Part 1 · Chapter 5

Why Chapter Five Matters 0:00

Chapter five, right? Yeah. Okay. Chapter five. Okay, chapter five is a very important chapter. It explains the ענינים of what the thing is from חכמה and what the thing is from בינה, and how the two things work together when you're studying חסידות.

And also, this really, this chapter, when you study the chapters like from what is it, 25 onwards in, you know, the ייחוד העבודה, this really belongs over there also.

והנה אחר שנתבאר שצריך להתבונן דרך פרט דוקא, הרי מן ההכרח לידע כל פרטי חילוק המדריגות ובכל פרטי סדרי השתלשלות דבי״ע להתבונן בהם, אשר אינם מובנים לכל מכלל התורה וכו׳. So, he's telling you now that we said you have to be מתבונן in in in total particular thing and know all the different details, so that's what you have to know. And he's he's telling you that really this is not available anywhere else.

The Need for Detailed Contemplation 0:59

In other words, when he's saying מכלל התורה, it means like in עץ חיים or whatever. Certainly not from the זוהר and from the ספר יצירה and things like that, and even from the works of the אריז״ל, it's it really is it's not easy it's it's not possible to understand what they're talking about. That's what he's telling you. So he says, so what's so what's the solution? He says, ויבוארו כולם בקונטרס מיוחד.

Now you have to go like with the מגילה, you know? Right. You know, at a מגילה when you say you have this letter, and you go like that, you know, you shake the מגילה? You know what I'm talking about? No, I don't. You know, when you read the מגילה, you say האגרת השנית הזאת. Oh, right. You know, when you shake the מגילה to say that this is the this is the אגרת that they're talking about.

So when you say בקונטרס מיוחד, you have to shake this book to show that this is the book that we're talking about. Right. מן הצורך מכל פרט.

Promise of a Special Treatise 2:19

So, וממילא יובן ומהם ידע כמה פרטים אחרים. So what he's tell what he's giving you here is a promise that he's going to explain to you everything.

Everything is explained in this book, and you say, \"What do you mean? It's not totally everything.\" He says, \"What I'm explaining to you, I'm explaining to you what you need from every פרט, and when you understand it good, you'll automatically be under understand all all the פרטים, everything, you'll understand everything.\" Right. So that's a very big promise over here. He's basically telling you that he's going to explain the whole קבלה and חסידות to you in this book with all the particulars, everything you need to know to be able to do what he said in chapter four.

Okay, so that's the promise. He says אך, but before we get to that, which that's going to start in chapters 7 7 through the end of the book, תחלה צריך להקדים איכות ההתבוננות. So he told us what the התבוננות is about, what what this התבוננות is, and then what it's about, the סדר השתלשלות, and then he explained to us that it has to be done in a particular way.

Now he's going to explain to us the איכות, the how to do it. There's a certain way that it has to be done. גם בדרך פרט עוד ענין אחד צריך ביותר לכל החפץ באמת בקירבת אלוקים, ואינו רוצה לצאת ידי חובתו להטעות את עצמו. If you want to really study it properly without fooling yourself, or just to be a יוצא that, \"Oh yeah, I learned a שיחה today.\" Right.

Avoiding Self‑Deception in Study 3:32

והוא, להיות ידוע שבכל התבוננות בענין אלוקי, בהתהוות יש מאין, בכל מקום, לפי מה שהוא, any kind of התבוננות, means wherever you learn חסידות, no matter what it is,

שהוא הרי כולל ב׳ ענינים. האחד, בחינת ביטול היש לאין, שזהו השגת ערך הב... הב... הב... What is it? הב... הבא בגבול תחלה, ואיכות אופן התהוות מציאותו מאין וכו׳, שזה קרוב אל השכל ביותר, על ידי כמה הסברים ודמיונות משלים כהאי גוונא, עד שנתאמת בלבו היטב. In other words, one thing is how the something comes out of the nothing, and that is possible to understand with a total understanding through all the הסברים and דמיונות, משלים.

Concept Takes Root in the Mind 4:49

Right. בלשון אידיש, לייגט זיך אין מוח זייער. It lies real good in the brain. This is something that can be explained until it ממש lies good in your brain.

והב' ענין בחינת העין אלקי המהווה אותו ואיך שהוא נבדל בערך להיותו בלתי בעל גבול כולו. The other thing is to understand that when you're learning how it comes into being, there is the ענין of where it's coming into being from, which is the עין אלקי, which is totally infinite. And by infinite, really it doesn't even mean infinite like most people think, like infinite number or something like that.

It means totally infinite, it's totally undefined. וזהו נעלם מעין השכל בהשגה גמורה. This is not really to be understood in a total השגה. רק מכל מקום, יוברק מבורק בזכירה בעלמא במוחי אמיתת ענינו. Just remember, יוברק מבורק is an ענין of חכמה. The first one, right, as he said, בהשגה גמורה is an ענין of בינה, and at the same time you should have like a flash of what it's really talking about.

Right. בזכירה בעלמא במוחי אמיתת ענינו, in other words, is that even though the explanation can't really tell you really what you're talking about, there should be a flash of חכמה into what it what it really is, כמו שהוא, how it really is.

אבל הוא בבחינת ההעלם, but it's in a way of ההעלם, כאילו נתאמת הדבר בראיה חושית, like like as if he this thing became real to him

in a in in a physical way of seeing. In other words, a mental seeing is like a physical seeing. Like for instance,

like with an airplane. There's two things. There's one thing that I could explain to you some to somebody who never heard of an airplane, you could explain to them the whole ענינים of an airplane and aerodynamics and the mathematics of it until they can understand that, you know, this thing could work.

You know, like like like the Wright brothers, for instance, there never was an airplane, and yet they figured, hey, let's, you know, according to aerodynamics, and look, birds can fly and stuff like that, so we can make an airplane work.

But then there's a ענין of somebody that you didn't understand nothing to you didn't explain nothing to him, but he saw an airplane fly.

Right. So, a guy like that, you couldn't even convince that there can't be such a thing as an airplane. Right. Because he saw it. He says, what do you mean there's no such thing as an airplane? I saw it.

A guy who saw it, you can't like a guy who explained it, like even let's say somebody who has all the explanations, but I can give you let's say better explanations that it's not possible, and you can convince him that it's not possible.

But somebody who saw an airplane fly, there's no way to convince him out of it. Right. So in a way this thing of the בורק, even though it's in a בחינה of ההעלם, it's not really an explanation and he doesn't really know the פרטים,

in a way it's a stronger התאמתות than the explanation. The same like with airplane, the guy who saw the airplane, there's no way you can convince him that there's no such thing as an airplane. Right. והוא ההפרש בין ראיה דחכמה, כח מה שבנפש, שרואה בלא בראיה חושית, כי אם ראיה שכלית. We're talking about he sees with his mind's eye.

בהברקה בהברקה למעלה מן ההשגה, he sees a flash of the thing, למעלה מהשגה גמורה, not really in a way of chopping it in an explanation.

ועל כן ההתפעלות מזה אינה רק בבחינת הביטול

is is in a way of a nullification to the idea. שהוא רק העדר הרגשת עצמו מכל וכל וכו', that it means that the basic thing of the התפעלות from the חכמה is the lack of feeling of himself.

Right. בלשון אידיש, ער ווערט צערירט צערירט פון ארט ואינו מרגיש גם זה גופא. He's totally removed from feeling, and even this he doesn't feel. Right. In other words, he doesn't even feel that he's not feeling it.

The Paradox of Not Feeling 9:31

Why? Because when he has the flash, all he's feeling is the flash, and he's not feeling himself, and he doesn't even realize that he doesn't feel himself. Right.

And that's the sign of the flash of חכמה. So that's the difference בין like it says before, it says והוא הפרש, like a few lines back, והוא הפרש בין בחינת ראיית החכמה, and now it goes ובין בחינת שמיעת הבינה. Right. שבא בהשגה גמורה ממש, meaning that the השגה into the משלים and into the stuff is ממש in the השגה that actually you're You know what השגה means.

השגה means like from משיג גבול. You know what a משיג גבול is? Right. That he moves the fence into the other guy's property. Right. Means that he actually goes into the other guy's property. And this is what what it means השגה, that your mind actually goes into the actual רשות of this thing.

בהשגה גמורה ממש, שהוא באיכות התהוות היש מאין כנ״ל, that it is in how the something comes out from the nothing, like with the various ideas of how the various עולמות בי״ע come out of מלכות דאצילות, and and and also the ענין of יחודא עילאה, שההתפעלות מזה הוא השמחה במורגש בטוב לב.

Which the the the the the the התפעלות from this is exactly the opposite. It's not that he doesn't feel himself, just the opposite, he does feel himself more and more. וכל שמשיג יותר, יותר טוב לו. The more he understands, the happier he is. Right.

בלשון אידיש, עס איז זייער גוט ומחיה לנפש, a real good thing and a real מחיה for him. Right. ממש a מחיה. Wow, I mean, I'm getting such big השגות and I'm ממש growing and growing with this thing, and he feels that he's getting bigger.

He actually feels it. He actually feels it's a good thing for him, and he's getting bigger. וכל שמעמיק יותר, יותר ישיג, יותר משיג. And the more that he looks deeper into it, he understands more, he he כאפּט more. Right. ובבחינת ראיית החכמה הוא להיפך.

And the ראייה of חכמה is exactly opposite. כל שיעמיק יותר, יותר יפלא ממנו. The more he looks into it, the farther away it is. Right. So that somebody who doesn't know חסידות at all says, when he says the אויבערשטער, he thinks that we live on the first floor and the אויבערשטער lives on the second floor.

Depth Brings Greater Distance 12:10

Right. When somebody learns a little bit more, he says, well, the אויבערשטער lives on the tenth floor. Right. Then it becomes like the Empire State Building, then he says, oh no, it's like in the clouds.

Right. And then afterwards, he says, no, it's like all the way up to the moon. Right. Each time it goes farther and farther away. The more he looks into it, the farther and farther like like the idea that somebody didn't learn חסידות, how far he thinks the אויבערשטער is from him,

they almost think that it's like almost the אויבערשטער is almost like a physical thing almost. Right. But like a spiritual physical thing, you know, like made out of air or something, you know? Right. So that we're made out of lead and the אויבערשטער is made out of helium or something like that, you know? It's almost like that. Whereas the more you learn חסידות, the more you see that it's like totally, totally beyond.

And this thing that is totally beyond is even מלכות דעשיה. Right. Never mind like higher level. And the more the more he's מעמיק, יותר יפלא ממנו מהות בחינת האין האלקי המהווה. The actual what it is, not the מציאות. In other words, מציאות is is knowing what the various relationships are, but what it really is, it goes farther and farther away. Right. כולו בהפלאת הערך יותר ויותר עד שייצר וידאג כולו.

Like till he's finally it ממש makes him sad and he he worries that it's going farther and farther away. How will I ever understand this at all? How will I have a connection to this? Right. כמו שמבואר בכתבים.

ולפי זה, הרי כל מעיין בדרך כלל, בדרך פרט, anybody who learns properly in a דרך פרט like what he explained in chapter four, יבוא לכלל ב' ענינים האלו בהתבוננות, בהעלם וגילוי, בהתפעלות בהתפעלות הנולדת, in terms of the the העלם of the thing and the גילוי of the thing, meaning the העלם of the אין המהווה and the גילוי of the יש המתהווה.

Right. And the התפעלות הנולדת, the התפעלות that he should get out of it, ב' הפכים, right, simultaneously.

הם: לבו דואג בקרבו הן לבו דואג בקרבו על עוצם הפלאת ההשגה באין אלוקי המהווה וכולי, which gives him a feeling of nothingness, that he's like, right, like a total nothing.

And this is where the true humility comes from, not from not from מוסר'ינג yourself out, you know. Right. The real, true humility is not that you think that, \"Oh, I am not so great like Einstein.\" That's not just that's not such a true humility. That's like, you know, like like you're saying, \"Well, I'm not so tall like Magic Johnson.\" Right. Yeah, but there's some kind of an ערך.

Right. Like a guy that saw עוג מלך הבשן, and they tell him, \"Hey, we're going to the circus to see an a a giant,\" and they go to the circus and they show him a guy that's ten feet tall. And they say, \"Here, look at the giant.\" He says, \"Is that a giant?\" Because he's used to עוג מלך הבשן that can lift up a mountain. Right. He's used to a giant is like a thousand feet tall or something like that, that משה רבינו was was what?

Eighteen feet tall and he jumped eighteen feet up in the air and his sword was eighteen feet, that means fifty-four feet, and he hit the guy in the ankle. Right.

His ankle was fifty-four feet up. And here they're showing him a guy with ten ten feet tall, you know, so he says, \"That's a giant?\" So this is the same thing over here as far as the as far as the the more he understands, the more he is בטל. Right. And the more is the עוצם ההפלאה, the bigger the bigger the giant gets. Before he thought it's a ten-foot giant, now he sees, \"Wait a minute, if you jump fifty feet up in the air, you're just going to hit his his his ankle.\" Right.

So לבו דואג בקרבו על עוצם הפלאת ההשגה באין אלוקי המהווה וכולי. So that's the two ענינים: one, that he ממש worries about how far this thing is away from him, and the second thing, ושמחה מהשגה בבחינת באחדות התהוות המתהווה וכולי, at the same time he is very happy from what he understood and how the something comes out of the nothing. Right. כמו על דרך דוגמה המתבונן בדרך פרט בהתהוות הגלגלים מעין אלוקי שיורד מבחינת כלים חיצוניות דמלכות דמלכות דעשיה.

You notice here he he he's talking about דווקא the lowest things. Right. That ממש something that you can see, that you look around and you see the the sun and the moon and the stars are going around the Earth, and the Earth is also a big ball going around and around. And how this comes out from the כלים חיצוניים דמלכות דמלכות דעשיה שהוא רק מבחינת כלי חיצוניות והארה דהארה לבד, המאיר בנפש של זה הגלגל בהשגתו במהווה, you see?

ועל דרך זה, and the same thing, גם במלאכים דבריאה דאינון מבינים וכולי, that the מלאכים of בריאה have an understanding in the בינה, which is the the sky above them. Right. ומשיגים כח אלוקי דמלכות דמלכות דאצילות כולא המהווה אותם. They have an השגה in the כח אלוקי of מלכות דמלכות דאצילות that is מהווה אותם. So he gave you here another thing. You notice that, you know, everybody says there's there's there's ייחודא עילאה and ייחודא תתאה.

Really, in ייחודא תתאה there's another one: this physical world, how it comes out of מלכות דמלכות of of of עשיה. Then there is the בי\\"ע that comes out of מלכות דמלכות of אצילות, and then there's אצילות that comes out of מלכות of מלכות of אין סוף. Right. המהווה אותם. הרי זהו המושג בהשגה, this is understood in actual השגה, ויפעל מגדולת הבורא, ואיך שהמלאכים בטלים בתמידות כמו שנאמר וצבא השמים לך משתחוים, look that the whole universe is so big and so gigantic with these stars, each star is like it's a gigantic atomic explosion, and all that power of the entire universe is like nothing compared to what מלכות of מלכות of עשיה is.

Right. מציאותם וכולי, אבל בחינת האין אלוקי דמלכות דעשיה המהווה אותם, really, what is מלכות of מלכות of עשיה really? נעלם מהותם מהשגה, what it actually is, we understand the relationship of the world to it, the מציאות. Right. But the actual מהות נעלם מן ההשגה. Well, actually ממילא הוא מוכרח

בהשגה, he has to, it's not that he actually understands what it is, it's just that the mind, the logic dictates that it must be like that. Right.

Logic dictates that if the whole universe is so big and so strong that even the sun, and just imagine what an explosion is and what an atomic explosion is, and the sun is a gigantic atomic explosion with such amazing amounts of power, and the sun is just a tiny little dot in terms of the whole universe. Right. And also the amount of power for all those stars to actually go around and around, you know, there's fantastic amounts of powers involved over there.

Right. And all of that is coming from מלכות of מלכות דעשייה, so the mind is מחייב, what an amazing thing מלכות of מלכות דעשייה must be. Right. But not that he actually understands really what it is.

Right. It's just a מוכרח בהשגה. אחר התאמתות אופן העניין של התהוות היש, after he goes through the explanation and it's מאומת to him how the יש, the יש of the גלגלים is מתהווה from מלכות of מלכות דעשייה, and not even from מלכות of מלכות דעשייה, but really from just the end of the היכלות of מלכות of מלכות דעשייה, right, לשמאל האופנים.

So then if, once he understands the התהוות היש from this, so he says, wow, what it must be! Right. It's a מוכרח בהשגה, it's just his mind dictates that if this is only this little bit that comes from what comes out of it, imagine what it is! Right. Okay, ובבחינת העלם לבדו מושג, but it's really only understood as a מוכרח בהשגה in a way of העלם, not that he actually gets it.

Right. ובהפלאה בערך נבדל דווקא, in a total just an amazement. Right. The התפעלות is like the התפעלות from understanding how the whole thing and you think the גלגלים and this goes around this and that goes around that, etc., etc., that he understands.

But the actual thing that and from that he gets שמחה, but from thinking about what the actual מלכות of מלכות דעשייה is, what he gets is a wow. Right. A wow means an amazement, a הפלאה. A פלא, right. A פלא. Wow, what what a פלא! What it has to be, you know, just I can't even imagine.

Means really it's not that imagine what it is, it's really the התפעלות is I can't even imagine. Means it's totally מופלא from him, totally removed from him. Right. And so it's מושג בהפלאה בערך נבדל דווקא of how separate it is. וכך הוא בהתבוננות בפרטיות באצילות באורות וכלים, כמו באצילות ערך חסד שבמלכות ובאצילות ערך חסד שבחכמה, that he understands the relationships.

ואיך שנאצל, how it comes out in אצילות, יושג על דרך דמיון וכהאי גוונא. Oh, no, sorry, יושג על דרך דמיון מהאור הנאצל למטה בגילוי מהעלם העצמות.

He understands it, and again, it's not that he actually understands what really the אצילות is, he understands the relationships of the אצילות according to the משלים down here, כמו ויאצל מן הרוח דמשה. It's the same thing, like how משה was מאציל from his רוח on the זקנים, but not that nothing was lost to משה. Right. וכהאי גוונא and the various other משלים, ויושג גם כן בעניין התהוות מידות דאצילות.

So this also can be understood in השגה, in the עניין of the התהוות of the מידות of אצילות, גם שהם בחינת מקוריים נבדלים מן ההשפעה אלוקית בנבראים, even though they're really מקוריים which are really totally different from the actual השפעה אלוקות into the בי״ע. That really the actual מידות of אצילות have nothing to do with בי״ע. Right. Even though they're מקוריים to בי״ע, but really they're totally totally נבדלים from בי״ע, and it's only from מלכות of מלכות דאצילות, not even from מלכות of אצילות that that comes out the whole thing of בי״ע.

And he can understand this עניין, how the

מידות of אצילות are really מקוריים נבדלים. כולו, אבל בחינת אין האמיתי המאיר עליהם מאור עצמות המאצילם לא יושג אף בדמיון שכל. That cannot even be understood with a דמיון. Right. כי אם בהעלם לבד. Just in a way of a העלם, like we said before, it's a מוכרח השגה. You have to say that it must be so. Right. והוא בבחינת ראיית השכל שלמעלה מן ההשגה. And that's the thing, that the שכל sees that there's something that's higher than the actual understanding.

In other words, in understanding there's two things, in any level, in understanding in חסידות. One thing is that you understand the actual explanation into the התהוות היש מן האין, and the other thing is that simultaneously you see that there's something that's totally higher than the understanding over here. Right.

And and it has to be simultaneous. If you don't understand, if you think that you're really getting it, now this is what the thing is. You know, if you look in the הקדמה to עץ חיים, what what what he says there, and this is in many, in many many kabbalistic books and Hasidic books, what they tell you is if you think that you actually understand, then then then you don't understand.

Thinking You Understand Means You Actually Don’t 26:15

Right. So you say, \"What do you mean? I I understand.\" Like over here, especially in this book. Well, maybe עץ חיים is not so easy to understand, but look over here, we understand. He says, \"Yeah, yeah, you understand the explanation, and you understand this התהוות היש מן האין.

But at the same thing at the same time, it's not that you should not understand, just the opposite. You should understand that there's something that's beyond the understanding.\" Right. And if you don't get that, you lost the whole point.

Right. It means that even the stuff that you understand you're not understanding properly because you didn't understand you did not understand the explanation properly because it didn't point you to the to the part that's beyond the understanding, the מוכרח השגה. Right.

In other words, you didn't get how fantastically removed from you מלכות דמלכות דעשיה is, then you didn't then you really didn't understand the ענין of how the something came out from the nothing. I need to flip the tape, יוסי. Yeah, go ahead.