The Sky Looks Different p: 48

AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 48 4/21/2011 Thursday 17 Nissan 5771

Page 48 – below middle of the page (line starts: mipneh she...) 

torah descends and gets involved with worldly affairs – even with low-level issues – false claims (tienot shel sheker). Adjudications can even be made on the basis of a false claim. And lower than than - a guy steals a piece of silver and he does not denies the theft, but he says, 'it really belongs to me' – so he's either a robber or he took the law into his own hands.

Every place where torah goes it affects a birur/clarification. It finds that point by which the G-dly spark can be recognized. It can go to the lowest elements and does not get affected nor damaged. On the contrary it brings a clarification and G-dly light.

When we look at an object in the world we see the element of light that illuminates it. Sechel is a completely different way of looking a things. You see purpose. You go to a hall and you see the point – the simcha the joy. But you can also see the tables and chairs – this is a negative aspect. The light on an object reflects to different degrees – this is how we experience color. 

In torah there are rules of adjudication that is based on the situation – and to avoid a negative consequence. Torah provides the rule as it is viewed from above since it sees all that is in the world is a G-dly creation. This is like a soul that can differentiate between good and bad, without getting affected. This is because it is an essence. The soul does not take input from outside and adapt.  

There was a child who could see that the sky looks different on Shabbat. This is unusual for there to be such a level of purity. But the soul enlivens the body and does not undergo a fundamental change.  

In the body the soul is involved with the brain and hence cannot conceptualize an idea without form or some relationship to time and space. But even though we know things in a physical realm we know things also by their essence.

There is a big difference between touch and sight. Touch is primarily a negative experience – I move my hand, but then it is stopped by something. This is negative. Psychology feels that there is no direct experience, that everything is a reaction. But we say no. the soul is true of itself and thus we can relate from a truth perspective.    

What does it mean, 'true in and of itself'? This is in contrast to bumping against stuff and the sense that I am not aware of anything except myself. How it affects me is the negative reality and means I will never get to know the truth of the object/other. The soul is in contrast an inner essential light and knows the truth.

The soul knows the essence of something, rather than how it is affecting the person. The Rambam says the basis of all knowledge is to know that there is a first being that brings all into being. Thus each thing has an absolute truth – and this is how the soul knows it – it knows it by the G-dly element. A table becomes not just a human convenience, but a G-dly creation. The soul recognizes the G-dly truth of everything and is thus not affected.

Hashem say he goes down into a 'garden of nuts' – as brought in gemara. The meaning is that though a nut can get dirty, that is just the shell, wash it, and crack it and its is fine for eating. So too Torah and souls are not changed. They can be affected and acquire some impurity, but this does not affect them, since they are the essence of good.  

There is a First Being that brings all into existence. He does not come into being due to the world!! He preceded the world. He is outside the world and comes into it. He comes into the world from outside. He comes first. He retains this primacy. Thus there is no way for G-dliness itself to become impure and to be affected by the world. A mashal/metaphor for this is the way sun shines on the dirt of the world and is unaffected.

Thus 'tov be-etzem' – essentially good – means that the soul and torah are not good 'under the circumstances'. For us good is often the opposite of bad. Or good in our world is circumstantial – 'it is good for this purpose'. Good in the pure sense, like light in a pure sense we cannot conceptualize. When He first made light, there was no body that emanated that light. This is light that represents an essential truth. We think of good as the elimination of suffering and want. Our orientation is physical, with it's constant concern. Tov be-etzem is a soul quality – it is the G-dly goodness.

We cannot relate to it with our intellect, only with our emunah, which is a spark of the soul itself.

The intellect is already dressed in the body and cannot reach what is attained by the intellect.