R' Ashlag Ch. 61 (Part 4)

Chapter Sixty-One:

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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61.

4.

"But in the course of the world’s second two millennia, which is comprised of CHaGaT vessels, ... "
-- ... that are lower than the CHaBaD vessels present in the first two millennia, discussed above ...

" ... Ruach-light ... "
-- ... which is higher than the Nefesh-light present in the first two millennia ...

"... descended upon and was engarbed in the world, which is (i.e., touches upon) the secret import of Torah. And that’s why the middle two millennia are referred to as (the epoch of) Torah."
-- Ruach-light touches upon the secret import of Torah (meaning that it most especially corresponds to the essence of Torah) because Torah serves as the mediator -- the Tifferet -- between the pure Chessed and Gevurah of the CHaGaT triad, in that it’s Torah’s rulings that settle the differences between those two opposing litigants. So the second epoch is termed Torah because it “mediates” between the Tohu and Messianic epochs.
-- The point is that while there was more actualization then, in the middle epoch, than there had been before, there was still not enough to allow for the publication and circulation of the Zohar, to say nothing of an explanation of it. This will soon be expanded upon.
-- (Rabbi Ashlag is also saying that while what the Talmudic sages meant by the phrase "2,000 years of Tohu, 2,000 (years) of Torah, and then 2,000 (years) of the Days of the Messiah” was that the world will be characterized by moral and spiritual chaos and formlessness before we’d have received the Torah, nonetheless the granting of the Torah will allow for the Messianic Era, that can all be understood otherwise from a Kabbalistic perspective, as Tohu and Torah in that context have whole other connotations.)

"And in the course of the final two millennia, which are comprised of NeHYM vessels, Neshama-light -- which is the greatest light -- engarbed in the world. And that’s why they’re referred to as the Days of the Messiah."
-- Being the greatest light, Neshama-light automatically harkens to the Days of the Messiah, when illumination will abound.

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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

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