Rav Ashlag's Introduction to the Zohar

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

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1.

            All I can say from my own experience is that from the very day that God’s Holy Light accorded me the merit to begin mulling over this holy book it had never occurred to me to question its origin. And that’s for one simple reason: because its contents have always evoked the rare qualities of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai to my mind far more so than that of any other sage of his generation.

Though it’s not often spoken of, there’s a distinct level of tonality — of subtle hues, cadences, and lyricism — in Torah literature that’s unique to each author and every Torah work. Torah doesn’t sing when it’s read as prose and exposition, but it most certainly does when it’s read as mystery solved and as truth laid out whole and in full, fertile measure.

An excellent reader, Ashlag affirms that he’d never adduced anyone else’s tones in the Zohar other than Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai’s. For Ashlag never found the sort of off-rhyme there or fault in meter that one might expect every once in a while in a lesser kabbalists work.

2.

            Nonetheless, if it became clear to me that someone else — like Rabbi Moshe De Leon — wrote it, then I’d admire him more than all the great earlier sages, including Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.

            In fact, if I’d determined that its author was one of the Biblical prophets,…

… who were likely to have written so lofty a work of revelation,…

            … that actually would have sat even better with me than attributing it to any one of the early sages, given the depth of the Zohar’s wisdom.

            The truth is that if I’d determined that Moses had received it (directly) from God on Mt. Sinai that really would have sat well with me, since it would have been (utterly) fitting for such a work to have come from Moses!

3.

            But since I merited writing a commentary that allows everyone who wants to examine it to (in fact) understand something of it, then I think I’m exempt from having to enter into that (fray) altogether. For no one versed in the Zohar could ever settle for an author of a lesser caliber than Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.

That is, being in a position to know the Zohar from the inside-out as he was, Ashlag felt confident in saying that no one of a lesser stature than the great Shimon Bar Yochai could ever have written it.

(c) 2013 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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            All who immerse themselves in the holy Zohar — which is to say, all who (truly) understand what’s written in it — agree that it was composed by that divine 2nd Century Talmudic sage, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. It’s only those who are removed from Kabbalah and rely on its opponents’ fabricated tales who doubt its origin and tend to say that its author was the Kabbalist Rabbi Moshe De Leon or his contemporaries.

The Zohar emerged out of obscurity at the hands of the Kabbalist (and scribe) Rabbi Moshe De Leon at the end of the 14th century, who claimed to have copied it from a manuscript in his possession that had been hidden away and only recently discovered, which he asserted was written by Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. A number of people doubted the text’s antiquity, though, including historian Heinrich Graetz (1818-1891) and scholar Gershom Scholem (1897-1982), and they attributed it to De Leon himself or to others in his circle.

Many Kabbalists and other traditional scholars were aghast at the absurd suggestion that the Zohar wasn’t authentic and set out to disprove the notion. (In fact, Ashlag once averred that De Leon himself wasn’t quite the master Kabbalist he’d need to be and so he wasn’t qualified to have written the Zohar himself.)

(c) 2013 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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1.

            But I know the reason (why the otherwise learned don’t delve into the esoteric side of the Torah). It’s mainly because faith has largely abated (in our day and age) over-all, especially when it comes to faith in our holy ones and sages in each generation.

Not having access ourselves to the holy and wise, we doubt their very existence. While we might concede to there being exceptional people who are somehow comfortable with eternity, at ease with piety, and linked to God, and others who are profuse in genius and able to grasp dreadfully large amounts of information, we nonetheless know the difference between them and the holy and wise. For while the former are mystical and brilliant, the latter are impelled by forces much further away and far more inward. And we don’t see them around us.

But the holy and wise do exist; they do. But being holy and wise, they eschew much of what we surround ourselves with and cherish, so we never get the chance to meet them. That’s to say that they’re still where they’ve always been, but we’re not. Consequently our collective paths no longer cross, and we assume that they don’t exist. As a result, we’ve lost faith in God, too; since it’s the holy and wise who best suggest Him to us.

The observant have their faith and they sometimes even catch sight of the holy and wise (since they and the observant visit some of the same places now and then), still and all the observant don’t delve into the esoteric side of the Torah for the following reason.

            (They don’t delve into it) also because the books of Kabbalah and the Zohar are full of bodily depictions, so people are afraid of making the mistake of lapsing into anthropomorphism and of thus losing more than they’d gain.

Such books often focus not only on bodily depictions, but on Divine dimensionality as well, if you will; and on things far, far too human for angels, souls, and aspects of God Almighty’s own Being to be concerned with, as they would be if taken literally.

So the thinking is that it’s much more dangerous to possibly lapse into heretical thoughts reading such things than it would be beneficial to be inspired by them, since there are other much more discreet and quite valuable works to draw upon for inspiration that don’t present such a threat.

(We cited another reason, though, in 57:2: what we termed the clash between emphasizing boundaries and denying them. For while as we indicated Halacha postulates and sets boundaries, Kabbalah eschews it; so observant people don’t engage in Kabbalah as a rule. But rather than conflict, Ashlag’s explanation and my own are one and the same. For the problem with bodily depictions and the like is that they seem to affix physical and mortal boundaries to the Divine, which are anathema to observant sensibilities since they’re far beyond the halachic horizon.)

2.

            That’s in fact exactly what induced me to (first) write a comprehensive commentary to the Ari’s writings…

It’s known as Talmud Esser Sephirot, and it’s an excellent and remarkably extensive, multi-volume work that arranges Isaac Luria’s Eitz Chaim by subject matter, and offers explanatory notes, further and deeper analyses in separate articles, study material, definitions of terms, and more. To my mind it’s Ashlag’s finest work.

             … and (now) to the holy Zohar, for I completely eliminated that concern. For I explained and proved the spiritual import of everything (depicted in the Zohar in physical terms) that’s (in fact) abstract and devoid of all physicality, and beyond space and time, as the reader will see.

Ashlag remarked that the Zohar itself and other Kabbalistic works employed “The Language of Branches”. That’s to say that, based on the principle that there’s nothing in the lower realms without its prototype in the upper ones, the Kabbalists applied earthly (“branch”) terms for things and phenomena that were (very roughly) equivalent to their celestial (“root”) counterparts. The thing to recall is that the two aren’t to be confused; any discussion of a “face” for example, in the literature doesn’t mean to imply a Divine “face” and the like.

            (And I did that) in order to enable everyone to study the Zohar and be warmed by its holy light.

3.

            I named my commentary HaSulam (“The Ladder”) to denote the fact that it (actually) serves the same purpose as any other ladder, in that if (for example) you had an attic that was full of all sorts of goodness, then what you’d need is a ladder to climb up to it and to take hold of that bounty. For a ladder serves no other purpose (than that), and if you were to pause midway on it and not (use it to) enter the attic, then its purpose wouldn’t have been fulfilled. The same is true of my commentary to the Zohar.

That’s to say, use HaSulam to study the Zohar and its purpose would have been fulfilled; “pause midway on it” by delving into it on its own rather than use it to enter “the attic” that is the Zohar and you will have defeated its purpose. For while Ashlag’s comments are enthralling on their own, his point is that they only stand up in the light of the words of the Zohar itself.

            Because there hadn’t been a way to completely clarify these most profound of words (until I wrote my comments). So, I fashioned a path and an entrance (to the Zohar that’s designed) for all. Now anyone can gaze upon, plumb the depths of, and delve into the Zohar himself with it. (Once people do, then) my purpose for (having written) the commentary will have been fulfilled.

(c) 2012 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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As we’d indicated, it’s here that Ashlag finally begins to approach the text at hand: the Zohar. For as we pointed out in our own introduction, while this work is entitled an Introduction to the Zohar, Ashlag evidently felt impelled to provide us with the world of background we’d encountered up to now before discussing it.

We’ll approach the Zohar head-on in the very next chapter, but the following must be said in advance of that. And it touches upon something that clearly sat very heavily on Ashlag’s heart, as we’ll see at the very end.

1.

            Now you can understand the (spiritual) aridity and darkness we find ourselves to be in our generation, the likes of which we’d never even heard of in earlier ones. It’s because even those who study the Torah have forsaken the study of its secrets.

One of Ashlag’s major disappointments had been the fact that even those who fervently believe in and worship God, delve into His Torah, and live a mitzvah-based life nonetheless either belittled Kabbalah study and didn’t engage in it, or they placed those who’d study it on so high a pedestal that they themselves didn’t engage in it for that reason. But that’s absurd. For Kabbalah study is not only not to be disparaged, as it’s so magnificent and bedazzling; it’s also not reserved for the pious alone (after all, would God not allow even His less lofty children a portion of His inheritance?).

2.

            Maimonides once offered an illustration of something that’s true of our situation. (He said that) if there were a thousand blind people walking along a path, that they’d surely take the right road and not stumble into any nets and snares along the way if they followed a sighted leader, whereas they’d surely stumble over every hurdle along the way and fall into the pit if there were no such person (leading them).

            And that’s our situation. For if those learned in Torah (i.e., the “sighted”) among us were at least concerned with esoteric Torah and (were thus) drawing down whole light from The Infinite (as a result), then the rest of the generation (i.e., the “blind”) would follow and everyone would surely succeed.

Why would anyone not want to “draw down whole light from The Infinite” — most especially people whose who lives are dedicated to fulfilling God’s will day after day? After all, isn’t the point of it all to “perfect the universe through the Almighty’s sovereignty” (Aleinu prayer) through our observance? And wouldn’t whole light drawn from The Infinite be a major component of the process?

But there’s a reason for the reticence. It touches upon many, many things, not the least of which is the ongoing dissonance between the revealing and beclouding of God’s presence in the world. But what it most especially centers on is the clash between emphasizing boundaries and denying them.

For while boundaries are essential in our experience and serve to maintain our physical, emotional, and social soundness, it’s also true that they’re oftentimes arbitrary, and other times indisputable but too austere.

Levelheaded, practical, and a guide to life in the world, Halacha postulates and sets boundaries; diaphanous, concerned with God’s Being, and an escort beyond life in the world, Kabbalah eschews boundaries (though it lays out its own, but only to serve as points of reference).

Hence as a rule, halachically observant individuals very often act as guardians of boundaries and are opposed to their denial — and for exemplary reasons for the most part. But they also deny themselves and perhaps even fear the valuable experience of transcendence in the process. And they thus ironically work at both revealing God’s presence in the world by adhering to His requirements here, and beclouding it by corralling it into too-tight borders.

            But given that (even) the learned have distanced themselves from this wisdom, then it’s no wonder that the entire generation is failing as a consequence. Nonetheless, because of my deep sorrow (about it) I can’t pursue this (point) any further….

(c) 2012 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”

1.

            But it’s important to realize that the (all-encompassing) N. R. N. C. Y. we’d cited above is comprised of five elements…,

That is, it’s comprised of a full complex of Nephesh-, Ruach-, Neshama-, Chaya-, and Yechidah-elements.

            … and that all of existence is embodied in it.

The great and mammoth, round, gyrating all-encompassing N. R. N. C. Y. can be said to be the very ambiance and context of the cosmos.

            For indeed, everything that exists functions as a consequence (and in the midst) of it, no matter how miniscule it is.

            And so, even the mineral aspect in Asiyah (of one’s being)…

That is, even when functioning on the lowest level of the lowest world, one…

            … has to realize the five levels of N. R. N. C. Y. (relevant to him) that are affiliated with the all-encompassing N. R. N. C. Y.

For every single aspect of our being is tied to and absorbed in every other one, and the whole of it must work in tandem.

2.

            As such, it’s impossible to attain even the light of the mineral (aspect) of Asiyah…

… to say nothing of even higher realms…

            … without (having first attaining) the (other) four aspects.

            So no one can excuse himself from engaging in them all (i.e., in the honing of all five aspects of the soul) to the degree appropriate to his (spiritual) status.

That is, since we’re expected to grow in our beings and to grant satisfaction to our Maker, there’s no reasonable way we can excuse ourselves from our obligations to follow through on that. As such, each one of us must strive “to the degree appropriate to his (spiritual) status” — which is to say, given his or her makeup, station, and environs — to do our best.

For while we won’t be asked to account for not having been the person we’re not, we will, though, be asked to account for why we’re not the person we really are. And just as we’ll be recognized for having tried our hardest in light of our challenges, we’ll likewise be judged for not having done our best in light of our potential and for what lays latent, deep within. That being so…

            Each person would have to study Torah and fulfill mitzvot with (the proper) intentions …            

i.e., to grant God satisfaction.

            … to receive the (degree of) Ruach (appropriate) to his status.

            He’d have to delve into the mysteries of the Torah according to his status to receive the (degree of) Neshama (that is appropriate) to his status.

Ashlag is now entering in the subject that will be the thrust of the rest of this work — the study of Zohar specifically and the Kabbalah in general.

            And (he’d) likewise (have to contemplate) the (esoteric) reasons for the mitzvot…

… i.e., to delve into or savor what was on God’s “mind” when He charged us to do this or that mitzvah, and to thus commune with His inner will …

            … since it’s otherwise impossible to realize even the smallest light of holiness.

            His point is that it’s imperative for us to delve into the mysteries of the Torah and the esoteric reasons for the mitzvot if we’re ever to be fulfilled in our beings. Yet many, many don’t, to Ashlag’s great dismay. He’ll now follow through on this idea to the end of the work.

(c) 2012 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”

1.

            All that thus answers the questions we asked, “Why would mankind need all the supernal worlds that the Creator forged for it? What use are they to him?”

See 3:4, 33:1, and 41:1.

            For now we see that it would have been impossible for us to achieve (the level of) bringing satisfaction to your Creator without those worlds.

Indeed, we’re charged with converting our ratzon l’kabel to a ratzon l’hashpia and to grant satisfaction to our Maker rather than to ourselves (see 14:1, 32:1, 40:2).

            So (we see also that), the more you purify your ratzon l’kabel, the more lights and degrees N. R. N. C. Y. you achieve.

            See 32:1.

            In fact, each light you achieve helps you to purify it. And you’ll thus ascend to the point where you attain the bliss of (having fulfilled) the intention behind creation…

… which was that we enjoy all sorts of spiritual “goodness, delight, and tranquility” (see 13:2 as well as Ch. 12 and 14:3).

2.

            Now, we’re taught that “whoever comes to purify (himself) is helped” (Yoma 38b). The Zohar asks, though, what exactly he’s helped with, and it offers that he’s helped with “a sacred soul” (Zohar 1, p. 62A). (What that means to say is that) it’s impossible to purify yourself to the degree (required) for the intention of creation (to be fulfilled) without the help of all the N.R.N.C.Y. levels of the soul…

… that is, without the “sacred soul” that the Zohar refers to. For, while all souls are in fact sacred and derived from God’s very being, they’re only fully sacred and thus really souls when they’re in full-flourish, and all five of their elements are manifest.

(c) 2012 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”

            When you merit permanently purifying the verbal (i.e., human) aspect of your ratzon l’kabel you then merit achieving an affinity with the world of Atzilut, you ascend upward and you receive Chaya-Light on a permanent basis.

            And should you merit ascending higher yet, you’d manage to achieve the light of the Infinite as well as the light of Yechidah that’s engarbed in Chaya-Light — but this isn’t the place to expand on that.

… since that’s so sublime and near-ultimate a realm that touches on matters far beyond our concerns here in the text and in this world.

As we’ll soon see, we’ve come close to the end of this lengthy foray into the evolution of the soul from the rank of pure selfishness to that of near selflessness.

(c) 2012 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”

            Then after you purify the animal part of your ratzon l’kabel and transform it into a will to bestow to the point where “He who knows all secrets would testify that (you) won’t ever lapse”, you’ll enjoy an affinity with the world of Briah, and you’ll then ascend upward and receive Neshama-Light on a permanent level.

            Once you then purify the verbal part of your body, you can then ascend upward to the sephirah of Chochma and receive the Chaya-Light there, even though you will not have yet permanently purified it, and though the light will not shine (upon you) permanently (yet).

(c) 2012 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”

            But after you permanently purify the vegetative part of your ratzon l’kabel you’ll ascend to the world of Yetzirah on a permanent basis…

.. since you will have transcended the world of Assiyah altogether.

            You’ll then attain a permanent degree of Ruach.

… since you will have transcended the Nephesh realm altogether.

            And from there you can also attain Neshama-light and Chaya-light from the sephirot of Binah and Chochma there, which are the Neshama (level) of Ruach and the Chaya (level) of Ruach, even before you will have merited permanently purifying your animal-ness and verbal-ness. But (you will) not (have attained it) permanently.

That is, you’ll be able to attain some degree of Neshama– and Chaya-light before permanently by purifying your animal-ness and verbal-ness, but only for a while. And you merit that …

            By virtue of the fact that you’d have purified the vegetative aspect of your ratzon l’kabel on a permanent level you’d thus already share the highest degree of affinity of form with the world of Yetzirah.

(c) 2012 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”