Chapter Sixty-Six:

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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66.

1.

"Now, when a Jew fortifies and enhances his interior (aspect), his inner “Jewish Nation”, rather than his exterior (aspect), his inner “Gentile Nations”, by concentrating most of his efforts on fortifying and cultivating his interior (aspect) and bettering his soul, while only (dedicating) a few, essential efforts on sustaining his (inner) “Gentile NNations”, i.e., his bodily needs -- in keeping with the statement, "Make your Torah (study) permanent and your (worldly) efforts transient" (Pirkei Avot 1) -- both on an interior and exterior level, ... "
-- That is, when an individual Jew truly hones and enlarges his inner Jewishness while tempering and diminishing his Gentileness, inside and out, ...

"... he then enables the (actual) Jewish Nation to soar higher and higher upward, and (enables) the (actual) Gentile Nations, who are the world’s exterior (aspect), to recognize and acknowledge the value of the Jewish Nation."
-- ... he hones and enlarges the entire Jewish Nation inside and out."

2.

"But if, G-d forbid, the opposite occurs and a Jew fortifies and enhances his exterior (aspect) and his (inner) 'Gentile nations' -- the 'stranger in (his) midst' (Deuteronomy 28) -- more so than his (inner) 'Jewish Nation', ... "
-- That is, when an individual Jew hones and enlarges his inner Gentileness while tempering and diminishing his inner Jewishness, inside and out, ...

"... then his exterior (aspect) will (begin) to soar upward, and (the real) person, his actual interior (aspect) and inner 'Jewish Nation', will plunge downward. And that will have the exterior (aspect) of the world, i.e., the (actual) Gentile nations, soar ever upward and overcome the (actual) Jewish Nation, and have them sink down to the ground, and (it will enable) the (actual) Jewish Nation, i.e., the interior (aspect) of the world, to plunge deeper and deeper down, G-d forbid."
-- ... he then hones and enlarges the entire Gentile world, inside and out, and debases the Jewish Nation.
-- All this is true because “an impetus from below sets off an impetus up above” (see Zohar II, p.175B), which is to say that because “down and up” and “in and out” are parallel to each other, what we do effects the world at large as a consequence, much the way twins often effect each other on all levels despite physical distance. So we're duty-bound to fortify the Jewish Nation both within and without, and we'll soon see how we do that.

c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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

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