Part 1 · Chapter 4

Introducing פרט vs. כלל in Study 0:04

Yeah, okay, פרק ד. This is the פרק about the פרט, that's what we want, that you have to learn it in a particular manner. ומעתה יש לבאר באיכות ענין ההתבוננות, אם דרך כלל או דרך פרט דוקא. מהו דרך דוגמא בהשגת אלוקות בבחינת ממלא כל עלמין, דרך כלל, בג' עולמות בי"ע, הכל שרש ענין אחד הוא, ובכל המשלים דזיו והתפשטות האותיות כו' כללותן רק ענין הגילוי מן ההעלם, או כמו ערך הנבדל מבחינת בעל בעל הגבול מחודש לגבי בלתי בעל גבול דרך כלל.

ויש בזה ריבוי אופנים, there's a lot of משלים even in a דרך כלל. Right. That in general the world is like the the אייבערשטער fills the world like the soul fills the body, or like the sun, or like whatever, you know, all the different ענינים.

Right. And it's totally נבדל, like a בעל גבול מחודש and stuff like that. Did everybody basically is aware sort of these these ענינים, it's not exactly with all the משלים, but in general they're aware of it. Right. So So even in a דרך כלל, it doesn't mean that a דרך כלל means just one way and it has no אורך ורוחב and and and and עומק. Right. But even though there's many אופנים, אבל הכל בכלל, which is in general that the general thing of it.

גם שנמצא בזה ענינים פרטים הרבה כמו שיתבאר, and even though even in the דרך כלל there's a lot of different particular ענינים, and like he's going to explain later, או או דרך פרט, or else whether we have to do it in a particular way, להתבונן בכל עולם ובכל נברא ובכל פרטי מדרגות חלוקים בסדרי השתלשלות מעילא לעילא, מכל פרט ופרט בפני עצמו דוקא, not just in general that the אייבערשטער fills up the world like a soul fills a body, but exactly In other words, with a soul filling a body also, there's a general thing that everybody knows that a soul fills a body, but then there's how does it work on the eye?

How does it work How does it make your tooth grow? Stuff like that. Right. In a particular, particular way, each one by itself. וככה, או שייך להתבונן ביחודא עילאה באורות וכלים דאצילות ובכל פרטי י' ספירות עד עצמות אין סוף, אם להתבונן בכלל ענין אור האצילות ואיכות צמצום מן העצמות, ואיך שנבדל הערך לגבי עצמות המאציל, ואיך דאיהו וגרמוהי אחד, how in general the ספירות of אצילות are really unified and how the light, from the infinite light is מצומצם in order to come into them.

גם שיש בו פרטים הרבה מאד כמו שיתבאר, and this also has a lot of פרטים like will be explained, וכמה מיני משלים כמו שלהבת הקשורה בגחלת שנזכר בספר יצירה, אך ענין גילוי ההעלם מכחות הנפש מעצמות הנפש דרך כלל כידוע, in general.

עד שאף ראיה יתירה בבחינת עומק מזה, till you understand that really that in terms of the ממלא כל עלמין that that the worlds בי"ע are full of Godliness in a general fashion understood, or that the world of אצילות is unified with the מאציל. And now by השגת ממלא כל עלמין עיקר יחודא עילאה יחודא תתאה, so there's basically the ענינים of יחודא עילאה and יחודא תתאה, you can basically discuss in a general manner.

Understanding General Contemplation (דרך כלל) 3:41

And what he's talking about a general manner is actually a particular manner compared to what most people consider what this התבוננות has to be on. Right. Because most people, especially in our days, they don't even go this far. They just, well, yeah, God fills everything, it's all one. Like you said, the world is the universe, and the universe is the world, and that's they figure they כאפט it already.

והנה באמת לא ראי זה כו', there's no it's not one is not really like the other. דיש מעלה בהתבוננות דרך כלל, there really is a מעלה in the general thing, בזה שיוכל לבא לבחינת העמק בכלל, שהיא בחינת עצמות אור אלקי בבחינת הכלל. In other words, the real thing is really דוקא in the דרך כלל.

Like just like we said before in in chapters 1 and 2, especially in chapter 1, that why are we going for the בינה, since the real thing is the ענין of the חכמה? Right. And over here basically also the same thing. You know, חכמה is the כלל and בינה is the פרט. Over here also, the real thing that you're going for is to understand the main thing, the כלל.

בין ביחודא עילאה, בין ביחודא תתאה, in general, or whether in יחודא עילאה and יחודא תתאה, you want to understand how God fills up the world in יחודא תתאה, and how in יחודא עילאה, the ספירות are conjoined with the unified with the מאציל. Right. That's what you really want. You don't need all the פרטים of like what does it have to do that that that that the letters come out from מלכות of מלכות of תבונה, and they started in the מחשבה in in the מחשבה עיונית?

That's not really what you want to find out about. Right. Especially when you really get into the nitty-gritty

of of משלים like that, it's you're not even talking about godliness necessarily. You can get into a משל like with leaf stuff like that, you know, that you're not even talk It seems like you're not even talking about godliness at all. Right. You're talking about, what do they call that, there's a word for that, how language is how language is made up. Semantics. No, no, there's another word for that.

Not semantics Semantics is the meanings in language. But there's another thing of how the Etymology. Etymology, yeah. Seems like you're talking about how the letters come out of the the mind, and how the mind cuts up the thing into letters, and you know, so you know, it's it's that's not really what you what you want to get to. So the real מעלה, there's a special מעלה really really in a דרך כלל, which a דרך כלל talks about the main thing, how God is everywhere in everything, and how everything is בטל to the אייבערשטער.

So, so there is a מעלה in that, שזהו עיקר התכלית, that this is the real תכלית, בגילוי אלקות בנפש כו', not not the דרך פרט. The דרך כלל is the real תכלית. The real goal that we're shooting for is the דרך כלל.

Advantages of Particular Contemplation (דרך פרט) 7:02

ויש מעלה בהתבוננות דרך פרט, דווקא, מצד עוצם הקירוב גילוי אור אלקי בנפשו יותר, because this brings the revelation of the light to his soul much closer. Why? כי בהתבוננות דרך כלל יוכל להטעות את עצמו עד שנדמה לו כי קרוב מאד אליו הדבר, till he can imagine himself that he really is understanding something, ובאמת מרחוק מאד הוא נראה לו. But really, this דרך כלל that he says, "Oh, God is all and all is everything and all is one," really, all you have is a very vague idea that, like, what you said before, he he he can he can really take that general thing, and the way he understands it is actually is really exactly the opposite from the way it really is.

Right. He thinks he really understands it well, and really the way he understands it is ממש the opposite from what it really is. Why? כי בעסק דרך כלל לבד, since it's just a general thing and he doesn't really know the actual particulars of how it is like that.

מה שאין כן התבוננות דרך פרט, שכל שכל פרטי בהשגה בדבר פרטי, means to think about particular ideas in various explanations in in particular ענינים,

הרי יוקבע בנפשו בבחינת קירוב ביותר. These will come into his his his soul, meaning into his will will be connected with his mind in a very close way.

וממנו יבוא להשגת דבר פרטי העליון הימנו. And from that השגה of the particular thing, like what we said, like מלכות מלכות דמלכות ד ד דבינה or מלכות דמלכות דתבונה, or how מלכות of מלכות of עשיה comes off into the the קליפות and stuff like that, these he can understand very, very well. He can ממש have an understanding, even even even in the level that you can't have a השגת ה ה המהות, but he can have a ממש an actual השגת המציאות to know exactly how the מציאות of these things is.

Right. And from that, he can understand the level higher than that, like like once he understands how it is in in terms of like like מלכות דתבונה, and what what what really the the level that we're talking about, even when talking about אצילות, we're really talking about מלכות דתבונה of not even the general קליפות, but of our particular קליפה.

Right. That's really what we understand. Means what we understand when we're talking about all of these things, like before we're talking about what is חכמה, and what is בינה, and what is בינה of חכמה And what is חכמה of בינה and what is תבונה, what we really understood, like our משלים, was the difference between the Americans and the Greeks, and how a person, meaning really we understood how we ourselves have בינה and תבונה and חכמה, and how within ourselves there's a thing of understanding a new thing from from the in the same ענין.

So what we really understood is not even the ענין of of חב"ד of the קליפות, but the חב"ד of our קליפה, because what we really understood is not even the ענין of the soul, but really of of our physical nature. What what we really understood.

And yes, from the ענינים of our physical nature, from that, we can understand the ענין of how it is in general, from a particular to the general of that, so like from how it is in our בינה, we understand how it is in the general בינה of the קליפות, and from that, we can understand how it is in the general בינה of the spiritual worlds בי"ע, and from that, we can try to go up to understand how it is in אצילות and even higher.

Right. Okay, but when we understand the ענין like, for instance, we just learned chapter one, two, and three, those things that we understood on it, even though it wasn't the whole thing of the כלל that that we really understood the ענין of לתבונתו אין חקר, you know? Right.

What we really understood is what is our תבונה, but we understood that really good. Right. We ממש understood that. Wait, hold on for a minute. What's that? Yeah, John's here. We understood that ממש we ממש understood that. Right. It's not like what you said the guy said, "Oh, all is one and one is all."

He really didn't understand how it works, whereas what we understood, we brought it very, very close to the to our mind to where we ממש understood it. Right.

And not only we understood it, we understood it in a way that we can now turn around and explain it in an exact fashion to somebody else, and even make up new משלים that will fit to their to their kind of brain.

Right. You know, so even though in a way it's not really like like like chapter one and two, it almost seems like what are you talking about? It's not really about אלוקות at all. It's it's basically about how the human mind works.

Yeah. You know? So so Right. So it says, "Okay, fine." So this is what it says, "לא ראי זה כראי זה", one does not seem like the other, it doesn't it doesn't seem like you're really getting to the goal, which our goal was, and we're not trying to become psychologists over here, we're trying to understand godliness. Right. And instead we're learning psychology. Yeah, we understood it very well, but it's just psychology is what it is.

Okay, but from that that ענין מבשרי אחזה אלוק, from understanding that, we can understand a higher a higher כלל, which is then becomes a פרט to a higher כלל, which then becomes a פרט to a higher כלל, עד שיבוא לכלל השגה בכללות, till you can finally understand how it is in the חב"ד of the אור אין סוף. Right. So אז that that like we said, that even though, I mean, what do you mean you understand in the חב"ד of the אור אין סוף, you have no idea of what the מהות of that is.

Because if you ממש knew what it was, you'd really be you'd be able to do the same thing, you'd be able to create a world.

Right. But it doesn't matter. We understand that the מציאות of the relationship between these ענינים. And it's like, for instance, like you remember when we learned in in א"ק, so he learned out that, you know, the thing of the תענוג and רצון. Right. So we learned that אין תענוג בלי רצון ואין רצון בלי תענוג.

But we understand it really by us. We say, "Yeah, that's right. That makes sense." How when I want something, it's because I enjoy it, and I enjoy it because I want it.

That's how it works, ממש like that. I really understand that. Right. So then he says, "Right, and in the same way, on any level, if you look, whether in your own self, whether it's in an external, totally material level, that you want you like a steak.

Why do you want a steak? Because you enjoy it, and why do you enjoy it? Because you're hungry and you want a steak.

So the same way, you see that it works also in a more refined thing. like in כבוד, or like in שכל. When you go up the spiritual ladder from a ממש a physical steak to שכל, why do you enjoy a certain שכל and why do you want it? You see that the רצון and תענוג is ממש one. And from this, you can understand that the relationship between רצון and תענוג all the way to the רצון and תענוג דעצמות, which you ממש can't understand because ממש is part of עצמות itself, and it's a totally היולי and it's ממש doesn't exist, but nonetheless, you understand that there's no רצון without a תענוג, and there's no תענוג without a רצון.

Right. You ממש understand the relationship. Where are we? אז נתאמת יותר בבלתי תכלית. Yes. אז באמת, yes, if he sees the הגדרת עצמו, then the thing is really becomes a true ענין by him without fooling himself and making mistakes כלל, then he doesn't make mistakes like the mistake we were talking about earlier.

מה שבתחילה יתבונן דרך פרט במלא כל עלמין, דהיכלות והתהוות שרי עשר הרוחניות דגלגלים ומזלות מאין ליש דעשיה משמרה האופנים, means ממש, in other words And you notice that what he's talking here is completely backwards from how the book works. Right. The book is top-down. This is down-up. This is bottom-up. He says, yeah, the the book, his explanation is top-down, but then later on when you think it over, you're supposed to take it from the part that you understand.

Not only that, really, like we said, even when the explanation is from the top-down, we are understanding it down here, how it's down here. So, ואחר כך, so then, once he understands how from the שמרה האופנים comes out the actual physical world, and once he understands that, ואחר כך יתבונן בפרטי בפרטיות דאופנים וחיות, then the the the general ענין, then he'll be able to understand something about the מלאכים, עד פנימיות מלכות דעשיה, till he can from there understand the next level up, which is where the היכלות are in the מלכות of עשיה, כללות האור אלוקי שמהווה עולם העשיה.

Ascending the Ladder of Worlds 16:40

What do you have there, עולם? עולם העשיה? עולם העשיה. Yeah, here it says עונש דעשיה. No, עולם. עולם העשיה, ועל דרך זה בפרטי יו״ד ספירות דעשיה, so then once you understand how it is in מלכות of עשיה, so then you can understand higher and higher into the various ליסוד דעשיה all the way up to כתר דעשיה, and then from כתר דעשיה, you can understand עד פנימיות מלכות דיצירה שנעשׂה כתר לעשׂיה.

וכן על דרך זה בפרטיות יצירה, and then in the same way you can go up the ladder, you know, like Jacob's ladder. Right. And this also the ענין of of תפילה, you know, התבוננות is עבודה and עבודה is תפילה. Right. The ענין of תפילה is to go up the ladder. And then you can go up the ladder through the levels of יצירה, ובפרטיות לבריאה כו׳, עד מלכות דאצילות, till you get to כתר דבריאה, which כתר דבריאה is then you understand the level how מלכות דאצילות becomes כתר דבריאה, which מלכות דאצילות כללות הכל, the general thing that includes the entire worlds בי״ע, and and that's יחודא תתאה.

Right. And he's talking about not the explanation over here, because the explanation goes from up to down. He's talking about seeing it. Right. In other words, what he's talking about here is the ענין of שאו מרום עיניכם. He says once you have the explanation in particular, then you can literally look at the world. He said the גלגלים ומזלות, you see you say, 'Look, just like it says, you know, it's cold today, that means it's winter.

Why is it winter? Because we're in that part of the מזלות

with the turnings of the גלגלים that make it winter, and that's why all the leaves are falling down. And that's why I have to wear a sweater.' You say, 'Wow, look at that.

I have to wear a sweater because of the גלגלים.' Right. Now now this is this is something that's ממש affecting me. Not only that, in terms of money, you don't have to worry about it so much, but in terms of money, right now, my heater is on. Right. And the bill is going to hit me at the end of the month.

Everyday Example: Gas Bill and Weather 19:22

Why is this bill hitting me? We're talking now about my pocketbook. I could I could buy stuff with that money. But you see, but the but but the גלגלים ומזלות are causing my money to go on gas.

my money. Right. You know, we're talking now a totally physical being now that can see that this is affecting me, that I have to have a sweater, and I have to walk around with earmuffs,

and I have to have my heat on.

ממש my actual, we're talking about my particular life, we're not even talking, I'm not even talking about that other people also have, and this is in the world, then you can look into the כלל of that also.

That since this is affecting me, so it must be affecting the guy next door also. And since it's affecting the guy next door, it must be affecting all the guys in the whole of Pittsburgh. Not only the whole of Pittsburgh, in the whole northern America.

And therefore, this can affect the whole price of gas. And therefore, it's going to affect the whole price of energy. And therefore, it could have something to do with the situation with Israel and the Arabs. You go up from level to level with the פרטים.

And what is affecting all of that? The גלגלים. Right. What מזל we're under. Okay, where are we now? ולהשגת דבר פרטי עליון ממנו,

right. And from this, you can go up and up and up from the גלגלים to the אופנים, from the אופנים to מלכות of עשיה, and all the way up to מלכות of אצילות, which includes the whole entire external worlds of בי"ע, שנקרא שם אלוקים בכלל.

ידוע, שאז באמת הדבר יוצא בקירוב, so I say, really, God is affecting the fact that my gas bill is high. Whose fault is that? It's שם אלוקים. Right. It's not just a coincidence.

So then I can say in all these things, you know, like then you can say also, you know, I just I just on שבת, we had some real good food. And where did that come from? From the sun, and the moon, and the water, and the earth.

And all of that was affected by, you know, like certain years. Remember there was a year that they had a a drought, and another year where they had a frost, and then the oranges went expensive and you couldn't get oranges.

Right. And who did that? Who's giving so So then you see like everybody says, "Oh, אייבערשטער is giving us the oranges." But this means that I'm actually what do you call it? I'm actually following the trail of how exactly is it that the אייבערשטער is giving me oranges. What do you mean the אייבערשטער? The אייבערשטער didn't give me the orange, I bought it in the store. Says, "Yeah, but you see the גלגלים affect how much money you have."

And also the גלגלים affect how much the oranges are going to cost. Right. And who affects the גלגלים? The מלאכים. And who affects the מלאכים? מלכות of עשיה.

So you you follow the trail up, you know, like a like a private investigator, Right. you know, Columbo, and you find out who done it. Right. Who did this to me? Who made it so I don't get my oranges this year, or who made it that this year I do get a lot of oranges and they're very cheap? Right. And say, "Well, you see the culprit of everything is the אייבערשטער, is מלכות of אצילות, אלוקים."

Right. And then then באמת הדבר יוצא בקירוב. Then it's not a thing that somebody could could come and and and spin me a tale and convince me that there is no God. I say, "What do you mean? I can I can show you the whole trail, how God got me the orange." Right. כי אחר העיון היטב בכל הפרטים, הגם שכל פרט בפני עצמו אינו ענין אלוקות בכללות, even though each particular פרט is not an ענין אלוקות in general, and not only that, it could be totally not an ענין אלוקות.

What is that the first פרט we started with was that I have I have to wear a sweater because it's cold outside. Right. What does that have to do with אלוקות at all? ואינו רק בחינת טפל ופרטי לבד. It's just a particular What do you call טפל? How do you say טפל in English? Secondary. A secondary. Not even a secondary. It's like It's like Like it's not the main thing.

It's like a some It's it's like a a פרט that why would you even talk about it? We want to talk about God and you're talking about your sweater and your and your gas bill. Right. אבל כאשר יתחבר כל הענין מכל הפרטים אל הכלל, once you put the whole thing together with all the פרטים, you have an airplane. Right. In other words, this is the this is ענין is the same thing, like the guy who knows what's an airplane, I know it's an airplane, you know it's an airplane, who didn't hear of an airplane?

Airplane Analogy for Knowing Details 24:54

Everybody knows what an airplane is, yeah, but the airplane engineer knows every little screw of the airplane where it goes to.

He ממש knows what the airplane is all about. Right, and he knows all the aerodynamics of how it, right, you know. So like for instance, right, so like for instance, like like I know an airplane can fly, you know an airplane can fly, right? Why can it fly? Well, it has wings.

Good, so go and make an airplane. Let's see you go and make an airplane, and make a thing with wings, and you you throw it and it falls down and it doesn't fly.

You see, it's not just the wings, the the engineer knows exactly how the wings work to make the airplane fly. And over here also, this is this ענין, it's not just that I know in general, well, there's a God in the world and He makes it work.

The propeller makes the airplane work, you know, and the wings. But he says, then you know each little part particularly.

Even though each particular part, when the engineer goes to school, and then he goes to the screw class, and the propeller class, and the aerodynamic class, and his algebra class, says what does algebra have to do with anything?

I want to be an airplane guy and you're teaching me algebra. You know. Right. So, he says this has nothing to do with anything. You know, like a little kid in school, you know, a little kid goes to school, and he says, "I want to be a doctor." They say, "Okay.

Learning Fundamentals Before Practicing a Profession 26:37

A, B, C, D, E, F, G." He says, "What do you mean? I want to be a doctor, you know, give me a needle and I'll start sticking people." Right. You know, they say, "No, first you have to learn all the פרטים, then you'll be able to actually be a doctor." So, even though each particular thing is only a particular פרט, אבל כשיתחברו כל העניינים וכל הפרטים אל הכלל אז יוקבע בנפש בבחינת הכלל.

Then, even though, like we said before, the real thing is דוקא the כלל, but דוקא when you know all the פרטים, then you really know the כלל, כאשר בדוק ומנוסה, like this is already

tested and tried, ולכל עוסק בעומקות בהתבוננות, to anybody who really has done the proper deepest התבוננות. וגם ביחודא עילאה, and the same like it's by יחודא עילאה like this, בהתבוננות בדרך פרט, when you know it in a in a particular a particular way, ובכל פרטי עשר ספירות ופרצופים וזו״ן ואו״א ואריך אנפין ועתיק יומין, how they work and how each one connects with the other one. So, it's not just that you say, well, זעיר אנפין, well, it's the light of God, but you know exactly how how זו״ן comes from או״א and how או״א comes from אריך and עתיק, עד ריש ועקב עקב בא״ק, like the ענין in in chapter 18, כולו בדרך פרט דוקא, to know all the thing in particular, הוא המוליך בנפש לבחינת כללות עצמות המאציל הכללם יחד, that includes everything.

Connecting the Ten Sephirot and Their Faces 27:49

And that's what you really wanted to know, not even מלכות of of אצילות. In other words, he says, then from מלכות of אצילות, you go to the יחודי זו״ן, from יחודי זו״ן you go to יחודי או״א, then from there to how it comes down from אריך and עתיק, and how אריך and עתיק come out from א״ק, all the way to the beginning of the line, and then you can go how the line comes out from after the רשימו, and before the רשימו there is the צמצום and the infinite light.

Concept of the Infinite Light Explained 28:54

And then it's not just the things that, well, there's an infinite light. And what's the infinite light? Well, it's you know, like a light bulb you have, it's a big light bulb.

That's basically the way they understand it. Right. And then, when he knows all the ענינים of all the פרצופים, they say, what's the thing with פרצופים, with this, with that, what do you have to know with all these פרצופים? There's a God, and there's a God, and finished. You say no, because when you know all the particulars, then when you know the things בדרך פרט דוקא, הוא המוליך בנפש לבחינת כללות עצמות המאציל הכללם יחד, מה שאין כן התבוננות בדרך כלל בלבד, but it's not like that in when when התבוננות is just, well, there's a God in the world, שמרחוק הוי׳ נראה לי, that then he sees God from very, very far away, עד שיוכל ליפול בדמיונות כוזבות כשוטים בחסרי דעת, then he can fall into total עבודה זרה things like the idiots and the חסרי דעת.

To flip the tape. Yeah.