Tanya (Part 18)

Good morning. Good morning, Booker. Welcome back to 10 minutes of meaning by generously sponsored by our dear friends at Marilyn and Michael Fedak. We're so grateful for their generosity. Please help yourself to thea station coffee or slushie or pastry. It's wonderful to have you here. So, back to Tanya. We're in the middle of pair of gimmel of Tanya. And just to tell you how much Tanya is on my mind, when I was just in a child this summer, I was at the mall and I went to order a coffee and they had three sizes of cups. And the what it's called? The bar. What? who makes coffee. What's the fancy name? >> Barista. >> The barista. I don't know if they call that in Israel, but the woman behind the counter in the mall in Israel, she said, "Would you like a Benoni? Which size do you want?" And I turned to her and I said, "Halav benoni." And she looked at me and she said, "What?" I said, "Yes, Benon, please." So anyway, Tanya on the mind that we qualify that we can be called that we're worthy of being benonim. Whether you're offering ordering a coffee or you're living life halavon, we're simply trying to be a benon. We're in the middle of parl. We spoke about first what is the animal soul. Then we spoke about what is the godly soul. The different components that comprise every of who we are. This tension, this battle, the animal inside us that we're not trying to slaughter or obliterate or purge. the animal that we're trying to train and elevate the godly soul and the multiple parts that the godly soul is made up of. Spoke about the tensos. We talk about the intellect control the emotion. And that's where we left off in the middle of perk gimmel which is where do feelings come from? We talk about the feelings awe and fear of hashem, love of hashem. We talk about the feelings we have interpersonally with one another and of course most significantly between us and hashem. Where do those feelings come from? Feelings in Torah, in Yiddishkite, feelings are not just ephemeral. They're not illdefined. They're not just what swells up inside us. They're not things that are just feelings that can't be put into words or can't be described. Genuine real feelings, authentic feelings, meaningful feelings, productive feelings emanate from the intellect. They begin from a place of thought and they're translated and expressed. They manifest then through feeling. And it's so important and it's so important to realize that this is a basis in the Tanya because the movement in the world to think that you fabang and you drink and you feel good and you emote but there's nothing happening up here. It's all about using whatever substances using whatever physical material things delicious food beverage in order to be able to just feel and emote and sing and dance and laugh and love. Those are all wonderful feelings, but they have to begin. They have to be nurtured. They have to be seated in the intellect. The divine soul's intellect, which is the power to understand all things. We began this last time is the first and the balat is introducing this philosophy, this world view, this paradigm, this existence, this identity is not the name of an organization that puts filling on people and make sure you have kosher food wherever you go. Isma and it's a worldview. It's an identity and the first because these aren't simply synonyms is it is a fusion of the two words a contraction of the power the potential of ma of inquisitiveness of curiosity of asking what is the power to say what is this I want to understand more I've been exposed to I have some spark of light some flash of light that something's happening here is the it is the power of potential of living a life of ma I want to know the wisdom and the being wise enough to say what's really happening what's the depth what's the profoundity what's going on over here I was talking tovki this morning who was talking we call a zakma aim is somebody a zak is somebody who's reached the right ripe old age who doesn't say I know everything I have all the answers I'm good to know to be a to be a wise elder is to have acquired is that no matter how old you are, no matter what you've experienced, no matter how much you've read, no matter how much you've learned, you're still asking the of you're still curious. You're still inquiring. You still want to know we call we call an expert. The expert is the person who doesn't say I've achieved perfection and expertise. I'm done. I'm the authority. What makes someone an expert in Yiddishkite? What makes someone a giddishkite? What makes someone that we admire and attach ourselves to inhite in Torah is that they have they still have the is potential like the potential that is inco through meditating in the mind to clarify idea its full richness and its depth. So is the is I have a flash of light that says there's something here. There's godliness here. There's wisdom here. There's something here. It's that flash of light. Now the analysis, the boundaries, the borders, the contempliveness to understand, to give the cognition what's happening here. That's called to analyze, to compare, to contrast, to try to go. The classic classic example of this or metaphor for this is I want to build a building. This is a great spot. This is a great piece of land, a great property. We want to expand. We want to build a building. That'sma is what are the architectural plans? And then is the materials and the details and how we're going to make it happen. These mental processes of are the father and mother that give birth to love of God, awe of God and fear of God. You can't wake up in the morning. You can't have a few and say, "Oh, I have such a hashem and you're asem." It begins not with a few. It begins not with some feelings that well up inside you. It begins not through a faban or a tish. I love and I enjoy and invite me to every one of those things but it begins in the and that then translate and express and manifest in the feelings. The feelings have to be born in his commentary won't get into it. He has pages and pages talk about these are the father and mother. Their inter relationship and interaction resembles between a father and a mother and procreation. Bina receives from As the father provides the seed, the nucleus, the bean of the mother develops into a many faceted entity. The koma he develops exactly the metaphor and the parallel in procreation and conception. A father, a mother, what they contribute, how conception happens, how gestation occurs are the union, the fusion of and that give birth to genuine feelings. So the feelings have to be founded in cognition and the intellect in a they can't come. They don't simply come on their own. Again, he has pages and pages and it's worth seeing. But those are the authentic feelings, not fleeting feelings, not feelings that disappear as soon as you sober up from the fabin. But a feeling that really transforms you. A feeling that really lasts is the feeling that the balatanya describes is born through the and the procreation process that gives birth to that genuine and that real and that lasting and that true feeling that comes from that combination of the and the beina. He also describes so also has a beautiful description and metaphor absorbs the full picture in a flash. This picture includes a full array of objects and relations but as a single indivisible point. The picture perceived by is unintelligible. Intellect in the common sense of the word begins with bina. The difference between is analogous to the difference between sight and hearing. Writes sight takes in the entire picture all the details in a single instant. Right? So when you see you see the panorama of the room or of the picture. There's chairs, there's tables, there's people, there's a camera, there's a microphone, there's a clock we're not paying attention to. There's a lot that's going on in the room. And you see it all as one indivisible one picture. Hearing is very different. Hearing cannot grasp a thing as a singular all-inclusive whole as a series of points present in a in a specific order and structure. If you're all talking at once, it just creates a lot of noise. Hearing has to be honed in focused one by one. By the same token is the mind's direct sight of a concept. The all embracing picture of all of its principles and particulars. The picture then passes from by the way of the 32 paths of wisdom that tell the story to Bina. Bina not only receives its information secondhand, receives it in a form that is essentially different from the manner of reception as a stream of particles rather than a snapshot image. So is like sight and bina is like hearing is like sound. Obviously there's a lot here. Every line of Tanya, every perk could take us a lifetime. We're not making much progress, but we at least aspire to. So that's why we're not going to go more into its depth. But viter a little bit in the Tanya. We really want to finish up or head towards finishing up the third perk. So in order to have genuine really lasting transformational feelings, they have to begin in meditations, the intellect, cognition, and these meditations are about the greatness and the majesty of Hashem. It's the picture of a cosmos, of a world, of a creator that then through bina is honed in through analysis, through concepts, through understanding. And the cognitive powers of your divine soul focus deeply on the greatness of Hashem. And here are the three things that should focus on says the number one that all existence is saturated with Hashem. This comes from a zawir that he fills all worlds. Hashem fills all of existence. There's no place empty of him. Number two, how all existence is engulfed in God. He transcends all worlds. And number three, in his presence, everything is zero. So, Hashem, the greatness of Hashem is existence is saturated with Hashem. All of existence is engulfed in God. And existence is voided by God. Meaning there can be nothing but him. He is so great, so omnipresent, so omnipotent. He has to constrict himself to enable and allow there to be space for us. But in truth and in essence, we are we're the matrix. In truth and in essence, we're an illusion. Really, all there is is him. He allows the space for this illusion to exist, this image of the in his imagination to exist. But in his presence, everything is nothing. So, so when a person contemplates those three things, if you meditate about those three things, if you look at the world and you feel every breeze and watch the rustle of every leaf and you hear every sound and you engage every experience and you encounter every seeming coincidence and you see through the glasses the prism of those three things that all existence is saturated with Hashem, that all existence is engulfed in Hashem and that there is nothing but Hashem. Then if you contemplate those three things then is born of born and aroused a reverence of Hashem's majesty the year to rever God and to feel shame in the presence of his greatness which is without limit. Hashem is the he is the limitless light. He doesn't have a beginning. He doesn't have an end. He's all powerful. He's all omnipotent. He is all of existence. He's everything. And when you think about that, you recoil and you realize I am nothing. I thought I'm something. I thought I I I I work, I achieve, I build, I earn, I do, I speak, I say, I think, I'm someone, I'm something, I have a family. I'm nothing. And you recoil with a very healthy. Now, there are two types of yer which the Baltan is going to get into. This ya hyroamus and ya of onesh, which is called we use that same word ya. And we ordinarily translate yra as fear. In some ways, it's a mistransation because the higher level of yer is not fear, but it's awe. All it's a word that's been corrupted. The word awesome. Everything and everyone is awesome. And if everything's awesome, then nothing is awesome. Because something truly awesome is aweinducing. It's awe inspiring. You feel a sense of awe. You get goosebumps. You're in the presence of greatness. You experience something great. You're in awe. You're in awe. I had the privilege to be in the Swiss Absol this summer and laavdil much holier and more beautiful to be in later this summer to be in the holy Israel. See sightes of Tavaria down from the Golan. You filled with awe. Wow. There is no rock like God say. There's no artist like God. He's the ultimate the greatest artist. And you feel this sense of awe. And a real awe makes you feel small. Makes you retreat. and makes you recoil because you're in the presence of greatness. That's awe. That's awe. There's also the year that's fear of Hashem that he's in charge. He's in control. He's the judge. He's the police and he has expectations of me and he holds me accountable. And if I don't perform and I don't live up to them, I'm in trouble. There's a consequence. So, I have a you know, some of us still feel every time a policeman passes you on the highway, oo police, a cop, uhoh. So that that's a p that's not an awe. You can be in awe of the police. You don't even know that particular police person that policeman, but you might see the lights in the car and say I have a healthy pad right now. That's a fear of a if you're going the speed limit, maybe you don't feel that. If you're of a heavy foot, maybe you feel it a little bit more, but that's a so the higher level is the sense of awe. So when you contemplate and you see the world through these three things, Hashem fills all of existence. He is all of existence and there is nothing but him. And you see the world through that. You see events unfold. You see nature. You see history. You see your own life through the hashk the providence that his interaction with us. Then you feel this awe this. And following the intellectual experience of reverence. If you meditate on reverence then not only do you feel awe and the goosebumps of the greatness of Hashem then you say uhoh. Am I living up to his expectations? Am I accountable for my actions? You feel a healthy healthy sense of and then after you feel awe then then you have a good healthy fear and then you feel love your heart will be ignited with rapturous love like a flaming fire. This is language borrowed from like a flaming fire a love and drawn close to Hashem like a flaming fire. This is the awe. We're living in a time we are awe deprived. Awe deprived. Research shows the capacity to feel awe is really important. It makes people more empathetic and generous and kind and humble. All is an emotional response to something that's vast and great. And we in the information age and it's only getting worse. We who have terabytes of information at our fingertips. We who through speech recognition can tell our car to come pull up and pick us up. We who now have AI and can create anything in a moment, we're less impressed and less filled with awe of anything. And that's having a terrible terrible detrimental effect on us. And we need we need awe. We need awe of awesome things and awesome people and we need awe ultimately of Hashem to find our place in the universe. It's so critically critically important and it's missing dangerously missing and it begins again with the intellect with the meditating with and the bina that then translates into the somus that sense of awe. I'll just end by telling you this story. I once wrote this article the home of the great composer Lewig van Beethoven has been preserved. It serves as a museum in Bon Germany. And one of the historical gems in the museum that was his home is his piano. Beethoven's piano where he composed most of his works. It's estimated to be worth more than $50 million and it's roped off in that museum. I've never been there, but the story told about a group of students from Vasser College who were visiting this Beethoven museum. And one of the students came into the room and was so tempted couldn't help it. Slipped the guard, the museum guard some money to say, "Could I play it for a moment?" And the guard allowed himself to be influenced by the generous tip and let the young woman be on the ropes for a few moments. and she sat at the piano and she knocked out some bars of Moonlight Sonata. And when she finished, her classmates applauded and it was great. She had played both Beethoven's piano, right? As she stepped back through the ropes, the young woman asked the guard, "I suppose over the year the great pianists that have come here have played the piano. I suppose I just followed so many of the great pianists who played Beethoven's piano." And the guard replied, "Actually, no, miss. In fact, just two years ago, I was standing in this very place when Paradeski visited the museum. He was accompanied by the director of the museum, the international press, who had all come in the hope that he would play the piano. When he entered the room, he stood over there where your friends are standing. He gazed at the piano in silent contemplation for 15 minutes. The director of the museum invited him to play the piano, but with tears welling in his eyes, he declined, saying he wasn't worthy to even touch it. And you look at the contrast. A person who has no idea really the greatness of Beethoven or his works has no problem playing around on his piano. But the more intellect, the more understanding, the more knowledge, the more the more bina you have, the more you recoil and say, "I'm unworthy. I'm filled with such awe. I'm filled with such awe." And that that story, that anecdote really is a description of the challenge of our time and our generation. What the balan is telling us and encouraging us is that we need awe of Hashem and that is that awe is born. It's conceived and then born in the meditative process of the intellect and in that translates into which then results in we are flamed with fervor and desire and longing. a a craving soul for the greatness of that light. So, it's not a feeling that comes out of nowhere. Certainly not a feeling that comes only by having a or singing a great song. Those things enhance and they're beautiful and they're nothing wrong. And I want to iterate, reiterate before you send me and bombard me with emails. I love, I attend, I host, I go, I live off of those tishes and fabans and getting together. But it can't be superficial and it can't be fake and it can't be counterfeit for it to be genuine, authentic and real. The Balatana writes, it has to be born through the fusion, the procreation of the meditative process of the intellect of giving birth to the saroma to that to that then lights us on fire. the soul in us wanting to draw close to the light and the place from which it comes to the point of close hes which we'll get up to we'll pick up with next week and we'll finish gimmel have a great day it should be a day we hear Go in the hummus.