Tanya Class 10- Chapter Eight

Speaker 1 Sexually, you know what? I'll I'll start with a quick a quick review of last week also because we spoke, we spoke last week about the the transformative power of like this deep level of tuba. We talked about how the life force that was once trapped in the realm of the Gimo Clipa satanas of the three impure Clipas, how that could actually be released and brought back into ganuja. How? Because usually when that energy is bound within the three impure clipas, it means, you know, I guess meaning we engage with something forbidden or something that was us or something that was bound and now it can't be elevated. It's stuck, it's enmeshed, it's bound. The only time that the enemy that, that, that energy could be fully reintegrated, The time he tells us is when Mashiach comes, Hashem is going to remove all the impurity from the world. And I had given a, a, an analogy. It, it works for me in my brain. You know, this idea of like, almost like a magnet that draws out all the darkness. It pulls out all the, the, the tuma and therefore the light is now on its own. It's no longer blended. It's no longer enmeshed in the darkness or the tiny thing gave us another, a second possibility of how we could release and reintegrate this energy. And that was through tuba, because in the process of Chuva, the darkness itself becomes what pushes the light back towards Kedusha. And again, I'm just using darkness and light as, as metaphors for, you know, the darkness being the concealment, the Klipa, and the light being the divine life force. So instead of the light being trapped within the darkness, the darkness itself becomes the force that drives it back into connection with God. It creates like I had read from the words of the tiny. It creates his deep thirst. It creates his deep, deep longing to reconnect. And in that sense, the sin itself is transformed into a merit because it became the catalyst that brought the person back. Now I, I had cheered it through in in this regard, and I had cheered the the analogy of the magnet. But I was remembering after the class how years and years ago I had read a, an essay of Yankee Tab or on kabaa.org. He, he had written an essay about chuba. And I remember like literally probably like 3 years ago reading this and it really helped me then it felt like a very transformative, like something clicked in my mind of like how the mechanics of chuba and how it works. And so I want to just shear that punch line here, you know, perhaps just to give a different angle that could offer a little more clarity. Again, the question we have is, or I guess the, I don't know, possibly a lack of clarity that we're addressing is that we have this obvious fact. Once you mess up, once you make a mistake, the action itself still remains. When you have a a dysfunctional or broken behavioral pattern and you keep repeating that step over and over again, it becomes even more defined, right? So the action remains, you missed a flight, the flight is still missed. You spilled milk, the milk is still spilled. So we might understand how Truba helps redirect the future. That might be straightforward and understood, but how does Truba go and undo the past? How could something that was once a sin become a merit again, I, I do feel if you haven't listened to last class, by all means, go ahead and listen because I do feel satisfied with the way we elaborated on last week. But this, this offers a little bit of a different approach. In, in his essay, he was explaining how everything has two layers. Again, this is an idea. And Jacidas, there's the body, the physical act of what occurred, and then there's the soul of it. Like there's the meaning, there's the purpose, there's the inner significance, there's the energy of that act. So the physical side that can't be changed, but the Chuva process helps shift the the meaning entirely. So here's an example. OK, take two people who are performing the exact identical physical action. You know, imagine in your mind seeing the image of a person hovering over another body with a knife in their hand. So you have a man hovering over another body, he's holding a knife. This is the exact same act in both people, but they have completely different meanings. 1 is somebody who's about to stab, it's an act of violence. The other is a surgery. He's cutting into the body in order to heal it. So again, here you have the external act that looks exactly the same, but the inner intention and the purpose make them entirely different realities, right? So this is the same in our lives. You miss a flight because you weren't prepared well enough. And so at first, what does it look like? It's a failure. Again, you didn't prepare properly, you missed your flight. But then it becomes the very act that is going to be the wake up call and the turning point that is going to redirect you to become more responsible or to be an example of an argument. You have a hurtful argument and it creates distance in a relationship, but it could also lead to then trigger you to look inward, to deeper awareness, which is going to lead to a strengthened connection, which is going to lead to repair after the rupture and a strengthened repair. So in this way, the event itself did not change, but the meaning of it totally transformed. The body of the event is exactly the same, but the Tuva process lets us go back and redefine the the soul of the event. So to Shuba in that way retroactively changes the energy of the event. So instead of this was a failure that set me back. Now the story of the Miss flight is the is the story of this was the moment that pushed me towards something much more true about myself or instead of this fight created distance that that that discussion. Now that that that engagement was what exposed how much you care and it led to a deeper connection. So the energy of the experience gets completely rewritten. You know, I actually, I remember hearing this just popped into my brain. So hopefully I, I remember all the details. I remember hearing the story about Miriam Rhodes. I don't know if anyone it's a woman who lives in Israel. She's about Chuva. She had gone to, I think Mahankana in Crown Heights. And I remember hearing her share a story about how when she, before she became from, she had, you know, she was, she, she travelled, she was in India. She spent time in like the ashrams and what she called. Speaker 2 Did anyone else lose? Speaker 3 Sabi, I was just going to say the sorry, she's gone. Speaker 2 Shows that she's still here, but something happened. Speaker 3 So if we don't hear you. Speaker 1 You guys still there? Speaker 3 Now we're now we hear you. Now we hear you. Speaker 1 OK, hold on a second. I want to make sure it's still recording. I don't know why it keeps jumping off. It's recording. It is recording. It's showing record. Yeah, OK, awesome. Thank you. So I was sharing a story about, I don't know what just happened and I hope it doesn't happen again 'cause it happened twice, OK, So stay there. If it happens again, it just means I'll be right back. I was sharing the story of Miriam Rhodes and she was, she's talked about how, oh, I got a message from my daughter. She thinks, OK, all good. She so Miriam Rose shared how she she wanted to do, she figured she has to do some kind of chuba process for all these years spent, you know, immersed in in again, like what she called Abaydazara. And so the rabbis at the school that she was at had suggested that she asked the rabbi about this. And she shared with the rabbi her years of, you know, being lost in other in other things. And she asked her about what she could do about it. And the rabbi's response was Yagato and Matsasa, which I I feel is like the most gorgeous, gorgeous thing in the world. The rabbit took all these years of loss and this regret and completely refrained it. He said you searched and you found. In other words, he turned all those years of quote UN quote sin into part of the chuva process. Those because of that darkness, because of that thirst, because of that distance. That's what had pushed her into the life of, of that she was living now into her life serving God. And so he's he just literally just said, Oh, those are your years of search. And now you found so again that changing the entire energy and the entire soul of the all those years being being amongst, you know, idol worship. So to say. Anyway, back to so last week we were we, we also spoke. This was the the Chuba process. I was just kind of reviewing. I also want to talk about last week we talked about the power of intention because in this chapter it goes on and talks about the power of intention. But in the in the reverse order, we spoke about the power of intention, how when something is permissible according to Jewish law, it's our intention in how we use it, what we see, what we do, what we think the intention of that. That's going to determine whether this could be elevated in Kadusha into Kadusha or whether it's going to be pulled into the realm of the three impure Kalibas. We discussed that even if we didn't have the right intention at 1st and the energy does get pulled down with a simple about face. Again, la czar, La Vida Sasha, those are the words of the Tanya. By redirecting ourselves back into the service of God, simply with that act, we reintegrate that energy into Kedusha. So in very simple terms, again, I'm just going to take the example of food. Food literally becomes part of us. It enters our bloodstream, it becomes one with us. So if I eat something out of self indulgence, but later use that energy to serve God to fulfill my role in his mission, then that energy is going to be repurposed. And you know, it's revealed as aligned with Kedusha. But here's where chapter chapter 8 introduces us something and tells us this whole thing becomes much more complicated when our thoughts feature action is going to be invested in something that's prohibited by Jewish law. Last week we talked aloud what what it means that it's prohibited. It means kasher by us or it's bound into the the realm of Klipa. It's enmeshed in the clipa. It cannot be elevated until the the author of it tells us that even if we have good intention, even if I genuinely love God, there is no way to elevate that specific thought, word, or deed into Kadusha. Even through my intentions. In the case of something that's us or intention cannot redefine reality. It can. Again, just repeating what I said before, it can absolutely take something that was permitted and bring it into the realm of Kadusha, but it cannot take that which is prohibited and make it permitted. Now this, this conception of good and evil, I'm, I'm emphasizing this because it's very different from how modern culture instinctively thinks. We tend to evaluate everything through intention, through emotion, or even through context, like in the framework of in in in this framework of modern culture, intention almost becomes a moral standard. But Jewish law, as, as we see emphasized here in this chapter, it stands on very a very, very different approach. It's saying there is an objective structure to reality. There are boundaries that are not created and cannot be moved by human feelings. They cannot be changed by human intention. They are part of the way God created the world. And because of that, an act, not the IT, it's not going to be defined by how we feel about it. There are things that are inherently holy. There are things that are permitted and that our intentions can turn wholly, and then there are things that are inherent, inherently prohibited, and that final category is fixed. It's not shaped by us. It's literally just part of what is. So even if someone acts with completely good intention, with sincerity, with care, with love, with the desire to do something right, but the action itself isn't permissible, the intention doesn't change the status of the ACT. Because in the case of what's prohibited, again, intention cannot define reality. If someone intends, just to use a very simple analogy, if someone intends to drink water and accidentally they drink poison, the intention might be pure, but the reality of what was consumed remains what is. And again, spiritually, that's the same. There are things that are intrinsically aligned with holiness and with connection to God, and then there's things that are not. And again, I, I want to emphasize an intention is very, very powerful. It can elevate something permitted into holiness. It can, it can take something that's ordinary and turn it into a service of God, but it could also, God forbid, lo or something that could have potentially revealed God's purpose and instead it now further conceals God's presence. But the point that chapter 8 begins with is that intention cannot cross the category of what's prohibited. It cannot redefine the boundaries of the universe's structure. Now the altar of it goes on to explain how because of this structure, it's going to also have a very profound effect on our perception of reality, our investments. Again, I'm using the word investments because lastly, we talked about how our the actions of our godly soul are investments into holy. The actions of our animal soul are also investments. And he tells us our investments don't just have an effect on the world. They have a very lasting impact on our own heart and mind. Our thoughts are words and deeds. They shape us internally. Again, we talked about this in past weeks, how like they create neural pathways inside of us. When you keep doing the behavior over and over on a loop, it becomes like a defined behavior. And then when you're, you know, like I, I, I had said, when you're up on the mat on the top of the hill with your sled, you're instinctively going to go down the most well trodden path. So our behaviors, our investments are either going to clarify our connection to God or they're going to add concealment over it. Because when we live in alignment with truth, truth brings clarity and living out of alignment is going to create fog. It's going to create like it's going to blur our perception. So the impact isn't just external, it really has a very deep personal internal impact. It's going to affect our scent, how we sense our connection to God. It's going to sense how present we feel God in our own awareness, which is why I'm kind of skipping. I'm jumping towards the end and we'll come back later on in the chapter. The October discusses the effect of of, you know, idle chatter using the English translation, you know, just simply talking nonsense without positive intent. And he contrasts that, you know, simple talking about, you know, just chit chatting with your friend versus talking and speaking and learning secular knowledge, wisdom that is devoid of holy intent. And he explained there how idle chatter, again, like I said, chit chat, joking around, you know, just doom scrolling. These are clipas that can affect our emotions. It's clipas *** that got misdirected. So it condemned be more easily redirected and reintegrated because it only effects our emotion. But when it comes to secular studies, it's a clipa that affects our mind. It blurs our perspective of reality. Now, even though this knowledge is clipa sniga, again, there's nothing inherently bad about studying math and science. As a matter of fact, you are absolutely allowed to study it if it's going to be, you know, for the purpose of a career so that you could support your family, so you could contribute to the world. Or if it's for the purpose of understanding God more, to study science so that you literally understand the way God works. Like, you know, the Rambam and the Ramba, and he brings us an example. Those are two people who studied the the secular studies in order to enhance their learning of of Tyra. But if it's for the means in and of itself, he explains how it's a lot worse than wasteful chit chatting. And this is this is a point I was trying to make. Why? Because it's Kleepa that's going to blur our minds perception. And I'll give you an example. I'll use this the the study of science as a reference point to explain this, to understand why is it? Why does this kind of study blur our perception? So in simple terms, think of science as it's, it's the study of what is right. It looks at what you could observe right now. It doesn't ask why this exists or what created it. It just studies how this thing behaves based on data, based on patterns, based on what we could measure. And from that we, we end up building a picture of reality, a world that's made-up of things that are governed by consistent laws. And that's where it starts having a subtle effect on our perception of reality. There's nothing wrong with math or physics. They're very accurate. They're very reliable. It's very incredibly useful. The the study of science is incredibly useful for all, for medicine purposes, for, for weather purposes, for everything. But they only tell part of the story. They tell you how things work, but not that they could have been created, not that they're dependent on their creator, not that they're not their source in and of itself. And then without that layer within this knowledge, reality starts to feel like something that just exists on its own. It's as if these laws are the foundation of everything, and this is how you end up with a world view where everything is limited to what could be measured and what could be proven. If it can't be tested or observed, then it doesn't fit into this reality. And then, without even realizing it, things like Ashka Khopratis, things like miracles, things like Nuvua, they start to feel impossible again, not because there's proof against them, but because they don't fit inside the framework of science anymore. We begin seeing the world as a world that's run by data and by patterns and by laws of nature. And without realizing it, this shapes our mindset in a very deep way because once a person is immersed in this kind of thinking, anything beyond it feels unrealistic or even irrelevant. So what begins as a wisdom? It ends up becoming a culture and it ends up becoming a worldview and it ends up becoming assumptions about the way that the universe works. These become our belief systems or simply our default lens. You know, I this again, this just popped into my mind and I felt like I may have even shared it in this class in the past, or maybe not. Maybe it wasn't one. I, I feel like I shared this story recently, but maybe it was in my local Class A a story about a woman. It was on a gem video very recently. She was told that she's not going to be able to have children, biological children, children, you know, she wasn't going to be able to be able to give birth naturally. And she came to the Rebbe crying. She had gone, She had visit many doctors. She was young, she was new, you know, married just for a few years. And this is what she was told, like the doctors gave her this prognosis that she probably won't ever have children. And the Rebbe's response to her again is this is just what this is the way that this kind of learning, this secular studies how it affects the way we think. The Rebbe said, I'm surprised that a girl who grew up in the besiac of schools has placed all of her faith in science and medicine and has lost her faith in God. Again, I'm just bringing this example of how our worldview becomes perverted through simply by studying science outside of the context that all of this came through God. So again, it's secular knowledge that's truly, truly valuable. At least most of it is. But it must be placed within the right framework because like I said before, this is clipas *** It's wisdom that absolutely can be elevated, but only when it stays aware that it's not the whole picture. And again, this idea applies not only to science, it applies to politics, to medicine, to finances, to philosophy, to psychology, to truly any wisdom of Klipa whose information, like we said before, the information regarding its source was filtered, it gets blurred. It gets lost from, you know, it goes through the urethus, the through the Satyrshoschilus and and it's information of its source gets lost if we attribute power to just the facts on the ground and we forget that they're just the channel for divine wisdom to flow through. Then of course, we're going to end up, it's going to affect us in the way that we end up living with anxiety. We go to the doctor, we hear a prognosis and that becomes the be all and end all. And so of course, we're full of anxiousness and the need to control because we don't see or sense God's hand in the picture. We're seeing the world through the Kleepa consciousness. We had, we had talked about earlier how Torah study, you know, we talked about the Talmud Kahn, that we have to give him honor even when he's not studying because the wisdom of God is within him. The wisdom of God has shaped the way he views the world. So if Torah study shapes our worldview and Torah study shapes our perspective of God's presence and of the divine significance of every single detail, it allows us to see and to experience life through the Kadusha consciousness. Then on the flip side, secular knowledge could potentially have the exact opposite effect. It adds to the concealment, which adds to our sense of separateness, which adds to our sense of disconnection from God, which adds to our fears and our anxieties, which adds to our narratives that are misaligned from truth, which then add to the behaviors that are expressions of the animal soul, which is, you know, whether however that shows up, whether it's behaviors that, you know, we chase achievements or we chase addictions to feel less empty again because we don't sense God in our life, or we're chasing approval or validation of the sense we need to control. Either way, it's going to further add to this blurry perception. And again, that's just this is the feedback loop of how our thought, speech and action of our animal soul could turn into very, you know, bad investments. You know, it's interesting. I, I'm noticing my urge to, to pause in between each point that I make to remind us about the powerful chuva process. Like here I am talking about the bad investments of the animal soul. And like, I feel this urge to come back and tell us how powerful the Chuva process is that yes, it could be this was a bad investment, but it could be turned around. You know, I, I remember reading a story about there, there was a hustle of mirror of, of Parmesan. And there's a story told about how he once shared with his students. He at, you know, he was, he quoted a a apostle from Tehillim. It says Kerhik Mizrach, Mimayarov, the distance of east to West. That's the distance of Hierarchimenos Shane. That's the distance that God has separated us from our misdeeds. Hashem distance our misdeeds just as he distance east from West. And he turned to his students and he said to them, this is the power of the Chua process, that it distance our sins from us just as distance as E is from West. And he asked the students, he said, who here can tell me how Far East is from West? And so of course everyone's grappling with this, this question, with this problem. And everyone came up with a different, you know, I don't know, an astronomical figure to describe the distance of east and West. And suddenly the, the, this Rememi Paramisham interrupts him and he says you're all mistaking the, the, the distance from east to West is 1 swerve. When you're facing east, all you have to do is turn around and instantly you're facing West. This is the immediacy of Chuva. So yes, we may make bad investments, but all we need to do is turn from east to West. So Altorova points out now how the animal soul of a Jew is oriented for survival and for safety and for pleasure and for validation. This is where our impulse is coming from. This is the animal soul of the Jew. But he goes on to say that when we feel compelled or pulled towards something that's totally forbidden, he describes this as a shade nachri. It's it's a demon from a, a foreign demon. It's not an impulse that's coming from inside of us. It's an outside influence. It's foreign to us because at our core, we know that this impermissible thing has nothing to offer us. It might be a temporary pleasure, but it cannot nourish us because why? Because it's a life force bound to Clipa and it has no lasting purpose in our lives. So if we feel ourselves poor, pulled towards something forbidden, there's this immediate it should, it should serve as this immediate knowing something's off. And, and when we avoid that, we're not denying ourselves anything, we're simply going to allow ourselves to express our true self and avoid anything that might add to the concealment of truth. And he, he does go on to explain that the, on the other hand, the impulse towards something permissible, that is the nature of a Jewish animal soul, because all of these indulgences, they're sourced in Klipa, but they're Klipa sniga. And eventually potentially they could be brought back into holiness. And so it makes sense that the soul of an animal, the animal soul of a Jew might be pulled towards that. Now he does go on to say that even though we could eventually bring it back into the side of Kadusha, because it spent time in the realm of clipa and and because we had, you know, indulgent intentions or maybe negative intentions, it got pulled into clipa gimo clipa satyas into 3 impure clipas. He says even when we do to Shiva, there's still going to remain a, a Rashimu, a trace of clipa that clings to us. It's going to cling to our body. And since the Jewish body is designed for holiness, anything else is going to act like a stain on a beautiful white shirt and it's going to need to be cleansed. And so here that Tanya offers different kinds of cleansing processes that in, you know, in the English vernacular, they might be termed as hell. But from a Hasidic perspective, it's a very different process that's being explained. And he breaks there. There's a few different things that are mentioned in this chapter. Khibbutakhevar, kafa kella gahanam shella gahanam shell, shell. I don't know the heat gahanam of, of fire. I guess he describes different processes. First he talks about khibbutakhevar. It's a process of the body getting cleansed again, like shook in the grave, shaken up in the grave in order to return to its pristine state in which it had arrived in this world. Interestingly, he tells us that every single person eventually is going to end up going through that process unless he says, unless you're one of those people who never took any personal benefit from the their entire in throughout their entire life, you took no personal benefit in, in worldly pleasures. And he says similar to Ravi Uhuda Hanasi. Speaker 4 Who is known? Speaker 1 About him that he never took pleasure in in he never indulged in physical pleasures. Now Rabihuda Nasi is known as Rabi. He's known as our Rabi Rabinu, the our teacher and and I'm pointing that out because it's to to make a specific point to the Tama tells a story about Rabihuda Nasi that when he passed away, before he passed away, he lifted his hands towards heaven and he said, master of the universe, you know that I worked with my 10 fingers and Torah and I never took personal pleasure from this world, not even with my smallest finger. Speaker 4 Now this is. This is. Speaker 1 Quite the statement, right? Because Raviola and Nasi, he did not live a simple man's life. What we know about him was that he lived with tremendous wealth. He had enormous wealth. He had enormous abundance. It's not like, oh, he was wealthy, but he lived an aesthetic life. No, his table, it said that his table was always full with the all kinds of foods and every kind of season. He had every kind of fruit and vegetable. And it says that, you know, his household was so wealthy that the the stable manager was richer than the Persian emperor. There was always abundance. And Despite that, he never indulged simply for the pleasure of it. He lived with the abundance. He he indulged in the abundance, but not, God forbid, as an indulgence. Every single part of his life was directed towards God. Speaker 4 He enjoyed. Speaker 1 The abundance of his household. But it was never as an end onto itself. It was again not by. This is shaman with terror, I say. Now the rabbit asks about this. He says, why? Why are you bringing this example to us? You know, this is extraordinary behavior. I'm here. We are in the safer Shelbina name. It's a book for me and you. We're not at the level of rabbi. And the rabbi explains it. Not only does it bring this example, but he calls him Rabinu, our rabbi, Rabbinu, our college, our holy rabbi. Why? Again, to make a very important point that yes, he was on an incredibly high level. He was a topic, but he was called our teacher because everything that's taught here has a relevant message to us that you and I absolutely can learn from this example. And in a very, very empowering way, we learn from his example that all the pleasures of the world in the realm of Clipas *** are here for you and me to enjoy. Speaker 4 We're supposed to make use. Speaker 1 Of it. If God created so many forms of enjoyment and comfort, so much abundance in our generation, it's because we're meant to use it, but not just to consume it. We're meant to bring it into purpose, right? So before eating, we talked about this in the past weeks, before eating or before buying or before enjoying something, we pause and we ask, why am I doing this? How does this serve my connection to God? How does this elevate my life, not just simply satisfy it? So the story of Rabbi that's quoted here is the lesson that the goal for us as Jews is not to reject the world. Our goal is to transform how we relate to it, and that's why these things were given to us in the 1st place. So even within abundance, we could learn to turn our life itself into something holy. Speaker 4 Now the the time he. Speaker 1 Carries on to tell us to tell us and he gives again, because this is we're talking about shibata kevar, kafa kella. We're talking about these these forms of cleansing. And so it goes on to tell us that wasteful talk, for example, leaves. You know, first we talked about things. Now it's talking about just like an an an energetic experience, right. Talk is not I haven't eaten something that became part of me, but I, I, I spoke and I these these are, you know, I've, I've used energy in my system that ends up leaving an imprint on me. And so it's going to it's going to need the cleansing called Cafacella. I again, I think you know this idea of Cafacella, I think there's it talks about David Amella. Speaker 4 I think was what his. Speaker 1 His wife where she said, you know, you should, you should live a life and you know that's are high and like in in holiness and your enemies should should live through Kafa kella like their souls should fleeing from side to side. But that's where I think the term comes from. Speaker 4 The altar is bringing. Speaker 1 Us this example of kafa kella, Literally, it's like a slingshot, like the soul being put into a slingshot and being swung from one side of the earth to the other. He's telling us your soul is going to need to be washed up. He wants us to know what? Why is he telling us this? Because he wants us to know how far in these things are does how foreign idle, wasteful chatter is. They're not you, they don't help you, they're not what you came here for. Now for me, reading about all these, you know, punishments. And again, I don't even want to call it punishments. Reading about all these different cleansing processes, I found them very fascinating. I, I remember reading the altar of it describes as Kafakal in a mimer. He talks about how he in, in that mimer particularly he was describing on the soul is brought back into the very patterns that it lived with during this lifetime, but now with much more awareness, right? That soul can see clearly how the behaviors are detrimental, how they're misaligned, how they're not an expression of my truth. The soul now has this awareness. It has a lot of clarity about what's not working and what's not right. And yet it's stuck in the same cycle. It keeps cycling through the same pattern, the same behaviors, but now with full recognition of of how often it is. And that gap between the awareness and the inability to change, that's what creates the distress in the soul. It sees how so much of what we invested in wasn't aligned with truth. So what was interesting to me when reading that was that it's, I, I feel like this is something we experience when we do our own, our inner work. You know, when you see this, this transcript, the, the, when I saw the translation or the explanation in the Mymar, I was like, I, I literally felt like I could relate to that exact experience. Because you have these moments where you find yourself falling into the same pattern. You're responding in a certain way to your spouse or to your child, or you're going down a familiar negative thought spiral and you see it, you know, it's not helpful. You have clarity, but you, you still feel stuck in it. You still react in the same way. And, and to me, that experience, that tension, that's a taste of this process of Cafe kella. So what I, what I believe is that we're not describing something that's just going to happen in the afterlife. I, I don't, I, to me, this is my, my own thought here, but these oranges, afterlife concepts, they're experiences that we can go through in this lifetime. This is part of the Chuva process. This is the, this is how we shed these layers of Kleepa consciousness. When I live with a certain perception and then I begin to peel it back and I have new awarenesses, like with each layer, it becomes more clear and more clear. And you peel back one layer and then another and you live start living with more clarity. You know, think, think even in simple terms of rehashing a memory of a conversation or of an experience you had. And there's this sense of regret, you know, you feel like, why did I say it that way? I wish I said it differently or why did I react that way? I wish I did it differently. There's so much inner tension around what you did and, and, and you know how you did it and how you wish you did it. And again, I really believe that that sitting in that regret is a process of shedding an old way of doing something and introducing A newer and better way. And these, these stages that the altar of it describes, they're ultimately here to help cleanse the soul, to refine it so that it could return to seeing and to living from a much more pure, much more aligned perspective. Speaker 4 So again, what he's? Speaker 1 Emphasizing they're just different processes to cleanse a soul literally like, you know, giving the body a bath again. He, he also describes, like I said before, the different kinds of gehennam. There's a kind called a Gehennam shell shell egg coldness coming to heal the apathy, the the, the coldness that I felt internally when you have a certain apathy or certain numbness or certain disinterest. So there was that kind of cleansing process or when there began of, of fire that comes to cleanse, you know, misdirected passion. When we have intensity and we invest passion and, and intensity and things that just were wasteful or not permissible, you know, something that was a pure indulgence. Again, the point isn't punishment, it's healing, it's recalibration. And, and the way, the way that this applies to us in our daily lives is that we begin to see more clearly. We start to recognize that these patterns, these behaviors, we're just blurring our vision. Like I said earlier, when the animal soul invests itself into something, whether it's an indulgence or whether it's, you know, something prohibited, it ends up adding to concealment. This cleansing process is about cleaning that up. Speaker 4 So why? Speaker 1 How so that the purpose being so that we slowly start to see more clearly again. And and as a matter of fact, the rebel writes a note that instead of having to experience Klibo Takaver, instead of having to go through this cleansing process of, you know, the English translation is is thrashing in the grave. It's like dusting off the body of any trace of Klibo, the Rebbe explains. A person can instead give your body this cleansing. How through speaking words of Tyra, whether it's to Hillen or Mishnah or Tamat or Tanya, any words of Tyra, when you spend a few hours your day immersed in that, then that's going to be instead of Kibotakaber. Again, emphasizing that the entire goal of these experiences is to remove layers of concealment, to remove that which blocks our awareness and our perspective of reality so that we could begin living life that is more aligned with truth. And obviously the pain that's associated with this cleansing process is the awareness that we've been so far for so long. That's where the pain comes in. It's not like a an actual physically painful process. It's when you see that you've been doing something wrong, you've invested all your time, all your energy into and all your resources into something that has no long term benefit. That pain is the painful is the pain in the process. And again, we have to be able to see that pain. I know we have to, but it's so helpful when we begin recognizing and experiencing this pain as literally just a shedding, a layer of concealment. You know, again, I'm simplifying this. Think of this in terms of the soul coming into Gun Eden at the end of its life, and it had just spent a lifetime invested in material indulgence. Speaker 4 What's it going to do with all? Speaker 1 That, you know, imagine coming to heaven with the suitcase of all your designer shoes. Again, sorry to use a simple silly example, but you bring your your your entire suitcase of all your designer shoes. What? What are you going to do with that extra baggage when you get there? Or thinking on the flip side, imagine getting free tickets to a famous opera, but you have 0 appreciation for opera. What are you going to do with those tickets? So the soul comes to heaven even if it gets a free entry into the Garden of Eden. OK, you have a free pass, you're welcome into Gun Eden, but you're the soul is covered with a lifetime of investments in food and fashion and sports and whatnot. Speaker 4 What's it going to do when it? Speaker 1 Gets into Gun Eden, like what's it going to do with the free tickets to the opera? So again, these processes that the altar of is mentioning here, they're simply the process of refining of cleansing, of purifying the soul in order to bring it back into its pristine state. Now I want to I want to circle back actually to to the ending of the chapter. I I jumped ahead and I talked about the studying secular knowledge, but I want to circle back to that. Speaker 4 You know again. Speaker 1 Quickly, just I'm, I'm going to review what I said, what I said there in order to bring in another point. When we're using secular knowledge, when it's not being used for holy purpose, like for example, to earn a living. And you know how the author of actually uses the word when we, he uses the term when we're turning it into a hatchet to chop wood, right? A hatchet to chop wood. That's how you earn a living. It's clipas *** This hatchet could be brought into the realm of holiness because it helps me in my service of God. But when the the secular studies are not being used as a hatchet to chop wood, the altar rabbit deer, he differentiates that kind of study. You know, he, I, I had contrasted it before with chitchat conversations, right? And I said dear, those affect the emotions and he contrasted with secular studies that negatively affect the intellect. This is the point that I want to bring here. He says how they affect the intellect of our soul. I we said that the impact our world view, but I'm bringing it back here because I want to clarify an idea in the Kabbalah that the author of the quotes here. Now, I personally love these parts of the Tanya. I I find where he brings in Kabbalah, I find it fascinating and I find it illuminating. And so I just wanted to share my passionate reading of these few lines of the Tanya, because essentially the the Tanya is addressing a question. If we're not talking about, you know, we said it's secular studies, it's clipas *** It's not idolatry, it's not heresy. It's literally neutral knowledge like mathematics or medicine. So why does it or how does it have the power to be spiritually contaminating? So earlier I explained on a very practical level, like I practically speaking, it shapes the lens through which we view reality. But now I want to explain it through what the Tanya quotes here, you know, on a a kabbalistic idea about Sreeras Hakilim. Those of you who've learned placidis have heard this term before, and the author of it brings that here is an answer to how is it that secular studies even has the power to contaminate our our sehal? Speaker 4 What happened in Shira? Speaker 1 Sakila, the shattering of the vessels. OK, what happened? This is again a foundational teaching in Kabbalah. Speaker 4 That in the process. Speaker 1 Of creation. Again, I'm getting a brief review here. Divine light was drawn into vessels. OK, picture a Potter in, in the, in the, in Kabbalah. It gives us analogy of a Potter shaping clay, clay vessels forming a structure, shaping a container to hold something in it. And there was suddenly this intense flow of divine light entered these these vessels. Now the higher vessel, the highest vessel, Kesser. Was refined enough to contain the light. The vessel of Kesser never shattered, but all the light that extended downward into Hochma, into Bina, and then into the emotions, those vessels were not strong enough to hold that light, and they fractured. What happens next? The light returns to its source, but the fragments of the vessels fall down. The vessels shatter, shatter and come into our world. Now what was the issue? What's the problem? So you have some shattered vessels. These fragments, they still have a little bit of light, but just a little bit. So they shatter. They fall into this world with only a minimal godly awareness, but with a very strong sense of self. Speaker 4 So the sense. Speaker 1 Of I stand on my own. Speaker 4 Like we talked about what? Speaker 1 You know, the the sciences, they had a strong sense of self with little godly awareness. And this becomes a root of klipa. This is where secular wisdom comes in. Secular knowledge originated in the hakama and bina, in those in those vessels. So on one hand they still carry a spark of intellect, of brilliance, of godly wisdom, but because of those vessels shattered, they carry a very strong tendency towards self focus, towards ego, and of course this separation from God consciousness. Like I said earlier, science is all about what is, but it lost a sense of its origin. It lost a sense of its creator. That's why when we engage in it, it could suddenly pull our mind away from alignment with truth. Now the shattering it, it didn't affect everything equally. The emotional attributes, the the the Khasenburg, Taferis and so on, those those vessels shattered completely. And that's why we see that raw emotion without guidance is typically entirely self-serving. But when it comes to intellect, it's different. Intellect at its core still does have a capacity for objectivity. It still does have a capacity for truth. It only became distorted when or it becomes distorted when it's influenced by bias or when it's influenced by ego, or when it's taken out of context of its godly source. And this, this is what this is the the qualification that the time is making that secular knowledge is not inherently negative. Speaker 4 The way that it. Speaker 1 Affects us is going to depend completely on the intention on how it's used. If a person studies secular wisdom for its own sake disconnected from the higher purpose, then it could pull the mind into the space of independence, independence from God and total separation. But if it's used as a tool for serving God, then it could be elevated. So again, just to bring the basic example, if a person learns a profession in order to earn a livelihood, so he could live a, you know, a life with stability to serve God, or if a person studies his knowledge to clarify Tara, to defend Tara, then again, this wisdom is no longer contaminating. Just like any clipasnaga in general. It could be elevated through intention. It could be elevated when it's aligned with truth. And again, like I mentioned before, the, the, the altar brings the example of the Rambam and the Rambam Maimonides, the humanities, they were able to immerse themselves in secular studies for this purpose. For them, it wasn't separated. It was an absolutely integrated part of their Abayas Hashem, and it became part of the way they served truth. Speaker 4 Now that that's where the. Speaker 1 Chapter ends and I, I want to actually, we still have another minute. No, we don't really, but it's fine. I'm going to summarize quickly. I want to summarize this chapter. OK, because I, I, I, I did kind of go all over the place. So I want to break it down into four points. Number one, there are certain things like non kosher food, even if only rabbinically prohibited, the author of it does bring in that there's, you know, the the the Rabanim had the capacity. They're called cipher and they're called scribes because their rewriting of this law can literally alter the reality of it. They can change something that was once receiving life force from Pipas *** It changes the nature by the by them prohibiting a certain food, like for example, chicken becoming phlegic. It it didn't used to be according to Halacha, but they came and and and and needed user. They changed the life force of this thing. It'll be comes from gimmick lipositonius when it's mixed with with milk, they are. So again, these items that are prohibited, they are intrinsically bound within a system that we cannot access or elevate. It's like interacting with the part of reality that's outside of the wiring that got set up. So no matter our intention, we cannot bring that back into alignment again. Of course, there's the tumor process, but that's another conversation from last week #2 what we've said here. Anything rooted in CLIPA? Speaker 4 Even if it's Clipa. Speaker 1 Sniga. Speaker 4 But it hasn't yet been. Speaker 1 Elevated. It is not our natural state. It's a distortion. When we engage with it, it interrupts. It subtly, subtly disrupts our inner system. It dulls our sensitivity. It adds layers of concealment. It distances us from our own truth, from our own clarity, from our own alignment with our Divine soul. Speaker 4 But. Speaker 1 Our goal is not to avoid it. Our goal is to live in alignment, to eat, to speak, to think, to act in ways that respect the deep structure of reality. Every interaction, every interaction is an opportunity that is going to either reinforce concealment or clear it. We get to either engage with it. When we engage with it consciously, we are able to bring it back into Kedusha. And of course, this is the ending of the chapter. This this also includes things that we absorb intellectually. Ideas can shape our perception. So it's not enough for something to be intelligent or sophisticated. It has to be directed. It has to be within context when knowledge is aligned with a higher purpose. Speaker 4 It becomes kind of. Speaker 1 It becomes part of. Speaker 4 Of of this refined. Speaker 1 Process when it's not, it could suddenly pull our mind away from clarity. And all of this, really everything I just said is 1 idea that we are this. I would sum it up in this one thing here. We are constantly interacting with a system that we don't fully see, but through our choices, we're either clouding the lens or we're cleaning it. And the more we align, the more we return to see things clearly, the more we're able to see again. Every thought, speech, and action aligned with truth is going to allow us to live more truly and to perceive life more truly, to perceive God's presence in our lives. I think that's it. I'm very proud of myself for being a little more on time this week. Speaker 4 I tell all of you who joined. Speaker 1 In the middle. Anybody have any questions? Speaker 4 Is there a hand up? Speaker 5 Say again. Speaker 1 I think. Speaker 4 Somebody had. Speaker 5 A hand up. I'm not sure, you know, I think. Oh, Sarah. Speaker 1 Is that you? Speaker 4 Was that your hand? Speaker 1 Sorry, I don't know if. Speaker 2 That's it. But thank you, it was great. Speaker 1 Thanks for joining me. Honestly, this is like become my favorite, my favorite hobby the the the hobby I didn't know I was missing. So thank you so much for receiving it so that I could indulge myself in these teachings. What an indulgence truly this is. This is what it means to bring your animal soul on board. Like it's it's taking as much pleasure as my godly soul is, Thank God, which we'll talk about next week. I think that's in Chapter 9. Very. Speaker 5 Enlightening. Thank you. Thank you ladies. Speaker 1 I never heard. Speaker 5 This stuff anyway, what's? Speaker 1 That say that again. I feel like I never. Speaker 5 Heard this stuff, this whole explanation of people take ever. I mean, I've heard, yeah, it's cleansing, but you frame it completely fresh. Speaker 4 So thank you I. Speaker 5 Met it in my own. Speaker 1 System. And that's when I realized, I think this is what it is. Literally, you find yourselves back. You find yourself back. You know, you have so much clarity and so much awareness and so much knowing that this is not the ideal reaction and yet you like feel stuck in it. Is that the? Speaker 2 Disconnection between like Haku Binana and the DAS like not being able to integrate what I know I should be doing or that's a good point Liba. Speaker 1 That does sound. That does sound aligned with that idea. Speaker 4 I also what? Speaker 2 Resonated with what Marv BB was saying. You took the kind of a kella and brought it to a whole different reality. I I think the main. Speaker 1 Point though, at least for me, what I'm understanding is the main point is that it really that is the cleansing process. But when we go through that, it literally like we could see it as a form of suffering and pain, but that is even even in the way that it, it, it's experienced in the afterlife. Pain is painful. But when we're able to reframe pain as like a shedding of the layer, like I I've been living with, with a, a certain perception, I've been seeing the world in one way and peeling back that layer is going to be painful because again, there's the tension between knowing what is and what I'm experiencing, the truth versus what I'm experiencing. And if we could, we, we could reframe that pain as like, oh, wow, I'm pulling back a layer of Clipa. I'm going to be able to see this more clearly. Even if right now I'm still stuck in that loop. I know that this is the process of of beginning to live in in in more alignment. Speaker 4 All right, 'cause I remember feeling. Speaker 2 The frustration of it being maybe you know how you say it, Hashem puts you in a place where you could overcome and I'm like, this didn't look like I overcame, but how you framed it puts in a way like, no, it's not about overcoming always. It's about cleanse Also can I can I ask? Speaker 1 You if today you're able to look back into that experience and see that you have overcome it. Speaker 4 If I describe. Speaker 2 To the situation, I wouldn't say like, Oh yeah, that's that was considered overcoming like my reaction to the situation. But when I'm looking at through this lens. Speaker 4 No, I don't know why. Speaker 2 That happened then and why my reaction was that and what I am do. Speaker 1 You feel like because of that experience you are today able to see have a different perception of that whole experience. Speaker 4 Is that what? Speaker 5 Overturning is. Speaker 1 Regarding that experience, do you have more clarity? Are you able to look back and see that it was a, you know, some kind of, it led to some kind of trajectory, some kind of shifting of perception or of growth? Speaker 4 Well, I think that is on one. Speaker 1 Foot, but I'm curious if you spent I think this. Speaker 2 This piece that you just shared gave me actually much more clarity than what you're describing would come from it. I mean, I think as human beings and I try to always go in the direction of growth. So yes, but honing in on that specific situation, I would say this gave me more clarity and like, OK, great. So this. Speaker 1 Is it, this is the, this is the moment where you're now able to look back? Yeah, it's. Speaker 2 Fantastic. Speaker 4 DB you were going to see. Speaker 1 Something. Speaker 4 I was. Speaker 5 Wondering when you say overcome, do you mean like permanently overcome? Like that's behind me and I'm, I, I just don't do that anymore? Or is it sometimes maybe a process where the whole thing that you're describing, that first stage of real awareness? So even if I'm still acting like a horse, but at least I'm recognizing who wears the horse I I like. Speaker 1 How you're saying that to me that is that is a not overcome meaning like conquered, gone forever, but rather yeah, I never. Speaker 5 Again, did I da da, da da? Yeah, a different. Speaker 1 Way of engaging with it, a different way of relating to it, a different way of perceiving it. And I do love that. Like even the objectifying. Speaker 5 Begins seeing it more objectively. Yeah. Thank you, Tiffy. Speaker 4 Hi, it's. Speaker 3 Brockie and. Speaker 1 A. Speaker 3 Miracle happened. I'm able to join today. Yippee. So as was mentioned prior, I don't know who mentioned it like when you asked. So when you look back at the situation, do you see it in a different way? Do you experience in a different way? I think there's so many layers of experience in a different way that every time I revisit it, something else becomes more aware if I'm willing to be aligned. Otherwise, I feel like I keep revisiting and rehashing and getting stuck back in the story. And it's, it had, you know, that's that's the tricky part. The fine line of looking at it with eyes from a different perspective and trying to see where is it that I could see with clarity from where I am now about that. And every time I look back at a situation, I see something different. Speaker 4 Amazing. Speaker 1 So even even if even just just to add to what you're saying, I'm thinking how like if we could recognize and realize even when we are looping with this new awareness, to recognize like this feels so yuck. This feels so painful. This feels so frustrating to recognize and realize this is the cleansing process. We're in it. It's like we're in the washing machine right now or you know, you when, when, when a parent forces the kid into the bath, the kid who has no interest in going in the bath, but the kid is cakey and muddy while the bath isn't pleasant. But you, you are able to see this is the cleansing process. Like, yes, once they'll be clean, amazing. But if we're able to, to reframe that discomfort as, oh, I'm in the washing machine now. And, and God willing, that means I'm going to have a much different relation to this experience once I move through this process. How do you stay in that? Speaker 3 State so how do you stay in that space? That's my question you until. Speaker 1 You feel check in with a friend to remind you. You see, when I get into this, can you remind me that I'm in the cleansing process or hang up a, a note on the mirror that when you look in the mirror, you have a reminder I'm in. I, I think, I mean, this is this is it. This is our invite that we are steadily, steadily having to check in with ourselves, check in with somebody else. Like staying aware, staying conscious. We could go into default mode and just get, you know, falling, you know, spin into the spirals and the loops and the drama and the discomfort that life through the perspective of the animal soul offers us. Or we even even just that one brief moment of godly soul perspective of like, oh this is so uncomfortable but I'm in the cleansing process. Speaker 4 More will be revealed I. Speaker 3 I really see the. Speaker 1 Pain. The pain is the tension between what I'm doing or what I did and the truth. I know the truth now so. Speaker 4 That's. Speaker 1 We have to recognize real that's what the pain is, that's what the distress is, that's what the discomfort is. It's that awareness that causes that tension. Speaker 4 And we're not. We don't stay. Speaker 1 Stuck in that, like we start doing it differently And again, I, I'm going to just bring this in again, like bring God into the process as well. When you're in that, like just, you know, use that as an opportunity to communicate and to Dobbin and to be like, I, I need help with this. This is so uncomfortable. I see how I'm stuck and I need help moving out. And we know this from classes. This also like an A source of all thought that is followed by a source of our, our awareness, our weakening is going to be followed by God coming in and giving us like a, a double dose or a triple dose or way more. And what does it say? Also there's again this the tiny brings us later that God asks of us to just open. Speaker 4 Open just the eye of the. Speaker 1 Needle and he'll open us a full, you know, Y chambers. So that's our, our, our job, even just bringing awareness to this process of how I want to do this differently. Speaker 4 I think at that point. Speaker 1 God. God usually steps in. Speaker 4 Especially if we. Speaker 1 Welcome him in. Speaker 4 Can you expand a little? Speaker 2 Bit on the idea of the idle talk you you mentioned it a few times, but I was wondering in what connection does it come in here? The altar. Speaker 1 Of it, you know what I'm I'm going to open up the Tanya hold on. I have it on my screen here. Speaker 4 And we'll bring it straight from the. Speaker 1 Tanya Chapter 8. Let's see, I'll bring it straight from the Tanya. Speaker 4 Yeah, the. Speaker 1 Author of it brings As for innocent idol chatter and he says for example, somebody who is not you know any chatter. I I love this you know this we we still I I actually want to remind everyone here as a suggestion that I had made a few weeks ago a homework. If you want to go into the chapter because we're not studying it inside, I, I think it would be really helpful and kind of, you know, like a, a reminder or like a, a reinforcement of everything we learned if you go in and read the chapter inside the Tanya. So anyway, he says, As for innocent idol chatter, such as in the case of somebody who cannot study, we, we are commanded somebody who has the capacity to learn. Torah is supposed to be learning all the time in their free time. So, but he says idol chatter, somebody who wasn't commanded to study all the time because he doesn't have the, you know, he's not intellectually capable. But it's still it's, it's still impure. It's clipas *** In other words, it's not forbidden talk, but it's, it's, it's, it's impure. And therefore your soul is going to need to be cleansed. Speaker 4 Then he goes on to say. Speaker 1 But regarding forbidden speech, for example, Ashenhara or or you know, Leitanus like scoffing or slander, that is going to that stems from the three impure clipas. That's not clipas *** that's coming from Gibble Clipasenhaus. And that's going to need a different type of cleansing. The first one was Kibbuta Kevre, which is kind of like dusting it off. And the kafakal is a more intense cleansing process because it wasn't from Clibbus Niger, that of just indulgent. It was something that was forbidden. I, I think I, I wanna, I wanna emphasize 'cause this is, this is the way I see these chapters or these, these ideas being taught here. They are so empowering. And knowing how again, I said this, probably at the end of every chapter, we are not just interacting with the world. We're shaping it. We are literally shaping We are. And every you know, there ever talks about the quotes, the Rambam that we have the capacity to literally flip the scale from from good. The the world is an equal balance and we have the capacity to flip it. Our intentions in our thought, speech and action are literally flipping the scale. We are either adding to the realm of Klipa or the opposite. Speaker 4 And so that's again. Speaker 1 He's he's he's bringing these little examples, idle chatter, like who'd have thought? You pull up at the at the thing and you see someone at carpool and you chit chat about nothingness. And so again, what is our what is the empowering piece here? It's just live with intention. Just live with intention. Just keep bringing it back. And again, if by mistake, we, we, we slip out of intention, the, the, the distance between east and West is just turning. We just have to turn. Speaker 4 I think that I did. Speaker 1 This, this to me would be the goal of everything we're studying here is to just bring all of us into more conscious living. Just we're, we're not going through life on default setting where we're on autopilot and we're moving. The fact that we are sitting in here having these conversations means that we are living with consciousness. And if every single morning we could just bring that awareness as we start our day. Like I said before, like, you know, the shame, like that's why we're here to bring oneness. I'm going to. I'm going to end the recording. Speaker 4 I think that also the more. Speaker 2 Awareness you have, the quicker you get back to London, which is. Speaker 1 Again, you know, like hang. Speaker 2 On to the guilt and the shame and all of that. You just get back on that actually. Speaker 1 Good point, good point. And I again, I, I think that's, you know, that's my point in bringing, you know, that story about me or me promise wrong. Like he he's, he's telling his students like, OK, so we made a mistake. But now and all you have to do is, is turn like, like again, like the words of the Taniya Laksar Allah by this Hashema Luthera say.