"The Great Redemption" (19)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

Another new blog -- RAMCHAL.BLOGSPOT.COM

I'm also happy to report that I've moved some of the work I've done on R' Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (RAMCHAL) to the citation below (another new blog), for ease of reference. You'll thus find "The Great Redemption" (18) there. The other chapters will follow, please G-d, and you'll be informed here about them when they're posted.

Toras Ramchal

My New Blog -- RAVASHLAG.BLOGPOST.COM

I'm happy to report that I've moved all of the work I've done on R' Ashlag to the citation below (a new blog), for ease of reference. You'll thus find the end of Ch. 30 there. The other chapters will follow, please G-d, and you'll be informed here about them when they're posted.

Link: Toras Rav Ashlag

I Take Nothing For Granted I Take Everything For Granted: Tisha B'Av 5765

______________________________________________________

I'll be on vacation until the week of August 29th.

______________________________________________________

Some of the best among us can and have seen the effulgent future in a shady present. For once Rabban Gamaliel, R. Eleazar ben Azariah, R. Joshua and R. Akiba "were coming up to Jerusalem together ... (when) they saw a fox coming out of the Holy of Holies. Rabban Gamaliel, R. Eleazar ben Azariah, and R. Joshua wept but R. Akiva seemed happy. Why are you happy, they asked him?"

"He then said to them, But why are you weeping? They said, A place about which it was said, 'And the common man that draws near will be put to death' (Numbers I, 51) has become the haunt of foxes, so should we not weep?"

"Said R. Akiva to them: That's why I'm happy!"

"For it's written, 'And I will take to Me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the Son of Jeberechiah' (Isaiah VIII, 2). Now what connection has Uriah the priest with Zechariah? (After all,) Uriah lived during the times of the first Temple, while Zechariah lived during the second Temple; yet Scripture linked the (later) prophecy of Zechariah with the (earlier) prophecy of Uriah. In the (earlier) prophecy (in the days) of Uriah it is written, 'Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field' (Micah III, 12). In Zechariah it is written, 'Thus says the L-rd of Hosts, There shall yet old men and old women sit in the broad places of Jerusalem' (Zechariah VIII, 4).

And then R. Akiva makes his point which is this: "as long as Uriah's (threatening) prophecy hadn't been fulfilled, I had misgivings lest Zechariah's prophecy might not be; (but) now that Uriah's prophecy *has* been fulfilled, it's quite certain that Zechariah's prophecy also is to be!" (Makkot 24b, Soncino Translation, with emendations).

More than seeing the proverbial cup half-filled rather than half-empty, Rabbi Akiva was able to envision a cup where none stood, and to somehow or another have the wherewithal to be certain it was there. He was able to live with the irony of beingness within nothingness, life within death.

The psalmist was able to live with a different sort, but an irony notwithstanding. "What is man, that You (G-d) are mindful of him? And the son of man, that you visit him?" he asked, given man's limitations. He knew the ironic answer: man is not only incidental and petty, he's also great and commanding, for indeed G-d had "made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor; (had) made him to have dominion over the works of (His) hands; (and had also) put all things under his feet: all sheep and oxen, and the beasts of the field; the bird of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatever passes through the sea's courseways" (Psalms 8: 5-9).

Jeremiah was able to live with irony after he depicted this dark and horrible scene we shudder at when we recite Eicha on Tisha B'Av:

"How the L-rd has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in His anger, cast down from heaven to the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not His footstool in the day of His anger! The L-rd has swallowed all the habitations of Jacob without pity; He has thrown down in His wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; He has brought them down to the ground; He has profaned the kingdom and its princes. He has cut off in His fierce anger all the horn of Israel; He has drawn back His right hand from before the enemy, and He has burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devours its surrounding. He has bent His bow like an enemy; He stood with His right hand as an adversary, and He has slain all that were pleasant to the eye in the tent of the daughter of Zion; He has poured out His fury like fire."

'The L-rd was like an enemy; He has swallowed up Israel, He has swallowed up all her palaces; He has destroyed His strongholds, and has increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. And He has broken down His booth, as if it were a garden; He has destroyed His place of the assembly; the L-rd has caused the appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and has spurned in His angry indignation king and priest. The L-rd has cast off His altar, He has loathed His sanctuary, He has given to the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the L-rd, as in the day of an appointed feast. The L-rd has determined to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; He has stretched out a line, He has not restrained His hand from destroying; He has caused the rampart and the wall to lament; they languish together. Her gates are sunk into the ground; He has destroyed and broken her bars; her king and her princes are among the nations; the Torah is no more; her prophets also did not find a vision from the L-rd. The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence; they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth; the virgins of Jerusalem bow down their heads to the ground. My eyes are spent with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the babies faint in the streets of the city. They say to their mothers, Where is grain and wine? When they faint like wounded men in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out on their mothers’ bosom" (from Lamentations 2).

For Jeremiah wrote later on in Eicha, "This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. The grace of the L-rd has not ceased, and His compassion does not fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. The L-rd is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The L-rd is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. It is good that a man should quietly hope for the salvation of the L-rd. It is good for a man that He bear the yoke in His youth. Let him sit alone and in silence, because He has taken it upon him. Let him puts His mouth in the dust; there may yet be hope. Let him offer His cheek to him who strikes him; let him take His fill of insults. For the L-rd will not cast off for ever; but though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the abundance of His grace" (from Lamentations 3).

Somehow he was able to encompass death and life, gloom and glee in one moment. But, how?

The anonymous author of a stunning and remarkable contemporary work, "Kol Demama Daka" seems to have the answer.

He declares that we Jews have to learn to live with a constant ironic mix of certainty and doubt in our religious lives: to be confident that G-d has His plans and knows what's right, but to doubt the details because man -- with all his greatness and meaness intact -- will invariably interfere with them, given his free choice, and muddy up the works.

For while everything that happens, happens for the good indeed (see Berachot 60B), we can never be quite sure in the moment.

May G-d grant us all the means to live with the irony that is our times; and to see the radiant, throbbing, undulant red, red light in the black, black darkness before our eyes.

(c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

"The Duties of the Heart" Gate Ten, Ch. 2

"In Search of Spiritual Excellence"

-- A Reworking of Classical Mussar Texts

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

"The Duties of the Heart" Gate Ten, Ch. 2

Understand that people love G-d for very different reasons. A few love Him for some quite self-serving purposes, believe it or not; while others love Him for more altruistic motives. We'll offer the first sort (because it's far more common, the truth be known), then we'll touch upon the latter, because something deep in the soul longs to know what drives good people to do the things they do to grow close to G-d.

Put bluntly, many hapless souls love (or better said, *act like* they love) G-d in the belief that doing that will somehow "inspire" G-d to do them favors or take kind notice of them, or that it will one way or another persuade Him to overlook their sins and accept them ... as if G-d could be bribed, compelled, or coerced to change His mind! But that's clearly not the sort of longing for His presence and wanting nothing better than to cling to Him that defines loving G-d; what it is, is an errant and insincere form of self-worship.

Others, though, worship and love G-d *for Himself*: in full realization of His greatness and exaltedness, and for no other reason (much the way some would love a great thinker for his or her mind, for example, knowing full well that their love would never serve their own ends).

But how do we do that on a practical level? After all, we're all challenged outright to love G-d "with all (our) heart, all (our) soul, and all (our) might" (Deuteronomy 6:5)! So what then does that mean, and how do we live our lives by its lead?

At bottom, our being asked to love G-d to that extent means we're to serve Him with everything we are (i.e., with heart and soul) and everything we have (i.e., with all our might and means). But that, too, is rather broad. So, the Talmud (Yoma 82A) breaks it down thusly (with our explanation).

We're taught that "with all (our) heart" implies "with both our inclinations", meaning to say, with our bad as well as our good traits -- by channeling greed, for example, into a hunger for spiritual excellence; and being stingy by shuddering at the thought of "spending" time on things that will distract us from G-d.

"With all (our) soul" implies "even if you have to sacrifice your life", meaning to say -- on one level -- that you'd even be willing to give your life if it were threatened to affirm your faith in Him; or on another level, to be willing to sacrifice smaller goals for the larger one of drawing close to G-d and loving Him.

And "with all (our) might" implies "with all your money", which indicates that you're to use everything you have in His service.

Finally, Ibn Pakudah adds, the phrase also signifies that "we're to love G–d both in secret and openly", rather than just for public consumption; and to "never equate the love of G–d with the love of anything else" but rather to understand it to be the heights of spiritual growth.

(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 Great Redemption" (17)

"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
_____________________________________________

17.

We’ll now explain how the gate is to be opened. As you’ve already heard, it's to come about by means of the light of Chochma, which is why it’s said, “My hands dripped with myrrh and my fingers (dripped) with flowing myrrh upon the handles of the lock” (Song of Songs 5:5).

Understand that all these things refer to the great and mighty Luminaries standing next to the palace by the gate. For two mighty Luminaries -- figuratively termed “two hands” -- are found there that emanate from the Celestial Throne and reach the gate. They're alluded to in the verse, “I entrust (p’kad) my spirit to Your hand” (Psalms 31:6). There are in fact five other phenomena connected to the palace referred to as the “five fingers”.

The entire verse “My hands dripped with myrrh and my fingers (dripped) with flowing myrrh upon the handles of the lock” refers to their being taken over by Chochma’s illumination. For the light of Chochma is referred to as “myrrh”. The above-mentioned hands were (then lifted up) to receive this light while it was still above them; and when they were then set down they (were said to have) “dripped with myrrh.” When they dropped down even further yet, the “fingers” also received it. It’s therefore written, “and my fingers (dripped) with flowing myrrh”.

Now see whom this pure myrrh reached -- “the handles of the lock”. The tzaddik is “the lock”; and (the term) “the handles (kapot)” (is used) in the same sense as the “branches (kapot) of palm trees” (Leviticus 23:40), indicating that the Luminaries join together in a single bond.

We’re also taught here that the myrrh descends even further until it reaches the two Moshichim, who are the actual “handles of the lock”. We'll touch upon other mysteries about this later.

(c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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

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

"The Way of G-d" Part 4, Ch.7, Paragraph 6

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 6

We do other things to celebrate the Holy Days besides sanctifying them the ways we indicated. We also acknowledge the spiritual uniqueness of each one. For while G-d's light illumines each and every moment and day, a particular cast of it shines on each Holy Day specific to it.

For each Holy Day commemorates a monumental event in antiquity that still resonates with our beings as Jews to this day, on a very deep and recondite level. For a special light shone upon our people from Heaven when each Holy Day appeared, and the world itself was rectified in a unique way right there and then. Thus we celebrate each anniversary of that cosmic event in order to draw from some of that light for our purposes *today*, and to experience a measure of rectification.

We observe all the rituals of Passover, for example, in order to commemorate and re-live the exodus, when our people enjoyed a great deal of rectification. A great light shines upon us then that parallels the one that shone upon them then, and we enjoy some of the rectification our ancestors did. In the same spirit we likewise celebrate Shavuot on the same calendar day that our ancestors were granted the Torah, in order to experience some of the great rectification they did; we observe the holy days of Sukkot to commemorate and draw from the revelation of the Clouds of Glory which our ancestors were surrounded by in the desert, that was such a great rectification; and we observe Chanukah and Purim for the same reasons. (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are observed for somewhat different reasons, though, as we'll see.)

So let's now explain each of these Holy Days in more depth.

(c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org

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

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

R' Ashlag Ch. 30 (sect.1)

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________________

30.


1.

"The second stage (of our Divine service) extends from age 13 and onward, and it’s when the point in the heart -- which is the hindmost part of our holy soul and garbed in the native ratzon l’kabel -- is fortified. It only begins to come into play, though, after (we reach) age 13, and it begins to enter the realm of the system of the holy worlds, though only to the extent that we observe Torah and mitzvot."

-- The “point in the heart” spoken of here is that region in our being where our worldly awareness and sensitivity lies. It’s a “point” rather than an entire dimension, and the “hindmost part of our holy soul” rather than an inner part of it, because while it indeed touches on momentous things in our lives, it still-and-all hasn’t any bearing on our essential being and it’s ultimately dispensable (though certainly not “point”less).
-- But don’t misunderstand. It’s vitally important for each one of us to develop his or her own “point in the heart”. First, because without one we can't ever grow close to others or to G-d, or to mature in our beings; second, because it’s impossible to realize that we *have* a ratzon l’kabel, and then to transcend it, unless we gain insight into it and come to know how destructive it is. And only a well developed “point in the heart” allows us to do all that.
-- R’ Ashlag is emphasizing the idea here that we only begin to grow aware and to be sensitive from age 13 on (if at all; for the truth be known, many of us never do). For that’s when we begin to dabble in holiness and to expose ourselves to the nature of our beings; and it's likewise when we can begin to strive for a willingness to bestow -- after first having acquired what he refers to as a "spiritual" ratzon l’kabel as we'll soon see.

(c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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

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

"The Great Redemption" (16)

"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
_____________________________________________

16.

Now, you need to know that all these lights and things will be illuminated internally and won’t be detected from the outside. That’s why only the Jewish Nation will experience stirrings and rectifications; and not the ministering angels, guardian angels, and all other angels. For as it’s known, the Jewish Nation emanates from the “inside” while the angels emanate from the “outside”. That’s why it’s said. “ ... and my insides yearned for him” (Song of Songs 5:4).

Know, too, that when these lights radiate with such longing and desire, they bestow great and mighty light upon each and every individual of the Jewish Nation, though it can't be detected. Their souls will take in this illumination and they’ll be moved to return to G-d their L-rd and to seek Him. Thus it's written, “When you are in distress and all these things come upon you in the end of days, you will return to G-d your L-rd” (Deuteronomy 4:30); and it’s said, “I arose to open to my Beloved” (Song of Songs 5:5).

Understand that the aforementioned “arising” (see Ch. 11) is a great secret. (It refers to this:) as long as the Jewish Nation dwelt in the dust -- which alludes to the husk -- the holy union couldn’t come about. It first had to arise, and (only) then unite with its Beloved. That’s (the import of) “I arose to open to my Beloved” (Song of Songs 5:5).

(c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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

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

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

"In Search of Spiritual Excellence"

-- A Reworking of Classical Mussar Texts

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

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

We're said to love G-d when we long for His presence and want nothing better than to cling to Him. But, how could any one of us ever come to that, seeing how very human we are? After all, aren't we just naturally and routinely drawn to the earth, despite the loftiness of our souls (which would explain our pull to G-d)? So let's spend a little time addressing the relationship between our body and our soul.

Understand first off that it's our soul that reigns ultimately, despite the fact that it's impalpable and invisible in a very tactile and visible world, and thus seems to not really be in control. (This irony alone helps to explain a lot about our spiritual struggles, by the way.) Understand as well that the soul loves the body, its mate. Nonetheless, we often give the body more leeway and actually encourage a rift between it and the soul. The secret for success, then, is to allow the soul to hold sway after all.

Now on to the dynamic between the body and soul. When the soul "senses the presence of something that would benefit and improve the body's lot", we're told, "it focuses its attention on that thing and longs for it" on some level, since it will be such a help to the body. But when, conversely, the soul senses the presence of something that could augment *itself*, it "focuses its attention on it" on a whole other level, in that it "clings to it in thought, dwells on it, and desires and yearn for it" -- i.e., it comes to love it.

But the body is so demanding and needy that the soul can't help but pay a lot of attention to it (both because of the body's requirements, and because of the soul's love for it), so the soul is very often more occupied with the body's needs than with its own more ethereal and eternal needs.

There comes a time, though, when the soul draws upon pure reason and comes to be rather fed up with the body's mundane demands, and it starts to lean toward its own (and *our* own) needs. Its "eyes" suddenly "open, and it sees clearly rather than through a cloud of ignorance of G–d and of His Torah, and ... many aspects of our Creator ... become clear to it", as Ibn Pakudah puts it rather arcanely.

And that's when it begins to happen -- when the soul first starts to revere G-d, and then to finally fall in love with Him. For the soul "begins to perceive G–d's abilities and His essential supremacy, and it comes to surrender itself ... to Him in *reverence, dread, and terror* in the face of G-d's Essence and greatness". But there then comes a point in this phenomenal moment when G-d Himself comes to reassure the soul of His own love for it and to allay its fears. The soul then "longs to drink from the cup of the love of G–d, to dedicate (itself) to Him alone, to love Him, trust Him and yearn for Him". And it then begins to occupy itself "with nothing but the service of G–d, (and with) nothing but thoughts of Him".

The soul suddenly comes to care little for this world, and it becomes oblivious to all the pain and pleasure we experience in life on some obscure, ethereal level. And it then tries to inspire the whole of our being to follow in its ways. We'll listen to it if we're wise; for that's what those who love G-d would do.

(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 Great Redemption" (15)

"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
_____________________________________________

15.

When the Jewish Nation went into exile a huge vale and terrible barrier came between them and their Father in Heaven about which it’s written, “For your iniquities have separated you from your G-d” (Isaiah 59:2). The prophet Jeremiah expressed it is as, “You (G-d) have covered Yourself over with a cloud so our prayer cannot pass through” (Lamentations 3:44).

But G-d had mercy on the Jewish Nation. The light of holiness grew stronger and ripped at the barrier at many points, and the many rips acted like windows, like lattices upon the barrier. But the great entrance was no longer left open after that. It’s said of these rips, “Behold, He stands behind our wall gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice” (Song of Songs 2:9).

Still-and-all it’s said “My Beloved put His hand through the doorway” (Song of Songs 5:4), because the Exalted King wanted the Jewish Nation to be redeemed. For a door hadn’t been open until that day, and He only puts His hand through these lattices.

What in fact is “His hand”? His right hand, which He’d hidden away in His bosom since the day of the destruction (of the Holy Temple), about which it’s said, “He has drawn His right hand back from the enemy” (Lamentations 2:3), and “My beloved put His hand through the doorway” (Song of Songs 5:4).

(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".

R' Ashlag Ch. 29 (sect. 2)

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________________

29.

2.


"(That explains) for example, why a newborn only wants the smallest of things and no more, and why (to the contrary) our other side’s ratzon l’kabel grows stronger and stronger when it gets what it wants, and even wants twice as much. And why it intensifies to such an extent that it immediately wants *four times* as much when it’s given double."

-- That is, while we're very willing and eager to take-in when we're born, indeed; the urge is nonetheless comparatively weak then, because we're only drawing upon our native ratzon l’kabel at that point. But our willingness to take-in invariably will grow exponentially stronger from there on, because we begin to draw upon the sort of deeper, more impure levels of ratzon l’kabel cited before.

"(That comes to teach us that) if we don't manage to overcome that (urge to take in more and more) through Torah and mitzvot, and to purify the ratzon l’kabel and transform it into a willingness to bestow, that our ratzon l’kabel will grow stronger and stronger throughout our life, and we'll eventually die without fulfilling half our desires -- which is regarded as being left under the auspices of the other side and the husks, whose very function is to expand and increase our ratzon l’kabel, and to broaden it and take away all its restraints, so as to provide us with all the material we need to work with and rectify."

-- Hence, we're to know that the only way to change the cakey, bloated, wily entity that is our comprehensive ratzon l’kabel into a G-dly, selfless, blameless one is to transform it into a comprehensive willingness to bestow. Otherwise it will only grow fatter and fatter till it pops. And we do that by subsuming ourselves in the mitzvah-system which demands selfless acquiescence to G-d's will.
-- But we're never to forget that we're only put through all that in order to prove ourselves valiant in battle; and that the grist for the whole alternately delectable and terrible mill that is the ratzon l’kabel is only there to "provide us with all the material we need to work with and rectify".

(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".

R' Ashlag Ch. 29 (sect. 1)

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________________

29.

1.

"Now we can finally begin to resolve our second inquiry, about the role we play in the great course of events that we’re such minor players in, in the short span of our days (see 1:3)."

-- This inquiry is crucial for our purposes, for it sums up our raison d'être and offers us direct guidance in how we’re to draw close to G-d, which is the point of it all. We'll be occupied with it for the next few chapters.

"Know, that our lifelong Divine service is divided into four stages. The first centers on our acquiring the comprehensive ratzon l’kabel in full measure along with all the impurity (it garnered) from the four worlds of defiled-A.B.Y.A. (Why would we have to attain it, seeing how foul it is?) Because we couldn’t rectify this corrupt ratzon l’kabel if we didn’t have it, since 'no one can rectify something he doesn’t have'".

-- We're passive participants in the first of the four stages of our spiritual development, since all we do, ironically, is take in the ratzon l’kabel -- the willingness to only take in -- in detail.
-- And we'd have to accept it in order to ultimately reject it. After all, how could we reject it if we didn't first know it? The first point, then, is that our having and internalizing wrong and un-G-dliness is inevitable to our being, and to our growth.

"But (know,too, that) the degree of ratzon l’kabel that’s granted (us) at birth isn’t enough (for our purposes). (So) it has to serve as a vehicle for the impure husks for no less than thirteen years. That means to say that the husks must control our ratzon l’kabel and grant it the husks’ lights (for that length of time), since those lights augment it. For the satisfaction that the husks supply the ratzon l’kabel increase and broaden its demands."

-- Even though R' Ashlag had originally termed the native ratzon l’kabel "comprehensive" and "full measure(d)", and said that it had "all the impurity (it garnered) from the four worlds of defiled-A.B.Y.A.", that's not to say it's the consummate ratzon l’kabel. For this native ratzon l’kabel will prove to be an obscure hint of its full and ugly self. For it can only come to fruition after having come into this world; for it was only potentially full until then.
-- Indeed, we'd need to allow in a more lumbering heftier ratzon l’kabel with each and every ugly, self-indulgent, mean detail, if we're to rectify it. For we'd have to experience the ratzon l’kabel in its entirety, in all its hideousness, in order to know it to be detrimental and objectionable (or else we'd bear with it, or just be annoyed by it). For only after having had our fill of it can we utterly reject it. Since "no one can rectify something he doesn’t have" and want to spurn.
-- That's why the native ratzon l’kabel must serve as a "vehicle (i.e., an instrument) for the impure husks for no less than thirteen years", until we ourselves can become "vehicles" for mitzvot. And it's why the native ratzon l’kabel must be controlled and emboldened by the impure husks that engorge and fatten it so.

(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".