{"id":256,"date":"2013-04-09T12:50:59","date_gmt":"2013-04-09T12:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ravashlag.wordpress.com\/?p=256"},"modified":"2013-04-09T12:50:59","modified_gmt":"2013-04-09T12:50:59","slug":"r-ashlags-introduction-to-the-zohar-ch-68","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ravashlag\/2013\/04\/09\/r-ashlags-introduction-to-the-zohar-ch-68\/","title":{"rendered":"R’ Ashlag’s “Introduction to the Zohar”: Ch. 68"},"content":{"rendered":"

1.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s quite clear, then, that the Torah itself has an interior and exterior (aspect) just like everything else in the universe. (It thus follows that) those who study Torah (also) fall into (one of) those two categories, and that the more one toils in the interior (aspect) of the Torah and its mysteries, the more able is he to elevate the interior (aspect) of the world, i.e., the (actual) Jewish Nation, higher and higher over its exterior (aspect), i.e., the other nations; and (the more able is he) to have them recognize and acknowledge the significance of the Jewish Nation. <\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And (when that happens,) then the words, “God will have mercy on Jacob and will indeed choose Israel and set them in their own land: the foreigners will be joined with them and will cleave on to the house of Jacob.\u201d (Isaiah 14:1), and “Thus says God the Lord, Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations and set up My standard to the peoples; and they will carry your sons in their arms, and carry your daughters on their shoulders\u201d (Isaiah 49:22) will be realized.<\/b><\/p>\n

2.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 But if, God forbid, the opposite occurs, and a Jew places less value on the (study of the) interior (aspect) of the Torah which deals with the ways of our souls and their levels as well as with the reasons for the mitzvot than he does upon (studying) the Torah\u2019s exterior (aspect), which deals with practicalities alone…<\/b><\/p>\n

If a Jew who has access to Kabbalah refuses to take it seriously because it isn\u2019t as weighty or relevant as the \u201crevealed\u201d Torah in his eyes, since Kabbalah doesn\u2019t touch upon practical halacha<\/i> or help to explain abstruse themes in the entire Jewish Bible in more practical terms…<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 … then even if he does in fact delve into its interior (aspect) once in a while and grants it a little of his time, as if it were somehow superfluous, God forbid, \u2026 such a person degrades and demeans the interior (aspect) of the world and grants power to the exterior (aspect) of the world over them, and (he thus enables them) to humiliate and disgrace the Jewish Nation and to have it regarded as superfluous and worthless, God forbid.<\/b><\/p>\n

That is, if even Torah scholars deem Kabbalah of little worth, they\u2019ll thus foster a sense among non-Jews that the Jewish Nation, who embody the heart of Torah that Kabbalah, is also of little worth. In fact …<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Not only that, but he\u2019ll even enable the other nations\u2019 exterior (aspect) to overcome its interior (one). <\/b><\/p>\n

As we learned, the other nations\u2019 interior aspect is comprised of their righteous individuals while its exterior one is made up of their crass and destructive elements (see 65:1).<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Then the lower (elements) of the other nations, those (among them who) destroy and ruin, will gain power and begin to tower over their interior (elements) and be able to bring on (more of the sort of) ruination and heinous slaughter that our generation has witnessed, may God protect us from that now on!<\/b><\/p>\n

3.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Thus we see that the redemption and ascendancy of the Jewish Nation (does indeed) depend upon our studying the Zohar and the (rest of the) interior (aspect) of the Torah. <\/b><\/p>\n

This harkens back to the end of the last chapter where we learned that the Zohar indicates that our redemption will only come about through the study of the Zohar and Kabbalah.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 And (you likewise see that) on the contrary, all the ruin and decline of the Jewish Nation is a result of our abandoning and belittling the Torah\u2019s interior (aspect) and considering it superfluous, God forbid.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0(c) 2013 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman<\/p>\n

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

<\/div>\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":"

1. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s quite clear, then, that the Torah itself has an interior and exterior (aspect) just like everything else in the universe. (It thus follows that) those who study Torah (also) fall into (one of) those two categories, … 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-256","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-48","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ravashlag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256","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=256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ravashlag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ravashlag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ravashlag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ravashlag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}