Monthly Archives: February 2011

This is a rather complex chapter that draws upon a lot of what has been said and raises a lot of questions of its own which will be left unanswered for a while. We’ll do what we can to encapsulate what’s said here at the end, and to point out where this whole chapter will be taking us. Then we’ll allow Ashlag to spell it all out for us.

We now have a solution to our fifth inquiry.

See 3:2.

We asked there why the body will be resurrected, seeing how base it is and given that its (immortal) soul won’t appear in it in all its purity until the body decomposes. (We can also now offer a solution to) our sages’ statement that “The dead will be brought back to life with all their defects (in place) so that they won’t be mistaken for anyone else (and that all those defects will be cured afterwards)” (Zohar, Emor 17).

But we’d first have to review the following in order to explain all that.

(Know, that) all of this is in keeping with the original intent behind creation in the first era. For, as we’d said, God intended for His creations to experience pleasure.

See 6:1.

So He created an enormous and comprehensive enough willingness to take-in all the vast amount of bounty that lay behind the intention of creation, since (the ability to take-in) a great deal of pleasure and (the need to have a correspondingly) comprehensive ratzon l’kabel go hand in hand.

See 6:2-3.

And so as we also said, this enormous ratzon l’kabel was the only thing created anew.

See 7:1-2.

… since God didn’t need to create anything else to carry out His intentions for creation, and (also) because it’s only natural that a perfect Producer wouldn’t produce anything extraneous.

We also said that this comprehensive ratzon l’kabel was withdrawn from the four worlds of holy-A.B.Y.A. and placed instead in the four worlds of defiled-A.B.Y.A., from which derived the bodies of this world, their sustenance, and all their circumstances.

See 10:2.

And we said that one only begins to attain a holy soul when he reaches age thirteen (or twelve, in the case of a young woman) thanks to his involvement in Torah and Mitzvot (with the intention to please God), and he starts to be nourished by the four worlds of holy-A.B.Y.A. to a degree that corresponds to the size of his holy (immortal) soul.

See 11:2.

We likewise said that during the six thousand years that we’d been granted to engage in Torah and Mitzvot, the body — i.e., our comprehensive ratzon l’kabel — wouldn’t be rectified (of its own accord). All the rectifications that will come about would be as a consequence of our efforts alone, and would only touch upon the Nephesh (i.e., the lowest degree of soul), from which rectifications will ascend upward through the various degrees of holiness and purity in order to (eventually) enhance the ratzon l’hashpia that evolves along with the soul.

See 11:2.

(Just know, that) all that helps to explain why the body is doomed to die, be buried, and decompose. After all, the body wouldn’t have been rectified in any way, and yet it can’t remain in that state (forever). However, if the (body’s) comprehensive ratzon l’kabel would be (prematurely) removed from the world, then God’s intentions for creation — that everyone would be granted all the great delights that He wanted them to — wouldn’t be carried out, God forbid. After all (as we alluded to above), a great ratzon l’kabel and (the ability to sustain) a great deal of pleasure go hand in hand, and one’s ratzon l’kabel diminishes to the selfsame degree that his delight and pleasure upon receiving diminishes. (So, what’s the solution?)

All Ashlag cited above begins to explain why the body must die and decompose before it’s to be resurrected, so let’s synopsize it. As we learned, God intended mankind to derive pleasure in this world. So He quite logically instilled a desire for pleasure in our beings; and He likewise quite reasonably provided us with as great a desire for pleasure as the pleasure itself would be. And so God created our ratzon l’kabel.

But it’s important to realize that it needs to be rectified. We’ll get back to that below.

We also learned that we only begin to develop an immortal soul once we start to live out the mitzvah-system and to delve into the Torah; and that the greater and purer our engagements in that, the greater and purer will our soul be.

Nonetheless, that process won’t rectify our problematic ratzon l’kabel unto itself. All we’d have accomplished by engaging in Torah and mitzvot would be to have advanced our soul upward by degrees and to have eventually bolstered our ratzon l’hashpia — which is no mean feat at all! But we will not have undone our ratzon l’kabel.

So how will our ratzon l’kabel be undone in the end as it must be in order to accomplish God’s plans? Why must we be resurrected? And why indeed did our sages say that the “dead will be brought back to life with all their defects (in place)” in order not to “be mistaken for anyone else” by that point? We’ll come to uncover all that in the next few chapters.

AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here at a discount.

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here at a discount as well.

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”

Now, since we’re essentially a ratzon l’kabel and everything that happens to us and all our circumstances are replete with that corrupt ratzon which was only created from the first to be eradicated from the world in order to bring on the perfect third era at the final reparation, (know that) we and all our circumstances are as ephemeral and mortal as a passing shadow that leaves nothing behind.

And that’s so because the ratzon l’kabel will be undone in the end (see 19:2).

But in view of the fact that the immortal soul is essentially a ratzon l’hashpia and everything that happens to it and its circumstances are replete with that (lofty) ratzon which already existed in the eternal first era as well as in the third era that’s due to come about, it is not at all ephemeral or mortal. It and its circumstances are eternal and will exist forever.

In fact, not only will the soul not experience nonexistence when the body dies, on the contrary, the nonexistence of the body will actually strengthen the soul and enable it to ascend to the Heavens.

The soul will come to full flower once the body and ego are undone because the soul will no longer be held back by the effect of the ratzon l’kabel and it can thus adhere onto God.

We’ve thus clearly demonstrated that the immortality of the soul is in no way dependent on the concepts we acquire, as certain philosophers claim. Instead, its immortality is inherent, meaning to say that it’s in its ratzon l’hashpia which is its essence. And any concepts it acquires will be its reward rather than its essence.

See 21:1.

AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here at a discount.

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here at a discount as well.

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”

Hence, our immortal souls want only to please their Creator — which is actually their nature, as we indicated — thanks to the garbs of “reverting light” that they received from the upper worlds which they’d come from.

See 21:1.

That is, since “we can deduce things about the makeup of spiritual phenomena … from the makeup of physical phenomena” as we learned at the end of the last chapter; and since people only want to please themselves and so all we do as a consequence is generate needs, thoughts about, and plans to satisfy their various desires — it stands to reason that our immortal souls, which are comprised of a desire to please God rather than themselves would set out to actually please Him.

(So,) once it’s clad in a human body, our immortal soul then starts to manifest needs, thoughts, and plans to satisfy its willingness to bestow to its fullest, and to please its Creator in proportion to its will to do that.

… much the way our egos manifest needs, thoughts, and plans to satisfy itself.

But rather than channel that desire through a combination of animalistic and more-ideal venues the way our egos do, the immortal soul only sets out to satisfy God in an ideal fashion. Since it’s utterly spiritual and doesn’t do anything by degree or in combination the way physical things do.

AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here at a discount.

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here at a discount as well.

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”

All three of these desire-types …

That is: animalistic desires, lesser human desires as in desires for respect and domination, and loftier desires as in desires for knowledge and the like.

… are present in everyone, for the most part. It’s just that they’re within us in varying degrees and in combination, which explains the difference between people.

Ashlag’s point is that since we’re ratzon l’kabel– and pleasure-driven, it follows that even the best of us (with the exception of those scant few souls who have indeed achieved a ratzon l’hashpia in the here and now) have some base and small desires; and also that even the lowliest among us are drawn to higher ideals since all three desires-types are human archetypes.

The difference between us thus lies in the intensity with which we express those desires; in whether we express them in thought, speech, or action, or in combination; and the degree to which we express them in each of those realms.

For while the more-righteous want nothing better than to draw close to God (which is still-and-all a personal desire, don’t forget) and they think, talk about, and do things that will help them do that, they also harbor a thought or more, say something or another, or do a thing or two that thwarts that. Most of us think and talk about, and do more things to thwart closeness to God, and think and talk about, and do a number of base and meaner things. And the lowliest among us think and talk about, and do a great deal of base and coarse things, and few lofty things.

(Know that) we can deduce things about the makeup of spiritual phenomena — depending on their spiritual stature — from the makeup of physical phenomena.

We’ll begin to discuss this in detail in the next chapter.

AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here at a discount.

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here at a discount as well.

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”

1.

Now, don’t be led astray by the opinion of those philosopher who state that we’re essentially comprised of our reason; that our beings only exist and expand by dint of our ability to conceive of things; that our (continued) existence and after-life depend solely on the caliber of the concepts we’d acquired; and that if we don’t conceive of things, we won’t survive after death [1]. For that’s (simply untrue and) not a Torah perspective! And besides, it’s counter-intuitive; for as anyone who has ever tried to garner knowledge knows and senses, reason is something acquired rather than the acquirer himself.

This will be resolved in Ch. 24 below.

2.

As we explained, the essential makeup of both spiritual and material phenomena is nothing other than the ratzon l’kabel. And while we pointed out that our essences are (likewise) comprised of a full ratzon l’hashpia, that only comes into play after (a series of) reparations brought on by the “reverting light” that is granted it from the upper worlds from which it comes to us, as is discussed clearly in (Ashlag’s own) Peticha L’Chochmat HaKaballah (Ch’s 14-16, 19).

This last item is a rather arcane one, but suffice it to say that at one point in the creation process, the Celestial Light that shone downward upon creation came against a numinous screen which resisted it and forced it backward. The Celestial Light suddenly began to function as “Reverting Light”, and to act as a receiver rather than an imparter so as to allow for the creation of the ratzon l’kabel. But the entire process will be reversed, as Ashlag indicates, through a series of reparations, which will then lead to the emergence of the third era.

The point is that our essential makeup is our ratzon l’kabel as well (as a ratzon l’hashpia), which you’ll understand by seeing (what’s written) there.

3.

Indeed, the only thing that distinguishes one being (i.e., person or thing) from another is its will. For each being’s will determines what it needs, which then elicits the sort of thoughts and plans it would need to have and make in order to fulfill the needs its ratzon l’kabel demands (in the first place). For just as we each have different wills (i.e., each one of us has a distinctive ratzon l’kabel), we likewise have different needs, thoughts, and plans.

There are a number of points to be made at this important juncture. First that not only do their wills differentiate beings — their type of wills does, too. For while human beings have free wills, other beings have fixed wills. (Human free-will is the ideal in fact, it’s relative to person and circumstance, and it’s actually quite rare; but it’s nonetheless assured of to all fully functioning people. It’s rare because few of us act out on it, as most people are so overwhelmed by influences that they couldn’t truly be called “free” so much as free-enough to choose to be free. But that’s all beside the point.) In any event, what sets one free-willed human being apart from the others and fixed-willed beings apart from others is what he, she, or it wills.

But whatever your will, it’s always a will for things that will serve your own purposes, a ratzon l’kabel.

When humans will something, they set out to fulfill it (either consciously, or by dint of influence, pressure, etc.) by first considering what they’d need in order to do that, by then planning and setting out to get those things, and by acting upon those things so as to have their will fulfilled. When non-humans will something they likewise plan and set out to get those things, and they also act upon them. But the variances are boundless, needless to say.

As we’ll see in the next section, though, free-willed human beings invariably want things of a different caliber, which them sets them apart on whole other levels.

Let’s address one other esoteric detail about the above. This statement is actually a plain-worded delineation of the Kabbalistic system, in that our will corresponds to the highest, most sublime Sephira of Keter; all the thinking and planning we do to fulfill that will corresponds to the “superior” (rosh, in Hebrew) Sephirot of Chochma and Binah; and all we do to act out on all that corresponds to the “interior” (toch) Sephirot that follow them (Chessed, Gevurah, etc.). And it’s all in keeping with the statement in the Zohar that “everything in the world depends on will” (2, 162b).

4.

That’s why, for example, people whose ratzon l’kabel is rooted in animalistic desires alone only need, think about, and plan things that would satisfy those sorts of animalistic desires. For even though they’d be using their minds and reason just as (other) humans do, since it’s “satisfying enough for the servant to be like his master” (see Berachot 58B), (i.e., since they’re satisfied enough identifying themselves with), their animalistic reasoning, and with their minds being enslaved to and serving their animalistic will.

(It’s also why) those whose ratzon l’kabel are preoccupied by “human” desires for the most part — desires that aren’t found in animals, like desires for respect, or for power over others — channel the great majority of their needs, thoughts, and plans on satisfying those desires as much as possible.

(It’s also why) those whose desires are mainly for (more transcendent and lofty things like) knowledge channel the great majority of their needs, thoughts, and plans into satisfying those sorts of desires as much as possible.

Since everyone (and everything) is ratzon l’kabel– and pleasure-driven, and seeing too that some of us are rather body-oriented, others more ego-oriented, and others yet more ideal-oriented, Ashlag now delves a bit into the whole notion of how people respond to drives.

His contention is that … regardless of what drives us: physical delights, ego-satisfactions, or more metaphysical sorts of pleasures, like grasping deep and recondite concepts or experiencing sublime emotions … it all comes down to what we focus on. For while people driven by physical delights focus all of their resources on satisfying those sorts of urges (and are only too willing to subject themselves to that “master’s” whims), those driven by the need to satisfy their egos, and those driven by more transcendent and lofty urges focus all of their resources on satisfying those urges. Again, the point is that we’re each driven by a ratzon l’kabel regardless of how we express it. So no one can be criticized for his egocentricity, which is universal, so much as for his choices. But as we’d learned, there’s also the option to act out of a ratzon l’kabel al m’nat l’hashpia.

Notes:

[1] See Maimonides’ “Guide for the Perplexed” 1:1, 18, 41, etc.

AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here at a discount.

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here at a discount as well.

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”

1.

Now that we’ve explained all that, we can solve our very first question which was, “What are we essentially?”

See 1:2.

What we are in essence is the very thing everything else is, which is a ratzon l’kabel — no more and no less.

Our will, some would say need, to take-in all the time is ubiquitous, boundless, utterly normal, and not to be denied. What differentiates us from each other, though, is just what we want.

Some want only the bare minimum, others want more, and others want the maximum. Some who want the bare minimum want it for healthy reasons, others for unhealthy ones; and the same is true of those who want more and the most. Some only want material things, others want some combination of material and spiritual things, and some only want God. But even someone who wants God alone wants Him and for his own reasons, and thus is no less “wanting” than the person who wants as much material delight as he can get, though the first person’s Object of desire is far more sublime.

There’s very much to be remark about this, needless to say, but suffice it to say that Ashlag’s point is that we each want, and are rarely willing to give (unless we get more in return, the way we’re all willing to pay to get the things we want, though no one who gives money in such an instance would likely be termed altruistic). And anyone who thinks he or she is indeed and utterly altruistic is either a hypocrite, an innocent or naïf, or a liar (though we each can be altruistic to degrees).

That’s not to say that altruism isn’t attainable, because it is; it’s just not yet in our midst.

But we’re not (comprised of a ratzon l’kabel as) the ratzon l’kabel manifests itself now, in the second era, as a desire to take-in and for our own benefit alone; but rather as it manifested in the first era in God’s Infinite Being, which is to say, in its eternal form of a willingness to take-in in order to gratify our Creator.

What we said above notwithstanding, still-and-all humankind isn’t essentially selfish. We’re only selfish “for now”, i.e., for the 6,000 years that comprise this second era. What we are at bottom and deep within is selfless, and only willing to take-in so as to give in return — but again, that’s not how we know humankind and ourselves to be now. Yet we’re to know that we’ll eventually be so selfless that the only reason we’d ever accept anything (from God, from Whom everything comes at bottom) would be to give it back (to God), one way or another.

2.

And even though we haven’t yet actually arrived at the third era and won’t for some time, that doesn’t blemish our essence, for the third era is an inevitable consequence of the first (as we learned).

For (there’s a Talmudic axiom to the effect that) “Everything due to be repaid is considered to be repaid already” (see Ketubot 81a); so our not having yet arrived at the third era would only be a problem if there were a question of our fulfilling what we’d have to in order to arrive at it. But since there’s no question, it’s as though we’d indeed arrived at it already.

“Everything due to be repaid is considered to be repaid already” means to say that every debt is considered to have already been repaid since it will be, in the process of time … absent some sort of mitigating circumstance. So, since absolutely nothing will thwart the arrival of the third era, it has already come for all intents and purposes.

As such, the body (i.e., self) that has been granted us in its present corrupted tsurah doesn’t blemish our essence, since it and all its effects stand ready to be annihilated along with the whole impure system from which it originates. That’s also (true) because (there’s another, equivalent Talmudic axiom to the effect that) “everything due to be burned is considered burned already” (Menachot 102b) and is regarded as never having existed.

“Everything due to be burned is considered burned already” means much the same as the above axiom to the effect that “everything due to be repaid is to be considered repaid already”. The difference lies in the fact that while “everything due to be repaid … ” allows us to assume the third era is here for all intents and purposes, while “everything due to be burned … ” allows us to assume as well that nothing but the third era has ever existed for all intents and purposes!

3.

Indeed, the soul that’s attired in our body is also essentially a ratzon. But (it’s different, in that) it’s a ratzon l’hashpia, which has been bestowed upon us from the four worlds of the holy-A.B.Y.A. (see 10:2). And it’s eternal, for the tsurah of a ratzon l’hashpia is in essential affinity with the Life of All Lives and is in no way mutable.

His point is that at bottom, everything and everyone, God included, has a ratzon: a will to do, have, bestow, etc. one thing or another. Some instances of ratzon are more beneficial than others, though. The least beneficial of all is a ratzon l’kabel, which our mortal and mutable bodies and selves have inherited from the defiled-A.B.Y.A.; while the most beneficial is a ratzon l’hashpia, which immortal and immutable God expresses intrinsically, and our immortal and immutable souls have inherited from Him through the immortal and immutable holy-A.B.Y.A.

AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here at a discount.

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here at a discount as well.

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”

1.

We can now also settle the fourth question.

See 1:5.

(Which was,) how could God, who is all-good and innately benevolent, have purposefully created so many people who suffer and are tried their whole lives long?

After all, as the question continues in the original, “Wouldn’t an all-good Creator be expected to be benevolent — if not at least less malevolent?”

It thus comes to this. The (reality of the) first era necessitated all our trials and tribulations. For we humans have to choose either the path of Torah or the path of trial and tribulation in order to achieve the complete immortality that’s due us in the third era.

See Ch. 15.

That is, the third era will come about one way or the other, as a natural outcome of the fact that the first era had already been. And since we learned that there are only two ways to earn a place in the third era: by either faithfully adhering to God’s mitzvah-system, or by suffering trials and tribulations (see 16:2), it’s clear that we shouldn’t be surprised by the existence of trials and tribulations, since they serve a profound and ultimately benevolent end.

And (besides,) all those trials and tribulations only affect the husk that is our body (and person, but no deeper), which was only created (in the first place) to perish and be interred.

So while pain does indeed ache, and oftentimes gnaws at our beings and grates at our bones, in the end that’s as far as it will ever go. For it will inevitably end up being nothing but a bitter and black memory that will itself vanish in the end, too (even though we never thought it would), much as our physical beings will.

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 discover 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 do) we can learn from them that the ultimate purpose they served was to have us realize just how harmful their cause — our self-absorption — (our 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 …

3.

Understand (as well) that once all of humanity agrees to abolish and eradicate its ratzon l’kabel and to wants nothing other than to bestow upon others, all our worldly worries and injuries will cease to exist, and everyone will be assured of a healthy and full life. For everyone would have an entire world concerned for him alone and 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 would always do from then on.

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 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 that is far out of our experience, and only comparable to the one that the Jewish Nation people achieved when they said Na’aseh v’Nishma — “We’ll do (all that’s asked of us right here and now, as God speaks) and listen (to His explanations afterwards)” (Exodus 24:7), after having been granted 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, the rest of us would be ready to bestow it upon him. And no one would ever lack for anything again.

Parenthetically, 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 God that He grant it to us; so how could the above statement stand? Apparently 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 the force of that universal prayer will storm the gates of Heaven and allow for the possibility.

4.

In point of fact, though, all the world’s trials and tribulations are only phantasms displayed before our eyes in order to prod us to undo the wrongful husk of the body (i.e., our ratzon l’kabel) and to accept upon ourselves the proper tsurah of the ratzon l’hashpia.

Each and every cataclysm and calamity we’d ever suffered, we’ll learn, was nothing but a fable and as misleading as a nightmare. All it ever did was serve as a study in what matters and what doesn’t, what’s immutable and what ephemeral. The lesson we’ll draw from it is this: the only reason we ever suffered was because we were always and only self-absorbed. And only now (we’ll say in the third era), when we’re no longer self-absorbed and are fully blessed and content instead, do we know how true that all is.

But as we’ve said, (following) the path of trial and tribulation (in contradistinction to the path of Torah and mitzvot) will (also) grant us the means to assume the better tsurah (of a ratzon l’hashpia).

That is, we’ll all perforce become selfless, as we’ve said; and we’ll always have the option of learning the above lesson by means of experiencing trial and tribulation on our own, and then “getting it”. But Ashlag’s implication is that we could learn the very same lesson — though more painlessly and expeditiously — by drawing upon the wisdom of Torah which teaches us that, and by living out its life-lessons through the mitzvah-system.

Nonetheless know that fulfilling interpersonal mitzvot takes precedence over fulfilling the more sacramental ones (having to do with our relationship to God), because (in the end) our bestowing upon others (by fulfilling interpersonal mitzvot) will have us bestow upon God (too, as a matter of course).

His final point here is that we’re nonetheless to know that there are mitzvot, and there are mitzvot.

There are the more ceremonial ones (like donning tephillin, observing Shabbat, eating Matzah on Passover, etc.) that are relatively easy to fulfill since they only require that we do what God — who is invisible, never complains, and is ever receptive and grateful — asks us to; and there are the interpersonal ones (like giving charity, visiting the sick, loaning money, etc.) that are more difficult, since they demand that we contend with others’ own self-interests, which always run counter to our own.

In any event, the sort of muscular rowing against the deafening flux of egos we’d have to engage in to satisfy another’s needs while subduing our own would serve us better in the end, since it would help us achieve a ratzon l’hashpia, and make it easier for us to acquiesce to God’s will when that goes against the grain.

AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here at a discount.

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here at a discount as well.

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”

1.

Now we can settle the fifth question as well.

See 1:6.

For, we asked how finite, mortal, and ephemeral creatures (like us) could ever derive from an Infinite Being. But it now becomes clear (given) that we have already derived from Him, and are thus indeed (creations) of the caliber of (i.e., that one would expect to have emanated from) His infinite Being, since we’re (already) eternal, perfect beings (in essence).

2.

And (we can now understand as well that) it’s our eternal nature that (actually) made it necessary for the husk that is our body (i.e., our self), which was granted us to serve (God), to be mortal and ephemeral. For had it remained in a state of eternity — God forbid! — we would have been separated from the Eternal forever!

Now, the notion that we’d have been separated from the Eternal forever had our essences remained in its primal state in the first era for eternity seems odd. After all, wouldn’t we have just remained conjoined with Him there and then? But as we learned in Ch. 15, all three eras are interdependent; so, again, era one needed era two in order to eventually bring about era three.

For as we said in Ch. 13, the tsurah of our body (i.e., our self) which is (at bottom) the willingness to accept things for our own purposes (as opposed to our essence), wasn’t part of the (ultimate) intentions for eternity. And we were already in the state (there, in the first era) that we’ll be in, in the third era.

3.

(Understand, though, that) we needn’t raise questions about the place of other (animate or inanimate) beings in the world. For humankind is the focal point of creation, whereas other beings have no intrinsic worth. In fact they’re only of consequence when they (can) help humankind achieve perfection, and they only ascend and descend in relation to humankind and (thus) haven’t any personal standing.

Ashlag now addresses a very serious objection some might have. That’s all very good as far as humankind is concerned, since it’s subsumed in God’s Presence in the first and third eras, and it need only endure the second so as to get from one to the other. But what of entities, phenomena, beings, etc, that will never be subsumed in His Presence and thus don’t seem to matter at all?

He indicates though that that’s a moot point, since nothing but humankind matters at bottom in the great rush and struggle to adhere unto God’s Presence that is corporeal existence, other than as a subsidiary help or deterrent. (See 3:4 as well.)

AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here at a discount.

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here at a discount as well.

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”

1.

With all this in mind we can now respond to our third question.

See 1:4.

For we’d raised the point (there) that when we consider ourselves closely we find ourselves to be as tainted and lowly as can be. Yet (conversely) when we consider our Creator, we (surmise that we) should actually be of the highest order, as only befits (creations of) such a Creator, than whom no one is more exalted. After all, it’s only natural (to assume) that a perfect Being (like Himself) would (only) produce perfect beings.

So, why aren’t we perfect?

But now we can understand why.

For the truth of the matter is…

Our body (i.e., our self), with all its meaningless exigencies and trappings, isn’t our real body (self)! (After all, how could it be, since) our real, eternal, and perfect body (self) has already existed in the Infinite’s Being in the first era, where it (had already) assumed the perfect tsurah of bestowance (that is due it) in the destined third era, where it’s (already) in essential affinity with the Infinite One.

That is, the people we are today, with all our foibles and missteps, woes and pratfalls, are not who we are at bottom. For, our real selves are already subsumed in the Infinite’s Being and are already without its uniquely human ratzon l’kabel, know it or not. Of course, Ashlag’s aim is to indeed have us know that, and to thus embrace the inevitable on our own by assuming a life of Torah and mitzvah observance.

But wouldn’t it be reasonable to argue that we really shouldn’t be made to endure the second era after all, in light of the acridness of the struggle and the agony of the obstacles? No, we’re told; for…

2.

Our situation in the first era (when we’re already subsumed in the Infinite’s Being) requires us to be conferred in the second era with a husk of a body (self) with its corrupt and flawed selfish ratzon l’kabel that separates us from God, so as to rectify it and to (thus) genuinely experience our eternal body (self) in the third era (on our own).

So we really shouldn’t object. Since (we have to experience the second era, as) we can only serve God in a mortal body (which we only have then), as one can’t repair something he doesn’t already have (see 15:4).

As such, there’s really no good reason to dismiss the second era, since it’s the only context in which we can purposefully and willfully serve God of our own volition, and undo our own very human blemishes when we have them to undo. For we haven’t any in the first era and won’t have them any longer in the third, so as it’s put so pithily in the Talmud, “if not now, then when? (Pirkei Avot 1:14)”

Despite that, the fact remains that…

We’re indeed already in the (sort of) perfected state that’s appropriate for (entities created by) the perfect Creator; and yet God has (indeed) also placed us in our situation in the second era (despite that, for the reasons we indicated). So, our (present) body (self) doesn’t (actually) blemish us whatsoever, since it’s doomed to die and be undone, and it’s (in fact) only with us for the time it takes to be undone and to assume its eternal (perfect) state.

Only a seer of the likes of Yehudah Ashlag would dare wax poetic about “mere” death and pooh-pooh it as he does at the end here. But the truth lies with him in the end, and we’d all be wise to take heed.

AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here at a discount.

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here at a discount as well.

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”