Kitzur Ashlag 4

Based on paragraphs 6 & 7:

But we already know the ultimate goal of creation, according to the Ari: “The only reason G-d created the world” he avow, “was to grant pleasure to His creations” (Eitz Chaim, Sha'ar HaKlallim, Ch. 1). So it only makes sense that we concentrate on that over-all, Ashlag declares. And so we will.

Given that G-d meant to grant us pleasure as we’re told, it follows that He had to have granted us “a great desire to accept what He wanted to grant us” as well, since we derive a lot more pleasure from things we really want than from things we don’t. So, He granted us a “vast enough amount of willingness to accept” things to correspond to the “vast amount of pleasure (He) meant to bestow upon us”.

And that fact helps to answer our second inquiry, about what it is that wasn’t found in Him originally that was created by Him out of sheer nothingness.

The point is that the only thing that needed to be created anew was our “willingness to accept things”, our ratzon l’kabel in Hebrew -- our willingness, wish, or intent to accept, receive, or take things. It’s a rather selfish and self-serving aspect of our being for the most part, and we're called upon to transcend it. Mostly because it's what sets us apart from G-d, who needs nothing and grants everything.

It's still and all true though that G-d purposefully created the ratzon l’kabel, so it obviously contributes to the fulfilling of the goal of creation (which brings us back to the point made at the beginning).

“Thus … all of creation, from start to finish, is nothing other than (the creation of) the ratzon l’kabel.”

(c) 2007 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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

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