Part 8 · Chapter 10

Essence vs. Details: The Core Concept 0:01

What he's doing here is he's showing us that the idea of an essence, the idea of a היולי, that type of a relationship, that you have something that's that's higher than the details, it's a higher essence, it's a higher thing, and when you have that point, you automatically have all the details.

And that's a a a singular point. So he showed us the that in the example of kindness, and he says that the same thing applies to any other attribute. And then he says, but really there's a higher essence, that you can really find an essence that unites all of the ten attributes. Even though if you look at each attribute relative to what comes out from it, kindness has a certain essence, and that's the essence of all the kind deeds.

And גבורה, justice, is the essence of everything that comes out from it, of all the just deeds. Then if you put all ten attributes together, the if you the human attributes, you find that there's an essence that unites them all, and that's the human essence. But then, really if you'll continue, you can go higher, and you can find you can look there's a human element, and there's an animal element, and a plant element, and there's all these different, you know, and there's angels and whatever, there's all different types of things.

And if you look, you'll find that there's really an essence that's behind all of them, and that's the godly essence. And you can keep going higher and higher, I mean, even within godliness there's like the way that godliness is revealed within the ten ספירות, which is I mean, but that's already the next chapter is going to explain those ideas. But that's the the the basic idea of what he's trying to do, is that he first gives us an the analogy of an essence in a simpler, more concrete example of the relationship of kindness to shoes and coats, and then he says that that shows us how that's the case with the essence of the soul to all the ten attributes, which is like a higher essence.

Right. So, it's understood that all of the ten self-attributes, the essential attributes of the essence of the soul are really all one. We can't say that they're like separate things that unite in יחידה. Why not? Why can't we say that? מאחר שאינם נבדלים מן העצם כלל,

because each of these attributes are not separate from the essence at all, from the self at all. So you cannot have wisdom without a a person, and you cannot have kindness without a person. They are inseparable from the essence the behind it, which is the human essence. כמו מדת חפץ חסד ההיולי הנ״ל, like for example, the attribute of kindness that only people have this thing of kindness really, שמוטבע בטבעיות ועצמיות, that it's impressed in his nature and in his self, that it's not like a separate thing from him that you could say that it's like was put on him, but rather it's just impressed into that's just like a it's it's it's a property that he has.

Like for example, just the idea of that like something is impressed in the nature of it, like when you say that like water, water has a lot of properties that it can boil at a certain temperature, freeze at a certain temperature, dissolves things, it's a liquid at room temperature, and when it freezes it expands, and all these different properties. Now, you can't find a certain part of the water that freezes and a different part that boils and a different part that dissolves things.

Water Analogy for Inseparable Attributes 3:41

That and and that you could say that it's like that there's like, you know, like a car, there's the engine, and that's what makes it pulls it, and then there's the wheels, you know, and they're separate things, and you could take them out. You could take the engine of a car out of it, and then you would have a car that only works downhill. And you could take that engine that you took out of the car and use it to run something else.

Cuz, but but with like water you can't really take There's not like just like one part of it that you could take out and leave the rest of the properties there without that one, because they're none of them have a physical existence. They're just part of the nature of this molecule.

Yeah, so that essence just has these properties. If you have water, you have all of them. It's an all-or-nothing deal. It automatically has all these properties by by just way of what it is.

Now there it's not a perfect analogy because, you know, he doesn't give that analogy here. I'm not I'm not saying this is an analogy really for what we're saying, I'm just giving explaining what he means by it's impressed in the in the nature and in the the self. In other words, that is the the nature of people. That is human nature. That that that if you If there is a person, then he has these attributes automatically.

Kindness Inherent in Every Person 5:00

That people, all people, just by way of being a person, have a thing of being kind. They have that potential within them of kindness. That's it. It's not like there's a separate thing that you could take out and have a person without the kindness and it'll still be a person. It's all or nothing. If you have a person, then that's that's it, they have this thing. If a person that doesn't seem to show the capacity for kindness, then they say he's not a person, he's a monster.

Because every person has that within them. And really, even those kind of people have it within them, they just don't show it so much.

Yeah, a person, that's their thing, also. Like a person that looks like they're only kind and they never get angry and are never, you know what I mean, they so they say, oh, he's you know, they say he's not human, maybe they say he's an angel, they say whatever, they but they they say it's not like a person, you know? And then when they see that the person gets angry, they say, oh, now I see that you're human.

Yeah, this is a inextricable part of human nature, that they have this thing of kindness, and also they have a thing of justice and severity, you know, that people have a certain sense of justice that's natural to them.

שהוא חלק אחד הנמשך מעצם הנפש ממש שלמעלה מאיזה חפץ חסד בעצמיות. The idea of kindness is only one detail that comes from the essence of the soul, which really the your the essence of the soul is really higher than being kindness. A person is not defined by kindness like we just said, that really you have to also have justice and you also have you also have to have the other things.

Kindness Is Only One Aspect of the Soul 6:11

It's not just You can't define the totality of a person as being kindness, which I I can't hold myself back even though we're not talking about the נמשל yet, for sure you can't define God as being you can't say that His totality is kindness. To mean that God is only kindness and does not have גבורה is is heresy. That's making God more limited even than a person.

So, even though that the real essence of a person is higher than kindness, you can't say that's define that's who I am, that I am kindness, that's it. No, I'm me, you know? So, that's only like one aspect of who I am.

שזו ענין פרטי ממהות העצם הפשוטה בתכלית. This is only one little aspect of my real self which is really simple, completely simple, and it's above these things, that I'm something higher that transcends kindness, and I don't and I don't have to be nice if I don't want to. I mean, that's why you have choice of how to act, because you're you're really higher than any of these things, and you can choose which way to express yourself.

מכל מקום אי אפשר לומר בו שמתאחד עם מידת ניצוח היולי שנטוע בעצם הנפש. Nevertheless, even though the kindness is only one aspect of your self, but you can't say that it's like a separate thing that unites with the attribute of like victory, of winning, competitiveness and stuff, that's in you. You can't say they're like two separate things and that they they're coming together within you, they're being like put together.

Kindness and Competitiveness Within One Essence 7:40

מאחר שמיוחדים שניהם בעצמות, ואינם נבדלים כלל וכלל מן העצם, because they're totally one in the yourself, and they're not at all separate from yourself, they're just really you. There aren't these two things of kindness and competitiveness, and that you put them together and get you.

There's just you, and automatically when you're put into a situation that has a potential for kindness, so then you can bring out yourself in a way of kindness. When you come into a situation that has a potential for competition, you, you know, the the the the the idea of competition comes out. That human essence just express itself in different areas in different ways, but it's really one simple thing.