R’ Ashlag’s “Introduction To The Zohar”: Ch. 49

1.

We’re slowly approaching our end-point now with some final insights into just how we grow from harboring-souls to bestowing ones.

            Then, once you earn this great light which is termed “Neshama-Light”, … ”     

That is, once a “point from the light of holy-Chayah” referred to at the end of the last chapter, “extends outwards” and precipitates the appearance of a “partzuf of Neshama”…

            … (which is) the partzuf in which each of the 613 organs radiates fully and separately like an independent partzuf, …

You then earn a human-like partzuf that has command over each of its elements, unlike a mineral one, which has no command over its elements, ostensibly; a vegetable one, which has only some; and an animal one, which has a decidedly larger amount of command over its elements but hardly as much as this human-like one.

            … then the means to observe each mitzvah with its true intention is provided you. For each organ of the partzuf of Neshama uncovers the path of each mitzvah relevant to that organ.

For once you achieve that state and your self is opened-up as never before, organ by organ, you’d have advanced to the point where you can fulfill mitzvot for their own ends alone rather than for selfish designs.

            And then, thanks to the great power of those lights, you’re able to go on to purify the verbal aspect of your ratzon l’kabel and to transform it into a willingness to bestow. And the point of Chayah-Light which is engarbed in your 248 spiritual organs and 365 spiritual tendons is then able to bolster itself correspondingly.

2.

            Indeed, when the point of Neshama-Light becomes an entire partzuf (unto itself) it ascends upward and is engarbed in the sephirah of Chochma in the world of Assiyah, which is an unfathomably subtle vessel. It then extends a great and mighty light from the Infinite that’s termed Chaya-Light (referred to above) or the “Neshama of Neshama”.

As was explained in Ch. 41, there are five supernal lights which correspond to the five levels of the soul that are termed Nephesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya, and Yechidah. Ashlag has expanded upon Nephesh, Ruach, and Neshama so far. The “Neshama of Neshama” cited here corresponds to the Chaya which is the arcane root or “soul” of the more empirical, lower soul levels of Nephesh, Ruach, and Neshama. (We won’t be referring to the Chaya’s own “soul”, however, because as we also learned there, it’s utterly beyond our ken.)

            Then all the details of Assiyah — all its mineral-ness, vegetable-ness, and animal-ness  that correspond to the sephirah of Chochma — help it take in the Chochma -light in full, along the lines we explained in regard to Nephesh-Light

            See Ch’s 46-47.

            It’s then also termed “Holy Verbal-ness” because it corresponds to the pure level of human verbal-ness.

3.

            The stature of that light vis-a-vis its Godliness is equal to that of (the level of) verbal-ness in physical mineral-ness, vegetable-ness, animal-ness , and verbal-ness. That means to say that it develops an awareness of others.

The ability to not only move about at random and at will but to likewise move out of one’s own being, so to speak, and to thus be able empathize with others is what enables us to sense others’ needs, and to bestow rather than just take-in.

            As such, this light’s level of spiritual mineral-ness, vegetable-ness, and animal-ness is on par with the material verbal-ness of material mineral-ness, vegetable-ness, and animal-ness.

            The level of light of the Infinite engarbed in this partzuf is termed “Yechidah-Light”.

Let’s now review how we’ve progressed from Nephesh-Light to Yechidah-Light.

We learned in Ch. 41 that, “the light of Yechidah shines in Adam Kadmon” which is the highest realm, “the light of Chaya shines in Atzilut, the light of Neshama shines in Briah, the light of Ruach shines in Yetzirah, and the light of Nephesh shines in Assiyah”, in descending order. Our task was to reverse that process and to ascend upward from Nephesh-Light.

Nephesh-light corresponds to the pure mineral-ness of the ratzon l’kabel” (Ch. 45). We’re born with it. When “we struggle to observe Torah and Mitzvot with proper intentions” we manage to acquire a degree of Ruach-Light and to go on to develop the Neshama-Light that’s engarbed in it by “engaging in the secrets of the Torah and in the reasons behind the mitzvot” (Ch. 48).

Then as we saw in section 2 above “when the point of Neshama-Light becomes an entire partzuf it then ascends upward” and “extends a great and mighty light from the Infinite that’s termed Chayah-Light”, which then leads to our developing a Yechidah-Light.

(c) 2012 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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