TheYeshiva.net - Rabbi YY Jacobson

Ask Not What Truth Can Do for You

For Truth to Become Emotionally Relevant, It Must Be Dressed Up in Many a Garment

1 hr

8Comment
Call-in
Listen to the class on the phone
Call +1 (845) 201-1933
When prompted, dial the ID number below.
7436
MP3
MP4
Source Sheets
Copy Embed

Class Summary:

This class was presented on Tuesday Parshas Vayikra, 28 Adar, 5780, March 23, 2020, live from Rabbi Jacobson's House in Monsey, NY

Categories

Please leave your comment below!

A
Aharon -4 years ago
Nefesh – considered lowest – nefesh hachiyunis – electricity of the body, vitality of the body

Ruach – emotive, hispaiylus, hisrachshus – inspiration, enthusiasm, animals also have - kelev = dog = “all heart” -

Neshama – cognition of human being, beyond emotion     curiosity , inquisitive ness, ask q’s search for truth & meaning

Nefesh Elokis – ability to act and implement values even w/o clarity of emotions, to carry thru , connected to nezach & hod

Structure of Davening match up:

Diff levels in all the souls;   ex eating – sometimes inspired to eat right thgs, sometimes wrong things – can’t see clearly but as far as passion need netzach, - know deep down that u care more 4 ur life than eating the 7 layer cake-

Nefesh playing itself out – holding back w/o the emotions

BST:   “I can’t be at every market every year”   ie can’t always have nefesh & ruach

Pesukei d’zimrah –

Hodu

L’zamair – to reflect on those truths in life that allow the ruach to emerge, organically

814   taking things for granted

Meditatons to daven better

(A sign for the ice cream store, hiking trail, amusement park – simly making them aware that the action is there – gets excited )

8:18 ruchiniyus sometimes related to lack of order but it is not.

Neshama: yearns to be connected

A seder – can’t jump fr one place t another w/o steps – mashal of taking a trip – Davening order building up etc

Remember 3 levels of slavery at beg’g of maamar.

820   penimius change – takes time and consistency – assimilate takes time –

22    NESHAMA focused on yedias and knowledge, profound and intense understanding of Elokus

          Each world is a separate perspective – acc’g to each how one can be aware of the divine reality – what is true in one world is small & insig compared to a reality of a higher world , and that is relative to a hi’er world also miniscule – light is filtered

Learn V’yudata Moscow - 1897 – teacher & student & tzimtzum

25 – need to bring out emotions in ruach one needs to be aware of certain truths – yet a little hisbonneus is enuf to bring out emotions   Neshama is a diff level

31    Neshama & nefesh Elokis (incl’d in this is also nefesh, ruach & neshama) are not the same

Neshama – all about penimius haTorah

Ruach and nefesh – DNA of

Focus on one aspect;

          Mochin b’etzem – to ferstand fun der zach

and mochin sh’b’midos – what’s relevant – hishpaalos

       “b’chain” – Shabbos morning big intro to yishtabach “u’v’chain” ie what’s the tachlis, how is it relevant to me, how will it chg my life. People always looking for the b’chain – what’s relevant to me.

Diff of ruach & neshama also

837     how to inspire people?   Make it relevant.   “hit the spot”. ‘touched me” ie spoke about me!

838

U’b’chain – seldom say after a Gem shir “you hit my spot” – halachas may be interesting, etc but don’t change me as a person.

840 psychological size of person = midos

Email fr woman: speech for husbands to improve empathy esp during this virus crisis

841 speech to men

842 how you can change your life will sell – ie a lecture, project, etc

843 take truth and dumb it down to me

How does truth relate to things I’m interested in – show how something will improve sales, I’m interested

How mochin Elokus speaks to me – if one can explain certin truths re Gdliness, creation

Pesukei z’zimray creates hishpaalos

Speaks to my truth, issues.

Mochin b’etzem – truth for the sake of truth, not looking for inspiration not for the sake of relevance, only this is opposite the above – ask not what G-d can do for you, ask what u can do for G-d

845

Ruach – not transformation, only informational -

it’s about me, my ideas, excitement -   B’chain

847

848   in real spirituality looking for the b’chain is a subtle form of selfishness – have to dumb down the truth to how truth can speak to my emotions, my midos

849    don’t get to neshama w/o ruach

Neshama – mochin b’etzem – relates to emes itself – focus is emes

          Need to understand everything in shelshelhes to get full understanding of what is Elokus – the etzem inyan – only that can only really transform one and touch transcendance –

What did we learn today? What’s the exercise? What’s the b’cahin?   That we don’t need a b’chain. We don’t need “what does it do for me?”   allow self to be defined by truth, go into mikvah – tevila is letters bitul – not allowed t stick out of mikvah, don’t need t be visible .

   What’s the b’chain? Is all the level of ruach.   Real connection is the connect’n w/the emes of it, not dumbing it down to me ie the b’chain.

Real transformation is in neshama not ruach.

Detached academia –

Ahava & yirah

856

One more detail

Understand Elokus – in levushim    outside levushim

Ideas – not truth - levush – a garment dressing something up to allow comprehension

Hasaga –

Ruach – nogaya is inspiration

Neshama – comprehension -

Seichel – one’s ability to comprehend that which is beyond comprehension , looking for this in neshama

Silence of divine

Emunah tahara – chasid asked what is it? It’s not tarnished thru human intellect.

Truth is beyond an idea -

We dress up truth in ideas cuz that’s what we do – so it becomes relevant

Mafshit fr all levushim – get to mochin b’etzem, bring up and up and come to the nakuda which is beyond hasaga

Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.
SF
Shimshon Fisher -4 years ago
From the last 7 min.
I don't understand how once A person has reached the space where intellect can no longer express the idea or the phenomenon it then becomes something a person feels? If that's the case then it's worked backward because it's a feeling and in the level of ruach.

Also if a person can't explain this idea because it is so lofty and has trancended sechel and removed all the levushim then do they have hasagah at all? Like Rashi, can it be explained to a 5 year old? Or if that were possible would it then be מוחין דמדות?
Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.
R
Rochella -4 years ago
I’m still speechless from the class!

Now I understand why you have to climb the ladder from bottom up instead of chapping malochim....

Otherwise it’s an escape

I’m in awe how you were able to explain such concepts with words...
Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.
M
Michael -4 years ago
Very deep stuff. One of the most esoteric, abstruse concepts we have studied, perhaps in the entire 4 years of the shiur.

I recall some years back, you told a powerful story of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and the letters he wrote. You told of a certain Chassid who was offended that he didn't receive from the Rebbe a letter relating to his unique personal station in life, instead he got a more "standard" letter, one laden with deep metaphysical meaning, but it was the very same letter that the Rebbe had sent to many of the Chassidim, all of whom received this same "generic:" letter.

You told us, I think you said something to the effect, that the Rebbe essentially dismissed and laughed off the man's disappointment, saying in effect " Oh, he wanted a personal letter, that's so much easier and LESS meaningful, I'll send him a personal letter", or something like that. I don't remember the Ma'amar in which you mentioned the story, but I think it captures the same deep idea you were trying to convey this morning.

I have a veritable list of "what chassidus has taught me", various life lessons that I have learned froom the shiur and that I can call on in so many life situations as a sort of internal compass and a toolbox of spiritual and emotional support. Just this week Liz and I were discussing that the fear and anxiety--at times bordering on panic--that we feel these weeks is a reminder to bring some of those lessons back into our higher levels of consciousness, and to remember to "activate" and re-internalize them, so they can HELP us cope with the current crisis.

And now today, I find out that what I was finding so gratifying, what I was beginning to feel so proud of is at best only B'Chein, only a beginning, only a lower rung on the ladder of spiritual growth, with a long climb from Ruach to Neshama still looking down at me/us.

Very sobering

Thank you, it will take some time to "internalize" all of this
Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.
M
Moshe -4 years ago
Oob'chain=therefore=how does this apply to me?
I am a young string healthy father. If you tell me not yo ho out, not to ho to minyan, that my kids home with mo school shouldn't go out, then it doesn't relate to me. And I might not listen.

BUT if you tell me that if I don't listen my kids might kill zayde by infecting him these days, now that's relevant!
Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.
A
Aharon -4 years ago
women also need to chill, breath, talk more gently, enjoy the quiet (or noise), smile, not be anxious etc
Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.
A
Aharon -4 years ago
where are you in the text?
Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.
A
Aharon -4 years ago
where are you in the text?
Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.