Part 1 · Chapter 25

Introducing the Beard Lecture 0:00

Here, פרק כ״ה. So today we're going to learn about the beard. והנה מעתה יש להבין בפרטי ענין עשר ספירות דאצילות. So now that we finished explaining כתר, now we're going to explain how כתר connects to חכמה and בינה, how it's the source of חכמה and בינה.

And we just finished going back to one in פרקים א׳ and ב׳, where we explained חב״ד, and now we're going to we're going to start explaining חב״ד here. I mean, he kind of skips it, but he he explains how it goes from אריך אנפין to אבא, to אבא ואמא.

So now in this פרק, we're going to explain three ways that the שכל receives from the כתר. והנה מעתה יש להבין בפרטי ענין עשר ספירות דאצילות. Now we have to understand the details of the ten ספירות of אצילות. Now that we explained the כתר of אצילות, it's time to explain the details of אצילות itself.

דהיינו בירידת האור מחיצוניות נה״י דאריך אנפין באבא באבא ואמא. That is, specifically the way that the light from the חיצוניות of נה״י of אריך אנפין, from the lowest level of אריך אנפין, descends into אבא, into חכמה ובינה, the פרצופים of חכמה ובינה.

So now there's three ways that this can happen. One way is from the חיצוניות נה״י goes into אבא, that's one way, that from the lowest level it goes from the כתר to the חב״ד of of עתיק and אריך, to the חג״ת of עתיק and אריך, until the נה״י, and the נה״י of אריך goes into אבא. That's one way. ולפעמים אמרו, but sometimes we say that it doesn't, that the שכל does not receive from the נה״י of אבא of of אריך אנפין, but rather we say דאבא מלבישים לזרועות דאריך אנפין, that אבא ואמא garb, that they clothe the arms of אריך אנפין.

So in other words, the arms of of אריך אנפין, the right arm goes into חכמה, the left arm goes into בינה, and חכמה and בינה are like puppets, and inside are the arms of אריך אנפין.

So sometimes in other words, sometimes we say that it receives from חג״ת, from the the arms are the מדות of חסד וגבורה, which is חג״ת.

And now we just have a little parentheses where we're going to say that another another teaching of the זוהר is not talking about this.

ומה שכתוב, and that it says רישא דמלכא בחסד וגבורה אתתקן, that the head of the king is fixed or dressed up in חסד וגבורה, דהיינו בחינת רישא דאריך אנפין דאתתקן בחסד וגבורה דעתיק יומין, דחסד דעתיק יומין בגלגלתא וכולי כנ״ל, that is not referring to, when it says the head of the king is like a garment for חסד וגבורה, that there that's talking about the way that the that the head of אריך אנפין connects to חסד וגבורה of עתיק יומין.

That's a higher thing. We and we discussed that before when we were talking about about the כתר. פרק כ״א we explained that, how the חסד of עתיק יומין becomes the שכל, and the גבורה of עתיק יומין becomes מוחא סתימאה. So the now we're going to say the third way: ולפעמים אמרו, and sometimes we say דאבא ינק ממזל ח׳ ונצר, ואימא ממזל י״ג ונקה וכולי. Sometimes we say that אבא ואמא, the שכל, receive from the מזלות of אריך אנפין, and we'll explain what those are, that אבא receives from the eighth מזל, which is ונצר, and אימא, בינה, receives from the the 13th מזל, which is ונקה.

And these 13 מזלות correspond to the י״ג מדות הרחמים, the 13 attributes of mercy, and we'll explain about it. אך הנה ידוע בענין כח מה, דהחכמה מאין תמצא בבחינת אין, והבינה נקרא יש. It's known about the idea of כח מה, the power of what, that חכמה comes out from from nothing, that the source of חכמה is that it's an אין, and that that's the idea of כח מה, that it has the power to connect to something abstract, which is the idea of ביטול of מה.

And that's the idea of חכמה, is that you can think about something that you don't really understand yet, you can say, "What is it?" That means you just know it's there, but you don't know anything about it, and you're wondering about it. That's the idea of like, in the simplest sense, of כח מה. So that's the idea of חכמה, that חכמה is in a way of an אין, and בינה is called a יש.

בינה is already when you understand something in a tangible, concrete way, you can explain it, and it's it's it's called a something, it's called a יש. והאור והאור והשפע דאין דחכמה מאיר ונמשך בבחינת השגה דבינה. And so this abstract point of חכמה, this abstract understanding of like the untangible, or the intangible point of an idea shines into the understanding of בינה. So that you have this relationship that that your חכמה grasps the intangible part of it, which is like beyond the explanation, and then explanation is like holds that.

And so when you have the explanation, besides just the actual explanation itself, you also kind of get, in the explanation, it sort of anchors your your perception of the abstract point in חכמה.

And that's kind of thing that like somebody that gets it and knows what you're talking about, he'll get what you're saying. But somebody doesn't know, won't get what you're saying. That's like when you have a symbol for something, like you know, like a stick figure or something like that of like a person, that it's just a symbol, it's meant just to symbolize a person, but it doesn't actually look like the thing.

Just like a very little way, but if you know what the original thing looks like, when you see that, you're in your mind will conjure up the actual point. And that's the idea that in the בינה is enclosed the חכמה, that's one of the the ideas of that, is that in the explanation, even though the explanation is just like kind of a symbol that doesn't carry over the the whole idea, but the idea shines into there.

So first of all, the explanation is according to the idea, and then in those words you can see that point there. But the basic idea is that the חכמה is this abstract point, and then that shines into your understanding of בינה, which explains it and makes like a concrete explanation.

שזהו מאין ליש, which that's the idea of going from an אין, from a nothing, to יש, to something, going from something abstract to something concrete. ונקראין תרין רעין דלא מתפרשין וכו'. And חכמה and בינה are called two friends that never part, they always work together. כחדא שריין, and they they dwell together.

They're always working together. You can't have a חכמה without a בינה, you can't have a בינה without a חכמה, they're always working together. והוא בבחינת נקודה דחכמה שמבריק כברק מלמעלה מהשכל בלשון העולם הבנה וכו'.

And this is the idea of the flash of חכמה, when you get an idea and like a light bulb goes on over your head and all of a sudden you get this idea like a lightning bolt flashes in your mind, that's like the this point of חכמה that's coming out, and then from that point, you start to develop the idea right away and to analyze it and figure it out.

And that's the idea of בינה. And this is what the world calls understanding, that they say, "Oh, now I understand." In other words, it's not they don't mean that they can explain it, which would be what we would call understanding in the in this book, because what we call בינה is only when you understand it in a way with all the explanations, and like you analyze it.

But if you just tell somebody some new idea, and they חאפ the point, they they grasp the point, they go, "Oh," that means it just flashed in their mind. That's really like a חכמה. That's what they call understanding, like, "Yeah, I understand." So they can't necessarily explain it to somebody else, and they don't they didn't even explain it to themselves, they just they they they just saw the point.

They just got like a little of a perception of it. והיינו מכח המשכיל שנקרא חכמה סתימאה דאריך אנפין. And this flash of this lightning bolt that comes out with a of inspiration of this new idea, this like perception of the idea, this comes from the כח המשכיל, from the the mind's power to bring out ideas, which is called the power of intellect. And this is also called the חכמה סתימאה of אריך אנפין.

In ספירות, this is called the hidden חכמה of אריך אנפין. ונקרא חכמה נעלמה, it's also called the hidden חכמה, שהוא מקור מוצא כל שכל מאין וכו'. And this is the source that brings out every intellect, and the idea is brought out from from nothing, it's brought out from this source. ונקרא משכיל כידוע, and it's called משכיל, the the one that makes the intellect, the intellectualizer. והיינו שאמר דהא אבא ינק ממזלא ח' ונוצר אותיות צינור,

that אבא, חכמה, it suckles from the eighth מזל, which is called which is ונוצר, which is the letters of צינור, of like a pipe, כצינור דק, because it's like a thin tube. כך בחינת שערות דמזלא ח', and so this is the way the hairs of this eighth מזל, הוא בחינת צומח שבמשכיל הנ"ל, which this is the power of growth from this source of the intellect.

And what the idea is that he's explaining here is that called the beard of אריך אנפין, and it corresponds to the actual beard, but it explains that there's the brain, and then and there's the skull, and in between the brain and the skull, there's this membrane, which is called the קרומא דאוירא, the membrane of air, and there's this liquid that fills that that the spongy membrane is full of this liquid, and this liquid drips through tiny hairs in this membrane into the brain, and that liquid is the source of of intellect.

That liquid is the, it says, the the essential pleasure, and it's also the essential power of intellect. And so when it comes onto the brain, it it it's revealed as pleasure or as intellect depending on on where it comes out, and and this is the idea of the 13 מזלות of אריך אנפין are like these 13 sections of this ways that the this liquid comes out through this membrane onto the brain.

So the first six correspond to pleasure, and the the first six are on the side of חסד, and that's the idea of where a lot of this liquid comes out, and when it comes out in abundance, then it causes pleasure.

The last six are the side of גבורה. And those are the source of שכל, of intellect. And that's because it comes out in a much smaller way, and so it it makes it makes it come out as an intellect. The idea is that it starts out with the first מזל, it it comes out in the most abundant form, and so it gives the most general pleasure, and as it goes down through the six that are correspond to pleasure, it gets more and more localized until it becomes like a very specific pleasure, like a a תענוג מורכב, a pleasure from a very specific thing.

And then when by the time it gets to the last six, it's already in intellect. So the of those last six, which is 8 through 13, the first one, the eighth one is the source of חכמה. It says the brain of חכמה is wet, is cold and wet because it has more of this liquid, and so that's why it gives like a more intuitive, holistic understanding. And then בינה, it says, is dry and hot, and that's because there's very little of this liquid, and it comes in very, very thin hairs, and so it comes in very localized way that gives rise to a very specific intellect.

So that's the idea of these מזלות. Now the middle מזל, the seventh מזל, which is ואמת, is like the the intermediary between these two and that's what makes the הכרעה that decides between between חסד and גבורה to have like not just like an objective intellect, but to have like a decision, a choice. So that's the idea of these these מזלות. And the word מזל means like a נוזל, means like a to drip, and kind of like I mean, I don't know if it's the same source, but in English, like a nozzle means like a that's what it means, it means like a pipe or a tube.

And that's the idea. The reason why like the constellations and the stars are called a מזל is because they're channels that bring out different things to us, like the sun is a channel that brings us heat and warmth and light, and all the different stars and and planets, they're channels that affect Earth in different ways. So that's the idea of a מזל, it's just like a channel.

So here you have the idea the the מזלות of אריך are these channels that bring this liquid into the brain, and they're the channels that bring out the the pleasure and the intellect. This the eighth מזל, which is ונוצר, is the source of חכמה, and that's the idea that it's like a thin tube, like a צינור דק, like a thin tube. And so the hairs of this מזל, the the tubes of this מזל, which are what grow the intellect, that when this liquid comes out, it develops the idea.

So that's the idea if to say מוח שמשם המשכיל הנעלם, that it brings out new ideas, like like a חכמה, that is like an idea that comes out like from nowhere, that's the idea of when it first drips down, and then it grows more and more as it continues. להצמיח מאין כל מיני השכלות, and this is the idea that it grows, it sprouts from no from nowhere, from like nothing, all sorts of ideas.

והיניקה הוא בחינת הגדלת מוחין דאבא, and the idea that the the brain of חכמה draws life, that it sucks from this מזל is what causes the the the brain of חכמה to develop and mature, that as it gets more and more of this liquid, it develops that particular idea, and in general, the whole brain develops and becomes smarter and more mature.

והגדלת מוחין דאימא היינו ממזל י״ג, and the development of the brain of אימא, of בינה, is from the 13th מזל, which is ונקה. וב׳ מזלות הללו, מזל עליון ומזל תחתון, and these two מזלות, the highest and the lowest מזל, and the reason that they're called the highest and the lowest is because they're the highest and the lowest of the ones that relate to שכל. They're of the last six, because the the first seven don't relate to שכל.

So the highest and lowest מזלות of these last six הן שרשי המוחין דאבא ואימא, they are the source for the intellect of אבא ואימא, of חכמה ובינה.

והוא בכח המשכיל עצמו, and this source is in the כח המשכיל itself. Within the this liquid and the membrane over the brain, there's a source that in the the shape and the whatever the way that this that this membrane is constructed, it this is this has a source for your talents and for your intellect, that the six that relate to to pleasure and affect your talents, and the ones that are that and what you'll enjoy and have aptitude and sensitivity for, and then the ones that relate to intellect relate to what kind of how your brain will work and what you'll be good at intellectually.