Charity without limits cleanses soul from transgressions - Tanya Igeres haTeshuva 3b - RC Dalfin

so we're on we're learning Tanya the third section called Thea on page s gim which is opposite page 184 we at the the start of a new paragraph This is the um chapter in which the author explains the importance of giving charity giving Seda now the idea of giving s is in the Torah you don't need to tell you to give Saka the tah says a person shouldn't close their hands to the poper and you should help you should give s the idea OFA as explained here is for the purpose purp I'm not going to say the sole purpose but the purpose of washing away rinsing away any stains that we caused on our soul Vis A V transgressions it used to be that this was accomplished through sacrifices sacrifices were brought for atonement one particular sacrifice called the sacrifice katas was for the purpose if a person realized they committed a transgression they needed to bring a sacrifice what if you committed the same transgression five times one opinion says you have to bring five sacrifices the other one says no you only bring one sacrifice for all five we learned yesterday that the accepted view is you bring three three times that particular sin so the example that the AL gave yesterday in AA is one of the ex is an example that's really close to us as much as we don't you know sometimes like thinking about it or speaking about it it's reality and that's called masturbation you know you learn Tanya you're talking about this holy Rabbi and and you imagine his students it's like you know he couldn't choose another example but my friends if on Kipper time right Kipper we we're climbing the lad of Holiness and we're getting to the last most holy prayer of Nila the closing prayer before that we have the fourth prayer of the day which is called Min and we read the T then and what do we read about all the prohibited relationships incl including incest and everything else and every year when I read this I ask myself like it's your Kipper who's thinking about incest now like come on you you don't have a better time to to to have us read the section in the Torah dealing with all of these relationship prohibitions a mother and a daughter and a daughter and and a grandmother and on and on and on having intimacy in a non-al way because it's prohibited and that's what we read about at time during yipper and I think the simple answer just the simple answer is because that's real life maybe today you know this isn't our craving and Indulgence although the world is really becoming more and more cuckoo and um we do have this as well but it's the idea of relationships you know man and woman finding you know pleasuring themselves in different heathenistic ways and that and that's and that's that's real life so y Kipper we have to come down to earth we have to come down from the mountain and come down and say hey I'm I'm a I'm a man I'm a woman I have a need I have a craving and I might have goofed up here and there and I ask God for forgiveness on your Kipper cuz that's really part of who we are and what we experience in a similar vein Al here chooses out of all the sins that he could choose which one does he choose emission of seed not turt Mission wasting of seed which is masturbation not accidental masturbation but intentional masturbation why because that is the the man that is the the the the male that is reality and I don't have to tell you but there is a school of thought and a very prominent school of thought in psychology which argues that masturbation is healthy for a person well the Torah says just the opposite the Torah says that a Jew a Jewish man is forbidden to intentionally masturbate so we have a a a a a a opposite contrary view between Torah and some schools of psychology the AL of course follows the tit so the AL chooses something that's very very real to a human being to a man for a woman to pleasure herself is not prohibited cuz he doesn't waste semen the prohibition is only for a man so daral comes up with this idea you need to fast 84 times 84 fasts to atone for one time masturbating that's a lot but that's what he says so some say you have to do 84 times the amount of times you masturbate it imagine you masturbated 700 times 84 time 700 fasts it's enormous amount difficult to do so the acceptable compromises do three times 252 fast once in your lifetime you should do 252 fasts and ala suggests you could do them in the winter when the days are short and you can eat up to 3 hours before sunset sunrise and you fast the rest of the winter day and that's considered a fast if you do this 9 10 times during the winter over 9 10 years whatever it comes up with a calculation that uh you you you'll over you know amount of time you'll accomplish the 252 fast he also says you could combine half days you can just fast a half a day and then a second half a day is considered one fast two halves equal one but who has the power to fast says the he warns us only those that have the K the strength for it if it's going to cause you weakness of the body headaches not feeling well disruption and everything else you're not allowed to fast these extensive fasts but I need atonement for my transgression of of masturbation so what do I do says you give charity you give and this is what we're going to continue learning today the details of giving that type of Charity and as I told you yesterday there are certain times and certain Jewish celebrations which emphasize the the the act of trans of forgiveness for this particular transgression and one is called Pig Aben when a a firstborn male is 30 days old we make a ceremony called the Redemption of the son this a boy a firstborn boy Moshe belongs to the priest to the Cohen and the father has to buy him back from the priest from the Jewish priest the Coen and the and there's a ceremony that's called Pon haben Redemption pigon means to redeem Hab the son the word pon has the letters pay doid how much is pay doid 84 what did the Aral say is the the amount of fasts you need to for are necessary to forgive for one time masturbating is 84 fasts so by going and participating in a in a pig in the celebration of redemption the first born it says in the Holy books you attain forgiveness for the a for for the transgression of of masturbating of one time does it have to be with kavana when you go I would think so I I I I would I would think so I would think so you know I mean you know that's that's a very good question you're attending mitvah you're attending a Mitzvah right so and you know why you necessarily with the intention that it's a it's a ton for for the oh no that I would say yeah but you you have to know you're going to a pigon yeah so if I'm attending a a a a a Mitzvah meal because at this ceremony called Pig we wash so it's called a Mitzvah meal and by doing that as says that that automatically in a sense transgresses one time of the masturb the transgression of masturbating whether he asked me whether you had a mind that I'm doing this for that to do to accomplish TR uh forgiveness or not I would say even if you didn't have that in mind the fact that you went to this Mitzvah meal in in of this particular Mitzvah of redeeming the firstborn son of accomplishes that but let let's get to the next Point well what if you don't get to such a meal you know and this is not something that happens every day so how does one today go about finding a solution for this transgression given that I we don't have the the strength to fast so the AL says it's through giving so let's learn inside page Sim beginning the new paragraph the amount of fasts that are that are more than similar that one would would have had to fast if they were concerned about the more stringent opinion which would be which is that you you would need to fast the amount of fast for based on the amount of times that you did the transgression so the Al said that a person should Endeavor to do the fast of 252 fasts once their lifetime now he says what if it's much more no what what if you want to be stringent and you want to do it 500 times because you know you you masturbated 500 times so says it's too much for you to fast 500 times I'm just giving an example so he now gives the advice redeem all of those fast through giving he goes back and cites what he said earlier the amount of this coin called three polish which was a a a a coin and figured it during the 500 years ago in Poland I think you should give that amount every day and so all other fasts that one is obligated to fast for other sins that don't have the death penalty and even just for desecrating a positive Torah commandment or violating a a rabic command and we know that the study of T corresponds to everything and you didn't study Torah every moment based on the specific suggestions of how many fasts one needs for all these things as brought by there's a section in in a Caba book called m in the section on CHAS over there it enumerates the amount of fast you need for this sin and that sin all of this will be redeemed through charity if you don't have the wherewithal to pay your soul as a as a tick as a correct for the transgressions so you give to now what if using my example 500 times of that particular sin comes out to a lot of 500 time 84 is a large figure yeah that's the amount you should give says the AL if you want to fulfill you hear this the more stringent opinion you have you need to give that amount that that that the arel says that you would need to fast for one time doing that sin times the amount of times that you did that sin we have an issue the says we have a ruling the rabbi say the SAG say don't um what's the word y I'm looking for don't Splurge more than 20% the the sages caution us knowing our way of behavior when we give charity when we give Saka don't give more than 20% of your earnings so the question the AL is asked asking it's a rhetorical question on himself he's asking I just told you in the name of the Aral that you should be giving if you want if you want to fulfill the most stringent opinion the amount of times that you sned times whatever the amount of fast you needed to do for just one time which comes out to a large figure more than 20% of your earnings it could be so how do you reconcile the two that's his question let's look inside and although this amount will equal a particular figure which is don't be concerned you give it give that amount and don't be concern quoting the sages one should not Splurge more than 20 % why now the next line is is very very important the says it's not considered splurging in this scenario it's not considered splurging why because you're doing it to redeem your soul from fast and affliction when the K when the rabbi said don't give more than 20% they're talking about your bodily needs you need to you know you need to buy a PA a pair of pants you need to bring food buy food you need to have money for that so don't Splurge more than 20% but the rabbis the sages were were not addressing spiritual maladies caused by sin they weren't discussing that when they said that says the let's continue his words says and in fact we even find that when it comes to Healing the body and all the other needs of the body a person won't say hey I need to I need to go on vacation I need to go to a spa I need to go somewhere and it's cost a lot of money person has a heart issue and they go to these clinics and they go to these Retreats right well it's a lot of money and it's more than 20% guess what the person wants to be around the next day to get up otherwise he can hold on to his his money and not spend more than 20% and he doesn't wake up the next day cuz he has a heart attack so we do find that even regarding bodily needs physical needs there's a time and place where no money in the world should come into the equation if you have that money of course and to say I can't Splurge more than 20% hey that's for you know Necessities but Necessities that are not life-threatening when it comes to life-threatening issues and of course that's a question can you prove that going to the spa and the retreat it's going to keep you alive an extra day or two or an extra year or two an extra 10 years we have our phys here some will say yes some will say no but without you know pressing the button prove it there's something to it okay so the AL is saying if if if it's okay and it's not considered spending splurging more than 20% for the for for the health of your body you're allowed to do that how much more so for the health of your soul your soul is sick our soul is sick from transgressions it has all kinds of issues on it yeah unfortunately a lot of dots and spots we've we we sprinkled our soul throughout our life you know I'm I'm sitting I was sitting here before the thinking about you eat supper I ate supper and I had a good supper and I'm saying to myself this body of mine has been eating supper for 60 plus years you know there's so much food in this body it's it's too much but we eat and I'm not I'm not talking now about you know overeating even someone who's very careful the fact is that we use our body for physical iCal material issues and items and and the body is like is like full of it well so what do you need a detox a fasting a juice diet for three days right on and on everyone knows right like empty out clear out come on stop eating for few few days just drink detox re I do it I do it it's called intermediate F fasting I okay fine so since you do it so therefore we could we could talk about it so now you think about the the the soul it needs to have intermediate at least intermediate fasting but fasting is hard for us right so the AL says excuse me says give to and and and if you you want to be M you want to be stringent give the amount even though it's a large amount and it's more than 20% have mercy on your soul basically that's what he's saying here and he says the sages did not forbid that when they said don't Splurge more than 20% that's the explanation over here now we continue because the amount of fast mentioned very very great there's a tremendous amount listen to what he says therefore it is it is customary today now call Turn the Page to 186 all those that fear the tremble those that fear and are concerned about the word of God's language you know is precise he doesn't just say once means to increase means a lot he says a lot a lot it's in other words don't put any limit ation on your giving of Saka to Pure to purify your soul and that is the bottom line that we walk away with from this piece of Tanya and it's very practical and important and I would say that today rather than you know fasting because we aren't as strong and we are more nervous and we are more you know fragile give a lot of SED to to a tone and if you happen to know the amount the the calculation great but even if you don't know and most of us don't know because you know we're just going we're going we're going what did I do in 1975 on March 13th who who knows who remembers right so just give a lot of don't make a calculation I'm spurred you more than 20% and says the reason why we should increase a lot a lot of is because our generation is weak we don't have the ability to pain our soul so much through fasting look at this parenthesis it says elsewhere explains it at length the verse says the kindness of God is never ending ask a question H if it's if if the if is referring to God it shouldn't sayu it should sayu is plural God is one how hasem heem the kindness of hasem it is never ending what do mean is plural so the AL explains later and he alludes to it here that it's not [Music] referring to Hashem it's referring to us Sam new we are imperfect we are constantly making mistakes akesu and because we're thankful to hem who who reciprocates with in a limitless way just like we we are not perfect and we're always goofing up and at the same time therefore we seek ways to give Sedaka endlessly without CC ation so too we get and because of that we getem in a limitless way that's why Al brings this here as a continuation of his idea of the norm the norm is to give a certain amount of Charity you know Tit for Tat and you know calculated and all that but when you talking about cleansing the soul there there's no calculations and in that case even if even if Hashem would would kind of say no no I can't forgive you for this one I gave you three chances two chances and you goofed up you're on your own now so you have to do an act that's Limitless in your life IE giving more than you can more than 20% of Seda and doing that will trigger God's Infinity in bestowing h on you even though you don't deserve it very very powerful thought and Hashem Hashem hold score he knows the score he doesn't need the the instant replay on the the board out there in center field to tell you what the score is he knows the score and when AEM sees that we are we just give we Splurge we don't say I have to ask my wife I have to ask my accountant you'll do that after you give first just give and later ask your wife and I you understand yes y so so from this I understood I mean you know like you live in bar park right the re lives in bar Park we live here yeah I mean we get like I would say you knowes like all day yeah we got we got so many every day I can't even but but I'll tell you something say Reby it's a very good concept this concept because when I always like go into my pocket I don't I don't even look I just give whatever is in my pocket so it gives me a lot of what you're saying because I I I never thought about making a so now the fact that he's saying don't make a it's it's whatever is in the pocket whatever whatever I'm supposed to give is in the pocket and and you know and yes that that what you're saying follows in line with what the AL says but it's not just you know when the M comes you know what I'm saying it's a person has to say to themselves look I lived a lifetime 40 years 50 years 60 years 70 years whatever and I have a lot of baggage that's why I told you you know a lot of dinners 60 years I'm eating dinner it's it's in me now it's time to kind of you know you know refine it it's too much that that's the concept Al is saying here wake up you have a so it's you know and and and the sh needs tickl there's stains so therefore just give whether it's the way you're talking about or whether it's you yourself you know decide I'm sending out checks today out of the blue it's not before you Kipper you know it's like not it's not a time when people you know oh the day of judgment is coming I better write a check you know I better give money but in the middle of the summer you decide you're taking a checkbook out and you're making out 20 checks you know and you don't you you know you don't calculate why you know today you woke up thinking what's going to be with My Soul what what's going to be with me I have a Nish I want I I want a pure Nish God wants me to have a pure n and I know that over the years something happened so therefore I'm just going to give so everyone in their own way tomorrow we'll start the fourth chapter everyone have a great day nice learning nice talking Z bye bye thank you very much have a day thank you bye bye bye bye bye bye