Part 1 · Chapter 17

Forehead as the seat of desire 0:00

Okay, go ahead. And the עתיקא קדישא, but the basic פרט of it was מצח.

The מצח is a part of the גולגולת that's in front of the frontal lobe. Right.

And the the רצון is מתגלה in the מצח,

that basically the when he has a certain kind of רצון,

the רצון comes into the brain, but the brain is hidden. It's the מצח which is in front of the brain. And we don't really notice it, but it describes in various places how the מצח lights up or gets sad. Right.

And there's this thing that it knows like, you know, that the big kabbalists can read your forehead? Right. You know the story of the guy that he went to the רבי and they said that the רבי can see on your forehead what you're thinking?

Rabbi reading thoughts on the forehead 1:18

Right. And and he went there with his hat pulled down, and the רבי told him, "You think if I can see through your forehead, I can't see through your hat?" Right.

You know, so the the גילוי of the רצון is in the מצח. And basically, the the עתיק in אריך is the רצון and the רצון and תענוג גלוי, that's what the גילוי of it is.

So להיות הגילוי הרצון והתענוג לאצילות הספירות, and then להיות הרצון והתענוג לברוא, and then

הרצון והתענוג ליצירה ועשיה, all the way to the end, like what we what we were talking about last time, that to be the the רצון for אצילות is the רצון to figure out in his own head what it is that he really wants.

Right. Which that means a רצון גלוי. The the עתיק of of אצילות is In other words, this is called עתיקא סתימאה.

And עתיקא קדישא is like the עתיק the עתיק גלוי. What does it mean? That like we said, in אצילות

is like where he planned it in his own head, the house. Then

בריאה is where he goes to the architect, יצירה is where he goes to the draftsman, and עשיה is where it goes to the contractor. Right. Wait, hold on for a minute.

Okay. So there is no פרט that is not really in there. And the thing is like this, that the the intermediary levels,

Intermediary levels and their own desire 4:08

even though in a way they're sort of not the actual intrinsic thing, but only conduits to get to it, but nonetheless, they have their own רצון ותענוג.

So that like in building a house, the actual the actual planning is also, you know, he sits with his wife and they plan it out, what they want, and they get a big pleasure out of it.

To the point that, you know, a person can actually get such a big pleasure out of planning that he never gets around to doing anything. Right. This is called daydreaming. So So

also the thing, you know, like you're here, you know, you start a ישיבה here, you know. Right. Like a pretty new building, you know.

Right. So when they were building it, sometimes when they were in the middle of building,

the rabbi would come with his big גביר and they would stand there and look at it, and you can see that they were getting a big pleasure, even though it's just a building, the the building, what do they care, the guys are building.

Right. And it's it's not just that the pleasure was out of the fact that finally they're going to have the end product,

but it was actually from the building stage itself.

So it has its own תענוג ורצון. And the same thing even before that,

Pleasure found in the planning stage 5:56

when they first had the plan and they had the first banquet, and there was the artist's representation that the architect made of how the building is going to look, you know what I'm talking about? Yeah.

And there was no building, there was no there was no nothing. There wasn't even the the blueprint. There was just this picture. It was the picture was the concept of what the building like, you know? Right. And there was a big תענוג even in that.

And like for instance, you see by the there's a big תענוג even when he goes shopping for the car. Right. You know, and like especially you see this in women

that they there's a big תענוג by them by by the actual shopping. Right. And even before that, they could have just sit around and talk about what they're planning to shop, especially in terms of a house.

You know, like when she's planning her house, how it's going to be. Right. And there's a big תענוג just in that.

You know, so there's a תענוג in אצילות, and a תענוג in in בריאה, and a תענוג in יצירה, and a תענוג in עשיה. But really all of these things, the biggest תענוג is דווקא in the סוף מעשה,

Ultimate pleasure at the end of the seventh millennium 7:27

more than anything else, at the end of the seventh millennium, when it's all accomplished.

So like you're going to ask a question here, so how come I always say that actually we are the biggest תענוג, even more than the seventh even more than the end of the seventh millennium? So the the answer to that is where do you get a bigger תענוג? You know, like חנוכה is coming up now?

So do you get the biggest תענוג is when the kid graduates from ישיבה,

or college by the גוים or something like that, or do you get the biggest תענוג when he's in the חנוכה play and you dress him up like a latke?

Latke analogy for ultimate joy 8:46

And you say, well really, the biggest תענוג is when you dress him up like a latke.

You look you look at parents in the in the graduating what do you call that, the graduating exercises of the final year of ישיבה, and you look at the parents that are coming it's not even graduation, it's just the חנוכה play, where he's dressed up like a latke and you see there's a bigger תענוג when he's dressed up like a latke.

And that's who we are, we're dressed up like a latke. Right.

And the מצח is the רצון. The מצח is the רצון, it's it's it's So I'll read it to you directly. It's the part of the גולגלתא, yeah. It says here, והוא מצח דאקרי רצון, וגילויא דכל רישא וגולגלתא, ומכסא בארבע מאה ועשרין עלמין. Yeah, it's not it's not just the רצון, it's the part of the רצון. Right. Not the גולגלתא is the רצון, the מצח is the is the part of the גולגלתא that you see.

It's the גילוי of the גולגלתא. Right, it's the גילוי of the רצון. Yeah, in other words, the rest of the רצון you don't see, it's covered up by hair.

Right. And the the the only part of the גולגלתא that That you actually see is the מצח. Not only that, that's the one that's in the front facing you. Right.

And apparently you can see like you can sort of see how like a person cratches, he cratches his forehead and all kinds of things. When he thinks, he looks up, all kind There's all kinds of things that if you know, you can see on the forehead. Right. Where do Where do you see that? Where Where was it? Where Where are you looking? Yeah. In זוהר. Aha, okay.

Zohar reference and parenthetical discussion 10:27

פרשת פרשת נשא. Okay. So, ולהיות a גילוי הרצון ותענוג להאציל, ולהיות הרצון ותענוג לנבראים, ועתיקא קדישא הוא התענוג שבחכמה, והוא בחינת עתיק עתיקא עתיק יומין ואריך אנפין דאצילות, שהרצון והתענוג בא בגילוי כמו

שיתבאר כל דרך פרט later. Where does this Where does this parenthesis start?

Oh, I think before ועתיקא קדישא there should be the beginning of the parenthesis. Do you have it there,

no? You have What's the last word of this parenthesis? ולהיות הרצון ותענוג לנבראים וכולי, and then it should be a beginning parenthesis. And then דרך פרט is the end of the parenthesis. Yeah, ולכך.

Before the word ולכך. No, no, ולכך, then there's an end of it, it says וכולי, that's the end of it. Then it says, ולהיות הרצון ותענוג לנבראים וכולי, then there should be a open parenthesis.

No, there is. There is. Before the word ולכך, there's a parenthesis. Not ולכך. No, not ולכך. If you go up higher, this parenthesis starts ובלשון הזהר. העלם, and then it ends by וכולי. No, but this parenthesis that ולהיות starts ובלשון הזהר, it starts all the way up. No, no.

Look. Do you have It says ולכך נקרא עתיקא סתימאה מבחינת העלם לגילוי על כל פנים, מה שאין כן רישא דלא אתידע נקרא סתימא דכל סתימין דגם מחשבה דחך לא תפיסא ביה וכולי. And that's That's the end of the parenthesis. That's the end of the parenthesis. Then then it says, ולהיות הרצון ותענוג לנבראים וכולי, and then there should be another beginning parenthesis. I don't think so, because up here Because then there's דרך פרט, that's the end of the parenthesis.

Yeah, but the beginning of that parenthesis is up on top, ובלשון הזהר נקרא עתיקא דעתיקין. Yeah, it's so weird. Yeah, yeah, I see. Okay. This whole thing has been a parenthesis. I see, right. It says ובלשון הזהר, and that's the end of the parenthesis. Okay, that's what I was wondering about. Okay.

והנה בחינת So, so that's it. That's the ענין.

That's the whole ענין basically here. That the רצון הקדום is really still a רצון for Himself, and it includes everything, including all the it's called עתיקא דעתיקין. The עתיק of all the עתיק's. Which עתיק's? The עתיק, רצון ותענוג להאציל, עתיק of אצילות, והרצון ותענוג לנבראים, עתיק of בריאה, and עתיק of יצירה, and עתיק of עשיה, all the עתיק's.

And really it's also of all the sub-עתיק's. Means like כתר of חכמה and כתר כתר of בינה of each level. Means within אצילות is each one has a כתר.

And then all the way to all the פרטים, each פרט of a פרט has a כתר. All the all the פרטים, each פרט has a כתר. This is the עתיק and and אריך of all the עתיק and אריך. Means the רצון the תענוג and רצון for all the תענוגים and רצונות, till the last פרט the תענוג and רצון is this תענוג and רצון. There is no פרט that the תענוג and רצון for it was not included

in And the thing is that like, for instance, what's yucky is over there. In other words, a רצון, there's a positive and negative.

Positive and negative aspects of desire 14:39

So, like, a חזיר or something like that, a פוי thing, you know, that's where it came from, that up there there's a a negative תענוג and רצון for it.

And isn't a negative עונג and רצון, wouldn't that be a צער and a העדר רצון, or something like that? The opposite of רצון? That's what it is. In other words, you have you have a pre predisposition to hate this thing. So why did so what the the רצון, the כתר of it, is where it's coming out of? Right. But why so the whole thing is what we're saying is that when something comes out and has a מציאות, is because there's a עונג for it.

Yeah, but it's not because it has a a מציאות that you hate that and you and you destroy it, because in in מחשבה קדומה it was a hateful thing.

Okay, but why does it exist? It's an Atari game. It exists in order to blast it. Right, I see. Like עמלק. The the ultimate bad is עמלק. Why does עמלק exist? In order to have the מצוה to kill עמלק. That's it.

So there is a עונג in the destruction of עמלק. Right, there's a עונג, it there is, since the thing is the opposite of the עונג, there's an actual עונג in get it getting rid of it. That's a positive עונג. Yeah, right, that's a positive עונג in the in the עמלק's destruction. Right, like two negatives make a positive. Right.

When you get rid of a bad thing, you get an עונג. And this, and and you say, so what kind of עונג? Why make it in the first place? Sounds like fun to me. Why make it in the first place? Why not, if you if you don't like something, so why make it? And Because there's more of a עונג to destroy it. you made the house, it's not like He hates it so much that he gets an עונג in destroying it.

Yeah, right. I mean, that's the thing. In other words, like like you say, well, we don't have a choice. When there's a bad thing, so we we we try to get we hope we can get rid of it. But if you're the one that made the world, so why make these bad things in the first place? Why don't you make it already perfect? So you say, look at the guy's house.

He has this Atari game with these weird creatures that he has to battle against and destroy.

And there's a עונג in destroying them. That's what they were made for. They were made for for destruction. Where is it? על כל דרך פרט. Okay, so did it say At at the end of the parentheses, and then the next thing, והנה בחינת עשר ספירות דעיגולים. Right, right.

Ten sefirot circles explained 17:34

Okay. The tape has started. Yeah, so till now, he was talking about the מחשבה קדומה. Now, he's going to explain עיגולים ויושר. והנה והנה בחינת עשר ספירות דעיגולים זה תחת זה, כידוע, שכל עיגול מקיף על העיגול, ועיגול לא ישיג לעיגול שלפנים בריחוק מקום הימנו, כאשר יראה עין מתוך העין, וכולי. ויובן זה מהרצון הבא בגילוי גמור, שגם שכל הרצון הזה, even

though over here we're talking about the רצון הקדום, and it's and now he's making a משל from the from the רצון הגלוי, שגם שכל הרצון הזה מיוחד בחכמה ומדות, אבל תחלתו בא רק בהסכם אחד, בלתי התחלקות ניכר.

In other words, when you first have a רצון, it's just a רצון.

Even though it it has ten ספירות, when it comes in the beginning, it just comes as one הסכם, one רצון. והוא נקרא עיגול רצון כללי מקיף לכל.

So even even in a lower רצון, רצון גלוי, it first comes as a עיגול כללי. מקיף לכל מה שבא בתוכו מכוח הדבר. אך בריחוק מקום, כמו הטעם ושכל לרצון זה, שנקרא עילה שלו, אי אפשר שיהא שיהא קרוב בערך עילתו, שהוא הרצון, כי הרי אין טעם לרצון כלל. Really, there is no טעם לרצון.

The טעם cannot get close to the רצון, because really there is no actual reason for a רצון. ידוע לעולם לא ישיג. Again, it's not possible to understand it because it has no שכל. There's no שכל to a רצון. אבל מכל מקום, מכוח הרצון נעשה עיגול החכמה גם כן. בלתי התחלקות ניכר, וכולי, ועיין לעיל.

And then, the עיגול החכמה means it's not actually חכמה. It's a עיגול of חכמה, means it's it's a רצון of חכמה. Which the רצון of חכמה is either the חכמה to come up with a way to get the רצון, or else a חכמה to rationalize the רצון. כמו משל השוחד שימצא טעם לרצון. So,

in in general, it's like, in other words, the the שוחד is that he should find a reason for the רצון, which is called rationalization.

Is that like how חסד and גבורה of אריך are מתלבש in אבא?

What? How we say that there's three ways that אריך is מתלבש in אבא, and the חסד and גבורה of אריך are מתלבש in אבא, that's like the שוחד, where the חכמה is like a puppet for the רצון?

Yeah, but this is this is higher. We're not even talking about אבא yet. We're talking in the רצון itself. In the רצון itself, it's a שוחד

that he wants to have a reason. Right. He wants to come up with a reason. Right, so it's not an actual חכמה yet. Somebody asks him why he wants this thing, he wants to be able to come up with a reason why he wants it, although really he doesn't want it, really there is no reason. Right.

Right, okay. וגם שבהטעם הזה כלול גם כן מידות, רצון ושכל, it has to be. ומידות אבל נעשה בבחינת כללי, it's basically just a רצון to have a טעם for the

רצון. ועל דרך זה להשיג הימנו עיגול דבינה שנאצל מכוחו, which is to come up

with a with an analysis for the reason. And you you find this in politics. You know, like a person wants something and he comes up with a reason

why. They come up with a טעם why it has to be their that their policy is correct. Like a guy comes up and he wants to be president. Why does he want to be president? There's a whole thing. He wants to be president because of this and because of that. And he feels that he can help the country. It's not really true. He really wants to be president, that's Why are you doing that?

Huh? What? Go ahead. Yeah. And then, like once they come up with a טעם, like for instance,

when they come up with some kind of a reason for a certain policy, then they come up with a study.

Right. The study is set up to analyze this thing and to prove, in other words, the study is not really a like in יושר it could prove that really the thing was wrong.

Rationalizing desire through intellect and analysis 22:59

Right. In עיגולים, the whole thing of the בינה is only to prove that the חכמה was right, and the whole thing of the חכמה was to prove that there really was a reason for the רצון, that the רצון does make sense. Right. ועל דרך זה המידות זה

אחר זה עד סוף מעשה שהוא עיגול האחרון. And you see the same thing in politics. That it could be a guy that you can't stand, but he's a Republican and you're a Republican, so you like him.

Just because he's a Republican. So why do you like him? והכל בבחינה לעצמו וכולל הכל,

and really this all this whole thing is none of it is actually any kind of שכל or a מידה. They're all the רצון itself.

It's only the רצון for himself still. עד סוף מעשה שהוא הפנימי מכולם, all the way to where he thinks inside of himself how wonderful it would be to actually have a thing like this happen.

And that's the innermost of all of them. וככה הוא, the same like that like that is in a רצון גלוי. How would a רצון גלוי come?

In the same way, it's in רצון הנעלם הנקרא רצון הקדום הנ''ל. מכל מקום, all I was saying is, כל י' ספירות על דרך זה, עיגול בתוך עיגול, עד עיגול דסוף מעשה, שהוא הרצון לסוף מעשה. It's not actually an עיגול of מעשה, it's a it's a רצון for the סוף מעשה. להיות כל אשר חפץ עשה,

and basically the whole thing is nothing but a daydream. לפועל ממש. והעיגול העליון הכולל הכל הוא רצון הקדום הנ''ל. וכשבא הרצון העצמי הזה להיות בפועל ממש,

so when it comes to actually being בפועל ממש, so the thing is

that the thing is that really in order to have יושר, you have to have עיגולים first, because the עיגולים is the daydream, the ambitions.

If you didn't have the עיגולים, you wouldn't have the יושר. In other words, if you didn't have the רצונא קדמא and all the רצונות inside of it, all the way to the רצון for מעשה, which the what which the מלכות of עיגולים becomes כתר of יושר.

You see that when it goes all the way to the סוף מעשה, and that becomes, when this רצון comes to be actually בפועל ממש, means that he's sitting around daydreaming about the thing, about how nice it would be. And then from that he says, "You know, but let's actually do it." הרי הוא להיפך.

Then it has to be the opposite, שהרצון מתעלם ומתלבש בשכל, והשכל מקיפו. Then,

like, for instance, a guy has a רצון for a house. Then the רצון is he has a רצון for a house. Why does he have a רצון for a house? There's really no reason why he has a רצון for a house.

But that that makes up a רצון to have a שכל that he'll be able to give you a רצון, like a kid who tells his father he wants a bicycle.

And why does he want a bicycle? Because he wants a bicycle. He says, "Oh, he wants a bicycle because then he'll be able to drive to school, and then he'll be able to do this." It's all, but really it's not that's not really true.

All the way to the רצון בפועל ממש, and he's sitting around dreaming of how it'll be nice to be with a house, but in this daydream, the house is like an infinite house,

because it's how it is in the רצון. And then, when he decides, "You know, let's go and do the actual thing," so then he has to think, and then he has to get rid of the רצון and see what is really going on here. How much money does he have, for instance?

Can he really have a house like this? And then the שכל has to take over. Then the רצון has to be מתעלם and מתלבש in the שכל, והשכל מקיפו.

And then the שכל, the חכמה has to be actually מתעלם and מתלבש in the actual, a real analysis of what's really going on here. And then it has to be מתלבש in the מדות זו תחת זו עד סוף מעשה, הוא עליון על כל. Wait, hold on for a minute.

Hello? Hello? Yeah. That's the topmost. In other words, like in a person, what you're seeing in a person, like he says, he made a person ישר, you see in a person, you see in a way of יושר when you look at a person.

Observing righteousness through a person's deeds 28:05

What you're seeing in a person is the the מעשה, the חיצוניות of everything, which stands on top.

And inside of his מעשה is his emotions.

From the מעשה, from what he's doing and what he's talking, you can tell