33. Balak 5779: From Good To Better: Getting Beyond Good And Bad

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/avrohom.lipszyc/videos/10157178083818257/ Notes: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ob8sbpv9b98zv11/33.%20Balak%205779%20-From%20Good%20to%20Better%20-Getting%20Beyond%20good%20and%20Bad.pdf?dl=0 The world says that when you lie with dogs, you get fleas. Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi says (-Tanya, Chapter 28), "He who wrestles with a filthy person is bound to become soiled himself." My personal favorite is, "Even if you win the rat race, you're still a rat." "What are our options," you ask? After all, the struggle to stay alive, with a roof over our head, car in the garage, and to send our kids through college is nothing more than a rat race. As the saying goes, idealism and ultraism is good for the young, and then we have to start paying bills. And to fight the rat race will only leave us with fleas and filth anyway. Which ultimately leaves us with the, "Oh Well, if you can't fight them, you might as well join them," attitude. Chassidim have an answer that goes like this, "Mehn darf zich haiben hecher -We need to rise ourselves up higher." Yes, life is a struggle, however, we get to choose at what plane of reality we are going to have this struggle. Are we going to be struggling on the plane of being Homo sapient or an animal, or are we going to struggle between being a Divine Being or a Homo sapient? The modern-day issue of this lecture is how to, "Zich haiben hecher -To rise ourselves up higher." This lecture is based primarily on a maamor the Rebbe delivered on the holiday of 12 Tammuz 1965, exploring the mystical secrets behind a verse in Balaam's failed curses.