Monthly Archives: February 2013

Ashlag now turns to a rather arcane point in Talmudic casuistry. His point is that the idea that the earlier sages were less enlightened than the latter ones is problematic as far as halacha is concerned. For from a halachic perspective, the earlier authorities are deemed to have been wiser, and (most significantly) to have been more in tune with Heavenly truth by virtue of the fact that they were closer in time to the revelation of the Torah at Mount Sinai. Ashlag agrees with the axiom that the earlier Talmudists were more enlightened than the latter, despite the apparent contradiction that presents us with, and he explains why in Kabbalistic terms. 

            But don’t then ask why it’s prohibited to disagree with the early (Talmudic sages) when it comes to the revealed (aspect of the) Torah.  

Kabbalists speak of the “revealed” versus the “concealed” aspects of the Torah, where “revealed” refers to the open-and-above-board and practical aspects of Torah like the meaning of the words involved in either Torah or Talmud as well as the halachic, moral, and inspirational implications of them; and the “concealed” refers to their esoteric connotations.

Now, if what we’d learned is true, that the later sages merited the revelation of Kabbalah and the Zohar because they were greater than those of the earlier generations, then contemporary Talmudic sages should be able to argue with the decisions of the earlier Talmudists (when they’re in fact categorically not allowed to), because the later sages are deemed to be greater than the earlier ones. But as Ashlag is about to point out, that argument is fallacious since the differences he’d cited between the earlier and later sages don’t hold true across the board.

            In fact, the opposite is true when it comes to reconciling the aspect (of Torah) touching on mitzvot.

The Talmud itself and the subsequent halachic codes sometimes contradict each other, calling for a harmonizing of divergent halachic decisions. It’s always true, though, that not only must later decisors be logically sound and rigorous, as well as consistent with the entire Talmudic gestalt — they must also take the earlier decisors’ opinions into consideration and acquiesce to them rather than defy them. Again, the idea is that that doesn’t seem to be true; it appears that the opinions of later decisors would hold more weight than that of the earlier ones.

            But the earlier (Talmudic and halachic sages) were more flawless than the latter (ones, in fact). (And that’s so) because when it comes to (actual, physical) actions…

That is, when it comes to the “revealed”, practical aspect of the Torah, the opposite is true: the earlier sages were indeed greater than the later ones.

            … (the pattern is such that) the vessels of the sephirot come into play (first) when it comes to the secrets of the Torah and the reasons for the mitzvot …

That is, when it comes to the “concealed” aspect of the Torah…

            … (that is,) the sephirah lights come into play first. For as you already know, there’s a converse relationship between lights and vessels.

            See 61:3.

            So, when it comes to vessels…

That is, when it comes to the more external, i.e. “revealed” aspect of the Torah…

            … the more exalted of them grow first. Hence, the earlier (Talmudic and halachic sages) are more flawless than the latter (ones) when it comes to the practical aspect (of the Torah).

So the latter must acquiesce to the former.

            But the opposite is true as far as the lights are concerned.

That is, when it comes to the more internal, i.e. “concealed” aspect of the Torah…

            For their lower lights appear first. And that’s why the latter (Kabbalistic sages) are more flawless than the earlier (ones, despite their lesser over-all stature).

(c) 2013 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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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”

            In fact, the Talmudic sages already touched upon this question.

            “Rav Papa said to Abaya, ‘How were the earlier (sages) different (i.e., better, than we, so) that miracles befell them … (while) miracles don’t befall us?

            Is it because of the (quality of our respective) studies? (That can’t be it, because) during the days of Rabbi Yehudah (one of the earlier sages) they only studied Nezikin (i.e., only one of the six orders of the Talmud), while we study the entire Talmud.

            And (why is it that) when Rabbi Yehudah was studying Tractate Okatzin he was able to say…, “I sense the gist of (the arguments of) Rav and Shmuel”, while we study Okatzin in thirteen academies (yet we don’t merit that)?

            And (why is it that) as soon as Rabbi Yehudah would take off a shoe (to begin his preparations for a fast so to alleviate a drought) that rains came down, while we torment ourselves and cry out (for rain), and yet no one (in Heaven) notices?’

            Abaya replied, ‘(It’s all because) the earlier (sages) were willing to sacrifice their lives to sanctify God’s name” (Berachot 20A).

            Ashlag explains this all as follows.

            While it was clear to both Rav Papa and Abaya that the earlier (sages) were greater than they in Torah-knowledge and in wisdom (it was also clear) that Rav Papa and Abaya themselves were (nonetheless) more worthy than the earlier (sages).

On the one hand, the earlier sages were less meritorious than those in Rav Papa and Abaya’s generation in fact because they studied less Torah than they, fewer people studied it in their time, and because their hearts didn’t break when they saw others suffering; yet the earlier sages were more meritorious than the latter, since they were worthy of quick insight and solutions to their problems, and they were capable of great self-sacrifice.

            Hence it’s clear that even though the earlier (sages) were greater (in fact) than the latter, nonetheless as a consequence of the rule that “the more subtle is fashioned and brought into the world first”, it’s still-and-all true that more of the Torah’s wisdom is able to be revealed in the latter generation.

(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 we can understand why the people of the earlier generations were of an immeasurably greater caliber than the latter ones. For the rule regarding partzufim — be they partzufim of entire worlds or of (individual) souls — is that the purer vessels are rectified first. And so the CHaBaD vessels of the world at large and (individual) souls where fashioned first.

            As such, while the individuals living in the first two millennia were of a much higher caliber than the latter generations, they nonetheless couldn’t partake of the full light (involved in the revelation of the Zohar and Kabbalah) since they lacked the lower vessels of CHaGAT– NeHYM both on a personal and a universal level.

2.

            The same was true in the course of the middle two millennia, when the CHaGAT-vessels were fashioned in the world and in (individual) souls.

Those who lived in the course of the middle two millennia — in the “Torah” era — likewise didn’t merit knowledge of the Zohar or Kabbalah, despite their spiritual standing. For while many of them excelled in Torah, they weren’t ready for the sort of Torah of the final era which is Torah connected to the coming of the Moshiach.

            For though the souls (i.e., individuals alive then) were indeed very pure, as CHaGAT-vessels are nearly on par with CHaBaD-vessels,… 

Both CHaBaD– and CHaGAT-vessels are sublime, despite their relative disparity, and the same is true of the individuals who lived in the course of the first and second two millennia: they too were sublime and far greater than we,…

            … nonetheless, the (more sublime) lights were still-and-all concealed from the world (then), because the vessels from the “chest” downward weren’t yet in place in the world or in (individual) souls.

… which explains exactly why those individuals likewise weren’t worthy of the Zohar and Kabbalah.

            Our generation on the other hand — despite the fact that our souls are of the lowest quality and haven’t been fashioned in holiness — has nonetheless allowed for the rectification of the vessels of the partzuf of the world and (individual) souls. And we can thus complete the task (of allowing for the revelation of the Zohar and Kabbalah).

            For now that the (final, lowest) vessels of NeHY and (thus) all the vessels of beginning, middle, and end are in place in the partzuf — whole configurations of light, which is to say, a beginning, middle, and end, and a Nephesh, Ruach, and Neshama are being extended to all who merit it. Thus it’s only (now,) with the completion of such lowly souls (as our own) that the supreme lights can be revealed, when they couldn’t be before.

(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.

            But all that raises another series of questions. First off, why wasn’t the Zohar revealed to the early generations, who were undoubtedly greater and more worthy of it than the later ones? Why wasn’t a commentary to the Zohar offered before Luria’s? And why were there no explanations of his works and of the Zohar before now? How could this generation (possibly) be more worthy than the earlier ones (to deserve an explanation)? 

His point is that the Zohar should logically have been revealed to earlier generations, going all the way back to Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai’s own time. For they would’ve delved into for their own and our benefit, yet it wasn’t. What’s also notable is the fact that the most lucid explanation of the Zohar we have, which is Luria’s (as all his works serve to explain the Kabbalistic system that’s laid out in the Zohar) has itself gone largely unexplained, until now thanks to Ashlag himself. So, what is it that has enabled us to merit such a straightforward setting-out of the Kabbalistic system?

2.

            The answer lies in the fact that the 6,000 year course of the universe functions as a single partzuf…

A partzuf is an integrated cosmic configuration (see 44:2). Ashlag is contending that reality as we know it, or the entire second era (see Ch’s 14-20, etc.), functions as a single partzuf…

            … that’s comprised of three (main) elements: a beginning, middle, and end, (made up of the configurations) CHaBaD, CHaGAT, and NeHY.         

As we’d pointed out, there are ten sephirot in all: Keter, Chochma, Binah, Chessed, Gevurah, Tipheret, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut (see 41:1). Sometimes, though, the quasi-sephirah of Da’at replaces that of Keter, since Keter is so subtle, so Godly that it’s said to be nullified by the Divine Presence itself. Da’at then serves to round-out the ten-sephirah count. It sits below Binah. (There are other reasons why this configuration excludes Keter — as well as Malchut, the last sephirah — but that’s beyond our concerns here.)

The first configuration cited here, CHaBaD, is termed that because it’s comprised of Chochma, Binah, and Da’at. It’s the topmost configuration of the partzuf because it contains these mind-elements.

The middle configuration, CHaGAT, is comprised of Chessed, Gevurah, and Tipheret, and it’s said to be the middle configuration of the partzuf because it contains these heart-elements (much as the heart is in the middle of the body).

And the final configuration, NeHY, is comprised of Netzach, Hod, and Yesod, and it’s the final one because Netzach, Hod, and Yesod lie at the end of the partzuf (i.e., representing the legs and the organ of procreation).

But in order to understand that, and to see how that explains why the earlier generations weren’t granted the Zohar or a non-materialistic commentary to it that removes one of the major stumbling blocks to a proper understanding of it  like Ashlag’s, we’d need to examine the following.

3.

            Our sages explained (that the 6,000 years of this world was to be divided thusly from the start: there’d first be) “2,000 years of Tohu (formlessness, as in “And the earth was formless and void” [Genesis 1:2]) 2,000 (years) of Torah, and then 2,000 (years) of the Days of the Messiah” (Sanhedrin 97A)… 

The Talmudic sages agreed that history — the goings-on in the single partzuf that comprises the universe as we know it — would embrace a beginning, middle, and end stage. But rather than designate them by their partzuf-specific names CHaBaD, CHaGAT, and NeHY, they categorized the three epoch periods of time as one of formlessness, another of Torah, and the third as that of the Messianic Era.

            … (which illustrates the following). Throughout the course of the first two millennia, which correspond to the “beginning” or CHaBaD (element of the partzuf), all the lights (made manifest there) were very weak, and were (like) a head without a body since they only had Nephesh-light.

Toggling back and forth between terms, we’d depict Ashlag as saying that the first, topmost course of history and its beginning was rather dark, formless and all-potential (as the term Chochma is a composite of the two terms “Koach-Mah”, meaning “the potential for anything”). But why would that be so, given how close it was to pre-creation’s all-Godliness?

            (That’s so) because there’s an inverse relationship between lights and vessels [1].

“Lights” are the spiritual content of things that are themselves termed “vessels” or “containers”. The classic analogy is that of the relationship between the soul and the body, where the soul is dubbed the body’s “light” and the body is taken to be the soul’s “vessel”. Being the integrated cosmic configuration that it is, it follows then that the single partzuf that makes up all that we know is a combination of lights and vessels in various lay-outs.

            For when it comes to vessels, the rule is that the higher vessels develop first in the partzuf, whereas when it comes to lights, the opposite is true — the lower lights become engarbed first in the partzuf.

It’s simply a given that this single partzuf’s higher vessels grew in size and capacity before its lights did, and that its lesser lights were “engarbed” — stored-away, and set aside for later use — within the partzuf before its higher lights were.

            Thus, as long as only the higher parts of the vessels existed, meaning the CHaBaD vessels, then only the Nephesh-light could be engarbed in the partzuf, which are the lowest lights. And that’s why the first two millennia are referred to as Tohu.

That’s to say that the reason why the first historical epoch didn’t have the Zohar and a commentary to it, though it seemingly should have, was simply because only the higher vessels (CHaBaD) and the lower lights (Nephesh) were in place there and then. So, while the people there (the vessels) were greater, the illuminations (the lights) were dimmer; hence the whole epoch was rather formless and only all-potential.

4.

            But in the course of the world’s second two millennia, which is comprised of CHaGAT vessels…

.. that are lower than the CHaBaD vessels present in the first two millennia, discussed above …

            … a Ruach-light…

… which is higher than the Nephesh-light present in the first two millennia …

            … descended upon and was engarbed in the world, which embodies the secret import of Torah. And that’s why the middle two millennia are referred to as (the epoch of) Torah.

Ruach-light touches upon the secret import of Torah (meaning that it most especially corresponds to the essence of Torah) because Torah serves as the mediator — the Tipheret — between the pure Chessed and Gevurah of the CHaGAT triad, in that it’s Torah’s “rulings” that settle the differences between those two opposing “litigants”. So the second epoch is termed Torah because it “mediates” between the Tohu and Messianic epochs.

The point is that while there was more actualization in the middle epoch than there had been before, there was still not enough to allow for the publication and circulation of the Zohar, to say nothing of an explanation of it. This will soon be expanded upon.

(Ashlag is also saying that while what the Talmudic sages meant by the phrase “2,000 years of Tohu, 2,000 [years] of Torah, and then 2,000 [years] of the Days of the Messiah” was that while the world will be characterized by moral and spiritual chaos and formlessness before we’d have received the Torah, nonetheless the granting of the Torah allows for the Messianic Era.)

            And Neshama-light — the greatest one — came to be engarbed in the world in the course of the final two millennia which are comprised of NeHYM vessels. And that’s why they’re referred to as the Days of the Messiah.

Being the greatest light of all, Neshama-light automatically harkens to the Days of the Messiah when illumination will abound.

5.

            That’s true of each specific partzuf as well as to the entire universe: for when it comes to the CHaBaD and CHaGAT vessels down to the “chest”, the lights (there) remain covered over and don’t begin to exhibit out-and-out mercy — i.e., they only exhibit the sublime Chochma-light — from the “chest” downward, i.e., from the NeHYM (level).

We’d learned that the grand partzuf that is the universe is comprised of a beginning, middle, and end which are termed CHaBaD, CHaGAT, and NeHY, and that there was so little manifest light in the course of the CHaBaD aspect that it was like a head without a body. Ashlag’s point here is that what’s true of reality en toto is also true of each segment of it: the higher or CHaBaD aspect exhibits very little light, and as such, it too seems to be “like a head without a body” — and that by extension, the CHaGAT aspect (which will be expanded on below) exhibits more light but not all that much.

(The “M” at the end of NeHYM stands for Malchut. That isn’t discussed much here as we’d indicated above, but suffice it to say that it represents the recipient or end-product of all that’s offered by CHaBaD, CHaGAT, and NeHY.)

                 That’s the reason why the Zohar itself and Kabbalah in general weren’t revealed to the world before the vessels of NeHYM in the universe’s single partzuf, which represent the last two millennia, manifested themselves.

That’s to say, Kabbalah wasn’t promulgated until near-modernity (though it was studied within small circles of scholars) because the earlier eras simply couldn’t endure the degree of light that Kabbalah study would have manifested then in the world.

6.

            But in the course of his lifetime, which was near the end of the era of the completion of the vessels below the “chest”…

… corresponding to the beginning of the NeHYM era, when the sublime Chochma-light was allowed to be revealed (see 5 above) …

            … Isaac Luria’s divine soul started to clandestinely reveal the light of the sublime Chochma,

… in fact …

            … since he was ready to receive that great light. He (consequently) uncovered (and explained) the underlying themes (laid out) in the Zohar and in Kabbalah (in general), and (it became clear that he’d) overshadowed all his predecessors.

            But, since the (NeHYM) vessels weren’t yet completed — as he’d died in (the course of the 5th millennium, in) 5332 (i.e., in 1572 CE) — the world wasn’t yet worthy of discovering his teachings, and his holy words fell under the dominion of a chosen few who were (themselves) prohibited from revealing them to the world.

            But now, in our time, when we’re approaching the end of the last two millennia…

… and are thus drawing near to the Days of the Messiah …

 

Notes:

[1] See Peticha l’Chochmat HaKabbalah 24.

(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”