Ma'amar HaGeulah (Exile, Ch. 3)

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"

Exile: Ch. 3

But what’s our exile experience today in fact? For even though we’re subsumed by it (since it’s the gist of our life-experience, after all), and despite the fact that our being in exile is our people’s worst problem, and -- especially -- because we’re so overwrought by other issues that have drowned out the whole idea of our being in exile, it's important for us to know exactly what we're going through now as a consequence of it.

So let’s depict the galut we're now in.

Understand of course that we won’t be discussing what we American Jews experience, for example, rather than what other Jews in France, Morocco, or even Israel experience (yes, even Israel, since galut is a state of being rather than of place, hence one is still in galut in Israel until the Moshiach will have come). And rather than speak of it on a historical, psychological, or sociological level, we’ll concentrate instead upon the hidden spiritual moorings come undone as a result of it and upon the subtle ways the malady of galut has eaten away at our beings.

But let’s begin by underscoring the fact that on one level or another, our people have always somehow trusted in G-d's promise that He’d indeed bring on the redemption.

As the prophet enunciated it (somewhat defiantly), “Do not rejoice for my sake, my enemy! For I will arise when I fall; G-d Himself will be a light unto me when I sit in darkness!” (Micha 7:8). His point was first off to express the mysterious stubbornness lying behind our people’s trust and hope in the fact that G-d will eventually redeem us.

But Micha also meant to underscore the fact that we’ve always known deep within, despite our latent fears that G-d had abandoned us, that He’d actually been preparing goodness and blessings for us all along, and has somehow been readying great and vast treasure-troves of bounty for us that will prove to be more copious than one could ever imagine.

So let that never be forgotten -- nor G-d's promise that eventually He'll tell the Moshiach to "Speak comfortingly to Jerusalem and cry out to her that her fighting is ended, her iniquity is pardoned; that she has received from G-d's hand double for all her sins .... (That) the crooked will straightened out and the rough places smoothed; (that) G-d's Glory will be revealed and all flesh will see it together" (Isaiah 40:2-5). And lets' also understand that He’ll also tell him to say, “Behold your G-d! Behold, G-d the L-rd will come with a strong hand, and His arm will rule ... He will feed his flock like a shepherd, gather the lambs with His arm and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young" (Ibid. 9-11).

Still-and-all, galut is unholy and repellent, oftentimes demonic, as we’ve been indicating. And it's also frankly .... *counterintuitive*. After all, who would have expected G-d to authorize this to happen to us, His chosen people? Be that as it may, let’s begin to look at galut from an existential perspective.

(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 from Yashar Books.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

"The Great Redemption" (41)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

R' Ashlag Ch. 47

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

Toras Rav Ashlag

"Eight Chapters" (Chapter One, 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 One (Part 1)

What drives us, at bottom? Most would say it's our motivations, dreams, fears, surroundings, and the like. But the truth is that it's our Spirit ("nephesh" in Hebrew) that drive us. But -- what's our spirit after all? The short answer is that it's our psyche, but there's a lot more to it as we'll learn. For one thing, though, it's not the immortal soul that wafts aloft to heaven when we pass (though the two are inexorably linked ... but that's a subject unto itself).

So let's explore the makeup of our Spirit as Rambam explains it and come to see what we're made of along the way.

Rambam is emphatic about the fact that we each only have one Spirit, which nonetheless has many different capacities. He apparently needs to emphasize that since many of the physicians and philosophers who were respected in antiquity claimed that we each have three, termed the "native", "dynamic", and "transcendent" spirits respectively. However, Rambam's larger point is that despite its complexity (which we'll explore) and regardless of our many inner contradictions, we each have only one Spirit.

The truth is even we in modernity tend to think we have more than one Spirit, as when we say things like, "I was *beside* myself" and "I took a deep look inside myself", etc. which seem to imply multiple spirits that are each separate and independent of each other. But the truth is that we're each of one Spirit -- which is decidedly multilayered and dynamic.

Now, it's especially important for us to know that, Rambam emphasizes, since self-refinement and spiritual excellence only come about when one "heals his Spirit and its capacities", and because we can only do that after first becoming familiar enough with the makeup of our Spirit to know what makes its "ill" in the first place and what would then "heal" it.

So we'll have to settle right now for the notion that our one Spirit is comprised of five “component parts”: the digestive system, the senses, the imagination, the emotions, and the intellect. We'll explain that next time.

(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"

Ma'amar HaGeulah (Exile: Ch. 2)

I'm sorry to report that my wife Sara's mother, Raizel Bas Meir Volff, a'H, has passed away. This class is in her honor and for an aliyas haneshama.

I'll be out of commission for a while, obviously.


.....................................................

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"

Exile: Ch. 2

Like everything else sheer and arduous, our being in exile has not been without its advantages. (And let’s refer to the exile from now on by the Hebrew term "galut".)

Galut is said to act as a cathartic of sorts, in that it atones for sins (Berachot 56A, Ta’anit 16A, Sanhedrin 37B); our being cast here and there around the world has exposed others to G-d and His Torah, and encouraged converts (Pesachim 87B); and it has united us as a people in many ways (Eicha Rabbah, Peticha).

We’re told that we were cast into galut in the first place to fulfill a vital mission, which is to “repair the sparks of supernal light” that had been shattered with “the breaking of the primordial vessels”, and to “elevate them to holiness” (Otzrot Ramchal, p. 149). Without going into detail about that now, suffice it to say that the implication is that being in galut has allowed us the opportunity to garner-in all that had been “broken” or undone from around the world -- in all senses of the term -- and to thus allow for their repair.

Our having experienced galut and being plunged into darkness will enable us to ascend from it in the end, it will befuddle all doubters and astound all disbelievers (See Ramchal’s Tiktu Tephillot #23), and it will also prove G-d’s absolute sovereignty.

And finally, being in galut has given us the opportunity to draw closer yet to G-d, and has taught us things we’d ordinarily never have come upon (Tikkunim Chaddashim 47). The implications of all this of course is that G-d has been safeguarding and tending to us *more so* now, because of our troubles.

That’s not to deny the horribleness of galut, though; for it has clearly taken its toll on our people, and it has come this close to being our undoing, G-d forbid.

Ever sensitive to that, though, G-d Himself is said to have regretted creating the whole idea of galut for all the harm it has done (Sukkah 52B). For aside from bringing about the sorts of things we’ll soon depict, galut has made it impossible for us to be privy to Divine guidance (Megillah 12B); it’s the greatest cause of our slacking off on Torah study (Chaggigah 5B); it has enabled others to plot against us (Tanchuma, Toldot 5), and is responsible for so much more.

In fact, its effects are said to be equivalent to all the curses cited in the Torah (Sifre, Eikev 43) -- including the fact that “G-d will send upon you cursing, confusion, and failure in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and you perish quickly ... (He’ll have) pestilence cleave to you ... strike you with a consumption, a fever, an inflammation, with an extreme burning, and with the sword, with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue you until you perish ... Your carcass will be food to all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no man shall scare them away ... G-d will strike you with the pox of Egypt and with swellings, with a scab, and with an itch from which you will not be healed ... with madness, blindness, and astonishment of heart, etc.” (Deuteronomy 28:15-69). We needn’t go far to draw analogies between what’s said there and the sorts of things our people suffered in the Holocaust.
(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 from Yashar Books.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

"Eight Chapters" (Rambam's Introduction, Part 2)

“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"

Rambam's Introduction (Part 2)

Rambam doesn't claim much credit for what he says here, in fact, stating that he merely collected material from Midrashim, the Talmud, and from other traditional Jewish works, and collated them to suit his purposes. That's a rather modest statement, though, because as anyone who's ever written a research paper, article, or book knows, half the success is based on how wise your choices are and how well you collated them. And "Eight Chapters" excels in both.

So, it would better be said that Rambam *based* the proofs for his contentions on those sources, but that he then formulated a whole new medley in the end that allowed those sources to shine in wholly different ways.

A higher, humbler truth for our purposes, though, is that in the end we really don't do very much more than collate things in our lives. In point of fact, not a lot of what we do or say is original with us so much as an amalgam of what we'd heard or done before, what others whom we admire have said or done, and what G-d has granted us on the spot for His own ends. The wise soul would take that to heart and always keep it in mind.

In any event, Rambam then said something that many wouldn't expect perhaps of so eminent a Jewish scholar as he. He acknowledged citing and even quoting verbatim from the works of certain non-Jewish philosophers and thinkers as well. And he did that, he said, in the firm belief that "we’re to accept truth from whoever utters it".

The fact of his having cited outside sources isn't astonishing unto itself (though it's still not done very often in classical Hebrew texts for various reasons). And Rambam's idea that we're to seek wisdom and truth from anyone isn't all that new, for it has already been pointed out that only someone "who learns from everyone" is wise (Pirke Avot 4:1).

But his point is well taken, because the individuals he cited often said things that are antithetical to the Jewish Faith, and so many Jews would reject *anything* they'd say as a consequence. So rather than not quote them, Rambam decided to; because "all (he) ever wanted to do was help the reader and explain what’s hidden away" in Pirke Avot. He also quoted them in the firm belief that we should indeed be willing to take to heart the true and good that anyone says (while rejecting the bad and false).

But he decided to cite them anonymously. For as he explained, if Rambam mentioned his sources by name, then that "might make a reader who doesn’t accept (that source) think that what he said is harmful or of bad intent" -- even when it wasn't at all, in that context.

The underlying points he seems to be making are, first, that we must all have enough of the proverbial courage of our convictions to say what has to be said for truth's sake; and second, that -- by definition -- truth can never contradict G-d's Torah.

And with that, Rambam provides us all with "Eight Chapters", which is his own guide to 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"

R' Ashlag Ch. 47 (Part 1)

Chapter Forty-Seven:

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________________

47.

1.

"As we’d already observed, the partzuf of Nefesh that we achieve by (merely) observing Torah and Mitzvot without (any specific, lofty) intentions already has a point of Ruach-Light engarbed in it."
-- See 44:1.

"Thus, when we struggle to observe Torah and Mitzvot *with* proper intentions we purify the vegetable aspect of the ratzon l’kabel there, and build up the point of Ruach into a (full) partzuf to the extent that we do that."
-- That is, when elevate our intentions and serve G-d in love and awe, we correspondingly elevate our beings, step by step and measure for measure, and also begin to purge our ratzon l’kabel. What follows are the inner esoteric details.

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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

********************************
AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*!
You can order it right now from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

Ma'amar HaGeulah (Exile: 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"

Exile: Ch. 1


The idea of redemption in general sits very well with contemporary society in particular and with humankind as a whole. After all, it’s rooted in the notions of progress, growth, and advancement; and it speaks both to the soul’s timeless need to bloom, and to the very essence of modernity which is to progress and to be free.

Needless to say it has been a major motif in Jewish history since the expulsion from Israel and the destruction of the second Holy Temple in particular in 70 C.E. (which of course forced the whole issue to the forefront); but the idea of redemption appeared even beforehand, in the body of the Torah.

We’re told there that there would come a time when we’ll indeed be in exile, when things will become horrible and we’ll be moved to fully repent in the hopes of returning home, and when we’ll indeed be collected from around the world and be redeemed (see Deuteronomy 30: 1-5). So we see that the ideas of exile and redemption are fundamental to our people.

Now, on one level we could think of exile as a chronic disease and redemption as its miraculous cure. For while the only thing darker, more wretched and grim than a serious illness suddenly come-on is a serious illness gone chronic. Since almost everything that had been natural and commonplace in the victim’s life is now gone and may never be again; and only alien, harsh, and foul days lay ahead. And indeed, exile has been just that. We’ve “learned to live with it” by now, to be sure, and managed to compensate for the losses, but that doesn’t deny just how harsh and obdurate it has all been. Our having survived it just speaks to the human ability to adapt and to the depths of G-d’s mercy.

And despite the fact that we’d hoped for a quick “cure” when we’d first been banished and never expected to be in exile for two-thousand years, here we are nevertheless.

In any event, we’ve been assured over and over again that we’ll be “healed” in due course -- promised that what has hurt so much, has been so vile and foul, has brought on such grief, and forced us to forego so much that others far healthier than we enjoy every day, would all be gone.

That’s to say, we’ve been assured that the Moshiach (Messiah) will finally come; that we’ll indeed be the nation we couldn’t be until that will have happened; and that, at last, we’ll be able to bask in the Light of Life that is G-d’s Presence, which we haven’t been able to for so long.

The Tradition has been largely clear about the way it will all come about, and about many of the why’s and wherefore’s (which we’ll delve into to some degree in this section). But a lot of the background information has been left out -- the clandestine workings of this and that in the heavens that would need to be set off for redemption to come about in the everyday world. For we’re taught in fact that everything has its roots in the heavens which has to be setoff first before anything down-to-earth can emerge.

So that’s where Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto’s Discourse on The Redemption comes in: it fills in those details and then some; and it also tells us what we have to look forward to, which few other works do.

Let’s start off by depicting the exile state, lay out the process of redemption as it’s usually presented, and then go on from there to fill in those gaps.

(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 from Yashar Books.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

R' Ashlag Ch. 46

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

Toras Rav Ashlag

R' Ashlag Ch. 46 (Part 1)

Chapter Forty-Six:

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________________

46.

1.

"But understand that while (all) the sephirot -- from the top-most point of Keter in the world of Adam Kadmon to the bottom-most point of Malchut in the world of Asiyah -- are G-dly, changeless and undifferentiated, there’s still and all a *great* difference (between them) as far as those who receive (from them) are concerned."
-- That's to say that from a G-d's eye-view, the sephirot are all part of the one great, smooth, clear bouillon of His own making and Being without distinction and particularity. But from our perspective -- from the other side of the picture, touching on the effect that each sephira has upon us and absolutely everything in the material universe -- there's a "world" of difference.
-- We could perhaps liken the difference between the two prespectives to the one between how parents see themselves when they make a decision about the household -- as a unit; as opposed to how their children see them; as mother versus father.

"For the sephirot are grouped into (two aspects:) lights and vessels. While their light (aspect) is pure G-dliness, their vessel (aspect), which is termed K.C.B.T.M. (i.e., Keter, Chochma, Binah, Tipheret, and Malchut), in each of the lower worlds of Briyah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, are *not* deemed G-dliness. What they are, are cloaks that conceal the light of the Infinite within them and bestow the receivers with the amount of light each is to receive according to its degree of purity."
-- Though thoroughly G-dly on their own as we just learned, the sephirot are comprised of two aspects when they touch upon creation: an inner, essential one of light; and an outer, external one of vessel. What that comes to is this.
-- If the everything-bound-to-everything-else that is the primeval bouillon of G-d's light were to emanate as-is toward us, we'd drown outright. We could withstand it and would even flourish thanks to it if it came upon us bit by bit, though. The phenomenon of it all becoming bit by bit, though, is unnatural to the primeval bouillon, as it calls for everything-bound-to-everything-else to unbind, but it's a necessary event nonetheless. In order for each element to be set off from the next, though, it has to be encased and set off by a self-container or "vessel". Thus, everything in our experience is comprised by an essential light and a necessary (albeit nonessential) vessel or encasement.
-- Rabbi Ashlag is underscoring the point that while the sephirot's light aspect is pure G-dliness, their vessel aspect actually (though necessarily) conceal the light within them, while still-and-all bestowing us receivers with the light due us, according to our purity (or, preparedness). He also makes the point of saying that all that only occurs in the lower worlds of Briyah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, but not in Atzilut. Because everything in Atzilut is undifferentiated G-dliness. But since that's out of our present experience, it's not to be considered.

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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

********************************
AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*!
You can order it right now from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

"Eight Chapters" (Rambam's Introduction, 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"

Rambam's Introduction (Part 1)


Some things are better off said obliquely -- especially things that really matter and can be misunderstood.

Now, that's actually a vital principle behind the transmission of the undying truisms of the Torah. For while what's said in it had to be said, things can nevertheless go wrong if they're misconstrued. So the Torah itself -- and our sages, in their explanations of it -- often speaks figuratively and in a sort of "code".

In fact that's oftentimes true about the most seemingly simple statements made. What does the common Torah expression, "And G-d said, ... " really mean, for example? The idea of G-d actually speaking to humankind is absolutely mind-boggling! Yet we're obviously being made privy to something that we have to know about G-d's intentions for us, even if some of us come to incorrect ideas about His incorporealness as a result. So in a sense the expression "And G-d said" hides more than it reveals.

In any event, Rambam's point here in "Eight Chapters" is that the same holds true of the seemingly straightforward words of Pirke Avot ("The Ethics of the Fathers"). Though what's said there certainly works on a clearly ethical, inspirational level, so much of it nonetheless alludes to deeper, more portentous things than we might have expected. And it touches upon things that very much affect our spiritual status.

Now, since "it fosters great perfection and true good fortune" (i.e., it's a very important means for us to grow in our beings and to draw close to G-d), and because we're taught by our sages that “whoever wants to be pious should live by the words of Pirke Avot“(Babba Kama 30A), and since we know that "other than prophecy, there’s no greater rank than piety", it's clear then that Pirke Avot is saying a lot more than we might think.

But, what exactly is piety? Is it anything more than simple goodness; and if it is, can I achieve it or is it beyond me? Would being pious make me somehow antisocial and aloof, sad and sombre?

And what's prophecy? Is it like being psychic or clairvoyant? Were prophets holy (and what's holy, then)? We know of many prophets from the Torah like Ezekiel, Isaiah, and most especially Moses -- is that what we're talking about? And if it is, then are we somehow expected to be prophets, since prophecy is tied it in with the study of Pirke Avot?

So since so many such questions could be raised it occurred to Rambam that he'd need to offer some background, introductory material to pave the way for his comments to Pirke Avot, otherwise they'd be misunderstood. Hence, these eight chapters.

(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"

R' Ashlag Ch. 45

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

Toras Rav Ashlag

Ma'amar HaGeulah (Prologue, Part 2)

Ma'amar HaGeulah

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

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

__________________________________________________


Prologue (Part 2)


"A Discourse on The Redemption" itself is divided into four parts which we'll synopsize now.

The first part provides us with an explanation of the nature and consequences of the exile ("Galut") we're now in. Four tragic things characterize the exile, in short: The facts that the spiritual light that the great Supernal Luminaries emit is hidden away and the powers of impurity are thus emboldened; that other nations rule over us with a vengeance; that the Shechina (G-d's indwelling presence here on earth) sits in the dust, if you will; and the fact that we continue to suffer all sorts of trials and tribulations.

The second part is a discussion of the first of two stages of the redemption process, known as P'kidah. The Hebrew term "p'kidah" itself implies a visitation or a special dispensation of Divine favor. At this stage the earliest damage done by the exile -- the hiding of the spiritual light and the subsequent emboldening of the powers of impurity -- will be repaired to a great degree, though not entirely. And the Shechina will emerge out of the dust. But those things will only come about on a subliminal, *soul* level and only for a short time at that. The spirit of the two Messiahs will start to be aroused by then, too, and begin to blossom (yes, there'll be two Messiahs -- Moshiach Ben Yoseph and Moshiach Ben David; one will appear after the other in rather quick succession, and they'll work in tandem). And finally, our people will be inspired to return to G-d's service. Then the next stage will begin.

The third part of "A Discourse on The Redemption" focuses on that next stage, Z'chirah. The term "z'chirah" implies dwelling upon something and remembering it. It's in the Z'chirah stage that outward and apparent changes will come about, and when all four forms of harm done in exile will be amended. Both Moshiach Ben Yoseph and Moshiach Ben David will appear outright then and lead the Jewish Nation to Israel, all of our troubles will cease, and the Holy Temple ("Beit Hamikdash") will be rebuilt.

And the fourth part of the work discusses the time when the "Great Gate" will be reopened and holiness will reign. We'll understand by then that the harm and wrongdoing we'd suffered as a nation all along was never meant to be permanent, and joy will fill the world. Certain recondite subjects will be explained there, like the eventual unfurling of the sort of wisdom and the supernal light that had been sequestered away since the beginning of time, our eventual eternal attachment onto G-d, and the revelation of the great and ultimate truth that G-d is indeed the Sovereign King of the universe which will bring on the goodness and peace we've always wanted as well as the destruction of evil.

(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 from Yashar Books.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

R' Ashlag Ch. 45 (Part 1)

Chapter Forty-Five:

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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45.

1.

"This Nephesh-light is termed 'the holy light of mineralness of the world of Asiyah' because it corresponds to the pure mineralness of the ratzon l’kabel in the human body."
-- We’d just learned that it’s the point in your heart that’s the mineral aspect of your soul (44:2). Rabbi Ashlag is now terming that point “the holy light of the mineralness of the world of Asiyah” to indicate the fact that despite it’s essential, rank mundanity and mineralness, and its alignment with the basest expression of the ratzon l’kabel, it’s nevertheless holy since it’s an aspect of the world of Asiyah (which, while the lowest world indeed, is inarguably an aspect of pure G-dliness).

"Its light shines (i.e., functions) on a spiritual level much the way mineralness does in the physical world, whose details don’t move about on their own but rather in general and in ways that encompass all of its details equally."
-- That is, just as inanimate objects are .. inanimate ... and only move on a molecular level and perhaps from place to place as a whole, and then only when provoked by external forces, the light of the mineralness of the world of Asiyah likewise only functions to those minimal degrees.

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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

********************************
AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*!
You can order it right now from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

"The Great Redemption" (40)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

“Eight Chapters” (Prologue)

“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

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Prologue

Rambam actually wrote "Eight Chapters" as a prelude to his comments upon Pirke Avot ("The Ethics of the Fathers"), but it has always been regarded as a seminal work onto itself. A very early composition, "Eight Chapters" lays out themes that Rambam explains in great detail in some of his later works. So it serves as a wonderful introduction to his idea and ideals, and it details very specific ways you and I can indeed achieve spiritual excellence. Here's a running synopsis of the work and a taste of what's to come.

It's in his Introduction that Rambam points out that this work serves as a prelude to his comments upon Pirke Avot, as we'd said. He says there that, though Pirke Avot is a classic and popular work, it's nonetheless hard to follow through on and sometimes hard to understand, "since it touches upon such important, ultimate issues" having to do with piety, which is right below prophecy in spiritual rank. So he took it upon himself to offer this introduction -- the "Eight Chapters".

Chapter 1 sets out to define the human spirit (nephesh), since "improving character amounts to healing the nephesh" and so "it’s important to understand the it the way a doctor understands the body". And Rambam goes to great pains to explain it both on both on a physical and a spiritual level. This will give us great insights into ourselves.

Chapter 2 focuses on the mitzvah-system and lays out how it applies to our beings, and it introduces the idea of there being both intellectual and character flaws.

Chapter 3 defines personal (rather than physical) "health" and "illness" as those instances in which our beings are either well-balanced or off-kilter, and it advises us as to where to go for help once we suspect we're in fact off-kilter.

Chapter 4 is a major and very practical one, and it offers tried and true advice as to how to return ourselves to true balance. Many traits are analyzed as to what's "healthy" and what's "ill" about them (with some surprises). We're told there that "since no one is born with an inherently and utterly virtuous or flawed character, it’s important to tend to your character much the way you’d tend to your body when it goes off kilter", and we're told how to.

Chapter 5 tells each one of us that "aside from subordinating (our) personal capacities" and trying to be the best person we can be, we're to also "strive to comprehend G-d as much as (we) can and to make that (our) life’s goal". We're told what helps as far as that's concerned and also what to avoid.

Chapter 6 investigates the issue of who's better: the person who "subdues his yetzer harah and does good even when he’s not inclined to", thus fighting his nature and winning, or the one who "does good because he’s naturally inclined to" without a struggle.

Chapter 7 explores the makeup and differences between prophets, and we learn there how their characters affected their missions just as much as it affects our own.

And Chapter 8 offers the comforting notion that while "no onwe is ever born inherently lofty or flawed", still and all "anyone can learn how to counter his disposition." After all, we're all born with the freedom to choose our actions and motivations, "and nothing impels (us) one way or the other". Then Rambam goes into the whole idea of how we can manage to be free in our ethical choices if G-d knows what we're going to opt for in the end (for doesn't that seem to indicate that it's already "in the cards"?).

May G-d grant us the wisdom to be nourished by the great and mighty Rambam's advice and to thus achieve true 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"

Ma'amar HaGeulah (Prologue, Part 1)

This is the beginning of one of the new series on www.torah.org that I indicated before. So as not to confuse this with the translation of the text I'm in the middle of for our purposes here, I'll refer to this series as "Ma'amar HaGeulah" though it's called "The Great Redemption" for the torah.org series.

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Ma'amar HaGeulah

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

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

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Prologue (Part 1)

At bottom, each nation is a product of its dreams and realizations. And while we Jews have certainly come upon a world of realizations in the course of our 2,000 year long exile, we've forgotten some of our dreams.

Perhaps the greatest of them, though, is the dream of the coming of the Moshiach ("Messiah") at long last and our being redeemed. But how will that happen, and what will be going on in the Celestial background to bring it about? Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto discussed all that in an early work entitled Ma'amar HaGeulah ("A Discourse on The Redemption"). It's a rather short and fairly unknown work that was composed sometime before 1730, and only came to light in 1889 through the research of Rabbi Shmuel Luria. What is manages to do, though, is explain the cosmic backdrop behind the exile we're in now, the first low stirrings of the Messianic Era, the eventual redemption itself, and much more. It will serve as the source of this series.

We'll start off the series itself with a quick preliminary overview of classical Jewish ideas of exile and redemption, we'll then offer the "end of the story" as Ramchal depicts it at the very beginning and thus come to see what we're all to look forward to, then we'll go back to the beginning to enjoy a full step by step laying-out of the process.

We'll only present short samples of the original text itself in translation, and we'll omit a lot of the work's out-and-out Kabbalah, simply because it would demand that we step aside from the subject at hand -- the redemption -- in order to explain terms and concepts tangential to it. But we *will* explain some of the more basic Kabbalistic ideas that lay at the core of Ramchal's vision of the redemption simply because they're essential to the story.

As Ramchal points out, the Great Redemption (The "Geulah") will start to unfurl at a slow, steady pace -- and in the Heavens above rather than down here on earth, in fact. For the great Supernal Luminaries will begin the awesome process of adjustment and repair first off. And as we'll learn, the end will be the perfection of the Jewish Nation along with the rectification of the entire world. But a lot will happen in between, so let's start to discover it by first offering a short bird's eye view of "A Discourse on The Redemption", which we'll send off next time.

(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 from Yashar Books.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

R' Ashlag Ch. 44

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

Toras Rav Ashlag

"The Great Redemption" (39)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal