{"id":196,"date":"2017-07-09T19:21:05","date_gmt":"2017-07-09T19:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/?p=196"},"modified":"2017-07-09T19:21:05","modified_gmt":"2017-07-09T19:21:05","slug":"daat-tevunot-24-72-cont-75","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/2017\/07\/09\/daat-tevunot-24-72-cont-75\/","title":{"rendered":"Da\u2019at Tevunot 2:4 (# 72 [cont.] – 75)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Da\u2019at Tevunot<\/em> 2:4 (# 72 [cont.] – 75)<\/p>\n

What enable the soul to purify the body are the soul\u2019s native power, inner incandescence, and the loftiness of its source 1<\/sup>. So great is all that, in fact, that the soul could actually instantaneously<\/em> elevate and perfect the body when we\u2019re born. But we\u2019d lose our yetzer<\/em> hara<\/em> and free will accordingly, and be angelic and full of light and the knowledge of G-d from the first, which are not G-d\u2019s intentions.<\/p>\n

Indeed there\u2019ll come a time when \u201cthe land will be as full of the knowledge of G-d as water covers the sea-bed\u201d (Isaiah 11:9), when \u201cI will take away (your) heart of stone \u2026 and give you a heart of flesh (instead)\u201d 2<\/sup> (Ezekiel 36:26), and when the soul will become even more exalted than the angels. But that\u2019s not to happen yet. The soul is thus like the moon whose light was initially diminished 3<\/sup> but will be restored in the future 4<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

The soul is thus \u201cdimmed\u201d now, if you will; muted and diminished. Yet it also can\u2019t be too<\/em> diminished or it wouldn\u2019t be able to do what it must do in the meanwhile, to say nothing of what it must do in the future. But that\u2019s another matter 5<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

2.<\/p>\n

So, while the soul is naturally able to grow more and more splendorous with each mitzvah we do here, it\u2019s still and all held captive while in the body and forced to face the challenges of the yetzer<\/em> hara<\/em>. But it will reach something of its potential in the Afterlife, thanks to those mitzvahs, which will then enable it to purify the body further in the course of the resurrection of the dead 6<\/sup>, after which the two will experience the world to come 7<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

The soul does enjoy an elevation in our lifetime with each good thing we do but that elevation is largely imperceptible 8<\/sup> even though it manifests itself in certain exalted individuals 9<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Footnotes:<\/p>\n

1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/sup>This chapter is surprisingly redundant in the original. R\u2019 Yoseph Spinner attributes that to a number of (superfluous) additions which were made after the first edition; and we\u2019d offer that some of the redundancy is due to the fact that Ramchal purposefully set out to encapsulate his points at the end. So we\u2019ve shortened and reordered it to make for easier reading.<\/p>\n

2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/sup>I.e., a new inclination toward goodness rather than a yetzer<\/em> hara<\/em>, according to Rashi there.<\/p>\n

3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/sup>See Chullin<\/em> 60b.<\/p>\n

4\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/sup>See Isaiah 30:26.<\/p>\n

5\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/sup>See 1:2:3 above about G-d muting His own abilities, if you will, for our sake; also see 1:14:3, 1:15:3. The point is that the soul must be set just-so, so as not to overwhelm or \u201cunderwhelm\u201d.<\/p>\n

6\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/sup>See Derech<\/em> Hashem<\/em> 1:3:12.<\/p>\n

See Clallim<\/em> Rishonim<\/em> 6* for discussions of the Kabbalistic implications of this chapter which touch upon G-d allowing a bit of His being (known as the Kav<\/em>) to return to the cosmos after having \u201cremoved\u201d Himself from it (i.e., after the Tzimtzum<\/em>) much the way the soul is restored to its luster in the course of the resurrection of the dead after having been dimmed.<\/p>\n

7<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A lot isn\u2019t being said here. For just as the \u201cbody\u201d being spoken of here isn\u2019t the body alone, as we\u2019d indicated above, the \u201csoul\u201d depicted here is also a multi-faceted entity. See Ramchal\u2019s discussion of the various aspects of the soul in Derech<\/em> Hashem<\/em> 1:3:4, and see Nephesh<\/em> Hachaim<\/em> 1:15 about the complex interactions of the various aspects of the soul. Also see Eitz<\/em> Chaim,<\/em> Sha’ar<\/em> Ha’akudim<\/em> Ch. 5 for a discussion of the fact that what happens on one level happens on all of them. All of this underscores the complexity and fluidity of the \u201csoul\u201d and the \u201cbody\u201d, and their interactions. The point of the matter is that the combination of the two is entirely too complex for a simple understanding,<\/p>\n

8\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/sup>This is a subtle lead-in to the discussion of G-d\u2019s hiddeness to follow.<\/p>\n

9\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/sup>See 2:2:2 above.<\/p>\n

(c) 2017 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman<\/p>\n

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org<\/a><\/p>\n

———————————————————-<\/p>\n

Rabbi Feldman’s new annotated translation of Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag\u2019s \u201cIntroduction to the Zohar\u201d is available as \u201cThe Kabbalah of Self\u201d on Kindle here<\/a>. His annotated translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here<\/a> and his annotated translation of Rabbeinu Yonah\u2019s “The Gates of Repentance” is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).<\/p>\n

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes torah.org entitled \u201cSpiritual Excellence<\/a>\u201d and \u201cRamchal<\/a>\u201d that can be subscribed to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Da\u2019at Tevunot 2:4 (# 72 [cont.] – 75) What enable the soul to purify the body are the soul\u2019s native power, inner incandescence, and the loftiness of its source 1. So great is all that, in fact, that the soul … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,3,4,5,6,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hashkapha","category-jewish-thought","category-kabbalah","category-luzzatto","category-ramchal","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iqo7-3a","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":198,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196\/revisions\/198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}