“Presenting Something Fresh” p: 170

AyinBase with R' Paltiel ThursdayNight 29 Tammuz 5772 

Page 171 – 1^st line of the page (line starts, 'pratiot...') For text, see link top right of the blog.

Real mind perceives G-d as a reality. Just like external logic needs an external basis, so too inner mind...

David was asking, 'what are we talking about in this class...?'

Rabbi is explaining how externality is experienced by touch etc...

Inner sechel attends to concepts that cannot be touched.

And Just like external logic needs an external basis, so too inner mind... you cannot live on imagination... though you don't see Him... don't picture a big buffalo and imagine fear... the perception of Him comes from the soul... the perception of the world comes from the body...

Sechel/real mind senses the soul itself... it senses life and sees, 'what life says...!' it sees 'what we want due to the fact that we are alive, pure life, unrelated to being in the world... I am interested in the world only because He sent me here to do something, but He is real, and that is my primary reality.'

And we are talking about mentor and mentee, since this directly speaks of the soul relationship, rather than the sechel/logical based relationship. Is a mentor imaginary, giving 'could be so advice' – no, he lives in a reality and gives to his mentee what can be real for him too. 

The mentor is in touch with his soul, and there is a big gap between him and the student/mentee. The mentor's mind is exposed, without worldly interference, to the message of his soul. And he wants tangible things to relate to...! so the mentor finds metaphors that are in this world and when delved into reveal an apprehension of G-dliness.

The Alte Rebbe points out that secular studies impurify the mind! The student has difficulties to divorce himself from that outlook.

The mentor reduces his own expansive reality, to give the mentee something that he can verify internally.

The mentor has to go back to a state of discovery. This is the way he will reach the mentee. Nothing less than this will reach him. The master has to present something fresh. The mentor cannot just relive the steps he took... The mentor has to join the student in the trenches.

Back inside the text: the creation and existence is originated from above. (46min of video) You may may think the level below starts seeking and says, 'I want to go look for meaning... ' but this is an initiation from below. 

You see a man walking. Do you see something moving his legs, or do you see someone going somewhere? The moving of the legs is a means to an end. But what you see is the legs. But you say to yourself, legs don't move by themselves – something is pushing and initiating – this is what is really happening.

So if we say the push for anything is from below, then it is all based on shortcoming, and economy of scarcity and struggle for survival.

On the other hand, when it is initiated from above... things have a different quality. They are sourced in Him. Based on He, that is beyond shortcomings, and the One that does not need anything. And so the result of this is that in the kav/creation is sensed, not shortcoming, but the essential truth of it, even though it is limited. We sense the presence of G-d in the world, in that we sense the world's invulnerability... the world is not vulnerable, because it has an intrinsic truth – it is not there because it has to protect itself – and this is a G-dly reality...

This kav/line (process of creation) has the faculty of essence / koach ha-atzmus. 

What is the meaning? Essence is only in itself. There cannot be essence in ohr/emanation. But there can be the faculty of essence / koach ha-atzmus.

We look at the metaphor of a host and his guests to get a perception of this. His presence gives substance to everything else. If the host should leave, you wouldn't care for the meal... The koach ha-atzmi means that it brings this element of the host with it.