End Chapter 44 and Chapter 45 · Part 8 Chapters 34 to End

What is a מקיף and its brain relation 0:07

If it would have totally nothing to do with your brain, you wouldn't think about it. Means it's a מקיף already. You know it's there, you just don't know what it is yet. And even what you don't know what it is, there's a part of it that you sort of almost are getting, and another part that's even farther away. Right.

And then there's a part that's ממש sitting right on your brain, ready to go into it. אבל הוא בריבוע דווקא, כמו שמבואר במקום אחר, במ״ם דלמרבה וכו׳, שמבואר במקום אחר בבחינת הארת המקיף הזה לעשות שיתחלק לצירופים על ידי בחינת ה׳ גבורות מן הטפח וכו׳, שהוא עניין מ״ם פתוחה מאמר פתוחה, שמחשבה הסתומה נעשית פתוחה בהתחלקות אותיות,

that the מחשבה סתומה becomes a open מחשבה when you can divide it into letters. Through this division of the analysis, you can make you make from מחשבה סתומה to מחשבה פתוחה. שזהו עניין ציור המ״ם פתוחה כידוע. It has a mouth. Right. וביאור הדברים הנה ידוע, and now he's going to explain a little bit better, בביאור עניין מקיפין דבינה, בעניין דהאם רובצת על האפרוחים, שהמידות מקבלים רק מבחינת השגה דאור פנימי דבינה.

So, now he's talking about something else, though. In the עניין of מקיפין of בינה, there's two עניינים. There's the מקיפין of the בינה itself, means the part of the בינה that's מקיף on the בינה that's not understood yet.

Then there's the thing of that the בינה is מקיף on the מידות.

And that's really already the אור פנימי of בינה, what is called the מאמר פתוחה in regards to מאמר סתומה of בינה, that's called the מקיפין in regards to the מידות. ונקראת אם הבנים, שאז נקראים אפרוחים וכו׳. ובחינת גדלות המוחין דמידות בהעלם הבא מכח מקיפין, מבחינת מקיפין, או מבחינת

מקיפין, היינו כשאם הבנים רובצת וכו׳. That means דווקא when the בינה is sitting on top of them. דהיינו להמשיך מה שלמעלה ממוחין דבינה, הנמשכים למידות.

Bringing higher insight down to the מידות 2:41

In other words, to bring down from even higher than the מוחין of בינה, to bring it down into the מידות. So in other words, the בינה, it's not so much that it has its own thing, but really the thing of the בינה is that it brings down stuff from higher than the בינה into

the מידות. על דרך אהבה התלויה בדבר, שדבר זה בא באהבה בבחינת אור פנימי, על כן כשבטל דבר, בטלה אהבה. When the thing goes away, the love also goes away. מכל מקום נשאר בבחינת מקיף, שהוא בבחינת העלם אותה הדבר, שיוכל על ידי זה לחזור ולהתעורר האהבה בבחינת אור פנימי כידוע. So in other words, but nonetheless, even when the דבר is בטל and the אהבה is בטלה, but still there's a מקיף of it left over so that the next time that this thing will come up, it'll be easier to love it.

Doesn't take the same amount of time. You know, talking about the second time, it's faster. Yeah.

Why? Because it was already there in a way of

a מקיף. שחופף עליהם והוא בריבוע, and it's over them, but it's in a square

way, שמתיישב עליהם ממש, is ממש sits on them, כמו שמבואר במקום אחר בעניין מ״ם דלמרבה וכו׳. וכללות העניין

הוא על דרך דוגמה מידיעה במוח שמקפת את הדבר, שיודע אותו. ואף גם שהדבר נבדל, מכל מקום חופף ידיעה זו ומקפת מכל צד לאותו הדבר.

How knowledge surrounds a concept from all sides 4:41

This ידיעה actually surrounds it from every place.

כמו ידיעת אלוקות שמשגיח ויודע את כל הנבראים, שבידיעה זו מקיף אותם, כמו שמבואר בלקוטי אמרים, בידיעה שיודע כל הארץ וכו׳. So with this ידיעה that he knows something, this ידיעה is מקיף the thing from all sides, but it ממש sits on top of it, not far away. וזהו כמו שנאמר ועל ראשי החיות רקיע כעין הקרח דבינה,

that ממש sits on their head. שהוא בחינת מקיף דבינה גם כן, שמזה נעשה לבוש החשמל מבחינת חיצוניות בינה כמו שיתבאר, this will be explained later.

וכמו שמבואר במקום אחר בביאור ענין אור מים רקיע, דהשגה דבינה נקרא רקיע, לפי שקודם שבא המושכל בבחינת השגה גמורה

Pre‑understanding as a מקיף on בינה 5:53

עדיין, הוא למעלה מבחינת הגבלת אותיות. In other words, before it comes into the actual השגה of בינה, it's a מקיף on the בינה. These are the מקיפים of the

בינה. כמו הסבר מושכל עמוק שאינו עדיין באופן מוגבל במוח הנקרא השגה ותפיסא, הוא הנקרא מים דנגדי. Then it's called

water, flowing water that flows, לבוא בכמה אופנים שונים וכולי. Then it can come, he could really understand it in various different ways. מה שאין כן שבא המושכל באופן מוגבל הנתפס ומושג בפי מוחו ממש, once he understands it in a certain way and he has a certain השגה into it, then he understands it in this particular way, and it is מוגבל and נתפס ממש in his brain, נמשך לקרח דאגליד מיא.

Then it is נמשל to ice that the water freezes and takes on a shape now, the water cannot flow. It's in this way and that's the way it is, וקיימא, and then it has to be like this. מלשון השג יד,

the reach of your hand. השגה comes from לשון of reach. ולכך כמו שמבואר במקום אחר שזהו הנקרא רקיע,

and then it's called the רקיע. רקיע means it's fixed. והוא ענין הקרח, and that's why it's also called קרח, על גבי המוחין דחיות

Explanation solidifies the thought’s form 7:35

וכולי, because now it's in a particular way and that's the way it is. Once it's in an explanation, that's how the explanation is.

ואמנם שורש הקרח הזה שבא דווקא בבחינת הגשמה גמורה, however, the שורש of this קרח that comes דווקא in a way of an הגשמה גמורה, the explanation, the explanation, the whole thing of the explanation is that it comes in an הגשמה, that's why he can understand it, הוא מלמעלה מבחינת אור פנימי

דבינה, it's really from higher than the actual אור פנימי of בינה itself, meaning the התבוננות, אלא נמשך ונעשה מבחינת המקיף דבינה הנקרא מ״ם סתומה, שבלתי מאיר ונמשך בגילוי כלל במוח.

במידות, that's what it says here, במידות, במידות, yeah. The מקיף of בינה, which is the actual In other words, what he's saying is that the source of being able to put it into an explanation, into a משל, into an הגשמה, is higher than the actual power of analysis that looks over the משל.

In other words, that works with the letters of the explanation to understand them, but the actual power of the הגשמה is higher than the actual power of the בינה itself, and it comes from the

מזלות, all the way from the source of חכמה.

Multiple chapters built on this conceptual framework 9:15

And by the way, this whole business is a thing of several chapters here. על כן משם נעשה בחינת רקיע הקרח על גבי המוחין דמידות וכולי,

and this is also the source of the חשמל, which really comes from higher. In other words, it's the source of the letters, the fact that it can go into an הגשמה of letters and ideas, and that's the whole ענין of the last two or three chapters already and the next few chapters, is that this source of the letters is really higher, the fact that it can put it into letters and into משלים, in other words, that the ideas are put into words in a way of הגשמה.

על כן משם נעשה בחינת רקיע הקרח על גבי המוחין דמדות כו׳. And

that goes all the way up, all the way to the עצם, which is the source of the description and definition that that the in the עצם is the letters. Right. And that's where, then he told her it goes all the way to the אלקים and עצמות. Right. בחינת רקיע הקרח על גבי מוחין דמדות כו׳, והיינו והאם רובצת,

the mother sits on the on the מדות, דהיינו על גוזליו ירחף, שזהו בחינת לבוש החשמל שמקיף בבחינת שומר למדות, שומר למדות. And that's the לבוש חשמל that's always מקיף in a way of a שומר למדות. And the and the thing that the the מדות have a לבוש חשמל that comes really from higher than בינה, and that's why the מדות don't disappear when you stop thinking. Otherwise, if it would be just because the מדות come from from בינה, so the minute you stop doing the התבוננות, they would just disappear.

Letters originate from a source above the intellect 11:13

Why don't they disappear? Because of the חשמל. The letters that they're made up from have a higher source than the בינה.

And that's why the מדה stays there without the בינה. כמו שנתבאר בסמוך בענין כתנות עור כו׳ שמקיף לזו״ן, עד מתחת לרגלי זו״ן, שממנו נעשה המפסיק שבין אצילות לבריאה כו׳.

And this is the כתנות עור, the the clothings that are מקיף on the מדות all the way to the bottom underneath

the the feet of זו״ן, and from this לבוש חשמל becomes the מפסיק between אצילות and בריאה כו׳. והוא בחינת מקור בינה. And this חשמל, which is goes all the way down to become the letters of the מדות, really is the מקור of בינה.

The the the source of the letters is higher than בינה, all the way to the מקור of בינה. שמזה נמשך כח האותיות בבחינת התחלקות הצירופים דאותיות המחשבה הנקרא מצטרף ולא גוף הצירופים, שהוא דוקא בבחינת מ״ם פתוחה, מאמר פתוח כו׳ ודי למבין. Not the actual body of the separations of the letters,

but the real source of where the הגשמה and and the actual ציור for the whole idea comes from is really higher. So in other words, the letters, even the letters that come outside of בינה, all the way to the letters of the חשמל, which the letters of חשמל are לבושים, not כלים anymore,

really have a higher source. And and by the way, this is also if you look in in שערי

אורה, that's that's the problem with doing תשובה, that he can he can fix up the מדות, and he can fix up the מוחין, and he can fix up the רצון, but the letters are still there.

Right. Because the letters, even though they're totally external letters, but their source is in the עצם of the soul.

And that's basically here, he's saying there's a מאמר סתום. מאמר פתוח of בינה is the actual thought where he's thinking out the analysis. But really behind it is a מאמר סתום, which is what he's thinking about. Right. ודי למבין. And this is now this is now we're getting into the real nitty-gritty of the whole thing, of the לבוש חשמל.

Which the לבוש חשמל is is is you know the main thing that you need in order to understand the whole ענין of יחודא תתאה.

Right. We can say that about every chapter. Which is the ענין of the לבושים, yeah, but this the main ענין of the לבושים. Right. The whole thing, like he said before, that מחשבה, דבור ומעשה is בי״ע. Right. Which that's the ענין of יחודא תתאה.

And the main thing of מחשבה, דבור ומעשה is the ענין of the אותיות. That מחשבה, דבור ומעשה, the the main thing of even מחשבה, the מחשבה of מחשבה, דבור ומעשה, doesn't mean the actual inner thought of the intellect.

It means the letters. Right. Meaning letters that are just letters by themselves,

disconnected, not connected. בי״ע means עלמא דפרודא. Right. They're separate worlds. So, and and this is the real thing in terms of the ציור for the The אייבערשטער is not so much the ענין of ייחוד עילאה, but דווקא the ענין of ייחוד תתאה. The ענין of ייחוד עילאה, what's the big deal?

It's it's it's the connected world. Right. Right. The thing is to see how is it connected even in the separate worlds.

Where it's not where where it's not כלים, it's לבושים. Right. It's something different. It's a different thing. דבר נבדל. It's a דבר נבדל, right. In other words, all the way down to here in this world where you see it's a whole דבר נבדל,

that's the main place, that's the big חכמה to see the the the ייחוד of the אייבערשטער.

Okay, good. Ah, go ahead. So in מ"ד, we basically learned about the צירופים and the חילוקים, and we learned that the actual the actual separation the actual separation into letters, in other words, the actual ability to put the thing into letters, which really came from a צירוף and not a חילוק, because the main thing is to put it together, but nonetheless, it's the ability to put the thought into letters comes from a higher place than the actual power of thinking itself.

And that's basically the ענין of the לבוש חשמ״ל, that the לבוש חשמ״ל is basically the ענין of the letters that to put the to put the thought into a thing that can be חשמ״ל, I I saw someplace that it's made up of two roots: חש, which means to feel, and מל, which means to talk.

Right. חשמ״ל. חש means silence. חש also means חוש, to feel. Yeah, to feel, also, yeah. To feel, which which it's I don't think it I I don't think the main thing is silence. I I read that it means that two things, it's to feel and to talk. In other words, it puts the idea in a way that it can be felt. Right. In other words, the mind the mind cannot really feel the idea without putting it into words.

That's why, really, in a way, an animal can basically also have all the kind of ideas that we have. But yet, it can't it cannot feel them, that's why it doesn't have a דעת like we do. In other words, it can never get it to a point where he can think about it philosophically, for instance.

Right. You can't Even though Huh? can't crystallize the thoughts. Yeah, but why? Because really, Because he has no words. because he has no words. Because otherwise, if you see like a dog has problems,

you know, and and you see they worry and stuff. You see dogs worry, and they cry, and they they're happy, and you know, they they long for them, you know, like when when their people are gone, the dogs used to sit there, and they're very sad, and stuff like that.

You know, and they have all kinds of problems in their life, and you see they're they're curious about things, and yet they can't put it into like an actual thought of a התבוננות. The reason why is because they can't put it into words.

Right. So, therefore, they can't feel the idea. So, even though they know that they're sad about certain things, but it never gets to a point that they can think, "Why is it like this? Why is the world like this?

Why me? Why is the world mistreating me? Why, I mean, is there anything I can do about it? Am I doing something wrong?" Why? Because he can't put it into words, so he can't really feel the idea. He just He just has the idea, but he has all the ideas of the emotions. Right. You know. Not only that, in a way, you can say that he even has an idea of בינה, like like it says, הנותן לשכוי בינה להבחין בין יום ובין לילה.

Like you see that animals know, like they know, for instance, to go upwind and downwind from their prey. Right. They know that like, you know, when you go to a waterhole, you got to watch out for the lion. Predators. I mean, you know, you see there is some kind of a הבחנה of בינה that they know they know things that that's that's not even like an emotional thing, that's a thing that you know.

That's a שכל. And yet, it can't progress past that, even though like you see that certain animals in some ways, they're pretty smart. And in some ways, you see certain animals are almost as smart as a little child, and yet they can't think like a child. child can already think certain thoughts, which an animal can't. Right.

And it seems like according to their intelligence, it should be able to think at least like minor philosophical thoughts, you know. Right. And yet they can't. The reason why is they can't feel the idea. They can't put the idea in a way that they can actually grasp it and hold on to it and play with it. Right. Why? Because they can't put it into the letters. They can't put it into the letters of the חשמל.

Right. You know, and another thing is מל is like מילה ומילה. They said it. If you can't put it into letters, you can't say it. You can't say the idea without putting it into letters. So that's what חשמל

חשמל is the power to put a thought into letters, to put a concept into letters. And then you can feel it, and you can think it over.

And this is also one of the reasons why they can have they have small advancements, like monkeys make little, tiny tools and stuff like that, but it's nothing, it's just by trial and error. They can't like think.

A person can sometimes come up with a whole new idea without actually trying anything, but just by thinking about it. Right. Because he can put it into words and then play with the idea.

Source of חשמל as the essence of לבושים 21:32

So, what he basically said is that the source of the חשמל, which the חשמל is basically the ענין of לבושים really,

the חשמל of נוגה like he says now. But really the source of the חשמל is higher than the lights themselves.

Right. והנה כתיב ויעש ה' לאדם ולאשתו כתנות עור וילבישם שזהו בחינת החשמל דנוגה שמקיף לזו"ן דאצילות שנקרא אדם ואשתו עד מתחת רגליהם כולי כידוע. ובתורתו של רבי מאיר היה כתוב אור בא' שזהו בחינת זהרא עילאה כמו שנאמר עוטה אור כשלמה שזהו אחר בירורן דרפ"ח כולי.

In other words, by him the תורה was already after the בירורים. מתחלה יש להבין קצת ביאור ענין השבירה והתיקון בכללותם, so now we have to understand the ענין of the שבירה and the תיקון, שהוא בחינת האותיות שנקראים כלים שנשברו ונפלו מצד ריבוי האור שלא היה ביכולתם להכיל כמו שמבואר בעץ חיים.

Idea overload causing the breaking of the vessels 22:42

In other words, when you tell somebody an idea that's too high for them, or too big of an idea and has too much light, it'll break apart into a bunch of nonsense.

And the perfect example is חסידות. Like you see what happened with קבלה and חסידות, you know, look on the internet and you'll see what happened with it. Right.

I mean it turned into all kinds of total, total, total nonsense. They've taken it and turned it worse than upside down. And then if you look like outside, like these people, like the Berg people and people who or like the Hermetic people, that they've tried to study some of these kabbalistic things and they've taken the idea, since the idea had too much light in it, it got broken up into total nonsense.

And that's the basic thing of the שבירה, that the כלים, because there was too much light, they couldn't hold this much light, so they broke up.

Right. Whereas a small idea which doesn't have a lot of light,

you know, like if I tell somebody to boil water, you put it under fire, and you wait till it starts bubbling.

I mean, by some people even that'll break up, you know, but by most people there's not that much light in that idea and they'll be able to take that idea and it won't break up, or any simple idea, like if you teach somebody how to hammer a nail or something like that, you know.

But when the idea gets very big, you know, like for instance, like you see in little kids when they're in the first grades, when they teach them like history and stuff like that, or mathematics, sometimes, you know, like they have these shows, things that kids say, Right.

like Linkletter or something like that, Art Linkletter. Yeah, and they come out with all These funny things that kids, you know, mix up mix up the whole thing because like when they when they first learn it, it's like the idea is too big for them so they mix it up. Right.

So that's the ענין here. Because there was too much light, the כלים couldn't hold it, like it says in עץ חיים, וכמו שנאמר אתה פוררת בעזך ים.

You פוררת, what do you call that, to

override? Override, yeah, like the ים. The ים is ים is מלכות, in other words that the דיבור, that the words got mixed up. שזהו בחינת התוהו שנפררו בחינת האותיות, that the letters got all separated out.

You know, פירורים is like, you know, when a little kid takes bread or a cookie and turns it into crumbs, crumbles it up. You crumbled up the the ocean.

Right. שנפררו בחינת האותיות שנקרא שבירת הכלים כידוע, and this is what's called שבירת הכלים. וטעם הדבר ידוע על דרך משל, עומק אור שכל שלמעלה מכלי הגבלת המוח, אז ודאי יתבלבלו אותיות השכל שבמחשבה מצד מיעוט כוחם להכיל האור כי רב.

Why huge ideas scramble letters in the mind 26:29

And that's that's basically what we were talking about, that when when there is a very big idea that's higher than the the brain being able to contain it, the the letters of thought gets mixed up. It all becomes into a big בלבול,

because he can't hold it in the words of the שכל. כי רב הוא מהם, because the light is too much for them to hold. מה שאין כן כלי המוח שמכיל שמכיל האור השכל העמוק, אדרבה מוגבל ומתיישב ונעלם באותיות ההל- what is this, הלזו or הללו? הללו. הללו. Oh, here it says הלזו, הללו.

So, when the letters actually do contain the שכל, it's just the opposite. Then the שכל is really becomes מתיישב, דווקא through the אותיות. In other words, the the like like In other words, you say, "Well, since such a big שכל gets all mixed up because you can't put it in in in letters." Like people say like, for instance, for instance, what we're talking about now, we're talking about Godliness, because חסידות is not really about the סדר השתלשלות.

קבלה is about the סדר השתלשלות. Right. But we're not really learning קבלה, we're really learning חסידות. If you look in ענינה של תורת החסידות, you know, the the famous the famous שיחה of the רבי, the ענינה של תורת החסידות is God Himself, not not the סדר השתלשלות. Right.

And the basic thing here is that it's a משל on a משל on a משל, and finally the subject of קבלה becomes also a משל. Right.

It's not really the subject of חסידות. The subject of חסידות is a whole different subject than the subject of קבלה. The subject of קבלה is the השתלשלות העולמות. Right.

חסידות vs the world’s chain of existence 28:22

The subject of חסידות is really not the השתלשלות העולמות, that's why we started with before with before the צמצום. In קבלה, you don't start before the צמצום. Right.

Because we're really talking about the אייבערשטער. So, the thing is the basic thing is that, and this is the big טענה that everybody has for this, is that the the אייבערשטער is is such a big light that it it cannot be contained in words.

Right. And that's basically one of the things that also you'll see besides in אידישקייט, להבדיל in all the גויישקייט, they say it it can only be experienced, it cannot be said. Right. And that's, of course, what he's saying here is that it's really that's a very big mistake, because the fact that it can it that the fact that the אור, when the אור is not contained in letters, it cannot be felt.

Then it's like then it's like a dog. Right. That he can't, he doesn't really have an actual דעת. That's not a דעת של הויה. You don't know, you don't know the אייבערשטער.

Knowing the Divine requires letters, yet limits 29:30

In order to know the אייבערשטער or anything, it דווקא has to be in letters. And when it can be put into letters, it's דווקא the opposite.

Then it's דווקא מוגבל