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In the Shadow of the Ladder

Nehora Press

Contents

Preface...............................................................................................ixAcknowledgements......................................................................................xiIntroduction Mark and Yedidah Cohen..................................................................1Chapter 1 Kabbalah in Context Mark and Yedidah Cohen.................................................9Chapter 2 Rabbi Ashlag and his Predecessors Mark and Yedidah Cohen...................................17Chapter 3 Introduction to the Zohar Rabbi Yehudah Lev Ashlag.........................................29Chapter 4 Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sephirot Rabbi Yehudah Lev Ashlag.....................97Chapter 5 Keywords, Definitions and Concepts Mark and Yedidah Cohen..................................203Chapter 6 One Person's Journey in Kabbalah Mark and Yedidah Cohen....................................231Notes.................................................................................................237Glossary..............................................................................................248Bibliography, Sources and Resources...................................................................250Index.................................................................................................252

Chapter One

In this Introduction I would like to clarify some seemingly simple matters. These are issues with which everyone is, to some extent, involved and much ink has been spilt in the effort to clarify them. Despite this, we have not arrived at a sufficiently clear understanding of them.

The first question we would like to ask is, "What is our essence?"

Our second question is, "What is our role as part of the long chain of reality of which we are such little links?"

The third question concerns the paradox that when we look at ourselves, we feel that we are defective or fallen to the extent that there can be none as despicable as ourselves. But when we look at the Creator who made us, then we find that we must really be creations of such high degree that there are none more praiseworthy than ourselves, since it has to be the case that from a perfect Creator only perfect works can issue.

Our fourth question is, "According to our intellect, God must be Good and do good, there being no higher good than that which He does. How, then, could He create so many creatures who, right from the start, suffer and feel pain throughout all the days of their lives? Surely it is in the nature of the Good to do good or, at any rate, not to do so much harm!"

Our fifth question is, "How is it possible that an eternal Being, without a beginning or an end, could bring into existence creatures which are finite, die and have an end?"

2. In order to completely clarify all these matters, we first have to make some preliminary inquiries. We cannot investigate the essence of God as He is in Himself, because thought cannot conceive of Him in any way at all. We have no notion of God as He is in Himself. However, we can and should investigate God in a way that is positive and fruitful, namely by looking at His acts. As the Torah recommends, "Know the God of your father and worship Him" (1 Chron. 28:9). It is also written in the Song of Unity, "From Your works, we know You."

So our first inquiry is, "How can we conceive of creation as being an innovation; something entirely new that was not included in God before He created it?" After all, it must be clear, if one thinks about it, that there cannot be anything that is not included within God. Likewise, common-sense tells us that one cannot give something if one does not have it within himself or herself to give.

Second inquiry: You may argue that since God is omnipotent, He must be able to create something that is entirely new and which He does not have within Himself. Then the question may be asked, "What may this reality be, concerning which one may determine that it does not exist within God but is a completely new reality?"

Third inquiry: The Kabbalists have said that the soul of Man is part of God in the sense that there is no difference between God and the soul, except that God consists of the whole and the soul consists of a part. The Kabbalists compare this to a stone quarried from a mountain. There is no difference between the stone and the mountain except that the mountain is the whole and the stone is a part. If we look at this example, we can see that the stone is split off from the mountain by a blade which is specific for this purpose and which separates the part from the whole. But how can we conceive this as appertaining to God; that He could separate off a part of His essence to the extent that it would leave His essence and become a part which is separated from Him? How can we conceive of the soul as being only a part of God's essence?

3. Fourth inquiry: The framework of evil in the world (called "the other side" or "the shells") is so entirely estranged from God's holiness that one cannot even imagine such an extreme divergence. How is it possible for evil to issue forth and emerge from the Holy One? Not only that, but it is God, who is Holy, who sustains the framework of evil.

Fifth inquiry: This investigation concerns the revival of the dead. The body is so abject that from the moment it is born it is destined for death and burial. Not only this, but the Zohar tells us that until the body is completely decomposed the soul cannot ascend to its place in the Garden of Eden as long as any measure of the body still remains. If this is so, why do the dead need to be revived? Couldn't God have just given delight to the souls without the body? What is even more surprising is the statement of the sages that when the revival of the dead will take place, the bodies will be resurrected together with their blemishes, so that no one can say that this is someone else! Only subsequently will God heal their blemishes. We need to understand why it would matter to God that people might say, "This is someone else," to the extent that He would re-create these blemishes which would then require healing?

The sixth inquiry: This concerns the statement of the sages that Man is at the center of reality. All the higher worlds, together with this physical world and all that is in them, were only created for Man's sake. They also required that a person should believe that the whole world was created just for him or for her. It seems difficult to understand that God troubled to create all these worlds just for the sake of this little person who, compared with the reality of this world, has only the value of a hair-and even much less if one compares him or her with the reality of the higher worlds which are without number or limit. Furthermore, why would Man need all of this?

4. In order to understand all these questions and investigations, one strategy is to look at creation as a process and to examine its end state, which is the ultimate aim of creation. After all, it is not possible to understand any process by examining it whilst it is still developing. Only by looking at its final outcome can one understand it. It is clear that we are not dealing with a Creator who created the world without purpose. Only someone who had taken leave of their senses could conceive of a Creator who had no purpose in His creation.

I know that there are certain self-styled wise men who do not follow the path of Torah, who say that God created the whole of reality but left it to its own devices, seeing that the creatures, being so worthless, were not fitting for such an exalted Creator to oversee their petty and despicable ways. But what they say is nonsense, for it would not be reasonable to assert that we are petty and worthless unless we had already concluded that we had created ourselves with all our defective and despicable tendencies. But from the moment we decide that the Creator, who is Perfect beyond all perfection, is the craftsman who created and planned our bodies with all their positive and negative tendencies, then we also have to say that from a perfect worker can never issue an imperfect or defective work. Every work testifies to the quality of its maker. What blame may be attached to a shoddily made garment if an incompetent tailor sewed it? The story is told in the Talmud of Rabbi Eliezer, the son of Rabbi Shimon, who chanced to meet an extremely ugly man. He said to the man, "How ugly you are!" "Tell the Craftsman who made me, 'How ugly is the vessel you have made!'" replied the man.

Philosophers who claim that it is due to our own lack of worth and insignificance that it was not fitting for God to watch over us and so He abandoned us, only publicize their own ignorance. If you were to meet a person who could invent new creatures just so that they should suffer and experience pain throughout their lives as we do, and, not only that, but who would then discard them as worthless without even wanting to supervise them in order to help them a little, wouldn't you despise such a person? Is it possible even to consider such a thing about God?

5. So common sense dictates that we understand the opposite of what appears, superficially, to be the case. We are actually extremely good and supremely high beings, to the extent that there is no limit to our importance. We are entirely fitting creations for the Craftsman who made us. Any lack that you might like to raise concerning our bodies, after all the excuses one might make, must fall squarely on the Creator who created us. He created us together with all our tendencies. It is clear that He made us and we did not make ourselves. He also knows all the processes that are consequent on our nature and on the evil tendencies He planted within us.

But, as we have said, we must look to the end of the process of creation and then we will be able to understand it all. There is a proverb that says, "Don't show your work to a fool while you are still in the middle of it."

6. Our sages have taught us that God's only purpose in creating the world was in order to give pleasure to His creatures. It is here that we need to put our eyes and focus our thoughts because it is the ultimate aim and purpose of the creation of the world. We need to consider that since the purpose of creation was in order to give His creatures pleasure, it was therefore necessary for God to create within the souls an exceedingly large desire to receive all that He planned to give them. After all, the measure of any joy or of any pleasure is commensurate with the measure of our will to receive it, to the extent that as the will to receive grows larger, in like measure the pleasure received is the greater. Similarly, if the will to receive pleasure is lessened, then, in like measure, the pleasure in its receiving is correspondingly reduced.

The very purpose of creation itself necessitates the creation within the souls of a will to receive that is of the most prodigious measure, compatible with the great amount of joy with which God intends to give delight; for great pleasure and a great will to receive it go together.

7. Now that we know this, we are in a position to understand our second inquiry with complete clarity. We wanted to know, "What is that aspect of reality of which we can be absolutely certain that it is not to be found within God and is not included in His essence, but of which we can say that it is an absolutely new creation, something brought into being which did not exist before?"

Now we know clearly that it was God's purpose in creation, which is to give pleasure to His creatures, that necessitated the creation of the measure of the will to receive from Him all the pleasantness and good that He planned for them. We can now see that it is this will to receive which was most definitely not included in His essence until He created it in the souls, as from whom could He Himself receive?

(Continues...)

Excerpted from In the Shadow of the Ladderby Yehudah Lev Ashalg Copyright © 2002 by Mark Cohen, Yedidah (Amanda) Cohen. Excerpted by permission.
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