Tanya Ch. 6 (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. 6

1.

It’s hard to overlook the phenomenon, it’s so prevalent and over-arching, still and all it’s curious isn’t it that each and every thing in this world has a parallel, mirror opposite. Good and bad, light and dark, early and late, etc. As if the world itself needed two countervailing poles to balance it and allow it to avoid toppling off into space. Despite the curiousness of it, though, it’s a fact. And Solomon alluded to it when he said that “G-d made the one as well as the other” (Ecclesiastes 7:14).

Yet we mustn’t ever forget for a moment that it was indeed G-d who “made the one as well as the other” and who set the whole idea of antitheses in motion. As such, we dare not think that since there are opposites all about us, that there must be opposing ultimate sources as well [1]!

The same dynamic holds forth in the spiritual realm, too. As such, for each and every element of G-dliness there’s an opposite, countervailing element of un-G-dliness. Hence everything we said about the G-dly spirit in past chapters holds true for the animalistic spirit as well -- with obvious differences.

The next few chapters will begin to lay out the practical implications of all this in terms of our inner lives and our subsequent service to G-d, and the rest of the work will carry on from there.

________________________________
Notes:

[1] For like (non-fraternal) twins, each opposing pole does indeed gestate in its own “egg”, yet both are products of the same “mother”. We find an allusion to this in the Torah’s account that, “Rebecca... conceived, and the (twin) children struggled together within her.... She went to inquire of G-d... (who) said to her, ‘Two nations are in your womb... ’” (Genesis 25: 21-23). In fact the twins were Jacob and Esau who are the paradigms of a G-dly and animalistic spirit, and their struggle in the womb alludes to our own struggles to overcome the Esau in our midst.

(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" (The Remembrance, Ch. 12)

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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"The Great Redemption"

The Remembrance: Ch. 12

Our enemies will somehow be emboldened once again then, despite the terrible battles they will have lost, but Moshiach Ben Yoseph will indeed defeat them in the end. And G-d will then “raise the horns of his anointed one” (1 Samuel 2:10), Moshiach Ben David, and the two redeemers will work in tandem from then on (see para's 50 and 51), though Moshiach Ben David's role will be far more dominant.

It would do us well to step aside from Ramchal's depiction of things for now and focus upon Moshiach Ben David some more, in order to fill in the background.

First off, it's important to know that the promise of redemption was granted us long, long ago, when our people were assured that "G-d your L-rd will (eventually) bring back your returnees and be merciful toward you; and He will return and gather you from all the peoples that G-d your L-rd has dispersed you to. If your exiled one will be at the edge of the heavens, from there will G-d your L-rd gather you and ... take you. G-d your L-rd will bring you to the land that your forefathers inherited and you will inherit it; and He will benefit you and multiply you more than your forefathers (had been)" (Deuteronomy 30:3-5), and that He would do that because He's a "merciful G-d who will not fail you nor destroy you" (Deuteronomy 4:31). And therein lies the drama of the redemption and the appearance of Moshiach Ben David.

For one thing, Moshiach Ben David will be a normal human being (M.T. Malachim 11:3) and quite mortal (Rambam on Sanhedin 10:1), but he will be decidedly brilliant, wise, charismatic, and devout (see M.T. Hilchot Teshuva 9:2, Isaiah 11:2).

Here's the role he'll play. Moshiach Ben David will gather many people around him and bring them all to Jerusalem where he'll "bring good tidings to the humble ... gather together the brokenhearted, and declare liberty" (Isaiah 61:1-2). He'll bring us all back to Israel for good (M.T. Malachim 11:1), re-establish the Sanhedrin (M.T. Malachim 11:11), restore the sacrificial service (M.T. Malachim 11:1), encourage the other nations to worship G-d Almighty and be righteous (see Rambam on Sanhedin 10:1), and he'll establish Jerusalem as the center of worship and wisdom (see Zachariah 8:3) where G-d's Oneness will be attested to by all (see Zachariah 14:9). But Moshiach Ben David will most especially concentrate on bringing our people closer to G-d (see Hosea 3:4-5).

The dead will then be brought back to life, the third Holy Temple will be built in comfority with Ezekiel's depictions of it; the Land of Israel will be resettled in full; G-d's presence will shine forth from the Holy Temple; prophecy will become widespread among our people; we'll be free of all illness, deformity and sadness; and we'll worship G-d in full faith from then on and forever (Emunot V'deot, sect. 8).

But know as well that the only reason "the Jewish Nation, her prophets and sages have yearned for the days of the Messiah is so that they would be free of any goverments that do not let them occupy themselves suitably with Torah and mitzvot" rather than for political clout or power -- and so that we "will have peace and will be able to increase in (our) knowledge in order to merit life in the World To Come" (M.T. Hilchot Teshuva 9:2).

(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"

A Synopsis of Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar": Part 2

But we can only answer these questions by knowing the point of it all -- why everything was created and to what end. For it’s only from that perspective that all this (and everything else) make sense, since nothing seems to be either fair or reasonable while in-process.

That assumes of course that G-d had His reasons for doing things the way He did and that He had an end in mind. But while some would claim that G-d abandoned us after creating us and left us to our own devices without purpose or end, we simply can’t accept such a thought.

After all, could anyone ever imagine a human being purposefully setting out to create sentient beings who are to be tormented and tried their whole lives whom he’d utterly abandon? Of course not? So how could we ever imagine such a thing of G-d? Indeed, G-d created us as we are for His own good reasons (Ch’s 4-5).

So at bottom, we’re taught that the ultimate aim and function of creation was to allow us pleasure. That being so, it only stands to reason that G-d created us with an enormous amount of desire to *accept* what He meant to grant us, since the greater the willingness to accept something there is, the greater the pleasure derived from it.

Now that we know that, we can begin to fully and clearly explain our second inquiry, what it was that wasn’t found in Him originally but was created by Him out of sheer nothingness (Ch. 6).

(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"

Oops ...

I've had to make some major changes to A Crisp Elul Morning: Ma'amar HaGeulah (The Remembrance, Ch. 11), since I confused the cast of characters here and there.

A Synopsis of Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar": Part 1

Rabbi Ashlag asked five very valid questions at the outset: 1) What are we essentially? 2) What role do we play in the great course of events? 3) Shouldn’t a perfect Creator's creations be perfect themselves? 4) How could G-d have created so many people who suffer and are tried their whole lives long? 5) And, how could finite, mortal, and ephemeral creatures like us ever derive from an Infinite Being (Ch. 1)?

Then he offered that we’d first need to inquire into a six other things before we can solve all that, including:

1) How could there have been a completely original creation that hadn’t already been incorporated in G-d’s Being? 2) If you posit that He could certainly have created something out of sheer nothingness, then what is this thing? 3) The kabbalists say that the human soul is a “part of G-d” with the only difference being that G-d is the "whole" while the soul is a "part" of Him that had been hewn from His being. But could anyone ever imagine hewing a seperate “part” of G-d? 4) Since evil is completely removed from G-d’s being, how could He ever have created it, let alone allow it to go on? 5) Since the human body is so base that it's doomed to die and be buried from the outset, and since the soul can't ascend to Garden of Eden until the body decomposes, then why would the body be resurrected anyway? 6) And finally, our sages say that man is the focal point of reality; but why would G-d bother to create all of reality for man, who’s so insignificant. Why would G-d have troubled Himself to create all that for man’s sake, and what would man need all that for (Ch’s 2-3)?

(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"

In The Works ...

Aside from a continuation of Ramchal's "Ma'mar HaGeulah" and Rambam's "Eight Chapters" we'll offer a synopsis of R' Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar", then a fleshing out of the material we have into a finished text, at Toras Rav Ashlag; more of "Tanya" at Sefer Tanya; an adaptation of Ramchal's "Da'at Tevunot" (which I've been working at for a long time) at Toras Ramchal; and a surprise or two along the way.

Tanya -- Ch. 5

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

Sefer Tanya

Tanya Ch. 5 (Parts 1 & 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. 5

1.


We’d raised the question above about how anyone could ever hope to “grasp” G-d and offered some insight there (see 4:5-6), but we’d still need to explain the whole idea in some more detail since it’s so mystifying. After all, weren’t we told outright that no thought could ever comprehend Him [1]?

But as we pointed out, despite the fact that we can’t grasp G-d either in the sense of understanding Him with our minds or of taking hold of Him by hand, we can be said to grasp Him in the latter sense when our mind “takes hold of” and is engarbed in His Torah [2]. Let’s see how.

2.


As everyone knows, when we dwell on an idea, our mind could be said to “take hold” of and envelope it, and the idea could then in turn be said to be subsumed in and circumscribed by our mind [3].

It’s also true that when that thought is eventually “grasped” it becomes a veritable part of our thinking and can be said to envelope (i.e., preoccupy, overtake, and eventually assimilate into) our minds. But this is all very abstract, so let’s illustrate it.

Having an idea could said to be a lot like having a guest at home for the first time. The guest initially finds himself surrounded or “enveloped” by a slew of utterly new people, things, rules, and practices, but after a while he comes to be a part of the family -- fully “absorbed” into the atmosphere and at home there. In fact, there often enough comes a point when the guest begins to charm his host-family so much so that his very presence starts to “envelope” (i.e., preoccupy, overtake, and eventually assimilate into) them, when he could be said to have become a “part of the family”.

Now, the same is true of Torah thoughts and ideas, with obvious differences, as we’ll see.

Let’s use a practical illustration of Torah thought. Suppose I were to begin to concentrate on a particular point of halachic contention between two litigants that’s cited in the Talmud. There’d come a point when I’d grasp what was being said and when my mind would surround (i.e., absorb) the particulars of the case, and when the case itself would surround (i.e., preoccupy, overtake, and eventually assimilate into) my mind.

The point of the matter is that since it would be G-d’s own will and wisdom that would be determining which litigant was right in our case and would thus be an integral part of it all (since G-d’s will and wisdom informs all of Torah), I could be said to be “grasping” G-d’s will and wisdom right there and then -- despite the fact that “no thought could ever grasp Him”.

And I could be said to be doing that because His will and wisdom were “engarbed”, i.e., encased, in the halachic instance I was reflecting on. Hence, my mind could be said to be absorbed in (literally, “clothed” in) His will and wisdom -- and thus in *Himself*, since He and His knowledge are one, as we said -- at that time [4].

That explains the utterly superior nature of Torah-study over all other mitzvot -- even over all verbal mitzvot, including the mitzvah of enunciating words of Torah. For when you fulfill a physical mitzvah or enunciate a Torah verse or a blessing, G-d indeed dons your spirit at that moment and His supernal light indeed encompasses you from head to toe. But when you know Torah, your mind isn’t only encompassed by G-d’s will and wisdom -- it’s infused with it [5].

________________________________
Notes:

[1] The Hebrew term in question, t’phissa, usually refers to taking hold of or grasping something with one’s hand, which will be alluded to shortly. But it can also suggest the idea of grasping something with one’s mind (see Maskil L’Eitan). Our discussion will play off of both senses of the term and will demonstrate how a person could grasp G-d’s wisdom with his mind, and grasp or take hold of His Being too in the process, by being encased by and encasing His will and wisdom.

[2] ... and in His mitzvot, too, though to a different degree.

[3] The text here speaks of the sechel she’maskil ... b’sichlo (literally, “the mind that comprehends ... with its mind”) and of the fact that the sechel tophet et hamuskal umakifo b’sichlo (“the mind grasps and surrounds the subject at hand with its mind”), both of which seem to indicate that the mind itself has a mind. This appears to be alluding to a higher mind or consciousness which does the grasping and somehow or another enables the ordinary mind to grasp as well. It might hence be addressing the process of Chochma (“Wisdom”) informing Binah (“Understanding”).

[4] It would do us well to raise a number of points about this. First off, making a new idea a part of your thoughts or accepting a stranger into your home (to use our example) obviously takes time and follows a progression. And some of us are more successful at either skill than others. Clearly, the degree to which we “absorb” and internalize new ideas and friends depends on the depths to which we go when we study (see Maskil L’Eitan), or the degree to which we reach out to guests. The same is true then of “grasping” G-d: the deeper we reflect on His Torah, and the more of ourselves we extend, the “tighter” will our grasp onto Him be.
Another important point is that it’s said that we even “take hold” of G-d to a degree when we study His Torah with ulterior motives, or even if we use our Torah knowledge to do someone a disservice (Likutei Biurim; Likut Perushim 5:4), because the damage done will eventually be undone when the one who studied Torah in that fashion repents (Maskil L’Eitan). The difference is that Torah studied less than altruistically doesn’t *nourish* him in terms we’ll discuss below (Maskil L’Eitan). (In fact, Maskil L’Eitan points out here that the repentance could even be done in another life!)
Let it also be said that we can begin to understand how G-d is said to “surround” all worlds, to “infuse” them at the same time, and to commingle with them from the notion of uniting with a thought as presented here (Likut Perushim 5:12).
The point could also be made that there’s absolutely no other instance of utter co-mingling like this in the world, since it’s a co-mingling of two utterly disparate entities: human intellect and Divine intellect (Shiurim b’Sefer haTanya). And let it also be underscored that not only does one’s mind co-mingle wth G-d at that time -- his entire being does, including his immortal soul (Maskil L’Eitan).

[5] Let’s clarify some details. There are several sorts of mitzvot connected with Torah. For example, there’s a mitzvah to write a Torah scroll, which is a physical mitzvah; there’s the one to enunciate words of Torah, which is verbal; and there’s a mitzvah to know and fully comprehend Torah concepts, which is intellectual. RZS’s point is that the latter is the greatest of all since it’s the only one that enables us to fully co-mingle with G-d’s presence.

(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"

"Eight Chapters" (Chapter Five, Part 3)

“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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"Eight Chapters"

Chapter Five (Part 3)

But why should we subject ourselves to such restrictions? After all, while we wouldn't eat anything out-and-out unkosher because we're committed to drawing close to G-d through His Torah's guidance, we still and all might want to enjoy a fine or perhaps even a sumptuous kosher meal once in a while, and the like.

We're to strive for that level of self-control because not aspiring for it and going about "eating the kinds of appetizing, aromatic, and yearned-for foods that are so harmful and can make a person seriously ill or even kill him" is *less than human*, we're told -- not merely indulgent.

A person is only truly human -- a "mensch", as it's termed in Yiddish -- only truly decent, upright, and on par with what's expected of us when he "sometimes rejects pleasant things and eats (or experiences) unpleasant ones instead" by choice. Why? Because "that would be an act based on reason", which is what "sets human behavior apart" from that of other beings.

(Understand that there are several descending grades of personhood, from holy to pious to righteous all the way down to evil. True "humanness" as Rambam depicted it above sits somewhere below righteousness, but certainly a grade or two above what we'd term "decent", which itself sits fairly highly above evil, the lowest. The point is that while humanness isn't lofty, it's nonetheless rooted in reason and thought rather than mere instinct, it's certainly not base, and it's the least expected of us if we're ever to grow upward and draw close to G-d.)

Would avoiding sumptuous things because we'd wind up being healthier in the end be "human" enough? After all, being well allows us to pursue spiritual excellence as we're encouraged to. But in fact Rambam says, no. The pursuit of good health unto itself isn't a virtue; it's just another lust. Because "if your goal was to be merely healthy" for good health's sake alone, you'd be little different from one who pursued good food. For you too wouldn't "have done anything toward achieving (your) true goal" of drawing close to G-d. You'd have eventually died healthy, for sure, but you'd have remained spiritually ill to the end nonetheless.

So, "make the goal of things you do be for your health and a long, peaceful enough life" to be sure, but do that in order to "remain sound enough to pursue character and intellectual virtues without encumbrance" and to grow in your being.

(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. 70

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

Toras Rav Ashlag

That in fact finishes the series.

R' Ashlag Ch. 70 (Part 1)

Chapter Seventy:

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________________

70.

1.

"And the reason for that (i.e., for the Moshiach’s refusal to appear in our generation) as we've said is because those who do delve into Torah depreciate their own and Torah’s interior (aspect, by eschewing Kabbalah), and they regard the Torah’s interior as superfluous, only studying it when it’s neither 'day nor night'”.

"But they’re like blind people running their hands along a wall."
-- That’s to say, those laudable souls who study Torah in depth and dedicate their lives to the punctilious observance of mitzvot in the hopes of encouraging the Moshiach to arrive are barking up the wrong tree, if you will; they’re shortsightedly looking here (in the revealed Torah) for what’s actually there (in the concealed Torah).

"For they thus strengthen their own exterior (aspect), meaning the advantages of their body (over their soul), and they likewise bestow more importance to the Torah’s exterior (aspect) than to its interior (one) ... "
-- That is, they lend more credence to their bodies than to their souls by favoring the more practical, this-worldly aspects of the Torah over the Kabbalah-based ones.

" ... and thus allow the world’s exterior (aspects) to hold sway over its interior (ones), each according to its own makeup."
-- That is, they thus seem to advocate and grant more importance to externals, which is so much more destructive because they’re our greatest Torah scholars and leaders.

"For the exterior (aspect) of the Jewish Nation, meaning its less learned individuals, thus hold sway over and undo the Jewish Nation’s interior (aspect), her Torah Greats. And the exterior (aspect) of the Gentile nations, their destructive elements, likewise hold sway over and undo their interior (aspect), the righteous Gentiles. And the entire world’s exterior (aspect), the Gentile nations, holds sway over and undo the Jewish Nation, its interior (aspect)."
-- And so all externals overwhelm internals, leading to the more unlearned elements of the Jews to hold sway over the Torah greats, the more brutish elements of the Gentiles holding sway over its more righteous elements, and the Gentiles themselves to hold sway over the Jews in toto.

(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"

R' Ashlag Ch. 69

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

Toras Rav Ashlag

R' Ashlag Ch. 69 (Part 1)

Chapter Sixty-Nine:

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________________

69.

1.

"(In fact,) it’s said in the Tikkunei Zohar, 'Rise up and rouse yourself before the Holy Shechina (Divine Presence), for your heart is empty and without the knowledge (you’d need) to know and apprehend it even though it’s (right) in your midst'.”
-- The Tikkunei Zohar indicates that for some reason or another we haven’t the wherewithal to draw close to the Divine Presence.

“'The secret import of this is (contained in the verse,) "A voice says, Cry out!" (Isaiah 40:6) -- which is analogous to (the verse,) "Call now, but is there any who will answer you?" (Job 5:1). And she (i.e., the Shechina) said, "What should I cry out? All flesh is but grass" (meaning,) all (people) are like grass-eating animals, "and all its kindness is like the flower of the field!" (Isaiah 40:6) (meaning that) all the acts of kindness they proffer are for their own benefit' (Tikkun 40)."
-- What holds us back from drawing close to the Divine Presence in fact, and from hoisting it out of the pit it’s in, in our state of exile, is our selfishness and egotism, we’re told. Rabbi Ashlag will now expand upon that.

"The mystical meaning of that is as follows (Rabbi Ashlag offers). 'A voice says, Cry out!' (indicates that) a voice beats within each and every Jew’s heart to call out and pray for the ascent of the Holy Shechina, which encompasses all Jewish souls. And the Tikkunei Zohar refers to the verse, 'Call now, but is there any who will answer you?' (Job 5:1), to indicate that 'call' implies 'pray out to (in both instances)."

"But the Shechina replies, 'What should I cry out?, as if to say, I haven’t the strength to lift myself out of the dust (in which I lie, in exile), for 'all flesh is but grass', which is to say that 'they’re all like grass-eating animals', meaning that they all fulfill mitzvot mindlessly like animals, 'and all its kindness is like the flower of the field', which is to say that 'all the acts of kindness they proffer are for their own benefit', meaning that whenever they fulfill mitzvot they only do so to please themselves rather than their Creator."

"In fact, (that could) even (be said of) those who toil in Torah, for 'all the acts of kindness (that) *they* proffer are for their own benefit” (just as well, for indeed,) even the best of them, those who spend all their time studying Torah only, only do so for their own benefit, without meaning to please their Creator as they should."
-- Rabbi Ashlag had already expressed how deeply saddened he was by the fact that even the greatest Torah scholars of our generation don’t study Kabbalah, and of the spiritual “aridity and darkness we find ourselves to be in our generation” that has resulted (Ch. 57).
-- The greatest tragedy to come of that, though (aside from the Holocaust, alluded to at the end of the last chapter), is our aforementioned selfishness and egotism. His point is that the only way we can outgrow that is by honing all five aspects of our soul which we only manage to do when we delve into Kabbalah (Ch. 56).

(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"

R' Ashlag Ch. 68

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

Toras Rav Ashlag

R' Ashlag Ch. 68 (Part 1)

Chapter Sixty-Eight:

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________________

68.

1.

"It’s quite clear, then, that the Torah itself has interior and exterior (aspects) just like everything else in the universe. (It thus follows that) those who study Torah (also) fall into (one of) those two categories, ... "
-- That is, it follows that Torah scholars either express more of the interior or “Jewish” aspect of Torah, or more of the exterior or “non-Jewish” aspect of it.

"... and that the more one toils in the interior (aspect) of the Torah and its mysteries, the more able is he to elevate the interior (aspect) of the world, i.e., the (actual) Jewish Nation, higher and higher over its exterior (aspect), i.e., the Gentile nations; and (the more able is he) to have them recognize and acknowledge the preeminence of the Jewish Nation. And (when that happens,) then the words, 'The (Jewish) people will take them and bring them to their place; and the House of Israel will inherit them in G-d’s land' (Isaiah 14:2), and 'Thus says G-d the L-rd, Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations and set up My standard to the peoples; and they will carry your sons in their arms, and carry your daughters on their shoulders' (Isaiah 49:22) will be realized."

*** I also expanded upon ch. 67 (near the end), by the way.

c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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

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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.
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