Chapter 23 · Part 4: Chapters 20-30

The Crown (כתר) and the Concept of Ancient Days 0:00

והנה בפרטיות בחינת הכתר שהוא בחינת הממוצע, שיש בו מבחינת האחרונה שבמאציל והוא בפנימיות שבו, והוא שורש וראש לנאצלים בחיצוניות שבו, so it's a intermediary, the

what do you call that, interface. So the inside of it is part of the מאציל, and the outside is the head of the אצילות.

וכמו שמבואר בעץ חיים. וגם היות ידוע שבחינת ג' רישין דעתיק יומין מובדל ומרומם בלתי מלובש בנאצלים, is totally the ג' ג' רישין, the three מוחין of עתיק are totally מובדל from the נאצלים. וזהו המתנשא מימות עולם, higher than the days of the world. Over here you notice he's talking that the days of the world is אצילות.

Earlier he was talking about that עתיק is the days of the world. So everything is in relationship.

ולכך נקרא עתיק יומין, removed from the days. That's why he's called עתיק.

That's one of the טייטשן of עתיק is removed. מלשון המעתיק הרים, who tears up, tears off the mountain. כולו שנתק מימות עולם, he's totally removed from the days of the world, meaning from the ספירות of אצילות. והנה כל זה ידוע, this is all known. ויש להבין בדרך פרט. But we have to explain in a particular way, בהיות שעתיק יומין ואריך אנפין נחשב לאחד, it's really considered really one thing.

רק שבכללות נחשב בחינת עתיק יומין לסוף אין סוף, ובחינת אריך אנפין הוא שורש וראש לנאצלים. In general, it it says that עתיק is the end of the אין סוף, and אריך is the beginning of the נאצלים, וכמו שמבואר בעץ חיים. וביאור דברים ידוע, שזהו בחינת התענוג והרצון. ובהיות שאנו רואים שבכל רצון יש תענוג, ובלא תענוג לא היה רצון לדבר כלל, כמו הרצון לאיזה רכוש, לולא שיש בו תענוג, לא היה רוצה בזה, because of the enjoyment, כלל.

Pleasure as the Inner Aspect of Desire 2:21

אם כן, התענוג הוא בחינת פנימיות הרצון לכאורה. So at first glance it looks like the תענוג is the פנימיות of the רצון. ואנו רואים לאיפך גם כן, we see also the opposite though, שאם אין רצון אין תענוג.

שהרי דבר שלא יתרצה בו לא יתענג ממנו כלל. Like if a kid is real mad, and you're trying to bribe him with an ice cream, and he's screaming, \"I don't want the ice cream.\" If you catch him and try to force the ice cream down his throat, he'll actually spit it out, and he won't like it. He ממש won't like it, even though he's a kid who loves ice cream.

You see that if you don't want something, there won't be a תענוג, actually. אם כן, הרצון פנימיות התענוג. Not only that, in general, if the רצון was not the פנימיות of תענוג, then everybody would want every תענוג there is. If there would be a תענוג, everybody would be a drug addict, because there's a תענוג in it, and everybody would be fat, because there's a תענוג in eating.

But the thing is it's that according to the רצון, some people say, \"Well, I don't want that תענוג. I have no רצון in that kind of a תענוג,\" even though it is a תענוג. In other words, there is an actual תענוג, like in getting drunk or something like that, or euphoria, there is a very definite תענוג, and yet it won't be a תענוג, it'll be actually considered the opposite of a תענוג because a person doesn't want it.

Yeah, but maybe that's because for some people they don't have a תענוג in that. Not because they don't have a רצון in it, but they don't have a they don't take a תענוג in getting drunk or whatever. There is a physical תענוג in it. For some people. No, there's a physical תענוג in it.

It increases your dopamine. There's an actual physical, it's not for some people, it's a physical תענוג. Right. Same thing with the ice cream. The ice cream is a physical תענוג. It has a physical תענוג. Right, okay. And there's all kinds of things that have תענוג, but not everybody wants every תענוג, and it's because the רצון, and but the best ראיה is the kid that's that's having a temper tantrum and you're trying to feed him ice cream, and he won't want the he actually won't want the ice cream so he won't enjoy it.

Just opposite, he'll hate it. So, sometimes we see that that the opposite, שאין רצון אין תענוג, שהדבר שהדבר לא יערב ולא יתענג ממנו כלל.

אם כן, הרצון פנימי מהתענוג, הרצון פנימי מהתענוג. So we see that the רצון sometimes פנימי to the תענוג, ורואים but what we see שזה בלא זה אינם מתקיים. You can't have a קיום of רצון without a תענוג or תענוג without רצון, כי אין לרצון קיום בלא תענוג ואין לתענוג קיום בלא רצון. There's no רצון without a תענוג and no תענוג without a רצון. And even like the רצון for instance you say he won't enjoy the ice cream because there's a רצון like a a lady who's worried about her weight won't enjoy eating ice cream, she'll actually, while she's eating the ice cream, she'll actually feel so guilty that she will actually won't enjoy it, because the רצון is going against the ice cream.

Desire and Pleasure Are Inseparable 5:41

But that רצון also has a תענוג, because that רצון comes from the תענוג she would get if she was skinny.

And that תענוג also has a רצון. There's always There's never no such a thing as a תענוג without a רצון and a רצון without a תענוג, and you can never tell which is on the inside and which is on the outside, because one without the other there's no there's no קיום. שאין לרצון קיום בלא תענוג ואין לתענוג קיום בלא רצון, ולפי זה מוכרח לומר ששניהם מהות אחת, that really they're ממש one thing, not like חכמה and בינה.

There's always חכמה and בינה together, but they're not really one thing, they just always work together, called תרין רעין דלא מתפרשין, two friends that never separate. But here it's not a matter that they don't separate, it's not really two things, it's really one thing. ואחר שנתמזגו אז חיבורם יחד דווקא יתקיים, it's only when they're both together then there there can be an actual רצון and תענוג. וכל זה, and all it is what we just said, בין בתענוג ורצון פשוט ועצמי, בין בתענוג ורצון מורכב, whether it's in a תענוג and רצון עצמי of the of the soul itself, the היולי רצון and תענוג

all the way up to the רום מעלות של השם יתברך עצמותו, all the way down to a תענוג of קליפה even. There's no תענוג without a רצון and no רצון without a תענוג. Even in a תענוג that's not not just of of of קליפת נוגה, but even in a תענוג in actually something bad, there's no רצון without a תענוג and no תענוג without a רצון, whether we're talking תענוג תענוג ורצון פשוט ועצמי, בין בתענוג ורצון מורכב שהנפש מתפשט ונמשך אחריו, that it's מורכב, meaning from something, in other words, it's not the actual inner desire and תענוג of the soul, but it's just that the נפש is pulled after it, like a little kid is pulled after a lollipop, but the lollipop is not the actual תענוג, it's it's the taste that's the תענוג.

גם שאינו מעצמותו, it's not actually the עצמות of the soul, אלא הוא דבר נבדל, it's an ice cream. אולם, על כל פנים, אנו רואים שהנפש טבעו להימשך אחר דבר שיש בו תענוג. We see that the the the nature of the soul is to be pulled after something that has a תענוג עד שיוכל להיות כל עצמותו נמשך ונכלל בו, like you see by a little kid especially, or by a dog even, that if a dog, there's something of a תענוג, he ממש pulls his leash till he actually chokes, you see he's actually pulled after it.

Complex Pleasure and Varied Motivations 9:01

העונג המורכב בפרט נבדל, even with an עונג המורכב in a in a in a separate thing, means something separate from it, for instance, מה בכבוד וממון, like people are pulled after honor or money, או חכמה, like some people are pulled after various kind of intellectual pursuits, מדות, כחסד ודין, like some people have are pulled after חסד and like the Romans were pulled after אכזריות, you know, ונצחון, like some people, you know, they're they're their whole pleasure is to win, התפארות, שוויצינג, you know, right, showing off, some people have a whole big pleasure out of שוויצינג, כהאי גוונא.

In other words, in various מדות, and whether it's a מדות of קדושה or the מדות of קליפה, all of these מדות can be also of קדושה, וכהאי גוונא. או בדברים שהנפש מחמדתן, דהיינו כל תענוגי עולם הזה, ממש physical things, even even down to טרייף תענוגן. Right. וכהאי גוונא.

As a matter of fact, that's the whole problem with טרייף תענוגן, they have a תענוג in it, so therefore they pull the soul after them. אף על פי שכל אלה אינן בבחינת עצמות התענוג ההיולי, רק שהנפש תמשך ותחמוד להן. אבל מזה נראה שעצם הנפש הוא בבחינת תענוג היולי.

We see that the עצם הנפש is in a way of a תענוג, that that's what it wants. It's a desire, it is made up of a desire for תענוג.

על כן תמשך אחר עונג מורכב, ותברח מן הצער. It by nature runs after any kind of עונג, even עונג המורכב, and runs away from the opposite of עונג, צער, שהוא היפך העונג. שב' כפות שקולים הן, like it explains in chapter six, that the crying and the laughing is exactly the same, like what we were talking about yesterday, that in the airport, how much they enjoy when they come, that's how much they cry when they leave.

How much the עונג is in something, that's how much the צער is from its opposite. Right. שב' כפות שקולים הם ממש, שכפי ערך התפשטות הנפש והתמלאות אורה בריבוי תענוג, how much the נפש gets filled up with

Soul's Light: Joy vs. Sorrow 11:28

the תענוג, that's exactly the same כף, exactly the same thing. Wait, I lost my place here. Yeah. וכפי ערך התפשטות הנפש והתמלאות אורה בריבוי תענוג, ככה בכף השני יתמעט אורה בצער ויגון תכלית. That's how much it'll get מתמעט, its light, בצער ויגון תכלית. What it means its light, it means that the light of the נפש is the חיות. And you see when somebody has a big תענוג, so like for instance, when somebody wins, for instance, somebody gets a big תענוג from winning, they have so much חיות from it, that they start jumping up and down from so much energy.

Right. There's so much energy, they can't even just stand still, they start jumping up and down. And the opposite, when somebody has a big sorrow from a big loss, חס ושלום, they get depressed to the point that they don't even want to go anywhere, or they don't want to talk to people, and all the way to a thing that you can actually, חס ושלום, a person can die from a broken heart.

And this is also in animals. It's it's been seen in animals. When an animal lost a very beloved mate or a child or something like that, they got so upset that they actually died from it.

In other words, the life force is gets lessened, the actual life force gets lessened from צער. ומזה נראה בעצם מהותה שהוא התענוג. We see that the עצם מהות of the soul is תענוג, which תענוג doesn't mean actually the the pleasure, but the capability to feel pleasure and the the need for pleasure.

ועיקר ממה, and the main thing that you see it from, even more than the fact that it runs after תענוג, ממה שתברח ותתכווץ מן הצער, that the soul will run away and will get lessened from sorrow. מזה ראיה יותר, this is an even bigger proof, כולי. That a person can ממש, and also an animal can ממש die from a broken heart, and that a person will do anything, you know, that's and as a matter of fact, that's how dictators

get people to do what they want. Because because they'll the people they they threaten them with צער. Right. ועל כן גזרו ואמרו מקובלים הראשונים, that that's why the מקובלים הראשונים said, שהתענוג נמשך מעצם הנפש, cuz the תענוג is ממש the עצם הנפש. ואמרו שאין לך למעלה מן העונג, they said there's nothing higher than עונג, and in various in various

Kabbalistic View: Pleasure as Soul’s Essence 14:21

kabbalistic books, you'll basically see that when they talk about the עצמות, they're talking about עתיק. And they

call עתיק עצמות. And they said basically that the soul, that the תענוג, the the כתר is the עצם of the soul. That they call in, in many places they call the כתר the עצם.

Right. ואינו אמת כן, but it's not really like that. Now he's not contradicting the early מקובלים. What he's telling you is that's not what they meant.

What they meant was that it's so close to it that as far as for, especially for purposes of

knowing what's going on with a person, if you can know what's going on with his תענוג, you know what's going on with the עצם of his soul, basically.

Right. You don't have to know more than that, even though the עצם of the soul is really higher than the actual תענוג. Really, like it says, ולאו מכל אילין מדות כלל, and especially the עצם of the אויבערשטער is higher than the actual רצון and תענוג.

But if you know what the רצון is and the תענוג, that's all you have to know, really. Right. And that's the whole thing as far as what the whole thing with the מצוות is, that when you know the מצוות, you know what the מצוות are, that's why the study of הלכה is such a great thing.

Mitzvot Insight Through Understanding Desire and Pleasure 16:17

In a way, even higher than the study of חסידות or קבלה in one way, and in another way this is really higher. But in one way, and this is what he explains in תניא, is that over there you know the עצם of the רצון.

Right. Because he tells you that the רצון and תענוג is even in a מורכב.

The fact that he loves that you know, like like you know people you know when people go on a שידוך, they try to find out, you know, what what each one likes and what, you know, what movies they like and what foods they like. So what does it matter what foods they like? Who cares?

I mean, what say they like tacos and you don't?

So if you get married, you don't have to eat tacos. They'll eat tacos and you won't eat tacos. By finding out what they like and what they want, you sort of find out about them.

Even in a מורכב. So the same thing with the אויבערשטער. Even though that the הלכות are in external things

and have to do with certain situations to the point where it can even be an if, that if such and such, then then there's a הלכה. And if not, that הלכה doesn't even like קרבנות. The קרבנות only apply if there's a בית המקדש.

But nonetheless, since you know the תענוג and the רצון, so it's like you know the actual person.

And that's what they meant. It's not it's not really the ענין, but he says, but he says, ואינו אמת כן. Actually the soul itself is really higher than the actual than than the כתרים. Same thing with the עצמות the עצמות אין סוף is really higher than the כתרים. It's higher than even the תענוג הפשוט. Right then. It's it's it's just that you can it's so close to it that it's it's almost good enough to know what the תענוג is.

שאף שהעצמות הנפש is נעלה מן התענוג הרב, ונמשך כל העצמות עד שתכלה ונמשך כמעט כולה, like it all gets pulled after the thing. Like you see a little kid that wants something, he screams and shouts and he's pulled after it?

Right. וכלתה נפשי, my whole soul is finished up in this רצון and תענוג.

In other words, when somebody has a a fantastic תענוג, they almost faint from it. Right. As a matter of fact, by the צדיקים, it's they actually did faint from it.

And and it's sometimes also like if if there's a fantastic תענוג, you know, when somebody somebody sees somebody they really love that they haven't seen for many years, it it could happen, in emotional people, they will actually faint from it. Right. ולהיפך and the opposite also, תכלה בגירעון אור לגמרי, that the soul will be finished off with not having no light at all left to the point that, חס ושלום, a person can actually die.

מכל וכל, מעוצם הצער המופלא, כאילו or somebody has a fantastic loss of somebody that they they they loved, or somebody who's really into money and loses all their money or something like that.

Right. וראיה ברורה יותר and an even clearer proof for this, ממה שנראים שגם בפרטי כחות שבנפש הנה בחינת בחינת עונג שבזה הכח בפרטות הוא עיקר קיום מציאותו תמיד. It's an even better proof that the תענוג is the קיום of everything is that in a particular the particular כחות, in the ספירות in other words, the עונג in this thing is the main קיום of its מציאות.

כמו הכח של מדת החסד, גם שהוא עצמי וטבעי כטבע הטוב להיטיב, it's really the מדה is a is עצמי, same like חסד a מדה עצמי.

Right. But nonetheless, עיקר קיומו הוא העונג שמתענג בהשפעת הטוב. The main קיום is the עונג that he get a pleasure from doing good, from doing favors for people, זהו קיום אמיתי לטבעיות טובו, שהוא מה שטבעו להתענג ביותר מן ההטבה, עד שכל עיקר חיותו ונפשו בא על ידי עונג זה שבטבע חסד, like אברהם אבינו, like they were sitting and waiting to do a חסד or something.

ולהיפך, and this is easier to see, I don't know if it's easier to see for everybody, for me it's easier to see, במי שאכזרי שהוא אכזרי בטבעו, like the Romans,

אין זה רק שכל חיותו בתענוג זה שעושה רב אכזריות, like what did they have that circuses? Circuses is a place of enjoyment. And the whole thing of their אכזריות is the fact that they enjoyed it.

Right. כידוע. וכן במדת הנצח, like you see these these people that they put their whole life into winning the Olympics, you see if they get the gold medal, if you ever see the guy gets in the gold medal, or you see the football game that won, everybody's jumping up and down and they're so happy, the whole קיום of the thing is the עונג that they're going to get out of winning.

Right. עד שחיות נפשו נמשך כולו בזה שינצח וכולי, so that his whole חיות of his soul, his whole life, some of these people literally put their whole life into, they don't have a life, you know? Right. These Olympic contenders? Right. They literally don't have a life. They have no friends, no family, no nothing. They gotta put everything to win that Olympic, it's it's no joke, you know?

Right. They ממש have absolutely no life at all. They can't go to parties, they can't do nothing. And you can't even say that it's because of something else, they want to make the money or something, they really just want to win. Right. That's what they want. As a matter of fact, a person who just wanted the money would not be able to win the Olympics, because they wouldn't have a strong enough what do you call it?

Desire for it. Desire for it. ואם לא ינצח יחלה, and if he doesn't win, he can ממש get actually sick from it. He can like like you see in in some of these contests, skating or whatever, you know, a person who if if they lose or if they stumble or something like that, you see they ממש droop. Right. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, sure. They droop.

וככה בכל פרטי פרטי המדות, and this is all the way not only in the מדות, in the פרטי פרטי המדות, even in the מדות of the מדות, עד החכמה והרצון, even the חכמה and the רצון itself, הרי עיקר קיומם בא מהעונג, ולולי העונג שבהשכלה אין לו כח לחדש שום חכמה. If not the עונג in השכלה, he wouldn't have a power to be מחדש any חכמה. Like you see in these you know, absent-minded philosophers, that's their תענוג.

Motivation in Wisdom, Power, and Success 23:48

Right. And a person who doesn't have תענוג in חכמה, even you see he has if you'll measure his brain he might have a brain that really could be just as big as this other guy's, but he has no תענוג in it. Right. But he has a תענוג in making money. Yeah. So therefore, he'll have a whole חיות in making money, and a whole thing. Not only that, he'll have all kinds of ideas on how to do it, and he'll have he'll be very sharp about it, and he'll be very careful, and he'll be do do things right.

Whereas the absent-minded professor, really, you say guy is so smart, how come he can't make money? Right. How come you're just sitting around and thinking about mathematical formulas? You're telling me you're smarter than that guy, that guy is is not half, doesn't have half your brains, and look at all the money he has. Yeah, but because he has a desire and a pleasure, he gets a pleasure ממש from making the money.

It's not just that he needs the money, because you see some of these people, they they have enough money for 10 lifetimes. Right. They have enough money for themselves and for their children and for everything for 10 lifetimes to blow money like crazy if they wanted to,

and they still want more money that's even money they don't need, really. Right. And they get a pleasure out of it. You see, if they made a deal where they make $10 million, you tell the guy, \"But you already have $100 million. Why don't you just go to Hawaii and enjoy yourself?\" He says, \"What do you mean? That is my enjoyment.\" Right. \"This thing that I made a deal and made a $10 million, that's my enjoyment.\" And that's why that gives a קיום to that מדה.

Right. Even the חכמה and the רצון. ולולי עונג השכלה אין לקלוט ולחדש שום חכמה כנראה בחוש, like we actually see this, וכמו שאמר אלמלא חדוותא דשמעתא, I don't remember who the rabbi said it, if not for the pleasure that I got out of the שמעתא, I could not make a חידוש in the טפולים of the תורה. Right. I don't know, I don't remember who it is. If you have the new book, it should have a little number there telling you in the back of who it is.

Wisdom Illuminates the Face When One Learns 26:24

וכנודע בענין חכמת אדם תאיר פניו, that a person that is interested in חכמה, when he hears a חידוש of חכמה or he or he gets a חידוש of חכמה, it ממש lights up his face. שלחלוחית שבעונג ההיולי הוא המקור להשכיל כל שכל, like what we talked about yesterday. The לחלוחית on top of the brain, which לחלוחית is the מקור is the עונג ההיולי in the לחלוחית. Like it says in תניא, you know in תניא it says that the the the the the the יסוד of water is where all the תענוגים come from.

Right. That's the מקור. The תענוג is the מקור of the השכלה. ואמנם ברצון לבד, so that's in תענוג. With רצון, we see, הנה רואים שבלא רצון אין תענוג. If not for the רצון, it wouldn't be a תענוג.

נמצא גם בכל פרטי המדות. This also is in every פרטי המדות. כמו אם לא ירצה בחסד ובדין, אין לו בו תענוג כלל.

If he doesn't want a certain חסד or a certain דין, then he won't have a תענוג. And this is like the thing from the kid that he's mad, so he's in the middle of throwing a temper tantrum, he won't want the ice cream. So, \"How come you don't want an ice cream? You love ice cream.\" He says, \"No, but I don't want it now.\" Because he doesn't want it, he won't get a תענוג in it.

When Lack of Desire Blocks Joy – Real-Life Examples 27:32

Right. וכן אם לא ירצה להשכיל, somebody doesn't want to

be משכיל, why doesn't he get an עונג? You say, \"Listen, I mean, it's such a big עונג you can get from השכלה, you know?\" Like somebody says, \"I'm bored.\" He says, \"Here, do a do a crossword puzzle.\" \"I don't want to do a crossword puzzle.\" So then he won't get an עונג from it. וכן אם לא ירצה בנצחון כלל, אין לו תענוג בנצחון או התפארות, וכן גם בשאר תענוגי עולם הזה, כממון וכבוד כהאי גוונא, דבלא רצון אין תענוג בו כלל, which that explains why in one person there's a תענוג in this,

you see like in in rock stars, they get a big תענוג in the big in their fame and glory, and somebody else, actually like a shy person, wouldn't wouldn't get it. He'd say, \"I don't I don't want that.\" \"So why not? Just think of it, you'll go up in front of everybody and everybody will be shouting, 'Wow, woo!'\"

Or especially like this is this is more evident from things that for sure you could say, \"Well, that's not necessarily a תענוג for everybody.\" But certain things are a תענוג for everybody, like a ice cream, and yet some people don't want it. Right. דהיינו לפי שכללות ענין זה הוא בהיות שכל עיקר עצם הנפש נמשך אחר התענוג והרצון, שהרצון הוא גם כן המשכת כל הנפש. The רצון, that when you want something, means your whole soul is running after this thing.

Universal Pleasures vs Personal Desire 29:00

עד שכולה תלויה ברצון דבר מה כולו כנודע, that a person wants something, his whole soul goes after it. אם כן, in other words, they're ממש the same thing, it's the pulling of the soul. Right. אם כן, על כן. Oh, על כן גם בכל פרטי כחותיה עיקר קיומם הוא התענוג והרצון. So therefore, in every particular כחות, in the particulars of the particulars, the רצון and the תענוג is the main קיום.

ובהעדרם וצער, and the צער מדבר זה when you have a צער this thing, then you have you don't have this מדה, you have the opposite of this מדה. הפך העונג ודבר המנגד לרצון, גם שאינו צער, ודבר המנגד לרצון, something that's against his רצון, גם שאינו צער, even though it's not a צער, like the like like when you're trying to get this kid to eat a ice cream.

A סתם א מעשה, you know, like if you take the kid and you and you you shove the ice cream in his face. Right. This will make him even madder,

even though it's a thing that usually he would get a תענוג from it. But right now, because he has a רצון against it, it'll make it a צער. I need to flip the tape.

Hold on one second.