The Point of It All -- Chapter Two

... can be found at ...

Toras Rav Ashlag

Da'at Tevunot (Section 1, Ch. 2)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

Tanya Ch. 10

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

Sefer Tanya

Ma'amar HaGeulah (The Rectified World, Ch. 1)

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 Rectified World: Ch. 1

1.

The whole point of the redemption, aside from our returning to a sanctified Land of Israel, is to bring about a great universal emendation -- a state in which everything would have reached its potential, fulfilled its raison d'être, and coalesced. Let's see how that will play itself out as Ramchal depicts it.

He says that what has always characterized the world before the great redemption has been the phenomenon of constriction. Holiness was constricted to the Land of Israel in antiquity and went no further, and it was constricted even farther as a consequence of the terrible exile "to ... just a small speck". We're to know, however, that holiness "will once again expand throughout the Holy Land" after the redemption, and then throughout the world (see para. 60).

A lot will happen behind the scenes to bring that about. In fact, we'd alluded to much of this early on in this work, in chapters 6-10 of "The Exile", where we'd given away the end at the beginning, as we termed it. So we'll be alluding to things spoken of there from now on to the end from other perspectives.

We're told that "branches will begin to spread out from the lowest and most external groupings" of the Divine Presence, which will then begin covering the face of the earth, since "it would have been cleansed of its impurities" by then. That's to say that the Shechina's "wings" will begin to spread throughout the world. In fact, "the Shechina’s wings will break through ... right and left" and everyone will begin to "serve G-d in unison" as a consequence (Ibid.).

But this is what's going to be happening even farther yet behind the scenes, and further up the rungs of Divine Luminaries. For a great conjoining of Forces will begin to come about (see para. 61).

Whereas the world would have been managed by rather low echelons of Divine will so to speak until then, that will no longer be the case. Those lower levels will begin to draw strength from the very highest ones, and will come into play in whole other ways.

For one thing, the lowest Luminary (Malchut) will blossom and "be more powerful than it had ever been". In fact, it will be coequal with a fairly high one (Tipheret). "Both (will then be) rectified as they should be" and draw sustenance from much, much higher Divine Levels (Chochma and Binah) (Ibid.), and the "great, albeit silent, shifting of the gears on-high", the "wondrous celestial about-face" we'd cited will have begun in earnest (see The Visitation Ch. 1).

But that won't be the end of it, by any means.

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org

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

********************************
AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*!
You can order it right now from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

The Point of It All -- Chapter One

... can be found at ...

Toras Rav Ashlag

Tanya Ch. 10 (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. 10

3.

Utter tzaddikim manage to do something quite remarkable. Rather than only prevail over the wrongfulness in their hearts, they actually *transform it to goodness*, and to use those once-untoward biases in the service of G-d (Maskil L’Eitan).

They do that we’re told by divesting themselves of their so-called "filthy clothing" (i.e., their -- and our -- more lowly human longings that are soiled with wrongfulness), by coming to despise physical pleasures [4], and by donning “clean” garments instead. Thus, they've learned how to channel their wrongfullness into goodness (Shiurim b’Sefer haTanya) [5].

What utter tzaddikim find repellent about wrongfulness, by the way, is the fact that it's derived from the husk and the other side which they despise. For what gives all tzaddikim their impetus -- and most especially utter tzaddikim -- and what sets them apart from the rest of us is their love of G-d [6]. They love G-d so very much, and quite ecstatically. And that naturally leads them to despise anything associated with the other side (Shiurim b’Sefer haTanya) which contradicts His wishes. In fact, one can tell how much he or she loves G-d by determining just how despicable and hateful he or she finds wrongfulness to be.

In any event, even though they’re indeed righteous, incomplete tzaddikim nonetheless don't utterly hate the other side and things associated with it, and don't find them to be completely despicable. That explains the fact that while incomplete tzaddikim don't sin, they nonetheless retain the ability to sin on some subtle level (Biur Tanya).

It still remains true, though, that the righteousness of the incomplete tzaddikim far outweighs their wrongfulness and is null and void for all intents and purposes. It's just that in contradistinction to complete tzaddikim, their love of G-d is incomplete and they thus function on a highly potential but not a fully realized level (Biur Tanya).

Understand as well that there are very many degrees of incomplete righteousness, depending on how much wrongfulness is left behind. Some incomplete tzaddikim will have sixty times more righteousness than wrongfulness, for example, others a thousand times, or tens-of-thousands times more, and the like.

That phenomenon helps to explain two apparently contradictory remarks offered by our sages, by the way. First, that there are eighteen thousand tzaddikim all-in-all (see Sukkah 45B and Sanhedrin 97B), and second that there are actually very few "lofty individuals" (ibid.) in the world. The quandry can be solved by noting that the former refers to the sum total of both incomplete and complete tzaddikim, and the latter to the number of complete tzaddikim.

__________________________________________

Notes:

[4] It's out-and-out, purely *physical*, mundane delights they've come to despise -- those that draw us all away from G-d. But they're still attracted to Shabbat-related delights for example, and the like (Maskil L’Eitan), because the latter are spiritual pleasures "wrapped" in material entities, if you will.

[5] Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto explains this in The Path of the Just (Ch. 26) where he says that "Even the mundane actions of the person sanctified in the holiness of His Creator are turned around to actual holiness. This can best be illustrated by the eating of sacrificial-offerings" where ordinary food is thus elevated to an element of a mitzvah, and thus is both profane and Divine at the same time.

[6] Thus, love is a *vital* element of one's righteousness, and the more of it one has for G-d, the greater the tzaddik he is. For as we noted in Ch. 9 above there are varying extents to which one’s love of G-d can go. There’s "the fiery love of G-d" and "gladness of heart" that comes from apprehending G-d’s presence in the world, and what's termed "abounding" or "ecstatic love" (see there).

RSZ spells out the significance of the varying qualities of one’s love for G-d elsewhere, where he underscores how much it sets utter-tzaddikim apart from lesser tzaddikim and differentiates them from the rest us. (RSZ alludes to it in Tanya also, as we’ll point out; but less outright.)

He underscores the fact (in Torah Ohr, B’chodesh Hashlishi, p. 66) that the Patriarch Abraham, who was undoubtedly a tzaddik of the highest order since he could “overturn the other side and turn darkness into light” (see section 4 below), acheived a state referred to as “exalted love” (ahavah ha’elyonah, which is identical to the above cited "abounding" or "ecstatic love") thanks to which he yearned only to realize true personal nullification before G-d’s Presence.

How did he ever come upon that? By “ruminating upon Ohr Ayn Sof Atsmo HaSovev Cal Olamim”, which is to say by reflecting upon G-d’s very Being in its most transcendant aspect, utterly removed from creation and from everything other than Himself”.

The point of the matter is that it’s the quality of one’s love for G-d that defines his tzaddik state; success at that hinges upon the degree to which one ruminates upon G-d’s very Being, and it’s characterized by a high and superhuman degree of personal surrender and subservience to His will. (This sublime degree of love -- depicted as an experience of the World to Come in the here-and-now -- is also said to be a gift from on High as a consequence of the tzaddik’s having had his G-dly spirit prevail over his animalistic one, refined his physicality, studied a great deal of Torah and fulfilled many mitzvot, and his having earned a lofty soul [Chinuch Kattan].

As an interesting aside, we'll note in Ch. 14 that one could also become a tzaddik by being "possessed" by the soul of a deceased tzaddik from the past!

(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"

Chanukkah Break

Happy, happy!

"Eight Chapters" (Chapter Six, Part 1)

“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 Six (Part 1)

Some people think that truly good and righteous people are just born that way, and that the rest of us can only hope to avoid doing harm, at best. But that's clearly not Rambam's (or our own) perspective on things, as he asserts that we *all* have what it takes to achieve spiritual excellence in this world.

Understand, though, that that wasn't always as self-evident as it seems.

In the past many thinkers contended that certain people were born "heroes", as they called them, who could do no wrong, while the rest of us are doomed to shlep along in our clumsy, often less-than-righteous ways. In point of fact, that argument is still very much alive today, with some claiming that we're each genetically "wired" to be one way or the other, without much free will ... but that's not the point here.

There's something else many thought in the past: it's that "when a person who subdues his yetzer harah does lofty things", that is, if a person struggles with his urge to do something wrong and manages to stave off the temptation and to do good instead, he's nonetheless "not so praiseworthy". Why? Because he'd still be "longing and yearning to do bad". They'd grant you that "he'd struggled with his longings" and managed to "withstand the promptings of his personal bents, desires, and disposition", but their point would be that he'd be "suffering in the process", that it wouldn't come naturally to him, so he wouldn't be all that noble.

The so-called hero or eminent, sinless person would be loftier and more perfect than the one who subdues his yetzer harah, simply because the latter "still longs to do something bad" which indicates "an inherently bad disposition" on his part -- even though he hadn't succumbed.

Their contention was that if you or I were "really" good, we wouldn't even *think* of sinning. And that struggling not to sin, and even managing to be successful at that, wouldn't be all that great.

But as we said, Rambam disagrees.

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

********************************
AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*!
You can order it right now from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

Tanya Ch. 10 (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. 10

2.

We're told that there are two sorts of tzaddikim over all, in fact: less-than-completely righteous ones, with a tinge or more of wrongfulness, and complete and utter tzaddikim.

An incomplete tzaddik is someone who *has* indeed managed to have his G-dly spirit prevail over his animalistic biases after the aforementioned inner struggle and to have rendered them inert, and null and void for all intents and purposes [2], which is quite a victory. But he hasn't managed to do the sort of things that utter tzaddikim do with those biases (which we'll soon explore).

So there's still a semblance of wrongfulness in his heart, which he nevertheless *never acts out on* . Understand of course that the sorts of wrongfulness he’d be guilty of would fall under the category of wanting to use permitted things in improper ways -- not out-and-out wrongfulness (Maskil L’Eitan). So it’s not that incomplete tzaddikim plunge into wrongdoing once in a great while -- they just do ordinary things in ordinary ways, as we do, which renders them less than wholly righteous.

He (and we) might think, though, that he’d completely eradicated his urges, but he wouldn’t have. For if he had, he’d be a complete tzaddik, which he’s not. So let's contrast his standing now with that of a complete tzaddik [3].
__________________________________________

Notes:

[2] ... compared to all the good in him ...

[3] A complete or utter tzaddik in RSZ’s system is the classical chassid, pious individual (Biur Tanya, Maskil L’Eitan), who's actually loftier than a tzaddik in those contexts. That begs the question then as to how the Chassidic movement managed to switch things around and set the “tzaddik” or rebbe above the “chassid" or adherent.

There are many answers, but RSZ offers an "insider's" insight that's very interesting. In a letter written in response to Russian government inquiries about the Chassidic movement, RSZ mentions in passing that its adherents came to be called chassidim (by their detractors) because they spent a lot of time on prayers like the early pious ones ("chassidim") cited in Berachot 30B who used to prepare for an hour before prayers, pray for an hour, then reflect on their prayers for another hour afterwards, three times a day (see Hamadrich l'Avodat Hashem pp. 165-167).

Let it also be pointed out that utter tzaddikim are also rare individuals with high souls who are very wise and literally sense the presence of G-dliness, and that there have always been very few of them in a generation -- including the earlier generations (Maskil L’Eitan).

And let’s also add that there are other definitions of incomplete tzaddikim that are easier for most of us to live up to. One who’s careful not to lapse into licentiousness is termed a tzaddik (see Zohar 1, p. 93A) as well as one who’s of sure faith, who’s careful to pray in a minyan and to respond to particular blessings as a consequence, who recites the requisite 100 blessings everyday, and someone who’s charitable (Likut Perushim to Ch. 1, pp. 40-41). We’d also be tzaddikim as soon as we’d repented wholeheartedly, though that would be undone as soon as we’d sinned again (or used everyday things for mundane ends, according to RSZ).

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

********************************
Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued and can be ordered from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

Tanya Ch. 10 (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. 10

1.

Let's see now how different people respond to this inner struggle to squelch and master our untoward side. We'll find that some do quite well at it, even extraordinarily so; others do more or less poorly; and that the great preponderance of us sometimes do well and other times not.

We'll concentrate first upon the eminently successful ones, the righteous or tzaddikim. First off, let it never be forgotten that zaddikim -- no matter how pious -- are human, hence that they have an animalistic spirit like the rest of us. It’s just that they have fought against its wish to dominate them, won, and thus they need no longer fight; and that they're steady in their righteousness from that point onward without ever tottering (Biur Tanya) [1]. But we'll see that there are all sorts of tzaddikim.

So let's peek now into the inner life of the righteous.

__________________________________________

Notes:

[1] At the very beginning of his comments to this section Maskil L’Eitan depicts two wars that both a complete and an incomplete tzaddik would have to have fought and won to gain their status. He'd first had to have protected his G-dly spirit from the animalistic spirit's onslaughts, and then he'd have to had fought aggressively to push the animalistic spirit back into its original "camp", the left side of the heart.

What Maskil L’Eitan doesn't depict at that point, though, is a third battle that the *complete* tzaddik would have to have entered into in order to indeed be one which the incomplete one wouldn't have entered. The complete tzaddik would have to have used the "spoils of battle" -- the animalistic spirits urges to do, say, and think wrongful things -- for G-dly purposes. But that will become clearer later on.

(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 Point of It All -- Translator's Introduction

I've decided to scrap the idea of writing up a synopsis of Rabbi Ashlag's thoughts in his Introduction to the Zohar before writing a book based on it, and have jumped into the book itself.

It will appear chapter after chapter. And so, my introduction can now be found at
Toras Rav Ashlag

Tanya Ch. 9

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

Sefer Tanya

Tanya Ch. 9 (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. 9

3.

But the two spirits aren't autonomous; they share space in our being [4]. In fact, the sensitive soul can't help but be acutely aware of the two of them vying in and *for* his being, and of how opposite and outright contradictory their predilections are. In fact we'd dare say that the ultimate measure of one's honesty with himself is the degree to which he acknowledges his own inner irony.

The most important lesson to be learned from this struggle is that it defines our inner reality our whole lives long. And that other than the rare complete tzaddik, we're *all* conflicted this way -- all of two minds (and hearts), if you will. What RSZ does in this work so well, indeed, is lay out that fact plain and outright (see Biur Tanya), and thus defines the starting point from which we can ascend.

But let's explore more of the dynamic. We're each depicted classically as whole "countries" [5], thanks to our complexity and multifariousness. As such, our two spirits can be seen as two distinct and diverse kings (and their armies) vying for control over the “country” that we each are, and for the right to have the last word about what we’re to do or not do (see Nedarim 32B). And each offers his own incentives.

4.

The G-dly spirit would like us to follow its dictates and submit to its wishes all the time. Which is to say, to be absorbed in [6] G-dliness whenever we do, think, or say something, and to never stray from that. It would have us reflect upon G-d's infinite greatness and to foster the sort of fear and fiery love of Him that would have us attach ourselves onto Him [7].

In fact, the G-dly spirit would like those feelings to be so powerful that they virtually "spill" over from the right side of the heart to the left, where the animalistic spirit is found, and force the animalistic spirit and its unholy urges to reverse themselves [8]. It even wants the animalistic spirit to reach the level of love that actually surpasses the aforementioned "fiery love" that’s termed "abounding" or "ecstatic” love -- the sort of love for G-d one would have in The World to Come [9].

But make no mistake about it: few merit so lofty a perch (Maskil L’Eitan). Suffice it to say, though, that that sort of love only comes about by delighting in thinking about, in grasping, and in knowing G-d in one's day to day life.

The G-dly spirit would also have the animalistic spirit turn itself around the way we’d depicted because if it did, then all wrong would revert to utter goodness, and humankind would unite with G-dliness in all ways, since wrongfulness would have unshorn its "soiled clothes" (i.e., its longing for worldly delights and other unG-dly things). And the G-dly spirit would have everything we'd do, say, and think be suffused with holiness, rooted in mitzvot, and directed toward G-d alone.
__________________________________________________________

Notes:

[4] RSZ cites Genesis 25:23 here, which reads, "And G-d said to her, ‘Two nations are in your (Rebecca’s) womb and two peoples will be separated from your bowels. One people (Jacob’s) will be stronger than the other (Esau’s) and the older (Esau) will serve the younger (Jacob)’". See note 1 to Ch. 6 for our comments.

In a way the two spirits could be said to complement each other by challenging and competing with one another while nourishing each other as well, as we'll see. After all, doesn't our brain need our heart to thrive, and vice versa; and can't they be said to compliment each other all the time in that sense alone? Doesn't our body need both to function? We once again draw your attention to the citation from the Zohar in the last section of the chapter.

Nonetheless, the tension between the two is not to be denied on an experiential level, and the battle is ongoing.

[5] The actual term used is "cities". But the political entity we'd term a country was in fact termed a “city” in antiquity, hence our use of that term.

[6] The term is that we be "draped (or, clothed) in and a vehicle of" the G-dly spirit’s ten elements and three garments.

[7] Literally, "With all your heart, soul, and your means".

[8] RSZ quotes the verse just cited above that reads "You are to love G-d your L–rd with all your heart..." (Deuteronomy 6:5) and supplies us with the sages' explanation of that to mean " ... with both your impulses" (Berachot 54A) to underscore his point.

[9] This sort of love would be a culmination and fulfillment of the yearning to draw close to G-d, and would be a full realization of it rather than the mere yearning for it; that is, the dream of it come-true (see Ch. 43).

In fact, based on the imagery used in Likutei Torah p.78B (Ushavtem) we’d liken this stage to the eventual “quenching of the thirst” for closeness to G-d with the “water” of its achievement (which would explain why RSZ offers the seemingly unnecessary statement here in the text that this love “is on the level of water”).

For in direct contradistinction to the common misconception of the yearning for closeness to G-d as uppermost, RSZ’s point is that the fulfillment and satisfying of it is the ideal. For only a romantic would idealize the yearning for Divine attachment; a true servant of G-d would actually strive to achieve it. The difference is radical.

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

********************************
Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued and can be ordered from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

Ma'amar HaGeulah (The Remembrance, Ch. 15)

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. 15

Taking us through the long course of human spiritual history -- the ups and downs of the battle between good and evil -- these last couple of chapters, Ramchal revealed that "an utterly black darkness" eventually overcame our people, which we'd have to endure "until the throne of the righteous Moshiach would be built". So he now brings us back to the point when the two redeemers will be working in tandem (see The Remembrance, Ch 12).

His point here is that not only will the two Messiahs -- Moshiach Ben Yoseph, who'll appear first, and then Moshiach Ben David -- manage to bring about the great redemption, at long last, but that they'll also be joined by Moses (who would obviously have been brought back to life just for this), who'll help to "complete the Jewish Nation’s emendation" (see para 58). It really shouldn't surprise us to hear that Moses will play a role in the final redemption, in fact, given that we were told early on that the redemption from Egypt and the final one have a lot in common (see para 2).

But what would be left to be done, actually? After all, "good would have been removed from impurity" already, and "evil would have been thrust downward". Not only that, but there'll even be "as great an emendation then as Adam would have effected originally", which means to say that not only would we have returned to square-one by undoing the harm done by Adam and Eve's sin, we'd also have managed to do what they couldn't do, and seen to it that "the edifice that hadn’t been perfected would then be" (see para 58).

Only this would be left. There'll "come to be a day of great judgment ... which will then finish (the process of) purifying all souls and all creation". And as a result, "all of creation will become utterly pure" and the world will be "recast as a new edifice ... in a way that’s neither explicable nor knowable, which will go on forever" (see para 59).

That's to say that all of G-d's creation would have been set aright at long last: our people will be back home, all wrongdoing will have been undone, and everything will have been made pure.

And so we're about to begin the final section of this work, entitled "The Rectified World". In it, Ramchal will present us with some rather esoteric ideas about what will happen in the Heavens to bring about all we'd just cited, along with some other insights.

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org

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

********************************
AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*!
You can order it right now from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

Tanya Ch. 9 (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. 9

2.

Our animalistic spirit dwells for the most part, but certainly not exclusively so (Likutei Biurim), in the left ventricle of our heart. It’s important to point out, of course, that the animalistic spirit isn't a physical entity but rather a spiritual one -- otherwise we could have it surgically removed if we wanted to rid ourselves of it (Biur Tanya)!

It shouldn't really surprise us that it dwells in the heart, since our animalistic spirit is essentially emotional and thus heart-centered (Tanya M’vuar). In any event, that’s where it resides and where it fosters unG-dly drives and emotions like untoward cravings, arrogance, anger, and the like.

The animalistic spirit then infuses itself throughout the body including the brain (where the G-dly spirit dwells, as we'll see). And from the brain it seeps into our thoughts and affects them too, by playing a role in our choices and enabling us to rationalize our unG-dly desires.

The G-dly spirit on the other hand, which is essentially intellectual by nature (Tanya M’vuar), dwells primarily in our brain from where it diffuses outward to the other organs, including our heart [2], and where it fosters its *own* emotions. But rather than being unG-dly ones like the unG-dly spirit’s are, the G-dly spirit’s emotions are exclusively G-dly [3].

They include the sort of “fiery love of G-d" that burns in the hearts of those who delve into things that foster that (see 3:4); the sort of "gladness of heart" that comes from apprehending "G-d's beauty and the majesty of His Glory", and from "gazing at the King's ... unfathomable, infinite, and boundless greatness" in one's mind; as well as other holy emotions which we’ll touch upon later.

So it becomes clear that the two have completely different nerve centers and impetuses.

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Notes:

[2] ... where it settles in the heart's right ventricle, which is traditionally termed a "vacuum", as RSZ points out. In light of the fact that it's not actually a vacuum as we know today, some explain RSZ to mean that the right ventricle could thus be taken to be a vacuum in a sense given that it doesn't have blood of its own, even though blood from the rest of the body accumulates there (Tanya M’vuar). But it seems it would be better to say that the right ventricle *might as well be a vacuum* since it’s unfulfilled until the G-dly spirit enters into it.

[3] It's been suggested that RSZ is providing us with insight here as to how to know the source of our urges at any one time. If they come from our mind (which is to say, if they're logical and thought-out) then they're from the G-dly spirit, whereas if they come from the heart (i.e., if they're emotional and irrational to one degree or another) they're from the animalistic spirit (Likutei Biurim, Maskil L’Eitan). And in fact, this seems to be a very handy barometer of things that should be kept in mind.

(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"

Tanya Ch. 9 (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

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Ch. 9

1.

Let's delve more into the makeup of our two spirits now, and see how they interact. For by doing that we'll come to understand who *we* truly are and what drives us, since we'll be able to know when we're being urged on by one rather than the other spirit and to react accordingly. Only then will we be able to draw close to G-d. After all, if we don't know who we are and what’s spurring us on at any one time, how can we possibly head in the right direction?

As RSZ said, we're comprised of a G-dly spirit and an animalistic one. As a consequence we have conflicting "tastes", if you will. Sometimes we prefer this, and sometimes that. But this hasn't anything to do with our tastes in food, literature, clothing or the like. But rather with our stance when it comes to the central human option: whether to head toward G-d or away from Him.

Hence, there’s a conflict in the very core of our being. Should we acknowledge G-d outright and acquiesce to His presence all around us, or acknowledge the world outright and acquiesce to *its* presence? Indeed, everything we want, do, say, or think is a consequence of our response to that conflict, moment by moment -- everything.

The battle hardly seems fair, at that. After all, the world is visible and bold, while G-d is invisible and discreet. Yet despite the disproportionate number of things drawing us toward the world and away from G-d, there *is* still-and-all a draw toward G-d in the Jewish heart, as we learned.

RSZ's point is that for most of us the push and pull is real, and we're torn as a consequence. He also believes that one cannot have two masters, since by serving one he besmirches the other and vice versa; and that the wise would accordingly do all they could to serve G-d alone [1].

But in truth the conflict is largely delusional, in that in a way we *can* "have our -- kosher -- cake and eat it, too". For, as we'd seen earlier, there's a wealth of things that fall in-between G-dliness and unG-dliness (see Ch. 7). The challenge, of course, is to engage in those things in a G-dly fashion and to thus elevate the mundane to the Divine. If we do that -- and engage in Torah study and mitzvah observance as well -- we fulfill our mission, feed our G-dly spirit's aspirations, and align ourselves with the Divine, where we'd have adhesed onto the other side if we'd lapsed into sin.

Let's now explore our two biases with that in mind.

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Notes:

[1] The starkest breakdown of the choice between the two is offered in Iggeret Hakodesh 11, where RSZ declares that "The main reason man was created in this world was to be tested ... (so as) to know what's in his heart -- whether his heart will turn toward 'other gods', namely physical desires that derive from the other side ... or if he'll ... want to live the true life, that derives from the Living G-d".

(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"

Da'at Tevunot (Section 2, Ch. 1)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal