070 Tanya Shvat 29 ~ m080 Adar I, 11
Questions for today:
Why the need to look in the mirror? Isn't there something I can do?
The idea that when you break a log, it is able to catch fire, can be applied to people as well. When we shatter our personal self-absorption, we are able to empathize with other people and feel a love for the Creator.
But why the need to shatter ourselves? Why not just change what we do?
In the original discussion about the human soul, in the early chapters of the Tanya, we discussed the two options open to us.
We didn't learn that there are two whatsapp groups that give suggestions about what we should do.
We spoke about two potential souls. We have an option for a Soul that we can live with, and embody that feels humble to, and one with, the Creator.
The other option is to live with and embody a different soul.
The perspective of this Soul doesn't just render the Creator completely irrelevant. It's a soul that lives with the perspective of, “I’m me, and I'm humbled to nothing and to nobody.”
To reverse that perspective, it's not enough to change what I do. I have to look in the mirror and seriously introspect about who and what I am.
Tanya book 1, ch 29, Pt 3
When you break a log, it can be engulfed in the warmth of a flame - and sometimes we need that treatment too...
An element of the human experience is that our self-awareness can evolve from something that we do, to something that we are.
Study today’s Tanya in full:
https://www.chabadmed.com/dailystudy/tanya.asp?tdate=2/12/2022
See today’s video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG94HOG2vk8&list=PLFZQPK6u-zSBls9Hwx3P5vKIBRnjBvHe&index=71