Chapter Forty-Eight:

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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48.

1.

"By then engaging in the secrets of the Torah and in the reasons behind the mitzvot ... "
-- Which is to say, by then delving into the heart and soul of the Torah and its mitzvah-system by reflecting upon Kabbalistic texts that reveal such things, ...

"... you purify the animate part of your ratzon l’kabel to the degree that you engage in that."
-- For the deeper you delve into the secrets of the Torah and in the reasons behind the mitzvot, the surer will be your realization of the fact that we’re all driven by a lethal and all-consuming willingness to take-in rather than bestow, and the deeper will be your commitment to undo it.

"You (then) build-up the point of your Neshama engarbed in its 248 organs and 365 tendons. When its structure is completed and it becomes a (full) partzuf, it ascends upwards and engarbs the sephira of Binah in the spiritual world of Asiyah, whose vessel is incomparably finer than the preceding ones, Tipheret and Malchut. And you then spread a great light from the Infinite into it which is termed 'Neshama-Light'”.
-- Refer to 44:2 which speaks of the stages you reach “when you fulfill all 613 mitzvot on a tangible level”; and to 44:3 which addresses the idea of your spiritual accomplishments corresponding to the “extent that (your) soul has (been) schooled” in and granted insights.

2.

-- The Kabbalistic terminology is beginning to get rather turgid at this point, so let’s review the basic concepts behind what’s being said.
-- As Rabbi Ashlag said, “reality is comprised of five (supernal) worlds”: Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah (ch. 41). The five of them in turn correspond to the five cluster sefirot, so that Adam Kadmon corresponds to Keter, Atzilut corresponds to Chochma, Briah corresponds to Binah, Yetzirah corresponds to Tifferet, and Asiyah corresponds to Malchut. Those five pairs further correspond to the five levels of the soul -- Yechida, Chaya, Neshama, Ruach, and Nephesh -- all which in turn correspond to the 4 letters of G-d’s name along with the tip of the first letter, yod, for a total of 5.
-- Recall that we’ve been discussing ascending upward in our beings from the bottom up, i.e., from mineralness, vegetableness, animalness, to verbal- or humaness (ch. 34).
-- To now we’ve addressed ascending up from the Nephesh-Asiyah-mineralness level to the Ruach-Yetzirah-vegetableness one. We’re now touching upon the next higher level.
-- Rabbi Ashlag’s point here once again is that once we engage “in the secrets of the Torah and in the reasons behind the mitzvot” (see above) we begin to “purify the animate part of (our) ratzon l’kabel” and we go on from there to “build-up the point of (our) Neshama” which then “ascends upwards and engarbs the sephira of Binah in the spiritual world of Asiyah” and to acquire “Neshama-Light”. That brings us up to date.
-- At that point, ...

"All the details of mineralness, vegetableness, and animalness in the world of Asiyah associated with the Binah-complex then come to help the humanness Neshama partzuf fully take-in light from the sephira of Binah, which is (then) also termed 'holy animalness' (simply) because it corresponds to the purest aspect of the (mundane) animal part of the human body. In fact, that is that’s light’s nature, as we explained in connection with corporeal animalness (see 37:2). (For,) it’s what grants the characteristic sensation that makes up each of the 613 organs of the partzuf, and (enables) each one to sense its own aliveness as well as its freedom and independence from the partzuf as a whole."

"And (that process of ascent continues to the point where each of) the 613 organs are deemed 613 (full) partzufim (unto themselves), each with it’s own cast of light. In fact, the spiritual status of this light in comparison to Ruach-light is nearly equal to the difference between animalness and that of mineral and vegetableness in the physical world."

"A point from the light of holy-Chayah, which is the light of the sephira of Chochma, extends outwards when the partzuf of Neshama appears, which is then engarbed in it."

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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

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