Text-Based Tanya—Week #76

all right weekly text-based Tanya we are still in chapter 42. this is a third or fourth fifth how many classes have we been doing chapter 42. you're gonna be very quiet okay last week we only covered a few lines which is okay that's that happens sometimes um if we can cover a little bit more this week than we covered last week we should finish the chapter God will so we're in the middle of speaking about last week when we left off sort of uh closing the loop on the where the chapter began chapter began with that question on the the gamada that says uh is uh of Hashem really a trivial matter is it no big no big deal no biggie and the gumara says it's not a problem it's a no big deal we said fine that's formation but what about us so um he uh he explained to the beginning of the chapter already that Maisha is your internal motion which is Das and then what we said last week was what happens is you're going to meditate on subjects that bring to the awe of God the Grandeur of God you're going to meditate on the Grandeur of God the both how Hashem is beyond beyond beyond and at the same time he's focused in on us that's going to incite a certain feeling of awe and that that the the takeaway from that will be at least as effective as the feelings we have of inhibition in Social settings where we don't want to embarrass ourselves in front of other human beings so the takeaway from the awe is not just to feel awe the takeaway from the awe is how it will guide our behaviors go away from Evil and do good okay so that's so that's where we left off which is the Das within each Godly soul it's not a big deal to have you to very attainable to have yira of Hashem and what kind of here enough to get you to behave all right now because obviously when it comes to emotions that are Limitless gradations so have you felt awe yeah okay how much are there's Limitless amounts of awe you can feel so we're quantifying we're saying enough I don't know if we're quantifying or qualifying I'm not sure if this is quantity or quality but the point is it's the kind of awe or the right amount of all to translate into controlling your behaviors okay then he proceeds to explain in the brackets is that which connects from the recesses of the heart to the revelation of the thought as is known to those who are acquainted with Kabbalah he's describing dos here we described us in many different ways its functionality is always some somewhat of a bridge but here he describes it sometimes a bridge between us sometimes it's a bridge between the the the the sacral and the mid-ice not going to unpack all this right now I'm just gonna keep floating I want to move here he describes Das as a bridge between the recesses of the heart and the revelations of the mind of the thought right the recess of the heart could be like emotions that you have buried so deep you're not even aware that you have them the revelations of the Mind means conscious thought like you know that you're thinking it not subconscious thought conscious thought in fact willful thought purposeful thought so that's we're describing here as the bridge between Deep Emotions that are so deep maybe you don't even know that you have them and that's on one side and then the other side is conscious willful thought we go in and you say here's what I'm thinking about and I know I'm thinking about it because I chose to think about it and that's what's bringing that out so you have these feelings of awe somewhere buried deep in your heart remember we spoke about the buried treasure and we're going to bring it out to a conscious subject to ponder and meditate upon okay the AIDS is now another important thing to remember when you are thinking about these meditations particularly the awe-inducing meditations remember this that when you have a king fleshly King the main awe that one fears feels or fears is from his panemias and his hayus and not from his body what does it mean are you afraid of the king's body or are you afraid of what the king represents you're not afraid of him it's an interesting thing when the king sleeps a metaphorical King is just a metaphorical King think about if there is an electric fence so what are you afraid of you're afraid of touching the fence so as long as the fence is there it's scary or let's say walking on the edge of a of a body of water so you got to be careful not to fall in the water so you're afraid of the ledge or let's say it's a fire you don't want to touch the fire so you're afraid of the fire the fence the ledge the fire these are things that are physical threats so you just stay away from them physically and you're okay and if they're physically present then you got to be careful right so far so good it's not a deep concept not mind twisty it's not this is a very simple idea right okay the king however is a little different now I know you're going to say well I'm a friend I'm going to wake up the king you're not going to wake him up he's he's totally asleep the king you're not afraid of the king's body like oh no be careful don't get too close to the king's body like it's the third rail or something at the subway you're afraid of what the king represents and what he can do meaning it's not his physical body that you're afraid of like you're afraid to touch the fire or go close to the ledge or touch the electric fence it's the life force within the king that manifests through the king's body and yeah he can give orders that can be life or death orders but it's not his physical body it's not he's not an object that you fear it's you're you're in awe of what his his function is what he's capable of doing yes does everyone understand this is not a deep concept it's really by the way I have a general helpful hint for learning if something is phrased as a metaphor then by definition it's really accessible and it's not deep because the whole purpose of a metaphor is to present an accessible idea that will lead you to understanding a deeper more abstract idea so the metaphor is not deep and Abstract the metaphor is very simple so I know you're in Tanya mode and you might be thinking too deeply don't overthink this it's just a simple thing there are there are sources of fear where it's the actual physical object that I'm afraid of and then there is it's not the physical object like in the case of the king it's not his physical body oh no I don't want to touch his body it's the life that pulses through the king when he's awake and can be expressed and manifest as various life-changing decrees that he can issue you understand okay fine awesome you're going to say well what's the point of this metaphor we didn't say yet we didn't say yet you didn't miss anything you're right where you should be okay now the King's pinemius and His Highest he calls it his inner life you don't see it with your physical eyes you see it with your mind's eye foreign but it's visually cued by seeing the physical side of the king and then you know in your mind that within the physical body of the king is housed the King's life force now it's getting a little bit more complex but still it's not a super complex idea you're not afraid of the king's body it's not like a fire where you're afraid to touch the fire for good reason you're afraid to touch the fire it's not oh I'm afraid to touch the king's body if I touch his body I'll blow up okay however when you see the king's body that's a visual cue to remind you of the King's life force that means his his powers his his capacity his capacities what his authority yeah which is an abstract notion the authority of the king it's not a thing it's an idea right right or you're not afraid of his body either way but if he wasn't a king then seeing his body wouldn't remind you of his authority because he would have none so you see his body and it's a visual cue oh this is the king now he's not the king because of his body but the body is a cue to your visual senses to remember in your mind what the king represents I like that word his authority yeah okay so far so good we're doing okay all right fine the incaine if so all right now we're going to get the application if so this is exactly how you should fear Hashem when your physical eyes look at the heavens and the Earth and all of the stuff in them that the infinite light is invested within all of the entities of the heavens and the Earth in other words when you look up at the sky and you see all the constellations and you're like wow this is crazy this is so mind-blowing this is so all inducing I can't believe it okay sure sure no problem but that's just a visual cue to your physical senses to remind you of an abstract concept that you can only appreciate in your mind meaning you're not afraid of the vastness of the universe the vastness of the universe if indeed that's our visual cue is a reminder of what the king meaning with a capital K what Hashem represents just like with the King it's not his body you're afraid of it's what the physical presence of the king reminds you of ah what the king represents so when you do this meditation we're saying it is it begins at least with a visualization but the visualization and it could be an imagination visualization an imagine a visualization or it could be literally I don't go fly out to Arizona and go out uh where you can actually see some Stars what go to Sedona we should have a class trip to Sedona and we should go out and go and meditate on the vastness we're going to go out and see uncountable amounts of stars and then we're gonna say remember though don't you're not blown away by the fact that that the universe is so big that's just the king's body and it's to remind you of the highest the the life force of the king which is invested within those things yeah what we're going to say you sure okay yeah yeah you hear thunder you make a break yeah yeah I just last week I had an occasion to apply a halacha that I had learned in the chart in the back of the sitter where they tell you they tell you where you can be mouth sick different interruptions at different places of davening so I think I remember once oh no I know where I did it a couple months ago I was on on a shabaton in uh Tampa and Tampa where Turnberry that was that was done no I don't know what that is oh that's where okay we'll talk about that in one second I was in Tampa I don't think it was but it was like maybe close to Shores and we're in a hotel and I could see the bay and I got to make a nice veracious the Thunder bracha and the lightning in the middle of davening and I knew or maybe I had to look up but yeah and then that you're allowed to do it while you're in the middle of so if you want to know if you're in the middle you can make those okay okay the Thunder and the lightning over the bay okay and then earlier last week a few days ago it happened again I was in Florida again not in Tampa and I was in Miami area and I made it well I should say it in the right or first you make at least veracious because light travels faster than sound and then Chicago Malayalam on the Thunder in the middle of because it is siliconism they are Praises of Hashem what's Turnberry my glasses broke in invery I don't know what Turnberry is now what do you want to say about Rosh Hashanah no I thought maybe she was talking about where the Russian where is the Rosh Hashanah program it is in Florida yes does anyone know did did you finally subscribe to my WhatsApp why don't you get it you don't get broadcasts did you send a message to the text I did but you're right subscribe again please subscribe again say I'm not getting the broadcast oh awesome you coming with me first Shoshanna that'd be great that'd be amazing okay so text the soul words but text again you say please send me the I'm not getting just send a text right now and because we're recording what's the phone number for the soul words WhatsApp okay 516-495 -3021 okay so just send subscribe to that number and can you just write to them again please I'm not getting the broadcast please look into it tell them like you can do a voice note even and say I haven't been getting the broadcast I can see the statuses but I'm not getting the broadcasts okay what is the soul words WhatsApp send it sends different clips of me talking yeah that's what it is but you yeah yeah that's what it is yeah okay um so where am I for Roshana God willing Palm Beach Garden okay Palm Beach Gard at the PGA Hotel yes okay we have a full program okay amazing okay so we're inviting everyone to join me you know how some people go on a trip and they write it off as like a business yes maybe we'll do a meditation session on Rosh Hashanah you're supposed to meditate anyways during the tequila chauffeur okay yeah oh we're gonna do a Tosh look meditation we can do all types of meditations okay all right I'm gonna start working on it so listen to this you look at the stars you go to Sedona and you look at the stars it's not that you're afraid of the Stars it's that you're in awe of the king who invests himself Within These visual cues these reminders to your five senses foreign also you see that the celestial bodies are subservient to the king and that they bow to him in the rotation to the West when they set like the sages say and to you all the Heavenly hosts Bow Down that the is in the West the uh Celestial spheres set in the West and they uh are bowing to Hashem that is their form of subjugation to Hashem so that's pretty cool so it comes out that their rotation Westward is a type of bowing and a type of expression of subservience and in case any heliocentrists are listening you can leave vitriolic comments in the YouTube that's okay I'm fully aware of the heliocentric model I think it's a good model I'm glad that NASA used it for the moon launch it's fine it's just a model don't get all enamored with it to the point where you're ready to die on that Hill it's just I'm speaking to the YouTube people I don't think any of the heliocentrists here even care talking about well you see there was this guy named Ptolemy who was uh yeah okay very simple the the Torah model for astronomy which is a very precise model to the extent where I challenge anyone who thinks that they're smart to go learn that and tell me you can follow it all okay and just have a little respect for the fact that for Millennia the Jewish sages were able to predict the exact appearance and place of the new moon and you're going to say well the Greeks could do that too and the Jews got it from the Greeks okay I'm not claiming it's a unique science anyone who has the sky up above them can learn how to do this right okay in fact some of the science was lost to the Jewish people and yeah the ramam says we recovered some of it from Aristotle that's okay that's why I'm not making any claims that it's a unique science that only the Jews have or had what I'm saying is that when we say that the celestial bodies are rotating around the earth and you're going to say well that's barbaric that's barbaric okay well no it's not barbaric why don't you know that Galileo came and he set the Catholic church straight that the son is the center of the solar system and the earth goes around the Sun well I don't believe that I believe that the Sun goes around the earth so I'm a barbarian well okay maybe not barbaric like a violent Barbarian yeah more like maybe they would call it uh ignorant maybe they would call it backward so I'm fully aware of the heliocentric model and it's in its a model and models are as good as the effectiveness of those models so yeah I understand that for certain calculations it's much more simple to use a heliocentric model no problem I wouldn't go to NASA and try to get them to adjust to a geocentric model I'm fine with that but when we're discussing theology then the geocentric model is a more elegant helpful instructive model okay and if everything's moving I think one would be hard-pressed to prove what stationary and what's in motion and what's moving around what that's all I'm saying Okay so from the perspective of the geocentric model which is the theologically more helpful model the celestial bodies are moving westward in an act of bowing before the king and when we see them bow like this it instills all within us as he about he's about to explain further imagine someone who never saw the king in his life he wouldn't even recognize the king if he saw him this is before TV person might not even know what the head of state of his country looks like however let's say he came into the king's court various [Music] many great officers bowing before one person so he doesn't know oh that's the king look kids that's the king he doesn't recognize the king but he sees one guy sitting there and a bunch of other classy looking guys bowing down to that one guy so what is he going to conclude tipil Allah Fahad he will be be set with a feeling of dread and awe like wow that guy must be pretty powerful so too you see the celestial spheres are subjugated they don't just get to go buzz around however they want they're set on a path and they have to follow that path and they submit themselves to that path wow so the force to which they are submitting is a pretty powerful force that's what we're saying now although it is true that this manifestation of the king's might is coming by way of many levuschem of many garments he says many garments layers of garments remember the Invisible Man from the old horror movies you could you could only see him if he's wearing clothes he used to bandage up his head you know what I'm talking about Okay so you would know about Son of Svengoolie you would know all of the comments you'd know all of the 50s horror movies hold on so the point is you can't see the Invisible Man but when he's wearing clothes you see his clothes moving around right okay so you can't see this abstract notion of hashem's Authority his power is might but you see the effect of it so it's like seeing something by way of its external effects and sometimes it's even the effect of an effect that's why he calls it lavushimraben he calls it well yeah okay so this is a intermediate student mistake not a beginning student mistake and not an advanced student mistake and that is when you hear the word lavushim you're so used to thinking of that word lavoshim in I know what level she was chapter four thought speech in action the Soul's garments very good but one of the confusing things about Sidis is when we use a word in a very specific context to have a specific meaning it doesn't preclude that word being used in other contexts to mean something completely different which is tough because sometimes you'll see the word the version like I know lavoshim chapter four thought speech in action the three garments of the soul but here he's not talking about those little ocean I mean it's similar they're both called lavoshim but here he's talking about when you see the celestial bodies surrendering to their King they are a garment so to speak for the authority of the king you don't see the king but you see the effect that the king is having on the celestial bodies yeah that's true but they don't have free choice so then what else would they do beside the surrender okay all right so you're saying because they don't have free choice it's not as impressive we can't I can't relate to that because I have no choice okay but it's not esop's fables here it's not like we're using you know a fox to teach a story about human character traits and we're not looking at the stars to teach a lesson about human character traits it's not the point the point is it's supposed to inspire all because you're like wow there's a lot of there's a lot of stuff and it's all subservient to Hashem wow so what I'm trying to wrap my head around the greatness of Hashem which I'll never be able to do I could at least start by saying even the stuff that Hashem is in control of I can't wrap my head around let alone I'm gonna wrap my head around Hashem wow oh okay all right that's right yeah are we not considered Hashem also well I'll tell you something when we surrender and we do a Mitzvah we are Hashem yeah I guess to some extent that even when we don't yeah I guess there are levels there are levels to it meaning there is a suit which is more it fits you more it's more conducive to your natural movement and maybe there's a suit that's like it uh does it's not so conducive and then maybe that even is you like a spacesuit like the boy in the bubble had to wear a space suit to go outside remember that Leia's the only one who gets any of my references so she sits right up front and at the end he took it off and he died yeah but he made a choice they've done his terms we blocked ourselves with garments yeah well you're you're bringing up something very good I mean sometimes you use the term merkava which is a vehicle sometimes we do use the term lavush which is a garment our Mitzvahs sometimes we describe our Mitzvahs not just as our souls garments but as the garments of the king how the king is expressing himself what so what well everything else is also a garment it's all manifestation of Hashem yeah it's all when I look up to the stars with my eyes how's it go well when I cry when I laugh when I sing I know that God is a part of everything you don't know what I'm talking about guys it's all an expression of God Stars the wind the the the tide of the ocean but they're just garments and that's our point okay watch this let's let's continue here okay and although these are just garments and sometimes they're garments on top of garments like petticoats you know like like a lot of different layers talking about like major layers okay what okay there's no difference in the awe of the king whether the king is naked it's an interesting thing because I've thought about this before like wouldn't that diminish one's awe of the king but apparently not no or whether the king is wearing many garments the main thing is to habituate yourself to get yourself in a practice of always thinking this way that everything you see everything that's heavens and the Earth and everything in it they are all just the external garments of the Holy One Blessed Be he the king so here's the deal what does it matter if the king is wearing nothing or if the king is wearing one layer of clothing or if the king is wearing 10 layers of clothing Still The King so don't get caught up on the layers of clothing the point is who is inside of that clothing through this through this Consciousness this awareness yes you'll always remember what's really inside of all these garments so when you look at the world and you're impressed by the Grandeur of creation or some aspect of the Grandeur of creation cool no problem Grand Canyon whatever it is whatever natural wonder it is that you're looking at wow amazing Aurora Borealis go to Iceland and go see the Roar borealis I'm just giving you if you want to do chapter 42 meditations I'm giving you uh trip suggestions okay yeah all right wow amazing but these are the king's clothing so just remember what's inside of the clothing what's behind it that's what we're really in awe of to me this sounds like it's alluding to like distinguishing believing in Hashem versus idol worship in a sense okay well yes an idol worshiper would have would get stuck yes I don't think here the purpose of it is to negate idol worship because he's not speaking to that crowd but yeah an idol worshiper would get caught up on that because they would just stop they would be like oh the Aurora Borealis is so amazing let's worship it no no no no you're supposed to go further go deeper right okay so for me the fact that I can't see the inner core makes me even have more oil yes because I realize that if what I'm seeing like something great that's in nature and I can't even take that in how much more so the actual yeah yes yeah and he said a similar thing earlier in the chapter when he said about hashem's omniscience about an eye that sees and an ear that hears and he says now you're going to say Hashem has no bodily likeness yeah no kidding but that makes it more awe-inspiring that less right because you're not bound by those by he's not bound by the by the particulars of the visual metaphor the visual metaphor is the tip of the iceberg so to speak when you look up at the heavens and you see the stars and you know that that's just the surface that's just the surface that's right that's right and that's what he said means the outer garments is just the surface that's correct yeah and that's why it's all inspiring exactly yeah or inspiring moment yes garments right yeah okay we're too bad at that then I could just be like so what do you need me for so what am I here yeah so right to Hawaii for the good for the bad for for just plain old yeah so I mean he's not explicitly n dealing with this but you're asking okay so I mean it's a human question so let me address it okay you basically saying well what if I'm going through pain and I've got my own issues right now I'm distracted with those issues and now all of a sudden let's say I'm doing some awe meditations and they're working and now I'm inspired but hold on a second what do I do I have the awe but at the same time I have my my pain it's like I know God runs the world so like why me why are you picking on me okay without getting into a whole deep conversation a lot of bad things happen to good people and I would refer you back to chapter 26 you know if you really need to rethink that subject I would say go back to the first half of chapter 26 we speak about the higher Goods the hidden good and okay no problem but within the context of this conversation what I would say is that perhaps when our mind expands to appreciate increasingly vast Notions of reality um that perhaps are present troubles becomes smaller they don't vanish but they exist within a larger context which may make them slightly more manageable I don't want to minimize anybody's problems but a story that I often think about is I was one time when I was uh Yeshiva student in 770. I was at the home of an older friend of mine he was maybe 10 years older than me he already was married with kids and one his little kid started crying at the shamas meal and my friend was like kind of laughing it off and I'm like why are you laughing it off like your son is crying he said no because it's really a silly reason why he's crying and he doesn't need anything there's no he's fine I'm like well he looks really upset he's like you know why he's crying because he just found out that the trollent is flashing and he wanted to make little cheese sandwiches tonight after Shabbos and he's not going to be able to so that's why he's correct so I'm really not like not too concerned about it okay so I don't know why but that made a big impression on me and whenever I tell this story there's always people who get distracted by the perceived lack of compassion from the father that's not the point of the story I don't know if he should have been more compassionate or not but that's not the point of the story so forget about that just take it in with we all want the cheese sandwiches now you think where the cheese sandwiches okay yeah okay so so I saw this kid over 10 years later all right let's not talk about cheese everything okay let's not talk about cheese I saw this kid over 10 years the story's not over I didn't tell you the story for that purpose I saw this kid over 10 years later he's married now but I think this is before he got married but he was in his 20s already so maybe it was like 15 years later anyways I was I was I spent the Shabbos with him and I and I said to him can I tell you a story and I told him that story and I said you remember that he said I don't remember it but I believe it I believe it I told him I'm not trying to embarrass you by telling you about silly things that made you cry when you were little I'm telling you this story for a reason I told him I don't really know you I haven't seen you haven't spoken to you in many years so I don't know what's going on in your life but I know the nature of life and I just want you to know whatever you have going on in your life right now whatever it is that's keeping you up at night it's troubling you you should know this just like what made you cry when you were eight years old doesn't make you cry today when you're 23. whatever that's making you cry when you're 23 there will come a day when that won't make you cry either lot of work to get there sometimes it's work sometimes it's just time and it might not even be in this world or it might not be until certain things we will not be able to wrap our minds around we know that the suffering of the innocent we don't want to wrap our minds around but when mashiach comes we have the whole picture then somehow it'll all kind of click and make sense okay but the point is when you get a glimpse of a bigger picture even if from that mind expanded State you don't see how your problems make sense at least it hints to the idea that there are greater Vistas and there is the potential for whatever it is that you're grappling with to have a context maybe you can't see widely and broadly enough to have that context but it reminds us that there is a context by you realizing how everything in this world is under hashem's Dominion and that helps us all to realize that my problems are hashem's problems and he will take care of it because he can yes that's that's another aspect of it but I subjugate myself yeah and I put myself in yes yes that's another aspect of it that certainly Hashem is in control and that whatever I'm going through that's difficult isn't a lapse in hashem's control it's somehow all part of it but again like I was saying previously we don't have the bigger con yeah what do you want to jump in jump in yeah will we ultimately understand every why the Holocaust always why the Holocaust [Music] Ed why we have to go through each challenge in difficulty so if you are a holocaust Survivor you will understand why the Holocaust maybe even before mashiach comes if you are not a holocaust Survivor no you will never understand the Holocaust if you're a child of the Holocaust maybe a child of Holocaust Survivors you will understand why there's such a thing called children of Holocaust Survivors you will understand your part why that was your story everyone will see what they need to see right okay okay yeah what if okay so we know this already because we said earlier that the bottom line of all these meditations is Mitzvah observance yeah well that's what it is what it comes down to is what are you going to do with your awe you're going to translate it into living a way that respects hashem's wishes go away from Evil and do good why because he's important enough that whatever it is he's expressed that he wants he should get and this is what I'm here for you yes every week let's try to finish the chapter well that's why we're meditating that's why we're meditating we're meditating to internalize it okay let's finish off the chapter here okay so uh we said you have to habituate yourself to understanding that the visual cues are just external manifestations of a deeper truth and that we need to try to be in tune with that deeper truth to the to the extent that we're capable he says this is also the term emuna remember he said habituate yourself it takes training it's not like you make a decision one time oh yeah that's right I'm always going to remember that the king is in the clothes no it takes training that when you see the clothes remember because it may be he's wearing three four five six seven layers of clothing so you got to always remember the Kings inside the clothes you got to habituate yourself he says this is the term amuna I know we translated as Faith he says amuna actually means habituation like an Oman my main yadav see the same shirt the etymological root aleph I'm known like a Craftsman who perfects his craft it becomes a skill and you hone your skill or your craft to see the skill or the craft is to be able to see that the king is in the clothes should also constantly remember the term that our sages use kabbales acceptance of the Yoke of the Heavenly Kingdom which is similar to the idea of the Commandment to a point for yourself a king one of the 613 Commandments is to get a king a Jewish King commission is explained elsewhere higher and lower and yet he focuses his kingship upon us and we for our part receive that kingship it's a two-way street it's a dynamic relationship between this is what the meaning of the Bowing is in the amida understanding prayer after you accept the kingship of Hashem in Shema Shema is the exception it's the accepting of hashem's kingship and then after you say Shema then you do the amidad and then you bow and that represents the subservience when you bow then you are actually physically indeed receiving the kingship but my civil in a physical way information is like it's explained elsewhere so the point is that when you feel the awe the all should move you move you to what to surrender to acceptance to receiving hashem's Authority that's the end of chapter 42.