Part 2 · Chapter 16

Understanding Individual Intellectual Styles 0:03

או להשכיל שכל פרטי, or also the way that that each person understands things in different ways. So they they have a certain thing to understand a certain שכל in a certain they'll understand a certain way. או להיות לו, like you see, like we're going to talk about later also, that everybody, רש"י, תוספות, each person has a certain like שיטה, the way they understand things, it's unique. או להיות לו רצון ותענוג בדבר וכו', or whether he's going to enjoy something or not enjoy something, whether he's going to like, what he's going to hate, all these things are included in his taste basically, that's basically what I would call this.

וגם שמתחבר רצון המוחלט הזה אל התפשטות הרצון בדבר הפרטי, even though this taste connects to the actual desire, it influences it, in other words, אבל נשאר כולו בהעלם עצמותו, but it stays really hidden. In other words, like let's say like you have an artist and he has a certain style. You can't really The style is not something tangible that you can say that like when he makes a certain painting, that this painting it it it's influenced by his style, but you can't really say that that is his style.

It's not something that's like that and so that you can't really like directly copy it or say what it is. It's not something that you could try You couldn't like try to do it really.

The Elusiveness of Personal Artistic Style 1:18

And sometimes people do, they try to like figure out what their style is and try to do those things and it comes out fake. The whole ענין of a style means that you're just being yourself, and it's natural, like in books on writing or where they talk about style, or any type of art, they the the style, it says, this is what the לשון is very nice in these things, they say, the style is the person himself, basically, the general thing they say.

And דוקא when you are not you're just letting yourself come out freely without trying to put on anything, or even to try to act as the way you see yourself, cuz you can't really It's not something that you can tangibly define, then it comes out in everything that you do.

But it's not anything that's particular that you could point to it and say that is, or like like like a painting, so you could say this painting is like an impressionist it's impressionistic, but you can't say it's impressionism.

So so the same way the person's the person's taste influences every desire they ever have, but that desire is not really a direct expression of their full taste. In In other words,

ועל כן אין בו עדיין בחינת כלל ופרט וכו', and that therefore their taste does not have a כלל ופרט. So like when a person wants a house, there's the main thing they want is the building with a roof and that they should be protected from the elements and from whatever. And the secondary things are like furniture and the and like all these different

How Taste Shapes the Desire for a House 2:30

utilities and whatever, and then comes like they're going to decorate it and paint it and put down carpeting or wood floor or whatever it is, and then there's like the bathroom drapes.

So it's all influenced by their taste, but when it comes out in actual רצון, there's the main thing, the main, the first רצון they want the is the main circle is for a house.

That is they have a certain general picture of what means a house, then within that there's the circle for the kitchen, and then there's a circle for the for the living the living room and dining room and the bedroom and the bathroom, each one has its own circle that's included in the general circle of the house, and each of those circles has circles in it, like the sink and the stove in the kitchen and the whatever, and it gets more more, smaller smaller circles for for each detail that was included in the general thought,

until the smallest details like the bathroom drapes. But as far as the taste, the taste influences each stage equally, that each stage whenever there's a choice to be made of how to do it, doesn't matter whether it's big or small, that choice comes from his taste, his רצון מוחלט. And since his רצון מוחלט is involved, that's an expression of it just like anything else.

רק כאשר לאחר זה עולה רצון זה שמוחלט אצלו לבוא לידי מעשה בפועל ממש, but when this רצון is going to come now בפועל ממש, so like if you know somebody very well, you would be able to figure out what their dream house is even before they ever thought of buying a house.

But it didn't, but there it's not you can't say that there's a כלל ופרט, cuz it's not at all there's not a פועל at all, they didn't even think about it. It's just, and it's also that's the way that they that you recognize that their taste would come out really in this the society we're in now. That same person would live in a different time, the same taste would be expressed in a different way.

So instead of wanting a nice, big mansion, he'd want a hut if he was a tribal chief in Africa.

From Hidden Taste to Revealed Concrete Desire 4:48

הרי יצא מהעלמו, when it comes בפועל ממש actually do it, then it becomes revealed, לגילוי, אז יבוא הרצון בבחינת כלל ופרט, then there's a general thing and there's the particulars, there's the in other words, the there's priorities. דהיינו מחשבה כללית, first there's the general thought שכוללת כל ענייני המעשה מראש ועד סוף בסקירה אחת, that includes everything at once, defines everything, what is the general goal here, ואחר כך נחלק ברצונות פרטים, then it divides to particular desires, ולכל רצון שכל ומדות וכולי, and each one has its own שכל ומדות and everything, ובאים זה אחר זה, and they come one after the other, or זו אחר זו I should say, בהשתלשלות, זה עליון מקיף את התחתון, the upper one encompassing the lower one, in other words, that it defines and includes the lower one, and this is just the detail to serve that general purpose.

כאשר יהיה אופן מתוך אופן וכולי, like a circle inside of a circle, concentric circles. והוא נקרא רצון המורכב, and this, when you actually have a רצון like for a house, and you have the general רצון for the house, and a particular רצון for the kitchen, and the particular רצון for the kitchen has the particular רצונות for the sink and all these things, that's called a רצון מורכב, a complex רצון.

מורכב means composite, as in made up of many parts, huh? Well, the whole thing for the for the whole רצון for the house when it comes בפועל ממש, as opposed to the taste. The רצון for the the taste is a simple רצון, it's רצון פשוט, and then when you actually want something in the world, it's complex, means that there's the general thing, and then that has many details, and each of those details has sub-details, and so there's a כלל and a פרט already.

שיש בו כלל ופרט, that's the ענין of a רצון מורכב. And that means the general ענין of מורכב is also means that there's priorities. If it's a simple thing from the essence, then it's just a נקודה.

But here it's complicated, because you can have conflicting desires, and you want this, and you want that, and you want this because it will do this, and it's like a whole bubble already.

So the choice the choice in each רצון is coming from the רצון פשוט, it's coming from his רצון מוחלט. But the the the actual picture of it, the way it comes out physically, is מורכב. In other words, that like basically we're going to say soon, somewhere around here, that or maybe they're actually saying in the beginning of the next chapter really, that the רצון מוחלט is really is really is really for himself, in other words, it's a it's a self-expression.

So there's a thing that that he's comfortable in a certain, דוקא in a certain way, and that he feels that that he wants to express a certain type of a atmosphere and whatever, and in his house he wants is expressing him. So as far as that, that is the the the רצון מוחלט, it's really just a רצון to express himself. That's already מוחלט, yeah. מורכב, right. I mean, והוא נקרא רצון מורכב שיש בו כלל ופרט, ויובן זה על דרך משל הידוע, אדם שרוצה לבנות בנין גדול, a person wants to build a big building, כפי הרצון שהוחלט מכבר אצלו, according to his taste, להיות בו אופנים מיוחדים דוקא, he wants it to be specially designed for the way the way he wants it.

He wants to build a dream house, or a dream facility for his חב״ד house, doesn't make a difference what it is. שאותו הרצון שהוחלט אצלו מכבר, that that this taste that he had already decided before, גם שהוא בא במדה וטעם מיוחד, even though there in a way it is like defined, that each person has a certain thing, they enjoy things in a certain way, באופן כך וכך, וממילא, and since he enjoys things a certain way, that automatically influences that his שכל leans to try to find that, שכל ומדות, בא בשעור מדה וכולי, everything is in line with that.

אך כל זה הוא השעור וההחלט שבעצמותו עדין, that's all still within his essence, ונכלל בעצמו, and it's really part of himself, וכאלו לא היה וכולי, it's like it doesn't doesn't exist, it's not he doesn't actually have a desire yet for a house. It's like a like if you know him, you would know how he would want it, but he didn't actually have a desire for it, and there's no actual thought of something outside of himself yet.

The the ענין is it's a ידיעת עצמו, that since you know what you like, even if you didn't think about it yet, how do you know when you're planning a house what you want? Because you think what makes you happy, and then you think that lets you know what you want, because you know how you want to feel.

That's the ענין. The the the פנימיות of it is the way you want to feel, and you have a certain way that you like to do things a certain way. Right, let's say that. So that thing comes because of that he is that he set up a certain thing in his personality in קדמוניות, like a certain like a certain טבע, so to speak, for himself. Like a and that personality that he assumed essentially is that he chose to be the the form that he's going to express himself with, then comes out in the world according to however whatever situation it comes out.

Right. Yeah, you can open it. That's the ענין of תשובה, that when you reconnect the the external desires to their source, and if you go the farther up you go, the more then you like it's like hitting the reset button. Cuz if you change a desire, the higher up you change a desire, the more flexible it makes everything under it.

Changing Core Desires to Reshape All Sub-Desires 10:14

So, if you go all the way up to the essence, then everything becomes flexible, because the whole ענין is that you want to express that you're you that you have בחירה, that you are not bound by anything.

And so you can choose whatever you want. That's the inner desire is to express your עצם as being above any, not being stuck in any type of a thing.

Right, and but you see like that's the way usually like in a person's עבודה, first thing is that they take their nature and they turn their the way they are and use it for good.

Then the next step is to take, to be able to learn to break, to break out of their nature. Not mean doesn't mean that they that they, it doesn't mean like in a way really of אתכפיא that they just force themselves to do against, it means to to free themselves and realize that that's not who they are, that they're that that that this is just this personality that they think is them is really just like a a role that they're acting out, and it's like a costume that they can and they can really choose to act out a different role.

And that's like the ענין you see by like אברהם having to do גבורה, and יעקב having to lie and cheat עשו and לבן and things, cuz יעקב was an איש תם.

So, they had to do the opposite of their of their nature. Not sure what it was by by יצחק really, that he had to do.

But but these so these things are there it's an ענין that says that when a person does this, דווקא, then they then they reveal their their עצם, that's why. Like like on פורים, when you put on a a costume, then you you feel free to do what you want, cuz you don't feel like it's reflected on you. It's like a similar ענין, when מצד היחידה, a person all all any all these like the פרצופים a person puts on, all the roles they play they realize that they're like costumes that they can take off.

Costumes, Roles, and the Freedom of Self‑Expression 12:07

And like you see, like a person like the רבי, suppose like, we mentioned before, is very unpredictable, cuz whatever different to each person the רבי would act differently, and each situation, and I mean, all type of extremes, the most private, and the most public, and the most like the liberal, and the most conservative. I mean, like all these type of things that are like kind of impossible really to have, cuz normally you see things as being in contradiction.

The whole thing really of חסידות, when you reveal the essence, is that you realize you can have 100% of both. It's not like you have a choice, 50-50, or all of one, or it's 100% of both, whenever there's like a conflict.