Text-Based Tanya—Week #61

all right weekly text-based Tanya what chapter are we on 36 great because we finished 35 last week before we start we want to dedicate today's learning to a refur shlima creva for Yeshua lab Ben Leia pesha so we are starting a new chapter let's just refresh our memory what chapter 35 was all about referred to chapter 35 as a nachama as a comfort for the betony comfort for what what was the mainly distraught about what was bothering him he was asking a philosophical question right who's asking what's the point of the type of existence which I now realize is probably the best that I can ever strive for as a non-sodic what's the point of living as a person who will constantly have an internal an unresolved internal conflict and the best that I can ever achieve is behavioral perfection at best that's that's what I can achieve what's the point of it so what did the author ever tell him how did he comfort him um okay so he told him essentially he said he can have to do the same thing he says why are you crying about the fact that you're not at Sadiq um even the Tyler could does have a resolved inner conflict where as we learned in chapter either the incomplete Sadiq has eradicated the animal cell or the complete Sonic is actually converted it into a second Godly soul but even that it's odd that who's accomplished that at the end of the day he still has to focus on action because as we explained in chapter 35. the sensitivity of the soul the Ava Vegeta the Soul's love and all Hashem is still only a subjective experience that the soul is having as it is it beholds Hashem it appreciates Hashem it has feelings for Hashem but by definition that's two separate entities in a relationship with one another and to become absolutely one with Hashem actually the only way to do it is through action um so at the end of the day for for all of the tadiq's great spiritual sensitivity that doesn't allow him to become one with Hashem it's only through action and that's precisely what the Benin was told to pursue as well to pursue action okay so that's what we spoke about in chapter 35. now as we begin chapter 36 we're going to focus more on the question of why is action why is the the Soul's performance of mitzvah's in an embodied state why is that so precious we explained that it allows us to transcend our separateness even the separateness of the Soul which is a lofty separateness but a separate separateness nonetheless but we didn't really explain why that's what Hashem desires why does Hashem want this as well why is this so important to Hashem so in chapter 36 we get into that what Hashem wants what what Hashem is really after now it may seem somewhat familiar to you from chapters 33 and 34. if you remember in chapters 33 and 34 we already brought up the idea that Hashem wants a Dwelling Place in the physical world and we spoke about how we Grant him that Dwelling Place in the physical world through letting him into our minds and hearts when we are conscious of him through our belief in him and we called that a Dwelling Place in the lower realms and relatively speaking it is but here in chapter 36 we're going to speak about a Dwelling Place in the lower Realms in a much different way we're speaking about it in the objective sense not as something that is um dependent on somebody's mindset but actually a a a a real discernible change in the physical world itself okay but let's just jump in chapter 36. mahmer is out it is a well-known saying of our Sages that the purpose the ultimate purpose of the creation of this world the physical world is a lust a yearning liaison that he should have for himself Dira a dwelling in the lower realms okay so that's the expression a dwelling in the lower Realms the out that I was going to jump on that term right away now we know for Hashem there's no such thing as above and below what does it mean above and below those are terms that finite beings use finite beings can only be in one place at one time so they speak about here and there up and down fresh m M there's no up and down I don't even just mean there's no spatial up and down I mean even relative conceptual up and down Hashem is here Hashem is there Hashem is truly everywhere so why are we using this term because Hashem fills all worlds equally that's our question what is this mean but here's the explanation of the matter here we go home before the creation of the world he alone was singular and unique he filled the entire place where the the future world would come into being so there was nothing but him and even now it is the same for him the creation of the world didn't create any change for him from his perspective rather the only change is from the subjective perspective of the created beings the created beings receive life from him through various different concealments could exceed like it says no man can see me and live in other words inherently there is a concealment of Hashem or we wouldn't be able to exist no man can see me and live if Hashem would be revealed if Infinity would be revealed there'd be no place for a fine identity we'd be completely overwhelmed out of existence so our existence is inherently a product of concealment of the light the Angels who are called Hayes which means even the angels can't see God and live they see a glimmer it's like looking at a crack of light under the door and then you get a hint of what kind of light must be in the room but you can't go in the room because it'd be too bright so in unity now this is the concept of the histalis the chain like descend devolvement of Worlds and their descent from level to level in other words it is not just one concealment it is a series it is a system of compounding concealments we've spoken about this before about if you take translucent curtains and you put layers of them over the window then they will eventually have the effect of being opaque and an ilum the word for World in Hebrew Islam is the from the etymological root Helen which means concealment a world is a concealment it is a concealment of Creator because by virtue of seeing creation we by definition per se our masking Creator and the the the these oil mice each one compounds the effect of the previous ones until Creator is all but entirely concealed all these different he calls them garments conceal the light of Hashem till the net result is the creation of this physical course world this is the end of the line it couldn't get more concealed than this concealment after concealment after concealment and this is the net result this physical world go back to the beginning it seems familiar to you this is chapter 36. seems familiar sorry I was a few minutes late yeah I said earlier it might some of it might sound familiar because in chapters 33 and 34 we we spoke about a little bit also but we're going to come at it from a new Angle now okay so he's he's continuing to describe this series of concealments right until the net result is the creation of this physical world and this world is the lowest level there is no level lower than it as far as concealment of the light and the Darkness that is doubled and redoubled this is a famous uh expression is all based on Tanya and there are certain phrases from Tanya which are worked and reworked and reworked over and over again so this phrase foreign this low physical world lower than which there is none there is nothing lower there is no lower lower than this lowest world in other words you couldn't even in theory imagine more concealment than what this physical world brings about he explains now the condition of this concealment actually Molly Clippers to such an extent that this world is full of clipper see chapter six and seven again six and seven I exist and nothing else wow so these Clippers can exist in such a concealment is the ultimate purpose of the Descent of the world's level after level is not for the sake of the higher worlds important concept Hashem made this system we call Cedric stausless this chain-like descent of world after world after World concealment after concealment after concealment what is the talk list what is the point of it what's it supposed to accomplish so he says clearly the point of it is not the higher worlds now you might think that that's patently obvious obviously the point isn't the higher worlds because if it were why why didn't he stop when he had the higher worlds why did he keep on going but this is an incredibly important concept it is such an important concept that it continues to be a difficult concept for most religious Jews today to grasp in fact it is probably the most difficult concept for religious Jews to grasp not just yet but this idea that the heavens are clearly not the ultimate point of creation in many systems of thought which I'm not here to negate because they all have validity I'm not here to negate them but I'm here to contextualize them in many systems of thought within total I'm saying legitimate holy systems of thought within Toyota the ultimate goal and point of it all is always framed as gun Aiden as the afterlife of the Soul well that has its place and within a certain context it makes sense but here we're discussing the the point not just of um reward and Punishment which is a is a concept unto itself but we're talking more on an existential level look Hashem is everything he he is complete he's perfect and then he decides to make a world okay so then not only he makes a world but he makes a world after a world after a world and he keeps going he doesn't stop it's like okay enough already like enough enough concealment no he keeps going he keeps going and he doesn't stop until he has this total concealment this this world where you can even have opposition to Hashem you can have denial of Hashem so I don't yet know why he wanted that I know that he wanted it because nothing compels him so he clearly wanted it I don't know why he wanted it but I know that he wanted it and when I say I know that he wanted it I could be even more specific than that I can say I know that he wanted to go that far and he wasn't satisfied so to speak until he got that far and so therefore the point of it all isn't in heaven the punch line to this whole thing isn't welcome to the Pearly Gates it cannot be it cannot be it cannot be it cannot be it cannot be it cannot be it cannot be and I I I it's so frustrating because the average Orthodox Jew finds it so difficult to escape from this paradigm and if I were to say something probably I shouldn't say I would say it's in my opinion probably christological influences because the Christians emphasize afterlife that's their whole focus on on that's the end-all and be all but from a purely Jewish perspective does it even make sense to you that the ultimate point of it all would be Heaven does it even make sense to you and if so I'll just ask you a simple question for discussion and for thought and for pondering if the ultimate point of it all is the reward in the afterlife called gun Aiden or Paradise then how come when mashiach comes and there's the resurrection of the dead we're going to bother those poor comfortable Souls who are blissing out in the highest levels of gun Aiden who are going to pull them out of there and we're going to make them come right back down to the physical world for embodiment all over again hold on why would we do that don't ask me a new question I'm asking you a question hold on a second I want you to answer my question why would we do that to my shoulder he just had a yard site a couple days ago he's 3 300 so many levels up in gun Aiden and Michelle's going to come any second now we're going to pull him out of that why would we do it it's a real question the reason is that the only place that we can accomplish right but it's already accomplished but behold your answer is the only place where we can accomplish what Hashem wants us to accomplish is here but that's what the people who are fixated on gun Aiden will also say they'll say the only way to achieve it is down here the only way we can accomplish is down here I'm saying something more than that so I'm saying something different after the Perfection of the world is already accomplished there's nothing more to accomplish down here yes yes okay so the ultimate purpose of creation is this physical world yes but it is a common belief that it's just for this world it's a hard concept yeah that's why I'm harping on it because it is difficult Well it can't you're saying it can't just be for this this physical world I'm saying the opposite I'm saying the exact opposite it can't just be for heaven can't just be for heaven but it has to take place here in order to right and that's and ultimate destination okay so that's what they will argue they whoever they is they will say yeah there needed to be a physical world but really it's a stepping stone in order to be able to earn a higher level in gun Aiden so the whole point was gun Aiden but it's not you guys the story about my Buddhist friend the Buddhist priest I'm sure I did because I tell that story all the time my my friend the Buddhist priest who is a good Jewish boy who he very quick I'll try to tell it quickly he um had a PhD in Philosophy from Princeton and you know like yesterday who he studied every other disorder in the world before he found Hashem so this guy studied every event disorder in the world he didn't he no he didn't I've told this story many times and I said it's not a Hollywood ending he died and it was cremated and his ashes were spread in Tibet okay so don't don't I don't yeah that's right because that's what happens because this is the lowest world that there's no world lower than it that's what happens in the lowest world the Jews die in Gallatin are cremated that's what happens okay that's the reality but hold up let me tell you I'm telling you this story this good Jewish boy who's raised in Metairie Louisiana brilliant mind probably the smartest person I ever met in my life anyways he um he studied every religion every philosophy every ideology he got a PhD in Philosophy from Princeton and he was a man of integrity so at one point he said I have to follow one of these so he chose Buddhism I'm telling the story very very quickly anyway so he became a Buddhist priest because when a Jew becomes a Buddhist he can't just be a regular Buddhist he has to be the Buddhist priest because the Jews are like everybody else only more so okay so I was learning Tanya with him one day with the Buddha yeah we used to well we had a careers we used to learn Tanya together every week and I would come over to his house and I would put on filling with him and he would always tell me there's nothing in my religion that prevents me from putting on filling and I would tell him it's okay I wasn't worried I wasn't like he thought I was scared I was making him do a an Aveda in his religion that's what I'm saying and he went to Hebrew school and Hebrew school did a wonderful job of of convincing him that when he started on his search in Earnest for a religion to live by the first one he crossed off his list was Judaism because he knew from Hebrew school how superficial and shallow Judaism was the version that he was given in Hebrew school so chalk one up again for American Hebrew schools at any rate so I was learning with him and he in the middle of learning all of a sudden he got all excited and he starts saying that's radical that's radical that's radical and he wouldn't calm down just kept saying that's radical it's radical and I'm waiting for him to comment and tell me what is radical that's radical that's radical and I'm like okay already what's what's radical he says nobody says this nobody says this only you guys only you guys say this now remember I told you his background he studied every ideology every religion every philosophy in the entire world I mean every known one I guess there's probably some obscure religions he didn't know about but um he was very very aware of every belief system and he starts saying that's radical nobody says this nobody says nobody says this so it occurs to me I didn't even know what it was he was getting excited about but um that whatever he's about to tell me is really super important for me to listen to because he's about to tell me something that is uniquely Jewish and perhaps uniquely Hasidic and that I didn't even realize was so because I just read it and I wasn't even sure what he was reacting to so it's called the expert blind spot apparently there was something really big a bombshell there and I was totally oblivious so finally calm down and I'm like okay what is radical what does nobody say except for us he says there are people who will say that the Phenom the phenomenological Universe does not exist phenomenological Universe means the world where that engages our physical senses the world where stuff happens so there are those who will say that it doesn't exist it's an illusion there are others who say that it does exist but it's only as a stepping stone to get to a spiritual World which is the true existence he says of course there are atheists who are materialists and they only believe in the physical world but I'm not talking about them I'm talking about spiritual belief systems the belief in spiritual worlds and believe in a creator No One Believes that there are spiritual worlds and yet the entire purpose of all can only take place in the physical world that is radical nobody else says that so that that really hit home for me nobody else says that um of course as Jews we believe in Ghanaian of course we believe in an afterlife for the souls but that's not a uniquely Jewish concept I'm not saying we got it from them they got it from us but I'm saying it's not uniquely Jewish plenty of religious people in fact I would argue by definition all religious people it depends how you define a religion but all religious people believe in some spiritual afterlife some reward for the disembodied soul but it is uniquely Jewish to make the claim that the ultimate purpose of all can only take place in the physical world we don't know yet I didn't say it didn't say yet yeah like a like on a day-to-day basis is there a difference really between let's say mashiach and a practical day-to-day difference 100 practical day-to-day difference in motivation when you have to make a decision yeah between something that will give you a higher gun Aiden or something that'll make the world the Holier place which one are you going to choose if you have a choice to work on your own Spiritual Development for another minute or go out and refine the world which one are you going to choose I don't want to get into to a whole side conversation but there's a famous story of the the maram muruttenberg who was held Ransom and uh again I'll tell the story very quickly he ordered his followers not to redeem him because he didn't want the local authorities to get into the business of ransoming rabbis anyways he died in imprisonment it was held in a tower it's a whole story and even after he passed away they would not release his body for Jewish burial and then later there was this Jew his name was Alexander vimfin and he got he paid to get the body of the Madame released for Jewish burial and after he did that he had a dream where the maram came to him and thanked him and said because of what you did for me I'm allowed to give you a reward from heaven and they they're allowing me to give you one of two two options you have to choose behind door number one is you're going to get paid back for the money you spent redeeming my body which was a small fortune you're going to get paid back and not only that but you and all of your descendants will be wealthy at safecoldodus for the end of all time behind door number two is you're gonna be on my level in the afterlife but the catch is you have to come with me tomorrow so he woke up he spoke with his wife and he said listen we can be rich or I can go to heaven no it's two options it wasn't Monty Hall so he's she's like well what do you want to do and he's like well I want I want the heaven and she's like okay go for it so they called all the kids together and he's like okay you know tati's going away and he's going to a good place and he died the next day so you can tell by the way I'm telling you by the way I'm kind of like giving away the punch line but the story is really a story within a story the pill apartheid used to tell this story at fabrangans and then he would ask everyone at the fabrangan so if you were Rebel Alexander which one would you choose and typically everyone would say oh I would be holy Lego Alexander I would take Heaven of course I don't need money I want spirituality and then he would rebuke them all and he would say you guys are so selfish what does anybody benefit from your going to a higher level in heaven take the money you know how much good you can do in this world you know how many people you can help with the money but let's get back on the topic the main do you remember what the main topic is what we're even talking about Tanya 36 that we're not talking about spirituality that's how we got off topic materiality the physical world so we're saying like this it is logically impossible that the purpose of creation is the spiritual world and the fact that Hashem continued creating world after World until he got to the physical world that itself logically forces us to conclude that the purpose of creation is in that what we call that end of the line in the physical world now we don't know why yet you asked a good question why I don't know I didn't learn yet I know logically that I don't know what it is yet okay all right yeah I'm backing up the purpose of the creation of the world is not for the spiritual world because those are just a descent remember even the highest spiritual world is a descent from Hashem the ultimate point is the physical world okay now we're going to start to get into why well why why should that be the tacos okay you know what the answer is because it really is I mean we're going to elaborate but the answer is because because that is what arose to his desire that's what he had a craving for he decided he wanted pickles and ice cream liaise it arose to his desire that he should have he should have fulfillment when the darkness would be subjugated and even transformed into light that the light of the the infinite should shine in the place of Darkness meaning the physical world but Yasser says for yesterday's with greater intensity and with the advantage of light that comes from Darkness much more than how the light shines in the spiritual worlds upon him that there in the spiritual Worlds the light is diminished so that the spiritual worlds are not nullified out of it out of existence and yet we didn't explain yet the mechanics of how ultimately it is only in the physical world where we can have our cake and eat it too where Hashem can have his cake and eat it too where there can be the ultimate revelation it's a total inversion of our previous way of thinking we think of the spiritual worlds as as Revelation and the physical world is concealment but he says to you hold on a second Revelation and concealment are are relative terms we think of the spiritual worlds as Revelation because for us oh it's so spiritually everything there is is spiritually revealed but relative to Hashem himself to the infinity itself the spiritual worlds are concealment and if they wouldn't be concealment of the infinite then Spiritual Beings wouldn't be able to exist so the spiritual worlds are concealment now you can say the physical world's even more concealment but here's the weird concept it's so much concealment that it comes full circle and it becomes revelation we didn't explain yet how that works but that's basically the concept okay and that he says Thou says that Hashem gets specials he gets special Joy from this where the darkest World becomes the source of the greatest light okay now in order for us to be able to endure that Revelation without being nullified out of existence Hashem gave us the Torah which is called strength and might the Commandment is Hashem is going to give power to the righteous to endure their reward in the world to come meaning to say you think it's so easy to endure the reward the reward is so intense it could nullify you out of existence but Toyota is the mechanism by which a finite being can encounter the infinite and not lose its own existence that we will not be nullified out of existence when hashem's light is revealed without a garment like it says your teacher your master meaning Hashem will no longer be concealed from you will no longer be hidden with a with a garment your eyes will see your master uh and furthermore it says the prophets say you will see eye to eye with Hashem and it says again from the prophets the sun will no longer be your light Hashem be your light forever so there will be this intense Revelation in the physical world after comes and yet paradoxically we'll be able to endure that intense revelation when neither is known that the era of mashiach the era which is the final culminating phase of History where there will be complete peace in the world and especially the era of the resurrection of the Dead where the physical world will be so completely refined that Souls from heaven will only be able to go up by coming down that's a little Paradox there the only way for a soul in heaven to have another Aliyah well not to be to go to a higher level of Ghanaian like they've been doing for thousands of years but actually to come back down to the physical world because the physical world will be that refined so it's known that those phases those are the in those are the point the purpose the completion of the physical world and the purpose for which the world was created in the very beginning then there's another era even after that called which is even beyond the topless that's the reward that's another state of being even further Beyond so basically what we're describing here is that the spiritual worlds are very nice and there's a lot of spiritual Revelation there but relative to it Infinity itself the spiritual worlds our concealment so what's the point of that rather the point is that there should be a physical world which is the ultimate concealment and that in that ultimate concealment there should become the ultimate Revelation which will come about when mashiach comes and even comes when the dead will come back the souls will come back into physical bodies and the ultimate Godly Place holier than any heaven will be the physical world now in order to kind of try to wrap our minds around this he says there's a precedent for this he says you're trying to Envision what this looks like we do have historical precedent he says we have a similar means of similar situation the time when the Toyota was given could exceed like it says there is shown to know that Hashem is God there is none else not just that you believe I want to make them be quiet how do we make them be quiet can you do it nicely yeah no whoever's talking but can you do it nicely don't even tell me who it is and do it super super nicely because I I don't want to be mean to anyone okay if I go over there I'm gonna come off I'll Brash and I don't want to do that and then be the opposite of what we're trying to accomplish trying to make the world a better place okay just five more minutes here okay all right so we said when Matt and Toyota occurred when the revelation of signing occurred it says you weren't shown to know that Hashem is all there is not just you believe it conceptually as an Article of Faith dogmatically but you were shown literally they saw it in fact they saw it with their physical senses so that's a sort of sneak preview to what it's going to be like when mashiach comes with our physical senses it will become empirically evident that there's nothing but God how do you like that and by the way as meshiach is getting closer that's what science is actually finding empirically they're searching and finding that it's all one the unity of matter and energy and ultimately we'll find the unifying Theory of Everything which all the great minds are in search of and they will find empirical evidence that it's all one but at the time of mountain Toyota that's what happened we had we physically experienced the Oneness we you were shown with literally he calls it riakushas with your physical sense of sight not just a a knowing or an awareness but physical sense of sight okay like it says it says all the nations saw the sounds they saw what is heard they had synesthesia in other words that which is normally heard meaning that which is only hearsay meaning spiritual phenomena became physically visible to the naked eye to the human being's eye so that was that was a sort of a sneak preview of what it's going to be like when Sheikh comes we're going to walk outside we're going to look around we're going to see godliness not from a perspective oh we're gonna be so enlightened that we're going to know that it's there we're going to appreciate it you're gonna see it empirically with your physical senses conceive like it says or we said that repetition say Miss Stockland the music they looked into the East and they heard the voice of God saying I Am Lord your God the cane library and also in all four directions and above and below okay there was no Direction which the voice of God did not emanate and again this is not talking about a subjective Enlightenment we're talking about an objective experience that you would be able you'd be able to record it with a tape recorder it was not somebody's subjective imagination or even don't call it imagination because it makes sound like it's false it wasn't just because they were super sensitive no it was objectively occurring in the physical world desire as embodied in the Ten Commandments was being revealed at that moment and when that was happening so God became revealed in the physical world I think we're going to try to finish this chapter if we keep moving okay and the Ten Commandments are the aggregate of the entire sheep Chinese and the Toyota is hashem's deepest desire and there's no concealment we were talking about worlds worlds are concealment and world after world is