Tanya Class 3- Chapter One

Unpacking Tanya's First Line: The Soul's Eternal Oath Wow, OK awesome. 1 more second ladies. Just got my whole screen here set up so I can see everyone. OK, good morning everyone. Thanks for being here and thank you to the faces. If at one point you feel like you're ready to put your face on the screen, that would be awesome. And so we're finally here. We're ready to start chapter 1. So without further ado, I'm going to just read the first line. And then, as I usually do, I go off on a tangent. OK, so the very first line of the Tanya is the word Tanya, the Saif Pericumel Denida. We learn there is a teaching at the end of the 3rd chapter of the Gemara. Anita, what is the teaching there? Mashviim? I say Tihi Tadek for Altahi Russia, that before you were born, the heavenly court made you swear. Every single soul was administered an oath before birth to be a Sadiq and to not be a Russia. So that's how the Tanya starts the book. It's interesting because the entire book now is called Tanya. It's official name like we discussed in our first classes, Lucuti and Murum, which is a compilation of teachings, a compilation of of things of conversations that the author of either learned from his teachers or taught to his students or it's also known as safer Shalbenani, right? The book for the Binani. But the first word of the book, Tanya somehow became the name by which this book is referred to. Why the letters of the word Tanya, if you move them around, also spell Eton, which translate as strength. The goal of everything we learn in the Tanya is to arouse the inner strength that's inherent in each one of us, the strength for each one of our souls to fulfill its purpose. The strength to fulfill our purpose is already built into our DNA. So what happens is our soul, it leaves the blissful home in heaven. It comes down into this world with a mission, with a purpose. Yet the world is painful and it is a confusing place. So the soul is going to need to tap into its inner resource in order to accomplish its purpose. But because while the soul, even though while while before we were born, the soul is able to see from one end of the earth to the other. But before it comes down, we know the Medras tells us this. Sorry, it's not even in the Medras. It's in the in the Gemara Anita, it tells us that an an Angel comes and taps it on the lip right before it's born and it forgets everything that it saw. So as soon as it becomes embodied in in human form, it forgets about the mission that it's signed up for. And its perception, which was full of clarity before it was born, it now gets completely blurred out by the perception of the animal soul that it's sharing space with. So back to the word Tanya. The goal of the teachings in the Tanya is to wake up that strength, that Etan Shalanishama, the the strength of the soul, which might be sitting dormant. And even if it isn't dormant, even if it is a week, it's to arouse it to its full capacity. And and Speaking of this, this promise that the soul swears on before it's born, it says like I just read, there must be in Icite Tadek. We're administered the oath that will be a tadek in out of Russia, that we should live a righteous life and not in a moral life. And the word must be in the word for, for a swear, for an oath, for a promise. It shears a root with the word sava maspian to satisfy. In other words, the whole sentence could be read either as he swears an oath, or it could be read. He is satisfied with the capacity. The soul is satisfied with the capacity. The soul is given all the resources it needs to fulfill the goal of living a righteous life and not the life of a Russia. In other words, the entire point of the promise is to steadily infuse the soul with the capacity to fulfill its purpose. And I, I actually want to take a moment to pause here with that idea because everyone here, every single one of us here, surely experiences moments of fear, moments in our life that are driven by fear, self doubt, anxiousness around the way that we're showing up to life, right? We might feel like we're failing. We might feel like there's a challenging experience that's getting the better of us. We might have an internal challenging voice that's drowning out our capacity to be grounded in truth and in trust. And if we could in that moment, come back to this oath, come back to this INOR resource, come back to this knowing that we have within us whatever it is that we need in order to rise above whatever it is that we're facing right now. That's the Mushfi and I said tahit Sadiq. That's the oath that we're sworn on. This is the resource that we have steadily. So every time we're feeling like literally like we're drowning, just come back to that this knowing that you have within you whatever it is that you need, you know, elsewhere, elsewhere. And Hasidas the altar about often references the idea of a promise like a an oath that two friends might make between each other. I I've seen it written about David and Yana's son, King David and his friend Yonah son. This, this promise, because it just references this promise that two friends make to each other that no matter what gate gets in the way of our relationship, no matter what happens along the way, we are going to remain committed to each other. No matter what challenges might come that will make us question our friendship, we'll always fall back on this initial promise of commitment. Now we do obviously see this in marriage very clearly, but it but interestingly, in casitas, the friendship promise is often referenced. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because it's less obvious that a rupture in a friendship would, you know, still call for sustained commitment. Whereas in a marriage it's, you know, it's kind of seems more to be a given. Perhaps, I don't know. But either way, the rather references that promise here again, just like 2 friends make this kind of promise. He says the soul swears on this commitment before it's born. And then no matter what happens in life, no matter of the confusion of the world, no matter of what kind of impulses arrive, the soul steadily comes back to that promise. It steadily comes back to the capacity that it was satiated with and it was filled with. It steadily comes back to this inner resource and it recenters and it refocuses and it recommits to its purpose with confidence that it could succeed. So this is the very first line in the Tanya, the soul given this oath and the the capacity to fill it. Beyond Good and Bad: Who Truly Governs Your Behavior? Something else actually fascinating that I just read. I recently read this. I, I told you, I have this new Tanya with all the commentaries of the rabaeum of all the kebab rebbies and their comments on the, on the Tanya. And I read there that the name Tanya is also this word Tanya. It's the name of a kind of clipa. There's a certain, and we'll talk a lot about clipa soon. So if you're if that term's not familiar, hold on. There's a certain clipa, a certain blockage, a very specific blockage that sits on the hearts and the minds of people who study premia satara, people who study the deeper insights of the Torah. It's a blockage that slows the integration of what we study. It blocks the teachings from being fully absorbed into our way of living, an entire way of being, an entire way of perceiving. And so the goal of the writings of the Tanya is to counter that Clipa. It's the push back. It's to push through that blockage. And as a matter of fact, Rishiman Baruchai, the Rashvi, he was the one who who wrote the Zoar, the, the, the, you know, the foundational text of Kabbalah, of Jewish mysticism. He also began one of the sections with the name Tanya, also for the very same reason, to help the student out power outsmart over, you know, this, the this blockage so that we can internalize the teachings. So now what is it that we're learning? What is it? What is it that we're learning here in chapter 3, Anita, I'm just going to repeat that so we can go in the flow before this soul comes into the world. It's made to swear. It's made to take on an oath. Be a Tadic, do not be a Russia. And even if the entire world tells you you're a Tadic, you should see yourself as a Russia. That's how the Tanya begins. And then immediately he brings a contradiction. He says strange, because in the mishnet it says something opposite. It says do not be a Russia in your own eyes, do not see yourself as a Russia. So which one is it? Should I see myself as a Russia, or should I not? Now? This isn't a philosophical question that we're pondering here. This is a very personal, very existential framework through which we have to view ourselves. If I take the Gemara literally, that I should see myself as a Russia, this could spiral very quickly. I can start thinking I'm flawed, I'm failing, I'm never going to get it right. I'll never succeed in God's eyes. I'll never make the people I care about proud, so why should I try, right? This voice could lead to sadness, to stuckness, to total lack of motivation to even try. But if I lean into what the Mishnah says, don't consider yourself a Russia, that also has a risk. Because then I might say I'm fine, I'm good, I'm basically righteous. I feel that I'm at a place of status quo. And then you start living on cruise control. And when you stop looking and you stop noticing your blind stops your blind spots and you lose yourself awareness, then you there's no growth without self-awareness, there's no growth. There's no fixing our parts. There's no authentic relationship, not with God, not with myself, not with the people in my life. So which is healthier the self judgement? Even if the whole world says you're a Tadic see yourself as a Russia or this, you know, comfortable self delusion, don't ever consider yourself a Russia. This is the tension that there seems that seems to be presented in the first lines of the Tanya, but really what the altar of it continues to tell us. The author of the Tanya continues to explore here that the reason this feels impossible, as though there's a tension of two different, you know, potential pathways, as though there's two different options of what which way to go. Should I see myself as a Russia? Should I not? He says the only reason it seems that way is because we don't actually know what the word Sadiq means. We don't know what the word Russia means. We don't know what the word Benny means. When we hear Tadek, we think this is a holy person, a St., He's perfect. We hear Russia. We think this is a bad person, corrupt, sinful. And Binani, we assume means middle, and we assume it means half and half. You know, partially good, partially not so good, something in between. But then he brings the entire he brings another statement to prove that these definitions cannot actually be possible. He tells us, he brings, he quotes a Gemara that says that Raba called himself a Binani. Raba was a giant. He was a towering siege. The the Angel of death couldn't even get his hand on him because he never paused from studying Torah. So are we going to say that he's a Bienani? Is it possible, sorry, he called himself a Bienani? Is it possible to see that he was an intermediate kind of person, half good, half bad, you know, sometimes make good choices, sometimes not It's impossible. So clearly the Bienani does not mean 5050. And this is where the Tanya begins to shift our framework. And it helps us understand that the real question isn't how many myths do you do versus how many sins do you do? The question is, who is ruling? Who is ruling? Who is in charge inside of your psyche when there's internal conflict? Because we have to be honest here, right? We all have a lot of different voices inside of us. There's a part of me that wants to show up fully, but there's a part of me that wants to stay inside my comfort zone. There's a part of me that wants to be generous. And there's a part that feels threatened when I give away what I think is mine. There's a part of me that wants to shear, and there's a part of me that wants to hold back. And Natanya defines the difference between these people, the topic, the rush of the Benini based on this question here. Oops, sorry, my scream. Natanya bases this on the question. Who has the final say in in the exact words of Natanya? The the the the tiny quotes the Gemara and it says sorry guys here I just lost my screen for a second. Bring your faces back here. OK, there we go. So here the tiny defines the difference between sadak Rashabeenany based on who has the final say inside of our psyche when there are all those different parts playing. And he quotes the Gemara, he says Sadiqim, yezer type shaifdan. The righteous are ruled by their good inclination. In the tadek, the good inclination is always the decisive voice. The part driven towards truth, towards godliness rules completely. The Tanya even emphasizes that the Tadek doesn't even have an active negative impulse and it quotes Davetemel, it quotes King David who says Libi Khalil Bakirbi. My heart, meaning my aids are horror. My self-serving impulse has been completely hollowed out inside of me. It's essentially shut down. That's the level of the tadiq. Every drive, every motivation, every impulse is aligned with fulfilling God's will. And then the author of it brings a proof of this, saying that God saw that there would be few righteous people. There would be few tadiq em so he planted some in each generation. In other words, the people whoever achieve this kind of living are few and far between. Most of us cannot and will not be at Sadiq. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Rishaim Yitzer Taifshiftin, the wicked are ruled by their gitzer Hara, the Russia. I'm going to just use the term Russia. The Russia is ruled by the Yitzer hara, meaning the survival instinct, the prole towards comfort, pleasure, control, self-interest is ultimately what's going to make the final call. Even if even if the person does good things. Sometimes when there's an internal conflict, that impulse wins. And then there's the category of the binani, bainanim zevizeshiftin. The Bainani is ruled by both. But here this. That does not mean both win. It means both are present. Both voices are very alive. Both voices are fighting for control. Both voices are very active. The Benini has a full blown inner struggle. Parts driven by the good inclination, parts driven by the survival instincts. And those parts are very loud. But here's what's critical. The Benini never ever lets the evil, the the negative inclination, the AIDS Sahara, that that impulse of survival does not gain control of his conscious thought, his speech and his action. So the inner world of the Benini can sometimes look like a Russia, but his behaviors look like a Sadiq on the outside. Like I said, thought, speech and action always, always align with truth, while internally there is a steady, steady grappling with challenge. So there is tension and there is noise and there is struggle. But who's in the driver's seat? That's what's going to make the difference. The Binani never sins. And that's why Raba was able to call himself a Binani. Because the Binani does not mean an intermediate person. It does not mean an average person. It means a person who may be in constant inner tension, but he never gives the animal soul the steering wheel. So now that we have this clear definition of Tadek Rasha Binani, maybe what we heard before, to see yourself like a Russia, what the Gemara was saying to see yourself like a Russia. And we'll the the author of addresses the answer in a long, long time. But it doesn't mean shame yourself to the point of despair and stuckness. It just means never assume that you outgrew your struggle. Never assume that your work is finished. Because if you think that you're a tardic and you're not, that's when you stop being aware. You are at the risk of assuming that the impulses of your survival instinct are actually your true voice trying to express itself. But it's not. And we must think cognizant and aware of that. And if you think that you're a Russia, like we said, never see yourself as a Russian, because if you see yourself as a Russia, that's when you give up, which is simply why it says kill Russia like a Russia. You're not actually a Russia. But you do have a similar inner battle in our, in our first Tanya class in class #1 where I was explaining the name of the book safer She'll be an I elaborated a lot on this term, Beanany. And if you haven't yet listened, I really want to encourage you to because there we defined it from a psychological perspective, how Russia, Binani Tadek, how those terms would play out in our psyche. I don't want to repeat it, but it was really, it's really important to listen. It will help you get it will really help you have a very integrated understanding of this. So now the Altaraba is the author is slowly guiding us back towards what was something here much more precise, not am I good enough and bad. He's guiding us towards this question. In the moment of inner tension and inner struggle, we're being asked to have steady, steady awareness of who am I going to allow to be the driver? Who am I going to allow to define my narrative? Who am I going to allow to drive my behaviors? Which inclination is going to gain control of the steering wheel? Now I'm actually using the term inclination. Yitzer Hara. Yitzer Tov. Because this is the term that the author ever uses in the beginning, because he has not yet introduced us to I, to the idea of the souls. But now he does. Unveiling Klipa and Sitra Achra: Concealing or Revealing Holiness? Now he says, to understand the complex world of the Benony, we have to understand why is it that we have so many parts, right? Why is it that we have so many voices? Why is there this constant inner battle? Am IA good person, Am IA bad person. Sometimes I lean towards this, sometimes I lean towards us. So he says in order to understand this, this complex dynamic inside of us, we have to understand that God made every single one of us, whether it's Hadiq or Russia, every one of us was made with two souls. 2 distinct vitalizing sources, 2 distinct life giving forces. One soul, he says stems from holiness, which we, we are going to elaborate on in chapter #2 and one stem, what sorry, one soul stems from Klipa and Citra Accra. Before we talk about that soul, the soul that stems from Klipa, 1st I want to take a moment to talk about what is Clipa and Citra Accra because these terms are going to, we're going to visit these terms a lot. First, Citra Accra. Citra Accra literally means the other side because in the framework of the Tanya and the framework of Kabbalah, there are only two spiritual orientations in the world. There's either holiness, which means absolute alignment with God's will, and then the second category is called Citra Accra, the other side, meaning it is not aligned with God's will on purpose, and it is simply called the other side. It doesn't have its own independent name because it doesn't have its own essence. Its existence is just the fact that it conceals and hides the divine truth and the divine presence. Now, it's important to emphasize something here. There is no neutral middle ground in Jewish law. Something is either part of the realm of holiness, meaning it is actively aligned with God's purpose, or it's it's somebody's sorry somebody is making noise if you want to just mute it. In Jewish law, something is either part of the realm of holiness, meaning it's actively aligned with God's purpose, or it's sitting right now in the realm of citra opera, meaning it's outside of that alignment. But that does not mean that everything in citra ahra is bad or evil. This is where the second term comes in to help clarify klipa, which is the same thing as Citra ahra but it has a different name. Klipa literally means appeal or a husk, like the peel around the fruit. The peel hides the fruit, but it also protects the fruit. So when the Tanya uses the term Klipa, it's describing something that conceals divine truth. It conceals the spark of God and that's hidden in it, the spark of holiness in there, the lights there, it's just covered. It's currently and therefore it's currently sitting on the other side. And that's where we come into the picture. This is where we play a role in the dynamic between Kadusha and Klipa. Many things in the world are permissible in Jewish law. Food, just I'm using the most basic examples. Food, physical and sensual pleasures, material things, everyday experiences. The fact that they are permissible means that they're not locked into citra ahra, they're not locked into the realm of impurity. They can be elevated, they can be bought, brought into the realm of kedusha. When a person uses those things with the right intention to serve God, to stay healthy, to gain strength, to fulfill my role in this world, to do a mitzvah to bring goodness into the world, that act, that intention reveals the spark that was hidden inside the clipa and brings it into the realm of holiness. So you and I are here not to avoid Klipa. We're here to peel it back, to recognize that beneath the husk of the physical world there's concealed light. And through our choices, through our intentions, through our actions, we uncover it and we return it to its source and holiness. Then there is an entire other category of Klipa. It's called Gimel Klipa Satmas 3 completely impure Klipas. And these represent forms of impurity that cannot be transformed or elevated. These are the things that the Torah prohibits. It says no, you're not allowed to engage with this. They're called usur prohibited because it's the word usur literally translates as bound. It's tied up. It's, it's, it's bound within the realm of impurity because it's fully separate from holiness and it can't be redirected, it can't be elevated, it can't be refined. Everything, even this is important to note that everything, even those 3 levels of impurity still have within it a godly life force that animates it, that keeps it in existence, yet it's not in our power to extract it. That's why it's us or it's bound in the realm of impurity. Now, honestly, we could spend an entire day on this topic, but hopefully my hope is that this is going to serve just as an introduction. We're going to meet this so many times over the course of of the Tanya's study here and different layers of it are going to unfold the way that it applies every day in our everyday life, the way that it applies in every intention that we have when we understand that it is going to gift us with the ability to live very consciously, very intentionally, and very aligned with truth. But for now, just to summarize what we covered so far, there's in, in simple terms, there's Kanusha, OK, Kedusha holiness. There's Klipa that can be elevated the realm of all the permissible things that we can transform through our choice and intention. And then there's the three import impure Klipas which remain completely outside of this process. We, we engage with it by not engaging with it. That's our, our mitzvah of engaging with that is by not engaging. So now let's talk about the soul. Decoding the Nefesh HaBahamis: Survival, Coping, and Impulses OK, We're going to go back to the soul that comes from this Klipa. This soul is known as our first soul. It's called the animal soul, the nefeshabamis. It's the natural soul. It's the one that we are first inhabited by and the one that we are most acquainted with. It's called the animal soul because much like an animal, it's entire instinct is survival and self preservation. And this is important. Self preservation is a very slippery slope that can turn into destructive selfishness and narcissism. But self preservation is not inherently bad. It's protective. Think of an overprotective parent. At some point, this parent's child got hurt, or the parent themselves got hurt. Maybe it was something small, maybe it was something significant. But from that moment on, the parent becomes very alert. They watch closely, they intervene quickly. They anticipate every possible risk now. At first it's love, and at first it's Kier, and at first it's protection. But over time it becomes hyper vigilance. The child can't explore. The child can't take risks. The child can't grow. The child can't be himself. He's too busy staying safe. But not because the parent's bad, but because this instinct to protect never learned where to soften. The same instinct that once kept the child safe now keeps the child small and imprisoned. This is exactly how our animal soul operates, and it includes every one of our coping mechanisms and every one of our survival tools and all the parts of us that formed throughout life with one goal. To seek safety and to avoid discomfort, to seek pleasure and to avoid pain at all costs. It's a part of me that knows to eat because I'm hungry. It's a part that enjoys a good drink and a good vacation. It's also the part that wants you to acknowledge me and to show appreciation of me because that's how it learned to keep safe and feel worthy. A friend's validation makes me feel safe and valued. This is the self-centered, self absorbed consciousness. Not because it's selfish again, but because it's survival oriented. And from the animal souls perspective, self preservation sounds like I have to be good in order to be safe. I have to be right in order to be loved. I have to be perceived a certain way in order to get my needs met. And every one of its drives is oriented around that. So many of what we call our personality traits, and obviously every single one of our defence mechanisms and every one of our coping mechanisms is exactly that. It's a strategy for survival. Now, next week, after we have gotten ourselves introduced to the godly soul, we'll be able to recognize and we'll be able to categorize all the different energies that we experience inside ourselves and how they get channelled. So much of what we're covering here today. I, I, I don't want to get ahead of myself, but once we meet both souls, we're going to be able to see how the energies and the impulses of each soul will either clearly fall into the realm of Klipa, the animal soul, or the realm of Kedusha, the godly soul. We're going to be be able to see so clearly which energy is behind every single one of our behaviours, every single one of our, our, the things we say, every single thing that we think consciously. And, and God willing, we're going to be able to also understand with time, how the godly soul begins to harness the animal soul for its purpose. But for now, I want to look at the different impulses that the author of the Tanya outlines in at the end of chapter 1. He he outlines all these different impulses that come from the animal soul, that come from our survival instincts. And he breaks it into the four elements, right? We know fire, water, ear and earth. Those are the four basic elements he says within our soul. All of our impulses come from one of those elements. Fire he describes as anger and haughtiness. Water he describes as the pleasure seeking desires that are self-serving. Ear he describes as frivolity, boastfulness, idle talk, earth. From the air comes heaviness, depressive moods that cause us to shut down and to feel unmotivated to engage in life. Now again, I'm going to emphasize here, since we are talking about the Nefesha Bahamas, the animal soul from a survival lens. I want to point out, and you'll hear me repeat myself here, that all these impulses that I just outlined, they're not necessarily self indulgent in a sinful way, but they are in a survival way. I feel that this is really, really important framework for us as we forge ahead in our study of the Tanya. Something that the rabbit has emphasized over and over is that the nefesh of Amis, the survival soul of a Jew, is not Shire to sin. The animal soul of a Jew is not oriented towards sin, but it is, as we've seen from its name and from, you know, the way I elaborated and elaborated on it as a protective parent, we do see that the animal soul is very much oriented towards survival and safety. Again, every one of its impulses are driven towards comfort, safety, pleasure, avoidance of pain, avoidance of discomfort. So all of its behaviors are, at the most basic level, they're grounded in fear. They're grounded in the flight, fight, freeze, fond response to life. I, I, I want to try to lay this out in the most basic version because I, this is like, again, I could, I could write a whole thesis on this. So I want to in the most basic way, explain the, the profound pain and confusion of the existence of a soul and a body. We come into the world with a divine mission and a divine purpose. And by that mere fact alone, by being a creation with a divine soul and a divine purpose, we have inherent value. We have inherent worthiness, we have inherent purpose, we have inherent drive. But. But when we don't have a sense of who we are or why we're here or what we're here for, and we can't sense our sense our connection to God, we can't sense our connection to our Source, and we don't sense our inherent worthiness and value. We've completely forgotten about the promise we made and about the capacity we were given. When we go about life, not sensing those truths, not aware of how much we matter and of how much pleasure we bring God and of how much purpose we bring to His vision of the world, we instead sense the deep black. So either the soul is driven in purpose or it's lost and confused and it senses a lack. It it's, it's in that space where everything that does matter is supposed to fill us. We instead feel a huge void. Instead of connection, we sense this connection. Instead of love, we sense abandonment. Instead of direction, we sense confusion. And instead of meaning, we sense a void. And so of course our survival soul is going to try and compensate with all of these previously listed impulses to try and make us feel better. If I don't know who I am, then I'm going to spend my whole life trying to find myself and the through the lens of the animal soul, that's going to look like chasing honor and validation to help me feel that I matter. It's going to feel like chasing money and fame to give me a sense of power. I'm going to chase comfort and pleasure to know myself from the empty void. I'll chase meaning, but in things that aren't actually meaningful to my godly soul. You know, quickly, let's look back at let's look back those four elements, how the Alto rebel listed these impulses and we'll see them very clearly now through the survival lens, how they how they serve as a survival tool. The the element of fire had anger, right? Anger comes from feeling threatened because I don't sense that God is that God's part of my plan, that God's hand is in my life. Haughtiness. Again, if I don't sense my divine core, then I'm going to feel there's, there's, I'm going to have to compensate for it in some way. All the pleasure seeking desires that number distract. They number distract when I don't feel connected, when I'm feeling disconnected. Frivolity and boastfulness and idle talk. They're great coping mechanisms to gain validation because I'm not sensing my inherent value. The heaviness, the depressive moods that cause us to shut down, that cause me to feel unmotivated to engage in life again. That's a survival tool for when I feel unequipped to deal with the challenges that life brings me. Because we've forgotten the oath. We've forgotten the capacity that our soul was given. The again, the point that I'm emphasizing here, the animal soul is just that. It's an animal instinct. It is oriented to safety and survival and fulfilling its natural needs. But like I said earlier, we have to stay very, very conscious and aware because even if we are not sliding down the slippery slope of self-destructive selfishness, the neutral looking self indulgence is also a total distraction from our souls purpose. And as we learn, we're going to learn in the coming chapters, these, these survival oriented impulses, they could turn into a prison that lock us into surviving rather than thriving. Today I just introduced it. But I, God willing, we'll have the tools to recognize, to realize, to see ourselves when we're driven in that direction so that we can bring ourselves back to aligning in our truth. One more point that I want to make about the animal soul of the Jew. It says that for the Jew, even goodness and kindness is motivated by the impulse of the soul. To be kind and compassionate and modest is part of our DNA, and we follow that because it feels right, it benefits us, it benefits society. It's what feels good. It's what it's what feels natural, it's what feels normal, it's what feels safe. And again, I'm emphasizing this to see that the animal soul is not inherently bad. It's klipa sniga, remember? It's simply the natural way a human acts, and there could be lots of goodness there too. Again, Clipa sniga, It's a mixture of good and not so good. Our rule is to extract the good and elevate it to the realm of Kedusha. More on that later. But this brings me now actually to the final point that the Tanya makes in chapter 1. It tells us that this is not the case with the souls of the other nations. It says they are not of Klipa Sniga but they come from the other three impure Klipas and therefore I'm quoting the Tanya. It says any goodness that they do is self indulgent and self-serving and it's not genuine good. Even the charity they give is for the sake of bringing themselves honor. Now in the past I have watched this sentence being glossed over by Tanya teachers because they were uncomfortable with how it might sound. But if we understand what the author is teaching us here, there's no reason to gloss over it. There is nothing uncomfortable or accusatory of the other nations that's being stated here. So first and foremost, first, very important, any non Jew who ascribes to monotheism and lives a life aligned with social and moral values as they're outlined in in the Sheva Mets Espenaya in the seven Noahide laws, that non Jew is considered a righteous among the nations. And this statement does not even apply to him because this person is sensitive to the divine and aware that they too play a role in God's vision of the world. But let's go back to take a moment to elaborate on what the state the statement in the Tanya is actually saying. And I, I'm very grateful for the Tanya project. I was just reading it right before I came on here, so you might even hear me quote it. It, it elaborated there very clearly. When the author of it quotes the Talmud, he says that even their charity is self-serving. He's referring to the example given of Nabukhadnetzer. Nabukhadnetzer was a Babylonian emperor who was a warrior and he was a tyrant. And the Jewish prophet Daniel advised Nabukhadnetzer. He said to him, give charity and show mercy to the poor in order to ensure the security of your empire, of your reign. Now Nabukhadnetzer follows Daniel's advice, and he sets a precedent for emperors and civilizations to follow this. He was a tyrant, but he had started a social welfare program. That's he, he, he, he started it to keep himself in power. Yet it marked real progress for all of mankind. This became the the the social norm for cities, for governments, for for empires to have social welfare. Were his motives motivated by evil? Not at all. Nirvukhad Nets are like any ruler wanted to keep his throne, and the prophet taught him that social welfare is a key ingredient for a stable society. The Talmud is simply pointing out that humans do good things because that's what good. That's what's good for humans. We do good things because that's what's good for us. We're hard wired for the survival of our species and being kind to one another is going to be good all around. And if we can, you know, we can be proud of ourselves for that. But but the kind of goodness that we are being called on is not this. We are being called to act on the kind of good that is so much greater than the good that our natural self-centered instincts are drawn towards. The only reason that the author ever mentions the nations of the world here, it's not to denigrate them. It's simply to point out that this is the default hard wired human impulse that we must transcend. Like we said, even the good qualities of a Jew's natural soul are still motivated by self-centered instinct, and so he's telling us that we are capable of rising above that we are not limited to our ego's impulse. Rather, the Jew is required and therefore given the capacity to do goodness that goes above and beyond what feels safe for us and what feels secure for us, even when it can't be explained by our logic and reason. We have to do good simply because that's exactly what God asked from us, not because that's what feels safe and comfortable. Why? Because we're not just animals seeking safety. Yes, we have a very strong, powerful animal soul, but we are not animals seeking safety. As we're about to introduce in chapter 2, we are humans with a godly soul and a godly purpose and the capacity for an intimate relationship with the Creator of the world, with the King of all kings. So we don't want our animal soul and our animal instincts to distract us from that. Practical Wisdom: Managing Inner Struggle and Reparenting Parts That's all ladies. I, I end my words with that for today. Next week, God willing, we will introduce us to the godly soul. Any any questions? Thank you for all the faces who came on. I want to, I want to acknowledge. And for anyone who's here without their face, I can acknowledge your presence too. Speaker 2 Thanks, Suvi. That's great. Good. Speaker 1 To see you, Sarah. Thanks for being here. And the other Sarah too. Any questions? Questions. Yeah. Speaker 2 OK, so the this concept that the Benini, the struggle that the Benini goes through is is normal and and OK. And as long as it doesn't, he doesn't give the driving over to the Itzer Hera, right? Where does that begin and end? Because thought, speech and action. So speech and action, I can understand that. OK, so he goes through a process, but when it comes down to it, he doesn't do anything. That's not an alignment. But the thought piece I think I'm struggling with because. Speaker 1 Yeah, that makes that makes sense. It's it's conscious thought, it's intentional thought, for example, to come up with a plan to do something that's out of alignment. To allow I, I think also this is to recognize when I am very in a triggered space and my thoughts are, are, are going on and on to notice what is the energy in my thoughts here? Are they fear based, anxiety based, anger based, self doubt based And realize, oh, that is that's my animal soul driving here now to recognize and realize that there's still a part of me that's having these these thoughts that are fear based, but I'm not going to let them define the narrative. I staying centered and grounded in my truth, in my godly soul, can hold this part and realize that's the perspective of one part of me. I'm not going to let it define the narrative. Does that make sense? Yeah. Speaker 2 Yeah, it makes sense. Speaker 1 So I would say thought is when we allow something to become the definitive truth, when it we allow it to become the, the, the storyteller, the narrative of the, of the experience. Speaker 2 It's the motivation, yeah. Speaker 1 That's a great question. It's it's something, you know, that comes up a lot because what is thought? What is conscious thought versus, you know, just an impulsive thought. And so the impulsive thoughts, we just have to hold notice them, recognize them. There's a part that's still very triggered by doubt, fear, judgement, whatever it is, jealousy, resentment, don't let it drive the narrative. Anything else, girls? Speaker 2 I have a question. I have so many. Yeah. Like I have to start trying to put it into words, but OK. Like, how much are we supposed to take apart our net Bishop, Bahamas? Like, notice where it's coming from. Where is the anger coming from? Where are these parts showing up from? And how do we do that without getting lost in it? How do we maintain? Like you just said, how do we maintain the eye being the godly soul if the eye feels so connected with these parts of I'm uncomfortable, I seek pleasure, I'm trying to survive. Let me switch that, sorry. Speaker 1 That's an excellent question. It's a great question. You're, I'm going to repeat it to make sure I understood it fully. You're ask, you're asking like, at which point does it become like it's taking up too much of my space? It's not even letting me stay grounded in truth because these stories are demanding and requiring so much attention. Is that? Am I understanding correctly? Speaker 2 Yeah, like you explained in the class, you said something about like what happens when we lose sense of our purpose that we were all born with, then automatically these parts become our identity. Speaker 1 Excellent. Speaker 2 What do we do? Speaker 1 Excellent. So this is where the challenge is. Sometimes it's very easy with a lot of clarity. I see apart, I see how loud it's getting and I say, no, I'm walking away like I'm not letting you come in and and you're you're not taking over the the day, you're not taking over my story, you're not taking over this relationship. I'm able to walk away from that part and stay grounded in truth. The parts though that keep coming back and keep coming back and keep coming back. I see them as a little child who's coming for reparenting. It's a part that is stuck in the narrative of our, our smaller, our young consciousness, and it doesn't see it, cannot understand it, can't it? And so it needs updating. The only way we're going to update it is when we remove our judgment and shame and criticism of this part. I literally see it like a 2 year old who needs to come sit on our lap or like a 14 year old who needs to sit on the bench near me. And I can hear her story and I can hear, why do you keep saying this? Why do you keep having this reaction to this person? Why do you keep going into fear in these kinds of experiences? What is it triggering inside of you? Witnessing these parts is how they're updated because they go, oh, there's a, there's an attuned, calm, present parent here in the room. I'm, I don't have to run the ship anymore. I don't have to be the one in charge. So this is the, the to, to bring it back to directly to answering your question. When we have the capacity easily to snap away, snap it away, walk away from that part. That's amazing. And that develops when there is a compassionate relational field inside of me. The more attuned they enter these parts, the quicker they are to listen to me when they show up. I'm like, uh, uh, I know you. I see you not letting me drive the car, sit down in the back, put your seat belt on. If you want to watch, watch. If you think there's something I need to be aware of, update me. But you're not driving the story here. The more capacity we have to let these parts sit on our lap and hold them and witness them and process them, the quicker they are to be updated. It's the shame, the judgement, the criticism, the despair we have around. Like, why am I still stuck here? That's what hijacks our process. Does that feel like an answer does? Speaker 2 Feel like an answer, and it's so true that the shame rejects the process and takes over the shame. Speaker 1 'S another part. The shame's another part of the animal soul. And it's like, I'm done with this. I don't want you to be suffering in this anymore. I don't want you to experience this pain anymore. Let me shut it. It thinks that's how it's going to shut it down. And you're like, no, I have a new tool today. I used to not have tools to hold these parts. I would shame them out of the room, but it didn't work and now I have a new tool. My new tool now is to attune to them, not let them drive the car again. Attuning to a part does not mean it drives the car. It does not drive our thoughts, speech and action. It simply means I can reintegrate this part now it no longer has to be in pain. Anything else, girls? Thanks for being here, honey. Hi, Rifka. Hi, Brandy. Speaker 2 Thank. Speaker 1 You, Bren, you have a question. I'm saying hi. Questions to me. So many questions. That's great. Thank you. Thanks so much, girls. I'll see you again next week. Same time, same place. It's my joy and pleasure. Thanks for being here. Speaker 2 Thank you. Speaker 1 Thanks for coming. Hi Mom. My mother's here guys. Everyone weaves to her.