R’ Ashlag’s “Introduction To The Zohar”: Ch. 45

1.

            This nephesh-light is termed the holy light of mineral-ness of the world of Assiyah, since it corresponds to the pure mineral-ness of the ratzon l’kabel in the human body.

We’d just learned that it’s the point in your heart that’s the mineral aspect of your soul (44:2). Ashlag is now terming that point “the holy light of the mineral-ness of the world of Assiyah” to indicate that despite it’s essential mineral-ness and its corresponding to the pure mineral-ness of your ratzon l’kabel it’s nevertheless holy since it’s an aspect of the world of Assiyah (which, while the lowest world, is still and all an aspect of pure Godliness).

Also see 46:2.

            Its light shines (i.e., functions) on a spiritual level much the way mineral-ness does in the physical world, whose details don’t move about on their own but rather in general and in ways that encompass all of its details equally.

That is, just as inanimate objects are … inanimate … and only move on a molecular level and perhaps from place to place as a whole, and then only when provoked by external forces, the light of the mineral-ness of the world of Assiyah likewise only functions to those minimal degrees.

2.

            The same is true of the light of the partzuf of the nephesh of Assiyah. For even though it has 613 spiritual-organs that are (actually) 613 essentially different forms of accepting the (Divine) bounty, nonetheless those differences aren’t apparent, and (the only thing governing it) is an all encompassing light whose function affects them all equally without a clear distinction of details.

We’d already learned that all 613 spiritual-organs of the point in your heart form a partzuf, which we depicted as an integrated organism (see 44:2). What’s being underscored here is the fact that those spiritual-organs serve as “613 essentially different forms of accepting the (Divine) bounty”. That means to say that like our bodily organs, each one of these spiritual-organs has likewise been created by God and nourished and maintained by His bounty, and is each one is to serve distinct needs and to function in unique ways. It’s just that their mineral-ness dictates that the lot of them functions as a whole  rather than as the separate units they are.

(c) 2012 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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