“No Message” p: 47

AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 47 6/30/11 ThursdayNight 28 Sivan 5771

Page 47 – at 11th line from the top of the page (line starts:  levad...)

We started with a review of the love and fear of the mind/sichli, that appears to be touching on the essence, but that too is only a reflection/ha-arah, because the idea, that He is omnipresent and infinite is itself just the level of ha-arah/reflection. It too is an emanation of Him.

Elokus/G-dliness itself is on a different level. It has no message.

Everything in creation, if it is a 'thing' is of an external level.

How is love and fear rooted in sechel/mind? They seem to be a subjective element. And sechel seems objective. It is pointing to the fact that the sechel/mind itself is rooted in ratzon/will. The love and fear are the ratzon/will element within the sechel itself. A higher element within sechel. Sechel is not based on 'nothingness', it is based on elokus/G-dliness. There is no greater experience than sechel – sechel pnimi/inner mind. 'Knowing' Him is rooted in the essence of the soul and the sechel gets it from there.

Doing a mitzvah is a 'grasp' of essence. A mitzvah is a good thing, but this is not the principle of the mitzvah. The name itself denotes the principle. It means a 'command or directive' and a directive does not exist without a 'Director'. A mitzvah exists because the Commander wants and creates it right now. Thus you have the Commander Himself. It is completely dependent on the Commander and there is no object beyond this. Putting on tefillin is nothing, but that He tells you to do it.

Take the example of shlichut – being an emissary. You go out to do something for the one who sends you. If a man sends a bill of divorce to his wife by means of the agent, but on the way the husband/sender dies... then the document is null and void. The power of the agent exists exclusively because now the sender is telling him to do it. This is a metaphor for mitzvot.

Because He said to do it, hence the halacha has a conclusion. Even if the final decision seems to be on the basis of a count of pros and cons – this is not according to sechel, but because the halacha is a devar havayah (word of G-d). Sechel would demand that you start comparing the reasons themselves. You bypass the sechel process. Halacha is a different level.  

It is said that even souls in atzilus, when enclothed in a body do not comprehend the essence of G-dliness, only the experience.

Atzilus is not really a world. It is G-dly. It is like the sunlight within the sun itself... Yet souls from that level are limited when enclothed in bodies... this is what we have discussed many times, that when in a body, and even though the brain is very sensitive, it is limited. Like rough hands cannot feel the smoothness of silk... The brain does not get involved in experience, it is cold and moist, and a vessel for everything, and sechel/mind is not a physical experience, nevertheless it occupies space and is limited – deals with presence/metzius and not mehus/essence...

Prophecy is the revelation of essence. When Moshe/Moses spoke it was not a human being talking. He could stand steadfast and talk. In contrast to other prophets, who 'lost control'. For Moshe the enclothment in physicality was not real limited restriction by the body.

This is the same with the Rebbe. With the Rebbe we saw it with our eyes. He would pick up the cup and in the later years he would support it with his finger, then after he would stand for hours, without support and pour perfectly into all the recipients' little cups without spilling a drop...  

And when the soul goes up above to Gan Eden (Garden of Eden) then it is possible to have essence, since they are not limited by physicality. This explains the fact that the Arizal saw secrets when he slept – since when tzaddik sleeps his soul rises upwards, and he saw what would take him 80 years to express...!

“Mystic Motors” p: 47

AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 47 6/30/11 Thursday 28 Sivan 5771

Page 47 – at 11th line from the top of the page (line starts: levad...)

We started the shiur with a look at 'love and fear on the level of sechel/mind'.

The extensive discussion we have been having is to lay out and show how all in the world from the spiritual to the physical, including the function of souls below is all only a reflection – it is not an essence. Sechel/mind, our highest faculty is also only a reflection.

Hishtalshalus/development from infinite to the finite is also a G-dly process itself. It is not just that there is a lower level coming about from a higher level – rather the story here is about how a G-dly element can be traced through to each level – this testifies to a direct G-dly presence. In physicality there is also a kind of hishtalshalus – there is internal combustion resulting in secondary and tertiary motion – this is translated to the level of turning the wheels! The motion originated in the motor, but by the time it reached the wheel the movement is detached from the source...

The lowest level is still energized by the highest level. 

'Love and fear on the level of sechel/mind', though one of the great phenomenon is still not essence. Sechel/mind does relate to the truth of something, in contrast to middot/emotions. The Alter Rebbe says the heart of man reflects the other's heart like water reflects a face. He says, 'imagine a great king comes to a man sunk in the dirt and lifts him and cleans him, and the simple man's heart will melt in love of the king'. It is love that elicits love. Your feelings brought out my feelings. This is a personal experience/response as opposted to an objective truth.

But when it comes to sechel, it is on a different level. We can recognize things at the truth level, rather than at the personal level. So, 'I understand the greatness of The King, not how He affects me.' Now when the sechel is fully engaged it creates a love an fear based on truth, not personal experience, it seems essential, and 'I am drawn to Him in love, not because He draws me, but because it is worthy to go that way...' This in general what separates souls from angels, who generally don't attain this level. Angels are constantly aroused due to their closeness. The souls are higher. So it seems essential, 'why else are you drawn to it?! Because of essential truth, surely!' But the Rebbe says 'all of that is only on the level of chitzonius/externality!

Saying 'He is everywhere, at all times' is not an essential description, since it comes down to being a 'time and space' description. So too recognizing His Greatness is not essence.

“You do not understand, love is real!” p: 47

AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 47 6/29/11 Wednesday 27 Sivan 5771

Page 47 – at 6th line from the top of the page (line starts: vechen...)

The presence of a Jew gives substance to the world. His mere being byond his activity. 

The expression of something spiritual and even one's emotions can be grasped, but not the essence.

Some people think they can understand everything and they deny the spiritual quality of the human being. They reduce the human being to an interaction between organs or other entities. As a result of this they deny the existence of the soul. Love/ahavah says chassidus is the deepest emotion and connects us with G-d and with others. As far as they can see it doesn't exist and everything has an ulterior motive.

They become sure of this position. They say shame or embarassment is just social, not a soul expression. And that love is just machination.

Since we cannot grasp the essence, so what makes it real? Only because you know on a deeper level that there is a 'first Creator' and so this makes the creation real...

it goes without saying that going into greater permissiveness or promiscuity will not lead to purpose or satisfaction. Contact with a true Jewish element will give him deep satisfaction. He looks for and comes into contact with the 'truth of his existence'.

P 47, AyinBase, Rebbe Rashab (right click to enlarge and open in new wiindow)

Kids are told, 'you'll become an engineer and make money and be a somebody!' and the kid answers, 'I cannot build myself on external means, it doesn't speak to me, I have to be real, then I can do something.'

“Not something that he, himself can understand” p: 47

Sketch of Moshe, by Hershel Boncheck

AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 47 6/28/11 Tuesday 26 Sivan 5771 

Page 47 – at end of first line from the top of the page (line starts: mehut...)

Stepping back slightly: we are saying that the sechel/mind that the angels have is only a reflection. In fact sechel overall is a reflection – not essence.

Sechel/mind is not the ability to maneuver mental constructs, but rather the conception of reality itself.

'No thought can grasp Him at all' – an thus sechel/mind and understanding is not on the level of essence.

Sechel even at the higher level is not at a primary level. Thus it is a reflection.

Elokus/G-dliness is known not by observation. Sechel is not an imaginary aspect. One may say, 'well here's a world, and thus there is a Creator, and I start projecting what He is like this and like that....', but that is just imagining and projecting. Chochmah goes further and has a direct relating. Hasaga in elokus/G-dliness is a reverse process. Elokus is a primary presence and it is omnipresent. So in essence it is not sechel/mind nor a reflection.

The reason we know it is by virtue of its omnipresence. We know it before comprehension. hasaga/understanding comes later at a secondary level...

Though understanding in general is only a reflection, but since understanding in Elokus is in omnipresence, one my think it is essential. But the level of G-dliness that is grasped is only a reflection and His essence cannot be grasped.

There is essence, a G-dly essence in man. We have metaphors to look at this, but it cannot be grasped. A man's malchus extends to every corner of his home, but it cannot be defined, nor grasped.

A thing is not an etzem/essence. The essence is in the source. The fact that He creates it gives it essence. The fact that a man is present even when he is not present is not something that he himself can understand, and thus he may deny it and start to live more on an experiential level rather than on an essential level. We cannot grasp the eternity and essential nature of ourselves. 

“Angels and Men” p: 47

AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 47 6/26/11 Sunday 24 Sivan 5771 

Page 47 – at end of first line from the top of the page (line starts: mehut...)

angels don't have the essential quality. Angels cannot do what man does. When man was brought into the world it changed everything and gave the world a real/significant presence that it never had before. The man doesn't have to do anything to have this effect. Angels cannot contribute this quality. Man brings a real presence.

Both animals and humans have sight. An animal sees and reacts. A man sees and responds. He identifies the essential presence and then acts if necessary. Man sees the presence. The animal sees a reflection/ha-arah. An animal doesn't relate to 'reality' – it relates to the effect. The sechel/mind of the angels is like a reflection.

The 'nothingness' of space represents the G-dly domain that provides for everything. We cannot identify the essence of space/nothingness and so too cannot grasp how it is a positive presence. Sechel is a ha-arah and can grasp only that which has a function. And so it says of space, 'it does not resist what is put there', but this is just a functional feature of space.

This is like asking, 'what was G-d doing before he made the world?' and this question seems valid, but that is only because, 'we have absolutely no idea what we are talking about'.

At a certain point sechel/mind, falls short. But man has an essential quality.

The pure truth that comes via torah is a G-dly quality that cannot be grasped by sechel.

Everything has a true presence and cannot be usurped by another true presence. Thus if 2 snowflakes collide the world will be destroyed. The G-dly element, even at this low level, is impossible to understand. We see the flake as frozen vapour – a natural process, that is not opposed. But that a snowflake is a G-dly element – we don't see that – but that is the reality, and so too of every variation of nature, and thus it cannot be interfered with. sechel/mind cannot grasp this truth.