Tanya - 1st perek - Part 1

2:47 understood. Because it says in a Mishnah, Tanya means a Breisah, Tnan means a Mishnah, it says in a Mishnah, You should not be a Rasha in your own eyes. Why not, guys? Why not. Because, oh, because, like, you know, even in the outside, if everybody thinks you're a Tzadik, in the inside, you actually know who you are. Okay, good. So Roy comes and he says, the Breisah is telling you, be in your eyes, like a, Rasha. I'm sorry, the Mishnah is telling you, I'm sorry, the Breisah is telling you, even if the entire world says you're a Tzadik, know yourself, know that inside you're really a Rasha. So you should keep on doing it. Okay, good. And then the Mishnah comes, and ostensibly that would be, so that you're never too comfortable, right? But then the Mishnah comes along and says the exact opposite. So this is a classic contradiction. On the one hand, the Mishnah says, do not consider yourself a Rasha. The Brisa comes along and says, think of yourself as a Rasha. So the first question we have is a technical question, a contradiction between a Brisa and a Mishnah. Then the Tanya continues. Oh, it's good, but the Brisa still said it. The Brisa needs to be understood, right? Okay. V'gam, and furthermore, in yeheh be'enav ki Rasha.

4:20 So the first question was a technical question. Now we're going to ask a logical question. If you will be in your own eyes like a Rasha, yeh le'vav v'o v'yeh atzev, you're going to become depressed. Who says that. This is the Alter Ebbas saying this. We know the psychology of a person. If a person walks around all day saying, I'm a Rasha, I'm a Rasha, he's going to be depressed. And one of the biggest yeshivas in Chassidus is, next words, Then you're not going to be able to serve Hashem with joy. As the Pasuk says, Oh, very good. Excellent, Daniel. So this is exactly the question. Excellent question. So the Avodah is as follows. On the one hand, I want to consider myself like I'm a Rasha, like guys were saying before, because keep working on yourself. Know who you are. Be authentic. Just don't be in your comfort zone.

5:15 Right, don't be in your comfort zone. And yet at the same time, what's going to happen? If a person's telling himself over and over again, the whole world is saying, Oh, you're a Tzaddik. You know how the Rebbe comes to you? You ever have these Rebbeim in high school? They put your arm around their shoulder and they go, Tzaddik, how you doing? And in your heart you're like, Tzaddik? Tzaddik, you know, it's like Sunday morning. I had school on Sunday morning, so Saturday night. I didn't have Matzei Shabbos. I had Saturday night, right? So Sunday morning, the Rebbe's like, Hey, Tzaddik, how you doing? And I'm like, you shouldn't be touching me. You need to go to Mikvah now. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's not the... The Rebbe's calling you a Tzaddik. I was doing what the Barisah says, seeing myself as a Rasha. The Dr. Rebbe's right. If a person considers himself a Rasha all the time, what's going to happen? He becomes exceptionally depressed. And by the way, what happens when that happens? You'll stop serving G-d completely. Because the only way to serve G-d is b'simchu v'tuvlevav. Not only because G-d demands it, right? Which, by the way, G-d does demand, because the klalos come. If you don't serve G-d with joy, all the klalos come.

6:17 All the curses come. So you're obligated to do it. But aside from that, if you do something, and it consistently makes you depressed, you will stop doing it. What's the number one rule in education? You need to know this for yourself, for your own kids. The number one rule in education is safety first. When a person opens up a Gemara and they can't read one word, and they don't know anything, they don't know which side is Rashi, they don't know which side is Tesis, they don't know where the Mishnah starts, they don't know where the Mishnah ends, they don't know how to translate, punctuate, vowelize, they're missing background information, it's unsafe. So what do people do when something is unsafe? They close the book. Imagine if I said, guys, we're going to be learning French poetry this year. And you all go, okay, great, we're going to be learning French poetry. Berg's teaching us French poetry. You open it up and you don't understand one word. So I tell you, no, you've got to break your teeth over it. So you look at me and you're like, if I shuckle, will I understand the French poetry? So what are you going to do? You're going to close the book. I couldn't understand what he was saying. It was unsafe.

7:18 If a person is constantly telling themselves, I am a Rashi, their Judaism becomes unsafe. You'll never be able to serve Hashem that way. Sounds like your mornings. I hear that. By the way, a person wakes up, he has a choice. Go to davening, not to go to davening. And davening is unsafe for him. Let's say for a lot of reasons. Maybe davening is unsafe for him because he has a bad relationship with God. Maybe tough things have happened to him in his life. Really bad things. I want to daven to God. It's unsafe. God is an unsafe person. I don't know any of the words of davening. I feel stupid doing it. It's unsafe. I'd rather sleep. You go back to bed. Makes sense to me. Right? So, if you are constantly telling yourself you're a rasha, what's the alter ebbe concerned about? You're going to become depressed. You're going to live in fear. You're going to become depressed. Ezra.

8:06 What does it mean that Judaism is good. When a person is told there is no success, right? It's over. Game over. There's nothing to talk about. That's a dangerous way. You'll kill yourself. That's a dangerous way of leading your life. You understand? Everything naturally has to be in motion. There has to be hope. Forget optimism and pessimism. There has to be hope. Make sense? Yeah. You're next. How can I tell a major to say that life is just a constant struggle. Struggle doesn't mean that there's not success. It's a fantastic question. But it must mean, right, that success lives within the struggle. Right? In other words, you set up success as no struggle. I would say the exact opposite, and I think Tanya will confirm that. I even think struggle might be the success. I think that by the time you're done with this, Toby, you're going to see, got it right that time? I think you're going to see.

9:18 that there's success within the struggle. That's my goal. That's because that's one of the big reframes. One of the real reasons why this Sefer is so important to learn is because up until now, when you struggle in your Judaism and you fail, it's like, I failed again. You know? Like, I had a good streak going, and then... Right. And now, one of the goals that I have for this year, when I teach it, is that you should try to, see it a little bit differently. That might be true in the world of business. You either make this sale or you don't. But as we'll see, in the world of religion, struggle itself is success. Yeah. Two things. So the Alderabba isn't afraid that somebody, if they say that, if someone says, oh, you're bad, you're going to become bad, or you're going to be depressed? That is another...

10:14 Then it could be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Maybe that's part of what the Altareva meant. And also, I thought that an interesting way, of having the Mishnah and the Barisah work together is it could be discussing cognitive dissonance in the sense that obviously you should strive to do good, right? But you shouldn't also lie to yourself that you're true. So you're saying there's like a balance. A person lives within this dialectical tension, right? Of like, I'm a Roshan, but I'm not a Roshan. Maybe, but is that enough? The Altareva is going to devote 17 chapters to answering this question. Training each way too much leads down the path of the Altareva as well. It's an interesting attempt. Hold on to it. Tell me in four months from now if you see that the Al-Tareb's answer is more developed. Fair? Okay. Yeah, he's saying the first question is technical. But Sarkh Lahav, and this needs to be understood. Because the Mishnah, because it says in the Mishnah, don't consider yourself a Roshan.

11:23 Right. So there's two things going on here. So far, this is what we have. On the one hand, we have a contradiction. That was problem number one. The Brisa says, consider yourselves a Roshan even if the entire world says you're a Tzad. The Mishnah says, don't consider yourself a Roshan. We have a contradiction. Problem number two is a psychological problem. If a person considers themselves a Roshan, they're going to become depressed. Now the Al-Tareb backtracks from that a little bit. Page Gimel. Page Nun, rather. And he says as follows. However, if you don't... shake a little bit, over the fact that you're a Rosh Hashanah. it's very possible that you're going to come light-headed what does light-headed mean in this case? it means you're not going to take your Judaism seriously yes, you're going to be careless, so this, Aaron, I believe is what you were talking about before this tension, the Hathareb is describing a psychological state which is, really think about it it's really for all of us on the one hand, the person, I don't want to see myself as a Rosh Hashanah.

12:26 I want to feel good about myself and at the same time, if all you do is feel good about yourself then you're never actually going to work there's no tension, that builds growth so the Hathareb is struggling, saying where does a Jew live, where does a Chassid live how does a Chassid live in two worlds at once, I'm good, and I'm not good Sammy. would you say that, rather than saying you're a Rosh Hashanah realizing that you have the capacity to develop into even a better person. I'm going to ask you a question back, what do you think the word Rosh Hashanah means? Right. One of the things that you're going to see from Tanya, is when we use the terminology Russia, we don't mean bad. And that's why you're saying what you're saying. Because you're looking at it and you're saying, well, wait a second, Russia seems like really heavy. So I can understand how that would get you depressed. But at the same time, if you don't say you're at Russia at all, so you're going to be Kalos Rosh Chasvashom.

13:22 You're just going to be careless about your Judaism. We're going to see that Russia doesn't mean what you think it means. Russia, like the way we use it colloquially, is like Hitler. Like Hitler was a Russia. Right. And so now it's like, is that what the Altarev is saying? That I should a little bit consider myself like, I'm not Hitler, but like I'm a little Hitler. Right. That sounds like a terrible thing to say. I killed six million people, but I did break Shabbos once. You know what I'm saying? It's like, it's a little bit too much of a spectrum as we're going to see Russia as a much deeper definition. Tavio, you had a question before? You don't remember. Okay. So now the Altareb is going to begin an explanation. Acha Inyan. So what is, how do we understand this topic? Ki hinei matsinu b'gimara hei chalukos. Guys, get ready to understand every one of these things because this terminology we're going to be using for the remainder of the year. So make sure you get it down now. We find in the Gemara in several places, five chalukos, five categories. Okay? Tzadik v'tovlo, which means literally. Again, I'm giving you now the literal translation. As we'll see, there's a deeper dimension here.

14:38 Tzadik v'tovlo means a tzadik and good is his. Generally we use this as like good things happen to him. Okay? Tzadik v'tovlo. He's a tzadik and good things happen to him. Tzadik viralo. He's a tzadik and bad things happen to him. What do you mean by like he's a tzaddik and bad things happen to him. Right, so I'm being purposefully vague, Bensi, so that in a minute I'll clear it up, it'll make sense. But I just want you to get the words. Tzaddik means he's righteous. Tovlo means good is his, right? So what it means is good things happen to him, right? We're going to see it mean something different. Tzaddik, good things happen to him. Tzaddik, bad things happen to him. Then there's a rasha. Rasha of a tovlo, he's a rasha, but tov belongs to him. Good things happen to him. Rasha of a ramah, rasha and bad things happen to him. And then benoni.

15:32 Now benoni, if you had to guess right now, where does benoni go? Right in the middle. They go with the dessert. Right, we don't know. So it's interesting, it doesn't really say, what happens to a benoni, right? It just says... There are goals to be benoni. Right, and as we said already, very good, Roy, as we said in the very beginning, the benoni is the hero of Tanya. Not the Tzadik V'Tovlo, not the Tzadik V'Ralo, but the Beinoni. So the five Chalukahs are Tzadik V'Tovlo, Tzadik V'Ralo, Beinoni, Rasha V'Tovlo, Rasha V'Ralo. Let's pause and take some questions. Tovia. Are these types of people that exist today. Yes. I feel like if I see someone and they seem like they're a Tzadik V'Tovlo, are they always a Tzadik V'Tovlo. Very good question. Excellent. The Tanya is going to deal with that at length. What do these things mean? And how do we ascertain where we are? We don't necessarily know what's going on inside of other people. Do you stay the same? Ah, very good question. There is a level of mobility here that exists between one Chalukah to the next. Excellent point. Rafi, then Sam. What are these five, two, four? These are five categories of people. Five different types of people. Sam.

16:43 Can we define Beinoni as everyone and basically describe it as everyone has room to grow, become a person. Right, again, because you're thinking still of Russia as bad, so you're thinking, like, if Russia's bad, Ben-Honi is middle, and that's, like, where we all are, right, and then Tzadik is good. The Tanya's going to go a very different direction. Benson? Excellent question, because remember, or actually, how could you remember it? Benson, if you'll hold off for, I think, less than five minutes, you're going to see that the Tanya deals with exactly that issue. I see you're m'chavim to the Alter Ebermach. Jonathan, your question. First of all, when it talks about Tzadik Vitovo, Tzadik Rallo, Rasha Vitovo, Rasha Vitovo, Rallo, does that mean that not, like, good things happen or bad things happen to that person, but within that person there are good things to be seen in terms of...

17:36 It's the next line of Tanya, so just hold off. And then my other question is that he introduces these... Okay, so I just want to introduce you to one thing about the Alter Eba, okay? And this was the Derech of Lubavitcher Chassidus in general. What the Alter Rebbe used to do, and you see this, the Bab Shabbat used to do it in Samar Tzadik, is they ask questions, and then they take like a hard left turn, go somewhere else entirely, amass massive amounts of information, and then what they do is they bring it all back in this brilliant swoop of like, now that you know all of this, the answer becomes obvious and clear. So what the Alter Rebbe does is he basically spends about ten Prakim, lining up information that you're going to need to know. He basically goes through the anatomy of a soul, and how people have different missions, and he goes through the entire thing, and then once you have all that, in the 12th and 13th and 14th chapter of Tanya, then he reminds you of like, these are the questions, and then it's like, ah.

18:46 You need all that information. Right, exactly right. That's a good Vav Torah. Yeah, exactly, but it's like over a period of like four months. Yeah. So it's like a really. it's a crazy community. Yeah. One of my favorite days when we do Tanya, is the day that I go, okay, guys, let's go back to those original questions. And then you'll see guys go like, oh, that's crazy, right? Because like now, all of a sudden, the question, we're like, again, what Aaron said before is very meaningful. It's like a cognitive dissonance type of approach. In four months from now, five months from now, you're going to be like, Rebbe, you remember on that first day I said, like, cognitive dissonance? That's crazy, because, like, now you're going to see it on a whole new level, right? That's the difference between, basically, the Lubavitcher-Tanya way of thinking.

19:27 Like, it's not like one of those cutesy dvartoras, because that's what used to, like, frustrate me very much, is, like, every dvartora that I read was like this. It was like, here's the question, and the answer is, like, yeah. The question becomes the answer. It's like, how could you say both? The answer is, it's both, right? And I was like, so I was like, what was the question? You know, like, how could it be both? I was like, how could it be? Because it is, right? That was, like, used to frustrate me. So this is going to be, like, turning the entire thing on its head. So you need patience. You need, like, four months worth of patience. It's like a mimer. Like a longer version of a mimer. What was that. Like a longer version of a mimer. Yeah, exactly. Right. This was an entire sefer, right? Exactly right. Okay. and the Gemara explains, as Jonathan pointed out a moment ago when we speak about a Tzadik we're not speaking about someone who just good things happen to him but rather, and this is going to be critical it is an internal state of being those words are critical it's a reflection of what's going on inside of the person.

20:39 it's not outside, it's inside, so Tzadik V'tovlo means, a completely righteous person now again, we're going to develop these categories a lot more, Tzadik V'ralo, Tzadik She'en Ogam or an incomplete Tzadik so right now the Alter Rebbe just made a very big shift and by the way, this is always going to be the thing we do in this shiur, It starts off looking like it's an external thing, and then we move it internal. You understand? So it's not about what happens outside, but it's about what happens inside. So when we speak about a tzaddik v'tovlo, what does it mean a tzaddik and good belongs to him? It means he's totally good. Tzaddik gamur. Complete tzaddik. Is there like any tzaddik just like that. No. And that's why the Alter Rebbe says, then there's the tzaddik viralo, and that's a tzaddik she'ino gamur. A tzaddik, but an incomplete tzaddik. Now, Benson, you're going to ask me, what does it mean to be an incomplete tzaddik? It's like being a little bit pregnant, right? You're either a tzaddik or you're not. And the Alter Rebbe is going to discuss at length, what is the avodah of the tzaddik to go from being an incomplete tzaddik to a complete tzaddik? And how does it relate to us who are not tzaddikim?

21:54 Excellent question. So is there no step from beinoni to incomplete tzaddik. That's also a very good question, and we're going to see. Ezra. Now, it's an interesting question. because what you just did is you shifted a little bit, right? In other words, I went from talking about where he is, right? And then you started speaking about how we judge him. I have no idea what goes on in Shamayim. I don't play those games. When I see good things happen to people or bad things happen to people, I don't think, ah, it must be a function of his internal state, right? I see that he still hasn't transformed that little bit of Ra into the ultimate Tov, right? And that's why we went from Sadashenogumar to Sadogumar. I don't play those games. Maybe not. Maybe not. Mikey? Well, we're going to see that... So all of these categories are very defined. And the Altareb is going to devote chapters to each one. So you're going to... Mikey, I sense what you're right now frustrated with is like, okay, so just give me the categories, right? But each one of these things, it's like... You know how like when you were learning science, so they said earth science is the study of all living things, right?

23:19 And that was like your original heading. And then you learned like all these different things. So we're going to spend time... I'm just giving you the original heading right now. And then we're going to spend time defining each category. And that's what takes so long to work out every single category. Okay? So right now what we know is as follows. Just to sum up what we've learned so far. We have a machlokes or a contradiction, I should say, between a brisa and a mishnah. Should we consider ourselves a rasha? The brisa says, even if the entire world says you're a tzaddik, you should consider yourself a rasha. The mishnah says, don't consider yourself a rasha. The Altareb says, we have a challenge. If you consider yourself a rasha, you're going to get depressed. If you don't consider yourself a rasha, you're going to be sloppy. You're going to be a... your Judaism. Then the Alter Rebbe starts introducing this notion of Hei Chalukos. There are five categories of Jew. There's Tzadik V'tovlo, Tzadik V'ralo, Rasha V'tovlo, Rasha V'ralo, Beinani. Tzadik V'tovlo, so far, what do we know about him? It's not external, it's, internal. It's a state of being. He is a completely righteous man, whatever that means. Tzadik V'ralo is not yet.

24:23 a complete Tzadik. That's from the Gemara. U'verayim ehem ne'parshas mishpatim and the Zohar, there's a chapter in Zohar called Raya Mehem, there's a Sefer in Zohar called Raya Mehem called in Parshas Mishpatim that Perish, Tzadik V'ralo, gonna get a little bit more information, Mikey? Shehara Shabo, Kafuf L'tov. What does that mean? That the Ra inside of him what does it mean that he's a Tzadik V'ralo? That the Ra that's inside of him is Kafuf, means subjugated, subservient to the good. So when you look at the incomplete Tzadik, there's Ra there, but what would you say about the Ra? It is under the dominion of the Tov that's inside of him. You understand. So it's technically stating that he's following the one that's telling the Ra, he's following the Mishnah. No, he's following the Bryce. Forget what he's following for a second. Let's just see how he's behaving. He's got good inside of him, he's got bad inside of him, right? But the Ra, meaning the bad stuff that's inside of him, whatever that means, is under the dominion of the Tov. It's under the dominion of the good stuff inside of him. Okay? So if we had to look at who is in control in the Tzadik Virala, who's in control? The Tov or the Ra? The Tov is in control.

25:49 The Tov only has good. Very good. And we're going to explain that at length. So apparently not. I think it's the opposite. I think it's that everybody no matter the highest tzaddik, even Moshe Rabbeinu. had to have bad in him. Oh, so that's a good question. So what does it mean when we... You can't have good without bad. Okay, so we're going to see if these... We're going to see, Aaron, if that statement is true. We're going to see. Aaron suggests there's no such thing as somebody who has all tov. It's all tzaddik v'ralo. Okay, good. So the Alter Rebbe clearly says that there's somebody who has all tov. So then those things need to be understood. But, Bensi, you're right. In other words, when we say tzaddik v'ralo means his tov is in charge. The tov has the dominion, but the ra is present. And then by.

26:41 extension, one would logically say, tzaddik v'tovo is somebody who has no ra. And then the question is, what does that mean? And what does that life even look like? Or really, what is ra? What is ra? And really, really... we're talking about is, get a definition, because that's the whole thing we're going to do in Tanya, is just like I said to you before, don't run to define Russia as Hitler. Don't run to define Ra, as just bad. We need deep definitions of what Ra really means. It's pretty depressing. But it won't be depressing. It's only depressing if you think of Russia as something bad. But maybe Russia, needs a new translation. And then from that translation, maybe it won't be depressing at all. And not only might it not be depressing, it might be uplifting, it might be inspiring. It's a very different way of looking at it. Okay, next. Nun Beis. The Gemara at the end of the ninth Perek of Brachos.

27:44 So now, Mikey, this is for you. So now we're going to start to get, again, just very cursory, very brief explanations, of what does it mean to be a tzaddik v'tovlo, tzaddik v'ralo, rosh av'tovlo, rosh av'ralo, and a beinoni. And it's a question of who is your shofet? What does a shofet mean? Yes. Who are your judges? Judges. Everyone has these internal judges. Now again, right now you're used to the terminology of yitzhar tov, yitzhar hara. We're going to see that it's going to get much deeper than that. But for now, a tzaddik is somebody whose judge, whose shofet, is his yitzhar tov. A rosh is somebody whose shofet is their yitzhar hara. And a beinoni is what? Both. Both. A Beinuni is somebody who's Shofay, who's both their Yitzhar Hara and their Yitzhar Tov. What would you say about the Beinuni state, then. He's confused.

28:41 If you've got two judges, right, and one's Paskening Mutter and one's Paskening Asir, what do you do? You understand? So there's a tension that exists in the Beinuni. Yitzhar Hara, Yitzhar Tov. What does it mean, Shofay? So I haven't. explained it on purpose, because when we get there we're going to explain what it means. But right now I'm just giving you, like, the overview information, and then each one of these things we're going to take a deep dive in and really define. Okay? So I know so far, what do we know so far? Whenever it comes to categories, the Altarev is not looking external, he's looking into the internal state. Tzadik V'ralo is somebody who has Ra, but it is Kafuf Latov. Tzadik the tovlo, as Bensi pointed out, means no ra. And then Aaron said, well, what does that mean? Is there anybody that has no ra? Now we're getting another insight. There is something inside of us called a shofei, the judge. When it comes to the tzadik, his yitzhar tov is the judge. When it comes to the rasha, his yitzhar ra is the judge. Beinoni, zev is their shoftan. Now we're going to throw the whole thing, a massive wrench in it. Listen to this next line. Amar rabba, rabba said, kigon ana beinoni. Like me, I'm a beinoni.

30:01 Who's Rabbah. Rabbah was a tremendous, tremendous tzaddik, as we will see in a minute. And yet, how does he describe himself? Not as a tzaddik, but as a benami. Everybody's a benami. They both have Yetzirah and Yetzirahotav. Ah, so we're going to see, because a minute ago, what did we just say, Roy? What does it mean to be a tzaddik? Who is your shofet. Just Yetzirahotav. So then what is Rabbah saying. There's no one who just has Yetzirahotav. No one who just has Yetzirahotav. So again, you're taking that as an assumption. You're saying, wait a second, everybody has a Yetzirahotav. And yet, the Alter Rebbe here is quoting from the Zohar, tzaddik v'ralo, shahara shabot, kaf of latov, that he has a Yetzirahotav, sounds like, but it's totally bottle. But what did Bentsi point out? Tzaddik v'tovlo means no ra whatsoever. Shouldn't that mean that you shouldn't be on this world then.

30:52 Who said. Because you're sent to this world to fill a mission, and if you have no bad in you, you should fill a mission immediately. Or, alternatively, perhaps there is a mission of a tzaddik that you're not yet familiar with. Maybe it's necessary to the larger mission to have people that have no Yitzhara. But see, the thing is, we grow up thinking that. And it's the truth for us. But we're going to see that there's multiple missions. The mission of a tzaddik is very different than the mission of a Roshan. Aram. I also think that before we said that, with the tension from the good and the bad, there was growth. So I think this, as we said, that if you're too good, if you're... We're talking about the original. So you're saying, again, so... For Barony, for what I'm saying, I could see I was turning what Rob was saying into almost like a good thing. Meaning that like... When there's only good, there's only, like, the topic only knows, he's already, he already knows, he's very, there's no, there's no place for growth. In the rush also, there's no place, it's different, but like, I don't know, whatever, but he's stuck in it, it's almost like he's stuck in his place type of, not really, but we have archetypes, right?

32:00 And this type, this type is, when we say overarchingly is bad, or whatever that means, this type is overarchingly good, and, but Perkova says that who is the one who is, like, most successful, which is he is the one who tries the most, not the one who knows the most right away, right. So you're saying the Beinari is trying the most, he's putting the most effort. He has the potential to, to, to get scarred, because he has, he can go. Let's see if the Gemara, let's see, let's see if the Gemara accepts your conclusion. Next line in the Gemara, Amar Abaye, so what did Abaye say back to Rabba? Lo shavik mar chaye lechol berya, you do not lead, you don't, you do not leave any room for anybody else to live. Because, Rabbah, you were such a great tzaddik that if you call yourself a beinoni, us. Everyone else is doomed.

32:48 Did they all always fight. Well, they didn't fight. They argued. But the point is, here, Rabbah's coming along and saying, yeah, like, I'm a Benoni. And Abayah says, like, seriously, Abayah says to him, like, you're a Benoni? If you're a Benoni, the rest of us are doomed. So he comes along, the Alter Eber, and he says as follows. He says, we're going to need to really understand this, because, if Rabbah said it, and he was just being humble, then Abayah would not have, taken it so seriously. And Abayah. would not have argued and said, you're not leaving anybody else room to be alive, because what would Abayah really, what would Abayah have said? Okay, he's being overly humble. But Abayah, what do you see, Tovia? Took it very seriously. And also remember, Rabbah was making a statement that was recorded in Chazal, which means it was meant to be a guiding light for us. So what's the value in us hearing his over-humility? Yeah? I think that's true, but as we're going to see, as we get through this,

33:53 you're going to see that Rabbah was very serious. Rabbah believed deeply that he was a Bainari. And that's something that we need to understand very well. How are we doing? Okay, last line. So far, just to sum up, we have two issues. Issue number one was we had a machlokas, a contradiction, not a machlokas, a stira, a contradiction between the Breisa and the Mishnah. The Breisa said, don't consider yourself a Rasha. The Mishnah said, consider yourself a Rasha. The Mishnah said, don't consider yourself a Rasha. Then we had the psychological issue with that. The psychological issue was, you're going to get depressed, or you're going to be sloppy about your Judaism. Then we shifted, and we said, there's five chalukos. Tzadik V'ralo, Tzadik V'tovlo, Tzadik V'ralo, Rasha V'tovlo, Rasha V'ralo, Benerni. Now we're really questioning, what are those definitions, what are the real definitions of those categories? And they're going to be really difficult to deal with, because what did Rabbah consider himself?

34:55 A. Benerni. That throws off the entire system. I would have put Rabbah where? In the sight of at least Tzadik V'ralo. At least Tzadik V'ralo. And now there's going to be one last question. And then everything after this is going to be a springboard. V'gam lahavim masham er'iyov. We also have to understand the statement of Iyov. Iyov, as we know, was a person who suffered tremendously. And the Gemara in Baba Basra, Parak Aleph, Tazayin Amin Aleph, says as follows. Rabbeinu Shalom. Barasa tzadikim, barasa rishayim. God, you created righteous people. You created, wicked people, evil people. Hevra, who was the one that said to me before, were we created to be tzadikim? Were we created to be rishayim? Bensi? Iyov is suggesting as follows. Iyov said, I know how to get everybody off. Everybody's going to be in trouble. I know how to potter them. I know how to make them innocent. Because he says, you, God, you made us this way. So if a person is a tzaddik, why is it? Because Hashem made it that way. And if a person is a rasha, it's because Hashem made it that way. So how, Eov is saying to God, how could you ever punish anyone? It's your fault. Ah, very good. Next line. Ben, so you're, you're not going to have to tell me every other second. V'had tzaddik v'rasha lo kamar.

36:30 Is that a different pasuk? This is not a pasuk at all. This is another gemara in nida. The gemara in nida, tazayin amit beis, goes through all of the things that a person, that an angel says they're going to have when they come into this world. So. Things like whether they'll be wealthy or whether they'll be poor, those are predestined. But on that list of things that you get in your life that the Malach says you're going to get, one thing that the Malach doesn't say. is whether you'll be a tzaddik or whether you'll be a rasha. So the alter ebbe is saying, Eov is coming along and he's saying, God, you created us this way, but the Gemara says we have free choice. We may not have free choice to be born into a family that's wealthy or to be born into a family that's poor, but we have free choice over what? Hakobidei shamayim, chutzmiyir shamayim. We have free choice how to behave. That's the fundamental tenet of Judaism. So Eov is undoing free choice.

37:32 What in the world did Eov mean. It's a very Calvinistic view of Judaism. Yes, very, very good. And so the alter ebbe is going to explain what Eov actually meant. Sami. Do you believe that there's a certain standard of what a tzaddik looks like? Or? I don't know. I think the Altarevah is going to give us scientific definitions for all of these things that are measurable and quantifiable and not individualized. Broad topics. Tuvye? These are the three questions. If anybody asks you, what are the three questions that Tanya begins with, these are the three questions. Everything after that is going to be, setting it up, right? Getting all the categories clearly defined. And we're going to bring it back in a couple of months and answer these questions. Is there anybody that's unclear about anything in the three questions? Contradiction between the B'nai Tzu and the Mishnah? The psychology? Question about what these categories mean, specifically how could Rabbah call himself a Benoni, and how could Eov suggest that whether we are Tzadikim or Rishon is predetermined by God, doesn't that undermine the very foundation of free choice, which is embedded in the foundations of Judaism? The second one was, what are these categories?

38:50 We need to understand well the categories, the five categories that we did, specifically in light of Rabbah, who considered himself a Benoni, because that threw off our system. I would have assumed that Rabbah was in the category of Tzadik. Mikey. The second one was the mindset that you had. That's within the first question, right? There was the contradiction between the Bryce and the Mishnah, and then there was the psychology. The Al-Durab was also saying, how could you say to a person they should always consider themselves a Rasha? Don't we have to live in this tension of, I shouldn't be depressed, and I shouldn't be careless about my Judaism either. Rafi, is this clear. Yeah, I got it all. Crystal. Crystal, please. Good. Michael, how are you doing? Tired today? Pushing through. I value the struggle of pushing through. Okay. The struggle is the success. Exactly right, Benson. Okay. If we are ready, I think we are, let's start to get our hands dirty. Let's start to get into some of the work. Okay? The second chelek of the first perek is, what does a bein urneem?

39:59 And this is going to be mission critical. You've got to get all these definitions down. Let's all delve deeply into understanding, what is the essence, I want you to hop on that word for a second, means the essence of this level of Beinoni. Why am I telling you to focus in on the word Mahus? Because remember, the Alter Rebbe is not interested in the external, what's he interested in? The internal. The Alter Rebbe always wants to know. what is going on inside of the person. It's not the external, it's the internal that matters. She bevadai eno mech tz'zchuyos mech tz'avonos. The Alter Rebbe says, certainly, bevadai, bevadai, certainly, when we say Beinoni, we do not mean half Averos and half Mitzvos. Now, you're going to find in your life, as you learn, that sometimes the word Beinoni means half Mitzvos,

41:02 half Averos, Half Averos. So listen to what the Alter Rebbe explains. Why can't it be that way? He says, Because if you would say, that it means half Averos and half Mitzvos, How could Rabba have said about himself, how could he have made the mistake? How could Rabba have made the mistake about himself, to say that he was a Beinoni? Because what would that imply about Rabba? That 50% were Averos. So you'll say, Maybe it was. He says, However, we know that this can't be so, based on the Gemara and Baba Mitzvah, Pei Vav Amon Aleph. It says, Dilo psik pumei migerson. Rabbah's mouth never stopped learning. So if Rabbah's mouth never stopped learning, when would he even have had the capacity to spend half of his life doing 50% of Eirus? Ad, how deep was Rabbah's learning? Ad sheafilu malacha maves lo hayo yachol lishlo bo. The malacha maves can't kill you while you're learning. And the malacha maves had difficulty killing Rabbah but why? Because he never stopped learning, the Gemara in Bab Matziah says. Ve'eich hayo yata litos bemech tz'avonos chasashom. Rabbah would never have then said, yeah, yeah, I'm a Benoni. Because clearly, he's not a Benoni. Tavya.

42:29 Could it be that he did serve in Eirus? Or that he judged Lama Mershid the same way Moshe did? Or just for him. I think when we mean mechza al-mechza here, we're not speaking about quality, we're speaking about quantity. That's the way the Rambam uses it anyway. Yeah. But that would be a lot of bad thoughts. Imagine, Sammy, that there was never a moment of your day where you weren't learning, so much so that the Malach Hamavas couldn't kill you. You would have to have, like, a tremendous amount of bad thoughts on the other end to balance that out, no? Yeah. It's the hardest to think all that and learn at the same time. Yeah, right. By the way, most of us can do it. Like, most of us can daven and think the worst things in the world. The Al-Durab actually discusses that. Have you ever had that? Have you ever had that when you're davening? Like, all of a sudden, the craziest, most decrepit, disgusting, a very thick of thoughts come into your head? Why is Shemona Asherah like a schooler for thinking the worst things? The Al-Durab discusses that.

43:34 I think of not thinking. What was that. I think of not thinking. Yeah, I don't want to think about that terrible thing, right? It's there. And then you just think of it. Yeah, but it's there. Disgusting. You're like, I'm not going to think about it. Exactly. Okay. The Ode. Now, here's where it gets very complicated. So, number one, the Al-Durab says, don't make the mistake of thinking that a benoni is half and half, because Rabba never would have said that about himself. But now the Alter Rebbe says something that's going to upset some of you, but it's so important to understand because once you understand it, you'll see it's going to change. the entire way you look at this. The Ode, in the time that you're doing an Avera, you're called an absolute Rasha. Now people, when they hear this, they get very queasy. What do you mean? Every time I do an Avera, I'm a complete Rasha.

44:32 No, it means every time you're doing a good. good, very good. So listen to the next line in Tanya. It says, And the moment later you do Tshuva, So here's what I want to introduce to you. The Alter Rebbe is giving us the following insight. When you do an Avera, you're called a Rasha Gomer. What does that mean? It means as follows. Why do you get sick, okay? So let's say a person, their throat starts to hurt them, okay? They're starting to get a strep throat. Did it happen like that? No. Something in the internal system is not calibrated correctly. The result of the lack of calibration is eventually you get strep. But well before you ever got strep, the system itself was not calibrated, okay?

45:41 So far, so good? So what would be the difference between homeopathic medicine and Western medicine? Western medicine would say as follows. When you get strep, give a person penicillin to knock out the strep. What would homeopathic medicine say? It's fixed them to restore the balance. What was that? Restore that balance. Correct. Don't deal with the symptom, deal with the actual cause. Now, I personally am a deep believer in Western medicine. I don't want anyone to walk out of this and go like, who's that. Maybe. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, right? Because penicillin, what it does is it restores balance, but if your system is unbalanced, it'll just return, right? So I'll tell you that a couple years ago, five years ago to be exact, I got very, very sick, and I almost died. And Baruch Hashem, it was like a series of pretty miraculous things happened. But at Kitzer, I got appendicitis. I ignored the appendicitis, which, by the way, you shouldn't do. And you have 72 hours.

46:51 from the time that you get appendicitis until the time that basically you die. So in the 72nd hour, I ended up in the hospital. I literally pushed it off as long as a person could possibly push it off. So when my appendix did rupture, and it did, it did, Baruch Hashem, I was in the hospital when it happened. It was actually very scary, I'll tell you guys the story at a different time because I want to learn, but I knew something was bad because I was in a lot of pain, and then all of a sudden I wasn't in any pain at all, so I figured out I just went away, and then the doctor said to me, because they came back to me with the CT scan that said you're crazy inflamed, so when I told them, it can't be because now I feel fine, so then they're like, oh no, because you only feel fine because it exploded, right?

47:39 The reason you're in pain is because your appendix is inflamed and enlarged. In Hebrew, they call it nitpatsets, when it pops, so then the poison that's being built up in your appendix over the last three days goes throughout your entire body, and you go into septic shock, and you can die. It's very, very dangerous. Whenever I was in the hospital for a month, and then I had surgery, and Baruch Hashem, I'm alive and well today, as you guys can see. But, when I came home from the hospital, a month later, before I had surgery, the day that I came home from the hospital, there's a guy in my neighborhood, he's a really sweet, wonderful guy, and he believes in homeopathic medicine. Basically hadn't eaten for a month because one of the things that happens when you get appendicitis and it ruptures is you're not allowed to eat. So I basically lost about 30 pounds over the course of a month because I only had IV. And then they had me drinking what's called Insure,

48:41 which is like what they give elderly people just to put on calories because I was just losing weight so rapidly. So when I came home, I had to start eating again because I had to build up my body. So I'll never forget, this guy came to my house. I couldn't really leave the house. I was too weak to walk. So he came to my house, and he saw me eating toast, white bread toast. And he was freaking out on me. He's like... This is why you got appendicitis to begin with. You got appendicitis because you're overweight, and because your entire system was off. I was like, thanks for blaming me, right? He's like, your entire system was off and you're putting poison in your body when you put white flour and sugar in your body and you shouldn't be putting these things in your body. And he was like, but he gave me good musr. And I was like, he was the one that introduced me to thinking about like, don't just focus on like getting sick, right? Focus on your diet. Focus like on all the things that make your body like healthy to begin with. Safra and I have been on a diet for almost a year. Since November of last year,

49:43 Safra and I went on a diet. Baruch Hashem, we each lost a lot of weight. And we noticed something very interesting. Since November of last year, neither of us have gotten sick. Isn't that a very interesting thing. How often are you sick? Three, four times a year. I mean, I'm saying it now, like in a week from now you'll see I get the flu, just because that's the way these things work. But it's a strange thing. I used to have back pain. I don't really have back pain anymore. Why? Because if you deal with the root cause, right, what you put in your body makes a big difference to the way that your health ultimately lasts, right? You deal with the root, immediately you deal with the symptom. So the author of this says as follows. In the moment that you did an aveira, right?

50:31 What does the Gemara say? You're a Rasha Gomer. What does that mean? Why would you be a Rasha Gomer the moment you did an aveira? What's the answer, guys? Because the aveira is merely a symptom. And if you've done real tshuva, then what has occurred? An internal shift. You've gotten to the root of the problem. You understand the godless of seeing the world this way? So remember before I was saying, don't think of a Russia as bad? How should you think of a Russia then. Unbalanced. Correct. As what. Russia just means, and this is the word we're going to use for the rest of the year, whenever we say Russia, what we mean is the system is out of whack, unbalanced, not correctly calibrated. If you were correctly calibrated, you would not get sick. Now you could say the human condition is that we are not calibrated. That's fine. But if you're calibrated, you don't get sick.

51:34 I mean that's because we have more of a left than it's vote. Right. So again, so when we say that a Russia, well he might be the most balanced, right? It depends where your middle is. It depends where your balance is. Very good. So now you appreciate our on the godless of this question. If in the moment you do an Aveiro, you're a Rosh HaGomer, why is it? Because when we look at you, what do we see in that moment? When you did the Aveiro, now what do we know? What's going on inside of you? There is a lack of balance in the system. Who is the Shofet? Who is in charge? The Yitzharah. How is it that you're a Rosh HaGomer? Ah, we're going to see what Rosh HaGomer means. Very good, Jonathan. Yes, Michael. So is that how Rebbe is able to say that he's a Feinami. Well, we have to see what it means because I would assume, based on what I know about Rebbe so far, just from the information that I know, if Rebbe is not stopping to learn all day, I would assume that Rebbe is, perfectly calibrated because he's not doing any Aveiros. So how could he call himself a Feinami? We're strengthening the question of Rebbe. Rafi? What does it mean in balance?

52:46 If you have a computer, okay, the computer is meant to be kept closed. If you open the back of your computer in an area that's all dusty, what's going to happen? All the chips are going to get dust in them, right? You ever see these factories where they make these chips? They're clean factories. There's not a speck of dust in the factory, right? Because even one speck of dust is going to destroy the entire thing. So when we say it's not calibrated, when we say it's out of balance, it means there's something in the system that's causing this behavior. So rather than just look at the Avera as the problem, what do we see the Avera as? The Avera is the symptom. What is it a symptom of? A lack of calibration inside of ourselves. That's what it means to be a Rasha. And when a person does tshuva, what does that mean, guys? Now he is calibrated, and therefore he is a tzaddik. So is tshuva just a mitzvah.

53:45 Oh, it's a necessity. Correct. Shuvah is the balance that's restored to the system. You see the brilliance here? In other words, let's say the system was off, right? I'm trying to think what would be a good example of this. But let's say the system is off. Michael, can I ask you a favor? Would you mind closing the shades? Because I don't want the Rosh guys looking in and keep our distance from the other shiurim, you know? Thank you. So you know how, like, shuvah is like a chiropractor. That's a good example, right? Because what does a chiropractor do? First of all, anyone here ever been to a chiropractor? So you know, you go to a chiropractor and they, like, twist your head. And as scary as anything, it's amazing. Afterwards, what do you feel like? So loose. Whoa, I feel loose, right? You go to yoga, what happens? You go to yoga, you stretch, you start to feel. I feel normal. I feel human again, right? Before that, you feel tight. Tshuva is the chiropractic of the soul. It restores you to your original state of balance.

54:52 Okay. Now, the Alter Rebbe is really going to push this idea to its extreme. So listen carefully. Page Nun Vav. Vav filu ha'over alisir ka'al shodivei sofrim. Rebbe, I didn't do such a bad aveira. I did the lightest aveira. It was only a derabanan. Mikrei rasha. Yer rasha. It was only a derabanan. Yer rasha. Why? Because what is it indicative of? A lack of balance in the system. So when people say to me, what would the Alter Rebbe have responded to you? I don't know if he would have said it like that though. The Alter Rebbe would have said, it's not a question of the Avera or the level of the Avera. What's it a question of? Is there an indication that in the system something was not calibrated correctly? The Alter Rebbe brings proofs for this. You see from Chazal, that even that somebody that does the smallest Avera,

55:57 the lightest Avera in the Rabbanon, it's called the Rasha. I didn't do the Avera. Let's say I see Dovi is about to go do an Avera. Which of course I'm choosing Dovi because I know he never would. Dovi is obviously Tzadik V'tovla. So let's say I see Dovi going to do an Avera. Right? And I have the capacity to stop Dovi. I could go over to him and I could say, Dovi, don't do it. And I know he's going to listen to me. And instead, I choose not to say anything. What does Gemara say? Nikra, Russia. You're a Russia. So let's follow the logic. If I do a regular Avera, Russia. Why? Lack of calibration in the system. Let's say it's only a really small Avera. I'm not sick. I just have a bellyache. Russia, because there's a lack of balance in the system. Let's say I didn't stop somebody from doing an Avera. So even in me, I didn't do the Avera, right? No, you're a Russia. Why? Because if I was calibrated, what would I have done? I would have been so sensitive to the Avera, I would have stopped him from doing it. It also indicates a lack of balance in me.

56:57 Mikey? Good to say. Let's make it just an easy one, right? Whatever it is, the point the Altarev is doing is he's pushing it to the extreme, so that we can get the definition clear. Anytime there's a lack of calibration, even slightly in the system, ultimately what's the result? There's going to be a nafqamim. Ezra. Why does a child get sick if we say that they're not, chayim or shajitim. Oh, no. I want to be clear. When I say sick, I don't mean that a person gets sick, because they did an aveira. I'm just comparing the two. Just as if you would, when you get sick, it's because something was going on in the internal system. When you do an aveira, it's because something was going on in the internal system. So what does it mean when you do an aveira? It means something. Let's say I'm sitting here. In miscalibration, what's the big deal if it's miscalibrated? Good question. Who cares if it's miscalibrated? What do I care if I do an aveira or not?

57:58 Good question. That attitude is probably the root of why it's miscalculated. For sure. The fact, Ezra, that we don't care is a lack of our calibration. But if we were correctly calibrated, we would care. Just the same as if right now I would go eat. I have not eaten a piece of cake since November. So if I would go pound brownies now, because for me 9 by 13 is a serving size, right? So I don't know how to eat a brownie. I know how to eat a tray of brownies, right? So if I eat a tray of brownies, what's going to happen to my body right now? I'm going to throw up all over the place. Is that a symptom of my health or my lack of health? Right. If you are healthy, then you'll throw up a tray of brownies. The fact that I was capable of keeping a tray of brownies down was a lot.

58:43 I can keep a tray of brownies, though. Yeah, but really, you look like the type of guy that goes to the gym. You look like the type of guy that in general. Yeah, don't worry. One day you're going to look like me. It doesn't matter how often you go to the gym. Eventually, your body will balloon. As they say, I have the body of a god. Unfortunately, that god is Buddha. Once upon a time, I looked like Mikey. Now, if you saw my license when I was 16 years old, cute, rambam, good-looking, skinny kid. Today, it's like somebody went, and the whole thing exploded. Okay. V'kol shekein v'kal v'chaim er, and certainly, v'mevat al eizam mitzvah sasei, shef shalol l'kaimo. Let's say, again, if this is true on a small level, if I only didn't stop somebody from doing that there, I only did nisr kal mitzvah abonon, what if I actually went ahead and was v'mevat al eizam mitzvah sasei mitzvah al reizam? I was told to put on tefillin, and I didn't put on tefillin. Like somebody, we are commanded to be Osek in Talmud Torah,

59:47 and instead we're Mavath to our time. Not talking about time that's used well, right? Obviously we have to take breaks, because it's healthy to take breaks. Go to the gym. That's an awesome use of your time. Play basketball, play intramurals. That's an awesome use of your time. It's got to rejuvenate so you can go back to learn. But let's say, Stam, I have the energy to learn, and I have nothing else going on right now. Right? Stam to waste time. For sure. Of course, you're over in Isser. Because if you're a Rasho, and you're only over in Isser Darabana, certainly when it comes to being Mavath to the Mitzvah, What if you're tired? Say that. The person is tired, he might need to take a break to rejuvenate. Hikari, yeah, it's a good question. We're not going to get into it right now. But the point is that, the point is, if you're stambing over a, Avera M'doraisa for no reason.

1:00:44 I'm comfortable with any D'araisa. Any D'araisa. Again, Hikari's D'araisa here doesn't mean that you get D'araisa. I'm not talking about the punishment. He's saying it's D'var Hashem Bazaar. It's serious business. Yeah, Mikey. The first one you said, when somebody's doing Avera, they're completely Rasha. And like the last few times you just said they're normal Rasha. Is that what you're saying? Or they're always a D'araisa. It means that they are a Rasha Gomer. Togia? One more time? Internally, in yourself, If your system was perfectly calibrated, which, again, I haven't told you what the system is, which I think is what you're struggling with, but it goes into Nefsh HaLukis and Nefsh HaBahamas. Once you understand your internal system, and if the internal system would be calibrated correctly, you would never do any Havera. That's the point of what the Adler Rebbe is saying. In fact, if the system is perfectly calibrated, you might not even struggle with Haveras. But, for many of us, I think probably for all of us in this room, our systems are not calibrated, which is how we end up doing Haveras, sometimes even bad Haveras. Right.

1:02:01 So we do Haveras because, like, you know, we're held back, like we're too lazy to do the mitzvah. And that laziness, right? The Adler Rebbe wouldn't just say you're lazy, but he would look, and as we're going to see it, the entire internal system that produced that laziness. You know what I'm saying? He would even take it a step before that. Rafi? That's okay. Okay. So far so good? Everyone got it? So what have we said so far? Let's just recap. We've said so far, that a Beinuni. does not mean 50-50. Okay? Because then Rabba would have never called himself a Beinuni. Right? A Rasha, in the moment that you do an Avera, you're called a, Rasha Gamor. Why? Because your system, is not calibrated. If you did Shuvah, resets the system. And you're called a Rasha Gamor. Any Avera that you do, even if you don't stop somebody from doing an Avera, is an indication that your system is not calibrated correctly.

1:03:08 and therefore you are a, Rasha. Okay? So far so good? Okay. The Imkain, and therefore... Based on this, the Alter Rebbe says, if you call somebody a Beinoni, it must mean that they don't even have the Avera of B'tl Torah, which is obviously, we all know, that's a hard thing to say, that somebody never is Mevatl Torah. Because if you were Mevatl Torah, what would we say about you? You can't be a Beinoni, you would automatically be a Roshan. So you see how the Alter Rebbe is inferring one from the other? If you're a Roshan, it means that you're doing Averas. If you're not doing any Averas, you're already in the category of Beinoni. Rabbah. Yes. So when Rabbah said he's a Beinoni, is that so crazy to say now? No. Not crazy at all. Because Beinoni doesn't mean half mitzvos and half averos. It means no averos. Because if you did any avero, which category would you automatically be in? You'd automatically be in Rosh.

1:04:22 What was that? For sure. A Beinoni is somebody who's all mitzvos and no averos. So Ben, see, what's your question? Very good. Excellent. You see how the Alter Rebbe went so far one way that now your natural question is going to be the other way. What the Alter Rebbe did is he made everybody Rosh Hashanah. You realize what the Alter Rebbe said? You did every single mitzvah in the book. You didn't stop somebody from doing an avero when you could have. You're Rosh Hashanah. At that moment, you are, a Rosh Hashanah. I'm with you. But right now, what are you? You're Rosh Hashanah. And the Beinuni, and maybe in a moment you'll be at Tzadik. But right now, you call me a Rasha. Every single thing. Take a look. Open up the books. Take a look. I did every single thing right. I've got one thing in there. I could have stopped somebody from doing an Aveir, and I didn't. I'm a Rasha. Why? It's a lack of calibration.

1:05:26 You're imbalanced in the system. Yeah, is that. What's the thing in the text at the top. The Haggah? Yeah. Okay. That is a note. I'm still in the process of deciding whether or not I want to do the notes or not. But right now, we're going to leave it. Okay? So far so good? Yeah, Jonathan. So, you're talking about the Mahusa, the person in general, right? Mm-hmm. So, setting aside what the person becomes when they perform rather than when they do the opposite, once they're recalibrated, they still come back to one of the five categories of what that person is, right. I don't know yet. We haven't said that yet. You're jumping ahead. That's a good question. Is there fluidity between these categories? Maybe yes, maybe no. I haven't said yet. But that would be a very important question to know, right. Yeah, I would assume so.

1:06:19 That's why the Al-Turabba discusses it at length. Susana. As soon as you do a Beirut, you're a Rasha. Be a Rasha Vitovlo or a Rasha Vitovlo. The Al-Turabba says Rasha Gamor. We're going to see what that means. Perhaps it means Rasha Vitovlo. Perhaps it means Rasha Veralo. But what you're really asking me is, what's the definition of Rasha Vitovlo or Rasha Veralo so that I know what Rasha Gamor means. Is it also like the more mitzvot you do, the harder it is? No matter how many more mitzvot you do, one, a Beirut, and you're a Rasha? That's right. Same thing the other way. Or not same thing the other way, but... That's right. I could do a billion mitzvot. So then you have to start over and going up.

1:07:04 I don't know, start over, but we'll see. But in other words, yes, the Altarev is saying even the slightest Avera means your system, obviously because it produced an Avera, right? If the system produced an Avera, there's something in the system that produced an Avera. The Avera didn't happen magically. That's the point. Up until now, we think about, he's a great guy. One time he did an Avera. The Altarev is saying, no, it didn't happen randomly. The system produced an Avera. What was going on in the system that produced an Avera? The microchip didn't automatically stop working. There was a speck of dust in there. Let's go back and vacuum out the factory. to make sure that the speck of dust isn't in there so that your computer could run well. Mike, does that make sense? Yeah. So, this is also implying that an Avera is an opposite of a mitzvah. Yes. An Avera is not just the opposite of a mitzvah. That's correct. They're both produced by a system.

1:07:54 Well, excuse me, I thought it was because... Well, maybe my capacity to do that mitzvah is system-oriented. In other words, let's say a computer is capable of performing certain tasks. So the mitzvah is the performance of those tasks. The lack of capacity to do them is the bug that's in the system. So they're not just opposites. They're part of the same system. If the system is healthy, it yields mitzvahs. If the system is unhealthy, it yields averos. So you're saying that when you say that you'd be a Rasha if you were on the baton of mitzvah, you're saying that being on the baton of mitzvah just demonstrates the fact that you're healthy. Correct. Correct. I was given the opportunity to perform this task. I didn't. I made that choice not to. Now the question is, where did that choice emanate from? Was it just like, in a moment I did a stupid thing? Or, perhaps, more profoundly, the system is off. And it would be fascinating for us to... delve into that system, understand its intricacies, so that as we negotiate the choices of our life, we're not looking outside of ourselves,

1:09:17 we're looking inside of ourselves. So when a guy comes and he goes, I can't see myself learning while I'm in college. Like, I'll learn when I'm in yeshiva, but I can't learn when I'm in college. So, okay, that's an interesting conversation to have, but from our perspective, as Talmidim of the Tanya, we're not going to talk so much about the symptom, but we're going to talk much more about what was the system that yielded that system, that person saying, I'm not going to learn when I'm in college, right? Was it just a question of misplaced values, or maybe inside of himself, different parts are operating out of sync with each other. All right. So are we saying that Rabah never did in Avira? or never even stop someone if they're in a river because I thought. I thought we had a list. in the Torah of the people who only.

1:10:11 so when you so you're asking a very good question which Jonathan was asking a little bit before which is how does a person's history, right impact their present reality, what's the fluidity from going from Russia to Benoni from Benoni to Tzadik Benoni and this is and I'm with Tzadik and this is I'm with Russia so right so I'm not I'm purposely being vague because when we get there the Altar of Heaven is going to explain it but that's the gist of not what the Altar of Heaven says but of the question in other words if I didn't have Eri when I was five years old. can I be at Benoni when I'm 20 can I be at Tzadik when I'm 20 for that matter, okay I kind of have a question but I don't know. if it's too much of a bubble. ask. so if we have a mitzvah a mitzvah is lo sase, right, and, By living your life free from doing that mitzvah, are you constantly getting shahar when you're doing a mitzvah.

1:11:04 Yes and no. It depends on, it depends on, like I'm not getting shahar right now for not murdering, Right. Aram, just because he's next to me, right? But that's because there's no nukudah sabachira here, whereas I have no reason to murder Aram. There's no, there's no, yeah, we'll see. But there's no, there's no tension right now inside of myself that would bring up that urge to do so. But let's say Aram really did something, that warranted me responding in a murderous fashion. I snuck a brownie in here. Let's say, for example, right, I'm eating my delicious piece of meat and all of a sudden I taste massive amounts of sugar. He might have to go, right? And no choice. So that's the point. So at that point now, refraining from killing him, because that's now my nukudah sabachira, would bring that up. Yeah. Good question. See, in the world of Tanya, we're not there yet, but when we get there, you're going to discover that schar is not this, like, amorphous, at some point in the future, you're going to get some castle in the sky, but it's much more a function of a way of being. It's a totally different way of looking at scharvonish. We're going to get there, God willing. Ezra.

1:12:15 From the text of Tanya, it seems to be saying that shuva is the only way to recalibrate. Is doing a mitzvah also recalibrating it. I mean, doing a mitzvah is good, but it's very possible for me to do 99 mitzvahs and keep doing one aveira over and over again, and just because I've done 99 more mitzvahs doesn't mean that I've dealt with that aspect of the system. Let's go back to the computer motion, right? The computer is operating at 99% capacity. That's awesome, but I want 100%. Soundtrack, what it's supposed to be. What's that? Right. So even if I've done, but I'll keep doing more mitzvot. That's awesome, but you haven't dealt with the issue. The core issue still remains, which is why the Iberia keeps coming back. So what do I consider you. Russia. Really? Yeah. So if I'm learning nine hours a day, and I do one little thing wrong, I'm a Russian.

1:13:05 Sure, but why is Russia bad? Right, as you say Russia, this is the whole thing. It just means that you're not calibrated. Right. Russia means you're not calibrated. That's all it means. It doesn't mean you're a bad person. It doesn't mean you're Hitler. It just means inside of the system. What's the word for that. System. Colloquially, when we say he's a Russia, we mean he did a terrible thing. And it is a terrible thing when we do an Iberia. But it's not saying you're a bad person. It's saying you're a human being. You're a human person. Human beings are naturally, as we will see, not calibrated. Not calibrated. I try not to. Hitler was a terrible person, because I can test that because of the terrible things that he did. But when I'm speaking about you, Dovi, and you do an Avera, and I come over to you, as Jonathan said before, and I say, Russia, then you're going to take that, I understand why, as a Rebbe just abusing me. But what we're trying to do is get you to think about it a little bit differently. Instead of focusing on the Avera, think about why did it happen then. I had the opportunity to go to sleep at 12 o'clock at night. I chose to stay up schmoozing with my roommate until 2.30 in the morning talking about an Irish guy. Or just on my phone watching YouTube videos.

1:14:29 over and over and over again. How many things can I watch already on YouTube? The answer is an infinite amount. YouTube is huge. So at that moment when you set yourself up for... Sleeping and sheer, right? So there's something not calibrated in the system. But by the way, let's take it out of yeshiva for a second. Let's say you had a job. Let's say you had a business. You have a huge meeting the next day. The meeting is of cosmic importance. This is the meeting where you're going to choose to go public. You go public, you're going to make $250 million. You, as the CEO of the company, are going to make $250 million on the first day. Right? You get a good night's sleep the night before, no? I mean, to the best of your ability, maybe you couldn't because you're so excited. Right? But imagine if the night before, the biggest meeting of your life, you went out partying. What would the world say about you? You're in Mishugana. Right? This is why back in the day when the Knicks were good and J.R. Smith went out clubbing the night before a game, right? And it was a big playoff game and then he had a terrible game the next day. And the reports were because he was out clubbing the night before until 4 o'clock in the morning.

1:15:31 So what does the press do? They kill him. Right. It's like Elon Musk. How Tesla basically dropped after they kind of used him. Yeah, 100%. Because this is what happens. Once you see something, that's really important... What was that? We don't have to discuss the legality of it almost. We are not, but whatever. We're not... What I'm saying is this. If something is important, you go to sleep the night before, right? If somebody didn't, what would you say about their system, Dovi? Their priorities are messed up, right? And really, right? From a psychological perspective, we wouldn't just talk about their values, we would talk about their person, right? What would you say about a CEO that doesn't know how to spend any time with his family, that he's so obsessed with success that he's destroyed his own family? What would you say. What was that.

1:16:22 Right, so you could look at it and just say his priorities are messed up. What I would wonder is, right, I would go a step deeper and go, what was going on in the system that he had such a need, right, for so much money that he ignored things that were so important. Do you think, like, do people control their system? Mm-hmm. So that's not a problem. I don't think you do. No, totally. It's not like there's just a... To a degree. We're just humans, like, we choose that. Well, the point is, I think what you're getting at, Rafi, which is really important, is you can choose your... You can't choose to be human or not, right? You may have been born with a lack of calibration, as we'll see, but I think that what we could discuss is... Even within that system that I was born human, to what degree do I have the capacity to control that system and to shift that system? And the Alter Rebbe believes, that you do control that system.

1:17:19 And that's why the Alter Rebbe said that the purpose of Chassidus was Lishana es Tiv'oesov, not Lishana es Mid'oesov. Lishana es Mid'oesov would mean to change your character. Lishana es Tiv'oesov means to change your nature. So the Alter Rebbe believed that a person could fundamentally shift their entire internal system. And that is a revolution. It's also very empowering, right? Because as long as somebody tells you you're not in control, then you're a victim of circumstance. But the moment you're in control, everything changes. Now your life looks different. Yeah, Tovia and then Arnon. Is being a Bainami to being a Tzaddik. Yes, those are two very different categories. Plus the fluidity? And is this also why the Rebbe? The reason why people say Malcolm Shabali Shuba, people like maybe Akiva, maybe they're more prepared to do Malcolm Shabali Shuba. You mean the Malcolm Shabali Shuba named Sadiqam Gamurum on them? That's who you're referring to? Maybe hold off then. Yeah, Aaron.

1:18:26 I was just saying, just first of the comments, that was a question in the comments. I went to an age class yesterday, and I think the reference to the age class, you drew like a triangle on the board, where at the bottom was like physicality, like very physical things, like food, sex, stuff like that. And at the top, it was the crown, it was the model Shamayim, it was like, you know, as close as possible to G-d. This was a five levels of pleasure class. I don't know if it was that, I kind of missed the first 15 minutes. Okay. So, but this kind of sounds like what he was describing the people in the first and or second level say, like... Like, I'm only human type of thing. It's almost like an excuse to not work upon yourself because you say that, oh, this is, I'm born and bound, so there's nothing I can do about it. So it's kind of like what Rafa was asking, like, we can't change ourselves.

1:19:14 I think it's possible for a person to let go of childish needs, which are most, again, I think, you know, within a certain realm of our humanity. But let's say if at 40 years old you still saw me playing with G.I. Joes, I think you would be a little disconcerted, no? But at 6 years old, that might be the most important thing in my life. A person has the capacity to change. And that same is true when it comes to very low-level physical pleasures. Yeah. And then the question was that now I'm looking at what Rafa said in the opposite light, and I'm saying, it kind of seems like he's not being so humble. Right. I don't know if he's being humble or not, but Rafa's definitely saying something that was true about himself. He was saying, I'm not even in the universe without Eros. So let's not believe him.

1:20:00 Yeah, I mean, it might be, I see again, humility is a state of how you attach these things to God, right? So, he might have been humble, but he was also being very honest. I don't do. any of this. So what's a tzaddik. We're going to see. We're going to see. No, no, you didn't miss it. We're going to have a whole... This is going to take months. This that we're doing now is just... This is not even the tip of the iceberg. This is just, you saw the iceberg in the distance. Does it make you a rasha if you blow your chance to do a midsum. Yeah, because otherwise, if you were calibrated correctly, you would have done the midsum. Rafi. If a rasha is not a bad thing, but you have the choice whether or not, like, whether you're just a tzaddik, then it is a bad thing.

1:20:50 Well... I'm with you, but just tell me why it's bad. Why is it bad to choose to be uncalibrated. By doing that, you're choosing to let yourself do things that I shouldn't say you should do. And why is that bad? I don't know why. Right, so that's the bad. It's bad to disobey God, I guess. Right, and... I don't know why it's bad. Okay, good. So I'm saying what I mean to say is you're not a bad person. You're making a decision that will have a particular impact, and we have to discuss what the impact, in this case the negative impact, of that decision is, right? It's not just I chose not to obey God, right? Something happened when I chose not to obey God. But we have to discuss what happened, and why do we care, and why does God care? All those things are part of this, right.

1:21:38 Let's say we were calibrated to do not the best. Some of those. Yeah. Would that technically make you rush if you do something that's in the same trajectory as what you were. You're saying, God made me calibrated to do certain other errors, and now I'm doing them. Remember what we said about Eov? So you're really hitting on that point now, right? Because Eov was suggesting, I'm just doing this because this is the trajectory God put me on. But we said back, we asked, how could Eov say that, given that a person does have free choice? So in a certain way, you're supposed to be combating God himself. You're in a struggle with God, so to speak. God put you on a human trajectory, and you're going to turn the ship around and go on a godly trajectory. that's exactly what Eov was saying, how could you go against it God made you human he's responsible for your humanity.

1:22:55 and yet he's also responsible for your godliness okay. but Lameis he gives you choices so let's say so at the very least I'm responsible he's responsible for the lack of calibration, so Eov is saying I could get everyone off and yet we hold you due a free choice this is exactly the tension that we're going to discover over the next couple of months it's a great question. you can almost say that Hashem is giving you a gift in the sense that he's giving you a way to be able to get more. well I was with you until you said fine because I'm not sure what means. he gives you a way to get more, rewards for doing for going closer to him okay. and as you could say that the struggle is a profound is a profound arena, within which we live yeah, I would agree with that how are we doing fine. 5.47, let's finish up this last line, because I was supposed to go three minutes ago. V'hodam rinam ba'almo de mechta mechta meker binoni, that which we say, where you see many people that they say, a beinoni means half and half. V'rov skuyos meker tzadik, and what does it mean to be righteous? 51.49.

1:24:03 I've got more skuyos than averos, then I'm 51.49. Hu shem ha'mushol le'inyin skhar va'onish, that's only borrowed terminology when it comes to reward and punishment. In those cases, when it comes to reward and punishment, don't ask me what this means yet, because we're going to explain it later. When it comes to reward and punishment, it's a question of which side of the scales you're on. So if you're 51-49, you're righteous. If you're 51-49 the other way, you're not righteous. If you're 50-50 exactly, that's called Beinoni. But what is the Altarebba saying? That's not real Beinoni. That's correct, because that would be a Rasha. So why do they say the term Beinoni? It's borrowed terminology. For Rasha, if you're 99-1 Rasha. Correct. So that's what he says. Umikrit tzaddik biddino. Meachar tzadzocha biddino. We don't mean that you're actually tzaddik. It just means you've got the righteous judgment. But it doesn't mean that you're actually tzaddik. Just because you got rewarded for something, you were tzaddik in that sense, doesn't mean you were actually tzaddik. But when it comes to the true definition and the advantage of being a tzaddik, what is the true advantage of being a tzaddik or a beinoni?

1:25:16 The Rishonim say, We're going to explain what this means. But when it comes to the tzaddik v'tovlo, the tzaddik v'tovlo, what is the Adrab saying? The true definition of the tzaddik is he has no yitzhahara. He's killed it through fasting. We're going to discuss why that is. But he's killed fasting in the physical sense. Fasting in the physical sense. We're going to see what it means. I don't want anyone fasting. Eat dinner tonight. Yeah? You need to work on yourself so you can fast. Adrab, you should work on yourself so you should eat. But the tzaddik... He's killed his Yetzer hara. So before everyone was saying, a tzaddik is a Yetzer hara. The Alter Rebbe's definition of a tzaddik is, no Yetzer hara. V'li b'chalal b'kirbi. Maybe. Maybe that you know of. Or maybe there are people like that. I mean, there was only one tzaddik that says in the Torah, when Avraham Avigdor was 99 years old, and then he passed his test, when he did brit milat to himself, then he became a tzaddik. He had no more Yetzer hara.

1:26:25 Okay, that's one. So that's tzaddik. That's the only tzaddik. We'll see. Avakol mishaloi gila majre gazu, but as long as you have not reached this level, afshiz chuyosav merub banal avonosav, even if your merits are much more than your avonosav, so you have 99% mitzvos, but you have 1% averos, you can't say he's a tzaddik. Why not? Because the 1% means he still has the Yetzer hara. And that's why the Medrash says as follows. Roy, this is for you. God looked into history. And he saw, as he's looking in Shamayim, he sees how many Tzadikim are there? Very few souls that are designed to be Tzadikim with no Yetzer hara. They're Muat. They're very, very few of them. Designed or? I said what I said. So God said, okay, I'm going to plant Tzadikim in every generation in history. Because there's very few souls like this. There's thousands of years. Who's a tzaddik in that? We're going to see. Very good, very good. Very good. So we're going to see. He says there are tzaddikim in every generation, not just at Verma Vinu, but there are very, very few of them. Who k'mosh ha'kasuv, v'tzaddik yisad olam, and this is the deeper meaning of the paschal when we say that tzaddik is the foundation of the world.