Chapter Seventy:

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________________

70.

1.

"And the reason for that (i.e., for the Moshiach’s refusal to appear in our generation) as we've said is because those who do delve into Torah depreciate their own and Torah’s interior (aspect, by eschewing Kabbalah), and they regard the Torah’s interior as superfluous, only studying it when it’s neither 'day nor night'”.

"But they’re like blind people running their hands along a wall."
-- That’s to say, those laudable souls who study Torah in depth and dedicate their lives to the punctilious observance of mitzvot in the hopes of encouraging the Moshiach to arrive are barking up the wrong tree, if you will; they’re shortsightedly looking here (in the revealed Torah) for what’s actually there (in the concealed Torah).

"For they thus strengthen their own exterior (aspect), meaning the advantages of their body (over their soul), and they likewise bestow more importance to the Torah’s exterior (aspect) than to its interior (one) ... "
-- That is, they lend more credence to their bodies than to their souls by favoring the more practical, this-worldly aspects of the Torah over the Kabbalah-based ones.

" ... and thus allow the world’s exterior (aspects) to hold sway over its interior (ones), each according to its own makeup."
-- That is, they thus seem to advocate and grant more importance to externals, which is so much more destructive because they’re our greatest Torah scholars and leaders.

"For the exterior (aspect) of the Jewish Nation, meaning its less learned individuals, thus hold sway over and undo the Jewish Nation’s interior (aspect), her Torah Greats. And the exterior (aspect) of the Gentile nations, their destructive elements, likewise hold sway over and undo their interior (aspect), the righteous Gentiles. And the entire world’s exterior (aspect), the Gentile nations, holds sway over and undo the Jewish Nation, its interior (aspect)."
-- And so all externals overwhelm internals, leading to the more unlearned elements of the Jews to hold sway over the Torah greats, the more brutish elements of the Gentiles holding sway over its more righteous elements, and the Gentiles themselves to hold sway over the Jews in toto.

2.

"It’s (in fact) in just such a generation that the Gentile destroyers rear up their heads and most especially want to annihilate and butcher the Jewish Nation, (for) it’s said, 'calamity only befalls the world for (the sins of) the Jewish Nation' (Yebamot 63), and (as) it was said in the Tikkun (cited) above, 'the Gentile destroyers (will) bring poverty, ruin, robbery, looting, murder, and destruction upon the world' (then)."

"Hence, since all that had been (stated) in the Tikkunim has come about (in our times), because of our many sins; since (it’s also true that) disaster has struck at the very best of us in particular (in the course of the Holocaust), as it’s said, 'It (i.e., disaster) invariably begins with the righteous (Babba Kama 60); and since the dignity that the Jewish Nation once enjoyed in Poland, Lithuania, etc. only abides with the remnant (of Torah greats) living in Israel now, it’s incumbent upon us to correct that dreadful wrong. Each of us (of that caliber left) must take it upon himself with every fiber of his being and with all his means to bolster the Torah’s interior (aspect) and grant it its (rightful) place of honor above the Torah’s exterior (aspect) from now on (by studying the Zohar and Kabbalah)."

3.

"Then each one of us (Torah greats ourselves) will be awarded with a bolstering of his own interior (aspect), his inner 'Jewish Nation', which is the needs of the soul over his exterior (aspect), his inner 'Gentile nations', the needs of the body. But the capacity to do that will only come to the Jewish Nation (in its entirety) once the unlearned among us acknowledge and realize the value of the Torah greats over them and (begin to) listen to and obey them."
-- That is, once the Torah greats themselves delve into Kabbalah as they should they’ll nourish their own beings inside and out. And -- the implication is -- then they’ll appear in a new light in the eyes of the unlearned, who’ll admire and obey them by that point, study Kabbalah as well, and grow in their own beings. And once all that happens, ...

"Then the interior (aspect) of the Gentile nations, the righteous Gentiles, will overpower its exterior (aspect), their destroyers, and subdue them as well. And then the world’s interior (aspect), the (actual) Jewish Nation, will likewise gloriously and nobly overpower the world’s exterior (aspect), the Gentile nations, and all the nations of the world will recognize and acknowledge the preeminence of the Jewish Nation."

"And the words, 'The people will take them and bring them to their place; and the House of Israel will inherit them in G-d’s land' (Isaiah 14:2) will be fulfilled, as well as (the words) 'they will carry your sons in their arms, and carry your daughters on their shoulders' (Isaiah 49:22). For as the Zohar (itself) says, 'It is through (the study of) this work, the Zohar (most especially), that they’ll be freed from exile with mercy' (Parshat Nasah. p. 124). Amen, may it be so!"

(c) 2006 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"

Chapter Sixty-Nine:

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

__________________________________________________

69.

1.

"(In fact,) it’s said in the Tikkunei Zohar, 'Rise up and rouse yourself before the Holy Shechina (Divine Presence), for your heart is empty and without the knowledge (you’d need) to know and apprehend it even though it’s (right) in your midst'.”
-- The Tikkunei Zohar indicates that for some reason or another we haven’t the wherewithal to draw close to the Divine Presence.

“'The secret import of this is (contained in the verse,) "A voice says, Cry out!" (Isaiah 40:6) -- which is analogous to (the verse,) "Call now, but is there any who will answer you?" (Job 5:1). And she (i.e., the Shechina) said, "What should I cry out? All flesh is but grass" (meaning,) all (people) are like grass-eating animals, "and all its kindness is like the flower of the field!" (Isaiah 40:6) (meaning that) all the acts of kindness they proffer are for their own benefit' (Tikkun 40)."
-- What holds us back from drawing close to the Divine Presence in fact, and from hoisting it out of the pit it’s in, in our state of exile, is our selfishness and egotism, we’re told. Rabbi Ashlag will now expand upon that.

"The mystical meaning of that is as follows (Rabbi Ashlag offers). 'A voice says, Cry out!' (indicates that) a voice beats within each and every Jew’s heart to call out and pray for the ascent of the Holy Shechina, which encompasses all Jewish souls. And the Tikkunei Zohar refers to the verse, 'Call now, but is there any who will answer you?' (Job 5:1), to indicate that 'call' implies 'pray out to (in both instances)."

"But the Shechina replies, 'What should I cry out?, as if to say, I haven’t the strength to lift myself out of the dust (in which I lie, in exile), for 'all flesh is but grass', which is to say that 'they’re all like grass-eating animals', meaning that they all fulfill mitzvot mindlessly like animals, 'and all its kindness is like the flower of the field', which is to say that 'all the acts of kindness they proffer are for their own benefit', meaning that whenever they fulfill mitzvot they only do so to please themselves rather than their Creator."

"In fact, (that could) even (be said of) those who toil in Torah, for 'all the acts of kindness (that) *they* proffer are for their own benefit” (just as well, for indeed,) even the best of them, those who spend all their time studying Torah only, only do so for their own benefit, without meaning to please their Creator as they should."
-- Rabbi Ashlag had already expressed how deeply saddened he was by the fact that even the greatest Torah scholars of our generation don’t study Kabbalah, and of the spiritual “aridity and darkness we find ourselves to be in our generation” that has resulted (Ch. 57).
-- The greatest tragedy to come of that, though (aside from the Holocaust, alluded to at the end of the last chapter), is our aforementioned selfishness and egotism. His point is that the only way we can outgrow that is by honing all five aspects of our soul which we only manage to do when we delve into Kabbalah (Ch. 56).

2.

“'(It’s also said there in the Tikkunei Zohar of) such a generation (that they are like), "a spirit that passes away and does not return" (Psalms 78:39), referring to the spirit of the Moshiach, who is to deliver Israel from all its troubles (and lead us all) to the ultimate redemption, so as to fulfill the words: "for the earth will be full of the knowledge of G-d" (Isaiah 11:9). That spirit has left and doesn’t shine in the world (for now).'”
--The point is that the Moshiach is to come in order to reveal the sort knowledge of G-d that the Kabbalah explicates, but he’ll see how we don’t yearn for that knowledge and will turn around.

“Woe to those who cause the spirit of the Moshiach to vanish from the world and not return (in their day)! They make the Torah (seem) dry and without a drop of sense or wisdom! For they limit themselves to the practical aspects of the Torah and don’t want to understand the wisdom of the Kabbalah or know about and study the Torah’s mysteries or the reasons behind its mitzvot (that Kabbalah gives insight to). Woe to them! For they bring poverty, ruin, robbery, looting, murder, and destruction upon the world by their deeds.”

(c) 2006 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"