Chapter Forty-Five:

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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45.

1.

"This Nephesh-light is termed 'the holy light of mineralness of the world of Asiyah' because it corresponds to the pure mineralness of the ratzon l’kabel in the human body."
-- We’d just learned that it’s the point in your heart that’s the mineral aspect of your soul (44:2). Rabbi Ashlag is now terming that point “the holy light of the mineralness of the world of Asiyah” to indicate the fact that despite it’s essential, rank mundanity and mineralness, and its alignment with the basest expression of the ratzon l’kabel, it’s nevertheless holy since it’s an aspect of the world of Asiyah (which, while the lowest world indeed, is inarguably an aspect of pure G-dliness).

"Its light shines (i.e., functions) on a spiritual level much the way mineralness does in the physical world, whose details don’t move about on their own but rather in general and in ways that encompass all of its details equally."
-- That is, just as inanimate objects are .. inanimate ... and only move on a molecular level and perhaps from place to place as a whole, and then only when provoked by external forces, the light of the mineralness of the world of Asiyah likewise only functions to those minimal degrees.

2.

"The same is true of the light of the Partzuf of Nephesh of Asiyah. For even though it has 613 spiritual-organs that are (actually) 613 essentially different forms of accepting the (Divine) bounty, nonetheless those differences aren’t apparent, and (the only thing governing it) is an all encompassing light whose function affects them all equally without a clear distinction of details."
-- We'd already learned that all 613 spiritual-organs of the point in your heart form a Partzuf, which we depicted as an integrated organism (see 44:2). What’s being underscored here is the fact that those spiritual-organs serve as “613 essentially different forms of accepting the (Divine) bounty”, which means to say that like our bodily organs, each one of these spiritual-organs has likewise been created by G-d, and nourished and maintained by His bounty to serve distinct needs and to function in unique ways. It’s just that their mineralness dictates that the lot of them function as a whole (by means of “an all encompassing light”) rather than as the separate units they are.

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )

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