{"id":145,"date":"2011-05-10T13:46:07","date_gmt":"2011-05-10T13:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ravashlag.wordpress.com\/?p=145"},"modified":"2011-05-10T13:46:07","modified_gmt":"2011-05-10T13:46:07","slug":"r-ashlags-introduction-to-the-zohar-ch-35","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ravashlag\/2011\/05\/10\/r-ashlags-introduction-to-the-zohar-ch-35\/","title":{"rendered":"R\u2019 Ashlag\u2019s \u201cIntroduction To The Zohar\u201d: Ch. 35"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 The first or \u201cmineral\u201d stage of the ratzon l\u2019kabel<\/em> 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\u2019s also true that) by all appearances (it seems that) none of its details move.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On a surface level, inanimate entities don\u2019t move. They\u2019re said to have a \u201cpotential\u201d 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\u2019t actualized).<\/p>\n

We now know that inanimate entities do in fact move on a microscopic level at least, so Ashlag says that their \u201cdetails\u201d or smallest components don\u2019t move \u201cby all appearances\u201d only.<\/p>\n

Still-and-all the argument is that while the ratzon l\u2019kabel<\/em> 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 \u201cvegetative\u201d, \u201canimate\u201d, and \u201cverbal\u201d stages.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 For what the ratzon l\u2019kabel<\/em> does (at bottom) is create needs which then generate enough movement for those needs to be met. <\/strong><\/p>\n

As we\u2019d explained, a ratzon l\u2019kabel<\/em> is a \u201cwillingness, wish, or intent to (only) accept, receive, or take things\u201d (see 7:2). As Ashlag explains here, its modus operandi is to demonstrate a \u201cneed\u201d for something or another (which is really only a desire, but becomes a \u201cneed\u201d by growing louder and louder), which then sets off a vague, blunt, and blind spontaneous \u201citch\u201d that brings about the motions needed to have itself \u201cscratched\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 But since the ratzon l\u2019kabel<\/em> is minimal (at this point) it only prevails over the whole (inanimate) thing while seemingly not prevailing over its details.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That is, since the ratzon l\u2019kabel<\/em> is indeed minimal by this point, it has little effect.<\/p>\n

(c) 2011 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman<\/p>\n

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org<\/a><\/p>\n

AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here<\/a> at a discount.<\/p>\n

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here<\/a> at a discount as well.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).<\/p>\n

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence<\/a>\u201d and \u201cRamchal<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 The first or \u201cmineral\u201d stage of the ratzon l\u2019kabel 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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iqlA-2l","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ravashlag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ravashlag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ravashlag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ravashlag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ravashlag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ravashlag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ravashlag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ravashlag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ravashlag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}