Monthly Archives: April 2013

1.

            And the reason for that (i.e., for the Messiah’s refusal to appear in our generation) as we’ve said is because those who do delve into Torah depreciate their own and Torah’s interior (aspect, by eschewing Kabbalah), and they regard the Torah’s interior as superfluous.       

            But they’re like blind people running their hands along a wall (see Isaiah 59:10).

That’s to say, those laudable souls who study Torah in depth and dedicate their lives to the punctilious observance of mitzvot in the hopes of encouraging the Messiah to arrive are barking up the wrong tree, if you will; they’re shortsightedly looking here (in the revealed Torah) for what’s actually there (in the concealed Torah).

            For they thus strengthen their own exterior (aspect), meaning the advantages of their body (over their soul), and they likewise bestow more importance to the Torah’s exterior (aspect) than to its interior (one)…

That is, they lend more credence to their bodies than to their souls by favoring the more practical, this-worldly aspects of the Torah over the Kabbalah-based ones.

            And they also enable the world’s exterior (aspects) to hold sway over its interior (ones).

That is, they thus seem to advocate and grant more importance to externals, which is so much more destructive since these individuals are the greatest Torah scholars and leaders.

            For the exterior (aspect) of the Jewish Nation, meaning its less learned individuals, thus hold sway over and can undo the Jewish Nation’s interior (aspect), her Torah greats. And the exterior (aspect) of the other nations, their destructive elements, likewise hold sway over and are able to undo their interior (aspect). And the world’s exterior (aspect) holds sway over and undoes its interior (aspect as a consequence).

So, all externals overwhelm internals, which leads to the less learned elements of the Jews to hold sway over its Torah greats, and the more brutish elements of the other peoples to hold sway over their more righteous ones.

2.

            It’s (in fact) in just such a generation that destructive forces rear up their heads and most especially want to annihilate the Jewish Nation. (For) it’s said, “calamity only befalls the world for (the sins of) the Jewish Nation” (Yebamot 63).

            Hence, since all that had been (stated) in the Zohar has come true (in our times); since (it’s also true that) disaster has struck the very best of us in particular (in the course of the Holocaust); and since the dignity that the Jewish Nation once enjoyed in Poland, Lithuania, etc. only abides with the remnant (of Torah greats) living in Israel now, it’s thus incumbent upon us to correct that dreadful wrong.

            Each of us (of that caliber left) must take it upon himself with every fiber of his being and with all his means to bolster the Torah’s interior (aspect) and grant it its (rightful) place of honor above the Torah’s exterior (aspect) from now on (by studying the Zohar and Kabbalah).

3.

            Then each one of us (Torah greats ourselves) will be awarded with a bolstering of his own interior (aspect) over the needs of his exterior (aspect). But the capacity to do that will only come to the Jewish Nation (in its entirety) once the unlearned among us acknowledge and realize the value of the Torah greats over them and (begin to) listen to and obey them.

That is, once the Torah greats themselves delve into Kabbalah as they should they’ll nourish their own beings inside and out. And — the implication is — then they’ll appear in a new light in the eyes of the unlearned, who’ll admire and obey them by that point, study Kabbalah as well, and grow in their own beings. And once all that happen…

            The interior (aspect) of the other nations will overpower its exterior (aspect) and subdue them. And the world’s interior (aspect) will likewise gloriously and nobly overpower the world’s exterior (aspect), and all the nations of the world will recognize and acknowledge the significance of the Jewish Nation.

            Then the words, “God will have mercy on Jacob and will indeed choose Israel and set them in their own land: the foreigners will be joined with them and will cleave on to the house of Jacob” (Isaiah 14:1) will be fulfilled, as well as (the words) “they will carry your sons in their arms, and carry your daughters on their shoulders” (Isaiah 49:22). For as the Zohar (itself) says, “It is through (the study of) this work, the Zohar, that they’ll be freed from exile with mercy” (Parshat Nasah p. 124).

            Amen, may it be so!

 (c) 2013 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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.

            (In fact,) it’s said in the Zohar, “Rise up and rouse yourself before the Divine Presence! For your heart is empty, and it lacks the knowledge (you’d need) to know and apprehend it, though it’s (right) in your midst!”

The Zohar indicates that for some reason or another we haven’t the wherewithal to draw close to the Divine Presence.

            The secret import of this is (alluded to in the verse,) “A voice says, Cry out!” (Isaiah 40:6). (We’re taught that) the Divine Presence said (in response), “What should I cry out? All flesh is but grass”, (meaning to say that) all (people) are like grass-eating animals, “and all its kindness is like the flower of the field!” (meaning to say that) all the acts of kindness they proffer are for their own benefit” (Tikkunei Zohar 40).

What holds us back from drawing close to the Divine Presence in fact and from hoisting it out of the pit it’s in, in our state of exile, is our selfishness and egotism, we’re told. Ashlag will now expand upon that.

                        The mystical meaning of that is as follows. “A voice says, Cry out!” (indicates that) a voice beats in each and every Jew’s heart to call out and pray for the ascent of the Divine Presence which encompasses all Jewish souls. But the Presence replies, “What should I cry out?”, as if to say, I haven’t the strength to lift myself out of the dust (in which I lie, in exile), for “all flesh is but grass”, which is to say that “they’re all like grass-eating animals” — they all fulfill mitzvot mindlessly like animals. “And all (of humankind’s) kindness is like the flower of the field” means to say that “all the acts of kindness they proffer are for their own benefit”, for whenever they fulfill mitzvot they only do it to please themselves rather than their Creator.

            In fact, (that could) even (be said of) those who toil in Torah, for “all the acts of kindness (that) they proffer are for their own benefit” (as well, for indeed,) even the best of them, those who spend all their time studying Torah, only do so for their own benefit, without meaning to please their Creator as they should.

Ashlag had already disclosed how deeply saddened he was by the fact that even the greatest Torah scholars of our generation don’t study Kabbalah, and of the spiritual “aridity and darkness we find ourselves to be in our generation” as a result (Ch. 57).

The greatest tragedy to come of that, though (aside from the Holocaust, of course, which is alluded to at the end of the last chapter), is our aforementioned selfishness and egotism. His point is that the only way we can outgrow that is by honing all five aspects of our soul, which we only manage to do when we delve into Kabbalistic as well as the practical aspects of Torah (Ch. 56).

2.

            (It’s also said there in the Zohar of) such a generation (that they are like), “a spirit that passes away and does not return” (Psalms 78:39), which refers to the spirit of the Messiah, who is to deliver Israel from all its troubles (and lead us all) to the ultimate redemption. For that spirit has left and doesn’t shine in the world (for now).

The point is that the Messiah is to come in order to reveal the sort of knowledge of God that the Kabbalah explicates, but he’ll see how we don’t yearn for that knowledge and will turn around.

            Woe to those who cause the spirit of the Messiah to vanish from the world and not return (in their day)! They make the Torah (seem) dry and without a drop of sense or wisdom! For they restrict themselves to the practical aspects of the Torah and don’t care to understand the wisdom of the Kabbalah, or to study the Torah’s mysteries or the reasons behind its mitzvot (that Kabbalah gives insight to).

            Woe to them! For they bring poverty, ruin, robbery, looting, murder, and destruction upon the world by their deeds.

(c) 2013 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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.

            It’s quite clear, then, that the Torah itself has an interior and exterior (aspect) just like everything else in the universe. (It thus follows that) those who study Torah (also) fall into (one of) those two categories, and that the more one toils in the interior (aspect) of the Torah and its mysteries, the more able is he to elevate the interior (aspect) of the world, i.e., the (actual) Jewish Nation, higher and higher over its exterior (aspect), i.e., the other nations; and (the more able is he) to have them recognize and acknowledge the significance of the Jewish Nation.

            And (when that happens,) then the words, “God will have mercy on Jacob and will indeed choose Israel and set them in their own land: the foreigners will be joined with them and will cleave on to the house of Jacob.” (Isaiah 14:1), and “Thus says God the Lord, Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations and set up My standard to the peoples; and they will carry your sons in their arms, and carry your daughters on their shoulders” (Isaiah 49:22) will be realized.

2.

            But if, God forbid, the opposite occurs, and a Jew places less value on the (study of the) interior (aspect) of the Torah which deals with the ways of our souls and their levels as well as with the reasons for the mitzvot than he does upon (studying) the Torah’s exterior (aspect), which deals with practicalities alone…

If a Jew who has access to Kabbalah refuses to take it seriously because it isn’t as weighty or relevant as the “revealed” Torah in his eyes, since Kabbalah doesn’t touch upon practical halacha or help to explain abstruse themes in the entire Jewish Bible in more practical terms…

            … then even if he does in fact delve into its interior (aspect) once in a while and grants it a little of his time, as if it were somehow superfluous, God forbid, … such a person degrades and demeans the interior (aspect) of the world and grants power to the exterior (aspect) of the world over them, and (he thus enables them) to humiliate and disgrace the Jewish Nation and to have it regarded as superfluous and worthless, God forbid.

That is, if even Torah scholars deem Kabbalah of little worth, they’ll thus foster a sense among non-Jews that the Jewish Nation, who embody the heart of Torah that Kabbalah, is also of little worth. In fact …

            Not only that, but he’ll even enable the other nations’ exterior (aspect) to overcome its interior (one).

As we learned, the other nations’ interior aspect is comprised of their righteous individuals while its exterior one is made up of their crass and destructive elements (see 65:1).

            Then the lower (elements) of the other nations, those (among them who) destroy and ruin, will gain power and begin to tower over their interior (elements) and be able to bring on (more of the sort of) ruination and heinous slaughter that our generation has witnessed, may God protect us from that now on!

3.

            Thus we see that the redemption and ascendancy of the Jewish Nation (does indeed) depend upon our studying the Zohar and the (rest of the) interior (aspect) of the Torah.

This harkens back to the end of the last chapter where we learned that the Zohar indicates that our redemption will only come about through the study of the Zohar and Kabbalah.

            And (you likewise see that) on the contrary, all the ruin and decline of the Jewish Nation is a result of our abandoning and belittling the Torah’s interior (aspect) and considering it superfluous, God forbid.

 (c) 2013 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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, don’t be surprised by the idea that a single individual can have the entire world plummet downward or soar upward by his deeds alone. It’s (simply due to the fact that there’s) an inviolable (cosmic) law (that indicates) that the universal and the specific are like two drops in a pond, and that whatever occurs to the universal occurs to the specific as well.

This is the principle of the microcosm corresponding to the macrocosm, each particle of a hologram mirroring the whole of it, each link reflecting the chain.

The point is that though we’re each independent elements of the whole, every one of us is inexorably linked to it. Jiggle one and you impel the other, and vice versa. As such, move one way, and you move the universe along with you, you are that powerful. (Contrarily, encounter the universe moving another way, and know that you’ll find yourself moved in that direction, too, you are that susceptible.)

            In fact, all specifics do the selfsame things that the universal does, because the universal only comes about after its specific parts do, with all their quantitative and qualitative elements.

So for example, the notion of “four-ness” can’t exist until there are four separate entities. Though each entity is different from the others, they each go into making up the “four-ness” they’ve now become, and so they’re linked. As such, whatever happens to any one of them affects the lot of them, and it subsequently changes the entire “four-ness” as well. The same is true of the universe: it wouldn’t be what it is without each one of its necessary separate and unique elements, so each one is vital and representative of the whole.

            As such it follows that the acts of a specific (person) can (indeed) have the universe soar upward or plummet downward to a degree.

This chapter brings us back full circle to the book’s initial questions, and thus ties the whole work together.

If you recall, Ashlag had asked (among other things) in the very first chapter: What are we at bottom? And, what role do we play in the great course of events which we’re such minor players in?

The bulk of the book is then spent explaining all that, but what’s most telling in the context of the present discussion about delving into Kabbalah and Zohar is what Ashlag said in Ch’s 48-49, 56, where he indicated that each one of us fully establishes what he or she is made of and fulfills his or her true raison d’être when we study Kabbalah, since by doing that we each single-handedly help bring the universe to full blossom.

            That explains the Zohar’s statement (to the effect) that we’ll be brought from exile to redemption through the study of the Zohar and Kabbalah (Tikkunei Zohar 6). After all, what does studying the Zohar have to do with the redemption of the Jewish Nation?

 (c) 2013 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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, when a Jew fortifies and enhances his interior (aspect), his inner “Jewish Nation” rather than his exterior (aspect), his inner “other Nations”, by concentrating most of his efforts on fortifying and cultivating his interior (aspect) and bettering his soul while only (dedicating) a few, essential efforts on sustaining his (inner) “other Nations”, i.e., his bodily needs [1]…

That is, when an individual Jew truly hones and enlarges his inner self while tempering and diminishing his otherness, inside and out …

            … he then enables the Jewish Nation to soar higher and higher upward and the other Nations to recognize and acknowledge the value of the Jewish Nation.

That’s to say that that individual hones and enlarges the entire Jewish Nation inside and out.

2.

            But if a Jew fortifies and enhances his exterior (aspect) — his (inner) “other Nations” — more so than his (inner) “Jewish Nation”…

That is, when an individual Jew hones and enlarges his inner otherness while tempering and diminishing his inner self, inside and out…

            … then his exterior (aspect) will (begin) to soar upward, and his actual interior (aspect) and inner “Jewish Nation” will plunge downward. And that will have the other nations soar ever upward and overcome the (actual) Jewish Nation, and cause them to sink down to the ground, and (will make it possible for) the Jewish Nation to plunge deeper and deeper down.

That’s to say that such a person will then hone and enlarge the sphere of externality, inside and out, and debase the Jewish Nation on a geo-political level and threaten its well-being.

All of this is true because “an impetus from below sets off an impetus up above” (see Zohar II, p. 175B), which is to say that because “down and up” and “in and out” are parallel to each other, what we do effects the world at large as a consequence, much the way twins often effect each other on all levels despite physical distance. His point is that we’re duty-bound to fortify the Jewish Nation both within and without, and we’ll soon see how we do that.

[1] At this point Ashlag cites the following axiom to underscore his point, “Make your Torah (study) permanent and your (worldly) efforts transient” (Pirkei Avot 1).

 (c) 2013 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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”