The Beyond Meaningful Relationships – Relationshipful Meaning series at the kloiz meets on Wednesday nights at 8^pm EDT.

(If you missed our discussion so far, there is always the posts in The Kloiz Aspaqlaria category.)

Wednesday night (June 8^th, 2022) we continued our discussion of the parts of a person — body, mind and soul, and the aspects of the soul that addresses each — nefesh, ruach and neshamah, by discussing the Maharal’s take on the flaws caused by the excesses of each.

In his commentary on Avos 4:21, the Maharal discusses the mishnah‘s list of three vices that “take one from the world” — qin’ah, ta’avah, and kavod (jealousy, [physical] desire and [one’s own] honor, as the Maharal defines them). Each of them

We concluded by starting a piece from Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch’s discussion of symbolism in tzitzis will close our discussion of threes. His discussion of the meaning of 6, 7, and 8 and of red, green and blue, will be closing our discussion of threes.

Go to http://thekloiz.aishdas.org for links to the Zoom room, a link to join the WhatsApp group, to recordings of past shiurim, and the other posts like this one.

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The resource sheet for the Maharal on Avos 4:21 and Rav Hirsch’s essay on the symbolism of tzitzis is on Sefaria at https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/409461

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The story so far:

Maharal
Pillars	Torah	Avodah	Gemilus Chasadim
Tov	Inherent / Relationship to Soul	Relationship to Hashem	Relationship to Others
Uprooting Sin	Gilui Arayos	Avodah Zara	Shefichas Damim
Sustains the world	… gives the world value.	… for it was created liKhvodi	… causes Hashem’s Chessed to the world
Avos	Yaaqov	Yitzchaq	Avraham
Yaaqov/Yisrael as Synthesis	Yaaqov Rivqa’s two bracelets of 5 gold each	Yitchaq Rivqa’s nose-ring	Rivqa
Sefer haYetzirah “Mother Letters”	א	ש	מ
Non-Intert Elements	Air/Wind (אוויר)	Fire (אש)	Water (מים)
Element as Middah	Thought in Torah	Passion / “Hislahavus“ in Avodah	Calm / Unity in relating to other people
Protecting Torah / Anshei Keneses haGdolah	Establishing many students	Diligence in Law	Making a siyag laTorah (i.e. morality rather than precise Law)
Dynamic	Middle (Synthesis or Dialectic)	Truth / Law	Peace / Lovingkindness
Gra
Aspect of Soul	Ruach	Neshamah	Nefesh
Desires	Ego	Spiritual	Physical
Time of Life (paired with desires)	Adulthood	Old Age	Youth
Time of Night	Middle – the dog barks (demanding “hav hav!”)	Near Dawn – The baby nurses, the wife talks with her husband	Near Sunset – The Donkey Brays
Children of Adam & Chavah	Hevel	Qayin	Sheis (bidmuso betzalmo)
World	“In the Air” / the world between our ears	Shamayim	Aretz
Organ	Heart	Head	Liver / Groin
Micha’s Miqdash Speculation
Crowns (simple take)	Torah	Kehunah	Kingship
Crowns (according to Maharal 4:13)	Torah	Kingship – in the soul’s ability to rule mind and body	Kehunah as the sanctification of the physical
Crowned Kelim (see the Maharal, Avos 1:2)	Aron	Mizbeiach haZahav	Shulchan
Uncrowned Keilim (deducing from the Gra)	Menorah	Mizbeiach Nekhoshes	Kiyor