Part 3 · Chapter 6

Bitul vs Simcha: The Opposite of Joy 0:09

אם רק משה אמר בישמח בך, הנה כן כידוע דהביטול היפך השמחה בחוכמה דווקא, that the ביטול is actually the opposite of שמחה, you feel like you're nothing.

Right. Whereas שמחה, the thing, the whole thing of שמחה is like דווקא, you know, when he's at a wedding and he drank a bunch of booze and he's jumping around, that's שמחה. You know, the whole thing of שמחה is like a bunch of Cossacks, they feel they're something. Right. You know, and everybody's dancing and and knocking everybody else on the back and stuff like that, that's שמחה, right?

Right. Whereas ביטול is actually the opposite of שמחה, בחוכמה דווקא, והשמחה בבינה.

So what's going on, he's saying what's going on here? Right. אך העניין הוא, now is the explanation, כי ידוע שבכל דבר יש היפוכו. In everything there is also its opposite.

וגם שנגלה לו היפוכו ממש, and even though it appears to be ממש its total opposite, אדרבה, מזה עצמו נראה לעין שכל כוחו אינו בא רק מכוח המנגדו ממש.

From this itself we see from the fact that it it's its total opposite, we see that the whole power of it comes דווקא from the opposite. Right. So what he means over here that the power of understanding comes from not understanding.

Understanding Springs from Not Understanding 1:32

The whole push of understanding is when you don't understand something. That's what pushes you to want to understand. To want to understand. It's דווקא the not understanding that pushes you to understand.

Right. So it means that the the push to understand is to understand what you don't understand. Right. So the thing in understanding itself, in בינה, he's saying it's not only that the the the בינה of חסידות is into אלוקות, he's saying the whole thing of בינה is דווקא into אלוקות,

because that's the most non-understandable thing. Right. Other things you could say, "Well, those could be understood." Right. This, it's not just that you don't understand it, it's non-understandable.

Bina’s Drive Toward the Divine 2:33

Right. So the whole push of בינה and the whole real עניין of בינה is דווקא the בינה into the אלוקות itself. Because that's the exact opposite of it. Right. So therefore, the whole push of בינה is דווקא into the אלוקות. Where is it? שלפי ערך כוח המנגד, כך ימצא כוח היפוכו ממש. And this is like also in the ספרים, in the in the the עונג and the the צער, the בכיה and the חדוה.

According to how much you miss somebody, that's how much you want him to be there and that's how how happy you'll be when he's there. Right. That it's דווקא the power of the opposite that that gives the power to the thing. Right. על כן כדבר, אם כן. אם כן, כדבר אחד ממש הוא, that means that it's really ממש one thing, כמו העונג והצער, שלפי ערך כוח התענוג בדבר מה, כך ממש לפי ערך ימצא כוח התפעלות הצער, שהוא גירעון אצל העונג המנגדו.

And that's how much you're going to want the thing. דהיינו, אם יעמוד לנגדו דבר לבטל העונג ההוא, להיות מן ההיפך, כולו, that if something will prevent him from having this thing, Right. that's how much צער he's going to have, according to how much עונג he had. Right.

וכן להיפך, ערך העונג מדבר מה לא יוכר רק לפי ערך הצער בהעדר אותו הדבר. Exactly the same. Yeah. כולו. So it means הרי כוח אחד הוא ממש, it's ממש one thing.

So the understanding is actually the non-understanding. That the whole power of understanding comes from not understanding. Right. As you see דווקא that let's say you understood this very good, let's say if let's say if like כביכול if we would understand this better than the מיטעלער רבי. Then we wouldn't read this book. Right.

The whole reason we're reading this book is because we don't understand it. Right. So that means that the actual power of בינה is the power of not understanding.

Right. That's the whole thing. If you think about it into anything, that you see somebody who's trying to understand something real real hard, and he's working and he's doing בינה, he's doing התבוננות, he's thinking about it, what does it mean? It means that he doesn't understand it. Right. So the same thing, the real power of בינה, what he's saying here is the real power of בינה, in a way, more than all the other ספירות, is עצמות אלוקות.

That's what the power of בינה is. The power of בינה is ממש מושרש Huh? Because that's the ununderstandable. That's the totally ununderstandable thing there is.

Right. You know, and that means that בינה is מושרש in אלוקות in a way more than anything else. Right. Because אלוקות is the total antithesis of בינה. Right. That's what אלוקות is. אלוקות is the total ununderstandable. Right. And it's more so in בינה than anything else.

Like in love or fear, it's not the total antithesis. דווקא in בינה. Even in חכמה, like the whole thing in חכמה is that the whole ענין of חכמה, you see that it's not the opposite of חכמה really. In a way it is, to a certain extent, but not like בינה.

In בינה, it's ממש the total antithesis of בינה, it's the total opposite of בינה. So it means that that's what בינה really is. Right. What בינה really is, is עצמותו ומהותו, which is its opposite. Right. That's the opposite power from בינה. Right. In other words, of all the things that you can't understand, that's the thing that you can most not understand. Right. Of anything. And not only that you don't understand it yet, but you could understand it, but it's ממש totally non-understandable.

Right. Which in this it's in בינה even more than in חכמה.

That in חכמה you can like have a flash or like an intuitive thing into אלוקות, not that it's actually into אלוקות. Right. But it's still not the total opposite of it.

But what he's telling you here that the עצמות is בינה. That's what the עצמות is. Right. Because it's כח אחד ממש. And the עצמות is the totally non-understandable.

So since it's the opposite, that's the power of בינה. The actual power of בינה is the עצמות. What you can't understand. Like we said, that the power that drives somebody to understand something is the fact that he doesn't understand it. Right. Right? כח אחד ממש. Yeah, but on the other hand, when someone knows that something is unattainable, then he

gives up hope of it, no? Well, it depends how much תענוג there is in it. That is not really true. You look at a heroin addict, he knows that he can't get that first high anymore.

Right. But he's still trying. Right. You know?

So, it's because of the תענוג. Also, that thing. I mean, the צער, the צער can put him into a melancholy, so he'll stop trying. That's because of melancholy, עצבות. Right. But that's the whole thing that he explains, you're supposed to have מרירות, not עצבות.

מרירות is the opposite power that דווקא drives you. Right. You know? Where are we? כח אחד כח אחד הוא ממש, רק שנחלק לב' קווין שוין ממש is two equal lines going in two different directions, ושקולים, and they weigh exactly בלתי יתר כח אחד על הב', אפילו כקוצו של יו''ד. So the צער and the תענוג is exactly the same. Right. So the same thing, the not understanding and the drive to understand is exactly the same.

Right. So, the drive to understand is the strongest in אלוקות. Right. More than anything else. Right. To the point that you can say that that is the actual מהות of בינה is the מהות of the אייבערשטער.

Because if you look very closely, you see that the מהות of בינה into anything else, like you want to understand your children, you want to understand psychology, it finally comes down to one thing, that it's really what you want to understand is אלוקות. Right.

And that, of course, is why the eighth king doesn't die. Because no matter what it is that he's trying to understand, the real ענין that he's trying to understand is דוקא אלוקות. So, he can't really become disconnected, even if he's disconnected for a while, because the whole thing of בינה is that it can get hung up in the in the details. Details. But it doesn't matter. The real essence of it is דוקא into אלוקות.

Right. That that's what that's what he really wants to know. That's what he really wants to know. Right. אפילו כקוצו של יוד, not even like a a dot.

וכן החדוה והבכיה, so the same thing with חדוה and בכיה, שלפי ערך החדוה שהוא עונג המורגש בגילוי אלקות בהשגתו כנ"ל, exactly according to how much he's enjoying what he what is his השגה into the גילוי אלקות, exactly according to that, כך יומתק קו הב' שיוצא ממנו מכח דק, שהוא הבכיה על העדר גילוי האור בנפשו, מצד הסתר אלקות. Means, Right. that the בכיה is דוקא according to how much you understand.

Right. So, it means the more חסידות you learn, the more you're going to be bothered about what you don't understand. Right. 'Cause it's לפי ערך. Right. So that a guy that doesn't understand nothing, it doesn't bother him at all.

Right. And it's דוקא according to the חדוה that he has, that's how much בכיה he'll have.

So that דוקא a guy that knows a whole bunch of חסידות, it'll totally bother him till he till he's totally what it says, מואס בחייו ממש, שבחייו כל זה לא שוה. Means if they tell him, "Ah, what if we make you Bill Gates and you'll be a super zillionaire,

but you'll have to give up חסידות?" There's no way, man. Right, it's that's not possible. Not possible. And he can't even stand the whole life and the whole world. He says, "I can't take this world. משיח has to come, so that we'll be able to sit and study the whole time." And not get tired.

And not get tired, and we'll the whole time will be just one giant פֿאַרברענגען, Right. because, you know, פֿאַרברענגען means you study חסידות. That's the whole the real ענין what Of course. you see by the רבי. You see by the רבי, that's what a real thing of פֿאַרברענגען is. And a פֿאַרברענגען means you study, and eat, and sleep, and everything is right there at the table.

Right. And even in the in between the מאמרים, you sing a song, it's all part of the חסידות.

Right. שהוא הבכיה על העדר גילוי האור בנפשו, מצד הסתר אלקות, עד שמואס בחייו ממש, till it totally he he says, "I can't take my life anymore.

Every day I have to go to work, and I have to do this and that. משיח has to come." Like what the רמב"ם says, that's the פסק דין of the רמב"ם in הלכה, that why did they want משיח?

It wasn't because of all the external things, מעדנים כעפר, Right. but because that will give them the time to study חסידות. וכל שטעם טעם עונג אלקי בחדוה יתירה, the more he tasted the taste of godliness, יותר יתמרמר בנפשו מהפוכו. Right. Means somebody who never tasted a steak doesn't long for it.

Right. וכן להיפך, and also the opposite, מערך עומק המרירות והבכיה למאוס בחייו הגשמיים, that he totally cannot take his physical life anymore, ניכר ערך כח העונג והחדוה באלקות, כמה ערך כחו. From that, you can see how much pleasure he's going he's getting in אלוקות, Right. how how strong it is. Why? כי ב' קוין הללו שקולים מאד בשוה, ממש equal, כנ"ל, דהיינו בכיה מסטרא דא וחדוה מסטרא דא בשקול אחד בשווה ממש.

וכמו כן למעלה מזה בבחינת עונג הנעלם שבחכמה, the same thing in the עונג הנעלם שבחכמה, שמזה בא בחינת הביטול מעצמותו לגמרי. He doesn't even know he's there anymore. Right. The לשון אידיש צו טראגן גאר פון זיך, he's totally gone from himself.

מעומק עונג הנעלם בעצמיותו שלו, from the עונג הנעלם

into the עצמות, from the from the flash of the הפלאה. וכו', הרי היפוכו הבא מכוחו, the opposite of it, הוא עניין השלכת נפשו מנגד בכל דבר המנגד לזה, that he'll totally throw his life away against anything that will stop him from this. Right. שהוא בכלל בבחינת הרגשת עצמו.

That means anything that will make him feel himself. Right. דהיינו למאוס בחייו בתכלית התבטלות אמיתית, to totally be מואס in his life, מה לי בשמים, what do I have to do with anything in heaven, ועמך לא חפצתי בארץ, and what do I want from anything on earth? Other than You. Don't bother me with heaven, and don't bother me with earth. I want only חסידות.

Right. כלה שארי ולבבי, my meat and my heart is gone. I have nothing to do with my emotions and I have nothing to do with my meat. Right. כי ב' כוונות שקולים בשווה הן כנ״ל וד״ל, 'cause it's ממש the same thing. The עונג and the בכיה is ממש the same thing. Right. And like, what he's basically saying here is also that in in חכמה also, that the חכמה is דאווקא into the עצמות.

Right-o. Why? Because the whole thing of חכמה is that he feels that he doesn't have it. Right, it's the הפלאה. It's the הפלאה. But the but the main thing of that is דאווקא in בינה. Because חכמה, the עניין of חכמה is דאווקא the אין.

Right. So the fact that he doesn't have it, that's the עניין of חכמה. It's not it's not a total negation. It's דאווקא in בינה that it's a total negation of it. Right. So the same thing really, the total negation of it also in חסד, for instance, there is there is a negation that why the חסד is דאווקא into the עצמות. The love, the real love is דאווקא into the עצמות.

Because he feels that he it's impossible to love God properly.

Right. But he can love God a little bit. Right. But in בינה, he can't understand God at all. Right. Even with all the explanations and everything, he feels that he's not really understanding God a little bit, he's not understanding God at all, totally. It's a total lack.

Right. So, whereas all the other things are, it's also the opposite of them, so therefore that's the real עניין of all the מדות that like we understand. We say, what do you mean, the בינה comes from אלוקות and the other מדות don't? We know that all the בינות all the מדות comes from אלוקות. Right. And it says, והוא מכל אינון מדות כולא, the love is to all the מדות, it's the opposite from all the מדות.

Right. But nothing like בינה. And that's why the whole עניין is בינה שבבינה,

'cause that's the strongest power into אלוקות. Right. Okay, I got to get going now. So start that sentence from the beginning. Did you start it yet? Yeah, it's started. Yeah, so the thing about the בינה, we were thinking about the בינה, that the בינה is a very special ספירה in terms of that, you know, we said that the בינה is דאווקא into the עצמות. Right. Because it totally is the the lack of the thing is a כף שקול of the thing.

Right. The opposite of the thing is a כף שקול of the thing. So like in in a couple of ways you see the differences between בינה and all the other ספירות. One of the things is that דאווקא in בינה, the lack of בינה causes you to want to have בינה. Right. Where in the other ספירות it's not necessarily like that. For instance, the lack of רצון for something does not make you want to want it.

Right. Also, The lack of תענוג in something does want to make just opposite, you don't want to have a תענוג in it. Right. Even the lack of חכמה, which חכמה is ביטול, the lack of ביטול does not want to make you have ביטול. Right.

And the lack of love or hatred does not want to make you have it. Exactly. The only one that is like that a little bit, not quite the same as בינה, is נצח.

If you're losing, you want to win. Right. Okay, but that's only in a person that already has the מדה of נצח. A person who's not ambition, is not ambitious, which ambition is the מדה of נצח, right? Right. A person who's not ambitious, his lack of ambition does not want to make him have ambition. Right. Even though like a person who is losing wants to win.

But that's really basically in all the מדות, once you have the מדה, the lack of the מדה wants you to have more of it. Right. But the thing is, in בינה you see that even a stupid person who's not a בינה type of person, you say, so wait a minute, doesn't that apply in בינה also? But like you said, a non-ambitious person is not trying to be an ambitious person.

Right. So you see a non-intellectual person is not trying to become an intellectual person. Just opposite, you think they're all eggheads and stuff like that, you know? Right. But you see that it's not true, that even every person, no matter how stupid he is, he wants to be a מבין. So they'll even like people like, you know, like the kind of people around here, if you talk, they'll tell you, you know, the Steelers, you know, why they lost, you know, because, you know, the quarterback, he made that play wrong.

Right. He should have done it like that, and they'll give you a whole analysis. Right. And then they feel like they're a מבין. Right. And everybody has to have a feeling that he's a מבין. Right. And you see their whole ego depends on being a מבין. Right. Even in other things, even like over here, football is a ענין of נצח, but they have to show that they're a מבין, they can tell you the whole thing, well, you know, the strategy was wrong.

Right. And the same thing with anything. If you look at any kind of conversation, like a conversation at the back of the שול, yeah, or a conversation at the pool hall, they're all talking, you know, they'll tell you, you know, well,

you know, the stock market should have been like this and like that, or the politics should have been like, whatever thing they're into, their whole ego depends דווקא on the בינה, because why? Because בינה is a יש.

Right. That it says the whole thing, you know, like the thing from the, you know, the thing from the from the מיטעלער רבי, that the guy came to him and he said that he has a הרגשת היש.

So the רבי told him, you know what הרגשת היש means? So the guy was smart enough to just shut up. So the רבי told him, let me tell you a story.

Originally there was a נחש הקדמוני, and he had a job to do. But then after the after the thing that אדם הראשון realized what happened, the נחש הקדמוני came and he cried to the אויבערשטער and he said, you know, nobody's going to listen to me, they see the נחש הקדמוני, they won't listen to me. They're scared of a snake.

So the אויבערשטער said, don't worry, don't worry, I'll give you a new name. And he gave him a new name, the שטן. And this worked for many years,

and everything was fine. And then people started finding out about the שטן, and nobody wanted to listen to him. So he came crying to the אויבערשטער, he says, how can I do my job?

Nobody wants to listen to the שטן. He said, don't worry, I'll give you a new name. And he called him the יצר הרע. Right.

And then this worked for many, many years, and I think he said that this was good till till the till that the days of the בעל שם טוב. Right. Or something like that, I can't remember the exact dates he gave, he gave them a date for everything, you know, when it changed over. He says, then he came over and he said, nobody wants to listen to the יצר הרע anymore.

So he said, don't worry, I'll give you a new name, the יש. Right. And then it was worked out, you know? Right. And then finally, I guess it was in the days of the מיטעלער רבי or whatever, and the אלטער רבי, I don't remember I don't remember the exact who the cutoffs were, he said, nobody wants Everybody knows about the יש already. No, I think with the בעל שם טוב let them know about the יש.

And he says everybody knows the יש, he says, I'll give you a new name, the הרגשת היש. And he says, and you should realize the הרגשת היש, that's the יש, that's the יצר הרע, that's the שטן, that's the נחש הקדמוני. Right. Okay, so יש is the נחש הקדמוני, when it says that חכמה is a אין and בינה is a יש. Right. Not only that, if you see where the whole יש comes from is the השמאל of בינה.

Right. Where the whole יש comes from. Right. The whole יש of something comes from from בינה. Right. Not only that, it says that as far as the אין upstairs, it's the light that's called the אין. The אור אין סוף is called the אין, the עצמות is called the יש האמיתי. Right. You know, so so the thing is that like the whole both the good and the bad, it all comes out of בינה.

All קליפות come out of בינה. The whole thing comes out of בינה. Everything comes out of בינה. So like the thing is that like you see that the only thing that that's different is the only one that's the same a little bit like it is נצח, right? Right. That by נצח, if you're losing, you want to win. Right. Okay, but there's another thing that even נצח doesn't have.

And like first of all, it's like I said, first of all, like נצח is only by somebody who already has the מידה of נצח. Somebody who is not ambitious doesn't want to be ambitious. Right. But somebody who who who doesn't understand, he wants to understand, and the whole ego of the people, the whole יש of the people is to show that he's a מבין in whatever thing it is.

Right. But then there's another thing in the thing that he said, that בינה is the farthest away from the עצמות. Right. What does that mean? That in that that when it comes to understanding, you don't understand nothing about the עצמות. The whole understanding is דווקא into the into the how the יש comes from the אין. Right. Not into the עצמות. Right. Whereas everything else, so like for instance תענוג and רצון, so the תענוג and רצון is not how much it should be into the עצמות, but it's still a little bit.

Ta'anug and Ratzon’s limited connection 27:01

Same thing with the חכמה. חכמה is ביטול. חכמה is the is the is the הרגשת הפלאה. Right. So the הרגשת הפלאה is not how much it should be, but even But even in somebody who doesn't understand that much, like we said that according to the בינה is the חכמה, but even somebody like a regular person, like still has a little bit of הפלאה into the אייבערשטער. Right.

He's מודה, that's what he calls him the אייבערשטער. Right. Means he's higher. So there's some there is a little bit of הפלאה. Right. You know. And then the same thing with with דעת, which means connection.

Some people are very connected, some people are not very connected, but they're not as connected as they should be, but there's still a little bit of connection. Right. The same thing with love. None of us love the אייבערשטער how we should, but there's still a certain amount of love. Right. A certain amount of fear. And נצח is and נצח is a thing of overcoming your bad habits and stuff like that in order to get closer to the אייבערשטער, so nobody is really that great with נצח like they should be, but in everybody there's at least a little bit of

Love for HaShem: never enough 28:02

overcoming. Right. And same thing with הודאה. You're מודה

that there is Everybody is מודה to some

extent that