The specter of a new, sticky, and torrid ruach hatumah in the world at large, the Jewish world, and in myself, stewing away and gnawing at the pot

Sometimes the heart is distracted enough from itself to actually be inspired to think of G-d and want to return to Him in love. Other times though, from quite another angle, it's drawn to itself so much that it's also inspired to think of G-d and wants to return to Him in love.

In any event, I'm sorely aware of the specter of a new, sticky, and torrid ruach hatumah in the world at large, the Jewish world, and in myself, stewing away and gnawing at the pot. In light of that, and in anticipation of our being freed from bondage soon and getting set to receive G-d's Torah, I thought I'd offer an intermittent detailed meditation on the Introduction to Moshe Chaim Luzzatto's Messilat Yesharim ("The Path of the Just") to help us along the road of teshuvah.

This is written in the spirit of the statement made by HaRav Eliyahu Lopian zt"l to the effect that Mussar is the art of enabling "the heart (to) feel what the mind understands (already)" (Lev Eliyahu, vol. 2 , p. 287).

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A Slow Reading of The Introduction to "The Path of the Just"

1.

"I have not written this text to teach people what they do not already know, but rather to remind them of what they do know and are well aware of. For what will be found in the great majority of what I have to say are things that are already known, and about which there is no doubt; but because they are so well-known and the truth of them is so self-evident, they are often hidden or completely forgotten."

-- There's nothing so bold ... yet so humdrum ... as truth said outright. After all, there are only a handful of truths, so when they're simply declared and set out verbatim we're thunderstruck and thrown by them at first, but then distracted, and easily bemused and made groggy by them. Ramchal noticed that, but needed to say the truth of who we are and what's expected of us again (as it must be said in every generation), so he dared to say it pointblank.

-- Many commentaries have been written in Hebrew on "The Path of the Just" by now and they all try to explain what Ramchal meant and how his comments compare and contrast with what he himself or others before and after him said about the same thing. But that's all a diversion, to my mind. The only things needed to be said about "The Path of the Just" are the very things that will make it come alive to each generation (which I tried to do in my own work on it, and which this meditation will expand upon).

-- His point now is, then, that we're to sit ourselves down now again and listen closely: to take in anew what we cannot deny.

Translation of text (c) 1996 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
Original comments (c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

R' Ashlag Ch. 20 (sect. 3)

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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Ch. 20

3.

“Indeed, the soul that's attired in our body is also essentially a ratzon. But (it’s different, in that) it’s a ratzon l’hashpia, which has been bestowed upon us from the four worlds of the holy-A.B.Y.A. (see 10:2). And it’s eternal, for the tsurah of a ratzon l’hashpia is in essential affinity with the Life of All Lives and is in no way mutable.”
-- His point is that at bottom, everything and everyone, G-d included, has a ratzon: a will to do, have, bestow, etc. one thing or another. Some instances of ratzon are more beneficial than others, though. The least beneficial of all is a ratzon l’kabel, which our mortal and mutable bodies and selves have inherited from the defiled-A.B.Y.A.; while the most beneficial is a ratzon l’hashpia, which immortal and immutable G-d expresses instrinsically, and our immortal and immutable souls have inherited from Him through the immortal and immutable holy-A.B.Y.A.

(c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )

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AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*! You can order it right now by logging onto www.tinyurl.com/49s8t (or by going to www.rowman.com and searching for it). Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

R' Ashlag Ch. 20 (sect. 2)

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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Ch. 20

2.

“And even though we haven’t yet actually arrived at the third era and won’t for some time, that doesn’t blemish (or alter) our essence, for the third era is an inevitable consequence of the first (as we learned)."

"For (there's an axiom to the effect that) 'everything due to be repaid is considered repaid already' (see Ketubot 81A); so our not having yet arrived at the third era would only be a problem if there were a question about our fulfilling what we'd have to in order to arrive at it. But since there's no question, it’s as though we’d indeed arrived at it already.”
-- "Everything due to be repaid is considered repaid already" means to say that every debt is considered to have already been repaid since it will be, in the process of time ... absent some sort of mitigating circumstance. So, since absolutely nothing will thwart the arrival of the third era, it has already come for all intents and purposes.

“As such, the body (i.e., person) that has been granted us in its present corrupted tsurah doesn’t blemish our essence, since it and all its effects stand ready to be annihilated along with the whole impure system from which it originates (and it's thus of little ultimate consequence). That's also (true) because (there's another, equivalent axiom to the effect that) ‘everything due to be burned is considered burned already’ (Menachot 102B) and is regarded as never having existed.”
-- "Everything due to be burned is considered burned already" means much the same as the above axiom to the effect that "everything due to be repaid is considered repaid already". The difference lies in the fact that while "everything due to be repaid ... " allows us to assume the third era is here for all intents and purposes, "everything due to be burned ... " allows us to assume as well that nothing but the third era has ever existed for all intents and purposes.

(c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )

********************************
AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*! You can order it right now by logging onto www.tinyurl.com/49s8t (or by going to www.rowman.com and searching for it). Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

"The Duties of the Heart" Gate Nine, Ch. 1

"In Search of Spiritual Excellence"

-- A Reworking of Classical Mussar Texts

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman's series on www.torah.org
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"The Duties of the Heart" Gate Nine, Ch. 1

We abstain from things all the time in this world, and for many different reasons. And we often don't give it a second thought. So let's begin to explore what sets this sort of everyday, "conventional" abstinence apart from other kinds.

But let's start with the basics. As Ibn Pakudah defines it, "Abstinence is the act of stifling your desires and avoiding something ... which you're nonetheless able and prepared to have" and which you have an "aptitude for" or inclination toward, that you nonetheless "purposely don't act on". That's to say that it comes down to being very able and willing to engage in something which you then don't, for one reason or another. And he terms abstinence "one of the cornerstones" of society which "people need just as much as they need any other field of study and skill" (i.e., any other form of set human behavior or rules of interaction).

Expanding on our idea that we abstain from very many things every day, we notice that many people conventionally and habitually stay away from foods they'd like to have for health reasons, for example. Many avoid certain situations on a regular basis that might threaten their social or professional standing even when drawn toward them, and many stifle emotions they'd like to (or feel they have to) express for the sake of civility. Despite the truth of all that and how widespread it is, it's still true that all these instances of conventional abstinence have only material benefits in mind, albeit good and reasonable ones.

The kind of self-denial that the Torah asks of us is nonetheless rooted in *spiritual* benefits. But there are some fundamental principles about human nature's good and bad points that we'd have to lay out before we could go on from there to depicting healthy, Torah-based abstinence.

We're to always recall that it was G-d Himself who imbued us with quite normal desires that enable us to do good, healthy, and wholesome things in the world, which G-d wants us to express and even rewards us for expressing when done in the proper context. After all, as Ibn Pakudah points out, it was He who "implanted a desire for food (and drink) in our souls" as well as "a penchant for intercourse" which He "meant for us to enjoy".

There's no denying the fact, though, that we sometimes go to extremes, "which brings us to ruin, and wracks our body". And besides, at bottom, G-d wants us to strive for self-discipline and a degree of purity beyond the everyday. So, it would obviously do us well to learn the art of abstinence and draw upon it in our search for spiritual excellence.

But Ibn Pakudah asserts that not everyone should undertake the more erudite and specific sort of abstinence that the Torah requires of our people, since the "world would never be cultivated if everyone devoted himself to the practice of the same (spiritual discipline)". For society at large is best served if different peoples engage in various disciplines. He thus invites us to inquire into just what the Torah would have our people abstain from, and to what degree.

(c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org

(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )

********************************
AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*! You can order it right now by logging onto www.tinyurl.com/49s8t (or by going to www.rowman.com and searching for it). Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

R' Ashlag Ch. 20 (sect. 1)

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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Ch. 20

1.

“Now that we've explained all that we can solve our very first question, which was, ‘What are we essentially’?”.

-- See 1:2.

“What we are in essence is the very thing everything else is, which is a ratzon l’kabel (incarnate) -- no more and no less.”

-- Our will, some would say *need*, to take-in all the time is ubiquitous, boundless, utterly normal, and not to be denied. What differentiates us from each other, though, is just what we want.
-- Some want only the bare minimum, other more, and others the maximum. Some who want the bare minimum want it for healthy reasons, others for unhealthy ones; and the same is true of those who want more and the most. Some only want material things, others want some combination of material and spiritual things, and some only want G-d. But even someone who wants G-d alone *wants* Him and for his own reasons, and thus is no less “wanting” than the person who wants as much material delight as he can get, though his Object of desire is far more sublime.
-- There’s very much to be said about this, needless to say, but suffice it to say that R’ Ashlag’s point is that we each want and are rarely willing to give (unless we get more in return, the way we’re all willing to pay to get the things we want, though no one who gives money in such an instance would likely be termed altruistic). And anyone who thinks he or she is indeed and utterly altruistic is either a hypocrite, an innocent or naif, or a liar (though we each can be altruistic to degrees).
-- That’s not to say that altruism isn’t attainable, because it is; *it’s just not yet in our midst*.

“But we’re not (comprised of a ratzon l’kabel as) the ratzon l’kabel manifests itself now in the second era, as a desire to take-in and for our own benefit alone; but rather as it manifested in the first era in G-d’s Infinite Being, which is to say, in its eternal form of a willingness to take-in in order to gratify (another -- and in this case,) our Creator.”

-- What we said above not withstanding, still-and-all humankind isn’t *essentially* selfish. We’re only selfish “for now”, i.e., for the 6,000 years that comprise this second era. What we are at bottom is selfless, and only willing to take-in so as to give in return -- but again, that’s not how we know humankind and ourselves to be now. But we’re to know that we’ll eventually be so selfless that the *only* reason we’d ever accept anything (from G-d, from Whom everything comes at bottom) would be to give it back (to G-d), one way or another.

(c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )

********************************
AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*! You can order it right now by logging onto www.tinyurl.com/49s8t (or by going to www.rowman.com and searching for it). Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

Ramchal on Pesach

RAMCHAL

-- A Reworking of Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto's "The Way of G-d"

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman's series on www.torah.org

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"The Way of G-d"

Ch. 8: "Seasonal Mitzvot", Paragraph 1

Matzah is a fairly flavorless flat-bread, yet it draws the attention of millions during Passover and also helps to explain the human condition. But we'd have to explicate its spiritual core to understand how that's so, so let's start off by delving back into antiquity with Ramchal's insights.

The world was a spiritually dark and opaque place in the days before the Jewish Nation were enslaved, freed, and granted the Torah. And we ourselves were just another more or less nondescript brew of families and tribes among many others, with some words and ideas of our own yet hardly distinct. But that all changed with the Exodus.

For that's when our people were honed into a nation with a particular responsibility -- to rectify the world's opacity. And we were to begin by eliminating all forms of leavening ("chametz") from our diet and replacing it with matzah during Passover.

Why of all things were we warned against chametz, though? It's based on the fact that bread is mankind's most basic foodstuff and the substance from which we draw the resources to do what we need to, and that leavening is a necessary element of it.

After all, leavening is what gives bread its heft, tang, and touch. Since it's such a fundamental element of our most basic food, it stands to reason that it also contributes in large measure to what we're made of, including our yetzer harah (our pull toward more doughy earthiness over Divinity). So when we do without leavened bread on Passover and are nourished by matzah instead (with all its own mystical overtones and suggestions), we help diminish the yetzer harah's pull upon us.

But it's important to realize that despite the problems it presents to us in our worship and spiritual growth, the yetzer harah also plays a vital and fundamental role in the workings of the universe.

Now, this touches upon some very complex concepts in Jewish Thought that would take us far afield from our discussion. But it comes to this, in short: without a pull toward earthiness we'd be subsumed in G-dliness and be utterly unable to elect to do right over wrong on our own (after all, how could one ever opt for wrong when he's in the clear presence of G-d?). While it would seem to be in our own best interests to be "coerced" that way to choose right, that's actually not true. For we were created to freely and purposefully choose to do what's right of our own volition.

So it would run counter to G-d's plans for the universe if we were to always be without a yetzer harah, as we are when we ingest matzah (in the right spirit, that is -- in one of full faith and utter surrender to the Divine Will). And that's why we're only charged to subsist on matzah for the week of Passover.

Knowing what we do about it now, we see why eating matzah is the primary accomplishment of Passover (which is also known as the Festival of Matzahs), and how all the other rituals of the seder night are necessarily connected to it.
(c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org

(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )

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AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*! You can order it right now by logging onto www.tinyurl.com/49s8t (or by going to www.rowman.com and searching for it). Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

R' Ashlag Ch. 19 (sect. 4)

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________________

Ch. 19

4.

"In point of fact, though, all the world's trials and tribulations are only phantasms displayed before our eyes in order to prod us to undo the wrongful husk of the body (i.e., our ratzon l’kabel) and to accept upon ourselves the proper tsurah of the ratzon l’hashpia."

-- Each and every cataclysm and calamity we'd ever suffered, we'll learn, was nothing but a fable and was as misleading as a nightmare. All it ever did was serve as a study in what matters and what doesn't, what's immutable and what ephemeral. And the lesson we'll draw from it is this: the only reason we ever suffered was because we were always and only self-absorbed. And only now (we’ll say in the third era), when we're no longer self-absorbed and are fully blessed and content instead, do we know how true that all is.

"But as we've said, (following) the path of trial and tribulation (in contradistinction to following the path of Torah and mitzvot) will (also) grant us the means to assume the better tsurah (of a ratzon l’hashpia)."

-- That is, we'll all perforce become selfless, as we've said; and we'll always have the option of learning the above lesson by means of experiencing trial and tribulation on our own and then “getting it”. But R’ Ashlag’s implication is that we could learn the very same lesson -- though more painlessly and expeditiously -- by drawing upon the wisdom of Torah which teaches us that and by living out its life-lessons through the mitzvah system.

"Nonetheless know that fulfilling interpersonal mitzvot (mitzvot bein adam l’chavero) takes precedence over fulfilling the more sacramental ones (known as mitzvot bein adam l’Makom), because (in the end) our bestowing upon others (by fulfilling interpersonal mitzvot) will have us bestow upon G-d (too, as a matter of course)."

-- His final point here is that we're nonetheless to know that there are mitzvot, and there are mitzvot.
-- There are the more ceremonial ones (like donning Tephillin, observing Shabbat, eating Matzah on Passover, etc.) that are relatively easy to fulfill since they only require that we do what G-d -- who is invisible, never complains, and is never unreceptive or ungrateful -- asks us to; and there are the interpersonal ones (like giving charity, visiting the sick, loaning money, etc.) that are more difficult, since they demand that we contend with others’ own self-interests which always run counter to our own.
-- In any event, the sort of muscular rowing against the deafening flux of egos we'd have to engage in to satisfy another's needs while subduing our own would serve us better in the end, since it would help us achieve a ratzon l’hashpia, and make it easier for us to acquiesce to G-d's will when that goes against the grain.

(c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )

********************************
AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*! You can order it right now by logging onto www.tinyurl.com/49s8t (or by going to www.rowman.com and searching for it). Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

"The Duties of the Heart" Gate 9, Introduction

"In Search of Spiritual Excellence"

-- A Reworking of Classical Mussar Texts

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman's series on www.torah.org
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"The Duties of the Heart" Gate 9, Introduction

Abstinence is probably the most demanding condition for spiritual excellence, since at bottom we all tend to indulge while abstinence demands that we withhold. It also asks us to hone our allegiances and declare which we favor: heavenly or earthly delights (of course the Torah allows for both at the same time, but we're talking about *favoring* one over the other).

The assumption is that since we'd learned all we had in our introspections about what truly matters and what doesn't, about what we already have and what we can do without, that we'd be more inclined by now to abstain from some earthly things than we'd thought we could. And indeed, the wise reader will come to that point, we're told, and will worship more deeply and be better off both spiritually and materially as a consequence.

We'll be explaining the difference between "conventional" abstinence and the kind that the Torah requires of us, and we'll examine the various sorts of abstainers, the criteria for beneficial and appropriate abstinence, how the Torah and the Books of the Prophets depict abstinence, and we'll discover the difference between the way our ancestors abstained from things and how we're to abstain.

(c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org

(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )

********************************
AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*! You can order it right now by logging onto www.tinyurl.com/49s8t (or by going to www.rowman.com and searching for it). Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

R' Ashlag Ch. 19 (sect. 3)

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________________

Ch. 19

3.

"Understand (as well) that once all of humanity agrees to abolish and eradicate its ratzon l’kabel and to want nothing other than to bestow upon others (rather than just take from them) -- all our worldly worries and injuries will cease to exist, and everyone will be assured of a healthy and perfect life. For everyone would have an entire world concerned with him alone in with satisfying his (every) need".

"But there’ll always be (the sort of) worries, trials and tribulations, wars, and bloodshed that we can’t (yet) avoid that dispirit, afflict, and pain us as long as everyone only wants things for his own benefit".

-- This is a quite remarkable section that cries out for explanation. First off it’s important to know that this will all happen at the *beginning* of the third era, since it refers to both mundane and rarefied events that will only come about then -- when Heaven and Earth commingle as they wouldn’t have till then and wouldn’t need to any longer.
-- The point is that the essential nothingness and great harmfulness of the ratzon l’kabel pointed to above will become clear to “all of humanity”, Jew and Gentile, by that point; each and every person will decide that he or she had had enough of it, and would elect to express a ratzon l’hashpia instead.
-- Understand, of course, that this will be a massive and fulgent instance of pure, selfless knowing and revelation far out of our experience, and only comparable to the one our people achieved when they said Na’aseh v’Nishma -- “We’ll do (all that’s asked of us right here and now, as G-d speaks) and listen (to His explanations afterwards)” (Exodus 24:7), after having been given the Torah. After all, we’d be abandoning everything de rigueur and natural, and embracing a wholly new and unaccustomed perspective that would threaten us to the core!
-- But the shift will happen, we’re assured, and it will sit well with us after a time because we’d see the benefits. For by virtue of the fact that we’d all have chosen to bestow rather than take-in, whenever one of us wanted or needed something (for some unselfish and high-minded reason, of course), the rest of us would be ready to bestow it upon him. And no one would ever lack for anything again.
-- Parenthetically, R’ Ashlag says in many places that we humans actually don’t have the ability to assume a ratzon l’hashpia on our own, and that the only thing we’re expected to do realistically to realize one would be to pray to G-d that He grant it to us; so how could the above statement stand? Apparently R’ Ashlag’s point is that we will indeed have come to pray for it by that point -- every single one of us -- because it would have been the beginning of the third era by then; and that the force of that universal prayer will storm the gates of Heaven and allow for the possibility.

(c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )

********************************
AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*! You can order it right now by logging onto www.tinyurl.com/49s8t (or by going to www.rowman.com and searching for it). Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

"The Way of G-d", Ch. 6, Paragraph 11

RAMCHAL

-- A Reworking of Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto's "The Way of G-d"

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman's series on www.torah.org

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"The Way of G-d", Ch. 6, Paragraph 11

Few things tug at the very core of the cosmos as much as we do, when we recite the Sh'mone Esrei. So let's delve into that core-central prayer. But it's important to understand a few things beforehand about the workings of the universe as Ramchal explains them.

We're taught that G-d's Ineffable name -- which is composed of the four letters Yod, Hay, Vav, and Hay -- forms the backdrop to all of creation. Now, the structure and makeup as well as the interactions between those four letters go to explain very many things about the overt and covert workings of the universe. But we'll only touch upon these few facts about them for our purposes.

We also learn that G-d's Providence reaches us primarily through three sources which are alluded to by the first three of the four Hebrew letters of G-d's name. The three of them must be joined together on a very deep and wide esoteric level if that Providence is to reach us. And we're also told that the final letter of G-d's name, Hay, only comes into play once the other three are joined together.

And all of that is activated when we recite the first blessing of the Sh'mone Esrei which reads as follows (with some omissions): "Blessed are You, our G-d and G-d of our fathers -- the G-d of Abraham, the G-d of Isaac, and the G-d of Jacob -- the great, mighty, and awesome G-d ... who recalls the Patriarchs' acts of kindness, and will bring a Deliverer to their descendants .... ".

For we're told that the three letters of G-d's name under discussion are subtly alluded to by the terms "great, mighty, and awesome" there; and that they're tied-in on an arcane level with the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as well. What that comes to is this.

The term "great" alludes to G-d's kindness (according to one kabbalistic system), which is represented by the letter Yod of His name and by the patriarch Abraham; "mighty" alludes to G-d's judgment, which is represented by the (first) letter Hay and by the patriarch Isaac; and "awesome" alludes to G-d's mercy, which is represented by the letter Vav and by the patriarch Jacob.

So when we cite Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we draw upon their many merits which then allow for G-d's Providence to pass through the "pipes" of the letters Yod, Hay, Vav which have thus been united under the cumulative merits of the patriarchs.

The final letter, Hay, is activated by the statement later on in that blessing about G-d bringing a Deliverer to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's descendants, since that alludes to King David, from whose line the Moshiach will come. David's descendant will thus complete the role of the patriarchs, and will thus join all *four* letters of the Divine name together.

The Sh'mone Esrei's middle blessings then help transmit G-d's Providence through those "pipes", and the last blessings allow that all to reach its intended recipients.

(c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org

(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )

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AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*! You can order it right now by logging onto www.tinyurl.com/49s8t (or by going to www.rowman.com and searching for it). Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

R' Ashlag Ch. 19 (sect. 2)

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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Ch. 19

2.

"What that all comes to teach us is that our ratzon l’kabel was only created to (eventually) be annihilated and removed from the world, and to be transformed into a ratzon l’hashpia. And that all the trials and tribulations we suffer are (at bottom only meant) to serve as means of disclosing the ratzon l’kabel’s essential nothingness and great harmfulness".

-- Some wiser, more fortunate souls learn from adversity. They come to learn from poverty, for example, how to make do with what they have, use it to the maximum, and enjoy it. (Everything they own becomes even more luscious and rich as a result, if they become prosperous).

-- We ourselves are expected to be more thoughtful and insightful about our trials and tribulations in this second era (which will inevitably lead to the third era, at the beginning of which the following will all take place).

-- For while trials and tribulations are dreadful, before they vanish (which they inevitably will) we can learn from them that the ultimate purpose they served was to have us realize just how harmful their cause -- our self-absorption -- (ratzon l’kabel) had been all along, and how much pain it had caused us.

-- Indeed, once we do that we can purposefully adopt the alternative, selflessness (a ratzon l’hashpia), and immediately realize its benefits. Or we can have suffered trials and tribulations, and have learned nothing from them (as most people do), and inherit a ratzon l’hashpia despite ourselves. But what benefits are there to becoming selfless? As we’ll see, ......

(c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )

********************************
AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*! You can order it right now by logging onto www.tinyurl.com/49s8t (or by going to www.rowman.com and searching for it). Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".