AyinBase with R' Paltiel 11/10/11 ThursdayNight 13 Cheshvan 5772
Page 59 – 4 lines from the top of the page (line starts: ”be-echad...” )
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We are looking at 2 levels of 'giving over ones soul'.
Before we go into it we should look at mesirat nefesh / giving over ones soul - what is it?
The Rebbe explains that there can be self sacrifice based on yeshus/self esteem and not on humility/bitul. One may be calculating about it. In duels people allowed themselves to be killed for 'honor', but really it was self importance.
What is the meaning of giving oneself to sanctify G-d? Generally all one's worldly understanding is based on one's personal experience. One may see as 'good' as 'what's good for me'. In fact we learn 'do to others as you would have them do unto you'. This is a worldly context. But the soul knows it from the top. The soul sees all from above.
This is like sechel/mind being founded upon the insight of there being a first-Being that creates all.
Emunah is the sense that, 'something is holding me up. This is not dependent on my effort or consciousness'. This cognizance of something that precedes me. The sense of 'my existence is supported by something greater than myself gives the soul a sensitivity to the truth from which it comes'. This insight is what enables mesirat nefesh. The soul senses that it's own reality is greater than itself.
The 2 levels of self sacrifice are the level of the G-dly soul and that of the animal soul.
The existence of the world does not present any challenge to the perfect unity of Hashem.
“I am the first, and I am the last” says Hashem, “and besides me there is no Elokim – there is no tzimzum at all from my perspective”.
From the perspective of the world, everything that exists actually fights for its existence and uses its own strength to resist threats to its existence. This is held to be the case from the inanimate through to the human levels. This is like saying, 'their existence perpetuates their eistence'.
The Torah view is that He said 'let there be animals and trees and stones... and he gave to each thing its source of being... and everything represents a G-dly principle that sustains it. But due to the tzimzum the G-dly power is hidden and you see the objects...'
The fact that metziut/existence comes into focus is due to the tzimzum.
The spirit is what brings things into being and gives them meaning. Without that things are just there because nobody moved them someplace else!
Tzimzum means that a certain level of reality is contracted and hidden.
The spirit is indestructible. There is a slogan saying, 'the human spirit is indestructible – and it's true!'
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