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The Tree of Knowledge: The Genesis of Self-Consciousness

The Moment Addiction Was Born

1 hr 59 min

Class Summary:

This class was presented on Tuesday & Wednesday Parshas Terumah, 30 Shevat & 1 Adar, 5780, February 25 & 26, 2020, at the Ohr Chaim Shul, Monsey, NY 

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  • R

    Rachel -4 years ago

    The maimar on awareness explained to me an aspect in my life that I never understood with such depth. Often when I have certain challenging situations in my life, situations that need solutions,I find myself melted intimately with those moments that I lose my sense of self, my awareness and my self consciousness. Usually after overcoming successfully the challenge I often feel
    a sense of void and a sense of having lost myself and where I belong. Till now I always thought that the void was an anticlimax from the experience of having been so busy and worked so hard on solving the issue. But now after learning this maimar, I understand it in a different way. When I’m lost and fused so deeply in the moment that I no longer feel the self, perhaps I’m experiencing a moment of pre eitz hadas. The anticlimax of the next day might be the post eitz hadas experience. After an outer body experience of losing oneself the contrast of now being back into the reality of self consciousness and self awareness becomes very difficult and painful. (Perhaps that’s what happen to Noach, after the Mabul. The anticlimax of coming back into earth, meaning self awareness after having been in the Teivah on different realm of realities was intolerable for Noach that caused him to get intoxicated).

    What did I gain through this awareness? Now when I feel the painful frustration of the post eitz hadas experience, instead of reaching out for distractions to numb myself from experiencing the loss with oneness, I can pause. Pause with immense compassion for my human condition and become an observer of this process. Become a chooser. I’m never doomed, I can always chose to elevate any moment back to oneness. I can choose to distance myself and raise above the voices of  imprisonment that ask for quick fixes. When in spite of my finiteness I choose a path towards infinity and oneness, it’s in that freedom that I can transcend my awareness and consciousness.

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  • M

    Moshe -4 years ago

    Only 4 died cuz of the snake? What's wrong with self awareness?

    Meaning they were the only pure ones and no one else? What about the Avos and Imahos? Moshe and Aaron?

    We strive for self awareness. So what's the problem with that? The problem that it is all about the "self". Like the fellow who learns and davens and does mitzvos to get reward in this world or gge next for HIMSELF!. It's about himself not about Hashem, what Hashem wants, the relationship with Hashem, etc. As said before it's about a paycheck albeit a ruchnious paycheck.

    Same for self awareness. We must the self and do the right thing, not for reward, but the other needs it. And the other can be another person or Hashem. Like JFK said. We must go from selfISH to selfLESS. No coincidence that ISH is the man, the person, himself; whereas LESS means less of the self, less of oneself.

    Most neshomas come down to fix up something imperfect from a previous gilgul. Various opinions about what that might be, but they all overlap. Ultimately that is a selfish reason to come back down, self actualization and perfection. But a few neshomas come down, not for selfISH reasons but for selfLESS reasons. E.g. a handicapped child is said to be perfected already but comes down to teach others patience, tolerance and acceptance.

    There's a related discussion about the difference of between Torah's emphasis of OBLIGATIONS and secular law's emphasis of RIGHTS. One is selfless and the other is selfish.

    There's a reason it is called "Rasha"!

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  • M

    Moshe -4 years ago

    Avraham bo b'yomim. Avraham came with his days

    With his days full. Full of only good. Hasghocha we say this today on Rosh chodesh, three times for a chazaka. Each moment, each day was packed with only good. They could have been very different days but they were all full and filled with good.

    Obviously this is worth emulating .

    Compare that to the idea of "killing time"!

    If someone steals money or property from you, its possible to get it back later. But, time that is stolen can never be recovered.

    Just see how any tzaddik uses time.

    Hashem gives the quantity of days, and we fill those days with quality (or not!).

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  • AF

    avrohom Friedman -4 years ago

    No words to thank you for such a wonderful shiur.

    Question...If Noach getting Naked did not work to get back to before eitz hadaas then how can our drinking on purim achieve it?

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    • Anonymous -4 years ago

      Great question. So today we began a new maamar in Torah Or by the Baal Hatanya, Chayav Einish Lebesumi... We will bl"n address this question.

      Here is the new maamar: https://www.theyeshiva.net/jewish/7391

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  • Anonymous -4 years ago

    Would Rebbe be able to post/send the notes on todays shiur? The topic needs great thought and review and has tremendous yesodos that would be beneficial to see as a text.

    The pasuk in ruth (1:18) says וַתֵּ֕רֶא כִּֽי־מִתְאַמֶּ֥צֶת הִ֖יא לָלֶ֣כֶת אִתָּ֑הּ וַתֶּחְדַּ֖ל לְדַבֵּ֥ר אֵלֶֽיהָ׃ - The Vilna Gaon explains that if one wants to know when he comes to do a mitzvah if it is coming from the yetzer hara or yetzer tov he should see if he is approaching it with zerizus and his body feels loose and he is moving freely he could assume it is from the yetzer hara becuase how could his body that comes from dust and his nature is to go after his desires act this way, but if he feels heavy and lazy  then he is align with his nature and the yezter hara is 'dressed up' in his body to weigh him down. 

    Like the Alter Rebbe said when you feel yourself then you know that is working with the nature after the eitz haddas and that is the regular yetzer harah, but the Gaon is warning us when a mitzvah approaches and you stop feeling yourself and it seems your in touch with your real self you have to be careful that the ratzon might also be coming from a place of zuhama like the Alter Rebbe said even the feeling for the good may be coming form such a place.

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    • Anonymous -4 years ago

      I did. Check out the PDF under the video and you will see the notes of the class.

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      • Anonymous -4 years ago

        Thank you

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Chassidus: Torah Ohr Lo Teheye Meshakala #6

Rabbi YY Jacobson

  • February 26, 2020
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  • 1 Adar 5780
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  • 1245 views

Dedicated by Baruch Yosef Markoff, in the loving memory of his grandmother, Rose bas Roiba, for the yartzheit on the 1st of Adar

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