Part 7 · Chapter 17

The intellect (שכל) dominates desire (רצון) 0:01

Yeah, so so yeah, so he has to and then the שכל becomes the main thing. והשכל מקיף, and the שכל surrounds the רצון, meaning that it's it's bigger than the רצון.

And the רצון doesn't really reach the שכל. In other words, what you want is very nice, but if it doesn't make sense, that's too bad. You know what I mean? The the שכל is more real now than the רצון. So, the the שכל gets to tell the רצון what it should want.

And the the the רצון cannot change the שכל. The שכל can change the רצון, but the רצון cannot change the שכל. The שכל is on top. והשכל מתעלם ומתלבש במידות, then the שכל is is gets hidden and gets put into the מידות, זו תחת זו, one under the other. And so it says, okay, so it's very nice, it sounds very good on paper, right, in theory, but then the מידות kick in, and they tell the שכל which which which plan you're going to do.

You know, they say, okay, I know that in theory I could do that, but I'm sorry, I'm scared, I'm not going to do it, you know? Or I don't like doing it, or you know what I mean? There's certain things you just aren't willing to do.

You say, well, you know, like you can make, you know, a lot of money being a garbage man, that has good benefits, yeah, I don't want to do that. So, the the שכל then has to go into the מידות.

No, but it's a it's not it's not that, it's not that רצון. רצון is like No, because the mid- מידות means like the way that you relate to something. You know, like the way that you react. Once you once you have a certain רצון, a רצון is like a more essential thing than There's like the רצון that's higher than שכל, and there's a רצון that's lower than שכל.

The רצון that's lower than שכל is like in מידות. The רצון higher than שכל is like let's say let's take a let's take a small example, let's say you like I like candy. Okay?

That's my רצון, I want candy. Your שכל, your שכל tells you what will give you candy and what will not give you candy. So, once you know that like if you behave, then you'll get candy, so then, the מידות means like the way that you're going to react. Let's say you have a situation where your parents are watching you doing something, and you have a choice to listen or not to listen, so how are you going to react?

Desire plugged into intellect yields a trait 2:31

So now, once you plug the רצון into the שכל, רצון plus שכל equals מידה. It the the it automatically, it's a function. You know what I mean? That like when you put in a certain רצון into the שכל, the שכל is like a function that will spin out which מידה you should have.

So then, yeah, then yeah. In other words, the fact that you'll now look at listening to your parents as a good thing, and have like a חסד towards it, and be scared to go against them, because then they won't give you the candy, those are מידות.

That's the way that you're going to like react to the situations. It's not your inner desire, your inner desire is for the candy. That those are מידות.

Before, the שכל was was the bigger circle and the מידות were the smaller circles inside. Now, the שכל is is מצמצם, and the מידות go around it.

And then the מידות are מצמצם, and the מעשה goes around it. That's where we're up to now. Yeah, מידות זו תחת זו עד סוף מעשה הוא עליון, until the סוף מעשה goes on top of everything, מהכל, yeah, the highest one of everything. Two, first of all, these are two separate השתלשלויות that happen simultaneously: the עיגולים and the יושר. First, there's the עיגולים, which is a circle inside of a circle, and it goes all the way down to the סוף מעשה.

Circles vs righteousness: two simultaneous processes 3:43

At the same time, but it starts happening after it, there come the ספירות of יושר, which look like three like a person in three lines. And the the ענין of the person in three lines is that the top one is מצמצם and מתלבש in the lower one, and it keeps going down. As you go down, the higher ones keep going into the lower ones. They don't just like stay like that.

Right, so when it comes to יושר, when it comes to יושר, so it's like first you want to figure out what you want, which is like אצילות. Then you want to figure out what that means, like if you like to swim, that means a swimming pool.

Then you want to figure out like exactly what form you want it in, like how big, and what you're going to build it out of, which is like יצירה.

Then you have to figure out how to build such a thing, which is like עשיה. So in עיגולים, as you go down, of course you also want that, because, you know, of course you want to figure out what you want, of course you want to figure out how, what that means, and how to build, what shape it should be in, what it should be made out of, and how do I build it.

But do you care, but the lower down you go, the least you care about it. Because it's not like your main רצון. That's why people like to daydream, because so the עיגול, circles keep getting smaller, and they keep getting farther away from the real thing.

No, no, in עיגולים the final thing is just a daydream.

It's all just a daydream in עיגולים. So, like you get to the final thing, and you're imagining building the house, that's the least, that's the the the most fake.

The most real thing is that you want it, and the final thing that you're imagining yourself sitting going and digging out the swimming pool and whatever is the most fake.

Because the farthest from actually your, it's so far from you actually doing it.

But when you finish imagining it, and you say, "Okay, I want to actually do it," then you can start then then then you start can start actually wanting to do it.

When you start actually wanting to do it, so then you're you first you figure out what you want. Then that has to go inside of so let's say you decide you want a swimming pool, that is מתלבש in the let's say you just say like, "Oh, I'd like to swim, I like to be able to swim," that's מתלבש in the רצון for a swimming pool, and that's it.

Now you don't want to swim anymore, you want a swimming pool. Because the רצון for swimming you could get with a lake, you could get with the beach, you know what I mean? But you decided, no. You decided you don't want to live at the ocean, you don't want to live near a lake, you want to live in the city, and you want to have a swimming pool.

Once you decided that, the other רצונות get totally hidden and covered over. And the only thing that you see is that you want a swimming pool, and hidden inside of it is the kernel of truth, which is really that you don't want the swimming pool, you just want to be able to swim. But now it's totally covered over, and the whole context is that you want a swimming pool.

The kernel of truth is the עיגול of רצון, which is now מצמצם and goes into the שכל,

that that's what you really want, yeah. Then that that רצון for a swimming pool, you're looking through catalogs of swimming pools, and you see a certain one which you think will be the good for your price range and your house and your size, whatever it is. And now those מידות, those dimensions, מידות also mean like dimensions, of how big and what it's made out of, and the price, and all those specifications, those מידות become the main thing.

So now the general like picture you made in your head of that you want a swimming pool, that becomes מצמצם, מתלבש in those מידות, that you want that one.

Yeah, that's what catalogs do. They get you to go from wanting a pool to wanting this pool, or wanting whatever, yeah? And now that's it. Now you don't, you know, just a second ago, you know, I see this happen all the time with people. A second ago, they weren't sure what they wanted. They just wanted anything that would do the job, you know? They're hungry, "I don't know what I want.

I'm in the mood for anything." Then all of a sudden, something happens, they get their heart set on one thing, and now, and they say, "Okay, I want it." They get all excited that they want that, and they forget that they that they why they wanted it, and they just want that. And so now all of a sudden, it can have something can happen that it's not so practical, and it's going to be a real pain to get it, and they can they can't just drop it, though, and say, "Okay, so I'll get something else that's more practical, and and I'll want that instead."

They they say, "No, I wanted it. Oh, what can I do? Is there some way I can get it? What am I going to do?" So now it becomes a big crisis all of a sudden they can't get the exact way that they had envisioned getting it. And and now it's not it's not an option for them to like change the way that they're going to get it.

They have to they have to figure out a way, you know, to get what they want.

It's like a little bit of an עקשנות, you know? It's a little kind of stubborn. Anyway, then that thing becomes of wanting that specific thing becomes מתלבש in a certain מעשה. So let's say they start like they decide that they're going to they're going to work to save up money.

That's it. Now they want to work to get the money. And they can get, in a you know, in a way they can get so caught up in the working that they forget about why they why they were doing it, you know what I mean?

That's one of the things with like the רצונות is that there's no real השתלשלות in רצון. But that's especially true in the עיגולים, that a lower עיגול can blow up and become a bigger עיגול. Anyway, but yeah, so they get all into it, and then

that As you go down through the השתלשלות, once you associate a higher stage to the lower stage, the lower stage takes over and becomes the everything, it becomes the the total all-encompassing goal, and everything else becomes hidden in the background.

Why does it look like a person? First of all, we didn't say that right yet,

but because there's an ענין of יושר that doesn't look like a person yet, necessarily. That's the way a person works, it is say- is רצון goes into the שכל and the שכל goes into the מדות and the מדות goes into the מעשה, and then it comes out. That's how In other words, when you want to actually do something, this is the process that you do it through, those steps.

From desire to action: the human process 10:50

That's the way that people do things and since the רצון is going through those steps, so it's called like going through a human process, it's like the shape of a person.

עיגולים is like the soul before it comes into the body, that's the And And then then יושר is like when the soul goes into the body. So, when the soul goes into the body, it has to work through the form of the way people work.

And so, therefore, it goes in like that shape.

Yeah, you still go through all the steps, but you see the lower steps the רצון stays on top. It doesn't become התלבש inside of them, which means that the רצון is never going to become בטל to the שכל, the שכל is בטל to the רצון. The רצון bribes the שכל, which means that that that you want it and you'll figure out a שכל to fit it.

Right, you're biased. And, yeah, you're biased, you have a bias. And then your שכל will bribe the מדות to figure out a מדה that will fit that will be the best approximation for the שכל. And then the מדות bribe the the מעשה to figure out what you'll do. So, you tell yourself you'll do these things, you know, these crazy things, to accomplish the מדות that you want.

So, this is like the opposite. This is like a The עיגולים is like a passion-oriented kind of thing as opposed to like יושר is like a practical your main orientation is on the practical.

And your main thing finally becomes of what's the best way to do it. And that becomes the top thing, and everything else will fit with what's the best way to do it. So, the מעשה becomes the the the context that defines everything.

So, if it's most practical to do it a certain way, so then you'll change the מדות, you'll change the what the way that the exact form of what you wanted to fit what's most practical, what's the best way to do it.

And then you'll change the, you know, and that will change the שכל and the רצון and everything. Everything will have to fit with, because your main goal is to actually do it, everything will have to fit with how you what's practical to actually do.

Tashuva versus good deeds explained 13:13

That's what it means to be practical. Yeah, this is תשובה and מעשים טובים. תשובה is עיגולים, and מעשים טובים is יושר. And these are the two steps: רצוא and שוב,

מה and בן, which that includes really everything. עיגולים are מה, and the יושר is בן.