The Talmud's secret to FEELING more ALIVE (and LESS self-consious)

we don't notice our body unless our body is unhealthy unless there's something wrong and that's because the soul is what's dominant there a spiritual part of us a Consciousness that's dominant so we don't notice the body my teenagers notice their bodies and they're always looking in the mirror and they're always self-conscious if nothing's wrong you shouldn't feel the body because you feel the soul okay friends The Story begins uh the next Passage of the T that we're going to read analyze and pick apart is BR 18a on the bottom and then 18b as well on the links that I sent it's the second to last paragraph and we're going to explore the Jewish value of death and life how do we Define death and life um do does do the dead have awareness do people who are alive have awareness right one can be alive but feel Dead one could be dead but actually have a lot more life to them and we're going to learn new definitions and understanding of what life is all about but let's start with this story in the tal we're going to read from the second paragraph second to last paragraph sorry on the bottom of 18a and then it goes all the way to we're going to switch to 18b as well theor relates that Rabia and RAB yonatan were walking in a cemetery and the sky blue string of RAB yonatan's ritual fringes the T string of his sitas was cast to the ground and dragging across Graves R said to him lift it so the dead won't say tomorrow when their day comes they'll come to be buried with us and now they're insulting us you can't do Mitzvah once you're dead right we can only do Mitzvah once we're only while we're alive in this world right once we move on to the next World we can benefit from the world to come we can benefit from heaven from Paradise but we can't actually do anything um so actually to this day there's a tradition to tuck in your Titus when you go to a cemetery because you don't want to be rubbing into their faces the fact that um you know we're wearing situs there's a whole question by the way just parenthetically brackets to what extent that applies these days practically some say well we don't have these days and the or many people don't wearit these days and the talud used the story ofit specifically does it apply to regular tius does it apply to tius that you would be wearing not specifically for a Mitzvah but let's say you had a four corner garment that you weren't intending to specifically have a Mitzvah with you know and you just happen to put c on it so there's a whole question about that but what does RAB yonatan respond to RAB and yonathan said to him do the dead know so much the dead are aware isn't it stated in the dead know nothing that's from the book of said to him if you read the verse you didn't read it a second time and if you read it a second time you didn't read it a third time and if you read it a third time well then they didn't explain it to you properly you're not understanding it properly the meaning of the verse for the living now call it's the full verse for the living now know they will die and the dead know nothing and have no more reward for their memory has been forgotten what it means is for the living know that they will die right these are the Righteous who in their death are called living so when we say the dead don't know anything what it means is not necessarily that they don't have awareness but they're not aware that their death is coming it's referring to the wicked people because the righteous people are actually called alive while they're dead okay let's Contra let's continue the the uh segment on the top of 18b have to kind of flip to the next page at the top of the page he was referred to in the verse as a son of a living man and the talmud Wonders is that to say that the fact that the Bible referred to him with that appalation that all others are children of dead rather the verse should be explained as follows the son of a living man who lives forever who even in death is referred to as living right righteous people are considered to be living even while they're dead we'll explain what that means soon in contrast to the righteous who are referred to as living even after their death the verse explicitly States the dead know nothing these are the wicked who even during their lives are called Dead as the prophet jesel said in reference to a king of Israel who is alive and you are a slain Wicked Prince of Israel right that's what it says in Ezekiel and even if you wish to say instead that the proof is from here at the mouth of two witnesses or three Witnesses the dead shall be put to death this is puzzling as long as the accused has not been sentenced to death he's alive right why does it say put the dead to death right we're referring to a wicked person who merits the death penalty but why are we calling dead if he hasn't died yet he hasn't been killed yet rather this is a person who is wicked who is considered Dead from the outset okay so the talmud is asserting that somebody who is righteous is alive even once they die and somebody who's a wicked is dead even while they're alive yeah so in terms of like our our learning of Tanya um I'm trying to put this in that context and I'm thinking okay well um is somebody who's dead from the onet I mean everybody's born with a nshama um and um they get to choose how they live their life but when you talk about who's dead from the onset this is in my mind this is a person you know who who's chosen evil who's chosen to do the wrong thing uh at every ter and is cons considered Beyond Redemption and I'm wondering if that's a correct way to interpret Dead from the onset well well the the onset of their negative behavior their wicked Behavior right well well not not necessarily from birth but they at you know from the moment they are making choices that put them in the category of quote unquote being Wicked they are dead and I I guess our question is what does the talm mod mean when we say the righteous are always alive even once they die the wicked are always dead even once they're alive what does that mean practically and I'm going to share with you four interpretations um the literal interpretation Rashi just on the tal mode over here if you open up rashi's commentary Rashi says what does it mean that the wicked sorry that the righteous are alive even once they die what it actually means and this is a little bit more clear in the Hebrew when you when you translate the words literally even while they're alive they are aware of death and because of that there's a certain fear that would prevent them from sin similar to the idea in pavas where it says repent one day prior to your death how do you know you're going to die right exactly right the righteous people always understand that their time in this world is limited and that one day they're going to face their maker and there's a certain level of reverence that they have and that's why even while they're they're dead they're considered to be alive their life almost was was I don't want to use the word anticipating death because that has a almost of a positive connotation but understood death as a very real possibility and essentially understood the value and preciousness of life that's rashi's interpretation there's another interpretation by the gur arier the gur arier is a commentary on Rashi himself he's actually was actually authored by RAB of prag the Mahal of Prague and he points out a bit of a different uh twist he says why are the wicked called dead and why are the Righteous called alive the wicked are called Dead even while they're alive because that's the inevitable trajectory that they're heading they're headed toward a life of death in other words the life that they're living right now doesn't carry value right life is assessed not by the breathing not by your pulse and your heartbeat but the value that it has and somebody who's living a light a life of wickedness A Life That's antithetical to God antithetical to their mission life is essentially dead they're not doing what they should be doing at least when you're dead you're not doing anything wrong right over here they're doing something wrong so they really are living a life of death whereas the righteous always have some sort of impact the gur AR by the Mahar of prag in this book deres this from the Torah in the Book of Genesis when Abraham first arises on the scene end the par Noah and we explore the genealogy of Abraham and we learn about his father aram's father or ter that was his brother which one is his brother now I'm lost okay whatever his father Nur the Torah tells us how long Nur lived for I see you're okay thank you thank you for the correction so the Torah tells us how long ter lived for and then goes on to tell us about Abraham and in the the context it sounds like ter is still alive why did we just talk about his death like the Torah talks about his death and then kind of rewinds to go talk about seven years of Abraham's life overlapping with ter why so Rashi says over there because Terra was an evil person he was a wicked person who's an idolater and an idolater is living a life of death so even though he didn't physically die yet the Torah insinuates that his life was death and this is where we actually derive this concept in the Torah itself and on his commentary on Rashi the G there explains essentially ter didn't have a life that was meaningful that was productive that was bringing value although at some point right so there's a big question about that apparently his toua wasn't to where it could have been that's what the commentaries kind of explain another commentary the the is one of the commentaries on the Torah as well he lived in the early 1700s right around the same time as the bmov the orim is an interesting commentary on the Torah by the way because his I don't think his intention was to sit down and write a Biblical commentary he was a incredible scholar and a cabalist and he used to study Torah with his daughters and his discussions turned into a book discussions with his daughters learning Tor he had two daughters and the or explains why are the Righteous called alive even when they're dead he says it's actually talking about the body of the righteous people usually we understand death as the separation of body and soul the soul never leaves the soul Never Dies sorry the body gets buried and at some point the body decomposes right so you die when we say one dies we mean the body dies the soul never dies for the righteous people the body never really decomposes and by the way there's testimony about this they've there's been times throughout history where they had to transport and remove uh you know transport Graves from one place to another especially if Jews were you know deported or you know kicked out of certain places and they moved certain people and righteous people righteous Graves had intact bodies after many many years there's the fam of eliin I'm using him as an example he's one of manyin was a student of the mag of mesich who was the successor of the B apparently they had to movein grave and they said that his P his side locks was a were still wet from the Mikvah that they put dead people into to purify them so this this is a this is actually a a I I can't say you could explain it scientifically but it's a reality it's a fact rightous people bodies don't decompose because the body doesn't fully leave which might explain by the way the value you know we always visit Graves even of our loved ones even if they weren't righteous right to visit them to but there is value in visiting the grave of the righteous and um seeing that as a portal to to to the Heavens to pray as a special space and that might be the reason why that sacredness is still there so theim explains that when we say a person who is righteous never really dies even when they're dead they're called alive it's because the body and soul never fully separated there's still Holiness in that body I want to dive into the perspective of the Tanya that you mentioned earlier Mike the Tanya references this section of the talud in chapter 19 and he says why are the Righteous called called alive even when dead why are the dead called and why are the right the wicked called Dead even while alive so he says let's define life and death let's understand our under let's understand the definitions of life and death true life what does true life mean well what is the truest form of life what is what do life mean essentially what do how do you define life and death life the truest form of life is eternal AKA God because that's that's the only um entity that's Eternal if it's Eternal it's truly alive if it's temporary it's on the trajectory of death and may be may even be dead right now the righteous people have have two Li are are are are fully Alive even while they're dead because they're connected to something Eternal their life is eternal Wicked people are connected to things that are temporary I don't like the word Wicked even in this context you don't have to be Wicked but in Russia right the definition of Russia in Tanya is not necessarily a wicked person but a person who's focused on things that are temp orary well that's dead focused on something dead you're focused on the body rather than the soul you know the the just a couple of days ago we marked the 30th y site of the laab and I I'll admit us kabad people are crazy about the LA we are but why it was 30 years ago right but when you hear a talk when you hear a talk when you hear a person talk or anybody who's really inspired by the rebish teachings it sounds like it was yesterday it sounds like it never even happened people talk about the connection with a as if it's literally like this Gap in 30-year Gap never even happened why it's as though he's still alive yeah because a truly righteous person everything they lived for every breath they took truly still lives on because their whole life was focusing on things that were eternal love of God love of Jewish people the love of Torah right making this world a better place everything they lived and breathed still lives on okay the body is not there anymore but the but the values which is what was the priority is still there the teachings still there the spirituality of it is still there that's true life and we can replicate that in our own way we could replicate that on some level in our own lives right when our life focuses on things that are Eternal so now we're truly alive and we have a legacy to Le to to leave to continue that will continue on whereas when we focus on temporary things we're living a life that is just currently dead it's not connected to God we could still revive it by the way and that that's normal that's default Human Condition is to focus on temporary things right it's easier to get out of bed because of the iced coffee than because of the tud study or opportunity to pray in the morning or whatever it is right that that's just human condition but we're here to work on ourselves to pray to learn to to to refine ourselves to make a a paradigm shift focusing on Soul not the body to focus on what's Eternal not temporary when we do that we become truly alive in one of his in many of his teachings the rebit gave a parallel for this the parallel for this is a healthy person a healthy person just physically forget we'll talk about spiritually in a second we'll draw a parallel from physical health to spiritual health when it comes to physical health the greatest indication that you're physically healthy is that you're not self-aware right as we're speaking right now hopefully you didn't notice your left knee right did you notice your left knee until I mentioned it prior to me mentioning your left knee did you notice it no right now do you notice it because because I mentioned it right what if you did notice your left knee left knee even before I mentioned it well there's probably something wrong with your knee so you notice it right maybe it's in pain maybe you right we don't notice our body unless our body is unhealthy unless there's something wrong um and that's because the soul is what's dominant even if it's not The Godly Soul even if it's not the Divine soul but there's a spiritual part of us a Consciousness that's dominant so we don't notice the body right teenagers notice their bodies they're always looking in the mirror and they're always self-conscious because they're still getting used to the souls and they're still developing right as the body develops you feel it but a you know normal on a normal day when if nothing's wrong you shouldn't feel the body because you feel the soul in fact just to illustrate this idea your body listens to your soul it does right I move my arm right now I didn't have to command my arm to move I didn't have to think about it I didn't have to process it I just did it my arm is going to listen my nervous system is going to listen to what my desires are to what my soul wants and the rebit gave this an Aly to draw a parallel to spiritual health as well if we're truly spiritually healthy we should only notice what is eternal and what is temporary shouldn't really matter all that much and the rebbit in one of his teachings shared a story to illustrate this and it may sound a bit of an abstract story and it's like how's that relevant to me but on some level it is actually relevant was having a meeting with somebody and they were going to be serving with with another sadic another righteous person maybe you as you see in the story maybe not quite as righteous right and there was a big uh there was a mess up in the kitchen when they were preparing the meal one guy was in charge of putting salt guess he was in charge of like spicing the the meal and I guess he forgot so one guy says okay I'll fill in I'll put in the salt the next guy says I'll fill in I'll put in the salt the next guy says I'll fill in I'll put turns out like five different people salt in this thing it was some sort of soup and it was salty so this guy whom the AL is meeting with taste the soup and he's just like he couldn't handle it and the alter says the alter just eating it as if it's nothing he says what's wrong he says you don't taste the salt he says no since I learned from the mag of Mich again the successor of the B I got myself to a place where I don't really notice what how things taste it's not like he's suppressing his taste buds and he's suppressing himself because I don't want to taste anything and I want to live a life of P it just wasn't important to him he was focused more on the nutritional value on the on the the essentially the soul of the food then how it tasted right how it tasted is temporary the nutritional value is relatively Eternal the spiritual value even more eternal right soul food a comfort food um now that the point is not that we should stop tasting food right but the point is we can get ourselves to this space through learning especially learning learning the soul of Torah through doing through refining ourselves we get ourselves to this space where we're truly alive we're not living a life of death we're not living a life that focuses on what's temporary but we're living a life of of life that focuses on what's Eternal which will carry on way after death that leaves True Legacy I'll tell you a story just to hit the just just to um to round this up the story is that there's a man who apparently had a really beautiful Suka it wasn't physically beautiful in fact physically it was quite the crepet but spiritually it was beautiful there was singing there was dancing there was energy there was vitality and you feel your nsha when you walk in the Su it was one of those suas but again it was not very fancy the guy didn't have a lot of money he would go around every year collecting people's old boards that they had left over from their Suka and he would put together his little Suka last minute he had a neighbor who was well off and had a physically beautiful Suka and and he felt that the singing and dancing and spirit the ruak the Holiness it was kind of cramp in his style you know he saw it as noise and he didn't like it so the next year he went around the town and paid everybody not to sell their leftover wood to this man for their Suka for his Suka that way this guy won't have a sua and he won't have any singing and he won't have any dancing and I could live in and I could be in my fancy schmancy beautiful five fstar Suka with nice couches and drapes and everything with peace and quiet and it comes suus and this guy's going around can I buy your extra board sorry can I buy your extra board sorry nobody's selling to him he doesn't know what he's going to do he wants to fulfill the Mitzvah of the sua and he wants to have his beautiful spirited sua he doesn't have a lot of money and nobody's even willing to sell to him and he doesn't know what to do he is finds himself I'm missing a piece of the story here but he finds himself in a cemetery and maybe he went to go pray I don't know he finds himself in a cemetery and he sees a man carrying Boards of wood says to him what are you doing with those Boards of wood he says I'm the Mal I'm the angel of death and I'm preparing a coffin for so and so for this fellow who had the fancy Suka that kind of didn't want spirit and he says you're preparing his death for his death yeah his time has come and he's we're going to kill we're going to you know finish him off everybody has their time in life his time has come we're going to finish him off and this is going to be his coffin he says do me a favor the guy's dead already why don't you just give me the boards and you know he you don't need to kill him trust me he's already dead the he gives him the the angel death agrees gives him the boards he builds this sooka comes suus and this Rich dead man who's technically alive is ready to have his peace and quiet and his Suka and he hears the singing he says what is going on he pokes his head out and he says that the guy has a Suka what happened how did you get a Suka and he tells him that the angel of death was about to kill you and these were going to be your this is going to be your coffin I told him leave you alone you're dead already he's good he's taken care of and the guy understood the point that although physically he had a beautiful Suka it was dead and although physically this guy did not have a beautiful and was quite decrepit it was totally alive and I think this very much reflects this tuduk statement that the righteous even while dead are alive because what matters to them is what's Eternal not what's temporary and the wicked even while alive are dead because they're ignoring what's Eternal and focusing on what's temporary okay that's my story and I'm sticking to it