The Point of It All -- Chapter Two

... can be found at ...

Toras Rav Ashlag

Da'at Tevunot (Section 1, Ch. 2)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

Tanya Ch. 10

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

Sefer Tanya

Ma'amar HaGeulah (The Rectified World, Ch. 1)

Ma'amar HaGeulah

-- "The Great Redemption", a reworking of Ramchal's "Ma'amar HaGeulah"

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

__________________________________________________

"The Great Redemption"

The Rectified World: Ch. 1

1.

The whole point of the redemption, aside from our returning to a sanctified Land of Israel, is to bring about a great universal emendation -- a state in which everything would have reached its potential, fulfilled its raison d'être, and coalesced. Let's see how that will play itself out as Ramchal depicts it.

He says that what has always characterized the world before the great redemption has been the phenomenon of constriction. Holiness was constricted to the Land of Israel in antiquity and went no further, and it was constricted even farther as a consequence of the terrible exile "to ... just a small speck". We're to know, however, that holiness "will once again expand throughout the Holy Land" after the redemption, and then throughout the world (see para. 60).

A lot will happen behind the scenes to bring that about. In fact, we'd alluded to much of this early on in this work, in chapters 6-10 of "The Exile", where we'd given away the end at the beginning, as we termed it. So we'll be alluding to things spoken of there from now on to the end from other perspectives.

We're told that "branches will begin to spread out from the lowest and most external groupings" of the Divine Presence, which will then begin covering the face of the earth, since "it would have been cleansed of its impurities" by then. That's to say that the Shechina's "wings" will begin to spread throughout the world. In fact, "the Shechina’s wings will break through ... right and left" and everyone will begin to "serve G-d in unison" as a consequence (Ibid.).

But this is what's going to be happening even farther yet behind the scenes, and further up the rungs of Divine Luminaries. For a great conjoining of Forces will begin to come about (see para. 61).

Whereas the world would have been managed by rather low echelons of Divine will so to speak until then, that will no longer be the case. Those lower levels will begin to draw strength from the very highest ones, and will come into play in whole other ways.

For one thing, the lowest Luminary (Malchut) will blossom and "be more powerful than it had ever been". In fact, it will be coequal with a fairly high one (Tipheret). "Both (will then be) rectified as they should be" and draw sustenance from much, much higher Divine Levels (Chochma and Binah) (Ibid.), and the "great, albeit silent, shifting of the gears on-high", the "wondrous celestial about-face" we'd cited will have begun in earnest (see The Visitation Ch. 1).

But that won't be the end of it, by any means.

(c) 2006 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.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

The Point of It All -- Chapter One

... can be found at ...

Toras Rav Ashlag

Tanya Ch. 10 (Part 3)

“Nearly Everybody”: The Inner Life and Struggles of the Jewish Soul

(Based on “Tanya: Collected Discourses of R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi”)

by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________

Ch. 10

3.

Utter tzaddikim manage to do something quite remarkable. Rather than only prevail over the wrongfulness in their hearts, they actually *transform it to goodness*, and to use those once-untoward biases in the service of G-d (Maskil L’Eitan).

They do that we’re told by divesting themselves of their so-called "filthy clothing" (i.e., their -- and our -- more lowly human longings that are soiled with wrongfulness), by coming to despise physical pleasures [4], and by donning “clean” garments instead. Thus, they've learned how to channel their wrongfullness into goodness (Shiurim b’Sefer haTanya) [5].

What utter tzaddikim find repellent about wrongfulness, by the way, is the fact that it's derived from the husk and the other side which they despise. For what gives all tzaddikim their impetus -- and most especially utter tzaddikim -- and what sets them apart from the rest of us is their love of G-d [6]. They love G-d so very much, and quite ecstatically. And that naturally leads them to despise anything associated with the other side (Shiurim b’Sefer haTanya) which contradicts His wishes. In fact, one can tell how much he or she loves G-d by determining just how despicable and hateful he or she finds wrongfulness to be.

In any event, even though they’re indeed righteous, incomplete tzaddikim nonetheless don't utterly hate the other side and things associated with it, and don't find them to be completely despicable. That explains the fact that while incomplete tzaddikim don't sin, they nonetheless retain the ability to sin on some subtle level (Biur Tanya).

It still remains true, though, that the righteousness of the incomplete tzaddikim far outweighs their wrongfulness and is null and void for all intents and purposes. It's just that in contradistinction to complete tzaddikim, their love of G-d is incomplete and they thus function on a highly potential but not a fully realized level (Biur Tanya).

Understand as well that there are very many degrees of incomplete righteousness, depending on how much wrongfulness is left behind. Some incomplete tzaddikim will have sixty times more righteousness than wrongfulness, for example, others a thousand times, or tens-of-thousands times more, and the like.

That phenomenon helps to explain two apparently contradictory remarks offered by our sages, by the way. First, that there are eighteen thousand tzaddikim all-in-all (see Sukkah 45B and Sanhedrin 97B), and second that there are actually very few "lofty individuals" (ibid.) in the world. The quandry can be solved by noting that the former refers to the sum total of both incomplete and complete tzaddikim, and the latter to the number of complete tzaddikim.

__________________________________________

Notes:

[4] It's out-and-out, purely *physical*, mundane delights they've come to despise -- those that draw us all away from G-d. But they're still attracted to Shabbat-related delights for example, and the like (Maskil L’Eitan), because the latter are spiritual pleasures "wrapped" in material entities, if you will.

[5] Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto explains this in The Path of the Just (Ch. 26) where he says that "Even the mundane actions of the person sanctified in the holiness of His Creator are turned around to actual holiness. This can best be illustrated by the eating of sacrificial-offerings" where ordinary food is thus elevated to an element of a mitzvah, and thus is both profane and Divine at the same time.

[6] Thus, love is a *vital* element of one's righteousness, and the more of it one has for G-d, the greater the tzaddik he is. For as we noted in Ch. 9 above there are varying extents to which one’s love of G-d can go. There’s "the fiery love of G-d" and "gladness of heart" that comes from apprehending G-d’s presence in the world, and what's termed "abounding" or "ecstatic love" (see there).

RSZ spells out the significance of the varying qualities of one’s love for G-d elsewhere, where he underscores how much it sets utter-tzaddikim apart from lesser tzaddikim and differentiates them from the rest us. (RSZ alludes to it in Tanya also, as we’ll point out; but less outright.)

He underscores the fact (in Torah Ohr, B’chodesh Hashlishi, p. 66) that the Patriarch Abraham, who was undoubtedly a tzaddik of the highest order since he could “overturn the other side and turn darkness into light” (see section 4 below), acheived a state referred to as “exalted love” (ahavah ha’elyonah, which is identical to the above cited "abounding" or "ecstatic love") thanks to which he yearned only to realize true personal nullification before G-d’s Presence.

How did he ever come upon that? By “ruminating upon Ohr Ayn Sof Atsmo HaSovev Cal Olamim”, which is to say by reflecting upon G-d’s very Being in its most transcendant aspect, utterly removed from creation and from everything other than Himself”.

The point of the matter is that it’s the quality of one’s love for G-d that defines his tzaddik state; success at that hinges upon the degree to which one ruminates upon G-d’s very Being, and it’s characterized by a high and superhuman degree of personal surrender and subservience to His will. (This sublime degree of love -- depicted as an experience of the World to Come in the here-and-now -- is also said to be a gift from on High as a consequence of the tzaddik’s having had his G-dly spirit prevail over his animalistic one, refined his physicality, studied a great deal of Torah and fulfilled many mitzvot, and his having earned a lofty soul [Chinuch Kattan].

As an interesting aside, we'll note in Ch. 14 that one could also become a tzaddik by being "possessed" by the soul of a deceased tzaddik from the past!

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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

********************************
Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued and can be ordered 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"

Chanukkah Break

Happy, happy!

"Eight Chapters" (Chapter Six, Part 1)

“Spiritual Excellence” with Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Our Current Text: Moshe Maimonides's (Rambam's) “Eight Chapters”

-- Rabbi Feldman's on going series for Torah.org

**********************************************************

"Eight Chapters"

Chapter Six (Part 1)

Some people think that truly good and righteous people are just born that way, and that the rest of us can only hope to avoid doing harm, at best. But that's clearly not Rambam's (or our own) perspective on things, as he asserts that we *all* have what it takes to achieve spiritual excellence in this world.

Understand, though, that that wasn't always as self-evident as it seems.

In the past many thinkers contended that certain people were born "heroes", as they called them, who could do no wrong, while the rest of us are doomed to shlep along in our clumsy, often less-than-righteous ways. In point of fact, that argument is still very much alive today, with some claiming that we're each genetically "wired" to be one way or the other, without much free will ... but that's not the point here.

There's something else many thought in the past: it's that "when a person who subdues his yetzer harah does lofty things", that is, if a person struggles with his urge to do something wrong and manages to stave off the temptation and to do good instead, he's nonetheless "not so praiseworthy". Why? Because he'd still be "longing and yearning to do bad". They'd grant you that "he'd struggled with his longings" and managed to "withstand the promptings of his personal bents, desires, and disposition", but their point would be that he'd be "suffering in the process", that it wouldn't come naturally to him, so he wouldn't be all that noble.

The so-called hero or eminent, sinless person would be loftier and more perfect than the one who subdues his yetzer harah, simply because the latter "still longs to do something bad" which indicates "an inherently bad disposition" on his part -- even though he hadn't succumbed.

Their contention was that if you or I were "really" good, we wouldn't even *think* of sinning. And that struggling not to sin, and even managing to be successful at that, wouldn't be all that great.

But as we said, Rambam disagrees.

(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"

Tanya Ch. 10 (Part 2)

“Nearly Everybody”: The Inner Life and Struggles of the Jewish Soul

(Based on “Tanya: Collected Discourses of R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi”)

by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________

Ch. 10

2.

We're told that there are two sorts of tzaddikim over all, in fact: less-than-completely righteous ones, with a tinge or more of wrongfulness, and complete and utter tzaddikim.

An incomplete tzaddik is someone who *has* indeed managed to have his G-dly spirit prevail over his animalistic biases after the aforementioned inner struggle and to have rendered them inert, and null and void for all intents and purposes [2], which is quite a victory. But he hasn't managed to do the sort of things that utter tzaddikim do with those biases (which we'll soon explore).

So there's still a semblance of wrongfulness in his heart, which he nevertheless *never acts out on* . Understand of course that the sorts of wrongfulness he’d be guilty of would fall under the category of wanting to use permitted things in improper ways -- not out-and-out wrongfulness (Maskil L’Eitan). So it’s not that incomplete tzaddikim plunge into wrongdoing once in a great while -- they just do ordinary things in ordinary ways, as we do, which renders them less than wholly righteous.

He (and we) might think, though, that he’d completely eradicated his urges, but he wouldn’t have. For if he had, he’d be a complete tzaddik, which he’s not. So let's contrast his standing now with that of a complete tzaddik [3].
__________________________________________

Notes:

[2] ... compared to all the good in him ...

[3] A complete or utter tzaddik in RSZ’s system is the classical chassid, pious individual (Biur Tanya, Maskil L’Eitan), who's actually loftier than a tzaddik in those contexts. That begs the question then as to how the Chassidic movement managed to switch things around and set the “tzaddik” or rebbe above the “chassid" or adherent.

There are many answers, but RSZ offers an "insider's" insight that's very interesting. In a letter written in response to Russian government inquiries about the Chassidic movement, RSZ mentions in passing that its adherents came to be called chassidim (by their detractors) because they spent a lot of time on prayers like the early pious ones ("chassidim") cited in Berachot 30B who used to prepare for an hour before prayers, pray for an hour, then reflect on their prayers for another hour afterwards, three times a day (see Hamadrich l'Avodat Hashem pp. 165-167).

Let it also be pointed out that utter tzaddikim are also rare individuals with high souls who are very wise and literally sense the presence of G-dliness, and that there have always been very few of them in a generation -- including the earlier generations (Maskil L’Eitan).

And let’s also add that there are other definitions of incomplete tzaddikim that are easier for most of us to live up to. One who’s careful not to lapse into licentiousness is termed a tzaddik (see Zohar 1, p. 93A) as well as one who’s of sure faith, who’s careful to pray in a minyan and to respond to particular blessings as a consequence, who recites the requisite 100 blessings everyday, and someone who’s charitable (Likut Perushim to Ch. 1, pp. 40-41). We’d also be tzaddikim as soon as we’d repented wholeheartedly, though that would be undone as soon as we’d sinned again (or used everyday things for mundane ends, according to RSZ).

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

********************************
Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued and can be ordered 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"

Tanya Ch. 10 (Part 1)

“Nearly Everybody”: The Inner Life and Struggles of the Jewish Soul

(Based on “Tanya: Collected Discourses of R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi”)

by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________

Ch. 10

1.

Let's see now how different people respond to this inner struggle to squelch and master our untoward side. We'll find that some do quite well at it, even extraordinarily so; others do more or less poorly; and that the great preponderance of us sometimes do well and other times not.

We'll concentrate first upon the eminently successful ones, the righteous or tzaddikim. First off, let it never be forgotten that zaddikim -- no matter how pious -- are human, hence that they have an animalistic spirit like the rest of us. It’s just that they have fought against its wish to dominate them, won, and thus they need no longer fight; and that they're steady in their righteousness from that point onward without ever tottering (Biur Tanya) [1]. But we'll see that there are all sorts of tzaddikim.

So let's peek now into the inner life of the righteous.

__________________________________________

Notes:

[1] At the very beginning of his comments to this section Maskil L’Eitan depicts two wars that both a complete and an incomplete tzaddik would have to have fought and won to gain their status. He'd first had to have protected his G-dly spirit from the animalistic spirit's onslaughts, and then he'd have to had fought aggressively to push the animalistic spirit back into its original "camp", the left side of the heart.

What Maskil L’Eitan doesn't depict at that point, though, is a third battle that the *complete* tzaddik would have to have entered into in order to indeed be one which the incomplete one wouldn't have entered. The complete tzaddik would have to have used the "spoils of battle" -- the animalistic spirits urges to do, say, and think wrongful things -- for G-dly purposes. But that will become clearer later on.

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

********************************
Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued and can be ordered 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 Point of It All -- Translator's Introduction

I've decided to scrap the idea of writing up a synopsis of Rabbi Ashlag's thoughts in his Introduction to the Zohar before writing a book based on it, and have jumped into the book itself.

It will appear chapter after chapter. And so, my introduction can now be found at
Toras Rav Ashlag

Tanya Ch. 9

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

Sefer Tanya

Tanya Ch. 9 (Part 3)

“Nearly Everybody”: The Inner Life and Struggles of the Jewish Soul

(Based on “Tanya: Collected Discourses of R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi”)

by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________

Ch. 9

3.

But the two spirits aren't autonomous; they share space in our being [4]. In fact, the sensitive soul can't help but be acutely aware of the two of them vying in and *for* his being, and of how opposite and outright contradictory their predilections are. In fact we'd dare say that the ultimate measure of one's honesty with himself is the degree to which he acknowledges his own inner irony.

The most important lesson to be learned from this struggle is that it defines our inner reality our whole lives long. And that other than the rare complete tzaddik, we're *all* conflicted this way -- all of two minds (and hearts), if you will. What RSZ does in this work so well, indeed, is lay out that fact plain and outright (see Biur Tanya), and thus defines the starting point from which we can ascend.

But let's explore more of the dynamic. We're each depicted classically as whole "countries" [5], thanks to our complexity and multifariousness. As such, our two spirits can be seen as two distinct and diverse kings (and their armies) vying for control over the “country” that we each are, and for the right to have the last word about what we’re to do or not do (see Nedarim 32B). And each offers his own incentives.

4.

The G-dly spirit would like us to follow its dictates and submit to its wishes all the time. Which is to say, to be absorbed in [6] G-dliness whenever we do, think, or say something, and to never stray from that. It would have us reflect upon G-d's infinite greatness and to foster the sort of fear and fiery love of Him that would have us attach ourselves onto Him [7].

In fact, the G-dly spirit would like those feelings to be so powerful that they virtually "spill" over from the right side of the heart to the left, where the animalistic spirit is found, and force the animalistic spirit and its unholy urges to reverse themselves [8]. It even wants the animalistic spirit to reach the level of love that actually surpasses the aforementioned "fiery love" that’s termed "abounding" or "ecstatic” love -- the sort of love for G-d one would have in The World to Come [9].

But make no mistake about it: few merit so lofty a perch (Maskil L’Eitan). Suffice it to say, though, that that sort of love only comes about by delighting in thinking about, in grasping, and in knowing G-d in one's day to day life.

The G-dly spirit would also have the animalistic spirit turn itself around the way we’d depicted because if it did, then all wrong would revert to utter goodness, and humankind would unite with G-dliness in all ways, since wrongfulness would have unshorn its "soiled clothes" (i.e., its longing for worldly delights and other unG-dly things). And the G-dly spirit would have everything we'd do, say, and think be suffused with holiness, rooted in mitzvot, and directed toward G-d alone.
__________________________________________________________

Notes:

[4] RSZ cites Genesis 25:23 here, which reads, "And G-d said to her, ‘Two nations are in your (Rebecca’s) womb and two peoples will be separated from your bowels. One people (Jacob’s) will be stronger than the other (Esau’s) and the older (Esau) will serve the younger (Jacob)’". See note 1 to Ch. 6 for our comments.

In a way the two spirits could be said to complement each other by challenging and competing with one another while nourishing each other as well, as we'll see. After all, doesn't our brain need our heart to thrive, and vice versa; and can't they be said to compliment each other all the time in that sense alone? Doesn't our body need both to function? We once again draw your attention to the citation from the Zohar in the last section of the chapter.

Nonetheless, the tension between the two is not to be denied on an experiential level, and the battle is ongoing.

[5] The actual term used is "cities". But the political entity we'd term a country was in fact termed a “city” in antiquity, hence our use of that term.

[6] The term is that we be "draped (or, clothed) in and a vehicle of" the G-dly spirit’s ten elements and three garments.

[7] Literally, "With all your heart, soul, and your means".

[8] RSZ quotes the verse just cited above that reads "You are to love G-d your L–rd with all your heart..." (Deuteronomy 6:5) and supplies us with the sages' explanation of that to mean " ... with both your impulses" (Berachot 54A) to underscore his point.

[9] This sort of love would be a culmination and fulfillment of the yearning to draw close to G-d, and would be a full realization of it rather than the mere yearning for it; that is, the dream of it come-true (see Ch. 43).

In fact, based on the imagery used in Likutei Torah p.78B (Ushavtem) we’d liken this stage to the eventual “quenching of the thirst” for closeness to G-d with the “water” of its achievement (which would explain why RSZ offers the seemingly unnecessary statement here in the text that this love “is on the level of water”).

For in direct contradistinction to the common misconception of the yearning for closeness to G-d as uppermost, RSZ’s point is that the fulfillment and satisfying of it is the ideal. For only a romantic would idealize the yearning for Divine attachment; a true servant of G-d would actually strive to achieve it. The difference is radical.

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

********************************
Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued and can be ordered 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"

Ma'amar HaGeulah (The Remembrance, Ch. 15)

Ma'amar HaGeulah

-- "The Great Redemption", a reworking of Ramchal's "Ma'amar HaGeulah"

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

__________________________________________________

"The Great Redemption"

The Remembrance: Ch. 15

Taking us through the long course of human spiritual history -- the ups and downs of the battle between good and evil -- these last couple of chapters, Ramchal revealed that "an utterly black darkness" eventually overcame our people, which we'd have to endure "until the throne of the righteous Moshiach would be built". So he now brings us back to the point when the two redeemers will be working in tandem (see The Remembrance, Ch 12).

His point here is that not only will the two Messiahs -- Moshiach Ben Yoseph, who'll appear first, and then Moshiach Ben David -- manage to bring about the great redemption, at long last, but that they'll also be joined by Moses (who would obviously have been brought back to life just for this), who'll help to "complete the Jewish Nation’s emendation" (see para 58). It really shouldn't surprise us to hear that Moses will play a role in the final redemption, in fact, given that we were told early on that the redemption from Egypt and the final one have a lot in common (see para 2).

But what would be left to be done, actually? After all, "good would have been removed from impurity" already, and "evil would have been thrust downward". Not only that, but there'll even be "as great an emendation then as Adam would have effected originally", which means to say that not only would we have returned to square-one by undoing the harm done by Adam and Eve's sin, we'd also have managed to do what they couldn't do, and seen to it that "the edifice that hadn’t been perfected would then be" (see para 58).

Only this would be left. There'll "come to be a day of great judgment ... which will then finish (the process of) purifying all souls and all creation". And as a result, "all of creation will become utterly pure" and the world will be "recast as a new edifice ... in a way that’s neither explicable nor knowable, which will go on forever" (see para 59).

That's to say that all of G-d's creation would have been set aright at long last: our people will be back home, all wrongdoing will have been undone, and everything will have been made pure.

And so we're about to begin the final section of this work, entitled "The Rectified World". In it, Ramchal will present us with some rather esoteric ideas about what will happen in the Heavens to bring about all we'd just cited, along with some other insights.

(c) 2006 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.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

Tanya Ch. 9 (Part 2)

“Nearly Everybody”: The Inner Life and Struggles of the Jewish Soul

(Based on “Tanya: Collected Discourses of R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi”)

by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________

Ch. 9

2.

Our animalistic spirit dwells for the most part, but certainly not exclusively so (Likutei Biurim), in the left ventricle of our heart. It’s important to point out, of course, that the animalistic spirit isn't a physical entity but rather a spiritual one -- otherwise we could have it surgically removed if we wanted to rid ourselves of it (Biur Tanya)!

It shouldn't really surprise us that it dwells in the heart, since our animalistic spirit is essentially emotional and thus heart-centered (Tanya M’vuar). In any event, that’s where it resides and where it fosters unG-dly drives and emotions like untoward cravings, arrogance, anger, and the like.

The animalistic spirit then infuses itself throughout the body including the brain (where the G-dly spirit dwells, as we'll see). And from the brain it seeps into our thoughts and affects them too, by playing a role in our choices and enabling us to rationalize our unG-dly desires.

The G-dly spirit on the other hand, which is essentially intellectual by nature (Tanya M’vuar), dwells primarily in our brain from where it diffuses outward to the other organs, including our heart [2], and where it fosters its *own* emotions. But rather than being unG-dly ones like the unG-dly spirit’s are, the G-dly spirit’s emotions are exclusively G-dly [3].

They include the sort of “fiery love of G-d" that burns in the hearts of those who delve into things that foster that (see 3:4); the sort of "gladness of heart" that comes from apprehending "G-d's beauty and the majesty of His Glory", and from "gazing at the King's ... unfathomable, infinite, and boundless greatness" in one's mind; as well as other holy emotions which we’ll touch upon later.

So it becomes clear that the two have completely different nerve centers and impetuses.

__________________________________________________________
Notes:

[2] ... where it settles in the heart's right ventricle, which is traditionally termed a "vacuum", as RSZ points out. In light of the fact that it's not actually a vacuum as we know today, some explain RSZ to mean that the right ventricle could thus be taken to be a vacuum in a sense given that it doesn't have blood of its own, even though blood from the rest of the body accumulates there (Tanya M’vuar). But it seems it would be better to say that the right ventricle *might as well be a vacuum* since it’s unfulfilled until the G-dly spirit enters into it.

[3] It's been suggested that RSZ is providing us with insight here as to how to know the source of our urges at any one time. If they come from our mind (which is to say, if they're logical and thought-out) then they're from the G-dly spirit, whereas if they come from the heart (i.e., if they're emotional and irrational to one degree or another) they're from the animalistic spirit (Likutei Biurim, Maskil L’Eitan). And in fact, this seems to be a very handy barometer of things that should be kept in mind.

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

********************************
Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued and can be ordered 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"

Tanya Ch. 9 (Part 1)

“Nearly Everybody”: The Inner Life and Struggles of the Jewish Soul

(Based on “Tanya: Collected Discourses of R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi”)

by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________

Ch. 9

1.

Let's delve more into the makeup of our two spirits now, and see how they interact. For by doing that we'll come to understand who *we* truly are and what drives us, since we'll be able to know when we're being urged on by one rather than the other spirit and to react accordingly. Only then will we be able to draw close to G-d. After all, if we don't know who we are and what’s spurring us on at any one time, how can we possibly head in the right direction?

As RSZ said, we're comprised of a G-dly spirit and an animalistic one. As a consequence we have conflicting "tastes", if you will. Sometimes we prefer this, and sometimes that. But this hasn't anything to do with our tastes in food, literature, clothing or the like. But rather with our stance when it comes to the central human option: whether to head toward G-d or away from Him.

Hence, there’s a conflict in the very core of our being. Should we acknowledge G-d outright and acquiesce to His presence all around us, or acknowledge the world outright and acquiesce to *its* presence? Indeed, everything we want, do, say, or think is a consequence of our response to that conflict, moment by moment -- everything.

The battle hardly seems fair, at that. After all, the world is visible and bold, while G-d is invisible and discreet. Yet despite the disproportionate number of things drawing us toward the world and away from G-d, there *is* still-and-all a draw toward G-d in the Jewish heart, as we learned.

RSZ's point is that for most of us the push and pull is real, and we're torn as a consequence. He also believes that one cannot have two masters, since by serving one he besmirches the other and vice versa; and that the wise would accordingly do all they could to serve G-d alone [1].

But in truth the conflict is largely delusional, in that in a way we *can* "have our -- kosher -- cake and eat it, too". For, as we'd seen earlier, there's a wealth of things that fall in-between G-dliness and unG-dliness (see Ch. 7). The challenge, of course, is to engage in those things in a G-dly fashion and to thus elevate the mundane to the Divine. If we do that -- and engage in Torah study and mitzvah observance as well -- we fulfill our mission, feed our G-dly spirit's aspirations, and align ourselves with the Divine, where we'd have adhesed onto the other side if we'd lapsed into sin.

Let's now explore our two biases with that in mind.

__________________________________________________________
Notes:

[1] The starkest breakdown of the choice between the two is offered in Iggeret Hakodesh 11, where RSZ declares that "The main reason man was created in this world was to be tested ... (so as) to know what's in his heart -- whether his heart will turn toward 'other gods', namely physical desires that derive from the other side ... or if he'll ... want to live the true life, that derives from the Living G-d".

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

********************************
Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued and can be ordered 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"

Da'at Tevunot (Section 2, Ch. 1)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

"Eight Chapters" (Chapter Five, Part 6)

“Spiritual Excellence” with Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Our Current Text: Moshe Maimonides's (Rambam's) “Eight Chapters”

-- Rabbi Feldman's on going series for Torah.org

**********************************************************

"Eight Chapters"

Chapter Five (Part 6)

But if we're to be honest with ourselves we'd have to admit that none of this is easy.

After all, this chapter is entitled "Using *all* your personal capacities to one end alone" -- to the end of drawing close to G-d; and that's very, very demanding. Because we're so easily distracted by this and that, so easily dazzled by all sorts of shiny new things that we find ourselves forgetting G-d for weeks at a time (perhaps years).

In fact, though, Rambam recognizes that. He terms it "a very high and formidable level that few attain", he acknowledges that even those few who come to it only do so "after a great deal of preparation", and he even concedes that "anyone who proved to be like that (would be) on par with the prophets"!

So why would he recommend it for each one us? Wouldn't we be setting ourselves up for failure -- and for a failure of cosmic proportions?

Nonetheless, as Rambam points out, that's exactly "what G-d meant for us all to set as our goal". After all, didn't He Himself charge us to love Him "with all your heart, with your entire being, and with all your means" (Deuteronomy 6:5)? Weren't we told to “Know Him in all your ways“ (Proverbs 3:6)? And we're we advised to do “all (we) do for the sake of Heaven“ (Pirkei Avot 2:15), which has all sorts of implications?

Apparently then G-d has a great deal of faith in us. And though he knows that such a goal might discourage us and throw us off once in a while, He likewise knows our hearts and capacities better than we ourselves do, and He extends us the offer to strive for the sort of spiritual excellence we're indeed capable of.

(c) 2006 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.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

Tanya -- PROLOGUE TO PART TWO: Chapters 9 - 15

... can be found at ...

Sefer Tanya

Tanya Ch. 8

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

Sefer Tanya

Tanya Ch. 8 (Part 4)

“Nearly Everybody”: The Inner Life and Struggles of the Jewish Soul

(Based on “Tanya: Collected Discourses of R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi”)

by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________

Ch. 8

4.

But there’s a whole other order of things that are morally and spiritually neutral and which are far more subtle than food, drink, and the like that aren’t associated with our bodies and touch instead upon our mind. They include conversations we might have and books we might read, for example.

Now, not everyone is capable of holding lofty conversations, and even the most learned among us might not spend every available moment studying Torah. So can more mundane conversations and more profane sorts of books be transmitted into holiness? Or do those iffy kinds of things seep just too deeply within to be safe to engage in?

Let’s start by discussing idle conversation. It seems logical to assume that at bottom the only reason why unlearned people would engage in it is because they're "forced" to, if you will, simply because they can't fall back on loftier subjects of conversation [13]. So, can they really be blamed for it?

But it's not really a question of blame. The point is that there'd be a price to pay for their having engaged in idle conversation, howbeit innocently. Simply because their beings would have been exposed to impurity and the husks so often in the process, much the way people exposed to radiation against their will would have to be detoxified regardless of their intentions. They'd thus have to endure being tossed about in the post-mortem experience known as "The Hollow of the Sling" (see 1 Samuel 25:29; Zohar, Beshalach p. 59) [14].

The reason for that, we’re told, is just as the body would need to be purified by the aforementioned "Purgatory of the Grave", the soul would likewise need to undergo a process of purification of its own -- "The Hollow of the Sling" -- in order to enter the Heavenly Garden of Eden to finally enjoy G-d's presence (Biur Tanya). But the thought of that is also quite daunting and discouraging.

There are other sorts of conversations an unlearned (as well as a learned) person might engage in. He or she might, for example, mock or slander others in conversation. Is there a price to pay for that?

Yes, and it's far steeper, as we'd expect, simply because those conversations are out-and-out wrongful and are thus tied to the three impure husks. So, being tossed about in "The Hollow of the Sling" alone wouldn't be potent enough to expunge someone's soul of them. He'd also have to endure a fiery Gehenom (i.e., a form of Hell). While equally daunting, there seems to be a sense of fairness about that, though, since it’s the price such a person would be paying for quite spiteful and harmful actions.

What about someone who's capable of studying Torah but doesn't and engages instead in frivolous conversation (either because he was indifferent, or too lazy to study Torah)? How would such a soul be cleansed? He too would need to be tossed about in "The Hollow of the Sling", we’re taught. But he'd also have to endure a snow-and-ice Gehenom (see Likutei Torah of the Ari, beginning of Shemot) aside from experiencing the sort of discipline due anyone who transgresses [15]. But that’s discomfiting once again, since even the most serious of scholars lapse into that.
________________________________________

Notes:

[13] ... either because they can't grasp lofty ideas, or because they hadn't ever been exposed to them.

Understand, of course, that there are various degrees of "frivolity" as far as conversation is concerned. Talking about household needs and the like can be vital, and relevant to holiness, too -- or otherwise. While "street small talk", if you will, and the day's news can be informative and useful, but often isn't holy. (We'll soon discuss clearly immoral and unholy speech.)

Understand as well that there are many intelligent and otherwise well-read people who'd fit into the category of "unlearned" in our context, simply because they don't study Torah (perhaps because they'd never been exposed to it or because they don't resonate with the subjects at hand). The truth be known, they too would have to suffer the consequences of that (especially in light of the plethora of translated Torah texts with accessible explanations, and the wide diversity of topics encompassed in Torah study which anyone can be exposed to if he's so inclined).

It should be noted, though, that otherwise learned individuals who are “unlearned” in our use of the term fall under the halachic category of Ohness Rachmana Patrei, which is to say that they're halachically excused under the circumstances, since their status is basically beyond their control. And besides, reciting Sh'ma Yisrael twice a day suffices for one's minimal requirement to study Torah and they can easily accomplish that (Maskil L’Eitan).

[14] It's pointed out (see Shabbat 152B) that while the souls of the righteous are "bound in the bundle of life with G-d" (1 Samuel 25:29) -- i.e., they're to be attached to The Source of all life and to dwell in comfort in His presence when they die -- the soul's of the wrongful are to be "cast about as from the hollow of a sling" (1 Samuel 25:29) when they die -- tossed here and there as if shot from a sling and made to endure a chaotic, fierce, and harrowing whirlwind of a ride before they could rest (also see Zohar, Beshalach, p. 59).

Some contend that being "cast about as from the hollow of a sling" means that the soul is first shown the bliss of holiness then slung back roughly to its memories of the life it lead so as to experience the difference between the two for itself (Shiurim b’Sefer haTanya). Others say it means that the soul is thrust very, very far away from G-d; or that it’s cast back into the worthless thoughts it had while yet alive, and made to think that its still alive and is thinking and acting as it had in this world (Likut Perushim, Maareh Mekomot, p. 189).

[15] All metaphysical reparations are based on the principle of "measure for measure". Hence, the price to pay for *heatedly* mocking and slandering others would be the experience of a fiery Gehenom; while the one to pay for being *cooly* blase about Torah study would be to experience a snow-and-ice Gehenom. (On one level and quite ironically, this would be quite merciful, in that a "hot" person would be more comfortable in a hot environment, while a "cold" one would be most comfortable in a cold one.)

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

********************************
Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued and can be ordered 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"

Da'at Tevunot (Section 1, Chapter 1)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

Ma'amar HaGeulah (The Remembrance, Ch. 14)

Ma'amar HaGeulah

-- "The Great Redemption", a reworking of Ramchal's "Ma'amar HaGeulah"

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

__________________________________________________

"The Great Redemption"

The Remembrance: Ch. 14

Ramchal then proceeds to end this section of the book by chronicling more of the history of the battles of good and evil.

Now, though the two were quite separate and distinct from each other at first, as we saw, that soon came undone. And good and evil took turns holding sway in the passage of time.

Adam and Eve were to have separated good and evil right at the start, after which "G-d would (have) amended the various (mystical) groupings enough for the Divine sustenance to flow through perfectly forever and ever", and Adam and Eve would have been eternally and amply rewarded. In fact, all they had to do was to adhere to G-d's commandments, and "everything would have been rectified". But they sinned indeed, and the holy and the profane mixed together once more, until the combination of the two "grew strong enough ... to spread throughout the world in the course of (the) ten generations" from Adam himself to Noah. And as a result, we -- their descendants -- really "can’t rectify things until the two are separated" once and for all (para. 53).

Once the generation of the flood came to be sinful, "the yetzer harah grew stronger yet" and to "spread out in all directions throughout the world", which then "left no room whatsoever for holiness". Things got so bad, in fact, that "the world nearly returned to its 'formless and empty' (Genesis 1:2) state". Then the terrible dispersion that came about when humankind tried to build the Tower of Babel did even more harm, but "holiness assumed a place of its own" despite that, in which our forefather Abraham drew his inspiration. Despite his presence, though, "impurity continued to spread throughout the world" (para. 54).

There came to be a distinction between good and evil, though, when Esau and Ishmael separated themselves from the Patriarchs, and "from that point on (things) spread out in such a way that the profane and the holy each stood in direct opposition to each other", which was of course an important thing because evil was separated from good again (Ibid.).

Nonetheless, though "the side of holiness hadn’t yet gotten strong, ... the profane side came to be very much in control", which was a bad thing of course. Still and all, even though the side of holiness "wasn’t cleansed well enough of its earlier attachment to the profane", it came to be "fully purified in the iron furnace of Egypt" when we were enslaved, which *was* for the good (Ibid.).

Now, things were amended to a very great degree when our people received the Torah at Mount Sinai, which then began to render the other nations powerless over us. In fact, "not only were the other nations unable to rule over the Jewish Nation (then), but the Jewish Nation itself could have ruled" -- "had they not sinned with the golden calf", which was of course our greatest error and our most lethal national sin (para. 55).

By then, "the evil that had left" them at Mount Sinai "re-attached itself" to them when they worshipped the golden calf. In fact, "had they not sinned (that way) they’d have immediately gone to Israel where they’d have initiated ... the original rectification", but that didn't come about. Things went downhill once again with the incident of the spies; as a result "they weren’t able to go (straight) to Israel" and bring on that rectification, and they had to remain in the desert for forty years (para. 56).

In any event, though "we hadn’t yet been purified from that evil that re-attached itself" it still and all "sometimes lessened and other times grew strong again", until the days of King Solomon when the Holy Temple was built, and "we experienced a (degree of high) rectification". Evil would actually have been utterly eradicated then "were it not for Pharaoh's daughter (of that era, whom Solomon married), because of whom it stayed within (their environment)" and when it "regained strength to the point where the Temple was destroyed and the Jewish Nation was exiled for seventy years" (para. 57).

The husk nonetheless "left them alone for a time, when they went back and built the (second) Temple". But the trouble was that "the evil hadn’t vanished" -- it only "lessened and weakened". Be that as it may, "the Jewish Nation had a place to grow strong in" when they returned to Israel, "but it wasn’t long before an utterly black darkness overcame them again" which we'd endured until now and will continue to stew in "until the throne of the righteous Moshiach would be built" (ibid.).

But that's just the beginning, in a way.

(c) 2006 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.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

Tanya Ch. 8 (Part 3)

“Nearly Everybody”: The Inner Life and Struggles of the Jewish Soul

(Based on “Tanya: Collected Discourses of R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi”)

by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________

Ch. 8

3.

The point to be made though -- and this is what’s so difficult here -- is that the latter sorts of things *do* descend into impurity, for a time at least [7]. And that they leave traces, unwanted vestiges of themselves behind in our body. After all, everything we eat becomes our very flesh and blood, and has to be reckoned with [8], it’s just that sometimes the trace left behind is flavorful while othertimes it’s wretched, and therein lies diiference).

So the warning -- and it's a very serious one at that -- is that we'd have to experience what’s referred to as “The Purgatory of the Grave” [9] after death for having engaged in these sorts of "innocent" diversions, in order to be purged of the impurities associated with the luminous husk [10] and the aforementioned Jewish Demons [11] we'd thus linked ourselves up to -- usually unknowingly and innocuously.

But the truth be known, only rare and lofty individuals like the holy Rabbi Yehudah HaNassi would escape "The Purgatory of the Grave" altogether (see Ketubot 104A; Shabbat 118A, Tosephot Rubum). For while he'd certainly made use of all sorts of permitted things, he nonetheless didn't derive any personal pleasure from any of it. He only partook of them altruistically (Tanya M’vuar) [12]. So we'd be far from alone in our terror, since most people expereince this; but that gives us little succor.
________________________________________

Notes:

[7] ... until you repent, that is.

[8] This is analogous to the semen that had gone on to produce an actual illegitimate child cited in the last chapter. The point is that the flesh and blood produced as a product of our having eaten to excess would have to be reckoned with every bit as much as an illegitimate child would.

[9] This daunting experience is described in Sha’ar HaGilgullim 23 as follows: “Immediately after a person dies and is buried, four angels come to ... return his soul to his body .... They then take him by the ‘corners’ (i.e. by his extremities) and shake and beat him ... , much the way a garment is held by its ends and shaken in order to clean it off from its dust, until the husk (there) leaves completely .... The righteous don’t need much shaking ... but the opposite is true of the wicked .... (But in the end,) each person receives what he needs according to the level of the husk (attached to him) and the degree to which it’s attached.” (See note 8 to the previous chapter.)

[10] ...which is, after all, still a husk, and still attached to un-G-dliness to some degree.

[11] ...which are, after all, still demons -- albeit *familiar*, native ones.

[12] It should be noted that if you enjoy something that’s permissible but not necessary *neither* for the sake of Heaven nor to satisfy a desire but you enjoy it just “like that”, it would still attach itself onto the luminous husk in the end. And that’s because you’d have derived satisfaction from it despite yourself. But if you’d set out to eat, drink, etc. something like that altruistically, you’d be accredited with *not* having derived satisfaction from it in the end [even if you actually did], since you’d (originally) partaken of it for Heaven’s sake (Likut Perushim 8:6).

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

********************************
Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued and can be ordered 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"

Tanya Ch. 8 (Part 2)

“Nearly Everybody”: The Inner Life and Struggles of the Jewish Soul

(Based on “Tanya: Collected Discourses of R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi”)

by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________

Ch. 8

2.

No we couldn't [accidentally eat an unkosher meal for the best of intentions, use the energy we'd derived from it to then pray, study Torah, or fulfill mitzvot with fervor and thus elevate the unkosher food], we're told here. Because -- regardless of our good intentions -- unkosher food is still and all inexorably linked to the other side and the three utterly impure husks rather than to the luminous one that allows for holiness.

Thus unkosher food (along with all other "unkosher" things) can never be aligned with holiness [2].

But this raises an interesting, albeit esoteric point. We're taught that we're meant to "raise up sparks of holiness" from the world: to redeem holiness from unholiness, to salvage the good left behind in the bad (see Ari's Mavo Sha'arim 2:3:8). Now, that might have us imagine then that we should be able to elevate unkosher things and to "redeem" them as well. But the fact remains that we can only raise the sparks of things that derive their energy from the luminous husk and not from the impure ones [3] (Maskil L’Eitan).

After all, food and other such things are utterly, definitively, and objectively either kosher or unkosher, despite our intentions when we eat it. Much the way poisons are simply poisonous and not open to debate or interpretation. In a manner of speaking then, food's kosherness or non-kosherness is a statement of its metaphysical "chemical make-up", if you will; it's something that's either true or false about them (Biur Tanya).

We're told, in fact, that the wish to partake of unkosher food or the like is rooted in the proddings of what’s said to be "Gentile Demons" (see Zohar 3, p. 253A) [4]. What that means to say is that it's an inherently non-Jewish attraction that's rooted in the three impure husks.

That's not to suggest that we Jews don't yearn for unkosher things, for we do (except the righteous among us). In fact, some of us sometimes search unkosher things out to embarrassingly great lengths. It's just that when we do, we're out of character, if you will, and as if possessed. For just as there are things that would seem bizarre and unexpected when a particular person engages in them, there are likewise things that we Jews wouldn't be expected to do, though we might (Biur Tanya) [5].

And we're also told that any desire we'd have to use the sort of everyday, ethically neutral things under discussion for less than G-dly reasons would come from the proddings of "*Jewish* Demons". For what they are, are unholy, "devilish" longings for what are in fact permitted pleasures that are nonetheless harmful ... but less so than the un-Jewish attractions [6].
________________________________________

Notes:

[2] RSZ points out that that goes both for food whose unkosherness is stated outright in the Torah as well as for food deemed Rabbinically unkosher. In fact, he undercores, the latter are often more stringent than the former (See Sanhedrin 88B).

That’s so because the decisions of the sages about the kosherness or unkosherness of things affects and alters their very essences (Maskil L’Eitan) to the extent where those foods that the Torah accepted as kosher which the sages nonetheless considered to be unkosher (for various reasons) now come to derive their vitality from the three impure husk (Tanya M’vuar), when it had earlier derived it's vitality from the luminous husk.

The truth be known though, since we're commanded by the Torah itself to follow the edicts of the sages (see Deuteronomy 17:11; also see Rambam's Sefer HaMitzvot, Shoresh 1 along with Ramban's remarks), any act of defiance against them would by definition derive its vitality from the other side.

[3] That's to say that we're essentially repairmen in this world, as there's a plethora of "broken shards of light" here that came about when the primordial vessels filled with primordial light were shattered in the cosmic realm before the universe was created, and that we're here to piece them together again by using things of this world for holy ends. For, indeed, every material item in this world that's permissble has some sparks, and we liberate them when we use them to serve G-d. And while we can do that when it comes to the potentially kosher circle of things associated with the intermediate shell, we can’t redeem things that are aligned with out-and-out unholiness.

[4] The Zohar presents an allegory of a king -- *the* King, in this instance, G-d Himself -- sitting at a feast with his servants and apportioning out different quality foods to his servants. And that he gives Class A food to His most loyal servants (the angels), Class B food to the "Jewish Demons", and "Class C" things to the "Gentile Demons".

The implication is, of course, that while Class B is certainly not the best, it's also not the worst and is still and all part of the royal repast, while Class C food which is associated with the impure husks, is barely part of the meal and always somehow offensive.

[5] See Ch. 14 below where the idea that one could somehow or another still be a "good Jew" despite his lapsing into un-Jewish ways is disputed.

[6] They're rooted in the fact that while we Jews naturally long to ascend to G-dliness and abhor the thought of separating ourselves from G-d, so we tend to be averse to out-and-out sin -- we're still-and-all fallible and thus subject to such proddings. There's always the risk, though, that once we come to enjoy such excesses that we'd then be drawn to forbidden things as well (Maskil L’Eitan).

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

********************************
Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued and can be ordered 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"

Tanya Ch. 8 (Part 1)

“Nearly Everybody”: The Inner Life and Struggles of the Jewish Soul

(Based on “Tanya: Collected Discourses of R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi”)

by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________

Ch. 8

1.

We’d pointed out in the last chapter that we could engage in all sorts of everyday things in a spirit of holiness: that we could enjoy a fairly elaborate meal for example, take an “innocent” stroll, drink a soda, and read a classic novel and still manage to somehow be connected to G-dliness.

But understand that unless we engage in them in such a spirit that we’d be bogged down in the husks all the time, since most of that is connected to the gray-shaded luminous husk. So we’re now about to see just how far that all goes.

Now, some might say that what’s laid out in this chapter is rather discomfiting, perhaps even chilling. But the point should be made that it’s all quite sensible and reasonable, if not easy, and certainly helpful if our goal is righteousness and closeness to G-d. For as RSZ assured his readers, he’ll “find peace for his soul” by complying with the mandates offered in this book; he’ll come upon “the sort of advice on everything that he finds difficult in Divine service” herein; and that “his heart will thus be firmly fixed in G-d” for having read and applied its insights into his life. So since the serious student of spiritual growth would want nothing less, we'll explore what's to follow in that spirit (see sect 3 of Author’s Introduction).

Before we lay that out, though ... and come to the end of the first section of this book, too ... let’s first touch upon another idea. We spoke last time about transforming ethically and spiritually neutral food (among other neutral things) into elements of holiness. Could we ever do the same to clearly forbidden, unkosher foods and the like?

Could we, for example, accidentally eat an unkosher meal for the best of intentions, use the energy we'd derived from it to then pray, study Torah, or fulfill mitzvot with fervor and thus elevate the unkosher food [1]?

_________________________________________

Notes:

[1] That's to say, could we eat it altruistically and "for the sake of Heaven" (not knowing of course that it was unkosher)? The answer will prove to be that we can't. But contrast that with our discussion in the previous chapter about doing permitted ordinary thing less than altruistically (Biur Tanya).

Apparently the point of the contrast is to indicate that while intentions are indeed vital, the act itself is what matters in the end.

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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

********************************
Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued and can be ordered 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"

Da'at Tevunot -- Introduction

As I said I'd do, I've started entering excerpts of my adaption of Ramchal's Da'at Tevunot, at Toras Ramchal.
This was started a while ago, so the first section, comprised of 16 chapters, has already been completed and will appear here often enough (as I go through it looking for changes).

Tanya Ch. 7

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

Sefer Tanya

"Eight Chapters" (Chapter Five, Part 5)

“Spiritual Excellence” with Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Our Current Text: Moshe Maimonides's (Rambam's) “Eight Chapters”

-- Rabbi Feldman's on going series for Torah.org

**********************************************************

"Eight Chapters"

Chapter Five (Part 5)

Even though we're to speak about things that edify us, once we come to understand that our goal in this life is to dwell upon G-d we'll find ourselves speaking less in fact. After all, what would anyone who wants to draw close to G-d have to say about anything else, other than for a good reason? Would a mountain-climber discuss the weather unless it affected his climb? Would a surgeon talk about the sea unless his patient had nearly drowned?

Not only would such a person hardly engage in small talk, he'd also never dream small dreams. He "wouldn’t be moved to adorn his walls or hem his clothing with gold" as Rambam put it; which is to say, he wouldn't dwell on inconsequentials.

But as everyone knows -- even the most serious of us, sometimes a person needs to disentangle him or herself and digress. To step away from what matters most for a while so as to come back to it fresh and bright, or to regain his composure if he'd grown discouraged. And so even someone dwelling on G-d would nevertheless need to concentrate on more trivial things once in a while to do that, to perhaps "lift his spirit", "stay healthy and avoid illness", or "to be clear minded".

In fact we're taught that “scholars should enjoy an attractive home, an attractive spouse, beautiful dishes, and a well-made bed“ (Shabbat 25B) since they “amplify one's mind“ (Berachot 57B).

For as Rambam explains it, "one grows tired and his thoughts become befuddled when he constantly delves into difficult things, much the way the body tires when one does heavy work -- unless he rests and relaxes, and allows it to return to equilibrium".

"In much the same way," he continues, "one should quiet and relax his senses by gazing upon paintings and other attractive things until he’s no longer fatigued". In such a context, he reasons, "it’s probably neither wrong nor unnecessary to decorate and adorn buildings, vessels, or clothing". Since your ultimate goal would still be lofty; you'd simply be stepping aside for a while so as to come back: your overarching passion is still be the pursuit of spiritual excellence.

(c) 2006 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.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

Tanya Ch. 7 (Part 4)

“Nearly Everybody”: The Inner Life and Struggles of the Jewish Soul

(Based on “Tanya: Collected Discourses of R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi”)

by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________

Ch. 7

4.

Now, there are many other arenas in which the whole idea of permissible, forbidden, and in-between thoughts, utterances, and deeds come into play, of course. One of them that’s just as ordinary as eating and drinking that’s still and all more charged with passion is the expression of our sexuality. For there’s perfectly permissible and commendable sexuality, a variety of prohibited sexual acts, and a slew of in-between ones as well.

The most commendable expression of sexuality comes into play when husband and wife try to conceive children and express their love to each other; a more intermediate kind touches upon intercourse with one’s spouse simply to satisfy one’s own needs [9]; and there are two especially egregious expressions of sexuality: self-stimulation and adultery. They’re prohibited in the strongest of terms and are said to be inexorably linked to the other side.

Nonetheless the link isn’t everlasting. Because there’ll indeed come a time when *all* sins will be undone, in the End of Days, when "the unclean spirit will pass from the land" (Zacharia 13:2) and all wrong and sin will be undone.

In more immediate terms, though, one can undo even those kinds of sexual sins by repenting earnestly. But not only as earnestly as you might for slighting someone’s feelings, for example. You’d have to repent so profoundly that you’d effectuate enough of a permanent change in your being that your purposeful sins would actually be transmuted into merits! But let’s explain that.

We’re taught that while there are an infinite number of nuanced degrees of repentance, there are two higher sorts: fear-based and love-based repentance. And while both eradicate sins, they do it to different degrees (see Yoma 86B).

Fear-based repentance -- or repentance motivated by a fear of the consequences your sins would have upon your immortal soul or upon your relationship to G-d -- has the ability to turn your purposeful sins around, indeed. In fact, they’d transform them into mere accidental sin, fear-based repentance is that lofty. It would be as if you’d started off meaning to sin and wound up only inadvertently lapsing into it.

Love-based repentance, though, has the ability to turn your purposeful sins into out-and-out merits, it’s that lofty! As if you’d actually obeyed G-d’s will rather than rebelled against it when you sinned [10].

But true loved-based repentance only comes about when you adore G-d so much from then on that you’re drawn closer to Him for having sinned than you’d have been had you not sinned (see Shiurim b’Sefer haTanya)! And when you love Him from the depths of your heart, and out of a passionate and thirsty desire to cleave unto Him because you seem to yourself to be nothing but a clod of parched and barren soil without Him.

(For, indeed, until you’d repented and disowned your sins, your soul had been in a virtual wilderness and in the shadow of death, i.e., in the throes of the “other side”. For you’d been as far removed from G-d as you possibly could, whereas you now thirst to return to Him with an intensity that even the righteous can’t muster [11].)

But if your repentance isn’t as heartfelt and thoroughgoing as that (regardless of the sin), but is rather unexceptional though adequate enough, it will still and all be accepted by G-d and will atone for your sins on some level. It’s just that those sins won’t be transmuted into merits or be extricated from the impure husks until the aforementioned time when "death will be swallowed up forever" [12].
_________________________________________

Notes:

[9] ... in which case there’s nothing wrong with the act, per se, but rather with one’s intentions at the time (Shiurim b’Sefer haTanya) -- one’s need to satisfy himself as an end unto itself. And while that, too, isn’t forbidden in fact, it’s not meritorious.

[10} Also see Maimonide’s Hilchot Teshuvah (2:1-2) where he writes:

One accomplishes full repentance only when, while he’s yet able to sin, he’s faced again with a situation in which he had previously sinned, and he nonetheless doesn’t -- but only as a consequence of repentance, rather than out of fear, or because of a physical inability to carry the sin out.

So if, for example, one had once sinned with a woman, and after a time found himself alone with her, still in love (with her) and in full possession of his prowess, and in the same place he had transgressed -- if, rather than transgressing again, he recants, he’d be a "full penitent".

What’s “conventional” teshuvah, though? No longer committing a sin one once committed, not thinking of committing it anymore, and affixing to his heart the commitment to never do it again. He should also regret having sinned .... and he must then verbally confess and enunciate the things affixed to his heart.

[11] As it’s said, "Where penitents stand .... not even the perfectly righteous can stand” (Berachot 34B). After all, the righteous are always close to G-d and are thus always “close to water”, so their thirst for G-d isn’t quite intense (though their longing to *stay* close to Him is intense). While the penitent actually experiences himself as being in a desert and as very thirsty (Shiurim b’Sefer haTanya; see end of ch. 40 below).

Also see Maimonides’s depiction of the rapprochement between the wayward lover and his Beloved, G-d, when the sinner repents:

Repentance is great because it brings a person closer to G-d. As it’s written, "Return, 0 Israel, to G-d your L–rd" (Hosea 14:2); "You have not yet returned to Me, says G-d" (Amos 4:6); and, "If you will repent, Israel, you will return to Me" (Jeremiah 4:1), which is to say, repent and you will cling to Me.

And repentance brings those distant from G-d closer to Him -- whereas heretofore they were repulsive to G-d, disreputable, far removed, and loathsome, henceforward they are beloved and desired, close and intimate ....

How outstanding repentance is! The very person who, just yesterday, was completely separated from the G-d of Israel ...; who would do mitzvot, and have them rent from his hands ... is today attached to G-d ... and even yearned for (Hilchot Teshuvah 7:6-7).

[12] That’s to say that while your sins won’t be transmuted into merits or be extricated from the impure husks *at that point* if your repentance is less than heartfelt, they will eventually be -- when "death will be swallowed up forever". Which is to say, when G-d removes all husks from the world and the holy sparks nestled deep within them will be able to ascend (Tanya M’vuar; See ch. 37 below).

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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

********************************
Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued and can be ordered 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"

Tanya Ch. 7 (Part 3)

“Nearly Everybody”: The Inner Life and Struggles of the Jewish Soul

(Based on “Tanya: Collected Discourses of R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi”)

by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________

Ch. 7

3.

Now, there are a number of curious anomalies connected with this in-between realm. Because I could ironically enjoy a fine and fairly elaborate meal, wash it down with fine wine, and still manage to do it all in a spirit of holiness -- with the right intentions. If I do it in order to relax and clear my mind enough to study Torah in more depth, for example (see Yoma 76B, Sanhedrin 40A, Horayot 13B); or in order to honor the Sabbath or a Festival (see Mishne Torah, Hilchot Shabbat 6:10; Shulchan Oruch, Orach Chaim 242:1). For it all then comes to be associated with the side of holiness (see Iggeret HaKodesh 26, p. 146B).

The same goes for many other such things. I might for example share a hardy joke with a friend and elevate it to the side of holiness if I tell it, for example, in order to lift his spirits or to give oomph to our mutual Torah studies [6].

The difference is that the spiritual components of the meal I’d eaten or the joke I’d told in such a spirit would have been transferred from the luminous husk to out-and-out holiness, whereas if I’d have eaten or joked for lesser reasons they’d have been transferred to out-and-out impurity, and I myself would have become tainted in the process [7].

There’s always hope, though; always a way to make amends for all sins -- let alone ones associated with things that are permissible anyway. I could reconsider what I’d done and the spirit in which I’d done it, regret my actions and decide right there and then never to do that again. Which is to say, I could repent (see sect. 5 below). And my having done that would then allow the food, the joke, *and myself* to revert fully to the side of holiness.

The truth of the matter is, though, that a shadow or a speck of impurity would remain behind in my being, which would have to be reckoned with in the end [8], but know that it will be indeed be undone by then.

_________________________________________

Notes:

[6] See Pesachim 117A, where Rav joked with his students in order to open their hearts and minds enough to be more receptive to what he had to say (Likutei Biurim).

[7] I’d have become a “vehicle” for the misdeed, as it’s put classically -- which is to say that my very being would have been so absorbed by and lost in the deed that I’d have been a virtual mindless accomplice to it, a sort of innocent bystander who could very well have done something to stop the crime but didn’t, and I’d have thus played a part in it despite himself (Shiurim b’Sefer haTanya).

[8] I.e., in the afterlife, through a daunting process known as the “Purgatory of the Grave”, which we’ll cite in Ch. 8 as well. (See Ch’s 22-23 of Shaar HaGilgulim).

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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

********************************
Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued and can be ordered 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"

Tanya Ch. 7 (Part 2)

“Nearly Everybody”: The Inner Life and Struggles of the Jewish Soul

(Based on “Tanya: Collected Discourses of R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi”)

by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________

Ch. 7

2.

The point of the matter is that we’re expected to align *everything* we think, say, and do with G-dliness; not just the clearly G-dly things like Torah study and mitzvot. After all, we’re enjoined by G-d to “be holy” (Leviticus 11:45) [4], which means to say, to concentrate on and engage in holiness so much so that it becomes a veritable part of our being.

So how *do* we engage in everyday but “kosher” things in a spirit of holiness? What, for example, are we to have in mind when we eat dinner? Well, we’re to eat it with the thought that we’re doing that in order to have the energy to study G-d’s Torah and fulfill His mitzvot; we’re to work so as to sustain our family and to enable them and us to study Torah, fulfill mitzvot, to give charity; etc. (Shiurim b’Sefer haTanya) [5].

Thus it would obviously do us well to consider the implications of what we’re doing each time we engage in these sorts of everyday things. Ironically, in fact, we’d have to be more sure to keep what we’re doing in mind when it comes to doing them than we’d have to when it comes to doing out-and-out mitzvot. Because while we can always rely on the fact that the mitzvah itself is inherently holy and thus carries its own weight so to speak, everyday things are only potentially holy, depending on us (Biur Tanya).

At bottom we’re taught that if we engage in such everyday things for the sort of self-serving or downright un-G-dly purposes we cited above, that they’ll end up being no better than our animalistic spirit itself, and will come to draw their sustenance from the three impure husks rather than from the partly-pure luminous one. But once again we must reiterate the point that the truth of the matter is that *nearly everything* here draws its sustenance from the forces of impurity for the most part, the world being what it is.

_________________________________________

Notes:

[4] See ch’s 27 and 30 for an explanation of the importance of this requirement as well as techniques for attaining it.

[5] Optimally, we’re to eat it “for the sake of Heaven”, which is to say that we’re not to purposefully set out to delight in the taste, aroma, appearance of the food we eat, per se. Instead, we’re to arouse the love of G-d from the first, and to get to the point where we come to love Him more so than the food (or anything else material, for that matter). Our doing that will undo the food’s unholy components and elevate all its good elements. It’s important to understand, though, that while tzaddikim can elevate the evil in each and every instance (whereas we can only undo it), we can though manage to elevate it on Shabbat and Yom Tov, when it’s a mitzvah to enjoy food -- as long as our intention is to enjoy the Sabbath or Holy Day itself that way (Likutei Biurim), as we’ll indicate shortly in the text.

See Maimonide’s statements in “Eight Chapters”, Ch. 5:

"It’s important to ... place a single goal before your eyes, which is to comprehend G-d Almighty as much as a human being can. Which is to say, that you know Him and direct all your actions, movements, and utterances to that end, so that nothing you do is arbitrary or tends to thwart that goal.

"So, for example, when you eat, drink, sleep, have intercourse, awake, move about, or rest, let your only aim be your health. But let your goal in being healthy be to remain robust and well enough to acquire the knowledge and the personal and intellectual virtues you’d need to reach that goal. Don’t let your goal be to simply enjoy yourself, and thus choose only appetizing foods, drinks, and the like. Strive for what’s edifying. If it happens to be gratifying, too, so be it; and if it happens not to be, so be it.

"Or favor more appetizing things for medical reasons the way someone whose appetite was weak would whet it with well-seasoned and sweet foods. Or the way someone suffering from melancholia would ward it off by listening to poems and music, by strolling in gardens and among alluring structures, or by sitting before attractive works of art and the like -- in order to settle his spirit and ward off his melancholia.

"Your goal in all that, though, should be your physical well-being; and your ultimate reason to be well should be to be able to acquire knowledge.

"Likewise, your goal in accruing money should be to use it to acquire edifying things, to maintain your well-being, and to extend your life long enough to comprehend G-d and know as much about Him as you can."

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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

********************************
Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued and can be ordered 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"

Tanya Ch. 7 (Part 1)

“Nearly Everybody”: The Inner Life and Struggles of the Jewish Soul

(Based on “Tanya: Collected Discourses of R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi”)

by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________

Ch. 7

1.

So in contrast to the three completely impure husks that only bolster the other side, the one luminous husk straddles holiness and unholiness since it can allow for either. And it thus bolters, figures into, and can even be thought to hold sway over most of our world and most of what we do, since nearly everything in our experience -- as neither especially righteous or wrongful people -- is an admixture of good and bad, right and wrong. Thus, when we deliberate upon the world of the luminous husk, we deliberate upon ourselves and our world.

For remember that besides bolstering our animalistic spirit (see 1:5-6), the luminous husk also bolsters all kosher foods (animate and inanimate), as well as all the “kosher”, which is to say, acceptable everyday and profane things we might say, do, or think. Like the stroll we might take which we spoke of in the last chapter, the soda we might drink, the classic novel we might read, and the like [1].

So, again, the stark caveat associated with things in this “everyday and profane” category is that since they’re bolstered by this intermediate husk, they can either wind up drawing their vitality from holiness or from unholiness -- depending on how we use them [2].

For if we think, utter, or perform morally-neutral thoughts, utterances, or deeds for self-serving purposes (even if they’re essential for living, you need to understand!), they then align themselves with the other side. Whereas if we think, utter, or perform such thoughts, utterances, or deeds for altruistic and G-d-centered reasons, they align themselves with holiness.

Accordingly, most of the things we do, utter, and think about are connected to the luminous husk [3]. And the awful but undeniable conclusion we’re to draw from this is that we could conceivably spend our whole life engaged in perfectly acceptable things and still be bogged down in the husks -- unless we know what we’re doing (see Biur Tanya).

And so, it indeed becomes clear that this ubiquitous category of things is very much like ourselves; since we, too, are neither explicitly righteous nor wrongful, but somewhere in between, as we said said (also see 1:2). And we, too, can attach ourselves onto either the side or holiness or the other side, depending on what we do and how we do it.

__________________________________________

Notes:

[1] I.e., things that are neither mitzvot or sins per se.

It should be underscored that RSZ declares in the text that “most, in fact, almost all of the luminous husk is (related to) wrong, with only a little goodness mixed in”. For the great preponderance of what we less-than-righteous people do is inspired by the overarching human need to be self serving rather than devout -- to say nothing of the out-and-out wrong things we do. (See two paragraphs down from here in our text.)

[2] RSZ makes a fascinating point in ch. 35 that our G-dly spirit is actually synonymous with our immortal soul (our neshama) while our animalistic spirit which is rooted in the luminous husk under discussion, is an “intermediary” between the immortal soul and our body. The point seems to be that the luminous husk has the capacity to turn profane things round to Divinity just because it serves as an intermediate or "passageway" between the Divine soul and the body.

[3] In fact it could be said that these sorts of things are rather banal by nature and less than “luminous” themselves, ironically. Since the evil within this category, while indeed wrongful and un-G-dly, is still and all not as evil as the evil in the three utterly impure husks, while the goodness within it isn’t as good as the goodness in holiness either (see Maskil L’Eitan).

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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

********************************
Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued and can be ordered 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"

Tanya Ch. 6

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

Sefer Tanya

Ma'amar HaGeulah (The Remembrance, Ch. 13)

Ma'amar HaGeulah

-- "The Great Redemption", a reworking of Ramchal's "Ma'amar HaGeulah"

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

__________________________________________________

"The Great Redemption"

The Remembrance: Ch. 13

Having laid-out the battle between the forces of right and wrong, of good and evil, of Jewish destiny and the countervailing forces that would have us remain in exile and never be redeemed, Ramchal then set out to explain the role that wrong and evil play in G-d's world.

Clearly, this is a vast and core-central subject that doesn't lend itself to easy explication and that's in fact explained at great length in many of Ramchal's other works. But he apparently saw the need to bring the subject up here because of the unsettling feeling that some of us might have with the whole idea of our having been thrust into exile in the first place, and why G-d would allow for all our pain and suffering in the long course of the galut.

So let's observe "the order of things -- how things developed from the day mankind appeared on Earth to the end of days" and follow the interplay of good and evil in order to see just "how deep G-d’s thoughts are" (see para. 52).

We're taught that "G-d ... allotted a place for the husk (i.e., evil) when He created the world" (Ibid.). But, why? What *good* could *evil* ever do? G-d allowed for it to exist, Ramchal explains, "so as to test mankind and to grant him a goodly reward for his efforts".

At bottom what that means is that evil and wrong were introduced into creation so as to allow reward to be instituted in its wake. Now, the reward for goodness and righteousness is so great and luminous, so blissful, that one would be expected to have accomplished a world of things to have earned it. And indeed, the good and righteous *would* have to do a lot to earn their reward: they'd have to overcome evil and wrongdoing. And as those of us who struggle with our countervailing urges all the time know, that's hard to do. So because the struggle determines the reward, and the reward is so great, evil can be said to exist to allow for great good to exist as well. But let's go back now to the beginning of time and learn more about the interplay of good and evil.

At first, good and evil were quite separate and distinct from each other (see para. 52). We don't experience that now, as our reality is perhaps best defined as the era of "Yes, but ...", in that everything good in our world is touched with some wrong, and everything wrong is touched with some good. In any event, that wasn't always so.

Evil actually wanted to conjoin with good at the beginning -- but not so as to destroy it or for any other wrongful reason. Only because it wanted to "attach itself to it" in a selfless way. But while that will occur in the end, the task of bringing it to fruition was to be left to humankind (Ibid.), as we'll see.

(c) 2006 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.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"