Text-Based Tanya Class—Week #54

okay weekly text-based Tanya where were you up to chapter 32. 32 and a half we're in the middle of chapter 32. and chapter 32 in Hebrew Islamic base which spells slave which is a heart which is the heart of Tanya and what's the theme of chapter 32 and as we we spoke about last week the heart of Tanya it's an interesting thing because Tanya is a book about personal development it's about becoming Holier and closer to God and working on ourselves and yet the heart of that book is a chapter about how to treat others so the path to your own personal development is actually perhaps counter-intuitive but it's through our relationship with others okay so we were speaking about the fact that the default position of the body centered person body centered means that we identify chiefly with the body and the animal soul and we regard our nashama as secondary or as incidental so I am a body that happens to have a soul if that is our if that is our self-concept then we said something very interesting about love that it is impossible to have unconditional love the only way that this ego can possibly love anything outside of itself or other than itself is if there's some type of a payoff to offset the inherent um threat to the ego that that involves making space for others so we've said that if you are body centered you can only love someone else for a reason and of course then the love is only as permanent as the reason and most reasons don't last forever and so the love doesn't last forever and even while it lasts it's not a real love because it's really uh based on an ulterior motive however if one can identify chiefly as a soul I am a soul which happens to be embodied right now and that is my primary self-concept then Abbas Israel becomes essential not secondary but essential not conditional but unconditional because ultimately we recognize the fact that we are all one we spoke about this a great length last week that really the Jewish souls are one and although we radiate into different bodies that does not really make us separate from a body perspective yes we feel separate but the truth is we're all one and therefore when you identify with the soul which is a level at which we are all one then loving the other isn't even an other it's really yourself and uh then you're capable of unconditional love you didn't follow that no why didn't you follow it what's wrong with it too many steps I don't have to say the steps I could say it is an axiom and then you don't have to understand how it works I could just say it that if your body's centered you can only have conditional love if you're soul-centered you could have unconditional love if you're body centered meaning your identity the way you think of yourself is primarily in my body and I happen to have a soul then your love for others will be conditional if you're soul-centered meaning I am a soul which happens to have a body then your love for others will be unconditional okay but I didn't state it as an axiom I explained the logic behind it explain the logic behind it has to do with separation and Oneness the distinctive characteristic of the body is that it identifies one individual as discrete from another individual I am not you how do I know I'm looking at you you're looking at me I'm standing here you're standing there so we're separate now I can make allowances for something other than myself but I have to have a reason to do so that's called conditional love I'm just explaining what I already explained however if we understand that embodiment is incidental and secondary and that our primary essential identity is our soul and if we understand that at the level of the Soul ultimately the Jewish people are one person then I do not see you as an other I see you and I as one entity which happens to inhabit two separate bodies simultaneously but that's not the definitive characteristic the main thing is that we are one energy and therefore to love you isn't any different than loving myself and vice versa loving you is loving myself and therefore it requires no condition now does it make sense yes we did this last week well yes it's Tanya it is it's see this yeah it's not a cooking class it is it's deep yes yes I admit that it is deep yes but we learned this last week yeah yeah what are you calling it what would you what okay and because you you you're not right on the on the next level yeah well then why would we talk about it if you can't accomplish it why would we talk about it because it's an ideal like I said it no no it is no no it's not the same I like what you say no yeah you're saying we learn about it like the same way we learn about it that's very cute you're saying we learn about it Sadiq in chapter 10. even though we know we'll never be one so maybe in chapter 32 we learn about obviously even though we know we'll never really have that everything yeah that's true also but no I that's that's it no the alternative is saying no it's not possible yes it is true that everyone has inside the quality that I've assessed so very clearly in the my mobile But to answer your question no the out there I'm speaking this is part of safety shobana to me speaking to regular people and he is expecting us to have some success here obviously there are levels but yes we're supposed to be able to achieve a soul-centered identity which will allow us to have uh essential unconditional love for other Jews yeah explain what the difference is between a soul-seated identity and it said it a soul scent okay so you're rephrasing the question you're saying what's the difference between a soul-centered identity and a Sadiq okay that that's that's actually a very interesting way to phrase the question because basically saying hold on a second if I really truly identify with My Soul then I'd be at sadik okay so identification here I think it's a relative term you're right you're correct I hear what you say a topic really does identify exclusively with the soul because there is no other self in the tadiq to identify with that is really the Topic's identity all of their desires all of their their motivations really only originate from one soul from The Godly soul and and and the body and the animal Soul are just completely subservient to that with zero conflict okay in the case of abandoning we're talking about somebody who actually does have two different uh competitive competing sources of motivation so it's not like I really am only my soul however I'm choosing a perspective and I'm saying this shall be the definitive perspective in other words um it's not like the tadiq where there is no other way to see himself or herself Bailey could very well have the opposite view of Self in fact in chapter 29 we when it was when it suited our purposes over there we did say you know what you are you're really only your body and your soul is secondary to you because what do you identify with what are you aligned with you're aligned with the desires of your body because relatively speaking in context that was the truth that we needed to hear but over here we're saying we're presenting a different relative truth or or context so to answer your question yeah it's definitely possible for a regular person in other words a banani to make a very strong case either way that I identify as my body or identify as my soul however in this chapter he's saying try as much as possible to convince yourself and to buy into that self-concept that is your soul okay all right bye yeah towards the end of uh yeah yeah [Music] okay we're gonna get to that we're gonna get to that but why did why did why do people ask that question okay all right but why does it well last week also someone said what if somebody's being difficult and they don't make it easy to love them what if okay yeah it happens to it happens to be what we're going to speak about today yeah I know I know yes we're going to talk about it today but why are we bringing it up yes it he he addresses that subject today um about people who the gamada even says you're supposed to hate them we're going to talk about that today but while I'm just wondering why anybody's even asking that question that shouldn't occur to us like the altadep is doing due diligence to deal with it because it is a question but our mind shouldn't go there I'm just editorializing and say I don't know why we even have that question yeah yes there are yes and and Beth by the way that classic question about like well what about the evil people that can come from different places sometimes it comes from a philosophic a philosophical place other times and I want to actually probably use this an opportunity to say this now a lot of times that question comes from unresolved uh trauma so if you've been terribly wronged by a sick person I'm going to ask you not to try to work through that issue today because just today or or even you could do it today but just not not in the next hour how about for the next hour let's not do that okay well you could you could spend the rest of the day thinking about yeah yeah we're going to talk about it we're going to talk about it what but but you want to know something uh can I say something and this is not like a rebuke God forbid that information should be so painful that even even if you know it you shouldn't even want to mention it but no but it should be so painful that you don't want to bring it up okay but I already told you we're going to talk about it but I already told you we're going to talk about so what I said we're going to talk about it the idea that were allowed to or even told that we're supposed to hate certain people that's yeah it does exist but I'm saying yeah but why is anyone bringing that up that's it's so painful yeah it's like the hell part it's like yeah we'll talk about it but who's the guy who's like when do we get to the hell part I heard we're gonna talk about HAL in this class like yeah we'll talk about it remember which chapter we spoke about hell you don't want to remember that's the attitude that's your base Rifka training coming through so beyond what eight eight yeah yeah I don't know if I would use that because yeah okay anyways no I don't want to even say all right okay should we continue okay fine so ah um and as for what it says in the gamuta you see where we are you didn't look ahead that's exactly my point okay but if you learn it and tell me tomorrow it should have Disturbed you and be like I I don't ever want to talk about this I don't want to bring this up and I hope I never hear about it again okay we're gonna talk okay what is it from the remark okay enough uh side points here okay and as for what it says in the gamada you with me if you see your fellow sinning Mitzvah listen I say it is a Mitzvah to hate him to hate him to hate him and also to tell his teacher to hate him yes speaks about this in the gamato you see a sinner this guy's doing bad stuff okay so everyone's rushing to resolve it and you're saying well you don't hate him you hate his actions okay that's an interesting thought that's not what it says here it's not what it says here come on well you want to find out what it says yeah okay okay let's find out what it says yeah there is a concept in the Komodo if you see a person who's sinning that means he's an enemy of God what do you want to be a friend of the enemy of God that means you're the enemy of God God forbid so somebody is is fighting God if you don't fight him then you're by extension you're supporting his fight against God how can you do that that's the logic at least I know so he says listen there are some um stipulations here of mitzvahs it says you see javera your fellow it means your fellow in Torah and mitsus which means you're talking about a from person you're talking about a learned from person you're not talking about somebody who's doing this out of ignorance or he just had poor education or whatever whatever reason doesn't matter his story that's irrelevant the point is we're talking about who sees another town of who's deciding God forbid to rebel against God so that's what we're describing means someone who's on your level and furthermore and if he's not kavero he was not on your level you don't hate him then you you just you feel bad for them feel sorry for him wow this guy's so far gone and furthermore not only does it have to be someone on your level you already fulfilled the Mitzvah of rebuking you shall surely rebuke your fellow and what does it mean amisaka which is an interesting term to use rebuking you should rebuke a person who's with you potato over mitzvahs so you rebuked him and as we said who did you rebuke somebody who's on your level and nevertheless even though you rebuked him he didn't return he didn't do tashuva from his sin commission like it's explained in safer foreign but someone who is not your peer that's probably the best way to translate it your peer your spiritual or moral peer someone who is not your peer and he is not close to you it could have means close to you so then what do we do about him how how are we meant to feel about him regarding this person is precisely who Hillel was speaking about when he said be of the Disciples of aharan loving peace love the bridge means the creatures the Creations that means people who have no other redeeming value other than the fact that they were created by God um and bring them close to Torah so if you're talking about somebody who's on your level and they should know better and they do know better not they should know better they do know better and you've already tried to do your intervention and you pointed it out to them and they rejected the intervention okay so that's who we're talking about that it's uh Mitzvah that's a nice site to hate them but if you're talking about yeah I think I covered that I think I covered it did I mean I said I don't know the guy's story I don't know what led to this but for whatever reason he's not what do you want to what what words do you want to use not on this level he's not on this level [Music] um he's not he doesn't fall into the category of someone who's rebelling against he used to be your peer you're talking about like somebody like acher like Alicia benavoya the Tana who says what was so terrible about him is that he knew he knew better he knew hashem's Glory he was one of the great Sages yeah and he had he had the traumatic uh incidents in his life in fact the different sources of kazal about what went wrong in his life and some of it even went back to trauma that he had uh in the womb when his mother was pregnant with him yeah yeah they're my level should look at everyone is higher than you then you get to hate everybody oh that's a good catch if you look at everybody as higher than you then you hate them all because they should know they should all know better oh look of course oh so you're doing it in a nice way they're higher than me well hold on yeah you never know you can never judge another person right thank you say he's my peer so I can hate him so we can never we can never decide someone's up here because we never really know right right why they hate anybody yeah Northern gamada says yeah we have to unpack this more yeah yeah let's go over that again okay okay so there is such a category called briais people who are called briais now everyone's a Bria everyone is created by God but some people are called brioes because they have no other redeeming quality other than to say that they were created by God we call those low lives you got to love the low lives and you got to bring them close to Toyota so we're not talking about low lives we're talking about when we say that somebody that you're supposed to hey we're not talking about the low lives you don't hate the low lives no no of course not we we love them and we're cut of them we try to bring them close when we're saying we're saying to hate anybody we're only talking about a guy we're just talking about rabbis everyone hates rabbis get behind that right right wrong what we what about what about somebody who's supposed to represent morality and they're an immoral person what okay I thought this would really you guys have been so tall I don't believe you guys you're pretending to be so tolerant no I wouldn't hate a rabbi who turned out to be a scumbag I would I would not judge him uh why they're held to a higher standard yeah I agree with you do you want to continue and find out because there's we're in the middle of a whole conversation here okay graduation yeah this person who spoke yeah tell the shamas to come down right so we have some some very very highly Summers yeah right they'll only come down to special needs children right yeah I've heard that vote but I think it's a made-up book I really do I think it's made up I don't think it's a mocker for it it's very inspiring yeah because they don't want to be higher than Mitzvahs so they all it's only safe to come down there I don't know it's inspiring I don't think it has a source okay but why are we talking about this listen can we you know that I I didn't sleep last night because I flew by flew flew in from Cleveland and this is you guys just I'm not up to this level of I can't okay you gotta get you got to be the class okay I'm gonna make you write an essay okay so follow follow so there are people who clearly how could you hate them that they're on a lower level you don't expect much of them you can't you can't hold them accountable to that degree so those people are already let off the hook now who you want to include in that category I don't be as liberal as you want I'm not gonna I'm not going to debate you on that Lamar foreign that's why they're called mere creations so such people the reaction to them should be Sonic you should draw them you should pull them with thick cords of love and if you'll do all this then maybe just maybe maybe maybe maybe you will be able to bring them close to Torah and the service of our shop Okay so I don't want anyone to bring up any questions right now because I feel like this is bogging us down I just I want to ask a question and the question is just checking in with you to make sure that you're following we brought up a gamada I'm gonna recap and you're gonna tell me if these words make sense okay we brought up a gamada that says that if you see somebody saying it's a Mitzvah to hate them so that seems to fly in the face of all the lovey-dovey stuff we've been talking about through this chapter what are we going to do with this the first thing we say is hold on a second this is speaking about a very specific case we're talking about someone who's kaveri who is your peer in Toyota Mitzvahs and you rebuked them already you already approached them and rebuke doesn't mean you threw stones at them rebuke means you actually engage them and you had a conversation with them and you explained it to them in a way that should be received and uh nevertheless they're like no this is what I'm gonna do and I know what I'm doing and this is what I want to do so then okay fine this person at least for now for now for now they're still in the category of the literal reading of that gamada of you gotta hate them however anybody who you may be able to make an argument that really there are extenuating circumstances that explain why you couldn't really expect better of them it's not so shocking or such a letdown it's really more like just it's pathetic not tragic you know the difference with like Pathos and tragedy tragedy is when there's a hero who has a fall pathos is when somebody who's in a pathetic situation and that situation gets exacerbated so this is sad this a person doesn't know any better or they're they're incapable or whatever the situation is I don't know so that's that's pathetic and then the response should be this Bria this person who's a buddya who's just a created being you'd be mccon of them you try to bring them close and maybe maybe just maybe just maybe just maybe you'll succeed to bring them close Maybe okay so that's what we're up to so far we haven't resolved everything but cognitively you're you're with us okay yeah yeah when are you supposed to be like Aaron when you see somebody who with these people who are called Brie ice okay now listen to what he says next and this is a very important line the hang light and if not and if not the hang light and if not he doesn't lose the reward or the value of the Mitzvah of loving your fellow hear what he says is very important says you see a guy who's a lot on a level of brieespa Alma you should love him and try to be mccot of him and maybe you will be mccount of him and you'll bring him close to Toyota and the way to session but if not okay you still did the Mitzvah of abasraim of loving your fellow it's a very important point in other words this is not utilitarian it's not the ends are just or the ends justify the means this is not well because I'll be McCart of him so therefore I'm going to love him really I don't love him but as a strategy I'm gonna love him because it's justified in the hopes that I'll get him to do mitzvahs he's making it very clear that if you love the guy and it doesn't help him move one iota in his service of Hashem you still did a good thing because it has inherent value because Avis Ram is a mitzvahn every Mitzvah has infinite inherent value so even loving this guy and it you weren't makat of him it didn't affect him it didn't make him stop sinning doesn't matter you still accomplished something you did a mitzvah it's not utilitarian it's not strategy it has a value there's a great story I heard which I think brings out this point better than any story I've ever heard and uh actually I heard this story when I was I went to to Flatbush to Tavi fish off to the Twisted parenting crisis center and he told a great story about the the Bison the basis role was the Gary rabbit after the war was the he was the rabbit after the Holocaust and I think he was Nifty sometime in the in the 70s in the 1970s so during a very tumultuous difficult time in claw Israel um anyways so an avi's father was again so I I although interestingly I believe he told me heard the story from so it's interesting a girl boy heard a garamisa from a literature goggle but and anyway it doesn't matter the story is a story so the stories about the biasis rule the basis were always together but and and Yom Kipper hmm no you throw his name is so he uh in gear they have a half soccer on Yom Kipper different uh different communities have different Customs regarding the the break in between musaf and minha and yeah there's a there's a little bit of a break so apparently was coming back to shul for minha um and it was during the summer maybe he was even leaving mother he was leaving for musl and it was the beginning of the hafsaka the point is it was it was the the break the break between musaf and Minka and he saw some guy who was sitting out on the street who hadn't been in Shore had no intention of going to show a Jewish guy who was not from at all and uh the basis throw engaged the guy in a conversation they started talking which in in and of itself is a remarkable thing the holiest day of the year and uh here's a rabba of a an enormous an enormous community and he's what is he doing speaking to one guy and a guy who's not a member of his community in fact the guy who's not even uh from and he spoke to him through the remaining break and when it was time for minha he didn't come to mindha and continue conversing with the guy and even through Nila he continued conversing with the guy and all through into the evening he didn't come into show not for minha not finila it's a remarkable story it's unbelievable if I hadn't heard it from a reliable source I wouldn't even believe it and he just hung out talking to this guy but that's not why it's a good story why I think it's a great story is because um of How It Ends the guy didn't become from see if it were a Cheesy story that the speakers like to use so I would have a nice reveal at the end where you would find out that this guy because of this Yom Kippur that the Bicester took time out to speak to him so that shook something in him and then he came back and now his children his children's children and great-grandchildren yeah it'll be beautiful that's not what happened that's not what happened outwardly at least there was no change in this guy at the end of his life before the bice's thrill passed away he wasn't well and he was making a dinner he was sort of going through his life thinking about different things he had accomplished and he accomplished a great many things as a as a manic and he he recalled that one incident that one Yom Kippur that he spent talking to this guy outside on the street and he said that this is one of Vira he called it an Avida you know it was one one sin that I have no I have no regret I have no regret about it will Coach as they have garnished nisht ufcatine even though I didn't accomplish anything and I have no character I have no regret about that story to me I heard that and I was like that's paraglama base of Tanya because this is what he says the heinlai and if not foreign of loving a fellow okay so would it have been nice if your love accomplished something overtly and and he responded to it he reciprocated yeah they'll be beautiful and obviously that's our Our Hope obviously that's our hope but that's not our motivation in other words it's not like well I don't really love him but for the possibility I may get him to do Mitzvahs I'll act like I love him that's not what it says it says you should really love him and even if it doesn't accomplish anything at least overtly um you still accomplish something you accomplished loving him loving him is an accomplishment okay so that is the people in the category called bries now we still have this leftover category of the guys who we were not able to give them the British dispensation they are in the caveira category or the Amisha they're in the category of people who are supposed to know better we didn't we didn't figure out what to do with them so far they're still in that that category of people who get our hate so let's see what happens now should we continue okay fine may love now even the people that are close to you meaning they are moral peers of yours foreign [Music] and you rebuked them and they didn't do chova okay so we're rehashing the conditions we're rehashing they are on your level you did confront them about it and they didn't do chova even after you confronted them so what about those people we're going back to that category people who are not in that category we already were told be like the students of honor and just love them and even if you don't accomplish anything you still accomplished something because loving them is an accomplishment but what about the guy who he is on your level you did rebuke him he did reject it it's a Mitzvah to hate him what can I do I can't I can't help you there's a gamada here it says it's a Mitzvah hate him okay so he listened what the altitude does okay I can't help you you're right you're bringing me this gamara and you're saying it's a Mitzvah hate him and I can't figure out a way out of it you're right Miss Felicity but you want to know something let's read the next words it's a Mitzvah to love him too in other words the Mitzvah to hate him doesn't supplant the Mitzvah to love him doesn't preclude the midst of loving that doesn't change that's true yeah yeah s they are both true they're both true this is so interesting we don't have to ignore this concept of mitzvilusum in order to love them we don't have to ignore a reality in order to embrace another reality they're both true is it a paradox yeah maybe it's a little bit of a paradox but they're both true and he explains it how they can coexist Ina hatred because of the evil that's in this person because of the goodness that is hidden within them what is the hidden good within them it is The Godly spark inside of them that enlivens their Godly soul so we can react differently to different aspects of this person we can hate The Evil Within them and we can love the godliness within them and after all we've already established which one is primary which one is definitive so I hate your shirt just your shirt something secondary secondary the ra is not the person's essence that isn't who he is something incidental to him and they're not going to pretend that I love if I I don't love it and it's not like I hate your shirt because that's like a preference thing but no let's say it's it's something that's really morally repugnant okay so I hate it I hate it but at the same time that doesn't change the fact that you not only have but you are a spark of godliness and that I love foreign furthermore in this situation where you have to love hate somebody hate love when you have to have those mixed emotions in this case there's a third emotion you should arouse how do you translate Mercy compassion pity that's a different emotion is a different emotion than ahava rahmim is specifically a Feeling that is evoked because of a pitiful situation meaning you could love somebody when they are riding High is a feeling you have because somebody is down in the dumps like sympathy Maybe yeah it could be sympathy yeah okay welcome okay good why you could use this in parenting too yeah yeah they could use this as a parenting manual as well I don't know he doesn't mention any Gill Golem over here so your your arousing Mercy on this person remember who are we talking about right now we're talking about the pier how do we know well we don't know but the guy we think is our peer the the guy the guys who are Brian Alma we were already told love them okay not hate and love just love the guy who is kavera your peer oh Adam it's for the hate him okay what can I do about them right so I'm stuck I'm stuck so he says well you could love him too now you could love him too you you should you must you must love him too okay so now I have hate and love okay but we're not done what I've done now we introduce the mercy very good we introduce the mercy and the mercy is a no-brainer I mean stop a second This Guy's in a pitiful situation he is tragic he is tragic because he's a guy who knows better and he had a full whatever happened I don't know but it's tragic so you have did because his Godly spark is in a state of Exile within the citrakhra which is prevailing upon the person in the case of rashayam so it's very tragic that this Noble Godly Soul has become subjugated to this uh negativity NOW Watch What Happens and the compassion the sympathy the pity the mercy May Vitalis Hasina negates cancels out the hatred um and arouses love Canada as is known from that which it says Jacob who redeemed Abraham there's no story where Jacob redeemed Abraham that didn't happen in a on the terrestrial level it's a reference to something spiritual that not only happened but happens yankov we know the three others the Yankovic is Ava so Yankovic means that Yankee represents compassion is play the redeems of ram I have a love when the love is inaccessible for whatever reason in this case I'm having a challenge accessing my love for the guy because he's acting in ways that are legitimately hateful so he says when you need to access the heretofore inaccessible love there's a tool called passion Jacob redeemed Abraham compassion redeems accesses inaccessible love we're talking about when you can't get in touch with avraham you lost his number I don't know how to reach avraham in this particular case because I'm dealing with a guy who's behaving disgustingly and he knows better and the gamada told me to hate him and I can't get in touch with my avraham to love him so we say don't worry call your young kid your Yankee will get you in touch with your avraham access the compassion to compassion will negate the hatred so we were supposed to hate him and love him but then we brought him the compassion whether compassion due to the hatred nullified it so the hatred now is ice hatred they got nullified so even the hatred was only interim it was only temporary yeah we have to hate them it's going to hate him but now we've nullified the hatred through the compassion and now what do we have we have the love we only have the love while the compassion really is in order to access the love people it doesn't go anywhere well even if he stops behaving in a pitiful way then and we and then it's no longer necessary to be compassionate because there's nothing pitiful anymore we'll still have that love well he says in Brackets and when David Malik said I hate them with consummate hatred with unmitigated hatred who was he speaking about because he was speaking about the Heretics and the uh don't you want to call it happy Carson how are you going to translate it who have no portion in the god of Israelis you're talking about people who are unique Torah Scholars not just their from they are uh well-versed expertly versed in all of Toyota inside and out and they nevertheless reach completely beyond the pal conclusions that are undermining all of Yiddish kite so then okay then we're stuck but uh an argument not only can be made but I think this is I'm not saying this for the sake of being lovey-dovey that uh I don't know if our generation has I don't know if for many generations already we've had people who are even on the level to be called minimapicarsum in this context so probably they follow fall into the category of uh what the out that have explained is javeroy which is a relative term okay so everyone let's list all the people you think might qualify and let's put it on YouTube what is so we like it's not for us to look at it like uh-huh um what are you saying okay anyways bottom line love for the other the real love for the other that we're commanded to have by the Mitzvah after ultimately is not a love for an other it's a love for our true selves that's the point of pedaglama base of Tanya so you have to understand your true self the true Oneness of all Jewish people the only way to do that is to get over our fixation on our embodiment and then we'll be able to love automatically it'll flow from that that self-concept and even in a case where somebody's behaving in ways that interfere with that so we have ways of dealing with that as well and getting back to the essential love