Text-Based Tanya Class—Week #48

so first of all we're dedicating today's learning to the yard site today of shandel baserebram whose 16th yard site is today that's the grandmother of our very own Dina Halpern and uh this is a a loving grandmother who dedicated herself to providing the type of education that we're benefiting from right here meaning the inspiration and the guidance that we gain from the teachings of casidis so it's a very fitting tribute for the yard site that today's study of Tanya should be in her Merit again and the summer should have an Alia so we're continuing chapter 29 and with God's help I think we're going to finish chapter 29. if nobody distracts me with any interesting diversions or side topics we actually were pretty good at keeping on track okay so just to review since chapter 26 we've been speaking about the importance of joy and the the danger of falling into negative emotional states and we've addressed various different types of negative emotional states and the troubleshooting guide for each one of them because depending on the cause uh the the solution is different yeah sounds familiar so far without going into I'm not going to go into the different types of negative stuff the guilt the shame I'm not going to get into that but because we've done that already but I'm just giving context so chapter 29 which is chapter we're on now we've started to speak about a very specific type of um emotional dysfunction which is different than what we spoke about before we spoke about before is sort of all in the category of sadness but this isn't the category of apathy which is not even sadness it's a lack of it's a lack of feeling it's not a bad feeling it's a lack of feeling and we said it's actually the most dangerous condition apathy is the most dangerous condition and because it's the most dangerous condition we said it warrants a really really intense and severe approach to counter it so do you remember I gave literally I think like 20 disclaimers that didn't the methods we're studying right now are emergency methods does this sound familiar yeah I made it very clear the intensity and the harshness and the brutality of these methods is not something we do on a regular basis at all it's an emergency measure was that abundantly clear so far okay and specifically what is this harsh brutal method that's only warranted in an emergency situation we said it's called well metaphorically it's like the log that won't catch fire this was the metaphor from the Zohar the log that won't catch fire so you smash it up until it turns into splinters and then it will catch fire so we said it's like the ego that's complacent because uh it feels uh my life's manageable everything's good I don't need anything so we systematically break down that ego through being what's called marid a master of accounts where we do this really really thorough and and invasive spiritual audit and we we force our our ego to be confronted with its own dysfunction and it's it's it's it's it's harsh it's unflinching it's uh it's merciless but the point of it is to break down the ego just like smashing up that log so it can catch fire we're breaking up that ego so that it can get inspired again with spiritual light and warmth this is all review so far this all sounds familiar I mean and if you weren't here it doesn't sound familiar but if you were here does it sound familiar okay so a really great question came up at the end of last week somebody said okay this sounds absolutely Dreadful but if this is what's necessary I'll do it yeah yeah like I don't want I I don't think this sounds fun I wouldn't sign up for this just because I'm bored but you're telling me that there's blockage or there could be blockage and it's standing in the way of me being properly inspired if this is what's required then then then I'll do it but then there was like a second question to that question which is I don't even trust myself that I could administer the process because I think I'll just talk my way out of it and I'll uh I'll rationalize and tell myself oh things are not so bad so I I basically said okay let's come back to that so here's what I want to do again I'm not kicking the can down the road what I what I want to do is say let's come back to that at the end of today not right now I don't want to start with the answer to that question I want to lead up to that answer only because I believe that my answer will make more sense after we finish the chapter okay all right so we got up to the monologue where you're raging it yourself and you're screaming at your own I mean the Tanya technical term is enough shabam is the animal soul but in English you could just call it the ego we had that monologue where we're raging at ourselves it's really a it's an act of of self humiliation and and again for the 21st time it's brutal and we don't normally speak this way okay so let's continue right after that monologue we're up to Virginia that through this this monologue this raging this will assist The Godly soul those who are new to Tanya this is basic Tanya we have the animal soul and The Godly soul two personae vying for control within us so this raging at the animal soul will allow or help The Godly souls to be able to perceive the the real truth of the Oneness of God and to see it he says to really see it not just to hear it meaning hearing is you know they say seeing is believing so hearing means oh in theory it sounds like a good idea okay I believe you but seeing is I've seen it for myself this is a fact I've experienced it it's not just information it's an experience so basically the outcome of this really brutal um self-humiliation process is that it removes all the blockages and then ah I'm able to experience godliness commission is he says that this is explained elsewhere that this is actually the quintessence of all service of God is what the ability to really personally experience this fact of God's Oneness not just as a an abstract construct okay now he continues and explains something very interesting he explains the underlying mechanics of why this works we don't really understand yet why this works in other words we know that there's a blockage and we said that that's due to the complacency of the ego we know how to remove the blockage and that's by humiliating the ego by forcing it to own up to all of its all of its defects but why does that guarantee that once we do that process it's going to make way for some type of God Consciousness and and spiritual sensitivity like who says that's the outcome so you remove the blockage who says that the good stuff's going to come and fill its place so now he's going to explain the mechanics of why it works he says the reason La fisha Ms aim Shuma Marsha's Club the truth is that negativity which we call the Citra Akra the other side has no mamashes has no substance has no substance evil does not have any inherent existence it's being propped up as part of a a plan but it itself has no inherent Worth or value that's why we compare it to Darkness Cloud Darkness has no substance and therefore it's automatically pushed away by the light now you're going to say light has no substance either it's intangible yeah I don't mean physical substance I mean that Darkness isn't even a thing it's an absence of something and that's why he says darkness is automatically pushed away by the Light we don't tend to think about this very often but how long does it take to fill a room with light we don't think about it if you come if you come in this very room this Library here in the summertime when the AC hasn't been on and it's hot how long does it take for the room to cool off you turn on the AC how long does it take for the to fill the room with cool air it takes it takes a while okay but if you come in here and it's been dark and even if it's been dark for days and you flip on the light switch how long does it take for the room to fill up with light so evil is called Darkness for many reasons but one reason is because of its property of being instantly displaced by holiness um so to the negative energy what we call citrakhra even though it appears to have a lot of Vitality and it is it's enlivening all the things in this world uh basically everything other than The Godly soul it's enlightening all the living beings and and all of humanity and even the the animal soul of the of the Jew which is basic human impulses and uh and desires basically everything other than The Godly soul is being animated by this other side and we said before there are gradations within the other side it's not all diabolical evil it's a the table is called the other side I mean maybe not this table because we learned so much Torah at it but you know a piece of kosher food it's just neutral it's called the other side um unless you eat it and then you burn the calories to serve God and then it becomes Holiness but see chapter seven or go back and watch the recording of chapter seven if you wanna understand that um so he says even though this negative energy this non-godly energy seems to be so powerful because after all it's enlivening so much Nicole monkey nevertheless it doesn't have its own inherent life force element it's only getting what it receives from the forces of Holiness which is why when it's that's why when there is that situation where it's finally displaced by Holiness it's instantaneous ly like the metaphor of Darkness being instantly displaced by light reaction is only one thing that internally in the human being Hashem gave special permission to this Darkness to lift itself up meaning to to put up a more of a an intimidating posture today so the person should fight back shiftless so the person should have to fight back against this internal Darkness or this internal manifestation of darkness by lowering himself by lowering his own ego as we've been explaining and then what the person does internally in microcosm personally then there's a reciprocal effect universally in the macrocosm like it says in next week's have Torah actually actually yeah that if the if the yetzahara will act haughty Like an Eagle Hashem will SWAT it down from there the highness Hashem will remove it from its rulership Hashem will remove from it it's the permission that it was given to lift itself up and to act all Hardy in front of the Holiness of The Godly soul and then automatically it becomes nullified just like dark before light okay good question okay I don't know I have to think I have to think about it all right sometimes you take from one source to another source it'll take I don't know I can't process it quickly enough but it's a good question but let's stick within this context he's explaining something very simple he just wants you to know because we built up this whole problem we built up the problem of this this negativity and we we made it very sort of uh intimidating so he's saying don't really be so intimidated because you should understand that essentially this this negative energy isn't its own energy it's borrowed energy the minute it becomes exposed to the holy side which is really it's its source because it doesn't have its own autonomous existence it disappears what he's basically explaining to you is that and is going to continue to elaborate the reason that this process that we've been describing is effective is because we're really just sort of pulling the curtain back and exposing the truth the truth is although it feels like it's a really uh intimidating oppressive Force it doesn't have any actual staying power it's being propped up and therefore when you bring the light in metaphorically it it will automatically disappear you're not you're not you don't have to engage in this this is not something you have to get dirty and fight with and roll around on the ground with if you if you bring the truth in then everything will sort of fall into place instantaneously and the truth what's the truth the truth is that Hashem is everywhere and Hashem is right here and the fact that I was blind to that meaning my ego had carved out a little place for myself to feel autonomous that that was that was delusional and I can sort of pop the balloon on that delusion rather quickly I guess what he's saying is to get in there to be able to be poised to pop that balloon that's sort of a brutal process but then once you do it you disabuse yourself of that notion rather quickly and you realize you know that this this narrative that the ego was telling you is totally ridiculous it's patently ridiculous there's no truth to it it was telling you you know I'm okay and I can have my own I can have my own agenda I could do what I want and I don't have to always think about Hashem and and here I'm okay and I'm a religious Jew and I'm able to just basically do whatever now whatever I want I'm not going to do it because remember we're describing the the guy at the beginning of the chapter his problem wasn't that he was sinning he wasn't sinning God forbid he just wasn't getting inspired and he was okay with the fact he wasn't getting inspired which is sort of the definition of not being inspired being okay with not being inspired is the is sort of the definition of not being inspired so we had to get rid of that how do we get rid of it yeah how do we get rid of it is a brutal process but the the culmination of it once once it's done once the process is done remember we spoke about you talk to yourself about your past you talk to yourself even about your dreams and all the all the dirt you can drum up on yourself to sort of break the the arrogance of the ego and to force it to admit its its weakness what there is a Breaking Point and once that Breaking Point comes that whole illusion topples really quickly okay if somebody has a temptation they might overcome it a second but two minutes later yeah so we're not really talking about Temptation here I mean that's a different type of darkness and he spoke about that you know in Chapter 13 he said that the animal soul is getting stronger during our entire lifetime we have to always stay a step ahead of it but here we're talking about something very specific we're talking about a very specific lie that the that the ego tells us which is this is not not about Temptation you know what let me tell you something if this guy were battling with temptation we wouldn't be doing this brutal technique on him and I'll tell you why because somebody who's feeling Temptation so there's there's passion we can work with passion we can redirect passion this chapter 29 is talking about somebody there's no passion he's feeling emotionally dead which we said is even more dangerous there's a different type of Darkness or a different uh I don't know if the darkness is different but it's a different experience of darkness and specifically it it presents itself in the form of a lie that you can be complacent you can be comfortable and as long as you're doing what you're supposed to be doing and checking off the boxes you don't have to feel excited you don't have to be inspired and that's what the guy's doing this is a religious guy in this chapter he's not doing any sense yeah he's numb yeah yeah is this person operating in the medium of thought you know the Garment of thought rather than action like how is he telling himself is it I don't even know if it's an act of thought it's just a belief I don't know if it's an act of thought it might not be a conscious thought it might just be a subconscious belief but in order to pop the darkness yes does one have to use well we described it we described the process of breaking through it we said that it's sort of like self-talk remember that that process of that that intervention that you do it's self-talk uh I don't know I don't I'm not I'm not sure it is or isn't it could be completely uh in in your head but he definitely I mean he gives you a script remember the monologue so it definitely is self-talk I don't know if you have to say it out loud or you just think it in your mind but definitely is self-talk yeah well what is the source of the negative force and does this go to the Moon I mean it never goes to the root of it so it never really well well he's yeah what he's saying you're saying it doesn't get to the root of the darkness but what he's saying ironically is the root of the darkness is light because the darkness has no independent existence when you break when you break it down you take away the outside it's connected right and that's why it's explained how the the state does the truth will automatically be revealed when the LIE is exposed the truth doesn't have to be brought in from somewhere else he's going to continue to explore that let's continue in the text because the truth is that God is everywhere God is everything and even right here in this place and that there's no separation from him and that I can't go carve out my own little uh place of autonomy even if I barter with God and promised to be a religious Jew in exchange for him not bothering me you like that deal I'll be from and you just stay off my back right yeah so you you'll you'll go you negotiate watch me closely and off that I don't get hurt but not too closely that I have to feel self-conscious yeah okay but let's continue here because he explains more about this truth okay I'm a fetish potatoes an incredible worked about a story in homish to actually remember Mitzvah Parsha parisha Slack that's why I always connect to this piece right here at the beginning they said first they said we can't invade the land we can't conquer the land because the inhabitants of the land are stronger than God you remember that they didn't believe in the ability of God to conquer them again but then afterwards later on they're like okay let's do it let's go let's go remember that whole story they came back and said we can't do it and then I'm not sure about told them oh this is a terrible thing this is a tragedy it was Tish above actually says this is going to be a bad precedent and it was and then later on they were like okay let's go let's do it and he was like no you blew it too late too late okay so the alternative asks um where did they suddenly get renewed faith in God Allah didn't show them any miracles at that time the only thing is Maisha told them Hashem is mad at you and he's not going to bring you into the land what would that help s if they didn't believe Hashem was capable of Conquering the 31 Canaanite Nations and because of that they didn't want to enter they didn't want to attempt to enter the land so then how all of a sudden are they going to have a change of heart if my sharana says them okay we're not going to allow you to do that which you already believe you can't do okay so then great that's what I want I wanted to not go into the land and now what's my punishment that I don't have to go into the land why did they suddenly have a change of heart say no let's go into the land it's funny it's a good question now if you would tell that if you would tell them look I'm going to show you a miracle and just like Hashem has the power to make this miracle he has the power to conquer the 31 Canaanite Kings oh okay so you're boosting their confidence maybe they'll get some Faith going but if they didn't have faith which is precisely the reason why they didn't want to enter the land because they were lacking Faith then how come all of a sudden they said like we can do it where do they get that Faith from where'd that Faith come from nothing was done to infuse them with faith to win their confidence so are we saying lack of apathy is the same as lack of faith no the the opposite lack of apathy is Faith and Faith or or say apathy is lack of faith like being contrarian yeah but here's the thing your personal be contrarian about something that's not going to get them killed they if they thought they were going to get killed by going into the land now all of a sudden reverse psychology makes them say oh let's go get ourselves killed okay like reverse psychology works to a point but the alternative is asking a question they didn't have any faith they said we can't do it we cannot enter the land it's not going to work and measurement says fine so we're not entering the land they said no we can do it we can do it although I was just asking where do they get the Faith from where'd they get to Faith he's going to answer the question right here is absolutely clear truth the certain truth is the Jewish people are my mind they're inherent to believers meaning to say the natural setting of the Jewish people is to believe in Hashem that's natural that's instinctive it's just that the negativity within them which is invested in their bodies had reared its head and sort of blocked that off and it and it acts in a way that's characteristically insolent calls it kutzpah without any bleed time of doubts without any without any rationale meaning inherently I'm a Believer but I have this element within me it's able to just irrationally oppose that without even any good arguments without even any good arguments and and block off my faith or block me off from my faith the Locking there for me immediately when Hashem got mad at them because and screamed at them or Maisha screamed at them how long will this evil congregation you guys are going to die in this wilderness I'm gonna do this to this generation meaning you're all going to be punished you're not going to enter the land and they heard such harsh words they were subjugated and their hearts were broken within them like it says the nation was grieving a lot I'm a male then and here's the Autumn here's the important word mail automatically maila automatically the negativity fell from its from its uh power and authority in its in its uh arrogance and the Jews themselves were restored to their inherent state of belief yeah um I don't I mean I don't think that's so like magical it's like if you're afraid that to go and fight it's not magical you might you say exactly and then you you're told oh well if you stayed here you'll die anyway so they're like okay I'll take death with the I'll take that that way over death meaning they were they were treated death for death like they were afraid to go there they didn't have faith because they thought they'd die now they're being told they're gonna die in the desert they're like okay we may as well give it a shot to go there yeah but this is like what's the difference like getting killed in in in hand-to-hand combat or dying in a nursing home I mean they weren't told they're going to get like no but it's like we all he says you're gonna die eventually eventually they're going to pass away that in that generation in the wilderness that doesn't mean they're going to get violently murdered on a battlefield I mean yeah I hear what you're saying but [Laughter] yeah it's not pleasant yeah anyways but he's explaining the fact that it's an interesting story where they had no faith and then they did have faith and we're asking ourselves well what happened in between the lack of faith and the infusion of Faith like where did that Faith come from so if you're going to tell me um sat them down and he said look I want to show you some proofs he gave them some give them a whole slide show and explained to them here's the history and and here's what God did for us I'll remember the ten plagues or maybe even make some new make some new miracles oh so that's how they got some new Faith they got pumped up in their faith but we're saying is they didn't need to get any new Faith they always had Faith even at the time when they were being cynics and scoffers they had faith it was just blocked off from them and what blocks It Off from us the ego so if you remove the ego you automatically reveal the faith and how do we remove the ego so far what we've been saying in chapter 29 is through this brutal process of uh self um examination through scrutiny uh taking ourselves to task about like we said that whole inventory and it sort of exposes the the the dysfunction of the animal cell and it has to admit to its unmanageability and then once that happens once it's defeated ah then all the faith that was always there can come Shining okay that that's what he said yeah severe punishment of um car race and they've come to that realization the punishment was that God was mad at them he makes it very clear it's not about the punishments that God is mad at you can we grow up for a second here do you care if your mother grounds you for a week or she takes away your phone or she uh I don't know what punishments parents do today but the point is I am being serious listen to me or if your mother is mad at you maybe she even talks to you but you see she's not happy what if she throws you up then you get a new life listen to what I'm saying we're not children here your mother's mad at you that should shake you up more than any consequence that she could drum up right but then they did Chula and they're they were still denied access and I thought okay so that's another now you're asking and now you're getting into a whole this discussion about that story but we're just looking this is not a partial Parsha class we're looking at one little story that happened or slice of a story because it's an interesting phenomenon and the out that I was examining it and he's saying please explain to me what accounts for the fact that a group of Jews lacked faith in a pretty serious way the guy who took them out of Egypt and did plagues and split the sea told them let's go into the land and they were like no we can't do it no it's worse than that you can't do it they told God he's not able to do it and then the next day they're like okay let's do it he's asking a very interesting question what accounts for that major shift so he says well that's just a very clear illustration of the fact that the underlying State the innate state of the Jewish people is they do believe in God and that there are merely interpositions things that get caked on crud spiritual crud that gets caked out and it's blocking the the light so you just gotta knock it off you gotta dislodge it but once you dislodge it the faith was always there you'd have to go out and get the faith this is the point that he's he's making here and I told you God's mad at us that's it it doesn't matter what the punishment is it matters God's mad at us actual screaming right it was like the same the breaking the splintering Yeah well yeah Maisha did scream at them yeah yeah yeah so faith and Luna okay what's a non-jews automatic people rationality human beings are rational human beings are programmed for survival it's evolutionary evolutionarily advantageous what Jews Jews have a second second programming as well called The Godly Soul which is totally irrational and not conducive to survival which is the miracle of Jewish continuity that we have a a programming that is actually counter to survival The Godly Soul would rather physically die than to betray God and Any Nation who has that program really shouldn't survive through thousands of years let alone with all the persecution that the Jewish people have been subjected to that's a miracle that second program The Godly soul it's called The Godly soul when I say it's evolutionary evolutionarily advantageous I hope everyone knows I'm saying it tongue-in-cheek I say it because those who would make this argument that uh well what I'm saying is anyone who's a secular uh or or even atheistic uh believer in uh the origin of the species according to Darwin which is pretty much ubiquitously accepted today um not me I mean I'm a I'm an extremist and a fundamentalist so I don't accept it but um they they would be comfortable with that statement so I'm just letting you know I'm not saying anything that 99 of intelligent people would have any problem with they could find other things to argue with me but I don't think there's anything I don't think anything disruptive to their own world view for me to say that human beings are programmed to be rational and to make decisions that are uh that are advantageous for the propagation of the species so that's that's all I'm saying that's all I'm saying I don't know if anyone followed that but it's okay all right um yeah can I ask about this or is it off topic what about Evolution no I don't want to talk about Darwin other religion will also let's say sacrifice or put their religion before the rationale yeah you know you're right and he talks about it in chapter 19. who remembers chapter 19. remember when he speaks about the natural love that we have of Hashem and activating the natural love so it's interesting over there in chapter 19. what Dennis no chapter 9. chapter 19. right so he he he identifies a very strange phenomenon throughout Jewish history of irreligious Jews who sacrificed their lives for their Jewish identity so the idea of a religious person giving their life up for the religion it happens universally but there's this peculiar phenomenon which is rather unfortunately frequent throughout the Jewish history in many many different places many different times and that is Jews who are not religious even irreligious but when it comes to renouncing the Jewish identity they won't allow themselves to do it now of course you're going to say what there were exceptions what about the Muranos in Spain don't don't ask me about the exceptions to that to ask ask me why it even happened once okay once you could say it's an anomaly but why did it happen so often so the alternative points to that is the peculiarity of the Jewish people and says it's basically this irrational Drive of The Godly soul yeah so we have principled people who die for their ideology what's weird is we have Jews who seemingly their whole life that couldn't be bothered to inconvenience themselves to be observant Jews but then when it comes to the pain of death and torture all of a sudden the you know like a Daniel Pearl situation all of a sudden they become so Jewish like that becomes the only thing that matters to them so that's a little bit strange anyways what we're saying that's a related idea it's related but what we're saying here is The Godly soul I want to move on because I do want to answer the question that we started with the beginning of the class The Godly soul innately is in a state of active faith and if you are not experiencing that it's not that you've lost it it's that something's interrupting it you know the lights are always on but maybe there are maybe there's something on top of the light that needs to be removed yeah yeah all right apathy what causes lack of faith yeah okay let's continue everything look okay um from this anyone who experiences uh doubts of Faith Can can learn a very important lesson don't worry about it's Justice which is lifting itself up arrogantly against you but you inherently you are still a believer and also you should know the citrakhra itself ain't Las Vegas so here you're gonna chapter 90 you're referring to here you can have a little chapter nine reference tell me if anyone remembers a chapter 9 reference you want to know something else kind of weird this negative entity that is programmed to confuse and distract us from the truth it itself is not confused it was given permission meaning its job is to confuse people with falsehood and the reason is to give the person more reward more resistance more reward you lift more weight you get stronger like the Harlot seducing the King's son with the permission of the king like it's written in the Holy zaihar where did we have that earlier in Tanya do you remember we that peace of Zaya was referenced earlier in Tanya chapter 9 at the very end of chapter 9. okay that's fair game reading the footnotes is fair game that's very good yeah remember at the end of chapter nine he said well in chapter 9 he was describing the condition of the tadiq where The Godly Soul had completely conquered the small City and that means that the Godly Soul was dominating all the person's emotions and behavioral choices and then at the very end of chapter 9 says and what is the animal Soul trying to do its agenda is to achieve the exact opposite that the person should be completely dominated emotionally and behaviorally by his animalistic drive and then at the very end it says but even when the animal soul is pushing for this agenda it's only really ultimately for the benefit of the person that the person should overcome it like the metaphor of the Harlot contracted by the king to test the King's son meaning that the Harlot wants the son of the king to resist but in order to do her job she has to she can't she can't betray the fact that she really wants him to to resist so she has to go all out but really that's not what she wants so even this internal voice that's coming to us and telling us all types of crazy lies to make us lose our faith or I we don't ever lose our faith lose contact with our faith even this crazy voice that's coming and telling us these crazy lies to make us lose contact with our faith in itself knows that that is a lie and why is this important information who cares why is this important information because this also comes from Hashem yeah well yes why why is that important to know that be ready to be ready to be prepared even even the light doesn't do it in his own life okay that's that's the truth oh comforting okay okay that's the word that I wanted yes yeah that's why it's important it's comforting this fact knowledge of this fact you should know that even when you're in this situation that even when you're a situation where you feel you've lost your your connection you've lost your spiritual connection we are doubting everything and you're you're not feeling an ease in your in your relationship with Hashem you should know that condition itself was manufactured by Hashem that he appointed this agent with a specific task and this is all part of the relationship with Hashem it's not outside of your relationship with Hashem it's a function of your relationship with Hashem and that even that tool that Hashem is using to ostensibly undermine your faith is not an independent operator that can spiral out of control and really Lead You astray the whole thing is completely under control It's all under control to someone who is from who is going through the motions but it's not feeling anything right right yeah so the animal's soul is that person actually conforming to what the what they're supposed to be doing yeah right yeah in in The Godly Soul the god Godly soul is actually they it is in control yeah to some extent yeah it's the feeling that the person correct yes yes so like with the episode over there it was much worse they didn't even want to do what they were supposed to do okay buddy we're using it as an illustration yeah the apathy is a people or the lack thereof yeah well no it is it is a problem in the mind and that's why we need to flip a mental switch here no it it's not the symptom is emotional the lack of emotion but the the cause is is a distorted belief and then we have to remove that belief yeah but I want to I want to answer the question remember the question about um should we do this should we throw ourselves into this really because that was the end of the text today but we have a question on the table should we throw ourselves into this method should we do it and how do we make sure that we stick to it because it's going to get scary and we're going to want to um we're going to want to tap out yeah we're going to start defending ourselves and rationalizing and deflecting yeah so here's what I want to tell you this chapter of Tanya every time I come to this chapter of Tanya when I go through Tanya with a with a group I always question whether or not I should learn it because in our generation things are different and we don't do this harsh stuff and it's not that it doesn't necessarily work obviously in the times the Outta rabbit worked that's why I told people to do it but in our generation first of all it may work it may not work we run a risk of it not working and what I mean by that is we're very weak people there's no question there's something called uretus The Descent of the generations and we're weaker people we're not as robust and we can't handle this kind of intensity so it may just end up being unproductive because we're going to beat ourselves up we're going to break our hearts going to remove the apathy of the godlings of the animal Soul so The Godly Soul can rush in okay fine all well and good but in the process it we may damage ourselves our psyche so much that we can't spring back from it so it may actually end up just not being a productive practically so we may not be productive but there are other reasons as well why in our generation this may not be advisable another reason is because the Jewish people collectively have already been through intense brutality especially what happened the past generation to the Jewish people the terrible calamities that we suffered really you don't kick a man when he's down and if there was any use to the to the the cleansing um factor of of of the of the suffering Okay so we've had it we did it we've been there done that right so we're not looking to do more of that and then one more thing is we're getting closer to mashiach and when mashiach comes everything's going to be positive and we're so we're already shifting into the mode where we can just amplify on what's good and what's right instead of focusing on what needs to be different so for many reasons the the juncture where we're at in history right now indicates that probably it's not advisable to employ methods like chapter 29 where the whole approach is to brutally scrutinize yourself until you're forced to just drop to your knees and admit your own dysfunction and unmanageability um on the other hand should La man you got it why should we miss out why should we not receive the benefit of this chapter okay so we want the benefit we want the benefit of course we want to remove the obstructions of a complacent ego so the light of faith can come rushing in of course we want that benefit why wouldn't we want that what I'm saying is sometimes the patient comes in and you say there is a therapy there is a surgery there is a there is a medication but I'm looking at you and for you it's not going to be good it's not worth it or the side effects are just not uh it's it's too risky it's too risky it's too risky so and that's what I'm saying first of all we're weaker people at this juncture in history you're going to break somebody who says they're going to spring back I mean Once Upon a Time people were very tough today you know break somebody down and maybe everything you're saying is true but who says they're going to come back from that that might just be it that might be the straw that breaks the camel's back and then what did you gain nothing at the end of the day we're doing this for Hashem we want people to be able to serve Hashem better so if somebody becomes incapacitated they can't serve Hashem then we gain nothing all right that was the first thing I said okay stay that way well well I'm not saying it's better to say that well if I only have two choices yeah it's better they stay that way yeah yeah and not spiritually kill them okay maybe there are more than two choices what I'm going to get at okay well I'm just reviewing what I said before the reasons why we don't do it in this generation one is we're weaker people so it's too risky the the intense brutality is too too risky two we've been through enough enough already no more suffering for Jews what do you want to add you want to kick a man when he's down you want to add more suffering to the Jewish people no and the third thing is we're getting close to mashiach and when Michelle comes everything will be positive so we can already start to have a way of serving Hashem where we just build on positive things find what's right about ourselves and and do more of that okay so that that's why we don't do the method that is described here but how do we Avail ourselves of the benefits of the method okay so here's what I'm going to tell you the whole purpose of this method it wasn't for the sake of humiliation humiliation was just a tool wasn't the goal right unless you're a masochist the goal wasn't humiliation humiliation was the means through which we achieve ago what was the goal there was okay the end result is to receive the light but the break down the blockage right break down the blockage remove the blockage right to feel again okay so the humiliation was the tool to remove the blockage to be able to receive the light right you're right the light is inside right you're receiving the light doesn't mean a light from out here it's a light from in here well the light actually is in the brain and it can't get to the heart and to the behaviors yeah yeah okay so here's the here's the punch and I want to wrap up here in today's day and age the advised method for removing the obstructions of the ego is unbridled Joy and not because we're we're we're we're trying to be cue to we're trying to you know because we want to make it easy for people and all people like people like Joy what could we sell people that they would like oh let's all tell people what they want to hear trust me you guys know me I need to learn with me I'm not trying to tell you what you want to hear I'm being very practical here yes there are times we need to remove the obstruction but if we're going to do these brutal methods of removing obstruction we may cause more damage than it's worth and then what do we gain so another way we have of removing obstructions very simple you want to blast away the ego get up be joyful when you have no reason for it when you don't want to be when it's totally irrational and it's the most it is the most ego reducing state is to force yourself to act and to even feel happy in in an unlimited fashion not just a little smile but to real just to be enthused with unbridled joy that reduces the ego that totally smashes the ego out of the way well drugs and alcohol it doesn't even do it doesn't even do it drugs and alcohol is an attempt to simulate that right right well of course of course they're trying to remove the ego yeah of course self-medication is an attempt to remove the ego that's that's the numbness and the distraction of self-medication is to remove the ego exactly the same way you can force yourself to do this method and to brutalize yourself force yourself to to get up and dance I'm not joking right