TaTanya L'masse #7 - Turning on the light

Week #6

1. Spring Board
    The very things that seem to hold a person down can become the force that pushes him upward. Like a kelipa protecting fruit, inner resistance and struggle can conceal deep potential. When a person feels heavy, stuck, or “like earth,” the answer is not self-hatred, but digging deeper — uncovering the hidden wellspring of goodness, encouragement, and deeper light within the soul.
2. Turning on the Light
    The Tanya does not describe struggle to discourage a person, but to prepare him. There will be potholes on the road. Darkness and disconnection are possibilities built into the human condition. But when a person turns on light — awareness, Torah, honesty, vigilance — he can walk around the pit instead of falling into it. The place of greatest messiness may become the place of greatest shining.
3. Essentially Good
    The nefesh habehamis is not inherently evil. Even natural morality, warmth, empathy, and healthy human instincts emerge from it. The animal soul contains enormous energy and life-force. The avodah is not to destroy it, but to guide it, refine it, and place a leash on its tendencies so its strength serves something higher.
4. Seeing the Right Self
    A person becomes shaped by the self he chooses to identify with. One can define himself by failures, impulses, and falls, or by the deeper רצון and goodness within him. The avodah is to look at the higher self as the core identity, and to see struggles as external layers rather than the deepest truth of who he is.

Tanya L'masseh - Learning + Hisbonenus 

Presenter : Rabbi Betzalel Bassman 

A project of Merkos Torah: Kviyus Itim L'Torah

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In-depth practical halacha - Kollel Aliba D'hilchisa

Transform your davening - Bais Medrash Iyun Tefilah

Master Hilchos Niddah - Kollel L'hilchos Niddah

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Okay, good nerves, dear friends. Continuing along with our Tanya Lamaisa, with our uh five followed by five minutes of practical hisbaitiness, uh these this style of learning Tanya with a very practical takeaways is based on the classes of Mr. Sterna Ginsberg, and we will discuss as well some hisbainos concepts based on the writings of Lemakheim Kesselman. So we're wrapping up the first pedick of Tanya, and we have a fascinating, fascinating takeaways over here. Um essentially the pedick started off with you know, what are we? We have these conflicting voices inside ourselves. So Tanya went into the Nefsha Bahamas, and we discussed last time various physical characteristics to describe various aspects of the Nefsha Bahamas, the fire, the ego, the anger, ruach, whether that can be um floatiness, be laziness, um, not being grounded, offer down, depressed, stuck, myim, overly indulgent. So, as we've been highlighting, these are springboards, these are not inherently evil, which means that yes, these tendons, these inborn tendencies of the Nefaj Bahamas of the animal soul do conceal Hashem, their clipa, they cover up, but essentially, you wouldn't be able to reach the levels of depths that we can't read without them. If let's say, for example, the person doesn't feel stuck, he's not gonna be able to tap into that deeper side of him to get him out of his stuckness. If a person doesn't feel heavy like earth or have some sort of self-hatred, um, he's not gonna be able to tap into his deeper wellspring of goodness, encouragement, and deeper light that's within the Nishama to bring it out. So essentially, the the the klipa is what protects the fruit and enables you to enjoy the fruit and to go even deeper into the fruit. Another interesting concept over here is that what's the alpha debt doing here? The alternative is preparing this is the first pedic of Tanya. This is not, you know, the 31st pedok. This is the beginning. The Altadeva is saying we're embarking on an important journey. I'm going to shine light on how you can be a better yid and serve Hashem with clarity. It's almost the equivalent of someone coming and asking you for directions. So you're saying an omega right and a left, and then you'll see this some distraction, ignore the distraction and go further. So, because the L Teb is telling us there are gonna be these pitfalls and these potholes in the road of these four elements of the Neftia Bahamas and all its quirks and um and deficiencies, but don't be scared, they are just there to help you dig deeper and ignore them. You know, in other words, they they can be tame, they can you can put a leash on them, don't let them take over you. You can control them. In other words, essentially, if you're walking down a dark street and there's a hole, you'll fall right into the hole. The Alpha Dev is turning on the lights and telling us that the this is what to be to it's to be expected. Don't assume it's not gonna be there, it will be there, and therefore don't be surprised and don't be intimidated. And here it's gonna be 53 chapters of tools to deal with this uh animal training tricks to uh to tame the dog, but it's not a bad dog, it's just uh has his has its uh stuff, but it's it's all there to help you dig deeper. And then the Alteb actually concludes with something really, really interesting. Al Debba points out, and this kind of highlights this whole concept that there's actually even essentially really good things, not in a roundabout way, directly good, meet the types that come from the Nevish Bahamas of a Jew. So, what that tells you is that like even the bad stuff, but what appears to be bad is also tight. And this is the beginning of the Al Teba answering his first question and Tanya, how should we view ourselves? So, this is the beginning of the perspective, the winning perspective to be able to um tap into being a successful youth and serving serving a shem with your full self. References a letter of the Fitigareba, the third volume of the Gis Kidash, page Tough Sam of Gimel. Over there, the Fitigare says there's meditation, there's his body not that's done during learning. That's primarily to fully understand something, polishes off the understanding, then there's the his body not that takes place during David or before Daviding. That's for the idea to shine and to almost relish in the Batuv Tom of Olicus. It's almost to to to marinate in the enjoyment of Olicus. So essentially, we have four points we're discussing over here. These quirks of the Nefish Abamas are springboards to go deeper and to overcome them. Although it's turning on a light, don't be scared about these roadblocks. You see them coming, so you'll know what to do. And the Nefish Bahamas doesn't just have quirks that lead you to deeper, it's also the warmth, the empathy, and so on, and the humility of the yids that comes from the Nefesha Bahamas as well. It's inherently good. Tapping into what's the real self? The real self is the is the Nishama, and these other aspects are mere externalities that shouldn't be deemed as distractions. Okay, let us do five minutes of his bitiness. I will set a timer.