What is our most important challenge and how can we overcome it?

Hello, hello. So good to be here. So glad you joined me. Today we are going to talk about something very, very important and crucial. It's really going to be a very basic class about, you know, the understanding of what it means that we have two souls. And, you know, the idea of having a Godly soul and an animal soul described in the Tanya as, you know, having an additional energy that was created for one purpose only. It was created for us to overcome it. We were created in a way that there is so much blessings, so much wealth and prosperity and good life that is just waiting for us. But there is also one thing we need to overcome. And the thing we need to overcome, it's called our godly soul, I mean our animal soul. And our animal soul, again, there is many names for it. You can call it your ego, you can call it the devil inside, you can call it the other side also. There is many, many ways. Some people call it the shadow, you know. The shadow. But to describe it in the most simple way, just think about, you know, the sun and the moon. Think about the sun and the moon, because it's a very good example. Because you have, since you have two souls, think about your godly soul as the sun, and think about your animal soul as the moon. Now, When you really look at the sun, I mean, you can't even look at it directly because it's just so bright. You could like literally hurt your eyes, right? But when you can look at the moon, you can look at it all the time. Why? Because the moon does not have a light of its own. The moon gets its light from the sun. The sun is shining on the moon, and this is why we see the moon, right? So if, let's just be a scenario that there wouldn't be sun shining on the moon, we would not even be able to see the moon. There wouldn't even be a moon for us to even understand that there is a moon, right? So there is a moon because there is a light that's being reflected on it, and that we're seeing a reflection of something, and that's the moon. And it's the same idea with the ego, the same idea with the animal soul. The animal soul does not have a life of its own, which means it does not have a light of its own. It does not shine by itself. The only thing that shines is our Godly soul. So what is, what is exactly our Godly soul? Our Godly soul is the Godly energy Divine energy, life energy, life force energy that is shining inside of us. Okay? The body is something physical that is being emanated by a light that comes from outside, and that light emanates the body. Without that light, God forbid, a person You know, cannot move, cannot do anything. So, so this is the life force. Our Godly soul is the life force. It's literally the light that shines in us and brings us to life. Okay? The animal soul is another thing that we have. It's another soul that we have that reflects our, you know, at most desires and our corrupted, you know, things that we want that we know we shouldn't be wanting them. For example, you know, when a person overindulging in food and then feels like he wants to throw up because the cake was too fatty, or, you know, having a wrong relationship with somebody you know you shouldn't be having a, you know, a relationship with. Smoking is a good example. I mean, why would somebody want to smoke? Why would somebody want to kill themselves with poisoning themselves every day, a little bit more and a little bit more? Obviously, those things do not come from our Godly soul. Those things are coming from our animal soul. It's like corrupted desires that we have that we need to work on and overcome. So why would God create two souls? Why would he even start with that? Just give us a Godly soul. And let us just live our life happily. But what do we need to overcome something in order to get ahead in life or to grow as human beings? And it's a very, very simple answer. There is a concept in the world, there is a concept called bread of shame. What is that concept? It's the concept that if we always get what we want, we stop appreciating it, and we stopped wanting it. If somebody constantly gives us something without us really having to work for it or earn it, eventually we develop a feeling, it's called bread of shame. It's like we don't want it. We don't want to eat for free. We want to do something. We want to contribute as well to the world and earn what we get. Right? So, so that concept on its own kind of brought about that challenge that we all have, which is called the ego or the animal soul or the other soul that we have. So we created this channel, the universe created this channel, God created this channel. To eliminate that feeling of bread of shame. First of all, we want to earn our blessings, we want to earn what we have, we don't want to eat for free, we want to contribute something, we want to be a part of it, okay, by contributing to it, which is why we have to overcome something, you know. Just like, you know, you go to, you know, a free event, you know, and there is free food and stuff like that, but you're saying, you know what, I want to contribute something, I just don't feel feel right just eating the food. Let me do whatever just to feel better because I don't want to be one of those people that just— sometimes it's okay. I mean, I'm not being judgmental for people that just come to an event and enjoy it without contributing. It's also good. Sometimes just your presence is a contribution. Just being there, you're already adding something and you're contributing something, which is okay. It doesn't always have to be a monetary contribution. It could just be your presence, your smile, you know, helping maybe a little bit with arranging, with organizing, you know, stuff like that. But just being a part, not just getting it for free, which is the point that I'm trying to make. And the idea is this. So we have this challenge that we need to overcome so we can feel a part of what we get, right? We don't want to get it for free. We want to contribute to it. So this is why we have an ego. Because God created the world with so much blessings, so much goodness, so much of everything. We really, especially now in our time, we live in a time that You know, it was never like this for humanity. You know, every human being lives like a king pretty much in the olden days. You know, we have so much. We just really, we stopped appreciating it because we can't compare it to anything. But just think 100 years backwards how people lived and think how we live now. You know, in everything from what we eat to medicine to, you know, technology. We are really, really a blessed generation. But there's no buts. We are blessed generations. We need to understand one thing, that there is this challenge that we have, and we were created, literally created, we came to this world to overcome this challenge. Okay, so this challenge called our ego. Our Nefesh Behamit, the animal soul. And the animal soul contains within it all our corrupt desires, all our negative emotions, and everything that is trying to distract us and to take us from the purpose which we were created to do in this world. So just like each person have its own fingerprint, there is 8 billion people in the world and there's going to be 8 billion different fingerprints. Why? Because each and every human being is special and unique in its own way. And each person was created to do a specific mission that only them could do, which means nobody else can replace you. You know, it's not like you're working at a job and then they replace you and they bring somebody else to work instead of you. This world is not a job. This world is a world that you were created in it to do something that only you could do. And it's a mission, it's a godly mission, and it's— we have to find it. We have to find that mission, and we have to really, really work, or at least be on the path to complete this mission. So, so again, what are we talking about? What are we talking about? We're talking about a challenge, a challenge that we have, because before we can really understand our mission and before we can even be on the path to do our mission, we have to understand what is standing in our way from achieving it. And usually it will always be You know, negative emotions, negative desires, or corrupt desires, things that we want we shouldn't be wanting. It could be all kinds of different, you know, traits like maybe laziness, maybe, you know, being tiredness, maybe just not really working on ourselves to remove all those barriers so we can be on the path for growth and happiness. Because we can only be happy in this world if we grow. If we don't grow, forget about it. You can't stay the same. I heard it once from a great rabbi that said, in this world we don't stay the same. In this world you either move forward and grow or you go backwards. Staying the same is pretty much going backwards. And we do not want to be in that position. We want to keep moving forward. So one of the things we need to understand is this. There is tons of blessings waiting for us. When we are on the path of completing our missions, we are going towards those blessings. And there is something we need to overcome for us to receive all those blessings. And that thing is called the ego. And this is exactly what I came here to talk to you about. I came here to talk to you about How to treat it, what the attitude towards the ego should be, what's the attitude towards the animal part in us should be, and how we can diminish it. Because you see, it's very, you know, it's very easy. A lot of people, you know, all kinds of gurus will tell you, do this, do that. But the bottom line is that this force is powerful. It's strong, it's sneaky, and it knows how to put us in a place where we think we are on the right path, but we are not on the right path. And then we found out later that, oh, what am I doing here? I should not have done that. I should not have wasted my time in that way. I should have been more careful, you know, with everything that I did. So, So, let me kind of give you a little bit of a glimpse of what the attitude should be. So the attitude should be is that when we see that this animal part in us is trying to prevent us from reaching Godliness, true happiness, true growth and fulfillment, We have to get mad at it. And what does it mean, mad? Angry at it. You see, in spirituality, every negativity is unaccepted, unacceptable, unacceptable. We do not want any negativity. We even use words that are always positive, you know, even to describe something negative, we're going to try to use positive words to describe it. But when it comes to this particular challenge called the ego, the animal soul, when we want to fight it, when we want to overcome it, our attitude should be get mad at it, get angry at it, because that thing is really trying to turn you into an animal, prevent you from living the Godly life that you were born to live, prevent you from completing the mission that you were born to complete, and prevent you from growing, which is happiness. Who does not want to be happy? I don't know. I don't know anybody that could tell me, I don't know, I don't want to be happy. It's part of what we are all about. We really, really want to be happy and have, you know, a a peace of mind and a quiet heart and feel good about what we do and being in control of what we think and not letting, you know, all kinds of negative emotion takes the best of us and eats the best of us. Like literally, I mean, When you really think about it, we have to get mad at this thing. That thing, you have to understand, you have to even tell it, you are bad, you are evil, you are wicked. And even more, I don't even want to start telling you what the Alter Rebbe is recommending, the names that we should call this thing. But we should tell it, until when are you going to prevent us from reaching the light of immortality? Until when are you going to prevent us from fulfilling the mission that we are created here to fulfill? Until when are you going to prevent us from being truly happy. And we have to get mad at this thing. This thing that lives inside of us. The moon. And remember the moon example that I gave you, the sun and the moon, and why I compared the ego and the animal soul to the moon. Remember that because that's important. That's going to actually give you the real weapon to diminish this thing. So, the attitude should be, when we think about our ego, when we think about the fact that we have an animal soul that's trying to keep us down, trying to prevent us from fulfilling ourselves, the attitude should be, get mad at this thing. Okay. Because it says here still that when you do that, when you're really starting to tell, you know, to speak to it like a person, you know, you disgusting thing. You've creeping on me trying to prevent me from doing what I'm here to do. Trying to prevent me to connect to creation, to the creator, master of the universe, so I could be of service to the master of universe, which is my only way to be truly happy and connected and fulfill the mission that he created me here to do? Is that what you're trying to do? You got to get mad at this thing. Gotta get mad at this thing. Because, you know, it gets even deeper than that. You know, it's— anyway, so just understand that this is the root, the root of happiness. This attitude could like literally Be something that it's the beginning of your, you know, enlightenment, fulfillment, happiness, everything you can ever dream of. It's that attitude. Get mad. Why? Because it does not have any life of its own. That's why it's called darkness. That's why the ego is also called darkness. Why is it called darkness? Because it does not have any light of its own, just like the moon. Without the sun, the moon does not even exist. We can't see the moon. And what happens when we turn on the light in a dark room? What happens to the physical darkness? Disappears, disappears, because, because the other side is the same thing. It does not have its own life. The only life that it gets is the life that we give it. When it plays tricks on us, when it's trying to make us think Thoughts that we shouldn't be thinking, you know, not believing in ourselves, not believing in the fact that there is something bigger out there in the world and that we have a specific mission that only we could do in this world and we need to connect with that mission. And through that, we're going to grow and be happy. Because that's the only way for us to really feel happy and fulfilled. We have to keep growing. Remember, there is no standing still. You either move forward or you go backwards. So what else is he telling us? What else is he telling us? That the Alter Rebbe is saying? He's saying that when, just like when you turn on the light, the physical darkness disappears, the same thing with the ego. It's so easy to win this thing. This thing, everybody's talking about it. You know, life are getting ruined because of it. Relationships are getting smashed. Companies, countries are going to war. It's all because of ego. And really, what is the ego? It's very easy to win. It's very easy to win. Since it does not have a power of its own, it does not have a light of its own, the only power that it has is the power we give it. The minute we stop giving it power, it's gone. Just like darkness when we turn on the light. It's gone. And he says here that we have to really, really, really understand that when the animal soul is becoming so full of itself that it's literally making our Godly soul, small and tiny that we could hardly hear it. It does that with a lot of chutzpah. Chutzpah, it means audacity. How dare you? How dare you doing this to my Godly soul? How dare you? And And when we— we have to really, really understand. So this is why, this is why, and I don't want to make this class way, way, way too long. I really don't want to make it way too long, but, but I'm going to get to the bottom of this. So So think about it like this. When you have doubts, any type of doubts, doubts about yourself, doubts about your path, doubts about your, your future, you have to know that it is the work of your animal soul, of the other side. It's not the Godly side. It's your animal soul. And your animal soul is trying to make herself bigger and stronger than your Godly soul. And when you get mad at it, when you get mad at it, you are literally diminishing it. So there is an amazing example that it's written in the Holy Zohar about what, you know, how to win this thing. Because that thing wants to be overcome. Since your animal soul, our animal soul, the ego was created for us as a challenge to overcome so we can really earn the blessings that we are receiving, in a sense, it wants us to overcome it, because it's a servant of the Creator. It's not really, it doesn't even have a life of its own. So there is a story in the Zohar about a hooker. Okay, maybe I should, it's kind of weird to talk about a hooker, but there was a son of a king, there was a son of a king, that the king wanted to test his son. He wanted to see how his son is going to handle if he's going to send him a temptation, a woman, a hooker, a temptation to go and tempt him, tempt him to sin, tempt him to do something that he shouldn't be doing. And in that story, what happens when the hooker goes there and she sees that the son of the king is resisting the temptation, she becomes happy and she actually helps him and he's able to resist it. And it's the same thing with our ego. When our ego sees that we are getting mad at it, that we do not like it, that we are pretty, pretty upset that this thing is trying to prevent us from like living the life that we're supposed to live, that we deserve to live, that we are created to live. And this thing is there, and when we change our attitude, when we become mad at it, that thing wants to leave. He wants to leave and he wants us to grow. He wants us to progress and he wants us to complete our mission. Because the only reason why it was created, for us to do just that. So that's it for today. Thank you for listening. Please subscribe to this channel, share this video if you like it. Your feedback is extremely important to me. Look forward to see you in the next videos. Take good care.