AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/29/2010 Monday 22 Kislev 5771
Click on the icon (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 38 – lower third of the page (line starts “aval...”)
Sechel comes by hamshacha/download. But the koach ha sechel ha hiuli ha atzmi is at the essential level and included in the nefesh. At the essential level there is also sechel.
From G-d's perspective light is essential. It is not an inadvertent result of the sun – it is a G-dly principle.
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/28/2010 Sunday 21 Kislev 5771
Click on the icon (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 38 – middle of the page (line starts “ofen tziur...”)
The nefesh and the hiuli hasechel is unlimited. The koach ha maskil has limits and works with definitions. The functioning sechel has its form.
The tziur of the koach ha maskil is what defines it. The koach ha maskil has an affinity to sechel. Things are in sequence and formatted manner – this is sechel.
The koach ha maskil is able to mashpia sechel. It created the initial demand to understand.
Sechel has a sense that there is a truer and more fundamental source than what I am experiencing and goes in search of it.
One who is big in chochmah, has the light of chochmah more revealed in him. A way to understand is that there is a medical condition called tunnel vision – peripheral vision is diminished and lacking. Things in front of us are in our line of vision. Wider view has much less physicality and the sense behind it is that one senses the entire perspective, not just what's in my direct path.
Similarly in sechel. The koach hamaskil is drawn from the etzem of sechel. If it is drawn in a good way it will determine that he has a wider understanding.
The revelation is in the detail - “what goes into this? There is a truth” - emunah is a direct truth from the nefesh – then there is an expression that we negate, “blind faith” - the reason it is described that way is that they were not able to see any supporting elements to their faith. In fact this emunah/faith is all encompassing – seeing the world – being exposed to reality – broadens your faith!
So if your sechel was downloaded in a good way it is broader. It can handle all the details.
Many were in wonder of the greatness of Einstein's sechel. But the rebbe said about the frediker rebbe has a greater scope – Einstein's mind was focussed in one theme/direction. Mathematicians come to see the rebbe and felt that the rebbe was exclusively involved in mathematics. The rebbe's ability has scope and depth that astounded those who witness it...
The suspension bridge is very elegant in design and uses very little material. It was the development of the principle – the more ohr – the stronger sense of the concept the greater your ability to refine the construct till it is almost not based on material, but rather on sechel.
Hamshacha means download. The principle of it is that it has a beginning – a starting point. This means that it has direction and purpose. When a river overflows this is not hamshacha – this is just expansion of the origin. Hamshacha is a process. The source stays where it is and the water is drawn by orderly conduits.
The principle of revealed sechel is that there is hamshacha. It flows on demand. You focus in your mind and you get understanding. It doesn't flood your thought process. There may be an abundant flow, but you still know where it's coming from – you have things in a defined manner.
But the koach ha sechel ha hiuli ha atzmi is different. It is incorporated in the nefesh. It is the nefesh itself that demands there be sechel. So what is the koach/faculty of it, if it is essential. The nefesh is a perfect unity - “it doesn't have a pouch containing sechel” and yet in this etzem we say there is a koach ha sechel – even though just hiuli – not a functioning koach, yet still a koach.
Due to the affect of secular thinking we have to overcome the hurdle, of the perception that darkness is the default setting. The nefesh has perfect peace, but it is light/life. When we see light we ask, “where does it come from”?
Yesterday at the fabrengen we touched on a fundamental thing. The sun emanates light and we say it is a wonder “how does a finite body emanate light without diminishing?!” The sun in our eyes is a limited ball of fire – we can think of it not being there, but not conceive of there not being light in the world. The sun is only a means for the light. The light does not come from the sun. the light is there because he said, “veyahi ohr, let there be light.”
Darkness and light are both representative of the G-dly presence in the world. Sometimes you see a dark form, sometimes a light form.
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/26/2010 Friday 19 Kislev 5771
Click on the icon (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 38 – third from the top of the page (line starts “lehiyot...”)
We looked at the koach ha maskil which is the root and activator for sechel/ mental life.
What is behind this? Why does one insist that it “makes sense”? From the perspective of koach ha maskil, if the sechel is not engaged then nothing exists.
It says, “find out what this is, find out what is going on, work out what this means”.
This goes against the world's view, “one doesn't do anything unless pushed”, here we're saying the koach ha maskil is an internal life force.
This is an active koach that demands understanding. It is not the essential level. It is the source for functioning sechel.
Sechel at the lowest level is the logic of a particular system or discipline. The ability to excel in one sechel over another is due to the tziur of the koach ha maskil.
Take nigleh vs chassidus. In nigleah/revealed torah, it is the question that drives an answer. In chassidus there are no questions. So what is the instigator/inspiration...?! What do I seek? In essence in chassidus the aim is that one should recognize how every element I observe is connected to the source. It is finding the source in every element that he encounters.
In nigleh the demand is to distinguish between the various elements and know why the halacha is this way and not that way...
chassidus wants to go to the essence and wants to know where its all coming from...
One can have a tziur ha maskil that understands all the different elements in contrast to a tziur that focuses on the overall theme.
Yud Tes Farbrengen With R. Abba Paltiel, sheyi'
Part 1 of 3 IYH - Notes by Chunah Yosef.
Nekuda: The head of our nation, the Alter Rebbe, was attacked. This has monumental significance. We need to connect to, and protect, our head: the nekudas hachayim, the life of our life.
Different Levels in Gulus/Geulah
Good yom tov. The real hag hagiula.
There are different categories in hag hagiula. In Mitzraim, there was subjugation of our physical and spiritual on a national basis before our identity was established.
Then there was gulus Bavel. Here too, there was a national tragedy. Geulas purim, overcoming a national threat that was only a physical one. Whereas Chanukah we had a spiritual geulah, because at that time only our souls were threatened. All these are dif. levels of geulah were relevant to a lower level of our being. Yud tes is different.
The Alter Rebbe's Significance
Only one man was imprisoned, so we could think there was no national threat, not even a group was targeted: it was just one man. This man though, represented even more than the life force, he represented the Yechida. This is the essence of Jewish life that depended on his moments in prison. Just this one man needs to be in danger and we would all be in danger, not just our physical, and not just our spiritual, rather something most essential.
Do You Mind?
In Midrash, it says that there's an animal that has certain contours that entices a man. When the man follows this animal the animal kills the man but in a unique way. It takes out the brain, the body it leaves.
Yosef’s Dreams
In today’s parsha, Yosef hatzaddik didn't get along with his brothers and he found their faults. He made animosity towards himself by telling them his dreams etc. Whatever his reason- Yosef clearly must have had a profound reason- it was obvious that it would make his brothers angry. In fact, it did, and they wanted to kill him..."because of the dreams". They were enticed to the point of intolerance. The pusuk shtait, "the stars bowed down" and the brothers were upset and Yaakov reprimanded Yosef. The brothers were angry but Yaakov "safeguarded this". It was in Yaakov’s mind, in the deep crevices, that 'this is going to happen'. Rashi says, '...he's hoping for it', not just waiting, but ‘hoping’- “Shamer es hadavar”. There was a quality of nevuah in the dreams, and this in fact compelled yosef to say it, because prophecies you relate by obligation. But why is yaakov so anticipatory about yosef ruling his brothers?
Yosef’s Strength
Having not seen anything in writing about this, Rabbi Paltiel’s pshat is this: Yosef was the youngest of the brothers and he had a supreme quality. He is called ‘tzaddik elyon' and ‘yosef hatzaddik’, whereas the other brothers are 'yehuda' not yehuda hatzaddik’ etc. As well, in tanach, the whole nation is called by the name ‘Yosef’, because Yosef sustained the nation. L'havdil, like noach. Chassidus explains, Yosef had a higher neshama than Yaakov (even though Yaakov's was from atzilut) and even more so than the brothers who engaged in shepharding to avoid distractions of world. Even Yaakov, in a sense didn't have a place with Yosef who was able to be in the world, doing his job in running the world, while being above it. Yaakov, the head of our nation, saw this special quality in Yosef. Now, the Jewish nation, just as an individual, is at the level where his head is.
Watch Your Head!
Yaakov went away from Esau and lied down in the place of the Mikdash. "He gathered the stones and put them under his head". Rashi says "he made a little wall," to protect himself from animals. Why didn't he protect his body? The Fred. Reb, as well as our Rebbe, explain that Yaakov was only afraid about his head. He was going to Lavan, and this was a spiritual fear. Yaakov knew the danger but still he married a woman by accident etc., he had all kinds of meshugas working for Lavan, working and traversing falsehood etc. Though, if the head stayed above water and straight, he'd be okay. So he protected his head and he was kept safe and guided.
Pick Me Up
Again, the head is the essence of the individual person and the place of the nation. The head keeps us afloat. Yaakov recognized Yosef even as a young boy as the head, and he waited for Yosef to rule and show his glory to elevate the nation. This holding the nation up to a higher standard, to Yosef's potential, this was Yaakov’s ‘hoping’.
Yud Tes Geula is the geulah of the head of the nation. There's no substitute for the head. The accusers went straight for the essence. AR was a great tzaddik and scholar, but then was an era of tremendous scholarship. AR went to Vilna to debate the Goan and meet the other great scholars and quiet the machlochis. (If we think we have machlokes now...! Then it threatened the actual lives of the chassidim. Even in the Mittle Rebbe’s time we were instructed to make our own Beis Midrashim. Until then we didn't have separate shuls. There was real danger.) Nevertheless, in the AR times, the other tzaddikim weren't threatened nearly to the same degree, only the AR. There was the Bardichiver..etc. but the threat was focused on the AR. So the geula was therefore specialized. The brain was attacked, and by big lamdim! (Manufactured by the Satan of course, but there were great scholars threatening the life of the AR). It really was an attack on yiddishkeit’s core.
Zos Chanukah
Clearly reminiscent of Chanukah because chanukah also, the threat, the gezerus, were on one nekudah. It wasn’t even against torah and mitzvot. They were only against the nekudah that “G-d commanded it”. "Shabbos is a tradition, but not G-dly." When Yochanan was victorious, and they lit candles, they insisted to light with pure oil. Even though al pi din, they could light with tumedik oil. The tzibbur could have lit al pi din… But because they were moiser nefesh to safeguard the purity of Yidden, Hashem allowed them to maintain this purity even though it wasn't absolutely necessary.
Little Giant
This is Yud tes. There's an expression: ( Rabbi heard it in Yeshiva as from the Berditchever, but later on it was said to be from someone else) “Such a great G-d in a small book”. The nekuda comes in small quantities. (The Tanya, after all, is only 150 pages long. To be fit to be the Torah Sheb’c’sav of Chassidus…!) The Rebbe Rashab "this is the day that the life and light of our nefesh was granted to us" Pshat: Ohr v'hayus nafshenu...the chayus of our neshama?? The life of our souls?! Aren’t our souls our life? But it's possible to have a soul without chayus. That chayus is the yechida, the nekudas haemes. It can be that you do good things, but the nekudas hachayim is absent: to live as a Jew without real G-dly chayus and no taanug. The AR safeguarded the nekuda, the yechida, for the Jewish people.
Destruction? Impossible!
When Haman wanted to destroy everybody it was horrific and we were scared. But the possibility of that happening was virtually null. It was tried throughout history, i.e. the nazis in our day wreaked havoc in an indescribable manner. But even polish and hungarian Jewry, the most affected, were able to be restored. Gerer, Belzer, Obstracheber…, all were able to be restored. Hashem makes a tzedakah that the Jews are spread all over. The Americans were untouched, though threatened and suffering, survival was never really threatened. But when you attack the nekudas hachayim, you're attacking the survival. All you need is to get that little brain out, and leave everything else alone.
Jo Knows Life
We are given this understanding in class, with the Hebeshter's help, and we should be able to recognize the attack on the nekuda. We comprehend the significance. When you take the nekuda out, and all else stays in place, in actuality, nothing else really remains. This is how yud tes touches us directly, all of us. The nefesh we have, but the Chayus! to appreciate the nefesh is alive. I can dance, and sing, eat, but does it have G-dly significance? We want Truth!
Bracha V'hatzlacha!
We who are aware and in close proximity to Rabbi, should draw real chayus from these concepts, we should have Living Life. Not existential life, but living life. That’s a different life. We're not just here, we're directly reflective and connected to the living G-d. It's above vulnerability because it's the essence. I’Y’Hashem, this leads to the real geulah. Hashem takes us out of the vulnerability of the world, because we have the essence, we have permanence. Like Merel (?) would say, "it's tied to the top, so we don't fall."
Start a new year, a lebedic yar! With renewed dedication to learning chassidus and pursuing the understanding and let it be our guiding light for our life and activities, relations, friends and family and to stay a bit above the ground.
L’chaim!
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/25/2010 Thursday 18 Kislev 5771
Click on the icon (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 38 – third from the top of the page (line starts “hagbalah...”)
We are looking at the concept of sechel hahiuli ha-atzmi.
From it is drawn the koach ha maskil – which is the source for the functioning and revealed sechel/intellect.
What we recognize in sechel is a true reflection of the nefesh/soul. The revealed sechel reflects this truth level, it is not a circumstantial phenomenon. The koach ha maskil directs us, even though we find ourselves in a physical world that seems to denies the G-dly unity.
The koach hamaskil compels us to see how things are related. It sees things from a true sechel perspective and allows us to see the relationship between things.
Koach hamaskil says, “you are in a new place?! Okay make sense of it! You find the underlying sense of things!” Contrary to the view that you make sense of something for your convenience and to know how to use it – koach hamaskil says things below together. It knows it because it flows from koach ha sechel hahiuli ha-atzmi, which is the essence of truth on a sechel level.
There is an inherent unity between people. We all originate from Adam.
Rabbi knows a fellow, who is a mathematician and he says, “the greatest pleasure is to lie in bed with a book of mathematics...!” The sechel that he is employing is his revealed sechel – he identifies it as sechel and this can be placed in different areas/materials. The koach ha maskil has been defined in this fashion. This does not limit his sechel, he could employ it in different directions. One can draw down a new direction of sechel. It is done by the force of will – almost like a change of character.
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/24/2010 Wednesday 17 Kislev 5771
Click on the icon (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 38 – third from the top of the page (line starts “hasechel...”)
We said that in sechel there is hagbalah/limits. The root of the influence of sechel is from the koach hamaskit – the power “that makes you understand”. This is different from koach haiyuli hatzmi.
Koach hamaskil is related not the sechel per se but the hashpah/download of the sechel. For this there has to be a connection/love between the teacher and student.
The functioning sechel has something that activates it – this is called hashpaas ha sechel. What pushes it to understand? This is the koach hamaskil. It is not just a facilitator, it instigates.
Koach hamaskil is already an active state that is drawn from the koach sechel hahiuli ha-atzmi.
Koach is funtioning and atzmi is essential. How can atzmi be referred to as koach? The term hiuli qualifies the word koach.
We are being introduced to concepts that talk to the essence of our sechel. We are getting to the essence of things. Why do we want to get to the essence? The real level of sechel is to be able to relate to the truth itself and it is not imposed.
At the wedding rabbi was asked, “do you really believe in G-d? You have no doubt?” He answered “when you get into it, it is reality and it is not superimposed.” The atzmi is the real thing and all else is a derivative almost circumstantial. Only a truth has an essence. Any external formulation lacks essence.
This is why we want to understand essence (understanding at depth), since then we relate to the truth. So G-d is not an add-on to the world. Not that for some inadvertent reason He is the boss. Rather is is the one that provides the world with a G-dly intent.
Hiuli is not, not present, but it is not a presence.
We talked about the difference between a person who has never seen and one who was sighted and then became blind. He retains a sense of what it is to see and the reality of the world that sight provides. Beyond imagining what is the experience of sight the blind man retains? What kind of experience is it? It is an experience that is not active. It is there, but not really there.
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/23/2010 Tuesday 16 Kislev 5771
Click on the icon (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 38 – third from the top of the page (line starts “beze...”)
We are looking at how souls are rooted in essence. Angels come from a spiritual union and souls from a bodily uinion. So why do we say souls are higher than angels?
The principle behind this paradox is due to the fact that the most internal and essential level comes by means of bodily union exclusively.
A metaphor for spiritual union is like the sechel coming from the mind. And a metaphor for bodily union is like the flow of the drop from the mind.
Sechel, if not controlled will lead off in many directions and if it is allowed it will thus pervert the original concept, which was initially correct.
Sechel relates to a specific concept, but the underlying light is not the structure, but the ohr that co-ordinates all the elements. The structure itself can be described as an almost physical structure without engaging the koach hamaskil.
At the wedding last night Rabbi had a conversation about evolution and he explained that gemara talks about natural change, but the theorists of evolutionists developed this idea to an extreme - “from a monkey you can make a human being”.
Koach ha maskil is the background that alows us to relate to the sechel/idea, but inside the koach ha maskil itself there there no specific sechel. Koach ha maskil has the operating procedure of saying, “there is a unity in the world” but this is not a specific identifiable “idea” that it has.
Atzmi / essence is the absolute basis for anything. This means it is the basis because of the essential truth of it, not because of any effect. Sechel is a uniquely a human trait. It is a soul quality. Sechel comes from the nefesh. It doesn't “contain” it but reveals this because of the quality of the soul.
The verse says, “the spirit of man rises, and the spirit of the animal descends”. The spirit of animal seeks the bottom, because its primary outlook is metziut. The man's primary orientation is bitul, not metziut – it is enticed by the truth, and asks, “what was it before it was formulated”. From this we can see how sechel is a direct derivative of the soul of man.
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/22/2010 Monday 15 Kislev 5771
Click on the icon (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 37 – third line from the end on the page.
We are looking at how souls are rooted in essence. Angels come from a spiritual union and souls from a bodily uinion. So why do we say souls are higher than angels?
The principle behind this paradox is due to the fact that the most internal and essential level comes by means of bodily union exclusively.
A metaphor for spiritual union is like the sechel coming from the mind. And a metaphor for bodily union is like the flow of the drop from the mind.
Sechel, if not controlled will lead off in many directions and if it is allowed it will thus pervert the original concept, which was initially correct.
What is the import of the fact that sechel has a limit and that the limit must be respected? It states that this is not an essence. An essence is fundamental and universally applicable.
Both the sechel and the tipah/drop draw from the moach/brain. Why do we say that sechel draws from moach? It seems to draw from the sechel, but there it is not yet a metzius that can be nishpah/downloaded. It cannot just be an inner sense – it has to be more defined, and that occurs when it comes into the brain and from this level can come hashpah/downloads.
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/21/2010 Sunday 14 Kislev 5771
Click on the herring (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 37 – the last paragraph on the page.
We saw that torah represents not chochmah, but the essence itself. Yet it has a form – it is an essential form. It is the essence as the essence is. It is the way essence presents itself – this was given to the souls of Israel.
Sechel is capable of recognizing the truth of essence, even though it cannot grasp essence. This is because sechel is rooted in chochmah, which is rooted in tynug / delight, which is rooted in essence!
The essence of torah can only come / be revealed to a place that relates to it directly. This is neshamahs/souls. Souls are rooted in the aspect of essence of ein sof. This is a default presence, as darkness is in our reality. Atzmus einsof is not a presence in the simple sense of the world. You may think whatever it creates is thus not essence, but here when souls are created from atzmus they are still united with etzem/essence.
About Jews it says, “you are sons of G-d”, like a son is sourced in the essence of the mind of the father, similarly the souls are sourced in Him – in His essential chochma.
A daughter is also rooted in the essence, but she does not have the same level of creativity that the son has – the son is a new world with the power to create. The nature of man is that he expands and creates. He captures that which has not yet been defined. He creates a world from a non – world.
The neshamah has an intent in its essence – it has a mission. This is in contrast to the world where all interest is reactionary.
Chochma is the first level where the kavana / intent is realized.
Souls and angels are different. Souls originate from the union of male and female – this is the level of emotion which in contrast to sechel is more bodily. A joining on a body level.
Angels are created by the union of chochmah and binah, this is the level of kissing, which doesn't have a physical element – it is a spiritual connection. Breath with breath. A connection of life with life.
So it would seem that the spiritual union is of a higher level than a bodily union. Yet the level of souls is greater than that of angels.
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/19/2010 Friday 12 Kislev 5771
Click on the herring (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 37 – top line of the page.
We asked various questions about the creation of the world and the formation of the dry land on the 3rd day.
The creation of vegetation is the next step after emergence of the dry land.
To address the deeper meaning of these steps we will look again at the way He made us in his form and that there is an essential form.
How can there be an essential form? The essence is without form. Yetthe torah is the delight that is inherent in the essence and yet has a form. This form is defining how the essence is revealed/drawn down.
The Jewish soul is the suitable receptacle for this gift of torah/essence.
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/18/2010 ThursdayNight 11 Kislev 5771
Click on the herring (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 36 – at the middle of the page.
On the third day of creation Hashem said, “let the waters gather in one place and then the dry land will appear.”
There is a midrash that says that this is like a king who built a palace and he settled in it a speechless man and he would get up early and ask after the king. Then the king replaced him with a wise man of speech.
At first the praise came from the water and then He gathered the waters so there could be dry land on which man could be created to praise his creator.
What is the significance of the speechless and the articulate dweller in the palace? Why are the sea creatures called speechless and the land dwellers articulate?
Thought is like the hidden world and speech like the revealed world. The elements of his thought are more profound and an expression of his nefesh, but speech is much more external and is much less self representative. So we say the creatures of the sea are superior to those of the dry land. The sea creatures are submerged in their source, but the land creatures are more involved with their own existence.
So why are the sea creatures called dumb and those of the land articulate?
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/18/2010 Thursday 11 Kislev 5771
Click on the herring (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 36 – top line of the page.
When a man acquires a wife, she is not an active participant, she gives her consent – this is silent participation.
This is like the silent prayer of a Jew. He doesn't plead and ask. With silence he sees that He is there.
By tshuvah the level of pnimius hakesser (interior of the crown) is revealed.
When somethings comes by silence there is nothing external that can be identified.
A superimposed tsurah/form is like a vessel. When you put water in a cup in it is in order that you can drink it. The water doen't need the cup. So this is not a form that comes from the water. When a sechel is transmitted it is also given over in a manner suitable to the recipient.
These are imposed, external forms that come from the recognition that for the hamshacha to reach the mekabel it has to be presented that way.
A tsurah atzmi comes from the sechel itself, not due to any external factors. The mekabel receives whatever is given and there is given the essence. This is the gift the way it is in the treasure house. The mekabel has reached the level of receiving from the mashpia in silence.
The hamshacha is essence itself, without and formatting for the mekabel. The mekabel is not receiving by means of his keilim but whatever is given to him. He has recognized his relationship to the mashpia in a way that has not borders.
The focus on the tshuvah is not to perfect oneself, but to relate to the King. This has the same effect as shlaymus ha-avodah (completeness of service).
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/17/2010 Wednesday 10 Kislev 5771
Click on the herring (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 35 – 5 lines from the end the page.
We counter a certain approach. We counter the worldy approach. There is a philosophy that say humans are fundamentally evil. As a philosophy it is not based on history, but on a view of existence, “where should good come from?” This is the week in the bible of countering Eisav (Esau).
The silence is like the bli mah on which all depends – the world is suspended by this “nothing”. The world is essentially good.
“The basis of knowledge is that there is a first Being that creates all and keeps everything in existence”, says the Rambam.
Everything that exists including klipah is fundamentally good.
The silence reaches the pnimius of kesser (the interior of the crown). This level is that everything is happening right now. It is being given right now! We have the infinity of space not because it is infinite but because it is being maintained infinitely.
This inner level has no presence – it is silence. This is in contrast to infinity. This is beyond ein sof. This is beyond the finite and the infinite.
It is not solicited. It is by means of fullness/completeness of this service (the service that states, “i have nothing, but what You make of me”), then automatically is drawn down/revealed this level of pnimius ha kesser (interior of the crown).
“atem tacharishu” - “you be quite” was said to us at the crossing of the sea. Escaping Egypt. There were 4 approaches to the crisis of facing the sea and having the army of egypt chasing us. Hashem said to us, “cancel all your plans, this is in My hands. It is not even in the realm of infinity. It is up to Me. From My (Atik) level the world doesn't really exist.” And we were quite and went into and through the sea...
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/16/2010 Tuesday 9 Kislev 5771
Click on the herring (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 35 – below the middle of the page. Line starts, “le ha hamshacha...”
We are talking about the 3 levels. Chochmah, siyag, and shtikah (silence). The reach into pnimius is shtikah/silence.
What is silence? What kind of access is it? The difference between sechel and midot is that the midot are a personal experience and sechel is a sighting of the truth. In sechel there are chochmah and binah. The level of binah means it can be grasped as a metziut. “i know it by a means to which I have a grasp”. Chochmah is like sight, you relate without having a grasp.
Chochmah has the least formulation and presentation. It is accessing the thing as it is itself. This means there is the least amount of participation by the chochum. Chochmah is called bitul. Withing this is the siyag and then the shtikah. The principle behind chochmah is relating to something that you don't grasp, but is not imaginary. It is becoming your personal knowledge – it is not theoretical.
There is a reality in this chochmah, even though there is no personal experience. The 2 levels above the chochmah give it its reality – these are siyag and shtikah.
“i know deep down that there is a truth even though the world is just precarious, a combination of conventions... my sense that there is truth is in the essence of the nefesh, which illuminates my thinking and makes chochmah viable...”
“there are 2 levels in 'there is a truth' – they are siyag and shtikah. The inference from silence is in direct contrast to everything in the world. In the world everything that hits you and can be described is real. If it is silence it is not seen to exist. Here we are saying we relate to the truth that is beyond tangibility completely.”
“A tangible sense of this silence: one looks down the tunnel in the subway to see if the train is coming, why does one look? To show oneself that it is real and coming. One wants a sense of what he's waiting for. At the level of intellect he doesn't need that substantiation. To him he waits because it is scheduled to come. I don't need to see the whole system in order to be convinced that it works. This is a mashal.
This silence is the complete antithesis to nervousness.
We are talking about “why there is silence”, but we can relate to it only by silence , not chochmah. It gives reality to chochmah.
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/15/2010 Monday 8 Kislev 5771
Click on the herring (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 35 – below the middle of the page. Line starts, “le ha hamshacha...”
the external level is unconcerned with what happens to it's effect.
On the internal level there concern with what happens.
Nevertheless this is really ein sof – and ein sof is everywhere – so how do we say that it is only drawn to an appropriate place.
It flows automatically, but only to a suitable place. That it flows automatically shows on the infinity, but only to the place it is suited.
The suitability element is that the “destination” is one with the essence.
This occurs in 2 manners. It prepares the place so that it will be suitable. Either by completeness of service. This shlemus haavoday / completeness of service is a step beyond doing everything right. Completeness here means that there is nothing left out. It denotes a state where one is completely into this avodah/service. If one does something perfectly, but there is a sense of the self then this is not completeness.
We say that it is drawn forth, yet we see essence is always in its place. So in what way is it hamshacha/download/drawing forth? There is a form/medida that is a medida atazmi – a form that contains the essence itself. Like mincha of shabbat – it is the essence of oneg and automatically is drawn forth “oneg of all oneg” - how do we receive this source of all oneg?
We fabreng, a seudah replaced with a fabrengen. Chassidus, meals and niggunim are things that can be experienced at various times. But at the mincha of shabbat we say all of this has a different depth and purity.
The hamshacha is that this essential element is translated into our level – the meal is not for the food, the niggun is not for the experience, and the chassidus is not for the learning. They are participation. We are participating in the essence.
At the splitting of the sea, one group wanted to pray. And they were told to be quiet and not to make any arousal. They were silent and set themselves aside and what remained was what He makes of it. “siyag le chochmah, shtikah”. Chochmah is the reach and sight of seeing truth. Shtikah is beyond that. Usually siyag means a facilitator.
Here the silence is above the makif of chochmah.
Sechel is the cognizance that the absolute truth exists. 3 levels – chochmah, siyag le chochmah, and silence which is above the other two.
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/14/2010 Sunday 7 Kislev 5771
Click on the herring (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 35 – near the middle of the page. Line starts, “hakesser...”
Tshuvah/return/repentance is seemingly above measure, but it has the measure of the requirement that there should be tshuvah!
This is the connection of the baal tshuvah to the essence.
This is from pnimius of the kesser.
There is also a statement that “darkness is like light” and this is chitzoniut / externality of kesser. At the start of creation there was as if to say no decision which was better, good or evil. Then He chose the deeds of the tzadikim – he chose good.
It has been said that hitting a baseball involves great skill. Each sport has skills and there are coaches for every skill. These are people who live with the sport. The coach is the recognition that it has to do with the skill, but this skill is not dependent on you eye and hand, but on your spirit. If you're into it and you believe you can win, then you have a chance. It is not to have the skills. You need the personal investment.
This life force comes from the essential inner point.
Chitzoni of makif is infinite and the works of evil/selfishness reveal this infinity. It reveals the strenght/energy that is found in the world. It shows “what there is, not what it stands for”.
Pnimius hamakif is different. This is the inner aspect of the crown. It is not that we are observing infinity, but that He is providing space for you to be. An infinite resource is being provided. We observe not the world, but the koach eloki that creates it. When we see the sun rotates around the world this is pnimi, from chitzoni it is an opposite perspective.
There is intent in pnimius. King David says, “I offended You”. This is what concerns him.
A land owner through a Jewish family into ditch. The family was redeemed and the baby was left behind. The Poritz raised the child. The child was beautiful and intelligent. The Poritz provided good teachers. The child out grew his teachers. The Poritz called for a special teacher. A Jewish scholar came under disguise and the child chose him. The teacher made a condition that he have a separate home and none can enter without his permission. They learned together with success. The teacher would not let the boy near the house. The boy snuck up and saw his teacher in talit and tephilin. The teacher didn't want to tell him but the boy pressed him and taught him this too.
They decided he would tell the Poritz that he will go to an academy to learn. He went back to the Jewish community and lived openly.
When he came up above there was the issue that he suckled non-kosher milk. So he had to come back for a brief time as a baby to address this. This was not a matter of blame – it had to do with complete purity.
When the king himself comes to visit, you show him the best, even though the kingdom contains a garbage dump and needs a dump, but you don't bring him there. This is to understand pnimiut of kesser everything matters, but in the situation of chitzoni “dark and light are not different.”
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/12/2010 Friday 5 Kislev 5771
Click on the herring (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 35 – near the middle of the page. Line starts, “slichot...”
The essence of tshuvah is return to Him. The essence of Judaism is not a decent way of life. The essence is the recognition of the Creator.
Tshuvah also has a medidah/measure, and it says, “you have to connect to the Creator alone”.
Tshuvah is not just to correct the person or the world. Tshuvah is to directly connect to essence. The wise man chooses the king, while others select one of the ministers. From a minister one can derive benefit. So why choose the king?
The king gives reality to the whole world. Without him it is all disparate and not real.
When we look into the sky it is like looking at infinity. Yet it is cumulative and is thus not really infinite... this is like saying the sun has a limitless amount of energy, yet a finite body cannot have infinite energy.
There is an essence to the sun, beyond its finite being. The essence is its purpose and He replenishes the sun continually. The infinity of the sun is not in itself, but in its source. This is the pnimius – the essence purpose before revelation.
The G-dly intent not the G-dly presence is where there is a high level of discrimination. At the level of presence the level of discernment is reduced.
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/11/2010 ThursdayNight 4 Kislev 5771
Click on the herring (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 35 – second line from the top of the page. After the parentheses.
The return to the Good, the one who is All Good is by means His essential delight that is in Torah.
Adam is representative of Torah and is in “His image”. This is a reflection of essence – an essential form.
Usually when something is put in a form it is as a means to an end. It is a format for the sake of presentation. But here “in His form” is an essential form.
This is by means of the measurements/medidah that torah presents. Usually a measurement relates to a quantitative measure. Here the measurement is according to torah.
How can we understand a measurement that is exacting, but not limiting? It's measured, but not limited?! It is not a limit that is superimposed on the ratzon, it is by His will. It is willful and voluntary.
A superimposed measurement limits the expression of essence. But a willful medidah/measure, is completely different. In the measure and the form is His will. So therefore it is not a limit or with holding, rather it is the expression of the essence.
The limits that are imposed on the world and that we feel in the influence from above, are not representing a limit in resources. We learned this at a farbrengen. Think of a child asking for another candy. If the father says, “it's not for now, you've had earlier, I'll keep it for you for later”, it doesn't represent any kind of with holding or limit in resource. It represents a deeper concern. It is a presentation of his love for his son.
The limit of torah is different. In the example above the limit was due to the capacity of the son. The limit of torah is not based on the limit of the world, but rather it is based on how He wants to express himself.
The limits of torah are limitless. For example the tephilin must be cubes – if you make it round you have nothing. 3 tzitzit is not ¾ of 4 tzitzit.
Sechel is only that which sechel can conceptualize.
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/11/2010 Thursday 4 Kislev 5771
Click on the herring (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 34 – second last line of the page. Line starts, “lemutav...” (at the end of the line)
Light is created and has a source. The illuminator is not a creation.
Chochmah seeks out truth. The world is something from nothing. Nothingness does not create anything. It is nothingness because it is not by virtue of its presence – it is representing the truth of existence.
Bitul and chochmah recognize this as the only real truth and this is what they are drawn to. Free choice is not based on any criteria – it is based on ein/essence.
Even one who fell into a place of deep darkness. In darkness you can only identify things by touch. He has no perception of the real measure or truth of things. His perception is limited to how it affects him. Light gives us the ability to see the reality. And to relate to it. Light is rooted in ein, in Elokus.
So even one who fell into a place of darkness... and we live in a world that lacks pure light, but he fell into a place where he cannot relate to the light aspect that is in the world... It is possible to fall to the point where one cannot differentiate between something earned and something stolen – he lacks the reality, he has only the metziut...
So one who fell into this darkness... it is within the power of torah to pull him out of there... This is like tshuvah.
This is to say he gets to the essence of good, not just that which is functional good.
Since we have a neshamah, we know there is a first Being, from whom all creation flows. This is how the Rambam opens his work – “the foundation of all knowledge is the acknowledgment that there is a first creator...”
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/10/2010 Tuesday 3 Kislev 5771
Click on the herring (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 34 – second last line of the page. Line starts, “lemutav...”
The illuminator that is in torah has the power to bring one back to good, no matter how far one had sunk. It is like someone passing a rope to someone in quick-sand. He stands on solid ground and from there can pull him up.
Sunlight from the sun illuminates the darkness of this world. The light is able to combine with the darkness, which allows us to see things...
Candle light illuminates in a different fashion – it only has the level that it throws light on an object – it is just functional. Daylight in contrast not just enables one to see but creates a different reality – it makes “day time”.
This is because the sunlight originates in a source, the sun, which (within the limits of our mashal) is the essence of light.
The alte rebbe points out that this light exists also within the sun. there it has a different status. Outside the sun it has a function. Inside the sun it is without function, since the concept of darkness does not exist there. It is without definition and part of the sun. It is an essential light. This is light within the luminary.
The primary state in the sun is light not darkness. What is the sun itself? It is not light. The sun is the reality from which light emanates. “Light is its primary product”. In the sun, “without doing anything, there is light”.
This gives us a handle on the topic of the luminary that is in torah. The essence of goodness and truth is contained in torah. How? Since chochmah in its purist state relates to this luminary. It looks for the purest truth. He wrote Himself into torah. He put this level of His chochmah into His torah. This chochmah is his essential plaything.
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/9/2010 Tuesday 2 Kislev 5771
Click on the herring (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 34 – last quarter of the page – 7 lines from the end of the page. Line starts, “davar...”
Oneg is an experience. And experience involves the person and the subject of the experience. So even though it is on a pure level it refers to something outside and to the effect of that subject.
Oneg atzmi means the experience of the effect at its source – at its essential level – oneg on an essential level. This is unity with the essence.
Kabalot ol is the closest we can come to the level of oneg atzmi. His presence and my existence is unified.
We grasp it to the extent of recognition and knowing we cannot understand it.
The essential truth of torah, gives Him internal enjoyment (not like our enjoyment, which is in contrast to displeasure), and is superior even to the ratzon atzmi.
This is where oneg and chochmah come together. And this gives the oneg a superior quality.
The Illuminator in torah is what returns one to good, and converts dark into light.
Quick sand can pull a man deeper without him realizing. The only way to get out of it is to be pulled out from outside. This is the shashuim atzmiim – the essential playthings – the absolute truth.
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/7/2010 Sunday 30 Cheshvan 5771
Click on the herring (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 34 – last quarter of the page. Line starts, “detynug...”
In truth tynug and chochmah have a commonality.
Nothing that has been created is an atzmi. The nefesh is one with its creator and therefore essential.
From the nefesh come many kochot/faculties. Some are known to us and some are subconscious.
They come from the nefesh in order to reaveal the nefesh in the world. They enable the soul to express itself in the world. The essence of the nefesh incorporates a whole variety of kochot.
When you have all 613 kochot present in the world then you have a sense of an atzmi. The human being is not bound by “his nature”. There is no other creature in the world that can act in 2 opposite ways.
By drawing from his essence the human being is free from “his natue”. Oneg is from the nefesh and spreads to evey koach.
Bitul allows one to see whatever there is to see, and is not limited to one perspective or another.
Oneg is a perception of reality. It is a sense of infinity. The animal soul is satisfied to, “have something for the moment”, but this is taking onge/delight out of context. Claustrophobia is sense that one is not connected to the overall space/context.
Chochmah has a sense of reality and says, “this is absolutely true – I don't have proof, I have how it is emanating from chochmah.” Knowing, is knowing there is a First Being that is the source of all creation. Nothing exists because of itself – the world says, “there is a creator.”
Kedusha is that which is connected to chochmah – this means connected to the source. Oneg is the experience and chochmah is the perception.
The true source of chochmah is the essential oneg/delight.
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/5/2010 Friday 28 Cheshvan 5771
Click on the herring (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 34 – last quarter of the page. Line starts, “hatynug...”
In truth tynug and chochmah have a commonality.
Tynug atzmi is not dependent on being experienced. It is constant. It is like the nefesh. But it has the quality of being the source for all other faculties. Tynug is nefesh at the functioning level. Oneg is based on a consciousness of the infinity – nefesh is one with the infinity.
Oneg translates the infinity on the level of experience.
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/4/2010 ThursdayNight 27 Cheshvan 5771
Click on the herring (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 34 – lower third of the page. Line starts, “ha-atzmi... ”
Dealing with the two levels of sechel, as we address the question of why the nefesh is called nefesh sichli.
One level of sechel and the other is essential. How are they both called sechel? The are so different from each other.
The functional sechel seems entirely practical.
Sechel is akin to sight. Sight is a supreme faculty – different from the others. With sight we observe objects with which we do not come in contact. This gives a most profound sense of reality. We say, “this is reality, not based on my existence.” Touch and sight correspond to midot and sechel.
With sechel you can see 1 and 1 is two. It is a new reality. Underlying the functional sechel is the sense of an absolute truth, that does not need personal substantiation. This is the gift of sechel – it can relate to this absolute truth. It is interested even in this truth that it cannot really experience.
Hiuli is higher than the koach in action. A faculty exists not just while it is performing a specific action. Secular world view says, “everything is just on a functional level”. We say the koach exists at all levels, even in the nefesh itself. The hand is in a state of movement and life, even while it is at rest.
The functional faculty is rooted in the the essential koach/faculty.
The koach is a derivative of the essence of the nefesh. For this reason it is call nefesh hasichli (even though one may think that it just shows that the sechel is nafshi!)
And all the kochot/faculties are rooted in the nefesh.
At a certain level the faculty of sechel and tynug/delight are one thing...
A candy is sweet and gives pleasure. Why? It relates back to the soul! A computer will never have oneg. Oneg/delight does not relate to a bunch of information – it relates to a perfect unity that cancels any other need. Oneg/delight is directly related to infinity. One relates to “where this comes from” and he knows, “there is more where this comes from...”
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/4/2010 Thursday 27 Cheshvan 5771
Click on the herring (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 34 – just below the middle of the page. Line starts, “hanefesh atsmah... (at the end of that line)”
we are looking at the question of why the nefesh is called nefesh hasichli. Why is sechel used to describe nefesh, which is above sechel?
There are 2 levels in sechel. The first is the level that is at the stage of how sechel comes in reasoning and revelation. The second level is the way it is at its inception, which is an essential level.
The bird flies not because it has wings, but because it has the spirit of flight. A human being has sechel because it reflects what a human being is. It is not circumstantial.
The kochot are real and are rooted in the nefesh.
Still the faculties operate on a physical level and here we are saying that there is a level of sechel that is essential and yet it relates to the level that is operational.
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/3/2010 Wednesday 26 Cheshvan 5771
Click on the herring (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 34 – near the middle of the page. Line starts, “hanefesh atsmah... (at the end of that line)”
The kochot can never fathom the full depth and richness of the nefesh, and yet we also refer to the nefesh itself as nefesh hamiskelet, that it has a quality of sechel. Why?
When one goes into a hall set up for a banquet he doesn't need to see the bride and groom to know that something special is going on – not just the food.
The way a person eats is reflective of being a human being and not an animal/eater. Sechel describes and guides how to eat like a human being. The nefesh doesn't give these directions per se, the nefesh says, “you're human not just an animal that eats”.
This is the translation of the essence at the sechel level. Something of the essence comes down to the functioning level.
Sechel identifies how things correlate.
The nefesh is called nefesh hamiskelet even though it is way beyond sechel/mind. Nefesh doesn't apply sechel to know what it wants and to know right and wrong.
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/2/2010 Tuesday 25 Cheshvan 5771
Click on the herring (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 34 – near the middle of the page. Line starts, “kav ve chut... (abbreviated)”
Shoresh / rooot means talking about something in its preexistent state, and this gives it more reality than the fact of its existence.
Torah is chochmah, but the root of that chochmah is not chochmah at all – it is in the element of atzmus ein sof which is way above the element of ratzon/will. And even above the purest state where there is no taam for the ratzon.
Here we are not talking about a will that has any kind of reason/stimulus. When one's life is endangered one's sense of the value of life is aroused. So without the danger, there is no active message about the value of life. This, though is not true – the fact that we wake- up when threatened is not because the sense is not there, but because we are preoccupied with other things.
We do not perceive activity and feeling unless it can be measured externally. But actually, life is an internal process. It is not a static presence that can be injured. It is a self-contained resource that is continually rejuvenated. The ratzon/will is a reflection that it is a living soul.
Chochmah of torah is rooted way above this level of ratzon.
For video, click here (right click to open in new window)
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/1/2010 Monday 24 Cheshvan 5771
Click on the herring (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 34 – 14 lines from the top of the page. Line starts, “ki im... (abbreviated)”
Mitzvah is a direct connection that bypasses the distance between heaven and earth, but still there is an advantage of torah over mitzvahs, because of its earlier shoresh in atzmus ein sof.
The root of the wisdom of torah, the way it is rooted in essence is in atzmus ein sof, and above ratzon, and even above the ratzon that doesn't have a taam.
AyinBase with R' Paltiel 10/31/2010 Sunday 23 Cheshvan 5771
Click on the herring (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Page 34 – 2nd line from the top of the page. Line starts, “hishtalshalus...”
We are still looking at how mitzvahs are superior to torah. Mitzvahs are ratzon hashem – pillars that connect heaven and earth. A direct connection between His will and this world.
In torah there is the same factor, but it comes as an expression – it is also ohr of atzilus that comes into briah. The briah element and not the atzilus element is what is nimshach below.
Mitzvahs are done in the physical world, but they are not dressed in the physicality. The ratzon ha elyon directly connects here below.
Torah is mislabesh / enclothed in the sechel.
That having been said there is still an advantage of torah over mitzvahs. We said the illuminator that is contained in torah returns one to good. Thus we see from this quote that even if one caused damage, the luminary that is in torah brings one to good and is thus higher than mitzvahs (ie there was a failing/damage on the level of mitzvahs, but torah can address this).
There is a truth that does not come from any place – this is ratzon.
.JPG)
