Tanya By Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowicz Chapter 38 - The more כוונה the more G-D.

Welcome to tonight's Tanya class. We are studying chapter 38 in Hebrew it's called perek lamed ches. As always, every chapter in Tanya because it's the foundation uh the biblical uh um the source for mysticism, so every chapter is is is revolutionary and deals with a very very important concept. Some are some chapters obviously are connected, but the each one really have their own major message. And the major message and theme of chapter 38 is that when a person has kavana Kavana means he has an in- intention. He he has intention, focused intention when a person um does uh a a mitzvah or when a person prays or when a person makes a blessing, that's when you are connecting to God on the highest level through kavana. In other words, as there's even an expression that says a strong expression that um a a prayer or a blessing uh without kavana is just like God forbid a body a body without a soul. So, in other words, kavana creates the soul to the experience. That is the theme of this chapter. But before we get into the theme of this chapter before we get into the theme of this chapter the alter rebbe first finishes off what we discussed last week cuz last week he spoke just the opposite not the opposite he spoke more about the idea of the mitzvo maysios about action that the importance to do the mitzvah. Um because mitzvahs we do that creates all the powerful energies when the Messiah comes. So, he opens up this week's chapters to finish off um that point which is that mitzvot action is important and extremely important, by bringing down the law the law is that if a person um went ahead and tried to uh pray or do a blessing in his thought, a lot of times like we look at a prayer book, we're not saying the words. So, you're just looking and you're thinking. And possibly even meditating, you have not fulfilled your obligation. So, if you want to fulfill your biblical obligation to do the grace after meals or to do your prayers, you actually have to enunciate the words. You have to hear You have to say it to the point where you actually hear it. Doesn't mean the other guy in down the hallway has to hear it. You know, some people do that also. That could be disturbing. Um means you have to hear it. You know, if you hear it, that means you are saying the words and saying the words, then you fulfill your obligation. Versus if you just think it, you don't fulfill your obligation. The question is why didn't you fulfill your obligation? And the answer is because it's important is to do the action of the mitzvah. Just like for example, you have to put on the tefillin or have the mezuzah on the door. So, if you want to have the blessing to be a real blessing, you want to pray it to be a real prayer, guess what? You got to say the words. You say the words, it's a mitzvah. You say the words, you did it. That's the opening of this chapter, which basically finishes off the concept of last week's chapter. Then the Alter Rebbe says, "We just spoke strongly how it's important to do the mitzvot and it's important to say the prayers and we're focusing on action, which action as we know is very very important. But now he does a total not a 360, but now we're going to uh talk about just the opposite concept. What's the opposite concept?" So, in other words, like this. If a person goes ahead and does the prayers, means he says the words, and he says the blessings. Has he fulfilled his obligation? Absolutely, because you did it. You got the score. You can check it off. Now, what happens if somebody just meditates and doesn't say the words of the prayer or the blessing. Have you fulfilled the obligation? No, you didn't. But here he says, you can't compare when a person does it together, which means he does the prayer, he says the prayer, and he does says the blessing, but at the same time as he's saying the prayer and the blessing, guess what? He's concentrating. He's thinking, "What do these words mean? You know, what how does this relate How does this relate to God? How am I connecting to it?" With a full meditation, that is so to speak the perfect mitzvah up to the point where if a person just does the action, again, you get checks for the action, but the term is it's just like a um guf, a body without a soul, without a soul. So, the question now to ask, simple question, why is that? Guys, guys. Why Why Why Why Why is Why is that? Why is that that when a person does and he's lacking the the kavana, it's lacking the the soul? What does that mean? So, here to understand what What does that mean? The author here comes into a um a whole discussion as follows. And he says like this. What does that mean we say that when a person has kavana, it's like a neshama, the soul of it, versus you're lacking the kavana, you're lacking the neshama? He explains like this. The reality is that um if a person, for example, has to do the mitzvah, so what's the difference if he has kavana and he doesn't have kavana? What's the difference if he has intention or not? If it's all about doing the mitzvah, the Torah commands to do the mitzvah, so how does it make a difference if you have kavana or if you don't have kavana? So, here the author is going to explain in a It's a long explanation, but you'll see the power and the importance of Kavana. Why What is that? And that's as follows. If you The author says, "If you give a look in this physical world, if you give a look in this physical world, so anything that we see in this physical world, do you see God or godliness? No. You don't see God and God I'm not talking about mitzvahs. I'm talking about the physical world. So, if you look at the physical world, you see physicality. Now, no matter if it's the if it's a for example the example he gives, if you see a body, right? Someone's body. Do you see God and godliness? No. If you In other words, in the summer we technically don't see it, but do you see God and God No, you don't see God in this physical world you don't see God and godliness. We don't. So, what does that mean? God doesn't exist? Concealed. Oh. So, God exists, but God's concealed. Now, is there a difference the way God's concealed con- concealed in the body or in a soul? Is there a difference? There's no difference. Exactly. In both cases, whether it's a body or a soul, in both cases God's concealed. And if God's concealed, God's concealed. So, then if that's the case, why is this called a body and this called an ashama? Why is this called a soul? So, here the author makes a very, very fine distinction and pay attention. Again, in both cases God's concealed. We don't see it. But the reality is one is called a body, one is called a goof, and one is called an ashama. Means what What does a goof mean? It's coarse. And ashama means it's more refined. Just to break it down. What what How come this is coarse and this is more refined if God's con- God's concealed in both cases the same? And he makes a difference that there's a difference between concealment or in Hebrew it's called hastara where God's concealed versus a concept which is called tzimtzum, um which is the uh in simple English would be the energetic power that the spiritual energy is contracted to. So, in other words, and you have revelation and concealment. So, if you look at a body, you look at the physical world, God's concealed. It doesn't make a difference if it's in if it's in a coarse thing or in a refined thing. In either case, God's concealed. You don't see God. Now, what happens between a coarse thing and a more refined thing? In the powerful energy, in the energy that's flowing to that, there is a difference. Why? Because in something that's coarse, it means there's less energy flowing to it. In something that's more refined, it means there's more energy flowing to it. So, in other words, like this. Let's say for example, you have a I'll give you a simple example. Let's say you have a a cooktop, right? And you have burners, electric heat gas, irrelevant, and you put on a blech. A blech is that metal plate that we put on for Shabbat. So, when you have the metal plate on there, could you see, and let's say you have four burners. Let's say two are on high and two are off. Let's say let's say two are very very low. All right, so let's say two are on high, let's say 10, and two are let's say on the level of two. Just keep a simple example. You put a blech over it, and I tell you, do you see the fire? No, it's concealed. But I tell But then I tell you, could you check on the right side and left side which one is hotter? Oh my gosh, this is really hot. And this one's not so hot. So, one second. Both of them it's concealed, but this one you're hot and you're jumping, and this one's not so hot. What is that all about? And the answer is very simple. In both cases they're concealed. I don't see the fire. But is there a difference of the amount of fire energetic fire that's flowing in different parts of the blech pending on the knobs of energy that's flowing through it? Absolutely. So, in other words, in this materialistic world, there's a big difference the way the energy flows, and the author uses the example of the four different elements that exist in the world. So, for example, take for example the lowest We're going to go from the lowest to the highest. Take for example the lowest level, which is called the level of domain. What is domain? An inanimate object. A rock, earth, stone. In domain, the fact that it exists, how does it exist? By itself? God gave it life force and gives it life force. Now, if I tell you, "Do you see the life force?" Absolutely not. You don't see it. But, is there a life force in there? For sure there's life force, otherwise it wouldn't exist. So, you don't see it, but there's life force. What type of life force, so to speak, from 1 to 10? I mean, we're making up these numbers. Is it a high number or low number? It's a very low number, cuz you look at it, you see a rock. You don't feel the godly energy. Now, there are some rocks that have a little more godly energy, you know, if it's coming from the from the from the Kotel, obviously, or coming from Svat, you know, some of those were imbued with a special holiness, but the fact is you need you need to be a maven. You need to have like some spiritual fingers to be able to sensitive to that, because again, it's domain. You go up the ladder a little bit, so you may ask, "Something that's growing." So, when you look at something that's growing, do you see God and godliness? No, you see a tree, you see an apple, whatever it may be. But, is there more life force in same may act than domain? Absolutely. Now, let's take a look in the world of chai. Chai already is an animal. So, again, do you see God? No, you said you see an animal. But, there's more life force in chai than when you look at a human being that has a gift of intellect and uh freedom of choice and all those other qualities. So again, do you see God when you see a human being? No, you see a human being. However, come welcome have come inside. You see you see a human being, but you definitely see there's more energy godly energy flowing through that human being. Which is interesting the author says, "Where does the different levels of energy come from?" Obviously it comes from God, but we know that everything comes through God's name. You know, the infinite name of God Yud with the Hey, the Vav, and the Hey. From there God created the world. So the four letters of the Yud, which is the first letter the most energy goes to the level of Medaber, that the Hey goes to Chai, the Vav goes to Tzumai, and the last Hey goes to Domeim. So in other words, every one of the letters give give off a different level of energy pending on what? Depending on what that is. Now, So that is what in the world the physical world that you see that even though from a revealed concealment perspective, it's all the same. It's all concealed. But you do see a difference of energy pending of its Domeim up to all the way to Medaber. Okay, that's in the physical world. So now that it takes us now to the spiritual world. What's the spiritual world? When when you look at a Mitzvah whether it's Tefillin, Mezuzah, kosher kitchen, right? Shabbat, any Mitzvah. The 613, 248 positive, 365 negative. You look at the Mitzvot. Do you see God and godliness? Mhm. Huh? What? Absolutely. You see Tefillin. It only looks like that because God commanded it and somebody faithfully uh created it and someone faithfully spent money on it. So you see something which it's definitely not a human creation. Who would create something like that? It's create a computer first, right? Maybe an iPhone they'd create. But humans create those type of things, but who creates a pair of filling? Only God. So when you or mezuzah, so when you look at mitzvot, you see God and godliness. So in a mitzvah or in a prayer or in Torah study, is God revealed or concealed? Revealed. God's revealed. It God's God's God's absolutely revealed. Now, so any time you look at a mitzvah, what do you see? God's revelation. God's revelation. But now the altar says we're going to take the same journey like we did in the materialistic world from domain to mayacha madaber. We're going to do the same exact thing in the world of mitzvot. So again, over there God was concealed, but we saw different levels of energy flowing from domain up to madaber. But now we're going to look in the world where God is revealed, even though God's revealed in all the mitzvot and in prayer and in Torah study um and in blessings, but the altar says let's go through the level. When you see a a pair of filling or a mezuzah, a physical thing God's revealed. It looks like a mezuzah. But how how great is that energy? So the altar says that's the lowest level of energy. What do you mean the lowest level? It's like domain. It's God God is revealed, but you don't see that the the filling aren't jumping around. It's a it's a it's a physical thing that looks like wow, it's a godly thing. But the filling itself is what is not jumping around. Now, what happens when a human being goes ahead and with his mouth starts saying a blessing or studying Torah or prays, right? So is that the same level when you look at a person praying, right? We don't We're not doing kavana yet. We're just doing literally person sitting there and moving his mouth saying the prayers or saying studying Torah or doing a blessing. When you see a person doing that versus next to that you have on the table you see a religious article, tefillin mezuzot. Both cases God's revealed. When you see someone praying or studying, it's only a godly thing. Otherwise it looks weird, right? Strange. What's the guy doing? Standing there and saying words and arguing with himself or with someone else. But obviously it's a godly experience. You see a godly experience taking place. But it Where do you see more energy? In the tefillin sitting on the table or the person moving his mouth? The person moving his Person moving his mouth, exactly. So in other words, when the person moving his mouth, that's on the level like we mentioned before of we went up from domem um to the level of tsomeach. It's growing. There's already some growth going on there. But now the Alter Rebbe says here comes back to the original point of where we started with that when a person does a mitzvah without or or or prayer or Torah study without the kavana, you're lacking the neshama. What does that mean? He says like this. Um what happens when a person goes ahead We're actually going to jump. We're going to go from domem tsomeach over to medaber and we'll come back to chai. We'll come back to chai. Um because that's actually the order the Alter Rebbe doesn't intend yet. What happens when a person now, when he's ready to pray and to do a blessing he adds he adds in kavana. What does that mean kavana? What does kavana mean? Intention. It literally means intention. What does it mean practically kavana? How do you create kavana? How do you create kavana? With the soul. How do you create kavana? See, the way you create kavana is as follows. Ready? Listen. How How you create kavana? First you have to listen, actually. That's That's creates kavana right away. You listen to me. Shut up. Stop talking. I didn't I didn't I didn't use that word. I said that you have to listen. Okay. So, when a person is sitting and says, "Okay, I'm ready to start saying words of prayer or a blessing." So, kavana means I have a gift. You know what the gift I have is? God gave me What Which gift did God give us a lot of gifts? Which gift did he give us? He gave us a brain. To think. A brain. The brain So, we Let's say we you're you're you're you're sitting and doing a prayer or a blessing. So, you stop for a minute and you think about God. You think about the fact that he gave you an opportunity to connect to him through this prayer, through this blessing, and you think about it. And the more you think about it, you're priming what? The kavana motor. And the more you you use your intellect, and not only your intellect, but you use your thought, so I think in English they call it even meditation, but I'm going to give you the Hebrew words, right? You use your intellect, you use your thought. So, you're meditating it. That's called kavana. And then what happens is as the more you think about God and how great God is, how wonderful is he gave us this beautiful world, and you're grateful for the fact that God gave you life. You got up this morning and you're breathing. And you're talking, and you're you're you're able to hear, you're able to see, you're able to walk, you're able to feel. Oh my gosh, this is an amazing God. And therefore, you want to say, "God Oh God, I bless you." Right? Or you pray to God cuz you know God ultimately runs the world. So, when a person goes through the experience of what? Of kavana, and then the blessing follows, and the prayer follows, now what you've done, you've infused extremely high energy, obviously not in the level of or to may out, not not even on the level I mean we're going to call it between not even the level high on the level of midaber. What does it mean level midaber? You actually the power that people have with dibur is that they have the power to think, they have the power to meditate, they have the power to choose to choose to focus out to clear out all the all the the negative thoughts and all the just the thoughts allow you to wander all over and to bring in a focus for God, kindness, um happiness, right? And all the beautiful stuff. You bring in all the powerful stuff and now you connect it all and direct it all towards God. What happens now when you say a prayer? We all know what happens. That prayer is soaring high. That prayer again. So when you're praying, God is revealed there. But how is the energy? The energy is huge. What happens so that that's the case? Where does high fit into the picture? We said there's daimon tzimtzum high midaber. I jumped from daimon tzimtzum right midtzo to the words straight to midaber. So where does high come in there? And the author makes a distinction and we'll talk about high and then we'll we'll see the difference. The author is very simple. In high, you're also meditating. You're also excited about God. But the excitement came from what? From your natural instincts. Not a thought out excitement, but a natural instinct excited. Oh, God's wonderful, right? A A just an emotion. Now, because it's an emotion or for example, oh my gosh, I don't want to be disconnected from God, but coming from an emotional place, so the only level you're reaching is a level of high. In other words, listen, it's better than no emotion and no feeling. It's kavana 100% but the kavana is inspired by an emotion, so it's not something you really directed. It's basically an emotion that you have that God gave you and you just you pulled out your so to speak your natural emotions. So, that's on the level of chai. But, when a person actually meditates, what are you creating? Now, you're creating medaber. So, in other words, what do you see from here? That when a person has kavana, when a person has the proper intention, that is when you have the power to create what? A real neshama, a real soul on the level of medaber. That medaber draws in through your intellect and through your thought process the most powerful energies into you and that is called what? The idea of medaber. Medaber, the highest level. So, in other words, so based on this the altar explains that that's why it's extremely important when you're praying, when you're studying Torah, when you're um when you're when you're saying a blessing, it's important to what? To meditate and meditate intensely on on God and godliness because when you will meditate, you will draw in the most powerful spiritual energies that will allow you to have the greatest possible experiences that's possible for a human being because you're choosing to focus, you're choosing to think, you're choosing to um use your intellect and then your decisions are going to be whose decisions? Your decisions. Because if you make a decision based on an emotion, whose decision is it? It's an emotional decision. Whatever the emotion is flying right now. It could be good, it could be bad, it could be and even if it's good, but it's not really you. When a person invests time and really works on meditation, that's when you're on the table. And when you're on the table, that's when the highest level of godly energy is being felt. So in other words, yes, even though God's revealed when you're praying. Even if you're just in the prayers without kavana. But where is there a greater energy? The greatest energy, and we all want the best, right? You have to know You have to know what the highest level to shoot at. The greatest energy is produced by kavana, which is produced by our intellect and our thoughts that God gave us as a gift, and then we will be able to have real neshama experiences, real godly experiences in everything that we do.