Episode 658- 25 Elul (Regular Year) - When They Embody the Mystery They Had Strived to Comprehend

0:00Hi, this is Cereet Sweatser and welcome to the It Is Tought Podcast. A podcast devoted to the teachings of Rabbi Schneir-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. I have personally experienced the effects the study of this work has had on me and I'm excited to share what I can of this knowledge with you. So please join me on this journey of learning, self-growth and connection with your source. Hi and welcome to the It Is Tought Podcast. This is episode 658 for the 25th of Elol in a regular year.

1:02And by way of introduction to today's episode, I'd like to tell you guys about when I first started learning chaserez back in the day many years ago. And to me, I mean there were many fascinating things about chaserez, obviously, but the thing that really stood out to me the most, the thing that really compelled me to want to learn more and intrigued me and was like a very big revelation to me was this emphasis on the physical world, was this emphasis on physicality. And how, well yes, there's this extreme acknowledgement of spirituality and of things that we can't see, things that are beyond our grasp, the souls, angels, all that stuff. At the end of the day, it always came back to the physical and it always was all about how the physical is actually higher than the spiritual and how there's something about the physical that is really just a lot more profound and a lot more purposeful. And ultimately is where God manifests in an essential way that he does not manifest in any of the more spiritual higher worlds.

2:04So this idea really, really, really spoke to me, I thought there was something just very fascinating about this and it's a whole topic in its own right. I mean if you want to explore this further, I would highly recommend studying the famous Mimer, the sort of thesis statements of the Rubba's leadership called Basi Lagani. This was the last Mimer that the Frater Krabba gave over the last, the previous law of Jareba and then the first Mimer that the Rubba gave when he sort of like, it was like him accepting upon himself. He's accepting upon himself the leadership of being a Rubba and it's just all about this idea about how the really physicalities words at it's the physical world that is really the ultimate purpose of all of creation and what that's all about. So there's so much there, it's very, very cool. And so today we're going to learn about this from a different angle focusing still on staka because staka again is this like kind of overarching theme of this whole entire safer of Ikar Sakhodesh. And we've already spoken so much about how this is like related to why staka is such an essential mitzvah especially when it comes to the physical world and the ultimate purpose of creation because staka giving, this is the way that we emulate God because God is ultimately the giver.

3:17That's what he is ultimately beyond anything else is he's creating the world something we're nothing vitalizing the world animating the world all through the trait of khasad. So when we do khasad, when we give staka, we give charity, when we do acts of kindness, this is our way of emulating God. And so what we're going to be focusing on today is the concept of the revelation of godliness specifically to those people who are known as saidikim as very righteous people and as we'll learn all Jews are actually in this category. We're all called righteous people and how this revelation comparing it in the two levels that there's a certain revelation that happens in gun-eats-in or the resident is heaven we can say like sort of in the more spiritual realms. And then there's a certain revelation that's going to come in the future times with the resurrection of the dead when all the souls are going to come back down here into the physical world and how really these two revelations are incomparable and how the second one is so much greater, so much more profound.

4:19And the way that we're going to relate this staka is we're going to learn about how staka is actually this receptacle to be able to expand the kind of vessel for this future revelation to come to kind of prepare the world for this revelation to happen. And to be more specific, what is this revelation going to be about? So for the souls in the spiritual realms in gun-eats-in and those higher realms, their pleasure, their revelation that they derive is really intellectual in nature. It's like where they're really basking in a true understanding of things based on the Torah learning and the different deeds that they were involved with on earth. Then after these souls pass away, it's like now they can truly comprehend those things that were sort of like not quite graspable to them intellectually down here. But what happens in the future to come in the future world in the resurrection of the dead is they're going to experience these things not only on an intellectual level, but it's actually going to be tangible, it's actually going to be real.

5:24So it's like imagine for a second if you spend your whole life studying music theory and imagine that you just learned all of the intricacies of music theory, all the scales, all the notes, all the rhythms, the cadences, all the different styles of music. You were really a musical expert, but sadly you never actually heard music. Imagine that this was like your whole entire life. Beethoven had a taste of this one he went deaf, which is really crazy. But at least he did experience actual music at some point in his life before that. But imagine if you never actually experienced it in your life, but you really were this musical expert on a theoretical level. And then imagine that you finally got to actually hear music. Just imagine what a difference that experience would be. It's like it's kind of incomparable. And that's kind of how we can think about this difference between the spiritual experience that the souls have in these higher realms, which is still, you know, while it's really deep and it's really, we don't want to diminish and take away from that, it's still very theoretical versus here in the physical world, in the time of the resurrection of the dead, it's going to be tangible, it's going to be real, it's going to be something sensed in a sensory actual way.

6:38And then again, the way that we prepare the world for that state of tangibility in that state of experience is through giving stucca. So let's get into the text and see how the ultra-abatt explains this. And then we can take it from there. So again, for context, we're in the middle of a pistol 17. And just for context, yesterday, we were just talking about this idea of how giving stucca is such an amazing financial investment because it's something that really translates and it's like we get rewards for it here in this world in our world currently in our physical world. And it rolls over into a much greater degree into the world to come. And so for in this sense, it does get a little bit confusing, but when we say the world to come, it can have two meanings. It can mean gun aid in like after you know, heaven basically known colloquial is heaven, or it can mean the future to come when there's the resurrection of the dead. So yesterday, we learned about it in terms of the world to come, meaning heaven. So there's sort of three categories to keep in mind here. There's our world as we know it right now. Here are physical existence right now.

7:48You know, me and you talking right now, then there's the world of the souls, which is where people go after they pass away. And then there's the future world to come, which is back down here in this physical world with the resurrection of the dead. So going back to this whole discussion. So when we were talking about this, this world to come in the gun aid in sense and the place that the souls go after they pass away, the ultra-bid begins. And he says that the way that this world to come is described by the Sieges is it's described as as that they have the souls there have a crown over their head. And they enjoy the presence of the Shrinah. That's the way that it's described. So what and this is this isn't my sa'hat Rahat in page 17 a that the way that giving this illustration of these souls is they're sitting around they have crowns on their head and they're enjoying the Shrinah, the the presence of the Shrinah. So we're going to examine this a little bit. So why a crown, like what what does that mean? What are these crowns that they're wearing?

8:48So a crown is something that surrounds and encircles, right? And in Hebrew the word crown, crowns from the word Khotet which Khotet is a capital which crowns a column. So if you know there's like Greek columns and then they have a capital on top, that's that's called a Khotet which is related to the word Ketet which is a crown. So it's like again this idea of surrounding it surrounding it. So why is it surrounding it? What's that about? So the sphere of Ketet. There's a lot to talk about with the sphere of Ketet, but one way of understanding the sphere of Ketet is the sphere of Ketet is a very very very highest high sphere. We've talked about Khachma being the highest one, Ketet is even higher than that. So not to confuse you guys too much, but when we've had that outline of the spheres, the ten spheres and it might be helpful for you guys to like keep that on hand as we're learning this kind of stuff. We've often described the spheres as starting with Khachma. We started with the Khachma being a dast, those are the three intellectual spheres. Then we have the emotive attributes, the emotive spheres and those are Khats at Verity Fair, Nats at Khadis, Southern Mauchless, right?

9:53So that's how the spheres are often explained in that way, but sometimes there's another map that's given of the spheres where DAS is missing actually and instead of DAS we have KETER. KETER is in that map, KETER is actually above Khachma. So it would be KETER Khachma Bina and then you would have the emotive spheres of Khats at Verity Fair, Nats at Khadis, Southern Mauchless. Why this is, is just it depends kind of on your vantage point. So there's again, there's a lot to say here, but like kind of like in brief, it's like KETER is associated with will, with desire, with wanting something and DAS is associated with the internalization of what you know and all of that stuff. So it kind of just depends on your orientation, which one you're focusing on. So for today we're focusing on this KETER place. This KETER which again is associated with will, it's associated with desire, pleasure, there's all those things going on there and it's really, it's not quite present within the body.

10:58Like when we look at the spheres and in anthropomorphic sense, like sometimes we look at it as an illustration of a man, we know Khachma is the right side of the brain, Bina is the left side of the brain, DAS is often the throat and that kind of thing. KETER is above the mind, it's above the brain, it's the super unconsciousness kind of area. So going back to our text, what the ultra explains here in terms of this sphere is KETER and what he focuses on is he says that KETER is an intermediary which connects to the brain. He connects the radiance of the eminator, blessed be he, the infinite eminator meaning God to the eminated beings in the world of atilus. So if we go into that world of atilus, so if you've been following along, the world of atilus is the highest of all the four worlds and it's the world, it's like a world but it's a funny kind of world because it's not really something separate from God, which the other worlds are. It's whole experience is that it is nullified within the essence of God and so in nevertheless within that world of atilus you have the eminator and then you have those things which are being emanated.

12:10So it's like if you wanted to think about like the sun and the rays of the sun, so it's well like while the rays of the sun are very much aware and they're very much nullified to the sun itself, nevertheless there is the sun and then there's the sunlight, the rays. So the thing that that mediates between these two things in the world of atilus is this attribute is the sphere of catter and so in the context of our discussion, the way that we can understand it is that in remember we're talking about guinea dine, we're talking about the souls in heaven in guinea dine and we're talking about how they sit and they have these crowns on their head. And what is this crown about this crown is the mediator that allows them to experience godliness is the intermediary between the God and this like infinite revelation of God and them who are these emanated beings. So it mediates between these two things but then what will happen is that in the future to come in the time of the resurrection of the dead, then this light will become revealed down here in our physical world to those sedicame that become resurrection, resurrected and then in brackets the ultra bah says and this is a quote from Yisayahu chapter 60 verse 21,

13:28that your people are all righteous, so we need to say all Jews fall into this category of being these righteous people that are going to experience this this revelation of God down here in this physical world. So it's not going to be just a spiritual experience anymore that's mediated through these crowns but actually it's going to be something that we experience in a tangible way down here in this physical world. And then the ultra bah continues and he says that this could explain the teaching from the Gamara and Baba Bastra page 75 V at Titi Yiddinsadhi Kishyam Ugulufanam Kadosh and the future the righteous will be lauded as holy. So what does that mean says the ultra bah? So the word holy, again this is where Hebrew English translations are really lacking because it's we have a certain connotation or had only think of the word holy. The word in Hebrew is Kadosh and the word in Hebrew Kadosh is a lot there's a lot more to it and one of the aspects of what Kadosh means is it's the aspect of being separate meaning that it's not something that can actually be comprehended and known in a you know for real because it's above it's above insolence it's above Hachma and it's above Dost that is in Gun Aiden.

14:44So it's something that is really above like again that that Keter aspect that we've been talking about and so it's it's it's super rational and as as it explains in scripture and this is a citation from EO chapter 28 verse 12. So there's different ways we can translate that phrase one simple translation is from where do we find Hachma, Ma'ayn, but where do we find Hachma? Aayn also means nothingness so we can say Hachma comes from Aayn so what does that mean that it comes from Aayn comes from nothingness. It's the Aayn is called is this supernal Keter the supernal attribute of the crown the Keter which is called the Aayn in the Zara Kadosh it's called the nothingness the void maybe we can think of it as. So meaning to say that it's like because once we get into like kind of to explain this logically once we start even in the realm of Hachma even though we've described Hachma as like this intuitive state this initial spark of insolence that's not super tangible and we can't really elucidate it.

15:51It's still something it's still a thing that's like in the mind right but what's above that is the Keter Keter something that is beyond any kind of tangibility at all at least on an intellectual level it's super rational it's not something that we can really be grossed intellectually which is why again we picture this this image of these souls in gun Aiden where the gun Aiden is all about intellectual pleasure and intellectual awareness and radiance and all that stuff. They have to wear these crowns because the crowns is like sort of like the mediator again it's that that that vessel that's needed in order for them to experience this radiance which is above intellect but when will this this radiance really be revealed in a way that isn't in need of this like mediation really that's going to be specifically and perhaps kind of like surprisingly when the souls come down here and become vested within the bodies. And a pure and clear and clear body in this time of the resurrection of the dead.

16:54And the ultra back explains this by bringing up the teaching from Seferia Tsiara a very famous capitalistic book. So meaning to say that and also there's another teaching of very famous teaching in in Judaism. So if you're not sure what the final deed was in the first thought so meaning that there's this idea of the final deed being like there's the beginning and the end are wedged together. So we start with the physical world right we all start here out in the physical world and and then we pass away eventually in gun Aiden and then we come back here to the physical world so the beginning and the end are connected. But says the ultra back we can't get to this level until first we're in gun Aiden until first the person is in gun Aiden.

17:54So first they have to pass to us like you can't skip steps. First you need that intellectual level you need that level of understanding things on a supernal, Hachma level. Each person according to their level and then we see that there's a teaching from the Gomara and was a good to vote page 111 B. That the deal of Torah revives him. So it's this Torah that they're learning in gun Aiden is actually going to verify them and it's actually going to give them this ability to be able to be resurrected in the future. And then there's a citation here that the ultra back brings from michael chapter 6 verse 22. Holy when you awaken the Torah will cause you to speak and this is sufficient for the understanding says the ultra back. So the basic idea is that this learning Torah is like we shouldn't minimize it look when we say like okay they're just learning it but they're not really grasping it in the full sense because they need these crowns or whatever it's just an intellectual thing.

18:58It's like again going back to the music theory examples like what's the good of music theory if you can't actually hear the music. No the music theory the more you learn about music the more you know about the intricacies of music the more you're going to appreciate that music when you eventually hear it right it's going to kind of give you that vessel for the music. Thanks for listening to the in his top podcast hosted by three Twitter. This podcast is dedicated in loving memory of my maternal grandfather of a home yet talk Ben Bin Yaman a Cohen of blessed memory music by Shoshana. If you enjoyed this episode and would like to support the show please share it with others and subscribe on YouTube Apple iTunes Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts and make sure to leave us a five star review. To find out more about the it is top project including more information on my student to be published book please visit our website it is taught dot com. To catch the latest for me follow me on Facebook Instagram and Twitter. Looking forward to speaking with you tomorrow and until then have a great day.

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