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

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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 )

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