{"id":157,"date":"2011-06-22T15:22:46","date_gmt":"2011-06-22T15:22:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ravashlag.wordpress.com\/?p=157"},"modified":"2011-06-22T15:22:46","modified_gmt":"2011-06-22T15:22:46","slug":"r-ashlags-introduction-to-the-zohar-ch-38","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ravashlag\/2011\/06\/22\/r-ashlags-introduction-to-the-zohar-ch-38\/","title":{"rendered":"R\u2019 Ashlag\u2019s \u201cIntroduction To The Zohar\u201d: Ch. 38"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 And lastly comes the fourth, human (i.e., \u201cverbal\u201d) stage. The ratzon l\u2019kabel<\/em> is fully active and definitive by then, and it includes an awareness of others.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019re also able to sense others\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 In fact, if you\u2019d ask me to succinctly contrast the ratzon l\u2019kabel<\/em> of the third, animal stage with the fourth, human stage of it I\u2019d say that they were as different as a single being versus all of creation. For the ratzon l\u2019kabel<\/em> in the animal stage in which there\u2019s no awareness of others can only foster the needs and desires that are specific to that one being, while the ratzon l\u2019kabel<\/em> of humans who can sense others\u2019 (needs) can also incorporate the needs of everything else.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

For not only are we aware of what we<\/em> need and want, we\u2019re likewise only too well aware of others\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 And so we can covet and want whatever others have; and if you were to \u201cgive us an inch, we’d take a mile\u201d. Indeed our needs can be so great that we\u2019d want everything!<\/strong><\/p>\n

But while all that seems to damn human beings for our pettiness and to rail against our bottomless self-absorption, Ashlag\u2019s point will be that our natures are God-given and intentional, and they bolster God’s ultimate cosmic goal.<\/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 And lastly comes the fourth, human (i.e., \u201cverbal\u201d) stage. The ratzon l\u2019kabel is fully active and definitive by then, and it includes an awareness of others. On the one hand, while we humans are … 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-157","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-2x","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ravashlag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157","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=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ravashlag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ravashlag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ravashlag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ravashlag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}