Part 1 · Chapter 24

Metaphor Linking Desire, Pleasure, and the Crown 0:05

So, now he is going to say the נמשל for what we spoke about, about רצון and תענוג and everything, how it applies to כתר.

והנמשל מכל הנ״ל המשכיל למעלה יובן איך שבבחינת עצמות התענוג הפשוט בעצמות אין סוף קודם הצמצום הוא ענין כשעשוע המלך בעצמותו שהוא בבחינת אין סוף ממש. וגם בי׳ ספירות עצמיים שהוא כתר ועד מלכות דאין סוף הכל הוא בבחינת העונג הפשוט בעצמותו, של עצמותו. So, based on what we explained now, we can understand also like how the same ענין applies in Godliness, which is with what's called the simple תענוג, which is called the שעשוע המלך בעצמו, בעצמותו, which In other words, the the real ענין of תענוג is when something reflects on the עצם.

That ענין of רצון is where you invest the where the עצם is lowers itself, adapts itself to relate, invest itself in something that's like a particular form, that's outside of it, that's or not necessarily outside of it, but either a particular form, like חלק of its עצם, or which is a תענוג עצמי, or to something outside of it, which is a תענוג מורכב. Oh wait, רצון מורכב.

And then that when that thing like reflects on it, that's the ענין of a תענוג. So if it's a תענוג עצמי if it's like a a תענוג from something that's a חלק of its עצם, if it's a תענוג מורכב, it's a if it's a תענוג from something outside of it. The same way the ענין of רצון is God's ability to lower himself to to have something outside of him express him or relate to that, or either like either like a חלק of the עצם, like the 10 ספירות, is the ענין of a מיעוט, to reveal to reveal himself in a limited way.

All Concepts Ultimately Relate to Divine Revelation 1:55

And the ענין of something outside of his עצם is like the

all the particular things of בי״ע mainly, even like the כלים of אצילות, like the ענין of something outside of the עצם.

So right, so this is called that the way that it is in the the עצם is called that that is really the the called שעשוע המלך בעצמותו is the תענוג in himself, שהוא בבחינת אין סוף, which is completely unlimited. In other words, that God, the the initial before the צמצום, it's like the אור אין סוף, it's the גילוי of God in a way that it's complete expression of him, and so there's like the whole עצם תענוג, in other words the whole עצם self-expression comes out there.

And it's completely infinite. And also the י׳ ספירות עצמיים are all part of the תענוג פשוט שבעצמותו. They're all like a self-expression. על דרך משל שגם החסד עצמי שבנפש עיקר קיומו מהתענוג וכולי, just like we see how the main קיום of the חסד in a person is the fact that he enjoys it, so too the ענין of that ה׳ limit himself to all these things is that they are a way to express himself, that he that he's there's a there's like ענין of תענוג.

ועם כל זה באמת הרי עצמות אור אין סוף מובדל גם מבחינת תענוג פשוט, but still we the real עצמות אור אין סוף is simple is is removed even from this thing of a תענוג פשוט, רק שנמשך ומאיר בבחינת העונג, just that it comes into the ענין of of pleasure, כמו שעצמות הנפש נמשך אחר העונג וכולי. So, but really all of these things are still in the ענין of גילויים.

So we we can't say that that God is not like this all-encompassing or this ability for גילויים, that'd be like a מאור type of thing, but rather just that and this is the connection, that anytime the thing that that's able to be a גילוי of him, that's the ענין of the way that God is revealed or like the soul is drawn after other things through תענוג, so too the connection between God and other things is through this like ענין of what we call אור that is that is revelation of himself.

But we but that's like we can't describe the עצמות being a מאור, just that it can also do this.

רק שנמשך ומאיר בבחינת העונג, כמו שעצמות הנפש נמשך אחר עונג וכולי, ועל זה אמר אין למעלה מן העונג וכולי. That's why the early מקובלים said that there's nothing higher than pleasure. וכמו, in other words, there's nothing that we can relate to or nothing in השתלשלות that's higher than that. This is like the ענין of the עצמות אור אין סוף. And before that it's just the עצם, which is not שייך the ענין of גילוי, so you can't really call it it's not a thing of a level, it's not doesn't it's not a thing that goes into the השתלשלות, that you could say מעלה ומטה by it.

וכמו בבחינת חפץ חסד שבעצמות, שיש בו תענוג הפשוט, הוא נמשך ומאיר בתוספת אור עד שירד ובא גם בדבר נבדל. So for example, the ענין of the חפץ חסד in the עצמות, in other words, that God is his ability or his desire to to express himself, the ענין that he that he can reveal himself as a creator. That's the ענין of the חפץ חסד in עצמות, which that has a תענוג פשוט, there is a certain a certain unique expression, גילוי of God in that, and therefore, since that's, just like in a person that he goes after תענוג, so too like השם, this is like what the the טעם of desire to to reveal, express this ענין, so it came down to even come to something נבדל, בבחינת תענוג ורצון הקדום הנ״ל, to come after צמצום and to make a actual to express this thing through actually creating our world, which is the whole השתלשלות is getting more and more until it comes ממש to the world the way we have it now.

Example: The Kindness Desire Within the Divine Essence 4:52

The רצון הקדום is just to create a world that's separate. שאחר, הנ״ל שאחר הצמצום להיות מקום להשתלשלות דאבי״ע, עד שיורד ונמשך בסיום הכל, until it comes all the way down to actually create the today as it is now.

והוא גם בפרט דעשר ספירות דיוצר אחרון שבאצילות. And this is so even of the the the lowest thing in אצילות, the lowest ספירות, like the way that השם is going to the ענין of נה״י is like the once the world is already seen as being something separate, just and it's already created and everything, just that השם gives

like מזון, or like the way השם affects the weather and things like that. So even that, the reason that השם, the the ענין that creates those things is coming from this תענוג פשוט, that there's a unique revelation of God in that thing. על דרך משל הנ״ל בעונג הנמצא לקיום מידת הניצוח וכאי גוונא, just like in a person that what keeps up his interest in winning and all the little things that come to it until every little he's going to practice and every little, every little

move he's going to make and whatever it is to to win, and the way that after when he wins, to get the whole victory dance, and all these little פרטים are all from this תענוג he has in the ניצוח, and therefore it comes out to be expressed in all these things until like a person that that gets all to get all into even like all the paraphernalia and all these things, which is the ענין of the אורך הדעת.

That's all coming from this from the תענוג which caused it to be מתפשט into this thing. וזה שכתוב בעץ חיים, דעתיק יומין ואריך אנפין, שהוא התענוג והרצון שהם מהות אחד הם, ואין זה בלא זה, let's skip the parentheses for a second, מלובש תוך כל ספירה וספירה בפרטי פרטיות. And this is why it says that the תענוג and the רצון, which is עתיק and אריך, goes into every single ספירה, because every single the every single ספירה, including all of its details, of how they subdivide, and how one is מולבש in the other, and all the different צירופים that create every single thing, every single one there's a unique expression of Godliness, which is the like the motivation of it, that's its real קיום is that it, and

Why Pleasure and Desire Appear in Every Sefirah 7:42

and the ענין is also that God chose which one he's to to to connect himself to that one, because it's not even though he could essence, just like we said, that you can essentially have a תענוג, but if you don't want it, then you won't have it. So the same way, even though God could express himself in that thing, he has to want to to In other words, he has to lower himself to choose which way he's going to express himself, and then then that thing, without that, it doesn't you get the there's no תענוג in.

Now, it's like like last time we mentioned about I mentioned about the this old ancient philosophical question about whether God some the morality is is moral because God command it or whether he commanded it because it's moral. So this is exactly this thing of which comes first: עתיק or אריך. And the answer is they're really they're really synonymous, and therefore you can never say which one comes first, because it's actually if you look into the עצם, it's really one thing.

In other words, that the the there's a unique תענוג in the in the thing of morality, but if God wouldn't have just chosen that thing, he could have also chosen to have the unique תענוג that there's that's in something else.

On the other, so מצד that, like the רצון, God's רצון comes first, but on the other hand, the reason that God chose it is that there's that that was the unique thing that he wanted. That's what he was he wanted to reveal that thing. So, in other words, there is something unique about it, which is what he chose. And so and really if they're both the same things, that this is a בחירה, and existence of and the thing that makes it good is the choice, but on the other hand like that that השם wanted that it should דווקא be מצד its מעלות, on the other hand, it's like מצד this thing, and that's part of the, you know, the בחירה.

a whole. Yeah, that's an אורך הדעת, that the fact people get so into something, it's called the the length of דעת, that makes them want to have a lot of עשיות, and all paraphernalia, and all these things for it. And within that, it's it's a thing of of ניצוח, but it can also be a thing of like wanting to belong. And it could be not דווקא sports, but but there's a special thrill, yeah, in winning.

And so by connecting to it, then they get like to have the thrill their team won. But the thing is that they get very connected to it, and since they get have their דעת is connected to it so much, it makes them the more they're connected to it, the more they want to like know everything about it, and have all of the paraphernalia, the t-shirt, and whatever, all the different things.

Right. So on the other hand, person has a has a we're going soon we're going to get to chapter one, and we'll see, so talk about דעת, that the ענין with דעת in קדושה, a person has to become like a fan of God. So you say, well, why do you want to know about all these things, like all the things in the תורה? This is the ענין of learning תורה לשמה, is that you're learning about things that never really necessarily can are going to come up.

Learning Torah for Its Own Sake as a Spiritual Fan 11:03

It's not practical, just because you love God so much, you want to know everything about Him, so you want to know, what what does He want in this and this thing.

Right. And that's the the thing of of that everything of תורה becomes precious, or anything that's תשמישי קדושה, and that you want to have very nice, like a הידור מצוה, that you want to have a nice nice מנורה, and a nice אתרוג, and all these kind of things, because you want to express your connection, to have it be brought down into tangible expressions of that.

Yeah, everything everything is מצד קליפה and מצד קדושה. Can be either. So this is so the these are these three חב״ד are מלובש in everything, and without it there's no קיום at all, כנ״ל באריכות.