Tanya (Part 22)

Okay, good morning and good kesh to all. Welcome back to Tanya. 10 minutes of meaning generously sponsored by Marilyn and Michael Fedak. Please help yourself to coffee slushy pastry in our corner. Spend time in our BRS cafe after we finish our 10 minutes of meeting. We're in the fourth perk of Tanya, the fourth chapter of the holy Tanya. We have been learning about the three garments of the soul in speech, thought and action that seem to be an external manifestation of what's happening to us internally. And they are the expression of the two qualities of yera and ava of awe and of love. And where we last left off, the balatana was telling us that aa is the shish love is the root of the 248 positive commandments and awe or reverence often translated or mistransated as fear is the root of the negative prohibitions. and that these are not simply random uh laws of the Torah, but they actually are the ability to manifest and to express our innermost feelings, our innermost emotions or what we'll call the midos, the midos that are inside each and every one of us. In other words, it's not enough to feel love and awe, but that has to be put and placed into action. So, if someone tells their spouse, "I love you. You're the greatest. You mean the world to me. You're my other half. You complete me. And they say, "That's all wonderful. Would you mind taking out the garbage?" Yeah, I wouldn't mind. Not interested. Could you put the cap on the toothpaste as I've asked a thousand times? No, but I really love you. I love you incredibly. I love you insanely. I love you more than anything in the world. Well, that spouse might question the quality of that love, the authenticity of that love because a love without expression in action. And similarly when it comes to awe, reverence, what we'll call fear. If I say please don't do that, that crosses a line, a boundary, it creates a reaction in me this way. I'm asking you, this is a need I have. Please don't do that. And you say, I have tremendous reverence. I have tremendous awe for you. But then I walk all over you and cross every line that you set. Where's the awe and where's the reverence? So the external manifestation the world of action is revealing how authentic or real is that world of that inner world. So until this point per dollar has clarified that the outer self the garments of thought speech and action and we spent significant time on the idea that I would have thought personally that thought begin belongs to the inner world not the outer world I would have thought that speech and action are the outer manifestation or expression of me of my inner world but what I think is my inner world and that's the bala was that it's not true even the thoughts that come to us are not the essence of who we are they're not part of our core identity. They're not our inner world. They're our outer world too. And that's when we spend time on how we can control and regulate our thoughts. Our thoughts knock, but we can decide and determine whether to let them in. So whether it's indomavening and external thoughts come trying to distract us, whether it's thoughts that are unhealthy, whether it's thoughts of jealousy or anger or arrogance, whether it's thoughts of fantasy and indulgence and things we shouldn't be doing. Those thoughts are not part of our inner world. But those thoughts that no one is necessarily has access to. Those thoughts that are inside us, but they are in itself an outer world. They are lavush. They're a garment that is being worn by us, but they're not us essentially. So until now, we've been talking about the garments of thought, speech, and of action. In completing the inner self, the inner self is the world of das and das. The inner world is the inner world of the intellect and the world of emotion. Which is the more real world? The inner world or the outer world. Now before you got to the second half of perical of Tanya, I would have thought the inner world is the authentic real me. And the outer world, just like if I asked you, who's the real you? The one you see in the mirror. Who's the real you? The one that the lab report gives the results of how you're doing. Who's the real you? the one when you stand without clothing on or is the real you. If you look in your closet and you see all the garments that you rotate in your wardrobe and wear, which is the real you? So, I would have thought my wardrobe, my garments, they're certainly part of my creative process, my self-expression, and they're part of how I identify, but they're not the real me. They're just my garments. They're my wardrobe. And they can change as the style changes. They can change as they wear out. They can change. I would have thought my garments, my wardrobe is not the real me. The real me is what's underneath it. And similarly, I would have thought the real me is the world of intellect and emotion. And the world of thought, speech, and action. The outer world is just the way I express them, but it's not the real me. And yet the bal comes here and he says the opposite. These three garments when devoted to Torah and mitzvah even though our thought our speech and our action they're called garments compared to the essence of who we are. They are of infinitely greater level and quality than the actual this is entirely counterintuitive. This goes against at least what I thought intuitively my intellect and my emotions that's the real me and things I say and things I think and thing I do maybe I gave in maybe I indulged maybe I was distracted that's not the real me comes along and he says no the world of thought speech and action and these are his language they're of infinitely greater level and quality he's making a striking proposition that the lavush, the garment, the clothing, the external of the person, the outer self is more significant than the inner self, than the inner soul. And what does he mean? He didn't make this up. Lest you think it's a radical idea of the he's quoting the zor says the Torah and are one perish. The Torah which is the ultimate wisdom of Hashem and the will of Hashem. Interesting. It's both the wisdom and the will of Hashem is something that would be a mere glimmer of divine essence is completely one with him with Hashem. It's not that there is a Hashem infinite omnipotent source of everything and then he needs to communicate with us. So he came up with his Torah and he came up with his mitzvah. No, the Torah and the mitzvah are completely one. He's one together. Torah and mitzvah are not just the wisdom and will of Hashem. They are the essence. They are the actual Hashem. Hashem is simultaneously. Listen carefully. This is a reference to the Rambam. He is the knower and the power to know and that which is known. Hashem is the knower and the power to know and that which is known all at the same time. So Miller does a great job of giving this as a metaphor. Right? Because this sounds very esoteric. What does this mean? Is not just Torah mitzvah are not just how he communicates with us but it is the essence of who he is. And when we connect with them even though it's through our outer self and the garment it's more authentic and higher. It's more real than anything happening inside. What is he saying? So Miller has the following. He says there's a difference between being one with God and being close to him. You might be extremely close to your best friend, to your spouse, to your child, but in the end of the day, you are two distinct separate people. Could be your best friend, BFF, tell each other everything, know everything, finish each other's sentences. Could be your spouse. It's your other half, your bash. You're meant to be. It could be your child. They come from your very flesh. They are an extension of you. But in the end of the day, that child, that spouse, that best friend, as close as connected, as complimentary, as completing that you are to each other, you're two separate people. What about on the other hand, your arm? Your arm is totally one with you. Your arm never has to decide, do I want to go with you? I want to sleep in. Do I want to eat that dinner? I'm going to go for the fleshiks instead of the milik. Your arm is you. It never betrays you. It never abandons you. It by definition goes with you. Why? Because unlike a spouse or a child or your best friend, as close as you are, but ultimately still is separate, your arm is you. Your soul, listen carefully now. Your soul is your ch soul more like your child or your arm. I I would have thought my soul is my arm. I have an arm and I am a soul. But says the balatanya, your soul is a child of Hashem. And it could also be one of Hashem's spouses, the love of Hashem, but it's not one with Hashem. A mitzvah is a limb of Hashem. It's part of him. So when through the garment of thought, speech, or action, we do a mitzvah, that garment becomes one with Hashem's very self, so to speak. I'm going to say that again. Our nishama, as close as we are, as connected as we feel, as much as it's me, is a child of Hashem. In the end of the day, it's still separate and apart. But when I do a mitzvah, when I learn the Torah, when I connect to Hashem, then that's connecting to the essence. That's the aum of Hashem. The arm of Hashem. And so very counterintuitively, very counterintuitively. Well, I would have thought that my soul is me. And the garments I put on, I take off, I wear the external part is not the higher more authentic comes along the baladesh. A radical idea based on the zor that Hashem and his Torah are one. So if Hashem and his Torah are one, how do I become one with Hashem? By attaching to his Torah. Even though the way I attach to his Torah are through the three garments that are external thought, speech and action, the way I connect to Torah is through the garment which is external. But it's only by attack connecting to Torah that I get to the essence of him. If I only connect to my soul, then I'm connecting to something very close with him, the son of him, the the love of him, Hashem's BFF, but I'm still not connecting to his essence. You follow? That means to say that means to say that means to say that if I could sit here and meditate in fabang and nourish my soul and sing and feel super connected or I can open a safer and learn his Torah or go and do a mitzvah which is higher and holier doing the mitzvah because sitting in fabbringing with my nishama is spending time with Hashem's son with Hashem's spouse with Hashem's best friend but going and doing a mitzvah opening and learning a safer I've now just attached myself and connected to him to him that doesn't mean that we shouldn't also fabang and enjoy and spend time with our nish it's nice to spend time with a child of Hashem with a spouse of Hashem with Hashem's BFF that's also important that's also meaningful that also matters but which is higher and holier which is loftier which is our ambition and our drive which is our priority and more central it's attaching ourselves to his Torah and to his mitzvah and to his mitzvah. I can liken it even taking that metaphor further, right? In other words, if you want to connect with me, when you spend time with my child or my spouse or my friend, we've developed a relationship and a connection, then that's meaningful. You come to know me, but it doesn't compare to attaching to me, to connecting to me, to being together with me. Shalom is the same thing through his Torah and through his mitzvah. So even though it's impossible to fully understand, Hashem has invested himself in this Torah to such a way that he has become completely one with it. That's what the rest of Perkdal is going to now explain. If Hashem is infinite, omnipotent, and he's beyond comprehension, how can we attach ourselves to him? Or how does he become one with his Torah which seems to be finite? His Torah is a book. It's made up of letters and sentences and ink and parchment. And it's a Torah that's part of the down here in this world. If he's infinite, omnipotent and endless, how does he express himself? Do one more sense. Hashem is called throughout the there is no end. There are no boundaries. He's limitless and his greatness is beyond comprehension. And no thought can really grasp him at all. He's beyond our comprehension. Or put differently for those who know, you cannot know his essence. You cannot know his essence. No thought can grasp him at all. His will and his wisdom are depicted as non-graspable. The bala goes out of his way to quote several to remind and reinforce us. Don't think you can know his essence. Don't think you can know his essence. So if we can't know his essence, how can he be one with his Torah and we can then attach through his Torah? So we'll pick up with this next time. The is going to have another big every sentence of Tanya. You think you're just learning Tanya. You complete that day's Tanya. You're just laning it up. But every sentence you have to know how the rest of the world understood it until the Tanya came along and then what the Tanya said that made you understand it now differently than everyone else. Where you find Hashem's greatness, you also find his humility. So the rest of the world always understood that to mean that every time there's a reference to his greatness, the Torah has an equal opposite to remind us that he's humble and modest. That the greatness is not a flex. He's not flaunting. He's not showing off. The greatness is an expression of him. But the essence of him is to be humble and modest. Tanya says that's not what it means at all or at least there's another layer of what it means and that is cliffhanger what we will pick up with next week. Wishing everyone a good a good a and every other phrase and expression you can think of will pick up next time.