“Elusive Delight; First There Has to be Everything” p: 29

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Page 29 (chuf tet). At 6^th or 7th line of the page – (line begins: 'behechrech...') For text, click: Here.

Everything at its core is the oneg/delight. This is what gives it existence and vitality.

This is not an individual oneg created in the faculty or activity. It is drawn from the vitality of the soul. The delight takes place in the soul, even though the activity is so far removed from it and defined very locally – for example in the movement of the hand.

This transition from the soul to the faculty is due to limitation. The oneg is focused on a particular faculty. The soul and oneg per se do not relate to the particular faculty and specific element.

Think of a home. It is a very significant reality for the person. The home has furnishings. There is not comparison between the significance of a furnishing to the home itself. Yet each item of furniture has an element of the significance of the home per se. the furnishings are not just functional; they are part of the home.

So too the faculties and the soul/nefesh. They represent the soul in a much reduced way.

So we have to say that the continuation of tynug/delight into the faculties is by means of an intermediary.

The human being is the link between the world and its Creator. He brings real life to the world. With that in mind we can look at other stuff. The human being's relationship to the world is unique. Animals are participants in the world. Humans are builders in the world. He owns it. He is a giver not a taker.

Just as a human being has a place in the world – his home (whether he rents or owns), so too does he need furnishings, cutlery and crockery... this is all part of the statement that he is a king in the world.

These things he uses all represent the same principle – that he's real.

When you think of the furnishings of the home, and the utensils... what initiates the need for them? The human being, not the home. They reflect certain aspects of the human being that are interconnected...!

Some say we are 'conditioned' to eat and live like human beings. The opposite is true. There's in trend in the world to condition us away from our human stance. We say that to live like a human being is intrinsic. Our deepest delight...!

In all our human activities, the movement of the hand and the speech of the mouth, there has to be a nefesh/soul element. It is all from the same soul, but like the home and the furnishings.

And so there has to be an intermediary. In the soul, there is just one perfect reality of delight. In order to translate that down to specific faculties and activities there has to be an intermediary.

Back inside the text: thus we must say, the 'download' of the oneg/delight into the faculties is by means of an intermediary...

“General and Specific Delight” p: 29

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Page 29 (chuf tet). At 3^rd line of the page – (line begins: 'ke-ahsher...') For text, click: Here.

We have seen that the delight that is experienced in any faculty is derived from the very delight of the soul/nefesh. But it comes in a limited form to that faculty.

The tynug/delight itself is above any specific faculty.

So the fact that it comes to be imbued in a specific faculty indicates a limitation.

The delight becomes redefined according to each faculty.

Why not just say the delight at the specific level is a new creation, and not part of the overall element of delight? To answer this we looked at the metaphor of the home and the way all the specific furnishings and activities relate to the overall spirit of the home and are not separate creations.

The hand can make an infinite number of movements, and there is a specific delight in each movement.

Tynug/delight is totally beyond definition. This is the error of the secular world – failure to relate to delight – and so they relate only to a defined cause, where everything pushes other things. We say there is a real source, real life, and real delight/ענוג.

“See Delight” p: 28 - 29

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Page 28 (chuf chet). At about 7 lines from end of the page – (line begins: 'hamelubash...') For text, click: Here.

In everything down to the most simple faculties is found oneg/delight. This is not the element of 'motivation to achieve'. For the eye to see, there has to be oneg/delight in seeing.

And the same applies to all the faculties.

And also in the inner faculties of mind, there is a great element of delight.

And so too on the side of the lower elemental faculties – in all of them there is the element of the delight of the soul.

Why is there pleasure in all of them? It spread through all the faculties. And this gives us a new perception of faculties and what they are.

Think of walking. You have the ability to walk. But taking a step depends on the motivation to move. The ability to walk is really independent of the a motivation to walk.

You don't need motivation to have the faculty function, but you need motivation to engage the faculty.

Oneg is the ein sof / infinity in each faculty. And is what permits it to exist.

Contrast this with the secular view that finds its way into our minds. Secular view says, 'there is no such thing as chayus/vitality. If you move your hand it is like the watch being move across the table'. This is such a reductionist untrue view. Really there is an initial life. There is a creator. He makes everything and provides vitality to all things. This vitality is represented in the form of oneg/delight.

Oneg is unique among the faculties we experience. It unites directly, rather than through a connector. Oneg/delight relates to things seamlessly. It is one with the source. It is an experience of life itself.

Like the breathing. It does not need a motivation. It senses life itself. This is me.

The delight is drawn from the general 'life itself' but you feel the delight of each specific activity, which has this delight in a limited fashion.

A human activity starts internally and has at a lower level an outward effect.

Think of a home. It is an essential human element. It represents what a human being is. It does not just consist of the structure. If is filled with furnishings. They are not separate entities. They are part-and-parcel of the home.

All activities of the home, even if they are trivial, have an element of the vitality of the home. This is illustrative of the fact that all human faculties draw from the vitality of the soul...

“How We See” p: 28

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Page 28 (chuf chet). At the lower third of the page – (line begins: 'hamagid...') For text, click: Here.

The point we are looking at is oneg/delight.

Oneg/delight gives presence and life to everything.

Because oneg/delight also exists in the external and superficial world, we need to refresh our understanding of what it is.

If someone didn't want to do something he wouldn't do it... so you may think it is the 'motivator', but we are saying it wouldn't even exist without the oneg/delight.

It makes it exist.

So it is not just the 'reason' for doing things. It is the essential reality. We have to clearly recognize that everything in the human being and the world has to have a source. This in contrary to the world's view that things make themselves – a false view. Everything has to be made. And it is made by the ein sof. It has to have an element of infinity to exist. Infinity cannot be grasped or defined.

What is the way infinity comes into finitude?

You cannot take a piece of infinity. You have to relate directly to it, to get its influence.

Every faculty you have functions as part of you. It operates at your level. It has an element of you. The exception to this is oneg/delight. Oneg is where there is a seamless connection to infinity. It is not even a connection. It is an actual transmission. This is the means by which the infinite participates in everything.

Every activity has a beginning, middle and end. Oneg is not experienced in this way. It is a constant in the soul.

Chayus/vitality is the sensitivity. In sight we see not just the object itself, but the context – a broad periphery. This is the sensitivity of the eye. It is amazing. It is almost like seeing behind you. And you are not even focused on it. This is like the oneg element. I see not due to my focus, but due to enjoyment or delight...!

There is the specificity of each faculty and then there is the 'life' element of it. This is the overall sensitivity or delight!

The tynug/delight found in each of your faculties is not separate. It is the same delight that is spread throughout all the different faculties. Each faculty welcomes the tynug, since this delight is really their core existence.

There is tynug in each of the 4 senses.

And why would there be any delight in sin? For this the Alte Rebbe says, really it is impossible, except there is 'ruach shtus' (spirit of folly) that makes you forget you are interfering with your connection to Him.

In fact there is not an experience that the Torah forbids. The 'forbidden' is where something is disconnected from the source. And this is why we say it is like drawing Him into exile.

“The Fundamental Delight” p: 28

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Page 28 (chuf chet). At the middle of the page – (line begins: 'bebechinat...') For text, click: Here.

We are looking at how the Torah is an intermediary between infinity and the world.

Yesterday we looked at a metaphor for 'revelations' in worlds, where they may appear to be worldly, not Godly.

It is known that the delight is the essence of the life and existence of everything.

The core that sustains the presence of each faculty is the delight/tynug.

If you truly examine all that exists, you will see that it comes from its vitality. The concept of the table pre-exists the boards and the possibility of making it. Something that has vitality/chayus is real. The reason for this is that everything has to has to have a relationship to the ultimate reality – to the Godly truth – and this is expressed in chayus/vitality.

By contrast metzius stand alone. Chayus is united with everything around it and draws from the infinite reality. A metaphor for this is breathing air – the air that surrounds us.

'Living' means something that is there not due to its own effort, but due to 'life' being provided. It is effortless. You don't even know where it comes from.

Contrary to the worldly concept where every movement is a response to outside stimuli, there is an inner motivation and delight in every activity. There is chayus/vitality in all your activity.

We are used to thinking in terms of 'ulterior motives', but that is not the correct view of the human being. Goodness is an essential element of the human being.

Midot/emotions are created from sechel/mind. There is a difference between the midah as created by the mind, and the delight that is in the midah/emotion. The mind can say, 'this is the proper emotion', but the activity of the emotion is my means of the delight/oneg that is within it. The mind is the gatekeeper, but the actual chayus is by the delight/oneg that is in it.

“The Home and The Table” p: 28

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Page 28 (chuf chet). At the 12^th line on the page – (line begins: 'korit lehu...') For text, click: Here.

Tynug does not translate as 'pleasure' since, pleasure is an active state. We are talking of delight of the nefesh, which is an internal state based just on being alive and drawing its life from the infinite!

Thus when we speak of oneg, we say hidden or essential oneg/delight. The presence of this oneg/delight is due to the fact that this essence has an inherent reality. This is in contrast to anything in the world that needs an 'arousal' and does have its own inner sense of reality. Oneg hanefesh means soul delight, based on the 'truth of its own truth' and the truth that flows through it.

This is reminiscent of the question, 'what would be if the world was reduced to nothing in one second, without any suffering – would that be a tragedy of nothing...?' from within the world mentality, you would say 'nothing happened, since the world runs on competition and protection and challenge', this is a superficial view of the world, where it is just 'cause and effect' and the inherent 'life element is discounted'.

King David compared his love for Torah and mitzvoth like song... and he was punished for this... he was missing the target and not describing Torah at its true level.

Torah is the intermediary between infinity and world. Everything has to have an element from infinity/ein sof, otherwise it could not exist.

What brings revelation from the essential level into the practical/functional level of the world? Where is the link between the two levels? You sit at a table and chair in your home and it seems functional. But at the chochmah/wisdom level, there is a link to the home's essential character.

So too, there is the infinite truth of Godliness, and then there are worlds. Nothing can exist without the link to infinity, and Torah makes this link.

Torah does this by means of the essential delight that is enclothed in it. It connects above and below. And the essential delight (tynug atzmi) is what connects it to the top...

The essential delight (tynug atzmi) is in Torah as it is in primal wisdom (chochmah hakedumah).

“Pleasure and Song” p: 28

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Page 28 (chuf chet). At the 7^th line on the page – (line begins: 'shenenesh...') For text, click: Here.

We said before that the torah is an intermediary to connect the souls with Him. And similarly we said it is the intermediary between the infinite and the world.

This is due to the initial basic pleasure that is vested in Torah, and the pristine chochmah/wisdom that is contained in it.

What is so special about pleasure? It is known that the pleasure is the principle and the life of every thing.

We tend to see things from a keil/vessel perspective. We see bodies, not souls... this is the way the external mind sees. This is a fundamental misinterpretation. A blindness.

The body has no basis for continued existence. It has a precarious existence.

Pleasure is unique in that all faculties, even sechel/mind, have a an element of 'connection'. By contrast pleasure is beyond that level. It is a direct connection. The only element of the human soul that can unify without any 'connecting tissue' is oneg/pleasure. You actually experience the thing you are connected to. So it has to be something that allows the person to 'open up' and unify with it.

“Being Real” p: 27-28

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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.

“You Are There, and Not There” p: 26

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Page 27 (chuf zayin). Top of the page – (line begins: 've al pi...') For text, click: Here.

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“Soul Sees God” p: 26

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“Nascar” p: 26

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Page 26 (chuf vav). At the lower third of the page – (line begins: 'hatorah...') For text, click: Here.

“Between This and That” p: 26

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Page 26 (chuf vav). At a about just below halfway into the page – (line begins: 'haratzon...') For text, click: Here.

We started the class by looking at some questions from Akiva – 'why do we need an intermediary?'

A memutzah/intermediary connects to both elements – to the source and the lower elements. Without it there would be a lack of recognition from the one to the other.

There is a human way to do things – everyone senses human dignity and possesses this dignity even if not sensed.

There can be a disconnect between external activity and the inner dignity. To connect there has to be a memutzah/intermediary – this is a sense that the internal and the external meet and correlate.

It is a wild thought, 'that we have real significance'.

In side the text: kings reign through me, says Torah. Who did God consult prior to making the world? What enticed him to create the world? The anticipation that in the world there would be Israel and Torah.

And there are 2 initial enticements... Israel and Torah. That is to say that the Torah and the Jewish people bring Godliness into the world. The people Israel are hated due to this. They negate their own existence by being given over to the purpose beyond world, the purpose of bringing Godliness into the world.

“Eat In; Sheltering Sky” p: 26

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Page 26 (chuf vav). At a about just below halfway into the page – (line begins: 'haratzon...') For text, click: Here.

We spoke about ratzon hamuchlat and ratzon klali.

Yesterday we mentioned these two levels of ratzon. A person needs a home. And then he needs furnishings for his home. When a man eats at his own table it is totally different from when he eats in a restaurant. The essence of the home is embedded in the functional level of eating.

The fact that he has a house is representative of ratzon hamuchlat. The second level of creating a functional environment is indicative of ratzon haklali. Klali means general and incorporating everything. The reason it does this is because it has the ratzon hamuchlat (decisive will) included within it.

This is what we are all about – the revelation of His will.

'Through me, kings reign, by my empowerment do they reign, says Torah.

A king is aloof, but this does not imply disinterest. It means he is effective at all levels without being captured by them. This is why a human being is essentially a king. He affects the world, without becoming 'part-and-parcel' of the world.

A true king does not oppress his people. The king supports the differences and variety in his kingdom. Each lends additional glory to the king. The king encompasses all of them. This is hisnaasus – elevation. He sees all from above and nothing drags him down.

His people are in the world and of different opinions, but the king is above them.

It is not a question of unity or submission – the king elevates the people.

“We were refugees. People were going to different countries and were anxious, so someone said, 'don't worry the sky is the same over there'”.

A king has to know his supremacy. Without that he feels his situation if precarious and this affects his rule. King David was inherently a king, even before he was annointed.

One of the first episodes in his kingship, is that he decided to bring the holy ark back to Jerusalem. He ran before it dancing with all his might. His wife, Michal (daughter of King Shaul) saw this and was embarrassed. She reprimanded him. And he responded, 'that's the difference between me and your father – I can dance with the common people and it does not degrade me, and that's why God chose me over your father'.

The Torah affects the essential king to come down and be king of the world.

“I Know How to Get There” p: 26

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Page 26 (chuf vav). At a about halfway into the page – (line begins: 'lekasher...') For text, click: Here.

We are talking about the principle of memutzah or intermediary. The initial truth comes down to a lower level, while remaining the same truth, yet now understood from a worldly perspective.

Torah is an intermediary that binds Israel with His Essence.

This goes all the way up to 'primal wisdom' – chochmah hakdumah.

Torah is primal, existing in the beginning of Godliness, intermediating between Him and world. In side essence Torah mediates between the general ratzon/will and the decisive ratzon/will.

God says, 'I shall reign', and this principle is rooted in His essential aloofness, which has nothing to do with world, but Torah correlates these two elements.

The fact that there is a world is a Godly decision. This means there are no extraneous causes for it. His, is a reality perfect and complete in itself. And from here came the decision to make the world. The world would be a perfect representation of this reality.

In His aloofness, he correlates all reality, but not like correlation on a map. He sees it and knows it from above.

“Primal Knowledge” p: 26

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Page 26 (chuf vav). At a about a quarter into the page – (line begins: 'hahelem...') For text, click: Here.

Torah joins heaven and earth. It is a memutzah – intermediary.

It connects infinity (einsof) and neshamas Yisroel (souls of Israel).

In the Torah, although it has chochmah/wisdom, it also has Atzmus Einsof (infinite essence) itself contained within it.

The principle of an intermediary is not that it just carries from one side to the other like a bridge. Intermediary means that there is an actual connection to the source – to the original state.

Torah relates to halachas/laws in the physical world... we have many metaphors that show the essential and the functional level. A person's home is like this – it is essential and it performs a function.

An animal has a functional identity. It needs food and shelter on the functional level. Man is different.

The chochmah of Torah enclothes itself in halachas/laws. But still this chochmah remains fully representative of it being an ohr einsof.

The Torah is an intermediary to bind the souls of Israel with His Infinity.

There is Torah in chochmah hakdumah – primal wisdom.

Why talk in terms of chochmah hakdumah – primal wisdom? We are saying an essence is unto itself, like a rock. But a rock does not know of its own existence. In real essence, there is everything, and nothing...

This chochmah hakdumah – primal wisdom is the original source of Torah. And there Torah has this dual identity – it is Him and it comes through as chochmah.