Tuesday, May 31, 2011

The Inner Sweetness of Candy p: 52


AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 52 5/31/2011 Tuesday 27 Iyar 5771

Page 52 – 6th line from the top (line starts: ha-atzmi...) 

The Shabbat starts with Friday night – this represents the level of pleasure that has a subject, an explanation. It comes as a result of cessation of work. One returns to essence and this results in oneg/pleasure from the reduction of tzimzum.

At a higher level this is pleasure that is sensed and pleasure that is beyond experience. 

A river comes out of Eden. Eden is essential tynug/pleasure. When G-d placed Adam in the Garden of Eden, he had been given the mitzvah of Shabbat. This is the second level, since he wasn't involved in 6 days of labor. The principle revelation of this level is at the time of mincha of Shabbat.

At the conlusion of the maimar: the process to recognize the tynug/pleasure that is pure is by means of the dependent/circumstantial tynug/pleasure. Chassidus brings mashalim from the situation of the world, and they are accurate. The gemara says, a child calls 'father' when it eats grain – the taste eilicits a new level of mind. All our experiences in the world are allusions to deeper experiences. Through the superficial we reach the deeper levels...

The Rambam says that when you teach children, you must teach them at their level – receiving rewards of candy and rewards. This is not bribing the child. The candy and the learning are very closely correlated. The sweetness of the candy is actually an introduction to the sweetness of learning. There is oneg/pleasure in everything. 

The experience of an external pleasure gives the child the opportunity to get the little sweetness he now gets from learning.

The rebbe writes the letters with honey and the child licks it. The rebbe says, 'the Torah should be as sweet to you as honey...'

this is not a strange correlation.

All external pleasure is a derivative of an inner level. This is why we have to be careful in how pleasure is experienced since you draw your nefesh/soul via the experience.
In the seder hishtalshalus / creation of the world is oneg. We look at the world and reflect on deeper experiences. You look at the purity of the sky and this correlates to the purity of a soul pleasure. 

Even to the extent that the law says the shul must have windows, so you can see the sky.

All the beauty and perfections of the world are a representation of G-dly infinity.



A pleasure that is bilti murgash – a pleasure that is not felt. How is this possible? Oneg/pleasure is the invigorating force – a machine acts but lacks independence. What is man's independence? He has the power to move, act and experience. 


P 52 AyinBase of the Rebbe Rashab (right click to open in a new window and enlarge)


From where does he get this power? This is the oneg/pleasure. The wise man chooses the King. Israel says to G-d, 'Na-aseh / we will do it!' This is based on oneg bilti murgash. A pleasure without any personal element. 


Monday, May 30, 2011

World Recognition p: 51


AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 51 5/30/2011 Monday 26 Iyar 5771 

Page 51 – last paragraph of the page (line starts: al pi hanaal...)

Noach/Noah comes from the word 'pleasant'. After work one stops and rests. Your faculties retract back to their source. Then you have oneg/pleasure in the work that you have done.

This is reflected above. He made the world for 6 days and then he rested. He completed His work and ended His narrow expression through work and then His tynug/pleasure came forth.

This is Friday night – the end of work. Shabbat day is a different level – the essence of rest as opposed to the cessasion of work. Then essential tynug/pleasure surfaces. This is not the absence of disturbance... 


From a wordly perspective the absence of 'cause and effect' is nothingness... But we say no, there is no nothing, just Him and the essential basis of all is tynug/pleasure. It has no form and cannot be grasped by sechel.



The reason there is a world is because there is a true source for it...

The infinity of the word is from this essential good/pleasure.


Rambam


Sunday, May 29, 2011

The Purity of the Sky p: 51


AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 51 5/29/2011 Sunday 25 Iyar 5771


Page 51 – lower third of the page (line starts: mamash...) 

He, himself is absolutely present everywhere. The light is everywhere, and the yesh emiti – the True Presence is everywhere.

The light attests to the truth that there is an essence.

Zeekoevlei, Cape Town
If man is evolutionary, then he is just a shadow. But a man is a creation and hence has a domain. The thing that provides a fundamental reality to a man, is only the Creator of the world. 

Badlands, Black Hills
Being in the King's domain is like being in the world. Standing before Him in the His throne room, is having the King Himself. Says, the King, “I provide you with a context, receive my kingship and then I will give you decrees, I am not you police man I am your king”. 

We said that the light that points to essence is null before the essence.

Cape Point, Cape Town
The light in the seder hishtalshalus / the downloaded world is not like a ray from a luminary. It is more like the gleam from a precious stone. 

The stone cannot be described as, 'that which gives off a shine'. The gleam is a reflection of its purity. (This is unlike the sun and its ray – because the sun can be described as, 'the essence of light' showing a closer relationship.)

Normally we describe ohr/light as revelation. The seder hishtalshalus / order of downloading, cannot bring the essential light. The light is appreciated only where the essence is not present.

Table Mountain, Cape Town
One can argue the sun does not need light – it is brightness itself and light is not needed. 

We say light is for the sake of the outside, but there is also a level of ohr/light that is not for the sake of illuminating darkness – it is there only because the essence itself it there. It is not a light that has anything to do with outside. It is as if the essence has the light 'for its own sake'.

Why would it need it for itself? When one has a sechel/mind and one has the urge to explain it, it is due to the universality. Then there is a deeper level – holada – one gives birth to a child that resembles him – what was he lacking that he now has this ability...?

Anything that is profoundly true and pure, without circumstantial admixture, is not only internal to the truth. That truth recognizes that it incorporates all – light and essence.

It the essence is just essence, without light, then it is 'that which cannot be refuted. But light can be withheld, so hence if essence also has light ('tho not for the sake of illuminating an outside) then also on the 'level of ohr' it cannot be refuted. 




Generally we are occupied with externality. What would one want without any external stimulus. What does he initiate from within? What is the motivation to understand that which you already know inwardly? The nefesh/soul gives life. What is in the essence of the nefesh that can be defined as ohr? The soul is a real presence, and light/ohr is nothing. What type of presence would it be without the light saying that it is a presence that is not dependent on presence?
Emunah/faith is not an interpretation of how to live in the world. It is a statement of, 'I am here!'

This emunah element is also a statement of nefesh, but not to state anything of the world, but to declare itself. This is ohr pnimi ve atzmi. This is nefesh/soul for its own sake.

True torah and mitzvot have different functionality, like improving the world and the person, but ultimately this is not what it is about.

Each person from the simpleton to the scholar has the mitzvah of learning torah. Irrespective of the accomplishment. They are direct representatives that the world is G-d's world – it doesn't have any further effects. This is ohr pnimi and atzmi. This is the G-dly presence, rather than the effect of His presence. The seder hishtalshalus cannot import this espect. This can only be done by the souls of Israel, since they are of the essence and can thus bring essence...!



If the soul of Israel is here, why is the learning of torah and doing mitzovth by them needed? This is because they are like son's of G-d and have independence (mehus bnei atzmo) and bring His essence by learning and doing Torah!

The Tzemach Tzedek spent 1 000's of hours preparing his grandfather's discourses for print. This is bringing down the pnimius and atzmus of the father. This is like the Yidden/Jews/Isreal spending their lives serving their Father through Torah and Mitzvoth.

The experience of learning Chassidus, is not that you are learning alone, but that you are being taught by the Rebbe at this very moment.

We learn chassidus, not the way we read it, but the way it is being told to us – then it has life! We say, 'why is he saying it?' and we dig deeper and it is alive!



Friday, May 27, 2011

Any Structure is a Reaction p: 51


AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 51 5/27/2011 Friday 23 Iyar 5771 


Page 51 – lower third of the page (line starts: ein mamash...)

The light that is the essential light / ohr atzmi, brings an essential element of the illuminator, yet it is not on par with the essence at all.

The light is nothing/ein and the luminary is the true something.

We can accept in our sechel/mind that there is such a thing as essential light. This is like ratzon/will – 'this is what I want' even though it is beyond sechel. 

But to go a step further and to say the illuminator is there all the time and without a cause – we have no way to relate to this. Not only is it beyond sechel, but we have no way to relate to it. We just say things like, 'it cannot, not be...!'  

Sechel knows its own limit. It knows that any structure is like a reaction. It is not truth. Ohr atzmi is the substantiation of sechel and beyond...




light of the sun from the sun is a luminary and light relation. And the reason the sun is called essential is not that it is really essential, but in the area of light it is an essence. There is no such thing as darkness for the sun, but it is not an absolute presence.

The precious stone is not the source of the light that shines from it. The stone is a pure element and hence gives off light. So when it gives light it is not the luminary. The stone is something else altogether yet it gives off light. The light is representative of the purity of the stone.




Thursday, May 26, 2011

The Reality Does Not Change p: 51


AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 51 5/26/2011 ThursdayNight 22 Iyar 5771

Page 51 – just below the middle of the page (line starts: haray, ha ohr...)

The light that we use, and the way the light works, enabling us to see is based on the fact that the object blocks the light. This is the same as walking into the object. But the inner reality of light is that it shows reality itself – not showing the reflection and obstruction.

A logical process is based on the principle that one thing will not allow another thing to take up its place.

Even light that has the quality of revealing the essence, even that light is not nearly on the same level as the essence...

essential light is not a logical derivative. It is a principle that only human sechel/mind can relate to it. 'Open your eyes and see it'.

Essential light in the human being is not sechel/mind. Ratzon/will is an ohr atzmi/essential light. It says, 'this is the soul/nefesh'. This ratzon/will comes from the nefesh. 

The ratzon is not comparable to nefesh/soul itself.

The will to live is behind, and the spirit beyond every activity. The force of the soul can be directed incorrectly, but the ratzon does not change. Thus it is possible to do tshuvah/return, since the reality does not change.

The essential light is essential only because it represents essence. For it to do this it has to be a non-entity, to be a complete representative.  

A mashal/metaphor for something that is representative of an essence, yet is a non-entity: 'space' is perceived as an infinity. The way it is viewed and understood in secular thought is that space is 'nothingness' into which anything can be place. Space is not seen as a provision for anything. We don't agree with this. We say, no, this 'nothingness' is something which is a positive presence. It is a prresentation of the infinite Melech/King. Space is the domain of the king.

The reason there is space in the world is due to middot hamalchus. Anything you do is done in the presence of the King, and this is what makes it happen.



It is nothingness that is there as the ohr/light of the infinite.

'All is in the domain of One King' is experienced because when we sit here and look over there, we have no qualms about going there, since it is the very same space – it all represents the same thing – the 'very same King'.

This nothingness of space represents not the King but the presence of the King. Space is ohr atzmi/essential light. You can do anything you want with it and you cannot do away with it.

Space itself is heder hamitziut – non-entity and can thus represent the essence fully. That true presence is everywhere.

The essence which is present due to its truth (not because it makes itself known) is the true existence and the essential light is nothingness in comparison. The space tells us of the presence of the King. This is how we receive it, but in truth, 'the King is everywhere'.

Space is being used as a means to understand these terms.






Life in a negative world p: 51


AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 51 5/26/2011 Thursday 22 Iyar 5771

Page 51 – just below the middle of the page (line starts: haray, ha ohr...)  

The light made on the first day, is embedded in the sun. the light we get from the sun, if just viewed as such is not light per se, it is a reflection of the sun and has its effect. It is not the essential light that illuminates the world. When we say light was made on day one, we mean that He brought into what from a physical perspective was dark world, the element of light.  



The light element in the world means the whole world changes. From the perspective of darkness, even if it is illuminated by the functional light of the sun, you are still living in a negative world. The light of the first day did not have this element. 

With the light of the first day, one could see from 'one side of the world to the other'. Objects did not obscure light. The intent was readily visible.
The essential light was removed, but the principle remains. It is camouflaged by the sun, appearing to come from a ball of fire.

The reason the world persists and we are certain the sun will rise is because that is the G-dly will. It is not based on a natural process. It is not a matter of inertia.

Essential light means a light that is there exclusively by virtue of its purpose rather than a physical process. 

The purpose of the essential light is to bring the G-dly purpose into the world.

The light was hidden for the sake that it would be recognized later that there is no natural process. This is hislabshus – enclothement. This is how the Rebbe can sand in the face of an all power authoritarian government and say, 'you have no power over me!'

we keep the fire on the alter by adding to it. But then there is a fire that does not consume its fuel. We can see the world as being maintained by an outside G-dly force. This doesn't change one's perspective of the reality of the world. The other perspective is that everything is directly representative of Him. This is 'ein od milvado' – 'there is none, but him'.

We say the world is G-dly purpose, camouflaged in a natural process.

We live within a natural process, but are not limited by it.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Nothing in Itself p: 51


AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 51 5/25/2011 Wednesday 21 Iyar 5771

Page 51 – just below the middle of the page (line starts: hay, hay...)

Even the light that is at the level of revealing the essence, nevertheless it is not at all at the level of the essence itself.

The light may be as true as the sun itself, yet the light is telling us not that it, itself is true, it is saying the sun is true.

The fact that the light, itself is nothing/ein means that it can bring us a correct portrayal of the essence.

The sun does not diminish in its power. It's essential presence is not its fire, but the fact that He makes it to give light. Light was made on the first day and the sun on the 4th day. 

The essential light of the first day was placed into the sun. Light is an essential creation. The sun illuminates not due to its fire. It illuminates since essential light was embedded within it and it is give the process of fire/combustion to give it a 'natural state'.

The world itself is not precarious, and is not dependent on worldly factors. The wold has an infinite quality to it. What it stands for is eternal.

We say the world is a creation and thus draws from Him, from an infinite resource.



more video to follow... tech issues....
The reason we are confident that the sun will rise tomorrow is not the ball of fire that we observe, it is an expectation that is based on a deeper truth. The truth of His will.




Tuesday, May 24, 2011

You cast a shadow p: 51


AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 51 5/24/2011 Tuesday 20 Iyar 5771 

Page 51 – at the middle of the page (line starts: ein sof...

We have been looking at what the Rebbe is telling us about neshamot/souls.

We said the essential light is not comparable to essence itself.

The gemara says that demons do not cast a shadow – this is because they are not for real.

Humans do cast a shadow. A tree also cast a shadow. Humans are primarily the neshamah/soul. His shadow is not because of his body, like a tree, but because he is for real. Essence means a fundamental reality.

What we see is only a reflection of his true presence. We don't see the essential element itself.

A human being is not a human being because he acts like a human, but because he is a human being.

Essence is representative of the G-dly truth. Essence exists not because of functionality.

A house is made of masonry and lumber, but what does it provide? The space it provides it the real essence.

The sun is the essence of light and is not pre-occupied with providing light to the earth. Since it is the essence of light, where ever it is, there is light. It is not an additional activity. The soul is life and whatever it touches reflects life. What we have in the body is only a reflection of real life.




Monday, May 23, 2011

King in Your Livingroom p: 51


AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 51 5/23/2011 Monday 19 Iyar 5771 


Page 51 – lower than the middle of the page (line starts: haray ha ohr... )

We have been looking at how light, even that light,which represents the etzem is at a lower level than essence, since it is not essence itself.

We have said the light is everywhere and this is different to how the essence is everywhere. 

The light of the essences is the light that represents the essential nature of the essence. Sight is not about the functional element of seeing, but about relating to the object in its purity – to see it as it is, rather than 'the way I see it'. So the light is revealing the essence, but this does not compare to the essence itself. 

There is a difference between 'light reaches everywhere' and the 'essence is everywhere'. It is everywhere due to the truth of its metziut.

In the Rambam say, 'from the truth of His presence, everything that exists came forth...' and later he says, 'the Lord our G-d is true – He alone is true and there is no truth like His' – this is not the truth due to manifesting in the world, but the essence itself.

The role of chochmah is to find His presence, His truth in everything – this is already the level of ohr/light.




His truth is more fundamental than that – it is present eveywhere, not because it extends there, but because it is present everywhere.

Before we had ha-arah/reflection that was a functional light, and above that the essential light. Here we are saying that this essential light is 'functional' in contrast to the essence itself.

Think of a king. 'Kingship/malchus' is a reflection of the king. And each individual has a aspect of this faculty – each is a king in a limited way... In his home a man is a 'king' – this extends to even the unused space... no-one may enter without his permission. The man may be asleep. He's not everywhere. But some aspect of his presence is recognized everywhere – this is his malchus/kingship element.

Because he is a true presence, hence there is ownership of property. He can own the home and you cannot enter into that domain. That is the reality to the human being. The essence (that man is a true presence) is much higher than the reflection of this essence (the extension of his domain). If he had 'made himself', he wouldn't have this quality. One has the element of ownership only because Hashem made him and he has a true presence in the world.    

Friday, May 20, 2011

The Simple Reality p: 51


AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 51 5/20/2011 Friday 15 Iyar 5771

Page 51 – about middle of the page (line starts: ein sof )

Souls of Israel are able to draw down the essential light.

This is like the 2 levels of recognizing the King. One is taking on his Kingship, the other is accepting His decrees.

Kabalos hamalchus/recognition of the King, is not an involvement with the person, nor a recognition of the effect of the King, the essential light of, 'here is the King'.

One is modest even when alone, and even in a place where one cannot think of kedusha/holiness. This is not human decency. This is because He is everywhere! This is ohr atzmi – not a light that can be translated in human terms. It is the simple reality.

p51 (right click to enlarge)
Only the souls of Israel can give cognizance to this. 

The fact that there is right and wrong is all due to the fact that there is an essence, that there is a King. If you accept the foolishness of the theory of a human being originating as an evolutionary entity, then there is no right and wrong.

Light as it land in the vessel is not etzem – it gives a message of its own. This is the functional element. Yet all that it is saying is that there is one thing – the essence.



Essence does not have to be proclaimed. It is hidden not because it is concealed, but only because it cannot be grasped. It is a fundamental presence that does not make itself known by its activity. Hence the light that declares the essence, is already on a completely different level.

Father and son we say are one thing. And then there is the son's recognition of the father. Recognition is after the fact. The fact, the reality comes first and is beyond the declaration.

The more essential the light, the less it has a presence.

Hearing is a translation – putting the object into words – transportation into a different world.
Crown Heights, Dancing in the streets, Simchat beit Hashoevah
Sight is dependent on the object – on 'what you see'. Sight is without a process – if there is a process, then it is not sight. Hence the difference between the eye and the ear, is that the ear is a participant in receiving the message, the eye is not involved in a process – it is a clear channel... Thus light without presence is what provides for sight.  

Thus the real light is heder hametziut – without presence.

The light brings a pure truth by being a non-entity. Essence brings reality by being a metziut/something. Pure truth is a fundamental reality. It is a metziut and pure.

The fact that light can shine everywhere, can be understood by saying it is a non-presence. But we say the Creator is everywhere, and that's a metziut, a yesh and a yesh emiti.  

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Truth and Lies p: 51


AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 51 5/19/2011 Thursday 15 Iyar 5771 

Page 51 – about a third from the top of the page (line starts: kmo she katuv... )

Souls are sourced in the inner aspect of Father. All else is sourced in the outer level.

There is a constant union, and this is, 'He is good to all'.

There is an inner union, and this is, 'He is good to those who trust in Him'.

It not for the souls of Isreal there would not be a presence/download of His essential light at all.

The level of essence/etzem is in a completely different level to revelation/gilui and light.



Let's talk about 'Essence':
  • is that which need not be 'made'
  • there is light and dark – how is there such a thing as darkness? Evil? One disregards existence and you, 'do your own thing'. How? This is because there is the element of the world of 'taking it for granted'. This assumption is because the essence is of such subtle and profound reality that, 'He doesn't have to be present to be present'.
  • tzaddikim/say, 'this primary existence of the world that we take for granted, has a reality to it – it is no just there, He makes it. In a king's domain, not only are the tangible elements important, but the very 'nothingness' is also the king's and there because of the king
  • Inherited wealth is the same as earned wealth. Except you can ignore the origin when you inherent it. You don't sense its beginning. This beginning is called essence. 'That which did not have a prior source'. This is truth itself rather than something that describes something as true.
  • 'truth itself' - meaning? Truth is an adjective?! So what is truth itself? Like when we spoke about how 1 plus 1 = 2, and that we have deep concept of it. We go to the source – “the source of 'how come there is one and another one' and that they are from the same source, hence they can be two”.
  • If there was no absolute truth, then all truth would be relative and descriptive.
  • Truth does not have to be created – it refers to what is. Only a lie has to be created, 'what are we going to say?'
  • it is easy to re-interpret truth according to what is advantageous.


    Ayin Base, Rebbbe Rashab, p51 (right click to enlarge)

    Truth does not have to be created – it refers to what is.