Tanya - First Perek - Part 2

2:06 or a Rasha or a Beinoni, colloquially? What it means is they were righteous in their judgment. Regarding Scharva Onesh, they received the reward. But it doesn't mean, it's a borrowed terminology. It doesn't mean that essentially, right, when we're defining their essence, that they're a Tzaddik, a Beinoni, or a Rasha. Somebody could be a Rasha, and he's a Tzaddik. meaning that he gets because he's tilting one way or the opposite but somebody could be a you understand somebody could be a at the same time from that perspective. from the essential perspective he's a he was a make sense? okay now we're going to start to learn about something called the okay. the explanation is as follows. Rav Chaim Vital was of course who? the great Talmud of the Arizal. and he says, okay. We are used to thinking about a person as one entity. And the Tanya comes along and he says, and here we're speaking specifically about Jews. We'll get to Gentiles soon.

3:38 But the Tanya says that a Jew is not one entity, but he's two. Whether you're a Tzadik or whether you're a Rasha, you have two neshamos or two nefashos. These are not just movements, right? These are not just attributes or traits. They're fundamental. It's who you are. It's part of your definition. And what are these two, not movements, what are these two neshamos, nefashos inside of you? So nefesh achas mitzad haklipa v'sitra achar. Actually, we're not done yet. I should have given you a better introduction. I apologize. When we speak about a Yetzer hara and a Yetzer tov, That's an inclination, right? So, if you spoke about a war, let's say there was a war going on, right? Would you say this gun is fighting that gun? No, you would say this person is fighting that person. So the Alter Rebbe says, before we talk about the Yetzer hara and the Yetzer tov, right? Those are just inclinations. But remember we spoke about yesterday that Alter Rebbe, everything goes back to the internal. He doesn't just look at the external manifestation, but he wants to know what's going on on the inside. So the Alter Rebbe says, the Yetzer hara and the Yetzer tov are just inclinations, right? Those are just movements. But if we pulled it all the way back to the essential definition, to the essential categories, what would we go back to?

5:10 To two different Nefashos. Two different... Two different levels of being that you have inside of yourself. So every person, as the Rashi would say, is bifurcated. Right? You're one, but you're also two. Two totally different nefashos. Those nefashos have different inclinations. But in order to understand the inclinations, what do we have to go back to? We have to go back to the two nefashot that make up a person. Was this clear so far? It may not have been 100% clear. because I haven't told you what the nefashot are yet. But whatever the nefashos are, the yitzr comes from that. Okay, so it goes like this. Nefesh achas, mitzar ha-klipah, v'sitra achra. How many people have heard the terminology before klipah? Sitra achra, how many people have heard of sitra achra. Okay. So klipah and sitra achra are not complicated concepts, but I'll give you the background. Klipah literally means a shell. Okay, that's what it means. So when you say a nefesh, yeah, is a, a nefesh comes from the side, tzad means side, of klippa. It's referring to a shell. Now what is a shell? A shell is something that hides the fruit. Right, so in a watermelon you have a very thick shell,

6:35 because the fruit inside is very sensitive, right? And so it has this great big shell to protect it. And the shell appears as if it's actually part of the fruit. Now of course, it's not really part of the fruit. It's the inedible part of the fruit, right? But it's, what was that? Technically eat it. Right, but it's not delicious. Right, you could technically eat, if somebody ate the peel of a banana, right, they could do it, but it's a bad idea, right? That would be the type of thing we would make somebody do in color war. You have to eat like the, like in teen camps, they do these crazy things, yeah? Or like, I don't know if you've ever seen this, but they have... You did it? No. I always have to drink gefilte fish juice. Yeah, I try to make me drink gefilte fish juice every year. Oh my God. It's because of my name. I was in Ramayane's class and all the time, I would call him gefilte fish because it was the first time I was seeing Ashu.

7:26 Yeah, I was going to say, why are you drinking gefilte fish? You're smart. No, and then he's like, you know what, I'll make him call me because he was like the ranger for it. Right. And he was like, I make gefilte fish juice drinking and he just looks at me and the whole group is going to be doing it every year. Right, so I'm glad you didn't do that because I probably, it's disgusting, it's nasty. By the way, you know how they tell which one is the gefilte fish? Like, how can you tell which fish is a gefilte fish? It's the one that's swimming with a carrot on his forehead. Anyway, that's such an Ashkenaz joke. So, so klipa means, it's the shell. that protects the fruit, but it's not really part of the fruit, but it appears to be part of the fruit, okay? So when we say that something is klippa, it means that it's hiding its godly nature. So God is not a parent in something that comes from the side of klippa, yes? When something comes from the side of klippa, we're going to explain what that means, right? When something comes from the side of klippa, what that means is that its godliness is covered and concealed. It appears as if the concealment, the covering, the klippa, the shell, is actually part of the thing, but it's not.

8:46 It's just hiding the godly aspect. When something comes mitzad ha-klippa, right? So then that's not, its kedusha is not readily apparent, okay? When we say that something is kadosh, what that means is that its kedusha, its holiness, is transparent, it's recognizable. Klippa means shell. Correct. The literal translation means shell, but the concept of what it's trying to say is there's godliness inside, but it's not accessible. It's being blocked, hidden, covered by the shell. Okay. So it's like a shell. Right, we don't physically mean that there's a shell. It's a concept. It's a concept called klipa. Yeah, Ezra. We're going to get to examples, okay? But right now we're just speaking in the world of concepts. There is, in the spiritual worlds, there's something called klipa. And things that emanate from klipa are things that their godliness is hidden, concealed, not readily apparent, okay? So, as we're going to see later on, when something emanates from those dimensions in the spiritual world,

9:55 it will have certain character traits down here in the physical world. Remember, everything in Tanya, everything the Altareba does, he pulls back. He doesn't only look at the symptom, he wants to know the cause. So when the Altareba, for example, looks at food that's not kosher, he wants to know, why is that food not kosher? Where does that food come from that in this world we say that food is not kosher? You understand? Perhaps, as we'll see, okay? All I'm telling you is that there's something in Shamayim. that its nature is that it conceals godliness. And this nefesh that we're going to speak about in a minute, that's where it comes from. It's a nefesh, it's a part of our being that godliness is concealed. Yeah. You feel guilty. You don't feel as holy. You don't feel as godly when you do a vera. Right.

10:55 So that's a klippah. It's blocking you. Okay, good. But you're already a step ahead. Because what you just did is you said, the human experience, right, of my behavior is going to be impacted by the nefesh that I have. It's an excellent thing that you did, but you're already like a couple steps ahead. Right now, I'm just in the world of concepts. You're already bringing it down into the world of action, which is great. But go slow with me. I'm not as fast as you. Yeah? Okay. So that's one. Then there's something called sitra akhra. Sitra akhra literally translates into the other side. The other side. Got it? Now, what is the other side? The other side, just like klippah is a concept, sitra akhra is the other concept. Okay? Sitra akhra means as follows. We have two sides. Okay? That which is wanted. And then sitra akhra means that which is necessary, but essentially undesirable. Again, we have two sides to ourselves.

12:05 First, there's what we want. Is it the mitzvah of the akhribah. No. What God wants, that's not called sitra akhra. Sitra akhra means the other side, not the Kedusha side. Why is there something called not a Kedusha side? We'll see. But what's important to know about that which does not manifest Kedusha is it's necessary in this world for a particular reason, but ultimately undesired. So how does God, I'm pre-empting the following question, if you're following with me. How does God relate to things in this world that block, conceal His godliness? He says they're necessary in this world for a particular reason, but it's not truly what He desires. Can you explain, like give an example for me too? Not yet, but I'm going to in one minute. I just need 30 more seconds. It's the next line. I just, I want to spell it out in the world of concepts and then I'll bring it back. I'll connect the two. Okay, so far so good? Dovi? Yeah. Got it. Ezra.

13:10 When we say everything is, that everything made by Ezra is Kedush, so why wouldn't it be haunted. Ah, very good question. We're going to get to that. I would say it like this. Everything that God made has godly sparks of Kedusha in it, but not all are accessible because some are blocked. So some things are... That's exactly right. Same thing. Sitra Akhrim is telling you the condition that it exists in. It's necessary, but it's not truly what God desires. When we get there, it's going to become more apparent. No, I'm saying that it's blocked, that the. godliness within it is blocked from us. Klippa speaks to its state. Right? It emanates from Klippa. Okay? Sitra Akhrim is the way that it's related to. It's the other side. It's the other side. It's not on the side of Kiddushah. It's the other side. It's necessary, but ultimately it's undesired. Let me get to the next line, because I think it's going to become very apparent what this means.

14:22 This nefesh, this soul, okay? This being, this aspect of our being, not just an inclination, but an aspect of our being, it is adorned in our blood. Okay? Specifically, which attribute of blood? Because it doesn't physically mean blood. What does it mean? It's l'hachayos ha'guf. When it comes to the physical body that's animated by the blood of the body, right? Because what happens if the blood's not circulating in your body? You die. So here we're speaking specifically about the human experience of life. This is what the Altarev is saying. The human experience emanates from where? From klipah and sitra akhra. We're going to see that there's going to be two experiences, two souls. Okay? When we relate to the physical, animated side of a person, That comes from klipah and sitra akhra. Okay? Its godliness is concealed. It's necessary to the plan, but ultimately not the desired part. Yeah, John.

15:28 So, when we talk about a neshama in Jew, even though it's not physically tangible, it exists within the Jew. Correct. Right now we're speaking about not the holy part of you. So what I'm saying is that sitra akhra, fena klipah, does exist within our blood. That's right. It's not like an esoteric idea. Like it's mamish and tzaddish. When you say mamish, what do you mean. Like there's a chelakalikin and mal mamish. There's also a tzitchaacha and a kliva mamish. Well, so I wouldn't say it like that. Because I don't know if you yet understand what it means when we say chelakalikami mal mamish. Because really the Pasuk doesn't say that. The Tanya says that. So when we get there, we're going to have a big conversation about that. But it doesn't exist. It's real. So in other words, it's not just some esoteric concept. It's real in that as we relate to the physical body, to the animated part of our being, we have to understand what is its nature.

16:34 You see, this is why it's critical. What the Haute Rebbe is going to do now, which is one of my favorite things that he does in Tanya, is he gives us like scientific categories. So he's saying, you have physical animated blood in your body, right? The physical animation, is what we're talking about right now. Is that holy or is that hidden, right? Is it klippa or is it revealed? So he's saying your physical sense is concealed godliness. So when I look at you guys, when we look at each other, we don't perceive the other, we don't perceive, it's hard to speak about this because we haven't said the other side yet, right? But when I look at you physically, this is not apparent godliness. The physical aspect of a person is not apparent godliness. Isn't there a show in everything. Correct. There is godliness in everything. But I don't perceive the godliness in the physical because it's covered. You understand? You'll see in a minute. Because he's going to explain more. I think it'll become more clear. Umimena baos kol hamidos haraos me'arba yisodos ra'im sheba. What that means is as follows. From this nefesh, which is in your blood, it represents the animation of a person.

17:56 That's what keeps you alive. You want to know why you have bad character traits? It's because of this nefesh. It's starting to become a little bit more clear, Bensi? So when, for example, as we'll want to see in a minute, it got less clear for you. When you see, for example, in a minute, that a person has anger, right? So you could treat the symptom of the anger, but what would you be missing out on? Where does the anger come from, right? So we're saying your physical soul, when I say physical soul, I don't mean the soul is physical, I mean the soul that animates your physical body. It comes from klipa and sitra akhra, so the godliness is concealed, and therefore it's going, whatever emotions, whatever midos come through it, those are going to be perverted. Correct. The holiness has to be covered in something.

18:48 Correct. They're warped midos because they're coming in through klipa. They're coming in where the godliness is not revealed. Now, before we move on, I need to explain one thing. The Altar Rabbi here says, There are four foundational elements that you all know about. They're used very heavily in Kabbalah. What are the four foundational elements? Air, earth, fire, and water. Okay? Thank you, Ezra. Ezra's laughing because last year, every time we said these things, and one of the guys would say, and the fire, what was it called again? How does it go. Until the fire nation attacked. So every time I said, air, earth, fire, and water, he goes, everyone was peaceful until the fire nation attacked, right? Okay, so there are these... Until the last airbender. What's it called again? Until the last airbender. Last air what? Don't worry about it. It's not much nonsense. But it was the one guy, every time I would say the airbender's host, he'd go, and then the fire nation attacked, right? Okay, so I was actually kind of hoping we would make it through without that joke this year, but okay. It's never happening again. You did say the joke. It's on me. No, I did it because Ezra started cracking off. It's not my fault. I blame Ezra. So as long as everybody knows that Ezra's the one who's at fault. Okay, so it goes as follows.

20:15 Everything in the world is made up of these four elements. And in the nefesh that comes, mitzad haklipa, mitzad sitra akhra, these elements are going to behave in an inappropriate fashion. So what would this look like? Dahayim. When a person thinks about anger and arrogance, which one of the four yesodos would you identify that with? You would identify that with fire. Why? Because fire always wants to be govola ma'ilot, always wants to be higher, right? So that could be holy. Okay, good. But that might be true, it is destructive, right? But that's not the element that the alter ebb is identifying. He's saying the desire to climb above, right? By the way, think about that. What is anger really? Anger really always is, I want to be above, right? I'm above you. That's why we use anger, right? We use anger to make sure we rise above the other person, right? Arrogance.

21:22 We're not always above the other person. Right. Sometimes we want to be higher than God. Like, for example, if you're sitting in traffic and you punch the steering wheel because you're late to a meeting. Right? But anger always has to do with rising up. Right? Same thing with arrogance. Arrogance always is, I'm higher. I'm better. By the way, that's why it's so difficult to be connected to angry and arrogant people. Because the whole thing is they want to be higher than you, and you're trying to connect to them. They're trying to compete with you. Which is why when a person is humble, right, there's space for connection. When a person is angry and arrogant, there is no space for connection. That's true. Makes a lot of sense. Makes a lot of sense, right? Okay. It's such an easy concept. But it's such a critical one. Yeah. Because what humility does is it creates space for connection. We're going to speak about humility when we get there. What was that? How do we get humility.

22:13 Yeah, without thinking that you're always doing something wrong. That's not humility either. Yeah, that's false humility. We're going to speak about it. But right now, let's focus on the negative. Let's focus on the bad stuff first, right? Because we're speaking about this particular soul. This soul, remember, its roots are in the Arba Yisodos HaRoyim, right? These are the perverted four elements. So when it comes to fire, that's your arrogance, that's your anger. What about water? That's Taivas HaTanugim Mi Yisod HaMayim. This is an important one. What does Taivas HaTanugim mean? What does it mean? Love of Oneg. What does Oneg mean, guys. Pleasure, shukran pleasure. Right. Indulgence. It means, this is what's critical, pleasure for the sake of pleasure. Yeah? There's a movement that exists very much in the world today. There are people like this, that their whole thing is just to seek comfort. Everything is about expanding their comfort zone. Okay? So where does that, which means, why do you have that inside of you, right? Everyone has all of these things, but some people have it more than others, right? So when it comes to, let's say, taivas ha-tanugim, that's because you have a part of you that comes from water.

23:26 And why is it identified with water? Ki ha-mayim mat-smichim kol mine-tayinim. Because we identify water with growth, right? When you water something, right, it grows, the pleasure grows. Like you water the plant, right? And the plant grows, so the Al-Turab is saying, it grows, the oneg, right? It comes from water. Okay. When you have things, when you look, let's say, at grass, trees, fruits, all the things that provide oneg in this world, right? They're things that when you pour water on them, they grow. The earthly pleasures grow from water. They provide sustenance. Yeah, and what would be an earthly pleasure. Just like sexuality. Oh, hold off. We're going to get to that. Very important. Just like stuff like just wanting to eat more. Well, think about that. The things that I want to eat, right, they grow ultimately from the ground, right? Okay. That's also really dumb.

24:30 and not there to be. We'll see, we'll see. The hololos, viletsanos, vihispairos, udvarem betalim, mihsod aruach. When it comes to hololos, what's hololos, guys? What? Hololoot. What is hololoot? How would you translate that? It comes to basically nonsense. Yeah? Viletsanos, what's viletsanos? It's scoffing. I heard that one a lot. What was that? You've heard that one a lot? The hispyrus, what's hispyrus is beauty, but not beauty in the Kedusha sense. It's beauty in the sense of like looking good so that people will look at you, not look in you. It's like vanity. Yeah, it's like vanity. Utvaram betalim means wasting time, doing things that are just waste of life, right? Those come from the Yisod HaRuach. Those come from air, right? It's like there's air, but there's nothing to it, right? You're speaking, but there's no value in the words that you're saying, right? You're there, but you're not contributing anything, right? It's like there was a guy in yeshiva once that got totally burnt out. Two guys, actually, in the same time.

25:36 Baruch Hashem, they ended up becoming very big B'nai Torah. But they just, Sunday morning, they're like, I'm not down to go to shiur. I'm not feeling it. And one guy pulled out his laptop, and they started from the very beginning of the MCU movies. I forget what the first one was. Was it Iron Man or something? I don't know. All the way back. And they went all the way, all the way, all the way back. And then they just started watching. One, after another, after another. Thursday, they walked into my office, two zombies, walked into my office. They're like, we need help. I was like, where have you been? Yeah, it was bad. We just, like, we were just vegetables. Like, there's just basically, like, how many times can you see Captain America? You know, like, it doesn't even make sense. It's a shield. How does it fly that way, right?

26:24 It doesn't obey the laws of science, that thing, right? It's because it's made of a different substance. It doesn't make any sense. Anyway, yeah, it doesn't make sense. Okay. So it all comes from where? It comes from Ruach. It comes from, like, just air. There's nothing there. You know what I'm saying? It's movement, but there's nothing to it. So, Ve'atzlus, Ve'atzvus, when it comes to, Atzlus means laziness, and Atzlus means depression. This is understandable. Me'asor Ha'afar, it's heavy, right? It's, like, weighed down. It's like, I can't get up. I'm just like, you see these people, these lazy, depressed people, and what are they? They're people who have this element of earth. It's, like, very strong by them. We all have all of these things. What's Leitonus. Leitonus means scoffing. Is it true about laziness? And depression, the laziness, is not actually part of it. It's just like a gateway.

27:18 Yeah, that's right. That's right. No, no, they're cousins, meaning they're related to each other. They're all happy, lazy people. This is a thing. Right. What's the word for lethargy. Like, oxalos would be a lethargic type of experience. Like, just lazy, lethargic. So, every one of us is made up of these four things. Now, you want to do an interesting exercise with yourself? Start examining yourself and ask yourself, okay, if I've got 100%, put a number to it. How much water am I? Right? When you're looking at your negative mediums. How much water? How much fire? How much earth? How much air? And it's amazing is you'll have guys that'll come back to me and they're like, yeah, so I did that exercise, and like... Did you say it was the air again? Air? Yeah. It's like wasting your life. It's like the amount of time it takes each one of us. Did you say earth, or just like...

28:13 Yeah, even both. Both, right? Anger and... Right. Like some people are like, oh my God, I'm like 75% fire. Like I'm not lazy or depressed at all. Like maybe every once in a while I'm lazy. I don't know the time. But most of the time if I'm looking at my negative medos, I'm angry, right? Sometimes I get involved in pleasure for the sake of pleasure. Like I'm eating too much or like I'm partying too much or like whatever, something like that. What was that? Right, so that would be So mayim is the avosatanugim And the ruach would be wasting Like dvar and betel. Just doing things Instead of wasting time Like if you want to play A video game, that's fine If you want to play Ten hours of video games You might have a problem, Right? Like Fortnite would be A good example of that. So now you're starting To get it, right? Because you're starting To think like Okay, so is that like Is that mayim? Is that ruach? Like I have to really Identify which one it is And what you get Is a very cool picture Of yourself If you made a chai part.

29:15 If you made a pie chart Of yourself So it's fascinating You'd be like Holy cow, I'm a lot of ish, Right? And then you become More aware of it Okay. Earth was laziness and depression. Wind was wasting your life. Dvarin Batalin scoffing. Netflix is Netflix is not here. Isn't Earth and Earth similar though? Because like lazy and wasted is not here. So not necessarily. I could be not lazy. I could be running after stupid things. You could be saying I'm very dedicated to watching the entire MCU. Everything is bad. Like a person could spend. Let's make sure we're not talking over each other so that everyone could hear. Let's say for example you find guys that are basketball players. They're not lazy, right? But if you're spending 8-9 hours of your life in a gym I hope you're an NBA player. Or at least trying to get there.

30:13 You'd be lazy for different reasons. Sure. For sure, sure. But let's say you had a guy who's not lazy, but he's doing nothing with his life, right? Like, if you're in your 30s and you're still playing seven, eight hours of basketball a day, like, well, either you've already made a lot of money in your life and you're okay, right? Or at some point you might have to ask yourself, like, maybe I should spend some time with my wife and my kids. By the way, you see this. You see there are people that, like, they get married and they're like, I'm not going to the gym, right? Which, great, you should go to the gym, but, like, you're married now. You have to, like, reorder your priorities. There's a person at home who's waiting to hear from you, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. All right, so mine was also a bad thing. No, no, no. Are all of these... Yeah, all of these things that we're going to see in the next line are also good things. This is just describing what happens when this nefesh relates to those arba yisodos.

31:04 So why does mine mean physical pleasures when, you know, ruach means physical pleasures too. Ruach doesn't mean physical pleasures. Ruach means the waste. Ruach means like, look what he says, Ruach means late sonnets, like scoffing at things, making fun of things, right. Some people find that pleasurable. Right, but that would be the mayim aspect of Ruach. There are people that they'll scoff, like sometimes you'll hear like a great shir, and like 9 out of 10 guys loved it, and they found it really inspiring, and that one guy just goes, and that guy ruins it for the next 9 guys, because who wants to be, like somebody was waiting to say I was about to be, like I really found that inspiring. You know how much courage it takes to say I found that inspiring after somebody was just very late about it? Very, very difficult. That's how you feel with a person.

31:53 What was that. That's how you feel with a person. Yeah, but it's very, like, I've had guys that came over to me after a shiur and go, I really enjoyed that. But like, it's one guy who ruined it for everybody. You know, like, because it can bring, it can cool off the entire bathtub. So that's more ruach, right? Or like his spires, beauty for the sake of beauty. It could be that they find that pleasurable. That would be the mayim aspect of it. But the fact that they're spending so much time beautifying themselves when eventually, the body withers, that's what happens, right? In the words of George Costanza, these are the remnants of a once great nation of hair. Yeah? I also used to be able to, you know, do that with my hair. I used to wake up in the morning and brush. And now I take a shower and I'm like, just be gentle, just be gentle, right? Ultimately, beauty fades. Right? George, you wear sunscreen. What was that? You wear sunscreen. I do wear sunscreen on my head. When we went to the beach and I was like spraying, I'm like, oh my God, I get sun tans on my head now. So I was like... you know like, Baruch Hashem I don't have a chrome domectomy yet but it's like.

32:56 it's coming it's retreating my father the kippah keeps getting bigger every year, my father says to me he goes it's like the Indians you know receding from the cowboys and that's what's happening over here, I'm going to get very frum by the time you guys see me in like a decade I'm going to have a strimel and a kapata you know just to cover up you know it's just cut and paste this beard eventually was you know supposed to be here okay I can't look as good as you you know I can't. I have an Italian grandfather so I'm pleased I'm staying out of here. okay, so it says okay now what's the opposite side the opposite is true, every single Jew naturally doesn't just have bad middos we also have beautiful middos. okay, so no. But he's saying, the arbi is sodos. They could go either way. Right? So, naturally...

33:55 You know what they come out through? That's exactly right. If they come out through one nefesh, they're going to behave in one way. If they come out through another nefesh, they're going to behave differently. So when they come through this nefesh that comes meet sarak, klipah, and sitra, akhrah, so then they are perverted. And then ruach becomes wasting your life. Mayim becomes running after pleasure for the sake of pleasure. Pleasure, anger, arrogance, laziness, depression. But at the same time, because remember, we're speaking now about Jews, not about Gentiles. When it comes to Jews, we also know that we are. rachmanim, bishanim, and gom lech hasadim. Right? We're merciful people. We're people who naturally feel a sense of guilt. Right? When something doesn't go... When we do something that's not right. Right? We feel... Healthy regret, right? We do good for others. So these are the natural tendencies of a Jew. This is going to take us a couple of minutes, so settle in.

34:58 When Adonai Shon sinned, what did he do? He ate from? He ate tzadas. Now what was the tzadas? We're used to calling it the tzadas, but what was its full name? It's tzadas tov verah. Tzadas tov verah. Okay? Now, up until that point, the Rambam in Mor Nebuchadnezzar explains that the world was seen by Adonai Shon before the sin through the lens of true and false, okay? Not moral and immoral. Tov verah was not a part of the human experience. It was true and false. That's like the highest level of the pyramid, right? Right. So true and false, for other Marishon, that's the way he led his life. When he ingested Tovira, so now everything shifted, the Rambam says. We no longer saw the world mathematically, we saw the world morally. Now this Nefesh, this Nefesh of Klippa,

36:02 it doesn't just generate from any Klippa, it comes from a specific Klippa. And the name of that Klippa is called Klippas Noga. You're going to need to know this for the rest of the year, so make sure you all have this. Remember, we're speaking about... If you could diagram it in your head, right? Up in Shamayim, there's something called klipah and sitra achra. It means the shell that covers godliness. When you come down into this, when that soul comes down into your physical blood, right? Because the godliness is hidden, what's going to happen, guys? It's going to have perverted midos, okay? But, here's what's critical. In that same nefesh, in that same nefesh, not in the godly soul, in the animated soul of a person, there's also going to be good things. Why? Because the klipah that it comes from is called noga. And noga comes from the sin of the etadas.

37:06 Don't worry about what it means. That's not the relevant point here. Just that's the name of it. But from now on, whenever we talk about klipah's noga, what we mean is an admixture of both good and bad. Why is the klipah good? It's covering. Yeah, but the point is that we want access. And the khalifah is preventing us from getting access. So what does khalifah noga mean? What was that? Khalifah noga, the whole is noga whole. No, so what it means is as follows. When it comes down into this world, you can't say it's exclusively bad, because like the eight sadhas, what does it have in it? Both good and bad. But how does it come down to this world? It's already in you. Your shema is covered in khalifah. No, no, no. You skipped it. You skipped it, Roy. You skipped it. Remember, up in Shamayim, it's khalifah noga. That means already in Shamayim, it's an admixture of tov vira. Now when it comes down into this world and it manifests itself, it expresses itself in your physical person, it's going to have both good and evil. Because what you have down here came from up there. It's the reflection of what happened up there. You understand? It's not disconnected.

38:21 These are not two separate movements. What would be a good example? Let's say I was playing baseball, right? The ball goes wherever the bat hits it, right? So in Shamayim, if this is what it looks like in Shamayim, that it's an admixture of Tov and Ra, then when we examine the soul down here, this nefesh that comes from that klipah, it's going to be a mixture of both Tov and Ra. Make sense? Not yet. I'm trying to think of a mushal where you're connecting two things. I'll give you a better one. The DNA of a child. The child develops according to the DNA that it has. So if your DNA is for darker skin, you're going to have darker skin. If your DNA is for lighter skin, you're going to have lighter skin. If your DNA is for blue eyes, you're going to have blue eyes. If your DNA is for dark eyes, you're going to have dark eyes. So think of that nefesh in shamayim, before it comes down here,

39:26 where it comes from, where it's placed, what's its source. Its source is klipas noga. Now klipas noga means it's made of both tov and ra. So when it comes down into this world, the actual expression of it, what's it going to have? Both Tov and Ra. The Ra will be that it's going to be arrogant, it's going to be angry, it's going to be lazy, it's going to be depressed, it's going to chase after nonsense pleasures, and it's going to waste time, right? But the good will be, remember, in the Jew, even his physical soul is going to have goodness in him also. It's going to be merciful. It's going to be charitable, right? It's going to be sometimes embarrassed of the actions that it does. Why does it have this split reality? Because in Shamayim, where did it come from? It came from a place that has a split reality. It's an admixture of Tov and Ra. Michael.

40:20 You said that in a Jew that it has the good parts to it also. Does that mean for like... Okay, so don't infer anything yet for Gentiles. When we get to Gentiles, we're going to get there, right? Because otherwise it sounds like deeply racist, which it's not. Just to have that. It's not, it's not. Yeah. So we keep saying this physical. So are we separating that from the concept of neshama? No, no. It was going to say you have two nefashos. We're going to use the term nefesh. I thought the two nefashos were from the klipas noga. No. Only one of your nefashos is from klipas noga. And that's why, again, we haven't even discussed the second neshama yet. Okay? I wish I could get, does somebody have like a blank piece of paper I could use to draw you guys a diagram? Yeah, do you mind? So first of all, there's a physical nefesh, there's a physical nefesh, and there's a spiritual nefesh. Well, I haven't discussed the second one. Let's just focus on this one first. Well, let's just call it something so I can give it a name. We're going to end up calling it Nefesh HaBahamas and Nefesh HaLokis.

41:26 Okay, so Nefesh HaBahamas is the physical, is what I'm going to talk about right now, right? Right. But I don't want you to focus on the name now, because I want you guys to appreciate, more the genesis of it, okay? This is Klipas Noga. That's in Shamayim, okay? That's the shell. Why is it called a shell? Because it hides the godliness. Everything that exists ultimately comes from God. That means it has godliness to it, okay? But the godliness is not going to be experienced in a revealed way because the Klipa hides it. That's a good question. We're going to get to that. Now, Klipas Noga really comes from the secret of Eitz Hadass. If it comes from Eitz Hadass, what does that mean it's made up of? Not just. correct. not just Tau but also Ra Have we seen that. before Adam, sinned in his past he saw everything purely, counter spiritual correct.

42:23 so there's no physical in the sense that we know it right the physical was totally different experience it was almost like. the matrix when he finally sees all the numbers. and the hallway and now you're going to want to ask the question not right now but then why in the world would he eat it right, good question if he already knew that it was evil if he already knew truth and false now this is what it looks like in Shamayim, Klipas Noga which is the Eitz Adas experience right which is an admixture of Tau and Ra when that actually devolves down into the world and it becomes what we're going to call the Nefesh, Habahamis okay. the physical soul that animates your body in your blood it's going to have, and this is not shocking to us, both positive and negative characteristics. Why does it have both positive and negative characteristics down here, guys? Because it had them up here. Where did I lose you guys? Does that make sense? Again, up here, it's an admixture of Tovara. So when it devolves, just like the DNA of a person, right?

43:35 When it actually forms the person, it's going to have all the character that's in the DNA. So if it comes from Etzadah's Tovara, where's it going to end up? It's going to have both Tov and Ra. So how will the Ra express itself, guys? We just described it. How's the Tov in Etzadah? What's the Tov in Etzadah. Rachmanim, Baishanim, Gomlech Hasadim. That a Jew has both in his physical self. Again, this is the nefesh avaham. This is the physical soul. Right? We don't mean physical in the sense that it's tangible. We mean it's the soul that manifests your physical body. I thought all souls were created at the moment of creation. Not up to that yet. Slow down. Tobia. When you say that the nefesh comes down. No, no, no. I'm saying its source is in klippa. The source of this soul is that it hides godliness. The source of the soul.

44:36 What do you mean? How is that. Every soul comes from somewhere in Shamayim. Right? Remember, the whole thing is to go holistic. Don't just look at what it is. Look at where it comes from. Right? So in Shamayim, this soul comes from klippas noga. It comes from a place called, it's a shell. Meaning, the godliness is hidden. Is there more godliness outside of klippas noga. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Yeah, Ezra. How is it hidden if it's the same thing, the peel looks the same. Why do you say the peel looks the same. If the inside where it comes from is Tovara and the outside is also Tovara, how is that hidden if we know... The inside is only Tovara. If it looks the same on the outside and the same on the inside, why is that... I'm not sure I'm understanding your question. When I say that there's tovira up here, what I'm saying is this is the nature of the thing. It's not exclusively evil, right? And it's not exclusively good. It has a bifurcated reality, right? It's two things at once. So when you look at the human soul of a person, what would you say about it? It's two things at once. Sometimes it behaves appropriately. Sometimes it behaves inappropriately. So appropriate would be that it's charitable.

45:53 It's doing acts of love and kindness for people. Inappropriate would be angry and arrogant. I'm just trying to understand how it's hidden. What I mean to say it's hidden is that godliness is hidden. You're thinking of Tov and Ra as godliness. Tov and Ra is just the manifestations. There's godliness hidden within it. There's godliness hidden within everything, right? But some things are revealed godliness, and some things are concealed godliness. This is concealed godliness, and yet, because it's coming from Eitz Hadas, it has good manifestations too. Yeah, Rafi. So anger is a perverted form of godliness, but Torah often describes it as... I didn't say it's a perverted form of godliness. What I said is that it's the Ra, right? The godliness is hidden, and therefore it has the capacity to behave inappropriately. So anger could be appropriate. Yeah, sure. If it's appropriate anger. Hashem is angry.

46:44 It says Hashem is angry. The Torah says Hashem is angry. It doesn't mean a temper tantrum is appropriate. Human terms. Yeah, fancy. What is it that Klippos Noga is part of your Neshama. It's where my Nefesh HaBahamas comes from. It's the origin. And it goes back up there when you die. That's a good question. We're not up to that yet. That's a good question. But right now, I just want you to understand the genesis of the soul. In Shamayim, there's something called Klippas Noga, and it devolves down into this world, and it expresses itself in two different ways. Sometimes it behaves appropriately, and sometimes it behaves inappropriately. Why does it have both? Because that was its property in Shamayim, where it came from. Yeah. So, could you think of it as kind of a big bubble in the sky? Like, the actual thing is that Okay, let's say. inside is all that godliness that's hiding out. And then, when Shamayim comes down, a little piece of the bubble pops out and still contains all that godliness in our bodies.

47:46 I mean, it's a crude description because it's, like, very physical, but... The reason I ask is because, is it the actual... Is it the Klippas and the godliness. that makes up our Shamayim? This is why I was hesitant to do what I did, because I didn't want you to do exactly that. You're going to have another soul that's your godly soul. This is not your godly soul. Right now we're just talking about your humanity. You're used to thinking about your soul as your godly soul. So you think that this that we're describing is your godly soul. It's not. Your godly soul is what we're going to discuss next. Right now we're talking about your human soul. So is that what, maybe studying too far away, is that this non-godly soul, is it a cleaver for our godly soul. No, it has nothing to do with your godly soul.

48:34 What is a cleaver. All I'm saying is this. When you look at a human being, you do not see God. So our body is the cleaver. That's correct. Your body is the way it is because of where it comes from. When you look at the physical body, there's no perception of godliness here. Does that make sense? But God isn't everybody. For sure. But again, we're going to get to that. That's what I was trying to say. But before we get to that, just think of it. If you could for a second, just divorce yourself from thinking about your godly soul. See, this is the problem. Because we grew up and we said, we have a soul. And you identify it as like, that's my godly part. No. The Al-Turab is saying you have two souls. Isn't the Yetzirah also a part of that. No. The Yetzirah is just an inclination. Remember what we said in the very beginning? Your Yetzirah is what you're inclined to.

49:26 The Yetzirah is the symptom of the imbalance. Which is really coming from the fact that I have multiple souls. So we're used to thinking of one soul. You don't have one soul. You have two souls. And within even only the physical soul, there's a good and bad. Correct. Mikey. Wouldn't the Yitzharah be coming from that one, not the other one. Very good. So the Yitzharah is going to be identified with the physical animated soul. Right? Because that's... Now you understand? Remember I said before that you don't talk about this gun fighting that gun. You talk about this person fighting that person. Right? If you speak about Yitzharah and Yitzhar Tov, then you're just talking about guns. That's not really the battle. The battle is internal. I have two souls. Each one is struggling with the other. This soul, the Nefesh HaBaham, this oriented soul, the physical soul, that which animates your body, its origin is in a place that hides godliness. And therefore, it will behave in a way that is sometimes inappropriate. And sometimes appropriate. Because it's an admixture of good and evil. As opposed to your godly soul, which will always want to behave appropriately. Yeah? That's parts of the soul. Right.

50:41 One of them is called Behemoth. So you're saying I have two souls. That's impossible. I said that one soul is different than having two souls. Right. I've heard like, I went to a shiur, to a shiur talat in Gulen, where you couldn't have two souls. If you're doing a good shiur, you actually have two souls. And if you're in a bad shiur, you have a bad soul inside of you, but you can't really have two souls. No, but you do have two souls, right? Because think about it. You ever feel split, Roy? You ever feel like sometimes I want to do something that's really not godly? Like I just want to do something that's totally nothing to do with Judaism, anti-Judaism. You ever feel that way. Yes. Where does that feeling come from? It's not coming from your godly soul. It's coming from your nefesh ha-boham. It's your human soul. That's why we feel so split. It's because we have... You ever have times in your life where you're on a good streak and then there's this voice in the back of your head that's like, yeah, but soon it's going to be over because you know what's going to happen. It's coming up, right? And there's a part of you that really, really doesn't want to do it and there's a part of you that does want to do it. How could you possibly think two things at once? What's the answer, guys?

52:06 Because, but that's why you're split. Because you are. Because you're split. So that's why you think two different things. Tobi. So, yeah. Does it have godliness within it. Yep. But the godliness is hidden. So it's two parts? Is it two parts. It's one soul that has the possibility of doing that which is appropriate. Rahmanim baishanim gamli chasadim or that which is inappropriate. Anger, arrogance. But does it have the two parts, the kliva and the... Yeah, your Nefesh HaBahamas has godliness hidden within it. That's correct. No, but it appears to be sometimes. We're going to get there. Mikey. If the human soul. like the Nefesh HaBahamas, if it has both good and bad, so isn't that the part that's splitting, not the other one.

53:11 Excellent question. So what you're really asking is, I've got so many different experiences because even my physical soul, my animated soul, my Nefesh HaBahamas is split. So what's the role of the other one? Because I already feel so split. We're going to see. Very good question. Excellent. But, Mike, if you hear why, now you're starting to get the science of it. Because what you're really doing, and I'm watching you guys do this, which is very comforting to me, is I'm watching you guys start to play with it. It's like, okay, so what exactly is the role of each soul? How does it impact? And if this one's doing that, then what's the role of that one? See, what you're going to get from this is once you get a comprehensive picture of what your humanity looks like on a spiritual level, you're going to be able to negotiate. You're going to be able to start going, okay, so like, I'm feeling like this. That's a little Nefesh of Bahamas. That's a little Nefesh of L'Kiss. That's like this side of Nefesh of L'Kiss. You'll see. You'll be able to negotiate it. Ezra.

54:06 Seems like Nefesh of Bahamas in itself, told Bira that there's a split right there. Right. How did that be that feeling of. should I be doing this or should I not be doing this? As we will see. Maybe yes, maybe no. We'll see. We'll see. We'll soon see. You're asking good. You're asking good. You guys are, you're chomping at the bit. Maybe. Maybe. We'll see. Maybe. Yeah, Roy. But like, why are you calling the Yetzirah Yitziratot Gans? Like, these, it's the same thing. The Nefesh Be'Hema is... No, it's not the same thing. Because, as we're going to see, first of all, it's not the same thing at all. But even to speak about a Yetzir, a Yetzir just means an inclination. But I need to know why I have that inclination. Same thing as if somebody comes and gets strep. I could just give you penicillin, but I want to know why you're getting strep. Where was the imbalance in the system? You understand? So when we speak about Yetzirah versus Yitziratot, so it's like, just listen to your Yitziratot and don't listen to your Yetziratot. Right? That would be like Western medicine. Right?

55:08 But homeopathic medicine would say... Wait a second. Why did you have that Yetzirah to begin with? You had that Yetzirah to begin with because you have a soul inside of you where the godliness is hidden. It has the propensity to do good. It also has the propensity to do bad. And then it has the propensity to do really bad. What does that mean? Inclination. It has the possibility. Okay? Woo! You guys are pushing. Love it. Masha'en k'in. Michael, this is for you. Masha'en k'in nefashos umasola. Now, I'm going to ask for your patience as I explain this so that you don't misinterpret it because otherwise you're going to walk away with very bad feelings about the Balatanya and you're going to have misunderstood what he wrote. We're going to pay careful attention to what he said. Okay? This is not true of the Gentile nations of the world. Notice how the Alter Rebbe calls Gaiam here. What does he call them?

56:09 Umos. What does Umos mean? Nations that are of the world. That's very important. Hein Mishar Klippos Atmeos. They come from the impure Klippos. So as opposed to a Jew who comes from Klippos Noga, which has both Tov and Ra, the Gentile nations of the world come from the remaining Klippos Atmeos, the impure Klippos. So 100% totally impure. She'en bahen Tov Kalal. They have no goodness to them. Relax. Relax. Go to Rebbe. Kimosha Kasu Beitz Chaim Sharm Emtas. And the nature of the umos ha'olam, the nature of the Gentiles, When you see the Gentile nations doing things, they're doing it for themselves. They're building things only for themselves, selfishly.

57:23 When you see Gentiles doing chesed, it is only for themselves. It's only selfish. Now, that sounds exceptionally racist, right? You say, Jews, our nefesh ha'bahamis is good and bad. But a Gentile, his nefesh ha'bahamis is only bad. That's what it sounds like. But now, when we explain deeper, then you're going to understand. Let me explain what it means and then I'll give you the opportunity to ask. What it means is as follows. Our nefesh haba hamas, our physical soul, has one great fear. What's the great fear of the nefesh haba hamas. Death. The great fear of the nefesh haba hamas is death. Every one of us in this room is afraid of death. And, if you think about it, everything we do is basically to avoid death. Okay, so now, what's the one thing the nefesh haba hamas wants to do? What's the word you would say? Survive.

58:32 Okay. What was that. Someone that commits suicide. Does that person have very little nefesh haba hamas. Excellent. Excellent question. God willing, we're going to deal with it. Excellent question. There's too much law in the nefesh haba hamas. Very good. We'll see. So now, The Nefesh HaBahamis wants to survive. It's a survivor. If your sole attitude is that you want to survive, what are you going to do? You're going to act in your own self-interest always. So for example, if I'm a Nefesh HaBahamis-oriented person and I enter into a business deal, how much do I want to win in the business deal? As much as I can. And yet, the Nefesh HaBahamis is very clever. However, let's say Sammy and I are making a deal, okay? And I'm a Nefesh HaBahamis type of guy. So I want to get Sammy to pay me the maximum amount of money for my product. So I charge Sammy $100,000, okay? I made $100,000 off of him, right? Well, that's not really such a smart business.

59:44 Why not? Because if Sammy says, if Burke sold it to me for $100,000 and Sammy feels like I ripped him off, the next time he's going to want to do business with Roy. And I don't want Sammy to do business with Roy. I want Sammy to do business with me. So I might be willing to come to Sammy and say, all right, Sammy, make this business deal with me. I'm only going to charge you $80,000. Now what does Sammy feel? Good deal. I got it for $80,000. Did I give him that $20,000 because I wanted Sammy to have $20,000 more? It's an investment. Right. It's because I want to make $160,000, not just $100,000. You understand? So what would you say about that type of business deal? Be'etzem, it's self-serving. Now, that might work, right? And Sammy might get the product that he wants at the price that he wants.

1:00:36 Which is self-serving for him. So really, in the words of one economist, this is what we call forced altruism, right? You guys know what that means? Altruism means that you behave for a noble sake, right? But if it's forced, then it's not really so noble. So why am I giving Sammy a deal? Because I don't want him to go to Roy. So I'm willing to lose $20,000 rather than make $100,000 because I know he's going to spend money with me again. Now I'm going to make $160,000. Now I'm going to make $240,000 off of it, right? That's the way it goes in business. Now, on some level, every one of us in this room is being very selfish, right? Because we all want for ourselves. But really, it would work much better. If we all wanted for the other person. So, my best friend in the world, right? That was very dangerous. By the way, that's why communism was so appealing, especially to like... I have a best friend, okay? My best friend has a best friend who's not me.

1:02:00 I like his friend, but we're not best friends. So, he has two best friends. I'm one, this guy's the other, okay? My best friend's name is Yitzi. His best friend's name is Donnie. Is that what she's looking at. Correct. Yitzi and Donnie have a business, okay? They've been partners since they're, I think, 15 or 16 years old. Okay, so they've been partners. Now, let's say they've been partners since they were 15. He's turning 40 this January, okay? So, 25 years that they've been partners. Now, in almost every partnership, eventually there's a fight where everything breaks down. You've seen these stories before? 25 years, and Yitzi and Donnie have never had a fight. Why? What's the secret to their success? What was that? As far as you know. As far as I know. To them, it's not a partnership. Yitzi wants Donnie to have more money than he has, and Donnie wants Yitzi to have more money than he has. So I'll give you an example of this, and this is a beautiful example. They were having a conversation about the insane costs of making a bar mitzvah today. To buy a pair of tefillin, rent a hall, hire a band, have a caterer, send out invitations. If you do nothing fancy at all, a bar mitzvah is going to cost you $10,000. Easy. Now, Yitzi and Donnie are Baruch Hashem connected guys.

1:03:27 They're in the business. They can get things cheap, but Lama Yis is going to cost $10,000. So they had a conversation. They had a conversation. You know what we should do? Every time we have a gig and there's a little bit of cash that we're getting paid in cash, I'll put away some money for you and you put away some money for me. And when it comes time to making a bar mitzvah, so we'll have that money that we'll just go to the other person and go, here's the money to make the bar mitzvah to make sure it doesn't get spent. So they started doing it. After the first gig, they took a couple hundred bucks. Yitzi took some for Donnie. Donnie took some for Yitzi. Second gig, Yitzi took some for Donnie. Donnie took some for Yitzi. Third gig, Yitzi took some for Donnie. Donnie took some for Yitzi. After the fourth gig, Donnie said, this is getting too complicated. Maybe we shouldn't do this anymore. Yitzi said, no problem. Except, because remember, what does he want? He wants Donnie to have more than he has. So you know what he did? When he was making the cheshbin, because he was the one running the finances, he kept splitting off Donnie's section. So right before Donnie made a bar mitzvah,

1:04:29 he came to him and he said, here's a check for $10,000 to cover the entire cost of the bar mitzvah. You understand how much he loves him? He loves him so much that he kept splitting off from the business money to give to Donnie so that he would have it. Now again, that's not the biggest deal. It's Donnie's money, right? But think about how much. He always says, he goes, the reason why people fight with their partnerships is because each one wants to have more than the other. He goes, I want Donnie to have more than me. The natural nefesh ha-bohamis is self-serving. Is there a person in this room. that hasn't done things that are absolutely self-serving? Of course we have. Every one of us has, right? Make sense? Okay. Doesn't the Torah even say you're supposed to be self-interested. That's an interesting question, but let's hold off. Now, so it goes as follows. Does the author ever say... That a Gentile is a bad person? No. What does he say? He says that he's naturally going to act in a self-serving fashion. Now, one second. Let's say I started looking at the nations of the world, and I found out that there was a person whose name was Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa, as far as I know, was an exceptionally giving person.

1:05:52 One can say the same thing. What was that. One can say the same thing. Right. It was harder for her than it would be for a Jew because she was a boy. Okay, so now we have to look at her and we have to say, is Mother Teresa potentially, did she lead a better life than Mordechai Berg? Could be. From a pure perspective of chesed, she's done much more chesed perhaps than I ever will. Right? So does it matter really where her soul came from? Not so much. Apparently, yes, we're talking about it. Okay, good. So we have to understand what the role is. But what's critical is the Alter Rebbe didn't say Gentiles are bad, right? The truth is that Gentiles could do amazing things. But the Alter Rebbe said, but we also have to know a person's motivations. So, for example, let's say somebody does a chesed for somebody else. But really, the chesed that they did was only so that they should look good. That's a lot of chesed. That's a lot of chesed, right? A lot of chesed today is like that. It's like, yeah, I'm going to donate your building, but my name is going to be all over it.

1:06:50 That's like Rambam has his eight rules for chesed, and the one at the top is to be honest. Correct. So let's say a person does chesed, but the whole purpose of the chesed is really self-serving. What would you say about that? Is that really chesed. Yeah, it is chesed. You're still helping somebody else. It's not a true chesed. But you're also giving chesed to yourself. It's self-serving chesed. Doesn't it say somewhere that the best chesed is when no one knows you're doing it. The Rambam, yeah. I see the Rambam and the Rambam, and I say, that's also true chesed, because eventually one act will cause you to become... for sure. and nobody's saying that you shouldn't do a chesed unless it's absolutely perfect but we have to acknowledge at least what's going on we have to examine the motivations right. no that's not what he said either. look carefully at what he said he said the nature is because this is natural to a nefesh abahamas the nefesh abahamas is going to be self-serving very good but naturally if a person is self-serving then even when they do chesed what's naturally going to be there it's going to be self-serving so it's like I'm going to make this this camp for kids that are underprivileged so that people will walk around going do you know how great that kid is he made a camp for underprivileged children and really.

1:08:04 the only reason you did it is so that people should walk around going look at that guy he's a big bal chesed right why are you doing friendship circle this year I think it looks good for a college resume, Right? It's classic. It's a classic thing. Do you like working with special needs kids? I love it. Really? Like, you did Friendship Circle once, right? But you're like, by the way, it's my favorite thing. Like, I do these interviews. I'm like, so what extracurriculars do you do? Right? And they have some guys that have, like, pages of extracurriculars. Friendship Circle and High Lifeline. I'm like, how often do you, like, do all these things? Like, twice a year. You know? Like, you're doing it for the resume building, which better to do it than not to do it. But let's at least acknowledge where it's coming from. Thank you. One second. So now what we're saying about Gentiles is like this. Because they are umos ha'olam, remember I stressed that before? Because they are of the world, naturally what's the condition of the world is one day you're going to die. So naturally the condition of the Gentile world is that they're going to be self-serving. So naturally, even when you see them doing chesed,

1:09:08 what would you naturally think the inclination is? Self-serving. To be self-serving. Does that mean that a Gentile can't rise above and do something altruistic? Of course not. Does that mean that every time you see a Gentile do something that you have to say it's self-serving? No. We don't know what its motivations are. But the alter ebbe is saying different than the Jew. The Jew, when he encounters, even on a physical level, The fear of death is not the same because there's more access to the Tov. Because it comes from Klippas Noga, the physical reality of the Jew is going to take on a different proportion. Yeah, Mikey. For the non-Jews, they still have both Nishamot, right. We haven't discussed the second Nishamot yet. And the answer to that question, Mikey, is going to be no. So then where do they get the good. Very good question. And we're going to answer it. Not yet. Jonathan, you had a question before? Yes.

1:10:11 Jonathan, it's a concept in Torah that someone could do something for the wrong and you would come to do that for the right reason. Correct. When in Torah, it's not. Sefer Achenuch, yeah. So, can the same apply to a guy. Sure. Like they're doing something. I'm afraid you also... Correct. That you can train yourself to do good things. And then over time, of not doing something necessarily for the best reason, it comes about to be for the right reason. Could be. Sammy. Just regarding Mikey's question. So, like, my mom's a convert. Ah, the holiest souls. So, does she have a second soul. Absolutely. So, how does she acquire that second soul. Two ways of looking at it, okay? This is, again, we're going to have to go very deep for this. And I want to make sure to get everything in today. But I'm going to answer you because, specifically because of your mother, I want you to appreciate the value of who you have. When the world was created, godly sparks were sent all over the world. Some were sent to the farthest corners of the world. Now, what would be the farthest, farthest, farthest corner? Would be, imagine if a Jewish soul ended up in a Gentile body. That would be like the most far-flung corner.

1:11:30 And we know that the third base of Meknesh will be rebuilt when there's an ingathering of all of the sparks. So when all, and that's why the Gemara says, that when all the gerim are done being megayer, that's going to be one of the simanim that Mashiach comes. So there's two ways of thinking about those, of thinking about gerim. One, which is not my preferred way, is they're a Gentile, and they go to mikvah, and when they go to mikvah, it's like they're reborn. And just like when you're born, you get a soul, so that's when they get it. But that's a simple understanding. I'm going to give you the deeper understanding. The deeper understanding is like this. They always had a Jewish soul. And in fact... That's why they became Jewish. And I've not spoken to your mother, I don't think. Maybe I have. But I've given this shiur many, many times. And inevitably, when I give this shiur, somebody's always got a parent in the room that's a ger. And one time I gave this shiur about geros to a room full of people. I didn't know who was in the room.

1:12:31 And I noticed in the back there was a woman who was crying. After the shiur, she comes over to me and she says, I can't thank you enough for this shiur. I said, why? She goes, because I'm a geros. And my daughter was in the room, and I've always felt that my daughter looks at me and feels like I'm not as Jewish as she is. So thank you for giving this year. What was this year? That really, she always had a Jewish soul, and she always knew that she was Jewish because the Jewish soul told her she was Jewish. So why do we make it so difficult to become a convert? Because only a Jewish soul would push through and say, no, I'm a Jew, which is why very often when you speak to converts, and you can ask your mother, Like, why'd you become a Jew? They'll say, because I am a Jew, right? It's not like because they say, like, because I believe in Judaism, right? It's because they feel inside of themselves that they're Jewish. The Jewish soul does this. So I'll tell you a story. I was invited to San Diego a couple years ago to speak for Eish in Los Angeles, did a Shabbaton in San Diego. You know the Svartie Eish that's on Pico.

1:13:35 Oh, yeah. So they did a Shabbaton in San Diego, and they invited me out to come be the rabbi for Shabbos. So I flew out to L.A., drove down to San Diego. Beautiful, beautiful San Diego beaches. You guys, I know you guys are from the West Coast, except for Michael is from the West Coast. So you're from Philly. I know, I know, I know. He's from San Diego. Oh, yeah. What am I saying? So San Diego, how gorgeous are the beaches? They're amazing. So we had three beach houses on the beach, like mamish on the beach. There was a guy's. There was a guy's house, a girl's house, and there was like an in-between house, and that's like where all the things. happened, okay? So I was so excited for Shabbos. We had Kabbalat Shabbat on the roof of the middle house overlooking the ocean. Like we were trying to like sing, but the waves were crashing down so loud it was hard to like sing. But it was like amazing, amazing Shabbos, okay? And the Shabbos was like such a classic Jewish Shabbos, okay? Right away we get there, right away we get there, and I'm chilling out on the roof, and there's a hot tub on.

1:14:40 the roof, and this guy comes up, you know, 27-year-old Persian guy, and he goes, oh, you're the rabbi that came for Shabbos? I heard a lot about you. I was, listen, I got my mission for you. I'm like, okay. He goes, I just broke up with my non-Jewish girlfriend. That's what he's saying. I just broke up with my non-Jewish girlfriend, who I love. She was in the process of becoming a convert, but she said, I just can't do it. I'm not a Jew. Like, this is not what I want. So I broke up with her. I don't know why I broke up with her, but by the end of Shabbat, I don't know why I broke up with her, I'm getting back together. No pressure. And he just goes into the hot tub. So I was like, oh my God. This is like my first ace Shabbaton ever. And I was like, this guy's going to marry a guy for sure. There's no way I'm going to be able to help this guy, right? And then I started thinking about it. I was like, isn't that like the most Jewish thing in the world? He broke up with a girl that he loves. Why? He has no idea why. But his Jewish soul told him, you can't marry a Gentile. So he listened to that. It was very pure. Then, everyone kept telling me,

1:15:41 you've got to wait. Matzei Shabbos, this guy couldn't come down for Shabbos, but you're going to see this awesome guy who's coming down on Matzei Shabbos. Can't wait for you to meet him. Okay? Matzei Shabbos. They had on the program a luau. So I was like, I've never been to a luau before, but I thought like at a luau you like roast a pig, right? So I was like, I wanted to see what's the Aishat Torah version of like a matzah shabbos luau. So I showed up to the house, matzah shabbos. I was giving a shir to some of the like Orthodox families that were there, and it was basically a party. It was basically like massive amounts of alcohol and like disco ball and like everyone was like partying. I was like, I'm out of here, right? So I'm walking out, and as I'm walking out, there's these two guys walking in. One of them is like a guy who had been on the Shabbaton the whole shabbos, and there's this other guy. And this other guy has this massive tattoo crawling up his like neck, like you could see it. And I'm like, all right, and they introduced me. This is the guy we've been waiting to introduce you to all shabbos. I'm like, okay, cool. Tell me about yourself. And he tells me the following story.

1:16:43 He's the son of a Christian minister, okay? And he grew up his entire life in Catholic school. And he said, I was like, my father's the minister, but like, I hated it. He's like, I was like, you know, like you have the rabbi's kids that go off the derrach. So he was like the minister's son who like went off the derrach. But he was in a Christian rock band. He's a Grammy winning guitarist for a Christian rock band. Okay. And apparently he's the most like incredible guitarist. And he's in this Christian rock band. But he hates like Christianity. Like he thinks the whole thing is like ridiculous. Okay. His sister had moved out to L.A. She had trouble having children. So she went for genetic testing and it came back that she was 51% Ashkenazic Jew. So she called up her mother and she's like, mom, I just took a DNA test that says I'm 51% Ashkenazic Jew. Is there something you want to tell me? So the mother goes, oh, yeah, I'm Jewish.

1:17:48 Like, it never meant anything to me, so I didn't even bother telling you. And she's like, uh-huh, okay. Like, it's like a nice revelation. I grew up thinking I'm the daughter of a Christian minister, and now all of a sudden I find out I'm Jewish. She calls her brother, and she says, you're never going to believe it. We're Jewish. You know what his response was? I knew it. He's like, it just never made any sense to me. So he started coming, because he was already out in L.A., because he was this Grammy-winning guitarist. He started coming to Asia Los Angeles to learn more about his Judaism. And he was like, because of course. And he's like, yeah, and I love it. And so here's this guy who's got this massive tattoo, right? And he goes, want to see my tats? Opens up his shirt. He's got an enormous cross from this arm to this arm, all the way from his neck to his pubic. Because I'm from like that. Yeah, so. I'm like, here's a guy who's like a Christian rock guitarist, Grammy winning, who's like, yeah, I was never a good Christian kid.

1:18:55 I always knew that there was something wrong with it. Naturally, he tells me he's a Jew. He goes, I knew it, right? And he tells me, he goes, Rabbi, when's your flight? I was like, I'm flying out 2 o'clock tomorrow afternoon. He goes, push off your flight. I said, I can't push off my flight. I got to get back to Mez. I can't push off my flight. It's cost me a fortune. He goes, Rabbi, trust me. You want to push off your flight. I said, why? He goes, I'm doing a concert tomorrow night, Sunday night, one of the biggest concert halls in L.A. You can come backstage. So I'm like. do I really want to go backstage to a Christian rock concert? Like, what would that look like, you know? Wouldn't that be, like, the greatest selfie in the world to take? You know, like, this giant, like, Christian rock concert. I'd be like, you know, hashtag Tanya. Like, it's... So there's a part of me that really wanted to do it, but there was a part of me that said no. Anyway, I got on the plane and I went back. But the point is...

1:19:44 Are you in contact with him still. Was that? No. No, I didn't spend enough time with him that it was actually, like, legit. Like, does he, like, keep Shemar on sometimes. I heard that it became true. So what ended up happening with the guy, the Persian guy. Oh, so the Persian guy also, I heard that he ended up marrying a Jew. But it made sense that he married a Jew, right? Not from anything I said, trust me. But they did a lot of work with him. But from what I understand, it makes a lot of sense because the Jewish soul always knows that it's Jewish. This woman was crying because she said, I always knew I was Jewish and I wanted my daughter to know that. I'm giving you a mission, Sammy. Go back, ask your mom. So Berg gave a shir on Geras and he said, there's two ways to think about Geras. One is that you get your godly soul, your Jewish soul, when you go to mikvah. The other is that it's always been inside of you and it kind of like drew you to it. Ask her which one was her experience. Okay? You'll report back to the shir. Roy.

1:20:33 Rabbi, I know a kid whose mom is not Jewish and all his brothers and sisters, I don't know what his sister was, is it right, his sister? All his brothers, like, his brother and his other sister, his sister got married to a Catholic, all his brothers, and his brother's dating a Catholic, and they didn't deny everything, you know, until about three years old. Well, his mother's not Jewish. His mother, yeah, so he's, you know. His dad is Jewish. His dad is Jewish, yeah. He went to a show, you know, the teen show, and they found out, they don't count him as very young, because they found out everything, you know, about him, and he denies the fact that he's not Jewish. And he's like, I want to marry a Jew, I'm Jewish, that's what he says to himself. That's very powerful. He should go through a conversion process, because, and if he can really push, I'm sure he gets upset, because when you tell someone who feels that they're Jewish that they're not Jewish, it's very frustrating.

1:21:26 I'm really close to the kid. By the way, there is something to that. That even though your mother wasn't Jewish, if your father was Jewish, you have something in you that moves you that way. It's not all is lost because your mother isn't Jewish. You're not halakhically Jewish, but there is something inside of you. And in certain people, that can be cultivated. Yeah, and he doesn't like the rabbi of the one of that show. Because he told him, you know, while they were talking, he was like, you can't do this, you can't do this. And he got so, he told me. Those things have to be handled so delicately, right. It's a good rabbi, I don't know. I'm not saying that he's a bad rabbi. I'm just saying you see how sensitive it is. And his dad is actually like, he helps with Chabad, and he also feels something.

1:22:27 Yeah, Michael. It's amazing. So is there like this imbalance in the Shabbat for a Jew that marries a non-Jew. Yeah, it doesn't work. Because what happens is that marriage is the reunion of the souls. So, what was that? So there are four. Right, so the marriage is... Or more, we don't know that yet. Right, that's what we're... Minimally. And so what happens is that you have to marry within your species, otherwise it doesn't have the capacity for intimacy. Right? So when we say to a Jew, don't marry a Gentile, and the Torah doesn't recognize marriage to a Gentile, it's because it's not a reunion of the soul. The soul splits, right? And marriage is its reunion. So, yes, we don't actually recognize that marriage. But that's why Tosha says that, and again, it has to be understood on a deep level. That's why it's always frustrating when people read these things on a simple level, and then they go, oh, the Torah says this, but it's not really true, you just didn't understand the depth of it. Tosha says, he brings a sheet that sex with a Gentile woman is like sex with an animal. So everyone reads that, and they go, oh, the Torah says it's not true. He never said that a Gentile's an animal.

1:23:39 He's saying it's a different species, right? And it's the nefesh abahamesh, right? He's not saying, chas v'sham, that a Gentile's an animal. A Gentile's a person who should be treated with respect. But it's totally, it misses each other, right? So that's why we marry a Jew, should marry a Jew, and a Gentile should marry a Gentile. And you shouldn't convert for marriage. Why not? Because then that's not really who you are. That's my next question, because my cousin just converted. She married a non-Jew, but she converted for marriage. Yeah, that's not a real conversion, because it didn't have the requisite, like, I am a Jew. I'm only doing it for this reason. Yeah. Back before they gave her some name to the non-Jews, so if there's, I don't want to use the word tzaddik, because I know we're going to go into the whole definition of what tzaddik is, but whatever, what we think the definition of a tzaddik is, a good person, a very, very, you know, top to the top, you know, 99.99%, if there's a tzaddik of, like, a non-Jewish tzaddik, right? You compare them to...

1:24:39 You mean somebody who does amazing things with their life. Mother Teresa. You compare them to a Jewish mother, right? Right. A Jewish mother. Could you say that the non-Jewish Mother Teresa gets more, I mean, that's hard, but definitely faced more challenges in becoming who she was. You could say that. She's a bad person. You could say that. Not a bad person, but if you're measuring that right. You could say that, yeah. Yeah, because she had to get harsh with her. You could absolutely say that. And by the way, I just want to be clear. The Tanya never said that you can't have a Gentile Mother Teresa. Empirically, we have it. You see there are good Gentiles all over the place. The Tanya wasn't saying, and that's why it frustrates me so much when people go, Tanya's racist. No. No, he's saying that the nature of the Nefesh HaVaham is that it's self-serving. It doesn't mean you can't rise above that, right? And if somebody does chesed, it's possible for their chesed to be self-serving.

1:25:25 Doesn't mean you can't rise above that either. But that's something that they more naturally have to rise above than the Jew, who has it a little bit more inclined to be able to have that Tov because it's part of their Nefesh HaVaham makeup. Sammy. Could that possibly be because we have the Torah and they don't. No, he's saying it's even before the Torah. He's saying it's part of your spiritual genetics. The Torah would be the symptom. Last question. Yeah. This one, because it's something I believe in. I'm just trying to be a devil's advocate here. Where's the proof to say that this divide is real? Meaning that I can think of plenty of Jews who do really crappy things, very self-centered things. Yeah. And not just one or two Mother Teresa's, but plenty of non-Jews who do just as many good things every day of their life. Sure. And so if you say, oh, it's the religious thing. Well, I can say there's good Samaritan Christians who are like amazing people. And they live like if you put them and you just put the kippah on their head and tzitzit on their head.

1:26:22 They'd be like, wow, what a good Jew. Right. So how can we empirically prove this difference in the Shema? Or are we just using this as a way to make us feel better and inspire us to do better. I wouldn't say that either. I would say a third option. Remember, the author I was quoting here from Chazal, so he's speaking about the spiritual makeup. You're asking me for empirical proof. It's not almost impossible. It's impossible for me to provide you with empirical proof because what we're speaking about is not empirical. In other words, it's a manifest in empirical things. Right, but that's the point. The point is you could look, just because, let's say you took 100 Jews and 100 Gentiles, you could end up with a scenario where you have 99 Jews that are not doing great things and 99 Gentiles that are. But we don't understand the internal struggle that it took. Now, they may not describe it as such, but on a spiritual level, that's what's going on. So I don't think we're trying to make ourselves feel better. I don't think we're just trying to inspire ourselves to do better. It's saying you should understand that you naturally have a capacity to be good, and even though there is a self-centeredness.

1:27:28 that you do need to overcome, it's natural to overcome it because you have this admixture of good and evil. when it comes to the Gentile world, because they are of the world, and if they come from Shalik, they could do amazing things. And we see empirically that many of them do. And that's a challenge that they have to overcome. Can I do one more twist? Sorry, last question. So I forget exactly where it was in, I think it was one of the, somewhere in Tanakh where it said that, one of the questions that we had originally about if you're made good versus bad, like Hashem, is it an EO? So if we say that the ideal Gentile has to keep the submissive spirit up, and we also say that they're naturally self-centered, that they're naturally, that it's much harder for them to... good, so to speak, or to strive for spirituality, then how do we...

1:28:23 I wouldn't put those two things together. The Sheva Mitzvos of Nei Noach have nothing to do with good versus evil. The Sheva Mitzvos of Nei Noach are the seven things, they're the seven mitzvos that are all worldly. When you study them, by the way, it actually comes out to about 200, right? Because there's seven, like, avos, so to speak, but all the tentacles comes out to over 200. I don't think it's saying that they're less spiritual in that sense. It means that their mitzvos are not uniquely spiritual. They're all worldly. So their mission, what they bring to the world, how they serve God. is through those seven mitzvos. Avos, I have an amazing Shabbos.