בס”ד
.
Sources
Fundamental structure
● G-d
– Infinite vs. Finite
– Tzimtzum – Concealment
● Creation
– Definition / Expressions (Sefirot)
● Man
– Created in the image of G-d (Bereshit 1:26)
● Mishkan (Tabernacle)
– Resembles the same structure
Structure of the soul
● Intellect
– Wisdom (Chochma)
– Understanding (Binah)
– Knowledge (Daat)
● Emotions
– Kindness (Chessed)
– Strength (Gevurah)
– Beauty (Tiferet)
– Victory (Netzach)
– Splendor (Hod)
– Foundation (Yesod)
– Kingship (Malchut)
● Garments
– Thought (Machshava)
– Speech (Dibur)
– Action (Maase)
Be careful…
● The power of words
– There’s a pact with the lips (Talmud Moed Katan 18a).
– Never open the mouth to the Accuser (Talmud Brachot 19a).
● Beyond the future: now!
– Baal Shem Tov: I’ll cut you like a fish (Hayom yom, Tishrei 29).
● Beyond speech
– Thought helps… (Likutei Diburim, vol. 1, at beginning).
Mind and Heart
● “According to the intellect is praised a man” (Mishlei 12:8)
– What is the path [to attain] love and fear of Him? When a person contemplates His wondrous and great deeds and creations and appreciates His infinite wisdom that surpasses all comparison, he will immediately love, praise, and glorify [Him], yearning with tremendous desire to know [G-d’s] great name, as David stated: “My soul thirsts for the L-rd, for the living G-d” [Psalms 42:3].
– When he [continues] to reflect on these same matters, he will immediately recoil in awe and fear, appreciating how he is a tiny, lowly, and dark creature, standing with his flimsy, limited, wisdom before He who is of perfect knowledge, as David stated: “When I see Your heavens, the work of Your fingers… [I wonder] what is man that You should recall Him” [Psalms 8:4-5]. (Rambam, Laws of Fundamentals of Torah, 2:2)
● Bnei Noach
– No obligation to love G-d.
– Obligated to fear G-d (Talmud Sanhedrin 56b).
Chassidic thought (Zachor 1984)
● Mind rules over heart by nature (Tania ch. 12)
● Chassidic discourse Zachor 1984
● Intellect for emotiones vs. Intellect for itself.
– Intellect for emotions vs. Intellect for itself.
– This is the difference between Jews and non-Jews: regarding non-Jews the intellect is for the emotions only, similar to the cunning of the wolf, the smartest of all animals, therefore it’s not possible to demand from them that the mind should govern over the heart, because the mind is only for the heart.
– Regarding the Jew it is written “Know the G-d of your father”. By them the main thing is the intellect, that’s why there can be knowledge and recognition of divinity and also the issue of mind governing the heart.
Intellect in detial (Zachor, 5689)
● Intellect for the emotions
– Related to material world (what is below)
– How to obtain that which it wants
– Richness, greatness, honor
– Justification for any behavior
– Emotions are felt – feeling of self
– Even abstract intellect, not related to emotions
* Related to the material source of things
* Nature of thing
● Intellect for itself
– Related to G-d (what is above)
– Abstract, how things are really not existent by themselves
– Occupied in understanding the divine source of everything
– Emotions are felt – feeling of divinity
– Even intellect related to emotions, not abstract
* Wants to focus emotions towards G-d
Growth through connection
● The mind of Bnei Noach grows by being connected to a Jew
– In order for the spiritual work of Bnei Noach in the observance of their commandments as it should be, they cannot base themselves on their own intellect, because they’re intellect can lead to coarseness, rather, it has to be connected to a Jew.
– When their intellect soul of Bnei Noach is guided by a Jew whose image of G-d is complete, also the soul of Bnei Noach reach the level of “The soul of man rises above” (Kohelet 3:21).
* Likutei Sichot vol. 15, p. 61
Conclusions
● Structure
– G-d, Creation, Man, (Tabernacle).
– Intellect and emotions.
● Mind and Heart
– Meditation and thought produces and “fuels” emotions.
● Mind governs over Heart
– Jew (by nature).
– Non-Jew (by being connected to Torah learning guided by a Jew).
By Rabbi Tuvia Serber
More shiurim of Rabbi Tuvia Serber
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