Rav Ashlag's Introduction to the Zohar

1.

Now, don’t be led astray by the opinion of those philosopher who state that we’re essentially comprised of our reason; that our beings only exist and expand by dint of our ability to conceive of things; that our (continued) existence and after-life depend solely on the caliber of the concepts we’d acquired; and that if we don’t conceive of things, we won’t survive after death [1]. For that’s (simply untrue and) not a Torah perspective! And besides, it’s counter-intuitive; for as anyone who has ever tried to garner knowledge knows and senses, reason is something acquired rather than the acquirer himself.

This will be resolved in Ch. 24 below.

2.

As we explained, the essential makeup of both spiritual and material phenomena is nothing other than the ratzon l’kabel. And while we pointed out that our essences are (likewise) comprised of a full ratzon l’hashpia, that only comes into play after (a series of) reparations brought on by the “reverting light” that is granted it from the upper worlds from which it comes to us, as is discussed clearly in (Ashlag’s own) Peticha L’Chochmat HaKaballah (Ch’s 14-16, 19).

This last item is a rather arcane one, but suffice it to say that at one point in the creation process, the Celestial Light that shone downward upon creation came against a numinous screen which resisted it and forced it backward. The Celestial Light suddenly began to function as “Reverting Light”, and to act as a receiver rather than an imparter so as to allow for the creation of the ratzon l’kabel. But the entire process will be reversed, as Ashlag indicates, through a series of reparations, which will then lead to the emergence of the third era.

The point is that our essential makeup is our ratzon l’kabel as well (as a ratzon l’hashpia), which you’ll understand by seeing (what’s written) there.

3.

Indeed, the only thing that distinguishes one being (i.e., person or thing) from another is its will. For each being’s will determines what it needs, which then elicits the sort of thoughts and plans it would need to have and make in order to fulfill the needs its ratzon l’kabel demands (in the first place). For just as we each have different wills (i.e., each one of us has a distinctive ratzon l’kabel), we likewise have different needs, thoughts, and plans.

There are a number of points to be made at this important juncture. First that not only do their wills differentiate beings — their type of wills does, too. For while human beings have free wills, other beings have fixed wills. (Human free-will is the ideal in fact, it’s relative to person and circumstance, and it’s actually quite rare; but it’s nonetheless assured of to all fully functioning people. It’s rare because few of us act out on it, as most people are so overwhelmed by influences that they couldn’t truly be called “free” so much as free-enough to choose to be free. But that’s all beside the point.) In any event, what sets one free-willed human being apart from the others and fixed-willed beings apart from others is what he, she, or it wills.

But whatever your will, it’s always a will for things that will serve your own purposes, a ratzon l’kabel.

When humans will something, they set out to fulfill it (either consciously, or by dint of influence, pressure, etc.) by first considering what they’d need in order to do that, by then planning and setting out to get those things, and by acting upon those things so as to have their will fulfilled. When non-humans will something they likewise plan and set out to get those things, and they also act upon them. But the variances are boundless, needless to say.

As we’ll see in the next section, though, free-willed human beings invariably want things of a different caliber, which them sets them apart on whole other levels.

Let’s address one other esoteric detail about the above. This statement is actually a plain-worded delineation of the Kabbalistic system, in that our will corresponds to the highest, most sublime Sephira of Keter; all the thinking and planning we do to fulfill that will corresponds to the “superior” (rosh, in Hebrew) Sephirot of Chochma and Binah; and all we do to act out on all that corresponds to the “interior” (toch) Sephirot that follow them (Chessed, Gevurah, etc.). And it’s all in keeping with the statement in the Zohar that “everything in the world depends on will” (2, 162b).

4.

That’s why, for example, people whose ratzon l’kabel is rooted in animalistic desires alone only need, think about, and plan things that would satisfy those sorts of animalistic desires. For even though they’d be using their minds and reason just as (other) humans do, since it’s “satisfying enough for the servant to be like his master” (see Berachot 58B), (i.e., since they’re satisfied enough identifying themselves with), their animalistic reasoning, and with their minds being enslaved to and serving their animalistic will.

(It’s also why) those whose ratzon l’kabel are preoccupied by “human” desires for the most part — desires that aren’t found in animals, like desires for respect, or for power over others — channel the great majority of their needs, thoughts, and plans on satisfying those desires as much as possible.

(It’s also why) those whose desires are mainly for (more transcendent and lofty things like) knowledge channel the great majority of their needs, thoughts, and plans into satisfying those sorts of desires as much as possible.

Since everyone (and everything) is ratzon l’kabel– and pleasure-driven, and seeing too that some of us are rather body-oriented, others more ego-oriented, and others yet more ideal-oriented, Ashlag now delves a bit into the whole notion of how people respond to drives.

His contention is that … regardless of what drives us: physical delights, ego-satisfactions, or more metaphysical sorts of pleasures, like grasping deep and recondite concepts or experiencing sublime emotions … it all comes down to what we focus on. For while people driven by physical delights focus all of their resources on satisfying those sorts of urges (and are only too willing to subject themselves to that “master’s” whims), those driven by the need to satisfy their egos, and those driven by more transcendent and lofty urges focus all of their resources on satisfying those urges. Again, the point is that we’re each driven by a ratzon l’kabel regardless of how we express it. So no one can be criticized for his egocentricity, which is universal, so much as for his choices. But as we’d learned, there’s also the option to act out of a ratzon l’kabel al m’nat l’hashpia.

Notes:

[1] See Maimonides’ “Guide for the Perplexed” 1:1, 18, 41, etc.

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

1.

Now that we’ve explained all that, we can solve our very first question which was, “What are we essentially?”

See 1:2.

What we are in essence is the very thing everything else is, which is a ratzon l’kabel — no more and no less.

Our will, some would say need, to take-in all the time is ubiquitous, boundless, utterly normal, and not to be denied. What differentiates us from each other, though, is just what we want.

Some want only the bare minimum, others want more, and others want the maximum. Some who want the bare minimum want it for healthy reasons, others for unhealthy ones; and the same is true of those who want more and the most. Some only want material things, others want some combination of material and spiritual things, and some only want God. But even someone who wants God alone wants Him and for his own reasons, and thus is no less “wanting” than the person who wants as much material delight as he can get, though the first person’s Object of desire is far more sublime.

There’s very much to be remark about this, needless to say, but suffice it to say that Ashlag’s point is that we each want, and are rarely willing to give (unless we get more in return, the way we’re all willing to pay to get the things we want, though no one who gives money in such an instance would likely be termed altruistic). And anyone who thinks he or she is indeed and utterly altruistic is either a hypocrite, an innocent or naïf, or a liar (though we each can be altruistic to degrees).

That’s not to say that altruism isn’t attainable, because it is; it’s just not yet in our midst.

But we’re not (comprised of a ratzon l’kabel as) the ratzon l’kabel manifests itself now, in the second era, as a desire to take-in and for our own benefit alone; but rather as it manifested in the first era in God’s Infinite Being, which is to say, in its eternal form of a willingness to take-in in order to gratify our Creator.

What we said above notwithstanding, still-and-all humankind isn’t essentially selfish. We’re only selfish “for now”, i.e., for the 6,000 years that comprise this second era. What we are at bottom and deep within is selfless, and only willing to take-in so as to give in return — but again, that’s not how we know humankind and ourselves to be now. Yet we’re to know that we’ll eventually be so selfless that the only reason we’d ever accept anything (from God, from Whom everything comes at bottom) would be to give it back (to God), one way or another.

2.

And even though we haven’t yet actually arrived at the third era and won’t for some time, that doesn’t blemish our essence, for the third era is an inevitable consequence of the first (as we learned).

For (there’s a Talmudic axiom to the effect that) “Everything due to be repaid is considered to be repaid already” (see Ketubot 81a); so our not having yet arrived at the third era would only be a problem if there were a question of our fulfilling what we’d have to in order to arrive at it. But since there’s no question, it’s as though we’d indeed arrived at it already.

“Everything due to be repaid is considered to be repaid already” means to say that every debt is considered to have already been repaid since it will be, in the process of time … absent some sort of mitigating circumstance. So, since absolutely nothing will thwart the arrival of the third era, it has already come for all intents and purposes.

As such, the body (i.e., self) that has been granted us in its present corrupted tsurah doesn’t blemish our essence, since it and all its effects stand ready to be annihilated along with the whole impure system from which it originates. That’s also (true) because (there’s another, equivalent Talmudic axiom to the effect that) “everything due to be burned is considered burned already” (Menachot 102b) and is regarded as never having existed.

“Everything due to be burned is considered burned already” means much the same as the above axiom to the effect that “everything due to be repaid is to be considered repaid already”. The difference lies in the fact that while “everything due to be repaid … ” allows us to assume the third era is here for all intents and purposes, while “everything due to be burned … ” allows us to assume as well that nothing but the third era has ever existed for all intents and purposes!

3.

Indeed, the soul that’s attired in our body is also essentially a ratzon. But (it’s different, in that) it’s a ratzon l’hashpia, which has been bestowed upon us from the four worlds of the holy-A.B.Y.A. (see 10:2). And it’s eternal, for the tsurah of a ratzon l’hashpia is in essential affinity with the Life of All Lives and is in no way mutable.

His point is that at bottom, everything and everyone, God included, has a ratzon: a will to do, have, bestow, etc. one thing or another. Some instances of ratzon are more beneficial than others, though. The least beneficial of all is a ratzon l’kabel, which our mortal and mutable bodies and selves have inherited from the defiled-A.B.Y.A.; while the most beneficial is a ratzon l’hashpia, which immortal and immutable God expresses intrinsically, and our immortal and immutable souls have inherited from Him through the immortal and immutable holy-A.B.Y.A.

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.

We can now also settle the fourth question.

See 1:5.

(Which was,) how could God, who is all-good and innately benevolent, have purposefully created so many people who suffer and are tried their whole lives long?

After all, as the question continues in the original, “Wouldn’t an all-good Creator be expected to be benevolent — if not at least less malevolent?”

It thus comes to this. The (reality of the) first era necessitated all our trials and tribulations. For we humans have to choose either the path of Torah or the path of trial and tribulation in order to achieve the complete immortality that’s due us in the third era.

See Ch. 15.

That is, the third era will come about one way or the other, as a natural outcome of the fact that the first era had already been. And since we learned that there are only two ways to earn a place in the third era: by either faithfully adhering to God’s mitzvah-system, or by suffering trials and tribulations (see 16:2), it’s clear that we shouldn’t be surprised by the existence of trials and tribulations, since they serve a profound and ultimately benevolent end.

And (besides,) all those trials and tribulations only affect the husk that is our body (and person, but no deeper), which was only created (in the first place) to perish and be interred.

So while pain does indeed ache, and oftentimes gnaws at our beings and grates at our bones, in the end that’s as far as it will ever go. For it will inevitably end up being nothing but a bitter and black memory that will itself vanish in the end, too (even though we never thought it would), much as our physical beings will.

2.

What that all comes to teach us is that our ratzon l’kabel was only created to (eventually) be annihilated and removed from the world, and to be transformed into a ratzon l’hashpia. And that all the trials and tribulations we suffer are (at bottom only meant) to serve as means of disclosing the ratzon l’kabel’s essential nothingness and great harmfulness.

Some wiser, more fortunate souls learn from adversity. They come to discover from poverty, for example, how to make do with what they have, use it to the maximum, and enjoy it. (Everything they own becomes even more luscious and rich as a result, if they become prosperous).

We ourselves are expected to be more thoughtful and insightful about our trials and tribulations in this second era (which will inevitably lead to the third era, at the beginning of which the following will all take place).

For while trials and tribulations are dreadful, before they vanish (which they inevitably will do) we can learn from them that the ultimate purpose they served was to have us realize just how harmful their cause — our self-absorption — (our ratzon l’kabel) had been all along, and how much pain it had caused us.

Indeed, once we do that we can purposefully adopt the alternative, selflessness (a ratzon l’hashpia), and immediately realize its benefits. Or we can have suffered trials and tribulations, and have learned nothing from them (as most people do), and inherit a ratzon l’hashpia despite ourselves. But what benefits are there to becoming selfless? As we’ll see …

3.

Understand (as well) that once all of humanity agrees to abolish and eradicate its ratzon l’kabel and to wants nothing other than to bestow upon others, all our worldly worries and injuries will cease to exist, and everyone will be assured of a healthy and full life. For everyone would have an entire world concerned for him alone and with satisfying his (every) need.

But there’ll always be (the sort of) worries, trials and tribulations, wars, and bloodshed that we can’t (yet) avoid that dispirit, afflict, and pain us as long as everyone only wants things for his own benefit.

This is a quite remarkable section that cries out for explanation. First off it’s important to know that this will all happen at the beginning of the third era, since it refers to both mundane and rarefied events that will only come about then — when Heaven and Earth commingle as they wouldn’t have till then and would always do from then on.

The point is that the essential nothingness and great harmfulness of the ratzon l’kabel pointed to above will become clear to all of humanity by that point; each and every person will decide that he or she had had enough of it, and would elect to express a ratzon l’hashpia instead.

Understand, of course, that this will be a massive and fulgent instance of pure, selfless knowing and revelation that is far out of our experience, and only comparable to the one that the Jewish Nation people achieved when they said Na’aseh v’Nishma — “We’ll do (all that’s asked of us right here and now, as God speaks) and listen (to His explanations afterwards)” (Exodus 24:7), after having been granted the Torah. After all, we’d be abandoning everything de rigueur and natural, and embracing a wholly new and unaccustomed perspective that would threaten us to the core!

But the shift will happen, we’re assured, and it will sit well with us after a time because we’d see the benefits. For by virtue of the fact that we’d all have chosen to bestow rather than take-in, whenever one of us wanted or needed something, the rest of us would be ready to bestow it upon him. And no one would ever lack for anything again.

Parenthetically, Ashlag says in many places that we humans actually don’t have the ability to assume a ratzon l’hashpia on our own, and that the only thing we’re expected to do realistically to realize one would be to pray to God that He grant it to us; so how could the above statement stand? Apparently Ashlag’s point is that we will indeed have come to pray for it by that point — every single one of us — because it would have been the beginning of the third era by then; and the force of that universal prayer will storm the gates of Heaven and allow for the possibility.

4.

In point of fact, though, all the world’s trials and tribulations are only phantasms displayed before our eyes in order to prod us to undo the wrongful husk of the body (i.e., our ratzon l’kabel) and to accept upon ourselves the proper tsurah of the ratzon l’hashpia.

Each and every cataclysm and calamity we’d ever suffered, we’ll learn, was nothing but a fable and as misleading as a nightmare. All it ever did was serve as a study in what matters and what doesn’t, what’s immutable and what ephemeral. The lesson we’ll draw from it is this: the only reason we ever suffered was because we were always and only self-absorbed. And only now (we’ll say in the third era), when we’re no longer self-absorbed and are fully blessed and content instead, do we know how true that all is.

But as we’ve said, (following) the path of trial and tribulation (in contradistinction to the path of Torah and mitzvot) will (also) grant us the means to assume the better tsurah (of a ratzon l’hashpia).

That is, we’ll all perforce become selfless, as we’ve said; and we’ll always have the option of learning the above lesson by means of experiencing trial and tribulation on our own, and then “getting it”. But Ashlag’s implication is that we could learn the very same lesson — though more painlessly and expeditiously — by drawing upon the wisdom of Torah which teaches us that, and by living out its life-lessons through the mitzvah-system.

Nonetheless know that fulfilling interpersonal mitzvot takes precedence over fulfilling the more sacramental ones (having to do with our relationship to God), because (in the end) our bestowing upon others (by fulfilling interpersonal mitzvot) will have us bestow upon God (too, as a matter of course).

His final point here is that we’re nonetheless to know that there are mitzvot, and there are mitzvot.

There are the more ceremonial ones (like donning tephillin, observing Shabbat, eating Matzah on Passover, etc.) that are relatively easy to fulfill since they only require that we do what God — who is invisible, never complains, and is ever receptive and grateful — asks us to; and there are the interpersonal ones (like giving charity, visiting the sick, loaning money, etc.) that are more difficult, since they demand that we contend with others’ own self-interests, which always run counter to our own.

In any event, the sort of muscular rowing against the deafening flux of egos we’d have to engage in to satisfy another’s needs while subduing our own would serve us better in the end, since it would help us achieve a ratzon l’hashpia, and make it easier for us to acquiesce to God’s will when that goes against the grain.

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 settle the fifth question as well.

See 1:6.

For, we asked how finite, mortal, and ephemeral creatures (like us) could ever derive from an Infinite Being. But it now becomes clear (given) that we have already derived from Him, and are thus indeed (creations) of the caliber of (i.e., that one would expect to have emanated from) His infinite Being, since we’re (already) eternal, perfect beings (in essence).

2.

And (we can now understand as well that) it’s our eternal nature that (actually) made it necessary for the husk that is our body (i.e., our self), which was granted us to serve (God), to be mortal and ephemeral. For had it remained in a state of eternity — God forbid! — we would have been separated from the Eternal forever!

Now, the notion that we’d have been separated from the Eternal forever had our essences remained in its primal state in the first era for eternity seems odd. After all, wouldn’t we have just remained conjoined with Him there and then? But as we learned in Ch. 15, all three eras are interdependent; so, again, era one needed era two in order to eventually bring about era three.

For as we said in Ch. 13, the tsurah of our body (i.e., our self) which is (at bottom) the willingness to accept things for our own purposes (as opposed to our essence), wasn’t part of the (ultimate) intentions for eternity. And we were already in the state (there, in the first era) that we’ll be in, in the third era.

3.

(Understand, though, that) we needn’t raise questions about the place of other (animate or inanimate) beings in the world. For humankind is the focal point of creation, whereas other beings have no intrinsic worth. In fact they’re only of consequence when they (can) help humankind achieve perfection, and they only ascend and descend in relation to humankind and (thus) haven’t any personal standing.

Ashlag now addresses a very serious objection some might have. That’s all very good as far as humankind is concerned, since it’s subsumed in God’s Presence in the first and third eras, and it need only endure the second so as to get from one to the other. But what of entities, phenomena, beings, etc, that will never be subsumed in His Presence and thus don’t seem to matter at all?

He indicates though that that’s a moot point, since nothing but humankind matters at bottom in the great rush and struggle to adhere unto God’s Presence that is corporeal existence, other than as a subsidiary help or deterrent. (See 3:4 as well.)

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.

With all this in mind we can now respond to our third question.

See 1:4.

For we’d raised the point (there) that when we consider ourselves closely we find ourselves to be as tainted and lowly as can be. Yet (conversely) when we consider our Creator, we (surmise that we) should actually be of the highest order, as only befits (creations of) such a Creator, than whom no one is more exalted. After all, it’s only natural (to assume) that a perfect Being (like Himself) would (only) produce perfect beings.

So, why aren’t we perfect?

But now we can understand why.

For the truth of the matter is…

Our body (i.e., our self), with all its meaningless exigencies and trappings, isn’t our real body (self)! (After all, how could it be, since) our real, eternal, and perfect body (self) has already existed in the Infinite’s Being in the first era, where it (had already) assumed the perfect tsurah of bestowance (that is due it) in the destined third era, where it’s (already) in essential affinity with the Infinite One.

That is, the people we are today, with all our foibles and missteps, woes and pratfalls, are not who we are at bottom. For, our real selves are already subsumed in the Infinite’s Being and are already without its uniquely human ratzon l’kabel, know it or not. Of course, Ashlag’s aim is to indeed have us know that, and to thus embrace the inevitable on our own by assuming a life of Torah and mitzvah observance.

But wouldn’t it be reasonable to argue that we really shouldn’t be made to endure the second era after all, in light of the acridness of the struggle and the agony of the obstacles? No, we’re told; for…

2.

Our situation in the first era (when we’re already subsumed in the Infinite’s Being) requires us to be conferred in the second era with a husk of a body (self) with its corrupt and flawed selfish ratzon l’kabel that separates us from God, so as to rectify it and to (thus) genuinely experience our eternal body (self) in the third era (on our own).

So we really shouldn’t object. Since (we have to experience the second era, as) we can only serve God in a mortal body (which we only have then), as one can’t repair something he doesn’t already have (see 15:4).

As such, there’s really no good reason to dismiss the second era, since it’s the only context in which we can purposefully and willfully serve God of our own volition, and undo our own very human blemishes when we have them to undo. For we haven’t any in the first era and won’t have them any longer in the third, so as it’s put so pithily in the Talmud, “if not now, then when? (Pirkei Avot 1:14)”

Despite that, the fact remains that…

We’re indeed already in the (sort of) perfected state that’s appropriate for (entities created by) the perfect Creator; and yet God has (indeed) also placed us in our situation in the second era (despite that, for the reasons we indicated). So, our (present) body (self) doesn’t (actually) blemish us whatsoever, since it’s doomed to die and be undone, and it’s (in fact) only with us for the time it takes to be undone and to assume its eternal (perfect) state.

Only a seer of the likes of Yehudah Ashlag would dare wax poetic about “mere” death and pooh-pooh it as he does at the end here. But the truth lies with him in the end, and we’d all be wise to take heed.

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 you needn’t raise the issue of our free choice being taken from us, seeing that we’ll inevitably be perfected and experience the third era that already existed in the first.

Human free choice is a fundamental of the Jewish Faith. And Ashlag is suggesting that we needn’t bother wondering or not what he’d said till now about the inevitability of our reaching the third era would seem to deny our freedom to choose to do the sorts of wrongful things that would seem to deny us a right to the third era (better known as a place in the World to Come: the era of cosmic perfection that will be achieved after the institution of the Messianic Era and the eventual resurrection of the dead). But let’s explain free choice before we get into the conundrum. The immortal Jewish philosopher, moralist, physician and legalist, Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), laid it out as follows in his definite work of Jewish practice and belief, Mishne Torah:

“Every person has been granted the capacity to either incline himself in the direction of goodness and to be righteous, or, if he so chooses, in the direction of evil and be wicked …. That means to say that … man, of his own volition, consciously and with his own mind, can distinguish between good and evil, and can do whatever he wants to do, either good or evil, without anyone stopping him. Don’t think that God decrees at birth whether a person is to be righteous or wicked; … that simply isn’t so. In truth, everyone is capable of being as righteous as Moses, or as wicked as Jeroboam (a reprehensible renegade and idolater who reigned from 922 to 901 bcE; see 1, 2 Kings; 2 Chronicles); wise or obtuse, compassionate or cruel, miserly or generous, and the like. No one forces, decrees or draws a person in either direction. He alone, of his own volition, consciously inclines himself in the direction he so chooses” (Hilchot Teshuvah 5:1-2).

What that means to say, among other things, is that while all other things in the world are fixed and static in their essence, and the greater part of our being is itself fixed and static, too (i.e. our own personal biology, chemistry, and physics), our ethical stature is malleable and always in flux. After all, as the Talmud puts it, “Everything is in the hands of Heaven but the fear of Heaven” (Megillah 25a), which means that God furnishes us with everything, but our ethical response to it is entirely up to us.

Now, we’re to be judged in the end as to whether we used our free choice for good ends, to be sure. And we’re to earn a place in the World to Come/the third era if we’re found to have done that (see Hilchot Teshuvah 3:1, 7:1).

Yet much of what Maimonides has said about the World to Come seems to fly in the face of what Ashlag had said above. For Maimonides implies that we don’t each necessarily earn a share in it. But we’ll now see, though, that everyone will in fact enter the World to Come/third era one way or another. So, are we free to make ethical choices (with all their concomitant consequences) or not? We are; but in unthought-of ways, as we’ll see. For …

2.

The point is this. God readied two ways for us here in the course of the second (i.e., the present) era to reach the third one. One is the path of Torah observance, and the other is the path of trials and tribulations, which (while daunting, nonetheless enables us to) cleanse the body (of its dross), and (thus) forces us to transform our ratzon l’kabel into a willingness to bestow and to attach ourselves onto God’s Being.

That is, what we’re free to choose is the path we want to take to secure a place in the World to Come; but we’ll all inevitably reach that destination. For, we can either choose the longer way that’s actually shorter, or the shorter way that’s actually longer. But let’s explain.

We’re taught in the Talmud (Eruvin 53b) that Rebbe Yehoshua ben Chananiah once reported that he’d “been on a journey when (he) noticed a little boy sitting at a cross-road”. He asked the boy which road he should take to get to town, and the boy offered that “this particular road is short — but long” while the other one is “long — but short”.

Rebbe Yehoshua decided to take the apparently short road. He discovered after a while, though, that the boy was right. Because the apparently short road was blocked and thus really was a long one; and that the apparently long road was actually a short one because there were no impediments. This story suggests a number of things, but the point most applicable to our subject is this.

Each one of us could either live a life of relative moral restraint based on higher values, or one of moral unrestraint and license (or a combination of the two, which is the most popular choice of all). According to the Ashlag and the Jewish Tradition that means to say that we could either follow the mitzvah-system, or the dictates of our ratzon l’kabel.

The wise would determine, though, that while a life of license seems to be a readier, more direct path to happiness and satisfaction, it will actually prove to be a very long, convoluted, and painful one. For it will result in tribulations. And that while the mitzvah-system seems to inhibit our happiness and thwart our interests, it will actually prove to be the greatest, most delicious and “heavenly” shortcut of all to the ultimate human goal, since it would enable us to avoid the tribulations involved in the other choice.

But know that the suffering one undergoes for having chosen the ostensibly shorter path to happiness isn’t the sort of vengeful, priggish slap across the face we might take it to be. Ashlag depicts it instead as a means of cleansing the body of the dross of the ratzon l’kabel which then allows us to attach onto God’s presence (thus making it akin to the pain we’d willingly — albeit hesitantly — be willing to suffer in order to scrub off some very deeply embedded dirt that exasperates someone we love).

There’s yet another point to be made about this, though. As many know, life becomes clearer at its end, when we start to sense where we’ve succeeded or failed. As such, some old people in ill health simply want to die and actually say as much. They feel they have nothing to live for and that they’re nothing but dry lumber. Now we have found that few elderly, spiritually-centered and observant Jews who are ill say that, and fewer-yet elderly, observant and learned Jews who are ill say it. For they know that they can serve God as long as they’re alive (if only on a pallid and wan level), which gives each moment meaning and pith.

We have found that they (and their families) thus come to know that without the richness and call of Torah-reflection and mitzvah-observance in one’s life, all there often is, is the bitter and gnawing, trying reality of meaninglessness. And they come to realize how true that had been all along, though they’ve only come to see it so clearly at the end. They know that life comes down to a choice between the search for God which is embodied in Torah, and tribulation. And their knowledge of that isn’t abstract, but learned; indeed, rather than being rooted in pat theology, it’s grounded in having finally caught sight of life at its end.

For as the (ancient Jewish) Sages put it, (it’s as if God said to the Jewish Nation) “If you repent (i.e., if you eventually adapt the mitzvah system so as to draw close to God), fine; but if you don’t, I’ll (eventually) place a king like (the evil) Haman (the influential chief minister of the Persian King Achasuerus in the 6^th century BCE, who set out to destroy the Jewish Nation as per The Book of Esther) over you who’ll force you to repent (i.e., to adapt the mitzvah system after all)”.

That is, we’re free to adopt the mitzvah system with all its inscrutabilities and mystical locutions on our own, either from the first or in retrospect as an act of awakening; otherwise its alternative (tribulation) will be thrust upon us instead. There’s simply no third option.

And as the Sages likewise said of the verse (that speaks of the redemption), “I God will hasten it — in its time” (Isaiah 9:22): (the curious discord between the idea of God “hasten(ing) it” on the one hand, and only allowing it to come about “in its time” on the other comes to this) “If they’re worthy (i.e., if they follow the mitzvah system), I’ll “hasten (the redemption — i.e., the World to Come and the third era)”; but if not, it will only come “in its time” (after a lot of tribulation)”.

What that means to say is that if we become worthy by following the first path of Torah-reflection and mitzvah-observance, we’ll speed up our reparation and thus won’t have (to suffer) harsh and bitter tribulations, or endure the time it would take us to be compelled to better ourselves.

On the other hand, though, if we don’t (take that path, the redemption will come despite us, but only) “in its time”. That is, only after tribulations — which includes the punishment that souls suffer in Gehinom (i.e., “Hell”). For, those tribulations will complete our reparations; and we’ll thus (and inevitably) experience the age of reparation (i.e., the third era/World to Come) despite ourselves.

3.

In any event, the rectification — the third era — will surely come about since it must, for the existence of the first era demands that. Thus the only choice we have is the one between the path of tribulations and the path of Torah-reflection and mitzvah-observance.

We’ve now thus demonstrated how all three eras of the soul are interconnected and necessitate one another.

Yet as we’ll soon discover, there’s a lot more to clear up vis a vis all the questions we raised at the very beginning of our efforts. Once we do all that, though, we’ll finally discuss the Zohar itself (which is the subject of this work after all, don’t forget).

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, when you reflect upon these three eras you discover that they’re fully and utterly interdependent; and so much so, that if one were to somehow not exist, the others couldn’t exist either.

To put it another way, it will be found, quite astonishingly, that if one of these eras in fact exists, then the two others must exist, too; for the three are the sole ingredients of the only dish there is. It thus follows then that if we who now experience the second era exist, then the first and third eras must exist, too.

2.

So if for example the third era — when the tsurah of receiving is overturned to one of bestowing — were not to come about, it would necessarily follow that the first era couldn’t have come about in the Infinite’s Being either.

We’d have expected Ashlag to begin with the first era, but he starts instead with the third one, because that’s the one we have to look forward to, and the one we’re to set our course by.

For all the perfection contained there (in the first era) only came about because it’s due to exist in the third one; so it was as if it already functioned (there, in the first era). In fact, all the perfection depicted in that (first) era is actually something of an image of the future one (projected) onto that (first) one. In any event, if the future (era) were to somehow be abolished, (the first one) couldn’t exist either. For, it’s only because the third era is to exist that the first one did.

3.

Now, that’s all the more so true if the second (i.e., the present) era were to be undone. For it’s the one in which we strive to achieve everything that will come to fruition in the third era; in which we do everything that (either) repairs or impairs (the spiritual order of things); and in which we continue (to hone) the (different) levels of (our) souls. After all, how would the third era ever come about (if this one were somehow undone)? So we see that the third era needs the second one (as well).

And the same is true of the first era, which is (already) in the Infinite and where the perfection found in the third era (already) functions. It must conform to that (same principle); it too must demonstrate the (existence of the) second era as well as the third one in all its perfection.

Let’s draw an analogy to families in order to understand all this as best we can. It goes without saying that were it not for my grandparents I wouldn’t exist; yet it’s also true that if I (or my siblings and cousins) weren’t born, my grandparents might as well not have existed for all intents and purposes; since they would have been nothing more than a breeze blowing past a minor character in an epic drama, for all intents and purposes, since they’d have only come and gone (unless they’d have done something momentous in their lives, and would thus at least have been a character in the drama).

In much the same way, it stands to reason that if the first era (in which everything is bundled and set for delivery) hadn’t existed, then neither the second (in which the package is to be toyed with, probed, and used), nor the third (in which everything that was bundled is to finally be delivered, no worse for wear) could have existed. But it also stands to reason that if the second or third eras themselves didn’t exist, that the first one might as well not have existed either since it didn’t produce anything of endurance.

And besides, while the first and third eras (which are mirror images of each other and sort of alter egos) are utterly indispensable in the grand scheme, they still and all depend on the second era. For it — the second era — is the flowering of the kernel that is the first, and the blossoming of the fruit that is the third. So without it, the first and third will have been fallow and bone-dry.

It’s vital to realize, though, that that’s not to say that God depends on us, as this might seem to imply — and that without our efforts in era two His “plans” in era one and their manifestation in era three would be doomed. It only means to say that His wishes for this world (and not He Himself) would have been stymied in a manner of speaking. But since the three eras are indeed utterly interdependent, and His plans and their manifestation are sure and inevitable, nothing we do or don’t do could affect that in the end.

4.

It also follows that the (existence of the) first era itself made it necessary for the two antithetical systems (i.e., the four worlds of holy-A.B.Y.A. and their counterpart, the four worlds of defiled-A.B.Y.A.) to exist in the second era, which then allows the body with its corrupt ratzon l’kabel to come about by means of the impure system (i.e., the four worlds of defiled-A.B.Y.A.).

For all that enables us to rectify it. In fact, if there hadn’t been a system of impure worlds, we wouldn’t have a ratzon l’kabel to rectify (in the first place) and to thus arrive at the third era, since one can’t repair something he doesn’t already have.

That is, were it not for the first and third eras, reality as we know it now, including ourselves, our overarching willingness to take-in without giving back, and the dilemmas of the spirit all that entails couldn’t come about either. And we couldn’t overcome all that and bask in triumph in the face of a hard-won battle as we inevitably will. For how dare crow in victory when you’d been handed the metal on the sneak?

5.

We needn’t ask, though, how the impure system could manage to exist (at all) in the first era (which is utterly Godly and antithetical to impurity). For it’s the very existence of the first era that allows for the (existence of the) impure system, and allows for it to be sustained in that form in the course of the second era.

Ashlag is now re-addressing the arcane question he’d touched on right before this of how evil could exist in God’s presence, which seems so contradictory (see Ch. 12). In short his answer is that evil only exists in the first era (albeit in an inchoate, latent state) because, again, it’s only thanks to the first era that the second one can exist; so if the first one didn’t contain that latent evil, we couldn’t experience it — and manage to overcome it — in the second.

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.

Thus, souls experience three distinct “eras” all told. The first encompasses the “time” they’re lodged within the Infinite’s intentions for creation and when they already have the tsurah they’ll assume when the final rectification comes about.

What we have here is an esoteric laying out of all of reality — from the very beginning, when all there was, was God; to the very end, when all there will be, will be God; through life as we know it now, when all there is, is God and the appearance of not-God. All of that is expressed variously in the Jewish tradition by statements that: “Their conclusion is embedded in their beginning, and their beginning in their conclusion (Sefer Yetzirah 1:7), “The final achievement was in the original thought” (Lecha Dodi), “Before the world was created, He and His Name were (already) one” (Pirke D’Rebbe Eliezer, Ch. 3), “What will be seen in the end is what was already there at the beginning” (Klach Pitchei Chochma, 49), and “(we’ll eventually) reach the point we had started from” (Ibid.).

The first era, we’re told here, encompasses the timeless-time the souls were lodged within the Infinite, and when they already have their final tsurah.

2.

The second era encompasses the six thousand years (“of creation”, i.e., of life as we know it), in the course of which the souls are separated by (passing through) the two previously cited systems (i.e., the four worlds of holy-A.B.Y.A. and their counterpart, the four worlds of defiled-A.B.Y.A [see 10:2]) into a body and a soul. It’s when the observance of Torah and mitzvot has been granted them so they might convert their ratzon l’kabel to a ratzon l’hashpia and grant satisfaction to their Maker rather than to themselves.

The second era, our own, is the one in which everything needs to be done and will be given the means to. It is life as we know it: bifurcated in every way but flush with the great and consummate communal row homeward toward the broad and sweeping, epochal and selfless admixture of the already-mixed.

But only souls can be rectified in the course of that era, not bodies. For (in order for the body to be rectified), it would need to undo its ratzon l’kabel, which is the (essence of the) “body”, and to set in its place a ratzon l’hashpia, which is the soul’s tsurah of willingness (to bestow).

We’re taught that soul and body will both be rewarded in the end, but not before, since body and soul are now cleft apart. For as things stand now, the soul is rewarded after death, but the body merely decomposes. The body will be rewarded however in the course of the third era, when the ratzon l’hashpia is restored, and everyone and everything’s original and true willingness-to-only-give-out will be restored.

In fact, even the souls of the righteous won’t be able to rejoice in the Garden of Eden after their death (in the course of the second era) until their body would have decomposed into dust.

That’s to say that even if one rectified his being in his lifetime and became truly righteous, he still and all won’t be able to bask in God’s light in the Afterlife in the course of this second era until his body will have decomposed in the ground. Nonetheless the point is that too will be reversed in the third era.

3.

The third (and final) era will encompass the rectification of all souls (and it will come about) after the resurrection of the dead, when even bodies will be fully rectified. For the ratzon l’kabel for our own sake, which is the body’s tsurah, will be overturned (by then), and a tsurah of pure bestowance will come upon it, when it will deserve (and experience) all the good, pleasure, and delight contained in the (original) intentions for the universe. And we’ll merit (experiencing) a surpassingly strong (degree of) attachment (onto God’s presence) as a consequence of our essential affinity with the Creator.

But that won’t come about from their ratzon l’kabel but rather because of their (having fostered the) willingness to grant satisfaction to their Creator. And God will derive pleasure from their having received that from Him.

This is a loaded statement. What it’s saying first is that the third era will only come about when the very thing that the souls had always sought — all the good, pleasure, and delight of attaching itself onto God’s presence — will have been achieved. And secondly, that that can only be achieved selflessly, with God’s wishes in mind alone.

Nonetheless the truth is that the third era will come about in any event, we’re taught; since it was always part of God’s intentions for the universe (see 13:2).

So the point is that the souls are to achieve all that goodness on their own by following through on God’s mitzvot, and that “God will derive pleasure from their having received it from Him” in recompense for that in the end.

For brevity’s sake I’ll simply refer to the “first era”, “second era”, and “third era” from now on (when I discuss this phenomenon). Remember this well.

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 we’d still need to understand (a few things about) this. How in fact could the ratzon l’kabel have been a part of God’s original intentions for creation (altogether), given that it’s so defiled and impure while God’s Being is so unfathomably and indescribably purely One (i.e., integrated and without contradiction)?

That is, how could a pastiche of desires like wanting to take-in and not wanting to give-out at the same time have been a part of God’s Being on any level?  After all, the two are so antithetical that it seems blasphemous to see them as intertwined. But as we’ll soon see, there’s no real contradiction there.

2.

The point is that as soon as it occurred to God to create the cosmos, that very thought alone brought it about in its entirety. For God doesn’t need to resort to action per se the way we do (to bring anything about; for the reality of it just has to occur to Him and it’s instantly and automatically fulfilled).

Know that God’s methods, scopes, and domains are utterly unlike our own. For while things physical demand time, place, and person, the ethereal stuff of His formless and primal dominion does not. His considerations make things so; His Self immerses itself in its Self and something other than Him appears in coat and hat. And that was true of the whole of reality as well.

So, as soon as (He decided to create them,) all the souls and worlds that were to have been created, were created — full of all the goodness, delight, and tranquility planned for them. And they were also already in the ultimately perfect state they’re destined to be in when everything is rectified in the end — which is to say, when the soul’s ratzon l’kabel is fully rectified and is transformed into pure bestowance, in complete affinity with the Emanator.

Past, present, and future are one and the same to the Eternal, (so) the future functions as the present for Him, and all the impediments of time are irrelevant to Him.

For not only was the whole of past and present reality already in God’s mind (i.e., His intentions) — all of what seems to us to be a gathering, impending reality was there, too, at that point, including the furthermost, ultimate end. And that’s the point at which there’ll no longer be the appearance of a ratzon l’kabel in the face of a bestowing God; when there’ll no longer be the contradistinction between beginning and end we now imagine there to be because we don’t understand how above cause and effect God is.

3.

Hence, the matter of the corrupt ratzon l’kabel — which is a tsurah (that’s diametrically opposite to God’s own, since it’s the embodiment) of separation from the Infinite — was never at issue. In fact, the opposite is true. For the essential affinity (between our souls and God) that’s to be revealed when all is fully rectified came about automatically, thanks to God’s Infinite nature. Our sages depicted this mystical phenomenon with the expression, “Even before the world was created, He and His name were one” (Pirkei D’Rebbe Eliezer, Ch. 3).

For the tsurah of separation (from the Infinite) found in the ratzon l’kabel never actually manifested itself in the souls that emanated from the (i.e., from God’s) intent to create (the cosmos). Instead, they (always) enjoyed the Devekut with Him that is essential affinity, in keeping with the stated mystical phenomenon of “He and His name (are) one”.

Ashlag’s point is that beginning and end are one and the same in God’s being. Thus, while we certainly experience a ratzon l’kabel, the irony of its existence is outside of God’s consideration, and might as well not exist as far as His experience goes. For both, “before the world was created” and subsequent to its being created and then being undone, “He (His being) and His Name (what He’s known for; i.e., creation en toto)”, will prove to have always been conjoined, with nothing actually interposing between them — even a ratzon l’kabel.

For as we’ll start to examine in the next chapter, there will prove to be three cosmic “eras”: the first, which concerns itself with the “period of time” before time and the cosmos itself were created; the second, which concerns itself with the period of (actual) time that the cosmos exist; and the third, which concerns itself with the “period of time” when time and the cosmos will no longer exist. And Ashlag’s point is that the three have already played themselves out in full in God’s Being, though not in ours.

So, yes, there is a ratzon l’kabel as far as we’re concerned, which is no small matter; but, no, the ratzon l’kabel hasn’t a place in God Being, so it doesn’t contradict the fact of Him being the Ultimate Benefactor.

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.

We’ve thus clearly explained how the ratzon l’kabel — which had been implanted in our souls in order to fulfill (God’s) intentions for creation — is (in fact) to be rectified.

For (as we said,) God purposefully prepared the aforementioned two parallel but opposite systems (i.e., holy-A.B.Y.A. and defiled-A.B.Y.A.) which all souls pass through, and they then became separated into two aspects — body and spirit — which became enmeshed with each other.

But we’re able to eventually transform the trait of a ratzon l’kabel into a ratzon l’kabel al m’nat l’hashpia by adhering to Torah and mitzvot, when we then become ready to accept all the good (prepared for them, as laid out) in (God’s original) intentions for creation.

And we also merit experiencing a strong attachment onto God as a consequence of our having attained an affinity with Him, which is a full and absolute rectification, by adhering to Torah and mitzvot.

(Another series of monumental events would then occur.) The impure Other Side will be eliminated from the world since there’d no longer be a need for it; and death would be annihilated (see Isaiah 25: 8). All the Torah and mitzvah-based tasks given to the world for the duration of the six thousand years (of the universe as we know it), as well as to every individual in the course of his seventy years of life, would (prove to only have existed in order to) bring them to the ultimate rectification that is the affinity of tsurot we spoke about (and will thus be null and void, having served their end).

2.

(An additional consequence of what we’ve indicated is that now) the issue of how the husks and impurity could come about from God’s own Holiness has been solved. (For as we’d explained) they had to exist in order to allow for bodies that would eventually be rectified by (adherence to) Torah and mitzvot.

For if our bodies with their defiled ratzon l’kabel would not have passed through the impure system, we would never be able to rectify ourselves, for one cannot correct something not (already) within him. (And so the husks and impurity will also be undone in the end after having served their end.)

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”