Part 2 · Chapter 4

Meditation vs Focused Insight 0:06

These people in other words what do they do? They sit and they meditate on the on the עומקא דכולא, you know, on the depth of everything that there is a God and it's infinite and stuff like that, and they they actually have visions ממש

and they have דמיונות, they have imaginations in other words, false imaginations like like the the total idiots. Why? מצד צמצום כלי מוחו רק בדבר אחד, because he is concentrating his whole brain into just one thing והוא כללי, and this is just a general vague ענין.

Right. אבל צמצום עמקות הדעת בכל פרט, but the thing of עמקות הדעת like we said, wait a minute, he said in chapter one that we are supposed to have עמקות הדעת, that's the כלי for everything. He says, yeah, but the כלי is not to have עמקות הדעת just to sit and meditate on the the the final כלל that you're supposed to get to, but rather that you have התבוננות in every פרט, and then have עמקות הדעת in every פרט like we said, that when you're learning this פרט you're totally מצומצם into understanding this פרט and no other פרט.

הוא ההיפך מן הטעות, that is the opposite from making mistakes, וריחוק, and from seeing it only in a faraway vague way that you really have that you really don't understand and you can turn upside down. אדרבה, just the opposite. על ידי זה מתקרב הדבר יותר הולך מפרט לפרט העליון הימנו עד שיכללם יחד ליחוד כללי, till he connects all of them in a general unification, and then it's not just a thing of seeing far away, but he he connects all the פרטים and he knows the thing with all its פרטים, like a doctor knows the body, not like in general or like a or like a wait, hold on, I got to change phones, the crew is here.

Hold on for a minute. Hello? Yeah, yeah. Wait a minute. Or or like like the engineer knows the airplane.

ולא יחוד פרטי כמו לך ה׳ הגדולה, now he's going to explain what's the יחוד פרטי and יחוד כללי.

Explaining Particular vs General Unity 2:55

שענין היחוד אלקי הוא בחינת עומק ההשגה וביטול היש. In other words, a יחוד פרטי means that's the יחוד of of גדולה, how like for instance like מלכות מלכות דמלכות כל עלמין, that how מלכות of עשיה is connected to מלכות of יצירה, and how מלכות of יצירה is connected to מלכות of בריאה etc., going all the way up to מלכות of אין סוף. But this is only a יחוד פרטי, so he said, but besides that, till he even connects all the יחודים פרטים to to the thing of God Himself.

שענין היחוד אלקי הוא בחינת עומק ההשגה וביטול היש לאין ביחודא תתאה ויחודא עילאה, in other words, the nullification of the יש of the פרטים to the total אין of understanding the whole thing together.

ויש יחוד פרטי בדבר פרטי, כמו לך ה׳ הגדולה, שהוא בחינת חסד שבמלכות דאצילות בבי״ע דרך פרט בכל עולם וכולי. In other words, to understand how חסד of אצילות comes into the חסדים of בי״ע in each particular world. In other words, that's only a יחוד of the חסדים.

Right. וגם כללותו אינו אלא פרט. So even when you understand the whole thing is only a פרט and it's still a mistake, like you know the people who say God is love.

The Mistake of Reducing God to One Attribute 4:28

Right. So you say if God is love, why so many bad things happen? What happened to justice? You know? Right. Why? Because they they follow one פרט and they actually they don't even get the פרט, they really the whole thing is in the way of a כלל, but still if you only know the ענינים of the חסדים, And you only know the ענינים of the right line and not the left line, so you can't put them together to go the next step higher.

וגם כללותו אינו אלא פרט ממידה אחת, ממידת, שבמלכות of אצילות means חסד of מלכות of אצילות. וכן להבא בגבורה, same thing in in terms of of גבורה, וכללותיה ופרטיה בכל עולם נקרא יחוד פרטי, ועל דרך זה בכל יחודים פרטיים שבי' ספירות דבי''ע. So you're learning all the פרטים and then the יחודים of the פרטים, till you can unify all the ספירות in the upper worlds with this with a with the same ספירות at the lower worlds.

The Concept of General Unity (יחוד כללי) 5:46

אבל יחוד הכללי הוא, כמו מה שנאמר, הנה מקום אתי, there's a place with me, that the whole place of the world is is by me, to understand that, like like like what he said, that the world, a world is nothing but godliness, to to really understand what that really means, not according to the עבודה זרה means. או המלך המרומם, that the אייבערשטער is a King of the whole world.

כמו המתנשא מכל ימות עולם, the ו' קצוות ומוחין חסד וגבורה שבהם, חסד ובינה שבהן, oh sorry, חכמה ובינה שבהם, how the actual אייבערשטער is totally more higher than even the 10 the whole 10 ספירות and even the 10 ספירות עצמיים.

וגם זה פרט, and even this will be considered a פרט. In other words, now he's talking in in אצילות,

לגבי עצמות בחינת המלכות. Oh no, so he's talking about the in in in מלכות of אצילות, the 10 ספירות of מלכות of אצילות, to understand how the מלך is is totally higher than the whole actual separate ספירות of it.

And even that is only a פרט compared to the actual inner part of מלכות of אצילות, which is the כתר of מלכות. וכהאי גוונא, the same way, in the עשר ספירות דאצילות, besides the מלכות of אצילות, then you go higher and higher in אצילות עד עצמות כוללות מלכות דאין סוף שבראשית הקו, till you go all the way up to the יחודים of unifying everything into מלכות of אין סוף in the beginning of the קו.

יש יחודים פרטים הרבה בכל ספירה ופרצוף. There's all kinds of different details and unifications of the details. And each unification is a detail compared to another כלל which is higher than it. That even when you make a whole big unification, it's still only a detail compared to the next level up.

והיחוד הכללי בכללות ביטול כל ההשתלשלות דהקו כולו לגבי עצמות אור אין סוף. And then the יחוד הכללי, finally after this whole thing, is the ביטול of the whole השתלשלות of the קו to the עצמות of the אור אין סוף, as is known, כידוע.

אך הנה מי שלא העמיק דעתו ביחודים פרטיים ומתחיל מבחינת הכלל, he says, yeah, everything is comes from the infinite light, גם שבאה לו ביגיעה רבה והשגות רבות, that he doesn't just say, well, everything just comes from the infinite light, but he thinks like a soul in the body and like the flame from a coal, and he thinks about it really hard, ואיכות ענין הביטול, how exactly this ביטול is, בכלל כמו כשלהבת וכו' כהאי גוונא, לא יוקבע בנפש אמיתת ענינו כל כך, that really the real way how it is will not really be entrenched in his soul or in his mind, כמו אחר עיון היטב בכל פרטים, like the real עיון in all the particular פרט, עד שמהם יבוא לבחינת הכלל, till it comes from them to the כלל, והיינו דפרט צריך לכלל וכלל צריך לפרט.

In other words, the whole thing is that you have to understand that to to really do it properly, you can't just totally get hung up on the פרטים. The thing of the פרטים is then you have to make the יחוד of the פרטים into a כלל.

In other words, a guy who just knows what the screws are and doesn't know how they go together will never be able to make an airplane, either. You know, like the thing of the seven blind men with the elephant. Right. You know, so they each one This one thought an elephant is like a palm tree, and this one thought an elephant is like a broom.

Why? Because they didn't realize that each one is a פרט. So the thing is, just to do the way of a פרט is also not not by itself good.

And this is, by the way, the way of the scientists, that they just learned the פרטים and they never tried to put them together into a כלל. Right. Says, yeah, okay. I mean, there's a thing, and and that's why they think that the פרטים somehow work by themselves.

הנה שאין כלל בלא פרט. There's no such thing as a כלל without a פרט, or a פרט without a כלל. To understand a thing properly, you have to know all its פרטים, and when you know all its פרטים, then you can understand the כלל. Right. ודבר זה כבר נחלקו בו הרבה מגדולי הראשונים כמו הרמב״ם והטור אם לכוון פירוש המילות דרך פרט בגדולת הוי׳, אם לכוון דרך כלל לפני מי אתה עומד ומתפלל, כמו שמבואר בכתבים.

In other words, he's talking about the עבודה in תפלה, that that's the whole ענין of התבוננות and going up. What really are you supposed to think of? Are you supposed to think when you say לך ה׳ הגדולה, then you think of גדולה, when you say הגבורה, then you think of גבורה, and etc. in all the כוונות, or whether you should just think, I'm standing in front of the אייבערשטער?

Right. ואף גם שמחשבה כללית עם מחשבה פרטית לא ישכנו כאחד, even really, the thing of the general מחשבה with the particular מחשבה cannot

you can't think about two things at once. If you're thinking in front of who you're standing, then you're thinking in front of who you're standing. If you're thinking of מלכות of תבונה, so you're thinking of of of that.

עכ״פ, מי שהוא מעמיק בכל לבו ובכל חפצו לעצמות אלקות דוקא, somebody who really is is doing this of learning the פרטים like right now it seems like we're learning like first we learn one פרט, then we'll learn another פרט, now we're learning only about בינה and now we're learning about חכמה, but since we're מעמיק with all the heart and and and desire to the עצמות אלקות דוקא, הנה גם בעיונו בפרטיות יכוון אל המחשבה הכללית לעצמות דוקא.

Even when it seems like we're talking about

human psychology, we we know that that's not at all what we're talking about, but the כוונה is ממש to the עצמות. Right. Not only that, the מחשבה is more to the עצמות than actually somebody who's מכוון on the עצמות. ולא יפול מכללות הכוונה כלל, and the the כללות the כוונה will not go at all, מחמת צמצום הכוונה הפרטית. It won't at all disturb the כוונה to the to the עצם of the of the אייבערשטער himself from the fact that you're just talking about little particular details that seem like really, like we said we're not even talking really about תבונה or בינה or חכמה or מלכות of of אצילות.

We're really talking about our particular קליפה. But makes no difference, that since we're מכוון really truly to the אייבערשטער, so this not only it doesn't disturb, but just the opposite. It's what makes the כוונה proper.

והולכים wait, wait, מחמת צמצום הכוונה הפרטית מאחר שכל הפרטים אינם נמשכים והולכים רק אחר הכלל דוקא, since all the פרטים that he's talking about and thinking about, they go totally only after the כלל of the אייבערשטער himself. כי ידוע לכל הולך בדרך אמת להוי׳ לבדו דוקא, like is known to anybody who learns the proper way to דוקא to the אייבערשטער, כמו שנאמר כמו שאמרו רז״ל, like they said, אלא אלו מדותיו.

The our our whole כוונה in this whole study is דוקא to the אייבערשטער himself and has nothing to do with the מדות at all.

רק כללות ענין התבוננות בפרטי מדותיו מדותיו הוא רק כדי שיבוא לעצמותו ומהותו דוקא, that's the main thing that we're מכוון in. ולא לכוון העיקר רק בכוונה של הפרט כמו בשביל איזה לימוד לעצמו. And it's not that we're having any כוונה in terms of a פרט like a thing a part person who wants to learn something for himself. In other words, like a person like an etymologist, or or a psychologist, he wants to learn what is בינה and what is חכמה, and that's what he's really learning is the ענין of בינה and חכמה.

What we're learning has nothing to do with בינה and חכמה at all, we're learning about the אייבערשטער. כמו בשביל איזה לימוד עצמו, גם בעיון בספר הזהר בכתבי האר״י ז״ל, even when he's look- looking in כתבי in the זוהר in the האר״י ז״ל, like some people want to look in the זוהר to find out about demons or something like that, you know. That's what they want to find out.

צריך להיות על דרך זה דוקא, it all has to be דוקא like this. ודי למבין, and this is enough to understand. וכאשר מקובל היה אדוני אבי מורי, meaning the אלטער רבי ז״ל נשמתו עדן, בדבר זה מפי הרב המגיד ז״ל בפירוש גמור, וכך שמעתי מפיו ז״ל. And this is saying this I I I heard from my father that he said he learned this from the מגיד with a פירוש גמור.

ובזה מותר שאלת שואלים על פירוש המילות דרך פרט ליודעים בהם, איך שאינם מבלבלים את מחשבת הכלל. And in terms of what we're talking about, that we're still not really דאווענען with פירוש המילות, but in but the way that we're studying, a lot of people think that, ah, what are you studying? I mean, the main thing is אין עוד מלבדו.

And you're just משכילים, that you just interest in all kinds of Kabbalistic matters. You want to, you know, people think that you want just רזי לי רזי לי, that you'll know all kinds of particular things. Says, no, it's not like that. And this is a thing that that מיטעלער רבי is telling us that his father told him that the מגיד told him.

And this explains what they ask about this, איך שאינם מבלבלים מחשבת הכלל, that there's not this does not make a בלבול in the understanding of godliness, אלא אדרבה, just the opposite.

כוונת פירוש המילות על פי הקבלה מסייע לחזק את עומק השגת הכלל בעצמות אלקות כידוע לטעמי טעם בהם. In other words, the fact that we're learning all these particular Kabbalistic matters, yeah, what do you need to learn Kabbalistic matters? The main thing is there's a God, אין עוד מלבדו. This is one of the big complaints against our דרך, you know. Like is known to anybody who really tasted that the taste of this learning, דרך פרט כולו, in a particular way.

Okay, so it says, so what about the דאווענען? So how should we דאווען? Should we start דאווענען according to כוונות האר״י ז״ל? He says no, רק החדשים, but the new people to this thing, יותר טוב להם לעמוד דרך כלל תחלה עד שיורגלו מעט מעט בדרך הפרט דוקא ודי למבין. When you're דאווענען, just דאווען like if you're in front of the אייבערשטער, until you learn a little bit better, and then you'll be able to, even in the דאווענען, also דאווען like this.

Intentional Prayer and the Idea of לכתחילה אריבער 18:25

ודי למבין, and this is enough for a person to understand. And also, one of the things that we should mention over here is the ענין of לכתחילה אריבער. That by us, the רבי said that we can go לכתחילה אריבער, and he really meant לכתחילה אריבער לכתחילה אריבער. Even he went he said even what the רבי said לכתחילה אריבער was on top of what the רבי מהר״ש said לכתחילה אריבער.

Meaning that we're going directly straight like the רבי said, to live like משיח, and we don't even have to worry about דאווענען, we can already be like the רשב״י, that the רשב״י didn't have to דאווען, you know? Are you guys still there? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that the רשב״י, and though the רשב״י, they just learned, they didn't have to דאווען, like, you know, the story of the חוני המעגל and the רשב״י?

That חוני המעגל דאווענט and he got the rain, רשב״י just said חסידות and the rain came. Right. So by us, really, we can go totally beyond the whole thing, that we don't even have to think of the חסידות as something that we have to bring in bring into the דאווענען at all. We can just go לכתחילה אריבער straight to דעת הוי׳, and right now, even without דאווענען, we're מכוון directly

to the עצמות in the learning. Right. In other words, that the the it's a whole the whole whole thing is מיוחד. In other words, that that we're already, because these are already the days of משיח, what he's talking here here in the דאווענען, means that first there's the learning and then there's the דאווענען. Right. Means that first there's the learning of the of the ענינים and the פרטים, and then there's the עמקות הדעת into them

to bring the כוונה, to be the כוונה to the עצמות in the in the דאווענען. Which that's עבודת הלב. The רבי said already, we're לכתחילה אריבער. And really, the רבי said that the רבי מהר״ש said לכתחילה אריבער, that meant עבודת המוח. Right. And the רבי said a second לכתחילה אריבער, even on that, which means עומק לפנים מעומק, that the second עומק is not just the same like the first עומק, just a second עומק, but it's in relationship to the first עומק is עומק.

Living in the Days of the Messiah 20:28

Right. The רבי said already that we're in the days of משיח, and he explained what the רמב״ם says, in those days, לא יהיה עסק כל העולם כולו אלא לדעת את הוי׳.

Right. And then, the world whole world will be full of דעת את הוי׳ כמים לים מכסים. That the whole thing of everything, that even even we're talking about how some guy is polishing his car in the corner, which it seems not like just a פרט that has nothing to do with the כלל, but it seems like a פרט that's opposite from the כלל. Right. A קליפה. A bad קליפה.

Right. Even that is nothing but ממש אין עוד מלבדו, that there's nothing beside Him, even this guy polishing his car is nothing but the אייבערשטער Himself, and we understand it in the proper manner.

Not in a faraway that we think that like the world is God, or something like that, which is a really pantheistic nonsense. So, but the thing is that we're very lucky that we have this thing that not only the רבי gave it to us, like how the the מיטעלער רבי gave it over, but we have this we're learning this book, like a lot of people say, "Oh, you're חסידים of the מיטעלער רבי."

The thing is, it's not true. We are חסידים of the רבי. Right. That's why you notice that even though they were so big, and we're, compared to the חסידים of the מיטעלער רבי, we're like, I wouldn't even say babies, we're like amoebas, you know? Right. You know, like what they say, you know, that if the if they were angels, we're people; if they're people, we're donkeys. Right.

You know? So, and yet you see that by them they didn't get it like we do. Right. And why do we get it in a way that they didn't get it? Because we're תלמידים of the רבי, and we have it with two לכתחילה אריבערs on it. First of all, the רבי מהר״ש made a לכתחילה אריבער, and then the רבי made a לכתחילה אריבער on his לכתחילה אריבער.

Right. So that by us this is not a קונטרס of התבוננות anymore, but it's שער היחוד. They used to call it the קונטרס ההתבוננות. Right. But by us it's called שער היחוד, and if you want to call it a קונטרס, it we could call it we should call it קונטרס דעת את הוי׳. Right. Because by us we're already started the the עבודה of משיח that it says in those days לא יהיה עסק כל העולם כולו אלא לדעת את הוי׳ בלבד.

That's all we're interested in here over here. And that's the end of the chapter, ודי למבין. someone who merely studies it, but rather we have to be fully connected

to it. We cannot learn like a doctor studies medicine

or a lawyer studies law, but rather it has to be a lifelong

pursuit of closeness to הקדוש ברוך הוא, and we have to view תורה as our primary source of guidance

and strength, both in good times and in challenging

Torah as the Living Foundation of Life 25:42

times. When we look at תורה with this perspective,

it transforms from just a subject we learn into something

that breathes life into us. It becomes the prism through which we view the entire world and the foundation

upon which we build our lives. That is the true power of תורה, and that is what we must aspire to achieve in our own learning.