Tanya (Part 11)

Good morning. Good morning and a very happy issue. Please help yourself. 10 minutes of meaning, slushies and pastries and coffee at the Ray La Corner. Thank our 10 minutes of meaning sponsors Marilyn Michael Fedak our dear friends this morning she sponsored by Mendel Manakimson in honor of Shaina Basbana for her and all of us to feel the divine presence. Amen. That would be beautiful and lovely. We are on the second peric of Tanya. The first peric discussed the animal soul that we share in common with all of humanity. an animal soul that we're not to looking to purge or to destroy or she but an animal soul we're looking to train and to elevate. And now we move on to the second pares the second soul. We spent a lot of time last week discussing why is it the second soul? Why is it the second soul? If in fact it is the primary soul. If the godly soul is the primary soul, the divine soul, if that is the eternal and immortal and everlasting soul, then why is it referred to as the second soul? Either chronologically it came second or because they have to have a clay kibble. A person has to be have a vessel. The animal soul is the vessel to receive and to express and to manifest that godly soul is the second soul is unique in that it is exclusively to the Jewish people which is spent a lot of time. It is a piece of God mamish literally not a piece of God or a portion of God figuratively but there is an actual piece of Hashem inside each and every one of us. That means to say that Hashem is more present in our soul than in any other part of the universe. So all the people who are in search of God waiting for a miracle revelation waiting for Hashem to speak to them and reveal themselves. Don't look outside. Don't look at nature and history. Don't look at coincidences and chance. Don't look at things outside ourselves. If you want to find evidence for God's existence, not only evidence, if you want to find proof, if you want to feel the proof of God's existence, one need only look and turn internally because we are literally piece of God. As the says, God blew into his nostrils and breathed life into us. We mentioned that we spoke about last week both in that PK that describes creation. How did we go from being this lifeless being to being an animated vibrant living being? Because God took a deep breath into himself and breathed life into us. Distinguishes between the rest of creation that was created through the power of speech. God spoke. Speech is a very shallow form. Person doesn't lose their breath from speaking. But from blowing up a balloon, you can lose your breath. You could be if you're out of shape, you could pass out. We said this morning, we say every morning, you breathe life into me. Just like the zora says that when a person breathes, they breathe from inside themselves. So from the innermost depths of the being I mentioned to you in Barona Marona Corona I forgot what it's called when I was in Italy the glass blower who took a deep breath into himself through a tube and expanded the glass and then shaped it and that was a piece of himself. It wasn't a sculpture outside himself. It wasn't outwork that was external to himself. It was literally a piece of himself. And so took a deep breath within himself and he breathed life into us. When a person blows forcibly, he exhales with a deep rooted inner energy. And that's why the same word and nishima, breath and soul. How do we restore our soul? How do we make contact with our soul? How do we nourish our soul? Through deep breathing. One of the challenges of our generation, doctors and research shows that people are breathing in a very shallow way. Why? Because most people are looking down all day, scrolling and texting. And when you're looking down, you're not able to take, you're not taking deep and healthy breaths. We're breathing in a very shallow way, which is impacting our health, physical health, and with it mental and emotional health. It's one of the casualties and byproducts of technology of looking down all day. A person has to put it aside and disconnect and just breathe and breathe. That's why meditation in Torah, the notion of davining and deep breaths, the idea of reconnecting to our nama and to our soul with every breath and with every breath I praise you because the original soul came through breath and with breath we restore, we reaffirm, we reconnect. Says that's what blowing the chauffeur on rash is all about. I know it's but we're already getting ready for rash. That's what rashash the chauffeur is all about says this fus the baltoa has to take a deep breath within themselves the balto who tries to blow the chauffeur like speech in a very superficial way will pass out to really blow the chauffeur well to produce that great sound has to take a deep breath why rashash shana is the anniversary of when we got our soul through the original breath we reaffirm that the soul is still inside us through contact with that deep breath evidenced through the sound that comes from the chauffeur. In the same vein, the medish depicts that the Jewish souls have arisen in the mind of Hashem. The embraces tells us that even before the creation of the world was he already had the thought that he was going to create the nishmos, the souls of the Jewish people. When do we celebrate that? When did Hashem have that makaba? That thought even before he began creation, he was determined. He decided that he was going to create. When did that happen? When did it happen? It happened right before Mo Shabas. When did creation begin? When is Judaism? The day follows the night. That means creation began Saturday night. It's when began to create the world. When was the when did he have the thought before he began to create time of Shabas? That's why it's an it's a it's a time that was more predisposed to hear us to connect with him because that's when he made the decision to create. It's a time of it's the holiest time of the week. The of Shabas is the time of shi squandered or wasted. Don't sit around idly and schmoo. It's a time that people should be together at shul and connected with the ha and the holy shall. Okay, that's my shall plug as the says Jewish people are hashem's firstborn. So what's the connection between this medish that souls come from the mind of Hashem and the idea that we are the children of Hashem? What's the connection between the two? So Tanya now clarifies that point. We just said that we were decided by the way the I'm not done I guess yet with my shameless plug for it's already today's Wednesday of Shabas. So it's not too early to plug. It means that every moz shabas is the beginning of our creating our new week. And when do we decide who we'll be, how we'll live, what we'll achieve and accomplish. When do we have a vision and a dream of our purpose? We sing we're supposed to be thinking and picturing what is the week I'm going to begin to create withdah tonight on Shabas. So again, he was determined. He decided to create before he began creating. He decided to create us. I don't know why c my camera keeps giving out over here for those watching. Sorry. Can still hear hopefully. I'm not sure what's going on. What's the connection between we arose in Hashem's thoughts and and we are his children? Just as a child is derived from the brain of the father. Just like the child is derived from the brain of the father, so to each person is derived from Hashem's blessed thought and wisdom, so to speak. He's quoting the Now, where does this idea come from that the child is derived from the brain of the father? It came from the understanding of medieval science which believed that the seminal seed originates as an ethereal near spiritual substance that comes from the father's brain. Science thought at that time that the seed that led to procreation, the birth of a child began in the brain and made its way down the brain stem and the spine and it then came out the body below. And that's what science at the time thought. That's what the Balatana here is connecting with. Although the Balatana understands that anatomically it was incorrect and that ultimately still it has a spiritual metaphor or metaphorical um nevertheless correlary. Rabstein in his commentary writes the following. As this seed is released from the brain and passes through the body, it gradually coarsens and materializes until it assumes its physical form as a drop of semen. Thus, the child's relationship with his father is more than physical. It extends all the way to the core of their spiritual psychological being. The child's essence deriving from the father's brain, the seat of his consciousness and identity. In other words, the child originates as a particle of the father's personality. Not only by a complex process which unfolds within the father's body and continues in the womb does the child devolve and materialize into a being that is ostens ostensibly separate from its progenitor. In essence, where the child remains an integral part of the father's spiritual self. but continues by Steinel. If a contemporary person were to express this concept in terms of consistent with our current understanding of the process of procreation, he might say the pituitary gland in the father's brain generates the hormones that trigger the reproductive gland secretions of sperm. The pituitary gland does not function automatically is activated by an array of sensory and cognitive stimuli that are consciously assimilated and processed. In this model, we also see the connection between the father's mind and the seminal drop. Albeit not in terms of a source for a particular bit of matter that moves from point A to point B, but as the originator of causal process that begins with a conscious mind activity and culminates in the generation of the cell from which a child develops. So coming from the brain making its way down tries to say has to do with the pituitary gland. A chain of cause and effect runs from the metaphysical domain to the physical from a purely spiritual core of self through thought and sense through chemical processes in the brain through our other neurological and chemical processes in the body to the actual creation of the seminal seed. In truth, the process is far more complex consisting of many steps across the domains and so on. In this sense, the Jew is a child of Hashem and its primordial origins. The godly soul of the Jew is not just a creation generated by the divine will but an integral part of the divine manifestation itself. This is the level of the soul. It's called singularity. The point at which all souls of Israel constitute a single unit. On this level of being, the soul is no individual identity. Its essence is part of God above is manifest. So all individual souls coales and self-abnigate in face of the revealed divine unity which he then now goes on the balatana to explain further what that means. We're going to end in a moment. Um but just a little bit a little bit further. So again from antiquity to early modern period it was believed the male seed was physically derived from the cerebral matter of the brain and it passed through the spine and that's what the balatana is referring to. Although although the alterba made clear that he understood the idea not literally whether because he understood anatomically it wasn't correct or he also understood it as having an additional layer of interpretation but he writes in Torah or it must be a spiritual power that emerges from the brain. So Tanya uses the brain seed child connection to illustrate how the children of Hashem are connected with the thought and wisdom of the father concerning Hashem's wisdom that we are an extension we are created. We are the result of Hashem's wisdom. Concerning Hashem's wisdom, the Zorah writes, "He is wise." Dr. Wolf, you want to hear this? But not with a wisdom as we know it. Because we're not capable of knowing it. We're incapable of comprehending the omnipotent infinite God. So even though we describe that we are the creation, the extension, the manifestation of his wisdom, he is wise, but not with a wisdom that we can understand. We're using the same word that we relate to called wisdom, but his is an altogether categorically different wisdom, not one we can understand. As Raay Miller writes in his commentary, the way God knows something is fundamentally different to the way humans know things. A person and his knowledge remains two separate entities. Information is acquired. We acquire wisdom. It begins as something external to us and we acquire it. But he and his wisdom are one. It's not something which is acquired because his wisdom is altogether categorically different than ours. Writes when it comes to Hashem unlike humans God is simultaneously the power to know, the knower and the known. We are ourselves and then we gain we acquire wisdom. Hashem is the wisdom. He is the knower, the power to know and the known. The D writes the balatana. Listen carefully. This concept of understanding Hashem, the human being, the mere mortal cannot comprehend. The human being cannot comprehend. To suggest one can know and comprehend Hashem is to think they are Hashem which is an expression of which is heresy. As the Balata the alterba the founder of writes, that it is impossible for the human being to know as the says can you find God by searching when you think that your thoughts are God's thoughts his arm is your arm as anger as your anger is jealousy as your jealousy you're the metaphor whatever the language is then the alterbites you cannot know God you can connect only in the way he has revealed himself. We understand only that which he has allowed himself to be understood when he's mit but to suggest that we can his higher level understand that our wisdom or knowledge is anywhere in the same universe as his writes the alterba theat is incorrect is an expression of heresy a human being cannot comprehend will pick up with this limitation of what we can know and what we can to stand next week. Have a wonderful Isag.