Part 4 · Introduction

Main points of the first nine chapters 0:02

So that's the main the the main points that are explained in the first nine chapters. Also one point, I don't know if that that's explained the first nine chapters that we mentioned, is that it that in order for the התבוננות to be done properly, it has to be done with all of the details.

That even even though the main thing that you want to understand is like a certain general point, it's not enough just to think about that general point, rather you have to know all of the details that go along with that point.

And this is like back to our doctor, there's a very very big difference between a doctor and somebody that has a general knowledge of medicine because they read like some encyclopedia entries on medicine. You wouldn't you wouldn't yeah, you wouldn't want somebody like that operating, somebody that just has a general knowledge of medicine, even if, you know, they said, "Well, I I read, you know, I read all about brain surgery in the encyclopedia," but you wouldn't let him, you know, near a scalpel.

Why? Because it's not it's not a real understanding. It's not enough. It's not enough of an understanding, or like in הלכה, just cause a person knows a little bit about the basics of כשרות doesn't make them a רב, or the basics of, you know, הלכה. You have to it's not enough to be generally familiar with it, you have to really understand it, with all the details. And the same way, if a person wants to be a a real חסיד, and really be able to apply the understanding of חסידות in דאווענען and to their life, and really know how to use it right on themself and in the world around them, you have to become a בקי in it.

Halacha basics don’t make one a rabbi 1:17

You have to know all the details, so it's a real working understanding. And if not, if a person only has a general understanding, and they think that that's enough to really see Godliness and really change the way that they're going to act, it's he says that they're they're going to fool themselves and think that they're very close, and really they're very far.

And so it's important to have a real understanding, which means that it should be detailed and and something And that's the the real the real אבן הבוחן, the real like test, the real test for this, if a person's understanding is thorough enough, is if he's able to really apply it and really use it.

Learning details with purpose and application 2:36

But again, when learning all the details, a person has to have the intention of learning it to see to apply it, and to to to fit it all together, and not just like a bunch of separate theoretical ענינים. A few words on the the general approach or style that we're going to take here to explaining, and and the ספר is going to take to explaining the השתלשלות, we're going to explain everything first in us, in a person, because it says that a person is an עולם קטן, a small world, and that everything is in a person, and also the main thing that a person knows is himself.

That's what he knows best. So the main משל is us, and we're going to explain how the השתלשלות is in us, and from that, we'll understand also how it is outside. This approach, it explains in different places like in רנ"ט, in other places, that that this is the proper way to approach understanding Godliness, is that every concept should first be understood in you, and when you understand it in yourself, then you'll start to also see it in the world around you.

So for this reason, there the two main משלים that are used in קבלה and in חסידות are from a person. The first main משל is the way the soul comes into the body, like it says in the פסוק, מבשרי אחזה אלוקה, from my flesh I see God.

What do the Sages say? They say, the חכמים say, just like the soul fills the body, so too God fills the world. So that's the first main משל, is the way that the soul comes into the body. The other main משל is what's called letters, אותיות.

And this משל is also really in a person, that's the idea of language, that it says that the world is created with השם's speech, so this

That the the השתלשלות is like a language. And just like a language has different levels, like there's the written language, and the spoken language, and then the meaning of the words, and then there's deeper meanings, and deeper meanings.

So too the the השתלשלות has these different levels, and different layers. And that's the other main משל. Now, one more thing is that we have to understand is about the style of this book.

In this book, the מיטעלער רבי is going to explain the השתלשלות in order from the top down. There aren't going to be any, you know, questions, really, and answers, it's just going to be explanations. There's no discussions about the פרשה, there's no discussions about the ימים טובים really. It's pretty much a straight explanation on the השתלשלות.

So usually you find these explanations mixed in with other things, and it's kind of interspersed. It's talking about a question on the פרשה, it's talking about some יום טוב, and it explains something about the השתלשלות, and then it explains something in עבודה.

Here it's meant to be like a introduction, so it's just straight, in order. Also, the מיטעלער רבי is going to first tell you, he first says introduces which idea, which concept he's going to explain, and he pretty much quotes the kabbalistic terms from like עץ חיים and and זהר and stuff like that, that are the main words or or source for that idea. And then he's going to give משלים to explain those concepts, and then he's going to give explain the נמשל for those משלים, to understand the concept.

So if at the beginning of every chapter or every section, it it at first it seems difficult and complicated and technical, that's okay, and then you just have to kind of bear with it until he usually puts a period and then he starts explaining, he says וביאור הענין, והדמיון בזה, he says some sort of of a thing that he's switching to now explain that concept, and then he gives משלים for it in a person, and after he gives the משלים, then he says והנמשל בזה יובן or and then he starts to explain the נמשל.

Yeah, and then the נמשל is that he explains how that that is in Godliness.

So so first we're going to just say the terms, then we're going to explain understand those terms in us, and once we understand what that means in us, then we'll be able to also understand what those terms really mean in the world, and it won't just be words. Yeah, a three-step process.

And then the idea is, when a person understands, goes through this this process and they understand each concept in themselves, and then they understand the נמשל in the world, with how Godliness relates to the world, then when they they they read in some other מאמר about those same terms, you know, and it's kind of like a like a dictionary or something, that that then when you or so like sometimes people say that that like a מפתח, it means, I mean, you know, people say like it means a key, but it's also like means like a key of a map.

Like at the bottom of a map, they have like a little thing that tells you what each symbol represents. You know, like this means a lake, and this means a road, and this means a river.

So this is kind of like that that kind of a מפתח, too, that now, in a way, the main point of this book is is so that you can now learn other books and you'll understand what it's saying in all these מאמרים when it uses these terms.

Since it doesn't always explain the terms, you'll be able to translate it and understand how it is in you and understand the נמשל, and see how it relates to what he's saying in the מאמר.

So in a way, the the point of this book, it's not really, in a way, an end in itself. It's like an introductory thing, like a key to get you into the door.

Now, in a way, it does have everything in it because, I mean, in חסידות it's all connected, so once you understand if you understand properly something in חסידות, you really you understand everything. It's it's it's just a matter of getting the real נקודה and then seeing applying it. But on the simplest level, this this book is just meant to be An opener so that you'll understand the מאמרים properly, to like teach you the language of חסידות.

This should help us understand what the מיטעלער רבי is saying, and, in a way, the real thing is that we should want to understand what the רבי is saying. That's really this this book is really the רבי's book, because like the רבי printed it and gave it to us. And we have to understand everything in חסידות according to our רבי and his explanations, and it all has to be that means both that when we learn this, it's according to the רבי's explanations and the רבי's approach, and then the purpose of it is also to go back and understand the רבי's שיחות, מאמרים, and letters and everything, and understand and be able to do what the רבי wants us to do.

You know, we should understand what the what the רבי is saying, what the רבי wants from us, and we should do it. And like that, we'll bring משיח right away.