R' Ashlag Ch. 19 (sect. 3)

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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Ch. 19

3.

"Understand (as well) that once all of humanity agrees to abolish and eradicate its ratzon l’kabel and to want nothing other than to bestow upon others (rather than just take from them) -- all our worldly worries and injuries will cease to exist, and everyone will be assured of a healthy and perfect life. For everyone would have an entire world concerned with him alone in with satisfying his (every) need".

"But there’ll always be (the sort of) worries, trials and tribulations, wars, and bloodshed that we can’t (yet) avoid that dispirit, afflict, and pain us as long as everyone only wants things for his own benefit".

-- This is a quite remarkable section that cries out for explanation. First off it’s important to know that this will all happen at the *beginning* of the third era, since it refers to both mundane and rarefied events that will only come about then -- when Heaven and Earth commingle as they wouldn’t have till then and wouldn’t need to any longer.
-- The point is that the essential nothingness and great harmfulness of the ratzon l’kabel pointed to above will become clear to “all of humanity”, Jew and Gentile, by that point; each and every person will decide that he or she had had enough of it, and would elect to express a ratzon l’hashpia instead.
-- Understand, of course, that this will be a massive and fulgent instance of pure, selfless knowing and revelation far out of our experience, and only comparable to the one our people achieved when they said Na’aseh v’Nishma -- “We’ll do (all that’s asked of us right here and now, as G-d speaks) and listen (to His explanations afterwards)” (Exodus 24:7), after having been given the Torah. After all, we’d be abandoning everything de rigueur and natural, and embracing a wholly new and unaccustomed perspective that would threaten us to the core!
-- But the shift will happen, we’re assured, and it will sit well with us after a time because we’d see the benefits. For by virtue of the fact that we’d all have chosen to bestow rather than take-in, whenever one of us wanted or needed something (for some unselfish and high-minded reason, of course), the rest of us would be ready to bestow it upon him. And no one would ever lack for anything again.
-- Parenthetically, R’ Ashlag says in many places that we humans actually don’t have the ability to assume a ratzon l’hashpia on our own, and that the only thing we’re expected to do realistically to realize one would be to pray to G-d that He grant it to us; so how could the above statement stand? Apparently R’ Ashlag’s point is that we will indeed have come to pray for it by that point -- every single one of us -- because it would have been the beginning of the third era by then; and that the force of that universal prayer will storm the gates of Heaven and allow for the possibility.

(c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

(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 by logging onto www.tinyurl.com/49s8t (or by going to www.rowman.com and searching for it). Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

"The Way of G-d", Ch. 6, Paragraph 11

RAMCHAL

-- A Reworking of Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto's "The Way of G-d"

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman's series on www.torah.org

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"The Way of G-d", Ch. 6, Paragraph 11

Few things tug at the very core of the cosmos as much as we do, when we recite the Sh'mone Esrei. So let's delve into that core-central prayer. But it's important to understand a few things beforehand about the workings of the universe as Ramchal explains them.

We're taught that G-d's Ineffable name -- which is composed of the four letters Yod, Hay, Vav, and Hay -- forms the backdrop to all of creation. Now, the structure and makeup as well as the interactions between those four letters go to explain very many things about the overt and covert workings of the universe. But we'll only touch upon these few facts about them for our purposes.

We also learn that G-d's Providence reaches us primarily through three sources which are alluded to by the first three of the four Hebrew letters of G-d's name. The three of them must be joined together on a very deep and wide esoteric level if that Providence is to reach us. And we're also told that the final letter of G-d's name, Hay, only comes into play once the other three are joined together.

And all of that is activated when we recite the first blessing of the Sh'mone Esrei which reads as follows (with some omissions): "Blessed are You, our G-d and G-d of our fathers -- the G-d of Abraham, the G-d of Isaac, and the G-d of Jacob -- the great, mighty, and awesome G-d ... who recalls the Patriarchs' acts of kindness, and will bring a Deliverer to their descendants .... ".

For we're told that the three letters of G-d's name under discussion are subtly alluded to by the terms "great, mighty, and awesome" there; and that they're tied-in on an arcane level with the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as well. What that comes to is this.

The term "great" alludes to G-d's kindness (according to one kabbalistic system), which is represented by the letter Yod of His name and by the patriarch Abraham; "mighty" alludes to G-d's judgment, which is represented by the (first) letter Hay and by the patriarch Isaac; and "awesome" alludes to G-d's mercy, which is represented by the letter Vav and by the patriarch Jacob.

So when we cite Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we draw upon their many merits which then allow for G-d's Providence to pass through the "pipes" of the letters Yod, Hay, Vav which have thus been united under the cumulative merits of the patriarchs.

The final letter, Hay, is activated by the statement later on in that blessing about G-d bringing a Deliverer to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's descendants, since that alludes to King David, from whose line the Moshiach will come. David's descendant will thus complete the role of the patriarchs, and will thus join all *four* letters of the Divine name together.

The Sh'mone Esrei's middle blessings then help transmit G-d's Providence through those "pipes", and the last blessings allow that all to reach its intended recipients.

(c) 2005 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 by logging onto www.tinyurl.com/49s8t (or by going to www.rowman.com and searching for it). Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

R' Ashlag Ch. 19 (sect. 2)

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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Ch. 19

2.

"What that all comes to teach us is that our ratzon l’kabel was only created to (eventually) be annihilated and removed from the world, and to be transformed into a ratzon l’hashpia. And that all the trials and tribulations we suffer are (at bottom only meant) to serve as means of disclosing the ratzon l’kabel’s essential nothingness and great harmfulness".

-- Some wiser, more fortunate souls learn from adversity. They come to learn from poverty, for example, how to make do with what they have, use it to the maximum, and enjoy it. (Everything they own becomes even more luscious and rich as a result, if they become prosperous).

-- We ourselves are expected to be more thoughtful and insightful about our trials and tribulations in this second era (which will inevitably lead to the third era, at the beginning of which the following will all take place).

-- For while trials and tribulations are dreadful, before they vanish (which they inevitably will) we can learn from them that the ultimate purpose they served was to have us realize just how harmful their cause -- our self-absorption -- (ratzon l’kabel) had been all along, and how much pain it had caused us.

-- Indeed, once we do that we can purposefully adopt the alternative, selflessness (a ratzon l’hashpia), and immediately realize its benefits. Or we can have suffered trials and tribulations, and have learned nothing from them (as most people do), and inherit a ratzon l’hashpia despite ourselves. But what benefits are there to becoming selfless? As we’ll see, ......

(c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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

********************************
AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*! You can order it right now by logging onto www.tinyurl.com/49s8t (or by going to www.rowman.com and searching for it). Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".