Part 3 · Chapter 40 part 2 to End

Understanding the Root of Letters and Thought 0:00

ומעתה יש להבין דרך פרט בבחינת שורש האותיות, אותיות המחשבה דבינה ותבונה וכו׳, כי הנה מבואר בזהר בכמה דוכתי דאית מחשבה ואית מחשבה וכו׳, דהיינו בחינת מחשבה סתימאה דא״א ומחשבה קדומה דא״ק וכהאי גוונא. והענין הוא דהרצון נקרא גם כן בשם מחשבה בלשון הקדש. Did we do this? Yeah, do it again. Well, we did it. We did the beginning. We only did a little bit. כמו כאשר חשב, כאשר רצה, כי ידוע כי הרצון מלובש מיד במחשבה שבמוח, על כן הרצון והמחשבה שלאחר רצון אחד הוא, ונקרא המחשבה בשם רצון, והרצון בשם מחשבה, כמו מחשבה הקדומה, אז זה רצון הקדום.

כמו כאשר עלה ברצונו, היינו כשעלה במחשבתו וכו׳, ונקרא מחשבה סתימאה. על שם בחינת ההעלם של הרצון, על כן גם המחשבה שבו הרצון הוא גם כן בהעלם וסתימו, ונקרא מחשבה סתימאה. והוא בחינת אותיות הרצון הנ״ל, the letters of the רצון, that's the letters that say what the רצון is. אך הנה בחינת מחשבה הקדומה הוא מקדם לרצון הנעלם, it's even before the רצון הנעלם, that's even before the רצון לרצון in other words, והוא המקור לרצון הנעלם שנקרא רצון לרצון of א״ק, וכו׳ וגם זה בחינת מחשבה הוא, but this is also a מחשבה, שמלובש בו הרצון הקדום, that it's called the רצון הקדום or the מחשבה קדומה, שקודם לכל רצון לרצון, כמו שמבואר באות י״ז, and this is all explained earlier, but now he's explaining it is called a רצון, if it's called a רצון it's also called a מחשבה on any level, אבל נקרא בשם מחשבה הקדומה, called מחשבה קדומה, and in some places it's called the רצון הקדום, וכך יובן עד רום המעלות, and this keeps going up and up, גם במחשבה דרצון הפשוט שבעצמות ממש, the רצון הפשוט, when you say there is a רצון הפשוט it means a מחשבה פשוטה, הנ״ל באות י׳, when

he talked on אין לאגזור מחשבה, והנה אנו רואים שהרצון הבא פתאום במוח הוא בא בגידי המוח במחשבה פשוטה ולא מורכבת מאותיות כלל, כי באמת אין להרצון בחינת כלי בשאר האותיות כמו אור השכל בכלי המוח, which which right now he is saying exactly the opposite of what he was saying before. He was just saying that you can't have, that a רצון is a מחשבה and a מחשבה is a רצון.

Desire Entering the Brain Without Letters 2:51

Now he is saying when the רצון comes

into the brain, it's coming without אותיות. So how's that possible? We just said that a רצון is דווקא is דווקא מחשבה and a מחשבה is a רצון, and they're interchangeable almost.

What it means it's not the same thing. It's not really כלים. Those אותיות are really the עצם הרצון, like it's a מחשבה פשוטה the same thing like the אותיות,

and all the levels where it says in the עצמות, because the רצון is still not really outside of the עצמות yet. Both the רצון and the תענוג is like almost like part of the עצמות actually, even all the way down to עתיק and אריך.

In other words, that the the letters of the רצון is not like a regular letters of מחשבה,

where the מחשבה is just a כלי to hold a thing, but it's ממש the same thing. That is that is the רצון. That מחשבה is the רצון.

אך בגידי המוח, it comes rather, it's not like like letters that come into the שכל, but rather it's a רצון that goes into the גידי המוח, and you can't say it's totally without letters, like it says without letters, but nonetheless you see that the that when it goes into the nerves, and does whatever he wants to do immediately, you you notice that the movement is defined. He knows exactly what it is that he wanted to do, like if he wants to reach for a piece of bread,

he reaches exactly for the piece of bread. That means it's totally defined in letters, all the way down to letters of עשיה.

So if when he says it doesn't have letters, you have to understand how how to take it. You know, it's like the thing that דוד once told me about that, you know, he was learning with some בחור and they got to the part where it says that חכמה had dimensions.

And he said, "No, that can't be true, cuz he heard that חכמה is a נקודה and it has no dimensions."

So, first of all, I mean, you know, what do you mean? You're arguing with the מיטעלער רבי, you know?

And basically, like you'll see places where it says חכמה also doesn't have letters. But here he's saying, you notice what he's saying here, he's saying that not like the חכמה, like the אותיות, אור השכל בכלי המוח, שכל is חכמה.

Says that doesn't have, the רצון doesn't have letters like the חכמה does. In other places, it says like the whole thing of the חכמה is how it, how the מחשבה comes before the letters. So it's not really so much letters, that the letters are not really like separate things of כלים here. אך בגידי המוח נקראים נרווין הדקים, by also the nerves, שמהם כח התנועה וכח ההרגש באיברים כידוע, that in the nerve, from the nerve comes two powers, the power of movement and the power of feeling.

You feel through your nerves. מתפשט כח הרצון גם לאיזה איבר הנשמע לרצונו שבמוח, כמו לפשוט ידו ורגלו, like to stretch his hand or his foot, like when he wants to go somewhere, so his feet starts walking.

But you notice that even though it says that like the רצון comes out comes like a simple מחשבה. Like he says, מחשבה פשוטה למעלה מאותיות כלל, how could you have the whole ענין of a מחשבה is אותיות. Not only that, like he says he makes it move. Right. He makes that move, but you notice that the movement is exact.

The movement, you notice that by a person, our movement is totally predefined. It's not that he sort of just moves. He knows exactly what he wants and and grabs it.

אלא כולם רק על פי הרצון שעולה במוח פתאום כידוע, and the and the רצון comes in the מוח out of פתאום, like instantly, as is known. That's one kind of מחשבה, it's the מחשבה of רצון. והנה יש מחשבה אחרת בבחינת אותיות המחשבה ממש, and this is ממש in the way of אותיות המחשבה, meaning of a a separate מחשבה of אותיות. Where in the רצון, the אותיות of the רצון is ממש is ממש the רצון, that is the רצון.

Theoretical Thought (Machshava Iyunit) Explained 7:29

In the מחשבה, there's various מחשבות that you think the thing over with, that you when you think it, you think it and then like the basic way that a person thinks is he thinks and then he discards.

So like you think, "Well, is it like this? Nah, nah, it can't be like that. So maybe it's like this? Nah, nah, it can't be like that." That's basically how logically you think.

Right. You know, like like the whole thing of logic, you figure, so so you have a certain סברא, so then you think, "So so therefore it has it it would would have worked like this," and you think about it, you say, "No, no." So you so you take a מחשבה and you think it, and then you discard it. So it means that you see that the מחשבה with its אותיות is לאו דוקא from the עצם of the שכל, but is rather an external כלי to it.

And that's what it means that it actually has letters. It's an actual מחשבה. Whereas the other מחשבה is not a a separate מחשבה. That is the רצון. The רצון is the מחשבה, and the מחשבה is the רצון. Right. והנה יש מחשבה אחרת בבחינת אותיות המחשבה ממש, שהוא בא על ידי בחינת בינה והשגה תחילה. This comes through first of all an explanation and and a reach, meaning that this thing of the logical, yeah.

שנקרא שנקרא מחשבה עיונית, like we like we said, this guy thinks, "So would so therefore it would have to be like this." Or, "Oh, wait a minute. Maybe not." You know? מחשבה עיונית means he takes and he analyzes the thing.

First of all, he cuts it up into separate parts, and then he comes out with סברות, and then he takes the סברא and sees if it works.

Like in the תלמוד, he says, "So if it's like this, so if this guy says, "So I have a סברא." A סברא is a theory basically.

And what this is actually, is basically this is what what we call עיון is actually the scientific method. When people say science, there's no such thing as science, really. If you if you look at the scientists, if you know like like the thing is most people who believe in science, never really learned science.

It just so happens I learned science. I was a a chemistry honors student in McGill. So I know there's really no such thing as science. Science does not does not come up with actual things, because, first of all, the the science that we're talking about only comes from נהי דאריך. It's not the real inner thing where it comes from מזלות.

It's only into the world. And what it is, is this: they come up with a theory and then they test it. And that's the scientific method, basically.

Scientific Method in Talmudic Argument 11:02

So, the thing is really you see in in in in the תלמוד, basically, that's also how they do it. You know, they they come up with like like like if you look in, you know what they start little kids off with, אלו מציאות?

Right. So, they they come up with a תא שמע. תא שמע means come and hear. So, the thing is like this, basically, like the first thing is there's there's two theories: one one is the רבא ואביי, and and one says that ייאוש ייאוש שלא מדעת is not a good ייאוש, and one says ייאוש שלא מדעת is a good ייאוש. Then they come and say, "תא שמע.

Look at this, here's an application." You know, if you find if you find money Right. if you say say say if you find money, you're allowed to keep it.

So, this proves, he's telling the other guy, this proves that ייאוש שלא מדעת

is a good ייאוש, because here you found money and you can keep it, and how do you know, maybe the guy lost the money and he doesn't know that he lost it yet? So, this proves that my theory is correct and ייאוש שלא מדעת is a good ייאוש. The other guy answers, "No, it doesn't prove nothing because a person is made in a way that he always feels his pocket."

הוא ממשמש, ממשמש בהו. He's he's he's he's ממשמש in his pocket. So, if he lost money, he's going to know it and it's a ייאוש מדעת. So, therefore, it doesn't prove your opinion at all. It doesn't prove your סברא. It doesn't disprove it, in other words, doesn't prove my סברא either.

All it proves is nothing. Why? Because a ייאוש a ייאוש on money is a ייאוש מדעת, and we're talking about a ייאוש שלא מדעת.

So, you thought you're bringing up ייאוש שלא מדעת, but really it's a ייאוש

מדעת. And that's the ענין of the סברא. And there's a סברא, there's two סברות, and they what do you call it? They They fight it out. but you don't have to have a fighting it out. It's basically a סברא, and then I mean a person can have it in his own brain. He says, "Oh, so look at that, that proves it. Oh, wait, no, it doesn't prove it because really when a person

loses his money, it's not a ייאוש שלא מדעת, so it doesn't prove nothing about the ייאוש שלא מדעת because that's not what it is." Right.

And that's it. So, in other words, the מחשבה, he picked up a מחשבה and then discarded it. Right. Not only that, the the מחשבה when it came, the מחשבה relating to money was a totally external מחשבה which had nothing to do with the internal שכל of ייאוש שלא מדעת. It was an application.

Like a test, basically, it's a scientific test. You take the סברא and you try it out. You know, like you say that I I you know, like the the famous scientific test in חלם, you know, which side the bread is buttered. Right. Right. You know, that if if the bread is buttered, you know, if the the the he says that the bread always falls down on the buttered side, and he says the bread always falls on the unbuttered side.

So what did they do? They did a scientific experiment. They took a piece of bread and they buttered it, and it fell down, and it fell down on the buttered side, and the guys, "Hey, you you buttered it on the wrong side."

Right. You know. So, the the basic thing, now we're talking, this is a מחשבה עיונית. And as a מחשבה עיונית can also go, it can go from,

like we said in terms of the scientific method, it's only going on a שכל that's coming out of נה״י of of אריך. All right? They just want to find out what's going on in the world. They're not looking into the inner thing of the גוף גופו. So this is called מחשבה עיונית, וכמו שנתבאר, נקרא שכל, סברא, והשכלותיו יושג במוח בינה, בלשון אידיש פארשטאנד, in the brain of understanding, שבא מיד בעיון המחשבה.

That right away will come in עיון המחשבה, נקרא מחשבת שכל. Right away it will come into all kinds all kinds of מחשבות like that.

והוא כח מחשבה עיונית להכיל כל העיון שכלי דוקא, שאין בו רצון כלל, there's no actual רצון in this.

Even though, I mean, of course, there is a רצון, there's a רצון to understand, but in the מחשבה itself there's no actual רצון. In other words, when he says, "Oh, so look at when you find money," he doesn't necessarily want

to he doesn't necessarily even want to prove necessarily that really it's the way he's saying. That's not that's not a real רצון of understanding. That then it's not really understanding.

That's that's already a a thing of עיגולים, where where where a where a רצון, like a שוחד, that's where a רצון is turning the שכל to come up with the thing to prove his point.

But a real רצון of understanding has to be open to whatever is going to come out. Right. And the reason he's doing the scientific experiment is not because he דוקא wants it to come out like that. It's not like the the, you know, the scientists that work for a cigarette company, they're doing the scientific experiment they want to prove that, you know, cigarettes are good for you, you know.

Right. But a real a real שכל is not like that, and a real שכל, and that's what you see, there's one place there where where אביי answers answers for רב. He brings up a a a thing, and he gives a תירוץ against it. Right. Against his own thing. So how come he's giving a תירוץ against his own thing? Because really there's no רצון to prove that it's like me.

A real שכל, that even though there is a רצון, because if there was no רצון like that, then that's why the שכל comes out of אריך, it has to be a רצון to understand.

But nonetheless, it it's the מחשבה עיונית itself is really a מחשבה of שכל, not of רצון at all. ולא נקראת מחשבה זו בשם רצון כלל. It's called it's not a רצון, it's an intellect.

להיותה אינה בגידי המוח כלל, and it doesn't go into the גידי המוח, it doesn't go into the nerves to do something, רק במוח הבינה ממש, rather than it's actually in the מוח הבינה, in the in the lobes of the brain basically. דהיינו בכלי ההשגה והבנה של השכל עצמו, יש שם כלי למחשבה עיונית לכל השגה שכלית.

והוא בחינת מלכות דתבונה. This מחשבה עיונית comes from מלכות דתבונה, where the letters come out, דהיינו סוף מדרגות הארת ההשגה בעצם המביא להשגה בענין הנבדל, on אות ב׳.

משם נעשה כח מחשבת שכל הנ״ל. From there comes the מחשבת שכל, what's called a מחשבה עיונית. ותחלה באה השגת השכל גם בלא מחשבה עיונית עדיין. It first comes in a way of before the מחשבה עיונית, הנקרא דער פארנעמען אין פארשטאנד אליין, the actual way that the take that he has on it. In other words, before the actual actually argued, there is a certain take that אביי has and a certain take that רבא has.

The take that he sees it in a way that he sees it that a יאוש שלא מדעת is a יאוש, and he sees it that it is not a יאוש. That's the take they have, and that's even before the מחשבה עיונית.

And that was not even the סברא, what the reason why they have that take, and why they see it that way.

But the actual מחשבה comes out of מלכות דתבונה. Right.

אך מיד נתפשט המושג והמושכל במחשבה עיונית. And immediately it is is נתפשט into מחשבה עיונית, which is מלובש במחשבת שכל. וזה בחינת מלכות דתבונה שלמעלה מבחינת אותיות של המחשבה שנקראת לאה. So the actual מלכות דתבונה is still really part of the שכל, which is just little just above the actual אותיות of the מחשבה which is called לאה, which לאה means the actual literal letters, the same like in this book is the literal letters.

וכידוע בענין ד' שבתיבת דאחד, פירושו הוא בחינת מלכות דתבונה שמאחוריים דאימא וכולי. שמשם שורש התהוות המחשבה באותיות ממש כמו שמבואר במקום אחר. That from מלכות דתבונה is the שורש of the the the מחשבה coming into ממש external אותיות, as it explained elsewhere in this book. ובחינת השכלה עצמית המושגת בהשגה והבנה. And the actual השכלה עצמית means the actual inner שכל of what he actually understands, גם כן נקרא מחשבה.

It's also called thought, like you say he's thinking. Thinking doesn't necessarily mean when a person's say he's thinking, it's not only referring to the external ממש letters of the מחשבה, but it it refers also to the inner intellectual process of חכמה ובינה.

You also say he's thinking. He's thinking, right? Right. It's also called מחשבה. Right. Where is it? אך. אך זהו בבחינת התפשטות אור ד... אור החכמה. Yeah. אך זהו בבחינת התפשטות יש דאור החכמה.

This inner thinking of בינה, not only that, the spreading out of the somethingness of the light of חכמה נקרא חשב מה, the thinking of the מה of of חכמה, מחשבה, חשב מה. ויש בחינת פנימיות מחשבה דבינה דלא משתמש, is that משתמש?

משתמע. משתמע גם במחשבת שכל לבוא לכלל אותיות כלל במחשבה. והוא כמו בחינת עומק המושג שלא נתפס גם כן בהשגת מחשבת בינה כהוגן, ונקרא מי דלא קיימא לשאלה כמו שמבואר במקום אחר וד"ל והבן. In other words, there's the actual inner essence of the understanding which is really the שכל itself, it's not the מחשבה, it's not the letters.

It's the intellect that understands these letters. Right. And that's the actual עומק המושג of the of the thing of how he understands it in terms of the עומק המושג, and you'd you'd say, well, there it's like not letters, but even there, really, there is letters.

And that's also called thought. Right. והבן. וזהו יש מחשבה סתימאה שברצון כנ"ל ומחשבה עיונית דבינה. So that's יש מחשבה, יש מחשבה, the two kind of מחשבה, there's the hidden מחשבה in the רצון כנ"ל, and the מחשבה עיונית דבינה הבאה לכלל בחינת אותיות המחשבה ממש, that comes into ממש letters of מחשבה שנקרא לאה. ובכל זה יש גם ברצון שלמעלה מן השכל, and this is also exists higher than the שכל, all together, דהיינו בחינת בינה סתימאה דאריך אנפין, שהוא בחינת מחשבה נעלמה ברצון הנעלם, כמו שיש שכל וחכמה דאריך אנפין הנעלם מכל רעיון הנעלם, והוא בחינת חכמה סתימאה דאריך אנפין, הנקרא טעם כמוס לרצון כידוע, כך יש בחינת בינה סתימאה וכולי.

The same thing, like the חכמה סתימאה, there's a בינה סתימאה. והוא על דרך, what means the inner, the inner, inner בינה. והוא על דרך מה שנתבאר לעיל ההפרש בין ב' מיני מחשבות הנ"ל, בגילוי, שהוא ברצון הבא בגילוי במוח, שיש רצון שבגידי המוח, שנקרא מחשבה סתימאה, על שם ההעלם שזה הרצון שבמוח, טרם שבא לחכמה ובינה וכולי. ומחשבה עיונית, שהוא בחינת יש דאין דחכמה, that that's the somethingness of the אין of חכמה, עד שבא לכלל אותיות המחשבה ממש.

Not that it's not a מחשבה that makes anything happen, it's a מחשבה that turns finally into letters. We'll see on now, באות ל"ח, דשרש הראשון של האותיות דמחשבה בעצם הנפש ממש, הרי יש שרש לאותיות דמחשבה דבינה גם כן בעצם הנפש, כמו שיש שרש לאותיות הרצון הבאים בגידי המוח כהאי גוונא. And both of these have a root in the עצם הנפש.

So it goes all the way, this one goes to the רצון in the עצם הנפש, and this one goes into the בינה of the עצם הנפש.

רק שזה בא לבחינת גילוי הרצון, וזה בא לבחינת גילוי אותיות דבינה המושג בהשגת שכל. This one comes revealed into a רצון, and this one comes revealed into an intellect. ואמנם, הרי אנו רואים דמה שעלה ברצונו מחשבתו,

הוא אשר בא עד אותיות המחשבה דבינה. But however, we see that דווקא what comes up in his רצון, that's what will come into the מחשבה of בינה.

In other words, what's he going to think about? דווקא what he wants. In other words, if he wants to have a business, that's what he'll think about in with his intellect.

If he wants to be a חסיד and learn about God and stuff like that, so that's what he'll think about. Right. You know, if he wants to be a conqueror, so he'll think about, he'll do, you know, and if he wants to play football, so he'll think about different strategies on how to win a football game. Right. What he wants, what, even though you say יש מחשבה ויש מחשבה, but nonetheless you see that דווקא the מחשבה of רצון is what causes the מחשבה of בינה.

Right. That that since that's that's what he wants, so that's what he thinks about. He thinks about

what he wants. שנמשך בחינת הרצון, מחשבה הנעלם, במחשבה הגלויה דבינה. You see that the hidden מחשבה comes into the revealed מחשבה, that's what comes into reality. And that's why we said that the שורש of the שכל is in אריך. Right. Not only the שורש of the שכל is in אריך, this is it's like two different things. In in other words, one of the main problems people have when they when they start with חסידות and קבלה is what does it mean, I mean, the רצון and then from the רצון comes the חכמה and from the חכמה comes the בינה?

So okay, I can see how from the בינה comes the, חכמה comes the בינה. חכמה is a generalized overview of the whole thing, and בינה is a separate analysis, for that I can see.

Traits (מדות) Emerging from Intellect (שכל) 29:07

Also like you can see, let's say, I can say, I can see how מדות come out of שכל. That when you figure out something is good, so you like it. According to your logic you find out it is good, or according to your logic you see that you say, "Well, he did this and he did that. Did he do is he doing me a favor or is he trying to skank me?"

And then when you figure that he's doing you a favor, you say, "Oh, so I like him." Or vice versa. So we can see how the מדות come out of שכל, that makes sense.

But how does שכל come out of רצון? Right. So the thing is this is how it comes Out of רצון, you see that what he wants, that's what he's going to think about.

In other words, a guy who wants to make money is not going to sit around and think these things. Right. He's going to sit around and he's going to make all kinds of analyses. He'll be interested in analyses of what do you think, maybe the the stock market will go up, you think I should go into this, or should I buy houses? And that's what he's going to think about with a מחשבה of אותיות.

Right. He'll think about דווקא what he wants דווקא what he wants. That's what what he wants, that's what he's going to think about. Right. וזהו ענין אהיה אשר אהיה, דהתגלות כתר כללי דאריך אנפין בבחינה בכתר פרטי שהוא בבינה, that the general אהיה of the כתר כללי gets revealed into the אהיה in the כתר פרטי which is בינה. That's why בינה is called a כתר פרטי, כידוע ומבואר במקום אחר, בענין ועבודת הלוי הוא דהתגלות עתיק יומין בבינה דווקא.

Bina as the Private Crown (כתר פרטי) 30:48

The the revelation of the תענוג is דווקא in בינה, that the the רצון is also according to the תענוג, because that's what he has a תענוג in, so that's what he's going to think about.

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