Text-Based Tanya—Week #77

weekly Tech space Tanya what chapter are we on 43 you're all correct exactly 43. um with chapter 41 we've started learning about different types and levels of awe and love the two main emotions of course these emotions are all directed toward Hashem so of Hashem and love of Hashem and we're going to continue that theme through chapter 50 41-50 is all about different types of all in love and how do we generate the different types of on love what do we do meditate so basically we're learning different ideas now you're going to say meditate oh I'm going to sit on the floor and I'm gonna light some incense and I'm gonna clear my mind no I'm not talking about that kind of meditation I'm talking about contemplating deeply on the subjects that we're learning in other words we are learning the subjects for the meditations I can't do the meditation for you I can teach you what to think about but then you got to go and think about it so that's what we're doing we're going to learn things that if you think about it these ideas will generate love or awe accordingly so you got you have to actually go think about it okay at the beginning of chapter 43 betting Virginia regarding the lower level of all remember we spoke about two levels of all the lower level on the higher level okay so regarding the lower level of other which we mentioned in the previous chapter which we said is the level of awe that is sufficient to get you to actually do the mitzvahs how much are well I mean emotions really have no limit they're endless there are always higher levels of all so the lower level of all is the enough awe to get you to behave yourself to inhibit your behaviors to curb your behaviors and to do what Hashem wants you to do instead of whatever you feel like doing and regarding that lower level of all our sages our sages have said if there is no awe fear then there is no wisdom Vegas and within this there is a small type Uber can is God lost a big type all right so we're further breaking down this level of lower of lower awe lower fear is Hashem what does it mean the two different levels well one level is when the lower all comes from meditation on the greatness of Hashem more specifically what do you meditate on the um that he fills all worlds meaning he permeates existence that between one firmament and the other is a travel of 500 years and in between each firmament is another 500 years and at the feet of the highest angels are higher than all of the world these are Concepts that probably are hard to relate to the point is the vastness of creation we're meditating on the vastness of creation okay and also you think about all of the different worlds the spiritual worlds so you think about the vastness of it all not just the physical universe but of all the different planes of reality that's what you're meditating on Wow Alpha PK nevertheless nevertheless this fear or all of Hashem that comes from this meditation is called superficial why because it results from your contemplation of the Worlds and the worlds are merely the garments of the Holy Kingston which Hashem envelops himself in in order to enliven ESS however this level of awe though we're calling it superficial is the gate or portal to the performance of mitzvahs okay let's just review this there is a lower level of awe and particularly a superficial type of lower level of awe which comes from meditating upon what subject [Music] okay the vastness of creation including all of the spiritual worlds and it's like wow if the worlds are that vast if the worlds are so big I can't even wrap my mind around it so Hashem is so much bigger right and that in that induces a feeling of awe right makes sense that would make you feel awe okay however he says what are you getting impressed with you're getting impressed with worlds worlds worlds are superficial it's not Hashem himself Hashem invests himself in the worlds in order to enliven them but you're really you're getting more impressed with his project than himself you're getting more impressed with the the finite accomplishments of the infinite one so as much as that's very mind-blowing and it's awe-inspiring literally awe-inspiring it inspires the feeling of awe there are other types of all in this particular type of law we describe as relatively superficial because what are you being impressed with you're being impressed with worlds but it does the job very good and that's the point of it is that it translates into a sufficient motivation for controlling your behavior okay but there's a loftier level of awe which we call shame awe of shame but I don't like the word shame because most people think of toxic shame they think about self-consciousness self-obsession self-hatred and that's not what this is at all universes the awe of shame or the shame like awe is not self-hatred at all because that's self-obsession it's a Feeling that it's weird and uncomfortable for me to exist as a conscious ego and thereby present myself as anything separate from Hashem how could that even be how can there be anything but him so the First Love of All was I'm getting blown away by the worlds but the higher level of awe is the concept of of totality that Hashem is everything and that even my separate sense of self doesn't belong in that in that context what it's kind of yeah deeply humbling that not just humble like oh I'm not so proud of my accomplishments but more like my existence itself like why do I exist like only Hashem exists it's so weird that I have this conscious awareness of self why should I be why should that even why should I even have that concept yes yeah but that's that's another phase that's another meditation yeah don't you're so scared of maybe uh what This Bitter will do you're already mitigating it by saying what you would do afterwards he's already telling me to come down just don't worry you know you won't won't hurt anybody to totally surrender to this feeling like this whole class is only an hour I don't think it'll destroy anyone to to do this for an hour okay there's an inner level of awe which comes from the inner quality of godliness which is in the worlds meaning that the worlds That's The Superficial thing to be impressed by but the godliness itself so regarding this level it says now hold on do you remember a few lines earlier at the beginning of the chapter we mentioned now he's saying image switched it on us what maybe they're the same but they're opposite you need a certain number so which is first we have two formulations we have so which one was first that was the lower level okay and presumably the lower levels first because if we're going through a process we start with the lower level sure so why is the lower level s [Music] well remember what he said email what what was the takeaway from the first level which he called what will be the result of it yeah it leads you to termites okay very basic yeah it's the first level of course well you have to work for both of them well even revealing the innate fears work yeah we've spoken about that yeah yeah um the first level we're talking about the most basic level of yira we're not talking about a deep deep deep appreciation of Hashem we're talking about just enough of an appreciation that will get you to live according to hashem's rules instead of doing what you want to do so that's the first level of Europe yeah that's true too yeah so you start with the the basic basic unit just means control yourself just inhibit yourself and and do what Hashem wants and then that leads to hakma basically on the lowest level means a level of of living according to Toyota Mitzvahs image if you don't have a modicum of respect for Hashem reverence then you're not gonna monitor your behaviors and you're not going to choose accordingly so then in kakama you're not going to live a life means just living an observant life however then after you do that there's a level of awe higher level of awe that can only be reached after you're living in accordance with hashem's Will so there's a level of awe required to just get yourself to begin living the way you need to live but then there's a level of awe that you'll only attain after you're living how you need to live that's why there's two levels what it is yeah it is peaceful yeah and more surrendered it is total surrender yeah yes or in general is surrender how do we get there okay through uh the process the first thing is we have to do the lower level of awe so we do contemplate the Grandeur of all the creation and the universe and the worlds and that instills us with a certain level of reverence which then leads us to live a life aligned with hashem's Will and then living a life aligned with hashem's Will allows us to to reach the higher level of contemplating really how our own separate existence is an anomaly makes no sense and then we reach the higher level of all he'll explain here what we call hawkmo we translated those wisdom he comes from two words Ma qma is the transmission over the ladders four letters the power of ma ma means what but it also means the unknown the unidentifiable or like it says comes from Ayan from nothingness comes from nothingness it comes from nothing it's because it's invention it's the first thought that pops in out of nowhere seemingly out of nowhere from another plane also we say who is a person who sees what will be born meaning someone who is prescient to somebody who can see what is going to happen and here though he explains a little bit differently he says what it means is he looks at everything and sees how it's being born from nothingness how it's the speech of Hashem and the breath of hashem's mouth that is causing this thing to come into existence all of the heavens are the hosts of the heavens are created through the breath of his mouth is the one who recognizes the relative non-existence of all of creation that yes it exists but it does not have its own autonomous existence it is constantly being brought into something this out of nothingness and even while it's being brought into something that's out of nothingness that is an imposed State the essence and the default of all created beings is nothingness nothing truly exists but Hashem the ELO's ice accordingly the heavens and the Earth and everything in them they're all nullified completely to hashem's speech clay mama metaphorically speaking the relative non-existence of the created beings is like the relative non-existence of the Sun Ray within the sun you've heard that metaphor before so now we're coming to the higher level of awe not just the lower level of all where we're blown away by the vastness of hashem's creation but the higher level of awe where we are contemplating the relative non-existence of creation there's nothing but him you know the Sun Ray within the sun metaphor I'll review it for those who don't remember or who weren't here you look at a ray of sun and it has an identity you can look at it you label it you point to it but then you go up to the Sun and you don't find a Sun Ray in the sun where is your Sun Ray where did your Sun Ray go there are no sun rays in the Sun the whole phenomenon of a Sun Ray only exists away from the Sun so too the whole phenomenon of the appearance of creation only exists because we are removed from seeing the essence of the Creator so therefore we see creation but in reality if you would Trace all creation to its source within the Creator it has no distinct discrete identity unto itself there is only one Essence there's only one existence so this is the contemplation of the higher level of awe if we nullify creation then all we have left is the true essence of Hashem the Buddhists have a very simple solution for this they'll tell you that the phenomenological universe is an illusion that's a very easy way of dealing with this whole thing we're not so lucky the kavana of Shema yeah is that everything is Oneness so like I was saying the Buddhists I don't want to teach Buddhism God forbid but they just say that the world doesn't exist it's an illusion it's a dream we say now the world exists but the manner in which it exists is the subject of of a very common delusion we are deluded about the nature of created existence we think of it as a secondary or inferior type of existence to hashem's existence right there's the Creator's existence which is primary in the creation's existence which is secondary wrong creation is not a separate existence even in inferior grade of existence there's only one existence so that's what we're contemplating now that there is but one existence absolute existence who we call Hashem well there's an illusion there's a delusion yeah an illusion means something that's not there delusion means it's there but you're mistaken about your uh how yeah what you think it is yeah yeah so we are deluded by the nature of creation because we know well we are except for Hashem we have cities to learn yeah I'm saying our default setting the brains that Hashem designed the brain the human mind that was biologically engineered by the Creator was made to be very easily deluded about the nature of the phenomenological universe that's part of the plan but Hashem we have these holy texts that allow us to rise above the delusion and that's also is that also the reason Shabbat the first letter um that is but I don't I don't know I don't know I can't follow the logic so when we say that we're we're supposed to be building a place for Hashem in this world that's our real purpose yeah so just trying to you know um yeah don't worry about it right now yeah but you're talking about yeah don't worry about it right now let's just focus on this one let's just be here because if we had a six hour class I would allow us to take a walk down different corridors and then eventually come back to the main place but don't let's just stay with this it's okay it's not going to kill anybody I love how the survival mechanism gets totally triggered here everybody's like it's so funny it's like you would think of like turning out the lights and playing spooky music you guys are acting like such a threat that we're even talking about these ideas like it's a fully lit room anybody who's feeling queasy could walk right out the door go get some fresh air walk out onto Central Avenue it's okay it's okay we're going to talk about the non-existence of the universe and nobody's gonna die it's going to be okay we're all God yeah well everything's God there's only God okay no no I don't want to undo that let's just be there let's just be there it's okay it's all right very soon it'll be one o'clock and everyone's gonna go look at their phone and they're gonna have to deal with the world it's okay for half an hour we just let ourselves completely get into this concept okay I don't know I'm not dialing it back yeah okay that's one of the ways of expressing the idea okay and a person should not exclude himself from this category you know what that means it means you look me around you're like oh wow the trees are really just hashem's speech oh the cars are ashamed speech oh the clouds speech yeah what about you me yeah it's not just what you're looking at it's what you're looking with not just everything you're looking at is really the Oneness it's what you're looking with it's also the Oneness there's no therefore just be be present with this concept well this book is called savior so apparently this is not a level only for exotic meaning to say it's okay for you to learn it you wanted an excuse me oh shoot I just read the specialty page ladies forget it let's turn the page quickly let's get out of this this is not for you no it is for you it is for you this is for you guys that's part of the meditation yes I mean you have to go meditate on it yes yes okay that even your body your Netflix your levels of your soul are also all bottlesios they also lack any separate existence other than the word the Divine speech it's all Divine speech everything you're looking at and what you're looking with it's all Divine speech this is a higher level of all and if anybody tries to kill this Buzz one more time you're going to be you're going to get a a band you're going to get a band we're gonna ban you never banned anyone from the class yet but I'm threatening a band what Michelle enough okay so funny how threatening this subject is okay we're gonna do it we're just gonna lean into it it's okay at the end of class your cell phone will still be there and all the tedium of this world you can always return to the tedium of this world and if you're feeling like you're flying too high you can even glance at your phone right now and you completely sucked out of this experience just don't ruin it for the rest of us we're all trying to get into it okay Hashem speech is united with his thought conditional like we spoke about above aleph in chapters 20 and 21. hashem's speech is united with his thoughts we spoke about it at length and we metaphorically explained it comparing it to a person that one word from a person does nothing to deplete the person it's not like it's taking away anything from the substance of the person so relatively speaking a one word from a person is nothing compared to the person who generates that word and the world all of the worlds are hashem's words and they are relatively therefore nothing compared to Hashem who issues those words this is what it means isma is the ability to perceive how all that we relate to as something is really nothing and that is what leads to the real yida the higher level of Europe is the ability to perceive that everything that we relate to as something is really nothing it's non-existence and that leads to the higher level of Judah see the lower level you know was pondering the Grandeur of existence the higher level you're just pondering non-existence okay [Music] however it is impossible to reach that level of and I don't want to translate it as wisdom but the ability to see the nothingness it's impossible to reach those levels except through performance of Toyota and Mitzvahs you have to lead an observant life which is brought on by having the lower level of awe which is attached to contemplating the the creation that's what we said at the beginning of the chapter if you don't have a certain maticum of respect and reverence for Hashem then you will not have you won't live in observant life but if you don't live in observant life you will not be able to reach the higher level of awe where you perceive the relative non-existence of creation so you need the yira lower level unit to get the kakama in order to have the to reach the higher level of Europe okay so that was one actually it's two meditations a lower level meditation which instills the lower level awe and a higher level meditation that instills the higher level of awe you're all clear on what these subjects are okay now watch what he does in ahava in love there are also two levels so we just learned two levels of yira or now we're going to learn two levels of ahava of love one level is called great love abundant love the other is called avas Elam obvious Alum is tricky to translate because the word Islam what one way you could translate it and it makes sense to translate it this way based on other contexts is eternal love Ava Salem like but that's actually not what it means here yeah Ava Salem here means love that comes from Islam that comes from the world remember the level of Gyro that comes from the world so there's a level of love that also comes from the world and it's the lower level of the two loves just like it's the lower level of the two Oz would be the higher level of the two loves we're going to find out the higher level which we call Abundant Love Game it has a nickname it's also called a love of delights delightful love Blissful love pleasure love the he shall have Asylum it's like a flame that rises of its own Accords passionate blissed out love of Hashem where do we get it from um it comes from above unilaterally as a gift to those who are already complete in their yira in their awe Canada like it's known from the saying of our sages it is the manner of a manner of a man to follow a woman that means a man is supposed to go out and find his wife she's not supposed to find him he's supposed to find her well masculinity is love femininity is awe so it is the way of the love to follow the awe you're only going to get after you are perfect in your awe love is called man or for masculine commissioner says words which means khasid which is kindness which is love is masculine the Isha and a woman is Hashem he says like it says in Asia Canada like it's known without first having the AWS you will never get to him because that level of Ava is from the level of atsilos the highest world the world of emanation where there is no separation and you can't have anything from that world until you're ready for it you won't be ready for it until you reach the higher level of awe what no why why are you being morbid you can't reach it I said how you get it you can't reach it it's a it's a gift that's given well it's not automatic like it just happens out of nowhere there's a very automatic one two once you have yeah once once you've done all that stuff yeah then it's automatic I mean it's now automatic like out of nowhere it's automatic based on a whole context yeah what yeah you have to be perfect in both levels of Europe and then you'll get the avaraba and that's a level of love that is an absolute Delight it's called which means pleasurable love Blissful love it's a feeling of being just completely smitten completely in love with Hashem and it's uh just a really pleasurable experience and it's intense he calls it a flame fire that rises up of its own accord it's an intense Blissful experience yeah the hidden latent love that's in the heart of every Jew that's the bequest of the the office what about it where does it fit in yeah yeah we're going to talk about it's very good you're thinking in the right you're thinking in the right direction okay because where where is I don't know if this is your thought process but it's like so far the past few chapters we're talking a lot about love that is generated through meditation and you're remembering back to chapter 18 you're like well what about the love that is not for meditation it's just there because we all have it yeah that's a great question so we're going to actually get to that very soon yeah yeah okay however the other type of Love which we call ahavas Islam which I told you doesn't really mean eternal love it means worldly love it it comes from meditating on the greatness of the infinite one who fills all worlds and surrounds all worlds and that everything before Hashem is considered as not uh and the metaphor for that is that the relative non-existence of the world is similar to the relative non-existence of a word before it's spoken while it's still in one's mind or an emotion that one feels before it's felt while it's still in a cognitive state now when you do this meditation you think about the world and its relative non-existence this will automatically cause one to have a feeling of love and that that love will become divested from its current garment what does that mean the high note that means shalite to slavish that your love will no longer be invested in any worldly physical pleasure Village you will no longer desire anything of this world who is the source of all of the worldly pleasures that everything in the world is not before him before him there's no comparison between the creation and the Creator like you can't compare nothingness to eternality that's about how incomparable who is there for me in the heaven meaning in the spiritual Realms what am I interested in it's a rhetorical question nothing and aside for Hashem what is there that I want on this Earth rhetorical question nothing my body and my my heart yearned for him use the rock of my heart the commission use boiler coming like it's explained elsewhere in other words what does he explain he explains that the lower level of Love called Ava Salam begins with a contemplation upon the great the greatness of the world similar to the contemplation of the lower level of awe begins with the contemplation on the greatness of the world but what happens is you start contemplating the world oh wow there's so much in the world it's so delightful it's so so wonderful there's so much in this world that I'm interested in there's so much in this world that I'm drawn to hold on a second hold on a second hold on a second Hashem made all that stuff my love should not be directed to what Hashem is making which is relatively non-existent compared to him my love should be directed where it really belongs only to him so it's interesting it's a love that begins that's why it's called Avis a worldly love it's a love that begins with acknowledging the fact that we do love things of this world things that Hashem made but then you take that love and you transfer it or re-appropriate it to where it really belongs which is instead of loving that which Hashem made loving Hashem himself which when you meditate on the relative non-existence of creation it makes perfect sense why would I love that which is relatively meaningless when I could be loving Hashem who is who is real who's the only real thing the only reality you're transferring the love if you don't have love for things of this world then you can't do this you can't create this love because it's a chance that's a cute way of saying it and you know there's a certain truth to that like Hashem made the whole world just so that you could fall in love with it and then realize that that's not really what you love all along yeah yeah yeah that's there's a perspective that way you can say the whole world exists just so that you could think that's what you love and then realize no what I really what I really want what I've really been looking for all along is Hashem who made the world yeah yeah it's sort of like uh stepping stone yeah and he's kindness because he knew we wouldn't get that most of us could yeah it's a it's an educational process meaning it goes step by step incrementally yeah okay that everyone is with Hashem and you have um and you're coming down to the world to like work on and stuff look at that it would be at a different level you're asking what's the purpose of attaining these levels of all and love here in this world saying in in all the souls are going to have tons of all in love of Hashem anyway so why why don't we just have all the all in love of Hashem when we're in gun Aiden why we haven't gone love of Hashem down here is that basically what you're asking yeah I'm saying is it that you're at different levels of Law and love no no because everything is clear what's the purpose of embodiment to perfect the world okay we perfect the world through our actions we also perfect the world through our self-refinement you're also part of the world when you can get your heart your human heart to feel these feelings that is part of refining the world which is really nothing but he who is everything and the only reality seems to be very interested in it so yeah yeah and for now let's just leave it as a subject of wonder yeah it is hard to grasp yeah this is not a pottery class it's fun to make sense of it right yeah we're just gonna we can't know yeah a little humility exactly exactly the book of the unknown yeah okay all right now let's see if we can finish off this chapter that would be cool okay okay what do you do if you have this problem I know a lot of us have this problem that you don't have love for anything of this world and in fact you don't even have love for things of the spiritual world because you were never fooled you only loved Hashem your whole life not possible no because the spiritual world doesn't mean Hashem spiritual World also is Creations spiritual Creations like angels and stuff so let's say there was somebody who never had that problem he never loved ice cream he never fell in love with anything physical or even spiritual he only loved Hashem alone what can he do because the whole premise here is that you're taking the love that you have for that which Hashem made and you're reappropriating it to to Hashem to a benoni well some guy might you know it could be a fluke a guy could have this yeah we shall have as of alive so he says he has other Solutions he could use the meditation that we that we talked about above and that we will explain later he'll basically jump straight to the uh to uh the higher level meditation why yeah now here's something that happens it's not common when it happens the uh physician on call calls all the residents around he says come look at this you're not going to see this very often sometimes this Ava Palmer Academy will come before Europe we said earlier that the love usually comes after the fear meaning you have to have first the basic respect and then you can start to feel the love sometimes there's a fluke where you'll have someone who'll have the love first before the respect meaning to say it's unlikely that someone who can't even inhibit his behaviors and be Torah observant is going to have love of Hashem however it could happen as a fluke Cafe it's all dependent on how it comes from the Das the Das is the intellectual faculty which has uh the two it's where things split off into Hassan that go toward love and awe sometimes the fluke happens and the Das Channel toward hasid opens first before the euro Channel and he ends up feeling the love before the awe normally it's not how it happens but it could happen therefore what what could happen when that does occur s it could be a wicked person a sinner he could suddenly do chuva out of love by suddenly remembering Hashem his God normally that's not what happens normally somebody who's a big sinner will be struck by a feeling of Euro and he'll stop but sometimes it could be a fluke the the Ava will will kick in first now you should understand even when that happens there's yidda in that ABBA there's awe in that love it actually because it's just that the awe is hidden within the love the highness there's a level of awe which is fear against sinning fear against fear of rebelling against a Shep the Ava and the love hibiscus but the love is what is more revealed so on a on a conscious level the person will be aware that he's experiencing love but in a on a hidden level there is a certain feeling of awe that's in that love which leads him to feel like he doesn't want to rebel against Hashem however this is uh something that happens it's a phenomenon it's not a normal thing and it's something that happens when Hashem organizes and orchestrates it literature and it'll happen because of some pressing urgent need where the exception will be made like for example a famous story which is an illustration of this fluke the story in the gamara who was a wanton sinner he's a professional Sinner and all of a sudden out of nowhere he had this amazing chuva experience which didn't really even make sense however the normal process for working on these things the one that's actually dependable and you can replicate and it is subject to your choosing meaning the Elizabeth stories are not subject to choosing you can't will them to happen they happen or they don't and they usually don't so the normal process which you can actually choose to engage at will is what happens is first you have to start doing Toyota Matrix according to the lower level of awe even the superficial level of lower level of awe because then you'll Infuse the light of turmeritus into your soul by actually doing them and then only afterwards you'll get the light of love okay you have to become you shall love is the same Gematria as oil light times two why because light that because love is usually the second light it's a sequel yira is usually the first thing now you control yourself you maintain a certain level of self-control because of your reverence for Hashem and then once you're living that way ah then you'll have the Ava kick in so that's the second like baseball but it could happen a fluke can we have recorded incidents where it occurred this way where the love came first and that induced the commitment to Torah observance okay that's the end of chapter 43. so bottom line yeah it's okay bottom line we just learned four different types of on love let's break it down how many types of r two how many types of love two okay within the awe what do we have lower level and higher level okay what's the relationship between the lower and the higher right so you have to do the lower and to get to the to get to to the higher the lower level of awe was what contemplating what lower level oh contemplating the world and being blown away by the vastness of creation and then that gives you a certain feeling of reverence then you become committed to hashem's Will and then with that sensitivity you can start to contemplate what but nothing the nothingness of creation okay and the Hashem is the only thing great those are the two levels of all then we had two levels of love what do we have a rabba also known as and then we have another type of Love called very good okay where do you get it after you do all the towers right right after you've done everything else then it's given to you you can't attain it yeah the higher level it can only be given and Ava Salam the regular love how do you get it you meditate what do you meditate on the greatness of the world and then what conclusion do you come to that it's only a shaman therefore why am I projecting my love upon the created beings which are relatively non-existent why don't I direct my love to Hashem himself who is true existence is a synonymous term for avaraba which is the Ava which comes as a Matana as a gift from above it's a nice name for a kosher restaurant kosher restaurant called what yeah okay and then they won't serve any food they'll just think I'm sitting there and be like go and meditate okay we're all good okay all right