Text-Based Tanya Class—Week #17

welcome to chapter 10 10 very good you're in the right place i think they're teaching chapter nine down the hall right now so you're in the right classroom last week chapter nine we introduced the parable of the small small one city small city and the small city was being fought over by two kings both who wanted what was their objective each one total control 99.9 percent okay so the small city is the body the two kings are the animal soul and the godly soul and both of them want total domination in other words they want that all of the three garments thought speech and action should be expressive of their desires alone the denizens yeah we learned that word yeah so we understand the nature of the conflict now what we're going to do i'm going to telegraph to you what's happening in chapters 10 11 and 12. we're going to talk about how this conflict plays out in three different personae one persona is called the tsadik and that's the subject of this chapter of the present chapter chapter 10 it is that we spoke about back in chapter one remember back in chapter one we said that the gemara says there's five categories of people tsarik with russia rashford and then we didn't really get back to explaining what this sadik russia benini was all about now we're starting to get back to the tata grocery banning the discussion that we started in chapter one so we're going to focus today on the tsatik to sum up this chapter i'll say it like this think about the conflict that was described in chapter 9 and think about the godly souls fantasy that we spoke about in chapter nine its dream of total domination over the body and if you would grant to the godly soul its dream that was described in chapter nine the result would be atodic so we're going to speak about that a little bit more in detail okay pedigreed vegeta when the person [Music] lifts up when he strengthens his godly soul the nilham kolkata imabamas and wages sufficient war so much war against the animal soul odd until what point shimmy goddess that he is actually able to out to destroy the ra that's in the left ventricle remember we spoke about that last week the left ventricle is the oxygenated blood that's the life force the survival impulse where the animal soul has its foothold and this person was able to actually get rid of that selfish impulse he got rid of it he got rid of the self selfish impulse kamehameha like it says you should destroy the evil from your midst literally from your midst from within side of you the inordinate however the selfishness that's how we're translating in this class as per chapter 6. remember chapter 6 it said there's kidusa and there's anything that's kadusa that's holy it means it's bottle it's surrendered to god anything that's other than surrendered is called the other side so we're translating ra as selfishness not as diabolical evil or wickedness or any of these other archaic terms we're going to say ra is selfishness when he completely gets rid of the selfishness however he has not transformed it into toiv meaning selflessness complete altruism complete surrender to hashem in other words what's what's it implying here it's implying that there is the possibility of taking that negativity and turning it into positivity and we know this from chapter 9 because if you remember the dream of the nephesh hula kiss was remember that that it would take over and actually turn its enemies into its supporters so it didn't go that far the success wasn't that to that extreme to that extent but what did the person do he got rid of the innate survival impulse the selfish impulse he got rid of it but he didn't yet turn it into what we called last week a second yetzer taive nikra tadak shainagamer he's called it sadiq yes asadik which kind of tadik shaynagamer meaning incomplete now if you're intelligent you could already sort of fill in the gaps here by implication what would be a tsad gum or a complete sadhik he did transform the the into twif okay so here he got rid of the ra but he didn't transform it so he'd call it sadik yeah but not a toddler gummer now what does it mean he said sadik what it means is he finished the war there are no bad guys anymore the bad guys have been neutralized they've been kicked out of the city so in the case if you're going to use the parable of the small city in the two kings waging war from chapter nine so what we're describing is somebody who the war has been won it's done there's no more war in other words to put it in practical terms it's not like this person has illicit urges and then he has to curb his temptation and say no no but that's not right i shouldn't do that i must not do that no he doesn't have those urges he completely got rid of any of those urges his impulses are only to do mitzvahs not only he only does mitzvahs his only impulses his only impulses are to do mitzvahs in other words he does not require any inhibition in order to be a moral person because he won the war to that extent you understand what i'm saying okay he's incomplete he's an incomplete sadiq he's exotic in as much as he has no more temptation he's incomplete in as much as all he did was get rid of the selfish instinct he didn't yet transform it we're gonna hear more about what condition it's in for all intents and purposes i mean practically speaking it's gone meaning he doesn't have that little voice internally that says hey it's okay nobody's looking go for it do it he doesn't have that voice yeah what happens to bikira well i can give you one answer which is he can always choose between one good and a better good meaning he's not tempted to do anything that is against shokanarak but he has bakira to choose better ways of doing the right thing okay you would think this is the banana well you're going to find out well debating is chapter 12. so you'll find out in chapter 12 what the banning is okay all right ella rather okay we said that he didn't get he did not transform the ra yet ali but rather shakafu the ra is bottle and kapha for cough and bottle it's subjugated to the tave because of its tiny amount in other words imagine i hate to say this but i always like to use this analogy how much uh rat droppings do you eat well you would like to think you eat zero but that's not true because if you eat anything that's made in a factory you eat rat droppings less than the amount that the usda prohibits being included in your food so what it whatever it is you go google it usda permits one part per billion of rat droppings probably a lot bigger than that by the way but yeah it is disgusting but uh if you don't want to eat rat droppings then only pick your own food and wash it really well and don't eat don't eat anything that's processed because factories have pests i saw it in the bernstein's kitchen when i was getting the torch i literally saw a mouse jump into the big vat where they were making chopped meat so there you go i had an uncle uncle mike he worked for edward edward down company which was a restaurant supply company so he went in the back of all the restaurants he was a salesman he used to sell like restaurant supplies so he told me if you don't want to eat at a particular restaurant just go to the back any restaurant you've been in the back of you'll never eat there again anyways what's the point guys don't get too distracted about the rat droppings my point is that the amount of rat droppings we are eating in our heinz ketchup am i gonna get sued probably yeah okay is is negligible it's negligible but it's there so the presence of the yetzer hara in this tsadik shayna gammar is negligible what does it mean it's negligible on a conscious level it's not a factor in in his life like i said he doesn't get that voice saying hey let's do it let's do it temptation doesn't get that so therefore he doesn't have to overcome it he doesn't have that struggle it's so negligible as if it weren't even there now you're going to say to me what difference does it make then if it's there or if it's for all practical purposes it's not there we're going to find out okay therefore need melaye it seems to him the operative word is seems it seems to him meaning his experience of it is such a good is that he completely got rid of it if you would ask him do you have any iran in your heart he would tell you in all honesty you know what thank god i don't have that problem i don't have any around my heart because it hasn't it hasn't spoken to me it hasn't bothered me avalbamis but in truth but in truth let's get out the microscope let's examine him on a molecular level but in truth i mean i'm sorry if it had really vanished disappeared kolharasha by all of the 100 percent you know what would have happened is telling us the mechanics of ra if you get rid of a hundred percent of your dog not 99.9 percent if you get rid of a hundred percent of your wrath or your nepalese it turns into taif say that again if you completely get rid of the ra it turns into tuff what turns into this but you got rid of it so it's not there anymore so what's changing so that's what it really means to completely get rid of it there is getting rid of it for all practical purposes for all practical purposes means it doesn't speak to you anymore it doesn't interfere with your life anymore it's not at least on any conscious level it is not a factor in your life that's called getting rid of it for all practical purposes but not completely completely getting rid of it means you know you could use a you could use a a a a a a metaphor from from from medicine from health that there is staving off the growth of something that's unhealthy and then there is that that tissue itself heals and becomes healthy those cells become healthy so does that mean that you've gotten rid of it but even if there's a trigger that triggers no no no no the trigger won't even bring it up see here's the thing i i'm on a practical level there's not only it's not going to speak to him there are it can't even be triggered to speak to him but it's there now it's there okay what does that even mean we haven't yet explained what it means yet we eat they yeah but they never disappear everyone's born with a certain amount that you never get right but if you become such a healthy person and you're never attracted to the bad kind of fat right and then it just becomes let's say you ate your olive oils and your good things it just transforms into making your body healthier you're never attracted to the cake right but you're using those fat cells to just make it healthier but the limitation of that analogy is that it doesn't allow us an analogy for azadek gummer right okay so let's continue okay you're asking is it dormant let's find out let's find out because it's it's definitely not bothering him you're asking well maybe if it got triggered if you'd rile it up maybe no even that not so then what so then what i mean let me eat my uh one parts per billion of rat droppings in my ketchup in peace like why are you making me obsess about it okay so i'm going to tell you ubironian here's the explanation of the matter kihinei remember back in chapter one make sure the banana was asking hashem what are these categories so means for whom there's only twofold and he is synonymous with the tsadik gomer santi gomer tsari gratuevle those are synonyms who are your day how does that happen it is through he completely removes any mode of expression they're called the filthy garments but any mode of expression from the ra the i knew that is to say the sonic bomb is beneath them la males taiwas or goof belvade valley he is disgusted by in fact it says he's very disgusted by the delights of this world to delight in them human delights to fulfill his lusts and cravings of the body only and not for the service of hashem okay let's let's unpack that statement it is repugnant to the tzadik gamora not only to do evil to do sins of course that's repugnant it is repugnant to the sadiq gamur even to do that which is permissible or what we call in chapter seven clipas neuga spiritually neutral stuff but to do it only for its own sake for the sake of the immediate enjoyment he cannot stand that it is repugnant to him not only he wouldn't do it not only he's not attracted to it he's disgusted by it that sadiq gomer is disgusted by the idea of mindless selfish pleasure not only he's not attracted to it i'll repeat again he's disgusted by it so what's the implication here that's adequate the incomplete sadiq he wouldn't do it but he's not disgusted by it it's not a turn off to him he's not into it but it's not repugnant to him and i want to make sure everyone understands right now because i think we've all been exposed to sanctimonious religiosity at times and whenever we hear about people who are repulsed by evil we think of people who are repulsed by other people's evil now actually i'm talking about someone who's he's extremely tolerant of other people's evil because he's not jealous of it he's not jealous of it you know the people who get really angry at you for enjoying that which is forbidden the people who wish they could enjoy it but their guilt doesn't allow them to okay so those are always the the zealots the has no desire for these things forget about sins he doesn't even he doesn't even desire just neutral stuff for for the sake of immediate physical gratification it's it's not on his radar so different way the difference is that sadiq gomur it it makes him nauseous not that he's going to tell you oh you're so sick you're so gross why are you eating cake no for him the cake is disgusting unless that is the only calories available for him to be able to go daven right now it's disgusting to the idea you would just eat cake for the sake of eating cake the tzadik the incomplete sadik he would never think to himself i'm going to go eat some cake but it's not repugnant to him the idea is not repugnant to him go ahead he's not disgusted by you by that idea that something that he's not doing is worse than somebody that's like i'm not doing that you could do what you want but i'm not doing that let me ask you a question do you not throw your mother down the stairs because it's immoral or be also because it's repugnant to you well yes most people if you would ask them the idea of throwing your mother down the stairs okay it's immoral we'll all agree to that is it also repugnant does it shock you does it upset you does the thought of it even disturb you and you say yes okay yes so here's what i'm telling you to at sadiq gomer the idea of eating a piece of cake just because it's a good piece of cake is shocking and disturbing trust me he's not going out bothering anyone else about their cake he's not the only one who will bother you about the cake is the one who's angry that they're on a diet and wishes they could eat it he's not bothering anybody i promise you he personally finds it repugnant so here's what we're saying listen to this this is such a subtle distinction both levels of sadik have no temptation not even if it's triggered or riled up that you can't there's there's nothing there there's nothing there to to to to arouse or to rile up but on a subtle subtle subtle level because there are trace amounts microscopic amounts of ra left in the saudi chain of gummer how will that express itself not actively as temptation god forbid that won't happen damien sadiq but as the lack of disgust for indulging mindlessly selfishly in pleasure okay this is all a continuum right it's not like yes it's a continuum yes there are so many diff yes yes it's a big spectrum yes yes okay but where's the cut off between sadiq gomer and saluk shayna gomer this is the cut off within a title chain of gummer yeah there are shades obviously 99.99998 percent bottle 99.9999 9 bottle i mean they're all for all practical purposes devoid of any raw why would they disgust him if he's not even aware of them why would it disgust him he didn't say he's not aware of it didn't say he's not aware of it of course he's aware of it he knows that it exists just like he knows that sinfulness exists and it would it would disgust him to think of sinning so too it would disgust him to think of filling bodily pleasures for no higher are still purpose his head it's not coming from him it's not like he's sitting and he's fantasizing about it saying oh yuck i'm revolted by my own fantasies by the way that could very well happen we're to don't let me get ahead of myself but a banananey could be revolted by his own fantasies assad gomer is not having fantasies he's living in this world and in this world he's presented with with with realities and he sees it and he's like not for me thank you but do you see my question my question is yeah i i but yeah yeah yes you said it right um is um that's what leaves that's what leaves the remnants of the disgust that's what promotes the lack of disgust right yeah in the tardic for allah yeah yeah because it's it's noticeable right the sadiq doesn't even have any evil in him he again i'm telling you he's not an activist against these things that's it's not his obsession but if you were to offer it to him it would not be enticing and to the contrary it would repulse him trust me when i say though atsa de gamor is not an activist to go root out people's cake eating it's not on it's not something he's focused on and uh i think what i'm saying is i i think a lot of times we're we're we're thinking of these see this is precisely why i made the statement that i did 10 minutes ago and i said please realize we've all been traumatized i don't know if i use the word traumatized but we've all been exposed to sanctimonious religiosity this today is not sanctimonious in one in in one in any way shape or form he is completely sincere so i think the problem is that when we hear someone's discussed by and that's why i mentioned this because i knew that this would trigger us all and that we would start thinking about people who are activists against evil and i'm i'm telling you the people who obsess about evil are the ones who are most deeply conflicted internally that tantic is not deeply conflicted he's not at all conflicted he's not in all conlon but if you would offer him something that's pleasure for its own sake his gut reaction is hugh the gummer yeah yeah yeah yeah it'd be like i'll pass okay so uh so okay let's continue you're saying all right so it's a subtle difference all right but what more is there too okay so let's continue let's continue okay all right let's continue so he explains a little bit more why the indulgence in permissible matters turns him off um because he is like we said the other side not expressed expressly for the intent of serving god so he's not into it the komasu anything that's from the other side that's not for serving god hatsaa gomur who so naivete the complete sadiq despises it with utter hatred complete hatred why now here's the important point because of his great love for hashem and hashem's holiness with an with a great abundant love a blissful love and with abundant affection and here he explains because one is directly or i should actually say one is inverse inversely proportionate to the other the disgust in that which is not hashem or not for the service of hashem is inversely proportionate to the degree of intensity of love for the service of hashem so you're going to ask me what difference does it make whether or not that saddek gomer is that turned off i mean that's alex is that turned off by ra you're right if that alone was the only discussion i don't think it makes such a big difference but it's indicative of something that since his disgust for mindless selfish pleasure is not complete so inversely what does it indicate that his ability to have blissful pleasure in his love of god is also not complete now let me just reframe this we're talking about sadiq they're all sadiq and they all love hashem and they all get incredible pleasure from hashem we're talking about now degrees of blissful pleasure in your love of hashem so the tsatak shane of gomer is not capable of having that total degree of blissful pleasure in his love of hashem which one second let's just finish right here like it says [Applause] says with consummate hatred i hate them they are enemies to me search me and know my heart in other words he's speaking as a come check out on a microscopic level on a molecular level is there any left in my heart no because if there were even tiny particles of ra which for all practical purposes do not tempt me or bother me or register on any conscious level but it would limit the degree of my disgust for uh and inversely it would be an indication of somewhat of a lack of pleasure in my love of hashem [Music] he spells it out proportionate to the degree of love for hashem ka that will be proportionate or inversely proportionate to the degree of hatred for the citra here's a an interesting cloud an interesting emotional rule or axiom in the world of the al-tarabe and i think this runs counter to some wisdom that i've heard people um spout yeah i don't want to say spout because it sounds dismissive and i don't want to dismiss it just because it's not what the altar ebba says but yeah you hear this a lot people what do people say the opposite of love isn't hate it's indifference right which i get that but that's kind of the root of some well can be the root of justifying some sick behaviors right i only treat you this way because i care right right the yeah if i ignored you then you should start worrying but if i hate you well that means i care right okay uh it's a little bit sick not a little bit a lot so and i'm not saying everyone goes around saying the opposite of hatred is indifference is sick i'm just saying if you play it out it can lead to some sick stuff listen to what the altar ebba says he says disgust like hatred is the opposite of love he alternate says hate is the opposite of love and he says hate and disgust are pretty much synonymous in this regard that they're opposite of love so therefore what's the formula the more disgust that the gomer has in mindless selfish pleasure for its own sake that is indicative of the more complete love that he has for hashem do those people exist what difference will it make to our understanding of this subject is it attainable so my answer to you is i'm not no i'm not i don't know maybe you're already outside of government i'm not gonna i cannot make those judgments my answer to you is even though i'm giving away is a little bit of a spoiler the point of this book is not to pursue that level now what level is the book about pursuing you have to hang in there with me but it's not to pursue this we're learning about it but it's not a goal you said it's for the regular person the time is for the regular person this is not regular person stuff okay hence you even just asked do these people exist okay yeah if if a person had a love of his coats a silver coast that he uses wool and would that be the deathly like um so let me tell you something you know what idolatry is giving credence or importance to anything but god now how does something become unidolatrous if you use it for the sake of serving god so anything that can be included in serving hashem is good so it's all the question of not the what but the why like we learned in chapter seven clip snugger can go either way it's not the what it's the why so the topics why said the government and solid chain of gummer their why is always going to be if you're going to ask the state why did you just do that you know what the answer is always going to be you know why i did it for a show okay that's his only motivation the only difference between inside a government's out of chain and gummer is if you would ask why didn't you just eat the cake for the heck of it the tada shaina gummer would say because i'm not into that kind of stuff and that side of gummer i don't know if he would tell you but he'd be like because it makes me queasy because it's like throwing my mother down the stairs it's just repugnant no no not because it's bad for the body that a shame gave so let it be a piece of fruit it's not because it's not healthy it's because there's no purpose for it other than the act itself and that kind of hollow meaningless activity is repugnant to atsa the gummer because it's pure pleasure it's pure pleasure it has no purpose it has no purpose now if you'll tell me that i ate the cake only because it's shabbos and i don't even like cake but they tell me that you should eat cake on shabbos and i just did it for shabbos and he really did not like the people who claimed that they did it for that reason right that could be a todd gummer right but he'll never do anything for any other reason other than a mitzvah automaker yeah so but it has to have that motivation it's not that motivation it's repugnant to him not just it has no attraction has the opposite of attraction it's impossible you're going to let's find out what happened let's find out what a band means okay let's find out what abandoning is in chapter 12. okay let's continue okay so we said let's write what's happening i'm sorry let's back up that's alex gomorrah he does so therefore he doesn't just he's not disgusted by it but ultimately completely the culture anus here's another clout the culture has been anyone in whom the hatred and the disgust is not complete alcohol you must logically conclude nisha aza shemets ava tainu he has some tiny microscopic trace of love for it he has not completely divested himself of those filthy garments the lockheed therefore lay nepal tavish it hasn't been transformed into toiv islam because there still is some connection to what we call the filthy garments except that it is so bottle that is so nullified the degree is so uh negligible that for all practical purposes it's as if it's not there the nickel [Applause] it's subjugated to the point of being practically negligible but if you trace how it affects him perhaps you'll call it even on a subconscious level it diminishes the degree to which he's able to delight and take pure pleasure in his relationship with hashem out of guilt no no no it's not nothing to do with guilt you're thinking this is a totally different psychology it's a tonic we're not talking about guilt here we're not talking about neurosis we're not talking about guilt we're talking about the fact let me just finish one more line here the loch nichris veracruz therefore his love for hashem is also not complete nick that's why he's called an incomplete sadiq understand a person has allegiances they have loyalties they have affinities for most of us we're not speaking about most of us right now but just for a reference point we flip flop i thought you cared about hashem i saw you darvening and then ten minutes after davening you're going to run after things that are totally not for not for hashem totally selfish yeah i i flip-flop yeah attack doesn't flip-flop he only has one loyalty he only has one agenda serving hashem and that's not only the way he behaves that's the way he feels he has no temptation to attach himself to anything other than hashem ever ever ever it's simply not there because his animal soul has either been neutralized to the point where it no longer disturbs him and that's called a tsadec or his animal soul has been turned over into a second godly soul in the case of the tsardik gomore yeah so then there is no more there's no more animal soul as we experience it not as we experience it is the animal soul yeah the citra is the animal soul yeah in the end of chapter one it told me that the animal soul is from the sutra is there a rash in little gumor we're going to get into the different levels of our show you understand these two levels of tonic yeah okay kind okay so let me [Music] let me just remark that it's not a secret that the name of the safer i mean i think we spoke about this in the first class it's not a secret that the name of the savior is savior shall bane in him now we don't know what abandon he is yet because we haven't learned it yet it's in chapter 12. but we know that abandon is a me not a tadic or a russia so this is static so this is not the main point of the book what is the main point of the book we didn't get there yet i just want everyone to know everything we're learning today is for reference so don't get too hung up on the practicality of it it's a reference the main point of the book has to be what we can relate to the main point of the book has to be what we can relate to that is implied on the title page both by the title say for sure bane in him as well as the verse this matter is very near to you so we know that it's something attainable this chapter 10 side exchange this is not meant to be attainable he's not telling you to go out and do this this is informative this is information you should know what exotic is that is an excellent question are you born a tsadic well i don't want to give away anything that we haven't learned yet but do you remember in chapter one one of our questions was what does it mean in the gamut in bava basra when eof told hashem rabbein you created sadiq and you created and we asked the question based on another gemara that when a person is born it's predetermined whether it'll be strong or weak or rich or poor wise or foolish but it doesn't say whether he'll be good or bad at sadhaka or russia that's left up to the person's free choice so how in the world do we reconcile those two motors so the answer the question is there is there is someone who is born with the ability to be at sadiq and then there's the rest of us who we were not born with that potential and that is not our goal and therefore failure to achieve that is not in any way shape or form a a a failure in our life's mission because that's not what we were born to try to achieve so hashem you created certain people with the potential to be tardical for them not to beat tzadikim it's an utter failure because that's what that that they were on the tsadik track so if to not achieve that would not it would be not achieving their life's purpose for the rest of us no we're not created to be tadhikin so it's not a foul you're not to become one and it would be arrogant and yes thank you it would be arrogant and in fact later on in chapter 27 he says that people cause themselves a lot of religious neurosis by comparing themselves to a tsadik and he tells you cut that out because it's actually it's not leading to more mitses it's leading to more religious guilt which actually ends up taking away from tiramisus yeah yeah if the tanya is the book of daniel chapter 12 not chapter one oh the classic question if tanya isn't so you know too much a little bit of information is dangerous so she says if tanya is a book from the bane in him how come chapter 12 isn't chapter one you didn't even learn chapter 12 but you knew you heard me say chapter 12 is about reading it's okay because chapter 12 wait till chapter 12 went to chapter 12 wait to chapter 12. okay so you want a simple answer yeah okay we could start from chapter 12 and you wouldn't know what it's talking about because you wouldn't know what chapter one was talking about you do you do know what chapter one's talking about don't pretend that you don't know you now know there are two souls you know that there are two souls you know that the souls have coincides which are their intellectual perspectives and their emotional reactions you know that there are three garments thought speech and action you know what kedusha is you know what sutra is all of these these these vocabulary words that you now know when i'm going to talk to you about albanian chapter 12 i'm going to be able to describe it with words that you're now familiar with but if i just jumped into chapter 12 and and i told you the definition of a banini using a bunch of words that didn't mean anything to you they should have done they should have expanded the compilation forward and then they should have started oh these first eleven chapters should have been part of the hakadoma and chapter 12 should have been chapter one yeah someone should tell the outfit it has emotions yeah it does have emotions of course it does we learned that in chapter three of course it has emotion all those emotions are good so it's love is the love of god it's all is the awe of god yeah and the same with the intellectual faculty and all of its intellectual faculties are all geared toward god so it's it's wisdom is the wisdom of god and it's understanding his understanding of god and its knowledge is the knowledge of god yes completely surrendered completely single-mindedly focused yes yes okay fine so we're not we can we can stop here for today any burning questions no no not warm questions burning questions okay there's no burning questions we're going to stop enemies hashem will continue next week we're still in the middle of chapter 10 we'll con god willing with god's help we're in the middle of chapter 10 we did not finish chapter 10 okay did chapter 12 be in a few weeks yeah god willing