“The Soul is Life Itself” p: 48

AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 48 7/7/11 ThursdayNight 5 Tammuz 5771  

Page 48 – 5^th line of the page (line starts: ku...)

The affect rather than the presence of G-dliness results in a reflection of 'real reality' that can be usurped and pulled to the 'other side'. The reflection is a functional element. The sitra achrah/ that which dissociates itself from the source and is interested in itself, gets life not from the reflection of real life, but from the 'garments'.

The life the soul provides for the body is just a reflection. It is not essential life. The body receives only a reflection of 'soul life'. The body is alive and so is the soul. So what is the difference? The soul is life itself. It cannot loose it's life. The body has the effects of life. It can move and do things, but it doesn't undergo a fundamental change – it is still bound by the earth. 

The body can sense the difference between sackcloth and silk. But it lacks spiritual sensitivity. It relates to things that have some physical element to it. Sechel/mind cannot understand what nefesh/soul is. The body has life but cannot understand it – it has only the functional element.

Sunlight bring light to the earth. You can see your way around, but the world is not fundamentally changed. Sun itself is light 'through and through'. Light comes and pushes off darkness, but doesn't change it.

Every aspect of nefesh gives the body some level of functionallity. 

Due to the enclothement of the soul in the body, the 'other side / sitra achra' can gain energy and grant evil a foothold. 'the soul is here, an exquisite creature, and the hands have such beautiful movement' until the soul gets so full absorbed, that one just celebrates the body – 'look what the body can do! Look at the beauty of the body, 'I sing the body electric'!' and this is a complete reversal of reality. The soul becomes secondary and the body becomes primary!

The sun serves the earth, to bring it life. But one can loose perspective that it is a G-dly plan. One can get secular about it and say, 'the sun is huge and the earth runs around the sun and there is nothing intended here'. And one has an entirely different view of the world. The world is a G-dly creation and the presence of light attests to that...!

The point is that, because the life in the body is at the level of ha-arah/reflection, it can be hidden and usurped. This is possible only in ha-arah. Essence is immune to this.

In truth the tree of knowledge of good and evil is primarily on the levels of holiness, that is essentially good, but because it is only a ha-arah (reflection) thus is expresses it self in the form of enclothment in the garment/body through which it is expressed.

The hands with their 10 fingers, representative of the 10 sephirot, and their wide range of abilities, are clearly from the soul. The hand doesn't function on its own. The brain directs it. The hand doesn't appreciate the writing or sketch – the brain has the sensitivity and transmits it to the hands.

The hands get the functional element. The hands don't understand their own creations. But we start to admire the hands – 'he has good hands' one says. Really it is the soul dressed in the hand, but we're talking of functionallity that can be disguised by the 'implements'.

Good and bad develops due to the element of daas. Chesed and gevurah emanate from daas, as a ha-arah / reflection that can be usurped. This is because it goes through daas – eitz ha-daas – the tree of knowledge.

What isdaas? It is a phenomenal faculty. It is what makes a human being a human being. One can have knowledge and not relate. The biggest professor may be immoral. Chochmah and bina are not the essential human quality. Daas is the fact of 'seeing the world from a sechel perspective – to see right and wrong'. A person has to be a bar daas. Why? Chochma and bina are faculties he possesses, but daas is 'who he is'.

Daas is not a calculated response. It is the human quality itself. But daas on the other hand is not it. It not the truth itself.

It is 'knowledge', but it becomes one with the human being. But it is still functional.

Each snowflake is a G-dly creation. An essential element in the truth of the world. This is not in daas. Daas is a reflection / ha-arah of that level and makes statements of 'this you must do' and

'this you must not do'.

Take a look at what happened in Germany. Educated people. And they were 'saving' the world. They had all the smarts and all the knowledge and lacked daas. They became animals. They removed the 'personal' involvement, the human element of intelligence and fell.

“The Thief and the King” p: 47

AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 47 7/5/11 Tuesday 3 Tammuz 5771

Page 47 – below the middle of the page (line starts: bechinat chitzoniut levad...) 

The distinction between 'inner and outer' can be seen in the difference between the will for world and the will for torah and mitzvot.

The inner level of ratzon/will has an element of infinity. External means there is an element of function and reason, and thus is not purely ratzon/will/desire.

Still the outer level has a fundamental reality to it.

AyinBase of the Rebbe Rashab, P47, lower half (right click to open in new window and enlarge)

The desire for the 'worlds', which is the arising in His will to emanate and create. Even at the level of atzilus is not the level of essence, but rather for 'some kind of intent'.

It is for the sake of 'some kind of intent' yet it is attributed to ratzon/will, which is representative fo the essence.

You may want to move something. And you want to do that for a practical reason. There's no real will/ratzon involved in such an action.

So to say there is 'ratzon for olamot', means He wanted to create the worlds. This means the world has an infinite quality to it, even though it is an external will. What makes it external? Because it is for some kind of intent. It is not just 'expressing myself'.

Torah and mitzvot is not just a reminder that 'there is a creator', but it is the actualization of His intent. It is bringing the King Himself into the world. To do this you need to have a world that is infinite. Torah says, 'we must not steal'. Why? Because it is His world and He's present. By not stealing you are bringing Him into the world. But why is it even possible to steal if He makes this world?! Because then it would have just been a factor of the defined world, but if one can steal and we don't, then we are making a statement of, or bearing witness to the King's presence.

Ratzon for olamot means that the world is really infinite. The world can even declare that it is self made. When something is created by an act then it has the limitations of that act, but if we have an infinite world then how was it created by an act? Because it was a ratzon the brings the world about. The reason He has for the world is unlimited. That torah and mitzvoth bring atzmus/essence into the world.

“Look, I Don't Want Anything, But You” p: 47

AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 47 7/4/11 Monday 2 Tammuz 5771 

Page 47 – below the middle of the page (line starts: levad...)

Yesterday we looked at the topic of 'external' unions.

External means the effect, Pnimi/internal means the reality itself, which is not described by the effect. The wise man chooses the King, not due to any effect that He has!

The Alte Rebbe would somethimes exclaim during prayer, “look I don't want anything, I don't want your lower Garden of Eden, I don't want your higher Garden of Eden, I don't want personal experience, I want Truth, I want You alone!” 

The external level needs a process, but the inner level is just there. The soldier goes to war and risks his life. He goes for the sake of his king, but if he loses his life he won't have the king. He follows through if he is dedicated to the essence of the king, which is something you don't have while alive and don't lose if you die...!

This is a level beyond chochmah and bina (levels of mind) and is where they can have inner union.

P 47, lower half, R' Rahsab (right click to enlarge in new window)

We say, 'David our King, chai ve kayam – Is alive and well!' thousands of years after of his passing, since he represents the essence of the Jewish people. We are alive and thus he is alive. Nasi ha-kol.

Since this is not grasped by mind (we perceive that which can be seen and heard) and is speaking of an element of the soul that is beyond kochot/faculties and personal presence. This is like emunah/faith, which is not really 'part' of the nefesh – it is imbued from above.

Essence is not everywhere by getting everywhere. It is the fundamental truth that doesn't need to spread or get there. 

Sight, can observe a whole vista in a glance, in one instance. How does this occur? It is due to a recognition that space is a fundamental existence and so thus all points are part of one point – the one reality behind the space that is not space dependent. We don't pay sufficient attention to our own experiences. Sight tells us infinitely more than what we see! Everything in our experience, but with sight we experience that there is a fundamental truth.

We have depth perception. Depth is our awareness of what facilitates this reality. The flat picture is the area that the camera sees – 2 dimensions. We see in 3 dimensions. This is our 'going out to the object and seeing it in its place'.

Chochmah and bina are the 2 dimensions of malchus. Chochmah looks into it, and bina gives it expression.

“What Angels Miss” p: 47

AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 47 7/3/11 Sunday 1 Tammuz 5771

Page 47 – below the middle of the page (line starts: ve hai...) at the end of the line

We're saying that angels do not have the problem of being in a body, but they too cannot grasp essence. That is because the root of their existence is only from an external level – from the level of ha-arah/reflection.

Sketch of Moshe W, by Hershel Boncheck

The angels are from an external level of union. Beings are created by a union. Both chochmah and bina feel that on their own they are not the real thing and thus they go to a union. The result of the union is 'a real entity' beyond their existence. This means that yichud/union has something that brings it about. This is the creative force that motivates it. 

A sketch of Rami, by Hershel

Emunah/faith is the essence of the nefesh. And the statement of faith is 'not something contained in the nefesh, but something granted from Above'.  

Another level is 'external union'. It is motivated by inadequacy. The inner union is from a sense of a 'deeper reality'.

In the world a person is neve satisfied, 'if he has 100 he wants 200...' - this shows there is nothing real to it. In contrast the spiritual world is real, but there was say one should seek to go higher. What's the difference? In the world one seeks 100 thinking it is the real thing, when he has the 100 he sees that it is 'nothing' and he seeks 200 – his motivation is based on the inadequacy of what he has. In spiritual quest by contrast, the level he attains is so rich and deep that he seeks to go further...!  

This contrast outlined above is the difference between inner and external unions. 

Chochmah is a sense, but it is not 'grasped' till it comes to binah. Bina recognizes that without the flash of chochmah it doesn't 'have the point'. So both sense their inadequacy and this leads to an external union that creates a ha-arah...

pnimius/inner level is not base on one's shortcoming. The presence of the essence is the power of the inner/pnimi level and the entities have an yichud pnimi / inner union resulting in a real creation.

We have said that malchus is that the king is real and true and hence has a domain, like a human being has his home. There is the wise man who says, 'l choose the King'. In this choice are 2 elements. 1. the King is great and extends everywhere. 'wherever I go I have him!' - this is an external level. 2. the second level is that He is true. 'The fact that there is a real King is all I have to know.'

Akiva holding Yosef Yizchak at his bris.  

The only way to explain elokus/G-dliness is emes/Truth – but that is above our grasp. Emunah/faith relates to emes/truth. 

The limit of gravity is that 'this cup is here just only because it is supported by the table', this is external. In contrast to this we say there is a G-dly truth in everything. He makes a world that represents his presence. 'He right now is making this cup and wants it there right now...!'

If the soul gave more than a ha-arah / reflection of life to the body, then it would have essential life. 'what element of life can the body relate to? How is life identified externally? That which can move. The body can move. The soul gives it vitality to move, but doesn't change it's original physical property. In the time to come it will be seen how the physical is from the essence of Elokus/G-dliness, but for now it hides G-dliness and says, 'I made myself'. We identify the limit and say it is not true that it made itself. But for now there is only a ha-arah of the soul's real life in the body.

Take the soul out of it and you have nothing. A dead poet is not a poet. 

“Guard Duty” p: 47

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

District 6, Cape Town, South Africa, near where Granny Becky lived

Page 47 – at middle of the page (line starts: key inyan...) at the end of the line  

Metzius is known from the outside. To know it something has to reach you from that object to make you aware of it. Mehus is something that you know from inside out. 

A mashal/metaphor for this is being inside a home and the objects of the home. The knowledge of being in the house is not due to features, but due to what it is directly. A home or a place is much more than its functionality. It demarcates a place that gives reality for all that it contains. Objects of the home are different. We know it by its message and functionality. This is the chitzonius/externality.

Anything known from outside is by means of its message and functionality – without that you cannot grasp it.

The halacha/law is that in the Temple in Jerusalem, the Preists and Levites had posts where they stood watch the whole night. This was not for functionality. It is to expose the significance. The guard is not giving a functional message, he has become, 'part and parcel' of the place itself.

G-d says, 'none sees My face and lives...' The simple meaning is that a man cannot see and live. Another meaning is neither men nor angels can see him. This is because the root of their presence is due to the external union, which is only a ha-arah / reflection. Human souls don't see essence due to being in a physical bodies. Angels don't have this problem. But they don't see essence because they have no relationship to that level at all.

Chochmah actually sees the truth, the ratzon/will that is higher than chochmah. This is due to its humility, not due to an actual ability to relate to it. Emunah/faith is really part of chochmah. But it is the upper reaches of it – like the thin point on top of the letter yud and is not defined. It is beyond observation. We sense reality because we have a soul that is real.

Bina seeks chochmah not to substantiate its own metziut, but rather to have a sense of what chochmah is. 1+1 is basically 1+1 but then we say no, it is 2 because they emanate from the same source and hence you now have 2.