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"Eight Chapters" (Chapter Four, Part 12)

"Eight Chapters"

Chapter Four (Part 12)

Imagine you were an air traffic controller and you suddenly caught sight of a speck off in the distance of the radar screen. Now, if you knew it was nothing but the first appearance of a plane that was expected to show up, then you'd clearly do nothing. But if it wasn't that, and the speck started to wiggle just a little bit perhaps, or to make some other awkward moves, then you'd certainly keep your eyes on it. And if the wiggle widened after a while and was joined by another speck or two that wiggled also -- then you'd undoubtedly take action. Because something was clearly going on there; something was off.

In much the same way, Rambam warns us to always be introspective: to "keep a steady eye on things" within -- on our inner screen. And to never "neglect a symptom" or a sign of something gone off-kilter and wiggling. And we're certainly not to "allow it to fester to the point where we’d need the strongest medicines available" -- the direst means -- to deal with it.

He also counsels us, though, to always take appropriate measures when we notice something wrong about our personalities. In fact, we'd be wiser yet to "avoid things that would harm our Spirit" in the first place, but we're to at least "favor things that would either help treat it or prevent it from getting weaker yet".

For we're to "constantly scrutinize our character while we're healthy, weigh our actions, and gauge our dispositions every single day" -- that is, to keep our eyes on the screen all the time. And to then "quickly treat ourselves" when a glitch comes up, "rather than allow a bad disposition to develop". And we're to act just "as soon as we notice ourselves inclining toward one extreme or another", that is, wiggling this way or that.

After all, he warns us, "everyone has his flaws". For as Rambam notes, it's been said that “it would be hard and hardly likely to find anyone with all the virtuous intellectual and character traits”. And we're taught that “There is no one so righteous upon this earth who (only) does good and doesn't sin“ (Ecclesiastes 7:20). And that holds true of even the best of us, as we'll see.

So as Rambam sums it up, "it’s important to favor balanced actions and to only resort to an extreme in order to heal yourself or to counterbalance another, opposite extreme", and that it's likewise important to make sure that you don't come to that point.

Tanya -- Ch. 4, Part 5

“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. 4

5.

We learned above that we attach ourselves to G-d through the mitzvah system (sect. 3). But, how could anyone be said to cling onto G-d Himself altogether, and by fulfilling His Torah in particular? After all, His Being is termed Limitless, we're told that “His greatness can't be fathomed” (Psalms 145:3), that no thought could ever comprehend Him (see Introduction to Tikkunei Zohar), that “there’s no searching out His understanding” (Isaiah 40:28), that “if you search (for) G-d could you find Him?” (Job 11:7), and that “My thoughts are not like your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8). So let’s try to explain the connection between the Torah that we observe, study, and interact with and G-d’s Being.

We’ll clarify that all by drawing upon a well known dictum that reads, “Wherever you find G-d’s greatness you also find His humility” (Megillah 31A).

What that means to say is that G-d Himself is connected to the Torah by virtue of the fact that He “humbled Himself” at creation, so to speak, despite His omnipotence, by compressing and agglomerating -- squiggling and pushing -- His will and wisdom into the 613 Biblical mitzvot and their halachic ramifications and into the array of letters that comprise the text of the Bible and their various Rabbinic explanations.

But, why would he have done that?, we might reasonably ask. And the answer is just so that we might unite with Him by grasping and fulfilling as many of His mitzvot as we can (Likutei Biurim).

In fact, the Torah’s situation in the world and our own is analogous (Maskil L’ Eitan; see Tanya M’vuar). For while both we and the Torah are entrenched in materiality -- we, by dint of our earthly circumstances, and the Torah by virtue of the fact that it deals with day-to-day matters like food, clothing, and the like for the most part -- nonetheless both our own and Torah’s “roots” are far loftier than anyone can imagine and not at all of this world in fact.

In truth, the very fact of Torah’s being rooted is in the Heavens and yet set in earth, explains why it’s likened to water (Babba Kama 17A). For like water, Torah also cascades further and further downward from a high point to a lower one, step by step -- world by world -- until it comes to be clothed in the physical components of the mitzvot that we fulfill, and in the very ink and letters that comprise the text of the 24 books of Torah, Writings, and Prophets. And it descends to that level all so that we might grasp it, discuss it, and act upon it [11].

So, once the Torah and its mitzvot "clothe" our G-dly spirit’s heart and mind (and its 613 “limbs”) from top to bottom, we come to be bound in “the Bond of Life” (1 Samuel 25:29) -- in fact, to the point where G-d’s light both surrounds and suffuses us then, and we come to be attached to Him from all sides, inside and out.

________________________________
Notes:

[11] The other point to be made about water as an analogy to Torah, by the way, is that just like it’s the self-same water down below as it was above before it cascaded down and that other than a change of place, nothing is different about it, the same is true of G-d’s Torah (Maskil LEitan).

Other symbols also offered for Torah, like light or like bits of information offered from one person to another, aren’t sufficient to explain the analogy. For a ray of light from the sun wouldn’t be the sun itself anymore than any information that a teacher would pass on to a pupil would be the teacher himself (Shiurim b’sefer haTanya; see Sha’ar Hayichud v’He’emuna 3). Yet water is water wherever it is; and Torah as it is in a metaphysical context is the same Torah that it is in a physical context.

(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"

FYI

Besides providing today's installment of Ma'amar HaGeulah below, I also made some changes at Toras Rav Ashlag, adding comments to the next-to-last paragraph.

Ma'amar HaGeulah (The Remembrance, Ch. 7)

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. 7

So much of what will begin to happen at this stage can only be termed supernatural. For all sorts of celestial beings will begin to emerge, since "all the ministering angels and their legions whose service and assignments were no longer in effect" in the course of the exile "will return to their assignments" by now (see para. 41).

The very fact of their reappearance touches upon a major theme of The Remembrance. For as Ramchal words it, "everything that had been impaired in the exile will be emended and repaired" (Ibid.). What that means to say is that all wrongs will be made right, all losses will turn to triumphs; and the heavens, the world at large, and the Jewish Nation specifically will witness all sorts of wonders as a consequence. And the greatest wonder will be the great redemption itself, fullblown.

The verse that reads, “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad with her, all who love her; rejoice for joy with her, all who mourn for her” (Isaiah 66:10) will come alive. For, “G-d will console Zion ... and He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the G-d's garden (i.e., the Garden of Eden)" (Isaiah 51:3), for all sorts of "joy and gladness will be found there" -- as a consequence of all the light and pleasantness on exhibit then. And the call of "thanksgiving, and the sound of song” that Isaiah spoke of there will become manifest then as well, since the angels spoken of above will begin to sing out.

One could hardly imagine the richness of the songs that angels sing and the great joy they'll elicit! Their songs must somehow replicate the sweet stillness of the moment of creation, or echo the click-clacks and varooms of Heaven. Indeed, "the joy then will be very great and ... blessings will grow greater and greater" by the moment as a consequence (see para. 42).

That blessedness and bestowance will also manifest itself in a most unique sort of way, in that time itself will implode, if you will. "A lot of time won’t be needed in the future" to accomplish things after the redemption, as Ramchal puts it, for "everything will be done instantaneously" (Ibid.). Hence, “(a) woman will conceive and be in labor at one (and the same time)” (Jeremiah 31:7), for example.

The implications of that are staggering. First off, it could help to explain the contemporary urge for rapid results and instant-everything as a sign of impending redemption (please G-d). It could also clarify why people who are more attached to the physical tend to be mired in processes that always take time, while those attached to the spiritual seem to be above time.

Other consequences of the new reality will be that the angels will constantly and instantaneously change "assignments" (i.e., their spiritual standing), and "they’ll always and forever be renewed" and enjoy more and more emanations, which will entertain and "keep the Jewish Nation happier than any light (could)" (Ibid.).

The angels will hear "the calls of Malchut (i.e., the Shechina) that will sound throughout the worlds" (which must be even more unfathomably lovely than the angels' own songs), and they'll "gather together in song and praise" G-d as a consequence. And "things will always be favorable" by that point, for "emanation will be constant, and (Divine) judgment will forever be mitigated" (Ibid.).

(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. 57

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

Toras Rav Ashlag

Tanya -- Ch. 4, 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. 4

4.

We’re told, though (parenthetically, quite ironically, and very esoterically), that its three garments of thought, speech, and action are actually more august and eminent than the G-dly spirit itself. But how could that be?

It comes to is this. We’re taught that G-d and His Torah are one and the same (Zohar 1:24A, 2:60A). Needless to say that doesn’t mean that the Torah-scroll we might find before us is G-d! All it implies is that the instruction (hora’ah in Hebrew, a cognate of Torah) that we receive from G-d via His Torah -- that we do this or that, and avoid something else -- is at one with G-d since its derived from His very own will and wisdom [9].

So, while the G-dly spirit is indeed a part of G-d (see ch. 2), it’s *only a part* -- and a detached and discrete one at that ... while G-d’s will and wisdom, and hence the Torah that’s derived from it and which we think and speak about and act out on, are an expression of His full Being (see Likutei Biurim) [10].

The implication is that at bottom it’s the fact that the Torah and its mitzvot are so utterly unearthly that enables us to transcend our beings so.

___________________________________________

Notes:

[9] And thus, when we grasp Torah, apply its mitzvot to ourselves, and cling onto the whole of it, we grasp onto G-d as well -- since He and it are enmeshed (Likutei Biurim; Shiurim BeSefer HaTanya).

[10] On another level, though, the G-dly spirit is indeed loftier yet than the Torah. After all, our people are said to be G-d’s “bride”, hearkening to a deep and unique connection to Him. The solution offered for that paradox is that on its highest planes (i.e., on a Chaya and Yechida level, technically speaking) the G-dly spirit is indeed loftier than the Torah, while its lower planes (i.e., its Nephesh, Ruach, and Neshama levels) are in fact lower than the Torah (Likutei Biurim).

(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"

Last of the Series

I've finished the series on Rabbeinu Yonah's Sh'arei Tshuvah at Der Alter.
Y'hei zchus al kol yisrael l'shalom u'lvracha!

"Eight Chapters" (Chapter Four, Part 11)

“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 Four (Part 11)

Just as there have always been genuine innovators, there have likewise always been out-and-out imitators. And in fact Rambam dubs the (well meaning) people who did what the truly pious did when they went a bit to an extreme, "imitators" -- copycats.

Now, that's a curious accusation. He could have labeled them "foolhardy" perhaps or misguided "zealots", and thus pointed out that their mistakes lied in the fact that they'd gone too-far, as we'd have expected. But he didn't. Instead, he condemned them for their non-originality. Thus Rambam seems to be saying (and rather slyly so) that not only is it important for us to be levelheaded and balanced in our observance -- we also need to be as true to ourselves as the Torah would have us be.

(But it's important to underscore the fact that it would be absurd to excuse ourselves from one mitzvah or another by claiming that we're just not "wired" for it. For G-d's immortal Torah can be legitimately tailored to fit all sizes, as long as we allow it to maintain its integrity.)

In any event, Rambam goes on to offer the following overarching principle in relation to being immoderate: "The Torah only prohibited what it prohibited and commanded what it commanded for one reason: that we be trained to avoid extremes".

He then explains that all the restrictions that the Torah places on us in relation to what we can enjoy in this world were set up "in order to draw us far away from indulgence (which is an extreme) and to have us go beyond the mean, toward asceticism (which is the other extreme), in order to foster temperance (which is the ideal)". That is, to only lean toward an extreme so as to arrive at a mean.

And he offers other examples. The Torah charges us to be charitable in various forms, as many know. In fact, when it touches upon being generous in the context of agricultural laws the Torah seems to be quite demanding. It asks us to tithe our crop, to leave behind certain produce that had fallen or been forgotten so the poor could gather them up themselves, and the like. Rambam himself notes that all this "comes very close to (demanding) extravagance" on our part -- to almost asking us to give away the farm, as the expression goes. But as he explains, all these demands are only "meant to draw us far away from stinginess (an extreme) and toward extravagance (the other extreme), in order to foster generosity (the ideal)."

He then offers yet other illustrations of his point. "For example," he says, "the Torah forbad vengeance and avenging a murder with the declarations, 'Do not take revenge or bear a grudge' (Leviticus 19:18), 'If you see the donkey of someone who hates you lying beneath its burden, refrain yourself from leaving it up to him -- help him lift it' (Exodus 23:5)" and more. And why? "All in order to temper anger", Rambam declares.

"It’s likewise written, 'Do not watch your brother’s ox or sheep go astray and hide yourself from them; return them to your brother' (Deuteronomy 22:1), in order to discourage stinginess; and 'Rise up before the aged and honor the old' (Leviticus 19:32), 'Honor your father and mother' (Exodus 20:12) ..., to discourage audacity and encourage shame". But the Torah doesn't stop there. As Rambam underscores, "it then steers you away from the other extreme, bashfulness, by saying 'Do not hate your brother in your heart; but surely reproach your neighbor' (Leviticus 19:17)" and the like, all in order "to ... discourage you from bashfulness and keep you on the more balanced path".

"So when some utter fool comes along and wants to expand upon that by disallowing (himself) even more" Rambam declares, "he’s actually doing wrong, ... has gone to an extreme, and has utterly forsaken balance".

And he sums up by providing us with a maxim from the Talmud that commiserates with his sentiments. For as one of our sages put it when he derided people who were imposing unnecessary and unsanctioned hardships upon themselves, “Has the Torah not already forbidden enough that you have to forbid yet other things?" (JT Nedarim 9:1).

(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. 4, 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. 4

3.

Our *hearts* come into play, too. As when we fulfill any of the intellectual, verbal, and practical mitzvot in a spirit of love for G-d or of fear of Him [5]. In short, loving G-d comes to either never wanting to separate yourself from Him and wanting instead to unite your whole being to His (see Ch. 14 below), or to experiencing a great, fervent, and all-consuming glowing yearning from the depths of your heart to cleave onto Him (see Ch. 9 below).

In fact, it’s the love of G-d that moves and enables us to fulfill the imperative mitzvot in all their fullness (see Zohar 3:122B) [6]. Since we can only attach ourselves to G-d through the mitzvah system as we’re implored to do when we love Him and want to attach ourselves to His being. In fact, without a love of G-d behind it, we really couldn’t be said to be fulfilling mitzvot-- with any ardor, at least (Likutei Biurim).

There are other ways to fulfill the 248 imperatives, to be sure. By rote, for example; out of a sense of duty; or simply by dint of the Divine spirit’s natural pull toward them. But that doesn’t allow you to draw G-d’s light upon yourself (Igeret HaKodesh 10), or to take hold of the corresponding 248 “limbs and organs of the King” (which we’ll explain) [7]. So, the best way to fulfill them is in a spirit of love.

Now, as to the fear of G-d which touches upon the 365 prohibitions: we’re told that there are two sorts. One comes down to being just too intimidated and frightened to rebel against G-d Almighty, while the second -- which is more internal and touches more profoundly upon oneself -- is based on a thoroughgoing sense of being too out-and-out ashamed to rebel against Him but doing anything that would vitalize the husks and the other side that are so anathema to Him (Shiurim BeSefer HaTanya) [8].

Thus our emotions can be said to goad our thoughts, speech, and actions away from pedestrian to lofty service of G-d, and to act as its very wings.


_________________________________________________________

Notes:

[5] Love and fear are the two quintessential emotions, as was indicated in the last chapter, and they’ll be expanded upon just below and in later chapters in greater detail.

[6] That’s to say that while it’s the love of G-d that moves and enables us to fulfill *all* the mitzvot, it especially and more specifically moves us to fulfill the imperatives.

Loving G-d will prove to be a major and primal theme in Tanya, and it will be presented with many shadings and a lush array of depictions. The fear of Him is also of major importance, but it only seems to attract RSZ’s rapt attention when it touches on some level of loving Him, interstingly enough. For it seems that RSZ often experienced blissful states of G-d-intoxication. He was said to have been found alone from time to time, seemingly out of anyone’s sight (but not), chanting over and over again, “G-d Almighty! I don’t want Your lower heaven, Your upper heaven, or Your World to Come -- all I want is You!”

We’ll learn about the sort of love of G-d that emanates from the depths of one’s being, that seems to flare up and glow with passion and desire, and to overflow, as well as how to differentiate between “abundant” and “ardent” love in Ch. 9; about “delightful” love in Ch. 14; and about the hidden, latent love found in each Jewish heart in Ch’s 15 and 18, for example.

[7] See Ch. 23 below where RSZ explains that the mitzvot are said to be G-d’s “limbs” and "organs" simply because they acquiesce to His will on teh spot much the way our organs acquiesce to our wishes.

[8] This sense of being ashamed to rebel against Him is not, though, the greatest and highest degree of fear of -- or better yet, awe in the presence of -- G-d one could experience. That would be the sort that's discussed in Ch. 43 below which leads to the undoing of the self spoken of there (Likutei Biurim). And apropos to what we wrote above in note 6, RSZ discusses other aspects of the fear of G-d in Ch. 43, and elsewhere.

(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"

Ma'amar HaGeulah (The Remembrance, Ch. 6)

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. 6

There'll come a point some time after this when G-d will lovingly say to the Moshiach, "Ask Me for anything and I'll grant it to you!" But seeing Moshiach ben Yoseph lying dead on the ground, he'll only say, "G-d Almighty, I only ask the gift of life from You!" -- that is, the ability to bring Moshiach Ben Yoseph back to life (Sukkah 52A).

Ramchal informs us at *this* point, though, that Moshiach Ben Yoseph will come "from Edom in crimsoned garments" --i.e., garments stained with blood as a consequence of his battles, "from Bozrah" which is Edom's great city; that he'll be "glorious in His apparel" -- i.e., in victory; that he'll "march in great strength" (Isaiah 63:1); and that he'll "trample upon the winepress" (v. 3) and thus completely undo his opponents (see para. 40).

Now, we'd spoken about Moshiach Ben Yoseph in passing already, in connection with a number of battles our people will fight as the redemption progresses (see "Exile" Ch. 5), and we know that he'll be the ultimate Moshiach's predecessor, but let's learn more about Moshiach Ben Yoseph.

First off it's important to know that he isn't cited explicitly in any of the books of the Bible and is only known to us from oral traditions (see Ramban's Sefer HaGeulah, Gate 4). We're thus taught there that he'll come upon the scene some 40 years before Moshiach Ben Dovid himself will, his name will be Nechemiah Ben Chushiel; and that he'll gather the dispersed and reconnect individuals with their family-lines (Pirke Heichalot 39:1), build up Jerusalem and broaden the settlement of the Land of Israel, reveal the mysteries of the Torah, remove the unclean spirit from the land (Kol Hatur 1:2-19), reinstitute the service in the Holy Temple, and then establish his own kingdom (Emunot ve'De'ot, Gate 8).

Ramchal will eventually discuss other things about him, too (see para's 49, 51, and 63).

(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. 4, 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. 4

2.

RSZ refers to the G-dly spirit’s thoughts, emotions, words, and actions as its “garments” [2]. That’s largely because they’re the means by which it exhibits itself in the world, for all intents and purposes, much the way we exhibit or convey ourselves through our clothes.

But just as our clothes don’t really do us justice, since they often only act as a facade or perhaps they only express how we want to be taken in public; and they oftentimes misrepresent us other ways, too, as when our clothes have us appear wealthier than we are, or poorer and the like -- in much the same way, our G-dly spirit’s “garments” likewise don’t express it *as it truly is*. After all, as we said before, it’s a veritable portion of G-d (see Biur Tanya).

Be that as it may, we activate our G-dly spirit when we engage in mitzvot with our minds, power of speech, and through our actions (our hearts are involved too, as we’ll soon see). As when we delve into Torah, enunciate Torah texts or prayers, and when we fulfill more concrete mitzvot.

Now, our G-dly spirit is comprised of 613 intangible component parts, we’re taught [3]. And they express themselves in all their glory through the 613 mitzvot that they “don” [4]. As such, mitzvot can be said to sometimes serve as the Divine spirit’s “body” when it’s clothed in them.

_________________________________________________________

Notes:

[2] The garments spoken of here are not the ones cited toward the end of Ch. 2 above. See note 9 there.

[3] This will be discussed at some length in Ch. 51.

It’s also pointed out there that the G-dly spirit is of course not limited to space and time -- or to number (and hence, subdivision). So it stands to reason that the mere 613 parts it’s said to have here, in this chapter, is how it represents and manifests itself in this world of space, time and number.

[4] Just as the body is comprised of 613 parts (248 limbs and organs, and 365 blood vessels according to the traditional reckoning) and the Torah is comprised of 613 mitzvot (248 imperatives and 365 prohibitives), the G-dly spirit is likewise comprised of 613 spiritual components. Hence when one puts all of his G-dly spirit and his body into the fulfillment of all of the mitzvot, he’s said to be fully clothed in, i.e., fully absorbed in and suffused by, them. The idea of being both fully absorbed in and suffused by mitzvot will be discussed later on.

It’s also important to make two other points. First, that each spiritual component of the G-dly spirit corresponds to and is engarbed in a particular mitzvah (Biur Tanya); and that each body-part corresponds in turn to a spiritual component of the G-dly spirit and a particular mitzvah as well.

And second, that in their essence the mitzvot are actually infinite in number, and become reduced to 613 in our experience alone (Maskil L’Eitan), corresponding to the this-worldly situation of the 613 components of the spirit laid out in the previous note.

(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. 4, 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. 4

1.

We’d delved up to now into the backdrops of our two spirits and touched upon what they’re made of, rooted in, and derived from. We begin now to examine just what they do and don’t do, and most significantly -- how they effect our service to G-d.

As we indicated in the last chapter, our two spirits contend with each other each and every moment. In fact they seem to be like two distinct moods vying for attention at every turn that are poles apart, with two utterly different biases, as we’ve put it: one towards G-dliness and the other towards everything but.

The two spirits do have one thing in common, though. They both express themselves forthrightly and constantly (though many of us are only slightly aware of the less-dominant one). And they do that through our minds and hearts, our words and actions. The difference is that the *content* and *objects* of our thoughts, emotions, etc. under either spirit’s influence are antithetical to each other.

So let’s now examine the content and objects of our G-dly spirit’s thoughts, emotions, words, and actions [1].

_________________________________________________________

Notes:

[1] An important point to be made though, is that it’s *we* who implement and actualize our own G-dly or animalistic spirits. Each one of us, of his or her own volition, accesses either spirit at any one time. And we become the person we eventually come to be based on our own choices.

Some have gone so far as to say that RSZ and Chabad-thought in general doesn’t value the “self” -- a personal mediator between the two warring biases -- and that in fact, the undoing of the self (bittul ha’metzias) is the ultimate goal (see Ch. 43 in the text). “For,” (they’re said to reason), at bottom, “there’s (absolutely) nothing but Him (G-d)” (Deuteronomy 4:35) (See end of Ch. 21 in the text; Sha'ar HaYichud v’He’emunah 3, 6, etc.).

While that’s certainly a fundamental (albeit highly controversial) Chabad teaching, it doesn’t seem reasonable to assume that RSZ was arguing from that perspective in this work (or at least at this point). Since Tanya focuses on offering practical advise about how to grow in one’s being. As such we’d argue that if, as we’re taught in Ch. 1, “each Jew ... has (the aforementioned) two spirits”, then “each Jew” is one thing, while his or her two spirits are two other things; and that even RSZ would agree that there’s a self for all *practical* purposes.

In fact there seem to be a number of references to an independent self. This chapter starts off by saying, “When *a person* actively fulfills all the mitzvot... ” (as opposed to when “*a person* dwells upon (unholy thoughts, utterances, or actions)...” [Ch. 6]).

Also see Ch. 14, where the self enters into an inner-dialogue; Ch. 25’s, which speaks of “*a person* (being) capable at that time of ridding himself of the spirit of foolishness and forgetfulness (i.e., from falling sway to his animalistic bias), and instead recalling and awakening his love of the one G-d (i.e., accessing his G-dly spirit)”; Ch. 28, where we’re depicted as individuals with two biases at war somewhere within the ‘self'”; Ch. 29, where the self and its struggles are discussed; and Ch. 31, where the self addresses itself again; etc.

We’d also remind the reader that RSZ cites Rabbi Chaim Vital’s Shaarei Kedusha as the source of the information about the various spirits (see note 3 to Ch. 1 above), and it’s said there that “the self” (said there to be our “rational spirit”) and the two spirits are clearly differentiated. (In fact, see Iggeret Hakodesh 15 where the rational and G-dly spirits are actually differentiated; and Likutei Torah 69B which lays out the battle between good and evil, and discusses the freedom we have to use our minds to differentiate and choose between our G-dly and animalistic biases.)

(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"

"The Great Redemption" (77)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

... and that ends this entire series.

I'll stop work on Toras Ramchal for a while (I have other ideas for it later on), work on Sefer Tanya, try to finish off R' Ashlag's work, and go on from there.

Stay tuned.

"Eight Chapters" (Chapter Four, Part 10)

“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 Four (Part 10)

The Torah never charged us to go overboard in our observance or to extremes. For as Rambam himself worded it, "it wants us to live normally and to follow a balanced path: to eat and drink what’s permissible in balanced measure; to have intercourse in ways permitted in balanced measure; to develop the world in a just and honest way rather than live in caves or on mountaintops; to not wear sackcloth or coarse wool" -- in short, "to never strain, deplete, or afflict our bodies" or our Spirit en toto.

For while deep in the corner of every Jewish heart lies a dream of drawing close to G-d and of achieving spiritual excellence that sometimes encourages it to go to extremes ... and even though it's the sort of adorable and touching kinds of extremes that innocent lovers might go to in their ardor ... still-and-all Rambam's point is that it's wrong.

After all, wasn't the individual who wanted to become a Nazir -- to set himself apart from society for a while in order to dedicate himself to G-d's service in a unique and commendable way, and thus had the best of intentions -- called a "sinner" (see Numbers 6:1-21)? He indeed was, and that's all the more so true of others who shun things that they needn't shun to be good Jews. (The Nazir is also termed *holy*, by the way, which seems to throw Rambam's equation off indeed; but suffice it to say that while holiness is certainly commendable, one person's holiness is another, lesser person's recklessness.)
.
At bottom we're to realize that G-d's lush, glorious, and delightful Torah charges us "to pursue balance, and character virtues", as Rambam puts it, and to hone our Spirit (and minds as well, which we'll come to later). And while it certainly wants us to strive and aspire ever upward, it doesn't ask us to oppress ourselves with burdens we wouldn't think of asking others to bear.

(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 Great Redemption" (75 & 76)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

The next entry (77) will be the last of the series.

Ma'amar HaGeulah (The Remembrance, Ch. 5)

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. 5

Then it will happen, at last -- the Holy Temple will be rebuilt, and the Shechina will emerge out of the dust to return to her rightful place there! For, recall that one of the worst consequences of our having been in exile was the fact that the Shechina had been cast there along with us (see "Exile" Ch. 12). But as we'd learned, a certain sequence of events would manifest itself from the heavens in order for her to resurface, and it will begin to happen by this point (see "The Visitation" Ch's 1 & 2, and "The Remembrance" Ch. 1).

This raises a fundamental question, though, which we'll take this opportunity to respond to. How can G-d's presence be said to dwell in any one place alone, even if it's the Holy Temple? After all, as Solomon himself put it when he had the Holy Temple built, "Behold, heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain You; how much less this house that I have built?" (1 Kings 8:27).

The quick answer is that G-d had in fact fixed His presence in other places and at other times. He did so on Mount Sinai, for example; for as we're told that, "Moses went up into the mountain, and ... G-d's glory abided on Mount Sinai and the cloud covered it over for six days .... The sight of G-d's glory (exhibited then) was like a devouring fire" (Exodus 24:15-17). G-d's presence was manifest in the Tabernacle in the desert, as well; for as we're told, "Moses was not able to enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud abided on it, and G-d's glory filled the Tabernacle" (Exodus 40:35). The Land of Israel itself exhibited it, for we were warned not to "defile the land that you will inhabit, in which I dwell" (Numbers 35:34). And it's said, "Thus says the High and Lofty One ... I dwell in the high and holy place", and likewise "with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit" (Isaiah 57:15).

But the deeper response is that G-d's presence is actually *everywhere*, as Solomon noted above, and as Isaiah did too when he declared, "Holy, holy, holy is the L-rd of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!" (Isaiah 6:3). It's just that His Presence can be especially sensed and experienced in certain locations and times, and that's what the Torah is alluding to. So the point of the matter is that while we only rarely experience G-d's Presence in the course of the exile, we'll experience it ever so much more after the great redemption.

In any event, this is how Solomon was told that G-d's presence was to exhibit itself in the first Holy Temple: "G-d's word came to Solomon, saying, As to this Temple that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes, execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments ... (then) I will dwell among the children of Israel .... So Solomon began building the Temple and completed it" (1 Kings 6:11-13). And, indeed, "it came to pass that when the Kohanim had come out of the holy place" at a later point, that "a cloud filled G-d's house, and the Kohanim could not stand to serve (there) because of the cloud: as G-d's glory had filled G-d's house" (1 Kings 8:10-12).

All that ended -- for the meanwhile, at least -- when the first Holy Temple was destroyed, and "G-d's glory went up from the midst of the city, and stood on the mountain which is on the east side of the city" (Ezekiel 11:23) in exile. In fact though, that didn't happen in one fell-swoop, as whoever could have endured that! It happened in ten stages. The Shechina went "from the Ark-cover to the Cherub, from the Cherub to the threshold, from the threshold to the courtyard, from the courtyard to the altar, from the altar to the roof, from the roof to the wall, from the wall to the town, from the town to the mountain, from the mountain to the wilderness, and from the wilderness it ascended and abided in its own place" (Rosh Hashanah 31A).

In fact, the Shechina didn't manifest itself at all in the second Holy Temple (Yoma 21B)! But that will all reverse itself, in this, the fifth stage of The Remembrance.

(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 Great Redemption" (74)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

"The Great Redemption" (73)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

"Eight Chapters" (Chapter Four, Part 9)

“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 Four (Part 9)

Some people were under the mistaken impression that if the pious were going to extremes sometimes, that they should, too, if they want to be pious. Now, if nothing else, this was a noble thought. For those individuals were trying to be especially good and meant only to draw close to G-d in the process. But they were terribly wrong.

(Well, perhaps they weren't *only* trying to be good because, the truth be known, we oftentimes do the right thing for the wrong reasons: to please others, perhaps; to convince them of erroneous things about ourselves; to hide iniquities by eclipsing them with proper appearances; to adapt into a community, and the like. In any event, we'll assume that the people Rambam depicted above were making well-intentioned mistakes.)

So, "they afflicted their bodies in all kinds of ways and believed they ... were doing good, since (they thought) that was how a person draws close to G-d". But that's nonsense, Rambam said, since it assumes that "G-d is opposed to the body, and wants to destroy and annihilate it!" when He doesn't at all. For as we'd indicated, the Jewish ideal is the right mix of body and soul, and G-d no more wants us to harm ourselves bodily than He wants us to contort ourselves psychologically (by going out of the way to frighten ourselves, for example, or setting out to delude ourselves, and the like).

These individuals "never realized that those were in fact *bad* things to do, and that they’d thus acquire flaws that way" since they were going far beyond the pale, and didn't have good reason to, as those (few) righteous individuals had when they followed that path (and only for a while at that).

In fact, Rambam likened those in error to "the fool who knew nothing about medicine, who saw some great physicians giving cathartics to deathly ill patients ... who were thus healed and whose lives were (thus) ... saved", and who then reasoned to themselves that, “If those things can heal a sick person, then they’d certainly keep a healthy person well and even make him healthier!“. So they'd start taking cathartics for no good reasons, and would become sick!

His point is that if your Spirit isn't that off, yet you do extreme things to correct it, then you'll throw it off balance in the process and do yourself far more harm than good.

But some might ask -- Why, aren't we all off-kilter anyway, so don't we all really need remedies? The short answer is, yes, we do. But while we may all need to add some "supplements" on to our religious practice, few of us should go to the lengths Rambam likened to taking "cathartics", which are rather extreme remedies that tend to scourge the body and are only to be used under dire circumstances.

For again, we're to strive for balance and harmony in our spiritual lives, and to only pass the line when seeking true piety -- and only to a point even then.

(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 (The Remembrance, Ch. 4)

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. 4

If you were to be standing atop a precipice at this point in The Remembrance, overlooking the vista, you'd see a lot of movement and change, a great shifting about and resettling. For whole and massive columns of people would be moving and realigning, moving again and aligning again in yet other ways. Because the great redemption would have begun; the ingathering of the exiled Jewish Nation would have been set in motion. And as we indicated, it would have all been initiated by Moshiach Ben Yoseph.

We're told that that will be brought on as a result of a great surge of love issuing from Heaven, as G-d recalls the plight of His precious children, His joy and delight. For His "innermost parts (will) yearn" for us, and He'll "have (i.e., He'll manifest) mercy" upon His people then (Jeremiah 31:19). And it will begin.

Now, we're told that we'll immediately break into a "song that would begin (a great, univeral) ascent" then (see para. 39), as we arrive at Amanah (see para. 37), Israel's traditional northernmost point (see 2 Kings 5:12, Song of Songs 4:8, Mishna Shevi'it 6:1). And we'll encounter the ten lost tribes, who will be gathered together by Moshiach Ben David, as all twelve tribes are reunited (see para. 39).

Now, there's "a lovely and pleasant mystery involved" in the song that we'll be breaking into then (see para. 38). It's rooted in the fact that it will be inspired by a great and colossal event. But Ramchal eases us into this idea with the following fascinating notion.

He asserts that "whoever is elevated is (in fact) elevated by music" (ibid.) -- that music is capable of lifting us higher and drawing us farther and wider along the spiritual plane than anything else. Now, that's needless to say a curious statement for someone to make who's as scholarly and steeped in traditional texts as Ramchal is. But experience will bear out the truth of music's power, and his remark doesn't in fact belittle scholarship so much as plead the case for supplementing it with music, which the greatest prophets did in order to come to inspiration (see 2 Kings 3:15 and 1 Chronicles 25:3).

In any event, we're told that "at the time of the redemption all the (great cosmic) groupings and lights will experience a great elevation" (see para. 39) which will all come about in conjunction with the song we'll be singing then. And that a plethora of "great goodness and peace will result from this".

For "the (entire) universe will be elevated ... to a very great and robust degree, and things will ... be very much loftier." In fact, "all the gates will open up as well as all the entranceways of blessing. All of creation will experience a great expansion, and there’ll be no lack of anything or poverty; and the verse, 'There will be no poor among you; for G-d will bless you greatly in the land which G-d your L-rd is granting you as an inheritance to possess' (Deuteronomy 15:4) will have been fulfilled" by that point. And "all of creation will grow quantitatively and qualitatively" (see para. 38).

The point is that "all the singing that those who gather together out of exile will be doing when they arrive at Amanah" will be both be a result of and an inspiration for "that ascent" (ibid.).

(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 Great Redemption" (72)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

"The Great Redemption" (71)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

"The Great Redemption" (70)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal