Friday, January 21, 2011

The way it is and the way it touches you p38

AyinBase with R' Paltiel 1/21/2011 Friday 16 Shvat 5771

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Page 38 – at about the 10th line (Line starts “vezehagbalah...”)

what is the emphasis in the fact that sechel has a limit. How does limit reveal shortcoming? What are we saying about it?

Hagbalah/limit means that it is in contrast to the real truth which has no limit/hagbalah.

Sechel is convincing yet it is founded on the basis of something that didn't come through sechel. It cannot stand alone. “There is a First Being” is the foundation of sechel.

This is why you can explain the difference between right and wrong and it is convincing, yet not compelling.

If one sees the human as evolved from an ape, then one asks, “why act like a human being”.

Sechel is called objective. What does this mean? It means to see the subject as it originates, as it comes from ein. Sechel looks at this reality, rather than at, “what it means to me”.

Koach hamaskil forces one to ask, “what is going on? What is the reality? What is the substance?” Since nothing created itself, one looks for “why is it there” and “what is it's reality”.

With koach hamaskil, you sense there is the truth and you want to base your perspective on it. Why? Since truth is “self-enticing”. It is desirable because it is true, not due to any features or factors.

Sechel as it is rooted in the soul deals with this level of purity. At the level of koach hamaskil it has this truth at a sechel level and is compelling also because there is an element of definition.

Koach ha sechel hahiuli ha-atzmi is the source of sechel as it is rooted in the soul. This is the pure level. The hamshacha from here is about putting things in a sechel perspective.

The Rambam says sechel is to know that there is a First Being. We have the ability to know Him not only in answer to the question of “where did the world come from?”

one can know Him beyond the limits of the world. You may have thought “the day of rest” means it is fine to carry a hanky on the sabbath. But First Being is one who is completely above world. Know Him and then look at the world – see how He desires it.




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