Chapter Forty-Two:
Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"
-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
__________________________________________________
42.
1.
"We’ve now explained the five worlds (i.e., Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah) that incorporate all of existence from the Infinite Himself to this world. We saw that they’re all interconnected and that each world contains five worlds -- the five (cluster sephirot) Keter, Chochma, Binah, Tifferet, and Malchut in which are engarbed in the five (supernal) lights of Nephesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya, and Yechida, which correspond to those five worlds."
-- As we’ll see below, when something is said to “engarb” something else that means to say that the thing that’s overlaid serves and derives from the more exalted thing hovering over it. Thus we now learn that the Nephesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya, and Yechida all derive from and serve Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah. We’ll soon see the significance of this.
2.
"Now, aside from the five (cluster) sephirot Keter, Chochma, Binah, Tifferet, and Malchut found in each and every world, the four spiritual grades of mineral, vegetable, animal, and verbal are found in each as well."
-- We’ve come to see just how conjoined our souls, the sephirot, and the supernal worlds are with each other (along with the letters of G-d's Name). We’re about to start to explore how they all combine with the mitzvah-system by connecting that all with the four grades of being.
"For (when it comes to our physical world,) the human soul corresponds to the verbal grade here, the animal grade corresponds to angels in this world, the vegetable grade is termed (i.e., corresponds to) the world’s 'clothing', and the mineral grade is termed (i.e., corresponds to) its 'halls', and they’re all interwoven."
-- Parenthetically, one of the reasons why the animal grade is said to correspond to *angels* in this world, curiously enough, is because there’s a rather exalted class of angels that are termed “Chayot” which are usually translated as “Living Entities” (from “chaya”) but which could also indeed be translated as and thus taken to be “animals”, since they’re tantamount to brute creatures in relation to G-d’s Holy Presence which they serve (notwithstanding their exalted place in our own eyes).
-- The point is that we’re each part human, animal, and angel, and overlaid by fibrous pieces of “clothing” (i.e., bodies, personalities, etc.), and surrounded by all manner of inanimate extraneous hall-like things (i.e., surroundings, belongings, etc.). And the lot of it is interconnected and interdependent.
-- Nonetheless, ...
"The verbal stage which corresponds to human souls is engarbed in the five sephirot of Keter, Chochma, Binah, Tifferet, and Malchut here, which are this world’s G-dliness. The animal stage, which is the world’s angels, engarbs human souls; the vegetative stage, which are its 'clothes', engarbs the angels; and the mineral stage, which are its 'halls', encircles them all. (Now, what) 'engarbed' connotes is that the overlaid entity serves the thing hovering over it, and derives from it."
-- That's to say that our spiritual-physical-situational self is viscerally intertwined with the sephirot and higher worlds, and with G-dliness itself. And while there's a hierarchical relationship between them as we’ll soon see, at bottom, each member of our being supports the whole.
3.
"But as we explained in regard to this world’s actual physical minerals, vegetables, animals, and verbals, the (first) three grades -- mineral, vegetable, and animal -- didn’t emerge for their own sake, but only so that the fourth grade, humankind, could derive and advance thanks to them. Hence, their whole raison d’etre is to serve man and help him advance."
-- See Ch. 39.
"The same is true of all the spiritual worlds (i.e., beyond this world). Their mineral, vegetable, animal, and verbal beings likewise only emerged in order to serve them and help the verbal (beings) in that world, which (corresponds to) the soul of man, advance. That means to say that they all a -- (serve and) help advance -- man's soul."
(c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )
********************************
AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*!
You can order it right now from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"
Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"
-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
__________________________________________________
42.
1.
"We’ve now explained the five worlds (i.e., Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah) that incorporate all of existence from the Infinite Himself to this world. We saw that they’re all interconnected and that each world contains five worlds -- the five (cluster sephirot) Keter, Chochma, Binah, Tifferet, and Malchut in which are engarbed in the five (supernal) lights of Nephesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya, and Yechida, which correspond to those five worlds."
-- As we’ll see below, when something is said to “engarb” something else that means to say that the thing that’s overlaid serves and derives from the more exalted thing hovering over it. Thus we now learn that the Nephesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya, and Yechida all derive from and serve Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah. We’ll soon see the significance of this.
2.
"Now, aside from the five (cluster) sephirot Keter, Chochma, Binah, Tifferet, and Malchut found in each and every world, the four spiritual grades of mineral, vegetable, animal, and verbal are found in each as well."
-- We’ve come to see just how conjoined our souls, the sephirot, and the supernal worlds are with each other (along with the letters of G-d's Name). We’re about to start to explore how they all combine with the mitzvah-system by connecting that all with the four grades of being.
"For (when it comes to our physical world,) the human soul corresponds to the verbal grade here, the animal grade corresponds to angels in this world, the vegetable grade is termed (i.e., corresponds to) the world’s 'clothing', and the mineral grade is termed (i.e., corresponds to) its 'halls', and they’re all interwoven."
-- Parenthetically, one of the reasons why the animal grade is said to correspond to *angels* in this world, curiously enough, is because there’s a rather exalted class of angels that are termed “Chayot” which are usually translated as “Living Entities” (from “chaya”) but which could also indeed be translated as and thus taken to be “animals”, since they’re tantamount to brute creatures in relation to G-d’s Holy Presence which they serve (notwithstanding their exalted place in our own eyes).
-- The point is that we’re each part human, animal, and angel, and overlaid by fibrous pieces of “clothing” (i.e., bodies, personalities, etc.), and surrounded by all manner of inanimate extraneous hall-like things (i.e., surroundings, belongings, etc.). And the lot of it is interconnected and interdependent.
-- Nonetheless, ...
"The verbal stage which corresponds to human souls is engarbed in the five sephirot of Keter, Chochma, Binah, Tifferet, and Malchut here, which are this world’s G-dliness. The animal stage, which is the world’s angels, engarbs human souls; the vegetative stage, which are its 'clothes', engarbs the angels; and the mineral stage, which are its 'halls', encircles them all. (Now, what) 'engarbed' connotes is that the overlaid entity serves the thing hovering over it, and derives from it."
-- That's to say that our spiritual-physical-situational self is viscerally intertwined with the sephirot and higher worlds, and with G-dliness itself. And while there's a hierarchical relationship between them as we’ll soon see, at bottom, each member of our being supports the whole.
3.
"But as we explained in regard to this world’s actual physical minerals, vegetables, animals, and verbals, the (first) three grades -- mineral, vegetable, and animal -- didn’t emerge for their own sake, but only so that the fourth grade, humankind, could derive and advance thanks to them. Hence, their whole raison d’etre is to serve man and help him advance."
-- See Ch. 39.
"The same is true of all the spiritual worlds (i.e., beyond this world). Their mineral, vegetable, animal, and verbal beings likewise only emerged in order to serve them and help the verbal (beings) in that world, which (corresponds to) the soul of man, advance. That means to say that they all a -- (serve and) help advance -- man's soul."
(c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )
********************************
AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*!
You can order it right now from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"
posted by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman at 11:08 AM
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