Tanya Class 7- Chapter Five

Honoring a Sister and the Power of Being a Doula OK, so, so actually I'm going to start by just acknowledging our class dedication today. My SO this is actually a fun one because my sister Esther Hecht sponsored, dedicated today's class in honor of my other sister Brandy, in honor of her 42nd birthday. And Esther wrote a little note she wrote in honor of my dear sister Brandy on her 42nd birthday for the way you choose to break the cycle, embracing light, joy and positivity and modeling a life of Simcha. You bring fun and warmth into your home and you show your children the true joy, the the true joy and beauty of our traditions. May you continue to inspire and be blessed with abundant nachas. Now that's a beautiful blessing that Esther wrote. And I actually want to add to that because Brandy is Brandy is a doula and a labor and delivery nurse. And last week, last week in honor, the person who I dedicated, I said something about like every woman needing teachers and mentors in their lives who mirror to them their life and their capacity. And so this week, in honor of Brandy, actually want to add to that, that every woman needs a doula in her life. Like, if you think about it, a doula's job. And I had talked about this when I, you know, I was immersed in my, my own daughter's giving birth. But I, and I had mentioned this idea, the, the doula's job is simply to stand by and support. Like that's all they do. They're there to help a labouring mother who's in the middle of a very deep process and a very painful process. And the doula just stands there and brings comfort and reassurance and projects hope and the steady reminder of your capacity and your strength. And the doula cannot fix anything and she can't speed anything up. And she isn't meant to. She's literally just the earth to support and to reassure. And that's what we are meant to be to others. When we are witnessing someone working through a challenge, you know, we so badly want to jump in and we want to fix and we want to take the struggle away. But that's not actually what the other person needs. They need someone who is grounded in trust and love and hope to be a compassionate witness. And, and our our birthday girl, she, she has this capacity. It's inborn in her. I think we all have this, but with Brandy, you could see it clearly. She's a natural doula and like her face alone brings comfort and support into the room. And of course, the energy that she emanates those too. And so my birthday wish to her is that she be able to tap into this with ease, obviously at her job, but also as a mom and as a spouse and as a friend. And, and really my wish to all of us listening here is that we also should remember this, that this is our role when we are standing by a child or by a friend or by a spouse or a client who's struggling. We have to just channel our inner doula. We have to be their doula. And, and also I'm adding a prayer here that each of us should be able to have a sister or a friend who could be that person to us. So that's, that's our dedication here. Immersive Art, Chocolate, and the Click of Understanding I want to, I want to start our introduction to Chapter 5. I want to start with two simple experiences. OK, first, I want you to imagine that you are in an Art Museum and you're looking at amazing artwork, amazing imagery. You could see it, you could describe it, you might even feel something while you look at it, but you're still, you're standing outside of it. Now imagine walking into those immersive art exhibits. You know, where the walls and the floor and the entire space around you, it's all part of the scene. And they even add sound and they add touch. You're not looking at it anymore. Now you're inside of it. You are immersed in the experience. Now we're going to try another, another visual that I want you to imagine here a question I have. What's more real, when you read the description of chocolate or when you're actually tasting it? Now, obviously when you're tasting it is more real because when you taste it, it becomes part of you. You take it in and now it's inside of you. So we have these two different experiences that I want us to keep referencing. OK, There's the immersive room, you're inside of it, and then there's the food that goes inside of you. Think about this now regarding understanding an idea, before you get into it, before you fully understand it, you're kind of looking at a picture. You could repeat it, you could explain it, but you're still outside of it. But then something happens. It clicks right. Raise your hand if you've had this experience where you know, like how they say in Hebrew Nafala a Simone or the coin dropped. I don't know if yet I don't use that term so much. But in in Israel, it's it's like when something finally clicks Nafala a Simone, it finally downloads. And in that exact second what happens? What changes? It's like you move from being outside of it to being inside at the same time, the concept at that same the exact same time the concept moved from being outside of you to inside of you. So on one hand, when you understand something, both things happen at once. Like food, you grasp the idea it's now inside of you. And like that immersive space, you step into the idea, you can move around in it, you can think with it, you can live inside of it. It's in you and you're in it. This is what Chapter 5 is going to talk all about. Chapter 5 tells us how studying Torah provides this kind of connection that does not exist anywhere else. You're not just knowing something from the inside and you're not just absorbing it like food, but there's this complete unity. You grasp it, it grasps you, you're inside of it, and it's inside of you. This is how. This is how the altar of it starts. His chapter here he says to further clarify the word tvisa to grasp. Last week we had quoted chapter 4, quoted a saying from the Zohar, which is a quote from Elieoa Navi. I'm sure those of you who've learned Tracidis are familiar. Lis Marchava, Tvisa Behal, no thought could grasp you, right? This chapter, he's going to now highlight what is this word grasp? Last week we talked about what was it? What was the point of that saying there? He was highlighting attention. On one hand, we say no thought can grasp God. On the other hand, we were saying that when we do learn Tara, we are actually grasping him. And he asked in last month's, last week's chapter, how is that possible? And there he explained that that's the power of thought, speech and action in relation to Tara mitzvahs. He explained there that because Tara mitzvahs are God's will, thinking, speaking, and doing Tara mitzvahs gives us the capacity to actually grasp God. Now in this week's chapter, in chapter 5, we go a little bit deeper. We're not just asking, is, is this possible? We're asking what does that actually mean to grasp? What is this phenomenon? That's almost in a paradoxical experience. We're something beyond comprehension become something that we can hold inside of us and be immersed in it at the same time. How the Mind Grasps and is Grasped by God's Wisdom So now into the altar of his words. This might sound a little wordy, so bear with me. I'm reading directly from the Tanya here. When the mind perceives and understand the concept, the mind grasp that concept and surrounds it, he continues. The concept is grasped and clothed within the mind that understands and perceives it. Now I want to focus on that statement because it does sound repetitive. It sounds redundant and it's calling our attention. So again, I'm going to explain what it is that he's saying here. This paragraph is explaining how the faculty of the mind works. You know that a thought is grasped when when the mind becomes its clothing. Last week we talked about how the clothing express us, right? When the mind can express the idea, that's when we know we fully grasped it. A deficiency in expression means that I didn't really get it. Like I can kind of talk about it, but it's not it's not one with me yet. I haven't fully grasped it and therefore it can, I cannot be a clothing for this. I cannot yet express it. So just paraphrasing that same paragraph, I'm going to say it again in in my own words to to just show how it's not repeating itself. It's basically saying when the mind probably grasps a concept, the concept can now be expressed by the mind. And then he continues at back to his words. At the exact same time that the concept is expressed by the mind, the mind is being expressed by the concept. The concept, during that same time, you are grasping it and comprehending it. Now again, like I said, very wordy. We're going to break this down. Something very fascinating is being described here. The mind expresses the concept, and at the exact same time the concept is an expression of what the mind is busy grasping. Like I said in the opening analogy, at once you are immersed in this idea, and the idea is within you. The mind expresses the idea, and the idea is expressing what's going on on your mind. This happens to be true of any concept that you fully understand. This process of thought is always a process in which the mind at once grasps the concept. They're one within each other. But here's here's what the Altario was going to explain fully and here's what we're going to say what this what is this great phenomenon that we're talking about in this chapter when you understand of an idea in halacha, a concept that it's a concept in the Mishnah, a concept in the Talmud. This isn't like any ordinary concept. It's the wisdom and the will of God himself that we are grasping and that's grasping us that we are expressing and that is expressing us. And it happens to be that it's not even about what is the halacha teaching that doesn't matter. It's simply, it's about the essence, the halacha itself is an expression of the divine will and the divine wisdom. Now I'm going back into the Tanya. I'd like I said it, we're going to be a little wordy here, but we're, we're explaining a very profound concept. And I'm, I'm quite confident that we're going to break it down in a way that feels beautiful and resonating. But I need you to be here with my train here, OK? I'm quoting directly from the Tanya here. God desired that if Ruby presents a certain argument, for example, and Shimon puts forth another example, then he said, and the ruling is such and such. God desires that even if such a case with these particular claims and demands never comes and never will be, nevertheless, what matters is that this is God's will and wisdom. In other words, he's telling us that when you study halacha, it doesn't matter if it's hypothetical. You are, you are grasping God's will. Now, when we were in, in, in high in middle school and you learned math, we argued, right. We're like, never in a million years am I going to have to apply this principle. Like, why are we studying this? What the Adreb is telling us here is that this kind of argument could never be made regarding halacha. It is true that we might never have to apply these principles, but it doesn't matter because what matters is that this is God's will and this is God's wisdom. And I'm going to give you again a very simple analogy. And then we'll dial back to see how this shows up in such a profound way. When we study Torah. Imagine someone studying to become a chef. At first you follow a very specific recipes, step by step. The guy doesn't understand the deeper principles of cooking it, how flavours balance, how heat works, how the ingredients interact. But when you make, when you're successful at making that dish, you have deal. You've touched something very real. You've accessed the truth about how cooking works, even if you don't yet understand the entire system. Over time, though, you move from the recipes and you begin to understand. Even though in the beginning, when you weren't able to, you know, grasp those concepts, it doesn't mean it was fake. It was still very real. The same is true about Tara. Even when you're learning a specific case, you're not just following instructions, you're not just learning a story, you're accessing real divine wisdom, even if it's just one piece grasp. So when the Talmud presents a case, whether it's a financial dispute between Ruben and Shaman like we have here, there's a claim and there's a counterclaim. It's not necessarily describing a real event that happened or that's going to happen. Rather, it's just giving us a theoretical model in order to uncover what is God's will in this situation. The goal in learning is not to be able to resolve the dispute or to understand how this case it it. It's simply we're not true that learning is going to help. A lot of our learning is to understand how do we do this? I need to do a mitzvah. I have to learn how to do it in order to keep kosher, in order to to keep Chavez, we must learn the laws. But there's something much more profound happening here. It's not about how this it how how this is going to be resolved. It's about understanding that this case reflects the deep order of creation, what God wanted from us within the world. Now, as explained in and hold on a second, the altar of it goes on to explain that when a person understands a halachic ruling, something discussed in the Mishnah or the Gemara, it's not just about learning information. What we are grasping in our mind is the wisdom and the will of God. Now, of course, no person learning this is grasping the entirety of Divine wisdom. Even if we understand every detail about how we're only accessing one layer of something infinitely deep, there are levels and levels beyond human comprehension. There's deeper and deeper meanings here. But we what we do understand, we are grasping a very profound truth. Like we said about the recipe, you know, think again. Think again about that cooking. A professional chef, he does understand the chemistry behind the cooking and how the acids work and how the fats and the heat and the timing, how this all interacts. A child, on the other hand, all he knows is that if I follow this recipe, it's going to work. I I fall under that category. We don't understand the full science, but when we successfully make the dish, we still grasp something very real. We're working with the exact same truth. It's just at a level that we can grasp. You know? I'll use even a better analogy. I saw a dinged Steinselt's head. The equation a + a Sorry, a + b = C and 1 + 1 equal 2. They are the exact same truth, but the first one is the general principle and it's much more abstract. The other one is specific and it's concrete. A child cannot grasp the abstract formula, but when they understand that one apple plus one apple equals 2 apples, they have accessed the exact same truth. It's just in a form that they could hold. The Unmatched, Wondrous Union of Mind with Torah Again, back to our Nimshall. When we study Torah, even if we're we're learning a specific case like the ox scoring another ox or the financial claim that Ruby made against German, we're not just learning the story. We're not just learning an example. We are literally grasping God's own wisdom, not a symbol of it, not a reflection of it, literally God's very essence. And that means that in a single halacha that we study, that we truly grasp. This isn't something small happening here. It's a meeting point between the human mind, between something finite and something infinite. In the words of the Tanya, reading straight from the Tanya, you are grasping God, who cannot be grasped by any thought, and neither can he, his will or his wisdom. Yet clothed within these halachas that are been made accessible to us, you do grasp him, his wisdom, his will, and He himself. And as you are learning, your mind is immersed within them as well. And here's the climax. And I want to read this in in the Hebrew because something about it just feels so insanely powerful to me. I'm reading the Hebrew of the Tanya and then I'll translate Wuhu yehud nifla Shaheen yehud kamaihu, the like erkanim to cloud the goshmias. This is an amazing union. There is nothing like it or even approaching it amongst physical things. Nothing, nothing at all. You grasped her and you grasp God's mind and they become an absolute. Singular 1 is liaisa khade mumi khade Mama shbihalzad upina. They become the singular 1 is from every angle and in every way. I I actually, I feel like I want to repeat this again and I want you to just sit and hear the words I'm saying to, to if you can in any shape or form to complicate, contemplate the magnitude of these words. OK, I'm repeating it straightly straight in English. This is an amazing union. There is nothing like it or even approaching it among physical things. Nothing at all. You grasp Tyra and your mind and gods become an absolute singular 1 is from every angle and in every way. When the thinking mind and the concept that we're contemplating encompass each other, what takes place is not, it's not just contact, it's this reciprocal unity. And again, like it says here, this kind of union has no real parallel. There's no analogy for it. In the physical world, in the material realm, there's always going to be boundaries that can't that that we can't overcome. There's a distinction between the container and the contained. There's a distinction between self and other. There's the differences that are inherent in the physical existence and therefore they prevent this kind of unity. But in the world of ideas, this cut, this capacity for what it says are Yehud Nifla, this wondrous union in the relationship between the one who understands and what he's understanding. There's no boundary. The concept is fully grasped in the mind and the fine, the mind is fully immersed in the concept. Now, like I said before, what I'm saying here is true in all areas of learning, the concept and the mind become close within each other. But with the rabbit helps us understand here how it's so much more profound regarding Torah study. Why the rabbit explains that when you study the solar system, for example, he gives your mind becomes immersed in the concept, the idea of the solar system, but you're not connecting with the sun and the moon, you're connecting with the idea of them. When it comes to Torah, however, there's something very, very different, fundamentally different is happening because like we said, the Torah is not just information. The Torah is the blueprint for reality itself. So when you study Torah, you're not bonding with an idea, you're bonding with reality. And even deeper, you're bonding with the creator of this reality. You're not connecting with the teacher. You're not connecting just with the information, you're connecting with the wisdom itself. And because reality as we know it is one with God's wisdom, and God's wisdom is one with God. You know, actually a fascinating story that I heard. I heard this a while ago, and so I, I don't remember the names. It speaks to this idea about halacha being the order of the universe. Jewish law is not just about rules and it's not just about regulations. It's the blueprint. It's the code for the divine orchestration of reality. Halacha was spelled out in black and white just to give us humans this capacity to tap into that. It's called halacha from the root word of Lech to go, right. It's his way of going about life that aligns and that's In Sync with the reality of the universe with truth. So when we, we think about Jewish law, it's very easy to see it as just this list of do's and the list of don'ts. But it's not what it is halacha. It's not just instruction. It's a code. It's a precise system that aligns with the inner blueprint of creation. It's like, again, a Steinfeld's muscle that I, I read once he, he explained it, he describes it like a key. And I thought was a green analogy, right? Because when you look at a key, how does a key work? The lock has inside the lock, there's these pins in there, these wedges and they're all set to a very specific height. The lock isn't random. The keys obviously not random. They're both structured with exact like a very exact precision. Every Ridge on the key is cut in a way that's going to perfectly match the internal pins. And when the the right key enters a lock, every piece aligns exactly. And that's what allows the lock to open. So even if one Ridge is off even slightly, the key's not going to turn, not because the lock is refusing, but because there's no alignment, right? This is halacha. This is what it means to walk in the according with, like along with the divine flow. The divine flow is always here. There's abundance, there's harmony, there's connection. It's present, it's available always, but it's not random. It flows through a very specific system and structure. Halacha is that structure and it gives us this shape that we need in order to align with God's will. It gives us the key in order to fit into the precise design of reality. It allows us literally to plug into, to the, to the very life force of the world. So the story that I wanted to share, it's I remember who told the Rabbi Schmoolu told the story, but I don't remember the schliach who was involved. It was, it was in Leeds, England. So perhaps, you know, they were trying to get permits to build a kebab centre. And they were facing the challenge because on the property where they wanted to build was AI don't know was there there was like a 200 year old tree and the city wasn't allowing them to cut it down because it had some kind of historical significance. So they wrote to the rebel about this challenge and the rebel responded with a simple question. He asked, is this a fruit bearing tree? And the response was no, it's a 8th CEREC and 8th cerec is a barren tree. It's a it's one that does not produce fruit. And then literally the day after this exchange, there was some kind of big storm, a hurricane or something that hit that city and completely uprooted the tree. And of course, it no longer presents a challenge to their building permit. Now, you might call this a coincidence, but all of us here, we know that a coincidence is more accurately, accurately divine orchestration. Holistically, there is a prohibition. You are not allowed to cut down fruit trees by clarifying that this was not a fruit tree. The rabbit was establishing the halachic status of the tree. So was it just a technical clarification or did something about defining it through halacha actually shape what happened next? In other words, when something becomes clear on halacha, it defines the reality itself. Now the focus that I'm bringing here, I'm I'm sharing this message, I'm sharing the the the story and and the idea about what is halacha specifically in relation to this chapter's emphasis about studying halacha, learning those parts of Torah, the altar of it tells us studying halacha and therefore grasping a concept in halacha. We are grasping reality itself. We're grasping divine wisdom, we are grasping God himself. Like it said in the words of the Tanya Lihiyais la Ahadem Muhadem Nikolzad Lupina, your mind and gods become an absolute, absolute singular 1 is from every angle and in every way. Steve Freeman, he, he writes a lot on kibala.org if you're not familiar. Anyway, he is away with words and I he writes something like, you know, a mathematician could ponder geometry for his entire lifetime, but he's never going to become a triangle. That's just the way he says things. When you study Torah, though, you are intertwined with the Divine, and that is absolutely going to change who you become as a person. You might have two feet on the ground and your hands are immersed in work and in life and in business, but this wondrous unity that we form in our mind when we study Torah, when we study Torah and form this union with God, is going to change who you become. It's going to change the way you perceive everything in your life and it's going to change the way you absorb everything going on in your life. How Torah Study Transforms Our Perception and Nature We said this last week. We said how our, our we ended our class last week by by emphasizing how our habits change our nature. And the rhombom actually says this. He says Hergel NASA Teva that what we become accustomed to is going to become our second nature. The mathematician might not become a triangle, but absolutely habitually studying Torah turns our mind into a Torah mind that is going to perceive the world through that lens. Torah study is how we fine tune our perception of reality so that we aren't just seeing the world through the fear based lens of our animal soul, but rather we begin to see the world through the lens of Torah. It's how we gain access to the the godly soul's perspective of the world back into our flow of the Tanya, The altar. Bashir is now how because of this wondrous union that occurs through Torah study. This place is Torah study. The quality of of Torah study is above the quality of doing mitzvahs. This place is a quality of, of even knowing, sorry, knowing Torah and grasping Torah is immeasurably beyond all mitzvahs, even greater than just speaking words of Torah. Because when we Torah study has two parts to it. One of them is the midst of the debartabam that you should speak words of Torah, You should articulate them with your mouth, even if you're not fully understanding it. So in this sense, Torah study is similar to all other action based mitzvahs, like putting on tefillin or giving stucco. You're doing something, you're expressing the mitzvah through this certain part of your body. But the second part of Torah study is what we have here, Yadiya Satara Bahasa Gassa, to actually know the Torah, to study it, to understand it, to grasp it according to your intellectual capacity. And in this dimension, Torah study is infinitely greater than all other mitzvahs because like we described here, this is where this wondrous union takes place that we've been talking about. It happens through that first word we quoted here, through Tfisa, through understanding, through grasping. Why? Because in all other mitzvahs, whether it's speech or action, the mitzvah is wrapped around the person, the mitzvah enclose the person, it surrounds the individual. The mitzvah becomes an expression of the person. It becomes a person's clothing, right? For example, when you get stuck up with your hand, the mitzvah is expressing the capacity of their of your hand in the moment that you're giving stucco. What is your hand? It's a giver of stucco. And that same thing applies to every mitzvah. The mitzvah becomes an expression of you, of who you are or of of what that particular part of your body is. So when a person speaks or thinks words of Torah, the words become the lavush of the mind, the expression of the mind. The Torah is expressing who this person is in that moment. But when you study Torah, we're this is where we're studying. Tour is different. In the words of the Tanya, it's infinitely superior, it's greater, it's more wondrous than all other mitzvahs. Why? Because when we grasp Tara, not only does the wisdom dress up the mind, not only is the Torah expressing what's happening inside of your mind, but at the exact same time the mind is an expression of the Torah. Like we said that two way unity, the Torah's expressing the person, the person's expressing the Torah. The mind's inside the Torah, the person's, the person's, the Torah's inside the mind. There's this mutual expression, this mutual reciprocal unity. It's, it's the, this is. And like we said before, this is, this doesn't take place in any other shape or form. There's no other way that this is possible, not in any mitzvah, not in any physical combination of two things. The only way that this happens is when the mind is studying and specifically Torah. Now, if time allows, we would go off on an entire discussion about the many other aspects of this comparison regarding we're mitzvah standard relation to Torah study, but that's not the focus of this chapter. But it is worth taking a moment to quote the many ways in which we are told that Torah study alone is not the end goal. The goal of all of our study is to lead to action. To learn about Sedaka is to give sidaka, or in the words of perkyvas, you know, Loya madrisha ikar allaha maisa. It's not the study, but it's the action that's most important. This past Shabbos actually was in the in the perkyvas. This week call shahkmosa maruba maisa in Miss Kayanos, right? Anyone whose wisdom exceeds their actions, their wisdom doesn't endure. And it compared it to a tree that has many branches, but it doesn't have strong roots and the wind can come and topple it. But that's that's a, a topic on its own. That's not the emphasis of our chapter, but I just felt it was worth mentioning. The chapter's main point that we have here is a continuation of we said last what we said last week that the souls Lavushim, the modes of expressing ourselves, our thoughts, speech and action are in a way, this was last week, much more powerful than the soul itself because they allow us to merge with the divine in a way that the soul itself can do. And and the way I read this chapter, it almost felt to me that this content could have been included in last week's chapter, but it got an entire chapter of its own. What it seemed to me was that the author ever wanted to express to us the magnitude, the majesty of this particular capacity of our souls expression. It's unmatched. It's unparalleled in its capacity to merge with God in this wondrous union which is only available through Torah study. Understanding Torah: Grasping Truth at Every Level I want to do, I want to go back and spotlight another sentence that was here. It's a ish kafi Sifli, the kayak idea, say the hassa da say according to your mind's ability to grasp it with your particular way of thinking, whether it's in shot, remez, drush or seid. Those of you who are familiar that's known in in short, that's termed as parties. This is a Taurus orchard. Shot would be the these are four different ways of studying Torah. Shot would be the simple literal meaning. Remez is the hinted the ideas that are hinted to the symbolic meaning. Drush is where it gets more interpretive, deeper analysis, and so is the hidden mystical ideas in the Torah. Now, one of when, when we're hearing this about Torah study, you might think if I can't understand Torah at the deepest level, then I'm not really grasping the real thing. But what the altar I was telling you is that's not true. That's not how it works. God designed the Torah in a way that could be grasped in many different levels, and he handcrafted it that it could be grasped by you, Ishkafi Sikhla, the kyahe Diasi BA sagasi, according to your mind's ability to grasp it in your particular way of thinking. Not someone else's, not a genius, not who you might be one day, but who you are right now. This means that your understanding is not supposed to be measured against someone else's. It's not about how much you grasp compared to the great scholar or or a teacher. It's about whether you are using your mind's capacity to its fullest, because again, every level of Torah, whether it's a simple understanding or a deeper layer, it's not a lesser version, it's a different layer of the exact same truth. Like I had said earlier, 1 + 1 = 2 is the same as a + b = C And when you truly understand Torah at your level, you're not holding on to a partial or a diluted truth. You are holding real Torah again, which is God's will, which is one with Him. You know, actually borrowing a, a also a very good analogy that I saw on the Tanya project on chabad.org. You know, think about the way we teach kids about mashiach. We tell kids that, you know, from a young age where we tell them about this world of sweetness where candies are going to be hanging from a tree, where animals are going to be living peacefully side by side. And as we grow older, the picture changes a little bit, right? We speak about a world without war and a war without, a world without illness and a world of peace and harmony. And as we mature even more than we understand something even deeper about this messianic era that this reflects a world that's fully aligned with the Creator, a world where God's presence is fully revealed and obvious. So were the earlier stages about candies growing on a tree, were those untrue? Not at all. Each stage it's representing the truth. It's just expressed in a way that the child could understand it at that moment. And again, this is the same. It's true for all of us. God dresses up the Torah in a way that fits your mind's capacity, your way of thinking, your level. And when you learn and when you question and when you understand to the best of your ability, then what you are grasping, it's not an approximation and it's not a lower version. It's the truth. It's the absolute truth as it was meant to be grasped by you. The Tanya goes on to tell us the Torah is considered food for the soul. Why? Because just like physical food doesn't stay outside of you, but it's eaten, it's digested, it becomes one with the body. The same works for Torah. And there are two stages when we eat right? First the food enters the body, it's broken down. Then it loses its its separate identity and it becomes part of you. It turns into your own flesh and blood, and that's what gives you life again. Same with the Torah. At first, it enters our mind. We think about it, we analyze it, we break it down, we chew on it. But when we really work through it, when you understand it deeply, it's no longer something we're looking at. It's part of how you think your mind becomes a Torah mind. It becomes part of who you are. Like I said earlier, it changes your perception of reality. And This is why the Torah says, it says the Torah is in my belly like food. It's internal. It's no longer separate from us. You know, on Chavez, just by chance, I picked up a, a short mimer. It was interesting because I was like, OK, let me prepare for Tanya for this class. And then I was like, actually, no, I'm not. I don't want to do that. I want to do something else. I picked up a, a mimer that I had printed and it was called the Hadartha Pennisakim. It's a mimer of the Alta River based on a mitzvah parsha Kadarshan from last week about honouring our elders. It was just a Schaka practice that this is what I picked up when I thought I was going to prepare for Tanya. The author of it was explaining there by Darta Penny. Zukking. Zukking doesn't just mean someone older, but Zesha Kanahama. It talks about someone who acquired wisdom. What does it mean to acquire wisdom? It's this exact idea, what we're discussing here, that when a person studies in a way that we truly understand it and we internalize it, the wisdom doesn't remain something external. It becomes part of who we are. It becomes wisdom that's integrated within us. So that person is no longer somebody who knows about Torah. It's part and parcel of their being. Their mind, their way of thinking, their way of being is going to be shaped by this divine wisdom. And so God is within them. And This is why we have to honor them. Even when they're not actively learning, they're still carrying this within them. It's part of their identity. So we have to honour them at all times by director pennies akin because we're not just honouring the person, we're honouring the godliness that has become an integrated part of their being. The Intention of Torah Study: Connecting Our Soul to God Just a something a little kind of little parenthetic here. But the terror says it says it's a Tanya says it's a, it's a quote from the Tahilam. I think that the Torahs be within your bowels, within your belly. There's a story told about the Tamil Sadiq who is sitting together with the rebel Maharaj and the Kaiser of Lubin, who is a big guy. They were all sitting and having a meal together with the the the Kaiser of Lublin wasn't eating anything. And the Reverend Marash was encouraging him. He said, eat, eat something, why don't you eat? And the temple said they commented. He says it seems he's contemplating Torah and that must be what's satisfying him. That must be what's what's what's filling him up the the altar, but continues on this theme of food, the Torah being food nourishment. He quotes what we know from the cabal that in Ghaden in the in in the Garden of Eden, Ghana, Eden, the mitzvahs that we have done become our clothing. And I actually just saw a commentary of the rabbit. He talks about, yes, it becomes our clothing. We know about other Makhava. They felt naked. Why did Amanda Makhava feel naked? Because the one mitzvah they were given, they hadn't done. And so the the clothing of us, I'm sorry, all the mitzvahs that we do become our clothing. All the terror we study become our food. And the way I understood this was, and just like by way of analogy, imagine visiting a foreign country where everyone's dressed in a certain style. If you are dressed appropriately, if you're dressed up like them, you feel comfortable, you fit in, you belong, you don't feel out of place. Those are the midsts we do. They allow the soul to feel at home in that spiritual reality. But now imagine that you don't speak the language. You might be looking like you belong, but you can't actually participate. You can't understand what's going on. You can't connect on a deeper level. This is what the Torah gives us. The Tara is the language, it's the food. It allows the soul not just to be there and feel comfortable, but to actually understand, to internalize, to absorb the reality, to become one with it, to integrate what's going on. It's a it. It's a belonging and a much more profound level. You don't just fit into the environment, you get to experience it. It becomes one with you. You integrate what's happening in front of you. And he concludes this point. He says Tara study, like we said earlier, it falls under the category of the mitzvah as well, especially when we speak the words, especially when we say them out loud, it turns into an action based mitzvah. So, so bringing it back to the clothing idea, how are how are these clothing generated? The ones that we wear in gun Eden and actually we're wearing those clothing here as well. The same clothing that we're wearing in in gun Eden, we're wearing here. We just don't see it with the physical eye. The soul is dressed up in those spiritual clothing here too. And honestly, you can you can sense it energetically. Why is it that we're attracted to people who are full of mitzvahs? Why Because there's this our mock if there's this surrounding light of clothing that they have generated. So when a person performs A mitzvah, what happens? The material object of physical act transforms into something spiritual, becomes a spiritual light. We're touching something, we're moving our hand, but it is it generates spiritual energy that becomes light that surrounds us. So similarly, when a person studies tore out loud, it becomes an action based mitzvah. What's the material matter that gets transformed into light? It's literally the breath of our mouth. The breath of our mouth is the is the material dimension of this mitzvah. The very breath is transformed into that surrounding light. In the author of the notes here that this is referring to Torah study Lishma. The translation for the word Lishma is for its own sake. Sometimes we learn Torah, but it's not for its own sake. It could be to get a diploma, or it could be to satisfy an intellectual interest. It could be for recognition, it could be for status. Even as children, we we Start learning because of the reward and the encouragement that we get from the outside. And that's, that's OK. That's part of the process. We have the extrinsic motivation until it turns into something intrinsic, but at some point it has to turn into something intrinsic. It's meant to grow into something much deeper. To recognize a Torah study is not just something we do, it's our way of connecting with God and the altar of it, explains her leshima, learning for its own sake. It doesn't have to be some lofty intention. If we could each take note of this idea, Kadila kashyar nafshilashem to bond our soul with God, aliadeh hasagasa ahasagasatera through understanding the Torah, that's our that's the intention. That alone, wanting to connect to God through learning, that's leshima and that's a perfect intention. And we actually see this every single morning. You might be familiar as soon as I say you'll recognize it in the bracha, on the Torah that we say in brachas. First we thank God for sanctifying us, for giving us this great honour, this great privilege, making us a holy people through that mitzvah, learning Torah. And then we see the ha revena, right, the ha revena shamala quino estiree serasca. May the teachings of your Torah be pleasant in our mouths. What a beautiful blessing. And may we and our children be knowers of your name. And then what is it the the lime day kulani ya de schmecha? Maybe we know your name. Maybe, maybe, maybe we be aware and familiar with your name. And may we study your Torah for its own sake. And I think that could be, this could actually be our take away from today's lesson tomorrow morning when you say those Brahas to pause for a moment to think about what you're saying that this learning, this effort to understand, it's not a small idea. It's a direct connection to something, to something infinite. And just allowing yourself to sit with that, sit with that even for just a few moments. And that is going to begin to expand your sense of what Torah really is. It's not just learning, it's connection. And when we contemplate on these words, I'm going to, I'm going to repeat those words that I was, I, I honestly, when I read it the first time, I got chills. So I'm, I'm repeating it again. If we can contemplate on these words, this realization when we see the the Harevana tomorrow morning. This is an amazing union. I'm quoting directly from Natanya. There is nothing like it, or even approaching it among physical things. Nothing at all, sorry, nothing at all. You grasp Tyra, and your mind and gods become an absolute singular oneness from in every angle and in every way. And with that I I end my words for today. Deepening Understanding: Questions, Insights, and Personal Reflections Anyone have any questions? You know it's interesting something I I just read. I was just reading this how the the I think it was the rabbit commenting here. Maybe not I am not sure it was one of the rabbim. It was in Natanya. I have with all the rabbim's commentaries that this is specifically when we study halacha. Halacha, it's, it's even greater than than this grasping, even greater than in a certain sense of studying mystical ideas of terror, because we're not actually grasping. When you're learning about the angels and the different worlds, their ideas, their concepts that were, they're very, they're very inspiring. But grasping is like something black and white, like when we're talking about, you know, public property, private property, we're literally grasping it. And so the study of Halacha has this tremendous union that we're talking about exists specifically within the study of halacha. It inspired me. I, you know, I decided I'm going to Start learning seifer mitzvahs everyday just because of that, because yes, I study a lot, you know, of, of the, I study the time. Yeah, I study the commentaries on, on, on the Hamish. Of course, the Hamish alone is also directly God's wisdom. But I just wanted to point that out because it was, it was very, it was novel to me. You know that. Oh, this is happening just within the study of Haleka. Sure, Terry, go ahead. You're muted though. Speaker 2 Yeah, I was wondering often you're just using the phrase your mind and God's become singular oneness and not you and God become one is just because everything is primarily needs to be first in the mind because. Speaker 1 So it's the the union that we're talking about is happening in the mind. Just like with any form of study, the idea is being grasped in the mind and the mind is grasping the idea at the same time. So it is, it is a, it's happening within the mind. And I'm like, I'm actually quoting directly from Natanya. So is it that when my hand is doing a mitzvah, my hand is right now, you know, connecting with God? Yes. But this type of union that happens within the mind where they're fully one is immersed in the other at the same time, this reciprocal unity, that's a concept that only happens in the mind. By the way, that was today's Tanya as well. Today's Tanya was talking about like this relationship, you know, when you hug and kiss someone, this mouth to mouth kiss was a study of halacha. It's like a mouth to mouth, mouth kiss with God because this, my, my breath is speaking his words and studying his words. Speaker 2 So when you say that we're, we're expressing and it's expressing us. So what do you mean the it's expressing us? I'll. Speaker 1 Try to show you with my hand OK, so this is the the concept. My mind is now expressing the concept, right? My mind when I'm I'm thinking is an expression of what this idea is at the exact same time, the idea expresses what's going on in my mind. So both happening. It's it's wordy, but like if you think about it, you're in the immersive, you're in the immersive artwork and at the same time the food is inside of like 2 things are happening. You know you're you're in the recipe and the recipe's in you. Speaker 2 Simultaneously. OK, OK. Thank you. Beautiful. Speaker 1 Any any anything else? Girls, Young ladies, thanks for being here. Thanks for my cameras here. Like at the top of my screen. It's, it's great to see your faces. It's so so appreciated. Speaker 3 So could I add and correct me if I'm wrong, Terry, you were saying like is it just the mind? I think it starts in the mind and the connection when learning Terra is your mind and God are truly one, but then it permeates your whole being. Speaker 1 So Kaya, that's a good thing in da OS. It then leads to an emotion. It's so right. So that's the mind and then there's this emotion, and then the emotion allows you to turn it into action. But the Yehud Nifla, the way that this it's, yes, of course, we become one with God in action. It's like hugging the king, right? You're hugging the king. But the Yehud Nifla of this reciprocal unity, where one is within the other, is only something that could happen in the in the in the mind. Speaker 3 But then there's a. Speaker 1 Hug version. In a sense it's like a hug and a kiss. Like they're they're both connections, but one is it 1 is a little they're more connected. Speaker 3 Right, right. But then there's no question that it permeates your whole day and your whole thoughts and your whole being, you know, like, which is. Speaker 1 Yeah, which is what we said you become now hakukim like it becomes literally engraved inside of you. And this is actually a commentary that I noticed as well from one of the Arabian how a mitzvah could the the mitzvah is an action and it's something that becomes that. Yeah, I'm going to go, I'm going to hold on. I'm going to pause and go back to the analogy I used when about the gun Eden to think about it. Study changes as a person. A mitzvah does have the capacity to like it flexes a muscle, flexes a muscle, flexes a muscle. If we change new habits, we we form new wires. The perception we have of the world and of life circumstances and of our relationship to the world and what it means to us and what our role is. This is a transition that happens from tourist study. This is an transition that happens from learning about God. We can do myths and we can do myths and we can do myths, and sometimes somehow our animal soul still hijacks us when we're faced with the challenge. Torah's study is where we transform our perception of reality. That's where it shifts, who we become, because our mind is now seeing through the lens of God's mind. Speaker 2 Yeah, but what about the whole thing that we're action Nasevanishma where accident actually drives everything. And so sometimes just, you know, diving into the mitzvah. But I guess what you're just this this chapter is more about just the Hochma and Bina. And this is I guess I was confused. I'm thinking when I think of internalizing, embodying, and. Speaker 1 It's. Speaker 2 One it's does and it's because it's like she just said about really, you know, it permeating your body. I'm I'm guess I wasn't really. Speaker 1 100% yes. So, so I'm going to go back to what I think that I kind of just said often a tangent. I had said that there could be an entire discussion about how Torah study alone, anyone it says, it says anyone who would say I have nothing but my Torah has nothing at all. He has nothing at all. If you have nothing but your study, then you haven't acquired anything because the entire point of study is to lead to action. And like we said, somebody who's, who's Hochman Maruba, me myself, someone whose thoughts or not, it's whose thoughts his, his study, his acquisition of wisdom is greater than his actions. It's, it's, it doesn't last because you, you must, it must lead to action. But the point of this chapter is to talk about this Yekhinifla, this union that happens when the soul is uses it's la Bush of of Mashava to study godliness and grasp a concept of divine will, of God's will. Speaker 4 Can I give a real life? Speaker 3 Example. Speaker 1 What's that? Speaker 3 I said I want to give a real life example. I was actually just messaging TV last night that I gave a beautiful class on the puzzle of Shema last night for a group of women here in my community. And I spent so many, many hours the week, you know, last week preparing for it. And it literally changed my week 'cause I was so immersed in Taurus study that my whole attitude was different. And I literally felt a change in my mindset on my day-to-day because of the the immersiveness in the Taurus study that I was having. Speaker 1 That's gorgeous. That's gorgeous. That's a perfect example. Listen, the mitzvahs, like we said, the habits become nature, right? So the habit changes the way I behave and I it changes my wiring. It changes my, my, my capacity, our perspective. Our perspective shifts from our thought processes to be able to see the world through the lens of our divine soul. That's rhetoric. Study comes into the picture. Speaker 5 Right, Sabi. Speaker 1 Hey, Brocky, thank you. Speaker 5 I love that you call this young ladies or whatever it is you say. Speaker 1 What did you say? Speaker 5 I said I'd love that you called us all young lady. What'd you say, young girls? Speaker 1 I called you girls, right? Speaker 5 I said, oh, she must be talking to me, I'm getting on. So here, here, here's me, missus. Pragmatic love and I, not only do I love it, but I think it's the first time that the dots connect to exactly, you know, all we've acquired in our upbringings for some of us and how that really impacts now. I go through my day, I'm living my day. I love to start my morning. I love to do my, my Gordon Tanya or you or somebody. And then the day happens. I want that experience. You just described every minute of my day and to want that is the struggle of having to show up with whatever the demands are of of the circumstance I'm in or of the day or and bring that in. Even in those moments. I can't always sit and learn and and and carve out. I love that I could. I love that I've I I welcome traffic. I live in California. The four O 5 has become my friend. Traffic is my friend. I get to listen to what I want to the point where I'm sad when the traffic moves. So there's there's that concept of I'm I'm I'm putting it, I'm infiltrating it as much as I can. But you know what, when I don't, I feel I feel the distance. I I yearn to feel that Hashem with me all the time. So I talk. Yeah, OK, I'm. But what you just said put a different spotlight on. But when you learn, then that experience is the shift is the is where you know, everything gets the alignment is sharper is in alignment. I want that all the time, every minute, everywhere. Speaker 1 So much I'm wondering, Oh, sorry dude. Was that, was that the end of the sentence? Every time we were. Speaker 5 Every you said too much to ask. Speaker 1 No, you know what? I have an idea. And again, I'm curious how this will work for you and for all of us. Like I had ended with that idea to contemplate on this, this Yehudifa to contemplate on this union. When we see the bracha in the morning, the the bracha on on studying Torah, the Bracha Baharevna, we see that to take a moment literally the altar, but uses the idea of contemplation over and over and over because we really have to contemplate and meditate on these ideas until they become to us until we feel in our bones the the the magnitude of what happens to our Torah study and then again to folk to recognize and realize the the schmut element as we're studying. This is our opening the channel or saying to God, God, I'm doing this because I want to feel connected with you. That's Latasha and Afshay, where I, I shouldn't quote the Hebrew words because I don't remember them exactly, but the idea of the Shma means that the, the reason I'm studying this is because this is my way of bonding with God. And when I do that with that intention, God blesses the intention. And then we begin to feel connected with God throughout our day, like the, the, the Zakin Jakan Hakama, who even when he's not studying, he's still, he's still being honored because this has become an integrated part of his being. So while we were learning, it transforms the way we think. And then we can when we contemplate and, and pray on this idea that God, let this allow me to feel more connected to you. My, my hope and my prayers that as all of us do this together, this is what's going to shift for us. Speaker 5 OK, I hear that and the yes and I and I invite the shift and then there are moments that because there is an official Bahamas and then I don't and I feel Oh my God, I got pulled in or I got triggered and it happened so quickly and you know you. Speaker 1 Have that awareness. How amazing. Speaker 5 Yeah. Speaker 1 You have the awareness that you just moved from a God centered lens to an animal soul centered lens. Like that is massive to have that awareness cause some so many people just shift into what they think oh this is life this is life and it sucks to suck. Speaker 5 So that's the thing, the clarity is for me, the Bahira Khawashi, my freedom of choice is always self-centered, God centered. That's how I made it succinct. God centered or self-centered? Speaker 1 Where are you going? You know what, Brachi? That was a shift for me and and it changed. It changed my entire life. The way I see the world, it's the way I see every circumstance. It's the way I see every one of my reactions, my internal world. Oh yeah. Was that, was that coming from my godly soul? Was that coming from my animal soul? And this is a teaser for next week. We're going to introduce the animal soul. So we're going to, we're going to get to meet that part. Speaker 5 That. Speaker 1 Pulls us away from truth and throws us into fear and into the sense of the abandonment and that we've we're here alone. So that's a that's a teaser for next week's class. Speaker 5 We're gonna meet, but I do I have a quick question on that. OK, I have a quick question on that because we spoke about it. So it's got it's the choice of between God, godly soul, animal soul, right? The the barometer is the discomfort and then the choice is, you know, the animal soul is what I need. Godly soul is what I needed for. Very succinct, very easy, because in the moment of trigger I only have that much seconds before it takes over. Speaker 1 Beautiful. Speaker 5 So what's the spotlight? The Hared not I love that like so where's the spotlight to stop the runaway train? Because the Nefesha Bahamas, I hate to say it, but they're doing the Nefesha Bahamas is doing push ups, waiting for the opportunity. You know that he's waiting to come on in and do its job. Speaker 1 You know, I'll tell you what. I'll tell you where the pivot could be instead of going, darn, what's wrong with me? This is so annoying. What's wrong with God? What's wrong with the world? The pivot is what is my learning opportunity in this moment? What is my growth opportunity? The animal soul came to bring growth opportunities to the godly soul. That's it. And so instead of going into a shame spiral or a self loathing spiral or a judgmental spiral, we pause and we ask, what am I supposed to be learning? What muscle am I meant to be flexing? What internally still needs shifting? Speaker 5 If I can remember all that you know, I try to take. Speaker 1 Write it on your palm. Speaker 5 To me, I'd like to take like you have to replace, so get rid of judgement, get curious. Like that's my new thing. Just get curious. Just get curious. Speaker 1 Shame bring compassion. Speaker 5 Now if we could put it in pill form civvy, we got $1,000,000 industry going on here. Speaker 1 You heard it here first, ladies. We're going to come up with it. Speaker 4 I have a quick question. Can I ask you a quick question? Sure, sure. I know that you have it implemented in your system that you all, I think you do, you all have a mentor and you are a mentor. How was it set up? It's. So do you find? Speaker 1 That this is start starting in Pirkayavas it says that every person should have. Speaker 4 Objective Objective. Speaker 1 Others, the rabab encouraged it a lot. It was a, it was a an idea within the Khabad world because the rabbit spoke of it. He said it's about Kashanovs. I'm asking you, this is a soul soul level request encouraging all of you to have a mushfiya, to have a mentor, to have someone who can help you see yourself. Somebody who could help you when you're being too subjective to help bring you objectivity and when you're being too self self loathing and judgmental to remind you of who you are, who your capacity. Speaker 4 Is I understand what? Speaker 1 And that's it. There's no formal setup. It's it's How do you think? Speaker 4 People. What people approach other people? Can you be a mentor? Speaker 1 Yeah, you literally find find the person who who you feel can play that role for you. Speaker 4 And ask and they have to be available. Speaker 1 OK. Thank you. Absolutely. Were you the one that made that comment in the text? Because somebody there was an? Speaker 4 Yeah, it was me. It was me, yeah. Speaker 5 Can I include a thought on that? Speaker 1 Please. Speaker 5 I always tell people, but include Hashem in the request when you want a mentor, say I'm ready, Hashem, I'm ready for a mentor in my life. Feel it, want it. And then somehow so creatively, that puts you in a path because once you're starting to look for it with that lens, it kind of throws itself up. Speaker 1 Thank you, I have some kabad friends I have. Speaker 4 Some Kabad friends. I have some Kabad friends. Tivi is your name. Yeah. SD actually told me about your class. SD Jacobson. Oh, beautiful. And I always tell her, like, certain things that are so ingrained in their upbringing. It's very beautiful. Very beautiful. Speaker 1 Yes, nothing's by accident all like I said, you know, halacha, you know, for us, for all of us here, maybe that's a baseline, right? And we take it for granted. But that too is like the most beautiful structure that was set up for us to live a life aligned with a divine, you know, flowing in the divine current. No, no, we're not pushing against the current. We're not pushing against reality. And then again, all of these men hug him. And these traditions and these rituals that we have were set up just just for that purpose, to make us just allow us to live a life that's more aligned. Every single human needs a mentor in. Speaker 4 Order to can I just ask you the mentor the in in your in the way it's set up for you? If like can one just call the mentor anytime and can the mentee call the mentor anytime? Or is it like a weekly thing? Or is it something that you make up before? Speaker 1 I think it's very individual. I think it's very individual depending on the person, their availability and and what well, you know, what, are you feeling challenged today or not? And sometimes it's like check in with a friend and then call the mentor when it's things that your friends can help you. But I think it's very, very individual. If anyone else has input here, by all means. Hey, Tina. Speaker 4 There are times when I want to like, you would call it Fabrin, like I, I want to like, like, like process something and like really, you know, go to the meat of it. And it's interesting. And I try this friend, that friend, like the people that it would and they're not available at that moment. And then I remember the story of how little Blavager ever said Zoga Amos is telling. There's a Jew in somewhere. His name is Weinberg. And sometimes you have to speak to yourself. And I get it so many times I'm like, OK, I said I get it. But you know, But there's something beautiful about another person holding space A. Speaker 1 100 percent, 100%, I want to offer this the WhatsApp group as a place for you to, to bring your, your thoughts, the process and the group. And then other women here who are, you know, thinking that in the same aligned way can can, you know, interact. It's beautiful. You know, I'm just, I'm taking the liberty of, of offering that if anybody could, they could mute their WhatsApp if it's too much for them. But I I I want to offer that space. Speaker 4 OK. Thank you. I appreciate it. We'll see what needs to come. Speaker 1 Ladies, it's beautiful. Any, anybody, anything else before we before we get the the week started the rest of the week. It's lovely seeing all of you. Thanks for being here. Come again. I'll see you next week same time. Bye.