G-d left His Comfort for You - He stands firmly focusing on You - Rabbi Chaim Dalfin

so we're learning Tanya chapter 41 and I want to clarify one or two things that we learned yesterday as I told you this chapter with this with this chapter the balatan begins a new phase in his ex explaining the ban because remember all the 53 chapters are here to explain the a the the potential man so in this chapter he explains that how important it is or the most important thing for a ban for a Jew who wants to live out the ban potential it is to have to accept the Yoke of God as the fundamental basis for all of on hasem one service of God although and and therefore he begins the the chapter with the word baram however which is which means that although I told you in chapter 37 38 39 4 40 the importance of love and fear for God to have in the nevertheless that's that's secondary to cab that's that's the the the the the explanation here and the the novelty as I said yesterday to repeat it is that not only is it relevant for sur to to hold yourself back from something that's tempting and and and and no good for against against God so you need to have here this novelty in chapter 41 is that it's also the for put on light you know sit in a Suka you you wouldn't think that you need k for that for that you need to love God I love you God and I love what you want you want me to to put on I'm putting on so theat says in chapter 41 no that's not adequate because if you're lacking K even in the performance of MIT positive Commandments it's quite possible that you the MIT will will seize you will stop doing it or you won't do it with the same gak with the same pleasure and Delight why because it's all based on your liking your enjoyment so therefore the the foundation has to be why is my enjoyment important as we discussed before why is it important because God said so that's and if hem wouldn't say so then my enjoyment is not important my then then as as as said that my enjoyment is is G is yes is self why hasm want me to have health healthy self-esteem because he wants me to have health self-esteem not because psychology and and and and the Freud and the neuros pychology and soci and social work and they say it's important that's not the reason that's not the reason for a Jew because if that's the reason someone can come along with smarter and brighter and say nah it's not this way look Freudian Psychology was the in thing for so many years and then came came along behavioral psychology and um cognitive therapy and it wiped it away and it said no psychoanalysis is not the end all even though there are still and there are very few real psychoanalysis you know the psychologists today who still believe in hardcore Freudian psychology what happened for years this was the the the the the the agaz the golden C because someone smarter brought the studies and proed no you don't have to go that way we can go another way and that way doesn't really help and the arguments go back and forth what's theat theat is the the foundation is not God the foundation is science and science can go this way or that way it's a theory that was one of the re arguments by the way with the whole science the reconciliation of Science and T and the wrote and discussed it with great scientists he says you you know the fossils prove this the Rings prove this the age of the world he said that's what you say today tomorrow you're going to say no no it's not 1 million years old is 7 million and and a year from now no it's not seven it's 20 million the H is not God the H is I the is is limited so that's what the balat is Al saying here the same is true for Mitzvah I just discussed it in Psychology the same is true for Mitzvah if my Mitzvah is because it makes me feel good or M like this light a candle the shab is for the soldiers if that's the it's a problem of course you should light a candle but if the reason you're lighting the candle out of shabas or shabas candles is because you want to bring light to the to the soldiers and and that's the reason if itself itself it's a good self a holy self but itself that's not the reason why I light a candle because it says Friday shabas comes a woman light shabas candles and finished finished you want to Now find reason you want to find explanations and you want to put salt and pepper on it no problem but you have to know that the is that's what it says in this chapter in T and I and trust me someone who lives with this will will always be a from Jew always in the worst of situations after a holocaust after October 7th the yamaka does not come off the beard doesn't come off and my belief in God is the same and maybe even stronger but how could it be there was a Holocaust there was an October 7 where are you God but were are you letting this little country with all these people God forbid be destroyed it makes no sense the answer is it doesn't make sense to you to me to us cuz we're little people we can't fathom it but if we if we knock into our heads that the is Hashem and Hashem knows what he's doing like I told you don't write a book If I were God I don't want we shouldn't want to be God let let hem be God he knows what he's doing I it doesn't it doesn't sometimes make sense okay so it doesn't and it's easy said but listen listen God forbid you know I I wouldn't want to be in anyone's position KAS shom you know who who's lost a child in in the war or otherwise and everything else you know it it's it's so easy for me to sit here and say that and I and I and I say it with a heavy a heavy heart I but but at the end of the day it has to be said because if it's not said and it's not understood and it's not you then we fall apart you can't fall apart if you fall apart it's it's very unhealthy what what will you accomplish from falling apart the the the soldier that NE was killed and fell is not coming back to mhia comes and we have the resurrection of dead right we all agree we if if we believe that we believe in the 13 principles that one day Messiah will come and there'll be the Resurrection The and then the soldier will come back we we believe that but until then it's not happening there's no scientific evidence in the world that you can have survive resurrection of the dead it's never happened if anyone tells it's happened then they're out of their mind yes it's happened by Alicia you know by a few prophets and that's that's miraculous that's miraculous and and and miracles do happen so so if if that's not the norm and that's not the given how do you live life how do you do you continue like you know Alan dtz once wrote a book The the surviving Jew or the survival of the Jew and I said I would I would have written it different Allan I would have said the thriving Jew not the surviving Jew the surviving Jew means where shattered we're broken it's a NE o o and we're we're we're holding on that's a very negative message the thriving Jew is we're not holding on we're on top I there are problems Messiah is not here and there's death and there's illness and there's war and there's loneliness and there's sadness chapter 27 and relearn it think about about it from P you were created for that purpose for the challenge otherwise don't come don't come to Earth stay with the angels go back and stay there or ask God please don't let don't send me down again let me stay there down here it's a place where it's it's the boxing ring we are in a boxing ring and and it's not and it's not up to us it's not that I chose to be in the boxing ring God send my soul our Soul into the boxing ring you're in the ring now what are you going to do in the ring you're going to give up if you give up you're a loser and if you give up you're you're only making yourself sad and your family sad and Your Friends sad and no I'm going to try to win that's what alab is teaching Us in Tanya that we're in a boxing ring chapter 26 we're wrestling and and we we have the power to win and not only to win to overcome and to show what we're really made of and that's what Isel is going through now showing what they're really made of look how these soldiers are so driven you know I was talking to my family about it it's it's tremendous when you think about it for what for for for a government that you know that's messed up and you know is forced by America to do this and do that and and and and every day it's a cat and mouse game and all of that and nevertheless the soldiers don't care they're fighting and they'll crush them and they're going to have Victory they have already Victory and they have more victory Victory that's a that's a b that's that's that's that's not survival that's thriving in other words you don't go the Reb always quoted the previous Reb said when soldiers go to a war if they want to win the war you have to go to war with a marching songa you here you don't start singing the marching the victory song after you win the war but on the way into the war and you don't know yet the outcome of the war you go with a victory song a marching song upbeat so this is what the AL is saying here when it comes to Mitzvah I don't do a Mitzvah mha because there's 48 different ways to make me happy that's a good line for people in 1970s and 80s who just coming out of the 60s and they you know needed the kind of a tagline to get them involved so whether it's the the 48 ways to make you happy or the proving God's existence and all those things and's way everyone had their ways of attracting Bal Chua that's fine fine but when you start learning and you start Ding and you get involved in the meat and potatoes of yish kite and learning to it's not about 48 ways and 55 ways and and and and you know getting rid of my my my my bad habits all that is you know take a your self-improvement book and follow the the script and uh you know Men Are from Mars and women from Venus and all that nonsense and then go and either work or won't work for you okay when we learned T when we learned hashem's T it's about connection to the almighty and that's where it begins and that's where it ends and that's what the AL says here in this chapter in the opening page now let's one other point that I didn't mention yesterday is he says part of the meditation is look on page he says God leaves he forsakes it's it's it's in Middle it's about six lines from the bottom of page n God forsakes the upper and the lower worlds and he designates he he he joins he unites his kingship over to the Jewish people and to him specifically but I want to focus on the word and you know this is came to me years later I've been thinking this chapter for many many years and it just dawned to me the last few years that part of the meditation is God left the upper and the lower worlds could you imagine of you're you're you're you're in a a community you're in a place where it's great you love being there and it's exciting and it's it's thriving and all of a sudden you check out right now you would think that that's very very depressing because when you leave in the upper and the lower you leave the realm of angels and Celestial beings and and souls and and and you're basking in the sun and the radiance of God it's very depressing says about Al here part of the meditation to bring you to lead you to understand that the foundation is God is to know that God left now when we say left it's it's a metaphor God's here he hasn't left anywhere but we mean he made his choice not to be be angels and not souls and not Celestial beings that he left he forsake It Goodbye Charlie I had enough of you I want the Jewish people and I want you what was that ad with um Abraham Lincoln I remember was the ad on TV or you know uh we want you IRS I think it was we want you but the first part we yeah the Army thank you US US Army thank you m right right we want you we need you but the first part here we don't talk so much in other words this is also part of the meditation the realization that Hashem left his place of of upper and lower and Celestial beings and he left for me little me wow that means I can make a difference you understand and when you think about this every day especially before Ding and as you're ding or when you're having a hard moment and you stop and think God left his place where he's all surrounded by what he likes and what he enjoys people who follow him not people Celestial beings and souls that follow and don't give him a hard time and don't say I know better and he says goodbye I'm leaving you and he left for who for the Jewish people and for me specifically so I should Implement what he wants I'm I have the I have the greatest opportunity he believes in me you understand Hashem believes in Us in every one of us cuz he left that place for you for me that's a it's an awesome thought when you think about it how how many of us would leave our place of comfort just to be somewhere else for the other person very few right we're always thinking about you mentioned the self how how is it better for me here you know the Reb many people asked about going to and going here and there and the Reb one of his answers was how do you know what decision to make whether or not you will make a difference to someone else not to yourself if it's about yourself you shouldn't leave you hear that in other words and the same is true will it be better for my shom bias will it better for my parosa will it better for my children's if I move here or there if I change jobs changing jobs right now there are times you change your job because of anti-Semitism or this or that I'm not talking about that but how do you decide the answer is whether you can make a difference for someone else and that's why the told certain Young Israel RAB and such rabbis modern Orthodox rabbis who ER is Israel we have to run to Israel Israel Israel Israel and the said wait will you be able to have an influence on people the way you had in America and if the answer is no and you're GNA be and you want to be in the Rabin it don't go to Israel because they have hundreds like you and you and and you're basically and it's saturated you're going to be on the sidelines and disappointed and guess what there were people who didn't listen to him they asked him but you know and and they heard his advice and they didn't listen and 20 years later they came back and they were very disappointed this is testimony that their sons have given and it's online it's not K doin saying it why it's not has nothing to do with Holiness and the rebik and he sees your future that's another issue this this has to do with a simple calculation can you make a difference where you go and if you can't make a difference and over here you can make a difference stay put just yesterday I saw a uh a note uh from the Reba a group of kabad people from either or somewhere in asked the rebba about moving to Yehuda andun right the what they call the to can live there you know the rebba told them the rebba said stay put and make a difference where you are here and with what you do here you're helping you hun now I don't want anyone to walk away saying oh bab was against moving to run I didn't say that and he didn't say that he was answering particular people in a particular situation who were very um very zionis in a way and very you know we're going to make a Difference by moving there uh-huh but you're living here with families you want to break a community here you want to break a you know a Unity over here and go over there you want to do something sh do it here make a difference where you are the same the it's the same point do you need to live in y sh absolutely and if you are one of those that's going to make a difference and you could prove to yourself that you'll make a by moving there move there as long as you don't destroy what's here so anyway going back to the alter here I wanted to just point out this and one more thing the the last two lines I I mentioned that this is one of the 12 passages the alter the rebba suggested that children memorize and and recite and that I said it's not just for children it's for adults too but the re started that campaign with children and that is the words Behold God stands upon me upon the person and his his honor his presence fills the Earth and God looks at the person and he checks out your insides if you're serving him properly that's the passage you'll notice it doesn't say God stands what's the conventional word for standing it's Aid it doesn't say it says which also means stand but it's an unconventional word but we do find it in the T we find it once pas you're standing today which goes up refers to and it's brought down that there's another verse in t which implies that that N means standing strong you know you can stand and be wobbly you can stand and be concerned you can you can stand and say I'm not really here I'm doing it because I was told to do it then there is nit nitv means I'm fully here and I'm fully loaded and I'm ready to take on the situation so the quotes it [Music] says God stands upon you in other words this idea that Hashem is right there with you looking at you and not just on the outside but he knows what you're thinking inside he's NS of he's really paying attention to what you're doing don't think you could get away with it and because Hashem is very interested in you and he's is he's interested in you in a manner called nit it makes what you're doing what we're doing and what we need to do all more important so if it would say omate the implication would be Hashem standing you know he's taking a smoke for time to time he's checking his email he's uh whatever he's talking you know on the phone he's he's there but he's not there so we say no no no no Hashem that's standing and looking at me on the outside and the inside he's fully focused and there's no phones there's no emails there's no distractions only you only us so therefore get with it I think it's a very very importanta Point as we as we explore the rest of the chapter we'll stop here um we didn't learn anything new in in text but we did explain any questions and anything today that you want to ask or comment or M no I'm good thank you okay uh AB I guess I guess what I would saying you referring before you know to the the struggle going on with the war now and soldiers and I have a son who's serving now and you know down there um it's uh it's very challenging you know because like you say you want to have a in hasem he runs the world like saying and hem is involved in our lives at the same time you see all the mishas going with governments and this one and who knows what's going on so I just have to keep coming back to saying well yes all these things are happening but's in charge of everything so exactly and don't lose focus and have a great chabas everyone rest of Kana tonight Kana tomorrow is a very powerful day in many ways giving s and daving it's it's it's the Eighth Day the conclusion which connects to the eight days of sukus it's a lot a lot of things in the about tomorrow's day so please make the best use of it and we'll see everyone Monday Z have a great chabas and rest of Hanah shalom byebye