Rav Ashlag's Introduction to the Zohar

             Ch’s 41-55 will go to great lengths to explain why we humans would need all the upper worlds God created for us in the first place, while the rest of the book will address the humdrum spirituality of our age, and how our knowledge of the Zohar (whose stellar qualities Ashlag then expands upon) in particular and Kabbalah in general would help rectify us and satisfy God’s intention for creation.

1.

            We’d still need to clarify in fact why humankind would need all the supernal worlds that the Creator forged for it, though. What use are they to it?

That will be solved for the most part by Ch. 56. But before we can understand the answer we’d first need to learn some things about the supernal worlds, about how they’re connected to humankind, and about what all that has to do with Torah and mitzvot. In fact we’ll find that they’re all intimately, even congenitally linked.

It’s important to realize that unlike most of Ashlag’s works, this one isn’t a Kabbalistic book per se, though these next few chapters will draw on certain Kabbalistic ideas and motifs. So while we’ll try to offer insight into their import and meaning, we won’t be providing the kind of detailed Kabbalistic comments here in our notes that would be called for in a fully Kabbalistic text.

            You’d need to know, though, that reality is comprised of five (supernal) worlds en toto that are termed: Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah, each of which is comprised of an infinite number of elements.

These utterly nonmaterial, inchoate “worlds” can best be depicted as whole, largely unfathomable realms that somehow emanate and devolve downward from God’s nonmaterial, transcendent Being, and then culminate in our material universe.

Adam Kadmon (“Primordial Man”) is the first supernal, utterly transcendent world to have emerged from God’s Infinitude. It’s termed Adam (or, Man) because it’s the supernal basis of humankind, and Kadmon (or, Primordial) since it’s nearly as primeval as God’s original idea to create the universe in the first place.

Atzilut is the world that flowed forth from Adam Kadmon. It’s termed that both because it’s aristocratic, if you will, in its import, high standing, and inaccessibility (from atzil), and because it’s adjacent to and next after Adam Kadmon (from eitzel) in sweeping consequence.

Briah (“Creation”) is termed that because it’s the first utter-existent appearing out of the relative formless nothingness of Adam Kadmon and Atzilut, which are so utterly unfathomable and immaterial.

Yetzirah (“Formation”) is the first realm in which “something” came about, and where the raw undefined “stuff” that was created out of the formless Divine began to assume shape.

And while Asiyah (“Activation”) is just as much a spiritual realm essentially as the others, it still-and-all grazes against the physical universe, and is thus able to provoke or activate formed and molded materiality.

It’s important to recall, as Ashlag put it above, that each one of the five worlds is comprised of an infinite number of elements. For not only is each one of the worlds extensive in implication, they’re likewise comprehensive in scope, and each part of each is interwoven with each other part in an infinite amalgamation. Those elements are known as the sephirot, which we’ll discuss below. They too are infinitely divisible.

            Those (five) worlds correspond to the five (primary) sephirot, termed K.C.B.T.M. (Keter, Chochma, Binah, Tipheret, and Malchut), in that Adam Kadmon corresponds to Keter, Atzilut corresponds to Chochma, Briah corresponds to Binah, Yetzirah corresponds to Tipheret, and Asiyah corresponds to Malchut.

There are ten sephirot (“spheres”, as in spheres-of-influence or of- concern) altogether in fact: Keter (“Crown”), Chochma (“Wisdom”), Binah (“Understanding”), Chessed (“Kindness”), Gevurah (“Strength”), Tipheret (“Beauty”), Netzach (“Endurance”), Hod (“Splendor”), Yesod (“Foundation”) and Malchut (“Kingship”).

As we see here, the ten are often lumped together into a cluster of five: Keter, Chochma, Binah, Tipheret (which itself incorporates Chessed, Gevurah, Tipheret itself, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod), and Malchut.

Suffice it to say that each sephirah has a unique luster and timbre, and that their names help explain that, but that’s all beside Ashlag’s point here. He assumes we know all this already (or perhaps he’s whetting our appetite for all this in hopes of encouraging us to study Kabbalah, which he’ll argue for later on in this work), and he means only to explain how the lot of them interact with our beings and the mitzvah-system as we indicated above.

2.

            The (supernal) lights that are engarbed in those five worlds are termed Y.C.N.R.N. (i.e., Yechidah, Chaya, Neshama, Ruach, and Nephesh). 

What Ashlag terms the “lights” are the five primary depths of the soul, from Yechidah to Chaya to Neshama to Ruach to Nephesh in descending order.

Each term could be translated as either soul or spirit, but the Yechidah, the most sublime level, is termed “the soul’s source”, the Chaya is “the soul’s soul”, the Neshama is “the soul” itself, the Ruach is perhaps best termed “the spirit”, while the Nephesh is what’s termed “the élan vital”.

Each of these is encased and irradiates in a corresponding world, so…

            The light of Yechidah shines in Adam Kadmon, the light of Chaya shines in Atzilut, the light of Neshama shines in Briah, the light of Ruach shines in Yetzirah, and the light of Nephesh shines in Asiyah.

            And all these worlds and everything included in them are incorporated in the holy name (spelled) “Yud, Hey, Vav, and Hey” as well as the tip of the Yud.

            We can’t perceive anything of the first world, Adam Kadmon, whatsoever, which is why it’s alluded to by the tip of the Yud and why we never speak of Adam Kadmon (itself) but only cite the four worlds A.B.Y.A. (Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah). The Yud corresponds to Atzilut, the (first) Hey corresponds to Briah, the Vav corresponds to Yetzirah, and the final Hey corresponds to Asiyah.

God’s Ineffable Name (known as “The Tetragramatton”, often misspelled as “Jehovah”), which is the basis for all of creation, is spelled out with the Hebrew letters Yud, Hey, Vav, and Hey. Each letter serves a particular function.

The letter Yud’s tip is considered a separate and fifth “letter” if you will. Since it’s unapparent and because we’re only vaguely aware of it if at all, the tip of the Yud corresponds to Adam Kadmon, which “we can’t perceive anything of” and which isn’t spoken of in Kabbalistic literature because it’s so extramundane. And Yud itself corresponds to Atzilut, the first Hey corresponds to Briah, etc.

In the end then the following is true:

The tip of the Yud = Yechidah = Keter = Adam Kadmon.

Yud = Chaya = Chochma = Atzilut

The first Hey = Neshama = Binah = Briah

Vav = Ruach = Tipheret = Yetzirah

And the final Hey = Nephesh = Malchut = Asiyah.

Thus we see that the letters of God’s Name, our souls, the sephirot, and the supernal worlds do indeed interact with each other, and we’ll soon determine how all that ties in with the mitzvah-system.

(c) 2011 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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1.

            Now, I know that this (idea) is intolerable to some thinkers who simply can’t accept the notion that man, whom they regard as lowly and worthless, is the focal point of creation in all of its splendor.

After all, they might reason, man is neither angel nor is he any greater than the humanoids he’d evolved from. So how could he possibly be God’s prized entity and the focus of all His attention?

            But (they only feel that way because) they’re like a worm that was born and raised in a radish who deemed all of God’s creation as being as bitter, dark, and tiny as that radish, and who suddenly sat up in stunned wonder and said: “I thought the whole world was the size of the radish I was raised in, and now I see a huge, splendid, beautiful, and wondrous world before me!” the moment the radish-shell breaks open and he was able to peer out.

            For they too are encased — in the shell of the ratzon l’kabel they were born with, and they never savored the sweet scent of Torah (study) and mitzvah-observance that can break through that hard shell and turn it into a willingness to bestow pleasure onto the Creator. In fact they can’t help but consider humankind worthless and empty — since that’s what they themselves are (for all intents and purposes). (And it also explains why) they can’t fathom how all of reality was created for humankind’s sake alone.

Ashlag’s point is that those who contend that humankind is small and of little worth only feel that way because they’ve never attained the rank of true humanness. They’ve never looked past the pettinesses that they — and most of us — function out of, or caught sight of the human they could be if they’d but follow the mitzvah-system that encourages selflessness and surrendering to God’s will. For following it enables one to transcend the ratzon l’kabel that defines most of humanity, and to draw close to God, which is God’s great aim and focus.

2.

            Indeed, if they’d only delve into Torah and mitzvah-observance in order to bestow their Creator with satisfaction with as much purity (of intention and self) as they’d have to, and if they’d only try to pierce through the shell that is the ratzon l’kabel they were born with, and would be willing to accept a willingness to bestow, …

Ashlag is reiterating the conditions under which we’d all have to live out a life of Torah and mitzvah-observance in order to reap the full ineffable rewards due us. For at bottom, most of us simply can’t accept the notion that “man is” — that we ourselves are — “the focal point of creation”.

We’d have to sincerely, wholly, and only mean to delight God in the process, and we’d have to do that by transforming our innate ratzon l’kabel into a ratzon l’hashpia, a willingness to bestow. For if people would only do that,…

            … their eyes would open right there and then, they’d come to behold themselves (for what they are), and they’d gain all the delicious, delightful, and ego-undoing wisdom, understanding, and lustrous knowledge prepared for them in the spiritual worlds.

            And they themselves would then acknowledge, as the Jewish sages put it that, “A good guest is one who says, ‘How much trouble my host has gone to for my sake! How much meat, … wine, … (and) cake has he set before me! And all for my sake alone!’” (Berachot 58A).

For anyone who’d come to that point couldn’t help but catch sight of God bestowing them with one favor after another in this world in His love for humankind and as a consequence of His aim for us.

(c) 2011 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.

     Now that it has been explained that God created everything in order to bestow pleasure upon His creatures…

See Ch’s 6-7.

     … so that they could know Him and His greatness, and accept all the goodness and delight He’d prepared for them to the extent enunciated in the verse, “Is Ephraim (not) My precious son? Is he (not) a darling child? For whenever I speak about him I earnestly remember him and my innards are moved by him” (Jeremiah 31:19)…

See 33:2.

     … It’s obvious, then, that this intention doesn’t apply to the mineral (realm), or (even) to the great heavenly bodies like the earth, the moon, or the sun, however effulgent or immense (they are). And (it likewise doesn’t apply) to the vegetable or animal (realms either), since they aren’t even aware of others of their own species, and thus can’t sense Godliness or God’s beneficence. (It) Only (applies to) humankind, since it (alone) is aware of others of its kind.

2.

     (But it’s mostly relevant to those who abide by God’s mitzvah-system, for it only comes to fruition) after delving in Torah and mitzvot which serves to overturn a ratzon l’kabel to a willingness to bestow and (thus) enables us to arrive at an affinity with God.

See 11:2, 14:3.

     (For when we) attain to all the stages that had been prepared for us in the upper worlds termed N.R.N.C.Y., we become qualified to satisfy God’s intention behind the creation of the world.

See 32:1.

     (It’s) thus (clear that) all of creation came about for mankind’s sake alone.

Here’s the gist of this vital chapter’s argument. We’re taught that “the only reason God created the world was to grant pleasure to His creations” (6:1). But He “had to have created a willingness to accept all the pleasure and goodness He’d planned for them” (7:1) — and in fact, “all of creation, from start to finish, is nothing other than (the creation of) the ratzon l’kabel” (7:3).

But since God derives satisfaction from granting His creatures pleasure to “the extent to which they sense that it’s He who’s bestowing it” to them (33:2), it stands to reason that there would have to be some entities that couldn’t sense that (minerals), others that could only sense it to a limited extent (vegetatives), others that could sense it fairly much (animals), and others yet that could truly sense God’s presence and benevolence (humankind).

Yet most of mankind obviously cannot sense God’s presence and benevolence, so what is it that enables us to indeed be aware of that? The mitzvah-system. Since it enables man to “refine his inborn ratzon l’kabel and … to draw a holy soul (i.e., a full N.R.N.C.Y.) downward from its root … (and to eventually) gain an essential affinity with his Creator” (11:2) and to thus satisfy God’s intention for creation.

(c) 2011 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”

            And lastly comes the fourth, human (i.e., “verbal”) stage. The ratzon l’kabel is fully active and definitive by then, and it includes an awareness of others.

On the one hand, while we humans are able to move about freely and are aware of ourselves piece by piece unlike lesser entities, and we’re also able to sense others’ needs and to commiserate with them altruistically unlike our closest type, animal-kind, we humans are correspondingly imbued with an ironic fierce and overarching need to take-in and satisfy ourselves piece by piece.

            In fact, if you’d ask me to succinctly contrast the ratzon l’kabel of the third, animal stage with the fourth, human stage of it I’d say that they were as different as a single being versus all of creation. For the ratzon l’kabel in the animal stage in which there’s no awareness of others can only foster the needs and desires that are specific to that one being, while the ratzon l’kabel of humans who can sense others’ (needs) can also incorporate the needs of everything else. 

For not only are we aware of what we need and want, we’re likewise only too well aware of others’ needs and wants, and we’re inclined to want those same things — and more — knowing about them, since we have so potent a need to take-in.

            And so we can covet and want whatever others have; and if you were to “give us an inch, we’d take a mile”. Indeed our needs can be so great that we’d want everything!

But while all that seems to damn human beings for our pettiness and to rail against our bottomless self-absorption, Ashlag’s point will be that our natures are God-given and intentional, and they bolster God’s ultimate cosmic goal.

(c) 2011 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”

            Next comes the third (even more developed) “animal” stage. The ratzon l’kabel is very potent by then and it engenders a sense of self-will and uniqueness for each and every detail.

If the previous stage was organic, this one is out-and-out agile, brisk, and alive. It’s depicted as the “animal” stage because aside from the same freedom of movement we humans have, animals likewise have nearly the same broad sense of self and freedom that we do. Thus they too know what they need and want over-all, and take pains to get it, detail by detail.

            But those details don’t yet sense the existence of others, and they haven’t the means to commiserate with another’s pains or to share in its joys.

It’s just that animals can’t transcend their selves as we humans can or identify and empathize with others other than momentarily and specifically. But identifying with others is a complex of reactions, in that it enables one to be selflessly generous to others, or to selfishly envy them, as we’ll see.

(c) 2011 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”

            The second (more fully developed) “vegetable” stage comes next. It’s a more vigorous one than the inanimate stage, and the ratzon l’kabel prevails over each and every one of its details. For, each detail moves along on its own, length- and width-wise, (even) reaching to the sun.

This stage is organic, dynamic and vigorous. And it’s fecund and abundant enough in self-interest that its reach is far and wide. In fact, it’s so dynamic that…

            Eating and drinking, and the elimination of waste manifest themselves in each one of its details.

            Still-and-all, though, the details don’t exhibit an independent sense of self-will.

… as animate and verbal entities do, to a great degree.

(c) 2011 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”

             The first or “mineral” stage of the ratzon l’kabel is its initial appearance in the physical world. It only has only one potential: that of movement, the one that all inanimate beings have. And (aside from that it’s also true that) by all appearances (it seems that) none of its details move.

On a surface level, inanimate entities don’t move. They’re said to have a “potential” for movement here because in classical terms everything that exists is said to be a combination of actualizations and potentials (even when those potentials aren’t actualized).

We now know that inanimate entities do in fact move on a microscopic level at least, so Ashlag says that their “details” or smallest components don’t move “by all appearances” only.

Still-and-all the argument is that while the ratzon l’kabel is stiff and inchoate at this point it nevertheless does exist, and that it will grow more and more dynamic as it passes from here to the “vegetative”, “animate”, and “verbal” stages.

            For what the ratzon l’kabel does (at bottom) is create needs which then generate enough movement for those needs to be met.

As we’d explained, a ratzon l’kabel is a “willingness, wish, or intent to (only) accept, receive, or take things” (see 7:2). As Ashlag explains here, its modus operandi is to demonstrate a “need” for something or another (which is really only a desire, but becomes a “need” by growing louder and louder), which then sets off a vague, blunt, and blind spontaneous “itch” that brings about the motions needed to have itself “scratched”.

            But since the ratzon l’kabel is minimal (at this point) it only prevails over the whole (inanimate) thing while seemingly not prevailing over its details.

That is, since the ratzon l’kabel is indeed minimal by this point, it has little effect.

(c) 2011 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”

            Since God wanted to prepare His created beings for the aforementioned exalted levels, He required there to be four grades (of them) that were to unfold out of each other, known as the “mineral”, “vegetable”, “animal”, and “verbal” (beings).

Certain stages of existence had to have come into being before the ultimate created entity, humankind (i.e., “verbals”), could. They’re minerals, vegetables, and animals. Otherwise the human soul would sit stunned in full wonder, speechless and senseless, before the living presence of God Almighty, because it would have caught sight of it too soon.

These entities correspond to the birth-cycle in that the fetus first undergoes a “mineral” (fertilized egg) stage, from which it advances to a “vegetable” (blastocyst) one, and then proceeds on to a more “animal” (embryonic) stage, until it reaches the “verbal”, fully conscious stage.

            Those beings correspond to the four degrees of the ratzon l’kabel which the upper worlds are differentiated by.

For as we’ll see, minerals barely have a ratzon l’kabel, vegetables have some but not much, animals have quite a bit more but not all that much, while we humans have a great deal.

            For, even though desires are mostly expressed through the ratzon l’kabel found in the fourth (i.e., “verbal”) level, that level can’t come about all at once. It needs to gradually pass through and unfold out of the three preceding ones in order to come to full fruition.

(c) 2011 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.

            That now leaves us with the sixth inquiry to explain.

See 3:4.

            (As we’d stated there), our sages said that all the upper worlds as well as this corporeal one were created for man’s sake alone. But isn’t that strange? After all, why would God bother to create all that for man, who’s so insignificant and hasn’t a hair’s-breadth of worth in comparison to all that we see before us in this world — to say nothing of the upper worlds. And besides, why would man need (for there to be) such august and hallowed worlds?

2.

            (But in order to explain just how vitally significant mankind is we’ll start off with this.) It’s important to know that the satisfaction that God derives from granting His creatures pleasure depends on the extent to which they sense that it’s He who’s bestowing it. For when they do, God regales with them much the way a father regales with his beloved child when he senses that the child understands the father’s greatness and magnitude. It’s then that the father reveals all the treasures he’d prepared for the child.

God can be said to be thrilled when we, His children, take note of His presence and catch sight of His bounteous goodness and grandeur; and He wants to grant us even more goodness than before and of an even higher rank as a result — His full presence. For only mankind can recognize God’s presence in the face of things that seem to deny it, since lesser beings can’t recognize it at all, and higher ones aren’t denied access to it from the first.

            As the verse depicts it (God says): “Is Ephraim (not) My precious son? Is he (not) a darling child? For whenever I speak about him I earnestly remember him and my innards are moved by him” (Jeremiah 31:19). Scrutinize these words and you’ll come to understand just how God will (eventually) regale with His perfected ones who merit sensing His greatness the ways He devised for them to. He’ll act (toward them then) as a father does with his “precious (and) darling child”.

            But we needn’t go into this at length. Suffice it to say that it would be worth God’s while to have created all the worlds, higher and lower alike, for the sake of the satisfaction and delight He’ll derive from such perfected individuals.

It’s clear from this last statement and much of what we’d said up to now that we’re only “perfected” when we fully recognize God’s role in our lives, His grandeur, and His great benevolence; and when we replicate that benevolence by means of the mitzvah-system. It’s also clear that the reward for that will be the sort of full-face encounter with God’s Being in the World to Come that’s due such a soul.

(c) 2011 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.

            The third stage (encompasses the period of time in which) we serve God by (observing His) Torah and mitzvot with the intent to bestow rather than be rewarded. Doing that purifies our selfish ratzon l’kabel and transforms it into a ratzon l’hashpia — a willingness to bestow. And in fact, the more we purify our ratzon l’kabel, the more worthy and ready will we be to receive the five parts of the soul termed N. R. N. C. Y.

N. R. N. C. Y. stands for Nephesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya, and Yechidah, the five parts of the soul in ascending order.

Though Ashlag often explains them in other contexts, in general terms the Nephesh is that part of the soul that’s most proximate to the body and is what keeps it alive at bottom. The Ruach is where our sense of self lies and it’s associated most especially with the emotions. The Neshama is the root of the above and their source, and it’s tied-in most especially with the mind. The Chaya is the root and source of the Neshama and is out of our experience; it binds “heaven” to “earth” in that it’s the intermediary between Nephesh-Ruach-Neshama and the utterly Godly Yechidah. The Yechidah itself is the point at which all the elements of the soul and God’s presence join together (“b’yachad“).

The point is that while we’ve all been granted a Nephesh and Ruach from the first, not everyone has a Neshama, Chaya, and/or Yechidah. And besides, we’d need to merit an “inner” Nephesh and Ruach aside from the “outer” ones we’re all born with if we’re to succeed. And all that depends on how we fulfill the mitzvah-system in this life and to what degree we’re selfless about it.

            For those five levels are only applicable to the willingness to bestow; they can’t be attired in us as long as our ratzon l’kabel holds sway. For it’s different from it, and is in fact its opposite. For the notions of being attired (in something) and having affinities with it go hand in hand.

When some one thing is “attired” in another one, the two are intimate with each other as a consequence and thus share an affinity. If you recall, we spoke of affinities above (see Ch. 8). In short it comes to this: when two entities are so identical that each loves what the other loves and hates what the other hates, they in fact love and are “attached” to one another and thus share an affinity. Ashlag’s point is that once we earn a willingness to bestow, our conjoined body and soul come to love and hate the same things and are in synch, and we’re able to earn a full N. R. N. C. Y. as a consequence.

            So, when you achieve a complete willingness to bestow without the need for anything for yourself (in return), you’ll have attained an affinity with your sublime N. R. N. C. Y., which extend from their roots in the Infinite in the first era, then extend through the Holy A.B.Y.A. to then become attired in your being by degrees.

See Ch’s 10, 12, 14, and 15 most especially for an explanation of this.

2.

            The fourth stage (entails) your Divine service after the resurrection, when the ratzon l’kabel, which had been completely undone by death and burial, is brought back to life in its lowliest form — as a comprehensive ratzon l’kabel. As our sages put it (that will be when) “The dead will be resurrected with (all) their defects” (see Ch. 26). It will then be transformed into a ratzon l’kabel al m’nat l’hashpia — a willingness to take in, in order to bestow.

            There are rare individuals, though, who have been granted this (form of) Divine service while still living in this world.

See our comments to 11:3 for insight into the dynamics involved.

Know, too, that when Ashlag speaks of only “rare individuals” achieving this level, he isn’t downplaying our own efforts to be selfless; he’s only stating the obvious. For only a very small handful of people in a generation succeed at this. Because it entails transcending one’s God-given mold and burgeoning forth anew.

Nevertheless, we‘re all charged to aspire to it. How?

As Ashlag puts it elsewhere, by first praying to God Almighty Himself for help in this above all else; and second, by wanting any reward that one would earn for his pious acts to be a full blossoming of this phenomenon, and it alone, which id to say, a perfect, altruistic willingness to bestow.

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