Text-Based Tanya—Week #70

weekly text-based Tanya we are in we're starting chapter 41 very good okay the past three chapters 38 39 and 40. we're all about the subject of intention great yeah intention means the love and the yavashem that we feel when we do a Mitzvah that enhances or intensifies the effect of that Mitzvah like we described it in those chapters the degree of of awe and love determines the level of world to which the spiritual impact of that Mitzvah will Ascend okay now what we're going to do in chapters 41 through 50 basically for 10 chapters we're going to speak about on love but in a little bit different way than we were just speaking about on love we're not going to speak about all love so much as the enhancer of the Mitzvah that you're already doing but as the underlying motivation that gets you to do the mitts from the first place and we alluded to this back in chapter three back back in chapter three we said that when we're breaking down and uh we were talking about the the the intellectual faculties and the emotional faculties and we said that the emotional faculties are the the engine that drives Mitzvah performance and then we didn't really get back to that so much so we're going back to that idea of explaining on love as the the drivers for doing Mitzvahs in the first place and and more specifically we're going to speak about on love as distinct from one another and then within on love themselves we're going to speak about various different degrees and types of these emotions as well as different meditations that yield these different degrees and different types of on love did you follow what he just said okay so I'm going to ask you some questions what chapter are we on and this theme that we're starting 41 is going to go until chapter 15. great and we're very good and mostly what are we going to be speaking about what two emotions loving all on love okay I say all in love for a reason what you're going to find out today okay why yeah well fears uh is a hype of awe but it's a very low level right yeah oh yeah yeah oh we're going to talk about we're going to speak about all at length so you're gonna have plenty of time to find out what all means no I'm asking a question right now hold on hold on hold on hold on hold on hold on okay okay um what is the purpose of all in love within the context of these 10 chapters the motivators to do the mix was very good okay and where do you get them from oh I know what you're doing I said it I did say it I'm only asking you where do you get on love from I mentioned it meditation very good okay so the next 10 chapters is all about various different various different uh levels and types of awe and love on love or not monolithic they each one of them has various different types and degrees and we're going to learn more about those nuances it's not just there's love there's all no there's a lot of different types varieties of all love and respectively there are meditative subjects that one focuses on to yield these different forms of on love just clear okay and that's what's happening for 10 chapters and people even asked me this already they're like you know there's a lot of times in Tanya where it says go meditate and bring yourself to love and of Hashem but you didn't really tell us what to do right people have all right so guess what you're in luck you're gonna have 10 chapters of different things to think about that will bring to different types of love in all of Hashem yeah which will you tell me motivate us to do what to serve Hashem to serve Hashem with love and all yeah this like I said this really I've said a few minutes ago that this really came in chapter three but he didn't elaborate at that point there are different junctures in Tanya where important points are brought up and then not elaborated upon and I have my own theories about why certain discussions are put on hold and only elaborated upon later but I won't get into that those are my theories yeah is there any other folks you mean the fact that it takes up 10 chapters uh no this is the biggest by the way the whole concept of sections within Tanya is made up well made up by me but yeah you're mad yeah my map but my map is based on the scholarship that preceded me but what I'm saying is the altarebit doesn't anywhere say any except for the chapter divisions themselves out that doesn't say these chapters are group and these chapters are another group but informally informally yeah the biggest group of chapters meaning the theme that's dealt with for the most amount of chapters would be this theme that we're about to start what is the overarching theme well that's a great question if somebody were to ask me what is the tell me what's the theme of Tanya I would be hard-pressed to pick one I would actually be conflicted about everything well yeah well what does debating mean yeah that's that's a that's a cop-out because you just say the title say versus obeying him yeah okay but people are going to say what does that mean so I I will tell you like this there are two different synopses of Tanya that I would give that are almost I wouldn't say antithetical but somewhat in uh conflict with each other one synopsis of Tanya I would say is it's a book about setting aside emotional Perfection and focusing on behaviors although on the other hand my other synopsis of time would be it's a book about how to bring oneself to feel love and awe of Hashem they're both true Compass the first one no the second one sort of uh implies the negation of the first one because if it's about if the if if it's about serving Hashem regardless of your love and awe so then it's not about love at all and vice versa if it's about again second one it's a book about how to develop your love and all of Hashem my two synapses of Tanya are it's a book about how to serve Hashem behaviorally even if you lack sufficient love and awe and my other and then the other one would be it's a book about how to develop love and all I know you're confused we needed all the background and the syntax and everything you're asking me what the main theme of Tanya is so on one hand the main theme of Tanya is to pursue behavioral perfection irregardless of what emotions you're feeling even if you're lacking love in all of Hashem another synopsis of Tanya would be it's a manual how to develop a love in awe of Hashem yes those are contradictory I told you they're contradictory okay it's a it's a complex book and ultimately there's a resolution to this which is basically it's telling you do your best to develop love and avisham but at the end of the day when you don't completely perfect your emotions you'll still have your your behaviors to focus on yeah yeah only love and all is the best way or only if it's through getting loving off so in chapter three he said that unless somebody actually feels something ultimately he will not continue even doing the mitzvahs and now we're speaking about the myths was I was speaking about love and all as the motivation to do Mitzvahs in the first place in other words in 37 and 38 39 40 we're spinning well okay you're doing the Mitzvah anyway so do it with more cavana now we're speaking about Lebanon as the initial motivation to do the Mitzvah in the first place without which there will not be a continued uh performance of the mitzvahs okay so that's a lot of background I'd like to just jump into the text now okay okay yeah that's what he says in chapter three yeah does that still apply here yeah okay pedigma malov chapter 41. however it must be known however is a pivot however it must be known must be remembered always the the beginning of service and its root and its source you know the out that ever spent seven weeks with one letter of is it ikra or ve shosha that valve he spent seven weeks deliberating on whether or not put it in and took it out seven weeks yep how do we know that because once his brother de Mariah walked in and saw him engrossed in writing he was writing Tanya for decades and he uh saw him engrossed in writing and out that turned to his brother and explained to him that for the past six seven weeks and okay maybe that's why he said it he said I've been working on whether or not to include this letter of he says but uh that's he says that's the way that say fresh obeying them goes he says that's uh it's worth it when you're writing this book so we added it and in the end it's there yeah okay yeah yeah the the the Tanya's written extremely meticulously down to every letter okay so what is the root and source of all service of Hashem that we have to remember all the time it is although in general we say that reverence all of God is the source of go away from Evil and love of God is a source of do good there are two general modes there is go away from Evil and there's do good and generally they correspond to awe and love go away from Evil is an expression of all of Hashem do good is an expression of love love of Hashem and generally speaking those categories are are descriptive nevertheless even in doing even in the proactive performance of Mitzvahs it's not enough just to do it based on love when we simplify it we say yeah awe is the source of the not doing and love is the source of the doing but it's more nuanced than that than that in in reality even in the doing it's not enough to have it motivated purely by love will a Pocus at the very least that you have to at least arouse the natural awe in your heart that's hidden in your heart we've spoken about this a number of times um the natural awe of Hashem that you feel to not rebel against the king of all Kings the Holy One Blessed Be he to have his Galas and to get that out of the latency in your heart and to get it revealed in the heart or at least in your mind meaning if you can't feel it as a full-fledged emotion at least it should be on your on your radar consciously as a as an idea ha you're following what he's saying generally speaking if you are simplifying things love is what you do for your beloved awe is what you don't do because of your beloved you don't go there you don't overstep those boundaries you hold yourself back however taking a more nuanced look at it the truth is even in the holding back I mean I'm sorry for to contract even in the doing even in the proactive performance of mitzvahs there has to be some level of awe involved as a motivation as well in other words it can't be entirely love it can't be entirely a feeling of a desire to get closer and he doesn't elaborate here why that is but uh elsewhere in Tanya and Sidis we come to understand that Love by itself on its own can actually even even holy love love of God can become on a subtle level self-serving because the very nature of Love Is expansiveness that's why it leads to doing love is what you do for your beloved and it can become um it can become self-centered what I am doing for you and in fact without any boundaries it can become even invasive it can be cloying it can be smothering um so there has to be that sense of self-containment which we refer to as yira even in the doing that even when I'm doing for you it's not because I enjoy doing nice things but rather because of a sense of deference when you're not doing it's clearly coming from a sense of deference because inherently you are limiting yourself when you're not doing you're clearly putting the other person first because you are holding yourself back it's in the doing that we have to be more conscious of the reverence and the deference otherwise it can become more of a performance about me enjoying doing nice things okay so he says we're going to need to have all all the time not just in the holding back where when you're holding back awe is the main emotion which is obvious but even in the doing there has to be a modicum of basic awe as well so that's why I was saying awe and love before as opposed to love and awe because he's saying gracious the beginning of service and its root and its source is the awe have to have the awe and we forget the awe when it comes to the positive Commandments so he's reminding us even when we're involved in the positive stuff there has to be a level of self-containment as well okay so far so good okay practically speaking you want an illustration of it exactly the dangers you're enjoying the Mitzvah then it becomes about your enjoyment of the Mitzvah right like the guy who the guy who is enjoying so much being a good husband that it's not about his wife it's about his enjoyment of performing these acts of of kindness that's a bad thing practically like if I'm in the middle of unengaged in a mixing that I enjoy and love and it makes me feel good and I feel loved for Hashem yeah we're not talking we're not inserting on the middle of of a Mitzvah what's what's happening is we're describing for the next 10 chapters we're describing a regimen of meditation that we're going to engage in to increase our overall love and awe of Hashem so this is not something you're doing in the moment on the Fly you're it's not like you're assessing oh I need a little bit of a little bit more awe over here let me give a boost to that he's describing just general a general regimen um that we need to do preemptively proactively we need to keep our all levels up and then automatically when you're doing Mitzvahs those Mitzvahs will be imbued with that all okay so he says you have to get get that that at least at least into your brain if you can't get it into your heart you have you have to at least get into your brain a a at least a revelation of the latent awe that we have that fear of Separation that we spoke about in chapters 18 and 19 that the soul abhors the notion of being separate from God for even one moment and that's native that's instinctive to The Godly Soul we just need to bring that out consciously so he says all right fine great so bring that out how do you bring that out dahano namely here's how you bring it out to at least think about in your brain in your thoughts alert notice do not ask me afterwards when are we going to learn a meditation this is the meditation I'm just notifying you because if I didn't tell you this is a meditation you probably wouldn't think of it that way this is a meditation in fact expert level it's several meditations but let's not get too complicated it actually is several meditations all right this is a meditation get ready you're going to think about a meditation is just a subject to think about okay here's the subject you can think about you can think about the greatness of Hashem and his kingship which is a kingship over all worlds the higher worlds in the lower worlds he's got a big kingship not like one of these uh small little rinky-dink countries it's a big Empire you still thinking you're meditating yes and he's permeating all worlds he's permeating what does that mean he's present within them he runs through the very fabric and fiber of all of these realities and he encompasses all worlds because he can't be contained within them why we've referred to these Concepts before yes we have these are familiar Concepts okay yes why are you because now it's in the context of a specific meditation the the number of ideas here is somewhat limited there are a certain amount I didn't count them a certain amount of ideas that are discussed in Tanya but the the way that they're arranged and combined and juxtaposed with each other create the different um different contexts so right now is a context what to think about on a regular basis in order to muster up some basic level or that you can use when you're doing mitzvahs so that when you're doing this is even the positive Commandments it's not all about you it's about your reverence for God let's continue the meditation let's continue the meditation so what are we thinking about Hashem and his greatness and his kingship which is a kingship of many worlds higher and lower and what is his relationship to those worlds he's present entirely within them and at the same time simultaneously he encompasses them because he cannot be contained within them so he transcends all of them okay okay this is a thought this is a complete thought that's why I really don't want to be derailed okay let's keep going is it not that I fill all the heavens and the Earth now we set that up that's the alley-oop pass now here's the slam dunk um he sets aside the higher worlds in the lower worlds what does it mean he sets aside that proverbially he gives them secondary importance he sets them aside it's not his Focus um and focuses his kingship on the Jewish people in general okay what's Happening Here we're thinking about the fact that God is a great God with a great kingship over many worlds which he fills and transcends and yet and yet that's all the setup and yet that's the setup he focuses his attention on the Jewish people in general that a love be frat and on him meaning you dear reader as an individual specifically because a person is obligated to say the world was created for my sake okay so what's the meditation now the meditation is we're considering the greatness of God in his kingship and that within that context he chooses to put his focus on me and me now stop pause let me ask questions let me guide you let me guide you this is just a thought right now it's not an emotion although maybe it's starting to tickle some emotional fibers and you're starting to feel some feelings so I just want to ask a question do you feel us heading in an avidirection or a Euro Direction I don't think they're mutually exclusive they're not mutually exclusive but this meditation has a very specific focus and goal the purpose of this meditation is to induce to induce awe that's how he that's how he presented the very beginning of the chapter we said we need some modicum of yira even when doing things for Hashem it can't just be all love even when doing things even when doing nice sweet kind things it has to be a basis of self-containment and he says here's the meditation that you're going to use in order to muster up some of that awe so he sets up a context first be overwhelmed be overwhelmed go to the Planetarium and go look at the stars okay be overwhelmed by the Grandeur of it all but it's much bigger than that because it's not just the physical world it's spiritual worlds as well it's so massive it's so huge and then you start to think about how he's focusing his attention on you that's not supposed to feel warm and fuzzy ladies there are meditations that will induce warm fuzzies this is not one of them I didn't say it's dread I didn't say that that he's an abusive Tyrant and that we're terrified that we popped up on his radar and we hope he forgets about us that's not what I said but it is awe-inspiring that such a great and awesome King is paying attention to you it's not supposed to induce anxiety but it is supposed to be awe-inspiring yes bottom line is the level because the fact that Hashem is so great and so awesome and and all the above is able then to focus just on me and that the world has created for me and for my sake yeah it's like we don't call my father here but we don't call my father here there are meditations there are meditations where we focus on him as a father this is not one of them well that's why I'm trying to guide you to know what to get out of this meditation well can we continue because we're in the middle of the meditation let's find out what we're thinking of once so all we know is he's focused on me okay fine and where do I get off thinking he's focused on me well right okay all right let's continue and he he here means you it's speaking in the third person that's the formal way you speak in rabbinic literature it refers to the person the reader as in third person and he meaning you I'm going to just say you receive upon yourself hashem's kingship meaning now you're actively receiving it upon yourself it's not just some objective reality that happens to be true whether or not you acknowledge it you are now also acknowledging it and accepting it liaise the Hashem should be king over you and yes like I said there's not a father meditation this is a king meditation and that therefore you should serve Hashem and do his will be home in all manners of the service of a servant the feeling that it is inducing in me is that of a faithful servant this is not a filial father-son relationship although we will have that later we're going to have so many meditations you won't remember any of them and you'll say I don't need any more meditations I have more meditations I can deal with but right now this is a meditation where we're thinking about Hashem as king and us as servants okay love and behold Hashem is standing over him that's a verse from parishes for Yates speaking about yankovino Hashem was standing over him but we're applying it to all of us this is one of the twelve soken by the way also 12 sukim we should have a whole class just in 12 sukum a whole series are the 12 Torah verses that that ABBA chose that should be the foundation of a Jewish child's education yeah yes I was I was in Israel Over alive and there was a Chabad parade of all the kids yeah sure yeah called up like which who wants to repeat the first person yeah yeah exactly that's exactly what that is yes one of them is smart yes so you you saw in meron by by rash B this is a very common to have like but by the debit they had like women parades yeah yeah okay we should have when we finish Tanya we should have a series on uh 12 silk and we should okay so I I I'll just put it out there after we finish chapter 53 maybe we'll do uh 12. okay so can I ask you a question about Hashem only got one response over here hold on we're in the middle of meditation now here you still meditate Hashem is standing over you um and yet at the same time zoom out the whole world is full of his glory so you're zooming in you're zooming out the juxtaposition of the two on one hand he's hyper focused on you and yet at the same time he's filling the entire world with his glory whom it all love and he's staring at you you see the juxtapos the juxtaposition there I'm standing on you hold on he's filling all the worlds with his glory um he's staring at you staring by the way I told you this is a reverent and awe-inducing meditation he's staring at you he's not just staring at you he's staring in you he's searching to be biting means to search cloyes your kidneys will leave in your heart why is he searching my kidneys in my heart you always were thinking about why the kidneys in the heart can use our fear kidneys are kidneys are closed the kidneys are and leave is uh so the emotional faculties he's searching the heart the heart yeah the heart is the emotions kidneys are the attitudes the the attitudes not they're not emotions they're more I call them attitudes because they're more focused on on execution as opposed to emotions which are more abstract rarified what are the emotions which the emotions and the attitudes are yeah I said Ferris I said to pharaohs it's in the heart I said it I said it yeah there's a lot you guys we need more Focus we need more Focus okay a lot of a lot of details getting missed okay okay all right so he looks into our heart yes we said kidneys and heart but I'm not into do Kim I'm not gonna there is significance it says kidneys and heartburn okay yes he looks into us meaning all the stuff that's going on inside of you in other words not just your behaviors that which is apparent by outer appearances but he's looking into your your motives so this is this is intense right this is to induce all he's looking into you okay and he's assessing your real motives what you're really really feeling okay all right if you're serving him fittingly meaning are you serving him up to your capacity you're being assessed here so yeah this is awe-inducing you're being evaluated you guys get nervous when I ask you questions of comprehension of something I said 30 seconds ago imagine how nervous you would get if the king of all Kings would stare into you X-ray vision into your emotions okay it'll be even slightly more intense than that yeah no no it's and that's not supposed to hold on hold on a second you said this feels worse than Yom Kippur so in your statement you're actually implying that Jim Kipper doesn't feel good either this doesn't feel good okay what's wrong with it it is intense I didn't say it's not intense I said it was intense okay it's intense yes it's intense yeah yeah yes we're saying is looking into US yes this is because we're letting him under that meditation but other times he's not going to look into no no no hold on a second you're meditating on it it's not making it happening correct always right it's happening always yes you're just thinking about it and so what's the difference between thinking about it and not thinking about it ladies you gotta nail this one I want 100 accuracy you got it yes thank you exactly so it's happening either way you're thinking about it will make you haven't you feel it yeah they have all about it okay excellent excellent very good okay all right the alkane therefore therefore there has to be a therefore there's a there's a point to this therefore you know you have to serve before Hashem with awe and reverence like you're standing before the king in other words the emotion of awe leads to service with awe the point here is it leads to behavior it leads to behavior well yeah that's the point yes Emma is another type of I I run out of synonyms I need a thesaurus you know I have the world's worst thesaurus not only is it terrible it's terrible I I don't know they're sitting they're shades of their shades of all they're not love oh reverence you can maybe even say fear I don't like to say fear because it just gives people the wrong thoughts no no no okay all right and he should deepen if you get deep with this thought and he should think about it at length there's depth and there's length depth is talking about intensity of focus length is talking about how much time you put in meditation so you should think about this according to the capacity of his brain and thought in other words everyone's going to have a different level because everyone has a different mind everyone has different capabilities but whatever your capabilities is come into the gym how much are you going to bench depends on you but whatever it is to get a good workout for you also according to your free time Leaf nay now he's going to frame it a little bit more when should you do this when's a good time to engage in this meditation before you learn Torah or before you do a Mitzvah in other words you're going to use this meditation to learn Titan do Mitzvahs with this sense of all Camilla fluffner levitious for instance before you go and put on Talis and filling vegetable name and also you should think another meditation eggs how you should think about how the infinite light which surrounds all worlds and fills all worlds which is synonymous also with hashem's Will is invested within the ladders the actual written letters and the the wisdom of Torah or the villain that you're putting on in other words you're recognizing the Divine will and intelligence that is within this title that you're about to study that is within the Mitzvah that you're about to do I believe he shall say so therefore when you're learning this Theta or when you're putting on this thousand film you're actually drawing down this light upon yourself the hainu more specifically you're drawing this light upon the portion of God meaning Your Divine Soul we spoke about in chapter two which is in your body like to have it be subsumed within and nullified to this blessed light so that's going to happen anyway when you learn Toyota or you do a Mitzvah but we're gonna think about it before we learned in order to induce a certain appreciation specifically within the kav of yira within the within the realm of awe and reverence why because as we said in the beginning of the chapter that it's not enough to do out of love although primarily the primary motivation for doing is love and for not doing is awe however even in the doing there has to be some level of awe and where are we going to get that all so we just described some basic meditations for putting ourselves in a frame of mind that is conducive to all when we learn Titan devices yeah this is just what all the mixes that you do then are now going to be coming from Love and awe or each Mr that you do you have to read before you do it in order you're saying how often do you have to reset this intention yeah announcement says that I do are with cavana and they're all whatever or is it that before you do each Mitzvah you have to so that's that's a good question I mean that's that's a that's a very practical question um but I think it is what I was saying how often do you have to reset the intention like if I switch from one Mitzvah to another Mitzvah do I have to do the meditation again um I don't think so but although later in the chapter he's going to say that if you're involved I know we don't have this problem so often but if you're involved in one sustained performance of a single mitzvah for longer than an hour so the spiritual energies in the universe shift every hour so then you have to yeah then you have to reset your intention yeah at least once an hour it doesn't have to be at the hour it's not like 10 10 wins no one estate I think I think you're correct yes yeah yeah the this is more of what to think in order to enter into the Mitzvah yeah think so that we end up yes yeah it's another on the on the previous three chapters yeah yeah it's different than the previous three chapters yeah yeah yeah so I have a question about something you said at the beginning of the course you said that um already spent six weeks six or seven weeks yeah six or seven weeks I totally until he wrote it for a couple of decades if you finish Tanya before before he passed away why what's the what are you trying to figure out what he did he did it well he said he did it before you right so I'm saying I'm trying to get an idea if it took up six weeks on one letter it doesn't mean every letter took six weeks that letter took six or seven weeks right that that letter so I'm sure there were letters that took a second to write but that letter because of the difference whether you write that letter or not it changes the meaning so he deliberated on that particular vote doesn't he doesn't spend seven weeks on every single letter no of course then the math would be off yeah what about the Mixbook that we refrained like the low SASE I guess like that yeah so certainly is based on all right does that get a dose of Love okay that's a great question okay let's let's hold off on that okay I think we're in a good resting place for this week yes we're meeting again in two weeks we do not have class next week