R' Ashlag Ch. 66 (Part 1)

Chapter Sixty-Six:

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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66.

1.

"Now, when a Jew fortifies and enhances his interior (aspect), his inner “Jewish Nation”, rather than his exterior (aspect), his inner “Gentile Nations”, by concentrating most of his efforts on fortifying and cultivating his interior (aspect) and bettering his soul, while only (dedicating) a few, essential efforts on sustaining his (inner) “Gentile Nations”, i.e., his bodily needs -- in keeping with the statement, "Make your Torah (study) permanent and your (worldly) efforts transient" (Pirkei Avot 1) -- both on an interior and exterior level, ... "
-- That is, when an individual Jew truly hones and enlarges his inner Jewishness while tempering and diminishing his Gentileness, inside and out, ...

"... he then enables the (actual) Jewish Nation to soar higher and higher upward, and (enables) the (actual) Gentile Nations, who are the world’s exterior (aspect), to recognize and acknowledge the value of the Jewish Nation."
-- ... he hones and enlarges the entire Jewish Nation inside and out."

c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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

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