Part 5 · Chapter 25

Two Lines of Chesed and Gevurah in the Will 0:02

שנמשך ממנו ב' קווין חסד וגבורה שברצון וכולי. And from this reason for the רצון, like we said before, that from the שכל, then you already it divides up into lines.

And so from here, you have the two lines of חסד and גבורה in the רצון based on the שכל, that there's a שכל that leans towards חסד, a שכל that leans towards גבורה, that whether you like it or you don't like it. וזה אמר, and this is why it says דאבא ואימא מלבישין לזרועות חסד וגבורה דאריך אנפין, that the אבא and אימא, the חכמה and בינה, garb or clothe the arms of אריך אנפין, which represents the חסד and גבורה of אריך אנפין.

And because that's the level where your intellect is based on your your essential desires, your of your רצון, and basically that's like where your bias, that because let's say, like you love your child, so automatically your intellect is going to look for the good in him, and you're not going to be able to see bad, let's say.

Or like a self-love that covers over your faults. So that's the idea of the intellect is now just like rationalizing what a these מדות. And this is the same thing when a person feels very strongly about a certain belief, and so their intellect tries to explain it and rationalize it. So it's not really an intellect, it's really just this belief or emotion that's higher than intellect, and they're just trying to explain it in in order to like convince, but it's not it's not really like based on a rational thing.

It's not really open for debate. You see this by anybody that's like You see it by like missionaries, and you see it by like political groups, and people, you know, anybody that feels very strongly about a certain belief, and they try to like campaign for that belief.

But even though they'll try to convince you rationally, but if you like, you know, argue and effectively defeat their argument, they still believe in their side, because they just they they believe in it in a way that's higher than the intellect, and they're just trying to convince you. But they're not really being rational.

This is not a bad thing or a good thing. This is just a thing. This is the way people work. You know, this a person can be be like this, person's always going to be like this, you know, sometime. In order to really come out with a true שכל, you have to go to the first level where you're reaching all the way up into the source. That will give you a true understanding.

Seeking True Sechel: Ascending to the Source 2:24

At this level, you don't have a true understanding, but you'll come up with very smart things, but it's based on your your what you already believe and everything, and it's not the full truth. It'll be true maybe, but it won't be the full truth. I mean, in holiness, you also have this idea that like בית שמאי and בית הלל and everything, that they would פסקן and everything, and it was partially based on their source, that, you know, one of one of them leaned towards חסד, one leaned towards גבורה.

And so their intellect automatically saw things that way. And the idea of the הלכה is that you have to reach higher than that, all the way into the source, which is higher than the חסד and גבורה, to like the מזלות is, and see where's where the הכרעה is. There's a whole מאמר about it or a couple מאמרים in סמ"ך ו"ו where it explains the idea of אלו ואלו דברי אלקים חיים, that how they both are like true, but it's not the whole truth.

And the real idea of truth doesn't come from אלקים, it comes from הוי', and that's the idea that goes higher. And that's the idea of like the level of the מזלות that goes all the way to the essence. And that's where the הלכה comes from, the ability to make the הכרעה like one or the other, which in this case the הלכה is like בית הלל.

So anytime that a person like is involved in any debate, and they have just like a natural leaning towards one side, just you know, they feel like that's the right way, and they're just they're trying to explain it to you, and like make you see what they feel, like they just feel it's right or they feel it's wrong, and they're trying to make you see that, so that's usually like this level, where they're just The intellect is just explaining what the person inherently like feels, or the based on their nature and everything.

And in order to find the truth, you have to go to the higher level where you get into the מזלות, where you're able to see both sides and you see the inner truth that's behind both of them, and then you can connect them and everything.

At this level, it's very frustrating to speak to people, because it's not it's not, I mean, if you're trying to see the other side or argue the other side, it's not going to really work.

And that's why it's like it's like kind of puppets, you know, the intellect becomes like a puppet to the arms. The arms go into the חכמה and the בינה, and they move the move the חכמה and בינה according to the way they want. But it's really just a mask, a front for the רצון.

At the level of the מזלות, you realize the intellect is also just like a front, but at that level, you're not biased. You just see the inner truth, and you can bring the intellect out according to however you want to explain that.

So you also there it's like the intellect is even more transparent, but at that level it's transparent to the intellect behind it, so it comes out as a true שכל. That's like the level of תורה in general. You know, חסידות in particular and תורה in general is like that. Okay. So what's this like? That כמו שאנו רואים, like we see, שמחמת מדת החסד ואהבה רבה שברצון, נמצא שורש לשכל וטעם לזכות ולחסד.

This is what we see that when a person has an essential desire of חסד and אהבה in their רצון, they have this very this infinite love in their רצון, so this will cause them to have an intellect and a reason for merit and for kindness and for good. כמו השוחד יעור וכולי, and that's the idea like a bribe, that a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise, so that this this חסד, this אהבה in your רצון bribes your שכל, and it blinds your intellect to be biased according to this this שכל.

שמחמת השוחד, שיש לו אהבה ברצון, like whenever you give somebody money, so the person has that this essential desire for money in their רצון that's higher than the שכל, and so that רצון for the money reaches to their עצם הנפש, and then turns the שכל accordingly. מעמידי טענה ומטה כח שכלו מחובה לזכות. So this will bring out a טענה and it will twist his intellect from guilt to innocence.

And this is even if, no matter how holy you are and even if you don't want want it to happen, it's impossible to stop it from happening. Once you connect your שכל to this to a bribe, you're going to be biased.

Bribe (Shochad) Twisting the Intellect 6:31

כמו רבי ישמעאל שלקח קללתא דפירי, אמר אי בעי טעין הכי אי בעי טעין הכי, that רבי ישמעאל There's a bunch of stories in בבא בתרא about bribes to show you like how far they reach. And it tells you all these stories about different sages that somebody on the day of a court case did some small favor for them. And so they said that that's already considered a bribe, and I'm not going to judge you.

And one of the most extreme cases was this case with רבי ישמעאל, that he had a sharecropper, and the sharecropper would would always bring him a basket of fruit every week, that was part of the deal, but he'd bring it to him on Friday.

And this time he had a court case, so he came up a day early. He came on Thursday. So once he was coming, he brought the basket of fruit with him. And even though the fruit belonged to רבי ישמעאל and it was just getting it a day early, he said, "That's already a bribe, and so I can't judge your case." And so he deferred the case to some other judge.

But he was there present in the בית מדרש when they were judging the case. And he said that, "I, the whole time that he was that that he was speaking, and the whole time the case was going on, I was thinking to myself, 'He should've said this. He should've said that.'

That my mind was like biased and looking finding different ways that this person should win." So he so רבי ישמעאל told this story to show how strong the power of bribe is, that he found himself like inextricably biased to this person, even though he did such a small favor for him. נמצא, המדות חסד וגבורה מלובשים בפנימיות דאהבה.

So it comes out that the the מדות of חסד and גבורה of the כתר go into the the פנימיות of the שכל, חכמה ובינה, ובחינת אהבה מלביש עמהם מבחוץ. And now, the חכמה ובינה just are like masks or puppets that surround them on the outside, that are just like a external garment to cover over the רצון. But it's really a רצון. It's really not a שכל. It's really just this uh this bribe, so to speak.

וכמו שכתוב, like it says, אני בינה לי גבורה. "I am בינה. In me is גבורה." דאריך אנפין וכולי. So this פסוק is explained, you know, both ways: that בינה has גבורה in it and that גבורה comes from בינה. So here he's explaining it that inside of בינה is hidden גבורה of אריך אנפין. וכמו שכתוב בעץ חיים, ודי למבין, like it says in עץ חיים, and this is enough to understand.

So that's the second level. The second level is where a person is biased because of this inherent desire that twists the intellect and uh makes it come up with intellect according to, you know, what he feels or whatever.