RabbiYaakovFeldman

2004-06-02T04:59:00.000-04:00

AN CONDENSATION OF RABBI SHNEUR ZALMAN'S "TANYA"
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
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PART ONE: Introduction through Ch. 8

1. This first section begins by introducing the idea that while some of us Jews are utterly wrongful by nature and others of us are fully righteous, the great preponderance of us are somewhere in between. And it behooves us each to know just where we stand on that continuum. Before we can do that, though, we'll have to understand our spiritual makeup.

2. RSZ's first insight for us into that is his statement that we're each comprised of two "predilections" or spirits: one toward rank animalism and another toward pure G-dliness (Ch. 1).

3. The G-dly spirit, we're taught, is a veritable portion of G-d (Ch. 2) and it's comprised of ten elements in all: three “mind" elements and seven “heart" elements (Ch. 3). There are three "garments" connected with it, too: our thoughts, speech, and actions (Ch's. 4-5). We learn that our G-dly spirit is elevated when its garments are used to fulfill mitzvot; that our mind is united with G-d's very will and wisdom when we study Torah; and that our hearts come into play when we infuse the love and fear of G-d into that (Ch. 4).

4. Our animalistic spirit is also comprised of ten mind and heart elements (Ch. 6) and three garments (Ch's. 7-8). But it's *derived* from the four "husks" and the "other side" (Ch. 1) rather than directly from G-dliness. The four husks that it's derived from are actually comprised of two subsets, though: three utterly impure husks and a single "luminous” one that straddles the border between holiness and unholiness (Ch. 7).

5. Now, since the luminous element of our animalistic spirit can function in either holiness or unholiness and we have it within us to determine which one it will, it stands to reason that there'll be times when we lapse into unholiness (since we nearly all fall sway to the animalistic spirit's urgings). So, how do we rectify things when we do? And what's the difference between what we do when we lapse into outright unholiness and when we succumb to more subtly wrongful things, like partaking of perfectly acceptable things to excess (Ch's 7-8)?

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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

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Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-06-01T04:43:00.000-04:00

A CONDENSATION OF RABBI MOSHE CHAIM LUZZATTO'S "DA'AT TEVUNOT"
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Part One: G-d Wants Man to Perfect Himself In Order to Enjoy His Beneficence

1. We're taught that G-d founded the universe upon justice, goodness, and design (see Deuteronomy 32:4). But our experience seems to contradict that, so in order to convince of us of it, we'd need to backtrack and understand a number of things about ourselves and the world that would explain how it's true -- and why we don't perceive it as being so.

2. What we'll delve into then is our makeup (which won't be explained until later on), what's expected of us (see #3 below), and our raison d'etre (see #10 below).

3. What's expected of us, at bottom, is to perfect ourselves along and the entire universe.

4. But why would we have to do that? In order to answer that, we'd first have to determine why G-d created us in the first place, but we can only explain that after first defining G-d.

5. So in sequence:
a) we'll start off by defining G-d (#6 below),
b) we'll then uncover why He created us (#7 below), and we'll go on from there to explain
c) what we're expected to perfect about ourselves (#10 below).

6. The truth of the matter is that we *can't* define G-d -- as He is in His Essence, at least -- since we can't begin to fathom that. But what we *can* grasp to some degree is how He presents Himself in the universe and interacts with us, since that's clarified by the Torah and the Tradition. Hence, G-d is defined as the ultimate beneficent Being (since He gives all and needs nothing in return).

7. Now, since a beneficent Being like Himself would only be expected to have others whom He could benefit, He'd thus "need" to create such beings (suffice it to say that G-d "needs" nothing, but that's beyond this short treatment). Thus, the reason why G-d created us was so that we might enjoy His largesse.

8. And yet in order for His creations to enjoy His beneficence and not be "embarrassed" -- i.e., compromised -- by that, they'd somehow need to *earn* what they receive. So, we're expected to serve Him and to thus perfect ourselves in the process of our own volition in order to truly enjoy His beneficence.

9. But, what's imperfect or flawed about us in the first place, and what kind of perfection are we capable of achieving?

10. What human perfection comes to, essentially, is the ability to adhere onto G-d's Presence and to come to know Him; and what's imperfect about us which we're expected to rectify are the flaws that isolate us from Him. So, our raison d'etre is to indeed adhere onto G-d's presence and to know Him.

11. Next it's important to realize that G-d *purposely* didn't create a perfect universe -- just so that we could perfect ourselves and thus benefit from His beneficence.

12. But, what it is it that enables us to perfect ourselves in the first place? We'll come back to that after having first touched upon a number of points.

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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

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Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-31T10:16:00.000-04:00

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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Section 7, Part 2

"In light of His intent when He created the world we can now understand that *there was no need to create anything other than that willingness to accept things*. For it’s all He needed to (create in order to) fulfill His intent to create the world, which was to bestow us with favors."

-- We've only alluded to it till this point but we'll now expand upon our willingness to accept things, since it's a major theme in R' Ashlag's system. It's termed the *ratzon l'kabel* in Hebrew and it can be translated as our willingness, wish, or intent to accept, receive, or take things. At bottom it comes down to our tendency to catch rather than throw, consume rather than produce.

-- But don't make the mistake of thinking that it's fully and exclusively a symptom of our spoiled or self-centered nature, for it goes far deeper. In fact, sometimes it's a rather healthy need at that. Consider inhalation and exhalation. I just naturally will, wish, and intend to accept, receive, or take in oxygen all the time; and I only "give it back" when I exhale in order to be able to inhale again -- or so it seems. But as every schoolchild knows, when I exhale I proffer carbon dioxide into the air which in fact feeds. And besides, if I didn't inhale, I'd die. I likewise ingest food for seemingly selfish reasons, but I'd also die if I didn't (and the body's waste matter is also useful). The list goes on and on.

-- Still and all, though, our wish to take-in rather than give-out *is* selfish and self-serving for the most part. For as we all know, while immaturity and crudeness are marked by selfishness (by an utter exploitation of the *ratzon l'kabel*), maturity and refinement are marked by self*less*ness. And we're called upon to transcend the *ratzon l'kabel* in ways we'll discuss later on.

-- In fact, it's the *ratzon l'kabel* that sets us apart from G-d, who needs nothing and grants everything (as we pointed out). That having been said, though, it's still true that G-d purposefully created the *ratzon l'kabel*, so it must fulfill a role in His plans. In fact it does, and a supremely high one at that: it serves as the medium through which G-d's intention to bestow us with favors plays itself out. After all, if I didn't want to take, then my Benefactor couldn't effectively give (see 6:2).

"Nonetheless the complete fulfillment of His intentions for the world -- which is to say, all the goodness He had in mind for us -- originated directly from His essence. So He (really) didn’t need to create it anew (or, “re-create” it), since it originated in something that already existed, and became the great willingness to accept things that dwells within us (literally, 'in our souls')."

-- His point is that since all we tend to do (with exception) is take-in and all G-d does indeed do is give-out, it necessarily follows that our urge to take-in is the only thing G-d created outright, out of the blue, which is apart from Him. For everything else comes directly from Him and is a manifestation of His will to give-out -- a purposeful "prop" for G-d's wish to bestow us with favors.

"Thus it becomes absolutely clear that all of creation, from start to finish, is nothing other than (the creation of) the *ratzon l'kabel*."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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

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Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-28T05:40:00.000-04:00

Plans for the future, G-d willing:

Besides continuing on with my treatment of Rav Ashlag's Hakdamah l'Sefer HaZohar, I hope to offer condensations (kitzurim) of two essential works: Ramchal's Da'at Tevunot, and Rabbi Shneur Zalman's Tanya.

What I plan to do is present each work in short, section by section (rather than chapter by chapter), with comments interspersed.

Then I hope to go on to other condensations (mostly from Ramchal).

2004-05-25T05:01:00.000-04:00

We now complete our countdown to Mattan Torah with this final quote from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 26

"Precious reader: I realize that you know as well as I that I have not exhausted all the requirements for piety in my book, and that I have not said all that can be said about the subject. But that is because there is no end to the matter, and we cannot fathom the extent of it. What I have done is mentioned some small part of all the particulars of the beraita upon which I have based this book. It is a beginning which will allow for further investigation into these matters. Their paths have therefore been charted, and their ways exposed to our eyes so that we might go on the righteous path."

"It is obvious that each person must be directed and guided according to his own field of endeavor and his concerns. The path to piety for the one whose whole occupation is Torah scholarship is different from the one for the laborer, which is itself different from the one for the professional person. And that goes as well for all the other differentiating factors between people, each of which is its own path to piety. But that is not so because piety changes -- it is the same for everybody: it involves doing what brings satisfaction to your Creator. But since the individual participant changes, the means to bring him to that end must necessarily be particular to him. A humble laborer could be as thoroughly pious as someone who never stops studying Torah."

"May He, in His great compassion, open our eyes to His Torah. May He teach us His ways, lead us upon His path, and make us worthy to bring honor to His name and satisfy Him."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

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Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-24T06:07:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 26

"The way you obtain [holiness] is with a lot of abstention, with serious reflection upon the mysteries of G-d's great involvement in the world and the secrets of creation, and with the sure knowledge of G-d's exaltedness and praise. Only then will you have become attached to Him strongly and know how to concentrate your thoughts while moving through the world and making use of it. This was the way the priest was supposed to concentrate in order to draw down G-d's blessing of life and peace as he ritually slaughtered sacrifices and received and sprinkled their blood upon the altar. Without all this it is impossible to reach this great height. You would remain corporeal and of-the-earth like all other people."

"What [also] helps in the attainment of this level is a lot of solitary meditation and abstinence. With this lack of interferences, your soul can more easily strengthen and attach itself to G-d. What detracts from attaining this trait is a lack of knowledge of the truth and the over-association with others. Materiality is attracted to its kind, and is energized and made stronger by association with it. The soul that is seized by it cannot escape from its trappings. But when it is separated from it, the soul can stand alone and ready itself for the indwelling of holiness. It will be accompanied upon the path it wants to take."

"With the help G-d gives you, your soul can be strengthened and made to grow victorious over physicality, attach itself to G-d, and grow whole within you. From there you can grow to an even higher level, 'Holy Inspiration', where your intellect will rise above all human capabilities. That will allow you to enjoy a yet higher form of attachment to G-d. Then the keys to the Resurrection of the Dead will be passed on to you as they were passed on to Elijah and Elisha. That would indicate the great degree of attachment to G-d you would experience. As G-d is the source of all life, the one who gives life to the living, ... one who utterly attaches himself to G-d can elicit from Him life itself, which is the one thing that is attributable to Him more than anything else."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

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Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-23T07:09:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 26

"The general principle behind holiness is that you remain so attached to G-d that you never separate nor even move from Him no matter what you are doing. Then the physical things you make use of will have had a greater spiritual elevation for your having used them than whatever spiritual descent you would have suffered for using them. But such a state can only come about when your mind is set constantly on G-d's greatness, exaltedness and holiness. Then you will be as one who joined the ranks of the angels while yet in the world."

"We have already pointed out, however, that you cannot manage to do this on your own. You can only be expected to be attracted to it and to attempt it. And even that can only come about after you will have attained all of the traits we have mentioned thusfar, from the initial promptings of caution to the fear of sin. Only then can you approach holiness and be successful at it. If you lack the other traits, you will be a foreigner and a malaprop."

"But after you will have readied yourself in all the ways mentioned, and after you will have further attached yourself to G-d with a strong love and a powerful reverence by recognizing His vast exaltedness you are to then disattach yourself from material matters step by step, and direct all of your movements and actions to the truly hidden aspects of attachment to G-d. A spirit from on high will then descend upon you, and the Creator will dwell upon you as He does for all of His holy ones. Then you will actually be like one of the angels, and all of your actions -- even the most common and corporeal -- will be part of your offering and your service."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

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Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-22T22:05:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 26

"Holiness [the ultimate virtue] is a twofold matter: it begins in effort, and ends in recompense; and it begins in striving, and ends in being given as a gift. That is to say, its beginnings are your sanctifying yourself, and its conclusions are your being sanctified."

"What all of your efforts should be directed towards is the utter separation and removal of yourself from all physicality, and the constant attachment to G-d .... Even when you are embroiled in matters of the world for the sake of the well-being of your body, let your soul not be moved from its state of great attachment."

"I said that holiness ends up being a gift to you. That is necessarily so, because it is impossible for a human to place himself in this state which is so difficult for him because he is in truth physical, and flesh and blood. All you can do is make the effort of seeking the true knowledge and try to constantly give thought to the sanctification of your actions. Ultimately, G-d alone can direct you in this, the path you would like to follow, and can have His holiness dwell upon you and sanctify you. Only then can you succeed, and only then will you be able to constantly attach yourself to G-d. G-d will help you and see to it that you get what your native being would detain from you."

"Even the mundane actions of the person sanctified in the holiness of His Creator are turned around to actual holiness .... You can see now the difference between purity [the previous trait] and holiness. The pure only do those physical things that are absolutely necessary, meaning to derive no benefit from them other than what is absolutely necessary. They are thusby freed from any sort of harm from the physical world and remain pure. But they have not reached the level of holiness, because it would have been better for them to have been altogether without those things. But the holy -- those who constantly attach themselves to G-d, and whose souls move about in the true notions of love and reverence for the Creator -- are considered to be walking before G-d in the land of the living while they are in this world.

"The food that such a person would eat would be like a burnt-offering brought upon the fires of the altar. And what was offered upon the altar was considered to have enjoyed a great spiritual elevation, because it was brought before the Divine Presence, and would also enjoy the advantage of having all of its kind blessed throughout the world .... So too, the food and drink the holy person would ingest would enjoy a spiritual elevation as if it were actually being offered upon the altar."

"Torah scholars who are holy in all of their ways and deeds are considered to truly be like a Temple and an altar, because the Divine Presence dwells upon them as it actually did in the Holy Temple. Something that is offered to them [as a gift] is likened to something offered upon the altar..... Therefore, the things of this world they make use of after having attained the level of attachment to G-d's holiness are elevated because they enjoyed the advantage of having been used by a righteous person."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

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Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-21T05:54:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 24

"You should fear and worry about what you are doing or are about to, lest there be or come to be something in it that is not fitting for G-d's honor, as we have explained above .... [and] you should constantly think about what you have *already* done, and fear and worry that some transgression might have unknowingly come your way."

"Only Moses found it easy to obtain this sort of fear, thanks to his great attachment to G-d, while others have certainly been greatly deterred by their corporeality. However, every pious person should try to achieve as much as possible."

-- From Ch. 25

"The only way to acquire this sort of fear is to contemplate two truisms: that G-d's Presence is found everywhere and that He involves Himself in everything, great and small. Nothing is hidden from Him, either because of its vastness or its insignificance. Whether a thing is great or small, scant or imposing, He constantly sees and understands it .... When it will become clear to you that wherever you are, you are standing before the Divine Presence, you will arrive at the fear and dread of stumbling in actions that would not be fitting before G-d's profound Glory."

"But this will only touch you personally if you constantly reflect upon and observe it. For this sort of thing is beyond our ordinary perceptions, and the mind can only grasp it after much meditation and contemplation. And even after it will have made an impression, that impression will be easily lost if you do not constantly work at it. Just as a lot of contemplation is the only way to attain constant fear of Heaven, diversion of attention (either purposeful, or because of external interference) or lack of concentration is the way to lose it. And all diversion of attention is a taking away from the state of constant fear of heaven."

"The fear of Heaven does not come naturally. In fact, it is very unnatural to us, because of the limited, this-worldly nature of our senses. It only comes to us with study. And the only kind of study that brings it to us is constant diligence in Torah and its path, which involves reflecting and meditating upon this at all times -- when you are relaxing, traveling, lying down, and awakening. The veracity of this -- that the Divine Presence is ever-present, and that we stand before G-d each and every moment -- must be set in your mind. Only then can you truly fear and revere G-d."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-20T06:33:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 23

"Another deterrent to humility is association with flatterers, who steal your heart away with their praise. They will praise and exalt you for their own ulterior motives by expanding upon the good points you possess to the hilt, then praise you unjustifiably in addition. And sometimes the very thing you are being praised for is what you should not be."

"The point of the matter is that human intelligence is actually quite weak and human nature is gullible and easily swayed -- especially when it comes to something it just naturally leans toward. When you hear those sorts of things being said about you by someone you trust, a certain poison enters into you, you fall into the trap of arrogance and are captured .... Therefore, the intelligent person will be more careful and scrutinizing of the person he would want to befriend, be counseled by, or oversee his household than he would of what he eats or drinks. For food or drink could only harm his body, but bad friends and associates could ruin his soul, his possessions and his honor .... [So] there is nothing better for you than to make friends with honest people who will open your eyes to matters you are blind to and reproach you lovingly."

-- From Ch. 24

"You will notice that this trait [i.e., the fear of sin] is placed after all of the exalted traits we have discussed to this point. That should be enough to point out to us its importance. It is only fitting that it would be a very special and essential trait that is difficult to obtain, as would be expected of one that can only be reached by one who has obtained those already discussed to this point. We must however start off by saying that there are two sorts of fear .... The first category is fear of punishment. The second is fear of, or reverence for G-d's Grandeur, of which fear of sin is the subcategory."

"Fear of punishment comes into play when you are literally afraid of transgressing the dictates of G-d because of the punishments (either corporeal or capital) that are due transgressors. This is certainly very easy to come to because everybody has an instinct for self-preservation and is concerned for his well-being. The second category -- fear of, or reverence for G-d's Grandeur -- holds sway when you keep away from transgressions and do not commit them for the sake of G-d's great Glory .... A person in this category would be abashed and would tremble when standing before, praying to and serving his Maker. This is the most praiseworthy of fears for which the pious of the world are most exalted."

"The fear of sin is both a subcategory of fear of, or reverence for G-d's Grandeur and a category in its own right. It essentially involves you constantly fearing and worrying that your actions might contain a trace of sin, or that there might be some small or even large thing therein that is not fitting for the Glory and Grandeur of G-d .... Fear of sin should be a constant thing. You should always be afraid of stumbling and doing something or some half of something that is against G-d's honor."

"It is only right that we should tremble and shiver in the knowledge that we are constantly standing in the Presence of G-d, and that it is so easy for us to do something that is not fitting before G-d's exaltedness."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-19T06:40:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 22

"One thing is certain -- modesty removes many stumbling-blocks along the way and brings you closer to the great good. The modest person is little concerned for matters of this world and is not envious of its vanities. Also, the friendship of a modest person is very wonderful; people enjoy his company. Of a necessity he does not come to anger or argumentation, and everything he does is done peaceably and serenely. One who merits this trait is fortunate."

-- From Ch. 23

"There are two things that bring you to humility: force of habit, and reflection. Force of habit involves your slowly habituating yourself to act humbly along the lines we have delineated -- by sitting in a less than auspicious place, by walking at the back of a company of people, and by dressing in modest clothing (clothing that is respectable, but not outstanding)."

"As it is in our heart's nature to swell and grow haughty, it is difficult to uproot this natural inclination at its source. The only way anything like it can be accomplished is by your taking control of the external actions that are available to you. Thus you can slowly affect the internality of it, which you do not have as much control over."

"Reflection involves various things. The first is as indicated in the statement of Akavyah ben Mahalalel, (Avot 3:1) 'Know where you have come from -- a putrid drop; and where you are going -- to a place of dust, vermin and worms; and before Whom you are destined to give an account and reckoning -- the King of kings, the Holy One (blessed be He).' In truth, these realizations stifle all arrogance and help foster humility. When you will face the imperfection inherent in your humanity and the lowliness of your origins, you will find that you have no reason to be arrogant at all."

"If you will reflect further and try to imagine for just a moment your appearance before the great Angelic Court, when you will stand before the King of kings, the Holy One (blessed be He), who is the ultimate in holiness and purity, thick in the mystery of the Holy Ones, the mighty servants who are great in power, who do His will without a blemish-- you: lowly, imperfect and inherently shameful, impure and sullied because of your actions ... Could you even lift your head? Is there anything you could say?'

"The second object of reflection involves the consequences of the changes that come about through the passage of time. The rich can easily become poor, the ruler can easily become the ruled, the honored the despised. Since it is so easy to transform into something which is so abhorrent to you at this point, how can you possibly be proud of your current, so tenuous situation?"

"What you should ultimately do is recognize the fallibility of human knowledge and of how liable it is for error and untruth. It is more likely to be wrong than right. So ... try to learn from all people and take advice so that you will not stumble."

"What deters from this trait is the overabundance of ... the good things in this world .... The pious find it better to deprive themselves sometimes, so that they might subdue the inclination towards arrogance, which prospers in a climate of plenty."

"What is most likely to deter [humility] is ignorance and lack of true knowledge. As can be seen, arrogance is most often found in the more ignorant .... and we see [also] that Moses, the best of men, was the most humble of men."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-18T09:15:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 22

"To this point we have spoken about humility in our thoughts. We will now concentrate upon humility in our actions, which can be divided into four sub–sections: conducting oneself in a humble manner; enduring insults; detesting power and avoiding honor; and attributing honor to others.'

"The first -- conducting oneself in a humble manner -- should show in your speech, the way you walk, the way you sit, and in all of your movements. Regarding how it should show in your speech our sages said, (Yomah 86a) 'One's speech with others should always be gentle.'"

"Regarding the way you walk, our sages said, (Sanhedrin 88b) 'Who is of the world to come?-- the humble and bent-of-knee who enter humbly and exit humbly', who do not walk with a haughty stance or with great dignity, heel to toe, but rather like those who just go about their business."

"Regarding the way you sit -- your place should be amongst the lowly and not amongst the proud."

"The second aspect is the endurance of insult .... It is said regarding the humility of Baba ben Butah, (Nedarim 66b) 'A man of Babylon left to go to Israel to get married. He told his wife to cook something for him and to break it over the top of the gate ('baba' in Aramaic). Baba ben Butah was presiding over the court at the time. The woman came to him and broke what she had over his head. He said, 'What have you done?' And she said, 'My husband told me to do that!' To that he responded, 'Since you are doing the will of your husband, may G-d provide you with two sons like Baba ben Butah.'"

"Regarding detesting power and avoiding honor the Mishna explicitly states, (Avot 1:10) 'Love doing the work but detest the power.' .... The point of the matter is that authority is nothing but a great burden on the back of those who bear it. For while you are an individual among many, you are subsumed in the many, and are only responsible for yourself. But when you are put into a position of authority and power, you are in the clutches of everyone under you, for you have to be responsible for them."

"Honor is vanity of vanities. It has a man challenge his own judgments as well as that of his Creator, and to forget his obligations (Devarim Rabbah 1:10). One who recognizes this will certainly be disgusted by it and grow to hate it. The very praises lauded on him by others will burden him. He will see them lavish praise upon him inappropriately, and he will be abashed and full of grief not only for the fact that his many faults so outnumber his good points, but that he is being further burdened with false praise so that he might be even more embarrassed."

"The fourth subsection involves attributing honor to others. And so we learn, (Avot 4:1) 'Who is honorable?-- one who honors others.' .... [True] honor dwells with the righteous and never leaves them."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-17T05:51:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 22

"The general rule in regard to humility is that you should not consider yourself important for whatever reason whatsoever. That is the very opposite of arrogance. What results from it will be diametrically opposite to what would result from arrogance as well. Careful scrutiny will further reveal that humility is dependent upon both thought and action. You must first be humble in thought, and only then can you act humbly. If you are not humble in thought and you want to act humble, you will wind up being one of the previously referred-to 'so-called humble'-- the hypocrites who are the worst of all."

"Humility in thought involves your reflecting upon and coming to realize the fact that praise and honor, and all the more so aggrandizement above other people, are not due you for two reasons: because of what is necessarily imperfect about you, and because of things you have done in the past .... [For indeed,] it is impossible for a person not to have many faults no matter how perfected he may be."

"The trait that would most likely bring you to arrogance and self-aggrandizement would be wisdom, as it is a personal trait that is in a special part of yourself, your mind. Yet there is no wise man who never makes a mistake and could not learn from his colleagues or even from his students often enough. In that case, how could you ever boast of your wisdom? Anyone with a good mind -- even one who merits to be a great and famous sage -- must admit upon honest reflection and consideration that there is no room for pride or self-aggrandizement. One whose intellect is greater than someone else's is only acting in a way that comes naturally to him, as a bird would just naturally fly and an ox would naturally be able to pull with brute strength. If you are wise it is because you are that way by nature. And those who are not as natively wise as yourself at this point could very well train themselves to be as wise as you if they were of that nature. As that is the case, you have no reason to be proud or to boast."

"You should also not evidence pride in the mitzvot you have performed, for just by having done them you will not have necessarily reached their ultimate goal. Even if you had no other fault other than that you were flesh-and-blood and born of a woman -- that should be more than enough to indicate your lowliness and imperfection and the fact that you need not at all be haughty. For, whatever advantages you might possess were given to you by G-d who wants to be gracious to you because of your piteous and humble corporeality. You can only acknowledge Him who is so gracious to you and be even more submissive to Him. "

"But all that has been said and that is so fitting to reflect upon is for one who is like Abraham, Moses, Aaron, David or the other saintly ones mentioned. But as for *us* -- orphans of orphans -- we have no need for this. We so clearly have so many faults that we do not need to reflect very deeply to recognize them. All our wisdom is nothing. The greatest of our sages is nothing but a student of the students of the early ones. It is proper to understand and know this so that our hearts not swell vainly. We should recognize that, over-all, our minds are superficial and our perceptions very limited. Foolishness is rampant among us and error is triumphant. Whatever we do know is only the very minimal. It is certainly therefore inappropriate for us to be at all haughty. Instead, we should be humble and lowly -- but that goes without saying."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-16T18:38:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 20

"You are duty-bound to follow the mitzvot as strictly as possible, no matter who is watching you as you do, and are to neither be afraid nor embarrassed .... But even this requires discrimination and forethought, as it refers to those mitzvot which we are absolutely obligated to do. In regard to them you have to be as hard as flint. But as to those extra flourishes of piety which, when done in front of most people would cause laughter and mocking, and would have them sin and be punished because of the pious person's extra measures -- the pious person should abandon such things, as they are not an absolute obligation upon him .... The crux of the matter is that you should do any essential, obligatory mitzvah when its time comes, no matter who may mock you. But you should not do anything which is not essential and which will cause laughter and mockery."

"We can infer that one who would truly be pious must evaluate all of his actions in light of their results, and according to the concurrent conditions: according to the company he finds himself to be in, the circumstances, and the physical location. If refraining will result in further sanctification of the name of G-d and satisfy Him more than the performance of the act, you should refrain rather than do. If an act appears to be good but is actually bad in its results or its ramifications; or if another act seems to be bad, but is actually good in its results-- you are to act in consideration of the ultimate effect and outcome, as that is in truth the fruit of all actions."

-- From Ch. 21

"A lot of introspection and profound reflection especially helps in the acquisition of piety. The more you reflect upon the exalted nature of G-d, the infinite nature of His perfection, and the great and unfathomable difference between His greatness and our lowliness, the more will you be filled with trembling and reverence before Him. When you reflect as well upon the great goodness He has provided us with, His vast love for Israel, the closeness to Him the righteous enjoy, the excellence of Torah, mitzvot and other learned matters -- an intense and powerful love will arise within you, and you will want nothing but to attach yourself to Him. When you will see that He is literally a father to us, and has compassion upon us as a father has compassion upon his children, the desire and longing to reciprocate, as a child would want to do for a father, will constantly be aroused in you."

"To do this, you have to sequester yourself in your room and collect your thoughts for the introspections and considerations of these truths. What will [also] help in all this is a thorough familiarity with and profound understanding of the Songs of David, and a reflection upon their statements and main points. As they are full of love, reverence and all manner of piety, there cannot help but be aroused in you a great urge to follow in David's footsteps and to go on his path when you reflect upon them. It also helps to read the stories of the pious in the aggadot they are found in. Obviously, they excite the mind to take note and follow their noble deeds."

"What deters from piety are preoccupations and worry. When the mind is preoccupied and is stewing in its worries and external concerns it is impossible for it to reflect. And without reflection you will never obtain piety. Even if you will have already obtained it, preoccupation will compel and confuse your mind, and will not allow you to grow in your reverence, love and the other matters relevant to piety we have mentioned."

"The only thing that can stand guard over a person and save him from these deterrents is trust -- casting your lot upon G-d completely. That comes about with the knowledge that it is utterly impossible to lack what is already determined to be yours."

"The true path is that taken by the early pious ones who would make their Torah-study primary and their occupations secondary, and were successful at both. Once you work just a little, all you need further do is trust in G-d and you will never be concerned about worldly matters. Then your mind will be free and your heart readied for true piety and complete service to G-d."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-15T21:59:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 19

"G-d only loves those who love the Jewish nation, and He enlarges His love for someone who enlarges his own love for them. Those kinds of individuals, the true shepherds-- the ones who sacrifice themselves for Israel, who ask and strive for their welfare and well-being in all ways, who stand by the breach to pray for them so any edicts against them would be nullified and so that the gates of blessing would be open for them-- are the ones whom the Holy One (blessed be He) desires so much."

"What we have done is explained the major aspects of piety. The particulars are left to the thinking person with a pure heart to come to so that he can go on the honest path based upon them at the proper time."

-- From Ch. 20

"What has to be explained now is the process of evaluating that is involved in piety. It is a very, very essential matter as well as the most difficult and subtle element of piety. The yetzer hara has a lot of input in it, so there is a lot of danger, because the yetzer hara can have you avoid many good things as if they were bad, and draw you in to many transgressions as if they were great mitzvot.'

"In truth, the only way a person can succeed in this evaluating process is by these three means: his heart must be the most forthright of hearts; his only motivation should be to bring satisfaction to his Creator, nothing else; he should reflect deeply upon his actions and try to rectify them toward this end; and after all this he should cast his burden upon G-d .... You will never reach wholeness if you lack one of these conditions and will be dangerously close to stumbling and falling instead."

"You cannot judge matters relevant to piety by first impressions. You must reflect and analyze their ramifications. Sometimes an act may appear to be good but it must be abandoned because what would come out of it would be bad, and if you were to do it you would actually be a sinner, not a pious person.

"{For examples,] the Torah commands, (Leviticus 19:17) 'You shall surely rebuke your companion.' How many times does a person start to rebuke a sinner at a time or place he would not be listened to? He actually causes the person to advance in his bad ways, to profane the name of G-d, and to add rebelliousness on to their transgressions. In this instance the pious thing to do would be to remain silent."

"Obviously, it is proper for a person to be eager and run to do a mitzvah and try to be one of those who busies himself with it. But sometimes controversy can result from this, and you would thereby more likely shame the mitzvah and profane the name of G-d than honor it. In such a case the pious individual has the responsibility to abandon that [particular] mitzvah rather than pursue it [except under the circumstances to be reiterated shortly]."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-14T04:32:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 19

"One who truly loves G-d could never endure seeing His name being profaned, G-d forbid, or His commandments being overrun .... Those who would praise the wicked for their wickedness instead of castigating them for their blemishes abandon Torah and allow the name of G-d to be profaned, G-d forbid. But those who keep Torah and strengthen themselves to maintain it would certainly rebuke them, and would not hold themselves back or keep still."

"To this point we have explained piety in terms of the actions themselves that are required for it. We will now discuss it in terms of the motives behind those actions .... The truth of the matter is that someone who serves G-d so that his soul could be purified before Him, that he might merit residing among the just and pious and ... receive the reward of the World to Come cannot be said to be ill-motivated. But, he cannot be said to have the best intentions either. As long as someone is moved by selfish reasons he is serving G-d for self-serving needs. The motivation in serving G-d found among the truly pious, those who toil and strive in it, is only that His glory grow and spread. But this [attitude] only comes after your love of G-d is developed, and you come to long for the expansion of His honor, and suffer with its lessening. Only then will you be motivated to serve G-d so that His honor grows and enlarges through you at least."

"Beside serving G-d by performing His mitzvot with this motivation, the pious person must be in a constant state of agitation over the exile and the destruction of the Holy Temple, because both are the cause of the lessening (so to speak) of G-d's honor. He should long for the redemption which will bring an uplifting of G-d's honor .... The pious person should constantly pray for the redemption of Israel and the restoration of the previous glory of Heaven."

"G-d finds satisfaction in His children's prayers for [the redemption]. While He may not respond to their prayers -- because the right time has not come, or for some other reason -- they should do what they must, and G-d will be happy with that."

"There is another major object of a pious person's concentrations: the well-being of his generation. The pious should direct their actions toward the good of the entire generation to earn them merit and protect them .... It is G-d's will that the pious of Israel atone for and make worthy all sorts of people of the nation .... G-d does not want the destruction of the evil. The saintly have been commanded to try to make them worthy and to atone for them. And that has to be done with certain concentrations in worship and prayers. The pious person should pray for his generation to atone for whomever needs atonement, to return in repentance whomever needs that, and to act as an intercedent for the entire generation."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-13T11:18:00.000-04:00

-- I'm working on an adaptation of Ramchal's "Da'at Tevunot" (which had lovingly but inaccurately been translated as "The Knowing Heart", but which I now translate as "Knowing the Reasons"). I wanted to post this selection from the first chapter (I'm further along, but I'm going back to this point for a friend's sake). But let's understand its context.

-- The work sets out to explicate some of Rambam's ikkurim, but not others. One that he *doesn't* deal with is the the "definition" of G-d that Rambam provides us with. As Rambam words it, and as I paraphrase it in my work, it comes down to several points --

"First, that G-d is 'perfect in all ways and is the cause of everything else that exists'. He 'sustains (everything’s) existence as well as the existence of all that sustains them', and if He somehow 'would not exist, then everything else would cease to exist, too'. Second, that He is one. But that’s not to say that He’s 'one of a pair, one of a specie, one object comprised of many parts, or a single simple object that’s infinitely divisible'. Instead, 'He is a unity unlike any other possible unity'. Third, that G-d was 'the utterly first' entity, with absolutely nothing preceding Him and thusby influencing or effecting Him. Fourth, that G-d 'isn’t physical', which means to say that 'He hasn’t a body, that His abilities are not physical', and that everything associated with physical entities 'such as movement, rest, or existence in a particular place can’t be applied to Him, for they’re not a part of His nature, nor can they occur to Him'. We’re also to understand that 'every time the Torah speak of Him in physical terms, as (for example) walking, standing, sitting, speaking and anything similar, this usage is always metaphoric'. And fifth, that the world was created *ex nihilo*, which is to say that 'G-d formed and created it when there had been absolutely nothing there (before)'."

-- But at the insistance of Nae Hecht I included the following note:

"There are several reactions readers could have to this section. Some might be glad to see this all said outright and unambiguously. Others may be thunderstruck by a frame of mind that would allow for the utter purity and simplicity-of-statement we find here about G-d. And others yet who have struggles with these concepts might be frankly unconvinced by what’s said here but would *desperately* like to know how they can be said to be unquestionably true -- let alone that G-d actually exists! For after all, as a friend once put it, 'these are the concepts upon which all else depends; reality itself is raised or buried based on these truths'.

But rather than prove the veracity of what’s said here, which is obviously beyond the scope of this work, I’ll offer this viewpoint on belief in G-d.

Child psychologists speak of 'basic trust' and they define it as the sense of safety and security that we develop as infants that prepares us to believe that the world is predictable and reliable, and gives us the wherewithal to reach out to, depend on, and need others, and to see them as the source of good things.

I contend that one would have to have developed that same sense of basic trust in G-d in order to truly (which is to say, vividly and earnestly) believe in and interact with Him in his or her own life.

But how do we do that? By reaching out to Him in contemplation, in Torah study (of a faith-specific content), and prayer; then by sensing Him reaching out to us in response again and again, and unwaivingly so.

Of course our experiencing that from Him that is neither a 'given' nor is it rational, frankly. But as 'believers and the descendants of believers' (see Shabbat 97A) -- which is to say, as individuals blessed with the family bent for faith in G-d as most Jews are (though not all, since not everyone in a musical family is musical at bottom) -- we come to it more easily than others."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-12T04:20:00.001-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 19

"Since it is clear that honoring the Sabbath is a mitzvah and since there are many ways to honor it, we should do anything that would bring out the importance of the Sabbath. The early sages would each prepare for the Sabbath in their own way .... Rav Nachman would carry things in and out on his shoulders, reasoning that if Rabbi Amai or Rabbi Assai would visit he would certainly carry things in and out on his shoulders. The reasoning of Rav Nachman gives us pause to reflect upon the fact that he would consider what he would do in his own way to honor a person, and then do the same to honor the Sabbath. Regarding this it is said, (Brachot 17a) 'Let a man always be creative in his reverence,' that is, let him reflect upon things, and arrive at new means of giving satisfaction to his Creator whichever way he can so that he might recognize G-d's exalted nature, and so that everything associated with Him will be honored as much as possible."

"Since, in His great humility and goodness and despite our lowliness, G-d wants to honor us by passing on to us His holy words, let us at least honor those holy words with all of our might, and show Him how precious they are to us. This is true reverence -- reverence of His exaltedness as we said. The honor that brings about the longing-love we will be writing about is dependent upon this sort of reverence, not the inessential fear of punishment from which these great traits do not come.'

"Honoring the Torah and those who study it is another aspect of reverence .... Included within this category is the innocence and purity necessary for Torah study. You are not to be engaged in it or even give thought to it in untoward places or when your hands are unclean. Our sages expanded upon this and warned us about it in various places.'

"Let us now speak about the matter of love of G-d. There are three aspects to it: happiness, attachment, and vengence. [The sort of love we're referring to] is an actual desiring and longing for closeness to G-d. It is pursuing G-d's Holiness as you would pursue something you strongly long for -- to the point where even mentioning His name, speaking His praises, and occupying yourself in His mitzvot and G-dliness is a pleasure and delight to you .... One who truly loves his Creator would not abandon his worship of Him for any reason in the world other than an utterly compelling one. He would not need convincing or persuasion to serve Him -- in fact, unless he is held back by a major deterrent, his heart would have him surge forward and would drive him towards this love."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

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Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-11T11:13:00.000-04:00

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

_______________________________________________

Section 7, Part 1

"Now that we know that, we can begin to fully and clearly explain our second inquiry."

-- That is, now we can finally understand the role we play in the great course of events (see 1:3), in light of what we've just learned about the role of pleasure.

"For we've determined that there's in fact a phenomenon that's clearly not a part of G-d's essence, which can thus be said to have been created utterly anew rather than out of anything else."

-- That is, since G-d doesn't need *anything* it follows that the need to derive pleasure is clearly something extrinsic to Him and thus utterly original. So it must play a unique and purposeful role in creation. And besides, ...

"Now that we know for certain that G-d's intent when He created the world was to bestow pleasure upon His creatures, it's clear that He necessarily had to have created a willingness to accept all the pleasure and goodness He'd planned for them. Thus it's the willingness to accept (all that) that wasn't a part of G-d's essence before He placed it in our souls. After all, from whom could He receive?"

-- ... and what could He be lacking?

"So He did indeed create something anew that wasn't part of His Being."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-11T05:51:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 19

"The second aspect of piety involves how actions are performed .... While you are praying or performing a mitzvah you are to consider the fact that you are ... quite literally standing before G-d and involved in a give-and-take with Him, even though you cannot see Him. And while this may be so difficult to fathom because your senses can do nothing to help you in it, with just a little reflection and contemplation most anyone will be able to realize that he is actually involved in a give-and-take with G-d, that he is imploring and pleading before G-d Himself, and that G-d is listening to and hearing him as a person would while carrying on a conversation with a friend.'

"After you will have set this in your mind, you should reflect upon G-d's grandeur -- how He is so elevated and above all the blessings and praises of the world and all concepts of perfection you could possibly imagine. You must also reflect upon the low state of mankind, with its imperfections, brought on by corporeality and materiality (not to mention all our transgressions). Taking all this into consideration, it would be impossible for your heart to not tremble or be moved when you speak to G-d, mention His name, or attempt to please Him."

"This sort of reverence must be instigated in the heart before it can be manifested in the limbs in the form of a bent head, a prostrated body, lowered eyes, and hands folded like a lowly servant before a great master."

"We will now speak about the matter of honor. Our sages have already spoken of honoring mitzvot and considering them precious .... There are those who would ease their burdens by reasoning that honor may be necessary for humans, who are seduced by such vanity, but not for G-d who does not care for such things because He is above them all and transcends them. Certainly, they would reason, if the mitzvah is done faithfully, that would be enough for Him. But the truth of the matter is G-d is referred to as (Psalms 29:3) the 'L-rd of Honor'. It is incumbent upon us to honor Him even though He does not require it, and though our honor is not of great importance or consequence to Him."

"The procession for the offering of the first fruits to the Temple was an example of beautifying mitzvot. We learn (Bikurim, Mishna 3:3) that 'an ox would proceed them with gold-covered horns and a crown of olive branches...', and (Ibid., ibid. 8) that 'the wealthy would bring their offerings in gold baskets, and the poor in wicker.' We also learn there (Ibid. 10) that there are three categories of first fruit offerings: standard first fruits, special first fruits, and decorative first fruits. So we find it here explicitly stated, and we can extrapolate it to all other mitzvot, that adding on to a mitzvah so as to adorn it is the correct thing to do."

"Included within this category is honoring the Sabbath and Holy Days [as we'll soon see]."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-10T07:30:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 19

"[Being pious] corporeally involves helping all people as much as possible and easing their burdens. This is what our sages were talking about when they referred to (Avot 6:6) 'bearing a friend's yoke with him'. And should any physical harm threaten to come to a person when you are able to defer or prevent it, you should try as much as you can to do so."

"[Being pious] monetarily involves helping a friend as much as you possibly can to avoid any loss. And all the more so does it mean preventing any potential or actual monetary loss that might come to individuals or groups of people through your own doing. In fact, when any loss just might come about, you should defer."

"[And being pious] psychologically involves providing your friend with all the contentment you can, whether in terms of respect for him or any other. It is a mitzvah in the realm of piety to do all you know will bring satisfaction to your friend. It goes without saying that you should not cause him any problems. This all falls under the category of acts of benevolence which our sages praised so much and saw as such an obligation, and it includes striving for peace, which is the most essential factor for the betterment of human relations."

"One of the main elements of piety is benevolence. The very word piety ('chassidut') is based upon kindness ('chessed'). Our sages said, (Avot 1:2) 'The world stands upon three things...', one of which is benevolence ... . One who is compassionate and gracious to others will enjoy G-d's compassion. G-d will absolve his transgressions in kindness .... Divine retribution will come to one who does not want to transcend his own personal character traits, or who does not want to be benevolent. He will be judged according to the letter of the law because he acted that way. And who is it that can withstand G-d's judgment of him according to the strict letter of the law?"

"The point of the matter is that you should not cause suffering to any being -- human or animal -- and you should be compassionate and kind to all."

"In summary, compassion and the willingness to do good are traits imbedded in the heart of the pious. They are constantly driven to satisfying people's needs and to not causing any sorrow."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-09T11:15:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 18

"There are many people doing a lot of things in the name of piety which are in fact only pale and irreparably formless, shapeless shadows of the real thing .... They have not bothered to delve deeply, with clarity and determination, into the way of G-d. Instead, they have assumed a false piety, and have simply gone the way they deduced they should, without having weighed and considered all the factors on the scales of wisdom. These sorts of people have left a foul impression of pious acts in the eyes of both the lesser- and the well-educated, who have come to associate piety with foolishness and absurdity, and have come to believe that piety is dependent upon the incessant recital of petitions and confessions, accompanied by weeping, exaggerated prostrations and all sorts of odd flagellations people could kill themselves doing."

"But [true] piety is a profound thing in its own right. It is founded upon great wisdom and the ultimate rectification of actions."

"One who truly loves G-d [and strives for piety] would not set out to do just what all of Israel is obliged to do. He would act as a loving son would to his father by doing more than his father would ask for. He would do all he possibly could even if his father had only inobtrusively hinted at a desire for something. And if his father asked for that thing just once, and demurely at that, that would be enough for such a son to perceive the extent of his father's unstated true desires. He would deduce that such-and-such -- something beyond what he was told -- would bring satisfaction to his father, and he would not have to wait for an explicit and reiterated request to do it. We see this sort of thing happen all the time between friends, lovers, husbands and wives, fathers and sons. Where there is a strong bond of love between people, you would never find one of them saying, 'I haven't been asked to do more than this, and it's all right to do just what I've been asked.' Instead, that person would surmise what the other person really wants, based upon what he said, and would try to do all that he could to bring satisfaction to the loved one. One who truly loves G-d will have just this sort of reaction to Him."

-- From Ch. 19

"The first aspect [of piety touches upon] ... actions between a person and G-d-- [and it] involves the keeping of the mitzvot with all their minutia as carefully as humanly possible. The second aspect [touches upon] actions between one person and another-- [and it] involves the great betterment you can bring about in the world by constantly improving people's lot rather than worsening it."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-08T22:08:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 16

"it is impossible to raise yourself upon the altar of His Will and be among the whole and choice servants of G-d without the choicest of actions-- those purified of all sorts of dross. But I am not saying that everything less than this is completely rejected. G-d does not deprive anyone his due reward, and He rewards all according to their deeds. What I am addressing is the sort of perfect service that befits those who truly love G-d and who would not refer to any service as perfect unless it were utterly pure and had no other motive attached to it than being for the sake of G-d."

"If you would want to truly serve G-d you could not be satisfied with less than that-- you would not be pleased with ... Divine service mixed in with impure motives. You could only be satisfied with the pure and refined."

"One who does not cling to G-d with true love will find this process of refining Divine service a great burden. He would say, 'Who could withstand this? We're only human. It's impossible for us to reach this level of refinement and purity!' But those who love G-d and want to do His Will will be happy to show faithfulness in their love for Him by intensifying their refinement and purification of it."

"This is in fact the criterion by which those who serve G-d are differentiated from each other, for those who especially know how to purify their emotions are closer and dearer to G-d."

"G-d's ... main concern is that your heart be pure and set on performing your true duty. The heart is the king and commander of the rest of the body. If it does not bring itself to serve G-d, the service of the rest of the organs is for naught, for they will only go where the spirit of the heart will take them."

-- From Ch. 17

"It is easy for the person who has already tried for and obtained the various traits discussed to now to obtain this one. When you consider and reflect upon the petty nature of the pleasures of the world and their supposed benefits, as I have said already, you will come to despise them and consider them to be nothing but the outcome of the bad and defective nature of the dark and coarse state of things. And when the very real defects and bad aspects of them become self-evident to you it will certainly become easy to separate yourself from them and remove them from your heart."

"The way to purify your thoughts in relation to bodily actions is to constantly take notice of the pettiness of the world and its delights, as I have said. The way to purify your thoughts in relation to acts of service to G-d is to increase your reflection upon the falaciousness of honor, and train yourself to flee from it."

"Among the acts that direct a person towards this trait is proper preparation for Torah and mitzvot. You should not suddenly and immediately rush into doing a mitzvah before having had time to reflect upon what you are about to do. Rather, you should ready yourself for it and compose yourself until you are properly focused, then consider what you are about to do and before Whom you are about to do it. As soon as you enter into this process of reflection you will find it easy to rid yourself of all external motivations and to set the proper and desirable intentions in your thoughts instead."

"The heart is easily distracted from the wholesome path it should be following and is attracted to ephemeral and false fantasies [instead]. Insufficient preparation brings on the natural foolishness that comes from the element of physicality yet unremoved that leaves a foul stench behind in your Divine service."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-07T05:59:00.000-04:00

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

_______________________________________________

Section 6, Part 2

"So we'll now reflect upon the following. Since G-d’s intention upon creating the universe was to grant His creatures pleasure, it only stands to reason that He created us with an enormous amount of desire to *accept* what He meant to grant us, inasmuch as the amount of pleasure and delight (a person can derive) depends on how much he wants it. For the greater the willingness to accept (something), the greater the pleasure (derived from it); while the lesser the willingness, the lesser the pleasure."

-- An example R' Ashlag brings is the different ways we drink water. He points out that we gulp it down when we're thirsty, and sip at it or want very little to do with it when we're not. So it's the wanting that makes all the difference. It then follows that we'd have to *want* what He'd like us to have if we're to enjoy it; and since enjoying life is the goal, it's clear that He who made that the goal would also have implanted the desire for enjoyment and pleasure in us.

-- It's also clear that since the greatest pleasure we could derive comes from drawing close to G-d and adhering onto Him (as we'll see), there must be a great longing to do just that -- but we're getting ahead of ourselves. In any event it still follows that if G-d wanted us to be radiantly healthy for example (which He does), that He'd have instilled a longing for that in us (which He clearly has), etc.

"It follows then that the intention behind creation itself would have seen to it that a vast enough amount of willingness to accept (things) would be created within us to accommodate the vast amount of pleasure that G-d Almighty thought to bestow upon us, since great delight and a great willingness to accept it go hand in hand."

-- The point is that G-d has not only granted us noble and beneficial desires like the above; He has granted us a *colossal array* of desires of all stripes. For if He had only accorded us a limited number of desires, that would have restricted our capacity to enjoy, which would then stymie G-d's goal for us.

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-07T04:26:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 15

"The best way to acquire abstinence is to realize the crassness of the pleasures of the world and their inherent inferiority, as well as the great harm that can so easily result from them. What inclines us towards these pleasures so much that we require a lot of strength and ingenuity to escape from them is their seductive powers. The eyes are seduced by things that seem to be good and tempting."

"When it becomes clear to you how utterly false, unreal and ephemeral these pleasures are, and how real and immanent the harm that will come from them is you will certainly be disgusted by them and have no desire for them at all."

"As an example, the most concrete and palpable of pleasures is the desire for food. Is there anything shorter-lived than this pleasure, which only lasts the length of your gullet, from where your food goes to your stomach and is completely forgotten? You could be just as full eating stuffed swan as you would eating coarse bread. You just have to visualize the many diseases you could expose yourself to by your diet, or the feeling of heaviness or dull-mindedness that could come over you after eating to realize the truth of what we are saying. Certainly, no one would want anything to do with something whose disadvantages are real and whose apparent benefits are a sham. It is true with all the other pleasures of the world as well: if you would just reflect upon them you would see that even the apparent good in them is only short-lived, while the bad that can come from them is serious and long-lasting. It does not make sense for an intelligent person to endanger himself for the minute benefits that might accrue to him through them. Isn't that obvious?"

"When you accustom and convince yourself in the truth of what we have pointed out you will slowly, surely and willingly free yourself from the entrapment of all the foolishness that is brought about by the darkness of the material world. You will no longer be seduced by its so-called pleasures, but you will be disgusted by them and come to realize that you should only take from the world what you absolutely must, as we have said."

"Just as reflection upon all this can bring you to abstinence, confusion in it, and closeness with people of power and control who run after glory and add to the general emptiness can destroy it. It is impossible to be around riches and elegance and not desire or long for it. The best thing to do is practice seclusion, because by removing worldly matters from your eyes you remove the lust for them from your heart."

"What you have to be careful about when acquiring abstinence is to not leap to the opposite extreme in one fell swoop, as this will certainly not be to your advantage. Instead, you should come to it slowly, settling into upon one aspect of it today, and another tomorrow until you accustom yourself to it so thoroughly that it becomes second nature to you."

-- From Ch. 16

"Purity entails the reparation of your emotions and thoughts .... Its essence is that you not allow your yetzer hara to interfere with your actions, and that you act only through wisdom and reverence, not through sin and desire. This even refers to the physical and material acts you might involve yourself in after you will have habituated yourself to abstinence and taken nothing but what you must from the world. Even then you will need to purify your emotions and thoughts so that even that small bit of pleasure you might take from the world will not be taken with the intent of enjoying pleasure [alone] or fulfilling a desire, but rather with the intention of doing it for the good that will come from it in terms of wisdom and Divine service. "

"But you should know that just as purity of thoughts pertains to bodily actions, which are inherently close to the yetzer hara ... it also pertains to righteous deeds, which are close to G-d, are not connected to the yetzer hara, and which you should not avoid. This is the whole matter of doing mitzvot 'for an ulterior motive' mentioned many times by our sages."

"But, as has been explained, there are many varieties of mitzvot done in the mode of 'for ulterior motives'. The lowest level of them is when you do something not for the sake of service to G-d, but only to deceive people and to propagate honor or wealth for yourself .... But there is another sort of doing of mitzvot for ulterior motives. It involves doing something good for the sake of the reward. It is regarding this that it is said, (Pesachim 50b) 'A person should always be involved in Torah and mitzvot for ulterior motives so that he might eventually, thusby, come to do them altruistically.' However, if you have not yet reached the level of doing the mitzvot altruistically after having done them for ulterior motives you are still far from wholeness."

"What requires even more reflection and effort are the subtle admixtures of the prohibited within the permitted. You may start out to do a mitzvah utterly altruistically, simply because it is something our Father in Heaven has decreed, and yet may not hesitate mixing in some other motivation: either the fact that people would compliment you for it, or that you would get some other reward for it. Sometimes, even if you do not intend to be complimented for having done the mitzvah, you might be pleased with the praise nonetheless and become more exacting in it."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-06T09:10:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 13

"Most people cannot be pious, and it would be sufficient for them to be righteous [i.e., to live up to the expectations of all the previous chapters]. Those lone individuals among our people who desire to merit closeness to G-d, and to make meritorious those others who are dependent upon them by their merit, have to live by the laws of the pious -- these abstentions -- which those others cannot live by. This is the way G-d chose it to be. While it is impossible for a whole nation to be of one spiritual type, and there are all sorts of degrees in people, based upon their comprehension, there will at least be found some special individuals who could completely prepare themselves, and by means of this make meritorious the unprepared for the love of G-d and the indwelling of His Presence."

"The bad forms of abstinence are those absurd ones used by certain gentiles [i.e., gentile ascetics] who are not satisfied with not taking from the world what is not necessary, but withhold from themselves even what *is* necessary. They afflict their bodies in all sorts of weird ways. G-d does not at all desire that."

"Here you have the true underlying principle: abstain from whatever is not necessary for your station in this world, but ... [don't ever] abstain from something you need (for whatever reason). This is a principle you can depend upon."

-- From Ch. 14

"There are three primary subdivisions of abstinence: pleasure-based, halacha-based, and personal-habit-based abstinence. What we discussed in the previous chapter (which involved taking nothing from the world other than what, for your nature, is absolutely necessary) refers to pleasure-based abstinence. It includes food-related, sexual, ornamental, recreational, conversational pleasures, and the like. The only time acting on these drives is irrelevant to abstention is when it involves a mitzvah."

"Halacha-based abstinence involves being stringent in the mitzvot at all times -- to the point of siding with the minority opinion in arguments of the law where that opinion is not the accepted one (as long as following that opinion does not provide a leniency). It also involves being stringent in 'gray' areas where you might legitimately be lenient."

"And personal-habit-based abstinence refers to secluding and detaching yourself from the company of others, and directing your heart towards Divine service instead while reflecting upon that, as you should. But such a practice is only good as long as you do not go to an extreme .... [Since it's important to] join in with good people for the amount of time you need to study or to earn a living, then go in seclusion to attach yourself to your G-d and come to comprehend the good path and the true form of service to G-d. Included in this is lessening your speech and avoiding small talk, not looking beyond your own environs, and all other such restrictions which you should accustom yourself in until they become second nature to you."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-05T03:57:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 13

"You will note that there are three levels of things to be avoided: those things actually forbidden by the Torah; the 'fences', i.e., the ordinances and preventive measures enacted by our sages for all of Israel; and the 'safeguards', those optional prohibitions taken on as personal protective walls by anyone who wants to practice abstinence, which include those things that were never forbidden to other Jews but which these individuals forbid themselves to have for the express purpose of greatly avoiding bad."

"After we have come to see that all that happens to us in this world is a test (as we have said and proven beyond the shadow of a doubt already), and after man's over-all weakness has become self-evident to us as well as how natural it is for him to lean toward the bad, it becomes clear that you should do all that you can to escape from these things so that you will be well-protected from the bad that comes in their aftermath. There is in fact no earthly pleasure that does not have some sin following in its train."

"Let us take food and drink as an example. After you will have removed all forbidden aspects of it, eating certainly becomes a permitted thing. However, a full stomach carries with it the removal of the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, and wine-drinking leads to licentiousness and all sorts of immorality. How more so is this true when you are accustomed to filling yourself with food and drink. And if you will not be able to do so once, you will be pained and very aware of the lack. You will eventually be forced to subject yourself to the clutches of the drive for livelihood and possessions so that your table could be set the way you would like it to be, which will lead you to wrong doings and thievery, which will themselves lead you to vain oaths and all sorts of transgressions that naturally follow these. Ultimately you will remove yourself from Divine service, Torah and prayer. You could have been free of all that if you had not drawn yourself toward those pleasures in the first place."

"Sexual relations with your spouse is certainly thoroughly permissible. Yet .... the sex drive is so ingrained in people that they can be driven to sexual prohibitions [so precautions have to be taken]."

"The Torah never warned us against beauty or stylishness associated with clothing or jewelry other than to tell us that we are not to wear the combination of any materials which cannot be worn together, and that we must put tzitzit on the ends of our garments. Otherwise, all is permitted. But as everyone realizes, the wearing of fine embroidered clothing and accessories is bound to encourage arrogance and licentiousness -- in addition to jealousy, lust, and extortion which follow in the wake of the acquisition of things that are difficult to come by."

"Even though pleasure trips and small-talk are certainly not things forbidden by Torah law, a lot of neglect of Torah study comes as a result of them, as well as much slander, deceit, and levity."

"The point is that since everything in this world is potentially gravely threatening [to your spiitual standing], how can you not praise someone who wants to escape from or avoid all that?"

"This is considered to be good abstinence, taking nothing from this world in all your usages of it other than what you absolutely need by your nature .... [For at bottom] you are to abstain from all earthly delights so that you will not fall into their traps."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-04T10:00:00.000-04:00

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

_______________________________________________

Section 6, Part 1

"Now, our sages have already taught us (Etz Chaim, 'Sha'ar HaKlallim', Ch. 1) that the only reason G-d created the world was to grant pleasure to His creatures. Hence, that's what we should be focusing all our attention and our thoughts upon, since it's the ultimate aim and function of creation."

-- The holy Ari (whose work R' Ashlag cites as his source) revealed that we were created to enjoy life. Now, while everyone intuits that *should* be so and would like it to be, reality seems to quash the notion. For as every mature soul knows only too well, there's a lot of agony and anguish in the world (see 1:5). Yet the human heart somehow retains the idea that life, a gift outright at bottom, should be good, and the Ari is affirming that.
-- Just understand, though, that while some people are happy traveling and exploring, others are only happy when they're left alone to eat and to play board-games. And realize too that a truly sweet and transcendent moment for someone mortally ill might be one in which he's pain-free and not ravaged by mortal fears; or when his body is still, and he's free to breathe in, out, and again. So while R' Ashlag is indeed declaring outright that we were meant to be happy and well-pleased with life, he'll soon-enough depict the sort of true happiness he's referring to. But don't think he's about to tell us that true happiness can only be found in dark, dry bread and tepid water; because he won't. What he will come to do in the end, though, is reveal what true bliss and satisfaction is.
-- Now, since pleasure and delight is the point of it all at bottom, it follows then that that's what our attention should be focused on. And indeed it is, the truth be known. For in fact many, many are fully aware of that and act on it. Any yet many, many others deny it and claim that the only way to be satisfied and full is to be hungry and empty. Just understand, though, that even the latter want to be *satisfied*. It's just that their systems function other ways; *subtler though still and all material* things please them.
-- But don't think that R' Ashlag is advocating hedonism, because he certainly isn't. As we'll see, he'll be advising us to enjoy life indeed, but with a particular end in mind that's rooted in an abiding relationship with G-d.

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-04T05:02:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 11

"The quest for respect tugs at your heart more than any lust or longing in the world. Without it, you would be satisfied eating whatever you could, you would dress just to cover your nakedness, you would live in a house that would merely protect you from the elements, livelihood would come easily to you, and you would not struggle to become wealthy. But just so as to not see yourself as lowly or lesser than your friend you take this thick yoke upon yourself, and there is no end to all of your efforts."

"How many people starve or denigrate themselves by taking charity just not to have to work at something that is not prestigious enough in their eyes because they are afraid to diminish their honor? Is there anything more idiotic than this? They would prefer idleness-- which carries melancholy, lewdness, thievery and all sorts of transgressions along with it-- to lowering their status and detracting from the respect they see as coming to them."

"The desire for glory is one of man's greatest stumbling blocks. It is impossible for him to be a faithful servant to his Creator as long as he is attached to his own self-respect, because this foolishness will necessitate his giving less honor to G-d .... The only true glory is knowledge of Torah .... other kinds of glory are false, self-perceived kinds that are worthless and in vain. The innocent should free himself and thoroughly purify himself from it. Only then will he succeed."

"I cannot deny that there is something of a struggle necessary to go through to obtain this kind of innocence. Nonetheless I must say that it is not as difficult as it appears to be. In fact, the thought of it is more difficult than the act. When you have it in mind and firmly set it in your heart to be one of those people who has this good trait then, with just a little practice, it will come to you with much more ease than you might have imagined. Experience can attest to the truth of this."

-- From Ch. 12

"The best way to acquire innocence is to constantly study the teachings of our sages in matters of halacha and musar. After the obligations of innocence and its requirements will have become clear to you, and you will have already obtained the states of caution and enthusiasm (by being involved in the things that help you obtain them and keeping away from the things that keep them away from you) there is nothing that can keep you back from obtaining innocence other than the lack of knowledge of the minutia of the mitzvot so that you could be cautious and thorough in them all. Therefore you must know the halachot-- the ramifications of the mitzvot and the extent of them-- thoroughly. Also, you must constantly study the books that explain the particulars of these things so that you can refresh your memory. Forgetfulness is common in such technical matters as these, and by reviewing them you will certainly be encouraged to do them."

"This is true of matters of your personality as well. You must study the moral teachings of both the earlier and later teachers. Many times, even after a person will have established in his heart that he wants to be exacting in matters of innocence, it is still possible that he can be guilty of some minor transgression simply because he never got to understand it. No one is born a sage, and it is impossible to know everything. When you study the material you will be shocked to see what you do not know, and you will have an opportunity to reflect upon what you had not originally understood. And because your heart will be attuned to such things you will continue to observe everything from all angles and will even discover for yourself, from the source of truth, things not mentioned in the books themselves."

-- From Ch. 13

"Abstinence is the beginning of piety. And whereas all that we have discussed thus far is what you would need to become righteous; from here on we will discuss what you would need to become pious."

"The general principle behind abstinence was expressed by our sages when they said, (Yevamot 20a) 'Sanctify yourself through what is permitted to you.' This is the very meaning of the word 'abstinence': withdrawal from and avoidance of something; that is, disallowing for yourself something the Torah permits so that you do not come in contact with something it forbids. The point is, you should withdraw from anything that is likely to cause you to come to do bad, even though it is not bad itself or currently causing bad."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-03T04:38:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 11

"There is a different type of angry individual -- one who is not as easily brought to fury if something or another is not done exactly as he would like it. But when he gets angry, he gets very angry ... [and] many damaging, ruinous things may come out of this anger which cannot be undone."

"There is a degree of anger less serious than this which is exemplified by someone who does not easily anger. When such a person gets angry, he just gets a little angry. He does not lose his wits, but he does seethe in his anger. This sort of person does less damage than those mentioned above, but he has certainly not reached the trait of innocence. He has not yet even acquired caution. For as long as anger leaves something of an impression in a person he is still said to be an angry person."

"And there is a level than is even lighter than this. It belongs to the person who finds it hard to get angry. Should such a person get angry, his anger would be short-lived and not the destructive nor annihilating type. How long would this person's anger last?-- a moment, and no longer. The very moment anger would start to appear in him his sensibilities would take over to control it .... This is certainly a good trait."

"Human nature is easily incited to anger. A person would be praiseworthy if he could take control of himself so that it would not flair up in him and take him over, and even a slight degree of anger would not stay for any period of time but would pass quickly .... Hillel the Elder exemplified this. He was not fastidious about anything, and was never even provoked to anger. He was utterly innocent of anger."

"Jealousy is another instance of foolishness and temporary loss of sensibility. The jealous person gains nothing and does nothing against the person he is jealous with, but he causes damage to himself .... There are those whose foolishness in these things goes so far that they will get depressed, worried and bothered by the fact that an acquaintance becomes successful at something, and their own successes will give them no pleasure .... There are others who would not be quite so bothered or wounded, but they would experience some pain, or at least a certain chilling of the spirit when they would see someone other than someone close and dear to them enjoying some advantage. And they would experience this more if it would happen to someone with whom they do not share an affinity, and even more so if it would happen to a stranger. They might have it within them to offer some encouraging words or acknowledgement of the fact, but in their hearts they would be hesitant. This is very common. Even though this sort of person cannot be said to be jealous he cannot be said to be innocent of it either."

"Related to jealousy is coveting and desire, which burden your heart till the day you die .... Coveting of possessions confines you to the constraints of this world, makes you prey to the entanglements of toil and labor ... and it distracts you from your Divine service. How many prayers are lost and how many mitzvot forgotten -- not to mention Torah study waylayed -- because of over-concern with and struggling for wealth?"

"More serious than this is the coveting of respect. It is possible for a person to subdue his yetser hara for possessions and other such pleasures. But the need for respect is more compelling because it is impossible for you to endure being lower than your friends. Many have slipped and been lost in this matter."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-02T07:37:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 11

"We will now delve deeply into the [most] common and primary problematic personality traits, which are: arrogance, anger, jealousy and desire. Their harm is universally recognized and do not have to be substantiated. They are intrinsically harmful, harmful in consequence, and are outside the realm of the intellect and wisdom. Each can lead you on to grave sins in its own way."

"Arrogance entails consciously or unconsciously thinking yourself worthy of praise, for various and many reasons. For example a person might think himself very intelligent, or handsome, venerable, great, or wise. The principle is if one attributes to himself any of the good things of the world he is in immediate danger of falling into the trap of arrogance. After a person implants in his mind the notion that he is important or praiseworthy, not just one but many and various things may result-- and while some of them would have been intended for the same end, they may actually be diametrically opposed to each other."

"It may be that a self-centered person will think himself unique, impressive and worthy of praise and would think it only proper that he conduct himself uniquely, impressively and respectfully in the way he walks, sits, stands, speaks, etc. So he would only walk at a leisurely, studied pace, and would not sit without leaning. He would arise slowly and deliberately like a serpent, and would not speak to just anybody, but only with the eminent-- and even when he would speak with them he would only speak in short, pithy, seer-like phrases. And in all the rest of his deeds-- his movements or actions; his eating, drinking and dressing-- he would conduct himself in a heavy-handed manner, as if his flesh were lead, and his bones were stone or sand."

"Another egotist would think that since he is so praiseworthy and of such high quality, he should be the very instigator of all things in the world, that everyone should tremble before him, and it is only fitting that no one dare speak to him or ask anything of him. And should they be so presumptuous as to do so he would verbally crush and confound them in all impudence, enraged all along."

"There is another sort of egotist who believes that he is already so great and important that glory can never depart from him anyway, so he really does not need any more of it. And to prove that point he acts modest to draw attention to his character and to exhibit great humility and endless modesty, while his heart is actually exalted within him and he says to himself: 'I am so great and important that I no longer need respect. I can renounce it. I already have a lot of it to begin with'."

"Another egotist can be found who wants to make a great impression with his greatness and to be recognized as being unique. It is not enough for him that everyone praises him for the greatness he believes he exhibits. He would like everyone to further praise him as being the most humble person there is. This type of person is arrogant in his modesty, and wants to honor himself with the very thing he makes himself out to have transcended. This type of arrogant person places himself below people actually much lower than himself and vulgar people, thinking that he might prove utmost humility this way. He does not want to assume any titles of greatness, and refuses all honors, while all along in his heart he says, 'There's no sage or modest person like myself in the entire country.' Even though these kinds of egocentrics appear to be modest, they do not lack for clues to the contrary."

"There is another sort of egotist whose pride is buried deep within him and is never made manifest. He believes that he is already a great sage who knows the way of all things, and that no one else quite shares his sagacity. He does not pay attention to anyone else's opinion and reasons that if the matter is difficult for him it could not possibly be easy for anyone else. And he holds that whatever his mind conceives of is so straight-forward and obviously-so that he need not even listen to people with other opinions, be they earlier or contemporary scholars. He has no doubts whatsoever about his opinions."

"All these things hold sages back and stupefy their minds, and abrogate the hearts of the very wisest. If you were able to see and to realize the truth you would certainly flee and escape from these harmful, damaging things."

"Let us discuss anger now. There is the furious type of person ... who gets angry at everything done against his will. He is so filled with fury that he grows heartless and his sensibilities dull. This sort of person would destroy the world if he could. He is irrational and as utterly unreasonable as a wild beast .... It is very easy to commit all sorts of transgressions once rage has brought you to this state, as there is nothing but your anger to control you, and you must go where it leads you."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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2004-05-01T21:52:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 11

"And there are other [liars who,] while like them in kind, are not quite as guilty as they. They are the ones who lie by telling stories and giving false reports. They are not 'professional' story-tellers who concoct whole tales or incidents that have never or could never happen. But when they come to relate something, they add on whatever occurs to them. This happens so regularly that it becomes second nature to them, and it is impossible to believe anything they say."

"There is another category of liars whose malady is less serious than the former. They are not quite accustomed to lying, but they would not think of separating themselves from it, and if the opportunity for a lie would come up, they would take advantage of it. Many times they would do this for the sake of a joke, or for some other reason, with no particular malice intended."

"When you speak falsely it is as if you are nudging at the world's foundation. Conversely, when you are careful about truth you are likened to someone who maintains the world's foundation."

"The ramifications of the desecration of G-d's name are great and numerous as well. You must be very compassionate towards the standing of your Creator in the eyes of others by considering and reflecting upon all of your actions, and making sure that none of them (G-d forbid) lead to the desecration of G-d's name."

"The honor and glory of Torah comes about when the ones who study it very much perfect and ennoble their characters as well. Those amongst them who are lacking in this cause shame to be cast upon the study of Torah itself. That is (G-d forbid) a desecration of G-d's name."

"Observance of the Shabbat and of the holy-days is also important because "there are many laws involved .... What is most difficult for many to observe is refraining from doing and speaking about business .... The principle is that all that is forbidden to be done on the Shabbat cannot be attempted or spoken of on the Shabbat either."

"Up to now I have addressed those mitzvot that I perceive to be most people's downfalls. From those we can extrapolate to all the other prohibitions, as there is no forbidden act that does not have its divisions and subdivisions, both serious and light. Whoever wants to be innocent must be innocent and purified of them all .... [But] your character has to be just as innocent .... However, innocence of character is more difficult to achieve than innocence of actions, as your nature is more manifest in your character than in your actions. Temperament and disposition either greatly cooperate with or summarily oppose the development of character. And anytime you struggle to do something beyond your nature you are involved in a great battle."

"There are many character traits-- as many of them as there are deeds in the realm of human possibility, as they come from deeds."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-04-30T04:33:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 11

"In regard to deceiving someone by giving him bad advice .... the point is, whether you are going to benefit by the outcome or not, it is your duty to pass on the clear and unadulterated truth to whomever might come to you for advice .... How many people stumble in this matter every day because they are drawn to and follow the strong urge for profit .... The honest man's duty when someone comes to him for advice is to offer the advice that he would give himself, and for no other reason than for the good of the person asking for it, not for any ulterior motive, no matter how likely or unlikely it may be. If by giving out such advice you might harm yourself, you should point that out. If pointing it out will be useless, simply do not give the advice. But in any case, do not give advice that will be to the detriment of its receiver. But if his intentions are for bad, it is certainly a mitzvah to deceive him."

"The seriousness of talebearing and slander, as well as the great variety of situations in which it can be found is so well known [that we needn't go into it in great detail] .... The point is that the yetzer hara follows many paths, and anything that might be said whether to that person's face or not that may result in damage or embarrassment to him, is within the parameters of that trait that is detestable and an abomination to G-d -- slander."

"The traits of hate and revenge are also very difficult to escape from, given man's scheming heart. We are very sensitive to insult, suffering very much because of it; and revenge, the best solution for it, is as sweet as honey. You would have to be extraordinarily courageous and strong to have it within you to abandon what is innate to you, bypass this inclination and not hate someone who has aroused hate in you, and to not arise against him in revenge, or bear a grudge against him, but instead to forget it all, and wipe it away from your heart as if it never happened. Such an act would be easy for the ministering angels ... but for (Job 4:19) 'those who dwell in houses of clay, and are founded in dust' it is not. Yet, according to the decrees of the King, that is exactly what we must do."

"The elements of revenge and bearing a grudge are well known. Revenge involves refraining from doing good for whomever would not do good to you, or who has already done you harm. Bearing a grudge involves reminding a person of the harm he has done to you when you were about to do him a favor .... The yetzer hara waxes, and infuriates the heart and wants to leave behind the memory or some trace of the incident that caused you pain. (And if it cannot retain a great deal of the memory, it will settle for a small amount). It might say to you: 'If you would like to give him what he wasn't willing to give you when you needed it, at least don't give it to him cordially'; or, 'If you won't go so far as to do harm to him, at least don't do him any great favor or help him in any great way'; or, 'if you do care to help him out a lot, at least don't do it to his face'; or, 'you shouldn't befriend him again-- it's enough that you have forgiven him and no longer hate him'; or, 'if you want be his friend again, at least don't be as close to him as you had been before.'"

"In regard to oaths said [that cite G-d's name] in vain, even though everybody except perhaps the ignorant is careful not to mention the name of G-d in vain, and especially not to vow in vain, there are some particulars of vain oaths which it is best to remain innocent of and which you have to watch out for [and learn about], though they may not be the most serious."

"Lying is another malady that is widespread. But there are various degrees of lying. There are people for whom lying is actually a profession. They go about concocting utter lies, either for laughs, or to be considered wise or knowledgeable [but there are various other types of liars, as we'll soon see]."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-04-30T04:05:00.000-04:00

See http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/index.php?newsid=7818

Fron an article entitled "New clues to the secret of eternal life"

We're told that "each human cell has an inbuilt timer to ensure it lives as long as necessary and no longer. Attached to the ends of the chromosomes (the packages of genetic material within cells) are repetitive strips of DNA called telomeres. These get shorter each time a cell divides until there is nothing left – and the cell knows it is time to die."

But then we're told that "*cancer cells are immortal*" since "they are able to reset or stop their timer, giving them unlimited lifespan."

I'm unsure of the spiritual-ethical implications of this but it certainly bears thinking about.

2004-04-29T06:47:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 11

"Our sages screeched like cranes about the promiscuous use of lips and ears, i.e., speaking or listening to profanity .... So we see that all of our senses need to be innocent of licentiousness and matters associated with it."

"If someone comes to confound you by saying that when the Torah speaks against profanity it is only doing so to frighten and draw a person away from an actual sin, and that the prohibition is for the more 'hot-blooded' type of person who might be brought to desire by his speech, but that someone who uses it as a joke does not have to worry about it -- tell that person that what they are doing is speaking for the yetzer hara .... The fact of the matter is that obscenity is truly the promiscuity of the power of speech."

"In terms of thought .... our sages said, (Yoma 29a) 'Thoughts of sin are worse than sins themselves'."

"We have spoken thus far about the two most serious prohibitions people are likely to stumble in the details of [i.e., thievery and promiscuity], both because there are so many [prohibitions involved], and also because the heart is so often inclined in the direction of these desires .... The third category of prohibitions we will be addressing in the realm of coveting ... is forbidden food. This includes foods that are inherently forbidden, those that are forbidden because they are accidentally combined with forbidden food, mixtures of meat and dairy, forbidden fats, blood, meals cooked by non-Jews, utensils owned by non-Jews, and sacramental versus ordinary wines."

"Great care and determination is required to stay innocent of these matters, because the heart is easily drawn to good food, and there is often monetary loss in the accidental mixing of forbidden and permitted foods, etc."

"Forbidden foods actually cause spiritually unclean elements to enter into your heart and spirit, and have the Holiness of G-d removed and drawn away from you."

"The true knowledge and sense of understanding G-d gives to His holy ones ... will be withheld from you [if you eat forbidden foods]. You will instead remain animal-like and of-the-earth, stuck in the coarseness of this world. This is more so for forbidden foods than for other prohibited things because they enter into your body and become your very flesh."

"A thinking person would consider forbidden foods poisoned or mixed with poison. If you were sure or even suspected that some food was poisoned, would you eat it? Certainly not. You would be considered a fool if you did. That is how it should be with forbidden foods which as we have explained are poisons to the heart and soul. What thinking person would be casual about forbidden foods when there is reason to be suspicious?"

"Let us speak now about those sins that often come about in human interaction, such as verbal abuse, embarrassing or deceiving others, talebearing, hate, revenge, oaths, lies, and desecration of the Divine Name. Who can honestly say, 'Oh, I'm innocent of that; I'm blameless as far as that's concerned'? The offshoots of those traits are very great and very subtle, and caution in them requires great effort."

"[Included among the wrongful things in this category are] speaking to someone in private in an abusive manner and shaming him. Or, in a more serious vein, shaming someone in public, or doing something which would cause someone shame."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-04-28T06:00:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 11

"Let us consider deceit. It is so easy to fool yourself and stumble in this. You might think it is only right for example to make a product you are selling to a customer as attractive as possible so you could profit from your work, and to speak cunningly and enticingly to him so that he would want it .... But if you do not fully reflect upon or are not conscious of your deeds, you might pick a thorn when you mean to get wheat -- that is, you might inadvertently sin and stumble in matters of deceit."

"Our sages warned us (Baba Metziah 60a) not to paint-over old wares to make them like new, and to 'not mix together different bunches of fruit -- even new fruit with other new fruit; even high priced with low so as to sell the higher priced for less.'"

"You may be saying, 'How can I not try to point out the value of my product to my customers?' You should know that there is a difference between pointing out the true value, worth or beauty of a product -- which is a perfectly honest and honorable action -- and covering over the product's imperfections, which is deceitful, and therefore forbidden. This is a major principle in honest business practice."

"The point is that the stumbling-blocks on the path to [success in business] are as numerous as the yearnings for possessions. Great and profound self-reflection is required to actually free yourself of it. You should know that if you do free yourself of it, you have reached a very great level. Many have attained various of the many levels of righteousness and have not been able to abhor unjust gain."

"Let us speak now about promiscuity, which is second only to thievery in the degree to which people transgress against it .... No small amount of effort is required if you want to be thoroughly innocent of this transgression, because not only is the act itself forbidden, but actions related to it are forbidden as well."

"The tradition forbids illicit intimacy and all other such things however they may be found-- tactily, through sight, speech and hearing, or in thought .... Tactily involves light physical contact, or hugging, etc. [which are all forbidden outside of marriage or between certain immediate family members] .... In terms of seeing-- our sages said (Brachot 61a), ' .... all shopkeepers who go out of their way to dispense change to women customers to stare at them shall not go unpunished in the judgments of Gehenom' .... Whoever stares at even the little finger of a woman [lasciviously] is likened to one who stares at her private parts .... a man should not stare [lasciviously] at an attractive woman, even if she is unmarried; nor at a married woman even if she is ugly.'"

"In terms of speech with a woman -- we find it explicitly stated (Avot 1:5) 'whoever over-involves himself in small talk with his wife brings bad upon himself.'"

"And in terms of the sense of hearing our sages said (Brachot 24a), 'A woman's singing voice is considered nakedness.'"

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-04-27T04:36:00.000-04:00

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

_______________________________________________

Section 5

"So logic would only demand that we assume the very opposite of appearances and declare that we're truly good and noble creatures, and of inestimable worth -- as worthy as one would expect our Producer to have made."

-- How radical a theology this is: that at bottom mankind is just-so, and purposefully so! And that our having been created by G-d Almighty is proof of that! But what about all the manifest wrong and fraudulence out there, all the treachery and moral rot? The answer lies in the fact that ...

"Whatever faults you may want to find in our bodies can only be blamed on G-d no matter how you explain it, since it's He who created us as we are. And it's also clear that it's He who created us, not we ourselves. He also knows all the consequences of our natures and of the 'wrongful' attributes He implanted within us."

-- G-d is perfectly aware of all the wrong, having set it all in motion; and He's clearly mindful of the *ramifications* of our having been created the way we were. Our apprehension about all this, though, lies in our human provincialism, if you will (which G-d granted us, too, of course, and which thus also serves its purpose -- but we'll get to that later).

"For as we said, we'd do best to look at the climax of events (rather than peer midcourse), for only then will we be able to understand it all. As the expression goes: 'Don't show a fool a project that's only half done'."

-- The mortals that we are, we miss the end of the story, and thus overlook the big picture. So we misread (and underestimate) the characters involved and can't imagine how well things will turn out in the end. That's not to deny our experience of evil and wrong, though, for there's a lot of it. It's just to trip-off the realization that while there will be chaos and ugliness as the work progresses, the painting itself will be effulgent and luminous in the end.

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-04-27T04:16:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 10

"In truth it is very difficult to foster [innocence]. Our natures are weak, our hearts are easily swayed, and we allow ourselves things which bring us to error. But one who does obtain this trait will have reached a very high level, as he will have proven himself to have withstood and been victorious in a mighty war."

-- From Ch. 11

"Even though it is always the yetzer hara that has you sin, there are some sins that your personality may be drawn to and would tend to rationalize reasons to allow. It is in those instances that you will especially need help in subduing the yetzer hara and in cleansing yourself of sin."

"Our sages pointed out (Makkot 23b) that '... people are especially drawn to thievery and promiscuity' [so we'll focus on those sins first]."

"We know that most people are not blatantly dishonest. They would not actually reach out and take someone else's money and place it in their pockets. Nevertheless, most people are involved in petty acts of thievery in their business practices by unfairly profiting from others' losses, and they reason that 'business is different!'"

"Many theft-related negative mitzvot are stated in the Torah: 'Do not steal', 'Do not rob', 'Do not extort', 'Do not lie', 'Do not be untruthful with your comrade', 'One should not deceive his fellow', and 'Do not falsify your neighbor's borders'. These sorts of possible thievery cover many daily practices in the business world. And in each and every one there are many prohibitions; for not just the obvious, flagrant violations of extortion or thievery, for example, are forbidden. Things that lead to them are included in the prohibition as well."

"Workers have to occupy themselves with their assigned tasks exclusively, and if they do not, they are considered thieves .... What can someone who serves his own needs and busies himself with his own affairs when he is on the job say, therefore, other than the truth: that he has done what he wanted to, to his own benefit. The principal of the matter is that one who is hired to do something sells his part of the day .... Even if you were to do a mitzvah when you were supposed to be doing your job it would not be accredited to you as a righteous act, but rather a sin -- because a sin is not a mitzvah."

"In truth, [minor but culpable thievery] comes about because the eyes have the heart arrive at rationalizations for what it finds attractive and wants, instead of the heart being in control of the eyes, so that you are not attracted to others' possessions."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-04-26T05:04:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 9

"Senseless concern is when you compound one form of self-protection onto another, one fear or worry onto another to such a degree that you do away with Torah-study and Divine service altogether .... You must be cautious in a situation where threat is known of or obvious, but where that is not the case you do not need to be cautious."

"It is only right that enthusiasm should follow caution, for all in all a person cannot be enthusiastic if he was not first cautious. Someone who has not set it in his heart to be cautious in his actions, and to reflect upon service to G-d and its principles -- which constitutes the trait of caution, as we have already said -- will find it hard to be both enveloped by love and longing for Divine service and enthused with a yearning for his Creator. Such a person is still stuck in the attractions of the physical world and goes about doing the very things that just naturally keep him away from all this. But in truth, after you will have opened your eyes to take a look at your actions and to be cautious with them, and to reckon the worth of mitzvot versus sins, as was mentioned, you will find it easy to keep from doing bad and you will yearn for and be enthusiastic about the good instead. This is clear."

-- From Ch. 10

"The trait of innocence is obtained when you are utterly free from all bad traits and sins -- not only obvious, well-known sins, but also those the heart is often seduced into believing are not sins but which prove to be so upon reflection."

"The vision of the person who is thoroughly purified from this affliction -- cleansed from any tinge of bad that physical desires might have left behind -- is utterly clear, and his sense of discrimination is sharpened. His longings are not directed toward anything material. Should he at all sin he would recognize it as being bad and separate from it."

"You can see now the difference between caution and innocence. For even though they are similar, they are different. The person who is cautious, is cautious in his actions and sees to it that he does not sin where sin is clear and obvious to all. But he still has not mastered himself. His heart would naturally be drawn to or tempted by things whose bad qualities are not quite so obvious. Though he may try to conquer his yetzer hara and subdue his desires, he will not have succeeded in changing his nature or removing physical desires from his heart. He will have managed to overpower them and to go in the ways of wisdom instead, but they would continue to do all they could to dissuade and undermine him."

"First you must earnestly accustom yourself to be enthusiastic until you are cleansed from obvious sins, then further accustom yourself in Divine service and strengthen your love and desire for G-d. Force of habit in that will separate you from all mundane things, and see to it that your mind will take hold of true wholeness of spirit. In the end you will be able to obtain complete innocence, and what would have been the fire of physical desires would be extinguished by the strengthening of G-dly desire."

"Great effort is required to reach the ultimate in this trait. Obvious and well-known sins are easy to avoid, as it is clear to all that they are bad; but the kind of meticulous scrutiny required for innocence is difficult."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-04-25T19:00:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 8

"The means to acquire enthusiasm are the very ones, step by step, used to acquire caution .... When the great value of the mitzvot, as well as your great responsibility to them becomes clear to you, your heart will certainly be aroused to Divine service, and you will not slacken in it."

"What will strengthen this motivation will be your taking note of the very many good things that the Holy One (blessed be He) does for you moment by moment, and the great wonders He performs for you from your birth until your last day. The more aware you will be of these matters and the more you will reflect upon them, the more easily will you recognize your great debt to G-d who has been so good to you. And this will be the means by which you will avoid being lazy and weak in your Divine service. For while in truth you cannot repay Him for His goodness, you can at least acknowledge Him and do His mitzvot. There can be no person, whatever his circumstances -- be he poor or rich, healthy or ill -- who will never have experienced some wonders or great good in his life."

"There is no person who cannot .... be enthused even more so if he reflects upon the matter of how all of the good he enjoys, and all that he needs and finds to be essential is in the hands of G-d, and none other."

-- From Ch. 9

"Someone who wants to enjoy his meals in comfort, to sleep through the night without interruption, or who would not walk if he could not do so slowly, etc., would find it difficult to wake up early to go to synagogue, or to interrupt his evening meal for minutiae services or for a particular mitzvah if the timing is not just so. He certainly would not hurry to perform mitzvot in general, or to study Torah. Someone who regularly acts this way is not his own master and is not free enough to undo his actions whenever he might want to. His will is already bound by habits which have become second nature to him."

"Know that you were not placed in this world for relaxation, but for effort and toil."

"Other things that cause the loss of enthusiasm are fear and anxiety about passing things and their consequences. At one point you might be nervous about cold or heat, another time you might worry about accidents, then another time about illness, and yet another time about the wind, etc."

"The point is you should consider yourself as 'passing through' the world, but settled-in in your Divine service. You should willingly and contentedly face whatever greets you in this world, and take hold of whatever circumstances come your way. You should avoid relaxation and be drawn to work and effort, set your heart to trust in G-d, and not worry about consequences or happenstances."

"You might argue that the sages warned that you must watch out for your well-being very carefully and not place yourself in danger .... But you must know that there is fear, and there is fear. There is warranted fear and there is senseless fear; there is trust and there is naivete. G-d created man to be sensible and straightforwardly logical so that he could accustom himself to go the right way and guard himself from the things that might cause him harm (which were created to punish the evil). One who does not want to go along the ways of wisdom and is willing to expose himself to danger is not practicing trust in G-d -- he is naive, and he is sinning and going against the will of G-d Who wants him to protect himself .... [But don't lapse into] senseless concern, when you compound one form of self-protection onto another, one fear or worry onto another to such a degree that you do away with Torah-study and Divine service altogether."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-04-24T21:34:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 6

"A major principle for fostering the trait of abstention is that every leniency in Divine service should be carefully and most thoroughly considered beforehand. For even though the leniency may seem to be just and right, nonetheless it is very possible that it comes out of the advice of the yetzer hara and its deceiving ways. If, after all of that, your reasons for taking advantage of the leniency will be found to be just, then it is certainly correct. The point is that you need great prodding to strengthen and enthusiastically encourage yourself to do mitsvot, and to throw off the heavy laziness which holds you back. The angels were praised for this good trait .... In truth human beings are just that-- humans, and not angels. It is therefore impossible for us to have the might of the angels. Nonetheless we should strive to get as close to this level as we possibly can."

-- -- From Ch. 7

"There are two subdivisions of enthusiasm. The first is in force before you begin to act on something, and the second is in force after you act on something. The subdivision that is relevant to before acting on something is comprised of not letting mitzvot 'spoil'. When the time comes to do one, or when one presents itself to you, or when it first occurs to you to do it, you should hasten to take hold of it and do it, and not allow a lot of time to pass by."

"Enthusiasm is the one great trait of perfection that is presently lacking in human nature. One who strengthens himself and assumes as much of it as he possibly can will merit it in truth in the World to Come. The Holy One (blessed be He) will eventually give him his reward in exchange for the effort he put into at the time of his service."

"The subdivision of enthusiasm that is relevant to after an act has begun refers to taking hold of a mitzvah and being in a hurry to complete it. The mitzvah should not be done that way because you are eager to unburden yourself of it, but because you are afraid that you might not merit to complete it."

"One whose spirit is aflame in the service of his Creator will certainly not be lackadaisical in the doing of mitzvot. His movements would be as quick as fire, for he could not be at rest or still until he would have utterly completed the task."

"Further reflecting upon the matter you will find that enthusiasm is an outcome of some inner incandescence. But enthusiasm itself can produce this incandescence. If you will examine your actions at the time of the performance of a mitzvah you will note that just as you yourself instigate external movements, so too can they instigate inner movements, to the point where they can consciously arouse your very yearnings and desires. But if you continue to accustom yourself to stilted body-movement your spirit will also be trapped and extinguished. Experience attests to this."

"As is known, the most desirable traits in service to the Creator is willingness of heart and longing of soul."

"The best advice for the person in whom this desire does not burn is that he consciously enthuse himself so that enthusiasm might eventually become second nature to him. External movement arouses the internal, and you certainly have more of a command over the external than the internal. So if you make use of what you have command over, you will eventually take control over what you do not. Great inner joy, desire and longing will come about as a result of your consci–ously igniting of your movements."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-04-23T05:52:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 5

"Just consider this: if you had an opportunity to acquire great wealth would you hold yourself back because of somebody's ridiculing? You should avoid destroying your soul because of a ridiculer all the more so."

-- From Ch. 6

"Enthusiasm follows caution. But while caution has to do with *not* doing, enthusiasm has to do with doing."

"It takes as much conscientiousness and determination to take hold of the mitzvot so that you can gain rather than lose merit as it does to save yourself from the snares of the yetzer hara so that it does not control you and become entangled in your affairs. For just as the yetzer hara tries by any means to have you fall into the nets of sin, it also tries to have you lose the chance to do mitzvot. If you slacken off and become lazy instead of encouraging yourself to pursue them and take hold of them, you will surely be left empty handed."

"Man is by nature very 'weighed down' by an earthiness and coarse materiality. That is why he does not want to exert or burden himself. But if you want to merit to Divine service you have to fight this nature and be self-motivated and enthusiastic. For if you abandon yourself to this 'heaviness' you will not succeed in your quest ..... One who wants to turn around his nature needs a lot of prodding."

"The bad that comes from laziness does not come about in one fell swoop, but slowly and without notice. It comes in a sequence of one bad deed after another, until you find yourself sunk in evil.

"Were you to ask the lazy person about his ways, he would retort with all sorts of sayings of the sages, scriptural passages and logical explanations to prove (to his misguided mind) that he should have it easy and be left in his lazy ways. He cannot see that these rationalizations and ideas are not an outcome of his thinking the problem out, but that they spring forth out of his laziness. As it controls him, it inclines his thinking toward the direction of these rationalizations, so that he does not listen to the words of the sages or the people who truly understand."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-04-22T05:23:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 5

"In truth the yetzer harah is powerful in us. And without our knowing it, it gets stronger and stronger, and controls us. We can try everything in the world, but if we do not try the remedy particular to it, Torah, we will never know of or sense its overtaking us."

"Mockery is ruinous to the heart. All sense and reason is gone when it is around. The light-hearted is like a drunkard or an idiot: it is impossible to give counsel or direction to him because he will not take it."

"Just as the very condition required of the trait of caution is conscious taking-stock, the very essence of levity involves diverting your attention from all noble and profound thoughts, so the fear of Heaven does not enter into it at all. Notice as well the difficulty and destructiveness of mockery. The person who mocks contends with rebuke and remorse like an oil–covered shield that resists and repels arrows that they might fall to the ground and not touch its wearer's person. By seeing or hearing something that might have it reflect upon or examine its actions, the heart can encourage and arouse itself to do good. But with only one act of mockery or a bit of levity a great amount of self-encouragement and self-rousing to righteous action can fall to the ground. Then the original urge for good would make no impression at all. And all of this would not be because of any kind of weakness or misunderstanding, but rather because of the nature of mockery to undo morality and the fear of Heaven."

"The third thing that causes you to lose caution is a circle of friends, that is, a circle of sinful, foolish friends .... Often we find that even after the need for Divine service and caution become self-evident to a person, he might slacken-off or overlook certain things relevant to it so friends might not ridicule him, or so that he might fit in with them."

"A person should only purify and cleanse himself, and keep himself back from the ways of the great preponderance of people who are stuck in passing fancies. He should turn himself in the direction of the courtyard of G-d and His Tabernacle."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-04-21T06:23:00.000-04:00

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

_______________________________________________

Section 4, Part 2

-- The Talmud reports there that Rabbi Eliezer called the ugly man a "reika" (from the term "reik", empty) which would thus either be translated as "dunderhead" or "good-for-nothing". But it has been explained that the man was ugly both inside and out -- that he was coarse and vulgar (see Maharsha's comments); and that's why he was called reika, or "flawed" in this instance. Thus R' Ashlag's point is again that our failings are there by Divine will; so "just go and tell the Craftsman who formed me how ugly the vessel He made is!" if you think we're anything other than just-so.

"Thus those scholars who claim that G-d abandoned us (after having created us) because it’s beneath Him to keep watch over such worthless and base creatures only divulge their own ignorance (by claiming that)."

"After all, could anyone ever imagine coming across someone purposefully setting out to create beings who'd be as tormented and tried their whole lives as we are, and who'd utterly abandon them besides and not even bother to look after them or help them? How loathsome and despicable a person he'd be! So how could we ever imagine such a thing of G-d?"

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-04-21T05:29:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 4

"As is known, G-d repays actions in kind, measure for measure. But [all one's] actions are weighed, and the trivial ones are weighed just as are the more serious .... This disproves the statements of those fools who would say that G-d neither considers nor pays heed to the more trivial things in His judgements."

"G-d desires justice. Would He conceivably bypass justice by overlooking blame more than merit? Therefore, if He desires justice, He must reckon with each person according to his actions and as befitting his actions, in a most exacting way, whether good or bad .... Such is His way: He judges all, and punishes for each sin [and rewards each mitzvah], and that is that."

"According to the strict letter of the law, a sinner should be punished immediately, without any delay at all upon the performance of a sin, and the punishment itself should be meted out with great anger, as we would expect in the case of one who rebels against the word of the Creator. There would seem to be no way of undoing this sin as, in truth, how can one rectify what has been ruined by the committing of a sin? If one would for example murder someone or commit adultery against someone, how in fact could these deeds be rectified? Can one undo what has already been done? But in truth the Divine attribute of compassion obviates these points. It is what gives time to the sinner and disallows for his being immediately done away with upon sinning, or for the punishment to lead to utter destruction."

"As a great kindness, [G-d] allows for repentance .... That is, by the very fact that the penitent recognizes his sin, acknowledges it, reflects upon his bad actions, repents, regrets of it as much as he would regret a vow made inadvertently, sincerely wishes he had never done that thing, is terribly pained in his heart that he had ever done such a thing, decides to abandon it, and runs away from it-- such an uprooting of the thing from his will is likened to the rescinding of a vow and he is forgiven .... That is, your transgressions will be retroactively turned around and uprooted from existence by your pain and regret for what has happened."

"One who wants to open his eyes has no real excuse for not practicing self-mastery as much as possible, as exactingly as possible. The wise will certainly acquire the trait of caution if he tends to himself by these means."

-- From Ch. 5

"Three things cause the loss of and the resistance to [caution]: (1) attendance to and over involvement in the things of this world, (2) levity and mockery, (3) bad companionship."

"You must necessarily concern yourself with the matters of this world to earn your living, but over-concern-- to the point where it looms so large it leaves no room for Divine service-- is not necessary. That is why we were commanded to set aside specific time for learning Torah .... [for] when G-d created the yetzer harah He created the Torah to temper it."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-04-21T05:03:00.000-04:00

from http://chronicle.com/free/v50/i33/33b01001.htm

from "Mathematics With a Moral" by ROBERT OSSERMAN

"A curious fact of mathematical life: When faced with a problem that seems intractable, the best strategy is sometimes to formulate what appears to be an even harder problem. By expanding one's horizons, one may find an unanticipated route that leads to the [original, lesser] goal."

-- This is not only applicable to mathematics but to many things, the greatest of which is one's to Avodat Hashem. Find it hard concentrating on Pesukei D'zimrah? Then work harder on concentrating on Sh'mone Esrai and work backwards.
Unable to get a hold on yirat cheit? Then work harder on ahavat Hashem and work backwards, etc.

2004-04-20T05:23:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 4

"The advice given to those of lesser understanding will be based upon their level of comprehension and will concern itself with respect, which they so desire."

"It is obvious to all thinking people that the division of spiritual levels in the world of truth, i.e., the World to Come, is based upon the performance of righteous acts. And that one who is greater in such things than his friend will be exalted above him, while one who is lacking in them will be 'lower'. As that is so, therefore, how can we hide our eyes from our actions, or diminish our efforts, if in the end -- when we can no longer repair what we have damaged--it will cause us sorrow? But there are fools who only want to have it easy. They say: 'Why should we burden ourselves with all this saintliness and abstention? Isn't it enough that we're not bad and doomed to Gehenom? We're not about to exert ourselves to get into the Garden of Eden. If we don't get a big portion, we'll get a small one, and that will be just fine for us. We don't plan to burden ourselves with all this.' We would ask them just one question: Could they so easily stand seeing one of their friends honored and glorified more than they, ruling over them, as can happen in this ever-changing world? Or, even more so, could they stand seeing one of their servants or some pitiable, low pauper doing so and not be pained by or seethe in the sight? Certainly not. As we know, all of our efforts are rooted in having dominance over whomever we are able to, and on placing ourselves in a higher position."

"So if you find it so hard to be in an inferior position in relation to illusory and unreal characteristics, and to suffer a kind of inferiority that is only external, as opposed to a 'superiority' that is vain and untrue-- how would you ever be able to endure seeing yourself being inferior to people to whom you are now superior in the place of true, valued, and eternal superiority, the World to Come? Though you cannot yet recognize that situation and its worth, and so you do not concern yourself with it, you will certainly recognize the truth of it in its time, to your embarrassment and everlasting great sorrow."

"The advice for the great majority of people would follow along the lines of detailing rewards and punishments that are based upon the gravity and extent of the law."

"In truth we should constantly be shivering and trembling. Who could endure the great day of judgment? Who could be accounted righteous before his Creator, whose observing eye is exacting upon everything, great and small?"

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-04-19T09:47:00.000-04:00

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

_______________________________________________

Section 4, Part 3

"But when we argue (instead) that an utterly perfect Creator created and designed us -- and that He made us with both good *and* bad inclinations -- (then we're forced to admit that such) a perfect producer wouldn't produce a shoddy and inferior product. After all, a product only reflects its producer, so an inferior garment couldn't be blamed for being so if a second-rate tailor made it."

-- Not only is G-d purposeful as we'd said, He's also utterly perfect by definition. Those two points underlie all of R' Ashlag's assumptions in this work, and all else follows from them.

-- Now, since G-d is perfect it thus follows that everything He does is done perfectly, just-so -- and with His purpose in mind. It likewise follows that we, His creations, must be just-so, too. (We couldn't say we're perfect, because we're not; though we could say that we're prepared and even *primed* to be "perfect" when G-d's purpose is realized -- but that's far beyond the subject at hand).

-- In any event, anything about us that appears to be off and unbefitting a product of a perfect Creator must actually not be off, but just-so and *in-process* instead (the way sculptured works are before they're finished). It follows then that our "bad" inclinations must be purposeful, too, and that we really can't be blamed for them (though we can be blamed for not improving and perfecting ourselves as we're able and bidden to).

-- R' Ashlag now goes on to present a parable to that effect from the Talmud. He tells us to ...

"Refer to the sages' story of Rabbi Eliezer who came upon a very ugly man to whom he said 'How ugly you are!' to which the ugly man replied, 'Just go and tell the Craftsman who formed me how ugly the vessel He made is!' (Ta’anit 20)."

-- We'll explore the parable in full next time.

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-04-19T03:51:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 3

"Our sages said (Baba Metziah 83b), 'You laid down darkness and there was night' (Psalms 104:20) refers to this world, which is likened to night. How profound a statement of truth this comes out to be when you plumb the depths of it! Night's darkness can cause two major errors of sight: it can either cover your eyes so that you cannot see what is in front of you, or it can confound your sight so that you might, for example, believe a pillar is actually a human being, or vice versa. Such is the case with the coarseness and materiality of this world. It is the darkness of night to the mind's eyes, and can cause you to err in two ways: first, in that it does not allow you to notice the stumbling blocks along the way.... [And second,] it has you misinterpret things so that what is in fact bad seems to be truly good, and vice versa.... But those who have come out from this state of imprisonment see the truth for what it is and can advise others about it."

"The point of the matter is that you should constantly, consistently ponder, as well as set aside specific time to be alone so as to consider what is the true path according to the rules of the Torah you must take. Then you should contemplate your actions and decide if they are in agreement with this or not. In this manner you will find it easy to purify yourself from all bad and to set your ways straight."

-- From Ch. 4

"Generally speaking, what brings you to caution is Torah study, ... but what brings it about in particular is the reflection upon the seriousness of the Divine service incumbent upon us, and the extent of Divine judgment."

"There are various people at various levels of understanding: those who fully understand, those of somewhat lesser understanding, and the great majority of people. So there is specific advice regarding such realizations for each of those people."

"The advice for those who fully understand will be to foster a cognizance that wholeness alone is the thing that should be longed for, nothing else; that nothing is worse than the lack of wholeness and what keeps it back from us. After this is explained, and it likewise becomes clear to them that the means to wholeness are good deeds and good personality traits, they would certainly never want to diminish or make light of them. It would have already been clear to them that if these means would be diminished or weakened or would be without their full, required strength, they (the people of full understanding) could not obtain true wholeness -- it would be lacking in them to the extent that their strivings would be lacking, and they would be unwhole. This would be a great sorrow and misfortune for them."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-04-18T06:21:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 2

CHAPTER TWO: AN EXPLANATION OF THE TRAIT OF CAUTION

"The point of caution is that you should be cautious in both your actions and your interests; that is to say, conscious and aware of whether your actions and methods are for the good or not. You should not abandon your soul to the threat of destruction, G-d forbid, nor simply go blindly on in your accustomed way, in pitch black. This is certainly what common sense would dictate. We have the sense to rescue ourselves by running away from what would destroy our soul; would we possibly want to conceal from ourselves the means of our rescue? There could be no greater degradation or foolishness than this. One who would act in this way hasn't the native intelligence of the animals or beasts who just naturally watch out for themselves by fleeing from all that is likely to threaten them. One who goes about in the world without reflection upon whether his path is for the good or the bad is like a blind man who walks upon the shoreline, where the threats of danger are great, and harm is more likely than not. In truth, being blind from birth or by decision (by willfully closing your eyes) is one and the same thing."

"Relentlessly burdening yourself with tasks so that you haven't any time to reflect upon or consider where you are heading is in fact one of the devices and guiles of the yetzer harah. It knows that if you were to concentrate upon your ways for just an instant you would certainly repent of your ways, and a strong regret would grow within you that would lead you to utterly abandon your sins."

"Obviously, even if you do enjoy mastery over yourself, without G-d's help you could not save yourself, as the yetzer harah is mighty.... If you are in control of yourself, G-d will rescue you and save you from the yetzer hara. But if you are not, G-d himself will certainly not oversee your doings."

-- From Ch. 3

"If you want to master yourself, you will need to involve yourself in two kinds of self-analysis. The first concerns the consideration of what is the true good you are to choose and the true bad from which you should flee. The second concerns the consideration of your own actions to determine whether they are good or bad. This latter one can be further broken down into two categories: while active and while not. As to while you are active: you should not do anything without considering it in light of this notion. And as to while you are not active: you should recall your past actions and consider them in light of this notion as well to determine if there is some bad therein to be removed, or good that should be continued and fortified. If you do find some bad, then you should reflect, and come up with devices that will allow you to flee and be purified from it."

"The principle of the matter is that you should delve deeply into all of your actions and examine all your ways and not leave yourself with bad habits or traits, or, certainly, sins or transgressions. I believe it is as necessary for you to sift through and analyze your ways each and every day as it is for successful businessmen to constantly evaluate their businesses to be sure they do not suffer loss, and that you set aside particular times to do this so that this sort of self-evaluation will not be a once-in-a-while kind of thing, but fixed. Such a practice promises great returns."

"The veracity of this advice can only be truly seen and internalized by those who have already freed themselves from the stronghold of their yetzer hara and have mastered it. One who is still bound and imprisoned by it cannot come to see or recognize the truth of this statement, as he is literally blinded by his yetzer hara. He is like someone who is walking in the dark and cannot see the many stumbling-blocks before him."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-04-17T21:41:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Ch. 1

"True spiritual wholeness is nothing other than the clutching onto G-d. King David referred to this when he said, (Psalms 73:28) 'As for me -- closeness to G-d is my good', and (Psalms 27:4) 'I only ask one thing of G-d, this I request: that I might sit in G-d's house all the days of my life.' For this alone is the true good; all else we might consider to be good is mere smoke and emptiness."

"The Holy One (blessed be He) has placed mankind in a situation where there are many things to hinder closeness to Him. These are the mundane desires which, if followed, would have you draw away from the true good. You have in fact been placed in the midst of a mighty battle wherein all worldly happenstances-- for the good or for not-- are trials."

"The world was created for our usage. But we stand in the midst of a great balance: should we be attracted to the world and distanced from our Creator, both we and the world with us would be damaged; but if we would master ourselves and clutch onto our Creator, and make use of the world's things to help us in our Divine service, both we and the world with us will be elevated. All created things enjoy a great elevation when they are used by the 'completed' person -- the one who is made holy by G-d's holiness."

"The point is this: We were not created for our situation here in this world -- but rather, for that in the World to Come. But our situation here is the means to attain to the one due us in the World to Come, which is our goal."

"If in fact the purpose of our life was to meet the needs of this world it would not have been necessary for G-d to have breathed into us a soul so exalted and distinguished-- a soul greater than the angels themselves. Nor would He have placed within us a soul which finds no gratification in the things of this world."

"Now that we understand this, the need for stringency in keeping mitzvot and the preciousness of the Divine service presented to us should be obvious. For they are the means to bring us to true wholeness. Without them we would attain nothing."

"It has thus become clear to us that the main purpose of our having been placed in this world was to keep the mitzvot, to serve G-d, and to withstand spiritual trials, and that the only appropriate pleasures to be gotten from this world are those which aid and assist in these tasks-- that give you enough ease and peace of mind to set your heart to the service that has been placed upon you."

"It is only fitting that all of your inclinations be directed exclusively to the Creator -- that there be no goal in any of your actions, large or small, other than that of getting closer to Him and eradicating the barriers that separate you from Him, which are the matters of this world and what is dependent upon them. This should be done to the point where you are drawn after Him as iron is to a magnet; that you run after, take hold and not let go of all you can determine will be a means to drawing close to Him. And that you run away from whatever you determine will deter you from this as you would from fire."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim, which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-04-16T16:42:00.000-04:00

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

_______________________________________________

Section 4, Part 2

-- R' Ashlag goes on to depict the course of all things by stating what G-d had in mind when He created the cosmos. After all, He had to have had plans or an agenda, if you will, when He created and set everything in order, since ...

"It's clear that no one other than a madman does anything without a particular goal in mind."

-- ... that is, since utter extemporaneousness and abandon is either product of a person of unsound mind or of an entity devoid of free will, and G-d is neither.

-- Now, some might argue that art is a product of abandon and non-rationality. But the truth of the matter is that while the artistic process is impulsive and "mindless" or non-rational, the preparations and actual outcomes are anything but. For as any artist knows, a lot of thought goes into each moment of magic and quick genius.

-- That having been said, R' Ashlag goes on to explain G-d's ways in the world.

"I know that there are some irreligious and unbelieving scholars who acknowledge that G-d indeed created the world but who also claim that He then left it to its own devices. 'After all', they reason, 'His creations are so worthless that it wouldn't befit so exalted a Creator to keep watch over such as they with their trivial, sordid ways'."

-- Two points are being made here. First, that there are indeed those who acknowledge a Creator, who nonetheless deny His ongoing engagement with the world as L-rd. Which is to say that they accept the notion of a physical, chemical, and mathematical First Cause but they deny G-d.

-- The second point is that if they'd somehow be persuaded to believe in G-d in theory they'd still and all think it absurd to believe we could engage with Him since (they'd argue) it would be beneath one such as He to interact with anyone such as we.

"But the truth of the matter is that those scholars don't know what they're talking about. For it's absurd to argue that we're base and worthless without then arguing that we made *ourselves* that way."

-- In other words, if G-d indeed created us but then left us on our own as they'd first thought, then we obviously came to be who we are *despite* Him and on our own, not thanks to Him. Because He would have created us utterly neutral, and our "baseness" and "worthlessness" would have come about after the fact and of our own volition.

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-04-16T05:23:00.000-04:00

We continue our countdown to Mattan Torah with short daily quotes from Messilat Yesharim:

-- From Author's Introduction:

"Herein are included the preferred subdivisions of the perfection of Divine service: reverence, walking in His way, love, wholeheartedness, the keeping of the mitzvot."

"'Reverence' refers to reverence for His exaltedness-- that you be in a state of reverence before Him comparable to what you would experience being before a great and awesome king; that you be abashed before His greatness; and that, as a result of His greatness, you be aware of every move you make before Him -- especially when speaking to Him in prayer or Torah study."

"'Walking in His ways' includes all manner of character correction and reparation. This is what our sages referred to when they said (Shabbat 133B), 'Just as He is compassionate, you are to be compassionate; just as He is gracious, you are to be gracious, etc.' The point of this is that all of your traits and actions are to be just and ethical. Our sages have stated the principal thusly: (Avot 2:1) '[Do] all that is attractive and has its doer appear attractive', i.e., do all that directs you toward the true, good end--the strengthening of Torah and the institution of universal brotherhood."

"'Love'-- that a type of love of G-d be set in your heart that would lead you to do what satisfies Him as energetically as you would do the same for your mother or father. It should bother you if G-d is unsatisfied, either because of yourself or someone else, and you should want it for G-d and derive a great joy in obtaining it for Him."

"'Wholehearted' means that your service to G-d should be done with the purest of intentions -- only for service to Him, for no other reason whatsoever. Included in this must be a service of the heart not in conflict, but full; and not as an act of rote."

"'Keeping all of G-d's commandments' is as it implies -- keeping all of the Divine commandments in their fullness and with all of their conditions."

-- From Ch. 1

"Our sages (of blessed memory) have taught us that we were created to delight in G-d and enjoy the radiance of His Divine presence. This is the true delight, the greatest enjoyment of all. But in truth, the place for this pleasure is the World to Come, as it was created, readied and prepared for just such a pleasure. The road that will take us to our desired destination is this world .... The means to bring you to this goal are the mitzvot which G-d has commanded; and it is only in this world that these mitzvot can be done. That is why we were placed in this world in the first place: so that we might reach the place set for us -- the World to Come -- by the use of the means prepared for that task. Then we will bask in the good we will have acquired through these means."

"True spiritual wholeness is nothing other than the clutching onto G-d .... all else we might consider to be good is mere smoke and emptiness."

"The Holy One (blessed be He) has placed mankind in a situation where there are many things to hinder closeness to Him. These are the mundane desires which, if followed, would have you draw away from the true good. You have in fact been placed in the midst of a mighty battle wherein all worldly happenstances-- for the good or for not -- are trials."

"You will only be the full man worthy of clutching onto your Creator if you are truly a warrior, victorious in your battles from all sides. Then will you go from the vestibule of this world into the palace of the World to Come, enlightened by the Light Of Life. According to the degree you conquer your yetzer harah and your desires, distance yourself from the things that distance you from the good, and try to clutch onto Him will you succeed and be joyful in Him."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

May this series on Messilat Yesharim which is offered in loving memory of my recently departed uncle, Chaim ben Avraham Stone a"h, serve as an aliyah for his neshama.

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-04-15T09:24:00.000-04:00

I've divided Messilat Yesharim ("The Path of the Just") into 40 parts and will try to present a part-for-the-day in preparation for Mattan Torah, 40 days from now.

I'll offer snippets of the text itself from my original translation (Aronson Publications, 1996; to be reissued by Judaica Press in the near future) with little or no comments.

From the Author's Introduction:

"You will notice, if you reflect upon the state of things as they now are, that the great majority of intelligent, enlightened, aware, and informed people expend a great deal of their energies on reflection upon and examination of the minutia of the various sciences, and upon subtle scholarship, each according to his own inclinations and personal bents. There are those who very much concern themselves with the questions of cosmogony or physical science; others, with astronomy or mathematics; and yet others with art. Some others especially enter upon the matter of holiness, i.e., the learning of the holy Torah. Of those, there are some who involve themselves in the give-and-take of Talmudic argumentation; others, in homiletics; and others, in the deciding of practical law. Yet, there are few of them who would dedicate their research and study to the means of attaining wholeness in Divine service, on love of and reverence for G-d, on the attachment to Him, or on all the other matters of piety."

"Matters of piety, G-d-reverence and love, and purity of heart are not so ingrained in your heart that you would not have to find the means of acquiring them. They are not just come upon nonchalantly like natural processes such as sleep and wakefulness, hunger and satiety, etc. In truth, you have to foster means and devices to acquire them. And there is no lack for things to keep them back from you (just as there is no lack for ways to hold back the deterrents). As that is the case, how could it be that you would not have to spend time in the profound study into the truth of these matters to know how they are acquired and maintained? And how should this wisdom ever enter your heart if you do not ask for it?"

"Can it be that we would toil and labor in the study of things not at all incumbent upon us to study, such as pilpul which could bear no fruit, or laws which have no practical application in our days -- while our great obligation to our Creator is abandoned to habit or left aside as elements of a religion of rote? If we neither consider nor investigate the true nature of G-d-reverence and its ramifications, how can we hope to attain it, or to rescue ourselves from the vacuity of things of this world which have us forget it?"

"Can time be found for the study of all things, but not this? Why can we not set aside some period of time to at least look into the matter, if the rest of our limited time demands of us other studies or considerations?"

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-04-05T06:58:00.000-04:00

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

_______________________________________________

Section 4, Part 1

"The device we'll use to answer all these questions and inquiries is to look at the culmination of things, which is to say, at the ultimate goal of creation. Since we can only understand things once they're finished rather than while they're in process."

-- First off, only someone as boldly aware of the Divinity of his sources as R' Ashlag could ever claim to cite "the ultimate goal of creation". More importantly for our purposes, though, is the fact that we'd all do well to know that goal, since nothing gnaws more rancorously at our being than the dread thought that we -- and life itself -- are meaningless. Thus knowing the goal and meaning of life would be a great antidote for a lot of what ails us, and we'd be fortunate to know it.

-- Now, in order to illustrate his point we'd offer two examples of how knowing the end beforehand helps us to get at the meaning of things. Murder mysteries become more understandable when you read the end at the beginning, and it's always easier to solve a maze by starting it at its end. For knowing how things will come out from the first in both instances explains the writer or illustrator's intentions and helps us avoid many pitfalls. R' Ashlag's point is that we can only truly understand life once we know the end from the beginning, too; and that *not* knowing it is what has us stumble.

-- Should you object and say that knowing the end from the beginning takes all the fun out of reading mysteries and working at mazes you'd be right. Since the fun in both cases lies in your first experiencing, and then personally relieving the tension the work brings up. But the sort of existential and cosmic tension brought on by not knowing the meaning of life is too great to bear, and we ourselves aren't capable of relieving it -- we need someone of the caliber of R' Ashlag to do that for us. So his point is well taken.

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be availabe from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-04-01T04:02:00.000-05:00

John Ruskin was an artist, scientist, poet, philosopher, and the pre-eminent art critic of his time (1819-1900).

He wrote, "The great object of composition being always to secure unity; that is, to make out of many things one whole; the first mode in which this can be affected is, by determining that one feature shall be more important than all the rest, and that the others shall group with it in subordinate positions." ("The Elements of Drawing")

-- Now, where would such an inclination come from if not from the inborn sense of the One G-d? And what better explains the chaos and taste for "diversity" at all costs today than the lack of that same sense?

2004-03-31T05:50:00.000-05:00

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

_______________________________________________

Section 3, Part 2

"And sixth, our sages say that man is the focal point of reality, that all the upper worlds as well as this corporeal world along with everything in it were created for him alone (Zohar, Tazreiah 40), and they even obliged us to indeed believe that the world was created for our sake (Sanhedrin 37A). But, isn't that strange? After all, why would G-d bother to create all that for man, who's so insignificant and only occupies a hair’s-breadth worth of space in the universe -- to say nothing of (his insignificance when it comes to) the upper worlds, whose reaches are immeasurable! Why would G-d have troubled Himself to create all that for man's sake? And besides -- what would man need all that for?"

-- R' Ashlag's last inquiry here focuses on our own centrality for a good reason. For if G-d Almighty could be said to be not only the Creator of all of reality but its "leading character" as well, then man is its sole supporting character (while *everything else* serves as stage-props and incidentals).

-- But in fact, considering how minute we are within the vast reaches of things, we seem on one level to be as awesomely consequential but overlookable as a sudden chink in a vast stopped dam; while on another to be as superfluous as a chink in a tumbler. So why fill the "stage" with so much else?

(-- Notice, by the way, that R' Ashlag cites mankind's minuteness much the way others do, but that while they use it to point out our essential insignificance, he uses it to underscore our splendid potency. Let this serve as a single example of our contention that the wise never dismiss bothersome facts that seem to deny their underlying beliefs -- they simply see them in other lights.)

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be availabe from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-03-30T03:57:00.000-05:00

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

_______________________________________________

Section 3, Part 1

"Fourth, since the chariot of the other side and the husks is utterly and completely removed from G-d's holiness -- then how could it ever have been culled from and created by Him, let alone allowed to go on?"

-- This calls for more extensive explanation since it assumes that we're aware of some fairly well-known Kabbalistic and otherwise Jewish concepts which we may not be. So we'll do what we can to spell them out.

-- The term "chariot" is obviously as old as the item itself, and it's cited over 150 times in the Torah. On one level it simply stands for a chariot per se, or any other vehicle. But on another level a chariot stands for the point at which a human being controls -- or is controlled by -- an animal in transit. Thus a chariot often represents the center of the lifelong struggle between body (the chariot's horse) and soul (its driver).

-- In the present instance, though, it stands for something else again -- the matrix, environment, or ground of the "other side" and "husks". And they stand for the same thing overall: the "side" of reality that's "other" than G-dly and the hard "shell" of materiality overcovering the G-dly fruit that one would like to get to.

-- R' Ashlag depicts that universe as being "utterly and completely removed from G-d's holiness" which is to say completely opposite to Him.

-- Now, if that's so, then "how could it ever have been culled from and created by Him" since that's more or less analogous to a woman giving birth to a stone? And secondly, why would G-d accommodate something that seems to run counter to His whole Being and intentions?

"Fifth, touching upon the resurrection of the dead, since the human body is so base that it's doomed to die and be buried from the outset, and since the Zohar says that the soul can't ascend to its place in the Garden of Eden until the body decomposes and disintegrates, then why would the body be resurrected anyway? Couldn't the Creator have delighted our souls without it?"

-- Some more definitions. We're taught that the Messiah ("Moshiach") will appear at a certain point in time and that all the deserving dead will be resurrected *body and soul* afterwards, and assume their place in the "World to Come" (the state of being which the universe will unfold into after all of the above). The "Garden of Eden" spoken of here isn't the one cited at the beginning of Genesis where Adam and Eve dwelt, but rather the numinous environment in which the soul alone dwells (and reaps its reward) after death and *before* the resurrection.

-- R' Ashlag's point is that it seems odd that the human body -- which is so un-G-dly and earthly that it's doomed to be buried and to decompose in the ground rather than go elsewhere to reap its reward (as the soul does) -- would be resurrected along *with* the soul later on, rather than be utterly forgotten and brushed aside. After all, the soul could just as easily delight in its place in the World to Come on its own!

"Even more baffling is our sages’ statement that the dead are destined to be resurrected with all of their defects (in place) in order not to be mistaken for someone else, and that all those defects will be cured afterwards. For why would G-d care enough if someone were mistaken for someone else to first bring back their defects and then be forced to cure them?"

-- That's to say that we'd expect the body to be enjoy a new supernatural status once it comes back to life, yet we're taught that it will come back "warts and all" instead, and that only later will the "warts" be undone and the body elevated. Why? We're told it's so that everyone will know exactly whom they're seeing come back to life. But why would that matter?

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be availabe from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-03-25T04:25:00.000-05:00

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

_______________________________________________

Section 2, Part 3

-- We've raised questions up to now about our essential natures, about G-d, and about the cosmos at large. Now onto our souls (which we said aren't our essential natures, if you recall). Did they "pop-up out of the blue" too? What are they comprised of? R' Ashlag begins exploring that by first citing a fundamental Kabbalistic portrayal of the soul.

"Third, the kabbalists say that the human soul is a 'part of G-d', with the only difference being that G-d is the 'whole' while the soul is a 'part' or 'piece' of Him. And they equate the two to a rock hewn from a mountain, with the only difference between them being that one is the 'whole' and the other is a 'piece'".

-- That's to say that the reason the human soul is the numinous, very otherwise, singular, and peculiar a phenomenon that it is, is because it's a "part of G-d".

-- First off, understand that we're not talking about the "battery-cell" that keeps the body alive when we refer to the soul; or about the human heart which is admittedly profoundly occult, forestial, and awash with mystery, but not the soul; or about the nearly equally numinous human mind either. Instead, we're referring to the immortal utterly non-physical "kernel" that lies both deep within and near-and-far outside our beings.

-- Each soul, we're told, is a particular detail in the perfect total makeup of G-d Himself.

-- Now, that's not to say that at bottom G-d is the sum-total of all souls, since He Himself can't be defined or limited in any way (as we said). What it means to say is that once G-d decided to create the cosmos, He allowed for the appearance of our souls as well. And they're each a part of Him, much the way each segment of a hologram is an independant example of the hologram itself.

-- But this point itself raises other questions.

"Only now we’d need to explore the following. A stone that’s hewn from a mountain had to have been hewn by an ax made for the express purpose of separating it from the 'whole'. But could anyone ever imagine hewing a seperate 'part' of G-d, i.e., a soul, which would then be considered a part of His very Essence?"

-- That is, how could G-d Almighty be divided into parts -- and what in the world could ever have actually done that?

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be availabe from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-03-24T04:30:00.000-05:00

Philosopher Jeremy Bentham wrote that "every law is an evil, for every law is an infraction of liberty" (Principles of Morals and Legislation).

But if that were true, then every freedom would be a good, and everything we did while free would be just fine.

Yet there's no end of evil, and a world of suppressive evil, too. So, I can't agree.

2004-03-23T10:11:00.000-05:00

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

_______________________________________________

Section 2, Part 2

-- We come now to the first series of *sub*-questions (referred to in section 1). Don't forget that these aren't reiterations of the five "underlying" questions we'd just presented. They're new conundrums we'd need to solve before we could go back to the original questions.

-- Just know that this is heady and deeply abstract stuff, so I'd advise you to be patient here and to allow yourself to luxuriate in it.

"So, our first inquiry would touch on this: How could anyone imagine a completely original creation -- something utterly new-sprung that hadn’t already been incorporated in His Being from the first -- when it’s obvious to any thinking person that everything *was* originally incorporated in His Being? After all, isn’t it apparent that a giver can only give what he himself already has?"

-- At the time it occurred to G-d to create the cosmos (which is our time-frame, don't forget) all that existed was G-d Himself and His idea to create it (other thoughts existed, too, but they're also out of our framework).

-- It follows then that the entirety that did eventually come about had to have been an utterly *new and original* phenomenon, rather than a derivation of or a variation on something else ongoing. It had to have "popped up" somehow "out of the blue", as we'd put it, unlike anything else (which means to say, unlike G-d Himself).

-- But, how can there be anything *outside of* or *seperate from* G-d -- that is, how could anything appear "out of the blue" in fact? For as R' Ashlag words it, "isn’t it apparent that a giver can only give what he himself already has?" So, how could anything other than He ever come about?

"Second, if you posit that since He’s omnipotent, He could certainly have created something out of sheer nothingness, which is to say, something that didn’t already exist in His Being -- then what *is* this 'thing' which we’d decided wasn’t found in Him originally but was created out of sheer nothingness?"

-- That is, if in fact the cosmos did come about out of sheer nothingness, as it could very well have, since G-d can do anything including just that -- then what does that say about the nature and makeup of the cosmos? It must be nearly as sublime and utterly inexplicable as G-d Himself in its perplexity and marvel.

-- The truth of that should strike us, by the way. After all, the "everything" that has come into being is utterly original and fresh; everything that we do, don't, can't, and won't know of is a thing (and non-thing) sprung from G-d's mind, while every "thing" else is either G-d Himself, or still in His mind.

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be availabe from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-03-22T09:35:00.000-05:00

from http://www.corante.com/loom/ of 3/15/04

"For over two centuries, opponents of evolution have searched for examples of natural complexity that could have only been created by design. Reverend William Paley was fond of the eye, with its lens, retina, and other components all beautifully fine-tuned to work with one another. These days, the Intelligent Design camp tries to invoke blood clotting cascades or the flagella that bacteria use to move around in the same way. (See here for some refutations of these arguments.) Ironically, one of the most successful, intricate examples of complexity in nature is something creationists never mention: a tumor.

Cancer cells grow at astonishing speeds, defying the many safeguards that are supposed to keep cells obedient to the needs of the body. And in order to grow so fast, they have to get lots of fuel, which they do by diverting blood vessels towards themselves and nurturing new vessels to sprout from old ones. They fight off a hostile immune system with all manner of camouflage and manipulation, and many cancer cells have strategies for fending off toxic chemotherapy drugs. When tumors get mature, they can send off colonizers to invade new tissues. These pioneers can release enzymes that dissolve collagen blocking their path; when they reach a new organ, they can secrete other proteins that let them anchor themselves to neighboring cells. While oncologists are a long way from fully understanding how cancer cells manage all this, it's now clear that the answer can be found in their genes. Their genes differ from those of normal cells in many big and little ways, working together to produce a unique network of proteins exquisitely suited for the tumor's success.

All in all, it sounds like a splendid example of complexity produced by design. The chances that random natural processes could have altered all the genes required for a cell function as a cancer cell must be tiny--too tiny, some might argue, to be believed. And surely the only way that a cell could become cancerous naturally would be for all the genes to change at once. After all, what good is it for a cell to be able to increase blood flow towards itself if it can't grow quickly? Getting so many genes to change at once makes an impossibility an absurdity. By this sort of reasoning, you'd conclude that cancer is the work of a supernatural designer.

And yet, despite all its appeals, creationists don't like to bring up cancer. Perhaps that's because they prefer to use the warm and fuzzy examples of complexity in nature instead of the pain-causing, life-ending ones. I'm no theologian, so I'll leave the religious implications of all this to others."

-- The end of this brings us back to a post of mine a week or two back about the "Santa Claus School of Theology". The point is that G-d does surely bring on cancer cells (G-d protect us); and, yes, there is bad in the world despite the fact that there's a Creator, simply because G-d *wants* there to be.

2004-03-21T09:06:00.000-05:00

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Sect. 2, Part 1

---------------------------------

-- R’ Ashlag now begins to answer his questions by stepping back a bit and laying out certain Kabbalistic principles beforehand.

“But we’d first have to explore a few things before we can solve all that, though we certainly won’t explore anything we’re not allowed to, like G-d’s very Essence, Heaven forfend! For 'no thought can grasp His Essence whatsoever' (Tikkunei Zohar, Introduction), so we dare not think about or reflect upon that.”

“But we will delve into the things we're commanded to explore, like G-d's actions. After all, the Torah charges each one of us to 'know your father's G-d and serve Him' (1 Chronicles 28:9); and as it's said, 'we know You from Your actions' (Shir HaYichud).”

-- Let it be said from the outset that there's G-d Himself, and G-d as He “presents” Himself in the world.

-- But make no mistake about it. That's not to say that there are different aspects of the one, sheer, complete, total, unalloyed, and indivisible G-d. Just that there's how He is Himself, and how He's *experienced* now that the world has been created (which changes the whole picture, since He's no longer unto Himself).

-- The point is that G-d doesn't present Himself -- appear -- in the world as He is per se since the world couldn't endure that. He appears here on a more subdued, we might even say “suppressed” level (the way geniuses present themselves when they interact with more ordinary people).

-- And while we're indeed encouraged and charged to know Him as He presents Himself in the world, which we can deduce from what He does here (the way you can deduce anyone's character by his or her actions), we're still-and-all *forbidden* to know Him Himself, i.e., His ultimate thoughts and motivations. For “no thought can” -- is able or allowed to -- “grasp His Essence whatsoever”.

-- So we'll explore G-d's ways *in the world*, from the moment it occurred to Him to create it and onward, but not before that.

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be availabe from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-03-18T17:54:00.000-05:00

From http://jewishsoul.rediffblogs.com/

"Yann Martel, author of “Life of Pi” was interviewed by “Meet the Writers” at Barnesandnoble.com. Towards the end of the interview, he was asked why he chose the nick-name Pi for his protagonist. Martel answered that he chose Pi, because the irrational number Pi was a perfect symbol for his story. While Pi is irrational, it has no discernable pattern to it, it is used to understand and make sense of the universe. It is like religion, which has at its core the seemingly irrational (faith in an invisible G-d), yet it helps us understand and make sense of life and the universe.

As I was listening to the interview, I was reminded of something the physicist Brian Green said in an interview with Teri Gross. He was talking about the sub-atomic universe, and suggested that if we were shrunk to sub-atomic dimensions, we would find a reality stranger than science fiction. That so many of the laws of the universe we take for granted in our everyday experience, do not apply at that level. And yet, that sub-atomic plane of the universe, results in the ordered systems we see at our plane of existence."

-- I like that kind of analysis. It's rooted in faith, humility, and wonder.

2004-03-17T10:30:00.000-05:00

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

_______________________________________________

AN EXCURSIS:

Sometimes it helps to step aside and look into the source of some statements. So, I'll now expand on the proof I offered last time about G-d being "all-good and benevolent", In R' Ashlag's words.

As I explained it, we can deduce it from the fact that since He "has no needs", thus "everything He does is for 'the other'"; and since "there'd be no need for Him to harm 'the other'" which "is only a self-serving need", it's thus clear that G-d is all-good and benevolent.

That analysis was based on a statement made in "Sefer HaYashar" (Gate 1), a Medieval work attributed to Rabbeinu Tam. But there are many other sources for it, too.

First off, let me credit R' Benyamin Ephrati for most of these sources. He has authored an excellent comprehensive Hebrew-language commentary on Moshe Chaim Luzzatto's "Derech Hashem" (Feldheim Publishers, 2003). It was R' Ephrati who cited the statement from "Sefer HaYashar" as well as those from Luzzatto's and others' works to follow.

But let's first offer some of R' Ashlag's own many analogous statements.

Early on in his writings, in his introduction to "Panim M'eirot u'Masbeirot" (para. 6), R' Ashlag cited a fascinating Midrash (Breishit Rabbah, Ch. 8) . The Midrash says that the decision G-d made to create mankind was based on the fact that He had already filled the world with great goodness, so it would only be natural for Him to create mankind to enjoy it. After all, as the Midrash points out, could a king "who had filled a palace (i.e., the world at large) with all sorts of good things not have guests?" Thus we see that G-d's intentions for mankind have always indeed "all-good and benevolent".

R' Ashlag went on to cite G-d's all-goodness and benevolence in many of his subsequent works, including his "Introduction to Talmud Esser Sephirot" (para. 3), and elsewhere.

But so many other, earlier sources had stated as much so often that it has been taken as axiomatic.

Luzzatto said as much in "Klach Pitchei Tshuvah" (3), "Takanot" Chaddashot (25), "Da'at Tevunot" (p. 54, Freidlander edition), "Adir Bamarom" (p. 393, Freidlander edition), "Iggrot Ramchal" (23), and "Messilat Yesharim" (Ch. 1).

Earlier-yet sages had indicated as much, too, including Saadia Gaon ("Emunot v'Deot" 1:4), Bachya Ibn Pakudah ("Chovot Halevovot" 3:9), Yehudah HaLevi ("Kuzari" 2:26), Maimonides ("Moreh Nevuchim" 3:54), and others.

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be availabe from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-03-16T06:21:00.000-05:00

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Section 1, Part 3

-- Now the rest of R’ Ashlag’s underlying questions, touching on our place in the grand scheme of things, our stature, G-d’s intentions for the universe, the place of pain and suffering, and our relationship to G-d.

“Second, what role do we play in the great course of events which we’re such minor players in?”

-- We’d only be expected to wonder where we fit in, once we know who we are at bottom, which was the gist of the first question. After all, given that G-d is all-powerful, all-knowing, purposeful (by definition), and well-intentioned too (as we’ll soon determine), it follows that everything and everyone must play some role or another in His creation. So, what role do we humans play?

-- Is it a major or a minor one? We’d imagine we’d only be expected to play a minor one, seeing how thick in the midst of so much matter, and so many events and phenomena far more colossal and portentious than us, we seem to be.

“Third, when we look at ourselves closely we get the sense that we’re somehow tainted and as lowly as can be, and yet (conversely) when we look at our Creator we can’t help but praise Him for how utterly exalted He is! But wouldn’t a perfect Creator’s creations be expected to be perfect themselves?”

-- And besides, we seem to be so base and garish at bottom, while G-d Almighty our Creator is so grand and sublime -- which then raises the question of why one such as He would create us as we are.

“Fourth, logic would suggest that G-d is all-good and benevolent. So, how could He have purposefully created so many people who suffer and are tried their whole lives long? Wouldn’t an all-good Creator be expected to be benevolent -- if not at least less malevolent?”

-- G-d has no needs. After all, He's perfect, utterly self sufficient, independent of everything, and fully contained (by definition). Thus everything He does is for "the other". And since a being who does things only for "the other" is benevolent (again, by definition, since there’d be no need for him to harm the other, which is only a self-serving need), then why does G-d indeed allow so many of us to suffer? It seems so “out of character” for Him.

“And fifth, how could finite, mortal, and ephemeral creatures (like us) ever derive from an Infinite Being who is without beginning or end?”

-- In other words, how did we manage to be products of an Almighty Creator who’s so unlike us, as we indicated.

-- So we’ll begin to offer R’ Ashlag’s responses to these and other questions.

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason
Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be availabe from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-03-15T09:27:00.000-05:00

From http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/sciences/story/0,12243,1164894,00.html

"Odds on that God exists, says scientist"

Stewart Maclean, Catherine Bolsover and Polly Curtis

"A scientist has calculated that there is a 67% chance that God exists. Dr Stephen Unwin has used a 200-year-old formula to calculate the probability of the existence of an omnipotent being. Bayes' Theory is usually used to work out the likelihood of events, such as nuclear power failure, by balancing the various factors that could affect a situation. The Manchester University graduate, who now works as a risk assessor in Ohio, said the theory starts from the assumption that God has a 50/50 chance of existing, and then factors in the evidence both for and against the notion of a higher being. Factors that were considered included recognition of goodness, which Dr Unwin said makes the existence of God more likely, countered by things like the existence of natural evil - including earthquakes and cancer."

I'm loathe to think that G-d can only be believed to exist when good happens and not when bad does. That's symptomatic of what I call the Santa Claus School of Theology, where it's reasoned that a "real" G-d would only give out treats....

The truth is that both G-d (and events) are far deeper and beyond the intellect than we know. Bad happens on purpose, as does everything. And like everything, bad serves its purpose.

2004-03-12T04:47:00.000-05:00

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"
-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Sect. 1, Part 2

-- We now come to R’ Ashlag’s questions. There are five in all. Understand, though, that these five questions are the work’s most basic, underlying ones. There’ll be others, too, but they’ll be secondary (and tertiary) to these. So we’ll need to be sure to follow the sequence.

-- We’ll find that often enough there’ll be an underlying question, a sub-question, then a sub-sub-question, followed by a sub-sub-answer, a sub-answer, then finally an underlying answer. And other points will be made in-between that will be dealt with, too. It may get confusing at times.

-- In any event, we’ll take each point on its own and do our best to “connect the dots”, but we'd all do best to not concentrate on the sequence itself so much as the points being made.

-- Here’s the first underlying question:

“First of all, what *are* we essentially?”

-- We all know what we are *basically*. We’re this body, this mind, with these feelings, these opinions, this sense of truth, these experiences, etc. But those aren’t us our selves. They’re our “outright self”; the combination of this and that we greet others with, and which we take into consideration when we think about ourselves.

-- But don’t assume that R’ Ashlag is going to say that our *souls* are our essential self, as so many do. He’ll contend that we’re defined by some other phenomenon; and that while we do indeed have souls, we’re to know that they too are part of the “outright self” (albeit a deeper, more abstruse and subliminal, immortal aspect of it).

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be availabe from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-03-09T03:39:00.000-05:00

I suggest you read a brilliant article found at
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/825grtdi.asp?pg=1

"The Perpetual Adolescent"
by Joseph Epstein

It begins with: "WHENEVER ANYONE under the age of 50 sees old newsreel film of Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak of 1941, he is almost certain to be brought up by the fact that nearly everyone in the male-dominated crowds--in New York, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland--seems to be wearing a suit and a fedora or other serious adult hat. The people in those earlier baseball crowds, though watching a boyish game, nonetheless had a radically different conception of themselves than most Americans do now. A major depression was ending, a world war was on. Even though they were watching an entertainment that took most of them back to their boyhoods, they thought of themselves as adults, no longer kids, but grown-ups, adults, men."
...

And its ends with, "The greatest sins, Santayana thought, are those that set out to strangle human nature. This is of course what is being done in cultivating perpetual adolescence, while putting off maturity for as long as possible. Maturity provides a more articulated sense of the ebb and flow, the ups and downs, of life, a more subtly reticulated graph of human possibility. Above all, it values a clear and fit conception of reality. Maturity is ever cognizant that the clock is running, life is finite, and among the greatest mistakes is to believe otherwise. Maturity doesn't exclude playfulness or high humor. Far from it. The mature understand that the bitterest joke of all is that the quickest way to grow old lies in the hopeless attempt to stay forever young."

This is a brilliant analysis of what's absurd about today's world. The Ba'alei Mussar recognized the need for maturity in spiritual growth, but we've lost that wisdom.

2004-03-05T05:15:00.000-05:00

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"
-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Sect. 1, Part 1

---------------------------------

First off let it be said that R' Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar" is an arcane and tightly bound work that's sometimes difficult to comprehend and chock full of allusions to his other works (which are far more fleshed out). So we'll present the text bit by bit here, and comment on it based on our reading of those other works of his as well as of other Torah sources.

Secondly, this work actually has very little to do with the Zohar per se, though of course it touches on ideas expressed or implied there. So "Introduction to the Zohar" is a misnomer. It's more like an introduction to R' Ashlag's thoughts. It's only given the title it has because it comes at the beginning of R' Ashlag's major work on the Zohar and because there's other introductory material there. So this work would best be termed "One of Several Introduction(s) to the Zohar", but that wouldn't work.

The work is comprised of 70 short, pithy sections; and we've taken the liberty of breaking them down into parts to make it easier to take hold of.

The entries with quotes around them are R' Ashlag's words as I've translated them, and what's said after the dashes are my own comments and explanations.

---------------------------------------------------

"What I want to do in this work is clarify certain ostensibly simple things that everyone contends with and which a lot of ink has been spilt over trying to explain, which still-and-all haven't been spelled out clearly or adequately enough."

-- R' Ashlag wrote a number of very technically exact and well-ordered works on the "nuts and bolts" of Kabbalah, with all the "laws of *super*nature" laid out plain. In fact, most people don't know that Kabbalah is a very technical art rooted in capturing the principles G-d used in creation, laying them out in order, then using that information to experience a sort of re-enactment of all that deep in one's being.

-- So there's a world (and more) of data to contend with, a wealth of principles to internalize, and a staggering amount of interactions to explicate. But this short book doesn't touch on very much of that at all. It's a philosophical work rooted in the experience of having gone through all the above already, and it tries to express that all in earthly terms.

--As such, R' Ashlag sets out here to solve things that have bothered thinking people for millennia, including the meaning of life, our role in the universe, our relationship to G-d, and the like.

-- He terms them "ostensibly simple" because we tend to think we know the answers already. And he says that "everyone contends with" all this (though most of us don't think we do) because both those steeped in religion and others think that what they believe does enough to explain the meaning of life on one level or another. But he adds that these questions "still-and-all haven't been spelled out clearly or adequately enough" because, as we'll find, he has an entirely different approach.

-- We'll get to the questions next time, and go on to provide his answers to them in the course of this work.

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/shop/catalog/default.php and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be availabe from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

2004-03-04T04:41:00.000-05:00

from http://physicstoday.org/vol-57/iss-2/p53.html

"Family Lines Sketched in the Portrait of Lev Landau"

Landau was an assimilated Russian Jew. Notice this paragraph (with my "asteriking"):

"Dad would change the subject to physics, and attempt to question Dau [i.e., Landau] about some physical phenomena. For example, why can an electron be considered both a particle and a wave? How is that possible? Dau, pleased, would click his tongue and declare, 'The equations say so, and *we must believe them*! His *faith* in mathematical computation was unshakable."

I'm always struck by the orthodoxy and firm faith of non-believers! When Torah is missing, something will fill the gap in the Jewish soul until it comes to be introduced to Torah -- one life or another.

2004-03-03T08:41:00.000-05:00

I'd like to start a series on the teachings of Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag, of blessed memory; kabbalist and profound thinker. I suggest you go to the best site on the subject: http://www.kabbalah.info/

I'll present a translation from a minor work of his, "An Introduction to the Zohar", and offer my own comments. As you'll find, this is a philosophical work that's rooted in Kabbalah but doesn't cite much Kabbalah per se (which is far more technical than many know, and doesn't lend itself to translations that speak well to the modern ear without a lot of interpolation).

We'll offer this only occasionally.

2004-03-02T09:55:00.000-05:00

The UN and the Jews
Anne Bayefsky

IT WAS NOT AN EVENT that any of the big
newspapers saw fit to cover, but this past
December, a draft United Nations resolution
condemning anti-Semitism was quietly withdrawn by
Ireland, its sponsor in the General Assembly. In
a complicated exchange, Irish Foreign Minister
Brian Cowen had promised the measure to his
Israeli counterpart Silvan Shalom, but in the end
Cowen refused to carry out his side of the
bargain, pointing to a lack of consensus on the
issue. (Several Arab and Muslim states had
objections.) Thus went by the boards what would
have been the first-ever General Assembly
resolution dealing directly with the problem of
anti-Semitism.

And thus, too, has gone much else at the UN in
the name of human rights. Indeed, for veteran
observers of the goings-on at Turtle Bay, the
outcome of the latest session was just one more
episode in a long and ugly history. Even when
judged against the hypocrisy with which the UN
has frequently treated its own founding
principles - principles of tolerance, human
dignity, and national self-determination - the
international body's abiding hostility to the
just claims of Israel and the Jewish people
remains a special, and especially egregious, case.

The events of World War II and the Holocaust
weighed heavily on the founders of the United
Nations. The starting point of the new
organization's Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, adopted in 1948, was the determination to
overcome the "disregard and contempt for human
rights" that had "resulted in barbarous acts
which have outraged the conscience of mankind."
Nazism had tried to eradicate one people, the
Jews. The UN's core documents generalized from
that case, declaring that global progress
depended on respect for fundamental freedoms
without distinction of race, sex, language, or
religion. Human rights were to be the new
currency of international politics.

But even as some transgressions of these
principles received juridical attention in the
UN's early years - theft of cultural property,
gross deficiencies in education and labor
standards, and the like - no mention was made of
anti-Semitism. Not until 1959, when some 2,000
anti-Jewish incidents, ranging from serious
property damage to threats of bodily harm, were
reported in almost 40 countries (a large number
of them in West Germany), did the UN's Commission
on Human Rights pass a resolution titled
"Manifestations of Anti-Semitism and Other Forms
of Racial Prejudice and Religious Intolerance of
a Similar Nature." By the time the resolution
reached the floor of the General Assembly,
however, the term "anti-Semitism" had been
dropped.

Drafters of the UN's key declarations on human
rights soon became masters at evading the issue.
When, in 1964-65, the American delegation (with
the assistance of Brazil) tried to include a
reference to anti-Semitism in the International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination, the effort failed, thanks
to the Soviet Union, its satellites, and its Arab
allies, who among other things insisted that
anti-Semitism was a question not of race but of
religion. When the UN finally got around to
adopting its first declaration on religious
intolerance in 1981, anti-Semitism was again
excluded. By 2003, the lead sponsor of the
perennial resolution on religious tolerance,
Ireland, insisted with a straight face that
anti-Semitism should be omitted because it was
more properly considered under the rubric of race.

Against this unrelievedly dark record of
omission, a few glimmers of progress have
appeared over the past decade. After tumultuous
multi-week negotiations in 1994, the U.S.
persuaded the UN Commission on Human Rights to
adopt its first resolution including the word
"anti-Semitism" in over 30 years - and only the
second in its history. Even so, a full third of
the commission's members refused to support it,
and eight years later, with the U.S. temporarily
voted off the commission, it returned to form,
withdrawing its short-lived concern and excising
anti-Semitism from the racism resolution. Last
year, after drawn-out negotiations, the General
Assembly did manage to permit references to
anti-Semitism in two resolutions on racism, one
of them without effect or follow-up and the
second in the full knowledge that other elements
in the resolution would force the United States
and Israel to vote against it.

By the summer of 2001, at the now notorious UN
World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South
Africa, the notion that Jews were the target of
any special animus, now or in the past, was being
treated with simple contempt. References to
anti-Semitism were removed from almost all parts
of the final declaration. Not only was there no
mention of the Holocaust in the conference's
demand that those who incite racial hatred should
be brought to justice, but absent as well was any
mention of the need to study the Nazi war against
the Jews. The only references to the Holocaust
and anti-Semitism appeared as part of a "Middle
East package" in which Palestinians were declared
to be victims of Israeli racism.

And what of today, as we experience the world's
most virulent outbreak of anti-Semitic deeds and
speech in over a half-century? Concern over this
phenomenon did make an appearance, however
fleetingly, in two reports issued in 2003 by the
UN special investigator on racism, Doudou Diéne.
In one of them, his comment consisted of a short,
vague reference to the controversy surrounding
the recent broadcast on Egyptian television of a
series based on the infamous czarist forgery, The
Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Unnamed
"authorities of the countries concerned," Diéne
wrote, were in the process of sending him further
information on this "allegation" of anti-Semitism.

In a second report published last year, this one
addressed to the General Assembly itself, Diéne
offered a seemingly new approach, promising to
turn his attention to the "clear resurgence of
anti-Semitism." But his only action to date has
been to take note of the obvious fact that
attacks on Jews are "on the rise in Europe,
Central Asia, and North America." Entirely absent
from his statements has been any mention of the
boiling cauldron of Middle Eastern anti-Semitism
- a silence all the more remarkable in light of
the multiple examples of "Islamophobia" that he
has documented with alarm. In this connection, it
is worth noting that, though Diéne is now
required to produce annual reports "on
discrimination against Muslims and Arab peoples
in various parts of the world," no report
dedicated to the problem of anti-Semitism has
ever been produced by any organ of the UN.

THIS INDIFFERENCE to anti-Semitism has been
mirrored by the UN's growing refusal over the
decades to support the principle of
self-determination for the Jewish people - that
is, Zionism. The irony, of course, is that the UN
General Assembly was very much present at the
creation of the state of Israel, having endorsed
the postwar partition plan for British-ruled
Palestine. But much has changed since 1948.

In general, and in the abstract, the UN has
remained committed to the ideal of self-governing
nation-states. As one characteristic declaration
of the General Assembly puts it, "All peoples
have a right to self-determination; by virtue of
that right they freely determine their political
status and freely pursue their economic, social,
and cultural development." Indeed, over the
years, the UN has developed and extended the
principles of self-determination, which are now
taken to entail not just the basic right of
political independence but guarantees of
non-interference by other nations, a realm of
domestic jurisdiction and national sovereignty,
and the preservation of historical, cultural, and
religious particularities.

Where the UN has fallen markedly short is in the
application of these principles, and in no case
more strikingly than that of Israel. The key
factor has been the changing composition of the
international body. From the late 1940's to the
mid-60's, the original membership more than
doubled. Of the 67 new states joining in this
period, 80 percent attached themselves to the
Group of 77 - the UN's third-world caucus, made
up of many former European colonies - and some 40
percent had Muslim majorities. By 1977, the five
members of the Arab League who helped to found
the UN had been joined by all sixteen others.

To this radicalized and often Soviet-influenced
contingent, self-determination was invoked in UN
circles not as a general principle but as a tool
to wield against the West, especially the U.S.
and its increasingly stalwart ally, Israel.
Self-determination was a right of the oppressed,
to be exerted against oppressors. In the
prosecution of this cause, the weight assigned to
historical claims was itself selective and
discriminatory: those who rejected the UN's 1947
partition plan for Palestine were labeled the
oppressed, while Jewish victims, from Palestine
to Europe, were characterized as the oppressors.

By this means has the UN negotiated the passage
from omission to commission. Not only has it
consistently failed to appreciate or even to
acknowledge the state of Israel's preservation of
Jewish independence and identity, it has become
the loudest and most determined foe of the
Zionist project.

In 1975 the UN General Assembly passed its
notorious resolution explicitly equating Zionism
with racism. Ever since then, and notwithstanding
the formal repeal of the resolution in 1991, the
repellent imagery of Israelis as racists has been
a staple of UN rhetoric. Today, diplomats from
Arab and Muslim states - states that effectively
rendered themselves Judenrein in the late 1940's
- refer to Israel's new security fence against
terrorism as an "apartheid wall." Palestinian
towns and villages are called "Bantustans." And
the Palestinian Marwan Barghouti, on trial in
Israel for acts of terrorism, is labeled another
Nelson Mandela.

To judge by the UN's official pronouncements, the
Jewish state is the world's archetypal
human-rights villain. Over the past 40 years,
almost 30 percent of the resolutions passed by
the UN Commission on Human Rights to condemn
specific states have been directed at Israel,
which also has the distinction of being the only
state to which the commission has devoted an
entire item on its agenda.

As for the General Assembly, of the ten emergency
special sessions it has convened in its history,
six have focused on the purported misdeeds of
Israel, from the Suez campaign of 1956 to the
current dispute over the security fence. The
abuse of this process has gone so far that the
tenth session, originally convened in 1997, has
become a permanent, open-ended forum; it has now
been "reconvened" twelve times, most recently
this past December.

Israel has been singled out in other ways as
well. In the UN bureaucracy, it is the only
country with its own standing inter-state
monitor: the Special Committee to Investigate
Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of
the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the
Occupied Territories. Established as long ago as
1968, this body has issued annual reports ever
since. Another committee, on the Exercise of the
Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, was
established in 1975, on the same day the General
Assembly passed the Zionism-is-racism resolution.
Still going strong almost three decades later,
with 24 members and 25 observers, it too
summarizes its findings every year while at the
same time sponsoring a full program of meetings,
conferences, and publications. In 2003 alone, the
UN bureaucracy generated 22 reports and formal
notes on "conditions of Palestinian and other
Arab citizens living under Israeli occupation."

The UN's response to an Israeli military
incursion into the West Bank town of Jenin in
April 2002 typifies the organization's treatment
of the Jewish state. At the time, even a report
by Yasir Arafat's Fatah movement recognized Jenin
as "the suicider's capital," a place where
organizations like Hamas and Islamic Jihad had
sought shelter, among civilians, for their
ongoing murderous operations. But the UN saved
its venom for Israel's armed response to the
violence directed against its citizens. Terje
Roed-Larsen, the organization's special
coordinator for the Middle East peace process,
described the scene after Israel's strike - a
strike expressly designed to limit civilian
casualties - as "horrific beyond belief." Peter
Hansen, commissioner general of the UN Relief and
Works Agency, called it "a human catastrophe that
had few parallels in recent history." A UN press
release was headlined, "End the horror in the
camps." Only much later, in mid-summer, did the
UN Secretary General release a report on Jenin
noting that the Palestinian death toll from this
"massacre" was 52, approximately 35 of whom were
armed combatants.

ISRAEL'S POLICIES are, of course, fair game for
legitimate criticism. But the UN's outrage is
grossly selective, especially when one considers
the record of any number of other member nations.
In 2003, the General Assembly passed eighteen
resolutions that singled out Israel for
criticism; human-rights situations in the rest of
the world drew only four country-specific
resolutions. Nor, despite serious and
well-documented charges of abuse reported to the
UN over the years from, among others, the
organization's own special rapporteurs, has any
resolution of the UN Commission on Human Rights
ever been directed at China, Syria, Bahrain,
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates,
Yemen, Pakistan, Malaysia, Mali, or Zimbabwe.

Consider the case of Sudan. This past year,
members of the UN Commission on Human Rights had
before them the report of their own special
rapporteur on torture, which described the
articles of the Sudanese penal code mandating
"cross amputation" - the amputation of the right
hand and the left foot - for armed robbery and,
for other offenses, "death by hanging
crucifixion." The report also took note of
various cases in which Sudanese women had been
stoned to death for adultery after trials
conducted in a language they did not understand
and in which they were denied legal
representation.

The response to these gruesome findings? On
behalf of the Organization of the Islamic
Conference, Pakistan vehemently objected to a
draft resolution condemning this sort of "cruel,
inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment,"
declaring such views "an offense to all Muslim
countries." The resolution went down to defeat;
for good measure, the commission terminated the
ten-year-old position of rapporteur on human
rights for the long-suffering people of Sudan.

The justifications that are typically given for
turning a blind eye to human-rights violations in
95 percent of UN states are predictable enough.
In 2003, teaming up to defeat a resolution
condemning Russian behavior in Chechnya, Syria
and China called it "interference in the internal
affairs of that country." India said that "every
state had the right to protect its citizens from
terrorism." When it came to reproving Zimbabwe,
South Africa objected to "naming and shaming,"
while Libya, complaining that the resolution was
"an attempt to make the commission a forum to
settle differences between countries," declared
its preference for "the language of cooperation
and dialogue."

How is it, one might wonder, that such
reservations never give the UN a moment's pause
when it comes to the organization's relentlessly
one-sided prosecution of Israel - a democratic
state with an independent judiciary that, unlike
all these others, can point to a long and
distinguished record of respect for human rights?
The demonization of Israel would seem to be about
something else entirely.

WHAT THAT SOMETHING IS has become too clear to
deny: over the past several decades, the UN has
fashioned itself into perhaps the foremost global
platform for anti-Semitism.

The leading agent of this process, needless to
say, has been the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO), Israel's supposed "partner in
peace," in close cooperation with Arab and Muslim
members of the UN. In presentations to the UN
Commission on Human Rights, Palestinian delegates
have repeatedly devised new variations on the
medieval blood libel, accusing the Israelis of
such things as needing to kill Arabs for the
proper observance of Yom Kippur and of injecting
Palestinian children with HIV-positive blood.

By Palestinians and others, Israelis are now
routinely condemned with Nazi terminology -
current resolutions speak of the "Judaization" of
Jerusalem - or are themselves likened to Nazis.
As the Algerian representative recently observed,
in an especially memorable outburst:

"Kristallnacht repeats itself daily. . . .
Israeli soldiers are the true disciples of
Goebbels and of Himmler, who strip Palestinian
prisoners and inscribe numbers on their bodies. .
. . Must we wait in silence until new death camps
are built. . . . The Israeli war machine has been
trying for five decades to arrive at a final
solution."

The nadir of the UN's record in these matters was
the conference on racism and xenophobia held
under its auspices in Durban in 2001. It would
have been bad enough if (as we have already seen)
the event had simply refused to acknowledge the
growing problem of anti-Semitism; but it went
much farther, turning into a festival of hatred
against the Jews.

Though the Durban conference concluded with a
formal meeting of government representatives, its
first half consisted of an NGO forum - a meeting,
that is, of the various nongovernmental
organizations purportedly devoted to combating
racism. NGO's play a key role in the UN system,
with some of them receiving formal status, but
here Jews have once again been singled out for
discriminatory treatment. Over the years,
attempts have been made to impede groups like
Hadassah, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and the
International Association of Jewish Lawyers and
Jurists from obtaining official accreditation.
Durban gave some idea why.

At the conference's NGO forum, the Arab Lawyer's
Union freely distributed books containing
cartoons of swastika-festooned Israelis and
fanged, hooked-nosed Jews, blood dripping from
their hands. Another best-selling title was The
Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Hundreds of
flyers were distributed with a picture of Hitler
and the words, "What if I had won? The good thing
- there would be no Israel." Appeals to the
conference's secretary-general, UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, to
demand the removal of this anti-Semitic
literature went unheeded.

The NGO forum at Durban did sponsor a single
event on anti-Semitism, but it was disrupted by
an angry mob of protesters, shouting, "You are
killers! You are killers!" A news conference the
following day, called by a broad range of
national and international Jewish organizations,
was similarly interrupted, this time for the
benefit of the TV cameras, and was finally called
off.

As the NGO forum drew to a close, the Jewish
caucus, like all the other caucuses, submitted
provisions for the conference's final document.
The group's contribution stated that
anti-Semitism could take many forms, including
the equation of Zionism with racism, the attempt
to de-legitimize the self-determination of the
Jewish people, and the targeting of Jews
throughout the world for violence because of
their support of Israel. When the time finally
came for a vote, a representative of the World
Council of Churches called for the deletion of
this language; the Jewish caucus was alone in
voting against the motion. Jewish NGO's from all
over the world walked out in protest, even as
representatives of Amnesty International, Human
Rights Watch, and the Lawyers Committee on Human
Rights stood by in silence. No statement proposed
by any other caucus was deleted.

DID THE UN SYSTEM learn a lesson from this
fiasco? To the contrary. Just months after
Durban, Vladimir Petrovsky, director-general of
the UN office in Geneva, declared the conference
"the most extensive and momentous expression of
the global resolve to combat the scourge of
racism and intolerance in all its forms and at
all levels." Commissioner Mary Robinson agreed,
telling a subsequent UN human-rights gathering
that the Durban conference's International Youth
Summit - a part of the NGO forum at which young
Jews from all over the world were jeered,
heckled, and threatened, before eventually
walking out - had been "an inspiring event."

In the two years since Durban, whose outrages
were quickly overshadowed by the events of 9/11,
anti-Semitism voiced under the auspices of the UN
has taken a new and, arguably, even more
dangerous turn. In every UN body, Arab and Muslim
states have opposed any effort to give meaningful
definition to the notion of terrorism, largely
because of its obvious implications for the
Palestinian "uprising." The UN Counter Terrorism
Committee, set up by the Security Council in the
wake of 9/11, has yet to identify publicly a
single terrorist organization or state sponsor of
terrorism.

Worse still, organs of the UN have taken to
glorifying terrorist violence against Israeli
targets. In 2002, John Dugard, a special
rapporteur for the Commission on Human Rights,
could barely contain his admiration for the
murderous enemies of the Jewish state: "The
Palestinian response is equally tough: while
suicide bombers have created terror in the
Israeli heartland, militarized groups armed with
rifles, mortars, and Kassam-2 rockets confront
the IDF [Israeli army] with new determination,
daring, and success."

In 2003, as Israel suffered successive waves of
attack against its civilians, the commission
itself put forward a resolution affirming the
legitimacy of suicide bombing, declaring that
movements against "foreign occupation and for
self-determination" were entitled to "all
available means, including armed struggle." The
only members to vote against the resolution were
Australia, Germany, Peru, Canada, and the United
States. (France and the United Kingdom
abstained.) The American and Canadian delegates
protested that the resolution was "contrary to
the very concept of human rights" and "deeply
repugnant to the commission's core values." It
carried by a wide margin.

IT IS NO ACCIDENT that a UN apparatus which, for
decades, has ignored anti-Semitism and distorted
beyond recognition the idea of Zionism would seek
to isolate Israel from the global community. At
the UN, Israelis and Jews are, by definition,
oppressors, as are the nations and organizations
that rally to their cause. The energy with which
these hateful views are expressed has ebbed and
flowed over time, but there is no reason to think
that the underlying reality will change anytime
soon.

To appreciate the dimensions of this tragedy one
need only recall the lofty promises of the UN
Charter, ratified in the hope of securing the
"equal rights of men and women and of nations
large and small." By this plain and unambiguous
standard, anti-Semitism is not some necessary if
unfortunate by-product of multilateral progress,
as some would suggest. It is an out-and-out
malignancy, and it has compromised the integrity
of the entire organism. Perhaps it is time to
stop holding seminars and conferences on whether
the UN glass is half-full or half-empty. The
contents of the glass have been poisoned.

Anne Bayefsky is a professor of political science
at York University in Toronto and an adjunct
professor at Columbia University Law School.

2004-03-02T08:51:00.000-05:00

“We’re Just Too Polite”

We’re just too polite, we Jews. Too slow on the retort sometimes, too measured in our response. We need to be more cheeky, more in-your-face sometimes.

Now, don’t get me wrong. This isn’t a call to arms or a piece on Israeli politics. It’s a plea from the depths of this writer’s Jewish soul to your’s, *about* your soul and about our whole raison d’etre.

I’m going to be anything but politically-correct and measured here. Because what I have to say has to be said, and the sooner the better.

I’m going to be giving away some family secrets along the way as well, you know. Because it’s time. And I’m going to be saying things your Jewish mother and father never dared tell you, even though some things are better left unsaid. Because you’re old enough now. So hear me out.

But I don’t want to fall into the same trap the poet Raymond Carver fell into. It seems his aunt once took him aside quite dramatically and said, “What I’m going to tell you now you will remember every day of your life”. For her delivery was apparently *so* dramatic that the young Carver couldn’t remember what in the world she said-- only that she said it so portentously. So I’ll tell you what I have to say straight out.

There are three things we Jews mustn’t ever forget: That we each have an immortal soul, that there’s a G-d in the world, and that we’re in fact Jews.

I lay those three things out point-blank whenever I conduct funerals. Because, for better or for worse, that’s when people are open to those kinds of ideas. But I’m telling you all this now at this point in *your* life in the hopes that I’ve caught you at a receptive moment.

Let’s take it one point at a time.

1. We each have an immortal soul.

Why must we Jews tiptoe around the idea of immortal souls? I’ve been told-- by both Jew and Gentile alike-- that we Jews believe that “once you’re dead, you’re dead”, period. That we don’t believe in the Afterlife; that what matters most to us is this world; and that we don’t bother to consider what will happen once we’re gone because-- “We’ll find out then”, as it’s put.

Nonsense! We’ve always believed in the immortality of the soul, in the Afterlife, and in reward and punishment -- always, that is, till relatively recently. When the life of the spirit became outre, and material success or failure started to replace spiritual success or failure.

Suffice it to say that we’ve always known that there’s a lot going on behind and beneath the surface of things -- our physical bodies included. So why can’t we see that what really lies behind the things we do, say, and even think about is our soul -- the true Self behind the self?

And it no more dies than the *idea* of eating an orange dies after you actually eat one.

For just like the idea of eating an orange is “still around” somewhere “out there”, ready to be acted upon in the case of another orange, the soul is likewise still around and somewhere out there in that invisible realm we refer to as The Afterlife when we die. (And it too will come back when G-d wants it to; but that’s another matter altogether).

2. There’s a G-d in the world.

Many of us are simply too darn embarrassed or timid to say we believe in G-d.

“I certainly believe in a ‘higher power’” many of us say. But how utterly bland and benign a term that is for G-d Almighty!

In fact, the phrase “higher power” originated in Alcoholics Anonymous, where it was initiated to allow non-believers to draw from the well of wisdom that believers can draw from; and it’s meant to stand for anyone -- or anything -- the alcoholic knows who’s somehow or another more in control of things than he.

Many of us say we believe there’s a “Spirit” behind everything -- whatever that means. As if G-d were a battery of sorts, or a ghost.

At bottom, there is a Creator who has never withdrawn from the universe He created and still interacts with it instant by instant, and who expressed His plans and His wishes for us through the Torah so that we might know Him, and draw close to Him.

3. We’re Jews.

I don’t like to refer to myself as “Jewish” but rather as a Jew. Because the “ish” suffix implies “near-to” or “kind of”, as in “I’ll be there around eightish”, or “I’d describe that as reddish-brown”. I’m a Jew through and through, rather than nearly so, and exceedingly proud of it.

After all, what’s not to be proud of? We’re an ancient people with some 3,800 years of history; we’ve always been inspired to strive for lofty spiritual and ethical goals; we’ve had more of our share of holy people, sages, prophets, and inspired souls; we’ve received all sorts of accolades for our intellectual, creative, organizational, and otherwise extraordinary talents. And most importantly, we’ve been chosen by G-d Almighty to fulfill His will on earth and to usher in the great Messianic Era!

So, get with the program, brothers and sisters! No more pussyfooting around the universe as we tend to do.

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

2004-02-29T09:35:00.000-05:00

My Take on Gibson's "Passion"

From the Rockland Journal News of today, "'The movie, as far as I'm concerned, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, (Reverend) Salvesen said last week. 'It's from Hollywood, it's Mel Gibson, and it's biblical.' Rockland's Christian clergy will likely address some of the issues raised in the film, which opened last week on Ash Wednesday, because it is the Lenten season. However, Salvesen's Protestant church, which has about 80 parishioners, may be the only one in the county to actively market itself around the movie, which chronicles Jesus' last 12 hours."

Observe what the minister says right after that: "'I'm hoping they don't go to the movie and then three days later, forget about it'."

I believe that *will* be the reaction to it, for the most part -- much the way people reacted to 9/11 by firsting going to services, then not.

But I fear one reaction on the part of some Jews and long for the second. I fear that some will see it and be effected by it to the detriment of their Jewish committment. And I hope that some Jews will be moved to explore *Judaism* in reaction to it, which is such a Jewish knee-jerk response.