Part 1 · Chapter 1

Recap of Previous Sections and Upcoming כתר דאצילות 0:01

פרק א'. So, we just finished explaining in פרק כ"ד, כ"ג and כ"ד, we finished explaining the כתר דאצילות. Now, in פרק כ"ה, the מיטעלער רבי is going to start explaining how כתר דאצילות is נמשך into אבא, אב ואם, חכמה ובינה דאצילות. But he doesn't really explain חכמה ובינה there because he already explained it in פרק א' and ב'. א' and ב' serve like the double purpose of explaining חכמה ובינה as for part of the עשר ספירות, and also explaining חכמה ובינה to explain, and as well as דעת, to explain how to do התבוננות and how they relate to each other in התבוננות.

So now, we're going to learn go back and learn א' and ב', since we didn't we didn't do that yet, to learn about חב"ד, to know for part of the עשר ספירות. So now, let's begin פרק א'.

הנה כבר מבואר באריכות בקונטרס מיוחד. It was already explained at length in a special קונטרס, which that קונטרס refers to קונטרס ההתפעלות. There, it explains בפרטי אופני ההתפעלות במוח ולב ומחשבה שנולד מן ההתבוננות לפי סדר ה' מדרגות נרנח"י וכולי.

Overview of קונטרס ההתפעלות and Levels of Excitement 1:09

In that קונטרס, in קונטרס ההתפעלות, it explains all the particular ways or types of excitement that are born in the mind, heart, and thought from a התבוננות, according to the different levels of the soul, the five levels of the soul, נפש, רוח, נשמה, חיה, יחידה. So there, it explains that there's two levels of מחשבה. There's a cold thought and a hot thought. Then there's excitement in the heart, and there's excitement in the mind, and then there's the excitement of the inner רצון.

Those correspond to נרנח"י. And he explains that there's נרנח"י דנפש הבהמית and there's נרנח"י דנפש האלוקית, and it explains all those details there. But the main point of the קונטרס is that all of these types of התפעלות, which what level of התפעלות you're going to get is mainly determined by how refined you are, your שורש הנשמה, but the main thing is that it should be a true התפעלות, should be true עבודה, and for whatever level you're on, it should be true.

It doesn't really matter what level you're on. And in order for it to be real, for it to be true, it has to come from a התבוננות in אלוקות.

It has to come from a detailed התבוננות in אלוקות. So ומעתה, now, יש לבאר היטב מהות גוף ענין ההתבוננות. So now that we explained that in order to get this this excitement about אלוקות that we should love and fear God as opposed to other things, so now we have to understand what התבוננות is, so that we'll be able to do it. מה היא בעצם, what it is essentially, ובמה יתבונן, and what we should contemplate on.

Defining התבוננות and Its Purpose 3:00

So, we have to understand what exactly התבוננות means, and what to Once you understand what it means, we have to understand and how to do it, we have to know what to do it on. So, this is what is explained by the first nine chapters, but he begins in פרק א' and ב', in פרק א' and ב' by explaining חב"ד in order to explain how to do התבוננות.

והנה מהות ההתבוננות בעצם, the nature of התבוננות or the definition of התבוננות essentially, in other words, just like the technical definition, הוא ענין ההסתכלות החזקה בעומק הענין. It means to gaze very deeply, very strongly into the into the depth of an idea. That means with your mind's eye. You should really focus in on the idea. ולעמוד עליו הרבה, and you should dwell on it for a long time.

It means like to stand over it, meaning to like watch it, look at it, and for a long time means like let that let it take have hold the idea in your mind, and turn it over and over, and examine it from every angle in your mind for a long time, עד שיבין אותו על בוריו, until you understand it clearly, וכל חלקיו, with all of its parts, ופרטי פרטיו, in minute detail.

והוא בחינת פנימיות בינה, and this is called this is the idea of the the פנימיות of בינה, because בינה means to learn, and the פנימיות of בינה is to learn until you understand it clearly with all of its parts, as opposed to the external function of בינה, which is just to understand something at the surface. So, this process of understanding something clearly is הנקרא בלשון הגמרא בשם עיון.

פנימיות vs חיצוניות of בינה: עיון vs גירסא 4:42

This is what the גמרא calls עיון. So now we have our technical definition of התבוננות. התבוננות is synonymous with in-depth study or עיון. To make yourself understand, to examine an idea very well until you understand it clearly with all of its parts and details. And that's the פנימיות of בינה as opposed to גירסא, just learning on the surface level, which is the חיצוניות of בינה. כמו שאמר במסכת סוכה, like it says in גמרא במסכת סוכה, הא למיגרס והא לעיוני.

It says that there's two sages. One would learn to amass knowledge, one would learn the גירסא, והא לעיוני, the other one would learn in depth. So now we explain the difference between גירסא and עיון.

גירסא and עיון are both בינה, because any any type of learning is is a process of בינה. You're analyzing something, you're studying it, that's what it means, you're making yourself understand.

But if you only understand superficially, if you just understand like the surface, so that's not the main thing of בינה. The main thing of בינה is to be able to really understand into a thing, to know all of its little details and all of its parts. Especially the main thing of בינה is to know the details as opposed to just getting like a general idea of it.

פירוש הגירסא, the meaning of גירסא, הוא רק הבנת הדבר בהשקפה ראשונה, is just to understand something with just according to one's first glance. You just look it over once, whatever idea you get, that's it. שילך וינבע אז במהירות,

that you continue on and it actually pours you you like flow onto the next thing very quickly. בלתי עכוב ועמדה כלל, to do

without pausing or stopping to dwell on it at all, as is known. The גירסא means you learn quickly, that you learn just to cover ground and you you learn it once, you get the basic idea and then you go on. על דרך משל המעביר עיניו על דבר מה, this is like a משל of somebody that looks at something with his eye, just, you know, glances at it, ואינו מתבונן כלל על דבר, and he doesn't contemplate at all what he's seeing, באיכותו ומהותו,

of how it works and what it is, בכל חלקיו בפנימיות וחיצוניות, with all of its parts, its internal parts and its external parts, רק דרך מעבר בעלמא, he just glances at it in a passing way. Like, you know, you're walking down the street and some car drives by, okay, so you know it's the car. But you didn't like stop and examine exactly what, you know, kind of car, and exactly and think about how it works, and is it a regular car, or a hybrid car, or, you know, what kind of an engine, how many cylinder engine it might have.

Illustration of גירסא vs עיון with Car Example 7:36

You didn't think about all the details. שבמשך זמן ודאי ישכחהו לגמרי, that surely

with as time passes, you'll totally forget that it happened. It wasn't really important, and it wasn't you didn't really think about it. וגם לא יוכל לספר לזולתו רק כלליות ענייני זה הדבר שראה בהעברת עין,

and even right after you see it, you'll only be able to tell somebody else, if somebody asks, "Oh, what did you see?", you'd be able to tell him the general thing, "Oh, I saw a car."

But you won't be able to tell him the details because it was just seen with a passing eye, ולא בתפיסת עין כלל, that there was no real recognition, real sinking in of the eye at all. תפיסת עין means like recognize all of its little you know, the details until like you you're intimate with the thing that you can recognize it right away. וכן העברת עין השכל באיזה סברא בהשקפה ראשונה, and the same thing applies to passing the mind, just glancing with your mind at some סברא with just the first glance, בלתי עכוב ועמדה לעיין

בהיטב, without pausing and stopping to examine it well, ולא ידע בסברא זו תכליתה כלל, and you don't really know the סברא like this, you will not really know the סברא to its in its fullest at all. You're just you'll have some general idea of the סברא, but like to really understand like what was the question, what was the answer, why are we compelled to say this, why can't we say something else, like to really, you know, what's the support for it, really appreciate all the details, you have to study בעיון.

You have to go in and you have to ask all these questions and find answers, and then ask harder questions, and keep digging until you until it's really clear.

And the same thing with התבוננות, that if a person wants to really understand חסידות, they have to learn it בעיון. Like the רבי says is, you know, just like you learn גמרא בעיון, you have to you should learn חסידות בעיון. You have to really, you know, you have to really learn it.

And also with the world, if you want to see Godliness in the world, if you want to study God's book, then we have to also learn it בעיון. We can't just think that we're just going to walk around You know, life seeing Godliness without stopping and thinking about it, to try to really see what's going on in the or in the world around us, like notice השגחה פרטית and these things.

That's like one of the main ideas of of עבודה. It's not just התבוננות in the book to learn, but התבוננות in the world, also.

Just the books are telling, helping you to, you know, to be able to do that more properly. So now, in order to explain the difference between עיון and גירסא, we're going to explain that every idea has a length, width, and depth. We explain every idea has three dimensions.

And this explanation that he's going to give now is important because we have we kind of have this unasked question: Why does it have to be so?

Why Deep Study (עיון) Is Necessary 10:45

Why is it that we have to, in order to understand something properly, we have to learn בעיון? We have to, like, really go into it, and spend time thinking about it, and ask questions, and examine every detail. Why can't we just learn something once and get it? Let's say we're smart, let's say we're quick, let's say, you know, it actually says places that it's impossible for a person to understand something properly learning it the first time.

That your first השקפה ראשונה, your first glance is never going to grasp the depth of the idea. So why is that, why is it not possible? And the same thing with the world around us. Why isn't it possible for me to walk around and see Godliness? Why do I have to work, and do עבודה, and do this התבוננות? Why do I have to be learning all this stuff in חסידות and, you know, like do עבודה and do התבוננות before דאווענען and during דאווענען, whatever?

Why do I have to do all of that to see Godliness? Why can't I just walk down the street and see it? So this is what we're this is like an unspoken question that we're we're addressing now.