Thursday, November 30, 2006

"Eight Chapters" (Chapter Five, Part 6)

“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 6)

But if we're to be honest with ourselves we'd have to admit that none of this is easy.

After all, this chapter is entitled "Using *all* your personal capacities to one end alone" -- to the end of drawing close to G-d; and that's very, very demanding. Because we're so easily distracted by this and that, so easily dazzled by all sorts of shiny new things that we find ourselves forgetting G-d for weeks at a time (perhaps years).

In fact, though, Rambam recognizes that. He terms it "a very high and formidable level that few attain", he acknowledges that even those few who come to it only do so "after a great deal of preparation", and he even concedes that "anyone who proved to be like that (would be) on par with the prophets"!

So why would he recommend it for each one us? Wouldn't we be setting ourselves up for failure -- and for a failure of cosmic proportions?

Nonetheless, as Rambam points out, that's exactly "what G-d meant for us all to set as our goal". After all, didn't He Himself charge us to love Him "with all your heart, with your entire being, and with all your means" (Deuteronomy 6:5)? Weren't we told to “Know Him in all your ways“ (Proverbs 3:6)? And we're we advised to do “all (we) do for the sake of Heaven“ (Pirkei Avot 2:15), which has all sorts of implications?

Apparently then G-d has a great deal of faith in us. And though he knows that such a goal might discourage us and throw us off once in a while, He likewise knows our hearts and capacities better than we ourselves do, and He extends us the offer to strive for the sort of spiritual excellence we're indeed capable of.

(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"

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Tanya -- PROLOGUE TO PART TWO: Chapters 9 - 15

... can be found at ...

Sefer Tanya

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Tanya Ch. 8

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

Sefer Tanya

Monday, November 27, 2006

Tanya Ch. 8 (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. 8

4.

But there’s a whole other order of things that are morally and spiritually neutral and which are far more subtle than food, drink, and the like that aren’t associated with our bodies and touch instead upon our mind. They include conversations we might have and books we might read, for example.

Now, not everyone is capable of holding lofty conversations, and even the most learned among us might not spend every available moment studying Torah. So can more mundane conversations and more profane sorts of books be transmitted into holiness? Or do those iffy kinds of things seep just too deeply within to be safe to engage in?

Let’s start by discussing idle conversation. It seems logical to assume that at bottom the only reason why unlearned people would engage in it is because they're "forced" to, if you will, simply because they can't fall back on loftier subjects of conversation [13]. So, can they really be blamed for it?

But it's not really a question of blame. The point is that there'd be a price to pay for their having engaged in idle conversation, howbeit innocently. Simply because their beings would have been exposed to impurity and the husks so often in the process, much the way people exposed to radiation against their will would have to be detoxified regardless of their intentions. They'd thus have to endure being tossed about in the post-mortem experience known as "The Hollow of the Sling" (see 1 Samuel 25:29; Zohar, Beshalach p. 59) [14].

The reason for that, we’re told, is just as the body would need to be purified by the aforementioned "Purgatory of the Grave", the soul would likewise need to undergo a process of purification of its own -- "The Hollow of the Sling" -- in order to enter the Heavenly Garden of Eden to finally enjoy G-d's presence (Biur Tanya). But the thought of that is also quite daunting and discouraging.

There are other sorts of conversations an unlearned (as well as a learned) person might engage in. He or she might, for example, mock or slander others in conversation. Is there a price to pay for that?

Yes, and it's far steeper, as we'd expect, simply because those conversations are out-and-out wrongful and are thus tied to the three impure husks. So, being tossed about in "The Hollow of the Sling" alone wouldn't be potent enough to expunge someone's soul of them. He'd also have to endure a fiery Gehenom (i.e., a form of Hell). While equally daunting, there seems to be a sense of fairness about that, though, since it’s the price such a person would be paying for quite spiteful and harmful actions.

What about someone who's capable of studying Torah but doesn't and engages instead in frivolous conversation (either because he was indifferent, or too lazy to study Torah)? How would such a soul be cleansed? He too would need to be tossed about in "The Hollow of the Sling", we’re taught. But he'd also have to endure a snow-and-ice Gehenom (see Likutei Torah of the Ari, beginning of Shemot) aside from experiencing the sort of discipline due anyone who transgresses [15]. But that’s discomfiting once again, since even the most serious of scholars lapse into that.
________________________________________

Notes:

[13] ... either because they can't grasp lofty ideas, or because they hadn't ever been exposed to them.

Understand, of course, that there are various degrees of "frivolity" as far as conversation is concerned. Talking about household needs and the like can be vital, and relevant to holiness, too -- or otherwise. While "street small talk", if you will, and the day's news can be informative and useful, but often isn't holy. (We'll soon discuss clearly immoral and unholy speech.)

Understand as well that there are many intelligent and otherwise well-read people who'd fit into the category of "unlearned" in our context, simply because they don't study Torah (perhaps because they'd never been exposed to it or because they don't resonate with the subjects at hand). The truth be known, they too would have to suffer the consequences of that (especially in light of the plethora of translated Torah texts with accessible explanations, and the wide diversity of topics encompassed in Torah study which anyone can be exposed to if he's so inclined).

It should be noted, though, that otherwise learned individuals who are “unlearned” in our use of the term fall under the halachic category of Ohness Rachmana Patrei, which is to say that they're halachically excused under the circumstances, since their status is basically beyond their control. And besides, reciting Sh'ma Yisrael twice a day suffices for one's minimal requirement to study Torah and they can easily accomplish that (Maskil L’Eitan).

[14] It's pointed out (see Shabbat 152B) that while the souls of the righteous are "bound in the bundle of life with G-d" (1 Samuel 25:29) -- i.e., they're to be attached to The Source of all life and to dwell in comfort in His presence when they die -- the soul's of the wrongful are to be "cast about as from the hollow of a sling" (1 Samuel 25:29) when they die -- tossed here and there as if shot from a sling and made to endure a chaotic, fierce, and harrowing whirlwind of a ride before they could rest (also see Zohar, Beshalach, p. 59).

Some contend that being "cast about as from the hollow of a sling" means that the soul is first shown the bliss of holiness then slung back roughly to its memories of the life it lead so as to experience the difference between the two for itself (Shiurim b’Sefer haTanya). Others say it means that the soul is thrust very, very far away from G-d; or that it’s cast back into the worthless thoughts it had while yet alive, and made to think that its still alive and is thinking and acting as it had in this world (Likut Perushim, Maareh Mekomot, p. 189).

[15] All metaphysical reparations are based on the principle of "measure for measure". Hence, the price to pay for *heatedly* mocking and slandering others would be the experience of a fiery Gehenom; while the one to pay for being *cooly* blase about Torah study would be to experience a snow-and-ice Gehenom. (On one level and quite ironically, this would be quite merciful, in that a "hot" person would be more comfortable in a hot environment, while a "cold" one would be most comfortable in a cold one.)

(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"

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Da'at Tevunot (Section 1, Chapter 1)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Ma'amar HaGeulah (The Remembrance, Ch. 14)

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. 14

Ramchal then proceeds to end this section of the book by chronicling more of the history of the battles of good and evil.

Now, though the two were quite separate and distinct from each other at first, as we saw, that soon came undone. And good and evil took turns holding sway in the passage of time.

Adam and Eve were to have separated good and evil right at the start, after which "G-d would (have) amended the various (mystical) groupings enough for the Divine sustenance to flow through perfectly forever and ever", and Adam and Eve would have been eternally and amply rewarded. In fact, all they had to do was to adhere to G-d's commandments, and "everything would have been rectified". But they sinned indeed, and the holy and the profane mixed together once more, until the combination of the two "grew strong enough ... to spread throughout the world in the course of (the) ten generations" from Adam himself to Noah. And as a result, we -- their descendants -- really "can’t rectify things until the two are separated" once and for all (para. 53).

Once the generation of the flood came to be sinful, "the yetzer harah grew stronger yet" and to "spread out in all directions throughout the world", which then "left no room whatsoever for holiness". Things got so bad, in fact, that "the world nearly returned to its 'formless and empty' (Genesis 1:2) state". Then the terrible dispersion that came about when humankind tried to build the Tower of Babel did even more harm, but "holiness assumed a place of its own" despite that, in which our forefather Abraham drew his inspiration. Despite his presence, though, "impurity continued to spread throughout the world" (para. 54).

There came to be a distinction between good and evil, though, when Esau and Ishmael separated themselves from the Patriarchs, and "from that point on (things) spread out in such a way that the profane and the holy each stood in direct opposition to each other", which was of course an important thing because evil was separated from good again (Ibid.).

Nonetheless, though "the side of holiness hadn’t yet gotten strong, ... the profane side came to be very much in control", which was a bad thing of course. Still and all, even though the side of holiness "wasn’t cleansed well enough of its earlier attachment to the profane", it came to be "fully purified in the iron furnace of Egypt" when we were enslaved, which *was* for the good (Ibid.).

Now, things were amended to a very great degree when our people received the Torah at Mount Sinai, which then began to render the other nations powerless over us. In fact, "not only were the other nations unable to rule over the Jewish Nation (then), but the Jewish Nation itself could have ruled" -- "had they not sinned with the golden calf", which was of course our greatest error and our most lethal national sin (para. 55).

By then, "the evil that had left" them at Mount Sinai "re-attached itself" to them when they worshipped the golden calf. In fact, "had they not sinned (that way) they’d have immediately gone to Israel where they’d have initiated ... the original rectification", but that didn't come about. Things went downhill once again with the incident of the spies; as a result "they weren’t able to go (straight) to Israel" and bring on that rectification, and they had to remain in the desert for forty years (para. 56).

In any event, though "we hadn’t yet been purified from that evil that re-attached itself" it still and all "sometimes lessened and other times grew strong again", until the days of King Solomon when the Holy Temple was built, and "we experienced a (degree of high) rectification". Evil would actually have been utterly eradicated then "were it not for Pharaoh's daughter (of that era, whom Solomon married), because of whom it stayed within (their environment)" and when it "regained strength to the point where the Temple was destroyed and the Jewish Nation was exiled for seventy years" (para. 57).

The husk nonetheless "left them alone for a time, when they went back and built the (second) Temple". But the trouble was that "the evil hadn’t vanished" -- it only "lessened and weakened". Be that as it may, "the Jewish Nation had a place to grow strong in" when they returned to Israel, "but it wasn’t long before an utterly black darkness overcame them again" which we'd endured until now and will continue to stew in "until the throne of the righteous Moshiach would be built" (ibid.).

But that's just the beginning, in a way.

(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"

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Tanya Ch. 8 (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. 8

3.

The point to be made though -- and this is what’s so difficult here -- is that the latter sorts of things *do* descend into impurity, for a time at least [7]. And that they leave traces, unwanted vestiges of themselves behind in our body. After all, everything we eat becomes our very flesh and blood, and has to be reckoned with [8], it’s just that sometimes the trace left behind is flavorful while othertimes it’s wretched, and therein lies diiference).

So the warning -- and it's a very serious one at that -- is that we'd have to experience what’s referred to as “The Purgatory of the Grave” [9] after death for having engaged in these sorts of "innocent" diversions, in order to be purged of the impurities associated with the luminous husk [10] and the aforementioned Jewish Demons [11] we'd thus linked ourselves up to -- usually unknowingly and innocuously.

But the truth be known, only rare and lofty individuals like the holy Rabbi Yehudah HaNassi would escape "The Purgatory of the Grave" altogether (see Ketubot 104A; Shabbat 118A, Tosephot Rubum). For while he'd certainly made use of all sorts of permitted things, he nonetheless didn't derive any personal pleasure from any of it. He only partook of them altruistically (Tanya M’vuar) [12]. So we'd be far from alone in our terror, since most people expereince this; but that gives us little succor.
________________________________________

Notes:

[7] ... until you repent, that is.

[8] This is analogous to the semen that had gone on to produce an actual illegitimate child cited in the last chapter. The point is that the flesh and blood produced as a product of our having eaten to excess would have to be reckoned with every bit as much as an illegitimate child would.

[9] This daunting experience is described in Sha’ar HaGilgullim 23 as follows: “Immediately after a person dies and is buried, four angels come to ... return his soul to his body .... They then take him by the ‘corners’ (i.e. by his extremities) and shake and beat him ... , much the way a garment is held by its ends and shaken in order to clean it off from its dust, until the husk (there) leaves completely .... The righteous don’t need much shaking ... but the opposite is true of the wicked .... (But in the end,) each person receives what he needs according to the level of the husk (attached to him) and the degree to which it’s attached.” (See note 8 to the previous chapter.)

[10] ...which is, after all, still a husk, and still attached to un-G-dliness to some degree.

[11] ...which are, after all, still demons -- albeit *familiar*, native ones.

[12] It should be noted that if you enjoy something that’s permissible but not necessary *neither* for the sake of Heaven nor to satisfy a desire but you enjoy it just “like that”, it would still attach itself onto the luminous husk in the end. And that’s because you’d have derived satisfaction from it despite yourself. But if you’d set out to eat, drink, etc. something like that altruistically, you’d be accredited with *not* having derived satisfaction from it in the end [even if you actually did], since you’d (originally) partaken of it for Heaven’s sake (Likut Perushim 8:6).

(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"

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Tanya Ch. 8 (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. 8

2.

No we couldn't [accidentally eat an unkosher meal for the best of intentions, use the energy we'd derived from it to then pray, study Torah, or fulfill mitzvot with fervor and thus elevate the unkosher food], we're told here. Because -- regardless of our good intentions -- unkosher food is still and all inexorably linked to the other side and the three utterly impure husks rather than to the luminous one that allows for holiness.

Thus unkosher food (along with all other "unkosher" things) can never be aligned with holiness [2].

But this raises an interesting, albeit esoteric point. We're taught that we're meant to "raise up sparks of holiness" from the world: to redeem holiness from unholiness, to salvage the good left behind in the bad (see Ari's Mavo Sha'arim 2:3:8). Now, that might have us imagine then that we should be able to elevate unkosher things and to "redeem" them as well. But the fact remains that we can only raise the sparks of things that derive their energy from the luminous husk and not from the impure ones [3] (Maskil L’Eitan).

After all, food and other such things are utterly, definitively, and objectively either kosher or unkosher, despite our intentions when we eat it. Much the way poisons are simply poisonous and not open to debate or interpretation. In a manner of speaking then, food's kosherness or non-kosherness is a statement of its metaphysical "chemical make-up", if you will; it's something that's either true or false about them (Biur Tanya).

We're told, in fact, that the wish to partake of unkosher food or the like is rooted in the proddings of what’s said to be "Gentile Demons" (see Zohar 3, p. 253A) [4]. What that means to say is that it's an inherently non-Jewish attraction that's rooted in the three impure husks.

That's not to suggest that we Jews don't yearn for unkosher things, for we do (except the righteous among us). In fact, some of us sometimes search unkosher things out to embarrassingly great lengths. It's just that when we do, we're out of character, if you will, and as if possessed. For just as there are things that would seem bizarre and unexpected when a particular person engages in them, there are likewise things that we Jews wouldn't be expected to do, though we might (Biur Tanya) [5].

And we're also told that any desire we'd have to use the sort of everyday, ethically neutral things under discussion for less than G-dly reasons would come from the proddings of "*Jewish* Demons". For what they are, are unholy, "devilish" longings for what are in fact permitted pleasures that are nonetheless harmful ... but less so than the un-Jewish attractions [6].
________________________________________

Notes:

[2] RSZ points out that that goes both for food whose unkosherness is stated outright in the Torah as well as for food deemed Rabbinically unkosher. In fact, he undercores, the latter are often more stringent than the former (See Sanhedrin 88B).

That’s so because the decisions of the sages about the kosherness or unkosherness of things affects and alters their very essences (Maskil L’Eitan) to the extent where those foods that the Torah accepted as kosher which the sages nonetheless considered to be unkosher (for various reasons) now come to derive their vitality from the three impure husk (Tanya M’vuar), when it had earlier derived it's vitality from the luminous husk.

The truth be known though, since we're commanded by the Torah itself to follow the edicts of the sages (see Deuteronomy 17:11; also see Rambam's Sefer HaMitzvot, Shoresh 1 along with Ramban's remarks), any act of defiance against them would by definition derive its vitality from the other side.

[3] That's to say that we're essentially repairmen in this world, as there's a plethora of "broken shards of light" here that came about when the primordial vessels filled with primordial light were shattered in the cosmic realm before the universe was created, and that we're here to piece them together again by using things of this world for holy ends. For, indeed, every material item in this world that's permissble has some sparks, and we liberate them when we use them to serve G-d. And while we can do that when it comes to the potentially kosher circle of things associated with the intermediate shell, we can’t redeem things that are aligned with out-and-out unholiness.

[4] The Zohar presents an allegory of a king -- *the* King, in this instance, G-d Himself -- sitting at a feast with his servants and apportioning out different quality foods to his servants. And that he gives Class A food to His most loyal servants (the angels), Class B food to the "Jewish Demons", and "Class C" things to the "Gentile Demons".

The implication is, of course, that while Class B is certainly not the best, it's also not the worst and is still and all part of the royal repast, while Class C food which is associated with the impure husks, is barely part of the meal and always somehow offensive.

[5] See Ch. 14 below where the idea that one could somehow or another still be a "good Jew" despite his lapsing into un-Jewish ways is disputed.

[6] They're rooted in the fact that while we Jews naturally long to ascend to G-dliness and abhor the thought of separating ourselves from G-d, so we tend to be averse to out-and-out sin -- we're still-and-all fallible and thus subject to such proddings. There's always the risk, though, that once we come to enjoy such excesses that we'd then be drawn to forbidden things as well (Maskil L’Eitan).

(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"

Monday, November 20, 2006

Tanya Ch. 8 (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. 8

1.

We’d pointed out in the last chapter that we could engage in all sorts of everyday things in a spirit of holiness: that we could enjoy a fairly elaborate meal for example, take an “innocent” stroll, drink a soda, and read a classic novel and still manage to somehow be connected to G-dliness.

But understand that unless we engage in them in such a spirit that we’d be bogged down in the husks all the time, since most of that is connected to the gray-shaded luminous husk. So we’re now about to see just how far that all goes.

Now, some might say that what’s laid out in this chapter is rather discomfiting, perhaps even chilling. But the point should be made that it’s all quite sensible and reasonable, if not easy, and certainly helpful if our goal is righteousness and closeness to G-d. For as RSZ assured his readers, he’ll “find peace for his soul” by complying with the mandates offered in this book; he’ll come upon “the sort of advice on everything that he finds difficult in Divine service” herein; and that “his heart will thus be firmly fixed in G-d” for having read and applied its insights into his life. So since the serious student of spiritual growth would want nothing less, we'll explore what's to follow in that spirit (see sect 3 of Author’s Introduction).

Before we lay that out, though ... and come to the end of the first section of this book, too ... let’s first touch upon another idea. We spoke last time about transforming ethically and spiritually neutral food (among other neutral things) into elements of holiness. Could we ever do the same to clearly forbidden, unkosher foods and the like?

Could we, for example, accidentally eat an unkosher meal for the best of intentions, use the energy we'd derived from it to then pray, study Torah, or fulfill mitzvot with fervor and thus elevate the unkosher food [1]?

_________________________________________

Notes:

[1] That's to say, could we eat it altruistically and "for the sake of Heaven" (not knowing of course that it was unkosher)? The answer will prove to be that we can't. But contrast that with our discussion in the previous chapter about doing permitted ordinary thing less than altruistically (Biur Tanya).

Apparently the point of the contrast is to indicate that while intentions are indeed vital, the act itself is what matters in the end.

(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"

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Da'at Tevunot -- Introduction

As I said I'd do, I've started entering excerpts of my adaption of Ramchal's Da'at Tevunot, at Toras Ramchal.
This was started a while ago, so the first section, comprised of 16 chapters, has already been completed and will appear here often enough (as I go through it looking for changes).

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Tanya Ch. 7

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

Sefer Tanya

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

"Eight Chapters" (Chapter Five, Part 5)

“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 Five (Part 5)

Even though we're to speak about things that edify us, once we come to understand that our goal in this life is to dwell upon G-d we'll find ourselves speaking less in fact. After all, what would anyone who wants to draw close to G-d have to say about anything else, other than for a good reason? Would a mountain-climber discuss the weather unless it affected his climb? Would a surgeon talk about the sea unless his patient had nearly drowned?

Not only would such a person hardly engage in small talk, he'd also never dream small dreams. He "wouldn’t be moved to adorn his walls or hem his clothing with gold" as Rambam put it; which is to say, he wouldn't dwell on inconsequentials.

But as everyone knows -- even the most serious of us, sometimes a person needs to disentangle him or herself and digress. To step away from what matters most for a while so as to come back to it fresh and bright, or to regain his composure if he'd grown discouraged. And so even someone dwelling on G-d would nevertheless need to concentrate on more trivial things once in a while to do that, to perhaps "lift his spirit", "stay healthy and avoid illness", or "to be clear minded".

In fact we're taught that “scholars should enjoy an attractive home, an attractive spouse, beautiful dishes, and a well-made bed“ (Shabbat 25B) since they “amplify one's mind“ (Berachot 57B).

For as Rambam explains it, "one grows tired and his thoughts become befuddled when he constantly delves into difficult things, much the way the body tires when one does heavy work -- unless he rests and relaxes, and allows it to return to equilibrium".

"In much the same way," he continues, "one should quiet and relax his senses by gazing upon paintings and other attractive things until he’s no longer fatigued". In such a context, he reasons, "it’s probably neither wrong nor unnecessary to decorate and adorn buildings, vessels, or clothing". Since your ultimate goal would still be lofty; you'd simply be stepping aside for a while so as to come back: your overarching passion is still be the pursuit of 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"

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Tanya Ch. 7 (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. 7

4.

Now, there are many other arenas in which the whole idea of permissible, forbidden, and in-between thoughts, utterances, and deeds come into play, of course. One of them that’s just as ordinary as eating and drinking that’s still and all more charged with passion is the expression of our sexuality. For there’s perfectly permissible and commendable sexuality, a variety of prohibited sexual acts, and a slew of in-between ones as well.

The most commendable expression of sexuality comes into play when husband and wife try to conceive children and express their love to each other; a more intermediate kind touches upon intercourse with one’s spouse simply to satisfy one’s own needs [9]; and there are two especially egregious expressions of sexuality: self-stimulation and adultery. They’re prohibited in the strongest of terms and are said to be inexorably linked to the other side.

Nonetheless the link isn’t everlasting. Because there’ll indeed come a time when *all* sins will be undone, in the End of Days, when "the unclean spirit will pass from the land" (Zacharia 13:2) and all wrong and sin will be undone.

In more immediate terms, though, one can undo even those kinds of sexual sins by repenting earnestly. But not only as earnestly as you might for slighting someone’s feelings, for example. You’d have to repent so profoundly that you’d effectuate enough of a permanent change in your being that your purposeful sins would actually be transmuted into merits! But let’s explain that.

We’re taught that while there are an infinite number of nuanced degrees of repentance, there are two higher sorts: fear-based and love-based repentance. And while both eradicate sins, they do it to different degrees (see Yoma 86B).

Fear-based repentance -- or repentance motivated by a fear of the consequences your sins would have upon your immortal soul or upon your relationship to G-d -- has the ability to turn your purposeful sins around, indeed. In fact, they’d transform them into mere accidental sin, fear-based repentance is that lofty. It would be as if you’d started off meaning to sin and wound up only inadvertently lapsing into it.

Love-based repentance, though, has the ability to turn your purposeful sins into out-and-out merits, it’s that lofty! As if you’d actually obeyed G-d’s will rather than rebelled against it when you sinned [10].

But true loved-based repentance only comes about when you adore G-d so much from then on that you’re drawn closer to Him for having sinned than you’d have been had you not sinned (see Shiurim b’Sefer haTanya)! And when you love Him from the depths of your heart, and out of a passionate and thirsty desire to cleave unto Him because you seem to yourself to be nothing but a clod of parched and barren soil without Him.

(For, indeed, until you’d repented and disowned your sins, your soul had been in a virtual wilderness and in the shadow of death, i.e., in the throes of the “other side”. For you’d been as far removed from G-d as you possibly could, whereas you now thirst to return to Him with an intensity that even the righteous can’t muster [11].)

But if your repentance isn’t as heartfelt and thoroughgoing as that (regardless of the sin), but is rather unexceptional though adequate enough, it will still and all be accepted by G-d and will atone for your sins on some level. It’s just that those sins won’t be transmuted into merits or be extricated from the impure husks until the aforementioned time when "death will be swallowed up forever" [12].
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Notes:

[9] ... in which case there’s nothing wrong with the act, per se, but rather with one’s intentions at the time (Shiurim b’Sefer haTanya) -- one’s need to satisfy himself as an end unto itself. And while that, too, isn’t forbidden in fact, it’s not meritorious.

[10} Also see Maimonide’s Hilchot Teshuvah (2:1-2) where he writes:

One accomplishes full repentance only when, while he’s yet able to sin, he’s faced again with a situation in which he had previously sinned, and he nonetheless doesn’t -- but only as a consequence of repentance, rather than out of fear, or because of a physical inability to carry the sin out.

So if, for example, one had once sinned with a woman, and after a time found himself alone with her, still in love (with her) and in full possession of his prowess, and in the same place he had transgressed -- if, rather than transgressing again, he recants, he’d be a "full penitent".

What’s “conventional” teshuvah, though? No longer committing a sin one once committed, not thinking of committing it anymore, and affixing to his heart the commitment to never do it again. He should also regret having sinned .... and he must then verbally confess and enunciate the things affixed to his heart.

[11] As it’s said, "Where penitents stand .... not even the perfectly righteous can stand” (Berachot 34B). After all, the righteous are always close to G-d and are thus always “close to water”, so their thirst for G-d isn’t quite intense (though their longing to *stay* close to Him is intense). While the penitent actually experiences himself as being in a desert and as very thirsty (Shiurim b’Sefer haTanya; see end of ch. 40 below).

Also see Maimonides’s depiction of the rapprochement between the wayward lover and his Beloved, G-d, when the sinner repents:

Repentance is great because it brings a person closer to G-d. As it’s written, "Return, 0 Israel, to G-d your L–rd" (Hosea 14:2); "You have not yet returned to Me, says G-d" (Amos 4:6); and, "If you will repent, Israel, you will return to Me" (Jeremiah 4:1), which is to say, repent and you will cling to Me.

And repentance brings those distant from G-d closer to Him -- whereas heretofore they were repulsive to G-d, disreputable, far removed, and loathsome, henceforward they are beloved and desired, close and intimate ....

How outstanding repentance is! The very person who, just yesterday, was completely separated from the G-d of Israel ...; who would do mitzvot, and have them rent from his hands ... is today attached to G-d ... and even yearned for (Hilchot Teshuvah 7:6-7).

[12] That’s to say that while your sins won’t be transmuted into merits or be extricated from the impure husks *at that point* if your repentance is less than heartfelt, they will eventually be -- when "death will be swallowed up forever". Which is to say, when G-d removes all husks from the world and the holy sparks nestled deep within them will be able to ascend (Tanya M’vuar; See ch. 37 below).

(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"

Monday, November 13, 2006

Tanya Ch. 7 (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. 7

3.

Now, there are a number of curious anomalies connected with this in-between realm. Because I could ironically enjoy a fine and fairly elaborate meal, wash it down with fine wine, and still manage to do it all in a spirit of holiness -- with the right intentions. If I do it in order to relax and clear my mind enough to study Torah in more depth, for example (see Yoma 76B, Sanhedrin 40A, Horayot 13B); or in order to honor the Sabbath or a Festival (see Mishne Torah, Hilchot Shabbat 6:10; Shulchan Oruch, Orach Chaim 242:1). For it all then comes to be associated with the side of holiness (see Iggeret HaKodesh 26, p. 146B).

The same goes for many other such things. I might for example share a hardy joke with a friend and elevate it to the side of holiness if I tell it, for example, in order to lift his spirits or to give oomph to our mutual Torah studies [6].

The difference is that the spiritual components of the meal I’d eaten or the joke I’d told in such a spirit would have been transferred from the luminous husk to out-and-out holiness, whereas if I’d have eaten or joked for lesser reasons they’d have been transferred to out-and-out impurity, and I myself would have become tainted in the process [7].

There’s always hope, though; always a way to make amends for all sins -- let alone ones associated with things that are permissible anyway. I could reconsider what I’d done and the spirit in which I’d done it, regret my actions and decide right there and then never to do that again. Which is to say, I could repent (see sect. 5 below). And my having done that would then allow the food, the joke, *and myself* to revert fully to the side of holiness.

The truth of the matter is, though, that a shadow or a speck of impurity would remain behind in my being, which would have to be reckoned with in the end [8], but know that it will be indeed be undone by then.

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Notes:

[6] See Pesachim 117A, where Rav joked with his students in order to open their hearts and minds enough to be more receptive to what he had to say (Likutei Biurim).

[7] I’d have become a “vehicle” for the misdeed, as it’s put classically -- which is to say that my very being would have been so absorbed by and lost in the deed that I’d have been a virtual mindless accomplice to it, a sort of innocent bystander who could very well have done something to stop the crime but didn’t, and I’d have thus played a part in it despite himself (Shiurim b’Sefer haTanya).

[8] I.e., in the afterlife, through a daunting process known as the “Purgatory of the Grave”, which we’ll cite in Ch. 8 as well. (See Ch’s 22-23 of Shaar HaGilgulim).

(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"

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Tanya Ch. 7 (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. 7

2.

The point of the matter is that we’re expected to align *everything* we think, say, and do with G-dliness; not just the clearly G-dly things like Torah study and mitzvot. After all, we’re enjoined by G-d to “be holy” (Leviticus 11:45) [4], which means to say, to concentrate on and engage in holiness so much so that it becomes a veritable part of our being.

So how *do* we engage in everyday but “kosher” things in a spirit of holiness? What, for example, are we to have in mind when we eat dinner? Well, we’re to eat it with the thought that we’re doing that in order to have the energy to study G-d’s Torah and fulfill His mitzvot; we’re to work so as to sustain our family and to enable them and us to study Torah, fulfill mitzvot, to give charity; etc. (Shiurim b’Sefer haTanya) [5].

Thus it would obviously do us well to consider the implications of what we’re doing each time we engage in these sorts of everyday things. Ironically, in fact, we’d have to be more sure to keep what we’re doing in mind when it comes to doing them than we’d have to when it comes to doing out-and-out mitzvot. Because while we can always rely on the fact that the mitzvah itself is inherently holy and thus carries its own weight so to speak, everyday things are only potentially holy, depending on us (Biur Tanya).

At bottom we’re taught that if we engage in such everyday things for the sort of self-serving or downright un-G-dly purposes we cited above, that they’ll end up being no better than our animalistic spirit itself, and will come to draw their sustenance from the three impure husks rather than from the partly-pure luminous one. But once again we must reiterate the point that the truth of the matter is that *nearly everything* here draws its sustenance from the forces of impurity for the most part, the world being what it is.

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Notes:

[4] See ch’s 27 and 30 for an explanation of the importance of this requirement as well as techniques for attaining it.

[5] Optimally, we’re to eat it “for the sake of Heaven”, which is to say that we’re not to purposefully set out to delight in the taste, aroma, appearance of the food we eat, per se. Instead, we’re to arouse the love of G-d from the first, and to get to the point where we come to love Him more so than the food (or anything else material, for that matter). Our doing that will undo the food’s unholy components and elevate all its good elements. It’s important to understand, though, that while tzaddikim can elevate the evil in each and every instance (whereas we can only undo it), we can though manage to elevate it on Shabbat and Yom Tov, when it’s a mitzvah to enjoy food -- as long as our intention is to enjoy the Sabbath or Holy Day itself that way (Likutei Biurim), as we’ll indicate shortly in the text.

See Maimonide’s statements in “Eight Chapters”, Ch. 5:

"It’s important to ... place a single goal before your eyes, which is to comprehend G-d Almighty as much as a human being can. Which is to say, that you know Him and direct all your actions, movements, and utterances to that end, so that nothing you do is arbitrary or tends to thwart that goal.

"So, for example, when you eat, drink, sleep, have intercourse, awake, move about, or rest, let your only aim be your health. But let your goal in being healthy be to remain robust and well enough to acquire the knowledge and the personal and intellectual virtues you’d need to reach that goal. Don’t let your goal be to simply enjoy yourself, and thus choose only appetizing foods, drinks, and the like. Strive for what’s edifying. If it happens to be gratifying, too, so be it; and if it happens not to be, so be it.

"Or favor more appetizing things for medical reasons the way someone whose appetite was weak would whet it with well-seasoned and sweet foods. Or the way someone suffering from melancholia would ward it off by listening to poems and music, by strolling in gardens and among alluring structures, or by sitting before attractive works of art and the like -- in order to settle his spirit and ward off his melancholia.

"Your goal in all that, though, should be your physical well-being; and your ultimate reason to be well should be to be able to acquire knowledge.

"Likewise, your goal in accruing money should be to use it to acquire edifying things, to maintain your well-being, and to extend your life long enough to comprehend G-d and know as much about Him as you can."

(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"

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Tanya Ch. 7 (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. 7

1.

So in contrast to the three completely impure husks that only bolster the other side, the one luminous husk straddles holiness and unholiness since it can allow for either. And it thus bolters, figures into, and can even be thought to hold sway over most of our world and most of what we do, since nearly everything in our experience -- as neither especially righteous or wrongful people -- is an admixture of good and bad, right and wrong. Thus, when we deliberate upon the world of the luminous husk, we deliberate upon ourselves and our world.

For remember that besides bolstering our animalistic spirit (see 1:5-6), the luminous husk also bolsters all kosher foods (animate and inanimate), as well as all the “kosher”, which is to say, acceptable everyday and profane things we might say, do, or think. Like the stroll we might take which we spoke of in the last chapter, the soda we might drink, the classic novel we might read, and the like [1].

So, again, the stark caveat associated with things in this “everyday and profane” category is that since they’re bolstered by this intermediate husk, they can either wind up drawing their vitality from holiness or from unholiness -- depending on how we use them [2].

For if we think, utter, or perform morally-neutral thoughts, utterances, or deeds for self-serving purposes (even if they’re essential for living, you need to understand!), they then align themselves with the other side. Whereas if we think, utter, or perform such thoughts, utterances, or deeds for altruistic and G-d-centered reasons, they align themselves with holiness.

Accordingly, most of the things we do, utter, and think about are connected to the luminous husk [3]. And the awful but undeniable conclusion we’re to draw from this is that we could conceivably spend our whole life engaged in perfectly acceptable things and still be bogged down in the husks -- unless we know what we’re doing (see Biur Tanya).

And so, it indeed becomes clear that this ubiquitous category of things is very much like ourselves; since we, too, are neither explicitly righteous nor wrongful, but somewhere in between, as we said said (also see 1:2). And we, too, can attach ourselves onto either the side or holiness or the other side, depending on what we do and how we do it.

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Notes:

[1] I.e., things that are neither mitzvot or sins per se.

It should be underscored that RSZ declares in the text that “most, in fact, almost all of the luminous husk is (related to) wrong, with only a little goodness mixed in”. For the great preponderance of what we less-than-righteous people do is inspired by the overarching human need to be self serving rather than devout -- to say nothing of the out-and-out wrong things we do. (See two paragraphs down from here in our text.)

[2] RSZ makes a fascinating point in ch. 35 that our G-dly spirit is actually synonymous with our immortal soul (our neshama) while our animalistic spirit which is rooted in the luminous husk under discussion, is an “intermediary” between the immortal soul and our body. The point seems to be that the luminous husk has the capacity to turn profane things round to Divinity just because it serves as an intermediate or "passageway" between the Divine soul and the body.

[3] In fact it could be said that these sorts of things are rather banal by nature and less than “luminous” themselves, ironically. Since the evil within this category, while indeed wrongful and un-G-dly, is still and all not as evil as the evil in the three utterly impure husks, while the goodness within it isn’t as good as the goodness in holiness either (see Maskil L’Eitan).

(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"

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Tanya Ch. 6

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

Sefer Tanya

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Ma'amar HaGeulah (The Remembrance, Ch. 13)

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. 13

Having laid-out the battle between the forces of right and wrong, of good and evil, of Jewish destiny and the countervailing forces that would have us remain in exile and never be redeemed, Ramchal then set out to explain the role that wrong and evil play in G-d's world.

Clearly, this is a vast and core-central subject that doesn't lend itself to easy explication and that's in fact explained at great length in many of Ramchal's other works. But he apparently saw the need to bring the subject up here because of the unsettling feeling that some of us might have with the whole idea of our having been thrust into exile in the first place, and why G-d would allow for all our pain and suffering in the long course of the galut.

So let's observe "the order of things -- how things developed from the day mankind appeared on Earth to the end of days" and follow the interplay of good and evil in order to see just "how deep G-d’s thoughts are" (see para. 52).

We're taught that "G-d ... allotted a place for the husk (i.e., evil) when He created the world" (Ibid.). But, why? What *good* could *evil* ever do? G-d allowed for it to exist, Ramchal explains, "so as to test mankind and to grant him a goodly reward for his efforts".

At bottom what that means is that evil and wrong were introduced into creation so as to allow reward to be instituted in its wake. Now, the reward for goodness and righteousness is so great and luminous, so blissful, that one would be expected to have accomplished a world of things to have earned it. And indeed, the good and righteous *would* have to do a lot to earn their reward: they'd have to overcome evil and wrongdoing. And as those of us who struggle with our countervailing urges all the time know, that's hard to do. So because the struggle determines the reward, and the reward is so great, evil can be said to exist to allow for great good to exist as well. But let's go back now to the beginning of time and learn more about the interplay of good and evil.

At first, good and evil were quite separate and distinct from each other (see para. 52). We don't experience that now, as our reality is perhaps best defined as the era of "Yes, but ...", in that everything good in our world is touched with some wrong, and everything wrong is touched with some good. In any event, that wasn't always so.

Evil actually wanted to conjoin with good at the beginning -- but not so as to destroy it or for any other wrongful reason. Only because it wanted to "attach itself to it" in a selfless way. But while that will occur in the end, the task of bringing it to fruition was to be left to humankind (Ibid.), as we'll see.

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org

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

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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"

Monday, November 06, 2006

Tanya Ch. 6 (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. 6

3.

It comes to this. We’re taught that G-d’s Presence only infuses things that “surrender” to Him (which we’ll explain) -- either to the degree that angels do, which is to say, utterly so; or to the great degree that each one of us has the potential to as members of the Jewish Nation [4,5]. In fact, that’s why our sages underscored the fact that "the Divine Presence rests upon even a single Jew sitting and engaging in Torah" (Pirke Avot 3:6) and not only upon "ten Jews who come together” to study (see Sanhedrin 39A). For the sort of surrender inherent to the act of studying in reverence and deference, and in a desire to know what G-d’s Torah requires of us is what allows for G-d’s Presence to rest upon us then.

Now, “surrendering oneself to G-d” starts with a deep and heart felt sense of awe and love of Him (see Ch. 3). But what it comes to at bottom is consciously and purposefully abdicating, relinquishing, and yielding one’s own personal wishes and desires for G-d’s own.

But such an admittedly lofty and “mystical” attitude can only be borne on the conviction that nothing and no one is an autonomous entity; that everything was created by G-d and His sake alone; that I personally was only created to serve my Master, and that everything around me is only there to help me do that (Maskil L’Eitan). For indeed despite my own delusions of personal grandeur, it is G-d who’s the “protagonist” of this universe; I and everything else is merely supportive [6].

Hence, whenever we assert self and follow our own wishes rather than G-d’s by taking an innocent stroll perhaps, or sipping a glass of soda, reading a classic novel and the like rather than engaging in a mitzvah, we draw our vitality from the “other side” even though we’re not sinning. Simply because one can only fully draw his vitality from one side (i.e., the side of G-dliness) or the “other” [7].

The truth be known, we’re *always* nourished by the side of G-dliness, if only indirectly, backhandedly if you will (see Ch. 22, Iggeret Hakodesh 25), even when we sin. But we’re then nourished from a degree of G-dliness that has descended through the spiritual worlds and been diluted more and more so by degrees to the point where it’s a pale reflection of its full self and could be said to be in “exile” and displaced (see Ch. 32).

The point in short is that anyone or anything that doesn’t surrender itself to G-d still exists, of course. But barely so, despite appearances. Because it draws its breath if you will from such sparse “air” that it only has enough to go on, and not much more (see Ch’s 22, 38) [8].
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Notes:

[4] In fact G-d’s Presence lies within us even when we’re not studying Torah (Tanya M’vuar), and that it actually infuses everything. It only means to imply that it’s more obvious and dynamic in things that surrender to it (Biur Tanya).

See 1:5 above and Sotah 5A.

[5] The point is that every single Jew, regardless of his or her spiritual standing, has a nascent potential to surrender him- or herself to G-d (Maskil L’Eitan).

See Ch’s 18 and 25 below for more about this potential.

[6] The idea of surrendering oneself to G-d, usually referred to as “nullifying oneself”, is a major theme in RSZ’s writings which we’ll touch upon again in this work.

We’ll find that there are in fact three levels involved: undoing oneself, being undone, and being infused by the Divine Presence (Likutei Biurim).

Also see Ch’s 19 and 35 below.

An often cited analogy is the ideal relationship of a student to his teacher. The student has to learn to nullify himself and to become an empty receptacle (i. e., to set aside all forgone conclusions and listen fully) to his teacher rather than assert his own thoughts if he’s ever to understand and take-in what his teacher has to say (Maskil L’Eitan). And we too must nullify ourselves to G-d if we’re ever to “take Him in”.

[7] RSZ points out in the body of Ch. 4 above that the “other side” itself draws vitality from us (from our sins, that is). Hence we see that we and the “other side” are interdependent, and that while it would never deprive us of “nutrition” (since it would lack for vitality itself if it did), we’d nonetheless do well to “starve” it for our own good.

The irony of course is that we’re being advised to be cruel and heartless and to deny the “other side” nutrition, while it itself seems to be benevolent and good-hearted by readily offering us nutrition. The truth of course is otherwise, but that’s indeed one of the tricks and mainstays of the “other side”-- it has good appear as bad, and bad as good, until one’s moral compass is undone and he makes the wrong choice.

[8] Thus the underlying message is that there are three “life-styles”, if you will: Divine service (rooted in the mitzvah-system), service to the “other side” (rooted in sin), and self-service (rooted in unholy and self-serving use of the “permitted”). And we draw sustenance from whichever “master” we choose, though G-d will always ensure our ultimate well-being.

(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"

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Tanya Ch. 6 (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. 6

2.

Our G-dly spirit, as we learned, is comprised of three “mind” and seven “heart” elements, each of which corresponds on a very deep and recondite level to the ten essential elements of the Heavens Above (see Ch. 3). It manifests itself in our thoughts, speech, and actions, which are the G-dly spirit’s “garments“ (see Ch. 4), and it’s a veritable part of G-d (see Ch. 2).

Now, that’s very -- radically -- different from the make-up of our animalistic spirit. For rather than being derived from G-d Himself and being centered in our brain and the right side of our heart, our animalistic spirit is derived from “the other side” and “the luminous husk” (see Ch. 1), and it’s centered in the blood lying in the left side of our heart. Nonetheless, like our G-dly spirit, our animalistic spirit also manifests itself through three “garments”, and it too is configured into seven “heart” and three “mind” elements [2]. But there are obviously departures from the G-dly model as far as they're concerned.

For while the G-dly spirit initiates emotions like the love and fear of G-d and the like, the animalistic spirit initiates wrongful and destructive emotions like laziness, melancholy, flippancy, cynicism, slander, dishonesty, hypocrisy, anger, arrogance, impatience, animosity, aggression, the need for acclaim, hedonism, envy, and jealousy (see Ch. 1). And while the G-dly spirit's mind initiates G-dly emotions, the animalistic spirit’s heart introduces untoward thoughts (Biur Tanya), which is to say that while the mind leads in the G-dly model, it’s the that heart leads in the Un-G-dly one and the mind that follows (a technique we term “rationalization”).

That’s to say that when we access our G-dly spirit we’re biased toward G-dly emotions, while when we access -- or are enticed by -- our animalistic spirit, we’re biased toward more brutish emotions. But isn’t that to be expected? After all, our biases towards animalism and rank materialism are very often motivated by childish, frivolous, and self-absorbed thoughts and impressions. So is it any wonder then that those are the emotions it would express?

But don’t make the mistake of thinking that the animalistic spirit’s garments are only impure when we’re engaged in untoward and out-and-out wrongful thoughts, utterances, and deeds. They’re also soiled when they’re occupied in otherwise ethically neutral but trivial and non-G-dly things. Simply because at bottom those sorts of things are irrelevant to G-dliness and to our Divine service. And they, too, are thus products of the “other side” rather than of the side of holiness [3].

But, how so? What’s wrong with things that aren’t G-dly per se, as long as they aren’t actually wrongful and un-G-dy?
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Notes:

[2] The three mind elements are also known as “Chochma”, “Binah”, and “Da’at” like the G-dly spirit’s (though the latter are the obverse of the former), while the seven heart elements touch upon the wrongful traits soon to be enumerated in the text, rather than the good ones. And rather than being derived from the Ten Sephirot, these ten elements are said to be derived from the "ten crowns of impurity" which are a product of the un-G-dly World of Chaos (Tanya M’vuar).

[3] We see from here that RSZ doesn’t accept the ethically and spiritually “neutral” status that halacha often confers upon things (Biur Tanya). For halacha per se would consider taking a stroll for example to be neither intrinsically good nor bad, as long as one takes it when he isn’t otherwise bound to do a specific mitzvah, and when his taking the stroll doesn’t involve anything prohibited. Everything, to RSZ’s mind, either draws its sustenance from the side of G-dliness or from the “other” side. He’s of the opinion that if you’re even a tiny bit non-G-dly (albeit not *un*-G-dly), you’re by definition not G-dly and must necessarily draw your sustenance from the “side” that’s not G-d’s. This will be expanded upon in another way in the following section. We’ll adress these ethically neutral thoughts, utterances, and actions at more length in the following chapter.

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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

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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"

Thursday, November 02, 2006

"Eight Chapters" (Chapter Five, Part 4)

“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 4)

The same goes for our inner life; for our thoughts and emotions also need to be subject to some level of self-control. And Rambam illustrates that with a list of the sorts of things we'd do best to read and study, and others that we'd be better off avoiding. Again the point is that if what we read allows us to comprehend G-d and to thus draw close to Him, then "there’s nothing to argue against (it)", as Rambam puts it, and all is well and good -- even if it isn't Torah itself we're reading.

For since we're charged to study Torah as much as we can, because nothing draws us closer to G-d than that, we'd expect that we'd be discouraged from studying and reading anything else. But the truth is that other things serve that purpose, too -- though not as well. In any event, Rambam encourages us to study secular things that alert us to G-d's place in the universe and explain His ways.

Rambam tempers his opinion, though, when it comes to certain secular studies. He'd certainly and vehemently discourage us from delving into things that deny G-d's existence or that foster an unhealthy cynicism in general about our Tradition or a distrust in the Torah's authority, but that goes without saying.

But he also doesn't favor our spending time on "(solving) problems in algebra" and on reading about "mechanics,The Book of Cones (a classical geometry text that one needed to be familiar with if he or she wanted to go further in the sciences)" and the like, or our "raising a lot of questions in geometry or hydraulics". But let's explain. While those sorts of things, which intelligent and inquisitive people once concentrated on in antiquity, certainly "sharpen our mind", as Rambam put it, and inform us of many valuable things, they nonetheless don't draw anyone closer to our ultimate goal in life, which is key.

(Rambam doesn't mean to say that we're never to study such things or their modern equivalents, like computer science, chemistry, physics, economics and the like, which all help to explain the world as we know it today; and he certainly wouldn't discourage us from studying such things in the pursuit of a profession. His point, again, is that such things are of secondary importance at best, and that they often enough distract our attention from and even draw us away from what matters most.)

Nonetheless our inner life certainly goes far beyond studying this or that. So Rambam also asserts that we're to curb certain other things that touch upon our opinions. We're to "only speak about things that will either edify (us) or stave off personal or bodily harm; about virtues; or in praise of virtues or of great people". That's to say that we're to not waste time or our inner resources by delving into chitchat and the like. Instead, we're to imbibe upon the rarefied air of uplifting conversation, and to concentrate on the good and those who manage to achieve it.

He does say, nonetheless, that we'd also do well to actually speak badly of wrongdoers and belittle them, and he makes the point that doing that wouldn't be small of us, but lofty in fact. Since it would "lower (such wrongdoers) in the eyes of others, who’d then learn a lesson and not do what those others did", which is all for the greater good and will likewise draw us all closer to G-d.

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org

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

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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"