Text-Based Tanya—Week #73

all right weekly text-based Tanya chapter nobody knows 42 okay are we ready 42. are people excited about 42 yeah everyone's invited to join us tonight in uh Crown Heights for the vort for the lokai so if you want to hear Le Bobby shashiva officially at eight o'clock but you know Brooklyn you know okay all right so starting in pedig memal of chapter 41 we started focusing on the emotions all in love and how to create on love very very simply how do you create emotions by meditating okay good I said very simple that was very simple yes that's right it's more complicated than that but that's the simple answer thank you okay so we're going to continue to talk about all different shades and degrees of these emotions and various different meditations that we use to invoke these emotions let's go to pedigmund base chapter 42 vahine is based on what we've explained above about the lower level of awe remember we spoke about different levels of all higher level lower level you even hate this is we can better understand what it says in the gemara and the verse and now Israel what does Hashem ask of you other than just to fear Hashem there's a verse where it says as if it's no big deal and now Israel what is a shaman for me all he's asking you is just to fear him he's just asking for all foreign asks the sensible question is all really no big deal a small matter the way the verse phrases it makes it sounds like makes it sound like it's no big deal so the gomodo answers in yes yes it is no big deal like note it's no big deal and I guess the very literal context of that verse is that may should have been speaking in fact it's the in safer devotee Urbana was speaking the whole time because the narrator of the whole safer divide him so the gamada says yeah Maisha was just speaking on his own level so I was saying it like the way he sees it it's no big deal to have aw of a chef yeah but I know that's what the gamada says but at least the way that I'm reading the gamada at first glance doesn't make sense because Maisha wasn't speaking to himself he was speaking to the entire nation so the the altariba asks this answer the camera provides is seemingly not understood I'm asking from you from the Jewish Nation so the answer doesn't really make sense to say that all of Hashem is no big deal formation Obama when I was speaking to the Jewish people you hear the question okay now it's not a difficult question to understand okay but rather the answer the explanation of the matter is every single Jewish soul has within it equality of because he is one of the Seven Shepherds is who provide godliness to the Jewish Souls which is the reason why they are called Shepherds like Shepherds take care of the sheep and make sure the Sheep are well fed there are seven spiritual Shepherds my children being the leader of them the shepherd par Excellence who provide Godly energy to the Jewish Souls Like a Shepherd provides cheaply needs to a sheep um is he calls them the cloloskulam not just he is the greatest of them but he encompasses and embodies all of the other Shepherds in fact he is referred to as this is an Aramaic phrase from the zyhart Raya Muhammad is a Shepherd muhammeda means he is a faithful Shepherd or you could read it also it's a little double entender you can read a faithful Shepherd meaning a Shepherd who is reliable and faithful trustworthy or a shepherd of Faith what does he provide like a normal Shepherd provides I guess grass and water and stuff that sheep like so uh provides Jewish Souls with The Godly energy in the faith that they need to thrive the highness and more specifically he gives them the quality of Das so that they may know Hashem Das is an intellectual faculty we learned about it way back in chapter three do you remember in chapter three what we said is the quality of Das the mother [Music] Das is the bridge to the emotions it is an intellectual faculty not an emotional faculty but without it the intellect will not lead to emotions so you're getting warm what are we saying oh to know the difference that's true actually discrimination not in a bad way but in a good way um is Das like we giving us Das that's where we make havdala we make Abdullah in the brahavdas to know the difference yeah that's an aspect of that what else do we know about Das chapter 3. say louder a relationship without why are you saying a relationship that's good but why are you saying it oh you're just reading your notes okay okay you took good notes we had your we busted out your notes last week we put them we made you famous made your notes famous we put them on camera yeah because an opinion yeah that was my word I made up for it but yeah and I say opinion because it's more subjective than just pure objective rational thought but that's good opinion is good in this case because we want to get fired up we want to have a we want to be passionate about the subject children are loving awe and they're offshoots why no love and all are the children the emotions Kaufman being I the father and the mother the emotions love and all and their offshoots are the children Das is the connection between the father and the mother like it says Adam new Eve that is the bond between the father and the mother that allows them to create children yeah is chapter 42 [Music] 42 probably why who are the others I don't know anything about Shepherd yeah it's uh gamara in uh I think dafnun base but he doesn't mention them here so it's probably not relevant is that good to be a shepherd um you know most Jewish Mothers want their sons to be a doctor but you would after if she was happy that Maisha became a shepherd she probably said well you got a shopper and you work on a farm where overalls dovet's family also he was a spiritual Shepherd I don't know I don't know about sheep okay listen listen I want to talk about Das Das is an intellectual faculty but it's not academic knowledge you said opinion opinion is good but you're quoting me from a year ago so of course I like it yeah butas means experience yeah that's a good word experiential knowledge as opposed to academic knowledge uh it means being connected to a subject application is an aspect of Das yes the initial inspiration which can Beena is a laborative thought but it's also in a theoretical sense Das is where yeah application Das is where it becomes emotional um no because creative creativity can be can be purely in the abstract Das is more practical actually yeah but let's say let's say I'm going to ask you a question let's say we're talking about knowledge of God okay so let's say you have a lot of about God and you have a lot of Bina about God you can become a theologian but Das if you have Das which would mean what how would you describe that somebody who has a lot of Das about Hashem yes it becomes like a real relationship it's integrated that's a good word it's a real relationship it's not something like theology it's not it's not abstract it becomes them if it becomes part of who you are becomes a real lived experience well that's the whole subject of federal and base so you're in the right place okay so he starts off remember let's just review he starts off and he says the gemara says and what does oh oh Israel what does God ask of you other than to fear Him and the commander says what it makes it sound like it's no big deal and think about the answers yeah it's no big deal and then the the alternator says yeah but we're not talking to him they should have been we're talking to everyone and then the other says well you guys with me we all have a piece of money should have been within us oh that's so cool what is that describe it what is the aspect which is within us not the love and fear not the faith no the Das the dust the fact that you have the ability to connect to the subject the subject of godliness in a very personal way that is operating within you and that's how you attain the awe of Hashem so because you have that aspect of information within you then it is attainable to have all of Hashem so this is what he says that was Hashem I'm repeating what we read each according to their level of comprehension and the level of their soul route above meaning it does vary it's not going to be the same for all of us because they're different levels of intellect different levels of spirituality should have been all of a shalom and this thus gets its nurture from the soul of Maisha is which maisha's soul in turn is rooted in the sphere of dasilos which in turn is one with the emanator meaning Hashem himself because he Hashem and his Das and all of his attributes for that matter are entirely one like we said earlier he is the knower the knowledge and that which is known this is the first time like an older yeah it's the official way to refer to him yeah okay how we doing you understanding okay the ajcs at alkane and furthermore in every generation Sparks of a New Soul come down into this world and invest themselves in the bodies and Souls of the of the sages of that generation who are referred to as the eyes of the congregation they teach knowledge of God to the people they teach the people to know the greatness of God Allah and how to serve Hashem with their full hearts and souls so now we've introduced the second aspect one is that every one of us has a moisturabeno quality within us which is specifically our capacity to have real subjective personal knowledge of God of course it varies according to all of our different levels it's not uniform but every one of us has it to some capacity and that is the Malaysia within us and then we we introduced a second concept which is furthermore there are certain figures in every generation who who act as the embodiment of maishirobeno in what sense are they maisha-like don't get all confused with all the other qualities of my show that you know about because we're not talking about any of them except for one specific function of Maisha obeno which was the teacher right but don't get too literal when we say Shepherd Okay Shepherd means not even a teacher like somebody who gives you information but a coach a facilitator somebody who brings out your capacity to know Hashem okay so we both have a maestrobeino in us as well as there are moisturabeno like figures in every generation who perform a similar role the point here is that Hashem has given us access to these tools both internally and externally so that we can have knowledge of Hashem okay serving Hashem with the heart requires Das in fact it's according to the Das like it says no k-n-o-w no da the god of your father and serve him subsequently serve him with a full heart and a desirous soul and in the future in the Messianic future it says Hashem no longer will one man teach his fellow and say no hashemer because they were all directly know me they will all have personal experiential knowledge of God they will no longer need a teacher when mashiach comes because it will become empirically evident to all following okay however the Main Place or the main way to get this Das and the main way to use it I guess also it's not just knowledge for him where you know the greatness of Hashem through teachers and books but rather the main thing is where do you get it sign me up where can I get my Supply Hashem to delve deeply into the greatness and to affix your thought strongly and with uh a mighty heart and mind meaning Focus es until your thought is strongly tied up with a strong knot to Hashem is just like your mind can be attached very or affixed very strongly and a physical thing that you see with your physical eyes and then you focus and concentrate on its Consciousness like we know Das is also connection like it says and Adam knew Eve meaning marital intimacy so what did we just say here the main place to get your Das the main way to muster up Das is not to go find a new supply of information not from suffrim or svarim from teachers or books it's important to have teachers and books but that's not the main thing the main thing is what to think about it so it's not the what it's the how it's what you do with it it's how you use it a person could have a lot of information they can be able to write books on Jewish Theology and even on mystical ideas and have very little dos what is Das he just described it it's when you focus on something so that it is as real to you as when you are affixed on a physical thing that you're seeing with your physical eyes and your you're you're concentrating on it so you take an abstract concept and you focus on it in your mind's eye and I don't necessarily mean visualization because I don't think it has to be specifically visual thought there are different ways of thinking but the point is the focus the degree of focus of unbroken concentration don't say that I came to a Tanya class for two years and I heard a lot of cool stuff and I know a lot of stuff that's all true that's all true but that's not Das thus is when you've put in the time to focus deeply and to have an experience just like if you go on a trip and you go spend time somewhere and you take in the sights and the sounds now you've had an experience which is way different than let's say reading a Wikipedia article about a place or like in the old days when you used to order from AAA and get the maps remember that the trip Tech used to get the triptych and you would oh that looks really cool what did we do when we got lost remember that you'd have to find a gas station remember that you go to a gas station you didn't get a man to ask for instructions yeah and then don't ask for instructions that's right okay so if you go someplace and you actually spend time there and you have an experience there that's way different than just reading about it all right so that's what we're talking about here we're saying it's not just that you have good information or good teachers it's that you spend time experiencing these Concepts in a personal way in a subjective way that's Das um now this he calls it which is a potential or a power and Meda an attribute to be able to connect yourself connect your dos to Hashem Israel is present within every Jewish soul s by virtue of its connection to the soul of meshirebana so you have a direct line to Mission obeno and that functions in your particular experience as a maisha-like faculty however since after all your soul is invested in a body and we know what embodiment does to the soul s you need toyo lots of toil Mighty doubled and redoubled toil you gotta work on it it's not going to come easily even though it's there even though it's hardwired but the embodiment masks over it remember you're getting inundated with all of the sensory input that's why when thousand Emma said you want to know what Das is it's fixating on a spiritual concept so it's so real to you it's like a physical object that you're staring at why do you think he uses that as his analogy because physical objects that you stare at are very real toss at least in our in our embodiment state so the point is all the input that we're getting from our five senses is overloading our capacity and if you want to be able to tune in to Godly knowledge and use your emotional like Das you're going to have to toil to tap into it and now he's going to talk about the process of coiling to tap into it that's the first thing he yes bossar it's called toil of the flesh let's toil over the flesh is to beat up the body don't get scared to beat up the body it's like we use the same word back in chapter 29 to beat up the body and subjugate it so it doesn't obscure the light of the Soul like we said above in the name of the Holy Zaire in chapter 29 the Gulf of the lasallebach a soul that doesn't cause the body to catch a flame with the passion of the Soul we gotta break it up like a log that's too thick and too coarse to catch catch a flame we Splinter it is how do you beat up your body you go throw yourself into a wall you go to a mash pit and a punk rock concert how do you beat up your body no it's to here hurray chova maima Khalif through thinking about sincere thoughts of repentance commissioner like it explains over there in chapter 29 beating up the body doesn't mean physically like mortification of the flesh rituals it doesn't mean that beating up the body means to mentally take stock and think about how much trouble it has caused you to let your body's whims run your life it's related well very good you mentioned Tim to Malave yeah because that was chapter 29 it's not the same as it but it has the same treatment the same treatment so the first thing is you have to take stock and be like you know what I don't want to be a person who's run by my body I don't want my physical Comfort to dictate how I how I live my life it's not good so that's called and of course the reason why we're doing this ugs Buster is what's the point why are we doing this why are we doing it I just want to if I'm going to do it I just want to know why I'm doing it why am I doing it education well ultimately to enhancement additions all these chapters was more specific to tap into them I should have been apart which is there but it's covered up okay so okay good thank you I just want to make sure we held on to the context okay nice and the second thing I've got to do as far as toil s it's called toil of the Soul away toil of the Soul means to not allow myself to be overwhelmed by the work that I need to do to strain my thought and deepen my connection to thinking about the greatness of Hashem for a long time he calls it a sugar for you know sit for an hour and think about God that's called sir is thinking about how I don't like my body to run my life and allow myself to experience sincere remorse and contrition is to sit down and think for a long time about the greatness of God they're both mental exercises you just you understand the difference between them yeah is it very clear the difference between the mental exercises you guess I'll Busters I'm thinking about because I don't want my body to run my life you get you yes enough fishes I sit down and I think for a long time about about God because I do want that to run my life okay fine good and the point of of both of these mental exercises is to clear away any of the stuff that's covering up my Misha like Das okay sure Zoo this amount this hour that he refers to sit down and think about God for an hour moment of silence it's not the same for every soul you have a soul which is more inherently refined you know some people are just more inherently refined that immediately when they meditate on God foreign immediately attain awe and Dread of God like it says at the very beginning of it says she is debating on others this is a quote from Adam when he meditates about the king the king of all Kings the Holy One bless me here whose entire who's whose Glory fills the entire world standing over him watching his deeds immediately he will experience you know he'll experience all yeah so some people they get that immediate Europe but then there's a lower level Soul he was just born that way he comes from his hewn out from a lower level of the 10 spheres of Asia he's not from matsilos he's from Asia he's a lower Soul route and he can't get himself to think about godliness except with real strain foreign especially if then not only he comes from a low soul route but he exacerbated his spiritual condition by defiling himself with the sense of use sense of Youth is a euphemism for Sins Of An Intimate nature indiscretions as we call them so not we're not here to make people feel shame but we're just reminding you that any of this stuff we spoke about this in chapter 29 okay any of this stuff will exacerbate the situation as far as making it less accessible to have Das Dasa so we're gonna have to clear that away just means you have more Gunk to clear away and you're going to have to have more yagiya more toil 35. nevertheless vacation if you'll strain if you work hard [Applause] if you'll really strain your thought and work hard and to think deeply about God for a long time if you'll do that then you will for sure at least experience the lower level of awe that was explained above like the say just say your gaiti matasi timing if someone says I have toiled and I have found believe them so you might have to toil first but if you toil you will find you will arrive at the goal and the goal is what well uncovering the moisture like quality is part of the process the ultimate goal is to get the ah the ah the ah good receive like it says if you seek it out like silver and you search it out like hidden treasure you ever see that movie The mad mad mad mad world when they're looking for the treasure under the Big W you know what I'm talking about that's what I always think about if you search it out like treasure razel knows what I'm talking about one person knows what I'm talking about why I'm wise beyond my years they were going crazy they were looking for this treasure a Tish above will watch it a movie night this year but they were going crazy looking for this treasure Okay so if you seek it out like silver and like a treasure like a berry actually matamata means a hidden treasure just like in it's a mad mad mad mad world have you seek it out yeah that movie's probably public domain already so I don't think they're capable of sponsoring anything okay if you seek it out like hidden treasure then you will understand all of God Paula what are you repeating the whole plot of it's a Madman World you're calling Avi you're telling them that I referenced it's a mad mad mad world okay why don't you tell Avi to come to the Chaim tonight and we'll talk about it tonight at the high okay okay maybe we should say it's world okay we'll make a remake okay all right okay deceive I said that pirush what is the meaning just like a person seeks out a hidden treasure that is buried in the depths of the Earth digs after it with intense toil kakso too sorry you have to dig can you dig it you have to we're back in the 60s no actually that was a Mike avonda with Kenya dig it was the Warriors from the 80s Cyrus's monologue can you dig it um so till you have to dig with intense toil to reveal The Treasure of yirushimaim that's often a Muslim which is hidden in the Venus halav the understanding of the heart of every Jewish Soul um and exists above time is it is the same concept as what we learned way back chapter 18 19 about the innate instinctive love that is hidden latent within the Jewish Soul so in other words it is there but it's a hidden treasure but if you knew there was a hidden treasure you go with your pickaxe and you shovel and you go crazy and you start trying to find it Well I'm telling you there's a treasure does that bait and switch should we put out like a text come to the Tanya class and find out you have a treasure and then we'll reveal a treasure of hiroshimaim and there'll be a riot Treasure of yerish and I am yeah increased it's increased well you'll you'll tell that when they start taking hostages yeah so the treasure the real treasure was the year of shamayim really that's but it's interesting because I don't have an answer to this question but in order to appreciate the Treasure of yerushimaim you already have to have a matakam of hiroshimaim but the premise here is it's a very interesting concept here let's presume for the sake of argument that your goal is to have a deeper connection to our shop and that you understand that the way we connect to Hashem chiefly is through love and through awe and right now we're focusing on oh as we said back in chapter 41 awe is the foundational emotion love is built on top of that so let's say you appreciate that and you're like okay great sign me up I want to have all of Hashem so the message here is that what you need to achieve that not only what you need to achieve it what you need to achieve it is your toil putting in The Sweat Equity of focusing and thinking but also not just what you need to achieve it but the the object itself that which you seek itself is within you so it's all internal it's all built in and it's just a process of of discovering literally discovering uncovering you know you're not waiting for some Enlightenment to be imported into you from somewhere else it's all within you but you have to you have to toil and primarily the toil we're talking about is focused concentrated thought which is rare today because we all have devices which have completely whittled away at our attention span it's very hard to focus for very long but that's how you it's how you reveal the The Treasure of yada shamaim is through focused concentrated thought but I have hope in humanity because I see you know people still worry and they still focus on their worries for hours at a time so they do have the capacity right people can catastrophize for hours about how their life is going to hell so we still apparently do have the capacity to focus on one thought for a prolonged period of time so yeah we just have to oh is it coming back into Vogue okay okay even the malingering Angels the malignant what with that call it meditation you mean to make it more appealing to people yeah it depends who your crowd is yeah bring your yoga mat and put it on the floor you think we would have more people at the time to class if we if people see us on Central Avenue bringing mats yeah no no it won't be us no I'm saying to bring in a whole different crowd yeah okay oh saw words merch yeah that's great that's a good idea coffee cup that's good thinking okay okay let's do a few more lines here today however in order to bring this emotion so you tap into your treasure but to bring this emotion into means fear of sin which he calls practical mindset practical meaning to go away from evil in thought speech and action in other words to translate this fear into some type of actual behavioral quality all right because it's not enough that it remains an emotion and has to actually have practical significance which would be that would be a source of motivation to inhibit and curb one's behaviors so that they will be in alignment with God's will so in order to make that transfer galesa you have to tap into the treasure that is in the Bina of the heart the understanding of the heart which is above times is the second time he's mentioning this that's above time and to bring it into thought he calls it mamish literal thought substantial thought in your brain that means to think about it for a while until it becomes transferred from potential into actuality the hainu in other words what does it mean actually to go away from evil in your behaviors and to do good in your behaviors in thought speech in action um who is staring and looking and listening and hearing and understanding all of your Deeds of Felipe and he is searching and testing your innards and your heart who Commandments are like to say just say he stackable think about that means histaco literally means stare at but mentally be transfixed upon three ideas there's an eye that sees or isn't she Mass there's an ear that hears Etc and then you will be able to behave yourself so what he's saying here is that the ultimate purpose of this yida that we're tapping into is that it translates into behavioral motivation and we always come back to the Practical stuff as lofty as our discussions are in Tanya we always come back to practical stuff how is this going to inform our behavioral choices so what's the purpose of this Hashem it sounds so lofty But ultimately the Practical purpose of this euro sashem is that it will serve as sufficient motivation to modify our behaviors to be in line with hashem's will yeah actually yeah why does he say s so why does he keep saying that this quality is above time the quality itself is is spiritual and it is not confined to the limitations of space and time however our experience of it and remember the whole point here is the personal experience is by definition within space and time so I'll think for an hour about an idea which is eternally true it's almost like a paradox right but what I'm doing is I'm trying to connect to something that's Timeless something that's eternal um and bring it into now which is almost like an oxymoron with the ultimate intent as a result that it will serve as motivation to change my behaviors yeah