Aspaqlaria II
A comment to my previous post made me realize I glossed over a critical element.
In Yaaqov's dream, a ladder ascended from the ground to heaven. In Or Yisrael, R' Yisrael Salanter explains that the ladder was Yaaqov's own soul. As R' Chaim Vilozhiner writes in Nefesh haChaim (1:6 and elsewhere), of all of creation, only man is a combination of all the forces; man alone connects the worlds.
An idea found in Seifer haYetzirah which thereby influences Jewish Thought from R' Saadia Gaon's rationist philosophy (Emunos veDei'os sec.6) to the Zohar is that the self is composed of three elements/aspects/attributes of the soul: nefesh, ru'ach and neshamah. (Another topic that deserves much future treatment.)
As the Vilna Gaon describes them (Peirush al Kamah Agados, Koenigsburg ed. 11a), the nefesh
is man's connection to the world around him, a product of his soul dwelling in a brain, subject to hormonal tides, etc... The ru'ach is man's will, his self-awareness, the ability to live in the world of the mind. The neshamah is man's existance in the spiritual realm, our presence in heaven, higher realities and higher goals.
The hedonist identifies with the pursuit of physical pleasures. His ru'ach is adulterated with habits of the nefesh, so that he only sees himself as a an animal being subject to the rules of nature.
There is no reason why one could not bring the neshamah into conscious awareness. Someone could drop the barrier between what he experiences on a spiritual level and his awareness.
One way of understanding the navi is just that. And this was the model I had in mind when speaking of the aspaqlaria as a mirror. The navi, by being able to see his full self, can see beyond the physical world and the world of his mind, can see the activities of angels.
(Another element of this shift in awareness is a shift from living in a reality dictated by physical law to one dominated by moral law. Rav Dessler uses this idea to explain a notion of the Maharal's about the nature of miracles. See my Machashavah Techilah column for parashas Beshalach.)
In Yaaqov's dream, a ladder ascended from the ground to heaven. In Or Yisrael, R' Yisrael Salanter explains that the ladder was Yaaqov's own soul. As R' Chaim Vilozhiner writes in Nefesh haChaim (1:6 and elsewhere), of all of creation, only man is a combination of all the forces; man alone connects the worlds.
An idea found in Seifer haYetzirah which thereby influences Jewish Thought from R' Saadia Gaon's rationist philosophy (Emunos veDei'os sec.6) to the Zohar is that the self is composed of three elements/aspects/attributes of the soul: nefesh, ru'ach and neshamah. (Another topic that deserves much future treatment.)
As the Vilna Gaon describes them (Peirush al Kamah Agados, Koenigsburg ed. 11a), the nefesh
is man's connection to the world around him, a product of his soul dwelling in a brain, subject to hormonal tides, etc... The ru'ach is man's will, his self-awareness, the ability to live in the world of the mind. The neshamah is man's existance in the spiritual realm, our presence in heaven, higher realities and higher goals.
The hedonist identifies with the pursuit of physical pleasures. His ru'ach is adulterated with habits of the nefesh, so that he only sees himself as a an animal being subject to the rules of nature.
There is no reason why one could not bring the neshamah into conscious awareness. Someone could drop the barrier between what he experiences on a spiritual level and his awareness.
One way of understanding the navi is just that. And this was the model I had in mind when speaking of the aspaqlaria as a mirror. The navi, by being able to see his full self, can see beyond the physical world and the world of his mind, can see the activities of angels.
(Another element of this shift in awareness is a shift from living in a reality dictated by physical law to one dominated by moral law. Rav Dessler uses this idea to explain a notion of the Maharal's about the nature of miracles. See my Machashavah Techilah column for parashas Beshalach.)
posted by micha @ 11/21/2004 08:34:00 PM
