"The Great Redemption" (35)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

R' Ashlag Ch. 40

... has been completed and can be found at ...

Toras Rav Ashlag

R' Ashlag Ch. 40 (Part 1)

Chapter Forty:

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________________

1.

"Now, I know that this (idea) is intolerable to some philosophers who simply can’t accept the notion that man, whom they regard as lowly and worthless, is the focal point of creation in all its splendor."
-- "After all", they reason, "man is neither angel nor is he any greater than the humanoids he’d evolved from. So how could he possibly be G-d’s prized entity and the focus of all His attention?

"(But they only feel that way because) like a worm born and raised in a radish who deemed all of G-d’s creation as bitter, dark, and tiny as that radish, and who suddenly sat up in stunned wonder and said: 'But I thought the whole world was the size of the radish I was raised in, and now I see a huge, splendid, beautiful, and wondrous world before me!' the moment the radish’s outer-shell breaks open and he’s able to peer out -- these philosophers are likewise encased in the outer-shell of the ratzon l’kabel they’d been born with, and they have never savored the distinct aroma of Torah (study) and mitzvah observance that can break through that hard outer-shell and turn it (from a rank ratzon l’kabel) into a willingness to bestow pleasure onto the Creator. In fact they can’t help but consider humankind worthless and empty -- since that’s what they *themselves* are. (And it also explains why) they can’t fathom how all of reality was created for humankind’s sake alone."
-- Rabbi Ashlag’s point is that those who contend that humankind is small and of little worth only feel that way because they’ve never attained the rank of true humanness. They’ve never looked past the pettinesses they -- and most of us -- function out of, or caught sight of the human they could be if they’d but follow the mitzvah-system that encourages selflessness and surrendering to G-d’s will. For following it enables one to transcend the ratzon l’kabel that defines most of humanity, and to draw close to G-d, which is G-d’s great aim and focus.

(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 from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

"The Great Redemption" (34)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

"The Great Redemption" (33)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

R' Ashlag Ch. 39

... has been emandated and completed, and can be found at ...

Toras Rav Ashlag

"The Way of G-d": Introduction

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": Introduction

1.

Ramchal's introduction to “The Way of G-d” isn’t really what we’d expect it to be. It isn’t for example a rationale for studying G-d’s way in the first place, or a justification for the idea that we humans can explain it. It obviously assumes that, as believers, we accept the idea that has been so fundamental to the Jewish Faith for millennia that G-d revealed these things through the Tradition, and that despite the complexity of it all, they can be explained.

So what this introduction does from the very beginning, and without apology, is to simply lay out G-d’s methods of interacting with the universe, and in an orderly and rational way. And more.

2.

Ramchal’s first point is that it's far, far better knowing things in a structured and orderly manner than in a haphazard one. He compares haphazard knowledge to a wild, chaotic forest, and structured knowledge to an orderly, symmetric garden.

He offers that we become befuddled when we confront things that are set out in a hodgepodge fashion, and that we can’t determine a correlation between the whole and its parts, or between the parts themselves. Our mind becomes taxed, he says, and we shut down. For we find ourselves lost in a great forest of data that we have to sift through exhaustingly. And as a consequence the very thing that excited us so much from the start -- the possibility of understanding something clearly -- proves to be our nemesis.

The opposite is true, though, when we come upon data that’s laid out in order and by category: we're delighted and pleased.

Now, on the surface Ramchal seems to be offering a reasonable-enough insight that matches our experience and goes far to explain mental-stress. But we quickly become excited when we realize that he's suggesting that there needs to be order and symmetry when it comes to books that speak about G-d in the universe; so when he sets out to do that in “The Way of G-d” our interest is piqued. And in fact ”The Way of G-d” is perfect in its layout, as well as very soul-satisfying and alluring.

3.

Yet it's clear that there’s a deeper, more subtle message being conveyed here, too. Ramchal seems to be addressing the inner life. He’s apparently contrasting a perplexed, torn, tortured G-dless soul who can’t see the connection between things, and the person of pure, clear faith and religious erudition who can.

For the tortured soul finds himself in the midst of a wild, chaotic forest of fear day after day. He never knows what he'll come upon from moment to moment, and can’t be sure he’ll know what to make of it once he comes upon it.

The only connection he sees between things is a chronological one. He stumbles about with mind shut down, and can fathom neither rhyme nor reason. The more things he comes upon, the greater his confusion. It gets to the point where life and its travails threaten rather than bolster his confidence.

Not so the person of full faith and knowledge, who walks about a veritable Garden of Eden laid out in full splendor. Each and every thing he meets confirms his faith in an orderly way and meaningfully, and reveals the shrewdness and wisdom of the Great Planner.

Ramchal's intention seems then to be to provide us with the great master plan laid out in order, and to thus allow us the great bliss and airy-ease that true and knowledgeable believers enjoy.

4.

Then Ramchal seems to turn a corner and begins advising us how to analyze things.

His first suggestion is that we'd do best to always consider things in relation to the whole -- to look at "the big picture". Taking his own advice, Ramchal then steps back a nearly infinite distance and speaks of all of existence -- "(of) both the tangible and the abstract, i.e., (about) everything you would possibly imagine".

He determines from that perspective that absolutely everything is different from everything else, both in kind and in quality; and that everything has rules unique to itself. Hence the only way to understand anything and how it functions would be to see what sets it apart from everything else.

He then goes on to offer (quite succinctly and precisely) that there are four general categories under which things fall: they're either a whole entity or part of one, a general instance of this or that or a particular instance, a cause of something else or an effect of some cause, and either an essence (i.e., a thing itself) or a quality (something about that thing).

He advises us to keep in mind that (1) if something is a part of something else, that we'd do well to determine the whole it's a part of, in order to see it in “the big picture”. If (2) it's a cause of something, then we'd have to determine its effects, or determine its cause if it's an effect. If (3) it's a quality, then we should surmise the essence associated with it, and consider if the quality preceded the essence, came about at the same time, or if it came about after it; and whether the quality is intrinsic to the essence or happened by accident, and whether it’s only a potential quality, or an actual one. Then we'd do well to determine (4) whether the thing we're analyzing is absolute or limited; and if it's limited, then we'd then have to determine its limits. Since doing all that helps to provide us with a complete picture.

His final point is that we'll never determine the truth about anything unless we unearth its context and take it from there. And the astute reader notices that "The Way of G-d" is constructed just that way (though it would take a whole other book to point that out, step by step.)

5.

On a deeper level though we also find that Ramchal has allotted us another profound lesson in self-knowledge along the way.

For if we're ever to determine who we are and to thus better ourselves, we too would have to look at "the big picture" and see ourselves in context. For while we're each unique with rules of our own, we nonetheless fit into a whole and would do well to see our own place in it.

The whole we're a part of is the universe in its entirety. In certain instances we cause things to happen, and in other instances we're affected by others' initiatives. Sometimes we're essential to a situation, and other times happenstantial and quite secondary. And on and on.

The point seems to be that knowing ourselves hangs on knowing our context and our relation to others. But that's only one level of looking at what our author is alluding to so astutely. At bottom he also seems to be saying that each one of us is a particular part of G-d directly affected by Him and beholden to Him. And that He alone is the essence.

And indeed, that's what 'The Way of G-d" is all about. It's a methodical manual for delving into our beings and for finding G-d's place in it and in the entire universe.

(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 from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Yashar Books.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

R' Ashlag Ch. 39 (Part 1)

Chapter Thirty-Nine:

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________________

39.


1.

"Now that it has been explained that G-d created everything in order to bestow pleasure upon His creatures ... "
-- See Ch’s 6-7 about this, as well as about our having been created with a huge capacity to take-in, in order to accommodate all the pleasure that G-d wants to bestow on us.

" ... so that they could know Him and His greatness, and accept all the goodness and delight He’d prepared for them to the extent enunciated in the verse, "Is Ephraim (not) My precious son? Is he (not) a darling child? For whenever I speak about him I earnestly remember him and my innards are moved by him” (Jeremiah 31:19) ... "
-- See Ch. 33 where Rabbi Ashlag wrote that, “the satisfaction that G-d derives from granting His creatures pleasure depends on the extent to which they sense that it’s He who’s bestowing it and granting them that pleasure. For when they do, G-d regales with them much the way a father regales with his beloved child" about whom it’s said "Is Ephraim (not) My precious son? Is he (not) a darling child? ....”

" ... It’s obvious, then, that this intention doesn’t apply to the mineral (realm), or (even) to the great heavenly bodies like the earth, the moon, or the sun, however effulgent or immense (they are). And (it likewise doesn’t apply) to the vegetable or animal (realms either), since they aren’t even aware of others of their own species, and thus can’t sense G-dliness or His beneficence. (It) Only (applies to) humankind, since it (alone) becomes aware of others of its kind."

(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 from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Yashar Books.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

"The Great Redemption" (32)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

R' Ashlag Ch. 38

... can be found at ...

Toras Rav Ashlag

"The Great Redemption" (31)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

"The Way of G-d" Part 4, Ch.9, Paragraph 3

RAMCHAL

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

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

__________________________________________________

This ends our exhaustive study of Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto's "The Way of G-d". We'll backtrack and offer our author's introduction to the work next time (as we said we would at the very beginning). Then after a short break we'll start a new series based on another of Ramchal's works, "A Discourse on The Redemption", which we'll term "The Great Redemption". It will touch on some of the more esoteric aspects of the Messianic Era and offer a mystical eye-view on the redemption itself. Stay tuned.
-------------------------------------------------------------

"The Way of G-d" Part 4, Ch.9, Paragraph 3

Sometimes though not only mundane things need to be more salted and peppered, inherently holy things need to be as well. For as Ramchal puts it, "the more we do to motivate ourselves to draw close to G-d", be it holy or mundane, "the more help we'll get from Him to do that".

That's why our sages enjoined us to recite a blessing before we perform various mitzvot. The blessing reads, "Blessed are You, G-d our L-rd, King of the universe, Who has sanctified us through His mitzvot, and commanded us to (do thus and such). "

Saying that has the mitzvah we're about to perform stand out in our minds and adds heft to it. After all, we cite G-d's name first thing in the blessing and thus remind ourselves Whom we're serving through the mitzvah. And we also concentrate on thanking G-d for singling us out as His emissaries in this world, and for enabling us to better our spiritual standing.

(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 from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Yashar Books.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

R' Ashlag Ch. 37

... can be found at ...

Toras Rav Ashlag

Oops ... Some Changes to R' Ashlag

I've made some fairly major changes to Ch. 34, Ch. 35, and Ch. 36. I was off the mark and I'm sorry.

"The Duties of the Heart" Gate Ten, Ch. 7 (Part 2)

"In Search of Spiritual Excellence"

-- A Reworking of Classical Mussar Texts

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

This concludes our study of "The Duties of the Heart", the second in our "In Search of Spiritual Excellence" Mussar series. We'll take a break for a while then move on to our next work.
----------------------------------------------------

"The Duties of the Heart" Gate Ten, Ch. 7 (Part 2)

What's most remarkable about people who love G-d through-and-through, we're told, "is the fact that they find the number of mitzvot that G–d gave (us) to be too few in light of (our) obligations to Him for all His kindness".

After all, they said, while there are indeed 613 mitzvot (248 imperatives and 365 prohibitives), a number of the imperatives are exclusively communal obligations, others are for specific days and times of the year, some are only obligatory in the Land of Israel, and others yet are only circumstantial and occasional. And they reasoned that the prohibitives shouldn't really be taken as requirements per se, since we "fulfill them by merely *avoiding* certain things". Wasn't it true then, they pointed out, that the only thing incumbent upon us all the time was Torah-study? And so they came to consider what's required of us to serve G–d as actually quite minimal "in relation to the yearnings and longings to please" Him we should have. So they engaged in "special spiritual disciplines and practices" as well as all the duties of the heart we'd explained, epitomized by the love of G-d, and "added them onto the established mitzvot with a pure heart and for the sake of G–d".

"If you want to be affiliated with them, brother, and to be on their level," Ibn Pakudah counsels us, "then forsake and divest yourself of worldly luxuries, be satisfied with the bare minimum; train yourself to do without, and lessen your worldly burdens and allow your heart to not concentrate on them; and hurry to do the physical things you must do, but with your body only, not wholeheartedly or willfully –– like someone who swallows a bitter pill reluctantly, who's only willing to put up with its abhorrent bitterness in order to be cured."

Finally, we're exhorted to accentuate the spiritual over the material in our lives: to "favor things that will rescue you (from life's untoward temptations) and that bring you peace in your Torah and worldly affairs"; to "accept reason as your king, humility as your commander, wisdom as your guide, and abstinence as your beloved"; to "beware of negligence, laziness, and idleness, and to (instead) allow one instance of enthusiasm to follow another one, ever–increasing patience to follow increasing patience, and for each level of good qualities to be followed by the next"; and to "try to keep the world's desires from your heart" by replacing them with "thoughts of your ultimate destiny and the duties of your heart".

"Delve into this book" and read it again and again, we're told, "memorize its contents, observe its principles, and ponder your progress at all times". Do that and "you'll reach the most coveted of all (spiritual) levels, as well as the ultimate of exalted qualities that please G–d.

Bachya Ibn Pakudah then concludes this most precious and divine book with the following prayer, to which nothing could possibly be added: "May G–d in His compassion and greatness teach us all how to serve Him." Amen.

(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 from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Yashar Books.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

"The Great Redemption" (30)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

"The Way of G-d" Part 4, Ch.9, 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

__________________________________________________

"The Way of G-d" Part 4, Ch.9, Paragraph 2

One of the most mundane -- though utterly vital -- things we do day after day is eat and drink. And outside of the concerns for the food's kosherness, whether today is a fast day or not and the like, very little Torah-based thought goes into our meals. But that's a problem, simply because everything we do *ought* to be exalted on one level or another that way, since everything matters on a high, cosmic level (as we'd indicated). So G-d in His wisdom exhorted us to raise the level of our meals and snacks.

That's why we were enjoined by the Torah to recite Birkat Hamazon ("The Grace after Meals") as well as other blessings before and after eating. For by doing that we sanctify what we'd just eaten, we funnel it into the great rush of material things serving to help perfect the world, and we thus use our most basic urges in the service of G-d. (Understand of course that we couldn't ever hope to sanctify unholy things no matter how hard we try; it would be absurd to think we could recite a blessing over stolen food, for example, eat it, and walk away a better Jew.)

We do a lot of other routine things ever day, of course. And we're to sanctify them too along the same lines. Understand though that some things are more vital and potent than others in that process, depending on their makeup and on the place, time, and spirit in which they're used. But be that as it may, everything kosher, ethical, and just that we come in contact with that isn't already a part of the mitzvah-system can and ought to be used in G-d's service. It wouldn't do to use those sort of things on a distinctly mundane level or for merely superfluous purposes. Since that would only defy G-d's plans and defeat our own higher purposes.

We're thus also asked to recite a blessing before smelling aromatic things, when we see natural wonders, when we catch sight of the season's first blossoms, and more. For all goodness comes from G-d, everything good helps humankind when used in that spirit, and otherwise non-descript things become good and ultimately beneficial along the way.

(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 from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Yashar Books.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

R' Ashlag Ch. 36

... can be found at ...

Toras Rav Ashlag

R' Ashlag Ch. 35

... can be found at ...

Toras Rav Ashlag

"The Duties of the Heart" Gate Ten, Ch. 7 (Part 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. 7 (Part 1)

We come close now to the end of this gate and to our study of "The Duties of the Heart". And there's no better way than to depict the demeanor of those who do indeed love G-d, heart and soul.

As Ibn Pakudah portrays it, those who love Him to that extent "know their G–d and realize that He's pleased with them, that He guides, directs and sustains them, and that He controls and is in charge of everything". It's also clear to them that "all their activities and movements depend on G-d's decree and will, so they no longer prefer one thing to another and they trust instead that He'll choose the best and most appropriate course for them."

These great and lofty souls want nothing better than to "please Him with all their heart and mind, and they stop yearning for things of the world and its boastings" and "they look instead, both wholeheartedly and with the full force of their souls, for help and courage from G–d to keep their thoughts fixed on His service."

They likewise "praise and thank G–d for all their accomplishments .... But when their plans to do good don't come to fruition because of circumstances, they absolve themselves from them before G–d and decide to do them when they can, and they await the time G-d will prepare for them (to do them in fact)" -- unlike those of us who brood when our plans fall through and our best of intentions are waylaid.

Those who truly love G-d "forsake worldly affairs and the more rank concerns of their bodies ... , and only involve themselves in them when they have to" and they "apply their souls and hearts to Torah study and to the service of G–d in order to honor and aggrandize Him instead, and in order to observe His mitzvot."

How do such individuals appear to others? Are they otherworldly and odd looking? Not at all, we're told. "They may seem shy" at first, because they're more contemplative and focused than most of us, "(but) if you were to speak to them they'd prove to be sages. For they'd know the answer to whatever you might ask them", since they commune with G-d. And "you'd find them to be uncomfortable with and baffled by worldly matters, since their hearts are full of the love of G–d and they want none of the things others desire", but they'd certainly be welcoming and lucid.

There's even more to be said about them, though.

(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 from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Yashar Books.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

"The Great Redemption" (29)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

"The Way of G-d" Part 4, Ch.9, 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.9, Paragraph 1

There would also have to be ways to serve G-d under unremarkable, matter-of-fact circumstances of course. After all, not everything we do is magical or embellished with religious aura. We're far more often eating and drinking, wearing clothes, walking or riding and the like than praying or studying Torah. So we'd obviously need to know how to worship G-d then, too. This chapter will dwell on that.

We actually encountered the principle behind the solution to this a long while back, when we spoke of our immortal souls being thrust into a material world and having to learn to contend with the inherent conflict (see 1:4:4). A lot of it comes to this.

Absolutely *nothing* is without its place and purpose; everything matters in G-d's wide world and contributes toward the ultimate goal of universal perfection. There's no denying the fact, though, that each and every person, place, and thing has fixed conditions under which it operates and a unique character, and that all of them have to somehow fit into the great pattern and makeup of the celestial forces that influence the cosmos.

And so specific mitzvot had to have been ordained for us for those times when we're not engaged in specifically spiritual activities that take all of this into account, that also anchor all of those activities onto the side of right rather than wrong, and that benefit and rectify things.

Know, too, that the effect our mundane actions have on the cosmos not only depend on their makeup, they also depend on their relationship to all earthly and otherworldly circumstances, and on the fact that everything is indeed progressing toward perfection. So obviously only G-d in His infinite wisdom could have provided us with mitzvot that take all of that into account.

(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 from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Yashar Books.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"