Tanya (Part 23)

Good morning Boker to Boker to welcome back to 10 minutes of meaning our learning of Tanya together generously sponsored by Marilyn Michael Fedak. Please help yourself to coffee pastries or some slushy in Arabila cafe as we re-enter the fourth per of Tanya. We remain in the fourth per of Tanya. We last left off last week talking about how counterintuitive the balatanya had a bigish that even though I would think that the world of thought is considered internal the truth is thought is one of the lavush thought is one of the garments of the it's one of the garments that the soul wears thought speech and action are not intrinsic inherent they're not the essence of who we are they're garments that we wear with which we interact with with the world we also talked about was also the idea that it's through mitzvah, it's through the acts that we do even though they seem external that we are connecting and attaching ourselves to Hashem's essence. Because unlike the world of thought and action in which we are world of thought and feeling emotion in which we remain separate and apart, no matter how close someone is to their child or their spouse or their best friend, they're still two separate entities. But your arm is part of who you are. So Torah and Hashem are one. They're one. When we learn Torah, when we do a mitzvah, we are attaching. We are connected inherently and intrinsically to Hashem. And therefore, we're even closer. And that's what we left off with. So we pick up even though the Almighty is called the is a name of Hashem. Means he's without end. There are no boundaries. There is no end. His greatness can never be fathomemed. Says no human being, our limited finite comprehension can ever grasp him. We can't really have a understanding. We cannot fathom the almighty. So we'll see in a moment. Hashem constricts, restricts himself. He presents himself to us in a way that we can we can feel that we can that we can know him. But in essence, we could never know. My thoughts are not your thoughts. Nevertheless, Hashem's infinitude and utter oneness is consistent with the limited details of Torah, which we'll describe in a moment. But first, the Balanya sets it up, and this is very important. The Balatana sets it up that we must know, we cannot understand his essence. If you think you could describe or you could access or you could understand his essence, if you could know God, you'd be God. And none of us are God, that's a heretical thought. So therefore, belief in God comes with the concession with the admission that I believe in Hashem and I can't know him and I can't know why and the way he runs the world. I can learn, I can study, I can analyze, I could plum the depths, I could seek to understand, I could do everything that I can, but I cannot know his essence. I can only know what he chooses to let me know of him. So here the bal has another major he's quoting this is notes this is tell us migill in yakim to medum in several places tell us that where we find where we find acknowledgement of hashem's vastness and his greatness and his infinitude is where exactly where we find right there is where we find Hashem's humility. So classically, traditionally, this is taiched. This is understood to mean that Hashem is great and he's humble. And because he's so humble, whenever we talk about his greatness, we quickly also pivot to talk about his humility. That's how we ordinarily think of this that whenever we speak of Hashem's vastness and his greatness because he's so humble, we immediately pivot to also talk about his humility. But here the has a big it's a beautiful and he says the following. Usually we think of infinity as limitless expansiveness. I'm reading to you now from Miller. Usually we think of infinity as limitless expansiveness. The ability to extend in any direction without end. But as the great makubul mayor ibn gabay observed, if you would say that hashem is only infinite and can never express himself in a finite way, you would ironically be limiting him. If you said hashem is only in the heavens, he's only inaccessible, he's only far away, he's only infinite, and that he can't present himself in a finite way, then you'd be limiting him. You'd be limiting the infinite by saying he can't be finite. You'd be saying there's only one thing Hashem can't do in fact which is to be available accessible in a limited way to us to to resolve this paradox suggests that Hashem has both the ability to be infinite or to be finite because otherwise you diminish his perfection. He writes in aeshu seemingly somewhat paradoxically can choose not choose he is definitionally infinite and limitless but he chooses doesn't quote that but the say is the god of the heaven above but lest you think so far off omnipotent an infinite distant inaccessible. He also is able to lower himself to be here. He has aim. How does he get that? How does the infinite choose to also appear in a finite way? And the answer is constricted, he compacted his will and his wisdom into mitzvah. and the Torah and into our holy sacred texts of so the infinite appears through the finite through his diary the sacred Torah which is a description of locus and through the mitzvah that he gave us to connect to him. So if you say he's only infinite, you're ironically limiting him. But the infinite could also choose to beum to restrict, to constrict, to be accessible, to be available, to be limited. Why did Hashem perform this metaphysical wonder? Why would the infinite why would the infinite omnipotent want to limit and constrict himself? because there's no other way. He's infinite. We're finite. The only way the finite can attach to the infinite is if the infinite chooses to appear to be available and accessible in a finite way. What's the finite way in which he's available and accessible? In us can connect and attach to the infinite through his appearing finite. So through these three of thought, speech and action, thought and Torah, speech and Torah, action of mitzvos, through thought, speech and action of the we connect in the 10 spheros ways, these garments, we are attaching ourselves to Hashem. How? That's impossible. is infinite because this is where you find his greatness, you find his humility. Again, traditionally, classically, that's understood to mean whenever we la and praise how great and vast he is, we quickly also mention how humble he is. But the Balta is the mad is understanding it differently. This is not just we quickly recoil and also mention his humility. It means the same way you believe he's infinite, you must also believe he can choose to appear finite. Sham in the same way that you find him to be limitless and infinite. You must also find him through his choice to be when he wants to be finite and limited. It's a it's a totally different way of understanding that but that's the concept of that chooses chooses of aldulos billion times you know a a prominent physics professor who can speak brilliantly and understands vastly but is trying to explain a basic comp concept to an ignoramist like me. So even though his knowledge is not infinite and limitless but it is relative to mine but for me to be able to connect to what he wants to teach me about physics is going to what we'll call dumb it down physics for dummies is infinite and limitless but he creates a world where there's hashem for dummies he would never call us dummies we're not dummies the balatana wouldn't call us dummies but it means it appears in this kind of way continues to bolster this point. And it's for this reason that our rabbis compare Torah to water just as water flows from a high level to a low level. So the same way water always flows to the lowest point. Just ask the Boka Resort and Country Club. Anyone see those videos from the flooding on Sunday, Monday? Water flows from the highest point to the lowest. The lowest point was the lobby of the Bo resort and country club. We got you saw the monsoon. You lived through that monsoon on Sunday the mul. We didn't just learn the para wanted us to recreate it. So water flows from the highest point to the lowest point. So to T to T to T to T to T to T to T to T to T to T tora. So to Torah comes from the highest most sublime setting, the highest point of the heavens and it's able to flow down. It can come where the one and even though nobody can grasp him, it comes from a place of comes from a place that nobody could grasp, nobody can understand and it flows down. It journeys downward to the hidden place in the steps unaffected by the step by step downward spiral. It's not diluted. It's not diminished. It's not compromised. It's not distorted. And all of a sudden, Torah is now in the chauffeur. Torah can be found in the food that I eat. Make Torah is found in my pillow in my bed where I sleep by transforming sleep into a holy activity. Taurus found on Estie's playground at Bocaraton synagogue. Someone who was blown away by our openings. Pasani said to me, "Who ever heard of turning a slide in monkey bars into something spiritual and holy?" When you heard a mascul speak what it means to him what we do what we want to accomplish there the goal of children's play the education the imitating emulating estie with Torah perspective and viewpoint you could take sublime ethereal inaccessible holy and high ideas and they can transform a slide and a monkey bars they could transform your lunch into something holy the cup of coffee into an opportunity to make a braha mitzvah the 24 books of was able to articulate and communicate, transmit from the loft to ethereal to draw it down without being compromised. You know, the water from when it falls and it's pure and it's clean and it's clear and then it runs on the ground. When it goes through all of its places of flowing to the lowest point, by the time it gets there, it's mold. It's filled with bugs and insects. It's dirty and it's disgusting. Torah, Torah, not so Torah begins up there, but through the it's not diminished, distorted, diluted, and it doesn't become contaminated. Nevertheless, all of this was in order that every mind should be able to grasp it. A simple person, a child, a brilliant mind, everybody can grasp and has access through the garments of speech and action which are more superficial should be able to grasp them and dress in them. So that's what a kosh gave us and that's how kosh works. I want to end just by sharing with you explains this with another metaphor when he talks about the water flowing down. For an analogy of sorts we might consider the computer. Computer we can understand on many levels. The most fundamental level theory how the computer operates extremely complex requires specialized expertise very few people are able to master but on a more superficial level with a minimum of mental ability achieve a certain mastery of the computer. So example, anyone here a programmer? Anyone here speak code? Behind every app and every program that you're using, there's a code. If you and I look at that code, it's gibberish. If we look at that code, it's nonsense. If we look at that code, we can't make heads or tails of it. We know how to use the app. We know how to access access the internet. We know how to benefit from the computer because the coders and programmers what makes them good is that they code and program it appears on the other side simple and straightforward. We know how to use it in a simple and straightforward way but on the back end there's a complicated code and program similar way. Torah is incomprehensible as elemental level but a great part of it translates into deed and rules dos and don'ts that anyone can relate to with the Torah to remain in the superal worlds as abstract it could not relate to the ordinary person but when the Torah successfully reformulates itself to the point it instructs that we have to give gifts to the poor and purum everyone knows what to do if you everyone knows what to do it's user friendly right apple user friendly you don't have to read an instruction manual I don't think it comes with an instruction manual you open it you start touching things and playing with things It's user friendly, self-explanatory. That's all because on the back end there's some code and program that we can't begin to understand. But on the other end, it's available, accessible, user friendly. So similarly, on the back end of this world is the infinite, the limitless is the but he chose to program and code a world where on our end we're living with mitzvos and Torah, which are apps that we understand. They're user friendly. we're able to figure them out and we're able to benefit them in the most magnificent magnificent ways. So it's when we learn Torah and it's when we do mitzvah that we're connecting in the most deep way. We're not connecting and attaching as two separate entities to Hashem. We integrate and organically become one together with him. Have a wonderful day. It should be a day filled with Yeshua. Amen. >> Thanks for staying.