A Crisp Elul Morning: 06/01/2005

Thursday, June 30, 2005

"The Duties of the Heart" Gate Nine, Ch. 5 (Part 3)

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

"The Great Redemption" (2)

"The Great Redemption" by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto

-- A Discourse on The End of the Exile and the Beginning of the Great Redemption

Translated by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
_____________________________________________

2.

It’s important to know that the redemption from Egypt and the one that will eventually come about have a lot in common, but the latter will be greater yet. For all of creation will experience a degree of tranquility then far beyond any other since the beginning of time. So I’ll now explain some things about the redemption from Egypt and many aspects of the eventual redemption so that “you will see the wonders of the One who is perfect in knowledge” (Job 37:16).

But I won’t go into them at length since they’re so great and auspicious, and also because the rarity of the wisdom (that) is (to be displayed by the process is) not to be elaborated upon. I’ll thus be brief and (only) provide you with several very important principles which you’d do well to dwell upon and delve into deeply. May “G-d grant (us) wisdom; (for) from His mouth comes knowledge and understanding” (Proverbs 2:6).

I’ll first explain some of the imperfections that the exile brought upon the Jewish Nation so you might understand the phenomenon of the redemption well (in contrast), when all those imperfections will be rectified. And you’ll thus be able to note the profound wisdom (involved) in the fact that not a single thing happens in the world -- no matter how insignificant -- that isn’t tied in with many great secrets known to those aware of the truth.

Just know that while a lot of imperfections have come about as a result of the exile, they can be broken down into four main categories.

(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".

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

"The Way of G-d" Part 4, Ch.7, Paragraph 2

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" Part 4, Ch.7, Paragraph 2

The week -- and existence at large -- is based on a cycle of seven. Each week is made up of six week days that culminate in the Shabbat, and the universe is comprised of a cycle of six thousand years of existence as we know it which will culminate in (the seventh millennium of) the World to Come. That being so, we'll delve into the Shabbat before we examine the Holy Days and other singular times in the Jewish calendar, and we'll see just how pivotal the Shabbat is to the workings of the universe.

(There are a number of reasons offered as to why the number seven plays such a significant role, such as the uncanny fact that there are seven notes to the tonal musical scale; or the idea that the number six is the sum of a perfectly simple and elegant progression of one plus two plus three, which then starts all over again with another number one, adding up to seven, etc. At bottom, though, we're taught that there's actually no more reason to figure out why seven is basic to the universe than it is to try to figure out why we have two eyes rather than three or the like; for we're to trust that G-d has His reasons for doing things the way He does, and to know that each and every phenomenon plays its own imperative role in G-d's intentions for creation.)

There's another essential phenomenon unique to the Shabbat aside from it being the distinctive seventh day of the week, having to do with the following. We learned earlier on that there are a plethora of both holy and non-holy (i.e., profane) elements throughout the universe in keeping with G-d's plans (see 4:6:1). So there had to be a way for humankind to not be overcome by so much non-holiness.

G-d thus saw to it that there'd be a just-so amount of non-holiness to contend with, and that there'd be an escape-hatch to holiness, if you will. We can't fathom the ramifications of it, but we're to know that a lot of Divine attention was paid on the determination of just the right mix of holy and profane (both how much of each and of what sort was to exist; when and where each quality would dominate, etc.) as well as on a determination of just how far the combination could go before there'd be just too much of the profane.

It was determined that there had to be a just-so combination of holiness and profane in the course of *the week* as well, and G-d resolved that the best combination would be the six-parts profane and one-part pure holiness cited above, and that the Shabbat was to provide the one-part pure holiness.

It was also decreed that time was to consist of a rotating cycle of seven days rather than an unending series of days (which also helps explain why the universe was created in seven days specifically), and that each element of the universe was to fall under a cyclical paradigm. It was even determined that history as we know it would end in the seventh, Sabbatical millennium "of rest" then begin anew (on a wholly other level that's actually above time and beyond our ken .... but that's a subject unto itself). It was likewise determined that each "seventh", the Shabbat and The World to Come, was to be holy and capable of elevating the preceding six (making all of existence holy in the end).

It's clear then that our having been granted the Shabbat (as well as The World to Come) was a great gift from G-d who wants us to be a holy nation and has bidden us to elevate the universe and sanctify 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".

Monday, June 27, 2005

"The Great Redemption" (1)

"The Great Redemption" by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto

-- A Discourse on The End of the Exile and the Beginning of the Great Redemption

Translated by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
_____________________________________________

1.

The verse that reads, “Do not rejoice for my sake, my enemy! For though I fell, I arose; when I sit in darkness, G-d (Himself) is my light!” (Micha 7:8) divulges the secret of the Jewish Nation’s confidence in and anticipation of its total redemption, (which we pray will come) quickly and in our lifetimes, Amen!

But as those sages who have trod the paths of wisdom and come to recognize its veracity know, many mighty and prodigious things will have to transpire and a lot of preparations will have to be made before the redemption can come about. Still and all, once wisdom will spread about the world, everyone will see and know for himself that “G-d has wrought great miracles for us” (Psalms 126:3).

For while the Jewish Nation might have thought that G-d was hiding His countenance from them or had forsaken them, He was actually preparing goodness and blessings for them (all along)! For each and every moment He was preparing immeasurably far-reaching and vast storehouses for them, while setting priceless, precious, and captivating wealth and kingly treasure troves within those storehouses. In fact, they were being filled more than the mouth could enunciate, the ear could hear, or the heart conceive of.

And they’ll be opened up in the great halcyon days to come, when all sorts of exquisite things will cascade out of them and be handed over to the Jewish Nation in recompense for all the arduous things they had to do in exile.
For as it’s said in regard to this great mystery, “(G-d,) have us rejoice as many days as You afflicted us; as many years as we’ve seen wrongdoing” (Psalms 90:15).

All the light that didn’t shine upon the Jewish Nation for all the years they were in exile, that was to have shone, had never vanished. G-d stored it all in those storehouses. And it will pour out in one fell swoop once they’re opened. The Jewish Nation will then experience a degree of joy unlike any other, and the world itself will be rectified (and enjoy) a state of tranquility and calm then, and there’ll be no more sorrow.

But should you claim that the verse (" ... have us rejoice as many days as You afflicted us; as many years as we’ve seen wrongdoing”) only refers to the number of years (we’re to be in exile) then know that there aren’t enough years left to the world’s (allotted) 6,000 to equal the number we’ve been in exile.

(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".

Sunday, June 26, 2005

"The Great Redemption" (Intro.)

"The Great Redemption" by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto

-- A Discourse on The End of the Exile and the Beginning of the Great Redemption

Translated by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
_____________________________________________

I'm beginning a new series now, please G-d, and offering a translation of Ramchal's lesser-known "Ma'amar HaGeulah" (A Discourse on The Redemption). The translation will be left uncommented upon (probably), though I might offer a series of explanations after the whole series. Here's an introduction for the meanwhile.

A Preliminary Overview:

The Great Redemption (The "Geulah") will start to unfurl at a slow, steady pace as the great Luminaries ("M'orot") begin the awesome process of adjustment and repair. The end will be the perfection of the Jewish Nation along with the rectification of the entire world. But a lot will happen before that. And it's "Ma'amar HaGeulah" that details what will go on both within the Luminaries themselves and in the course of the great unfurling.

The work itself is divided into four parts: First is an explanation of the nature and consequences of the exile ("Galut") we're now in; second, an overview of the "P'kidah" and "Z'chirah" stages; third, the rectification of the Shechina and both Moshichim (plural of Moshiach, or "Messiah"); and fourth, an explication of certain recondite themes like "tumah", the "husks" and the "other side", as well as the "union of HaKodesh Boruch Hu and His Shechina", the coming of the Moshiach, the unfurling of wisdom and the supernal light that's been sequestered away, and our eventual eternal D'vekut onto G-d.

Galut:

Four tragic things characterize the galut (aside from our being in exile). The light that the Luminaries emit is hidden away, thusby emboldening the powers of impurity; other nations rule over us with a vengeance; the Shechina dwells among the impurities; and we suffer all sorts of trials and tribulations.

P'kidah:

This is the first stage in the geulah. The term "p'kidah" itself implies a visitation or a special dispensation of Divine favor, as in "G-d *visited* Sarah as He said (He would); ... did what He said (He would) for Sarah, and Sarah conceived" (Genesis 21:1-2).

At this stage the earliest damage done by the exile -- The hiding of the supernal light and the subsequent emboldening of the powers of impurity -- will be repaired to a great degree though not entirely. And the Shechina will emerge out of the dust. But those things will only come about on a level we wouldn't actually experience (i.e., on a soul level), and only for a short time at that.

The Moshiach's spirit will start to come to life then, too, and he'll begin to blossom. Finally, our people will be inspired to return to G-d's service. Then the z'chirah stage will begin.

Z'chirah:

The term z'chirah implies dwelling upon something and remembering it, as in "And G-d remembered Rachel, ... listened to her, and opened her womb" (Genesis 30:22).

It's in the z'chirah stage that outward and apparent changes will come about, and that all four forms of harm done in galut will be amended. Moshiach Ben Yoseph and Moshiach Ben David will have both appeared and lead the Jewish Nation to Israel, all of our troubles will cease, and the Holy Temple ("Beit Hamikdash") will be rebuilt.

The great and ultimate truth that G-d is indeed the Sovereign King of the universe will become manifest, and that will bring on the goodness and peace we've always wanted as well as the destruction of evil, and the great universal rectification.

The Rectified World:

The "Great Gate" will be reopened in the end, and holiness will reign. We'll understand that harm and wrongdoing was never meant to be permanent, and joy will fill the world.

(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".

Thursday, June 23, 2005

"The Duties of the Heart" Gate Nine, Ch. 5 (Part 2)

"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. 5 (Part 2)

There are many, many ways to practice Torah-sanctioned abstinence when it comes to the physical world. But we'll lay them out in terms of things that are outright forbidden of us, and things that are perfectly permissible but could lead to problems.

Let's first touch upon the forbidden. Now, we're clearly expected to abstain from the things that the Torah forbad us outright if we're ever to achieve spiritual excellence. But some forbidden things are harder to avoid because we're drawn to them, while others are quite easy to avoid. After all, who wants to eat blood or all sorts of vermin, as we're told not to, for example?

But there are other things we're bidden not to partake in that we're neither drawn to nor particularly repelled by, like wearing "shatnez" (a combination of wool and linen), which we're commanded not to wear. And of course there are certain, clearly illicit things that we're indeed drawn to (which we needn't detail), which most would agree we should refrain from in order to achieve our spiritual goals.

So Ibn Pakudah argues that appropriate abstinence would be to somehow get to the point where the forbidden things that we'd be tempted to partake of become *just as vile to us* as the forbidden things we already find repulsive. That obviously calls for a lot of forethought and effort, but it's perhaps as easy to come to as learning to hate fatty foods after you'd had to endure surgery for poor health, because you know the consequences of eating them.

Now, when it comes to things that are otherwise perfectly permissible which we're advised to abstain from to some degree, it's important to realize that there are different categories there, too. Some things are out-and-out necessities and others are luxuries or excesses (while most are somewhere in-between). We're to certainly partake of permitted things that our health and well-being require (like food and drink, relaxation, and the like) -- but not to excess. Since that would distract us from our spiritual goals. But that's not at all to say that we're to remove ourselves from the world in the process; for, again, we're not bidden to do that.

And there are several, perhaps unexpected areas in which we're asked to practice appropriate abstention. We're told that we'd well to avoid speaking too much, for example. Since, as Ibn Pakudah puts it, "the tongue is quick to sin and its sins are the most numerous sort of all." After all, "just try to remember what has come out of your mouth in the course of a day" and you're sure to be embarrassed!

We're then advised to temper our senses of sight and hearing, and to "not see what you do not need to, or look at things that distract you from thinking about important things"; and to avoid "hearing what you don't need to hear, and stop listening ... to needless, untrue, rumorous, and gossipy conversation", as well as from listening to "things that lead you to rebel against G–d or neglect His commandments".

We're next counseled to try to curb our appetites by "reducing the number of side dishes (we) eat, and making do with just one of them", to then try to "do without side dishes that require a lot of effort and exertion to prepare, and to then live on food that requires none". We're even advised to get to the point where we can "look at what we eat as medicine" rather than as actual food, which is to say, as nourishment rather than as a treat.

And lastly, when it comes to bodily movements, we're (of course) warned not to use our hands to steal or harm anyone, but rather to give charity and to ply at a trade or profession; and to never use our legs and feet to draw close to wrongdoers, but rather in order to do good and to visit the wise and pious.

And lastly, we're warned not to take each category of abstinence in isolation and to assume it's good enough to succeed at one even when failing at the others, because that's not true. For just as the body is a melange of parts that seem utterly unique unto themselves but which are actually conjoined elements of a single body, all our traits are conjoined as well and are to be refined en mass. For as Ibn Pakudah puts it, "you can't possibly master all of these traits if you omit a single one of them, for they're like a string of pearls: detach one of them, and the rest will scatter about, and you'd lose the strand" in the end.

(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".

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

R' Ashlag Ch. 25

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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25.

-- This is a rather complex chapter that draws upon a lot of what's been said before. We'll do what we can to encapsulate it at the end and point out where it's going to be taking us.

"We now have a solution to our fifth inquiry (see 3:2) in which we asked why the body will be resurrected, seeing how base it is and given that its (immortal) soul won't appear in it in all its purity until the body decomposes. And (we can also now offer a solution to) our sages’ statement that 'The dead will be brought back to life with all their defects (in place) so that they won't be mistaken for anyone else (and that all those defects will be cured afterwards)' (Zohar, Emor 17), based on the original intent behind creation in the first era."

"For as we'd said, G-d meant for His creations to derive pleasure (see 6:1), so He had to create a great and comprehensive enough willingness to take-in all the great bounty that lay at the intention of creation, since (the ability to take-in) a great deal of pleasure and (the need to have a correspondingly) comprehensive ratzon l’kabel go hand in hand (see 6:2-3). For as we said, this enormous ratzon l’kabel was the only thing created anew (see 7:1-2), since G-d didn't need to create anything else to carry out His intentions for creation and (also) because it's only natural that a perfect Producer wouldn't produce anything extraneous."

"Now, we've also said that this comprehensive ratzon l’kabel was withdrawn from the four worlds of holy-A.B.Y.A. and placed in the four worlds of defiled-A.B.Y.A. (see 10:2) which the bodies of this world devolved from and derived their sustenance and everything that comprises them. And we said that one only begins to attain a holy (immortal) soul when he reaches thirteen (or twelve, in the case of a woman) thanks to his involvement in Torah and Mitzvot (with the intention to please G-d), when he starts to be nourished by the four worlds of holy-A.B.Y.A. to a degree that corresponds to the size of the holy (immortal) soul he attained (see 11:2)."

"We likewise said that during the six thousand years that we've been granted to engage in Torah and Mitzvot that the body -- i.e., its comprehensive ratzon l’kabel -- wouldn't be rectified. All the rectifications that will come about would be due to our efforts alone, and would only touch upon the nefesh (i.e., the lowest degree of soul) from which those rectifications will ascend upward through the various degrees of holiness and purity in order to (eventually) enhance the ratzon l’hashpia that evolves along with the soul."

"Now all that helps to explain why the body is doomed to die, be buried, and decompose (as we'll see)."

"After all, the body wouldn’t been rectified in any way -- but it (simply) can't remain in that state (forever). And yet if the (body's) comprehensive ratzon l’kabel would be (prematurely) removed from the world, then G-d's intentions for creation -- that everyone would be granted all the great delights that He wanted them to -- wouldn't be carried out, G-d forbid. After all (as we alluded to above), a great ratzon l’kabel and (the ability to sustain) a great deal of pleasure go hand in hand, and one's ratzon l’kabel diminishes to the selfsame degree that his delight and pleasure upon receiving diminishes."

-- The following *begins* to explain why the body must die and decompose before it's to be resurrected. As we learned, G-d intended mankind to derive pleasure in this world (and the next, too). So He quite logically instilled a desire for pleasure in our beings; and He likewise quite reasonably provided us with as great a desire for pleasure as the pleasure itself would be. That's why G-d created our ratzon l’kabel.
-- But it's important to realize that it needs to be rectified. We'll get back to that.
-- We also learned that we only begin to develop an immortal soul once we start to fulfill G-d's mitzvot and study His Torah; and that the greater and purer our engagement in that, the greater and purer will our soul be.
-- Nonetheless, that process won't rectify our problematic ratzon l’kabel. All we'd have accomplished by engaging in Torah and mitzvot would be to have advanced our soul upward by degrees and eventually bolstered our ratzon l’hashpia -- which is no mean feet at all! But we will not have undone our ratzon l’kabel.
-- So how will our ratzon l’kabel be undone in the end (but not beforehand) as it must in order to accomplish G-d's plans? Why must we be resurrected? And why indeed did our sages say that the "dead will be brought back to life with all their defects (in place)" in order not to "be mistaken for anyone else" by that point? We'll come to all that in the next few chapters.

(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".

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

"The Way of G-d" Part 4, Ch.7, Paragraph 1

RAMCHAL

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

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

__________________________________________________

"The Way of G-d" Part 4, Ch.7, Paragraph 1

Not only does each moment, each part of the day, and every day itself play its part in the great rush to fulfill G-d's plan (as we alluded to in the last chapter), each week, month, and each festival period does, too -- very much the way each one of us has his or her role in that same great unfolding.

So, while we've already discussed what sets the various times of the day apart from each other when it comes to worship and prayer, we'll now concentrate on what sets those other periods of time apart as well.

For as we'll see, each week has its Shabbat to define it and set its tone, each month has its own new-month day (Rosh Chodesh), and every time of the year has its own unique holy day and festival, from Rosh Hashanna and Yom Kippur through to Passover and Shevuot.

We'll spend the greater part of this chapter discussing the whole idea of holy days and festivals in general, and go from there to lay out the significance of most of them individually later.

(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".

A Slow Reading of The Introduction to "The Path of the Just" (Part 16)

16.

-- Ramchal ends his all-important introduction thusly. I'll add this short prayer to his own, at the end: May G-d also grant us the fortitude to live by the words of this holy sefer and to grow close to Him as a consequence.

"Indeed, all of these principals require great explanation. I have found that our sages (of blessed memory) have ordered these principles in a different, more particularized way -- according to the levels required to aspire to, and in their correct order. This is in a beraitha found in various places in the Talmud, including the chapter entitled 'Before Their Festivals' (Avoda Zorah 20B), and it reads: 'From this Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yaer derived that Torah study brings you to caution, caution to enthusiasm, enthusiasm to innocence, innocence to abstinence, abstinence to purity, purity to piety, piety to modesty, modesty to fear of sin, fear of sin to holiness, holiness to holy spirit, and holy spirit brings you to the resurrection of the dead'."

"I have based this book upon that beraitha to teach myself and to remind others of the necessary conditions in Divine service in the appropriate order. And I will explain in each section the particulars and gradations, the means to attain them, as well as their respective deterrents, and how to avoid those."

"Now I and whomever else may care to do so can read this book so that we might learn how to revere G-d our L-rd and not forget our duties to Him. And that which the coarseness of our natures tries to remove from our hearts will be brought back to us by the reading and studying of this work which will remind us of our obligations."

"May G-d be with our hopes and keep us from stumbling, and fulfill within us the desire of the poet who was the beloved of his G-d: (Psalms 86:1) 'Teach me, G-d, Your ways so that I may walk in Your truth. Unify my heart that I may revere Your name.' Amen, may it be His will."

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

Monday, June 20, 2005

A Slow Reading of The Introduction to "The Path of the Just" (Part 15)

15.

"'Keeping all of G-d's commandments' is as it implies -- keeping all of the Divine commandments in their fullness and with all of their conditions."

-- The emphasis is of course on keeping *G-d's* commandments ... by knowing that that's what they are, rather than being merely this or that. And by observing them with their lush and abundant scope in mind.

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

Sunday, June 19, 2005

A Slow Reading of The Introduction to "The Path of the Just" (Part 14)

14.

"'Fullness of heart' means that your service to G-d should be done with the purest of intentions -- only for service to Him, for no other reason whatsoever. Included in this must be a service of the heart not in conflict, but full; and not as an act of rote, but rather one of your full self."

-- Despite our very best intentions (when we're even so inclined, as so few of us are) even when we mean to draw close to G-d, we oftentimes actually mean to satisfy a need within us, rather than serve G-d outright. So if we're ever to indeed draw close to Him as we're charged to, we'd need to know when we're worshipping Him and when we're worshipping ourselves. Once we honestly determine that we mean to serve G-d alone, we will; for we will have come to worship him "in person" rather than "on tape" -- in unaccustomed, fresh ways rather than by routine.

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

Friday, June 17, 2005

Please See to it that All Young Children and the Weak of Heart are Out of the Room, Ladies and Gentlemen ... (Part 3)

Please See to it that All Young Children and the Weak of Heart are Out of the Room, Ladies and Gentlemen: We’re About to Discuss the Resurrection of the Dead! (Part 2)

by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

3.

In order to understand we’d need to first explain a few things alluded to above, in the space allotted us. Based upon the Highest Authority, we Jews hold that the world will experience a number of tumultuous events in the course of time. First we’ll enter the Messianic Era, the world will be undone afterwards, the deserving dead will be resurrected, and finally all will evolve to a state-of-being known as The World to Come.

The Messianic Era will start it all off, and the World to Come will be the full flowering of the process. But the event that will ultimately, as we used to put it, “separate the men from the boys”, will be the resurrection of the dead.

First, though the Messianic Era. In the words of the sainted Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, “Good will be increased in every form (then), and evil will be completely eliminated .... Man will no longer be drawn toward the physical. Rather, he’ll lean toward serving G-d .... Prosperity and tranquility will increase as a consequence, and injury and destruction will cease to exist” (Ma'amar HaIkkurim 8).

And after the resurrection, the World to Come. Unfathomable, in fact, it can only be described as, “the good that is sequestered for the righteous” (Hilchot Tshuvah 8:1), a “form of life without death”, the experience of “goodness without evil”, utter “delight and goodness” (ibid.) -- where “the righteous sit with crowns on their heads ... and bask in G-d’s Glory” (8:2).

But as for the resurrection itself -- the defining moment, as Luzzatto puts it (in Ma’mar HaIkkurim), it will be preceded by the experience of the Great Day of Judgement, that epochal period of time when “G-d will judge all mankind” and “decide who is worthy of enduring forever, and who’s to be ... totally obliterated.“

Indeed, that’s when it will start to come together -- at the point of Judgement and the consequent resurrection. Because at that juncture it will be decided “who is worthy of remaining in the renewed world“, that is, the World to Come -- when the world “will be re-created in a new form, best suited for its eternal state.... (and) the righteous will return to the world, and ... live in it forever” -- and who will not.

It’s then when all the “sparks” we will have “resurrected” -- all the good we’d have done -- will play a role in our own resurrection. And all the bad that the wicked will have done will be accounted for, too. That’s to say, it’s then when all the good mixed within the wrong we’d have done will come to the fore.

But, we’d still have done wrong. So, what in the end will ensure that we’ll be counted among the righteous ourselves?

The answer is that all the trials, tribulations and woes we’d have suffered in this life -- physical, emotional, spiritual, ethical, etc. -- would serve to cleanse and disinfect us from all the wrong. In fact, it’s the process of withstanding trials and tribulation within life that empower those original "sparks" to return to their source in holiness.

For wrongdoing and suffering are like electricity and light, says The Leshem. Just as light is a direct result of electricity, tribulation is a direct result of wrongdoing. And just as there’s no light without electricity, and no electricity when we overuse our lights, we likewise suffer no more when there's no longer wrongdoing, and our suffering so much undoes wrongdoing.

Bottom line, there’s hope for us and the world yet. And all those heartbreaking trials and tribulations we suffer are for our ultimate good.

Not bad, huh? OK ... we can let the kids back into the room now.

(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".

Thursday, June 16, 2005

A Slow Reading of The Introduction to "The Path of the Just" (Part 13)

13.

"'Love' -- that a type of love of G-d be set in your heart that would lead you to do what satisfies Him as energetically as you would do the same for your mother or father. It should bother you if G-d is unsatisfied, either because of yourself or someone else, and you should want it for G-d and derive a great joy in obtaining it for Him."

-- Unfortunately and for reasons beyond our scope, the idea of wanting to please G-d as much as we would want to please our parents doesn't move us today. Wanting to please Him as much as we'd dearly love to please *ourselves*, though, does work, sad to say.
-- In any event, as Ramchal puts it later on in this work, "one who truly loves G-d ... would act as a loving son would to his father by doing more than his father would ask for. He would do all he possibly could even if his father had only inobtrusively hinted at a desire for something. And if his father asked for that thing just once, and demurely at that, that would be enough for such a son to perceive the extent of his father's unstated true desires. He would deduce that such-and-such -- something beyond what he was told -- would bring satisfaction to his father, and he would not have to wait for an explicit and reiterated request to do it" (Ch. 18). And, "one who truly loves his Creator ... would not need convincing or persuasion to serve Him -- in fact, unless he is held back by a major deterrent, his heart would have him surge forward and would drive him towards this love"; indee, he or she would "care about nothing else" but G-d's concerns and would be happy to fulfill them, and he or she would do so with alacrity and bounce (Ch. 19).

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

Please See to it that All Young Children and the Weak of Heart are Out of the Room, Ladies and Gentlemen ... (Part 2)

Please See to it that All Young Children and the Weak of Heart are Out of the Room, Ladies and Gentlemen: We’re About to Discuss the Resurrection of the Dead! (Part 2)

by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

2.

About a hundred years ago there lived a great Kabbalist by the name of Rabbi Shlomo Eliyashuv (of blessed memory), who came to be known as “The Leshem” (after the first word of his most famous work). In fact, the great preponderance of what we have to say here is based on what he says on the subject. The Leshem noticed many things about the state of this world. But he was perhaps most haunted by the fact that things simply aren’t the way they’re supposed to be (or haven’t you noticed?). And he set out to demonstrate that all will prove to be right -- once we come to terms with the notion of the resurrection of the dead.

It’s important to realize first off that, “The resurrection of the dead is one of the foundations (of our faith) handed down by Moses“, as the Rambam puts it (Sanhedrin 10:1) And that what it comes to is “body and soul uniting again after having separated” in death (Ma’amar Techiyat Hameitim.). The Rambam went on to cite verses that bespeak that, which he assures us we’re to take literally, not allegorically, including the prophet Daniel’s declaration that, “Many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awaken ...“ (12:2). We’ll illustrate the phenomenon in more detail further on, G-d willing. But suffice it to say that the belief in the resurrection of the dead isn’t some sort of “interesting idea the Jews believe in” -- it’s a concept we base our faith upon!

Back to the Leshem, though. He noticed that the meaning of life wasn’t being carried out, and he pondered that. So, let’s spend a moment or two talking about the meaning of life. We’re taught that essentially our task in life is to right all wrongs, and spread more and more good in the world. And that in the process we’re said by the Kabbalists to “elevate all the holy sparks that fell among the husks in the course of the breaking of the vessels.” A word of explanation.

The Kabbalists tell us that at first there was a primordial light, and receptacles for it; but the light was so, so brilliant that its receptacles couldn’t contain it, and they smashed, and the sparks of primordial light darted in all directions. Those holy sparks embedded themselves in the world as we know it now; and our task is to exhume -- resurrect -- those holy sparks by engaging in holiness in this world, which sort of has the embedded sparks resonate with our accrued holiness, and come back to life.

We’re also taught that the only reason wrong and bad exist is to allow for our free choice, and to make it possible for us to incline “either this way or that" (in the words of The Leshem). And that that system is the source of all reward and punishment.

Now, that would be fine and dandy if the world -- or at least a good part of it -- was exhuming holy sparks, and people were conquering their impulses and heading ever upward, The Leshem pointed out. Yet we know that hasn't been the case throughout history -- from the very beginning till today! The world continues to be unrighteous, and most of the people in the world, throughout the generations, have continued to do wrong and sin to one degree or another. It's said of us, the Jewish Nation, that we are a "holy people to G-d”, and that He chose us “to be a special people to Him” (Deuteronomy 7:6). Yet frankly, few of us are righteous (though many of us are good), and even the few saintly individuals among us who are righteous, aren't flawless -- "For there is not a righteous man upon the earth that does good yet does not sin" (Ecclesiastes 7:20), and "the very form of man's heart is evil from his youth" (Genesis 8:21)!

But that’s not only so as far as we Jews are concerned -- it’s true of all of humanity. Adam wasn't in his full glory for even a day; for the next 1,656 years to the generation of the flood only Noah and his children were righteous; and except for certain rare exceptions, the world was full of sinful people for another ten generations until the time of Abraham. And even those rare exceptions -- like Shem and Eber -- only influenced a few to follow a more righteous path, and not the masses. The world hasn't been right since the revelation of the Torah, either. And though they were offered it, too, the other nations of the world didn't accept the Torah.

The apex of our own national perfection was set to be the time of the construction of the Holy Temple, which was destroyed, as we all know. Yet, the Midrash tells us (Bamidbar Rabbah 10:4) that as a consequence of Solomon marrying the daughter of (the then) Pharaoh the very night he finished constructing the Temple, G-d had it in mind to destroy it. Hence there wasn't a single night of wholeness in our history!

All then goes on the way it always has since the day man was created, with all the troubles and conflagrations. And we still have no rest from the promptings of our baser impulses our whole lives long. In fact, the sages even suggested that it would have been better for us not to have been created in the first place (Eruvin 13b)!

Not only aren’t we doing what we’re supposed to be doing to the degree expected of us, but we’re suffering in the process. And who doesn’t know that, or isn't suffering him or herself? We’re not only suffering manifestly in life, but will suffer in non-material ways in the afterlife (G-d protect us all). Yet G-d obviously foresaw from the start that we'd always succumb to our baser impulses on one level or another. It almost seems as if the Grand Plan isn’t working, and that all our toil and tribulation is to no avail. So, what’s going on?

It all hinges on the reality of the resurrection of the dead, says The Leshem -- all.

(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".

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Please See to it that All Young Children and the Weak of Heart are Out of the Room, Ladies and Gentlemen ... (Part 1)

Please See to it that All Young Children and the Weak of Heart are Out of the Room, Ladies and Gentlemen: We’re About to Discuss the Resurrection of the Dead! (Part 1)

by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

1.

The very thought of it is flat-out spooky. Yet we Jews accept as a matter of faith that the dead will eventually come alive once again! Whew. Talk about way out there.

Yet the great prophet Ezekiel spoke about it at length, and a lot is riding on your believing in it. After all, if you don’t believe that the resurrection of the dead is alluded to in the Torah, you’re out to lose your place in The World to Come!

As the tradition puts it, there’ll come a time after the Messiah will have arrived when everyone then alive will die, and most (not all, though) will arise “out of the ashes”, souls will slip into bodies once again, and walk away in stunned wonder.

What’s going on? We’ll try to explain that shortly enough. But first a few words about the meaning of our lives, good versus evil, and the stark and raw fact that most of us seem to be in pain, and are going off the mark all the time. Stay with me, please!

(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".

A Slow Reading of The Introduction to "The Path of the Just" (Part 12)

12.

"'Walking in His ways' includes all manner of character correction and reparation. This is what our sages were referring to when they said, 'Just as He is compassionate, you too are to be compassionate; just as He is gracious, you too are to be gracious, etc.' (Shabbat 133B). The point is that all of your traits and actions are to be just and ethical."

"Our sages stated the principal thusly: '[Do] all that is attractive and has its doer appear attractive' (Pirke Avot 2:1), i.e., do all that directs you toward the true, good end -- the strengthening of Torah and the institution of universal brotherhood."

-- The sort of "universal brotherhood" referred to here is Messianic rather than utopian, quixotic, or ideological.

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

Thursday, June 09, 2005

CHANGE COMPLETELY OR STAY ESSENTIALLY THE SAME? The Ba'al Tshuvah's Dilemma in the Post-Modern World (Part 2)

CHANGE COMPLETELY OR STAY ESSENTIALLY THE SAME? The Ba'al Tshuvah's Dilemma in the Post-Modern World

-- Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

-----------------------------------

2. THE NAZIR

Those observant Jews who think we should reject the secular world would, no doubt, claim the nazir as proof-positive for their position. They'd start off by pointing ot that while it's true that we're not each charged to be a nazir by the Torah, one can nonetheless only keep the three mitzvot associated with nazirut (avoiding grape products, growing your hair long and avoiding contact with the dead) by becoming one. And they would point out that, after all, the Torah does say, "For as long as he is a nazir he is holy to G-d" (Numbers 6:8), and thereby recommends nazirut and avoidance of all things secular by extension.

Those who believe we should not avoid the secular world, though, would also cite the nazir as proof for their side. They would point out that the Torah is somehow not impressed with nazirut (the state of being a nazir) since we're in fact not commanded to be a nazir. And it even seems that the Torah is displeased with it, as the nazir is called a sinner: "He has sinned against the soul" (Numbers 6:11). "Obviously," they would reason, "we don't have to avoid secular life like a nazir." And there's the dilemma.

Is the nazir holy for abstaining from wine and grape products, for not cutting his or her hair and for not coming in contact with the dead -- for abstaining from, for all intents and purposes, all the normal, secular social functions? Or is he a sinner for denying himself what's permitted him as a Jew in this world, for separating himself from the normal course of life, for denying himself *appropriate* secularity (a vitally important distinction to keep in mind, by the way)? The classical commentators differ in their opinion.

Ramban (Nachmanides) says the nazir is praiseworthy. Ibn Ezra seems to agree when he praises the nazir, comparing him to a king for having mastered his passions. As to the fact that he's called a sinner, Ramban explains that the Torah means he is a sinner when he decides to no longer be a nazir (for it's either a temporary or a permanent state of being, depending upon the nazir's own decision). He should have remained a nazir and as such stayed close to G-d, continued dedicating his life to Him and never stopped. To do otherwise after having been there is to sin.

Ramban is in fact following a line of thought he expressed at Leviticus 19:1-20:27, where he said that a Jew only becomes holy by abstaining from what's permitted him. For after all, as he points out there, one can fulfill all the mitzvot of the Torah punctiliously and still be a "naval", a brute. According to this view, a Jew should dedicate himself to the religious life as much as possible and abandon secularity altogether -- and this is the lesson of the nazir we're all to internalize.

But Rambam would disagree, and fervently so. He states (Hilchot De'ot 3:1):

"A person should not surmise that since jealousy, desire, the pursuit of honor and the like are bad traits ... that he will vehemently avoid them by not eating meat, drinking wine, getting married, living in an attractive home, or wearing attractive clothing; and that he should wear sackcloth, stiff wool, and the like as some gentile priests do instead. For that is a bad thing to do, and it is forbidden. One who acts that way is called a sinner .... For as our Sages say: 'if a nazir who only kept himself away from wine needs to be atoned for, all the more so must one who keeps himself away from permitted things be atoned for (Ta'anis l1a)'. That is why our Sages commanded that we should only avoid the things the Torah itself forbade us, not permissible things ......"

He apparently holds that a nazir's behavior is inherently incorrect. An observant Jew should not avoid the niceties of secularity, but should fit them into his or her observant life. Torah Temimah, commenting on the Rambam's statement, goes even further. He quotes several Talmudic sources which indicate that we must partake of the secular pleasures of the world appropriately, including:

"Is it not enough for you what the Torah forbad you that you have to forbid the permissible?!" (J.T. Nedarim 8: 1);

"It is forbidden to live in a city that has neither public baths nor Botanical Gardens. " (J.T. Kiddushin 4:12);

"A man will have to give a reckoning for all (that's permitted to eat that) he saw and did not eat. " (Ibid.);

"It is a bad sign when a person stifles a good life for himself in this world. " (Tanna D'Bay Efiyahu); and,

"G-d loved Israel so much that He commanded them not to oppress themselves and yet accrue merit." (Yalkut Torah, Parshat R'eh).

And he then quotes Ecclesiastes 7:16 that reads, "Don't be over-righteous, and don't wizen yourself too much."

According to this view, a Jew in his dedication to the religious life is to include the secular, in fact, is forbidden to exclude it -- and this is the lesson of the nazir to all.

And the lesson of the nazir to the ba'al tshuvah would seem to be no different than the lesson to be imparted to all. According to the authorities that perceive no value in the secular, refraining from secular interests would seem to be the instruction to the ba'al tshuvah as well. Even more so, as someone, like the nazir, who has mastered past passions and non-religious interests, the ba'al tshuvah should never demean himself by acting like a "commoner" again by indulging in secularity.

According to the authorities that perceive value in the secular, though, continued involvement with secular interests would seem to be the direction to the ba'al tshuvah. Even more so, as someone who has already experienced the secular and has found value within its realms, the ba'al tshuvah has an even greater potential to bring holiness to the secular by including it within his Torah life.

Yet there may also be a third approach to understanding the nazir -- one that conveys a specific message to the uniqueness of the ba'al tshuvah.

Rambam states (Hilchot Nedarim 23:23):

"One who takes vows to correct personality traits or to rectify his actions -- such as the glutton who forbids himself to eat meat for a year or two; the alcoholic who will not allow himself wine for a long time, or who will not allow himself to get drunk; the person who runs after profit and wealth who will not allow himself to take gifts, or will not allow himself to benefit from the people of a particular city; or the person who is proud of his good looks and takes a vow to be a nazir, etc. -- is an enthusiast and is to be commended"

In other words, Maimonides seems to be amending his own position in regard to the nazir, stating here that there are times when the actions of the nazir are praiseworthy. One who once lived a less-than-holy life and who no longer wants to -- like the potential ba'al tshuvah -- is to be admired for being austere; that there are times when it's appropriate to abstain from secular pleasures, to plunge further into the world of the spirit, and there are times when it's not. Nazirut (and the avoidance of the secular) is, within this view, a Torah-advised tool for restraint, not a radical departure from the secular; and when used as such it is to be praised.

Sefer HaChinuch seems to agree (cf. Mitzvah 376). Quite astonishingly, he says that the nazir's greatness and holiness ties in his *only* abstaining from grape products, haircuts and contact with the dead, and nothing more! As he puts it:

"G-d created a being on earth who would be both physical and spiritual -- man .... (whose) soul must dwell within a material (world) of desires and sin .... and who must strive (to live) within the edifice in which he has been placed (i.e., the physical world). And because the bricks, beams and foundations of that edifice only exist with the supervision of man ... (he must not avoid) the upkeep of that edifice altogether and have it turn to ruin, for that would be considered a sin: the King wanted (man) to be (that combination of the physical and the spiritual).... The holiness and excellence of the nazir lies in the fact that he set aside the work of the physical and conquered his desires in a way that would not destroy the edifice: he kept himself back from drinking wine, and he grew his hair long so as to control his desires, but (he did not) slowly undo the edifice.... Such a person lives up to the expectations for a human being."

But perhaps it's best explained by Kli Yakar, who says:

"The point of nazirut is not that (the nazir) separates himself from wine for thirty days (the minimum period of nazirut) and then goes back to being a drunkard! ... The point is that he should accustom himself to less and less ... and that in thirty days he will no longer be as drawn to it as he was."

This third view imparts a lesson from nazirut that is unique to the ba'al tshuvah. The ba'al tshuvah is to separate himself from secularity for a while, as the Rambam suggests, but he can (and should) then return to it to appropriate levels. One explanation of the benefit of the period of abstention lies in the fact that he will have weaned himself off from any unholy pull that secularity may have had over him. In this regard, Kli Yakar explains the psychology of the ba'al tshuvah as well as the nazir when he says:

"The nazir is called a 'sinner' because if he was really innocent and righteous ... he would not have had to have taken a nazirite vow. For who's to stop him from practicing abstention ... without making (such) a vow? So from the fact that he has to assume nazirut we see that he himself knows that he doesn't have the self-control, and that that is why he has to run to make such a vow ... "

The ba'al tshuvah knows in his heart all the problems of the secular world and its unTorah-like attractions. He knows that those attractions are too strong for one of his unsteady spiritual stature. So he should decide to pull away from secularity in earnest and vehemently, because he needs to do that at that time. After all, to paraphrase Kli Yakar, who's to stop him from practicing abstention (i.e., from abandoning the excesses of the secular world) without becoming observant?

But there is another reason for this period of abstention. His vision of the secular is also to change. His strength to withstand the pull of the secular is not only to develop, but his understanding of the secular is also to change. Like Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai who returned to the cave and isolation from the world only in order to understand the necessity of the world [4], the ba'al teshuvah is to again embrace the secular (i.e., the world outside) -- but with a very different vision of it. His relation to secularity is to be a less inclusive and less intensive one than his past one, but, more significantly, his secularity is to be permeated by Torah and mitzvot.

By then, in one sense, the ba'al tshuvah would have made a thorough change of self by having been indulged in Torah and mitzvot exclusively for a time and afterwards through the infusion of Torah into all his prior realms. Yet, in another sense, he would not have made such a change, for he would have returned to his world (albeit differently). That ba'al tshuvah would have changed both his music and his rhythm.

And he would hopefully have also begun to strive toward holiness and union with G-d Almighty as well, which is the point of it all. For as an earlier Slonomer Rebbe zt"l would say: "Ribbono Shel Olam, have mercy on me and draw me close to You! For what would my life be all about were I not to merit drawing close to You?"

________________________________

Notes:

[4] See T.B. Shabbat 33b.

(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".

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

CHANGE COMPLETELY OR STAY ESSENTIALLY THE SAME? The Ba'al Tshuvah's Dilemma in the Post-Modern World (Part 1)

This article orginally appeared in The Nishma Journal (Vol. 10), 1996. I submit it here because it discusses the nazir state, which is focused on in this week's Torah Parsha.

_____________

CHANGE COMPLETELY OR STAY ESSENTIALLY THE SAME? The Ba'al Tshuvah's Dilemma in the Post-Modern World

-- Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

-----------------------------------

1. HOW MUCH?

If it's true that change is the essence of life, then it is the quintessence of the ba'al tshuvah experience [1]. What, though, is the nature of the transformation that the ba'al tshuvah must, will, should, experience? Are ba'alei tshuvah -- Jews who once did not observe Shabbat, Kashrut, etc., and who now do -- only being asked to change life-cycles, some ways of doing things and some tools for doing them? Or must the ba'al tshuvah go further than that, shed a proverbial skin and design a complete and utter change of self? Is it but one's daily rhythms that are to change or one's very music?

What we envision to be the proper relationship for the ba'al tshuvah to have with his or her previous secular life is essential to the issue [2]. The idea of secularity actually touches the lives of each and every observant Jew, not just ba'alei tshuvah. We are as sensitive to the question of how "religious" we should be (woven as we are into contemporary society), whether we realize it or not. Many observant Jews tend to abandon a secular world they see as perverse and unG-dly. They elect to cower-in, to draw the wagons together against an onslaught of heathens, so to speak, like so many pioneers in the New West. And while they risk going too far by doing that, they feel it is better to err on the side of caution.

Other observant Jews, though, take the alternate side. They argue that while there is certainly much to be shunned in the secular world, there is much that is good and of no particular danger there. Some would even say there are secular adventures which act as vehicles towards theological and metaphysical investigations -- that, in fact, feed, in consequence, observance. There is, as well, an Orthodox voice which states that only from within the secular world can an observant Jew affect the essence of that world; that it is the obligation of the Torah-committed Jew to involve him- or herself in the secular world as a social reformer. (True or not true, the last point is beyond the concerns of this article.)

Still, the dilemma over secularity surfaces most often in relation to the ba'al tshuvah -- because we tend to project our own religious dilemmas onto them; because we expect to "raise them the right way", religiously speaking; because we hope they'll make the statement we ourselves are often incapable of making -- but, most of all, because, as with all aspects of the process, the ba'al tshuvah him- or herself must confront this issue and make a conscious decision.

Furthermore, for the ba'al tshuvah the question of the relationship to the secular does not reside outside of the person but touches the very being within; for the ba'al tshuvah was inherently part of the secular world. The issue is, in fact, a very difficult and fundamental one in the ba'al tshuvah transformation. And it is either soured or sweetened by the nature of secular life in the world today, depending on which side of the general issue you take. In many ways, it is the same issue that we all must face in our evaluation of our relationship to the secular. Yet, as part of the ba'al tshuvah process, it is also a unique issue tied to it. And it may call for unique answers.

How much is a ba'al tshuvah to immerse in and lose him- or herself to religiosity? How austere in relation to secular delights is he or she, and are we, to be?

If you were an opera-lover all along, a baseball fan, a reader of mystery novels, a gourmet cook, a philosopher, a mathematician, a comedy-writer, a student of anthropology, etc., etc. and suddenly became aware of your Jewish heart and soul, and went off to yeshiva or seminary, or you sat in on a number of classes in your local synagogue, kollel, day school, outreach center, etc. -- are you expected to give all prior interests and activities up from now on? And what about your prior self? Are you expected to deny your very real past for some idealized version of yourself that you now pass on to others and yourself as the new "real you"?

I believe the Torah's advice along these lines are demonstrated in its presentation of the example par excellence of well-balanced religiousness: the nazir, the person who decides to take a more stringent service of G-d on himself by avoiding all wine and grape products, by letting his hair grow antisocially long, and by avoiding all contact with the dead (see Numbers 6:1-21) [3]. But I also believe we misunderstand what the nazir is all about, and that the choice of it as our best example is not the dead giveaway we might think it is.

----------------------------
Notes:

[1] Although this article refers to the ba'al teshuvo, every Jew affected by Torah imposed changes, can, and should, relate in some specifically personal way to the ideas presented here.
[2] By "secular" I mean anything that is not associated with your religious practice per se.
[3] In other words, by avoiding secular life. For by growing your hair to such lengths, by refraining from wine and all other grape products and by avoiding all contact with the dead you are necessarily forced to avoid all the social and communal events we, in our age, would see as being "secular" -- parties, certain social events and personal milestones.

(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".

The Relentless Yearning of the Soul (Part 7)

The Relentless Yearning of the Soul: Why I Delight in Mussar

-- by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________

Part 7. To “The Wall” and Beyond

Earlier on I offered to address the wall one would have to get past to enjoy, even revel in Mussar. But there are actually two: the one encountered by observant Jews, who know about Mussar only too well, which they would have to pass over before coming to the next one; and the second wall, which everyone would have to get past if he or she is ever going to be a true student of Mussar.

As to the “frum” wall. There are often many legitimate reasons why yeshivah-trained Jews have trouble with Mussar. To a degree it’s simply because they were exposed to too frequent and wretched examples of it in yeshivah as a child. They internalized Mussar as a series of personal insults and derisions; of heartless, thoughtless sometimes duplicitous moralizing and criticizing; of moral one-upmanship; and worst of all, as a means of invalidating individuality, and squelching creativity.

We’re forced to say that that is the fault of those “giving” them Mussar [47]. They would often offer it preachingly, pedantically, even angrily, when the halacha is clear that unless one can offer advice and point out moral faults warmly, caringly and in a spirit of love and improvement, he should not [48]. As none other than that great modern exponent of Mussar, Rav Yechezkel Levenstein zt"l used to point out, unless one ruminates on and practices the tenets of Mussar himself (including offering constructive criticism) all the time, he’s merely carrying them out “by rote” [49], and means to impress people more than to draw anyone closer to G-d [50]!

Once those Jews would come to understand and accept that truth, though, they’d still have to pass over the second wall which is universal. For many Jews never exposed to Mussar as young people take to it rather warmly, see the sagacity in it, and read its texts as part of our national “Wisdom Literature”, as it’s referred to in other cultures. Nonetheless, they too tend to resist it, once it asks them to relinquish points of view or modes of behavior they’d rather not give up.

The barricade they’d have to get past, then, is higher. For it touches upon *something* of the core fear spoken of in my introduction. While it doesn’t speak to the nightmarish dread of meaninglessness, it does speak to the second greatest fear: which is that everything we hold dear and true is wrong, and that we’re essentially preposterous [51].

Because Mussar seems to indicate as much. Does it not grumble that we’re wrong here, wretched there, petty this place, audacious another, and so on? And do we not seem to be left with nothing, as a result?

So we assert, “If so much of what I say or believe is wrong, what do I have left? What am I without them anyway? Besides, that’s the way I am!”

I believe I know why many people vehemently oppose having their perceptions of truth critiqued. Apparently because they believe that those perceptions (and their personality quirks) are *them*. That those ideas and traits are all they have besides their bodies in this world. And that if you threaten to take them away by arguing against them, you threaten their very being.

The person of faith understands that his essential being is *his immortal soul*. That everything else accrued onto it is as malleable and repairable as his body, and as mortal. And that it's there only to help his soul in its life’s work.

What such a person of full faith would care about most is his soul’s standing. And he’d do whatever he could to adjust his perceptions, traits, etc. however much they’d have to be adjusted to best nourish that immortal soul. As such, he’d welcome any sage advice along those lines, which is essentially what Mussar and Torah is all about [52].

That’s to say, once you realize the full reality of your soul’s being, as well as the lustrous function it serves in your immortal destiny, you will take its needs most seriously.

And you’ll then arrive at the comforting and soul-stirring realization that -- utterly, utterly contrary to your nightmares as enunciated at the beginning of this essay -- your life *has* meaning! You *do matter*! And on the very deepest levels, at that!

Then you too will thus experience and be driven by the relentless yearning of the soul.

_________________________
Notes:

[47] That is a yeshivah term, meant to express the idea of “giving” them advice and offering them criticism, and the like. But it is more often akin to “giving them hell”.
[48] See Halichot Olam, 21:1-2 who cites Rambam’s Hilchot De’ot 6:6-7, and Reb Chaim Valozhiner who absolves the person who cannot offer criticism in such a loving manner from the imperative to, “Vigorously reproach your neighbor” (Leviticus 19:17). In fact, at one point in “The Duties of the Heart” Ibn Pakudah advises us to practise solitude for several reasons, not the least of which is because when you do, you avoid the obligation to reproach others, which is so difficult to do correctly! And despite Rebbe’s observation that, “As long as there is admonishment in the world, there is ease of mind in the world, good and blessing in the world, and evil departs from the world“ (Tamid 28A), note as well Rabbi Elazar Ben Azariah’s remark, “I wonder if there Is anyone in this generation who even knows how to admonish!“ (Aruchin 16B) And see the Chason Ish’s directive (Yoreh Deah 2:16) to draw heretics and renegades closer to Torah and G-d through “bonds of love”, which would certainly go for other, lesser “rebels” like children and the rest of us.
[49] Based on the well-known Mussar charge that, “vatehi yiratam oti mitzvat anashim melumada”, i.e., Their fear of Me is a mitzvah done by rote (Isaiah 29:13).
[50] Ohr Yechezkel, Elul.
[51] Happy the blithe fool who knows that to be true, though! (Do I wax too Mussaric here? Sorry.)
[52] These last few paragraphs are taken from this author’s translation of and comments to “The Gates of Repentance” (2:13).

(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".

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

"The Way of G-d" Ch.6, Paragraphs 16 & 17

RAMCHAL

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

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

__________________________________________________

"The Way of G-d" Ch.6, Paragraphs 16 & 17

Not only are there four metaphysical universes and four "prayer universes" -- our prayers likewise affect the four parts of the day: daytime (say, from 6 AM to 6 PM), evening (from 6 PM to 7:30 PM), nighttime (from 7:30 PM to 4:30 AM), and daybreak (from 4:30 AM to 6 AM). The prayers we'd discussed up to now have touched upon how we transmit G-d's Providence in the course of the daytime, so let's now discuss prayer in the other parts of the day (as well as a prayer service that's unique to special days).

First off, it's important to point out that the morning service is the longest, most complex one because we need to help transmit enough of G-d's Providence then to last the entire day. The afternoon (Mincha) service is accordingly fairly short, since only the evening has to be affected by it.

Now, since the difference between nighttime and daytime is greater than the difference between daytime and evening, and since a lot of effort has to be expended in order to transmit G-d's Providence in the course of the night, the nighttime (Ma'ariv) service is longer than the afternoon one, and it includes the vitally important Sh'ma Yisrael and its blessings (though those blessings are much shorter than their morning version). The nighttime Sh'mone Esrei was originally not obligatory, but it has become our practice to recite it.

And though we'd expect there to be a prayer service between nighttime and daybreak, no official service was instituted in fact, since it would be too difficult for most of us to adhere to. There's in fact a midnight service ("Tikkun Chatzot"), though, which centers on crying out to G-d to restore the Holy Temple and to end the Exile that some devout souls engage in, but it's not at all obligatory. It was instituted by King David (while the other prayer services were instituted by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and thus have greater weight).

Finally, we add an additional prayer service ("Mussaf") on Shabbat, The New Month ("Rosh Chodesh"), and on every Yom Tov, since those days merit an additional measure of Divine Providence (also see 4:6:12).

(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".

Monday, June 06, 2005

The Relentless Yearning of the Soul (Part 6)

The Relentless Yearning of the Soul: Why I Delight in Mussar

-- by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________

Part 6. Then Back Again to Heaven

After a time, though, it became clear that just being a “mentsch” or even a scholar wasn’t enough. The soul’s tachlis, and the meaning of life was still to be addressed. So, as I indicated above, I compiled a “short list” of the most succinctly put statements about the meaning of life, and of human potential. It became clear upon examination that there was an underlying message in all these sources. And that to arrive at it I’d have to break the original “Torah Code”, if you will.

Doing that I discovered that what’s required of us as Jews, all in all, is something quite breathtaking: the fostering of an utterly vital and devoted relationship to G-d -- sometimes referred to as “loving” Him, “fearing” Him, “serving” Him, “going in His way”, or “clinging” to Him. And to do that by perfecting ourselves -- sometimes referred to as, “removing the veil of foolishness”, “keeping His mitzvot”, “improving your ways”, “becoming righteous”, and “pursuing goodness”.

And it became clear that the way to do just that, as those sources cited [32] put it, was as follows:

As the Torah itself says, “And now, Israel, what does G-d your L-rd ask of you, but to fear G-d your L-rd, go in His ways, and love Him. As well as to serve G-d your L-rd with all your heart, and all your soul.”[33]

King Solomon said, “The point, after everything has been heard (is this): Fear G-d and keep His mitzvot. For that is the whole of man.“[34]

Moshe Chaim Luzzatto said, “We were created to delight in G-d and enjoy the radiance of His Divine presence.“[35] And,

"It is only fitting that all of your inclinations be directed exclusively to the Creator -- that there be no goal in any of your actions, large or small, other than that of getting closer to Him and eradicating the barriers that separate you from Him, which are the matters of this world and what is dependent upon them. This should be done to the point where you are drawn after Him as iron is to a magnet; that you run after, take hold and not let go of all you can determine will be a means to drawing close to Him. And that you run away from whatever you determine will deter you from this as you would from fire." [36]

As well as,

"The principle axiom of all Divine service is this: That a person encounter his Creator all the time. That he know and comprehend that the only reason he was created was to attach himself to his Creator. And that he was only placed in this world to conquer his yetzer harah, subjugate himself to his Creator through his intellect, overturn his material cravings and inclinations, and direct all his actions toward this end without ever being distracted from it." [37]

Bachya Ibn Pakudah said,

"It is ... important to understand that every single obligation and good quality required of us ... is an aspect of and a step up to the love of G–d, which is their aim and purpose." [38]

And,

"The secret of your being is as follows: G–d created you out of the same “nothingness” the spiritual beings were created out of. And He placed you, in His kindness, on the level of His treasured, chosen and elected ones, those closest to the Illumination of His Glory. But you will not be truly worthy of that until three things will have come to pass: first, that you remove the veil of foolishness from yourself, to allow for your enlightenment; second, that you pass a test to determine whether you will serve Him or rebel against Him; and third, that you endure some this-worldly hardship, which will be sent to you to determine whether or not you will bear the burden of serving Him, and to elevate you to the level of those exalted ones who have already undergone that." [39]

Rabbeinu Yonah said,

"The highest spiritual qualities are bestowed upon us when we fulfil Torah imperatives like ... (acting out of) free choice, ...Torah study, ... following G-d’s ways,... (expressing) complete trust, ... reflecting upon G-d’s greatness, ...recalling G-d’s kindness and reflecting upon it, ... (expressing) holiness, ... service, ... fear, ... love, ... and the quality of devotion .... In fact, you were created to realize just these qualities.” [40]

And,

"(A person is to affirm to himself the following:) The Creator breathed a living spirit into my nostrils, with a knowing heart and good sense with which to be conscious of G-d and fear Him, and to reign over my body and all its effects the way it would reign over any other base creature.”[41]

As well as,

"Advance ever upward by fearing and loving G-d, and being abashed in His presence. Strive for innocence, remove any idea of rebellion from your mind, and purify your limbs. For by recalling its Creator (those ways), your soul becomes engaging and comely to Him." [42]

Finally, as Rambam puts it, the ultimate purpose of the universe is that man perfect himself [43]. And, “The world and everything in it was created (to be a forum for) wise and good people” [44]; as well as,

"One should love G-d so very mightily and powerfully that his soul affixes itself to the love of G-d, and he is as absorbed in it and is as love-sick as he would be if he could not stop thinking of a woman he was in love with, regardless of whether he was sitting or standing, eating or drinking. In fact, the love of G-d should be fastened in the hearts of His lovers even more than that, which is to say, all the time." [45]

So, again, it became clear that the point is, that we’re to foster a deep and all-encompassing relationship with G-d, and we come to do that by “perfecting” ourselves and by coming to true spiritual health.

It also became clear that if sure-felt, roaring and robust health is extraordinarily precious, and it calls for a lot of discipline and self-sacrifice, then certainly, sure-felt, roaring and robust spiritual health must be as extraordinarily precious on a far deeper, existential level. And it must therefore require a lot of discipline and self-sacrifice, too -- on a far deeper, existential level, at that [46].

Hence, the need for the study of Mussar, which speaks to all that, and makes it come alive.

__________________________________
Notes:

[32] See Part 3 above.
[33] Deuteronomy 10:12
[34] Ecclesiates 12:13
[35] “The Path of the Just”, Ch. 1, p. 12.
[36] Ibid., p 20.
[37] “The Way of G-d” 1:4:6
[38] “The Duties of the Heart”, Introduction to the Gate of the Love of G-d, p. 439.
[39] Ibid., The Gate of Divine Service, ch. 9, p.157.
[40] From this writer’s translation of and comments to “The Gates of Repentance”, 3:17.
[41] Ibid. 1:10
[42] Ibid. 2:1
[43] A paraphrase of Rambam’s comments on Pirke Avot 5:1
[44] “Introduction to the Mishna”
[45] Hilchot Tshuvah 10:3.
Of course, each one of these statements is teeming with sum and substance, and is meant to give pause. But an article of this size is not the place for an analysis of them per se. The reader is invited to inspect this writer’s translations and comments to “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” for some elucidation.
[46] The Baalei Musar very often compare spiritual well-being to health. See, “The Gates of Repentance” 4:1, “The Duties of the Heart”, The Gate of Repentance, Ch. 1, p.315 , the very first chapter of Rabbi Yehoshua Heller’s Divrei Yehoshua, and others.

(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".

Sunday, June 05, 2005

R' Ashlag Ch. 24

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________________

24.

"Now, since the body (i.e., the ego) is essentially (nothing other than) a ratzon l’kabel and everything that happens to it as well as all its effects are replete with that corrupt ratzon, which was only created from the first to be eradicated from the world in order to bring on the perfect third era at the final reparation -- it and all its effects are thus as ephemeral and mortal as a passing shadow that leaves nothing behind."

"And since the immortal soul is essentially a ratzon l’hashpia and everything that happens to it as well as all its effects are replete with that (lofty) ratzon, which already existed in the eternal first era as well as in the third era that’s due to come about -- it’s thus not at all ephemeral or mortal. It and all its effects are eternal and exist forever. In fact, not only don’t they experience nonexistence when the body dies, on the contrary, the nonexistence of the corrupt body actually strengthens the soul and enables it to ascend to the Heavens."

"We’ve thus clearly shown that the immortality of the soul is in no way dependent on (the caliber of) the concepts it had acquired as philosophers claim (see 21:1); it’s immortality is inherent, meaning to say that it’s in its ratzon l’hashpia which is its essence. And any concepts it acquires are its reward rather than its essence."

(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".

A Slow Reading of The Introduction to "The Path of the Just" (Part 11)

11.

"'Reverence' refers to reverence for His exaltedness -- that you be in a state of reverence before Him comparable to what you would experience being before a great and awesome king: that you be abashed before His greatness, and that, as a result of His greatness, you be aware of every move you make before Him -- especially when speaking to Him in prayer or Torah study."

-- We're taught in Ch. 24 of "The Path of the Just" that there are two sorts of fear, actually: the more base "fear of punishment" (in which you're "literally afraid of transgressing the dictates of G-d because of the punishments ... due transgressors", a state that is "very easy to come to, because everybody has an instinct for self-preservation and is concerned for his well-being", but which only befits "illiterates, ... not sages and intellectuals"), and the lofty "fear of or reverence for G-d's Grandeur" (in which "you keep away from transgressions and do not commit them for the sake of G-d's great Glory", which "only comes about through the knowledge and understanding that is brought on by the contemplation of the Grandeur of G-d").
-- Would that we'd be moved to contemplate G-d's Grandeur and thus come to revere Him as we're expected to ... or to at least take His Presence seriously enough to fear His disfavor.

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

Friday, June 03, 2005

A Slow Reading of The Introduction to "The Path of the Just" (Part 10)

10.

"If one would reflect upon the matter he would find that true piety is not dependent upon those things the fools who make themselves out to be pious think it is, but rather upon true wholeness and profound wisdom. This is what Moses our teacher taught us when he said, (Deuteronomy 10:12-13), 'And now, Israel -- what does G-d your L-rd require of you if not to revere G-d your L-rd; to go in all of His ways, to love Him and to serve G-d your L-rd with full heart and soul, and to keep all of G-d's commandments and statutes ....' Herein are included the preferred subdivisions of the perfection of Divine service: reverence, walking in His way, love, wholeheartedness, the keeping of the mitzvot."

-- Ramchal will next expand upon each of the five subdivisions.

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

Thursday, June 02, 2005

The Relentless Yearning of the Soul (Part 5)

The Relentless Yearning of the Soul: Why I Delight in Mussar

-- by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________

Part 5. Back to Earth

Dwelling in the world as I had to, I came to see that there were certain secular, worldly, and material gains to be had from being ethical. And that the nearly universally agreed-upon ways to be truly happy in life [29] all seemed to hinge upon the notions of being satisfied with what you had materially, and striving for quality of self and pursuit, wisdom and goodness instead of wealth and the like [30]. It also became clear that while once that was fairly obvious to nearly all, it had somehow or another been forgotten.

At one time, for example, parents feared letting their kids grow "too soft", overindulged, and spoiled. There was a sense that kids should do without "excesses" in order to grow tough, self-sufficient; in order to know how to "make do". And that came out of a realization that too much was harmful, it somehow ate away at self and soul, and it disallowed for success in the “jungle out there” that was the world. There was also the very real and deeply felt sense that we had to be good and generous to each other simply *because* it's a jungle out there.

But that's no longer so. Many of us are what used to be called "spoiled brats" and "whiners", "princes" and "princesses", who would be utterly lost if left to their own devices in "the jungle". Because we've forgotten that despite the widespread reality of climate and environment controlled malls, homes, and even yeshivas, it's still a “jungle” out there. And we've consequently forgotten the attendant need to be kind and good.

As such, we've lost a certain ability-to-bear-discomfort margin we've had for millennia. And that makes life more emotionally painful (since there's so little we can bear), it makes us more dependent (on gadgets, quick solutions, etc.), and it certainly makes us selfish and self-absorbed.

I then discovered that what Mussar teaches us is the means to broaden and toughen ourselves with a more cultivated discomfort margin, so as to manage to get by with less, and thus concentrate more on tachlis, and less on all-consuming peripherals.

I thus found myself unable to disagree with the observations of “The Path of the Just” to the effect that a weak personality lead to a woesome life. As Luzzatto put it [31]:

"Coveting ... confines you to the constraints of this world, makes you prey to the entanglements of toil and labor ... (The person who succumbs to it) exposes himself to many dangers and saps his strength with worry even after he has already earned a lot. (p. 102)"

...

"The quest for respect tugs at your heart more than any lust or longing in the world. Without it, you would be satisfied eating whatever you could, you would dress just to cover your nakedness, you would live in a house that would merely protect you from the elements, livelihood would come easily to you, and you would not struggle to become wealthy. But just so as to not see yourself as lowly or lesser than your friend you take this thick yoke upon yourself, and there is no end to all of your efforts ...."

"How many people starve or denigrate themselves by taking charity just not to have to work at something that is not prestigious enough in their eyes because they are afraid to diminish their honor? Is there anything more idiotic than this? They would prefer idleness -- which carries melancholy, lewdness, thievery and all sorts of transgressions along with it -- to lowering their status and detracting from the respect they see as coming to them ...."

"The point of the matter is that the desire for glory is one of man's greatest stumbling blocks. (p. 103)"

...

"(if) you are accustomed to filling yourself with food and drink (and) ... will not be able to do so once, you will be pained and very aware of the lack. You will eventually be forced to subject yourself to the clutches of the drive for livelihood and possessions so that your table could be set the way you would like it to be, which will lead you to wrong doings and thievery, which will themselves lead you to vain oaths and all sorts of transgressions that naturally follow these. (p. 119)"

And ...

"Authority is nothing but a great burden on the back of those who bear it. While you are an individual among many, you are subsumed in the many, and are only responsible for yourself. But when you are put into a position of authority and power, you are in the clutches of everyone under you, for you have to be responsible for them-- to show them the way and to correct their actions. (p. 119)"

As such I came to see that it would serve me -- and my children -- best to be more selfless, good and temperate. That we would live happier, more satisfying lives that way. Albeit on a single, more mundane level than I'd originally envisioned.

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Notes:

[29] Needless to say, the operative term here is “truly”. Because some people seem to themselves and others to be happy when they're actually miserable. The truth, though, seems to catch up in more isolated, existential and telling moments somehow or another, like secret pockets in dark suits filled with sad diary entries.

[30] To be sure, most of that was rooted in either secular humanist thought, or non-Jewish religious thought (all of which were nonetheless certainly prodded and irrigated by Torah ideals that were adapted by others as a so-called “Judeo-Christian” or “Judeo-Christian-Whatever” ethic).

[31] From this writer's translation of and comments to “The Path of the Just”.

(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".