037 Tanya Teves 25 ~ m42 Shvat 3
Questions for today:
What does a person do if the values they strive for don’t inspire them to actual emotional feelings?
What does it feel like to be pregnant with love?
A person could decide that there is something that they should really be attached to. They might have even realized that something is so valuable that they are lucky to be devoted to it.
The normal process is that those thoughts give birth to, for example, a strong feeling of attachment, and we'll call that love. Or, it would cause an inner fear of being detached from it.
Then, those emotions act like wings and they give life to all the acts being done in the relationship.
However, what about a Beinoni? By a Beinoni, these ideas might not be compelling enough to stimulate and give birth to that love or fear?
Today's Tanya teaches that nevertheless if a person ‘acts’ according to those ideas; they put their hands on G-d's hands through acts of charity, they put their lips to G-d's through the holy words of the Torah, they embrace G-d with thought, speech, and action - every way that the Torah gives the ability to…
…When a person behaves this way according to their inner conviction, then even though those ideas are in the brain and not on the heart, they'll still be able to enhance and give life to all the acts that they are causing to happen.
Tanya book 1, ch16 pt 1
Loving thoughts, during gestation in the brain, can give life to the acts they cause, even if they have not "given birth" to heartfelt emotions.
Study today’s Tanya in full: https://www.chabadmed.com/dailystudy/tanya.asp?tdate=1/5/2022
See today’s video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQzywJv-EOE&list=PLFZQPK6u-zSBls9Hwx3P5vKI_BRnjBvHe&index=37
Additional thoughts:
What is innovative here in this chapter, is that in the last chapter, using the analogy of going the extra mile, we may have concluded that the main thing is to achieve emotional feelings of love for the Creator.
In this chapter, the Tanya teaches us that what is truly the main thing is that our convictions lead to an impact in ourselves and the world around us.