Torah encourages physical involvement, asceticism isn't Jewish way - Rabbi Chaim Dalfin

good day to everyone today uh we are in Middle towards the end of chapter 53 in Tanya the last chapter of the first section of Tanya which is called larim as you'll see in the header of the PA of the page on the left hand on both sides the right and the left it says the first section of Tanya is called a collection l means a gathering a collection of amarim of sayings of teachings which is teachings that this author ofman the balat taught now in this chapter in 53 he has explained in great detail the importance of Hashem being in this world in an animating way called sh CH means resting indwelling I rest amongst them amongst the Jews which is a quote from the Torah meaning that not only does God know about us from time to time give us a a taste of himself but he actually pervades our life in every detail in every detail this idea is is communicated in what cab calls as understands to be not only is it a a periphery level of God feeling of God kind of hovering over you you know there is a God somewhere you know and when I have time to think about this God only the God decides to give me a sniff of himself that's when I have a a feeling for God a relationship but regular ordinarily he's not in my Nitty Gritty details of life so this is what we say no hash he dwells he rests inside every one of us in every issue this was the nuda the point that he discussed and concluded yesterday and he added one more Point that's important to know that this is why we say that the T and the the tablets The Ten Commandments and the oral law and are all vessels to experience this this idea because if you separate the animation of of God within our lives from our Jewish life our Torah life it's as a great of the re of leer said it's in the y y when he came to the rebi for a blessing for his birthday and the rebi was about to give him a blessing you know what he said to the rebi before he blessed them he said rebi if you give me a blessing to live a long life and another year to live like a puer a boore I don't want that birthday blessing in other words I rather die now that's pretty pretty tough first of all when someone's giving you a a birthday blessing who are you to tell the person give them conditions on how you should give the blessing that's arrogant that's rude so this story requires interpretation and the interpretation is simple to this Jew reuk to this Jew anything less than than living a Jewish life a Torah life is tantamount to death that's the level he was at just to live another day and to sleep and to snore and to eat and to make business to him was not a waste of time it was death there's no reason I I I come to this world for that for that purpose and this is a fundamental issue that we have to think about as we conclude the Tanya why did God put us on Earth this is a question that you have to think about every single day every single why am I here am I making a difference and the answer is you surely are but the question is how and can I do more and am I doing it right this is the self assessment that the T teaches a Jew to assess thems daily you know the worst thing is to wake up when you're 50 60 70 years old and you look back and you said I wasted my life that's a terrible feeling like I could have done so many things and I just had the wrong ideas spent my time on issues that are trivial and I could have made a bigger difference in the world and you know when we pray to God when we pray to Hashem this is a very important prayer to include in your thought process you Pi pick I I've told you over the years from my own personal life times when I realized this and you know and and and quickly said okay the famous remember I told you the story in Marin County when I was a kabad rabbi there and we I wanted to build a you find a piece of property to build a kabad house a SHO a center and there was um this was a plant Community 538 Home Plant Community called Lucas Valley up the road from George Lucas's U light industrial Light and you know area where he made the Star Wars and other movies it happened to be that the road was called Lucas Valley not because of George Lucas and we were a suburb there called Lucas Valley uh home so in the corner there was an Exxon station and one day I saw a sign it said for sale I became very happy wow cuz now I can try to buy the property raise the funds and buy the property and put up a a decent looking Shool and kabad house and it was on the corner everyone coming in and out of Lucas Valley whether they were going to what was called West Marine County or towards the highway the 101 in California Northern California they would see kabos imagine you put a big manora you know you know you've seen you guys have seen this it's it's really uh great publicity and it's holy publicity and and we were inside I had bought for kabad The Farmhouse of that entire area before it was built and it was um um had 21 fruit trees on it with a massive pool a 5,000 plus square foot two floor building and barem we were able to buy that took a lot a lot of politics and a lot of opposition and uh three years of a court case there it's it's it's hours of of a story and I wrote it up in a book called kabad house all the court cases and the opposition and the newspapers that follow us and the television it was a uh it took three years of of my life being a lawyer an architect uh a rabbi a fighter you know on and on and on okay but the point is that here it is now I F found this piece of property so I thought right and I spent a ye probably a year back and forth with with with emails and I letters to Exon and trying to get to the right person on Exxon in Texas wherever you know and and to at the end of the day I did not buy it because there was a question a serious question of an environmental question uh gas in the underground which is a very serious issue concern and I said to myself I spent a year and I I I think about it it was like my heart and soul was into getting this property right and at the end of the day it was as we say in Yiddish always a in English I don't know how you would say it which means a waste of time an egg there's the inside of the egg right the is like oval and and fat kind of right sometimes you put a pin and it's like oh there's nothing inside whatever a waste of time M if you can mute yourself I can hear you anyway so a person has to make Ain you know and part of thatman if you do it daily or weekly at least or monthly you can stand the right course you know this is true for work and employment also you know people work are they happy with the work they're doing is this the work they should be doing is this the talent that Hashem gave a person you know so and that it's a very sensitive issue because on one end you say hey like I've told you also you know knowing people who midlife crisis they went to University they were they had excellent jobs and they say no no I'm empty and they and they just change careers or they do nothing and and so the AL in his T here and especially the first section of Tanya gives us ways of analyzing ourselves studying ourselves and what does he say here he says here that the way to feel God's malus God's kingship and God's relationship with us is through T because the toyra guides a Jew and that's why when the Reb when people ask the Reb about all kinds of issues he always kicked the back to the tah what does the tah say let me show you what the Torah says about your life you know which verse which idea you know the th this was an ongoing an ongoing issue that that the re dealt with and taught people so now let's go to the bottom of the this is what the a reference to what we learned in chapter 35 that the Yuka says the the superal light the great light that burns on a person that that is lit on a person's head who says the Yuka now on top of this is a reference to the that we've been talking about it requires the Mas Mas means oil p explains the oil needs to invest itself in wisdom that's called oil holy uh smearing know to smear the holy oil on the coin and what are these things these are good deeds these are the 630 that are drawn from God's wisdom now introduces another idea let me ask you if you have oil and you don't have Aila a wick are you going to have a lit candle absolutely not the C the candle the the the will only be lit not the candle the fire will only be lit if there's a wick a Pila and when the Pila has oil then the Pila burns up this is interesting is so you need two things it's not enough to have oil put as much oil as you want you don't have a proper Wick and you know from Kaneka right you can fill up with oil and the wick isn't exactly good it's too thin it's too it's too it's too fat it's it's whatever it doesn't light well it doesn't stay on on fire says that just as this is true in the in the in the mush in the parable of the oil and the wick causing the fire so to with the soul the soul that do that that if you want the good deeds that the desire refers to to be proper it needs it needs the sheman both need each other the wick needs the oil and the oil needs the wick needs needs in other words we're not talking about what they say oh good deeds I decide that uh today I'm going to go for a stroll and get fresh air and that's a good deed or if I you know the Good Deeds we're talking about is the Good Deeds that Torah establishes is a good deed for a Jew because there are things that we might do thinking it's good deeds and the Torah says it's not good for you that's why and so in that case it would be analogous to having oil but no Wick and Al says now look inside that in order for the fire to catch on fire and to stay there it needs a wick this is the vivifying animating Soul the which we Ed throughout the animal Soul within a person's body that's called and for morally speaking just as in the physical candle the light shines through the disintegration and the burning of the C of the wick when the wick is is is disintegrates Vis the fire and the oil and then the wick turns to be fire that's the muscle the parable now the moral C this light of God it rests on The Godly Soul only through the disintegration of the animal soul and his transformation from Darkness to light from bitterness to Sweetness by sikim let me explain saysat over here most interesting and I see how he sees it in the words that the neiss our won't have the experience of the unless it invests itself and transforms the you would think that the ne is The Godly Soul it's holy it's Godly it doesn't need any assistance it's automatically God it's like I come into a Sho I come into a Yeshiva they're learning they're ding no are they learning with humility or ego are they ding for themselves or for God says the even the to experience to experience God needs a transformation of the neis of the animal like urges that we all have and this is to me the connection to all of the the 53 chapters of the ban CU that's what the Ban's job is the average man's job is to change and transform their ugly demons for healthy Godly ones that's what T is about teaches you how meditations and suggestions and Sim all everything we learned but what's the objective someone says to you what's the objective of Tanya the objective is in simple English to be a mench okay Tanya teaches you how to be a Jewish a Jewish mench a holy mench a Torah mench in in the words that he says here this towards the end of the of this first section chapter 4 53 he says that just as the wick has to disintegrate as it disintegrate the fire burns better and better and better until when it's there's no more Wick the fire ends so the oil is used up through the wick in other words the so in in the moral says the the our soul our Jewish soul will experience Hashem will experience God will have joy and and real happiness with God when you make a change in and it's so true because as much as we we we we learn and we D and we do mitv and and we do good things it's all nice and fine right but changing one one emotion one issue in our life that's hard to change that you have a certain urge and Indulgence towards um SE secularism anti-god you know eye ego everyone on their level and if you are able to change a little bit of that that that's the greatest thing because that's the hardest thing the hardest thing is to change the inside you know to to stop to stop you know if if you're if you're dieting and don't be around food that that you're that causes you to to gain weight and to eat and overeat and all that but imagine to be there and to hold yourself back that's a lot harder but that's really where the changes in other words it's the mental change the meent the paradigm shift so the AL says here we need to do this with the ne abam that's why he says here through the disintegration of the neis and its transformation from Darkness to light and from bitterness to sweetness and then he adds the word bik now why sadik why does he mention sikim and soon he's going to say B him but here he says sikim why because we learned earlier in Tanya that to to comp completely change the MOs of the neis is not possible for a only sikim can actually convert them aain can't do that and is not charged to do that aain is charged to control not to transform so the AL says two things the job is to transform let's go further or at least by disintegrating the garments which are thought speech and action Behavior the behavior mode transforming them from the darkness of negativity to the infinite light of God which is invested and B and United with thought speech and action of 63 by B see so here when he talks about changing the behavior not changing the essence he says B when he talks about changing the the essence he says because that's the difference according to by by transforming the which comes from the translucent Clipper from Darkness to light we cause the elevation of the lower um the feminine Waters the female Waters to draw down the light of this is the revelation of again he says it impacts the which it's the primary abod is in the brain and the head the P says for God your God is an all consuming fire what does that mean if you want God to be our god it needs to not just burn it needs to consume and change the situation ation for Bim in the behavior mode for sikim in the essence mode and and what the verse is saying is does that as we we learned as we as we explained elsewhere we have completed the first section of the