First of all, I wish to thank Hashem for giving me the privilege to join with people who strive to expand their inner world, their spiritual world. May it be His will that this talk should be beneficial.
Generally, when one gives over ideas, if they are known and familiar, people do not ask for sources. But when something new is said, one wants to know, where does this come from? I state clearly that I have been raised “on the knees of” the Torah and I have no other source. I have not read the books of secular scholars or recent sefarim that are based on them. I have learned everything from our Torah that was given at Sinai. All is there, but one needs the eyes to see it properly. Nothing here is added to what was already stated in the holy works written by our Sages of blessed memory.
It is difficult to express what I want to say in the form of a speech. I come to speak because of an inner mission, a recognition of a particular world that exists and is more real than the world we sense, but is very hidden from people. The inner world is enchanting, it is a world of pleasure and connection, but it is not a world of delusions. It is a world more real than the table. It is clearer than the familiar world of the table, the chair, and the lamp.
Sometimes, when we try to enter the inner world, there is a feeling that since it is unfamiliar, maybe it is just our imagination, maybe it is just delusions of people who want to experience all kinds of things, and so they create a whole structure out of all their fantasies. But you must know that the inner world is more realistic than the world we live in. However, just as a blind person doesn’t see what’s in front of him, and he might ask, “Are you certain this exists?” The others nod their heads, which he cannot see, and they say, “What a pity. If Hashem will send him a full recovery, he will see that there was no basis for his doubts.” Everyone can see the table. If one asks about it, the only reason can be that he is blind.
The inner world is definite and absolute. We don’t speak of things that are doubtful. This is not an issue that is only 70, 80, or 90 percent likely. This is no less than 100 percent definite. Therefore, the expression of this fact is not just in order to teach people something and share new ideas, but to reveal an existing world. To illustrate: Before America was discovered, people didn’t know it existed. After they discovered it, they saw it was a real ground that people stand on. It wasn’t just an idea. It’s a real country. So, too, with these concepts we want to share, this is in order to reveal a truth, not just ideas. We want to enable people to sense it, not just to know about it. We want to allow people to experience and breathe a new world, and not just to know something new. Knowledge is also useful, but the goal is to recognize a new world. We will try with Hashem’s help to make this clear, first of all, in the mind, and then, one will be able to live and breathe it.
Man is not just skin, sinews, flesh and bones. There is a spiritual energy that keeps everything alive, as we know. When one dies, the bones, the skin, flesh, and sinews still are intact at first, but he cannot move. This shows that the essence of man is not just a mixture of material elements, but it is a composition of the material and the spiritual. There is nothing new about this. But this is only knowledge. Yet do we sense this, experience it, and use it? We certainly use it, because we do move, speak, and talk, and that comes from the spiritual force. But do I sense that there is a spiritual force, or do I feel that it is just part of my body? With the body alone, one cannot walk, as we mentioned that a deceased person cannot walk. But does one identify with the spiritual energy that takes him where he wants to go? Certainly, there is an energy that carries him. But is one aware of this and does he clearly identify with it, or not? If one identifies with it, it is with him, and he experiences it. He breathes it. But if not, he will walk, but will identify with the legs, the skin, sinews, and bones. He identifies with the material, and thus, the inner, spiritual world is hidden from him. He doesn’t recognize it. Although he knows and believes it exists, he is like one who possesses a chest with a million dollars at home, but he doesn’t know the code to open it. He is very wealthy, but he can’t do anything with the wealth.
We are all wealthy; there is a soul contained within every one of us. Do we have the code to open the chest and use the vast wealth contained therein? Certainly, we do, but do we learn it and use it? The Jew in particular, more than other creations, is primarily a neshamah (soul). That is the spiritual power hidden within. He must primarily walk with that, he must primarily breathe that. His awareness and identification should not be with his hands, legs, flesh, skin, sinews, and bones. He must literally identify every moment with his neshamah. It’s not difficult to identify with the neshama; it’s just a change of perspective. We’ll give some examples so this can be understood a little better: A single man is used to a certain schedule and way of life; he is free, so to speak. No one restricts him. He is, so to speak, on his own. He then enters the covenant of marriage, and life takes on a different order. He is committed to his wife, and is not as free as before. He has a different feeling. He may be out of the house, but in his mind, he knows that he must return home at night. He’s not a bachelor who can wander all night as he wishes; he identifies himself as a married man. This identification has many results, but it’s not just knowledge that he is married; it’s an inner identification. From the beginning of the day, he may not make an appointment for 2 AM. He must see what’s going on at home. If he does make such an appointment, he has some kind of emotional disorder.
When one weds, he knows that he must be practical and the reality requires him to realize that there’s someone else in the house. No one needs to teach him this information. If someone does need to teach it to him, he’s certainly disturbed. You don’t need to teach a newly married man that he cannot come home whenever he wants, that time is important, and that he’s no longer a bachelor; this is part of his self-awareness. He understands, “I married; I have a partner to take into account.” There is a change in his identification, in the way he sees himself. It’s not a change that must be taught. Rather, the knowledge of it gives him a new perspective on life.
When we think about it, we’ll notice that all stages in life work this way. We undergo many changes. Another example: A person might be in a hospital. The next morning, he wakes up and asks himself, “Where am I?” Then he recalls, “At night, I went to sleep in the hospital, and so I woke up in the hospital. No one came and moved my bed during the night.” By the second or third day, the moment he awakens, he remembers that he is in the hospital. His schedule in the hospital is very different from his schedule at home. It takes some time to digest the fact that he is not home any more, but elsewhere, and he come to arrange his schedule accordingly.
After considering these examples, we can understand that our existence is a composition of the material and the spiritual. Generally, we identify with the material. Before we begin practical changes in action, our responsibility is to identify ourselves differently, as a spiritual entity, a soul. I don’t mean that we have no body; certainly we do. We’re here, in this material world. We’re not in Gan Eden now. Yet, one has two ways of identifying himself. The first way is as a body that has a soul inside it, and the second way is a soul that has a body clothed upon it. The first version of the body that has a soul means that one is essentially a body. The second way is where the main thing is the soul, and the body is only a garment. Does anyone identify with his shirt? At night, it’s already off and ready to be washed. Of course, there is some level of identification, because one feels differently if his shirt is nice or if it’s torn. But that’s very different from thinking of himself as a shirt. He is a person who is clothed. When we consider ourselves as clothed souls, there is a huge difference from the identification as a body with a soul. As we mentioned, these are not just ideas; we are discussing a world that can be touched, felt and breathed so that it will be as real, and even more real than the world currently familiar to us.
A person has a body and soul. The body is a material entity, and the soul is a spiritual entity. Does anyone suspect that the body is not a real entity? It’s clear to all of us that it is real and tangible. When we ask someone if he believes the soul is real, he would also say, “I know and believe that it is real.” But if we ask, “Do you feel that the soul is a real entity?” the person would generally either respond, “No,” or “I wish it were so.” Here is where there must be a change in our way of life.
We will all undergo this change. When? When a person dies, the soul will leave the body, and he will not be able to identify himself as a body. The body won’t be with him anymore. But if one waits until then, the process of attaining that identification with the body will be most difficult; it is called by Chazal, “chibut hakever” (the beating in the grave). There is a whole treatise on this called Maseches Chibut HaKever. The change of self-identification is traumatic to a person.
I’ll give you a simple example: We spoke earlier of a person who was single and then married, baruch Hashem. This change is very pleasant, with only minimal difficulty, and the identification changes very quickly. But there is an opposite situation: A women who was married, and G-d forbid, became a widow, goes through a very difficult process in adjusting to her new identity. As anyone with experience in this knows, although the woman intellectually knows that her husband will not return until techiyas hameisim (the resurrection), it’s very hard for her to adjust. She was married to him for 50 years. She always had a partner and company. It’s extremely difficult for her to accept this change. This is proven and known by anyone with personal experience with widows.
When the body and soul are together for years, and the person dies, it is like a husband and wife when one of them dies. This separation is too difficult to bear. If a person always considered himself a body, when he dies and the soul suddenly leaves the body, he has no sense of identity, because his entire identity was taken away. He never got a sense of identity from the neshamah. He identified strongly with the body, but he doesn’t have it anymore. He will be like someone from whom everything was taken. This is a deep meaning of chibut hakever; there are other meanings, but this is the one relevant to our topic. This is where the person feels emotional blows, because his prior identity is taken away and finished, and he has nothing to replace it with.
But if one did identify with the soul and considered the body only a garment when alive, he will be like one who at night removes his pants and shirt and puts them in the laundry, and prepares new clothing for the next day. There is no emotional difficulty at all. To the contrary, the garment was a little dirty, and it will be nice to wear a new garment the next morning. It is not difficult to change garments. This is especially so if today’s garment was old and tomorrow’s is new. If one has identified with his soul and considered the body merely a garment, what will his death be like? It will be like a person removing a shirt. He will leave this world and receive a new “shirt.” These are not the “shirts” of the material body, but “tunics of light,” as possessed by Adam HaRishon.
When a person passes away, he is given a garment. These are not garments of the physical body, but a kind of spiritual garment, like light. An old “shirt” was removed, and a new one is given in its stead. This is a very easy and pleasant process. It is only difficult for someone whose sense of self was a body with a soul inside, whose connection to the soul was very weak. When he dies, he loses his whole identity. He gets a soul in its place, but he doesn’t recognize it. He doesn’t know what to do with it, so he feels completely lost. We will all undergo this process of changing from the sense of a body with a soul to that of a soul that has a garment, but we have the choice of how and when to make this change. Will we undergo it while we are alive here in this world, or only at death? Will it be gradual and relatively easy, or like an electric shock that comes all at once?
Moreover, if a person waits until death, even now, he is already dead. What keeps a person alive? His spiritual energy. But if he doesn’t identify with it, he is like dead. Thus, Chazal said that the wicked in life are like dead. One without a soul is dead. So, too, one who doesn’t identify with the soul is like dead. Even if Chazal hadn’t said it, we could say it on our own. He’s like dead because he no inner life. We must understand, then, that in this existence, we have a choice: should we identify with the material, the body, or with the soul?
With thought, we will realize that everyone here is drawn after the material in one way or another. Everyone is imprisoned by this pursuit. Such a life is like death. We go outside and see people. Everyone is looking for something, but no one knows exactly what. Everyone feels that something is lacking inside. One decides to go to a concert, another will go somewhere else, and when they return, in the best case, it helped for that period, and maybe for a day or two — a trip out of the country may add another week of peace — but after that, one senses that something inside is dry and empty. What is lacking inside? Everything, not just something! There’s nothing there! A person is a soul with a garment. If he identifies with the body, everything is lacking, not just an element. This is not like someone who can’t finish the month because he only has enough money for 80 percent of the expenses. Rather, he’s like someone without a penny to his name already at the beginning of the month.
One identified with the material is like dead. This is like someone drowning in a river, who feels these are his last minutes and uses all his strength to save his life. The truth is that such is the state of this generation. We’re in a state in which everyone is in pursuit of the material, a state of a deathly ill person (a gossess). In this world, material pursuits are followed only by more and more material pursuits, without end. There are newspapers and advertisements, and a person is drawn to one thing after another. He works to buy and buys to eat, and so on, pursuing the material more and more. This is a state of being dead, and this is the state of this generation. We need a resurrection, and this is not merely a parable or poetry; this is the reality.
When one dies, the soul leaves the body, and at techiyas hameisim (the resurrection), the soul returns to the body. What is the difference between now and then? Before death, one identified with the body, and the soul was merely inside it. He did not identify with the soul in an absolute sense, so it must leave. This is not its place. This is like when one rents an apartment and the contract is completed, so he must leave the apartment. The soul is like a renter in the body. The time is up, and it must leave. But if one identifies with the soul, then this is his place, he is the owner, why should he leave? At best, there will be a change of clothes, but why should he leave here? This is the difference between now and after the resurrection. When the soul returns, it will come with an identity of a soul with the garment of a body, and even then, there will be some change of garments. But the soul will have an absolute and lasting existence, and will not need to leave.
We should understand that the current state of the world is physical death, and we don’t even have a thousandth of a percent of the vitality that exists in the soul, we only have a spark of a spark of a spark. So that we don’t completely die, we must restructure our lives. We must build a different identity.
Here is another example to explain this change of identity: When the Jewish people stood at Mount Sinai, there became a distinction between Jew and Gentile, but almost every Gentile has the opportunity to convert and change his identity. He needs to circumcise, immerse, and accept all the details of the Torah, and thereby he changes his identity from Gentile to Jew. This is a process that will totally change him. He was first a Gentile, and now a Jew. Our situation is no less. Just as one can change identity from Gentile to Jew, so too, for us to change from our current condition is like conversion. This is because this world with which we identify is really the portion of Esav, the Gentile, and we must lose our identification with it. The Gentile only needs minutes to go through the steps that will change him — circumcision, immersion, and in half an hour, it’s all over. Yet this is a process that totally changes him.
If we think that our mission is to change one act or another, this is a mistake. Not that one need not change. Each person knows that he has deeds that must be improved. But this is like a person who decides not to convert, but to go in steps. One day he will do one mitzvah and the next day, another. This mitzvah does not have the power of a mitzvah. He is still a Gentile, and the mitzvah is not a mitzvah. Now, our case is not exactly like that, because any mitzvah done by a Jew has spiritual value, but we want to emphasize that in our time, the process needed is not one of a small improvement. It is simply to change one’s life.
To illustrate: if one is in a car and gets a flat tire, he pulls over to the side, undoes some screws, and soon he can be on his way. But if his car is hit by a truck and smashes against a wall, there is nothing to do with the car other than to sell the metal. It can’t be fixed. He can get some money from insurance. If it’s enough, he can buy a new car; if not, he will borrow from the bank. The previous car is finished, and he must begin anew. If he goes with the car to a repair shop and says, “I’ll pay anything; just tell me what needs to be fixed,” they’ll laugh at him. It’s easier to make a new car. We, too, are like someone who was hit by a truck and smashed into the wall, and nothing remains.
We are so crushed by the current state that we don’t pay attention to it. Perhaps there is a nice leaflet to read on Shabbos. Maybe one goes to hear a nice talk once a week. But what does one do with one’s whole life? Where is his identity? The average person is far, far below where he needs to be.
One might say, “I have no time, I’m busy, I have a wife and children, I need to make a living.” That’s all true, but what is this like? It’s like a person in a hospital who is sick and told he needs a new kidney. The doctor says, “Either we do a transplant, which costs 30,000 dollars, or in two months, it’s all over.” He says to the doctor, “I have a difficult financial situation. I don’t have the money, I can’t do it.” The doctor says, “If you can’t, then you’ll die. The loan societies don’t give away 30,000 dollars, the government doesn’t give it away, so this is the situation. You can’t beg me. I don’t have the 30,000 dollars to give you, so decide. Either find a way to get the amount and live, or die.” All the excuses, even if they are 200 percent correct, will not keep him alive. You can compose a whole book of excuses, but excuses don’t give anyone life.
A person may have a whole bundle of excuses why he identifies with the material, and the Heavenly court can sign on it, but after the signature, they will write, “He died with justification.” He has a rationale, but he really has no life. You can’t build your life in a way that is totally the opposite of reality. If one tries to walk upside down for even half a minute, he will have to be a genius to succeed. But no one thinks of always going that way. Our life is upside down; in the words of Chazal, “I have seen an inverted world.” Everything is inverted; instead of making the soul the center and the body a thin garment to use, we do the exact opposite.
We identify with the material, and think we do Hashem a favor: “Thursday night I have a class I attend, and with that, I fulfill my responsibility to study Torah for the week.” This is the opposite of the reality. I have not met anyone who eats a piece of cake Thursday night and says, “I fulfilled my responsibility to eat for the week.” Why? Because he’s hungry! You don’t think about fulfilling your obligation. If the stomach is empty, you need to eat! If we would feel spiritual hunger the way we feel bodily hunger, we would solve the whole problem of life. The problem of life is the identification with the material. People think they have specific problems. One has this problem, another has a different problem. This is all true, but underlying it all is a root problem; namely, that we have the wrong sense of reality.
We were created properly and drifted slowly, until we finally totally forgot who we are. The pasuk (verse) says, “We are orphans with no father.” The commentators explain, “Why the double term? When a father dies, the orphan at first remembers him clearly, but very gradually, he forgets. If one is in a state where he doesn’t even remember having a father, of that, it says, “We are orphans without a father.” We don’t even remember that there was a father. We originally had the identity of the soul with a pure garment, the body, and we switched everything and made the soul secondary and the body primary. This happened gradually, with a certain percentage of one and the rest of the other, like 70 percent body and 30 percent soul, and then, 71 percent body and 29 percent soul, until it became 99.999 percent body and 0.001 percent soul.
We must change our perspective on life! We need an absolute change! We must change to an entirely different identity! This identification cannot remain in a person by just hearing it once. One must undergo an inner process in order to internalize who he really is. To illustrate: a person has a son born to him. In the middle of the night, he wakes up when he hears someone crying. At first, he doesn’t get up. He is used to thinking that if someone is crying, it is either from the upstairs neighbor or the downstairs neighbor. Later, he remembers that in fact, a child was born to him a few days before. It takes about 20-30 seconds for him to become somewhat alert and realize that it is his son. So, too, it takes time to digest and change our self-concept. It takes time for this change to take effect. There can be no immediate drastic change. Drastic changes are destructive. The change must be built through a gradual process. The change of identity comes through an internal process.
One might think, “It was taught at night, it was explained, I heard, I grasped it, I’m capable, and I got it. So what’s next?” This is like the following scenario: A person goes to see plans for buildings. He spends a half hour or an hour and examines to see what matches with his needs. He brings his wife, speaks to his father, asks someone else’s advice, and comes back and says, “This is the apartment I want.” He requests the price, and they tell him. He immediately writes a check and requests a key. They say, “What key? These are just plans, there’s no key. The building isn’t standing yet. What are you talking about? First you sign, then, when we sell a third of the apartments, we will start to build, and with Hashem’s help, it will be done within two years. There’s a contract and there are payments to be made.” He wants the keys at the same time as seeing the plans. When we look into the matter, we will understand that to hear and understand is only like a plan. It could be a very good architectural plan, but a plan is not a building. That’s the time to start the work.
When we understand that we only have a plan, we see that the next step is to build an inner structure of life. Building an inner structure, as with a material building, can take two years, at least. It depends on how many floors you want. A thirty-story building in Tel Aviv takes a long time. If we understand that our soul is greater than a thirty-story building, we understand that the internal structure should take a very, very long time.
What do I mean by this? As was mentioned before, this is an introductory talk. We have given the basis, the perspective of where a person should want to place himself. But these are only plans. Once one agrees to the plans, we can build a structure of practical work. This practical work requires levels, time, and a process. If there are people who have decided that this is their plan, the next step is as with a building. If the price is double what one wants or is able to pay, as much as he wants the apartment, he won’t have it. Here, too, to bring this plan from potential to actuality, one must commit to work.
I’ll explain myself clearly. We all live in the material world. We identify with the material, and much less so, with the spirit. In the material world, it’s obvious that one who wants to support his family does not just buy a lottery ticket once a week and expect to support his family with it. Even one who does buy a ticket also has a job, but he hopes for a miracle and buys the ticket as an additional effort. He spends some shekalim and thinks that maybe a miracle will happen, and if it does happen, he’ll quit his other job. But as long as he doesn’t win, would he take his ticket and go to his boss and say, “I already have my lottery ticket, so I can quit my job”? No, a person understands that in spite of all these hopes, if he wants to support his family, he must rise early in the morning, and work all day (though some people have a slightly different schedule). There is a daily process, a practical method, and something that one builds. One cannot take care of his financial life by showing up for work only when he feels like it, depending on when he fell asleep or if the baby woke him up, or his mood. No business would retain such a person in its employ. Everyone understands that for a normal job, one must show up on time for work. There are sick days and vacation days, but there is a system. This is clear to all without the slightest doubt.
Yet when we speak of the spiritual world, there it seems totally different to people. With the material world, with which we identify, we understand that to create a normal life — not to be wealthy, but for a basic livelihood of food and clothing — one must work. But this is not so clear with the spiritual world, because that world is less real to us. We don’t experience it as much, so it seems to us that we can attain something from a speech here, an idea there, a speech on the holiday, or going somewhere for a weekend. These are all good and wonderful, but it is like desserts served after a meal, that cannot fill anyone.
Therefore, if there is an interest for ongoing talks, it has to be more than talks, there must be a commitment to work, and I’m looking for people to work with me. There is no difficulty in speaking and speaking, but it can all remain theory. You can make a book out of it and send it all over the world, yet no one will act upon it. These speeches should be a process of work and progress. If you relate to these ideas, and want to build your life in this way, we will try to help according to the abilities supplied by Hashem. But there is an essential condition that if one wants to grow, there must be a serious process of building, like workers who show up each day and add one brick at a time. They don’t just put one here and then another one somewhere else, and then skip to the third floor balcony. No, it’s very organized, one brick above the other. Here, too, I want to make it clear that this is not just a speech, but a building of life. This requires people to dedicate their lives to it.
May Hashem allow this to be helpful and accepted, and that we should reach the state where our true world will be the world of the soul. We must live with it being exposed. We must breathe and experience this world, we must live in this world of pleasure, a world that is real and absolute. We must devote our lives to the mission for which we were placed in this world. We must understand that we are not doing this as a favor for someone else, but for our own benefit, so we will be happy in this world and in the next, and more importantly, that we won’t live with illusions, but we will be realistic. A realistic person knows that he is a soul on which is there is the clothing of a body.
(Translator’s note: If there are several people who benefited greatly from this translation of the author’s talk, I will try to prepare more of them, with Hashem’s help. If you are interested in more of these, please send a message to dixieyid-@-gmail.com, so he can contact me. Without real interest, I cannot commit the enormous amount of time needed. Thank you.)