Part 3 · Chapter 18

Soul entering the body and early self‑image formation 0:03

Yeah, I mean there's a process of this that happens with putting the soul into the body, and but this also a person also does this, like as soon as they're born, they start to create their self-image and their worldview.

There's like a deeper ענין of the השתלשלות within the soul itself, but then within the soul, the way it's enclothed in the body, there's also this whole השתלשלות, which that's cuz the real משל, what we what we really understand is the way the השתלשלות works in the נפש החיונית, the נפש הבהמית, which is once the soul goes into the body. And that's the משל we always use for everything.

And so this is like when a person is a little kid, like till until they're five, basically they create this self-image and worldview for themselves. And based on that, that decides their personality and everything for the rest of their life, and it's very hard to change.

But the same thing happens really to נפש, the soul before it comes to the body, which is to the נפש אלוקית, which is that it's shown the ניצוצות it's supposed to refine and everything like that, and that gives it a certain form. Now, the the problem with that happens there, though, which is like the source of the שבירה, is that since each soul only sees its part of the plan, so there can it can come to be a פירוד, even between like the ענין, that's the ענין that you need an עירוב חצרות to connect a רשות היחיד,

Source of the break: limited perspective of each soul 1:18

רשויות, רשות, how do you say it? I don't know how you say it in plural. Many רשות היחידs, that even though each person, the name רשות היחיד means that his ד' אמות are all totally for קדושה, that he's using and he's שלם in his עבודת השם and he's and he's using everything for תורה ומצוות, but since it's only it's it's it's only his personal thing that he that this is his proper way, the way he should be serving God, that's right for him, but he doesn't understand that somebody has a different טבע and they have a different עבודה.

And so if he's not able to understand that and connect the two, there can still be a פירוד, like the מיטעלער רבי talks about in דרך חיים about how you see, well, a פירוד between גדולים and and and people that are big, holy rabbis and שלם and everything like that, there was always historically there were there were fights between people.

I mean, for example, like the fight between the חסידים and מתנגדים started really in the time of the ראשונים about different מחלוקות about practical קבלה and stuff like that, versus and then it became in general a מחלוקת about קבלה, and then it came down like the time of the יעב״ץ and and the the the רמח״ל and ר' יהונתן אייבשיץ and the בעל שם טוב, and like all these different people, and then the הגר״א and the אלטער רבי, and I mean, it was a whole process that and the the ענין was that that people had their, like the מתנגדים, they were תורה souls, and the חסידים were more תפילה souls.

And this is what the אלטער רבי, they asked him once that when when they he was the government was was asking him, interrogating him, so he said that this is that their עבודה is more in in in תורה, and our עבודה is more in תפילה.

But the מתנגדים thought that the fact that they weren't putting emphasis on תורה was like heresy. And this is the general thing of the I mean, there's other things involved also, but and then it became, you know, it got it got ugly as people became personal involvement and things, and it became a whole קליפה, but but that was the general the מקור of it was a thing in קדושה, really, but they did, but that type of a פירוד is already the שורש, that's that's that that type of a thing, a difference, that each person has their own path in עבודת השם and they don't see how it's all connecting to the same כוונה, leads to complete פירוד until it's ממש שנאת חנם and and like people actually just killing each other and making קטרוגים on each other, like that's what happened.

When it when when that type of פירוד was נשתלשל down to people that were that that weren't as holy and stuff, that that's what came out from it. And that's why how even מצד הנפש האלוקית, the source of this פירוד starts already there, in depending on which part of א"ק the soul comes from.

Division stemming from the soul’s origin in the divine realm 5:00

And that's why דוקא the ענין of like a leader, you need a leader to connect everybody together, cuz the ענין of like ראש בני ישראל and stuff like that, like a רבי, is somebody that's a general soul, that he sees the whole picture, and he sees how each person is has their עבודה, and they're all פרטים of the general thing, and so he can tell each person what they're supposed to do and how they're all supposed to work together, and help be מאחד everybody, until the real the general soul that unites everybody throughout all the generations is משיח himself.

Right, but מצד הנפש החיונית, the problem is that like a person grows up around in a גויישה world, so then they can get wrong ideas very easily, or even in קדושה, if a person grows up in a Jewish world, but they're if they're if the people around them are associate their what is the right עבודה for them as being the only right way, and they don't see past it, then a person can think that they have to be like that, like like this person, and then, but that's not really the best thing מצד their עבודה.

And so then they'll feel eventually they'll be disillusion that that's not working, they're going to try to do it, and it's not going to work, and then if they don't they if they don't realize that there's something that's deeper, and that this doesn't have to be in that form, and to find the right like the right role model for themselves or whatever it is, then, or the right עבודה for themselves, or the right make the right self-image of who they're supposed to be and everything, how they fit in, then big problems.

Challenges of adolescence: forming identity and fitting into the picture 7:02

So, I mean, well this is problem both מצד קליפה and קדושה, whatever, when a person doesn't, you know, and this is like a thing that you that people, like teenagers and stuff, you see they struggle with is when they start to try to implement, to try to be that self-image they had, and they say they're trying to find themselves, they're trying to find how they fit into the picture, how they can actually be that.

And this is also why like like stories are very are important, they're like the, because when you hear stories of צדיקים and I mean חסידים, or in general, like great people and that that exemplify the thing, that's where you you see like that gives you the self the the image of what the real purpose, the real final goal is of how to bring the תורה down into life.

And, I mean, there's different types of stories, different types of people, but there's a certain, each person can find something learn something from every story, and then there's a certain type of a person that's like their the hero that they associate with, and then that's who they try to be like.

You know, like each person has certain stories that they that really inspire them, and they kind of live by that message or whatever. And then the whole purpose of like the מאמרים and things like that is just so you should understand what was going on in the story, and how you can actually be like that so that it doesn't become a חיצוניות thing of just like copying the external symptoms, but that you actually understand what is going on in in into being like that.

Pitfalls of copying external symbols without inner understanding 8:44

Cuz it's easy to like copy like dress the same way as somebody, you know, like you see this, everybody does it. They try to they get dressed like like their like, you know, role models, whatever it is. Whether the same thing with sports stars, movie stars, and things, they just get paraphernalia, and with חסידים also, they copy people. It's the same idea, that they're trying they see that person as being who they want to be, and they try to copy it, but if they don't כאפ what the real thing is behind it, then it's not going to get them there.

But as far as the what we're talking about here, this is that that the רצון for דירה בתחתונים became the רצון for a certain form, and this is the מקור א"ק is the מקור of the תורה ומצות and all these things, because and also for the form of the world that we live in, that ה' made that's the חיצוניות, that ה' made the world to be according to the the the form that is to be like an actual What which world is going to be the דירה?

Which תחתון are we going to have? And then the תורה ומצות is like the פנימיות is the רצון for how to make that תחתונים a דירה.

So that's the the the פנימיות of that. And that's the מקור of everything, and same thing the נשמות ישראל of it, which how the way the נשמות are going to be, that the נשמות become like a נברא, and that happens in א״ק. Until then, the נשמה is a חלק אלוקה, it's not like something separate. The ענין of a נברא is דוקא the form that the נשמה takes on.

That's what's created. The עצמות then of the נשמה is not a נברא.

And so the fact that like everybody gets their form and their שורש הנשמה and everything and their mission, that's all it all comes really from the שורש of it is א״ק for everything.

How bribery distorts personal intention and biases judgment 10:50

Like כמו השוחד שיעשה רצון לרצון ושכלו לזכות תמיד, that if a person gets bribed, their essential רצון, then if the money is connected to their their essential רצון, something that they want, in other words to make the person have a personal interest. That his רצון for himself, which in this case is the רצון for which is connected to money already because of earlier things, now makes him feel connected, his שכל now is connected, so it's not objective anymore.

Now he doesn't Originally, the reason that he was sitting here being judge was because his interest was for justice. By giving him a bribe, now he wants something for himself, and that twists his רצון for justice to fit to fit his his רצון for money. And so that will make him always have a רצון for זכות. מפני שהשוחד מגיע בעצמות נפשו, because the שוחד connects his his עצם to it, שמחמתו יומשך תמיד התהוות רצון לרצון של חסד וזכות.

This will always cause that his רצון will be he'll have a bias now for for חסד and for merit and everything. ולהפך, לשונאו, for his enemy, יתהוה תמיד רצון לרצון של דין כולי כהאי גוונא וכו׳. And for somebody that he hates, since he has a personal interest against the person, he'll always look to find him guilty and to and look negatively on him.