Part 3 · Chapter 19

What is a superficial revelation? 0:01

ואין זה אמיתת ענין הגילוי שאינו רק כמו בחינת מראה וגוון לבד. The real ענין of a גילוי from an העלם means like an appearance or like a color, כגוון התפוח, like a an apple. So let's say you look at an apple and the outside is nice and red, so it lets you know it's ripe. If it's green, then you know it's not ripe. So the color is not the actual ripeness at all, it's just a sign that lets you reveals to you that it's ripe.

Or when you cut it open, if it's white, then you know it's sweet, if it's brown, then you know it's spoiling. But the white color is not the sweetness. There's no actual connection between the white color and the sweetness that if you would like take a rotten apple and paint it white or something, it'll taste good. That's not the way it works. שאינה ממהות התפוח.

The color is not the actual מהות התפוח. It just happens to be that the way God made apples is that they're when they're ripe, they look like this, and when they're not ripe, they look like that.

It's a סימן. In other words, the point is that they're not that they're not essentially connected, but since השם made it that they're like associated, these two things always go together in the way that the world works, so therefore we can use one as an indication of the other.

Using signs to infer inner qualities 1:20

That's the idea. It's a symptom or a sign, וכידוע. That's in a גילוי העלם, when you use one thing to represent another thing, even though it's not the the actual its essence of it, but it lets it reveals it to you, because they're always connected. So it's like a sure sign or a symptom. That's the idea. וכך הוא בגילוי העלם עצם כוחות הנפש.

Same way with the עצם הנפש, its כוחות are revealed, כמו כח מדת החסד בעצם, שגילוי שלו, היינו כאשר מתנענעת מדה זו בעצם הנפש, הרי נתהוה רצון ושכל של חסד וטוב תמיד.

How do you know if somebody's a nice person essentially? How do you know, say, "How do you know that I'm a nice guy?" So you say, "Because you always want to do nice things, and you're always whenever somebody asks your opinion about something, you're always your bias or you always lean towards חסד." So we see that you're like they say, you're like they call somebody a liberal.

What do you mean he's a liberal? How do you know what he is in his inner self? Say, "Because I see that whenever it comes up with a question, he always leans towards חסד or whatever, that side." ולהיפך, במי שמדותיו העצמיות באכזריות,

somebody that's cruel, say, "How do you know?"

Like like they call Hitler, ימח שמו, they call him a monster. They say, "How do you know what he was on the inside?" Because you see the fact that what he always wanted to do and the way that he always looked at things, and what he always said, those things reveal to you it's only a גילוי, you're not seeing the essence, you're not seeing his actual feelings and personality, but it's revealing it to you.

נתהוה רצון ושכל לדין ועונש. Somebody that always that that that is is essentially cruel and that's his inner personality, so it'll always reveal itself, it'll create a a bias, it'll reveal itself through a that that he always wants and always has שכל that leans towards being judgmental and being and punishing and being cruel and stuff like

that. והנה התהוות מקור לרצון זה לחסד או לדין נחשב עדיין מעצם המדה, the original, the fact that he has a bias that leans towards this thing, the fact that that is still considered the

the essence, שאינו נבדל הימנו כלל. The creation of that source for all these particular desires is really part that's who that's that's his inner רצון. אבל מה שנולד רצון בגילוי לדין או להיפך, היפוכו, זהו רק כמו בחינת התגלות מראה לעצם. This is only like a color that's revealing the essence. כהתגלות התנועה בעצם החי, כדי החיות בדבר נבדל.

In other words, that the act the particular actions that a person do are just a sign that show you where his bias where his lie, where his like they say sympathies lie. Or like they say to show your true color. That if you see a person doing things different situations, you're able to gather and figure out what his priorities are and where what he he wants, and you're able to figure out his personality.

He he he reveals himself. It's impossible really for a person to hide himself, because it's it's whatever whatever they want, it comes through in the way that they react to things.

But you're not seeing that on the other hand, so you can't judge somebody just If you I would just tell you that you know a person did this and this, you couldn't judge the person on that because without seeing a big picture to have a reference point, a person could do Let's say I tell you that that a guy cuts somebody up.

Why actions alone don't define character 4:50

He tied him down to a bench and cut him up. So would you say that guy's a nice guy or a mean guy? That's not enough information, because if the guy was doing it for his own

Right, but but the action itself is not a sure sign, and if a person thinks that any that any person that does that, that that action essentially or necessarily means this, that is is incorrect, and that leads to a lot of people making judgments about people and a lot of unnecessary hatred and things like that where people judge somebody because the way the way that that happens is that a person knows what that what that action would represent if somebody was coming from where they're coming from, and they have their background and their culture and their, and so that would mean or based on their motives that would mean this.

But for this person, where he have to, unless you know enough about him to know, see where he's coming from and know you have to get a bigger picture to be able to make a judgment of what that action means to him, so you can't really know right away what it it represents on him. You have to see you have to, like just like a word, like a word, even if you know the definition of that word, if you don't see its context or the tone of voice it's said with, you won't necessarily know what it means.

Context needed to interpret actions and words 6:06

You have to see the a big picture. So to the point where, like a person could do something that תורה says is a sin, but that could be representing really his desire to connect to God, if he was misled and told that this thing will is a good thing. If he was brought up, let's say, like a תינוק שנשבה was brought up in a, and they told him that if you want to connect to God you have should do this, so that's actually it's actually expressing a good thing, just that that he's expressing it the wrong

way. The same way, like a person could use a word that incorrectly, because they think that it means They don't really know what the word means. It's the same idea. From the context you could figure out what it really means. So, this is the the general idea of the גילוי ההעלם is how something that's essentially not connected, once it becomes associated, then it reveals the essence.

So, the essential bias, the fact he's always going to look to חסד is from the essence, but the particular things that he does are not from the essence, and therefore, a person can do things that are outwardly like גבורה'דיק because of a motivation of חסד. Like in in in educating a child, a parent or a teacher has to very often be strict, which is outwardly the opposite of what they want to do.

But like the פריערדיקער the פריערדיקער רבי says in No, it's in it's the רבי רש"ב says in in in חנוך לנער, that if you're if you're consistent if you mean for the child's best, the child will pick up on that, and they'll sense that you're doing it for their best, and they'll respond positively. If you're not doing it for their best, they'll also notice, and then they won't respond positively, and they'll realize they're not going to want to listen.

Teaching kindness through consistent parental example 8:10

One of the main things for that is like if if the child sees a double standard. If the child's being told to do one thing, but then and they're told that that's a good thing to do, but then the parents don't want to do it, so then they they realize that they're just being made to do something that's not I mean, the parent could mean well, but it's not going to have a since it's not like a a it's not going to have a real great effect necessarily, because like they say, if parents that tell kids not to do what they did have kids that tell their kids not to do what they did.

You know what I mean? Like if you don't Like if they say that if if when guests come, they expect the kids to give up things for the guests, but they they could do it because they actually think that's what should do and they're willing to do it themselves, and they want to teach their kid to do that, or they could do it because they don't want to have to to to dis- discomfort themselves, and so they make their kids do it.

So then the kids are going to resent it. But if they see that the parents are are are doing it themselves, and they're just trying to teach the kids to be kind, then the kids are going to appreciate it, and they'll learn to be kind.