Episode 494 - 9 Nissan (Regular Year) - What is Beyond Logic?

Hi, this is Sereed Sweatser and welcome to the It Is Tott podcast. A podcast devoted to the teachings of Rabbi Shnera Zalman of Liyadi, as recorded in his most famous work, The Tanya.

My hope for this show is to make these teachings accessible and relatable to the average person, regardless of prior Jewish education or affiliation.

The episodes follow the prescribed daily study portions on our meant to serve as practical lessons in how to live your life as your true self and develop an authentic and powerful relationship with your creator.

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Hi and welcome to the It Is Tott podcast. This is episode 494 for the 9th of Nissan in a regular year.

And today we are going to talk about logic or rather the limitations of logic and what logic is not.

So what I mean by this is that in the world in which we live logic really is kind of like the purest form of knowledge that we can think of.

It's the closest thing to objective truth. We know that in one way that Judaism differs from a lot of other religions is a lot of other religions tend to be really focused on emotions and feelings.

And there's this idea of faith that's below intellect which a lot of other religions at least from a Jewish perspective kind of fit into which is this thing of whatever it is that you feel in your heart and you know just connect with your feelings and all that kind of stuff.

That doesn't tend to be the Jewish view. The Jewish view tends to be a much more intellectually based religion.

We can see this by virtue of looking at the mean thing that you shivabaharm do all day which is study gamara which is a very intellectually based pursuit.

Learning Torah in general and understanding God to the best of our ability with our intellect is a fundamental precept of Judaism.

It's actually the first thing that the rumbum teaches us in his mission of Torah the very first thing that he says is that the foundation of all foundations is to know God.

So it means that we have this obligation to try to understand and know God really the root of all understanding of anything in this world whether it is science or making sense of our day-to-day lives really revolves around logic.

Logic is our most fundamental and essential tool to making sense of the universe around us.

However we will learn about today and just for context again we are in the middle of chapter 39 is that logic is not the be-all end-all and in fact logic is nothing but a tool.

It's a very useful tool that God gave us however it is limited and it's not something to be worshiped.

In fact historically whenever there has been an attempt to worship reason it's been more than a little bit problematic.

For example in the late 18th century during the French Revolution there was an actual cult of reason in which they tried the French Revolutionaries tried to overthrow the Catholic Church and this led to a lot of violence and not very great things and a lot of attacks.

In Christianity as well the term logos means logic but it also kind of becomes synonymous with the divine with God in a lot of literature.

But once again this is not the Jewish view and as we'll learn there's actually a whole realm that exists way beyond logic and logic most definitely cannot be considered to be synonymous with God.

So logic is definitely not the be-all end-all and what we'll learn about today is that logic is merely a tool which God gave us in order to exist in order to maintain our own independent existence here in the world and to make sense of reality with our brains, with our limited bodies, with our limited minds.

However it's definitely not the be-all end-all and there is a whole realm that exists beyond logic and we're actually going to talk about that realm today.

So if you remember from yesterday's episode we actually alluded to this realm, this realm is called Atsilus or Atsilut.

This is the realm of emanation when there is no distinction between the beings that exist in that realm and God himself.

So let's get straight into the text and see how the Al-Trabi explains this and then try to tie it back into this whole discussion of logic and everything.

So the Al-Trabi says that the world of Atsilus, which is above the intellect and understanding and comprehension for the created mind, so meaning that it's above logic, because the Huchma, the Bina and the Das, so this is the wisdom understanding and knowledge and those are the three intellectual attributes of God that we talked about before, are totally unified there with utmost unity,

with a very intense unity that is most wondrous, like a unity that is infinitely greater than that which is found in the world of Bria, which is the world that is right below Atsilus, right?

So why? Because in the world of Bria, there this radiance came down to shine in a way of symptom, in a way of constriction, in order for the creative intellects to be able to receive it from this hybrid, from these intellectual attributes to be able to know God and to be able to understand and comprehend some sort of understandings, to have some sort of grasp over the light of the infinite light,

according to the abilities of the intellects of these created beings, who are by nature limited, and this is in order so that they do not become nullified out of existence, and in which case they would not be concerned to be creations at all, and rather they would just revert back to their source and in their origin, which is in an aspect of true Godliness, of actual Godliness.

And as we'll learn, there are certain souls, very select souls that are connected to this level, but it's there few and far between this is not a typical experience.

So getting back into the text and our discussion about logic, so we talked about how the logic comes from this place of constriction, so there's a constriction that happens where God constricts His light into a realm of rational of intellect.

So this constriction comes about from the ray, which radiates there, which is the ray of Habad, of the intellect, remember the three intellectual attributes of God, so the three intellectual attributes of God radiate to those souls that are found there in the world of Bria, which is not the case in Atillus.

So what happens in Atillus? So again, Atillus is that highest world, where there is no constriction, that the beings that exist in Atillus are not in a state of constriction, at least not very much.

And so this is why since this world of Atillus is not a world in which there is so much constriction, then the intellect of created beings is not able to receive from them.

And so this is what we say when we say that there is no thought that can grasp God at all, because truly anytime we're talking about a thought that we grasp automatically when we grasp it means we're not actually getting the essence of God, because God is beyond comprehension.

And so thus, what is Atillus? Atillus is actually the abode, the dwelling place, for the really, really great, the really righteous people, where their service was above even the idea of love and fear that comes from understanding and knowledge, from intellect, from the mind, on the greatness of God.

Just as the world of Atillus is above the level of understanding and knowledge for the intellect of a created being.

But rather their service, if it wasn't an intellectual one, where they intellectually cultivated this loving fear of God, it was actually in a way of a chariot, a true chariot for the infinite himself, for God himself, to be totally nullified to him, with utmost unity, like to totally be subsumed and to lose their existence, just like what we were talking about yesterday, to be able to become a part of God's light himself, to become subsumed in this light.

Them and all that they possess in this infinite light, through keeping the Torah and Metzvez, in the way that the forefathers did, in the way that we described that the forefathers were chariot, because their entire lives were dedicated to the service.

So it wasn't like just like that they had their lives, and then the part of their lives was this intellectual meditation and contemplation upon God and all that, but in fact it was like their entire lives served as this way of devoting themselves totally and completely to serving God.

And now the Torah is going to go on, and he's going to speak about a different class of righteous people who are definitely completely righteous, they're very righteous, but we can't say that they're on this level of being a chariot.

So they don't actually have their abode in a cellus, at least not permanently, but rather their actual abode, like their place of residence, the place that suits them, is the world of Briah, which if you recall what we've been talking about and how we've been defining this world,

the world of Briah is the world of intellect, namely godly intellect, and the reason why this is their abode is because these are people who really have also devoted their lives to serving God through really using their minds and their intellect to the fullest capacity to be able to really come to a sense through intellectual understanding and meditation of coming to really feel this intense love and fear of God.

So for these kind of people, they do not have their residence in a cellus, like we've been talking about, but rather their permanent residence is in Briah.

However, nevertheless, some of these kind of people get to visit quote unquote a cellus once in a while, and this is what we're going to be talking about in today's section is, when is it that these souls, these souls that really do reside in Briah, when do they get to visit a cellus?

So let's get straight into the text, it's pretty short today, and I think the text will explain it better than I can in my own words.

So the altar abode says that for the one, so this is in contrast to those souls who have their residence in a cellus.

So for those, however, who have the root of their soul is too small to be able to contain this type of service, this pure service of to be completely nullified and encompassed in the light of God through his service.

So just pause here for a second and something interesting, I think that is interesting to point out and to note, is the altar of is basically saying he's kind of like saying that it's not through their own, it's not through fault.

It's not, it's nobody's fault that they're not able to do this.

Like some people, we have different, there's our service and there's what we put into the world, what we work at, how we try to improve ourselves and get close to God.

But there's also something called a soul root and we all have different types of soul roots.

So the altar abode saying here that there are some people who this soul, their soul root is too small to be able to have this service of total self abnegation, self nullification.

So for some people, it's really just not possible, like we're not all meant to be on this crazy high level basically is what the altar abode saying.

So then he says, but for these people, nevertheless, there are certain times.

So it's specific times that are like a spacious times that come from above.

For example, during the prayer of Shmanasra, like they meet a prayer and doveting that is in at Silas.

So like the prayer of Shmanasra is very much connected to at Silas, especially when we bow down that with every bowing down, this isn't an aspect of at Silas.

It's kind of like, you know, we're bowing down and it's a form of almost like self abnegation, which is the whole idea of at Silas.

And the altar abode says that this is written about in the prayer time in Kabbalah Shabas, because this is the idea of being totally nullified to God's light to be considered as if you're nothing.

So this idea of bowing is sort of representing that.

And so even though these kind of souls do get to have this experience of visiting quote unquote the world of at Silas of kind of having this connection to the world of at Silas at select times like while they're praying or something like that.

Nevertheless, their principle abode is in the world of Bria, like this is really where they're dwelling place.

And the permanent dwelling place of their soul is in the world of Bria.

And then the altar abode concludes with something in brackets where it says just during very auspicious times, their soul will rise up to at Silas in an aspect of Mayn, which means feminine waters, as is known to those who know.

So it's a little cryptic at the end, but the basic idea is that there are certain select times that these individuals could rise up to the level of at Silas, but it's not their permanent residence.

So that's the end of the section.

And I think this last part is pretty straightforward. Basically, there are different kinds of souls, different soul roots, things like that.

And not all righteous people all have their residence in the world of at Silas and not all righteous people have this ability to attain the level of total self abnegation to the point of being a chariot.

But nevertheless, those people who are not on that level, but they are still very great to deacon and reside in the world of Bria, they could at times perhaps have this like select experience of experiencing the world of at Silas.

During prayer and perhaps other times as well that the altar of it doesn't really elaborate upon.

So that's it for today, and we'll continue tomorrow. I'll speak to you then.

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