Aeter with R' Paltiel 8/2/09 Sunday 12 Menachem Av 5769 Pay Gimmel
Page pay gimmel. End of third line from the bottom.
Looking at mitzraim and exodus from mitzraim as it exists at all times. The neshamah, being in nefesh habahamit is in a mitzraim situation. And it can be pulled into even deeper levels of galus.
In order to effect departure from there it can be done as follows: tephillah is the stepping out of the original descent in to the body. Before davening the neshamah is in his nose i.e. barely noticeable.
Through the process of prayer the neshamah spreads forth into the body and this is the revelation of the nefesh haelokis. Tehillah is an act of connecting.
Connecting to one's insight, to the depth of one's neshamah.
We connect with and verbalize the universal presence of G-dliness. The tephillah thus begins with lowly/worldy concepts at the level of submission/recognition.
We start the day with “modeh” – acknowledgment, without knowledge at this stage – accepting without yet understanding.
Someone commented, “this seems like a fabulous beginning.”
“Yes, it is a fabulous beginning, because we are talking about a person who is not resistant to the truth. He is ready to submit to the G-dly truth that there is a creator, and I am in the service of the the creator.”
“When we awake we see a big world and we admit I don't know what it is about – it belongs to the creator and I submit to him.” this is a normal, natural, human attitude. If a person is limited from looking at the big world and is overcome by pressures, he is imprisoned, instead of relating to infinity he is limited by the walls around him.
Avodat Hashem means you are fee from imprisonment. You have responsibilities, but they are second to your primary experience of life.
At the second line of page: pay dalet. We start with this hodaah in the morning and in davening since the revelation of the nefesh elokis has to be in a ordered way. First nefesh, then ruach till the top reaches into the heavens in shmone esrei – where the nefesh elokis is fully expressed.
It must proceed in an orderly way. There must first be the submission - “I accept the truth this much” - this way the lower elements won't be resisting the sechel. They first accept. In the beginning you don't have the sechel in full glory, you have a little glimpse and at that stage the submission is made.
With what faculty do you submit? The koach of hodaah is higher than sechel, the fact that I accept even if I don't understand is an element of bitul – this is inherent in a person. It is naturally found in a human. The hard thing in tshuvah is not putting on tephilin it is thinking like a human being.
Our problem is not; “do I submit to the truth?” But rather, “is there a truth?” There can't be anything more perverse/sick than that – the disorientation of this perspective. In learning the sechel has an experience of the truth.
The biggest challenge is to think like a healthy human being. Psychologists say that all human activity is driven by competition, or personal interest/fear – this is a wold built on fear. And we see people living their lives like this, and we're all exposed to it. Everything is by degrees – the redeeming factor in all this is that while we feel the effect of a sick world we still have an inherently healthy neshama.
We have to respect the intellect – it is a massive power in the human being, but how is it viewed from the negative perspective – it says, “you're imagining things” - negativity is deeper than negativity – ”this is a tangible reality and anything else you should acknowledge is imaginary”. For a person to come to the state of knowing that what he knows in his sechel is reality – that takes a lot of guts. That is a jump – not amida or halicha it is dilug.
Not only do we deny G-dly presence but we “explain” human beings – the human experience, without a neshama – this is extreme cynicisim.
This is the time of breaking out of a “G-dless” world.
The baal shem mentions that if a goyish wagon driver does not show respect at a church, jump off the wagon – there was a time when not acknowledging G-d was a shocking exception. On the roads today there are people who obstruct the progress of others for the sake of experiencing yeshus – since for them this is of the greatest value.
A healthy morning – I am here in this big world with a life to live. I accept it. There is an interview of the Rebbe by a journalist. The bochrim asked the journalist how the interview went. The journalist said, “the Rebbe believes like a child, and he is of great intelligence.” The truth is there is no reason not to believe like a child.
Today's world has a philosophy that a sick person is healthy in his way. We don't subscribe to this, we identify health and sickness. If it is sick we see it is not the way we were made or intended. And we identify the healthy way and strengthen it.
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