Tanya Exam Notes

Here are my notes - I definitely have better for earlier in the year, so for the later perakim you might be better of reading lessons in Tanya...

PEREK YUD CHES
We’re in a marriage with Hashem – how can we have this relationship if we don’t have an emotional connection?
It is close to you – to do all the mitzvos. It’s so close to you, you’ll want to do it, from the depth of your heart.
Until perek yud ches the rebbe covered the long short way – learn learn understand it all. But what about a person that doesn’t have that ability? Not smart enough or emotional?
3 things you need: 1) Brain to think & meditate 2) there has to be knowledge 3) be able to bring it down so it affects your emotions
Perek Yud Ches comes and says you don’t need your brain – and it’s me’od – VERY close! You have an innate love, you just have to tap into it.
How is this ahava mesuteres/tiviis different from an ahava sichlis?
(story: guard took oath to stand through anything in front of the palace, and feet froze. Was being whipped ‘if you would have been excited about that oath you took it would have warmed you up so you wouldn’t freeze!)
A. where does the love come from?
B. what defines it?
C. how did we get it as a yerusha?
D. you also have to have fear


flow of Tanya
ki karov elecha – it’s close to you. You have 2 nefashos – there’s a love & fear for Hashem in both – you can start to love Hashem by really really learning about Him
But what happens if someone isn’t so bright? How can the pasuk say ki karov elecha hadavar MEOD?

Is belief higher than understanding?
Our brain understands that we don’t have to understand everything.

Until now we were talking about an intellectual love. Now we’re going to tap into the ahava misuteres. What’s the difference between these 2 loves?
Shlomo says to his lover: “my sister my wife” – this seems like a contradiction.

Wife = manmade love – complicated – divorce, hate each other – passion – because it’s manmade it could end, more intense BECAUSE it’s manmade
= AHAVA SICHLIS

Sister = natural love – calm love, nothing will tear them apart, deep down it’s always there, it’s deep = AHAVA MISUTERES
You just have to know you have it! Example: people don’t know they’re siblings – there’s no feeling – then find out they’re siblings – there’s feeling there, it can develop to love

love passed down from our avos – the truth of truth –
again – 4 questions:

A. where does the love come from?
B. what defines it?
C. how did we get it as a yerusha? How is it possible?**
D. Where does Yira fit into this?

**if you inherit something from a person, it’s the same but expressed differently. If father is an angry person- you may be angry too but doesn’t mean you hate the same person.

The avos were chariots – chariot has no identity of its own – goes wherever the horse takes it - “vyaal elokim ME’AL avraham’ Hashem left from on top of avraham – US we are our identity and we give in to G-d – but that’s who they were, no choices in it. Therefore, they had the ability to draw down nefesh, ruach, neshama to every single one of their children.

Nefesh – living soul – what gives life to your body, most gashmius

(((Q: did Yitzchak get it from avraham or only started after yakov))))

They didn’t put the love in us – they put the nefesh ruach neshama & us and that triggers the love.


Yira question- with method #1 I’ve worked on creating ahava so I’ve also created yira. But here, we’re saying we already have the ahava – so where does the yira fit into it? Do we have to cultivate it, we’re born with it, etc?
In husband and wife – can’t just want to be passionate – have obligations to each other.

* * * *
Merkova – just like someone doesn’t have to tell/motivate you to wake up & breathe – the avos, their very makeup was that they serve Hashem
(question about free choice – they molded themselves so that Hashem became their whole existence)

Answer C: They don’t give us the love. They give us a nefesh, ruach, neshama that intrinsically has this love.
Our soul comes from the 10 sefiros of holiness from the 4 worlds – given to each of us based on our level and our actions – even the simplest people.
Chesed - kindness
Gevura – judgement
Teferes – unity, harmony
Netzach – endurance, conviction, perseverance
Hod – humility
Yisod – bonding
Malchus – leadership
Malchus expresses it to the next level – bring it to action - speech (like it is in seder hishtalshelus)
Idea goes through this process

When Hashem has the idea to create a world it goes through this process also – everyone’s neshama comes from a different level in seder hishtalshelus

Based on our FUTURE ACTIONS – if later we change, we can change the level of our neshama. When a soul is conceived, it could be from the lowest, lowest, level – nefesh, dnefesh, dmalchus, dasiya – but even so, the highest level is also found in the lowest



everything comes from the chochma
“KULAM bchochma asisa”
“Hashem b’chochma yisod aretz” – aretz = malchus – goes from chochma to malchus – chochma impacts the very bottom – just like your brain impacts the way your toes move

sometimes the sinners of Israel draw down very high neshamos because these neshamos were found in the depth of klipa

why are we so crazy about chochma?chochma is the source for any intellectual thought or understanding
seichel = the idea
Havana = understanding it

chochma = koach ma

life all boils down to relationships – 2 identities coming together.
What is a perfect relationship?
Working together for a common goal –
You don’t understand something because your brain is a person and doesn’t want to have that relationship.
Chochma comes into play – it pushes the YOU away – that was the impedement – chochma is bittul – then you can understand – then something else can come in. But then it has to register it in your brain – that’s binah.
YOU didn’t get – the concept got YOU!
3 differences between chochma & bina:
1. chochma sounds clear & nice but you don’t really understand it – binah you understand it
2. you’ll always forget chochma – once you think about it & understand it then you remember it.
3. chochma is less words – bina is more words.

Why doesn’t or ain sof enclothe itself in chessed first? Because it’s already an identity – binah’s already an identity – chochma is the ultimate of the lack of identity – that’s why or ain sof goes there.

A fool’s not smart, so he believes everything. So if you understand anything, it can be much much harder to believe. But everyone’s like a fool relative to Hashem – NO ONE can understand Hashem.
Even though I’m like a b’haima – I don’t understand anything – ani tamid imach
The VERY FACT that you don’t understand is where faith is expressed.

What’s the difference between someone who’s moser nefesh and some other martyr who kills himself for his faith?
Mesiras nefesh is emunah above chochma, the other is emunah below chochma
If you try to explain to them how they shouldn’t kill themselves they don’t want to hear because they’re scared it will lower their faith – it’s an intellectual decision they make based on what they know/think – calculate the reward they’ll get its, all about YOU – its even below chochma (because chochma is where you don’t exist)
Mesiras nefesh is you’re not there – no intellectual decision – Hashem dominates you
If you have a secular muslim he won’t blow himself up if someone tells him to – you can have a yid that had nothing to do with yiddishkeit and he’ll be moser nefesh all kiddush Hashem
That’s why even ignorant people can have ahava mesuteres – even if they can’t contemplate it – because it’s NOT about understanding (binah) – it’s about chochma where you don’t exist
The fact that I’m like a bahaima – that’s why I’m with you all the time
The ahava mesuteres illuminates the WHOLE person – it’s rooted in chochma but it spreads to bina, daas, even middos. Starts in chochma because it transcends daas – above understanding.


PEREK YUD TES
We have to explain like it says ner Hashem nishmas adam. Jewish people are called adam ‘atem kriyum adam’ and not the goyim. Their neshama is like the flame of a candle that constantly, naturally, strives to go upwards. The flame naturally wants to leave the wick, it wants to cleave to the universal element of fire. Once it goes up and leaves the wick it doesn’t exist. That’s the nature of a flame. Nature is something that can’t be understood, that’s just the way it is.
Why a mashal of fire?
we try to find the most refined example of gashius
so too our neshama wants to depart and leave our body, and if not for the body it would cleave to.

Ner Hashem nishmas adam – Hashem’s candle is our neshama – what does Hashem want to see? He looks into our life with the candle of our neshama.

We’re constantly searching for the meaning of life – using the candle of our neshama.

1st 3 months: sheep, bull, twins
3 types of marriages – one marriage to each type
marriage of sheep – 1 dominating person & the other persons like a sheep
bull – 2 bulls
chose twins – they look exactly alike, but when you look in the other person you see yourself
all the 4 elements you can contain – fire you can’t, its always trying to break away from it’s existence – it consumes whatever’s containing it
fire is the only thing that’s close to non – existence – it doesn’t want to exist – doesn’t scream out ‘ I exist ‘
the definition of teva is that we don’t understand why
the nefesh is being feuled by the ohr ain sof in chochma – chochma = I don’t exist

goyim come from klipa – that’s why they do things for themselves – have a YESH – I want
poshei yisroel – this nitzutz is in golus – trapped by the nefesh habahamis
Whys it called mesuteres? It’s hidden – most of the time not revealed because in golus
Why isn’t chochma powerful enough to free the ahava?
The chochma itself isn’t chained up
It’s usually asleep – when in a sitch of mesiras nefesh then it’s awakened
What controls us? A ruach shtus
2 forms of ruach shtus:
1 – we know who we are, we know it’s wrong – just insanity
2 – it distorts – convince yourself its not wrong etc

what's the diff between golus & shina
1- golus – you take that energy/quality and use it for klipa
2- that energy/quality is not being used

up till perek yud tes the person was struggling to feel a love for Hashem. Comes with a new method – don’t have to be smart, it’s automatically there. It’ll come up at certain times. Concealed and natural. Every person is born with it. In the neshama there’s chochma shebinefesh – koach mah – it’s not existent – you finally get the chochma when you put yourself aside. Just lik a flame – always strives up towards non existence. That’s the level of mesiras nefesh, rooted in the chochma shebinefesh. Since it’s natural that means it’s unexplainable. Ruach shtus can always be dominating us, and then it comes to do or die and everyone will give up life for Hashem. The chochma can be asleep or in golus.

PEREK CHOF ALEF
When a person speaks words the words become their own thing, separate from him & his 10 koichos.
But with Hashem it never becomes separate because everything is Hashem! Therefore Hashem’s speech is not like our speech!
Q: If our dibbur is not like Hashem’s dibbur, then why do we use that term at all? What’s the similarity?
A: just like the dibbur of a person reveals something that was concealed in a person, Hashem’s speech reveals his infinite light to create worlds etc. This dibbur is the 10 maamaros that the world was created with – and all of tanach.

we’re in the middle of trying to figure out whether we exist ;-)
gave the mashal of speech – we are Hashem’s words
by Hashem His words are so unified with Him it’s like words that are still in potential in a person, you haven’t even had the emotions enter your brain yet so you can form words. The more emotional a thing is the more you can connect to the idea but the less you can express it in words.
First you know about something, then you desire it, then it goes back up to your brain to figure out how to get it, put it in words, etc.
Even after the words ‘came out’ from Hashem they’re still perfectly united with Him.

Kula kamei Klo chashiv – KLO – LIKE it’s not chashiv – the would still does exist, but it’s so close to noghitn
Hashem never changes – it’s only how it looks to us – because Hashem has to create through seder hishtalshelus, etc – so we won’t be completely batul to Him.
Ilah V’alul – cause & effect
The initial creation is ‘yesh m’ayin’ – so huge, it’s too much for us – Hashem then has to make a tzimtzum, etc.
All the tzimtzumim are to conceal Hashem’s light so it shouldn’t reveal itself in such an intense way that we won’t be able to get it. We see it and of course, it’s separate from Hashem! Of course it came from Hashem, but now it’s separate like dibbur – chas veshalom – that’s how we perceive it but really the world is one with Hashem – ain od milvado.
“even darkness will not ‘blind’ You, Hashem” a tzimtzum and levushim do not change anything in Hashem’s perspective.
A shell is usually separate from the thing – the shell protects the thing – but a turtle is unique, the shell is part of the animal.
even all these garments on Hashem – they’re One with him, part of Him – not only are they not separate from Him, they are Hashem!

If there’s no outside reality other than G-d, then how can we think are reality outside of Hashem?
We shouldn’t really feel our own existence – our ego –
This dibbur of Hashem had to go through so many tzimtzumim

Can a man hide and I won’t see him? – you can’t see Hashem when you’re an Ani
When a man hides and finally realizes there is no ANI – then He can see Hashem

elokay delokaya – it’s not that they deny Hashem – they just say they’re a separate existence – when you say I also exit, you are going against Hashem – there’s nothing outside of Hashem. Kedusha rests on something that is batul to Hashem.
People that say they exist are called turei defruda – separated mountains – I’m a separate existence.

Test: prakim chof, chof alef, chof beis

torah and mitzvos while down here still have that intensity of being totally one with Hashem –
torah and Hashem are one
the 248 positive mitzvos are the 248 limbs of the eibishter
the mitzvos are pnimius haratzon of Hashem – by doing mitzvos you can change the world – you draw down ohr from pnimius ratzon haelyon
that’s why its called the limbs of Hashem – just as a limb is a garment for your life, your limbs are completely subjugated to your life – theyre one with you, when it enters your will to do something, your limbs do it

the actual limb which does the mitzvah become like a chariot to ratzon ha’elyon (hapnimi). All the levels of the nefesh elokis have a complete unity with Hashem, not even as a markava. The higher the level


learning torah accesses sovev which even chochma of atzilus can’t access
the closest way to get to Hashem is where you learn torah – and that level demands the greatest level of yira – im ain chochma ain yirah.
Tara ldirta – the shaar of a dira –

References perek mem alef

PEREK CHOF DALED
Doing something against Hashem is the ultimate separate from Hashem – klipa and sichra achara are called avoda zara
The 3 levushim from klipas nogah and the nefesh are miyached with klipa and sichra achara when you do an aveira
When we do an aveira we are worse than klip and sitra achara – we know our creator, sitra achara serves Hashem by doing their role in the world.
Ex: bilam, the ultimate of klipa says he can’t go against Hashem
The more tzimtzum there is, the more room there is for klipa to latch onto it
Avoda zara, eloka d’elokaya – theyre not going against achdus Hashem – says he’s also Hashem – but not going against Hashem lgamri, doesn’t say he doesn’t exist, that Hashem is also a G-d – theyre not going against ratzon ha’elyon
Someone who does an aveira goes against ritzono v’achduso yisborech
Says in eitz chayim that everything bad in olam hazeh is the residue from klipa & sitra achara – that’s why the world is dominated by evil now

isha sotah – she only sins because a ruach shtus enters her – so why does she only do this and not avoda zara?
“a mosquito comes before you” a mosquito takes in and doesn’t release anything, it just takes and takes – and it came before you – but they do what they’re supposed to do. We’re given a mission and we don’t do it – every aveira is deviating from what we’re supposed to do here.

The ruach shtus can enter easily when you act like an animal

But when a tzaddik walks with Hashem the animals are scared of him
A person who does a sin is the farthest from Hashem – more than all the animals etc.

what is the idea of kares? The nefesh gets attached from its source in Hashem.
If it’s not an aveira with the punishment of kares, but his connection is punctured.


Its karov meod that at any time a person can say to his ruach shtus that im going to arouse the other side –