Tanya L'masse #6 - Comfort Zone

Each element isn’t “ugly.” It’s just כוח in an unrefined state:

• Fire → when unrefined: pride, anger, ego
  → when refined: passion, drive, leadership, warmth in avodas Hashem 
• Water → when unrefined: chasing pleasure, comfort, habit loops
  → when refined: ta’anug in kedusha, consistency, emotional connection 
• Air → when unrefined: distraction, escape, floating, wasting time
  → when refined: imagination, רוחניות, vision, the ability to rise above 
• Earth → when unrefined: heaviness, laziness, sadness, stuckness
  → when refined: stability, humility, perseverance, groundedness 

Presenter: Rabbi Betzalel Bassman 

Tanya L'masseh - Learning + Hisbonenus 

Presenter : Rabbi Betzalel Bassman 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Okay. We are talking about Aish Rubach, Mayim, and Offirentya. Our animal soul, our Nephisha Bahamas, that's not inherently bad. It is created by a shem and has some interesting characteristics that uh look ugly, but at their core, they're not shameful or bad. These are just some uh tools that can have some quirky tendencies that that uh that we try to improve upon. So it talks about them in the in the in the context of aishwachmayman offer, the four elements of the world. This is actually fascinating. So the outcome is anger, like fire that goes up, um burning, but to really to go a step back, it's the reason a person gets angry is because he has an inflated sense of self. Um and and again, that's a that's a natural thing that we need to tame and and and and and work on. Um we'll discuss some of the positive aspects of these elements. Um then there is water, which is pleasure, moisture, water grows plants and food, water is also calm, which can be laziness. Um then there's air, which is empty, where a person, you know, does nothing. He's killing time, so to speak, involving empty pursuits, um, escapes, and so on. And then there's earth, which is heaviness, laziness, sadness, stuckness. Um obviously the clinical depression, that's not what we're discussing, but just that that being stuck in this area. So again, what Mrs. Ginsberg pointed out over here, and I think this is beautiful, is that this is these are the essential inherent tendencies of the way HM created us. So it's not evil, it's like a kid that's learning to crawl. The fact that he's not walking, he needs to learn how to walk, but that's that's kind of it's normal. So we're working to take this nefesha Bahamas and take these tendencies and direct them to a positive. Fire can be directing it to passion, leadership, drive, warmth and avoid discussion, water can be pleasure in Kedusha, um, emotional connection, consistency, air in the positive can be imagination, being able to rise above earth, and the positive can be stability, humility, perseverance, groundedness. Um, okay, so let us um take some of these points in terms of the uh his bionis talking points, um and and then I'll just share a quick thought from the writings of the hein castleman on his biomass, and then we'll go straight in straight into our five minutes of his biomass. Um, so midnights are not flaws, they're clickas have some place in us. Take, for example, your fingernails. Maybe it's not as pretty as your face, but it's a fingernail, it's a clipa, like we mentioned, that exists. Avoid us how to use them. Fire, water, air, earth. Each one pulls me down, but also has the ability to rise, raise me up and become more elevated. I am not my impulses. I can step back and notice them. This is my nephew Bahamas. It's not my identity, something that exists in the way this machine was manufactured. My vote is not to break myself, but to refine, redirect, and elevate every part of who I am. Kesselman says that his binus is for everyone. It's not it's almost like his binum. The example I was thinking of is chewing. So it would almost be like saying, well, everyone can eat. Chewing, that's for a bomb of the day. So learning to sit this without sitting on it and doing his binamus is the equivalent of eating without chewing. Okay. Find a quiet distraction-free place. Turn off your uh notifications, and I'll put a time around for five minutes.