, pending how you're nurtured. Now, even though there's all these different levels, but guess what? Every neshama has its source from where? From God. From the God, the highest level, which is chochmah of atzilut, which means the ain soph power. Therefore, since every single nefesh, ruach, neshama, and again, in millions and billions of combinations, right? There's been so many people in the world, everybody does have a connection to where? To chochmah of atzilut. Now, it's not it might not be their strong suit, but they all have a connection there. Now, what's sitting in chochmah of atzilut? Or ain soph. The infinite power of God is sitting there. So, since that infinite power of God sitting there, and we all are connected to that infinite power of God, guess what? We're connected to the most powerful part of God. And where is the essence of sitting? It's something which is called Hochma. Why is it sitting specifically in the level of Hochma? Because we know the difference between Hochma and Bina is as follows. Back to last week. In last week's chapter, we learned about how does one come to love of God? Meditation meditation. And when you meditate, what is it when you meditate? You take a concept, and you meditate on it, right? You think about it, and you go more deeper into it, and so on and so forth. In the world of the Sefirot, is that the highest Sefira? Hochma? No, it's actually Bina. Bina is the ability to really understand things in deeper and deeper. So, meditation, when you meditate, what are you connecting to? Not the highest Sefira. Some of you might be like new terms, but you're not connecting to the highest Sefira of Hochma, you're connecting to the second to highest, Bina. So, but when you meditate and you create a love for God through meditation, that's great. If you're able to meditate and create a love for God and then you think, "Oh my gosh, God created this world, and he created me, and he maintains me, and so on and so forth." And you have this love for God, right? That's great, but what what what did you access to create that love? Bina. Second to the highest level. But when you access your hidden love, where is the hidden love sitting? Where is the hidden love sitting? Highest level. In the highest level, in Hochma of Atzilut, the infinite power of God is sitting in the highest level. Why is it sitting in the highest level? Because in the highest level, it's not a rational level. It's not an intellectual level. It's a level which is What is What is the highest level called? It's It's called Hochma, which is a It's actually made up of two words. Hochma comes from a word koach, the power of mah, what? What means simple question. Now, what is the most humblest question you can ask? If you want to really experience humility in a healthy way. So, if you want to experience humility in a healthy way, you would just ask one question. What's the question? What does God want from me? Or if you're in a relationship, you ask your spouse, "What do you want?" Right? Or your kids, "What can I do for you?" Your parents, "What do you need?" Right? Your friend, "What can I do for you?" Why is a blockage. You know, being a is why this, why that, and eventually you might get what is open door. Think about what is what. What is basically is true humility. What does God want? What do you want? When When you say to someone, "Hey, what can I do for you?" Wow, that's so nice of you. There's no agenda. You ask them, "Hey, what can I do for you?" With no strings attached. They want to know why. If you say to someone straight out, "Yeah, yeah." What? Again, remember what cuz what's the source of that question? The source of the question is what? Chokmah, which is the highest level, and then Chokmah is two words, koach, the power, the power, the real power of mah, what? So, anytime you ask the question, what? You open up yourself to God's ultimate power of ain soph. And once you open up to that, sky's the limit. So, when you want to have a connection without, as the Torah says, that it's very near and easy to you to have a relationship with God out of love and awe, guess what? You have to go looking for it anyway? No. It's within. Where is it within? In the level of Chokmah. The only thing you need to ask is what? One word. What? What? And the minute you ask what, you connect it to the infinite power of God, and everything opens up. You ever call someone and the first thing the person says, "Hey, what can I do for you?" Oh my gosh. Like all you were jittery, you don't know what to ask, how to ask, and the person says, "What can I do for you?" Right? "What can I do for you?" Lovely, isn't it? What's the you know, and then the person says, "Sure." And the second question is, "What more can I do Yes, exactly. And keep on going. Yes. And and and the sky's the limit. Yes. Not anything, what else? What else? Remember put the what in the beginning. Put the what in the beginning. So when a person does the what, guess what happens? You're plugged into where? To the hidden love that's from within, and the sky's the limit cuz you're connected to the infinite power of God. And the altar explains this same place we have the hidden love, which is the ability anyone connects it, just like this. It's near you, and it's easy for you. You don't have to meditate. Meditation requires you to know, you have to know the step. This is where we have the power of faith. As we know that one of the biggest gifts that we have is is faith. What's faith? What is faith? It's belief that in something that you cannot see. Right, so what is belief? What is belief? Belief is very simple. The expression is, you know, where logic ends, faith begins. You like that? I love it. Where logic ends, faith begins. In other words, faith is a place where you cannot go to with logic. If you logically figured it out, it's not faith. Faith is, for example, if you logically or intellectually have a relationship with somebody it's only as strong as that as as that logic is. And what happens if the logic doesn't make sense to have a relationship with that person? It's over. But if you were in a relationship out of faith how how is that breakable? Impossible to be broken. I know it's a relationship with God, spouse, children, friends. For example, I mean it's not even comprehen- comprehensible the thing that you relationship with your kids or your parents is based on a logic. I mean it's beyond. It's not logic. It's based on faith. Is there another word like faith and it's imagination it too? Faith, trust. No, because one of my favorite is Einstein's logical take you from A to B, but imagination will take you everywhere. Right, it's very good. I like that. I like that. It's very good. Yes, yes. Well, isn't that another word for faith then? yes, you can say that. Yes, it's I it's a I it's I got you. Yes, good point, good point. Okay, so where do we have the where do we have the power of faith? From the same place. Where? From Hochma of Atzilut. We have that power to have tremendous faith in God for anything and everything. And think about all the times that you had a hard time and you stuck strong. It wasn't logic that kept you strong. Cuz logic would tell you give up. Cuz it's logical to give up. When going gets tough, you know, when the tough get going. You heard that expression. But faith says when the going gets the going gets tough, guess what going? Faith kicks in and you have faith and you hold on and guess what? You make it through. Not only that, but to take a step further, faith is the positive flow of holding on, right? But what happens when it gets so so hard and even with all the faith, you you're starting to lose it? And you you know, faith is great, it's wonderful, but you you feel like, "Oh my gosh, you know what? Like let's say your life is on the line. Or like the Jewish people that say, you know, in the in the gas chambers. They had faith. They had faith. And they with their faith they could say, you know, God, we have faith in you, but you know what? Maybe we'll give up our Judaism just to be saved. But here kicks in something deeper. And that is called mesirat nefesh, where a person is willing to give up their lives not to be disconnected from God. So there's one thing which is faith, and then there's something which is called mesirat nefesh, you're willing to give up everything just not to be disconnected. What That's also above logic. Cuz logic is, you know what? Let's give it up for a week and we'll come back in a week. No, no. That's logic. Above logic is from the same place of hochma, which same place where faith comes and the the internal love comes from, is I'm not getting I I don't want to give up anything. I'm not giving up my relationship with God. Even if it means I I lose everything, I'm willing to give everything up cuz one thing I will not give up is my relationship with God. Why? And here's the answer, it's very simple. Because is God part of you or is God external from you? Part of If God is external from you, he says, yeah, sure you can give it up. But since God is part of you, Abraham implanted that neshama, it's part of your DNA, it's part of your psyche, guess what? You naturally have a love for God. You have tremendous faith for God. And you don't fear death. And you don't fear death. You don't You exactly you'll die for him. You're You're ready to give anything and everything up for him. And that is the power that Abraham instilled within each and every one of us. This beautiful neshama. And irrelevant what type of neshama you have, a nefesh, even if it's the lowest level of nefesh or any level of nefesh, ruach, neshama, it doesn't make a difference. They're They're all unique, but they're all connected at the core to the highest level and there's the or ain sof power, which by connecting to that at any moment, as the Torah says, it's very easy for love God. Connect to your neshama, you're able to love God very easily. And you're able to feel your faith. And you're able to have that that ability to say I'm not getting disconnected. That is ultimately the power of the Jew. The power of the Jew is not in his intellect, even though we have that. And it's very very important to have that. The power of the Jew is in his is is is emotions, his love We have that. That's great. It's wonderful. But the real power that we have is that we have a soul which is connected to God above intellect. Not below intellect, where we're just like, you know, as a fool we accept things. No, above intellect, that our connection to God is from the deepest levels. And therefore we love God, guess what? Unconditionally. Just because. We have faith in God just because. And we will not disconnect from God at all costs. Because our connection to God is the most important thing that we have and that connection will always remain alive and strong.