“Being Real” p: 27-28

AyinBase / Ayin Beis with R' Paltiel Sunday 15 Tammuz 5773 

Page 27 (chuf zayin). At the start of the new discourse on that page – (line begins: 'beyom...') For text, click: Here.

The point is that the essence goes all the way through to the furthest outpost. This characterizes the difference between holiness and the other side...

In the sechel/mind of holiness it is the same light that follows through to each successive level...

In the essence there is chochmah/wisdom. But it is not expressed and is not encountered.

This is Him knowing Himself. A true presence has to know itself. This is what makes it real.

So when we speak of Essence, that is not functional, that is in-and-of itself, and is a true presence, we must say He knows Himself. And this is not to say, He found out about Himself.

By saying, by knowing Himself, He knows Torah, we are declaring the truth of Torah. Torah is the essence of Godliness. Torah preceded His desire to create the world.

It was said the root of Torah is in shashuim atzmium – essential plaything or essential pleasure...

Pleasure does not have a transition. Knowledge is different. There is knowing and not knowing. There is a discovery moment.

Oneg/pleasure does not have this transitional moment – there cannot be a gap. There is no gap between the pleasure and the one who has the pleasure.

Contrast breathing with eating and drinking. First there is thirst and then there is drinking – this is like chochmah/sechel.

Breathing in this world is also a need, but I am never disconnected from the source/air. I inhale and exhale, but I am in the air continually. By air pressure it comes automatically. I don't suck the air, it flows into me. There is no gap between me and the source of life. This is a delight deeper than pleasure. Deeper than definitive experience. This is oneg/ענוג.

In chochmah/wisdom is an element of delight.

Actually the root of Torah, (says this new discourse), is the Essential pleasure itself, not the way it is translated into chochmah/wisdom, but as it is still part-and-parcel of essence, before it comes down into chochmah.

The Torah says of iteslf, 'I am a plaything of His'. Torah is His actual delight. There is no gap between the Essence and the pleasure.

King David says (in his book of Psalms) 'Your laws are like songs for me', and he was punished for this comparison. Why? Is song and melody, not from the arousal of pleasure in the soul, as were the songs of the Levites in the Temple. So the songs come and reflect the deepest intent of the pleasure of the soul...

This is contrary to the worldly view where song comes to arouse your body. In reality, song is an expression of an internal experience.

So King David's error was to compare Torah to song, which is pleasure in chochmah, rather than pleasure unto itself.