Part 3 · Introduction

Meditation vs Study: Why Insight Needs Learning 0:04

Now the idea of meditation is that people think that you can get an insight, which is a flash of חכמה, to get like an intuitive perception into an idea or get a new idea from just concentrating without studying the without understanding all the details.

Now this is a ridiculous idea, as a person we see in in anything else that if a person wants to become a doctor, they wouldn't study for their their medical exam by going to a cave and lighting candles and burning incense and meditating on a picture of the human anatomy, or sitting on their textbooks in the lotus position and think that from that that they're going to get a flash of understanding for all of the all the details.

So, and this or with anything a person knows that if they want to understand it, they have to learn about it. And if this is true about everything else, how much more so with godliness, which is much deeper, it's a more complicated subject because it includes all subjects, because חסידות and קבלה explain how everything in the world is created and how it connects to God, that means that it includes all other disciplines and all other studies.

Study Is Essential Even for Godliness 1:11

So this is the one of the things that that he explains, that in order to get this flash of חכמה, to have like a a real understanding and a perception into godliness and how everything is really one with God, it has to come from studying it.

And that's התבוננות. That studying all these details is is התבוננות. Now he explains that that that this process of התבוננות opens up all of the other כוחות. It opens up the כוחות that are higher than בינה and also those that are lower than it. That means that it opens up the חכמה to get a new idea, that when a person studies all of the explanations, then they'll be able to make a חידוש, they'll get a new idea, and it also opens up the the כתר, then they'll really want it, and to the point of having מסירות נפש, and it also goes down and opens up the emotions that a person should have love and fear for the thing, and also down to action that they should do it.

How תבוננות Elevates Mind and Action 2:49

Through התבוננות a person opens up their חכמה and all the way up to their כתר to have like a מסירות נפש and and to reveal the עצם הנשמה for אלוקות, and then it comes back down to their emotions to have a love and fear, and all the way to their actions so that they do תורה ומצוות.

This is all and this is all done mainly through התבוננות, and this is like we see in תניא and all over in חב״ד חסידות that this is the main שיטה of חב״ד, that through understanding and studying that that's the best way to change the way that you think and the way you feel and the way you act.

This is the the long short way. This is called the long short way. And it's also the short long way, because this the short long way is just revealing your natural love and fear, which is also through התבוננות, but it's an easier התבוננות, because to reveal the love and fear of your נפש האלוקית, your natural love and fear, you don't have to really understand.

You just have to like think, you just have to have it in a way of מחשבה, where you just think the explanations, and your your נשמה gets excited because it it it already understands it. But in order to create the love and fear in your נפש הבהמית, that's longer, because you have to actually explain it to yourself so that you really understand, which requires like a more of a of a down-to-earth understanding.

תניא, yeah, תניא says that not only is the best way to become a בינוני, but almost the only way to become a בינוני is through התבוננות.

Yeah, because a person, a person could say, you know, like people sometimes do this for like their בר מצוה or something like that, they decide they're going to make a החלטה that from now on they're going to be perfect, they'll be a בינוני at least. And that lasts for maybe two seconds, and then, you know, it doesn't work.

Making a Decision to Be בינוני—Why It Fails 4:52

Like somebody once told me to make a החלטה when I was was maybe, I don't know, 14, 15, told me to make a החלטה that before I do anything, I should think what the רבי would want me to do in that situation.

Which was basically the equivalent of telling me to be a בינוני. You know, and how long can that last already? The approach of חב״ד חסידות, as explained in תניא and throughout חב״ד חסידות, that when a person, through being מתבונן in אלקות, a person changes the way they understand things, the way they view the world, and automatically that changes the way they feel towards things, and it takes away, it both takes away the struggle somewhat because they now realize, like, what's the real purpose of them being in the world, and, you know, that this is really good for them to do תורה ומצוות, and so that makes them want to do it and motivated to do it.

And that's the idea, that it gives them a love and fear for God, that it makes them want to be connected to godliness and want to be connected to God, and it makes them be afraid, in other words, feel that it's bad for them to go against the תורה ומצוות. And at least have enough of an impression from that understanding, the idea is that a person should at least in דאווענען reach this realization and really feel it, that that's the way they should act.

And then at least throughout the day they'll, even if they don't feel it anymore throughout the day, they'll at least have this impression left over that will affect the way they act, and it makes it easier for them to, they just have to remind themselves of that feeling, of that resolution, and then they'll act properly.

Learning Details to Connect with God's Unity 6:42

When a person learns all the details of the השתלשלות, this is one of the other main points that's brought up in the first nine chapters, is that it's very important to remember why you're learning these details, to remember the point, that everything that you learn has to be with the intention of connecting to God and seeing His, the אחדות השם, seeing God's unity in the world, and not just like learning about separate levels, cuz that would be the opposite of the point, just to see how there's all these different levels.

The point is we want to see how all the levels connect and become בטל, and how they're really nothing. They're really transparent, until we can see right through them and skip them, and see that God is here with us. What is What do I mean?

So, it's like when two people are talking to each other, for example, so you say, like you'd say that, "I'm talking to you." Now, really, there's a whole השתלשלות, that my נשמה goes into my brain, and from there it goes to my heart, and then up to my מחשבה, and then to my דיבור, then it goes from my mouth out through the air to your ear, and then it goes to your מחשבה, and then to your heart, and then back to your brain, and then to your soul.

It's a whole השתלשלות. Nevertheless, I say that I'm talking to you, straight. And it could be even more than that. It could be that we're talking over the phone, and it's going through the phone, up to a satellite across the world, down to your phone.

Could be a whole thing going on. Nevertheless, all the, all of the steps in the middle are connected and they don't change anything, and so therefore we say that I'm talking to you, cuz they don't add or subtract, they're just bringing it over.

Now, that and much, much more so, that's really here they actually are separate things, but here it's even much more so with the השתלשלות, where it's just looks like separate things, but it's really just God, and the real point of understanding all the details is to see how At first, just to see how it all connects at least like the telephone and like me talking to you, and see how it's transparent, and really God is the one that makes it rain, He's the one that gives us money and food and health and all ברכות, and He's controlling everything, and that when we need something we should ask Him, and that God is actually telling us to do the מצוות, and that He's watching what we're doing, right, הנה השם נצב עליו, that God is standing over us and watching us and He cares what we're doing, and so we have to realize that.

Realizing God’s Presence Beyond Apparent Levels 9:41

And then even more than that, that's the first step. Then the next step is to realize that really the stages don't aren't even anything they're not even there. It's really just השם Himself, and just that the צמצום, different צמצומים make it look like separate things. But when we understand that process, properly, then we're able to start to see through it, see past it, and realize and recognize that really God is sitting here with us.

Not just spiritually, but physically, God is ממש here right in front of you. And that the physical world is already a דירה בתחתונים, that God is ממש here,

that this is, you know, the whole thing of באתי לגני, that the גילוי of the עצם is really here, and God's עצם is really here, and we just don't realize it, because the שטות covers over it. But when we put it in the right order and we see past it, then we're able to realize that really השם is sitting here with us.

And the you know the רבי actually said this exact you know exact thing in a פארברענגען. The רבי said that really השם is sitting here with us פארברענגען, and we just have to we have to realize it. We just have to like open our eyes. I don't know if that was the time he said open our eyes. It's a few times the רבי said it. But that's really the מציאות.

So, yeah, it's always important to remember when we're learning the details what we're trying to accomplish, that we're learning them to try to see God and try to see how everything is transparent and not just like to know levels or to know like, you know, about these things.

The whole thing that we want to learn about them is to see how they're not there, in a way.