JLI Course: Class #5- What Is Consciousness?

[Music] now the philosophers for whatever for whatever that's worth question the the role of the body versus the role of the mind and it's it's an interesting subject but it's not exactly what we're what we're going to be focusing on to the philosopher the two sides to human self is the physical and the mental how do they work together that's not our question our question is this the physical or the spiritual or the godly which is the real you because there are places in Hasid this where it says the real you is your animal soul and there are places and trusted this where it says the real you is the jew in you the godly soul so who are you really so we've already spoken about the idea that real and true are two different realities so you can really be your animal soul but truly be your godly soul then it's not a cut it's not a contradiction there may be a conflict because they have different ones but it's not a contradiction in reality for real you are your animal soul in truth you're your godly soul the difference being what's real could also be temporary it's real today tomorrow be a different reality whereas truth is unchanging so truth is what must be even if it doesn't happen to be right now with the spirit this resolves a lot of problems with one with one simple answer the tightest says something and you say yeah but reality is not like that so what's your question Tate is talking about what's true and you're saying that this truth is not real in reality so so it will be if not today tomorrow so so that whole conflict that whole like who's right and how can that be they're both they're both real just don't confuse temporary reality with truth so let's take a look at some of the texts that we're dealing with like on page 171 the question for discussion is do you think that the self and the body are two distinct entities or are they one on the same this is part of the mind-body controversy are you your body are you your mind and what is the mind how does it work from a secular perspective the mind is simply electrical impulses where do they come from nobody seems to know but it's it's very reviewing that we can talk about our bodies as if a were stranger a person says my leg hurts the leg that belongs to me so who's me obviously not the leg my whole body hurts my body so obviously the body is not me on the other hand when a person says I'm dizzy that's more serious your whole being is dizzy that's that's dangerous a person who says my head is spinning is not as dangerous as a person who says I'm dizzy because you can you can separate yourself from your head also my head my brain well then you're not the brain and the brain is not you because you can step away and observe it like like a third party some guy who was doing some experiments on the brain I feel what his name was I got very excited because he claimed to have discovered the soul he was doing this experiment where he had a bunch of electrodes connected to a person's brain and he was pushing the buttons that made the brain cause movement in the body so when he stimulated a certain part of the brain the person raised his hand and as a joke he said to the patient or to the he said why'd you raise your hand he was joking because he had raised the guy's hand by stimulating that part of the brain but the patient said I didn't do it and it freaked him out because if your brain did it as far as anybody knows you are your brain so if your brain caused your hand to rise what do you mean you didn't do it who's talking so all of a sudden there's an eye that is not the body and it's not the brain so we can talk about the brain like it's a third a stranger so who's talking texts for what does that tell you to say about the human being NASA Adam beat Psalm a new kid Massino on the one hand the a barista says let's make a godly creature godly in the sense created in the image of God but the very next sentence says what what did I wish to do he formed the human of the soil of the earth not very godly at all and then he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the human became a living soul and he called it Adam in the next text that set explains what other means he called their name Adam what does that mean actually he called their name it's either he called them a dumb where he named them Adam in English it doesn't work out very well but he he named this being Adam why so the shallow says and a lot of Tanya is based on the shallow so the shallow says that the name Adam can go one of two ways umbilical the Milo if a person connects himself above and emulates God and goes in his ways then the reason he's called Adam is because the word Adam means similar Adam men like though I'm a similar so the reason he's called Adam is because he's like God on the other hand if a person separates himself from this divine attachment then he's called Adam because the word other means earth Adama so you're either godly or you're dust that's pretty pretty extreme option figure five makes it pretty clear it's either a damn meth which means similar or Adamo which means earth but generally a dumb means human so atom is a combination of godlike and earth all other creatures by the way nothing else was created in the same in the same pattern God said let the earth give forth living beings and all of a sudden they were living beings there was never a moment that the body of an animal existed without its whatever-you-call-it soul spirit energy life so there was never a lifeless animal that needed to be brought to life but with the human being God creates a lifeless body and then brings it to life which means that the animal was never a mineral the animal body was never a mineral the human body started off as a mineral a lump of clay and then came alive in this sense the human body is lower than the animal body now that was true of course of Adam we don't have that same experience we don't have human bodies first existing as a mineral and then coming alive that never happens anymore so is is the the contrast of the godly and the physical still true he quotes from the sitter from the Davin Alec honest Amish and the satyr be Tejeda he the soul you give me is pure you created it you form that you breathed it into me and you keep it within me what do we see from this I am NOT my soul I have a soul in me so who's the me so to get to the real core of who we are we have to look to Tanya where he says that first of all we live because we have a soul the brain itself is no different than any other part of the body and if you're gonna ask where does the arm get its life you have to ask where does the brain get its life the brain is certainly not the source of life although it is the center of life and that's why we can do heart transplants we can't yet do two brain transplants because the center of life is in the brain or in the oxygen of the brain in other words the most spiritual ingredient in the body is where life connects to the body so the question of how do you bring together a spiritual entity a soul not on by the godly soul any soul life life is a spiritual thing a non-physical metaphysical the body is physical how do they come together where is their first point of contact so like in any chain the lowest part of the upper link intersects with the highest part of the lower link so the most the lowest of the spiritual connects to the highest or the most refined of the physical so it says somewhere that the animal soul is in the blood how does it connect to the blood it actually connects to the vapor or to the heat that the blood gives off so the most spiritual part of the body is the warmth of the of the blood what is the most physical part of the soul emotions because the soul is made up of intelligence and emotions so the emotions is the lowest part and in the emotions there's the lowest emotion of mouth loose so that connects to the warmth that rises from the blood I don't know where the blood gets its warmth so it's like the blood gets this one from the soul but the soul connects but somehow this miraculous connection between body and soul which we make a bra over a shiatsu and and we and and we recognize the miracle of MA flee losses the wondrous behavior of connection of body and soul that's the animal soul so first we have to know that life is in the soul it's not in any part of the body including the mind so the whole thing about I think therefore I am that that whole nourish kata it's it's it sounds impressive but it's really rather meaningless what makes it interesting is that we have two souls so one of the biggest contributions that Hasid this made to Jewish life is that it changed the conversation from Yeats a hurry Yates ative that was that was the conversation before Hasidic our conflict our challenge in life the the goal in life is to follow the eight cetera and not the eighths are the evil inclination versus the good inclination that's the challenge of life that's the center of all the whole drama and we want the good inclination to to win over the evil inclination it doesn't really tell you much about the human condition I can be good and I can be bad I still don't know who I am who's the mean the good and the bad by the way exists in the animal soul it's not like all goodness comes from the godly soul and all evil comes from the animal soul that's not true because that would describe the human as essentially evil and that's not that's not true good and evil are both conditions within the human being you can do good you can do evil that doesn't tell you who you are you are tempted to do good you're also tempted to do evil so who are you neither so the debate are you really your yeat Sahara or are you really your Yates ative are you really a good guy misbehaving or are you a lousy person trying to be nice that's not that's not even a good question you're neither you're a human being and you have both ingredients because ay8 Sahara is just an ingredient it's a mood it's a it's a it's a disposition it's not a description or a definition of the human being so to say some people are good some people are bad well yeah that's true I still don't know what a person is you can say this is a good tree or it's a bad tree I don't know what a tree is so Delta that becomes along and says stop stop with this fascination with your gate Sahara or your Yates or tase you have two souls not two moods and a soul is a definition of the human being where is a human being a soul what is a soul a soul is a living entity comprised of ten functions or twelve so if a soul is the definition of a human being what does it mean we have two souls that's really scary you're two people every Jew is two people because you have two souls a soul is a complete being a complete person so you have a human person and you have a godly person that's very different than a good mood and a bad mood so let's let's think about this a second animal soul versus godly soul is that the same as good and bad is the animal soul bad is the godly soul good those those terms do not define them an animal soul is not bad and therefore you're not allowed to kill your animal soul before Tanya before her scissors when the issue was Yeats a hurry Yeats at Eve when that was the struggle yes kill Yuri ate Sahara go read it don't ever be in a bad mood again is that is that dangerous if you kill you yet Sahara you're a healthy person you never lose your temper again since yesterday from now on so if you--if you kill your Yates Ihara you're a perfectly healthy person now you're a very healthy person you're also nice to be with easy to get along with so you've improved yourself when you kill your eight suhara but kill your animal soul that that's that's destructive that's horrible it's a whole person secondly if the struggle is between a godly soul and an animal soul that's a much more elegant battle that's much more dignified the struggle is not should I be nice to you or should I hurt you that's an ugly condition and even if I decide no I'm gonna be nice to you so what have I accomplished I'm not a murderer you're proud of that I didn't hurt anybody today Wow well it's Alec it's not an accomplishment much on the other hand if the choice is animal soul godly soul well that that's amazing you can either be a good human being or you could be a godly being and you choose to be a godly being that's amazing because what's wrong with just being a good human being most people would be content with that so in a sense if you follow your godly soul you're going beyond the letter of the law because if you followed your animal so you would be a very nice human being but you went beyond that so it's beyond the letter of the law now that is a dignified battle those are nice choices you want to be good or you want to be God now the and the eights are tight the Yates ative is the more intelligent decent part of your animal soul the eight Sahara is the nasty side of your animals all right so to describe a godly soul as good as misleading you don't need a godly soul to be good which I mean that's a huge statement you don't need a godly soul to be good which means non-jews who don't have a godly soul can be completely good through the mitzvahs in some way it introduces an immortality to an otherwise mortal soul there are different between good and godly good is mortal you're a good guy but you kind of die whereas godliness is eternal immortal so who has a portion in the world to come the righteous Gentile as Mitzvahs so the non Jew who keeps the seven mitzvahs because it's a mitzvah has also gone beyond the letter of the law what's wrong with doing the mitzvahs just because you're a nice guy and that's why they're called Casa de uma so alone righteous is not the right the translation isn't isn't not useful they're not called sad DK oh my soul alone they not that tsadikim among the nations they are the Hasidim among the nation's why they call that because the non Jew who keeps all seven Commandments or thirty or whatever they are three hundred he keeps them perfectly because he's a nice guy that would be its addict but if you key if the non-jew keeps the mitzvahs because their mitzvahs then he's going beyond the letter of the law that's called Hassan so there are in fact righteous Gentiles but that's not who we are referring to when we say Hussey the umma Selim so among the righteous Gentiles that those who save Jews during the during the Holocaust why why because they didn't understand killing people for nothing that's not godly that's goodly so they are correctly called the righteous Gentile not the Hasidic Gentile only the facet a boomer Salem get the eternal zone if God is your motivation well God is eternal if good is your motivation good as good as mortal so what is the problem with having two souls no the more if a soul is a good thing let's have a lot of souls the more the better the problem is that they're incompatible they're incompatible because they are mutually exclusive one does not allow for the other their pulling in opposite directions but by their very nature from dust you are and to dust you will return the animal soul is drawn downward not evil just earth whereas the godly soul is drawn upward let's see the text that he brings for that they're a piece of Tonya text 10 Tonya chapter 19 listen to what he says about the godly soul and you read it in Hebrew in English why is the the sold in the Shama why is it compared to a lamp or to a flame what is it about the flame if we were to say everything naturally is drawn to its source nothing wants to be separated from its source from its life source you get homesick everything is homesick in fact according to according to hostages what exactly is gravity homesickness you take a stone away from the earth it wants to go back it wants to go home so since everything is created from the earth you try to separate something from Earth it will it will pull back it will fight to go home that's gravity there's one exception and that is fire fire doesn't doesn't go down it goes up in fact it fights to go up even when it's connected to a wick it wants to leave the wick so it's constantly jumping up words only the wick holds it down so what is the direction of fire away from the earth why is that the simple answer is simple the simple answer is that the source of fire is not earth so the fire of the little flame is homesick it wants to go back to its source only its source is up there not down here so fire is not an exception it also wants to go home what makes it an exception is when the stone falls back to earth it's at rest it's a perfect stone when the fire goes back to where it came from it's not a fire anymore so the stone comes back to earth to solidify its existence you can want to go home because there you get more attention you're stronger at home you get more attention at home or you want to go home because you don't want to be an individual you want to be absorbed into the family so are you looking for more of yourself or are you looking for less of yourself very fascinating in graphology you look at how a person signs their name a signature tells you so much so just very simply a person writes his name the the initial the first letter of his first name of his personal name is large and well developed the first letter of his family name is kind of it tells you a lot the person is very proud to be who he is he's not very proud of where he comes from or the reverse the letter the initial of his first name is kind of underdeveloped but his family name is nicely formed and so he'd rather be a member of the family than an individual he's proud of the fact that he's from that family he's not so proud of his own personal achievements or he'd rather be part of the family rather than be an individual so the fire is drawn back to its source but not because it wants to solidify its existence it wants to surrender its existence it becomes invisible unidentifiable it is still fire energy but it's not a flame anymore separate from other flames so it loses itself in its source here he describes it as I am or I am NOT I me or I'm not me if I'm not me then what am I yeah if I me because you are you and you're you because of me and then the but but here we're talking about not being me by becoming my source so Who am I really the me that is separate from the source or the me that is the source the answer is yes the the me that is separate from my source that's a reality the me that is my source that's the truth so what is a Jew his animal Soler is God Liesel neither to separate my sources reality my source then not me that me means I'm my source where I wear I don't stand separate from dust you are and to dust you will return that's why in the description of creation of the human being it actually says two things first God says let us make man just like anything else let there be then it says he breathed the soul so did he create man by saying let there be or did he create man by breathing the soul into the body when he said let us make man he created the human soul animal soul which is the soul of the flesh only animal was created only by the by the let there be so when we save the animal soul of a Jew we don't mean the soul of an animal we call it animal soul because it animates the body now because it's a goat we also call it animal soul because it's instinctive rather than idealistic like an animal yes yes in fact it is the human soul in contrast to the godly soul we call it the animal soul but it is the human soul so let us make man that's the human being so because it is connected to to the one known as the animals because it was the soul that would animate the body it is therefore that's the godly show the body you mean right God formed the body but then he gave it its own soul not the one that's breathed or and that's why it's called the soul of the flesh when he said let there be a but he is in effect saying when God blew the neshamah into Adam he was already a living being but it was the life of the flesh and we don't call that life so when he breathed the godly soul then it became a living being meaning a godly being but it had a life before so three stages he forms a body he gives it a soul and then he breathes a godly soul into it in addition to the human soul so again I mean what was the first separation between the godly and the non kyon an devil Hevel was the good guy kyon was the bad guy so heavily inherited the godly soul I'm sorry didn't inherit uh-huh he didn't last very long at all no okay bye how much that kyon outlive Hevel he was about a hundred years older than his brother but he didn't inherit it I think here's here's the definition quickly until Avraham God gave the godly soul to individuals he gave it to kyon maybe not to heaven I'm sorry to have all not the guy yet he gave it to Shem after the flood not the home or office he gave it to Noah not it not an ax father mr. Schiller did write so it was given well I guess randomly it was not inherited so those who had a godly soul were different and they could not pass it on to their children because it was not earthy enough to be carried by the genes or something once Avraham came his godly soul was so absorbed and assimilated into his body that his children automatically just like they inherited that the color of his eyes they inherited his godly soul but not both of them one of them yes did you small did not the early connection between godly and physical was very tenuous there was barely so those who had a godly soul they just lived on a different plane and it was not going to transfer to their children because they barely had it but when it settled in like in Avraham a second when it settled into Avraham to the degree that not only could he yeah not not only could he pass it on he couldn't not pass it you know it's like it became so much him that to give birth to a child without a godly soul is like a fish giving birth to a chicken so his godliness was him and therefore he had to produce a godly child like a human being produces a human being however it wasn't so thoroughly earthed that every child would get it so you small did not Yitzchok the second-generation both of his children got the godly soul because you can't give birth to anything other than what you are and yet Huck was godliness so he gave birth to godly but Asaph couldn't keep it he lost his godly soul he started off Jewish but he lost it by the third generation when Yaakov came around the soul was so permanently embedded into their being that it wasn't possible and today it's still impossible to give birth to someone who isn't Jewish and once you're born with it you can't lose it it's so much a part of you so that was the process it took three generations and that's why we are called the children of Israel Yaakov because the godliness is so permanent in us unlike Avraham and you talk so how did it become the mother that determines whether you're Jewish or not or how did the father lose his role and become irrelevant to the Jewishness of the child so it's a terrible mistake it's not like the father doesn't make Jewish children in the case where a non-jewish mother and a Jewish father produce a child the father makes a Jewish child the mother turns that Jewish child into a non Jew by overwhelming the effect of the father so what does it mean that we're maitre lineal it doesn't mean the father doesn't do anything it means the mother's influence will overwhelm the influence of the father so if someone were to say is it possible for a not for a Jew to become a non Jew but there is one possibility in the womb in the womb a Jewish child can become a non Jew because the father's influence is kind of negligible the mother's influence is powerful so in the case where a Jewish mother with a non-jewish father why is the child a Jew doesn't the father have any influence the mother's influence overwhelms the father's influence except for one interesting little detail the non-jewish father contributes to the birth of a Jewish child so why are they not related the father contributes by returning some lost spark of a Jewish soul that he is carrying and it needs to get back home by having a child with a Jewish woman he returns that spark but it was never his so on unlike a father that produces the child this father simply contributes to the Jewishness of the child and that spark is very powerful and you look at some people whose fathers are not Jews whose fathers are not Jewish there's something special there's something powerfully Jewish like about River a spark coming back that's like chuva at any rate and the father does count okay so when a Jewish man has a child with a Jewish woman he's not contributing to the Jewishness of the child of course he is well first of all we discourage it until the child is born because you don't know if there's no child and what are they doing just sinning what about a non-jewish man who has ten children with a Jewish woman have ten sparks but once those sparks return to their source the relationship is over there's nothing more the human part is not a marriage marriage is a godly thing so they're still friends and they're still they still like each other but but the marriage part doesn't they don't need a divorce I get okay so the conflict between the two souls what exactly is the conflict so again we get it's not that the animal soul wants to sin and the godly soul wants to do mitzvahs the conflict is not between mitzvah and sin that's that's a very low level a very discouraging picture of life there's the danger that you're gonna sin at any moment then you have to that's a miserable way to think a miserable way to live watch yourself you're gonna sin that's true but it's not where our focus should be the God the animal soul is not determined to sin it might sin because it doesn't care so if the candy is is delicious it's gonna eat it whether it's kosher or not but it's not looking to sin it's just looking for the pleasure whereas Yeats Ihara by as its name indicates it wants the sin it doesn't even want the pleasure it will choose the sin even if the sin is less pleasurable that temptation we should ignore or transcend and free ourselves of it my kill Yuri aids our stop being fascinated by what is forbidden just because it's forbidden that we hopefully outgrow at least to some degree to sin just because you can that's a little immature so the the animal soul is not looking to sin it might include the sin if if there's pleasure there so what is the animal soul looking for pleasure what's the godly soul looking for pleasure but their pleasures lie in opposite directions the pleasure of the godly soul is to free itself of itself like the flame the godly soul doesn't want to be stuck you know in a finite limited identity the animal soul wants more of its finite identity it wants to confirm it it wants to solidify its particular identity and that's why I can't stand you nothing personal I just can't stand you because you want your individual identity confirmed I want mine and this town ain't big enough for the two of us so it's either you or me no conflict between me and you on the unit on the human level your existence disturbs my existence so the very fact that you exist is unacceptable right right so somebody said get a bigger town move to a bigger town in other words in in the finite world my existence is threatened by your existence because your existence demands that I not be so limited in myself that I make room for you well that that threatens me because the direction of the animal soul is the opposite only me it's all about me so if you exist to be my best friend oh okay okay then you're welcome if you're not there to be my friend or my servant or my slave or if you're not there to help me be me then you then you can't exist at all among Jews yeah that's why we're uncomfortable that's why we're uncomfortable with strangers because I don't know how you're enhancing my existence so are you there for me or not if you're not there for me then you can't be so a simple description of the animal soul is the animal soul loves itself it feels its own exist I am me and I have needs and those needs must be fulfilled and you threaten me that's it that's the nature of the human soul hmm that's why the Gemara says that a human being even when they do good for someone else kindness it's for themselves so yes it's kind but it's not altruistic I'll be kind to you because it's good for me right not for selfish reasons it depends on what we call selfish if I'm doing it because you'll pay me or somehow I'll get money from you everybody agrees that selfish but if I do it for idealistic reasons I'm doing it because I believe in kindness I believe in giving back the community was good to me now I'm successful I should give back is that not selfish it's a much higher form but it's still selfish it's how I feel it's what my instinct tells me my idealistic instinct or my intelligence tells me that that's the right thing to do like walking down the street and somebody you see somebody needs help and you stop back you keep going you know you just do it because it's truest it could be anybody you feel good about yourself after those two maybe or something no Lord I could just see a human being in need of help or even an animal when you just do it then keep going sometimes you forget about it but you just do it because it's in your nature that there's another human being there another something that you know that's up I mean yeah well how do you define altruistic on one level there is in culture weaseling to you - you think that's a selfish act you think otherwise it's gonna bother you I don't think it's who's gonna think if I don't do this it's gonna bother me just you you see somebody in need and you help them and that's it period you keep going what's up they they scram back at you just happen to me now so but I wasn't trying to do it to make myself feel better I was really thinking about other person don't we feel bad afterwards you know what somebody else has to do no it's obviously there are times when we behave without thinking much but the reason we behave that way is because of things that we did think about or conclusions that we've come to like that example a person looks at a person sees somebody else suffering and says boy I'd hate for that to happen to me or they joke about some guys telling another guy his problems one problem after another after another and the guy keeps saying yeah you know well could have been worse okay so it was worse I had a mother and now that click could have been worse how could it have been worse it could have happened to me so there is there is a little bit of I can't stand to see the side of blood is that altruistic but you're right people are altruistic but those people are different there's a certain goodness that is natural and true true goodness which means altruistic that righteous people have it's a different soul so there are actually three kinds of people there are Jews there are righteous non-jews and there are simple human beings the simple human being is not capable of altruism and therefore the good that they do has a reason an intelligent reason but the fact that it needs a reason means that it's not altruistic in other words because it's a myth lovscheim commands me to do it so pull my stuff together and do it that's not a reason on the contrary it's saying I have no reason to do this but if God says that's even more altruistic than helping someone with their problem no empathizing with a person's pain is easier more human than empathizing with a person's pleasure so to be happy for someone else when they're happy is even more idealistic or more altruistic than feeling their pain so why are the two souls incompatible because they're both absolutists they can take they can't see any other way the godly soul can't see non godliness and the human soul can't see godliness because it threatens its existence so if the godly means it's not about me and the human means it is about me so if the godly comes to the human soul and says it's not about you well then you're the enemy not about me you're threatening me you want to destroy me so they're they're allergic to each other they can't tolerate each other that's where we get the split personality or the conflict with the guilt I should have I don't want to I should want to I I used to want to maybe I'll want to tomorrow let's see more text here text 11 describes the animal soul which is also fascinating he says in Tanja chapter one from the animal soul come all the negative characteristics namely anger arrogance lust for pleasure for valid a cynicism boasting an idle talk laziness and melancholy see none of them is a sin there's no sin here the animal soul is not by nature sinful but it does have bad character traits like laziness it's not a sin but it's bad melancholy is certainly not a sin but it's bad so if you remember in Tonya he says that these 7/7 traits they come from the four elements fire air water and earth and the four elements are not substances like little tiny things four elements means four directions movement four types of movement fire goes upwards anger and arrogance go upwards so the fire element creates produces anger and arrogance the tendency to rise your anger flared up your arrogance means you're higher than everybody else the element of water produces passion desires the element of air desires means going down pulls you down because most pleasures that we have are from things beneath us like food food is a is a plant it's a veget it's a vegetable you're a human being how does your pleasure come from a vegetable which is way belief beneath your level but that's what it is passion pulls you downward so it's like water that goes down air goes everywhere or nowhere at the same time what does that produce frivolity like yeah we're just talking yeah what you're saying nothing no we're just talking that comes from the element of air like an airhead and also cynicism cynicism comes from air because it doesn't have an opinion whatever you say it yeah so what do you think I have an opinion I just I just reject your opinion cuz I don't like opinion I like to leave my options open so don't don't have a definite opinion so whatever you say is like oh yeah well yeah maybe you think so but so scoffing for example which another way of translating what a scoffing mean means I'm not gonna give you an opinion I'm going to avoid all opinion and then there's the element of Earth which is the resistance to movement heaviness but what does that produce laziness and melancholy I have no energy to do anything so these are not sinful impulses but they're but they're they're bad you want to do this learning exercise your anger comes from I am me or from I'm not me let's just do the first two anger and patience anger comes from my M me or from I'm not me it's all me where do I get angry because something is disagreeing with me not with my opinion with me so if you don't agree with my opinion well then you hate me or I hate you so it goes way beyond the opinion it attacks the me well you don't agree with me no why does that get you so angry because if you don't agree with me you're threatening the me at your very existence threatens the me so the least you can do is agree with me but get in my way so anger certainly comes from the me a person who is not so hung up on the me doesn't get angry so somebody tells you you're a liar and you say yeah probably because because the issue is not whether you're a liar or not the issue is whether it threatens you if it doesn't threaten you then yeah me yes yes I'm a liar whereas the me is so threatened if somebody says oh and I thought you were taller that's it you're threatened like what I say what is that a criticism it's not it's not the topic that bothers me it's that you're not on my side so you gotta go you can't exist patients on the other hand you are patient to the degree that you are not you that it's not about you that's why the Alta Deborah says let's skip to the ton yeah 17 texts 17 the algebra basically says like this the second paragraph indeed those for whom the body is the primary thing and the soul is secondary here we're talking about the godly soul they cannot achieve true love and brotherhood among themselves only a love that is dependent on something it really doesn't have to be personal game but something and this is why Hillel said concerning the mitzvah of a versus row this is the entire Torah of the rest is commentary how is loving another Jew the whole trader and how is the rest of Terah commentary you can say this is the biggest Mitzvah in the Torah okay but to save the rest of Torah is a commentary how is fasting on Yom Kippur a commentary on loving your fellow Jew so the leper says because the basis and the root of the entire Torah is to raise up and exalt the soul above the body what does it meet the fast on Yom Kippur to focus your attention on the soul not the body well what do you think loving another Jew is getting past yourself your body into your neshama and in the neshamah borough we're all the same we're all connected with so obvious throw is the most obvious expression of what the whole tide is about that it's not you the not you shows best in the ability to love another person so those to whom their individuality is important will never really connect to another human being because every other human being is antithesis is threatening unless we have a common interest like in the building of the tower a tower of bubble everybody cooperated they were all devoted to the same cause let's get this thing built so on the one hand what what a great unity what a great cooperation but it wasn't selfless it was that they both believed in the same cause not that they were devoted to each other so God separated their languages and what happened all of a sudden they couldn't build their project why because I don't understand you so now we can't cooperate anymore so what keeps us separate not the fact that you disagree with me or the fact that you're fighting me or no just your existence you're not me well then you can't be so the animal soul does not leave room for godliness because it threatens it godliness means it's not about you well then you're my enemy because it is about me so humility is a threat to the to the animal soul actually going back a little bit let's go back to text 14 and this sense of self can even be self-destructive why do people get depressed let's take a look what he says in Tanja often a person suffers from blockage of the heart the heart becomes like a stone and the person is unable by any means to open it to the service of the heart namely prayer in other words you can't get excited you can't inspire yourself even if you try at times the person is also unable to combat the evil impulse because of this heaviness of the heart you become a victim - - - every weakness because you don't have the energy to fight it and what where does this come from go down a few lines due to its coarseness and crassness the reason for this is the arrogance of the animal soul which exalts itself over the holiness of the godly soul obscuring and darkening its light so much Pia told us once it starts off where your arrogance says my parents can't tell me what to do that's a threat to the me you can tell me what to do um II gotta be me got to do it my way so it starts off with you don't listen to your parents then you don't listen to your teacher this is your teacher who you go to for advice you admire respect this person and you look up to him but if he tells you what to do uh-uh uh-uh no way you can give me your advice I'll accept it or reject it but you can't tell me you're not the boss of me so now your teacher can't tell you what to do eventually as your arrogance grows the nebe can't tell you what to do and then God can tell you what to do can I get worse than that yes you can't tell you what to do your mind tells you you should do this and you say don't tell me what to do the me rejects its own wisdom its own opinion only your instincts so when a person says I'm becoming independent I don't listen to my parents I don't listen to my teachers I don't listen to today I don't listen to God I am now independent no you are losing your independence and eventually you can't even control your own opinion you stop listening to yourself that's depressed you tell yourself get up and go no you're gonna miss your appointment I don't care it's gonna mess up your life I don't care that's depression depression means I the mimimi has become so heavy I can't even do what's good for me not if I have to get up not if I have to move certainly not if I have to change something so it's a trap you're locking yourself into and impossible so if you follow the me and allow it to get too too selfish it will destroy itself that's called narcissism narcissism means when your selfishness has turned on itself up to it so at first it starts off by being selfish to the exclusion of you yeah before you get crippled so at first selfishness means you're the problem get out of my way but when selfishness turns to narcissism I become my own problem and I can't get out of the way so who was narcissus he saw his own reflection in the water and he was so enamored with himself he couldn't pull himself away and he just stayed there until he died from hunger please tragedy okay so so far we have the extreme opposites mutually exclusive I like to Kings cannot tolerate the presence of another king it's a threat right so each soul wants sovereignty next tomorrow actually not next week we'll be dealing with the question of free choice do you really have free choice but right now the question is if your godly soul is so totally hung up on godliness and the animal soul is so hung up on itself and the two cannot see eye-to-eye on anything how do you make a choice the godly soul is not open to any ungodliness the human soul is not open to any godliness where this choice come in different you have two souls and each of them is incapable of choosing there they're each locked into their opinion nobody's moving so where's choice coming from if we really have two souls why are we not completely schizophrenic beyond the tooth has to be beyond two souls there is some room for compatibility and much of Hasid this is devoted to explaining that compatibility so when the Alta Debra tells you you have two souls that's not the end of the conversation that's just the beginning given that you have two souls how do you bring them together if you have a Yates or her in a Yates a tove you don't want to bring them together you just want to kill one of them hopefully the hopefully the eight to her it says David I'm Elif killed as Yates of Hara by fasting some guy said I killed my Yates at oath by eating I ate it to death you know so hopefully you're killing your Yates or her and that's fine that's simple not complex I mean not easy but simple when you have two souls it's not so simple because you can't kill either one so to simply say ignore your Yates are your animal soul that's not an that's not an answer there must be some compatibility there must be some way of bringing them together in fact the beylin e which the whole time he is the safer the Ben Oni the whole purpose of the Beninese life and service is to bring the animal soul up to the godly souls level now it's true that part of doing that is by humbling the animal soul not by destroying it so you have to convince your animal soul that it's not about you but it is about your contribution the animal soul makes a great contribution to the godly soul by not being itself what enables the animal soul to rise above itself the objectivity of its intelligence sometimes that's called the third soul the nefesh has syphilis but it's really the intelligence of the animal soul human intelligence agrees that maybe there's something more to life than me theoretically in principle so yes I am me and I must be me and I need to be me and I got to do it my way but the brain says well what else is possible that's the gift of intelligence so your mind can think it's way out of your box that's called thinking out of the box what is the box the box means it's all about me the mind can actually dare to explore the possibility that maybe there is something else in simple words I have a very strong opinion and of course I think I'm right I know I'm right but how can I prove it why do I need to prove it that's the effect of the intelligence the intelligence says I have an opinion how do I prove that it's correct see there's a there's a certain humility there but even in math how do you know that four minus two is two are they teacher this actually how do you know that four minus two is two because two plus two is four see you always have to find like something that legitimizes or proves that you're right why do I need to prove it because intelligently it might be different that's what intelligent does intelligence says all I've ever experienced was this little town but maybe there's another town maybe there are things I haven't seen yet so your brain takes you beyond yourself even to the point of agreeing that maybe I'm not that important theoretically intellectually but that's the beginning the opening to where godliness can become real to the animal soul like maybe there's a higher purpose for my existence maybe the godly soul is starting to make sense there's got to be a higher purpose I didn't create myself so I'm here to serve something else it's starting to make sense to the human soul now if that starts to make sense to the human soul and the human soul adopts it the devotion and the intensity and the enthusiasm that it's going to have for godliness will be greater than the enthusiasm that the godly soul has for godliness because to the godly soul that's just normal starting from where [Laughter] but let's take it a step further it's not just that the human mind the intelligence which is basically objectivity can objectively doubt itself and need to prove itself and maybe consider the other opinion which is a great gift that's what we call intelligent emotions when the intelligence brings a little objectivity to the emotions then the emotions become more intelligent like the emotion itself can question itself I'm very angry do I have to be am I so justified in my anger so usually emotions can't question themselves they're not objective but if you bring intelligence to the emotions then the emotions are open to suggestion maybe I don't have to hate you maybe I don't have to be angry maybe I don't have to be so lazy that's what washing your hands does Mattila co diam washing your hands with the cup and pouring the water over the hands it's bringing the mind and its nature to the emotions so that the emotions can be a little bit objective like the mind but there's something more it turns out that the true definition of human being whose instinct is it's all about me the true nature of the human being is that it resents being human the the nature of the human being is a rebellion against the human condition the human being so we can define the human being in terms of what are you I'm selfish I all those seven traits you threaten me yeah that's what is but what is the direction what is the the instinct of this human being I resent it all I refuse to accept it I want to be something bigger so it's not just that I can think out of the box I need to get out of the box because if I stay in the box I'm an animal not a human being the human instinct is to to rebel against what I was created to be and that's why when you tell a person you know you're not so smart I hate that you're not so strong you're not so big you're not so rich you're not so I hate that because my instinct as a human being is I will not accept limitations not not because I want to be me but because I resent being me that's why we're so allergic to any definition oh so you're the type of person who does that oh no I can do the opposite you're really good at something hello excuse me I'm good at everything not not arrogance the opposite don't limit me I hate my own limits so just talking about the that's what allows some communication between them because the godly soul comes to the human soul and says you know you don't have to be locked in there is an option and the godly soul that hates being locked in the animal soul that hates being locked in is like really that's what I've been looking for tell me more so the godly soul is the option that the human soul is looking for whereas that ever once put it the animal soul is ready from Ashiya it doesn't want to be an animal anymore but the godly soul is so humble that if God wants us to stay in golus another day okay who might argue so it's really the godly soul that's that's that's getting in the way so the animal soul already wants to stop being an animal how do you stop being an animal by rebelling against the conditions that you were created with yeah at the fascinating story a guy tells me that when he was in yeshiva a very non Hasidic yeshiva he started learning a little bit of Tanya and he liked it and he decided that he was going to stop shaving because a beard is holy well his family was very upset he was only 15 and 16 and the family didn't like the look and his yeshiva didn't like it so that so the Dean of the yeshiva the Russia Shiva kept telling him to shave and he argued Jewish custom Jewish woke the Russia Shiva had a beard yeah but that's only because you're a Shiva anyway he fought he argued and kept the beard but then one day the teacher said to him a Shiva said to him you know there are hippies you know the hippies you heard about the hippies no no he said to the he said to the boy you heard about the hippies they don't shave they have beards if you walk around with a beard people might think you're a hippie and that's a few Hashem and he'll wash em that's serious it scared him and he decided that he needs to talk to the liver so when his birthday came they gave you could go in for your birthday so he asked for an appointment he went he's this guy is telling me this 60 years later fifty years later because I went to the liver and I told it ever my problem and that was said to me that according to the Zohar and according Kabbalah the beard I didn't understand the word couldn't follow then that ever said to me the strangest thing that ever asked me you know that when Jews were in mitzrayim they sunk to the lowest level of unholiness possible one more level and they would be lost forever so they were in 49 depths of evil if you go to the 50th level you're finished and yet we're told that the what merit gave them the earned them the the Exodus the redemption they didn't change their names they didn't change their clothes and they didn't change their language so that ever said if they're in the forty ninth level of unholiness where did all this holiness come from they appreciated the Hebrew language at the holy tongue they dressed modestly and and and they kept their Hebrew names because their holy where did all this holiness come from if they were in the forty ninth level of unholiness so of course he didn't have an answer so that ever said they didn't change their name their language and their clothing not because it was holy but because they were non conformists they wouldn't change their names because don't tell me what my name is and they didn't change their clothing because I don't have to dress like you and didn't change their language because this is my language don't tell me what in other words it came from rebellious Ness not from holiness but because they were rebellious they were able to change and come out of it so it's not they earned it by being rebellious they were capable of making a change because of their rebellious nature and then the rebel went through a list of famous hippies by name Ginsberg Cohen see they didn't change their names and their clothing they don't dress like anybody else when they do dress and their language nobody understands them they talk their own language so the hippies of today are like the Jews in material so this guy says I'd understand what the devil was saying what are we saying that it's good to be a hippie the deborah was saying if somebody mistakes you for a hippie it's not a foolish em on the contrary they'll think you have an individual spirit and with that spirit you can accomplish great things so it turns out that the human condition properly understood is not in conflict with the godly soul the human condition hopes for salvation the human condition yearns to get past the human condition where does it find an alternative to the human condition in the godly soul so it turns out that they're actually compatible not by their nature but by their desire the godly soul wants to serve God the human soul wants to get out of its condition by serving God his perspective on life whenever he said when everybody else around him was putting them down he was embracing so the way to describe it is they didn't have the answer but but they knew the problem so they were saying they were saying this is not enough this is not the solution they tried to find the solution and looked in very strange places and learned the hard way that that's not the solution either so no they didn't have the answer but there was a need for an answer and that was not coming from some spiritual place it was coming from the human condition that does not want to be human once it wants to tap into his godly soul something it doesn't know what so for a while it was infatuated with Buddhism alternative lifestyles free love open marriage communal living they tried all sorts of possible solutions and found them unsatisfying one woman had based Hana making a credible statement she said you know I I don't think I fit in here because she heard all the other women saying they had the spiritual awakening and they had this experience and they had this encounter with whatever that inspired them and so on and she says I didn't have any such experience I says so why are you here so because you know there's nothing out there there's just nothing out there you're more on target than the rest of them this is not a spiritual journey this is the realization that there's nothing out there there's got to be something else that's the human condition in its healthiest form when the human being is content with its humaneness is not quite human that's the energy that the Debu appreciated and used like what do you mean stop somebody and put filling on it what are they gonna do this awareness that human beings are not content being human that's what makes myths are impossible that's what makes prove impossible you're not selling them a product you're answering their question that they themselves don't fully understand and are not fully conscious of their question is what more is there and that that that hunger that unsatisfied feeling can be missin missin derp stood they think they need more money they think they need more fame they need more so they try that it doesn't work like there's a big crisis that that has suddenly come to the surface suicide people are killing themselves successful people but we've we've talked about this many times depression is more likely to happen to a affluent successful society than in third-world countries because the third-world country still thinks that they will get something more when they become rich the rich guy knows that's yeah that is not an answer and the hunger has not gone away she figures that's it I've tried everything I quit so when they misinterpret the hunger you know like that story about the princess who married the peasant and the peasant being kind and devoted was very bothered that the princess was unhappy so he brought her more Tomatoes and it didn't make her happy she brought more potatoes and it didn't make her happy so he did you know everything that his peasant understanding allowed and and and she's just getting more miserable so finally he says to her what's wrong with you I've given you everything a person can possibly want and you're not happy so the princess says your your sincere attempt to make me happy makes me unhappy because you obviously don't know what a princess needs so your best efforts convince me that you'll you'll never be able to provide what I want because what's making me unhappy is not the lack of tomatoes or the shortage of potatoes it's what I was used to in the palace royalty so what's the solution the body cannot give the person what it needs there was the human being the peasant cannot satisfy itself its own hunger because it thinks the hunger is for potatoes and tomatoes so it tries and it just makes the person more miserable because that's not the answer that's not the answer she was ragers know if they're not we're talking what yeah we're talking about the human condition human beings are not continuous no see that's the problem we think we does n't know that's our job it doesn't know that's the problem it wants something more and it doesn't know what there is what are they yearning for this is what I'm saying exactly right it is pulled downward it doesn't like that that's what I'm saying take away the godly soul the human condition is a rebellion against the human condition but that's why we have a responsibility to tell the world about God and how to serve God because they desperately are looking for to some degree we've already done it the whole world knows about God and about the Torah and about the commandments because it's the wrong religion not convert but live by a torrent like a Jew can be from and not serve God that's what reduces I said this came along and said you are starving can I tell you what you're starving for so some people said I'm not starving so if I sit this says you are you just don't know it so those who were starving jumped at it and that was a large part of the Jewish population of Europe I said this became like wildfire because they knew they were starving and this seemed to be the answer but then there were those who claim to not be starving that's a bigger challenge so that's why you stopped it drew on the street you put on film with him that will stimulate their appetite they will realize that they are starving and now the non-jewish world is coming to the Jew and say you know we thought we had a religion we thought we had answers we're starving so they'd ever said ok time to fulfill our obligations to the non-jews until now they claimed to not be starving and they resented any suggestion now they're starving they want to hear so in the end it's not that the godly soul will win over the animal so this is not a war this is an educational process you educate your animal soul until it becomes godlike that's the difference between before hustla this and after Hustler's before huh siddhis it was a war somebody's gonna have to die something is gonna have to be killed and that's why those who were religious were so intimidated by those who weren't because those who weren't religious represented the other side and the other side has to be killed I said this came along and said nothing has to be killed a broish that didn't create a world to have it destroyed see every what we in a world oops and what we're finished right now we can talk about anything you want in them in the maturing process of an individual we have that kind of when you go from being a child to being an adult you have to wipe out everything and start all over again if you don't make that radical change you you remain stuck in some juvenile condition so the world was going through the process of maturation in some sense you indulge a child you spoil the child you you you allow the child to be a child and then comes a point where okay now you gotta stop that you stop spoiling the child you stop allowing free rein to the child that's what happened for a thousand years the world was allowed it's almost like explore your existence it's all new to you a thousand years of a vast experiment people tried all sorts of ridiculous things because they didn't know what was right though was wrong and it was tolerated for a thousand years because when you're a child you got to find your own way and but at the end of that thousand years God said okay time to grow up yeah in in Kabbalistic language it was a thousand years of kindness tolerance patience like you have with a child and then order had to be brought in start eating like a mensch start dressing like a mensch stop the child is childish indulgences and it was a shock it was a radical change but it has to happen so for the first thousand years you can live endlessly you can grow tall you can you can be stronger than everything was huge everything was indulgent people could do whatever they wanted they were not punished for a thousand years like children and in that experimentation we were sometimes that are ugliest people were at their ugliest even if you can experiment with everything like the tour doesn't talk so much about the first thousand years there's like precious about it so how important was it for creation there was but but you're right it's very brief cuz that was just the preparation that's not what life is really about it was a it was a stage of childhood tour is not about childhood tour is about maturity so we got past the childhood stage now it's get detailed and elaborate on what life really is the explanation given from the Tillis volume is that water is that water represents intelligence and the hands represent the emotions pouring water over your hands is like bringing intelligence to the emotions and that's why we pour the water you don't dip your hands into the water because you don't drown your emotions telogen stew the emotion it's bringing some element of intelligence to the emotions without drowning the emotion not stifle in the emotion so what part of intelligence can you bring to the emotion not brilliance not logic objectivity the mind is objective the heart is subjective but if you can introduce a little objectivity to the heart you have intelligent emotions that's smart

Channel: Chassidus with Rabbi Manis Friedman

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Keywords: Rabbi Manis Friedman, Manis Friedman, 11213.org, 11213org, Chabad Chassidus, Chabad, Chassidus, Tanya, Kabbalah, Torah, Daily Study, Judaism, Jewish Thought, Jewish

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Length: 127min 50sec (7670 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 24 2018